End of year reflection

Period 1 philosophy this year was unlike another class. It was truly eye opening and inspiring of deeper thought. Over the year I found that my ability to analyze almost anything, especially from a philosophical standpoint, improved immensely. In addition, the class brought me a realization that acquiring knowledge and the process of developing new ideas is something that is necessary for the growth of the mind. It is entirely possible to sit around and learn nothing and do nothing every day. There are people who do that quite well! However, after studying philosophy for almost a year, to that concept of living, I say, what a wasteful and mundane existence! The mind desires to be set free and roam the vast fields of knowledge!

Although many of us from class may forget the exact details of those fields of knowledge, we will be much less inclined to forget the chemistry that existed between us. Never before have I been apart of class in which all the members molded so well together. Paraphrasing an idea that Mr. Summers spoke about early in the year, school is more about learning how to act in a social environment than it is learning the required material. Even though Mr. Summers may have been talking about education at younger ages I believe the same holds true for kids right up to high school. That's not to say that learning in school is pointless, but rather that the most meaningful and valuable things obtained from a high school class, like friendship, will be the most easily remembered.

Thanks to everyone for making philosophy class enjoyable and memorable!
I would also like to take this time to apologize for arriving 1-7 minutes late to class every morning!

Have an awesome summer!

Signing off of my philosophy blog with thanks to all,
Eli Hallowell

Albert Camus

Albert Camus (1913-1960)
French existentialist
Stanford Camus article

-Human beings cannot escape the question of living "What is the meaning of existence"
-The endless search for the meaning of life and the existence itself is the absurd

Myth of Sisyphus, Philosophy of the Absurd:
Sisyphus rolls a rock up and down a hill for the rest of his life but still manages to live life by embracing the absurd
-Camus argues this situation is not unlike the existence of humans that find themselves in patterns in the monotony of life
-The paradox of life: We keep looking for the meaning of life (rolling the ball up/why we continue to desire to live) only to find out that we can never know the meaning (watching the ball roll down).
-Camus implies that if one is content with the monotony of life and its absurdity then they can live

Other philosophies:
Camus uses the absurd to present ideas surrounding suicide and death, to only name a couple

Sleep meditation

Assignment: Take a bath and consciously go to sleep

Because I couldn't take a bath I instead took a shower. While taking the shower before going to sleep I tried to consciously think about how I was interacting with the water around me. I made the connection between the heat I was experiencing and the heat of the water. The water is the medium through which the heat flows, and humans are apart of the continuous cycle of energy that exists in life. Many times water is compared to the way in the Tao Te Ching. Understanding the flow of water in a stream is understanding the way. Even though it might seem a little far fetched, while taking the shower I felt that I was closer to the way.
After the shower I felt calm and ready for bed. My worries about the next day subsided and I found myself left with an open mind. This made falling asleep very easy. I fell asleep that night quicker than I usually do.

Tao Te Ching favorite passages

Book 1
Exterminate the sage, discard the wise,
And the people will benefit a hundredfold;
Exterminate benevolence, discard rectitude,
And the people again will be filial;
Exterminate ingenuity, discard profit,
And there will be no more thieves and bandits.
These three being false adornments, are not enough
And the people must have something to which they can
attach themselves
Exhibit the unadorned and embrace the uncharted block,
Have little thought and as few desires as possible
pg 23

This passage has to do with the idea of inter-being, especially between opposites. Without profit there cannot be thieves to steal the wealth. This passages was intriguing to me because alludes to the classic saying 'with great power comes great responsibility.' With the knowledge that the sage and the wise bring, it also brings obsession with knowing and understanding. This idea of obsession with understanding is seen as a bad thing in Taoism as the 'way', or the Tao, is not supposed to be capable of knowing.

Book 2
When the way prevails in the empire, fleet footed horses
are relegated to ploughing the fields: when the way does
not prevail in the empire, war-horses breed on the border.
There is no crime greater than having too many desires;
There is no disaster greater than not being content;
There is no misfortune greater than being covetous.
Hence in being content, one will always have enough.

I chose this passage as one of my favorites because I thought that it related a lot to contemporary western society. Traditionally American society revolves around many desires. This is most clearly seen in consumerism as Americans constantly desire to buy more and more as well as accumulate as much wealth as possible. It makes sense to me that having no desires would correlate with being content and satisfied because if you desire things you are constantly looking for things that you don't already have.

Meal meditation

Assignment: consciously eat a meal while paying full attention to the food you're eating.

