Hic Sepultus -"Here is buried..." - Truth, Meaning, and a Very Dead Sense of Humor

I didn't feel like posting my near-death experience involving a waffle, a nebulizer, and an Epi-pen with a very long needle. :) Use your imagination.

This is the most recent essay for English, which I'm sure has given the teacher some major headache and annoyance because I forgot almost every rule she ever taught.

I deserve to fail. The vengeful spirit of sleeplessness haunted me without mercy.
:(But first, I would like some comments. ^_- before I go.

Chains never change, only those who wear them; the chain of command, from the President to the illegal immigrant, from the World Controller to the Epilson, clanks heavily, pealing clanging louder than the bell of freedom. - Was thinking about this during the essay. Don't feel like explicating now. Not important to essay.

Marks from Winnie at a later date. Please feel free to comment further on improvements. This essay (I use the term loosely) needs a lot of work on structure and form.

Existence in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World eerily echoes the life in the United States today, redolent as it is of selfishness, misguided deification, a mad scramble for artificial happiness, and a futile search for escape from it all, as shown in the attitudes toward pleasure, sex, consumerism, and drugs. This is a very long sentence. There must be a better, more concise way to say this.

First, the World State demands that everyone should empty their pockets for the frivolous and unnecessary, and the McDonaldized and Walmarted United States concurs in this objective as it loyally supports its companies, even opening "Windows" for them to the rest of the world. Convinced as they are by clever advertisers that luxuries are in fact necessities, for the duped consumers, the buying never ends. The sole purpose of commercials is to make the viewers unhappy with their current situation, and to convince them that, in order to return to their happy state or even leap to the next orbital, they must purchase the product. No transition No one should be able to do anything for himself; machines will do everything for him. People, of course, will not mind the less work as they are wholly occupied with the exhausting pursuit of indulgence. In the competitive arena of the market today, the compelling evidence of music artist Shakira swigging strange verb a bottle of Pepsi convinces us that we too should swallow the drink. That this makes no sense, that there exists no plausible connection between Shakira and Pepsi means no difference, because the point is to feel, not think-appreciation of her beauty for men, and jealousy of it for women. Build more on this idea Whatever the evoked sensation, people will buy because they are stimulated. Hypnopædia eliminates the need for advertisement as the desired result of people endlessly buying for no reason has already been attained to brilliant perfection. The manufacturers of acetate mean for it not to last; utterly impractical, it bears an uncanny resemble in sheer purposeful uselessness to the creations of famous designers who drape their fabrics on Hollywood's willing victims. Make more obvious that these are examples The bike has become an obsolete mode of transportation for the growing child and has "scooted" over for a certain motorized mini-vehicle. Whenever one visits the Hewlett Packard or Dell computer site, an upgrade link lingers invitingly in the corner. More space, more memory, better graphics and sound-the limit yawns far away. Tie back to more buying While the World State frowns on improvement and focuses on the maintenance of the present condition, its relentless clamoring for the consuming of clothes and transport ends on the same note of "a thriving economy." All this constant taking and grabbing has an unremarkable aim, mainly one's personal happiness, or the temporary and counterfeit achievement of it. Why does the government want this, or does it?


