Klosterman - The lady or the tiger?

In this article the author Chuck Klosterman explains his theory on how mainstream cereal commercials on television influences the youth in a negative way. Each cereal commercial directed towards the youth influences thier persepctive on what being cool means, and they mostly ostricize the character portrayed in the commercial. Injecting the idea of exclusion into the children at an early age will in return cause them to adopt the idea themselves in everyday life, therefore children use exclusion as a tool to measure coolness.

'Exclusionary coolness' is basically what it sounds like; exclusion of certain people makes them not cool. Given this message early in life the kids have it imprinted in thier minds without any real idea about what it actually means, yet it still affects thier lives. Seeing a leprechaun, or a rabbit being shunned from a cereal by another normal cool and happy kid like them makes kids think that exclusion is cool, so when they're all on the playground exclusion becomes evident sifting out 'cool' kids from non cool kids.

Exclusion sparks a lack of confidence and causes two groups; the cool and uncool. Companies use this as a sales scheme making the uncool kids feel the need to become cool by buying a cool product. If someone is excluded from a group they'll naturally feel thier confidence drop and feel that they have the need to be accepted by the group that excluded them, so they'll be drawn towards the 'cool' products that all the 'cool' kids have. Companies feed off of this idea for sales, and creating new fashion trends.

Generally at Churchill the subcultures are divided by fashion at a first glance. For the most part you won't see a group of 'gangsters' and 'bookworms' hanging out in the same group. If someone doesn't have the fashion or the 'look' of the group they're trying to be a part of they'll be excluded. Rather than expressing and embracing individuality at school, it's more along the lines of being the same. What I mean by this is that for the most part you can't expect many different types of people to get along because of the exclusionary factor of not looking the same as one another. A lot of people these days would rather know that they fit in with a group of people like them, and rather than having different views and styles of thought in thier group, people still prefer to be in a pack. Like sheep.

Trix - Who do the characters represent in society, and what message are they conveying?

There are three main character roles in this commercial: The contestant holder, the children, and the Rabbit. The contestant holder represents the slimy and greedy corporation trying to silence the Rabbit. The children represent the blind consumers who lack knowledge about the product. The Rabbit is the little guy who tries to get a free product from the contest, but is shut down.

The message given from the contest holder is that the corporation uses consumers ignorance about their product to profit of off. The contest states whoemever can name the fruits in the box of cereal will get it for free, yet the children can't name the fruits. After the Rabbit correctly idetifies all of the fruits in the cereal, he's then ostricized and denied the prize that he so rightfully deserves. The corporation uses this as a tool for sales amongst children, the idea here being that only certain 'cool' kids are able to eat the cereal.

The children in the commercial are shown as unaware, and blind consumers. They don't know anything about the product, yet they're still all drawn towards it for the coolness factor. They can be compared to a flock of sheep.

The Rabbit having rightfully answered the questions disguised as a human boy should indeed win the box of cereal, but instead his cover is blown and the contestant holder uses her power to silence the Rabbit. The company is scared of the Rabbit because he seems to be the only one that knows what's going on. He's different and smart therefore the company doesn't want him to speak, and they can prosecute him for not being human. They use his differences to persuade the children into thinking that only cool kids eat the cereal, and they then manipulate the situation to make the Rabbit look like incompetent fool.

What is meaning?

To me meaning is broken down into two peices. The first is that meaning will always start with an action that you intend to do, but without the action towards solving the 'meaning' then the meaning would be unexistent. Somewhat like a goal towards something that will make you feel a sense of self accomplishment or purpose once you've completed the goal, or your search for its meaning.

Meaning is also meaningless without real signifigance towards the goal in which one's trying to pursure. A goal with a positive outcome, and a feeling of accomplisment after the goal has been reached holds meaning.

The second part of meaning is the end of it, or rather discovering that meaning exists. For example, if a musician puts his heart, soul, and sweat into his art and feels content at the end of it all. When a person has done all they can do to pursure their goals and feels at the end of it all that they've produced a gratifying result then meaning illuminates for them.

Generally finding meaning takes lots of heart and dedication towards what your trying to solve. It requires patience and knowledge on the subject your pursuing as well, but as long as you've acheived your goals destination with a succesful feeling of completion then you've found some meaning.

Is Life Random or Connected?

First View: Nothing stays the same, and nothing is connected. (RANDOM)

Second View: Everything stays the same, and is connected amongst eachother. (CONNECTED)


Personally I feel more along the lines of the second view, I do believe that we're all connected in a way. Even when a person isn't phyisically with you they still have the slightest connection to you, whether or not it actually makes a large difference in your own life.

To say that life is just a huge scramble of random things going on is a hard thing to comprehend for me when often these random things tend to unfold and grow larger, almost as if at times the smallest and most subtle of things actually connects.
That said it feels as if the randomness described isn't so random anymore.