"Lone Survivor," recounted by Marcus Luttrell and written/recorded by Patrick Robinson, tells the story of Marcus's early life and the titular experience he had in Afghanistan.
Growing up in the wilds of Texas, Marcus was raised with valuable survival skills like shooting and swimming by his father, alongside his barely-older twin brother, and grew up as a very patriotic person. At a young age, a trainer for the U.S. seals was in town, and at their request, gave Marcus and his brother free but rigorous training routines to help prepare them for their plans to become U.S. Navy Seals.
Marcus also goes heavily into the political aspect of the war in the middle east, covering aspects such as the legendary warriors of the Pashtun tribe, who survived the might of the armies of even Genghis Khan and Britain, and who are sympathetic to the Taliban, and explains Lokhay, which is the most dedicated extent of hospitality towards a guest, where the tribe lays everything down to protect them.
He explains the Rules of Engagement, military law designed to prevent war crimes such as the shooting of innocents. Basically, you are not allowed to fire at another person until they shoot back or you positively identify their negative intentions. But if a squad is in enemy territory, has been chased and hunted by Taliban for days, and suddenly multiple middle-eastern men with towels on their heads (his words) and Ak-47's in their hands come running over a hill, every second you hesitate is another one that they have to line up a shot on you. While it may seem simple to politicians, it's anything but that to any soldier who's been in the field and knows how they can make a soldier concerned, disheartened, and even sometimes hesitant. And it's these rules that cost the lives of the rest of his four-man squad, and resulted in one of the biggest losses of life in Navy Seal history.
Flown into the rugged mountains of Afghanistan to capture or kill a Taliban leader and known associate of Osama Bin Laden, his team lands on terrain that quickly becomes apparent as a potential deathtrap for them: open land, no cover. As they try and find a safer path to their destination, they stumble across three goat farmers, and are faced with a conundrum: if they let the farmers go, they could run off and alert the Taliban of their presence. If they kill the farmers, they would be hung in the liberal media, incarcerated, and labeled as murderers.
They decide to let the farmers go, but quickly come to regret that decision, as soon the Taliban begin firing volleys of lead and rocket-propelled grenades from a nearby hill. They fight back, and with superior training they hold their own for a little bit, but the Taliban had the high ground, and used it to their advantage to unrelentlessly fire at Marcus and his squad. His squad began taking hits, and even kept fighting through it; however, his men finally began to succumb to their wounds and perished, leaving only him alive in Taliban-infested mountains.
With direct confrontation obviously out of the question now, he stayed in hiding, and even won a few encounters with stray soldiers, until word of his predicament reached the rest of his Seal team and they, along with another squad, came down to rescue him with a helicopter, before a well-placed from a Taliban rocket-propelled-grenade launcher entered the helicopter through the back hatch and exploded inside, destroying the helicopter and killing everyone inside.
Finally, a local Afghan not sympathetic to the Taliban takes him back to his tribe in the mountains, where they extend Lokhay to him, and help protect him against the Taliban until another helicopter can come and evacuate him.
This book was an extremely entertaining and inspiration read, that really shows the bravery and dedication of our armed forces, and everything they brave and endure so that we can sit here and enjoy the freedoms that so many have died for.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Mary Wollstonecraft - "The Prevailing Opinion of a Sexual Character Discussed"
When I first started reading through this essay, I was initially overwhelmed. Mary came across to me as an incredibly cynical and miserable person who used a borderline superfluous choice of vocabulary to emphasize her extreme claims of the supposed oppression and borderline slavery of women.
Then I found out it was written in 1792. Oh.
That would explain........everything. I won't pretend to be well educated on the matter of women's rights, and I'll admit that, being a guy, my opinion is going to be a little biased (but then again, whose wouldn't?), but I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that the picture of a barbaric society she drew is not accurate today.
Are women and men completely equal? Physically, no. Mentally, yes, but statistically there may be a weight toward one gender because of external cultural influences.
Mary is correct in the concept that a woman who portrays herself as gentle and beautiful can often coast by in life by taking advantage of those who objectify her as such. But, at least today, I honestly believe that any woman has just as good of a chance of going to college, getting a good job, and having a happy life as a guy, and may even have an advantage if she is the minority in her field.
Yes, there are still some remnant of the situation she describes, albeit with much less intensity. Yes, her stereotypical portrayal of the innocent and sweet woman is often times more attractive to guys than one who might exhibit more tough qualities. But today that's not a universal rule, and I believe that there isn't enough of a sexist barrier stopping a woman from going out and successfully pursuing her dreams.
Then I found out it was written in 1792. Oh.
That would explain........everything. I won't pretend to be well educated on the matter of women's rights, and I'll admit that, being a guy, my opinion is going to be a little biased (but then again, whose wouldn't?), but I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that the picture of a barbaric society she drew is not accurate today.
Are women and men completely equal? Physically, no. Mentally, yes, but statistically there may be a weight toward one gender because of external cultural influences.
