Final Blog Reflection

      Since the very first day of this class, I have been trying to figure out what the exact purpose of it was. The class description via the CSUN portal was rather vague and the name of the class, “Multi Genre Literacy” implies a multitude of ideas that does not necessarily seem coherent. Now, in retrospect looking back at the semester, I feel as if I understand why this class would be considered a capstone for Seniors in the English Subject Matter. There was a progression from the basics forms of text based literacy, into a world of contemporary literacy where literature comes in a multitude of forms.

      The poetry and mythology portions of the class had me somewhat confused. They were both informative in their own individual way, but learning them back to back did not seem to make sense. Why would we jump from poetry to mythology within a week’s period of time with no explanation? Yet, looking back now, it is starting to make some sense. These were foundations of literacy. Both come from an oral tradition that has been transposed into texts. Therefore, each fulfill the standard medias of oral and textual literacy.

      As we worked our way into the study of media learning, it became evident why we were going in this particular order. We are now coming into a time period when literacy is not just associated with the ability to read and write, but also the ability to work on computers, play video games, surf the web, and send texts on your smart phone. Literacy is a field that is expanding into an overwhelming realm of possibilities, and it is forcing the individual to become much more sophisticated with their literacy skills.

Children no longer just hear stories and read them. They grow up watching, playing, and interacting with them. As a future teacher, I need to be affluent with all forms of media in order to remain contemporary with my students. If teachers choose to remain in a static state of only books and lecture, than we will surely lose our student’s interest. Our teaching style has to reflect the student’s life, and if they are deep in a world of smart phones, Ipads, computers, and video games, the teacher needs to learn how to incorporate the expanding realm of media into the classroom. One cannot inform if they cannot entertain. If a teacher can engage students with popular forms of media, they will be able to convey their message much more effectively. 

      So, ultimately I feel like this class makes sense to me. It showcased the gradual transition from traditional forms of literacy into the contemporary media and show how we are now living in a world of globalization where these new forms of media allow us to interact and effect one another in ways that have never been accomplished before. It’s a scary and fantastical world we are living in, and it has the potential for both good and bad. We need to guide our students in the right direction by not shying away from the new forms of media and literacy, but rather, we should utilize them and teach how they can be used to make the world a better place. 

Final Essay

Nicholas Jerrems

Dr. Wexler

12/11/2012

Globalization: An American Product

      Most people do not understand how the phone in their hands or the food on their plate got to them. In Western society, people are completely disassociated from how products get from concept to their homes. Little do most know, that almost all things American’s consume are available because of exploited countries carrying out production to lower costs and produce on a mass scale.  Everything is interconnected in this world, and the small choices people make on a daily basis can have almost instantaneous effects on others all over the world. Globalization is the primary theme presented in the film Babel, which shows how something so small as the gift of a gun, can have horrific results around the globe. Globalization is a dangerous trend in contemporary society, with mass production happening over seas and social networking connecting everyone, anywhere, anytime. Babel shows how globalization is a product of Westernized ideals of multiculturalism that enables the growth of an American capitalist system. How does a film that does not directly address these issues in its surface deep value present this? It does so with the primary antagonist of the film, the gun.

      Due to the actions of Yasujiro Wataya, a Japanese business man and single father, a woman was shot, a young boy in Morocco is killed by the police force, a mexican woman is deported back to Mexico, and two children come within inches of their own mortality (Arriaga) . What exactly did Wataya do? He gave a rifle, as a gift, to a hunting guide he had while on a trip to Morocco. But it was not just any rifle. The rifle was in fact, an American made Winchester model 70 rifle (IMFDB). The denotative meaning of this rifle is simplistic, but in a film such as Babel where every detail effects another, this cannot be overlooked. The connotative meaning associated with the gun contributes to the idea that the ultimate power behind every action in the film is America.

      With America leading the way of the industrial revolution at the turn of the 20th century, countries all over the world decided to follow on the heels of their success. Soon, demand became larger than supply, and America had to outsource to keep up with it. This opened up a network of trade and communications on a more profound level than ever before. Babel is merely commenting on how interconnected the entire world is now as a result of America’s thirst for capital. This thirst is quenched by extending foreign trade and outsourcing American commodities like Mcdonald's. Mcdonald's, for example, is all over the world, but with each different country, they undergo a multicultural transformation, offering a menu custom fit to each place. This attempt to fit in with each culture’s dietary needs is really just a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It furthers the commodification of each country through the guise of “multiculturalist” pursuits and ultimately feeds an American capitalist system. The Winchester rifle, similar to an item from Mcdonald's, is sold all over the world as a “universal” product, when in fact, the majority of the money benefits the American business behind the production of the gun.

      The gun represents much more than an attempt to fuel an American greed for income though. It is symbolic of the binaries that allow a specific country to undergo capital gain.

