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JamesLedgerConcepts — Community Spirit
Published: 2013-05-28 14:16:59 +0000 UTC; Views: 9811; Favourites: 466; Downloads: 198
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All done in Photoshop, painted almost entirely with some reference stuff peeking through. This image is a personal project, so doesn't belong to anyone else, i.e. a client. To buy the full license to this image would cost £60 ($100).Related content
Comments: 83
Thank you very much!
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Hopefully the anarchy revolution will surpass moments like this.
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We will see...!
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finally! looks very great!
what about a apocalyptic scene?
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That will be on the cards - I will extend on this current them of destruction until London is no longer recognisable...!
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...I'd rather see rants carried out in writing than in a scene as that depicted. No worries!
...One has to ask, however, 'What nation on this Earth has not been born from conquest in some form or other--whether it be martial or monetary in nature?'
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Indeed - they have all been born the same way. I understand that we come from an 'animal' kingdom but I think we should by now have moved on from that. The reason for my rant was due to this recent event - [link]
So, my argument would by 'what do we expect when we have done this to others so many times and continue to act in this 'animal kingdom' fashion.'
We label others as 'terrorists' but we kill more people in this way than any other nation.
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In this day and time, not many people view the world as it is. Most Americans like to live in a bubble where only good things are happening and poverty doesn't exist. These Americans pass homeless men, women, and children on the street and barely give them a second look. They would rather sit and do nothing while their own species died than to help them.
The generation of young children that have grown to expect anything they wanted and have tantrums in the stores when they didn't get it, sickens me. But, of course, they grow to be teenagers that expect the same thing but instead of having tantrums, they decided to get a tattoo or a piercing or sleep with random strangers to get even with their parents or get drunk and wreck their car and in the end, when they catch STDs or kill their self or others, they have accomplished nothing. They are selfish.
No one does anything to try to stop this pattern though and the senseless thing is, is that the children and the teenagers and the young adults are too stupid to understand that there is more to life than their self. They can only see what is inside the bubble of alcohol, drugs, sex and parties.
You are right in everything you have stated and if there were more people like you in the world, maybe we could change it.
Humans are a brutal race. Killing each other and destroying our planet and anything else we can find.
In the end, the world would only truly be better if we weren't in it.
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I'm glad to see you are aware of the world. It's exactly the same as you described here, and the UK. Everyone is headed for oblitoration. I discovered this, which is well worth a look at, describing everything we have been mentioning. You may have already seen it.
[link]
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Eh, I'm in the American military and I can safely say that I hold no loyalty to this country beyond the fact that my family and friends live here.
Other than that, if they'd not accepted me I'd have joined any other military that would have taken me.
Just wanted to enlist and experience it for myself.
I do agree that our culture has gotten top heavy and corrupt, and it does need to change...I also take my oath very seriously on one clause which stipulates the following: 'I will uphold the Constitution of the United States and its people, defending it and them from all foes foreign and domestic.'
If the government issued me orders to fire on our own civilians or to suppress them, I know which side I'd be on.
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Glad to hear you are aware of the 'realities'. Of course, there is much to see and learn about the world through the army - that is a definite plus. It's the pointlessness of the wars I can't agree with, and the huge loss to American soldiers who fight for the profits of the governments etc. And todays wars seem to be designed to last forever, feeding the system with endless money at the further cost of American lives and leaving families without fathers etc.
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Eh, there are wars and there are wars.
I am a student of history, not of any one nation or culture, but of as many as I can get my hands on.
I do my best to recognize the good and evil in all those histories and apply their lessons as best I am able to the modern realm.
I do agree that we are fighting a prolonged conflict who's purpose is long past and is now simply a war without end with no perceptible goal or end in sight.
It is destroying the US at a time when said country is already reeling from economic disaster(a disaster I feel the perpetrators of got off easily and laughed their way to the bank).
I joined the military because I wanted the experience, I strive to understand that which I both agree and disagree with, so that I might argue from a more enlightened position.
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I think America is in for some big changes, one way or the other. There are so many documentaries on this subject, I never realised the extent to how seriously Americans are taking such things as 9-11, the monetary system, etc. I am glad the awareness is there, what ever a persons belief.
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Awareness is there to a degree, on both sides of the coin.
The issue is that there hasn't been a big enough desire for change.
What I am worried about is groups like Occupy and the Tea Party who want to make a change and try to make that change by doing the sorts of things that won't actually effect the change and will instead just sink us further into the pit we're sinking in.
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Yes, there seems to be a lot of ideas around, but I am sure many of these ideas will be more negative than contemplated.
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The best intentions eh?
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Thank you for your service, and for being one of the good guys.
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Well, I think my attitude is a bit more mercenary than most honestly.
I just take my obligation to defend the people of this country more seriously than my oath to follow the government.