For my meal I chose to snack on some Fig Newtons and a cup of water. When I started to eat the fig newtons I had a similar experience to that of the tangerine party. I though about how many different ingredients had to go into the snack just to create it. This relates back to the idea of inter-being: The Fig Newton cannot be without any of the ingredients that are inside of it.
Drinking the cup of water consciously was especially unique from any other experience I have had while drinking water. I tried to sense the water flow down my throat. It felt unusually smooth and together. Water is composed of many different molecules, however, they can come together to have the sensation as one distinct object. I also noticed as the water seeped down into my chest it seemed to take a few different paths around the area of my stomach. The most obvious observation was how the water tasted. It had no real strong taste, yet I desired to drink it more than the flavorful Fig Newtons. Also as I drank the water I remembered from the Tao Te Ching that water is thought to be in competition with nothing. As I drank the cup of water I agreed with that thought because at that moment it made perfect sense: How could a substance that is necessary for life to many things every be in competition with those same things that desire it? Also, water is rarely at fault since it is the basis for many living things, much like the Tao.

Homework: Do nothing

For the first time ever my homework was to do nothing for 15 minutes straight. What a great assignment! When I first heard of the assignment I thought it would be incredibly easy, however, siting still for 15 minutes turns out to be harder than you would think. I sat on the couch in my house and just looked around the room aimlessly. At first my mind wandered. I thought about the homework that I still had to do, and then about the things that were coming up the next day. It felt like I was wasting a huge amount of time. To be completely honest I did not make it to the full 15 minute mark. Although, the fact that I couldn't stand still that long illustrates a good point: doing nothing for any period of time is something that I rarely do.
In the US many people are brought up believing that inaction is bad. This is very different from the eastern philosophies in Buddhism. If you're overly active and have no time for inactivity (like many people in the western world) then it can be reasonably assumed that you're setting goals or trying to accomplish things. This is fine to a certain extent, however, if it is to the extent of being stressed it may mean that you're desiring too much. This is opposite of what is stated in the Tao Te Ching: "There is no crime greater than having too many desires." In Buddhism, an abundance of desire leads to a perpetually unsatisfied life. This is why the opposite of having desires and constantly doing, or inaction, is respected. A person that has time to do nothing and just take in life is content and desires less than the  one who is constantly doing.

Tangerine Party

A couple of class periods ago the class had a 'tangerine party'. During the tangerine party the class went outside and each person consciously peeled and ate their citrus fruit. The exercise was overall very eye opening to the fact that most of the I eat I am not thinking about what I'm actually doing. This phenomenon of absentmindedness while eating is especially apparent in Western society. While I was peeling my tangerine I thought about the journey the tangerine took to get to me. First the tangerine tree was planted then it was picked. However, in order for the tangerine to have been picked someone needed to pick it. After the tangerine was picked it was shipped to the US where it was distributed to grocery stores (and so on). The point is that tangerine could not have been in my hand at that moment if it wasn't for a variety of other factors. In fact I could not have had that tangerine in my hand at that moment if it wasn't for everything else in the world. This relates to the Eastern philosophical idea of inter-being. In this idea things in the world are related to other things through the idea of existence. This is very opposite to US culture where people don't often think about what a thing is or where it came from but rather what the object can be used for. It is the essence, not the appreciation for existence that seems to be valued in many western cultures.  

Winston Simone De Beauvoir presentation

A couple of class periods ago Winston (aka DJ Wiz or The Winston-ator) gave a presentation to the class on Simone De Beauvoir. Overall the presentation was very thorough. I thought it was especially impressive that Winston was able to talk about De Beauvoir in such detail in front of the class given that he was put on the spot to give the presentation. He also saved everyone else in the class as we didn't have to take a quiz that day because he presented - yay Winston. 

The immanence and transcendence part of De Beauvoir's philosophy is a little confusing to me. By assigning men the sphere of 'transcendence' does she mean that men are able, or at least have a better chance of overcoming the absurd in life? If she does, wouldn't this conflict with her previous beliefs about how the absurd is something present in all humans that we must learn to accept?

