Kill, Punish, Befriend, Story for Change

The Brothers Grimm
The Brother Grimm were linguists and they asked people to tell them stories because that is the best way to get people talking without them thinking about how they are talking. The were looking for different pronunciation, vocabulary, and anything else that had to do with the person's language. However, their collection became something different. It became a well of wonderful stories, and that is what they are known for.

Mack' Movie List
My story of change is a real story about me become like the Brothers Grimm. A few years ago I decided that I would start a list of all the movies that I have ever seen. I wrote down all the ones that I could remember and I added one every time I would watch one. I gave them scores our of a hundred so that I could have a list of the best movies of all time. When I got my big idea, how we treat our enemies, I turned to the list. I deleted my scoring and started to go through each movie and remembered the ending and labeled them according to what happened to the enemy. After hours of remembering adding labels I was complete with a list. For the over all what happens there is a chart with the numbers below.

Killed 167
The killing of an enemy is often the climax, and surprisingly it is almost never regretted and we are very glad to see them go. But something to consider, I suppose, is that most the enemies that are killed are vicious and refuse to stop hurting people.

Punished 196
This is almost always the police show up or the purpose of the antagonist is frustrated and he or she is humiliated. Which or course we love.

Befriended 192
There was a lot more of these then I supposed, however, most of the time this is not the main villain but a character that is destine to be friends in the end. Like in The Avengers, each super hero is an enemy to the others, but they quickly become friends.

The chart shows the comparison

In some ways this looks well balanced giving each category a almost even amount of movies. But if we where to combine the Kill and Punish categories we would see that there is twice as much defeating then befriending. I think that overall if we make movies this is something that we should consider when writing the enemy. We should also chose carefully watch we watch or at least understand what is happening to enemies in movies. Many of the time when an enemy is killed is when the main character is in a kill or be killed situation. I believe for most of us we are never in a kill or be killed situation, but we still relate to these characters.

Child Chart

I decided that it is very important to look at the child movies and found that they are not so evenly spread. I thought that this would actually have kill as the highest because I was traumatized as I re-watched some of the endings and was faced with some of the most gruesome deaths. Here are just a few images from children movies

But maybe it should be more concerning to us that to punish your enemies is so high. After reading two children books about bulling I found this.

Why are we telling kids that is someone is mean to you, you should be mean right back.

There were other interesting things to look at. For instance, I did not see much of a pattern when I looked at it by the year that it come out. It looks to me that movies have always punished, killed, and sometimes even befriended enemies. I also looked at genres and found that action movies often kill enemies, along with hero movies. Comedies often give people what we feel they deserve, and love stories often befriend because the one they fall in love with is often their enemy at first.

War of the Worlds radio show
The other Idea that I had, and still want to do, is have a recording that sounds like a radio program where aliens come to three towns in the country, Execution Town, Deservedit city, and Befrienderville, and each place would handle the aliens differently.

Enemy Bibliography: For Real

Introduction

Movies have been teaching us how to treat our enemies from the beginning, and perhaps surprisingly children movies are the most violent of them all, but parents can decide for themselves and assist their children in which movies to watch and discuss in order to have a positive cinema experience and to treat our enemies better in real life.

Is it possible to forge and even love to our enemies? This was difficult to question, and what do movies have to tell us about it. Every time I would go to the web it would bring up pages of Bible references. We are all familiar with the scripture to do good to those who hate you, but I needed more than this. But is this what we are doing, in real life or in fiction? Enough of that and on to what I did find after I sorted through many of these Bible references. When I did the searches I tried to search in a non -bias way. That is I did not search for kill our enemies, or befriend our enemies, at least not at first. I searched for how to treat our enemies or how to deal with our enemies and so on. This lead to some very interesting sources for example there is Howtowiki where I was able to find a step by step directions on what to do with your enemies at school. The most interesting part about this is that they tell you to stay positive, walk away, show respect, all things that I was hoping it would until the final step which was to never serve your enemy because they may not deserve that. The interesting thing is that this article is written by a few different authors and I think that is why it has this contradictory message. However, I want to look at this idea and think about how some people would have us give our enemies what they deserve while others would have us respect them and even love them and there are others who actually would have us kill them. Which of these people are making movies, well they all are and that is where we come in. In the article by Faith she ends by saying that we can teach our children to discuss what happens on the screen since there are so many different ideas about how to resolve a conflict. We should as she puts it be media literate, that we should both read and write as it were, or perhaps more easily understood we should view and discuss.

