Final blog post-definition of protest

After being in this class, my definition of protest has extended its boundaries. I still believe that protest is a human beings desire to enact change in the world, however now I believe there are more devices of protest than I previously thought existed. Protest can come in many forms and fashions. Viewing the "Critical Mass" video made me realize that even if someone is not intentionally trying to protest, a progressive change in the world can still occur when people are working together. After being in this class, I realized that protest can spawn from anyone, with any motive as serious as that of self immolating oneself to advocate peace or as silly as running around in gorilla masks to raise awareness of sexism in hollywood. After covering a broad array of protests in the world, I feel that proest encompasses many more peoples lives than previously. Effective protests can be very impromptu or can be highly planned out. However, it seems that those who are more active about making a change are the ones to plan out a more innovative way to display their protests. The best protests are the ones that reach the most amount of people, in my opinion. I realized this after viewing Michael Moore's film, as he reached a majority of the US population and brought awareness concerning the Bush Administration by making his documentary film. All in all I am much more educated in the devices of protests as a result of this class.

This is a protest song because...

The protest song I am choosing to example is "Wake Up" by Rage Against the Machine. This song was released on their self-titled debut album and has gained much attention for its political agenda. The song is basically a wake up call to those listening to question and analyze the current administration in the United States, specifically racism in the government and the lack of ability of the counter-intelligence programs of the FBI. This song is a good example of protest, because like most Rage Against the Machine songs, it is a very intense, loud, angry song which calls for the listener to get enraged at the current situation and stand up and do something. It is an activation song, specifically calling people out to join their cause and spread awareness. During live performances, the band will play this song and take a break in the middle where the lead singer Zach de la Rocha will very dramatically and intensely recite a monologue pertinent to any current issue at hand. I believe this song does a great job of matching its message with the tone of the instrumentation. It gets people actively engaged in their music and as a result their intended message.

With friends like these--the rhetoric of Ann Coulter and Michael Moore

I don't really know if there is a formal entity that can disambiguate "protesters" from "non-protesters", but if it comes down to it, I guess Michael Moore and Ann Coulter are protesters. They both raise questions to the leaders of society and try to uncover truth where they believe it is hidden. In Moore's documentary films, he leads the viewer through his map reasoning of how everything seems to be connected to each other. He does a good job of persuading the audience to believing his points and conclusions. Coulter does her job by creating witty remarks and personal attacks to the replies of the person she is arguing. I feel as if both of these people, however, concentrate too heavily on trying to make their opponents look bad, as if that is their primary objective. Using this tactic is what I believe has given them their popularity. I think that by debating things in this manner, it attracts more attention for the average viewer and makes the issue seem more interesting as a consequence of making it more dramatic. That is why I believe that Michael Moore and Ann Coulter still have jobs today.

Fallacies and Ann Coulter

It seems that every clip I've ever seen of Ann Coulter, she is more concerned with winning the current argument at hand rather than dissecting the issue to which she is supposed to be concerned. It seems her personal appearance and public persona is more important to her than intellect. She constantly presents the points of her arguments in a manner of rebuttal to the person she is arguing. She seems to bend the truth of others by taking things out of context and using them to make her own points valid. She misconstrues the words of others for her own benefit. I feel as if she didn't have anyone to argue with, she would not have anything to say, because most of her credibility comes from her ability to make witty replies and personal attacks to the person she is arguing. Although she is quite effective employing this tactic, it is an unethical way to approach the dissection of an issue. In my opinion, I believe that Ann Coulter should be unemployed.

Point-of-view and subject matter

That was scary. This was my first thought after viewing Jesus Camp. I was astounded at the pressures placed on young children by their parents about religion. The entire thing just didn't sit well with me. I have sympathy for the brainwashed kids knowing that because they are taught this way of life at such an early age, it will be ingrained in their minds forever, and is very difficult to separate. I was raised Catholic, and was required to go to church every Sunday, go to Sunday school all throughout childhood and adolescence, and the whole nine yards. Seeing these kids in Jesus Camp, I could partially relate to their experience.
The movie portrays its subjects in a negative light, in my opinion, but that is because I did not agree with the way of life that the subjects were leading. However, a person of the same religious background as the subjects in Jesus Camp would think that they are portrayed in a positive light. That is what frightens me. I can only anticipate what crazy shit the second half of the movie will have.

My Writing Process

I never liked the traditional writing process when it was taught to us in school. I understand that papers need to be planned out, and that all the steps were logical in creating a polished paper, I just felt like it was too much. For me, the bulk of my writing process occurs before I ever put pen against paper. Once I read the prompt, or get the assignment, I'll start gathering ideas in my head until the time comes for me to finally write them out. Normally, when I write a paper the process is quite fast, because I know more or less what I want to say before I start writing. The hardest part for me is always the first line, because that dictates where the rest of the paper will lead, and also dictates to the reader what the rest of the paper will be like from the beginning. I like to listen to music when I write, or when I'm doing anything in general. I know that this probably isn't the best way to go about writing papers, but I always stick to the rule "if you wait until the last minute it only takes a minute." I find that when I only give myself time right before the due date, I get extremely focused and can get all of my ideas out of my head in a relatively short amount of time.

Appearance Affects Protest

For Mike and Andy of the Yes-Men, their appearance is used only to deceive those around them into believing their fake identity, in order to actively criticize and demonstrate to the public the incompetence of specific organizations. Initially, they try to fit into whatever their setting is in order to gain the confidence of those around them. To do so, they normally have to dress in expensive looking business suits. However, once the confidence of their audience is gained in their setting, they change their appearance to poke fun at something or call out an inconsistency-as was exampled in the conference they attended pretending to be a member of the WTO prancing around in a giant golden spandex penis suit.
Punk rock culture, on the other hand, uses their appearance for no other reason than to look different. Just because they have the right to wear whatever they want, apparently they like to exercise it. They have no specific target to implement their protest against, other than the overbearing "man". Some punk rockers do actually have a cause and are sending a message of awareness through their music, and their appearance and attitude reflect their lifestyle, which is justifiable. However, much of the recent punk rock bands to come out in the 90's and 21st century reflect appearances that are created by using punk rock as a norm to dress, rather than dressing in whatever way expresses their individualism.
Punk fashion does not count as a protest. They should focus more upon the message that their music is sending rather than the appearance contorted with their genre. That is all.