What does it mean to be human? (final)

Humans evolved from nature and have led most of their lives under the impression they simultaneously evolved beyond nature. It is this fantasy which brought humans to make a decision, to take more than what nature offered. This is where our class began, with takers. Ishmael explained the earth was created as a place of balance, creatures give and take; one day a dear eats and the next the dear is eaten. It is this balance which has sustained our planet and its species for so long. But, when humans decided they were above this system they began to threaten the whole balance.

For many, being human means the right to rule. To rule other species, agriculture, and the planet in general but, I believe being human means a choice. Humanity is the choice to fall into the balance of nature, to respect our origins, or to continue in our parent’s paths, assuming the role of a divine power. I do not believe this choice is an easy one to make but I do fear the future if we are too arrogant to admit our mistakes.

To asses this question of give and take I choose a song by Jack Johnson called “Talk of the Town”. Jack Johnson advocates for a simple lifestyle, to do what you love and to take only what you need. This song is very simply about appreciating nature. I thought it did a wonderful job showing how humans, despite our advances, are still in awe of nature. It is impossible not to admire the tones of the sky as the sun sets and changes from bright red to a light violet or the balanced path nature rarely seems to sway from.

This text directly contrasted the in class text I choose, the video MAN.  In the video MAN a seemingly friendly man waves at the audience before demolishing everything around him to demonstrate his superiority. At the end of the video the pleasantly windy skies and green grass have been replace by piles of gritty gray trash and a small throne on which he sits alone. Unlike Jack Johnson the video takes the stance of a ruler. These two forms of media represent the choice we can make to coexist or to destroy.

In this project I worked on assembling the script and answering questions for the script with Charlie. I also annotated the video MAN for our smaller group. I believe these two smaller groups worked well though it was difficult to create and organize a script for such a large group of people. If I were to do this project again I would have liked the only group portion to be a small skit and preferably with less people. Such a big group was difficult to organize and make sure the work was evenly distributed. I also would suggest having the annotations of in class texts fall into the individual portion of the assignment. These were particularly difficult to organize and seemed to give some people more work than others. I think assigning each person 1 or 2 in class texts to annotate along with an outside source would be more effective. I really did enjoy the final product. I believe our game show is a fun performance and does a good job of summarizing a lot of the information we learned in class.