We Are All Bored – My Dinner With Andre
The film My Dinner With Andre consists of one meal and one conversation between Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn, which takes place at an upscale restaurant in New York. Gregory tells Shawn of his varied (and in some cases, quite bizarre) experiences since abruptly leaving the theatre five years prior. The two men then dive into a lengthy discussion in which Gregory skewers modern life as insincere and complacent, and Shawn defends it, asserting that humans should be entitled to certain creature comforts in their lives. By the end of the discussion (and the film), the two men essentially agree to disagree, and yet Shawn seems particularly moved by the exchange, connecting Gregory’s ideas to his own childhood and life on the cab ride home.
Two theme questions tie the entire dialog together: (1) should we live spontaneously in the moment, disconnecting ourselves from the totalitarian social forces of culture and rational purposive action; and (2) what does it mean to be human in the modern world?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68JLWyPxt7g
Structure/Format
In Act 1, Wally displays reluctance to meet with Andre, thus creating the tension that is carried throughout the film. For about a half hour, Andre, with brilliant story-telling ability, describes his quests around the world in an attempt to find meaning. In Act 2, Andre defends his philosophy of life (point 1 above), while Wally uncomfortably listens and politely even concedes some points. In Act 3, Wally reveals his true opinion of Andre’s views and, defending common sense, hammers away at Andre’s notions of purposeless action, outposts of enlightenment, and the supernatural.
The discussion is intense and thought-provoking, as the two men invite the audience to participate with them, pondering what it means to be human in our ever-changing modern society. Andre, the spiritualist and skeptic, asserts that the life lived by most New Yorkers in modern times is like living a dream: people only experience what they want to experience and perceive what they want to perceive.
Andre suggests that people must simplify their lives in order to fully experience reality; that the path to enlightenment is to eschew unnecessary material comforts in exchange for “real” – if not necessarily pleasant or comfortable – experiences, feelings, and emotions. Shawn doesn’t exactly disagree with Andre, but he argues that not everybody is capable of climbing Mount Everest in order to experience “real life,” nor should they have to. He contends that people can live perfectly simple and content lives even with their electric blankets and morning coffee and New York Times.
In truth, both men make excellent points, and that’s part of the point of “My Dinner With Andre:” in modern society, one must find a way to strike a balance between the material comforts that make us happy and the simple and “real” experiences that keep us grounded. Shawn and Gregory both represent extremes at the end of each spectrum, and the conversation aims to strike a harmony between them by proving that neither man can completely disprove the other’s argument.
Andre listens graciously to the attack. Both leave the dinner unconvinced of the others’ views, but rewarded by the debate. Like philosophy itself, this movie is for selective audiences, which the filmmakers themselves clearly understood.
“My Dinner with Andre” has influenced two other philosophical movies. In “The Quarrel” (1991), a conservative and a liberal Jew discuss the moral implications of the Nazi Holocaust. In “Mind Walk” (1991), a poet, politician and physicist discuss the relation between quantum physics and environmentalism.
Philosophy – Perception in the Life World
The existential-phenomenological tradition in philosophy is asserting a major influence here, particularly the German romantic and hermeneutic traditions – they explore among other ideas the notion that we are thrown into being, thrown into interpretation, and that meaning is both constructed and revealed through responding to that thrownness with “givenness,” attentiveness and care.
Heidegger, for one, aimed to turn away from “ontic” questions about beings to ontological questions about Being, in order to recover the most fundamental philosophical question: the question of Being, of what it means for something to be. Heidegger, Kant, Hegel, Husserl thus were all philosophers that were motivated by a derire to explain the world and our place as humans in it.
Heidegger approached the question through an inquiry into the being that has an understanding of Being. Human being is understood in terms of his concept Dasein (“being-there”). Dasein, Heidegger argued, is defined by “Care” in a practically engaged and concernful mode of Being-in-the-world. This conceptual framework stands in contradistinction to Rationalist thinkers like René Descartes, whose notion of cogito ergo sum, located the essence of man in his rational thinking abilities. Descartes says rationalism and empiricism, which are at the heart of the modern scientific method, can save us as a species.
