Ch. 22 P. 2

In the second part of the readings for chapter 22 what I thought of as interesting was the way in which USSR developed communism in the early 20^th century and by the end of the 20^th century most of it had collapsed.  It can be said that it collapsed in a way because their leaders simply took no more interest in it.  On the other hand you can say that it intentionally was shut down because they realized that communism was not going to get their union into a utopian society in which all are equal.  I simply find this aspect fascinating because of the quickness that millions of people can be persuaded to believe in something and also the quickness of reversing it.  It just shows the extent of the human error and how this should be taken into more consideration by leaders across the globe to make everyone realize that one specific way of doing something is not always the best way and that things can change therefore making a war out of it is senseless.   

Living Justice (Massaro) 5 & 6

In the readings for Living Justice what caught my interest was that the church really has tried to view ownership in a broad spectrum in which it tries to benefit everyone.  One thing that bothered me was that it mentioned that Christianity had, “prohibition against the hoarding of wealth.”  This kind of bothered me because how can you prohibit that if that person probably earned with their own labor what they have acquired.  Yes, it is bad to keep all the wealth in the eyes of many, but you cannot punish them for that for they have worked their way to it.  Later on it moves on to saying something that seems a lot more efficient because it picks at larger areas of profit such as utilities which everyone uses.  This moves on to a different case because regardless of wealth status everyone depends on utilities and these are services and products that should be widely available and readily cheap for people to use. 

Ch. 22 P. 1

In the reading from chapter 22 what intrigued me was how quickly people began to follow these movements.  Communism was quickly followed especially by the poor in Russia and China.  This reminds me of the present day movements going on in the U.S.  The occupy movements occurring across the nation seem to be similar to what happened in Russia and China.  Of course, they occupy movement is not taking property or stealing stuff from the rich, but it is similar in the sense that it is the most affected people that are trying to take action and improve their living condition since many have lost their jobs and homes. 

Ch. 21

What really intrigued me throughout chapter 21 was the amount of people that died in the first half of the 20^th century.  It is really hard for me to imagine that just in World War II about 60 million people died.  That amount is like obliterating almost twice the population of California which sounds horrifying.  Also the 6 million Jews that were killed is the equivalent of wiping out the entire Bay Area.  I cannot honestly even process this genocide although I’ve known for years.  It seems as though humanity sort of lost its values in the 20^th century and simply did not care over their own kind demolishing and destructing what it found on its path.  The deaths in more recent wars are only a fraction of any of the World Wars but that doesn’t mean that they hurt less.  Let’s only hope that as time progresses we learn that war is not the right way out, but only the violent, forceful way out. 

Living Justice: Intro, 1 & 7

The sections that we read from the handout outlined important factors around the globe, especially poverty and human rights.  With it were included the Catholic social teachings in which it states it, “calls for a more equal sharing of political power, social status, and economic resources…”  This does sound like a good method to which countries could abide by, except that it is human nature to always ask for more and continue gaining money.  Not only are we as the human race interested in gaining more money, but how to make money easier which is what screws people over.  In order for us to make easy money, the vast majority of the time we need to exploit workers and/or resources which eventually lead to the expansion of injustices and poverty around the globe. 

Ch. 20 P. 2

What got my interest from this reading was how Edward Blyden depicted the European interest in nature.  He mentions that Europe only has an interest in nature to exploit it and how Europeans lost their, “profound religious sensibility.”  I thought that this was interesting because I feel that it was something that was taking place during colonialism across the world, not just in Africa.  Because Europeans were only seeking monetary gain along with power they seemed to have no control over what they should take over and what they shouldn’t.  If they had the guts to injure and kill native people because they were not producing enough labor, they clearly had no emotions towards nature and its preservation.  Their religious beliefs I feel remained strong but their religious sensibility was what was lacking because they did not practice what they preached or believe in accordingly to the church.