William Rudolph Faulkner MFA

"People are easily influenced by other people.  But in the end, people will make a decision for themselves.  Even though this decision in based on outside factors, one will look at their social surroundings to interpret their own point of view.

What influences people to define themselves, create separations and commence to opposing one another?  I look at how outside influences such as globalization and mass communication have enabled people to have opinions about things that may not directly affect them.  How and why do people come to make the decisions that they do when interacting and interpreting another person, or other groups of people?  People create separations between each other all the time and I have found that it is natural for people to group things together.  Is this good or bad?   People have the capability to see both the perspective of good and bad; as well as see something as neither good nor bad, so it becomes hard to say whether one is right or wrong.  People are very versatile and yet, they can develop an opinion that allows them to be less accepting of others beliefs.  These ideologies can lead to conflict or separation.  If separation occurs then this action manifests itself into physical objects that take place in space and time to keep two groups apart.  But I have found that the group and the individual are at times in opposition.  I believe the individual can see the situation for what it is, by not placing an opinion on it.  Once you have an opinion you don’t see the object truthfully; you see it for what you think it means.  Your opinion will deter you from seeing the truth.  Even though the truth can be seen within this perspective, it is not everything and will be void of one’s point of view.  The view point of the individual has the influence of one’s life experiences and these experiences come to define a person and their perspective.   I have come to see the many ways having an opinion is a representation of how you react to the world around you.  Human beings are just figuring out how to get along with each other amongst a world of definitions and separations.  It is a difficult beginning for such beings that must fight primitive instincts in a world that is quickly growing in population and diversity while space and resources become limited. 

The response to unresolved conflicts manifest themselves into physical objects that we can further interpret to understand social behavior and comment on the world as we come to understand it.  Any of these objects becomes a reflection of society and its parts.  But what is really important at the end of the day, is you and your opinion.  But, this goes for everybody."