A Bit of a Vent (Part 1 of 2)

The Problem With Politics

Ok, so this isn't all that relevent to the book, but I think people need to wake up to the world around them. I am sick of hearing people say, "How does it affect me," and "I don't care." Untill everyone realizes that this is our country and that we shape it, we are never going to make any progress. I am fortunate to live in a place and attend a school with a higher percentage of people who care about the world, but in general California is a bit ahead of the curve. What is going on back east and in the Mid-west? How can people not see that this country is falling apart and the gaps, both politically and financially are constantly growing? Is everyone just self-absorbed and oblivious to the fact that their ignorance is one of the biggest parts of the problem?

The majority of our politicians are incumbents, while those who are not are either replacing one who has died or voting boundaries have been redrawn in a way that puts a new party in power. We have guys (and girls) who have been in Congress for well over 40 years! These people lose all touch with not only their district, but with the times as well. We have people running this country who in the 60's opposed Rock and Roll. I don't know about you, but I find this tough to stomach. Most of these leaders are scratching each other's backs for a financial return, and keep their jobs as long as they aren't charged for a crime.

It is about time we get some new leadership and people running this country who are in touch with the times, and who are more concerned with change rather than their bank accounts. We talk about how corrupt other nations are but easily forget ourselves.

I am saddened because I don't see much change happening. The political parties just want seats and offices, with their main focus on bashing the other side. Egos need to be lost and they need to talk out their differences.

History and the truth

After reading 1984 and thinking about how the Party in Oceania influences Winston's perception of truth as well as history got me thinking about the history that we are taught. We learned history according to the way the authors of our textbooks present them. I believe history textbooks published in America will present historical events with different spins that other countries would. For example, how do you think the children in England are presented with information about the American Revolution? Or, how do elementary school children in Germany learn about World War II? We are given some undeniable facts in history classes, but alongside these facts we are also presented with the author's slant, and even the teacher's, so I guess our sense of truth in the history we learn is also warped. This is a little bit disturbing to think about because it kind of parallels some of the things going on in 1984. Members of Oceania know what is "true" to be whatever they are taught. I guess what sets us apart from Party members is that we are also taught to question what we learn, while they do not know to think for themselves.

THOUGHT POLICE

Believing One's own Beliefs

I think Winston is reliable. no matter how much reason they might put into it showing his faltering beliefs of the history before he had changed them, Julia, and O'Brien. people say he is unreliable because he changes his mind about julia. his thoughts on julia changed because he had a bad first impression of her. he eventually found out that she too, wanted to defeat the party. and o'brien, he thought was a friend to him and an ally to revolution against the party. he was wrong in this assumption or thought but does that make him unreliable? of course not, and why? because it was an impression. not a bad narrative because he isnt narrating it in the first place. its 3rd person right?? there are two versions of his mothers death. one, winston sees his mother sink in a ship. the second winston taking his sisters share of chocolate and eating it. the first is actually a dream or an analogy of how the union of his mother and he were broken. the second he recalls in his torture with the ministry of love. by the way, he also loses track of time when he is being tortured. and since he admits this he is not trying to convince anyone what time it is and whatever else they may presume.

"Misdirection. What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes. "- Gabriel Shear

Winston knows what he is talking about because he believes in it. If you believe in yourself and are trying to explain it to others who dont comprehend are you lying or being unreliable?

and victory gin, alcohol and other foreign substances release inhibitions of people. they are more likely to express themselves without thinking of the consequences.

ps i had about 5 shots of 20 year old, 120 proof, cognac before writing this

media and lies

I had a friend who passed away 2 years ago. The media actually portrayed him and his friend for being bad kids. They said that he stole that car and more cars from the past. I thought it was pretty messed up that they were portraying my friend as a juvenile and delinquent. They were accusing him and his friends for previous auto thefts which were not even proven. He was actually on the front page newspaper for about two days and during the accident him and his friend passed away. They were more interested in a "hotter" story that they did not even care for the truth. It seemed like there were only interested in things that seemed to give them a bigger story. This made a lot of people that I've talk to think that my friend was a bad kid. It led people to judge him and not care so much of this death at such a young age. I find it funny how people believe what they hear or read on the media but not take the time to realize that there are two sides to every story.