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Very interesting perspective on the world. I think it's important to cling on to history simply because it's where we came from. Also, art usually comes from culture so I don't think it can be destroyed necessarily. But like you I want the world to be unified and better, and for people to live life and to enjoy it rather than obsessing over imaginary or little things.
Also I believe that money isn't necessarily a bad idea, but what it has become is atrocious and utterly despicable. It's a shame that the world we live in is so very materialistic, and it's an even bigger shame those materialistic people run the world.
I don't think you can kill culture. I think "culture" should be about unification and respecting each other, respecting art and respecting business and science and the like for they are all vastly different. Even Western society, despite being less "cultured" is still a culture. Not a good one by any means, and I'm not suggesting that cultures are good simply because they are cultures. But it's unavoidable. As for history, I think it's important to know it for the sake of knowing. But we should extend our knowledge and learn more. I saw a post today on Facebook about "Never underestimate stupid people in groups" and it pointed at the Nazis. The Nazis weren't necessarily stupid, they were just corrupt and their leaders (obviously Hitler) made nasty decisions. But are the people stupid? Are the citizens stupid? No. They are just ignorant or the truth was kept from them. They didn't know what was going on in it's entirety. I have read a historical bio about the German Citizens. There are even German civilians who would be shot if they collected Pamphlets from British Air Forces (they were dropped down to serve as propaganda) and they would be taken away or killed if they inquired into the fate of the Jewish people and the many other types of people. History is important, but not the fake, romanticized, one-sided history that we cling to. It's much simpler to look into that.
So, I think the very same thing is happening today from Western Eyes to the Muslims. Pretty much the same thing. They must turn Christian to be pure, they must be like us, live like us. However they do have some pretty awful practices, and so do we, but it's at the very least "safer" to live here. But that's a different topic altogether, perhaps. It can be argued whether or not it is psychologically safer to live here based on the mass amount of expectations we must live up to and what we must become. We could either live short and die fast, or die because we aren't making enough money and because we didn't get a high enough grade for our projects in school, we are living in the streets hoping for some coins to drop in.
Your rant, or thoughts I'd rather say, were interesting and I never knew you were that passionate about it. it was an interesting read. I would actually like to hear more of it perhaps, it's interesting, albeit angering. Also, because I shared my opinions that doesn't mean I think you're wrong. I was just obligated to share my two cents.
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Thanks for your long reply King - your view is as valid as mine, however different.
The thing about our history - i see your point entirely but I think it 'may' hold us back, like a hoarder unnecessarily holds on to the past and gives value to meaningless and outdated materials like newspaper cuttings and cardboard boxes. I question whether the past is worth holding on to or should we just wipe the slate clean and start again. As beautiful as ancient memorials/temples/buildings are, they usually always relate to power, the destruction of other civilisations and the victory of it all. Would we be better off if we stopped admiring these creations and regard them as expired and symbolic of an outdated society?
The monetary system - there must always be losers in this system. Someone HAS to suffer so that the winners have something of desire, giving money it's all important value. Money is great when we have it, but it only has value if someone else has none of it. The reason why poverty kills is because of the scarcity of money - we won't help people that suffer unless they give us money in return. I think we need a new motivational system that makes the need for money unnecessary. I would love to create art and teach art all day long for free. I can't do that because the banks threaten me, as do my landlord, the government, the police, the rich, the utility companies and so on. I am a slave to the system, which minimizes all of our creative output and renders us as highly limited. We exist to pay money to someone else, all day long for the duration of our lives. I think the idea of money is outdated and more destructive than it is productive.
Cultures are fabulous - it just seems that they limit us again, as we will always 'compare' one culture with the next one. I would prefer one super-integrated culture, where we can maybe look back at the past and laugh at previous cultures as isolating categories that are now useless to a world view of uniting and moving forward. As long as there are cultures, we will ultimately categorise large masses of people as better or worse, which always results in war and disagreement. Individual beliefs are fine, but isolating those beliefs to areas of landmass is too isolating I think, the same way communities divide between one religion/culture and another within a city.
You are right about the Nazis - very intelligent people, yet 'delusioned' by power, which is incredible. We will believe in anything if someone has the balls to make us believe it. Just look how seriously people take star trek and pokemon to the point of dressing up in clothes that reflect their desire to be like something that was created by a man with pencil in his hand, working for an entertainment company that wanted to be successful at making money. Apparently the more 'able' and efficient our brains are, the quicker we are to adopt a belief system, however ridiculous.
Of course this is only my own view, and i could be wrong. Maybe every view is correct and there is no solution to a society made up of organisms that ultimately sprung from the animal kingdom. Maybe nature has to be destructive, and world peace is just not possible. Perhaps we cant have the positive without the negative...?
