Recipe for War

Recipe for WWII

Take a worn out piece of fading parchment

with words with no power or meaning

and chop it up into small, thin

slices

Using a hammer, smash up a seat

of no power

located in Geneva, Switzerland

and pour

in two smiling white men

who love pandering to

others

knead slowly while

adding three angry revolutionaries

screaming for war

Next, mix

in tanks, airplanes and

blitzkrieg.

don’t forget to add

a aggressive and relentless

island nation.

Place in an oven for twenty one years

when complete, sprinkle with

the National Socialist German Worker’s Party.

 

Sit back and enjoy the carnage.

Which Character Do I Most Closely Identify with in Animal Farm

The book Animal Farm by George Orwell contains many diverse and interesting characters with many steadfast beliefs and ideas. Since the whole book is an allegory of the Russian Revolution, each one of the characters really represents a key figure in the Revolution. In my case, taking a look at the wide range of options, I'd have to call myself a "Snowball." Throughout the entire book, there are many examples and actions that help me relate to Snowball. The earliest example is on page 17 when he writes down the seven commandments of Animalism, to make absolutely sure the equality of animals is kept. I may not be writing down commandments, but I do make decisions that are best for the people or the "animals" as a whole. Snowball is a visionary, who focuses on improvement and development. Just like him, when I'm working on a project and I have idea's, but it's sometimes hard to put them into action.  The above statements are "good" traits I share with Snowball, but we also share a flaw. Snowball is a super-optimist, meaning, while he has great plans for the future, he usually fails to consider the present, and the actions needed to achieve the vision, just like me. Therefore he was unable to for-see his own downfall. So, overall, while Snowball and I are visionaries and decision makers, we both focus too much on the future and not enough on the present.

Feedback January 19-23 Tyranny, Injustice, and self determination

It's best to start off this post by locating where these terms exist. They are key words that relate immensely to the cycle of power in Animal Farm by George Orwell. Let's start by defining the words we're dealing with. What exactly is tyranny, well, it's defined by merriam-webster dictionary as, "oppressive power exerted by the government." Pretty much, it's when the government has total control over the people and resources so that all development is diverted to the small group of rulers instead of for the people. The main example in the book is Farmer Jones, the character who represents Tzar Nikolas II. While he may seem like a normal farmer, in truth, he abuses the animals for their resources like milk, meat, and manpower, which acurately fits the description of a tyrant. They next term, injustice, can be defined as, "an unjust act that violates one's rights." Many animals suffered many injustices like slaughter, slavery, and suppression of basic humane rights under the reign of Farmer Jones. This leads to the third and final term, Self-determination. This can be defined as, "determination by the people of a territory over their own future." Because the animals were treated unjustly in Farmer Jones' tyranny, they sought their own freedom through a revolution. The above paragraphs can be summed up by a simple process. A tyrant rules unjustly resulting in self determination through revoution. This process of power that involves the three words repeats itself over again later in the book. Similar to Farmer Jones, Napoleon becomes a tyrant and rules unjustly, abusing the animals for resources. Because the animals suffer, and understand why they are suffering, the prepare to seek self determination near the end of the book. However, it finishes before the next revolution.

The Mustachioed Man

"Hello," I say

The big man with the mustache laughs

“Why?” I ask

We huddle closer together as he thumbs

the brass and wooden

trigger

“I am invincible!” he says,

swinging at us with the bayonet.

“Are you sure?” I ask

 

“I leave a wake of death and

destruction in my path,”

he roars, “Headstones are laid

wherever I walk!”

“Is that not power? Foolish boy!”

One man smiles, and collapses as

a bullet pierces his head.

“Are you sure?” I ask

 

“I Fight for king and Country!”

the man bellows over the explosions

As the dirt rains down, the others seem

to swell with

pride.

Maybe fighting is right.

I stare

“Are you sure?”

