Asleep on our Feet

October 18th, 2006 · 15 Comments
Discussion Topics

A somnambulist is a sleepwalker. What if I said we were heading toward becoming a Somnambulist Society? What would that mean and how do we prevent it from happening? What happens when we, as a society, stop questioning? Our government? Our principles? Our understandings of the truth? Think of what happened in “Future Fright” and consider how that is more of a possiblity than we might think.

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15 responses so far ↓

1 Milis // Oct 23, 2006 at 10:33 pm

I feel that this is one of the most important questions posted thus far. The next novel we will be reading, Fahrenheit 451, is about a society that is literally sleepwalking through life because they have learned to not question anything. In fact, the government in the novel doesn’t even let people think. They keep the people so busy playing sports, watching TV, listening to music, and taking drugs that they have little time left to think. If one does not have time to think, one cannot question. That is why it is important that we stop and reflect on our lives and the direction our society is headed. If we are headed down the wrong path, we need to correct it before it is too late (like in the video Future Fright: Loosing the Bill of Rights). Right now, reflect on your life before it’s too late! Are you living a meaningful life?
2 Maryann Shamoon // Oct 25, 2006 at 1:52 am

I think that this is a very interesting question you are posing. I take the analogy of sleepwalking, as the people in our societ who are just oblivious to what is going on around, and what decisions are being made without their consent. I think that it is extremely important for us to always stop, look and listen, to what it is going on around us at all times. Analyzing situations will only allow you to see things more clearly and accurately, let alone make more responsible decisions in your life. I also understand the other side of the spectrum however, where people are so busy in life, and have so many responsibilites, that they don’t have time for issues like politics and the government. Perhaps there is not enough value placed on politics, and thats why people don’t care about what goes on, or what decisions are made?
3 John Perfetti // Oct 25, 2006 at 4:38 am

Well I suppose that when we stop questioning our government we start losing simple freedoms like the right to private conversations and communications, we start sending trrops to die in foriegn lands with out a clear objective or goal, we allow our rulers to decide what is best for us to eat, drink, who we can agree with or disagree with, we we will allow our governers to be bought and sold, serving the interest of the few and the whole time will give them back the money that we have worked hard to earn so they can do all this with out expecting us to wonder why.
If we stop questioning our principles we would pigeon hole ourselves into believing that our way is not only th eright way but the only way to be. we will lose our selves in our own self rightuosness and forget that we swor at one point to encourage engage and defend new ideas and new ideals.
If we were to top questioning our perception of truth than we would allow any “truth” to be true, partial or complete fabrication. for example if we were told that the cost of energy was justifiable becuase of it’s scarcity, despite the fact hat energy can neither be created or destroyed, we would believe it. we might even believe that all children are the same child and should be held to the same standard with out the same resources. If we were told something so ridiculus like all the bad people in the world are concentrated in one tiny geographical triangle shaped piece of land which is really a lake of oil covered over with sand, and it’s going to take us (insert new amount of time weekly here) long to get rid of all those bad people we would eat up this “truth” with a spoon, despite knowing that human nature tells us that there will always be evil near and far. We might even go so far asto believe that none of this has already happened or we might belive that it is not happening right now.
truly the question is not how do we prevent it from happeniong, but how do reverse it?
how do we get heard once we decide to ask questions and more importantly is it too late? when will it be too late? what happens when that time comes? will we applaud at the side show or watch th e main attraction through a veil of tears?
4 Mercedes Richardson // Oct 26, 2006 at 11:18 am

In class we watched a short movie called, “Future Fright” and it was a wake up call to me. I never really thought of what would happened if they took away the Bill of Rights, and it would lead to a Somnambulist Society because we would have people not really paying attention to the world around them. This would not be a good idea because we would not know of something that was going on and then when we finally “wake up” we are going to regret it because there would be some things that would have changed. But I can understand that for some people, that would be too busy to really pay attention to anything, but that wouldn’t give them the right to complain when the world is upside down to them. And I really believe that something bad will come out of us not questioning anything any longer because we would not know about a thing, or have a say so in a decision because we are lost. Many things would be distorted, truth, understanding, trust, all of it, because we have no control over what we are doing in life.
5 Brianna Walit // Oct 26, 2006 at 11:26 am

If our society became somnambulist then our society wold start to fall apart because no one would care about anything or people would able to think on their pwn and people would have any common sence what so ever.If our society became somnambulist then we would all not tp be able to think about our actions baceuse people wouldnt care at all. The way that we can prevent this from happening is that explaining to people what is going on around them in their society and why it is so important to know what is going in around them. If stop questioning things in our societythen we will not be able to our mind grow and to see other peoples point of view. If we stopped questioning our princples and government then we will be under so much rules becasue people wont understand that there are so many side to one opinoin.
6 Sindy // Oct 26, 2006 at 7:10 pm

