THE AGE OF FAIRNESS AND JUSTICE – by Gary Smolker

← A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR IMPROVING POLICE CONDUCT IN THE FIELD – by Gary Smolker

LOVE DOES NOT JUDGE

Jun 13

 

 

WE ARE LIVING IN THE AGE OF FAIRNESS

We are living in an AGE OF FAIRNESS, in an age of creativity, social fairness, racial fairness, inclusiveness, diversity, etc. etc.  It is a RENAISSANCE.

We have left the Stone Age.  We have left the DARK AGES.  We have left the ENLIGHTENMENT and the renaissance which followed the Age of Enlightenment and we have left the Age of Secularization which followed the Age of Enlightenment.

We have entered an age of rational compassionate fairness and religious ferocity.

Some people now realize (1) Black people are just people; (2) they are not an inferior race or a violent race of people; (3) they have suffered many grave injustices, including slavery, systematic anti-Blackness, and inequality of opportunity (a) for an education, (b) for employment, (c) for housing, and for health care.

Some people now realize (1) doing the right thing is just, is justice in action; (2) everybody wants justice; (3) justice is eternal; (4) evil is only temporary, evil doesn’t last; its not the light at the end of the tunnel that counts, it is the light within that counts.

WE ARE EXPERIENCING A TIPPING POINT OF SOCIAL CHANGE

Nearly 95% of the counties that have had protests in the past few weeks are majority white, 75% are more than 75% white.  The age group with the largest share of protestors was people under 35 and the income group with the largest share of protestors were those earning more than $150,000.00

THE AMOUNT OF CHANGE PROTESTS HAVE PRODUCED IN THE PAST FEW WEEKS

• In Minneapolis the City Council pledged to dismantle its police department.
• In New York, lawmakers repealed a law that kept police disciplinary records secret.
• Cities and states across the country have passed laws banning choke holds.
• Mississippi law makers voted to retire their state flag, which prominently includes a Confederate Battle emblem.

According to a poll from the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation, one in five Americans said they had participated in a protest since the beginning of the Trump administration.

THE LARGER NUMBER OF PEOPLE PARTICIPATING IN THESE PROTEST MARCHES

In recent weeks, 15 million to 26 million people in the United States have participated in demonstrations over the death of GEORGE FLOYD and others.

The Women’s March in March 2017 had a turn out of about 3 million to 5 million on a single day.

The civil rights marches in the 1960s all together had hundreds of thousands of participants, not millions

Across the United States there have been more than 4,700 demonstrations, or an average of 140 per day, since the first protest began in Minneapolis on May 26, 2020. Turn out has ranged from dozens to tens of thousands in about 2,500 small towns and large cities.

On June 6, 2020, half a million people turned out in 550 places across the United States to protest against police brutality and for racial justice.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

According to a poll from the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation, one in five Americans said they have participated in a protest since the start of the Trump Administration, and 19% said they were new to protesting.

[This post has been revised four times.  I began typing this post in May, 2020.  The above sections of this post were typed and added to this post on July 13, 2020.]

PRELIMINARY INTRODUCTION

This post is still a work in progress.

I have rewritten this post three times and I am now revising it for the fourth time.

This is the fourth revision of this post.

This post is still a work in progress.

I am still writing, editing, and revising this post because I believe it is vital to be pushing the conversation on the important social issues of (a) racial injustice,(b) racism, (c) protests against racial injustice, (d) law enforcement reform, (e) the shut down of the economy in the Unites States and other countries to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and (e) Russia’s and China’s efforts to dominate the world and to destabilize and to destroy American society and the American economy.

People are feeling the pain of the coronavirus pandemic.

The pandemic effects (a) people’s health, (b) the health of the economy, and (c) how safe things are. and how safe it is to do things.

The pandemic exposed big problems of our time that connect [(a) health care, (b) race, (c) inequality, (d) racial injustice] and foundational personality traits [(a) empathy, (b) dignity, and (c) human decency] each of which have now become political issues

People are working tirelessly to advance civilization.

The Black protestor in the photograph above is carrying a sign which reads:

“Telling me that I’m obsessed with talking about racism in America is like telling me I’m obsessed with swimming when I am drowning.”

On July 4, 2020, at protests and counter-protests, in Richmond, Virginia, White Supremacists, Black Lives Matter people, and armed Black Men sang “God Bless America” together at the same time, at the same place.

TODAY: The citizens of the United States are intensely engaged in a propaganda thought control war – an ideology war about racism.

Getting history right is of great importance in present thought control wars.

INTRODUCTION

In the last two months, people living in the United States have lived through a series of convulsive events.

Before GEORGE FLOYD was murdered on May 25, 2020 the world, including the United States, was being battered by the Coronavirus pandemic.

One part of the world economy after another was shut down: people were literally locked down; people were ordered to shelter-in-place; businesses were ordered to close; businesses closed; schools were ordered to close; schools closed.

People’s lives and the business world was turned upside down in an attempt to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus.

This caused people to become extremely stressed out.

Forty million Americans had lost their jobs as a result of the lock-down before GEORGE FLOYD was murdered.

Then GEORGE FLOYD was murdered.

Then a video of the murder of GEORGE FLOYD was broadcast on social media.

Then the same video was broadcast on conventional media and news outlets.

The murder of GEORGE FLOYD, the callousness of the police officers responsible for his murder – their belief that they would suffer no consequences from the authorities – the man crushing GEORGE FLOYD’S neck for almost nine minutes staring straight into the cameras of bystanders who were taking videos and taking pictures of what he was doing – and the lack of an immediate response to GEORGE FLOYD’S murder by the Minneapolis police department was more than the world could take.

Then the local district attorney for the City of Minneapolis decided no crime was committed – that was more than the world could take.

People went into the streets to protest police brutality, social injustice and systemic social injustice.  They went into the streets to protest for racial justice.

After watching videos of GEORGE FLOYD being murdered, and hearing about and seeing additional videos of other black men being murdered while in police custody, it was universally believed – and universally agreed – that police treated black people as if black persons’ lives did not matter.

Intense protests and discussion of policing, racial injustice, racism, and white supremacy followed.

NBA superstar Michael Jordan treated:

“We must never turn our backs on senseless brutality. We need to continue peaceful expressions against injustice and demand accountability.”

People became sensitized to the words “racism” and “protest.”

Currently, the most searched words on Google are “racism” and “protest.”

Currently, the best selling book is Ibram X. Kendi’s book HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST.

People received videos that showed black and brown men and women being killed by a one white policeman or by a group of white policemen, people received videos showing the use of excessive force by police, and people received videos of events that took place at protests that followed.

HISTORY OF PROTESTS IN THE UNITED STATES

The United States has a history of protests – remember the Boston Tea Party.

Before the 13 British Colonies declared their independence from Britain, White Americans dressed as Indians stormed a British ship in Boston and threw its cargo of tea into Boston Harbor as way of protesting “taxation without representation” – taxes imposed on the American Colonials by the British government.

There were massive citizen protests against the Vietnam War during the Vietnam War.

HISTORY OF BEING LIED TO BY THEIR GOVERNMENT

Americans know their government lies to them.

That is what the Pentagon Papers [published by the New York Times and the Washington Post] lawsuit was about.

The American government lied to the American people about the Vietnam War.

The Pentagon papers exposed the governments’ lies.

The Nixon administration tried to stop publication of the Pentagon Papers.

The Nixon administration was unable to stop publication of the Pentagon Papers.

IT IS A TRADITION IN AMERICA FOR  PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE IN JUSTICE TO SPEAK OUT

While the Vietnam War was raging, people of all ages protested against the war at protest rallies.

Song writers wrote songs protesting the war.

Popular singers like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby Stills Nash and Young (CSNY), and many other leading song-writers-singers wrote and sang songs protesting the Viet Nam War.

In “Teach Your Children” CSNY warned we’re bound to repeat mistakes of the past if we don’t do our best to “teach our children well.”

“Teach YOUR children/ To believe and

“Make a world that/ We can live in.”

That song asks parents to teach their children to be kind … and to understand the why’s of our values.

“Four Dead in Ohio”, a CSNY song penned by Neil Young, is heralded as the the ‘ultimate protest song’ of the turbulent 1970s.

The lyrics evoke the utter shock and moral outrage felt by the Nation following the shootings of college students protesting against the Vietnam War on the Kent State College campus.

The chorus chant “Four Dead in Ohio,” coupled with the lyric line “Tin Soldiers and Nixon coming” refer to the Ohio National Guardsmen who shot and killed four students during the campus protest.

“Four Dead in Ohio” was banned from some AM radio stations because of the challenge to the Nixon Administration in the lyrics but received airplay on underground FM stations in larger cities and college towns.

WAKE UP AMERICA

In 1833 free black people were banned by the State of Alabama by law from living in Alabama.

Jim Crow laws have been common in the South – separate bathrooms for white people and black people, etc. – even after Sputnik was launched by the Soviet Union.

Lynching of Black People was common at the time Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

From 1915 to 1970, almost six million black people fled the Jim Crow South for northern and western states

People in power – such as President Donald Trump – are trying to deny Black People and Brown People and Native American Indians the opportunity to vote by impeding the use of mail-in ballots.

THINGS ARE HAPPENING

LeBron James, NBA team owners, and stadiums are stepping in to make sure that BLACK people will get to vote in the upcoming elections.

Stadiums in which NBA games are usually played will be turned into polling places before elections take place later this year.

Lyft has committed to offering free rides or discounted rides to people who need transportation to get to voting places.

White People, Black People. and Latino People are demanding that police departments be defunded; that police conduct be changed; and even that police departments be disbanded.

People are demanding that police procedures be changed – that when police are deployed what they are allowed to do be tightly regulated.

Law enforcement reform has become a hotly discussed topic.

The City of Los Angeles’ city budget has been changed – the amount in the City budget previously proposed be allocated to the police department was reduced in the current city budget – as a result of these demands.

The County of Los Angeles’ budget has been put on hold while the County Supervisors study what is to be done with respect to the amount of money in the County’s budget that is to be allocated to the Sheriff’s Department.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has cut $1 Billion from New York City’s $6 Billion budget for the police department.

The Democrats in the House of Representatives have passed a reform bill which (a) restricts the use of choke holds, (b) bans no-knock police raids, (c) will create a police officer misconduct registry, (d) lowers the threshold to prosecute a police officer to “if they show ‘reckless disregard for someone’s life.'”

ASIDE: Police Officer Derek Chavin – the police officer who killed GEORGE FLOYD – already had 18 complaints lodged against him before he killed GEORGE FLOYD by kneeling on GEORGE FLOYD’S neck for almost nine minutes.

WHITE PEOPLE WERE SHOCKED TO LEARN BLACK PEOPLE FEARED FOR THEIR LIVES WHENEVER THEY SAW POLICE OFFICERS

A majority of Americans have come to believe that what happened to GEORGE FLOYD is part of a broader pattern of excessive police brutality towards African-Americans.

Information supporting that thesis keeps coming in.

White people have heard from multiple black sources that black mothers tell their children what to do when they see a police officer in order to stay alive.

White people have seen unarmed black men being killed by while police officers – either shot or strangled.

On June 29, 2020, the New York Times reported finding at least 70 people who had died while in police custody over the last decade, after saying [like GEORGE FLOYD said before he died] “I can’t breathe.”

WHITE SUPREMACY

Many people are fed up wit the concept of White Supremacy, the existence of White Supremacy, and the existence of monuments that celebrate White Supremacy.

People have started tearing down and defacing monuments which they feel glorify white supremacy.

People have successfully demanded that many statues honoring white supremacists be removed from public places.

STATUE HONORING THEODORE ROOSEVELT

The most famous statue to be removed is a statue of President Theodore Roosevelt.

Theodore Roosevelt was a eugenicist – a person who believed in the superiority of the white race.

People demanded that the statue honoring Theodore Roosevelt (statue pictured above) of Theodore Roosevelt on a horse and a Black Man and an American Indian beneath him  at the entrance of the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan be removed.

The American Museum of Natural History announced that it is going to remove the statute.

PROMOTING RACIAL INFERIORITY AND PROMOTING WHITE SUPREMACY

An intense discussion of the impact of what statues and names represent is on-going – which is a discussion of what constitutes promotion of white supremacy – what promotes the idea that the white race is superior to the black race, and/or what promotes the idea that people who belong to white race are superior to Native American Indians.

People have demanded that statues that celebrate Confederate Generals who fought to maintain slavery be torn down or removed because they glorify and honor the idea that black people are inferior to white people.

Native American People and other people have demanded that the name of the Washington Redskins NFL football team and the name of the Atlanta Braves MLB team be changed.

TREATMENT OF BLACK PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES

Above is a photo of the June 26, 1970 magazine cover of A Midwest Newspaper of Women’s Liberation.

The  quote (1851) in the photo above (copy below) was written by Sojourner Truth:

“The man over there says women need to be helped into carriages and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages or over puddles, or gives me the best place — and ain’t I a woman?

“Look at my arm!  I have plowed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me — and ain’t I a woman.  I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well? and ain’t I a woman?

“I have born thirteen children and seen most of them sold into slavery and when I cried out with my mother’s grief none but Jesus heard me – and ain’t I a woman?

On January 26, 2020 the New York Times published a op ed piece written by Caroline Randall Williams’ arguing that that statues of Confederate Generals ought to be torn down.

Her op ed piece begins:

” I have a rape color skin,

“My immediate white male ancestors were all rapists.

“I am the descendant of black women who were domestic servants and white men who raped their help.

“I am more than half white and none of it was consensual.

“White Southern men – my ancestors – took what they wanted from the women they did not love, over whom they had extraordinary power and then failed to claim their children.”

Ms Williams’ op ed piece was widely read.

BLACK PEOPLE DID NOT LIKE BEING SLAVES

 

The discipline of art history, with its deeply European roots, framework and model, is the most powerful and enduring apparatus of imperialism and colonization.

Its a brilliant fabrication, it is ethnocentric.

It has an ethnocentric theme, with a perverse hierarchy of objects drawn along a regimental axis which has astonishing implications.

Such objects and their styles are manifest the tastes of the elite and ruling classes.

It is a totalizing scheme in which all human made objects must find their appropriate place and the view of the elite classes becomes what one art historian has called the “brain of the earth’s body: the most thoroughgoing and effective imperialistic gesture imaginable.”

What is configured is an articulation of colonization and imperialism that allows colonization to subsist despite the end of direct colonization.

Hierarchies of race, gender and class are imposed, and the message is that so called natives, indigenous, inferior, subordinate, subaltern, and nonwhite people are to be conquered, catechized, dominated, variously exterminated, variously dislodged.

The question to ask yourself is: “How can we provide, discover and assess histories that are more plural, inclusive, multiple, diverse?

CORONAVIRUS

While the present on-going intense discussion of police brutality, use of extremely excess force in policing, reform law enforcement, and removal of statues of racists has been in progress, a relaxation of steps taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus has recently taken place in many states..

As result of recent relaxation of orders designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus — relaxation of stay in place orders, relaxation of wear mask orders, relaxation of limitations on business operation there has been an unprecedented climb in the number of coronavirus infections in the United States.

The number of coronavirus infections in the United States in the past two weeks surged 65 % – 41,000 cases nationwide, including one day records in Nevada, South Carolina, and Florida.

On Monday, June 29, 2020, Dr. Anne Schuchat, M.D. Principal Deputy Director of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention said, “The coronavirus is spreading too broadly and too rapidly for the United States to get it under control.”

As a result of the coronavirus millions of American who work for state and local governments will be layed off.

