Protocol 3/29

As we started with some house keeping today we congratulated Alyssa with having her letter published in the Daily. She wrote about the movie Limitless in comparison to college students use of ADD medication. In order to be published she first mailed her article to the Daily. The Daily edited her paper only a little. It was published very close to the way she had wrote it. Ben pointed out that the comment shared underneath her article said "umm, wtf?" Ben pointed out that this person is clearly not a great thinker.

Next on house keeping was to pass out the hard copy assignment for external writing number three and the final project. Ben explained that external writing number three is making history using the bureaucratic system and said it would be smart to start with information that we already know from class. He stated that he is scared we are going to go back to what we think an academic paper should be and BS it. A formal paper does not mean boring. Think about Wolf and Vidal, you can put yourself into the paper but still follow the rules. This paper is what we have already done yet in a different form. Ben recommends coming and talking to him about what you want to write about and he can help. The grading is a little different for this external writing. The grading is collaborate, so we say what we think we deserve our grade to be and Ben says what he thinks what our paper's grade should be. He will update us more on this later. The final assignment is to make history charismatically. This assignment is shorter. We do not need to write a paper, but simply tell the class what we did. The groups are four to six people. Creativity, wit and originality always helps! Ben says he will answer more questions later.

Today we had some guests in class. Ben had everyone say their name and if we were a sovereign state who would be our enemy and the exoteric and esoteric reasoning behind it. Ben gave the first example by saying his name is Ben and if he were a sovereign state his enemy would be exams. The exoteric reasoning is that exams are destroying the state of critical thinking. His esoteric reasoning is that his preliminary exams start next week. Ben recapped that exoteric is the noble lie you feed to the masses. This lie is used to scare the hell out of the American people. Carrie said her enemy was tuition. Her exoteric reasoning was it stops people from attending school. The esoteric reasoning was she is exhausted from working eighty hours. Gina said her enemy would be her high school's school board. Her exoteric reasoning is that they provide false promises, and her esoteric reasoning was she is pissed they didn't read her paper. My personal enemy was basically anything medical such as doctors, health insurance companies, etc. My exoteric reasoning is it cost a ridiculous amount to go to the doctor. People do not have enough to pay so they cannot go and then of course they die. My esoteric reasoning is bills, especially the Boyton bill where they told me to go home and rest for 132 dollars. How kind of them. Ahmed said his enemy is credit credit companies. His exoteric reasoning is that they manipulate and trap people. His esoteric reason is his interest rate. Ben pointed out that our enemies are all connected. You can take the reasoning for hating a group and bring it to hating a group of people . This all relates back to Nazi Germany and hating the Jews. The guest's shared as well. Anil shared that his enemy was skinny jeans. His exoteric reasoning was that they cause strangulation of the leg flow that results to bad blood flow and can lead to a car accident. The esoteric reasoning is that he just doesn't like them. The second guest name was Rachel. She shared that her enemy was the director Arnosky. Her exoteric reasoning was lack of directorial skills contributes to death of cinema, and her esoteric reason was the director looks like a douche. The third guest name was Jesse, his enemy was cars. His exoteric reasoning was they pollute and cause accidents. The pollution causes global warming which will rid us of civilization. His esoteric was he has a bad sense of direction and wishes people would just navigate for him. These guests are prospected doctoral students. Which means they would get tuition cuts yet ironically have to pay 500 dollars in fees. Ben says a question to think about is "What can we do about that? What can we do to build agency?"

We then moved to thinking about the history we have learned in class and how has it led us to Flynn. Marika said the study of truth and what actually happened. I shared what we have learned about why people make the decisions they make and how it is based on their background. Ben asked for an example. I said that the differences between Hakim and Karim and how they made the decision to kill the dad and his son. Britney shared the bureaucratic vs charismatic and how the book attempts to convince someone. Mandy then said that going off of charismatic truth she was thinking of Howard Beale and told everyone she found out that Network is Rachel Ray's favorite movie. Ben then asked if Pursuit of Honor is Charismatic truth. Sophie says it is charismatic since although Flynn did research he still uses his own truth to come through his characters. Ahmed asked if a fiction book can be bureaucratic truth. Kate said that it could not and Ben agreed. We discussed how Vince Flynn is a brand. His name on the book is even bigger than the title. People are buying the book since he wrote it not for the title. Our guest Rachel shared that since Flynn's book is shows that it is a New York Time's best seller does that influence people on the truth. Does Flynn's status make people what he writes. Ben says Flynn has a position of authority since he appears on talk show, etc. Beck says if you are looking for the truth to go to the fictional writers. Ben believes that you need sources and to list those sources in order to gain bureaucratic truth. He noted that this is important for all of us to remember, "Bureaucratic truth is suppose to show you are disinterested. You are just telling it how it is." Since there is no way to check Flynn's sources then he is not bureaucratic truth. However, a lot of people learn their history from Flynn rather than Wolf. Just cause its charismatic truth does not mean its not true. Ben shared that it is impossible to get things just the way it happened. Take a look at my protocol vs Mariana's protocol. They will be different since we are in different positions.

Then we moved on to Hongfa, Tam, and Shukuri's difficultation. Tam asked for six volunteers to go out to the hall. Inside the classroom Hongfa has the rest of us come up with quotes, moments, and keywords from Flynn that is related to four authors: Vidal, Wolf, Strauss, and Schmitt. A picture of this can be found in Mariana's protocol. The six volunteers came back into the room. The first three acted out a scene from Flynn chapter 17 page 100-104. Alyssa, Kate, and Ahmed performed the reenactment first then Ben, Heidi, and Mandy performed the same scene second. It was interesting to see the differences in the scenes by different actors and by adding a prop. The class then took notes by using three sections one for our reaction to the scene, the second for the reaction to the characters and the third for "What is Flynn's purpose of having the characters portrayed in this scene. We got into groups of twos to discuss. As the whole class moved to group discussion the class time had sadly run out. By next class Flynn is supposed to be finished.