In response to his hallucinations, Chief wonders, "But if they don't exist, how can a man see them?" (82).
Apply this idea to our society. Some questions to get you thinking:
What demons do people create?
What has become frighteningly real in our society?
When is the line between fantasy and reality so blurred that we can't distinguish the difference?
How else does this quotation apply to society?
Respond by Monday 12:00 AM
16 comments:
First Post...
The idea of hallucinations applies to our society a great deal. In essence, many of us simply dismiss the idea of issues that would otherwise be unsettling. Example: Global Warming. It goes without saying that this is definitely happening. Yet people insist on thinking it's some kind of rumor and forget about it, thus creating a hallucination for themselves. Such ideas also lead to habits such as procrastination.
I believe that all humans create their own hallucinations for their own purposes. SOme are created as a response to something tragic that occurred in that persons life. Also, denial is a major one, in my oppinion. In Chief's case I believe his hallucinations serve as a "shield". He doesn't want to conform to the real world and he does not wish to see everthing in reality. Therefore, his hallucinations become his reality out of fear of what TRULY is happening.
I think that hallucinations result from something that people want to see, so they create it in their own minds. This applies to when chief says "how can a man see them if they aren't real." Chief creates these hallucinations because of what he wants to see. Also, since he is not a trustworthy narrator, we don't know if something happened to him earlier in life for him to have these hallucinations. Nowadays, people see things that aren't real for many reasons. For example, a person may have a mental illness, he or she may have been tramatized by something, or they might create unreal situations for thier own advantage. Kind of like lying. (ellie)
Reality is subjective to our experience. Chief creates his own reality in his mind. To us his reality may seem untrue, but to him our realities may seem untrue. I believe what Chief means is that if someone sees something and believes it, then it is true to their personal realities. This would fit in with one of Chief's earlier quotes, "Just because it didn't happen doesn't mean it's not true," or something like that. I don't feel like looking it up.
Chief's view of the universe might be percieved by many as insanity, but sanity itself is even more subjective that reality.
I agree with the earlier posts that hallucinations do apply to our society greatly. Chief's hallucinations come from his illness and the environment he lives in, creating scenes in his mind that he wants/sees to be true. In our society, many factors influence the hallucinations humans see, including the media putting different images and ideas into our minds which cause us to confuse reality with unrealistic thoughts or ideas.
The Nate seems to cover most points concerning hallucinations. Reality is truly only a construct of conscious beings. There is no such concept as true "normalcy," but rather only a consensus among those in the majority. As The Nate points out, readers may consider Chief Bromden's views to be hallucinations, but their own perceptions can be seen to be just as hallucinogenic. There are no defined reference points for reality.
Hallucinizations in their most basic form are nothing other than self-imposed lies or exagerations all based upon perception. 2 people who witness the same event have different memories of what transpired, due to the fact that the two people perceive different particulars as being important or unimportant. The perceived unimportant events are forgotten by one person, yet to the other person whom deems them important, they are exaggerated and twisted by their own memory and vice-versa.
In response to Stephen's Global Warming example. Yes, it is true that the world, overall has been warming since the time of industrialization, yet, oddly enough, just before the Industrial Revolution started, the world was in a time period known as the little ice age(a time that caused famine, resulting in death, Revolutions, and war). And just before the little ice age, their was a time of warmth during the middle ages(this allowed for a food surplus that heavily increased the size of the population and allowed for grapes to be produced for wine making as far north as England, which requires higher temperatures than those that exist today). Since the industrial Revolution, the world has undoubtly warmed up to the temperatures of modern times. Yet, these surprisingly warmer temperatures are significantly above the average temperature of the Little Ice Age, they are very similar to, yet still lower than those of the time of the warmer period that occured during the middle ages. To one whom percieves the temperatures of the little ice age as normal, global warming is awfully apparent, yet to one whom perceives the warmer period during the middle ages as normal, global warming appears to be a farce, and the orld is just returning to its normal temperature. The same occurs to chief. He believes that his hallucinizations are obviously true, normal, and real, yet to other people they are ridiculous exaggerations of what really transpired.
