Orwellian

In one of our test questions for journalism we were asked about the process of eliminating words in order to eliminate the idea that word created, i.e, getting rid of the word run, would in turn get rid of the idea of running, as there would be nothing to call it, we were asked if this would be possible to ever do, and my opinion at the time was that no, it was not possible. And then Chris told us about a type of water created by coca cola, which I believe was called 'Dasani.' Now when Chris mentioned this to us, I had no idea what he was talking about, and then, slowly it came to me, I remembered the story of the mineral water which had in fact, been simple tap water, a story which has faded into obscurity. However, what I didn't remember, was the story of the chemicals in the water...no, that particular part of the story, was muted by the company, who put out the tap water story, as a means of hiding the chemical story. So, it seems that in fact, that it is, in a way, possible to eliminate an idea by means of eliminating the words. Its a scary though when you think about it, I cant imagine what it would be like to have a world like the one described in 1984, but christ, it seems much more possible now.

Thats all for now, however something interesting this was comes, tomorrow, at somepoint
Cheers

Mirror correspondent dies in Iraq bomb attack

OK, I was originally going to start of my daily posts with the post that Chris set us before we went on holiday, however in light of recent events I've decided to change it and it will be done in my next post.

It was reported today that Sunday Mirror defence correspondent Rupert Hamer, was killed when the vehicle he was travelling was hit by a bomb, his photographer colleague, Philip Coburn was reported to be in a serious but stable condition.

This is one of the many examples of how the current war in Iraq, impacts not only the soldiers and their families, but also many others, including the journalists, who also take great risk to report on the events going on in the war.

This leads me on to my next topic of discussion, anti-war protesters...now I'm not talking about people who were against the war in general, I disagreed with the idea myself, what I'm talking about are the protesters who attack our soldiers for taking part in the war. Do they honestly think that our soldiers are involved in this war because the want to be? because the relish the chance to get blown up every day? No, they do it because its their job, and because they're the ones who actually have the guts to go out their and do what they do every day, I know I couldn't do it so I have nothing but the utmost respect for all the soldiers out in Iraq risking their lives for us.

Cheers

Back

OK, so the holidays are over, and I'm back to do my blog, I haven't posted in a long time, and to make up, as of tomorrow, I'll be posting at least once a day right up until the beginning of semester 2, so check back tomorrow for my first (of many) posts,
Cheers!

Rosebud...

So Rosebud was the name of the guys sled...well, I didn't see that coming, no not at all...never...ahem, anyways, today we watched the film Citizen Kane, and I'll admit, I found it an interesting watch. I found the message of the film, or at least, what I perceived to be the message, how being rich and successful, eventually becomes ones downfall, and is therefore, ultimately futile, extremely interesting. Its an interesting theory, and it makes a lot of sense, when you consider the effects money and power has on most people. I find it hard to really comment much about the film, having already known that rosebud was the name of the sled and thus already knowing the huge twist at the end, however I think that rosebud is a brilliant representation of how Kane's life was simpler, and better when he was younger, and that this was the reason the sled was so important to him, and why it was the last think he said before he died.

I'm aware that this post is stupidly short, however I will post something else at the weekend, so as to make my input for this week bigger

Modernism and Stuff

So, I've been wondering what to actually write about for the last 2 weeks, not having a copy of Ulysses, and I figured the best thing would be to first talk about stuff discusses in Brian's lecture and then a little bit about Freud as well, and why I dislike him.

So the lecture, we discusses modernism and the first thing we looked at, albeit not in much detail was Nietzche and his theory that God is Dead, which is an interesting theory, and in some ways it does in fact ring true, and while belief in God is still very strong, many of the smaller ideas are true, for example, mankind's loss of belief in the supernatural. I, myself am not entirely sure about the supernatural, for example a simple search on the Internet will bring up many web pages of apparently 'real' pictures of ghosts and aliens, its obvious that many of them are fake, however some of these pictures are very realistic, and some seem impossible to fake, so the cases for an against are evenly stacked, its interesting to look at and research, and maybe one day I'll make my mind up.

We also discussed a bit about Marxism, or, more specifically Marx's alienation, and how he felt that the capitalist system produced a feeling of alienation, because it estranged him from the products of his labour. We also discusses about the False consciousness which states that even exploited workers may fail to realise their true interests and accept the dominant ideology. Now I can sort of see where this is coming from, if you look at the way some people who are abused live, some believe that it is their own fault they are abused, it links in with Marx's idea that people who are exploited fail to see their own interests, in the same way people who are abused fail to realise its not their fault and that they deserve it. Its easy to see where many of the ideas come from, however not being specifically knowledgeable about Marxism I wont carry on rambling and pretending I know anything more about it.

