The Meta Post to End Them All

Fourth quarter was an interesting one for me. I must admit my blogging took a hit from Junior Theme. Howver, I feel like I got to try out a lot of new stuff. Take for instance my blog on Osama's death. While it's far from perfect I think this post was the most personal for me. I wrote it the night that Osama died  right after I heard of his assassination. Being able to write in such a way was really liberating. It felt like I was able to express myself in a more pure form. That's what I loved most about blogging, a blog post can take any number of shapes and forms. This post definitely allowed me to exercise some of that freedom that blogging has afforded me as a writing style.

Please Assess: http://trefies.blogspot.com/2011/05/heroes-villains-and-patriots-or-why-i.html

Heroes, Villains, and Patriots, or Why I Loved Osama, or Junior Theme: The Epilogue

The last two weeks have seen both a radical change in the identity of a superhero and the death of a super-villain. First came the shocking news that Action Comics no. 900, released on the April 27, would feature Superman, America's first superhero, renouncing his American citizenship (Superman Renounces His U.S. Citizenship). I recently completed my junior theme in which I borrowed Superman's motto: "Truth, justice, and the American Way" in my title. Superman defends his monumental shift in thinking by saying he is "tired of having my actions construed as instruments of US policy" and that the world is " too small. Too connected" to only fight for America. Reading this for the first time it caused me to wonder about the state of patriotism in the US. Is Superman's split from America somehow indicative of a shift in identity for Americans in general? Are we identifying less with the "American Way" and more with more global ideas like "truth" and "justice"?

Then yesterday a man long thought to be at the forefront of one of the greatest threats to the United States was killed. Osama bin Laden wasn't just shot anywhere: his Abottabad mansion complete with its electric fences and bared wires and hostage-taking henchmen was a classic super-villain lair. And while the flag-waving, and USA chants that ensued were viewed by many as earnest--if misplaced--displays of patriotism. For me these impromptu celebrations symbolized a last hooray of sorts; one last nostalgic attempt to recreate the "United We Stand" revelry that paradoxically sprung from Osama's worst crime. The feelings of indignant rage before our fight against terror became about oil and nonexistent weapons.

In many ways the almost ten years that have passed since 9/11 can be summed up in Superman's founding principles. We as US citizens learned the harrowing truth that there are people hell-bent on and plenty capable of attacking Americans on our own soil. We sought justice, in one fashion or another, for the blow we were dealt that day, across the deserts of the Middle East. And from it I get the sense that we redefined the "American Way".
Osama bin Laden has always been an almost mythical character in my eyes. Evil, manipulative, charismatic, capable of incredible escape; he was the perfect villain. In many ways he could be regarded as our generation's Hitler. Despite all this, his death has inspired, among other feelings, a reluctant sadness in me. It's a feeling of purposeless that brings to mind the question: who are we fighting now? The hero ceases to be a hero when there is no villain to thwart. I can't help but think that Osama's final moments in a wealthy Islamabad suburb were also part of the death of something greater. It's a special kind of patriotism that comes from fighting a war, not one against greedy imperialists or power-hungry dictators, but against the idea of terror itself. Its an ideological fortitude, a galvanizing of American values that I doubt I will ever see again during my lifetime. These days little is said about unity or the defense of our ideals, Americans seem more interested in domestic issues. America's heroes now are the ones who seek to change America from within instead of protecting it from without. With the death of Osama America's superheroes may have lost their last great supervillain for now, as Superman puts it in his latest comic, "Truth, justice, and the American Way--it's not enough anymore". Perhaps it was naive to expect such a superficial, over-simplified Us vs. Them philosophy to last any longer than it did. But as patriotism in the US gets a new identity I'll try to remember the American Way we've known for the last 10 years, where it seemed like those three things were all we needed.

If It Ain't Got that Swing

Recently I've found a vital reprieve from the ocean of academic pressure flowing from junior theme, the ACTs, and most of all the formidable PSAE  (how am I supposed to know how many people are in the picture, do I look like a wedding photographer to you?). My lifeboat came in the form of HBO's Treme. The drama, which airs on Sundays, is starting its second season. Treme follows the lives of New Orleanians trying to reconstruct their lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The show has a particular interest in jazz, which is to be expected given its almost synonymous association with New Orleans. During a symposium at Tulane University one of the shows creators, David Simon, identified New Orleans' jazz infused culture as, "one of the things that has led New Orleans back, to the extent it has come back". I found this quote especially interesting considering the setting of our latest book, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The novel is set in the 1920s otherwise known as the Jazz Age. And as Fitzgerald makes evident it was a time of unprecedented prosperity and promise. While I won't go so far as to prescribe jazz as the remedy for all societal hardships, I think the two examples give an interesting account of how culture is tied to economic growth. In the case of the Roaring 20s jazz helped defined a nation swiftly becoming a economic, and cultural, superpower, while the late 2000s jazz helped revive the South's great city. It seems that jazz embodies that clique of the Crescent City, Laissez les bon temps rouler.

