Why We Fight

In class we watched the film, "Why We Fight", a documentary on the "military-industrial complex" so famously mentioned in President Eisenhower's farewell address in 1961. Unfortunately, I was not able to view the entire movie, as I was taken out of class early to by another teacher to talk about an upcoming event. Therefore, I can only comment and critique the small portion of the film that I actually saw.

Based on what I witnessed, "Why We Fight" is not a film that I would use as a template for my documentary. It relied almost exclusively upon emotional arguments, "experts" whose credentials were only vaguely described, or omitted entirely, misleading or unverified information, "interviews" obviously edited to suit the filmmaker's purposes, and shock imagery. Clearly the creators of this film subscribe to the same film making philosophy as Michael Moore and his ilk.

Although this style of "documentary" can be very effective in achieving its objectives, I find the methods it uses to do so immoral and offensive. I believe that a film should persuade not through catering to the lowest common denominators of its audience, namely ignorance, fear, and gullibility, but instead by appealing to the viewer's sense of logic reason, and self interest. I will attempt to put these ideals into practice in my documentary by relying heavily on statistics, credible experts, and logical arguments.

Although I cannot decry the brutish tactics used by this film in strong enough language, I probably agree with much of its message. It is our government's close relationship with the private sector than ensures that our military best armed and armored armed forces in the world, and that enables us to maintain the technological supremacy over our adversaries that we have enjoyed and befitted from for so long. The research and equipment provided to our military has saved countless lives throughout the years, both those of civilians and our fine soldiers. Clearly we owe much to the military industrial complex, as it has rendered us a service that cannot be overestimated. However, there is a limit to what these corporations can and should be able to provide us with. The arms industry must be viewed as exactly that, a collection of businesses that provide our armed forces with the equipment they need; it is not a foreign policy think tank, or a congressional committee, or any sort of expert in the field of geopolitics, and this is a lesson we ignore at our own peril. It is only when this distinction is blurred that the military industrial complex poses any sort of threat to our country's self interest. Ultimately, it is up to government officials to ensure that the roles of this valuable relationship are clearly defined and enforced (through independent thought, not regulation), the government pursuing U.S. interests abroad, while the arms industry produces the equipment vital to the defense of our nation.

Current Event: Economic Demagoguery Misleading At Best

Although economic fear mongers would have you believe that the United States is on the brink of all out class warfare, their commentary on the fiscal situation of America is best taken with a grain of salt, if not the entire salt shaker. Although liberal economists such as Paul Krugman (a controversial figure in the field, Krugman has been criticized by detractors as dissimilar as Bill O'Reilly, The Economist, and even The New York Times for his questionable methodology and partisan rhetoric) are quick to point out that we are entering an era of rising income inequality, while this may be true, that does not necessarily mean that the economic well being of Americans even approaches the dire inequalities that ravaged the monopoly plagued economies of the world at the turn of the century, as they would insinuate. Although income inequality has risen, consumption inequality (the amount of goods that lower income Americans consume, versus the amount that well off Americans do), has not fluctuated at all, indicating that there is no drastic material inequality upswing accompanying the difference in wages.
To be continued. . .

Current Event: Oil Tops $100 a Barrel

Record high oil prices are influencing almost every aspect of the American life. However, many of those affected are not given an accurate explanation of the cause of the rapid inflation of the cost of oil. This issue is being purposefully misreported in order for political gain. Many politicians would have their constituents believe that the rise in the price of oil is due solely to the nefarious machinations of the oil companies, and they cite the historically high profit margins of "Big Oil" as evidence of market manipulation. However, the increased profit of oil companies has much more to do with streamlining their operations, increasing efficiency, and lowering the cost of extracting and refining oil than it does with price gouging. That is not to say that the prices are artificially high, as OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) is still pursuing their policy of purposefully underestimating their own supplies of fossil , and producing much less oil then they ideally could, to keep supplies artificially low, thus giving them an excuse to charge exorbitant amounts of money for the product. Additionally, a massive increase of demand from the booming economies of China and India, couples with unrest and violence in the oil fields of Nigeria have ensured that the price of oil would do nothing but increase.
http://economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10311266

Adam Smith Essay Outline

Essay Outline

Intro- Basic background of Adam Smith, short summary of life and times. Political and economic status of 18^th century. Accomplishments and achievements (Wealth of Nations and other writings)

Body paragraph 1: Influence on modern day society. Economics (free market, competition, “invisible hand). Politics (limited government, regulations, subsidies, New Deal/Great Society and opposing movements, communism and socialism, conservative and liberal ideologies, American revolution, morality).

Body Paragraph 2: World without Smith. Economic/Political effects (command economy, state run monopolies, no competition, nationalization, no meritocracy, individual freedoms curtailed as state power expands). Historical effects (American Revolution, British economy, Russian revolution and cold war, communist expansionism).

Body Paragraph 3: Modern figure. Milton Friedman. Conservatism and advocates of the free market. Morality of laissez faire capitalism, deregulation and condemnation of subsidies. Outspoken proponent of economic and social freedom.

Conclusion: Magnitude of Smith’s contributions to America and to the world. Dismal outlook without him. Friedman and others carried on his legacy. World drastically altered by his ideas.

