Love it or Leave it?

In response to Chelsea's blog question: Do you think that forcing our children to take art classes (as many elementary and high schools do) creates in them an appreciation of art, or does it cause them to resent it?
I think that appreciation of art stems from how you experience it. If you are in uncomfortable circumstances then your mind will relate art to those circumstances and not be as fond of it. For example; You are in a class room with a teacher that is absolutely unbearable and she teaches art. She screams at you constantly for messing up the assignments when all you want to do is learn. For most people, this experience would put them off from art. Basically I'm saying that in the context of school, liking art depends on the teacher you have. If you have a bad teacher, chances are you will grow up to dislike creating art.
I think in many cases, as long as the teacher has the willingness to teach the students and help in whatever way they can, the subject in question would be more enjoyable. Given that the teacher themselves know enough on the matter to teach it. I feel that way about a lot of things. In high school, I hated history because I didn't get along with the teacher. Then i got a different teacher who knew more and had more enthusiasm on the subject and now I love history.
Question; Do you agree that having a good teacher makes the subject more enjoyable?

Dreams

I am responding to Courtney's blog. Her question was whether anyone disagreed with her about her opinion of Bryan's question, which was" Bryan asked, "Do you think that finding meaning in your dreams would make a significant improvement in your life?".
I mostly agree with her. I think that dreams can have some importance but some are not important. I think that it doesn't matter what kind of dreams you have, but how your mind interprets them and what actions you take prior to the dreams. I agree that understanding your dreams can help you understand stress but there are other things that help you understand stress as well. As long as you realize you are stressed and take the necessary actions to be less stressed then you are changing your life for the better. I don't think that having dreams helps you significantly though. some people don't have dreams and their lives are fine. As far as dreams go, I think they are nice to have but that they aren't very useful.
question: would it make that much of a difference if no one ever dreamed again?

Spoiled children

This is in response to Austin's question "If all parents disciplined and didn't spoil their children then do you think that the world would have better appreciated people rather than a lot of spoiled, snotty and uncaring people?"
I think that if there weren't so many spoiled children in the world, we wouldn't appreciate the children that take the time to behave. Also, I think that saying that the world is full of spoiled, snotty, and uncaring people is false. I think that the world is generally good and that most of humanity wants to help their fellow man. I do think that children should be disciplined more because all children and people in general should have respect for their elders and peers in my opinion. I don't, however, think that an increase in disciplinary action upon children will necessarily improve appreciation for people as a whole.
Part of the reason i see this as a problem is because different children need to be spoken to different ways. There is not just one way to discipline someone. For some kids, yelling works, whereas others would just cry and be even less cooperative/productive than they originally were. I don't think many parents these days know how to deal with their children and so they take the easy way out and let them get away with more then they should. But at the same time, there are parents who do a good job. Even if there are kids that are spoiled, they still know what good is and they want to be good. They just haven't been taught how to achieve that yet. I think that part of the reason I perceive the world as generally good is because when I see someone do good i want to do good as well. Helping people is a good feeling and I know that I'm not the only one that feels that way. I think spoiled children act snotty sometimes because they have been raised to accept that people will spoil them when they act the way they do.
question: do you think that parental beliefs completely affect the behavior of the child and the way he/she will mature? or do you think that everyone is born with morals and they know the difference between right and wrong regardless of whether their parents practice it or not?

Communism

In response to Laura's blog question "Do you think that communism will work now?"
I don't think that communism would work now. the fact of the matter is that we all have different jobs and we expect different pay for what we do. People that go to college expect to get paid more then someone working at McDonalds. Another problem is that we all love our individuality. We take pride in the different clothes we wear that represent ourselves as people. I don't think people would accept communism now. A major problem is the money thing because if everyone got paid the same then motivation to work hard would be eliminated.
I think communists have good intentions because they just want equality amongst the classes but i do not think it would work.I think a big thing with communism is that people dont accept their class levels because everyone wants to be upper class.
question: Confucius taught that people had to accept their places in society and be happy with where they were in life. Do you think a Confucian society would be more successful than a communistic one?

Jealousy

In response to Courtneys blog question "Question...that jealous anger that we sometimes feel toward the wealthy is a vile thing. What does that example say about humans? Can/does jealousy control us?"
I think jealousy controls some people, but that is because they allow themselves to be controlled by it. In some cases i would consider jealousy healthy because it influences you to work harder to gain the things you desire. Jealousy obviously has its bad effects on people as well. When it gets the best of people, murder, thefts, and other things can occur. I think it is natural to want the best for ourselves. The anger that is sometimes synonymous with jealousy has to be controlled before it gets out of control but i think that is more because anger is a dangerous emotion, not jealousy. As a whole, i think that society is not controlled by jealousy because there are too many other amazing emotions to experience.
question: Do you think good emotions can always overcome the bad ones?

Happiness

I am replying to Julia's post question. Which is "So, if this "happiness machine" did really exist, what might you see/perceive by stepping into it? (In other words, what would make you the most happy?)"
I do not know if I would even enter the happiness machine because I would not want to live in a world that was not real. It would bother me to know that everything in there was something I wasn’t actually experiencing. If I had to choose what I would experience in the happiness machine, it would be this; I would live in a medium sized house. The house would be incredibly detailed, (work that I had done myself). I would have a beautiful garden that rivaled many other gardens and inside my house I would have a library. This is the main goal that I work towards and I hope to achieve it soon. I know I would be content living with these things.
Can people ever be truly content?

Reason or Emotion?

I am responding to Meghan’s post question, which is “Why do we have phrases like "follow your heart," "gut instinct," etc? Why is it not like listen to what your mind tells you?”
We have phrases like “follow your heart” and “gut instinct” because people believe that your soul will know what to do over your conscious perception of things. In the desert for example, you see mirages even though there is nothing there. Your mind tells you that the images you are seeing are real, even though in your gut, you know that you are just hallucinating from dehydration or some other effects. Also, to say just listen to what your mind tells you, doesn’t leave a tone of emotion in it. When the phrase “follow your heart” is used, I interpret it to mean that even if there is way to benefit from something; if it is morally wrong then you shouldn’t do it. Basically, (opposite of what Plato believed), we should value emotion over reason. I agree with the phrases because I think that emotions are an important part of decision making and I would not want to make decisions without them.
Would you want to live in a world where decisions were based off of reason without emotion?