Untitled Speach

Aldus Huxley was once quoted “Most of ones life is a prolonged effort to not think” This statement instigates thoughts of society’s self imposed ignorance. Honorable judges, ladies and gentlemen, and fellow students, we live in a world of conceited and vain people. Although this creates a society of beautiful looking men and women, in a meaningful way it does not help our world. Society may be physically endearing, but vanity makes for ugly and pretentious characters.

Manicures, haircuts, plastic surgery, these are all commodities we abuse to better our aesthetic values. Our lives are set trying to live up to the codes that the media has set for our appearance. Magazines full of under fed women, and overworked men set the trend that we must follow. Imagine if the hours of labor we spent putting on makeup, working out at the gym, planning diets, pretty much trying to become, in all the stereotypes of the word, “perfect”, were redirected towards bettering ourselves in a much more meaningful level. Spiritual well being is just as important than physical beauty. If a person cannot be satisfied with her or himself, they will never be able to look beyond their immediate surroundings.

Despite most conventions I am not going to blame the whole ordeal on the media. One of Adam Wells’ theories states that my self interest leads me to take your wants and needs into account. This same idea is applied in the context of supply and demand. Business men need to know what the population needs to fulfill the demand, the media needs to know what interests us to sell their product. Its a vicious cycle.

John Rawls, author of Political Liberalism , says that we live as disinterested rational beings, operating behind a veil of ignorance. He believed this aspect was good in the context of social justice. Some things in our world are above the the minds of those who choose to spend hours in front of a mirror instead of in front of a book. Therefore, it is those who look beyond aesthetic values that are qualified to make decisions for the rest of the population. His views were thought to be superior to utilitarianism, and were an unrealistic version of the democratic system, where only the smart rule. Although this could work well, the few that rule cannot take care of all the problems in the world.

Everyday thousands of people die in desperation, yet many more people turn their backs to the situation. Thousands may turn their TV’s on when the news begins, but even more decide to turn it off, and ignore the fact that many may not live the same privileged and protected life they lead. Ignorance is bliss, but only for the ignorant. Instead of watching the suffering in the Palestine/Israel war, people were criticizing the new wardrobes and hairstyles of the cast of “Friends” on their season premier. What are our values? Would we rather save a million kids from dying? Or have the newest up to date outfit? I would like to believe we want to save the kids, but I am forced to accept the fact that we care more for our esthetics.

But there may be a glimmer of hope. We the students, our generation needs to be able to look past petty aesthetic values, and break free of the barriers of what is physically correct. Our children need to be taught that cleaning our nails, and brushing our hair is useless if we do not clean the streets, and eradicate poverty, hunger and suffering. Instead of not thinking about the problem ,its time we begin eliminating it. It is our job to open the eyes of our children to the world we have so carefully masked, before it is too late, and another generation of beautiful, sitcom idolizing people take over.