Now that the insanity of the research project is nearly complete, I cannot help but notice the striking similarity between the abysmal outcome of the Iranian Revolution and other revolutions of the past. The Iranian people had a dream of a new nation where tyranny would cease to exist once and for all. They had dreamed of a free society where freedom of expression and some minimal form of civility where people could not be rounded up in the middle of the night and sent to secret prisons.
It’s not hard to see why many Iranians felt threatened and oppressed by the Shah and his ruling party. The Shah of Iran imposed many new “Western” ideals upon the Muslim people of Iran – presumably to bring Iran into the new century. However, as with any absolute rule, power always seems to corrupt absolutely. Despite his best efforts, the Shah’s legacy of tyranny and oppression had been no different than his predecessors. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was supposed to change all that. The people demanded CHANGE they could believe in, and they fought for it with fervent vigor.
Unfortunately, things change for the worst. Women lost what little rights they had in an effort to enforce conformity and “religious morality” in the new Islamic Republic. Research on the subject of populist revolution has opened my eyes as to how easily the public can be made to believe that change is necessarily good. Things did change drastically for the average Iranian - one can believe that.
Some of those changes include newly formed morality patrols that roam the streets of Iran offering imprisonment or even death for saying anything that challenges the religious elite, or even for wearing banned lipstick, perfume, or short skirts. It seems that the average Iranian had only replaced one form of tyranny with other, and sworn allegiance to a new Supreme Leader – the Ayatollahs. If anything, the new regime had turned back the clock of progress and stifled the cultural and industrial evolution of Iran. The desire for “change” at any price had come at a terrible price in human lives, dignity and economic stagnation for the Iranian people.The Russian Revolution did not fair much better with its failure to live up to the dream of a utopian society; nor did the populist revolutions of Vietnam or Cambodia in the 1960’s. Even the idealistic, feel-good promises of “change we can believe in” during our last Presidential election have left much to be desired. While our President may have had the right intentions at heart, our lawmakers have squandered the opportunity these past 2 years to take the heartfelt enthusiasm for a approach to government with less “politics as usual” and more controlled spending. Instead, it seems that the new ruling party has only managed to twist the dream of change into a nightmare of party politicos, poor resource management, and in fighting. Perhaps we should all be careful what we wish for the next time we get the urge to change things so abruptly. Once we had over the proverbial keys to a new ruling elite, one can never be sure if we really will be any better off than before until its too late.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
The Art of the Research Paper
Does anyone really enjoy writing research papers? When I was younger, I used to dread the thought of writing anything longer than 2 or 3 pages – or requiring more than a superficial analysis of a 1-diminensional topic. However, as I gained more experience in writing formal research papers for college, and eventually for work, I began to appreciate the process. In many ways, I had begun to associate such writing efforts with “art”.
When I speak of “art” I am not implying that that the effort is entirely creative or abstract, but I am suggesting that there are several layers to writing a successful research paper. As with any form of art, there is the technical layer of which one must master the basic tools and skills to accomplish the task at hand. But then there is the second, more complex layer which involves creativity and free-form association. As with trying to tie-in a factoid or quote from a scholarly source for a research paper, the artist must tie-in one’s own life experiences, observations or reference images to form the painting or sculpture in the artist’s mind. It is that melding of what we know, what we learn and what skills we accumulated to create something new that has so fascinated me about writing research papers. From that perspective, one could are that undertaking a research project can be as fun as creating a work of art that one can hang over the fireplace and point to with pride (hopefully).
With regards to the research project for this English course, the same underlying sense of purpose and art still applies for me. However, that is not to say that I had not been confronted with multiple challenges. Among the most difficult to overcome has occurred during the preparatory stage. The question of what topic to writing about has not been trivial. If my writing experience has taught me anything, it is that one cannot “bullshit” one’s way through a 6+ page research paper because there just aren’t enough “generic” phrases and filler words available in most people’s writing toolbox. Picking the right topic is crucial for me. And to help me achieve that I ended up writing a rough outline of possible forms my research project could take for each of the proposed topics in the RP handout. It has been a time consuming process, but the end result will be worth it as I now know that I have enough to say about the topic! More importantly, I believe the quality if the paper will be improved because I am more excited about writing on the selected topic.