 The website is for young women and possible young men too. I was also able to find some very meaningful quotes from Abraham Lincoln as well as a speech given by Martin Luther King Jr. These resources are very helpful but there is still the hard question, what is the media telling us about our enemies.

One resource that I am really grateful for is my friend Josh Drean. A few years ago he started speaking at elementary schools, high school, offices, and any other place about bulling He teaches kids how to deal with bullies as well as not to bully others. I did not want to have my topic become about bullying but then I quickly realized that bullies are enemies almost in perfect similitude. I was able to go down to Salem Elementary School and see Josh give his presentation live. At first I was afraid I had made a mistake, just because it was a lot of fun and getting the kids involved, but then once he had the children paying attention he said something that was possible the most important to my project. He said that there are not such things as bullies but just people who make mistakes. If I can investigate the idea that there are not enemies, only people who make bad decisions, than really I can reinforce my idea that we should be forgiving and even loving to our enemies.

Another source that I found actually came back to me. There is a childhood book of mine call Bully Trouble. My mom read this to me when I was a young boy and, while checking out another book for another class, saw this book on the counter. This is for children and has a very clear message about bulling and what we should do to them, only the message is not what you might think. The message says that we should stand up to our bullies and that we should do it by bullying them back. The other book by Caseley is another way to deal with bullies in a more positive way. I explain this in the bibliography but this book is about befriending them.

Once interesting problem I had was I found one article, or at least the title of it, but I cannot seem to find the text for the article. Apparently, according to the BYU Library website, Michael Jackson wrote an article about how to deal with your enemies in cyberspace. I am dying to get my hands on this but have not been able to yet.

            The video that I found was very interesting about conflict resolution. It talks in there about how if we understand better a conflict the better we can resolve it. If we know what our enemies want and we even help them to find a different solution then we may even have a win, win situation.

            There is still so much to discuss that must take place in the discussion.

Annotated Bibliography

Caseley, Judith. Bully. Hong Kong: South China Printing Company, 2001. Print.

This book shows an alternative to the book Bully Trouble. In this book Jack and Mickey start out as friends. Later when Jack starts loosing attention to his new born sister he begins to be filled with strong emotions. At this time he steps on Mickey’s hand because Mickey points out that his mom is not watching when Jack tries to show his mom what he can do on the play ground. Already we realize that this book makes the bully a real person with a motivation. Then Mickey calls Jack a rat and after that Jack starts to bully Mickey. In this book Mickey asks his parents what he should do. Like Bully trouble his father encourages him to be bold, but not to bully back but to simply say “I don’t like that.” His mother first talks about how Jack is going through a difficult time, and then says “have you ever heard the saying love thine enemy?” Mother explains to Mickey that he could try being nice to Jack. It sounds hard and Mickey does not know how to do this. He first gives Jack cookies, which shuts Jack up. Then the real moment comes. In class Jack comes and has braces. All the other kids make fun of Jack, but not Mickey he stands up for him. Because of this Jack is nice to Mickey and even invites him over to play. This story may not be totally realistic but it gives us a more heartfelt story than Bully Trouble.

Cole, Joanna. Bully Trouble.  New York: Random House, 1989. Print.

