How Utilitarianism Manifests Itself in Harry Potter

 Hey y'all, 

I briefly discussed this in class the other day, but I wanted to start a discussion about the utilitarianism that Dumbledore exhibits in Harry Potter and how maximizing the benefit of society at the expense of an individual can be just as cruel as putting an individual's interest above everyone else's. As y'all know, Dumbledore tells Snape that Harry must die by Voldemort's hand because part of Voldemort's soul has latched onto Harry's; one of Voldemort's horcruxes lives within Harry. Only if Voldemort kills Harry (by Harry's willing sacrifice) will he be reduced to a mere man again, having gotten rid of all of his Horcruxes. Snape is furious at Dumbledore's cold-heartedness because the entire reason he turned to the Light was to protect Lily's son. He accuses Dumbledore of "raising [Harry] like a pig for slaughter" (J. K. Rowling) and knowing and not caring that he must die for the sake of the Light. I believe this is an example of utilitarianism because the emphasis is on the Greater Good and the interests of society rather than that of the individual. Although it all ends up working out in the end because Harry ends up surviving (Izzy mentioned that there are some passages in the previous books that hint at Dumbledore's possible knowledge of Harry's survival), there is no way he could've been certain that Harry would survive, and his detached explanation to Snape marks one of Dumbledore's many abuses of him. (The other most egregious offense is Dumbledore asking Snape to kill him, which causes the entire Order of the Phoenix to despise him.) 

Anyway, sorry for this rant, but all this to say, Dumbledore is an adherent to the utilitarian philosophy, and Snape is, in Harry's words, "the bravest man" (J.K. Rowling) in the entire HP series (although Hermione is definitely the bravest person :) 

Shows I would recommend

1. Community

A classic, I think a lot of people have seen this one, but if you haven't I would 10/10 recommend. It's kind of like The Office, but personally, I think it's funnier. Its quality does go down sometime in between seasons 4 and 5 (I think they switched writers), but seasons 1-3 are so good. It takes place in a community college where 7 people who have nothing in common form a study group and become good friends. The characters are all so different, and while it is a satirical show, there are serious elements and some real world plot lines. Like I said, the quality does go down a bit (a lot actually), but the later seasons are still okay. 1-3 though, fantastic, please watch.

2. Gotham

Gotham is one of my top favorite shows. It gets a little dumb at times, like any show with six seasons inevitably will, but overall, it's great. It takes place in Gotham right after Bruce Wayne's parents are killed, but instead of following Bruce, it follows police chief Jim Gordon. Bruce is a main character, of course, but he isn't Batman yet, just a teenager trying to figure out who he is. There's all of the classic Batman villains, Penguin, Riddler, Scarecrow, the Joker, Solomon Grundy, etc. It is very violent, though, so if you aren't good with blood or broken bones and stuff like that, don't watch it. But everyone else, if you like the DC universe, you'll probably love this.

3. Jericho

This one carries less of a recommendation from me since it was cancelled halfway through season 2, and I didn't realize that until I was already partway through the show and didn't want to stop. But, the episodes that they do have are very good, and I really enjoy what little of this show there is. It takes place in a very small town during a nuclear fallout, and no one is coming to help their town so they have to fend for themselves. It has dystopian vibes, but there's also some loveable characters. It was harder to get attached to this show since it got cancelled, but I would still recommend if you don't mind it ending without a good resolution.

4. Firefly

This is one of the best shows out there and you absolutely cannot convince me otherwise. It was cancelled after one season, but one season was frankly all it needed. Of course I'm sad we didn't get more episodes, but at the same time, I'm very grateful that it didn't have the chance to become a sellout show with new/bad writers like Community. The basic plot is that the earth was so overpopulated that it became unusable, and people were forced to move to different planets. It follows a group of criminals on their spaceship that have to be thieves and do illegal stuff just to get by, but they're all (well, some of them) good people with morals. One of their paying passengers smuggles his sister onto the ship, needing to hide her because he saved her from the government experimenting on her, and they're on the run. So, the show follows the crew going about their normal crime business while also hiding two young fugitives. Firefly is probably my favorite show ever, if I had to pick one. There was also a post canon movie made since fans were angry over its cancellation, and the movie is pretty good, too. It's called Serenity. Please watch this show, I have no one to talk to about it. It's not on Netflix unfortunately, but it's worth buying on Amazon, I promise.

