How Does Perspective Influence Us?

We tend think as if we lived inside a bubble. Everything outside of it doesn't exist and it isn't possible. Not many people tend to disagree with what is being said. I came to think about this at the end of Frederick Douglass' memoir. I realized conformity is  one of the many reasons people agree to bizarre ideas such like the earth is the center of the universe. We sometimes are very narrow minded and don't see the essence of things until it is shown to us.  Such thing happened to Frederick Douglass when it came the realization of the erroneous image he had the North after he became a free man. 

I was impressed by the way Douglass thought the North was going to be like. He had learned growing up that slavery was the best that could happen to the economy, though he didn't agree with its means. By this I mean the cruel treatment of slaves. He was brainwashed since he was a little boy that the North was worse because of their lack of slavery. Obviously this was true for Douglass until he actually lived it. Nevertheless, the impression Douglass has "received respecting the character and condition of the people of the north, [He] found to be singularly erroneous" (Pg.).This is the result from his isolation. He didn't know what the north was like, and so he created an image he thought to be true.  He "had very strangely supposed, while in slavery, that few of the comforts, and  scarcely any of the luxuries, of life were enjoyed at the north, compared with what were enjoyed by the slaveholders of the south"(Pg.). 

However Douglass simply didn't jump into this conclusion, he thought that "in the absence of slaves, there could be no wealth, and very little refinement"(Pg.).  meaning that the north was very poor due to their lack of slaves. 

Furthermore, this happened a long time ago during WWII. People had the conception that jewish people were inferior. They had been brainwashed into believing something that was incorrect, simply because they hadn't been taught the right thing. Consequently, to stop this from happening we have to move out of the bubble, and stop conforming society. Speaking up, and knowing everything will be the only way we will advance and things will change. Though we might not know we are being deceived, we should not simply say "yes" because that's what they say. 

Amulets: Myth or Truth?

Many people are very superstitious and they put their faith in different objects. These tend to be called good luck omens and vary from one cent coins to four leaf clovers. When reading about the good luck root given to Douglass in the Mr. Covey's plantation, I pondered on a mandrake root used in the movie Pan's Labyrinth, which was meant for good fortune too. This kept me thinking on why do people place their faith in objects such as roots? 

Though it is never explicitly told what kind of root it is given to Douglass, I kept wondering if it could have been a Mandrake root. I did some research and found out the mandrake root is commonly used "As a talisman or amulet; aphrodisiac, warding off of evil spirits or spells, invincible against any kind of weapons, flying ointment" (Link) It might a causality if it was the same root, however we don't know. Nevertheless, indispensable information isn't the what, but the why people place their faith in other things so they don't have to carry that weight. I wonder if that is the reason we people believe God, or in talismans such as roots. 

Douglass is faced with a situation as such in Mr. Covey's plantation, in which he is offered a magical root that will impede him from receiving any damage from any white man. Douglass at first is hesitant, just like anyone else, as it is unbelievable "that the simple carrying of a root in my pocket would have any such effect as he had said, and was not disposed to take it" (Pg. 76) His perspective changed because maybe due to chance nothing bad happened to him. Consequently it made him "begin to think that there was something in the root... I could have attributed the [nice] conduct [his master] to no other cause than the influence of that root; and as it was, I was half inclined to think the root to be something more than I at first had taken it to be."  (Pg. 77) This gave me the idea that only because it worked, Douglass believed in it. Therefore, it might not be true or give us good luck, but if others believe it that gives us almost enough reasons to believe them too. 

We trust each other, and when we see things happen that makes us believe them. That's how talismans work. People see one case in many and attribute the outcome to the amulet rather than to chance. We tend to believe in what we see, even if it is only once. 

Slavery Through the Ages

Slavery has never perished and it never will. We will always be part of it, and i is part of human nature. Humans tend to make others inferior because the want to feel better than the rest. Since the greeks inhabited this earth slavery has existed. Furthermore, it has changed forms and transformed, but it has always been there. Nowadays people want to believe slavery is over, when in reality its not: it simple changed again. 

The first record we have of slaves was from the Greeks. It was such a long time ago so we do not have to much information about their work. What we know however, is that they were almost identical to citizens. Greek slaves hey were only deprived of civic rights, meaning they couldn't  participate in political affairs. Many slaves were in charge of reading in classes, so they were literate. Nevertheless, slaves in the nineteenth century were deprived from many things, such as reading and writing. They were treated as everything except as human beings. Their treatment was inhumane and cruel. American slaves suffered "from hunger, but much more from cold" (Pg. 39). Nevertheless, slaves such as Douglass thought that if "The white children could tell their ages. [They] could not tell why [they] ought to be deprived of the same privilege" (Pg 14).

Nowadays things have changed once again. We encounter two types of slavery. Slavery as we used to know it is now illegal, however people people are kidnapped and trafficked in the black market. Women and children are forced to do things against the law, and against themselves in this kind of slavery. Their families and their lives are usually threatened if they do not follow orders. Moreover, the most common type of servitude seen today is comprehended through capitalism. This type of imprisonment is legal, but not humane. People are forced to work for a living in precarious conditions because there is no other alternative. They receive one dollar wages or less for ten or more hours of hard work. If this isn't slavery, then what is it? 

We have achieved one thing only. We have managed to make the slavery we used to know illegal. Though that is an advancement we have to take into account that capitalism is the new slavery. We have to do things to sop this type of slavery from taking over, because if we do not do it now, we never will. Slavery nowadays is portrayed to be legal, and completely correct, but is it truly humane? 

White Slavery: Is it Worse?

George Fitzhugh makes a point that makes me think about the capitalist world by comparing it to slavery. While he states that "the negro slaves of the south are the happiest, and in some sense, the freest people in the world" (pg. 2) he shows the reader how whites a the true slaves. He makes me ponder in the fact that the capitalist system is truly a form of slavery hidden in between the lines. Having rights and the ability to work for a payment makes things different, because they have to work to survive. Whereas slavery has the same concept of working to survive, the situations are much different. He opened my eyes to the unfairness of the world, and how people perceive our current system, a much more fair than old plain slavery. 

Ingenuity Saves Lives

In times of difficulty being stupid will not save anyone; not even a fly. Being clever protects us in many different ways. It provides us with the ability to deceive those that surround us, and it comes in handy in many situations. I recall Randal McMurphy's cleverness, from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, of escaping work farm and jail by declaring himself mentally ill. Because what is a better place than an asylum for the crazy in order to escape jail? Nonetheless, Frederick Douglass, being an african american slave taught himself how to read, and this eventually helped him into freedom.

Both McMurphy and Douglass were very smart men indeed. They knew how to trick those that controlled them in order to benefit themselves. Douglass was inspired by his masters into learning how to read and write. After his masters forbade him in learning, he knew that "the first step had been taken" (Pg. 49), and  proceeded to teach himself how to read and write. He learned all about the benefits in being literate and knew that if someday he "learned how to write" he might have a chance of writing himself a pass towards freedom (Pg. 53). Moreover, Douglass was inspired by Irishmen which advised him to "run away to the north...[and that he] should be free"(Pg. 52). From there on he "resolved to run away"(Pg.53). In the other hand, Randall McMurphy knew how much better spending time in a hospital would be than working in a farm all day long. He tricked people into believing him crazy in order to be happier and more comfortable. Both men achieved what they wanted by being smart, rather than stupid.

Being clever and astute has helped people through out the whole existence of human kind. There has always been a variety in the intelligence of people as some are more talented than others. Nevertheless, these two men are clear examples of how this works, and we should learn from them too.