The Commoner
Jeremy Allan was born in Springfield, Missouri in 1942. He had a supportive family who wanted him to succeed in all that he did. He was a curious soul; always seeking advice. The problem though, is that the more questions he asked, the more he felt was left unanswered. The flaw did not seem to be in his questions but in the answers, he received.
Jeremy wanted to know what would make his parents proud, and what he could do to be a“good” person. He wanted answers about what career he should pursue, or if he should join the military. The day he married he asked his father what it meant to be a “good” husband, father,and provider. His parents cared, he was sure of it, but their blank, heartless, and repetitive answer rung in his ears, “son, be rational.” Jeremy knew better than to question what rationality was,because he knew that his parents could probably not even answer the question themselves.
Spending much of his life searching for that rationality that was expected from him, he became confident in one thing. He knew that above all else he needed to give his son what his father did not give him. It was not fame nor the family business, but the soundest advice of all. Jeremy often said, “Son, do not seek rationality; seek joy, seek patience, seek truth, and seek love. If you will be happy and at peace with your decision, you know that made the right choice.” Jeremy’s son did not struggle with trying to base his actions from beliefs that he was unsure of, instead, he treasured joy.
Justification of Artwork
In the book Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo, a global protest occurred on the streets. The main character witnesses police officers chasing a man through the streets, citizens hitting the hoods of cars, and people throwing trashcans with no regard to the people laying hurt in the streets. During this chaos one of the characters said, “The more visionary the idea, the more people it leaves behind. This is what the protest is all about. Visions of technology and wealth.The force of cyber-capital that will send people into the gutter to retch and die. What is the flaw of human rationality” (DeLillo 90). The philosophical idea that I pulled from this section was the notion of human rationality. In my short story, Jeremy struggles with the idea of rationality because he does not know what constitutes as rational. Although his parents expect him to know how to make a so called “rational” decision, they do not explain to him from what they themselves base their rationality. In philosophy, human rationality “implies the conformity of one’s beliefs with one’s reasons to believe, or of one’s actions with one’s reasons for action”(Robbins et al). Each person has their own definition of rationality, which denies any total conformity in the behavior of individuals.
Sources:
DeLillo, D. (2003). Cosmopolis: a novel. New York: Scribner.
Robbins, S. P., DeCenzo, D. A., & Coulter, M. K. (2017). Fundamentals of management:essential concepts and applications. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.
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