For Heidegger thinking is thinking about things originally discovered in our everyday practical engagements. The consequence of this is that our capacity to think cannot be the most central quality of our being because thinking is a reflecting upon this more original way of discovering the world. In the second division, Heidegger argues that human being is even more fundamentally structured by its temporality, or its concern with, and relationship to time, existing as a structurally open “possibility-for-being.” He emphasized the importance of authenticity in human existence, involving a truthful relationship to our thrownness into a world which we are “always already” concerned with, and to our Being-towards-death, the Finitude of the time and being we are given, and the closing down of our various possibilities for being through time.[10]
Later, we add Nietzsche, Horkheimer, Adorno, and Marcuse to the list, all of whom are chaneling these concepts and arguments to some extent in their work.
Discussion Questions
How do the people you interact with on a daily basis create their own prison based on a cultivated lack of social awareness – their own limited knowledge bubble that insulates them from full knowledge of what is “real” and how the world works for people that live outside of their bubble. How can you connect Marcuse and/or Dialectic of Enlightenment to the movie clip?
Wally states near the end of the film that in the normal world of jobs, bills, and other responsibilities, there’s no need to seek the awareness-outposts that Andre describes as “Mt. Everest.” Happiness, he says, can be be effectively achieved my remaining within the comfort of our daily routines. Is Wally correct about this, or is he just a content robot? More pointedly, do you ever feel that maybe you are becoming a content robot?
Do you ever think of escaping New York…or Pittsburgh? Do you ever think about escaping the world that is comfortable and familiar to you or does the idea of that scare you?
Do you ever think you might be “trapped” in a prison of your own making?
For the most part, the internet/social media is a big part of how people interact with each other. As much as I believe the internet is a good thing, I do believe it has greatly negatively impacted us socially and even more so for the generations growing up in this era. Social media definitely has put a lot of people in their own prisons. People nowadays only know how to communicate with one another through social media. They’re overuse of social media feeds into their inability to be able to communicate with people outside of it and are unable to go through a day without being on it.
I never feel like I want to escape Pittsburgh because I don’t feel as if I am trapped here. Would I move away from Pittsburgh? Sure. Do I see myself doing it in the future? No. The reason I say this is not because I’m scared of leaving somewhere I feel comfortable, It’s because I want to stay as close to my family as possible. I would personally love different parts of the world if I had the resources to do so. I am not scared of removing myself from what I feel is comfortable.
I have always thought about escaping my home town of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Ever since I was about three years of age I used to go on vacation to the same place every year until I was about fifteen which is Nags Head NC. Growing up I always couldn’t wait for that week in the summer to escape the city and take the long road trip all the way down the coast it was always some type of release for me. When I turned sixteen my parents ended up splitting up in which I lost the chance to go to the beach house I’ve always loved. Back at home my parents never got along but on that week down at the beach it always felt somewhat normal which I don’t know if I loved that more or just being at the beach. Ever since I was younger I always wanted to be a police officer down at the beach which I always felt that was my calling. Leaving my home town was always a dream for me which after I graduate college I believe will move down to a warmer climate which I want to be some type of fish and game commission. Settling down by a beach and finding a job of my dreams is always something I have wanted to do in my life which obviously Pittsburgh can’t give me. Also, I do feel sometimes like I’m locked in a prison in my hometown, people tend to do the same thing and ultimately end up staying here for the rest of their lives which was always a goal for me not to do.
Not only in my “social” life have I seen people imprison themselves in knowledge that isn’t valid, but in my personal life within my case family have I seen this happen first hand. I’ve noticed, especially with the recent presidential election, people jumping the gun and believing the FIRST thing they see on social media. Another great thing I’ve noticed, is people only read the HEADLINE of the article and not the actual article…. Growing up I was always taught not to believe everything you see/read on the Internet. But nowadays it seems like people think the internet is 100% credible all the time and hardly do any research anymore! They see one thing read a few sentences and believe it without any supporting facts or background information. Theres a lot of false information or misleading headlines on social media that people just don’t realize. People are so caught up with what the “trend” is they don’t even know what some things stand for. People are so caught up in their own little world of opinions, no amount of fact you throw their way will ever change their mind. Social media can be very deceiving and it allows people to stay in their on little bubbles.
