Blog Post #6 Antiwar Voices

Antiwar.com describes itself as coming from a libertarian perspective. Its opposition to war is rooted in the idea that wars are a way that countries increase their power over people and that centralized political power threatens individual liberty. Their “non-interventionist” agenda is to reach out to pacifists, leftists as well as others on the Right who oppose imperialism.  

The American Conservative describes its founding as a reaction to mainstream political positions, including the positions taken by politicians who described themselves as conservative, but who The American Conservative did not believe were holding true to many truly conservative values.  

Both these websites take positions that are contrary to what one usually finds in mainstream media and addressed by many politicians. There could be different reasons for this. One reason is that mainstream media is just reporting what it is told by mainstream politicians.  There is an unwillingness or inability to dig beneath the messages that they are getting. A more sinister explanation might be that they don’t want to rock the boat and threaten the establishment whether for financial or other reasons. Mainstream media is a big business and they may not want to take positions contrary to the people that support them, the government that regulates them and the companies that advertise with them. Similarly, war is an even bigger business. Billions of dollars are spent with defense contractors, including weapons that are bought for use in places such as Ukraine or Israel.  

Those within the mainstream might respond that the fringe perspectives of groups on the left and right are not credible and that they are powered by conspiracy theories and, therefore, not worth reporting. This may, in fact, be the case with some far left and far right groups who do seem to be driven by what seem to be conspiracy theories. 

One opinion piece in The American Conservative was particularly interesting. In discussing the recent Tucker Carlson interview of Putin, former congressman Ron Paul blames the mainstream media for unbalanced reporting, “The US media does not report this because they don’t want Americans to begin questioning our interventionist foreign policy. They don’t want Americans to see that our government meddling in the affairs of other countries … has real and deadly consequences to those on the receiving end of our foreign policy.”

 

I think that we have to search for more obscure sources to get a balanced view of almost any issue, including on war and foreign affairs. So much media seems to have a bias, whether supportive of the left and right. It can be challenging to find broader perspectives that might help someone reach their own conclusions about an issue, whether it is funding the war in Ukraine or who to support in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Blog Post #5 The Typewriter

When thinking about modern day technology, a typewriter isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. However, after listening to everyones EOTO presentations we know now that without the initial creation and influence of older inventions we wouldn’t have the resources and technology we use daily. The typewriter was one that stuck out to me in particular as one to talk about because it was a massive contributor to revolutionizing the world of technology.

While obsolete today, the various forms of typewriters were an essential stepping stone to the computers and tablets that we now use. As the modern typewriter evolved in the late 19th century, it helped to modernize office work by eliminating the need to write and copy materials by hand. Letters and other materials could be created faster and more accurately than before. Using a standard print on documents meant that they would be legible and easily read by anyone. Efficiencies increased even more after the invention of the electric typewriter allowing for work to be done even more quickly. The creation of the standard keyboard is still used today on computers and owes the typewriter for providing the means we continue to use to put our thoughts on paper or a screen.  

The typewriter has also had an immense influence on how we are able to communicate today. Not only by keeping the original keyboard layout but also by introducing the concept of digital typing and making it popularized. Although due to the rise of modern technology such as iPhones, computers, tablets, the typewriter has obviously declined significantly. However, that's not to say it hasn't left its mark in pop culture. It often appears in films, television, and literature. The invention of the typewriter will always hold cultural significance despite not being used widespread today.  

EOTO#1 Motion Picture

Storytelling has always been a loved form of entertainment. However, the invention of motion pictures which allowed for wide distribution of content in a new and compelling way created the ability to take storytelling to a new level. 

Edward Muybridge was the first man to make significant work in creating motion pictures. On June 19th, 1878 he produced an 11- frame clip shot using 12 separate cameras to film a man riding a horse. This was filmed at Palo Alto Stock Farm, which would eventually become part of Stanford University. Why a horse? This is because in 1872, many debated whether all four of a horse’s feet were off the ground at the same time when galloping. The then-governor of California, who was also a racehorse owner, Leland Stanford paid $2,000 to Muybridge to prove it. This was a big investment, $2,000 dollars in 1872 would have been equivalent to a little over 50,000 dollars today.

 

In 1879, Muybridge figured out a way to view his galloping horse images in sequence at high speed. He created a circular metal housing machine with glass slots. Each slot held separate images that, when cranked by hand, would create the illusion of a galloping horse. He named this the zoopraxiscope and this invention was one of the most impactful steps towards the development of cinema. 

On October 14th, 1888, the first motion picture film was shot, called The Roundhay Garden Scene. This two second video showed four people walking silently in a garden. It was shot in England by a French artist and inventor, Louis Le Prince. He is known as the first person to officially use cameras to create motion pictures and the Roundhay Garden Scene is significant because it’s believed to be the first surviving film captured. 

The development of motion pictures continued. Two men who were extremely influential, William Dickson and Thomas Edison in connecting sound with the moving pictures. In the early 1890s, Dickson worked with Edison’s invention to create the Kinetophone which allowed sound to accompany the moving images. In 1891, Edison and his team filed a patent for both the Kinetograph (camera) and Kinetoscope (viewer). Despite this advance, the downside of this device was it was only viewable by one person at a time

Between 1900 and 1920, a number of significant advancements in film and sound technology were made creating movies closer to what we think of today. Initially, they were black and white silent films with subtitles and music was often played live at a theater to accompany the movie. Then, in 1927, the first movie with sound (The Jazz Singer) was released. While some early films were colored by hand, eventually technology was created so that the actual movie would be filmed in color. 

Attendance at the movies soared. By the 1920s, weekly movie attendance was nearly 100 million tickets for a U.S. population of approximately 120 million. In other words, most people went to see a movie EVERY week. This shows the impact that movies could have on the culture. 

As films became more sophisticated, they began to address more substantive topics, which we continue to see today. Some of these topics would reflect issues in society. One early film that is famous for using modern filming techniques is controversial today because it glorified the racist organization, the Ku Klux Klan. 

It became a powerful way to reach people across the country and across economic and racial lines. Going to the movies became a regular activity long before television was invented. 

Cinema became a powerful way to reach people across the country and across economic and racial lines. Going to the movies became a regular activity long before television was invented. The primarily goal of most films such as the Wizard of Oz (1939) was to entertain.  

At times, films were also used as propaganda to influence people’s perceptions and beliefs. 

Films were used as satire to make fun of those in power. 

This is an example of Charlie Chaplin making fun of Hitler in The Great Dictator (1940). 

More recently, films have addressed social issues such as when Tom Hanks in the movie Philadelphia (1993) addressed the AIDS epidemic.

In short, motion pictures have had a huge impact on the world today by influencing different aspects of culture, society, and communication. Movies have provided:

• Entertainment

• Cultural engagement

• Political influence/News

• Shared experiences 

• An education tool

Today, the film industry has a huge financial impact on our economy, paying over $186 billion in wages annually. More importantly, films -whether in cinemas or viewed from home- continue to be a powerful way to tell stories that have a major influence on our culture.