Monday, January 8, 2018

Destroy Build Destroy, a philosophy?

After reading Underground man' thoughts on creation and destruction, I thought of a show I used to watch when I was younger that is a prime example of what Dostoevsky is trying covey through underground man. The show that comes to mind is cartoon networks: Destroy Build Destroy! Now the show is not trying to prove any philosophy but is more of a game show where two teams get a pile of debris and from that debris, they must build a contraption that can complete a set task, whichever team's complete the task most efficiently, wins the game. Now towards the beginning of the show, before the teams start building their devices, each team has a choice of how they want to "destroy their junk." Contestants can choose to have a team of "destroyers" (a group of men that will come tear apart the piece of junk you have), have some cool explosion nearly obliterate your junk, or drop it from some high place  (I.E. a crane or a gigantic pile of junk). The true climax of the show happens at the end when after a team has won the game, both winner and loser, get to, you guessed it, destroy what they built.  This show is a full circle representation of was Dostoevsky is trying to convey, humans destroy and build from the destruction to eventually destroy again. I remember watching as a kid, that I would play the closest attention to the show when they were destroying something or building something, never when the product was being showcased. As the underground man says, humans enjoy the process rather than the product. No one likes what comes from destroying and not much focus put on the product when creating, its the process of destroying and creating that bring the most satisfaction, like how I enjoyed the show because of the extreme methods of destruction and what the contestants could create.

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