You Have a Brain

If you are a human and you are reading this, you probably have a well functioning brain. Brains are so important in our lives, yet often times they are thought about so little. Have you ever noticed that your brain often contradicts itself? Sometimes when I mess up, my brain tells my mouth to say," My brain is so stupid today. It seriously has some problems," and there I go again, my brain is calling itself unintelligent.

It's so fascinating how just a three pound mass can control almost the entire body. It's so hard to imagine that the brain doesn't even notice it's magnificence. In fact, we often don't notice that the brain is doing all the work to keep our bodies alive, 'we' as in the brain. Rarely have I ever thought about the brain regulating digestion, letting me breathe, my personality, the words I say, and the actions I do. But these are all the things our brain does spontaneously. So for once, let's just say we're all professionals at multitasking. Now you can brag to your friends that you're such a good multitasker because you're doing it every second you are alive. The brain is always regulating different parts of your body at the same time. It's controlling the peristalsis in your esophagus and intestines, it's pumping that rich, oxygen filled blood throughout your body, inflating or deflating your lungs with oxygen or carbon dioxide, and more all, at the same time.

Isn't it hard to believe that the brain is utterly alien to us, but it in fact controls our personality, our fears, the ability to sense what's in our surroundings, and everything we will do every day for the rest of our lives? As much as we want to separate the mind from the body, they are actually two things that cannot exist without each other. It's quite frightening how almost any function in our body or the way we think can be altered by just a tumor, trauma, disease, drugs, and stroke. The most famous patient of neuroscience gives us a clear example of this. This is the story of Phineas Gage.

In 1848, Gage, 25, was the foreman of a crew cutting a railroad bed in Cavendish, Vermont. On September 13, as he was using a tamping iron to pack explosive powder into a hole, the powder detonated. The tamping iron—43 inches long, 1.25 inches in diameter and weighing 13.25 pounds—shot skyward, penetrated Gage’s left cheek, ripped into his brain and exited through his skull, landing several dozen feet away. Though blinded in his left eye, he might not even have lost consciousness, and he remained savvy enough to tell a doctor that day, “Here is business enough for you.”

(http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/phineas-gage-neurosciences-most-famous-patient-11390067/?no-ist)

Phineas Gage

Gage, a man who was quite respectful and had an effective work ethic, turned into a man who uttered "the grossest profanity", a person who could not put his plans into action, and somewhat of a rude and arrogant jerk. Even the company he worked in who once considered him a model foreman didn't take him back after he recovered.

Phineas Gage's case is so important because it is the first case to ever involve personality change from trauma.The rod went through and destroyed his whole frontal lobe, allowing neuroscientists to discover its functions, which are to regulate personality, decision making, problem solving, control of purposeful behaviors, consciousness, and emotions. It let scientists realize the effects of trauma on a brain and how it affected the different parts.

Phineas Gage's story is just one of the intriguing tales in neuroscience. It was the story that actually pulled me into the field of neuroscience and learning about behavior or how the brain works. The brain is such an amazing object, with humans knowing more about the universe than the human brain, and that's part of the reason why the brain is so incredible and intricate. You have a brain, so love it and appreciate that you're here because of it.

One of the biggest mysteries in the universe lies in the head. 

realizing the right rights.

We live in a society in which individuals usually, but not always, put themselves first. Most peoples’ times are consumed by making sure their own needs are met before even thinking about the consequences of their actions, or how they would affect the others around them. This results in people with needs being neglected. However, if we only focus on the rights of the society, some people may be assigned to do something they had no intentions of doing in the first place, or forced into something where they have no idea what to do. Something we need now is balance. Without individual rights, we wouldn’t all be able to pursue our goals or passions which helps the society; and without social rights, there would be no equality among individuals. Clearly this shows us that both kinds of rights are dependent on each other, and neither one should be ignored.

With individual rights, people can create safer communities by reducing the amount of rebellion and conflict. Individual rights allow us to pursue life and goals without the interference from the government or community. We have the freedom for anything we do. The Bill of Rights was created because the writer James Madison believed individual rights came first. Individual rights provide us with freedom and opportunities to achieve all goals in life, however they may also cause violence if we misuse the rights. Because we can do whatever we want in life, crimes may not count as crimes. People could kill and rob each other causing a society that has no coordination or organization. It could also lead us have actions that negatively benefit the community. Let’s say you want to plant a big tree in your yard. You could plant the tree because you had your own rights, but planting this tree would make the area look hideous to everyone else but you, and no one could go against you because of your rights. This leads us to find out that social rights are necessary to create an equal environment and to maintain a safe community.

Social rights are held by the community, facilitating individual rights, and giving everyone equal rights at the same time. These rights are centered around net benefits, meaning we are providing the greater amount of good for the greatest amount of people. When all people are treated with the same respect and offered the same rights as everyone else, it benefits society. In a way, there would be less arguments about what each person can do, since everyone can do the same, if they use their rights correctly. Social rights bring unity among one group. This brings me back to the simulation of living on the isolated island in Lord of the Flies. Without the group working together to keep ourselves alive, it became extremely hard to accept each others’ ideas and coordinate. Even the runaway group of two people were able to “survive” better on their own. After we assigned roles to certain people, or made social rights on how the society should function, the class survived very well altogether. Though social rights can bring people together, it can also drag people apart. When you are assigned a role, or forced to do something that isn’t your will, it could cause rage and rebellions, which may make the community fall apart. When you have no community to live in, it’s very hard to survive or accomplish anything. This brings us back to the importance of individual rights, and with them, we can still do what our passions bring us to do. 

“To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.” (Nelson Mandela) Without rights, an individual cannot function, and neither can a society. Both social and individual rights are equally important and both exist because of each other. Social rights allow us to have equality, and individual rights provide opportunities to reach our goals. When there is unity and passion, the society will be in order due to both the rights working together.

-felita

Prompt: What is more important? The rights of the individual or the rights of the society?