"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,"

"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," 

“Mass media then gives us a more realistic view of the world and increases our ability to communicate with others even though we lose out in the sense of the supernatural and the mysterious that used to make art so powerful, what he later refers to as the "cult value" of art.”

I agree with this passage when it states that “our ability to communicate with others “increases. But when I thinking about mass media and really analyze how news, commercials, tv shows, films, advertisement, etc communicate to us I have to disagree and say that it does not give us a realistic view of the Word. Mass media can definitely be referred to as “cult value” in that it is a cut. Most of the time it tells us things we want to hear so we can be compelled to buy, fee, see, things they want us too. Some might say its an extreme, Why compare masss media to a cult?. Well I have to agree, not all mass media is trying to brainwash us and get us to do things or feel things we otherwise will not. But let me give you an example. Back during the Holocasut germany will braod advertise their persecutions and promote becoming part of the cause, Hitler Cause. These commercials were very offensive and disturbing. There is a movement to even band these advertisement in the US because of the hatred and memories these advertisements have. But because of the constant brainwashing in germany these commercials were totally acceptable, in fact they were applauded. This is Mass media, we are sometimes brains washed and are in a cult like environment where we plause commercials with naked girls, local TV channels getting away with a lot more things, Showing off more skin, cussing, Some of these things that would not get pass inspection of commercials 20 years ago, but today they are brainwashing our kids, our futures. Lets see where this takes s in 20 mores years….

Assignment 5/12

Choose a passage from Jünger, write it out, explain the meaning of it, and why you chose this passage.

“The photograph stands outside of the zone of sensitivity. It has a telescopic quality; one can tell that the event photographed is seen by an insensitive and invulnerable eye. It records the bullet in mid-flight just as easily as it captures a man at the moment an explosion tears him apart. This is our own peculiar way of seeing, and photography is nothing other than an instrument of our own peculiar nature (p. 39).”

In this passage we see that Jünger compares our zone of sensitivity to photograph. He draws to conclusion that we have grown insensitive to feelings and just as a photograph records tragic events in life we also record events in life with no empathy to it. I believe he is trying to say that we have developed to stilled, un-empathetic, unsympathetic living machines that just go through life recording events with no feeling attached to it. 

3/21 The Weimer Republic

Article 43 “The term of office of the Reich President lasts seven years. Reelection is permitted. The Reich President can be deposed by plebiscite, which has to be suggested by the Reichstag. This Reichstag decision requires a majority of two thirds of the votes. Such a decision bars the Reich President from continued exercise of his office. A rejection of the deposition is regarded as a reelection and results in the dissolution of the Reichstag. The Reich President can not be persecuted in a penal matter without the approval of Reichstag.” What this passage is saying is that the person that has all the power, the president, has a duration of 7 years governing the country. Not only that but after the 7 year term a re-election is permitted under the constitution giving the total sum of 14 years. I chose this passage because its ironic to me that here you have what can possibly be one of the best constitutions at the time for a democratic civilization and here they are giving total control to 1 person for what can possibly be 14 years. This seems like a seed for dictatorship. I cant seem to not think that if Hitler would not have come into the picture there would be someone else regardless. This just sets a perfect scenario for total control. Who know if Hitler would not have been in the picture they could have faced a bigger problem. What’s not to say that the person in control for 14 years cant just change the constitution to his favor and just keep getting re-elected. Wouldn’t they have all the time in the world to change the policies to favor them in that decisions?

Article 109 All Germans are equal in front of the law. In principle, men and women have the same rights and obligations. Legal privileges or disadvantages based on birth or social standing are to be abolished. Noble titles form part of the name only; noble titles may not be granted any more. Titles may only be granted, if they indicate an office or occupation; academic degrees are not affected by this regulation. The state may no more bestow orders and medals. No German may accept titles or orders from a foreign government.

This passage was interesting to me being that before Germany Uniting it was a whole lot of kingdoms next to each other. Being that there were kingdoms I assume there were a lot of noble names with high status. I wonder how they felt after they found out that there names “legally” would not benefit them in anyway. That they were just as equal as the regular joe schmo. 

