Final - Men Against Fire

Shanie Liao

Rosetta Brooks

Critical Practice 1

April 6, 2017

Monster or Human

Who and what decides right from wrong?  What determines the value of a human life?  Can inhumanity and cruelty be justified in the name of a better world? With the majority of the country living peaceful lives, seeing concepts of twisted morals and realities can come as a shock and raise questions. The Black Mirror episode Men Against Fire presents us with a tale that questions the morals of society and the military in a near future scenario. The plot of the episode shows that while the MASS technology is extremely effective, it sends the soldiers into a world of “ignorance is bliss” which rewrites the soldiers’ perception of reality to help them carry out what would be considered inhumane orders. It’s a thought-provoking parable about the military’s role in genocide and the difficulty of maintaining humanistic empathy in the face of dehumanizing technology.

Does the concept of a greater good justify genocide? Men Against Fire reveals a shocking truth of what the supposedly hostile and grotesque creatures called roaches really were: humans that were genetically more susceptible to disease and birth defects. The soldiers were sent on missions to eliminate the supposedly malicious roaches that were causing trouble in local villages. However, we see that to the soldiers, killing roaches was treated more as a sport; furthermore, they were rewarded with pleasing erotic dreams for “popping” roaches. The soldiers have a MASS technology installed in them that warps their perception of reality to view the roaches as hideous humanoid creatures, which as a result allows them to see and kill the roaches as monsters rather than humans. The main character Stripe follows the same mindset of roach hunting, until his MASS technology gets hijacked and he is able to see the roaches true form. He tries to protect them when he finally realizes, but is unable to save the roaches that began explaining the reason for their ordered annihilation. In the end, he is forced to make the choice of returning to the field with his memories wiped and his MASS fixed, or to live with replays of him murdering roaches without MASS and forced to see the faces and screams of those whom he killed. As much as his personal morals wanted to fight against the system and slaughter of roaches, the reality of the situation broke his mind and spirit and he couldn’t face what he had done.

Mass murder, genocide, segregation, and so many other violations of human rights occur in the real world.  These problems are not simply dystopian thought experiments.  The director of Black Mirror doesn't implicate these themes into the show without reason; these issues are, and for a very long time have been, most definitely real.  Throughout history, examples such as the Holocaust, the Holodomor, the Dzungar Massacre, the Haiti Massacre, Native Americans and the Europeans, the Japanese Internment Camps, and even the Bible prove the existence of such gruesome concepts. Simply for being a certain race or having a certain genetic makeup, groups of people have been condemned, mistreated, stripped of their rights, and often slaughtered. As immoral and unfair as these actions sound, such similar hate crimes have continued to be seen in our current day world. None of these mass discriminatory events would have been successful if the leaders didn’t have enough people following the same belief, indicating that something about alienating a whole group of people was appealing. It’s easy to put the blame on a group of people and follow along the belief that eradicating them would bring a better or safer world. In the case of Men Against Fire, the roaches were dehumanized and killed off in the name of a better future for the human race, simply for their genetic makeup rather than any action they have done individually or as a group. When Stripe is finally able to see the roaches as what they are and communicate with them, his views flip 180 as he tries to defend them and refuses to kill them. He is unable to see the cruelty of the genocide until his eyes are opened to the fact that roaches are in fact not mutated monsters trying to survive, but rather genetically discriminated humans who have been forsaken by the government. For Stripe, the killing of roaches was not twisted until he was forced to see them as humans, but for people like those in the government, they knew the truth and yet believed that getting rid of roaches was for a greater good. While scientifically it was arguably true, they did not share the just and humane morals that caused Stripe to fight back. As with previously stated historical genocides, the belief of a group of people better off gone can overpower morals and human rights in a twist of cruel discrimination.

One of humans’ most defining traits are their various distinct emotions.  Revenge is undoubtedly a heavily impactful emotion.  Revenge and hatred demonstrate humans’ capability to inflict grievous wounds and massive destruction on the rest of humankind.  After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a large number of Americans supported the creation of Japanese Internment camps.  Why?  Because the “dirty japs” bombed them and killed their fathers, uncles, and sons that were deployed at Pearl Harbor.  Does emotional trauma justify condemning an entire race?  Well, no.  In the same way that it's inappropriate for a child to throw a tantrum when they don't receive what they want, or that a rape victim is not at fault for getting raped, there is no excuse for hurting other people.  Even when mom will not buy you that toy, or when she rejects the drink offer for the fifth time, there is no logical reasoning behind hurting the person that contests you. Regardless of the strong emotions that may affect morals and thoughts, it doesn’t justify the discrimination and harm inflicted upon other people.

