Discussion on weeks-10-11-research-and-journal

[William W]

William Wang
English 101 Section 0143
Professor O’Connell
04.16.2010 Weeks 10-11 Research & Journal

Cypher, from the movie The Matrix, takes an incorrect course of action
by making a deal with the artificial intelligence program Agent
Smith. Agent Smith is part of what they call the Matrix. The Matrix
is a computer generated reality that the machines have built in order
to control and enslave humans. This would no doubt be considered a
crime against humanity. Therefore, when Cypher strikes a deal, he is
actually negotiating with terrorists and betraying mankind. Sitting
around, wasting time and being ineffective at handling architects of
genocide is like lending a helping hand to these terrorists. Let me
remind you that the United States does not negotiate with terrorists!

Maverick, from the movie Top Gun, takes a correct course of action by
performing a split S in an aerial combat training scenario. The
instructors at the Naval Fighter Weapons School feel that that was a
bad choice and that it was the last thing he should do. However, upon
questioning Maverick’s motives, he replied with, “You don’t have time
to think up there. If you think, you’re dead.” This mentality aligns
with my own belief that you have to be flexible and be able to adapt
to your environment in order to survive. If terrorists come up with
new ways to destroy our way of life, then we must be like water and
drown these terrorists and wash away their evil hands!

Works Cited:

Wachowski, Andy & Larry (Lana). The Matrix (1999).

Scott, Tony. Top Gun (1986).


--
Subscription settings: http://groups.google.com/group/english-101-spring-2010-online-sections-0143-and-3226/subscribe?hl=en

[Rosemarie J]

Research and Journal
Weeks 10-11
Rosemarie Johnson
Professor E. O’Connell / English 101, Class #3226


Bluebeard

Although Goldhagen does not discuss the ramifications of the
premeditated destruction of a communal heritage on the survivors of
genocide, the loss of a culture is part of the post-genocidal process
itself.

Kurt Vonnegut’s fictional character, Rabo Karabekian is a first
generation Armenian-American, abstract painter, who exemplifies the
inability to deal with the truth of his tragic past. In his youth,
Rabo Karabekian was apprenticed to a famous Armenian painter by his
parents, survivors of the Armenian genocide. The painter, Gregorian,
who turned his back on his Armenian past, changed his name to Gregory
and became a pro-fascist obsessed with Mussolini. It was at this
point that Rabo’s life took a wrong direction.

Torn between the ideology of his mentor, and his parents’ negative
experiences as refugees, Rabo Karabekian spends his life painting
abstracts with varying degrees of success. However, it is not his art
that attracts attention, but his mysterious potato barn that is
boarded up and secured by six padlocks. Rabo resists the efforts of
anyone who attempts to discover the “secret” inside the potato barn
and it becomes generally accepted that the “secret” must be a cache of
stolen art.

After his death, when Rabo’s potato barn is opened, it is found to
contain an enormous realistic painting of Rabo and almost six thousand
survivors of the Holocaust. No explanation is given as to why Rabo
chose to hide this painting from the world, or if the painting is an
authentic depiction of his own experiences or a projection of his
feelings of victimization at the hands of Turkey’s ally, Germany. The
potato barn may represent a concentration camp which links the
Armenian genocide with the Nazi Holocaust, just as his abstract art
depicted his fragmented and ambivalent responses to his mentor’s
radical ideology and his parents’ undeniable truth.

The “secret” of the locked potato barn is like the Obama
Administration’s denial of the Armenian genocide: The truth will be
locked away until President Obama leaves office, and even then, the
truth will be the subject of controversy. The continued effort to
cover up the Armenian genocide may hold the most important lesson of
all, the test of our democracy.

Goldhagen correctly observes that “US intervention depends on the
particular case’s implication for American power…again and again
political leaders and elites prove themselves egotistic, with little
or no inclination to act morally in the international arena.”
Goldhagen, D.J. (2009), Worse Than War, (p 546). The Obama
Administration’s abstractions about Turkey will ultimately have to
face the truth which Rabo’s actions wrongly sought to evade. The
question is who is in charge of Mideast policy, the United States or
Turkey?

