Ok, I know it’s been awhile and I have some very important things to write about, namely my experience in Vietnam and that whole ‘what I’m doing after Korea
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Some of you may have been wondering what Bob Ross has been up to lately. Remember him? He was the white guy with the huge afro who had that color palette surgically attached to his left hand on that old people’s channel you always skipped past on your way to Nickelodeon or ABC as a child growing up in the early 90s, wondering for a hazy half-second if people thought it was still acceptable to look like that. I mean, a white guy with an afro? A button-down shirt tucked into jeans? What??
Anyhow. He actually died back in ’95 of lymphoma (thank you, Wikipedia, for depressing me with More Things I Didn’t Need to Know But Anxiously Looked Up Anyway). But…these sneaky Koreans have somehow brought him back to life.
He’s now living inside my Korean TV, selling Qook & Show smartphones—and consequently killing my soul at every 30-second turn. Here, watch for yourself.
Also.
There’s this website that’s been consuuuming my life ever since I found out about it (thank you Day!) and if by some stroke of horrible luck, you don’t know about it— here you go.
I didn’t think I could connect post-mortem Korean-speaking Bob Ross to Barry Schwartz, but the wonders of the modern age have showed me up again.
While watching this brilliant, inspiring, enlightening talk by Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice, I could not (and still can’t) get the theme song of that one sketch on MADtv out of my head. Lowered Expectations.
And no- the connection is not that this is something else I used to watch growing up in the 90s. The connection is that I am currently living inside a Baudrillard novel (if he were to ever have written one) which caused me to watch the commercial in the first place. Before I explain that, here’s a short synopsis of that novel:
Young American woman living inside Asian technological epicenter, slowly but consistently losing her mind as she realizes with each new day that this is not real life. Not really. It is a representation of life. An awe-inspiring concoction of explosive consumption consumption consumption of all-things-tech, all-things-image and all-things-emptiness. Add a dash of Confucianism and a large helping of alcohol and you’ve got…KOREA: Shiny Simulacra and Sparkly Simulations, a novel by Jean Baudrillard.
It is because I live inside this Baudrillard novel that I choose to be mostly absent—mostly (trying to) sleep, exhausted by Nothingness…feeling compelled to let others fill up my mind, hence being consumed by TED…but it was after watching that Schwartz talk, that I became even more hyper-aware of the world around me, the illusion of happiness and choice and…etc. And so—it was in the aftermath of all this (probably fake) hyper-awareness that I felt a strange pull toward my Korean TV, only to see a post-mortem-Korean-speaking Bob Ross and…well, I just thought you all should know about it.
One more thing.. I just went to church and God (Oprah) just told me that Copenhagen
This was my reaction to reading your post:
ReplyDeletehttp://i287.photobucket.com/albums/ll129/kiefc/wut.jpg
I watched the Barry Schwartz video and I absolutely agree with you - the guy is brilliant. I have some thoughts.
ReplyDelete1. First, the "official dogma" that he talks about is very flawed, but he doesn't mention its most serious flaw which is the concept of freedom itself. The truest freedom is the freedom to love and to serve others. The radical self-giving of ourselves to others is our deepest liberation.
As JPII put it, "Freedom is not to 'do what I want' but to 'do what I ought.'"
2. There may be 175 different kinds of salad dressings, but is he including different brands? Kraft and Krasdale both make plain Ranch.
3. The cartoon about "not pressuring the children" also makes an important point. Gender is a very profound aspect of identity and there's this ridiculous idea around these days that gender is an arbitrary distinction. Conan O'Brien once remarked that his son is a destructive force of nature and the idea that we 'make boys a certain way and girls another' is absurd because his son practically came out of the womb wanting to smash things.
4. Schwartz is right that every day we decide what kind of person we're going to be. One of my deepest beliefs is that of free will and every single person has the capacity to be a monster or a saint. Every moment of every day we decide which path to take. Although most people tend to settle in a comfortable middle point.
