"In the future, one scientist will be worth twenty politicians ..."
-Quoted from 2012 movie
Before I start this, I would like to apologize for the lack of posts in the recent weeks. There just wasn't enough time for me to spare to work on this blog. I hope this blog will become exuberant and therefore move up on my list of priorities.
MIT, an excellent school located in Massachusetts, won a competition offered by the pentagon. The Darpa Network challenge was fairly simple; whichever team finds 10 large red weather balloons wins the 40 grand jackpot. The 10 balloons are scattered around the country nationwide. Considering the balloons could be anywhere, it's implied that social networking is used to gather people all around. To people's amazement, MIT won. The competition was going to be over a span of 9 days, however it prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology flung themselves over the victory line in less than 9 hours, an incredible feat considering the balloons could be anywhere nationwide.
This shows that pragmatic solutions are there; we just have to dig for it. We must know how the process is to take place. We must value and prioritize.
The government is a perfect example what not to do (no offense in any way). The Senate is bickering within themselves to find a 'perfect' remedy for the 'people'. The united states of America should not be absent minded in minding the business of a much larger value. We can see that for every wrong action there is a consequence, and a much more severe consequence is posed for the senate.
In fact, they are failing to solve a problem that most of the nation barely care about. The senate must prioritize themselves to greatly reverse the polarities of their popularity. They must listen to the people, and make choices that will have a definite impact upon society. And more importantly, achieving full effectiveness.
Let's take this a step further and implement it to your life. Your life should have a meaning, a positive influence upon society, a goal. And to achieve that you must have your values and priority.
Thus, to create a balance in my life. I sacrificed the time that should've been spent working on this blog.
Sorry.
8 comments:
What was MIT's strategy? Figures that a smart school blew the competition away. Or am I wrong?
I've always believed that what you leave behind, whether good or bad, is the only thing that you will have ever accomplished. The amount of money you earn, the number of video games you've played, these things all amount to nothing in the face of what you have done for society. A scientist advances his field for the purpose of expanding our lasting knowledge of the world.
I think that the way to fix government is to limit the number of terms that politicians serve (for everyone, not just the President). This will eliminate reelection tactics and hopefully will force politicians to be more efficient and more effective. Many politicians, I believe, are really very capable people, and they are ineffective not because they are unable but because they care more about reelection than about the people.
In any case, I think there is an interesting dual between balance and focus. It is important to be good at what you do "jack of all trades, master of none", yet it is also important to know a bit about many fields. This gives you a deeper understanding of the world in general and about your specific focus. Take away balance and you become cut off from new perspectives. Take away focus and you'll never accomplish anything.
And finally, don't feel bad that you didn't get a couple of posts in during this time. School can get pretty rough sometimes, and school is top priority for now. I really wouldn't want to see you unable to get into a good college (where you'll really get to learn what you want)!
This post is basically my reason why I didn't write post for a long time; I had to balance my life.
Anyways, I disagree that the way to fix government is to limit the amount of time the politicians are in office. First of all, this is inefficient. We would have to vote for a representative extremely frequently. Voting a governor there, a house member there, and even a senate once in a while.
What we should do is that everyone should take a constitution test. That way, only the people knowledgeable in what we're doing can vote. People that vote for somebody simply because the candidate is popular should not vote.
Anyways, it looks as if I'm a bit off subject.
School is actually not tough at all. Not learning much. Pretty tedious though.
Thanks for the encouragement. A mole hill now and a mountain later.
Yup. I agree balance is good -- glad you have enough time to get stuff done and to write this blog!
The idea is that politicians should focus more on their job and less on their reelection. If we limit the number of terms, there won't be that much reelection junk. Also, limiting the number of terms, not shortening the length of each term, will not result in more frequent elections. And you make it sound like senate members aren't even elected! :)
So long as this test is not discriminatory, that it measures exactly what it is intended to measure, no more no less. Literacy tests combined with grandfather clauses were used to discriminate against African-Americans, and we want to make sure that this test doesn't commit a similar mistake -- we want all citizens who care about and understand the United States (which is hopefully all of us) to be able to vote.
If the person is too lazy to find out the details about each candidate, will they actually go wait in line to vote?
Yup. School is focused too much on credentials. We recognize the value of balance, but school seems to be a bit unbalanced in learning and credentials. There's too much focus on what you learned and not enough on actually learning. Though there are undoubtedly many good teachers out there (I'm lucky enough to have several excellent teachers this year), the system is designed with grades at the forefront, and yet the dominant opinion among the teachers and students alike is that it matters more how hard you work and how much you learn than whether you get an A or a C.
In any case, the only thing we can do as students is to do as we're told and to succeed while doing so. So I wish you luck in school and education beyond!
Finally, never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was. The saying really should be "a mountain now and a mole hill later".
The average american goes like this (even though this is a bit labeling) :
- unintelligent
- easily influenced
- lazy
- wants to exercise their right
I take world history, and I can tell you this about most people in my class. There are people who hate Obama, but they can't tell you why. There are people who love Obama, simply because everybody else in their family loves Obama too.
Voting is much simpler these days. The country promotes voting. In fact, the party will actually send a car to pick you up to vote if you are disabled.
Obviously, grades are achieved not by intelligence, but by effort. We just learned about the atom today in biology, extremely inefficient considering that we just learned it in 7th grade...
Our system of government has many positives, and arguably only so. The reason our government is criticized and imperfect is because these positives are abused and malfunction. But ultimately, I would prefer this system to any other. I may not receive as good an education (still waiting for college!) in another country, nor have as many freedoms.
Yes. Your next post hits the nail on the head. (Though arguably a bit off to the working smarter side. )
System? There's a system? :D
I think that the prevalent concern is not that there isn't enough of a system. Rather, it is that there is too much (read: a ridiculous amount) of system in our government. :D
School System (notice the connection with a corporation)
Principal (CEO) : Walks around building issuing command. Attempts reforms.
Teachers (Managers) : Tortures a group of hardworking 'students'. In return, they get paid.
Students (Workers) : Does not get paid, but they are still forced to work their butt off because a higher government requires them to do so.
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