This is a children’s book that I remember reading as a child. It is for kids and explains the story of two boys who have a common bully that will not leave them alone. So, to get rid of him for good they become bullies themselves. He trips them and does all kinds of mean things to them. So the sabotage their own lunch so that when he steals it he is in for a shock. At the end, even older kids begin to laugh at him along with the two newest bullies. At least he won’t bother you anymore is the final response from the bigger kid. The kids consider themselves awesome for putting this bully in his place.

“Conflict resolution.” Films Media Group. NY, New York. 2006. Online. This movie begins by explaining that individuals, small groups of people, or even nations could be in conflict with each other. There are interview that attempt to explain best answers to specific situations. They talk about one situation where there were people who wanted to make a dump and others that did not. The video mentions that some wanted to have a win, win. I really like this idea and I wonder if we try hard enough to think and understand the whole situation if there is a way to do this “win, win.” They talk about non violent way to approach this dump situation and the host talks about this a good example of a people who actually took time to think of what they were doing and they thought of solutions for their so called enemies so that this could be a win, win. The host tells of the dump story and says that this does end up being a win, win. This video goes on to address more serious subjects, like racism and war. I found this source as I searched in the BYU library website.

Coyne, Sarah. “Indirect Aggression in Animated Disney Films.” Journal of Communication 58. 2 (2008) 382-395 pag. Web. 1 Nov. 2013. As soon as I started to read this I knew that I needed it because it was saying exactly what I wanted to find. In the abstract the very first line is “Children’s cartoons have been documented to be some of the most violent TV programs currently on the air, showing nearly 3 times the amount of violence per hour as nonchildren’s programming.” The article is smart to realize that physical violence is not the only way to treat someone you are fighting against. They mention that gossip, social exclusion, and insults are also forms of what they call indirect aggression.

Boller, Paul. Essays on the Presidents: Principles and Politics. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 2012. Print. There is a section for Abraham Lincoln where quotes are listed under sub headers. Underneath the subheading enemies there is the quote I wanted. “Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?” In this same book there is perhaps a quote that can be used as well. Under the subheading of God’s Purpose Lincoln says, “The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may and one be wrong. God cannot be for and against, the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war, it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party.” Abraham Lincoln was president in the 1860s making this a historical reference even though the book is printed last year. I found these quotes in many other books but decided to list this book. For the president that had to deal with a war within his nation Abraham knows well how to treat his enemies. He knew that both the North and the South were parts of his nation.

Bully. Dir Lee Hirsch. Bully Project, 2011. DVD.

This is a documentary on peer-to-peer bullying in schools across America. The cover of the move is the word bully in a circle slash for much like the no smoking sign. Also, the cover says “It’s Time to take a stand.”

Drean, Josh. “Take the Mask Off: A Lesson on Perspective.” Salem Junior High ,Salem, UT. 27 September 2013. Keynote Address. My friend actually does public speaking at elementary schools about bullies and enemies. He talks about how to handle them and what kind of attitude you should have about it. This is not just a hobby it is his profession and I have been meaning to see him do one of these for a while. I want to see what children are encouraged to do and how to do it. He Said in his lector on (date) “I strongly believe that there are no bullies, no one person who we can place that label. There are no bullies, just people who make mistakes.” He talked earlier about how he had both been bullied and bullied other people not even on purpose.

Faith, McLellan. “Do violent movies make violent children?” The Lancet 359.9305 (2002): 502 pag. Web. 1 Nov. 2013. I was actually hoping for some reason that the answer would be no, purhaps I need some positive outlook but in the very opening of this paragaph the article states “Does exposure to violence-from television, the internet, and games screens-make children violent? Robert DurRant certainly thinks so. And he isn’t alone.” Near the end of the article there are some things that I really want to use. Faith says “children [should] not only critique programmes but also participate in making them, with the goal of turning them into “critical media consumers.”” This is a very cool idea and is how I think that we can solve this. I honestly don’t think Hollywood should be in charge of what we see and what we show our children, we can make our own decisions about media.

