Bowling for Columbine was a very eye-opening movie. The theme was stopping gun violence, but it also had an underlying theme of how racism has created fear in our society. There were a few scenes in this movie where Micheal Moore exposed people of having racism creating this fear. One of the examples would be the hit show COPS. This was an extremely popular show, and most people know exactly what the show is about. Caucasian cops arresting “extremely dangerous”  African-American males who are allegedly criminals. The show has stereotyped African-American males as criminals and struck fear into the minds of people who watch this show. Micheal Moore then pointed out that if there was a show called CORPORATE COPS no one would watch it. If it’s a show about caucasian males being arrested it simply wouldn’t get the same ratings. Arthur Busch put it best “Quite frankly, the black community has become entertainment for the rest of the community… which leads to be the image of an entire people”

There was also the Africanized bees outbreak. The european bees and african bees were cross bread creating this new kind of bee. Then they got loose is south america, and migrated towards the states. People started to panic saying every one would suffer from the bees stings. Turns out the bees never did migrate throughout the states. The ”Africanized” bees also were not a violent as people thought. It was said in the movie that the only difference between those bees and european bees were the size.  

One of the most infamous example racism against African-American males is the Susan Smith story. She claimed that a black male stole her car with her two children in the back seat. The story got out into the media and everyone fell for her story. When actually she strapped her children into the back seat, locked the doors and pushed the car into a lake. She killed her own children by drowning them.

Comparing the states to Canada Micheal Moore found out that the American media strikes more fear into citizens than Canada does. They over exaggerate the severity of most stories and it makes the everyone more fearful. In some cases they accuse African-American males of the crimes which leads to a fear of this ethnicity. This in turn can lead to racism. Therefore racism can lead to fear.

Conformity exists in our society for many different reasons, sometimes conformity is necessary and other times it is extremely dangerous. Knowing the moral difference between what is right and wrong is very important. There are times one should conform and should not. People will always conform to certain ideas or groups. The factors that affect whether a person joins a group can be explained by four factors. The four factors are as follows:

Group attractiveness: If a group sounds appealing one would be more likely to join. For instance joining a certain group might be appealing because of the way they dress. The lower one’s social status is the more likely they are to conform.

Group unanimity: If an entire group were to conform to their ideas or morals there is great pressure to conform.

Public vs private response: When members are put on the spot in front of other members they are very likely to conform to the groups ideas.

Nature of the task: When directions are vague people are more likely to conform.

One example of conformity at its worst is the Nazis of WWII. The leader of the Nazis was Adolf Hitler. He was extremely racist and prejudice against any one who was different. He tried to exterminate Jewish people and many other minorities. Death or concentration camps were created to exterminate these innocent people. The nazis cooperated and carried out their orders to kill because they were conforming to what their superiors told them.  WWII started and divided the whole world apart. It destroyed many homes and families. It was a terrible tragedy that should have been prevented. If the Nazis had not of conformed they would have realized how wrong it all was and formed their own opinions. After the war at the Nuremberg trials the people of the Nazi party defended themselves saying they were just following orders. This is most definately conformity at its worst because they conformed so much that they tried to exterminate an entire race.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coFum6hqaME

http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/Nuremberg_trials.html 

However conformity can also be a good thing. This past year one man united a country. He changed history. He won the nobel peace prize. I am speaking of Barak Obama. He has made a change for the better in the USA and around the world. During last years election everyone bonded together and elected him into presidency. He is a very inspiring leader. Obama has an ability to inspire everyone to be their best. His “Yes we can speach” no doubt inspired everyone who listened. Conformity doesn’t always have to be negative.  It can be everyone bonding together to make their world a better place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsV2O4fCgjk 

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/press.html

These two examples of comformity proved how confomity not only divided the world but also brought it together. Conformity is a necessary part of society because it creates bonds to make our world a better place. However, if we are not careful of what we conform to disaster could occur. It also has the ability to tear homes, families, countries apart. Which is why conformity can also be extremely dangerous.

