Monday, December 9, 2013

1984 or Real Life?

In 1984, the thought police are a pretty creepy idea. To know that all the time, someone is monitoring your thoughts, that you never have complete privacy, that’s pressure that no average citizen wants to deal with. Personally, and I think I speak for more than just myself, I think the thought police is a huge invasion of privacy that most people could do without, and wouldn’t want to deal with. The good news is that 1984 is just a book written by George Orwell, and the thought police don’t really exist. At least in our country we have rights to our privacy that the government can’t see, right? Wrong. We don’t have thought police yet, but we have the National Security Agency (NSA) which is pretty close.
Whether or not you realize it, the NSA knows more about you than the average person is comfortable with. The NSA knows everything you searched on the internet, they can read your emails, and even listen in on your phone calls. With a plethora of information readily available to them they can determine what we like and dislike, and basically what type of person we are. What you once thought was your “private” information, the government knows. Knowing that the NSA can listen to my phone calls and see all my internet activity and emails unnerves me.
In 1984, party members accepted the thought police’s role in their society based on the party saying that they shouldn’t worry about it if they have nothing to hide. That is exactly what the United States government said when addressing the NSA situation. They are invading our privacy, and no matter how they justify doing it, it is still flat out wrong.
ce1.jpggood guy nsa
https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying

Friday, October 25, 2013

What is Art?

To me art is a visual representation that provokes though or emotion and blended with a great deal of skill needed to create it. It must take skill or else everyone would be “artists” which is not the case. A piece of art should make people think in a provocative way, and explore new ideas. It should make the viewer consider new ideas or spark emotions when they are observing it. In short, art is where idea meets skill.
This is a good example of art. This is art because it obviously took an immense amount of skill to create. I sure couldn’t have painted that and I’m sure most people couldn’t have either. It looks extremely realistic and the colors blend together well. Also, this portrait will force people to think. It portrays heaven and hell which some people do not believe in and they will be angered by this. Others believe in the afterlife but, obviously no one on earth knows what its like. It will get people curious or maybe spark new ideas about what the afterlife might be like. Either way looking at this work of art makes think. Studying this portrait causes an opinion to be constructed which requires an individual to think in order to create their opinion.
            Others may argue and say that this painting means nothing and doesn’t strike their emotions and cause provocative thought. I disagree. The painting could be completely unimportant to you and yet you would still at least consider the possibilities that this painting suggests, whether it’s a negative or positive view. It suggests an idea that’s hard to wrap your head around because it’s such an abstract thought. Lastly, this painting is complete opinion because no one living on earth can know what the afterlife looks like, or if there even is an afterlife. Because of that, everyone forms their own unique opinion about what’s depicted and they think about it.