A Knights Tale

             A Knights Tale is a modern-day movie depicting a very interesting time in world history. The most memorable segment of this movie was when Heath Ledger discovered his master Sir Ector had died. He then convinces himself to steal the jousting armor, and catapult himself into the upper-class. In the medieval times the poverty class was almost destined to live in poverty their entire lives. The greatest element of this choice was the fact that William Thatcher didn't make this decision purely to benefit his own self interest, he and his two loyal friends were just as important, as they all split the earnings. He then continues to compete in tournaments, and becomes quite successful. In his pursuit he becomes infatuated with a woman of the upper-class, this proves to be difficult, as William is really a member of the lower-class, pretending to be of royalty. Great movie depicting the medieval times, especially since this is after all a glamoured facade produced in Hollywood.

How do we look?

          "In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with it's social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it." - Earnst Fischer

      With this quote in mind, where is our society now? Are we a society built on independent muscular civil structure, or is our strength dependent on the governments of the world? Are we morally superior to the generations before, or are we morally inferior? These are questions I ask myself quite frequently, and for good reason. When I think of art, sadly the first category that I think about is music. Music is a hegemon with regard to the generation I'm a part of and our exposure to art. We do have good music, loaded with lyrics that have positive sentimental messages; however, if you turn on the radio to the "mainstream" stations, we don't have much hope now do we? With rappers and hip-hop artists dominating most of the air-time, whose lyrics often are hollow and defeaning to the educated mind, our society wouldn't look very good, or intelligent. If we are a society built on intelligence, and prosperity, why are we widely accepting artists whose lyrics contain derogatory terms belittling women, patronizing money and advocating drug use? Again, this isn't all of the music, but my generation glorifies  artists like,"Lil' Wayne","Lady GaGa" or the newer "Ke$ha". To me, we're in a period of social decay almost comparable to that of the time of the Gladiators, where citizens of the roman empire laughed and found pleasure in the "glorifying" death of the gladiators. now, the younger generations are finding pleasure in patronizing unnecessary human suffering(drugs), glorifying slavery (money, federal reserve system) and the absolute belittling of women. Although I have exposed much evidence against my generation and generations to come, I have significant hope we can overcome this embarrassing period of time.