Ignorance Is Bliss

By Krystal Au, Nicholas Leung, Beatrice Margolin, Sydney Marino, and Layanah Nsouli

In a time of political turmoil spanning from around the globe to our own backyard, it is easy to turn off the TV or flip to another page of a newspaper and simply ignore it. It is even easier to criticize it from a misinformed and biased perspective. In an ideal world, we would be willing to take initiative and read an article, then further examine an issue by reading different sides of one story. We would refuse to look at things from a single perspective. There may not be a concrete “truth,” but there is injustice happening around us that cannot be ignored.

As Desmond Tutu once said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” We have learned through this class that critique is a valid part of art, and art does not exist in a separate sphere from politics, economics, or society as a whole. Nor does critique only exist to serve the arts. We are all autonomous and free-thinking individuals, but we exist in the mind frame that staying neutral means staying good, when that is not the case.

Think back to all we have accomplished in this class. We spoke out against the sexism in ages old opera by Mozart, one of the greats. We critiqued and examined historical broadway plays hailing from a vastly different era. We first became informed on the new medium and styles of modern dance before we attempted to adequately criticize it. But we should also start realizing that we can think bigger and apply this kind of critical thought outside of the classroom. There is a corrupt world in existence around us, a world we ourselves occupy, so why shouldn’t we help change it?

When you live with institutionalized and internalized beliefs and sentiments, it can be hard to separate ideals from reality. In our video, we decided to use a split screen to show the stark contrast between the harsh realities of the system we live in and how the general population more or less ignores them. The split screen also acts as a barrier of sound between the two scenes. Every so often you will hear a sound coming from the right side, symbolizing the small nod of acknowledgement that we give those in need, but our priorities always align themselves differently as can be seen by the left side. Otherwise, we criticize activism of any form or deny the mere existence of an injustice we cannot always understand.

With this video, we hope to bring attention to an ignorance we all partake in whether we realize it or not. Perhaps we cannot always physically be somewhere to help those who need us, but staying informed and aware is always of the utmost importance. There are people’s lives at stake every day because of things we ourselves are lucky enough to have the option of ignoring. We believe it is time, however, to take things into our own hands and help improve the world for posterity.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnNpPTJ0cUc]