bertrandhustle

[bertrandhustle]

I’m just afraid that I know you too well.

Three sleepless nights have passed since the day that your life emerged out of the lifeless chemicals and particles I had slaved over for years. The reality hadn’t set in when you were just a collection of appendages and bones sloppily arranged on my table. The result felt so far away when the plastic bags were bumping blood through your veins instead of your heart. I preferred my life when your two-meter-tall frame had no soul. I’m sure you’d prefer it that way, too.

As it neared midnight a storm began to brew. Far off thunder roared through the air, setting my nerves on edge. My hands were shaking as I made the final modifications to your neurons and cerebrum—they haven’t stopped shaking. Heavy rain violently struck the bay window in the laboratory, and the wind screamed down the foggy London street.

The Moment was punctuated by a searing flash of lightning followed almost immediately by its thunderous counterpart. Something in the sound must have awaken you, and your eyes shot open for the first time. Your yellow irises laced with touches of scarlet blood stared up at me in threatening bewilderment. Fearful disgust filled my heart and your appearance sickened me.

My shaking legs were only barely strong enough to let me retreat to my room. Lying on my bed in the dark, I could hear your muted footsteps in the laboratory above me heightened by the roaring thunder. Like a child I pulled my blanket over my head in a pathetic attempt to hide myself away. I had no desire to ever again see your sickening greenish skin and crooked nose.

But, as I trembled under my sheets and blankets, an involuntary moment of introspection led to a truth more frightening than the existence of the heinous monster above me. What terrified me most, what made my soul tremble more than my hands, was the fact that I am you. Your appalling appearance reflects my appalling heart.

Until that moment I had not known the depths of my depravity. My reckless devotion to this project over the years had obscured my continuous spiral downward into perversion. What did I hope to gain? What was my motive? Did I desire to smite the arrogance of my professors and teachers by doing what they could never do? Was I shaking my fist at God by trying to create pure life that only he could give? I could never really be sure of my motives, but when I first saw you I knew that they were impure.

A creation is not unlike his creator, and I began to see this axiom’s truth in my relation to you. Your crooked nose, your sickening complexion, your bloodshot eyes. Only a depraved madman could create such a disturbing sight.

I’m just afraid that I know you too well.

[bertrandhustle]

Peaceful Revolution and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

There is no doubt that economic decline, foreign pressure, and unstable government all led to the German Democratic Republic’s removal of the Berlin Wall. However, it is important to consider the peaceful revolution that was implicitly, and sometimes explicitly demonstrated in the actions of the civilians in East and West Berlin. I will consider several pieces of evidence in support of this position, ranging from phone calls between world leaders during the Cold War to recent articles written by the Berlin government.

In the late 1980s, pressure for the destruction of the Berlin Wall was rising throughout the world, and the GDR eventually yielded to their wishes. Immediately after travel restrictions were loosened, many East Germans rushed into the West. The chancellor of West Germany, Helmut Kohl, had a conversation over the phone with U.S. president George H.W. Bush in which he discussed what was happening. The chancellor writes that Berlin has the “atmosphere of a festival” (Memorandum). This “Exodus” from the East to the West is evidence of the peaceful revolution I suggested in the introduction. East Germans simply could not wait to flee to the economic and social prosperity in the West. East Germans were demonstrating their unhappiness with the East. The East’s propaganda had been losing its grip for decades, and this events represents the climax of the GDR’s defeat.

Of all the speeches made by U.S. presidents throughout American history, Ronald Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” may be the greatest of them all (Reagan). The most famous line, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” was discouraged by many of the president’s advisors. However, the challenge put the ball in Gorbachev’s court. The spotlight was on him. But what is important to us now is the crowd’s reaction. The thousands of listeners in the audience give seemingly unanimous support to Reagan’s dictum. Again, the world is showing its disapproval of the GDR’s actions, and they demand change. The peaceful protest against the Berlin Wall is international.

