Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from June, 2017

Is Mother Nature a lousy mother?

Most people can agree that when outside, and surrounded by nature of some sort, it can be a comforting feeling; the pleasant sound of wind rustling the leaves, or waves gently crashing along a shore, but is nature as calm and pleasant as it seems? Take the ocean for example, all that water and it’s still possible to die of thirst, or the fact that even the calmest bodies of water could be hiding horrible current, waiting to pull you under. This could even be seen as a metaphor for life in a way; even when things seem like they are great, and nothing could go wrong, there’s always something there waiting to grab and pull you under. However, nowhere has has nature told us that the ocean is for anything but transport between islands, however people just complain when they can’t use it for another purpose. Mother Nature has also given us the bitter irony of a desert - scorching hot during the day but freezing cold during the night, rather than the usual climate of an average temper...

It's a matter of intelligence

There are two types of people in the world; those who believe they know everything, and those who believe they will never be finished learning. Which one are you? Benjamin Franklin once said “the doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance”, and this quote speaks to me, because only he who believes he knows all, is ignorant of knowledge. This quote is simply telling us that no man, even the smartest of all, could possible know everything, and if they said otherwise, they are arrogant and ignorant. To be ignorant means to be lacking in knowledge, meaning that if you believe you know everything that the world can offer you, you lack awareness of the ever changing world and the new knowledge it can bring. The quote is very similar to, and possibly even inspired by Socrates’ quote “True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing”, which also has a similar meaning of that it’s impossible for someone to know everything, despite what they may claim...

What does the future for the arts look like?

Back in 2015, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan advised teens against studying subjects that fall under the categories of being a humanities class or part of the arts, due to the belief it would hold back students “for the rest of their lives”, but is this really true? Prior to the recent election, 7 parties were asked, however UKIP and the Green Party refused to give any answers, leaving only 5 responses to each question, the first being what the meaning of the arts is to their party, and if their party would maintain support financially for subjects that are part of the arts. Each party responded positively about the arts, Labour spoke of how the arts helps “broaden our horizons” and contributes “a huge amount to our economy”, and they stated that they would “create a £1billion cultural capital fund to invest and upgrade the UK’s cultural facilities”, however the question remains of what this money would have been created from. Similarly, Conservatives responded that they are “st...