Jiggy, Macherey

Everything around us is a product of humans, from the computer to type this post to the chair that I sit in. Macherey illustrates in his piece on structuralism that humans construct everything and nothing is natural. If you try to understand this theory by taking Winter Park as an example things start to make more sense. The parks that we love and enjoy are often linked to the natural world, filled with trees, grass and life. From another vantage point this same park can be seen as yet another human construction and control of nature. The trees are often placed to create beauty, the grass is cut and the weeds plucked. This park example shows how our natural planet has been suppressed by humans and manipulated to extenuate the needs and desires of humans. Structure is all around us, systems to keep people in line and human life functioning. Our speech, often carelessly taken advantage of, is one of humanities greatest achievements. Millions of people able to understand, communicate and progress the human race is remarkable taking into account that we have only been global for the last three hundred years. Without structure human life would not even be considered advanced, leaving us amongst the apes and other higher mammal life. Its sometimes easy to let the advantages we have to slip our minds but humanity keeps progressing.