Week 1 Blog

American History X and Foucault – Week 1

Both the reading and the movie provided a plethora of content for commentary that it was hard to decide which I should focus on, remembering that this is a blog not a novel. What I have decided to do is focus on two parts of each that I find most intriguing from each source and evolve from there.

Beginning with the Foucault reading I chose the quote:

“There are two images, then, of discipline. At one extreme, the discipline-blockade, the enclosed institution, established on the edges of society, turned inwards towards negative functions: arresting evil, breaking communications, suspending time. At the other extreme, with panopticism, is the discipline-mechanism: a functional mechanism that must improve the exercise of power by making it lighter, more rapid, more effective, a design of subtle coercion for a society to come. The movement from one project to the other, from a schema of exceptional discipline to one of a generalized surveillance, rests on a historical transformation: the gradual extension of the mechanisms of discipline throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, their spread throughout the whole social body, the formation of what might be called in general the disciplinary society.”

Before I explain why I like this quote, I feel it is important to reveal that I have taken multiple classes throughout my college career focusing on the history of “technology and society”. I believe that in order to be successful working in any type of technological atmosphere, I should have a background in how we (generalizing our society) arrived at the point where we are technologically dependent for many daily functions. So with a little knowledge of the history of technology and science in mind, this quote, specifically the reference to mechanism, caught my attention. Moreover, the fact that it is referencing the 17^th and 18^th century caused me to ponder how this quote could be applied to the aspects of society today. Ironically, the next day in class this was proven true as the examples of Facebook and Twitter were used to further support these points.

Moving on to American History X. Before I discuss anything about the movie, I would like to acknowledge that this is a complex movie with many different aspects, some of which are taboo in certain social circles. (Also, for anyone reading this that hasn’t seen the movie, there are some spoilers below.)

With my disclaimer out there, I would like to talk about the ending of the movie specifically. I have seen this movie multiple times throughout my college career, and have to discover that each time I watch it, depending on the people I watch it with, the experience is always unique. I believe that this again relates the social taboos I mentioned above and the factors we discussed in class. However, the once piece of advice that I have given many friends (or the friends I felt needed a little warning about the intensity of the movie) is that they should keep watching because the end is worth all the violence, sex, and racist remarks. This is primarily because I feel the ending is the most crucial part of the entire movie. First, the fact that Derek not only made an extraordinary transformation from this character filled with ignorance and hate, to a character that was enlightened and looking to better his life making up for the mistakes of his past. We see this when he gets out of the shower and he holds his hand up to cover his tattoo (a swastika), maybe hinting at the fact that this wasn’t a part of him that he wasn’t proud of and wanted to change. If you were to look at the scene from a religious perspective, the fact it shows Derek in the shower might also be perceived as a sort of baptism/initiation into a new life. Next, I think it was important that Danny mentioned the encounter that Derek had with his father before his father died. This talk showed how Derek had a predisposition to believe some of the things that Cameron would later tell him, but also because it provided the viewer a chance to understand why the death of his father might have triggered such an intense hatred. Though the key to understanding this lies in the fact that when Danny gets shot, Derek does not blame anyone, but rather repeatedly states “what I have I done?”. For me this shows great remorse and even an understanding of how his actions, much like his father’s influence on him, influenced Danny. Finally, there was some discussion in class about the race of the boy that shot Danny. While it was brought up that it should have been another white kid, or even a white girl, I believe that it wasn’t meant to be a negative or stereotypical representation of any race but rather it showed a person that was in the same position that Derek was in during the beginning of the movie. In a way this seems to bring the movie full circle as it shows another person that is ignorant and filled with hatred, to the point that they would kill another person.

Overall, the combination of the movie, the lectures and the reading, have surprised me in the sense that most teachers would not assign them during the first week of class. While some people might fear what is to come in the following weeks, I feel that I have ended this week intellectually stimulated.