I chose option 2
Directions : Choose one of the following. Be sure to read the entire question before beginning. State your arguments clearly and concisely. Your essay should between 4 and 5 pages (not including the required title page and reference page or any filler pages you might include). Note: you do not need to do research for these topics. I’d prefer that you do not do any research. Rather, sit or take a walk and think. What is thinking? It is mainly asking yourself questions, and then listening for what follows. Perhaps it will be another question; perhaps it will be an answer. Find out what you think about the topic you choose. This will involve writing in the first person; that is, the use of “I” is perfectly fine.
1. Why is a higher standard of living equated with having more money and things? What other definition could you come up with for your standard of living? If you do have (or could envision yourself having) a different standard of living, how do or would you manage such a (radically?) different standard while living in the midst of our consumer, acquisitive culture? You might be interested in the book and television show describing Affluenza, an illness involving an addiction to materialism. Go to the PBS site for more information: LINK : Diagnosing Affluenza (Links to an external site.)
2. Would you like to live forever in a young body? Would you like to see an end to aging? How much living is enough? What do your answers tell you about the nature of a meaningful life?
3. Early in chapter 12 of Brave New World Mustapha Mond reviews a biology paper; in his criticism (he rejects the paper as dangerous to the social order) he remarks that the paper claimed the goal of life was not happiness, “that the purpose of life was not the maintenance of well-being, but some intensification and refining of consciousness, some enlargement of knowledge.” Mond concludes the author was probably right. If the goal of life is not maintenance and improvement of well-being, that is, happiness, what possibly could be the purpose? What does the Savage see as the purpose?