References

Vonnegut, K. (1987). Bluebeard
United States: Delacorte Press

Goldhagen, D.J. (2009). Worse Than War
United States: Public Affairs, a member of the Perseus Books Group



Ararat
(The film)


The Canadian film, directed by an Armenian Canadian director, Atom
Egoyan, is a film within a film which incorporates the feelings of
present day Armenians with the retelling of the story of the famous
Armenian painter, Arshile Gorky, whose paintings were influenced by
the suffering and loss of the Armenian genocide. Gorky who fled his
native Van with is mother and three sisters, only to see is mother die
of starvation in Yerevan in 1919, committed suicide at the age of
forty-eight.

The fictional hero of the film, Raffi, is only eighteen, but unlike
Bluebeard’s Rabo, Raffi is a seeker of absolute truth about his own
cultural past and its immediate affect on the lives of Armenian-
Canadians who still harbor hatred and distrust for the Turks, after
almost a century of Turkish denial and lack of justice.

Raffi sets out for Turkey with his camcorder, unsure of what he will
find at Van, Arshile Gorky’s birthplace and the site of a notorious
siege by the Turks. Although Canada, unlike the United States,
recognizes the Armenian genocide, Raffi takes up the Turkish challenge
to prove the historical basis for the events of 1915, and Gorky’s
account of the mass slaughter at Van, a community in Anatolia.

At Lake Van, near Mount Ararat, the alleged resting place of Noah’s
Ark, Raffi discovers the ruined city of Ani. As he films the complete
devastation of a once thriving Armenian community, he realizes the
extent to which the Turks went to erase the memory of the once
thriving Armenian community from Turkey. In the process of filming
the razed city of Ani, Raffi ponders on the significance of Mount
Ararat and the link between the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust.
It occurs to this seeker of truth, who has taken the right action in
exorcising the demons that beset Gorky and Rabo, that history is so
interwoven that in the denial of one atrocity lies the genesis of
another.

Raffi who is stopped by Turkish police at checkpoints demanding to
know why is filming in such an isolated region, finds himself under
scrutiny again at Turkish customs. Raffi finally realizes that truth
is relative. Turkey, a supposedly westernized state, has more to
defend than its national honor. In his documentary, Goldhagen, who
confronts victims and perpetrators alike in his own search for the
truth about genocide, would surely approve of Raffi’s personal quest.

However, Goldhagen is incorrect when he suggests that “…countries
like Turkey, which otherwise might not have embraced democracy, or
fallen away from it, saw democracy as the only option.” Goldhagen,
D.J. (2009), Worse Than War, (p 514). Turkey’s long standing; well
founded sense of impunity from the international community has allowed
it to embrace Western values to its benefit, while moving increasingly
closer to its Islamic roots.

References

Egoyan, A. (2002). Ararat. (The film)
Distributed by: Miramax Films, Release date, (2002, May 20)

Goldhagen, D.J. (2009). Worse Than War
United States: Public Affairs, a member of the Perseus Books Group

[Justin A.]

Tom Cruise in the movie Valkyrie as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg
decided that Hitler had gone too far and he realized that if the war
dragged on that Germany would suffer and that many more of his people
would die. He and some other officers and important politicians
hatched a plan to assassinate Hitler. He knew the risks that were
involved in their plan that should they succeed and should they fail.
He put his life on the line even when he knew he might never see his
family ever again. Even though they failed and were executed when
other countries got wind of what happened they knew that not all of
Germany was going along with Hitler. It is usually the people of the
country of that one person who organizes a genocide that do not do
anything or who decide to even join in the killings. Stauffenberg
should be used as an example and that if more people are willing to do
what is right more than what is easy then genocides would be easily
preventable.

[patrick d]

Patrick D
#3226
Weeks 10-11 Research
Prof. O'C

In every war, as Goldhagen says, war can mass terminate and eliminate
unwanted people. In James Cameron’s recent movie, Avatar, such
intention took place. The military set a research project to make
avatars to know the ways of the scavengers, living in Pandora, where
they believe, there is abundance of the mineral, unobtanium. Jake’s
avatar, was initially set to befriend the scavengers, however was
instructed by the colonel to report to them for more information.
Jake, in the process of spying, felt the warmth and support of the
scavengers, and felt in one with them. In the end, he decides to
support Pandora’s safety and help the scavenger’s fight for their
people. In time, Parker Sefridge, and Col. Miles Quatrich, decides to
attack Pandora, and remove the unwanted scavengers and take over. In
spite of Jake and Grace’s disapproval of the attack, concerning
families, that includes women and children alike, the army takes over
and attack them. In the story, it can be seen how perpetuators can
manufacture a war for selfish reasons, in the expense of other people.
Motivations of greed and power, can make them eradicate ‘unwanted
people’ with war and terror.