The other area of potential difficultly has involved in-text citation and selecting the right reference sources. Poorly selected sources can derail even the best efforts to form a logical argument. My worst fear is usually being unable to support a claim made earlier in a long research paper – or to have my main argument lose steam mid-way through the paper for lack of supporting evidence or focus. Again, to help me overcome this I have relied heavily on the preliminary outlines created for each potential topic. Doing so has allowed me to “pre-visualize” the structure of the paper before committing ink to paper. Hopefully, the net result will be an effortless first draft, or a nightmare assignment from hell.
When I speak of “art” I am not implying that that the effort is entirely creative or abstract, but I am suggesting that there are several layers to writing a successful research paper. As with any form of art, there is the technical layer of which one must master the basic tools and skills to accomplish the task at hand. But then there is the second, more complex layer which involves creativity and free-form association. As with trying to tie-in a factoid or quote from a scholarly source for a research paper, the artist must tie-in one’s own life experiences, observations or reference images to form the painting or sculpture in the artist’s mind. It is that melding of what we know, what we learn and what skills we accumulated to create something new that has so fascinated me about writing research papers. From that perspective, one could are that undertaking a research project can be as fun as creating a work of art that one can hang over the fireplace and point to with pride (hopefully).
With regards to the research project for this English course, the same underlying sense of purpose and art still applies for me. However, that is not to say that I had not been confronted with multiple challenges. Among the most difficult to overcome has occurred during the preparatory stage. The question of what topic to writing about has not been trivial. If my writing experience has taught me anything, it is that one cannot “bullshit” one’s way through a 6+ page research paper because there just aren’t enough “generic” phrases and filler words available in most people’s writing toolbox. Picking the right topic is crucial for me. And to help me achieve that I ended up writing a rough outline of possible forms my research project could take for each of the proposed topics in the RP handout. It has been a time consuming process, but the end result will be worth it as I now know that I have enough to say about the topic! More importantly, I believe the quality if the paper will be improved because I am more excited about writing on the selected topic.
The other area of potential difficultly has involved in-text citation and selecting the right reference sources. Poorly selected sources can derail even the best efforts to form a logical argument. My worst fear is usually being unable to support a claim made earlier in a long research paper – or to have my main argument lose steam mid-way through the paper for lack of supporting evidence or focus. Again, to help me overcome this I have relied heavily on the preliminary outlines created for each potential topic. Doing so has allowed me to “pre-visualize” the structure of the paper before committing ink to paper. Hopefully, the net result will be an effortless first draft, or a nightmare assignment from hell.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Blogging with Style
This week’s writing assignment poses an interesting question: what does my writing style really say about me as the author? I had never given this question much thought in the past, but it seems very relevant now. I, like many others in this online course, have written numerous online blogs about a multitude of subjects - including some very personal ones. Upon a closer re-examination of my own online efforts these past few months, I have discovered several pleasantly surprising trends.
Firstly, I am pleased to see that my online writing style is not as “stiff” or formal as much of my offline writing. While I do pride myself in writing as grammatically correct as possible, it appears I may have successfully avoided my traditional overly “scientific” spin by injecting humor and anecdotal stories more frequently than usual. To be honest, I rather enjoy writing for the bloggosphere. It truly enables one to write openly about any subject while still requiring that one pay attention to the quality, conciseness and tone of one’s writing. After all, the entire world is the potential audience, so those traditional writing elements are crucial for delivering a readable blog. I feel as though blogging is more akin to “art”, for example, than other online writing mediums such as Facebook or Web email. The experience of blogging for me could be best described as a hybrid between a great conversation and writing scenes for a short story or screenplay.
Secondly, I am even more pleased to see that my writing as positively affected other readers. I love the comments – please keep them coming! It really fulfills that feeling of “intelligent conversation” I had mentioned earlier. And it creates a sense of pride in me that I had actually written something both meaningful and entertaining for others – even if it’s only in the context of this course.
Hopefully, I have adequately conveyed to everyone reading my blogs a sense of quirkiness, balanced with determined seriousness and a zest for life that is uniquely my own. More importantly, I hope to have made someone smile - maybe even laugh - in the process.
Firstly, I am pleased to see that my online writing style is not as “stiff” or formal as much of my offline writing. While I do pride myself in writing as grammatically correct as possible, it appears I may have successfully avoided my traditional overly “scientific” spin by injecting humor and anecdotal stories more frequently than usual. To be honest, I rather enjoy writing for the bloggosphere. It truly enables one to write openly about any subject while still requiring that one pay attention to the quality, conciseness and tone of one’s writing. After all, the entire world is the potential audience, so those traditional writing elements are crucial for delivering a readable blog. I feel as though blogging is more akin to “art”, for example, than other online writing mediums such as Facebook or Web email. The experience of blogging for me could be best described as a hybrid between a great conversation and writing scenes for a short story or screenplay.