“How to Deal With Enemies.” WikiHow to do anything. Josh W. and other authors, n.d. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.  This is a somewhat helpful website directed to teenagers on how to deal with enemies mostly by protecting yourself. It divides what you need to do into steps that you can follow. The steps focus on how you feel and your safety and not necessarily the enemies, which does not seem that unnatural. Some of the steps include walking away and ignoring them, surrounding yourself with friends, and even show them the same kind of respect that you show your friends. These steps include a short readable explanation and a picture. http://www.wikihow.com/Deal-With-Enemies. Here are the steps. The first step is “If you don’t know why they hate you, ask them calmly and nicely. But don’t approach [them], if you know what they are capable of . . . Some people can be given second chances to realize that you aren’t really a bad person and they have nothing to hate you for” (italics added). The second step is to ignore whatever they say. This step explains that the reason they insult you may be because they are jealous. It wisely says not to give a reaction because they want a reaction.  It also says that we should walk away from them. “Don’t look at them or talk to them; just walk away. After a few times of you doing this they will probably get bored and stop picking on you.” The third step is two “Surround yourself with friends and people who like you for who you are.” You will gain confidences from these people and that “it does not matter what haters say as long as you have good friends by your side.” Step four is to what to do if they start being violent. If they do become violent or ignoring does not work “tell them that their behavior is upsetting you and tell them that they have no reason for it.” It says that if they still continue to horrs you that you will “have to learn to stop being upset by their comments and realize that whatever they say is probably a lie.” Step five is seriously awesome, it is that if you know why they hate you “be mature and apologize if it was your fault.” It goes on to say that rather than hoping the problem is forgotten “seriously” apologize to them. Step six really ties in with points that I want to make, it is that we should “show them respect as you show to your friends.” This is awesome, and helps me to say the point I want which is that we can befriend or at least respect like a friend our enemies. It goes on to say that “when they need help, help them.” When you help someone, according to the article this will show them that “you are friendly and kind. Give them compliments and try not to sound hurtful, don’t judge them if they say bad stuff back.” The article is realistic and realizes that we might lose our patients while trying this, the article suggests that we should talk to our friends at that point or take a deep breath and try again. No matter what happens they want you to stay in control. If this does not work leave the situation “instead of loosing you mind trying to settle thing.” Step seven is does not seem to fit with the other parts of the article. Because this article has other authors the tone of the article changes. Step seven is you are a fool if you are kind to them. The steps says “by helping anyone, especially enemies, you may be giving something to someone who doesn’t “deserve” it.” Then it says to forget it and wait because “they will get exactly what they deserve.” Now all of the sudden the article seems to support the idea of giving our enemies what they deserve.

King Jr. Martin Luther. “Loving Your Enemies.” Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, AL. 17 November 1957. Keynote Address. In this speech he says, “Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. Just keep being friendly to that person. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.” Martin Luther King Jr. always had a way with his speeches and this is a very helpful one.

Lewis, C.S. An Experiment in Criticism. Madrid: Cambridge University Press, 1961. Print.

This book will reveal a lot about how we should treat others and their works or art, those that we may otherwise be critical of. The main idea of this is to understand books by how they are read and not how they are written. I think this can help in understanding what our enemies write and publish. One quote from the book is “The true reader reads every work seriously in the sense that he reads it whole-heartedly, makes himself as receptive as he can.” I think that this is a way we can approach people in our life. “The first demand any work of art makes upon us is surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way. (There is no good asking first whether the work before you deserves such a surrender, for until you have surrendered you cannot possibly find out.)” Here we see that we must not worry about if we like a person deserves to be listen to we just listen.

Muhammad. Quran. 632. Print.

Sacred text. I think that this should have a very radical and interesting idea about infidels. Many people believe in this book and follow its principles and that has a lot to say about their culture and understanding of enemies. 89. “They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level [with them]. So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back [to enmity] then take them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them,”

Robins, Mack. The Movie List. 2012. List / Database.

