We, as humans, live in a world today where the dust of improvement never completely settles in the air. With every year that goes by, some new piece of technology emerges that will seem to make our lives easier and thus making our lives ultimately seem perfect. Every blackberry, laptop, iPod, High Definition television and convertible has been proclaimed by the media as necessities; therefore, items one cannot live without and must own. The more technologically advanced one is, the more perfect his or her life becomes. This factor, this need for perfection, has evolved rapidly over the course of human history and may be in for a head-on collision course for disaster and confusion. Lauren Slater’s, “Dr. Daedalus” and David Brooks’s, “Our Sprawling, Supersize Utopia”, share this aesthetic notion of perfection in action. No matter how “unnatural” or over-the-top these changes may be, it seems impossible now to turn back to how we once lived: horse driven carriages instead of Ferrari’s, live classical music instead of hip hop and R&B blasting in our headphones, children playing outside instead of gluing their eyes to the television for hours at a time, and going over to visit a friend instead of sending a two worded text consisting of “what’s up?” Perfection has consumed the lives of many and has caused Americans to make drastic changes in order to keep up with the vision of perfection even though it hasn’t come into existence.
Americans have been so blind-sided by all the shiny gadgets and the commercialization of “necessities” around them that they have confused the idea of what they want with what they need. This need for perfection is a want—a secret desire in disguise. We trick our minds into thinking we need that $50,000 brand...
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...en one goes as far as spending all their money in order to attain this vision of perfection. What appears to be a want for one individual can end up being interpreted as a need for another but confusing one’s wants with one’s needs may come at a high cost and one must take precaution when watching commercials that tell one otherwise. America has come a long way in the subject of technology but has also grown too dependent on it as well. We, as Americans, can never go back to how we once lived with horse drawn carriages or going out to see the world if technology were to cease to exist. This vision of perfection that Americans have can spiral out of control to changes that don’t need to be changed and irreversible surgery that scars us for life, but we continue in pursuit of our perfection because it is the only way we know how to live—to live for a perfect future.
People are often deceived by some famous brands, which they will buy as useless commodities to feel they are distinctive. People require brands to experience the feeling of being special. People spend their money to have something from famous brands, like a bag from Coach or Louis Vuitton which they think they need, yet all that is just people’s wants. Steve McKevitt claims that people give more thought on features or brands when they need to buy a product, “It might even be the case that you do need a phone to carry out your work and a car to get around in, but what brand it is and, to a large extent, what features it has are really just want” (McKevitt, 145), which that means people care about brands more than their needs. Having shoes from Louis Vuitton or shoes that cost $30 it is designed for the same use.
Mankind must fight the urge to be blinded by technology’s benefits and to consider what must be lost to gain these conveniences.
Michael Sandel is a distinguished political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University. Sandel is best known for his best known for his critique of John Rawls's A Theory of Justice. While he is an acclaimed professor if government, he has also delved deeply into the ethics of biotechnology. At Harvard, Sandel has taught a course called "Ethics, Biotechnology, and the Future of Human Nature" and from 2002 to 2005 he served on the President’s Council on Bioethics (Harvard University Department of Government, 2013). In 2007, Sandel published his book, The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering, in which he explains unethical implications biotechnology has and may have in the near future regarding genetic engineering.
In the last century, technology has revolutionized societies, promoting the culture of instant materialistic entertainment. These advancements impact everyone, especially the younger generations since the technological products influence and shape their life attitudes. In “The Technology of Simplicity” by Mark A. Burch, the author discusses the impact of these social advancements by contrasting the behaviours of people in the past and the present.
Thus, as America’s society advances, “wants are increasingly created by the process by which they are satisfied,” as demonstrated in Galbraith’s text from The Dependence Effect. On the other hand, producers always actively advertise to generate wants and hence, these wants depend on production. This also means that the consumer does not spontaneously create his own wants, but rather the same entity of production creates them and later satisfies them. However, the products created do not really satisfy anything because the companies who created the products instigated this want from the beginning and the consumer, by himself, never possessed the urgency of the desire that he now satisfies by buying the product. Hence, from America’s highly materialistic society emerges the “Dependence Effect” which entraps most Americans in a boundless cycle.
Sandel, Michael J. "The Case Against Perfection." Atlantic Monthly. April 2004: 50+. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 18 May. 2014.
McKevitt starts the essay explaining how we are now living in a time of instant, 24/7 access to almost anything we want. Our needs are met and now our economy focuses on getting what we want as fast as possible. He then asks “…why aren’t we happier or, at the very least, worrying less and enjoying life more?” (144). The author
de la Garza, Alejandro. "From utopia to dystopia: technology, society and what we can do about
As a result, the society of this scary inhumane, Brave New World is full with technology that is destroying humanity form us. Yes it is a perfect world and there no war, disease, crisis but also there is no emotions, feeling, love and especially any hope which are some of the necessary part of human nature. As a conclusion, technology controls the life of everyday people from the day they were born till the day they die in this Brave New World.
In life, especially in American culture, our existence revolves around the physical, materialistic possessions and goals. Every commercial, ad and salesman caters to those who need more “stuff”
is hotter or colder, but never actually tell what the absolutes are. This is a
For several decades, as if, a typical undergraduate dream has been characterized with few major steps – getting prestigious high education, taking or buying a diploma, and consequently becoming a successful rich careerist with intuitively main goal to consume as much as possible in order to boost one’s utility at highest potential level. In this way of thinking, development of personal individualism and pursue of human values are left behind the curtains. Everything that can be seen on the scene of our being is mass consumerism, which slowly, gradually, but surely is transferring us into a hedonistic consumer society. According to an article in European Journal of Marketing, “A consumer society is defined as one directed largely by the accumulation and consumption of material goods. The term "consumer society" is used in a pejorative sense, coming from the perception that such a society will inevitably be hedonistic. It is the search for instant gratification that we traditionally associate with hedonism….”(41 Issue: 2007). In our way to gain deep pleasure, we are over purchasing items and gadgets which once were thought to be extreme luxuries. Most of the times, we are interested in what kind of IPhone we possess, whether to buy a tablet or a laptop, are we are driving more expensive and fancy car than the others, what is more fashionable – a pair of Armani jeans or a pair of Dolce and Cabaña trousers.
We often think that our main goals are linked to perfection, however, we are unaware of the devastating effect this unattainable concept has on our outlook on life when we cannot achieve it. Though the textbook definition of perfection is, “the quality or condition of being perfect and without flaws”, it is a vice that harbors many doubts and insecurities and holds us back from things we want to do for fear of not being good. Perfection is a concept that cannot be achieved as it does not exist.
According to John Horvat, an author in The Wall Street Journal, " The proper use of technology is that it should be a means to serve us and make our lives easier. A key requirement is that we should be in control." Although, the problem with today`s society, is that we are not in control. Instead of technology serving us, it is now the other way around. Society has been more dependent on its technology in recent years, than it has ever been in the past. Those who are against the up rise of the technology industries, believe that technology has taken away ...
Contrary to God, technology is an evil force. A special ignorance within the assumption that “imperfections” should or can be designed out of existence. Imperfections are a crucial part of what makes us creative and ethically responsible in the first place. “Blinded by the awesomeness of our tools, we might forget that some problems and imperfections are just normal costs of accepting the social contract of living with other human beings, treating them with dignity, and ensuring that, in our recent pursuit of a perfect society we do not shut off the door to change.”