As an addendum to my original post, the comments and a Washington Post article suggest that the girl from Yale was doing performance art, and that it was faked.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041702519.html

Which means she's either lying to reduce the backlash or an attention whore.

I know that this opinion will be unpopular but not everything an artist produces is art even if the artist says it is. Most artists are hacks that just have the ability to sting together BS that sounds like it means something.

You can make everything seem like art. We as humans have the fantastic ability to think abstractly and artists use that to communicate ideas in different and new ways that stretch the bounds of normal perception. However, art for the sake of shock usually (in my opinion) is not art.

For most practitioners of shock art there is often the explanation that they're doing it to promote "discussion" of some sort as a euphemism for inciting anger or disgust. They also often say that they do something "without judgement" or other terms that make it seem as if they are impartial or uninvolved in the specifics of the action/art while still receiving the attention for it.

How far are we supposed to allow artists to go? Is a serial killer an artist because he/she kills people in specific ways with an artistic intent and with a specific message? How about a suicide? Or a group suicide? What about the anorexic/bulimic girl sculpting her body into her ideal of beauty? How about the people that mutilate girls genitalia for social or religious purposes? There is a meaning and something to discuss in all these things, but does that make it art? Does that mean we should support such artists?

Specifically this applies to the girl from yale that someone linked an article above about. What she did was potentially harmful to herself as well as creating life with the specific intent to destroy it. It wasn't an accidental impregnation nor was it impregnation by rape or other traumatic means. AND her purpose "was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body." I can't help but think that the link between that idea and what she did was tenuous at best. Certainly it applies to her body, but she's not the only one affected.

She could have chosen to get a full body tattoo or under skin implants or mutilate herself in some way that would address her topic. In the way she did it it seems more attention getting for the controversy around the subject than for the human body as art.

@Razzabeth

Isn't this a good thing? It creates jobs in the United States instead of China. For goods that are to be sold in the US. So while profits will leave the US, there will still be money staying in the US in the form of wages, utilities, etc. $10 million worth that otherwise would be invested in China.

So, how do they shock an individual passenger? Flight crews and Air Marshals are required to memorize every face and a specific number? Or Do they shock everyone onboard if something were to happen?

I think it's the guilt parents put into their kids when their young. About Africa.

"Finish what is on your plate. There's starving children in Africa that would love to eat that."

I've heard lots of parents say that. My mom said that to me when I was younger.

Also: "You are lucky you live in America and we can afford food like this." If there was something i particularly didn't like.

I still feel guilty today if I don't finish the food that's on my plate. I really think that there is a culture of guilt in America. At certain levels at least.

Eventually, on each flight, the passengers will be 50% civilians and 50% law enforcement. Wont you feel safe? Oh, ticket prices will rise of course.... and you'll have to fly with TSA approved clothing, and clear luggage... but it's worth it right?

While there are some people that might honestly believe what this man says, I think that most of the people were simply being polite. And on the other videos, his confidence could easily either cause the people he asks to simply believe him without questioning him, or to doubt what they know and not say anything about it.