MLK Day

This weekend is a weekend that is celebrated by everyone in the U.S. the reason it is celebrated is because on Monday it is MLK (Martian Luther King) day. This day is observed by many because MLK was a very powerful figure due to his leadership in the tough civil rights movements. The civil rights movement was when the blacks in our community were fighting to get equal rights and benefits as the white people did. During this time the whites treated the blacks like shit through brutal ways such as rioting/ beating them, making them sit in the back of the bus, separate water fountains and eating sections, and even a diverse school system. So what the whites were doing was making the blacks look like garbage by treating them with disrespect and hate. Then MLK came into the picture. MLK was a man who moved the blacks to revolt and rebel against the whites in order to get the rights they deserve. He organized marches, meetings, and speeches to help him and other blacks to get their message out there that they won’t take what the whites are giving them. Especially the famous rally where he gave his “I Have a Dream,” speech. And eventually the civil rights movement was a success and MLK was a big face of it that many gave thanks to for helping do what must be done.
So on this holiday I ask myself, how is this holiday relate back to how to have a meaningful life and what it really shows? And in my opinion it can be viewed in three different ways. The first way is for those who don’t even care about the holiday. These are the people who will say “Thank you MLK for giving us a day off from work/ school.” The second way is trying to perform characteristics of MLK. Meaning trying to get out into a community and being a leader, team player, determined, and focused to make a change in society like MLK did. And the final way is for those who want to observe the actual change. Those who thank MLK for giving their people freedom and changing what could’ve been their future. The way this connects back to having a meaningful life is because some people feel that observing this holiday in different ways is meaningful. I feel that for most the most meaningful is observing the change that this man made. I think this because I wouldn’t think that people would want to hassle to leave their homes and make a scene for one day and that would be it. It would be very meaningless to try to make change for one day because if making change actually meant something to the person, it would be a mission to make that change every day. Not just one day out of the year.

Holiday Connecting to Meaning Of Life

In our culture different holidays are observed for different reasons. I feel that a unique holiday that isn’t technically considered a dated holiday on a calendar is the Sunday the Super Bowl is played. This is a day in the world that people that isn’t even football fans stop on their televisions to watch a football game. The Super Bowl is considered the biggest football game of the year. The game where the two best teams in the league, one from the NFC(National Football Conference) and the other from the AFC(American Football Conference). And for this game it is when fans of their team bring out their true Fanhood. Fanhood is that special passion a person has inside them, passion that can’t be taken away, the commitment to stay up day and night watching ESPN and reading sports magazines and papers in order to be up to date with your favorite teams. Along with all the drama coming with each week, with the game coming down to a 4th Down or that tying/ go ahead field goal with time running out, shocking injuries, off field issues, and the thoughts of will my team show up to play and are they good enough get answered on the day of the super bowl. Other answers come from the individual players themselves. Some players in the super bowl have to prove themselves to their teammates, organization, and mostly the fans. This process happened to New York Giants Quarterback Eli Manning last year. After being shelled in the playoffs every year he started in them, he was able to play his best football and shut all the critics up about his incapability to win the big game. He threw only one interception on his postseason journey on the road from Giants Stadium beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round, division rival Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round, the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship, and finally bringing it all together by beating one of the already Super Bowl greats Tom “Terrific,” Brady and the undefeated Patriots taking their possibly historic 19-0 perfect season and making them fall one game short at 18-1.
Besides just the game this day has a lot to do with the people watching it. This isn’t a day where fans go out to watch the game in dress clothes. This is a more casual day where you dress in your team’s colors/ attire. Meaning wearing a hat, t-shirt, jersey, shoes, pants, whatever it takes for you to be satisfied with how you are representing your team. Some people even enjoy using face and body paint. Watching the game with your faced painted with your team’s colors or being topless and painting your entire chest and back in your team’s colors. On any other day of the week people would think you were out of your mind but on this occasion no one cares.
While enjoying this game you can be with anyone you want. Most people like to spend their times with either their friends, family, both, or if you don’t have friends you can just enjoy it with people around you if you go to a sports bar. Whether you are at the game or not, you and the people around you are going to be feeling the same or opposite ways depending weather your group is all fans of the same team, or you are in a mixed group with fans of both teams. In either case you will end up with one of two pairs of emotion which are, happy and joyful or sad and pissed off. The happiness and joy would come from your team winning and being the year’s champions of the football world. But on the other hand the sad and pissed off would come from a loss and having that entire season of dram just go down the tubes with a pathetic or last second loss.
I feel that food wise this depends on what kind of person you are. This day is more like a feast day where you would eat and drink as much as you want. Food that is served can range from anything such as chips and dip, cheese, Sliced Italian Sausage, pepperoni, and shrimp cocktail to having what the tailgaters have which is things like burgers, hot dogs, sausage, and steaks. Drinks are simpler because all they range from is from water to hard liquor. Usually the big Super Bowl parties have everything but the choices are usually when you are just watching or listening with a smaller group of people. People usually listen to any type of music that they like but at the special Super Bowl Halftime Show there are performances by top/ popular musicians. The most recent have been The Rolling Stones, Justin Timberlake, Prince, and this year Bruce Springsteen.
But this day also has some contradictory messages o our culture. Usually on any day if you ran out into the street and just yelling people would think that you are crazy but if your team wins it is more accepted to go out on the street and be joyful for your team. Also this holiday even somewhat breaks the law. The way it does is that the U.S drinking age is 21 years old. But on this day parents allow their kids (depending on how old) drink beer because it’s the big game. But this day also reveals some of a person’s meaning in life. These are things such as friendship, passion, family, joy, determination, happiness, and the pursuit to that unknown indescribable feeling of your team achieving victory.