Ms. Luxemberg

Only the working class, through its own activity, can make the word flesh. The workers can achieve control over production, and ultimately real power, by means of tenacious struggle with capital, hand-to-hand, in every shop, with direct mass pressure, with strikes and with the creation of its own permanent representative organs.

In this passage we see that Ms. Luxemberg is trying to explain that the working body is what holds all the power, she states that worker can achieve control over production, and ultimately real power. This essentially will cut out the middle man, the highest revolutionary authorities. Ms. Luxemberg is trying to make us understand that society should be ran by the people not just a selected few. Ms. Luxerberg is against having leaders that are permanent because it causes imbalance in power. This in turn would just lead them to another financial ruin. 

March 14

The scene That I would like to speak about is the very beginning where the children singing “just you wait a little while, The nasty man in black will come” and the lady yells over the balcony for them to stop singing that awful song. A short while later the girls start singing again. It becomes apparent that “the black man” was real and he was a murdered, we see this in the later seen where the lady complains to her neighbor that she can’t get the kids to stop singing about the murderer.  I interpret this scene as “kids being kids” they live life be curiously and don’t have a worry in the world. They find an amusement to anything. We can see this on the next scene where the girl is bouncing a ball on the bounty letter for “the murderer”. To me the bounty represented a something evil and bad, but the girl bouncing the ball expressed a sense of innocent even when the girl told the man who we could only see in shadows her name. I could only keep telling myself throughout this seen “haven’t your parents told you not to speak to strangers”. 

Assignment 2/28

I would like to speak about the beginning of the film. How the film starts off Towards the end of the movie. It shows what’s to come. The women who walks in front of them with a face that can only be characterized as insane, border line possessed. We see this in a lot of our movies today where the ending of the movie is shown to captivate the audience and then the story of how they got there follows, this is called the “framing device”. Reading the lectures I was fascinated to read that the writers were against adding the “framing device”. Being that we see it in so much of our films today. This goes to show us that sometimes new ideas aren’t always going to be popular in the beginning, but might end up being might end up being the thing that makes something such a big hit. I believe the movie was such a big hit around the world because it captivated the attention of the audience and you cant help but to feel intimidated with the spooky music and the form of expressionism art they use, as well as the black and white colors; a sense of not knowing what’s in the dark sets in while watching the movie. I loved it!

Assignment Due 2/21

John Assaraf

“Our job as humans is to hold on to the thoughts of what we want, make it absolutely clear in our minds what want, and from that we start to invoke one of the greatest laws in the Universe, and that’s the law of attraction. You become what you think about most, but you also attract what you think about most”.

This passage clearly talks about the law of attractions. A law so simple that says if you put a thought out into the Universe, somehow.. Someway, the “Universe” responds by attracting this thought into your life.  I have seen the movie/documentary.. “The secret”, this movie heavily showcases how the law of attraction is the secret to life. Whether you want to be a Doctor, lawyer, rich famous, successful in which ever way you must first think it. The secret also works in the opposite way in which if you think negative thoughts those thoughts become your reality.

This passage is extremely important to me. I too believe that that just like the saying goes “you are what you eat” this saying of “you become what you think about most” is just as true. To give you an example; when I was 18 I decided to drop out of college, I worked for 4 years before I decided to go back to school. When I did decide to go back to school the only thought in my head was to become a Nurse. That was my main goal and 3 years later I graduated from Hostos community college and received my license 3 months later and found a job as a Registered nurse immediately. I believe this all happened because I created it in my thoughts first. I live it before I actually lived it; I dreamed about it and felt it before it was real to anyone else but me. This is why this passage is so important to me. 

Adolf the Superman

"Adolf the Superman: Swallows Gold and Spouts Junk," John Heartfield, 1932

Meaning and intention behind this art work.

Base on the Word war and Politic is where this piece derives its meaning. This photo montage is referencing Adolf Hitler when he received the financial backing from the wealthy industrialist. John Heartfield eared Germany would vote for the communist government and he portrayed his views and stance through his work. In this art you can see the inside of Adolf Hitler made up of rib cages and coins for a spine. His heart is replaced with a swastika representing his cause.  

