The Unexamined Life/Modern Gadfly

"The unexamined life is not worth living."  -Socrates

Many people in modern society breeze through life without stopping to consider what they're really doing or contributing. Some are handed opportunities through parents or other connections and coast on that, even if it's not something they're particularly fulfilled by. A high-paying job is sometimes enough to get rid of much motivation to examine what good you've done in your life, and what significance your life has had. This can be true for the non-wealthy too. Everyone should consider what they have done to improve the life of someone else. If providing for your family and being a good husband/dad or wife/mother is all you can offer, that is enough.This isn't to say that those who haven't contributed shouldn't be alive, but should reconsider their ways and try to turn around.

Someone who has examined their life, a modern Socratic gadfly, if you will, is filmmaker Michael Moore.His movies have brought into question major societal issues such as 9/11, the American healthcare system, the Iraq War, large corporations, and globalization. These movies are meant to create to controversy. They are supposed to stir up people's emotions to try to bring change to systems portrayed as flawed. Socrates took the same strategy to bring the Athenian elite to reality. Much like the modern-day example I mentioned earlier, these elite families cared mostly about their own well being and power. Socrates helped the younger generations of these families to question their situation through his method of questioning.

My Eulogy

     

     We have gathered here today to remember our dear friend Miles, who, due to a recent accident involving a bike and a cliff, is no longer with us. But before he met his demise, Miles was someone who often thought of others before himself, which made him a caring friend and person in general. He believed in doing what is morally right to help those in need and in being a good steward to the planet. If he had had the chance, I can envision Miles doing his part to “save the world,” so to speak, by, for example, helping people in third world countries get clean, renewable electricity by providing them with the technology and tools they would need. Though maybe a bit of an idealist in how difficult saving the world might be, he had only the best intentions. Though his passing is, of course, tragic and premature, we at least can say it happened doing something he loved. He was always biking or running (on his school’s cross-country team) and had been training for his first triathlon. This adventurous spirit led him to do things like 1,000 mile bike trips around Lake Michigan, or spend a month in Costa Rica to speak Spanish and do community service. If he could have, in a perfect world, he would have long ago packed up and headed out into the world to travel, see new things, experience new cultures, try new foods. Though maybe sometimes seen as quiet and reserved on the outside, this spirit of adventure, this drive to experience new things and do good was what actually defined him.