On the specific day where all hell broke loose in our class period, several aspects of the conversation did not sit well with me or my fellow classmates. Mr. Heidcamp was trying to get a rise out of us, make us feel uncomfortable in our seats. And for the most part, it worked extremely well. Classmates refuted Mr. Heidcamp's existential comments no matter how well he backed up his argument. Existentialism is a hard humanism to accept on several terms.
The hardest "cover up" to comprehend and understand is by far Mr. Heidcamp's argument about love. He stated that, "We get our meaning of love from TV shows and movies," and that it is just a cover for the pain, suffering, and death that is taking place in other parts of the world. This could be true on some levels, that we look to love for comfort and support in times of grief and agony. We establish loving relationships solely so we have someone's shoulder to cry on. As a people, we may be able to forget about the terrible event that took place faster if we just get through it together. To this argument, I slightly agree. Not wholeheartedly, but slightly. There is a slight point to this proclamation. In times of my life such as the massacre that just occurred in Las Vegas, I turn to close relationships which consists of family and friends that I love and have strong connections with.
Although Mr. Heidcamp has a valid point, I more strongly disagree with his statement. Where did we get the idea of love in the first place? Before the movies and the TV shows? Where did we get the idea to marry one another? I surely believe that it wasn't from a romantic TV series or movie. It was from our human emotions and feelings that love came out of, not a screen. Love is not learned, it is in your DNA from the day you are born. When you were in elementary school, did you ever have a crush on someone, and have a feeling of butterflies rush into stomach? If not, you are probably lying. We did not learn this information from watching Elmo and Thomas the Train Engine, so where else could we have gotten this information at such a young age? It is predetermine in our genes, not learned an accepted.
Those are just my thoughts on this rather complicated topic. Do you guys agree or disagree with me or Mr. Heidcamp? Or, do you fall somewhere in between?
I actually do agree that our definition of love as a society is completely skewed. For instance: why does our society place so much value on romantic and sexual love as opposed to platonic love, when our divorce rate is 50%? Why do we often seem to place more value on the relationship itself versus who the relationship is with? Love in its purest sense is not something to be ignored, but society's construction of love is nonsensical and often hurtful. I would disagree that love is a made up construct to hide suffering, but I would agree that if someone wants to find real, mutually beneficial love, they should look past what our society has told them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Gracie here but, I can admit to having had intense elementary school crushes and butterfly rushes. I think that a lot of times kids imitate what they see adults doing though, so a lot of my ideas about love came from my parents and other adults I grew up around. I also think that little kids get ideas about love from story books and fairy tales where the knight in shining armor comes to save the damsel in distress. Due to this focus on finding and feeling love from such a young age, I can't help but wonder if it's all just a construct like Mr. Heidkamp said. Further, I think that love is more of a choice than a feeling, because I would define love as caring deeply about another person. Due to the fact that I can choose who to care or not care about, I assume that although there are biological signals making me happy when I'm with the person I love or care about, those signals are simply happiness and not love. I don't completely disagree with you, or agree with Mr. Heidkamp all the way, but I do feel that love is more of a descriptive word for a combination of loyalty, trust, care, and safety, rather than a chemical effect that happens when we meet "the one".
ReplyDeleteI agree that a lot of what people define as love today is heavily influenced by what society paints it to be, but it is hard for me to agree that love is a choice. If love were a choice, why would anyone have ever chosen to fall in love with the same sex when it could ostracize them, push their family away, or even get them killed. I believe love is real, but it is very hard to define. Love seems to be different to everyone and it is hardly a tangible thing. And where is the line between really liking someone and loving them (platonic and romantic)? And then what is the difference between loving someone and being in love with them? I guess my point is mostly that there is so much that can't really be known about love that I feel like no one has the right to say it is real or that it is not.
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