I often think about leaving Pittsburgh and moving to Tennessee. Ive been to he Smoky Mountains in Tennessee twice and I absolutely loved it down there. The atmosphere was great and same with all of the people I met. I think about it, but it honestly scares me to leave somewhere so familiar. Im so comfortable with where I live and who im around. Ultimately change scares me. If I would actually make the move I would be leaving the city I grew up in, along with pretty much my entire close family. Family is important to me because we are all so close and I would hate to have to make such.a far drive to visit them.
When it comes to leaving Pittsburgh, I have always had that thought. I feel as if that everybody has made their hometown feel like a “prison”. As much as I do love this place, there is always the thought of “if it can be better”. It’s always a good thing to think about if you can have better, but sometimes its not always realistic.
When talking about modern society, I feel as if we are creating and trapping ourselves in a prison everyday. It is not the type of prison you go to for committing a crime, but it is a type of prison that we are forming by being locked in on social media. We pay way too much attention to our media, and making us have such a good social image on facebook, twitter, etc.. By locking in on social media, we are slowly drifting away from everyday contact and interaction, and focusing on our phones. By doing this, it is making an immediate connection to prison because we are slowly drifting from society. The people that are falling away from the technology, are the people that are the closest to “normality” than the people paying all their attention to technology and social media.
I do plan on “escaping” Pittsburgh at some point in my life. After college is when I plan on leaving Pittsburgh. I have always been the type of person to want to travel the world and see different places. The thought of eventually leaving Pittsburgh does not scare me, the thought of moving away from my family scares me. I have grown up here my entire life, and it is all I know. Parents raise their kids to eventually “leave the nest”, which is exactly what my parents taught my brother and I to do. In my opinion, the world is not a comfortable place. Society is always changing, and life is always throwing curve balls at you. I did go away to college my first year, but I ended up transferring home because I wasn’t ready to be away. Now that I am older, I think leaving home this time would be completely different. For the main reason that I feel that I am ready to be out on my own. Everyone feels that they need a little getaway from reality, but some people need more of a getaway than others.
I often think about escaping Pittsburgh. I think about this because I grew up moving constantly because of my divorced parents. I feel as though I never really had a home here and I never really imagined myself staying in the future. Yes my hometown is comfortable and familiar to me but the idea of moving does not scare me, since I have done it so many times. The idea of having a new home somewhere else is actually a more comfortable feeling, as though I get to start over and not fall into what my parents did. Also I don’t really keep in contact with much family here other than a couple of them and once they’re gone, I feel as though there will be no reason to stay. Settling and finding a new job somewhere else brings me comfort, to know that this whole world is out there with unfamiliar faces and places I’ve never seen. I also tend to think that even though I love my city, there has to be a better place out there. It’s hard to try to go out and experience new places when you grew up with very little. Maybe finding the right opportunities in Pittsburgh as of right now, can lead my life in a new direction somewhere else. I don’t think that I am trapped in a prison of my own making. I honestly believe in manifestation and that life is what you make it. I find it hard to accept our way of living as a whole sometimes because I feel as though none of this was meant to happen. As though we weren’t actually meant to have technology, get a job or any of this. I often research the stimulation argument that has to do with the idea that we could be virtual beings living in a computer simulation. Maybe this means that our world is created by beings more technology savvy than ours? I honestly have no idea and I think it could be a 50-50 chance but as of right now my generation has grown up with and without technology. This is just the beginning and it’s hard to determine the outcome.
A lot of people I know and interact with, are putting themselves in their own prisons through usage of social media. Social media is a great tool to stay connected to those you know over any distance; however, it can also be a burden. To constantly worry about your public image and what others think of you can be very demanding. I agree with Wally for multiple reasons. Routine can help us remain happy. Those that are lost or believe they don’t have a cause, can be comforted by a routine. A Routine can create reason and purpose. A routine can fill the empty void. I do believe that sometimes I am trapped in my own prison. I find that sometimes I am way too hard on myself for little to no reason. I find myself trying to make others happy more than worrying about if I am the one that is happy. I do not necessarily feel the need to “escape” Pittsburgh. I fortunately had the opportunity to grow up in California. I do sometimes feel that I need a “getaway” for the weekend, but everyone does.
