Mr. Girard and Geoff Rowe
Hello,
readers of the Imprint blog. I, Duncan McLeod, have taken it upon myself to ask
the hard questions to various teachers and students, these questions being of
course, ones of deep philosophical nature.
For this article, my five questions focus around the concept of
perfection, such as utopia, and my interviewees were the esteemed Mr. Girard,
Physics and Chemistry teacher extraordinaire, and Geoff Rowe, snare drummer and
student beyond compare. So follows here
the five questions and ten answers provided to your unhumble philosopher,
Duncan McLeod.
Mr.
Girard was asked: “Do you believe that a utopia or its opposite, a dystopia,
could truly exist in this world?” His reply: “No, the way the world has been
structured so far, it seems to me to be something we cannot actually
achieve.” I then asked if we are closer
to, a dystopia or utopia, and his opinion on this was varied, stating we are
closer to a “dystopia, but on some levels of society closer to a utopia.” I proceeded to ask if a permanent world peace
could exist, and he replied in a manner shadowing his answer to the first
question. “Based on human history,” he said, “I don’t think that could ever
happen.” The fourth of the questions
asked was “Can a perfect being exist?” To
this, he replied “an individual, yeah. It is rare, but possible.” And the fifth and final questions asked was
that of “If such a form of perfection can be achieved, how many paths in life
lead there, is there only one path?” and he responded stating that it was
“definitely not one path … It would be a long path.” He ended on the
bittersweet optimistic statement of “we gotta live life hoping.”
To
the student Geoff Rowe the same questions were asked, and his answers were
recorded just the same. When asked if he
believed if a utopia or a dystopia could exist, he responded claiming “yes,
though it would be unlikely to last particularly long,” and in answer to the
second of the queries, he responded that he does believe we are closer to a dystopic society, and did not elaborate further. When he was asked if he felt that a permanent
world peace could exist under any circumstances, he claimed that “perhaps a
long lasting peace, but it would eventually come to an end.” As to the possibility of a perfect being, he
believes strongly that it is possible, though whether he feels that there has
been such a person he refused to say.
And as to the paths by which one might achieve world peace, utopia, or
perfection, he states that if it is possible, there is an infinite number of
paths.
Glossary
of potentially confusing terms and words used above:
- utopia: a perfect society, a paradise
- dystopia: a flawed society, a horrible place
- extraordinaire: a person of great regard
within a field (term of respect and admiration)
- shadowing: used here to mean resembling,
or alike to
- bittersweet optimistic statement:
something positive with some negative interpretations
- queries: questions
