Category: Historical

2019: WHAT WILL THE NEW YEAR COME OF MY BLOG

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“Narrowing down the topics.”

what’s to come

The end of 2018 is just a week away. And I will be planning my blog for next year 2019. And for the coming year, I will be narrowing down the blog to 6 topics not 12 spanning the year. And these 6 topics will be of the most popular from my current year. So instead of writing a post from 1 topic for the month, I will be writing posts for 1 topic every two months. And this is the change, the metamorphosis of my blog that will eventually narrow down to fewer topics. As of now, there are two topics in competition with each other to see which one will make the cut. I will also provide more video content as well. Feel free to drop a comment about the topics you liked. Continue to like, follow, and share my work. SEE YOU  IN 2019!!!

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HOW TO MAKE SLAVES OUT OF MEN: WHY PEOPLE ARE EASILY BRAINWASHED

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“How to galvanize for terror.”

When observing the human species, we have galvanized throughout history for a wide range of reasons. Whether it be to protest rights for groups of people who have been marginalized, or galvanizing to push back against a war that is claiming the lives of many. But what I have attempted to study over time is the ability that man has to galvanize groups for killing. And I don’t mean any type of killing, but bringing a group together for genocide. How does a man such as Idi Amin who was responsible for the Ugandan genocide or Adolf Hitler who ordered the murders of millions of Jews during the Holocaust galvanize for death? And that is something that requires you to go into the mind a little deeper. And it means looking at a few psychological indicators: social programming, infliction of pain, and appealing to the emotionally distressed.

In an effort to understand how people can round u into a frenzy to kill mass amounts of people, you have to look at the first part of the passage above: social programming. Well, how do you socially program people to look another human and convince that group of people to commit mass genocide on another group of people? Let’s first look at a few examples as to how you can control people via social programming. Look at slavery in America and the ability to convince humans another human is 75% human. As much as  

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we like to think we as humans are thinkers, we have an Achilles heel when thinking and that is that we seek answers to information, especially perceived complex problems from people we deem are scholarly. So if a group of ten people are sitting down together and one is perceived to have more knowledge than the rest based on how he or she is stating their points, we will believe them to be right even if we are right in our own regard. 

Why, well because the perceived knowledgeable person’s vocabulary might be more vast. So the scholarly people respected in Europe during the time of slavery all had ideologies about Africans. And since these scholars were well traveled and few people outside the scholarly community left Europe, you as a European citizen take what they say at face value. So, stating these Africans are savages, we all believe. Only savages can be used against each other for conquering. Which means they must be some subhuman mammal. People will follow their word, especially at that time when information to the public was limited. And on top of that the European civilization was deemed civilized, and anything else was less functional. Now that’s the social programming. What about how people are able to inflict pain?

During the Holocaust there was a multitude of people used as guinea pigs in the conduction of human experimentation, walking children to gas chambers, and setting fire to dead bodies after being killed. You might ask, what human is capable of enforcing such horror on another human being that you previously saw walking the street. Well, I go back to the experiment made famous by a psychologist by the name, Stanley Milgram. He conducted an experiment which showed how an experimenter could get the tester to administer a shock to the learner. At first the teacher is reluctant,Image result for holocaustthen eventually, the teacher is shocking the learner without order. An experiment which showed how a human given orders could harm another person. Now in genocide, there is twist, and that is that if the teacher does not administer the shock, the teacher could be killed. And self-preservation results in being able to take another human life.

But what about the ability to appeal to the emotionally distressed? Because when you take away a group’s ability to existence, and you are able to have a common enemy that is shown to the people, then you can also get humans to react. Such as how the Nazis were able to speak to the ethos of the financially stressed and hurt Germany. Or how the Rwandan Hutu leaders were able to make the people feel they needed to seek revenge on the Tutsi. Here is a basic example on a much lower level. When someone loses their job, and are down on their last. Someone gives you food and shelter. You are told you deserve more, and should have more. But you also have to comprise of a group of people who have held dominant power for so long. This is important because it’s why historically agendas have been easier to make White men turn on another group in America than Black. The ideology has long stood that this (America) is your (White men’s) country.

With that said, these are generally the individuals who turn to groups like skin heads or KKK. When you see groups that you used to have the upper hand over, now in positions of power, no matter how small that population may be you’re fighting against. Speaking to the hurt in someone, especially if that someone is of a group than has long been in charge. But in the end, a real biological reason you can turn humans so genocidal is that we are not far removed from apes. We share 99% strain with them, and are  1%  Image result for humans and apesdifferent. We think we’re special because we build infrastructure, but on a level of mammal, we still hold that animal inside. The smarter of the humans are still baboons, yet they are of the stronger baboon that realize there are dumber baboons who are led by emotion, not logic and reasoning.

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A DWINDLING CONGREGATION: THE DRASTIC DECLINE OF THE BLACK CHURCH

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“What we were for so long is dying so fast.”

