Imagery

 

Authors, writers, journalists and other individuals in the writing capacity have all stated the current generation is more focussed on the image. They have to see it in their heads clearly to completely gain interest, and this has been compounded and supported through technological advances such as the television and the computer. iPods, iPads and iPhones all add to this, and see visual effects done on the big screen or even a miniature one. We are astounded by visual effects, and older generations quickly fall into the trap of amazement. Only now has a firework display looked disdain when in the past was an activity of awe and brilliance of the colours and energy.

Image has become the base of everything in the media, an image is used for evidence in law and is so powerful over the individuals mind. An image can change or inspire, and even destroy something easily. Propaganda, is a perfect example of what imagery can do. The fear or happiness it can inflict over its target. But I want to change the topic, or rather specify it further into the music industry.

The industry, arguably, has become joint with a media storm worldwide. Gossip, magazines, internets, blogs and newspapers all use images to convince people to think a certain way to place the victim into a certain frame of mind. Make it the majority thought, and control society in that way. Music is quite similar in the contemporary view. The music seems to have lost its colour, its interest as many fans look at their favourite artists or bands for inspiration, but inspiration in lifestyle rather than music. What the person, or role model, can give out to the world not musically but in terms of image. Are they helping, are they destroying, or are they just not caring? The music becomes forgotten, and unimportant.

Most bands now fear the musical industry, and choose to pursue their careers in music in the underground and so avoiding big record labels and other opportunities that they are clearly ready and talented enough for. The industry is less about the music, and more about what image you can give to the label and the world. Can you attract more money? Would Lady Gaga be as mainstream and popular if it wasn't for her private life, and fashion designs? Would the Pussycat Dolls be as large if it wasn't for their provocative looks in society and the media? Something tells me they wouldn't.

A lot of bands who have made it big usually find their way by attracting the youth a lot, and even the veterans in the music business. Lately the Arctic Monkeys have been the biggest influence on young youth culture, with their music being wildly addictive and including lyrics that are comical and touch on mainstream issues. However, as soon as their third album "Humbug" was released with a more experimental tone, the popularity weakened hugely. Same with Radiohead who boast a large fan base through their sudden change to an electronic sound mainly (Kid A in 2000). Popularity weakened.

 

So what is it with society? Are we really just looking for imagine over the real deal?

Preparation

More writings to be appearing soon, once I start preparing decent topics to discuss I'll get straight back to it. Don't fear.

 

I know nobody reads any of this. It's like talking to a mirror, but it actually seems to talk back to me. Gives me ideas, inspiration that I should continue. I won't be giving up, I want to improve my writing technique and this is my practice. I won't give in.

A Lost Cause

As the lights go out, cannot believe,
No end in sight, the darkness complete,
No movement and sound, sense of dream waves,
Then the crack of the storm, damned in the haze.

Black stricken in a heap, cannot see,
Falling into the depth, heart breaks in,
Soul no use now, mind has gone cold,
No more air now, its getting old.

Its a lost cause in the back of my head,
A cold feeling that leaves me standing still,
Lost memories shattered and eaten whole,
Collapsed in the middle, chipped from the top.

Your a real child. A World child. A lost child. A lost cause.
Your a dead child. A dying child. A fake child. A lost cause.

That's me inside.

It’s in your heads.

Negative turning points in life can usually be sought out of a result of depression, disagreement and even failure. However, through such events and sorts is when experiences are formed, and also the will to avoid it from happening again. It spurs us to learn and improve the situation for the next time. Negativity inspires people to improve and learn their mental limits in life, and how far they can really go overall.

A positive attitude is mainly portrayed as more popular and even an easier way to live. Ignore the negatives and stressful parts of lives and concentrate on the next positive outcome, easy to do in the short term but not the long. In society, those with positive mindsets are treated and accepted a lot more than those who think any other way. Everybody enjoys a positive thinker in the group or area, they liven the mood and keep other people confident. It's good, really good but there are limits (as there is to everything). Optimistic thinkers excel in academics and in life generally, they live long, gain strong relationships earlier and are usually better off financially. But there has to be a downside?

Researchers from the Duke University have identified optimists at an ordinary or extremist level can being to forget and lose are of unique interactions and lifestyle choices they face. They forget that a bill or fine will appear to them for their house or car, or any asset they own. Positivity leads to forgetfulness of things that occur in reality, or that most people would think – negativity. This sense of forgetting falls under the term Optimism Bias.

Optimism Bias describes the tendency for people to be over-optimistic about the result of particular events and actions. It leads to false sense of security, and even the forgetting of consequences of safety. Simplistic examples can include: a child overestimating his/her results in an exam and even a person overestimating job offers and salary opportunities.

Sometimes, optimism bias can exist without knowing, or falls under the category of assumed knowledge. Motorists are an example in how they believe they are safer on the roads despite their smaller size. Same with how smokers think they have a better chance of escaping smoke-related diseases. It's a scary fact that some people think in this way, but is an extremist side-effect of optimism overall or even positivity.

