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| "Imagine if" (1993) by Basil Beattie |
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Imagine
Gawande claims the reason we haven’t “burned the nursing homes to the ground” is due to a lack of imagination. As he puts it, “… we find it hard to believe that anything better is possible” (79).
Whether Gawande is right about this claim or not, do you think it likely that to some extent our society suffers from a lack of imagination? Is the failure to imagine how things could be better a great threat to our society than the failure to preserve the values and tradition we have inherited from previous generations?
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I don't think that our society suffers from a lack of imagination. All science, research, and new ventures start out with imagination. To come up with new, groundbreaking ideas takes time and experience of what works and doesn't work. Society used to think that there was nothing better than a poorhouse, but not they're nearly nonexistent. New inventions are always coming about, but it simply takes the right person with the right ideas to create a revolution in the health care of the elderly - just as Wilson did.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the point that it takes the right person to create a revolution in the care of the elderly. However, even if a person starts out with the right intentions, it doesn't always mean that the way they go about bringing their ideas to life in the best way possible. One person can come up with a fantastic idea, but they will go about causing their changes in to happen in a negative fashion. As in, the change benefits some, but not all people. My example for this is when Americans expanded westward. They needed more land for their growing population, so the relocated Native Americans from their tribal grounds. Americans had more land, but the Native Americans were uprooted from their way of life. Just because the goal is ultimately reached, the methods may not have been the best way for the changes to happen.
DeleteWe are continually changing the way we see the "top of the line" and state of the art buildings, equipment, and objects. I know Wilson definitely was one of those creative and very imaginative thinkers that people wanted to know and then figure out how their brain works afterwards. Nevertheless I do not believe that we lack imagination, but rather we are using every technique, method, path, and way possible to create the best of whatever we are making. We live in a society in which imagination can be seen everywhere-internet, billboards, and ads. So the problem is not imagination but rather how we are going to use that imagination and form and mold into something is useful and well-liked by many.
DeleteI do not believe that our society is unimaginative in general. We make new things and explorations all the time. In relation to nursing homes I believe that the general public does not know just how soul crushing and depressing nursing homes really are. I believe that if more people knew what negative impact nursing homes have on a person that more people would want to “burn them down”. This book is a great start to getting real information out into society. My Mom used to work in a nursing home as an Occupational Therapist. She helped those that were ill to gain more independence in their daily living. When she got home she always told me to never put her in a nursing home. I thought it was because of the conditions of the nursing homes or that the people were mean, but now that I know of the total lack of individuality and choice I see how no one would ever want to go into one. I do not think that we are afraid that things could get better; I just believe that most of the general public does not realize how bad this problem is until they get to it. I wouldn’t call going to a nursing home a tradition. Like Linzi Thompson said with the extinction of the poorhouse- I do believe that nursing homes will be abolished or updated. Chapter five of the book is good proof of this.
ReplyDeleteYes there are complications and problems in many nursing homes. People began to lose their own identity and personality in them if they let depression and anxiety to take over. But nursing homes are improvements from poorhouses. This is evidence that we are guaranteed to see more advancements in the future to come.
DeleteThis question reminds me of people who lament at the failures of “this generation.” People put on their rose-tinted glasses when comparing the past to the present, when in reality, just as many innovations and improvements are being made today as any other generation or time period. No, our society does not suffer from a “lack of imagination.” New things are invented every day. Even Being Mortal lists several different examples of innovations and improvements in elderly care. It is true that some areas of innovation excel more than others, but the fact that some areas are worse than others does not diminish the achievements of those that are better. Society changes with time, some areas for the better, and some for the worse.
ReplyDelete-Madi C.
I want to bring Apple and Nintendo into this discussion if I can. Apple is annualy changing and alternating their phones, laptops, and accessories to fit into the custom and culture of the day. Nothing really stays the same for long in this modern world and if it does it is soon forgotten. People want to be amazed and new innovations is one way for this to happen. Nintendo has changed from Nintendo 64 to GameCube to Nintendo DS (many types in this console) to Wii to finally the current Wii U. Some societies are more or less innovative but just about every country in the world has at least one city that is imaginative to the extreme and full of great and intriguing ideas.
