Blog #49 - Ethan Liang - Period 9 - 6/13/2020

Blog #49 - Ethan Liang - Period 9 - 6/10/20 
Sophomores 2020 

Reminders/Upcoming Assignments: 
- The next reading assignment is long and heavy duty in terms of content and understanding (keep this in mind when pacing) 
- People who haven’t blogged yet can blog today’s lesson and hand it in by Saturday - Blogs should be made on a Google Doc 

AIM: How are the readers of 1984 warned about the power of manipulation? 

DO NOW: Think/Pair/Share 
- Winston thinks, “They could not alter your feelings; for that matter, you could not alter them yourself, even if you wanted to.” Think about and discuss the nature of feelings and emotions. 

1. Can you alter your own feelings by force of will? Why or why not?
        In some cases, you can try to convince yourself to alter your own feelings but you will always have a seed of doubt, and you won’t even be able to change your core feelings. Another way to look at it is that you can change your feelings but it will be a gradual process and won’t happen right away. A good way to do so would be to talk to other people and have them convince you, or you can be the devil’s advocate and step into the shoes of the opposing side.
2. Can someone else alter another person’s innermost feelings?
        Someone else can alter another person’s innermost feelings because people can be manipulative and threatening and can change the way you think about certain people which can alter your thoughts and opinions. At your core, your innermost feelings are your own and only you can change them. Maybe not intentionally, someone can say something that can make you reflect, but if you’re aware they want to change your core values, you will harden yourself and become defensive and protect your core beliefs. 

Team Work: 
Considered all that has transpired in the novel thus far. With your team, create “3” questions, and be prepared to share them with the other teams. The goal is to see if the teams can answer the questions your team created. 

• Can the thought police actually read your mind or is it just to make their subjects fear them.

• The thought police can’t actually read your mind; everything is just a scare tactic. It would be impossible for a government to track the thoughts and actions of every single individual, especially for a state as large as Oceania. Because of the upbringing and education of Oceanians, everyone acts the same way and in the same pattern, and people who stick out of this pattern is a good sign that they are thinking differently. The thought police don't actually need to observe everyone, they just need to single out the ones who act and thus think differently.

• What was the significance of the prole woman singing in the window?

• Winston believes that the proles are the only hope and future of rebellion against Big Brother. He thinks about how mundane and insignificant the life of the prole woman is, compared to the things that she could be doing. She is in the most favorable position to overthrow the government, and Winston has hope that she and the future proles will be able to overthrow Big Brother. 

• Is Big Brother real? 

• Big Brother as a person doesn’t actually exist, it's just something the inner party created in order to manipulate and control the people He’s a symbol and a scare tactic, a figure or entity, and not a literal person Group Work: - Evaluate the characters of Julia and Winston - Record characteristics unique to each, then record characteristics that are shared - How is the author warning the readers about manipulation through the characters?

Group Work: 

• Evaluate the characters of Julia and Winston 
• Record characteristics unique to each, then record characteristics that are shared 
• How is the author warning the readers about manipulation through the characters?

There is a huge age gap and because of that, a big difference in thinking. 

The author warns the readers about manipulation through these characters by showing how Julia was able to be manipulated to the point where she doesn’t know who Oceania is fighting against. Winston’s success in forcing her memory of a war with Eastasia and not Eurasia is a stark reminder of the power memories can have. 

Quick Write: 

Record what you did last Friday morning 

• Nobody can remember! 

Whole Class Discussion: 

• Why was there such difficulty recording what happened? 

• It was so difficult because every day is similar to each other and nothing stood out on Friday morning that would make us remember. 

• Why is it so easy to forget what transpired, even though only a couple of days had passed? 

• People tend to remember things that directly impacted us. Because we go through the same routine every day, nothing stands out that would leave an impression on us enough for us to remember. 

• How can forgetting leave people vulnerable? 

• Forgetting could allow other people to put memories into your head, which would change your core thoughts and beliefs and could change the rest of your opinions and thoughts. 

Reflection: 

     I learned something really interesting. This lesson, I realized that the key to manipulating someone is by taking control over their memories. After all, your memories are what makes you unique. Your memories are the core substance of your being and dictate everything else you think about. All of your opinions and decisions are influenced by your memories. 

     I think we learned it to become aware of how much manipulation is present in real life. The media is a perfect source of manipulation, even more so in current times. What the media presents to use becomes part of our memories, and will influence us in one way or another. What we see today on the news will influence our opinions and future decisions, whether we want it to or not. 

     Knowing that, we can use what we have learned to try to see things objectively. We can take into account the validity of our memories and not blindly let them influence us like Winston, who took action without a plan or consideration and relying only on a few precious memories. 

Additional information about forgetting and manipulating memories: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324900#Studying-memory-manipulation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-krDtRkuqs&feature=emb_logo 

     Working from home is a challenge because you no longer have direct guidance from teachers to help you if you’re stuck on something. You also have to learn to manage your own time with everything you have to do, and it can be very easy to get distracted or procrastinate and have fun. Therefore, staying focused should be the #1 priority for students, and we should push ourselves to finish the work first before doing other things. Staying organized is also very important, since it’s easy to get tasked with a lot of assignments and forget about some of them. Thus, we should write down all the things we have to do and their due dates and plan our time accordingly. 

     Based on what’s going on in the world right now, I have learned that people are by nature selfish and self-centered. There are very few who from the bottom of their hearts do things for the sake of others alone. The actions of many people right now are for their own good, whether it’s physical or mental. Rioting and looting are for the good of the rioters who bring home their stolen items and find happiness in being able to openly destroy the city. Protestors fulfill their desire to participate in fighting against racism and to avenge the deaths of previous victims to hate crimes. 

My own personal feelings and thoughts on what is happening right now will conflict with the thoughts of the majority of other people. But protesting and rioting are not the right solution to the problem, which itself is very deceiving in the first place. People say they are doing everything for George Floyd. However, we need to stop pretending he was a saint. George Floyd was a career criminal who led a life characterized by crime and served 5 stints in jail. He was a drug addict and was high on fentanyl and methamphetamine at the time of the arrest, which was for committing another crime in using counterfeit money. He was an experienced robber who pointed a gun at a pregnant mother and forced her into her living room while his friends searched her house for things to take. There is no acceptable reason we can turn criminals into heroes overnight. George Floyd was in no way a hero or an upstanding person we should be looking up at. And yet people are buying T-shirts and hanging up posters of such a dangerous criminal. George Floyd’s death is certainly tragic, and he by no means deserved this end. But nationwide rioting is not the right answer. Glorifying and using Floyd as a symbol for the struggle against racial discrimination is not the right answer. Floyd’s death was not because of racial discrimination. Derek Chauvin murdered Floyd because of personal disagreements stemming from the club they worked at. All 4 officers have been arrested and will get the punishments they deserve. There is no need for such violence for the sake of a career criminal like Floyd.