In Frederick Jameson’s article, “The Politics of Utopia”, he argues that there is a “dissociation into two distinct worlds which characterizes globalization today.” He is referring to the idea that in order for one country to thrive in terms of capital, they have to exploit another country. For America, this would result in having factories all around the world, with unfair and unsafe working conditions, producing the goods for itself to consume. Yet, in Babel, the exploitation does not go without negative consequences for the thriving country. 

      The gun starts as an American concept. It most likely undergoes production from various places around the world, exploited by the American capitalist system in order to raise profits and lower productions costs. The gun ends up in the hands of a Japanese man, that was somehow led to believe that the American gun was a necessity he needed in order to hunt. The gun eventually gets passed down to the children of a Moroccan farmer, who shoot at a bus of touring Americans and Europeans, hitting an American in the process. The entire scenario presented in the film shows that the exploitation of other countries by America will come back to haunt it, by utilizing the gun as a symbol of American Capitalism.

      It is necessary to discuss a need for globalization in the first place in order to give a film like Babel its appeal. In Randy Martin’s article, “Where Did the Future Go?” he states that “in the three decades since the utopian promises of the welfare state have beat their retreat, finance has been in ascendance.” Despite our efforts for capital gain, the nation goes into debt as a whole and as individuals as the appetite to consume grows beyond the ability to provide. We now finance and live off of credit. It is necessity and part of the American way of life. Our obsession with consumption is creating a larger demand, which increases our reliance on outside countries to produce our products. Globalization is a by product of our thirst for consumption. Because of the products we “want”, demand for production and travel becomes higher. But we do not just go into each country and make fair deals with them. Instead, we spread our own concepts of capitalism through false multicultural facades, projecting an American way of life on any country that does business with us. We provide income for many countries, but those countries in return control the products we use in our everyday lives. Globalization is a result of the American life style and its push to consume beyond recognition until we ourselves, are a product of capitalism.

      Babel implies a lot more than it denotes. It seems like a simple story portraying the results of a “butterfly effect” type action, but in reality, it is voicing a much larger concern. Our avarice for both product and income has created vast networks of communication, production, and travel, that inevitably link back to the capitalist system. The gun in Babel, is a tool used to convey the American capitalist influence on the rest of the world. The West’s attempts to appear “multicultural” is a mere facade for a capitalist purpose that ultimately benefits itself.  Each and every action we perform on a daily basis goes back to America’s ascension up the capitalist ladder, perpetuating reliance on a world that arguably may have been better off left alone.

Works Cited

"Babel." - Internet Movie Firearms Database. Media Wiki, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2012.

Babel. By Guillermo Arriaga. Perf. Brad Pitt. 01 Distribution, 2007. DVD.

Jameson, Frederick. "The Politics of Utopia." New Left Review. N.p., 2004. Web.

Martin, Randy. "Where Did the Future Go?" Logosonline. Logos 5.1, 2006. Web.

World Text Analysis Paper (Rough Draft)

(Rough Draft)

Nicholas Jerrems

Dr. Wexler

12/6/2012

Globalizing Our Brains: The Utopian Vision Behind Babel

What if the meat you ate so innocently was contributing to a monopolized production where Genetically Modified Organisms were the norm and animals were tortured for their short existence on earth? What if making the choice to buy organic produce helped the immigrant farm worker who came to this country to make an income that he could send back home to his family in Mexico who lacked the necessities we take for granted? Everything is interconnected in this world, and the small choices you make on a daily basis can have almost instantaneous effects on people all over the world. Globalization is the primary theme presented in the film Babel, and shows how something so small as the gift of a gun, can have horrific results around the globe. Globalization is a dangerous trend in contemporary society, with mass production happening over seas and social networking connecting everyone, anywhere, anytime. One nations utopia, is another nations living hell. Lets explore how globalization is presented in the film itself, and than take a look at contemporary American life and see how the themes of Babel become frightfully relevant in our everyday lives.

Due to the actions of Yasujiro Wataya, a Japanese business man and single father, a woman was shot, a young boy in Morocco is killed by the police force, a mexican woman is deported back to Mexico, and two children come within inches of their own mortality (Arriaga) . What exactly did Wataya do? He gave a rifle, as a gift, to a hunting guide he had while on a trip to Morocco. Nothing about Wataya’s actions warranted him as a criminal, but his lack of insight to the events is the exact point the film wants to make. It is not necessarily Wataya’s fault. The fault lies within the bigger picture. 

With America leading the way of the industrial revolution at the turn of the 20th century, countries all over the world decided to follow on the heels of their success. Soon, demand became larger than supply, and America had to outsource to keep up with it. This opened up a network of trade and communications on a more profound level than ever before. Babel is merely commenting on how interconnected the entire world is now, to the point were our innocent actions cannot help but sometimes having negative results. The film provides an up close view on one scenario that portrays the negative connotations of globalizing production, travel, and technology.

