Final Paper - AWOL, its a love hate relationship

How I used to make sense of the American Life

This was way back in September, when the media and the government were actually good at keeping the greater majority unaware of what America was really like. I had believed "the best part of believe is the lie" (Fall Out Boy), that America was awesome we weren't poor, doctor visits were free and painless, the farms I had visited smelled of fresh grass and the cows practically smiled, I knew nothing about the constitution accept that it gave me the freedom to speak freely, the babies came quickly, Taco Bell was good especially since now they list calories and that for the most part all the people I knew seemed to be equal to one another... then I met Andy... dun dun dun

How I make sense of the American Way of Life now

I'll start with the constitution, like I said all I knew about the constitution was the undeniable fact that I had the right to speak my mind (which is why I never had a problem questioning authority). But when I had begun studying it I was not interested at all. But then I realized that the Constitution told a story, a story of slavery, inequality and power. I'd learned in all of 3 weeks that the foundation of this country was in the hand of rich, old, white, racist, men. Without the Amendments this country would be in for some pretty serious crap. Which says alot, that originally the constitution only benefited white men... and that's something that I did not know. Without the Amendments there would still be slaves, women wouldn't be able to vote, everyone would have to believe in the same God, plain ol' citizens wouldn't be able to keep their nine millimeters... I would go on but I'm sure anyone reading this gets the point.

Moving on, I never really looked in to the whole birth scene. I knew that after unprotected sex, intrauterine methods and sperm banks, led to pregnancy. Which in my opinion was decent knowledge considering... What I didn't know was the exact process of having a baby is completely and totally different from what society and TV has taught us to believe. In all of 4 weeks, I had learned that over 98% of women had their baby by C-section. At first it didn't seem like a bad thing, but most women have C-sections when there is no need to. The process of having a C-section involves 'drugging' your baby. Doctor's won't tell their patients this, just that after the woman is all high off of medicine the doctor says that its necessary to have a C-section to relieve the stress off the baby. Home-birth with a certified mid-wife is much healthier and much cheaper. But hospitals don't want the competition,so very little women are unaware that there are other options to having your baby ripped out of them.

While on the topic of hospitals, let talk about the health care system. Let me just say for the record that the health care system seemed nice at first. To me all I did was go in for a checkup and come out knowing either something was wrong or that I was healthy. But like everything else in America nothing is ever plain and simple. In all of 3-4 weeks I had learned that America has the worst health care system. Here there are more people not covered probably bleeding in a ditch than the people in cool shiny most likely to be infected hospitals. In other countries things like college and health care are free. This fact suggests that other countries actually care about the people living there and not the amount of money that they are worth. America might be ‘the greatest nation’ but it lacks sincerity for its people.

Food, something every American is familiar with. Never cared much about the topic other than I ate it when I got hungry. Food was always marketed as something neat and nice that was done with a wonderful family of four. But now you can’t walk more than 3 blocks without running in to a Burger King of Wendy’s. This, being the fast food corporations, is merely designed to pull the money out of consumers. Nobody really thinks about where their food comes from just that they get it. Well like everything else I had learned that that wasn’t the case. The lovely chickens and cows that people eat are actually suffering and then being slaughtered. The animals that we humans’s depend on are getting treated like shit, but no one cares. I learned all this with-in 2 weeks…impressive huh?

Oil, well I’m not too keen on this topic but apparently we need it bad…or else. Oil, from what I’ve been learning makes up just about 100% of the things that we need/use daily. But I’m sure that if some of these things were cut that we might just have a fighting chance.

Enjoy It?

Sometimes I enjoy the AWOL and sometimes I don’t, the American Way of Life is like Andy’s teaching you might not like it but there isn’t much you can do about it. I like that we aren’t starving…yet. I like that for now we have this illusion of freedom and I like the technology. There’s a longer list of things that I don’t like but I really don’t want to write that. Some of the dumb things here include the media. I cannot stress this enough, NOBODY CARES ABOUT HOW MANY KIDS BRAD AND ANGELINA HAVE! Honestly, why waste hundreds of thousands of paper on stupid crap like that. Right now it looks like we are headed for a slow collapse, but look at the bright side, we’ll all have new ipods.

Final Thoughts

I can't think about something or look at a TV ad in the same way anymore It's almost like I have to pick it apart and analyze and or criticize it. In some ways that will come in handy but in other ways it might make your social life a bit harder, for example if a friend asks your opinion on a new sweater, in September I probably would have said something like " It looks nice" or "that's a good color for you" now I'll end up saying something like "I hope you know that you're wasting the little bit of oil that we have left on this planet?" or "you're being sucked in to this whole marketing scheme to get your money" I guess that's the difference of being educated and oblivious.

Extra Credit

Comment for Jenise:
I like the way you start off your intro saying that the AWOL is alternative, and by the end after you get a taste of the real AWOL you change you mind. I think that it shows how your understandings of topics changed. I also liked how you said that you wanted to like AWOL, it made me wonder how many people believe that just because they live in a certian place they have to like it...

Comment for Kevin:
I like how you were able to connect to each topic of the course. It shows how geared you were into the American Way of Life. I also like how you imply your favorite was the food topic. I wonder, are you going to change the way your AWOL is or not?