Speaking from a nihilistic perspective, if we live in an inherently meaningless world, where do we derive motivation? The answer is that we create the meaning which gives us purpose through sheer force of will. In her essay “Great to Watch,” Maggie Nelson discussing the pervasiveness of violence in media in our society. Additionally, Oliver Sack’s essay “The Minds Eye,” is a famous essay concerning how blind people perceive their world. Lastly Cathy Davidson, author of “Project Classroom Makeover,” an essay on the changing relationship between technology and classroom. Anything is humanly possible as long as we can adapt, and we can create. We adapt by finding alternative paths to a goal if the situation does not allow for the optimal
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Our ability to take ideas from our mind and put them into reality is central to forging our own paths, as without action, words and ideas are nothing but wind. Returning to the concept of “vision” we look to Sacks’ story of his bewilderment of his mother drawing the skeleton of a lizard from memory: “I could not imagine how she had done this. When she said that she could see the skeleton in her mind just as clearly as she could and vividly as if she were looking at it” (Sacks 337). Sack’s mother was able to internally visualize the skeleton and then redraw it from memory. Her ability to put pen to paper and create what was previously only a concept in her mind, however small, is an example of concept becoming reality. This idea of taking ideas and choosing to create something physical out of them is not just done on an individual scale like drawing. Moving from seeing action on an individual scale, we now move to see it on a group and even societal scale. The Hub website is a non profit organization which aims to see the end of human rights violations by first exposing us to videos and images of violence, then giving us ways to turn our rage at witnessing those events into action by giving viewers the choice to take part in: “‘a growing portfolio of advocacy tools to help allies and users call for action,’ ranging from signing email petitions to writing members of Congress to sending money to a variety of organizations” (Nelson 303). This is essentially the same idea of “putting pen to paper” that Sack’s mother did, but on a larger, group scale. The Hub uses the exposure of rage inducing videos to influence us into choosing to utilize their advocacy tools. This is just a microcosm of how society functions in general. Everyday people take action together to get things done. This is central at even the smallest level of society, trash men, post men, and
Our ability to take ideas from our mind and put them into reality is central to forging our own paths, as without action, words and ideas are nothing but wind. Returning to the concept of “vision” we look to Sacks’ story of his bewilderment of his mother drawing the skeleton of a lizard from memory: “I could not imagine how she had done this. When she said that she could see the skeleton in her mind just as clearly as she could and vividly as if she were looking at it” (Sacks 337). Sack’s mother was able to internally visualize the skeleton and then redraw it from memory. Her ability to put pen to paper and create what was previously only a concept in her mind, however small, is an example of concept becoming reality. This idea of taking ideas and choosing to create something physical out of them is not just done on an individual scale like drawing. Moving from seeing action on an individual scale, we now move to see it on a group and even societal scale. The Hub website is a non profit organization which aims to see the end of human rights violations by first exposing us to videos and images of violence, then giving us ways to turn our rage at witnessing those events into action by giving viewers the choice to take part in: “‘a growing portfolio of advocacy tools to help allies and users call for action,’ ranging from signing email petitions to writing members of Congress to sending money to a variety of organizations” (Nelson 303). This is essentially the same idea of “putting pen to paper” that Sack’s mother did, but on a larger, group scale. The Hub uses the exposure of rage inducing videos to influence us into choosing to utilize their advocacy tools. This is just a microcosm of how society functions in general. Everyday people take action together to get things done. This is central at even the smallest level of society, trash men, post men, and