Thursday, April 15, 2010

The Final Blog

Throughtout the course, I have learned the elements of order and chaos. My choices are Command+Military leader and Structure+Government for order, in addition, Disorder+New York City, Confusion+Black Friday and Upset+Protests for chaos. Comparing my thoughts before the course and after it allows me to clearly see how much I have evolved my ideas of order and chaos through my study in the class.

1, Command+Military Leader
Order can be described as command as shown in the world in the book, 1984. In the story, Big Brother is the top as can be seen from "the entire group of people broke into a deep, slow, rhythmical chant of "B-B!...B-B!...B-B!" over and over again" (Orwell 16). Also, people are forced to live under the themes of the government, which are "WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH." (Orwell 4). Because of the control of the government, people are not allowed to be against the system and have to believe that Big Brother is the supreme leader of the region. Therefore, it can be said that depending on the leader such as a milirary leader or Big Brother in 1984, people's lives can be distinct because those leaders can be described as order.

2, Disorder+New York City
When it comes to disorder, I think that the world in Blade Runner fits it. In the movie, Los Angels in 2020 is illustrated as destopia. Although technology is more advanced, the city is old and decayed. It is because most of people in the world have moved to other planets and only people who cannot affort it remain in the city. Even though at the beginning of the course, I believed enormous cities such as New York City and Tokyo are disordered, after watching the movie, I started to consider that in those cities, people more actively live and enjoy their lives to a certain extent, compared to the world in Blade Runner. Chaos has a lot to do with people's life style, so except for some elements like crimes, I do not regard New York City as chaotic anymore.

3, Confusion+Black Friday
I think confusion is a good synonym for chaos. In the story, Once Upon a Time, Nadine Gordimer creates a fairly tale including her view of the system apartheid, which consisted of segregative laws and valid in South Africa between 1948 and 1991. She implies how chaotic and dangerous it is to live in the place, where white people and black people are against each other, which is caused by the separation. For example, she expresses "there are police and soldiers and tear-gas and guns to keep them away" and "The riots were suppresssed, but there were many burglaries in the suburb [...] " As a result, she expresses the place as a fearful place to live in and it seems that she is confused of the chaotic situation in the country.

4, Upset+Protests
The feeling, upset, has a lot to do with chaos. One of the instances of the feeling is explained in The Book of Job. When Job lost everything, at first he was still optimistic as can be seen from his lines, "Foolish woman, have you lost your mind? We have accepted good fortune from God; we can accept bad fortune, too" (The Book of Job 8). However, once he began to be upset, he started to say negative things like "How can I prove my innocence? Do I have to beg him for mercy? If I testify, will he answer? Is he listening to my plea? He has punished me for a trifle" (The Book of Job 8). Above all, once he gets upset, he starts to be against God. Therefore, I claim that chaos is deeply connected to people's feelings.

5, Fluid+War
In the book, Night, the tragedy is effectively expressed like "Only three days ago, people were living here. People who owned the things we were using now. They had been expelled. And we had already forgotten all about them" (Wiesel 20). I had known the war negatively affects people's lives; however, it was surprising to know how much and fluidly peole's lives could transform due to the war.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Reflecting on Dr. Jacobson's lecture Lecture

Throughout the lecture given by Dr. Jacobson, I learned about Dynamical Systems and Chaos Theory. Most of the lecture was mathematical, so the lecture gave me a new view of chaos. The most interesting fact that I learned is that even simple dynamical systems can produce arbitrarily complicated behavior. One of the instances was shown through the formula; y=x²-c. C is called parameters and small changes in the initial value causes large changed in the value of later numbers of the sequence. In other words, the larger the parameter gets, the more complicated the behavior becomes. In addition, it happens the same way for almost every dynamical system. In my opinion, chaos in daily life is caused in a similar way to the theory, just like the relationship between x and c and the amount of them.

