Temi Omogunloye: Week 4 Response & Analysis

Response

Remember when it was cool to smoke? When everyone, even doctors that are suppose to know whats best for your health, recommend something so dangerous.....

Remember when it became uncool to smoke? When commercial after commercial say the same thing; Don't smoke, it's bad for you. Yet at some point, you told me to do it. You said it was okay. YOU!

I suppose the next question to ask is: Who is You? The same person says "Hail him King of Kings" one day and "Crucify him!" the next, that's who. The problem with history is that those who fail to learn from it will repeat its mistake. At some point in American history, industries, backed by the government, pushed for Americans to smoke only to have it "recalled", in a sense, 60 years later because of the health risks it posed. Why was it allowed in the first place? Seriously, why was such a dangerous thing let out into the community so rampant like, advertised to make it seem safe and enjoyable (Which it is, I mean have you ever tried a cigarette) and then recalled after the damage has been done? What was the goal? Purely Financial, Couldn't be. Scenarios like these have happened in American history; where things were allowed before and now it is not, like slavery. And Yes, times change situations. But do not miss the point. Just because someone (YOU) said it was okay at some point, just because the person who happens to be saying it a Doctor, or Senator or "Massa" doesn't make it fact and most certainly doesn't make it right. Question the status quo. Question Authority. Dare to know!- Immanuel Kant

P.S. My final project for this class, even though I do not have the specifics, will involve Authority and the questioning of it!!!

Analysis

•   What themes or concerns in the presented reading are your responding to?
• I'm responding to the work of Discomforable writing. Even the world discomfortable is uncomfortable. I don't even think discomfortable is a word... is it? It's choppy and doesn't flow in the way our regular sentences flow but why should that be a problem?

• What are the materials and processes you used to formulate your response? Why these? If several, which are you most concerned with?  Why these materials and processes. What are their limitations? What do they allow?
• "Thinking is doing. Doing is thinking". It's so simple it's complicated. Thinking is doing, it is an act. Correct. Doing is thinking which is also correct but weirdly phrased. 
• "If our work does not question the terms of the status quo, it is the status quo. The murderous status quo. Our context is an avant-garde that has throughout history aligned itself with revolutionary political movements"--- Like literally everything I was talking about above. What is life.

• What choices did you make? (For example, the tone of a piece of writing, or the lighting decisions for a photograph.) What led your decision-making about them?
• After reading Discomfortable, and feeling it, I thought of something that does actually get you thinking. Smoking. The controversial propaganda against it, yet they were the ones who created  the problem. 

• What did you learn through this response? (You can address new knowledge or new questions you’ve gained regarding the class reading, the materials/processes you used, or both.) 
• I write so you think!