Journal 1-3: Can't We All Just Get Along?

1) Is it possible to get a true news story?
2) In a value conflict, is there a true right answer?

               Oh brother. There's a couple of tough questions. The first one is one which only one person could really report: the person who was actually in the story. No matter how reliable the reporters seem, if you were to look at their story alongside another account of the same story, two totally different accounts!In this media atmosphere, its next to impossible to get a  true media story because the true story is "edited" ( basically re-written) by whatever news station before the public gets to even hear about it.  So technically yes, there can be a true news story, that is only  if you get it from the person first-hand. 
                    The second one is a question whose answer is based on perception. Your answer to the question can determine if you think that answer #1 is right, then it is right. Words of wisdom right there. I mean, in a value conflict, its your values that are up for grabs, and if you believe that one is more important than the other, then you have a " right" answer because in your eyes, it was the most appropriate choice. 
                                                      
Does anybody like us!?
 In these past month, we've been watching and discussing a film dubbed " Michael Moore Hates America", an independent documentary created by one Michael Wilson. Basically, the whole documentary is this man disproving all the pivotal points made in Michael Moore's many films, but they seem to mainly focus on " Bowling For Columbine", and " Fahrenheit 9-11", two of his most famous documentaries. Michael, throughout his documentary, attempts to show America how Michael Moore doesn't really care about America, and how his documentaries don't seem to contain any truth whatsoever, and what little truth it does contain is so twisted around that it's not even the original point anymore. There are similarities between these two film-makers, though. Both "supposedly" grew up in small town America, and both use similar media tactics to get their point across. 


Michael vs. Michael.. and the title belt goes to...
The similarities stop there. Michael Moore, throughout most of his films, spend his time knocking America down while raising Canada up onto some pedestal. His information is not very reliable plus it's so skewed to helping his point of view. Michael Wilson isn't exactly Mr. Perfect either. Throughout his documentary, he too has to challenge his morals in order to gain information. One particular example was when he is with the representative from the town where Michael Moore actually grew up, and in order to get that piece of info, Michael Wilson lies and tells the townsman that his documentary is about Small Town America... hmmm that's odd because I'm pretty sure Michael Moore does the same thing, and the basis of Michael Wilson's film is disproving Michael Moore, so isn't using the same schemes as Michael Moore an odd way of making him look bad when you're doing it yourself? Very interesting Mr. Wilson. Check and mate.
He goes in with the right hook, now the left uppercut!
 I will give Michael Wilson the benefit of that even though he does use similar tactics as Moore, he doesn't use them as frequently, and he makes honest attempts to right his wrongs. Also, he doesn't seem to be a maple-syrup loving, hockey-obsessed, moose-hunting Canadian, but rather a red, white, and blue-blooded good ole American boy. Michael does portray America in a much more positive light than Moore does, which is all fine and dandy. Also, Wilson really goes to great lengths to get the different points of view about Moore, so he just doesn't have Moore bashers, but he also has Moore lovers. So, the fight is a close one, and it's too close to call a winner! We have a tie-match!


When did Utah get so important?!
 Another film we have been watching is called " This Divided State", and guess who's back??? Michael Moore  I swear this guy seems to be in anything controversial! That's beside the point for the moment. Anyway, this film takes place on the campus of Utah Valley State College ( trust me, its OK if you had no idea where this place was either!), which became an overnight sensation all because of one simple right: the freedom of speech. It's 2004, very close to Election Day, and the students at UVSC decided to have speakers who supported either political side, and the students decided " hey lets get Michael Moore".. the fuse that lit the powder keg.  Suddenly, this peaceful Mormon city has turned into a blood bath of red and blue. 
We have guaranteed rights.. oh wait you can't say that!
Utah has suddenly become a news media feeding frenzy. One college's choice to have a very controversial speaker has really seemed to cause one hell of an uproar. One side adamantly thinks that having him speak is worse than having Satan pop up in the middle of the Sermon. It's as if Michael Moore is some unwholesome person who doesn't deserve the right to speak when really,  he's an ordinary person like you and me. SO why does he get so much attention? Its because of that pesky thing called opinion. It seems that in Utah, if you aren't a red-blooded Mormon  your voice doesn't matter, or better yet, it shouldn't be heard. That was the opposition's man focus, they believed that they should only have speakers who believe the same things we do.... how close-minded could you possibly be? Basically, we're allowed to run our mouths for as long as we want, but if you believe something else, then shut up. 
                                                                                               Words of Wisdom. 
        It's funny because a very famous man, one Thomas Jefferson, stated that basically Dissent is the highest form of patriotism. The saying means that one is truly a lover of their country if they have the guts to stand up and tell them that somethings wrong. As Americans, we have the coveted right to speak our mind, so wouldn't it be the most patroitic use of our first amendment right to speak up when something is amiss? That's the point that people don't seem to understand. They think that if people are saying criticisms about something, their thought is that they must hate it when really they might love it and they love it to the point that they want to improve it. So why can't Americans grasp this comment? Why do we have to be so damn mule-headed?


"America, the home of freedom of speech, as long as you have the same beliefs as me"
Things get even crazier in Utah, especially when a man named Kay Anderson gets whiff of it. He's so hell-bent on preventing Michael Moore from speaking, he sues the student council and tries forcing vice president Joe to resign, he even writes a big check to the college if they cancel the speech. This guy is clearly a few sandwiches short of a picnic, but its more of a reaction of fear than insanity. It's natural for humans to fear which they don't understand, and Kay Anderson fears Michael Moore because he doesn't understand that having other points of view isn't necessarily terrible; therefore, that is why he fought tooth and nail to prevent Michael Moore from opening his big mouth. Isn't that a big contradiction? The Mormon faith advocates for the individual right to free speech, yet they are so adamant to extinguishing a man's right to speak. Now isn't that ironic?




