auggiewrites

[auggiewrites]

The Closed Fist - Open Hand Salute & its Societal Relevance

The Warriors Bow as I like to call it; is an old Chinese tradition most used by practitioners of Karate. Karate is a word which translates to “empty hand”. It delineates from the need to protect yourself without the use of weapons. The bow represents two intertwined and inseparable concepts. One with each hand. Because of this gesture’s historic nature its true meaning is not definitively known or accepted. There are several schools of thought on what the hand-sign means. I am not writing to inform you of those, but to divulge the personal conclusion that its true meaning is in the eye of the user. All I can really know for sure is what it means to me.

I recently began to use this gesture frequently, especially when drinking, playing games, or receiving favors with/from others. Therefore, I have my own bespoke and specific interpretation, as it pertains to my person.

The significance of the closed fist open hand salute as I choose to assign, is as follows: The closed fist represents the fighting spirit, the ability to use violence to protect, defend, or assert your will on others. The open hand represents paper, or more accurately wisdom, self-restraint and knowledge of one’s self.

The open handed “paper” over the closed fist to me means: I know that I am a strong, physically imposing human being who has the ability to hurt others. HOWEVER, because I am not a loose cannon, brawler, predator, abuser or someone who chooses to disrespect and/or undermine the basic human integrity of other individuals, I will use my education, wisdom, & self-restraint to honor us. Us being myself and the person(s) I salute to. I will honor us by protecting our mutual interests and safety. More simply, If I am with you, you are in my care & I am in yours. That is important. This is part of my continual path of self discovery and introspection which I have made a commitment to staying on.

I believe it is appropriate to perform this salute to ANYONE in a situation, who has helped, respected, or generally supported you or your people, and it is clear you will be parting ways relatively soon. I encourage anyone reading this to incorporate the salute into their outward behavior, if any of the aforementioned values resonated with them.

Thank you for reading. As always, I am sincerely at your service.

-August Duplechain

[auggiewrites]

Whiskey Plates: What Dude?

Recently I was in the car with my friend Darby running an errand. He was driving while I picked the music. It is important to note that he hails from the state of Minnesota. As such his knowledge of the east coast is limited and we were in Pennsylvania. We stopped at a red light and in front of us was a generic Japanese SUV from New Jersey. I of course was busy picking the best songs for our symphonic journey to Walmart in the passenger seat and was looking down at my phone. “Is that a whiskey plate?” my friend asked. “Dude what are you talking about” I responded.

           I looked up to see a standard New Jersey plate whose plate number happened to begin with W. “Alright tell me what you’re going on about with this whole whiskey thing” I said. “Well basically if you get a DUI you have to drive around with a whiskey plate as a badge of shame” stated my friend. “Huh, that’s wild” I said. That was basically the end of the conversation, but only the beginning of my fascination with the whiskey plate which led me to research and subsequently write this essay. I did genuinely find the information to be wild.

           This was news to me; I had never heard of this “whiskey plate” I couldn’t believe that in our society so heavily oriented toward privacy and so obsessed with general freedoms that whiskey plates would exist. However, then I got to thinking about The Sex Offender Registry, public criminal records and felony questions on job applications. I suppose tagging drivers at higher risk for driving under the influence particularly for use of law enforcement is not so outlandish with those other systems in mind.

I think many of us can attest to the fact that often public opinion or peer pressure are more powerful tools than fines, or the threat of legal consequences. That is the idea of going to court or jail for a DUI may not deter to a drunk driver, but the idea of being ridiculed by friends, family, and strangers for driving around with a plate which sticks out like a sore thumb may be sufficient discouragement.

           It can be concluded that the public shame method is an unpopular tool for mitigating DUI in The United States as whole. This is evident by the fact that only the states of Michigan and Ohio fully utilize the party plate while Georgia uses it an a less overt fashion. It does seem like a good idea at least from a public safety perspective, from a privacy standpoint it is a decidedly less appealing public policy. I was wondering why this public policy had not become more widespread throughout the union. Minnesota began use of whiskey plates in the mid 90s, before the lifetime of this writer. So, exposure is likely not the reason for its rarity. There are also plenty of other states with abnormally high rates of drunk driving deaths which have opted not to participate. So, one would assume someone in these 47 other states has pitched the policy before, to no avail.

           In my research I found that in Minnesota a whiskey plate is stark white and begins with a W. There is no blue lake at the top of the identifier like one would usually find, and only shame plates begin with W. In Ohio which seems to be more partial toward the term “party plate” they use a bright yellow background with red letters/numbers. Unmistakable to say the least, it is in stark contrast to Ohio’s staple white plate with a red banner atop.

