Monday 5 December 2011
Nero's abominations are fit for Titus Andronicus
Nero was one of the stranger emperors of Rome in the 1st century. The way he ruled Rome was like his own playground, becoming drunk off power. Nero was a ruthless ruler and went to every extent to solidify his ruling. He killed his own mother, anybody who may have been a threat to being an heir to the throne, and rid himself of his own advisers who he had grew up with. All of these acts committed with underhanded tactics like murder, poisoning, and framing. Nero was the youngest emperor taking throne at 17 years old. I considered him for this post because it was unlikely that he would be out of ruling because he made it impossible unless he was taken out by death. He literally terrorized his own town.
Since Nero was such a young ruler when first appointed to the throne, he was inexperienced and naive, so he relied greatly on two of his advisers, Seneca, who was his old tutor, and a man named Burrus. Seneca tried to instill in Nero good values and wanted him to be a generous virtuous ruler. The reason why he sought the advice of these people is that his mother took his ruling as kind of a joint ruling, Nero wanted to stray far away from that. This sequentially lead to Senecas great influence in Nero's reign, for the time being. Rome was prosperous during the early years of Nero's reign, though Nero wanted to pursue artistic endeavors like dancing and singing, which were activities deemed unfit for an emperor. Nero followed through with these ambitions and started to train his vocal cords, and learn dance, basically leaving Rome in the hands of his advisers while he pursued his artsy dreams. By the time he reached his 20's Nero decided to take his reign into his own hands, while at the same time he was indulging in acts of drinking and really became an extremist when it came to exploring his own personal desires. Nero realized he could do anything he wanted to do and decided to push the boundaries of his power. Nero had banquet dinners for himself which lasted hours, he had brothels set up for his personal use with married woman who offer themselves to him and even created a sick game where he was released from a cage wearing animal skins, and attacked the private parts of both men and women. At night time, Nero would run the streets of Rome with posse of his "friends" and put on a wig just to look for trouble. He enjoyed attacking innocent men on their way home, beat and or stab them, then leave their bodies in a sewer.
At a family dinner, Nero poisoned his step brother and he broke out in seizure and Nero claimed it to be an epileptic fit, and promptly burnt his step brothers body, all of this because his mother was trying to gain back influence in his life through his step brother. Nero became convinced that he would kill his own mother, he set up a boat for his mother that would inevitably break down in the middle of sea to kill his mother, but somehow she had survived the ordeal. Impatiently, Nero was getting sick of his mothers presence and blatantly sent his guards to end her life in the middle of the night, he told Rome that his mother was plotting his death and that it was just for the guards to murder her. The way Nero rid himself of his advisers was through framing them for unthinkable acts. He tried to frame Seneca for having relations with his mother Agrippa and embezzlement, and he also tried to frame Burrus for conspiring against him, thought these plans didn't work as accurate as planned, it got the message across to the advisers, and they basically played the background to Nero as opposed to being right by his side. Eventually, Burrus died, and Seneca was forced into retirement.
Nero Created his own set of games, which boosted his popularity in Rome, things like chariot racing, poetry, dancing, athletics and things of the sort. Nero was glorifying himself as some sort of artistic genius.
Once Nero was bored of his marriage with a woman named Octavia, he was involved in a secret affair with a woman named Poppaea. Once Poppaea was impregnated, Nero wanted to rid himself of his wife who he was currently involved with, but it wasn't that easy. He tried to slander Octavia's name and image, but it didn't seem to work seeing as she was a clean, virtuous woman. Nero ordered for her to be banished to a far away island and ultimately murdered. With her out of the way he had the green light to marry Poppaea, only 12 days later. Once Nero's love child was born, he expected that his child would be the heir to his throne, but the baby died within the year. This event led Nero to paranoia and he embarked on a mission to murder all of his potential successors in his family.
