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Jean Twenge, “An Army of One: Me”, Beth Loffreda, “Selections from Losing Matt
Shepard” & Maggie Nelson, “Great to Watch” (New Humanities Reader)
It has been argued for millennials whether human nature is truly good or bad. Whether
we are born with malevolent intent and changed into good or if we are born pure and then
corrupted by reality has always been ongoing, conflicting topic. Regardless of how we are
supposed to be born, it a well accepted statement that under all the good we may possess, that
there is always a tint of malicious intent. But the thing about this malicious intent is that it is very
well hidden, but apparent enough to create some dark actions or thoughts. The filth in our human
nature is exerted everywhere without realization, ranging from tv shows to our own minds. A
student may attempt to be a perfect student in a classroom, but will still end up doing or thinking
of something that is far from pure or socially acceptable. But the feeling of mischievousness and
evil is so prevalent that humans end up finding loopholes or ways to exert their bad intents in a
way that becomes socially acceptable. Although there are a couple ways to convert malicious
ideas into socially acceptable ones, the most common ways to produce the transformation,
especially in this day and age, is through technology, culture and the media. But spreading
information or in this sense, malicious content, through a larger base, it begins to make certain
subjects much more socially acceptable. Back in the 50s, it was highly frowned up to ever see a
man and a woman in bed together on tv. But through constant exposure of the “forbidden act”
throughout the years, it has become socially acceptable for a man and a woman to be together on
the same bed on tv, in fact it has become expected. Everyone has generally similar malicious
thoughts but since we are all taught to be good people with high morals, we repress them and try
to act upon them when it becomes socially acceptable. With the assistance of technology,
culture, and media, we are all trying to explore the dark side of our nature in a socially
acceptable manner; we are slowly trying to desensitize the entire population. By doing so and
allowing our dark sides to take over, we are contributing heavily to the failure in human
relations. Twenge, in “An Army of One”, explores the cultural standpoint on desensitization and
reflects how human relations can fail based on what values we’re taught. Loffreda expands on
the cultural standpoint as well in “Selections from Losing Matt Shepard”, but also deals heavily
with media’s incorporation with the corruption. In “Great to Watch”, Nelson hits deep when
reflecting on technology’s involvement with the failure in human relations. Due to our
irresistible urge to fulfill our wants, humans will take any assistance it can get to to make their
wants more socially acceptable and ubiquitous, focusing heavily on technology, media and
culture.
Sometimes when we all have a collective idea, we all coerce one another through values