The 5 paragraph prison

I just got my freedom essay back, and the teach told me that i was trapped to the 5 paragraph format. were you have a flashy intro and a thesis that has 3 examples, then from those 3 examples you make 3 paragraph and the conclusion. I have never escaped this 5 paragraph prison, I found my self to be programed to do this style of writing, because i was always taught that this was the right and only way to do an essay. so i always write this way but this time this writing style made me get a C+. isn't ironic that i was writing a paper on freedom and i found myself writing in such a restraining format. Can you guys tell me how i can escape this writing prison that is the 5 paragraph essay.

media and lies cont...

So a kid from a highschool near my area was killed in a car accident about a year ago and it caused a lot of attention from the media. He was a young teenager who had been hit by a drunk driver late at night but that is all the news told us. Now the young boy had friends with him at the time and those friends and the young boy had been smoking pot late at night when this incident happened. The media never released anything about the young teens getting high when this incident happened and only mentioned that the driver had been drunk. I think the fact that the teens were high changes the story a bit because those children shouldn't have been out that late at night walking around streets getting high. I have seen many other incidents like this where the media hides things and i don't think the media will ever really tell you the whole truth.

No more silence from you silent ones! You have many fine postings to respond to and, of course, you may create your own blog article/entry if it strikes you to do so. This is required--worth, in fact, 100 points. How many of you have done 100 points of work here?

Mostly, I want to hear from you. How often does anyone really want to hear from you? Enjoy it while it lasts.

media and lies

I remember when I was a sophmore in high school, there was this kid that was killed due to gang violence. Now this kid was not like the media said he was, the media said he was a sweet kid who never messed with nobody, and that the gangs killed him. The truth was that he was not a sweet kid, he was a gang member. He would fight in school and cuz at the teachers. my point is that the media sometimes bends the truth a little to make the stories sound more compasonate. because if they said a gang member was just killed, people would be like good those gangs need to stop. they need story that would relate to human emotions, like the firefighters getting the kitty out of the tree thing. what do you guys think???

Fear of paranoia

Class of beautiful people,


Do we all fear risk? Do we all know what we are really fearing? Lets take an example of what I saw on the news this past Saturday. A mountain lion was spotted near Fremont Older, A place I mountain bike weekly. It turns out that I was there and saw this SAVAGE BEAST OF FLESH EATING CARNIVOROUS TEETH, AND DEATH DEFYING ACROBATICS THAT ARE SAID TO DEFY GRAVITY ITSELF. Someone that was on the trails must have seen the mountain lion as well. They must of called the ranger or someone because to my amazement it was on the evening news that very evening. The picture they showed while the newscast was similar to this one shown first to the upper right.. Lets take a look at these teeth, Pretty fucking scary huh! (insert sarcastic grin here!) So the Mountain Lion I saw was perched under a tree enjoying some shade. This pissed me the fuck off ! The media insisted to portray this Mountain Lion as a beast that always poses like the above photo. What a crock of shit I though to myself. In actuality it looked more like the one pictured on the far right.

My point is that we are constantly bombarded by misconceptions of truth, either for ratings or unfortunately to control our positions on matters. Instead of showing the truth that sometimes can be so dull a snail will fall asleep, media still jumps to the front of the free ice cream line every time. Lets take 9/11 that was discussed in class today: Oh boy did we see shit hit the fan on that day. We were censored like little babies from the horrific sometimes stomach shitting image's of graphic reality. If you were to watch news reels of what France, South American, &c news stations were showing you would see peoples insides on the floor. Pictures of what a person looks like burnt to a crisp. This is all graphic and sad to think about, at least for me.....
9/11: We were alive for, maybe the most horrific conspiracy's that ever happen on American soil. I think we are the generation as well with help from the slightly older generation that is going to bring some kind of calm to all the hurt that has happen in this world. From the first bullets, to the last ad promoting smoking as sexy and cool. We must all say "FUCK the norm." We are educated and much smarter than the karma fucked adolescent deals made behind closed doors. None of us may ever know what lies beneath the soil of all this credibility gap, but one thing is for sure. We/some/ have become aware that racism, hate, and lies make our earth darker in brilliance.

Steve

paranoid, or cautiously vigilant?

