Synaptic

Josh’s perceptive insights, friendly tone and sense of humor invite the reader to join his thoughtful narrative as he explores philosophical concepts of self and identity. In fact, his transitions and twists so surprised me that I began to read his paper out loud. I appreciate his honesty and the way he integrates his own story with those of others such as Don Henley, Jerome Bruner and Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I like the way Josh describes his thirst for learning as well as his celebration of Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot” perspectives. Above all, Josh’s clear voice resonated with me long after reading the piece which is one of the reasons I nominated his “Narrating Stories.”

– Mary Stark

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I watch educational videos a lot. I am not afraid to admit that; I love to learn. There is something so enticing about knowing that more information is out there and we can access it with our fingertips and a good Wi-Fi signal. By educational videos I don’t mean historical documentaries necessarily, but the library of educational channels on YouTube. To name a few: SciShow, Veritasium, SixtySymbols, Numberphile, Vsauce, CrashCourse, and more. The list goes on and on. These channels cover everything from history to science to math. A personal favorite of mine is the channel CGP Grey; he explains a plethora of things that are complex with simple animations and rapid editing. A few months ago I watched a video of him answering questions from the community. The question that was asked was, “What’s the biggest change of opinion you’ve had?” Although he did not answer the question directly due to it being too personal, he gave an answer that has been making the wheels in my mind turn ever since. He said, “I want to talk about the importance of being able to change your mind in general. The trick is to keep your identity separate from your opinions. They are objects in a box you carry with you, and should be easily replaceable if it turns out they are no good. If you think that the opinions in the box are who you are, then you’ll cling to them despite any evidence to the contrary. Bottom line: If you want to always be right, you need to always be prepared to change your mind.” I agree with this wholeheartedly; too many people believe that their opinions are who they are.

If a person challenges someone else’s religious or political beliefs, then he or she often takes offense to it. If an individual’s opinion can be ridiculed, torn apart, and has no evidence, then he or she shouldn’t have that opinion. A person should also never say that he or she will never change his or her mind. For example, when people get a tattoo of their religious or political beliefs, they are declaring that they will never change their mind and discard anything that might challenge their viewpoint. I am proud to say that I will never get a tattoo of my viewpoints, but mainly because I hate needles. However, a bigger philosophical question arises if we take into account that we are not our opinions. Then what exactly are we? Of course I am a human being who pumps blood and breathes oxygen, but if you asked me to define myself then I would state my personal beliefs. I would say I am a liberal, atheist, pro-choice, environmentalist, who is pro-gay rights and so much more. Sadly I don’t have time to comment on one of the most difficult philosophical questions of the ages, so I will focus on what I mean when I sign my name, Josh Prokupek.

Many high school seniors at my school dread the idea of a final senior paper. It is extensive and requires a lot of hours and research to receive a good grade. Our final senior paper is always a persuasive piece, and it is interesting to see what our student body personally values as the most important social issues. Roughly 90 percent of my class wrote a paper arguing for gay marriage, legalization of marijuana, or gun rights. While I won’t state which of these topics I agree with and which I don’t, I did not take any of these approaches. I wrote about the importance of NASA and the lack of federal funding it is receiving. (Did you know that NASA only receives 0.46 percent of the federal budget?) I absolutely love the idea of space and the cosmos. This is due to two very important people: Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Carl Sagan. It is because of these two people that I love space and science in general. I learned about these influential educators through a show called Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey hosted by Tyson, which is an update of the popular 1980’s version called Cosmos: A Personal Voyage which was hosted by Carl Sagan.

One of the most important moments for me was on the season finale where they presented Carl Sagan’s speech The Pale Blue Dot. Carl Sagan convinced NASA to turn the Voyager 1 camera back towards Earth when it flew past Neptune for one last photo. Sagan called this photo “The Pale Blue Dot”. This speech, combined with this image, changed my life forever. This seems a little overdramatic, but what it really did was confirm most of my previously held beliefs and even instilled new ones. This one speech can change a person’s opinions on war, life, religion, politics, humanity, perspective, and curiosity. It is so important to me that I actually have a framed poster of the speech in my dorm room. It is mainly about how small the earth is compared to the vastness of the cosmos, and in addition, how small we humans are. To quote a few lines wouldn’t do it justice, but I will try. Sagan says, “Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.” This one quotation changed my outlook on not only war, but human life in general. It’s crazy to think of the odds it took for us to be alive, and we have human beings killing other human beings for what? Oil? Land? Religion?

Another section is “The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate…for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.” This line validates my passion for environmentalism and strengthens the importance of NASA. This beautiful blue marble is all we have, and the only thing that can stop our species from dying is having a sustainable planet or the ability to migrate to another planet. The last part I’m going to pull from this amazing speech is “To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.” My political beliefs aren’t founded by the idea of money, but by my care for other humans. The reason I am a liberal is because I think that people are the most important factors in any political system. So we must take care of our own fellow human beings, not have divisions of race and country, and realize how lucky we are to be alive at this point in time.

