The gulf oil disaster, as well, reminds us that the environment in which we live is fragile. With estimates of as many as 60,000 barrels of oil flowing into the gulf each day, no amount of technology seems to be able to keep the fish, fowl and beaches of the Gulf Coast from being covered with gooey tar balls. Neither is our current technology able to adequately skim the oil from the waters of the Gulf
in order to curtail the pollution and allow shrimpers and fishers to return to their preferred way of life that has been disrupted by the spill. This may be, as Brokaw stated in the June 29th interview, a defining moment for the young adults of the world. Perhaps they will view the spill differently, seeing the developed countries dependence on oil as something to be curtailed. Perhaps as Grenz reminds us, “members of the emerging generation are no longer confident that humanity will be able to solve the world’s great problems.”
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The gulf oil disaster, as well, reminds us that the environment in which we live is fragile. With estimates of as many as 60,000 barrels of oil flowing into the gulf each day, no amount of technology seems to be able to keep the fish, fowl and beaches of the Gulf Coast from being covered with gooey tar balls. Neither is our current technology able to adequately skim the oil from the waters of the Gulf 
in order to curtail the pollution and allow shrimpers and fishers to return to their preferred way of life that has been disrupted by the spill. This may be, as Brokaw stated in the June 29th interview, a defining moment for the young adults of the world. Perhaps they will view the spill differently, seeing the developed countries dependence on oil as something to be curtailed. Perhaps as Grenz reminds us, “members of the emerging generation are no longer confident that humanity will be able to solve the world’s great problems.”24
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ReplyDeleteResponse from Karyn Ratcliffe
ReplyDeleteGrenz’s discussion of Structuralism and Deconstruction makes me realize that we enter into dialogue with each other today through the media as multiple and varied individuals offer their own spin on the meaning of national and global events. Reality becomes difficult to discern because all opinions are (usually) politely respected. Knowledge, then, is not posited as what we can say about something as much as what we can argue with someone. Knowledge is always relative to the other guests on the show, and the one with the stronger argument retains political power for the day. Discovering the truth is no longer the goal. The goal of contemporary discourse is to uncover the most convincing argument. And everyone knows it. It is the new rhetoric of our day and age; the new linguistic game that we dare to play. So when Grenz says that “the central dictum of postmodern philosophy [is that] …the world has no center, only differing viewpoints and perspectives,”25 it may be an ironic consequence of postmodernism that, by opening up our minds, we willingly allow ourselves to be fooled by each other.