State governments, county governments, and city governments will be forced to further cut their payrolls in an attempt to balance government budgets in a time of decreased revenues and increased spending.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans who work for colleges and universities have already been layed off due to the absence of students on campus.

Those who depend on the spending of college students in college towns who have not already lost their jobs will lose their jobs if students due not return.

In rural college towns, such as Ithaca, New York, one out of two people’s jobs is dependent upon college student attendance at Cornell University and Ithaca College.

Recently, Cornell University announced in a 97 page reopening report that it plans to reopen.

When college campuses shut down, college student spending stops,

When college campuses shut down, it is a major economic disaster in cities that depend on college student spending.

When college campuses shut down it is a catastrophe for colleges and universities which depend on college enrollment fees and depend on revenue from collage dormitories.

Colleges and Universities which depend on revenue from college football, and other college sports will take a big hit..

The number of Americans who lost their jobs due to steps taken to prevent spread of coronavirus prevention climbed from 40 million at the time of GEORGE FLOYD’S murder (May 25, 2020) to 48 million today (June 29, 2020).

AS CORONAVIRUS RISES THE ECONOMY SINKS

We are no longer in charge of the economy, the coronavirus is.

The coronavirus and the murder of GEORGE FLOYD now govern how we look at things and how may of us act.

On June 30, 2020 the Wall Street Journal reported:

In Los Angeles officials estimate one in 140 residents is infected with COVID 19; a week ago the estimate was one in 400. Christian Ghaly, Director for Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, said the county could begin running out of hospital beds in the next few weeks.

Los Angeles officials have banned all July 4 fireworks displays and ordered beaches closed over the coming holiday weekend.

As Covid 19 rises the economy sinks.

Governors have no choice but to close more businesses as the infections spread.

Florida, Texas and California have reversed reopening measures in recent days, as Covid 19 infection rates and hospitalizations rise.

The State of New York has now imposed a 14 day quarantine on all passengers arriving from California.

SAUDI ARABIA

Out of concern for the spread of coronavirus, Saudi officials effectively cancelled this year’s hajj.

Only about 1,000 people will be permitted to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, compared with 2.5 million who did so last year.

EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE RESPECT FOR THE PEOPLE WHO PROTECT THEM.

Everyone agrees that they should have respect for the people who protect them.

Last week the Tucson Police Department released a video showing Carlos Ingram Lopez, a 27 year-old Latino man, being restrained face down for for 12 minutes by police officers in April.  He died shortly after.

Many Latinos across the United States are calling out police brutality against their communities, echoing similar calls by African-Americans.

Everyone in the United States is now asking:

1. Who protects them?
2. Do the police protect them?
3. How must police act in performing their duties?
4. What should be done to rid police departments of the scourge of racism?
5. What should be done to rid policemen, policewomen, and police departments from using excessive force?
6. How must we, the people and our government, act to protect the police and to protect citizens from the police
7. How must we and our government act to protect us from the spread of Covid 19>
8. How must government act to protect people and businesses from loss of income and other impacts of mass unemployment caused by business shut downs ordered by the government?
9. What restrictions should be imposed on businesses, social and religious gatherings, and protest rallies to prevent the spread of Covid 19?
10. What steps, in any, should be taken to promote (a) equality, and to promote (b) racial equality?

Currently, the Federal Aviation Agency does not require airline passengers to wear masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Currently, the United States federal government does not require anyone to wear a mask to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

United States President Trump refuses to wear a mask to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

People question the leadership, intellectual integrity, vanity and immaturity of the top infectious disease expert in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

It is widely understood worldwide that the U.S. federal government failed and continues to fail in controlling the spread of the coronavirus.

Forty of the fifty eight states are currently seeing an increase in the rate of coronavirus infections.

The rate of new coronavirus infections in the United States is currently out of control.

IDOLS

The people tearing down statues, attempting to tear down statues, and demanding removal of statues are forcing us to ask ourselves:

1. Who are our idols?
2. Who should be our idols?
3. What does a statue represent?

The majority of American voters support demonstrators against police brutality.

Many Americans see President Trump as being out of touch with the concept of racial justice.

Many Americans see President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as not understanding the difference between rewriting history and adding a new perspective to history by adding the experience of nonwhite people in the historical narrative.

The people in favor or tearing down or removing statues see statues as a standing memory which supports and honors white supremacy ideas and ideals.

They say the monuments must be torn down to strip the people honored of their laurels.

They say the statues are an emotional investment white people have in a legacy of hate.

The people who tear down and/or ask for monuments to be removed, mantra is:

“Do you mean to honor the oppressors at the expense of the oppressed ?

“If so, you have an emotional investment in a legacy of hate.”

People have been awakened through protests, and efforts to tear down or remove statues, to complaints about police brutality, racial injustice and systemic racism.

Protests in the United States have had a significant impact on our psyche.

On July 1, 2020, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department released nine minutes of body cam footage showing police officers laughing and celebrating after shooting protestors with rubber bullets during a May 31, 2020 protest against police brutality after the killing of GEORGE FLOYD in Minneapolis.

Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Rick Maglione said, “our officers were dealing with the chaos of a developing situation.”

The cover of the June 22/June 29, 2020 TIME Magazine bears the headline: “THE OVERDUE AWAKENING.”

The cover of the July 6/July 13, 2020 TIME Magazine bears the headline: “AMERICA MUST CHANGE.”

THE MEANING OF LIFE

Before the events described above took place one out of three Americans were suffering from being in an extreme state of stress and anxiety.

They still are.

At least one out of three Americans are suffering from the trauma of fear of the unknown.

At least one in three Americans are in a state of  clinical depression.

Almost all Americans today cannot tolerate differences of opinion.

Their “nerves have been frayed.”

They are in a highly emotional state.

They are maxed out mentally.

The meaning of their life has been turned upside down by recent events.

Many forces are at play.

The amount and type of trauma being suffered by each individual depends upon such factors as:

• the color of their skin;
• their political beliefs;
• their social beliefs;
• where they are physically located – whether their local businesses have been burned down or looted and/or whether their local businesses are boarded up;
• whether they have personally been victimized by prejudice or bias;
• whether or not they are an immigrant, and if so their status as an immigrant;
• whether or not their parent is an immigrant
• their level of education,
• their social status,
• their income and their wealth;
• their age and whether they are retired or working; and
• whether they are employed or not.

IMPACT OF RACE PREJUDICE

The energy, momentum and motives of the people responsible for the current uproar about social justice differs from person to person.

The reactions to the uproar about social justice also differ from person to person.

If you are a Japanese American it might rub you the wrong way and it might be extremely irritating to you that Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (FDR’s) picture is on all dimes in the United States.

FDR was the President who guided the United States through the Great Depression and World War II.

While FDR was president the U.S. government forced the relocation and internment of thousands of Japanese-Americans to detention camps during World War II.

The interment of Japanese-Americans was the culmination of the federal government’s long history of racist and discriminatory treatment of Asian immigrants and their descendants which had begun with restrictive immigration policies in the late 1800s.

At the time of internment, only three percent of Japanese-Americans were considered direct threats to U.S. security.

Two-thirds of the prisoners in the camps were native-born American citizens.

WAR RELOCATION AUTHORITY

On March 18, 1942, the federal War Relocation Authority was established to “take all people of Japanese descent into custody, surround them with troops, prevent them from buying land, and return them to their former homes at the close of war.”

John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War, remarked if it came to a choice between national security and the guarantee of civil liberties expressed in the Constitution, he considered the Constitution just a scrap of paper.

HUMAN IMPACT

In the immediate aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack, more than 1,200 Japanese community leaders were arrested, and the assets of all accounts in the U.S. branches of Japanese banks were frozen.

On March 31, 1942 Japanese Americans along the West Coast were ordered to report to control stations and to register the names of all family members.

They were told when and where they should report for removal to an internment camp.

Japanese Americans were given from four days to about two weeks to settle their affairs and gather as many belongings as they could carry.

In may cases, individuals and families were forced to sell some or all of their property, including businesses within that period of time.

Nearly 2,00 Japanese Americans were told that their cars would be safely stored until they returned.

However. the U.S. Army soon offered to buy the vehicles at cut-rate prices and Japanese who refused were told that the vehicles were being requisitioned for the war.

Between 1942 and 1945 a total of ten internment camps were opened, holding approximately  120,000 Japanese Americans for varying periods of time, in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Arkansas.

INTERNMENT CAMP SHUT DOWN

On  December 18, 1944, the government announced that all relocations centers (internment camps) would be closed by the end of 1945.

The last of the camps was closed in March 1946.

With the end of internment, Japanese Americans began reclaiming or rebuilding their lives.

RACIAL PREJUDICE

A presidential commission in 1982 identified race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership as the underlying causes of the government’s interment program.

Above information about internment camps obtained/taken from Encyclopedia Britannica.

ACA – 5

Many Japanese-Americans fear that allowing affirmative action (to achieve racial justice) will adversely effect their children.

An amendment to the Constitution of the State of California (ACA – 5) is set to go on the ballot in November, 2020.

The purpose of the amendment is to void a law that makes it illegal to use race as a grounds for admission to state universities.

Japanese American parents have signed a petition against enactment because they fear if admission to UCLA and UC Berkeley is not based on the academic excellence of the applicant, their highly academically successful children will be discriminated against – they fear their children will have a lower chance of gaining admission to a public university in the University of California system.

ACTIVATING REAL CHANGE

While Black Lives Matter leaders and followers are working tirelessly to advance civil society, let’s protect ourselves from doing stupid things because of mindless anger.

Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.

Although it is important to put an end to use of excessive force by police it is at least as important to to be protected from violent crimes committed by thugs and for firemen and police to be able to respond to emergencies and to not live in fear..

My research assistant has reported to me:

Before the murder of GEORGE FLOYD, a black police officer Mohamed Noor in the Minnesota police department MURDERED a white woman, Gustine Damond.

Her family was awarded $20 million in damages for her wrongful death in 2018.

Mr. Noor was sentenced in 2019.

A grave danger of being beat up and robbed by black thugs in Minneapolis was well known before Frye (the mayor of Minneapolis before GEORGE FLOYD was murdered by four Minneapolis) was elected mayor of Minneapolis.

While I was writing this post, my research assistant sent me videos of black thugs beating up and robbing white people on a street corner in Minneapolis before GEORGE FLOYD.

EASY CHANGES TO MAKE IN POLICING

It has been reported to me that up to 20% of many cities’ annual city budgets come from revenue generated by fines related to traffic violations written by policemen.

Someone other than an official policeman can write up a ticket for being parked in a parking space after expiration of time paid for at a parking meter.

There is no need for policemen to write up parking meter expiration of time violations.

Running traffic lights — going through a red light — can be monitored and “caught” with cameras located at intersections instead of by a policeman stationed near a stop sign or traffic signal.

Traffic stops routinely made by policemen and policewoman riding in patrol cars need to be regulated.

Traffic stops by a police officer should not be allowed to escalate into a police officer killing an occupant in the vehicle stopped.

But they do so often that black parents instruct their children what to do if they are stopped by a policeman while they are driving a car in order to avoid being killed by that police officer.

People should not be afraid when they see a policeman in a police vehicle.

Do you know anyone who is not frightened when they see a police car near their own car while they are driving their automobile?

All police officers should be required to attend a six hour course, at least once a year, in which “racism” is defined, in which it is explained in no uncertain terms that racism is bad, in which it is made abundantly clear that racial profiling is not permitted, and in which it is made clear that police are supposed to treat people in as friendly manner as they would like to be treated by their neighbors..

AMOUNT OF TRAFFIC FINE

The amount of the traffic fine assessed for a traffic citation should fit the crime.

Poor people should not be required to pay a fine beyond their means.

Fines should be related to means.

THE BURDEN OF PROOF

The burden of proof to obtain a conviction in a criminal trial is “it must be beyond a reasonable doubt. that the accused committed the crime charged.”

The burden of proof required for a plaintiff to prevail – to obtain a judgment – in a civil trial is “that it is more likely than not the defendant caused damage suffered by plaintiff.”

The burden of proof to obtain a finding of police misconduct against a police officer involved in traffic-stop shooting ought to be “it was unreasonable for the police officer who shot the victim to believe his LIFE was in jeopardy.”

DEFUNDING THE POLICE WOULD BE A TRAGEDY FOR BLACK PEOPLE

According to FBI Crime Statistics, Black People are responsible for 50% of all murders and 50% of all strong armed robberies.

The vast majority of violent crimes (murder and armed robbery) are black on black crimes.

Black victims are most often the victims of violent crimes committed by black people.

Black people need to be protected by policemen and policewomen from violent crimes perpetrated by black criminals on them in their neighborhoods.

Police departments shouldn’t be de-funded unless necessary to implement a viable alternative system.

FBI VIOLENT CRIME STATISTICS

There are 500,000 violent crimes between people of different races per year.

In approximately 450,000 of those 500,000 violent crimes the victim is white and the perpetrator is black.

In approximately 50,000 of those violent crimes the victim is black and the perpetrator is white.

Although the black population is only 13% of the population, the black population is responsible for 50% of all murders, and 60% of all strong arm robberies.  The vast majority of these are black on black crimes.

Although 13% percent of the population of the United States is black, black people are responsible for between 24-26% of all hate crimes according to FBI statistics.

Information from FBI Statistics.

Information provided by my research assistant.

BLACK PRISON POPULATION

The number of young black men being arrested is going down.

Compared to 20 years ago, there are now half as many black men under the age 25 in prison.

Prison numbers come from Department of Justice.

Information from my research assistant.

WHAT EVERYONE TAKES FOR GRANTED IS OFTEN FALSE

Although almost everyone takes it for granted that there is systemic bigotry in America.

That is not true.

The fact that two and a half times as many black men are killed by police while in police custody than the number of white men killed while in police custody does not mean there is systemic bigotry in America.

It is inflammatory and self-destructive to claim that the majority of people in America are bigoted.

The majority of people in America are not bigots.

America is a county where capitalism flourishes.

That is one of the reasons immigrants immigrate to America.

America is a nation of immigrants.

Most people in the United States are highly ambitious.

All the people I know personally are highly ambitious individuals.

People can go from rags to riches in America.

For example consider Steve Jobs.

He was an orphan.

He had to drop out of college because he did not have the means to pay tuition.

Today the stock of the company he founded, Apple, is worth more than the entire net worth of the entire oil and gas industry,

Minorities are highly successful in America.

I personally know a number of spectacularly successful minorities.

I personally know that a high numbers and a high percentages of the graduates from the most elite universities in America are minority students.

Myself and my daughters attended elite universities in America.

When I was an undergraduate at UC Berkeley in 1964 – 1967, over 75% of the students in my chemical engineering classes were students who were – immigrants or foreign nationals – not born in the United States.

When I attended the graduation ceremony of my daughter at Cornell University, an Ivy League University in Ithaca, New York, about 25 years ago, it seemed to me that over 80% of the students receiving MS and PhD graduate degrees in scientific disciplines and in engineering fields had Asian names.

When I worked on a graduate degree (MS degree in biochemical engineering) in the Olin Hall School of Chemical Engineering at Cornell University in 1967 and 1968 the Dean of the School was a White man.  Today, the Dean of that School is a Black man.

A high percentage of the people earning the the most money working for tech companies in Silicon Valley are minorities; a high number and a high percentage of the most successful start-up companies in Silicon Valley and their founders are minorities-immigrants.

A high percentage of the managers of high tech companies in Silicon Valley, and elsewhere, are minorities.

