The Girls Gone Wild Effect and Why Porn Means Peace

Most adults have seen a Girls Gone Wild commercial at some point in time. The first time I saw it I wondered, “how why would a pretty girl like that want to show her boobs to some guy with a video camera inside an RV outside of a club?” The only conclusion I could come to that made sense was this: pretty girls can never be sure of the motivations of those around them, however they, like everyone else, have the strong need for positive human connection. The best way that these young girls have learned to get male attention is with their bodies, and this essentially becomes almost an advertising short cut. Pretty girls dress nicely to facilitate finding the “special someone”. Showing ones boobs on camera is more attention grabbing, and has a much larger audience. Like a bird displaying it’s feather and call- I guarantee you more men have seen these women through these videos than will ever meet them face to face.

Reality television has come to fill a similar niche in society, but there are deeper implications to the recently rise in reality programming. “I want to have my own reality show,” has quickly become a trend of the times. Reality shows are being rolled out at an alarming rate, but what does this say about what’s going on in the world? Some would argue that now we all think we’re so important that we should be on TV, which would be arrogant and entitled of the general public. However, I believe that this is a strong sign of showing how desperately people want to be able to form these positive connections with other people. Families are allowing cameras into their houses to share their lives with the world. That doesn’t wreak of depravity- it wreaks of an unparalleled openness. This is a massive indicator that society is ready to start trusting one another.

Porn is the most extreme case of this. The amount of porn being made and its acceptance in society has dramatically risen over the past several years. Before, sex was a very taboo subject, but now it’s not uncommon to see vibrator commercials or sex pill commercials. Sex tapes are a way to become famous in and of themselves. Porn even has its own annual awards show. Again, I don’t believe this to be a sign of depravity- like the roman empire, but we aren’t condemned to failure. This surge of naked people is just another indication of people being ready to open up to one another. These people happen to have chosen sex and cameras as a way to show the world that they’re ready to let us in to their lives.

We’ve all been ready to trust each other. We all want to be able to trust each other. We’re stopping ourselves only out of distrust for each other, and so the cycle continues. The only thing missing is the awareness that our capacity to care for one another is our best asset as a species.

War Is sooo Last Millenium

The methods by which war has been conducted over the past two millennia have shifted only in scale… until recently. Large armies got better tools but the idea of annihilating the opponent into surrender has not changed. However, the most recent wars being fought are the FIRST of a new breed.

You have heard the phrase ‘hearts and minds’ over and over again. Some argued this policy as a show for the press during the Vietnam War where hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians were killed. However, those in command were not stupid and they recognized the effects of bad press on continuing to fight that way. The phrase was even uttered “the television lost the Vietnam War.” Total war was no longer a viable option and recent commanders have been forced to explore new methods to victory. These new strategies have been reworked over and over in the theatres of Afghanistan and Iraq. The resulting action would be more so described as waging peace than waging war. However, when the feedback from this is analyzed commanders are finding waging peace more effective in achieving their goals. Their casualty rates are lower. Their supplies don’t get cut off. Extra men aren’t needed to pick up the slack under the strain of heavy combat. Missions succeed. For the first time in history we are witnessing what it is to have an army of peace, although still armed and prepared to kill.

The reality of what’s going on is US military personnel die trying to make friends with the locals. These men aren’t on their way to destroy the locals. These men are on their way to meetings with local farmers, checking on sick and injured children, delivering supplies to families in need. Even the local populations of these far off lands feel obligated to recognize our peoples sacrifice. When asked about recently KIA marines, locals would express great sympathy. This was not a deception, but frustrated at the price a foreigner so willingly paid just to meet with them. I return the sympathies for the lives lost at the end of our countries rifles, and I hope that our generation is the one to do justice to all of the sacrifices ever made in the name of securing peace.

-in memory of Rick Centanni

http://www.rickcentanni.com/

Rise of the Everyday Psychopath, And Why Your Neighbor Is a Zombie

Looking at the actions of all the evil people in the world is possibly the most discouraging experience to us all, with respect to our faith in humanity. The mass murders and genocides of history almost seem to pale in comparison to the gruesome murders carried out by today's most inhuman killers. Predators and cannibals, murderers and rapists seem to roam the streets. The sixties gave rise to a surge of new serial killers being born. The sociopath personality seemed to have found circumstances during this time period in which to fester and grow within society unlike it ever had in history. At this point sociopaths are almost considered an uncorrectable evil, and mainstream media delights in fascination with how sick the human mind can become (SAW [all of them], Hostel, The Human Centipede) But, what are the conditions that allow this type of individual to spawn? What is different in this time period that has never been seen before in history?

I would point most significantly to the rise in population. Nothing so cheesy as ‘more people means more crazies’- no, I’m afraid it’s more complicated than that. Looking back in history, before WWI life was still decently hard. People died from disease, industrial accidents, and any number of common hazards. I think we can all agree that WWI was dangerous and killed large sections of the population. After WWI there was a boom, which was immediately followed by another ‘hard time’ depression. America came out of this into WWII- won WWII, and immediately rolled into the Eisenhower years and the baby boom. Medicine had conquered many major illnesses. The evils of the world had been vanquished and greatness had been restored to the people. The struggle just to say alive had ended for the most part- (discounting building up to be ready for the commies). Not only this, but also television became essentially a standard in the household, pumping images from across the world. These factors combined to produce an effect whereby the average person was exposed to more and more new people than had ever occurred in history. Before, villages and towns would keep the number of new people low just by geographic restriction. Even those that lived in a city had small groups that they saw regularly and everyone else was just coming through in some fashion or another. Now was the first time in history where a human could be exposed to a seemingly never ending line of strangers. One could be exposed to thousands of new faces every single day. I would imagine the shock is not unlike putting an angry gorilla in front of a mirror for the first time.

