A Brief Synopsis on Paper Clips and Conformity

Many people who think of a creative idea will jump to something big, something that has recently changed the foundation of society. I believe most people would say Apple products are the most important creative idea in the last fifty years or so. I also believe most people, when asked about a genius, would jump straight to some great scientist of the modern era: such as, Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Stephen Hawking. These men are all brilliant men, and have changed dramatically the foundations of the modern world we live in. What constitutes as creative? I believe that creativity is being able to take something, and make something else or use than its intended one. I believe a genius is a person who can take these creative ideas and make them into something that most people wouldn’t be able to do. What sticks out to me as a genius idea is something that many people use every day and don’t think twice about it. The genius idea that sticks out to me the most has been such an important, yet simple tool that has nearly an unlimited amount of uses. The genius idea I decided would be appropriate to talk about in this TED talk, is a paper clip.

                “Why a paper clip?” I’m sure you are all thinking currently, as I stand in front of you and tell you that a twisted piece of wire is so important to society. I want you to think, just for a few seconds, all the different uses you can think of for a paper clip. In the psychology course I’m currently taking, we learned of Sir Ken Robinson, who wrote a psychological study a while back where he had peoples of all age’s list as many uses for a paper clip that they could possibly think of. He duly noted that the younger the school children were, the more uses for a paper clip they could come up with. This was a way to show a psychological processes called “Functional Fixedness”. Functional Fixedness is our inability to see an object for any use other than its intended one. For instance, a paper clips use is to hold papers together. However, it can also be used to unclog something, pick a lock, cleaning your toe nails, scratching a lottery ticket, and almost an unlimited amount of other uses. Some kids used in Sir Robinson’s experiment went as far as to show that perhaps the paperclip has no boundaries, and could be big enough to put wheels on and pushed as a cart. Sir Robinson noticed the trend of creativity depletion as children grew older and went through school. He has since shown in many studies how education has put a road block to creativity in society.

                This particular psychology lecture stuck out in my mind much longer than the usual garb that flows in one year and out the other. It stuck out to me because I realized how much people are missing out on in the world do to functional fixedness. So many live their lives day by day in this structure of society that has been morphed into what’s thought of as what should be normal. Biologically, people need three things to survive: food, water, and shelter from the elements. Psychologically, people need much more. People need comfort, love, compassion, which all amount to the same thing, their own comfort level in living and quality of life. People follow what others do because they believe it is appropriate, and in society you must be like the rest, lest you are cast out into utter darkness and the cold, harsh rain of rejection. Imagine, just for a moment, how different this world would be if society actually realized the absolute depth and creativity of our own human minds. Why is it that most residential neighborhoods have regulations regarding fences, house color, and lawn care? Why is it that people with tattoos all over their bodies are looked at as strange or even dangerous, when in reality they may just be creative? Why is it that people choose to work a job their whole life that they absolutely despise, and give up on their dreams so easily? The reason for this is because society has become filled with people who have an absolute, concrete mindset of functional fixedness. Society has made people into an object with limited uses. We, as humans, are metaphorically paper clips. We have an unlimited amount of opportunity, yet society gives us a standard, or a combine to conform to. Society is the hand that binds the paper clip to the paper so tight that there is no way to continue other than to stay put and do as its intended.

                Think of all the times in your life you have thought of a career path and thought “Wow! That sounds like that’d be the life.”; Only to realize a multitude of scenarios that would prevent you from achieving that goal; whether it is your parents not approving, not having the proper prior achievements to set you down that career path or even a simple fear of rejection and failure. Now that you have functional fixedness removed temporarily from your mind, think again at the many uses of a paper clip. I guarantee that the number you came to previously has multiplied exponentially. Now think of yourself as that paper clip, and remember all the possibilities that you have. Will you conform and do what you’re told because it will make others happy? Or will you say “To hell with it!” ditch the engineering degree that you so despise pursuing, and become the person you always wanted to be? Thank you for your time.

