Pick two songs

Well, I picked three, and they are:

• Still Around - 3OH!3
• Your Hands Are Cold - Jean-Yves Thibaudet
• I'm With You - Avril Lavigne

1. Hows does each song reflect a different point in your life?

• Avril Lavigne’s I’m With You is from Let Go, the very first CD I remember getting, in third grade.
• All the other songs are from some point in High School, especially after I took IB Music and could appreciate the beauty in music even more so than before.

2. How did it/does it speak to you, and why?

• I know every single word to every single track on Let Go, and each one speaks to me like a familiar friend. It’s a very comforting song, but it also has underlying tendrils of sadness. One of my best friends, Mark, moved away in 4th grade, and I distinctly remember listening to this song on the radio with him, riding in the car, and the word “damn” was used. Mark’s foster mom said that she just meant a dam, like the kind which beavers used, but Mark and I knew better, and we smiled furtively at each other, feeling so smart with our insider knowledge on expletives. I still remember exactly which intersection we were at in the car when we shared that look.

• All the rest of them (from High School) had the same type of effect on me. At some point, when I was listening to them for the first time, I was stunned by their sheer brilliance and beauty. They had a point in them where I just closed my eyes and listened, for there was nothing, I felt, in that moment that had ever been as elegant, moving, astounding, or simply beautiful as the music which was being played. They are the few songs which I have actually been shocked into silence and wonder at their playing.

3. What does it reveal about your personal aesthetics?

• I really like things that sound really pretty/awe-inspiring to me. I’ve noticed that I’ve never paid as much attention to the words in a song as the musical notes and rhythms themselves. Which is strange, because I give so much credence to the written word. I guess I just love how music stirs your soul, and creates something that words can simply not convey.

There are also three others which I really like, but didn't play for class. They are:

• The Piano - Michael Nyman
• La Valse d'Amélie (Piano Version) - Yann Tiersen
• Life In Technicolor II - Coldplay

Closing Statement for Perfect Societies Debate

Tyranny is just one puffed-up guy who lusts for power, destroying everything in his path without regard for anyone or anything else. It is the ultimate embodiment of a selfish megalomaniac.

Democracy is just a bunch of old guys who also lust for power, doing everything they can to secure their power, and enacting policies in favor of that, not in favor of what the people actually want. It’s just a thinly disguised high school popularity contest.

The Republic is simply Plato’s ideal society. It’s one guy, at one time, who thought this one crazy idea could work. Who in their right mind would buy into the idea that you have a “function” to fulfil, much less the idea that these “gold-hearted” Guardians know exactly what your function is? The Republic is Plato’s well-intentioned society, but with major realistic drawbacks which contribute to its illegitimacy, and utter impracticality.

Oligarchy is a collection of people who believe that their money entitles them to be completely superior beings. They base everything they do off of wealth and material gain, not caring at all about the people, and lusting completely for just two more coppers to rub together.

Timarchy, on the other hand, is an historically effective and advanced form of government.
Yes, we have slaves.
Yes, Plato argues that we have intellectual limitations, that we exploit the lower class, and that we have private greed.
And yes, we don’t have the close-knit “traditional” family.

But if any society will dare to say that they don’t have any problems, then they are flat-out lying. The issues and problems that we have are real, and they are troublesome. But like the timarchic character that we are, we will confront them head-on, and attempt to fix them.

Because we have a lot of great aspects. We are ambitious, athletic, energetic, and loyal, with a system that has gender equality, fosters courage, promotes discipline, encourages stability, keeps structure as well as order, and is militarily excellent in all capacities. Our military strength is awe-inspiring. Look at the the Zulus, look at the samurais, look at Israel’s military staying-power, look at Sparta.

Timarchy is a society which produces sound individuals and a stable state.

To conclude, I’d like to leave you with a quote from Aristotle,
“We make war that we may live in peace.”