The Berlin’s official website argues for this notion of “peaceful revolution” in their article on the “Opening and Fall of the Berlin Wall” (Berlin). On November 9th of 1989, the Central Committee member for the GDR announced a loosening of travel restrictions for East Germans. It would later be discovered that the official made the announcement prematurely, leading to confusion at the border as thousands of East Germans fled to the Berlin Wall in hopes of arriving in West Berlin. Eventually, the crowd grew so large that head of passport control units raised the barrier—without official orders. 20,000 East Germans fled to the West in the next hour. “That night, the peaceful revolution underway in the GDR and the political changes taking place in Eastern Europe had succeeded in opening the Berlin Wall.”

The primary and secondary sources concerning the fall of the Berlin Wall consistently echo a common theme: The actions of ordinary citizens demonstrated a peaceful revolution against the GDR. This peaceful revolution was an essential element of the Berlin Wall’s collapse. While we must not forget the economic decline, the political unrest, and the foreign pressure that contributed to the liberation of East Germans, we must also not ignore the profound influence that ordinary individuals have through their peaceful acts of protest.

Work Cited

Berlin. “Opening and Fall of the Berlin Wall.” Berlin.de, Berlin Senate Chancellery.

[bertrandhustle]

Dear Rep. Miller-Meeks,

Like you, I am pro-life. I think that abortion is an unethical procedure that far too many people incorrectly support. I appreciate your efforts to bring change in the Life at Conception Act, but I am concerned that these quick and drastic measures will turn people off to the pro-life cause. I believe that a more subtle and lengthy approach will bring more change. There are many scientific and philosophical considerations in favor of our position, and I argue that the dissemination of these data can address the pro-choice view at its roots.

Consider the question of life beginning at conception. While mainstream media outlets like Vice make assertions like “[the notion that life begins at conception is] science-defying (Rinkunas, 2017),” contemporary scientific literature makes no such baseless contention. Rather, consider a few of these quotes from peer-reviewed scientific journals published in the 21st century: “Human life begins with sperm and oocyte fusion” (Soygur & Sati, 2016), “Such activity is particularly important at the beginning of human life, i.e. at fertilization, immediately after and at the very onset of embryonic development” (Ménézo et al., 2010), “Recognition between sperm and the egg surface marks the beginning of life in all sexually reproducing organisms” (Raj et al., 2017). It’s no wonder then that 96% of 5,577 biologists working in 1,058 different biological departments affirm that life begins at conception (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 2021). Why are biologists so confident about this? The current definition of “life” in the American Heritage Science Dictionary claims that life is

The properties or qualities that distinguish living plants and organisms from dead or inanimate matter, including the capacity to grow, metabolize nutrients, respond to stimuli, reproduce, and adapt to the environment (2005).

These properties are present at conception, or within two weeks (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2013; Rakyan et al., 2001; Gardner et al., 2013; O’Neill, 2005). The scientific literature is clear: life begins at conception.

Sadly, we cannot just wash our hands and consider the debate finished. The question of scientific life gives us no insight into moral value. A zygote might be a life by all biological standards, but it might be the kind of life that we have no moral responsibility toward—maybe it is a “person” that is of moral value, and a fetus is not a person. Thankfully, there are some philosophical considerations that rely on uncontroversial premises that sidestep the issue of “moral value” and “personhood” entirely. Consider Perry Hendricks’ Impairment Argument (Hendricks, 2019; Blackshaw & Hendricks, 2020):

Drinking alcohol during pregnancy is immoral because it deprives a life of an optimal future.

Abortion deprives a life of an optimal future.

Abortion is immoral.

The argument relies on no explanation of “personhood”, and it does not rely on a theory of why abortion is immoral, only that it is sufficiently similar to drinking alcohol during pregnancy, which almost everyone would concede to be immoral.

In light of this information, I believe that we can make some real changes in regards to policy. The pro-life movement has accomplished important things in these past two years, but the world is more divided than ever. We have failed to address the pro-choice movement at its roots. By disseminating this information through our education, our media, and our culture in general, we can create a society in which life is honored from conception onward, and our policies will soon be shaped by our values.

