Propaganda 2011

I'm not entirely sure what to write for this,  I don't know if an example is necessary, I hope not because I can't find one so...

Whenever I hear the word propaganda I think of two distinctive images, the “I want you!” and the “We can do it!” posters, I'm sure you're very familiar with both. I think we'd all love to believe that propaganda is no longer prevalent in our society, but considering the title of this post is 'Propaganda 2011' I think it definitely is, and no, McCarthy isn't just sending us on a wild goose chase.

However, I don't think it's the same. Today it's more in campaign advertisements, or political cartoons, or art, not so much posters on every street corner. This is a difficult blog to write without contradicting myself. I'd love to say it isn't as in your face as it once was and that it's more subtle, but by being more subtle, it's even more in your face. And I'd love to say it's not nearly as creative, but some of the best examples are the most creative in art.

I suppose I should just leave this simply by saying it exists.

I'd love to leave a modern day example, but I think any example could be up for interpretation. I'd love to say this is a well done post, but I think that'd be a lie.

Beat Street

I’m not going to lie, when McCarthy put on Beat Street however many weeks ago, I honestly laughed. What this had to do with anything, I still don’t even know, but between the outfits and the lingo, I just had to laugh. Since then Beat Street still makes me laugh, but I’m really enjoying it.

My favorite part of the movie is probably the fact that it’s entirely filmed in New York City, which if you know me well; you know that I absolutely love that city. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll always be a Chicagoan at heart, but there’s just something about that city that I love, other than the fact that my sister lives there, so being able to see all of the city and subway is spectacular.

I also like that all the of cast are trying to fulfill something different of early hip-hop culture, DJs, MCs, break dancers, dancers, graffiti artists, producers, the movie’s got it all. Beat Street has a love story, Kenny and Tracy, a young teenager, Lee, and a soon-to-be family man, Ramo, and it also has some kick-___ dance battles and rhymes thrown in.

I still laugh at Beat Street, like the Santa’s Rap (that I just found on YouTube), and mainly the lovely track suits, but I’m really liking the movie. After all, it’s like a heartbeat, Beat Street!

Hungry for Attention?

Is Richard alone in his cravings? I’d vote no, everybody wants attention and some go to extreme lengths to get it. Using Richard as an example, he killed a cat and accidentally set his house on fire, and looking back on it he says he was just a little boy looking for attention. Of course his thoughts were subconscious; he didn’t light the curtains on fire thinking “now mom and dad will really pay attention to me!” he lit them on fire to see them burn; it’s almost as if he’s justifying his actions now. But then there are those who consciously do things for attention, like that one friend that we all have on Facebook that has a new profile picture of just themselves every other day, the one who posts a million statuses, the one who randomly IMs you and says “cmnt the pix! lolz, xox<3*!”, gag. They want the attention in the form of a wallpost or comment or even just a ‘Like’, they want it consciously.

Although attention fuels most of our actions, I think it’s important to differentiate between actions that are truly subconsciously attention driven and those that are using the need for attention as a cop out. But there isn’t a set formula for setting the two apart, it definitely depends on the person and situation. Personally, I think you can’t say that “oh, I acted out as a child because my parents were divorced”, or “because my sister got all the attention” or something of that sort, because when there are a million reasons telling you to do something wrong, there is still that one, simple reason telling you not to.

I think I overcomplicated this, shocker, but to put it simply, everyone needs attention, and if you’re not getting the right kind of attention you may go searching for the wrong kind.