New Lifestyle = Old Mistakes?
From Mod Mania
Would it be correct to call the world we are living in now “perfect”? To some people out there, the question “Where did we stuff up?” might have popped up. Would you call the life that we have now a Utopia? Are we blinded by the flaws that we really have because we are compared to less fortunate people who are starving every night they go to bed by 30 second advertisements, while trying to watch contestants sing in front of millions of people who are recognised as idols’ on our $3000 plasma screen television? Some people out there might be comfortable with the lifestyle they live in. Wake up, get ready, leave for work, get squished by other people who are doing the same thing on a train, pretend to do work while really playing solitaire or buying their next holiday boat house on eBay, get back on that squished train, read their daily advertisement booklet (or MX as some people would like to call it), head back home, eat their dinner, try their hardest to maintain a healthy relationship with their family then head back to bed, ready for another typical day. Now this might be an exaggerated stereotype to the eyes who think this world isn’t perfect. It cannot be assumed that all workers out there don’t actually work. But it does make you question what type of person would actually think that way. More intriguing is to WHY they would.
Alright, let’s take a step back and try to clarify who and what we really are. Now we don’t exactly want to get too philosophical in approaching this but as far as we know, we are born into the world without any recollection of who we are, where we came from and why we are here. To some (if not MOST), religion will answer these questions and also guide us in life. Has anyone however thought about what life would be like if everyone did follow one belief? In order for that to happen, those three unknown facts would have to be proven or known by everybody (either by our creator telling us or the knowledge already being embedded into our head before we are born). But because this cannot be clarified, there are many different beliefs, values, practices and religions that exist. It is too typical to say that everyone is human and everyone is the same because yes, we all carry human behavioural similarities (such as survival tactics and desire to reproduce), but every single person that live in this world are individuals. I mean, people might not really be intrigued in reading these views because they have a different view on what life really is. I, in fact, respect that. No one can really define us and tell us who we really are, so for those people who are out there and have a different opinion to our general view on life, it shall be respected, regardless of how abstract it could potentially sound.
But for now, it seems like our main focus is to concentrate on the life we are given, survive any obstacles that are thrown to us, feel loved and then reproduce to make babies. Then these babies can advance in their life and continue the cycle. We cannot predict when this cycle will end and we can only assume how it started. But if we were given the chance to start a new civilisation by scratch (i.e. technology, our main reliance, would be removed) and advance a couple of millenniums, will the flaws that we have encountered now be introduced again? Well we don’t exactly have any facts or proof that they will be apparent but it does make you wonder doesn’t it? Let’s take the reality T.V show “Survivor”. Contestants are put onto an island with hardly any supplies or resources other than what the island has to offer. While working together, they must learn to survive with what they got and slowly develop survival skills to aid them. Contestants are then booted off one by one by votes until there is only one survivor and they win a large amount of money. My view on starting a new lifestyle pretty much grasps the idea of “Survivor” without the eliminations and emotional tension that arises. So basically, average living men and women will start a new life with the knowledge that they have already adapted in their normal civilisation. We need a sufficient amount of people in order for reproduction to efficiently take place. It is really intriguing to know in what direction these people will go. What behaviours would be applied to their lifestyles? There are so many possibilities of which direction they can take but my main focus is to draw out any similarities in regards to flaws.
How about we take another alternative way of thinking about this? Instead, why don’t we travel back in time (even though this is not possible) and we start from the caveman years. The ratio between people from the future to caveman people is 1:1000. We then advanced ourself to the present. What would the world be like now? The amount of directions we could take is endless but the unfortunate thing is that we will never now. So is it possible to refresh our flaws or are we doomed to live in an imperfect world? We all know that culture (with many other factors) has had an impact on many people’s lives and ultimately it makes us different to everybody else. We live in a world where war is still a solution. Where acceptance of one another is still being developed and fear is the most common way of handling misplacement in a group or society.
But what intrigues me the most are the small things that could of change from an alternative past. Assuming songs were made, would the average length of a song be as long or short as what it is now? Would our posture be the same? Would war be apparent or would it have been not regarded as a solution? There are millions of questions that can be asked about different takes on life but it fascinates me on where this future that we have to face could potentially take us to.
A favourite movie of mine that makes a comedic approach to the future is “Idiocracy” (2006). Joe Bauers (played by Luke Wilson) is accidentally frozen in a top secret hibernation program. He then wakes up 500 years later into an exaggerated version of what the world could possibly be. He discovers that the society around him is so stupid that he is easily the smartness man alive. What captured my attention are the small details that director Mike Judge has put in the movie. Pretty much every little thing (even clothing) has been branded with an advertisement. Every single court case that happens is now a sport that’s recorded and shown on cable T.V (which is a spoof of Judge Jury in reality). Their form of comedy is a man getting hit by a giant destruction ball. To make this more appealing, the man is sent to different countries to get hit. Even though these small elements have been exaggerated to make the audience laugh, it’s scary to know that our future could potentially turn into that!
If we want to make this world perfect then where do we start? Unfortunately there are bound to be flaws in the society we live in. Without them then we can’t exactly learn from the mistakes that we have made. There are many problems that this world (mostly western civilisation) has to encounter. Rising petrol prices, war overseas, the over crowding in trains, a European girl kidnapped, service at airports etc. The amount of problems are endless and no matter how hard we try to solve these problems, more of them are going to arise, no matter how hard we try to prevent them. Even though this could be seen as more of a personal point of view, I find that no matter how advanced we are now, there is still unfortunate people are out there, starving themselves to sleep. There are world vision sponsors who claim that they help out the children but instead of spending millions of dollars creating advertisements and making a name for themselves, why don’t they use that money to help out the less fortunate? Might be a silly theory but it does make you wonder. It definitely makes me wonder. Now I can easily say that I’m still new and fresh to the world. There are many things I want and need to explore out there but I surprise my self for having these deep thoughts. Unless I’m just another fool who questions our future.
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