Do you need community to be ethical?

For this unit, we watched the film Into the Wild as way of grappling with the issue of ethics and community. For the following blog entry, I would like you to write a thoughtful response to each of the following questions. You may write your responses in the "first person." However, please write with proper grammar and syntax. Be prepared to discuss your answers in class with your peers.

1) Do we need community to act ethically? Why or why not?

 I do not think we need community to act ethically. In the movie, "Into the Wild", the main character Christopher McCandless decides to live his life away from society in Alaska. While he is attempting to kill an animal for food, he refuses because it has it's child with it. There is no one else living in the wild with him and he still remains to make the right ethical decision by not killing the animal. 

2) Do we need community to gain Wisdom? Why or why not?

Gaining wisdom means going through experiences and gaining knowledge through those experiences.We do need a community to gain wisdom. Going through experiences as a whole provides different outlooks and different perspectives on life that helps an individual gain knowledge and eventually wisdom.

3) Was Christopher McCandless a wise person? Why or why not?

I believe Christopher was a knowledgable person but not a wise one. I don't think it was wise for him to up and leave his family and burn everything he had, like his social security, in order to get away from society. I believe there are other ways to experience what he was trying to achieve. I also think that if he were wise, he would be living today to share what he had been through and even learn from some of his mistakes he made in the wild, like eating the wrong plants, and not sharing his happiness with others.

4) Do you think Sean Penn glamorized the life of Christopher McCandless? Why or why not?

I do think Sean Penn glamorized the life of  Christopher McCandless. There was one scene where Christopher could not find any food while he was living out in the wild. I'm sure there was more than one day where he could not find any food to eat. Sean Penn made it seem like it only happened to him once.