And So It Begins...

Greetings to all who may read this!



Hello, my name is Benjamin S. Goldberg, and this is the introductory post to my blog. It will be long, but absolutely worth it. Also, I believe that paragraph breaks be stupid, so I won't use them. Just giving fair warning. So, let's see here. I am a complex, multifaceted person, so this is going to be difficult.



To start, as obvious by my URL and name, I am Jewish. However, this religion is by birth only, as I actually do not believe in God. I do believe and follow the merits of several religions, however, including Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism, with a small piece of Hinduism. The reason I don't believe in God is because I see no reason or proof of a God's existence. Nor do I see a need for one, anyway. I believe that humans came from evolution. The Garden of Eden is crap, because if Adam and Eve were the only two people, then how did they start humanity? Even if they had constant sex and produced infinitely many children, those children would either have to reproduce with each other or their parents since there are no other people, and that much incest would have killed off humanity early on. Anyway, if God does exist, he is terrible at his job. Death, famine, war, and hate persist quite easily in this world, and if any God were trying to save humanity from itself that God would be smart enough to remove free will from the equation. As long as freedom of thought exists, so too shall hate, and all our problems shall be real. It is for this same reason I believe we don't need a God today. Humans as an entire species, race, or however we view ourselves are a marvel of biology, chemistry, philosophy, and multiple other aspects. Our accomplishments throughout our relatively short time on this planet are enormous, from the development of civilization to the advent of government. We can do so much when we pull together, and we need no God to do this. We can muster miracles all on our own, if we just get up off our lazy asses and make it happen for ourselves instead of waiting for some deity to do it for us.



That is another aspect of my personality. I feel that if you want to see some change in your life or the life of others, mild or huge, you must make it happen. It doesn't matter if you do it alone or with the help of millions. You are the master of your life, and you are responsible for where you wish to see it go. Don't just complain about how your fridge is empty; go out and buy some groceries. Don't complain about government corruption; go out and organize a protest about it. If you want change, make it happen. You will be impressed with that which you can do.



Moving on, I am a 16 year old male in my junior year of high school, and this presents multiple stresses. First and foremost, I go to one of the best public schools in the country, and it is heavily populated with races that are considered "smart" by colleges. This means that it is primarily Asian, with significant amounts of Jews as well. And let's face facts: Jews and Asians just generally end up being smarter than other races for some reason. While I believe it has to do with parenting style, it still remains a mystery to me. Primarily because one of my best friends is a Christian white kid whose parents do not press him too hard academically, and he is still able to compete with me for grades every time. And this is a big thing, considering that I place above 95 percent of my school in GPA points. And I currently take 3 AP classes as well as honors classes, presenting a lot of work. For those that don't know, an AP is an advanced place class, taught and administered in the same way college courses are today, however with high school-style homework loads. Honors classes are a step up from regular classes, but the workload and difficulty vary widely. Anyway, because I place higher than most kids, this presents enormous pressure on me to do well on all tests as compared to my peers, especially those that compete with me for grades. It's not like I don't love it; I have very little to pride myself on, so smarts are my main thing. Sometimes though, it gets difficult, especially when I don't do particularly well or as good as I hoped. It has gotten worse since junior year started. Also, because I am so smart I get constant waves of both friends and random kids from my classes asking for help on questions or topics in these classes. I do enjoy helping others succeed, especially since America's education system needs all the help it can get, but it becomes a burden on my time and mind. Much of the problem is because I do well both in sciences and English, so my possibilities for helping other vary. I do plan on majoring in biochemistry and literature in college as a double major, if anyone is wondering why I'm good at both. The reason I plan to do this is because all of my life, I have enjoyed both.



I'll start with literature. Ever since I was young, I loved to read, especially fiction. I loved taking time out of my day to be transported to a world entirely my own, where fantastical stories of adventure, love, death, and fate intertwined into one. I veered off from poetry early, and decided to become immersed in prose. Don't get me wrong, I love poetry. I just can't write the stuff. I started to read books for anywhere from three to five hours each and every day starting in kindergarten, and went from there. About freshman year of high school, I drew an interest in Shakespeare, and proceeded to read almost all of his works, yes, including the sonnets. Don't ask me my favorite play by the Bard, as I could never be torn to make such a decision. I love As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, and of course Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare was a master of that which enticed human emotion, and I shall forever praise him on his indelible contributions to our history of literature. This ties into my school problems, because whenever my class reads Shakespeare or any literature that is spoken in old English, my peers always have trouble understanding it where I never fault, so they come to me for it a bit too often. Just learn it, people. Anyway, after I finished working through Shakespeare I decided to explore more classic literature. I read the Divine Comedy, the Odyssey, the Iliad, the Aeneid, the Three Musketeers, and my crowning achievement, the Count of Monte Cristo, a.k.a the book with 1,452 pages. I loved them all and continue reading both classic and modern books to this very day. I have read more literature in my life than the average person reads by the time they are forty, so should you list any book, chances are I have read it. Even if it isn't in English, the chances are high. Just try me.