Ever since 2010 I have started to make a list of ever movie I have ever seen. As this project of enemies has begun I began to add to the list what happens to the enemies in the movie. This list will have the potential to be a large part of my project. It will reveal a small sample, about 700 movies, and what happens to the villain in this.

The A-Team. Dir. Joe Carnahan. Perf. Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley. Twentieth Century Film Corporation, 2010. Film. I have where these quotes really come from but I cannot lie about where I got these in the frist place. It is imortant, even though this is just a movie, to list this because this is an example in and of itself that shows us what to do with our enemies.Gandhi was always a peaceful man and I hoped that I will be able to find useful quotes from him. I then remembered the The A-Team where there was a quote from him that was expected. “Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.” Which comes from ‘Satyagraha Leaflet No. 13,’ May 3, 1919. And a quote from him that was real not expected. “It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.” which comes from Gandhi on non-violence, Print, New York New York New Direction publishing corporation. page 51.

Pot Heads

This title I have given this post comes from a label that my brother gave to himself, in perhaps a moment or long reflective self realization. My brother and his wife own two copies of each of the Harry Potter books, both had a set before they were married. Now before I go on to say what I feel needs to be said, let the world know that I do like Harry Potter, have read the first book, seen almost all the movies, and even dressed up as Snape for the final film. However, I did breathe a sigh of relief when the last movie came out because for me it was an official closing in the Harry Potter chapter, which meant that we can now move on to other beautiful works of art.

Working in the media center can be rough. Truly, it is exhausting to have thousands of patrons come in, browse our audio book list, and then come to me nearly begging for any, just any of the Harry Potters that are not yet checked out. I feel like shouting, “Isn’t it time to discover a new book, perhaps a classic or newer novel! There is more to life then Pig-Pimple university.” In actuality, I do not want to turn this post into a critique of Harry Potter, but a lesson on obsession. Missing out on other wonderful works of art is only one of the down sides.

Another down side is obsession can be wasteful and frankly embarrassing. Often when we fall in love with a piece of art we do not know what to do with our passion that is associated with it. We want to buy all the collectables; we want to dress up for Halloween as part of it. We want to start a club or have a movie marathon or something to sanction our love for it. If you are wondering, yes, I do speak from experience. Perhaps what we need to do is simply take the good it offers, recognize its flaws, write about it in our journal, encourage others to see or read it, and occasionally revisit it. Unless this thing has the power to bring us salvation we should not surround ourselves with its every last detail.

One very interesting part of We are Wizards is when the girl goes into the car dealership and says something like ‘I am the former leader of the Potter Wars’ and the car salesmen is speechless because that is most likely the dumbest thing he has ever heard. Now that may sound harsh to you, but let us consider the reality of this world. No one is ever going to take you seriously if you come in for a job interview and have Klingon as one of the languages on your resume. You cannot say that you have amazing memorization skill because you know the lines of all the Trek episodes. You will not be taken seriously and you will not be hired. There is one kid who posted a video where he explains that he is “Harry Potter himself” and goes on to tell why he is the biggest Harry Potter fan in the world. This boy has read all the books over a hundred times, meaning he most likely has read nothing else. He also has tattoos of Harry Potter symbols on his body forever labeling himself as a “Pot Head,” thus leaving him as a candidate for never having a real job or respectable position in society. Yes, it is good to have a passion, yes, it is good to fall in love with a story, but I find no true benefit to obsessing over something.

Jenkins does make a good point that we can build off the shoulders of others who come before; it is the apprentice idea. It is good to get a start in another’s creativity in fact there is a book about Architecture for the Poor that says that no one is perfectly original and that we must build off what others have done before. However, we must be both familiar to our audience and original. “Harry and the Potters” is a band that is actually really bad. I suppose they are not worse than other local bands that I have heard but they draw a bigger crowd then maybe they deserve. Their fans come because they somehow need more Harry Potter and in doing so give this band a false sense of accomplishment. I am sorry but this is not creative—“I’m Harry Potter, and I’m Harry Potter, We’re Harry and the Potters, this song’s called Harry Potter. Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Harry Potter.” What will happen, for example, to the seven year old when he is no longer cute for head banging about dragons? These band members will be left one day with the reality that they have not truly valuable skills.