I have always been passionate about the world, it's just so difficult to view opinions online, so like most of us, i usually keep quiet and play ignorance in case of agressive retaliation. 'Trolls' as they are called, seem to be everywhere...
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I'm very glad you responded. I wasn't sure if you would. Your thoughts are again very interesting and thoughtful. They are interesting to read.
Regarding history, it is a shame that it is really about whoever wins and loses that decides what history is like. However it would be a state of ignorance to completely remove history from memory. History is essential in order to make decisions. I know it seems a bit optimistic to say, considering that humanity always repeats the same mistakes even when history has shown otherwise, but I would like to say that is because the people who rule countries or armies are just stupid. However, it is a disservice to those who were riled over and utterly destroyed, for we can't learn about what made them get destroyed, we can't learn about the everyday lives of the citizens who were wiped off the Earth due to wars or natural or economic causes. For intance, there is severe Nazi hate, which is justified, but then all of a sudden it connects to the everyday German. Yet, we ignore injustices inflicted onto them. They were in a depression longer, they lost a war, and most importantly, they are like us today. We can also learn that, instead of taking the same path as those old peoples, we can instead try not to follow their footsteps and figure out what all happened. We can deconstruct it and take a look at all sides. Wiping it clean doesn't do anything good really for those who need to learn about it. While I legitimately understand that it is a shame that "history" is really connected to our barbaric and war-like roots, it's probably just an extreme example of how the world runs. I just think that forgetting about it all is not a good idea. One person sacrifices something for either another's gain or the group's gain, or vice versa. We should learn from it, but steer clear of it in the sense that we should not relive it's past mistakes. If we know what they did wrong, it can help us steer more properly in the right direction. For the average person, it can make them respect all sides in the present day instead of labeling a particular side as evil. For instance, for the current conflicts, wouldn't it be important to know the history of the conflict? How it started and who instigated what? I know that's not necessarily what you were referring to, you're referring to ancient history (I assume), but it's crucial.
For your last statement, though, I can agree. we should accept their mistakes and their correct choices, and then carry on. But we shouldn't worship them in the sense that it is how the world should run, except for the fact that Sparta had Ephors which were awesome (they had the power to override decisions if the leader(s) were corrupt and selfish). We should never adapt to just one system, unless that system is unification. We can never stay in the same structure for far too long, no matter how good or bad it is.
My (brief) teacher of economics said that communism sounds like the perfect idea because everyone gets what they need. However in execution that's not really how it works, someone is always corrupt. I think that, if people were more selfless, it would be possible, but alas, that's not how it works.
I think I generally agree with your statements regarding money. As I said, it sounds like a good idea, but when you got too much of a population that becomes too materialistic then it is just a mess. There's not enough resources, I assume, to spread around, or the like. I remember watching a documentary about Capitalism in America where it made mention of Roosevelt proposing a bill where every American citizen would have the rights to a decent home, health care, and the like. However when he passed away after the war the bill was never brought up. Instead, Japan and Germany, the losers of the war, instead got the bill that was supposed to be for the American people. I don't have it all right I'm assuming, but that's the gist of what the documentary stated.
I think that, to play devil's advocate, we need to play a part of the bigger role. Life is unfortunately not really about doing what we want, I don't think. As much as I would love to write and do art as well I cannot because that's just how it is. Considering that money is what requires us to get resources and supplies I can see why it is necessary to obtain. I think money should be used for either really important things and important things only, or for things that are just for entertainment purposes. My vision of a perfect society is not a society where there is no such thing as money and that it is absolutely marvelous. Rather, it is a vision of everyone finding their role, whether it be art, science, history or business and fulfilling that role for the structure and posterity of the civilization. But currently, everyone's in it for themselves. That's what I take issue with. I do wish that art, science and business all had their own paths and everyone was free to choose from them, rather than business or science being easier and more about brains whereas art is mostly about luck.
it is a shame our self worth is based on how much revenue we make and how high our marks are in school. If that goes down the drain, then there is nothing to achieve, almost. Don't make enough money? You're screwed. How much money do you make? Oh, well the amount you've given me is not enough. I really hate it when my parents or older relatives always tell me about positions which earn crazy amount of money. I don't need it. I just want to live comfortably.
I was a bit all over the place here. Generally I agree in the long run. These thoughts are quite raw and unorganized so I apologize if it is messy to read.
I see your point about culture. I think stereotyping and labeling is inevitable though, it cannot be avoided by any means. it should however be taught more frequently that just because a community has a culture that's different from our own, that does not mean we should not inquire into the individual people and what they are like.
To an extent culture could be mostly identified by how a country or group runs themselves. So, if a group has a particular way of structuring their society, then a culture will form out of it. That culture becomes what is essentially how they maintain themselves. Sometimes that's not how it works, there are obviously bad parts to it...
