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Today we watched a TED Talk about tragedy and how people deal with loss.
The talk was really good. The gist of it was that in today's society, we tend to blame people for their own problems. We also blame ourselves for problems, which is what leads to life crises. Alain de Botton explains that this makes our society extremely unforgiving to the less fortunate. According to de Botton
"It's probably as unlikely that you would nowadays become as rich and famous as Bill Gates, as it was unlikely in the 17th century that you would accede to the ranks of the French aristocracy. But the point is, it doesn't feel that way. It's made to feel, by magazines and other media outlets, that if you've got energy, a few bright ideas about technology, a garage, you too could start a major thing."
This is a very recent idea. In the past, poor people would be labeled as unlucky rather than lazy or stupid. People weren't responsible for their place in society, which made sense because many people were born into wealth or poverty. De Botton goes on to explain the difference between an unfortunate and a loser. He related the terms to Hamlet saying that even though Hamlet lost, we wouldn't call him a loser. So much is luck or circumstance so we can't ever fully blame someone for their struggles.
I can also relate this to tragedy, because characters in tragedy can't really be blamed for their actions. This is very relevant in Oedipus Rex where Oedipus is literally bound to his fate by a prophecy from the gods. Tragedy also gives much more sympathy to characters than, for example, a news company would. One of the main messages of tragedy is sympathy: the idea that suffering is not always our fault.
Here's a link to the talk, I highly recommend it.
Today we watched a TED Talk about tragedy and how people deal with loss.
The talk was really good. The gist of it was that in today's society, we tend to blame people for their own problems. We also blame ourselves for problems, which is what leads to life crises. Alain de Botton explains that this makes our society extremely unforgiving to the less fortunate. According to de Botton
"It's probably as unlikely that you would nowadays become as rich and famous as Bill Gates, as it was unlikely in the 17th century that you would accede to the ranks of the French aristocracy. But the point is, it doesn't feel that way. It's made to feel, by magazines and other media outlets, that if you've got energy, a few bright ideas about technology, a garage, you too could start a major thing."
This is a very recent idea. In the past, poor people would be labeled as unlucky rather than lazy or stupid. People weren't responsible for their place in society, which made sense because many people were born into wealth or poverty. De Botton goes on to explain the difference between an unfortunate and a loser. He related the terms to Hamlet saying that even though Hamlet lost, we wouldn't call him a loser. So much is luck or circumstance so we can't ever fully blame someone for their struggles.
I can also relate this to tragedy, because characters in tragedy can't really be blamed for their actions. This is very relevant in Oedipus Rex where Oedipus is literally bound to his fate by a prophecy from the gods. Tragedy also gives much more sympathy to characters than, for example, a news company would. One of the main messages of tragedy is sympathy: the idea that suffering is not always our fault.
Here's a link to the talk, I highly recommend it.