Selling Radicalism

The CLA's flier is an orgy of American symbolism.

With the basketball season finally coming to an end and the copious amounts of free-time that has afforded me I had the pleasure to indulge myself in one of my favorite of New Trier's extra-curricular offerings, Out-of-the-Box Club. This Thursday's speaker was a representative from a local chapter of the John Birch Society (jbs.org). In a nutshell the JBS is an extra-Conservative, libertarian national organization founded on a near religious devotion to the Constitution and the protection of our constitutional republic against the threat of Communism wherever (if anywhere) it exists. While the representative that plenty of interesting things to say (including some not-so-PC comments about the Civil Rights Movement), what struck me most was the flier he handed out. It was basically an advertisement for the Campus Liberty Alliance (campuslibertyalliance.com), which is the youth branch of the JBS national network. Absent from the flier was the McCarthy-esque fear-mongering and fiery opposition to all things un-American, and in its place was a milder call to action which would seem to appeal to any American. Here's the mission statement printed on the flier:

The mission of Campus Liberty Alliance is to educate our country’s future young leaders on faith, family, free enterprise and a free society, and to activate, equip and send them into the marketplace of ideas to recapture and proclaim the virtues of liberty.

 I found this interesting in light of our class's focus on conscious construction. It seems to me that the JBS is using this flier as bait to draw in new recruits. It appeals to the sense of patriotism that are almost naturally installed in us as Americans without the hinting at the sharper, more radical thinking the society promotes. In fact the flier shows great empathy for its readers. Perhaps its this kind of advertising that has kept the society's membership steady for the past 50 years.

The Ultimate Token?

Towards the end of the TV Tokenism presentation Mr. Bolos raised the intriguing point that in some regards Barack Obama could be viewed as a different kind of token. I think this argument definitely has some validity. When I think about the presidency of Barack Obama I think about a lack of action. Obama offered his ability to compromise as one of his most valuable characteristics during the 2008 campaign and he has shown this to true beyond perhaps even his own knowledge. Obama has seemed unable to satisfy the Democrats or Republicans, the Liberals or Conservatives, and seemingly the entire public, from the poverty stricken to the wealthy elite. Obama compromising role has meant that he hasn't had the kind of dramatic effect on the direction of our country that his campaign of hope and change promised. In this way Obama has been made a token. He is a black man put in an authority position on to have the main story and the main events be lead by his fairer skinned counterparts.

Football and the New Reconstruction

The Super Bowl, as has been said time and time again, is more than just a game in American culture. But last week's game, the forty-fifth in NFL history, may have held more significance for the country than the usual demonstration of American capitalist competition. The mascots of the two teams, the Packers and the Steelers, were named, around the turn of century, after prevalent blue-collar industries in the cities in which they play, Green Bay and Pittsburgh, respectively. As the orgy of ads offering various services surrounding the Super Bowl indicates, the economy of the nation has undergone significant change since the inception of these football teams. While Green Bay and Pittsburgh still are leading producers in their industries in the US, manufacturing as a whole has fallen from its role as the driving force behind the American economy. You could even go as far as to say that America's transition from a manufacturing to a service based economy represents a modern-day Reconstruction. And if the recent financial downturn is any indicator, the new, like the old, Reconstruction hasn't been a complete success. Does the government have the same responsibility to integrate lower-class workers (those who traditional filled manufacturing jobs) into a more modern economy? Will the new Reconstruction be seen as a time of increasing civil rights like the last? And perhaps the most important, will we see our sports teams change with the economy, could the future hold team names like the Green Bay IT Technicans or the Pittsburgh Hedge Fund Managers? One can only wonder.

