This week we expanded on what is a tragedy and studied live examples inside and outside the classroom. We started the week off watching Alain de Button's Tedtalk, A kinder gentler philosophy of success. Instead of discussing failures, de Button explained how we define success. This caught my interest because like a tragedy, success is relative to the common man.
My favorite quote of de Button in his Tedtalk is "It would be insane to call Hamlet a loser. He isn't a loser though he has lost." This phenomenon of calling the misfortunate losers is prevalent in our meritocratic society. Thinking about the misfortunate, the homeless man who rides his bike around Mount Pleasant, may be looked down as a bum who dug his own hole in the land of opportunity. Or reflecting on the robbery of Kim Kardashian. The general public would make a cliche statement regarding karma and laugh at the gaudy family. So why do we see some instances as tragic but others cometic? We only can see tragic scenarios only when they relate to us.
A real life example of a tragedy, depending on your perspective, that occurred recently is the presidential election. I would like to connect what I learned from tragedies because it is applicable to here and now. There are protests erupting around America because people have suffered a great loss: their candidate lost and the opposite of their saving grace won. Being in a meritocratic society makes your failures much more severe because you are expected to succeed. However hard you work, you get what you deserve. Half of America is devastated which made me realize something. One man's tragedy, is another's success.
My favorite quote of de Button in his Tedtalk is "It would be insane to call Hamlet a loser. He isn't a loser though he has lost." This phenomenon of calling the misfortunate losers is prevalent in our meritocratic society. Thinking about the misfortunate, the homeless man who rides his bike around Mount Pleasant, may be looked down as a bum who dug his own hole in the land of opportunity. Or reflecting on the robbery of Kim Kardashian. The general public would make a cliche statement regarding karma and laugh at the gaudy family. So why do we see some instances as tragic but others cometic? We only can see tragic scenarios only when they relate to us.
A real life example of a tragedy, depending on your perspective, that occurred recently is the presidential election. I would like to connect what I learned from tragedies because it is applicable to here and now. There are protests erupting around America because people have suffered a great loss: their candidate lost and the opposite of their saving grace won. Being in a meritocratic society makes your failures much more severe because you are expected to succeed. However hard you work, you get what you deserve. Half of America is devastated which made me realize something. One man's tragedy, is another's success.