The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

“Mass media then gives us a more realistic view of the world and increases our ability to communicate with others even though we lose out in the sense of the supernatural and the mysterious that used to make art so powerful, what he later refers to as the “cult value” of art. But he is aware that the potential exists for fascism to capitalize on this technology for its own purposes as well.”

In this quote Benjamin pointed out that Mass media is more realistic than art. For example documentary film or a photograph will have images that reflect exactly our real life. However, art has a supernatural side that artists use in order to produce paint for instance and most of the time the interpretation (or the meaning) is not easy to make for everyone. In addition, Mass media makes communication much easier than before. For instance, we can be informed of what is going on thousands miles away from where we live. Moreover, the Internet made it possible and this is one of the remarkable revolutions in Mass media. But Benjamin noted also that Mass media can be abused by a government or an individual. For example the Nazi (Fascism) was able to use the Mass media for its own propaganda and the consequences were terrible.

This quote is related to today’s media because people are now able to communicate even faster than Benjamin’s era because with the Internet governments are not able to control the information anymore. We experienced this situation during the Arab spring and Egyptians were able to organize themselves thru the Internet in order to overthrow their ex-president Mubarak. Therefore, we can say that the Internet was able to free Egypt population from a dictator. In addition, governments cannot control the Mass media like the fascism did in Germany. Today people are in control of the circulation of information because of the Internet and governments cannot stop it happening. The Internet even allowed certain governments’ secrets to be leaked and the recent one was the classified documents that Manning from the US army gave to Wikileaks.

Political Consciousness

Chaplin film mocked Nazi’s regime specially its army. For example the movie demonstrated how the army was imperfect and soldiers seemed to be afraid and unorganized. From this point we can say that Chaplin really underestimated the Nazi and Germany army. Chaplin attitude in the film was completely the opposite of what Ernest Junger did.         

PAIN

"The profusion of violent imagery, and the fast pace and constant danger of modern life forces people to become more tolerant of pain and death:
The human will disciplines and outfits this flesh with such painstaking care that it now seems more indifferent to injury. Today, we again are able to bear the sight of death with greater indifference, since we no longer feel at home in our body as we did before. It no longer accords with our style to stop a flying show or a car race simply because of a deadly accident. Such accidents lie not outside but inside the zone of a new kind of security (p.43)."






   This quote means that our daily life is overwhelmed with violent acts and news so that it became common and usual to accommodate with them. For instance, reading a newspaper or watching TV will allow us to learn the different sort of crimes of the day. Another example is that it is common to encounter crime scenes or accidents daily. Therefore, this passage reminds us that the frequency of violence is so high that it is now a part of our culture. In addition, we can only be good at something if we keep practicing until we become excellent at it. At the end of the day humans were able to ease the pain as the time goes by. For example the same types of violence are repeated over the time and people will hear a new violence and make a reference to an old one that happened in the past. For example the shooting that occurred in Colorado and Newtown are almost similar because both gunmen went to publics places where we as humans did not expect this kind of violence to happen to these locations (movie theater and elementary school). Moreover, the author’s message tells us that we are no longer willing t do anything in order to stop this pain which is a consequence of the violence. After those two massacres the country is divided into two groups:  pro-guns and citizens who are against guns.

Conformity and obedience is not a solution to pain because the obedience itself could engender more pain. That is why Nazi was able to govern Germany because Germans were convinced that the price to pay in exchange for a brighter economy. Therefore, this situation helped Hitler to engage the country to World War II and the pain that came from the war was greater than the previous one. For example millions of people were killed and the creation of Israel after the war more pain in the Middle East even today.  

Documentary style films Vs fictional narrative films

The documentary films that I watched are nonfictional motion pictures intended to document the reality of world war II in order to instruct or maintain a historical record. Moreover "documentary" has been described as a filmmaking practrice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception that is without clear boundaries. Therefore, those documentary films (Triumph of the will, Night and Fog...) enable me to revive the horror moments of the war. In addition, we learned from the documentaries the level of cruelty of the Nazi. For instance concentration camps were places where any kind of experiences were performed on humans and more than eight million people lost their lives. But these crimes were predictable because Hitler had in his agenda to extinguish jews' existence. Hitler accused bankers (majority jews)  for being responsible for Germans' economic crises and taking out jews would be part of the solution.
However, fictional narrative films tell a fictional story, event or narrative. In this style of film, believable   narratives and characters help convince the audience that the unfolding fiction is real. That's why movies like "A Trip to the Moon in 1902" was able to explain the main idea of Nihilists (want to escape the real world). Also actors must deliver dialogue and action in a believable way, so as to persuade the audience that the film is real life.    

Hilter's Final Speech

"I aimed from the first at something a thousand times higher than being a minister. I wanted to become the destroyer of Marxism. I am going to achieve this task and, if I do, the title of minister will be an absurdity as far as I am concerned. . . .”

In this passage Hitler made it clear that he had a bigger vision than the title of a minister. Therefore, in the following years he became a president after the death of Paul Von Hindenburg. His second ambition was to get rid of Marxism in order to bring Germany back its economic prosperity. At this point he was able to please his audience by telling them what they wanted to hear and the changes that they were expecting. Even today we still have leaders who are very good in speeches and their abilities to connect with the audience is critical to win an election. For instance is known as a great speaker and this quality helped him to win a second term.    
 