Christmas Break Reflection

For my “Christmas,” celebration, I was one of those people who stayed with family, ate good tasting food and chilled. On Christmas day all I did was watch all the basketball games and eat. Some friends of my dad came over to add to the occasion. It was fun considering what we were doing. This year it my first time looking at Christmas and somewhat observing it. Due to my dad’s friend, she persuaded us to have this little Christmas dinner in our apartment. The food was good, but the presents or I should say, present was better. For Christmas all I got from my dad was 50 bucks. And it wasn’t even supposed to give it to me for a Christmas present. He gave it to me or as a, “here is 50 bucks, now get the hell away from me,” sort of thing. So all I did was take it and took as “merry Christmas.” So in other words, my family didn’t have a traditional Christmas. We had the necessities such as a fake tree, food, people over, and somewhat presents. But it wasn’t even close to what other families do. Going all out to get the best looking tree, decorating the entire house with stockings and ordainments, getting that Christmas mood, presents under the tree, and having a bunch of people. Mine was very small and more chilled out. My family kind of followed the Christmas way but in a very cheap way. This in its ways goes for and against the so called “American way of life,” that pertains to Christmas. The reason is that even if you don’t have a whole “parade,” for Christmas doesn’t mean you are bad but just mean you just don’t have enough money to afford it. But on the other hand people might think you are low in society because you can’t afford a banquet Christmas.
To add on to the idea that I ended on in the previous paragraph, I think that this connects to the dominant and marginal messages of corporate culture. I would believe that the dominant messages are to have a huge festival with food, decorations, people, presents, huge tree, and just have it be a whole big expensive thing. This connects back to the American message of being super rich and having money to get all these material possessions. Because if you look at Christmas through a different lens, all it is is spending money for other people and yourself. So in other words having lots of money, buy gifts for you and others that you are close to, and this results in more material possessions. A marginal message is for those people who are in middle—lower class. The people in these classes don’t have a lot of money to spend so they follow the message that “even though we aren’t rich, we can still make due with what we have.” Which mean that you don’t have to be rich to celebrate Christmas. That even though you will consume it won’t be on such a large scale, it will be like the small things such as family and love means more than an Xbox 360. This is a marginal message because it is something you hear people say in most places but not all which is you should celebrate Christmas but if you don’t have a lot of money to spend it isn’t a bad thing.