Blank piece of paper

A blank piece of paper is more than its essence. The paper is a canvass for what is to come. It is actually the symbol ideas and the unintelligible world itself. As humans we are unable to see what how the significance of the paper different from anything else in Plato's intelligible world? From a Humean perceptive, there's nothing we can do to perceive the ideas that are being prepared to be written unto the paper. The intelligible world offers no sensory perception to which humans are able to discern. The ideas that are to be place on the paper are therefore as real to us as the designs we see on the blank white paper. The dualistic nature of life is that there to parts of of the world: the intelligible and the unintelligible. The only way to understand what words or ideas are going to be placed on the paper is if the unexpressed ideas are your own. According to Descartes, the furthest you can go in knowing ideas or existence is to know your own existence: cogito ergo sum: i think therefore i am. Of course this places Cartesian philosophy under the threat of solipsism, or the idea that you are the only one that exists. But when it really comes down to it, the Humean and empirical 'wrecking ball' explains it best: how do you know? How do you know that there are ideas that exist outside your own mind? How do you that the paper even exists in itself? The proposition that we are all just brains in a vat is incredibility possible at this juncture since the existence of almost everything is being questioned. 

The paper itself is alienated from its other paper friends. He is abandoned. From his home, his comrades, his consciousness, he lurks. The paper was once a tree. Which was once a seed. Which was once a tree. The cycle of life wears on. What is life? 

Below is a picture of a blank piece of paper. 

Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir 1908-1986

According to Professor DJ Wiz and IEP article

Simone de Beauvoir was a French existentialist philosopher who was inspired by philosophers such as Hegel, Sartre and Camus before creating her own distinct philosophies.

Most important points of her philosophies:

1) The 'absurd' or reality of the world crushes the human soul, humans must accept it:
"Human existence is an ambiguous mixture of internal drive to transcend and escape the oppressive and absurd world"
2) Each person has their own autonomy that others must recognize to form identity (mutual recognition)
3) The creation of goals, expectations destroys human freedom

Ethics "Ethics of Ambiguity'
4) Acting alone or only considering yourself in a situation is immoral. Everybody must be taken into account.
5) Inaction/being a bystander is useless and unethical

Feminism "Second Sex"
6) Women have been in oppression to men for much of history. Despite this, they still have freedom
7) Immanence- woman's sphere concerned with monotony of life/jobs v Transcendence- man's sphere of work with higher ideas/complexities less monotony in life
8) Biological differences have no effect on woman's differences and oppression. The differences between man and woman come from social constructs:
"One is not born, but becomes a woman"

Man in bad faith:
-Sub man- in constant compliance
-Serious man- in constant desire/recognition of another
-Nihilist- constant denial and rejection

Woman living (all lead to one dimensional living)
-Narcissist- loves/obsessed with oneself
-love- focused on another's happiness
-mystic- devoted to something else (god, Absurd etc.)

The Absurd- Camus PoV

Myth of Sisyphus
Existentialism is a Humanism

In the Myth of Sisyphus the writer, Albert Camus, introduces the idea of the absurd. This absurd can be defined in one way as the desire for humans to discover the meaning of life. However, because the meaning of life is unknown, humans become caught up in an endless unsatisfied desire. Camus gets to the point in his writing that it is better to be happy with the monotony of life (Sisyphus rolling the bolder up and down the hill) rather than engage in an internal mental battle that the human mind will never win.
In Sartre's Existentialism is a Humanism he writes about the idea of existence preceding essence. First a person exists and everything that makes up that person besides his or her existence is secondary. The character of a person is determined by that person alone.

Funny spongebob moments

Spongebob greatest moments

Many of the greatest moments of the cartoon series Spongebob are based on real life occurrences. The fact that as viewers we can relate to the jokes is a large part of why they make us laugh. In number 9 of the video Patrick is put to sleep by Squidward's playing of the clarinet. This is something many of us can relate to as string and woodwind concerts tend to make people sleepy. However, Spongebob goes deeper than just relating to the human life. Spongebob actually addresses the absurdity of life in its episodes. In many ways the series of Spongebob itself is an alternate reality and  therefore also an alternate 'absurdity'. The philosopher Camus describes the absurd as a the desire for humans to fine the meaning of life. This desire is never satisfied and it thus becomes absurd to try to find this hidden meaning because it is widely accepted that no one will. Instead of trying to find the meaning of life it is better to become happy in the meaningless tasks we do in life like Sisyphus rolling a rock up and down a hill. Similarly, the nature or origin of the jokes in Spongebob are sometimes unknown. In this case it becomes better to focus on the joke itself rather than its origin or nature, just as it's sometimes better to focus on the monotony of life rather than catching yourself in the endless desire for life's meaning, or the absurd.

Ethical philosophy 5 points of view

So far we have discussed/debated 5 different ethical points of view in class: Kantian, Utilitarian (Bentham), Virtue (Aristotle), Feminist, and ethical relativism.