  Lets wrap it up with a big bow
These past couple weeks really, in my mind, epitomize the basis for our ethics class. We are faced with numerous examples of ethical dilemmas, and they continue to stump average day human beings. So what do we do? Do we put up with people bashing everything we stand for just because they have that right, or do we stand up and fight against it, even if that means stepping on a few toes? These sorts of dilemmas will continue plague the human race, and maybe they're the questions what won't be answered. But here is a question that you can answer, and with this question, I leave you until next time. 

1) Is there a point where free speech shouldn't be allowed?


Until next time, think krazy thoughts. 
Kit Churchman.

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Journal 1-2 : Guns, Values... and Our Messed-Up Media

                           

Why is it so hard to put others before ourselves?

This question I posed in my last journal entry, and I might have found an answer to this difficult question: it's because its human nature to be greedy. As humans, we are always looking out for ourselves and our interests. To think about others is a second thought because as humans, we are so self-absorbed that its all me, me, me! So, there you go. Deep stuff.

For the past couple weeks, we have been studying Michael Moore and his rather oppinionated documentaries such as " The Awful Truth" and his Oscar- Award winning documentary " Bowling for Columbine". Both of these were.... interesting to say the least. It really opened my eyes about how skewed our media truly is. 

         Basically everybody in the media spends their whole time trying to get their personal agenda out, even if it means saying things that aren't accurate, but that's show business. This whole personal agenda concept really came out in Michael Moore's documentary "Bowling For Columbine". When you hear those words, you probably think something different than what the documentary is actually about: Michael Moore is out to blame the government for every single damn thing. He uses these victims of Columbine to try and condemn all guns together and then suddenly we're watching a montage about South American Dictators and then we're in Canada and its just some random jumbled-up mess and Michael Moore is the ringleader. The whole documentary, though very eye-opening and factual ( somewhat) is one weak analogy after another. 

I do understand where Michael's coming from though. He's trying to tie in the issue of guns and gun availability into these tragedies and these situations where it stemed from handing the wrong person an AK-47 and some 9 mm rounds. Yet, Michael doesn't allow people like Charlton Heston get a word out! He tries portraying all guns as being these evil and wretched things, and trying to make people like Charlton Heston appear to be the Devil. The funny thing is that had we not done the background info before we watched BFC, I would probably believe that Charlton was one heartless guy.  That just shows how skewed our media is. 

This story really ties into current media with the presidental election campaign aids with Obama saying bad things about Romney and vice versa. Obama's saying how Romney isn't there to help the middle class and Romney trashes Obama about his "ObamaCare", so which one is right? That's the problem. You never really know because there's so much bias in the media. As the American people, we never know the truth. 

But enough of crazy Michael and his anti-gun views. We've also been discussing value conflicts and basically what they are. There's a ton of them like individual responsibility vs. the well-being of the group and loyalty vs. honesty, just to name a few. These sorts of conflicts are really the basis of ethical thinking. They force you to choose and with each choice you have to think about the benefits but also consequences of both. Its really interesting to learn about these sorts of conflicts because you can so easily relate these back to our every-day lives. 

So, as this masterful entry in a never-ending journal comes to a conclusion, I want to leave you with two questions ( WE GOT A RULE BREAKER UP IN HERE!) because there are two very good points that have been made. With these last few words, I leave you this:

 1) Is it possibly to get a true news story?

 2) In a value conflict, is there a true right  answer?

 Beauchamp, Zack. "Google Images." Google Images. ThinkProgress.com, 24 July 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. <http://www.google.com/imgres?num=10>.

Brett, Joshua. "Google Images." Google Images. WordPress.com, 25 Mar. 2011. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. <http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en>.

"Google Images." Google Images. BET.com, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. <http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en>.

Websit

"Google Images." Google Images. Relationshiprealities.com, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. <http://www.google.com/imgres?num=10>.

Three weeks down, a long way to go.

I) This is the my first blog of the year, so there's no past question to answer
                                                      II) This week , we learned a lot about various concepts such as power words, fallacies, "The Rules of the Game" and many more, but one concept we talked about in particular really stuck out to me. It was the story of a young man who, when the lives of the innocent hung in the balance, raced into action. His name was Welles Clothier. He was an ordinary person just like you and me. But when terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, he became an extraordinary hero. Welles was working within one of the towers when the first plane hit and immediately, he jumped into action. Selflessly, Welles made multiple trips inside the burning building to lead survivors to safety. Its extraordinary how this man brought himself to the brink of death in order to ensure that others would live to see another day. That is true heroism. 


This sort of ties in with the six levels of motivation that we learned about this week in class
1) We do stuff so we don't get into "trouble"
2) We do things for a reward
3) We do things to please people 
4) We do things because it is part of following "the rules".
5) We do things for ourselves
6a) We do things because we are thinking of others
6b) We do things because we have a personal code of ethics.                                                                                                                                                                                      
  Welles didn't risk his life just to get some publicity or because he wanted to make everyone be happy with him, he went into that building because he knew that if he could do something to help those people, he had to do it. In his heart, he knew it was the right thing to do and he

needed to help those people( 6a and 6b).   
                In class we started discussing "what qualities are attached to heroic imagination?" A quality that goes hand in hand with heroic imagination: selflessness. One word, such a big impact. Welles was selfless, and because of that, tens of people get to see a new day. But it doesn't even have to be on that big of a scale. Every day we all have opportunities to put others before us, so why don't we do it? Is it because we are too consumed in our own lives, or are we too self-righteous to put the needs of other before our own? It makes me wonder that people could get past putting themselves first, how much of a difference in the world could we make? But would it also harm us all if we always put others first?

III) Why is it so hard to put others before ourselves?


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