Review on Class April 24th

Discussions

1. Hellen Keller and Socialism
2. Woodrow Wilson
3. Overall Review on Chapter 1

Extra: Is Japan a democracy?

1. Hellen Keller and Socialism
 My original stance towards Loewen's take on Helen Keller was very critical. Since there is a general idea that Americans hate socialism, I immediately thought that Loewen was trying to use that for his own good; to create surprise and despair among the people who read his book. However, after the discussion, I finally realized that I was being too critical or should I say cynical that I was blinding myself from looking at the bigger picture. Loewen was simply trying to tell us that there is always another side to the story. The chart that Rab showed us today was very intriguing. There are both bad points and good points for both A and B but when you delete the bad points of A and the good points of B then automatically A would turn out to be superior to B. This happens everyday in our lives; whether its the news or us just trying to explain why we couldn't finish our home work.  We just need to understand the fact that every opinion is biased and in what way that is.
 
2. Woodrow Wilson
We did not have much time to discuss Woodrow Wilson and also, people who lived outside of America did not know much about him. However, we did agree on the fact that we were surprised to learn that he was such a racist president. Just like the story about Margaret Thatcher recently, if the media or any powerful source tries to shield information, the people will not even know what they don't know.

3. Overall Review on Chapter 1
 I think in this chapter, Loewen did succeed on convincing me that we really do need to doubt textbooks. Perhaps I was being a bit too apprehensive about the fact that Loewen might be the one trying to brainwash me with these new information. In more simple terms, Loewen is trying to tell us what Rab told us today; that it is impossible to write the full story in a book. From then on, we need to be cautious of what piece of information did the author exclude or include for his own good.

Extra: Is Japan a democracy?
 I honestly do not think there is a country where democracy itself exists. However, I do believe that Japan is 'more democratic' than a lot of other countries. Of course at times I do feel like my rights are being violated. For example, during the Fukushima disaster, there were numerous protests going on around the whole country. Yet, the government decided to reactivate another nuclear plant. Wait, I thought the government represented the people and the people are clearly saying....
Still, looking at the Arab Spring and the poor poor malnourished children of North Korea, I do feel like I have a lot more of a say and also, a lot more information about my country because in many of the 'undemocratic' countries, the people barely have information of what exactly is happening in their country and moreover around the world.