Good and Meaningful life (final paper)

Through the ages people have had many different beliefs on what is a good and meaningful life. Though the question arises what is a good and meaningful life? Often people’s perceptions on what is a good and meaningful life are influenced by the things in our every day lives. But there are also those that do not follow the dominant messages and define what is meaningful to them by the marginal and prohibited stuff in our culture. Corporate culture causes us to be puppets controlled by the strings of dominant and marginal messages making us have little control over our ideas on what is a good and meaningful life.

In my life right now I am surrounded by industrialization. So many things have changed. Values in particular have changed. Many people only care about the hottest and newest thing available. But I feel that if everyone lived much simpler lives and perhaps in a much simpler time then everyone would learn what is really meaningful in their lives. I feel that sometimes people confuse what’s meaningful to them with an illusion of what makes them happy and what they feel they could not live with out. And today that thing would most likely be wealth because the more money they have the more things they can buy which they think will make them happier. Although when going out on the street and asking people what was meaningful to them in their lives the majority answer was family. So there are some people who believe that meaningful things are not just material. Though I am sure there are many more who believe that material objects are most meaningful. This is because of the corporate messaging that goes on daily. Many different messages from what food you should eat, what you should wear, what’s the hottest look and many other things.

Andy Snyder said “Sometimes the way we determine the meaning of something is based on the function it serves in our lives”. I find this very true in my interpretation on what’s good and meaningful in my life. My family and friends play a big role in my life. I spend half my time with my friends and the other half with my family. They are with me throughout my life and will be there for me when I need help. As I grow older and my circle of friends may expand or shrink, I know that my family will always be there. And even when I’m away from my friends and family I can still chat with them over the phone or with instant messenger. It is also meaningful to me to know that I will always be there for them when they need me. My cats are also meaningful to me. They are a part of my family and have been with me since I was 5 years old.
The meaningful things in my life have to bring me happiness and have to have a good purpose. The meaningless things in my life are things that will not help me in the future and may hurt me. Though most of the time our lives are filled with both the meaningful and the non-meaningful things. And we accept the meaningless things because without having some meaningless stuff we couldn't appreciate all the meaningful things in life. To me material possessions are things that don’t make my life meaningful. Wealth is important and you see that in corporate messages yet those things are expendable. They are just face value. They don’t last like friends and family. I also believe that no one else can tell you what’s meaningful in your life. Only you can say what makes you happy. And maybe you think this is all wrong and that’s all right because they are my opinions and I may not have gotten them by myself but they still hold true for me.

I think being simple is important. I would take a day at the park or a day at the beach over a day in front of the tv and computer. I will be much happier and I will also be healthier. Being healthy is important in my life. I want to live as long a life as possible and even knowing that I will die eventually I want to make the most out of my life and try to not waste to much of it listening to the corporate culture of society. I also love the fact that any one of my friends will be right there hanging out with me outside. And who knows, maybe we could have a whole group gathering just being outside and breathing in fresh air instead of the cites polluted air. This also makes us more animal like. Most people today try to distance themselves from the fact that they are not animals but in reality we are no different.
In the end the meaningful things in my life are my friends and family. Though the fact is I am only 17 and I have room to change and forget things. In truth there is no saying that once I get farther into my life that I will not have a change of heart. So a question I have is when I get older will I still hold the same values and ideas that I do today?

Collapse assignment 2

Through out this unit of collapse it has become apparent that the world we live in will ultimately collapse due to a slow decline or an immediate one. The way the worlds people live today is the cause of this downfall. Looking at how dependent we are on oil and other natural resources, and at how the people of Easter Island did as there natural resources started to run out because they were not paying attention to how much they use them, it can be said that we will also face a collapse. Yet too many people are not aware of this. Everyone thinks the world will last forever and that the natural resources will never deplete. Even with all the warnings of global warming, people can not seem to be bothered because they do not think it will concern them anytime soon. But the fact remains everyone leaves a carbon footprint. The cars people drive, the gas they put into their cars are all fossil fuels and are depleting and are also the cause of global warming. According to the "Crude Impact" we use 84 billion barrels of oil a day. Most of the things we use in our everyday life also come from oil. So if people do not stop and pay attention to their oil consumption then this world and our culture will collapse and it will leave many people wondering about what happened and how did this come to be even though the signs were there all along.