The Black Mirror episode Men Against Fire is a display of cruel mass genocide against a group of people who are outcast due to their genetic makeup. While the government attempts to explain the killings as a cause in the name of a healthier human genome, there is no reason, selfish or emotional, that can justify the discrimination and cruelty against a group of people for what they’re born as. Unfortunately, these problems are still prevalent in today’s society. A vast amount of people are fortunate enough to only have heard stories of mass genocide. For the others who directly witness or experience such cruelties, life is never the same for them.  However, as a society we must encourage each other to think about the other side; each has its own perspective and opinion, but we can’t let strong opinions directly and negatively affect groups of people.

Blade Runner Assignment

The 1982 Blade Runner heavily emphasizes both the similarity and difference between humans and machine. Before the movie begins, there is a text explaining the history of the Replicants, which were used for dangerous tasks and slave labor. When they rebelled and were labelled kill on sight, it was described as “retirement” rather than execution, hinting that their only purpose is to serve humans, and now that they rebelled they no longer have a purpose or job. As the movie starts we see a Replicant, which looks exactly like a normal human adult, undergoing a test with a nervous, agitated look. We learn Replicants were designed to copy humans in every way except emotions, but were expected to develop their own emotions over time, thus their 4 year lifespan to keep them chained. There are experiments like Rachel in which the Replicant doesn’t realize that they’re a machine and think they’re human. Tyrell describes the concept of implementing memories into Replicants to manipulate them. When she does find out she is a replicant and her “memories” are those of Tyrell’s niece, she starts tearing up, proof of her emotions and attachment to humanity. Replicants are also shown to either have stronger bodies or lack a sense of pain, shown when two rebels interrogate a scientist in a cold laboratory.

The whole concept of Replicants seemed sort of odd; the scientists used them for dangerous/unpleasant tasks and slave labor, so why design them to look exactly like humans? Especially when they had fears of Replicants gaining emotions and thus cutting their lifespan to 4 years. The inability to physically and visually discern human from replicant causes the need for replicant tests to determine if they’re human or replicant, but the whole system would be so much easier if they just added one defining difference such as eye color or hair color between humans and replicants.

We see the rebel replicants wanting to live longer, like other humans. They also express emotions like love and sorrow, or at least can fake them like when Pris first met Sebastian. In a disturbing scene Deckard had to force emotions out of Rachel by physically forcing her to kiss him to make her realize love. He treats her like a human, saying he wouldn’t kill her because she saved his life, instead of acting like that was normal or replicants were below humans and supposed to serve them. The terrifying concept of replicants looking exactly human yet treated as slaves and a separate species causes a lot of questioning of morals: how could the humans really look at replicants and send them to their deaths and treat them like objects? Give them a brain and heart, a designed mind, and have them suffer and live in fear?

Pris spent her last moments like a doll. Disguising herself as a toy in Sebastian’s home when Deckard enters, she attempts to kill him but is shot to death, twitching and seizing and screaming on the ground like a cursed, broken doll before she’s gone, a creepy death that didn’t seem human.

Roy, while seeming the most unemotional of the rebels, shows fervor in searching for a way to extend his life, shows sorrow at the loss of his comrades, and shows love and grief for Pris. When he starts confronting Deckard, he beings to turn animalistic; he tears off all his clothes and chases Deckard in his underwear, howls and hunches over like a feral wolf, and plays with his food, like some sort of predator. The hunt portrays him as becoming neither human nor machine, but a creature.

While teasing Deckard he says “Go to heaven or go to hell,” which interesting enough, we see Deckard running upwards the entire chase. Through the ceiling, out the window, and onto the roof.