Nero Began a massacre of Christians after deciding that they would be his scapegoat out of the blame of th great Roman fire that damaged much of Rome. The blame was on Nero because he built his own palace and town in area where the wreck had occurred. He crucified, and draped Christians in animal skin before burning them to death. Nero was becoming more and more unfavorable, especially when he started to perform publicly, acting and singing. No one was aloud to leave the theater while he was performing, it was even said that women would give birth in the audience, people jumping over the walls out of boredom just to escape his performances. Once a rebellion seemed to have been in the making, Nero started to massacre his own soldiers and senators, and even forced them to commit suicide. Suspicion upon his wife caused Nero to kick her to death, even with a baby in her stomach. After a 17 year reign, Nero was fled Rome secretly because a rebellion had risen because of his role in trying to kill a respected general of the Roman army, ultimately, once Nero was considered a public enemy, he commanded his servant to stab and kill him.
Nero's life was fit for a play like Titus Andronicus because of the ongoing violence, obscenity, and abstract events that happened in his life. Nero also took a role as a "Big Brother" the way that no body would defy him, or even speak any wrong words about him because they would fear for their life. A trail of blood was left within all of these stories and it really shows what can be derived out of real life happenings, and how it applies to our lives today.
Since Nero was such a young ruler when first appointed to the throne, he was inexperienced and naive, so he relied greatly on two of his advisers, Seneca, who was his old tutor, and a man named Burrus. Seneca tried to instill in Nero good values and wanted him to be a generous virtuous ruler. The reason why he sought the advice of these people is that his mother took his ruling as kind of a joint ruling, Nero wanted to stray far away from that. This sequentially lead to Senecas great influence in Nero's reign, for the time being. Rome was prosperous during the early years of Nero's reign, though Nero wanted to pursue artistic endeavors like dancing and singing, which were activities deemed unfit for an emperor. Nero followed through with these ambitions and started to train his vocal cords, and learn dance, basically leaving Rome in the hands of his advisers while he pursued his artsy dreams. By the time he reached his 20's Nero decided to take his reign into his own hands, while at the same time he was indulging in acts of drinking and really became an extremist when it came to exploring his own personal desires. Nero realized he could do anything he wanted to do and decided to push the boundaries of his power. Nero had banquet dinners for himself which lasted hours, he had brothels set up for his personal use with married woman who offer themselves to him and even created a sick game where he was released from a cage wearing animal skins, and attacked the private parts of both men and women. At night time, Nero would run the streets of Rome with posse of his "friends" and put on a wig just to look for trouble. He enjoyed attacking innocent men on their way home, beat and or stab them, then leave their bodies in a sewer.
At a family dinner, Nero poisoned his step brother and he broke out in seizure and Nero claimed it to be an epileptic fit, and promptly burnt his step brothers body, all of this because his mother was trying to gain back influence in his life through his step brother. Nero became convinced that he would kill his own mother, he set up a boat for his mother that would inevitably break down in the middle of sea to kill his mother, but somehow she had survived the ordeal. Impatiently, Nero was getting sick of his mothers presence and blatantly sent his guards to end her life in the middle of the night, he told Rome that his mother was plotting his death and that it was just for the guards to murder her. The way Nero rid himself of his advisers was through framing them for unthinkable acts. He tried to frame Seneca for having relations with his mother Agrippa and embezzlement, and he also tried to frame Burrus for conspiring against him, thought these plans didn't work as accurate as planned, it got the message across to the advisers, and they basically played the background to Nero as opposed to being right by his side. Eventually, Burrus died, and Seneca was forced into retirement.
Nero Created his own set of games, which boosted his popularity in Rome, things like chariot racing, poetry, dancing, athletics and things of the sort. Nero was glorifying himself as some sort of artistic genius.
Once Nero was bored of his marriage with a woman named Octavia, he was involved in a secret affair with a woman named Poppaea. Once Poppaea was impregnated, Nero wanted to rid himself of his wife who he was currently involved with, but it wasn't that easy. He tried to slander Octavia's name and image, but it didn't seem to work seeing as she was a clean, virtuous woman. Nero ordered for her to be banished to a far away island and ultimately murdered. With her out of the way he had the green light to marry Poppaea, only 12 days later. Once Nero's love child was born, he expected that his child would be the heir to his throne, but the baby died within the year. This event led Nero to paranoia and he embarked on a mission to murder all of his potential successors in his family.
