The Patriot Act (And final blog!)

I remember the first time I seriously researched the Patriot Act. It was for my government class during my senior year of high school. I remember that I had a crazy conservative Republican teacher who I constantly argued with. We had to write a position paper on the Patriot Act. I wrote that I supported it because I was scared of terrorism. I still am scared of terrorism, but my viewpoints have changed slightly. 

I don't support the Bush Administration. I think it's been a complete failure. However, I really don't see what my fellow Democrats are making such a big deal out of. I want to feel safe when I travel, when my friends and family travel and when I'm in large cities or other "terrorism prone areas." Isn't it the job of the government to protect its citizens from hard? 

I really don't think that an obscenely large number of my civil liberties are being compromised. The way that I think of it is this: Do I have anything to hide? No. My record is clean so I really don't care who traces my phone calls or listens to my voicemail. At best, they'll find a voicemail from my mother reminding me to do my homework and get some sleep. 

It makes me think that the people who are so concerned about this DO have something to hide.

However, I'm a white, middle class girl from rural New York. I don't have to worry about be racially profiled. I think that if that were the case, I would probably completely change my position. I guess it's a little hypocritical on my part.  

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

After reading Brave New World, the chapters that stick out most in my mind are the final two, in which John Savage and Mustapha Mond have a philosophical argument. 

Mond quotes the French philosopher Maine di Biran. The quote says that religion is in response to the threat of loss, old age, and death. I agree with this statement. Mond points out that in this  World State society, there is no old age, loss or death. Therefore, there is no need for religion. John believes that if the people of the World State found religion, they would give up their pleasurable vices and become chaste and moral. 

John claims that God is the reason for "everything noble and fine and heroic." I agreed with John's views until he expressed this viewpoint. I consider myself agnostic, yet I am definitely a moral person. In fact, I practice a lot of the values that Christianity preaches, I just don't use God to justify my beliefs. They're more personal. 

Mond responds with his belief that, "Christianity without tears-that's what soma is." I think that this is one of the most important quotes of the novel. People in the society are obsessed with soma, to the point that many religious people today are obsessed with their religion. With the amount of radical religious people in the world (Radical Evangelicals in the South and Radical Muslims come to mind automatically), it made me wonder if soma is an acceptable replacement for organized religion. With the amount of damage that humans have inflicted on each other in the name of religion (9/11, the Crusades, to name a few), maybe the whole soma idea isn't a bad one after-all. 

V for Vendetta

I was really excited to learn that we would be watching V for Vendetta in class. I have only seen it once before, and it was during a sleepover where gossip was more important than actually watching the movie. It was nice to be able to see it again when I could actually pay attention and understand what was going on. I loved it.  

One of the quotes that I found to be significant was- 

"The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous." 

-V

To me, V's vendetta proves that people who are wronged in horrific ways by their government will seek vengeance. I think that considering the state of the world at the moment, a similar, but less well meaning threat is also possible.

V wanted to blow up Parliament and wreck havoc in order to free London's citizens from the fear of living under Adam Sutler's oppressive government. However, that is not always the motivation behind acts of terrorism, which is how Sutler's government defined V's actions. While I agree with V's actions because his overall intent was good (I guess in this particular situation the end does justify the means), I think that his obsessive mindset can be immensely dangerous when people with the wrong intentions start thinking that way. 

The plot of this movie is so involved that I would be interested in seeing it a view more times so that I could better grasp all of the minute details of the intent, viewpoints and beliefs of the characters. 

Skinheads and Bob Moser

I've always been taught to look at both sides of an argument, but I don't really think that's possible with this topic. 

The people in this documentary give white people a bad name. I was disgusted when I saw it. The people in this documentary are ill-informed and ignorant. They've developed their beliefs past an ideology into a cult. It's sickening. There is nothing scientific to back up their beliefs. One man said "The Chinese and the Japanese don't interbreed." I'm not an expert on Asian culture, but I would be willing to bet that they're wrong. 

The obsession that this cult has with death is unhealthy. It's disgusting. 