As for why I want to major in biochemistry, this is more complex. Starting off early I wanted to know more about science in general. I loved biology, chemistry, and physics immediately, and I remember being 9 and declaring that I would be a doctor when I grew up. I didn't want to be a pediatrician, because I didn't want to have to deal with whiny kids. Everything changed when I started watching Mythbusters and the Big Bang Theory later on. I was sucked into the world of physics, specifically astrophysics. I had a desire to know what was going on in black holes, what dark matter was, and if colonization of other planets would ever be possible. I delved into the work of Stephen Hawking among other leading physicists at age 11, and was hooked. I sided with Hawking on his ideas about black holes, despite any evidence the other side may have used to the contrary. Based on what I knew, I believed Hawking to probably be correct. I sided with string-theorists as well, and I still believe M-theory to be our best possible current answer to the "Theory of Everything" problem that the field of physics has been grappling with for decades. I decided in freshman year that I would double major in college, literature and astrophysics, with most of my focus on astrophysics. I held this until this very year, when I started honors physics. As it turns out, I suck at physics, and due to the D I had in the class first quarter I was forced to drop down to regular physics for the remainder of the school year. This caused a slight depression in me, due to the fact that I was doing considerably worse than I had ever done in school, my parents and brother were gloating about how they were right and I shouldn't have taken honors physics, and lastly my educational crisis. Faced with the fact that I couldn't and never will be able to handle any advanced physics, I was forced just a few weeks ago to decide where I wanted my life to go now that it was obvious that I wouldn't major in astrophysics. My first thought was to drop science entirely and to focus on English, major in literature in college. Maybe become an author later in life. I figured this might work. However, I instantly was encountered with the fact that becoming a well-paid author is extremely difficult, and that even if I was published, I doubted that my earnings from any amount of books I would publish would sustain me for the entirety of my life. And a literature major presents few other career opportunities in this world, at least. After long thought and meditation (yes I meditate), I decided that I would major in another science that I am good at. The problem I ran into then was to pick biology or chemistry. I loved both honors classes, and am currently taking AP biology. I will take AP chemistry senior year. I have gotten straight A's in the classes so far, but it was hard to pick. Both fields presented tons of career opportunities, and I would be able to go to graduate school on both. Yes, I plan to go to graduate school and get a PhD so I can brag that I am a doctor. But also because I love learning. Through intensive inner deliberation, I remembered something from not too long ago. For those that have watched the movie called the Motorcycle Diaries, you will remember Alberto Granado, the companion of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. For those that didn't, the movie details the early life of "Che" Guevara, as he makes a life-changing journey across South America with a lifelong friend of his, named Alberto Granado. In the movie, it becomes known that Che is a doctor (although I can't remember what field) who specializes in leprosy, and that Alberto is a biochemist. This intrigued me. If I could combine biology and chemistry, my search for a life decision would be complete. I settled on it, and am currently looking into what my life as a biochemist will hold, such as what college and grad school I will go to, where I should live to present myself with the best opportunities, what specifically I should research, and et cetera.