Stephen Hawking and Brick Houses

In our final exam paper a lot of people, myself included, examined the nature of truth. In my paper I argued that absolute truth (or as Doc OC branded it "big-T Truth") doesn't exist and discussed the impact that had on the motivations and interactions of humans. In agreement is Alva Noë, professor of philosophy at Cal Berkeley, and one of the authors of the blog, 13.7. In his latest post, A Little Philosophy is a Dangerous Thing, Noë criticizes Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow's conclusion that thew belief that perception of reality is subjective and unique to each individual is a, "naive view of reality". Noë makes a persuasive counter-argument, I especially like this example he gives:

I can find out whether there are brick houses on Elm Street by looking. In a different context, I can test whether my eyes are working by checking whether I see the brick houses. We don't have any grip on the idea of what we can see (or measure, or detect) apart from our prior understanding of what there is.

 But I'd like to here from the other side as well. What seems more plausible to you, Noë's assertion of subjective reality or Hawkings' and Mlodinow's that consclusion that all humans are born with "the conscious and subconscious mental models we all create in order to interpret and understand the everyday world"?

Wordle

Inspired by our class's analysis of the State of the Union using a word 
cloud and the reflective nature of my most recent post I decided to 
create a Wordle using the text from my blog. The result can be seen 
here:http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3047682/One%2C_Out_of_Many_Blog.
 The Wordle reveals several things to me about my blog. First, some of 
my most used words (question, information, opinion, and story) can be 
grouped into a Communications category. Perhaps this sheds light on how I
 view my blog. My blog has analyzed the way people communicate and has 
also become part of the ongoing human interaction (by sharing opinions, 
stories, information, and questions). Secondly, the Wordle shows the 
historical events which I chose to focus on. 9/11 and slavery stick out 
the most. Besides the fact that we discussed these historical events and
 eras in class, what drove me to comment on them in my blog? It is 
possible that these two key parts of American history have the strongest
 reverberation in my daily life. Remnants of slavery can be seen in 
racial interactions today and the wars and mindsets of Americans are 
reminders of the attacks.Lastly, the Wordle shows that not only what is 
examined but how it is done so. Among the most used words are right, 
wrong, and moral. It's clear that what concerns me most about the 
American society is its ethics. Now what remains to be seen is whether, 
like the speeches of the United States presidents, my blog will undergo a
 shifting of paradigm over the course of time.

Return of the Meta-Post

Another quarter has flown by and its time again to take a look back at the posts of second quarter. The One, Out of Many blog has undergone a few subtle changes during the winter season. Most notably a shift in opinion has occurred on the blog. While much of my first quarter was spent stating my own thoughts and ideas, during second quarter I leaned more on my audience. The blogs after my first meta-post saw the rise of the question (How does history get edited over time?, When will we run out of time?, Should the government have the right to raise the income tax during wartime?, While his talent is incredible, wouldn't it seem more just, and potentially wiser, to higher an unemployed person with some talent over an ex-con with a lot of talent?) and it seems my more reader-empathetic style has proved successful garnering a whooping 5 comments for the quarter and more importantly leaving only one post un-commented. The reason behind the changes are two-fold, one good and one bad. For the good, they reflect a concerted effort on my part to make my posts more inviting to readers expressed in my last meta-post. And on the bad side, they are partly due to lack of passion or concrete opinion on some of the topics I wrote about. This struggle to find synthesis between posts which are opinionated and passionate, and posts which attract comments has separated itself as the definitive challenge in writing my blog. And so the quest for my perfect post continues.
Please assess: Honest Abe?

Second Chances

No doubt a lot of you who are reading this are familiar with the story of Ted Williams. The homeless man turned professional voice-over artist became a Internet sensation recently. Williams's example demonstrates the power with which the redemptive arc continues to hold the American mind. William started with a promising career in voice-over work which was then wiped away by drug and alcohol abuse leading to the rock bottom of homelessness only to overcome his demons and begin a meteoric rise to new heights. It's certain that its this kind of story, and the American fascination with it, that has accounted for Williams's redemption. However, has our eagerness to accept Williams as a redemption story diminished the wrong he did in his past? When you consider that Williams left 9 children fatherless because of his addiction and was arrested multiple times, you have to wonder does he deserve the sudden celebrity more than someone else? The second chance is as integral to the American identity as apple pie and football, but it seems to me that Williams has been given two chances before others would get one. While his talent is incredible, wouldn't it seem more just, and potentially wiser, to higher an unemployed person with some talent over an ex-con with a lot of talent?