Trenches

The reading and discussion we had in class today about Mark Twain’s piece which described Satan who was banished to Earth, and his issues with the new race of people and animals. He quickly describes the false dreams that many of these people have that consists of a heaven and hell and church. One of the things that we discussed was intense amount of offensive material in this piece. It made a lot of sense after reading it that it would have offended people during Mark Twain’s era. Religion was not just a part of your life and something that you did every Sunday, it was life. The morals and social restrictions on society were all based upon the religion of your family and town. By insulting these beliefs, that in many cases, keep people going, it could have serious negative ramifications in the society of many Americans who believe in a heaven and hell. While this was not meant to seriously do any damage, it may have if it had leaked into the public eye. Mark Twain is a fantastic satire writer, especially concerning an issue that is as strong as religion. To poke some fun at something that many people live and die by is not the greatest or kindest thing a man could do, yet its hilarious.

The discussion that we had on the situation in the Middle East and the desicion making that needs to be made my the United States made me realize how much this war has developed and become worse over the past several months and years. Politics and military are the two main focuses of the issue in the Middle East especially with our own troops.  Iran’s troops that are supported by the United States should be moved up towards the front lines while we slowly and secretly begin to take soldiers away from battle. One move that is not an option however, is completely removing all soldiers from Iraq. This would kill our image among other nations and especially with any supporters we had in the Middle East that were working for a democracy. The situation that the U.S. is dealing with is like walking on thin ice. One wrong desicion that has a hard impact and everything begins to slowly shatter and then finally completely come apart. This is why the United States needs to begin to find a new way of looking at the tensions between Iran and its religious groups and its political system. Apparently, the system that is in place now is not very effectice and should be changed as soon as possible without extremely negative affects. With all the power that America has it also has large responsibilities and is respected by its comrads so if we were to make a bad desicion those comrads could disappear and not come back which would be a very bad action towards our international relations.

In New York, on October 24, 1999, eighteen Klu Klux Klan members were protesting in lower Manhattan wearing the white hood but it had no mask. This was obviously a very controversial action because the Klu Klux Klan is so offensive to people of all races, sexes and religions that no one could bare to see this symbol of racism standing in New York. The police formed a barracade around the men but it was broken through by a group of people and some of the members were punched and beaten until the police could remove them from the area. I found this amazing in modern day America because of the controversy of the KKK and its existence and to just openly admit to being a member in New York, one of the most crowded places on earth, and to show all these people that you belong to a group that literally symbolizes racism is astonishing. I’m not sure if the men who were wearing the hoods planned on offending people as well as trying to petition whatever their issue was or just solidly picking one. “Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani praises police for peacefully containing situation; constitutional melodrama that preceded event, over Klan members’ intention to wear masks, stretched from City Hall to United States Supreme Court” (Newyorktimes.com http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50B11F73D5C0C778EDDA90994D1494D81). This is something that I never thought would happen on the crowded streets of New York especially because of the racial issues that it brings up. The consitutional issues that it raises are also very heavy duty and had to be brought to the Supreme Court which obviously signifies the severity of the situation.

Satire is so popular because America loves to see other people’s problems or even their own international issues mad fun of on television and in writing. Many shows, such as South Park, take extremely touchy issues and make them hilarious and people actually watch. There is always a unspoken line that people can’t cross when doing a satire such as certain words or actions that may seriously offend someone but they are always extremely controversial and may raise issues. Social problems are funny because when they are presented in satires they are always put to an extreme point. The over exaggeration of many of these sterotypes or certain things that people do in society are hilarious to Americans. Scary Movie makes fun of movies rather than controversial issues in todays society. Borat makes fun of things that are extremely touchy in many European countries and offend people of several religions.

Something that we didn’t heavily discuss in class that I thought was probably the most intense part of the narrative was the description of Mr. Severe. His whipping of men, women, children and letting them bleed for half hours at a time for small problems was horrible. He had absolutely no respect or care for these slaves and he treated them worse than he would his onw mule or dog. The care of the slaves besides the phyical pain was alos mental. By waking them up and controlling their sleep it made them become almost completely submissive and feel mentally incapable of having any sort of revolution against their masters. By making these people feel so weak it gave the masters and slave owners a large boost of their ego and feeling of power. They literally controlled every aspect of a slaves life.