Final Blog!

Writing this final blog entry, I can scarcely believe how much time has gone by.  Reflecting back on the course my favorite topics were learning about the news media and how it sucks.  I especially liked the plethora of daily show and Colbert report clips shown.  Learning how much our modern 24-hour cycle of new entertainment sucks was simultaneously engaging and depressing.  I didn’t really enjoy talking endless about murder for several weeks.  Even if it was comforting to learn that the odds of me being slain by a brilliant serial killer are extremely slim, it just wasn’t as interesting to me.  I would like to see the beginning topic of social constructionism expanded.  It seemed to be the core theory that was underlying most of the course, but was only presented for one week.  If I were to teach a class on media and justice I would be way harsher.  After discussing the articles in class I would have the students write a paper on the topic instead of doing a blog entry (which just boils down to a simple participation grade).  Don’t get me wrong, I would’ve hated to write papers every single week, but it would have forced me to put more thought into each of the topics and expand on the discussions started in class.  My “ideal” course content would contain a lot of the topics covered already in addition to other topics more taboo, such as religion.  Overall, I’m glad I took this course and would recommend it to other justice majors as a good way to apply justice theories to culture in a real-world context.

Equilibirum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlqpfV9marA

I choose to focus on the film Equilibrium with Christian Bale.  For those of you who haven’t seen this film, it tells the story of a dystopic future in which emotion is banned, and clerics such as Bale kill those with emotion and destroy anything that might provoke emotion such as artwork, music, pets, literature etc.  The storyline is essentially very similar to 1984 with a lot more violence.

Add caption

            The film presents several interesting concepts of justice, such as the role of government.  The government presides over every bit of a person’s life and carefully forces them all to conform.  The message here is that without freedom and emotion, we are not truly human. The dangers of technology are another justice issue presented.  In order to keep the population from rebelling, every person takes an anti-emotion drug everyday, and are under constant surveillance.  In order to indoctrinate people into this culture, government run education and media feed the populace a steady stream of propaganda.  Regarding the hero of the film, Christian Bale is an unlikely vigilante because he originally works as the system’s top law enforcer.  The fact that he goes from working for the bad guys to destroying them shows that you can atone for past sins. Violence in the film is justified as a necessary means of overcoming complete oppression by a shadowy totalitarian regime.  While fighting the government Bale kills many people for doing the same job he used to do, without giving them a chance at redemption, a point the movie glosses over.  One final point is that of race; the one major African American actor in this film is an evil killer with no character depth.  The movie posters show them both, seemingly as a symbol of the title, “Equilibrium” with one side representing goodness and white, the other badness and black.

Hypnotize!

Hypnotize- System of a Down

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoheCz4t2xc

Why don't you ask the kids at Tiananmen Square

Was fashion the reason why they were there?

They disguise it, hypnotize it

Television made you buy it

I'm just sitting in my car and waiting for my...

She's scared that I will take her away from there her

dreams and her country left with no one there

Mesmerize the simple minded

Propaganda leaves us blinded

I'm just sitting in my car and waiting for my girl

I'm just sitting in my car and waiting for my girl

I'm just sitting in my car and waiting for my girl

I'm just sitting in my car and waiting for my...girl

i'm just sitting in my car and waiting for my..............girl

I thought this song was particularly relevant to the class because the justice issue raised is how the media distorts our views of certain events to keep us complacent.  The song focuses on the student protests that occurred in China at Tiananmen Square in 1989.  In China especially, the event has been heavily censored and is rarely discussed anymore.  Even in the US there was not a widespread outcry against the Chinese government, which System of a Down blames on our addiction to television.  The song can be interpreted as a general warning against putting all of our trust into mass media and being led to believe whatever propaganda they give us.  The chorus is far more vague, but could be representative of an average guy who is now content just to wait around, be complacent and not take action against injustice.

Suicide and Society

Katie Baird did a good job making a somber and depressing subject both relevant and informative.  While suicide is something that we don’t often talk about, it is something that has affected the lives of almost every person.  I was shocked to hear that 80% of people think of suicide at some point.  Katie’s presentation was very useful in identifying warning signs and explaining what to do if you think a friend or family member might be suicidal.  However Katie’s presentation is geared towards treating the symptoms of a problem, that unhappy people are turning to suicide.  Shouldn’t the question be, why is one of the most powerful societies in the world experiencing one of the highest rates of suicide?  Island nations of indigenous people have an almost nonexistent rate of suicide.  I won’t even pretend that I have a well thought out solution to that problem.  What I really want to discuss and have you good readers of my blog comment on is elderly and terminally ill suicide or assisted suicide ethics.  While all people (I hope) agree that the a young person taking their life is a tragedy, can the same be said of the rational decision of an elderly person to end their life before it is dragged out on life support?  I can honestly say that if my grandparents said they wanted to die together at a pre-determined time surrounded by family and loved ones I would fully support their decision.  If death is an unavoidable end is it really wrong to be able to choose when it happens?  Or is there something inherently immoral about suicide regardless or age or situation?

Here are some relevant websites and articles showing both sides:

http://www.assistedsuicide.org/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1323760/Suicide-law-UK-lead-1000-deaths-year.html?ito=feeds-newsxml