Both Leon and Roy taunt Deckard about living in fear, to which Roy adds “That’s what it means to be a slave.” We always knew that Replicants were treated as tools, but we finally see one personally open up and open Deckard’s eyes. Yes, the rebels that almost killed Deckard made him fear for his life, but they spent their entire lives fearing for theirs. About to fall to his death like some lion king scene, Deckard is saved at the last moment by Roy who lifts him back onto the roof and just chats with him, describing some of the things he’s seen in his life. Becoming sad, Roy quotes like a poet “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.” His motive for wanting to live longer is finally hinted at: obviously he wants to live longer because there are probably things he still wants to do and experience, or maybe he wants to be more equal and human, but we see here that he is afraid of dying, of all the memories and moments he’s experienced to disappear with him to be forgotten. A famous quote by Mark Twain goes “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who fully lives is prepared to die at any time.” Roy lived in fear, had a limited 4 year lifespan, and feared death.  However, despite his ambition in extending his life to even go and kill his creator and father, he finally accepts his death peacefully and quietly, which Deckard watching wordlessly. The white dove he had trapped in his grasp finally escapes and flies off, a symbol of peace and love.

At the end, officer Gaff arrives and mentions to Deckard “It’s a shame she won’t live, but then again, who does?” Immediately we know he is referring to Rachel, and the fact that her lifespan is limited. He eludes to the fact that everybody dies at one point, some just sooner than others. We find out that Gaff had entered Deckard’s apartment while he was gone and left a little origami unicorn, referencing a weird vision Deckard had previously, behind, but chose not to kill Rachel despite her retirement order after she ran away when she found out she wasn’t human. Either it was Deckard’s reward for taking down the rebels, or maybe Gaff had a bit of sympathy in him. Or maybe, seeing his odd eyes and awkward limp, Gaff wasn’t completely human either? Or even worse, maybe Deckard was the replicant all along? Rachel asks if he ever took the replicant test himself but he fell asleep so we never got an answer. And how could Gaff had known about the unicorn? Unless, like how Deckard knew Rachel’s implanted memories, Gaff knew about Deckard’s. And letting both of them live together was an act of sympathy and kindness from someone who was assigned to watch Deckard closely from the beginning.

The concept of humans and machines become similar and indiscernible is a growing concern in today's society. Humans have created machines and androids that can think and act for themselves, and with a bit of dressing up can be made to look eerily human. Humans depend on technology for everyday life, but is it possible we will get to the point in the movie where we recreate sub-humans to serve our purposes?

Black Mirror Assignment

Playtest is a 50 minute episode in the series Black Mirror narrating the journey of a man named Cooper who finds himself beta testing a game that distorts and adds layers of reality to his own. In the beginning we see him running away from home, and a short scene on the plane in which he is asked to turn off his electronic devices to avoid interference with the plane. On his trip around the world, he never picks up phone calls from his mom, who we later find out he abandoned by herself without a goodbye after his father died. For him, he was afraid and didn’t know how to interact with her so he ran, but he seemed to have never thought about her, who lost her husband and then her son and she calls everyday but he never picks up. Sonja tells him to call his mom, but even when his credit card was hacked, he called Sonja instead of his mom because he was afraid. The job he picks up from SaitoGemu revolves implanting a small device on the back of his neck which allows them to enter him into a new layer of reality which he can see things that they cannot. Before they started the medical procedure, Katie had turned off Cooper’s phone, but he turned it back on to take a picture for Sonja while Katie was gone.  As they started the download of the game reality, a phone call from Cooper’s mom comes through his phone. After the test demo, Katie invites Cooper to meet Shou and test the full game in a model of a haunted house, to which he starts seeing and hearing visual hallucinations which is part of the test game. Then, suddenly Katie’s voice on the earpiece malfunctions and Sonja appears at the door and while she insists he is in danger but he thinks she is a part of the game until he realizes he can physically touch her and feel her warmth. He still believes she is part of the game test as an actor until she turns around and stabs him and her face melts into a bloody skull, taunting him and saying he should’ve called his mom. Cooper kills her and the wound and knife disappear and Katie’s voice returns to which she said that she had been talking the entire time. When Cooper tries explaining that he felt Sonja and the knife wound and Katie said that wasn’t possible, we see the turn in the story where the game reality is becoming physical reality, which further warps when he is led by Katie’s voice to an “access point” and then taunted and observed to lose his mind as the supposed real SaitoGemu staff appear and try to stop the game but are unable to. Then it appears that the whole game experience was just a “dream” and it was only 1 second in which they started up the game program. They send him home to America with an apology, to which he finds his mom trying to call Cooper even though he is in front of her and she can’t recognize him. He screams out mom and suddenly the scene changes to him back at the first room after they first did the medical procedure and were downloading the test demo game. The interference of the phone signal from his mom’s phone call interrupted the medical procedure and killed Cooper.  

