Class Reflection 4-21-2008

In tonight’s class we watched a movie titled, Fog of War.  It was narrated by a man , Robert McNamera, who was once a solider, use to be the Secretary of Defense for the United States, and has been to the brink of an all out catastrophic war and back.  The premise of the movie is all about teaching lessons regarding the engagements of war.  The rules were:

1.Empathize with the enemy

2.Rationality will save us-he explains how the decision to launch a nuclear war head depends on the words and thought of one human being.

3.

4.

5.Proportionality should be a guideline of war.

 

In class people expressed they felt the most surprising or shocking rules were the one about proportionality.  While I see their points, I really felt the one about rationality is especially true.  I hadn’t given much thought before, but it really is true that one human being basically holds our country in the palm of his hands.  If for whatever reason, maybe he wakes up one day and is mad at the world, he has the ability to launch an all out nuclear war with just a few words.  I think this fact is just mind blowing.  It really is scary how much power one man, or gal for that matter, has.  For example, if I were the President, I can see myself letting my ego or personal feelings get into the way of my job.  For example, if one country did something that I thought was absolutely despicable, I can see myself allowing my ego to get into the matter, and out of passion or instinct, I would order the launch of a nuclear war head.  And the fact of the matter is, he essentially has the power do something like that!

Class Reflection 4-14-2008

In contrast to last week’s class, tonight the class was rather timid and didn’t talk a lot.  Although there were the occasional few that always seem to contribute, I know that I for one, didn’t have a whole lot to add to the conversation and did really effectively participate.  At one point professor pulled up a picture of two and and asked the class if they could discern which of the men was Chinese and which one was Japanese.  At some stages it seemed to bring the class to laughter because there was one student, who I believe is Japanese (actually it really bad because I don’t remember exactly) and he knew right away which one was Japanese and which was Chinese.  There were also a couple of other students who could tell, one was a man with an Asian wife and the other was a kid who who seemed to have some oriental background and he too spotted them out right away.  I felt like raising my hand a couple of times and expressing my thoughts, but figured I had better keep my comments to myself because I wasn’t sure whether I was basing my thoughts and judgments as stereotypes.  And being as though the last couple classes have kind of been on stereotypes and stuff, and especially the blog post, I felt tonight would have been a particularly bad time to make such remarks especially if someone perceived them as being based on stereotypes.  I believe that may have been the reason for my lack of contribution on the large scale as well, for some reason, I always pulled out back making any statements because again I didn’t want to make any comments that might have offended anyone even though I wouldn’t have meant to at all.  I know professor says don’t be afraid to say something wrong, but I think he means that in the context of being correct and incorrect on the facts of a topic, and in this case I didn’t wan to say something wrong that might potentially rub someone the wrong way.  Before these past few classes though, I would have openly commented on the topics brought up in class, but since discussing them in the class it has kind of made me think before I act.

Class Reflection 4-7-2008

This class we talked a lot about advertisements and some of the techniques they used, or that we thought they used, to attract consumers.  A lot of people contributed their ideas and I think this was one of the most active classes we’ve had this semester;  I’m not sure why that is, but maybe people felt the most comfortable with this topic because of it’s relevancy today.  For me, I felt extremely comfortable with the topic because a lot of my studies during my years at Mason have been related to consumers, consumer spending habits, and all the different types of marketing that have been used in the past, and more so the techniques that companies and organization use today.  At one point in the class professor asked what what we thought created consumer culture?  Is it the consumers or is it the companies.  A couple students said it was the consumers, but I think the general consensus was that it was the companies.  I personally think it’s the consumers.  Without the different types of consumers, these companies wouldn’t have anyone to target or focus their marketing strategies on.  Because consumers do have a vast number of preferences and abilities, the companies do the research to locate these specific trends, and then create a pro forma on how to go about reaching out to these different types of consumers.  I actually wanted to ask this questions to one of my business 498 teachers to get his opinion.  He’s a business consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton who has a undergraduate from from Columbia and a masters from Harvard relating to business strategies.  I think his perspective on this will be very interesting.

Blog Post #3: The Menace Alien

This pictures is supposed to illustrate the Irish as a

savage and antagonistic group of people. 

 

Which one of these gentlemen is the highly acclaimed Irish native,

who was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature? 

