Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Uncovered: the whole truth about the Iraq war
This video was overwhelming to me at first. The amount of information, endless list of credentials and the large amount of experience the people in this video had or provided was almost numbing. In spite of this, however, I did appreciate the extent to which the film provided knowledgeable individuals that had experience in the topic at hand.
There are two things from this film that most stood out to me. The first is the idea of the propaganda and promotion that went into this war. I feel as though this video suggested war was "sold" to the public, the congress, and the UN. The words like show, performance, and theater were used to describe how Colin Powell presented his case to UN, as if this was an infomercial where the host attempts to sell you his mediocre product. The placement of the head of the CIA, is almost, in my eyes, the equivalent of celebrity placement in an advertisement. Sarah Jessica Parker uses Loreal so it must be a good product, the CIA is sitting behind Colin Powell suggesting they are backing him and therefore he must have a credible case. When a decision about invading another country over their possible possession of nuclear weapons is at stake, it would seem as though advertising strategies would be foregone in light of the seriousness. Granted one could argue that the situation was "dire" enough that it every possible resource must be tapped. However, it seems in light of the weak and faulty evidence that was possessed about nuclear weapons and Iraq, the administration resorted to manipulation to achieve its goal.
The second part of this video that stood out to me was the repeated reference to the "mushroom cloud." I could not help but remember the commercial that was shown almost every year in high school with the little girl and exploding bomb. This commercial was explained to have been controversial and extremely effective. I cannot help but think the popularity of this commercial along with the out knowledge of nuclear weapons today was just another tool used to sell the Iraq War to the public. To pull on an idea that produces the image of American children being killed by a mushroom cloud, to me is nothing more than pure manipulation as a means to achieve one's goal.
There are two things from this film that most stood out to me. The first is the idea of the propaganda and promotion that went into this war. I feel as though this video suggested war was "sold" to the public, the congress, and the UN. The words like show, performance, and theater were used to describe how Colin Powell presented his case to UN, as if this was an infomercial where the host attempts to sell you his mediocre product. The placement of the head of the CIA, is almost, in my eyes, the equivalent of celebrity placement in an advertisement. Sarah Jessica Parker uses Loreal so it must be a good product, the CIA is sitting behind Colin Powell suggesting they are backing him and therefore he must have a credible case. When a decision about invading another country over their possible possession of nuclear weapons is at stake, it would seem as though advertising strategies would be foregone in light of the seriousness. Granted one could argue that the situation was "dire" enough that it every possible resource must be tapped. However, it seems in light of the weak and faulty evidence that was possessed about nuclear weapons and Iraq, the administration resorted to manipulation to achieve its goal.
The second part of this video that stood out to me was the repeated reference to the "mushroom cloud." I could not help but remember the commercial that was shown almost every year in high school with the little girl and exploding bomb. This commercial was explained to have been controversial and extremely effective. I cannot help but think the popularity of this commercial along with the out knowledge of nuclear weapons today was just another tool used to sell the Iraq War to the public. To pull on an idea that produces the image of American children being killed by a mushroom cloud, to me is nothing more than pure manipulation as a means to achieve one's goal.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The Lucifer Effect
The section in "the History of Palestine" when we see the Israeli military begin removing the Palestinians from there homes I, at first, called hypocritical. These people who have been persecuted for years were know the ones doing the persecuting. I was reminded, at this time, about an experiment with college students and a mock prison. In this experiment, some students were given the role of prison guard and others were given the role of prisoners. Without any prompting, the prison guards quickly became tyrannical and sadistic in their behavior. The prisoners, on the other hand, exhibited passive and depressed behavior, some allowing themselves to be abused with little or no resistance. This experiment was conducted by Philip Zimbardo and he called this phenomenon the Lucifer Effect.
Returning to the removal of the Palestinian people by the Israeli military, I cannot help but see a correlation of behavior. One group of people given authority and power over another group of people who become victims. This is not a prison guard situation, however, I feel like the principle of the matter still exists. One, when given the opportunity, seems to take full advantage of the power they wield over another human. I am not one to classify this as "human nature" however, I do think that there is seems to be a pattern or trend of humans with more power and authority dehumanizing and behaving with sadistic tendencies toward people who are in a weaker or less powerful position.
