thursday

Wendell Pfeffer

1/30/14

            Now that I am really beginning to understand the novel I’m really starting to like it now. We discussed in class Dostoyevsky’s idea that an intelligent man cannot be successful only a stupid man can. I now understand this perfectly because Dostoyevsky relates this back to himself and his intelligence. He has such a high IQ that he can see both sides with clarity and thus cannot choose what path to take in life. While those people like us only choose one side or the other and once you choose that specific side you shut the other one out completely – Dostoyevsky cannot do that. Dostoyevsky also contemplates about his age and states that people who live beyond that age are “fools and worthless fellows.” When I was reading I thought he wrote this because he is too old and is not satisfied with his life or maybe he was just complaining how he never took the bold daring chance to become successful, which is why he his hating on himself. But no, now I know the meaning behind what he says. Dostoyevsky relates this back to Darwin’s theory of evolution and the circle of life. I can most easily relate this back to wild life or a herd of lions. If, perhaps, a member of the pack becomes to old to progress through the wild then all of the members of the pack leave it to die alone. The reason behind this is that they cannot have a member place a burden on the whole pack. So instead of taking care of the sick old member they leave it to die, which creates a stronger pack. Dostoyevsky relates this same idea with humans. If a person gets to old then the best choice would be for them to die because they become completely useless. Unfortunately, instead of allowing these sick old people to die quickly we are inventing ways to keep them alive which is a costly thing to do. The government should be pouring money into the new young generation, but they are diverting that money to the elderly and the result of that is we are getting weaker, slower, less powerful etc.