I thought it was really interesting in class today how we discussed the length at which people strongly believe that most of the change in their life is behind them after a certain point. A lot of people I know, especially before leaving for college, frequently expressed how afraid they were of the change, how they didn't want it, they wanted to go back to high school, etc. Even now, I have some friends who still lament over how much they miss high school. Yet, for a society that seems to fear change so much, we also seem to hold a lot of frustration towards mundane things. It seems that so many people in this society dread waking up, working 9 to 5, etc. Despite their unrest with their daily lives, they also don't welcome change, even if it could provide a better daily life than what they are currently experiencing. Humans are just fascinating creatures sometimes.

One of the concepts I had difficulty wrapping my mind around this week was female infanticide. I understand it is normal in patriarchal societies, as male babies are an economic advantage. However, when we were discussing it in class as a form of "birth control", I became stuck. Though we do have contraceptives available in the United States, the gender of any child can never be fully guaranteed. It made me think: even if contraceptives were available in these societies regardless, I feel as though infanticide would still be a widespread problem. I guess I just do not feel that infanticide as a form of birth control is the right way to phrase it.

I also wonder how society would stand if all parents made the decision to get rid of female infants. Eventually, there would be very few women, and then who would be there to give birth to the next generation? If there was a shortage of females due to infanticide, could that potentially be the basis for great societal change?

When we were discussing in class how the best politicians use enticement instead of force to get their points across, it made a lot of sense to me. I also can see how that would work religiously to gain a following. With the world evolving, it seems to becoming harder and more time-consuming to devoutly follow all of the rules any religion may have. I feel that perhaps one of the things that may draw so many to Wicca is that any practitioner can choose when and how they worship, and the rest of the time, they are free to live their lives as they see fit. In a way, I feel like Wicca as a religion entices people to practice in this way instead of telling any potential followers a list of rules they need to follow. I'm not trying to say that having many strict rules in a religion is a bad thing (it was actually very disconcerting to me when I began practicing that Wicca didn't have strict standards on how to live), I'm mostly thinking that perhaps it's becoming harder to find a balance between strictly obeying those rules and living in a modern world. 

Thoughts?