One person that I would like to briefly defend is the lady in the documentary that says there are dark spirits and evils that we must avoid. We laugh at her but this is what we as Christians believe. To label Harry Potter as this dark evil may be ridiculous. We know that the intentions of the book are innocent and even positive. But I don’t blame her. She grow up in a time when witches were synonymous with devils, and if we saw a book about a little demon that goes to hell school to learn how to tempt people we would not want to read the book, unless of course it is written by a genius making to point to avoid such demons. Darkness and evil is something we should avoid, it may not be Harry Potter but it is out there. 

There is so much more to be said about this that requires further discussion. Jenkins has a whole section called “What would Jesus do with Harry Potter?” They question maybe unanswerable, though I sure it is fine to him. What he must not be okay with is bad parenting, singing about groupie sex to four year olds, and putting the things of the world before him. In conclusion, Harry Potter is cool, but it’s not that cool.

Wonder Women Made me Wonder

At the beginning of the article by Zipes he starts us off with a, I assume, true story about Albert Einstein. When we was asked by a mother what books to read to her child to help him to become a successful scientist Al, if we can all him that, not only repose with fairy tales but when see asks what else he continues to advocate fairy tales. Zipes does not, and perhaps cannot go into Einstein’s reasoning. I venture to guess that maybe Einstein just felt bad for the boy, and did not want him to be deprived of a childhood because all he would ever be read are collage level science books. Or maybe, and for me this is easier to believe, Einstein knew that a fairy tale could excite the mind in a way that no textbook ever could. If you can make a child wonder about animals talking, time travel, and perhaps teleportation, in a world with characters that he can love and connect with, then that child may stop at to find the scientific answer to the mystery.

There is something about fairy tales that captures our hearts in a way that other thing just can’t. This is why the messages and morals in fairy tales can be more powerful then governments, superpowers, and armies. This is why Zipes mentions that fairy tales can have the power in them of revolution or emancipation. He says that “insofar as they have tended to project other and better worlds, they . . . have provided the critical measure of how far we are from talking history into our own hands and creating more just societies.”

This is why fairy tales, or in the case of Wonder Women, super hero stories, change over time to, perhaps, explain the current situation in society and even give and answer as to what we should do. This give the person telling the story quit a bit of power, and different people will want different solutions to the problems facing society. One example of this is when Wonder Woman gives up her super powers and becomes a weak and helpless woman. Many people are often powerless to realize that we can change fair tales and make them our own. I love how the Woman in the documentary saw this and realized that there was something she could do, she called up the comic book producers and said, “we want Wonder Woman’s powers back.” Wonder Woman in many ways was their only female super hero and she gave little girls something to become someday, not necessarily fly and beat up men, but be strong and stand up for herself.

Another point that Zipes makes while discussing Beauty and the Beast is that before the technology of printing fairy tales, Beauty and the Beast included, were simply hear, and retold. Each time a person would tell the story they were able to tell it in their own way and make it their own. But with the tale becoming a book, there was one way to tell the story, the book’s way. Zipes says that we loose the realization that we can make stories our own. I believe that he is right in many ways. As I said before, many of us except the books we read and the movies that we see as set in stone, but I still remember as a child, much like the lady in the documentary who called up the comic book company, I made the story my own. I remember playing Batman and the adventures and stories that he had were my own. Maybe children are becoming more prone to just watch and listen instead of pretend and play, but I do believe that we can make still make these wonderful stories our own.

