brookes77, 1-15-09

Postmodernism began when people stepped out of their expectations and rebelled against what was thought of to be normal, the right way to live, paint, sing, etc.
When talking about Postmodernism I thought it was really interesting that it was explained "aura" not an "era". I use to think that postmodernism is an era, a time of rebellions, riots, murders; a time of chaos. But when it was explained to me as an "aura" i really understood that it was a feeling not a time period. TV shows were filmed showing the perfect family, each member in ideal roles, aiming for the audience to feel like they should want that in a family too. The media was beginning to tell us what we should want, and what we need. I thought it was interesting that we learned in class that we are a cultural of that suffers from fear of everything, we are always paranoid. We think that we should not have to deal with pain and we are obsessed with doing thinks and traveling faster and that is so much better. We have become a cultural that rushes through life, avoiding actual pain, problems, and fear that is a part of life.
"Reality ain't what it use to be", this is one of the most truthful quotes. Reality is not reality anymore. We take everything away with a pill, or other solutions. We have an answer that will ignore the problem. Medicine prescribed to take the pain away, to take the fear away; the TV shows like second life that is an escape from one's real life, family, etc. We have made our world unreal, and obsessed with easing our worries. It was really interesting to learn about this in class because without these imperfections being voiced, one does not realize what we have become.

LightningBolt, 1/15

The concept we discussed in class – faster is better- is something that I have recently put a lot of thought into. When I was abroad I traveled to many different countries. I started to notice, mostly at restaurants and stores, that the concept or time did not occur or shape these peoples lives. In America when we go to a restaurant we expect fast, attentive service. Everywhere else in the world people expect a relaxing, leisurely experience. When I started to think why we as a culture differ so drastically when it comes to time I realized that it is because we are so busy. We tend to take on so many activities, jobs, tasks, as well as having many interest and activities that we like to do for fun and pleasure, that it becomes difficult to fit everything into our days. We have the notion that the faster we do things the more we can accomplish. We do not realize that although we are fitting more things in the quality and effort put into each activity is drastically lessened. Americans would rather have many activities or skills that they are capable of, while other cultures choose to pick one skill and become a master at it. Who is to say which was is better? Just because our cultures have evolved differently and as a culture we have developed a fast past work habit, does this mean we are less superior to other cultures? Something I did notice while traveling is that people living in cultures living as a slower pace seemed to be much happier than Americans. Living life at such a fast pace puts a lot of stress on people.

How did we begin to evolve into this life style? I think it is because our culture provides so many options. Everything we want to do we have to decide which one we want to go to or which one we want to watch. We begin to get the feeling that we want to be able to try all of these different options, whether it be a restaurant or a TV show. Other cultures seem to have so many less options and choices to make in their day to day lives. Perhaps this is why they can relax and take the time to enjoy life.

WoolyBully7, 1/18

Dr. Rog’s statement about postmodernism being an aura, not an era is the best explanation of the term I have heard. An aura is defined as a distinctive atmosphere surrounding a given source as well as an energy field that is held to emanate from a living being. By fusing these two definitions we can easily see that postmodernism is not necessarily a frame of time, but rather a frame of mind, an environment of sorts. It’s a frame of mind with statements and ideas about the cultural and intellectual aspects of society. Postmodernism is not so much a period in time as it is a philosophy towards the world we live in.

We don’t know what it is like to live in a non-postmodern world. We grew up with cell phones, ipods, laptops, Bluetooth, credit cards etc. which make everything in society faster and more complicated. Postmodern culture has opened our eyes to see that anything is possible. From “certainty” to “indeterminacy” is related in that there are so many variables that affect every part of our life that there are so few certain truths. As Hassan said, “Postmodernism suffers from a certain ‘semantic’ instability. Things get distorted and the meaning is changed. I’m sure we’ve all played the telephone game when we were younger where one whispered statement goes around a circle of people and the meaning ends up 180 degrees from what is started as.

There are so many modes of communication that hardly anything is repeated exactly how the originator had planned. Art for example, not until recently have copies of great works of art been mass produced and distributed. There used to be only one print of the Mona Lisa and now there are probably millions of copies all over the world. Things like that lose authenticity since it can be spread so easily and then become so accessible.

Juice15, 1/15

CMC 300 will be an interesting class and should help me gain a better understanding of the world that I live in. One interesting thing I came away with from our last lecture were the three words absurdity, meaninglessness and surrealism. As I look deeper I feel that these three words can help define certain things in the world that we live in. Almost everything that is shown too us in the news, the media and most of the things we do in our day to day lives could be classified into one of these three words. These acceptances of these three words are becoming part of who we are and are not typically a good thing. This ties into the Samuel Beckett play. I have not seen this play and would like to so I could gain a better understanding about these three words

The second interesting point from the previous lecture was about how “Postmodernism is an aura, not an era” (Casey). This shows that postmodernism is not something that can be looked at in a text book many years from now and has a beginning and ending date. Many things have occurred during this aura and these things have affected the psyche of people. Now a day’s people have the idea that almost everything and anything can kill or harm them. For example stores are taking peanut butter and products with peanuts off the shelf because of salmonella poising. I am now scared to eat peanut butter and am scared because I ate trail mix last night that had peanuts in it. News and movies do a very good job of taking our fears and turning them into profits. Advertisements now show you these fears and give you a way to solve them, such as buying their product will solve the problem.