Recently, the United States has had a Black President and a Black Attorney General.

Mayors and Chiefs of Police throughout the United States are Black.

In a big city like Los Angeles, more than 50% of the residents are either an immigrant or the child of an immigrant.

More that 200 languages are spoken in the City of Los Angeles.

POLICING NEEDS TO BE HUMANIZED

Recent events shown on social media show unnecessary brutality and excessive use of force by policemen.

Policing needs to be humanized.

JOHN GRISHAM’S DESCRIPTION OF POLICE

In John Grisham’s latest novel “Camino Winds”, as three characters are approaching a bridge to get back on an island that has been pounded by a hurricane, the following discussion takes place:

BRUCE “You are not going to believe this. The cops have the road blocked this side of the bridge and they’re searching each car with dogs.  Can you please tell me why?

BOB: “Because they can.”

BRUCE: I mean, these people just had their homes and businesses blown away, so why would they want to sneak explosives onto the island? These cops are out of control.”

BOB:  “For the same reason they send SWAT teams to arrest people for bad checks. Because they can and it’s far more dramatic. These guys think they are as tough as Navy Seals and they have to prove it.  Look at all the military gear they wear. Why does every Podunk police department have a tank these days?  Because the Pentagon has too much stuff and sells it cheap.  Why do they send canine dogs units to sniff around the country fair? Because they have the damn dogs and need to use them. Don’t get me started.

BOB: “Why does every fender bender need three cop cars and four fire trucks?  Because these guys are bored, sitting around the station and they get their jollies racing up and down the streets with sirens screaming.  Tough boys in action.  They like to block traffic in all directions, makes ’em feel powerful.  They control the situation. Sniffing dogs.  Unbelievable. It’ll be midnight before we get there.”

NEWS MEDIA

There are many ways to weave together facts to tell a story.

News media compete with other news media for eyeballs.

Media sell a product (advertising) to advertisers based on the number of viewers that view what they broadcast, who those viewers are, and how much and what type of attention their viewers give them.

In July, 2020 over 100 brands that used to advertise on FACEBOOK will not be advertising on FACEBOOK as their protest against FACEBOOK for FACEBOOK disseminating misinformation and hate on its platform.

On Friday, June 26, 2020, Honda of America announced it will not advertising on FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM because it has “chosen to stand with people united against hate and racism.”

Levi Straus & Co., said it will suspend advertising on FACEBOOK through the end of July because of FACEBOOK’S failure to stop the spread of misinformation and hate speech on its platform.

The North Face said, We’re in. We’re out.” — will stop posting content and advertisements on FACEBOOK through July.

Coca-Cola, Starbucks and others have temporarily stopped advertising o FACEBOOK in protest of FACEBOOK spreading misinformation and hate speech.

THE SAME INFORMATION IS REPORTED DIFFERENTLY BY DIFFERENT NEWS MEDIA

News is reported in a way that supports the views and desires of specific audiences.

That is why news/information is reported differently by different news media.

Each news outlet broadcasts information that supports the particular set of political/religious views/values of its audience and its advertisers.

POINTS OF VIEW PROPAGANDA

People in social organizations, business organizations, religious organizations, political organizations, political parties, politicians, and highly specialized special interest groups, as well as governments, use social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to provide propaganda – information and disinformation.

So called “educational institutions” [Kindergarten through high school, colleges, universities, and specialized schools] provide information [which they call education] which fits the agenda of the people in charge.

Like the picture below of two wolves fighting to the death, social media and the so called news media and educational institutions tell stories (report information) differently.

HISTORY

Mary Beard reports in her book ‘HOW DO WE LOOK” that people have been engaged in wars and fights to the death about how to think, in which each side claims it is on the side of God and claims the other side is the devil.

THE MEANING OF SYMBOLS

People write history (and the news of current events reported by the media is) slanted to favor the values of a particular audience.

We have reached a place in human social evolution where you may now purchase your choice of color of Band-Aid from Johnson & Johnson.

INTELLECTUAL VALUE LANDSCAPE

Today, the most searched words on Google are “protest” and “racism.”

   

HOW WE LOOK AT THINGS

Saturday morning, June 13, 2929), I was sent a video titled ALL BOARDED UP.

The video consisted of a man talking as he is taking a video as he is driving on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

The video showed one boarded up high end retail store after another.

In the video the narrator says, “The media doesn’t show us this.”

The narrator went on to say that the media does not want us to know that all the high end stores on Fifth Avenue were looted during the “protest rally” in Manhattan; the media does not want to wee all those broken windows, or that all the expensive merchandise in those high end stores was stolen.

That doesn’t fit with the narrative the media is selling.

The media is selling the narrative that the protests were all about injustice, the protests were all about the tragic violation of a black man’s (George Floyd’s) civil liberties.

Q: WHERE ARE WE NOW? A: WE ARE NOW LIVING IN GEORGE FLOYD’S AMERICA!

For the past two weeks,  whether we like it or not, we have been living in GEORGE FLOYD’S AMERICA.

WHERE ARE WE GOING?

Will there be a statue of GEORGE FLOYD erected in Lafayette Park across the street from the White House?

Will there be a statute of George Floyd erected in parks in every city in the United States?

Will the will of the people expressed in who they vote for as next president of the United States be based on what has been happening with respect to COVID 19 pandemic and what has been happening as a result of the murder of George Floyd?

DO WE WANT TO VENERATE GEORGE FLOYD?

THE PROTESTORS HAVE LEVERAGE

Who do we want to venerate?

Do we want to venerate George Floyd?

Will the protestors force us to venerate George Floyd?

Nobody’s back ground is perfect.

I’ve been told George Floyd spent years in prison for armed robbery.

I’ve been told George Floyd was sent to prison for having pointed a loaded gun at a pregnant woman’s stomach, then robbing her.

I’ve also been told that George Floyd served his time and went to Minneapolis got a job as a night security guard and wanted to turn his life around and to redeem himself.

ITS A REVOLUTIONARY TIME

People are tearing down statues, removing statues and defacing statues which they consider to be emblems of white supremacy – which they consider to be powerful and hurtful symbols of systemic racism.

Police have been using tear gas on protestors protesting police brutality and systemic racial injustice.  Police have shot rubber bullets at protestors and have senselessly roughed up protestors.

People not associated with the cause of racial justice have joined protest marches. Those people have set fires which burned buildings, and burned police cars; they have been looting and destroying stores, generally causing mayhem.

Let’s hope we don’t go to the next thing.

VISUAL IMAGES SHAPE OUR ENVIRONMENT

RACIAL SENSITIVITY, CAPITALISM, BAND-AID/Johnson & Johnson, AND CRAYONS/Crayola Company

When I grew up Band-Aids came in only flesh color.  See photos below.

    

Now Band-Aids come in many flesh colors.

Band-Aids now come in many tones of color so that once a person puts one on it is the same color as that person’s skin.

Many years ago, 30 years back, the Crayola Company in an act of racial sensitivity, pulled the flesh colored crayon out.

Many years ago the Frito Lay Company did away with the Frito Bandito.

These acts of racially sensitivity came about without the enactment of any laws or the filing of any lawsuits.

About that band-aid, why not just make it clear so everyone’s true color shows through…because isn’t that what it is all about.

We are all unique.

Embrace the beauty of that.

A HISPANIC WOMAN’S IDENTITY CRISIS

I know a Hispanic woman who had an identity crisis when she transferred from a community college to UCLA.

When she arrive at UCLA, as a minority student, she was told she “had to join” a Chicano Club.

She attended one meeting.  At that meeting she was told her skin tone wasn’t dark enough; that she could pass as being “white” and therefore she wasn’t wanted, she wouldn’t be welcome as a member in the club.

When she told people she wanted to be a corporate lawyer, she was told not to do that.

Instead, she was told to get a PhD in Chicano studies, and learn in her PhD studies how oppressed an victimized Mexicans and other Latin people are in the United States of America.

They told her she would be selling out her “people/her race” if she went to law school and became a corporate lawyer.

She had an identity crisis. She had never thought she would be selling out her “people” if she went to law school to be a corporate lawyer.

She couldn’t relate.

Her parents are immigrants from Central America.

She had never in her entire life felt underprivileged or oppressed or victimized.

She had always felt privileged and still feels privileged to be living in America.

She had always thought, and still thinks, it is wonderful that in America she could/can borrow money to go to UCLA, then borrow more money to go to law school.

A WHITE SUPREMACIST’S IDENTITY CRISIS

Consider the fact that Jesus Christ was not a White Man.

The divine body of Jesus was not white.

There were no white men in the Middle East when Jesus was born, or when Jesus was alive.

Jesus did not have blond hair, or blue eyes, or white skin.

Jesus was either black or an Arab with dark hair and darker skin.

Photo below is a mummy portrait from Roman Egypt.

Mummy portraits were painted in late first – early second century CE.

Photo above is taken from the coffin of a young man called Artemidoros, who died in the early second century CE, excavated at Hawara in Central Egypt.

His mummy is a wonderful combination of the traditions of Egypt, Greece and Rome, and a brilliant example of the cultural mix of the ancient Mediterranean.

His name is Greek and is written in Greek across his front.  “Artemidoros, farewell’ it reads. His face is a Roman portrait.

What will happen if and when White Supremacists realize that Jesus was black, that Jesus was not a while man?

What would happen to the psyche of all Americans if all the Jesus’ in all the churches in America were black or a shade of black?

What would happen to the the collective psyche of Americans if all the crucifixes in the United States of America had a black Jesus?

Would things be calmer or more peaceful in America?

Black is celebrated as being being beautiful in the Torah.

The Torah tells us Moses’ wife was black.

The Queen of Sheba, also, was black.

ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW

Jesus was a Jew and would have looked like the Jews of 1st century Judea at that time.

How Jews looked is not abundantly clear as Jews tended not to paint pictures of themselves and there was no photography.

At or about the 1st century — there were two main locations where Jews were located: Judea/Galilee and Babylonia.

There were also thriving diaspora communities in Byzantium (Istanbul), Alexandria (Egypt) and, of course, Rome.

Following the two failed Judean revolts against the Roman Empire of 65 and 135 most of the Judean Jews were dispersed in the diaspora.

The conventional wisdom is that the majority of Judean Jews stayed within the confines of the Roman Empire and ultimately were the forebears of the Ashkenazi diaspora.

Therefore it is most likely (an another point of view is) that Ashkenazi Jews with the more traditional Semitic features – such as Adam Sandler, Jeff Goldblum, or Jerry Stiller – are probably closer in appearance to Jesus than is a blond haired, blue eyed white man.

FURTHER REFLECTION ON THAT OTHER POINT OF VIEW

The only people who drew a lot of pictures were the Egyptians.

When drawing themselves they usually colored themselves in medium reddish-brown tones.

When drawing Semitic people — they would typically draw them as bearded with black and often curly hair, almond eyes, and either tanned or olive skin.

They also depicted black skinned Nubians as blond haired slaves.

The Egyptians artists were sensitive to skin tone when drawing subjects.

The Songs of Songs

A description of a Jew is found in the “Song of Songs” as follows:

“10. My lover is radiant and ruddy.

“11.  His head is gold, pure gold, his hair like palm fronds, as black as a raven.

“14. His arms are rods of gold adorned with gems; His loins, a work of ivory covered with sapphires.

“15. His legs, pillars of alabaster resting on golden pedestals.”

Alabaster and ivory are typically white.

Gold and ruddy could describe tanned or olive skin.

Black as a raven is black as a raven

Hair like palm fronds — in an imaginative person’s imagination could be a colorful simile for a Jewfro.

While this is not conclusive it is not consistent with a person that looked African or Southern Arabian.

MORE MUSINGS

The Bible doesn’t pay much attention to skin color, but there are inferences here and there.

So we have “Simeon who was called Niger,” (Acts 13:1) who may have been black, or else just a nickname, paired with “Lucius of Cyrene,” who may or may not have been black, being from Cyrene.

THE BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE

The Bible is much more interested in cultural differences, which to some is more fundamental and pertinent than race or skin color.

We’re all one human race, after all, but many cultures that overlap across races and skin colors.

All of us are the “skin colored people,” whichever color that might be.

SACRILEGIOUS

One person (BEN) I spoke to told me:

“I think he was probably the exact same shade as Barack Obama. Apparently, there is something about that shad that can convince Jews to follow any idiocy.”

Another person (JOE)) I spoke to told me:

“If it’s sunny and bright in heaven – perhaps one’s spirit would get sunburned and be darker?  If it’s dark and no natural light in hell, one should be as white as snow.

“But no matter what color you are or skin tone if you figure out you are either in heaven or hell.”

EXPRESSIONS OF AN OPPOSITE POINT OF VIEW

Veronica:

Who cares? Race is an invention of the industrial era to divide and conquer people.  It is being used as such now to distract the populace and keep our minds enslaved.  Let’s not play their game.  I’d rather talk about Jesus’ philosophy of how to treat others than the color of his skin. If they want to paint him black, let them. If they want to make him into a cartoon, sure! Let’s just keep the conversation about what matters and let go of division.  Let’s elevate!

Richard:

The image of God is a concept and theological doctrine in Judaism, Christianity, and Sufism of Islam, which asserts that human beings are created in the image and likeness of God.  If you believe in the Word of God, then you believe that we all can find something of ourselves in Jesus; so Veronica is correct.  There are no true images of Jesus because it is irrelevant because the artist would have only have chosen to place emphasis on the things important to the artist.  The Word of God therefore forbids us to make those images; yet we persist because like Sinatra, we all want to do it “my way.” As Veronica said we should be emphasizing the Words of Jesus, which I personally consider to be of great importance, rather than His appearance. God bless all of you. You might even consider reading the Bible to learn  what it says about this subject and many other things that affect our lives, I do each day!

Dan:

Veronica you are absolutely right.  The importance is the philosophical and moral teachings not his complexion.

In many ways this is an angels on the head of a pin type argument.

But, its one relevance is that for centuries the image of Jesus was Europeanized in order to disconnect him from his Judaic roots.

I think this was psychologically necessary in order to justify the persecution of his religious and ethnic kin, along with so many other non-Europeans.

The Europeanizing of Jesus was not merely a means of better identifying with him and his teachings, but to claim him for yourself in much the same way that so many people claim God to be on their side hence, any opposition to our way of thinking is not merely a difference of opinion but also an affront to God and God’s will — thereby justifying my resorting to violence against those who would blaspheme.

To Africanize or Arabize Jesus would be doing the same thing.

Keeping him a Jew puts EVERYONE on exactly the same footing – he is no more European than African, Arab, Indian or East Indian.

You can partake of his philosophy and teachings but not on YOUR terms, but on his.

My gut instinct is that the rejection of Jesus’ Judaic roots is one of the reasons why Christians around the world for so many centuries have such an inglorious record of acting in every way but Christian.

Some people think the only thing that matters about a person – or the most important thing about a person – is the color of a person’s skin.

The more important thing is Jesus’ philosophy of how to treat others, which has nothing to do with the color of their skin.

In this time of civil unrest in the United States let’s be much better than wolves.

LET’S BE BETTER THAN WOLVES

Wolves are intelligent, adaptable, fierce, and playful.

 

When strangers meet it usually results in a fight to the death.

Although a model of animal cooperation a wolf pack is not wholly harmonious.

Members are constantly being tested by more lowly wolves trying to rise up the ranks and such subordination must be dealt with quickly.

A wolf pack must defend its territory.

Without it, the pack cannot find food, cannot produce young, and will be forced to disband.