5. Erased

This is an anime I watched over New Year's break, and even if you don't usually like anime, this is such a good show. It's only 12 episodes, but it makes you feel so many emotions in such a short period of time. I watched it with my friends and went through such a huge emotional rollercoaster I had whiplash after, but the good kind, if there is a good kind. The basic plot is that there's this guy who can travel back in time 1-5 minutes, but he can't control when it happens. It happens whenever there's a tragedy about to occur, and he has to look around and figure out what is about to happen and stop it before it does. Some really bad stuff happens, and he travels back 18 years to when he was a child. He needs to stop a tragedy from 18 years ago, when three children were kidnapped and killed by a pedophile, if he wants to stop the tragedy that happens when he's 29 (it's a chain of events, if the killer is stopped, the bad stuff wouldn't happen in the future). There are some really loveable characters, the intro is a banger, and it made me feel every single emotion possible in just twelve 22 minute episodes. So like I said, even if you don't like anime, it's a serious show and doesn't have any of the classic animated overreactions that might be turning you off of it.

Capitol Invasion

Hi, y'all!

I don't know about you, but personally, I am still surprised by what happened yesterday. Now granted, the fifth freedom of the First Amendment, which Amy Coney Barrett didn't know, was the right to redress or protest. However, in my opinion, what occurred yesterday wasn't a protest. As you can guess from the title, I'd call it in an invasion.

I try not to express my political beliefs on any form of social media, but yesterday's events really aggravated me, especially considering the reaction from the police, compared to how they reacted back over the summer during all the Black Lives Matter protests. Something that a few of our classmates posted on social media that really spoke to me is that the police did essentially nothing to those destructive people who entered Congress yesterday, but protesters fighting for social justice and the importance of people's lives were met with rubber bullets.

In other words, I believe two congratulations are in order. First, congratulations to President and Vice President Elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris now that Congress has certified the results of the Electoral College. And secondly, congratulations to the new Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Shumer. Sorry for getting so political on here, but I needed to vent. Praying for peace.

Yours truly,
Hunter

Mango🤮

 I'm sorry Mrs. King, this post is not educational or related to school in any way, but it's the topic that's in my head right now, so have some word vomit.

I had four mango pieces in my lunch yesterday, but I didn't eat them until I got home. Maybe it wasn't completely ripe, but three of the pieces were very hard and scratchy, and then the last piece was the opposite, super mushy and almost overripe. It didn't make any sense that they came from the same mango, but whatever, that's not the point of this.

Mango is not good. Even when it's perfectly ripe and doesn't sit in your lunch for 8 hours, mango just really doesn't taste that good. There are so many better fruits that you could eat, why would anyone ever purposely seek out mango? I didn't feel strongly about this until I posted "mangoes taste like flavored cardboard" on my Snapchat and multiple people swiped up to tell me I was wrong. I normally wouldn't care, but the fact that four or five people, including one of my friend's exes who I haven't talked to in months, confused me. Why do people who like mango feel so strongly about it? I don't care if you like a fruit but why did multiple people feel the need to attack me for my (correct) opinion? Therefore, since the majority of people on the side of those who like mango overreact when someone says they don't like it (this exact situation has happened to me in the past, where people are just aghast that I don't like mango, for whatever dumb reason. Why should they care, it just means more mango for them), I have decided to be on the opposite end of the spectrum. If mango is ever a topic of conversation between us, and you say you like it, I will attack you and your beliefs. Because apparently, liking a fruit that tastes like flavored cardboard is something that many people are passionate about, so I think I'm allowed to be passionate about how painfully below average it is for all the hype it gets.

Again, this is not an important post, Mrs. King, but I felt it had to be said. Mango is just not that good.

