Has anyone else noticed the recent trend towards using parodies to make a statement?
Despite the obvious rivalries between Comedy Central's Colbert report and CNN's Bill O'Reilly, the two shows have many things in common.
1. They both make convincing arguments to further their point of view
2. They both refuse or deny evidence to the contrary
3. The audiences that watch them both believe they are slightly wittier or more sly then the others who watch the opposing show.
After contemplating these similarities, you begin to realize that everyone is always trying to impose their ideals onto you. Explicitly or implicitly, theres always an agenda
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Why is Mario's hat red? Because they programmed it that way...
Eight years old.
Remember when you could make up the biggest, most epic and grand story whenever asked about the history of your toys?
I do. My niece and nephew, however, do not.
I recently visited my niece and nephew a week or so ago and interrupted their game of Super Smash Brothers
Seeing my chance to feel intellectually superior, I opted to strike up a conversation with them in hopes of hear a silly story which would reassure of me my progress through life. I started by asking them who was winning, then got into more detail about which character was stronger and why. The subject finally brought me to asking the history of the characters. My question was
"Where did Mario come from? Does he have a mom? How come she's never around? Who pays there bills? He can't honestly make a living finding money in random blocks of brick around the street can he? Doesn't he have a job? He'll never get one if he keeps chasing girls all the time. Why does he always wear a red hat, even when he's underwater?"
I expected an answer similar to one I got earlier that year when asking my niece why her barbie (i assume that was her name) need 7 pairs of shoes. She responded telling me a long winded story of how and why 2 were for ball room dancing, 4 were for her yoga classes and the last was a gift that she planned to trade in because it didn't look very nice.
This time however, I just got a
"He just does"
in response to my last question.
"Why doesn't he try a blue hat?"
"because he wears a red one!"
At that point they become grumpy so I didn't pursue the matter. It did, however, leave me questioning the nature of technology and it's relation to creativity. Those kids didn't feel the need to make up stories to explain characters, they just took them as absolute truths...
...and we wonder why youths are so screwed up...
"because he wears a red one!"
Remember when you could make up the biggest, most epic and grand story whenever asked about the history of your toys?
I do. My niece and nephew, however, do not.
I recently visited my niece and nephew a week or so ago and interrupted their game of Super Smash Brothers
Seeing my chance to feel intellectually superior, I opted to strike up a conversation with them in hopes of hear a silly story which would reassure of me my progress through life. I started by asking them who was winning, then got into more detail about which character was stronger and why. The subject finally brought me to asking the history of the characters. My question was
"Where did Mario come from? Does he have a mom? How come she's never around? Who pays there bills? He can't honestly make a living finding money in random blocks of brick around the street can he? Doesn't he have a job? He'll never get one if he keeps chasing girls all the time. Why does he always wear a red hat, even when he's underwater?"
I expected an answer similar to one I got earlier that year when asking my niece why her barbie (i assume that was her name) need 7 pairs of shoes. She responded telling me a long winded story of how and why 2 were for ball room dancing, 4 were for her yoga classes and the last was a gift that she planned to trade in because it didn't look very nice.
This time however, I just got a
"He just does"
in response to my last question.
"Why doesn't he try a blue hat?"
"because he wears a red one!"
At that point they become grumpy so I didn't pursue the matter. It did, however, leave me questioning the nature of technology and it's relation to creativity. Those kids didn't feel the need to make up stories to explain characters, they just took them as absolute truths...
...and we wonder why youths are so screwed up...
"because he wears a red one!"
The Solution?
I've been trying to read newspapers lately. Not just the ones that I usually frequent to, but ones that traditionally stayed away from. Things like the province, national post, and even the Toronto Times (their websites anyways) and so on.
The reason for my recent forays into unfamiliar writing is a hypothesis that if I realize how slanted most of the papers are, I can still be objectively critical. This, however, was a naive mistake on my part.
It's hard to understand the power of repetition until you experience it yourself.
I originally began reading news from just the Globe and Mail. I never realized how elitist the paper was, until I started reading the other papers that I've mentioned.
It was a strange transition from hating the uneducated mass, to hating the conservative party, then hating the liberal party.
This much intake pretty much led me to hating everything, which I suppose can be argued the most objective way to think of anything.
Thankfully, I've found a way to access news from all (or at least what I currently believe as all) news sites.
Marumashi
It takes news stories from all websites in it's archive and compiles them onto a single page. So far it seems to be quite enlightening, although I still worry about it's heavy reliance on the google news aggregator...
The reason for my recent forays into unfamiliar writing is a hypothesis that if I realize how slanted most of the papers are, I can still be objectively critical. This, however, was a naive mistake on my part.
It's hard to understand the power of repetition until you experience it yourself.
I originally began reading news from just the Globe and Mail. I never realized how elitist the paper was, until I started reading the other papers that I've mentioned.
It was a strange transition from hating the uneducated mass, to hating the conservative party, then hating the liberal party.
This much intake pretty much led me to hating everything, which I suppose can be argued the most objective way to think of anything.
Thankfully, I've found a way to access news from all (or at least what I currently believe as all) news sites.
Marumashi
It takes news stories from all websites in it's archive and compiles them onto a single page. So far it seems to be quite enlightening, although I still worry about it's heavy reliance on the google news aggregator...
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