Damir Zukanovic
1/19/2016
POL S 301 A
First Journal Submission
1/6/2016
Title: Contemplative Practices “Learning how to meditate”
Today is the second day of class and we had continued our contemplative practices. While closing my eyes and slowly inhaling, I felt instant relaxation. I was not registered for the course till a day before the second class period so I did not participate in the first contemplative practice, so this was my first attempt at this “focus on your-self and pay attention to yourself” meditation. Sadly, after the first five minutes of the practice I began to be drowsy and tired, barely keeping myself awake. However, the more common this practice becomes for me, I believe that I will adapt to paying attention to what’s going on around me. If there was one thing I could say was beneficial to me about this meditation at the begging of class, is asking myself the question “how am I?” As we discussed, we are always asking other people the question “how are you?” but never really devote our full attention to ourselves. I think the more I do this I will begin to learn more about myself and the role I play in the world through my experiences.
1/9/2016
Title: “The Anthropocene” by Christian Schwagerl
Luckily, today I opened one of my textbooks for the first time called “The Anthropocene” by Christian Schwagerl. Chapter one called “Welcome to the club of revolutionaries” set a good introduction to the course. When we look back thousands and millions of years ago we see a different surrounding or what some might call a different geography. These changes were ultimately caused by “geophysical” forces (pg. 11). As the chapter went on, I took in some valuable information. According to the reading the “revolutionary” is a very small microorganism that was named blue-algae until scientists had figured out that it was actually not an algae but bacteria. When this was discovered, the existence of life was more commonly called “cyanobacteria.” This bacteria was responsible for creating a path for the energy of the sun to move through the sea to land and eventually come across the entire outer part of the planet. Followed by this information presented in the chapter, the existence of the planet was explained through a further distance, before “cyanobacteria.” The most interesting part about this section was the idea of the “Theia.” As explained, it was “a space traveler roughly the size of mars12 “(pg. 13). It was so significant that it made the moon eject from the earth’s mass. This caused a tilt that may be responsible for the creation of seasons and tides in the world today. This phenomenon really struck me, the way the planet was established according to this book seems almost like a miracle to me. How could bacteria have such a large impact on developing the matter of earth followed by the matter of Theia to form a core, where “archaebacteria” could survive and have a sustainable life? I finally know where the idea of the “Big Bang Theory” comes from!
1/11/2016
Title: Educational Experiences Related to “The Anthropocene” by Christian Schwagerl
My last journal entry reminded me of a philosophy course I took at Shoreline Community college with Paul Herrick. Paul Herrick was a Christian man and believed in God, whereas, his good friend Dr. Arnt was an atheist. Dr. Arnt came to our class to give an argument against the existence of god. A few of his main points were the laws of nature, and the laws of physics. He claimed that in the Muslim religion the fact that the Quran says the prophet Mohamad flew through the night to Jerusalem was not true because according to the laws of physics humans cannot fly. Another example he gave was the idea that Virgin Mary could have not given birth to Jesus if she was a so called “virgin” according to the law of nature. Of course, to keep things balanced Dr. Herrick had put forth his argument that there is a higher being. He had used a watch with all its screws loose as his example. What he did was this watch was ask us the question “If I dropped this watch on the ground, would it land in its orderly fashion (so in order like 12,1,2,3,4 etc…)” Most of us answered no, and this proved his point. Dr. Herrick thinks that there has to be a higher being because the way the world was set up was not an accident. People eat a certain way, sleep a certain way, animals have different traits than humans and so on. He believed that the world was created in an orderly fashion. What was presented in this first chapter of “The Anthropocene” would be considered valid to Dr. Arnt and invalid to Dr. Herrick. The way human life and the planet was created was not an accident or phenomenon that “just happened.” Certain things had to happen for us and the world around us to function the way it does today. I thought this debate in-between these two PhD Philosophers related very well to a question many might have like myself “How was human life and the world actually established?”
1/14/2016 -1/18/2016
Title: Lecture #1 “Global Class Analysis” related to an educational documentary
Browsing through Netflix today, I came across a documentary that really interested me. It was called Income Inequality For All by Robert Reich. As I recall, in our first class lecture slides we had a conversation on Global Class Analysis and a video was shared in class on Income Inequality in the United States. This really interested me so I decided to write a summary of this documentary of Income Inequality in the Unites States in my Journal. In the film,“ Inequality For All,” Robert Reich, chancellors professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and former secretary of labor during the Clinton administration, focuses on addressing the inequality of the distribution of wealth and income in America. Income inequality is a very powerful concept and Reich points out some outstanding key statistics, such as telling his students that the American businesses were beginning to depend on overseas production more and more. With that in mind, he followed up by an example of who was mostly in charge of the manufacturing of iPhones. The manufacturing of iPhones was at a low percentage of 6% for America, 34% for Japan, 3.6% for China, and Germany was at 17%. Those statistics were pretty telling because you would have thought that the majority of the IPhone was produced in America. “Four hundred of the richest people have more money than half the population of the United States” (Robert Reich) aren’t they powerful? These statistics show that there is a serious problem with income inequality in the United States. Income Inequality is very powerful and effects people of all levels in society. Reich believed that positive social and ethical changes would bring the economy into the right direction. The film was created during Robert Reich’s lectures at the University of Berkeley, everyone in Reich’s class thought China was the main manufacturer of iPhone’s but believe it or not that wasn’t the case. Globalization, a major form of power gave other countries the involvement to assemble the parts of the IPhone. Creating Japan, China, and Germany to become important in the production of iPhones. Based off the film, the widening gap of income inequality took power away from many and helped many gain power. This began in the late 1970’s, and was perhaps created because of technology and globalization creating a 99% gap between the rich and poor. One of the most important components of a good economy was that the wages used to move along with productivity keeping the economy balanced, this was more egalitarian but instead the power was distributed all to one side (the rich). Now, productivity skyrockets past wages causing the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. Income Inequality causes the rich to become more powerful and the poor to lose power. As we all know, wealth is a very powerful part of life. Another unique way Reich showed us statistics was through a suspension bridge, showing the inequality throughout the years and how it has increased. At the end of the suspension bridge presentation, the years of disparity in the economy were represented, where as we all know the economy has crashed. On the suspension bridge Reich presented that the economy was at downfall in the years of 1928 and 2007 becoming less powerful and actually affecting the equality throughout the economy. Although, at the middle of this suspension bridge was great prosperity presented by Reich, during the years of 1947 to 1977 when wages grew as companies grew, and school was also affordable.