The Unexamined Life/Modern Day Gadfly

The unexamined life is not worth living? Not exactly.

"Sorry! The lifestyle you ordered is currently out of stock." - Banksy

      There is a difference in 'living' your life and simply being 'alive'. To me, if you are not examining your life, at least at the very major turns (graduations, marriages, births, deaths, etc.) then you are not living: you are simply going through the motions of being a person. What makes a life a life is the memories that come from choices, and the consequences of those choices. The 'worth' in life comes from looking back and thinking that you were proud to make (some of) the choices you made, and that you wish you hadn't made some. When your life becomes worthless is when you wake up forty years later, and wonder "How on earth did I get here? and can't answer yourself.

As far as modern day gadflies go, I would pick Banksy. Even though he himself is invisible (to most), he acts as an invisible hand.With the acts of producing his popular artwork he pushes the status quo and poses some real and uncomfortable questions to the public. When does the line between "Street Art" and "Fine Art" begin? When is "Graffiti" Graffiti?

Beyond that, much of his art is also controversial in content. One of my personal favorites has a man in Great Depression era clothes next to a sign that says "Follow Your Dreams" with a giant "Cancelled" symbol over it. With art like this, he acts, in my mind, as an invisible Socrates, causing us to change our beliefs in the system, the government, and ourselves (or at the very least question them.)