entry 2, essential q #2

[benseiter]

In a way I agree with Perry's comments. I believe that we all have our destinies, but we have a few opportunities in our lives where we pick different pathes which lead to different outcomes. I don't think we change our future lives with every little choice but the major, crucial decisions definitely play a factor with the outcome of our lives. I think Perry said this to Dick because it was his own way of justifying his action, be saying it wasn't in his power to change his life. He decides not to take responsibility for his actions so he doesn't feel bad for anything he does. Whether its killing dogs or people, neither have a sense of guilt. As seen in the book, people react to true crime in mainly two ways;they escape town and shut thenselves of from it or they are so interested that they want to help solve it. The sherrif in the book recieves meaningless messages because people want to help solve the crime. True crime attracts people in In "Cold Blood" and in America/western culture because of the sheer thrill and excitement, the need to know every clue, and solve thr crime to feel a sense of worth.

[16sellersn]

For the most part I disagree with Ben on his points. For one he talks of how he believes you are, for the most part, having you're life decided by faint. I believe that anyone can choose to live how they want. This goes back to the nurture vs. Nature. Someone can be in a bad place with bad people and surrounding and turn there life around. They have to choose that they want to live in a good way but they have the power to do so, nothing is holding them back. You must act in the way that you want to be remembered in and do what you believe to be as the best way of life. In the other part of Ben's post he talked about the love of true crime in America and the extreme emotions that ties people into them and I would say I agree with that 100%. But he talks about in the book of how people are trying to help solve the murder and are calling the investigator. Now a lot of the call are to help but many of them are also just people trying to get money. They are creating stories of their own just to say they're helping and to get the money. Money is a very bad thing in our society. It's a motivator that drives people to do thing that are against morals and it destroys people ethics, we can't trust a lot of things.

[ellievancuren]

I agree with Ben when he states that Perry uses his beliefs about the role fate plays in the outcomes of one's life to justify his actions. I also believe that he does this because he is unable to face the truth. He is too much of a coward to admit that he does these evil deeds because he wants to. He could also do this because he is afraid to stand up to Dick in fear that he will lose him. He was abandoned by his parents and after Willie Jay never showed up, he knows that Dick is all he has left and is worried that if he doesn't go along with Dick's plans and schemes then Dick might leave him behind. However I disagree with Noah when he claims that people have the power to turn their life around. In some cases, yes, they do. However, not all the time. Often times, ignorant people will ask "Why don't the homeless just stop being homeless?" When people are already living with barely the necessities, it is difficult for them to completely turn their lives around. Often times they are focused on getting enough food to eat and finding shelter to stay under. So yes, sometimes there are opportunities for people to change their fate and use these opportunities to make their lives better, however this is not always the case. I believe that, in this case, Perry could have changed his life around but he decided to stick with Dick because he would rather be a bad person with a companion than a decent human being without any one close to him.

[alextraylor]

I agree with Noah. Dick seems to be using this to defend his own actions and to help him mentally overcome anything that might happen to him that is negative. In addition this settles the philosophical issue of free will. Dick is saying that we have no choice in our destiny and therefore that we do not have free will. I truly believe that we have the choice to do good and bad things in our life including situations that are forced upon us. For example, situations like a economic depression can remove our money from us but we can still choose to make a good or bad choice from it. Like to honestly regain money through hard work or to steal. dick says that some things aren't in out control, and I agree with him... but that doesn't justify a wrong action.