Pity People

For my last post I’d like to talk about how people with disabilities receive pity from healthy “normal” people. It belittles them and implies that because they now have limited function or mobility that they shouldn’t be expected to accomplish anything. Just recently I was with a few friends and noticed while passing the school for the deaf on main, how a few of my friends were sorry and felt deep remorse for these people who would never hear anything in their lives.  Even though they have every right to feel sorry for them, for those who struggle with disabilities or simply just being different. The people surrounding them will always feel worse than the one who is actually living their life and trying to make the best of it.  Think about how hard the life of a person who lives in a poor and starving country will be, how difficult the challenges will be. How that life will not be so easy, struggling everyday. I believe that life is hard for everyone, not just for the people who are deaf or people who live in strife but everyone. Everyone has his or her own challenges. It’s these challenges that make life worth living, making each person their own. People adapt and become stronger for it and we shouldn’t feel sorry for ourselves or others, especially in those types of situations. But we can’t blame those who pity differences. They see themselves as “normal” within their culture’s mainstream. However when they see others who are different from them, they project themselves onto that different person and fail to see the perspective of the person they are projecting themselves on. All they can see is how sad a life it would be if they could not see, walk, talk and especially if they had to suffer discrimination. They only see pain and not the life that is living regardless of these limits placed upon them.  This pity may be coming from a place serenity and kindness however it becomes more of an accusation. It only confirms the limit that was places on this person that they are damaged and not good enough, it becomes a judgment and somewhat of an insult although the intentions were not.  There is no easy way to fix this however something that we can do is become proud, of others and ourselves. Focusing on our strengths instead of our weakness. Eventually we would have a society in which both race and disability don’t influence the way people are treated and viewed. After all we are all human, however it’s these differences that make us who we are individually. This area in which we have our differences has to be walked on carefully as to bring people together instead of dividing them. 

The Living Dead

I’m a huge zombie fan; I love the movies and games that include zombies. I’ve read a few Walking Dead novels and I watch the show almost religiously with my roommates. However when I read A Zombie Is a Slave Forever by journalist Amy Wilentz and how the idea of zombies originates from a dark past within African slavery I was truly shocked. Wilentz describes how suicide would render one’s soul unable to make the passage back into Lan Guinee within the Voodoo religion, making the one who committed suicide a lifeless zombie.  When slaves tried to escape enslavement through suicide, by becoming a zombie they would remain half-alive, still separated from Mother Africa. While becoming a zombie there was the possibly of becoming under another’s control no better than a slave. The slaves would become zombies as a result of the Voodoo god of the underworld, Baron Samedi. Who was offended and angered by self-inflicted death. “If for some reason a person has thwarted or offended Baron, the god will not allow that person, upon his death, to reach guinée,” explained Wilentz  “Then you’re a zombie. Some other lucky mortal can control you, it is believed. You’ll do the bidding of your master without question.” This fear helped keep Haitian slaves working, the threat of offending Baron Samedi was also used by slave owners and often slaves themselves to prevent what the masters perceived as a loss of costly resources. The twisted story of staying alive as an alternative to actual death made slaves continue living a life of hell. After reading the essay I was really surprised to learn that zombies originated with African slaves. I had no idea that suicide played such a large roll in the lives of slaves.  The fact that zombies originated from slavery and how slaves were frightened by the threat of being kept under slavery even after death makes me think, what this new love for zombie movies and shows really means. It’s sad and frightening that people feared death because they didn’t want to be enslaved forever. Which lead me to the question, how did the idea of the living dead become what we know as zombies today? Are there are instances in history where similar things happened and how did this evolve into eating and thirsting for human flesh.

In the end zombies are more than Halloween, today’s society, and popular culture at least have put zombies everywhere, without regard to its origins. Famous movies and TV shows such as “The Walking Dead” and “28 Days Later” are watched, and admired. Parties, and even parades. have been devoted to zombies. There are even games such as Plants vs. Zombies and the Resident Evil to which there are six full games in the series filled with nothing but killing zombies. What we might not have noticed is that we have taken this zombie concept for granted and people do not see through, or even think of the history and meaning behind the undead.

Tammy Duckworth

A few weeks ago we saw a video about Tammy Duckworth and how she is the first woman voted into congress. Not only that but she’s also an Army Veteran. This is opened my eyes to something that I haven’t though of before, disabled government officials.  By electing Duckworth we’ve started a movement that hopefully won’t see and end anytime soon, we’re shifting our perceptions and what society deems as acceptable. Her campaign video even though it was very informative and inspiring lead my to believe that most of her campaign focused on her military background and not so much about the actual issues involved in running an ordinary electoral campaign. I do believe that while she is trying to get noticed and elected at the same time that her military background and the fact that she has grown from her experiences is one way to persuade people to vote for her. She however almost completely focused on just that, avoiding the other people who could potentially vote for her. She does make relate the fact that overcoming, perseverance, and success make her a stronger leader. These ideas are a great focus point for any campaign, but within the video the focus is almost entirely on her disability. Then I saw her opponent’s actions and videos over the course of his campaign. Joe Walsh a tea part freshman known for calling Obama a tyrant and legal disputes over his child support.  Walsh was fighting Duckworth’s great support for our military by saying things like Duckworth an Iraq War vet and Purple Heart recipient “wasn’t a true hero.” The reason for it was because she talked about her past military service too much. Which lead my to understand Duckworth’s campaign a little better and why she was leaning on focusing a good part of her disability and past on this campaign. Upon further researching Duckworth I found that she plans to bring help and support to war vets such as herself, something that this country attempts to address but fails because of the lack of funding and support. Duckworth is the first ever woman injured in combat to be elected to national office.  She is the daughter of a Marine and a Thai immigrant and represents much more than just that. She is changing face of America, a potential leader for the rights of women and immigrants, and an advocate of assistance to the poor, jobless, and disabled. Having someone that is so experienced and as diverse as Tammy Duckworth makes me incredibly proud to be an American citizen. While other countries are banning and explanting people from being who they are and what they want to be. The fact that we can allow people with such vigor and strength as Duckworth shows that we as a nation can stand together regardless of background. 