 Bibliography

Sir Ken Robinson’s experiment - http://scienceblogs.com/deanscorner/2011/01/27/education-as-a-roadblock-to-cr/

Functional Fixedness - http://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/2009/functional-fixedness/

One Flew Over the Creator's Nest

When it comes to our modern structure of learning, it has become a social taboo than to do anything other than go to school, be taught what is taught to everyone else, and then to go off into the world with the same school taught knowledge that every other kid your age has. This system is flawed, but there is no way to change it. Education is a very important thing to have, and I'm not saying that nobody should go to school. If you've ever read the book One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest you may be familiar with the common themes of the book. One of which is "Big Nurse" who I will use as an example for university's and the working world. Big Nurse wanted every patient to be under her control, much like the world outside of Highschool holds you to a specific standard. This standard is the whole basis behind One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest. This standard is "The Combine". The Combine is a underlying system that everyone must conform to. In today's combine there is no room for a painter who isn't the best painter. In this world there is no musician or thespian that can get anywhere near being famous without first selling their soul and then allowing the industry to completely strip them of their self being and become a puppet of the media. For these reasons, in this world where the combine has held such a strong beach head for so many years, it is much easier for a person to simply conform and become an accountant. The sad thing is that even if a person becoming an accountant is secretly an amazing artist, the combine lets them know that they wont ever achieve their dreams and that they should just go to school like everyone else. The education system has completely destroyed creativity; even as a small child I remember it first hand. I personally was a talented artist and attended many art classes as a child. I even had a small exhibit in an art fair by the time I was ten. However the combine destroyed this for me. Now that I'm old enough to realize what is actually happening in the world I can see clearly what was happening when people would say things implying failure in my art future. This society idolizes celebrities for one simple reason, those peoples dreams came true while everyone else was too afraid of failure to chase after them. The combine prevents people from chasing their dreams and makes creative success seem like a far off chance, so it becomes something that most wouldn't even consider. The education system lies to people from a very young age saying things like "follow your dreams and they'll come true!" however further down the road the combine gets to people and they realize that the easy way out is to just conform and do as all others do. This is the world we live in, and to ever be anybody you must conform to the combine, that's how it is, and that's how it always be. As Jean-Jacques Rousseau once wrote in The Social Contract "Every man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains."

Thoughts on revision

Chances are, if you've ever written a paper, then you started off with a "shitty first draft". Chances are, you probably did some serious work on that first draft and made it into something you were very happy to hand in. The process used to fix up something so terrible as a "shitty first draft" is called revision. Revision is simply taking what you already have, cutting out parts that aren't great, and adding in parts that make it into your final draft. Revision is something that everybody can do, but not all people do it correctly. When I revise, I concentrate on following the rubric I'm assigned very carefully, and making sure that everything flows together in a neat, understandable sequence. The easiest way to accomplish a good revision is to have someone other than yourself read your paper. In most cases it's easy to overlook your own mistakes. If someone other than yourself reads your paper they can point out sections that don't flow well or has grammatical mistakes.

A closet genius.

The general feeling one may experience when watching In the Realms of the Unreal may differ from one person to another. The feelings I felt were very mixed. In some parts the movie made me feel pity for Henry Darger, in other parts it made me feel disgusted. This documentary showed the potential of people that most would consider ordinary, or even quite uninteresting. Nobody knew about the epic that Darger had spent his life working on until, as he said shortly before he died "Its too late now." Darger used his twisted childhood to create an epic that was over 15000 pages long. He painted thousands of paintings illustrating the grotesque, violent, and chilling events that took place "in the realms of the unreal". The most amazing part of Dargers story is that not only did he write and paint it, but he lived it. There were numerous accounts of Henry speaking or arguing to people that he was writing about. To someone that didn't understand what was happening it may have seemed absolutely crazy. However I don't believe the underlying cause was insanity. What was actually happening was that Darger completely immersed himself into the epic that he wrote. Much like an actor will take on a role, and then not break character even when off camera or when they go home. They stay in character until the entire production is done with. It takes a truly creative mind to weave together such a plot as shown in The Realms of the Unreal. Darger used events that took place in his own life, and used these events to drive the plot of his story. Aside from his creation, look at this man as himself. To others he may have seemed different or mentally ill, however I believe that most geniuses in the world aren't fully understood by most people. There are many examples in literature that can compare to Darger. One of which is Viktor Frankenstein, who cut himself off from all family and friends for years, and completely immersed himself in his work until it was completely finished. Darger was like Frankenstein in this sense. They both kept to themselves (other than the few acquaintances Darger acquired) and generally tried to completely immerse themselves in the amazing work that they were creating. Darger wasn't insane, he wasn't crazy, and he certainly wasn't stupid. This was a man that simply had a completely different view of the world that we lived in. He blamed God for the evil in the world, other than blaming the true evil, which is the dark hearts of the men who control this world. He saw children as absolutely pure and all that is good, and longed to be a child once more. He didn't see war as means to an end, he saw war as something that destroyed and made situations worse. This mans art is something everyone should educate themselves on. Much like all great novels I believe there is something different that everyone could take away from his works. Every painting should be appreciated, his style of art was unique, and rightly repetitive. The image of the girl being strangled was duplicated over and over, there's no reason this should be viewed as lazy or un-creative. Rather, it should be seen as something that was greatly highlighted. The weak being conquered by the strong and the struggles that are caused by overbearing tyrants and rulers. Henry Darger was not a normal man, he was a better man then most.

