Study Guide Google Doc

All are welcome to use this resource, please add notes, ideas, and summaries!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yUPhn9cSrMhqzsefPl9lkus9pkBrtClupgvhzUDNccM/edit?hl=en&authkey=COOUw5YD#

Final Exam: 11:30am 141 McCone

Legitimacy and Crisis

I had to take a break from writing a paper on the Tea-Party for Gill Hart's class to share a few things.

These past two years have been pretty extraordinary in terms of the global reaction to the onset of austerity measures. Kris said something in class about the reverberating affects of various movements. Many things have happened, just in the span of this class. Last year in Greece there were massive riots and protests against the greek austerity-bail out ... And recently in Spain 3/4 of workers went on strike, the Air-traffic controllers refused to work and were forced, literally by gun-point, by the military (which occupied the airports) to continue working. Before these protests in France earlier this autumn, 3 million french students and workers took to the street to protest cuts to education, the raising of the age at which people are allowed to stop working without getting a penalty. (btw, lot's of people strangely reported that they were raising it from 61 to 62, that was just a small percentage of the population, most french-people are just like any other nation, they were raising it from 65 to 67 See this article. And now, in Britain the protests against education cuts were huge -- they were supported by a large percentage of students and workers and has changed both the student's and larger public's understanding of the present situation -- consciousness remains "hot". In the past few weeks in Italy there have also been riots and protests over austerity measures and education cuts. Now, in the past few hours with Berlusconi being narrowly allowed to continue his reign (by 2 votes), workers, students, concerned citizens, etc. have broken into various protests/riots across Italy...

Around the world Austerity is demanded. Around the world people have seemed to say: "Austerity for us? Austerity for the bankers, the very rich, not for us" ... well... there's lots to say, but I guess I'd like to point out that the world we know hasn't been around as long as living in it makes it seem. These are strange and changing times -- there's a lot to think about, especially when we are in school and learning all this stuff. I suggest though that dreaming from the space of your own life is very important. I don't think dreaming is idealistic, I think it's actually very necessary to understand what you want out of life and your problems with the current state of things: it lets your critique of the world flesh out into something relevant at all times of the day. The question of course is then that old nagging one: what is to be done. I might be naive, but I think humans are capable of so much good -- we shouldn't blind ourselves about the tenability of alternatives.

Bomb Burning in California Home

Hi Everyone,

I realize that everyone is in the depths of papers and finals, but I was following the developments of this story and found it relevant to our discussions on issues surrounding the bomb and nuclear facilities. The amount of effort, funding, evacuations and so forth surrounding a house full of home made bombs and materials highlights the massive needs of funding and effort that are needed to address the much larger issue of nuclear test sites and toxic dump sites. The burning of this house is expected to release toxic chemicals into the air surrounding air in a mile radius, and stories note the wind watch advisory for the day of the burn reminds me of the miscalculated wind measurements in the nuclear testing in the Bikini atolls.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/12/03/131755637/-bomb-factory-in-california-home-leads-to-state-of-emergency

"art is a permanent accusation"

Abu Ghraib
Fernando Botero

Botero's paintings depict the torture, abuse and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers.


Link to Botero's Abu Ghraib series

Botero Sees the World's True Heavies at Abu Ghraib

Washington Post Article, November, 2007

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"A painting is not thought out and settled in advance. While it is being done, it changes as one's thoughts change. And when it's finished, it goes on changing, according to the state of mind of whoever is looking at it." - Pablo Picasso

Guernica, 1937

My interpretation of this quote by Picasso is that art has the capability to transform and challenge to the point that we become different people. Theory is very much like this.

WIPP Nuclear Waste Markers

Just thought I would share a document that gives more pictures and ideas of how to possibly mark nuclear waste sites for thousands of years in the future.

I think it is interesting to think about how it is possible to mark a site for future generations, possibly after our languages have all disappeared...how can we communicate these dangers in pictures ? Also, by marking a site, you are also drawing attention to it merely by act of marking. Thus, marking it could have the reverse effect that we intend. How can we mark a spot to universally express danger for thousands and perhaps hundreds of years in the future when communication and civilization as we know it will have so drastically changed?

I think this is really interesting to think about because it conveys the massive extent and unbounded nature of this problem both spatially and temporally.

http://www.wipp.energy.gov/library/PermanentMarkersImplementationPlan.pdf