Draft 1 of Final Paper; Clips of what I'd like to include in final paper

Millions of people are convinced that the life they live is good and meaningful. “When posed with descriptions that were not flattering, most adults rejected those adjectives. For instance… only one out of every five [people] (21%) are "feeling unfulfilled with their lives." (George Barna). We live in a world controlled by the media who is constantly dictating to us, telling us how to look, act, dress--how to live our lives. It is hard to be a unique individual because everywhere we go we are influenced by corporate messages. We see the same messages repeat themselves through different forms. These messages influence our desires and worldwide views. For example, the corporate messages argue (in general) that a good and meaningful life is one filled with material possessions, social conformity, and popularity. However, I believe a good and meaningful life is one where you can find true purpose in your life, build character, learn more about yourself and learn more about how you can and do identify yourself. A meaningful life means to grow and develop as a person but only for the better. These are some of the qualities that make up living a meaningful life. How can we change our ways of living in order to live a truly good and meaningful life? Due to the American corporation, for most, living a meaningful life is impossible. We are constantly being brainwashed by all the messages the media is sending to us and are unaware of what the true definition of living a 'good' life means. Corporate messages about how we should live distract most of us from living truly meaningful lives. The messages they are sending us may help lead us to fit in with society but will not help us to live our life to its fullest potential and make it truly meaningful.

The media displays reiterating messages in many different ways. The media presents these messages by posting them on the internet, through television, music, books, billboards, magazines, etc. We are surrounded by so many messages that we have lost touch with what makes us truly happy vs. what we are doing mainly for show.
Music: Pop, Rap, Hip Hop, R&B are four out of the many genres of music that most teenagers listen to. Almost every song in these genres repeats the same idea. What better to deconstruct then Kanye West’s, a very popular rap and hip hop artist, song called Welcome to the Good Life (Graduation, Track 5). Money is the biggest idea that Kanye portrays in his song because he constantly talks about splurging on materialistic items—going on shopping sprees and having nice car—the things you can do once you have money and being able to show it off by topping everyone else around you. "Whether you broke or rich you gotta get biz, Having' money's the everything that having' it is I was splurging' on trizz... I always had a passion for flashin'..." Being famous is another big idea. Of course you can not just be rich, people have to know who you are: "I'ma get on this TV mama, I'ma, I'ma put shit down… Now I, I go for mine, I got to shine…" Also, you have to look good and have a nice body, or else you will not get a 'good' man: "Where we like the girls who ain't on TV, Cause they got more (Ass than the models)..." And last but not least, having style is crucial because when you have style/swagger - along comes followers & 'haters': "Yo it's got to be cause I'm seasoned, Haters give me them salty looks..."(Kanye West song lyrics). In order to have a "good life", according to Kanye, you must have lots of money, “be rich”, be famous and look ‘good’. Our culture has always portrayed the same message through songs, movies, etc. It has always been about having money and 'being up' on the latest things such as sneakers, cars, clothing, etc. Having money and girls seem to always emerge in every song. It is most interesting how all the famous people try to tell us having all this money is not everything in life and there are more important things meanwhile they are also the ones telling us, through song, the exact opposite. Whether they believe that money is everything or not, it is the people who have the most money in society that influence the common Americans. It is only when we stop and analyze these things do we really see how screwed up our society is. If money is not everything then why are people working hard to get more and more. Now-a-days, living average just does not cut it. The messages that teen role models, song writers, famous people, tell us seem to take hold in our minds and end up being the norms of what a person who fits in society abides by. Agreed, the following may lead to feeling happier because society will accept you but having money, getting woman, owning more materialistic items, etc is not the way to a good and meaningful life. Instead the messages in the music portray complete opposite images on what is truly the good and meaningful life; one where you can extend your mind and learning ability, spend time with those who matter in your life, be more active, do more productive things with your time, and so on.

I personally completely disagree with the media. Although I can’t be 100% sure on my answer for what a good and meaningful life is, I have developing ideas on what I can include and insight into what doesn’t belong.