Oh yeah! This is very real and very scary. Watch that new Netflix movie “The Social Dilemma.” Wish we could all watch in class together…super creepy!
Sometimes I think about escaping Pittsburgh and moving to Florida since I have family there. I’ve always wanted to move to Florida but the thought scares me. I am comfortable and familiar with Pittsburgh. I have friends here, family, a job, all of that would be very hard to leave behind. I once enrolled at IUP and ended up not going because I was too scared to live somewhere where I knew no one. I sometimes do feel like I am trapped in a prison of my own making by not doing things out of my comfort zone. I often avoid going to parties where I do not know anyone. I always feel like I am in my own bubble. I do sometimes also feel that I lack some kind of complete social awareness as well. I feel like I relate more to Wally in the film because I have some many responsibilities such as a job, school, and bills to pay that I am not concerned with seeking awareness-outposts that Andre describes such as Mt. Everest. After reading this post I am going to rethink many things including living outside of my own bubble and being scared to do certain things that make me feel scared such as escaping Pittsburgh.
A totalitarian government is something that could be very near in our future. We see movies depicting life in the future and how technology has taken over the lives and government of people and we think “that could never happen” but its slowly happening and we are headed down that path. A totalitarian government is a dictatorship that is involved in all parts of a society’s life whether it’s public or private. It would take away first amendment rights like being free to express your self or freedom of assembly. These types of governments require a nationalistic view on your own country and punish those that don’t act accordingly. Think of the trump supporters that are screaming “Make America Great Again” waving American flags and being aggressive towards the ones who aren’t as prideful. Living in a totalitarian government would mean we’d have to succumb to censorship and also limited access to outside information on the internet coming from different parts of the world. They won’t only control our politics though, all aspects of our everyday lives will also be prone to totalitarian governments, social and cultural life will be controlled to the point where you can’t even enjoy basic acts of expression. Controlling the social and cultural aspects of your lives will also gain control of your private life and what you do in your alone time. Living in this type of environment will make you feel like you can never escape, no matter where you go there will always be someone watching you, which is also another way that we are moving towards a totalitarian government due to “surveillance capital.” The media will be one of the many ways they begin to censor our private lives, controlling the way we entertain ourselves and the outlets from which we get our information from. A movie called “The Giver” is a good example of what it is like to live in a world that’s sheltered and restricts people of all basic rights. It’s a movie about a seemingly ideal utopia where everyone conforms. Before coming to this society every member loses all memories that they had before except one man, the giver who is the sole keeper of the community’s memories. Many people would think that living in a world like this is ideal and a lot of them would be willing to live in this type of world and those are the same people that are supporters of Trump and many of the totalitarian methods that are being used to control people in our society today that people are not opening their eyes to realizing that we are slowly moving down that same road of a totalitarian government.
In the clip above, Andre defends his way of life by saying that, today, many of us and trapped within our culture – we become programmed to be “asleep” and when we are “asleep” we do not say “no.” He continues to assert that TV, social media, and news has trained us on how to act and think that, today, we have lost the capability to think independently.
In the conversation with Willy, Andre had stated that our culture (particularly in New York City) has unconsciously conditioned us to be the prisoners and the guards simultaneously. Therefore, we are constantly surveillance by each other so we cannot leave, but also we are unaware of this entrapment.
I think Andre’s thoughts and assertions do hold a significant amount of truth. In New York, many of us (especially women) feel safer to walk in the daytime and in crowded areas because we acknowledge that the more people watching, the safer we are. However, we don’t realize that they are also watching us as a suspect rather than a victim. Therefore, here is an example how people in New York can serve as guards, but also prisoners without realizing that they are the prisoners.
Secondly, after watching this clip I also wondered: “Why don’t I travel more frequently?” Then I made a list of my answers: it takes time to make arrangements to stay in a different country, it costs a lot of money to fly, I don’t make enough money from my two jobs and to pay for school to travel too frequently, I am worried about my safety in other countries, it is difficult to take time off my job and school, etc. From some of my answers, it can be noted that finances were an issue. Being in New York is expensive – school, food, living, living expenses, etc. Therefore, it is possible that these prices make it hard to leave New York because nobody can afford the trip to begin with. Secondly, my safety in other countries was one of my answers too. However, was this answered based on the facts that the news and social media have implanted in my thought process? In all, it seemed that the two main causes for my discouragement to leave New York was because of the cultural (my belief in danger outside of New York) and economic (my finances) strain and structure I have been integrated in.
