The Link Between Idiocracy And Rituals Essay

In our film, we attempted to portray John Wyndham’s “The Chrysalids” to the best of our ability, while retaining as much of the dystopian elements that are intrinsic to the story as possible. The book takes place in the town of Waknuk, where the protagonist, David, is taught from a young age not to deviate from the norm. In accordance with the Waknukian religion, anyone whose body contravenes with the Definition of Man is a Blasphemy, and must be isolated, alienated and even banished from their pure, perfect, ideal community. Through our film adaptation of the book, we wanted to explore the complexity of human nature in a dehumanized state, where conformity and uniformity is eminent and individuality and uniqueness is shunned. We also wanted

In Michael Lambek’s Toward an Ethics of the Act, Lambek discusses the ethics of performance and practice rituals through perlocution and illocution. Anthony Gidden’s talks about the duality of agency (action) and structure and argues that that’s two cannot exist without each other. These two compare and contrast in analyzing social actions.

Every Culture has a set of rituals that they partake in, that are often constructed over a long period of time. Simple Actions, and special moments contain so much meaning and make everlasting memories. All rituals despite the locations they originate from, or the location they are carried out in contain the same components, they are repetitive, symbolic, remind a certain group of people about their values and beliefs, and these rituals commemorate a significant moment. For example christians commemorate the birth of christ by attending mass, and many other cultures celebrate this moment in many different ways that have in depth symbolic meaning. In the book “Guests of the Sheik” by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea rituals play a major role. Fernea’s husband Bob is an anthropologist studying the occupants of a small village named El Nahra and their culture. Fernea has documented her experiences, and adventures, and her perspective of the many rituals that the townspeople participate in such as, Ramadan, Muharram, weddings, and pilgrimages. In Muslim culture pilgrimages are immensely important and can even lead to an elevated status. Such as the pilgrimage to Mecca. Fernea is able to participate in a pilgrimage to Karbala with a couple of the towns women she had befriended. The Pilgrimage to Karbala is a symbolic, and cultural ritual in the aspect that it is reenacted every year, and is full of symbolic meaning, commemorates an important occasion and reminds a culture about their

From its creation in the late 20th century the internet has become a part of our everyday lives. In Catholicism, Confession is a very important ritual for the forgiveness of sins. Now that society is evolving onto the online world, so are the rituals and practices of the Catholic Church. I believe an online Confession app has the authenticity of an offline one, but lacks the effectiveness of the sacrament as it was intended to be. In order to understand this opinion, you must recognise Smart’s 7 Dimensions, how Catholic Confession is conducted both online and off, the benefits and disadvantages of using either the online or offline version, and the authenticity and effectiveness.

And this performance, rekindles our belief in our own intellect. The victim, whose radical ideas to inspire change in the regressive status quo are silenced by the state, is the desired aesthetic of choice.

The 1961 short story by Kurt Vonnegut, “Harrison Bergeron,” details a dystopian future in which the mediocre and average are lionized, and the exceptional in society are marginalized and treated as though they are handicapped and/or criminal. The plot of “Harrison Bergeron” revolves around the plight of its title character, an adolescent boy who is 7’1” tall, extremely good looking, and has a genius-level I.Q., to boot. In the story, Harrison has been placed in jail in order to protect society from his exceptionality. In the society of 2081 America that Vonnegut depicts, the United States government has installed a fascist government that punishes people for falling above the norm in any instance. As the story progresses, the reader learns that Harrison’s mother is actually of below average intelligence, and this has rendered her into an “ideal citizen.” Harrison’s father, on the other hand, possesses above average intelligence and is subject to constant monitoring by the government, so as to ensure that he does not use his superior abilities to act outside of the norm, in any way. Ultimately, “Harrison Bergeron” is a Marxist critique of the late capitalist society of the twentieth century United States, which celebrates the “average” and the “mediocre,” while demonizing innovation.

A seemingly flawless, utopian society is revealed to actually be a dystopian world in Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s short-story, “Harrison Bergeron.” George and Hazel Bergersen are inhabitants of a nation, where everyone is equal. In an attempt to achieve this equality, the government monitors and moderates those who exhibit above average intelligence, especially through the use of television. Some, such as the couple’s son Harrison, are even incarcerated for their talents. Despite what is popularized and prioritized in widespread media, individuals must seek to discover less known information on their own. Being well informed, grants the freedom for one to stand up for what they believe in. By using satire and universal symbolism, the author depicts

In the short story, Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut depicts, through the use of satire and the setting of a future dystopian society, the harmful effects of conformity. Set in the year 2081, this society declares complete ‘equality’ for all, a baseline in which no human’s ability can surmount anothers. This is achieved by handicapping everyone, conforming the potential of human beings, crippling people to create supposed equality. Through the protagonist Harrison, a fourteen-year-old boy with a plethora of god-like, superhuman talents and abilities, the author illustrates the tension and conflict of individuality trying to prevail in a society so ingrained in the system of conformity.

