Humanities core has really changed my view of the world. Initially I approached subjects from a narrow perspective from point a to point b and believed everything that I was told in class was the full truth. After taking this course over the year it has removed those barriers and now has me approaching subjects in much more broadened view whether it be a historical event, picture, text, or visual film. I never realized the subject being taught could be half-truths used to help benefit the creators. For example Professor O'Toole's section of historical analysis really opened my eyes that the winner in conflicts and disputes can really alter our view on history as they maintain control through a form of social hierarchy limiting and reconstructing history the events to their liking. The course taught me to interpret the subject from all angles as each section had a professor providing their own view of empire. This helps students such as me learn to make educated decisions after revealing all the hidden biased actions.
Overall, I do not regret taking humanities core, because it has helped me develop as a critical thinker seeing things from more than just one perspective. The class helps you see where things develop through their roots. If I had the power, I would make this course mandatory G.E. requirement because it introduces the view of learning and approaching matters from an unbiased standpoint taking everyone's influence into consideration of the material being learned or analyzed. As a side note, I also love how the course essays are very open, in which students are able to pick from a vast amount of materials to write about.
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Maintaining a stable economy is an important element in reducing resistance in an empire. People need to be able to afford a place to sleep and eat. For example the French revolution was due to the lack of the people being able to feed themselves and make a stable income to live a healthy life. This economic balance issue is still a reoccurring problem with multiple empires as shown in the Colombian empire.
As a result of Pablo Escobar's choices in life, he shows that the Colombian empire at the time lacked the ability to promote the general welfare of the people who live in the slums. This further leads to the question how did Pablo Escobar's resistance to the economic downturns during the 1980s and 1990s influence the Colombian locals' image of the Colombian empire? The essay genre I plan to do is a historical analysis towards the drug war events.
Language is a vital feature in an empire. Language allows communication between individuals and can create a sense of common ground in which people can pass knowledge. With this in mind, language can be used for manipulation. For wars, empires such as the United states have used language in propaganda to spark the inner patriotism to fight among their side. As time has passed empires have used language to further their power through manipulation. On the other hand, as Dr. Chaturvedi mentioned in his lectures, resisting empire can be done through music, because as Dr. Lewis said, "Language can be used against empire." Edwin Starr’s song War for example was released in 1970 during the time of the Vietnam War. According to history channel staff, "between July 1966 and December 1973... a robust anti-war movement among American forces spawned violent protests" due to thousands of Americans facing heavy casualties and death (Vietnam War Protests 3). This song is an example of being a part of the protest movement with Starr opposing the U.S. empire's decision to go to war. While being relevant toward its time of creation it is still relevant today, because war is always a reoccurring event in this world. Edwin Star’s position on war is that it is not good and the United States empire should not be taking part in it. You instantly get this message when he repeats “War, huh-What is it good for-Absolutely nothing”(hook). Edwin Starr also tries to convince the song listeners the horrible outcomes of war. For example he says, “it means destruction-Of innocent lives-War means tears-To thousands of mothers eyes….Many a young man’s dreams-Made him disabled, bitter and mean-Life is much too short and precious to spend fighting wars these days-War can't give life-It can only take it away”(verse 3).These words bring imagery to the listeners and has them realize how many people are affected by just one war. Starr's song is working against the militaristic view of empire and contributing to the protest movement against war.
With language, Edwin Starr challenges empire to be more rational. In the middle of the song he states, "Peace, love and understanding Tell me, is there no place for them today? They say we must fight to keep our freedom but Lord knows there's gotta be a better way"that there are other means of solving issues other than war. That the people of our nation can choose a better means of solving problems and that our empire not thinking for the best of us. In the end, Mr.Starr hopes you come to an agreement with him and encourages you to sing with him as the song comes to an end when he says, “What is it good for-say it, say it,say it, say it” that you agree with him. Although language is a building stone for an empire, it can be a setback in vital events that need unity such as war. Many people today side with Edwin Starr and inhibit the empire's military power.
Money, money, money, there's always someone trying to extort the common mass. Since the creation of the internet, various debates on how it should be regulated have appeared from time and time again. The internet has always been deemed as another platform of expression to the public. Recently during the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018 Ajit Pai proposed a bill on net neutrality. As ABC and BBC news explained, the bill basically results in everyone paying additional fees to access and use websites on the internet. This bill is as bad as the Bourbon Reforms. Rachel O'Toole and Scorer, “Andean Self-Fashioning,” explained that the bourbon reforms created policies that increased the taxes on various products to extort the common folk. Just as raising taxes will hurt businesses, raising prices to access websites on the internet will discourage and hurt new business causing a downfall in our economy. In the past the people revolted against the bourbon reforms, and people will revolt again against its newer and altered appearance in today's economy. Various people have publicly addressed this bill as shown below and it's important for people to voice out against these forms of extortion and keep an empire prosperous.
