After reading Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau I believe that he does not view America as a democracy. This can be found on page 693 in the text. He reveals that progress has certainly been made, but we can go further and allow the individual to hold the highest power. A denotation of democracy [...]
Entries from January 2008
January 30, 2008
What’s worth it?
Under what circumstances would you break a law for higher principles?
How do you define an unjust law? Any contemporary examples?
January 30, 2008
Thinking Thoreauly
Which specific aspects of our government or culture
today do you think Thoreau would jump at first
to critique? Why?
(cite from his text to prove your point!)
January 30, 2008
Thinking Thoreauly
Where are examples of civil disobedience
in our culture today? Do you find them effective?
Useless? Why so?
How might you defend your claims?
January 30, 2008
Thinking Thoreauly
What quote or phrase do you
think is most relevant for our times?
Why?
January 27, 2008
Resources for Research Topics
Here are a few places to look for ideas:
CivilResistance.org has this massive online bibliography of anything and everything related to civil disobedience.
BeHeard.com is an online bookstore which you could browse for ideas.
AK Press is another distributor of dissent knowledge and a great place to search for topics.
January 24, 2008
does this make sense to you??
What does this picture make you think? It’s 50 Cent, obviously. His eyes are cold and unwelcoming. He’s got a gun in his hand. Look closer.. He has two necklaces on. Both of these are crosses. Is he Methodist? Catholic? Baptist? Do the crosses make it ok that the gun is in his hand? [...]
January 23, 2008
But MAC uses rebel rhetoric too . . .
Let’s throw into this intellectual mix the fact that Mac consistently employs rebellious rhetoric.
Gandhi is one of the most famous non-violent dissenters of all time.
Muhammad Ali filed for conscientious objector status in his protest against the Vietnam War. He’s remembered for his famous line: “No VietCong ever called me a nigger.”
Oh man, my beloved [...]
January 21, 2008
iGotDuped
More provocative rhetoric for y’all:
Here’s a campaign I saw awhile back and was intrigued by; after all, the explosion of iPods seemed so ruthless in its conquest that I must confess I felt inspired by some people taking it on. But the campaign didn’t turn out to be what I thought . . [...]
January 21, 2008
Reverend Billy
Remember how I was saying that rhetoric is highly intertextual? Here’s one great campaign of civil disobedience that’s rich with allusions, mixing and mashing multiple genres and historical traditions. Introducing Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping.
Talk about prime material for rhetorical analysis. What’s being communicated here [...]
January 17, 2008
My repsonse to the “SHOCK DOCTRINE”
In psychology we learned about the shock treatment that was used on people when they suffered from a disorder like schizophrenia or had a phobia of some sort. I see how this applies to society when they are experiencing a crisis and during this time, people are taken by fear. When people are touchy with their [...]
January 17, 2008
Shock Doctrine
We’ll be reading some Naomi Klein next week. Here’s a provocative video that touches on some of her latest work. The video exhibits an interesting visual rhetoric of its own, co-opting and combining stylistics of street art stencils and CIA manuals. Check it out:
Thoughts?