5. The blank "Ten Commandments" slab cartoon was also fantastic. I watched "Bullets over Broadway" recently. The character played by Rob Reiner said, "Guilt is crap. The artist makes his own moral universe." I objected immediately because that smacks of the phenomena known moral relativism. One of my other deepest beliefs is that of the natural law. Every society in the history of the world (more or less) recognizes that murder, rape, lying, cheating, and stealing are all evil while patience, kindness, honesty, and generosity are all good.
6. Schwartz made an extremely important point that I've been saying for a while now: We're all a lot happier when our expectations are low. Some of my favorite movies of all time blew me away in part because I had no expectations going in. Others were ruined for me because they were hyped to death.
7. Finally, he tells us something we should all already know: having a lot of material possessions won't make us happy. There have actually been scientific studies done which come to the conclusion that materialism is not fulfilling, but it is our relationships with other people that bring us happiness.
Whew! Sorry my response was so long. But that's the mark of a great lecture, it got me thinking to the point that I couldn't help but talk (or type) too damn much.
In any case, I want to respond to something you said in your actual post. You said your current life is "not real life. Not really".
That couldn't be further from the truth. You are a teacher, there are few professions as noble. You are imparting knowledge to your students and in doing so, enriching their lives. The ability to speak English is an important part of you, so by teaching these children to do that, you are giving them a part of your self. And as I said earlier, self-giving is our deepest freedom.
Not only is your life real, but you are truly free.
-Ian
brandon-- as I mentioned, that's how I looked while writing it.
ReplyDeleteian-- hmm...ok.
1). I truly respect your opinion-- however-- I must say that I disagree. You think its flawed because of what you believe in. I think your argument is flawed because of what I believe in. (or don't, rather)
2). Even if he is including different brands-- that still means there's WAAAAY too many options- it's effing salad dressing!
3). What 'ridiculous idea' of gender being an arbitrary distinction are you referring to? Also, I'm not sure pinpointing the experience of one man's child completely confounds this argument. Even if it is Conan we're talking about.
4). Agreed.
5). This is a tricky one as I also tend to have objections with moral relativism...might have to get back to you.
6). Especially in regards to films-- yes, I agree. I try to know as little as possible going in so that any expectations that were forced on me through reviews or previews are completely absent and I have a clean slate to work with-- which I think gives me a fairer assessment of either the quality or non-quality of the film.
7). agreed.
also-- while I do appreciate your comments about the nobility of the teachiing profession, it still doesn't make the life out here any more real. I wasn't really making a comment on how I feel my teaching is ignoble-- rather a larger comment on the life South Korea offers to its citizens. Which, unfortunately, is feeling rather empty and fantastical at the moment.
But thank you for your kind words anyway.
Renee,
ReplyDeletere: 3: I heard someone say once, "'man' and 'woman' are just words." And I heard someone else say, "I don't see people in terms of gender". I'm merely saying that maleness and femaleness are very profound attributes. To say that aggression is a male tendency and gentleness is a female tendency would be absurd. But there is an immense difference between male aggression and female aggression and male gentleness and female gentleness.
The bottom line is that men and women are different and its biology that makes us that way, not societal pressure.
(Not that there *isn't* societal pressure, but compared to a certain chromosome, it makes far less of a difference.)
As I said, it is our relationships with other people that give our lives meaning. You've said it yourself that you've met some really amazing people during your stay in Korea. The friendships that you've made with them (in *addition* to your teaching) make your life real.
I understand that you live in "the most wired place on Earth" and that being surrounded by a lot of glowing boxes can make you feel disconnected. Yes, a lot of technology is impersonal. But if a person is
a. Enriching the lives of others by doing something worthwhile (which you are)
and
b. has meaningful relationships with others (which you do)
Then their life is imbued with meaning and purpose and is quite real. So the impersonal, inhuman technology that surrounds you and general attitudes of the society are irrelevant.
-Ian