The pack patrols its borders regularly; if it encounters outsiders then its members have no choice but to attack.

Up to one fifth of all wolf deaths occur during these inter-pack bottles.

In this time of civil unrest, and new political realities, many persons are mustering the moral courage necessary to confront and solve problems with effective, honest and emphatic dialogue that seeks solutions rather than sowing seeds of division and disunity.

LIEUTENANT GENERAL U.S. ARMY DARRYL A. WILLIAMS

In connection with President Donald Trump giving the graduation address to the cadets at West Point, General Williams wrote a letter staking out the U.S. Army’s position on sowing seeds of division and disunity, a copy of which is set forth below.

The cadets who had been quarantined at home were ordered to come back for a graduation ceremony once President Trump informed the Army he would be giving the graduation address.

They sat six feet apart during the graduation ceremony.

 

  

President Trump caused an uproar of concern in the media and on social media about his health when he was photographed having difficulty walking down the ramp from the podium after having just given his graduation address to the graduating cadets.

 

  

WE DO NOT HAVE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IN CALIFORNIA!

WE DO NOT HAVE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY ANYWHERE IN THE UNITED STATES!

THE COLOR OF A PERSON’S SKIN MATTERS IN CALIFORNIA, IN THE UNITED STATES AND IN THE ENTIRE REAL WORLD!

An Assembly Constitutional Amendment relating to governmental preferences is pending in the California Legislature.

It states that Equal Opportunity is deeply rooted in the American ideals of fairness, justice, and equality.  It states that as a result of the passage of Proposition 209,  women and people of color continue to  face discrimination and disparity in opportunities to participate in numerous forms of association and work that are crucial to the development of talents and capabilities that enable people to contribute meaningfully to, an benefit from the collective possibilities of national life.

It states that disparity still exists, particularly for Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Black Americans, Latino Americans, Native Americans, and women, which should be rectified.

You should read the full text of ACA 5.

Here are some of the statistics cited in ACA 5:

• Women, particularly women of color, continue to face unequal pay for equal work.  White women are paid 80 cents to every dollar paid to white men doing the same work.
• Black women are paid 60 cents for every dollar paid to white men doing the same work and would theoretically have to work an extra seven months every year to overcome that differential.
• Since the passage of Proposition 209 underrepresented groups at the Berkeley and Los Angeles campuses of the University of California immediately fell by 60 percent and system wide enrollment fell by at least 12 percent.

In this bill state, is stated, “Underrepresented group high school graduates faced substantial long-term declines in educational and employment outcomes as a result of those changes.

The California Legislature has forcibly stated that the color of a person’s skin matters in the real world.

IN SOLIDARITY, STRENGTH – AND ALWAYS, LOVE:

TIMOTHY LAW SNYDER, PH.D., PRESIDENT LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY

MAKES THE DIVINE VISIBLE IN THE HUMAN WORLD THROUGH WORDS AND DEEDS

In a letter, dated June 16, 2020, to the LMU Community, President Snyder stated up front, “The killings of Black people – Rayshard Brooks, Tony McDade, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and many others – resulted from anti-Black racism.”

He dedicated himself and LMU “…to eradicating systemic racism at LMU and addressing the histories and systems of injustice perpetrated against people of color, while also taking responsibility for LMU’s institutional complicity in the perpetuation of white supremacy.”

In his letter, President Snyder, listed ongoing and imminent actions at LMU including a review and change of the art and images in the University Hall:

“We will change the art and images in University Hall as part of a broader effort to ensure that LMU reflects more inclusive and diverse representations of our shared history and community, under the guidance of the Committee of Public Art and Images.”

In the last paragraph of President Snyder’s letter, President Snyder states:

  “As is so with all of America society and culture, our pathway to justice, and its clear goals, will require renewed and reformed reflection conversation, commitment and action.  We must be sure that each of us holds each entity of our community – person, organization, program – accountable.  We need to be open to calling out what needs to be called out and accepting what others witness in our behaviors and actions as loci for revision.  As actors within our larger society, we must do the same.  Let us champion dignity.  Let us champion justice. Let’s get to work.”

In his letter he mentioned participating in a “Black Lives Matter” demonstration organized by LMU students.

“On June 6, while participating in a Black Lives Matters demonstration organized by LMU students, I was reminded that the police violence and systemic racism that infects our society by killing Black people is a system in which I, as a white person of privilege, am complicit.”

He went on to say:

“I am grateful and humbled by our Black community’s leadership and willingness to impart its experiences, pain and anger; I am not in a position to understand fully how exhausting and burdensome it must be, especially given the persistent nature of experience in a racist society. Amidst this understanding, LMU’s duty to our Black students, faculty, and staff is, and will remain, steadfast.  We are committed to a process of institutional transformation that addresses systemic racism and oppression.

EUGENICS

Eugenics is a science that deals with improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed.

Famous people in recent history were eugenicist – advocates of eugenics.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Winston Churchill – the Prime Minister of Great Britain in World War II – and Adolf Hitler – Fuhrer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party – the leader of Germany in World War II – were eugenicists – advocates of eugenics.

Winston Churchill had great energy and pugnacity.

Not everyone appreciated Churchill’s energy or brilliance.

Lord Halifax – the man the King of England wanted to be Prime Minister, but who refused the position – was skeptical of the wild energy Churchill seemed likely to bring to office of Prime Minister.

The office of the Prime Minister was at 10 Downing, which was both the Prime Minister’s residence and official office.

Halifax grumbled that  Churchill’s new cabinet appointees lacked intellectual heft. Halifax likened them to “gangsters,” the chief gangster in his view, being Churchill.

On Saturday, May 11, 1940, the day after Churchill was appointed Prime Minister by King George V, Lord Halifax wrote in his diary, “I have seldom met anyone with stranger gaps of knowledge, or whose mind worked in greater jerks.”

One staff member at 10 Downing said Churchill was a lackluster student at Harrow (AN ELITE HIGH SCHOOL FOR BRITAIN’S UPPER CRUST) who exhibited “phenomenal slovenliness.”

Many in Whitehall considered Churchill to be capricious and meddlesome, inclined toward dynamic action in every direction at once.

Churchill’s appointment enraged the wife of one member of Parliament, who likened him to Herman Goring, the obese, brutal chief of the German Air Fore, the Luftwaffe, and the second most powerful man in the Third Reich. “W.C. is really the counterpart of Goring in England,”  she wrote “full of the desire for blood, Blitzkrieg,’ and bloated with ego and over-feeding, the same treachery running through his veins, punctuated by heroics and hot air.” – information excerpts from pages 22 and 23 of “The Splendid and the Vile” by Erik Larson.

But ordinary people loved Churchill.  One diarist wrote, “If I had to spend my whole life with a man, I’d chose Chamberlain, but I think I would sooner have Mr. Churchill if there were a storm and I was shipwrecked.” – quote from page 23, of “The Splendid and the Vile” by Erik Larson.

“My wish is realized,” wrote Violet Bonham Carter, daughter of H.H. Asquith, the former Prime Minister, who died in 1928. “I can now face all that is to come with faith & Confidence. I know as you do that the wind has been sown, & that, we must all reap the whirlwind. But you will ride it — instead of being driven before it — Thank Heaven that you are there & at the helm of our destiny — & may the nation’s spirit be kindled by your own.” – quote from page 23 of “The Vile and the Splendid” by Erik Larson.

May 1940 Onward

“Everywhere I went in London people admired [Churchill’s] energy, his courage, his singleness of purpose. People said they didn’t know what Britain would do without him. He was obviously respected.  But no one felt he would be Prime Minister after the war.  He was simply the right man in the right job at the the right time.  The time being the time of a desperate war with Britain’s enemies.” – Ralph McAllister Ingersoll.

“The responsibilities which are his now must be greater than those carried by any other human being on earth. One would think such a weight would have a crushing effect upon him.  Not at all.  The last time I saw him, while the Battle of Britain was still raging, he looked years younger than before the war began… His uplifted spirit is transmitted to the people.” – Hubert Knickerbocker

The people of Great Britain loved Winston Churchill during World War II because they thought he sincerely loved them.

He demonstrated in word and deed that he sincerely cared about them.

He was flamboyant and electric and had an indomitable spirit.

When he gave his first speech before the House of Commons, on May 13, he said “I have nothing to offer, but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” and vowed to achieve victory.

On Tuesday, June 18, he addressed the House of Commons to address the French debacle, France had just been overrun by the Nazis.

“The “Battle of France” was over” he said, adding, “I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin.” At stake was not only the British Empire but all of Christian civilization. “The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.  Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war.”  He then said:

“If we can stand up to him, all of Europe may be free, and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands; but if we fail the the whole world, including the United States, and all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more prolonged, by the lights of a perverted science.

“Therefore let us brace ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.'”

INFO ABOUT CHURCHILL – PROVIDED BY DANIEL J. CHEREN

As a young politician, Churchill was staunchly against votes for women.

While Home Secretary, there was an incident where politically motivated burglars holed up in a house that subsequently caught fire – Churchill ordered the Fire Department NOT to put out the blaze preferring that they die than water be needlessly wasted on them.

However, very much unlike Trump, Churchill knew how to be tactful. Indeed, Churchill defined tact as “the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way, that they look forward to the trip.”

Despite being lauded during WW II as the right many for the job and the right time, he was promptly voted out of office in 1945.

ADOLF HITLER

The Nazis persecuted those they considered to be racially inferior. Nazi racial ideology primarily vilified Jews, but also propagated hatred for Gypsies and blacks. The Nazis viewed Poles and other Slavs as inferior, and stated them for subjugation, forced labor, and sometimes death.

The Nazis viewed Jews as racial enemies and subjected them to arbitrary arrest, internment, and murder. Jewish prisoners received the most brutal treatment in Nazi concentration camps.

Among the first victims of persecution in Nazi Germany were political opponents – primarily Communists, Social Democrats, and trade unionists.  Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to serve in the German army or to take an oath of obedience to Adolf Hitler and were also persecuted.

Prisoners in concentration camps were identified by a colored inverted triangle sown onto their prison uniform. Political prisoners wore a badge consisting of an inverted red triangle.

ATTEMPT TO USE NAZI SYMBOLS ON FACEBOOK

On Thursday, June 18, 2020, Facebook removed 88 ads that had using an Nazi symbol – an upside down red triangle – posted by Trump, the Trump campaign and Vice President Mike Pence that Facebook said were “violating our policy against organized hate.”

The red triangle is a symbol that Nazis used to identify Communists and other political prisoners in concentration camps.

The removed ads warned “dangerous MOBS of far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem.”

The ads began running on Wednesday.

Before their removal they gained more than one million impressions on the Facebook pages of President Donal Trump  and Vice President Mike Pence.

QUESTION RAISED: Is it difficult to criticize a political opponent without using Nazi era imagery?

The red triangle was “the most common category of prisoners registered at the German Nazi Auschwitz camp.

Mr. Bark Bray, a historian at Rutgers and the author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” said: “This is a symbol that represented the extermination of leftists.  It is a death threat against leftists.

ATTEMPT TO USE MANIPULATED MEDIA ON TWITTER

On Thursday, Twitter added a “manipulated media” warning to one of Mr. Trump’s tweets that featured  a video about a supposed “racist baby” that had been altered to appear as if CNN had broadcast it.

FAILURE OF CHURCHILL’S AND HITLER’S PRACTICE OF EUGENICS

BECAUSE YOU ARE WHITE DOESN’T MEAN YOU ARE SUPERIOR

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Winston Churchill’s attempt to practice eugenics was a failure.

Winston Churchill’s son, was a failed effort at breeding a super race person.

Winston Churchill’s son Randolph Churchill was a complete failure and screw up.

He was a gambler. His ineptitude at gambling was legendary.  He was always awash in debt.

He was loud, lacked tack, drank too much, spent beyond his income and gambled with particular ineptitude.

He was a drunkard. Once drunk he had a propensity for making horrible embarrassing scenes.

His father once wrote to him, “Your idle and lazy life is [very[ offensive to me. You appear to be leading a completely perfectly useless existence.”

There was no way his marriage was going to work.

To Randolph, fidelity was a fungible  condition.  He loved sexual conquest, whether his target was married or not. He once bragged that he would enter the rooms of women without invitation, just in case his presence might be welcomed.  He told this to a female friend, who quipped sardonically “You must get a lot of rebuffs.”  He said, laughingly, “I do, but I get a lot of fucking too.”

ADOLF HITLER

Hitlers attempt to practice eugenics – to create a master-race, was a failure as well.

When Germany lost World War II, Hitler committed suicide.

Hitler’s effort to kill all the “impure people” in the world, and to have the Aryan Race, with himself as its leader, rule the world ended up being a failed effort as well.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Statues of famous people are being taken down, torn down and defaced all over the United States.

On June 22, 2020, The American Museum of Natural History decided the bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt on a horse flanked by a Native American Indian and a Black Man on foot (photo above), that had presided over entrance to the museum since 1940, was coming down.  Currently it is being protected by police in two police cars.

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the Unites States, was a racist and eugenicist who thought African Americans to be inferior to white citizens.

His election in 1904 marked one of the first Presidential  administrations opened opposed to civil rights and suffrage for blacks.

He believed in racial hierarchy, and endorsed sterilization of the poor and intellectually disabled.

That was the common thinking of the elites in the United States at that time.

in the early 20th century American eugenicists used forced sterilization to “breed out” traits considered undesirable.

They believed in “survival of the fittest” and thought they could help nature along by planning who reproduced and who didn’t.

They were frightened that unintelligent people were taking over, reproducing more quickly than intelligent people.

SUPREME COURT JUSTICE OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, JR.

Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was raised to believe that he and his “well-born” wealthy neighbors in Boston were the best people in the country, or the world.

He believed in eugenics, and wrote about eugenics, which he supported.

He wrote the majority opinion in a case [Bell v. Buck, 274 U.S. 208 (1927] in which the majority upheld a state’s right to forcibly sterilize a person considered to be unfit to reproduce – unfit because they were mentally deficient.

In his opinion, Justice Holmes, urged America to do more eugenic sterilizations.

He wrote that it is better for the world if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crimes or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit for continuing their kind.

A FEEBLE MINDED HEARING

It was very hard to prove at a feeble minded hearing that you were not feeble minded.

Feeble minded was a broad term used to define large categories of people that were disliked by someone in charge of the decision making position.

AN ARIAN THEORY

Only Nordic types were considered good.

Jews from East Europe and Italians and Asians were considered to be mentally deficient and were discriminated against.

This was the belief of those who enacted the IMMIGRATION LAW OF 1924.

The Immigration Act of 1924 created quotas for the number of different groups that could immigrate and required that immigrants pass a mental feebleness test.

BUCK V. BELL

Buck v. Bell upheld eugenic sterilization.

It is still good law,.

It has never been overturned.

The decision in Buck v. Bell led to 70,000 forced sterilizations.

The woman in Buck v. Bell was not feeble minded.

She was set up to protect her foster parents son who had raped her and to get a court ruling that forced sterilizations are legal.

Her appointed lawyer believed that forced sterilizations should be legal.

He wrote arguments in his briefs that supported forced sterilizations.

THE EXISTENCE OF A SUPER RACE

The Nazis adopted American eugenic theory.

The Nazis took American eugenic theory – that there exists a racial hierarchy that requires breeding a super race – and ran with it.

THE CODE OF HAMMURABI

The guiding objective of the 3,500 year old Babylonian Code of Hammurabi is to protect the weak from the strong to create a rule of RIGHTEOUS JUSTICE.

