Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Media Use Inventory...WOW
I calculated that I spend an average of 178 days a year with the media in some form or another.
This combined with the fact that I spend approximately 122 days a year sleeping, leaves me with the staggering figure of 65 days on average that I spend without the media per year.
Can anyone say OMG?!!!!!!
This combined with the fact that I spend approximately 122 days a year sleeping, leaves me with the staggering figure of 65 days on average that I spend without the media per year.
Can anyone say OMG?!!!!!!
Monday, August 28, 2006
George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant"
I just finished reading George Orwell's short essay "Shooting an Elephant" for (I think) the third or fourth time. However, I don't remember the essay having such an impact on me before. Perhaps I was too young to truly appreciate or realize the message before. Reading it again made me almost want to cry at the barbaric truths that seep through each passage.
I especially love the passage in which the main character reveals that he knows very clearly that he should not shoot the elephant, in fact, he cringes at the thought; However, the thought of looking like a fool in front of the "natives" is just more than he could possibly bear. In essence, he realizes that he has in fact trapped himself into a mask that he chose to wear; that he must act a certain way because it is how the "natives" expect him to act and doing anything contrary to that would somehow take away from him and his perceived image. What is so ironic about the story is that the "natives" literally despise him, and yet he is willing to perform an act that would haunt him for the rest of his life, an act he knows is utterly and completely immoral to him, so that he doesn't have to deal with the "natives" criticism.
I think what I find so haunting about this essay is the blinding truths that bind the story, and how sadly they reflect the majority of the human race.
I especially love the passage in which the main character reveals that he knows very clearly that he should not shoot the elephant, in fact, he cringes at the thought; However, the thought of looking like a fool in front of the "natives" is just more than he could possibly bear. In essence, he realizes that he has in fact trapped himself into a mask that he chose to wear; that he must act a certain way because it is how the "natives" expect him to act and doing anything contrary to that would somehow take away from him and his perceived image. What is so ironic about the story is that the "natives" literally despise him, and yet he is willing to perform an act that would haunt him for the rest of his life, an act he knows is utterly and completely immoral to him, so that he doesn't have to deal with the "natives" criticism.
I think what I find so haunting about this essay is the blinding truths that bind the story, and how sadly they reflect the majority of the human race.
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