It seems like every obituary I read nowadays says at the bottom:
"In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to ..." or the more forceful "In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you make a donation to ..."
So the next time you're headed to a funeral – hopefully not anytime soon – I recommend skipping the flowers and just bringing an envelope full of twenties instead. The dead may not talk, but money does, and nothing makes the grieving easier than some cold-hard cash.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Movies, music, and the 8 steps to genocide
Academia has long known of the eight major steps to genocide. It goes classification, symbolization, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, extermination and finally denial.
Moviegoers have long known that comic book movies are on the rise. And I'm sure I'm not the only person who has noticed a few of these taking place during the genocide of World War II. The first that pops to mind was "Hellboy" from 2004 which "tells the dark story of Hellboy, a charismatic demon who's put on Earth by the Nazis to terrorize the rest of the world," according to the Revolution Studios' promotional material. This demon is a full-on hell spawn, complete with horns, red skin and pitchfork tail. The next one, "X-Men: First Class" just came out in June. It's a great movie, and begins with a story about a Nazi scientist who identified mutants with special powers – namely Magneto, who can manipulate metal with his mind – and went on to form a legion of these mutants after the war. The third is "Captain America," which is about a super soldier who, while fighting the Nazis, learns of an even meaner sub-sect of Nazis controlled by a guy with a red skull in place of his head. It's still in theaters.
A sad fact of history is that Hitler and the Nazis were able to successfully carry out seven of those eight steps to genocide. They were unsuccessful in the last step, denial, in which they attempted in vain. But, although quickly dismissed, deniers of the holocaust still exist today. The first who springs to mind is Iran's leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called the holocaust a "myth."
The writers of "X-Men: First Class" were obviously aware of these eight steps, as Magneto makes mention of the first in a scene where he stands against the classification of mutants, calling it "the first step," or something similar. He then goes on to move metal with his mind.
Which leads me to wonder if Ahmadinejad is thinking what I'm thinking, that, at some point, the youth will be much more familiar with the fiction associated with WWII then the actual conflict, making easier his job of convincing them it didn't happen. After all, if these Nazis were experimenting with hell spawns, mutants, and being led in part by a guy with a red skull atop his shoulders, then it's not a far leap to say they too were fictionalized along with the comic-book sub plots they inadvertently created. And successful denial, while not as timely as Hitler would have liked, will be that much easier.
In music, we seem to be trending toward the elimination of classification altogether. If you visit MySpace – formerly the social networking giant, now relegated to becoming the best way to promote an upstart band – you'll be hard pressed to find a band that describes themselves as playing simply "rock and roll" or "hip-hop." No, the bands of today will likely include both of those genres in their musical description, and throw in a little funk and jazz, as well. Or they will go the complete opposite direction, using no genres in the description and instead writing something like "We don't like to define our sound into words, but it will melt your face off."
And this may or may not be a reaction to the listeners of today, in a sort of "chicken and the egg" question.
And that's because the listeners of today listen to Everything.
If you go to a college campus right now and ask 20 kids what kind of music they listen to, 19 of them will say "I listen to Everything." While, in their minds, this often stands for a sense of broad taste, the truth is that Everything means the top 10 most popular songs at that moment from a few major genres. Also, the listeners of today don't want to listen to one specific genre because they know, consciously or subconsciously, to be associated with one particular genre is classification, and after the classification comes the symbolization: Rappers are criminals, rockers are unkempt, country singers are Republicans, etcetera. But if you're all of those things then, oddly, you become none of those things.
But while both musicians and listeners don't like to be labeled, or classified, into one genre, this creates a problem for some listeners. Some listeners rely on genres to keep order over the cataloging systems they've developed in their minds. If they don't know what kind of music you play, then they don't know how to label you, and you're left floating around their brains like a book in a library with an unidentified symbol where the Dewey Decimal number should be. This is evidenced by wiki.answers.com and answers.yahoo.com, in which multiple members on both of the sites have posed the question "What genre is Lady Gaga?"
Along with the confusion for some listeners, however, this lack of classification in musicians has produced a new since of entitlement to music in others. If you listen to Everything, then you have become aware of and are likely pleased by your own sense of broad taste. You feel you're a music connoisseur, not just a guy who enjoys both rock and rap but never heard of Fats Domino. Nowadays, if the topic of music comes up in a group conversation, you're much more likely to hear someone talk about how big of an impact music has in his or her life. "Music is definitely an important part of my life," or something of the like, is usually how it goes. This likely stems not only from their awareness of their own broad tastes, but the fact that they frequently listen to music and don't happen to have a lot of other important parts of their lives. It's especially annoying when the people saying it don't play an instrument or do anything musically except sing along to their favorite hits in the car or shower.
