Blog #26 - Peter Terranova - Period 3 - 04/27/2020

4/27/2019

Peter Terranova Period 3

Aim:  How does Orwell criticize society through Boxer and Benjamin?

Classwork

The do now was a heavy and complicated question, 2 in fact, “Agree/Disagree: ‘I can trust those in positions of authority to make decisions that are in my best interest.’” and, “If you had knowledge about a situation that could help someone else would you tell them, even though you might get in trouble? Explain”  Most of the class compromised and said that it depends on who has that position of authority.  It can also be said that it depends on your definition of “best interest”.   I took a more pessimistic stance claiming that you could only reach a position of authority if you were corrupted in some way.  As for the second question, we largely agreed that it is good to help.  There was a clear connection to Animal Farm with the recent actions of Benjamin sacrificing his unwritten oath to not meddle in these affairs to save a friend.  

After that we worked on an activity showing various real world organizational posters trying to get across a message, such as PETA and NYC Department of Health.  These posters had varying images and slogans that sent strong messages and we analyzed their intended audience, biases, and type of rhetoric (logos, ethos, pathos).  PETA’s “I’m ME not MEAT” we agreed to be pathos and the DoH’s “You’re drinking 85 pakets of sugar in just 4 sugary drinks a day” we agreed to be logos. 
We changed the subject to discuss the elements of a literary tragedy and discussed these relating definitions:

Hamartia - A tragic flaw that causes the downfall of a hero.
Hubris - Excessive pride and disrespect for natural order of things.  

Perepiteia - The reversal of fate that the hero experiences.  

Anagnorisis - A moment in time when hero makes an important discovery in the story.

Nemesis - A punishment that the protagonist cannot avoid, usually occurring as a result of his hubris.

Catharsis - Feelings of pity and fear felt by the audience, for the inevitable downfall of the hero.

We discussed the possibility that Boxer is a tragic hero, because he had good intentions with a flaw (loyalty to Napoleon) that ended up being killed, as we can imply when the slaughterhouse truck drives him off,  

Thoughts on Reading

I really like Animal Farm as I actually did read it on my own in middle school.  I like George Orwell’s writing in general (I also read 1984) even if it can be a bit dated.  I’ve always had my own ideas that I’ve been reframing to avoid spoilers but by Chapter 9 the message of the book is increasingly obvious.  Even though the humans may have left the farm, the bad spirits that made the farm such an unforgiving place to live never did.  Napoleon is obviously a very corrupt animal in that as the story progresses he and his pig acquaintances increasingly live in the luxuries of human life, at the cost of starving out the other animals.  It’s obvious to think that for this reason his rival, Snowball, would make a better leader.  However, it can be argued that the reason Snowball isn’t in power is because of his good spirits.  Many believe that there is no such thing as uncorrupt authority, that authority is always corrupt because you must be corrupt to secure such a position of authority.  But even Snowball isn’t without fault.  He was industrious and ambitious, but naive.  In truth the bad spirits can never leave the fam because the bad spirits are the farm.  Because of how a farm is run, it demands for a hierarchy and strict control of the animals from daily regime to rationing, because otherwise the crop would never be planted or harvested.  The farm is a communal effort, and strictly a communal effort.  Because of this, the farm destroys the possibility of individualism and the animals are seen less like individuals and more like cogs of a greater machine.  The only way the animals could truly be free, is if they left the farm altogether.  It is no secret that the book is a strong allegory of the Russian Revolution.  So what does this leaving the farm mean in terms of the Russian Revolution?  Abandoning the industrial revolution?  Nationhood?  Government?  Literally leaving farms?  Or is it hopeless because if the animals went their separate ways wild wolves and the like would eat them?  Or can the animals only be truly free in Sugarcandy Mountain?  That, I cannot answer.  

Current Events and My Own Thoughts

The virus is still ravaging the world.  There is recent news and suspicion on the health of the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un.  North Korean officials made an official press release saying Kim Jong Un is in good health and in a state resort.  Satellite imaging confirmed that his personal train is docked near the resort.  This is big news because if (although unlikely) he dies, North Korea will experience a succession crisis.  Kim Jong Un recently ordered the assasination of his uncle and there are currently no known plans of an heir.  Obviously this matters because of North Korea’s warring state against the United States (We’ve been at war since the 1950’s and we are in the longest lasting truce in modern history) and possible harboring of nuclear weapons.  There have also been greater suspicions that COVID-19 was created in a lab, suspicions shared by President Trump of the United States.  At this point in time it is hard to tell what is the case, but I don’t think it is in China’s best interest to purposely release the virus and ruin the world economy.  China’s export economy relies of western markets to buy its goods.  Now with this virus many of them are looking to implement protectionist economic policies in the future which will be bad for China.  That being said, it is possible that COVID-19 was created in a lab for other reasons and accidentally broke out.  At this point it is impossible to tell.  

Honestly this entire situation I would have never expected to happen to me, but when it did I was never really shocked.  The process to reach this moment was so gradual in many ways that it doesn’t seem shocking.  That being said, I’d like to share a chart.  

This chart attempts to represent 2 dichotomies that ultimately separate the inherent values of different regions and cultures.  I will focus on one of them (survival/self expression).  It is of course not perfect as this isn’t exact science, but I think it is relevant to our current situation.  If certain commodities in a society are more scarce, for whatever reason including climate change, war, natural disaster or otherwise, then it is reasonable to assume that this society would take extra precautions in the future to continue survival, even at the cost of individualism.  This is strengthened by the fact that most of us suffer from a bias known as the availability heuristic.  We think that something is likely to happen again just because it happened in the recent past, even though it is in fact highly unlikely.  My favorite example is eastern European communist governments used to restrict its populace under the pretext that if not a fascist organization like the Nazis can rise again with similar force.  Because of this, more often than not a society can make temporary survival adjustments permanent.  If this pandemic is disastrous enough in the United States, we can expect a similar reversion into survival values over individualism and self expression.  That’s my thoughts on the situation.

Reflection

I learned the tools that organizations use in the real world to send their message.  I also learned about what a tragic hero is, and the various definitions used to describe a tragedy, as well as the flaws a tragic hero can have.  It was important to learn the tools organizations use especially in the Information Age as we get bombarded with information from all directions constantly, and it is important to know how to take a closer look and analyze it.  In the future I will use the system we practiced in class to analyze the various messages from organizations I come across.   Learning about tragedies and catharsis helped me realize that many times good people can “lose” because of a single flaw which is insane because most of us have more than one flaw.  This will help me as in the future I will not be as quick to judge others.