Against Romeo and Juliet

I don’t know if anyone of you have read Romeo and Juliet but, for me it is a story that has little or no sense at all. I will try to explain my point of view to you in the next lines. For example, how deep is a love when you have just been two times with your lover? Is it enough that time to be able to kill yourself because of love? One possible explanation is the fact that both Romeo and Juliet are youngsters and it was their first love. Because of that, they had a feeling that was new and unknown for them and this feeling could have leaded them to die.

If you accept this theory as an answer to the “incongruence” of the deaths, then we must also say that the worldwide accepted idea of this play being a really inspiring story of love is not accurate. How can it be the most beautiful story of love this one when they don’t experience even a 1% of the “mysteries” of love? They just declare love and say 3 or 4 beautiful sentences to each other! There are much more beautiful stories of love out there. Let me just remind you about García Márquez or Pablo Neruda.

On the other hand, Romeo and Juliet is a classic written between 1591 and 1595. We can’t apply the standards of today’s literature to this play. I mean that the metaphors and words used to seduce by the lovers can’t be rated with today’s standards. Here I must accept that they are good examples of a nice use of poetry. However, what I am criticizing here is the overall sense of congruence, the merit of being acknowledged as a great love story. For me it is just a basic classic story which is good to introduce people to love stories but there is nothing really spectacular. 

Little poetry

Could someone tell me what to do
When all the trenchs are far behind
From the war we are fighting today?

Is there an illusion more powerful
Than the one of having you by my side
And scream your name in the darkest night?

If there is any kind of god up in the sky,
Would he be kind to take me by your side?

This is a quarter of things
I would like to say to you.
But do not worry
I will only do this when I feel in blue.

You've gone too far
from my lonely days
and that will tear us apart
if I don't see you today.

Have I forgotten
That my eyes were not opened?

Outline

         I.            The social networks have a lot of people against them but it is one of the next steps in the evolution of humanity towards a more united one. Besides there can be a controlled use of them without many problems.


      II.        People against it.

a.       Anti-technology people’s ideas.

                                                               i.      We are controlled.

                                                             ii.      We are addicted.

                                                            iii.      There is no privacy.

b.      Government

                                                               i.      Uncontrollable points of view.

                                                             ii.      Critics reunite.

                                                            iii.      Manipulation is difficult.

                                                           iv.      Too many opinions.

c.       Old people.

                                                               i.      They don’t control it.

                                                             ii.      They don’t understand it.

    III.            Evolution of humanity.

a.       Good aspects.

                                                               i.      You can meet new people

                                                             ii.      You know more about your friends.

                                                            iii.      Political activism.

b.      Next step in history.

                                                               i.      New communicative frontiers.

                                                             ii.      New possibilities and technologies.

                                                            iii.      Impossible to return to the past.

    IV.            Need of control

a.       Parents.

                                                               i.      Children need parental control.

                                                             ii.      Abusive content (+18).

                                                            iii.      Danger of unknown people.

b.      Wasting time.

                                                               i.      Doing nothing useful.

                                                             ii.      Internet not being employed as a tool.

                                                            iii.      Too much leisure.

c.       Illegal activities.

                                                               i.      Hacking.

                                                             ii.      Drugs.

                                                            iii.      Violence.

      V.            There must be an effective use of the powerful tool called internet. It is the future, but there should be some changes in the way we use it nowadays.

Thesis Statement

The social networks have a lot of people against them but it is one of the next steps in the evolution of humanity towards a more united one. Besides there can be a controlled use of them without many problems.

Problem/Solution Text

There is a really big problem with the increasingly high speed of evolution of developed countries. It is a fact that they consume more and more resources. However, these are not infinite. There is also a lot of injustice and differences between first and third world countries. Although we produce seven times the amount of food we need, poor countries don’t receive a part of this because they have no money to pay, or their governments are corrupted. If we keep on doing things like this, there will be not future for our descendants.

A possible solution would be the lessening of the growing rhythm. By doing this, we would adapt to the possibilities the earth offers us. Moreover, if we accept transgenic food as a good product, there is also the possibility to nourish poor countries. We have to be able to stop and think before continuing this path because it is really needed a solution. 