People are assaulted with strange new faces that we don’t know or understand on a daily basis. The effect is compounded when one can turn on the evening news and expose themselves to images of the events across the world (covering mostly negative events). We paint quite a grim picture of these strangers. The news recycles over the stories of fresh murderers and violent criminals that plague the world. Individuals recoil from their neighbors in defense from the horrors that they are sure exist among those that surround them. Men have begun to become islands- the frightening strangers of the world have caused people to recoil into their internal worlds of turmoil. All their interactions become false walk throughs of what they believe real people do. Their mind retreats to its internal fortress, where his psyche will surely wither over time. In extreme cases of internal mental isolation (being exposed to people, although not connecting with them) we see disturbed individuals form consistently.

The effects of these conditions can be seen on the more common person in our most mundane thoughts about others as well as our fascination with the extremes of evil. We recognise that this is a new and terrifying effect of our world on men's minds. Commonly this takes its place in modern story and art: you know it as the horror film. In such stories the evil takes the form of any number of characters: Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Zodiac, Psycho, Se7en, Clockwork Orange. Even more interesting is the rise of the zombie movie. Old world zombies rose from the dead to KILL you and eat your brains. New world zombies were alive, got infected (bites normally), and now you have to chop your neighbors to bits to stay ‘alive’ in the conventional-non-brain-eating sense of the word. What more direct analogy is there than framing all strangers as ‘zombies’ that are out to eat you! If strangers are scary zombies, then what does it mean when the group of survivors die one at a time until only you remain, alone, and scared on your island… It’s a story that reflects our view of the world as being frightening and generally out to get us. Unfortunately the more we think about the world this way then the more these things feed themselves like a negative spiral with no end except maybe the end of all, right?

Essentially what I’ve been writing about is starting the same cycle in the positive direction. If the common person began spontaneously being kind and caring towards the few people they encounter in the course of living, there would be no need for retreating of the mind. Once enough of this behavior had persisted, even the media would begin being affected- painting a more positive image of those around us. Not a world without threats, but a world that shouldn't be shied away from. Images of neighbors worth befriending, and most likely not being forced to decapitate (no I’m not saying the slasher should end- I love zombie movies!). All I am saying is that trusting and caring for ALL those that surround you in your life could save someone from becoming the monster we all fear.

Why the apocalypse is actually a good thing, and how it's already begun

When most people hear Apocalypse they think fire and brimstone… demons and angels… molten lava running in the streets… and most definitely everyone you know becoming a zombie. These are the images we see in film and television. These are the stories that speak to our population. Consider the contrast to ancient legend or myth. The first stories ever told, and many stories for centuries to follow, were stories of a heroes journey (Joseph Campbell reference intended). When the hero and his village/city/country are threatened from without he battles gods, monsters, and villains to secure peace and safety for him and his people. Clearly there are variations, but these basic elements are a fairly common repeating theme.

Contrast this to the stories we tell today. Our world is threatened from every source imaginable that could destroy a planet or a life form. Zombie films are more popular than ever- where every stranger becomes a monster that you need to kill before he kills you. The monster movie has had several revivals as of late. The 5^th Element frames an evil that even science cannot comprehend hell bent on destroying life on earth. Out of all the planets in the universe, evil chooses earth to attack, only to be defeated by love. Armageddon, Deep Impact, 2012, Day After Tomorrow, Sunshine, Outbreak, The Happening… The list practically populates itself. All of these films predict a seemingly plausible event that would end life on earth. Then we have the alien civilization films: Independence Day, Signs, any Star Trek film with the borg, District 9, War of The Worlds, Avatar, Predator, Aliens, Transformers, Men in Black, Cloverfield… I could do this all day! All films with aliens from other worlds hell bent on destroying us, and/or our lovely planet. (Interestingly enough Avatar sets us as the aliens out to destroy… Discuss on your own…)

It is like we are aware that our very existence hangs in the balance. Nobody quite has the words to express the feeling, but it does kind of feel like the world might actually end any day now. Unable to discuss this deep feeling we all feel, we are drawn to the stories that speak to our mutual dread… and we clamour for a hero- Spiderman, Batman, Iron Man, X-men, Incredible Hulk, Hancock, Fantastic Four. After all, the hero always saves us in our most desperate hour, right?

But that's just the problem isn't it? This ‘savior theory’ holds that one person has to rise up and defeat this great evil that plagues us all. There aren't many alternative scenarios offered all that often... What if in reality, we are all the heroes of our story? People have already begun to come together in ways not possible before. Communities are joining all over the Internet- and one of the largest growing communities is the one talking about this feeling of impending doom- the community coming up with solutions for it. There are people trying to rethink the foundations of society all the way to normal people that just agree that something needs to change for the better. There are organizations forming like: The Zeit Geist Movement, Or The Venus Project. All the way to events seen in films like Budrus- where Palestinians and Israelis have simply stopped fighting. Up to the recent “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” At which people of all political alignments gathered together to acknowledge that our situation is quickly growing dire. There’s strength in numbers, and hope is more contagious than any zombie bite…