Death is dealt with in North America in many different ways. We may go with the traditional funeral, casket and all. Or there is the cremation option. Where our bodies are turned into ashes, then either ashes scattered, buried in an urn or pot etc. Whenever people die, there is usually a ceremony where friends and family come to grieve the death of the beloved. There is also another option called cryonics; the freezing of the body for future resurrection. 

Many people in India believe in reincarnation, the belief that after death your spirit lives on in another body.  Therefore when people die, cremation is a very common practice. Then the ashes are scattered to keep reincarnation going. Widows used to throw themselves on husbands when they were being cremated. This was known as Sati, but is now outlawed. If women did not do this, they would not be able to re-marry and would be socially shunned.

In any culture the grief cycle is applicable. This cycle was developed by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss psychiatrist.  There are 5 different phases as follows…  

1. Shock ; the death seems unreal or unbelievable at first.
2. Denial ; people are death denying. Believe that it cannot be true, just a bad dream and everything will be alright.
3. Anger ; blame others or self for the death
4. Mourning ; longest lasting phase. Feel depressed, guilty, lonely, panic, physically ill, crying etc.
5. Recovery ; Pain of death goes away and get on with your life.

Pseudodsphagia;

This is a fear of choking or painful swallowing. People who have this fear just associate eating and choking together. Could possibly lead to panic attacks, anxiety, depression, weight loss and hypochondriasis.  Could also lead to a social phobia, because many social situations deal with food. Will avoid it at all costs.
Anthropologically this would make sense. This is because if you were to be choking that could be potentially life threatening or it could be attributed to bad health. Our past ancestors would be afraid of death, and not passing on their genes.
Ways to over come this phobia would be talking to a therapist. This could also possibly be solved by desensitization.

5 Step Process Example:

1. Admit to the Phobia: seek help from a therapist and talk about where the fear my have originated and why it bothers you.
2. Visualize and Talk: the Phobia and get comfortable about just visualizing and talking about it, without feeling like you are about to gag.
3. Shown Pictures or Media of food and People eating: If you see other people doing this then you may realize that it wont hurt you either. Get comfortable with the idea.
4. Go to a Restaurant: Observe other people eating and socializing, realize that its safe and normal to do so.
5. Dine Out: Once you do so you will realize that there is nothing to be afraid of  and conquered your phobia. You will hopefully be more comfortable at social situations with food and other food-oriented activities.

The first real obvious sign of sexism would be the blatant lyrics of focusing on one part of the female body; the behind. They focus in on this, and there is a part where one woman leans over and you basically see down her shirt. This objectifies women, and makes men view us as less than human. Because some men view girls as less than human, violence may occur as a result.

At the very beginning of the movie you see these women wearing revealing short-shorts and halter tops. They are doing provocative dancing and promoting the theme of the song. This can be an example of the “sex-pot” woman. Also the “dish-pot” woman exists, doing the laundry. I, however, never recall doing my laundry while having so much fun dancing…

Also there is some sexualization of adolescence. Even though there are no children, the Laundromat dancers are wearing very bright colors, pig-tails and other things that give the innocent but sexy look. Also there’s a point in the video where they are blowing bubbles.

Then there is the, for lack of better words, the gangster scene. Savage and his crew are putting on the tough guise and doing a lot of hand gestures. This promotes aggression. With the women dancing in the background and doing whatever Savage tells them to do there seems to be male dominance.

There are a few things that bother me about this video, aside from the messages and themes. One thing is I do not understand why he is only a few inches tall in the Laundromat? This doesn’t seem to fit in with the male dominance attitude he portrays in different parts of the video. The second thing that annoys me is that the ending was rather abrupt and there was not plot, just girls dancing.

So all in all this music video is very male dominant and objectifies women. I find it to be very sexist.

