Coming back to the post of yesterday..... I have been wondering about symbols and words and the things that people live, love, hope and die to create and maintain. A great example is the current day icon of Steve Jobs. How will one who has had his hands on the very growth of the technological age be viewed in years to come? What would change if his legacy, his very name-sake items, become obsolete and trash due to some sort of odd snafu that really has nothing to do with him? Will his image then be one only to bring about negativity?
I think on the beginnings of the Republican party. A party once created in the fight against slavery and seperation, now seems to be one that would consider it again. Would they? Of course not. Their image, though... that is another story. And, similarly, look at how corporations have divided the populous of the country and seem to be creating a life of their own. Religions, what should be a safe haven, are repeatedly being subjected to the baser drives of their leadership.
Where is this all going to lead us in the future? What sort of preperation do we consider?
My post yesterday was not about Nazis. It was not about the atrocities they committed. It was about the symbols they took to show themselves one way and created a whole new definition for that symbol. It was lead by the previous post about how we judge a book by our expectations....and how those very expectations can so easily change over time.
What strikes me lately is that we are in a cultural shift where the news of things from around the world effects our daily lives. Who cheered when learning of M. Quadaffi's death? Who shrugged? But we all knew. How is it that we can know these things? What forms do our minds put upon the information we learn from around the world?
What concerns me is not that we have a world news hour, but that we as a creature have a tendency to lump information into mangeable chunks. Those chunks often have a label on the front, and can be difficult to change. If we are not careful we allow the symbols of media smart people to manipulate our thinking and very important things can be decimated behind the scenes with our seeming support.
