To Those Who Still Care...

Post # 200!!!!!


http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/08/09/domestic_surveillance/

Again, what is our Beloved Motherland becoming?





By the way here is my final essay


Hanh Nguyen
Tim Maxwell
EWRT1

Slave to Society

Each generation has great issues they battle with to keep themselves untainted. They fight because this issue, this problem stops them from living a true life without impositions of outside influence. This generation and many others before it dealt with the oppression of media. Governments create laws, impose taxes, and ultimately define lifestyle of their citizens. However, the media that report them influences much of today’s government. The difference between this generation and those generations proceeding are the technology. As described in George Orwell’s 1984, advancement in technologies allow poisons to spread quickly within the homes of citizens through hybrid televisions and surveillance cameras called telescreens. I believe today’s society government and media are controlled by Commercial Interests. These Interests used the Government and Media to rape its audience with propaganda and rhetoric.
Our president post the tragedy of 9.11 past the Patriot Act. This act allowed the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to spy domestically. The act gave these branches of the government the ability to tap phone lines, to read emails and to arrest anyone under suspicion of terrorist acts. Just last week the George Bush Jr. tried to bully the House of Representatives in passing a law allowing the eavesdropping of foreigners using American satellites or websites to communicate. I believe today’s society government and media are controlled by Commercial Interests. What is this nation coming to when one cannot do participate in life without constant surveillance?
Today Media influences everything. In 1957, Edwin Ebel, then vice president of Public Relations at the General Foods Corporation conducted a study on how many advertisements are seen or heard in a 16-hour day. 1,538 on average was the number of advertisements seen by a person everyday. In 1957 there was no cable television, no internet, and most importantly no Myspace. Combined with all these new platforms for ads. People are unconsciously being bombarded with reasons by products, services and ideas from someone else. I believe Media, like Consumerism is trying to keep people shrouded in pettiness. In the words of Betty Liang “People are given the everything they need to be satisfied…”. This statement by Betty, I believe to be true. If people are constantly raising there goals and are constantly being satisfied there would be no reason to examine people’s lives. There would be no void in there lives because it would always be filled with something artificial and processed for there satisfaction.
Such events are not just taking place in the United States but around the world. The origin of the term Banana Republic refers to unstable countries in the Latin or South America or African countries. In Honduras, United and Standard Fruit Company’s purchased and subsidized lands for farming their bananas. With these lands, they offered extremely low paying, long hour jobs to the Hondurans. Unfortunately they were forced to work there because of lack of other jobs in the nation. Eventually the abuses and unfair treatment of the Company’s laborers reached the government. By this time the company had so much power it was able to stage a coup in the government and install leaders friendly to their enterprise. The United Fruit Company and the Standard Fruit Company are now known and Chiquita Brand Fruit Company and Dole Fruit Company. Consumerism had seized control of the Honduras Government in the name of growing cheap products, paying little to almost nothing to its employees, and selling at competitive market prices to make astronomical profits. I am not going completely rule out this could happen or has already happened out my beloved country.
Dear classmates, I say what can we do to stop this totalitarianism? What can the individuals do to battle these great injustices impeding on my freedom? Life doesn’t seem so great when I am told what to do, when to do it and how. The level of corruption I believe is in every level of our federal government. I just don’t know what to do anymore when Representatives are stealing money. I don’t know what to think when Senators are accused of sexual misconduct, and the media crucifies them in their reports instead of reporting on policy. What can one do when the President of the United States is a warmonger who used to work for corporations exploiting the indecent wars started by his administration? My friends, the first step we can take in fighting our illegitimate masters is to know of their corruption. From here on I guess everyone has to make it up as they go.






and here is my 4th essay Tim.