BIID

            Body integrity disorder or BIID is a rare condition characterized by the desire to amputate one or more healthy limbs. This condition to cut arms or even legs off is starting to get Disabled advocacy groups upset and offended. The thought of having someone who can function normally walk and using their arms without any discomfort or problems would just choose to try and amputate it making them disabled as well.  To deliberately injure and cripple one’s self is almost unthinkable, but these people with Body integrity disorder all feel like the limbs that they do not desire aren’t part of them. They think that the extra limbs are alien feeling, something that needs to be removed to be whole.  To a person diagnosed with BIID the term disorder wouldn’t be an accurate description, they feel like this extra burden that they have is part of them, similarly to people who believe that they were born in the wrong body and having surgery to correct that mistake. But unlike having a sex change doctors are posed with a different set of problems. Having a surgeon amputate a perfectly healthy body part can seem unethical and depending on how it’s looked at can violate the doctor’s code of ethics. Making someone deliberately disabled doesn’t help anyone’s physical health so the question is whether a surgical physician has the right to be able to amputate someone’s leg. The most disturbing part of reading “Cutting Desire” may be at the beginning when the author describes “Josh’s” different attempts to amputate his arm. The way he said that “he drove countless miles with his arm out hoping to get side swiped” or how he’s practiced on animal legs. These attempts just show how serious and willing he was to lose his arm; it gives us an idea of just how bad these people with BIID need to have their limbs removed.  Opening the article with these gruesome images really gives the reader a feeling of the urgency that is placed on getting amputated and what people will do to achieve it.  This josh tries several different times all worse than the last, the thought of even trying to put your arm through a table saw and having everything prepared for it after you remove your arm without painkillers or anything is horrifying.  After Josh finally had his arm amputated this “torment” that had been plaguing Josh since the middle school, he said that after it was cut off that it was a tremendous relief and that his body felt right. Just having that train of thought and determination to cut off healthy body parts really scares me, what people can do if they’re determined enough is amazing and astounding. 

Final Essay Ideas

Body hacking is one of the topics that has caught my eye the most in this class. It's something very new that borders both medical and DIY researchers who want to expand the abilities of the human body.
The paper will explore how body hacking is used to modify the body focusing on either the disabled and helping them with their lost senses or abilities or normal people adding extra senses and improving abilities How the medical field of hacking is focuses on the first and the DIY researchers tend to focus on the latter.
As medical research and technology is becoming more advanced, more and more of it is being used by bodyhackers, people who enhance and change their bodies instead of curing diseases.Traditional medicine changes our bodies in what we see now as normal:vaccines, plastic surgery, and even prosthetic. As we continue to advance should we stop and ask. What should be legal? Are patients turning into consumers and how far can and should people go with body hacking, is there a limit?

Technology, mass media, and governments all play a roll in this. Just how far can you take this technology where are these people who partake in the research aiming for? Is there an overall goal within the community. 

BodyHacking

With the advent of the smartphone, many Americans have grown used to the idea of having a computer on their person at all times. Wearable technologies like Google’s Project Glass are narrowing the boundary between us and our devices even further by attaching a computer to a person’s face and integrating the software directly into a user’s field of vision. The shift is reflected even in the names of our dominant operating systems. Names like Microsoft are replaced by a union of man and machine: the iPhone or Android. Homebrew biohackers are obsessed with the idea of human enhancement. They are looking for new ways to put machines into their bodies. They are joined by hundreds of aspiring biohackers who populate the movement’s online forums and a growing number, now several dozen, who have gotten the magnetic implants in real life. People are getting magnetic implants in their fingers. Putting these rare earth metals into the body was pioneered by artists on the bleeding edge of piercing culture and transhumanists interested in experimenting with a sixth sense. Steve Haworth who specializing in the bleeding edge of body modification, and considers himself a “human evolution artist” is considered one of the originators, and helped to teach a generation of practitioners how to perform magnetic implants, including the owner of Hot Rod Piercing in Pittsburgh.  By using surgical tools like scalpels, which is a grey area for piercers. Operating with these instruments, or any kind of anesthesia, could be classified as practicing medicine. Without a medical license, On its own, the implant allows a person to feel electromagnetic fields: a microwave oven in their kitchen, a subway passing beneath the ground, or high tension power lines overhead. While this added perception is interesting, it has little utility. But the magnet is more of a stepping-stone than anything else. “It can be done cheaply, with minimally invasive surgery. You get used to the idea of having something alien in your body, and kinda begin to see how much more the human body could do with a little help. Sure, feeling other magnets around you is fucking cool, but the real key is, you’re giving the human body a simple, digital input.” These types of modification are all aiming towards improvement, but how far will people go to improve themselves with technology. Is there a limit? I don’t think there will be at least anytime soon, I’m not hoping for anything like the matrix but something similar is probably going to be a reality within the new few decades. Imagine being able to download instructions about anything instantaneously through a small chip in your brain.  The thought is pretty exciting I can’t wait to see how these types of technologies are going to develop and improve our ways of learning and interacting about the world.