Bl/ind and Soma
“Tired from a long day out on the Zones? Need a few laughs? Dinner and a drink with an old friend? Don't be silly. These antique emotions are worthless and in the long run will never fully complete you! Human contact is pointless and holds no equity. Can you resell a friendship? Can you trade in your mother’s love for a transportation upgrade? No, you cannot. When the people we claim to love fade, their price point becomes null and void. Never again waste precious time building false cathedrals. Nine out of ten relationships conclude leaving little to no resale value and end up weighing the consumer down. Better Living Industries is the only friend you will ever need, and with no emotional strings attached our medicinal companionship; package will never leave you longing for true love or affection ever again. So curl up next to a warm blaster, pop a capsule, and thank the heavens for the corporation who cares for you...in an affordable little bottle! Keep Smiling =)” - BL/Ind.
I realized that the album Danger Days, by My Chemical Romance, has some of the same concepts of Brave New World. The main topic that they have in common is the medications. “Have you taken your medication today? Make those bad thoughts go away.” Imagine seeing those words on billboards and hearing them on the news. Imagine that one pill is the only thing that makes you “happy”. The only thing that you really look forward to is that numbness. In Danger Days There is this industry that controls everyone’s lives by a pill. The story behind Better Living Industry takes place in the future. Real happiness doesn’t come in pills. The experience you get from pills is not genuine and the constant use of substances to make the people in Brave New World complacent is becoming a part of our society.
In Brave New World you can take a Soma holiday. Soma is a drug that they use to “feel better”. It’s used daily by everyone in Brave New World to dull the senses and is a “hangover-free” drug. The government uses it to keep the masses under their control. If anything goes wrong, there’s Soma. Had a long day? Soma. You’re unhappy? Soma. Small dosages are taken daily unless you’re feeling bothered, unhappy, nervous, or any kind of “pesky emotion”. The people in Brave New World are obsessed with it. A quote from a character in BNW was “A gamme is better than a damn; I wish I had my soma!” When John the savage refused to take Soma he was frowned upon "I don't understand anything,’she said with decision, determined to preserve her incomprehension intact. ‘Nothing. Least of all,’ she continued in another tone ‘why you don't take soma when you have these dreadful ideas of yours. You'd forget all about them. And instead of feeling miserable, you'd be jolly. So jolly," In this book they are all slaves to the substance.
You’re probably thinking that Soma sounds great. But do those people really know what happiness is? All they ever feel is that fake emotion in the form of a pill. How can you know what happiness is if you’ve never felt sadness? Think about it this way, how do you know if something is clean if you’ve never seen anything dirty? To really know something you must know the opposite to compare it too. Do they know how to truly experience happiness? For me it is an emotion that you have to master. Is the emotion that Soma gives you happiness? In my opinion it’s not. The feeling that Soma causes is pure oblivion that is mistaken as bliss. All it is, is artificial happiness. What is the point of being happy if you didn’t truly earn it and work for it?
“Fill your heart with synthetic happiness, erase pain with ease, digitize your memories, and protect your interests with customizable blasters all at our one stop shop. Don't let the world get you down. Instead, bring the world down to your level!” BL/Ind. I admit that maybe it would be easier to just take a little capsule and have every problem disappear. However, if you took that every time you have a problem or just for fun it would lose its worth. They take it for granted. Soma should be used as a last resort and in moderation, if that. It’s great to be happy but if you get it too easy it loses worth. A study showed that more than 22 million Americans (12 and older) are addicted to illegal drugs. (CNN, The Chart) Are we on our way to becoming dependent of substances to make us feel better?
