A brand new perspective... not really

Looking back on my first blog, I actually wouldn’t really change much on my definition of a protest. Not saying I thought my original answer was entirely right, but it is more along the lines that I left it pretty ambiguous to include just about anything. My main definition of a protest was that it went against some sort of establishment ( a belief, law or whatever) that they disagree with. This definitely still holds true but on a much larger scale than I originally thought. Furthermore, I still believe protests can range from an enormous one, like critical mass, to even just one person, such as malachi ritscher. I also still agree that the size of the protest makes a difference. The larger the protest the greater and impact you can have. In the case of Ritscher, him on his own couldn’t really do much.

However, what I didn’t realize was that the variety of protest methods was enormous and that protests exist everywhere. Throughout the year we saw everything from people dressing up in gorilla suits to starving a dog and impregnating themselves and performing a homemade abortion. Also, some other things I never really thought about in regards to protest is how careful you have to be when making your protest. There are so many things to consider regarding how a protest will be run, and how effective it will be. It is surprising how much a protest’s impact can be swayed in numerous directions, based on what you’re wearing, how you say things, or what you are doing. For example, Ann Coulter may have some legitimate arguments, but acting like a bitch to people countering your argument doesn’t quite help.

Overall, again I’d say I still stick with my original assessment. But I do have more respect for people who come up with wacky ideas that make some protests really interesting. If you’re one of those creative types, kudos.

Protest Song

For my protest song I chose WAR by Edwin Starr. In the song he protests War, specifically the Vietnam War, and says how it is good for absolutely nothing. The first thing that comes to mind when I hear this song is either Rush Hour or Boy Meets World. Despite the fact that I didn’t know it was related to the Vietnam War. I think it’s a good protest song because it has lasted all these years and has even been sung by other people, like Bruce Springsteen. It is a very catchy song and makes powerful statements in the lyrics. Also, since it doesn’t specifically reference the Vietnam War it can be used for numerous different protests against war.

I think protest songs can be effective, but it all depends on the cause and the song. I feel that it needs to be catchy so that people will remember it easily. I also think that the song needs to be relatively simple as well. If the lyrics get too complex I feel like the message might get lost in the noise. I know certain pop songs that sound really upbeat actually have some pretty dark lyrics, third eye blind’s semi-charmed life for example. Overall, I think protests are effective in rallying people together around the cause. It is also great for spreading the protest message on a large scale because people all around the world can have access to it.

Coulter and Moore

I would have to say that both Coulter and Moore are protestors. Coulter is a protestor because she argues against liberalism through her books and public appearances. Since I haven’t read any of her books I can’t really speak to how effective she is, but based on her interviews, she doesn’t seem like she can defend her arguments very well and is a pretty crappy protestor. In my opinion, her rhetoric is the kind where she beats you over the head with her ideas and if that doesn’t work she’ll call you stupid. What makes her attractive to audiences is that she is very entertaining. She is very outspoken about her beliefs, some of which can be outrageous. Because of this, even people that don’t agree with her would be willing to buy her books to see what crazy thing she’ll come up with.

Moore is also a protestor. He argues against numerous different topics and has a liberal agenda. His protests occur through his documentaries(movies). What makes him a decent protestor is that his movies are easily accessible. Instead of reading a book all you do have to watch. The American public can easily support him because he puts his arguments in a form of media that can reach many people. This is often extremely effective because people who aren’t very well informed will believe everything in his movies, because his arguments, with the use of music and pictures, can be very persuasive to the untrained eye/ear.

Overall, both and Coulter and Moore are probably a lot more popular than they should be because their rhetoric techniques aren’t very solid. They’ve managed to capture people willing to jump onto any bandwagon that catches their attention.

Ann Coulter...Seriously?

