Blog Draft

There is added detail to this image. Transition from the normal illustrations to a more detailed approach to accentuate the horrific effects of the bomb on the people. The Japanese effect for approached detail to objectify the image and take away the life. The pain and suffering fade away into death with increased detail. The dialogue of the boy and the friend about love gives the human aspects and the complexities each human being has. It adds the detail to life that characterises human beings. Love, hate, anger, envy. These emotions show how different, how similar and how individually different we all are. 

The Darkness Behind Trinity

    Trinity: A Graphic History of The First Atomic Bomb is a graphic novel by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm that presents the history of the project that led to the development of the first atomic bomb in history. An artefact that changed the history of the world after its use in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, shaping the the modern world as we know it. It's a story not only about the events that surrounded one of the biggest scientific achievements of the twentieth century, but about the people who worked day and night to meet the deadline and finally end the war. Oppenheimer and a team of well renowned, some nobel-winning, scientists pursued their passion for physics and science building what Oppenheimer believed was the ultimate power men could ever have in their hands. He studied the concepts and worked long hours around harsh radioactive chemicals to construct what for him represented the beauty of scientific achievement, never to imagine the magnitude of the damage and the loss of human life it would bring on people miles away in the island of Japan.

    Fetter presents the illustrations and its transitions with a very movie oriented style. It's easy to follow the action and the events that lay in the white spaces between each box while Fetter plays with time and space. One of the strategies that are prominent throughout is the use of flash back and fast forward due to the amount of time the novel has to cover. It also juxtaposes several actions in the same time frame focusing on the reactions of different peoples to the same event. It's a very interesting play with chronology that adds emphasis to a specific event. In this case the characters surround the site of the first successful test of the bomb in Los Alamos. The moment that changed it all.

    In this moment Fetter also brings intensity to the explosion by isolating the bomb from its surroundings while juxtaposing the darkness in the pages to the lone tower in the distance. It gives the effect of immensity in contrast to the small bomb. As soon as the bomb explodes the contrast becomes even more crucial to the effect. The brightness is accentuated and the immensity of the desert dissipates as the power of the bomb takes over the frame. Its power and light reach out from the page to touch you as the words add to the effect of catharsis. Its a magical object of endless power. Its beautiful. "It was not yet a bomb".

    

 

    

Documentary

Inception

    The human mind in intricate and complex. To us it's still a fairly mysterious place many have attempted to ventured upon, but most have failed. Delving within our thoughts has become a science of trial and error which has brought both failure and success, but here The Shock Doctrine presents one of the long lasting manuals of mind exploration or rather, exploitation: KUBARK: Counter Intelligence Interrogation. 

     The truth serum, LCD experimentation, sensory depravation, and other types of torture have flooded the world since the beginnings of the Cold War and have survived to live through the resilient 'War On Terror'. These new methods that came to life in the mid 20th century were a breakthrough from the old and crude torture methods. New CIA led investigations brought forth techniques that gave more conclusive results in the interrogation room, and so a new spy era emerged. Governments now had a successful tool in the extraction of information from POW's or enemy insurgents. But what about indoctrination? How could they lead the battle of ideas and beat the red scare of the Cold War? This was a far more complex process because they had to change the minds of the public opinion in there favor and as we've seen through history they were successful of doing so not only in the US but also abroad. The KUBARK manual had given them entry into our head for extraction of ideas, but as Hollywood has demonstrated the hardest part is Inception. 

    To be successful at it, the US through the CIA, collaborated with several recognized educational institutions across the country and developed scholarship programs that sent Chilean and Indonesian students to schools in the States for indoctrination. They preached free market policy to them day and night and years later both of these countries, which had been strengthening their local economies and stating high tariffs on US goods, had coup d'etats respectively. Running the newly available political offices were the "Chicago Boys" and the "Berkeley Mafia". These names derived from the institutions they had graduated from and strong right wing governments emerged from the education they had received abroad. The subtle CIA indoctrination had proved successful and for many years they continued to utilize these techniques in the favor of their interests. By their interests I mean not of the US people, but rather of the large transnational corporations which have their HQ's in the US.

    Was Colombia victim to any of these methods? Are we victim to any of these today? There's always been a heavy influence from our "big brother". Looking back at our history as a country we've always been manipulated by the States, and sometimes even bullied by them into decisions that don't really benefit Colombia. On the other hand we've made it easy for them imposing very little resistance. We don't need the CIA scholarships because we walk into US colleges by ourselves. They've successfully created the illusion that anything American has a higher standard and we live with this premise still today. Did they overthrow our government at any point? No. They never had the need truthfully, and looking back we were the ones that should have thrown out or government at some point or another.