DOES NOT PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS

While writing this post I couldn’t help comparing U.S. President Donald Trump’s thinking to Nazi ideology.

POST ON INSTAGRAM @garyspassion

Earlier today (Tuesday, June 23, 2020) I post on Instagram @garyspassion the picture above “DOES NOT PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS.”

In my post I compare President Trump to the little boy (the major star) in the movie JoJo Rabbit.

JoJo Rabbit is a farce about Nazi thinking, Nazi ideology, Nazi conduct, and worship of Adolph Hitler.

THE RULE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

 

The wild popularity, even today, of the 1862 French novel ‘LES MISERABLES’, shows us something.

LES MISERABLES is the story of Jean Valjean, a handsome young woodcutter, who is cruelly sentenced to nine years in jail for stealing a loaf of bread he took to feed his starving family.

Javert, an ice-cold Inspector of Prisons, relentlessly persecutes Valjean, determined to keep him in prison for life.

It is tear-jerking feel good story, that has been made into a movie several times.

I strongly recommend seeing the movie.

That movie should help even the most rabid law and order person understand the outrage after watching the video of a police officer murdering George Floyd by putting his knee on George Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes while George Floyd was handcuffed and pinned down by two other police officers while a fourth police officer directed members of the public away.

George Floyd was suspected of having used a counterfeit $20 bill. Nobody knows if the $20 bill was counterfeit or how George Floyd came to have it.

George Floyd lost his life because four police officers thought nobody would mind if they took his life.

Nothing happened to any of the police officers until AFTER world wide street protests erupted.

ONLY after protests against the police brutally murdering George Floyd erupted in 150 cities in the USA did the police officers involved get charged and arrested for breaking the law.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT IV’S, age 77, great grandson of 26th President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt, PLACE IN THE MOVEMENT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE

The grandson of President Roosevelt felt it necessary to remove the statue of his great grandfather from the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History.

He recognized that statue was a powerful and hurtful emblem of “patriarchy, white supremacy, and settler-colonialism.”

That statue was a symbol of systemic racism; that statue was a narrative of white racial superiority and domination.

Theodore Roosevelt IV said, “The world doesn’t need statues, relics of another age, that reflect neither the values of the person they intend to honor nor the values of equality and justice.”

The image of that statue is too offensive to stand as a monument to American History.

That statue is clearly a narrative of white racial superiority and domination.

That statue implicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior.

JOE BIDEN’S, PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, PLACE IN THE MOVEMENT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE

At a meeting on Monday, June 21, 2020, Joe Biden said,

“Hate just hides. It doesn’t go away, and when you have someone in power who breathes oxygen into the hate under the rocks it comes outs from under the rocks

“I really do believe that the binders have been taken off.  I think the tidal wave is moving.  I realize we’ve got to do something big, we can do it, and everyone will benefit from it.

Information taken/obtained from AOL news.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S PLACE IN THE MOVEMENT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE

On the same Monday evening (June 21, 2020), President Donald Trump declared himself, “the president of law and order” from the White House as military police and law enforcement fired tear gas and cleared protestors from nearby La Fayette Park.  La Fayette Park is located directly across the street from the White House.

After President Trump’s speech, one mayor complained, “President Trump has offered us military support to address violent protestors while denying mayors federal support to address the coronavirus fall-out.

During the protest on Monday (June 22, 2020) protestors attempted to topple a statue of President Andrew Jackson in La Fayette Park.

President Jackson has a record of owning slaves and oppressing Native Americans.

The next morning, President Trump tweeted that he had ordered the arrest of anyone tearing down a statue on federal land.and threatened such protestors with a long prison term and a large fine – imprisonment of up to ten years and a fine of up to $250,000.00.

Information taken/obtained from AOL news.

 

MAKING THE DIVINE VISIBLE IN THE HUMAN WORLD THROUGH ART

                   

Art symbolizes and instructs what it means to be a civilized human being.

Art challenges our senses and provokes our senses.

Just imagine the effect having a black or brown Jesus in every church and on every crucifix in America would have today.

Above photos taken by me while I was viewing the art in one church after another and viewing the interior design and exterior design of one church after another while spending a summer vacation in Sicily.

All the paintings, all the statues, and all the decorations in the churches were of and about white people.

In “HOW DO WE LOOK” Mary Beard shows how making the divine visible in the human world has never been easy.

In her book HOW DO WE LOOK” she points out all religions have destroyed art as well as creating it.

“Iconoclasm” comes from the Greek word meaning “image breaking.”

Below is my recap of Mary Beard’s many poignant stories of destruction of religious art in the name of religion.

CHRISTIANITY

Throughout the history of Christianity there have been violent and sustained clashes between ‘image-lovers’ and ‘image-breakers” – the destruction of religious art has gone almost hand and hand with the appreciating and adoration of it.

In the past lurid stories were spread about the evil of the iconoclasts, which went so far as to suggest that the wickedness of those who destroyed images of Jesus was second only to those who crucified Jesus in the first place.

One of the first examples occurred in 726 in the capital of the Byzantine empire (modern Istanbul) when – so it is said – the emperor ordered the image of Jesus be removed from the facade of his imperial palace.

Whatever the reasons, the removal of that one painting has come to represent the beginning of an official ban on all kinds of images of the divine – painting, sculpture, mosaic – that lasted on and off for more than a hundred years.

Almost a thousand years later, thousands of miles away, during the fight between Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians fought out in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ‘idolatrous icons’ and other ‘excesses’ associated with Catholicism were destroyed or removed by ascendant Protestants.

During the religious schism, the splendor of Ely Cathedral – a jewel of Gothic architecture of the Middle Ages – fell victim to one of England’s most determined Protestant reformers.

On January 9 1644, Oliver Cromwell, who was then governor of Ely, marched into the Ely Cathedral in what is one of the most mythologized and probably highly embellished incidents of those English religious wars.

The story goes that Cromwell went up to the priest who was conducting evening services, told him to put away his (Catholic) version of the prayer book and to stop the choir singing ( a ‘turn off the music’ moment).  On the following days, it is said, he actively encouraged – or at least did nothing to stop – his troops turning on the fabric of the building, on the images and on the glass.  As they made their way through the vestry and the cloisters, they smashed the place.

Above photo is a photo of Ely Cathedral, looking up into the great ‘lantern’ and down the nave (whose colored ceiling is part of the nineteenth-century restoration).

Decades before Cromwell, in the Lady Chapel (the chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary), remains evidence of widespread destruction wreaked on another occasion decades before Cromwell.

The iconoclasts also attacked the sculpted figures of saints, kings, and prophets, and scenes from the life of the Virgin. Sometimes the whole sculpture was removed, but often only the head and hands, leaving the body in place. Above is a photo of one of the sculptures.

This was not just a series of random acts of vandalism but destruction that was targeted, even thoughtful, and set against a background of debates about the power and potential dangers of religious images.

HINDU IMAGES

In the late 1100s Muslim armies from Afghanistan invaded northern India. By all accounts, they were horrified by what they found. This was home to the Hindu religion, whose people worshiped not one god but, on some counts, millions.

Muslim writers as far back as the tenth century CE often presented India as a place of image worship gone mad.

The Muslim invaders smashed the idols and destroyed the Hindu temples.

The first mosque to be erected in Delhi, the Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, constructed in the 1190s, was once known as the most imposing mosque in the world.

But in this mosque various elements of earlier Hindu structures and images have been reused and incorporated into the fabric of the mosque the human figures often defaced. It is striking that, even when they have been defaced some aspect of the humanity of those figures have been preserved.

The simple fact that the builders of the new mosque have chosen fairly consistently to place the reused figures the right way up suggests a respect for the human form and itrs image.

It betrays a certain appreciation for the very images that Islam condemned.

THE HAGIA SOPHIA

Does God dwell in hand-made temples? The correct answer is that he does not, but men have always been inclined to believe whereas He is present everywhere, He is nevertheless more fully present in some places than in others.

I have been to the Hagia Sophia.

It is magnificent.

God is obviously more fully present in the Hagia Sophia than in other places.

It has such grandeur.

      

The historian Procopius said about the Hagia Sophia:

“Whenever anyone enters to pray, he understands at once that it is not by human power and skill but by God’s will that his work has been so finely finished.  His mind is lifted up to God and floats on the air, feeling that God cannot be far away, but must especially love to dwell in this place, which He has chosen.”

The present Hagia Sophia is the third church built on the same site.

The present church was built by Justinian between 532 and 537.

Justinian was a military expansionist and ambitious civil reformer (his law code still lies at the foundation of many modern legal systems).

The second church was built by Theodosius and consecrated in 415.

But who built the first and why? Constantine according to legend and Constantius II (337-361) according to historical evidence.

Constantine was the first Roman emperor to have become a Christian.

With the exception of of the short-lived Julian (361-363), all Roman emperors after Constantine were Christians.

Like wise, Constantinople continued to be an imperial city for the next eleven centuries, before becoming the seat of another, Muslim, empire.

To describe all the events that took place within the Hagia Sophia would almost be tantamount to writing a history of the Byzantine Empire.

The name Hagia Sophia means Holy Wisdom or God’s Wisdom, a designation which by the fourth century was applied to the second person of the Trinity, i.e. Christ.

Early Christians believed – and perhaps Christians today believe – that Wisdom was a separate entity created or engendered by God before the beginning of time, an entity that guided or informed the act of creation.

The Ottoman Turks converted the Hagia Sophia into a mosque in 1453.

The Muslim, Ottoman Turks, retained that name.

They did not considerate the Hagia Sophia as an alien entity, the temple of a hostile if conquered religion.

They took steps to incorporate it mythically into the Islamic tradition.

The very word Ayasofya was interpreted to mean ‘house of worship’ (ibadetgah).

As strange as it might seem, in light of Muslim usage, the figural mosaics representing Christian personages and Byzantine emperors were not systematically covered up as soon as Hagia Sophia was converted to into a mosque.

       

The Ottoman conquest ensured not only the Hagia Sophia’s preservation but also its continuing maintenance and repair because it became the chief imperial mosque, amply endowed and often visited by the sultan.

FIRST CONCLUSION

What is going on – the Pandemic, the new George Floyd World, marginalized groups and women getting the short end of the stick in money earned for the same work etc. etc. etc., police brutality, stay-in-place orders, mass unemployment, the economy in shambles, extreme income inequality, extreme wealth inequality, climate change, mass protests, unequal opportunity, rioting in the streets, wide scale looting,- is scary.

You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know what the problem is.

SECOND CONCLUSION

People love art.

Art conquers all.

What we see depends on how we look.

Gary Smolker, Social Commentator, Values Critic

 

 

 

Copyright © 2020 by Gary Smolker, All Rights Reserved

 

The Academy Award for Best Movie in 2012 – a comparison of the entertainment value, take home value, craftsmanship and other virtues of “Argo”, “Django Unchained”, “Lincoln”, “Zero Dark Thirty”, “Silver Linings Playbook”, “Les Miserables”, “Armour”, “Life of Pi”,”Beast of the Southern Wild” and “The Master” and comments on judging by Gary S. Smolker (February 22, 2013)

Overview of What Makes the Best Movies the Best Movies

Movies are a sophisticated and flexible instrument of thought that can be used for self-development, self-knowledge and self-expression alike.

In that regard, movies inform us, hep us understand things, and remember things and they create expectations.

Movies mold our thoughts; they give color and shape our desires; they limit or extend our sympathies; and they promote self-awareness and awareness of others.

The best movies have “meaningful substance”; they afford pleasure to the movie viewing public by presenting a story through images and dialogue with such an abundance of feeling, thought, imagination and unbounded spirit that the thickest mind and slowest eye is aroused to think and see what the film maker wants the movie goer to perceive.

However, people are bored and irritated by movies that are dull and that do not make sense.

That being said, the best movies have entertainment and take-home value.

Based on that  criteria Argo is the most deserving movie nominated to win the Oscar for best picture, followed by “Django Unchained”, “Lincoln”, “Zero Dark Thirty”, “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Les Miserables.”

Argo

Argo is a movie about leadership, values, courage, heroism, creativity, imagination, thinking, good judgment, patriotism, and service to country plus it informs the viewer of the historical background of events that led to a mob of more than 500 Iranian students storming the American Embassy in Tehran on Sunday, November 4, 1979, where they seized sixty-six Americans as hostages.

The Iranian Hostage crisis was a low point in American history.  I remember President Jimmy Carter informing the world of America’s aborted effort to rescue those hostages.

President Carter told us, “there was no fighting, there was  no combat.”  But eight men had died, he explained, when “two of our American aircraft collided on the ground following a refueling operation in a remote desert location in Iran.”

The movie Argo informs us that the Iranian students and Iranian people thought they would have a better life after the Shah fled, under the leadership of the Shah’s longtime opponent, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who had returned to Tehran after his fourteen-year exile.  The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini incited Iranian students to storm the American Embassy.

Instead of gaining a better life, the people of Iran have seen their freedom of expression (i.e., what women are allowed to wear) taken away from them under the leadership of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

Argo cast a spell on me.  I was thoroughly engaged.  The film aroused tension in me from the moment it began until it ended.

By a chain of circumstances that befall them, the characters in “Argo” (all of whom are fully developed in the movie) incarnate a way of living life which I completely relate to and hold up as my model for how to live because I felt I knew the fully developed characters in the film portrayed by Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin and John Goodman are committed people with good values, good judgment, imagination, creativity, courage and joi de vive in whom I can place my complete trust and in whom I can have complete confidence.

1. Argo is based on a true story in which historical events of significance intersected with policy issues which enabled the values of the extraordinary real life characters played by Affleck, Arkin and Goodman to define and mark them as heroes by what they did and by what they did not do in Argo and in real life. Argo coherently tells their story, which until recently was a classified story.
2. Their story, portrayed in Argo, is a story of men’s commitment to a mission and their fierce commitment to one another.
3. The movie Argo reminds me of Voltaire’s statement, “God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.”
4. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters portrayed by Arkin and Goodman’s easy going charisma and disarming humor and am in a state of highest admiration of Tony Mendez’s sense of honor and duty to others, as portrayed by director-actor Ben Affleck.
5. The men portrayed by Arkin, Goodman and Afflect are men whose word, in all situations, could always be taken as truth and I highly respect the tradition of honor embedded in those men’s personalities.
6. In Argo each of those men is shown to be a man who is aware, grounded, strong, competent, ferociously independent and tough — but never petty.
7. Argo is based on a true story: In 1979, six Americans were trapped in Tehran in danger of their lives, while irate Iranians searched door by door for them, after having escaped from the American Embassy to hide in the Canadian Embassy during the American Embassy Hostage Crisis.
8. The main character in the movie, CIA Agent “exfiltration specialist” Tony Mendez [masterfully played by Ben Affleck] came up with a zany out of the box plan for rescuing them and getting them out of the country.
9. Mendez proposed that he would enter Iran posing as a movie producer scouting for a location to shoot a science fiction movie entitled Argo. The six trapped Americans would follow him and leave Iran with him posing as the crew.
10. To get expert advice on how to complete the facade of making a movie, Mendez goes to Hollywood to consult and recruit veteran Hollywood producer Lester Siegel (masterfully played by Alan Arkin) and a special effects maestro (masterfully played by John Goodman).
11. The story told in Argo recounts in an edge-of-your-seat thriller the “caper” the three of them (Affleck, Arkin and Goodman) planned and how it was executed.
12. Throughout the movie the tension never lets up.
13. Real drama shows a conflict about a real issue.  There is real drama in Argo.
14. In Argo Tony Mendez finds out as he is about to take the six Americans that he is rescuing to the Airport, that Jimmy Carter, the President of the United States, has decided to abort the mission because of fear of possible repercussions if the mission fails.  Tony Mendez has plane reservations but doesn’t have plane tickets or money to purchase plane tickets for the seven of them.
15. Mr. Mendez is ordered to abort the mission.  Mr. Mendez is ordered to abandon the six Americans he came to rescue.
16. Tony Mendez is committed to his mission.
17. Mr. Mendez refuses to follow orders, refuses to do what he has been ordered to do, and refuses to abandon the people he has come to Tehran to rescue.
18. Mr. Mendez tells his boss that he is taking the six Americans with him to the airport and if the tickets to fly out of Tehran are not paid for and there waiting for them at the airport all seven of them will be found out and exposed. This upsets his boss, the Director of the C.I.A. and the President of the United States.
19. This is a highly entertaining “feel-good” movie with lots of take-home value.

