HOME | DD

Description
Question Everything
Shanti I Pothapragada

My senior speech. A chance to address the entire student body. And they all have to listen to me.  Or pretend to, anyways.  What should I say?  I could babble about the war in Iraq.  I could tell them why welfare is good.  I could expound socialism.  I could tout ballot reform, or indict the two party system.
I could. But there is very, very little chance that any of you would care, let alone change your mind.
So, instead, this is what I will tell you: Question Everything.  Don’t accept any one else’s beliefs as your own. For anything. Even math.
Here’s why, 3 reasons.
1. No human idea is ever perfect.
2. Everyone gets things wrong, and sometimes people get things horribly wrong.
3. It’s fun.

1. Reason the first: No human idea is every perfect.
a.
  i.    If you question nothing else, question religion.  There is nothing heretical about this. In fact, most major religions have an established tradition of questioning and debate. The Catholic church, in particular, makes it clear that the ultimate earthly authority is your own conscience.
  ii. And St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us that everything humans do is only “so much straw” compared to perfection.
b.
  i. Following religion, government must be most deserving of our questioning.  Government will never be perfect.  No modern government is even close.
  ii. From day one, our founding fathers realized they weren’t going to get it right on the first try.  They made a detailed process for amending the constitution, and because of it we can legally change any part of the government we need.
  iii. Even our basic law system depends on constant improvement. Laws constantly need to be added or amended to keep up with changing issues and discovered problems.
c.
  i. But nothing is beyond questioning. Even Einstein made mistakes. His laws have been changed and adjusted many times since his death to account for new issues. Einstein also questioned the most basic assumptions.  He wondered exactly how gravity worked all of his life.
d. No rule, from religion to science, is perfect.  They need to be examined,  and revised.
2. Reason the second: Sometimes people get things really wrong. Not just your teachers, either.  Big, important people.
a. Take Aristotle. He made amazing strides for the Ancient Greeks, and his philosophical ideas are still used today.  But Aristotle also pioneered early physics. Unlike Einstein, he found a reason for gravity.
b. Aristotle believed that things that fall down, like rocks, are made of earth. Earth likes itself. If you pick up a rock, it resists, because your taking it away from its friend, the ground. When you let go of a rock, it looks down, sees the ground, and runs to meet him. Rocks fall down because they like it better there. Bigger rocks fall faster because they want to be on the ground more. Genius! (pause for laughter).
c. Here’s the really fun part about Aristotle’s theory. People believed it. For two-thousand year people believed it because no one proved him wrong. If Galileo hadn’t questioned him then, we still might be saying “careful in the bubble, the air wants to go up to meet its friends.
3. Reason the third: questioning things is fun.
a. Try it during class. Today’s a great day to start, too: if your teachers get mad you can blame it on me.
b. It’s not as if there’s anything to lose, asking questions is far more interesting then listening to forty-five minutes of uninterrupted lecture, no matter how funny your teacher thinks he is.  And your teacher will probably to mistake your questions for “participating,” which can’t hurt your GPA.
c. So ask questions. Deep ones. The most interesting questions are usually Why?, How?, and Why not?. Why doesn’t weight matter when a car is whipping around an icy hairpin turn? How does mortal sin separate someone from God? And Why couldn’t Romeo have weighted another five seconds before killing himself in Juliet’s tomb? He had just won a duel to the death.
d. Don’t let it stop in the classroom.  Question everything.  Question your values.  Do they really represent you? Question laws. If you don’t agree with a law, e-mail your representatives and ask them to write an amendment. Question your representatives. If they don’t fit your values, campaign against them. Question your parents. Po-lite-ly ask them to explain rules you don’t agree with, and tell them why you think it should be different. Question your environment. Do you like where you are, at home, school, or out with friends?
e. Question yourself.
f. Oh, and feel free to ask me later if you have any questions.

Description
Question Everything
Shanti I Pothapragada

My senior speech. A chance to address the entire student body. And they all have to listen to me.  Or pretend to, anyways.  What should I say?  I could babble about the war in Iraq.  I could tell them why welfare is good.  I could expound socialism.  I could tout ballot reform, or indict the two party system.
I could. But there is very, very little chance that any of you would care, let alone change your mind.
So, instead, this is what I will tell you: Question Everything.  Don’t accept any one else’s beliefs as your own. For anything. Even math.
Here’s why, 3 reasons.
1. No human idea is ever perfect.
2. Everyone gets things wrong, and sometimes people get things horribly wrong.
3. It’s fun.

1. Reason the first: No human idea is every perfect.
a.
  i.    If you question nothing else, question religion.  There is nothing heretical about this. In fact, most major religions have an established tradition of questioning and debate. The Catholic church, in particular, makes it clear that the ultimate earthly authority is your own conscience.
  ii. And St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us that everything humans do is only “so much straw” compared to perfection.
b.
  i. Following religion, government must be most deserving of our questioning.  Government will never be perfect.  No modern government is even close.
  ii. From day one, our founding fathers realized they weren’t going to get it right on the first try.  They made a detailed process for amending the constitution, and because of it we can legally change any part of the government we need.
  iii. Even our basic law system depends on constant improvement. Laws constantly need to be added or amended to keep up with changing issues and discovered problems.
c.
  i. But nothing is beyond questioning. Even Einstein made mistakes. His laws have been changed and adjusted many times since his death to account for new issues. Einstein also questioned the most basic assumptions.  He wondered exactly how gravity worked all of his life.
d. No rule, from religion to science, is perfect.  They need to be examined,  and revised.
2. Reason the second: Sometimes people get things really wrong. Not just your teachers, either.  Big, important people.
a. Take Aristotle. He made amazing strides for the Ancient Greeks, and his philosophical ideas are still used today.  But Aristotle also pioneered early physics. Unlike Einstein, he found a reason for gravity.
b. Aristotle believed that things that fall down, like rocks, are made of earth. Earth likes itself. If you pick up a rock, it resists, because your taking it away from its friend, the ground. When you let go of a rock, it looks down, sees the ground, and runs to meet him. Rocks fall down because they like it better there. Bigger rocks fall faster because they want to be on the ground more. Genius! (pause for laughter).
c. Here’s the really fun part about Aristotle’s theory. People believed it. For two-thousand year people believed it because no one proved him wrong. If Galileo hadn’t questioned him then, we still might be saying “careful in the bubble, the air wants to go up to meet its friends.
3. Reason the third: questioning things is fun.
a. Try it during class. Today’s a great day to start, too: if your teachers get mad you can blame it on me.
b. It’s not as if there’s anything to lose, asking questions is far more interesting then listening to forty-five minutes of uninterrupted lecture, no matter how funny your teacher thinks he is.  And your teacher will probably to mistake your questions for “participating,” which can’t hurt your GPA.
c. So ask questions. Deep ones. The most interesting questions are usually Why?, How?, and Why not?. Why doesn’t weight matter when a car is whipping around an icy hairpin turn? How does mortal sin separate someone from God? And Why couldn’t Romeo have weighted another five seconds before killing himself in Juliet’s tomb? He had just won a duel to the death.
d. Don’t let it stop in the classroom.  Question everything.  Question your values.  Do they really represent you? Question laws. If you don’t agree with a law, e-mail your representatives and ask them to write an amendment. Question your representatives. If they don’t fit your values, campaign against them. Question your parents. Po-lite-ly ask them to explain rules you don’t agree with, and tell them why you think it should be different. Question your environment. Do you like where you are, at home, school, or out with friends?
e. Question yourself.
f. Oh, and feel free to ask me later if you have any questions.