Tag Archives: America

We Love Cults.

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Over the past little while, we have been looking at different events in history. We started by looking at turning points, and how the world was experiencing difficult times, especially in the 60s and 70s. Events like Vietnam, Watergate, and the Munich Olympics, changed a lot of opinions about the world, and the state of things. From discussions we had around these events, we were able to look at people’s responses to these tumultuous times. Specifically, we moved to looking at New Religious Movements, and their boom during these years.

I should take a little bit of a pause here to explain what I mean by New Religious Movement. It is a long term, and so I will now refer to it as NRM. An NRM is basically what scholars call cults. Cults is a very loaded word, because cults became a word to describe any religious group you didn’t like. NRMs are often offshoots of mainstream religions, or groups who have non-mainstream beliefs. They often have very fervent devotion, and a charismatic leader. There are a lot of other requirements for these groups, but I think it would make more sense to explain through the lens of a specific NRM.

That NRM would be the Children of God (COG), or The Family International. They have had many names over the years, after bad press and reforms, but COG is their most well-known name. This group was started by David Berg, a preacher in California. While there, he recruited hippies in the area to form COG, which was based on Christianity, and other prophesies of David Berg. COG was an end-time NRM, and 1993 was the year when the world would end and Jesus would return.

There are a few key characteristics that most NRM groups have, and to go further into why COG fits the definition, I’ll take you through each one.

Charismatic Leader

David Berg was this charismatic leader for COG. He formed COG as a sect of christianity, so it was easier for him to gain fervent believers. He referred to himself as Moses David, and was supposed to be God’s end-time messenger. One aspect of Berg that made him interesting to me was how isolated he was from his followers. Unlike some NRM leaders, he was a recluse. He didn’t go visit with his members and interact with them with a physical presence. Few of his followers ever actually met him.

Instead, they had two way communication through the Mo Letters on Berg’s side, and camcorder video on the follower’s side. The Mo Letters created the rules for the COG, and were the published form of Berg’s prophesies. The followers filmed the goings-on of the group to send to Berg. Everything from parties, dinners, and sex tapes. It was a really fun time.

Transcendent Belief System

As I mentioned before, COG was an offshoot of Christianity, so it was easier for members to join. The concept of a missionary church, which was not a new idea, appealed to a lot of people. They wanted to spread the message of God, and this seemed like the best way to do it. The main goal of COG was to conquer the world for Jesus, so when the end came, they would be saved. Members of the cult saw this as the best form of Christianity, and were very enthusiastic about their mission.

Systems of Control

As a missionary organization, isolation was a big part of their group. Members lived communally, in small houses where leaders of the movement were the heads of households. People were encouraged to get rid of all their worldly possessions, give the money to the group, and devote their lives to conquering the world for Jesus. There were very strong groups in Costa Rica, where in one small house they had over 30 people.

You were cut of physically from your past, but you were also isolated within your community. Being a missionary, even if 50% of the people talk to you, is isolating. It creates the divide between us and them, COG being the ones who are saved and the ones you can’t reach were under the control of the devil.

Even if you did want to leave COG, it seemed as though there was nothing left for you in the outside world. Children and teens didn’t go to school; instead, they spent their days as missionaries as well, going door to door and asking people to pray with them. Long time members had given up their careers, houses, and money, so they felt like there was nothing to go back to. There was also the idea of divine punishment, that if you left something terrible would happen to you because you were abandoning God’s goodwill.

Systems of Influence

The biggest form of influence was the Mo Letters, which controlled every aspect of the groups lives. They were comics, religious in nature, and people read them all. These letters controlled everyday life for the group, down to how much tea they could drink. Not following the rules laid down by the group lead to severe repercussions. There was no questioning leadership. Your time was managed, you went to all the group activities, and if you asked questions you were severely rebuked. There was a lot of fear. All the rules were straight from the top.

After years of following Berg’s writings, no one questioned when they became more intense. Berg had different ideas about religion and sex. He promoted sexual sharing, where members were allowed to have sex with anyone else in the group. People were already following what was in the Mo Letters, so they felt it was their duty to follow through with these ideas. There was no concept of consent. If you said no to someone, you were seen as though you didn’t belong. Children knew about this, as well, and it created a bit of strife in families.