Those drugs are a make-believe medicine for life as the symptom. Emotions are something you experience, like flying in a plane. To take Soma is like flight simulation but to naturally feel happy is like actually flying on a plane. Yes it might seem harder, but in my opinion it’s more rewarding. Society can’t tell you to be happy. Happiness is a very complex concept. Every seminar on how to be happy is very different. However, what they all have in common is the concept of finding yourself. When you find it, Keep it. Even through everyday distortion, never lose your sense of self, because I really think that is the place where happiness and bliss starts. To not have a sense of self is the worst feeling in the world. Everyone finds happiness in different things. For example, if you are an extrovert you might find happiness in a complete different way than an introvert would. In BNW and in Danger Days (MCR) they don’t have that. They are robot-like people with no individuality and thoughts for themselves. Find what makes YOU happy. Let that be your Soma
BNW Reflection
The greatest challenge for me was the organization of my writing. I have a hard time forming words and sentences just in general but when I was writing this my mind was going crazy. I just wanted to get my thoughts down before I forgot them. I really liked what I was writing about and I wanted to tell everyone my thoughts on Soma but I didn’t have enough time to do add more. Luckily, I finished writing it early so I was about to organize my points and refine.
As an student I felt overall very good in the last bit of the project. I’m not sure if I fully understand this question but I really liked being about going off on my own and making my own project. I really liked working on my paper without a real outline with things I have to cover. I love working nonlinearly (I’m not sure if that’s a real word) I was abole to skip around in my writing and I really liked that.
After wrapping up this year of high school I want to remember that I NEED to turn things in. I can’t wait till the last minute to turn everything in, like I did in middle school. So I really need to work a lot harder to turn things in next year.
I think what I’m most proud of in this project is my writing piece in general. I hate writing essays but I was really into the topic I was doing so I really enjoyed writing it. I especially liked my conclusion even though it might have been unorganized but I like the message that I was leaving my “reader” with. I even showed this essay to my dad and I never show them anything I write but I really wanted him to see it.
As an student I felt overall very good in the last bit of the project. I’m not sure if I fully understand this question but I really liked being about going off on my own and making my own project. I really liked working on my paper without a real outline with things I have to cover. I love working nonlinearly (I’m not sure if that’s a real word) I was abole to skip around in my writing and I really liked that.
After wrapping up this year of high school I want to remember that I NEED to turn things in. I can’t wait till the last minute to turn everything in, like I did in middle school. So I really need to work a lot harder to turn things in next year.
I think what I’m most proud of in this project is my writing piece in general. I hate writing essays but I was really into the topic I was doing so I really enjoyed writing it. I especially liked my conclusion even though it might have been unorganized but I like the message that I was leaving my “reader” with. I even showed this essay to my dad and I never show them anything I write but I really wanted him to see it.
Model UN Reflection The advice I would give to a student at the beginning of the project is that you can never have too much evidence! The more evidence you have the more likely people will follow you in your resolution.
I think in this project the habit of heart and mind I used that I’m proud of is Perspective because I feel like I really took the perspective of my country. As Syria I had to refuse everything that would help Israel Israel and Syria do NOT get along at all. My county is just rude. In someone’s speech they said that Syria and Jordan should just take all the refugees. I feel like all the countries who didn't support the right of return just blindly made that assumption. My country would not be open to letting refugees in as citizens. Syria has a 14-17.4 percent unemployment rate, is in a civil war, and bombed a Palestinian refugee camp in their own country. I don’t think other people really realize that Jordan and Syria can’t really accept others in their countries. If I could start this project over I would try getting more evidence and try not being so shy. I feel like if I talked more and used evidence from past articles I would have had more people empathizing with the Palestinians and more open to resolution 1a. People were saying that I Jews have no other places to go, but in one of the articles we read at the beginning of this project It said that before the Jew moved to Israel, a very large amount of jews lived in Morocco. I can’t remember the exact number but it was a huge amount. I don’t really know but I feel like everything Iran/ Samantha said was correct and very interesting. Her speech sounded very hopeful and inspiring. Her speech was very empathetic. She said that with the resolution 1a there will be more peace and a better future with less violence. I thought that was a really good way to approach that subject. |
The Right Of ReturnSyrian Arab Republic (Rowan Woodford)
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Greek tragedy play project
Projects Description!! This project was revolved around Greek tragedies. We spent the first two weeks of the porject reading greek tragedies like Philoctetes and Media. Then we started righting our own tragedies. So basically we found a social issue to focus on and made it in to a tragedy. Mine was about prostitution and how it should be legalized. My partner and I made ours into a graphic novel.
