American Regress

This is the picture that I used for my final exam. I think that this picture shows regress of America. I think that the picture is supposed to be Uncle Sam at his weakest, saying that Americans are weak. It is saying that we are lost and need money, and that America is losing. In World War II Uncle Sam was a strong character, he "wanted you". In this picture he "needs your help". This shows hows America has regressed and not progressed. In the final I said that this picture shows desecration to the flag. This shows desecration to the flag, because he is wearing American flag clothes, his stripped pants, and starred shirt around his waste, are both touching the dirty ground with the weight of his body squishing it to the dirt. Also he is using the American flag hat to beg for money, having people put coins from all around in it with the filth of the McDonald's that they just got the change from. His long hair, unshaven face, and no shoes shows that he is facing the bad economy like everyone else, he is poor and in a low social class and needs help like every other average Joe in America now. The sign sitting next to him says "Anything Helps" this shows that he is so desperate that he would take anything. I think that Uncle Sam in this picture is supposed to show what America is like now, he is supposed to represent the average Americans and about the Americans who are suffering from the regression and this bad economy.

Lanuguages

Last night I was thinking about how cool it would be to speak a language fluently. My brother just got back from spending 6 months in Spain, and now is pretty much fluent in Spanish. I speak a little bit of French, Spanish, and Hebrew, but how cool would it be to be fluent in all three. My friends mom is a translator for the UN and I think that job would be so cool. She speaks like 12 different languages, and gets to travel all over the world. One of my goals in life would be to be fluent in at least one other language than English. After thinking about this yesterday, when I went to bed part of my dream was in Hebrew. I think that it is so cool if you think about that. Dreaming in another language? What does that mean? I also think that it is wierd that there are all these languages around the world, and there is not one person who can go everywhere in the world and know what everyone is saying. My brother who just got back from Barcelona, said that even in the city of Barcelona they had their own language that was completely different from Spanish. I was looking on my Facebook page, and I am friends with people from Israel and Australia, when I read what they wrote, it amazes me that people can be friends with people from other countries even if they don't always know what they are saying. Even though Australians speak English, it is not the same English that we speak, just like in England that is not the same Emglish that we speak. The world started out with only one language, or maybe no language at all, so how did all these different dialects come to be? It is mind boggling. How do some countries speak the same languages, yet they are so far away from each other, and some that are right next to each other speak completely different languages?

What is your opinion on language? Would you rather everyone in every country speak one language, or  be fluent in many languages?

Here is a link to all the different languages of the world: http://www.123world.com/languages/

Why do we watch a team that loses?

The Chicago Cubs have lost the last 7 games. Why do we continue to watch and support our team? The Cubs have been losing for a century and yet they are one of the teams in baseball that has consistent fans and the ball park is always full. Most teams even with a winning season, can barely fill half the park and the Cubs always need standing room. The Cubs have on average 40,000 fans a game and they still have that many fans even though they have lost the last 7 games. They stink and yet we still pay to watch. I am sitting at home watching the game tonight and seeing that they are winning for once, I am surprised, but do I expect a win, NO! Are you crazy, there is a slim chance that when you watch a Cubs game they are actually going to win. Even though over the past few years they have gone to the playoffs, they always seem to screw it up. I am one of those devoted Cubs fans, I have been since the day I was born. My grandparents have had season tickets for 20 years and they are still loyal and go to the games and they can still sell their tickets. People still want to watch the Cubs lose, and I am one of those people I just can not seem to understand why. The Cubs are also one of the only teams in the MLB that will have fans at every game no matter where the game is played. I think that with this bad economy people would be cutting back, but I have been to two games this year and the park is always filled and people are still buying food and souvenirs like always. 

Would you spend money to go watch a team lose in this economy?

Why do you think that people are still Cubs fans and will be forever even though they have not won a World Series in over a century?

American Flag Cubs Hat

For the past week in my Anerican Studies class we have been talking about the American Flag and how it can be represented in different ways. We have talked about how people use the flag as plates on the fourth of July and how after September 11th how a lot of Americans hung a flag, and how now a lot of those people have taken down their flags. We talked about how people when they run a marathon afterwards they drape themselves with an American Flag. Isn't that disrespectful? putting the flag all over your sweaty body. We talked about how they lay the flag over a dead soldiers coffin and how that is a honor to have the flag. We also talked about how you can not burn the flag and you can not have the flag touch the ground, and you have to fold the flag in a certain way.

This weekend we were supposed to take a picture of the flag in some way and analyze it. I decided to take a picture of one of my Cubs hats. In the "C" on the hat there is an American Flag. This is the hat that they wore last September 11th. All the teams in baseball wear the same thing, it has their logo and an American Flag in it. I think that it is interesting that they have the baseball players all wear the American Flags in a suttle way. I also think that it is interesting that they would sell the hats for Americans to buy. Since baseball is an American sport and most Americans watch it, I think that it is interesting that they would choose that sport to wear an Amerian Flag. We know how the flag is used in other places and times, like times of war the flag is used to represent our country. I think that in this case where the flag is on the hat, it is there to remember what happened on September 11th. I think that it is interesting that baseball is still remembering, but other Americans are taking down their flags. In my house we used to only put the flag up aroung July 4th. Now we have the flag up all year long hanging outside our house.

