...Living with the past? Should we forget or remember? A dilemma - to remember or to forget? To perhaps gain "closure" from some past physical or emotional trauma by confronting it or by letting it go? Which between "remembering" or "forgetting" creates more private or social well-being? Or is there a third option? Forgiving - and is this even considered? Which provides "health"? What is "health" - freedom from trauma, management of pain? Can a "country" be seen as suffering "ill health"? Can a nation be diagnosed "healthy" or in "ill-health"? Does a "collective memory" embody collective guilt or collective innocence or collective amnesia? Funder's “Stasiland” provides a relatively balanced but personalised analysis of the rise and then demise of East Germany after 1945 and from Communist occupation to re-unification and democracy. Most potently, Funder "records" the personal testimonies (memories) of how both the victims and perpetrators she interviews were affected by such sweeping changes. As a journalist, while she may bias our interpretation towards the victims of the "Stasi" she does not glibly provide simple answers, but she does perhaps re-emphasise both the dangers of forgetting and the dread of remembering the past – the tyranny and fascism of Nazi Germany and the East German totalitarian regime which supplanted it - "to remember or forget— which is healthier? To demolish or fence it off? To dig it up or leave it in the ground?” Chapter 5: The Linoleum Palace: Funder...
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...nation. The wearing of a remembrance poppy surrounding remembrance Sunday, marking the armistice of World War One, is a national symbol to remember those lost in war and the families of lost soldiers affected by the wars. The example of a remembrance poppy has both aspects that support the idea of ‘banal nationalism’ yet also argues against it. A remembrance poppy is a visual symbol of remembrance of those lost at war during recent and major world wars. It not only remembers those lost but those who are left behind when their family members are killed at war. It is argued that the poppy, made from paper and plastic that is worn on the lapel of a persons jacket or shirt, supports war and the deaths of innocents as a consequence. With such a sign being worn by British society, regardless of age, it could be argued that British society supports the idea of war and violence. The poppy is a symbol of blood shed at war and the destruction caused furthermore the Poppy Appeal is highly evident across British society around the end of October up until the 11th of November. Although not an every day constant it is not recognised as a different action as a poppy is bought by default and recognition rather than because it is thought about. Billig argues that for every nation it must have “its history, its own collective memory”. The poppy highlights the collective memory of war and those lives lost as it brings society together to remember those who...
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...Remembering and Commemorating the War Essay According to Blight, Fredrick Douglas fought hard to protect the memory of the war. What was Douglas’s memory of the war and why did he try to protect it? North vs. South, Confederates vs. The Union. Rifles were fired… brother vs. brother. Men were named heroes for seemingly valiant acts in battle. We learn many things from the past. A nation was literally ripped in half in what was called the bloodiest conflict in American History. History is not an obsolete thing. Rather, it teachers valuable lessons. It can’t be denied how tragic the Civil War really was in American History. “It is not well to forget the past. Memory was given to man for some wise purpose. The past is the mirror in which we discern the dim outlines of the future and by which we may make them”(97). Prominent American Figure Fredrick Douglas was born a slave, educated, freed himself then became an accomplished author that fought for equality for blacks and many other groups in America. In the text Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory, and the American Civil War, author David W. Blight describes Douglas’s memory of the Civil War as something beyond the battlefield. Fredrick Douglas recognized the heroism and the death that happened on the battlefield. However there was much more than the combat and battle happenings that Douglas remembered. Douglas remembered what it was to be a slave; this very insight was the key to his memory of the Emancipation Proclamation...
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...night of every hour a memory is created. Whether it is one you want to remember or one you never want to forget, they are always there. Memories are all some people have to remember others, but memories bring out the fun times with those you want to live with forever. In the book Night, all Elie had was memories of his mom and sister because the day they parted ways was the last time they would see each other. “And I did not know that in that place, at that moment, I was parting from my mother and sister forever.” In the book Night, Elie and his father are separated from his mom and sister. At that moment Elie didn’t know that was the last time he would see his mom and sister. Elie didn’t have a lot of good memories but who would being in such harsh conditions and not knowing anymore if you’re human or not. “Where is my mother and Tzipora?” says Elie. “She must be in a labor camp....
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... and gypsies. Hitler strongly believed that the Jews were responsible for economic struggles also known as the great depression. Many people also believed they were to blame for the loss of war. In the...
