My Thoughts about Privilege, Power, and Difference

My Thoughts about Privilege, Power, and Difference
Privilege, Power, and Difference written by Allan F. Johnson is about exactly what the title says and how it affects our society. This book has motivated me to think about oppression in American society today. Johnson raises many issues and topics that amount to the idea that Americans are following an individualistic belief which undermines the importance of society and institutions. This ideology is inaccurate and promotes division between people. Human beings are social animals strongly influenced by the decisions of others and can influence change in society. These problems can be slowly overcome by taking paths of greater resistance. These paths can be as simple as not laughing at the expense of others.
Barry Goldwater; the author of “The Conscience of a Conservative" wrote “Every man, for his individual good and for the good of his society, is responsible for his own development” Johnson’s book suggests that Americans share a common ideology which is focused on individuals and neglects to recognize outside influences. Johnson wrote that this “is strongly rooted in the culture.”
Evidence provided by cognitive and neuroscientists as well as geneticists and psychologists collected over the past thirty years suggests what Johnson and I believe to be a common truth, and the problem with the republican belief which is that humans “are intensely social creatures, deeply interconnected with one another”(Brooks.) He goes on to say “[w]hat emerges is not a picture of self creating individuals gloriously free from one another, but of autonomous creatures deeply interconnected with one another” (Brooks.) Americans are all interconnected through society. We share roads, schools, work, and more.
American methodology is influenced by the economics that drive the country. Both underestimate “the importance of connections, relationships, institutions and social filaments that organize personal choices and make individuals what they are.” (Brooks). The individualistic idea Goldwater wrote about does not apply to modern American society. We need institutions and social programs.
Johnson suggests that in order to create change individuals will need to openly choose paths of greater resistance. By doing so other people can see that there are more options than the path of least resistance and that it is ok to stand out from the norm. He also writes that “we can’t use the human life span as a significant standard against which to measure progress.” (Johnson). To be part of the solution we need to accept that we may not be around to see the change we put into effect occur.
Americans are living in an age of constantly changing economic social networks but continue to follow the individualistic guidelines laid out by Barry Goldwater. Over the past thirty years cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, geneticists, and psychologists have provided evidence which shows humans to be intensely social creatures strongly influenced by the decisions of others. The solution is to take paths of greater resistance to act in accordance with what we value.

Movie Response #4: "Loosing It"

Tony Ive
Matt Wappet
Core 122
Movie Response #4 Losing It
November 7, 2008
Movie Response #4 Losing It
The creator of Losing It traveled to Italy where she met a man named Marino. Marino had been recovering over the past ten years from Wilsons disease. When Marino began his journey with Wilsons disease he described himself as “totally dead” because he was so isolated. The isolation set of an uncontrollable anger. It was connected to the speed of his communication. He felt that others would constantly leave him behind in all aspects of life whether it was walking down the street or a conversation. He became self conscious and scared. He said he does not have a job because he is afraid. The Italian government declared Marino incapable of having social relationships.
The next person introduced in the film is Karol Robinson. Karol worked for the state of New York. She had a disability that required her to use a wheel chair. She considered herself dependent but was the most independent disabled person she new. Karol felt that non disabled people asked disabled people personal questions that would not otherwise be appropriate. Karol felt that her disability allowed her to view the world from a broader perspective. When Karol and her husband went out in public they would receive stares. Other people would assume that her husband was her personal care taker or employee and nothing more. Her children felt she was separated from society by race, and disability.
Russia’s treatment of people with disabilities was similar to that of the United States prior to the early fifties. Under socialism disabled people were not allowed in public. Nothing in Russia was designed to be accessible by people in wheel chairs. When able bodied people saw someone with a disability they would stare.
In Hong Kong disabled people were mostly jobless. Companies were not required to hire them. Like in other countries, the disabled community felt abandoned but stuck together for support. People in Hong Kong did not care about disabled people either way. They did not want to adjust in order to accommodate them. Doctors seemed more enthusiastic about helping people with disabilities than in other countries.
Italy did not have accessible public spaces. Able bodied people in Italy separated themselves from people with disabilities. Sao Palo Brazil was not wheel chair accessible and people with disabilities were paid less than able bodied people for the same work. There were two opposing opinions of people with disabilities. One was a sense of pity, and the other was disgust.
New York was more accessible than the other countries in the documentary. People would ask disabled people personal questions. It is appropriate for able bodied people to stare at people with disabilities. The New Yorker’s demonstrated curiosity and doubt about the capabilities of the disabled.
All of the disabled people in the film had similar experiences and feelings. Every person with a disability felt like they were being stared at when they walked down the street. They felt they were ostracized from their communities. Every country had accessibility problems. They all had various prejudices and assumptions. There was not a place where a disabled person was viewed as a capable human being.