The whole time, we see that Cooper is rather dependent on his cell phone. The whole time his mother is calling him, and he takes photos on his trip, finds Sonja through a dating app, finds SaitoGemu’s job offer through a job app, and even during the game test he was unused to not having his phone. The SaitoGemu’s virtual reality game brought a new layer of reality and horror to the experience. However, in our current world today, the closest virtual reality we have are headsets, which are already pretty terrifying. However, we know for sure that nothing can physically harm us and when we take off the headset we are safe and the game isn’t real. In Cooper’s gaming experience however, he is still in the real world but with an added layer of reality that only he can see and hear. This messes with his sense of real and not real, starting from Sonja’s appearance to Katie’s voice to the game overwriting his memories. In the end, we find out it all never happened and Cooper died through interference of his mom’s phone call, which links back to the first plane scene and the rule of turning off electronic devices that might interfere with the plane during take off and landing, a rule Cooper disobeyed to take pictures of the medical tools for Sonja, who said in the beginning that calling back his mom would solve everything; but he never did and that cost him his life.

Matrix (in class) assignment

“Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.”

When we first hear about the Matrix, we don’t learn exactly what it is. With the limited references to it in the beginning of the movie, we begin to think it is some secret virtual world, as both Neo and Trinity are hackers. However, we learn from Morpheus that the Matrix is in fact the world we thought was reality; the one Neo was living as Mr. Anderson, living a normal 1999 life. With Neo unplugged and in the real world, Morpheus reveals to him the true reality; a world where machines grow and use humans like cattle or crops. As he stated, humans had always relied on machines to survive. And now, it is the opposite. Machines have taken over and are “growing” humans in tubes/pods for the sole purpose of energy, furthermore liquified to feed more humans for energy to survive. The irony is in that humans created machines to serve humans, but now humans are grown and used to feed machines.  Furthermore, while machines and AI are linked to digital and virtual worlds, in the reality machines live the real world and humans live in a dream world: the Matrix. The playful and calm tone in which Morpheus explains the twisted reality’s irony as if narrating a book or movie to Neo is contrary to the true atmosphere and feelings which both the characters and viewer experience towards the state of Earth in 2199.  

Though not directly related, the concept of the word “fate” itself has a huge meaning in the movie. The main character, Neo, doesn’t believe in fate. He hates the thought of not being in control of his own life, which Morpheus agrees with. However, Morpheus “unplugged” Neo because he believed in fate, in the role that Neo was born to play. Neo spends the whole movie being told and being believed to be “the chosen one”, much to his doubt. Morpheus fully believed in Neo, whilst the rest of his crew stood on the edge of wanting to believe. Trinity did her job as told, never stating fully her opinion. Tank was especially enthusiastic to Neo, expressing his excitement in the event that Neo was indeed the one. Cypher, the traitor, seemed envious and doubtful of Neo, possibly from his disdain for being unplugged and that Trinity showed more affection to Neo than to him. Mouse and Tank’s brother and Apoc never really expressed whether or not they believed that Neo was the one. Throughout his experience as a rebel, Neo went along with everything but still seemed hesitant on his supposed role that Morpheus was so sure of. When he is finally told by the Oracle, the person with supposedly the most authority or credibility, that he is in fact not the one, he throws himself back in danger to save Morpheus and comes back out alive because he started believing; by the end of the movie, he was, as fate has it, the one to save the world.

Monsters 2

The Standing Rock Indian Reservation is the 6th has the largest land area of any Native American reservation in the US, straddling the border between North and South Dakota. Its residents include the Hunkpapa Lakota, Sihasapa Lakota, and the Yanktonai Dakota.