There is a slide show of this experiment and a book published by Zimbardo. The link to the slide show will be found at the end of this post but there are two comments that I found to be directly related to the situation in the Middle East.
The first comment is about the person who took on the role of head of the parole board:
"During the parole hearings we also witnessed an unexpected metamorphosis of our prison consultant as he adopted the role of head of the Parole Board. He literally became the most hated authoritarian official imaginable, so much so that when it was over he felt sick at who he had become -- his own tormentor who had previously rejected his annual parole requests for 16 years when he was a prisoner."
Here I feel like we can see the idea of a learned behavior. Instead of learning from his experience and becoming an understanding parole officer, we see that this mock parole officer learned the negative behavior of one in power and copied that when given the opportunity. This then relates to the Israelis removing the Palestinians from their homes with brutal force. Exposed to negative authority and persecution, the Israelis learned this behavior and then repeated it when the opportunity arose.
The second comment came from a person who was actually in a prison:
"I was recently released from solitary confinement after being held therein for thirty-seven months. The silence system was imposed upon me and if I even whispered to the man in the next cell resulted in being beaten by guards, sprayed with chemical mace, black jacked, stomped, and thrown into a strip cell naked to sleep on a concrete floor without bedding, covering, wash basin, or even a toilet....I know that thieves must be punished, and I don't justify stealing even though I am a thief myself. But now I don't think I will be a thief when I am released. No, I am not rehabilitated either. It is just that I no longer think of becoming wealthy or stealing. I now only think of killing -- killing those who have beaten me and treated me as if I were a dog. I hope and pray for the sake of my own soul and future life of freedom that I am able to overcome the bitterness and hatred which eats daily at my soul. But I know to overcome it will not be easy."
What is so disturbing about this comment is the line "I now only thing of killing--killing those who have beaten me and treated me as if I were a dog." This may perhaps articulate one line of thinking of a "terrorist" group or a member of one of those groups who have been subjected to military brutality.
Returning to the removal of the Palestinian people by the Israeli military, I cannot help but see a correlation of behavior. One group of people given authority and power over another group of people who become victims. This is not a prison guard situation, however, I feel like the principle of the matter still exists. One, when given the opportunity, seems to take full advantage of the power they wield over another human. I am not one to classify this as "human nature" however, I do think that there is seems to be a pattern or trend of humans with more power and authority dehumanizing and behaving with sadistic tendencies toward people who are in a weaker or less powerful position.
There is a slide show of this experiment and a book published by Zimbardo. The link to the slide show will be found at the end of this post but there are two comments that I found to be directly related to the situation in the Middle East.
The first comment is about the person who took on the role of head of the parole board:
"During the parole hearings we also witnessed an unexpected metamorphosis of our prison consultant as he adopted the role of head of the Parole Board. He literally became the most hated authoritarian official imaginable, so much so that when it was over he felt sick at who he had become -- his own tormentor who had previously rejected his annual parole requests for 16 years when he was a prisoner."
Here I feel like we can see the idea of a learned behavior. Instead of learning from his experience and becoming an understanding parole officer, we see that this mock parole officer learned the negative behavior of one in power and copied that when given the opportunity. This then relates to the Israelis removing the Palestinians from their homes with brutal force. Exposed to negative authority and persecution, the Israelis learned this behavior and then repeated it when the opportunity arose.
The second comment came from a person who was actually in a prison:
"I was recently released from solitary confinement after being held therein for thirty-seven months. The silence system was imposed upon me and if I even whispered to the man in the next cell resulted in being beaten by guards, sprayed with chemical mace, black jacked, stomped, and thrown into a strip cell naked to sleep on a concrete floor without bedding, covering, wash basin, or even a toilet....I know that thieves must be punished, and I don't justify stealing even though I am a thief myself. But now I don't think I will be a thief when I am released. No, I am not rehabilitated either. It is just that I no longer think of becoming wealthy or stealing. I now only think of killing -- killing those who have beaten me and treated me as if I were a dog. I hope and pray for the sake of my own soul and future life of freedom that I am able to overcome the bitterness and hatred which eats daily at my soul. But I know to overcome it will not be easy."
