Show Research

Show Research

We were told that our piece would be based on censorship, left and right wing politics, (marxism) communism vs capitalism and austerity so i tried to go off and cover as much of that as i could in my research

Freedom of Speech/Censorship

As attractive as the idea of "freedom of speech" may be it isn't something that wholly and truly exists. There are still countries that don't allow people to challenge their governmental system if they have the luxury of democracy in the first place. The reality of it is that the class, gender, religion, background and overall value as a human often dictates your right to free expression. Free speech is only granted to certain people preaching certain ideologies and this to me is not free speech at all.

Charlie Hebdo/The French - Muslim community



This "conflict" is a good analogy for the free speech argument.

On the 7th of January 2015 at about 11:30 attacks were carried out on the satirical newspaper company ending in 12 employees suffering fatal injuries, in response to a cartoon degradingly depicting the prophet Muhammed saying "it is hard to be followed by idiots(muslims)". Now whilst the horrific attacks was an atrocity, it is failed to be evennoted by the media that these images were being drawn and peacefully protested against by muslims.

"Charlie Hebdo a nation divided"

(i couldn't post the original short film so instead i posted notes i made whilst watching it)

French ideologies 

• The French state banned hijabs, burkhas, niqabs e.t.c. making Muslims feel like they had to choose between being French or being Muslim and rightly so. They are essentially being alienated by the society they grew up in and have learnt to love. 

• France holds the belief that everyone should be equal which contradicts the law mentioned above, alongside many of its people not respecting let alone accepting difference.

• In France Right wing and quite frankly racist parties/organisations are the dominant political parties.

•  "Generation Identitaire" (a popular far right wing party) believe that anyone of European descent should immediately leave France even if they were born and raised there.

To say Charlie Coulibaly means "to not take sides" yet it is deemed "punishable by imprisonment".

Anecdotes

Young French-Muslims feel that they have to support an offensive caricature of their prophet Muhammad to separate themselves from the terrorists to step closer to being accepted within their very own communities. 

• Muslim woman who studied at an elite French school cannot find a job under her Muslim name but when she changed it to a French sounding name she got three interviews. She describes the way she is treated as a French-Muslim as  "like not being loved by your mother."

• Female French Muslim feels that the media have portrayed Muslim women as dangerous and scary. She approaches this through the art of stand up comedy to show that beneath the Hijab is a very ordinary woman, a human being.

• A young boy was in class were he was told to raise if he was in support of Charlie, the boy didn't raise his hand. When the teacher asked why he didn't raise his hand the eight year old said that Charlie Hebdo were offensive to his religion and therefore he agrees with the terrorist. The boy in didn't know what a terrorist was but he was taught at home about the prophet Muhammad and it was therefore reasonable for him to defend his religion. The case attracted international attention when the boy was bought in by the police for questioning authorised under the "apology of terrorism law". 

Summary

There are clearly double standards in France regarding "free speech" as you can "freely" degrade and slander a whole religious following and which is "acceptable". If you not only oppose this but don't support it you can rightfully be imprisoned which to me makes no sense. 

The idealistic side of me says that free speech can be an amazing thing and that it is not a stretch from reality, but the realist side of me says that it is practically impossible to achieve and will lead to the spreading of hate resulting on more conflict and a bigger divide.

The Daily Show
3:20 - onwards

This comedy clip flips the roles of race and touches on topics such as "apology of terrorism" we see how ridiculous it is for us to blame a whole race for the actions of the few and are pushed to realise how ridiculous it is for (e.g.) the French-Muslim people to have to apologise for the actions of the few "Muslims" carrying out actions such as "Murder" that are explicitly prohibited in the Quran anyway)

Anonymous on censorship ("government cover ups")

Despite its almost overbearing theatricality i found this video very interesting and informative it addresses the use of the internet for free expression something that that my generation takes for granted. It has never been so easy to get information but the flip-side of it is that it has never been easier to spread and breed mis-information.

