Monday, September 23, 2013


  • In truth it is inequality that is the illusion. The extreme disproportion between men, that we seem to see in life, is a thing of changing lights and lengthening shadows. A twilight full of fancies and distortions....It is the experience of men that always returns to the equality of men; it is the average that ultimately justifies the average man. It is when  men have seen and suffered much and come at the end of their elaborate experiments, that they see men under an equal light of death and daily laughter; and none the less mysterious for being many (p. 19).
 What I think Chesterton is trying to say in this quote is, when it comes down to it, no man is unequal, we are all in one sense the same. Extreme ideas of inequalities are just a figment of out imagination; made up. Through the experiences of men, the realization of equality comes back around and through much suffering, we all do the same thing which is either laugh an or die; not much of an equality among men.

 I can see what Chesterton is saying, but I have to disagree. Every man is different and goes through different types of struggles. We are the same in the sense that we have struggles, but it is the types of struggles that shows a difference. I think inequalities are real and are not made up. People's individual difference(race, s.e.s., religion) already puts that inequality wall up.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013


  • The South, in fact, while this vast Northern development has gone onstill remains an English colony, stagnant and complacent, having progressed scarcely beyond the early Victorian era. It is culturally sterile because it has had no advantage of cross-fertilization like the Northern states....

       What I believe Bourne is saying through this quote is, southern states are not culturally mixed up as the northern states are. Like the English colonies, the south hasn't mentally developed with being opened to new cultures having an impact with their already stable culture. The south in many ways is set in their way of living and have no advantages like the north, due to their "no room for change" attitudes. The dominant idea in the south is very Anglo-Saxon and anyone who lives there has to live by that idea despite what culture they may be native to. Due to their Anglo-Saxon mind frame, they truly have lagged behind in development, compared to the north.

        In the same sense I feel the south hasn't really developed as much as the north because they are to this day still very closed to a lot of different cultural influences. Though many different types of people from different cultures dwell their now, I feel the south is still very much Anglo-Saxon mind driven. I chose to interpret this quote because it stood out to me the most. For a greater part of my childhood, I was raised in North Carolina, so I can say I have personally observed what the south's dominant ideology is.  Maybe due to the south's history, the Civil War and Civil Rights movement, I feel the south is still very developmentally sterile and closed minded to other cultures. I lived in both the south and north and can tell there is a clear distinction of the two.
          

Wednesday, September 4, 2013