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Here are the movies that we are thinking about. You might want to take a look at their IMDB ratings...Some of them are pretty low...


Vote for 4 (FOUR) that you think would be suitable. Yes, you can choose FOUR movies on the poll. Please only vote ONCE. Please do this by Sunday night, December 30th! Thanks! :]

POLL IS NOW CLOSED. RESULTS ARE SHOWN ABOVE. The four movies are: Elf, The Nightmare Before Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life and When a Stranger Calls.

Labels: src

"And every time the Takers stamp out a Leaver culture, a wisdom ultimately tested since the birth of mankind disappears from the world beyond recall, just as every time they stamp out a species of life, a life form ultimately tested since the birth of life disappears from the world beyond recall." (Ishmael)

This quote reminds me simultaneously of the Wade Davis and E.O. Wilson TED talks. It brings back the idea that the Leavers and other forms of life are quickly becoming extinct, and we, the Takers, aren't doing anything about it. In fact, we are the ones that are destroying them.

Takers are self-absorbed fools. All we seem to care about is the continuation of production of things that will lead to a better lifestyle. We only have knowledge of "what works well for production", but we lack the necessity of wisdom of "what works well for the people". Because of this, we destroy all other cultures and species, as they supposedly get in the way of our production. We do not realize that these Leavers are really the ones with the knowledge we lack, and that we have much to learn from them. Although we see that each Leaver culture has very specific knowledge as to what works for each of their respective cultures, their tastes, preference and vision of the world, they are still enacting the story which we are unable to enact, the one we should be enacting.

What makes us even bigger fools is the fact that although we don't know what works for us, we are not willing to find this solution. We are not willing to figure out what's best for us. We are not willing to take a look beyond our culture, to the past, to the Leaver culture, and figure out what it is that makes them successful in life, as to say. Instead we turn to prophets and lawgivers. These prophets and lawgivers give us the supposed one right way to live. And we follow. We teach our children the same. We do not realize that these prophets and lawgivers are like us, men, and people of the Taker culture. We do not realize that they too, have no idea as to what works for us. Instead, we follow blindly, for we cannot fathom the answer ourselves.

Driven by money, power, production, and the desire to conquer, we will not stop until we have destroyed the world, and everyone and everything else with it. We have been traveling down a path that has diverged from our past, the leavers. We have traveled much too far to look back and realize we took the wrong fork in the road, to even see the past. It's time to stop. It's time to realize that things are not going to work out for us, for the rest of the world, if we continue. We are destroying cultures, species, the earth. Is this a price we want to pay?

Labels: global ethics

How does Mugabe seem to see himself in regards to the Tree of Knowledge?

"What does it matter that I'm weary of living as a murderer of all the life around me? I know good and evil, and this way of living is good. Therefore I must live this way even though I'm weary unto death, even though I destroy the world and even myself...I will grow without limit. To be limited is evil. I will steal the fire of life from the hands of the gods and heap it up for my growth, and that will be good. I will destroy those kinds that do not serve my growth, and that will be good...And because these things are good, they must be done at any cost. It may be that I'll destroy the garden and make a ruin of it...to grow without limit is good and to accept the limits of the law is evil...And if the groans of my progeny fill the air throughout the world, I will say to them, 'Your sufferings must be borne, for you suffer in the cause of good. See how great we have become! Wielding the knowledge of good and evil, we have made ourselves the masters of the world, and the gods have no power. Though your groans fill the air, isn't it sweeter to live in our own hands than in the hands of the gods?'" (Ishmael, page 163).

Robert Mugabe is the very essence of the Adam in the passage above. He has eaten off the Tree of Knowledge and deluded himself into thinking that he has the knowledge of what is good and what is evil. To him, whatever he can justify doing is good. It is because of this falsified belief that Zimbabwe is at the state it is now. The inflation rate of 11 million per cent, the desolate houses, the reeducation camps, the violence, the malnutrition and starvation, the HIV/AIDs rate, the low life expectancy rates, the black markets, the corruption, the bribery, the kleptocratic style of government are right, for Mugabe can justify his doing so. After being omnipotent for 28 years, Mugabe has become so engrossed in his vision and thirst for power that the killing and murdering and the people no longer matter; he has to continue to grow without limit. He has to wipe out everything that is in his way so that he may live with in his own hands, rather than the hands of the gods.

