WHY CITIZEN KANE SUCKS...HARD

So this is only philosophy only in the loosest, film theory sense, but I'm posting it anyway. Citizen Kane is on the very top of everyone's Top Ten movies of all time list, but it is not in my top 100. I appreciate that it is a well-constructed movie, and ground-breaking for its time, but I have some bad news for all its fans-- IT'S TIME IS OVER! It is boring, not fun to watch, slow, and any and all other adjectives that apply to stupid films. Saying Citizen Kane is the best film ever made is like saying Ulysses (by James Joyce) is the best book ever written. It makes you sound smart, and it is a safe thing to say, but anyone who really believes that has such a high threshold for boredom that they can scarcely be called human.
Is everyone just afraid to come out and say the truth, that Citizen Kane is really the best example of the generation gap in filmmaking, and in art in general? I would not call anything good that makes you want to claw your eyeballs out just to have an excuse not to experience it. Well, I am not afraid to say it. I mean, that could be because nobody reads these blogs...ever, but I still am not afraid to say it.

OGW

RULES TO LIVE BY

I thought that I would go ahead and post the rules that I live by. I can highly recommend these rules, at least if you happen to be as lucky as I do. There are three of them.

1. KNOW HOW TO PICK YOUR BATTLES -- Also known as "Don't sweat the small stuff." I prefer to furmulate it this way because I think that, equally as important as not sweating the small stuff is sweating the big stuff. That is, figure out what is important to you and insist on that. Ignore or give way on everything else.

2. DON'T WASTE TIME THINKING YOU CAN CHANGE PEOPLE -- Most of the frustrations in my life have come from thinking that if I just explained things in the right way, people would change to be the way I wanted them to be. This is just a flat-out stupid thing to think. Since I do not change myself (usually) to accommodate the desires of others, why should I think other people would do that to me?

3. DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT -- This one is self-explanatory, but there is a second part to this. Asking for what you want is fine, but you have to be able to decide the difference between fleeting desires and those that truly go to your core. That means that this rule does not give you carte blanche to demand anything that pops into your head. Implied in this rule is a commitment to be thoughtful about your desires and only try to realize those that survive such a test.

Well thats it, the key to everlasting happiness. Now just go out there and start living. I will do the same.

OGW

HYBRID TELEVISION

On MTV on Mondays there is a television show called "Laguna Beach" that I have lately found myself watching on several occasions. Recently, I was watching with some female friends who are big fans of the show. After watching for a while, I realized that I could not tell if the show was real or fake. That is, I did not know whether to classify it as "reality television" or not. It was filmed somewhat in the way of a produced (non-reality) program, but the content and style of the show had more in common with a high-school version of The Real World that anything else. When I asked my friends whether or not the show was real, their only response was blank stares. It seemed that they had never considered that question in a meaningful way.
That strikes me as an important point. It was not as if they did not know, or were confused about the issue. They literally had never cared to ask themselves whether what they were watching was scripted or improvised.
This is a long way from the early days of reality television. In the beginning, there was a lot of talk about how much of so-called "reality" TV was in fact scripted. Even the real world, in which the dialogue is too choppy and uninteresting to have been prewritten, had certain plotlines selected by the producers and improvised by the actors.
Then came shows like "Joe Millionaire" and "My Big, Fat, Obnoxious Fiance", which played with the distinction between scrip and reality as part of their premise. While this may have contributed to the eventual blurring of the line, those shows themselves highlighted the distinction, and brought it into the foreground as a part of the show. They guranteed that at least part of the show was genuine by admitting that part was not, and by telling the audience and some of the participants how the fakery would be revealed, thus setting up and capturing reactions as participants were given information about how they had been duped.
Now we have shows, like Laguna Beach, that seem to ignore the question of reality altogether. They have broken one more barrier to the coming world of undifferentiated entertainment which will involve no questioning, no participation at all on the audience's part. In this future world, our part will not even truly be to "watch" the show. Watching implies the act of evaluation, of cataloguing and studying, which is antithetical to the approach required to watch such shows regularly. Instead, ours is only to be entertained.

OGW

WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID REGRET EVEN BEFORE THE ACT

It is a commonly accepted truism that regret is a waste of time. Except in cases where is helps us avoid future wrongs, regret is rightfully considered wasted effort and time.
On the other hand, we spend huge amounts of time and energy worrying about the outcome of future events. Indeed, I would venture to say that the Modern Man spends more time worrying about things than actually doing things.
It is important to ask of regret, "Why is it something to avoid?" The answer is that we are powerless in the face of the past. Memory is nothing more than a record. But in certain cases, we are equally unable to effect the outcome of future events. Why do we worry so much over the outcome of those events?
If we can assume that it would be better to stop worrying about possible future events over which we have no power, then it would seem we should place a premium on developing the ability to decide which events we can control and which we cannot. That is, the ability to tell the difference between worrying and planning.
This philosophy is most certainly not intended to argue that the consideration of future events and possible plans is a waste of time. The ability to form complex plans is one of the foundations of what it means to be human. It merely suggests that one nearly as important component of successful, happy human life is the ability to curtail the amount of planning one does on a daily basis to the events one can influence.

Coming Attractions - Moral Philosophy


I've always thought that the most interesting disctinction in Moral Plihosophy is that between Action and intention. Most people would argue that my interest is too obvious, that this distiction is the ONLY important one in moral philosophy at all. But, I am talking specifically about the distinction between intention and responsibility. Namely, does intention play any part whatsoever in assigning moral responsibility at all? Does the lack of an intention remove the moral abhorrence from any action? Or, conversely, does a good intention remove the moral blame from an abhorrent act? It is particularly this second disctinction that I find interesting, particularly in our current political situation. I do not intend to discuss the relevance now, but I am posting this to remind myself to do so in the future.