Mary is correct in the concept that a woman who portrays herself as gentle and beautiful can often coast by in life by taking advantage of those who objectify her as such. But, at least today, I honestly believe that any woman has just as good of a chance of going to college, getting a good job, and having a happy life as a guy, and may even have an advantage if she is the minority in her field.
Yes, there are still some remnant of the situation she describes, albeit with much less intensity. Yes, her stereotypical portrayal of the innocent and sweet woman is often times more attractive to guys than one who might exhibit more tough qualities. But today that's not a universal rule, and I believe that there isn't enough of a sexist barrier stopping a woman from going out and successfully pursuing her dreams.
Nicholas Carr - "Is Google Making Us Stupid?"
In "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Nicholas Carr takes on a nostalgistic role by covering the widespread effects on the wonder that is the Internet, bringing to light many key issues such as decreased attention span, and a greater focus on efficiency.
It's no secret that I, alongside many other teens spend much, if not most of my free time on the internet. It's a great way to both waste time and learn random, entertaining things, when we're not using it to find information for school or work. Reading Carr's essay, it did seem to correspond with what I see as some of my shortcomings, especially the short attention span, and reminded me a lot of several valid points raised by Sir Ken Robinson's ideas on changing paradigms. However, I'm still quite capable of diving into a book and getting wrapped up in the details, and I find that personally my ability to pay attention is mostly dependent on how interesting the current subject matter is in comparison to recent events (If I just finished beating a massive video game, studying for a test would be comparable to watching paint dry), rather than how it's delivered.
Also, one could easily look at people's ability to quickly skim and catalog information as an advancement and growth alongside today's society. The simple fact of the matter is that both Internet browsing-based learning and long book-based learning just simply can't agree to coexist; focusing on one negatively impacts one's ability to effectively use the other. And what with the massive rise of portable computers in schools and work, it won't be long before we're downloading college lesson plans instead of scouring through textbooks. There's no turning back; publishers aren't going to start making things longer and less interesting, it just wouldn't be in their interests. And what with e-readers, it might not be long before books are as ancient a relic as an abacus is to a calculator.
And published books don't seem to be getting any less interesting and/or inspired, so it's not like the use of the internet has suddenly transformed us all into the stereotypical automaton. Carr said it himself: Google is a godsend to writers. Getting your facts organized and straight has never been easier, and now with PC's in most public school, digital word processing has become the golden standard for composition.
Maybe we really are outgrowing the time-tested constraints of our society. Maybe we're just overreacting, like we always do whenever something new and radical shows up and changes anything about our normal tradition and routine. But one thing's certain: no matter what revolutionary technological advancement changes our lives drastically, humanity will find a way to adapt. It's what we do, it's what we're made of, and that's on thing that can't be formulated.
It's no secret that I, alongside many other teens spend much, if not most of my free time on the internet. It's a great way to both waste time and learn random, entertaining things, when we're not using it to find information for school or work. Reading Carr's essay, it did seem to correspond with what I see as some of my shortcomings, especially the short attention span, and reminded me a lot of several valid points raised by Sir Ken Robinson's ideas on changing paradigms. However, I'm still quite capable of diving into a book and getting wrapped up in the details, and I find that personally my ability to pay attention is mostly dependent on how interesting the current subject matter is in comparison to recent events (If I just finished beating a massive video game, studying for a test would be comparable to watching paint dry), rather than how it's delivered.
Also, one could easily look at people's ability to quickly skim and catalog information as an advancement and growth alongside today's society. The simple fact of the matter is that both Internet browsing-based learning and long book-based learning just simply can't agree to coexist; focusing on one negatively impacts one's ability to effectively use the other. And what with the massive rise of portable computers in schools and work, it won't be long before we're downloading college lesson plans instead of scouring through textbooks. There's no turning back; publishers aren't going to start making things longer and less interesting, it just wouldn't be in their interests. And what with e-readers, it might not be long before books are as ancient a relic as an abacus is to a calculator.
And published books don't seem to be getting any less interesting and/or inspired, so it's not like the use of the internet has suddenly transformed us all into the stereotypical automaton. Carr said it himself: Google is a godsend to writers. Getting your facts organized and straight has never been easier, and now with PC's in most public school, digital word processing has become the golden standard for composition.
Maybe we really are outgrowing the time-tested constraints of our society. Maybe we're just overreacting, like we always do whenever something new and radical shows up and changes anything about our normal tradition and routine. But one thing's certain: no matter what revolutionary technological advancement changes our lives drastically, humanity will find a way to adapt. It's what we do, it's what we're made of, and that's on thing that can't be formulated.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Louise Erdrich - "Skunk Dreams"
I've always had mixed feelings about nature. I really do enjoy the outdoors; I love the breathtaking feeling of being in the mountains and peering over vast, immeasurable landscapes, the soft feel of grass seeping between my bare toes, the unmatchable beauty of the daily sun-rise and sun-set.
But I've never been a very big fan of sharing it. I understand the importance of maintaining wild ecosystems, but it's kinda inconvenient that some of the most amazing natural places also happen to house an abundance of pesky and potentially dangerous critters.