 

The answer to the above question is ALL of them.  Each of those men won the the Nobel Prize in Literature.  It may be surprising, but the Irish were actually once viewed as incapable of being “American” and perceived as animalistic in nature.

 

 

Alien Menace- Have Stereotypes Changed?

 

According to the Alien Menace module Catholic Irish began immigrating to the United States in the 1850’s.  Vast populations of Irish, whom were then perceived as ape-like and not having the ability to ever become “American”, presented a danger to the predominantly protestant nation because of the animalistic nature.  There was actually a study completed in regards to facial structures (physiognomy) that used the shape of the face bones to determine ones intelligence and character.  The Irish were thought to be at the bottom of the evolution cycle, due to the sharpness of their bone structure, and therefore deemed them as animalistic, cruel and cowardly, but most importantly not white.  You might be interested to know that those same features, distinct jaw lines and sharp cheek bones, are the standard in today’s modeling world, and without them you can’t even get a page in a magazine.  In today’s world a good majority of these stereotypes regarding the Irish have disappeared, and some even consider them a “hyper-white.”

 

As times have changed, so have the perceptions of ethnically diverse cultures.  For example, many people once thought that natives of Mexico were lazy and non-family oriented.  This view has drastically changed.  In today’s world, especially in the United States and the manual labor industry, many employers find it ideal to hire employees of Mexican descent.  Many employers find them to work as hard, and in most cases harder, than workers from the native country.  They find that they can even pay them at a lesser rate and still get the same amount of work accomplished.  The perceptions of the Irish have changed as well.

 

While many still categorize them as antagonists and fighters, they seemed to have jumped into a couple other categories as well.  While in the past the German’s were though to be the beer hall hungry group, it’s very common in today’s world for the Irish to be found in the same category; after all they seem have a Holiday named after them, in which the basic theme is to drink as much as you possibly can.  Many people even dye their beverages green in spirit of the Irish and their illustrious St. Patrick’s Day holiday.  One major change, arguably the most notable, is the perception of their Irish and their intellectual inabilities.  Not only can you find professors of Irish descent in some of the world’s most renowned universities such as Harvard, Oxford and New York University, but there’s even a university in the United States that’s named after the Irish, in the University of Notre Dame.  More commonly referred to as ND, the school of the Fighting Irish (I wonder where they get their school mascot theme from?) is known to offer some of the nation’s best and most reputable undergraduate and graduate degrees in the country!  As another testament to their supreme knowledge, intellectual, and scholastic abilities, three Irish have been awarded the most prestigious prize in the world, the Nobel Prize in Literature!  William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Sam Beckett, Seamus Heaney, whom are all natives of Ireland, all were recipients of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Works Cited

“Nobel Prize in Literature.” Wikipedia. 4 Apr. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_in_Literature>.

 

O’malley, Michael. “Alien Menace.” Exploring U.S. History. George Mason University. 6 Apr. 2008 <http://chnm.gmu.edu/exploring/images/stir.jpg>.

 

“Nobel Prize Recipients.” Irish Literary Geniuses. 5 Apr. 2008 <http://www.angelfire.com/journal/irishpens/>.

 

 

 

Class Reflection-Week of 3/31/08

Tonight’s class brought up a very interesting and seemingly controversial topic, or question rather.  The question was what does it mean to be “American.”  There’s so many things that people attribute to why they are American, or what they think it means to be American.  I guess to me American means being born here.  Living here.  Being raised here.  I mentioned something about looking the part too, but not many students seemed to agree with me in that regard, and while I can see why they may disagree with me, I still think there something to say about people actually looking American.  However, according to Wikipedia American is defined as:

 

1.A person or attribute of the Americas, the lands and regions of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere.  

2.A person or attribute of the United States of America.

3.A person or attribute of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

 

I never really thought or even contemplated the second reason, according to Wikipedia, as being American, but I suppose we did steal the term.  Apparently we (we being the people in the United States) aren’t the only people who consider themselves American.  People in other countries too refer to themselves as being American; this was actually a first for be, because before tonight I was not aware of this fact.  It really is a great question though what it specifically means to be “American.”  I guess in the end there is no particular answer that will satisfy all criteria, or everyone.  All I know is I consider myself American and I am proud to say so.