Quote and Tilly's argument

QUOTE

“The most important attribute for a professional politician is time, the time necessary to devote oneself to learning the intricacies of the political art. Also if the politician is not to derive a living entirely ‘off’ of politics and live ‘for’ politics, he must also be “economically dispensable” meaning he does not depend upon politics at all for an income.”

In this quote Max Weber wants to remind us that an ideal politician should fulfill two requirements: first a politician must have a time in order to learn the basics of politic and more importantly how to use them to do politic; second a politician should be independent financially if he really wants to succeed.

I chose this quote because up to today those two rules are still applied.    It is almost impossible to become a politician today if you do not have enough time for politic. Therefore if a person job required a lot of hours it will be difficult for that individual to accomplish her/his politic ambitious. In addition, being financially independent will give a hedge to one person who can finance her/his campaign herself than a one who has raise money from corporations and individuals. The second person once in office will not be entirely independent because he will have the impression that he owes every one who helped her financially. At this point we will see certain laws will pass in order to satisfy corporation regardless if it benefits the general population or not. For example the mayor of New York Mike Bloomberg financed his own campaign and I do not think that he has the filling of a person who got contribution from others. However, having too much money could be a danger for our politic system. For instance the Mike Bloomberg was able to buy a third term that led a lot of critics from New Yorkers.     

TILLY'S ARGUMENT

Tilly’s argument relates to the theory of rationalization of the state as defined by Weber as follow: Tilly like Weber considers the state as an entity that uses force in order to establish itself within a territory. For instance Tilly noted that a state implements itself by war. The war will help the state to eliminate totally the enemy. Once this physical work is done the government will move to the next step in order to secure a capital for the economy and the security national (police). Therefore, tax will help the state to guaranty the capital and police forces will help to reinforce laws and keep order in the state. In addition courts will take care of cases. Basically Tilly and Weber have the same view of how a state is made.

The causes that make the state grow in power are: first war helps a state to become dominant in substantial territory, second after a victory of the war a state will exploit the resources that the one that lost (“for example men, food, lodging, transportation supplies, and/or money to buy them from the population within that territory”).

Constitution

    Article 119: Marriage, as the foundation of the family and the preservation and expansion of the nation enjoys the special protection of the constitution. It is based on the equality of both genders. It is the task of both the state and the communities to strengthen and socially promote the family. Large families may claim social welfare. Motherhood is placed under state protection and welfare.

This article gives us a definition of marriage that is based on the union of a male and a female. The government has an obligation to encourage and protect people who want to get married. In addition, couples that will have more kids than that they can handle will get help from the government. Females with children are also protected by the state.

I consider these important rights because marriage is vital for our society and humanity cannot survive without it. Marriage not only helps us to keep our existence and also gives people the opportunity to pass on their culture and education their children. For instance every child needs an education from both parents (male and female) because it helps a person to better understand a man and a woman behavior. However, our society has been struggling to define marriage since gays and lesbians want to have the same status that a male and a female have. People who are opposed to the same sex marriage use the definition of marriage from the constitution to support their argument that gays and lesbians are not entitle to marriage. Now do we have to redefine marriage?

    Article 48 gives the president the power to suspend civil liberties in times of crisis.

This article means that citizens will loose their freedom when the country is in war or has a social crisis. That’s why “the Nazis were able to turn Germany into a dictatorship.”

History repeats itself because this kind of act has been observed even in the US during the civil war and after September 11^th. For example the Civil War witnessed a similar assault on press freedoms and civil liberty. Also the most threat to civil liberties in the wake of September 11 was Congress quick passage of the so-called USA Patriot Act.

Cleary most governments take do not guaranty civil liberties in time of crisis or war.   

 

Proletariat

In this quote Luxemburg meant that the modern proletariat is an outcome of the change of the old proletariat that has been transformed over the years. For instance the proletariat before world war one was different from the one after the war. In that sense the revolution came after the lost of the war by Germans and did not exist before. Therefore, proletarians found themselves fighting against militarism and war. The author also mentioned that the proletariat goals and errors are difficult to accomplish and overcome because there is no logic to be followed. Every case in each political time is different and no leader was able to have an appropriate plan to solve definitely proletarians’ problems. However, proletarians can only learn from their mistakes. This way of learning is not the best one because it is full of pain and suffering.

Luxemburg’s criticism of modern capitalism and world war one relate to nihilism as follow: the SPD’s actions during and after the war chocked a lot of people because its vote for the war was unexpected. From this turning point people did not know who trust anymore. Therefore, Nihilism has a reason to think that our world is not a better place to live. In the same idea Luxemburg and Karl decided to go against the SPD because once you lost trust of an organization you have to separate yourself from that group and that why those two leaders went for the communism party.

Moreover, Luxemburg believed that only the military industrial benefits from the war and the crisis created a break with the past. She said that because there was no war in the past and people were more focused on class equality and civil liberty. However, with the war Germans had to not only survive from the war and also fight against the exploitation imposed by the capitalism. In addition, the collapse of the authority and the uncertainty helped nihilists to believe that its time for them to escape from our world.