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...With this hope, he forgets about his granddaughter, Klara that is also interested in carving. According to Freud, John Becker has a case of mourning because he never abandon a libidinal position, in this case Tilman, even though the substitute is already beckoning to them, which is Klara. He still holds on to the memories and expectations of his grandson, which the libido is bound. Another point was Klara’s repentances toward her past. She treats her love with Eamon as something that would last forever. So, when she knew that he will likely to join the war. She reminisces the times that they spent together and she regrets every moment of it. As Freud says that an attachment of the libido to a particular person, which is Eamon, had once existed that when a disappointment comes from this person, in this case the war, the object relationship was shattered. So, Klara’s behavior in the present still has the effect from a mental constellation of revolt – which is regret and anger. She feels that all the people around her in the past and also in the present treated her with injustice and insult. The next point is how Klara reserves herself with her present. After...
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...exhausting to replay coverage of a certain horrifying event, when in fact, in just another state where barely any news coverage over deaths in a car crash that killed the same number of people. I believe as I write this paper I am almost ashamed and horrified as the person who murdered so many and claim the glorification in some way that perhaps the murderer were seeking. Is our country focusing on certain situations as massacres to somehow put out fear in our country for may be mind control or government moves beyond our understanding? I am not sure exactly what is going on, but the one thing I do know is that America's media coverage on many aspects of life is disheartening and depressing. Thus, almost always too focused on the negative when we can try to find more positive to give Americans hope and give the "bad guys” less publicity. Approximately the same time and day of the Mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado (DenverChannel News Team, 2012), 13 people declared dead after truck crashes in Texas (Sherman, 2012). The story was running on the bottom line of CNN television news when I was home seeing the coverage of Colorado. Therefore, some deaths are more important because...
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...you there is no way to cash it and you and you are forced to walk away empty handed. Your pen is the most important instrument when writing, remembering, or communicating. When first starting a writing assignment, you can brainstorm all you want but nothing sticks in your head for very long until you pick up a pen and write it down. Your pen is like the friend that remembers everything you tell it. It helps you complete homework assignments at school, sign documents at work, and even interpret your thoughts through journaling. Your pen is a key and writing is the treasure. It gives you access to emotions, communication,...
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...million teenage boys died in World War I, one of the deadliest wars history has known. Referred to as “the lost generation”, the surviving soldiers returned home with a different vision of the world. War drastically altered their once-happy lives, changing their values and beliefs along the way. Too experienced to fit in with children and too innocent to join elder men, the soldiers found themselves incapable of appreciating life, for their youth had been destroyed. Incapacitated of viewing a future or remembering a past, soldiers soon only believed in war. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque depicts his gruesome experience of the war through the despairing narration...
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...Intro: “Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged.” These were some of the famous words of Abraham Lincoln on human nature. This quote shows how human nature won’t change. Just like Odysseus throughout the Odyssey. What the Odyssey shows us about human nature through Odysseus’s relationships is that humans are inconsiderate, disloyal, and self-centered. BP1: Odysseus shows inconsideration through his relationships, and inconsideration always gets in trouble. For instance, Odysseus did not...
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...In America there seems to be a major problem. It has hindered this country since America was founded. It has been used against Native Americans, Japanese, and Black Americans. The problem is racism. If this country wants to become truly great racism must be eliminated. Racism is a blot on society that has transgressed mankind over hundreds of years. It is conscience of humans that few things are far superior to others. In his words, Martin Luther King wrote that “we (the citizens of the United States) are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator’ idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.” Hence, I feel that racism has no place in a united and progressive nation. Racial discrimination only leads to the corrosion of the foundation and structure that make the United States of America great. I find that there is truth in the writer’s statement that “freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” I can say that racism is a euphemism for dictatorship. As what history is telling us, persons in authority find it hard to relinquish their position and tend to be corrupted by power itself. This creates a state of dictatorship wherein the freedom of the people is greatly limited. Laws are created in...