What is so disturbing about this comment is the line "I now only thing of killing--killing those who have beaten me and treated me as if I were a dog." This may perhaps articulate one line of thinking of a "terrorist" group or a member of one of those groups who have been subjected to military brutality.
Monday, September 21, 2009
The History of Palestine
Initially, before even watching this video I was irritated at the title. It does not say "a" History of Palestine but "the" History of Palestine, which suggests that this is the one "right" version of Palestine's past. Perhaps this was not the intent of the video to claim its place as the ultimate historical truth of Palestine, or maybe the title "a History of Palestine" was not available. Regardless, the word choice made me leery.
Technicalities in the title aside, I the content of this video not as shocking as when I was first exposed to the these ideas. The removal of the Palestinians from their homes to make room for the Jews strikes me to the core as hypocritical. After years of persecution from the Christians and the Europeans, the Jews, who lived for the most part peacefully among the Arabs, in turn persecute and oppress the Palestinians. What is more interesting is that the Jews now rely on the Europeans and the United States for support against the Arab nations. The very people that persecuted them they turned to for support and the people they lived with peacefully they now fight against.
Another point I would like to touch on that does not have to do with the video but rather one of the comments below the video. This comment said Hitler did us a favor in removing so many Jews from the planet earth because they would have price gouged us all into poverty with interest rates. May I ask who is this person? And how is it that we can still be holding onto stereotypes that started circulating centuries ago? I am not sure if this comment better proves the power of stereotypes to affect what people consider truth or the ignorance that still exists despite all the opportunities for education.
Technicalities in the title aside, I the content of this video not as shocking as when I was first exposed to the these ideas. The removal of the Palestinians from their homes to make room for the Jews strikes me to the core as hypocritical. After years of persecution from the Christians and the Europeans, the Jews, who lived for the most part peacefully among the Arabs, in turn persecute and oppress the Palestinians. What is more interesting is that the Jews now rely on the Europeans and the United States for support against the Arab nations. The very people that persecuted them they turned to for support and the people they lived with peacefully they now fight against.
Another point I would like to touch on that does not have to do with the video but rather one of the comments below the video. This comment said Hitler did us a favor in removing so many Jews from the planet earth because they would have price gouged us all into poverty with interest rates. May I ask who is this person? And how is it that we can still be holding onto stereotypes that started circulating centuries ago? I am not sure if this comment better proves the power of stereotypes to affect what people consider truth or the ignorance that still exists despite all the opportunities for education.
Monday, September 14, 2009
"Reel Bad Arabs"
I just finished watching this video and I find myself in agreement with the argument that the Middle Eastern people have been depicted in a way that confirms long held stereotypes of the "Orient." The repeated image of violence and lechery associated with the Middle Eastern people reminded me of how easy it is to associate a visual image or fictional image with the actual living people. Even the portrayal of the women in the Indiana Jones movie has as much of a statement and power of association. The women need not speak, only appear and one can easily think, "Oh that must be what women wear in that society." If a person truly wishes to know about women of that country, they may actually look up information about the culture and dress but this requires work and is less readily accessible than the image that appears before us in the entertainment industry.
Thus, in this way it is easy to condition a culture to accept (perhaps subconsciously) ideas about a people they do not necessarily come in contact with on a day to day basis. This might in fact be an example of "hegemony" or consensual domination Edward Said talks about on page 7 of Orientalism. These images of Arabs and the Middle East become satisfactory and tolerable and in the process control how we perceive a people. This video reminds us of the politics of entertainment and how people may accept what they watch without stopping to question or analyze its validity.
Thus, in this way it is easy to condition a culture to accept (perhaps subconsciously) ideas about a people they do not necessarily come in contact with on a day to day basis. This might in fact be an example of "hegemony" or consensual domination Edward Said talks about on page 7 of Orientalism. These images of Arabs and the Middle East become satisfactory and tolerable and in the process control how we perceive a people. This video reminds us of the politics of entertainment and how people may accept what they watch without stopping to question or analyze its validity.
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