Week 12 Suggestion!

I don't mind what we do this Trip whiether we see a movie or go to a pub.
I'll see what you all think we should do.

Ang.

Lecture 4: Lying

Lying, Oh the glorious thing.

It happens every day, everyone lies from the Politian in London to the modern wife in the family; the scary thing about is whither or you can tell someone is lying.
If you can tell someone is lying by using a skill some will consider it as a gift; for an example of this look at a TV show called ‘Lie to Me’ as it focuses on a groups investigations into crimes by the ‘skill’ of the main character Dr Cal Lightman who has the skill of picking out emotions by using a the ‘facial coding system’ and through body language to find out the truth.
Lying was picked out of the clip from Red dwarf: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRzNuIvpMUc as the character Lister was teaching Kryten to lie and go against his robotic programming, Lister says in the clip that ‘lying is vital part of our psychological defence system’ and ‘if you can’t lie then you can’t conceal you’re true intensions from other people’ Is this really true? So is being able to lie a good thing? In my view if a lie is told to spare someone’s feelings then it is a good thing as it shows you are thinking about them, I don’t think the world be a better place if everyone told the truth because if everyone did the opposite it would change life for everyone from politics to everyday life.
When it comes to men and women on the other hand I do think that we aren’t different as both men and women can tell lies in a mix of different situations including ‘does my bum look big in this?’ when women wants the man to say ‘No’ But there are those lies that are morally wrong including the constant lies being told when one partner is cheating in the relationship or marriage when the lies get found out it hurts the other people and it takes the trust and makes it hard for the person to trust other people when they get into another relationship again. Isn’t there other lie’s that are wrong and complicate life?
I think the worst thing is being told the lie because you’re being lead into thinking it’s the truth direction because you trust the person and when you find out what it the truth it opens the door into a new light of emotions, it can really ruin someones life if its that bad of a lie.
What would the politics in the country come to when all politicians are exposed as liars? Or hasn’t that already happened?

Lecture 3: Bad Behaviour-Stalking

Clip: Peep Show (2x01)

To me Stalking is serious and intimidating for the victim as they gradually feel that their life isn’t their own anymore as the stalker becomes increasing obsessive over the victim’s whereabouts and mentally thinks they have the right to about the victim’s personal things and whereabouts.

In the clip shown there was a not so serious form of stalking as one of the character was invading the privacy of a colleague just so he can find out information about her in order to gain an advantage in ‘getting it together’ with her, as a whole it was funny but when you look at it seems rather drastic and ‘pathetic’ as many people would rather just actually talk to the person naturally.

The actions of the character in the clip brought up in the discussion the first question of when does a concerned interest in someone’s activities become stalking? I think it becomes stalking when the victim feels nervous when doing something normal in their everyday lives such as walking down their road; it also becomes serious when the stalker goes to extreme lengths of finding out personal information such as passwords to the victims log ins this is when it becomes increasingly terrifying for the victim when the stalker obsession turns into knowing every little detail of the persons lives.

Another question of Are some kinds of observance allowable and appropriate and which ones aren’t? There are many things that we do in our own lives such as watching children but in recent times our fear over paedophiles has risen as there has been a cases in the news finding people guilty over child abuse and one shocking case/story that comes to mind is the case that includes TWO WOMEN and One Man, no wonder we are ever increasingly seeing things in normal life and changing them over our fears about paedophiles rising over stories in the news especially the one that involved the two women as that story alone changed our viewpoints and made us even suspicious over women and not just men, there is an example that was in the news last year involving parents being banned from playing with their own children over fears that they are not ‘checked’ by the police: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223528/Parents-banned-supervising-children-playgrounds--case-paedophiles.html is this an example of being too careful when playing with our own children? Another article in the news involves something of the same kind of alerting about parents is how a school bans parents from watching a kid’s sports day with the reason of ‘keeping out paedophiles’: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/07/04/fool-sports-day-115875-21493522 I think this is one example that our fears are simply going too far so much that a much loved day for the children playing a day of sports is ruined by the possibility that their parents can’t be there to cheer them on with camcorder recording the ‘special’ day.

The actions in real life that aren’t so acceptable is the constant watching of other people and the hacking into a person’s emails and logins that I’ve already mentioned because it’s a sign of unwanted attention as the victim fears that their life is no longer theirs; it become even more terrifying when the victim is thinks that it will go as far as his/her death, this viewpoint into stalking came into news when a story of a women was shot in a cold blooded killing by her ex which turned into her stalker and then he turned the gun on himself: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article566373.ece it shocked the nation when the story came to light it also was later when an investigation into the killing found out that the police/authorities had failed to protect the victim: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/jan/19/ukcrime.ukguns .