Berg also came to the conclusion that witnessing wouldn’t be enough to save everyone. He decided that he would deploy flirty fishing, where women would perform sexual favours and whatever else to get more people into COG and win them for Christ. Some of the houses basically became brothels. You didn’t complain, because you were doing what you thought was God’s Will.

Why People Joined

The 1960s and 70s were a very tumultuous time in the United States. The peace-loving hippies were looking for a cause, and David Berg gave them just that. It wasn’t unrealistic for a lot of people to believe that the end of the world was coming so soon. It seemed like a long time away from them, and they just wanted to help save as many people as possible. This group gave people an easy answer on how to save humanity, which was exactly what they were looking for. And again, it was a christian group. Having branched off of a established religion, it was a lot easier to convince other christians to join. There was a direct way to get more people to support their cause, so why not join?

COG, now known as The Family International, still exists today. They are no longer under the leadership of David Berg, as he died, but his wife Maria took over. They spread Jesus’s message of love all over the world, and are the most successful NRM to emerge from the 60s era of counterculture.

People want to believe the best in elected officials

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This post is the same vibe as my last two posts. If you’re interested in more info about the project as a whole, check them out.

We’ve moved into the sphere of music, and how looking at historical events through the lease of music can shed light on a topic. Part of that was to analyze a song, of our choice, and see how that fits in. The idea I found for this particular song fits with other things as well, but for now we’ll focus on the song.

People Want to Believe the Best in Elected Officials

Today, we may not have this exact worldview. Through abuses of power, and outright lies, we have kind of lost that. But in the 1960’s, this was not the case, especially in America. When your president tells you that you have to do your part, you believe him. That’s exactly what Charlie Boy by The Lumineers is saying.

And Kennedy made him believe
We could do much more

Play the bugle, play the taps
Make your mothers proud
Raise your rifles to the sky, boys
Fire that volley loud

This is referencing the Vietnam War, and how so many young men went to fight, because they believed it was the best thing they could do for their country. They thought that the war was important, because their president, the person they trusted to run their country, told them to. Of course, thats not how we view the Vietnam war today, nor how the song continues.

News was bad on Upland Ave
Metuchen mourn our loss
Sons rebelled, while fathers yelled
And mothers clutched the cross

So many of the young people who went into this unwinnable war never made it back home. So many people want to think that people in power always do what’s right, but thats impossible. We can’t think of political powers as heroes, because the mistakes that they can make can be devastating.

History Happens on the Subatomic Level

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Y’all. We are so close.

Like I’ve mentioned in my last blog post (at least I think it did), our last little bit of learning before we take-off into the world is structured a little differently. We have topics that we’re looking at, and ideas that stem from them. That was a really bad explanation, but we’re going with it.

This post is about an idea that I had a little while ago, and my brain continues to make connections as we continue learning. I have a few examples, somewhat odd, but its what I’ve got.

History Happens on the Subatomic Level

This might not make a lot of sense, but I’ll break it down for you. The thing about historically significant events is that a lot of people don’t know how significant they are until after the fact. People are just living their lives, and they happen to be where all these crazy events happen.

First example, the umbrella man. If you are at all versed in conspiracy, which I’ll come back to later, the umbrella man is a prime example of this. Basically, when JFK was shot in Dallas, Tx, there was a man on the grassy knoll who was holding an umbrella. This was seen as odd, because it was actually a nice day outside. People latched onto this oddity, and created a myth around this man, and his involvement in the assassination. In reality, he was just a man who was there protesting something that JFK’s father had done. He was one tiny part of what happened that day, and he couldn’t have known what would spring from his innocent action.

The other example is a wee bit less innocent, but important nonetheless. More important, one might say. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the following ‘quarantine’, submarines were deployed as a precaution by the cubans, supplied of course by the USSR. These submarines had nuclear warheads, and were ready to strike should the US make a move. One October day, a US Navy ship tried to contact one of these subs to get it to come up by dropping a short ranged grenade on them, as they were too deep to contact any other way. Thinking that this meant that they were at war, the crew aboard the submarine readied to fire their nukes. One captain refused to fire the nukes. This meant that they were not unanimous, and could not fire. This one decision may have stopped WW3.

No one really knows what will come from their actions. They might have ideas, but every decision comes with a consequence, and even small ones can have a large impact on the future. Some of these small decisions lead to conspiracy theories, like that kermit the frog was involved in 9/11. Others stop all out war. It’s a fun time being alive.

What makes a legend?