So i had no idea who Ann Coulter was before having to watch these videos. But Wow, watching those video clips was an ordeal. It wasn't so much that I was bothered by her actual arguments, but rather the way she defended them, or rather the way she didn't defend them. Her responses were in an aggressive tone and it reminded me a lot like the guy in middle school who was too slow to come up with a good comeback that they just ended up repeating something, or arguing with a little kid. Some things i noticed was her use of the straw man and personal attack in her hardball interview. EE was calling her out for making personal attacks instead of actually talking about politics. Coulter's response then distorted EE's request to keep it clean and twisted it around to make it sound like EE was trying to get Coulter to stop writing completely. Also in the clip Ann Coulter is losing it, she wouldn't let the guy get a word in edge wise. I guess people can see her as persuasive if they had the same beliefs as her or if they easily believe arguments with little or no evidence. She relies too much on personal attacks to make her points and when defending herself she often begs the question and ends up going in a circle. I don't even recall her answering half the questions she was asked in any of the clips. For someone who is apparently a big whig with a bunch of best sellers, i would have thought she would be able to defend her arguments a little better. Again, i'm not bashing conservative beliefs, im just bashing Ann Coulter for doing an awful job of arguing her points. Just a side note, In a different Youtube clip i saw on the side, Adam Corrola hangs up on Ann Coulter which i thought was hilarious.

Camp Jesus

After watching the first half of the movie I was under the impression that the documentary was making the argument that these evangelicals might be too aggressive. Its great for someone to be really involved in their religions but drawing comparisons to training young kids in the middle east, was to me, a negative connection. I understand that they want their followers to be extremely devoted, but making that comparison almost made it sound like they were a cult with some sort of hidden agenda.

While I’m not sure if they intended to do so, the people who made the movie definitely portrayed the adults and kids in a negative light. Some of the statements they were making only seemed a little bit out there, but they were accompanied by eerie/creepy background music and editing. As a result, I feel like I reacted in a more surprised manner to some of their statements than I would have if no music was present. My overall reaction however, is disinterest. They weren’t doing anything wrong or illegal so I don’t have any problems with that. Whatever floats your boat. As long as they don’t become some sort of militant religious faction that goes crazy, they’re ok with me.

The Writing Process

The first thing I do when writing a paper is to carefully read the prompt a few times so that I know what specific things the paper needs to address. Next I brainstorm and write down examples that I can use in the paper this can take anywhere from half an hour to a day or so. Using these examples I try and come up with a few main points that I can use for my thesis. Coming up with a thesis is usually the hardest part of the writing process for me because without a strong thesis I can’t finish writing the paper. This is because the entire paper hinges off the thesis for me. Without it, I can’t write a proper introduction nor write the body paragraphs because I am not as confident in the arguments I am making. Once I have a thesis I am satisfied with, the rest of the paper isn’t too bad because the introduction can lead into the thesis nicely, and I already have specific examples that I can use in my body paragraphs from when I brainstormed. Finally, after finishing the paper I proofread for grammar mistakes briefly then put the paper aside for a day or so. This helps revision because your ideas aren’t as fresh in your mind and areas where the paper isn’t clear are exposed. The time it takes for me to write a paper usually varies, but I find putting it off till the last minute works alright, because it forces you to finish the paper right away(because you have to).

As for the environment that I write in, it needs to be reasonably quiet and have an outlet for my laptop. I don’t mind listening to music or being in a place with a little noise as long as no one is constantly talking to me. I actually like an environment that has some movement going on because I get too bored sitting in a cubicle or in a place that is absolutely quiet.

Yes Men and Punk

The Yes Men and the punk movement both used their appearances as means of expressing there opinions. In the case of the Yes Men, Andy and Mike use a very professional appearance to convince people that they are in fact representatives of the World Trade Organization. After doing so, they use the ethos they built up using their professional looking website and the beginnings of their presentations, to express their beliefs against the WTO. Using ridiculous outfits, such as the leisure suit, and by presenting ideas that are absolutely ridiculous in a totally serious manner they give the WTO a reputation of putting money over people, a reputation that they claim is entirely truthful. However, other than their presentation in Australia, I didn’t see much evidence that the WTO is the organization they portray it to be. This is definitely understandable in their presentation of the WTO, but I would think the documentary itself would have more evidence. Finally, what is most impressive is how they were able to pull all of this off. All the travelling and time they put into it must have cost a lot of money. Sure they were asked to do this by some organizations but it still is pretty unbelievable.