In Georgia the plates are more inconspicuous and not color coded, so I guess the south is a better place for a road soda. That is really all I got on the subject for now. If you see a driver with a party plate from now on, make sure to offer ‘em a cold one. Cheers!

[auggiewrites]

Where should you be? With who?

As a senior in college, I am being forced by teachers, family, piers and ultimately myself to ask what it is I want to do with my life. Although I am actively thinking about the answer to this question now more than ever, professors and teachers of all kinds have been dropping their hints of wisdom my whole life in anticipation of these pivotal moments. There are three insights I have heard which seem most relevant to me as I move through my last year of college and into my adult life. The first is a common saying that goes “you can do anything but not everything”. While I do not think I could become a rocket scientist or a sword sallower, I more or less agree with the sentiment. It seems many of us young people will be in the position to take our lives in so many different directions it is important to believe you can choose any path that is presented to you, or maybe one you uncover on your own.

The second idea is more abstract. Although prominent online, it was presented to me by one of my freshman year professors: Michael Zeman. “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”. When I was growing up that was a no brainier, I had my 2 parents, my sibling, a best friend and later on a girlfriend. While some of us are lucky enough to live near family during college or after, many of us will not have or even want that opportunity. In college and in much of our adult lives those 5 spots will be wide open. You can choose to fill them with whoever you want. Currently my 5 people are all my roommates and fraternity brothers, I have chosen them and remained with them for almost 4 years. However this chapter is close to an end. It begs the question who my 5 people will be in the future. This truth is I do not know who my 5 people will be and honestly I think it’s better that way. What’s important in my view, is knowing what your criteria is for people filling those spots. For many of us one of those spots will be filled by a love interest(s) whether it be casual or serious. Regardless of the nature of the relationship people do rub off on you and leave you with some token of themselves. This is mostly a positive things but is a reminder that it’s important to value and acknowledged all people but they do not all need to become close with you.

Thirdly is the concept that much of your adult life will basically be a triad of time management, you will be constantly torn between your family or significant other (if not both), your career/profession and then some other third thing which may be a passion, hobby, leisure, athletics, social life or some summation of things you enjoy doing. At any given time you can decide the distribution of you focus. You can go all in on career, split time between all 3 evenly or only prioritize family and work. The truth is there is no right answer and what is appropriate will almost certainly change as time moves forward.

With the knowledge of these three things and a commitment to introspection, I believe any one can be well equipped to pursue their goals and construct a life that is meaningful and satisfying to them. Things will certainly not go your way all the time, but at least you will know your failures and anguish were in pursuit of something you do  truly value. Hopefully you have some developing idea of what is important to you, and if you do not keep moving forward and keep asking yourself questions.

#introspection #planning #goals #legacy

[auggiewrites]

What Does Society Demand of its Citizens?

Caption: Doggies Pub (formerly known as the Rathskeller) State College, PA, 2021

This article can also be engaged with on Linkedin. HERE

Before I start the cover photo is me and my fraternity brothers. That may not seem relevant but they are just some of the many people in life who compel me to feel the way I do about an individuals role and duty within society. As many of my connections know I am a somewhat political person. However my opinions are experience based. They are not based on rhetoric or what some political party says I should believe. So I feel you will find regardless of your political beliefs, my views are traditional and based in common knowledge, something I have to say will likely speak to you.

In my economics class we are discussing whether or not a “wealth tax” for the 1% makes sense. The idea of taxing the rich has been popular recently. I think political slogans like “Tax The Rich” or “Make America Great Again” are grossly under simplified but do in truth often represent a popular sentiment welling up in the populous. Rich people are getting really rich and the poor are getting poorer in a way reminiscent of the economic situation present when 20th century robber barons ran the show. Our country went through a massive recession not too long ago and many people miss the idyllic, less diverse, less equal but admittedly safer (for the majority) United States of the 1950’s, in which many of our elders were reared and has been mythologized in our collective consciousness as a result, particularly through popular cultural trends.

Put quite simply I feel the rich should pay more taxes than the poor but that does not mean society is entitled to as much as the ultra wealthy citizen’s money as it desires. However at it’s core I think the sentiment of taxing the rich in ways that we do not tax the poor is reasonable. I think this money could help us form a new and more familiar America with traditional values and neighbors who know and speak to each other, not unlike a suburban neighborhood of the exalted 1950s but will be less plagued by bigotry and have at least some additional equity/inclusion. I am not particularly religious and I’m going to quote a bible verse here, not because I’m attempting to bring religion into this debate but simply as evidence that this sentiment is popular and prevalent within society and has been for thousands of years. The verse is Luke 12:48. I’m going to paraphrase here as the bible has been re-worked and rewritten so many ways it is difficult to accurately quote. “To those who God has given the most, the most is expected” In my view we can replace God with country, family, society at large or even the earth itself in this sentence and the meaning would not differ significantly. Regardless of who you direct your “gratitude” for existence itself to, country is often a popular character.

