In response to my first blog post

I still agree with some aspects of my first blog. Mainly, that protests should be attention grabbing to get their issue across. I could take back that a protest can be small and still be effective. It is possible, but there are very few examples to provide as evidence for that. I can provide evidence against it, Malachi Ritscher’s protest was very small, just himself. Even though he committed suicide to prove his point, which you would think would be very attention grabbing, it really only grabbed negative attention. Some say, he could have done a lot more if he had stayed alive and watched things change. What I would also like to mention now is that a protest does not have to be simply a march or demonstration. They can be songs or art. Anything, really, that makes a point, and is trying to get an issue across, would be considered a protest. It is certainly more effective, if it is large in number, attention grabbing, and already has a lot of believers. And also, the protest doesn’t actually have to involve people, as much as just one person. It only takes one person to hold a sign, write a song, or paint something inspirational.

Protest Songs

For the best protest song I could find, I of course picked one from my favorite band Death Cab for Cutie, I picked their song “President of What?” In my opinion this song makes an enormous statement against President Bush and the war. Quotes from it such as “Because beautiful boys gave chase and when they arch your backbone it’s such a dreadful sight. Something’s got to break you down…” This quote is explaining how President Bush sent young boys off to the war who were proud to serve their country and that when they do what they are told and die, it is a dreadful sight. It also in a way describes how the war turned beautiful boys into killing machines. Another quote that makes it a protest song is “you drove straight through and mined that quarry for all it could bleed ‘til dry…” This quote is explaining how Bush sent the troops to drive straight through Iraq and bomb it until the entire enemy was gone. Protest songs are very effective in my opinion. They are a form of art and therefore more appealing to the public. People listen to music more often than they get involved in a demonstration. So, a protest in the form of a song is more likely to be taken seriously than an unknown march. Especially, coming from a famous musician or group.

The rhetoric of Ann Coulter and Michael Moore

Lately in class we have been looking at Ann Coulter and Michael Moore. In essence these two are complete opposites. Ann Coulter being a stubborn conservative and Michael Moore a stubborn liberal. They are most definitely protesting. Ann Coulter protests liberals and their beliefs systems; she doesn’t have a very good way of going about it, but that is what she is doing. Michael Moore protests the Bush administration and the real reason why we went to war with Iraq. Ann Coulter uses personal attacks to protest while Michael Moore provides some sketchy evidence in documentaries to support his feelings about Bush. They are popular because of the tactics they use to get people interested. Ann Coulter uses attacking humor, conservative witticisms, and just plain mocking. While, Michael Moore uses emotional clips, humor in pointing out Bush’s flaws, and the raw truth to get his point across. Moore definitely uses more pathos and logos than Coulter. I would say Coulter uses her own ethos to write her protests rhetorically. The conclusions you can draw from their popularity is either for entertainment purposes or people who identify with their political parties are buying their argument. So their popularity is based on entertainment or partisan identification.

Ann Coulter

From first impression, I find Ann Coulter very defensive and rude. She uses an attacking tone to illustrate her points and argument. Even when Al Franken proved point blank that she was in fact lying in her book; she blatantly denied it. And then she tried to explain what she meant and to justify it, but she did no such thing. All she seems to do is attack others with no good reason. Elizabeth Edwards was completely right in calling her, and Coulter was right in saying that she should just stop writing then because all of her books or blogs are personal attacks. I do not find her arguments persuasive at all. She is simply attacking and arguing in an unfriendly way. Perhaps, if she was presenting her points in a friendlier way, I might have been able to identify with her. But, me being a liberal, completely makes that impossible. She is attacking all liberals or anyone who is not a conservative. The people who will find her arguments persuasive are the conservative population. She says she does not like hate speech; well that is hypocritical of her. She is all about hate speech just from these clips. As for fallacies, the majority of Coulter’s writing are fallacies. Al Franken said he found one of many lies. Also, her books are full of her own beliefs which are also fallacies. Ann Coulter just broadcasts a very unlikeable personality on her own part, and results in many not liking her.