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In honour of Bonnie and Clyde’s murder anniversary, which is in two weeks, I thought I would elaborate on an idea I had while researching them! 

Bonnie and Clyde were Glamourized by the Media

First, what you have to understand is the era in which they were outlaws. This was the 1930’s in America, also known as the Great Depression. People were not doing great. They were tired of hearing about how bad life was, and how much worse it was going to get. 

Enter Bonnie and Clyde, a young couple who took life into their own hands when they started robbing banks and killing people. Side note: it was only Clyde who was charged with the murder of 13 people, but you can’t tell me Bonnie didn’t kill anyone. Anyways. 

Their exploits were published all over the country. Conveniently, in a car that they abandoned, pictures of the daring couple were left behind. Next thing you knew, their faces were on every newspaper across the country. 

People were obsessed. They likened the young duo to Hollywood stars, creating a legend out of some criminals. Everyone wanted to hear about them, rather than how bad the world was doing. If the country hadn’t been suffering like they were, who knows what would have happened to Bonnie and Clyde? Maybe they wouldn’t have had to turn to crime?

Anyways, people were obsessed. These were the great heroes, bringing back the ways of the old west. However, nothing lasts forever. 

In May of 1934, the FBI were brought in because the pair had stolen a car. Yup. Not because they had killed 13 people and had committed several kidnappings and robberies. They stole a car and so they FBI had jurisdiction. 

This was the beginning of the end for ol’ Bonnie and Clyde. They were ambushed fleeing a safe house in Louisiana, and shot dead in their car. 

The public were shocked. Not because of their deaths, no. that was pretty inevitable. They were shocked at how ordinary they pair were. They were not the young starlets the media made them out to be. They had limps, scars from old bullet wounds, and Clyde even had missing toes. 

The media took this ragtag couple, and made them into legends. They altered public perception, and in doing so, immortalized them. But at what cost to them, and the public?

Apparently Petruchio has No Authority

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I’d like to preface this post with the fact that I’m still not 100% sure what the teachers want from these posts. Unclear if that’s just me being less than smart, or something else. Regardless, I came up with this idea for my weekly reflection and so were going with it.

One thing that I’ve noticed, that we’ve touched on a wee bit, is the amount of adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew. By adaptations, I mean movies, television shows, plays of course, all that jazz. Believe you me, there are more than enough. The thing is, I guess the themes are timeless or whatever, so people keep making them.

I was curious. So, as one does, I went investigating. Like I mentioned before, there are quite a few adaptations that I could choose from. I decided to look into two of them, and kinda give the low down on them in this post. The ones I’ve chosen are all movies, to be clear, but interesting enough in their own rights.

Just a note, I haven’t actually seen these movies, or not the entire thing. 

The first movie version that we’ll be talking about is the 1929 version of the film, directed by Sam Taylor. This version was in fact talkie*, and the first talkie of The Taming of the Shrew. It starred Mary Pickford as Kate, and her husband, Douglas Fairbanks as Petruchio.

The film is most notable for how Pickford delivered Kate’s last speech of the movie. When Kate goes through the reasons that a wife should obey her husband, she makes a subtle communication with Bianca, which Petruchio does not notice, that shows that Kate has not actually been tamed. This opposes the idea in the original Shakespeare version, where in the end Kate is tamed. In Taylor’s version, Kate knows what’s going on, and responds accordingly. 

The next version is the 1967 adaptation, which I have seen parts of as it is the version we are watching in class. This one, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, is probably the most famous version. Something that is an interesting connection between both this version and the previous version is that in both, Kate and Petruchio are played by real life couples. Zeffirelli’s version starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. 

In this version, there does seem to be a bit more of the idea that Kate and Petruchio actually fall in love. It is also noted that Kate tends to cast longing glances at Petruchio, as we’ve discussed in class a few times. 

The biggest difference in Taylor’s performance then Pickford’s comes again to Kate’s last speech. Taylor chose to deliver the speech with seniority, much to the dismay of Burton and Zeffirelli. However, she continues to undermine Petruchio’s authority by leaving the banquet without him. 

I wanted to compare these two because of the different ideals of women in the time period, and how both Pickford and Taylor play the character of Katherina. I think its interesting how in both versions, the decision was made to show that Kate was never actually tamed. That speaks a lot to the idea of the perfect wife, and something to consider when watching these. 