Positivity and negativity, a fine line between both maybe. Or can they be brought together? Either way it's in your heads, and your decision. People will accept or reject you depending on your ideas. Make a choice and respect others, don't bring them down on their own ideas for it.

Listen...again

ClIcK

Listen

Hear that fading pounding in your ears. It's your heart heading closer and closer to infinite nothingness.

Happiness may not be the way forward either. Then what is?


 
Click

The Corruption

 
The interest is wading in the water. Wading in the deepness of the carrying ocean into the layers of sediment on the earth. It spreads, it worsens, it acts and the result is a decline. How long must be look at it and decide we are not capable of changing it. Pushing the negatives away and turning them new, better and improved. Individuals have all changed the world in their own way, why can't more individuals be more influenced and begin to care? It's a frightening question, but there are again multiple sides to all.

Liberalism is a good way to start on the discussion. The thought process of wanting to change and improve due to an open mind to disregard past traditions and set processes that have applied one way or another. Liberalists are free-thinkers, those who want to create a change and who have the open mind to take new ideas and want to implement them into a government or place of time. The lack of encouragement of free-thinking really affects an individual's mind, and corrupts their inner-cores. The corruption comes from media sources, large 'role-models' and even a collective thought that a group of people may think is right or wrong. A stereotype can affect this, and even terrible features such as racism and discrimination play a large part. The amount of advantage taken over accepting an apparently 'known' fact is much too great, and is over-powering because the majority also follow the trait. I am convinced that if a large group of people in the thousands of millions started to accept that slavery was acceptable in all societies then about 60-70% of the world will follow the same train of thought simply because a large majority follow it. It's a scary factor in the world that this is possible as majority seems to win in almost every area.

Its easy to follow the crowd. Lets face it, its simplistic, less stressful and allows you to think more selfishly due to more overall satisfaction given to yourself. To follow the crowd brings no consequence, you are supported because you are with the group. You start to respect only one thought or idea and completely neglect other areas that people may follow and believe. The fact that people call religions 'cults' is a clear example that people dislike those who think differently because it forces them to consider leaving the crowd and well losing that satisfaction they crave so much. It's a selfish way of thinking that people gather and keep these days, and they fend of all other ideologies because they don't want to be supposedly 'tainted'. They aren't free thinkers of sorts, they lack the open mind to new ideas…or I guess lacking the liberalism or risk to go and try new ideas.


 
It's a corruption. More on this later.

The Scream of the Silence

The kick is all I hear,

Past blues, with head down,

End of The Line, but we wait,

Concentrated into meaningless stops

It's obvious but we don't see,

Wishing upon nothingness overall,

Air moves without a sound,

The drowns of the wind in the air.

YOU ARE A ROBOT.

YOU ARE A FAKE.

YOU ARE INHUMAN.

You have given up…. .. … ..

In The Scream of the Silence,

We don't' wait for you.

Moving onwards, useless walk of life,

Falling down due to you.

A sight of the end,

Beloved frames of the mind,

World keeps spinning round,

Like a pendulum on the tick.

The high-rise, born us in,

A place so lost and blind,

We can't see as we don't want to,

We fear the end, the inevitable too much.

It's a sad thing. Seeing us ignore and reject reality. Life will never be the same the next day. We are in social, economic and political decline around the whole world and in every house in your street. Our standards of living will decrease, there isn't much individuals can do but as a group…as a whole….we can accomplish GREAT THINGS. Make the world equitable, livable and sustainable…Don't you understand….

Don't you understand….please.

Learn not Fight

"A closed mind is like a closed book…

Arriving at the airport is already striking fear into the mind. It's created to be a death trap, a place where people now understand that it could be the last thing they ever see. Terrorism, bombs, explosives, knives and the sense of sitting in a tightly enclosed coffin hurtling thousands of metres above the safety of the earth. The media controls our mind in this aspect, by reporting on the latest emergency landings, crashes, bomb rumours and drug dealers trying to trade their stock through. Television shows such as "Borderline Security" also instil this fear of arriving and departing from an airport. The stress and nerves are so blatantly evident in the public people there, customs officers and even the janitors. There is a very fine glassed ceiling above that nobody wishes to break or cross the line upon. You just cannot be relaxed at an airport, and the heavy searches through customs make you feel guilty no matter how innocent one can be. Stereotypes, race and personal perspectives all come into play at this one place. You are one of many, and you may be the one that gets caught.

Perhaps it is from this reason that people arrive in new countries fearful and protective rather than open and optimistic. The stress of the airport tears apart the soul inside of an individual, that large fear of danger that was so close. It takes a while to shake it off, and being in a new country with new cultures does not help at all. We become resistant to learn, hesitant to understand and end up fighting for our own culture to exist. Talking to people we know we can relate to instead of meeting others, locals, who can teach you so much. Many do sometimes question why people are closed minded to new places and ideas. The airport and its stress can be a factor, but I think an insight view into an individual can also bring out new answers.

