Simply and Satirically Me

It would be nice to live in a world of ideological, social, and cultural homogeneity where everyone agreed and no conflict was necessary. In such an environment, it would be easy to decide on the “good” in society because uniformity of thought and opinion would make this obvious. Leaders could then be trusted to implement good laws and likewise be held accountable to them.  But that simply isn’t reality. I don’t think I need to argue that point. Whether it  should be  reality, however, is where we are taking this essay. The ideological suppositions of both liberals and conservatives often bridge the claim of moral superiority. Those on the left may try to demonstrate, empirically, that a rational, secular human being can only come to one conclusion. When this fails in practice – since people are not so easily persuaded into one ideology – it creates a natural dilemma. If we disagree on truth, morality, and the question of the “good,” how can we still create a functioning, healthy, bene

It was colder than I expected. The skies were cloudy and grey. The streets damp from the rain. I could feel the wet gravel sneak into my dress shoes and cling to my feet. Walking hurriedly across a public square and down the cobblestone side roads, I felt my heart beating wildly. I was panicked. I felt out of place. Nothing was going according to plan. I had never been to Rome. But I had spent hours during the months before the trip researching and preparing – I felt I knew the metro system better than the Provo bus routes. But I hadn’t expected the construction, the closures, the broken metro-card machines. Or the cold and rain. As much as I loved traveling, I had made mistakes too many times to be comfortable in a foreign country where I did not speak the language. The other members of our group had decided to visit an archaeological site in another city. They were leaving later in the day and so most of them were sleeping in or touring other parts of Rome. We were not all in the

In 2011, fifteen Syrian children were caught after painting anti-government graffiti on a city wall. They were imprisoned. When their mothers came, pleading for their release, the guards told them to either forget their children or else they [the police] could show them how to make more.  Those who follow the Syrian crisis know that this led to the outbreak of a 9 year conflict that has cost upwards of half a million lives and over 13 million displaced. But it didn’t start there.  In December 2010, a street vendor in Tunisia marched up to the gate of the governor’s office, drenched himself in paint thinner, and then lit himself on fire. He died a couple of weeks later, but by that point his single act threw the entire region into chaos. His motive? As a poor fruit vendor, he had been beaten, humiliated, and his property taken by local law enforcement officers who may or may not have been in the right (the law was unclear). Perhaps seeing no other recourse to make money, feed