Earlier in 2016, the Dakota Access Pipeline project began, a project that would extend 1,170 miles along oil fields and bodies of waters near the Standing Rock reservation and carry around 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day from North Dakota to Illinois. Such a project would’ve created many jobs and profit, but at the same time possibly threaten the region’s clean water and ancient burial grounds. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed suit against the project but were denied, leading to many protests and violence.  Sacred lands were bulldozed, protesters were attacked and arrested, and armed soldiers and police cleared encampments. In December, President Obama’s administration shut down the project, much to the joy and relief to many residents, protesters, and bystanders, but the victory was cut short when the new president Trump authorized the construction to proceed.

While the Dakota Access Pipeline is a series of events rather than a human, there are still monstrous traits to what happened during the protests and attempts to stop the construction. The fourth theses could be applied to the government and the Native Americans and their conflict. The pipeline would be beneficial to many people, but there it is also negatively affecting the local residents there. The government and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shove aside the worries and protests of the natives and push through with the project, disrespecting the people that live there. While a main reason may be the typical “sacrifices must be made for the greater good”, the lack of hesitation and consideration on the government’s part may be that they see the Native Americans as different, unimportant, and maybe even inferior. But the fact that the people, not just involved in the protest and construction, but also around the world through media, can see and witness the almost cruelty of the project, the way it lacks empathy for the people it affects, is rather different culturally and politically from what we would expect or hope to expect from our government.

The pipeline project also works as a threshold of some sort. Theses 5 delves into the concept of monsters patrolling a border, limiting mobility and warning people not to cross the line. The pipeline and protests serves as a warning for both sides; when the protesters try to stand against the government, they get attacked and arrested, a clear warning to stay out of the way. Violence from the government against protests has always been a terrible yet common happening in our history. The pipeline project is no different; in order to keep the reservation’s residents and other protesters in line, they use force where they feel necessary. However, the project serves as a second threshold as well; to see how far the government will go. News articles and videos have been popping up all over social media sites to keep the rest of the country up to date about the events of the pipeline project. Many have heard of and seen the tragedy and violence inflicted upon the protesters, and many are upset at the government’s actions. Obama’s administration halting the project was a huge victory and relief for many around the country, but had they ignored the pleas and culture and lives of the Standing Rock residents, no doubt that would have riled up the country to see their government disregard the people for profit, the native people no less. Faith in the government would’ve been lost, and people would’ve grown negative feelings towards it. Now that Trump’s administration has started up the construction again, it’s hard to say where the threshold lies, knowing Trump’s nature and his ridiculous policies and opinions.

Loosely following theses 7, the pipeline and protests affect our view of the world. No matter how many times it happens, it’s always shocking to see the government disregard the people for profit, to see them use force to take what they want, to taking away homes and hurting the people who try to protect their homes. The fact that the residents that they’re tossing aside for their own gains are Native Americans just make things worse considering the history of the country. While many people see the wrong and cruelty in this situation, there are some who think otherwise; who think that they’re doing the right thing and they don’t understand why protesters are getting in the way. Quoting Lt. Tom Iverson of the North Dakota State Highway Patrol, he said “Law enforcement does not want to be going in there and making arrests. That puts us in harm’s way. It puts others in harm’s way. But unfortunately, they put themselves in that position.”  From his comment, we can see that there are people like him who don’t see the other side of the situation. He seems to think that accepting the pipelines and evacuating is the natural thing to do, that the protesters who are trying to protect Standing Rock are being stupid by being in the way and that doing so gives the government no choice but to cut them down to get past. It’s worth noting that he puts the blame on the protesters for the incidents, that they chose to be there and that gives the police and military no choice but to hurt them. It seems like he doesn’t consider the project and the handling of protesters to be inhumane and heartless, just as many others can’t understand why the government or anyone would see this situation as okay.

The Dakota Access Pipeline project and the devastation of the protesters and Standing Rock residents are not a “monster” as in an entity, but the events overall reflect monstrous qualities and actions of an organization.

Monsters

J.J. Cohen’s article Monster Culture (Seven Theses) introduces seven theses about cultures and its monsters.