I will close with my last little bit of evidence that we still, regardless of our technologies, have the power, as long as we realize it and encourage it, to change our stories and other stories to make them our own. The most poignant part for me of Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines, was at the very end during the credits. There is a women who tales her own super hero tale, and it is made by the director to look like it’s own comic book, and in this tale the women in the star skirt actually becomes someone’s hero. I know that we can change our fairy tales and our own real tales to become what we want them to be.

The Network May Inform, But to the Streets We Still Must Go

Before addressing this idea that internet, as wonderful as it is, can only inform and in order to actually change the world we must do it in person, I want to talk about fear and anger. In the article and in class we learned that fear is the emotion of oppression. If you fear for your life, you will only run or try to survive. In the movie Kony 2012 we see that this is happening to the African people under the hands of Joseph Kony. The reason that he has power is because the people are afraid of him. But there is another power that can incite action, and that is anger. Now according to what we read and discussed if anger does not turn to enthusiasm it will not last. It is true, according to Castells’ article, that fear is the trigger to get things happening, but as we saw in Kony 2012, Jason Russell turned his anger of Kony into enthusiasm to get him. If he would not have done this, the government would not have listened to him, nor us. But after the seven years of knowing this is going on he focuses his passion to make a film. Now what powers this film as well is the internet and the networking world. At the very beginning of Kony 2012 Russell does not start off talking about Kony, but the power of facebook. The very first thing that is said is that there are more people on Facebook than there were on the planet 200 years ago. Russell believes that the way to capture Kony is to send in USA military add, but the only way they will do that is if the nation cares, and the only way the nation can care is if they know about it. So Russell uses Facebook, the network, to fight his war.

A Death in Tehran also uses networks to inform the world. The most interesting part is when the regime that murdered Neda, offers her mother money for the rest of her life if she says that her daughter died for the regime. It is a little terrifying to thing that even just a few years ago, and perhaps even sometimes today, people and organizations can cover up things they don’t want the world to know. But people like Wei Wei are now equipped with the network and the way to have a voice. Now the average joe can raise a voice to inform the world of the truth and expose the world for what they really are.

But can knowing something change the world. Not alone. Castells says “The consensus seem to be that, at the end of the day, the dreams of social change will have to be watered down, and channeled through the political institutions, either by reform or revolution.”  The overall idea is that because of the internet we can now inform ourselves about so much more, and so much quicker than before. But we see, especially in the movie A Death in Tehran, that being informed is only the first part, once you have won the internet information war, you either have to take to the streets and vote, or take to the streets and revolt. Both are done in A Death in Tehran, and devastatingly, at least for now, both were unsuccessful. Even in Kony 2012 Russell wants us to share on the internet this information but then he specifically asks us to take to the street and put up posters. Both the documentaries were very convincing but the creators’ documentaries know that in order for their videos to be useful, the viewer must do something.

If Black History Month is March, What Kind of History is it for The Rest of the Year?

I am really glad that we were able to see the end of The Night of the Living Dead. We see white cops shoot a black man without even checking to see if he is human or not. This movie is so clearly saying that we need to improve the way we treat other races. We then talked about how far zombie movies have come from that perhaps original message. World War Z for example has not message about really anything. But I quickly realized that the movie Warm Bodies was bring back this original message about how we treat each other. Warm Bodies does give a similar, but perhaps more hopeful message, that Night of the Living Dead says. In Warm Bodies, people who are uncaring, unfeeling, incapable of remorse are zombies. Have we all not been zombies for time to time? But we see in the movie that love and acceptance overcomes the dead zombies and brings them back to life. One thing that I do like about Warm Bodies is that there are different races in the movie but it does not draw attention to them. We know from class that race is real a man-made perception. The race that Warm Bodies focuses on is the human race, I know pure cheese, but it is true in this case.

