POST 14: ELEPHANT, a Gus Van Sant movie

1)What struck the most is the fact that contrary to what we can expect from a movie that trace the bloody story about the Colombine shooting, there's no much violence and action as we can experience in classical american movie.

2) What I really apreciate about this movie is probably the various very interesting cameras shots that allow us to put ourselves in the shoes of the differents characters.

3) What I found particulary upsetting is the murderers were actually high-school students that were the same age as the victims, which breaks the trust between them.

4) Basically the movie was supposed to recall the true story, however the producer Gus Van Sant decided instead to add a personally scenario changing the end as one of the killers shoot the other contrary to the real fact that both of them commited suicide.

5) In america, they can buy weapons so easily that two underage students can simply decide to buy an arsenal and make a kill in their own school.
Otherwise, we can make a sordid comparaison between Alex checking the cafetaria in order to prepare his attack plan as if  he goes for shopping.

6) Alex and Eric are apparently two bullied children who are delivered to themselves as they lived most of the time whithout their parents. They developped a true fascination for the Nazis and they didn't know anything about love and relationship.

7) The film director make us quickly understand that the two killers were unsocial teenagers both locked in their own world leading by violence, hatred and video games.

8) The whole film is concentrated on the specific day of the massacre and the scenes are showed whith a very estethic point of view that gives us a ressentment as if something terrible was going to happen.

9) Gus Van Sant mannaged to create a whole ambiance whith a lot of very quiet and different characters opposed to the image of the classical noisy heoro that is always noticed.
Moreover, each of them has a decisive role as the first and the last victims.

10) Both of them, the killers and innocents are victims of the US gun cuture and the gun lobby.
The shooters just wanted to take revenge on the jocks that were the principal offenders of the bullying but these firsts even killed innocents such as the nerd girl who was living the same situation as them.

Steve SACK, on www.startribune.com,

Gun Lobby and Congress (2010)

The Founding Fathers of the United States are the individuals of the Thirteen British Colonies in North America who led the American Revolution against the authority of the British Crown and established the United States of America. The term is also used more narrowly, referring specifically to those who either signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 or who were delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention and took part in drafting the proposed Constitution of the United States. A further subset includes those who signed the Continental Association or the Articles of Confederation.[2] During much of the 19th century, they were referred to as either the "Founders" or the "Fathers".

This caricature from Steve Stack shows us the capitol with american flag where we can find bloodstains all along the stairs. In front of the building, there is two men, one businessman that represents the gun lobby called the NRA who's apparently making a deal that is to say bribing with the other guy that is a member of the congress.

This is a critisism of the whole american system which works mostly with the parlement that is supposed to be neutral concerning State affairs such as guns restriction.

However we clearly see the businessman giving money to the member of the congress probably to buy his silence concerning the fact that they killed there opponents.

More generally, this cartoon denounces the corruption which afflicts the american governement that is victim itself of the overpower of money that protects lobbies from the laws.

Dave GRANDLUND, on www.davegranlund.com, 

Second Amendment and NRA (2013)

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is an American nonprofit organization which advocates for gun rights. Founded in 1871, the group has informed its members about firearm-related bills since 1934, and it has directly lobbied for and against legislation since 1975. It is also the oldest continuously operating civil rights organization in the United States.

On this cartoon from Dave Grandlund, we can see on the left side a status of the founding fathers that advocates the second amendment, that is to say the law which authorizes the carrying of guns.

On the right side, there is a soldier standing on a stack of ammunitions boxes that also highlights the second amendment.

Nevertheless, there is a paradox between the status and the soldier because this first is like a memory of the end of the war of independince in 1971 with the declaration of the second amendment as a symbol of freedom and equality which was actually credible and understandable at the time, contrary to to the NRA which claims the same thing but just to take advantage in a very selfish way of the financial profit that hides behind the arms market in the united states.

PHYSICAL AND VIRTUAL SPACES

REMITTANCES

Emigrants from developing countries now account for some 181 million people, so as to say, they would constitute the sixth largest nation by population.
However, others emmigrants from the least developed countries represent actually 50 millions of people.
 According to the new annual statement issued by the World Bank, they should have sent together a total of some $ 508 billion to their countries of origin for the year 2011, that is to say $ 435 bilion for developing countries and $ 73 bilion for the less developed countries.
 Moreover, these rates increase on average from 2 to 3% each year.

The idea of progress: Quantity vs Quality

the progress we have been experiencing over the years has allowed us to generally increase our production quantity thanks to a demand increasingly high against a consumer less demanding.
However, from a material point of view, people tend to estimate that despite a visible increase in production, the quality of the product keeps falling in return.
Otherwise from a human point of view this growing economy has direct social impacts on the populations concerned, especially in so-called "developed" countries but also in developing countries, which have, for example, led to a semblance of social stability.

Indeed, it can be seen from this graph that from the second half of the 20th century to more or less today, the living conditions of the world population have actually spectacularly increased.

This progress is essentially due to our capitalist society which has made it possible to increase the incomes of the already well-off populations to the detriment of those in need.

However, this second graph clearly shows the increase in inequality that has occurred over these lasts 50 years.

 Basically, contrary to what one might think, the standard of living of other countries hasn't decreased because their situation improves over the years except for the countries at war.

But this evolution remains insignificant compared to richest countries and many of them tend to stagnate in their development being overtaken by its neighbors, which only increases the economic gap between the countries.

I chose to focus on the social-economic aspect of the problem of quantity and quality because it is something that keeps growing because our personal development always produces harmful effects whether on our environment or our congeners.

To conclude, the quality could be summarized as a certain equality that could be achieved provided that we reduce or share the quantity available to us.