What are the two most influential ideas you learned from your research? Why did these ideas impact you so much? Be specific.
That not all action is good action. That is such a hard thing to learn because the tendency of most people is to react to every possible and incoming situation. And with that revelation that inaction might be good, because sometimes people have a tendency to worsen the situations they’re in especially when the tools are not available. There’s a reason when a crime happens we let the police take care of it, or when building a neighborhood, we let the people living there decide the guidelines and aesthetics of that place otherwise people can’t get what they want. In my research the biggest problems with the missionaries is their insistence to impose their will to reform these communities, it always ended poorly, and that’s because their knowledge of those communities was lacking leading to much heartache and wasted efforts as they never did what the indigenous people wanted. And from this a lot of the pains of these missions came from the inability to adapt which is the next lesson I learned: adaptation. Many of these problems were caused because many of these missionaries couldn’t let go of their preconception about the world, which I can attribute to their absurd zealotry. Had they made an effort to learn about the people and integrate themselves into the very environment they were in, many of these communities would find themselves in a much better place.
What do you hope people will learn from your project?
Know one’s limits and don’t attempt to dilute oneself. Many of these missionaries diluted themselves that they were always in the right and never thought anything about their surroundings and what the bigger picture was. Don’t get tunnel vision and end up blind. I wish I could have learned to see through this thick helmet of mine too.
What is the most important thing you learned about yourself, your community, and your world during your time at NNHS?
What I the, the crusader, learned about myself is that I don’t really have a definitive goal. I feel kinda lost to be honest, crusading without a vision. For as strong the first semester was for me, I don’t know why, but I’m not really feeling the second semester. What I need to learn is goal setting. I didn’t really have any aspirations this semester. No goals I really wanted to achieve were heavily associated with academics. I can achieve it. When I lift, I always have a goal: I want more strength, more power, I want to be able to be rid of anything in my path with pure muscle, as crusader must be strong. My mission for this summer’s crusade should be to find an academic goal, because when there is no vision of achievement, I’ll fall down and slip, but that’s what’s great about the NNHS community, they’ll be there to catch you as long as you’re a huskie, that there’s always help around the corner. For as far we’ll go we’ll alway share that time and huskie pride.
What advice would you give future NNHS seniors?
Find a goal and don’t slack on assignments. Unexpected things can happen and when you lose the momentum, it’s really hard to build it back up, That’s a lesson I learned when I fell off my high horse. It’s really easy to get addicted now with the availability of distractions and push off the work; I know I did. I built up really bad habits, so don’t be me, build up good habits too.
It’s been a ride y’all. Crusader out.
Hey Allen,
Your video essay was probably my favorite out of all the video essays I’ve watched, even outside of this class. The introduction was very captivating, and compelled me to keep watching to learn more about what you were leading up to. I thought your idea was also very interesting, because it made me think about the importance of help as a concept in our society today. I think you could work on making the ending a little less abrupt, but overall, I found your video essay to be very interesting.
Hi Allen, I like your negative stance on your question (should higher societies involve themselves in other communities?). This is a very arguable stance and I can see how the evidence supports your viewpoint and where your viewpoint comes from.
Question: Should higher societies involve themselves in other communities?
This is a very, very general question, that is yet somehow super specific. America, for example, struggles to define a line for itself in this scenario, trying to decide between keeping their hands clean from foreign conflicts or continue to be the global policeman. Of course, the usually generic answer is for high societies to benefit lesser communities, however, that can cause dependency, corruption, and other little potential side affects. For now, I personally feel comtent to watch this question unfold in our everso changing world right now.
Hey Allen! I think your post was very informational and brings up huge points in terms of what a good action really is. I think too many people these days try to do “good actions” for public fame but these people are usually just hurting others more than they are helping. Another huge thing is to learn what the person or group that you are helping wants out of the situation. I also believe that there are too many times when the person who is trying to help can succeed but does it with the wrong goals – meaning that both parties get nothing out of it since the actual goal of the person in aid wasn’t met. Overall, I loved your video as the introduction was very captivating and you had great buildups, forcing me to stay and watch to see what it would lead to. Great post overall man!
I really like the format of your presentation, the thought provoking questions at the beginning set up your research very well. I think a big problem with help is that if help is received too often, one begins to expect help. Becoming dependent on the help they receive instead of putting it on themselves. This can be very harmful in the long run, so as you stated, it is important to only help when it is really necessary. Those who are helping should wish to be helping, have the desire to help others not for anything in return. Overall I really like your video essay, lots of strong research that related to your question very well.
Allen, I really enjoyed your video essay. The past century (minus WWII, yikes) has really begun to openly criticize religion, as you can see especially within the last 40 to 50 years, where there has been a general decrease in the population of Americans that identify as Christian, and an increase in atheist and non-religious individuals; I think criticism of any major institution is a good thing. The old adage you include at the end also greatly sums up the point I believe you are trying to make about the negative societal impact of missionaries disrupting the manner in which predisposed life is conducted. I am a Lutheran, but I’m with you, I really don’t like door-to-door salesmen either. Nice work.