The vision of "empowerment", providing the people with the power to do something, was merely his excuse, his justification to do all the things he has done. It was merely a way to reach his goal of being the gods' equal, and living without limits. The schemes to benefit black "indigenous Zimbabweans" have been used by those in positions of authority and influence to benefit themselves. Mugabe and his circle are living an updated lifestyle of the whites that were driven away by Mugabe. This is rather ironic, and reminds me of the pigs in Animal Farm. Mugabe liberated his country from white colonists, yet he became like one himself. In his address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Mugabe said "Those who falsely accuse us of violations are themselves international perpetrators of genocide, acts of aggression, and mass destruction." To him, those who "falsely" accuse them are evil, for they do not serve his growth.

He is insatiable. He cannot and will not stop. He has to continue to grow. He knows what he is doing. He knows the state of his country. But to him, they are nothing. According to Paul Verryn, Mugabe hasn't "'lost it'...he knows exactly what he is doing...he's politcally astute, and he thinks this is the way you run a country." To him, these things are right. These things are good. He can and will pay any cost for growth, for power.

Indeed, Mugabe and his supporters believe that what he is doing is good. Zimbabwe and its people are no longer in the hands of the gods. Mugabe's nephew, Leo, said, "By 2010, we will be flying!" His supporters believe that Mugabe is their "own Moses". At the UN General Assemby address Mugabe said Zimbabweans were now "masters of their own destiny."

Mugabe and his country are spiralling downwards towards collapse and destruction because he is deluded in thinking he has the knowledge of good and evil. The gods had warned us. Now we can only hope that Mugabe will realize, or rather, admit that he has no such knowledge, and leave his, and his country's destinies to the gods. The same goes for the Takers, for on the day we eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, we were doomed to die. Now we can only hope that there is a way out of this, that there is a way to prevent us from devouring ourselves.

Click here for the full New Yorker article on Robert Mugabe.

Labels: global ethics

Last tuesday, our dance class and advanced art class went to the Dongmen Mall to film a piece for Arts Night. Here are some reflection questions on the process.

How did the site of DongMen alter the choreography that you created in the classroom?

My group was assigned the site of the roof for our piece of choreography. We were told that it was an open space with a clothes line. We came up with the idea that we should hang clothes off of the clothes line, and have the camera zigzag its way through the clothing on the clothes line. When we got there, however, we saw that there was no way we could have used the clothes line because it was actually further out than we had thought and we could not reach it. Because of this, we had to get rid of the section of choreography that included the clothes line, and modify it so that we could perform without it. Instead, we hung the clothing off ourselves. However, that was again further modified because it did not create an eerie enough feel.

Most of the choreography remained the same though because our site was simple: an open space. We did not have to deal with escalators or hallways like the other groups had to. We had choreographed our dance for an open space, and an open space was what we got. However, we did make sure that we spread out more, and used bigger actions because there was much more space available to us than we had actually expected.

Now that you know this site better; If you were to go back to Dongmen what would you add or subtract from your choreography to make it stronger?

Now that I know the site better, I would probably include more people in our dance routine. We had a lot of space, and it felt a lot emptier than it did when we practiced it inside the dance classroom. Six people can only use up so much room, no matter how big their actions are. I think the choreography would been stronger if we had more people, and therefore, would not have as many empty spaces. I don't think I would take anything away from our choreography except the clothing hanging off the dancers, but we already did that, so I would only add more to it. I think I would probably plan for more effective use of the space. I feel we were somewhat restricted to a small proportion of what we were given. We could have done this by having more people in the routine, as mentioned before, or moving around more. I also think we should have done something involving the wall that was behind us.

Labels: dance