Secondly, I am even more pleased to see that my writing as positively affected other readers. I love the comments – please keep them coming! It really fulfills that feeling of “intelligent conversation” I had mentioned earlier. And it creates a sense of pride in me that I had actually written something both meaningful and entertaining for others – even if it’s only in the context of this course.
Hopefully, I have adequately conveyed to everyone reading my blogs a sense of quirkiness, balanced with determined seriousness and a zest for life that is uniquely my own. More importantly, I hope to have made someone smile - maybe even laugh - in the process.
Friday, May 7, 2010
What the >Bleep< ?
The world of TV and film 50 years seems like a distant memory today. Ethical standards and guidelines for the usage of foul language, nudity and violence seem almost archaic by today’s standards. Since the inception of the independent United States government agency the FCC (or Federal Communications Commission) in 1934, the debate has raged on about how much regulation is too much – and how much freedom of speech should content creators really have over the airwaves.
I can still remember that famous comedy routine by comedian George Carlin where he recites the "seven dirty words" one absolutely cannot say on TV. The controversy was not so much that he used the ‘F” word or other profanity, but that should there even be a list of such words which “can not be spoken”. That is censorship in the eyes of many, and yet an issue of the right to free speech for others. Not surprisingly, in 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the FCC's indecency judgment on Carlin's comedy monologue about seven words one can never say on TV. Just 25 years later, U2’s lead singer Bono gets away with shouting the “F” word during the 2003 Golden Globe Awards broadcast - the FCC ruled it as not obscene shortly thereafter. What a difference a few decades can make!
Amazingly, it appears that the FCC does NOT have an official list of banned words. It is the CONTEXT in which certain profanity is used. Part of that context is the time of day in which the profanity (and sexuality and violence) is broadcast. A TV broadcast of harsh profanity at 2p.m. when children could be listening will almost certainly bring the wrath of the FCC. However, according to recent FCC’s Enforcement Bureau notes, material considered merely “indecent” but not obscene may be broadcast between 10p.m. - 6 a.m. And these laws don't apply to obscenity or indecency on cable-only channels! One only has to watch 15 minutes of Sex in the City and The Sopranos to realize that there are no holds barred on bad language.
To be honest, I believe that the current FCC codes are fair and very applicable to today’s viewing audience. With special ratings for TV programs and expanded ratings for films, people have more information from which to decide if their child should watch a program or not. It’s really up to the viewer to decide what is “obscene” or “indecent” or just plain entertaining.
I can still remember that famous comedy routine by comedian George Carlin where he recites the "seven dirty words" one absolutely cannot say on TV. The controversy was not so much that he used the ‘F” word or other profanity, but that should there even be a list of such words which “can not be spoken”. That is censorship in the eyes of many, and yet an issue of the right to free speech for others. Not surprisingly, in 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the FCC's indecency judgment on Carlin's comedy monologue about seven words one can never say on TV. Just 25 years later, U2’s lead singer Bono gets away with shouting the “F” word during the 2003 Golden Globe Awards broadcast - the FCC ruled it as not obscene shortly thereafter. What a difference a few decades can make!
Amazingly, it appears that the FCC does NOT have an official list of banned words. It is the CONTEXT in which certain profanity is used. Part of that context is the time of day in which the profanity (and sexuality and violence) is broadcast. A TV broadcast of harsh profanity at 2p.m. when children could be listening will almost certainly bring the wrath of the FCC. However, according to recent FCC’s Enforcement Bureau notes, material considered merely “indecent” but not obscene may be broadcast between 10p.m. - 6 a.m. And these laws don't apply to obscenity or indecency on cable-only channels! One only has to watch 15 minutes of Sex in the City and The Sopranos to realize that there are no holds barred on bad language.
To be honest, I believe that the current FCC codes are fair and very applicable to today’s viewing audience. With special ratings for TV programs and expanded ratings for films, people have more information from which to decide if their child should watch a program or not. It’s really up to the viewer to decide what is “obscene” or “indecent” or just plain entertaining.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
