Week #8: Discussion Set 8A / Crumbling America

Discussion Set 8A

Resistance to sustainability is a significant issue in America. An example we saw of this was in the RIP documentary, where people creatively use samples from other media but copyright laws leave these people with huge fines to pay. People reusing clips of media or reusing ideas and making their own version of it would be the sustainable approach to the situation. The resistance to it would be companies like Disney suing everyone who uses any of their material. A main reason for the resistance would be because of money. Large corporations push for the government to pass laws that protect these large corporations and the media that they own. The government may be biased toward these large corporations due to their role in the economy and how much power they possess. It isn’t fair, but citizens contribute to the resistance and support the large corporations by seeing their movies in theaters, going to the theme parks, buying their merchandise, and more. This is not the only way we are resistors to sustainability, but through other actions such as depending on cars for transportation. People also are “going green” to help and “be sustainable,” but we would consider this as being sustainably resistant too. Awareness plays a huge role too. I did not know until taking this course that “going green” was not enough. Many people out there who are working on reducing rather than choosing an alternate way to live do not know that reducing is not the answer. I also don’t think people know that they are being resistant to sustainability since the true meaning isn’t known. Those with the most control, the government and large corporations, are the ones who release products, services, and regulate what people need. They are the ones who are designing our country for failure if most of our current systems and lifestyles are degenerative.

In the “Crumbling America” documentary, America’s poor infrastructure is shown through many different life threatening events, from falling bridges to drinking water contamination. Currently, America’s infrastructure received a letter grade “D” and is being maintained, but as mentioned in the video, these are only band-aids which won’t actually fix the problem. In order to fix America’s infrastructure, it would have to be as soon as possible, or it would only get more expensive as time goes on while the materials deteriorate. Unfortunately, there is no money for such projects and the politicians of America don’t seem to care enough to fix these issues that put their citizens at risk for injury and death. Many comments viewers have made about this documentary mention how American politicians have different priorities: using our money toward war. I agree and definitely think their priorities don’t make a lot of sense. It would be best to set aside funds to fix our infrastructure and other extremely important things such as health care, instead of wanting access to all these third world country resources. While the country works to save money for these projects, there should also be new designs for our infrastructure with materials that actually last. In addition, those who are jobless and willing to work can finally be put to work in helping this significant remodel. I can’t really tell whether or not the leaders of America purposely put off this type of problem, but there are plenty of students striving to become engineers and many jobless people who would happily work. The only issue here is on whether or not politicians feel their people are worth protecting.