Argo begins with a recital of the history of the Shah’s mistreatment of his people.

The introduction of the movie Argo informs the viewer that ordinary people in Iran hated the Shah for good reason, that at the time of the take over of the American Embassy Iran was being exploited by big foreign oil companies, and the Shah was living in luxury (i.e., lunches flown in from Paris, the Shaw’s wife was bathing in milk baths while the Iranian people were starving.

The story told in the movie Argo makes it clear that the Iranian students who stormed the American Embassy in Tehran believed Americans had orchestrated the Shah’s rise to power through a military coup which deposed a  democratically elected president who was trying to reign in foreign exploitation of his country’s natural resources.  The students thought their takeover of the American Embassy was a necessary step to prevent another pending American intervention and further exploitation of their country.

Before I saw Argo all I remembered of those times and of the Iranian Hostage Situation was yellow ribbons hung all over America and Americans wondering how long it would be until the Americans held hostage would be returned to freedom and be able to come home to American.  I recalled that the American rescue effort had failed due to the collision of aircraft that were supposed to rescue American hostages.

I also remembered Ross Perot’s daring rescue of the American hostages.

Now, I realize America’s support of a cruel dictator and American support given to the gigantic companies that exploited Iran provoked a cascade of consequences in America, in Iran and in the entire Middle East and in the rest of the world that we all now live with.

Argo shows us there is a lot to know and a lot to remember.

Argo brings everything of historical importance about that moment in time and the Iranian Hostage Situation all together in one coherent piece and brings the movie goer back into that time in history.

Tony Mendez had honor and humanity on his side, wit in his head, skill and a higher life as his aim which enabled him to disobey his boss’s direct orders.

In Argo the people in Hollywood (played by Alan Arkin and John Goodwin) are portrayed as being highly patriotic, highly intelligent and unselfish.

Argo informs us that many of the people in Hollywood deserve our praise, are praiseworthy individuals who would conduct themselves with honor sensitivity and intelligence, unselfishly and patriotically when given the opportunity to do so.

Argo also serves the highly important diplomatic purpose of informing educated leaders in other parts of the world, especially in the fastest growing economies in the world in South America and Africa, as well as ordinary people all over the including people now living in Iran, of the above recited history, albeit Argo is a movie, not a documentary.

Movies, such as Argo, have political and commercial ramifications.

Argo is public relations for the United States.

Argo will serve as a countervailing force in the minds of elected leaders in Latin America who are well aware of and have not forgotten the effect of past unwanted disruptive USA interventions in their countries and throughout Latin America.

Before the release of the movie Argo the current thinking of leaders in Latin America (including the thinking initiated and continued by Correa, Morales, Kitchner and Rouself) did not include the thought that Americans have a strong moral fiber and backbone.  That was not their thought when they and their countries took actions as a defense against their perceived exploitation of their countries by the U.S.

The movie Argo and the story it tells illuminates the fact that there is moral fiber in America, that a great number of Americans embrace being honorable and trust worthy, and that a great number of American are living up to commitments and are actively taking moral leadership.

The thoughts of other people in the world about the moral fiber of Americans is of great importance to every American, to the living standards that will be enjoyed by Americans in the future and to the economic and world leadership America will be able to enjoy.

For example, America can not afford to have the leaders of Latin America or of Africa, or the citizens of those countries, distrust America’s intentions, integrity, morality or social conscience.

Consider the following economic facts which can be gleamed from reading the February issue of “newgeography” written by Joel Kotkin on February 18, 2013.

• Sub-Sahara Africa over the past decade has produced six of the world’s fastest growing economies.
• Through 2011-15, according to the International Monetary Fund, seven of the fastest growing countries will be African, and Africa as a whole will surpass the slowing growth rates in Asia, particularly China.
• Africa already has more middle class households (defined as those with incomes of at least $20,000 per year) than India.
• China’s former vice-minister of commerce, Wei Jianguo, recently told China Daily that Africa will eventually surpass the U.S. and the E.U. to become China’s largest trading partner.
• With 60 million people, including a middle class of 400 million, Latin America represents one of the world’s great growth markets.
• Over the past two years the growth in Latin America has been twice the growth and more in some countries than in the United States, Europe and Japan.
• Latin America’s unemployment rate is 6.5 percent, well below unemployment rates in the U.S. and Europe.
• Overall, Latin America’s combined gross domestic product is larger than that of Russia and India combined.

The release of the movie Argo rebuts the image of the Ugly American.

The true story dramatized in the movie Argo is a welcome explication and endorsement of the virtues of free-enterprise capitalism practiced in the United States which is driven by a purpose higher than maximizing profits.

The story told in Argo creates wonderful expectations and is good PR for the United States.

People live up, or down, to expectations. We all create expectations.

Affleck, in his film Argo, makes clear and unforgettable the moral assumptions upon which Affleck, the majority of Americans, and I believe people should live by.

Affleck is the real deal.  Watching Afflect’s movie Argo made me feel alive.

Argo is a wake-up call to all American politicians, to all American citizens, to all operating businesses and to all world leaders of the consequences of being dishonorable.

Django Unchained

In the tradition of Western art, Django Unchained is an object not only of enjoyment but also of self-aware contemplation.

Django Unchained delivers the simple messages that (a) slavery is bad, and (b) all people are intelligent, have the capacity to learn, can be romantic and have the capacity to be noble.

In Django Unchained, a very simple appearing black man walking in chains chained to other black men who is a slave, is set free, given ingredients for a successful life –vocational training, an education, a job in a profession, and tools to make a living.  Thereafter he becomes a big commercial success in his trade, and rises to the opportunity afforded to him to show that he is an unselfish courageous noble person.

Obviously the filmmaker who made Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino, made Django Unchained with the objective of teaching the audience a practical moral lesson and with the hope that the audience would learn the lesson taught in this film — teach a slave how to be good at a profession and give him the tools to do so and you will enable him to become a successful and noble businessman.

Great film makers, such as Quentin Tarantino, change our stance and vision.

Django Unchained is a small step taken by Tarantino to change the view of those people who think certain people, by reason of the color of their skin, are “inferior” to other people.

Django Unchained is Tarantino’s attempt to eradicate racial prejudice, to drive a nail in the coffin and bring a final death to the contagion of racial prejudice and to illuminate the value of providing a quality meaningful practical education to all people that will enable them to advance their own well-being.

Django Unchained’s financial success encourages people in the United States as well as people in the rest of the world to believe there are brilliant practical socially conscious business leaders in the United States (such as Quentin Tarantino) whose socially conscious leadership receives a hearty enthusiastic welcome from the movie going public in the United States.

People complaining about the violence depicted in Django Unchained do not understand Tarantino’s objective or the way the world works.  Many of them do not agree with Tarantino’s message that all men are entitled to be afforded dignified treatment as human beings, are entitled to be treated equally before the law and are entitled to receive an affordable free meaningful education.

Quentin Tarantino does not provide a simple prescription for fighting racial prejudice or the inequitable treatment of any particular individual or class of individuals or give a solution to fix the lack of quality education provided to children currently enrolled in the public school systems in the United States.

To the contrary, the story told in Django Unchained demonstrates that there is never a single “fix-all” solution to complicated problems in real life because life is complicated.

In the 1770’s, Diderot said in Rameau’s Nephew: in the whole kingdom everybody must dance his little cowardly dance of social flattery  Only one man walks – the King – and even he goes through contortions if he is ruled by a mistress.

So called leaders (metaphorical Kings) go through contortions in the grid-locked Congress of the United States demonstrating that [for is-guided and cowardly political reasons] intelligent people still cannot work together efficiently and effectively or demonstrate talent brilliance or leadership in solving problems of great moment.

In modern day life, we still live in a world where ordinary people are still not afforded equal opportunity.

For example, in Southern California, in the City of Baldwin Hills only 50% of the money per student spent on students in public schools in Beverly Hills (five miles away) is spent on educating students in public schools in the City of Baldwin Hills.

In Northern California, teachers who teach in the public schools in the City of Oakland can expect to be paid $10,000 per year less than teachers who teach in the public schools in the City of Palo Alto.

Such is the current state of public education in public primary schools in the “Golden State” of California.

Django Unchained demonstrates that Quentin Tarantino is not a member of the solid, cautious, unimaginative members of society who huddle together hoping they will prevent revolution or cause revolution by merely sitting still.

I recommend that you think of Quentin Tarantino as a contributor to the advancement of knowledge.

Events have taught us that the fate of each man and mankind and the human race are permanently in jeopardy.

The life of a slave portrayed in Django Unchained urges us to do something to create a more abundant life for our descendants by creating a more civilized and equitable society.

Django Unchained has tactical vigor and connectiveness.

The characters in Django Unchained (particularly Django and his teacher Dr. Schultz) teach us that creating a more civilized and equitable society is the purpose of life.

People who complain about the violence in Django Unchained are people without insight.

Being without insight, they are sitting still and only see one half of the effect of sitting still; being without imagination or foresight they do not know what will happen next; being without originality they cannot devise anything new to supply if necessary in the place of what is old.

Quentin Tarantino, on the other hand, cannot help being brilliant; the quality of his mind is to put everything in the most lively, most exciting, and most startling form.

Quentin Tarantino startles those who do not like to be startled, and does not compose those who like to be composed.

Quentin Tarantino’s movie Django Unchained forces the viewer to ask himself or herself the question, What are my priorities? and appeals to an alert public who love discussion, who delight in argument, who love the noble play of mind upon mind and who want to live in a more civilized and equitable world.

Art is so potent, “Life imitates art.”

That is why Django Unchained is a great success.

Lincoln

Steven Spielberg’s movie Lincoln taught me something new, that Lincoln bribed Congressmen to get the 13th amendment (the amendment abolishing slavery) passed by Congress.

Before watching Lincoln I thought of President Abraham Lincoln as being “Honest Abe”, a man who learned by candlelight, a man who succeeded in life by working hard.

After watching Lincoln, I now think of Abraham Lincoln as a man who could think with complete clarity of mind, who succeeded by having singular determination and single minded focus and by applying great energy, ruthless cunning, self-assertiveness and utilizing a towering intelligence in the passionate execution of well thought out plans.

Lincoln was not a clumsy country lawyer.  Lincoln had great poise. Lincoln was a supremely craft conscious genius, not an innocent.

Lincoln’s extraordinary power was to make his spirit felt.

Steven Spielberg has transcendent gifts of perception and composition.

Spielberg’s genius is to show us that Abraham Lincoln, in spite of all the pressures on him, was at home in himself, comfortable with who he was; that Lincoln was full of energy in what he felt, and that energy led Lincoln to have a purpose which propelled him.

In making us see how he perceives President Lincoln got the 13th Amendment passed, Steven Spielberg is not trying to persuade us of anything or to judge how Lincoln did it.

Spielberg is only trying to make us know more than the common uneducated and unenlightened person knows about President Lincoln so that we may enjoy and appreciate President Lincoln’s accomplishments more.

Spielberg accomplishes his goal with flying colors by showing us that Lincoln fully imagined the abolishion of slavery, fully imagined slaves becoming free men, then “willed it to happen.”

Spielberg (Lincoln) teaches us that people who “will” what they have first “fully imagined” can make it happen, and that effort, endeavor and purpose come from thinking about something, from consciousness and mental effort.  Most importantly, Spielberg teaches us in his portrayal of President Abraham Lincoln that life is not just atoms in a bag but instead consist of physical efforts that are manifestation of mental activity of thinking.

That being said, Lincoln is a work of genius with great take-home value because it illuminates the importance and power of thinking and turning thoughts into desires and then turning desires into goals and thoughtful effort.

Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook is the story of a man (Pat, masterfully played by Bradley Cooper) who married the wrong woman, discovered his wife naked in the shower having sex with another man when he came home, beat the shit out of that man, was prosecuted, lost his marriage, his home, his job, and temporarily lost his freedom when confined to a state mental institution as part of a plea bargain.

Silver Linings Playbook is a “comeback after losing it all story” in which a man who has “lost it all” (Pat played by Bradley Cooper) finally finds and luckily realizes he has found the right woman for him (Tiffany, masterfully played by Jennifer Lawrence).

At an intellectual level, Silver Linings Playbook teaches us that a man married to the wrong woman is not likely to find solid happiness.  But, a man united with the right woman is a complete human being who is empowered thereby to reach his full potential. Together as a couple that man and woman are more likely to succeed in the world.

Watching Silver Linings Playbook reminded me of the following point of view expressed by Benjamin Franklin in a letter dated June 25, 1745: “A single Man is not nearly the Value he would have in a State of Union.  He resembles the odd half of a pair of scissors.  If  you get a prudent healthy Wife, your Industry in your Profession, with her good Economy, will be a Fortune sufficient.”  That was the major point made in Silver Linings Playbook.

By the way, Benjamin Franklin preferred old Women to young ones, “Because as they have more knowledge of the World and their Minds are better stor’d with Observations, their Conversation is more improving and lastingly agreeable… They study to be good.  To maintain their influence over Men, they supply the Diminution of Beauty by an Augmentation of Utility.” 

It is those wonderful traits Tiffany portrayed which captures Pat’s (Bradley Cooper’s) heart in Silver Linings Playbook.

Watching Pat reluctantly fall in love with Tiffany in Silver Linings Playbook is very enjoyable and entertaining.

Silver Linings Playbook skillfully molds our thoughts and enchantingly gives color and shape to our desires while promoting healthy sensitive self-awareness and mutually beneficial awareness of others.

Silver Linings Playbook is a skillfully written movie, well directed by a highly skilled director which is artistically performed to the highest level of acting by a masterly casted ensemble of highly talented actors.

All of these factors combined is what makes Silver Lining Playbook a great movie and a healthy fulfilling and delightful movie to watch.

Zero Dark Thirty

You can always tell the stature of a movie by the stature of its critics.

Zero Dark Thirty has high stature by virtue of being criticized by United States Senators Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin and John McCain.

Additionally, Acting C.I.A. Chief Michael Morell has criticized Zero Dark Thirty.

On the other hand, former C.I.A. Chief Leon Panetta said Zero Dark Thirty got many things right.

Zero Dark Thirty is about the use of torture by the C.I.A., the torturing people by the C.I.A. of people captured by the C.I.A. and/or captured by the armed forces of the United States.

I agree with Richard Cohen statement in the January 28, 2013 issue of the Washington Post, “What the film says is really less important than what is being said about it. In the category of ‘thought-provoking’ it deserves an Oscar.”

One measure of the “worth” of a movie is power of a movie, its influence on the world through its effect on the soul of the beholder.

