(no subject)

Great quotes from the other day from others, not me:

1. The doorway through poverty leads to a school. This is so true. Education is what enabled my father and his brothers and sisters to overcome the poverty that they had as children, and their parents were trapped in. Lack of education is what traps so many people within poverty. We are thinking, at church, of maybe trying to rebuild schools in Haiti, to build them to code, to withstand hurricanes and earthquakes. It is mentioned that the only building standing in Porte a Prince is the US Embassy - built by the Corps of Engineers.
We wonder if we can bring teachers down there as well. We are told about the abject poverty, so poor that if those who are working class have servants - children are sent to them as servants, for food/board in exchange for chores. Anything not to starve.

2.Another quote from the other day...was about privilege. It went like this: I am a white straight man and I can walk down the street holding my wife's hand, without fearing any backward looks or sneers. I can be followed by a clerk in a store, without worrying that someone is following just me and that they don't follow everyone else who enters the store.
I can drive to and enter a family clinic without worrying about my entry being blocked for any reason. And if I get stopped on the highway by a cop, I know that it is because of something I definitely did wrong and that the conversation will be the normal one with no danger to my person. These are privileges that I have not because I earned them, not because of anything I did, but because of my genetic makeup, of my DNA, over which I have no control. And I stand here today because I believe everyone should have these privileges no matter who they are or what their sexual orientation, gender identity, race, transgender, age, etc. While female - I too have privileges others don't - as my aunt K told me a while ago, you had the opportunity to be educated at good schools that is something a high percentage of our population never has.
You could choose which schools you went to and you went to grad school. I did not grow up poor.
Not like my father did or his family. And I am white - so I do not have to worry about being judged on the color of my skin. Gender - yes, and height is always a factor. But I'm not overweight. And I'm not gay. So on the surface, I fit in with society, I do not stand out.
This grants me certain privileges. The problem with privilege is we don't want to give them up. We don't want to lose these privileges. We hold tight to them as if they were life or death. And if sharing these privileges with others means we lose them ourselves? And therein lies the problem, the terror of losing our privileges. I thought of this today while I read the paper and noticed in column an article about the Wall Street bonuses and the resurgence in luxury spending, with housing costs in NY echoing that spending - Wall Street is doling out bonsus that equal over 4 billion. The highest in years. In another column - there's an article about Haiti and Mia Farrow who is struggling to help the impoverished children. At work, our co-worker tells us about a school that was demolished where her brother lived and the stink of the corpses from it, permeating the area.

3. I have hope for a world where human rights are not doled out solely by those with privilege.

I'm writing these down in my journal so I can remember them. And because they haunt me, not quite letting go.

From Toy Story to Dollhouse, the vulgarities of trust, identity, and self - Meta on Whedon's works

Joss Whedon's series Dollhouse ended on Friday, January 29. It will air, or so I'm told, much later this year in the UK, so if you are in the UK or are waiting for the DVD's to come out, you may want to stop here - beyond this point are massive plot spoilers.

(The US will get Being Human and Merlin several months later. Hmm, if I didn't know any better I'd assume the only countries developing television series were UK and US. US is horrid at importing media from other countries, yet quite adept at stealing ideas from them (Being Human per example is being made into a US series for SyFy) and exporting all sorts of media abroad. Over 30% of the royalty income that film and tv distributors receive is from foreign rights distribution alone. The internet has merely made it easier. This is in a way a wise move - because much like the industrial age before it, whomever owns and controls the flow of new technological power source or in this case the information source/outlet, runs the world. It is about power. Always has been, always will be. Who has it, who wants it, and how people who have it wield it. The media outlets in the US wield a lot of power...a frightening amount, when I think about it.)

I mention this in part because it is among the central themes of this series. Joss Whedon is a fascinating writer - because he likes to examine the uses and abuses of power. In Dollhouse - he poses the question - what happens if someone can literally program or deprogram the human mind much as they might a computer - so that human bodies become avatars, blank slates until a personality or program is downloaded into them. Sort of a dark twist on Cameron's AVATAR concept - where the male hero gets to walk again due to being downloaded into a human/alien AVATAR body and save the world. Here, the results are far more horrific and the issues far less simple. Where Cameron's film tends to be a mindless, albeit tightly plotted, thrill ride, with some feel-good moments (depending on who you are) and a happy ending, Whedon's tv series is a creepy exploration into the abuses of power, identity, and self-empowerment and not least of all trust.

( cut for massive spoilers on Dollhouse S1 and S2, Angel the Series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer the series (just tv), Doctor Horrible, Toy Story, and Firefly )