#aplang18primary

Picking the Primary Work: 

The Original Plan: 

“The Souls of Black Folk” by W.E.B. Dubois, is a book suggestion from the abstract about hopefulness. When I was reading through each of the abstracts, I didn’t really see any that stuck out to me. However, I knew that I needed to choose something otherwise I would never get the project done. As a result, landed on hopefulness. The reason why I chose to settle for hopefulness over any of the other ones is because I felt as though the claim that I had to agree or disagree with was relevant to today’s society. From there I had to decide which book to read. As a indecisive person, naturally it took me a while to decide on a book but eventually I willed myself to drive to Barnes & Nobles and I just chose the suggested book that was the shortest. So unfortunately, there isn’t some methodical and deep reason as to why I chose the book that I did. 

Primary Source #6

Reading "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck," has been the equivalent of a parent, peer, teacher, or other person whose opinion matters to us for one reason or another, constantly telling you, that you ain't sh*t, and you need to get it together. Manson loves to talk about how people are never happy because we live lifestyle that would never allow us to be happy. Stressing about our image to everyone, the amount of money we have, how happy we seem, will never truly brings us happiness. Life is a constant sh*tstorm and there's no way to escape it. What we need to do is let go of all the things that buy our happiness because that pressure is artificial and temporary. We must look deep within ourselves and realize that we are our greatness road block, because we are what dictates what is "good enough" in life, and that we make happiness out of reach because happiness is whatever we don't have, the nice cars, houses, well paying important career, perfect spouse, good looks, tons of "friends", and about a million other things. Manson claims that you should give a f*ck about a few things, because all you need is a few great relationships enough to money to comfortly get by and some type of reason to keep you waking up in the morning and not question why you bother get up in the morning.

So atleast for the first half of, "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck," the author opens his chapters with stories of people who had horrific lives then explained why what they had was so fucked up. There's was a guy who suffered, stumbled into fame and fortune, and still suffered inside, a guy who had everything he could ever want, bur was hit with the reality of old age, disease, and poverty all at once, and a guy who realised he wasted decades fighting a fight that has long since been settled. He eventually replaces these stories with his own experiences, after he creates a connection with the reader through pain.

The problem most people have when they receive empathy is that they believe that there is no way anyone else could possible have an equal bad existance, but author of my book basically says shut the f*ck up, millions of people have been, are, and will be as low as you, and even worse. We can't really sit around sulk all day, when we have the image of someone doing way worse in our conscious.

There was once a group of Japanese soldiers from WW2, that hid for decades in the jungles of the Philippines because they refused to believe the war over. The story of the man who led these troops spread throughout japan as myth, many saw him as an honorable hero who would fight for his country till the very end, while others believed that some solider chose to live in the jungle for decades because every time someone left a message saying that the war was over he'd be like, "Nah, this is an enemy trick, 20 years later and they still are using this same old trick."

Eventually a Japanese deadbeat, dropout decided that roaming the jungles of the Philippines looking for this solider that hasn't been found in decades would be pretty fun, (this is all after he already left japan traveled the world as a hobo, and came back). It's not like he had a responsibilities anyways. After reaching the island that the soldiers were stationed back in WW2, the japanese traveling hobo just walked around and shouted his name, and found him in less than a week (it's safe to assume no one was really looking for him). After the two met, they talked and the solider was convinced to head back to japan, while the other guy goes to find a panda, rhen the abominable snowman. The solider comes back to japan as a celebrity, but is horrified to see that the traditional japan he fought for long ago is gone, and while he recieved attention nationwide nobody really cared about his movement to "make Japan great again." If you want to know what happened to the other guy, he found the panada, but died in the himalayas searching for the snowy sasquatch.

The point Mark Manson wants to make about these stories is that goals will never be enough for a person. The solider wasted most of his life working for purpose only to realise he fell flat on his face a long ass time ago. And while the other guy met some of his goals, he wanted more and that eventually sent him to his death. The joy we receive from actually reaching a dream is short lived, just ask most people who become incredible rich, they always say money and getting things doesn't bring happiness. The people who really get excited are those in the process of reaching a dream. When you aspire to become an professional singer or something, the most emotional part isn't the lifestyle of living on the road, having millions of fans and dollars, etc... because having everything gets boring, what you really remember is the struggles of getting your name out their, perfecting your voice and songs, your auditions that dictate whether you'll reach that dream of yours. A the true purpose of a goal isn't to overcome it, but to occupy our time with a purpose.