Goldhagen mentions that the ‘elites and the public can effectively
apply the brakes“, in eliminationism. In the movie, Schindlers’s List,
Oskar Schindler effectively “saved more than 1,100 Jews from death in
the Holocaust.” Being an industrial owner of a factory, he was able to
convince the Nazis for a time for him to employ Jews, in order to save
them from consecration camps, moresoever from death itself. He did
this by spending his “evenings entertaining the SS and German Army
officers. His apparent political reliability and his engaging
personality made him popular among the Nazi elite. During the day
Schindler would entertain officials and visitors to the factory,
pouring them vodka and Schnapps, telling them that he knew how to get
work out of the Jews and that he wanted more brought into his factory.
In this way he managed to bring into the plant and save from the gas
chamber intellectuals, artists, and the families and relatives of his
workers.” This shows, that some people can effectively do something to
halt mass murders, if given the opportunity to do so. It would be a
good thing to see powerful countries like the United States, Japan and
other countries to support international efforts in halting, and
ending crimes and terror worldwide.


Works Cited:

Goldhagen, Daniel. Worse than War: Genocide, Eliminationism, and the
Ongoing Assault

on Humanity. Public Affairs, 2009.

The Internet Movie Database. Web. Accessed Apr 15, 2010. <http://
www.imdb.com>

[patrick d]

[Ryota F]

Ryota Fujii

English 101

Professor Ed O’Connell

Weeks 10-11 research & journal

The Hans Blix character from the movie Team America: World
Police represents wrong approach to international terrorism and
eliminationist assaults. Although Hans Blix, who was the head of the
United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission from
2000 to 2003, is a real person, the movie is a satirical fiction. The
Blix appears in a scene with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. In
this scene, Kim Jong Il is in his palace and waiting for Blix to visit
him. There is an aquarium, which houses some sharks. Soldier/
translator announces that Hans Blix from the United Nations has
arrived. Blix says, “Mr. Il, I was supposed to be allowed to insect
your palace today, and your guards won’t let me in to certain areas.”
In response, Kim says, “Hans Hans Hans, we’ve been through this a
dozen times! I don’t have any weapons of mass destruction, okay Hans?”
Blix replies, “Then let me look around so I can ease the UN’s
collective mind.” When Kim gets angry, Blix says, “I’m sorry but the
UN must be firm with you! Let me see your whole palace, or else!” Kim
asks, “Or else, what?” Blix answers, “Or else we will be very, very
angry with you, and we will write you a letter telling you how angry
we are.” The conversation between the two reflects the UN’s
ineffective approach to international terrorism. After Kim looks at
Blix in smug disbelief, he says to Blix, “Okay, I’ll show you, Hans.
You ready? Stand a little to your left. [Blix steps to his left] A
little more. [Blix steps to his left again, landing on a wooden
circle] Good. [pulls back on an ornament that turned out to be a
lever. The circle drops away under Blix and he goes down into an abyss
screaming. He comes up on the other side of the aquarium window,
rising up in the water] There you go. Hans Blix! How do you like that,
you fucking cocksucker?! [a shark has found Blix and tears into him]
Do you have any idea how fucking busy I am, Hans Blix?! Well fuck you!
You want inspections?! … Do you think I’m some pretty arms dearer?!
I’m planning the attack!” As Goldhagen points out, since the UN is
ineffective and does almost nothing, Kim has no fear or respect for
the institution and Mr. Blix who represents the institution. The
ineffectiveness of the United Nation portrayed in this movie can be
applied to the Holocaust and other eliminationist assaults as well. In
order to prevent eliminationist assaults, we cannot rely on the
institution like the UN.

