Most Americans, while knowing there is a lot of horror in the world, tend to ignore it. We don't want the responsibility of having to solve these issues that seem to have nothing to do with us.
"My Nikes may have been made by child labor... but they also look awesome."
"My iPhone may have been made in sweatshop conditions... but I'm really high up on the Flappy Bird leaderboard."
There's a lot of stuff I would like to give up (my Nikes, my iPhone) but at the same time can't imagine giving up. But the main thing that comes to mind is that a lot of my clothes were made in China. I mean, everybody knows that working conditions, as well as environmental conditions caused by factories, are pretty awful. And I can't count the number of times I've seen the Made in China label and just shrugged, without even thinking about it. I like to buy my clothes cheap, and I don't know if my family could afford to buy clothes at a higher price. But I still wish things were different.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Fear, Inside and Out
A long time ago, I had to do a paper on whether or not violence in video games influences perpetrators of violence in the real world. At the time, I thought that was ridiculous. How could anyone be so immersed in a video game that they carry that mentality into the real world?
Now, I see things differently. Media has so much more power than we give it credit for. From a very young age, it controls the way we think and how we interpret the world around us. So, in a way, Gerbner's argument makes a lot of sense. We like to feel involved in any TV show we watch. If someone sees a world created by TV writers with a lot of violence and crime, they are inclined to feel involved in that action, carrying it into the real world.
But I also think that we influence the media more than we give ourselves credit for. If said TV show doesn't appeal to a lot of people, it'll get cut. We are the ones who are attracted to violence on television. That's why TV shows are violent. So, I think that television isn't the only thing to blame. We have a natural inclination to believe we aren't safe. We're always trying to attain the ultimate level of safety. Television feeds that fear more than creates it.
That's what "Once Upon a Time" is about. Nadine Gordimer doesn't ever mention the woman and her husband watching violent television. It could have been a detail that she didn't find important, but I don't think so. I think that it was their own fear of the world around them that prompted them to put up so much security that they didn't need. What the author is trying to say is that we place so much emphasis on being as safe as we can that, in the end, we hurt ourselves trying to protect ourselves from imaginary threats. Those threats don't necessarily have to present themselves in television. Most of the time, we come up with them all on our own.
Now, I see things differently. Media has so much more power than we give it credit for. From a very young age, it controls the way we think and how we interpret the world around us. So, in a way, Gerbner's argument makes a lot of sense. We like to feel involved in any TV show we watch. If someone sees a world created by TV writers with a lot of violence and crime, they are inclined to feel involved in that action, carrying it into the real world.
But I also think that we influence the media more than we give ourselves credit for. If said TV show doesn't appeal to a lot of people, it'll get cut. We are the ones who are attracted to violence on television. That's why TV shows are violent. So, I think that television isn't the only thing to blame. We have a natural inclination to believe we aren't safe. We're always trying to attain the ultimate level of safety. Television feeds that fear more than creates it.
That's what "Once Upon a Time" is about. Nadine Gordimer doesn't ever mention the woman and her husband watching violent television. It could have been a detail that she didn't find important, but I don't think so. I think that it was their own fear of the world around them that prompted them to put up so much security that they didn't need. What the author is trying to say is that we place so much emphasis on being as safe as we can that, in the end, we hurt ourselves trying to protect ourselves from imaginary threats. Those threats don't necessarily have to present themselves in television. Most of the time, we come up with them all on our own.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
The Man Falling From the Sky
When 9/11 hit, I was a year old, on the other side of the country, and watching Sesame Street. I don't even remember that. When my mom tells the story of how she felt during 9/11, that's the way she starts it; she was sitting with me, watching Sesame Street.
So when the anniversary of this tragic event rolls around every year, I feel unqualified to even talk about it. I have no recollection of it, and even if I did, I would just remember my mother screaming while she watched red and yellow fireworks. Sure, now I would know what those fireworks were, but it still wouldn't have as much of an impact on me as it did on my mom.
That said, I feel that this image helps me understand it a little bit better. It always amazes me how people can feel so powerless that they decide to fall to their deaths. So, this image shows how much power was robbed from America on that date. Fourteen years later, this tragedy still hits people as fresh as it did the day the event occurred. Most Americans have this image of the USA as a superpower, which is true most of the time... except when it's not. This image captures what happens when one is out of options, when he has to decide what's more important: controlling his fate, or letting it control him.
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