Simplicity Simplicity Simplicity

I am particularly attracted to the lifestyle outlined and lived by Thoreau in his book Walden. There is much more to be gained by living in the woods than most people seem to think. When I spend extended periods of time in the 'wilderness' (if that even exists anymore) I see the beauty in everything much more clearly. My mind feels less cluttered, less rushed, and healthier. One lives at the pace they want, and on their own terms. I can understand why someone would feel unfulfilled living in a world where there is much more stimulation, there is always someone to talk to, and all the food you could want at your fingertips. But I think this is just a product of growing up in an environment like that. I personally feel satisfied by the little things; waking up early, a hot cup of tea, a book, hot sun, and a bed to sleep in. These types of things bring me more joy than any other such thing than one could find in our everyday lives. As Emerson put it "If I am the child of the devil, then I will live of the devil." This doesn't mean that if he were the devil's child he would work for the devil, it just means that he recognizes where he's from and it does no good to ignore a part of who you are. To live unto thyself, that is to live the way you would live without someone telling you how to, is my ultimate goal. What better way to do so than remove these external sources?

The only spurn about living this life is the lack of community. We are inherently social beings and I think that conversations do much more for a person than what we see on the surface. It certainly would be a very enjoyable experience to live this way but even Thoreau felt the need to tell the world about his experience. No matter how much this way of life was for him, or how much he enjoyed living alone, he still wrote a book about it in order to create commentary with other people.

Above all else, living alone in the woods wouldn't be a struggle for me. I would find it enjoyable, in fact it is something I actively seek. I spend time on the Appalachian Trail overnights when possible and I find nature and the solitude to be refreshing.

Regardless, I don't think anybody should be told how to live (as long as it isn't a detriment to other people) and if technology is too ingrained in your daily life, or you just don't like nature than you shouldn't feel regret for not wanting to live this way. While I think we as a people have deviated from a simple lifestyle that is best for us, that doesn't mean anyone has to agree with me.

Same Story, Different Generation.

It is a reoccurring pattern in which each generation that grows up thinks that the youngest generation at the time is the dumbest/laziest/most apathetic group of people in history. Bauerline is just another of those older folk who like to stand on their soap box and rant about why the Baby boomers are that much more inspired and productive. Our generation will come around the capabilities of the technology available to us. It is often staggering to hear statistics about what our generation does with our own free time but nobody seems to want to offer up information about what the children who were under 20 of any other generation did with their free time. Just because we have technology to fill our time doesn't mean were being any less productive than other generations. I would agree we are being less social, and that technology is inhibiting the process which allows us to develop social communicative skills but the productivity of our generation is another topic of discussion.

Getting away from it all.

When Lasn suggests "Perhaps there is no such thing as an authentic self... We understand intuitively that machines are becoming more like humans, and now via the promise of virtual reality we have the opportunity to meet machines halfway" First, I ask in what ways are we acting more like machines? I see virtual reality as another step for machines in the direction of humans. We have simply created a machine in which the user can feel less like they are operating a machine. I disagree with the statement than we are meeting them halfway. Also, like many others have argued, these warnings and negative comments are written in the wrong tense. It is certainly evident that a (quickly) growing portion of the population is turning to online gameplay.  The author writes as if this entire portion is in the category of "addicted." This is also certainly not true. While I do not think these statements are currently true, they are becoming true. Slowly, and it is not inevitable or impossible to divert, these things are happening but as I see it the human race has an uncanny ability to fix things in dire situations. If gaming ends up being blatantly detrimental to people, these problems will be averted. A convincing argument for the power of gaming is given by Jane McGonigal at a TED Conference in 2010

 Whether it was the frontier of the West or the frontier of traveling to the moon, every generation of Americans has had a 'frontier' to identify with. Some have predicted that far space will be the next frontier, however, our technology advanced enough to do so. Even still, humans wouldn't be so connected to this frontier as it would largely remain conceptual for over 99% of the population. The virtual realm offers a frontier that is close to the everyday person and it is largely unexplored. The fact that it is quite possibly a vast and endless wasteland makes it all that much more intriguing to find out. These, of course, are opinions not about my personal feelings but towards people as a whole.

I found it interesting that some people describe their experience of gaming as "liberating" or "freeing". Just yesterday I read an article about fear and backpacking in the wilderness. Some of the participants in the study described being in the wilderness exactly the same way. Are these people both fulfilling the same desires or are the causes of these feelings different? Both people engage in these activites because they want to get away from societal norms and structures. It is discouraging to see that people deviate away from an activity that is which is physically and mentally healthy to an activity which is questionable in both aspects.

Blog 2: A Call to See Clearly

 The literature discussed this week, including the Autumnal section of Culture Jam and "It's Gotta Be The Cheese", have one overarching theme. That is to see the present climate of American culture as it really is. Neither of these pieces does much to call us into action but rather serves to lift the veil that corporations and the recent societal trends have laid over our eyes. While the chapter entitled "Media Virus" informs us that the noise created by the machines which have cluttered our daily landscape has become a backdrop to normal life, it does not specifically give any instruction as to how we can avoid this or fix the problem. I expect to see much more of this in the later chapters of Culture Jam after the author has established the basis of problems in our consumer driven culture. A poem I read recently doesn't exactly relate to the literature at face value, but it does however relate to living in a way that is best for the collective entity that we are as a society. I think that is what this book is truly about in it's most simple ideas.

The objectives of the movement known as culture jamming or guerrilla semiotics must find themselves in a catch 22 in creating support for their ideals. One main point made is not to be swayed by the media and advertising, but do they not need to use the same tactics in order to change people's opinion? The symbol of a person/child with a T.V. for a head or for an eye has become somewhat of an icon for the culture jamming. It is supposed to evoke emotions of retaliation for the lifestyle in which we live (and to change that lifestyle to one which the people of this movement believe is better) and is therefore essentially an advertisement for culture jamming. While I agree with the ideals of the movement and feel their philosophies should be adopted I think it is a hard battle to fight in a society in which advertising is the way to get your voice heard.

As a side note, I was thinking this weekend about certain aspects of background noise in my everyday life. In my hometown we have a Naval Air Base and subsequently a lot of planes flying overhead. When I spend time in the woods there is always that bit of noise from a plane flying overhead. When I spend time on the Appalachian trail out here it is exceptionally apparent to me that there are no planes overhead. While I enjoy this more it's interesting that the absence of that noise comes to my attention rather than the existence of the noise. Maybe this is what we need to do with other aspects of noise too; make some sort of effort to eliminate noise you are used to.