Moving on to a few last topics, I find the lack of intelligence around me astonishing and depressing. In this part, I only address my fellow Americans; the rest of the world is doing fine in this aspect. We increasingly know almost nothing about other countries. In fact, many of us are xenophobic, meaning we have a fear which translates to a hate of foreigners. This is a catastrophe. We are all one people, and if we ever wish to cohabitate this rock in peace we must be able to understand each other in order to work out our differences and ensure a world where violence and hate are not the answer to our troubles. I have become immeasurably aware of the fact that most people I know or meet can barely name more than 20 countries, and that they barely know any history about any country other than the USA. I'm even more shocked when I discover that many don't even know our history, which is drilled into our brains from 6th grade until 10th. This comes to a head for me when people like Sarah Palin declare that Paul Revere performed his famous ride not to warn the Americans, but to warn the British of our presence. Not only is this completely wrong, but she then defended her dumbass statements. This is awful. We are at the point where we can completely tarnish our own history, and barely get rebuffed for it. If we ever wish to make improvement in the present and the future, we must know the successes and mistakes of our past first. That way, we do not make them again. For anyone reading this, I urge you to take a stand and prevent this ignorance of the world and its history to prevail in our day and age. Everyone and their family has roots somewhere, so ask around and find out where you come from. Take it upon yourself to read up about the history of your homeland, its leaders and its current state in the world. If you can't find the information, I can help with that. There is extensive data on every recognized country in the world on a website known as the CIA world factbook. Go there, and you can find everything you would ever need to know about the world. The best part is that the only piece of true bias on the website is on the section about the USA. Other than that, any bias shown is reflected only in the relative amount of data the site contains about other countries based on which we consider "important." Search up your country, and learn, my friends. If you want to, do what I did and take initiative. I now know at least some of the history of every recognized world country, and I have extensive knowledge of those that have impacted the world the most throughout human history. I have memorized the names of every country, every capital, and every flag as well. I will be extremely proud should anyone else do what I have done. If we know about each other, then maybe things will be a bit easier for everyone. Just maybe.



Alright, we're doing good here, just two more topics and then it's over. If you're still reading, then you are super cool and I am proud of your effort. Now let's see you finish. The next topic I choose is relationships and love. While not inexperienced in the world of dating (as the title of this blog would suggest), I have only had one steady girlfriend so far in my life. We started dating on November 20th last year, and our relationship sustained until September 3rd of this year. It was hands down the best ten months ever. The best part, no, it's not the sex. In fact, I am still a virgin, and the farthest I got with my girlfriend was second base a few times. The best part is having someone you can share your life with. All the happiness and all the burdens, become much easier to bear when they rest upon your shoulders and your partners, rather than you alone. To have someone with which to share the deepest desires and thoughts that bubble through your mind is an amazing experience, and it allows for all sorts of good side effects. You will find that having a steady relationship really can cure stress quite effectively. And while some people say that "bitches/douches be crazy," I don't believe that. Most girls/guys are not crazy, and if you play your cards right you can end up with just the right one for you. All you have to do is look. And take this from me: take action on a girl (or guy) you're crushing on. No matter how ugly, fat, or just plain mean you may be, there is always a way. Also, pay attention to any girl or guy you think may be interested in you. Their hints may be subtle, but if you stay vigilant they become obvious. I really wish I had known this a while ago, because as it turns out I have had at least 9 different girls wanting to be with me since freshman year. I just couldn't see it at the time. So don't make my mistake, and go for that which you desire. This isn't a Slumdog Millionaire world; your destiny is not written (or so I believe). If you want to, you can grab a chisel and write out a new destiny for yourself. Never turn down your chances. Probability is hard for many to grasp, so I'll spell it out. The chances of you winning a date are probably thousands of times better than you winning it big at a casino, and millions better than winning the lottery. Primarily because there are billions of girls/guys in the world. If you can't find one, you're being too damn picky. Lastly on this, don't underestimate the pain of a breakup. No matter how many times you see them dramatized on TV or even in your life, you will generally think to yourself, "Wow! He/she is such a whiny pussy. He/she needs to buck up and get used to it. After all, how bad can it be?" I am telling you, if the relationship is real, the breakup will SUCK ASS. It is terrible, and if the relationship was anything like mine you will become very depressed. To have to go from a life with a companion to a life alone that suddenly is a major shock, and the longer/better the relationship the more powerful that shock will be. And I'm not talking about broken condom shock. I'm talking Haitian earthquake shock (my condolences and apologies to any Haitians reading this. I love Sweet Micky. Oh, and my condolences go to Dominicans as well. You didn't know they suffered too? Well I did). You will suffer a pain like no other. It will plague your consciousness, both awake and asleep. And the only cure, is time. You must let the pain fade away and allow your heart to mend before your life will return to normal. Your friends will try to cheer you up. I know that you won't want them around (probably), but just remember that they do it because they honestly care about you and don't want to see you hurting. For those wondering, I broke with my girlfriend because she told me she loved me, and I just wasn't ready for it. I questioned myself, asking if I even knew what love is. After all, she WAS my first girlfriend. The answer to the crisis was that I didn't know if I loved her back. I told her that we should date other people, that way we can know whether we are meant for each other are not. I was her first boyfriend, too (she was a nerdy girl, so we fit well). And so it ended there. I have begun dating again, although nothing has quite cropped up. Now that my ex-girlfriend has taught me how to pick up on hints from girls who are interested, I find that I seem to attract girls that are rarely my type, or will be almost perfect except for one, huge, glaring flaw. Or something like that.



