Reaction to Reelection

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57548572/states-petition-to-secede-from-union/

I found this article interesting because the petitioners argue that Obama is encroaching on American Ideals, referring to the Declaration of Independence which states "that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it." The article is about states that are officially petitioning to withdraw from the Union. While I doubt these states actually expect to secede, it is a symbolic gesture. I feel as though this represents American Exceptionalism in that these petitioners have pride in the American way and feel as though Obama is going to take that from them. Obama has always stood for change, and the fact that these Republicans referenced the Declaration of Independence makes me believe that the protesters have pride in the older idea of what it means to be American. With an African American president, it is clear that these long standing standards are shifting.

National Novel Writing Month

Every November, writers around the world gather around their laptops and notebooks to attempt to write 50,000 words of their own novel in one month. This idea sounds ludicrous to many, but for many others it is a challenge bravely accepted.  People take different paths at the end of the month than they thought they would at the beginning of the month. Stories become something different, something unexpected - but something to be proud of. Some succeed, some fail, some don't try, and all learn. This personal competition shares similar traits with the attempt to attain the American Dream, success in American in one's personal life. The American Dream is a different concept for everyone, as we've seen in class when asked to draw or write down what the American Dream means. The answers vary widely, and not many people have the exact same idea of the American Dream. Some people dn't try to attain the American Dream, but continue on with their lives unaffected. Some people attain their goals. Some people leave with a brand new goal in life. Some people end up with different goals or results than they had or expected when they started. And each success means something different to someone else.

www.nanowrimo.org

American Exceptionalism

This scene from the HBO series "The Newsroom" critiques the notion that American is the greatest country in the world, but then also plays into that idea of American exceptionalism, saying that America can once again become the greatest country in the world.

It begins with Will McAvoy reciting the answers of the other two characters, which are typical answers before being pushed to the point where he gives his real answer. He then begins a rant pointing out the many shortcomings of America. Something to notice is that in this rant the audience is shocked that he is saying all of this. 

But when McAvoy starts to speak about America used to be the best, he starts to play into this ideology. He talks about standing up for things that were right and fighting for moral reasons, yet as we've seen in our class, our history doesn't necessarily show this our history. How is displaying "savages" right or moral? Were the wars we fought out of moral ideals? This ending half of the video very simply shows the idea of exceptionalism stating that American was the greatest, and can once again become the greatest.




 

Sacramento's McKinley Park, an estimated $690,000 rebuilding cost

According to the Sacramento Bee newspaper on 11/12/2012, the city council received an estimate of almost $690,000 to rebuild downtown Sacramento's McKinley Park after an arson fire incinerated the playground. The money used will not only be used to rebuild the one-third of the playground's burned wood, but also to rebuild the remaining two-thirds as the wood's durability over years of erosion is near its end and may be a danger to the public using the park.

It could possibly be that public parks are symbols of the American Dream as a past time for families and friends to gather to enjoy themselves. Even though other past times like the Dodgers baseball game are far more noticeable, on a local level, parks on the other hand can, to an extent, portray that for an average family having these small past times are part of American family values; in fact, the people of the city may feel responsible to build these recreational parks as way to protect those values.

What does everyone think?
The article can be found here:
Repairing McKinley Park, Sacramento Bee

Bootstraps, Whitman, and More!

     I know it’s post-election and some of us may be more than relieved that we do not have to sit through political advertisements and such.  Besides, all this political stuff really makes me feel bad for those who are being attacked…the system makes then seem like monsters! But what else tells us more about what appeals to our country then people trying to persuade us to vote for them?  A while back, I came across this video that debunked Paul Ryan .

This is the link if you would like to see:  http://youtu.be/hrmpHWVECpo

     This clip begs the question why Ryan (and both presidential candidates) mold their speech to include the national ideas of individualism, “self-made-ism” (couldn't think of the noun form of self-made), and the adage of “pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps.” These ideas supposedly connect everyone together belonging to the group of America. It is what attracts people. After all, Whitman told us that everyone working hard to be individuals is what America sounds like. Moreover, it seems like every political system has it myths—the soviet union has Alexey Stakhanov and the Unites states has Richard Hunter just to name two.

     The vice-president nominee casts himself as another Horactio Alger character.  Essentially what the video entails is Ryan’s speech of how he was placed in a sink or swim position after his father’s death and how he swam because he worked incredibly hard. The topic of debate is that Ryan gives very little credit to the other assets that served as his floaties. He claims to success besides the odds solely because of his achievements. This is perfectly appropriate because Ryan still has the binary option to fail in school. But the point is that it is harder for Ryan to fail with the opportunities that are presented to him.

     This is another prime example of where the ideology of a self-made man miscarries. The ideology excludes the benefits of being a certain race, of being born in a certain family, and that obstacles become relative based on the individual— that is, the self-made man is lore because it paints a mural of homogeneous success, that everyone can be successful if they pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.  

     The underlying assumption here is that though the self-made man is now thought of as a myth, it must still exist if our political and social figures still mold their speeches to include these founding ideas, and ultimately, as the speaker believes, persuade us. Ryan’s speech is not the first time a political candidate or social figure has undermined the act of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps,” from America’s first poet to Ben Franklin.

     Walt Whitman’s poem “I hear America Singing” connotes that hard work and individual achievements have become what America sounds like. Hard work is what joined every American at the time of its founding. Analogous to the original poem which did not include the slaves or minorities, the myth of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and achieving success fails to recognize the hardships that come with being superior on the chain of opportunities. Politicians (normal people like this too) revel in telling stories of their individual achievements coupled with how they dealt with hardships in a masculine way; as a result, their selective vision  often fail to accredit social networks, government aid, name, pre-established credibility given by their surname, etc. But we don’t see this as arrogant, we see it as American. To see Ryan and the other politians using the rhetoric of the self-made man, individualism, and overcoming hardship through shear hardship shows that these core ideas that we debunk as myths still exist in a palpable form. Though children, too, love the feeling of doing adult tasks all by themselves, perhaps our intertwined and developed society makes it harder to become a “self-made man” on our own and it is harmful to an intertwined society for individuals to revel in their own individual achievements. 

( ....This ended up being longer then planned D= Sorry!!!  )

Sly Fox - Political expression

Sly Fox is a hip-hop song by the fairly well known artist Nas.  The song expresses his distrust of of the conservative news source Fox as well as the Fox network in general.  Throughout the song Nas makes some very strong claims about the network, stating that their goal is to control the US populous' view solely through the use of lies and deception.  Today, harsh and negative political expression is much more commonly found in music and other cultural artifacts than it has been previously.  Political expression is currently very much about attacking the other end of the political spectrum through exaggeration and manipulation (from booth sides).  Essentially this song explains how Fox is manipulating people's views and that it is wrong to do so while the song itself is also manipulating people's views with exaggeration.

Check out the song if you'd like to.  Although Nas isn't one of my favorite artists he's still quite good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNCJB1G15JQ [Warning: Explicit]

Wreck-It Women

The movie Wreck-It Ralph, released by Disney on November 2nd, depicts a the world of video games. One of the games, called Sugar Rush, is a racing game with all female drivers, except for their leader, King Candy, who is a male. This is an example of the ideological gender roles enforced by Disney (that women are subservient and men are dominant.) Interestingly, by the end of the film, it is revealed that a woman was supposed to be the queen of the game, but King Candy forced himself into Sugar Rush. This twist on gender stereotypes reflects a change in the views of the American audience and the film industry that tries to pander to them.