I don't know about others, but I think that the best compliment for me as an artist is when someone says that seeing my artwork makes them happy. So one of the things would be that art 'ewokes emotions of sorts' in people.

I think to really see what art does, you'd have to picture the world entirely without it. Where things are made to be practical rather than aestetic. And in my eyes that'd be one scary word XD. (and I mean without any sort of art in general, including music and television and such :3)

but then, the whole "purpose" of the human race is to communicate.

think about it, it's the only real advantage we have over any other species. fuck intelligence, the only reason we HAVE intelligence is communication. We only exist and learn through shared knowledge (think school, and your parents teaching you to talk/write/learn). it extends beyond this. since every human being has different knowledge and experiences every human being looks at things a different way. so the only way we push the boundaries of what we (as a race) know is by the communication of these ideas. is by comparing knowledge. the two-heads-are-better-than-one idea - different perspectives on a problem, discussed, throw up new ideas, and we learn something else (or discover something else, or think of a new line of inquiry). I mean, would Einstein have come up with the General Theory of Relativity if he'd been shut in a dark room from birth and never communicated with everyone?

Since no one human being could ever "know" everything the human race has learned, our communication skills grow more and more complex and what we learn as youngsters about the world more complete. I mean, we no longer believe the world is flat, and in most 1st world countries writing and reading is a basic skill about 99.99% of the population has. But then, since no human being can ever learn EVERYTHING, it is only through communication that we learn new things. It's ESSENTIAL. a few human beings with some specific knowledge and different viewpoints and experiences can bounce ideas of one another and come up with something new - extend and improve the knowledge of the whole human race. why did Aristotle hang out with all the other philosophers? weren't for the social life, I'll bet.

you may as well think of the entire human race as a single sentient being exchanging knowledge. our sophisticated communication skills allow us to develop and learn, far more than any other species on this planet. We're social animals, after all. communication is key to socialisation. in fact, society could not exist without communication, and vice versa.

no man is an island. everything you know was told to you by another human being (pretty much, since all your deductive reasoning occurs through taught knowledge and experiences). and we cannot exist without each other.

communication is what we're all about. it's the key to everything we do and everything we are, not just art. without communication, we're nothing. more than that, we never would've become anything.

x_x

For instance, One theory is brought up by one man, two other people hear it, and both have different opinions on it's meaning and/or possible execution. This carries on, with each listener having his own ideas on it's meaning, untill one idea has broken into a myriad of useless, or functional theories, which is fine, but most of the theories creators will be insistent that their interpritation is the best due to ego, and will each follow their own stubborn path. The larger the scale, the more split, and divided the theory will become. Untill one person rises above the rest and proves his theory, or it all breaks down into an uncommunicative mess, or a largely unnaccepted scientific concept of life, the world, whatever.

In short, communication is only truly reliable, when it doesnt carry emotions and personal feelings along with it. Some conversations also carry personal ego, distaste, hatred possibly a misinformed sense of pride, rightous indignation. To summarise, communication is fettered with humanities need to be accepted, and his own personal needs, views. His perspective and anothers may be as different as day and night, and a further interpritation will more than likely be similarly individualistic.

People have feelings, conveyance of facts are affected by peoples opinions, and lies similarly dillute the accepted or desired truth that people try to convey. No man can know everything, but who's to say what he has been taught is the truth ?. A premise he clings to so earnestly in his heart, may be a sack of shit to someone from the outside looking in, religion springs to mind.

Im not knocking your comments Liz, so don't go thinking that. I just believe that people emotions are a large factor in any communication large or small.

To have trouble communicating doesn't make you an idiot. Some try to say too much at once, or too little. Emotions having a similar effect on one's restraint, or rather lack of it. Similarly to be unable to speak properly or elequently doesn't make you an idiot. What the mind wants to say, and what it can say are two different things...

Feelings affecting communication:
I'm not used to feeling the way I did about you, Liz. So I went a little over the top about showing it. I honestly never felt that way about another human being, the irony of the fact that we've never met makes me question my actions further. Im sorry and I'm asking you to forgive me, because at least on here, you'll read what I have to say. I know you have a boyfriend and I have no intentions of trying to be anything of meaning to you, I just want you back as a friend, and no, that wasn't why I posted this topic, it was just an afterthought at the end. I'm through being sorry for myself and I hope you'll find it in your heart to forgive my actions.

well, I thought what you said was quite interesting, but essentially the essence of my argument. One person's truth is another's sack of shit - well, since everyone sees things differently, that's understandable. If you've been brought up to believe in Christianity (yeah, religion's a REALLY good example) then you believe it, and if you don't you don't.

However, it's the very fact that different people have different perspectives that makes it useful. If we all saw things from the same point of view, our intelligence and curiousity about the world and the way things work would be useless. it's the very fact that we can bounce contrasting ideas off each other and compare them which makes us capable of expanding our collective knowledge. Of course, this happens between intelligent individuals who want to discover the truth and will accept that they may be wrong and change their ideas accordingly, rather than stubborn individuals who will never accept that they're deluded (back to religion again).

emotions really have nothing to do with it. a person who can expand society's knowledge does so not because he feels emotionally strongly about it, but more because he wants to learn, and discover, and make something of his life.

hence why my only ambition in life is to learn as much as I can. Not because I want to make something new and be an intellectual pioneer, more because I figure it's my only true purpose as a human being - learn as much as I possibly can before I die. and maybe make a slight difference. there's no other purpose truly worth living for.

and as for the rest - Neo, I don't have bad feelings towards you - I like you very much, as a friend. I'm hoping we can get past whatever awkwardness there is and be good friends? of course, that's up to you.... but I still hope I'm a friend of yours.
I'm sorry if I hurt you. It was honestly never my intention to do so. I'd like very mery much for us to be friends, if that's at all possible now?

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stubborn individuals who will never accept that they're deluded (back to religion again).

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Sounds like most religious fanatics - they've had such a skewed idea of the outside world that the only thing they can believe in is an extreme form of their beliefs. Islam has taken quite a beating in the media due to the actions of UBL and co., but it's actually a peaceful religion when analysed properly. Hence, the reason I get so fucking pissed off when some dickheaded fanatic decides he can go on the fucking telly and say "Go and fucking kill everyone you can" - those bastwards are so full of bullshit, Islam ain't about murder and mayhem, and they think they know what's right and wrong, when they couldn't be more wrong about their own religion. Dumb shits... (Sorry for the overuse of the swearing, things like that really annoy me).
So, there you have it. Skewed communications and perception are quite dangerous in the wrong minds.
BTW, I ain't sayin' "Islam's the greatest religion" etc etc, all I'm saying is that communication between ppl, if not carried out properly, can have rather devastating consequences (sorry, a tad melodramatic).

I do think emotions make a difference in communication however but only in certain circumstances. A line between personal and communal communication must be drawn in this discussion. Personal communication is littered with emotion, while messages to the masses, and accepted knowledge are not so reliant on emotional sentiment.

'emotions really have nothing to do with it. a person who can expand society's knowledge does so not because he feels emotionally strongly about it, but more because he wants to learn, and discover, and make something of his life'

btw im a non-denominational Christian, and by no means an expert, but any questions you ahve you can ask, and ill try to answer them. But i wanted to clear that up becuase good works dont get you to heaven.

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good works dont get you to heaven.

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how reassuring... So, even if you were altruistic (ie no ulterior motives) in ur good works, believed in a god, but didn't follow a religion because ur dislillusioned with all of them, you still aren't allowed into heaven, unless u actually follow a religion? very odd logic, please explain.

Another thing - if you're a good person to others, but don't accept Jesus, does that make you a bad person then?