According to Marcuse, the industrial society created false needs to us, which promote production and consumption through mass media, advertising. So people was controlled by the totalitarian, we don’t know how to think what we actually need, we work for long hours for the production and materials that the society promotes to us, we believed materials is where is our happiness comes from. Therefore, we are brained wash by our society or by the capitalists who try to get or steal money from us to make them richer and richer, and we stay the same. I think the totalitarian society not only steal our money but also take away our ability to think. As Andre says in the movie clip, we are just like a robot “feeling nothing, thinking nothing”. There are lots of people we see in our lives, they work at least six days of a week, a long hour a day, all they know is to work for money, but what is the money is really for? So I agree that to strike a balance between the material comforts is really important, we do need work for money, but the money is not only for the materials that mass media promote to us, we should use to money to experience the life we want that make us the real happy.
Andre thinks that this “ boredom is produced by unconscious perpetuating totalitarian government based on money”. He mentions that, another friend of his says that people don’t leave New York because it’s a concentration camp that they themselves build and that’s why they can’t even leave themselves, or even see it. His friend thinks we should leave, but the whole world is going in the same direction, so it would make no sense to do so. In this same way. Marcuse suggests that we are all brainwashed into this totalitarian system and it has been deeply indebted within us to the point where we can no longer question things. We become subjected to the authoritarian system and instead of breaking out of this ongoing robotic exploration from capitalists, we just continue living and sometimes even encourage the system. Since we don’t, step out of the structure and think critically about it, it’s very difficult to produce progress
Andre proceeds to explain an incident where his friend eliminated forms of media like magazines and television because they created individuals into robots. Marcuse also did suggest that the private sphere becomes barged by advertising and we have a flattening of culture, a one dimensional society, no longer capable of critical capacities.
Wally says he pays his bills, reads books finishes his errands and he’s happy, He doesn’t agree with Andre’s point that everybody is destroyed and that we need to live in these outposts. He believes that Andre is proposing to reject western civilization.
The way I see it, Wally thrives on structure and order and repetition of patterns. He’s ruthless in its goals. His cold, calculating, mathematical ways of thinking. Where basic human desires, empathy, abstract thinking are foreign concepts to him. He’s become a robotic machine under this totalitarian system. A content robot. As Andres’s friend suggested, it doesn’t make much of a difference if you leave New York, because the whole world has become robotic calculated beings, incapable of abstract thinking under the control of exploiting capitalists.
It’s easy to get thrown into this capitalistic system, it is a mean of survival and quite frankly, not everybody has the time to rebell, Marx thought otherwise, that people will rebel and overthrow the system. Most people, as Marcuse suggests don’t even have time to critically think about things because they get jumbled into this ongoing cycles and routinization of being objects and solely being producers for the benefits of capitalists.
There can definitely be a connection made between what Andre says and Marcuse One Dimensional Man. Marcuse strongly argues that consumerism is a way of social control but it also goes on to explain how this all takes from our uniqueness. Which in fact we can see we are all following one set standard instead of trying to argue our way around it and implement new things, its just much easier this way because that is what is laid out for us and we don’t have to do any critical thinking no matter what the topic might be.
Wally is just a content robot but in any case that makes us all in a way content robots. Work, bills, classes, and many other responsibilities that fall into what we classify as a normal world or at least what we have come to think of it. There is always a schedule to follow, a routine. Society is happy following that so called “schedule” because if not it would be complete chaos to them. Particularly for myself I feel that every time I decide to move back to New York I become a content robot. I follow a set schedule, it’s always surprising to see how fast the day goes and then how fast the week moves by and you never really enjoy a single moment of it. I find myself buying and buying merchandise with the excuse of “you work hard, you deserve it”. Is that really enough though or is falling content with a routine? I think I am “trapped” in a prison of my own making because every time I manage to escape New York and live elsewhere and get a glimpse of how other cultures are and how you can live a life not following a second to second schedule and manage to still deal with responsibilities, I still find myself coming back here.