Zero Dark Thirty has sparked a national debate on the use, effectiveness, short term benefits and detriments as well as the long term consequences of the United States using torture as an interrogation technique.

By any measure Zero Dark Thirty is a very important movie.

Update

In the February 25, 2013 issue of the Los Angeles Times is an article with the headlines, Karzi bans U.S Troops in key area and Karzi accuses U.S. troops of torture. Quoting: “Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday ordered U.S. special forces troops to cease operations in a strategic southern province, accusing the Americans and Afghans working for them of torturing and abducting civilians….It was the latest example of strained relations between the United States and Karzai’s government, and the latest dispute to damage U.S. efforts to achieve a smooth withdrawal of the remaining 60,000 American troops in Afghanistan by the end of the year.  The Obama administration has long viewed Karzai as an undesirable partner, and has complained repeatedly about widespread allegations of corruption involving those close to the Afghan leader.

In the January 21, 2013 issue of the Los Angeles Times is an article in which a United Nation’s report alleges Afghan abuse of prisoners.  According to that report suspected insurgents continued to be tortured in numerous Afghan detention facilities.  They are subjected to severe beatings and electric shocks.  Many of the suspected fighters who have ended up in Afghan custody were captured by U.S. and allied troops and then turned over to the Afghans.  Afghan President Hamid Karzai maintains that the handling of detainees is a question of national sovereignty.

Les Miserables

Although Les Miserables has outstanding sets, outstanding costuming, outstanding hair and make-up, and outstanding actors, Les Miserables is not an exciting movie.

Les Miserables is not an invigorating movie. It does not create excitement nor does it provoke self-aware contemplation or conversation with others.

Les Miserables accurately depicts life in a very dreary time, when many people living in Paris and the French countryside were starving.

However, Les Miserables does not have tactical vigor or connectiveness.

Furthermore, although many of the the characters in Les Miserables are noble people who make unbelievable sacrifice (i.e. a mother who becomes a whore and sells the teeth in her mouth to earn money to support her daughter, and a rich man who gives up his power position and wealth so that another man wrongfully accused of something will not be sent to jail) the characters portrayed in Les Miserables do not seem like real live people.

As a result, although the story and sub-stories portrayed in Les Miserables portray the noble actions of people who do good and are worthy of our admiration, the story and sub-stories portrayed in this movie do not capture the viewers attention.

Very few people in the audience watching Les Miserables, if indeed anyone in the audience, will care about what the actors are doing or will want to know what the actors will be doing next.

Unless you know the story told by Victor Hugo in his book (Les Miserables), most audiences will be unable to make sense of the movie (Les Miserables), perhaps because it is a musical and because it is not a dramatic production.   As a result of a failed effort to make a musical out of a very dramatic novel many people who see Les Miserables will be able to relate to why the characters do what they do.

This is not a Sylvester Stallone movie.  Unlike a Stallone movie most audiences will not be able to relate to what the actors are doing.

As a result of lack of character development a typical  Les Miserables audience is unable to believe the noble sentiments which propel where the actors are coming from, how the actors think, and why the actors think the way they think.

Les Miserables does not flow along smoothly from a beginning to a middle to an end.  As a result, the audience becomes exhausted watching and listening to great actors – who are at most mediocre singers – singing songs designed to turn a great novel into a musical while delivering stellar acting performances in scene after scene while the story jumps from one scene after another connection to one another and without continuity of plot.

In order words, Les Miserables is a poorly sung musical incoherently staged as a dramatic story.

While watching this movie, most viewers will quickly become bogged down in confusion.

At the end of watching this movie it is clear that both the film maker and movie goer have both wasted their time.

For a different type of movie experience brought about by the brilliant adaptation of a great novel as a movie I highly recommend watching Midnight’s Children.

 Midnight’s Children is the product of a momentous collaboration between director Deepa Metha (a fearless filmmaker) and Salman Rushdie (one of the world’s most imaginative and controversial novelists).

Midnight’s Children is an epic.  It is a movie of gigantic proportions that tells a story which has many twists and turns and in which all the scenes are seamlessly woven together in an engaging dramatic and sensible manner.

Midnight’s Children brings romance, spectacle, intrigue and social commentary together in a most exciting, dramatic, engaging and agreeable manner.

To experience a worthwhile and enjoyable lesson in how a movie can masterfully develop characters, I recommend watching The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

The main character is The Reluctant Fundamentalist is, as are the main characters in Les Miserables, true to himself and lives his life with dignity.

Unlike Les Miserables,  The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a totally engaging movie that makes sense, touches the viewer’s soul, has taken home value, stimulates lively and worthwhile self-examination and conversation and will influence people’s conduct in the real world.

A movie critic at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival proclaimed, “… The Reluctant Fundamentalist promises to be one of the most talked about films of the year.”

The characters portrayed/played by Mendez, Arkin and Goodman in Argo were made so lovable by filmmaker-director Ben Affleck and by screenwriter Chris Terrio that the audience was able to relate to those characters  merely by watching what the the actors did as the story developed without Argo taking up any of the audience’s time explaining why the actors did what they did, or why the actors were doing what they were doing or why what the actors were doing in the story portrayed in the movie was part and parcel of their being.  That is the effect that good tone good rhythm good structure and good organization — which are the components which underlies good story telling achieves -and is that effect that movie makers, directors, screenwriters, and actors should seek to achieve.

All of  elements of good story telling, great directing, great screen writing, great cinematography, great editing and great acting are abundantly present in Margarethe von Trotta’s masterful film Hannah Arendt.

In Hannah Arendt, actress Barbara Sukowa, without speaking a word, fully inhabits the role of Hannah Arendt. Hannah Arendt’s life was not lacking in drama.  Hannah Arendt is considered one of the intellectual giants of the 20th century.

Among other things, Hannah Arendt said that the number of Jews killed by the Nazis would have been much smaller if Jewish leaders in each territory occupied by the Nazis had not cooperated with the Nazis.

With respect to Eichmann, Hannah Arendt said Eichmann was just a normal non-thinking man following orders and a completely mediocre person. Arendt also said that totalitarianism is designed to take away all human impulse, to make people into non-persons, into people who do not think.

Following the Eichmann trial in Jerusalem, Arendt formulated the concept of the “banality of evil” — evil not as diabolical intent but as an unthinking, almost off-handed ignorance of the consequences of one’s actions.  Arendt said, “The greatest evil is the evil committed by nobodies, that is by human beings who refuse to be persons.”

Without speaking a word Actress Barbara Sukowa conveys the isolation, fierce determination and brilliance of Hannah Arendt.

After watching Hannah Arendt, I wanted to know more about Hannah Arendt (about her life) and to read the books, essays and letters she had written during her life time.

I learned many things and was exposed to many ideas that were knew to me by watching Hannah Arendt.

I did not learn anything by watching Les Miserables. 

Watching Les Miserables did not create any desire on my part to learn anything or to do anything.

Watching the movie Les Miserables did not move me to do anything.

Les Miserables is an unremarkable film.  Hannah Arendt, on the other hand, is a remarkable film

Watching Hannah Arendt moved me.  In that regard, soon after watching Hannah Arendt I purchased several books written by Hannah Arendt and several books containing essays and letters she had written during her life-time.

I learned a lot and enjoyed and have been inspired by reading each one of Hannah Arendt’s books which I purchased as a result of seeing the movie Hannah Arendt.

Les Miserables should be a celebration of the lives of people.  It is not.

If you want to see a movie that is an intense celebration of the lives of people the movie is about, that has intoxicating prose and high energy, go see On the Road,  a film by Walter Salles, with a screenplay by Jose Rivera, staring Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Viggo Mortensen and Kristen Dunst — and enjoy the experience of being thoroughly invigorated while being entertained.

If you want to see a meaningful romantic movie, a love story about a noble unselfish man that will keep you spellbound and on the edge of your seat, see Sergio Costelitto’s film Twice Born staring Penelope Cruz, Emile Hirsch, Adnan Haskovic, Saadet Aksoy, Pietro Castelitto, Luca De Filippo, Sergeo Castellito, Jane Berkin, Mira Furlan and Jovan Diviak.

There were many great movies released in 2012, Les Miserables was not one of them.

Armour

I did not see this movie.

I understand from people who saw this movie that this movie is so realistic and engaging that it makes the viewer contemplate his or her own mortality.

That tells me that this movie has good tone, good rhythm, good structure, good organization and is an excellent execution of a creative vision.

Life of Pi

Life of Pi is a technological marvel.  In this movie a boy and a tiger are shipwrecked and then drift aimlessly together in an ocean that is sometimes calm and at other times choppy.

The movie is an amazing technological accomplishment in that the tiger looks and acts real although during almost the entire movie the tiger the tiger the audience sees on the screen is a computer generated image.

The movie is a cinematic wonder in that while the audience watches the boy and tiger floating aimlessly in a frequently bobbing and rocking small boat the audience does not get sea sick.

Putting aside the technological accomplishment of creating a movie that has a real appearing animated computer generated tiger and many types of computer generated fish that look real, watching this movie is not an enjoyable experience.

Watching Life of Pi is not an enjoyable experience because Life of Pi is a metaphor that stands for the propositions that the fittest survive and that it takes forced effort to survive.

But aside that lesson, which is not well taught in the Life of Pi, the Life of Pi is a aimless boring movie that has no plot.

During the entire time one watches the movie one is struck by how the main characters in this movie (a boy an a tiger) are unreal and unbelievable characters.

The story portrayed on Life of Pi literally and figuratively goes no where.

Life of Pi has no take-home value, is not entertaining and although Life of Pi is a technological wonder of the world of film making with computers it is of no sociological significance.

If you want to see a poetic demonstration of the power of photography and narration see Terrence Malick’s film To The Wonder staring Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams and Olga Kurylenko. This film tells the story of a cold man (Ben Affleck) who cannot commit to beautiful women (Olga Kurylenko and Rachel McAdams) who give him unconditioned love and of a priest (Javier Bardem) who is full of despair because he doesn’t feel the presence of God or connection of God.

To the Wonder, unlike Life of Pi, is visual poetry.

To the Wonder is magical. Life of Pi is not.

To the Wonder is a poetic demonstration of the power of photography; To the Wonder is visual poetry, Life of Pi is not.

Beast of the Southern Wild

This is a cute entertaining movie about a little six year old girl who is comfortable in her own skin and in her own life as she bravely faces a life of poverty living in post-Katrina Louisiana lagoon after disaster strikes with no fear of hurricanes or poverty.

This movie is extremely entertaining but has no take home value.

The Master

 In this movie, Joaquin Phonenix is a totally convincing (believable) whacked out crazy veteran of World War II and Philip Seymour Hoffman is a totally believable cult leader.

No-one can doubt their acting genius after seeing this movie.

My criticism of this movie is that the story told in this movie is fatiguing, takes too much effort to understand.

Therefore, it will have little or no influence on the world and many people will find it has no take home value and is not entertaining.

Many viewers will find this movie boring, dreary and a horrible experience.  They will want to escape during the showing because the movie and the story it is telling will make no sense to them.

Comments on Judging

Some people have told me that President Lincoln was the worse president in United States history because of the tremendous loss of life and property in the Civil War and that the movie Lincoln is a horrible movie because it sustains President Lincoln’s reputation as being the best United States president.

Other people have told me that President Lincoln was the best president in United States history because President Lincoln took the long view of how life would be in a future if slavery was abolished now vs. if slavery was not abolished now in all parts of the United States.

Those people believe President Lincoln is an inspiration for all people for all time.

Those people have told me they believe that the portrayal of President Lincoln making the statement quoted in the next paragraph makes the movie Lincoln the best movie released in 2012.

In the movie Lincoln, President Lincoln states, words to the effect, that “what we are doing here if we abolish slavery is not just for the benefit of people who are currently slaves but for their children and future generations.”

The ability to judge this right and that wrong, this good and that bad, this movie is the best movie and that movie is the second best movie, etc. first and foremost depends upon the self-understanding of the judge.

The precondition of judging is the ability to imagine before your eyes the others whom your judgment represents (who your judgment speaks for) and to whom and to what force and activity your judgment is responding to.

Judgment is a sort of balancing activity in which the scales of justice weigh the stability of the world.

In the regard, the United States Supreme Court currently has before it a case (Shelby County v. Holder, No. 12-96) which challenges the central provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which prevents nine states from changing voting procedures without getting permission from federal officials.

By the way, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, does not only apply to states in the South.  It also specifically applies to the boroughs of Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 grew out of the legacies of and lessons learned from slavery, the Civil War and the civil rights movement.

In Shelby v. Holder, No. 12-96, the nine justices of the United States Supreme Court are being “required/asked” to answer the following questions, among others:

1. Has the modern South outgrown its troubled past and/or are the legal burdens on the nine states still justified?
2. Are citizens in the South more racist than citizens in the North?
3. Are the nine states subject to the “Act” “independent sovereigns” or must they continue to live “under the trusteeship of the United States government?”
4. Has racial discrimination in voting ended, that there is none anywhere in the United States?  Has the problem to which the Voting Rights Act was addressed been solved?

According to a recent article in the New York Times: If the Justices strike down that law’s central provision, it would be easier for lawmakers in the nine states to enact the kind of laws Republicans in several states have recently advocated, including tighter identification standards.  It would also give those states more flexibility to move polling places and redraw legislative districts.

Of course the Civil War was aimed at treating some states differently than others.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which joined the government in defending the law, argues: This statute is in part about our march through history to keep promises that our constitution says for too long were unmet.”

The United States lived through 200 years of slavery and 80 years of racial segregation before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 came into being.

Massachusetts, which is not covered by the statute, has the worse ratio of white voter turnout to African-American voter turnout.

Mississippi, which is covered by the statute, has the best ratio of African-American turnout, with African-American turnout exceeding that of whites.

Times change.

The judgments that you and I and everyone else make are determined in large part by the forces, events and personalities that shape our lives and the era in which we live.

Movies shape our lives.

The history we experience (including the movies we see and talk about) is the backdrop to our lives and largely defines, enables or limits all that we do and do not do.

Happy movie going.

Gary S. Smolker, Publisher

Gary Smolker Idea Exchange Blog

http://www.garysmolker.wordpress.com

 

Copyright (c) 2013 by Gary S. Smolker

“Django Unchained and Quentin Tarantino Interview in December 2012 PLAYBOY” — a movie review with social commentary by Gary S. Smolker

“Django Unchained and Quentin Tarantino Interview in December 2012 PLAYBOY” 

-A Movie Review with Social Commentary by Gary S. Smolker –

(January 2, 2013)

QUENTIN TARANTINO’S AGENDA

Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed the recently released movie Django Unchained.

In his PLAYBOY interview, published in the December 2012 issue of PLAYBOY, Tarantino said he has an agenda about history that he wanted to get across in this movie.  He was interested in the business aspect of slavery (the use and approval of the use of humans as chattel, humans who could be bought and sold) and he wanted to get across how horrible slavery is.

Tarantino’s movie is a sociological psychodrama that compels viewers to think about sociological, economic and political issues.

Tarantino may have set out to get across how terrible slavery was, but what Tarantino actually does in Django Unchained is to make a movie which tells a story about the mind set of people in the deep South before the Civil War.

The story Tarantino tells will compel many viewers to reflect upon and explore the validity of their racial and economic stereotypes, as well as to think about their opinion on the pros and cons of the workings of an unregulated purely market based economic system, their opinion of the value of human life, their concept of property and human rights, and the sociological, economic and political quagmire the United States finds itself in today as well as the role and the impact of the rule of law in society and how social strata and entrepreneurship work in real life today.

