FFA and Blade Runner

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They might not seem related to each other on first glance, but I'm going to be arguing that they are.

For those of you who don't know it, Blade Runner is a movie in the sci fi genre. But here, I'm actually going to be talking about the book on which the movie was based, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K Dick.

From that drawing, you can probably tell he was a little "out there". The basic idea of the book is that a bounty hunter, Rick Deckard, is being paid to hunt down and "retire" androids (who look exactly like human beings) that have escaped from the colonies on other planets back to Earth. Intertwined with this story is the parallel one of a mentally challenged person who is harboring those same androids. Along the way, Deckard explores a number of philosophical ideas, including empathy, reality, mind control, intelligence, decay, individualism, and religion. Those are all things that I think (and am going to argue) FFA has a similar opinion on.

But before I get into that, here's a little bit more background on me. I'm a Vice President for my chapter of FFA. I'm raising commercial steers this year, which means that I raise 3 cows for a year for sail on the market. FFA, for those of you who don't know, is an agricultural education organization that's offered as a club to anybody who is taking an agriculture (hereto referred to as ag) class. FFA used to stand for Future Farmers of America, but that bad image you just got in your head at the word "farmers" is probably why they recently changed it to just being The FFA.

That's not the public image they're going for.
FFA is more than teaching people how to be farmers. It gives them leadership skills, by letting them be officers and do LDEs (Leadership Development Events). They help students to develop career skills by running CDEs (Career Development Events). Their motto is "learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, living to serve". In other words, totally not teaching people to be farmers.

Now, discussion/thesis statement time: I believe that Phillip K Dick in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and the National FFA Organization have similar views/ promote similar values on a number of issues. In order to argue that, I'm going to be pulling from this list of themes of the book.


*Note - I have not read this in a while, so if I get details wrong I'm sorry.*

• Empathy (and the lack thereof) - In Blade Runner (I'm not typing out the title every time), Deckard must face the fact that the androids that he believed early on in the book to not be capable of empathy with each other have actually developed a very strong sense of empathy. The book seems to be trying to tell us that empathy is a thing that almost anything can possess and that it is an admirable quality to have. FFA wants to give the same thing to its members. Pulling straight from the FFA's national site, they state that one of their missions is developing "interpersonal skills in teamwork, communications, human relations and social interaction." You have to have empathy in order to get that whole interpersonal thing going. Additionally, they want you to be empathetic towards your animals. One of the main things that raising an animal (cows, goats, pigs, rabbits, etc) through FFA teaches you is that animals have feelings too and you need to empathize with their situation and take care of them to the best of your ability.

• Intelligence - In the novel, people with intelligence and the ability to do things (Deckard and other bounty hunters) are contrasted with "chickenheads" who have mental deficiencies and are not allowed to emigrate to the colonies (for the sake of purity). While in the novel this was used as a way to criticize the hypocrisy of the fictional society, it could also be used here as an argument for being intelligent and making smart choices, since this allows people more freedoms in life and a better quality of life (not trying to suggest anything ;)). This positive use of intelligence is something that the FFA promotes through its activities. They want to develop the leaders of tomorrow, "promote the intelligent choice", and "encourages wise management". FFA wants to make its members be active in the community, be involved in events around the world, and be successful in industry through the use and promotion of their intelligence.

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• Decay versus Regeneration - In Blade Runner, the world is undergoing a nuclear winter as a result of war, and people are leaving the Earth to decay and fleeing to the colonies. However, Deckard realizes near the end of the novel that the world is regenerating itself, albeit in a new way. This situation is one that is fairly similar to the one facing FFA today (don't laugh, I have reasons why nuclear winter is like anything else). Back when the FFA was established in 1928, a large amount of the population was still involved directly in agriculture (27% were farmers). As such, there was no shortage of people willing to become members. Now, 1 dust bowl and 80+ years of industrial progress later, there is less than 3% of the population involved in farming. In my town at least, I know that we have a very hard time recruiting new members because nobody wants to be involved in agriculture (agribusiness is a really big thing, but they don't realise that). We may be one of the largest student organizations in the world, but we have a decaying membership that I think will only continue to get lower as time progresses. However, by re branding ourselves, and having outreach to young potential members, FFA is regenerating.

• Individualism versus Collectivism - In BR (still too lazy to type all those letters ... even though I'm typing more right now), Deckard is portrayed as being an individualistic person, which by extension leads him to be very selfish. He displays this through his consumerist will to own an animal (they all died in the nuclear winter, remember, and are very expensive) and set himself apart from his neighbors. This is contrasted with the apparent need of humanity to band together in a collective manner in order to pull themselves through the aftermath of the horrific war. FFA, on the other hand, doesn't so much contrast the two views so much as mesh them together. On the one hand, they like to strengthen " the confidence of agriculture students in themselves and their work ". In other words, uphold each members individualism. On the other hand, they also want them to work together for the common purpose of a better future. They promote "cooperation and cooperative attitudes among all people". Cooperation is one of the main parts of being a member of a collective that must work together. So, Dick and FFA have slightly different views on these two policies, but at least they both are willing to say something about them.

• Mind Control - This one is joking (not trying to say bad things about FFA's methods). In the novel, mind control is a concept that is ever present in the background and on the periphery of the story. There is a religion established in the book that has basically been spread through the mind control of its believers. There is a even a debate over whether Deckard himself is actually an android with implanted memories (aka he is being mind controlled). Now, I'm not saying that FFA is a horrible organization that brain washes/ mind controls its new members (if it was, I wouldn't know because I'd be brainwashed into not remembering or caring). I'm just saying, watch the below video.

Now, if that imagery and music does not pound the urge to be an FFA member into your head, you might be an android yourself. :)

Alright, so that's what I think. The above few reasons made me believe that Phillip K Dick and the FFA both have fairly similar beliefs on a number of issues and concepts. Tell me what you guys think.Am I crazy, am I spot on, did I not make logical sense? Also, topics for future discussion would be nice.

Sorry for rambling on so long. That's it for me. Have a good day!