Stop Culture

My Texts & Critics project is finally complete. The goal was to draw my viewer into my world as an eightteen-year-old-Montana-State-freshman. It was drawn from over 700 still photos taken over the last few weeks (as well as a number of older photos as well). I recorded most of the sounds used (not the music, but the sound effects) myself, and them edited everything together with after effects. I’ve uploaded a DivX copy here:
eateggs.com/school/stop_culture.avi

You’ll need the DivX codec to view this, which can be downloaded here.

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Good heavens. I guess I’m glad to be at work– in the last 26 hours, I’ve spent 24 hour editing. I took a 45 minute or so break this morning around 1:00, and stopped again for a 30 minute breakfast this morning around 10:00, and that aside I’ve been sitting in front of my computer putting my T&C project together.

Thanksfully, Brian is going to take my Reid 304 shift this afternoon, which will give me a few more hours, and even more fortunate is that I’m please with the way that the project as a whole is coming together. More details when there are details to share.

Good god, I need sleep.

The best of intentions…

Strong though his literature teacher’s impact may have been, it was M’s social science teacher, Yang Changji, who was to have the deepest influence on M’s intellectual life. As M recalled later, Yang”was an idealist, and a man of high moral character. He believed in his ethics very strongly and tried to imbue his students with the desire to become just, moral, virtuous men, useful in society.”

Mao Zedong by Jonathan Spence

This passage caught me entirely off guard. I very much believe in the value of teaching and believe teaching to be a method of positively impact a society– a humanitarian effort, of sorts, in that it’s an investment of the teacher into the lives of his/her students. The hope of this is that the teacher will have a positive impact on the students, and through the students, on the world as a whole.

This description of Yang depicts him as, after an effect, the quintessential teacher. He was a virtuous man, who attempted to pass that virtue on to his students, and was able to effectively impact their lives.

But there’s something almost dreadful about this– if you haven’t already figured it out, M is Mao Zedong– a man both admirable for his ability to command power and loyalty and reprehensible for the terrors he affected with his power.

So then how is Yang to be regarded? Is he a hero for dedicating himself to his students, integrity and virtue? Or is he a villain for having given inspiration, guidance and encouragement to a man who was later to become one of the world’s greatest tyrants, in ranks with Hitler and Stalin? How is Yang to be regarded?

Yang has either done too much or too little– to much for giving education and inspiration– aiding and abetting— a life destroying monster or too little for failing to inspire Mao with a sense of humanity, a love of life, or dedication to justice. And how would Yang himself now look back on his actions? Could he laud himself for a life-well lived and discard Mao as being outside of his control? Or would he condemn himself for his influence? Would he wish that he been a farmer or a factory worker, rather than a teacher? Would be be able to look in the eye any of those who perished under Mao’s crazed cultural reforms? Would he say that his best just wasn’t good enough?

I wish that I, myself, could in my own mind absolve Yang of any and all guilt. To say that he was somehow responsible for Mao’s later actions seems somehow ridiculous– but if Yang is allowed/given no accountability for Mao, what is his virtue as a teacher? If he cannot be held responsible for ill, then likewise he cannot be help responsible for anything good. If Mao had later become a Nobel peace-prize winning world leader –one of the greatest humanitarians of our time– who brought an end to war and suffering and hunger… then Yang could have no responsibility or pride in that either, regardless of how much he served as an inspiration.

There’s more to this than meets the eye. Yes– to be an educator is a great humanitarian investment. But I think it’s more– it’s also a risk. It’s a hope that ultimately your investments as a teacher will be for good and not for ill– but it’s a hope without guarantee. Obviously, even the most exemplary of teachers runs the risk of failure.

What the Bleep Do We Know?

I ended up writing a mini-review of What the Bleep Do We Know? in a comment on William’s blog, so I thought I’d go ahead and post it here:

I was very unimpressed with the film. It came across as a poorly done self-help video that was trying too hard to be trendy and appealing. The overriding theory of the movie is that an understanding of quantum physics has given scholars a new handle of the reason and purpose of life. They then extend this explanation of quantum mechanics to explain how we can find purpose and value in our lives– going so far as to almost boil it down to a three step plan. And, well… I’m sorry, but I find it just a bit presumptuous for ANYONE– movie, book, television, religion, professor, etc– to give me a formulaic method for my happiness and success.

I guess what I found so egregious about the presentation (in addition to the terrible, synthesized “healing” music that ran throughout the latter portion of the movie during which the antagonist suddenly begins to love herself and love her body and live happily with purpose and meaning after a brief breakdown where she screamed “I HATE YOU!” at the mirror and squirted toothpaste all over) was its presentation as fact. Although the ideas are interesting, and I guess they work for the film-makers, they’re not universal truths, and to present them as such undermines whatever validity they may have had as ideas (at least to me, as a skeptical viewer). Had the movie said “this interpretation of a law of quantum dynamics indicates that such and such…” I think it would have been a lot easier for me to swallow, rather than “the laws of quantum physics are this: which means this: which applies to you like this:”

Furthermore, for what is supposed to be an intellectual movie, I found the moments of intellect and insight to be few and far between. There were a few instances of interesting studies, ideas and theories being cited, but by-and-large(??) the script failed to demonstrate any abundance of intellect, wisdom or understanding on the part of either the screenwriter or the director.

As William pointed out, perhaps half the sources, who presented the films ideas through a series of plainly-shot interviews, had impressive credentials. The other half, however, seemed to be just scholarly hacks and university nuts.

I guess this is turning into a mini-review. Oh well.

A lot of it struck me as very Montana-State-Honors-Program-esque: just a compilation of esoteric, obscure and largely trivial knowledge presented so as to appear intelligent and scholarly. I hate to be the one to say it, but: it’s neither.