Shining Thru » Society

Desensitization

cnj222 — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 02:42:37 +0000

I think it’s interesting that people throw a fit over how much violence is in the movies that kids watch today, but they never seem to worry about anything else. I think that we should be more worried about not that kids might watch aliens or fighting with light sabers, but that they are being desensitized to much more realistic things in our every day society, like responsibility or hard work. Today more kids than not are not held accountable for their own actions, and they do not realize that things that you get in this life need to be worked for. I cannot believe how many teenagers and even younger kids that are angry with their parents because they didn’t get the latest IPhone, or whatever they are looking for. Even though they still have nicer clothes, phones, and sometimes cars that I do and I have a job. Many children these days don’t know what it’s like to have to work for anything.

I think that our society is worried about desensitizing our children to the wrong things. I know there is the occasional crazy kid who thinks that the big battles on Star Wars are real, but I think for the most part kids only have healthy imagination and don’t actually feel the need to kill anyone after seeing a movie or playing a video game. I do however think that we are doing our children a huge disservice by sheltering them from the realities of the real world and giving them more chances than anyone will give them as an adult. Kids today get to go to summer school, or protest their grade, or have their parents protest their grades, or do online make up credits, all sorts of things, simply because they didn’t feel like doing the work the first time around and failed. I don’t understand why we keep giving chances like this to children, it would be different if they were actually trying and just didn’t get it, but the ones I know will tell you out right that they simply didn’t feel like it. Too many young people think that the world will bend to their whims and desires…it’s kind of scary when you think about a future of an entire generation that will be shocked when the realities of adulthood hit them…if they hit them….they might just keep going not understanding why things aren’t working out or letting their parents and grandparents continue to shelter them and do all of the work for them.

TV in our Society

cnj222 — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 02:29:27 +0000

It’s amazing what a big influence tv shows have on our society sometimes. Some characters that we get attached to and watch them like they are real people, feel sad or happy for them as the situations call for….it just seems crazy that we allow real emotions to become attached to fiction…. Now sometimes, fiction can be used to reveal the truth, that’s a quote from V for Vendetta. And I agree with it. I think a lot of people find personal truths in tv shows or amongst characters or movies. There are a lot of great and memorable characters, story lines, and quotes that have entered into our society…. but sometimes I think it prompts people to believe in things that aren’t real or to expect life to be something other than it is. Sometimes I think that some people expect life to be like a fairytale or a movie plot where the good guy always prevails in the end, even when you think he’s dead, somehow they bring him back in the sequel.

But life isn’t like that, and I think it’s hard sometimes for some people to realize that, or come out of denial and accept that fact. I think that sometimes it’s easier for people to believe that like in the movies, your best friend will always have the perfect timing and show up right when disaster strikes and they will help you overcome whatever overwhelming odds you seem to have come up against….but in reality, friends come and go, and many times they don’t magically reappear down the road….sometimes they are gone forever, sometimes they simply don’t care, and sometimes they are there…but you never know for how long or for what purpose.

It’s always great to see an uplifting movie, sometimes they even make me cry…..I do wish that real life could be like that, where friends stay friends for life and are always there to look out for each other…but it simply isn’t so many times in real life.

Dolls

cnj222 — Mon, 31 May 2010 01:31:08 +0000

Living, Breathing…but not thinking or feeling

Pull the string and watch them say the programed phrases

Keep on watching as they march across the room

Living on in the program of society

Not able to change the ones and zeroes that surround us

Watching them makes you sad

You check the reflection of your mind

Not watching to turn into plastic

Not wanting to turn into something fake

Not willing to give up the emotions of life

The hurt and the frustration are traded for love and happiness

Tears of joy replace those of saddness

Giving up the pain isn’t worth giving up the power of thought

The power of knowledge and experience

The love and life that you would miss out on

Perception of Normal

cnj222 — Tue, 11 May 2010 10:54:37 +0000

What is normal? What seems normal and obvious to you may be the exact opposite to the person sitting next to you. You never know what their experiences have been and you don’t know that your perception is shared by those that share the room with you now. We have all come from different backgrounds, even if you grew up in the same neighborhood, maybe even as next door neighbors, that might mean that you have a better general, mutual agreement of the term “normal” but in reality, normal doesn’t exist.

Normal is some type of thing that we have fooled our society into believing. Normal is a fake term that is used when people expect the other people around them to understand what is going on inside of their head. The truth is that nobody can really be inside your head, and it shouldn’t be assumed that other people know your thoughts as if they are being broadcast on the wall behind you at all times…like the people you are talking to have cue cards.