Naturally, humans and really most animals on Earth are very proud. We have natural pride in our systems and protection over what is ours. We live to fight and protect what is rightfully ours to our own mind. Such as animals protecting their homes, we would protect our houses and personal possessions in similar ways. We defend our rights, freedom of speech for example, in ways of protests and in the past (even now) riots and violent ordeals. The things we hold dear to ourselves we will defend mercilessly. I believe personally that it is this problem that causes closed-mindedness over new cultures and ideas. We are so used to being in our own 'safe-spots' in our country, home and area. We are so attached to our friends and family, that once they are gone we will do everything possible to keep them near and known. It is easier to do because were used to it. The fact of learning something brings a sense of boredom to people, a sense that they will somehow 'lose' their own culture in the process, even as if they are abandoning or resigning from it. Become a traitor? Hardly so.

It is a cruel thing that people prosecute and attack others for wanting to go overseas and learn new cultures, that when that person returns home (supposedly changed) they are stricken down by people that were close to them. "You've changed, I don't like you." That sort of thing. In our society, it is from my view, that people (even younger children) just do not want to learn and explore until they are much older. Young teenagers hating school from an early age due to boredom of learning, even learning necessities of survival they just dislike acting in the way they are asked. Some people are racist to those trying to learn, scoff and laugh behind the backs of newcomers to the country or area (even school) because they are different. People stay away from them, it's an awful sight to see but (to my disgust) can be seen as quite a natural reaction. It brings down the aspect of equality in a group of people, they attempt to be equal but a media storm that arrays around them through television, radio and newspapers brings up an image. A stereotyped image of what that person is and what he does.

I will never forget turning on CNN in the wave of the "War On Iraq" and just seeing people (supposedly citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan) blowing things up and killing. Was I one of the few who just had yelled in fury how obscene it was that this is the image the media presented. The purpose may have been to show severity, but overriding that is the purpose to prove that they are the enemy. Propaganda shown helplessly in a nations face, and so easily done. That same example is shown for other cultures and basic stereotypes that we now take to far.

It's a sad thing. Really is…

Our minds are naturally closed, but now its definitely time to open them more and embrace. We are all individuals, and not part of any stereotype people may assume. Learn about new people, allow them to teach you their culture whilst you teach them yours.

…it's just a block of wood."

Charts

Usually this is on the Pitch Of Silence blog, but that is on temporary hiatus until I actually achieve more followers here first.

Here's some music to behold, some songs worth listening to.

1. An Accent Beyond - Portal 2 soundtrack (disk 2)

2. Staircase - Radiohead

3. Forwarding The Cause of Science - Portal 2 soundtrack (disk 2)

4. Pendulum - Konflict

5. Dirge - Death In Vegas

6. Colour Me - Dot Allison

7. Aftersun - Massive Attack

We listen, years upon years,We listen, side by side, We listen....nothing ever comes as close as this....the energy....the incomplete energy of what we need...what we want. Its Now Upon Us.

(c) Jerrod Lew 2011

Drowning One’s Own Beliefs

One person cannot change anything fully. But anyone, being an individual or a group, can react and begin something that is so much bigger. Any idea, political party, protest or even social group all began with an idea between either one person or a small group. The idea would be spread to others with responses of hope that people would respond positively and join the particular cause. Join because they believe and find it worthwhile. The group would grow and prosper if all went to plan, even with cracks appearing in the surface and all the fact of perpetual succession would take place and others would control and continue the cause. The succession only appears after a long duration of existence. However, my main message here would be – why do so many people doubt a person?. Is it really so irregular to want to make a difference, why does society lower that below its mainstream quantities? Is it the fear that things will change? The fear that threatens to ruin one's life, change societies values so it doesn't suit his or herself?

Are we really that selfish?

It's a noteworthy point to make that we as general beings are selfish at our base level. Take away law, society values, disciplines and expectations and we end up like any other animal – we are equal. The only difference is we have the ability to learn and grow further, quicker and more efficiently than other species. But allow the highlight of the book Lord of the Flies – taking place on a deserted island, no law, no rules and no sense of control at all. The children went haywire. Instincts existed to go and kill, kill and hunt for prey, take everything due the factor of greed and threat that lay of death and starvation. The threat pushed them forward and the instinct to kill and hunt revealed natural abilities we all have. To kill can easily cross one's mind, and what stops us now from reaching that? Media, society and expectations not to do it and also the all-abiding factor of threat through the law. These have saved us, stopped us from going on an all-round onslaught.

We drown our beliefs a lot in everyday lives. We either take upon a society mainstream belief of the majority, or take on our own outcasted and disrespected beliefs we believe to be true and right. What choices do we make between all that…the choice really is yours.