#BlackLivesMatter

Black lives matter.

Black. Lives. Matter.

     It is so strange to think that these three words have such a huge and powerful meaning behind them. And yet, these words are the saying a movement. A movement to remind our nation that a large portion of its population is being systematically targeted and murdered in the streets.

     Innocent people are being murdered at the hands of those they are supposed to be able to entrust their lives. And yet, so many people are acting as if nothing has happened. They should be scared. They should be outraged. They should not being acting as if these young people deserved the gruesome deaths that fell upon them. They should not be calling these deaths justice.

Catfish

     Catfish is a documentary that follows Yaniv “Nev” Schulman on a journey through an online relationship. It started when Nev received a painting of one of his photos from an eight-year-old artist named Abby Pierce. After receiving the painting, Nev and Abby became friends on Facebook. This opened the flood gate to include Abby’s family: her mother, Angela; her father, Vince; and her attractive older half-sister, Megan. Through their correspondence, Nev develops a strong friendship with both Abby and Angela. But with Megan, the friendship is on the verge of evolving into a relationship. And it is that relationship that is the focus of the documentary.

     Not many who watch the documentary expect a happy ending for Nev. Most can tell that there’s just something not quite right about Megan’s story. And that suspicion gets solidified when she sends him MP3s of song covers that she claims to have performed for him. But, Nev discovers that they are all taken from performances on YouTube. He later finds evidence that Angela lied about other details of Abby's art career, like the gallery they claimed to have bought. Nev & co. decide to travel to Michigan in order to make an impromptu appearance at the Pierces' house and confront Megan directly. While talking with Abby and her friend alone, Nev learns that Abby never sees her sister and rarely paints.

     When he confronts Angela, she admits that she lied about the whole thing and that she was Megan. She claimed that Abby really did have a sister named Megan, and that she was checked into a rehabilitation center called Dawn Farms. But, this was later revealed to be a lie. At the end of the film, we find out that even after all of the lying and deceit, Nev still remains friends with Angela.

Morality of catfish

At the end of the semester, we finished watching catfish. On the last day of class, we talked about how the actions of the woman is either good or bad. In my opinion, I thought what she did was immoral. She lied to the guy in the documentary about who she really is. She lied that the daughter painted but it was really the mother who painted. So pretty much, it would be immoral because of all the lying. While discussing about, some people say it is not because of how the mother made sacrifices to take care of the two sons that were handicapped. Still, it would be immoral because she lied and trick the guy to falling in love with somebody that never existed in life. So, catfish would be considered immoral because how it makes people believe that there is this person in real life that they fall in love with. To find out that in the end, the person never existed and it absolutely destroys the person who was lied to. In retrospect, it can also be good because people sometimes end up falling in love the person that was lying to them. The question is catfish moral or immoral because there many outcomes to the situation? It is up to people on what they think it is.

Dr. Johnson Contemporay Moral issue class

This semester, I took Dr. Johnson Contemporary Moral issues class. In the class, we learned about different philosophers and their philosophy. The different philosophers had different views on what it means to be considered morally good. The philosophers that we covered are: Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Mills, Sartre, Marx, and Epictetus. They all had their own perspective on what it meant to morally good.  During the semester, we would discuss about how each philosopher would say about different situations in the world. We had symposiums to where we would pretend to be the philosopher. We were given situations and we would have to explain how it go against our philosopher's philosophy. Also, we would ask question about other group's philosopher about how would they say about the situation as they are pretending as their philosopher. In honesty, symposiums were really fun because we got to practice what we learned and argue about it. Then, we watched a documentary called catfish. It is about this woman tricked a young man into falling in love with a fake person that she created on facebook. In the end, the guy finds out she lied and that still they are friends on facebook. We discussed how it is moral or immoral that the woman did this to the guy. Overall, I loved the class and the teacher. I learned a lot on how to take certain situations and apply what I learned and see if my actions to it would be considered moral or immoral. Also, it will help me to become a better person in the world. I will miss the class and everybody in the class.  

#blacklivesmatter #knowledgeispower

Listening to Dr. Johnson and Dr. Gross speak last night was phenomenal. It was great gathering around with people not only from CBU, but all around Memphis and surrounding universities. The best part of the presentation was Dr. Johnson arming the audiences with responses to ignorant statements and questions from people that oppose or are confused about the movement #blacklivesmatter. For example, when people who say "I don't agree with black lives matter, all lives matter." Yes, all lives DO matter, but systematically, the odds are against the black population, especially young, black men. So, a great way to combat this remark is to agree that, yes, all lives matter. Saying black lives matter does not imply that other lives don't mater, but it is rather a call to arms to make people realize how often black men and women are killed without a trial or even an arrest.

Catfish

Last week and this week, we watched Catfish. I've seen the documentary before, but I never thought about it morally until Dr. Johnson asked us to. I think that Angela was morally wrong for fooling Nev like that, but I do believe they had a real relationship beyond the point of the lie on the surface. I also find Nev to be a rational and even-tempered individual, because instead of going off on Angela and saying, "You're crazy and I hate you", Nev attempted to find reason for her actions by talking it out.

Dr. Taylor- What We Wanted Recovering From The Obama Era

I attended the lecture by Dr. Taylor called "What We Wanted Recovering From The Obama Era". Dr. Taylor spoke very well and quite gracefully about the idea of post-racialism. He told us that the phrase, "What we wanted", came from a man named Stokely Carmichael. He began by describing the social view of what it meant now that we have a black president. Many people saw Obama as "the rock on which history broke itself". Many people wished to believe that this was the turning point into post-racialism which Dr. Taylor quickly said was a false reality. He began by describing the racial inequality and racial gaps that were still very present today. He went through 4 different moves that were used to describe how to reach this post-racial stage but were ultimately failures. The thing was that Obama was a man of the people, but would say one thing and do another. To the people he would say that racism is still alive and completely disavow the Color-Blind Project but politically he would advocate the Color-Blind Project. He ultimately brings it back to Stokely Carmichaels phrase, "What we wanted", by saying that back then we should've wanted more for than what we were aiming for. The lecture introduced me to a new topic and allowed to get input from some great philosophical audience members when they asked questions.

