Post Three: The War of Us Versus Them
Posted: December 4, 2011 Filed under: Editorial, The Human within the Stranger | Tags: cheif bromden, freedom, media, one-flew-over-the-cuckoo's-nest, philosophy, Rudy Strangers, the human within the stranger, the-human-within-the-stranger, war, war-on-the-mind 1 Comment »This Human within the Stranger post is unlike the first two. My apologies for the wait, I’ve been rather busy playing the role of a busy body. Nevertheless, here it is…
The mind that knows, controls the body that feels, is that not right? Now I ask you, can you feel the ground quaking at your feet? Can you see the dogfights overhead? Can you see the explosions in the distance? Can you see the tanks mauling down the dusty streets? Can you see the muzzles flaring off between huts? Can you see perspired lovers shivering behind cover? Can you feel the desert heat? It’s burning, isn’t it? Not like the city. Indeed, far from the city. Now, I ask you, can you remember? Do you even remember how you got here? The scissors, and the new garments that lay on your back at this very instance, do you remember anything about them?
Look behind you, Can you see them? The army that marches. Armaments pointed towards the heavens, boots crunching in the rubble between each step, adorned by desert camouflage so that they appear almost stitched into the setting they’re in. Now look closely. You must be able to see something shimmering above them all, something reflecting light. Lines that run from their necks, backs, arms and legs; tell me, you see that! It all traces back to the sky- to the overseers. They think I don’t know. They think it’s impossible to know. For all I know, I can be Chief Bromden to you, but how will that change the fact that now that I pointed it out, you can see it too. Listen! They grow closer to us. I already knew they were coming for me, but now they’re coming for us.
Now they surround us. They all point at us, ridicule us, and convict us. As if we even did deserve a fair trial. Look at all we’ve done. We are criminals! Can you see the looks on their faces? So fired up, they all are. See them all, not a single one misses the boat. Now, one aligns his rifle with our skulls. The last thing we hear is a “click”. Then everything turns red, then monochrome, then red again. But you can still hear me, right?
Feel the wind that blows through the hole in your head as they kick sand on the corpse of your existence. Let You be proof that this world is unforgiving to those that refuse be to tamed. Cut the strings of media, and refuse to be their slave, then you will see the war that rages on at your doorstep, then you will see how they battle to maintain control over your mind, then you will realize the Human within the Stranger, and then and only then, must you turn back to save those who are still tangled in their webs.
Post Two: Death and all his Friends
Posted: October 15, 2011 Filed under: Editorial, The Human within the Stranger | Tags: death, death-and-all-his-friends, Fountain-of-youth, knowledge, philosophy, Rudy Strangers, the-human-within-the-stranger, time Leave a comment »
Philosophy often surfaces the shallow waters of those that repress the thoughts and deny their existence when a death arises that affects them. Often this is the time when those people watch a huge door slam and lock them inside a dusty classroom. Trapped they become, and forced they are, to do independent study. There, there is no windows, no light besides that from a flickering desk lamp that illuminates only to reveal the hundreds of thousands of thoughts flying above a broken swivel chair, anxiously awaiting the day of someone’s arrival. And here you finally are, and it only took a death to get you here.
We are all searching for truth; sacred knowledge that is irrefutable. As we try are best to secure our hands around that of which is the sand that falls through the cracks of our palms, we think not of our imminent deaths. You see, we each have a clock inside us that is constantly ticking away, a calendar that is constantly shaving days, and an antique hourglass that is constantly reminding us that we are running out. Yet we live our lives thinking not of death, but throwing the very notion of “death” in the deepest chasms of our minds, hoping it’s calloused hands never climb it’s relentless being out of the shadows and into the light. And when it does- oh when it does, we are reminded of just how shallow the waters of the Fountain of Youth are.
With all that said, however, we do live out lives, unconsciously, learning how to die. Odd as it may seem, we are fixated on what it means to truly venture beyond that of which is this life. We spend our lives trying to figure it out, but until we start hearing the sickle sharpening-and by then it’s all but too soon, do we even comprehend what it means to live. I feel that we can never understand what it means to die until we understand what it means to live…
In the spirit of Socrates; “The unexamined life is not worth living.”, hence death shouldn’t be the only thing that beckons thoughts from within. I say, summon those thoughts, wield those thoughts, and relinquish those thoughts because only through the use of the mind can we truly see.
Cold Feet?
