A Word on my Personal Utopia and a Public Apology

First of all, if you haven't noticed from my blog posts I am a "cup half full" kind of girl. I believe in the good in people and the world and genuinely think that love and compassion can go a long way in making a better place for us all to live. I try my best to be a good person and do good things and to not be offensive. I also have a dark cynical sarcastic side but I try to keep it contained. Not to say that I don't feed it every once and a while. Regardless, it was brought to my attention after class today, in an extremely inappropriate manner, that I may have offended some people with a comment that I made during our discussion. I just want to be clear and open and honest and set the record straight that my intention is never to be rude or disrespectful or to hurt anyone's feelings. And I am not exaggerating when I say that I think that people with good intentions who make even small steps or small sacrifices towards any positive outcome can make a difference in our world. Therefore I would not want to do anything to negate that ideal. I know that words can hurt and I am not in the business of hurting others.

Embrace Curiosity

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you haven't watched The Island.

 “You are special. You were chosen for a purpose.” The agnates are programmed to believe these lies while they stew in their pool of goop and await the day when they are “hatched” and prepared to be given over as an insurance policy. In a world where immortality is a lustrous possibility, there is a price tag for the potential opting out of dealing with body parts that will eventually fail. There is a place where “products” are made that store your own spare parts for when your body gets too old or too broken to function at its prime. 

And who am I to judge? Honestly, who really wants to die of kidney failure at thirty five? Or be infested with irreplaceable cancerous organs at fifty with no foreseeable future. I can totally understand the allure in this grand scheme. Until of course you realize that these “products” are living, breathing, feeling, and functioning members of their own miniature society. Or, until you are faced with the sad reality of watching their excitement over getting a chance to go to “The Island.” The child-like innocence of these people only adds to the horror once you realize that they aren’t going to a tropical island, but to a butcher shop. 

In this extremely controlled environment the people in charge attempt to keep the “products” from feeling emotions by monitoring proximity and the level of human interaction or the depth of relationships, but with Lincoln the dominos come crumbling down. Lincoln is curious. And that in a sense is the root of the “problem.” His curiosity pushes him to make observations and ask questions that aren’t expected of him. It’s interesting that curiosity is one main thing that is often limited or controlled in the utopias that we’ve studied. By limiting access to books, education, and cultural experiences people are less likely to realize what is missing in their daily lives. The control certainly goes to an extreme in this movie, but still fails in the end. The circumstances in this movie leave viewers to question, what does it mean to be human? What parts make up a complete person? Are there pieces that are more important than others? Are there pieces that can be left out? We also might ask ourselves what extent would we be willing to go to in order to save our own lives? It might seem frustrating at first, but being left with a multitude of questions is a good thing. It’s good to be curious. 

Image #1:  http://lydia.bradley.edu/hilltopics/11winter/images-features/home-aging.jpg

Image #2: http://i2.listal.com/image/4187973/600full-the-island-screenshot.jpg

Image #3:http://www.thezooom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Be-curious-Albert-Einstein-240x357.jpg

The Future of Thinking

It’s a scary thought to consider the possibility of someone knowing the inner workings of your mind before they manifest into reality. In fact, many things about this future are intimidating and cause one to be fearful. Imagine “driving” home in your car and being re-routed to an alternate destination based on wherever those in charge want or need you to be. And there is no off switch; you have no control over the situation. Unless of course you want to pull a Tom Cruise and bust out of the window and risk your life in oncoming traffic. Or imagine walking into a store where there is a scanner that detects your identity and immediately begins to speak to you personally about your purchasing history. It’s creepy, and an invasion of privacy. Not to mention the invasion of privacy that occurs when tiny electronic spiders enter your home and interrupt your daily life in order to scan your eyes to ensure your identity. But, is it all in part to keep the people safe? And if it is, does that make it okay?

 The most promising argument that I found in the film for the implementation of the pre-crime initiative was this basic conversation: “Why did you catch that ball? … Because it was going to fall.” Basically, if you know something is going to happen, and you can prevent it then why wouldn’t you? But, the problem here is how do you know for certain that it will happen? We realize in the movie that it comes down to the split second and people have free will and the ability to choose differently and to not commit an act that they may have thought about. It goes back to people being in charge of their own destiny. People are capable of making the right decision in the end despite previous negative or violent thoughts. The pre-cog tells the chief, “You know your own future, which means you can change it if you want to.” In a world where people with good intentions attempt to rid the smaller society of DC from murder, there is the ever-present reality that the system is flawed because it is human. This reminds us that although we are prone to be flawed and we don’t always make the right choices, that there is always the possibility of the opposite. In this movie they allow that possibility to outweigh the risk. We are left with a remotely uplifting ending for a change. 