Adam Smith Fact Sheet

Name: Adam Smith

Brief History: Born in June of 1723 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, he was raised by his mother, as his father had died before his birth. Educated at the Universities of Glasgow and Scotland, Balliol College, and Oxford University, he became a respected writer and teacher, regarded as the stereotypical absent-minded professor. In 1751, at the age of 27, Smith was given the Chair of Logic at Glasgow University, soon to be followed by the Chair of Moral Philosophy. In 1759, Smith published a book about moral approval, called The Theory of Moral Sentiments, a novel which significantly enhanced his credibility and reputation. Five years later, Smith travelled to France, where he stayed for a year and a half. There he began to ponder the intricacies of the economy, and the nature of value and took notes on his findings. These became the basis of his political and economic manifesto The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776. Gave speeches on the ideas laid out in his book until his death in1790.

Contacts: David Hume, Francis Hutchesan, William Hamilton, Edmund Burke, François Quesnay.

Height: 5 feet, 6 inches.

Weight: 154 lbs.

Financial Situation: Professor’s income, supplemented by book sales. Estimated income: £40,000 (adjusted for inflation).

Clothing: Mismatched and often incorrectly sized.

Hair: White, curled at sides.

Preferred Drink: Scotch.

Preferred Food: Haggis.

Jewelry: None. Believes it to be a frivolous purchase.

Embarrassing Moment: Wardrobe malfunction during economics lecture. Has never worn a kilt since.

Secret Conversation: While in France, a source close to the French government quoted him as having said that Louis XVI would surely provoke a rebellion if he pursued his misguided economic policies.

Book Report: Shogun

Clavell, James.
Shogun.
Delecorte Press: 1975.

Reason, Type, and Setting: Lately I have been reading and reporting on philosophical and political books, and although they are fascinating and thought provoking, they are not written to entertain. I never like to read one type of novel for too long, so I decided to pick up one of my old favorites, James Clavell's Shogun. This novel is an epic tale, full of adventure, political intrigue, swordplay, and romance, and I thought this fast paced (albeit long winded) story would be a nice break from the other books I had been reading. The novel is set in feudal Japan, near the turn of the 17th century. The island nation, which has remained untouched by the wars that ravaged Europe at the time, has had no contact with the West, save for a few friars and missionaries that traveled east from Europe to convert the great heathen nations the Marco Polo spoke of.

Plot: Shogun focuses on the life of John Blackthorne, an English ship's pilot. Blackthorne has been hired by the Dutch, England's ally in their war against the Spanish and Portuguese, to sail the ship Erasmus through the Spanish blockade and into the Strait of Magellan, a secret route used by the Portuguese to access their colonies and other assets in the East Indies. Once there, the Erasmus was to trade with the indigenous people, attempt to secure alliances and trade agreements with the local governments, and undermine the Spanish and Portuguese influence there. Unfortunately, the merchant ship was blown off course by a storm, and became beached on the shores of Japan, previously unknown to the English and Dutch. Blackthorne and his shipmates, stranded in a foreign, and largely hostile land, with no means of communicating with their captors, or escape, are faced with a bleak future. The Japanese look down on Westerners, thinking them to be barbarians, and the ones that they do tolerate, Spanish and Portuguese priests and traders dedicate themselves to persuading the Japanese to destroy Blackthorne and the rest of the crew, to deny their adversaries a foothold in what was previously their exclusive territory. Blackthorne eventually secures the safety of his compatriots by offering his services as a pilot to his jailers, only to become embroiled in a complex power struggle between two of the most influential factions in a nation that has been torn apart by civil war for centuries, and has only recently known unity. Blackthorne, although originally disgusted by the seemingly barbaric and primitive Japanese culture must assimilate into it in order to survive the coming confrontation between the two feuding Japanese warlords.

Character: The protagonist of this epic saga is John Blackthorne, English pilot and merchant. An imposing man, he possesses a shaggy blond mane, and piercing blue eyes, the likes of which the Japanese had never seen. Blackthorne, although physically intimidating, is exceptionally quick witted, has an excellent memory, is a gifted linguist, and is one of the best pilots in any nation's maritime forces. After defusing the initial threat to his safety by offering to help the warlord who captured him create a modern, European style army and navy, Blackthorne quickly begins to learn Japanese, so that he would not have to communicate through Portuguese translators, who would like nothing better than to see him be executed for a breach of etiquette. Once the barrier of language had been all but eliminated, Blackthorne not only survives in this inhospitable environment, he thrives, rising in status from a mere barbarian, to a full samurai, and retainer to the warlord, a title given to him for the services he rendered to the Japanese.

Evaluation: Despite having already read this book several years ago, it once again exceeded my expectations. The massive scope of the novel, the many interconnected plot lines, and the fascinating characters in this book make it an enduring classic, and a masterpiece of storytelling. The plot is one of the most engrossing tales that I have ever read, and I spent entire days of my break doing nothing but working my way through this brick of a novel. Despite the fact that this is one of the longest books that I have read, at over one thousand pages, it could not have been a sentence shorter, in fact, my one criticism of the book is that it could have been a bit longer, so that more plot lines could be resolved, and to give a more detailed description of the climactic battle that the entire book had been leading up to. I would recommend this novel to anyone who has a lot of free time on their hands. It has anything you could ever want in a book, blood, sex, power, ninjas, etc.

Author, Context, and Trivia: Shogun is the first book in Clavell's critically acclaimed Asian Saga, which follows the history of British entrepreneurs in Asia. This book is a bit different from the rest of those in the series, as most follow the Struan Trading Company, and the events surrounding it. The author, James Clavell, also worked on the famous World War Two P.O.W. film, The Great Escape, was a major proponent of laissez-faire capitalism, and the free market economy. He was also an admirer of Ayn Rand, and once sent her a copy of his book Noble House, accompanied by a note saying "This is for Ayn Rand – one of the real, true talents on this earth for which many, many thanks. James C, New York, 2 Sept 81."