Week of Nov. 10-14

For one of the last (real) weeks of class, and one in which the one-month countdown until the end of the semester began, the topic up for discussion and analyzation was "Issues of Contemporary Racism in American Society." And not only were we seeing just anaylsis of certain racially tense situations and the response to that certain situation, but we were actually witnessing (via different forms of media) the overt racism that still pervades American Society and threatens to rip our country apart based on a skin color. 

Most striking among the course materials asigned for this particular week was the selection of Naomi Klein's theory about the "Shock Doctrine," and how the government uses natural disasters and times of great distress to pass through unpopular bills while the public is still recovering from the shock of the event, so they cannot be bothered by questioning what might really be happening to them and their country due to their utter zombiefied nature. I do believe that the governement does these types of things, just like after 9/11. After an absolutely shocking and terrifying act of terrorism was exacted on differerent locations along the Eastern seaboard (most notably in Manhattan), the government pushed through the Patriot Act, which inlcuded many provisions which have now been "sun-setted", or taken out as per guidelines in the official rules of the Act. Many parts of the Act have been called unconstitutional, but any law-maker to have voted against this in the weeks following September 11, 2001, would have have been considered unpatriotic at best, and an enemy of the state in some not-so-far-off reality that we now inhabit. Most of their constituents just wanted action from the government, and this Act provided that while also providing America with a major blow to her Bill of Rights. It may not have seemed as if the Bush (Jr.) Administration forced through a lot of bills and legislation, but they never had to because Republicans controlled every branch of the government. With that kind of power, who need a shock doctrine, it's shocking all year long.