I really enjoyed class on Thursday because it made me think a lot about the things that we all know, or think we know. Closer to the beginning of class we talked about fact, and its place in history. Dr. McClendon talked about how we assume fact based on repetition. That’s how history is created. When an event occurs and the event is repeated on a large scale over a period of time, then it becomes fact, and a place in our history. The interesting thing to me though was when we started to talk about how fact is formed. We began talking about perception, and this really struck me. Perception is how the brain processes an event. 100 people could see the same thing and yet have 100 different perceptions of what actually occurred. Thus, if humans created fact, and the facts that we believe come from human minds and experiences, then fact is based on perception. Fact is the basis of history, thus history is based on perception. This is a pretty large ideal to tackle in my mind.
If all of our history is based on perception, then what are we missing? The worlds history could have occurred far differently from the way we believe it to have been, and this is where the erasure of history comes into play. Certain facts have ended up missing the ‘history train’ when they are undesirable. In class we talked about the way the Germany discusses World War 2, and the way that the U.S. talks about the Japanese containment camps in the western part of the country. The details in world history that could have been missed due to perception or erased by their originator(s), could blow our minds; but we never think of that, at least I don’t. I think it’s an interesting thing to think about, and helps to keep me in perspective about the things that I think I know, and about how much I don’t.
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I agree class on Thursday was interesting. I also thought Momento was a great movie to relate to our reading on Baudrillard.
I wanted to comment on the "Perception is Reality" because I completely agree. Oddly enough I was having a conversation with my aunt the other day about life issues. She was describing to me that "Perception is reality" and it brought me back to Thursday's class where we were discussing this same topic. (Without getting into too much detail) We were talking about how certain people believed certain things that were not necessarily true, but to those people it was. Because of the idea that perception is reality. If those people are to perceive that a specific incident is true, that is their perception and therefore their reality.
In Momento, the main character (I can remember everyone's name but his) wrote himself notes based on his perception. He created "facts" based on his perception only. Even if it were not true, it became his reality. By using the tattoos, pictures, and notes, he was creating a reality for himself.
How do we know his tattoos, notes and pictures are a true reality. We don't because it is all in the perception of our main character.
I have previously seen the movie, but didn't quite get the same out of it the first time as I did this second time (especially with our discussion).
It is interesting to talk about this "Perception=Reality," it oped my eyes to a new way of thinking, and I couldn't agree with this idea more.
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