Theses on the philosophy of history.

The passage that I chose is Benjamin third thesis."The third thesis reflects his concern arguing that historians should not distinguish between major and minor events. Injustice is revealed by looking at the minor events of people who you have never heard of. This also suggests that awareness of these things are obscured or concealed by something else, the major events: the official histories of kingdoms and nations." He is trying to argue that people always remember major event while overlooking the minor ones. I choose this passage because it relates to everyone, we all remember a major event in the country for example, the 9/11 was a bad memorable day in the US history, but is it the only memorable day in individual life? We celebrates the July 4th every year, but do we remember the day that we turned eighteen, that we gain our own independent? I think the major event will  always take priority over the minor event in every country or most household.

The work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

The passage that I choose is " Benjamin was likely influenced by the "theory of relativity" developed by Albert Einstein also in the early 20th century, which states among other things that space and time are relative to the perspective of the viewer (later scientists even dispute the notion of time at all). As it relates to integrated experience, Benjamin believed that the experience of time would change as well, what he called Jetztzeit, time "charged with the presence of now," a theological concept where the experience of times passing slows and a sense of the "everlasting present" takes hold. Again not to overemphasize the connection but Einstein once summarized his theory of relativity by pointing out the different experiences of time when you are doing pleasurable or painful activities, like talking to a beautiful woman or sitting on a hot stove, time spent doing something pleasurable like talking to someone you are attracted to will seem to pass by fast even if a lot of time has gone by while sitting on a stove for ten minutes will feel like an hour, as he says. The important point is that the Kantian idea of how time is experienced in a standard, uniform kind of way is challenged by both science and philosophy." He was talking about how people spent their time in relative to the activity that they were doing, if you are doing something that you love, the time seem that it moves faster and that it is not enough; but if you are stuck doing what you hate, for few minutes, you will feel like it is forever. I like this passage because it relates to everybody , if you are watching your favorite game or making love, the time moves so fast that you wish it can stay still for a while, but if you are in pain for few minutes, you feel like its going to last forever.


1) The difference between the cult value and exhibition value in art is that, the cult value refers to its status in magic and rituals, while exhibition value refers to the content or the information contained within the piece. Benjamin compare these values to fascism in politics.

2)Erfahrung which is integrated experience occurs by understanding the historical origins of objects that you come into contact with while Erlebnisse which is isolated experience suggest the opposite - objects are encountered in isolation and usually seem as hostile.  The difference is that the Erfahrung establishes a continuity or connection between experiences while Erlebnisse sees no connection between one experience and another. 
It relates to art because the detachment of objects from their historical context, which mechanical reproduction makes possible , risk cutting vital connection to history that makes integrated experience possible. 

3) Some of the positive effect of the destruction of the aura in art are;
     - It permits the reproduction  to meet beholder/listener in his own particular situation.  It  allows the reproduction of the art according to the need of a particular person.
     -It creates mass reproduction of the art to the public with easy access.
     -It allow people to see the universal equality of things. If they can have access to the same art in America, there is no need for them to travel far away  to the origin of the art to get the same thing.  
  Some of the negative effect of the destruction of the aura in art are;
   - The reproduction lacks unique existence.
   - The auratic quality diminishes or destroy. 


4) The impact of forms of mass culture like film in contemporary life take a huge part/toll in the people life especially the children. They learn about sex, violent, murderer, politics etc. The film that entertain  or pass across good information information or message to the children are few compare to the ones that pass across wrong information.
 Yes, they change human perception from culture/traditional way of life to modernize and technological way.
 Yes, few of them creates political consciousness in the public as a TV show.

ON PAIN

The passage that I choose from the essay ON Pain by Junger is "As a rule one will not have to go far to uncover the pain. Indeed, even the individual is not fully free from pain in this joyful state of security. The artificial check on the elementary forces might be able to prevent violent clashes and to ward off shadows, but it cannot stop the dispersed light with which pain permeates life. The vessel, sealed off from pain’s full flow, is filled drop by drop. Boredom is nothing other than the dissolution of pain in time (p. 13)." He is talking about how a country is full of security such as the army force or police force to prevent the citizen from violent attacks or terrorism, but still everybody has there own share of pain or sorrows to carry around. I choose this passage because it relates to what is going on everywhere, for example in this country after the 9/11 attacked, the States tighten their security to protect us from another terrorist attack, but does that reduce or eliminate individual pain? Things happen to people, it could be physical, health or emotional pain, we all still pass through this pain at one time or the other in our life, it is how we deal with it that matters.

1) According to Junger's thesis that pain is the central experience of life, I agree with him, most people learn through personal or other peoples bad experience. And, there is no experience that is good experience. When you had bad experience it usually attached to emotional pain. I look around me to see how many people achieved their goal in an easy way, none so far, because life is not fair to anybody which leads to emotional pain.