I would say………WHAT IS GOING ON!!!I think we need to ask eachother why we do the things we do.If we never ask eachother this we would never have what we have today.We discover things by asking questions and pushing ourselves forward by asking questions.
7 paola // Oct 30, 2006 at 6:40 pm

what if our society was becoming a somnambulist world? I thinkl it would be something out of control because think about it this way,we dont know what we are doing we do things that we have no consious of …Maybe our society would have to be more aware of people who actually are having these problems. Sometiimes I believe that it is better to be aware and know what we are doing instead of doing things that we are to question someday and ask ourselves what were we doing? …………………..
8 Andrea PAZOLS! // Oct 30, 2006 at 6:41 pm

I feel that there is not that many people left in this world who are not sleep walking though life, they are actually stopping and smelling the roses. Mnay are living a meanigful life, last year in Mrs.Millis class we learned that many people are heading toward a life where no one has an opinion and dosent think for their selves , they have no feeling whats so ever of whats going on in their lives and around the world. Cencorship has become part of their life and they have learned to acccpet and not have a meaning life. Towards the future were only going to depend on comptures, technology and drugs to keep us from having knowlegde because many feel that knowledge is going to hurt us when in reality its helping us learn as a society, but many are trying and succedding in changing people minds about a “meaningful life”.
9 Michael Gumberg // Oct 30, 2006 at 6:42 pm

A somnambulist society means that as a society we would sleepwalk through life. We would stop responding to others and stop acting like human biengs. To prevent it, we need to start doing things our selves and start focusing on important things in life. If we stop questioning others we allow them to take control instead of giving everyone rights. What happened in future fright is a partial possibility. The government might try and take control of us but we would probably fight back. Women would never become property so long as they stay educated.
10 brea cleaver // Oct 30, 2006 at 6:43 pm

I wouldn’t understand why would we stop questioning. It doesn’t make sense. There is always someone who is curious to know what’s going on in the world. If that happened someone would have to be smart enough to say HEY PEOPLE!!! Why are we letting this happen!? Why are we letting our rights being taken away!? And maybe some people will snap and go along and realize that losing our freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of everything, all our amendments is a HUGE deal. But then again what could we do. How much power do we really have over our government? That is a question that needs to be answered. What if one day this would happen what would we do? Sit back and let this happen? Let women become men’s property…let blacks have nothing to do with anything make us less then human??? This is something we all need to look into because the scenario isn’t exactly impossible…it could happen.
11 Jackie H // Oct 30, 2006 at 6:46 pm

I believe that what it means by our society becoming a “somnambulist society” is that us as a society wouldn’t be awake and aware of all the things going on around us and basically, the country would be controlled and taken over. When us as a society stop questioning the government, the principles, and the truth people start to take adavantage, brain wash, and take over the society. To prevent things like this from happening, society needs to stick together, be aware of the things thats going on around us, and take action in the things that are happening in the world.
12 Marlee Gomez // Oct 30, 2006 at 6:51 pm

Heading to be a Somnambulist Society would not be a good thing. The government would be able to do anything with us, and we wouldnt be able to wake up and look at reality. We could easily prevent this from happening by having a group of people who can keep our representative (of the government) on check. With that, we will have a voice, becuase communication is very important. If we were ever to stop questioning, our world would be hell. It is as if we are too scared to state our opinions. If one person does not stand up, other people would not have the courage to stand up by themselves. The government would be really happy (and as i stated before, do anything with us). Since they would not have us fighting for what we want, they would just treat us badly. With that, we would not have a meaning of truth. Everything would basically be a lie. Wouldn’t you want all your rights as a human? Even though the government basically takes away most of your rights, you at least want the right to know whats going on. Taking away books and not doing anything about it?! That right there seems like we are on the way to sleepwalking.
13 Fernando Sanchez // Oct 30, 2006 at 6:53 pm

Well I think that “sleepwalking society” sleep Disorder characterized by walking or other activity while seemingly still asleep. Sleepwalking (Somnambulism) is a series of complex behaviors that are initiated during slow wave sleep and result in walking during sleep. Sleepwalking another was to say that you are going through life without knowing what it’s about. Our government is the sleepwalker and the government controls us and they decide all the law and regulations for our lives. They sleepwalk so we are sleepwalkers too. So what you are suggesting is for us to wake up and smell the roses.
14 Ruben Gonzalez // Oct 30, 2006 at 6:53 pm

If you saidwe were going to a Somnambulist Society I would be terrified. This would mean that we would be going to community where everbody would be sleeping. The way we can resolve this is by communicating with eachother so we can prvent Somnambulist Society from happening. When a community starts loosing quesioning the community wouldn’t be as close to eachother as they should, such as communicating.
15 Jeremy Strauss // Dec 18, 2006 at 6:21 pm

The most frightening thing, in my opinion, is that we are already a sleep-walking society, collectively numbed to the reality around us. Consider the following facts.

The California Energy Crisis was fabricated to damage the reputation of Governor Gray Davis and encite a recall election.

It has been documented that President George W. Bush was planning an attack on Iraq long before the supposed threat of weapons of mass destruction.

There are still entire communities of people that deny the existance of the Armenian genocide, which was responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocents over the course of five years.

Global warming, despite the presence of concrete scientific evidence, is still considered by many to be a myth.

Sleepwalking society? To that I say “Wake up! It’s all around you!”