Alright, last topic, I promise. It's politics, and it ties into my problem with how so many of us are stupid or ignorant. Also, I can only go so in depth here, as most of my later blog posts will be on politics anyway. Let's start with my ideology. I am a communist. That's right, you heard me; I'm a commie. I know that many of you may be shocked or even angered. You probably know that communism is bad, and that democracy is the way to go. Therefore, I support a bad system and I am bad, right? I'd like you to ask yourself something: why is communism so bad? Have you ever truly examined why you believe capitalism and democracy are the only acceptable systems? It can be difficult to consider anything but capitalism and democracy when you have lived your entire life in it. It can even be difficult if you have been to a communist country, or a country with another system (socialism does not count as another system, and there is only one country that is truly socialist today: Venezuela). Just because you have been there, does not make you an expert on it. Just because you grew up there does not necessarily make you an expert, either. You must study a system thoroughly before you can pass final judgment. Many people today (primarily adults) believe that communism is bad because they were alive in the cold war and many were in school during it. At that time period, we foolishly made countless military interventions all over the world in attacks against communism, the system we then believed to be the greatest threat to us. While it was an unrealistic threat, we didn't think so, so we taught our children that communism was bad so that we wouldn't have a communist youth rising up against our government. As a result, a fear and hatred of communism and pretty much any system that isn't like our system was implanted in the minds of our populace for decades. When the Soviet Union fell, these "lessons" did not go away, so there is still a hatred and fear of communism that persists in America today. This is why you hear the right consistently spread its message by yelling that if we do anything leftist, it is socialism, and therefore inherently evil and un-American. First off, socialism and communism are very different, and socialism is a barely implemented system. Only Venezuela uses it, and no other country has used it before. We don't know whether it will be successful or not, and we won't know until we evaluate Venezuela's successes and failures years from now. Despite popular opinion on the right, Europe is not socialist. They are capitalist democracies, and they're pretty good at it. Some have monarchies, some don't. One even is a duchy (Luxembourg). Just because a country has a king, doesn't make it socialist. Saudi Arabia has a king, and they are definitely not socialist. Also, just because European countries practice politics slightly to the left of our own, doesn't make them socialist. It means that their political spectrum is different than ours. In some strong cases like Greece, our liberals are their moderates. This doesn't mean things are wildly different. It simply makes it so that being more politically left is average among them. I have even heard conservatives claim that Russia is socialist, even though it is a federation, which is even more right-winged than us. The problem with saying Europe is socialist is that the majority of European countries have free speech. They don't have premiers. The government does not have that much more power than our government has. They do not constrict their economic policies the way that socialism would want them to. They have elections, and they don't get rigged. Most importantly, we have never intervened in Europe against communism even during the cold war. The most we ever did in Europe in the name of democracy was the Marshall Plan, which used money to keep Greece and Turkey from becoming communist. We were successful. That is why any time you here a right-winged person say that Greece's problems are the fault of socialism, you can know that they are wrong. Because we raised tons of money to prevent that very thing from happening, and we succeeded. Remind them of that. Personally, I don't like socialism, and I do not think that communism would have been a good thing for Greece at the time (I'm not entirely sure about Turkey, either). Greece is the birthplace of democracy and has a strong tradition of absolute political freedom. You can see it in their motto: Liberty or Death. That's even stronger than ours. As such, I believe that any communist system that would have cropped up in Greece would have failed due to a lack of popular support, leading to uprisings which would have complicated Greek history unnecessarily. I also don't like socialism; it's not even a defined theory yet, so it's hard to make a true opinion on it anyway. I do like communism, however, because I believe that in order to benefit the needs of the many, a government must be given sufficient power to do so, and that our government simply allows for a plutocracy where the rich benefit off the backs of the proletariat, who despite their numbers still hold relatively little power in their own government. As such, communism is a solution. I won't go further right now, because my full opinion will be expressed in later blog posts.



And I am done. Congratulations to all who finish this, and I hope you will read my blog often, and tell your friends about it too. This is SuperJew McLovin, a.k.a Ben Goldberg, signing off.