The Storming of Juno

Click to link to the interactive website on the storming of Juno Beach.

Turning Hitler into a god or a devil?

LENI RIEFENSTAHL was a popular German movie star whose prominence also allowed her to have influence with Adolf Hitler. Hitler saw her as the ideal German woman and asked her to direct a movie about him.

 

Walt Disney also got involved in using movies for the purposes of propaganda.

Conspiracy

What is a conspiracy?

How do conspiracies work? Typically agents of power (government/business) hide certain reasons or actions that would make their activities unacceptable to the general public if they were revealed for what they really were. One example of this is the the way that corporations exercise control over government legislation.

Here is one example that might affect the way we think about food.

What are chicken nuggets made out of? Watch this video here
Are chicken nuggets a conspiracy? Not really. Most of us know instinctively that much like hot dogs are made of leftover bit of animal so too chicken nuggets are made of nasty bits of chicken. Of course we conveniently forget this fact when we are standing at the counter of McDs.
But what about the idea of how we make choices about what food is healthy or not healthy.

It seems that the food that is the healthiest for us is not only the most expensive but also the food that will spoil the quickest (and its all found on the perimeter of the your local grocery store). Is your grocery store conspiring to make you choose unhealthy food over more nutritious food? Good question. Is it any wonder that cases of obesity are much higher in poorer families than in richer families?
But it gets worse. Many food companies get really upset when we change the rules about how we think about food. Take the latest ideas suggested by Michelle Obama (2010) to reduce salt, and increase vegetables in school cafeteria lunches. Frozen pizza makers like McCain's got real nervous when schools started talking about removing their products and replacing them with healthier choices. So...
watch this
Here is how the system works...

A company like McCain's lobbies government representatives so that they change the classification of pizza to a vegetable. That way cafeterias can still meet their daily requirement of vegetables and they can do with pizza which students will pound down like...   ...well...   ...pizza.
So is this a conspiracy? Well, since the connection between corporations and government is largely done behind closed doors - you certainly could build a strong case that this is a conspiracy.
Changing the way we think about food and implementing laws about that is something we should ask questions about. Is it true that these companies are trying to make us unhealthy? No. They are trying to make a profit.
So what happens when profit becomes the motivating factor in making government decisions. Could it be that the idea to go to war might be motivated by profit even more than by the reasons we are usually given?
That is the whole point of the documentary called "Why We Fight"
Here is the connection that this film is making...

Military equipment is an industry. Large corporations run these industries. They make weapons for countries and sell them for a profit. Once a country figures it has enough bombs and guns and fighter jets it stops buying that stuff from this industry. Now the industry has a problem. It can't sell anymore of its products. So it needs to create a demand for its products. How does it do this? By suggesting to the government that it should use up some of these weapons in some sort of military action. In fact it uses the same methods of lobbying that the food companies use to convince politicians that the idea to go to war is a good one.
After watching the documentary, respond to the following questions:
What is the military industrial complex and how does it work?
What were the reasons to go into Iraq given by the government?
What other hidden reasons might have motivated the government to go to war in Iraq?
Why do Americans fight?
What is the connection between profit and foreign policy?
Is there a conspiracy in this situation?

Crisis and Ultranationalism: Three WW2 Case Studies

In this course we look at four major factors athat contribute to the rise of ultranationalism:
1. Crisis
2. Expansionist National Interests
     -the belief that expanding the territory of the country could benefit the country to make it eceonomically, ethnically, socially, or politcally more secure.
3. Charismatic Leadership
4. Instilling Ultranationalist Values and Beliefs (using propaganda)
This post will focus on the issue of Crisis and how it leads to ultranationalism
We will focus on three aspect of crisis that contribute to ultranationalistic sentiments

Based on what was discussed in class - can you identify the general crisis that the world was facing in each of these areas?

How did the Great Depression contribute to global crisis? Both national and international crisis contributed to the rise of ultranationalist sentiments in each of the following countries.
Japan

Italy

Germany

Germany's situation was arguably the worst of the three since on top of similar issues the other countries were facing Germany was also trying to pay off the War Debt it was saddled with after WW1 through the Treaty of Versailles.