“Making us paranoid” could be one way to describe the purpose of our class…it depends on your definition of “paranoid.” If you have to make the teacher evil, I guess you could say he’s killing our sense of faith and trust (if we had any to begin with) in the things we accept as truthful. At first what Tim was saying about how the media and government controls our thoughts through ads and propaganda seemed pretty unfounded, but then I started looking at stuff for the midterm and media monitoring project…
This whole thing about questioning what’s true and what’s a lie is all over the place – you don’t have to go around trying to analyze some cryptic statement or presidential speech or even know much about what’s going on. One article in Sunday’s San Jose Mercury News flat out stated how unreliable our version of the truth is…
The American version of the truth: in the middle of the night, American troops had come under fire from gunmen in a residential area in Baghdad. The troops responded with gunfire and missile-carrying attack helicopters, dropping a bomb on the buildings where the shots were coming from. An American military spokesman man explained the seven explosions that occurred immediately after were probably caused by explosives store within the building they bombed. Iraqi police reported that the six people killed were insurgents, and the homes were probably used to store weapons.
The version of the truth presented by Iraqis who lived nearby: the area bombed was controlled by an army militia - the people who were killed came from two poor Shiite Muslim families who didn’t even own rifles. Two men, two women, and seven children – eleven in total – were killed. One man took pictures of several covered bodies, including two child-sized ones.
But when each side was presented with the other’s version of what happened, both altered their stories: the locals admitted to hearing gunfire before the bombings and the U.S. no longer asserted that only insurgents had been killed.
So both sides were “modifying” the truth, but by how much? Which version is more true? How can we know what we hear is true, when articles and reports of our government’s inconsistencies, contradictions, and scandals fill up every reliable news source? Sheesh…even thinking about how one would go about discerning truth from lies makes my brain go soggy.

The Media

As I was browsing through nytimes.com, foxnews.com, and cnn.com. I have to say, I am not pleased with the media. It seems like the internet has become so crazy today.For instance, Cnn.com, it aims directly through Harry Potter books and other plethora of entertainment as you first log on. As in foxnews.com, the page aims how "FDA warns consumers on tainted canned foods". I think that there are so many vague news out there in the media and should aim on one important news.

media

Looking at the different media I realized that they all had some things different. Most of them had the hairspray movie more then others and others had more news about what was going on in the world. A new movie came out great for them but I think it’s more important to find out what is going on in the world.

The difficulty/ease of reading 1984.

Has anybody else had a similar experience while readin' 1984? In the beginning things were so bleak and suppressive that getting through the beginning readings was tough because it was terribly depressing. Thing perked up a bit when Winston would come to an interesting realization in his diary, but then they were back to normal. But once he read Julia's note, everything took a drastic change for the better. The depictions of Winston's surroundings and observations were decidedly cheerful, his health even started to improve! Readin' about the two of them shacking up, and finding small bits of happiness in their ludicrously depressing world was relieving and exciting. I found myself turning the pages a lot faster. Then, Winston read the chapters from the book and it was back to tedious time for me. Now that they've been caught, though, I dunno how I feel about what's gonna happen next. But I expect it will be dreary and depressing all over again, and I can't say I'm psyched to finish the last hundred pages of this book.

Has this rollercoaster effect happened for anybody else?

Paranoia

I don't understand why someone in this class would feel paranoid. What Tim's trying to do is make us think outside of the little boxes we all live in, to think of how we're influenced and by how much. I don't think he's suggesting that our lives are just like Winston's, but that to some degree they may be similar. He's trying to make us aware of how easily the majority can be manipulated so that we always question authority before just accepting it.
If this was a ploy to get us to relate to Winston's situation, I think it had the desired affect.
Now... on to the comment that I have on 1984. So, after Winston's realization that he and Julia have suppressed their feelings for so long (because of BB) that they are incapable of human emotion, he and Julia talk about how when they are captured and tortured nothing could get in the way of their love. This is not even believable; they'd totally sell each other out to try to save themselves... they don't even know what love is! What do you think will happen next??... Now that they have been captured.
Will they be tortured? Will they come back briefly as Rutherford had?
I don't think they stand a chance against the thought police; they've already been brainwashed to the core, they'd be easy to break in interrogations. In other words... they're doomed!