What is it that allows one to ignore what is blatantly staring him or her in the eyes? Some say they will only believe what their eyes can see while some of that very group denies what lies before them. Neurologist may blame it on an underdeveloped frontal lobe but that stops being the case after the age of 25 or so. What is the reasoning then? The explanation of the phenomenon in the movie Super Size Me can simply be explained that people refuse to acknowledge and act upon the truth of the matter. Some suffer from voluntarily blindness so that they do not have to acknowledge or put in the effort to evoke change. People get in a bad habit of “settling” opposed to fighting. Thus, the problem becomes that people deny or manipulate the truth if acknowledging the truth means having to change their way of life.
Herzog and Plato address the sensitive topic of truth. Plato talks about it as one who has been caved in and doesn’t know what to make of the truth now free. Let us think about the argument in terms of modern day societal issues. Global warming, for example, is a truth but people are being blind to the truth of global warming because acknowledging the existence of the issue would cause people to have to change their way of living. More specifically, the truth and wide acceptance of the truth would create major problems for the large corporations. Think of as a domino effect. The large corporations and that 1% that holds over half of the nation’s wealth and power are in the front; the truth reaches them sometimes before it reaches the general public. If that truth is not harmful to them in anyway then it is passed along the public; however, if the fact of the matter harms the big businesses or that uber rich 1% then they do whatever they can to prevent the public from knowing about the situation. For instance, the media hasn’t been covering or mentioning global warming or the harmful effects of global warming since the protest for the government to set a limitation on how much chemical toxins they are allowed to put into the atmosphere. The truth is that global warming is still a growing problem as we can see it’s still hot outside, but it’s supposedly “fall”. As long as, the truth is kept out of public eye the public will not acknowledge what is self evident. Instead, a large portion of the public continues to stay blind unless “told” to worry. The public also fear the changes they would have to make to their daily lives by acknowledging the truth. Will they be mandated to drive electric cars? Will there be a cut off for household electricity usage? In short, how much would the truth cost them monetarily and freedomly versus how much can be gained? That is everyone’s question.
In Super Size Me, the documenter wanted to uncover the truth about the effects of fast food most specifically, McDonald’s, on the body. The truth of the matter is that fast food is a serious health threat according to most nutritionists and the doctors involved. The argument is that the fast food lifestyle is not the only options that people have, and there is a lot of victim blaming; after all, McDonald’s can’t say “oh yeah, guys. Our food is really bad for your health” or expose the processes their food undergoes for that would kill the business. They can’t pay out of pocket to people who sue them for their health issues for paying is an admission of guilt and fault which is why both people who were suing McDonald’s lost their cases. Even though companies are told to make nutrition information available to customers, they food companies don’t have warning signs posted around like cigarette packs like warning “what you are about to consume can cause cancer, high blood pressure, and low libido”. Even the calorie information is half truthed because the vagueness doesn’t specify for what serving size the calorie information applies to. Yet the problem is greater than fast food companies. The problem stems from the government allowing companies such as Monsanto perform actions that jeopardize the health of Americans just because it saves the company money and the pay off it good for the corrupt parties involved. However, all relates again to people being unwilling to pay the price for truth especially when one is in a poorer economic class and the cost of a lie is cheaper.
Tanquesha, I LOVE your point about global warming, and the point you made about people's denial to see and change their behaviors. I think that you also made a very good point about the limited time span we have about issues these days, and our tendency to follow the "out of sight out of mind" mantra. I feel that after the two readings and your input as well, that mantra has never been more clear. And, in the end your post has helped me get a little closer to Plato's point of understanding!
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ReplyDeleteHi Tanquesha,
ReplyDeleteI observed the same thing with Super Size Me. It is rather interesting that the business has the government by its pockets and can influence it as such. Regulations from the government should have been put in play back in the late 19th century with big business buying off lobbyists to control the laws centered around such. Companies such as Monsanto DOES NOT care for the community and should be shut down for most of their practices. But it also falls back on the truth question. We must be able to convey the truth so that the others can understand and wake up and walk out of the cave of illusions. Your example of global warming was perfect to show the vivacity of not being aware of what we are doing and the after effects of such ill behaviors done to the earth.
I think you point out something interesting that I did not realize when watching the documentary I chose, and that is the power of money and what it can do to the truth–skew it. I watched a documentary about crime, so the idea of corporations did not come across to me. Those in power want to make people see their version of the truth that way they can stay in that role. In issues like Super Size Me, McDonald's is the market leader, and they dominate the industry thus putting them on top. It is known that they only had to change little policy to fight the backlash of this documentary.
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