Best of the Week: Long-term thinking

In my opinion, the best thought this week came about on Friday when we had current events. I believe it was Mr. Allen who said "Long-term thinking will be the death of Americans." This comment really made me think.
In an age of instant gratification and technology, everything we want is at the tip of our finger tips. But when were forced to think about something that may or may not happen in the future we tend to put it off - worldwide procrastination.
When Mr. Allen said this he was referring to America becoming greener, and implementing green solutions, so the challenges of the next generation have a less burdening task. Unfortunately, it seems that America has been leading this very shameful evolution of stripping resources, and when asked to deal with this problem, we ever-so-easily place it in the hands of tomorrow’s generations. Has our thinking become so clouded that the petty problems of today overshadow the life-changing challenges of tomorrow? It seems that this crisis in thinking has created a worldwide imbalance of priorities. Have we put short-term problems at the top of our 'to-do' list?
It’s unfortunate, because it seems we see this trend even in Washington. A graph in 2007 showed the amount of money it took to put 1 man on the moon, as compared to the amount of money given to promote clean energy. Quite easily, money to put man in space surpassed money for clean energy by tens of millions. In addition, only 2% of the 3,500 clean energy research proposals were accepted by Congress, an amount too small to begin the kind of green innovation Congress is looking for. And the small margin of proposals that were accepted came from large, established companies, whose voices have been heard much already.
So, I guess the really issue here is prioritizing long-term challenges. And getting America to go-along with this may be a challenge. However, some healthy competition may be the answer. China recently proposed new plans for massive clean energy developments and programs, becoming the world’s leader of clean energy. This kind of competition, much like the kind that prompted the US space race with Russia, may be what it takes for America to get serious about long-term thinking and the environment.

Best of the Week: Nike video

The Nike video we watched in class I found very interesting and thought-provoking, but the reason why I choose it as the 'Best of the Week' was because it confused me. Even now, I cannot fully wrap my mind around it, but that's exactly the reason why I found it so compelling. An underlying message of the Nike video was the idea of 'the system', which revolves around capitalism, big business, monopolies, and extreme manipulation.
I recently came across a term called 'frame analysis', and for those of you who don't know, it refers to a social scientist group that studies how people understand situations and activities in their surroundings. A man named Jim Kuypers used frame analysis to look at trends of media during history, and the public response to it. As he conducted research, he concluded that these 'frames' force the human mind to filter we think as reality and prioritize it. Thus, some of these 'perceptions of reality' are made more noticeable than others.
Thus, what I’ve gathered from this, is that the media has manipulated our perceptions of reality and the ‘frames’ in our mind, that we have been forced to prioritize their messages as superior. And how? How does media have the power to do that? I believe it’s through their use of the system. Every big business, every corporation has gotten it down to a routine. They’ve used every trick in the book to finally produce a formula so manipulative and sneaky, that has the ability to force our minds to think a certain way. Wow.
In addition, the Nike commercial showed me just how hard it is to escape ‘the system’, even if we tried, everything ‘the system’ has taught us is so engrained, it seems almost impossible to resist. Just like in the poem “A Work of Artifice” the last line reads, “…the hand you love to touch,” suggesting that every man is manipulating his wife, even if he loves her. It’s subconscious, just the way the media is.
In conclusion, I choose the best of the week as the Nike video because of its thought-provoking content and beautiful, yet eerie substance. The media has been something that has always fascinated me, and encountering this unit, the whole idea of ‘the system’ has caused me to think on a whole different level, and make me look at the numerous perspectives of it.

Connection: Postmodernism (H.O.D.) and Education

As I was thinking about the many aspects of postmodernism portrayed in Heart of Darkness, I began thinking about how postmodernist ideas have influenced education, and to what effect?
In this age of time, it appears that education has become an instrument of power and control. The social analyst Robin Usher claims that education has been manipulated in such a way that instead of being centered around becoming educated and learned students, we are told "what to do, how to behave, what ends to pursue and by what means". The manipulator: the capitalist society. The motive: to gain power and control and to legitimize authority.
Education has become a conducting device for life.
The idea of a manipulative education underlines Hegel's philosophy; that we do not know the absolute truth. In this crisis, what is the absolute truth? In my opinion, it's the voice of the students that is the absolute truth, but it is being covered by the 'voices' we are told to immitate.In addition, Hegel emphasized that language forms people. In this case, its the controling, manipulative language that is influenceing todays generations. As a result, the products of this type of 'false-education' are automatic machines reproducing the thoughts shoved down into their throats by the capitalist society.
So, how to fix such a dilema?
Unveiling the aboslute truth. In my opinion, the answer is allowing students to express their own language and resist the cliche thoughts of society. While there are only afew, outlets for creativity can help todays generations escape the grasp of society. These outlets can take the form of poetry, music, or writing.
Thus, I feel that while the obvious things like industries and monopolies have fueled the capitalist society, there are also the less-obvious works that have been fueling it just as much. These less-obvious works tend to be the one's that hurt us the most. If we want to stop the production of capitalist students, we have to foster individual thoughts and freedom, and maybe then we will finally reveal the truth.