Space Ritual. 27 Novemeber 2007. Online image. flickr. retrieved from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spaceritual/2068273907/

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Reflecting on Professor Kjar's lecture

I learned about evolution throughout the lecture given by Professor Kjar. First of all, I learned that when it comes to the topic, evolution, it is likely to include a variety of aspects such as theories, hypothesises, facts and truth. They appear to be all the same, each one is significantly different from each other. For instance, while facts are always the same as a conclusion not depending on the person, trush is something that you know. Evolution is likely to be believed as creation myths, which are different depending on regions and so it can be said that evolution is deeply related to the person's perspective or beliefs. However, in fact evolution always has something to do with biological facts. I was also surprised at the fact that evolution has a lot to do with science and it can be taken place because of a lot of elements like mutation, recombination and genetic drift. Professor Kjar explained since science has been developed rapidly, it could affect the way how creatures evolve. However, the most interesting fact that I personally found during the lecture was that to focus on the origin of the human being, we are related to each other. This line added new perspective to me in terms of evolution because this is what I had never come up with. Before the lecture, I had never been familiar with the topic because it had seemed to be too complicated and not related to me. However, now I feel evolution is somewhat connected to me as a human being.

Pardeshi. 8 October 2007. Online image. flickr. retrieved from:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pardeshi/1514977212/

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Discussion Questions Related to Blade Runner


1. Blade Runner is best known for its cyberpunk mise en scene (design aspects of the film): the incredibly dense texture of its shots. Watch very carefully and describe the 2020 culture the movie suggests visually.

In Blade Runner, I consider that the world in 2020 is illustrated as destopia, which is old and decayed despite the high-technology. As I have just been to Los Angeles, where is the main stage of the film, I can compare the difference between the present one and the one which is illustrated in the movie. I found that although L.A. seems to have a variety of population such as Asian and Hispanic, it appears that the city in the film has more mixed and each culture is more influential. For instance, in the film people speak a variety of languages such as Japanese, Korean and German. Also, there are a lot of signs which are written in those languages. I analyze it is because those people, who do not afford to move to other planets, suddenly started to be forced to live in the dense city because of the environment of the earth. This is interesting because the phenomenon which seems to be taking place all over the world is globalization. In other words, every culture is getting similar or perhaps Americanized. However, what is expressed in the film is completely different.

2. One of the most dramatic philosophical points made in the movie is that we can't trust our memories: they may have been implanted in us regardless of how true they seem. what is the main reason that we trust our memories as more or less accurate accounts of our past events?

We are likely to judge things depending on our memories. I think the main reason for this is because our memories are a lot to do with our emotions. Emotions include a lot of elements such as love, hate, anger, jealousy, sorrow, fear, despair and happiness. For instance, when I was in junior high school, I belonged to a soccer team. I never forget the last game we played as a past event even though it has been more than 5 years. This is because after we lost the game, I looked back the incident over and over again as a regrettable memory. So, it still brings back bad memories. This can be explained by my statement, our memories have a lot to do with our emotions. If I had not felt anything about the game, I would not trust the memory or maybe I would have forgotten about it already. Consequently, I believe that because we strognly feel something which will eventually become a memory, we tend to trust the memory. Also, the stronger the emotion is, the more we are likely to trust the memory as an accurate account of our past event.
Twilightzone1960. 24 December 2008. Online image. flickr. retreived from

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Reflecting on Dr. Jesse Kabwila Kapasula's Lecture

On 8th March known as International Women's Day, I had a lecture given by Dr. Jesse Kabwila Kapasula. She is a lady from Malawi and the topic was feminism. During the lecture, she kept us entertained by showing videos and telling jokes. I was surprised at the fact that feminism started in North America and spread to most parts of the world. Even in Japan, where has a compulitely different culture, it is said that the phenomenon has become common in the last few decades. For example, I heard the news that even after women get married and have children, some companies guarantee those women's positions. I think that even gender include inevitable different roles, when it comes about job opportunities or education, I think men and women should be treated equally. The song "single ladies" by Beyonce gives a perfect example of elements for feminism. In the song, it can be seen that she complains about the way her boy friend treats her.

Social Geographic. 7 March 2009. Online image. flickr. retreived from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/social _geographic/3337573972/

Friday, March 12, 2010

Reflecting on Professor Lemak's Lecture,

1. How do we balance social justice with moral authority, or just with unjust laws?
I think that moral authority plays an important role in shaping social justice. Because of the existance of moral authority, people hesitate to do things they are not supposed to do. Actually, most people naturally balance social justice with moral authority to a certain extent.