Movie Response #3 The Devil And Daniel Johnston

Tony Ive
October 22, 2008
Matt Wappet
Core 122
Movie Response #3 The Devil And Daniel Johnston

Daniel Johnston is a singer and song writer with manic depression. He grew up in Austin Texas with his very religious family. Many people described him as a genius and a natural artist. The Devil and Daniel Johnston is a documentary about Johnston’s climb to success. It goes into detail describing his many personal obstacles.

The film is depicted using The Rehabilitation or Expert/Professional Model. Daniel Johnston grew up not following directions. He brought reform upon himself by acting in ways his parents disapproved of. He did not agree with his parents’ religious views. He would go to church to get girls. His family felt he needed to live a “well-rounded life” and felt he was living a “self-absorbed life”. As a result, Daniel moved out, and eventually broke free for several years by running away with a carnival.

Several years after Johnston’s escape from his parents he became famous for his music. People began to think he had chemical problems. He smoked a lot of weed and had a mental breakdown. Some people accused his manager of giving him acid. People had always known he was “crazy” but they embraced it because they felt the greatest artists who ever lived were as well.

Johnston attacked his manager with a lead pipe while on acid and gave him a concussion. He became a different person. People blamed his transformation on drug abuse. As time went on his behavior become more erratic. He broke his brother’s arm on Christmas because his brother had tried to remove a Beatles album from the family Christmas tree. Other people felt that they new what was best for Johnston. He believed that culture, the military, coke and snickers were planning a takeover.

His friends felt he had crossed a boundary between crazy and sick. They had Johnston hospitalized. His manager thought Daniel did not need to be in the hospital and got him out. Soon after he was heavily medicated and spent the entire year of 1987 in bed. This is representative of the Rehabilitation or Expert/Professional Model in that other people felt they knew what was best for Johnston. The director of the film constantly showed how much trouble Johnston got into when he was not under supervision.

A lot of Johnston’s art is inspired by his first love Lorie. She was an attractive girl at his college. Johnston would follow her around with a tape recorder and beg her to say I love you. She did not know how obsessed he was. She already had a boy friend who she later married. This event helped his art. He sang songs about her and drew pictures of her. Lorie was only in Johnston’s life for a few weeks but because of his depression it caused him pain. He fed on the pain to create his art. He would not be the artist he is today without the emotions he experienced from his disability.

Johnston’s needs can best be met in a home baste setting for the fallowing reason: When at home his parents can take care of him. He feels comfortable and has the space he needs to create art and stimulate his creative side while not harming himself or others. At an institution He was not comfortable. He was confined to a small room where he lost his ability to create art. The institutions did not help him after he stopped using drugs.