Wally himself is a content robot, he has already been programmed to believe that a persons life should consist of working, going to work, paying bills and buying things that you don’t necessarily need. At the end of that what would the person have accomplished? Living in NY you are constantly surrounded by ads of items that are appealing to the eye, so people work to save up to get these things. Buying these items give some a sense of fulfillment at the same time keeping them in a shell. How can one truly be happy by repeating the same things over and over again? But that goes with what Andre says about someone who is bored is asleep and someone who is asleep will not say no; and this is when people become okay with conformity.
Sometimes I see myself as a content robot and spend money to buy something and other times I sit and think really hard do I really need this? Will I need this money later down the road? There are people out there that don’t do this and as Andre states they have trapped themselves. I do think about escaping New York but then I think about what would I do somewhere else. People are so used to being comfortable that they rather not try something new and because of this are confined to a box they create and society reinforces.
Andre says, “Escape before it’s too late”. This is a notion I often have, one that I have seen resonate with friends and strangers alike. If you can make it here you can make it anywhere, and perhaps, New York is the ultimate breeding ground for consumer fetishism. Times Square is the mecca of capitalism, one of the first places tourists come to visit. As a resident of New York you have probably (willingly or not) walked through its shiny advertisements. This is the New York that I believe many have come to detest; it’s a symbol of rising rent, working multiple jobs just to get by and all for what? There is an allure to being a New Yorker and also a belief that there is nowhere else like it. The city itself can be seen as one big cultural good, forcing people to stay passive work, commuting to and from work, quietly amongst themselves. There is a bit of an illusion as New Yorkers being individuals, unique in their routine and way of life, but like many people elsewhere in the country, they have bought into the same idea of consumption equating to fulfillment. I think in the same way that it takes certain privilege to fill our lives with false needs (although I don’t believe all false needs hold a monetary value), it also takes a certain luxury to be able to escape or find true enlightenment through “real” experiences. These experiences are subjective and as Shawn argues, not everyone can climb Mount Everest. As expensive it is to live here, it can be just as expensive to move, especially when you have others whom depend on you. How does one measure unnecessary needs?
In the film I find myself siding with Andre 9 times out of 10, although Shawn makes excellent points. The comfort people seek from their daily routines comes from a false love of the material things and the idea that our connections to things and people are the most valuable things we have. Andre speaks about a swedish tree expert that travels everyday with a backpack because he never knows where he’ll be the next day. Instead of focusing on the backpack as a means to escape the world here George Clooney uses the backpack to outline our dependence on the material things in our lives perfectly along with an outline for how much weight the relationships we have hold on us.
https://youtu.be/UsRP9EUrXjo
Andre speaks of people never leaving New York because of a love for the thing they feel they’ve built, and the truth to this is immeasurable. Personally my father spent the last 35 years working for New York City Transit after being born in Puerto Rico and raised in Washington Heights, New York is his home. Even after moving to the suburbs he commuted everyday to the city and even after retirement he still finds reasons to come down to manhattan to spend some time with the city he loves. A city my mother immigrated to and has given both of them a number of opportunities to grow their lives and their family in a stable environment, New York was hands down the only chance they had a an upward mobility for themselves or their family. They’re productions of a city that gave them a chance to grow but ultimately anchored them down to a 50 mile radius they’ll never dare to exceed.
As a product of a love affair with New York City I don’t see it the same way as my parents do, my love for New York stems from an arrogance that my education has been from here, my opinions are greeted with much welcomed discussion or debate, and it has every opportunity for anyone to work in any field they dream of, but I see New York as a means to an end. The totalitarian nature of New York is something the world has in places like San Francisco’s tech industry and China’s manufacturing. You need these places to give people a chance, a job, a start, rather than totalitarian I’d see it as a structure that serves a function, and without it life would be exponentially more difficult.
