Final Essay

I don't think I will ever know the true meaning of life or even if my life has any meaning, but I think the most important thing is to have fun and live YOUR life not what others want you to be. There will always be certain things that you can say are and aren't meaningful but at the end of the day it is already done and that is that. Once you do something there is no going back and changing it. There is not one person on this earth who can say that everything they have done is meaningful or everything they have done is meaningless. No one has the right to decide if an other's life is meaningful or not. You make that decision about your own life.

I think a lot of the time having a meaningful life can be mixed up with having a successful life. The successful life that most people think of as just having money and a good job. Not everything has to have a purpose or meaning. I play basketball and I know that it is not going to bring me any "success" but I do it, because that is what I like to do and is fun to me. I try making my life "meaningful" by having fun. Everyone can have their own solutions. For example my parents tell me all the time to spend less time having fun and doing what I want and that instead I should be doing homework and studying. But I tell them that this is my life and they can do that stuff in their life if they want to.

As life goes on your mind evolves and you learn more. You become more wise and understand life is not what you thought it was in high school. Things you may have thought were meaningful may not be meaningful anymore. The longer you live the more experience you gain and experience is the best teacher.

I think that in our society today the dominant corporate messages are that materials will make you happy. For example in the commercial that says "Every kiss begins with a Kay". The commercial is for a jewelry store and basically what they are trying to tell the viewers is that the jewelry will make your girlfriend/ boyfriend happy and that their love for each other will become greater.
In the magazines that teenage girls read talk about what the celebrities are wearing and what they think is cool. When the girls read this they think that dressing and being like the celebrities are going to make them popular and feel better about themselves. The girls think they feel better about themselves but really feel better that they are more like the celebrity so really they are not feeling better about themselves. The dominant message that materials will make one happy cause people to rely on the materials they want so that if they don't get what they want they are angry until they get that thing. I think it is sort of similar to a drug addiction. People who are addicted to heroin or cocaine try it and then their bodies rely on the drugs and the junkie must get the drug or they go into a different state where their body gets all messed up. Then to keep on getting the drugs for their system they do things like become prostitutes so they can get what they need. People who think that the materials will make them happy buy and buy then when they don't have enough money or can't get the material they rob banks and steal from people because they think they will be happy with the money.

Another Dominant message is from religion. Everyone must do what their "God" or leader thinks is right. You must follow their beliefs or do what they would have done. Sometimes I think that religion is a way for people to be controlled because they don't want to sin. No one wants to sin so it is a way to scare people and get them to do what they think is right.
"I believe
Man made god, outta ignorance and fear
If God made man, then why the hell would he put us here?
I thought hes supposed to be the all loving
The same God who let hitler put the jews in the oven" -Dead Prez

I still think that these are dominant messages that most people tend to follow. They will probably always be the dominant because the media, religion, government, etc push them on us. I don't think that they are needed to live a meaningful life but that is what the media trys to tell you that you need.

If I was to organize my own funeral I would invite family and friends. I wouldn't want people to be sad and crying, because thats not going to do anything but waste time. I don't really think that death should be thought of as a bad thing. Me personally I'm not really scared of death because once you die you die. You don't know how you will feel when you are dead or where you will go. It could be another world for all we know and we just start over. I think the only message that I would want to get out is that death doesn't have to be a bad thing that is feared and that sitting around crying that someone died is a waste of time because they are not coming back.

I still feel the same way about death and how I would want my funeral organized. I am not the type of person that wants people to feel sorrow for me. I would rather them forget about me than mourn for the rest of their lives.

To me being emotionally healthy is just being able to survive and think on your own. I don't think that I feel more emotionally healthy than other times, because no matter what my "emotions" are whether Im happy, mad, sad I am still able to make my own decisions that I feel are best for me. I don't think that "constantly happy" is the same thing as emotional healthy. One being constantly happy may make them feel like they are emotionally healthier but for me i don't think constantly being happy makes my mind work any better. On wikipedia it says that to be emotionally healthy it includes enjoying life. I disagree with that because in life many times things happen and you don't always enjoy life but that doesn't mean you are not emotionally healthy. What makes it wrong to not enjoy life and who gets to decide weather or not someone is emotionally healthy or what it means to be emotionally healthy?

I think that the therapists believe enjoying life means one is emotionally healthy. So then they would probably just look for ways to make you feel like your life is good and you should want to live it. I disagree with this because life isn't always fun and can't always be enjoyed but that is part of life. Existentialist therapist look to try and make their patients feel like their lives are meaningful and have a purpose. To me everyone's life has meaning just because everything has a meaning but just because it has meaning doesn't mean they must want to live. And it shouldn't be considered emotionally unhealthy if one doesn't want to live their life anymore. Either way they are going to die sooner or later so why should they waste there time with something they feel is a waste.

I still feel the same way about emotional health. As I am thinking about the sentence I wrote "Either way they are going to die sooner or later so why should they waste there time with something they feel is a waste." maybe it is the best thing if they just kill themselves instead of wasting oil (Just kidding if anyone reading this is thinking about suicide). But I also think the same way about a meaningful life. You don't have to be emotionally healthy or happy to life the meaningful life its just whether or not it is meaningful to you.

I think it is wrong how the animals are treated on these farms. They should not be tortured while becoming food. At least put them to sleep or something when their necks are slit and they get chopped up. It is bad enough how the animals are raised on these farms and the conditions they must survive in. When watching the video and seeing how the animals are treated and the way they look before going through the machines makes me not want to eat. I could not imagine being cramp up in a small space with other creatures surround me and never being able to fully stretch my legs before be killed in a terrible way. I prefer the way that the Muslims kill the animals. The animals are actually treated like they have brains and can think for themselves. I think that most of the food that Americans eat are raised on these types of farms. I eat food from mcdonalds and all the other fast food places and that food does come from these farms. I think that the farms are able to get away with this because a lot of people don't really care they think that animals don't have minds are just on earth for us humans to eat.

I think that the way that these animals are tortured make their lives meaningless. The only reason the farmers raise these animals is to make money for themselves. The animals never get to experience anything but cruelty and terrible ways of living. These techniques of farming should be put to a stop because it is wrong.

I think that this class really helped my thinking. It helps the students see what is really going on in this world. Before this course many of us were blind folded not having an idea about the units we covered. Andy is a very intelligent teacher that can see things below the surface. Not believing what you are told by the media but finding the truth on your own. Every school needs to learn these types of things so maybe we can change the world and prevent this collapse. I think this class is important, because what I learned in the classroom I also take outside the classroom and use in my everyday life. We learn all this other bullshit in school that I will never think about or need in my life after high school. The things I have learned in Andy's class will stick with me for the rest of my life because it is a new way of thinking and see things.