I think you are generally right here as well. Cultures should be remembered though and at times they should remain. What if a culture commemorates a certain historical figure where others don't? What if they like to eat a certain food? Minimal things like that are fine and shouldn't diminish because they don't hurt anyone and prevent unification (although anything about history could be detrimental at times). However if the culture, is about abuse of power, sexist,racist, and prevents unity, then that is what should be abolished.
I don't know if you got it right, but I was referring to the Nazis in power, not the average civilians. The truth was mostly withheld, similar as to how the truth is hidden from us today so that it is easier to label other countries as enemies. And yet we say we are so much better today. How much better are we actually? Is explicit racism just as bad a subtle racism? Because if it is subtle then it is considered okay to be racist, whereas explicit is like slave labour or whatnot. :/
I would have to disagree with you on the Pokemon part, only because the creator of Pokemon didn't actually create Pokemon because he wanted money, that was not his inspiration. Having read into Satoshi Tajiri's history, he was a fan of arcade games and liked to collect bugs. Aside from being dissatisfied with the current library of games, Pokemon was made so that "children could experience the joy of when he caught bugs" or something along those lines. At some point in his life he wanted to make his own video game that would connect to his passion for bug collecting, which turned into Pokemon. It was expected to fail, and his team was very small. The company, Game Freak, originally started out as a fan-magazine which he wrote. His parents thought he'd go nowhere, and like anyone preventing anyone from getting into art they told him it was a waste of time. But look where he is now. Sure, now it is a business for making money, but there is still good in it. Pokemon is labeled for being bad for children, which like anything there is badness in it, but the stories in the games are evolving into something more mature. For instance, the newest game(s) deal with truth and ideals, how we as people want to do good but we really need to know all the sides before making decisions, etc, similar to how we are talking about this very discussion. We jump the bandwagon of "justice" before we really know what is going on. This is a good moral for young children, the target audience of the games. Furthermore it asks the players questions of "once you reach your goal, what will you do afterwards?". While the other media is certainly made for money, the actual mainstream games originate from a passion, which then evolved into what it is now. Some of the same people who started out still work at Game Freak.
For children, who are more intelligent than we give them credit for, this is quite good news. The stories have become more philosophical and more developed and complex. The main villain in one game is actually just like any ordinary person in the sense that we want to do good but we're too deluded or ignorant to actually do good. So, to disregard it as materialistic trash would be a bit extreme to me. It's got it's flaws for sure. For one, we can't accomplish our goals by grabbing mystical animals that do everything for us, and leaving home to accomplish your life goals when you're only 11 (presumable age of the player) doesn't sound right. And to some that's animal abuse. They make tons of games and now are one of the biggest companies out there. But please don't falsely accuse them of just doing it for money. Not every entertainment corporation is like that. Besides, it can't quit whenever it wants, there are people who are in there because that's where they just so happen to work and they could use that job to stay alive. I think EA is much worse. Yes, GameFreak wanted to be successful at making money because they wanted to make good games, that was their inspiration. It is similar to the fact that I write because I'm sick of most of the stories I read, and if whenever the day comes I'd like other people to see what I create. They didn't start out as ruthless business men, and I would think it is fair to say they still are not.
Aside from that, you could say that this society is vastly materialistic, which it is, and I'd agree entirely. we don't need all this entertainment, and it takes priority over more important things. I'm not saying you need to respect Game Freak as saints, I don't think they are either, but I just thought I'd inform you. Also, I'd like to ask the question... If anyone gets to the position of leading or creating a multi-million dollar entertainment company, does that automatically mean they are soul-less? Because they have gotten to the point of making lots of money, the question of art or having good quality is out of the question? Does it become impossible for anyone in that company to enjoy what they make, instead of making a certain formula that guarantees the big loads of cash?
Going back onto topic. I don't think you are wrong. Despite the fact I seem like I'm disagreeing I actually agree with you on most things. The cure I think to answering all problems is this: Inquiry. Inquire into things. Ask questions, see what is happening, make conclusions based on looking at as many details as possible rather than jumping a bandwagon. But here's what I certainly do believe: We can't live without the negative, it is impossible. Some say that arguing with someone is healthy at times, which it is. If we all stay love and tolerance, for instance, society becomes more and more closed up rather than becoming more and more open. Anything that comes close to "intolerance", regardless of how constructive it may seem, is brushed aside for an extremely fabricated utopian way of thinking. Just because someone else thinks differnetly, that doesn't mean you should automatically agree or let it go. If someone is sexist and that's where they come from, it's natural where they are from, that doesn't make it right, for instance.
I get my butt kicked all the time, because I am more than willing to voice my opinion either on an art piece or on a matter. I never try to be offensive but for some people all that matters is that you're disagreeing with them, and that's all that's needed to brush aside whatever is said.
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Excellent - thanks mutt!
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Excellent - thanks Mutt!
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