Seminars
Omelas
Short Story
It is true that there are the few that walk away, that is a fact. One thing that is a very rare occurrence, but does happen, is someone coming back. These people don’t come back because they miss the peaceful nature of Omelas; they come back for another reason, the kid in the broom closet. Although there is no guilt within Omelas, the ones that walk away find themselves feeling guilty. They find themselves feeling bad for walking away from an innocent child that is locked in a closet, so they feel the need to try to help.
What they don’t realize is that it is not possible to help the child. The child is going to forever to the misery portrayed by everyone, but in the form of one person. To take that child away would cause a great disruption throughout the town, everyone would feel different; they wouldn’t be their typical happy selves. It would be known right away throughout the town that something was missing, the kid would be replaced, as if nothing happened. They don’t have a special attachment to the kid in the closet; he can be replaced if the need arises.
It is a vicious cycle that cannot be stopped because it is what the people are used to, change will never bring any good to people who are stuck in their own ways. The few that do come back don’t know this because they have never had the kid taken away from them, the kid was always there for them when they stilled lived in Omelas. The kid will never be gone, he will always be there, whether it is figuratively or physically, he will always be there. There is no stopping this cycle.
What they don’t realize is that it is not possible to help the child. The child is going to forever to the misery portrayed by everyone, but in the form of one person. To take that child away would cause a great disruption throughout the town, everyone would feel different; they wouldn’t be their typical happy selves. It would be known right away throughout the town that something was missing, the kid would be replaced, as if nothing happened. They don’t have a special attachment to the kid in the closet; he can be replaced if the need arises.
It is a vicious cycle that cannot be stopped because it is what the people are used to, change will never bring any good to people who are stuck in their own ways. The few that do come back don’t know this because they have never had the kid taken away from them, the kid was always there for them when they stilled lived in Omelas. The kid will never be gone, he will always be there, whether it is figuratively or physically, he will always be there. There is no stopping this cycle.
Reflection
When I first heard about the child in the closet I thought that it was a figurative way of saying that the people of Omelas just locked their sadness away. I didn’t think that there was a physical child in a closet, and in fact I still don’t. I think that the child in the closet is a metaphor for us, as humans, locking our feeling away when we don’t see them to be fit for a situation. This child was there for everybody and their suffering. Everybody had seen this child when they were around the age of ten, which is about when people would think that you are mature enough to fit in with the rest of society and hide your emotions of suffering and sadness. This story, to me, is a metaphor for our society. It is saying that we are raised from a certain age to be this happy person that doesn’t express their problems to others, we just hide them from ourselves and others. The child in the closet is a metaphor for us locking our sadness in our head and outwardly expressing happiness, even when we are not. This is a common thing to start being taught when we are around 10 years old because that is the point in our lives when we do start to mature and remember things that we have been taught. In this story there are the ones who walk away, I feel like they are the people who always outwardly express their emotions, whether they are good or bad. Our society is notorious for taking our emotions and locking them away, if you don’t than you are typically the minority.
Global Village
One specific comment during the seminar that was made that stuck out to me was when Cole said the sentence about the American dream and how globalization is very similar. I think that this is important because it is very true, the “American dream” or what people think of that as is equality and stability between the different races and cultures. Globalization is exactly that, making everyone equal and the same in terms of who they are in each other’s eyes. Globalization would make us equal to each other and in each other’s eyes.
I think that Ayer’s prediction of the world is fairly accurate because the world has become a much more diverse area than it used to be twenty years ago. Our cultures have been spreading and intertwining more than they have in the past. There is this saying that America is the melting pot of the countries, and that is true to some extent and it continues to happen. At this point the total amount of immigrants from other countries in America is about 12.5 percent of the overall population in 2009. Between the years 2008 and 2009 that number increased by 1.5, meaning that the number of foreign immigrants in the United States is growing exponentially. This shows that we are others are becoming part of our culture and in turn we learn a little bit about their culture.
I think it is possible to globalize a world without losing our unique cultural and national identities. I think it is possible because people will always want to hold onto their heritage and they will want to tell others about it. Because of this people will always know where they came from, there won’t only ever be just one nationality. I’m not saying that people will want to know everything about their heritage and where they came from, but people will most likely always know something about who they are and where they came from. That is something that is important for us to know as humans, otherwise we will all become the same person and we will lose our uniqueness of our heritage. So yes, I think that it is possible to globalize a world without losing our unique cultural and national identities, but it will be difficult because the direction that we are currently headed.
While reading this article and going through this seminar the book “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley kept appearing in my mind. In the article he keeps talking about people losing their identities and individuality, and that is exactly what Brave New World is about. There are no real races or nationalities in Brave New World because people are assigned to certain things and there is no real division made by the people, only by the government and the people. People are all the same in their eyes because they don’t know what is going on.
I chose to draw this cartoon because I think it is a very good representation of one of the aspects of globalization. It shows things being forced onto people, like in the case of the English language being forced onto people. If you go to any country you will most likely always find someone who speaks English, and this is because that language is forced onto them.
I think that Ayer’s prediction of the world is fairly accurate because the world has become a much more diverse area than it used to be twenty years ago. Our cultures have been spreading and intertwining more than they have in the past. There is this saying that America is the melting pot of the countries, and that is true to some extent and it continues to happen. At this point the total amount of immigrants from other countries in America is about 12.5 percent of the overall population in 2009. Between the years 2008 and 2009 that number increased by 1.5, meaning that the number of foreign immigrants in the United States is growing exponentially. This shows that we are others are becoming part of our culture and in turn we learn a little bit about their culture.
I think it is possible to globalize a world without losing our unique cultural and national identities. I think it is possible because people will always want to hold onto their heritage and they will want to tell others about it. Because of this people will always know where they came from, there won’t only ever be just one nationality. I’m not saying that people will want to know everything about their heritage and where they came from, but people will most likely always know something about who they are and where they came from. That is something that is important for us to know as humans, otherwise we will all become the same person and we will lose our uniqueness of our heritage. So yes, I think that it is possible to globalize a world without losing our unique cultural and national identities, but it will be difficult because the direction that we are currently headed.
While reading this article and going through this seminar the book “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley kept appearing in my mind. In the article he keeps talking about people losing their identities and individuality, and that is exactly what Brave New World is about. There are no real races or nationalities in Brave New World because people are assigned to certain things and there is no real division made by the people, only by the government and the people. People are all the same in their eyes because they don’t know what is going on.
I chose to draw this cartoon because I think it is a very good representation of one of the aspects of globalization. It shows things being forced onto people, like in the case of the English language being forced onto people. If you go to any country you will most likely always find someone who speaks English, and this is because that language is forced onto them.