For 50,000 to 100,000 years, there was a steady population of only two million people populating this earth. Once the year 1800 came around, there were one billion people living on the earth (Crude Impact). The worlds population is increasing. As the population increases so does our consumption of oil. Fossil fuels make it easier to have more people because they can grow more food. They were also able to use coal instead of timber so they did not need to worry about the trees. They started cutting down forests and many animals were left with out homes and many populations of wild life died. This as well as fossil fuels enabled more food to grow and led to more people. In 1930 there were 2 billion people. By 1974 there was 4 billion and by 2010 there will be 7 billion people. All of this leads to the increase in our oil consumption. But it is predicted that there will be a peak and after that peak the oil level will go down. And when the oil level goes down the price of that oil will go up. When there is no more oil there will be a start to our collapse because no one will be prepared for it. I think that scientists will try to come up with ways to find more oil but even if they do it would not stop the drop in oil it would only prevent it for a little while. This is not only something we are dealing with. This problem is happening all around the world.

Easter Island is an island that was isolated from the rest of the world. It holds many beautiful statues in which the habitant built from stone or wood. As time went on there were competitions between the different clans to see who could build the best statue. As this went on, many natural resources were used and many trees were cut down. With the loss of trees the soil became unhealthy and could support the crops that were planted. With the loss of their natural resources their collapse begun. America can also head in that direction. America uses many natural resources with out thinking of a consequence. From looking at what happened in Easter Island it can be said that America will follow down that path.

Easter Island

Through out the article there were many similarities between it's history and our Americas. That like the natives that lived on this land first, as the ones on Easter island did when Europeans came and explored and then decided to stay it meant the death of many natives either because of sickness or fighting for land. Then there is the part where the natives fought with themselves over who was better. Today we do a lot of that. Though what shows which country is the strongest is based on how many biochemical weapons they have in their possession. Then there is the class system. Every country has one. The upper class got better homes and got to over see the work that was going on on the plantations. While the workers got the crappy homes were they had to walk to the in land. This is also like our culture. Where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The homeless or the poor people have lower class homes and the rich people get the nicer homes. There is also the fact that both of us are wasting our natural resources. Cutting down all the trees to build their statues and America cutting down all the forests just to build condos and to pave concrete over them. This caused them to fall and will eventually cause us to fall as well.

What I found the most interesting is how the natives created the statues with out any "advanced" tools. They built such huge and detailed statues and I can not seem to understand how they lifted them onto their pedestals. Then i can not understand why anyone would want to destroy a big part of someone's culture. As the different clans battled to have the best statues, they cut up many trees and wasted their resources. With out trees the soil gets unhealthy. We as Americans have more advanced tools it will be much easier for us to destroy the world we live in. There is a lot of soil erosion. The tractors that dig up the soil are killing it. Most of the soil will be no good to use meaning we won't be able to use it to plant anything. Then we are gonna need to find somewhere else to get our food unless they create something where we can plant the crops in. We do not know how much we rely on our natural resources and then when they are gone it will be all over cause we will never see it coming.

The postponement of reality and moral responsibilities (second draft)

Through out the years farming in its self has changed from farmers actually going out and plowing and growing all sorts of crops to one to two farmers driving trucks producing mass amounts of crops (usually just two crops, which are corn and soy beans). Industry is to blame for what has happened to the way factory farming has grown and how it produces all its products. The argument can be made that nothing is natural anymore because of the process in which meat and crops are obtained. It can also be seen as the consumer’s fault for how things have turned out with farming. To meet all the demands of the consumers, industrialization has taken over to find the best way to mass-produce our foods. There in lies the question is there any alternative option to industrial food? Then in my opinion there are many people that are not aware that they are surrounded by so many wrongs and are disillusioned about where there food comes from. Many factory farms treat animals inhumanely and by government regulation are allowed to do so. But I feel that if more people got a closer look into where their food came from then they would stop and think about everything that our society has told us or has not told us about our food. Industrialization has caused family farming to be something of the past where it’s image has become distorted with an overwhelming sense of manufacturing.

“Eating is an agricultural act”. It is all part of a process. The factories “make” the food, than it gets put into grocery stores and then bought by the consumer. But most consumers are unaware of what is really happening in the factories that “make” our food. With the overwhelming demand for meat factory farming has found a way that more meat can be made, the same goes for eggs and milk. The animals during a time when there was no factory farming, lived their lives out in the open where they could roam free. But now most animals are “confined to the point that they can barely move” (Farms to fridge) because the workers want to fit as many animals in a smaller amount of space so that there will be more of them come time to kill them. These conditions just get worse. It is said that the chicken is the most abused animal on the planet. Yet all animals that go into factory farming are abused. All animals are tightly packed. Some even wind up walking on the dead because a lot of animals die in those conditions. The dead even get fed back to the living. Calf's get fed milk supplements that contain cow blood,increasing the cow's chance of getting mad cow disease and spreading it not only to other cows but to the humans that eat them. Chicken’s beaks get cut off because they do not want the chickens fighting and getting killed. Pigs get mutilated when just born and are not given any painkillers and cows tails are cut off. According to the meatrix, dairy farms give their cows RBGH, which is a growth hormone so that cows produce more milk. RBGH have been banned in Canada and the European union and yet is still being used today in the USA. Then after growing up in the factories and being sent to the slaughterhouse most are conscious during the time when their throats are slit. Yet when chickens are sick and are about to die, farmers beat them with metal rods and when pigs get sick they are slammed into the floor headfirst. I have no idea how anyone can do this as a living. I would be so put up with meat but then there lies the problem. The people that do know what’s going on and continue to eat meat probably are less concerned because they do not see it happening, they just know its happening.

