Optimism :)

I have no idea where this post will lead to, but reading Dr. Seuss wonderful short book ‘Oh! The Places You’ll Go!’ made me think about what a great opportunity we got coming to a place like MUWCI.

“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go”

I think we all tend to forget quite often what a great opportunity we got coming here, and what a great place this is. How many people can, at the age of 16-18 or so, just leave everything and come to a new, so different, country and get to know people from all over the world. To go own your own, be independent, learn so many new things. When I first heard about UWC it sounded to me like a dream. When I got in it was a dream coming true.

“And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll

meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are

some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare

you so much you won’t want to go on”

And still, with all the pressure and all the difficulties it is all very easy to forget. I think we let school stuff take over us too much. We let misunderstandings and arguments with friends and so on to take over our mood too easily. We forget what really cause us happiness under all the things ‘we need to do’.

These tense days I’m trying to be optimistic, laugh at me as much as you want. I’m trying not to fall under the pressure, and enjoy the things I really like. Surprisingly it also makes school stuff much more interesting and enjoyable.

Optimism is "an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome" It is the philosophical opposite of Pessimism Optimists generally believe that people and events are inherently good, so that most situations work out in the end for the best (Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary).

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

There are different arguments for or against optimism. Some may say it encourages passivity.This presumption is not always true. I agree just sitting and thinking positively won't do any good. I just think that being in an optimistic state can make it easier to do the things we need to do, and relieve the pressure. It may be different for different people. Some may need this negative pressure in order to make themselves move things. But if we can find a way to get to do everything without that, it would be much more pleasant.

So guys (well, probably no one is reading it, so I’m practically talking to myself. Never mind…) – try to relax and think positively. Don’t get so stressed. Grades are really not everything. This two years are going by so fast so don’t regret later for not enjoying the most out of it. As the Indian mystic and sage Meher Baba said: don’t worry be happy!

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

Is it my OWN Decision?

As you all probably know, all Israelis (yes, girls as well) have to serve in the army after high school. However, I personally (along with a small but growing percentage of the Israeli society) decided not to obey this law, and not to go to the army. There is handful of reasons for this decision, which I will probably discuss in another post, but right now I would like to look at another aspect of the whole issue.

As I made this decision quite a long time ago, when I was quite young, I’m wondering now what brought me to make the decision. How much of it is really my own reflection upon the situation, and how much of it is affected by my family (extremely radical leftist one), my education (special schools such as art high-school, muwci etc.), the environment I live in (Tel-Aviv the big and liberal city) and more.

I remember one conversation I had with a few people at MUWCI at the beginning of last year, which became a hot political argument concerning the Israeli-Arab conflict. At some point my co-year got really angry and walked away. Later on when we talked only the two f us she ‘accused’ me of not really seeing ‘the other side’ and presenting very one-sided view, which is anyway not really my own.

Of course most of my political ideas are not genuine. I’m not experienced enough and I don’t have enough knowledge to make up my own arguments about those issues that are talked about so much.

Of course I am affected by my surroundings, even designed by my surroundings. You cannot disconnect yourself from the outside world. You are always exposed to different stimulus.

However, I don’t think that each one of us is a complete reflection of his family, community or group of friends. You can find many examples of people who grow up to believe in completely different views than their family and whole environment. Growing up, I started to reflect upon what I constantly hear around me. I was also exposed to different opinions at school, the media etc. However, some things I decided to adopt as my own opinions, and some others not.

I could choose to go to the army. That what my school told me is right to do. My family would have respected my decision. Not to mention how much easier it would be not to cope with the society reactions to whoever doesn’t serve in the army. I had all the reasons to go, and all the reasons not to and I made up my mind, after many internal thoughts and external discussions. I do believe that this makes it my own genuine decision, as t make any of my opinions genuinely my own.

However, one may claim that what brought me to make that final decision are those external stimuli at younger age, when I wasn’t yet able to reflect and debate, or that there are many more factors affecting me that I’m not fully aware of.

