Sunday, July 12, 2015

Birthday, Socialism, Liberalism, and Capitalism

This morning, I woke up with a large amount of optimism not only for class but for a plan that was established 8 days ago. My cohort, a couple of friends and I went to Dunk'in Donuts to get breakfast which was nice. After, we finished our breakfast we decided to make our way to class. Although, it was only around 8:30 a.m and each of our classes started at 9:00 a.m sharp we left right when we got our food. While, we were walking Chiamaka wanted to stop off at Starbucks so we did but the line was so long that one of the girls decided to head back because her class was sort of far. When she left that left Justeen a little lost because she hadn't learned exactly where her class was yet. But she called her counselor and they were able to lead her to her class.

As we made our way to class we discussed the agenda email we had received last night from Professor Lamas. It stated that three groups would hear a lecture while four of the other groups would go on a field trip. I was placed in the lecture group compared to everyone I actually know who were in the field trip group. When we got to the McNeil building lawn were our class was we went over to the benches because none of the instructors had arrived yet, we were fairly early. As we waited we just talked about our surprise plan that would occur later on in the day. Then our instructors came and told us to go form our usual circle formation to perform the Quigong again. We did too different additions to the original routine we learned. In doing this exercise I realized the complexity of simplicity. The movements were completely, slow, calming, and based on breathing and focus on your own energy. All of that is very simple for me but the act of repetitiously  doing a move with a certain pattern was really complex for me.

We did that for about 30 minutes and then we broke into our respective groups. My group headed toward the classroom where we found the rows in the room completely moved to make a large enough circle for the groups to fit.Which it just took some slight readjusting in order for the seating to work. Once, we completed the seating arrangements we began the co-communicative lecture about the views of different yet similar groups in society. We looked the "contrast and comparisons" of Plato and Aristotle, Marx and Shakespeare, and Marx and Anarchists.This lead to an interesting discussion of whether or not Marx had a clear based goal or did the Anarchist.

From there we went onto talk about the liberal parties compared to the capitalist. From my understanding a liberal is more open minded to suggestion while a capitalist has one main goal which is to make money at an other's expense. With that being said we had to try to figure out a way to create a society that would be fair, just, and productive such as Aristotle. In the way, as we have seen what other societies have done and if it worked we could use it. Yet, there is one major flaw in that idea which is that when you combine the techniques of other societies you end up with a big huge pile of chaos. There is an alternative to that though, which would be to follow the example of Plato. He figured out that through conscience thought and a proper calculation there is away to develop a "perfect"society.

We then went to lunch which was really interesting seeing as how my friends still had not came back from their field trip. So, I decided to walk down to the Wawa and get a hoagie.While I was on my way I was asked by two teaching fellows if I wanted to go to lunch with them, but I decided not to because I figured I wouldn't make it back in time plus I had to help with the preset plan.


I then was walking back and I saw Chiamaka, Jun, and Joanne sitting at a bench near the entrance of the quad. When we all saw each other wee immediately knew we had to go John's birthday cake from Ben & Jerry's. So, we made our way to the small shop to retrieve the item. Most of the time they have previously made ice cream cakes but today it just looked like all of them were completely reserved. Fortunately, we decided to look inside of the refrigerator only to find that there were several different flavors to choose from. Now the hardest part had began to settle in, the flavor choice. "What flavor ice cream did he like? Does he even like ice cream?" where the only questions running through my head. We finally decided to get chocolate and vanilla because who doesn't like chocolate and vanilla.

We immediately, made our way to Baby Blues to drop of the cake and then rushed back to class. When we got back to class we were discussing what we should wear, if we should dress up or just stay casual. We decided to dress up because it would be really funny for all of us to be dressed up and John to be in casual day clothes.

After, class was over we went to our dorms and got dressed because we were scheduled to have dinner with him at 6:00 p.m.  so we all had just enough time.  I finished last because of my heels made me walk down the stairs really slowly. But, I made it without falling so that worked out perfectly. When I finally got downstairs everybody was signing the card. After that was finished we walked out front to find John standing there wearing shorts and a tee shirt. He looked a bit puzzled at the fact that everybody was so dressed up. Yet, he didn't ask a single question.

We then arrived at Baby Blues and were seated at a table. Once we settled in Chiamaka and Joanne went and talked to the waitress about the plan. Next, she came and asked to take our orders and we all order, ordered the ribs as did almost everybody else. When we finally finished eating I went to go wash my hands with Rudy.  As I made my way to the stairs the waitress stopped me and told me the cake had Melted! Although, when we dropped it off the hostess said that she would take care of it. But, accidents happen so I told her it was okay and she said that she would bring it. 

When we first came in we told her to come over to our table and ask if we wanted dessert and from there we would say yes and she would bring out the cake. That part went exactly as planned, although we all said yes at the exact same time which was creepy. 

 In the end,I think that John really enjoyed his early birthday celebration. Our main goal was for John to be happy and I'm positive that we achieved it.

No comments:

Post a Comment