As for the punk movement, I definitely agree that appearance is a means of expression. However, sometimes it goes a little too far. One example of this is how they mentioned that some punks would wear swastikas for their shock value not as a symbol of their beliefs. I think this is inappropriate, even if it does protest against the societal norms of being proper, which is their goal. However, it does hurt their ethos as people will focus more on thinking that they are anti-Semitic instead of thinking that they are challenging societal norms. Also, as with most trends in fashion, once it gains popularity you end up getting a lot of posers who simply dress like it because they are popular. I think these two things hurt their overall hurt their overall cause, as their message is never really clearly stated or understood.

PETA and GG'S

PETA and the Guerilla girls are two organizations that have entirely different approaches when it comes to attracting attention and recruiting support. PETA’s official website has a very professional layout which helps establish its credibility as a legitimate organization. Furthermore, their FAQ’s section was put together nicely and was assertive, yet not aggressive. Rather than trying to impose their beliefs on other people, their FAQ’s used logic and also took into account the types of beliefs their opponents might have. Furthermore, in their actions portion of their website, they traded radical behavior for support. I definitely liked how they weren’t hostile on their website or in their section about how you can get involved, but some of the connections they tried to make were flimsy at best and pretty ridiculous at worst. Despite this professional outlook, their actual actions spoke otherwise. Some of their ads regarding the march of dimes seemed too extreme and previous PETA acts have been too aggressive.

The Guerilla girls on the other hand took a humorous approach. Their billboards and stickers included some shocking statistics in a funny and flashy manner. I think this helped enormously because it draws attention to their problem to people who wouldn’t care as much if statistics were just thrown at them. Their billboards are extremely effective because they reach out to everyone and are not aggressive. By taking this light-hearted approach, they expand their audience by letting people soak it in, rather than bludgeoning their opponents with their ideology. However, I don’t particularly agree with their gorilla suit idea. It is definitely a great way to draw attention and make people focus on the issue, but at the same time they compromise their credibility by looking goofy.

Critical Mass

When the video first started and the concept of Critical Mass was explained by some of its creators, my first impression was that these people, for some reason, had way too time on their hands. It seemed like one day they said to themselves we should try and get a bunch of bikes on the road, just for kicks, and then see what happens. The only reason I think this is because there are way too many interpretations of what exactly Critical Mass does. One of the most important aspects of it, however, is to bring people together in a fun, safe, and interactive environment. The broadest and most inclusive goal that I picked up from the video is that Critical Mass is just a way to rethink the notion of public space. It was a social experiment that brought people together. Any additional perceptions of Critical Mass are particular to each individual that decides to participate. Personally, if I were to encounter Critical Mass as a bystander, I would not be extremely bothered by it. Sure, it may cause inconvenience for cars and can make people late to important appointments, but it only occurs about once a month and getting stuck in traffic randomly happens more often than that.

While Critical Mass is hard to understand due to its lack of centralization, I believe that it is an undefined protest. By this, I mean that any individual that believes it a protest makes it a protest because they have a notion that their actions are going against something they do not agree with. However, due to a lack of direction, the message of the protest gets lost in noise created by everyone’s unique ideas.

Malachi and Cindy

Malachi Ritscher’s ethos was built mainly by the testimonies of the people that were closest to him. Unfortunately, even these people only knew him at a superficial level. They knew that he was a dedicated man, as seen by his continual appearances on the Chicago indie jazz scene. These accounts however, along with the number of forums and blogs he participated on give us enough evidence to see that he was very firm in his beliefs. Despite this, I do not think that his protest was very successful because had not established his ethos well enough for it to truly affect people.

On the other hand, Cindy Sheehan was directly affected by the war that she was protesting. The fact that her son Casey died in the war, gives her strong connection to her cause. We further see her dedication to the cause as she initiated such large protests such as Camp Casey. By being directly connected to the war and her involvement in numerous protests, people will more readily accept her appeal because she has established herself as an activist that truly cares. What did bother me about Cindy Sheehan is that she was too aggressive when criticizing people that were unable to make her rally. If she acts in this manner, the only people that will support her are those who had already planned on supporting her from the start.

I think that the most persuasive way to establish ethos is for someone to do the research on a subject. If someone can show that they are well informed on a topic they can better attract supporters. For example Cindy Sheehan’s son’s death directly involved her in the debate and made her appeal legitimate. Ritscher, however, suffered no direct injury from his cause, and with his hermit lifestyle, he had no where near enough ethos for people to think his self-immolation was more than a flashy act.