Work Cited

American Heritage Dictionary, ed. The American Heritage Science Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005.

Blackshaw, Bruce Philip, and Perry Hendricks. "Strengthening the impairment argument against abortion." Journal of medical ethics 47.7 (2021): 515-518.

"Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization." Oyez, www.oyez.org/cases/2021/19-1392. Accessed 4 Jan. 2023.

Gardner, David K., et al. Human gametes and preimplantation embryos. Springer-Verlag New York, 2016.

Hendricks, Perry. "Even if the fetus is not a person, abortion is Immoral: the impairment argument." Bioethics 33.2 (2019): 245-253.

Kail, Robert V., and John C. Cavanaugh. Essentials of human development: A life-span view. Cengage Learning, 2016.

Ménézo, Yves, Brian Dale, and Marc Cohen. "DNA damage and repair in human oocytes and embryos: a review." Zygote 18.4 (2010): 357-365.

O'Neill, Chris. "The role of paf in embryo physiology." Human Reproduction Update 11.3 (2005): 215-228

Raj, Isha, et al. "Structural basis of egg coat-sperm recognition at fertilization." Cell 169.7 (2017): 1315-1326

Rakyan, Vardhman K., et al. "The marks, mechanisms and memory of epigenetic states in mammals." Biochemical Journal 356.1 (2001): 1-10.

Rinkunas, Susan. “The Government Says Life Begins at Conception. Here Are the Consequences.” VICE, Vice Media Group, 10 Oct. 2017, https://www.vice.com/en/article/yw397w/government-hhs-now-says-life-begins-at-conception.

Soygur, Bikem, and Leyla Sati. "The role of syncytins in human reproduction and reproductive organ cancers." Reproduction 152.5 (2016): R167-R178.

[bertrandhustle]

When I was a kid, 25 years or so ago, things were more than a bit different. The most recent revolution in digital creation has led to significant progress that people like me couldn’t even have imagined. Some of our dreams have come true, and maybe even some of our fears, too. The world is a different place, and depending on who you are, it’s a much better place than it used to be. But no matter where we go, we can’t forget where we came from, so I’d like to talk about what life used to be like, and how it is now.

When I was a kid, acne was a death sentence. For those unlucky ones of us, even the most potent creams and pills couldn’t work, and if they did, they had obnoxious side effects like dry skin, bloody noses, and possibly even heart failure. Nowadays, one trip to the doctor’s office and a quick, painless vaccine guarantees that you have angelic skin forever. Or think about de-extinction. 25 years ago, a dead species was just that: Dead. The cute Dodo birds that every other hippie seems to have on their shoulder? 25 years ago those were a thing of the past. Now, to me, these two advancements seem like good things. We’ve made progress!

Sadly, not everything has been rainbows and unicorns. We all know what happened in Serbia last year. Developments in ethnic bioweapons allowed Serbian terrorist groups to target the genomes of Macedonian Serbs, almost eliminating them entirely. Any cursory glance at the news will show worries about a “technological singularity”, a point at which technological advancements become uncontrollable and irreversible. There are legitimate fears that we are on the verge of reaching that point, and who knows what consequences that might bring. At the end of this presentation there is an image detailing the exponential growth of the computing power in electromechanical devices. The creator, Ray Kurzweil, hypothesizes that this growth will lead to a future in which the computing power of all computers will be much greater than human minds (Kurzweil, 2005). Who knows what a world like that would be.

It’s really hard to determine if the changes made in the past 25 years have been overall good or bad. However, it is undoubtedly the case that the world is much different, and we as a species are much different. We’ve had to adapt to our new world. Thankfully, there’s nothing humans are better at than adapting to unfamiliarity. To fully appreciate this adaptation, we need to remember our past. We need to remember where we’ve come from, where we are, and hopefully we can have a better idea of where we’re going. This is what I hope to have done today.

Works Cited

Kurzweil, Ray. The singularity is near: When humans transcend biology. Penguin, 2005.