Lazy Post (My Argument Essay)

I'm really lazy so I'm forgoing everything (you'll have to look forward to a really awesome post in the near-future). However, listen to Elliot Smith because he's amazing (especially Miss Misery), and I got my record player working.

Without further ado (adu?) I give you my argument essay on arguing:

Arguing
It all starts with a difference of opinion. Then, the paths slowly diverge, the opinion is not only different, but also right. Your opinion, after a short while, is not only right, but all opinions not in accordance with your own must be wrong. Then a passion to enlighten the uninformed or uninterested individual begins. This leads to the vocalization of one’s own opinion (which is most certainly correct). This vocalization is followed by argument, the most trivial pastime of man.
Argumentation is not only the expression of two differing opinions, but the hammering of those views into its opponent. Arguing with an individual is much like yelling at a boulder on the opposite side of a valley; nothing ever actually happens. You are intent on staying where you are and the boulder is not going to move in the foreseeable future. You can yell, scream, cry, deduce, research, and construct the perfect argument of why the boulder should come over to your side of the valley, but all that reaches the boulder’s ears is an unintelligible and irritating buzz. In my personal experience, you could in fact be right. The view might actually be better, the grass greener, and your side is safer from a landside that is hurtling itself down at break-neck speeds towards the boulder. However, the boulder likes its view, is comfortable with the hue of the grass around it, and is pending suicide by landslide.
Man enters all of his arguments with such preconceived ideas in which he has no intent of changing. In fact, in psychology, there are two phenomena called confirmation bias and belief bias. These phenomena are described as man’s tendency to search for information that confirms his preconceptions (confirmation bias) and his tendency for his personal beliefs to distort his logic (belief bias). It is in this mindset that we, as members of the species Homo Sapien, argue. We find illogical conclusions that support our own beliefs, which in turn, concrete them further. It is in this mindset that we watch presidential debates. We already know whom we are going to vote for, we just like the warm fuzzies that come from the self-verification of our preconceived ideas.
“If arguing is so pointless, then why did Martin Luther King Jr. help bring about equality for minorities in The United States?” you ask. I am not downplaying Mr. King’s significance in bringing about equality, far from it in fact. I admire Mr. King for his devotion to Civil Rights and peace. It is with this in mind that I tell you that King never succeeded in arguing his point; rather, he brought attention to the rampant inequality plaguing 1960’s America. Every individual in The United States already had an opinion of Civil Rights, it was just never brought to their attention that they had one. King did this with his large marches and televised speeches. Although many people in America (myself included) believe that Mr. King was a great man who brought about a much-needed change, I must say that he could never have argued the need for Civil Rights. A Klansmen from the Klu Klux Klan did (and still does) not agree with anything he did. They find his logic illogical and completely contradictory to his or her beliefs. Nearly forty years later, there are still Americans who have not changed their opinions about racial equality. These people, much like you and I on this very subject, are boulders unwilling to change. No amount of education or passion about the aforementioned topic will change their views.
It is for these reasons that I argue to you that arguing is pointless. Man never has, and most certainly never will, change his or her mind because of an argument. I am well aware that my argument will never change your mind, instead, it will bring to your attention that my point is either revolutionary or completely idiotic. I can yell, scream, or write countless essays arguing my point, but you, much like myself, will sit on your side of the valley with your preferred hue of grass enjoying the view.

Hmmm (What Should Be Spoken About)

Mood: Wyclef Jean (I know, I've been listening to it for like a week straight, but I love it so much, Dollar Bill is the cap level of poeticness for being about a prostitute).

Quote: "2008 is the year to communicate."-My Dad still on a quest to find everything that could possibly rhyme with eight.

Countdown: 19 days until my birthday

New requirements for a girlfriend (or a serious woman relationship):

1. No hahalols in text messages. That is correct, I invented a new word, hahalol. Hahalol-derived from the phrases haha and lol respectively. When one uses haha and lol near eachother or multiple times in message, most notably those found in intercellphone "text" messages.
2. Has cool friends-Friends are important, and hating your heterosexual highschool partner's friends makes things difficult.

Blog: The year may be new, but sadly, school is not. My grades still suck (although they are getting significantly better). I still talk to most of the same people, and eat the same lunch. Its wonderful autonomy all over again. Aahhhh school is back in full force. Nothing like it. I'm actually eating three meals consistantly again. I just wish it were summer already.

I don't even know what to talk about next. School? Nah, that hasn't changed much. Hot girls I know? Nah, girls don't like me. At least I don't think they like me that way. Girls like me, I'm a major hottie, I try to be nice, and I fancy myself as a rather entertaining individual. I can't talk about a new episode of The Office because the writer's strike. But I can talk about...

PROJECT RUNWAY!!!!!!!

Yes, Project Runway has started a new season, and although it has been going since December I just learned that it started recently. My sister was fortunate enough to turn it on and tape the ones we hadn't see that were showing in a marathon. I was very happy. I like the straight guy and the Iranian guy. Of the girls I like one named Kit. She's fun and happy and reminds me of a stereotypical Graywhale customer. That might be one of the reasons I like her. Anyways, I'm very excited. I've watched six hours of Project Runway in two days. The world, for that time, was perfect.

2008 (Oh Great)

Mood: Wyclef Jean (Carnival Vol. 2)



Quote:

• Dad: 2008 will be great.


• Mom:What about 2009?


• Dad:That'll be benign, but 2010 will be great again!

A conversation my mom told me about this morning

2007 was:

1. The year I got my license.
2. The year I got into my first accidents.
3. Became an upper classman.
4. Lost three friends.
5. Had one friend move away.
6. Made some more.
7. Started a blog.
8. Went to Bolivia.
9. Stayed by myseslf away from home (those days in Miami and La Paz)
10. Started a mutual fund.
11. Took the ACT (got a 28)
12. Took my first AP Test.
13. Signed up and began my first AP classes.
14. Went on a date.
15. Did not get a girlfriend.

That is '07 in a nutshell. Of course you could read about half of it in this blog if you wanted.

Goals for 2008 (resolutions never happen):

1. Keep a journal (I think I'm going to use part of my Border's gift card for this).
2. Woo girls that meet the requirements I specified in December.
3. Run for some student government position (Student Body President(?))
4. Enjoy life.
5. Get accepted into college, and feel good about where I'm going.

Blog: Christmas break is ending and school begins tomorrow. I find this rather depressing, I wish break could go for four more months and then we could start summer vacation. That however isn't going to happen so I did the homework due tomorrow. Fortunately, physiology isn't due til Friday and I'm done with all of my English assignments.

I can't believe everything that is going on. In a few months some of my friends go off to college, my ward is going to be strange when school starts this fall. I've made friends with some of the kids younger than me, but my friends when I moved here are all going away this year. First, it was my cousin and now he is on his mission (nearly a year out), then it was another person (who was once my friend), but now it is my closest friends. Especially my (if I put titles on my friends) best friend who has been basically adopted by my family. Its really saddening. I'm getting old, all the things I figured out when I was in 7th grade are starting to happen. Plans are frightening when they happen after being planned for so long. By the end of 2008 I'll know what college I'm going to attend in the fall, its nuts. I don't even know what my major is going to be (I know that sounds really trivial, but I like to think about trivial things), right now I'm thinking about Linguistics with a minor in Psychology. Of course, that'll probably change tomorrow. Everything is happening so fast.

Well, I best be getting off to bed, getting up for school tomorrow is going to be interesting.