In his first theses, he describes methods of burying and dealing with vampire corpses, before going on to explain that monsters, or their bodies, embody fear and negative emotions. The “monstrous body is pure culture” he says, fantasies and mental constructs of humans that serves to symbolize something other than what it really is. Cohen connects the concept of monsters to human emotions and mental states rather than perceiving the monsters directly as just fictional beings.

The second theses confronts the supposed existence of said monsters, with the fact that the “monster always escapes”. In some cases, like the Tibetan yeti, the monster is never found despite the many claims of its existence and the destruction it leaves behind. In other cases, like the ogre of Mount Saint Michael that King Arthur kills, the monster always returns from death, in one form or another. There are also monsters like vampires, which come back every century slightly different depending on the current social or cultural events. Cohen’s theory revolves around monsters existing as fragments and leftover clues rather than the monster itself.

“The monster always escapes because it refuses easy categorization.” In the third theses, Cohen explains the existence of monsters as hybrid anomalies that are excluded from any set systematic structures. Monsters will appear in times of crisis just to disappear back to their secluded origins again, breaking the laws of nature by its very existence. Monsters are not meant to be able to be understood and fit into the categories of life, they’re a mixture thereof, opening up new viewpoints of life and how it works.

The fourth theses brings up an eye-opening fact that can be applied to our current day situations; the fact that monsters are monsters because they’re different; be it culturally, politically, racially, economically, sexually, or anything. In famous cases like the Bible or the French crusades celebration, groups of people are described as “monsters” to dehumanize them, villainize them, and justify wrongful acts against them. In America, Native Americans were coined savages to make colonization seem the right thing to do, and make colonists seem more fit and proper for owning the land. Time and time again, we see humans dehumanize and monsterize other humans for being different, a common factor being fear. They fear people who are different, who think differently, who are abnormal in their eyes, even if they aren’t harmful. Many minority groups are discriminated against and oppressed simply for existing. Furthermore, we have people titled as monsters to differentiate them from common people; for example, people like to call Adolf Hitler a monster, say that he wasn’t human, attempt to disconnect the man from anything related to them. But all they’re doing is denying that Hitler was human, that he was just like any other human, he could love and laugh and the things he did were what he thought were right. Monsters aren’t their own separate being; they’re made up of multiple already existing life forces, bits and pieces taken here and there to form an entity, leading to many stories of monsters trying to find out reasons for its existence.

The fifth theses explains how monsters are more than just a fear factor; oftentimes, they serve as a warning sign on the threshold to the unknown. Stories like Jurassic Park show how some lines aren’t meant to be crossed, and that curiosity brings demise. There are limits to any kind of subject that could bring curiosity; science, politics, society, history, anything that has a border that is risky to cross. Often times these borders are set for social trafficking, especially women. They could also be set to discourage certain social actions, such as incest or interracial marriage. Women in Salem were hanged for crossing social norms and attempting dependence, but were accused of sexual relations with the devil. Fear and corruption brings humans to try and destroy monsters and anything related to said monsters.

While monsters are usually set up to enforce and discourage “forbidden practices”, they can have the opposite effect as well. The knowledge of something that shouldn’t be done, and the yearning and envy of the freedom and status of a monster that represents such a thing can evoke desire, and forms of escapist fantasies. In some cases, the monster can serve as an alter ego, based off certain emotions, or represent a place of freedom and joy. At the end of the sixth theses Cohen asks the reader if monsters really exist, before dropping a thoughtful comment: “if they did not, how could we?”

The seventh and last theses are of how monsters affect us. Being figments of our imagination, with no solid proven facts but rather piled up facts that formed an entity, monsters make us think about how we perceive the world, make us reevaluate our views, they question their existence and why they were created; not just by their original author but by us, each individual human, who have constructed the monsters based off stories we read.

