Switched-On :: Blog

Why was humans created?? Why does love hurt?? Why do we have feelings?? Why are there so many homeless people in the world?? Why are there so many woman being abused? Why are there so many children raised by one parent instead of two?? Why are people so ungrateful?? Why when someone gets angry they want to run away?? Why are there long distant relationships?? Why do people cheat?? Why are innocent people killed?? Why do girls become pregnant and then give their child away?? Why are there so many liquor stores in the rough part of the city?? Why is the healthy food so expensive?? Why do people always look at something in a racial sense?? Why is there a thing as being labeled gay?? So many questions not enough answers, I guess if life was perfect I would not be asking “WHY” certain things happen! I just want someone, I mean anyone to just explain to me…..WHY?!?
- Trianna

I often feel a giant need to have control over my life and my environment. I dislike variables. I am afraid my world would be thrown off by someone else’s impulsive actions. But as I applied to colleges, uncertainty becomes a comfort. I still do not know where I will be the upcoming years. The upcoming weeks, I might be rejected by every school I applied to. Being my usual self, I felt frustrated. The waiting is too long, and the final decisions I receive might be terribly disappointing. But as I read more about successful people in the world, I realized not all of us have to follow the same footsteps, going to the same colleges (or even need to go to college at all). Life excites me with its variables and opportunities. Even if I fail today, my life will not be destined to poverty and misery. That is the comfort of the uncertainty.
- Phy

Lost in our polygamous culture, we look for any sort of sherpa to carry us to the mountaintop. In our modern world, we are in the midst of attempting to rewrite visions of possibilities. At no point in history has a culture been so free to pursue its own ends, in any manner they deem fit. It is written into our political DNA, the “Right to Pursue Happiness.” And yet, with such freedom, we find ourselves in the wilderness, alone, aching for those limitations, the comforts of structure, of a place where if we press, it will press back. This craving for authenticity? It comes from a strong desire to not get burned by another false prophet, another James Frey* lying through their teeth saying “I have been through the valley of the shadow of death, I have survived!” It comes from a strong desire to orient ourselves to a world that shifts and hides and has driven us from itself. It comes from a strong desire to Not Be Alone.
- Chad
* Famous memoirist who, it turns, completely invented the vast majority of his memoirs. Well played.

As we discussed earlier, we have been set adrift by our modern culture. There is no one geography, no one religion, no political sensibility, culinary tradition, or ethnic background that can accurately and distinctly be called “American.”* And yet, that is a part of what is at the core of what is “American,” this idea of it meaning anything and everything, the all-inclusive, the all-pardoning, Red White and Blue! And so, without any foundational elements to communicate with other people about, we draw around cultural experiences. Art, film, music, books, photographs, cruise ships. Now, David Foster Wallace, who I referred to in my earlier post, has this to say about these experiences: “The very best works construct a bridge across that abyss of human loneliness.” This is why Lady Gaga is such an immensely American figure, because regardless of how you feel about her, you do Feel about her. Her central theme, her whole reason for being, is to attempt to connect with You. Not a massive, crowd-centric you, but with You as individual, an attempt to say, “I want YOU out on the edge with me.” She has spent a lot of time attempting to portray herself as a ‘weird kid’ or an ‘outcast’ in high school, despite reports to the contrary. She knows very well know one is coming to the edge unless they believe she has been there.

A few years ago there was a sudden surge in movies based on the lives of Hip-Hop artists, the two most prominent amongst them being “8 Mile” featuring Eminem, and “Get Rich or Die Trying” featuring 50 Cent. The primary goal of these films was not to establish an origin myth for these two artists, but rather to act as verification for the myth they had already presented in their lyrics. As a consumer, when we hear 50 Cent say “I click-clack thats that I don’t flash, I mash I wave the Uzi at ‘em, I make a movie out ‘em” we want to believe that he really does know the weight of a gun, that he knows the scent of a spent cartridge, has felt the sear of lead through flesh.
- Chad

*Apart from Jazz. We will always have jazz.