I think that a lot of misunderstandings could be avoided if people were more open to the fact that not everyone has the same background, the same beliefs or the same views on things…and that is ok. So many people get so defensive like their livelihood is being challenged simply because someone else has a different thought about something. So instead of opening their mind up to a new experiences, they lock it down and dig in their heels to argue, when no argument is necessary.

“Normal”….that is something that doesn’t exist and probably never will. What is normal is what the media tells the younger generations to believe is normal…but then what media are we talking about? What stations are people watching? What magazines are they reading? What radio stations are they listening to? All kinds of things define “normal” for our society, but in reality it is all a matter of perception.

Today’s News, Tomorrow’s Future

cnj222 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:56:41 +0000

I’m not sure where the younger generation is headed, but it doesn’t look good. Legislators keep trying to increase the curriculum and make everything look good on paper, but what it’s actually doing is forcing kids to give up. No child left behind is plowing students over by trying to make them keep up with some made up standards by politicians that have never been inside a classroom, other than as a student. I saw in the news that another student brought another gun to school….I think that it is so sad that we have to worry about such things. As always the comments on the article were much more interesting that the article itself…people say all sorts of things from where are the parents, to that school is for the trash of the district anyway…Even if it is an alternative school how can we possible call children trash….Schools have a lot of issues these days and it scares me to think that these are the people of the generation that are suppose to be running things in the future. If we don’t get it together and start worrying about the right issues I don’t understand how we expect improvements. What good are nice looking standardized test scores in the records office if children are running around on the streets or bringing the streets to the schools. I don’t think that we realize all of the time what kind of issues are in the homes for the young people today, but I also don’t think that we should be making excuses for anyone, I think that the first step to having any real improvement is to hold people responsible for their own actions.

Comments on the News

cnj222 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:50:29 +0000

Reading the local news was pretty interesting today. I read that near by the city counsel voted to impose a daytime curfew for children of school age. Their new law states that children between the ages of 6 and 16 should not be found in the community between the times of 8:30 am and 2:30 pm. Police will take care of running into children of school age during the day by offering to take them home or to school, if they refuse than their guardian will get the citation…..Reading the comments was even more interesting. Some people were complaining that this is forcing the police officers to take care of the parental responsibilities of these young people…however, I feel that it is forcing parents to be held accountable for the actions of their child or children. Now a days, parents don’t have too many excuses for not knowing where their children are; schools have auto dialers that inform them whenever a child is late or absent, teachers send letters home, and most teenagers I see have cell phones that parents could track them with if they so choose. Some people may argue that tracking their child is an invasion of their privacy, but I feel that it is your responsibility to know about your child while they are living under your roof and your responsibility. I think it’s wonderful that law enforcement will help parents out when they see the young people walking around town for no good reason other than to avoid getting an education….However, I do think that it is pretty sad that we, as a society, would have to resort to such matters. It is interesting the variety of comments on this particular article, one person said that it is a shame that parents will end up paying for their children’s mistakes and that “parent’s are use to footing the bill for their children…I think that is a major problem in our society….why shouldn’t parents be held responsible for their children, they are the ones that raised them. I know there are some people who feel that they are in a hopeless situation with their children…but I think they are running out of people to blame other than the parents and the way that the children were raised. If you let a 2 year old run the household, what do you think will happen when that toddler grows into a teenager?

People Trying to Think

cnj222 — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:57:17 +0000

I don’t understand the way some people think or logic their way through life….I was reading the news earlier today and was simply baffled by some of the comments underneath the articles from other readers similar to myself. There was one article about a woman being shot to death in her home while holding her 3 month old baby and all but one of the comments that I read were saying what a bad mother she was and completely tearing her apart….and then another article was about how a teenager jumped out of a moving ambulance and died and there were only comments as far as I could see about how sad it was and how the family should file a lawsuit against the ambulance workers for not containing the boy. Although I agree that because the boy had mental issues and the circumstances are sad and I feel for the family, I don’t understand how these are the same type of people completely slamming the single mother trying to raise her children. Instead they are blaming her for the fact that some of her young children witnessed the shooting early in the morning when the kids should have been in bed…apparently it didn’t occur to any of them that the kids may have been sleeping in the same room as the baby and the mother was in there to pick up the baby since most 3 month olds I know don’t sleep through the night completely, or maybe there were woken up by someone breaking into the house, or the confrontation that could have been taking place before the shooting. How can people in good conscience think that they are in the right passing judgment over a woman who just lost her life like that? Not one of the comments that I read expressed any type of concern or sympathy for her children, they all just wanted to say how wrong she was for being a young single mother who was shot in front of her children, as if it was her choice, as if she was suppose to know she was going to get shot that day and have the kids pre-removed from the house….I wish people would stop and think before they shoot off their comments into cyberspace. I have to wonder how many of those people would say those things out loud and how many of them are simply hiding behind the computer. At least the things I say, I am not too ashamed to voice in real life. I would hope that these people would be ashamed of their comments if the family of that woman heard them, but I fear that too often in our judgmental society, those people would still think that they are in the right, no matter who they were talking to.