A lot of teens (including myself) separate old people from our generation. We exclude old people as if they're a different type of species because we feel like we can't relate to them. They grew up in a different time period with different values and social standards. Our generation (teens and young adults) has modernized technology and really changed our values and social standards since then. The crazy thing is, as we get older and time progresses and more new things come out, we're going to be looking at the younger generation the same way we look at old people. I guess to the old people now its kind of depressing to see time change. They used to cook, clean, help raise brothers/sisters.. etc, and earn most their money. We might do some of these things but we tend to blow them off more to go hang out with our friends, text, go online, watch t.v, etc. We have so many distractions from our lives that we miss out on the important stuff. I feel like at this point in time, trying to connect with old people is useless. We've already given up and we both make incorrect assumptions about the other and put them into false stereotypes that aren’t true for all old people.

In the book of Genesis, it explains how God created earth. And in what order exactly. The book explains God to have made animals before humans, but humans being the concluding creation. It tells us that God made humans in his figure. The book says specifically man is supposed to rule over the animals. “Then God said let us make man in our image, in our likeliness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the earth and over the immense.” (Genesis 1: 26-28) According to Genesis, because it clearly states man is supposed to be ruling over animals (says God himself), it gives us this idea that we are somehow more advanced than animals; that we humans were chosen by God to rule over them. This separation from any other species makes us believe that God made the earth for us.
Religion is extremely powerful and highly influential on the way a lot of people act, feel, and think about certain things. If the book of Genesis is telling us we are above animals, most people will believe the same. Besides, what else is telling us otherwise?

Science classifies the web of life (evolution) through what species are more intelligent. Humans and many other animals are all on the web of life but humans are separated. According to science, we are more intelligent than animals. It tells us that we are a different genus (class) from other animals known as Homo sapiens sapiens. This idea puts a wedge in our train of thought. Scientific classification tells us we are a separate species of animals (only close to monkeys/chimps in which we share 99% of our DNA with them) yet we somehow are still above them.
Science is also known to be another form of religion. Some people practice the studies of science because it gives us evidence. Visual proof to see that we are more intelligent therefore higher beings than other mammals.

“You tend to identify with who you hang out with” (Andy 3/10/09). Everyone knows this is true. While keeping this in mind, studies show that we (humans) spend about 95% or more of our time with other human beings and not other mammals. We go about our daily lives interacting with other humans. While it is true that some humans have animal pets (such as a dog for instance), they don’t necessarily identify with them. We constantly try to humanize them by making them obey our rules and do some activities we do. We don’t give them any freedom to do as they please (just as we do). We feel the need to rule over them and control their lives by making them live in a house, making them eat the food we give them at the certain time period we put it out, making them potty trained (just as we do babies) and try to teach it to be more “civilized” just as humans believe we are. We are out of touch with our ‘animalistic instincts’. We sit in classrooms learning all day, have a certain place to go to the bathroom, buy our food (sometimes already made), we buy clothing, we have jobs to make money in order to buy different things we say we need. What’s wrong with going about our days just as a regular animal would? If we were to, many of us would think its absurd and crazy to act like an ‘animal’ and not like a human. From both who we hang out with/identify with and not acting like an ‘animal’ really helps separate us from classifying ourselves as animals.

Then there is Descartes theory of “I think, therefore I am”. Descartes was a philosopher who had many theories about us humans. One of his theories believed that the human mind and body are completely separate. We humans think with our mind and not our body therefore our minds must be separate from our body. He thinks we only experience things with our mind because we’re constantly thinking “I” rather than “My body”. Other living animals however do not say “I”, but in fact do not speak at all. Descartes believes that other living animals don’t think therefore are not. Because animals can’t think, they can’t feel or experience pain, etc. This idea is argumentative considering other animals do in fact feel (for example, if you’ve ever stepped on a dogs tail, they squeal. Descartes believes this is out of reaction and not the animal thinking “I’m hurting because someone stepped on my tail”). This idea of humans being able to think and other animals not being able to think separates us from identifying with them. Although a recent newspaper stated that while studying a (I believe it was an Ape/Monkey) in its cage, it showed the Ape collecting pebbles/rocks and then later launching them at people. This example clearly shows how this animal was being able to use its mind to think. We may not have proof that animals think in the “I” sense, but this does not mean that they do not think of themselves as “I”. This idea makes humans separate themselves from other animals and not classify themselves as one. We believe we are able to think and they are not therefore adding to our belief that we are superior to animals. “Bottom line is Descartes mind and body split (dualism) convinced us to see non human animals as unconscious things.” (Andy 3/17/09)

The idea of subject vs. object (Peter Singer – Animal Liberation) exemplifies how we often treat ourselves as objects because we’re constantly referring to ourselves as “my body”. Although we often treat ourselves as objects, compared to animals we like to think of ourselves as subjects. We treat animals like objects because we like to make them do as we say. We presume they don’t have a mind or soul (like we believe we do) therefore we must show them what to do. We don’t take the animals feelings into consideration. We see ourselves as subjects making us believe we are better and have the power to rule.