Assignment 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbQgXeY_zi4

In Caravan Palace’s music video Lone Digger, the viewer is started off with three identical dark blue cats dressed in dark blue and red jock jackets, light blue pants, and red sneakers walking towards a bar. They walk in unison on two legs like humans, hands in pockets. The small window of the door opens to reveal the lower face of a bull, presumably the bar bouncer. The middle cat licks his right paw, revealing animal tendencies despite being dressed and walking like humans, as the bull then opens up the door and lets them in. As the cats pass through the door, the last one through glances in slow motion at the bull who looks back, arms crossed and watching. Still in slow motion, the cat returns its gaze back to the front, reaching and pulling a comb out of his pocket as the bull closes the door behind them. The door’s neon symbol of the song’s album cover is reflected in one of the cat’s eyes as they draw near, before showing the three cats fixing themselves up before pushing the doors open. It opens up to a dark bar, dimly lit with neon lights. At the center, a gazelle dances in a caged cylinder, two alligators sitting right in front. The cats glance around, observing the various customers in the bar, all animals with human qualities. The cats start walking, the one in the front turns back and motions to the other two before jerking his head the dogs as the camera shifts to the middle doberman, who is looking at the approaching cats and puffs out an O-shaped ring of smoke in time with the music. The three cats leap into the seats of another round table and proceed to glower at the three doberman in the table right across. The obvious cat versus dog stereotype is shown here, but we aren’t given any more context to whether or not the two sides have deeper grudges, as it seems like the cats came into the bar looking for the dogs. The middle dog with the cigar narrows his eyes at the cats, but his two companions are occupied with the drinks. The zebra waitress servers the cats their drinks which can be assumed to be milk. The cats start downing shot glasses of milks, closely watched by the dogs. When the cats have finished their bottle, the dogs call for a waitress but trip her as she walks by, causing her to drop the tray and spill milk all over the three cats. Angered, the middle cat stands up and flips the table over, an obvious show of aggression. As the zebra picks herself off the floor, she is confronted with one of the snakes which has approached and assumed a striking pose, a display of predator versus prey. The snake is shown to be unable to restrain its predatory instincts when it sees a potential prey fallen on the ground, showing a lack of animal instinct restraint despite being dressed like humans. The cats and dogs walk up and stare eachother down as the bull starts dragging the snake away, but the cat flicks out its nails and slashes the dog across the neck, causing a bloody fight between the cats and dogs, with the bull and snake on the side. This causes blood to splatter over all the customers and the bar, as well as the gazelle who seems to be oblivious as she keeps dancing. After a bit more dancing, the gazelle slows down and turns around, finally realizing the blood everywhere and the bodies of all the customers sprawled on the ground, and the camera blacks out to end. This video seems to be a show of animalistic instincts and irony, as although the characters are all walking and dressed like humans in human environments, they still act like animals, shown by the cat that licked its paws. The cats and dogs still have the stereotypical feud, and the snake couldn’t contain her predatory instincts upon seeing the fallen zebra. The bloody scene can be taken as a pun or irony, as they can be considered to be animals despite their human characteristics as the fight breaks out, but similarly humans will commence in violent fights, and can be called “animals”. So this video about animals dressed like humans makes on think about humans that act like animals.

Assignment 2

In this image, we see two figures standing at the start of a race track, with the end goal visible. The figure on the left is a white male, dressed nicely and formally. From his haircut, it can be assumed that he’s more middle-aged or older, with his graying hair and bald spot. His blue suit almost looks like that of a politicians, but it could also just be any regular suit. The figure on the left is a possibly younger woman of color dressed in actual sports attire for the race, her hair tied up and wearing a pink tank top, blue track shorts, and purple sneakers. The difference in their tracks are that the male’s consists of two simple hurdles, whereas the woman’s contains 5 life-threatening obstacles, including land mines, barbed wire, an alligator or crocodile, a brick wall, and a wall of blades. Furthermore, there is a ball and chain attached to her right ankle, which would obviously impede on her movement and not only slow her down but make her track even harder to clear. The male wears a smug look of confidence on his face and a rather relaxed sprinter start pose, while the woman looks displeased but ready to put up a fight, body already posed to start running. Above the image sits the text “Quit whining. It’s the same distance.”