Marginal Messages

Marginal corporate messages are those that we see come up but not as frequently as the dominant ones. These messages are things such as woman can be bad ass just like men, “fight the power,” don’t be part of “the system,” just go crazy with life, and many more. In my opinion so of these marginal messages can have more meaning then the dominant messages that people are so accustomed to. The reason being is that these dominant messages have to do with a system. Systems in which we all are suppose to follow as human beings. These things consist of getting money, having a good job, being a good person, going to school, doing work, and not enjoying life for the most part because we are always doing something that’s part of the system. But it’s some of these marginal messages that can make life so worthwhile. It is like being able to fight the power of society is so much fun because it is something we are not required/ expected to do. Marginal messages are the fuel that keep us going because it is that little voice inside us that just says “Fuck the system, I’m doing what I want to do.”

These marginal messages are expressed in many places, but I’d say the most are in movies. In the move Pump up the Volume, HHH (Happy Hairy Hard On) is an anonymous radio host that goes on air at 10pm every night. And on this show he shares his true feelings and views about life with his listeners. But in his “real life,” he feels trapped in this suburbia in Arizona. He goes to school, writes papers, does his work, and reads like every other person in a suburbia that goes to school. He is like that outcast geek that nobody wants to talk to. But at night for his radio show, all his views and feelings about life change. It is like silent by day, let it all out by night. On his show he does things like fake masturbating, playing fight the power music, smoking cigarettes, chewing gum, and wearing “bad ass,” clothing. So what he does is show his true self on his show. Telling us to go crazy in life and forget the system/ don’t let the system stop from being who you are. Or how the world is seriously corrupted by the people that run it and how the system take away from who we really are. Because “the system,” says we practically go to school, go to work, be cool, have money, and get various material products. But HHH is saying that this isn’t necessary, that it is still meaningful to do what makes you feel good inside. Even if it isn’t what society wants it to be. But it only matters if it satisfies the individual. In the movie there is quote from a song that states “Everybody knows that the war is over and the good guys lost.” This means that those who are those “good,” people who fought the power lost and those who follow the system won. But even though these people might’ve lost compared to others, as long as they make their life meaningful to them that’s all that matters. That even though they might not live in a huge house, have money, family, and material items doesn’t mean life is meaningless to that person. As long as you can feel proud of what you have done with your life, be able to say “I did what you wanted and it was worth it,” to go against the system, and maybe I might not be the richest man out there. But I think that where I am in life is ok in my eyes. So marginal messages are what can fuel a person’s life to be happier.

Another movie that shows us these marginal messages is Fight Club. This movie is about a group of people who start a secret place where people fight. And it isn’t the fights, its about the dialogue that the characters use. The characters are all trying to send the viewer a message that aren’t represented by a material object such as money, cars, houses, etc. Not even the kind of job you have. You are represented by your true self and how you act. Just because you have a bad job doesn’t mean you are a bad or stupid person. it just means you didn’t make it up in society. But this movie says that you shouldn’t care about that stuff and that you are who you are and no one can change that. “You aren’t your khakis, you aren’t the contents of your wallet, you aren’t your job.” This quote means that you aren’t anything else but yourself. That you should let the world be and be who you are, not who everyone else is. Its like the way we look at people. We can see someone who is very rich and just think hes a good guy cause he has a lot of money and a big house, and then turn out to be another asshole. But then again someone who is poor can be a much better quality of person but just not have a lot of money or a big house. So just because you are rich doesn’t mean you are a good person. this supports how you must not judge yourself by the kind of job or amount of money you have. As long as you can feel proud of who you really are that’s all that matters.