Ubiquitous: (adj) Present, appearing or found everywhere.

Idiosyncrasy: (noun) A mode of behavior or way of thought peculiar to an individual.

Mainstream Manipulation

    The world we live in, in these modern times, is characterized by the immediateness of everything around us. Media outlets are able to cover developing issues around the world in a matter of minutes and with the internet privacy is really something only of the past. Truthfully we choose to ignore it, but reading The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein has opened my eyes allowing me to observe and understand more objectively everything that happens around the world. The truth is that nothing is what it appears to be. 

    Behind everything happening around the world there always seems to be some invisible actors, the puppeteers, who manipulate and control events to the benefit of a very few. Natural disasters are exploited for economic advantages, terrorists attacks are used as excuses for fascist reforms in the legal system, and one could even say some of these events are proxies created by the government to push forward initiatives that really can only exist when the shock value is present. But what is this shock value? It's the state in which we find ourselves completely disinhibited after something very unexpected and very intense occurs. Lost and in distress we are far more easy to manipulate and the reality is people take advantage of it. 

    In Colombia, as I've seen through my personal experience, people haven't really come to understand and investigate the manipulation we are subject to. Conspiracy theories are everywhere and they are, one could say, essential because it's very important to doubt what you see. In Colombia, though, it's hard for me to come across any of these. We're a country at war but we've never really tried to understand the manipulative power the government has over us. News outlets will never come close to contradict a government statement in regards with a terrorist attack or a specific event in the conflict. Is anyone confronting the powerful oligarchy controlling Colombia's economic front? Is anyone really questioning anything other than isolated corruption cases in the government? We are, in my eyes, a successful example of a one sided population that believes everything and anything that is fed to them. If you ever get to the point of asking whether or not the armed conflict has any other underlying conditions that don't include drug money profits you're going down the wrong path. We've stereotyped the way we should think, speak, and act to the point freedom is in a gray area so do we live under this shock doctrine? Are we alienated from corporate interests in Colombia, from political power, and from the truth of the armed conflict? I don't really know and maybe I am taking a step too further, but it maybe is time to start questioning. Wake Up.

Eulogy: (noun) High praise or commendation, especially of someone who has died.

Coercion: (noun) The practice of persuading someone to do something by means of force. 

          

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Tiger Wood

          Thank You For Arguing brings now the very interesting topic which touches on argument through character, or as rhetoricians refer to it: ethos. Indeed, who we are or better yet who we appear to be in the eyes of our audience is key to win our argument because how we are perceived affects the response we get directly.

          We have to deal with some small audiences from time to time, and we present ourselves in certain ways to get a better acceptance as well as to get our point across in a more effective manner. Celebrities on the other hand live off their image. Who they are isn't half as important as who they appear to be or who their fan base perceives them as. Take for example Tiger Woods, the pro golfer recognized around the world for having the highest amount of PGA victories, five years ago before any controversy erupted. He earned millions of dollars a year not only through his victories, but through important ad campaigns with some of the biggest brands in sports. Woods had an impeccable utilization of decorum acting just as his audience and his sponsors wanted him to act. Professional, disciplined, talented, and honest he was an exemplary athlete. He had his audience's love. Even if this grand virtue was only rhetorical virtue, which is basically the appearance of being virtuous, his audience believed every single bit of it. This allowed him to be as successful as he was. 

          Later on some events developed that presented an important challenge to this virtue Tiger had in the eyes of his fans, and truthfully the world. His wife caught him cheating not with one, but ten different women. Not only that but she chased him out of the house with his own golf clubs, breaking the windows of his car as he rode away basically trying to save his life. The public was perplexed. They'd been tricked for many years of who this man really was and rapidly his rhetorical virtue was uncovered. His image was destroyed and he didn't have the decorum worthy of a pro golfer. His sponsors parted ways with him as the admiration and love the public had for him began to fade away. He broke rhetorical protocol and as his true character was revealed he lost the battle. There is something, though, I have to attribute to Tiger Woods. He didn't get off the rhetorical horse right away. Looking to refurbish his image he pulled out one last trick. The acclaimed tactical flaw. He wasn't an unfaithful man with horrible decision making, crooked morals, and bad taste. He was a...sex addict. With doctors to back up his claims he achieved the unthinkable. People somehow sympathized with his medical condition, if we could call it that, and he regained some of that lost virtue. 

          In the end it wasn't enough. His wife left him, taking away a big chunk of his money, and his career never really recovered from this blow. Even though it had nothing to do with golf, the scandal transcended all the way to the Green and the ball never got back in as it had done so many times before.