My Thoughts On the History of Rreatment of Individuals With Disabilities

One way that humans can relate to one another is by finding a common enemy. Hitler did it by making anyone who did not fit his ideal image someone to be feared. The most commonly recognized group to be targeted by the Nazis was Jewish people. The United States has targeted several groups of people but many groups have not been heard. This week in class I learned about the start of eugenics, Aktion T4 and modern institutionalization in the U.S. and around the world.
The most well known unfair treatment of people in the United States is probably the treatment of black people starting with slavery and continuing through the sixties during segregation. Asian immigrants were used to build railroads across the United States and were deprived of forming unions. Native Americans have had a long history in the United States of being attacked. And in my opinion the least talked about group to be targeted are people with disabilities.
Individuals with disabilities, eugenics, Aktion T4, and modern institutionalization all share the ideology that these people are inferior and contaminate society. I think that people target weaker people, and do anything they can to try and make themselves feel closer as a group. If you share a common enemy you have something in common. I still think this has been a factor in many instances of prejudice in society.
In class I learned about the history of eugenics and institutions in the United States. I was shocked to learn that institutions existed. I was more shocked to when I found out how people were treated at these places. The saddest thing is that institutions still exist today. There are some in the United States but we watched videos in class of institutions in other countries.
There are many countries that take people with disabilities or people who are simply undesirable and lock them away. Once the people are out of sight they are forgotten. I saw people tied to beds; people who had been lying-in their own feces for weeks, people who spent their lives not moving. Seeing this disturbed me. It is happening right now and there are more disturbing things happening around the world as I type this.
I was looking forward to learning more about the Holocaust because I have always found World War II fascinating. I think it is because of how dynamic and dramatic the war was, and how well documented in books and movies. Hitler, Pearl Harbor, The internment camps, Israel, the American generals, and the German perspective. The whole topic is mind boggling.
In class we focused on the creation of concentration camps. It began with T4, a group created by Hitler and his cronies designed to eliminate undesirable people. It was created over a lunch where they talked about how to solve what they referred to as a problem. The Nazis would round up the undesirables take them into a field and shoot them one by one, but this was taking a psychological toll on the soldiers. Then they tried putting them in vans and filling them with carbon dioxide from the engine. This was effective but it took too long and was not very efficient. Later they developed the gas chamber.
In class we watched a video about one of the first gas chambers. It was used to kill people with disabilities. A family of people in wheel chairs visited the chamber. The camp had been turned into some kind of hospital, which I found disturbing, considering all that had taken place there. A nurse was interviewed about her experience working at the camp. She said the people looked like they were in pain but she trusted the doctors. I saw mob mentality at work. I once spoke to a German man about the holocaust and asked him how it happened. He said “one step at a time”.
I was saddened by what I saw and learned about this week in class. I learned that behind the holocaust and Action T4 was an American invention called eugenics. Before Hitler and the gas chambers there was eugenics. It was developed by American doctors and based on the Darwin theory. Eugenics is the idea that there is a dominant or more developed race than all others. Eugenicists in the U.S. decided that white people were the dominant race and should not breed with anyone else because it would weaken the gene pool.
Eugenicists studied the art work of different races with the idea that the most realistic depictions were made by the smartest people. The most realistic depictions came from the Romans and the Greeks. Many people especially in Africa made abstract art. Some races used metaphors. Thus it was decided that white Europeans were the most developed race.
Statistics were created that showed how likely a certain ethnicity was to commit a crime. Looking at it today it seems ridiculous but I understand how it happened. I have heard people say things like “How could anyone believe something so ridiculous?”, or “How can someone be so cruel?” I am disgusted by the inhumanity and cruelty that humans are capable of, but I am not totally shocked. I have watched videos of people being bullied while others saw this and did nothing. I have watched people fight each other in a ring. Just Google Darfur images and it becomes clear that there is a side of humanity Americans don’t like to think about.
I don’t know why people act the way they do. Maybe it is because of some primitive instinct for survival, maybe it how a person is raised, or maybe there is not a logical explanation. The fact is it happens all the time.

Movie Response #2 King Gimp and Ganna Bill

Gahanna Bill is about a man named Bill who was diagnosed with efasia. Bill grew up on the outskirts of Columbus Ohio. He could understand what people were saying but could not express himself. He lived with his father William Withrup until his father tragically past away. The movie talked about his child hood and how he was slow to develop speech. His mother’s death’s impact on him, and his fathers death’s impact on his syster and community. It talked about his daily routines and showed him getting awards and being happy. The overall theme was that the community found a place for bill where he could be happy and productive.

KING GIMP was about Dan Keplinger’s fight from age twelve to be accepted as a valuable member of his community. Keplinger was diagnosed with cerebral palsy as a child and could not transport himself until he received a power chair. He began his education at a school for children with learning disabilities and eventually with his mother’s support fought his way into a mainstream high school. His high school experience was rough because he did not have any friends and felt like his social life was artificial. Later he found art and was able to express himself. He was able to adapt to his surrounding by using a stick attached to his head for painting and typing. He went to college where a teacher told him he would never be an artist. In the end he became an artist in New York.

Gahonna Bill most closely reflects the Tragedy Charity model. The story of Bill’s life was told by the people around him. He rarely spoke to the camera. People talked about Bill’s living situation with his father. His father was interviewed but Bill was not. The community was portrayed as caring and accepting of Bill. After his father died, the school voted in favor of making a special job that bill was capable of doing.