Nero Began a massacre of Christians after deciding that they would be his scapegoat out of the blame of th great Roman fire that damaged much of Rome. The blame was on Nero because he built his own palace and town in area where the wreck had occurred. He crucified, and draped Christians in animal skin before burning them to death. Nero was becoming more and more unfavorable, especially when he started to perform publicly, acting and singing. No one was aloud to leave the theater while he was performing, it was even said that women would give birth in the audience, people jumping over the walls out of boredom just to escape his performances. Once a rebellion seemed to have been in the making, Nero started to massacre his own soldiers and senators, and even forced them to commit suicide. Suspicion upon his wife caused Nero to kick her to death, even with a baby in her stomach. After a 17 year reign, Nero was fled Rome secretly because a rebellion had risen because of his role in trying to kill a respected general of the Roman army, ultimately, once Nero was considered a public enemy, he commanded his servant to stab and kill him.
Nero's life was fit for a play like Titus Andronicus because of the ongoing violence, obscenity, and abstract events that happened in his life. Nero also took a role as a "Big Brother" the way that no body would defy him, or even speak any wrong words about him because they would fear for their life. A trail of blood was left within all of these stories and it really shows what can be derived out of real life happenings, and how it applies to our lives today.
Sunday 4 December 2011
Modern Day totalitarianism
A modern day example of totalitarianism would be in the following countries:
China
Syria
Egypt
I consider these countries to be in a state of totalitarianism because of how limited the people are in terms of there actions and rights to information.
More recently, the iPhone all together has been banned form Syria to control the spread of information from Syria to any other country. The whole reason for this is that they are having some Governmental turmoil and the people ARE NOT HAVING IT. Since protests started to become more frequent starting January of this year, approximately 4000 people have been killed! The government is NOT HAVING IT. Naturally people are trying to get the word out and document their Governments wrongs via smart phone, and more specifically the iPhone. At this point, this situation has escalated so far that even as a tourist, if you have an iPhone you could be (and most likely will be) under suspicion of being a SPY.
In China they actively search and weed out people who are posting anything anti-government and will often deem a lot of posts as "spreading rumors". People found are prosecuted and jailed for these offences. In Canada we are free to tweet or post anything we would like we would like whether it is bashing the government or any political slander, so its odd for us to see this type of action taking over a social networking service. This is an apparent censorship and it really limits people ability to speak freely.
Egypt's ongoing crisis is apparently related to a form of totalitarianism, its basically a state of emergency seeing as there is not stable government. The people running the country right now is military, all of this being sprung of from the Tunisian revolution which also started earlier this year which ultimately overthrew Osni Mubarak's (former Egyptian president) reign. This resulted in the take over of the military for a supposed 6 months until elections could be set in place. This really limits the citizens from doing anything really freely, even a curfew issued on the country (which is supposedly unenforced and ignored). So far 846 have been killed, and 6000+ have been injured.
China
Syria
Egypt
I consider these countries to be in a state of totalitarianism because of how limited the people are in terms of there actions and rights to information.
More recently, the iPhone all together has been banned form Syria to control the spread of information from Syria to any other country. The whole reason for this is that they are having some Governmental turmoil and the people ARE NOT HAVING IT. Since protests started to become more frequent starting January of this year, approximately 4000 people have been killed! The government is NOT HAVING IT. Naturally people are trying to get the word out and document their Governments wrongs via smart phone, and more specifically the iPhone. At this point, this situation has escalated so far that even as a tourist, if you have an iPhone you could be (and most likely will be) under suspicion of being a SPY.
In China they actively search and weed out people who are posting anything anti-government and will often deem a lot of posts as "spreading rumors". People found are prosecuted and jailed for these offences. In Canada we are free to tweet or post anything we would like we would like whether it is bashing the government or any political slander, so its odd for us to see this type of action taking over a social networking service. This is an apparent censorship and it really limits people ability to speak freely.