Our government is also to blame for the treatment of the animals. They profit from the many factory farms and don't seem to care all that much about the family farms that are being put out of business. The government is also doing nothing about the living conditions of the many animals that live on the farm. Then there is the government telling consumers that the more they "apply chemicals and technology to agriculture, the more food will be produced and the lower the price will be to the consumer"(Industrial Food is Cheap). In many cases industrialized food is cheaper then organic food. But if you look at it in the long run a lot of money is going into the process of making food such as the many hormones being given to the cows, the many machines, etc. There is also the price of the clean up of toxins that get polluted from the factories. These toxins are effecting the many communities that live near these factory farming and it also effects the animals living there. And yet many of these factory farms are under government regulation. As long as they profit they see nothing wrong in what is happening to the animals. But what I cannot seem to understand is why treat these animals so badly? They give us our food and by living in harsh conditions many die. It’s kind of like the slave owner. He treats his workers badly but if it weren’t for them he wouldn’t make any money so wouldn’t it be smarter to be nicer and not get them hurt so that they can function right and do their job. It’s the same with the animals. They help support human life. But all we do is take and there is nothing that is being given back.

Our culture does not want us knowing about these ways in which farming has developed. When we are little kids we are taught about the family farms and are shown pictures of happy animals living in wide pastures. Most Americans today probably are not aware of where there food comes from and how the animals are treated. I think it if anyone is to change it would be kids. Older people are set into their ways too much to make a change but kids have all the potential to change themselves and other around them. If a kid wanted to start eating food that came from family farms then it would cause the other members in the family to try it as well. In my opinion schools should start to teach the kids about what goes on with factory farming so that as they get older they won’t live their lives ignorant to matters that surround their daily lives. Before learning about all of this in this class I was kind of aware that most farms today are not what they used to be. But I could have never guessed that most animals that live on factory farms are treated so badly. Most animals are compacted so closely together that they cannot move right and then there are those like cows that are sick and have milk pumped from them daily and are given hormones that give them more milk. This is such an unnatural way of doing something and it is appalling. I never knew that calf's get fed blood from those that have died. I do not know why anyone would do this to any animal.

Living in today’s society it’s hard to see a world with out meat. It’s the human way to want to control everything. We have taken nature and made it impure and unethical by adding all these machines and treating the animals so badly. Industrialization has lead the movement to shut down family farming going on since the beginning of the 20th century and does not seem to have an end until the whole world is consumed with industrialization. I am also surprised that no one is really speaking out about it and how our government can let this happen. Though I feel that if a majority were told only perhaps less then half might do something about it, half would change their perspective and start watching where they get their food and the other half would be like oh I never knew that and not be affected. After concluding this course I have made a resolution to start noticing where my food comes from and when I go out to buy meat and other products from the grocery store I will make sure it is organic. I am a little sad to say that even after watching all the videos on animal’s cruelty I will still eat chicken and occasionally other meat. Although there are some alternatives to where you buy your products. Kosher meat is better then most meat because they treat their animals humanely. Though in my opinion slitting the throat when someone is still alive is cruel. But at least they live better lives then those growing up in factory farming. Industry is a bad thing to our culture. It puts things in the past like family farming and turns us in a new direction. Some can argue that its better but in my opinion soem of the things that come from it are bad.

The postponement of reality and moral responsibilities (final paper)

Through out the years farming in its self has changed from farmers actually going out and plowing and growing all sorts of crops to one to two farmers driving trucks producing mass amounts of crops (usually just two crops, which are corn and soy beans). Industry is to blame for what has happened to the way factory farming has grown and how it produces all its products. The argument can be made that nothing is natural anymore because of the process in which meat and crops are obtained. It can also be seen as the consumer’s fault for how things have turned out with farming. To meet all the demands of the consumers, industrialization has taken over to find the best way to mass-produce our foods. There in lies the question is there any alternative option to industrial food? Then in my opinion there are many people that are not aware that they are surrounded by so many wrongs and are disillusioned about where there food comes from. Many factory farms treat animals inhumanely and by government regulation are allowed to do so. But I feel that if more people got a closer look into where their food came from then they would stop and think about everything that our society has told us or has not told us about our food. Industrialization has caused family farming to be something of the past where it’s image has become distorted with an overwhelming sense of manufacturing.