Their interpretation of American history is interesting, to say the least. I wonder how they can tell what "their forefathers" thought about Jews, blacks and homosexuals. 

I guess that the only way I can see the opposite side is in the Moser article. He implies that it is okay for Caucasian clubs to be banned in high schools while other cultured groups are permitted. I went to a high school that was about a forth Native American and they were allowed to have Native American culture clubs, classes, support groups, a private tutor and presentations. However, the white students were not allowed to form a Caucasian club. I was upset by this and I can see how the denial of white culture can lead to the extreme behavior shown in the documentary. I think another issue that causes behavior like this is affirmative action. And while I'm annoyed that I am automatically denied a large amount of big scholarships because I am not a racial minority, I am not ignorant enough to lump everyone who is different than me into one group and then practice hate against them. That's the crucial difference. 

Adolf Hitler

In high school, we didn't study the Holocaust nearly as much as I think is necessary. Most of my knowledge on the subject has come from taking my own initiatives to learn the subject. The only perspective that I've ever gotten is from the side of the Jews who were most obviously the victims in the case. I always have wondered what the psychological issues and the reasoning that Hitler used to justify the atrocities that he committed. These readings from Mein Kampf gave me a little bit of insight but there are still things that I don't understand. I don't anyone ever truly will. 

In Chapter IV he writes, "People who can sneak their way into the rest of mankind like drones, to make other men work for them under all sorts of pretexts, can form states even without any definitely delimited living space of their own. The applies first and foremost to a people under whose parasitism the whole of honest humanity is suffering, today more than ever: the Jews." 

I don't see why the Jews were considered "parasites" and no other group of people were. During the time that Hitler rose to power, the German economy was destroyed and nearly everyone was poor. What differentiated the Jews from the poverty? What made them more parasitic than any other group of people? 

The only conclusion that I can come up with is that Hitler was threatened by the Jews ability to have a nation without a state. He must have seen that as some sort of legitimate threat to his power. 

Benito Mussolini

I had preconceived notions before I read this piece. Ever since I can remember, relatives on my dad's side of the family always complained about how Mussolini ruined our family. My family is very, very Italian and my ancestors lived on a large estate in Sicily before Mussolini took control of Italy in 1925. Our family apparently tried to fight against his party, but part ended up joining the Mafia and the others fled to the US and shorted our last name from Perrello to Pearl. Well, at least that's the story, anyway. I've heard it my whole life from uncles, aunts, great uncles, etc. It always gets brought up at family reunions. To speak well of fascism or Mussolini will get you punched around my family. 

I looked up a definition of fascism online before reading this piece. It's defined as: A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. 

In this piece, however, Mussolini describes fascism as a spiritual conception. He mentions that it is an ethical and spiritual practice. I don't get how anyone could consider what fascist regimes have done to be ethical and spiritual. 

This is What Democracy Looks Like

This documentary definitely gave me a great deal of things to think about. I found it to be very interesting and telling of the motivations of those who were involved in the Seattle WTO protests in 1999. I remember when it was going on being confused about why these people were so mad in the first place. 

A few things really stuck out for me in this documentary. First of all, I found it really unfortunate that those few people decided to break the store front windows and property in downtown Seattle. This is what probably motivated the police to use the measures of force that they did. I also heard it used as justification after the protests were over. It's also sad because not only do the effects of this damage affect the CEO's of copies like Starbucks, but forcing these companies to close down during the protests also hurts the minimum wage workers. These are the same people that the protesters are fighting to protect. 

The other concept that I found interesting is the whole idea of civil disobedience. I don't know if I have enough guts (for lack of a better word) to get arrested and beat by the police for the things that I believe in. Although politics is one of my passions, I also value my clean criminal record and have high aspirations that would nearly impossible to achieve with a police record. I've campaigned for Hillary Clinton and other political candidates that I support.  I actively research candidates who value the same things I do. However, I couldn't picture myself sitting still on the group while police spray pepper spray at me. While I have respect for the people who are willing to do that, I think some people featured in the documentary are protesting for the sake of protesting.