Different lions

During my furlough from blogging I have been doing quite a bit of research on Eisenhower’s foreign policy in the coup de tat of Guatemala in 1954. The reasoning behind Eisenhower’s decision was because the United States could not have a Communism influence between Texas and the Panama Canal. How a society functions varies how a story is told in various parts of the world; the story of Jesus is told significantly different than it is in a Southern Baptist Church found in Alabama.

What I am getting at is Shakespeare’s time period influenced who his stories effected and how a person was influenced. This got me thinking about the current situation in the Middle East and Northern Africa and how a majority of the people wish to have as little Western influence as possible. Yet we continually force our ideals and morals upon them with no regard for their personal interest. This is how things go though and a society must learn to adapt because regardless of what the common person wants they will not get their way; especially when there is a world super power on the opposing side. The difference between Shakespeare’s life and ours’ is the fact he was influenced directly by the people who surrounded him and rarely spoke of Asia, India, or any other varying culture because he wrote about what he knew or was able to study (Ovid, Greek military history, yada yada ya). Whereas in today’s world our government is making decisions to influence what is happening in Libya even though we do not truly understand their culture.

While reading my group’s play, The Tragedy of Coriolanus, Martius (soon to be known as Coriolanus) says, “Upon my party, I’d revolt, to make only my wars with him. He is a lion. That I am proud to hunt” (I.1. 232-235). Whereas today we may be proud to hunt the lion but we do not understand what makes the hunt of the lion special. We rather are able to kill the lion without ever laying eyes on it removing any emotional consequences that could come from the kill. Our media and government are able to remove the public from what truly happens with the words they choose to use they are able to distort the truth that reaches the public. I was talking to a friend who is in Japan currently and was telling me the differences in media between the US/Japan over the earthquake. The following words are written by my friend Mitch P.

“it seems as though the Japanese media is using terms like help, recovery, action and CNN is using words like destruction, terror, mass death. Perhaps it is just the different perspective that I have been so used to seeing, but it looks like the Japanese media is trying to spread helpful tips instead of dramatic daily conversation fillers.

There seems to be a general calm here given the circumstances that have hit this country. Granted I am very far from the real affected area, however, the Japanese people seemed determined to rebuild quickly. They are not looking to point fingers at which organization failed and where. They do not care if FEMA didn’t follow exact protocol. They are simply rolling their sleeves up and doing what they can to recover. I think very few cultures throughout the world have that type of audacity in a time of disaster. Instead of worrying about comparative casualties and where this earthquake stands statistically in history they are developing plans.”

This blog has gone in a direction I did not intend and seems to be a bit of rant on the the bull spit that is constantly happening in our world but I believe this shows the power of language. The Japanese are looking at their situation with positivity while in America we continue to find the negatives in each story because that is what makes more news (i.e. Money) but to change the world we must attempt to understand one another or, live and let live because no two nations will ever have the same ideals.