Exhibit B at the Barbican

Show Description and Statement From The Cast

"Each audience member walks in alone into the exhibit, and each performer is exhibited in their own tableau vivant. Each performer is instructed by Brett to look into the eyes of each audience member. On arrival, at the first tableau, most people don’t even recognise that human beings are standing there. For a moment, particularly for the first few, we are objects. Then, our eyes meet. In that moment when our eyes meet, we cease to be objectified and become human. Some people literally jump back. Some break into tears; others immediately look away. Others still gaze deeper as their eyes well up.

As they move through the exhibit, we watch them and witness anger, grief, pity, sadness, compassion. Above all, we witness a dawning of awareness. This is why we keep doing this, and would keep on doing it, if we could. Whether they realise the atrocities committed in Africa, or the modern day racialised injustice faced by black people today, each audience member is struck by something different, and for different reasons, but they do leave with something.

They cry because they didn’t know what was done. They cry because they realise how it is still being done. They cry because they realise that the past impacts the present. They cry because they experienced this personally. They cry because they didn’t. Reading the pages and pages of comments from the audience left at the end of the exhibit attests to this, but we don’t need to read that. We see it in their eyes."

- Exhibit B cast

Frederick Douglass 

"To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. It is just as criminal to rob a man of his right to speak and hear as it would be to rob him of his money."

Social reformer, abolitionist, writer, statesman and well known rhetoric

Personal reflection

The cancellation of this show raises a big question mark over freedom of speech for me. I found it hard to hear that the campaign to put an end to this show had resulted in violent protests outside the venue, especially after hearing how amazing my Aunty said the experience of working on the piece as one of the actors was. I Not only the creators and participants but the audiences have been denied an opportunity and a right to learn through this forced cancellation. The show had toured 12 cities and been seen by around 25,000 people receiving rave reviews before reaching London and being shut down by ignorance. The show raised, in a serious and responsible manner, issues on racism and as much as i respect peoples rights to protest i do urge people to be sure of what they are protesting for especially if it is to end in violence.

Political Orientations

Left Wing

Belief in social equality, they generally supports civil rights and are anti-war. Left wing politics 

Right Wing

belief that social hierarchy/social inequality is inevitable, natural, normal or desirable. The tend to believe in capitalism as a necessity in society and push for further industrialisation.

Brief History

Left and right wing ideologies originated in the Russian revolution when in parliament the left supported the revolution whilst those on the right supported the monarchy.

Politics in the media and news

There are both left and right wing newspapers and media outlets. Often news reports and stories are biased in their duty to subjectively tell a news story 

Examples
The Sun  - Right
The Guardian - Left (centre)

Upon research i found that a vast majority of the non-intellectual "tabloid" Newspapers are Right wing orientated.

The Sun, The Daily Star, The Daily Mail, The daily express

Capitalism

Capitalism is a social system based on the principle of individual rights. Governments play a less prominent role than the people and companies who therefore make most of the decisions. The focus of capitalism is the gaining of wealth/money sparking debates as to weather it is a good idea or not or how much of capitalism is a good idea or not. 

Socialists and communists disagree with capitalism saying that it exploits lower class workers (takes advantage of them) and only truly benefits the already wealthy. They also argue that it is immoral in its "every man for himself" attitude towards living and inherently selfish nature.

Communism

The Goal of Communism is essentially to form a classless and equal society (or community) by reducing the power/influence of the ruling class and put in place a dictatorship to rule over the working class. During the reign of the soviet union there were a number of Communist countries throughout eastern Asia, Europe and Africa however now there are only 5, China (Mao Zedong), Cuba (Fidel Castro), Laos ( CLPDP - A collective dictatorship), North Korea (Kim Jong Un) and Vietnam

Anarchism

Anarchism is the belief in the abolition of all government and the organisation of society through cooperation than force which is so widely believed. Anarchy has immediate connotations of a crazy dysfunctional society when in reality it simply means the absence of governing, authority or control.

Socialism
Socialism is the desire to improve the quality of life for all the members of a society. They believe in the redistribution of resources to balance the inequalities vested in a free-market economy. 

