Terrorist World View

We discussed what the text calls the two dominant images of the World War II Cultural Matrix:  The Holocaust and the Atomic Bomb.  In both those instances, how did the values the support technology challenge ( and, you might argue, defeat) the values that oppose technology?

It has been more than a generation since those horrors of World War II, but in our current war on terror--or whatever the terminology is today-- how are the same values that were in play in the 1940s still active?

Valuing Technology

I loved the Conan clip yesterday in the combined session that illustrates how we live in a "Science Fiction World."  In what specific ways to we show how we value technology (and the the values that support it) in our culture today?  Do you think that our valuing of toys, size, information, and speed and what they can bring to our lives override the values that oppose or conflict with technology (the subjective values) ?  Can we reconcile those conflicts?

Evolutionary World View and University College Day

I saw many of you in the keynote address on Tuesday, Thank God for Evolution.   If you attended that lecture, what did you think of the idea of an "evolutionary world view," or how evolution helps us understand ourselves and our world without removing the importance of the spiritual?   Or you can just discuss what you thought of the ideas Rev. Dowd presented.  What ever you do, discusss the relationships between the values associated with science and the values associated with faith, and how, or if, Rev. Dowd reconciles the two.

Alternatively, if you did not attend that lecture, what session did you attend and how can you apply our broad discussion of values to the presentation you heard.

Week off

As the portfolios were due on Thursday and we won't start the new unit until Tuesday, April 14, because of University College Day and Easter Break, we won't do a blog discussion this week.

I will post again next Friday, April 10.

Propaganda and You

Now that we have really discussed how propaganda works, at least according to Adolph Hitler, think about how you can recognize propaganda when you see it.  First define it and then give examples of how you might have been influenced by propaganda and when you recognized it and resisted it.

Is Freud Valid?

As a reminder, the first post for this prompt is not due until 3/24.  I hope you all have a restful Spring Break.

When we discuss the ideas of Sigmund Freud, we tend to focus on his quite controversial ideas about sexuality.  He does, however, have some valid points about how the mind works.  What connections can you make between his ideas about the validity of dreams as ways to understand the self and the values of the WWICM?  

The Sorrow of War

I was particularly struck by last week's discussion in that most of you focused on the values associated with motion, or the mechanistic values, but one person said that in our culture we want or need to believe that organic values still exist. I think that idea is particularly apropos to our discussion of the poetry of the First World War. The poets seem caught in despair when looking at a world that seemed to be out of control--where the mechanistic values all trumped the organic values with disastrous results.

We saw the human side of war and battle in the poetry we discussed in class. Do you feel that war today is humanized or is it dehumanized? Are we more sensitive to the horrors with the instant communication we have today--or are we desensitized? Whatever your reaction, what does that tell you about our values? Do we need the organic values?

Btw, I took the title of this post from a novel on the Vietnam War by Bao Ninh.