ANTIWAR

The reason we don't hear much from antiwar voices in the mainstream media is simply because the government doesn't want us to. As we saw in World War I, the government has never and will never care what civilians think about wars; it only cares what politicians and donors think. Even after the conclusion of WWI, 70% of the nation still believed that our participation in the war was unnecessary or a mistake. We saw a similar story unfold in the 1960s and 70s after the U.S. joined the Vietnam War. An overwhelming amount of the American population opposed our involvement in the war because of the sheer violence that ensued and because the conflict never directly impacted us. Yet, congress still authorized the deployment of troops to Vietnam. I say all of this to emphasize the importance of antiwar voices, as they will not be heard easily.

From birth, it is indoctrinated in us that the United States must spread democracy and defend those who cannot defend themselves. This is a tactic to keep the average American citizen thinking all of our wars are necessary and for the greater good of the world. In reality, we have only spread democracy and defended innocence on occasion. On other occasions, we've wiped out residential areas, killed women and children, set off nuclear devices, and stuck our noses in other countries' business. When war really is necessary the American People know it. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the country rallied in support of the declaration of war against Japan. After the attack on the Twin Towers in 2001 the public heavily supported the War on Terror and remained pretty supportive until the capture and assassination of Osama Bin Ladin in 2011, a decade after the deadliest terror attack on American Soil. My point being, that if there is significant opposition to war it is for good reason and that reason should be heard by Congress, by the public, and by the mainstream media. 

Society's Relationship with Technology

Technology has taken over our lives, when I get in my car I don't even use a key to start the ignition. When I turn off the lights I can do it from my phone to save me a trip to the light switch. If I want to watch a movie I say the name of it into my smart remote and watch it whereas 10 years ago I would have been driving to a Redbox. Technology is developing fast and infiltrating our daily lives even faster.  Manufacturing is being taken over by robots, Marketing is being taken over by AI, and 46% of teens report feeling overwhelmed by the drama and cyberbullying that takes place on social media. I downloaded Instagram in the 3rd grade and Snapchat in the 4th grade. By the time 5th grade rolled around, all of my friends followed me on Vine, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook. I wasn't even a middle schooler yet and I was posting images, videos, and statements to websites that allowed anyone and everyone to see them. I didn't even have Roman Numerals memorized before I started putting out content that will live longer than I will. At the time, I had no idea what kind of impact this would have on me but as the years progressed and the term "digital footprint" started being thrown around the reality set in; the internet can be a truly dark place. 

I do not feel as though my relationship with technology is healthy but, I don't see that as unique to myself. I believe most citizens of first-world countries are also suffering from unhealthy relationships with technology. We've allowed advanced technologies into our homes like Amazon Alexa and Google Home, having them build our grocery lists for us, add things to our calendars for us, turn off the lights for us, lock doors for us, and even Googling answers to questions for us. These are all simple tasks that would take us, as humans, mere seconds to complete. However, instead of just doing it we allow the technology to do it for us, it's easier. 

In 1980 XCON, the first commercial AI product, hit the market. XCON was used to assist with the ordering of computer parts based on the customer's needs, automatically selecting products for a customer. Then, In 1997 Microsoft Outlook began using AI to help manage emails. See, we used to rely on technology for things that would actually be difficult for humans to do. Today, we use it for the mundane tasks I mentioned previously. Can we even still consider these to be advances for society if we as humans are regressing? If we keep allowing technology to take care of these simple tasks for us, the human race will turn into helpless individuals who rely on the smarts and expertise of a computer-engineered program. If society continues in this direction our usefulness will cease to exist. AI is already creating art, studying subjects and learning, it is just a matter of time before technology is intertwined in and takes over all aspects of our lives. The hardest part is that this is easy to overlook because technology has done and continues to do so much good for the human race. As a society, we need to find a common ground between respecting the advances in technology and becoming a slave to the technology.