Nature plays a big role in "Skunk Dreams," where Louise Erdrich expresses herself as someone reformed by years of urban living, overcome with the desire to escape the bonds of this world, both physical and metaphorical. This, combined with an epiphany reached about life, gained through the unforgettable experience of sleeping in a football field and suddenly having a skunk curl up next to her, fuel her to write this winding essay that covers aspects of her life to explain this desire, while branching off at several points to cover various psychological concepts. Concepts like how a skunk proudly and carelessly wanders through suburban neighborhoods in simple, unafraid search of its next meal, or how dreams may be us traveling into another world entirely, or how our entire lives might be a dream. (in which case, would waking up be the afterlife?)
After moving to New England, where grasslands, streams, and trees surrounded her, even though she greatly enjoyed them, Louise felt the unshakeable urge to tear them down. To reach out and touch the horizon, to see the great vastness that lay beyond, where perhaps she might gain the answer to all her questions about life, the universe, and what lies beyond.
But, accepting the reality that she may never know such a wonder, she found solace in trees and nature. Walking through some local woods, she stumbled upon a fence that changed her entire outlook in life. A fence that gave her a new purpose, a new obsession, a new desire.
Years ago, in a cheap motel that she was staying in while she was traveling around, teaching poetry to delinquents for a living, in what was surely an attempt to keep her thoughts off of the freezing cold night and disproportionately low thickness of sheets, coats, and blankets insulating her from the frigid air, her mind dreamed of a fence. A patchwork quilt of various wires, barbed and chain-linked, beyond it lay miles of trees, and magnificent elk that took one look at her before fleeing into the vast woods.
Now, standing there with an overwhelming sensation of déjà vu, she stared at the same exact scene replaying itself like a rewound VHS tape, like the whole situation was just another dream that she still lives today. With newfound purpose, she truly felt at home, and now spends her free time exploring this nature reserve. While she expresses slight disapproval of how the animals are nearly domesticated in the safe areas while they are hunted in the rest of the 750-acre forest, she still finds comfort in such nearby nature for its supply of such great variations of living creatures, and how her old friend the skunk still just wanders freely like it owns the place, without a care or fear in the world. Louise truly longs to be a skunk, and that's the biggest, most simple point of this essay. The combination of uselessness and repulsing skunk perfume mean that nobody except for other skunks would even dare mess with her, and that's just the way she likes it.
But I've never been a very big fan of sharing it. I understand the importance of maintaining wild ecosystems, but it's kinda inconvenient that some of the most amazing natural places also happen to house an abundance of pesky and potentially dangerous critters.
Nature plays a big role in "Skunk Dreams," where Louise Erdrich expresses herself as someone reformed by years of urban living, overcome with the desire to escape the bonds of this world, both physical and metaphorical. This, combined with an epiphany reached about life, gained through the unforgettable experience of sleeping in a football field and suddenly having a skunk curl up next to her, fuel her to write this winding essay that covers aspects of her life to explain this desire, while branching off at several points to cover various psychological concepts. Concepts like how a skunk proudly and carelessly wanders through suburban neighborhoods in simple, unafraid search of its next meal, or how dreams may be us traveling into another world entirely, or how our entire lives might be a dream. (in which case, would waking up be the afterlife?)
After moving to New England, where grasslands, streams, and trees surrounded her, even though she greatly enjoyed them, Louise felt the unshakeable urge to tear them down. To reach out and touch the horizon, to see the great vastness that lay beyond, where perhaps she might gain the answer to all her questions about life, the universe, and what lies beyond.
But, accepting the reality that she may never know such a wonder, she found solace in trees and nature. Walking through some local woods, she stumbled upon a fence that changed her entire outlook in life. A fence that gave her a new purpose, a new obsession, a new desire.
Years ago, in a cheap motel that she was staying in while she was traveling around, teaching poetry to delinquents for a living, in what was surely an attempt to keep her thoughts off of the freezing cold night and disproportionately low thickness of sheets, coats, and blankets insulating her from the frigid air, her mind dreamed of a fence. A patchwork quilt of various wires, barbed and chain-linked, beyond it lay miles of trees, and magnificent elk that took one look at her before fleeing into the vast woods.
Now, standing there with an overwhelming sensation of déjà vu, she stared at the same exact scene replaying itself like a rewound VHS tape, like the whole situation was just another dream that she still lives today. With newfound purpose, she truly felt at home, and now spends her free time exploring this nature reserve. While she expresses slight disapproval of how the animals are nearly domesticated in the safe areas while they are hunted in the rest of the 750-acre forest, she still finds comfort in such nearby nature for its supply of such great variations of living creatures, and how her old friend the skunk still just wanders freely like it owns the place, without a care or fear in the world. Louise truly longs to be a skunk, and that's the biggest, most simple point of this essay. The combination of uselessness and repulsing skunk perfume mean that nobody except for other skunks would even dare mess with her, and that's just the way she likes it.
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