In each of these three cases the first action that they each made was to expand their territory. This they believed was in their national interests.

and

What was the worlds response?
Appeasement

so Germany is essentially allowed to invade various surrounding areas until it starts looking ever so greedily at Poland

P-p-p-p-passion

How do we know how much passion and emotion is appropriate? Is there ever a time when emotional expression can go too far? What about the other way: is there a danger in not being passionate enough?
Listen to the following debate on the role of anger in our society then answer the BIG question listed below the video in this post...
 
Answer this question in a short paragraph:
Which is worse too much passion or too little passion?

Logical Fallacies

Here are three videos that identitfy some of the important logical fallacies commonly used erroneously used in debate strategies...

The Real Football Factories

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3_Pnk7rC4U Glascow Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Q636h2i18 The Balkans Part 1

Contending Loyalties

After reading the Quebec Separatist notes and pages 77-79 in your text complete the following survey...

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

if the survey does not appear in this post click the link below to start a stand alone version... Click here to open a stand alone version of the survey

National Anthem Idol

How does music evoke a sense of nationalism.
Here is a link to a few national anthems - rank them according to the criteria you come up with in class.
Russian: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A71wdsTqkfM&feature=related
Brazil: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuML6DJlBNs
Israel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjfFpFW9OdA

Nicaragua: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0aDAX-btLg
Japan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkgo5uvMFR8
France: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GubbhQuHISY
Australia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stL6EBxeJGM

Poland: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUvTup0YqLk
India: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3t1Qe7WiUw&feature=related

South Africa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pVfhd1tLdU
United States: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdP1CQEboIo
Canada: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTOm7gofXnQ

Hegemony: How are we being controlled?

This video suggests our actions are being monitored in ways that we may not be aware of. But are there other more subtle ways that the culture and civic institutions dictate our behaviour? In what ways are our actions being regulated so that we conform to what is considered 'acceptable' behaviour? Hegemony is a term that is used to identify ways that society is comes together to behave in a singular way. The fact that English and French are the dominant languagesof our nation means that court proceedings are not conducted in Mandarin or Polish. If someone of Polish or Chinese background cannot master the English language, is it possible that they might not fare as well in their case? Hegemony is way more sneaky and subtle. Think of the fact that we all stop at a stop light even when no one else is at the intersection at midnight. That's hegemony.
Hegemony are the ways cultural behaviour is controlled often without us even realizing that we are being controlled.

Collective consciousness

Collective consciousness was a term coined by the French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) to refer to the shared beliefs and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society.

An awareness or ideas SHARED by many people. It may be based on a SHARED memory of and pride in specific events, which become myths and symbols of belonging.

Durkheim was interested in explaining the factors that contributed to a groups collective identity. He looked for shared experiences, practices, and ideas that helped solidify a group so that they could act as a single body or unit. Collective consciousness is a stronger concept than just know about the same things - it addresses the way shared experiences motivate people to behave  in the same or similar ways to all the rest of the people in the same group that they belong to...

American eh?

So you really think you're Canadian eh? Prove it! Is there really that much difference between you and your neighbours to the south? Sure you spell neighbours different and your accent might stand out in Texas or Alabama but when it comes down to the important stuff Canadian teenagers are really no different than American teenagers. Right?!?
You watch the same TV programs, drink the same pop (and pretty much the same wobbly pops). You wear the same fashions - maybe only a few months behind your American counterparts. You listen to the same popular musical artists (just check out the top 25 on Itunes or the playlist on your local radio station). You don't know anymore about Trudeau than you do about Reagan. When it comes to food - its all basically the same. Even the sports teams you cheer for are all American - I mean who really cheers for the Leafs...
You think you are really different than Americans but chances are that you know more American presidents and what they did than you know Canadian Primeministers and what they did. You watch the NFL not the CFL. You probably follow the twitter account of popular American musicians, movie stars and celebrities. You care about what happens to the U.S.A more than you do about what happens to Canada. If you follow politics at all you care about who is running for president. You could list the 10 most important dates in American recent history but you might not even get 3 Canadian events.
Basically, Canadian collective consciousness is dead. There is very little that actually makes you feel connected to other Canadians at all.
Think about this...
If the U.S.A were to take over Canada the only things that would really change is that our money would be less colourful, our beer would be slightly less toxic and our speedometers would all read in mph...
So yeah Canadians are basically Americans - right?.

Explaining Canada from the other side of the border

Sing it Baby Sing It!

Talking to Americans