Thought Crime

There’s a lot of debate about remix culture and the creative commons. For those of you unfamiliar with these terms, they deal with creative content licensing and the blurred line of what is acceptable reference and what is copyright infringement upon intellectual property. How does one determine the roots of the creative process in the whirlwind of media influence and propagation? Even if some piece of media is a rip off of another, consider this: imagine where scientific progress would be if physicists had a problem with letting other people use their equations. These scientists get published and recognized for their achievements and move on, allowing others to build upon their thought process. A musician that gets paid for his work shouldn’t be angry with someone using his “beat”, does it really hurt what he’s already done in any way?

Ownership

I enjoy how people can become obsessed with possession of an object or even a person. There are so many facets of our society that facilitate this notion, everything from the capitalistic model to marriage, even the family structure. Somehow, these concepts get blurred together and people begin to believe that something is deserved or expected from other people. That if you buy something it is entirely yours or if you invest time into something you deserve a return. The truth is, nothing is owed deserved or expected. No one person is ever truly indebted to another. Thus, the only form of “ownership” that exists is the loan, lease, lend, or what-have-you. A lot of human interaction is based in trust. Sure, money helps, but it boils down to trust between individuals. Trust that someone won’t sleep with my wife or take my car-for example. These are things that I believe to be mine. However, there is nothing stopping anyone from doing those things on a whim. So, I do owe a thank you to everyone for not.

Psychoanalysis

Catharsis occurs in art when a story or feeling is felt and thought over fully to the point of resolution. This is very important to human emotional stability. Often life leaves one without this resolution and they experience psychological dissonance or discomfort in conflicting or incomplete truths. It’s like the joke you can’t finish, the fact on the tip of your tongue, the love lost or cut short you could never understand. Real world examples are numerous. These things are enough to drive any human insane. Thus, people need art to supply the catharsis we lose in life or are never given the chance to experience in our own lives. Without it, a state of emotional unbalance can occur and kill as easily as a chemical imbalance from the liver during withdrawals. The body’s natural tendency is to seek homeostasis in everything from physical to mental states. If art can supply this, it begs the question of what advertisements can do-or rather, what they really do. Do ads for products hold equal or greater significance than the products themselves?