Gary, a fictional character in the same movie, Team
America: World Police, represents correct approach to international
terrorism and eliminationist assaults. Again, this movie is a comedy,
so this character makes numerous mistakes and behaves in ridiculous
ways. However, Gary as a member of Team America, is committed to
stopping terrorists before they act on their plans. When Team America
learns of a planned attack, Gary goes to kill perpetrators. Although
his actions lead to retaliations, his and Team America’s approach is
consistent with Goldhagen’s idea that individuals, including the
surviving Nazi war criminals, choose to commit eliminationist assaults
and thus should be held accountable for their actions, and that target
killings can be justified when the target is actively engaged in
planning and carrying out terrorist activities. This approach, while
not perfect, is better than the approach of Blix representing the
United Nation.



References

Goldhagen, D. J. (2009). Worse than war: Genocide, eliminationism, and
the ongoing assault on

humanity. New York: Public Affairs.

Parker, T. (Director). (2004). Team America: World Police [Motion
Picture]. United States.

[Rosemarie J]

Justin,

You picked a excellent film to illustrate your point, but don't you
think that Valkerie represents the futility of Goldhagen's suggestion
that it is either relatively easy or desirable to assassinate a
dictator? In theory, I agree with you that Hitler should have been
assassinated, but the extra-judicial killing of a dictator is almost
impossible. Goldhagen suggests that someone from a small country
could undertake the task. But if the generals, who were known and
trusted by Hitler were discovered and executed, what chance does an
ordinary individual have of succeeding.

> Subscription settings:http://groups.google.com/group/english-101-spring-2010-online-section...

[Diana K]

Diana Kovinsky
English 101
Section #0143
Professor O'Connell


Sights of War

Although Goldhagen discusses all aspects of crimes against innocent
people, he doesn't mention the people who have to go and fight
eliminationist leaders and terrorists. Most of those people are also
innocent young soldiers, who didn't ask to be involved in any kind of
war, but were forced to participate and had no choice but to protect
themselves and their families. Israel is one of the countries where
war on terrorism continues 24 hour a day. Since the population of
Israel is very small and the country itself very small, every Israeli
citizen without distinguishing male or female, forced to serve the
army when their 18. They are ordinary young people who wish to
party, have friends, gain education, get married and have peaceful
lives. Yet, some of them might never experience those pleasures due
to ruthless terrorist minds, who work around the clock in order to
find new ways to strike Israel by killing or kidnapping soldiers. For
them, the younger – the better. War have the worst effects on people
who participate in it, and a great example to that would be the the
graphic movie Walts and Bashir. Ari Folman's Walts an Bashir, is a
story of hidden human nightmares. It is not a usual war movie where
the fighting sides are clearly defined. All the characters involved,
and who is wrong or wright is not the main point. The main focus is
the non-understandable effects of war that can exist long time after
the physical fight is over. In June 1982, the Israeli army invaded
South Lebanon after Israel’s northern towns had been bombarded for
years from the Lebanese territory. The movie is a graphic journey of
the director Ari Folman back to his involvement in the 1982 Israeli
war with Lebanon. In the beginning of the movie, Folman's friend
tells him about a nightmare he sees every night. He is being chased
by 26 fearsome dogs who are trying to kill him. He believes that his
nightmare associated with the war. After sharing his nightmare with
Folman, he surprised that Folman can't recall any memories of his part
in the war. Folman is disturbed by his loss of memories and he
decide to talk to some old friends who served with him at the time of
the war, in hope that they would help him to remember. Moreover,
Folman is trying to recall if the Sabra and Shatila massacre really
happened when he was there. The massacre took place in Lebanon by
Christians against Muslims but was blamed on Israel and caused
escalation in International view of the world on Israel. After that
war, Israel suffered “Intifada” (Arabic word which means “shaking
off”), in which many Israelis found their death. The film is in a
graphic format because some of Folmans' friends didn't want their
identities to be exposed. This movie is a brilliant way to show how
war effects the lives of the those who participate in it. Many young
man and women all over the world suffer psychological post traumatic
disorders and nightmares associated with sights of war and killing.
The treatment is almost impossible, and many times the nightmares
never end. A very interesting thing Folmans friend tells him about
memory: “A human mechanism prevents us from entering dark places,
memory takes us where we need to go.” Forgetting is one of many ways
to deal with war trauma. Unfortunately today, many soldiers in the
world are under the age of 18. Their sights will hunt them after the
war is over. Fighting terrorism and eliminating wars should be the
main purpose of the world today in order to save lives of innocent
people, and memories of innocent young soldiers who didn't want to
participate in war, but had no choice but to fight to protect their
families. That is the reason why Israeli Defense force called
“Defense force” and not “Fight force.” Their only purpose is to
defend innocent people from suffering suicide bombers in buses and
public areas, as well as defend teenagers from being killed by
suicide bombers in disco clubs and schools, and defending the borders
of a small country surrounded by terrorists. Although a large part
of the world views Israel as enemy, the morality of the young people
in the Israeli army doesn't let them to murder innocent people, but
only to defend them.

