Binaries and Exiled

The last few class periods have raised some interesting topics that all are important in their own right. Dystopia as a category for the world’s ills brings several of the problems politicians try to “sweep under the rug”.

In the clip from “Sleeper”, it suggested a bleak future to come. A future in which the characters portrayed represents the well off and their tunnel vision that alters their perceptions of issues that the public faces. The clip instantly reminded me of a show that previewed on MTV recently called “Exiled”. The show is a spinoff of their popular “Super Sweet Sixteen” show in which they take these privileged sweet sixteeners out of their privileged lives and place them into real life situations, typically to places that are remote from the rest of civilization. Before the young sweet sixteeners were forced to face the reality of some of the more remote cultures, they had no idea of what was going on in the real world. Much like the teens, the main character in “Sleeper” could not understand what the less fortunate had to complain about life because she had all the amenities there were to enjoy, such as the orgasmatron.

In yesterday’s class period, I was suddenly reminded of how the distinction of black and white came into play during US history. This binary became more prominent when the white settlers had to justify their enslavement of a group of people, whom by their religion were equal in the eyes of God. It was this need for reasoning that created the meaning behind the view of African American slaves as a lesser people. It isn’t until we, as the human race, choose to assign meaning that binaries form their importance