There are people out there in which this line would be appropriate, but of course, you would never hear those people actually saying it. They know better; they don't want to be classified.
Moviegoers have long known that comic book movies are on the rise. And I'm sure I'm not the only person who has noticed a few of these taking place during the genocide of World War II. The first that pops to mind was "Hellboy" from 2004 which "tells the dark story of Hellboy, a charismatic demon who's put on Earth by the Nazis to terrorize the rest of the world," according to the Revolution Studios' promotional material. This demon is a full-on hell spawn, complete with horns, red skin and pitchfork tail. The next one, "X-Men: First Class" just came out in June. It's a great movie, and begins with a story about a Nazi scientist who identified mutants with special powers – namely Magneto, who can manipulate metal with his mind – and went on to form a legion of these mutants after the war. The third is "Captain America," which is about a super soldier who, while fighting the Nazis, learns of an even meaner sub-sect of Nazis controlled by a guy with a red skull in place of his head. It's still in theaters.
A sad fact of history is that Hitler and the Nazis were able to successfully carry out seven of those eight steps to genocide. They were unsuccessful in the last step, denial, in which they attempted in vain. But, although quickly dismissed, deniers of the holocaust still exist today. The first who springs to mind is Iran's leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly called the holocaust a "myth."
The writers of "X-Men: First Class" were obviously aware of these eight steps, as Magneto makes mention of the first in a scene where he stands against the classification of mutants, calling it "the first step," or something similar. He then goes on to move metal with his mind.
Which leads me to wonder if Ahmadinejad is thinking what I'm thinking, that, at some point, the youth will be much more familiar with the fiction associated with WWII then the actual conflict, making easier his job of convincing them it didn't happen. After all, if these Nazis were experimenting with hell spawns, mutants, and being led in part by a guy with a red skull atop his shoulders, then it's not a far leap to say they too were fictionalized along with the comic-book sub plots they inadvertently created. And successful denial, while not as timely as Hitler would have liked, will be that much easier.
In music, we seem to be trending toward the elimination of classification altogether. If you visit MySpace – formerly the social networking giant, now relegated to becoming the best way to promote an upstart band – you'll be hard pressed to find a band that describes themselves as playing simply "rock and roll" or "hip-hop." No, the bands of today will likely include both of those genres in their musical description, and throw in a little funk and jazz, as well. Or they will go the complete opposite direction, using no genres in the description and instead writing something like "We don't like to define our sound into words, but it will melt your face off."
And this may or may not be a reaction to the listeners of today, in a sort of "chicken and the egg" question.
And that's because the listeners of today listen to Everything.
If you go to a college campus right now and ask 20 kids what kind of music they listen to, 19 of them will say "I listen to Everything." While, in their minds, this often stands for a sense of broad taste, the truth is that Everything means the top 10 most popular songs at that moment from a few major genres. Also, the listeners of today don't want to listen to one specific genre because they know, consciously or subconsciously, to be associated with one particular genre is classification, and after the classification comes the symbolization: Rappers are criminals, rockers are unkempt, country singers are Republicans, etcetera. But if you're all of those things then, oddly, you become none of those things.
But while both musicians and listeners don't like to be labeled, or classified, into one genre, this creates a problem for some listeners. Some listeners rely on genres to keep order over the cataloging systems they've developed in their minds. If they don't know what kind of music you play, then they don't know how to label you, and you're left floating around their brains like a book in a library with an unidentified symbol where the Dewey Decimal number should be. This is evidenced by wiki.answers.com and answers.yahoo.com, in which multiple members on both of the sites have posed the question "What genre is Lady Gaga?"
Along with the confusion for some listeners, however, this lack of classification in musicians has produced a new since of entitlement to music in others. If you listen to Everything, then you have become aware of and are likely pleased by your own sense of broad taste. You feel you're a music connoisseur, not just a guy who enjoys both rock and rap but never heard of Fats Domino. Nowadays, if the topic of music comes up in a group conversation, you're much more likely to hear someone talk about how big of an impact music has in his or her life. "Music is definitely an important part of my life," or something of the like, is usually how it goes. This likely stems not only from their awareness of their own broad tastes, but the fact that they frequently listen to music and don't happen to have a lot of other important parts of their lives. It's especially annoying when the people saying it don't play an instrument or do anything musically except sing along to their favorite hits in the car or shower.
There are people out there in which this line would be appropriate, but of course, you would never hear those people actually saying it. They know better; they don't want to be classified.
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