Short Review: Colonialization--Pocahontas (1995) (film analysis)

              Most young adults and children who were born within the last 20 years are familiar with the film, Pocahontas-- a Disney movie that was directed by Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg and written by Carl Binder, Susannah Grant and produced in 1995.  This film was about a young daughter (Pocahontas) of the Native American Tribe chief Powhatan, and an English soldier who shared a romance when the English colonists invaded the Native’s land in the 17^th century. Even though the main focus was the romantic relationship between Pocahontas and John Smith, there was a huge story that followed. The British believed that the Native Americans were hiding a large collection of gold and they wanted to claim it for themselves. The captain of the British sailors was very mean, rude, and ignorant who always wanted everything for himself. He had referred the Native Americans to Indians and created many prejudice thoughts and ideas against the Aboriginals. He had brainwashed his people to think that the Aboriginals were savages and horrible people and that they all must be destroyed.

Pocahontas. In the real life story, Pocahontas was brought back to the British land and kept as a prisoner for many years and married a British, “successful tobacco planter, John Rolfe” (Lewis, 2011).

Critical Reflection #4 - Imperialism and Colonialism

For my fourth reflection I am going to explore the relationships between imperialism and colonialism, the differences between the two, and explain how it is or has been shown in our society today. Edward Saïd relates imperialism with European cultures and how certain practices of ideas, thoughts, beliefs and rituals make meaning out of our world. Imperialism is “the practice of theories and attitudes of a dominating metropolitan centre ruling a distant territory” (Saïd, 1994, pp. 9). Countries, territories or groups of people who perform this kind of ruling are called an Empire; “a group of states and people that are ruled by a monarchy” (Stoesz, 1989). From the result of imperialism there is colonialism; “the implanting of settlements on distant territory” (Saïd, 1994, pp. 9). These two terms are important to understand, so in the next few paragraphs I will provide examples that help define Imperialism and Colonialism.    

I think that each country, within itself has some form of an empire either on a micro or macro scale. Saïd says that “imperialism is a form of power that is linked through different attitudes and thoughts” (Saïd, 1994) that dominates other territories by states, colonies, people and groups. 

Critical Reflection #3 - The Exploration of Disciplinary Punishment: Michel Foucault

               Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something negative or unpleasant on a person in response to behaviour deemed wrong by an individual or group. Michel Foucault came up with two techniques of punishment that contradict each other: “Monarchial Punishment” which involves the repression of the populace through brutal, humiliating public displays, and “Disciplinary Punishment” which gives professionals power over a person or group. Disciplinary Punishment is what has been used in the new era. This technique of punishment leads to self-policing. Foucault focused on how discipline and power came into relation and how it was used in prisons. Foucault was also interested in decentralized power, a form of power that allows you to create more data and is constantly growing and creating new ideas, which he called Productive Power. I will focus more on Disciplinary Punishment and its relation to modern society while using power discipline and how we have become immune to disciplining ourselves subconsciously, and the connection between power, knowledge, and truth.

                 Foucault says that power is not something that you earn or gain but something that is exercised and is circulated through networks. “Every action and every historical event is seen by Foucault as an exercise in the exchange of power” (Gaventa, 2003). Discipline is a form of power that we experience every day whether it is positive or negative, but it aims to give us structure and guidance. Foucault makes reference to the Panopticon, a structured jail where observers can supervise the inmates all hours of the day without them knowing because of a one way mirror. This concept allowed guards to impose the idea and thought that someone might always be watching the inmates. This was discipline of the mind, which leads the inmates to self-discipline themselves. The Panopticon was a metaphor that allowed Foucault to explore the relationship between systems of social control, people in disciplinary situations, and the power-knowledge concept. People adjust to change that has become accepted as the norm in society; for example, today we learn to discipline ourselves to watch our every move that we make. Cameras are constantly watching what we do in stores, in the streets, and in institutions. Discipline creates a whole new form of individuality for people, which enables them to perform their duty within new forms of economic, political, and military organizations emerging in the modern age and continuing  today.

Critical Reflection #2 - The Classification of Hegemonic Person with the incorportation of Terrorism

Gramsci’s focus of research was on why so many ‘ordinary’ working class people go along with fascism. He had found out that people who don’t benefit from a set of policies or an ideology go along with fascism. What Gramsci focused on was the cultural domination which leads him to comprehend social class. He said that “Any class that wishes to dominate in modern conditions has to move beyond its own narrow ‘economic-corporate’ interests, to exert intellectual and moral leadership, and to make alliances and compromises with a variety of forces” (Gramsci , 1930) and also explaining that “culture values of the hegemonic class in society become the ‘common-sense- values’ (Gramsci, 1930).” People start to go along and conform to these ideas without any explanation. Common-sense soon becomes embedded in the victims’ minds. Gramsci stated that “masses consent with state-based political and cultural dominance through what he calls spontaneous consent” (Gramsci, 1930). This spontaneous consent is triggered by social and political aspects that affect and determine people’s decisions, for example, churches and the media. These two examples are constantly relaying messages to the public that can force on a certain belief. But the question is who is it that is in the Hegemonic position of power? What makes a person Hegemonic? Is hegemony something that you are born with or is it something that you acquire throughout your life?

Hegemonic power is often referred to someone who is in a position of authority where they have the power to dictate information to groups of people that allow them to feel in control.  The working class can only enter themselves into a hegemonic class if they take into account the interest of the other classes and then try to put them with the persons own interests are also seen as hegemonic.

Critical Reflection #1 - What is the Value of Truth?

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher in the 19^th-century. He was famous for his critical writings about religion, morality, culture, philosophy and many more. After reading one of his particular pieces, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, I thought that it was one of the hardest pieces of literature that I have ever read. I then broke it down and found out what the message was that he was trying to portray.  Nietzsche was trying to understand the development of moral, cultural and social facts then break it down from the aspect of truth. Nietzsche altercates that truth “is the highest and most perfect being imaginable: ‘ we men of knowledge of today, we godless men and antimetaphysicians, we too, still derives our flame from the fire ignited by a faith millennia old, the Christian faith, which was also Plato’s, that God is truth, the truth is divine’ (Nietzsche: Gay Science 344)”. He also states that there is a connection between the truth and God: “Philosophers have bought into a religious ideal which has caused them to develop a blind reference for truth, making truth their god” (Nietzsche: Genealogy of Morals, 3, 25). Truth is not easy to explain. It can be looked at from a reality, actuality or faith point of view. I am going to focus on the religious point of view because that is what Nietzsche concentrated on.