This is one example that one persons obsession can turn deadly and turn tragic.

Lecture 3: Bad Behaviour-Shoplifting

Clip: Family guy ‘Breaking up is hard to do’

In the clip from family guy it was humorously shown how the mother character became additive to shoplifting, but is it really a funny issue in reality? As many think as it’s the start of a bigger problem in more serious thefts.
The questions that was answered when discussing this topic was 1) Is shoplifting any different to any kind of theft? And 2) why do people who can afford to buy things shoplift them instead?
When thinking about the first question I think that shoplifting is not such a serious offence, such as in one point that came in the discussion was that you wouldn’t care because you can’t see who you are stealing from and I think in that point its true as you can’t be affected by it or feel guilty so you tend to go on to steal again for more of a rush. But another viewpoint is that it is different from other forms of theft such as stealing from a friend which is morally wrong as I think it can was be thought of as a betrayal of a friends trust.
When thinking about the last question I instantly think of persistent shoplifting as an addiction as shown in the family guy clip but it can become and develop into a serious offence by the thief wanting more of a bigger rush by committing a more serious crime such as robbery or scams. Addiction in shoplifting can also reveal certain types in the person’s personality such as greed and enjoyment, but another viewpoint is that can it also be caused by peer pressure? I think it does as it may be that the person feels pressured to look ‘cool’ in the right branded gear as they feel they have to steal in order to be in the ‘in’ crowd.
It’s also true when sometimes the person steals because they can’t afford the things they need to this point is also true in the figures that have come out that show how the economic downturn has resulted in a increase in people stealing as the cost of living goes up this is also explained further in an article: http://www.themoneystop.co.uk/012010/economic-downturn-results-in-rise-in-shoplifting.html or is it simply not out of desperation but to save money and make their monthly income go further as much as they can?

Lecture 3: Bad Behaviour- Prostitution

Clip: Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

The clip started the discussion on prostitution; I noticed the film represent prostitution as a high class job because of the way Audrey Hepburn dress style in the movie, which can be recognised in today’s society as the term ‘escort’ as there are many women in the society that earn a living working in escort agencies .

There were three questions that came up in the discussion: 1) is it prostitution to take money from someone expecting sex, but then not to supply it? 2) If it isn’t then is it more or less socially respectable? 3) If it is prostitution then how much is a reasonable charge?

In thinking about the first question some might say it can be classed as robbery as the ‘punter’ has paid but ’hasn’t received the goods’ but then again she may take the money but then she has the decision of deciding whether to take away the sex because if the ‘punter ‘can’t take no for an answer it changes to rape because the ‘punter’ may force himself on her, is rape still right in that instance?

In thinking about the second question I think that it may be socially respectable to take the money but not do the act as many people feel that prostitution is a dirty business as many do the job just to earn a living if they can’t get a ‘proper job’

In thinking about the third question I think about what I think what makes a person feel like they have to sell their body for money, think that the woman or man has less respect of their body when it comes to letting a stranger have sex with him or her in other words it can depend how much you valve your body.

Lecture 2 : Smoking !!!

When it comes to smoking I’ve always thought it was dirty disgusting habit; many people smoke it’s worldwide!!!

It is dangerous! It kills!! The statistics of it killing is there!

As the lecture looked at the influence of famous people and the movies it shows that no wonder people thought it was ‘sexy’ and worth getting addicted it, it was persistently placed in the viewers faces in the movies and what made it worse in being more attractive was the fact that famous people such as ‘Winston Churchill’ kept in the public eye making it the normal.

If I think about the question ‘has it continued to be in the public eye?’ in my opinion it probably has because of the science discoveries about it being damaging to our health and the politically the governments crack down on smoking in bars and public places. One example of the changing use of cigarettes in movies is in bond movies as was pointed out in the lecture; like Sean Connery bond character can be seen smoking in this picture: http://fatfinch.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/bond-smoking.jpg but more recently in Daniel Craig’s version of the same character he isn’t smoking in this picture from Casino Royale :http://images.eonline.com/eol_images/Articles/20061108/425.casino.royale.110706.jpg. This shows however that times have changed and the character of Bond has also changed with the different actors taking over the part over the years.

As I’ve pointed out the vision and people’s perception of smoking has changed as government have responded to deaths from the effects of smoking with the ban but they have also made it easier for smokers to give up but giving out help and advice by TV adverts, Radio and on the Website: http://smokefree.nhs.uk/ . This shows that people are willing to stop wasting their money but does it also show that they want to lead a better lifestyle?