Dinesh D'Souza

After reading an article called "The Closing of the Conservative Mind, Part I," which was written by Dinesh D'Souza I was able to learn about his views. D'Souza is an extreme leftist who is Islamic, and has written a book called The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11. He has received many threats from angry rightist American who speak of him as a follower of Bin Laden. The problem with D'Souza is that because he grew up in India, he doesn't understand how people could disagree withhis believes, he is single minded an has no clue how to understand someone else's perspective. In his book D'Souza blames "American liberal policies and actions taken by named individuals in power." I personally feel that through reading responses that people have had from his book, and how Americans feel that he is blaming America I find it impossible to understand why he doesn't understand people harsh feelings towards the book. Lastly this article clearly illustrated how extreme someone's view points can be.

Regarding Frantz Fanon

This is a response to Caitlin's post below.

Not to be annoyingly challenging, but I politely disagree with your post. I feel that your thought of individuality and the power of distinguishing personal views from peers is a bit cliche and innocently idealistic. I agree with Fanton. I feel like people are constantly adapting to their surroundings, hence how children learn how to do...everything. It's a survival instinct. If colonization were to happen, and the colonies spread their influence all over the native land, I think that their actions and words could change the way the natives speak. Humans subconsciously adapt to their environment to survive. One example is Stockholm Syndrome. In order to survive, a prisoner gains sympathy for the higher power holding them captive. Fanton said, "Man's tragedy, Nietzsche said, is that he was once a child. . . . However painful it may be for me to accept this conclusion, I am obliged to state it: For the black man there is only one destiny. And it is white" Even Fanton agrees that the truth is grim, but the truth is indeed the truth. Even in America, citizens from other countries adapt to the American life. It's for practicality and for survival. It's human instinct.

Mr. Outspoken Concervative Dinesh D'Souza

Dinesh D'Souza, a Indian immigrant now living in the U.S., is a very outspoken conservative political commentator. He has written about a dozen novels in the span of his life, and many articles ranging from topics such as Ronald Raegan, why the Left is responsible for 9/11, and why religion is actually flourishing and not dying. His very opinionated piece on religion,titled God knows why faith is thriving helps give a look into his religious views and into his political views. Religion, a very controversial subject to undertake is handled in what I believe to be a very formal and well thought out fashion.
D'Souza offers his views on how atheism is anti-progressive, with his reasoning being that areas with high atheist percentages have dwindling populations and how people with religions have something to look forward to, while those that are atheist have nothing. This, he derives, is why religion helps strengthen populations. While he makes some very valid points and observations, he fails to examine modern religion and atheism through different lenses. He spends a very large part of his article explaining how economics affect religion and vice versa, but does not examine the actual dynamic between religion and atheism very much. He mentions how the prospect of the afterlife only very briefly, and goes on to talk mostly about economics and population. This makes him seem to be more interested in the economic stimulus that religion causes in countries, rather than the argument that exists between believers and non-believers.
His case is very well thought out, and even though I am on the non-believing side, I have to say that he did a very good job handling the subject.

Franz Fanon

Franz Fanon's books seem to uncover the philosophy and psychology behind colonialism. While we traditionally focus on who was being colonized and who was colonizing, Fanon delves into understanding the relationship between the colonized and colonizers. In his book Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon argues that racism is an effect of colonization. His point is that when you are colonized by a language, you are inadvertently accepting the collective mindset and culture of the colonizer. Thus, should that colonizer be racist or discriminatory, you too become that way. However, I disagree. I believe that people have the ability to separate themselves as individuals from society as a unit. Therefore, people don't need to blindly follow norms and cultural standards should their personal views differ. Particularly during times of colonization would this concept be apparent. Colonized peoples may experience anger and resentment towards their colonizers and would subsequently be less likely to follow that path. Thus, even if they are forced to speak the language of the colonizers, that doesn't mean "above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization," as Fanon argues. It simply means that they are coerced to conform to certain aspects of the new culture, yet I believe that their belief system or moral code can remain unchanged. Thus, while Fanon writes that ramifications such as racism are inherent to colonization, I believe that colonized subjects can maintain their own sense of culture and ethics.  

The Wretched of the Earth

Franz Fanon's work of The Wretched of the Earth is supposed to be fiery and inspirational, yet I believe it's actually just unhelpful. Fanon says that, "Europe undertook the leadership of the world with ardour, cynicism and violence," and has "a succession of negations of man, and an avalanche of murders", justifying "her crimes" and legitimizing "the slavery in which she holds four-fifths of humanity". He even writes that Africans should not try to imitate Europe in any way because, "a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions."

Fanon goes over and over the point that Africans need to go in a new direction, and not follow the European or American way. He declares that they "must turn over a new leaf... work out new concepts, and try to set afoot a new man," but he offers absolutely no solution to this dilemma. I think it's pointless to just point out a "problem" like this and not give any effort to solve it.

Dinesh D'Souza and "The End of Racism"

In 1995, Dinesh D'Souza published a controversial bestseller titled The End of Racism. The book discusses how America is no longer fighting racism because people have simply accepted that racism exists, thus stifled progress to prove such ideas wrong. Dinesh D'Souza explores questions regarding racial prejudice and whether or not such a characteristic is innate or culturally acquired. Although I could not find D'Souza's answer to this question, I believe that every individual recognizes racial differences, but I do not believe that racism is an inborn trait. I know that I sometimes use racial profiling and I am sure that this is not naturally a part of me. I most likely observed it in movies or perhaps, unfortunately, from my family. I do not believe that racism started with differences in color; I believe it began with cultural divides and people trying to comprehend why cultures differ. I believe racism developed from confusions and misunderstandings that can occur from language barriers. It was easier to label someone as being strange or foreign rather than trying to find common ground.

Franz Fanon

Franz Fanon was born July 20, 1925. He lived a relatively short life, dying December 6, 1961 after being diagnosed with leukemia.
He wrote multiple books, including Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth. In The Wretched of the Earth, he analyzes the role played by race, class, and violence in the fight for freedom. This is his most fiery work, saying that in order to overthrow the white dominance of colonies "absolute violence" is required. He has been established as one of the leading an anti-colonial thinkers of the 20th century. His works have helped drive many of the anti-colonial movements in the last 40 years.