Viral videos and Jesus Camp

This week class has been quite interesting, not that it isn’t always. But I really enjoyed the videos we watched on Monday. I am a huge Obama supporter so I loved the Will-I-Am video. It just evoked so much passion for his causes that it reaches out to people who maybe do not even support him. And as for George Allen, well he wasn’t portrayed very well, and I cannot see a reason for defending him in anyway. I think there was substantiate proof that he meant what he said and was fully aware. Now turning to the video we just watched in class today. It seems that Jesus Camp argues that its subjects are the key generation involved in making Jesus come back. It is also obvious that they are trying to train them into being “soldiers of God” to fight the war against the government and non-Christians. It portrays them in a positive and negative light simultaneously. It is positive in the way that the kids are so actively involved in their religion and that is a good thing. But it can be seen as negative to take it so far. It is a lot of pressure for children, especially when many of them cry at every session. These ministers argue that they are teaching these children to seek God and Jesus and to fight for them. My reaction to this movie was utter shock. I am a Christian, but it seems that this camp has really crossed a line. Prayer is not allowed in schools because it offends other children who are not Christians. Not everyone is a Christian nor will they ever be. The Jesus Camp ministers need to realize this and leave some pressure off of these children. It is scary to think of how the children might turn out. Will they rebel later in life? Or will they pursue this “war for God” and continue to train their children? It is all just very confusing.

My writing process

Before I started my paper I definitely thought about the critiques made on my two page paper and tried to apply them to this first major paper. First, I searched on the internet for a few interesting protests. Once I decided on the Iranian women, then I searched for credible articles on the actual protest. Then I went on to my introduction and summarizing their points of view. I didn’t really write an outline, I just somewhat free-wrote for a while. I started the paper a week earlier to give myself enough time to prepare. This definitely helped in the whole process. The easiest parts of the paper for me are the introduction and conclusion. For some reason, I always get writer’s block when trying to put together the body paragraphs. The paragraphs have to flow smoothly with good content and very few grammatical errors. I definitely always like to write in a quiet environment. I do love music, but it would distract me from the task at hand. I also do need a clear surface to write because it makes it easier to think, if that makes sense. Clutter around me equals clutter in my mind. That is my writing process in a nut shell.

The Yes Men and the Punk Culture

The Yes Men and the Punk Rock culture both had very different ways of protesting through their appearance. The Yes Men had more of a silly approach to their appearance to poke fun at the WTO. The punk rock culture went with a more grunge, don’t care what I look like style to protest authority and societal norms. Both of these “styles” do relate to the groups’ values of what they are actually standing for. The punks are saying, I don’t have to look a certain way to be a good person, or a good member of society, and their style also says I cannot be ordered around. Whereas, the Yes Men’s appearance was a ridiculous suit to point out the flaws of the WTO. Andy and Mike create a relatable ethos. For example, their comedic way of showing their values makes them easier to listen to or to establish the same beliefs. The Punk culture conveys a totally different kind of ethos. They give off an untouchable attitude. Almost like, if you don’t believe what I believe then you cannot associate with me. But, yes I would categorize the punk clothing at the very beginning of the culture as a protest. As punk became more mainstream, the protest aspect of it died along with the real image.

PETA and the Guerrilla Girls

PETA and the Guerrilla girls, in my opinion reach everyone through bumper stickers, the internet, and billboards. All kinds of people see bumper stickers and billboards on a daily basis. Not everyone sees the internet. PETA is a bit more extreme than the Guerrilla girls. I can identify with some of PETA’s points such as abusing animals or causing them pain for no good reason, and I can also see not wearing fur. But not eating meat, is a bit extreme. To agree with the group, you basically believe that animals are equal to humans; that they should have equal rights. That is a little ridiculous. Now, the Guerilla girls are something quite different. The aspects of their campaign that stand out to me are the strength of their messages. It may be a humorous billboard, but it means so much more than that. The most effective part about it is how they reach everyone, everywhere. The internet reaches the world. They where the masks so people will focus more on than issues rather than who is presenting them, which makes sense. Feminism seems to be their main reason for this group. They are hard core feminists who want more credit to go to female artists. In a nut shell. I guess I agree.

