JoshuaStrydom

I totally appreciate shock art. I would never buy it and have it in my collection, but I am glad that it is being made. I have seen a few of the pieces mentioned here in real life, and I must admit; it was totally worth the effort. This kind of art inspires controversy and sparks debate. It gets the conversation going! And that is what I love about art. It provokes otherwise dormant minds to action and inspires a state of constant change. I friend once said to me “I’d rather see you offended and improving, than see you happy and be the same forever.”

Incredibly interesting, and though provoking. I wonder though, if privacy really is even a right. I am of the mindset that the only rights, the only entitlements we have, are inalienable ones, the rest are privileges. For example, I have a right to my opinions. No one can take my opinions, beliefs or convictions away from me- they can disagree with me, or even convince me of something contrary; but ultimately, my opinions are my own, and no one can take that away. My expressing my opinions to others, that is a privilege, as I can be silenced. The same works for privacy. If it can be taken away from me (government spying on me through my webcam, listening to phone conversations, social media tracking, cookies etc) then it cannot be a right, it is a privilege afforded to me at varying levels by the country I live in. I am not entitled to privacy, I am privileged to enjoy it because of where I live. If it is a right, then why does everyone not enjoy it equally? In prisons for example, privacy is not a right- cells with no doors, open showers, body checks etc. And it never was a right- because if it were, it could not have been taken away.

This concept is novel and compelling, and I’d go so far as to support the idea that a person can be taught to write- to an extant, as mentioned in the beginning of the article. I believe the struggle is not in teaching someone to write, since writing can be as simple as a creative string of words formed in a coherent progression of thought. The challenge is in teaching someone to communicate artfully, and to do so in a way that the reader actually cares enough to read to the end of the page. The most elementary purpose of language is to convey and comprehend ideas, beyond that we form varying levels of art within language. Writing is a tool to create such art. This art doesn’t need to be whimsical and wild, or filled with lofty ideas and abstract metaphors. It is often analytical and scientific, sometimes peculiar and simple. When an author composes the language masterfully, he or she force writing to transcend communication, and enter the realms of art. So yes, I say you can teach anyone to write, but for someone to have the ability to write in such a way that the reader actually cares about what has been written; that requires an intrinsic talent that you either have, or you do not. Perhaps you can acquire tis natural affinity on your own, but it cannot be taught; only learned. There is no doubt that you can fake it until you make it; but it is unlikely you will ever make it, if you do not possess “it.”