Response to Dave Meslin's TEDTalk

As I watched Dave Meslin's TEDTalk on "The Antidote to Apathy," I not only was given a completely different perspective on apathy but found multiple connections between his lecture and the concepts from Drive, not to mention other TEDTalks. Meslin began by explaining his opinion of apathy: it is not people's laziness or stupidity, but merely barriers put up by society in order to discourage participation. From this, I took away that Meslin wishes to not only redefine the word "apathy" but also to use his theory of intentional disengagement to upgrade the systems that use it, such as political elections, the media, and city halls. Once I finished this video, I felt annoyed-- Meslin had left me with the feeling that I was being cheated out of certain opportunities. It also made me speculate about how many other people notice when they are being purposefully distracted; any time a person encounters a mountain of fine print or is not given easy access to resources, it is because someone thinks that they aren't worth the time when they very well might be. Meslin was a cool and quiet speaker, but easily kept the audience listening to his intriguing speech. He had no bursts of excitement or emotion, but he spoke with reserved passion and exuded intelligence. His ideas were very well thought out and developed, made obvious by a smooth delivery. In his presentation, Meslin used his Powerpoint slides to fortify his ideas, which were often characterized by large, single words in groups of three. He also outlined his entire speech in a not-too-detailed opening statement, which made it simple to follow along as he addressed his initial purpose and issues. Meslin also grabbed a few laughs, which might have been unintentional, with an "apathetic" mock Nike shoe ad. Along with plain text slides, he added pictures of media examples and also a few photographs as well. His presentation did not involve much movement or flamboyance. One of my favorite points that Meslin makes is that heroes are completely unrealistic in fiction. In books and movies, Meslin says, heroes are chosen by prophecies, or kings, or have lighting bolt-shaped scars emblazoned on their foreheads. In real life, heroes are comprised of three traits= they make a collective effort, they are imperfect, and they are acting voluntarily. This statement struck many notes with me-- I know many teenagers that don't believe they can make a difference, not even a small one. To fortify this opinion, I offer a scene from a 6 team combined skills night at my volleyball club. When the conditioning coach asked who would like to lead a portion of the training, it was a few minutes before anyone even considered volunteering. I believe this happened because every single player in there, young or old, was afraid of messing up. They cared about being there, or else they wouldn't have shown up, but it was their fear of imperfection holding them back. Now consider a comic book character: for example, Superman. Superman always saves the day, gets the girl, flaunts his tights-clad muscles, and somehow keeps all of his hair in order. He is also from another planet. It is trying to live up to these examples that stymies the American youth; similarly, as children, we revere our parents as perfect and then are disappointed when we find their human flaws. Furthermore, the destruction of Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy continue to devastate our sense of perfection. What people need to understand is that acts of heroism are usually imperfect, as Meslin states. The whole world is imperfect, but what may seem flawed to one person can be a vision in another's eye, a la the movie Shallow Hal. A more familiar statement was that heroes must act voluntarily, reaching back to intrinsic motivation. A disdainful hero is not a very inspiring one, and a hero being paid would feel insane amounts of pressure added to emotional guilt and probably perform worse than if driven by their own feelings. When I apply these terms to Arapahoe, I think the heroes of our school are the students and teachers that are doing the probably less-recognized duties. The heroes at AHS are the teachers who work with learning challenged or disabled students for hours at a time, and the students who join Student Council and TSA and Muse because they want to lead the student body, or they love to help the planet, or create art. It is the faculty that spend hours trying to make the education system better for their students because they care about their futures; it is the popular kid that makes friends with the band kid because he doesn't care about stereotypes, and he knows that if he were in his shoes, he'd want a buddy to talk to (empathy!!). My hope is that kids will abandon apathy, and stop ignoring the issues around them, because those issues will not simply dissipate if unrecognized. My hope is that every single student or staff member at Arapahoe will become a hero to someone from now on, whether it be a single person or the whole world.