Walmart Article

According to this Wal-Mart article it tells me something American people and our way of life. In the article it states how 2,000 people gathered outside Wal-Mart before the sun even came up due to the crazy good shopping sales. So what happened was that when employees opened the doors to the stores, it was a stampede of people just like a bull rush. People rushed through the doors just knocking down each other and employees just getting crushed and stepped on by the excited shoppers. But for one employee, Jdimytai Damour the stampede was too much for him and just got taken to the floor by the shoppers and died in front of employee Jimmy Overby. After he was found cops tried to perform CPR on him but that didn’t help so he was then pronounced dead.
This shows me that (please excuse my language) but that the American people just don’t give a fuck about anything/ anyone. The reason I think so is because thousands of people took an innocent employee’s life just trying to receive some sort of saving on things that can range from electronics to kitchen appliances to even furniture. People cared more about themselves and getting a big discount/ sale then actually caring about the people who worked there. According to the article, even though one man died there were other people who were knocked to the ground and practically fighting off their backs. Before the doors were suppose to open at 5 am people were already trying to knock down the doors while chanting “push the doors in.” Then the workers took noticed and tried to barricade it but that idea didn’t work out too well. The barricade of workers didn’t work and that’s how the worker died because he got squished.
The way this connects back to Americans not giving a fuck is that if they did, they would think about more than just consumer products. Someone who really cared would not have rampaged the store and thought of other people besides themselves. But there were so many people stampeding that if you were actually trying to be one of them nice people, you would get crushed. And then what pisses me off the most is that they don’t care about the employees when they are stampeding into the store, but once they found out that an employee was dead it was then a big deal. This shows that the American people sell their opinion. The way it tells me that is that they only start to care after something goes wrong. It’s like if you are one of the stampeding people then you just shouldn’t care because you are already doing the crime. It’s not right to do the crime and show you don’t care and then when something goes wrong, then care. That’s like robbing a bank and then turning yourself into the cops and apologizing. It doesn’t matter because you already did the crime and you aren’t showing what you truly believe.

Thanksgiving/ Black Friday relating to a meaningful life

I believe that thanksgiving and black Friday have to do with a good and meaningful life. The reason I think so is because each day has its own meaning in which some people wish to follow. So like thanksgiving is supposed to be a day with food, family, and praise good things. But black Friday/ the day after thanksgiving is more of a chilled out day of cleaning the house after company and etc. But for some it is the one day of the year where you can actually be excited to run out to stores to buy stuff. The reason being is that at stores have the hugest discounts. Most things are on sale for as much as 30-50% and things like are usually around $100.00 can be around $20 or $30. I was one of those people who would’ve felt it being more meaningful if I was able to go shop on black Friday because I really had a chance to buy so much stuff for so much cheaper than if I had to go buy it on a normal day for full price. And me personally, anything other then what I did on black Friday was more meaningful then what I actually did. All I did was stay home, study, and clean up the kitchen from cooking. But in my opinion, I think that black Friday/ buy nothing day is way more meaningful then thanksgiving. Even though it is meaningful to be with family and give thanks to good things, I think the real meaningful things is when we do things like “stick it to the man,” like we do on black Friday. On any normal day the “man’” or the big boss of corporations makes it so that items are really expensive and hard to buy. But on black Friday, that’s like the one day to “stick it to the man,” by us being allowed to practically buy anything we want at extremely low prices. I think the opposite of what we are expected is more meaningful because anything expected is treated like whatever, but those that aren’t expected are things that last forever.

Thanksgivng Part 2/ message on how to live a good and meaningful life

On thanksgiving I feel that the holiday shows us some marginal messages on how to live a good and meaningful life. The reason I think so because this holiday where you don’t need to be blingin’, having Ferrari’s, money, and ladies. This is a day where you are supposed to appreciate the small things in life that make you happy. It is a day where you can disregard the “flatter abs,” message that you have to eat 100% healthy and be completely fit. It is one of those days where if you eat like a fat ass and no one will care because there is so much food to be eaten. This is one of those marginal messages because it is not everywhere you hear someone tell you to eat as much fatty and unhealthy food you can because thanksgiving is one of those exceptions where it’s like who cares? It’s like if I want to eat a whole turkey, I will eat a whole turkey and forget my health. So in this sense this is a way on how a marginal message affects our view on a good and meaningful life.