1. The father of three who murdered his children for “their own good” was most likely suffering from some kind of personality disorder. My guess is that he was suffering from schizophrenia. I think this because he had disorganized thinking. For example; he thought his son was being molested by the neighbors for no good reason.  He truly believed completely bizzar things such as transmitters up his nose for communication, which is delusional. Also during the trial he seemed fidgety and not concentrating. All these signs are some of the symptoms of schizophrenia.

2. The triggering factor would most definitely be his wife leaving him. The stress, anger and frustration, probably made him snap and go back to being in that state of mind.

3. I think that to ensure a situation like this will never occur again three things must happen. One; there should be an extensive interview or assessment before a psychiatrist/therapist can discharge a patient. If this happens they will be less likely to send a person back into the community who can endanger themselves or others. Two; there should be checkups on a previous patient by a professional, either a therapist, social worker, etc.  By doing so hopefully if a situation like a mental breakdown were to occur again, these professionals could help before it’s too late and devastating ramifications occur. Three, knowledge is key. If people learned more about this disorder they would know the signs and seek help before its too late.

Parents would do everything for their children. I belive that if they could ensure that their children could be made into perfectly healthy and intellectual children, they would do it in a heart beat. When the day comes that we can engineer what our children will look like we as a society will have great expectations. To whom much is given,  much is expected. Sometimes when people have high expectations the pressure is on and some people cannot cope with that. If we feel that we somehow failed, we may feel insignificant, depressed, and unsatisfied with our lives.

The phrase “there is no gene for fate” means that they can give you all the tools to succeed, but what you do with it determines your fate. Even if you were genetically made into a “perfect” person, like Jerome, you can be unsatisfied and try committing suicide. People tried to control their fate by testing their potential partners for DNA defects, genetically engineering their children, only taking  jobs they are  “fit” to do etc. People like Vincent took their fate into their own hands when he decided that he could do anything he set his mind to, like becoming an astronaut. He and also found a girl who accepted him for who he was, and he accepted her for who she was, and didn’t even test for DNA defects. By doing these things, they created their own fate, contrasting with their cultures beliefs and norms.

Humans and the Great Apes have remarkably similar DNA. There is only a 1% difference between us and chimpanzees. Even so these animals do not have the same rights as us. They are being tortured in labs and put on display in zoos.

There is much controversy surrounding the  topic of animals and their rights. Some believe that testing on animals is completely ethical and morally acceptable, because they are not human and therefore do not have the same rights. Others believe that texting on these creatures is immoral and should not be happening.

The question is whether it is either moral or immoral. Many psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, zoologists belive that apes should have the same basic human rights as us. They display many of the same emotions and traits as us; such as happiness, anger, frustration, jealousy etc. They also exhibit self-awareness, if you place a mirror in front of them, they realize they are staring at themself. Very few species are able to do this, but elephants, dolphins and all the great  are able to show self-awareness.

Apes are also able to reason and think. Showing such a cognitive intelligence means that we should give them the same respect that we show others. A German author, Christoph Antoetz, who works with ‘profoundly mentally handicapped people’ said that some apes show more intelligence! Surely if this is to be true, then they should have the basic rights.

Right now apes are being tortured in labs for testing, they are even dying. A technician who raised a chimp tried to avoid it in the lab during testing. In the chimps dying moments it signaled the technician over, and then died. Now, in the UK testing on apes is banned, Spain may be next to follow in Britain’s footsteps. Who else will be joining these countries, stopping the torture of these animals?

I believe that one explination of us being afraid of snakes is that back in the early years of humanity, our ancestors realized that some snakes can be poisonous and or dangerous. Due to the fact that they were very observant of their surroundings, they developed a healthy fear and understanding to keep distances from snakes. This realization most likely just stuck with humans, and we just automatically know that snakes can be harmful.

Cars, however, were obviously not around way back in those times.  Since they are new most humans pobably have not yet developed a fear of them. We may also not be afraid of cars because  they are man-made and humans just automatically assume that they are same because of that.

In conclusion humans are afraid of snakes because we have always been and we are not afaid of cars because they are new.