To the acute observer, Tarantino’s movie will (a) explain why Barack Obama was re-elected President of the United States, (b) why Mitt Rommney  sincerely believes he is entitled to be President of the United States, (c) why the NAACP is challenging New York City’s exclusive use of an applicant’s test score on a standard test as the sole basis to gain admission to New York City’s academically elite selective high schools and (d) why the Mayor of New York City, Richard Bloomberg, adamantly refuses to change  use of the applicant’s test score as the only admission criteria to those schools.

The way Tarantino tells the story told in Django Unchained is an excellent example of how to make an argument with powerful impact.

I predict that Tarantino’s film will have significant effect on judicial decisions, jury decisions,the votes on delicate issues that politicians will make in the future,  and on politician’s political careers and the voting public’s political decisions going forward.

TARANTINO’S IMPACTFULL POWERFULLY TOLD STORY

Tarantino’s movie Django Unchained tells a very compelling story.

In the first scene of Django Unchained, Django (played by Jammie Foxx) is in chains.  It is winter.  Django is tied to other slaves, all of whom are walking along inadequately clothed for the winter weather, being herded by two slave traders.

The line is stopped by a bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz played by Christopher Waltz.

Dr. Schultz asks Django if Django can identify two men.  Django replies: “Yes.”

Dr. Schultz tries to purchase Django from the slave traders.

The slave traders refuse to sell Django and unsuccessfully try to kill bounty hunter Schultz.

Dr. Schultz kills one of the slave traders and fatally wounds the other who is trapped under his fallen horse who has been shot by Dr. Schultz in a “shoot-out” in self-defense.

Instantaneously, Dr. Schultz enlists Django to help Schultz hunt and kill the two men Django tells Schultz he can identify.

Django tells Dr. Schultz he will assist Dr. Schultz in his quest to kill those two men for the reward (bounty) offered to bring them “in dead or alive” whereupon Dr. Schultz unchains Django after Django.

Dr. Schultz and Django make a “deal” — Django agrees to identify the two men being hunted by bounty hunter Schultz and to be Schultz’s partner in the bounty hunting business throughout the winter.

The two men Django has been asked to identify had abused Django and Django’s wife while they were slaves working on a plantation under the control of those two.

Schultz agrees to pay one third of the bounty collected for killing men they hunt and to help Django find and rescue Django’s wife Broomhilda von Shaft (played by Kerry Washington) — who is a plantation slave desperately in need of being rescued — after the winter snow melts.

Dr. Schultz is a refined educated man, a dentist who went into the bounty hunting business because being a bounty hunter (being paid a “reward” for each person brought in dead or alive) is more lucrative then being a dentist.

When Dr. Schultz meets Django, Django is an ignorant slave, who can’t read or write.  Django is a man who never chose or owned his own clothes, and who never held a gun or rode on a horse.  That all changes after Django partners up with Dr. Schultz.

Dr. Schultz explains to Django that Broomhilda is the name of a Queen in German legend who is won by Sigfried.

Dr. Schultz teaches Django how to shoot a gun and how to ride a horse.

Dr. Schultz buys new clothes for Django which are chosen by Django for Django.

The two partners (Dr. King and Django) are a case study in relational effectiveness.  They have a very effective and efficient humane relationship.

After a winter of successful bounty hunting — consisting of killing white men then bringing them in dead for a reward (bounty) — Django and Dr. King go to the slave market in Mississippi where Broomhilda was sold to her current master in order to find out, from an inspection of sales records, where Broomhilda is now.

Dr. King determines from an inspection of sales records that Broomhilda has been sold to Calvin Candi, the owner of a cotton plantation known as Candi land.

Calvin Candi is played by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Calvin Candi is a young boy Emperor.  He owns everything in sight at Candi land.

Candi land is a self-contained money making machine, which takes care of itself.

Calvin Candi was born into this.

Calvin Candi’s father and Calvin’s father’s father before him owned Candi land.

Calvin’s passion is not raising cotton.  Calvin’s passion is Mandingo fighting — two black men fight each other to the death.

Dr. King and Django decide and hatch a plan on how to purchase Broomhilda from Calvin Candi.

They decide they will pose as being sportsmen in the Mandingo fighting business and will get to see Calvin Candi under the pretext of wanting to purchase one of Calvin Candi’s Mandingo fighters.

There are many memorable dramatic (and surprising to me) scenes in Django Unchained.

1. In one scene: Dr. King, Django and Calvin Candi are all together watching a Mandingo fight. Calvin’s Mandingo is fighting another slave owner’s Mandingo slave at a gentleman’s club.
2. At the end of the fight, Calvin orders his “victorious Mandingo slave” to “finish off” the other Mandingo slave:  Calvin’s Mandingo slave has beat up the other slave.  Calvin’s slave is given a hammer and told to hammer the other slave’s head in.  He reluctantly does so.
3. When Dr. King and Django first arrive at Candi land, they are told by Calvin Candi, when he learns that Dr. King speaks German, that he has a German speaking woman house slave.
4. Django is riding a horse when Dr. King and Django arrive at Candi land.  At Candi land no-one had ever seen a black man on a horse before.
5. Calvin Candi tells his head black slave, a man who runs the household, played by Samuel L. Jackson, to prepare a room for Django in the main house.
6. The slave who runs the house complains that they will have to burn the sheets and covers if Django sleeps in a room in the main house.
7. Calvin Candi petulantly replies that the sheets, covers and blankets that will be touched by Django belong to him (Mr. Candi) and he (Mr. Candi) can do whatever he wants with them.
8. Calvin orders his men to bring the German speaking slave (Broomhilda) to speak to Dr. King in German.
9. The men fetch Broomhilda.
10. Movie viewers are shown Broomhilda imprisoned in an partially underground metal “hot box” the size of a coffin as a punishment for trying to run away.
11. In another scene the viewers are shown the victorious Mandingo fighter up in a tree surrounded by barking dogs.  It turns out the Mandingo fighter had tried to run away and had been tracked by those dogs who are now trying to eat the Mandingo fighter. The fighter explains to Mr. Candi that he doesn’t want to fight anyone anymore.  Mr. Candi replies that he (Mr. Candi) paid $500 for the Mandingo fighter, that the fighter has fought on three fights and Mr. Candi should get at least five fights for his $500.00
12. The Mandingo fighter comes down out of the tree.  The dogs are let loose.  They grab the fighter and tear him apart and then eat him while he is still alive.
13. In another scene Mr. Candi explains to Dr. Schultz and to Django that blacks are naturally servile and a mentally inferior specie of human being.
14. Mr. Candi pulls out a skull he keeps of a deceased black man. He cuts the skull open and points to the part of the interior of the skull against which the brain would lay.
15. There are some ridges on the skull at that portion of the interior of the skull. Mr. Candi explains that the presence of those ridges prove that black people are servile have low mental capacity.
16. Prior to this demonstration, viewers have been told, several times throughout the movie, that Calvin Candi does not speak any foreign languages.
17. Shortly after that demonstration, Dr. King asks Mr. Candi how it came about that Mr. Candi gave the names Mr. Candi gave to his Mandingo fighters.
18. Mr. Candi explains that he got the names he gave his Mandingo slaves from novels written by Alexander Dumas.  He further explains that Alexander Dumas is his favorite author.
19. Dr. Schultz then asks if Mr. Candi is aware that Alexander Dumas was a black man?
20. Prior to that happening, Mr. Candi and the head of his household agree that Broomhilda is worth $300 or $350.  Immediately after that, Mr. Candi told Dr. King that Mr. Candi would crush Broomhilda’s skull if Dr. King did not pay Mr. Candi $12,000 to purchase Broomhilda.  Things get violent after that.

One would have to be very dense to not notice that Mr. Candi was not as intelligent as the black man in charge of Mr. Candi’s house/household staff, the black man played by Samuel L. Jackson.

At all times during the movie, Django acted in an intelligent and appropriate matter and exhibited a high degree of reasoning power as did his wife Broomhilda.

ALEXANDER DUMAS

Mr. Tarantino did not have Dr. Schultz mention to Mr. Candi anything about Alexander Dumas other than the fact that Alexander Dumas was black.

In real life, Alexander Dumas’ father Alex Dumas was born to a black slave mother and a white fugitive French nobleman in present day Haiti.

Alex Dumas was sold into bondage but made his way to Paris, where he was schooled as a sword-fighting member of the French aristocracy.

When the Revolution broke out, he joined the army at the lowest rank – yet quickly rose, through a series of legendary feats, to command more than 50,000 men.

Because of his success and unwavering principles, he ultimately became a threat to Napoleon himself.

Alex Dumas’ story is a story which took place in the modern world’s first multiracial society.

The stories in Alexander Dumas’ books The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers are based on the life led by his father Alex Dumas.

Alex Dumas fearlessly lived up to his beliefs.  Fear did not stop him from doing anything.

THE BEST ACTORS WANT TO WORK IN MR. TARANTINO’S FILMS

Some of the best actors and actresses want to work in Mr. Tarantino’s films because they agree with Mr. Tarantino’s values, respect Mr. Tarantino’s honesty, respect his bravery and want to be one of the messengers who deliver the message in his films.

In Django Unchained, the actors understood every ideological aspect of what the movie is about, agreed with the powerfully presented message that the institution of slavery in the United States was awful and wanted to join Mr. Tarantino in delivering a powerfully delivered message that blacks are not genetically stupid, that given an opportunity they have as much ability to acquire knowledge through study or experience as any other race of people.

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

In the Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863, 150 years ago this week, President Lincoln freed the slaves only where he had no power – inside the Confederacy where slavery was legal and protected by the Confederate Army.

Slavery existed because of state laws, and the president had no power to declare a state law unconstitutional. Nothing in the Constitution as it existed in 1863 made slavery unconstitutional.

President Lincoln based his issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on the grant of war powers to the president in the Constitution.

President Lincoln claimed that slavery was enabling the rebels of the South to carry out their war, he maintained that abolition was “warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity” to save the government.

A key part of the Emancipation Proclamation was its invitation to freed slaves and other African American men to enlist in the Union Army.

More than 180,000 black men served in the Union Army, the great majority of them emancipated slaves.

More than one-fifth of the nation’s adult male black population younger than 45 fought for the Union, about 10% of the entire Union Army.

QUENTIN TARANTINO’S MINDSET AND AMBITION

In the interview published in the December 2012 issue of PLAYBOY, Tarantino said he is always trying to prove that he belongs in Hollywood.

He is always trying to top himself.

He is trying to make big, bold, vital movies that move his artistic journey forward.

He would like to be thought of as one of the premier directors of his time, at the height of his powers, with his talents at his fingertips, with something to say, something to prove, trying to be the best he can be.

QUENTIN TARANTINO’S ANSWER TO THE QUESTION: DO BLACK PEOPLE GENETICALLY LACK INTELLIGENCE?

If one defines intelligence as the ability to acquire knowledge through study and experience, the message unambiguously delivered in Django Unchained is that black people are highly intelligent.

The message Tarantino, and all the actors in this movie, deliver(s) is that “intelligence” is not a genetic trait.

EMOTIONAL AND INTELLECTUAL REACTIONS TO DJANGO UNCHAINED

I like Django Unchained because, whether I agree with the message/information/argument communicated by Tarantino, Django Unchained will provoke public discussion of difficult current subjects such as the value of human life, whether government regulation of social conduct and providing social welfare is a good idea and whether government regulation of our theoretically free market economy is necessary.

In its own way, Django Unchained speaks to the issue of whether affirmative action makes sense.

I like Django Unchained because watching Django Unchained will cause some people to examine their unexamined assumptions.

In that regard, Django Unchained will cause many people to think about the validity of their assumptions about ownership of property, property rights and human rights.

Django Unchained will influence people’s state of minds on social issues such as the proper role and size of government and the regulation of business and social conduct by government.

Django Unchained will provoke discussion about the existence of racial stereotypes and about what people believe about racial stereotypes.

Django Unchained will inevitably cause some people to examine their racial biases if they have any.

THE AMERICAN DREAM

The “American Dream” is a state of mind.

The “American Dream” is about freedom and opportunity, opportunity and freedom for everybody.

The “American Dream” does not demonize success or endorse the grant of special favors or special “entitlements” to special groups based on ancestry, ethnicity, race or color.

The widespread viewing of Tarantino’s Django Unchained will accelerate society’s realization of Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream that someday all children will be treated the same regardless of the color of their skin and we will someday live in a world where people will not be judged on the basis of the color of their skin but instead will be judged on the content of their character.

CONCEPTS OF THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE, HUMAN RIGHTS, PROPERTY, OWNERSHIP OF PROPERTY, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE TO HAVE A LAISSEZ FAIRE FREE MARKET ECONOMY, AND HOLDING PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE AND PREPARING PEOPLE FOR THE REAL WORLD

The commonly held belief of the characters in Django Unchained is that nobody has the right to tell you what to do with your own property or to tell you what you can and cannot do with your own property.

As a result, in Django Unchained, Calvin Candi, without any compulsion, asked his Mandingo fighter to bash in the head of the other Mandingo fighter with a hammer without anyone questioning Mr. Candi’s right to do so.

Mr. Candi had a young beautiful black slave woman whipped and put in a metal box the size of a coffin as a punishment for trying to run away, without anyone questioning Mr. Candi’s right to do so because she is his property.

Mr. Candi had his dogs tear apart the flesh of a black slave and ate that slave alive, without anyone questioning Mr. Candi’s right to do so because the black slave is Mr. Candi’s property.

At the beginning of the movie, shortly after Dr. Schultz has “freed” Django, Dr. Schultz asks Django if Django would like to join Dr. Schultz in the business of bounty hunting.

Django asks Dr. Schultz to explain bounty hunting, to tell him what bounty hunting is.

Dr. Schultz tells Django that bounty hunting is like the “slave trade” — money for flesh — except in the slave trade money is paid for alive black people and in the bounty hunting trade money is paid for dead white people who have been shot and killed by bounty hunters who will collect a cash reward for having done so.

After hearing this explanation, Django replies “Being paid for killing white people, what’s not to be liked about that.”

All of the violence and inhumanity portrayed in Django Unchained makes sense in the context of the story being told because Django Unchained is a satire.

Django Unchained is a satire created by a master of the film making art in which shockingly dramatically memorable graphic scenes are employed to create a visualization of a way of life.

This visualization of a “way of life” is presented to viewers for the purpose of compelling to consider their own mind sets about the value of human life, human rights, property rights and government regulation.

After viewing Django Unchained, when, and if, people think about the value of human life, the concept of ownership of property and whether it is appropriate for government to interfere (regulate through the promulgation and enforcement of regulations) in the functioning of a so “market” economy in society they will have inscribed in their minds the graphic horrific scenes of what happens in the unfettered free market economy portrayed in Django Unchained.

In Django Unchained, Tarantino evokes raw emotions about the sense of entitlement Calvin Candi has obtained through the process of being born into wealth and privilege which allows him to take “advantage” of the existing social and economic system without any compassion and without putting any value on human life or dignity.

The emotions people have in response to the despicable conduct of Calvin Candi  explains and demonstrates how off-putting it is to many people for anyone to act as if they are better than someone else, whether they believe they are entitled to be President of the United States as a birthright because of the “stature” of their family or believe that they are entitled to be admitted to a particular high school or to be admitted to a college or university or to be given a particular job or promotion as a birthright they are entitled to because of the color of their skin.

Django Unchained highlights in it’s graphic gritty scenes the American dream that merit will be rewarded.

Copyright (c) 2013 Gary S. Smolker