"There's a War Going on for Your Mind." Flobots

Is this what our world has made?From birth, ads are everywhere, we are surrounded by ads from Nike, Mcdonalds, Burger King, and so many more. Even when writing this blog, Mcdonalds was spell checked because these business' have become house-hold names in our society. In Making Connnections, Anthony Greene claims that our brains are not independent, they are actually subjective, he says they are "like a web of connections between people and things." Our minds are subjective because our memory functions as a connection between another thing. This is why these business' have become so engraved in our culture. From the time i was little i remember my mom bringing home mcdonalds for dinner, i loved the toy, i loved the fries and the most memorable was the family that i was with. My mind is subjective to all the restaurants i've been too because of who i was with and the enjoyment i got out of it. Advertisments have become the lure now, they do not force us or manipulate what already exists. I know i like these foods, i probably shouldn't eat them but the remind me of a simpler time, something everyone is nostalgic about. In "Madison Avenue and Your Brain," Blakeslee says that because of a part of our brain, our nucleus accumbens "helps animals to form pleasure related mental associations." This is our lure, our brain that makes the connection between the food and the outside.

Is There An I in Me?

Author Uwe Herwig in her scientific article, "Me Myself and I," explains that, "We begin to establish a sense of self shortly after birth. From three to five months old, babies start to gain control over their movements; they recognize themselves in the mirror at about 18 months; they grasp concepts such as “I” and “mine” at about age two; and they readily describe their own feelings at about three years old. Once children reach elementary school, they make friends and begin to draw comparisons, which further inform their self-image. Teens and young adults continue to expand their personal identities as they practice progressively nuanced social skills." She expresses the idea that as we grow older we finally begin to develop a sense of self and of who we truly are. This idea we take for granted is later compared to the ideology and feelings of people with mental disorders, such as Mrs. K and Mr. M who have different diseases, depression and mania, that distract and harm their identity as one complete self. We need this healthy idea of a singular person to be stable throughout our days, this mindfulness, this oneness that is needed to be an active member of postmodern society. Anderson in his piece says that, "stable societies need stable people," therefore, the only way to have stable society is by having people that see themselves as an individual, contradicting Andersons later thought on a multiphrenic self that has multifaceted personalities. One way society promotes this singular self, even a singular body of people is through things like religion. Everyone needs to be on the same page and aware of the same things that everyone else is on to provide a stable community. From the body to the globe, on the inside, to the rest of the world, we must be on the same page in order to have a healthy, functioning world.

Postmodern World

"A world that does not know how to define itself by what it is, only by what it has just now ceased to be." -Stephen Toulmin, Philosopher of Science on Postmodernism

The World we live in today can seem so unfamiliar, even to the people who are currently living in it. "Experts" have named this reality the Postmodern world, experts being the authors, theorists, globalists and psychologist who study the Anthropology of the civilized world.  According to Author Walter Anderson, the look and shaping of postmodernism is in three parts; in the introduction to his book, "Reality Isn't What It Used to Be." The first part is "the breakdown of old ways of belief," the transition from traditional "American Values" to moral reasoning. Next,  Anderson says "the second process is the emergence of polarization," conflicting the inhabitants  of the postmodern world with the question, what is the right things to do? Finally, Anderson says "the third process is the birth of a global culture.... globalization," a world where "belief systems look around and become aware of all other belief systems."

 

"Inside its margins: you. Beyond its flexy surface: everything else," says author Andrea Jones in her essay "Identity's Edge," a description of the human membrane, skin. Her depiction of the membrane acts as the inner you to the rest of the world around you. In Today's world, technology has extended that skin from you to literally the REST OF THE WORLD!!! Blogger, Facebook, my cellphone, everything i put into these machines, comes out the other end and is visible to anyone who looks my name up. We may just live in one place, but our identities are spread across the ENTIRE WORLD. Author Walter Anderson says that, "each of us posses our own truth," our own belief that we hold tightly to our identities. The beauty of the internet is that this global phenomenon of Postmodernism and globalization allows us to view others beliefs and be consumed by other cultures from the confines of our homes. Technology is our skin and globalization is the effect