shh … i’m not here

The quote in the subject line seems to be depicting the fact that the past is never forgotten and thus, is never actually *dead*. People are discussing history all the time, discovering it, learning about it and learning from it. Nothing about the past is dead (except maybe the people who were killed in the course of time, but that’s rather irrelevant at the moment), and nothing about the ideas and information that it holds is not important.

And in a way, I begin to wonder . . . this quote could refer to the fact that the past does not define your future. Anything you did in the past could be cancelled out by actions in the future. This is a comforting thought to most, to know that the past and the future are not one and, in that series, completely set in stone. Actions can be wrong, so correcting them requires the flexibity of something that is not dead and that has not past.

The Wave seems to give both impressions of this quote that can be interpreted: that the past influences our future directly and that everything that happens has a habit of happening again, and that the future can be changed by the present and not just set in stone by the past. This is shown through the actuality that the school is going through almost the same thing — minus the cullings — that Nazi-occupied Germany went through. The book is actually quite close with this quote, since they seem to be trying to say the same thing: be aware of now, be aware of before, and be aware of soon. Because you may think that you have a good idea about what’s happening, but everyone has a blind spot.

The quote relates to American History not only in a direct, event-by-event way, but also in a broader concept. I personally feel that connecting to a certain event in history is easier than thinking about the subject as a whole, but this quote really screams out to be the reason that we study the past in schools and in careers. History is constantly being talked about, debated and argued over, thought about, and learned about — and we learn from that. We learn how to protect ourselves.

And that’s what everyone needs. Something to protect themselves with so that they don’t have to rely on others because they can easily be sucked into something as malicious and wide-spread as The Wave.

. . . or the Nazis.

All righty, this was planned to be a lot longer and a lot more in-depth, but I’ve seemed to have run out of time (oh, I should learn to put down the original fiction even if I know I’ll never write as much at any other time of the day when I have homework to do) so please forgive the question-and-answer format and please come back to read the edited and revised and added-onto version of this post in a couple of days.

Have you ever been forced to join something against your will?
Of course — everyone has, though what I am referring to is the fact that when you are in school, most of the time groups and teams are picked for you and you have absolutely no say in the matter and of course, you are forced to be in those groups. Most of the time you can pick out your perfect group where you would know that you could get everything done well and in good humor (even though these people would be your friends, since sometimes — contrary to the popular belief — being friends with your partner or group does not always equal less work and less effort, and it can produce work that is of a high standard and being in a group where you or one other person will do all the work and the rest will do nothing is more harmful than helpful . . . and I can speak from experience from when I was paired up and I had to do all the work . . . nothing I could do would make my partner lift a finger).

But when it comes to voluntary groups and organizations that you join for belief in an issue or support of a cause, no I’ve never been forced into anything that I didn’t want to do. I can stand up for myself and say no and if people keep pressuring me to join something, ignoring them is both the easiest and most effective way of making them leave me alone. Sometimes I bite of more than I can chew, but that’s not really anyone’s fault but mine.

I have my own mind and I stand by what I think is right.

How should we behave if we see someone being taunted or bullied by a group of people?
We should react the way that we believe that we should. Sometimes something looks like bullying or taunting, but it’s actually either a joke or something that the receiver is handling in their own way — sometimes sticking your nose in somewhere where it doesn’t belong is worse than not reacting at all.

However, if the bullying/taunting is physical then someone should do something though sometimes you are not the correct person to intervene. The importance in these situations is knowing when you should intervene and who is the correct person to intervene. These decisions are important and the outcome of what was meant to be your help rides on these decisions.

Should we try and get involved or should we intervene?
I think that I answered this question in part in the previous section, though I also think that you have to take into account the fact if someone is asking for help, obviously needs it, or if it’s just a suspicion. Sometimes embarrasment is worse than the bullying.

So . . . bascially, everything depends on circumstance.

(Woah, that was one terrible post. T_T Gosh, I wish I could do more, but I have so many other things to deal with and from a lack of sleep over the past few weeks, I am uber-tired and really need to catch up on my sleep. I’ll update this in the next couple of days and hopefully lengthen it, take it from question and answer and turn it into just a straight writing piece and elaborate and plan it properly.)

 All right, I admit it, I am a little bit behind on what I said that I would do.

I have barely got my nose stuck into Animal Farm. But don’t blame me! Blame the friend who let me borrow Stephanie Meyer’s Eclipse since its a book that I’ve been trying to get my hands on and I really wanted to read just after finishing New Moon.

