Story of My Life

So I would like to start off by saying Postmodernism for Beginners is not doing much for me. I mean you would think something that is supposedly supposed to be for “beginners” would be relatively simple and easy to read, but I constantly find myself confused or lost. But as it is obliviously these Postmodernism ideas are pretty advanced and complicated so they are interesting to learn about.

Usually when we hear myth or legend we think of a fictitious story, maybe something to do with tradition, that concerns some hero or even. In reality though, these myths can be describing a true event, and be used as an oral history, to tell how something has happened.. To explain history. Postmodernism talks about the idea of “Grand Narratives”. Lyotard claims a Grand Narrative is composed of numerous little stories instead of just one big one. This is an abstract idea that is thought to be a comprehensive explanation of historical experience or knowledge. As Lyotard says, “'and not one of these little stories can dominate or explain the rest”. Basically, what were talking about is a story about a story, bringing it altogether to create a bigger picture.

Having a grand narrative like this can lead to a dystopia like that in 1984 and A Brave New World. Especially if its power ends up in the corrupt hands of the wrong people or government. A good example of the results in a Brave New World would be how scared the people are of the idea of Mothers and Fathers, or even having a child. Another thing I found interesting while reading this week was the idea of the savages and what is said of them, “[They] still preserve their repulsive habits and customs… marriage, families no conditioning, monstrous superstitions… Christianity and totemism and ancestor worship.. extinct languages..” These “savages” are how we live today.

I'm not good with Titles

Brave New World is like nothing I’ve ever read before. It is hard for me to comprehend what living under the extreme circumstances described in the book would really be like. I mean it is even more sick and twisted than the world we live in today. Also, the sudden shift in points of view, or the quick jumps from idea to idea on every line made the book confusing and hard to read.

One thing I would like to talk about is how life is taken for granted. Not really that it is taken for granted so much, but really how a person’s individuality is of no importance at all. Sure, it talks about how people are identified in groups, “Ninety-six identical twins working ninety-six identical machines! You really know where you are. For the first time in history. Community, Identity, Stability.” In the novel, people are mass produced on an assembly line and then biologically engineered to have characteristics predestined by the government. Really, the government might as well just create robots to do jobs around the world. The entire process of an assembly line creating people, a life without family or personal choice completely goes against my beliefs. I believe that everyone is made in God’s image. In Genesis 1:27 the bible says, “So God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. It is not any human’s job to control life in the way described in the book. Life should be something special, something that comes from a man and a woman. Increased productivity is supposedly the reason the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre controls life the way they do? In reality I think all the process does is takes away the meaning of life. Having a world where humans can’t really think or make decisions for themselves because of “hypnopaedia” is completely unrealistic and wrong. Teaching moral education this way is corrupting and unethical.

So basically I think this book is pretty much crazy and has some views I think couldn’t (well definitely shouldn’t) ever happen. The controversial ideas provide a lot to write about, and I actually find it pretty easy. I’m looking forward to continuing reading and discussing the rest of this Brave New World.

Knowlege is Power

Joseph Stalin stated, “Education is a weapon, whose effect depends on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed.” Many people say “knowledge is power” so therefore education is powerful. With such a universal tool as education a commonly debated question is what should be taught in our schools. Our government is constantly being manipulated and changed to fit the standards of what our board of education believes we should learn. But should our government really be deciding what we learn?

As we see in 1984, government control of history is an incredibly terrifying idea. Aside from memories, humans only have knowledge of information they are taught; whether it’s through teachers or printed material. The Party is able to keep the population brainwashed through the idea, “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past. Although our government is supposed to be a representation of the people, it is easy to believe that a politician can become corrupt or bias and influence our education in a negative manner. Also, it is impracticable to believe everyone is going to agree on the information that should be taught. A good example of this is the Wall Street Journal article we read in class which talked about, “emphasizing the roles of the Bible, the Christian faith and the civic virtue of religion in the study of American history. There is no doubt that the Christian faith influenced our constitution and development of our country, however it may not be included in education because it may offend some people’s beliefs. This is wrong; history should include the facts, even if it deals with a religious or controversial subject. But not every fact can be included, and therefore people will argue on which facts are most important.

This leads to the thought that no matter what curriculum is decided to be taught in schools, all curriculum should be taught in a way that is objective as possible. However, it is extremely difficult to be objective when teaching about certain subjects. Everyone holds a personal opinion about a subject and naturally their view impacts the way they teach. A good example of this would be government teachers. Most likely by the end of the school year you will be able to recognize whether your teacher is a republican or democrat.

Education will continue to be a controversial subject because as Stalin said it is powerful. Everyone is a student at one time, making the curriculum taught extremely influential. It is important that both the information and teachers stay as objective as possible.