Humor and being creative

Everybody laughs, and everybody has some sense of humor. John Cleese and many other writers and performers have used humor or satire to get across a serious point. Though satire isn’t always comical, it can have a bit of humor to it. When being creative, it’s great to have a good sense of humor about whatever issue the writer is writing about.

                Humor gets the audience engaged in what the writer is trying to say. Making people laugh makes people happy, so an effective way to address an issue is humor. If a performance has a serious meaning behind it, yet still adds humor it achieves several things. It keeps the show interesting, but it also makes the audience sit back and think about what they just watched. Many TV shows use this strategy to promote political, socio-economical, and moral views. Many popular hot topics in television today may be shown in a way that is indirect, yet still effective. South Park, for example, is a hilarious adult cartoon show. One may only see a group of swearing fourth graders on the screen if the viewer had only watched the show. However, South Park has been known to address many current issues in almost every single episode of the show. Issues such as Immigration laws, legalizing marijuana, gay marriage, abortion, socialized healthcare, world poverty and many more have been greatly highlighted in the course of the series. Even if the show doesn’t come out and directly state “legalize Marijuana!” it pushes the agenda in a humorous fashion that makes the audience think about the issue after the show is over.

                Many times throughout history have great writers used humor to get a point across, or even just to keep an audience engaged. William Shakespeare, for example, used humor in even his darkest tragedies. One such example would be King Lear. Shakespeare highlights on issues such as the monarchy system, abandonment, trust, and family in a very tragic way, yet still adds in the Fool to help lighten up the play every couple scenes. More recently in novels humor has been a bit more direct, as it seems with each generation literature becomes duller and less meaningful. Creativity can be just fine without humor, and there are many examples to show that point. However, John Cleese and many other well humored performers have impacted people’s lives in a very special way. Humor takes creativity to be successful, and successful humor leads people to understand how creative a great writer or performer actually is. 

My first blog

Hello, my name is Quinton Cutler. I am writing this blog for my first year seminar class. I am a Freshman at the University of Mount Union. I like sports; specifically lacrosse, golf, and football. My birthday is November 15th and I'm 18 years old. Below is my own opinion on the definition of creativity.

Quinton Cutler           

4^th September, 2012

Freaks, Geeks, Weirdoes’

Dr. Cordaro

Creativity

            Every human being in the world is unique. Every man and woman has different lives, ideals, and thoughts. Every person has created something at some point in their life. The creation of life is something most people are a part of at some point in their lives. However, the line between creation and creativity is vast.

            In my youth I was greatly intrigued by model airplanes and model cars. I built over one hundred models and still have them all set up in my room back home. I created these models from the parts that came in the box when I bought it. I already knew what the finished product would look like. The creativity aspect was taken out of the equation on my part. Some other person had designed these models and sold them on the shelves. I simply put them together and built what some other person had created. This summer I built a computer. A computer is different than the models, and did require a bit of creativity. I personally picked the parts I wanted for it, and created a machine that no other human in the world possesses a carbon copy of. I believe that when I created my computer I was required to use some creativity. However, there were basic guidelines I had to follow. The first thing was the company I wanted to use. The two companies are AMD and Intel. After choosing an AMD motherboard, I knew my choices for CPU, Graphics Card, RAM, Power Supply, Fans, and the case were all limited to products compatible with AMD motherboards. The only amount of creativity I had was actually envisioning the machine I wanted to create and buying those parts. The actual creation of the computer was similar to the creation of my model airplane and cars that I constructed so many times in my child hood. All the pieces just fit together like they were meant to. Some other person had made the basic guidelines that I followed for building my machine.

            Creativity is unique in the fact that everyone is creative in their own way each and every day. Whether it be the motion of the toothbrush you use every morning and night while brushing your teeth, or creating a new engine for a super car that the world has yet to see. Creativity doesn’t need to be an elaborate compendium of blue prints for a device that will change the world. Creativity doesn’t need to be a great mural painted on the side of a downtown orphanage showing the unity of man in a time of peace. Creativity is simply the creation of something new, a new idea, a song, a novel, a machine, or simply a new way to go to your place of employment to work your usual five to nine job in the morning. Creativity is the tool of a creator, and is a very powerful one at that.