During my conversation with Mike we talked about a couple of the key questions on the course syllabus. The first question I talked about was if expressive culture has the ability to build a global culture of ethics in order to minimize human suffering from violent atrocities. Personally I feel that expressive culture has the ability to do this, and I think that The Battle of Algiers film is a good example. There were multiple scenes in the film where French policeman and citizens used microaggressions towards the Algerian people to show their superiority to the minority group. The ghettoization of the Algerians was also a strong focal point in the film, because it reminded the audience of the ghettoization of jews in Europe before and during …show more content…
I connected that idea of a new found knowledge to the readings on enlightenment and perpetual peace by Kant. Kant talks about the latin phrase ‘sapere aude’, which translates to ‘Dare to Know!’ Mike and I talked about Kant’s ideas regarding enlightenment going hand in hand with the nature of expressive culture. Kant believes that every individual should become as enlightened as possible in order for the entire society to reach enlightenment. He also mentions that fear, laziness, and cowardice detracts from an individual's enlightenment. The use of expressive culture combats the laziness and fear Kant speaks of because it forces the audience to question their prescribed knowledge. The sensory experience puts you in the moment of the oppressed, and to gain knowledge from their …show more content…
I began by talking about historical culture, and how a culture tries to teach future societies about their past atrocities and violences committed towards them. I connected this to a present day example of the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on the UCSB campus. Annually members of the university remember the genocide in order to teach the new generation of students about the atrocities the Armenians faced in hope that by teaching others about their past it will not allow similar violences in the future. I tied this into Foucault’s quote about society needing “historical awareness of our present circumstance.” Mike and I also discussed Foucault’s “The Subject and Power and Freire's “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed”. Foucault talks about the subject and says that your identity can lead you to becoming a subject. The identity of a person represents their beliefs, religion, customs, rituals and behaviors. These aspects are defined as culture, therefore one's culture allows them to be a subject. Freire makes the point of the oppression of the subject, and how the oppressed are the only ones to change the status of their oppression. The oppressors only oppress the oppressed more by trying to free them. The two theories added together indicates that the role of culture both produces global violence but culture also allows you to rise up and prevent global violence
It is 1957 and the Algerian war is at its prime as the FLN fight against an elite troop of ruthless French paratroopers. The Battle of Algiers is a portion of the Algerian war which was fought in order for Algeria to gain independence from France. The film starts off with the torturing of an old man to gain information on where the last of the freedom fighters, Ali Pointe is hiding. A large segment of the film is shot in flashbacks focusing on the past of Ali Pointe. Pointe was a ruffian with theft and drugs on his record; he joined the militants to assist in getting rid of the problems in Algeria associated with the French. With the flashbacks the film tells the struggles of the insurgents and the persistence of the French to end the war. It shows the transformation of the insurgency into a full out revolution. When the flashbacks ends and it is now present time Ali Pointe, along with the rest of the FLN leaders captured are beheaded. Through this, the FLN reciprocate and the insurgency becomes a full on national revolution with growth in numbers and support. The film ends with Algeria gaining the independence it strived for in 1962. The film is important in understanding asymmetric conflicts because despite being the weaker side, Algeria had proved itself to be much stronger than the French and had its newfound independence to show for it.
I will cite examples of how intercultural imperatives relate to the 1995 American short documentary film, “The Shadow of Hate”, directed by Charles Guggenheim. I will define and describe two imperatives demographic and ethical imperatives.
Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Dante’s Inferno both exhibit Foucault’s idea of categorization and subjectification using “dividing practices.” (Rabinow 8) Foucault argued that people can rise to power using discourse, “Discourse has the ability to turn human beings into subjects by placing them into certain categories.” (Rabinow 8) These categories are then defined “according to their level of deviance from the acceptable norm.” (Rabinow 8) Some examples of such categories are the homosexual, the insane, the criminal and the uncivilized. (Rabinow 8). By the above method, called “dividing practices,” people can be manipulated by socially categorizing them and then comparing them to norms. In this way human beings are given both a social and a personal identity (Rabinow 8) and this is how superiority among human beings can be established.
Our knowledge is a key to our success and happiness in our life to give us personal satisfaction. Knowledge is power but not always. Sometimes our self-awareness and growth as an individual gives us negative thoughts that make us want to go back to undo it. Everyone wants to unlearn a part in our life that brought us pain and problems. Good or bad experiences brought by true wisdom can be used for our self-acceptance, self-fulfillment and these experiences would make us stronger as we walk to the road of our so called “life”, but Douglas’s and my experience about knowledge confirmed his belief that “Knowledge is a curse”. Both of us felt frustrated and sad from learning knowledge.
It has been said that ignorance is bliss and if we do not know that something more exists, we do not yearn for it. It has also been said that the door to enlightenment and inner wisdom, once opened, can never be closed again. Many great philosophers and teachers have dealt with the idea of whether it is better to live a life of servitude and submission, or are we to pursue a life of personal happiness and emotional freedom.
War is never easy and as much as people try to justify the reasons behind it, no one really wins in the end. If a war is between two countries or groups they both end in the same end results, human casualties. When people are asked why wars exist, all might give different answers or some might not even know what to say. I think no one is right or wrong in certain situations. There is no real answer behind why wars exist, the real answer might be a little hard to find. We only know that it ends with deaths of thousands of soldiers. Watching the film Joyeux Noel gave me a different way to think about war and who fights in wars. I believe the film delivered a great message overall and definitely had several religious connotations to it.
