Que te vaya Bonito

What I believe Savater tries to point out in this chapter is the fact that even though the time passes and some features of our context change, the inherent essence of the human beings remains the same and this is with what Ethics deals. So the date shown by the calendar is not important when trying to reflect on what we want ourselves to be and to achieve in life as part of the humankind we all are. Of course, there are some differences or new issues to be discussed as far as Ethics is concerned, but the essential ingredients are always the same. As Savater wrote, “Vivir en rebaño es como vivir entre espejos…” we, human beings, in spite of all our differences, show the same basic characteristics that humans have shown throughout centuries.Throughout our lives we come across people we think are different from us and maybe, as a first reaction, we tend to reject them as we are all conditioned by stereotypes and so forth, but we need to overcome those prejudices and try to see beyond superficial differences so as to find the essence of the other which is, at the same time, our own human essence.

The naked truth is always better than the best dressed lie.

Responsibility is a key issue to discuss with children and adolescents. As I pointed out on previous posts, as human beings we are free to choose how to live our life, and once we have made choices it is crucial for us to assume responsibility for those choices. What does this means? To be responsible is to be consciously free for good or for bad; it is to know that every choice we make define us as people. This is why it is vital to face the consequences of our acts and not just the ones that have positive outcomes but the negative ones too. This seems very difficult to achieve; but as teachers we should show our students the importance of being responsible for our acts even though they may feel ashamed or afraid. Admitting having done something wrong is much more valuable than lying, because in the long run it would destroy us in the inside.

Wake up Neo

While reading this chapter some questions popped into my mind: What do children and adolescents think it’s important in their lives? What do they think means “living a good life”? And of course, I ended up reflecting on publicity and television shows. Today advertisements on television tell us (and the children) that we cannot live a good life without owning things. You need a new brand cell phone to be happy, to be cool; “to be in”. TV shows and magazines also show kids that to be happy you should be famous, competitive, uninhibited, show no interest in culture or intellectual skills, of course not all TV show are like this but the great majority are. I think this created a crisis in children’s priorities and values; and as a result their lives revolve around material objects and superficiality. For example, when adolescents come across something interesting or unexpected in the street or wherever; or even when being in a birthday party, their only concern is to record those moments with their cell phones so as to upload those photographs or videos on their fotologs later on. By doing this they miss all the real experiences of their lives, they don´t enjoy the present moment but think about that virtual world they surf on where everything and everyone are merely images on their screens. This reminds me of “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury a short story we analysed last year where two children are figuratively abandoned by their parents when they are left in the care of a technological baby setter. What I believe is that children need to be shown the importance of human relations and to reflect on the fact that to be happy doesn’t mean what others say to be happy means namely money, power, influence, technology, fame, etc. They should try to define what makes them really happy. A way to do this can be trough stories or debates concerning current news formulating questions that trigger more questions and reflections on their part. I know it is a difficult task as television spends more time “educating” children than parents but as teachers we should give it a try. Don’t you think!

Humanise Me

Ethics is not more or less than a rational attempt to discover how to live better, how to have a good life; but not just a good life, a good human life. To achieve this, we need to understand we are social beings; that is to say, we cannot survive if we don’t relate with others and establish bounds with them. We are incomplete creatures, for example we cannot survive without being fed by another person, animals can. Would you be happy if you were the last living human on earth? You would posses everything you’d ever wanted to own, but they would just be valueless objects. Would you still call yourself a human being? We are humans because we live within a society where we are “humanized”, and this is a reciprocal process: for me to be treated as human I must treat others as humans, right? The story called “Human Is” by Philip.K.Dick, revolves around this concept: one of the main characters behaves and treats his wife as a piece of furniture, showing no feelings towards anyone or anything at all, so at the end of the story he is treated the same way by his wife.
I believe that to have a good life you need to built worthy relationships and value them because they are going to give you things that material objects don’t such as support, love, affection, friendship, etc; and not spend all your life working hard and trodding over others trying to gain power so as to own material things.

Go with the flow

Freedom of choice… As human being this is our blessing but sometimes it can also be our curse. How difficult it is to learn how to choose correctly!! It seems almost impossible because it is also difficult to establish what is good and what is bad, what means to be a good person or a bad one; there are thousands of views on this issue. When we are kids we are immature, dependent and inexperienced so obeying others seems to be logical but when we become adults we need to we capable of shaping our own life, not just living the life others had created for us. In this sense, and coming back to the orders, how important it seems to think about our actions at least twice before performing them!

-Why should I do this?

-Because it is an order.

-But why should I obey this order? Is this what I believe to be the right thing to do?

This is the reason why we are not satisfied with the excuse of the nazi commandant saying he had obeyed the order of a superior authority when being asked about the killing of thousands of Jews. The fact that he was told to and that many people thought it right, did not justify it or made it morally correct.

Before going with the flow it is crucial to reflect, to think it twice or a thousand times if necessary so as to be sure, not necessarily that it is the right thing to do but at least to be sure that it is what you want and to be responsible for that choice.

Do this, do that !

In connection to the third chapter of the book I would like to focus on the issue of orders. According to Savater, orders are one of our motives; that is to say, the reasons we have or believe we have to behave in certain ways. The different motives have different levels of importance, let’s say. Orders very often, take their strength from fear of what could happen to us if we don’t obey someone; and other times from the affect and confidence we have in others. What we can infer from this is that this kind of motive comes from the outside and is that it is imposed to us. What I believe important to point out is that we shouldn’t always do exactly what we are told to because in many occasions we need to reflect on what would be the best choice and find our way out by ourselves even though this implies disobeying someone.

Conformity is not the best option when deciding what to do with our lives.