Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Last Exploration- Jireh White

While I was reading Wendell Berry's essay, my jaw was on the floor from shock but I was also laughing to myself because a lot of what he said was true. I like the fact that he was very blunt with everything he was saying whether it could be slightly offensive or not. One quote that I highly disagreed with was when he said "Communists and capitalists alike, "liberal"  and "conservative" capitalists alike, have needed to replace religion with some form of determinism , so that they can say to their victims, "I am doing this because I can't do otherwise. It is not my fault. It is inevitable." The wonder is how often organized religion has gone along with this lie." I disagree with this because religion has nothing to do with this. Granted, each person has their own set of beliefs that make them who they are but you don't have to be a certain religion to be a morally just person. Vice versa you can be apart of an organized religion and be the most corrupt person in the world. Economics is about  doing what is right, not about what your religion won't allow you to do. I think that Berry  was comparing apples to oranges and blew this point out of proportion. However, I found a lot of what he said to be true and I think he had a lot of other valid points.
In Morgan's exploration, I liked how she emphasized that a lot of people have a change of heart and want to do something but never really take action. I find this true in a lot of situations in life. People sometimes fail to realize that their intentions isn't what makes the difference but the actual work behind it does. We all see an issue but no one knows what is stopping us from doing something about it.


One thing that we don't talk about enough is good things that go on in the world and even in our own communities. We have all watched the news where they talk about depressing things like shootings, bombings, government corruption etc for an hour and maybe mention one slightly positive thing for one minute. I understand that the news is meant to inform the public about things that are happening but they don't shed light on good things that are also happening. They spend too much time and energy on the bad when we should be focusing on the good. Quite honestly I personally don't watch the news anymore because its depressing hearing all the bad things that happen when there are so many amazing people doing amazing things. I think that if they had a lot more positive news stories it could help people be encouraged and inspired instead of being discouraged by all the bad things. Even if the upbeat stories aren't about some huge movement I think that in this case its the little things that could mean most especially when its close to home and you can help make a difference.

6 comments:

  1. I agree with you. All you hear in the news today is about the negative things happening in the world. I do think it's necessary to report these things but I think there should be a more equal balance between the good and the bad to show that the world is not just full of bad people, there are many people who are doing great things for our country that we should be celebrating.

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  2. I also agree that the news should focus a lot more on positive things. We often see how much is going wrong in the world but we hardly ever get to praise the good that is happening.

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  3. I didn't take the quote the same way. I feel as though his comparison is valid, both religions and economies are about taking advantage of the inevitability of human nature. Whether it is an answer to our mortality or of our unlimited wants of limited resources. Both are systems of efficiency, not necessarily of morality.
    I think that the media portrays the world too dimly as well. Bad thing tend to get more attention though. There are news stories of good things, you just have to patiently wait for them.

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  4. I wish there were more good things in the news too. Unfortunately, I think we live in a world that tends to be a bit pessimistic. I also feel that when good things do actually make it into the news. It means so much when it finally happens.

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  5. I wish there were more good things in the news too. Unfortunately, I think we live in a world that tends to be a bit pessimistic. I also feel that when good things do actually make it into the news. It means so much when it finally happens.

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  6. I think having more positive news would be an excellent thing but unfortunately I don't see that happening. I don't think the people who make the news chose their stories to inform people on everything that is going on in the world - their priority is getting views. They show so many negative things because that's what most people today would rather watch. Like Rachel said, the world today is pessimistic. People are generally going to be more interested in things like murders and shootings and all of those things because they find them more exciting.

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