{"id":340,"date":"2009-08-21T04:56:32","date_gmt":"2009-08-21T04:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/?p=340"},"modified":"2009-08-21T04:56:32","modified_gmt":"2009-08-21T04:56:32","slug":"war-of-the-worlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/?p=340","title":{"rendered":"War of the Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/burning-field-brazil-bolivia-062709-xl.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-341  aligncenter\" title=\"burning-field-brazil-bolivia-062709-xl\" src=\"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/burning-field-brazil-bolivia-062709-xl.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/burning-field-brazil-bolivia-062709-xl.jpg 1280w, http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/burning-field-brazil-bolivia-062709-xl-300x240.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n<p>I just finished listening to <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">The War of the Worlds<\/span> by H.G. Wells (book on CD). \u00a0It&#8217;s really got me thinking about our society. \u00a0This book was first published in 1898. \u00a0What strikes me is Wells&#8217; commentary on humanity. \u00a0It feels more like the story (aliens invading England) is a &#8216;prop&#8217; in which to study human society. \u00a0Who is man? \u00a0What defines us a human? \u00a0The writing seems so different from the media of today. \u00a0Back then people actually studied man and thought about what defines us. \u00a0I don&#8217;t think there are many people who do that anymore.<\/p>\n<p>We still tell stories but the reverse has happened. \u00a0Humanity has become the &#8216;prop&#8217; to tell a thrilling story. \u00a0We don&#8217;t ask ourselves what makes us human and what defines our society. \u00a0I think we&#8217;ve actually lost a bit of our humanity. \u00a0We have become desensitized to the human condition. \u00a0We watch graphic news reports but we don&#8217;t stop to think &#8220;Who is that person being killed or maimed on our TV screens? He\/she is a human being just like me. What would I feel, how would I react in that\u00a0situation?&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Mass media distracts us from ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>And so I am challenged to think about who I am as a member of humanity. \u00a0What false beliefs do I have about myself that drives my behavior, whether rational or irrational? \u00a0What truly defines me as &#8216;human&#8217;, different from the rest of Creation? \u00a0What defines our society? \u00a0What values do we hold to, whether beneficial or destructive?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m also thinking that I should be reading more classic literature. \u00a0It will challenge my thinking more than the media that&#8217;s thrown around today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I just finished listening to The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (book on CD). \u00a0It&#8217;s really got me thinking about our society. [&hellip;] <span class=\"read-more-link\"><a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/?p=340\">Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions\/342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/songofjoy.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}