In Frederick Jameson’s article, “The Politics of Utopia”, he argues that there is a “dissociation into two distinct worlds which characterizes globalization today.” On one hand, you have the idealized fantasy of American “utopia”, which on the surface level, seems to be heading in the direction of perfecting human life. As a result of this false utopian ideology, third world countries suffer from poor work conditions and poverty that feed a corporate greed backed both by the business leaders of their own country, and our own. Utopia cannot exist. For one’s utopian ideal to exist, another must suffer from the production side of the line. Taking a structuralist point of view, these binaries comprise life. There is no good, without bad. There is no wealthy, without poor. If by utopia, someone means neutrality, than certainly they must be gravely mistaken, because neutrality is not pleasantness. Just ask the overabundant population prescribed high doses of anti-depressants. But than again, maybe the neutralized society is someone’s ideal of utopia.

The circumstances in Babel are a product of attempts to fulfill someone’s notions of utopia. A man from Japan, where a gun license is necessary and one understands the social repercussions of owning and using such an item, gives the gun to a small group of people, living in a third world rural setting. The children, although not innately ignorant, grow up with very differing social values and ideals. Therefore, the gun to them has less of an immediate impact in regards to its dangerous nature. The gun takes on different meaning because of the altering cultural perceptions of that item.

But how did this gun get passed down from one society to another? It is the product of travel, which ultimately is a product of technology itself. Technology has made traveling so easy that everyone and their grandmother has the opportunity to visit all parts of the world at their slightest whim. Cultures that differ in both norms and morality (which can be constructed from a perspectivist point of view coined by no other than Nietzsche himself), now have contact with one another, and the juxtapositions can be deadly, as seen in the film. It should also be noted that concepts of utopia, like morality, can be constructed on an individual basis from a perspectivist lens. Reality, in itself, lacks innate qualities, and therefore, there is no such idea as a universal “utopia.” At least this is the stance I am taking in my personal argument.

It is necessary to discuss a need for globalization in order to give a film like Babel its appeal in the first place. In Randy Martin’s article, “Where Did the Future Go?” he states that “in the three decades since the utopian promises of the welfare state have beat their retreat, finance has been in ascendance.” Despite our efforts for capital gain, the nation goes into a debt as a whole and an individual as our appetite to consume grows beyond our ability to provide. We now finance and live off of credit. It is necessity and part of the American way of life. Our obsession with consumption is creating a larger demand, which increases our reliance on outside countries to produce our products. Globalization is a by product of our thirst for consumption. Because of the products we “want”, demand for production and travel becomes higher. We provide income for many countries, but those countries in return control the products we use in our everyday lives. So much of globalization is a result of the American life style and its push to consume beyond recognition until we ourselves, are a product of capitalism.

Babel implies a lot more than it denotes. It seems like a simple story portraying the results of a “butterfly effect” type action, but in reality, it is voicing a much larger concern. Our need to “perfect” life and make it more pleasurable in Western culture, has created vast networks of communication, production, and travel, that inevitably link back to the capitalist system. The ability to travel at ease and communicate that are utilized as plot devices in Babel, are results of the capitalist push for consumption. Facebook, although seemingly innocent on the surface as a way to connect people all around the world is a business that corrals individuals into a site that they can mass market product to according to watch the individual looks up in their search engine.  The ability to travel on vacation at ease is the product of companies needing to find ways to get products back and forth from continent to continent. Each and every action we perform on a daily basis goes back to America’s search for utopia, perpetuating reliance on a world that arguably may have been better off left alone.

Disneyland: Globalization on a Small Scale

    Did you know that if you throw your trash into the River's of America in Frontierland, that it can end up in the Story Book Canal in Fantasyland? Or did you know that if one person acts idiotic and sticks a foot out of their ride vehicle on a dark ride and it gets caught in the track, other rides on the other side of the park might be shut down because they utilize the same ride system and all will need inspection? While at Disneyland, lands that feel distant in theme and representation are so much more interconnected than we may realize as average park goers. This microcosm of society is the perfect small scale representation of globalization.
    Almost all of the main waterways in the different lands of Disneyland are connected via underground tubes. Therefore, all the water is constantly being recycled through the different lands. If one person decides to toss their trash in the duck free pond over by the Matterhorn in Fantasyland, that trash may end up in the duck's home over in Frontierland at the River's of America. Something we do so apathetically, like toss trash in an uninhabited pond, can have such a profound and dangerous effect on another area that seems completely unrelated.
    Another example would be if one person decides that they are going to impress their friend by stepping out of the ride vehicle on the Haunted Mansion. Once they stick their foot out, it gets caught in the ride mechanism, they get hurt, and the ride is temporarily shut down. While this happens in the Disneyland park, over across the esplanade at California Adventure, the new Little Mermaid ride may be closed down for inspection as well since it utilizes the same omni-mover technology that the Haunted Mansion uses.
   What we do can have profound effects on areas that we view as unrelated. Disneyland experiences its own type of globalization, within its own berm. Think before you do. You may be causing issues for others even if you think your actions are going unwarranted.