Little Girl

One day I will become Amy March. Do I want to become Amy March? NO. I want to be Jo March, because she has awesome hair and real life goals that she puts first in her life before anything else. Jo March is her own woman, a feminist and a and a luminary for her time who knew that she would make her mark on the world because she willed it to be so.  Such a woman manages to do all this yet still put her family members before herself. Amy is the younger bratty little child who can only think about how she looks and what she wants. Alas! BuzzFeed has told me thatI am Amy March.  I suppose I'm okay with this.  When I read the book as a child Amy was my third favorite character so that's not so bad, but as I get older I realize that Amy has become my least favorite character. But WHY? Does Amy do exactly what she planned? Yes, as she and Jo are much alike in their pursuit of their dreams. I understand, Jo possesses a fire and an unrelenting spirit that Amy does not have due to the fact that she is a bit more prissy than her more laid back sister. But I guess I will get over it.  In the 2019 movie Amy does get to marry Timothee Chalamet while Joe has to settle for the other dude whose name I don't even know… Plus I mean Amy was the youngest, so it would make sense that she was bratty and annoying. In the end, Amy is the one who gets everything she wants. Not Jo. Sure, Jo gets her book but she loses Laurie. AMy gets her childhood crush, who not only fell in love with her bit changed into a better person for her, while also getting her dream life as a rich wife. She traveled to Europe like she wanted and even managed to get a bit of recognition for her art. Amy honestly won in life and we hate her for her ambitions? 

Either way...I am Amy.

Also lmao how did I change my stance while writing this blog?

Jewlic

 

My family has always been Catholic, and for the longest that I can remember we have practiced our religion during the holidays and went to church and devoted ourselves to God. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday because of the Eternal joy that it brings everyone and its connection to my faith.  I don't say this to you to just blab about my religion,  but to tell you that I have the cutest dog in the world (in my opinion).  She is a white Shih Tzu that I named Bunny (don’t question the name). and for some odd reason every single year she hates celebrating Christmas. She is the sweetest dog ever. I have not even seen her growl in my entire life but every Christmas she sulks around the house and, I swear on my life, glares at us.  she won't sit with us to watch Christmas movies and refuses to walk into the living room when we have the Christmas tree up. One day I was just playing Christmas music in my room oh, and Dreidel Dreidel came on, which is a Jewish song. And she was literally hopping around the house running around like crazy as the song played. I think she is Jewish. I have no idea why she would be Jewish because I have never introduced her to any other face since she never gets to leave the house and I don't really focus on educating my dog on the numerous religions of the world but she's taking a liking to Judaism. I am ecstatic because I have never seen her so happy during Christmas season, which I now have to call holiday season for my dog. Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, and hope your holidays are bright.

I Won My First Concerto Competition!

 Hey y'all! Today I found out that I won my first concerto competition!! (In case y'all are wondering, a concerto is a piece where an orchestra "features" one particular instrument.) My audition was yesterday, and I think it was the best I've ever played. I am absolutely thrilled because I have tried out for this competition thrice before, and I've been "Runner Up" or "Alternate" each time. It was super frustrating, and I started wondering if I was going to end up like Mr. Dreyfus from the Pink Panther when he says, "I've been nominated for the Medal of Honor Seven Times. I've never won." 

    This competition was for my youth orchestra, the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra (GNOYO). My audition piece was Hunter's Moon by Gilbert Vinter, which is technically not a concerto (don't worry I got it approved with my orchestra conductor haha). I absolutely love it; it reminds me of horses galloping over autumn leaves with a harvest moon illuminating the sky. It has a technique called stopped horn, where you stick your hand really far in the bell of the horn and play the fingering a half step below the note you want and end up with an eerie, muted tone. If y'all listen to it I promise you'll love it. 

    Or better yet, y'all could come see me in person (if COVID-19 guidelines allow). I'll be playing it at a GNOYO concert in May, so hopefully by then enough people will have gotten the vaccine and developed immunity that it will be safe to have a normal concert and y'all can come see me. 

    Sorry this post turned out really long, but let me just say thank you to everyone who follows my practice account, supports me in my musical endeavors, or just listens to/reads all the way through my music rants. I really appreciate y'all! 

Musically, 

Clara