Measuring Up

            Shulasmith Firestone and I would probably not have been friends. Beyond her relative disdain for men, which I find myself as one of, she just is not really the kind of person I could ever see myself getting along with. Her methodology and manners both seem uncouth and extremely rude at times, things that I do not find particularly endearing, and that is ignoring some of her more radical social views.

            I don’t know if I self-identify as a feminist, as I am not a member of any sort of feminist organization, but I am completely behind equal rights for women. I have met many men of similar opinion on women’s rights who dislike the term feminist, because they associate with incredibly radical, man hating, “feminazi” type people, and at first glance Firestone seems to be this kind of feminist. A lot of her ideas are a little hard to swallow. Yes Ms. Firestone, the family structure of your time period did contribute to the lower social position of women by limiting their options for the future, but is destroying the family structure in its entirety really the best choice of action? Some women actually enjoy being mothers as crazy as that apparently is, and I’ve read far too much dystopian fiction to really trust in the idea of raising children in a collective. There are a lot of ideas from Firestone that when only glanced at really seem bizarre and kind of insulting to both men and women.

            While it is pretty easy to get off on the wrong foot with Firestone, her goals are not really the things that I criticize her on. What Firestone wants is the complete freedom of choice and equality for women in the political and social arenas of life. The time period she lived in was remarkably sexist. I mean being booed off a stage is one thing, but being booed off the stage with rape threats is just unacceptable. Given the time period and her restrictive orthodox Jewish upbringing, I cannot really fault Firestone’s more aggressive approach to her goals. Firestone was a person who challenged the entire social order of the time period head on, something I could never bring myself to do. Like I mentioned before I support equal rights for women, and if the equal rights amendment came back around to be voted on I would be for it, but that’s really the extent I would get involved with things. Simply stated while I believe in a great many moral endeavors, I really lack the passion needed to actually help them succeed. Firestone did things that I could never fathom doing myself with an admirable level of passion for her beliefs. Do I even have the right to criticize her methods when I myself would never carry out any alternative actions?

 

            I find Firestone’s attitude to be a little abrasive, and I doubt I would ever be able to hold a conversation with her. She is can rude and has many obtuse sounding ideas that have me shaking my head slightly, but under all those superficial things is a remarkable woman who accomplished more than most do in their lives, because she threw herself passionately into her beliefs. I certainly cannot be her judge when I could not do even half of what she did.

How to Dig Yourself Into a Bigger Hole

            Procrastination, everyone is guilty of it every once and a while. Sometimes you just don’t want to start writing a three page opinion paper even though it would probably only take a maximum of two hours to write. It is definitely smarter to turn in something due Friday earlier if you can, but it also means taking time away from doing something you want to do so you can do something you don’t have to do yet. Simple procrastination like this happens to people all the time, and it is not particularly harmful in small doses. I find such plebian procrastination disheartening. If you are going to procrastinate you need to appreciate the method to the madness. Thus, I have enclosed seven sure fire tips to improve the quality of your procrastination. Following these instructions will undoubtedly leave you scrambling to finish something you should have done ages ago in a professional manner.

1. Be Confident

            Procrastination isn’t for the faint of heart. In order to effectively put off work till the last minute, you have to honestly believe that you can finish as close to the deadline as possible. The less confident the person the more likely they will break down and start working on their assigned task early. You've procrastinated before and it turned out fine, right? That means you can definitely handle doing it again.
 

2.Get Organized.

            Now I know it may seem counter intuitive to organize yourself in order to procrastinate more fully. You are not wrong, if you are planning to organize yourself effectively that is. In order to feed their inner confidence, it is sometimes beneficial for a procrastinator to fool themselves into thinking they are prepared. The key is to put the day which work is supposed to start as close to the due date as possible. Sure it looks like you now have a plan, but in reality this is probably the same amount of time you would have delegated to the task anyways.
 

3. Ignore everything else you have going on.

            This is a pretty self-explanatory but vital part of the procrastinator’s toolbox. When figuring out how much time it is likely to take to do one task, never think about the other things that may prevent you from starting work on schedule. Continue to believe in an ideal existence where nothing will ever distract you, cause what are the chances that more than one thing will be due by Monday, right?

4. Stay up late but don’t adjust your sleep schedule to compensate.

            No I don’t mean stay up late working, I mean just in general stay up later than you should. If you stay up later you will become tired earlier, then lose your motivation to work today, and instead decide to start again tomorrow when you will have more energy.
 

