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?...