Acceptable use of "cat-fishing?"

After recently watching the documentary, I gained insight on the topic in general and the original story. I, like most others, agree that it is a very strange and immoral because, the person in question is essentially lying for one reason. However, what if you used it for good? Say, to catch someone doing this to other people or just criminals in general? I do believe we had a similar discussion about lying earlier in the semester and that this is basically the same issue, but say the government used this method to track terrorists, or criminals, or whoever they might be looking for (for whatever reasons, that's another issue). I guess depending on the philosopher you might agree with, might determine whether or not you think this could be moral.

Catfish

This week we finish off a documentary that was really creepy towards the end as we found out the truth about the family.  It made me think of all the people who actually get on social networks and stalk people, or create a profile to harm others. In the film it was almost unbelievable what the women did just to be able to talk to Nev. I can't think of no moral way of defining what this woman did, I might be wrong and anyone correct me, but I am sure I wasn't the only one who felt weird and kind of mad in class after knowing the truth.

Catfish, is it morally right or wrong?

This week in class, we started watching a documentary called " Catfish". Later, it was taken up by MTV and turned into a TV series. The documentary is about this guy called Nev who has been talking to this family for a while now. He receives paintings that is from the youngest daughter of the family. He then become friends on Facebook with the mom, dad, brother, youngest daughter, and her sister. Then he starts fall in love with the sister and start having this " online relationship" with her. They exchange pictures and message each other and talk to each other. Then the sister starts sending him covers of songs that she did and he starts finding out that she is just taking them from YouTube. So he becomes upset and does not know what to do. So he , his brother and his friend decide to visit the family to make sure if it is true. So they drive all night and decided to see if the house where the sister is true. they reach the house and looks to see if there are horses in the barn because the sister told him that she owns horses. It turns out as fake , and decided to meet the family during breakfast to  find out the truth. He meets the family and it turns out that all of it was a fake. The Facebook profile of the sister was set up by the mom and that there was never this sister. Also the paintings were not from the daughter, it was from the mom. Also the pictures of the sister are from a professional photographer. So the question is this, Is it morally right to lie to people about who they are and get them to like or fall in love with a person that does not exist. Also, why do people do this for their amusement? Is it morally wrong to make it into a tv seires?

Response to ABrown

I can see how you came to your interpretation. However, I thought the quote was referencing the fact that man should strive to be like God in all situations. It reminds me of the quote "What would Jesus do?". Yes man's flesh is power driven but in a religion like Christianity, man's ultimate goal is to strive to be like God. One must follow in his foot steps and seek answers from him. Man must strive to become one with God.

Response to Swamy

I totally agree with you. People don't understand the dangers of becoming friends with people on social networks. There are a lot of people who seek out vulnerable young teens in order to take advantage of them. In this case, a man is being taking advantage of just for the purpose of his naivete. This situation is stranger than most because nothing clearly makes sense. Plus, this situation involves more than one persons.  

Response to Jahleel

I think that the enjoyment comes from not setting up someone for failure but to showcase how manipulative a person can be. It also shows how naive the other person is. This movie has confirmed that social media can cause a lot of problems. We here the stories of how old men prey on young girls, making the girls believe that they are only a few years older in order to try and lure them in. I think it's interesting how they have created an entire movie devoted to the uncertainties of the people we think we know through social sites. I believe that it is morally wrong because the person that created the fake identity is being deceitful about his or her identity. It causes more moral issues when emotions and feelings get involved. The whole tactic is to see how far they can keep up with their charade before being caught.

Catfish

This week, we started watching a movie about people creating fake Facebook accounts. The person named Nev, was made to believe that he was in a relationship with this family, and slowly unravels the lie that was told by the family. I believe this was a very informational documentary to others, so that social networking is more careful. Most kids these days post everything they see or want, and not one person realizes the danger they put themselves in. 

Catfish

This week we had the chance to watch the original documentary Catfish. It's about a guy who meets with a young lady online and to make a long story short, the lady is not who she says she is. The movie has now turned into a tv show on the famous network MTV. I admit, watching several episodes at at time provides entertainment for me. It's funny how people meet online and have all these bizarre excuses of why they can't meet (if they live in the same city) over and over again. Some people have been in a cyber relationship for more than a year and have never talk to their significant other in person. To me that is crazy!! After revealing that the person isn't who they claim to be they get mad. In most cases it's the person's on fault. But there have been some instances where family members have played jokes on other family members by making people up and making their relative believe that they're talking to a real person. To me that's where I would draw the line. It isn't morally right to set someone up for failure. Or is it? Why do people do this outside of it bringing enjoyment into their lives?

Jean-Paul Sarte

I recently went back to Sarte to read his thoughts on "The Desire to be God." I found one quote interesting. "To be man means to reach towards being God."My interpretation of this quote means that man's ultimate purpose is to seek power. That everyone has a subconscious goal to be successful or powerful. Now obviously this is not true in all cases. We have religious peoples from various religions that choose a life of poverty. But, if you were to look at this from there point of view, doing this would make them "successful in the eyes of their gods. So it seems that all people seem to have the same same desire, more or less. They just have different ways/preferences that they go about attaining that goal. This is just something I though about after reading that line. Any thoughts on this?