Free-market economy is where prices are set freely by consent between vendors and consumers. Supply and demand are free from government intervention.

Marxism

Based off of the social ideologies written by Karl Marx in his book Das Kapital (written in 1867) and developed into a political system that became the basis of communism. It has been adopted by both the old Soviet Union and is still in place in China and North Korea. One of the central Marxist beliefs are that every society has an economic base and that in the western world it is capitalism and the pursuit of wealth but the problem is that it results in the rich being richer and the poor being poorer. 

Marx looked at how the one percenters (benefiters of capitalism) were insignificant in number compared to the lower classes and wondered why they didn't simply overthrow their masters. Marx theorised that the people were being, in a sense, brainwashed through systems such as the media to establish the idea that the world as it is, is the ideal.

Since Marx wrote his treatise and his ideologies became popular, big companies have become less likely to be privately owned and now often belong to shareholders that are often from a variety of different backgrounds. He brought attention to the flaws of capitalism in western civilisation educated many people on the reality of the society in which they live in.

Personal Reflection
As a result of my upbringing and influences in such i myself lean more toward left wing ideologies though not as as severe as 

AUSTERITY

Definition

"A state of reduced spending and increased rationing, re-using/re-cycling in terms of finance. Austerity generally refers to the measures taken by governments to reduce expenditures in an attempt to shrink their growing budget deficits."...

In this case the UK Conservative parties decisions to make decisions that will negitavely affect the poor such as the privatisation of education and healthcare. The following quotes are from an anti-austerity protest immediately after the conservative parliamentary win putting David Cameron in the driving seat for our nation. 

Where cuts are being made and who they are benefiting (NHS, Inheritance tax)

“We’re here to say austerity isn’t working... we’re here to say that it wasn’t people on jobseekers’ allowance that brought down the banks. It wasn’t nurses and teachers and firefighters who were recklessly gambling on international markets. And so we should stop the policies that are making them pay for a crisis that wasn’t of their making.” 
- Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MP

“I want us to stand up as brave people did in the 1920s and 1930s, and said we want a state that takes responsibility for everybody to ensure nobody is destitute … We each care for all. Everyone caring for everybody else. I think it’s called socialism,” 

“I stand with those people that came to this country, worked, contributed and are part of our society,” - Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party MP

1:29 - 2:53

The media's response to austerity protests and thoughts on the effectiveness of protesting societal issues and the manner in which it is reported by the mainstream media

•  A vast number of institutions benefit from things being the way they are in reporting on the appetite for change
• main stream media do nothing but obtain their own interests - "fear based media" "propaganda" (marxist theory)
• Media manipulates fear to affect peoples decisions and promote the poor decisions whilst ignoring the intelligent ones

“We need to learn to talk to one another and recognise that our time on this Earth is fragile and temporary. If we don’t build systems on the idea of love and togetherness the alternative is unconscionable.”

-Russell Brand - at the austerity protests

Personal Response
Most likely as a result of my up-bringing my political orientation is generally centre-left my family either support Labour of The Green Party. I myself am not as politically aware as i would like to be but this performance task gave me the perfect excuse to finally go off and do my research. I don't think i would go as far as to say that this has made me entirely more interested in the formality of politics but i am indeed more knowledgable and able to express my opinions in a way that can be understood or associated with a group of similar minded people. 

As flamboyant and extreme as Russell Brand can seem and sometimes be i am very much attracted to his basic humanitarian ideologies as they are basic yet effective and truthful. I think that all of these different parties, political orientations and categorical fundamental belief whatevers are unnecessary. Sometimes we need to remember that we are all human, as hippy as that may sound. We forget to treat each other as fellow people and see everyone as others or outside. We obsess over new clothes, the latest clothes and food outlets, which i am not exempt from but nevertheless aware of, which i guess makes me a member of any one of the "anti-capitalist" groups to an extent. I do believe that there are benefits to capitalism but it could be the brainwash speaking telling me that i couldn't find the same happiness and quality of living in a communist state. If theres one thing i will take from this research its my interest in socialism