========also global warming is a completely incorrect term because warmer temperatures may produce another ice age. The correct term is global climate change, yet the world has and will always have a changing climate with or without humans, it is assumed that humans are just speeding up and radicalizing the extremes of the process, even though many warmer periods have occured, including the warmer period of the middle ages discussed above and the time of the dinosaurs. Colder periods have also occured, including the little ice age(famous for the year without a summer) and the Ice Age.
The Earth is currently in a relatively lukewarm state that is slowly warming up.
Hallucinations relate to our society in a variety of ways. So many things are happening in our world that impact us greatly. Many people create these false images to pretend that everything is okay and to try and not face reality because of how harsh it can be. The truth can and hurt and to some, it is easier to hallucinate what they want and not accept what is actually going on.
I believe that hallucinations are extensions of our dreams, fears, and possibly even the reality of our lives. It is when one can not seperate their hallucinations from reality when it becomes an illness, such as Chief. A simplier example is when people dream. Aren't you seeing something that isn't real? And sometimes after dreams, I know this happens to me, people sort of hope they become true or they might even believe it is true. This creates a false hope or fear in something that isn't real, therefore creating a sort of inner deamon.
I agree with everyone else. I also think that people chose to see things in there mind differently that how things really are because they would rather see the world in a different light. We would rather go "hippity- hopping through our Walt Disney world," (64) because fairytale is better than reality.
Cheif's hallucinations are EXTREME exaggerations of what is truly occurring. One in particular is the hallucination during the night when one of the vegetables gets killed in his sleep. After his hallucination is described, the veggie is taken away in a body bag. I percieve Cheif's hallucination as a crazy persons wild imagination based on a true event. Personally, i dont know sqwaut about hallucinations in a medical sense. From what I do know about them, they are bizarre perceptions of any event. I like how erica put it: they are extensions of reality. All humans, crazy or not, percieve ALL things differently. They give significance to different things and crazy people take it a bit(often ALOT) further. Hallucinations relate to our society in that everyone's perception of everything is a little hallucination in itself. Humans' ability to percieve and give importance to different parts of an occurrence causes them to leave out truths in a situation, to add things that didnt actually happen, and to put everything together in their mind very differently then what actually occurred in the universe. Mabey everything that ever has happened happened way differently than the people of the world percieved it to be. So What demons do we create? I dont know how to respond. can we discuss in class.
Some things in society that have become frighteningly real in our society for me include the supposed upcoming apocolypse in 2012. Is the end of the world really coming? Are the mayans, chinese, greek, revelations in the bible, internet clocks, ETC true? Other frightening things in society are the war we are at currently with terrorism and "global climate change" as mattew says, and the limited amount of natural resources the earth has left.
This is a difficult topic for me. I define the word "hallucination" differently, because I am a true believer in biblical apparitions. That's not to say, however, that there shouldn't be an investigation to make sure that these are true. But, for the most part, assuming these apparitions are genuine, I think that most people who "hallucinate" are doing just the opposite. They're NOT seeing something that they SHOULD be seeing. In Chief's case, I think that he is having these visions, but he is not seeing the real meaning behind them. Hence, the rest of the plot - interpreting them.
For the global warming example, this hallucination is actually false in my opinion. Armageddon, or the end of the world, will occur exactly how Revelation plots it out. I guess I am one of those who just "dismisses" it or "procrastinates", like stephenthedark said.
In our society, people feel that creating hallucinations can give them a feel of euphoria. If things aren't going well in one's life, some people think it's easier to make up another story, rather than work with what you got. Chief's scared, and that's where I think the hallucinations come from. He's shielding himself from the world, and his hallucinations help him see the world in a more surreal way. A way that he can hide from reality.
I agree with many people who have commented about the Global Warming comments. that's a great example. we all know it's happening or will happen, but instead of facing it, many people are scared to admit.
I pretty much agree with everyone else. People in our society today kinda of create hallucinations to serve some sort of purpose for themselves.
Wow. Thank goodness I saw this post. I don't think many people noticed it.
Anyway, I think that people create these illusions in their mind to idealize the world. Think in terms of Freudian psychology. It's an ego defense mechanism. People like Chief who are clinically insane, though, experience this to a much greater extent, but in relation to society, it's mostly just twisting reality to what people want to happen. And eventually, the idealizations become truth in their minds, much like a lonely child will believe in an imaginary friend.
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