In my AP Government class during senior year, we had an assignment in which we had to explain why we are liberals or conservatives. I, as stated before, chose liberal. Despite heavy opposition from my father, who is an avid fan of Fox News, I stuck with my decision. My reason being that I agree with almost every left-leaning social opinion there is. I am pro-choice, secular, pro-gun laws, green, pro health care, etc. Basically I am the opposite of my father in every way, politically that is. One of my biggest factors though was my advocacy for gay marriage and gay rights in general. How most conservatives could disagree with gay marriage boggles my mind. A song that exemplifies my idea of gay rights is “Same Love” by Macklemore. This song blew up in popularity last year, and I couldn’t be happier. The influence of this song and the increase in gay pride made me hopeful for the future of America. Another reason why I’m so connected to this song is that my brother Jace is gay. He is my role model, and I love him to death. It makes me so angry knowing that he can’t marry someone he loves because of myopic politicians who say it is unholy for two men to marry even though America is supposedly secular. Like Macklemore says, “America the brave still fears what we don’t know / and ‘God loves all his children’ is somehow forgotten, / but we paraphrase a book written 3,500 years ago.”

If you couldn’t tell from my tone, I have no religious affiliation. I proudly classify myself as atheist; however, it’s difficult to do so without having people’s image of you change. It’s hard not being truthful to others about your ideas. As Bruner states, “For we are forever mindful of the difference between what we tell ourselves about ourselves and what we reveal to others” (46). It is strange how we all have two types of self. One version is the socially acceptable and morally superior. This version is the one who thinks twice before speaking publicly and knowing that your words affect other people. This version is also the one that tries to argue with your “raw self” when you have an irrational, but raw emotion, that you can’t help but feel. The constant battle between the “socially acceptable self” and the “raw, true self” is one of the most difficult things we have to deal with when lying awake at night. Carl Sagan put it so eloquently: “Both the Freudian and the Platonic metaphors emphasize the considerable independence of and tension among constituent parts of the psyche, a point that characterizes the human condition and to which we will return” (78). Whether it is the Platonic two horses and charioteer; Freud’s id, ego, and superego; or MacLean’s triune brain model, we all have to admit that there is something so much more when we dig deeper. The big question: if we had to choose an answer of which self is the “true” self, what would it be? The socially acceptable self, which is the one we portray to the world, or the raw, emotional self that surfaces during intense anger, sleep deprived dialogue, and moments of intoxication?

To get back on topic, as I stop pretending to be Plato, my lack of religion has really shaped who I am today. I had inklings that there may be no god when I was younger and was told that the wafer of bread physically turned into the body of a man 2000 years ago. I often thought if it was considered cannibalism, but then again it tasted so good. As I wandered down the path of skepticism, I decided to read more about it, and after some research I discovered a book titled The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. This was the flagship book for “new” atheism. This book really answered many questions I had and gave me things to think about. After a year or two of debating inside my mind, I came to the conclusion to wear my badge with honor. However, as stated before, I will never get a tattoo of it. Now that I identify as an atheist, I respect minority groups’ political rights, and I understand the importance of protecting them. Personally, I know to take full advantage of this life I have right now because it is all I have.

I don’t live for an afterlife. I live for now. Life is too short, and that is exemplified by a song I listened to all the time called “New York Minute” by the Eagles. I was slightly strange for listening to sad 1990’s rock and roll at the age of 9, but I loved it. In elementary school it was my very first life philosophy that I had created. I remember vividly telling a 53girl that I was walking home with about what the song means. It was the first time I shared the deep thoughts I had, at least as deep as a 5th grader could go. I used this song to explain why I fell in love so quickly (I am really stretching the definition of love). I explained “If you find somebody to love in this world / you better hang on tooth and nail. / The wolf is always at the door” (Henley). I also used this song to explain why I smiled all of the time and forgave so easily. “You better take a fool’s advice, / and take care of your own. / One day they’re here; / next day they’re gone” (Henley). This mantra has stayed with me all these years, and I wouldn’t change a thing. Life is too short to hold a grudge, so love fast and live now because in a New York minute everything can change.

We are what we tell ourselves we are. It is then our choice to share it with the world. We develop by taking in the world around us and deciding if we should absorb it or not. We must take in all the evidence and realize that who we were three months ago isn’t the same person as who we are now. Each moment we are taking in new information, and we can’t hold onto these opinions and act like it is who we are. I am a human who holds certain momentary opinions. These beliefs are not who I am, but I am the ship that carries them. I know that I will never exempt any cargo from inspection. In the famous words of Neil DeGrasse Tyson on the season finale of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey: “And when I have a feeling, I want to know that it’s real, and that it’s not just something happening in my own head, because it matters what’s true, and our imagination is nothing, compared with Nature’s awesome reality.”

Works Cited

Bruner, Jerome. “Self-Making Narratives” 2002. Comp. Joshua Dolezal. Intersections Perspectives on Human Nature. Littleton: Tapestry, 2014. 45-53. Print.

Eagles. “New York Minute.” Hell Freezes Over. Don Henley, 1994. CD.

Q&A with Grey #2 (One Million Subscribers). Prod. CGP Grey. YouTube. N.p., 20 Nov. 2013. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.

Macklemore. “Same Love” The Heist. Ryan Lewis, 2012. CD.

Sagan, Carl, and Ann Druyan. “Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey.” Unafraid of the Dark. Prod. Seth McFarlane. National Geographic. 8 June 2014. Television.

Sagan, Carl. “The Brain and the Chariot” 1977. Comp. Joshua Dolezal. Intersections Perspectives on Human Nature. Littleton: Tapestry, 2014. 67-78. Print.