Another Day, Another Reflection: Globalization in Babel

    My mind is still reeling from the implications that the film, Babel, proposed and the effects of globalization have never seemed so instantaneous. In the film, a simple gift of a rifle to a hunting guide connects people all around the world as one unfortunate incident effects another. This chain reaction that some people refer to as "The Butterfly Effect" seems quite plausible after seeing how the concept was presented in the film.
    It got me thinking about my personal actions. One aspect of human life the film did not tackle was the internet. I soon realized that something as simple as the words we say online can have great potential outcomes globally. We have the power everyday, to alter lives with both the potential for good and bad. A simple joke made about someone at school on Facebook could lead to a suicide. A hateful film produced by religious extremists in America can lead to the death of an American ambassador in another country. It's terrifying how much power not only our actions have, but our words as well. The internet is a global vessel that can effect people on the other side of the globe form where you reside.
   But globalization goes far beyond the internet and into almost everything we use. The very computer I am working on most likely has parts assembled in different areas of the world. The food I ate for dinner came form multiple sources, possibly funding an immigrant's family south of the boarder who came here to work the land in order to support his family back home. Every single thing we have is part of a larger picture we rarely think of. We take for granted what we have and use. We may very well be buying products that promote horrid working conditions on the other side of the planet. It is important to take a second to remind yourself, that we are truly interconnected and part of this "cosmic being." What we do matters, which in return, means every single individual on this earth matters, no matter how small.

Weekly Reflection: Video Games and Literature

   I must confess that I am a huge nerd. I enjoy video games, anime, and Tolkien novels. I have performed in a band at the Los Angeles anime expo and have cosplayed (dress-up for adults) with my fiance. What is really exciting about being part of the nerd kingdom right now is that boundaries are being pushed not only on the aesthetic level, but also on an intellectual level. My case in point is one of my all time favorite video games, Bioshock,
    In some bizarre way, I can thank Bioshock for my love of critical theory. Bioshock is a first person shooter, or FPS for short, that follows a survivor of a plane crash that discovers an under water city in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. This city, Rapture, resembles a 1940's New York. The big difference between the two, despite one being under water of course, is within the city's political boundaries. Andrew Ryan, the creator of Rapture, wanted to build a city where objectivism reigned supreme. What people earned was a product of the "sweat of their own brow" (Bioshock). Does objectivism ring a bell? It is the same asinine philosophy that Ayn Rand tried to pour down the throats of commy fearing conservatives between the 1930's and 1960's. I apologize if I sound biased in my views of Ayn Rand.
   By the time the protagonist reaches Rapture, the city has gone to hell. Due to a lack of government regulation in the sciences, people were able to alter their genetic make-up to give themselves super powers called Plasmids. This, of course, turned them into crazed psychopathic junkies that killed for more of the addicting Eve that fueled their plasmids. Obviously the creators of Bioshock are not on the side of Rand's objectivist philosophy.
   I became infatuated with Ayn Rand's philosophy. I hated it, but I read numerous books by her and just loved the anger her character's political rants would fuel inside me.I soon found myself in Dr. Dawahare's Critical Theories at CSUN and I felt like a child at Disneyland. I loved theory and the heady maelstrom of thoughts it would send me into whenever I sat down with my textbook.
   It seems that video games may be defying the age old stigma that they make children brain dead. Forms of media that were once considered for children, are now going into more artistic and intellectual territories. There's an interesting future for education and video games, and it is exciting to see where these two cross paths again.
  

Weekly Reflection: Mythology and the GRE

    The GRE exam is required by many grad schools to be admitted to their program. It is a computer based test that requires each prospective grad student to answer questions related to verbal reasoning and quantitative math, while also writing two analytical essays. This type of "entry exam" is based off the archaic mythological archetype of the intellectual. It's belief is still rooted in the concept that nearly every supposed "intellect" needs to be an exemplary test taker in order to achieve status in higher academia.
    This notion isn't only wrong, it's also discrimination against a lot of powerful minds that suffer under the pressure of test anxieties. The people that still insist on keeping these types of examines alive are not up to date with modern day academics. Instead, they are on their hands and knees trying to pleasure an impotent old idea that's past its prime. It makes students obsess over scores instead of encouraging them to learn. But this is the education system that America has created. It is one that lacks the creativity to push the boundaries but chooses to instigate narrow minded thinkers.

I'll leave you with a quote by Albert Einstein:

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”