I've always wondered:
why are we people such jerks? We are always complaining about something, and most times we are just being RATHER HYPOCRITAL, why? Because we always complain that people won't listen to us, that they won't try to understand us, but we do exactly the same all the freaking time! We don't want people to tell us how to do our shit, but we are always telling others how to do their shit.
Not only that, we bash others, we bash them for stupid reasons, we are always wasting our time and their time feeding silly flaming wars that don't go anywhere.
By
Prosaix on DeviantArt. Because everyone has the right to voice an opinion, no matter how wrong we think that opinion is, right?
It's in times like these that we show our true nature EVEN MORE. Look at the whole flaming war because of the latest crisis in Japan: in most of the sites I frequent, the spotlight in not on the victims or the help needed; no, the spotlight is on flaming wars between people who make drawings or write messages saying "Pray for Japan" "Support Japan" and the ones bashing them for "not helping with something more useful than prayers and drawings" and "exploiting the situation with their art to get more attention". Everyone is just dropping their own "opinions" (telling the others they are wrong and jerks) while hypocritaly telling others to "stop wasting time making drawing support pics" while they waste time trying to win a silly discussion that should have not started in the first place. It's ridiculous.
(...and then, you also have the ones saying bullshit like "it's karma, it's pay for Pearl Harbor" -hello? Hiroshima and Nagasaki?- but we are just going to ignore them for obvious reasons)
See, I understand what they mean: it's true, thousands of drawings, paper cranes and prayers won't feed the people in need, won't rebuild the houses, won't solve the nuclear crisis. See, I don't feel comfortable about drawings and other material inspired in the tragedy either (especially when it's still so recent) and I actually think it's rather "useless" drawing about it and praying... but I have nothing against those who show their concern in such ways. I may find those drawing kind of useless, but they are not "pointless", well at least not more than a whole bunch of people bashing them. Right now, to all of them criticizing I could say "If you have so much time as to be bashing about it, you should be the first one to actively help and stop wasting your time flaming on the internet, right?" and saying that would be so rather stupid, but it's actually the same that the people bashing are doing to people who "pray and draw"... I hope you get my point.
Going to quote AppleSin, a fellow artist on Deviantart:
"You all are so enterprising
I see many "artists" have been quick to exploit the situation in Japan. Draw any shit, sign 'Pray for Japan' - and here you go! your deviation on the first page! Very enterprisingly dont you think so? Are you really sure that your drawn redheaded girls, shots of crumpled paper and other fucking shit will help those people who need financial or governent or any other serious support? I more than sure they'd have fuck in the ass all your paper cranes and sakura flowers on DA or your blog. And I see no other reason of posting this 'pray for' pics than to promote yourself on deviantart.
stop this peacockery, rly. i want to believe there's left some true feeling in your soul which could stop this black PR."
I quoted him just as an example, like I did with the pics. There is so much of this anti-stuff, but in the end, we are all doing the same: raising awareness, which is useful and not that useful at the same time. People who pray, make drawings, etc. are just showing concern in a symbolic way so I can't see why would anyone need to be a jerk about it, and yes, many of them may not even be saying it from their hearts. However, I wonder, why do you think you are being more helpful with your claims than them with their drawings? Why are you just assuming that people who made a drawing or a paper crane didn't have good intentions and already "helped" with donations and other "useful" stuff? Why do you assume they did it to "exploit" the situation? In the same fashion, I could just assume you are jealous that they made it to the "most watched / most favourite" frontpage with a "silly drawing" and then used the whole "anti-useless-stuff" statement to get some attention yourself, right? But I have more brains than that, and I am sure you can easily realize that you aren't helping either with your childish rudeness and assumptions.
IRONICALLY ENOUGH
Yes, ironically enough, the ones telling others not to waste time praying and drawing are the ones making more "anti-art" art of it and wasting more time bashing others. That's how we human beings are.
(Actually, the author of the latests pic I posted did donate --->
Manicho on Deviantart)
On another note, there are people who are really mad that Japan is getting so many "pray for Japan" messages and pictures while no one seems to give a shit about Libya's problem right now, and there weren't so many "pretty pics and good thoughts to support people after the earthquakes and tsunami in New Zealand, Chile, Haiti, etc"
WHICH IS ACTUALLY NOT TRUE.
All of them are from deviantart too, by Little-Lovely, Nennisita, Kuraudia, Neko-rulz, Blackangelalchemist, itashleys-makeup, Mooresart , Musicalcombusken, GoDevilDante, FirebirdInForest. There are thousands of them, though obviously not as many many MANY as for Japan... and yet, you can help raising awareness without being a jerk about Japan.
But anywya, let's be realistic, some of the most powerful reasons for the "anti-japan-tragedy-art" are:
1) These pictures are easily making it to the "Most favourited" "Most watched" etc.
2) Lots of them are in the very loved and hated anime style, so they are going to be hated anyway.
3) Many of them depict the Japanese character from Hetalia (same case as before)
4) Many misinterpreted the message from Pixiv LINK regarding art related to the tragedy in Japan
I know what you are thinking: "You are totally wrong Carmen, we are not criticizing for those reasons, we truly think making pics of that it's wrong so don't just assume things" WELL THEN, why are you guys jumping into conclusions about those who think differently then, who are making those drawings from the bottons of their hearts and also donating and helping in other ways, uh? See what I mean? We are just hypocrites, all of us. If you want to bash and create drama you can easily find a stupid excuse and claim "hey, it's my opinion and you have to respect it!"... but God, it's SO difficult being nice... God, we love drama, we love feeling bad and making others feel bad, don't we? Also, we seem to forget there is something, how do you say it again, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION for everyone, not only for you. If they want to draw, by all means let them do it, they have the right to do so. There are really wrong things around us that we never oppose to but we bash people for silly things.
Seriously, people, what's wrong with us.
So, to finish this long rant: the best place to donate right now is Red Cross, you never know where your supplies and money will go if you colaborate with others... I'm talking from the experience. It's actually easy finding their websites but I'll provide them anyway.
Please, you can donate if you can afford it and if you wish to, thanks:
DONATE TO JAPAN ( also, if you want to
help Japan LJ Auctions )
DONATE TO AUSTRALIA and to
NEW ZEALAND
DON'T TOLERATE THE MADNESS IN LIBYA
You can follow
Youko Fujima's journal for closer info on what they need in Sendai, Japan.
I'll be linking to more stuff I find as soon as I find it.
Thanks for reading this hell long post. See you, everyone.