In this culture, fitting in has also been defined by what foods you eat. People are constantly afraid of what other people would say/think if they eat certain foods. They’re also afraid of being unhealthy. They want to seem more appealing therefore go through different lengths to achieve that goal – one being doing whatever it takes to stay thin. I do believe Pollan’s argument is true. We have lost touch with our natural ways. Instead of focusing on what we like to eat and what we have been eating for thousands of years, we’re focusing on what’s “healthy” for us and what will get us slimmer the quickest /easiest way. We look to experts for guidance. They seem to know the most about the foods we do eat so why wouldn’t we listen to them, right? Wrong. I don’t think the experts know too much about what is really healthy for us. They may know what foods we can eat that’ll make us skinnier and what not but usually these foods are not the healthiest for us. Both the amount of food and what we obtain from it (protein, carbs, etc) isn’t so much of a good balance. Most experts seem to believe by cutting out for example carbs, you can still remain healthy and be skinny. Personally I don’t believe this to be true but I’m no expert.

In terms of what we can do about this problem, I truthfully have no wise suggestions. There is the obvious which is to try to ignore what experts say and prioritize taste over what’s healthier because that’s what we used to do and as far as I’m concerned, that did us pretty well. In my case I eat whatever I want but play a lot of sports. This helps me because I’m constantly working my body out and staying active after I eat. I wouldn’t say I’m completely healthy but I don’t feel horrible about the way I eat or treat my body or what I feed myself.

Honestly I don’t think my (immediate) family pays much attention to experts. My father was raised on very indigenous foods. Foods that people from Puerto Rico have been eating for many years. Being a single father supporting three, he works too much to have time to listen to what is healthier for us to eat or just anyone’s point of view at all. Me and my sisters were raised on foods that experts would claim aren’t healthy for us. We never worried about things being low in carbs or high in fiber, etc. We ate foods that we liked whether it be pasta, steak, fast food, greasy foods, and so on.

However, a lot of times when my father goes food shopping, my sister will accompany him and practically be in charge of what my father buys. She likes to watch the food channel and tries to think healthier (based on the opinions of the chefs on television). Personally I don’t cook and most of the time I’m too lazy to go to the grocery store with them because it usually takes forever. I mainly eat what’s available in the house for me to eat and I base that on what I actually like to eat the most rather than what is considered healthy for me to eat.
We are staring into the near future, looking at the end of our lives, as we know it. It is for a fact that America is bound to collapse, the question is when. What exactly will cause the collapse? Too many reasons to count. One major reason being our lack of respect for our environment. Oil is a majorly used product that we use to produce energy. This energy could be used for anything but the fact of the matter is, the amount of oil that we’re using is soon going to be more than what we have.

Some say we’ve already reached our peak oil point. Oil is not renewable resource. We only have a certain amount of oil so by saying we’ve already reached our peak oil point, we’ve already used up half of the amount of oil we have. “Oil currently accounts for about 43% of the world's total fuel consumption [PDF], and 95% of global energy used for transportation [PDF]. Oil and gas are feedstocks for plastics, paints, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, electronic components, tyres and much more. Oil is so important that the peak will have vast implications across the realms of war and geopolitics, medicine, culture, transport and trade, economic stability and food production. Significantly, for every one joule of food consumed in the United States, around 10 joules of fossil fuel energy have been used to produce it.” (Peak Oil Primer) Without oil, our society will collapse. It is a main factor in our every day needs. Americans are highly dependent on economic growth. “– growth based on ever more readily available cheap fossil fuels.” (Peak Oil Primer). Oil is important to our society because everything we have contains oil to either produce it, or use it.