Image #1: http://www.tomcruise.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/tom-cruise-minority-report-leap.jpg

Image #2: http://3dguy.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/billboard500.jpg

Image #3: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikAxOpiUmu_dsIOAv-xaSeHi-H9dmVncxOc2LmSGxikUlQyiieTThOc9BaXr98h8nipmhJsawyvn75OXc211rcsB2x_Ke3ru2tN34dq3mS2TJwL2YTeekeF4uSaNL_tINVos4iL7GL_wDY/s1600/minority_report.jpg

Image #4: http://www.blogcdn.com/www.switched.com/media/2011/03/precogbooks.jpg

The Borrowed Ladder and Our Society's Climb

The opening screen of Gattaca offers this Bible verse from Ecclesiastes: “Consider God’s handiwork, who can straighten what He hath made crooked?”  This line deepens in meaning as the movie progresses. First of all, in this world of the “not too-distant future,” God rarely gets the chance to make anything “crooked.” When a married couple decides that they want to conceive a child they do so in a way that ensures that the child will have the best “parts” of both of the parents. The geneticist wipes out any markers for potential shortcomings in the child’s future. Luckily, the viewers are given the opportunity to follow Vincent who will “never know what possessed [his] mother to put her fate in God’s hands rather than that of the local geneticist.” [Insert mixed feelings rant about the reality of our own current scientific ability to control the genetic make-up of babies in-utero. The pros and cons and the scary possibility of what the future may hold and the difficult decisions forced upon expecting parents.] Vincent’s perspective allows us to see the hardship of this position in their society as well as the possibility of success that can be realized when someone decides to fight for his/her self. 

                                                                               OR 

As we watch Vincent who refuses to abide by the genetic caste system that is put into place by his society, we cannot help but take a good look around our own society and evaluate the state that we are in. How different does our own world appear? I’m not shouting from one side or the other, but is it really that different to offer jobs based on college pedigree? When Vincent goes to his “interview” they take a blood sample and thus the interview process is concluded and he is hired. Isn’t that similar to what happens when someone applies to a job who has graduated from Harvard, Yale or Brown? And isn’t it a perpetual cycle? Typically Harvard attendees are not students who were raised without a wealth of resources. In real life it is the exception to pull yourself up by “your boot straps” and climb from the gutter of poverty into the seat at an Ivy League school. This one simple similarity causes us to search for and point out many other similarities between Vincent’s world and our own. Then we are left to question our comfort level with the similarities and our urge to be active in taking a stand against them. 

Things change for Vincent when he and his brother Anton play “chicken” in the ocean and Vincent wins. Realizing that it was not genetically predetermined for Anton to always win helped Vincent to realize that he could rebel against the system and prove everyone wrong (even if they wouldn’t be aware of it). Vincent realizes that HE is in control of his destiny, not his DNA! This is a lesson that many people, myself included, could benefit from learning. Maybe it isn’t your DNA that is holding you back, but in general we could all use the reminder that we are in control of our everyday lives and choices. Yes, some of us may believe that there is someone Greater that is inevitably in control, but we must make a conscious effort to ensure that we are even living up to the potential that He has placed in us. 

We may be frighteningly close to this “not too-distant future,” but we have not entirely landed there yet. So while we still have the fighting chance, let’s not “save anything for the swim back!” 

Image #1: http://grumpyelder.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/baby-gift-from-God.jpg

Image #2: http://d3gqasl9vmjfd8.cloudfront.net/80d33999-091d-461d-a269-c0ddec8ee887.png

Image #3: http://huttshead.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/rags-to-riches.png

Image #4:  http://s3.amazonaws.com/win-forever-blog/2012/08/DESTINY.png

Image #5: http://xc2.xanga.com/ca9e1bf0c2635279112399/z222339924.jpg

The Meaning of One Life

I would be extremely self-assured and pompous if I claimed to hold the key that unlocks the box that contains all that is wrong in our society. I do not assume that my meager understanding of the motives that drive humans to commit horrible acts is sufficient enough to rationalize or even comprehend the suffering in our world.

 However, as I delved deeper into this Brave New World, I found many alarming similarities between our actual modern society and the fictional one imagined by Huxley. The most poignant and alarming section that stood out to me personally was when John attempted to mourn over the loss of his mother Linda. In disgust of John’s emotions the narrator comments, “As though death were something terrible, as though any one mattered as much as all that” (206). This simple sentence immediately brought my sensibilities to all of the senseless deaths that occur on a daily basis because of violence, poverty, hunger, and disease. I was convicted over the lack of acknowledgement given to one life especially in underdeveloped countries. 

Is it the overpopulation of our planet and the all-consuming society that we live in that allows us to overlook or not mourn for the individual deaths that occur every second? Or is it the sheer mass of suffering that keeps us from being able to process or acknowledge the individual losses. Especially those not directly related to our own personal lives. I just can’t help but believe that the world would be a better place if more people reacted to sad events, suffering, or loss like John and less people reacted like the twins. If we took the time to process the emotions that attach themselves to the suffering that exists in our world perhaps we would be motivated to work together towards an answer. Perhaps if we realized that “one life does matter as much as all that,” then we would work harder to preserve that life and to ensure that future lives to come are afforded a chance at happiness and health. 

In this new world, “The greatest care is taken to prevent you from loving anyone too much” (237). I think that in our own world that we could benefit from loving ourselves more as well as those that we share this world with. If we focus on improving our own self-worth it will encourage us to value others more as well. Overcome with the emotion of his loss John realizes and demands, “I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin”  (240). All of these things are small parts of our daily lives that we take for granted. Essentially, choice is the common thread behind John’s list of demands. My argument is that if we choose to see the value in a single human life, and choose to place importance on that life that we will be making the choice to make a “better new world.” 

Image #1:  http://www.cone10studios.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/pandoras-box.jpg

Image #2: http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/2nbaAYBR_DU/mqdefault.jpg

Image #3: http://www.onelifearlington.org/resources/OneLife2.jpg

Image #4: http://www.dctigertalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/self-worth-tattoo.jpg