So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. What makes a man go into the wilderness with no experience of how to survive? The very basic core of a mans living spirit is his passion for adventure. Imagine a time when a man tried to separate himself from the world just to get a sense of survival. Imagine a time when he noticed that he had no knowledge of what he was doing in the wilderness. This man was Christopher McCandless who had his own motives form Selections From Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer, who describes this adventure that McCandless took to get lost from everyone and everything that was surrounding him. People in general have the tendency to express one form of idea and convictions in a way that everyone will not always agree to, but there needs to be a stand-point when people should see the big picture and get an understanding for what one another is expressing. In Deborah Tannens The Roots of Debate in Education and the Hope of Dialogue, describes the culture of argument in Western learning in her essay about two salient ramifications of the way we are taught to learn that she mentions are the difference between how men and women react to Western education and the tendency for Western thinkers to see the world as a dual-natured best of right and wrong, black and white, and good and bad. In Jean Twenge An Arm of one: Me, describes how having a nations that is obsessive on the self is not just bad for society, its also bad for the individual. It is obvious that Tannens advocated solution for debate is hampered by Generation Me, because they are more focused on individualism, and caught up in self, where there is no intensions in listening and learning from another perspective. Therefore, Tannen wants individuals to be more open-minded and explore new ideas. However, with Jon Krakauer view on society which shows how nature can change a persons circumstance and how in circumstances may change the way he or she responds to certain situations. Therefore, Jon Krakauer, Deborah Tannen, and Jean Twenge all in some way confirm and complicate one anothers argument on people in society because they may bring upon experiences and obstacles in nature that may change the social side of ones thought, but circumstance have its own values, and people in society seem not to realize the importance of the lives of other individuals and one may learn from one anothers view point in life.
In a contemporary society like today, obstacles get harder because people misjudge ones character such as human beings. The obstacles that an individual has to face in life are always a lot of circumstances. The joy of life comes from encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon for each day to have a new and different experience. Krakauer states, Circumstances has no value. It is how one relates to a situation that has value (352). What this means is that it is the situation that McCandless was in that he valued because it was all he had and wanted to make the best of what he intended to do, such as survive in the wilderness with no help. This is an example of mobility being a fundamental dimension of our contemporary lives that some regularly make choices to travel-for study, vacation, commerce, mission trips, or for adventure. Deborah Tannen would love the way how McCandless want to explore because wants people when debating to be able to turn to dialogue to explore new ideas and what others have to say. Everything experienced through listening and reading the media becomes connected with the way of forming new ideas and emotions. This is why Tannen explains how people tend to take things out of context when they are lost in their own pool of ideas: Our glorification of opposition as the path of truth is related to the development of formal logic, which encourages thinkers to regard truth seeking as a step-by-step alternation of claims and counterclaims. Truth is an abstract notion that tends to be taken out of context (Tannen 678). Dialogue offers a way to see behind an authors point of view, whereas debate limits opportunities to see an authors argument as a whole. By arguing in debate and criticism, one is only able to stand for one position because we tend to lose the subject that was one the motivation. Both Tannen and Krakauer show a way in different how one can explore new things, but Tannen way was brighter than McCandless.
Family for many, this word evokes feelings of warmth, security, and love. It is a solid foundation which people build their lives. For others, family summons feelings of rejection, hurt, and failure, and for them, family becomes a net form which they must escape. This was what McCandless felt like because he already had a life that was great everything he needed, but got tired of living the life he was living and part of it was because of his family he had. In society, people may need guidance because of the situation that they are in with no clarity or justification. McCandless wanted people to see that he can survive in the wilderness, but ran into cloudiness as well which had no explanation. Krakauer states, The going never gets exceedingly difficult, but the fifteen-foot-high tangle of alder pressing in form both sides is gloomy, claustrophobic, oppressive (354). What he is mentioning here is that in the wilderness it is difficult for him or her who runs into a situation that is closed in and no way out. Reasons being, the current circumstance that McCandless is in shows how it does not matter where an individual is at in society, but there are always going to be troubles that he or she will run up against. Taking McCandless view point into action and considering what hes saying can give answers to Twenge point of view about individuals and Generation Me she speaks about because the individuals are to self-centered and think they know it all. In Twenge she described how one program that teachers are told to discourage children from saying they are good at something because it makes self-esteem contingent on performance, the program authors chide. Instead, we want to anchor self-esteem firmly to the childso that no matter what the performance might be, the self-esteem remains high (766). Often times, people are blinded by their biased nature and see only one side and idea when they are not guided and taught the importance of many things. Therefore, both Krakauer and Twenge show how people can be blind spotted to certain outcomes.
Furthermore, the truth to circumstances is depending upon the person whether he or she is willing to learn from his or her mistakes, fear and perception of the world. Naturally a person should get nervous especially when they do not know what nature brings upon in a world that soldiers deal with, because life is unpredictable. Instead McCandless rejected what came naturally in the wilderness, because he let himself over rule his mind when he was in the wilderness. Krakauer states, McCandless distrusted the value of things that came easily. He demanded much of himself-more, in the end, than he could deliver (358). What this shows is that he was an arrogant person who figures he did not need any help to inform him on the duties he will have to keep doing in order to survive. Unfortunately, the motive he carried on not wanting to seek for the help like Tannen wants individuals to be open-minded to. Tannen mentions how criticizing is good on one end because it formulates to critical thinking, but it doesnt helps an individual to integrate between what they are debating or discussing. Again, Tannen mentions, limiting critical response to critique means not doing the other kinds of critical thinking that could be helpful: looking for new insights, new perspectives, new ways of thinking, new knowledge (690). What she shows is how someone always criticizing by just picking parts of what an author or someone has to say, but not focusing on what is being said then a person is less likely to do the things she mentioned. For instance, if a person involves a countering of the other position without focusing on feelings or relationship and often condemns the other person, then he or she does not involves a real concern for the other person and seems to offend that person or people. On the other hand, its hard for this generation thats more focused on self because they so call know it all and have to do better than the previous generation are not ready for criticism nor the ideas of what others have to say, instead will be more argumentive instead of listening. Therefore, Generation Me skips over the explanation claim this is why Tannen believes individuals should move form debate to dialogue to explore. Instead, Generation Me can go about things in a different format by still encouraging those to keep trying so that they wouldnt give up in life because its self-control. Self-control, or the ability to persevere and keep going, is a much better predictor of life outcomes than self-esteem (Twenge 773). What this shows is that people with self-control are more confident and not arrogant, meaning they explore in order to succeed and not have that attitude as if they know it all. What all three authors have in contact is the importance of valuing whats needed and limiting whats not so important. They show how one perceive the world around themselves with different mind frames and they way one another thinks that makes each situation different.
Thus, in a contemporary society like today is different for reasons you have people that want to take control over others and how the wilderness can play with some emotions of others. Therefore, examining the facts of awareness that give light to truth is when people can realize their ignorance to others and their own. Although Tannen suggest people should try to investigate a particular subject from both views, sometimes it is difficult when false information is a main source. Furthermore, it is important to see the other views of people whom one does not agree with. Tannens suggestion reflects a way of thinking that is far to advanced for people who only think in one way, their own opinion. Tannens theory of moving from a debate to dialogue helps to understand Twenge views of education which is hampered by because Twenge whole idea have to be rearrange in order to have a better setting for education to teach the children some of the best ways to learn. Eventually, people should learn to become more open-minded; however, until then one can only support their selves with their strong convictions.
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