*talkie: a movie with a soundtrack, as opposed to a silent film

SLC’s the Eighth: tPOLs

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It’s that time of the year again, where we reflect on all that has transpired, and prepare to move into the next year. PLP is a program focused on growth, and this year I have strived to go further than I have before. From leaving my comfort zone on Field schools, to running a class project, everything this year has pushed me farther along the path to success. For this tPOL, I’m going to draw from three different projects that really stretched my thinking, and reflect on how they have prepared me for the future.

What skills did you use and what skills do you want to continue to develop?

One thing that has definitely been a challenge over the past few months is learning online. It has not been easy, even for PLP. PLP was definitely quicker to adapt than some of my other courses, but having no contact, really, with a lot of the teachers has been extremely difficult. Being in PLP, though, has definitely been an advantage. I was able to use skills that I developed in this program, that made the switch a lot easier. From being comfortable on a device, to just straight up having applications on our devices, made online work seem more accessible. Even with all that, it’s still a struggle to motivate yourself to get things done. I’ve had a very hard time with exactly that, motivation. With school, and work, it is hard to get everything done. So I’ve had to use a lot of skills from our PGP course to help. Making to-do lists, tracking habits, it’s all really helped. The ideas that we’ve learned from that over the past two years have been incredible beneficial in this crazy time.

Did your goals for your work change as you worked on it?

Speaking of habits and PGP, I want to talk about our most recent PGP project, and how my ideas, and goals, changed as I worked on it. So, basically, as a summary of the project we were reflecting on all that we had learned from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. Now, I started out wanting to make a little, like, vague habit tracking book, where you could have a physical place to mark off what you have done. But the I took another look back at atomic habits, and looked at the laws, and saw how I could incorporate more of those ideas into my journal. And once I had done all of that, I was pretty proud of myself. I took a flimsy little idea, and turned it into something I am really proud of. It became something that anyone, whether or not you had read the book, could use to help them with their goals.

What problems did you encounter? How did you solve them?

The final example that I’d like to bring up is the Macbeth project. This was probably one of the most difficult projects that I’ve ever done, and not even because of the subject matter. That was confusing an a whole other level. The difficult part was being the producer. I’ve always struggled with group work, because I find people weird and confusing, but this took it a step higher. As producer, I had to work with everyone, and not act superior, but also be their superior. We have some strong people in the class, and so already when roles were chosen there was a bit of strife. Add to that the fact that we basically had two and a half weeks to write, prepare and film the movie, well, I started stress baking. It was difficult to try and work with others who were very set in their ways. Our key creative team, though, did pretty well under the circumstances, though. We tried to solve disagreements in a calm manner, and spent a lot of time working through tough patches. We were pretty adaptable, and when everything started to fall apart I tried my darnedest to keep it together. Overall, I learned a lot about myself, and the other people in the class.

And that concludes my tPOL. Thank you for listening to me, and I would just like to leave you with a question: How have I demonstrated teamwork in the past, and how have I progressed since then?

I Don’t Know Why We Didn’t Call it the Scottish Play

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Good morning. It’s not the morning when I’m writing this, but that’s not the point. Anyways, yes, right, the post. Over the past few months, starting in January I think, we’ve been reading Shakespeare’s Macbeth. It is a very interesting play within itself, and has many interesting themes. The one we studied was the idea of appearance vs. reality. This, through some unknown channel, was connected to our social studies timeline, and so we were basically studying the 1950’s, as well as a Scottish play from the 17th century.

This may seem like an odd connection, but there really are quite a few connections you could draw. That was one of our assignments, actually. We had to write blog posts connecting Macbeth and the 1950’s. It was definitely hard to start, but by the end of these posts, I think I had really done some good work.

Another big part of the unit were what we called ‘Act Quests’. Basically, while reading the play, we would have these test-like things where we would be given quotes from Macbeth, and have to: recount the events that took place before, during and after the quote, identify who said it and why it was important to the character and those it was said to, and how it relates to theme. These were definitely not easy. In PLP, we don’t have a lot of tests, which is why sometimes things like this can catch us off guard. We did do something similar to this in the LOTF project, but to a much lesser degree. Its definitely important to do things like this, to prepare for university and stuff, but it’s still not my favourite. I guess my biggest issue was putting too much information down, which makes sense, because I do tend to do info dumps. But overall, I think it was a really good practice in an area we sometimes don’t spend tons of time in.