Individuality. This is the main problem that we face in our society and what has been going on for generations. Everyone wants to be an individual but no one knows what it takes to actually be an INDIVIDUAL. No one shows individuality, we are all focused on the wrong things which is dehumanizing our society. We focus on the new gadgets and clothing to show that we are happy with the lives that we live. Meanwhile, spending money on these materialistic objects are not necessary and we should focus using our time and money on more beneficial things. But what are the beneficial things nowadays? I wouldn’t know mainly because all I see is technology and media brainwashing everyone to buy their product or showing people on these shows how ones life should be, which we try to follow showing that there is no individuality. But we cannot blame the people because it is just their job and takes nothing to lure us in to want to buy these false needs. Its hard to push away from buying this and that when you see it everywhere and hear from others of what the gadget does and how cool it is to have.
Marcuse and the Dialectic of Enlightenment is very much similar to the movie clip because both are saying that our people focus on the wrong things and New York is one of the biggest places on where people focus on false needs. Everything makes you feel like you need it. I strongly agree with what the two men were saying in the clip saying that “one must find a way to strike a balance between the material comforts that make us happy and the simple and “real” experiences that keep us grounded. I feel once our people find this balance we will not be so focused on nonsense.
A simple example on us focusing on materialistic things is marriage.Some women nowadays focus on the size of the ring to come up with an answer if they want to marry their spouse or not. The proposing process is so hard to do nowadays because we are focusing on the wrong things. Men/women know they are to buy a beautiful ring that they cannot afford to “show” their love for their spouse but why? If the two are in love with each other why does the size of the diamond have to be what shows their love for one another? If your spouse were to propose to you with a cardboard handmade ring, are you going to say yes? I know of a lot who would turn this proposal down, we are focused on the wrong things.
Wally states near the end of the film that in the normal world of jobs, bills, and other responsibilities, there’s no need to seek the awareness-outposts that Andre describes (Mt. Everest). Happiness, he says, can be achieved within our routine. I feel as if Wally is a content robot but in a sense we are all content robots, we go through the same routines everyday and many are not open to trying new things. Some are content with the lives that they live, some say they want more…. but do nothing to get more. You cannot be truly happy with life if you are stuck doing the same routine each and everyday, there is so much more to this world to see and do. I do feel as if I am one of those content robots in many situations of always wanting to do more but doesn’t. I am one who needs to come out of my comfort zone and try new things. I am slowly but surely trying to not just say what I want to do but actually doing it. I think of escaping New York on the regular, it was actually mainly on my mind when it came to choosing where I wanted to attend college. I am so accustomed to being a New Yorker, the places that offered me full ride scholarships for basketball I turned down. There were other reasons as well but them not being in New York was a reason as well. I want to live my future somewhere out of New York, but it is easier to say then to do,making me a content robot. I am trapped in a prison of my own making, New York is my prison and I hope that I can be free in my future.
Do you think you might be “trapped” in a prison of your own making?
I think that there is certainly a connection between what Andre has to say and both Marcuse and Dialectic of Enlightenment. The line that most stood out to me was when Andre says “somebody who is bored is asleep, and someone who is asleep will not say no”. Marcuse argues that society has become one dimensional in the sense that everyone is constantly trying to fit into this perfect mold and there is no sense of originality. This goes to such an extent that one loses their ability to think critically for themselves. I think that this is what Andre is referring to when he says this. He speaks of a society in which no one truly questions what is going on anymore, they simply go along with it because they do not find it amusing. When I think of these two things I personally relate this idea to the younger generations, to the kids who were born when iPads had become a norm and who do not know how to interact without the aid of technology. Unless a kid is given some sort of device it becomes impossible for them to enjoy themselves and in less than an hour you are more than certainly going to hear about them being bored. Although kids may not necessarily be able to head out into the world on their own and find things to do as easily as they might have a few years ago, allowing them to be lulled into this digital feed whenever they are free does not seem like the best idea either. I do think that critical thinking stems from curiosity, whether it is curiosity about what a new word means or about why a certain norm is followed, questioning things is the basis for someone who is capable of thinking critically.
