But let's go back a day or two and think about the Rally for Sanity and/or Fear that happened last weekend. I spent some time going through the pictures of signs attendees carried, and I think they are good illustrations of the Internet/YouTube mindset from which the videos we watched (and the videos we seek out) were spawned. The site has almost 500 pictures, but here are a few of my favorites:
Some of the signs are silly, some are born out of frustration and anger, but what I've come to appreciate about the Internet is that it places the responsibility of sifting through all points of view in order to think for ourselves. This isn't the 50s, where we had one newspaper, a couple television channels, and scary men behind curtains carefully distributing the information we are to consume. Those scary men are still around (hello Fox News and the current favorite whipping boy Glenn Beck), but the kids with webcams and the people with signs and the technology that distributes it all to us are working hard to tear the curtains down.
It's hard work, thinking. Sometimes, I just don't want to do it. Sometimes, I just want a nice, quiet, prepackaged idea. But that attitude is irresponbsible. Sure, there's the old saying "if you leave your mind open, people will throw a lot of garbage into it." But I'm gonna give myself some credit for being able to sort through the garbage.
I went to a creative writing workshop once where writer was toasted after he/she read with this:
Here's to the garbage, here's to the shit. Here's to the garden that grows out of it.
Thinking, learning, voting, living -- if it's done right and if it's worthwhile, it will NOT be easy. And that's what these videos and all the class reading, even out beloved Manovich, remind us. We're grown-ups. We've got work to do. So let's just get on with it, shall we?
Loved the paintings and the ideas behind them. I had a friend who was at that rally. Great pictures you posted. I especially liked your commentary about thinking and that a life well lived is messy and thinking is not easy but always worth it!
ReplyDeleteIt's also interesting to consider the rally's relationship to the internet from an organizational perspective. There is, of course, the mostly made up kerfuffle between Reddit, Fark, and Stewart/Colbert over whose idea the rally really was, but no one can deny that the web had a powerful effect on carpool organization, slogan creation, and satellite rally creation.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt. I learned that one of my favorite signs, the "Protest signs are an ineffectual..." is a riff on a webcomic I love, Wondermark.
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