The Fear Factor

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. –Frank Herbert Dune

I love this quote about FEAR by Herbert.  A lot of authors reflect on the power and manipulation of fear in their works... read "Once Upon A Time" by Nadine Gordimer for a really chilling children's story.  Attached are two works on fear.  I will list reflection/analysis questions on those works below.

Work 1: Noam Chomsky "The Manipulation of Fear"

1. Read the first sentence and examine the use of the words/phrases: “systems of power”, “discipline the domestic population”, and “peril”… what tone and purpose do these words establish… how do they effect the impact of the warning Chomsky makes to the reader?
2. What is the purpose and effect of Chomsky starting his essay with German Jewish persecution, then moving to US bombing of Japan, and finishing with the Seminole War?  How does this ordering of examples make sense?  How is it unexpected?
3. What comparisons does Chomsky connect to Bush and Blair?  What can be inferred about his feelings concerning these modern political figures based on the text?

Work 2: Lee Wrights "The Manufacture and Manipulation of Fear"

1. What is the effect of Wrights beginning his piece using General MacArthur’s quote?
2. Discuss how the use of the second person point of view impacts Wrights’ voice and purpose.  How does the shift to first person at the end change the tone?
3. What does the use of capitalization suggest about Wrights’ beliefs and values?  How might if aid his purpose as an author?
4. Pick one line that speaks to you in this essay and respond to it.

In your groups answer these two sets of questions in comments to this post.

 

Ok I fell a little behind in reading so I kinda sorta made up for it by finishing the book and I gotta say that I enjoyed book 3 a lot more than the other two combined. It was just a lot more interesting but now I'm ready to start reading something else.

Creeper

Okay...so the Title is totally unrelated, well not totally...Garrett will know what it's about.

Anyways...

I think that the Government today is similar to Oceania but on a smaller scale. I mean, the Government can tap phone calls and see everything we do on the internet and they also hide things from us that they don't want us to know. For example, that video we watched at the beginning of College English class ( I don't remember what it was ) but the US made it seem like our soldiers were doing the right thing and that it wasn't a big deal...when it was seen by other people they made a huge deal out of what we were doing in Iraq? ( I don't know where it was either...I just remember the video. ) I just wanted to write on the blog and that's what came to mind..so yeah

I am an Unconscious Creeper!!! =(

Who will save me from Myself?!?!?

It's our fault...

So I have been thinking about 1984 an awfully lot, and I have come to a conclusion. I don't believe that the United States (rather the world) is falling straight into what 1984 is, but I do believe that we are giving the Gov. an awfully lot more control than we think. I think its all our fault. We let the government control certain things, and then freak out that they are becoming too powerful. But when times are hard, we are MORE THAN HAPPY to allow them to take care of things. But how are they supposed to give up power when they are freely given it until times get better, then we want it back? If we want to be 'grown ups' then we ought to learn how to take care of our problems even when times suck! Otherwise we are being... idiots... not involved in the government (by definition). So yeah... every time we complain about how the gov. is getting to powerful... maybe we should make sure that it wasn't us being whimpy and afraid to face the tough times.

just a thought.

Resume

So looking at all of Ms. Stariah's exampls, I'm starting to feel like my resume is not what she wanted?