What can tip the tides in military strength? Adaptability is an important trait for an empire to be strong militarily. J.M. Coetzee in the novel, Waiting for the Barbarians, implements realistic scenarios with similar views of the Spaniards and Inca empire. The barbarians in the novel are presented similarly to Rachel O’Toole’s perspective on the Incan empire being the “ass-kickers” and Romans being the Spaniards. Both of these true and fictional stories use adaptability to win their battles and demonstrate strength. Militarily, the barbarians in the novel are shown to be similar to the Incan people. Both are strong and adaptive in battle. Throughout the novel the barbarians decimate the oppressing empire’s military. This is shown through various occasions in the novel in which the empire goes on multiple expeditions into foreign territory to hunt down the barbarians and return with more casualties than progress. The barbarians in these skirmishes, display their strength to the empire as they win their battles. The trait of being adaptive is specifically shown when the magistrate finally meets the barbarians and they are armed with empire firearms. Early in the novel, the barbarians are displayed and portrayed as people who are unwise, arrogant, inexperienced in battle, and are supposed to be the losing force. But as the fights continue, it is shown that the barbarians adapted to the point the fights become one sided victories in the barbarian’s favor. On the other hand, in Professor O’Toole’s lectures of the history between the Spanish and Inca conflicts, she explains the Inca people fought the Spanish with their own weapons such as swords and used the Andes environment to win their battles against the Spanish. Technologically the Inca empire were at a lost, but due to the Inca people being adaptive and strong in battle, they were able to fight on the same table. Presentation of both the barbarian force and the Inca force show similar outcomes in which both sides are first displayed being weak against their opponents, but their trait of being adaptive in battle can make them even stronger than an empire. During thanksgiving break, I watched recently released series called Westworld. I highly recommend watching it. It may seem weird and odd, but this series had me hooked. It kept me watching because interestingly enough, it had incorporated views similar to Rousseau which we just read. This series is about a robotic theme park that has been funded for the soul purpose of the rich to relive the past in the wild west. (Spoiler alert skip the rest of this paragraph if you don't want to know much about the series) As you watch the series you learn that the theme park developers strive to increase their progress on the robots to make them truly alive. During these developments, there are constant arguments between the developers and managers of the company whether to keep the robots basic or highly realistic. In the end, the robots are developed to be so realistic, that they leave the park in ruins. This ties to Rousseau's Basic Political Writing, because in his first discourse explained in the introduction of political paradoxes by David Wootton that “progress is a bad thing because it is morally corrupting". The progression of the robots morally corrupt the developers into making them independent and causing the destruction of the park. After watching this, I also see that other movies link to Rousseau such as IRobot, and the terminator. Both of these movies are about humans progressing in technology and developing A.I.(artificial intelligence) which turns against humanity causing regression. These are just some of the many movies and television series today that relate with Rousseau's paradox, that progress leads to regress.
Empires and ruins are still being formed and analyzed technologically today through video games. The developer known as FromSoftware has created a game called Dark Souls. This game series has contributed to a unique genre where the developers do not spoon feed the game's plot/story. This means that players are forced to interpret the story based on what is presented to them by the developers. Throughout the game players traverse various landscapes that consist of empires and ruins. In these landscapes, players are compelled to figure out the mystery of the story's background as they continue their journey in the game. As more and more players complete the game over the years, players have posted their view of the games story and continue to analyze the hidden messages within the game's series to figure what happens to empires.
These are just a few of the videos that people have developed to share their beliefs of the true story.
Dark Souls is just one of the many games that developers today have made for players to interpret their empire and its ruins.
With Virgil writing the Aeneid, his vision of a Virgilian Hero still lives on. To this day we can see that people on both sides of the world display Virgilian Hero traits in their stories keeping the standards as an epic hero very high.
Orientalism is still a common practice used today. Edward W. Said the publisher of Orientalism describes it as a "Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient."(3) One form of orientalism can be movies. Slumdog Millionaire is a movie that shows orientalism by creating a discourse on India's quality and standard of living being low. It displays their quality and standard of living being low by showing the main character's life in the slums of Mumbai. With the drama film obtaining many awards and becoming famous, this can create discourse because the people can come to the assumption that most Indians living in India have to struggle in life living in the slums. In my past, I have had an experience where an uninformed high school student who would look down on Indians due to the release of the movie. To prove that the student was wrong, I setup a meeting with an Indian transfer student named Akshaya. Akshaya lived in India for 18 years and he states, "cities such as New Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune have a very normal or medium standard and quality of living just like cities in the U.S." With this insight, the high school student realized he was deceived by the movie's misrepresentation. A movie such as Slumdog Millionaire can influence a person's view to see all cities in India as the same quality and standard of living. It is important for the youth of our nation to be informed of orientalism, so that reality is not hidden by representations by movies such as Slumdog Millionaire.
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