We further went on to have a small discussion about Freud, however I will go into more detail about Freud, and my opinions of him, at the end.

One of the last things we discussed was about New Reality, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. We discussed their respective discoveries and came to two conclusions, the first, that everything was unpredictable, and also, that precise theories are impossible and that science is based on Probability. Now I agree with both these conclusions, while some things are predictable, not everything is, this is why many scientific experiments are carried out under strict safety conditions, if everything was predictable, would all these precautions be necessary? No, we would know exactly what would happen and what to expect. This isn't to say that some things are predictable, again, the use of safety equipment proves this, for example, sticking something on top of a flame will make it heat up, and adding chemicals to this heat will, in most circumstances, cause a reaction, which may be volatile, necessitating the use of safety equipment. This also links in with the theory that science is based on probability, another example of this is that many experiments carried out, are impossible to be exact, and are usually carried out more than once, using an average as the answer, meaning that we can guess what will happen each time, but not necessarily know.

And now onto Freud (groan). I don't like Freud, I never have, and the fact that this lecture was my fifth lecture discussing the man made me, if possible, like him even less. Why don't I like Freud? maybe its because I'm a guy and I find the idea that I fear being castrated by my father for being in love with my mother ridiculous, and that the theory that all women suffer from penis envy is also ridiculous, or maybe its just that I'm sick of hearing about him whatever bloody subject I take. I find it strange how he managed to link everything to sexuality, and I'm sure, in this day and age, his ideas would be considered perverted. However saying that, I don't dismiss that he did do the world of psychology good with his ideas of the mind and the subconscious, but did he really need to link all that to sexuality too? Regardless of what hes done for psychology, I still don't, and probably never will like him.

This seems like a rather large post, and it is, and its because its been a while since I posted, and I will have another post, related to our last lecture up by Wednesday...hopefully.

New Blog

For anyone who may be concerned, I have started a second blog, The Mystical Land Of Fuchal (pronounced Fushal), this is a personal blog I will be using to post various things that aren't related to Journalism, be it Music/Film/Video Game reviews, or just general rantings, so if you actually enjoy my ranting, or just want to read random reviews I may post, then head on down to http://www.themysticallandoffuchal.blogspot.com/ where I will (hopefully) start posting within the next week

Cheers

The lizard man, AKA David Icke

Hello, so I'm back for my second year of uni and I've been a bit late posting my first blog of the year, however I will be updating weekly from now on (at least once a week) and so my first entry concerns a strange man, called David Icke.

David Icke is a conspiracy theorist, which is not strange in its-self, however, his theory is slightly more bizarre, he believed that the country is run by a group of super lizards, masquerading as humans. This, is possibly one the of the funniest and most ridiculous theories I have ever heard, but at the same time, this story is also rather unnerving, partly due to his confidence in his theory, but also the astounding amount of followers he has. Its easy enough to understand his confidence in his theory, try and tell him its wrong and he will simply assume that you are being controlled by the lizard people, however the fact that he sells out talks every night is one the does confuse me, its fine to assume a handful of people may believe him, but the amount he has believing is astounding, and it makes you wonder about people and their faith in the government, or even their sanity.

One of the main concerns for many people, is the apparent connections between the lizard people, and Jewish people. He has, on various occasions, been accused of anti-semitism, with many people assuming that when he mentions the lizard people, he is actually talking about the Jewish people, something I cant completely agree on myself, he necer explicitly states that he means the Jewish people and after I watched the documentary, I thought that while the man was, for lack of a better phrase, a complete loon, I found it very hard to imagine he was racist, and I think that its possible that many of the people who campaign against him are maybe scared of a man they don't quite understand fully, or maybe just like the complain. To me he seems mostly harmless, he isn't actively hurting anyone, physically or mentally, and while he may be unhinged, I think its unfair for him to be judged too harshly, by all means, if he starts actively attacking people, then something should be done, but for now, perhaps he should be observed, closely if necessary, to make sure things don't get out of hand.

This being my first post in a while, I don't expect it to be all that good, however I will hopefully improve on my posts as i write more.