Now, you might be thinking, well, these are only small parts of the project, they can’t be the final product. And believe me buddy, you’d be right. Also, if you’re familiar with past PLP Macbeth projects, you’ll know that there have been attempts at a class film adaptation of Macbeth. Notice how I say attempt. This has never worked. So of course we had to do exactly that. But it’s never that simple. We also had to set the movie in the 1950’s, and change it so it fits in that year. Goodie.

One of the things we stated with was trying to figure out a story outline. Everyone would try and come up with an idea on how we could set it in the 50’s. At first, we had grandiose ideas, like having it set in a mayors office, or during a presidential race. But we had to rethink, because we were going to be the ones acting, and we are children. I mean the in the nicest way possible, but nonetheless it’s true. We’re also not that great actors, but thats another issue altogether. We ended up going with a private school with a secret society.

Now came the really difficult part: deciding roles. This can either be a very big deal, or a very small deal. To us, it was big. I wasn’t sure what I should do, because although the whole class was working together, a group called the key creatives were mostly in charge of the movie. The key creatives were the people who everyone reported to, and were responsible more or less for the success. all the roles were similar to what would be on an actual movie set. The key creatives were the producer, who was head of everything, the director, who had the vision for the film, and the screenwriter, who, with a team, would write the film. We did add a fourth key creative, production manager, which was similar to producer, but in more of a day to day sense. I decided to apply for the producer, because though it is a lot of responsibility, I thought I could do a good job leading our class to success. Also, I had a vision on what the film could look like, and as a key creative I thought I could help with that part.

Applying for the positions was pretty stressful. First, we had to go home and write a pitch for what roles we wanted. After that, everyone who had applied to be a key creative had to, in class, write out their vision for what the film would look like. And… I got it! I was chosen to be the producer. But that’s not the be all and end all. Off the bat, I was told that I could be fired at anytime. I knew this beforehand, but that really put the pressure on. Not that I thought I’d do a bad job, but its kinda scary. The rest of the team was Giorgia as director, Jesse as screenwriter, and Luca J as production manager. A pretty solid team.

The next part was not fun. Being a key creative was difficult, but way more than I thought it would be. We had a very tight schedule as well, because we were supposed to have it done before spring break and we got our roles like, 2 and a half weeks before then. We had to cast, get costumes, props, write the script, and film in that small window. There were some fun parts, though. We had to find 50’s lingo for the script, which was fun, and reading around the tables was cool. There was a bit of drama around casting, and key creatives spent a lot of time outside of school trying to figure things out, but once we had the prep out of the way, we were more or less set to film.

That’s when things started to fall apart a bit. The teachers left for Vietnam with the grade 12s, so we were left completely on our own. But it was fine. We had a solid film schedule, and we were going to be fine. Everything was blocked in, and the first filming day went smoothly, mostly. I did end up having to be in the movie and sprained my ankle in the process, but we were adapting as things were thrown at us. Even when our Macbeth had to reschedule a shoot because he wasn’t feeling well, it was fine. We adjusted, and filmed everything we could without him. Except, he was still sick the next day. And when we thought he was getting better, and had everything set, he was sick again and wasn’t sure wether or not to come. The key creatives discussed, and said we needed to keep everyone safe and so we cancelled. This was a difficult decision, but it was for the best. We had got all we could without our main character, and everyone had worked so hard.

Then spring break hit, and we were working with what we had. The post production crew did a great job with what they had, and we planned to film the rest after the break. But, as you might have guessed, the break never ended. Well, it did, but you know what I mean. School was cancelled, and we were forced to accept what we had. It was really though to face. Being the head of a big project like this was a really amazing learning experience for me, and to see all that work not pan out was really sucky. Everyone tried their hardest, and though there were some hiccups, if it hadn’t been for the sickness of Macbeth, I think we would have pulled it off. Its dissapeointng, but I know how hard everyone worked, and the experience within itself was pretty cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib4QMGU-PMc&feature=emb_logo

I do have a theory on why it didn’t work, though. A dumb, superstitious theory, but still. So, when actors are putting on the play of Macbeth, they call it the Scottish Play. There are documented cases of when people didn’t do this, and then actors got sick or hurt. I just find it kinda fishy how it was Macbeth who got sick, and no one else. But that’s just the raving of some student. Who really knows?

