Epperly 1 Reflection Paper 2

The world we live in is one that is consumed with the idea of instant gratification. We need to know immediately when Suzie and Justin break up on Facebook, we need to know immediately when the new President of the United States is elected, we need to immediately get our food as soon as it is ordered, and we need everyone to immediately understand our thoughts as soon as we utter the slightest statement. But communication takes time to interpret, understand, and apply, which applies to individuals, artists, and cultures across the world. One cannot expect Michael Jackson to represent the entirety of American culture, nor Justin Bieber to Canada, nor SHINee to South Korea, nor Ladysmith Black Mambazo to South Africa. The answer to culture and thus to people cannot be found in a singular book, movie, song, or TV show, yet that is how the world treats our interconnectedness. Ideally, people would like to think that way. We have been conditioned to expedite our learning process, resulting in our need for short, concise answers. Imagine a world where the most popular Top 40 Hit actually represents Americans across the board. It would be simpler to understand one another that way. Communication and understanding would be so much easier, because there would be only one vantage point to understand within ones society. It

Epperly 2 would be so much safer to assume that someone else sees everything the same way you do, and if the world came to that, it would seem plausible that crime rates would go down, there would not be national domestic controversies like the allowance of homosexual marriage or the policy of abortion or the definition of rape. Nations would be easier to understand one another, and there would be the assurance that each country holds its own cultural identity. National invasions would be a thing of the past. Peace negotiations would be so much simpler because one could analyze exactly how the others are thinking and make a perfect compromise. And yet, if such a world were to exist, then every American would be like Miley Cyrus, and be broken and obsessed over a relationship that shattered her self-esteem and sense of independence as described in her song, Wrecking Ball, which currently holds the top spot on the Billboard Top 100. It would be easier to torture those of other cultures because you could find that which is considered blasphemous in their national identity and break them all the easier, as with Muhammad al-Qatani at the Guantanamo Detention Camp. In addition, there would never be any cultural growth. The people would be stuck in the same social rut for their entire lifetimes, and no new ideas would be presented to the population. Growth as a civilization and growth as a species would be halted. Individuality would be spurned.

Epperly 3 While in reality, we cannot all identify to the same societal standards not on global, national, or communal levels but art exists to help demonstrate the diversity of human thinking and individuality. We would like to think that the world could completely identify with The Mowglis Love is Easy, but there will always be those who follow Linkin Parks Hands Held High or Muses Uprising. Music and other tools of cultural identity will always exist and continue to advance based on the circumstances surrounding the era, and they will always be there to comfort the lost soul, the lone individual without an intellectual home. There will always be times when we can better understand others through art, but art will eternally be there for us to understand ourselves.