Maturing into Men, and role models?

[Blacksheepboy]

A good friend in my programming class has great grades in all courses, knows more about networks than the networking students, runs several servers at home and has a part time job as some sort of network administrator. This while finding time to co-run the student pub, manage school LAN parties and having a sweet, funny and amazing girlfriend. He's handsome in a rugged way, fit and plays everything cool. He's great in every game and makes a ton of money to buy cutting-edge hardware and gadgets. He invents all kinds of cool expressions that I end up copying because they're so funny and awesome. He's very social and dresses himself so badass like a gangster.

If it's not just a man crush, then I want to be like him when I grow slightly older.

Holy shit, he's a living paradox. I could not do all that and still be cool.

[Farah]

immanuel kant

critique of pure reason is absolutely fascinating. helps a lot with building an epistemic foundation.

[Svirin Kerath]

I don't know about that "modern" interpretation.

It's called Man of La Mancha. While the interpretation is 'loose', Dulcinea's existence outside of Quixote's mind, and how he affects her and Sancho, and by extension Cervantes affects the other political prisoners, gives validation to his beliefs, and his quest, which Quixote ultimately dies for. He is a man who clings to ideals and practices that, while outdated in a dark and cynical world, are still 'good,' and their goodness alone is his reason for continuing to abide by them. His unique perspective, while often making him appear a naive fool, also grant him the ability to see and understand the deeper beauty inherent in what may ultimately seem to be mundane or dirty things. He sees the world in an imaginative, almost childlike way, yet he takes his 'quest' very seriously. Cervantes sympathizes with this man, and his real-life problems are made subject in the play, as Cervantes was tried, and most historians agree the charges were completely fabricated due to political reasons, for fraud.

In many parts of the book Cervantes challenges the Inquisition and the predjudice against the Moores, or Muslims, while his stories also took a hard look at class distinction. In a time when nobles were still seen as socially and morally superior to peasants, Cervantes' portrayal of them as arrogant and manipulative, especially towards Quixote and Sancho in the second book, was risky, and one could even say his challenges to the injustice of the social situation at the time was 'Quixotic.'

I feel it's important not to lose sight of the things that are really important, the things that we found our ideals and base our principles on, even when it may seem naive or childish to cling to them. Ultimately, you can be 'mature,' but if you lose sight of your humanity, then you really are not mature, just jaded.

[Demonic]

I've heard it being said in philosophy classes a lot that modern philosophy is mere commentary to Plato, and I'm inclined to think that much of our literature is mere commentary to Cervantes.

In a mad world, it is only fit for us to have bat shit insane role models. Don Quixote qualifies.

[Blacksheepboy]

In a mad world, it is only fit for us to have bat s**t insane role models. Don Quixote qualifies.

You're chasing windmills with that sort of ideology.

[Demonic]

In a mad world, it is only fit for us to have bat s**t insane role models. Don Quixote qualifies.

You're chasing windmills with that sort of ideology.

I see what you did there, and I counter with the humble question of 'Do you have any better ideas, chief?'.