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View Full Version : AOWL CONTENDER MATCH: zygote (4-1) vs. UnbornBuddha (5-2) [zygote wins, 4-1.]


King Ra.
12-02-2014, 03:30 AM
AOWL Season IV, Week 9


OFFICIAL RULES:

Verses are due Saturday, December 6th, 11:59p.m. PCT/2:59a.m. EST/7:59a.m. UK. There are NO extensions.

Verses MUST be a minimum 10 lines or a maximum of 48 lines (or 650 words).

Votes are due Tuesday, December 9th, 11:00p.m. PCT/8p.m. EST/4a.m. UK. Failure to vote will result in automatic sign out for the next week.


TOPIC: Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler. - Friedrich Nietzsche.





Good luck. zygote UnbornBuddha

zygote
12-04-2014, 09:53 PM
A CLS CRITIQUE OF FORMALISM/OBJECTIVISM IN COMMON LAW JURISPRUDENCE.

Justice should not be convenient.
Formalism is the rigid application interpretation of the law through precedent. In my view, this is simple expedience.
I agree with Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. who stated that, “The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience.”
I will argue in this essay that reason isn’t always reasonable and logic isn’t always logical,
because regardless of strict formalism, during decision making our internal emotional calculus is unstoppable.
I will present three critiques; each addressed in order, one paragraph per idea that’s essential and central.
Formalism will be critiqued using emotional approaches from individual, theoretical and societal levels.

On an individual level, current formalist legal thought prioritizes objectivity.
In that rational and rigid consistency establishes validity and reliability.
Formalists favor the application of past precedent to present facts.
Formalists hold that if this application is consistent, justice will be left intact.
However, the law is not applied by machines. The law is not a fully enclosed system.
The law is applied by well learned jurists. Yet, these are jurists who are only men and women.
Men and women who are human beings. Individuals with personalities and emotions.
Jurists first decide on their rationale, and only then are precedents summarily chosen.
This application of precedent only gives the illusion of order. Individual bias abounds.
Jerome Frank expressed it best: “Somehow or other, there are plenty of precedents to go around.”

On a theoretical level, formalism is the search for a method of repeatable deduction from a complete system of rules,
Yet this is an illusion as varied circumstances require differing applications of judicial views.
For example, consider this simplistic critique using the allegory of the one armed swimmer,
In a race containing many able-bodied swimmers, a one armed swimmer was declared the winner –
A lawyer came in second and contested. The race’s decision didn’t stand,
because precedent stated that competitors must touch the finishing wall with both hands.
The folly of blind application of precedent without consideration to each factual matrix is plain,
Application of precedent requires consideration of the public policy to which the facts pertain.

On a societal level, all humans are influenced by ingrained cultural norms and ethnocentric bias,
Social conditioning permeates our thought from childhood, as evident in developmental science.
These accepted states of discourse aren’t negative or positive, they exist on a macro-level, above us.
In law they can exacerbate disadvantage. See - patriarchal systems and financial superstructures.
Precedent by its very nature serves the status quo. Change under this system is often very small.
The strictly so-called ‘Rule of Law’ can be criticized to its very core, for, who originally made all of these laws?
How did the precedent arise, this very precedent which our present jurists so readily apply?
Who first derived these concepts that are so staunchly entrenched and rigidly defined?
It was someone operating from a position influenced by their own subjective opinion,
An opinion formed partly through reason but also partly through emotional decision.

In conclusion, formalists ground themselves in notions of reason and applied objectivity,
Yet our ingrained emotional states saturate all levels of life consistently.
It was famously claimed that thoughts are like shadows on the walls of a cave. As much is plain,
If our thoughts are like shadows, our emotions create these shadows. Our emotions are the flames.

UnbornBuddha
12-06-2014, 02:49 AM
“A Western and Oriental comparison in consciousness”

Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler.


Master Mencius always made the grandest entrance.
A Zhou Chinese scholar able to read Sanskrit letters.
A photographic memory enabled him to recite the Annals perfect.
“Students, who have gathered here, call it purpose
Awakening is shedding light to every shadow present.
The solar plexus stretches to engulf dark matter remnants
Until, the darkness of your soul grasps its essence,
The burden in the conscious of a phantom lessens.
To heal my heritage, I must pass grandfather’s lesson;
Gather respect by repenting to my past ancestors.
Ugliness dispelled, I am left a handsome devil.
Inflamed nerves cool, through visualizing autumn weather.
Attachments sever; subsequent catharsis purifies miasma’s resin
Poisons become lotus pedals; the state of Nirvana mellow.
Opening my heart vessels, my throat chakra trembles.
Hot and septic lungs heal, as hope disturbs cancer’s dwelling.
Black phlegm vaporizes into the cosmos webbing, mass redemption.
Venom of the mind is purged from the body’s rectum
The spirit’s anima is replenished taking the antidote one is destined.
Inhale Mana by the megalith, quell the animal like temperaments.
Cognizance is the scepter of man, giving the senses their depth;
The sensual component we associate to what renders the flesh.
Untrained neurotransmitters are the receptors of sin.
Uncontrolled they fetter and win the better of men.”
Mencius displaying his transcendence, surrendered to death.