Unfortunately for this young woman, so many people feel that they are in the right and have the right to say whatever thoughts pop into their heads. Their attempts at thinking are sometimes pitiful and I am sorry to say that I live in a society that feels that they can pass judgment without knowing all of the facts in a situation and publicly post their blind comments about it on the internet.

Personality

cnj222 — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:45:26 +0000

Do you ever find yourself with two personalities…not in the crazy way, but just the way you act and react to different groups of people compared to when you’re on your own or with a separate group of people that you know better and are more comfortable with? I’ve noticed that some people have work personalities and then are a completely different person outside of the work place, when they are home, or just hanging out relaxing with coworkers as friends instead of work associates.

I know that my personality changes and people notice it sometimes too…if they see both personalities, but I think it’s just the way certain situations and groups of people make me react.

It’s weird to find the balance of always being yourself but being what people expect of you in certain situations as well…I think that we start this struggle at a very young age. having to be this while knowing it doesn’t quite fit with who you are as a person…so trying to curve it to make the square peg fit in the circle hole by smooting the edges a little…even when it takes a lot of force.

Some people will argue that you shouldn’t change who you are for any reason…but I’m not sure you are changing who you are…I think it’s more of a action and reaction kind of thing…I think that certain situations simply cause people to act differently….

Power Struggle

cnj222 — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:21:22 +0000

What happens when the followers become the leaders? Ever heard the phrase, too many Chiefs and not enough Indians? It seems to be the way some things are working these days. Everyone wants to be in charge and feel the power, move up on the ladder so to speak. With everyone grasping for the power stick, a chance to get behind the wheel, people forget to do their own job, fill the position they are already in….

Why is it that people spend so much time trying to prove themselves that they look plain stupid because they look like they aren’t even capable of doing the position that they are already suppose to be doing. They try to increase their position by sabotaging those around them, or by stepping on toes and trying to do jobs that belong to other people.

I don’t understand people that don’t want to go through the proper channels of things, who can’t simply feel good about doing a good days work and know that they are doing the best they can at what they are suppose to be doing. Instead they are fighting for something that might not even be in the cards for them ever, much less right then at that moment. Just because they want to skip steps to get to the top of the pyramid faster, doesn’t mean that it’s right.

The struggle in the game of tug-a-war played by the adults of our society is obvious…and annoying. Sometimes the adults I observe act more like children than the kids I know….you want to tell them to stop trying to grow up so fast and enjoy what they have while they have it…because when you get to the top you might be disappointed with the view.

Sheeple…

cnj222 — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:57:04 +0000

“Look at these people amazing how sheeple show up for the slaughter.” What a great line from a musical I was recently introduced to, Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. I think that this line is a great representation of what happens often in our society. People following the media or their favorite politician…sometimes more likely is that they are following their parents’ favorite politician. People that have a set time every day set aside to watch the screen of “big brother” and they simply believe everything that is said on their favorite show on Fox News or CNN.

I have to wonder how some people can have so much information stored inside of them and yet seem to almost refuse to use their common sense to actually puzzle out their own original thoughts. There are a few people who strive for the truth, think through everything…but the majority of people that I see around me most days makes me really wonder if people even remember how to think for themselves any more? I know that the younger generation expects answers to simply be handed to them…I have to wonder if they get that because their elders have simply resigned themselves to simply following whatever message is spread the loudest in the gossip lines of neighbors or on the most news channels.

Some people are intimidating with all of their knowledge and their great use of common sense, debate skills, etc….why are these people so hard to find sometimes…??? I’m glad that I have been able to surround myself in my personal life with intelligent people…but when I go to work I see what is outside of my own little circle…..Sometimes you wonder if some people are ever involved in an intelligent conversation about anything…..And if they do get involved if can they give any reasons for the opinions that they so strongly defend because that is what they heard on the latest news report….I love having good conversations and debates with people, but sometimes I am amazed at how people enter into such conversations without any actual facts to back up their opinions…or even solid logic to back themselves up.

Sheeple is a great term for how the majority of our society seems to be acting these days. People question their best friends but believe what some “specialist” on the evening news says without hesitation….what kind of sense does that make? I’m afraid for where our society is going if we (as a whole) continue to blindly follow and line up for the slaughter… sooner or later, we wont be able to avoid what we are asking for. Put the axe in the hand of the executioner…don’t act surprised when your head is rolling on the ground.