As the world is continually reinventing things and plurality, parts and new technology are now the new thing, I am going to try to gain a better understanding of what postmodernism really is and how it is affecting the world we live in.

MerryChristmas!

During our discussion on Thursday, I thought more about the claim that "TV distracts us" and that "reality ain't what it used to be". I related these statements the to the movie, Wall-E. Yes, I did see it in theaters when it came out and LOVED it. Wall-E is a trash robot who travels around a barren , uninhabited New York City in search of any left-over trash. He then compresses the trash and stacks it in efforts to clean the city. The human race has used up all of its resources, chopped down forests, and has polluted the environment. As a result, there are no trees left for them to survive on Earth. The human race now lives aboard a space craft and carries on with their lives of consumption & distractions. Aboard the space craft, the humans all appear to be fat, lazy, and infatuated with trends and advertisements. They ride around on little hover chairs and sip smoothies. As a result of their chairs, they no longer know how to walk and instead, roll out of their chairs. Advertisements are constantly rolling and displaying hermeneutical concepts like "you" advertising. In one scene, the humans are influenced by an advertisement that claims that "red is the new blue". Influenced by this statement, the people press a button, changing their outfits to red instead of blue. 

This may seem like an extreme example of reality, but it is OUR reality. Dr. Rog is right, "reality ain't what it used to be". Wall-E really puts this idea into perspective because although it is somewhat extreme, we are exactly like the humans on the space craft. We are influenced by the idea of fashion trends as well as advertisements and they are constantly displayed to us at all times. We like to get places faster and try to develop new technologies in order to make our lives "easier". We cannot grasp the concept of how ridiculous all of these cultural influences really are until we step outside of our own so-called "reality" and look at ourselves through the lens of the "outsiders". The movie is a lot more than just a child's entertainment, it is a reality shock. 

aro0823, 1/18

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger 

The Daft Punk song Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, as well as the ensuing Kanye remix, addresses a prime tenet of our society which I had never consciously given much thought. In CMC 100, we were given the statistic that the average American is exposed to some 3000 advertisements per day. I am willing to wager that a large majority of those ads are in some respect related to self-improvement so you can make yourself harder, better, faster, and stronger. As a teenage girl, I am told repeatedly that my skin will never be soft and firm enough, my make-up never long-lasting enough, my body never curvy enough, my clothing never fashionable enough... And of course, neither my brain nor my muscles will ever be substantial enough to compete with those of my male counterparts.

 

The repetition of the "harder, better, faster, stronger" message puts all of us in a position where happiness is nearly impossible to attain. What you have is never enough. There is more out there. Go buy it. The pronounced relativism of postmodern society completely negates the modernist concept of absolutism. The -est suffix has nearly disappeared from daily vernacular. It is impossible to be the strongest, so one must settle to be merely stronger. From a young age I was aware that I would never be the "best" at anything because there are so many products out there I could buy that would lead me to a "more explosive performance."

Advertising is so effective that consumers, in many respects, live their daily lives in total fear. The subverted message of many ad campaigns leads one to believe that not purchasing a given product may result in death. Car manufactures are especially guilty of this method, placing constant emphasis that some obscure research firm voted some obscure facet of the door handle "safest in its class." I personally know nothing about door handle construction, but when I go to purchase my first minivan to take my 2.5 children to soccer practice, it is likely that the smooth, synthetically constructed voice of the television commercial narrator will be one of the primary factors of my decision making process. 

Rico72, 1/15

"Fear is the aesthetic du jour"

I found our discussion of people constantly living in fear very interesting.  It seems like every single year there is something new that we have to look out for.  I remember back at the end of 1999 people were panicked the world was going to end because computers would crash.  I even knew a family that bought a bunch of water and canned foods to store in there basement because they were preparing for the worst.  The news that night was reporting any technical issues that were reported and almost seemed desperate for something to happen.

Now we are constantly looking out for viruses such as SARs or Bird Flu.  We are told a bird can kill us!  We are taught what to do and not to do through fear.  One of the best lines in the movie "Mean Girls" is when they are in Sex ed. and the teacher simply says "If you have sex you will get pregnant, and you will die."  This pretty much sums up how Americans are taught to live in fear.

I believe we will probably go through another crisis in 2012.  This is the year that the Mayan calendar ends, and some believe it will be the end of the world.  Although I personally do not believe it, I think the media will do a few reports on it and then depending on ratings they will continue accordingly.  Another movie quote I'd like to reference comes from Men in Black (I swear it's relevant).  When Will Smith asks Tommy Lee Jones "Why the big secret (talking about alien life on earth)?  People are smart.  They can handle it."

Tommy Lee Jones replies, "A person is smart.  People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.  1500 years ago everybody new the earth was the center of the universe.  Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago you knew humans were alone on this planet.  Imagine what you'll know tomorrow."

This quote sums any society up.  An individual person is smart and can be capable of rationalizing a situation, but a mass of people just follow what they are told.  If something goes wrong they all panic together instead of figure out how to fix or deal with a situation.  Men in Black is funny in the sense that the agency makes a joke about how the world is constantly about to be destroyed by some "death beam" or "galactic civil war" but it always gets taken care of and none of the public knows about it.  

My personal biggest fear is simply the world destroying itself.  We have the weapons to do so, and one more conflict could put us over the edge.  I guess I should cut back on the 24.