I hate open-ended questions. I like my books, movies, and soul searching to resemble pretty little boxes, all sealed up and tied with a pink bow. I understand that the concept of signed, sealed, and delivered soul searching is something of an oxymoron, but hey, a body can dream.
Not that I don't soul search. In fact, my problem with open-ended questions stems directly from my inability to rest until I've come to some sort of conclusion. This, as you may imagine, is exhausting if there is none to be found. As a self-diagnosed obsessive compulsive over-thinker, I find my American Studies class to be something of a challenge. You see, my professor, unlike myself, loves open-ended questions. He's forever posing them and staging hours long class discussions around them, all of course with no actual conclusions.
His latest question I find slightly more disturbing than the previous ones. He asked us whether we thought much about the war in Iraq, and if we did, did we feel very strongly about it either way. When the overwhelming response was one of apathy, he asked us to consider the consequences of being able to completely ignore a war being fought by our own country in which our fellow country-men and women are dying on a daily basis.
And so I foreword this question on to you. Why are we able to go about our daily lives as if nothing is happening. What makes this war different from WWII and the like where the war was really felt. Is our current ability to choose whether we involve ourselves or not a progression or a regression? I'd love to hear what you think about the matter.
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5 comments:
I would think it's a regression of sorts, though understandable.
(argh - to be continued)
Ezzie- sounds like it will be interesting. Hope you make it back to finish the thought :)
I think that it's a regression, because we no longer care as much. We don't view everyone in this country as our brethren; we don't feel that connection. We have this increasingly connected world... yet we don't care about the atrocities half a world away. A good chunk would rather pretend that everything is all right as long as I don't notice. It's sad.
At the same time, it's that increasing interconnectivity that forces us to be this way; we're so inundated with information that we force ourselves to shut some things off. It's practical... but I think it's still a regression.
interesting point about the inundation of technology and information being a large part of the problem. Hope you don't mind if I bring it up in my next class.
Not at all :)
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