As for the next idea that I want to address is the idea of assimilated appropriateness. As a linguistic I have learned that to assimilate can mean to gain positive status that is otherwise not naturally there to begin with. One example is the word awesome, which used to mean that something just had some awe or something worth looking at, now it of course means so much more. Often times when we are familiar with something, like our own race, we begin to assimilate it and even give it a level of appropriateness. This means that people different then us is a problem that needs fixing. The one line that I had to notice in X2 was when Bobby goes home and he finally tells his parents that he is a mutant, his mom then asks, “have you ever tried not being a mutant?” In X2 to be a human is normal and even right, but to be a mutant you need fixing and are dangerous. What I love about X2 is that there is more than one bad guy in the movie, we have a human who wants to kill all the mutants and we have a mutant who wants to kill all the humans. At first we are worried that all the mutants will be killed, then Magneto switches the plans and all the humans are targeted, the X-Men are Professor Xavier are the mediators and the balance in this world. It is not right to privilege or destroy either race, as it were, but it is right to save both of them.

The most interesting thing that I want to mention from our discussion about race is that sometimes the people who seem to be fighting it are doing more bad then the ones that are obviously for it. No one thinks that Kl Klux Klan is a good organization to join, but what about an organization that is bringing up racism but perhaps in an unnecessary way. I think that this is true, but I did not realize this till our class. Those who promote races like black history month can sometimes offend people and do more damage than good. If black history month is March, what history is it for the rest of the year?

They are mean, but they are post meanism so it is okay

In Mean Girls one of the first jokes is when Mr. Norbury, Tina Fey, spills her drink on her shirt, and when she tries to take it off reveals here bra. This to me was like Tina Fey grabbed me through the movie screen pulled me nose to nose and said, ‘see, we are over it, this is post feminism. This revealing of the bra is no longer an objectification of women because Tina Fey is doing it to herself, right? Whatever it was I it still made me feel uncomfortable. Also, a younger girl of boy would not know weather it was some evil man or Tina Fey herself revealing her bra. We talked in class about all the women who take off their own clothing, but is it really their choice? Aren’t they trying to be noticed in a world where women who have brains and personality are practically standing still while the half naked hot woman are plastered with fame and fortune. Perhaps we are not post feminism. I know when Tina Fey showed off her bra I thought the joke was cred and plan. No real though was put into this joke, it was silly, stupid, and objectifying.

The male gaze is something that is at work here even though the movie was written by women. All of the party scenes are great examples of this. The men dress up in whatever they want but the girls must dress in lingerie looking costumes. Even at the Cady’s party, the first thing that she is worried about is looking good. She even says something like, this time I was not going to be caught in a costume. She is not worried about the fact that she lied to him about math, or how she plotted to break him up with Regina, she is not worried about any personality traits at all, just how she looks. At this point in the film, cady is no longer the innocent girl from Africa and she has learned that here in the United States what matters is the male gaze. At least this is what she thinks until Aaron Samuels actually finds her. I am proud of the movie for really flipping this idea on its head. Once Cady and Aaron Samuels finally meet up in her room, he is impressed with how she looks but he quickly learns what she is like on the inside and rejects her and the idea of the male gaze. It is possible, according to this movie, to overcome the male gaze and qualify women for who they are and not just what they look like. But at the same time, as I was watching this movie, I feel like they tried so hard to make Lindsay Lohan perfectly beautiful. In some scenes it made sense with the story, but other times I remember thinking, I just want to watch this movie without Lindsay Lohan trying to seduce me.

How we Treat our Enemies

I wanted to quickly tag on a bit about my big idea for this class. My question is what does Mean Girls say about how to treat our enemies? At the very end of Mean Girls, it seems to be saying that we should all be friends. However, both my wife and I agreed that most of the movie was sharing the message to do everything in your power to give your enemies what they deserve. The movie did so some transition from Cady sabotaging Regina George’s life to feeling sorry for what she did, but I wish that more of the movie would have been both Cady and Regina turning around for the good. However, nothing is funny about heartfelt love, and that is why almost the whole movie is full with girls completely hating on each other. The conclusion I came to is that even though you feel good at the end they message that sticks with you is sabotage everyone.