Trust & Obey

When you hear the words “finals week” are you filled with dread and nervousness? Thoughts of cramming for tests and feeling unprepared may come flooding back for you. Well, at my college I currently have two finals weeks!

On the one hand, this is nice because I get to study/work on two classes’ the first week and two classes the next week. But on the other hand, I just want this semester to END. This week has been the first finals week and I already did my art presentation. I thought it went pretty well not gonna lie. I did it on the Chinese conceptual artist and dissident Ai Weiwei and he is AMAZING!

I found him while I was surfing across the web for contemporary artists and designers. He has done some fantastic artwork and some crazy things to go against the Chinese government. One of my favorite pieces is Surveillance Camera which is a marble look alike of one of the cameras that spy on his art studio, placed there by the Chinese government. You guys should definitely check him out.

Tomorrow I also have a Speech final (not giving a speech but taking a test) and I have no idea what to expect! That makes me particularly uneasy. Finally, I am wrapping up my Political Science class’s issue paper. We got to pick a topic that related to our class, so I picked comparing and contrasting communism and fascism. I am noticing a trend here in my schoolwork choices and reading choices.

I know what you’re thinking and no I am not a commie. I have taken an interest in fascism and communism in recent months because there have been many claims thrown around about people being communists or fascists. What does that mean and what does that look like?

George Orwell, the author of Animal Farm and 1984, nailed the term fascist in his article “What is Fascism?” back in 1944. He brought up all these people that were labeled as fascists: cathloics, socialists, conservatives, communists, nationalists and so many more. I think it’s safe to say that this is far too broad of a term. Orwell summed this problem up with “To say why [Fascsim doesn’t have a clear definition] would take too long, but basically it is because it is impossible to define Fascism satisfactorily without making admissions which neither the Fascists themselves, nor the Conservatives, nor Socialists of any color, are willing to make. All one can do for the moment is to use the word with a certain amount of circumspection and not, as is usually done, degrade it to the level of a swearword.” With this all said, it’s been hard nailing down exactly what fascism is but I plan not to throw the term around after reading this!

I have taken a deep interest in this type of ideological and political discussion because of all of the statements I’ve heard and things I have seen on the news. Over the span of two or three years I have heard statements like “Trump is a fascist!” and “Biden’s a communist!” and have seen groups like Antifa (Anti-Fascism) come into light. I think it’s critical to be able to disicifer what is true or likely through my own knowledge; not what the media tells me.

This is crucial because at this point, when I turn on the TV, I don’t know who to trust. I trust what I see and read everyday around 70%, even if I think the source is good or trustworthy. If I haven’t heard it said by lots of different sources that I think- so far- have been solid, I put it in my pocket but I’m not sure. Lies are so rampant at this point here in the US that I think the best thing we can do is learn as much as possible about everything so that we can have filters for actual truth.

Thanks for checking out today’s article! Do you guys have any genre or author recommendations for Monday’s post? Let me know in the comments!