Sean Dwyer
3/6/17
Week 9
1 “Such logic… she argues finds expression in the post cards whose images shift when tilted in different directions, sometimes switching between white and black figures, “is a monocular logic, a schema by which histories or images that are actually copresent get presented (structurally, ideologically) so that only one of the images can be seen at a time. Such a logic represses connection, allowing whiteness to float free from blackness.” (Tompkins 2012: 176)
2 “Some observers speculated that “within ten years the soybean industry will rival in size and importance the cotton industry in the south” – a bold statement for the time” (Newman 2013: 144)
3 “Ironically, Japan and Germany were two of the earliest international markets for U.S. soybeans and continue to be very important customers.” (Newman 2013: 144)
4 “We have demonstrated to you how many hundreds of years we have survived. We wish to continue to exist.” (Dunbar-Ortiz 2014: 204)
5 “The creation of nation-states and the redrawing of national boundaries that this often entailed inevitably raised the questions of which national, ethnic, religious, and linguistic communities were included and whether their consent or participation would be required. There are peoples and nations without their own states, locked under a state authority that may or may not be willing to respond to their demands for autonomy within the existing state. If the state is not willing, the peoples or nations may choose to insist on independence. That is the work of self-determination.” (Dunbar-Ortiz 2014: 202)
6 “The nations seek control of their social and political institutions without compromising what they consider unique and essential cultural values.” (Dunbar-Ortiz 2014: 202)
7 “The Sioux never wanted the money because the land was never for sale.” Dunbar-Ortiz 2014: 208)
8 “While the codfish card does not precisely draw an analogy between commodity consumption and political enfranchisement, aligning itself instead with recolonization schemes, it nonetheless indicates the ways that commodity capitalism is attached to forms of political power in the period…” (Tompkins 2012: 177)
9 “I think that pleasure is a very difficult behavior. It’s not as simple as that to enjoy one’s self. And I must say that’s my dream. I would like and I hope I die of an overdose of pleasure of any kind. Because I think it’s really difficult and I always have the feeling that I do not feel the pleasure, the complete total pleasure and, for me, it’s related to death. Because I think that the kind of pleasure I would consider as the real pleasure, would be so deep, so intense, so overwhelming that I couldn’t survive it. I would die.” (Hooks 1992: 370)
News: Trump Proposal: Slash Puget Sound cleanup money by 93 percent
A bottle of wine can represent the consuming relationship between two individuals. The quality of wine should improve over time, but if the quantity is slowly consumed then only the date on the bottle is left to reflect the quality that once was. Tara McPherson’s “lenticular logic” of race as described in the first quote explains the representation of two ideas as one in the context of pushing an agenda through the subconscious. The second quote shows the shocking contrast of the unknown duality being realized because it reveals the inherent exploitation behind a one-dimensional presentation of an idea as revealed in the third quote. A theme that has become present in the program is that a person’s overwhelming desire to be happy can be the reason they are so miserable, unless they are able to seek control of their social and political institutions without compromising what they consider unique and essential cultural values as described in the sixth quote and supported in the seventh quote. The fourth quote encapsulates this idea and is elaborated on in the fifth quote. This concept reminds me of C.S. Holling’s The Adaptive Cycle that describes cultural change over time. If an individual fails to recognize how we are released from the late K stage will affect how we reorganize, then the conservation stage will stitch itself to the reorganization stage, preserving the exploitation stage, until the individual becomes defeated by the system and will have no choice (while still operating within the logic of the system) to release their sense of self and be reborn as the force that supports the system, continuing to uphold and invest in the new powerful emotions that are gained from the new coping methods that have kept the broken fragments of an individual’s sense of self together. The perception of Michel Foucault’s concept of the ultimate desire will change based on how you have managed to (feel okay about life) stay within the conservation stage because of every individual approach to satisfying immediate personal need (indirectly maintaining the late k stage) is unique.The true ultimate desire is to find release and reorganize. If we appeal to our personal behavior to support our habits, that supports an increasing emotional need that we propagate through our Lustprinzip (the pleasure principle guiding our id). By appealing to our coping mechanism (behavior over a long period of time) we begin to invest in the release of emotional change itself, removing the capability for honest reflection over an extended period of time. The eighth quote describes the indirect alignment of recolonization themes through the presence of more than one idea being presented as one. An emotionally deprived country seeks release and reorganization, but lacks the knowledge to know there are two principles getting presented as one. This week’s article is an example of Trump provoking an emotional response from a gentrified, wealthy, and politically active area of the country, ultimately encouraging the reorganization and release.
Works Cited
Dunbar-Ortiz, R. (2014). An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States(ReVisioning American history; Revisioning American history). Boston: Beacoess.
Gunderson, L. H., & Holling, C. S. (2002). Panarchy : Understanding transformations in human and natural systems.Washington, DC: Island Press. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=972659
Newman, K. (2013). The secret financial life of food: From commodities markets to supermarkets. New York: Columbia University Press.
STAFF, J. C. (2017, March 4). Trump proposal: Slash Puget Sound cleanup money by 93 percent. Retrieved March 06, 2017, from http://komonews.com/news/local/trump-proposal-slash-puget-sound-cleanup-money-by-93-percent
The article shows that President Trump plans to cut annual EPA funding from 8.24 billion to 6.16 billion in the next fiscal year. One of Trump’s intended changes is the reduction of the Puget Sound’s EPA budget for monitoring and restoration in the wake of a large sewage crisis. The article shows a tactful poke at a privileged area of the United States that has defied his presidency.
Tompkins, K. W. (2012). Racial indigestion : Eating bodies in the nineteenth century(America and the long 19th century; America and the long 19th century). New York: New York University Press.