Here's an overview of each of the theories:

Kantian: For every society there exists a categorical imperative which transcends each society. This is similar to the golden rule and biblical aphorism: Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.  A person following kantian ethics would consider if their actions could be repeated and used as a universal law of how to live. If the answer is no then the person will not perform that task. Overall, kantian ethical philosophers reason rationally. For the ethical question of returning a wallet with $500 in it and a name, a Kantian philosopher would return the wallet because if you were the person who lost the wallet you would want someone to return it. Also a society shaped around theft would most likely fail to prosper.

Utilitarian/Bentham: Bentham examines each situation mathematically and adds up the total happiness or goodness done by each action. The action that causes the most good is the best choice. For utilitarians, inflicting the greatest happiness is best, while the greatest harm is worst. For the wallet question, a utilitarian would return the wallet because the harm of the guilt of taking the money would counter any happiness that the money would provide.

Virtue/Aristotle: Aristotle ethics solve ethical dilemmas by determining which choice makes the greatest improvement one's virtues or character. Virtues include honesty, courage, respectability etc. If an action damages one of those virtues then that action should be avoided because virtues are what make character and lead to happiness. A virtue ethicist would return the wallet because honest is a virtue that's broken by theft. Because taking the wallet requires being dishonest, a virtue ethicist would return it.

Feminist: feminists argue that many philosophers fail to include women and other neglected groups in their considerations. Feminists favor a egalitarian view on ethics that counts each view equally. Feminists generally side slightly with the rational perspective. Feminists disvalue moral constructs as they are often not equal and fair. For the wallet question a feminist would return the wallet because regardless of who the wallet belongs to, returning it is the action that encourages the most equality with disregard to race or gender.

Ethical relativism: Ethical relativists argue that each situation is dependent on the morals of that society. What is right for one society may not be right for another. This means that universal laws are very rare and or impractical. An ethical relativist would do what is right for their society or microcosm. If the wallet was found in New York City where small crime occurs a considerable amount, the person would be right in taking the money from the wallet.

Antigone Nietszche v Kierkegaard

How does the play Antigone relate to Kierkegaard or Nietzsche's philosophies?

Summary of the Play:
After a siege, the two brothers of Antigone, Polynices and Eteocles, kill each other so Antigone wishes to bury her brother. The orders of the king, however, restrict Antigone from doing so. Only Eteocles, the brother that died defending the city, was allowed to be buried. Antigone is imprisoned by the king for disobeying orders by trying got bury her other brother, Polynices, out of what she felt was right. When the king argues with his son, his son eventually kills himself. This triggers an ending to the play with the deaths of Antigone (suicide) and a few more characters.

Kierkegaard: The Kierkegaard argument for this play could best surround the idea of the teleological suspension of the ethical. According to Kierkegaard, at times people abond their moral horizons to side with a higher, christian, religious moral that is thought to be greater than anyhting on earth. The biblical story of Abraham represents this phenomenon as Abraham agrees to kills his son after God tells him to do so. Similarly, Antigone abandons the rule of the human moral code (the law of the king) and instead decided to do what she thinks is right. This can be linked to religious doctrine because the idea of doing whats 'right' stems off of religious teachings. Antigone's beliefs correspond with that of the church. She therefore suspends the ethical in favor of the higher religious desire. By denying the king Antigone goes through a leap of faith in order to traverse the three stages of Kierkegaard and become a knight of faith.

From a Nietzschean perspective, antigone does what she wants and goes against the accepted moral horizon of obeying the king. Antigone also follows the will to power, an unconscious desire that serves as the reasoning for antigone's disobeying the king.


Does what she think is best
Will to power

cliffnote summary of Antigone

Society Debate reflection

After about a month of debate over which society (Tyranny, democracy, oligarchy, Timarchy, Republic) is best, I am ironically undecided which one I think is truly the best. Each society has it's pros and cons but it really depends on the situation and, more often than not, a combination of societies is the best. This can be considered a Hegelian synthesis of sorts as a complete timarchy or a complete democracy may not be best suited for a country, but instead a combination of the two that has elements of a militaristic nation while also giving the people of the country a determining say in the election of officials.
The debates seemed to gain in intensity as time went on, and each member of their society grew to dislike the others members' societies. By the end of the debate I no longer had a completely negative view of a tyrannical society (my society).
Overall, the method of debate itself encompasses many philosophers' theories of attaining true knowledge such as Hegel's absolute spirit through mutual recognition and tridect, as well as Plato's theory of discussion as a method of getting as close as possible to the 'forms' in life. The debates were also thought provoking and I think that they brought the class together as a whole.