In the past a king, a pope, a dictator or some similar entity would try (or not try) to create some kind of wealth redistribution for the good of their domain, whether they did so selflessly or otherwise is irrelevant in my view. So I think most of us human beings whether subconsciously or out-rightly understand there will always be inequality, but things can be done to lessen it. The United State’s business, research and economic culture in combination with our inherent freedoms supposedly protected in our precious constitution have allowed the ultra rich to make their money and accumulate wealth.

Countless employees and customers from everyday backgrounds helped them make their money. In that sense they owe more back to society because they have taken advantage of society’s manpower and brainpower in more significant ways than most. Part of their money should be returned to the community to take care of those people. And when the government takes money through taxes, it denies the mega rich the opportunity to donate that money, which hot take… is a good thing. I’m aware of the existence of tax evasion and I am not naive enough to think some sort of wealth tax would truly target all billionaires funds and assets. With that being said philanthropy can be used as a a popular and elaborate tactical method to avoid paying taxes and launder/re-appropriate funds and consequently escape our primal duty to give back. So I do not think the argument that the rich should not be taxed because they so generously give millions away each year holds water. Be wary when your favorite rich/famous person starts their own charitable foundation.

The article I have linked is from the University of Tennessee Knoxville law school. It provided me some inspiration for this article.

UTK College of Law

[auggiewrites]

Outstanding Youtube Channels for the Curious

November 9, 2021

One of my favorite things to do is learn in ways that do not quite feel like learning. Personally, one of the ways I do this, which I would highly recommend is through YouTube videos. There are many dedicated, educated and committed content creators on YouTube who cater to the specific interests of nearly everyone. Below are some of my favorite educational yet fascinating and engaging YouTube Channels. There should be something for many different curiosities.

World War Two – 665K Subscribers

This is my favorite history channel of the many I subscribe to. Deemed simply “World War Two” This channel is a comprehensive and long running project. Each week the 3 creators release videos covering the events of the war “this week”. The channel acts as if the war is occurring in real time. For example, the channel is now on year 3, so they released a video covering the events of the last week of October during WW2 in 1942. They also do special edition videos covering subjects like espionage and “the war against humanity” with impressive creativity.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP1AejCL4DA7jYkZAELRhHQ

Company Man – 1.34M Subscribers

This is a fantastic channel for any business or economics student or those simply interested in brand ownership. This channel tells the story of companies over time and gives a background on a corporation’s brand and operations. You will find yourself learning many brands you never associated together are closely connected. Common video themes include Rise & Fall, Bigger Than You Know, and Why They’re Successful. Favorite videos include Under Armour, Tommy Hilfiger, and Six Flags.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQMyhrt92_8XM0KgZH6VnRg

Legal Eagle – 2.09M Subscribers

This is a great watch for anyone interested in the law, whether you are considering law school or simply curious. A UCLA Law grad is the face of this channel and dissects court cases and legal Issues in the public eye. He helps the viewer to better understand issues like Trump’s Impeachment, Marvel’s rights to their characters, Police Trials and other culturally relevant issues. He also dissects and gives letter grades according to the legal realism of popular entertainment, such as: Legally Blonde, How to Get Away with Murder & A Few Good Men.

https://www.youtube.com/c/LegalEagle

Drew Durnil – 851K Subscribers

“A reaction channel, for the alpha intellectual” Drew’s content is difficult to characterize. So, I included his description. If you like maps, flags, countries and goofy memes this is the place for you.

https://www.youtube.com/c/DrewDurnil/about

J.J. McCullough – 503K Subscribers

J.J. is a Canadian who likes to explore and discuss cultural phenomena. His channel description reads “Hello friends, my name is J.J. McCullough and I’m a cartoonist, writer, and journalist living in Vancouver, Canada. I like learning about different countries of the world and the different ways culture manifests.”

His content is very insightful and easy for most Americans to relate to.

https://www.youtube.com/c/JJMcCullough

Wisecrack – 3.05M Subscribers

Wisecrack is channel fixated on philosophy in a modern context. It has a diverse and entertaining cast of hosts break down the meta philosophies contained in many pop cultural phenomenon. Good titles include “SpongeBob: How Children Changed” and “Are Action Films Meaningful?” They also stream some pretty riveting podcasts in which they take discussion topic recommendations from viewers.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6-ymYjG0SU0jUWnWh9ZzEQ

I hope you will check out one if not all of these channels and that you see somethings which sparks your curiosity.

-August

#youtube #curiositystream #ww2 #wisecrack #legaleagle #legally blonde #marvel #pizzahut #companyman #firstpost