assignment II

i am aware i haven't done the first assignment yet. it will be done, don't fret.

I found that the first presenter, who spoke about censorship in Germany, hit closest to home by way of discussing mass growth, mass production and mass consumption as modern afflictions. Of course, he wasn't arguing that point as his own, but that of the Wiemar Republic. Either way it parallels our society because we, too, are the subjects of such "afflictions" in the current era. Is it bad? Very likely. But it can't be stopped. Our youth is bombarded with pop culture imagery every waking hour of their lives. So are we losing a sense of reality? I vote yes. There is very little intellectual discourse out there for the youth to take interest in, and why should they when there are so many other alternatives that are very likely much more "entertaining." So, I don't believe that it was the fear that German youth was going to be crude, rude and disrespectful-more a fear of the mass loss of the ability to think critically and independently. It can be argued that the present youth has yet to, and may never, acquire such skills.

Professor Chung's presentation was good but it wasn't until the very last slide that the real issue of censorship came up. The last slide was simply a black background with white text that read "this presentation has been self censored." It makes one wonder just how much we are missing. How much work are artists not making because of this paranoia about censorship? I personally know an artist who was fired from his job as a photographer for the Scranton Times because someone "important" at the paper staff found a picture of my friend on myspace. He was wearing a strap on dildo on his face. The photo had to of been 6 or 7 years old. My friend most likely hadn't even been on myspace in years. I think my main issue with censorship is that it makes people afraid to be themselves, not so much in art, but in society, in the real world. Who are these people that we interact with on a daily basis? Why do we have to be these different people in front of each other? My ideas about this apply more to the professional setting than the academic [as students].

i was censored as an adult this summer while approaching my grandparents house in Somerville, Tennessee. I was wearing an Obama t-shirt. It's a very comfy t-shirt, nice, thin, soft, wonderful. I wear it more so because it's incredibly well made than because it has the president's face on it. My mom told me i had to take it off before we got to their house. Ridiculous, I know. They are so old school, i'm almost certain my ancestors owned slaves. So to wear the shirt would be to disrespect my family. I complied, I did. i had to for my mothers sake. Ironically, the first person to greet my mom and me was Barbara, my grandma's black maid. I so wished i hadn't covered up the shirt with a zip-up. Barbara then proceeded to tell me the difference between niggers and blacks -out of nowhere. i didn't know how to respond. i just laughed. had to do w. something in the news. i think everyone can read bw the lines and figure out why this censorship was wrong.