Dear Journal,
The classification of "Great" is a
high honor that should only be given to a select few for being an all around
Great Person. I think he is considered "Great"
because he is successful, very successful. I don't
know why we all call King Alexander “Alexander
the Great”. Alexander’s father was a good general, but he destroyed Greek
independence so he could use it as a launching pad to strike Persia. And the first thing king
Alexander did as king was display his military strength and kill 6,000 Thebans
and the survivors of his attack were sold into slavery.
I have been told for as long as I remember that he was
"Alexander the Great". Of course I could think that he is great, but only when
someone gives me a good example of why. Yes, he has been a good general and we
are the largest empire in all the lands, but he has enslaved families... He has
been cruel, and obviously most of the people we conquer probably don't much
care for him.
He died not too long ago, and no one seems to be too upset, it
seems like he was fired and not really dead. When
someone successful dies, people are disappointed for the
inconvenience, and the loss of a good mind. When someone, who is truly great,
dies, then people are sad, and depressed for the loss of a good heart.
Dear Journal,
Alexander the Great was more interested in
obtaining land more than governing. Meaning that the job of making a glue
to connect all the new cultures was up to the people. It would be impossible to
track where or when exactly that
happened, but it is undeniable that the glue that connected them was there and
prominent. Well, my brother says that anyways. Around this time the Hellenistic
culture, a common language and courtesy, emerged.
The Egyptian city of Alexandria rose to power and became the main
city of Hellenistic culture. My brother is going to go to Alexandria and go
into trade, first he needs to learn the language and customs. It was in a
strategic place on the Nile for trade. And with all of this combining, Alexandria
will become an international community of diverse people. I heard that its
population reached half a million. With the Hellenistic culture in place,
Alexandria is becoming a melting pot of knowledge, arts, and philosophy. Yes, I
completely think that the combining of Egyptian, Indian, and Persian cultures
was a good idea.
There are so many examples of a group of
people thinking that someone is great when another group of people think that
that same individual is horrible. The one example that popped in my head most
was Guy Fawkes. The inspiration of many different underground organizations and
fighting for what is right.
Guy Fawkes is associated with a failed plot after his failed
assassination attempt on the king on November 5th 1605. Guy had
stashed many barrels of gunpowder under the parliament building but was caught.
He wanted to blow up parliament because of the king’s opposition against the
Catholic Church. From that night on, November 5th was Guy Fawkes
Day, where people would make a mask of Guy and go around doing silly pranks and
blaming Guy Fawkes, but the supporters of Guy Fawkes, who also supported the
Catholic Church, were disappointed. Those people thought Guy Fawkes was noble
for the sacrifice of his life, and thought that he was great. Those who
supported the king did not believe the same thing and were glad Guy died.
*This is a mask that the people would make of Guy Fawkes
Today, there is a
group of people called “Hactivists” who take on large corporations for
wrong-doing by hacking into accounts and exposing them. The Hactivists have
exposed several corporations and have uncovered a child pornography scandal. How
does this relate to Guy Fawkes? No one has ever seen the face of a hactivist,
because whenever anyone sees a hactivist, they are wearing a Guy Fawkes mask.
They wear them in support of Guy and his fight for what he believed. To them,
he was a great man for his nobility. But many people today think Guy was evil.
It’s all a matter of opinion, meaning that there is not one right answer;
someone is great, when another individual thinks it.
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ReplyDeleteDrew, your interpretation of being a soldier, was very descriptive.
ReplyDeleteyou are a very good writer and this is a skill that you should put to your advantage.
Drew, I never knew that Alexander enslaved families from the countries he had conquered. That seems like something Hitler would do. Well in a way he did. How did he enforce the blending of these cultures upon the people of his empire? Do you think this brought the empire together?? do you think people were discriminated because of what they believe??? How did he enforce civil rule if the population was about 1/2 million people??? I really like the the creativity that was incorporated into the diary entries, it made them a little more ethical.
ReplyDeleteDrew, I never knew that Alexander enslaved families from the countries he had conquered. That seems like something Hitler would do. Well in a way he did. How did he enforce the blending of these cultures upon the people of his empire? Do you think this brought the empire together?? do you think people were discriminated because of what they believe??? How did he enforce civil rule if the population was about 1/2 million people??? I really like the the creativity that was incorporated into the diary entries, it made them a little more ethical.
ReplyDeleteAlexander the Great could not govern them that much because he was dead. A tad inconvenient. He collected them and that was about it.
DeleteI totally agree with your comments on Guy Fawkes, I had done some studying on him and hactivists and i think they are really great people even though what they are doing it thought of as bad. Apparently now a days sabotaging terrible company's and people is a bad thing...
ReplyDeleteI never would've thought about Guy Fawkes for this. That was really interesting, and then when you said greatness is an opinion, that was a new perspective, too.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you did Guy Fawkes for your third post. I do think that was a good idea using him because he had great morals to some people and to others he had bad morals. I mean to some he did bad things for wrong reasons but to others he did great things for good reasons.
ReplyDeleteI never read that the first thing Alexander did as king was display his military strength and kill 6,000 Thebans, I found this very interesting and reading this I would also like to learn more about Alexander's father.
ReplyDeletei also found that the Egyptian city of Alexandria rose to power and became the main city of Hellenistic culture in my research but did not touch on it as much as you did because i could never find a reliable website to find this information from.
ReplyDeleteIt was actually surprisingly simple, i almost didn't think about it but i went back and re-read over the chapters on Holt Mcdougal and got TONS of info from there
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