Jesus and His Moral Teachings

Jesus believed in helping everyone.  He was good, and realistic at the same time.  He understands that people aren't always going to do good.  He is different from religions like Confucianism because Jesus thinks you should take action, not just let the world pass by you while you are at peace with yourself.  He is much like Zoroastrianism in ways in which he thinks everyone should do good and be helpful to each other.  Jesus' teachings even almost brought together most of the previous religions and beliefs into a religious happy medium.

Why Do Empires Form?

Empires can form to unite a group of people.  This has happened in India with Chandra Gupta, and in China with Qin Shihuangdi.  On the other hand, empires can arise from people just wanting more power.  For example, in Rome, more and more people wanted power over the lower class.  Higher class citizens kept gaining more and more power and land until it was a full blown empire.  So, to answer the original question, empires form because of want for power.  It can be for good, to unite people, or for worse, to gain more control.  Either way, that is how the great empires of the world have come about.

WikiHistory Versus the Text Book

Today in class, my group researched Buddhism.  We barely even used the text book.  We found everything we needed on Wikipedia, and the text book only backed up what we had already found.  I think Wikipedia is more useful, especially with the iPads.  Pretty much everything on the internet is compiled into presorted and pre-sifted Wikipedia pages.  Even if you can't find what you are looking for, there is a huge chance that there will be a link right from the page to what you want.  It also lists the sources, so if we wanted to research more in depth, we would already know where to look.

The Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita compares to both Zoroastrianism and Confucianism.  To succeed in Confucianism you have to be in-line with yourself.  You have to be truthful to yourself.  In Zoroastrianism, you need to be a good person to go heaven.  It's very straight forward.  If you are good, you go to heaven.  If you aren't, you don't.  The Bhagavad Gita is kind of in between the two.  It says that you need to "fight your battle."  It wants you to work your way to heaven even if you are already a good person.  It's almost even a bridge between Zoroastrianism and Confucianism.

Blog Posts for Homework

I think blog posts should be written the way the blogger talks.  I don't think they should be graded on length, spelling, or grammar.  I think it should be solely graded on the strength and originality of the points they make.  A 3 would be for any post that was complete and got the blogger's point across clearly.  A 2 would be for someone who had goods ideas but wasn't always clear on presenting them.  A 1 would be for a blog that wasn't thought out or backed up at all.  You could only get a 0 if you didn't post anything.  You should grade us, but students should be able to comment and give feedback to spur conversation.

The Analects

"Book VII. 25          The Master instructs under four heads:  culture, moral conduct, doing one’s best and being trustworthy in what one says."

This selection seems like a big part common sense and completely needed for government today.  Without any of these four things, you shouldn't be able to maintain a controlled government.  Culture is needed as it is a part of everybody's everyday life.  Culture surrounds politics, influences it, and leads it to where it is at any given time.  Moral conduct helps government make sense.  It gives people comfort and makes them want to listen to the people in roles of leadership.  Doing one's best should always happen in anything, not just government.  If the government doesn't do their best (which they don't always really do), it would not run smoothly.  There would be errors and mistakes that created problems in politics.  Lastly, being trustworthy is very important to any leader.  If people under your control don't trust you, then you have failed at what you do.  If Americans didn't trust the government, they would not follow the laws and ideas of the government (which again already happens).  If you put these four things together, you have much less chance of having trouble running a government.

Was Alexander the Great actually Great?

Alexander of Macedon was called Alexander the Great for his massive conquest.  I think he deserves the title "the Great," but I do not think that as soon as you hear his name that is what you should think.  He conquered more territory than almost anyone else in the history of the world.  This is surely means to be the called the great.  On the other hand, he led many soldiers to their deaths and was not loved by all of the people under his control.  In my opinion, a better title for him would be Alexander "the Impressive Conqueror," not Alexander "the Great."