IWA #3 On the website of Leslie Hall, social deviant? Or Diva?

Just when you thought you've seen everything, someone comes along and turns things upside down. This is my impression of Leslie Hall's unique, funny and in your face website. She takes everything considered repulsive and in bad taste and flips it on it's head. The result is a cult following of people who are in on it and not afraid to laugh at themselves and society. I love this so much because the media gives us all kinds of reasons every day to not like who we are or how we look. Sometimes I find I'm so taken in by it that it occupies my brain more than actual important stuff. Life is full of joys and sorrows, if you can't take a step back and laugh at certain situations it can make you hard. So here we have a group of true out casts! These people make Goths, Rockers, Rappers, and Beaters look like clones! Oh, think you're unique cause you're sporting a Bob Marley shirt and some moccasins? Think again! This troupe makes the hipsters in Santa Cruz look, GASP, NORMAL! I would be willing to bet there aren't more than a handful of people in the entire state of California who would even attempt to wear spandex again (bikers not included) much less the portion of us considered overweight!

Another thing I noticed about her website is it's a spell check and grammar nazi's nightmare! One might see this as just a way to further elude to the farce of it all. So people may more easily see and want to be “in on” the joke. But it may also suggest non conformity if you read between the lines. I saw she has “wedding packages” on her website which immediately reminded me of “The wedding singer” particularly the scene where Adam Sandler's character recruits the social rejects at the reception to sing along with “Love Stinks”. Also I have recently studied a comedian from the 70's and early 80's named Andy Kaufman who I've concluded was more about doing whatever he wanted on stage and embracing whatever reaction this caused. He just wanted a reaction, whatever that may have been over indifference. I also concluded that in this way, even if it wasn't intentional he may have woken some people up. By that I mean made them think twice about conformity.

I think this message is important to spread because of sheer numbers. There are so many people in the world that we've become either indifferent or abusive to each other. You see the evidence of abuse every day. Whether you go out and witness someone taking out their bad day on some undeserving store clerk or if you stay home and hear on the news about a teen being bullied to death for their sexual orientation. The indifference is the reason these things are still happening. It's artists and humanists like this who remind us not to be silent. We have to stand up for those who are beaten down to much to stand on their own anymore. We have to call people on their insensitivity, yes in public! Yes to a total stranger! How else will they learn? Maybe they didn't get their dose of humility in high school like most of us. But we all need this temperance to improve ourselves, to find happiness, and to improve the world.

These are things I think I can do to help. Because I've been that undeserving cashier and I've also been that person on the road that honks and flips people off. I can only control my own reactions and behavior I can't control others but at least I can stand up for someone who needs it or point out something someone may have done that was wrong and hope for the best. I'm not sure I'll ever be brave enough myself to get up one morning and decide to sport spandex pants, and a bedazzled sweater all day but I can at least remember Leslie whenever I start to feel self conscious about my appearance. Her message to all being WHO CARES? BE YOURSELF! Because the people matter don't mind, and the people who mind don't matter!

http://www.lesliehall.com/

Group 3

The year is 2440AD. There is only a fraction of the whole population of each country left. We had failed to curb our polluting ways and were buying up resources from under developed countries. But the real trouble started when we stopped going outside. People became so disconnected from personal interaction due to the virtual worlds and anonymity available on the internet and then the Avatar was invented. Originally intended for military and construction use mainly, manufacturers soon came up with an easily operated virtual reality interface headset. That's when they realized the possibilities of marketing to the general public. First for the disabled then for games and experiences beyond human capacity and eventually most work. Now there was no need to wear all the protective gear and masks to get things done outside. It didn't take long for humanity to replace most of their waking lives with the new virtual one. By the year 2350 very few people left home at all due to the state of the planet, pollution, lack of natural resources or open spaces that were unspoiled. There were biodomes but they were for farming to feed the population. In the year 2428 world war broke out over fresh water rights to remaining glacial areas and clean soil. It was anticipated by all to be the last war, so each government started building structures to protect the biodomes and also domiciles to house survivors of a the possible nuclear fallout.

In 2434 this awful future was realized. It was the United States who launched the first nuclear weapons against China and Russia into space in an attempt to cripple their forces in the poles for water mining. Then came the battles for the remaining soil and the latest water filtration technology. Those who were not in favor of the war and had the ability to send Avatars abroad collected as many materials for rebuilding as possible. The Avatars were re-purposed for building and gathering materials. Now it is the goal of those who remain to rebuild earths atmosphere and address the social and political systems that failed. Rebuilding the way we govern and a barter/fair trade system of work and credits instead of currency.

Group 3

Andrew Tran

Billy Li

Jessica Gonzales

Liping Ding

Mike Bacon

Myanh Mai

Nichole Carlson

Yanlun Lin

Experiment: Town in England turns off traffic lights, surprising results.

http://www.wimp.com/trafficlights/

“The Matrix” Alternatives

All great movies draw parallels to our lives and the human experience as a whole. The Matrix is one of the most intriguing films of our time. The way it integrates powerful metaphors of our culture and society with technology successfully creating a modern myth is as impressive now as it was when I first saw it. I am pleased that with this assignment the very political message hidden in the plot was revealed to me. To be honest I'm ashamed I didn't see it before.


The first time I saw this movie I immediately saw a modern myth. I had viewed lectures from a man named Joseph Campbell about “The Heroe's Journey” and was amazed at yet another updated example of this common theme throughout mankind's history. I was also impressed by the integration of the concept widely thought to be “new age” of our thoughts being able to affect the physical world. The idea that “thoughts are things” was not new to me though I don't know who thought of it first or even where I first heard it.


I was delighted by the parallel the movie draws with “Alice in Wonderland” in the decision Neo has to make about whether to continue the search for knowledge or end it. What I didn't see before was the parallel it draws to our current political state and society. Here you have a government like system that exists solely to make sure the population does not learn enough to interfere with its agenda. In the movie the agenda is to keep people in a dream state so they don't notice they are actually being used for their biology. In our current political climate one could say the same is being done by corrupt politicians with the agendas of those who give them their money and power. On the surface we appear to be free. We are educated and even the impoverished parts of this country are far more wealthy than those of many other countries. However recently it has become evident that we are continually deprived of our civil rights. Those who run for office are able to run smear campaigns and ask for votes to office without delivering any facts or true intentions of what they intend to do once in power. More and more our rights to privacy are disappearing as technology surpasses our abilities to make laws that govern the ethical use of them. Also some laws are simply broken without prejudice in the name of national security.


So then in answer to the question posed to us about which “pill” or path I would or do choose to take I have to say the red pill and the harsh truth. I'm all too aware of the consequences this introduces. With ignorance there appears to be less consequence because it is almost a child like state. If you choose ignorance you have only to accept what you are told is true and do not have an obligation to study or search any further. Also there is no added responsibility that comes from having this limited knowledge. But however worry free you may feel you will have cheated yourself because those who know the truth have a scary amount of power over what you are allowed to know and what happens to you. Choosing knowledge is the harder path but as they say it is usually the harder path that is right. With knowledge comes responsibility to use its power ethically. When you become aware that people are being used and stripped of their rights it is your ethical responsibility to make it known in order to effect a change for the better. It is my contention that anyone who has a decent sense of ethical behavior would have to choose knowledge and all the duties and responsibilities that come with it. As stated in the Declaration of Independence and a quote I heard in another movie “National Treasure” "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security."

Interesting foot note: This statement appears right before the quote from the movie in the Declaration of Independence. "accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

Examined Life Homework