2. What constitutes social responsibility and justice, and what is the relationship between freedom and power?
I believe that our rights as citizens in a certain place constitutes socail responsibility and justice. As we have the right to do something, it also means that we are responsible for ourselves and our actions in society. I think that freedom and power are deeply related and I consider that the relationship can be disrinct depending on the leader. If the leader tries to get power to bring freedom to the society, it works in a positive way. On the other hand, supposing the leader was tyrannical, it would be difficult for people to obtain freedom. Also, freedom could result in new power because with freedom, they have more chances to express themselves and act in his or her way.

3. What constitutes leadership and how do leaders confront moral choices?
As Professor Lemak mentioned, leaders are not super heroes, but humans; however I believe that good leaders are consistent in his or her decision. What is more, the leader has to convince people to get involved in his or her decision by speaking to those people. Then, the leader can effectively lead other people because they understand they have the same ambition to achieve. For instance, I respect Nelson Mandela as a leader, I think his leadership is prominent considering the fact that he never stopped insisting the abolition of apartheid even when he was imprisoned.

b1968. 7 May 2007. Online image. flickr. retrieved from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85788705@N00/489420674/

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Film Critique: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind


Questions from "self" unit:
Who am I?
It is hard to answer the question. I can state some of my characteristics. However, when it comes to the question, "Who am I?", I am not able to answer it. For instance, I do not really know why I was born and what I am living for. I believe that one of the aims of our lives is to find out who we are. The self could vary depending on the situation. In other words, our selfs are gained through our experience. Therefore, I insist that there is no answer for the question probably for everyone because we could change a lot as long as we are alive.

Is there a self that I can control?
I think that I can control some of my selfs. For example, I myself made a decision to study in the United States. I think through experience people gain, they learn how to control themselves. Interestingly, people manage to make easy decisions in their daily lives such as how long they sleep, what they eat and where they go. However, none of them is able to control all of our selfs. Our decisions are deeply related to their mind, which is gained thorough experience and memories. Taken all together, I claim that it is essential for people to experience a lot in order to control selfs and make wise decisions.

Film Critique Questions:
What is the significance of the Title?
Even though both Joel and Clementine decided to erase their memories in order to get spotless mind, they started to be attracted to each other again. The title mentions the importance of memories, which could become the base of ourselves. Even after they got spotless mind, their memories were still in their mind because the memories had already become a part of their selfs.

What is the message to the audience?
I think that the message of the movie to the audience is the significance of memories including unpleasant ones. I agreed with Joel's realization. He realized how big his love is in the process of erasing his memories. I also would not be willing to erase my bad memories even if I got a chance. Because of those memoris, I have been able to make more efforts to secceed and I have learned a lot. This movie allowed me to think more about self.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

The Significance of Human Nature

I chose the song "Let it be", which is one of the most famous songs by the Beatles. This song effectively expresses the human nature. Every single person is expected to live in society and therefore, as we learned, we are supposed to act "the social me", which is normally different depending on the situation. What is more, all of us are likely to face a variety of problems in our social lives to a certain extent. For that case, this song recomends you to be natural. I believe that it is because humans are selfless, peaceable and untroubled by nature as Rousseau claimed. However, this human nature, which is given by god, is likely to be destroyed by experiences which are brought out through society. Consequently, I claim that the song explains the significance of being natural in order to escape from the trouble.

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

The Beatles. "Let it be." Let it Be. Capitol, 1970.
The Beatles-Let It Be

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Focusing on people's conversation


I belong to two speech communities, which are japanese and English. As I am living among people who speak English, I regularly use English to communicate with my surroundings. However, I studied in Australia for a while. So even though I do not consider myself to be a high level speaker of English, I sometimes recognize the difference between Aussie English and American English. For instance, I tend to say "cheers, mate" instead of "thanks buddy" as well as "no worries" instead of "you are welcome"which seem to sound strange for Americans.
On the other hand, it is also true that since I miss speaking Japanese and of course it is easy for me to speak it, I tend to denpend on my ability in Japanese, which could disturb my improvement in English.

On Thursday, I and my friends talked about our backgrounds including languages, what our hometowns look like and so on. I observed how my friends expressed themselves in terms of their tones, volumes and communication techniques.

Settings and Scene
The conversation took place in my room on Thursday. It started when I showed my friends the pictures of my house in Japan. All of us shared questions and answers in a friendly way.