Ethos, Logos, and Pathos

I felt that this week’s readings and video clips portrayed the rhetoric concepts of ethos, pathos, and logos. Despite the clear presence of logos in both speeches, I felt that the success of the speeches relied more on ethos and pathos. For example, despite the fact that Fannie Lou Hamer’s speech was a testimony, which is categorized under logos, I felt that because of people put their trust in her, or in other words her ethos, she was able to win her second time around. In my opinion, the testimony helped more for her ethos than just as a clear cut piece of evidence. Furthermore, while she spoke quite plainly throughout her speech, her conclusion about living in fear in a land that is supposed to be understanding incites the kind of passion and emotion that should jumpstart the audience to taking action.

In the Stokely Carmichael speech, he did use logos such as mentioning Camus and Sartre to indicate that he is well educated. He also used logos successfully to derive his argument. An example of this in Carmichael’s speech is when he says “Anything all black is bad… I’m all black and I’m all good” (48). However, he succeeds so well with his audience because he has built up his ethos by mentioning his involvement with Martin Luther King Jr. and his knowledge of the SNCC. He then successfully uses pathos to become more intimate with his audiences. He tells many jokes that keep the students attention and often paints situations that really resonate with these students, as seen through the numerous pauses for applause. Overall, in both speeches, I believed that ethos and pathos were used extremely well. I think that because the nature of both speeches it makes sense that emotion and trust is used over facts. If the argument was more along the lines of proving someone’s innocence then statistics and logos would be more appropriate.

The video on the other hand, seemed like it served more of an informative purpose. Therefore it only made sense that the fact that the events were filmed, had judge, lawyer, and participant testimonies makes the video chock full of logos. At the same time however, it still did incite passion, which can be seen in the footage of the students at the restaurant getting beat and the white student that participated in a demonstration getting punched from behind.

My Beliefs

I believe in God and that even people that don’t say it, believe in a greater being. I believe that watches are extremely unnecessary. I believe that closed minded people are the worst. I believe that life goes by too fast. I believe that everybody plays the game a little, but what makes us different is how long we are willing to play. I believe that Roger Federer is the best there ever will be. I believe that too many things are left unsaid. I believe everyone is really smart, but most people don’t want to realize their potential. I believe that there is someone out there for everyone. I believe that every “just kidding” has a little truth in it. I believe that Saturday morning cartoons and nickelodeon have gone down the drain. I believe sleep deprivation leads to some pretty crazy revelations. I believe that work is important, but play is essential. I believe that everything will turn out better than you expect it to. I believe that high expectations lead to disappointment, and low expectations lead to great surprises. I believe that being good at guitar hero or rock band doesn’t mean you can actually play a real instrument. I believe you should have a few good friends, but need at least one great friend. I think luck is the result of hard work and preparation and nothing more. I believe Texas highways and roads are the most confusing things I have ever seen. I believe any movie with Tom Hanks is a movie worth watching. I believe that confidence in your abilities can take you as far as you want to go.

What exactly is a protest?

To me, a protest is action taken against an establishment that people find unfavorable. While my definition may sound a little ambiguous, it is because there are numerous types of protests that can differ enormously from each other. All protests, however, have a few things in common. The first component of a protest is the people that are involved in it. Even if it is only one person, as long as they are displeased with something, a protest becomes valid. Second, there is always something, whether it is a law, policy, or belief, which people believe is wrong or flawed. Finally, there is always some sort of action that is being done as a protest. These actions can range from standing in front of a building with signs to even things such as inaction, like not buying a certain book. Pretty much anything can be protested provided that these elements are present.

But what defines the success of a protest? While some believe that a protest is only successful if the main goal is reached, I believe that its overall success includes how much attention it garners and its size as well as the completion of its goals. This is because a protest is not always something that ends quickly. In fact, most of the major movements in history spanned years or even decades, such as civil rights and women suffrage. Therefore, the more attention a protest can garner, the more its message is spread, leading to a possibly larger following. With a larger following, the chances for a protest’s success increases exponentially. After all, most things in society are decided by majority rule, including decisions made in congress. With this in mind, I must caution that I do not believe successful protests mean the prevailing belief is right. It simply means that for whatever reasons, enough opinion was swayed in the protest’s direction.