Posted: October 5, 2011 Filed under: A Day in the Life of Common Strangers, Editorial, Photography | Tags: Art, artisan, cold-feet?, expression, jobs, Photography, professions, robots, Rudy Strangers, santa, the-climb 3 Comments »I always get this chill at the back of my spine every time I find myself gathered in a circle of individuals sharing his and hers aspiring occupations. Maybe, every time it’s only my ears that hear the sound of crickets conversing in the wind after I announce what my profession is going to be. It often feels as if at the moment I’m done stating what I do, a man cloaked within a nearby bush, will hop out and scream “seriously?”, as if what I just said was a joke. It’s not just me because I can see it on people’s faces. When I’m standing in a circle among future doctors, lawyers, and teachers, and I blurt out “photography” as my future, they all give me this “he must be crazy” look as if I’m dress up as Santa and a calendar just flipped its pages until it stopped on July. Still, I guess I’ve been sort of questioning the importance or should I say significance of an artist compared to teachers, doctors, and lawyers in the world today. To be blunt, I couldn’t see past the mountains of importance they have. I couldn’t see why an artist could even consider themselves just as important as the other choices, because I didn’t see it saving someone’s life, or teaching kids, or even providing someone justice.
The Climb
Now, I’ve opened my eyes a bit, and I’m starting to see what was gleaming all along beyond those mountains; expression. I imagined a world without artist and all I could perceive was a dull place cursed in a colorless, monochrome for entirety. Perhaps that was a bit extreme. Regardless, I saw everyone as the same much like robots, walking in lines, proceeding every action in a well oiled, precise and scheduled motion. On the bright side, nothing was out-of-order and all the restrooms were clean, but simultaneously on the bad side, everyone became lifeless; walking, breathing, and living Dead.
I think we take for granted the roles of artisans and their ability to shape, create, and manipulate the World as if it were just another medium used for expression. They are just as important as other jobs, and if anything, they are more important. If I’m wrong, then tell me, however I’ll only ask you one thing: “If Art isn’t important than what is?”
Post One: Universals
Posted: October 2, 2011 Filed under: Editorial, The Human within the Stranger | Tags: allegory-of-the-cave, existence, human, nothing, Pete Strangers, philosophy, plato, Rudy Strangers, sense-perception, sheep, Socrates, Stranger, the-human-within-the-stranger, truth 1 Comment »
The Human within the Stranger is a philosophical examination on the only thing that makes us strangers human; our consciousness, our curiosity about our existence, and our undying need to uncover the truth in all that surrounds us.
Now, shall we jump in…
I’ve been wrestling with the idea that everything our ordinary sense-perception is exposed to are questionable. Moreover, how are we able to see truth and understand that it should not to be doubted? When I read Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, in which an individual exposed to the truth tried to reveal it to his comrades and was killed, I kept thinking about the World we live in today. We are all hypnotized by what society wants us to believe so well that when something aries, and challenges that of which we know to be normal-or should I say the “truth”, we almost automatically disregard it and regulate it false rather than even considering it’s plausibility. We forget that Socrates was killed because he tried to preach the truth by telling people to question that of which they were being told. I believe our minds are not free. I believe no matter how much we think we are, we are not free. In fact, I believe that we know not of what it actually means to truly be free.
With that said, I’ll say this: I, like you am apart of the herd of sheep oblivious to what actually going on around us. But, unlike you, and much like Socrates, I now know one thing, and that is that I know nothing at all.
This is all I know, and this is nothing…
Bars
Posted: September 25, 2011 Filed under: Gallery, Photography | Tags: bars, freedom, Photography, prisoner, Rudy Strangers, rudy-strangers-photography Leave a comment »
Bars
I shot Bars this summer, and I was supposed to use it in a project for Seventy Seven, however the timing wasn’t quite right for me to be able to commit to the assignment. In fact, I couldn’t even edit this great shot because my computer would often terminate Photoshop on the slightest alteration of the curves adjustment.
I don’t know if this sounds like it makes sense, but the photo was a photo before it even became a photo. What I mean by that is I knew exactly what I wanted to capture ( this happens often when I go out to shoot) before I set up to even try to get an image out of this scene. Often times the set ups for what I would think are great shots fly in and out of the terminal of my mind and some of them stay, awaiting the faithful day that I put them in motion.
Now for the image itself, in it’s simplest concept; it emits the feeling of a prisoner whom has accepted her fate, yet she still clings to the bars gazing beyond at the only thing that could illuminate her face like so, the only thing that could make her choke the necks of the bars because she doesn’t know how to give it up; but then again who would know how to give up their freedom? I hope you all just caught that, and I hope this image captures that.
Rudy Strangers
Pete
Seventy Seven Strangers
Melrose Strangers
