17 - Language Can Fight

Language is a strong tool when it comes to influencing others and how they are perceived, but it is an equally strong tool for fighting this construction. Many people realize that the status-quo does not have to be that way, society does not have to be how it is because that is the way it’s always been. Just because it is tradition does not make it right. Tracing back into our history, we see a shift of terms referring to African-Americans from being “property” that was “bought and sold” to what they really were, people. People who were enslaved but liberated, gaining rights and (somewhat) equality. Right now, we are seeing the pull towards “immigrant” over “alien”, a term that has been used since this country’s foundation. Most recently, we are also seeing a rise in the “Alt-Right” movement being called “neo-Nazi”, because that it what they are and it grabs the public’s attention. This new push for “alternative this” and “alternative that” is leading to an increase in people pulling back the curtain and exposing the man for what he really is. This is grabbing the public’s attention and making them realize the shenanigans that are going on in our government right now. The public, and media, is challenging this by calling a horse a horse, not allowing language to aid the government in pulling its sheet over our eyes.

16 - Extent of our Paradigm Shift

“We’ve become such a narcissistic, “me-first” society that common courtesies have gone right out the door – with a moral fiber that’s barely a thread. And while I’m hardly a religious zealot, I do think a large part of the problem is the secularization of our culture at the hands of the allegedly tolerant and compassionate “progressives.” We’ve taken God out of our schools and poke fun at religion; we devalue human life by condoning abortion and branding anyone who stands up for the unborn a woman-hating Neanderthal. Two-parent households are considered an anachronism; a woman who stays home with the kids instead of getting a job and relegating child rearing to day care is deemed lazy. We all but legalize a drug, marijuana, that takes away ambition and drive, and we attack anyone who’s successful and wealthy – regardless of how hard they work, or how many sacrifices they’ve made in life to get where they’re at. Government has become not an enabler of the private sector, but it’s a misguided Robin Hood, at the expense of personal responsibility – and personal values.”

                                                                                                                     ---Stephen Arnold

            In summary, Stephen Arnold is claiming that we, as a society, are a labeling group who judge everyone who is not us. We are so critical, Arnold claims, that we find a fault in anything and everything we can. I almost completely disagree with him. I think that he is taking our society to an extreme; although we do characterize people based on traits, I do not agree with the extent he is taking it. I do not thing that biparental houses are seen as things of the past, or that stay-at-home mothers are lazy. Not only do I not see them this way, but also I do not think that society sees them that way either. My aunt is a stay-at-home mother of two children under five, and she is one of the least lazy people I know. In addition to caring for two (quite rambunctious) children, my aunt is a social activist, equality promoter, government rebel, privilege killer, and will never be silenced. She uses the fact that she does not have a salary job to do what others cannot, to make a difference in her community, to spread the words of equality and outspoken-ness towards our current administration. Is the paradigm of our society shifting? Yes. Are heterosexual biparental households seeing a rise of single-parent households or homosexual households? Yes. Is this going to be a fast change? Like everything else, no. Does this mean that heterosexual biparental households are outdated? No. That is the main thing I take exception to in Arnold’s argument: society is changing, yes, but we are not riding a fast-track to the extremist edge of the spectrum.

15 - Behind Masks, We Hide

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

We wear the mask!

--  Paul Laurence Dunbar

Yes, I have my own mask. Everyone sees my outer mask, but very few know what it hides. I wish that I did not have a mask, I am not proud of the fact that I do. Part of what everyone sees is who I am, but the others are really just what I want to be. My mask shows a charismatic, caring, funny, and patient person who just wants the best for everyone. That is who I am, at least partly. My mask, however, hides the other part of me. The one who does not easily trust, the one who bottles up emotions, the one who is confused on how she feels because she built walls for so long that getting back in touch with emotion is hard. The one who’s scared to open up, the one who avoids causing problems with those she cares about to the utmost extent. I built this mask out of necessity, out of a want to not have to think about emotion. I found that if there was no emotion, nothing could hurt. When I was 12, my mother’s side of the family erupted in conflict and caused a large emotional strain in my family. I found that those who were closest to you could hurt you the most. I began to wall off, to create this box that I wouldn’t let anything into. One of the hardest parts was looking at my 8 and 5 year old little cousins who didn’t know anything about what was going on and figure out a way to protect them from what had affected me. This is where my want for the best for everyone came from- I drew strength from others being happy to lift me up. Now, years later, I struggle trusting people and getting back in touch with my emotions. I hide behind my mask because I am scared of being hurt again; I am scared of opening the bottle of emotions I have kept locked up. I have my good days and my bad, but I do not let others see this. I do not want people to worry about me; I would rather be the one worrying about them. I will help others until the cows come home because I never want them to be in pain like I was. I will continue to protect my little cousins so that they will not have to build a mask, so they will not get hurt, so they will never feel the pain I did.

14 - Journalism: More Fiction than Fact

“Before Washington journalism turned into blood sport, and politics turned into an exercise in serial lying, there was a fairly firm understanding by the press that personal failings were none of the public's business unless misbehavior affected the performance of one’s abilities to perform public duties. No more. Yet there is a national longing to return to the good old days when political news was more about issues and policies and less about private lives."

            Journalism is no longer a presentation of occurrences; it is a competition for viewers and popularity. The public is second to one’s own agenda, one’s pursuit of fame and money. A story is altered in the interest of attraction and appearance, not for the enrichment of the public. One of the many problems of this, however, is it snowballs. One alteration leads to another and another; until soon you see the rise of “alternative facts”. What even are “alternative facts”? How can you have a fact and “fact” in coexistence, yet in complete contrast with each other? Not only does this plague exist among news and journalism, but it exists in politics as well. A similar appeasement strategy is used by conniving politicians to attract voters: empty promises and extravagant claims. It does not matter what you are saying as long as people are listening. Do what the public wants to get into office, then do what you want once you are in. President George H.W. Bush’s “read my lips: no new taxes” is a classic example of empty campaign promises. Seeking the Republican nomination, Bush proclaimed in 1988 that if he were to become president, there would be no new taxes levied on the American public. However, once in office, Bush recoiled on his promise and passed new taxes in 1990.

13 - Concentration of Media

The media is too concentrated. Too few people own too much. There’s really five companies that control 90 percent of what we read, see, and hear. It’s not healthy.

          ---Ted Turner (American Media Mogul, Founder of CNN)

Digital multimedia sources dominate our society. New digital billboards on the side of the road, televisions, social media, even newspapers and magazines are rolling over to online publications. Printed media is becoming a thing of the past; it is a lot easier for people to lounge on their couch and absentmindedly absorb information than actively engage in reading. Especially with the coming generation of millennials and their technological “addiction” (constant need for technology), digital media is at its highest influence in history. This is troublesome, however, because the media is dominated by monopolies. Five companies own the overwhelming majority of media, print and digital alike.  This leads to a biased spread of media disguised as different sources, when really the same corporation owns all of them. How can the public construct its own opinion when it is always spoon-fed the same ideas, be them the entire truth or not, until these ideas become “fact”. There are always two sides to every story, yet if small groups of people own the majority of the media, there is no variety to the stories presented. This means that the public is pressed with this inherent bias to believe or think one thing over another and there is a lack of seeking further information. We see not only the application of this idea in Fox News through the documentary Outfoxed, but also the implications in our current political climate and the rise of "alternative facts".