Where Are We Headed - Essay Example

to This essay is in the “cause/effect” pattern with the use of the rhetorical device of “pathos” directed to an informal, supportive or wavering audience in MLA Citation. “Where are We Headed?” Stop! Think for a minute before you answer this: “Where are we headed?” What has the world come to? What are the memories we’ll take along with us from today? Rage, Anger and Frustration? Violence and Promiscuity? Tales of Wars and Genocide? In the desperation of moving ahead, what is being left behind? The world is riddled with problems, proving to be larger than all of us. Children grow up on a diet of synchronized, violent wrestling and X-Box games. Children, elsewhere, go to bed hungry dreading the next morning when they resume working in dingy rooms welding iron together. Families fall apart, re-defining the ideal of the “home”. Men, in their unseeing “love” for their nation and people, kill themselves and thousands of other innocent people. Countries spend billions of dollars on testing newer, more destructive missiles. Youngsters die, everyday, in gang shootouts or in cold, dark prison cells. Drugs and alcohol assume greater importance and worth than human life. Is this what we truly want? Certainly not. Then why are we allowing it? Why are we letting ourselves go, giving up without a fight? We have learnt to create everything: from palm-sized computers to newer, more painful ways of stitching up skin to look younger. We surely have the power to control our destiny. The only thing lacking is a strong enough will. “I do not know what the third world war will be fought with, but the fourth world war will be fought with sticks and stones." -- Albert Einstein Technology: Its own achievement that Mankind is most proud of. Technology touches lives, everywhere and everyday. People wake up to electronic alarm clocks, whip up a quick breakfast with the microwave, work all day on their computers, drive back home for a restful evening in front of the television. The most basic routine that men and women around the world follow. And there is nothing wrong with it. But, the flaw in the system creeps in when our dependence on our own creation becomes overwhelming. Like the machines we’ve created, we too become unfeeling and cold. Surviving in the rat-race becomes so important that the competitors lose sight of what they started out for in the first place. As Lily Tomlin said, “The problem with the rat-race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.” So, even when people who’ve worked hard and made countless sacrifices win in the end, they realize that the prize does not make up for the losses on the way. They end up feeling frustrated, empty and helpless. We all know such people and sympathize, empathize or criticize them. And yet, do we really ensure that we are not following them down the same path? The next time you let your child get stuck in front of the TV or heat up a quick microwave-dinner, spare a moment to decide whether you are willing to make the same sacrifices. 1. "One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us." -- Kurt Vonnegut (http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/3790) Apart from the excessive mechanization of our lives, which understandably is unavoidable for many, another major blight affecting society is the rising morbidity. Children, adults, teenagers alike in surprisingly large numbers watch, read about or witness perversity everyday. And not all of it is forced upon them! Mutilated bodies on the News, innumerable slasher movies, video games in which to win one needs to sever the limbs of the enemy: these have become so common in our lives that one ceases to be shocked by them anymore. This numbing of people’s emotions, their lack of shock and horror at gore is fodder enough for the scariest movie yet! ‘The Macabre’ has become so much part of our lives that “morbid humor” is a genre of jokes, all by itself. Humor? Morbid? Rather oxymoronic one would think. Perhaps sadder than the dehumanization and bloodthirstiness of our generation is the fragmentation of family values. According to Sarah Wilkins in Mother Jones, 43% of first marriages end within 15 years in the United States. (http://www.divorcereform.org/rates.html) If children are to grow up recognizing only one parent, then it can scarcely be expected of them to reinforce cohesion in their own families later as adults. This vicious cycle keeps accelerating the pace of disintegrating families, faster than the Census Bureau can keep up! As a result, these adolescents grow up to be adults without knowing the security of a home, finding themselves at a loss in maintaining family equations and raising children. Problems are many, and affect different people in different ways. But to every problem there is almost always a simple solution. What we need to do is realize the terrible threat we are putting ourselves at by ignoring these issues. The farther we allow ourselves to compromise on our values, the greater the backlash of the ill effects. Find that time! Sit together with your family, friends or loved ones and discuss everything that bothers you. That is the only way that we, as human beings can again learn to re-connect with one another, irrespective of our gender, race or nationality. Because, when you come to think of it, all of us are looking to find some happiness and harmony. By finding the common ground of social evils, we can all breed the rare plants of brotherhood and love. So, why not take a day off work? Rent a classic Disney movie, curl up with your family in front of the TV with some pot-roast in the oven for a memorable evening! And pray all the while that these moments add up, little by little, to make that eternal sea of Peace. “Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still. This one time upon the earth, lets not speak any language, lets stop for one second, and not move our arms so much. It would be a delicious moment, without hurry, without locomotives, all of us would be together in a sudden uneasiness.” -- Pablo Neruda, “Keeping Quiet” (http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/PabloNeruda.html) References: 1. http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/PabloNeruda.html 2. http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/3790 3. http://www.divorcereform.org/rates.html Read More