“Eating is an agricultural act”. It is all part of a process. The factories “make” the food, than it gets put into grocery stores and then bought by the consumer. But most consumers are unaware of what is really happening in the factories that “make” our food. With the overwhelming demand for meat factory farming has found a way that more meat can be made, the same goes for eggs and milk. The animals during when there was no factory farming, lived their lives out in the open where they could roam free. But now most animals are “confined to the point that they can barely move” (Farms to fridge) because the workers want to fit as many animals in a smaller amount of space so that there will be more of them come time to kill them. These conditions just get worse. It is said that the chicken is the most abused animal on the planet. Yet all animals that go into factory farming are abused. All animals are tightly packed. Some even wind up walking on the dead because a lot of animals die in those conditions. Chicken’s beaks get cut off because they do not want the chickens fighting and getting killed. According to the meatrix, dairy farms give their cows RBGH, which is a growth hormone so that cows produce more milk. RBGH have been banned in Canada and the European union and yet is still being used today in the USA. Then after growing up in the factories and being sent to the slaughterhouse most are conscious during the time when their throats are slit. Yet when chickens are sick and are about to die, farmers beat them with metal rods and when pigs get sick they are slammed into the floor headfirst. I have no idea how anyone can do this as a living. I would be so put up with meat but then there lies the problem. The people that do know what’s going on and continue to eat meat probably are less concerned because they do not see it happening, they just know its happening.

Our government is also to blame for the treatment of the animals. They profit from the many factory farms and don't seem to care all that much about the family farms that are being put out of business. The government is also doing nothing about the living conditions of the many animals that live on the farm. Then there is the government telling consumers that the more they "apply chemicals and technology to agriculture, the more food will be produced and the lower the price will be to the consumer"(Industrial Food is Cheap). In many cases industrialized food is cheaper then organic food. But if you look at it in the long run a lot of money is going into the process of making food such as the many hormones being given to the cows, the many machines, etc. There is also the price of the clean up of toxins that get polluted from the factories. These toxins are effecting the many communities that live near these factory farming and it also effects the animals living there. And yet many of these factory farms are under government regulation. As long as they profit they see nothing wrong in what is happening to the animals. But what I cannot seem to understand is why treat these animals so badly? They give us our food and by living in harsh conditions many die. It’s kind of like the slave owner. He treats his workers badly but if it weren’t for them he wouldn’t make any money so wouldn’t it be smarter to be nicer and not get them hurt so that they can function right and do their job. It’s the same with the animals. They help support human life. But all we do is take and there is nothing that is being given back.

Our culture does not want us knowing about these ways in which farming has developed. When we are little kids we are taught about the family farms and are shown pictures of happy animals living in wide pastures. Most Americans today probably are not aware of where there food comes from and how the animals are treated. I think it if anyone is to change it would be kids. Older people are set into their ways too much to make a change but kids have all the potential to change themselves and other around them. If a kid wanted to start eating food that came from family farms then it would cause the other members in the family to try it as well. In my opinion schools should start to teach the kids about what goes on with factory farming so that as they get older they won’t live their lives ignorant to matters that surround their daily lives. Before learning about all of this in this class I was kind of aware that most farms today are not what they used to be. But I could have never guessed that most animals that live on factory farms are treated so badly. Most animals are compacted so closely together that they cannot move right and then there are those like cows that are sick and have milk pumped from them daily and are given hormones that give them more milk. This is such an unnatural way of doing something and it is appalling. I never knew that calf's get fed blood from those that have died. I do not know why anyone would do this to any animal.

Living in today’s society it’s hard to see a world with out meat. It’s the human way to want to control everything. We have taken nature and made it impure and unethical by adding all these machines and treating the animals so badly. Industrialization has lead the movement to shut down family farming going on since the beginning of the 20th century and does not seem to have an end until the whole world is consumed with industrialization. I am also surprised that no one is really speaking out about it and how our government can let this happen. Though I feel that if a majority were told only perhaps less then half might do something about it, half would change their perspective and start watching were they get their food and the other half would be like oh I never knew that and not be affected. After learning this course I have made a resolution to start noticing where my food comes from and when I go out to buy meat and other products from the grocery store I will make sure it is organic. I am a little sad to say that even after watching all the videos on animal’s cruelty I will still eat chicken and occasionally other meat.