Is it your mind?

After having gone to Sutton and seen the amount of advertising in shops a thought suddenly occurred to me. Does all this advertising about music, films, books affect me as an individual? Since I was asking myself the question I’m sure to some extend it does. Maybe that is why so many young people these days wish to have their own bands or dress in such wacky fashions. However these types of things don’t bother me, it’s the normal process of growing up having childhood idols. But have we ever tried to think like someone else? This might be like trying to be controversial like Jeremy Clarkson or Terry Wogan, being pessimistic and judgemental like Simon Cowell or maybe copying the mind set of somebody else you know. This is something which I have increasingly become aware of and maybe this is a problem with our society. Is the mind inside of you yours?

Freud who was a philosopher explained his theories using psychology had the theory that the mind was set into three parts. These three parts were called the id, superego and ego. The id is who we are, the superego is who we show and the ego is our true personality that is hidden. People choose the balance between how much of the ego they show and this is then how their personality is discovered. How many of us choose to be like somebody else?

In my opinion I think fear is the biggest factor effecting people these days. With the countries threat level still over moderate for terrorist attacks always adds to the suspense when travelling in public. There is an increasingly huge amount of programmes on television with such titles as ‘How to look good naked’ and ’10 years younger’ so we subconsciously all become aware of how good we look. There is always possible threats of new super diseases wiping us all out like the BIRD FLU which has turned out to be false. Finally the most recent fear driving pledge is global warming which I have covered earlier in my blog. With a nation in so much subconscious fear is it surprising that we hide our true selves?

The Philosophy of Philosophy

I like Philosophy. I think it’s a great subject that does get people thinking outside the boxes of their little lives. Tomorrow I have my philosophy exam and so for the last few weeks I have been revising all the philosophical arguments put forward by various philosophers over time such as Plato, Aristotle, Tomas Aquinas, Augustine. But how essential is Philosophy to our lives? In my opinion, very! When I’m out and about these days the majority of people I see are listening to music, watching videos, browsing the internet, texting on mobiles or talking on mobiles. Its seems that our society is turning into a nation of people that only believe in things they watch or hear on the electronic waves which take up so much of our lives. I have only come to see how much time I waste just slowly aging in front of computers and televisions or how deluded to the world I am when listening to my mp3 player in public. Real world events such as poverty and war have become desensitised by our televisions. In the eyes of our community the fear of climate change (which is still only theory) seems to be a bigger concern compared to children dying of HIV in Africa.

What has happened to us all? How is it possible for us to fall so short?

What are we all waiting for? Maybe we are waiting for the famine to pass in other countries, maybe we are waiting for somebody else to step in first to sort the problems out or perhaps we are waiting for that brand new mobile to come out on the market. Only 4 more months till it is released, in other countries that maybe over 10,000 family’s dead of famine, war, disease or poverty. Why are we all so desensitised by it all?

When I think of all these things suddenly my heart is filled with sorrow and the aspect of my 3 hour philosophy exam tomorrow doesn’t seem that important. Perhaps I could become an IT technician, teacher, network engineer but what good would that be? Still right this very second people are dying, crying out for help and I’m not going to ignore them. After all how can we ignore them? A few thousand miles away the reality of surrey is smashed when a mother is holding her dead baby in her arms. On television this maybe regarded as ‘news’ however I regard this as ‘our fall’.

Global Warming Myth

Since the 1980’s a few scientists had a theory that increased Co2 emissions would cause temperature rises, now little over 20 years later this theory seems to have been taken as fact by the majority of people. The media are now one of the main sources of information regarding global warming and politicians are now catching on with public demanding better ways to dispose of rubbish and cleaner emissions from cars and busses. It’s very easy to look at global warming now and see that it is a fact, however is it? Have you ever seen global warming evidence or have you just believed the crowd and this myth of global warming?

One of the main fears of global warming is that it will cause more storms, coast line flooding and generally destroy our climate which may kill thousands of animal species. Without going into a lot of scientific detail the earth is warming, however if this is to do with us seems unlikely. During the 20th Century the climate of the planet has risen by 0.6c. From looking at the evidence it seems very unlikely that this climate change is to with us. For instance even if Co2 did raise the temperature did you know when a volcano explodes it gives off twice the amount of Co2 that America makes in a whole year? Did you know that cows are higher Co2 polluters compared to most modern cars? It seems that nature on its own is responsible for more Co2 pollution over the years compared to us; cows have been around far longer than cars. The Earth has always had climate changes over the years, just look at the ice age and that went alright.

Storms and floods are said to increase with global warming, there have always been storms and floods but to say that they will increase is very far fetched. Some Scientists around the world believe that the Earth is slowly dying however some don’t believe this. Dr. John Christy, professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Alabama at Huntsville said: "I remember as a college student at the first Earth Day being told it was a certainty that by the year 2000, the world would be starving and out of energy. Such doomsday prophecies grabbed headlines, but have proven to be completely false."

I believe that global warming is a myth. This myth is used by the media and politicians to drive fear into people which is what feeds commercial success and gives politicians common ground to interact with people. To say that the climate is caused by humans is very unlikely due to the lack of evidence supporting that claim and I am willing to bet any amount of money that the ice caps will still be around in 40 years time.