Swine Flu

So a lot of people are freaking out about the swine flu, and I do not understand why. The normal flu kills around 30,000 people each year, this flu has killed almost no amount compared to that. The whole thing with if one person in your school gets sick with swine flu, the school has to close down for 7 days, that is crazy. I don't think that if one person has swine flu that the whole school would have to shut down, and even if it did have to shut down not for a whole week.  

On Friday in my Ameircan Studies class, someone said that in egypt they were killing all of their pigs because pigs are the ones that create swine flu. First of all the pigs in Egypt are meant to eat compost and they are just making their environment worse by killing all the pigs. Second, you can not actually get swine flu from pigs. 

Also in class we were talking about how the name swine flu was offensive to Arabs because swine means pig in Arabic, so they had to change the name. I think that it is stupid and who cares if the disease is named a word that translates into pig, I don't see how this is offensive, most people who speak Arabic do not eat pig any way, so they should not take it to offense. 

I think that the whole epidemic is being over done by the media and that if the media did not make a big deal of it then it would not have made people freak out. 

What do you think about all this? Do you think that the swine flu is a big deal or made to be bigger by the media? 

Junior Theme: Body Paragraphs

I have a section of my paper done, it is the middle part of my paper. I thought that it would be the easiest section to write, so I started there. I am going to share it with all of you. I hope you like, and remember it is just a rough draft. Please comment on what you think I could do better. 

The media manipulates Americans subliminally. Advertising agencies use subliminal means—means that we are not conscious of—to persuade us to buy the products and services (Berger 63). Americans are being manipulated by the media with out even knowing. When people walk into a store and are deciding what to buy they will buy the product that they were unconsciously thinking about from an advertisement.  Most people don’t know when they are being influenced by an advertisement. 8.8 hours per day is spent with the media (55). That is ridiculous; most of the time that a person is awake during the day is spent with the media. On the way to work there are billboards, radio commercials, newspaper ads, and so on. Most of an average person’s day is spent being manipulated by the media with out being aware of it. The way that the media is so successful and gets Americans to consume is by subliminal advertisements. There are secret messages with in an ad. There are ways that they make their service or product successful and people don’t even know why they are buying the product. Wilson Bryan Key in Subliminal Seduction explains that the basis of modern media effectiveness is a language within a language—one that communicates to each of us at a level beneath our conscious awareness (62). Each ad has a deeper meaning that is beneath the surface, and we do not see that meaning, but our mind does, unconsciously see the deeper meaning.

            Advertisement affects the mind; there is a deep, hidden unconscious force that manipulates the mind with out being aware of it. Berger explains that many people overestimate the role of willpower and think that nothing can happen to their minds that they do not decide or intend. He says that we must discriminate between intentional and unintentional contents of the mind (61). When watching a commercial on television most people think that they can with stand the manipulation to buy what is being advertised, but what most people don’t realize is that even if you are not consciously being manipulated by an ad, there is a deeper level that manipulates Americans without knowledge of it.  Some people think that consumers are always aware of what is going on and that the media can not manipulate them unconsciously.

            Not only does the media manipulate Americans subliminally to over consume, Americans are also influenced by what others do too. When one person is subliminally manipulated by the media, then others are subliminally manipulated by that person. It is a chain reaction that the media manipulates, leading Americans into over consuming. Humans are inherently social animals, and individuals greatly influence each other (Perner). When one person wears a designers’ clothes, then all their friends want those designers’ clothes also, when one buys many follow, which leads to over consuming. Without even realizing it everyone is influencing someone else and someone is influencing that person, so it is a cycle of wanting and over consuming. Berger states that we are always marketing ourselves to others and they are always marketing themselves to us, this is the manipulation which leads to over consumption (66). People are unaware that they are being influenced by other people. They see a skinny pretty lady or a strong man wearing something and they think that they unconsciously think that if they buy that product that they will look like that too. Thus when that person walks into the store they will see the outfit and without thinking they will buy because they unconsciously know about the other person wearing the outfit, even if the person is unaware of it. 

Junior Theme Intro

This is my rough draft of my Intro, please comment with suggestions of what you think I need to fix or what you think I did really well.

Americans on average spend one entire year of their life watching television commercials (Berger 57). That’s not including all the other forms of advertising like print ads in magazines, or newspapers, or radio ads. Throughout history Americans have become more and more materialistic and have become over consumers; the media does not help. From the Industrial Revolution and through World War II Americans have always been consumers and now with this bad economy you would think that it would change, but once a consumer always a consumer. There is a basic level of consumption out there that is not going to change (Underhill). We continue to consume at a greater rate each day (Potter). One purpose of the media is to manipulate the behavior of Americans and get them to use or buy the product being advertised. This is why the media is very influential in the way that Americans consume. The media manipulates Americans subliminally and blatantly which leads Americans into over consuming. Advertising tells Americans what they should want to have, and with almost no self control they consume. Americans are unable to escape the constant presence of the media.