Life is precious and meaningful, but in the cases we've read about this week -- the Holocaust and Afghanistan - there appear to be very inconsiderate people that go as far as destroying other people's lives for their "benefit".
"The Price of going to class," (an article in our current Upfront issues) written by Dexter Filkins displays the "regrouped" members of the Taliban's extremely harsh treatment on Afghanistan teenage girls. In the article a seventeen year old girl named Shamisa Husseini was sprayed with battery acid by a man. She was not the only woman attacked, many others were. And for what reason? What did these girls do? They were just living their lives and going to school to learn like we do everyday, and because of this, they were attacked by the Taliban. Throughout the article we are able to see Shamisa's strong eagerness and willingness to learn - even after the battery acid incident. (She continued to go to the Mirwais School for Girls). It's incredible the way she and the other girls that got attacked are standing up for what they believe in and going against tradition and finally realizing that they deserve to live better lives and be treated the right way.
I believe the answer to why the Taliban did such a thing to those innocent girls is clear. They wouldn't allow girls to get an education because they feared loosing power. If people were more educated (80% of the women in Afghanistan are illiterate) they would rise up against the Taliban and see that they're missing out on their own rights. (They would go against the Taliban and tradition)
There was another group that suffered greatly and this was Jewish people during the time of the Holocaust when swastika flags and khaki uniformed men - the German Nazis - created chaos in Germany and other unfortunate places in Europe.
In Maus, Vladek, a Polish "mouse" is telling his life story about his horrible life during the Holocaust. From his story I am able to say that the Nazis were a fascist group. First of all, they were a single organization in Germany that quickly became more and more powerful. (We know they became more and more powerful because they started off being guards and asking people for their "papers" then they took away businesses and finally killed anyone standing in their way) The Nazis eventually became a totalitarian group that controlled everything. Because even Jewish people - the Nazi's target - joined the Nazis, ( to avoid being killed) I believe that it grew into a popular movement. The Nazis were also very militaristic because they had SS guards throughout Germany. They also made everyone conform to their beliefs by force. All these factors are key elements of fascism.
Both organizations are very greedy and did whatever it took to gain complete control over society. When one has power, one does anything to assert one's power. These people abused/are abusing the power they had/have.
I thought this was really strong and clear. You did an especially good job of exploring the motives behind the Taliban for wanting to eliminate girls education.
ReplyDeleteDivided into two parts (Afghanistan and the Nazis), I thought that your writing was very to the point and explained each situation well. However, I would have liked to see more of a connection between the two different stories. The section about the Taliban didn't mention the idea of fascism, but it didn't need to since it described how the Taliban had taken control and tried to keep it. Then the part about the Nazis mentions fascism, and it makes it seem like a different political situation than the section above. But it seems as if you had wanted the reader to see that they were similar.
ReplyDeleteHowever, overall, a very powerfully written article.
I thought that your evidence of each group being fascist, and then your analysis connected really well. You did a great job of coming to one conclusive wrap-up as well. The only thing I would have changed was maybe adding one sentence comparing the Nazis and the Taliban, or relating them to each other more. But very analytical and it expresses your opinion well
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand, your argument was that the Nazis and Taliban-two fascist groups-condemned and undermined their people so as to censor their freedom of speech. To be brutally honest I just didn't see the connection between the Nazi's absolute power over the control of information and the Taliban's restriction of education. Individually I thought your facts were spot on within the two statements revolving around the Nazi Party and the Taliban and their role in the right to knowledge. However, I think that an even stronger argument would consist of these two statements intertwining with one another to make one statement about the right to knowledge in a Fascist country. If you disagree with this we can argue about it in math ;-).
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