Pros and Cons

Social networks are a very useful tool if you know how to use it right. It has a lot of advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, the most negative fact is that you lose a lot of privacy. However, this can be usually configured in the not-always-clear options of the social network. So you shouldn’t be a newbie in computers if you want to enter in this world. Another important question is the topic of time. These webs make you lose a lot of time and people are more and more affected by this problem. On the other hand we also find very positive aspects. You can be in contact with a lot of people at the same time. People are more connected. To end with I would like to say that this is the future, but this future needs to be controlled.

Point By Point Method

The differences between the south and the north of Europe are overwhelming. First of all, you just have to take a look at the climate. While in the north we can find really cold and rainy winters, the south experiences warmer temperatures that make living there more comfortable. On the other hand, we find that the south is not as wealthy as the north. Unlike our touristic and agrarian industry, the north has invested a lot of money on industry and technology. That is the main reason why we are considered poor people whereas they are as rich as the most powerful countries of the world. To conclude, I would say that it is difficult to choose between north and south because they are very different.

Opinion Paragraph

It is really needed a turn to realist fiction. It is the best genre in order to express the reality of a time. So, for example, today’s social problems can be described and therefore we can raise a global consciousness. Moreover, I am pretty sure that in the future the most known works of our years will be those that describe the difficulties that people have to face nowadays. As a consequence of this, realist fiction is going to be the top genre.

Descriptive Paragraphs

Describing a place

The place I like the most is my future house. The place where it is going to be build is in the middle of a huge forest near a small river. However, it will be neither warm nor cold anytime of the year because I will place there a lot of solar panels that will be decorative. It will have plenty of rooms, some bigger, some smaller, but all of them will have little decoration. I do not like ornamented places, I prefer practical ones. Of course it will have an ancient-looking fireplace and lots of books and technologies. I can’t wait for the day I live in that place!

Describing a person

The person I like the most is Carla. She is very shy but, in turn, she shows every single time that she is very self-confident. The problem is that she needs to learn to socialize a little bit more because she has troubles meeting new people. She thinks she is ugly but I don’t think so. Her pretty big dark-brown eyes shine like an autumn day; at least that is what they remind to me because she is melancholic. However you can have with her really good conversations, with deep topics. Because all of these I think she is the best, and maybe one day I will meet her…

Brainstorming

There are at least three ways of writing a brainstorm. I am going to use making a list, freewriting and mapping bearing in mind the next topic: Is corruption a reality in Spain?

Making a list

• Bárcenas
• Granados
• Andalucía
• public money arbitrary spent 
• people's perception
• statistics
• non declared money
• black cards

Freewriting

The case of Bárcenas is a clear example of corruption but there are others like Granados' or the employ politics that have taken place in Andalucía. A lot of public money has been spent without control, and all that is perceived by people, who don't trust anymore in politicians. There are also a lot of statistics that confirm the high levels of corruption in Spain, a country where people is used to pay with non declared money. Caja Madrid's black cards are another example of this.

Mapping

Slavoj Žižek (Part I)

As you can see in the title, today I am going to talk about a very different topic. I am not continuing by now the story I was writing. Today I want to talk about an idea that I have heard in a Youtube video. This can be found embed at the bottom of the entry. The topic of what you can see here is a philosophical or sociological one. Slavoj Žižek poses the following question in the short clip: The world is advancing, or evolving, faster and faster during the last few centuries. Should we stop and think?

As you can see, this post is deeper than the previous entries. Anyway, as a first step towards reaching any conclusions, we must analyze a bit the figure of the Žižek, or, at least, we must try to recognize him as a known thinker of our time (he has interesting writings on theories about cinema). So he is not an unknown person. Because of that, I consider the statement I commented before about evolution a very interesting one. Why?

For me there is a sense of increase of the human development’s speed. That is obvious. Just think about our ancestors. They discovered how to use the fire in the year 350.000 B.C. while the first known wheel dates from the year 3000 B.C. However, nowadays we discover a lot of new things, especially technological ones, that are far more complicated but they are as used, if not as useful, as the wheel. At least you have to recognize the acceleration of our evolution.

However there are consequences of this development. You can’t imagine the Cold War without the risk of a nuclear attack. That is, the evolution has problems that are more evident the more you think of the recent years or centuries. There is a huge magnitude of consequences that we, as humans, are able to provoke with our recent discoveries.

For me, the first part of the Slavoj Žižek’s idea is true. But this is the most interesting part: Should we stop and think? Is it necessary to stop and meditate about what we are doing in order to avoid future dangers?