Mental Implants

“Even after the lights had gone up, while they were shuffling slowly along with the crowd toward the lifts, its ghost still fluttered against her lips. Still traced fine shuddering roads of anxiety and pleasure across her skin.”(Huxley 169)

There are certain concepts or ideas that we are exposed, sometimes in an everyday basis, that can shape our mentality a long time after we are no longer being exposed to that thing. One high example of this is the movies and their great power to attract audiences of all ages. These audiences are attracted simply because they know they will be entertained, but in the process of being entertained, many times they are being implanted with ideas that like a seed will not grow instantly, but in the future it will produce much fruit. As I have described before in my previous blog, Brave New Word focuses a lot in influencing people through their media and the above quote is a perfect example of what happens to one when an idea or scene has been perfectly implanted in ones memory. A great example of this in my life has been my exposure, by means of my Spanish teacher, to Michael Moore's latest documentary SYCO. This film investigates the idea of free social health-care around the world an why it has not been possible here in the United States. The film trashes republican and shows how great free health-care is with great examples and evidence. However only this side of the story is shown. It is not said what are the disadvantages of this reform or explain why republicans are against it. At first, this movie made a reaction in me of making me look at republicans as the bad guys and democrats as the good guys. Although I later realized that this is not the case, I know that for many young minds who have not been exposed to politics as much, could have the same problem but not realize that this is not so, and perhaps later on in their life this could end up influencing their vote, which could in turn end up influencing the future of an entire nation. Media is extremely influential, but one has to realized what they subconsciously being made to believe and research more about it in order to make true decisions influenced solely by oneself.

Crazy Stunts

One movie that influenced my thinking was Jackass 2. This movie is a comedy about a group of people doing outrageous inappropriate stunts that, in some way or form, hurts themselves or someone else. Some of the things they did throughout the movie aren't harmful to anyone, but are dangerous and sometimes extremely inappropriate.
Even though the things they did was dangerous and inappropriate, I found most of the things they did hilarious, so I was laughing throughout the movie. They were completely mindless throughout the movie doing outrageous things. For example they would let themselves get stung by bees, hit random people with different objects, bullfight, and pretend to be a old man and walk throughout the city (here is a link to the the things they did in Jackass 2). They would do all these extreme things, but it was still funny and kept me laughing.
For a few days after watching the movie, I was in the mindset that doing extreme things with you friends and hurting one another was funny. That doing some of the things would make my friends laugh and we would have a great time because thats what I got out of the movie. Thats what I was thinking for a few days after I saw the movie, because the movie put me in the mindset of doing these things. Such as in Brave New World, during and after watching the feelies, Lenina and John were in the mood for sexual pleasure. The movie influenced them to the point that they want to do what happened throughout the movie. Lenina and John were in the mindset of having sex.
After those few days I started to think about the movie and the things they did throughout the movie. I realized that the things they did were dumb and dangerous. I'm not going to do a stunt that could result in me breaking an arm or even worse. Everything they did in that movie was crazy and outrageous, and I don't have to do those things to make my friends laugh and have a fun time.

Peer Pressure

In chapter 11 of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, John and Lenina attend the "feelies" which are sort of like movies. So in a sense, John and Lenina went to the movies for their date. After the feely, John and Lenina realize they like each other but even then they don't tell each other. Lenina was doubtful as to whether John liked her or not, and John refusing to have sex with her only confused her even more. This made Lenina seem sort of desperate to have sex with him maybe because it's the "right" thing to do--at least in the society of Brave New World. Everyone is encouraged to have sex as a way to keep everyone happy, and happiness is the main fundamental of the society making it "the perfect society." Since John is not used to the lifestyle of the people in the society, he doesn't feel the need to have sex right away, making Lenina seem desperate. This made me think about the movie "American Pie." This movie is about four teenage boys that make a pact to lose their virginity before their high school graduation. In this movie, the boys are desperate to have sex and they want to accomplish their goal before they graduate. They are willing to do almost anything to accomplish their goal and this reminded me of desperate Lenina. Just as Lenina wants to have sex, not just because she likes John but also because it's what they're taught or conditioned to do, the boys wanted a taste of what it was like to lose their virginity due to rumors about sex. I think all of this just falls into peer pressure.