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The comic!! |
My Identity Mask Projects
Who am I? Who are you? Do we decide that or do others decide? Do your friends, family, sports or the media tell you who to be? Weather you notice it or not, they’re all influencing you. In this essay I will be focusing more on how the media socializes people. You love the media right? You love being able turn on the TV or open a magazine and see all the stars and what’s in style and what’s not. But have you ever thought that maybe the media could be affecting you in negative ways? Yeah I know that the media is good for telling you what’s “cool” but maybe it also tells you things like “you’re not good enough,” or, “hey, if you don’t have blue eyes, then you’re ugly.” The media can affect you in even in the tiniest ways. My mask is focused on the ways the media portrays teenage girls, like me, and how I’m influenced by it. Socialization is inevitable and it is a good thing. Without socialization people couldn’t speak, walk, write, etc. We take these things for granted. No matter how hard you try EVERYONE and everything will help socialize you. Everyone is influenced by those things. No matter how hard I try to not let the media influence me negatively it always happens. I don’t like the media, but if the media didn’t exist, I wouldn’t be me, and you wouldn’t be you.
It’s been brought to my attention that the media portrays teen girls as brainless objects and always seeking males’ approval. Propaganda plays a big role in socialization in the media. The type of propaganda I’m referring to is Males’ approval. Males’ approval: Males desire and women are desired. Women are shown as recipients of males’ approval. If you really pay attention to some commercials, you can see that that type of propaganda is very useful for perfumes and personal hygiene. Most of the magazines I use to read all had something to do with Male approval and how to get it. I stopped because they made me feel bad about myself. For example, most of the articles were titled something like “Smells that drive men crazy”, and “5 ways to make him ask for your number”. Everything was based on Male approval. Another thing that has been brought up is how fast the media can help spread the stereotypes around. One of the many stereotypes that I’ve been told was that men are better at math than women. After women are subject to such stereotypes like that, they start believing it and they don’t even try to contradict it or change it. They just accept it. They eyes on my mask are see through so you can see that there is “nothing there”. People sometimes really treat me like a brainless object. Almost like a Barbie. The only things they think I know how to do is talk and gossip. I admit I do talk a lot but I don’t gossip! Younger girls are afraid of me because they think I’m a crazy mean teenage girl. I’m seen rebellious teen because of my hair colors. A lot of people don’t understand that most of the movies on the TV are made up. Not every teen girl acts as mean as the media portrays them. Honestly, have you seen a girl that acts EXACTLY like Regina George from “Mean Girls”? How often do you actually hear someone making a “burn book” to write mean things about other people? Chances are that you probably haven’t, but when I was a little girl I seriously thought that there were girls about there like that. I still live by “the golden rule”, you know like the one they taught you in elementary school? Treat others the way you want to be treated. I put the frosting like coating dripping on top to hide and cover up everything. I use this to symbolize how I hide and sugar coat everything. No matter what it is I’ll try to make it sound “sweeter”. I try to sugar coat everything, because of that one saying, “Every cloud has a silver lining.” I think I might have taken that whole idea a little too far. Personally I think that everything is beautiful! No matter how bad the situation is there is always something good that comes out of it. Just name it, and I’ll find something good about it. I wasn’t always like that though, in 7th grade I thought everything was ugly and I hated everything. I don’t really know why. I was just angry at everything. If I turned on the new all I’d see was shooting, fires, kidnaps, etc. That’s the only thing that I knew about the world. Then in 8th grade I saw beauty in everything, because someone told me to look outside and asked me what I saw. I said ugly. Everything was ugly. The world is an ugly place. Then they told me to close my eyes and imagine a butterfly. I did. They said,” imagine a butterfly. Butterflies are beautiful right?” well yeah of course butterflies are pretty. Then they said “now I want you to so see the world as a butterfly.” And right there everything changed. I don’t understand why I use to hate the world. It’s more beautiful than I could ever imagine. Also, an alternative meaning of the sugar coat is another symbol of how the media sugar coats everything for girls because women are weak and fragile, I am, but is that the reason why? Was I naturally born with a lower pain tolerance or was I