#1: Summary: Theory of Beginners Response

 I found this reading to be very interesting and very enlightening all at the same time. I have had to read articles like this one in previous classes where it makes you think outside of the box and consider things differently than what you may be used to. I personally enjoyed this article mostly because I don't like to have the same opinions as everyone else. I don't enjoy the fact that our society believes as a whole in many aspects of our lives. I believe Michael Ryan is very factual and more people should read and understand that our culture is all coming together to believe in all the same things.

Everyone associates all kinds of things with the exact same thing, like the terrorism analogy. If you were to ask me what I thought about when you said terrorism, I honestly would probably say a Muslim or Islamic person, just like the next 100 people you ask would say. We are raised and programmed to believe everything we are told whether it’s factual or not. Not many get to have their own opinions because they tend to follow the opinions of others. I have always been the type of person that has never wanted to be a follower, just because everyone else is doing the same as the other person. Ryan expresses that people need to step back from their norm and start to rationalize and believe what they want to believe in. Maybe we wouldn’t have all this hatred and discrimination if we all took a step back to reevaluate things and ask ourselves, do I really believe that? Or have we all been lying to ourselves in order to claim an acceptable status in our society. Ryan claims, “We tell ourselves stories that obey a linear order. We make a world of complex impulses, random events, haphazard consequences, and scattered effects in something that seems written by God” (167). We do just that, we all live in this fake world that we have let take over our mind, body and soul. In my opinion it is time to step back and realize that there is so much more than what we are told to believe in. It’s time to really be our own individual selves, that’s what will truly make a diverse population and maybe become a more civilized and happier one at that.