Blog 13

We watched Idiocracy. I was not here for the majority of the movie. Our class argues way too much. But more about Idiocracy. It was a satire of the decadence of modern society. The smart people did not reproduce and the dumb people had a lot of offspring. Haha sex it's so funny lol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The smart people did not have any babies at all and the stupid people had like almost 10 kids. This is obviously an exxageration of what happens today.

I don't think that this will happen in today's society. Contraceptives are becoming increasingly available and sex education is becomign better. However, an alarming trend is this "bstinece-only" sex education. It doesn't work. i hope that in the southern united states, and any place that has abstinece-only sex education will switch to other methods. Because seriously, if you are dumb enough to think that abstince-only sex edutcation will prevent pregnacies then I do not want you reproducing. Haha. But seriously.

In the future entertainment has been reduced to people getting kicked in the balls. Haha balls. There is no intellectual anything. Unfortunately I am seeing this happen. TLC started out as The Learning Channel and now it sucks. It shows shitty programs. We now reward teenagers for getting pregnant, we reward hicks for acting like hicks. We reward stupid people.

1984 Article

The issue that I am choosing for this assignment is Winston's job of censoring the past. He gets a message that has newspeak on it. The newspeak tells him what to change from the past. Basically it is used to show how pervasive the censoring is in Winston's world. I think that Orwell uses such an extreme example to highlight how bad censorship is and to show what unchecked censorship can lead to.

The article that I chose that relates to this is an article that informs us how Iran is censoring Google and Gmail and is making the internet private. This comes after Google's Youtube hosted an inflammatory anti-Islam video. I would link to the video but I can't for the life of me find the actual video; I can only find reactions/news clips that concern the video. Iran is a predominantly Muslim state so it makes sense that they would take offense to an anti-Islam video.

However, it is not ok for a government to censor the internet. If something is offensive to you, don't watch it. It seems like it would be pretty easy, no?

Also, there's a lot of hypocrisy from the more radical Muslims. It is expressed to the right. The video said that Islam was violent and hateful. Instead of sitting down and talking about it the Muslims stormed on embassies, killed people, etc. That is not peaceful. Here are some more examples of Muslim hypocrisy concerning censoring and their actions.

What would my handicaps be?

My handicaps would be weights on my legs, the ear-thingies in my ears, and a hideous mask. Haha just kidding about the mask. I play soccer and run and both of those use legs so the weights would inhibit my ability to use my legs to excel at those sports. I consider myself pretty smart so the ear-thingies would inhibit my smartness.

Can propaganda be a good thing?

Yes, I believe that propaganda can be used for good and can be a good thing. One of the most obvious uses of propaganda is when it is used in wartime. Sure, war can be a bad thing, but using propaganda to motivate citizens to ensure your country's victory is a noble idea. Let's make up a hypothetical situation. Country A is good. Country B is bad. Country B keeps attacking country A and country A has no choice but to go to war with country B. If country A wins then the world will be at peace. If country B wins then the world will be in chaos. I think that if country A uses propaganda to help its cause then it is an instance of propaganda being used for the greater good.

Another method of propaganda that we discussed was propaganda in children's books. In And Tango Makes Three  the two propagandic points were that it is ok to be gay and that gay people can raise a child perfectly fine, and the other point was just teaching children to be more tolerant of differences. I think that both of these points are true, so propaganda subliminally teaching children them is fine by me. Now, I know that some uninformed people will disagree with me about gay marriage. That is a contested point in our world today. However, I think that we can all agree that being tolerant is a good thing. Therefore, I think that propaganda in children's media for good things is ok.

Also, I think that it is just fine for politicians to lie to sway voters--wait, I don't, Paul Ryan.

What is a Utopia?

First off, transportation would progress to a point that food can easily and efficiently be sent wherever it is needed. No one would take more than they needed, so food waste would be negligible. If there was food waste it would be composted. Logging would stop, and nature would be more respected.Freedom of religion would be available, but there would be a strict separation of church and state. There wouldn't be any hate. There wouldn't be racism either. Hydroponics would be used to grow crops to save space and resources and to help feed the population. Everyone would love someone who would love them back. There would be universal access to food, education, healthcare, etc. People would choose around 3 jobs/careers to pursue, and then they would work those jobs as needed in their communities. Technology would progress in leaps and bounds. We, humans, would terraform Mars and would eventually people would settle Mars. 

Marriage would not be a contract or construct; rather, it would be a union between two loving human beings. You would not need to go get an official marriage "license". Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual people would have all the same rights as as heterosexual people. People would be accepting of everyone and all views would be appreciated. Political offices would not be paid jobs; however, food, shelter, etc. would be provided for those in office. People would recognize the value of exercise and keeping a healthy body weight and then unhealthy-related diseases would fall. However, disease and infections would still be present. If there weren't any then our natural defenses would cease to exist and then any slight change or infection would wipe us out.