And, as another plus, I have recently discovered my new favorite song of all songs, of all time. It’s “Hysteria” by Muse. And trust me, they really are a muse — I’ve written over 6,000 more words on my story while listening to it, and it’s almost at the top of my “Most Listened To” playlists on iTunes after only 24 hours.

So, just an update — I’ll get stuck into Animal Farm as soon as I finish Eclipse. Just give me another day or two — oh, and that review may not be written up for a while since I have decided to expand it into a research paper involving both novels (1984 and Animal Farm) and one or two books of George Orwell’s essays (neither of which I have got my hands on yet).

Oh well . . . sometimes, I’m far too ambitious for my own good.

Note to self (and public):

March 8th, 2008 — Started reading George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

 After finishing and loving one of the authors other novels, 1984, and miraculously finding the binding of the book in a way that I found appealing (I now have two copies of the book, one is a small, short paperback with minimalist cover printed by Signet Classics, and matches the design from my copy of 1984 — which, incedentally, I also have two copies of — the other is a hardback book, much larger than it needs to be, and rather unappealing), I have decided to read Animal Farm in conjunction with our unit on power.

I should finish it in the next day or two (or maybe even tonight . . . ) and when I do, I’ll be writing something up on the book and it’s themes and what it relates to.

I’m really looking forward to reading it since 1984 was such an amazing and haunting book and this one has been recomended to me many times. I’m off to read now! =D

(Since the previous post has drained my posting ability, please excuse the fact that I’ve used a question-and-answer format for this week’s post.)

We talked about power and all that it signifies and what it means to the world. We also began to read and think about the new book that we are just starting to read — The Wave by Todd Strasser and what sort of corruption will accompany any sort of power given to anybody. If you have a lot of time on your hands and fancy a read of someone having an (unfinished) mini-rant about things that she has been bugged about for a long time, please read this post.

We were also told to draw a “power triangle” and fill it in with all the things that we feel have control and power over us and what we feel that we have power over. I’ll try and scan mine into the computer when I have the scanner reconnected to the proper computer again. Geez, having more than one computer in the house with one scanner is a bit confusing . . . especially when only one is a Mac, the other a Vista which is very picky about what it wants to do. Gaaaah.

I learned that . . . well, actually, I realized that the corruption that accompanies power penetrates more than their initial surroundings. Again, read this post for more explanation in this aspect of this week in class.

I daydreamed ideas for my novel. Yeeeah, nothing too interesting though I really want to have a go at sketching the main character again though I think that that will fail miserably. If it doesn’t fail, then I’ll post the image on here. That reminds me, I have to sketch her apartment as well  . . .

I wanted to say . . . almost everything that was in this post?

Other comments: Overall, it was an interesting class but there is so much more that could be identified with, researched, and debated. There’s just an awful lot of information and we are barely even tapping the surface of it.  I also enjoyed the free writing, but hey, who does that surprise?

(I am trying to take a neutral stance on any politics mentioned in this post, since I feel that I’d need to do hours and hours of more research before I can say that I support any leader or any party.) 

Absolute power translates almost directly to dictatorship. And, of course, who pops into mind as soon as someone starts mentioning dictators and dictatorship? Leaders and governments led by men such as Adolf Hitler and Fidel Castro. One of the aforementioned leaders led communist parties (the other led the National Socialist German Workers Party, also known as the Nazi Party) which begs the question: is absolute power always a dictatorship, and are dictatorships always communist or in some way unlimited in their power?

Communism is a social structure that is classless and stateless and based on the ideas of common ownership (such as a buisness with no identifiable owner but is instead left to the trustees to be run by each generation) of a country’s means of production — their labour. Many communist parties have names such as ’the Socialist Party’ or ’Socialist Worker’s Party’, which is rather intresting because even though the party that Hitler led was named “the National Socialist German Workers Party”, he openly opposed communist parties in his speeches and eventually banned the communist party in Germany.

There is a ongoing debate about whether or not Hitler was born evil. I am not going to go into details about what I believe, but the question that can people be born evil . . . and if they can, is corruption always to blame for a leader’s or a country’s mistakes?

Fidel Castro, the Prime Minister of Cuba until Feburary 2008, led a communist party. Since 1965 when he became the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba, he led the country into becoming a “one-party socialist republic”. However, when you read through his time as Prime Minister of Cuba, through the Bay of Pigs, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the falling of their economy, and the US Embargo on the country, you get to see what he has done for his country in medical care, in infant mortality rates, in literacy rates. The country even developed a vaccine for the deadly Meningitis virus (as recorded in the BBC World News 1998).