This movie also reflects the economic model by showing him at work. Bill worked the same low-paying job for the Seven Up bottling company for twenty years. Then he was unofficially demoted to a part-time job in janitorial services. Eventually he was let go. Bill was not asked very many questions throughout the movie.
The filmmaker’s perspective of Bill’s disability was that he was happy and able to function doing simple tasks in his community. The filmmaker did not think Bill was capable of more. We can see this through the showing of different jobs bill had and also showing the community as inclusive and caring. Bill was not empowered to make his own decisions but he was happy.

KING GIMP was a reflection of the adapted social model. Dan was capable enough to handle his own education, but society was holding him back. From the beginning Dan was not given a fair shot. His father wanted him institutionalized, he was told he could not make it in main stream public school, he couldn’t function living on his own, girls never took a serious interest in him, he was told he could not make it in college, he would never become an artist and teachers even refused to talk to him. In the end he proved that he was capable of all these things.

The filmmaker’s perspective was the perspective of the disabled person. The disabled person made the film. All of the power was with him. It was the most accurate way to show what his life was like. KING GIMP was more empowering because the disabled person had the power. He made his own decisions. In Gahanna Bill all the decisions were made for Bill. King Gimp proved that society was holding him back where as Gahanna Bill showed society holding Bill up.

Short Bus 15 Fifteen Summary

Tony Ive
Matt Wappet
Core 122
10-3-2008

Short Bus Chapter fifteen summary

The theme in chapter fifteen of the Short Bus was as humans we fear what we do not know and assign labels to make the unknown seem more familiar. The problem with these labels is they become intertwined and difficult to distinguish/diagnose, like Asperger syndrome vs. DSM, PDD or PDD-NOS. If you watch who you have separated yourself from for long enough you will begin to relate to their experience. The Chapter began with Mooney describing Jeff. Mooney was so overwhelmed by how different Jeff was that he did not feel they could make a connection. But after the two spent some time together he realized that, while he did not know how to label him, they shared similar feelings. Once Mooney read Jeff’s poetry he understood and wrote, “None of this is hard to understand. None of this is strange.”

Thoughts About This Week

Tony Ive
September 29, 2008
Matt Wappett
Core 122 (What is Normal Anyway)

Identity is important because as humans, how we view ourselves effects how we interact with our surroundings. As a society we have a tendency to segregate people whether we know it or not. Segregation puts labels on people. It creates self fulfilling prophesies. Look at public education. By creating a class for advanced students those students believe they are advanced. They will strive for things they would not normally. The students who are put in average classes are told just that. They are average. What is there motivation to do any better then the people around them? They will always be average. Even sadder what about the kids who are told they are dumb.

Jonathon Mooney is the exception to the law but his book is filled with stories of smart people who were brought down by the messages they received in schools. Cookie is just one of many examples. He was different than the rest of the students and because of that he was told he was stupid. Although the city has embraced him he continues to live as an outcast. Brent was obsessed with paintball in an attempt to shed the disabled label. The only place students can shed there labels take place outside of the class room. Mooney needed soccer.

The experiences of the two speakers who talked to our class highlight the effects of inclusion and segregation. One of the speakers talked about how he was bullied in school. He was in a special ed program and was constantly harassed by other students. They would call him names, spit on him, and throw things at him. Treatment like this makes individuals feel bad about who they are. The other speaker talked about his transition from special ed to the average classes. He made his first real friends when he entered the normal class. It worked out well for him because he was not told he was stupid. He went on become the school president. The other hated high school.

As a student in high school I witness students being separated for their disabilities all the time. Any time there was a test the students with disabilities were pulled from the class to go take their tests separately. The other students wondered where they went. Why they got special treatment. The response was a subconscious automatic what makes you so special? The students with disabilities were embarrassed and their peers, some consciously, some subconsciously, resented them for what they saw as special treatment.

While most segregation has negative effects there are some good things. The students with disabilities that are not obvious like dyslexia, dysgraphia, and ADHD are put in an environment where they will not be embarrassed for their learning differences. They do not have to tell their peers. Teachers can spend more time working with smaller groups of students. Still, the negative consequences outweigh the positive ones. People begin to identify themselves as dumb or smart or whatever their label is and it becomes true. I have been wrestling with how to overcome these problems this whole week.