socialized to feel more? Think about how Disney portrays girls? All of them are helpless. For example, Aurora from “Sleeping beauty” did absolutely nothing in that whole movie. She didn’t have a say in anything in her life. Aurora’s life was pretty much just setting her up for her death at the age of 18. Disney is one of my biggest influences on me in that kind of way. The cat ears with gauze pads around them is kind of one is one of the most important one to me because its dealing with self distortion and plastic surgery. In class we watched a little commercial like parody about models and how fake there beauty is. It was called “Fotoshop” by Adobe. There’s nothing REAL about their beauty. I put the gauze and bandages around the ears to symbolize how I got surgery on my ears, because people made fun of me. Other kids my age would call me “Dumbo” (yeah I’m talking about the flying elephant) Even adults would make comments about them. My ears were huge and the stuck out more that other peoples. Finally in 7th grade I went to Florida to get surgery to pull them back and make them less noticeable. They put me to sleep, and cut the cartilage out of most of my ear, took a laser to heat up my ear so my ear easier to mold and move around, finally the stitched me up and wrapped me up in bandages. They hurt so bad and they still hurt. They will always be sensitive, but I don’t regret it. Yes, I’m against plastic surgery and stuff like that but I think it was worth it. My ear surgery wasn’t plastic surgery, but it’s kind of the same concept. You may think that plastic surgery will fix everything but plastic still can break. Let’s say there’s a girl and she used to be really over weight, but then she lost a tone of weight. No matter how skinny she is now, there will always be a self-conscious girl inside. There are just so many flaws that we can try to cover up. Not only is Disney making women look weak and fragile, but it’s also supporting the idea of self distortion. For example, Ariel from The Little Mermaid changed herself for a man that she didn’t even know. In all of the Disney princess movies there is always a pretty girl that gets everything she ever wanted in life. Technically saying “to have a good life you have to be beautiful.” These movies don’t just target how girls feel about themselves. It can also change girls ways of looking at men. How you may ask? Well in every Movie the Guys are rich, famous, and good looking. Or in Beauty and The Beast, the main male character, the one that got the girl, was rich famous and slightly abusive. Any ways, that ear experience has made me who I am. I wouldn’t change it. My mask is throwing up to represent my slight weight issues. (This is the symbol that I over exaggerated) I wasn’t really ever self conscious until I started reading Seventeen and watching Americas Next Top Model. If someone says I’m skinny, I don’t take it as a compliment unless they say I’m too skinny. I know that that’s awful to say but that’s honestly what I think. If you think this is uncommon for someone like me to feel this way, than think again. I read an article about how there is a rise in eating disorders in Fiji because of Westernized TV. Anne Becker (Going Thin in Fiji), “In her 1998 survey, taken 38 months after TV came to Nadroga, Fiji, 15 percent of girls, aged 17 on average, reported they had vomited to control weight. By contrast, only 3 percent reported this behavior in 1995, just after TV was introduced. In addition, high scores on a test indicating risk for disordered eating were significantly more frequent among schoolgirls in 1998 compared with 1995. In 1998, 74 percent of the girls reported feeling "too big or fat" at least sometimes. Those who watched TV at least three nights per week were 50 percent more likely to see themselves as too fat, and 30 percent more likely to diet, although the more frequent TV watchers were not more overweight. And 62 percent of Fijian high school girls in 1998 reported dieting in the past month, a comparable or even higher proportion than reported in American samples.”, that’s one example on how the media affects and socializes people. Also, if you look at what she’s throwing up, you can see that she’s throwing things up the “bad stuff” in life. I’m getting rid of the “poison that was in my life. For me I’m trying to throw up and forget about 7th grade. My favorite quote back then was “My biggest regret in is that I’m not someone else” –Woody Allen. Now I don’t feel any of that hate or anger that I once did. That’s why she’ throwing it up. I don’t feel that way anymore. I never want to feel like that again, so I won’t. I know that most of the subjects I focused on today were negative, but if you try to look at the good, you’ll see that maybe if you bring attention to the negative and people become more aware of them, you’ll be able to not be influenced by the negative. If you know that that the media can have a negative effect, it will be easier to shut out the harmful messages. |
*The quote was "my one regret in life is that I'm not someone else -Woody Allen
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