[William W]

The US Army in the movie Avatar was a great example, Patrick!

[Meagan Judkins]

I love the Kurt Vonnegut reference! He has such a keen ability to
tell deep and meaningful stories. In Slaughterhouse-Five Vonnegut
drifts in and out of fiction and true accounts from WWII which he, as
a young man, experienced first hand. It took him years to be able to
write about his traumatic experiences as an American solider being
held captive by Nazi German soldiers in Dresden Germany, before and
when the bomb was dropped (by the US and British Air Force).

Very interesting book. Easy read, highly recommend it. The book
really gives you a sense of the insanity and suffering brought on by
WWII.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II

> Subscription settings:http://groups.google.com/group/english-101-spring-2010-online-section...

[Meagan Judkins]

Meagan Judkins
Journal 10-11
4/20/2010
Professor O’Connell

The feeble young minds of children are first introduced to the story
of Pocahontas and John Smith in this Disney adaptation. of the
encounter of the Native Americans and the white settlers. I won’t go
on a rant about the sexist nature of Disney or even hyper inaccuracy
of the film. I will only say that if we ignore our past, we are
doomed to repeat it. I am obviously not suggesting we throw violence
and war down the throats of our children, I am only suggesting that we
as a society must own up to our past, the actions of our forefathers.
If we cannot bring justice to those injustices committed, then we can,
at the very least, re-account our history in a truthful manner,
thereby bringing respect to those who were treated unfairly while also
regaining the dignity we’ve lost.

I asked a Native American friend of mine if there was any film, book,
etc that he felt truly gave real and fair account of the life of the
Native American. Although this short story does not tie in directly
with Goldhagen’s points towards the treatment or suggested genocide of
the Native Americans, I do feel it paints a clear picture of the
aftermath. Victor is a young man on a reservation. He has heard word
that his father has been found dead in his trailer. With no car, no
way to cremate his father and no money, he must go to the tribal
council for help. “Who does have money on a reservation, except the
cigarette and fireworks salespeople?” the narrator asks. The council
can offer no solution but $100. Victor is met with an old friend.
Thomas Builds-The-Fire. His old friend offers to help him on his
journey. Youth centered drinking, poverty and the bleakness of day to
day life is felt in this short story.

“Pocahontas” Walt Disney Pictures. 1995
"This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona" by Sherman Alexie
First published in Esquire In 1994 - Anthologized in Best American
Short Stories of 1994.

[Ryota F]

Patric D

I liked the second paragraph where you discussed the movie
“Schindler’s List.” I agree that the character Oskar Schindler
represents ideas that are consistent with Goldhagen’s argument that
individuals choose to commit eliminationist assaults and that
individuals like Schindler can act to stop them. The movie and the
character’s actions illustrate that institutions like the United
Nation could not have done what Schindler did and that those who are
inside the organization or those who have access to the perpetrators
could do something to stop or prevent terrorism and eliminationist
assaults. It indirectly supports Goldhagen’s suggestion that those who
kill eliminationist leaders should be rewarded and the international
community should encourage those individual initiatives and actions.

[patrick d]

A simple Disney children's movie just shows how cruel our world is.
Although not reiterated in the minds of the youth, such incidents can
be remembered even by innocent children. Unlike a computer's file that
can be deleted whenever we want to, the reality is man have a tendency
to remember. Would these inputs that the society gives, be brought
back in the future? Maybe. That is why the cycle of war comes up all
the time. We must be cautious, as responsible individuals, for the
sake of the future.