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...Old - Happy Birthday War; a subject which can scar even the most innocent man, in the most horrible way. Despite the scars not always being shown ed, they exist in the mind of the individual. Even though the man might seem to be calm and brave, there will always be something underneath that will constantly will (langt biled ikke adskille s + v) remind him of the horrors he has survived. In “Young and Old” we meet and old man and a young boy, and their view on the past war, which has clearly has (langt biled ikke adskille s + v) touched them in different ways. Fint ( The story is about a young boy and an old man, who are (kongruens) during the war is united by faith during the war (langt biled ikke adskille s + v). It takes place shortly after the war, because soldiers are still walking though the streets, but they are friendly, and the population of the city is free to wander around. In the beginning we learn that the man and the boy spend an awful lot of time in the catacombs of cellars beneath a shattered city, which sets the mood in the text. ( We imagine a city in ruins and a dark and creepy hangout place especially for the young boy. It’s is told by an objective, third person narrator, which results in us not taking any of the protagonist’s party, and therefore makes us capable of to experiencing e both of the characters in an equal way. ( ( Due to this fact, it is important for us to look at the protagonists separately. At first we have the old man, who seems...
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...The Failure of Fahrenheit 451 By Jeremy Smith 13 October 2003 I. In 1953, Ray Bradbury published a novel in which the burning of books presages the burning of the world. In the half century since, Fahrenheit 451 has emerged as a staple of high school and college syllabi and continues to chart best-seller lists. Both Simon & Schuster and Del Rey are releasing fiftieth anniversary editions this year. This past summer it was the number one best-selling science fiction/fantasy paperback in Barnes & Noble stores. While it is most often used as a way of talking about media and censorship, Fahrenheit 451 also represents a literary mode that seeks to prevent a certain future by describing it. This mode is often -- but not always -- dystopian. It is distinguished most by a moralistic and apocalyptic state of mind. Let's call it Cassandraism, after the daughter of Troy whose prophecies were not believed. Launched with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Cassandraism remains the most socially acceptable branch on the family tree of science fiction, embracing such respectably literary figures as Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and Margaret Atwood, who with her 1986 novel The Handmaid's Tale became its foremost contemporary practitioner. In Atwood's new novel Oryx and Crake, digital convergence and genetic engineering are combined and carried to their logical conclusion, a media-filtered apocalypse that the characters (and, one senses, the author) simultaneously...
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...Colatoral sulcus = humans. Rinal sulcus = rats • Enorhinal cortex • Parahippocampal cortex o Para = next to. Thus next to hippocampus Subcortical • Hipocampus • Amygdala In textbooks etc. they sometimes use the more general term vs. specific i.e. say medial temporal cortex when they mean perirhinal cortex. Medial diencephalon • Thalamus • Hypothalamus Sense of smell goes to parahippocampal and enorhinal cortex Wilder Penfield To do experiment = only remove a little bit of a tissue. Permanent window = remove bone forever. Or bone flaps, cut 3 sides and crack a hinge so that they can see under. Tissue is already damaged Bone has an arterial structure in it. Arrest response = stopping response = then you know you want to stay away from this area, i.e. when the patient stops talking etc. Stimulating parts of the brain: 1/3 sensory reports 1/3 dejavu like experiences 1/3 actual memories you can stimulate any part of the cortex and evoke a memory. Also makes a difference of where it was Area especially rich for evoking memories was in the temporal lobe This is also where epileptic fits happened in many people. Where neurons fired rapidly and incoherently. Then eventually starts spreading. Locus/loci spontaneously causing epileptic fits Drugs can control epilepsy He never tried to verify if the memories were real or not real. He did not evaluate that question. Recent studies = zero reports of any of these actually being true memories ...
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..."Mixed Girls and Mama's": A Personal Journey "..she raised me to never ever forget I was on parole, which means no black hoodies in wrong neighborhoods, no jogging at night, hands in plain sight at all times in public, no intimate relationships with white women, never driving over the speed limit or doing those rolling stops at stop signs, always speaking the king's English in the presence of white folks, never being outperformed in school or in public by white students and most importantly, always remembering that no matter what, white folks will do anything to get you. ...Mama's antidote to being born a black boy on parole in Central Mississippi is not for us to seek freedom; it's to insist on excellence at all times...There ain't no antidote to life, I tell her. How free can you be if you really accept that white folks are the traffic cops of your life? Mama tells me that she is not talking about freedom. She says that she is talking about survival." From:"How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance” An Essay By: Kiese Laymon I will not lie. I never go to the website that I found this essay on because most of the news I follow is only available through technological sites. It was fortunate for me that not only did I see the link on a dear friend's Facebook page, I became so engrossed after the first few sentences that I opened the link and read the powerful story of a man's experience growing up black in the south. I read that entire...
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