My thesis

This is what I think a tragedy is now:

In Greek tragedies, the action was in the movement of characters through various classes in society. But in modern tragedies, the action is more in the thoughts and emotions of the characters. It's much more mentally based. Like the writer of the fifth tragedy reading said, summaries of Greek tragedies sound a lot more exciting than summaries of Shakespeare's tragedies. But Shakespeare's work is powerful because you see the struggles not between nations or power holders, but between a man and himself, or between a man and society at large.

As Arthur Miller said, the tragedy of the common man is much more powerful today than the tragedy of people in high places. Besides, the "flawed" heroes of Greek-style tragedies are either noble, flawless people who are victims of ridiculous situations (Oedipus) or just dirt bags to begin with who seemed like cool people because they were lying (Enron and friends). Bill Clinton, it's true, seemed to fit the description of a great man who made a mistake, but his story doesn't qualify as a tragedy because, well, look at him. It didn't exactly end in tragedy. He remained president and he's now a big political guy who Democrats love.

So what gives us that tragic feeling nowadays? When the action is in the characters' emotions, their personal crises, their brains. It's more inwardly focused. No longer do we weep when a great leader falls. The kings are dead. We are coming into the age of the people.

What makes it a tragedy?

I thought Oedipus was tragic because of the scope of the whole thing. The audience witnesses this incredible downfall, and it has repercussions for everybody. It shakes the citizens' faith in the infallibility of their king, and makes everyone feel a little weirded out. However, i get more worked up about newer tragedies, in which it's tragic because of the people, not just the significant events. If a character you love dies, or you know that two characters love each other so much but can't be together, it strikes a much deeper chord. Character development is the key to any modern tragedy, and it's so powerful because we identify with the character.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Apparently they do. Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" explores the confusion surrounding androids, which are organic robots indistinguishable from humans except for a lack of empathy and different bone marrow.

There are androids who simply serve their masters on Mars. But the ones who have escaped to Earth obviously want to be free; this suggest they are not just drones. They dream of something better. While they don't care about what happens to other androids, some of them felt despair at learning they were in fact androids.

My question is: How can this kind of being come about in the real world? I suppose scientists could clone humans and take out some empathy gene, but the lack of empathy seems to be a mere side effect. It seems like they built android brains, which were circuit boxes, and surrounded them with real skin and hair. If this does eventually happen, I wonder if androids would develop dreams and wants. Their electric brains could conceivably become complex enough to function as a human brain (if that whole Singularity nonsense is true), so the world Dick created might be more accurate than we think. If so, we are going to face moral issues more unclear than any we have faced before.

Socrates' Philosophies

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

I really don't know if this is true or not. My immediate reaction is "no." But I don't completely understand what Socrates means. Maybe he means life is meaningless without constant analysis of how you are living and consideration of the best way to do things. That one should always ask him or herself: Is what I'm doing the best way to lead my life? Now, of course any person in Socrates' setting should have followed this. With our screwed-up Western values, it's important to think about the best thing to do if we're surrounded by ridiculous ideals. If you're living in a society which has strong values that are healthy for the functioning of the group and the area, knowing what's right may be more of an instinct than a carefully thought-out premise.