I think Andre was onto something when he said that someone who is bored is asleep, and someone who is asleep will not say no. Constantly occupying ourselves with endless trivia and games to unwind after a long day’s work on the latest iPad or iPhone is a form of actively continuing to give into consumerism, and also falling into a subtle unconsciousness that may seem harmless at first but can lead a complete lack of unawareness in society if it is something that becomes part of a routine. I do not know if I would go as far as to say we are happy robots, but I do know more than one person who has spoken to me about leaving New York City and enjoying “real life”. But, what is real life at the end of the day when no matter how many times someone says they will leave, they continue to stay? After watching this clip and having done the readings we did I am starting to believe that the reason people continue to be here is because they are afraid that their feeling of dissatisfaction will never leave them, no matter where they are.
When I watched the movie clip a few things Andre said stood out to me in relation to Marcuse and Dialectic of Enlightenment. He mentions that society is being brainwashed by a government that is based on money, and that when someone is “asleep” they won’t say no. Adorno and Horkheimer argue the culture industry was created to keep the masses obedient to consumerism. If the masses are focused on only false needs they aren’t “awake” to the important facets of life, and therefore won’t rebel or say no. Andre also makes a comment about getting out of NYC, to escape what Marcuse describes as a one-dimensional life, where people no longer think critically because of the flattening of discourse. However, Andre says that there is nowhere else to go because everywhere else is heading in the same direction. Capitalist society is a totalizing system that doesn’t stop outside of NYC or outside of the United States, which is why Marcuse claims that there is no escape.
I think that there is a certain sense of happiness that can be achieved within our routines, but I don’t think a lot of necessary growth or change can happen there, so I would say that Wally is a content robot. I think what’s achieved in our routines, more than happiness, is comfort. It’s comfortable to do what’s expected of you, and some might perceive that comfort as happiness. I know that I do from time to time. After having to think critically during my classes all morning, I enjoy that I have the routine of my job afterwards, however, I’m not sure that makes me a content robot.
I think of escaping New York all the time. I am that person that Andre mentions, the one who always talks about leaving but never does. At first I told myself I’d leave after I graduated, but now I tell myself that it’s better to stay after I graduate because it will be easier to get a good job here. I tell myself that being employed in NYC will help me get a good job somewhere else, but I’m sure once I’m employed I’ll come up with other reasons to keep staying, continuing to trap myself in the prison of my own making. Of course, my prison is related to getting a good job (work work work) so maybe I am a content robot chasing false needs after all?!
I think the movie clip and Marcuse’s message have a lot in come. They both see the fate of individuals and society as bleak and people not even realizing. Everyone is happy just being consumers and doing the same routines everyday. Wally is a robot believes that happiness comes from the conformity and accepting the capitalism that control every part of society, it is clear he is a content robot. There are a lot of people like Wally who believe that life is just about paying bills and working to make someone else rich. I sometimes to fall into the robot catagory. I caught myself judging Some one for have a iPhone 4s, but the reason I don’t think of myself as being a robot is because i can think critical and know material things really don’t amount to happiness.
The movie clip relates to Marcuse and the Dialect of Enlightenment because they are concerned with the fate of the individual. Marcuse states that its impossible to imagine the current social system any different which keeps you repeating current social relations. The tension between civilization and culture produces a gap between what can be thought and what exists. Marcuse argues that the gap has been closed by totalitarian social interactions and consumerism. People do not see a way out, they managed to create a jail in which they don’t realize is a jail. In all honesty there is nothing tying someone down to a specific location but we look for reasons/excuses as to why we can’t follow our dreams or travel. We try to give meaning to our lives by wasting it in a meaningless manner to buy commodities for a temporary relief.
You cannot achieve complete happiness if you are in a forced routine. You can love your job but the cycle of working and following a set schedule does not sound like you can be content. You don’t necessarily have to climb a mountain but being fully aware that you can make decisions at any given point to go where you please without restrictions is a form of achieving happiness. I believe i am a content robot, not really content but i feel like i have to work and go to school to achieve something and change my current social status. I’m aware that I might not be able to change my status easily but i will be able to change my descendants. It hasn’t crossed my mind to leave NY only because i know that if you are able to make it here you are pretty much set anywhere else. However i feel like I’m not trapped in a prison of my own making because i am aware of my sacrifices and the limitations i have currently. If i was unaware and convinced myself that i achieve happiness through my routine i would consider myself a robot.