i love love love this module i’m taking. i was thinking of dropping it at first, but after i went for the class, i’m so dropping hollywood and american film if i get my writing class.
because it is simply so great! it’s Cultural Production on the War on Terror. and it’s fantastically interesting. i love such modules – and they are so rare! – cause it’s relevant and very very thought-provoking. it’s what i loved about history in jc, and what i always hoped to sort of do, but well, i never got to do. we touched on it in cs102 and i wished we had more of those.
we watched “War Made Easy” in class, and it is a great film!
there was a lot of good quotes, good statements made. but there was one that struck home nearing the end of the film. it was a clip from sometime back during the vietnam war, and it was a statement senator wayne morse – one of the two senators that opposed the gulf of tonkin war – made. it was a debate about american foreign policy, and who holds the right to decide american foreign policy.
Lisagor: “Senator, the Constitution gives to the president of the United States the sole responsibility for the conduct of foreign policy,” Lisagor said.
Morse: “Couldn’t be more wrong, you couldn’t make a more unsound legal statement than the one you have just made. This is the promulgation of an old fallacy that foreign policy belongs to the president of the United States. That’s nonsense.”
Lisagor: “Then to whom does it belong then, senator?”
Morse: “It belongs to the American People. The Constitution has made it very, very clear…”
Lisagor: “Then where does the president fit in? On the responsibility scale?”
Morse: “What I’m saying is that under our Constitution all the president is the administrator of the people’s foreign policy. Those are his prerogatives and I’m pleading the American people be given the facts….”
Lisagor: “You know, senator, the American people cannot formulate and execute foreign policy…”
Morse: “Why do you say that? You’re a man of little faith in democracy if you make that kind of statement… I have complete faith in the ability of the American people to follow the facts if you’ll give them. My charge against my government is that we’re not giving the people the facts. “
or something to that effect, i googled it and came up with several different versions.
anyway, i think it’s very applicable today, not only in the US, but also Singapore today. there’s always the debate about how singaporeans are babysat by our government, and how we aren’t mature nor intelligent enough to make these decisions. but if you think about it, does more education or political training give the right to decide anything regarding the people’s lives? in the end, the prime minister, government or anyone, in a democracy, is simply the administrator of the people’s wishes, and deciding anything for them, claiming that the people are immature, just simply comes off as a little condescending to me.
that was just a little, unorganised, on the spot rant. not very well-thought out but just felt like mentioning it because of the class. it was a very, very inspiring film. and i love the class! YAY.
on a slightly more depressing note, i think i’ll only clear about 16 AUs (hopefully not LESS than that) for this whole semester. which means a lot of work the next few semesters cos i’ll have 59 to clear by year 4. and 20 go to FYP and internship. which leaves 39 more over yr 3 and yr 4. which really, isn’t too good because i want a comparatively slack year 4. but okay lah. i guess. since i’m like peering at the curriculum structure, i’m supposed to have like, 66 AUs to clear – i’m ahead thanks to my year 1 intersem – where i managed to clear a good 7 AUs. maybe, if it doesn’t clash, i can take more production workshops and clear another 2 or 4 AUs. otherwise i’ll just work hard in the first sem next year, take about 20+ AUs (we’re supposed to take a whopping 22 AUs as recommended by the curriculum structure -_-”) and then maybe i’ll have a slack year 4 still..
