Post by NeoEllis on Nov 23, 2004 16:12:04 GMT -5
The world, as you are likely aware, is in disarray. ‘What exactly is the source of this wrong doing?’, many have asked. The dogma that appears to be sweeping the United States would be that of a perceived lack of moral values, I disagree.
Swearing in Catcher in the Rye, violence in movies and on television, the backs of naked women, these things are not –at least not a faire degree- the corrosive factor effecting our society. No, it is much simpler.
The decay can be seen, in my opinion, in the degradation of the human spirit that cannot be found even in pornography (the sex drive is, after all, a vital force in our own procreation and perhaps more importantly, our own sanity).
It is found in bug eating on Fear Factor, immigrants jumping from boat to boat in Go for the Green, racing around the world enduring who knows what for a million dollars and Special Ed of Crank Yankers–these are, if anything, the factors that lubricate that slide to the bottom of our society.
Case in point: In my Collage Prep Writing class, we have been assigned group work to reflect on our time in high school. Many groups have taken to using video to supply the visual element of the project, and today was a day of displaying what we had to show for ourselves thus far. And so the groups marched, one by one, to the front of the large group instruction room to reveal their works, and so it came to one group’s project that I shall not soon forget. After taking a few minutes to figure out the video system, they showed their own video project.
Their designated topic was trends, yet the content was anything but. Choosing the to study the trends of the mentally handy-capped students who run the snack shop while there where no teachers in sight, the video largely consisted of a handful of jocks and rapper wannabes having fun at the expense of the handy-capped students. Condensedingly asking about their cloths, making jokes that they couldn’t understand, getting them to act ridiculously and so on; I doubt I’m describing the situation very well, but let me just say that it was degrading.
And so I asked myself, why? Why be so cruel? And so I answered myself; “It is human nature, human nature to elevate yourself above others to make yourself feel good.” Indeed this is human, indeed there is much that is great about humanity, but there is also much that is all too human.
Yes, we feel the need to protect ourselves when we are frightened, even if it means killing. This is why we allow our leaders to wage war, this is all too human.
Yes, we are afraid of dying, this is why cling to religion, rejecting the Earth from whence we came and the lives that we live on it. This is all too human.
Yes, we want to feel empowered, this is why we arrange ourselves into, nations, races and classes; to know where we stand above the others. This is all too human.
No doubt you know well enough yourself what is all too human, but how do you react to it? Many accept it, but I will not. If we truly do value ourselves as an advanced society, as a free society –as a society of people with more than the best, shiniest toys- then we will all work to overcome that which is all too human.
Swearing in Catcher in the Rye, violence in movies and on television, the backs of naked women, these things are not –at least not a faire degree- the corrosive factor effecting our society. No, it is much simpler.
The decay can be seen, in my opinion, in the degradation of the human spirit that cannot be found even in pornography (the sex drive is, after all, a vital force in our own procreation and perhaps more importantly, our own sanity).
It is found in bug eating on Fear Factor, immigrants jumping from boat to boat in Go for the Green, racing around the world enduring who knows what for a million dollars and Special Ed of Crank Yankers–these are, if anything, the factors that lubricate that slide to the bottom of our society.
Case in point: In my Collage Prep Writing class, we have been assigned group work to reflect on our time in high school. Many groups have taken to using video to supply the visual element of the project, and today was a day of displaying what we had to show for ourselves thus far. And so the groups marched, one by one, to the front of the large group instruction room to reveal their works, and so it came to one group’s project that I shall not soon forget. After taking a few minutes to figure out the video system, they showed their own video project.
Their designated topic was trends, yet the content was anything but. Choosing the to study the trends of the mentally handy-capped students who run the snack shop while there where no teachers in sight, the video largely consisted of a handful of jocks and rapper wannabes having fun at the expense of the handy-capped students. Condensedingly asking about their cloths, making jokes that they couldn’t understand, getting them to act ridiculously and so on; I doubt I’m describing the situation very well, but let me just say that it was degrading.
And so I asked myself, why? Why be so cruel? And so I answered myself; “It is human nature, human nature to elevate yourself above others to make yourself feel good.” Indeed this is human, indeed there is much that is great about humanity, but there is also much that is all too human.
Yes, we feel the need to protect ourselves when we are frightened, even if it means killing. This is why we allow our leaders to wage war, this is all too human.
Yes, we are afraid of dying, this is why cling to religion, rejecting the Earth from whence we came and the lives that we live on it. This is all too human.
Yes, we want to feel empowered, this is why we arrange ourselves into, nations, races and classes; to know where we stand above the others. This is all too human.
No doubt you know well enough yourself what is all too human, but how do you react to it? Many accept it, but I will not. If we truly do value ourselves as an advanced society, as a free society –as a society of people with more than the best, shiniest toys- then we will all work to overcome that which is all too human.