This image of a white male and a minority racing to reach the same goal yet with such different race tracks depict the both racial and gender inequality in our country. Despite their race course being the same distance, one has an easy path whilst the other has to struggle considerably to make any distance, let alone finish the race. Furthermore, the man is dressed formally and nicely, showing the lack of need for him to dress athletically and work too hard to reach the goal line. On the other hand, the woman is dressed in full sports clothing, ready to brave the course, with even an iron ball attached to one of her legs, the difference in effort and hard work shown. The text is obviously spoken by the man, with his mouth slightly open and a mocking look on his face. It shows the lack of insight and understanding of men, white men especially, of the struggles and difficulties that women and people of color have to go through to achieve and obtain the same things. Many lack the awareness or maybe even choose to ignore the privilege they grow up with and the discrimination minorities struggle with. The woman has no reply to the text, choosing to glare at the man instead. This could just be an artistic choice to leave this image as one moment in time, but it could also represent the silence of women under oppression. For so long, women have been forced into silence and lacking proper equal rights. This cartoon image is a both political and social message about inequality in our society today.

Assignment 1

Rather than depending on adaptation and evolution, humans are a species that push for progress and advancement. Kurt Anderson argues in his 2011 article You Say You Want a Devolution that studying our recent history in 20 year increments shows a cycle of progress in both culture and technology, a cycle that hasn’t been broken until now. Evidence shows in various forms of art and fashion, as it has become popular to go back in time and remake big hits, and trendy clothing have remained the same as of today. While this loop we have fallen into has made us turn to appreciating the past more, Anderson claims that it’s also restricting us from new ideas and progress in our country, and treats the past 20 years as a negative deviation. While he does bring up solid points and it is true that we have not changed much in the current cycle when you look at our culture in terms of fashion and art, it hasn’t restricted us socially or politically, as our country’s president has been making efforts for the past 8 years, and many movements for rights and freedom have erupted around the world as well.

According to Anderson, we’re currently “reinforcing the economic (and political) stagnation”, which may have been true when he wrote that article, but is not any longer. While economically we may not have changed much from our famous stores and restaurants, but politically our country has been shifting. Barack Obama being elected as a president was already a big game changer; while some racist conservatives may think negatively of it, it was a breath of fresh air that our country gravely needed, and it gave hope to many around the country. Obama getting re-elected for another term gave him some more time to put some of his goals into action, despite having his hands tied by the conservative Republicans in the government. He’s already managed to form Obamacare, free many of Guantanamo Bay’s inmates, legalize gay marriage, and much more. With the recent 2016 elections, we had candidates from all over the spectrum; Sanders for the lower class, minorities and millennials, Clinton for the middle class while trying to impress the millennials, and Trump for the terrifying bigoted conservatives whom the millennials dread. While Sanders could’ve kept bringing about political change, Trump takes the white house seat with this election, many people fearing the possibility of his reign causing a 50 year jump back in time politically. His faith to his policies have been debatably wavering since his election, but at this point there’s not much to do but “wait and see” how Trump’s presidency bodes for the country. Should it backtrack the hard earned political progress for our country, I’m sure there will always be people standing firm for their freedom.

Anderson also believes that our country’s current state of “embracing the past” prevents us from new ideas and therefore “deters radical change”. However, the past few years have been nothing but full of radical changes, or at least many attempts. With the president and government only able to do so much at once, the people of the country have taken it upon themselves to voice social and political concerns. Discrimination has always been prevalent in our society, be it in the form of racism, sexism, LGBTQ+ phobias, or others. However, organizations and movements for rights and freedoms of minority groups have been coming forward to make themselves heard, pushing for a future where they can be happy for who they are rather than afraid. Recent tragedies like Ferguson and Mike Brown, Brock Turner’s case, and the Orlando Pulse Bar shooting have increased attention to the underlying discrimination rooted deep in our country, a sign that oppressed minorities will no longer sit around for change and push for progress with their own hands. The recent legalization of gay marriage was a huge victory for minorities, despite multiple states attempting to bypass it to continue their discrimination. But for people who have been struggling to be heard for so long, any bit of progress is a victory. Our country isn’t politically or socially stagnated at all. Anderson is focused on things like music and fashion in his article, but I think that change and progress for minorities and their lifestyles are just as important, if not more.

Despite a lack of progress in our country's culture, there have definitely been strides taken socially and politically. While Anderson argues in his article that the country's current halted status causes lack of "radical change" and reinforces "economic and political stagnation", he focuses on culture aspects such as music, fashion, and big companies in our economy. He lacks to mention the big political and social shifts in our country recently, which I think are of unparalleled value compared to what the trendiest clothes are or how big Starbucks has gotten within the past decade.