Filed under: 'Others', Australia, Blogging, Brisbane, Centophobia, Environment, Government, Interesting Websites, Live Shows, Magazines, Marketing Regulation and Ethics, Media, Music, Television, Television ads, Television Shows, Terrorism, Truths, Uncategorized, University, World Wide Web
Please visit my new website centophobia.com.
Filed under: Marketing Regulation and Ethics
It’s hard to describe a ‘better’ world in terms / words like everyone’s happy, people get along etc. I think people will always have issues with one another and have different ideas about what is important. It is also difficult to strike a balance between personal freedom and liberty and what is the ‘best’ for society. For example, everyone being treated equally such that if someone doesn’t treat someone well what should we do with them or keeping someone in jail versus letting them out to enjoy their life even though they have hurt someone. I think a better world would be one where, if people have an issue with something that, they have a forum to be heard and everyone else has the duty / responsibility to listen and consider their view/issue. The only problem is – do we all have enough time in the day to listen and take on board and fight for all the issues occurring – the answer is probably no.
I think the right to be heard is a fundamental right, and one that I would be willing to fight for. This is why I don’t like the media movement in to sensationalisation and “info-tainment”. I think this reduces the media’s role to investigate, to be part of the public sphere and their responsibility as the fourth estate to merely an entertainment media. I also have issues with the privatisation of public space which limits the ability for important societal communication. And also relates to my like of the internet as a way of having your view put out there.
Gay rights/ discrimination is also something important to me. It is amazing htat so recently being gay was a criminal offence, a sickness to be treated with electroshock therapy.
I think in a country wit h strong liberal ideology is so conservative in so many ways – all of which are social human rights type things. Why can’t they be more conservative with economic systems and business regulation and a bit more liberal with personal freedom. My blog is called Centophobia showing ho I feel (and for a bit of time now) about the disadvantages of human nature of being Centophobic (afraid of new ideas.) The fact that older generations have to die before new ideas can be embraced really frustrates me because we could have progressed so much further if people (the human race) could accept new things so much faster. Women’s perspectives, aboriginal and other indigenous cultures could have been embraced a lot earlier. I don’t want the world to have to wait until I die to move on to the more important things then discrimination against people for their race, skin colour, gender, sexuality etc.
tag: Government, Human Rights, Rights, Public space, Media, Fourth Estate, info-tainment
Filed under: Centophobia
Haven’t posted for quite a while. But that’s okay. Went to Hervey Bay over the holidays and took a few hundred photos, some of which I think are pretty good.
Caught the Tilt Train up there from Brisbane and sat next to an accountant, quite interesting… It was also the middle of the night, and the movie they put on was Scooby-Doo 2. I could feel my anxiety levels rising and was glad to finally leave the train after 4 hours of brainless PG torture and watching a graphical representation of the train moving up the Queensland coast at a breakneck speed of around 70 km per hour. Frustration…
Hervey Bay is not really a great place. It doesn’t have a lot of shopping nor a great beach, but fortunately we go out on a boat to Fraser Island and go fishing. I caught two fish (smiles; brimming with pride) the first fish I have ever caught (in my 20 years of life). We also say a whole group of dolphins and followed them around as they caught fish and swam in the bow wave.
I tend to get sick on boats but because you can get out on Fraser and fish from the shore there was no such issue. I will take my camera next time and get a few shots from the boat, I haven’t been game yet.
Anyway, it was one of the best holidays I have had, which is weird…
Filed under: Centophobia
I have two tickets to Coldplay (up the back) in Brisbane on Saturday the 24th of June. Anyone want to buy them or come along.
tag: Coldplay, Brisbane, concert, live, entertainment
Filed under: University
I'm a little annoyed. And because I have still got one assignment and one exam to go, I thought I would come here and vent so that I can continue to concentrate.
Just had my latest economics assignment returned. I received 10 out of 20 or a four. And my lovely tutor (he really is lovely, he is just a genious and anal) wrote all over the thing: I used first person in an essay (Oh my god!), changed the margins (sorry for trying to save the environment and money on the extravagant price of printing at uni), didn't format and name my graphs satisfactorily and I used a contraction (obviously there were other things wrong with the essay to receive a four but I knew about those). I just wish the university would figure out how it would like us to write reports and essays (and decide on ONE referencing system).
I have completed communication subjects in the CI faculty for which the lecturers have suggested that using first person in an essay is quite okay, as long as it is still professional sounding. And every second journal article I read has first person; it actually makes them a shit load easier to read. Which I happen to think is quite important! Anyway, it DID say in the guidelines that third person was to be used and that contractions aren't, BUT I didn't read those because I write about 20 essays every bloody semester.
Moral of the story: it pays to think about the faculty in which you are handing in an assignment, before writing it and taking into account how they think an essay or report should be formatted. I am frustrated but without a good reason and no one to be annoyed at except myself.
Anyway… until next time.
Filed under: Centophobia
This website is currently ranked second when the term ‘centophobia’ is googled. So I thought that I should perhaps add some information about the condition to satisfy those who feel duped when they visit this site looking for real information on the condition of centophobia.
So here it is… Centophobia's guide to Centophobia.
Centophobia is the fear of new ideas. It is related to neophobia (also called cainotophobia) which is the fear of new things or experiences. Technically, neophobia is defined as: the persistent and abnormal fear of anything new and can also be present in a milder form as the unwillingness to try new things or break from routine.
While I can’t find a specific definition of centophobia on the web, I would define it as: the reluctance to consider new ideas, or the ideas of others, or to break from pre-established thoughts and ideologies.
Perspectives from Robert Anton Wilson and Thomas Kuhns:
Neophobia is the reason why human culture and ideas do not advance as quickly as our technology.
New ideas, however clear and well-proven, cannot be implemented until those we consider them ‘new’ die and are replaced by new generations who consider the ideas old and accepted.
A study, found that lab rats were cautious of a new item (a trap) which was placed in their cage but were less fearful of the object compared to wild rats. Lab rats were therefore proven to be less suspicious or fearful of new objects. This experiment suggests that neophobia may in fact be essential to life in the wild for many animals. Thus neophobic behaviour in humans may be an inherent trait but perhaps a trait no longer essential to survival in modern life.
Phobia in General:
All phobias are unreasonable sorts of fear that can cause avoidance and panic. Phobias can be treated with cognitive behavioural therapy using exposure and fear reduction techniques. In many cases, anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medication proves helpful, especially during the early stages of therapy.
The reason I called this blog centophobia was to try to overcome centophobia in myself and others; to embrace and discuss new ideas, so that the rest of the world don’t have to wait until we die to move on. This is not a medical site on centophobia or neophobia, simply an avenue to discuss new and interesting ideas.
(Please, don’t ask me why I didn’t call it neophilia: the love of new things. Maybe I was feeling negative the day I created the blog, rather than choosing to see the positive side. I apologise for this.)
Related Terms:
Related to centophobia is technophobia; the fear of new technology.
Neophilia is defined as a love of novelty and new things. A neophile is an individual who is unusually accepting of new things and excited by novelty. Neophilia is particularly prevalent in internet culture and other leading-edge subcultures.
Centophobia. 