5. Be up for anything.



He was planning to write a blog but...........

 

            Whenever someone asks you if you have time to hang out or help them with something, you are obligated by the ancient tenants of the procrastination bible to fulfill this person’s wish, unless it directly conflicts with the absolute minimum time needed to complete your assigned task.

6. Do the absolute minimum prerequisites.

            This is another potential strategy to boost self-confidence, thus making it easier to procrastinate. Essentially this is like applying skim reading to any sort of real life situation. For example, while doing a biography gathering short trivial facts instead of focusing on your topics whole life. The fact that you have done something towards reaching your goal, regardless of its actual usefulness in the long run, will make it seem like you haven’t been procrastinating at all, making it easy to put off doing any real work.

7. Multi-Tasking.

            In my personal experience multi-tasking only makes things take longer, while making it seem like something productive is happening. I have heard that some people are capable of multitasking effectively, so instead of doing it an effective way you should do it the procrastinator’s way. Instead of actually doing more than one thing at once, try to switch your focus from one thing to another repeatedly. Essentially, it’s like having three YouTube tabs opens on your computer at the same time, each playing a different video. You want to watch all the videos at once, but actually watching them all at once would be chaos. Instead, you can flounder around constantly switching between videos in an indecisive manner. Is this totally inefficient? Yes it is completely inefficient, which makes it perfect for procrastinating.

Sources
http://www.endeavorstoday.com/2011/04/confidence-build-up.html
http://blog.shoeboxed.com/how-to-get-organized-for-tax-time/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/174725660513689622/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/177681147771975093/
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ready-for-anything-keiko-kasza/1112416570?ean=9780399252358
http://www.zazzle.com/minimal_effort_stickers-217261460792414849
http://otomotekno.blogspot.com/2011/06/multitasking.html

 

From gun powder treason to picket lines

            The Guy Fawkes mask is something most people have probably seen, but don’t really understand the significance of. If shown a picture of the mask most people probably know that it is a thing that exists, and if they are more in touch with comic book subculture they might even make some sort of remark about the mask being worn by the titular character in Allan Moore’s classic graphic novel V for Vendetta or the cult classic movie of the same title it inspired. Few make a connection to Guy Fawkes and what it stands for. The mask actually means more than just making someone look like a renaissance era Joker. In fact, the mask has made a complete one eighty degree turn from its original meaning to what it stands for today.

            The Guy Fawkes mask was originally a piece of pro-British government propaganda, created after the failed Gun Powder Plot of 1604. The plot was intended to kill the protestant dominated parliament and king, and replace it with a catholic government. Gut Fawkes, one of the conspirators, was tasked with guarding the gunpowder charges placed under the British Parliament until the time came to detonate them. He was discovered, caught, tortured, and then executed. Afterwards, Guy Fawkes Day, celebrated every year on November fifth, became a celebration dedicated to supporting the Monarchy by burning effigies of Fawkes and wearing masks resembling his face. This practice eventually fell out of practice and Guy Fawkes Day became Bonfire Day. The original masks were meant to demonize those who would rebel against the government through its garish depiction of Fawkes

            The evolution of the symbol came with the movie adaptation of V for Vendetta. The main character, an anarchist terrorist opposing a fascist British government in the near future wears a Guy Fawkes mask to disguise himself. As a promotion for the movie, thousands of free masks were given away and eventually came to reside in dumpsters across the United States. A popular meme on message board website 4Chan called fail guy, featuring a stick figure who fails at everything, comes to wear on of these masks, most likely as a reference to the failure of the Gunpowder Plot. An online, hacking activist group known as Anonymous that frequented the 4Chan message boards is suspected to have seen this and decided to use it as their image during their protests against the Church of Scientology. During this month long protest period, Anonymous members disguised themselves in public by wearing Guy Fawkes masks.

            The mask now is seen to be a symbol of anarchy and protest. From protesting the authority of the government to shady business practices, the Guy Fawkes mask has appeared in thousands of protests in many different countries. It is pretty hard to find a major protest without one Guy Fawkes mask in it; even the Occupy Wall Street movement featured many participants wearing the mask. Guy Fawkes’ image now harkens back to the actions of the Gun Powder Plot Conspirators, as an image of defiance to authority, and as silent threat of revolution when the people are not listened to by the government, while also ignoring the incredibly ludicrous and violent motivations of the original Guy Fawkes. It is sort of weird that the face of revolution and protest in the post 9/11 world the face of a Protestant hating terrorist.