2) Post-liberal refer to the progress after the World War II, it is the transformation of liberal education into specialize education, and also the rapid introduction of technology into all areas of human life and its penetration into humanity. It relates to the idea of progress by translating human thought or ideal into machinery or technology which increases the efficiency of work.

3)According to Junger, the photograph is an "evil eye" because it is an artificial eye or lens that magnifies your mistakes or perfections to the world  to see through pictures.   


4) The relationship between the specialize education and the "worker type" was that they were both had an area of specialization. There was no restriction on the type of knowledge or education for students, therefore they would be able to specialized in their are of study and the worker type were working  according to their specialized field. 


5)Submission to totalitarian authorities protect an individual from pain by following the order given to them by their governments according to Junger,  but I do not agree with that theory, because it cannot protect you from emotional pain.

NAZISM

The scene that I choose is the Night and Fog part 3, in 1942, at the camp Himmler pays a visit telling the Nazis that they must destroy , but productively, and leaving the production aspect to the technician.  He was talking about how to commit mass murderer of the Jews and what they going to do with their bodies. They build gas chamber to execute the inmate especially the new arrival . They were were striped, took their pictures before their mass killing by using zyklon gas. Some were burned by piling their bodies on top of each other, some bodies were cremated. They sell everything they get from them including using their flesh for soap, the female hair were sold for 15pfennigs a kilo for making clothes and the bones were used for fertilizer. And some were used as laboratory specimen. Casualties were  about nine million people. I choose the part because it was inhumane what the Nazis did to the Jews and at the end all of the officer and the kapos were claiming innocent. Some of the kapos were able to get away from justice. I hope this kind of history never repeat itself.

1) Some of the major reason that lead to the rise of Nazis Germany were; the Great Depression that  hit     Worldwide as result of the crash of the stock market in America leading to severe economic disaster  in      Germany; and  the Reichstag was set on fire on a pretext of a terrorist attack, which led to the creation of  Reichstag Fire Decrees and the enabling Act which grants Hitler government full dictatorial powers.

2) The Nazis were able to resolve conflicts between the workers and owner by controlling the prices and wages of products and workers; also the independent unions were destroy in favor of a Nazi controlled national union, the German Labor Front.

3) The significance of the phrase "Arbeit Macht Frei"  which means work makes one free, is for the Jews who were used as slave laborer to make them believe that if they work with all their heart they may be free.

4) State capitalism is when the state exercise control by its ability to control financing and credit, prices of raw material, and the wages paid to workers, as well as setting production goals for corporations to follow. It relates to the Nazi German because they were able to control all the corporation's products, prices and wages  in their country and within the country that were taken over by them.

5) I can evaluate the psychological causes of antisemitism in the context of German Society as a way that the German see the Jews as a  torn that they cannot wait to get off their feet.because they holds high position in banks, government, universities and society. Though they want to get them off their back but they do not anticipate the genocide that came along with the acceptance of the Nazis regime.

POLITICA AS A VOCATION

Max Weber speech is interesting on how politics was performed in twentieth century which is still  occurs today. There would always be people hungry for power with a pretends that they want to serve their country. As soon as they resume the office, their mission will be to maintain their power by following their predecessors steps in the name of national security. and let the civil servants or lower level officer performs their dirty work. And we would be the one voting for them by believing their lies over and over the time. The citizens will be coarse in doing their will as soon as they resume power. It is either you do it or face the consequences.

The passage that I choose from "Politics as Vocation" from Max Weber is,

"Weber contends that civil servants and political leaders have two different conceptions of honor which means they have different concepts of success and prestige in carrying out their duties:

The honor of the civil servant is vested in his ability to execute conscientiously the order of the superior authorities, exactly as if the order agreed with his own conviction. This holds even if the order appears wrong to him and if, despite the civil servant’s remonstrances, the authority insists on the order. Without this moral discipline and self-denial, in the highest sense, the whole apparatus would fall to pieces. The honor of the political leader, of the leading statesman, however, lies precisely in an exclusive personal responsibility for what he does, a responsibility he cannot and must not reject or transfer. It is in the nature of officials of high moral standing to be poor politicians, and above all, in the political sense of the word, to be irresponsible politicians (p. 95)."
The civil servants are force to follow the books that has been written down for them by the politician like their Bible or book of worship, or be released of their duties or face civil court for not performing their duties well and indirectly the politician will take the responsibility of the action of the civil servant. I like this passage because it relates to what is going on in the world, for example, the IRS take our taxes and the government have to take responsibility for it. Also the police department with their "stop and frisk" rules, though they overdo it sometimes but it still goes back to the government responsibility. The ACS (child protective services) will take someone else kid in the name of the government. There are lot of injustice passing down to the citizens through the civil servants in the name of  the government and we have to abide by it or be forced to do it.