Think and Create: Essay time

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These think and create posts are harder than you’d think. We cover a lot of content, but it’s not always easy to find, or rather, come up with a feasible connection. I came up with this idea, actually, after talking to my grandpa about school when he was a kid in Vancouver, around the 50s. Drawing from his experience, the book Dear Martin, and our discussions in class, I have written an essay on segregation within unsegregated schools. It’s an interesting topic, one that I have found interesting opinions on.

Essay: Self Segregation 

       Throughout history, people have been judged by the colour of their skin. When you picture a racist, though, you can’t fully have an idea of what they look like. It’s not always white men with pitchforks in KKK get up. It can be parents, people drilling into their young child this idea of segregation. Sometimes it’s not even on purpose. Hate is easy, jointing a mob mentality can bring you closer with your peers. When people get to high school, in unsegregated schools, they sometimes segregate themselves, on purpose or not. It can be hard to notice, but from the 50’s, till today, it’s still there. 

In Dear Martin by Nic Stone, the main character is pushed in this direction of ‘self segregation’. He has internal struggles when he wants to date a white girl, for example. His mother, growing up in a time when it was very frowned upon for an African American man to be with a white woman, drills this idea into his head, until he makes decisions to push this girl away for his mother’s sake. Also, when his best friend is shot, he seeks comfort in his old, bad neighbourhood, wanting to be around people he thinks will understand. He separates himself from his best friends white friends, for other people like him who are bad influences. In both scenarios, he does understand the risk, but the racial pressures set upon him urge him towards a stereotype that will do him no good. He tries to do better, but this separate idea always comes to his mind. 

Although in the 1950’s in Vancouver schools were not segregated, people still divided according to race and ethnicity. In one example from Frank Ward, who went to a mainly white school with some people of East Indian descent, there was a very large culture barrier. The white boys and East Indian boys formed tight cliches, avoiding each other, but often getting into brawls. While this was surely discouraged by the teachers, the brawling part, it helped maintain the divide of culture, and this idea that a non-white man couldn’t, or shouldn’t, be with a white woman. Whether drilled into them by their parents, or the media, this idea would have shaped not only the boys in the cliches, but the younger students and siblings. It can be hard to change a behaviour you’ve never been told is wrong. 

After the Brown vs the Board of Education case was settled, and the United States declared that ‘separate but equal’ was not fair, integration of African American students into white schools began. Or it sort of did. There was nothing to say how soon this desegregation was to be done, and so it was up to the schools and communities to sort it out. One school that did integrate, though painfully, was in Little Rock, Arkansas. Nine African American students were enrolled to go to the school, but of course this was absolutely appalling to the white folk. There were riots and death threats as the children tried to enter the school, and the POTUS ended up having to send down the 101st Airborne Division to help them enter the school, but once they were in the school, they had no further help. The 9 students endured terrible abuse at the school, forcing upon them that they were not welcome to attend a school which the law said they could attend. They suffered for years because of this idea of segregation that had been drilled into the white children’s heads, that African American people were not people, and they had no respect for them.

This idea of segregation has done terrible damage to the world and its people, but it doesn’t seem to ever end. The stereotypes that were introduced then still impact our world today, shaping the minds of young children who know no better. Though having a rallying point is strong core of many communities, one so deep in hate should not be allowed. It can be hard to undo the past generations hate, but it is every generations job to learn about what happened before, and make sure it never happens again.

It is very hard to write an essay after being away from school for months, not to mention being in a room that smells like paint (long story). Essays are sometimes hard to do, but I felt is was a medium I could express these ideas on well. This is a very interesting project we are working towards, and each day teaches us more about the mistakes people have made and how we have to learn from them.

Think and Create: Statistics

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When your teachers give you a project with basically no criteria, it can be difficult. It can be even more difficult when you are stuck at home and haven’t seen your friends or teachers in over a month. But we soldier on, and keep doing blog posts!

We’ve just started a new project about civil rights in America, and African American and Canadian people in their battle for this. So to start it off, we’ve been assigned something similar to the this week I learned posts from our last project, except we have basically no criteria.

For this week’s Think and Create post, I was interested in, well, statistics. We mentioned a few times in class how there isn’t as huge an African Canadian population in Vancouver as some other places, but I was interested in the specifics. I made some infographics to help inform us of those specific stats using data from Statistics Canada, which had data only from 2016. Hope you learn something!