In those two examples, which Party did more good for their country? I’ll leave that for you to decide, though I’m sure that we all know the answer well enough. In fact . . . I’m inclined to say that we know the answer altogether too well. Which leads me to my next point — when people and teachers mention “corruption” the first thing that comes to mind is often governmental and economical corruption. But what about the thought that the corruption has spread far past those borders?

Schools now teach a corrupt version of history. When learning about the Civil War, do we ever get to see the reasons that the South had to fight for slavery, or are we just programmed to see them as monsters that wanted to sacrifice other humans for their own personal gain? Other controversial subjects are just shied away from — some schools have told a group of high school students that they are not allowed to present the subject of the Iraq War because they were far too young to either understand or present a subject of that magnitude.

Censorship, in my mind, is a type of corruption. Has the true horror of the Holocaust ever really been shown, or did the educational board decide that it was far too graphic for today’s youth to see? There are graphic things that happen daily, all of which everyone will have to face at one time or another. Have you ever been behind a car that has run over a lost dog, close enough to hear the bones crack and crush and hear the dog’s cries and convulses? Have you ever seen a skinned and headless sheep falling from the back of a transportation truck? I have, and I would say that these incidences, although not anywhere near the horror of the Holocaust, really represent something. In my mind, the values and idea behind the act of the Holocaust and the way the people were taken is what was horrifiying, not the way they were kept, housed, fed, and their conditioned when they were sent to their deaths. Emaciation is not an uncommon sight, neither is depression or abuse. But, somehow, because it is the Holocaust, it’s a sensitive matter and cannot be shown in full.

Why? Why not let us see what you think will scar us for life? Why not let us understand something which cannot be grasped through textbooks, the history channel, Anne Frank’s Diary, or interviews with our relatives? Why tell us that we are not old enough to understand? Wisdom and maturity does not always come with age, and if we are babied and wrapped in bubblewrap how are we ever going to be able to become mature and break into the world knowing what’s out there when you seem to deem us “old enough” to be able to face it?

Why is is so bad to see something that can scare you, that can shake some sense into the unruly students? As Laurie reacts to the video in the new book that we are reading in class, The Wave by Todd Strasser, she keeps acting concerned and worried by the film. However, if you watch the reaction of her boyfriend, David, says that they cannot change what happened then. The latter holds what would be half of the perfect reaction to a video of the camps in Nazi Germany, but without the emotional pull of what Laurie feels. If they can handle it, then why can’t the “real world” deal with it?

And as the teacher in the story, Ben Ross, says: “Why was the behavior of the Germans during the Nazi regime really so inexplicable? (…) Now, several hours later, after reading through a number of books, Ben suspected that he would not find the real answer written anywhere. It made him wonder. Was this something that historians knew words could not explain? Was it something one could only understand from being there?” (”The Wave” by Todd Strasser // Chapter Four // Page 25)

I completely agree with the character’s sentiments on the meaning and the horror of the Holocaust. Nothing can ever replace being there, but the next best thing is kept from the most promising group of young people because a board of educators believes that it would scar us for life. Pffffft.

To begin ending this post, I’d like to say that I’m rather dissapointed with what I’ve seen people be interested in as far as history goes. More than half of my classes didn’t know what Hitler was trying to acheive (apart from eradicating all the Jewish people from Germany) or what genocide was. I begin to wonder whether this is true not understanding or just people not being interested in their work? Is the system expecting too much from them as the rest of the students raise their grades to replace the people sitting in their chairs, at their desks and out on the fields now?

But who am I to criticize? If no one wants to tell or show us what really happened in the events of the Holocaust with no one-sidedness or censorship, who can expect us to understand why the situation in Darfur is so eerie and horrifying?

Oh, and a good song to hear when you are thinking about this sort of thing is “Perhaps Vampires Is A Bit Strong But . . . ” by the Arctic Monkeys — I would have posted the actual video in this post, but it’s just *not* a good video but has amazing audio quality so I’ll just link to it. You can find the lyrics here.

To finish this in a few mere sentences: I agree with this quote whole-heartedly and more. The second half of the quote has much more meaning that what is obvious: if one person runs one area of a government or a business, then their dictatorship will seep into much more than just the business.

Much, much, much more.