Today, we continued our discussion about Rousseau’s philosophy on the origins of man. While the conversation got a little heated towards the end, it was very stimulating and thought-provoking! I began to imagine a parallel universe in which we all lived in a small commune in the middle of nowhere during the 18th century. At first, this thought seemed like a very scary thing; how could the 16 of us survive in a confined space? Who would be assigned which role? And most importantly, how would 16 people with completely different personalities live as one, cohesive unit? However, in retrospect, I do not think it would be the end of the world if that were to happen.
According to Rousseau, humans are capable of evolving at a rapid pace; this means that humans have an ability to adapt to their surroundings. This implies that if some apocalyptic, natural disaster type of event were to happen to us, we would be able to figure out a way to adapt—without our precious smart phones. In his first discourse, Rousseau introduces the notion of a savage person compared to a civil person, and uses this comparison to justify his claim that civil society corrupts humankind. The savage human predates the beginnings of civil society; there are no conflicts for this individual as all of their needs are met by nature. The savage human only exhibits base emotions, and it it through these emotions that reason is developed. Because the savage human leads a simplistic life, there are no complications that could make life difficult. Rousseau argues that the savage human derives more pleasure out of life compared to the civilized person. Since the civilized person possesses the ability to perfect their life, they become too preoccupied. For Rousseau, perfectibility leads to misery in the lives of the civilized person.
I agree with Rousseau; modernity definitely has an impact on the quality of life one leads today. While Rousseau isn't advocating for the return to the "natural" way of life, he still thinks that people have an obligation to correct the corruptness from within our modern life. However, this is problematic because I'm afraid it's too late to save humanity from the corruption that we've created for ourselves. In our generation, people are too greedy, selfish, and oblivious to their own privilege. We live in an age when smart phones are handed out like candy--people have become too reliant on technology.
In my humble opinion, I find technology to be exhausting... I don't like how I have this need to have my smart phone with me all the time. It's just one more thing I need to worry about. Although to be frank, the majority of the time, I use my iPhone just to listen to music (you might as well glue my headphones into my ears). I am not as concerned with checking Twitter or Facebook because those aspects of social media are extremely fake. While they pretend to connect people, they actually push people away from each other because they create the illusion that you can "collect" people as your friends without having an legitimate conversation with them, let alone know what their favorite color is.
It's just ridiculous; people are too busy consuming than living life.
I agree with Rousseau; modernity definitely has an impact on the quality of life one leads today. While Rousseau isn't advocating for the return to the "natural" way of life, he still thinks that people have an obligation to correct the corruptness from within our modern life. However, this is problematic because I'm afraid it's too late to save humanity from the corruption that we've created for ourselves. In our generation, people are too greedy, selfish, and oblivious to their own privilege. We live in an age when smart phones are handed out like candy--people have become too reliant on technology.
In my humble opinion, I find technology to be exhausting... I don't like how I have this need to have my smart phone with me all the time. It's just one more thing I need to worry about. Although to be frank, the majority of the time, I use my iPhone just to listen to music (you might as well glue my headphones into my ears). I am not as concerned with checking Twitter or Facebook because those aspects of social media are extremely fake. While they pretend to connect people, they actually push people away from each other because they create the illusion that you can "collect" people as your friends without having an legitimate conversation with them, let alone know what their favorite color is.
It's just ridiculous; people are too busy consuming than living life.
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