Jason Miller
Jason Miller
Ancient philosophers pondered about the meaning of life. They believed that time will show the world the answer. Little did these foolish philosophers know that with the progression of time comes the evolution of technology. The answers that were so strongly sought after have become even more elusive. Society is plummeting towards not destruction of the physical being but towards destruction of the inner human being. The authors Bill McKibben and M.C. Ware have attempted to remove the veil that is our meaningless life, but it is not up to them to save the inner-self, it is up the individual to do so.
McKibben first attempts to expose the dangerous path that society is treading on by pointing out the harms of genetically engineering our children. Several times he brings up the concept of running on a treadmill. If the children of the future are manufactured to run a certain distance the challenge is removed. Genetic engineering removes the obstacle thus making the “treadmill” an inner device. No matter how hard you run there is no personal accomplishment, you are stuck running for no purpose.
Ware’s ideas of hopelessness correspond somewhat to McKibben. Although Ware does not touch the topic of genetic engineering, he does relate how technology has become a damaging role in everyday lives. When Amy asks Jimmy Corrigan what he likes to do with his spare time, the only response he can muster up is I like movies. As lame as this statement sounds it is in the book for a reason; it portrays the state that society is in.
Unfortunately the rest of my paper was accidently deleted by my roommate. It’s a very long story but to whoever is commenting on my paper, I apologize for the lack of content but I am planning on changing most of it for Monday.
3 comments:
I like how you open up with insulting the great minds of the ancient world. Say remove the veil over our meaningless lives instead of remove the veil that is our meaningless lives. And like you say in the next paragraph isnt McKibben trying to show us that we are on the path to being meaningless, not believing it is meaningless now, he actually believes strongly that we can have meaning, and that we should. M.C. Ware seems to believe that noone really has any meaning and that we are infinitely alone.
Obviously you are going to need more examples in the second paragraph but I understand that youre not finished.
I think the link between Ware and McKibben being that he talks about how he likes movies is a weak one. Try to come up with something more solid in how they are similar.
So really you need to work on your thesis statement, because Mckibben believes in the potential for meaning, Ware shows how futile our existences are.
Giovanni - funny response, but also a good one
Jason - I found your introduction very confusing - you are juggling several potentially interesting threads in an unclear way, without (as G. points out) really ending up with a clear thesis.
Then, as for the rest of it - it's vague to the point of nonexistence. I guess you never got a chance of redoing the rest of it...
Jason Miller
Out of Focus
Ancient philosophers pondered about the meaning of life for ages. They believed that time will show the world the answer. Little did these foolish philosophers know that with the progression of time comes the evolution of technology. The answers that were so strongly sought after have become even more elusive. Society is plummeting towards not destruction of the physical being but towards destruction of the inner human being. The authors M.C. Ware and Bill McKibben desire to remove the veil on how technology is diluting the purpose of our lives, both authors however feel that there is hope for the world.
In M.C. Ware’s comic book titled Jimmy Corrigan, Ware subtly hints at how monotone our lives have become. When the main character, Jimmy Corrigan, is asked near the end of the story what he likes to do for fun all he can say is “I like to go see movies….” This statement came after several frames of Jimmy pondering the question. The sad part about this statement is that if people were asked the same question in real life, watching movies would be a fairly common answer. Instead of running or doing something productive we depend on frivolous technology to give us happiness. In a previous portion of the book, Jimmy Corrigan’s father makes a suggestion on what they can do for fun. The first suggestion is, yes you guessed it, watching a movie. Then again, what else can a son and father do for fun (keep in mind neither of them have seen each other their entire life)? Catching up and getting to know one another will have to wait for the credits to roll by because movies always ride shotgun in life.
Ware continues to criticize societies’ through the use of color in the book. From the get go the book exhibits dull and boring colors. The sky is not sky blue; it is a dull faded blue. Faded is the best way to describe all the colors in this book. Wade chooses these colors because he is attempting to show everyone that our lives have become faded. The only sign of hope in this book is near the end when Jimmy Corrigan is contemplating suicide. Jimmy is sitting in his office in the dark, staring at the cold, gray sky when a small desk lamp is turned on. Some say that the light is Jimmy Corrigan’s last chance for happiness but what most people don’t realize is that this entire scene is a message to the world. The office represents the dead-end routine we’ve thrown ourselves into. Jimmy’s thoughts of suicide portray the easy way out, the way that society has taught us to go. The desk lamp and the new employee show us that there is always more than one option, and that maybe the easy way out isn’t the only way out.
Another author, one whose book lacks pictures of any kind, points out the treacherous path that society is treading on. His name is Bill McKibben. McKibben wrote book titled Enough, which focuses on how technology, specifically genetic engineering, is taking the meaning away from the meaning of life. Before the book was even open I noticed two things on the cover. The first thing was that some words, like staying human, were blurred or out of focus. A second, more subtle characteristic of the book was that on the right side, where it is says Engineered Age. The background is black but the words are in focus and very legible. I think what McKibben is trying to do here is to show that as we enter the “Engineered Age,” we will lose focus of what it means to really be alive.
McKibben puts this perspective into a more user-friendly version on page fifty three. He says “The self consciousness of society is like a mask. We are born to wear it (McKibben 53).” McKibben is trying to tell us that with each new generation of life comes a new generation of diluted values. Often times we see students going into certain fields for monetary reasons. This route is actually encouraged by their parents because more money is equal to more happiness. What this basically means is that society should base their lives after Rupert Murdoch instead of the life of Ghandi. Despite his strong accusations that society is already corrupt, McKibben believes that if there is we set a limit to how far technology can go we will be able to remain intact with our values.
Both authors point out that society is in a bad state. Our lives are in danger of becoming an empty vortex of despair and loneliness. If and only if we become aware of the state that we’re in we can salvage our lives.
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