Next, even as citizens of the World State use casual sex as an immediate satiation of their desires, people in the U.S. are increasingly fixated on sex-casual or based on ignorant idolatry. Images of celebrities and models in "sexy" poses are plastered on shiny plastic poster reminders of sex, as obvious a sign as a condom but more alluring. Too flippant? The World State ordains that relationships must be temporary and based only on physical lust; hence, human beings are treated as meat to be devoured and not sentient creatures to be cherished. Life is a great feast, and people of the World State gulp it down rapidly and shallowly so as not to savor the bites. Americans concentrate on the outward beauty, the quick excitement of sexual arousal rather than the slower-to-build, longer-to-endure This was a very long description appreciation of intellect and mutual companionship, and the intrinsic value of being human vanishes How is this important? Tie back. People of the World State are mere objects, important while they are considered useful and even artificially altered so that they always contribute to the needs of Society, as decided by the State government for the duration of their shortened lives. Correspondingly, even as we shower monetary reverence on those people armed with never-meant-to-released "personal" home videos (Paris Hilton), talented public relations men, and even a modicum of sexual appeal, we essentially treat them as things to talk over and talk about. The pedestal on which we have placed them, by our own magic of false worship, shoots up into the sky like Jack's beanstalk, far beyond our reach. The highly stratified World State needs no publicity for the virtues of the higher castes, and they with all of the intellectually limited Society, pant the question, "What was sex with the Savage like?" The "hotness" of today's youths is not a matter of life and death-it is far more serious than that. The eagerly awaited, if dubiously created, lists of "The World's Most Beautiful People" and polls on the sexiness of men and women, disregarding character, actions, and personal acquaintance, indicate U.S. society's obsession with appearances and the importance of the exterior-the significance being namely sex. More in-depth on what we depend on to make us act the way we do

Finally, people of the U.S. today use drugs to relieve their stresses and troubles, and those of the World State take soma for the same, albeit muted reasons. From the innocuous Tylenol to the pain-relieving marijuana, drugs provide an outlet from reality and its aches. It may be surprising that, based on the hedonistic life the World State citizens lead, they might have problems, enough so they must leave the unpleasant world for soma holidays. It will be an earth-shattering shock that we, the fruit of a thriving democracy, the gleaming citadel on the hill, the deserving rulers of the earth in an ironically egalitarian society, could possibly manage to be unhappy enough to destroy our lungs-not to mention our breath-with smoking and our liver with alcohol. Drugs alter our moods, manipulate our feelings, and perhaps eventually, corrode our character. The people of the World State experience no physical pains; soma guarantees their mentally oblivious compliance with the wishes of Authority. America definitely doesn't use drugs for this purpose. In addition to using drugs for medicinal purposes, people of today also take them to escape a terrible world, often of their own making. That's very judgmental What we and the World State's people want are the profits bereft of penalties. When in the frenzied, euphoric madness of sex, violence, and drugs, we break our lives into slivers and fragments. Often we run and let others be cut as they "pick up the pieces" in our stead. This avoidance of responsibility creates the need for the gateway to flight, and many times, yet more drugs become that door, ever-open and ever-widening, tempting people to enter a place without sacrifices or mortal agony. The stresses of today's fast-paced life grind people's faces into the granite floor of failure, and they would rather fly away on drugged carpets, their cotton shields held up defensively to soak up blood. Way too much imagery/conflicting metaphor. Stick to one idea or it makes no sense. Numbed with the mindless pleasures of soma, World State chooses to forgo joy and the worship of God so that it might not experience devastation or Hell on earth. Some kind of literary/historical reference might help here Similarly, passion for worldly material so consumes us that, like ants, we cannot see much higher than the ground; we have lost sight of the loftier planes and the greater heavens. The Brave New World does not acknowledge death with respect, or life with veneration for the precious quality it is. In essence, humanity has been pummeled to unconsciousness by a void to make way for nothing. Clarify the conclusion sentence so ties back better

A Tower of Babel stands today and in Brave New World as a symbol of defiance against God; the steps ascend to mediocre, "imbecilic happiness." Tower of Babel also stands for individuality. The ladders of faith are burnt to ash; the only prospect for most is to "get high," be it from pleasure, consumerism, sex, or drugs, and float like a released balloon, up, up, up, to the very turrets of Babel but no further; heaven eludes us. Need better reason for citing Tower of Babel In our wooing of the World, we find ourselves irrevocably wedded to it. Elaborate more on this idea The World State can be likened to a time-tarnished reflection of an age that Americans, in the Sonic Boom of self-absorbed irresponsibility, are fast approaching. Uh oh. I'm going to fail this essay.

Posted by ceterumcenseo on Tuesday, December 28, 2004 at 8:28 PM | Permalink