Critical Mass

Critical Mass seems to be about social and political activism. Instead sitting in your car alone on the way home, why not interact with people and have fun? And then it can also be seen from an environmental standpoint, they aren’t using any oil or gas. But I think the main point is social interaction and fun, a new way to travel home from work. That seems to be their centralized purpose, they are not there to terrorize people in their cars or stop traffic. Their tactics do in fact match their purpose, it is just a bunch of people talking and enjoying their ride. As a bystander, I would support them, I think it is great what they were doing. I am not too sure if I would partake in it myself because of safety issues, but I think what they were trying to do was great. Some of their tactics were also quite funny, like the signs they wrote for people who honked at them “Honk if you love bicycles!” I thought that was really catching and funny to wave that sign at the people who are annoyed at them being in their way. It is a great thing in itself and a shame that it had to end.

Ethos

Ethos definitely plays an important role in the way you perceive someone’s speech or protest. They have to have a certain credibility or maybe a likeable persona. The ethos of the freedom marchers in the segment from the packet was very good because no matter what they never gave up. It just makes them more likeable, to be so perseverant; also they stood united for one cause they all believed in, which also gives a good ethos. Cindy Sheehan’s protest has a certain kind of ethos; she is trustworthy in her protest against the war, because her son died. It definitely persuades you to believe her more. I actually find her protest most persuasive because of the fact that she has a right to be against the war because her son died. Well, she has that right either way. Although, Malachi Ritscher’s protest was quite surprising, and disturbing. The ethos of his protest confuses me, I am not sure to say whether it is good or bad. But I know that belief was important enough for him to die for, so it must be important. The kind of ethos I find appealing is good knowledge and credibility of the issue, but also a trustworthiness or a good reason of importance to that issue. I support the anti-war groups for their message, and because I agree that there should be no more deaths because of the Iraq War. It is a tragedy that it is still going on. The ethos the anti-war groups provide is one of peace and non-violence. That’s why I support them.

Ethos, Pathos, & Logos

In, Fannie Lou Hamer’s speech, she presents a lot of ethos and pathos. Her ethos combines the way she presents herself right at the beginning of the speech, stating her address and exactly why she is there. And also the fact that all of her speech is a first person eye-witness account. Which definitely contributes to her ethos. Her speech also contains quite a bit of pathos when she vividly describes when she was beaten. It causes the reader or the listener to picture the action, and to feel sympathy for Fannie. Stokely Carmichael’s speech is almost the complete opposite. His speech is more hostile and determined. His ethos is almost more negative because of the way he presents it, almost shouting. But then his pathos is better because he cracks a lot of jokes so it appeals to people’s humor and makes them listen to the speech more. His speech was almost a form of entertainment. The most dominant form of the three appeals, I would have to say would be pathos. Pathos has more of a broad definition than the other two. It can be anything that appeals to emotions, which really can be anything: a picture, text, videos, just about anything.

My beliefs

I believe in unrequited love. I believe in living life to the fullest. I believe in dancing till the sun comes up. I believe in reality and fantasy. I believe in honesty no matter what. I believe in eating healthy but having a slice of pizza or french fries once in a while. I believe in sleeping all day. I believe that all of our troops should come home immediately before more die. I believe everyone deserves a second chance. I believe music can cure the soul. I believe Ben Gibbard is the best. I believe in cuddling on the couch with my mom when I am sad. I believe in God and Jesus and always will. I believe people should have the right to worship or not to worship whomever they want. I believe it is the woman’s choice. I believe that people should be able to marry whomever they want no matter the gender. I believe Obama should be the next president. I believe in writing when you just can’t seem to tell anyone what you are feeling. I believe in watching the sun come up, talking on the phone all night, and ballets in New York City one day. I believe in crackerjacks at a baseball game and that the Red Sox are the best at it.

Protest

Protests seem to be an important part of political issues. They either get the issue addressed, changed, or maybe even passed as a law. Protests happen because someone doesn't like something and isn't just going to sit around and let it happen; they are going to let everyone know in a way of their choosing. To be considered a protest, the action needs to be informative and involving people somehow. A protest can sometimes be very small, but it will definitely get more attention with a great number of a people. Although, it can sometimes make a big impact with only one person. Such as the monk who burned himself while protesting Vietnam; no one will ever forget that picture. So the size really doesn’t matter, it is issue at hand or the action that is used to get attention. The protest itself does not have to be big to be successful, but the action of the protest or the issue itself should be attention grabbing. There could be no results from a protest, but hopefully it would have changed society for the better. Well actually there are always results, at least the protestors enlightened some people of their opinions of the issue.