Goering: “Why, of course, the people don’t want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece.”
“Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.”
Gilbert: “There is one difference. In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.”
Goering: “Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
Nazi leader Hermann Goering, interviewed by Gustave Gilbert during the Easter recess of the Nuremberg trials, April 18 1946, quoted in Gilbert’s book ‘Nuremberg Diary.’
UPDATE: This is my rant on photography…but it can probably apply to other things.
So this weekend I decided to be part of a mini photo contest on Facebook.
Nothing special really (the prize is to name the next topic for the contest), but it makes for a nice place to post your work. For amateurs it’s a great way to meet other amateur photographers & hopefully learn new idea & techniques.
So imagine my surprise when one of the contestants not only critiques my picture, but changed it as well! He used the idiom of “personal preferences” to define changing it.
We went round & round..but in the end I decided to let it go as I was getting more vexed with the discussion.
This got me thinking…is it OK to change another artists work?
The simple answer is no…but I wanted to clarify why the answer is no.
Firstly I am OK with whatever the artist wants to use to express themselves. While my preference is to use as little tools as possible on editing photographs, I know that there are those who use various tools to enhance the work the do. That’s fine…it’s what they use to express their art.
My issue is with others that decided to change that work for their own ends.
Until the world of digital artwork, art was done by the artist with little or no chance to change their work. The work was a rendering of art as the artist interpreted the work. You either appreciated the level of effort or moved on to something else you did appreciate.
Many people probably saw ways to change or enhance the work, but in the end it was not possible (or easy). The work stood on it’s own as the artist intended.
Now we move to the age of the digital allowing for more impressive works. For the photographer, it gives additional tools to make the “art” stand out or express something well imagined that would not be possible without the ability of the tool.
Unfortunately, we now have thieves who not only steal the work but change it and even take credit for the changed work as theirs – creating a sad trend for those who simply want to express themselves & share it with others.
For a long time I used to scoff at the photographers who put their moniker (watermark) on a picture, thinking it was the height of conceit to mark their work. I mean it’s already theirs so why the mark?
Now I know how it feels, I will have to rethink the value of the mark. For now, I’m still going to keep the mark off as I really don’t want to add that.
However, as I get further in my journey it may become a necessary evil.
The reality is that the person creating the work is the only one who is to be able to change it should they feel it necessary to do so. To take their digital work, change it to suit you is simply inappropriate.
Come out & see the planes fly tomorrow at Arctic Thunder. Do this in honor of the lost crew. We will be honoring them...you should too. http://twitter.com/hogbiker6 mins ago
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