I just got finished watching a movie just now, Passengers with Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt—there was a quote from the movie with the opening scene that I should share with the readers. “A new world. A fresh start. Room to grow.”
The video via YouTube whom released to the public, Cochlear Implant PSA was full of public stunt and deception. All those implanted people are the passengers of cochlear implant industries. Nothing is more important of the difference between being Deaf and using ASL than the public stunt about cochlear implants (CI) as an attribute of success. CI people carry boasting to extremes.
Those same implanted people “cyborgs” seemingly obsessed with their own accomplishment, they said things like this: “Personal choice” and that is very dangerous public relations. Just like a movie, Passengers, Chris said, “Say you were trapped on a desert island, and you have the power to wish somebody there with you. You wouldn’t be alone anymore. But you’d be stranding the person on the island. How do…would you make that wish?” then the bartender who is a cyborg said to him, “I don’t know. I’ve never been on an island”
Exactly. Poor those CI people in the video. The public wants you to feel happy for them. CI people are like dogs needing constant praises and treats—treating them passengers. Alanna Kilroy, a cochlear implant user in the video said, “If I had to use ASL [American Sign Language], I would feel tremendously hindered by this form of communication.” and that was why Alanna never been on an island where ASL would be everywhere and she would realize that ASL is beautiful.
The key word, she said, “hindered” as in resulting in delay—ouch. Insulting the world of ASL for Deaf people. ASL often implies the existence of a separate world of knowledge. It cannot be denied, but Alanna must remember that ASL is primarily designed to refer to Deaf people’s own experience being Deaf.
Alanna and all those implanted people in PSA video represent the majority of minority population, that remain all their lives in a state of synthetic sounds, beholding only sounds they could not comprehend or identity. Their view of the world is most inadequate, distorted by social “passions and prejudices” against the nature of being Deaf and ASL.
However, if one of the implanted people, especially Alanna, who would remove cochlear implant for good, and grows accustomed to use ASL, she will often a time be able to look at ASL in a new light, of which she had formerly been denied. Then she would be “converted” from the world of synthetic sounds to the world of the Deaf. Nature—it is humankind’s original or natural condition. Nurture—it is something that nourishes or trains.
Did you know that some Deaf has stopped using cochlear implants? When you ask them why stop wearing them, they would say, “My nature is being Deaf.” Even though they were raised nourishing for years and years. Still nature overcomes nurture. Those CI people in the video should not be struck on the CI ship. They were brainwashed.
At the end of the movie, it said, “A friend once said….You can’t get so hung up on where you’d rather be that you forget to make the most of where you are.”…’We got lost along the way. But we found each other. And we made a life. A beautiful life. Together.’
Remember the beginning of the movie above in the first paragraph? A new world. A fresh start. Room to grow. That! Deaf people were born on Mother Earth for a reason to create beautiful life. CI was never part of Earth’s life. 258? You decide.
Morale: Sense perception is not the object of intelligence.
-JT
Copyright © 2017 Jason Tozier
This text may be freely copied in its entirely only, including this copyright message.
Hey JT,
Letting you know I do read your blog occasionally, even the YouTube videos. I want to ask you if you are familiarized with the conspiracy theory terminology I learned several years ago: “Transhumanism.” There are a group of grassroots activists and lecturers who spoke out against the idea of combining both physical parts and technology parts of the human body. Robots, androids, or cyborgs are the ones lacking souls in the future where we begin to depend on them for bartending, cooking, and etc. Do you necessarily believe that the cochlear implant devices will, one day, transform Deaf people into half-robots, but only listening to the “artificial” or “synthetic” sounds?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism
Via Google Dictionary:
trans·hu·man·ism
tranzˈhyo͞omənizm/Submit
noun
the belief or theory that the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations, especially by means of science and technology.
Hey there—thanks for reading my blog, Jessie or whatever your name is. I may have seen that term, “Transhumanism” somewhere.
Well, look at this way, there are many unnecessary ideas that people are trying to transform Deaf people into half-robots because they are now working on CI through brain “brain implant” or something and find many other ways. Sooner or later, the human body would turn into a lab for half-robots. Cyborgization is not cool.
Paddy Ladd in one of his presentations at University of Washington back in 2012, I got the chance to see his lecture and he said, “Why does Deaf people create on Mother Earth for?” and he was very concerned about stem cells and all those technological stuff going on trying to eradicate Deaf people–again, sooner or later.
I will look up and study more about “Transhumanism” and thank you for letting me know! Much appreciated! 🙂
-JT