Full Metal Jacket is written and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The film was released in 1987 and it is starring Matthew Modine (Joker), Vincent D’Onofrio (Pyle), Adam Baldwin (Animal), and R. Lee Ermey ( Guy.Segr. Hartman).
The movie I chose to analyze for historical accuracy was War Horse. This movie was set in the First World War, starting in Britain but the story also explored France and Germany during this time period as well. Three scenes will be analyzed: the trench warfare scene between the British and the Germans, the scene where the British soldiers were gassed, and the scene where the British were getting patched up and nursed. War Horse does well to stick to the historical accuracy of what happened during the First World War due to the fact that the three scenes that I have chosen to analyze are not embellished and are close to what really happened.
In the modern day era, we find in society a ubiquitous usage of technology that seems to be never ending and forever growing. Included with this notion, the broad subject of surveillance is of course included. Contemporary surveillance, or more specifically technological surveillance, has been described as ambiguous; meaning that it is often misunderstood or open to different interpretations. The representation of surveillance within popular culture has played an impacting role on how we as a society perceive it and this raises certain questions that may reflect back on to society. The 1998 film Enemy Of The State directed by Tony Scott, Starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman and Jon Voight is considered to be a ‘spy-thriller’ blockbuster. Its central themes explore a range of surveillance techniques and equipment and also provides some insights, no matter how realistic or unrealistic they may be, into the real life security organisation; The National Security Agency (NSA). Using this film as an example and analysing how these themes are represented will hopefully allow us to key these ideas back to modern surveillance theories and practices.
Humanization, dehumanization, oppression and oppressors are all main concepts in the opening chapters of pedagogy of the oppressed by Paulo Freire. Freire entertains the idea that school system oppresses students through dehumanization tactics and curriculum. Terry Wotherspoon in The Sociology of Education in Canada explains that teachers and students are the agents in schooling, and subsequently affect each other. The teacher-student relationship has been examined closely and both Wotherspoon and Freire have important ideas on what it entails. Without the understanding and analysis of how teachers and students relate, it is impossible for us to make any positive, and progressive changes to education.
...ers of these cultures know exactly what to say in order to convince people to take part in a social uprising. The majority of the people in the culture have similarities whether its language, style, or customs, the leaders know exactly which points to talk about in order to gain support for the uprising. People believe that if the radical social movement is for a greater cause, such as their culture, they are willing to do anything for the cause. The prism of power is faulty because it is a fair assumption to make that the people of the social movement will quit, or not join the uprising, if the potential power obtained from participating does not match the dangers involved. However, Ross suggests in regards with culture, that with further opposition to the social movement, the collective identity will be reinforced and participation will be encouraged even more.
The relationship of outside knowledge and self-knowledge can be simply described as a love/hate relationship. While outside knowledge may hold many accounts of seen or heard experiences and bring those together to form a thought, self-knowledge can only contain one person’s account but have much more relatability and basis. When a movement is occurring the strength and movement of the self-knowledge is much more suitable because it causes people to feel connected to that person and therefore the movement. An example of this is The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano. However, outside knowledge allows for a more broad sense of knowledge that may have been obtained through many experiences and studies. “The
What do we have to learn through the study of different cultures? I was hoping for some wonderful revelation in the collection of writings. I may have found one. This book was a difficult read for me. I am not sure whether it’s my age or my inexperience with classical readings. I also found it difficult to formulate a report on a collection of readings, the last report I did was on Laura Ingall’s Little House on the Prairie. This reading was a little more challenging. The main point that seemed to jump out at me is that perceptions change, our theory of reality changes with every viewpoint. Every culture can seem primitive, self destructive, nonsensical, immoral or just wrong, depending on who is doing the observation and what perspective they are observing from.
Critical pedagogy emphasizes the struggle of teachers and students to fight classism, racism, and sexism inside and outside their classrooms (Brookfield, 2005, p. 321). According to Kincheloe (2008) critical pedagogy is “dedicated to addressing and embodying these affective, emotional, and lived dimensions of everyday life in a way that connects students to people in groups and as individuals” (p. 11). This includes methods of testing and questioning current structures to change the system of teaching to unmask oppression and inequities. Critical pedagogy is a socio-cultural and political tool that exposes human differences, especially those related to class, gender, and race. Critical pedagogy is an approach to teaching and learning that transforms relations of hegemonic power which can have an emancipatory effect on individuals (Kincheloe, 2005). Critical pedagogy tries to develop and humanize society by empowering learners to be conscious of the ideology of the dominant society.
Throughout my semester, I went into detail on what relative culturalism stands for. I see relative culturalism as a view of moral and ethical systems that are all equally valid in all cultures around the world and at the same time, no one’s culture is better than another. The time, where I finally understood about relative culturalism was during the three-day weekend we spent with Professor Janes. We traveled to London’s Black Community (Brixton) and London’s Indian community (Neausden). During the visits, I learned the different journeys that each of these people took to come here which included traveling from country to country and the sacrificing decisions they had to made in order to come here which included being a slave or being made fun of. Overall, I learned that each culture has something in common. They have different traditions and celebrate it their own