 

The mustachioed man grows quiet

his vigorous rantings dead

The color drains from his face

and his hands claw at my wrists

“All I see is death,” he whispers

His now dark and empty eyes

search my own

 

“I don’t believe in goodbyes,”

says the big man with the mustache

He leaps up, over the top…

and his body tumbles back down

“Hello,” I say

Feedback 12-16 The Millitary and YOU

I currently hold a U.S passport. In U.S, it isn't mandatory to fight in the millitary. It's an intresting delima, giving yourself and your experties over to a country. It requires ultimately supporting your country no matter what. Personally, I don't think I could commit my life to something else, especially, in this case, if it invovled killing other humans. The current age for the draft is 18-25. Lets consider this for a second, 18-25 years. Thats incredibly young, and sending 18 year olds to the war is like throwing our future into the fire. That would be a complete waste of whatever gifts and ideas I and anyone else could share with the world. We are given life, and life is ment to LIVE, to create and to prosper. How can I or anyone else achieve that if were fighting and killing in the name of someone else's mistake. I wouldn't join the army to fight a war, period.
If the draft was ever ressurected, I would probably flee to Canada. Fighting for a cause I don't believe in is worse then fighting to die.

Political Cartoon Evaluation

This interesting cartoon pretains to the first world war. The main visual elements are the different military commanders representing their country. Each one of them, except for the lady on the left, are interconnected via rolled up parchments. I think that the parchments represent treaties or deals made between the millitary commaders of WW1. Therefore, this cartoon is about the numerous treaties, ceasefires, trade deals, and other "receipts" for behind the back deals that all the countries in WWI enacted. The main divide down the middle, where Germany and Austo-Hungary meet, forms the two "alliances" from WW1. However, if you examine the picture closely, you can see that all the countries, Turkey, Russia, Italy, America, and Brittan, are actually connected. This means there was no war , because in the end, the enimies are signing deals with the allies. Thats what I think the Author's oppinion on this issue is that there was no WWI. The one other piece of evidence that supports this is how the Swiss representative has been cut out off the treaties. The reason behind this is that Switzerland maintained neutrality throughout the war, refusing to join either of the "alliances."

I think that if the cartoonist wanted have a bigger impact, he should of done two things. First was he should have added a caption, and second, make it a little clearer which countries were which.

This cartoon relates to the great powers game in many ways. The first and most prominent is that we all represented great powers like Russia or Germany. Also, just like the cartoon, in our attempts to gain power, we ended up being allies with every single person in the game. The example of our trade deals and war plans were two alliances, the "axis," and the "allies." *cough*
However, if you traced some of the deals and treaties, it turned out there was no "axis and Allies," it was just one massive grouping of people tied together. We had all inadvertedly ended up supporting the opposing side. This tangle of failed treaties eventually led to the collapse into chaos and war. So really, this cartoon represents more then our game or ww1. It represents basic human nature to secure power, and fail miserably doing so.

Quarter 3 Goals.

This quarter was tough but fun, and this made my goals from last quarter harder to achive. However, I think that I managed to cover all three of them. My first goal was to turn in all my assignments on time. Almost all my assignments were turned in on time. One or two were late, or unsatisfactory. Thats why I'm keeping this goal as one to work on for the upcoming quarter. My second goal was to study harder for tests and quizzes, and review along the way. I think that I accomplished this goal partially because I actually did put more time aside to study, and also because my overall test grade was increased. My third gaol was to finish AR on time, becuase last time I did AR I had to rush to complete it. This quarter I finished AR with a few weeks to spare, and it was also above sixteen points. Overall, I did a pretty good job on accomplishing my goals. Two out of three isn't that bad.

This quarter I wan't to keep one of the above goals since it's a long term goal. I wan't to turn in ALL my assignments on time. The second goal I wan't to accomplish is finish my blog a little earlier before the blog evaluation. Last time, I waited untill twenty four hours before the blog evalutiton to update my blog. My third goal is to prepare for the upcoming socratic seminars, and back up all my info.