Comments on: Lying to be true

By: aos

aos — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:24:15 +0000

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

George Bernard Shaw

ok I’ll think of a new way to continue this….might be a couple of posts down the line…but should solve the problem tonight unless someone comes up with a good line to start it with/

By: ginzu98

ginzu98 — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:15:35 +0000

I would recommend you post it, if I do it, I’ll feel like I am poaching.

2 parting quotes

In this world there is always danger for those who are afraid of it.
George Bernard Shaw

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
George Bernard Shaw

By: aos

aos — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:45:24 +0000

I’m thinking that I should somehow start a new post to continue this record breaking discussion or if someone wants to do that on their blog??
My last little thing about this is my anoyance, and don’t know if this is exactly either kv or ginzu’s reckoning but could it be that that paternalism somehow leads to the blamelessness of the individual when it comes to stupidity ie I trip and hurt my shin and I look around for someone to sue because surely I can’t be a lazy oaf…stella awards (which documents stupid lawsuits) included one where someone was attacked by a squirrel outside the mall and sued because the mall let the squirrel get out of hand and didn’t post warning signs etc…..not the same thing as being an idiot but also a case where someone who isn’t me should pay….if anything at all goes wrong with my life someone other than me should pay…and of course the old chestnut….I kill because I had a deprived childhood.

By: ginzu98

ginzu98 — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 22:59:14 +0000

As to what Kirtvocals said along the lines of being PC.

I guess I lump PC into a larger behavior that seems to always want to pad and protect our fragile egos from the world. In the US, whether its restriction of speech as not to offend anyone, or smoking bans on private property, or the Wingspread notion of “Safe”, it all seems to deny the “reality of life” through political process.

Life is unfair. unjust and impolite on occasion.

The US government seems to be taking on the role (above and beyond what seems reasonable to me) of the over protective parent, who insists on solving all are problems and leaving nothing for us to work out ourselves.

By: kirtvocals

kirtvocals — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:38:51 +0000

You’re all hitting the nails squarely on their heads, so I’m not sure why I’m putting in my 2 cents worth. However, pc nonesense makes me want to vomit. It represents the neutering of creative expression and the establishment of some culturally, and sometimes politically or legally, sanctioned thought control that is just as insidious and dangerous as anything in 1984. Some upper echelon, politicians, academics, the Masons (my point being: who is making these decisions?), tells us what is “good” and what is “bad”. It’s okay to hate Nazis and Al Qaida but it’s not okay to hate jews or hispanics, or America. Personally, I have never engaged in either activity, prefering, instead, to examine the complexities of an issue without finding some boogeyman upon which to pin my fears, and then, once I have come to some conclusion, expressing myself in whatever way I see fit. You can dismiss it, or you can agree with it, but don’t you tell me I can’t say it. I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but it is related to this “stereotype” discussion: Who is objecting to Adams’ portraits? Liberal East Coast Yankees, West Coast Hippy Hangovers, Conservative or Liberal Southerners? No matter who it is, as has been pointed out several times in this discussion, they are bringing these “stereotypes” to the images. The roots of their objections are what concern me. Do affluent, educated, white southerners feel uncomfortable seeing white people live this way? Do they raise the same objections to pictures of black Haitians living in extreme poverty, or pictures of Canada’s aboriginal people living in extreme poverty? I’d be willing to guess that they don’t. At any rate, the image does not create the discomfort, the viewer does. Take a snapshot of some guy sleeping in the shade, wearing a huge sombrero and a poncho, with an empty bottle of mescal beside him, and somebody will surely say, “Mexican stereotype”. But what if the guy in the picture is some gringo vacationing in Tijuanna? The pc boob has applied a stereotype that doesn’t have any relation to the photo except the one that he/she has applied to it.

By: ginzu98

ginzu98 — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:49:12 +0000

AOS I like that idea too, but would see it as more of a doc than a photo essay.

Oh, man would you get in you trouble though

I can hear Rosie O’Donnel now!

By: aos

aos — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:44:46 +0000

Nah we’re all just talk…

By: amuirin

amuirin — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:32:55 +0000

When are y’all gonna get started?

I’ll make popcorn.

By: aos

aos — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:00:19 +0000

Like that idea. As long as it doesn’t come across as too pc. Maybe one stereotype among a group rather than a dichotomy. You might be able to go to someone revelling in their stereotype..”I am (insert ethnic identity here)”..
Maybe you could do the obvious stereotype photo and then have contributory text from the individual about it…..taking back or owning their stereotype….like a German obsessed with beer and order but proud of it, and proud of the fact that it is associated with being German. (Actually in the movies, minorities (and there is a word that doesn’t quite mean what it should) often take ownership of stereotypical qualities and trumpet them…”Of course I can cook, I am Chinese….”

By: ginzu98

ginzu98 — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:41:03 +0000

You could document stereotypes and then contrast it with equally non-constructed non-stereotypes. Sort of a confirming and contradicted photo of each stereotype…