I think here it is a matter of what I choose to believe in. Maybe it just makes me feel better to think I’m able to make decisions that are really my own…

(the philosophy of?) Collective Memory

One and half years ago I went on a school journey to Poland, a journey most of the Israeli high school students go to with their schools, to visit the concentration camps and study about the Holocaust. After visiting Auschwitz, where you can see horrible sights, we all got letters from our parents, which were collected by the school before we left. My parents’ letter was the most aspiring thing in my whole journey. After coming back, I was asked to write a speech for an evening about the journey for parents and students.

It would be too long to translate, so I’ll tell you about it shortly (well, I’ve tried to make it short it didn’t really work)…

I was describing our experience in the different concentration and extermination camps. I was describing the constant will to try and understand how huge the horrors were, the need to try understanding and even feeling the pain that those six million people experienced. I talked about how impossible it actually is. How big the number six million is. We all agreed that it is intangible, but still we go there and visit those places, so there must be a bigger cause.

Thus I concluded that even though the numbers, the deeds, the horrors – were intangible we all stopped and thought. We all have learned something. Something about the ability of modern methods to impose authority over the people and make them do cruel deeds. Something about the indifference of the environment, this can turn a blind eye even when horrors happen right in front of it. Something about seeing and understanding ‘the other’, on discrimination and racism. Something about hatred, about suffering, life and death. Something about the will to live. About rebellion, survival and coping even impossible conditions.

However, this is not a good enough reason for travelling all the way to Poland. There are lessons that have to be acknowledged. The Holocaust was a singular, one of a kind, and it is impossible to compare it with any other event. However, there were many horrible massacres and other occasions before and after the holocaust that have to be remembered. Furthermore, it is important to think about the present and the future, as the studying of history is important in order not to repeat it, as we all know. So what is the point if we don’t make the right conclusions?

Then came the ‘problematic’ part:
Right now Israel does not recognize the Armenian Holocaust, because we need good relations with Turkey.

Right now there is a disgraceful and shameful treatment for the survivors if the Holocaust who live here in Israel.
And right now we live in occupying country, behind an occupying and oppressive army, a country where million Arabs live under oppression and lack basic human rights. A country in which there are specific territories where innocent people are killed every day.

Now, after we’ve been there, and saw with our own eyes what the world has seen then - and said nothing, now we cannot
stay quiet, we should not ignore.
Perhaps this journey would lead us to think beyond our own selves. Think social, national, global… Then came and optimistic call (that sounded appropriate to me at that time for the students to change the world and that everything is possible).

However, when I showed the speech to the teacher, she erased the part about the occupation – “you cannot mention the occupation on a stage of a Jewish school” she said. When I argued, I was invited to talk to the headmaster of the school. After lecturing to me for hours about the Israeli-Arab conflict he smashed my speech and threw it away telling me he’s expecting me to write a new one.

Eventually I read almost the original version, only marking out that I’m not presenting any comparison (although my I wasn’t presenting any comparison to begin with). The reaction I got were very warming and encouraging, both from students and parents. Later on it also got into the newspaper, stating that “a student compared the IDF to the Nazis and was censured”. I even received a letter from an Holocaust survivor rebuking me about the comparison (that I haven’t even made!).

First of all, it is very interesting to see how easily people interoperate other people’s words so different than they essentially are, even when the things are stated very clearly. After experiencing it (and suffering from it quite a bit…) I understand how easily things can go wrong because of misunderstanding. I wonder how different the world would have been if people would just LISTEN more carefully.

Another issue that I came to understand is how sensitive the memorial of the holocaust is in the Jewish (Israeli?) world. This ‘collective memory’ has become a ‘taboo’ which is not to be talked about in any other connotation other than its own memorial. Every time the issue is raised everyone immediately become so defensive and even aggressive, and I’ve experienced it personally. I perceive it as an extremely negative thing. Of course I believe that the memory of the Holocaust is important, but its importance is exactly in those ‘comparisons’ (again, not really comparing, but putting into context with other events) with other events in our history and present life. Keeping the Holocaust as something that people are scared of mentioning will only reduce the importance of the memory, instead of expanding it to a discussion about humanism, human rights, and so much more.