EVERYBODY IS LYING

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Here’s the thing, here’s the thing, here’s the thing. People lie. They always have. Some people are bad at lying. Some people are good at lying. Some people are so fantastic at lying that they make a career out of it. But the thing about lying is that you really can’t tell sometimes. One thing, maybe, that’s off putting, but nothing else. Then that one thing puts you on edge. And you get suspicious. And then everyone is lying and everyone is out to get you. Yay!

This weeks TWIL post, which you might have guessed, is about suspicion. Not necessarily if that suspicion was justified, but I mean that’s not the point. Something is happening, and it’s someone’s fault, so you gotta blame someone!

As of right now in Macbeth, which is up to the end of act three, tensions are high in ye old Scotland. King Duncan is dead, killed by his own guards. These guards were conveniently killed before anyone could question them. So it’s a classic case of whodunit. There are a few suspects at play.

  1. The sons, Malcom and Donalbain. Parricide is a bit extreme, and doesn’t exactly make sense. Early on in the play, Duncan appointed Malcom his successor, which was uncommon for the Scotland monarchy. What were the sons motives then? The biggest point against them is that they fled after their fathers death, which does seem a bit suspicious. They are not trusting of their fathers court, and believe it was one of the other nobles who killed their father, and would be coming after them next. 
  1. Macbeth, yes, good old Macbeth. A loyal subject to the great king, or so it would seem. Macbeth killed many a man for king and country, so what’s one more on his belt. Or three, if you count the guards who Macbeth just happened to kill in a fit of passion over the dead king. Macbeth did have a remorseful look about him, but again, people lie. It was also Macbeth who ascended to the throne once the mighty Duncan was slain in his sleep. He had the most to gain by Duncan’s eternal slumber. Of course Macbeth is in full favour of accusing the sons, but you would be too if you murdered someone and there was another suspect. 
  1. I’m sure there are more. Duncan was all to trusting. Why, in the second scene of the play we learn of another who had betrayed the oh so gracious king. In any case, Malcom, Donalbain, and Macbeth are the lead suspects. 

The 1950’s was not so different. The 50’s were a time filled with suspicion of communism, spies, and the Soviets. Everyone was at risk. Well, everyone was at ‘risk’ of being spied on. There were a few groups of people, however, who just had to be spies. 

  1. Hollywood. Not a specific person, I know. It’s a place. That’s the thing. Everyone in Hollywood was under scrutiny. HUAC, House Un-American Activity Committee, started investigating Hollywood, actors, directors and writers alike. They decided that they could have been promoting un-American propaganda. They started subpoenaing people, trying to get them to either confess or accuse friends or colleagues. Many people were blacklisted, and unable to get work in the industry. Some writers and directors used  pseudonyms to continue their work. This blacklisting continued straight through the 50’s, finally ended in the 60’s.
  1. Homosexuals. This, less obvious, and not for why you’d think. At least, I don’t think you’d think of this. I certainly didn’t. To the point. Homosexuals, yes. See, being gay or lesbian wasn’t a good thing in this timeline. Cause, see, if you were LGBT, other governments could blackmail you into getting them secrets. Which, I mean, isn’t that far fetched. In 1953, President Eisenhower made an act thingy that made it so employees could track down and fire you if you belonged to the LGBT community. Tons of people were fired or quit, cause they were scared. Everyone was scared.
  1. Last, but certainly not least, communists, or sympathizers. This one is a little more obvious, I know. Political ideologies, religion, all this made them ‘perfect’ candidates for sympathizers. Some people, including some from Hollywood, plead the first amendment from the constitution saying that they could belong to any political party. American’s may be stubborn, but the one thing they will always stand by is freedom. 

Again, I’m sure there were others. These are just some big ones that I wanted to focus on. Anyone could be a spy, that’s the thing. That’s why suspicions were so high. But by pushing this hysteria onto a specific group of people, it definitely made it seem like the government was doing something. That was, of course, until Senator McCarthy accused the United States Army. Everything went downhill for him at that point.

For my artefact for this weeks TWIL post, I decided to make suspect folders on some of the people I mentioned in this post. For Macbeth, it’ll be Macbeth, obviously, and Malcom and Donalbain. For the 1950’s side, I made up these people. Keep in mind, the FBI did have files on suspected communists, sympathizers, or LGBT people, but they probably didn’t look like this. I made these using, well, mostly keynote, and Splice for the editing.