In the short story “The Murderer,” Ray Bradbury utilizes personification to inform how technology is corrupting and replacing human interaction within the persons of this futuristic society. Albert Brock, a prisoner who calls himself “the murderer”, loathes how devices like the television or the wrist radio keep people from physical interaction and how there is no reality to them, that they are “voices without bodies” (Bradbury 27-28 ). Although the majority of the people in this advanced world think that smart machines are for the better and should be used daily, the personified electrical devices explicitly show how technology will overpower thoughtful human connection. The outset of the story introduces Albert Brock’s psychiatrist as he walks into Brock’s room.

A large component of the psychoanalytical theory is the three-part psyche which breaks the brain into essentially three parts; The ego, the superego, and the id. The id is the largest part and instinctive component of the personality which seeks pleasure and its primary focus are wants and desires. The superego is the practical component which is more set on the morals and values set by others they know, meanwhile, the ego is the weak mediator of the two. The strength of the id is an overbearing topic in Araby by James Joyce and The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The 1914 short story, Araby, follows a young boy going through his preteen years with a growing obsession for Mangan’s sister. Despite the fact that she is much

The 18th century was an incredibly different time, full of corruption and brutality. New France

Friedrich Schleiermacher, a German philosopher, taught of the importance of culture within the hermeneutic circle. The hermeneutic circle is the understanding that to understand a full text you must understand its parts, yet to understand the parts of the text you must understand the full text. This statement by itself forms a paradox that appears to capture the reader in a circle of which one cannot escape. While understanding hermeneutical texts is difficult, the full meaning of the text and its parts can be grasped by researching the history and culture of the topic in question. The novel Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko is written in a hermeneutic style, which results in many loose ends at the end of the novel.

There are several features that distinguish a ritual. First, this type of ritual is clearly demarcated from everyday social life; second, these events occur in a regularized manner; third, these events involve stylized activities; and finally, these events involve multiple actors (Knottnerus, 2010, pg. 42). The ritual that forms the basis for this paper was a rally that took place on Friday 1st May, organised in response to the decision of the Abbot Government to begin the forced closure of remote indigenous communities in Western Australia. The purpose of this specific ritual was to generate awareness around the issue of the forced closures, and to demonstrate to the government that there is not unanimous support from the public for the threatened withdrawal of funding from remote communities. The rally started at City Square shortly after 4pm, with the group (numbering around 10,000) marching up Swanston Street and into Bourke Street before amassing at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston Streets, which “was blocked for about two hours by sitting protesters until the area re-opened to trams and cars around 7pm” (Butt & Hatch, 2015). The group was made up of a wide variety of people that seemed to span a number of different socio-economic indicators. For example, there were a

The use of counter culture and ideology can provide unique perspectives on the issues faced by everyone, even those who do not acknowledge it. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh portrays a drug addict who rejects any conventions of normalcy in the pursuit of an alternate reality. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis does the same through the depiction of a rich and greedy Wall Street tycoon. This essay will closely analyze the themes of illusion and reality in Trainspotting and American Psycho. The relationship between the fantasy world and the “real” world in these texts are closely linked and aid the narrative in a criticism of social and structural issues. The texts are often criticized as glorifying drug use and violence however through analyzing the effect of narrative, drug use and culture on the characters reality and illusions will argue that the elements of drug use and violence help in the deconstruction of greed and popular culture in the texts.

Mike Judge chose to express his societal critique through the medium of movies, and thus demonstrates his critique on the growing stupidity of the human race in his movie Idiocracy. Judge’s movie portrays to us America 500 years in the future, however, society does the opposite of expected and devolves instead of getting better. Moreover, as the name suggests, the America within Idiocracy does not have any intelligent people at all, but rather is filled with complete morons. As an example of how badly society has deteriorated, Judge uses a man who is literally average in everything as his main protagonist in order to have a foil to that society. In order to do s however, Judge has the protagonist cryogenically frozen and forgotten about for 500 years, so that he can awake in an America with trash piled as high as mountains, people living off of fast food, and watching TV all day with the most popular show being called “Ow! My Balls!” This society Judge shows is horrific in that the people are extremely stupid, but it’s also horrific due to its uncanny similarities to our society right now. Mike Judge attempted to warn us about our growing incompetence back in 2006. Ten years later, Judge says he should’ve released Idiocracy today as a “documentary” (New York Times). The worst part about Judge’s statement is the he is right. Our society has been declining in intelligence since the beginning of the 2000’s. With technology on the rise, people don’t have to think, so long as they know how to make a computer think for them. In 2017, people are more likely to ask Google an important life question than their own parents because they’re too embarrassed. In 2017, one of the most googled things is “What time is it?” even when people have at least three clocks around them at all times. Mike Judge was able to see what society was turning into back in 2006, and it’s a scary thing about how right he was. Trash no one knows what to do with. Television and screens numbing the brain. Less and less people reading, or using analytical skills. The sad truth is, Mike Judge said our society would almost crumble in 2505, but it’s almost there in 2017.