More than that, I believe that education and in particular the teaching of history such as the Holocaust, can cause or solve many problems and hatred depending on the way it is taught, but this is an issue for another post (well, it’s actually quite similar to my EE topic…).

Definitions.

The TOK essay, Philosophy classes and even recent conversations with friends made me wonder - why do we have this strong need to DEFINE everything?

In science classes it is more understandable, as we are presented with new words and concepts that we might have never heard of before. We need clear definitions in order to understand the bigger concept.

But why is it so necessary to define wide concepts that are generally familiar to all of us, such as LOVE, TRUTH and FREEDOM? It’s becoming clear to me that however hard we try to stick to one ‘dry’ definition, we will end up having many different perspectives of the same concept. Many of these perspectives will contrast each other, causing an even bigger confusion with our understanding of that concept than we had o begin with.

I do understand the need to discuss those ideas and to explore them to depth. It is indeed fascinating to discover different perceptions of something you thought was so clear and simple. But can’t we keep it in the level of discussing and discovering, rather than defining?

I suppose that definitions make it easier for people to organize their knowledge, or express it in a clear way which is understandable to all. However, I feel that defining limits in a way our ‘open’ thinking and structure it unnecessarily. Can’t we just love, or be free, or look for the truth without being precisely sure of the definitions of those ideas?

expressing opinions and other thoughts.

A few days ago I got into a rather inconvenient situation which made me think about our freedom of opinion and of expression, and how it affects others.

I was having dinner with my Israelis co-years and first years, and somehow a conversation about army stuff started (an unsurprising case, I must say, when at least one Israeli is around). While most of them were talking about what jobs they would like to do in the army, and how smart you need to be to do those, I started talking to one of them about how I am planning to get out of the army. Refusing to serve in the army is a decision I took quite a long time ago, and it has an ideological background behind it, but I will keep that discussion for another post perhaps. One of my co-years then stopped the conversation and said that although he respects my decision, he is uncomfortable or even offended of me ‘making fun’ out of the whole ‘not-going-to-the-army’ subject. I admit that lately I tend to talk in a very light way about the subject, as I find it very hard to get into a serious, deep conversation about this controversial issue every time it comes up (and believe me, it comes up a lot!). Thus I apologized immediately and the discussion ended.

After thinking about it more closely, however, I’m not quite sure my respond was the right one. I am fully proud of my decision and I see no reason to hide it or present it in my own way (even if it is light and funny sometimes). The fact that I am presenting a minority opinion (one that is actually growing bigger and bigger in Israel those days), and he is just going to do what everyone does, gives the legitimacy to my co-year to limit my expression of that opinion, a legitimacy that I would like to fight against. I’m quite sure that my co years could speak as freely as they like to about their future job in the army, however offending I might feel it is (I’m talking about an Israeli forum of people, as when it comes to internationals, the point of view may be completely different). As a big part of our Israeli culture today is based on army experiences (‘who served with who?’ ‘What job did you do’? ‘What war did you fight in’? ‘Oh cool me too!’….), I believe that expressing contrasting opinions is extremely important.

This is only one example. The same, I assume, can occur in many different forums and regarding many different subjects. My question is - how far can we go expressing our own opinions, and how to decide when it might hurt others? Especially when discussing political or social issues, should the minority mind all the time the fact that they are presenting an opinion that is mostly unacceptable, and though it might ‘hurt’ others? And I put the word ‘hurt’ in quotation marks because I suspect that my co-year got insulted only because he’s not completely sure his ‘normal’ decision to do what most of the 18-years-old in our country do is the right, moral, one. His strongest defense is the one of the majority doing the same as him, and the fact that it’s a law. My opinion may challenge this decision and question its morality.

I think that expression of different opinions is extremely important, to challenge the common opinions in different issues. I believe that free discussions are the way to achieve stronger and truer opinions. Of course there is still a line after which expression of your own opinions can truly hurt others, a line that we should be careful not to cross. In this case, however, I don’t feel I’ve crossed that line, and I’m planning to keep on expressing my opinion freely, for now.