Participants
While one person was speaking, others were listening to the one carefully except for the time they had different opinions. We kind of took turns expressing ourselves.

Instrumentalities
When they had different opinions, they tended to speak loud and their tones became higher. I think it was because of their emotion to tell others their ideas. Since we are all friends, we spoke in a casual way. Also, I noticed that while we concentrate on the conversation, we are less likely to care about grammer.

Ends
It was a good occasion to more clearly understand each other since our backgrounds are directly related to our charactaristics. What was more, we showed our respects for different cultures.
Esthr. 25 March 2005. Online image. flickr. retrieved from: http://www/flickr.com/photos/edyson/7438727/

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Reflection on the lecture by Dr. Lovett


Through the lecture given by Dr. Lovett on Friday, I learned a lot about the brain. The brain drives the one's awareness, memory and even personality. Each hemisphere of the bran has different roles and controls different side of the body. The right hemisphere is deeply connected to writing, language, scientific skills, mathematics, logic and so on. While the left one is related to emotion , creativity, imagination and dimension. The information given by Dr. Lovett was practical, indeed.


Emilio Garcia. 4 Dec 2008. Online image. flickr. retrieved from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lapolab/2403693037

My virtues and faults



It was a good occasion for me to think about my virtues more seriously than usual. Especially, this week, I was likely to keep myself busy. I had a lot of assignments this week and even though I made a plan so that I would be able to manage everything in time, I tended to postpone doing them. Therefore, at the end of the week, I had to stay up late to finish up them. As Franklin mentions, it is extremely difficult to acquire order of "self". Supposing you do not succeed in the order, it can vex you a lot. However, it also seems to be true that if it were not any order of "self", which is deeply related to my virtues, I do not think I would be able to develop myself.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Job and Wiesel

To begin with, it is true that both Job and Wiesel believed in God strongly. Even after they underwent a lot of suffering, they still kept praying for God. However, eventually, both of them started to wonder why those things were happenning to them, which is one of the similarities. In other words, they once lost their faith in God, yet I take it for granted that they think in that way since they are humans. On the other hand, the most significant difference is that while Job got everything back and even more at the end of his story, Wiesel seems to be still suffering for what happened to him since he never got what he lost during the Holocaust such as his father back.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Reflecting on the lecture given by Professor Kather


Reflecting on the lecture given by Professor Kather, I was quite surprised at the art works shown by him, which were mainly made during the Holocaust. The spirit of artworks during the wholesale slaughter is absolutely out of my understanding. Also, I was schocked at the fact that around 10 million innocent people were killed during the time alongside feeling sympathy for all the victims. Simultaneously, it was interesting because before the lecture, I had read the book more or less, however, after the lecture with a lot of photos, I felt like the topic was more familiar with me to a certain extent. To be honest, I could not put up with the photos of many people who are just skin and bones. Now, I wish this kind of tragedy would never take place anywhere in this world just like Proffesor Kather strongly insisted at the end of his lecture.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Reflecting on the lecture given by Professor Kather

It was a lof of fun for me to take Professor Kather's lecture. Throughout the lecture, she showed us around 20 pictures alongside explaing the details of them. I learned something about William Blake, an English artist as well as a poet. I would admire his work a lot, every picture was breathtaking. Without his pictures and Professor Kather, my comprehension of the story could have been vague even after reading as the story itself is rather complex for me. So the lecture was obviously helpful.

homework for the weekend

I chose the question, "Is such a conception of God still relevant in the modern world?"

I strongly insist that the kind of conception of God written in "The Book of JOB" is associated with the modern world. The reason for my statement is because I believe that even if a person has to face a lot of suffering, he or she can escape from the severe condition by believing in and praying for God. As can be seen from the ending of the story, Job got his fortune and happiness back at last. I consider this sequence was brought about because of the fact that he realized the splendor of God after he had heard God telling him the importance of the occasion taking place at the time, which God decided to give him as an ordeal, in the storm. Eventually, he started praying for God more deeply, indeed. It is natural that every person is likely to face a lot of difficulties in terms of finance, relationship and so on, however, if they do not give up and keep making efforts, I do believe that they will be successful again sometime just like Job. My answer for the question seems abstract since the thought is invisible, however, this is what my notion of God is like.