Thoughts on Who Knows What

So basically every problem in America is a failure of reconstruction… thanks Booth. If it weren’t for you Lincoln would have fixed the country. We’d probably still have problems, but maybe racial issues wouldn’t be as big of a problem. If racial issues had been handled the right way, then maybe the KKK wouldn’t have been the end for so many individuals, but it goes both ways so there’s a good chance we wouldn’t have had the important changes that came across with the Civil Rights Movement either (which I hope everyone who reads this can agree would be horrible). What that lead me to was the question of how important the individual is. Who causes what to happen and how much power does one individual hold? Do you have to be an important figure head like Lincoln to really make an impact?

People always say “you can change the world”, “you are important and what you do sets the tides of human history”, which to an extent I believe. However, I don’t think every person has an equal chance of setting times in motion, some are luckier then others when some have names lost to history. It’s kind of depressing really… I do wonder though, if its just a person’s situation that determines it. When it comes to important figures in history, a lot of them turned a situation into their favor. It’s that manipulation of cards almost, playing your cards smart. Rosa Parks could have been any African American lady, she just got to it first; she steeled her courage, spoke her peace, and played on her attributes. Now she’s one of the many faces of the Civil Rights Movement. There’s other examples too, it’s about taking what you have with enough passion to make a difference.

How then, does this all relate to the concept of digital media and authority? The person who has authority is the person who takes control of their own situation, their own life. I think it’s fascinating. We, in the year 2018 and our foreseen future, have a responsibility to take authority through control what is digitally presented to us. It’s so easy to lie and spread fake news, so it is our job to do the required research, be informed and stand for the only the truth. It’s so important to have opinions but be malleable to others’ thoughts as well, extremes in any sense are the worst fate humanity could bestow on itself. And what’s frustrating is that we are the only one’s capable of hurting ourselves like that.

I guess I have no idea how my thoughts all connected like that, it’s a little all over the place; but hey, that’s what this class is about! Making some thing out of who knows what… (see what I did there 😉