Egypt's ongoing crisis is apparently related to a form of totalitarianism, its basically a state of emergency seeing as there is not stable government. The people running the country right now is military, all of this being sprung of from the Tunisian revolution which also started earlier this year which ultimately overthrew Osni Mubarak's (former Egyptian president) reign. This resulted in the take over of the military for a supposed 6 months until elections could be set in place. This really limits the citizens from doing anything really freely, even a curfew issued on the country (which is supposedly unenforced and ignored). So far 846 have been killed, and 6000+ have been injured.
Police using electronic devices/media to track people
Unsurprisingly, the more access and innovations of technology that is being force fed to us day by day can all be used as a gift and a curse. If we felt like we were being monitored closely before, we are now willingly publicizing our own personal information via facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Myspace, or whatever you may have. Though it may not be common knowledge, police can and have been easily accessing our information, whether they are looking up our facebook for information on parties or if they are searching through GPS records to see where we have been, or where we are going. In Wisconsin about 2 years ago, some students had posted up pictures of themselves partying and drinking on facebook, no big deal right? turns out they were underage. When one of the party going students received a friend request from a random girl on facebook, he thought nothing of it (assuming he had met her at a party or something) little did he know this supposed girl was a police officer. Not long after this mystery woman was on his facebook, he received a call from the police asking for him to come down to the station, once there the police pressured him into getting all of his friends down there as well so they can receive underage drinking tickets due to the pictures on facebook.
As technology continuously advances and becomes more intricate, it has crucial benefits for us, but for all the good it can provide us, we have to think about the downside as well, just like the example above. For instance, we have crazy apps and systems that are in our smart phones, iPhone for example, we can track down our phone and pin point it's location if someone had stolen it or if you had lost it. If the tables turn, you can easily be monitored. There is, factually, an iOS file on the iPhone called "consolidated.db" which is pretty much hidden, but when it comes down to it it can be accessed at any point by the government for investigation purposes (supposedly ONLY for that). Your iPhone is literally tracking you, it has your literal longitude and latitude co-ordinates on it AND it can tell what time your were at that place. Big brother REALLY is watching you.
See what I did there? Apple? APPLE? ^^
As technology continuously advances and becomes more intricate, it has crucial benefits for us, but for all the good it can provide us, we have to think about the downside as well, just like the example above. For instance, we have crazy apps and systems that are in our smart phones, iPhone for example, we can track down our phone and pin point it's location if someone had stolen it or if you had lost it. If the tables turn, you can easily be monitored. There is, factually, an iOS file on the iPhone called "consolidated.db" which is pretty much hidden, but when it comes down to it it can be accessed at any point by the government for investigation purposes (supposedly ONLY for that). Your iPhone is literally tracking you, it has your literal longitude and latitude co-ordinates on it AND it can tell what time your were at that place. Big brother REALLY is watching you.
See what I did there? Apple? APPLE? ^^
Monday 28 November 2011
BIG BROTHER IS COMMONLY REFERENCED
The whole idea of big brother is commonly referenced in all forms of media whether we notice or not. Whether you're a music junkie, a TV addict, or a video game enthusiast there are ideas of 1984 commonly derived and implemented into whatever your pleasure may be.
For example, each decade that goes by there are more and more movies that are in direct relation. The show "Big Brother" is as blatant as it gets with that name, all the guests on the show are under constant surveillance. Below is a clip from a more recent movie reference, in the actual movie a reporter actually says that "big brother is watching"
For example, each decade that goes by there are more and more movies that are in direct relation. The show "Big Brother" is as blatant as it gets with that name, all the guests on the show are under constant surveillance. Below is a clip from a more recent movie reference, in the actual movie a reporter actually says that "big brother is watching"
In the world of gaming believe it or not BIG BROTHER IS STILL WATCHING... in one of the early releases of Call of duty (modern warfare 2) there is a direct reference if you completed the "no secrets" challenge..
Challenge: "No Secrets" - Call in 3 UAV's in one game.
CONGRATULATIONS YOU NOW HAVE THE BIG BROTHER ICON....
Last but not least there have been various references in music directly to 1984.
CONGRATULATIONS YOU NOW HAVE THE BIG BROTHER ICON....
Last but not least there have been various references in music directly to 1984.