Now I shall read to you Greek & Latin excerpts.
“Know thyself”, is the basis of the Socratic Method
Derived from his ancestors performing shamanic blessings
So in truth, it can be called the Socratic relic.
A systematic process Plato advocated through pragmatic ethics.
Instinctual drive becomes a fulcrum of our adolescence.
Psycho sclerosis makes the mind of an adult restless.
Seeking a moment of peace one swallows pellets
Numbing oneself,
Convinced you’re an indestructible atomic weapon.
When in truth you’re just a coffin, camphor scented.
Morals develop as we become attached to heaven.
Ultimately, forgetting this vast dimension span is endless.
Aristotle apprentices state: that it expands till’ empty.
Sentiments make us give meaning to what we value precious.
Nietzsche, being the skeptic he was, took the Socratic Method,
Studied its classic tenets, setting the tone for his sarcastic message.
Where he poked fun at the esoteric language of prophetic tablets
Writing “God is dead” over and over as an ascetic practice
Tertiary syphilis caused Friedrich encephalitic madness.
To overcome his medical challenge, he opted to fill a poetic canvass
Sick himself, he only saw the ills of this very planet
Of existence itself… trans-humanistic nihilism,
A viewpoint seeing the Universe an evil prison.


I posit to you, is self-gnosis the ability to answer questions,
Even when asked by the likes of a man like Tesla?
Or is gnosis a transcendence of the tactile senses?
If the former is right, then you should have an answer to the latter question.
If the latter is correct, then you should have your body’s capsule bested.
Guessing separates one from the Logos,
A highly bestowed force to the Sophists.
But, a mere tool in the codex of Stoics.
Feeling or thinking, which one is the ladder to Eden?
Feeling caused Romeo and Juliet to have a dagger between them.
Each particle fleeting, ignoramuses argue one over the other.
Conversely, passions make you obsessively ponder your lover.
Defending what you think- makes everything you mutter seem stubborn.
A slave to your hunger, no wonder you suffer.
The disaster the physical shuttle goes under,
Is but a slight blunder to recovering further.
Until, mental and emotional suffering over.

Arid
12-06-2014, 12:25 PM
Academia in the house...

Zygote, well presented. Your verse read like an essay, as I'm sure you intended. What stands out most is the structure, I could see a college prof giving this an A-, only because profs don't truck with such frivolous elements as rhyme. Your arguments were explained well, and you didn't embellish beyond making it rhyme. The concept of precedent vs. realistic assessment of fact is compelling, and you demonstrate the illogical application of precedent very clearly.

UnbornBuddha, illusive. I understand your comparative model, but I'm not finding a conclusion to draw here. Your wording was easier to comprehend than I've seen from you before, only a couple of phrases had me scratching my head. The first segment seemed to paint a better picture of eastern philosophy than the second was able to convey western philosophy. The examples you chose in the second part seemed like snapshots compared to the more fully developed portrait of the eastern master.

It's tough to choose here. This battle felt like a school day.

Vote-Zygote. His tightly developed essay left me with a sense of completion that UB fell just short of. I get it that Unborn tackled a concept with more room for interpretation, but even within that broader framework, the examples he presented didn't form as solid a study of the topic as Zyg.

Spoken
12-07-2014, 12:30 AM
Zygote- the gist that u used this as a essay was brilliant. Pure spoken word. Nothing to over the top but just at the right medium to make this verse read fluid. The content laid perfection and wording was used precisely. The knowledge u presented in this was just the perfect touch and it kept me on the edge... would I have asked for a little umph. .. In the rhyme maybe but for the approach u took doesn't need that formality and expressed the verse with such brilliance man.

Unborn- I honestly loved this verse better than the last 2 I read from you. You staggered with the emotion but it sort of felt like it was on purpose. The right setting u waited to go all in which was after ur breaker leading to the second stanza.. u went in with ur content and diction and created a nice image and detail paid well.

Both of u stayed consistent and then surprisingly by z ' 3rd stanza and also but unborn 3rd stanza ya both picked up expeditiously and just laid it all out in a sense. This is a hard choice and both went in and held to each such great work. At the end of the day I have to go with creativity and who entered to that extreme to display it eloquently. I got zygote.

Pent uP
12-08-2014, 11:10 PM
Zyg - strong ender. Opener was completely unnecessary. The entire verse can be summarized in this quote from sage francis: justice is the whim of a judge. As far as the topic it was a stretch-take on it because it was only conveyed at the end. The second argument (theory) was written the best, however (as per pattern) the allegories you use are just old anecdotes. Still the level of creativity is high.

Buddha -- thats a lot to digest. There hints of Zygs style here....or your style in Zyg? I dont know but it was interesting. Either way, the first stanza was a lot more specific than the second. I liked the second stanza more because it allowed me to connect the dots my own way (I suppose). I think the ending is where you stifled though, it felt like you were forcing your decision unto me as opposed to continuing to let me decide. In that sense, at the same time, that is a solid subtext to the topic. Very strong showing - stellar mechanics and approach.

BoTW in my opinion, and its hard for me to decide but in the end I must decide.

vote - Buddha. ..

timeless
12-09-2014, 08:58 PM
v. zygote

unborn came with his best verse all season, imo, but zyg came with probably my favorite verse so far this season. both seem to be out of their norm a tad when it comes to style but zyg took this easy.

Certain
12-10-2014, 02:56 AM
UnbornBuddha: The first stanza didn't add enough to justify itself. Instead you threw your readers for a boring loop around a professorial lecture. But the last stanza was really strong, some good thoughts that perhaps could have been worded a bit less upright but still effective. You've improved a lot in this league, especially with regards to rhyme scheme. This was a verse worthy of the contender match.

zygote: The content here was as good as any this season. The organization and tone were great, and I liked the approach to the topic. My only complaint at all is that I wish you had done more with the rhyme scheme and cadence. I think you could have cut a few syllables out of a few lines and made it work. UnbornBuddha definitely had you in that realm. Still, your execution was on another level from his.

Vote: zygote