Tuesday, September 15, 2009

First video response

I love youtube. You all know that. There is no need to elaborate. 

Even though I have watched over seventeen thousand videos I have never (not once) recorded a video response to a single one. Responses are part of the "Youtube Equation" that is tremendously important. For the past couple of days I have been thinking "I really need to start doing responses" but didn't know where exactly to begin. 

Ever since my 9/11 post I have been thinking about what I said and been really proud of it. Tonight I was thinking about it even more and I thought "Eureka! I will respond to those assholes who think 9/11 is an inside job!" and magic occured. 

A little personal context I left out of the video because I feel it's none of youtube's business: Last year on 9/11 I had only been in Chicago for a few weeks (tops). To understate the situation completely, I felt a little out of place and was very homesick. I walked out of my dorm and some moron gave me pamphlet saying "9/11 was an inside job!" and I took it. I stopped for a moment and was absolutely convinced I was going to hit him. I didn't. I then (all of this is during intense, unbroken eye contact) decided to call him a fucking moron and keep walking. 

I took a deep breath.

I didn't do that either. 

In retrospect, as I tell this story it sounds like I did the honorable thing. That's where it all gets complicated. In all honesty I regret not doing something. I feel like I let my city down.

It eats me up.

Keeping that in mind watch my first ever Youtube response. I guess it's a way of dealing with the past without actually having a time machine. Maybe I should have invested in the Time Travelers Fund...

9 comments:

Carlos Galarza said...

You got to end every response video with that wink/salute sign off

Kevin Patrick Gannon said...

brilliant.

Dan said...

you're gonna be famous fast with that wink/salute combo, kevin. keep it up!

LudwigLongPlay said...

amazing. wink & salute.
loved that. you should just serve everybody.

LudwigLongPlay said...

an interesting quote from "Judging Other Cultures,"

Many students, like some participants in the academic debate, are general cultural relativists, holding that it is always inappropriate to criticize the practices of another culture, and that cultures can appropriately be judged only by their own internal norms. That general position would indeed imply that it is wrong for Westerners to criticize female genital mutilation, but not for any reasons interestingly specific to genital mutilation itself. For that reason, and because I have already considered that family of views in chapter i, discussing the views of relativists in anthropology and development policy, I shall focus here on four criticisms that, while influenced by relativism, stop short of the general relativist thesis:
(1) It is morally wrong to criticize the practices of another culture unless one is prepared to be similarly critical of comparable practices when they occur in one's own culture. (Thus, a typical student reaction is to criticize the "ethno- centrism" of a stance that holds that one's own culture is the benchmark for "the principles and practices that are appropriate for all people.")

LudwigLongPlay said...

you can substitute genital mutilation with, terrorism & such.

wink & salute, jeffer's morning

Kevin Patrick Gannon said...

wow. that's awesome. Good find, amigo.

Emily Armstrong said...

Good psychological analysis of the people who believe this conspiracy stuff. They act out of fear and I imagine very few of them were downtown NYC on 911.

Lizz Avalanche said...

video....love you!
them people in union square that hand out those pamphlets be nuts too...9/11 truth bullshit.