Dialectics: Culture and Government

In our current events group on Friday, we discussed the increasing amount of female abortion in India. Eventually, this led us to discuss the relationship between India's culture, traditions, and beliefs, and India's government and politics. We talked about how large a role culture plays in society versus the government, and how powerful each was.

Some argued that culture is more effective and has a larger impact on people than the government. You are completely immersed in the culture of your society at all times, and it is very important to fit into this culture if one wants to survive. Culture is not as formal as the government and its laws are, which can make it easier to follow for some people. Culture is something that brings people together, and is therefore very important for our society.

Government is very important for obvious reasons, but sometimes we feel more a cultural presence in our day to day lives. But when we analyze the relationship between the two, we see that both are important for controlling different aspects of life. Government provides the order while our culture provides our unique identity.

Yet we need both culture and government in order to be successful, and the most important thing is to find a balance between the two.

Blogging Around

In response to Rebekah's Captured Thought post about her daily routine:

I'm pretty sure I understand what you mean. Our routines and repeated actions act as safe places for us. They put us in our comfort zone and we know what to expect. It is when we don't know what is to come or expect when we feel uncomfortable, and this is most likely what causes our bad days. Something out of the ordinary happens, which takes you out of your safe place. As much as everyone wants to 'take a chance' or 'live a little' or 'get out of their comfort zone,' we all really feel the safest in what we know.

In response to Fatiti's Best of Week post about reading The Cathedral:

Hi Fatiti! I'm going to have to disagree with you about your thoughts about the ending of this story. I am actually a fan of all cliffhangers in general because it leaves the ending open to your interpretation. It adds a mysterious quality, and allows you to draw your own conclusions. They make the story unique to your personal thoughts because you determine the ending. Sure, it is nice when stories end in neat little packages, but it's also nice when the story doesn't end when the text does.

Best of Week: Apocalypse Now

On Monday we watched a few clips from the movie Apocalypse Now that related to Heart of Darkness. Viewing parts of this film was the best part of the week because it modernized many of the themes in Heart of Darkness to make them more understandable.

This movie brought the events and lessons in Heart of Darkness into a different time period and place with different characters. Doing this allowed us as an audience to both better understand the already existing elements of postmodernism and modernism, and additionally appreciate them in a new way. By seeing another perspective on Heart of Darkness, we find new aspects and new ideas. It is important to view many interpretations so we can be opened up to different ideas to help us learn even more about any topic.

By physically viewing the actions, characters, and people in Apocalypse Now, it settles some of the confusion that the novel brings. It puts new and powerful pictures in your head. When you compare the images in the movie to the images that you have created in your mind while reading the novel, you find both differences and similarities. And it is these differences that make comparison and analyzing different things so important.

In short, the viewing of Apocalypse Now was the best of the week because of the new spin it provided to Heart of Darkness. It helped me to better understand the novel, and get more insights out of it.