Field Trip Response (Elijah B)

It was mildly intriguing to survey the exhibit at the Historical Society, if only to remind myself of the exponential growth technology has experienced in the past few decades. Far more intriguing however was our foray to Civic Hall, where I immediately felt the energy, altruism, and innovation emanating from the people there. It was clear that this was not a drab, nihilistic office space, but a  hive of ambitious, abstract intellects,  a playground of ideas and a think-tank of real-world progressivism. It was simultaneously refreshing and inspiring to be around so many well educated, skilled, and erudite individuals. Particularly fascinating to me was the inner strength I sensed in their psychological sense of value– these were people directly motivated beyond their egos, sacrificing financial opportunism for the much more savory sensation of practicing the greater moral good. Idealists. However, unlike the little old ladies serving soup in the homeless shelter, these were visionary individuals who had concrete plans for change, and who continuously strive to be architects of human destiny. As a person easily bored by logistics of any sort, it was these radiant qualities which stood out to me amidst the technical rhetoric of their actual projects. Given the opportunity, I would love to examine their psyches: How did they come to view the world the way they do? What are their core values, and do these values have a sound logical basis? What gives them the greatest pleasure in life, and why? How do they derive metaphysical meaning from their mythically heroic activities? Why are they concerned with a human future beyond the (likely) limits of their life span? Do they not, at heart, merely seek to create a world they would want to live in, and is this not inherently selfish? Do they feel that there is a compromise between attempting to master society on the public scale and attempting to master society on the personal scale? Is a lack of one a psychological drive for the other?  etc.