DeleteOur society has been able to make so many strides in medicine, technology, education, science, and so many other fields it seems impossible that we have no "imagination" as a whole. In this context, I agree with some of Gawande's statements that we just don't think about what to do with the elderly because we don't want to think about what we will have to face when we age. We don't want to face it before we have to, so we don't bother to imagine solutions for the ones who are currently facing it. Comparing the threat of failure to imagine new solutions with the failure to preserve tradition, I would be more concerned about the failure to imagine a new future. The world is ever-changing and requiring the human race to adapt. The day we really have no imagination and have no way to adapt, I believe, will be a day of destruction for the human race. The fact that we are thriving today—in any age group—proves that we are still capable of imagining better solutions to the problems we face day-to-day.
ReplyDeleteThere has never been a time in history that such an explosive amount of new knowledge, technology, ideas/concepts, and beliefs. But like you said Hannah we need to continue to adapt and adjust to whatever the world throws at us. We are able to live comfortably and safely because of reforming and bettering past ideas into new ones. America is full of beautiful traditions and passed down doctrine, but America is also great at forming a better future for its citizens by breaking out of the norm by staying relative (today's time) and shifting what was once bizarre and socially unacceptable into what we call the norm today. Hannah how do you feel about conservative thinking in the like of technology (saying that too much improvement in technology will only degrade true social interactions and one on one communication)?
DeleteI agree that technology threatens true social interaction, however this threat is primarily due to the people's misuse of technology. Most issues with technology are simply human error/abuse. Say you're picking up a friend from their house. In the past, you would walk up to the door and knock, setting yourself up for a face-to-face encounter with either your friend or a member of your friend's family. You might feel awkward being confronted by anyone but your friend, so you wait inside your car and text your friend that you've arrived. In this case, you're hiding behind your phone in order to avoid personal interaction, and this could be due to self-consciousness, embarrassment, or what have you. Because of the ease of texting, you can avoid unwanted social interaction. However, when you eventually have job interviews, meetings, etc., the ability to meet and converse face-to-face will be crucial to your professional success. In this way, technology may inhibit our society from success. Despite this threat, there is no reason to limit our technological advances. When the telephone was invented, people thought we would never speak face-to-face again. The human race still desires a physical connection without wires and internet connections, so I don't believe that technology will be so much of a threat as to where we should cut off its continuation.
DeleteI see where you are coming from Hannah. There seems to be a boundary that we need to form to inhibit the over usage of technology. There seems to be so much breakthrough in society, personal lives, and the world as a whole because of the advancements that we have achieved. Much of this would of never been accomplished without technology. So yes true interaction is not really harmed unless we don't monitor our time on technology and waste valuable time that could be used in social activities with people.
DeletePersonally, I don't think it's a lack of imagination that is society's problem, but rather the fact that many choose not to see certain problems in order to find a solution. As Gawande mentioned in the book, most people turn a blind eye to the way old people are treated in many countries, whether it's because those people don't want to be responsible for the care of the elderly or because they just don't want to acknowledge that something like that actually happens. Either way, many of the problems in society often go unacknowledged and, therefore, unresolved, whether or not the imagination to do so exists or not.
ReplyDelete- Amanda Kramer
This is very true. There is no lack of imagination in the society we live in. There is a lack of recognizing and admitting what is really happening in places like nursing homes and assisted living centers. There are plenty of ideas on how to make them better, but there is no action to put the ideas to work. Once the ideas are put into action, it turns into a money making business, as the assisted living centers did, and the care is no longer the primary focus. The money and more residents to pay to live there becomes the primary focus.
ReplyDeleteWithout imagination we would be nowhere. Kids today are drilled with their parents religion and morals as soon as they can speak. Schools continue to box their minds in to certain things, leaving no room for thought and imagination. The most successful people out their are the ones with the most imagination, so why do we not try to support imagination? Fear. Mankind has just recently found a way for humans to survive for sixty plus years and while i congratulate our ancestors I have to say that we need to be free to expand on their accomplishments. There are infinite ways for us to better our way of life and each person has their own unique ways they want to do it. As i have found out in life, there is more way than one to get something done. Usually there is an easy way, hard way, and multiples ways in between. I feel like at this point we are still somewhere in between and can drastically improve. People are afraid of change and don't want to change because it may lead to failure. No one likes to fail and even the thought of failure stops people from trying everyday. Fear is the enemy and we need to come together as a whole to defeat it.
ReplyDelete