Mean Girls

Many of us have watched Mean Girls before. For the ones that have, we know that 90% of what happens in this movie happens in real life. The girls involved in this movie are a bunch of materialistic, fake, "wannabe's", traitors, haters, followers, and mean girls. Most of them fall into one or two categories, some fit in into all of the ones mentioned above. This is one of my ultimate favorite movies, not only because it's amusing, but because what it's shown is so true. High school girls always pretend to be something they are not, they follow the crowd, dress like the crowd, do whatever the crowd does, just to "fit in", simply wannabe's. Following the crowd or the jocks in the school is not always a good idea, as we presence in this movie, we see that the girls get in a big arguement because of the book, where they wrote mean things about people they didn't like. Inocent people where accussed of something they didn't do. Why? Because they were trying to fit in. In Mean Girls it shows from how "your friend" steals your boyfriend and "friends" to just taking your place as the new jock of the school and making you look like a fool.

This movie, made me think about my everyday life. When I used to be in public school I noticed that more than half of the school followed the crowd. No one really showed who they really were. When people are being fake like this, it shows that you really can't trust anyone, or it makes you wonder who can you really trust. I remember not wanting to let my emotions out to anyone because I would always be scared to be the next new gossip in school. This does not necessarly just happens in public school, it happens everywhere! And no matter where, with who you are, always stay true to your self and don't pretend to be someone you're not.

My Sister's Keeper

This movie is about a girl who suffers from leukemia. Her parents have another baby to keep her sister alive. They take blood away from this second baby because she has the same match as her sister. It comes to the point where she has to donate her kidney in order to keep her sister alive. She realizes all that is going on. She realizes that she was just born to save her sister. She doesn't want to donate anymore. So she decides to sue her mother. We later found out that the sick daughter was the one to plan all of this. She wanted her sister to live and knew it was time for her to leave this world.

This made me change my perspective in life. The sick sister could have took advantage of the younger sister but she never did. Her sister is really important to her. Even though she was sick she lived a very normal life. She didn't let her sickness put her down. She still went out and enjoyed her life. Even though we might get sick, to the point where we might eventually die we shouldn't just give up on life and be depressed.

16 and Pregnant

A show that has really influenced my way of thinking is the show "16 and Pregnant". It makes me really scared to have sex. But then again there is a lot of peer pressure saying that I should. I know you can always have sex and use protection and still end up pregnant so that's my reasons for staying clean. Anything can happen and I'd rather be safe then sorry. The show shoes how difficult is is for those teenage mother to take care of their child and still attend school. And also relationships never work out because of the stress. And this show has made me be aware of all the things that can happen with having sex.

Many teenages are pushes into doing things that they never wanted to do in the first place. So they need to understand that NOT doing those things is fine. People won't think you are a loser or lame. Yeah of course they may say you are but I think deep down they are thinking that you are a strong person for not following the crowd. You are your own person and you should act like it.

Money is Respect

Throughout my life, I have been exposed to the idea that one only gets respected if he or she is a big money maker. There have been many movies made that depict this, Scarface, Get Rich or Die Trying, and many more, but it was a spanish music video that influenced me most.

El centenario by Los Tucanes de Tijuana is a song with a video that shows the life of man who lives off of selling firewood. He starts off poor and has no or very little respect. He then turns to the wrong lifestyle, selling drugs, and virtually overnight becomes rich and is suddenly respected by all.

The video shows not only because one is poor people don't respect one, but also people show pity for one. Personally, that is one thing I do not like: people having pity for me. Therefore, this video influences me to have this sort of feeling of necessity for money. Thankfully, I have enough self control not to even consider making money by any means. Nonetheless, I am still left craving money and respect, and the media, movies, etc., is not doing anything to pacify my urge.