Nietzsche Quiz question

Explain: "I'm affraid we are not rid of God because we still have faith in grammar."

Under Nietzsche, reality exists in a dualistic state: appereance and representation (the drive to do is the will). According to Nietzsche, language removes us from our actions. Language is not a true representation of reality, but instead a social construction of humans. Believing in language would be evidence of staying with the slave morality associated with religion. Through language humans are separated form the real and can therefore talk about the unreal human constructs such as God.

Nietzsche notes/overview

Friedrich Nietzsche
German

1844-1900
-The Horizon - every society has a moral horizon , people create horizons for society (eg. Jesus)
-All horizons are in constant flux , subject to change, only perspectives
-Once human has realized he is the creator of moral horizon, values, he can choose whatever values are best
-Christianity= slave morality, encourages followers to be weak, sensitive, help others
-Chriatian faith and other religions make people slave to their morals
-Master morality (supported be Nietzsche) encourages humans to be unequals, warriors, rise above the weak- opposite to that of religion slave mmoralities
-master morality causes followers to blindly follow God and abandon their own instincts
-Nietzsche dislikes socialism, democracy, communism, because they're all based on equality
-Under religion drive to become great is evil. This forces man to turn on himself since his instinctive desires are considered to be evil under religious doctrine
   For Christianity:
-Good: meek, timid, passive
-Bad: Strong, assertive, powerful
-Christianity suppresses man's will to power
-death of God destroys morals, allows freedom bexisae humans are not resticed by any moral truths
-Ubermensch/superman is the ultimate form of man, philosopher, poet, actualizes himself, creates himself without following moral/ societal norms
-Ubermensch can't lead because he risks becoming a god
-Nietzsche invites war, apocalypse, some of his philosophy was used (abused) by Hitler, fascism

Altruism v Egoism

Carolyn Ray egoist Aristotle article 

Assignment: Read Carolyn's article and take a stand on the issue of altruism v egoism

After reading Carolyn's long essay on egoism and Aristotle, I agree with Carolyn that friendship is egoistic. The desire for friends is inherently egoistic. When considering the deep, animalistic desires that define humans, there's no desire that supports the act of wanting or giving something to someone else. The basic desires of the human relate only to survival.

In a friendship, both people only want to be friends with the other so that they can each fulfill their own desires of  being loved, appreciated, and having a friend. Although, firiendship can be called altruist too when considering Kahn's 'nous'. If every human has the same nous, then the act of getting friends can be considered altruistic and egoistic as the desires of you and your friend are the same. In other words, your desire to become friends with someone is motivated by the same desire as the person that you're trying to be friends with.

This discussion of friendship brings up the Hegel theory regarding mutual recognition. According to Hegel, the mind wants to be recognized by being seen in a another human's mind. Mutual recognition is best achieved through friendship. the desire to be recognized is a desire of the self. According to Hegel, it is therefore egoistic to desire to obtain a friend through the theory of self recognition since people only want to recognized so that they cam fulfill an internal desire

