Week 4A

http://changethis.com/manifesto/66.01.Brainwashed/pdf/66.01.Brainwashed.pdf

Godwin's "Brainwashed" talks about how even from a very young age we have been conditioned to think and act a certain way in order to "fit in" this society like a "normal" person.  He offers multiple suggestions on what people can do to break these trends and become more personal, successful individuals, making the world a more unique place.
One of his steps was "Acknowledging the Lizard".  In this article, he refers to "The Lizard" as the part of our brain that worries about safety and worries about being different.  It's the part of the brain that keeps the social order, that makes sure everybody plays their part in the big machine of society.  Being aware of this part of the brain, and then resisting the biological messages that it gives us, helps us broaden our horizons and go against the grain, allowing us to create art and things that the world has never seen before.  We have to be aware of "The Lizard" and ignore it in order to be successful creative individuals.
Another step Godwin talks about is "Connect".  We're living in a time where we have to all adapt to the way the entire world communicates with each other.  Ideas are shared in completely different ways now, and whoever is able to connect the best with whatever creative idea they have automatically becomes more successful than those resisting the change.  Nearly all of the greatest ideas within recent years have been from people connecting on social networking sites, and the average, every day user finding them and jumping on board.  Years ago it would be extremely difficult to get any of these ideas off of the ground, let alone make large sums of money from them, and connecting in new ways is a positive step forward in this area.
However, I do not think that these steps and ideas are useful to the Blogs we make for class.  If you think long and hard about it, these Blogs go against what Godwin is trying to promote.  They are assignments with strict guidelines that don't offer too much wiggle room for extreme creativity.  If all aspects are not touched upon we lose points.  Adding more information just becomes tedious for the grader.  If the assignments were completely free form, making art with no guidelines, it would be a different story.  You could even make an argument that the entire education system goes against whatever Godwin is saying.  Everybody learning the exact same thing and doing the exact same assignments.  How is that any different than everybody learning the exact same math formula, or everybody training for the same dead-end 9 to 5 job?