a white world without us

Ray Rodriguez
A White World without Us

As many look to be the superior race, only few get to succeed. Both “The Destruction of Man” by Carl Anthony and A World Without Us by Alan Weisman show how the need for power ends up becoming the lack of care for the environment by the people on it. The needs and wants, need power want control over power the power that I have is a certain mindset that most people have. “Partly we have stories that are lies” the lies are that we humans have control over what is going on in Earth (Anthony 272). “Manifest Destiny” a term used by early colonial Americans to justify their expansion westward shows how human can stretch the truth or reword ideas do that they can get what they want (Anthony 272). This then leads to climate change that relates to the raping on land and the mistreatment of others (slaves) in order to get whatever one wants. The usage of slavery shows how dominance was important for many who had control in America.
Eventually the need for power then goes to the topic of war and destruction clearly evident in Weisman’s piece. The need for nuclear weapons then show how if they had no control at first they would seek different ways in order to regain control that they thought they had. The usage of “radiations” shows how many used artificial power to rise to the top and become one of the most feared. These weapons will then hurt the land causing it to become a rotted dump in which nuclear testing would wipe out large plots of land in order to create a better understanding of who’s on top. The terms “destruction” and “damage” shows how many who want success need to not care about anything besides themselves and be able to harm things that are not dear to them (Weisman 260).
Both these essays make it clear on how white supremacy over the course of many years makes it difficult for society not to think about control over others since we have been doing this in America since the beginning of the Jamestown Colony. The use of technology for different adeptness is used by the higher class in order to take control mentally of society. The needs for luxury are then instilled in the minds of many causing many to want things that they can’t have. This isn’t all considered to be bad as one may see at first. Through out both passages the idea of improvement is show and through improvement some gain success. For example, the use of technology to create fireman equipment, conductors (for electricity), and the ideas of media for self-government all makes it possible for one to gain success. The knowledge passed on by some is sometimes used for the wrong reasons. In The World Without Us the usages of technology to create bombs shows the wrong reasons for using the resources to make bombs (Weisman 263). Also in “The Destruction of Man” the idea of superiority makes the use of needing power and control over other not only affects some people mentally but affects society as a whole through the dependence on cheap labor and the deforesting of land. That is why when people have too much power they want to go over the boundaries that were set before them causing chaos and a need for a better society.