Kierkegaard overview questions

Assignment: Answer questions about Kierkegaard

1) Kierkegaard is considered the father of existentialism because he renewed the christian faith. He thought that true existence was only found through faith in God. One can only become a true self, or exist as a true self, through the God.
stanford.edu kierkegaard
2) Kierkegaard rejects Hegel's idea of the dialectic. Kierkegaard believed Hegel's philosophy was too abstract. Kierkegaard believed that Hegel's system of dialect was not applicable to the everyday lives of people and it therefore was hard to apply to life.
stanford edu kierkegaard life section
3) Kierkegaard was a Christian. He believed that only through faith can one become a true self that is judged by God. Kierkegaard's idea of faith relates to his existentialist ideas. Through the choices humans make they can either live for eternity in faith or live for themselves in freedom. For Kierkegaard, the renewing of faith is where the self relates to itself. In other works the human sense of self comes through the repetition of faith between god and the individual.
Standford edu religion section
4) Kierkegaard three stages of life's way deals with each of the three stages or spheres of life: the esthetic, ethical, and religious. These stages are connected and necessary to complete one's life. The religious stage is put in with the others to reinforce Kierkegaard's idea of the importance of religion. Without any of the three stages, life is incomplete. This implies if you're not religious, or you don't believe in god, then you can't complete the three stages of life.
sorenkierkegaard.org
5) Fear and trembling introduces Kierkegaard's ethical philosophy. The book introduced the biblical story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac. The reason Abraham would have sacrificed his son is not because of social norms, Kierkegaard states. According to Kierkegaard, the reason Abraham was at the point of sacrificing his son was because he was driven by a higher being, God. Kierkegaard calls this the "teleological suspension of the ethical."
Standford edu ethics section
6) For Abraham, his duty to serve God was supreme to his duty to help himself and his son. This represents the "teleological suspension of the ethical" in that Abraham, who desired to serve God and help his son, chose to serve God over his son because God is considered a higher being. Because God is a higher being, the desire to serve him is greater than the desire to help his son by not sacrificing him.
Standford edu
7) The book Fear and Trembling is about the 'teleological suspension of the ethical', or the suspension of ethical principles for a higher being, like God. In this work Kierkegaard describes the internal conflict that Abraham experiences in the book of Genesis. Abraham can't kill a because it's a sin, however, God wants him to. Abraham suspends the ethical principles of killing to obey a higher being: God.
sorenkierkegaard.org
8) The book Either/Or describes Kierkegaard's theory of aesthetics. The title of this work represents the choice between the ethical and the aesthetic. Irony rest in the place between the ethical and the aesthetic. The aesthetic is lost in reflection much like the effect irony has on people.
iep encyclopedia kierkegaard
9) For Kierkegaard, the concept of anxiety (dread) comes from the important existential choices a human must make. A human can either choose to follow the desired freedom's of itself or the human can choose eternity. A true, eternal self is only accessible through faith. The other sense of self is not created through faith and is therefore not true. Anxiety is what precedes this existentialist choice. Whatever a human chooses to exist as in a critical moment, he or she will be judged as such for the rest of their lifetime.
Stanford edu religion section
10)Kierkegaard's Work of Love Explains his ethical ideas of Deliberation vs. upbuilding discourse. Deliberation is motivated by goals. Upbuilding discourse is meant to persuade and soften. Kierkegaard also describes love and its connection to God. He also asserts that love is necessary for the christian.

Philosophy of the language barrier

Yesterday at school our entire philosophy class warmly welcomed and chatted with a class for non native english speakers.

 

How could talking with a group of non native english speakers relate to philosophy?

Although, the communication with some of the kids was hard at times, talking with this group of kids was eye opening as many of them were born in countries far from the United States. Many of them had different cultural values and interests than the typical American born student. At one point the conversation got around to soccer. It seemed like one kid we talked to from from Guatemala couldn't tell us enough about how much he loved soccer. Almost everything he talked about had to do with watching or playing soccer. Because this kid's interests revolved solely around soccer, which was different than my American interests, it made sense that this kid represented a cultural distinction from US culture. If philosophy comes from culture and your society then wouldn't it make sense that this student from Guatemala would have at least a slightly different philosophy or set of beliefs than my American born one?

In addition to our differences in culturally based beliefs, the expectation in our group's discussion was that American born english speakers would ask the questions to the non native english speakers. It almost seemed as though the non native english speakers felt left out or alienated from the discussion at times. A reason for this could be one of Hegel's theories for alienation: the estrangement from your fellow man. In this case the fellow man could be considered every other student at the high school that spoke english fluently. Because the non native english speakers don't speak english completely fluently, they are in constant competition with fluent english speakers to improve their english. This causes the group of non fluent english speakers to become alienated from the group of fluent ones. This could explain why and how groups of non native english speakers form. 

Tyranny in the USA?

Find evidence of tyranny in the USA

John Boehner reelected as house speaker

Contrary to popular belief, tyranny is not permanently bound to civilizations of the past. Tyranny can actually be considered to be present in the USA too.
Today John Boehner won election to the greatest leadership position in the House of Representatives: the Speaker of the House. Boehner won by a smaller margin than expected as some republicans even voted for another leader. As speaker of the House of Representatives it is expected that he would be popular among the other representatives as corporation, respect and belief in a leader is important. Although, in a tyranny respect for the tyrant is not essential. In fact, the tyrant's best plan of action is to have his citizens or constituents as separate from him as possible. This works to his advantage as being separated from citizens furthers the possibility of being taken over by them. However, the tyrant must also retain his power. He does this by ruling over his citizens and forcing them to support and like him.
This balance is seen in Boehner's leadership in congress too. Boehner is a radical a republican he can be while receiving just enough votes to remain elected and continue to hold power.
This may not be quite enough information to declare Boehner a tyrant even though he may be perceived as one (for other reasons) by many democrats.