"From the Prison Notebooks" & "Truth and Power"

Antonio Gramsci's perspective on how everyone is a philosopher, whether they are conscious of it or not, is something that I have never considered prior to From the Prison Notebooks. I think that Gramsci's theory of everyone being a philosopher may have something to do with nature versus nurture as he does bring up how language, popular culture, and common sense all take part in the influence of how one individual composes their philosophy in life. Gramsci also brings up a good question that battles out the nature vs. nurture aspect of philosophy. Whether we conform to the environment that we are brought up in or whether we choose to ignore what everyone else is doing and choose to do what you feel is innate. 

The incorporation of common sense and religion, in addition to philosophy, is a combination that I never really thought much about as it doesn't cross my mind that much. However, I do see this combination of topics more and more these days because of the battle between common sense (usually associated with science) and religion. Political figures do use these tools of knowledge in order to persuade or deter the voters in their favor. Even though I personally don't care much for religion, I still think that it is needed in order to bring people together, regardless of socioeconomic status and to help aid them in finding common ground in order to solidify their own philosophy/outlook on life and things going forward. 

Michel Foucault's paper about how intelligence and truth can be used to grain power is something that I also believe in, especially during this time. Foucault's writing about how the sources of intelligence and "truths" can be pushed through by bias is something that I believe to be happening right now because of the political tension created by our new president. His infamous declaration of war on the public media has been stirring up a lot of discontent among the public as what is rendered as truth to the general public is all declared "fake news" by him, unless the news source is from a conservative supporter of the president, such as Breitbart, whom he has allowed exclusive access to the White House while all the other news outlets have been mostly denied a pass into the White House as the president doesn't see them working in his favor. 

Although it may seem like the "fake news" calling by the president may seem to be the only problem with the how the media acts, the "truth" that the media puts out could as well be from a questionable biased opinion. An example of this would be how Wall Street Journal took YouTuber PewDiePie's "anti-Semitic" video out of context, while the YouTuber is explaining how the media takes things out of context in the video. Even though the truth about the video is there, the media chooses to take things out of context, manipulating the truth, in order to have the news work in their favor and generate revenue for their "research". Despite the truth of the video being presented, the damage to the YouTuber's channel and image had already been done and this just goes to show how the media can choose to report on what is the "truth" and the actual truth that the general public wants to know. In my opinion, I think that the manipulation of the truth by the media is something that has worked and probably will always work as long as there is a beneficiary from the aftermath of the publication of the news reports.