Collapse Assignment #1

The inhabitants of Easter Island are certainly very interesting. For most of my life, I never gave them a second thought, never even thought about Easter Island Heads further than the fact that they were giant statues of heads that would pop in as a joke in cartoon and movies. However, I really think that the story behind these heads is anything but funny. In fact, the story scares me a little bit, because it seems all too reminiscent of the current state of America. This is mostly bad, but there are bits of good sprinkled in the details. One thing that I find very interesting and quite common in lost civilizations is the need to be the best. Striving to be better has always been something that I personally aspire to, and it is an honorable trait. This can be found at the core of the Easter Island inhabitants. However, the part that takes that honorable ideal and warps it is that they let the strive to be better, to compete against one another, past the logical limitations and stop signs to a point where it was dangerous and caused downfall. This was because the want to be better was corrupted by power. Personally, I think that power is a horrible thing. Not because of what it entitles, but because of the weakness of humankind to succumb to power and become corrupted by it. That is how Easter Island fell, because the people were too weak to realize what the thirst for power was doing to them. This is something in human nature that I have always found to be quite interesting if simply because it is so often repeated. What about human nature makes them succumb to the power they hold instead of continue to strive and try to appropriately use and earn power responsibly?

The Easter Island reading scares me because it i something that can very easily be connected to America. For one, the usage of natural resources for frivolous things such as clothing and jewelry, or for an upgrade of something that needs no upgrade in the first place. The amount of time and money spent in the statues and the pursuit of having the bigger better one is very similar to how companies are always in direct competition with one another to make the better product. I am a strong believer that competition brings out the best in everybody and shows who they truly are, but I feel that the things that a lot of these companies are competing for are hardly worth it in the long run. Think about this. The iPhone 3G was the hottest phone to have, touch screen capabilities, GPS, Internet, games, all that needless stuff for a phone. Now, a year later, the very same phone has gone down hundreds of dollars in price because it has already been replaced. In this state of constant evolution, needless products (Do people seriously need to be able to go online, play games, listen to music, etc. on their phone?) are given the promotion that other needed products could use. Michael Bloomberg is running for a third term in office, something that by no right should he need campaign for. However, he spent millions of dollars for campaigning already. Now imagine if instead of all of this self advertising he had donated this money to the MTA, or to PETA, or to something that could have really used the money. I think New York would find something else to plaster on every billboard in the city. But this needless self promotion is what this country is becoming. Now, isn't that exactly what the Easter Island heads were? And didn't they collapse? THAT is why I am scared for the future of America.