It may not be YOUR own taste in music but it is music none the less.
take the legendary Stevie Wonder for example.
"Your name is big brother
You say that you're watching me on the tele,
Seeing me go nowhere,
Your name is big brother,
You say that you're tired of me protesting,
Children dying everyday,
My name is nobody
But I can't wait to see your face inside my door.
Your name is big brother
You say that you got me all in your notebook,
Writing it down everyday,
Your name is o'erseer,
I'll change if you vote me in as the pres,
The President of your soul
I live in the ghetto,
You just come to visit me 'round election time.
I live in the ghetto,
Someday I will move on my feet to the other side,
My name is secluded, we live in a house the size of a matchbox,
Roaches live with us wall to wall,
You've killed all our leaders,
I don't even have to do nothin' to you,
You'll cause your own country to fall."
You say that you're watching me on the tele,
Seeing me go nowhere,
Your name is big brother,
You say that you're tired of me protesting,
Children dying everyday,
My name is nobody
But I can't wait to see your face inside my door.
Your name is big brother
You say that you got me all in your notebook,
Writing it down everyday,
Your name is o'erseer,
I'll change if you vote me in as the pres,
The President of your soul
I live in the ghetto,
You just come to visit me 'round election time.
I live in the ghetto,
Someday I will move on my feet to the other side,
My name is secluded, we live in a house the size of a matchbox,
Roaches live with us wall to wall,
You've killed all our leaders,
I don't even have to do nothin' to you,
You'll cause your own country to fall."
Thursday 24 November 2011
1984 had a lot of high profile totalitarian examples. After studying Fahrenheit 451,1984, & animal farm, it really leads you to wonder how our own society presses false morality and bogus information.
1984 has "Big Brother" always watching you, being a citizen of Oceania is like living life on a conveyor belt, everything was straight forward and repeated each day. You would never have to watch your back because big brother was doing it for you, but one slip up or mishap (God forbid you speak while your asleep) then you will be inevitably punished and/or vaporized from existence. Like wise, in a metaphoric manner, The Animal farm was a dictatorship ran by a bunch of pigs, with a pack of dogs as reinforcement. The other animals like horses, sheep, you were as lowly and unimportant as one of the proles of Oceania.
In all both 1984 and Animal Farm, the higher powers had the ability to tell you what is and what isn't no matter how falsified or fabricated the "fact" may be. For example in 1984 they would edit all documents, better known as "rectifying", so if the chocolate rations were dropping from 30 to 25, they would simply publish that the chocolate ration had gone UP from 20 to 25 instead. If they told you that 2+2 equaled to 5, then you had no choice but to accept. Just like in Fahrenheit 451 the chief of the firemen asked Montag a question along the lines of, if the government outlawed mowing your lawn then what would you do? & he replied let the grass grow. Not because he believed in it, but because he HAD to.
The Government would tell you that your living like this:
When in reality your living like this:
Don't forget...
1984 has "Big Brother" always watching you, being a citizen of Oceania is like living life on a conveyor belt, everything was straight forward and repeated each day. You would never have to watch your back because big brother was doing it for you, but one slip up or mishap (God forbid you speak while your asleep) then you will be inevitably punished and/or vaporized from existence. Like wise, in a metaphoric manner, The Animal farm was a dictatorship ran by a bunch of pigs, with a pack of dogs as reinforcement. The other animals like horses, sheep, you were as lowly and unimportant as one of the proles of Oceania.
In all both 1984 and Animal Farm, the higher powers had the ability to tell you what is and what isn't no matter how falsified or fabricated the "fact" may be. For example in 1984 they would edit all documents, better known as "rectifying", so if the chocolate rations were dropping from 30 to 25, they would simply publish that the chocolate ration had gone UP from 20 to 25 instead. If they told you that 2+2 equaled to 5, then you had no choice but to accept. Just like in Fahrenheit 451 the chief of the firemen asked Montag a question along the lines of, if the government outlawed mowing your lawn then what would you do? & he replied let the grass grow. Not because he believed in it, but because he HAD to.
The Government would tell you that your living like this:
When in reality your living like this:
Tuesday 22 November 2011
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