There is a phrase that goes “A picture is worth 1000 words”. This is exactly the thought I get when I look at this picture. Adolf Hitler is represented as if an x-ray was taken of him, The colors are black and rusted gold. Replacing the organs there is nothing, just ribs a swastika and coins as a spinal cord. This represent a lot. Goes to show how highly Mr. Heartfield thought of Adolf Hitler. Nearly spineless, I mean a stake of coin holding up your entire body is as about as useful as set of Jenga holding up your spinal cord, its bound to tilt over. Also there is no heart which to me means someone ruthless, cold, inconsiderate and so on. 

Hugo Ball

"I don't want words that other people have invented. All the words are other people's inventions. I want my own stuff, my own rhythm, and vowels and consonants too, matching the rhythm and all my own." 
- Hugo Ball (Dada Manifesto, 1916) 

This quote to me represents someone with characteristics of a strong minded individual. Someone who does not simply conform to society but what’s things done his way, an individual with self identity and self worth; who takes pride in his work and always does his/her best, a leader, not a follower. You can see why Hugu Ball was a strong supporter of Dadaism, because with Dadaism it was sort of a new language, new words, new consonances that people had to try to understand. People used Dadaism to break away from the stringent aspect of “how things should be”, instead they intentionally made things “how they should not be” and made it intentionally “ugly” forming perfectly imperfect art. This quote symbolizes Dadaism to me and Hugo Ball got what he wanted, “his own stuff” out of it. I agree with this quote and it actually made me think about the present and how it relates to what I see. I think people now more than ever are trying to be their own person. People are constantly trying to stand out as an individual whether its through their music, writing, film making, teachers. To give you an example there thing gentleman on the train station who makes music out of pipes, he draws an overwhelming crowd because what he does if so unique, sometimes im even late to where I want to go because I can cut through the crowd. To me that is a representation if Dadaism and this quote. 

The Germany Economy (Miracle Economy Post-War)

The Germany Economy

According to the CIA world Fact books Germany is considered the fifth largest economy in the world in PPP terms and Europe’s largest. Leading the way in exporting machinery, vehicles and having a highly skilled labor force. Germany has always had a history especially through the first and Second World War of building weaponry. Even with all of this it still faces hardship in its economy. Germany has hit a wall when it comes to demographic long term growth. Germany is at a tipping point in its economy. So what is going on in Germany’s economy that it’s doing so bad? Well in the face of the end of a 6 year war Germany was hit with a lot of demographic repairs, railroads, building to fix. Also factories were set up to build machinery, weapons for the war as oppose to food. The effect of the war did not require for factories to go through good maintenance, there was no time. So At the end of the war a lot of the equipment had to go to junk. Despite all of this, Germany saw what can be considered the best financial uprising for about 10 years. The national income went up 20%. This increase was real, it was overtime hard work and saving. Unemployment went from 10% down to 1%, with balance budget and almost no inflation; many call it the economic miracle of the Post-war. The Country saw itself with massive growth in its economy but sadly these things don’t last forever.

Today the government is going through hardship of its own. After the disaster of 2011 in Fukushima nuclear disaster. , According to CIA world Fact Books “Chancellor Angela MERKEL announced in May 2011 that eight of the country's 17 nuclear reactors would be shut down immediately and the remaining plants would close by 2022. Germany hopes to replace nuclear power with renewable energy. Before the shutdown of the eight reactors, Germany relied on nuclear power for 23% of its electricity generating capacity and 46% of its base-load electricity production.” This will hopefully turn the economy around and bring back the miracle economy that once was. 

Understanding of Nietzche's quote

The compassionate Christian.-- The reverse side of Christian compassion for the suffering of one's neighbor is a profound suspicion of all the joy of one's neighbor, of his joy in all that he wants to do and can.

from Nietzsche's Daybreak,s. 80, R.J. Hollingdale transl.

This quote to me means that there are two sides of a “compassionate Christian. One of the sides is the profound suspicious of the joy his neighbor (friends and family) get out of doing things that a Christian would not do. This profound suspicion leaves doubt, fatigue, and unwanted thoughts in the mind of a Christian, now force to ask him/herself why is my neighbor joyful in the things that he does while I, as a Christian, am doubtful, fatigued and suspicious?...