Personal Philosophy Paper Assignment

Personal Philosophy 6th Period Gerardo Martinez
I think that individuals in a society should function in a way to help each other to sustain a community alive and well. In order to keep the flow within a society continuous, the individuals in the society should abide by the rules of their community, which are set to prevent disorder or avoid a halt a community’s progress, and in this way a society can go on with its processes. Individuals should respect each other, and the rest, within their community; it is on these bases that humans have evolved with the basic morals that we recognize today. However religions have improved and "streamlined" basic regulations of ancient communities, and those "dogmas" or rules, from whatever origin they're from, are what influenced organizations to get to how they are today, like the Puritan, Anglican, and traditional British influences on the US Constitution. I believe that people should be educated especially if they are interested in receiving that knowledge, preferably with vocational schooling or internships, just like the apprenticeships that were popular in Europe long ago, but as for less technical subjects or careers, the traditional lectures should be adequate, like it should be in a university.
I think that schools should be free for those that would truly benefit and thrive in them, but they’re not. However some reasons why people do not support free college are not unjustified. Students who wouldn’t commit themselves to take advantage of that free education would be obviously wasting people’s tax money. But unfortunately I’m not sure that’s the only reason why college isn't free, like it is in Europe and elsewhere.
Along the lines of morals, I believe them to be as they are in the Christian tradition, but as for culture, since religion can’t explain that, I am left to decide myself what is better for me. I personally find the culture of 21st century America to be repulsive in some respects but worthy of credit in others, I find customs of other cultures to be interesting. Here in America, many are interested entirely in materialism in life and are often driven by greed and vain pleasure. There are too many that (specifically and especially around the neighborhood and community where I live) steal, kill, fornicate, and commit all kinds of crimes and immoralities. One of the most heartrending things is the lack of spiritually zealous individuals, most are totally uninterested in what they participate in, and I think it has to do with the fact that they don’t know the history, the reason or rationality behind things. This is why I don’t have any close friends because none that I know of, or rather scarcely any fall into the categorizations that I respect. I have high regards for Sir Thomas More for keeping to his stand in the face of death and against the violation of what he held to be true and just. I also respect G F Handel for following through with his artistic passion, even when the situations where grim and difficult. There are several others, who I revere for their works and deeds, but I can’t make much use of these people’s legacies – I know I don’t have the capacity to accomplish feats at their level. I hardly have any skill, talent, or much else that is uniquely useful or applicable to anything, and whatever qualities that I may genuinely have, they are of little use because I’m usually lacking in some other aspect that would otherwise allow me to accomplish a task effectively.
I believe people in society do have responsibilities that are not written down, nor written out in some special contract, rather there are those responsibilities that are expected to be followed regardless of the circumstances. Raising a child to be compatible with social norms, communal requisites, and the law, is an example of these responsibilities, but of course there are other such responsibilities that are followed by people of all walks of life; but as everyone in this world had parents at one point in their life, the position as a parent is thus of upmost importance. Technically, as a parent or guardian you are required by the law to be the caretaker of your own son or daughter (i.e. not just expected), but the law doesn’t get too specific on other details, and as a result these seemingly minor but meaningful details often go unaccounted for.
Because some people are unprepared to have children and they do unexpectedly, a “gap” is left in each individual thereafter, where ordinarily there would be certain skills that would help a person to be socially adept as well as have the ability to pass on those attributes or skills if that individual decides to have children of his/her own. Personally I know that I do have such a chink, and it is also present in both of my parents as well – my father grew up with about a dozen other siblings, and his father had to work in the fields from sunrise to sunset, while his mother had to do what else she could, such as tailoring or making dresses to raise some extra money, my mother on the other hand, grew up as if she was an orphan, her mother being the eldest of again about a dozen other siblings, my mother’s father having been lost to a casualty, her mother set out to find work, leaving my mother to live on her grandparents’ farm with her other uncles, aunts, and cousins, as if they were siblings. As you might expect, my parents grew up in poverty, never went to college, and had to find work in new frontiers, ending up in occupations unlike those of their own parents.
I don’t think having children is wrong at all – far from that mentality – but I think that people should plan or be ready to have a child and provide them with all the nurture and attention they are supposed to give him/her, or else, a pattern of spiritual, mental, social, and emotional poverty could possibly repeat itself.
If you ask me if I’d like to be employed in a trade like the one of my father, I would have to decline, because put simply, I have never even received any kind of preparation from my father (not that I need much) in the occupation that he is in today, and I don’t blame him. My father has always told me that he wants the best for me, and that he wants me to get a proper education in order to lead a better lifestyle than his own. However, I don’t feel as if I’ve been adequately prepared to achieve that.