Benjamin’s reading was, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, in my opinion, very repetitive and it could have been shortened. His main point is based of on Marx’s idea that the reproduction of ideas/ goods/ art have been constantly repeated to a certain extent that it is a never ending circle; that contributes to the strengthen capitalism. I truly believe that in today’s world, everything in the public world is taunted and controlled by capitalism.
The following quote, “ the instant the criteria of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reserved. Instead of being based on a ritual, it begins be based on another practice-politics” (40-1) and “... technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach of the original itself” (39), really got me thinking about different things in our world today. One of them was the idea and different interpretations of the bible. I grew up in a all girls catholic school until I was fourteen, so I am pretty aware of how some catholic/christian believes work. First of all, I believe that we will never know the true meaning and message of the bible. It is up for each individual's interpretation. But the reproduction of the idea of who Jesus Christ and God are, and what's the bible message has been taken so out of context through different ideologies that it now has lost its authenticity. Strong practicant christians can take the word of God and a bible to an extreme level where they believe that being racist and homophobic is acceptable. In the other hand we have other type of people such as Pope Francis believe that it doesn’t matter your sexual orientation, God made you this way and therefore he loves you just the way you are. This is a very tricky and complicated subject, but I hope my connection with Benjamin’s ideas have some sense and meaning.
Here is an interesting article I came cross about the Pope and his opinion about capitalism = http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-pope-capitalism-vatican-chicago-20180518-story.html
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