This was brought to my attention in full swing durng a six hour drive with my family through the Mojave Desert two weeks ago when we happened upon Manzanar. For those of you who don't know, Manzanar was one of the largest Japanese relocation camps created after Pearl Harbor. They had made a national historic site out of it, and it reminded me a little of the Museum of Tolerance except not as depressing since going their didn't mean death (just wasted years of life in the middle of nowhere). I feel Manzanar is one of the most provocative example of our own country's fickleness. Why was it that we felt the Japanese-Americans who had been born and raised in America just like any other person would side with the country of their ancestry rather than their country of birth? Why still did we treat the Japanese-Americans so poorly yet not so with the German-Americans? I feel this seems more than a little unfair. Anyway the big question is why are people like this? Why are we so fickle?
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Why are people so fickle?
They say that the only thing in life that doesn't change is that there will always be change. People are the perfect example. People always change their mind, and are rarely consistent in what they do. In Brave New World, Bernard decides he hates his society then likes society then hates it with the fluctuating of his popularity. In Julius Caesar, the crowd changes their opinion from disapproving of Caesar's murder to approval and then again to disapproval as the Brutus and Antony speak to them. This happens in real life as well. For example, President Obama ratings have gone down something like 44% in the last year. Weren't we just rally crying his name and wearing shirts with his face.
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I think one of my favorite quotes applies here. Kay from Men in Black said, "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals." A person has the sense enough to realize that things don't happen right away in the case of Obama, but people are too quick to judge and think change happens overnight. Maybe a person follows the mindset of the "people" to fit in or not be persecuted.
ReplyDeletePeople are fickle when things are not in their favor. When we support one thing that we believe we can benefit from or that is good for us, we endorse it with passion. However, once we deem whatever we had previously favored as either harmful, useless, or time consuming, we switch sides and lash out against it. I find this to be the case for all of the example that you have provided. With Bearnard's fickleness in Brave New World, he felt dissatisfied with his society because he did not benefit from it as much as he would have liked.Once he gained fame and the perks that went along with it, however, he began to think about his society positively and then negatively about society as his fame declined.
ReplyDeleteI believe that we are fickle because we need a scapegoat, and our opinions change as society's circumstances change. Prior to World War II, Jewish people lived amongst the Germans in peace. But sooner rather than later, the Germans turned on them. Why? Because the Germans needed to point a finger at someone, needed a scapegoat to blame their country's social and financial problems on. But with the war over, Jewish people have once again assimilated into society, and all is peaceful once more. The Germans, too, were extremely fickle.
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