Hanh Nguyen
Tim Maxwell
EWRT 1

Now and Laters

My first college English course, 1A, is a prime example of me discovering myself. As ridiculous as it sounds, it’s the truth. From the instant Tim Maxwell explained his views on the Tommy Hilfiger advertisement I knew this class would be an interesting way to spend six long summer weeks. This class is the first to ever question my ideas of personal freedom. It is the first class to put emphasis on the power of language and how I abuse it. The class challenged my assumption that I or anyone else can be independent in thought. It dissected my life; the idea of media control over the population, the idea of my Government having comercial interests, and belief of an unreasonable and demanding society. It is the only class ever to make me rewrite my essay to resubmit it. It’s the first class requiring and encouraging its students to blog after every class or whenever ideas or mood struck. 1A is the first class requiring a personal website be created to exhibit the essays I’ve written. It is the first class requiring a 12-step program on how to write a more perfect essay; some steps of which include admitting that I am a flawed. Writing a reflection essay and how I could improve the essay I just wrote. 1A is not simply an English course; it is a metamorphosis of a high school student in college to a real college student among his peers. This class represented so many firsts in my writing that it could be considered the genesis of my adult mentality, not being a teenager anymore but considering myself a contributor of wisdom and opinion. I am different person.
Tommy Hilfiger, a popular mainstream clothing line created an advertisement for women’s perfume and men’s cologne. This advertisement showed a smiling African American woman in 50’s era diner, wearing madras and hot pants. That is what I saw; Professor Tim Maxwell however saw rape. Not only did his view of this advertisement stunned me but shocked the class. I believed it a gross interpretation of happy, innocent people. But I also understood. I understood where Tim was coming from and his ideas weren’t completely ridiculous. The advertisement showed the woman smiling and looking towards someone or thing behind us; her hands covered her private region and the symbol of Hilfiger covering that. The bottle of cologne was shaped of a phallus, the African American model covering her genitals in a diner era restaurant where segregation was still rampant. Was I turning crazy to make these connections also?
Our first of many difficult essays to come was about freedom. Not just any freedom, but my definition of freedom and how I relate to it. The reason it was so difficult was because I didn’t understand its concept. Again I made the ridiculous assumption of being a US citizen and being endowed with “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. I wrote about the things I was able to enjoy and the things I was forbidden to do. How is this supposed to be difficult when I can draw my boundaries in the definition? I realized freedom meant nothing. As important as it sounds, many people assume they have the same definition. This abstract thought of freedom was supposed to be defined with concrete evidence. I used slaves as my basis for my thesis. Slaves were bound by masters to do their bidding. So I must be bound by _____ to do its will. It hit me so hard I questioned my sanity. Freedom does not mean do whatever I want; it means not to be a slave of something. My freedom was defined by what I believed I was compelled by. This in itself brought me to the epiphany that I was not a slave of rules. Commercialism, the desire of “stuff”, and emotions are my true masters.
Another defining moment in 1A unmasked by my realization of my slavery is the idea of the media and governments international are powered one of my masters. George Orwell’s, 1984, described an imaginary state where the government controlled all aspects of life. Aside from all the interpretations of the book, I want to talk about its political idea, an all powerful state. In the story, what was consumed and believed by the population was fabricated to keep them in check. Literally, the thoughts and beliefs of the masses were dominated by what was consumed through propaganda. The government would become extremely dangerous and invincible if they could do this. What if this really happened? Tim said it happened in China with its cultural revolution. Tim said for us to think for ourselves on the website (website). Tim gives us assignments to slave over under the guise of being helpful to our writing and futures. Tim said this and Tim said that. Isn’t Tim our government? If Tim controls our class with his iron fist, what has our government done? If in 1984, the government used the media to control the people; can’t the media today control the people? I do not believe the government and media run hand in hand together, but I do believe they are powered by the same vested interests. These interests used to be the “common good”, but now I believe they are motivated by wealth and power.
The last thing mind-blowing away my summer was class itself. I lost weight, learned how to skydive and the horrible 12-step program making me pre-write and post-write actually made me write better. Since we were commanded to think for ourselves, I did just that. Of the many ideas represented by each student in class, I felt like everyone else, compelled to force my opinion on the class. Discussing ideas in class made me feel like I was in a Roman Forum. These battlefields of ideas and rhetoric took form in debates and blog entries. For the first time, I was placed in an environment where everyone was considered a peer; even Tim Himself counted himself as a peer. If I was qualified to share ideas with people ranging from the ages 17 to Tim’s age, would this make me an adult? As I thought about this more and more I realized my opinions mattered. I know its cliché to say so, but it is a cliché for a reason. As a kid, much of my ideas are brushed off as “silly” and childish. To be taken seriously by people has always been a goal and I feel among my peers that I have reached it.
How I have changed is immeasurable. The entire summer has been a blur, but these events I remember distinctly. I took a class taught by a Stanford professor who attended UC Berkeley. Advertisements and the processing of information forced on to me is rape and I should tell somebody. The last thing I remember is I am a man and my opinions matter.