 

As a young child growing up, I attended church with my mother and two sisters every single Sunday. Since becoming an adult I attend less, not because of religious belief, but because of my job. Working everyday is a must, not just for me, but most Americans. Yet this topic is not about most Americans, but a certain segment of the country that has held on to the Christian faith for a very long time. And that segment of America is the Black community. You see, I went to church every Sunday, but my mother and her sisters went not only every Sunday, but they went to church services during the week. And for my grandparents, they went so much, it could have been easily misleading into thinking they were working in the church as a second job. So why did I choose to talk about the topic of the Black community and the church?

Well, for me, I live in New York City, and recently on the news, I have been hearing how the Black churches across the five boroughs have been closing their doors. One of which, the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Brooklyn just celebrated 100 years of service. But they are concerned that due to high rent because of gentrification and dwindling members attending, they are in fear of closing their doors as well. Their church has gone from 1,300 members down to just 75 people coming to church on Sundays. Now you think to yourself, the Black church was more than just a place of congregated for church. The church for the community was a place which held most of our meetings that were orchestrated by civil rights leaders during the movement. There they discussed agendas for upcoming marches, sit-ins, and any other show of resistance against the oppression we as Black people faced during that time period.

Now, what has been the haven for our social justice and worship is now closing doors. But not just closing their doors citywide, but nationwide. Well, what is happening to the numbers of Black membership? One of the reasons for dwindling numbers is why I don’t attend: employment. Work is so hard to come by in our society today, so every chance you get to work, you do so. Some may take it as you not showing enough time for God, but you are put into a position in which you have to work. Making ends meet is so important, that missing any day is crucial to survival. And with so many of us as Black people still below the poverty level, you can’t expect your parishioners to just take off of work. Yet, is that the only reason, no.

Another reason for the decline in the Black church is due to relationships becoming fragmented in the community. What do I mean by relationships, I mean Black men and women. Going to church in the Black community was a family tradition. But now, with single parent households and mothers trying to carry the load of the family, sometimes she is just too stressed to get her kids ready for Sunday service. Another connection with respect to relationships is the rising interracial marriages. Black people are marrying outside our ethnicity, and those relationships are taking on new beliefs of their spouse or not attending church at all. And still, there more reasons why churches in the Black community are closing.

There is also a rise in the number of Black people leaving the Christian faith and converting to other religious, or not believing at all. That’s right, believe it or not, Atheism is on the rise, even in the Black community. A community that has been deeply rooted in God that even non-believers believe just in case God exist. But why has the belief decline throughout the community. One aspect is in regards to the way church has been centered toward believing that God watches over households where children reside. Yet so many of these households are the main homes that struggle to survive. Another connection to the loss of belief is the same reason for many other groups leaving the church: scientific proofs. The smarter man get the harder man has in believing in divine intervention and the afterlife.

In the end, there are so many reasons why Black churches have diminished, but only a few stick out the most. Scary as it may seem, you might see the nonexistence of the Black church in America. Does that mean Black people are losing faith in life and themselves? No, but as a man who grew up in the Black church, if I live to be my mother’s age, the transformations that our community will take on could be drastic.

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IT WORKS, IT REALLY DOES WORK: WHY OUR SUPREME LAW ACTUALLY WORKS

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“Imperfect, but keeps our system moving forward.”

In a nation where so much is surrounding politics and social activism, we need to make sense of everything by going back to our roots. And those roots of a nation lie in our Constitution of the United States as well as our Declaration of Independence. Now, don’t get me wrong, these documents were written during a time period where people had no rights, so to write documents surrounding human rights while human rights violations exist under your watchful eye is very hypocritical. But the Constitution’s opening to the document states that, “In order to form a more perfect union.” A more perfect union is a very important opening because humans are not perfect creatures. We are flawed: we have vices, we have our like and dislikes, we have our fears. So making a “more perfect union” does make sense. Because it implies a union that is more productive than the previous decisions made.

Decisions that as the Constitution states, promotes tranquility, general welfare, common defense, and the blessings of liberty with a lead into our amendment our rights. But you cannot have the Constitution, without our Declaration of Independence. A declaration which states, “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” (U.S. Constitution, 1789) So even in all the flaws of our leaders, the brick laying for our civilization is aimed at making sure that America works by way of preserving these documents.

But what happens now when those documents are put to the test as we see in today’s society where our Amendment Rights are challenged by one another and we feel as if freedom is being lost. We live in a society today where people don’t like what you say and want what you say to be restricted. Yet the answer to unpopular speech is not to suppress that speech, but to have more dialogue surrounding what it is that is creating the bind within you. You don’t like what I protest, fine, express your grievance, but forcing those from protesting because you don’t like the action goes against the very document we promised to uphold. So what happens when we live in a society where we start to role back on these rights? What happens beside losing your national identity, you lose time. Time spent building a nation that is now being in jeopardy of failing at the very hands of the people it promised to protect.

And yes, we all have reasons why we don’t like social situations, or political figures and their decision making. But as much as I am not a fan of certain people in America, one of which is our current President elect Donald J. Trump, impeachment might be problematic and threatening to our nation’s future. Because the Declaration states, that it is up to the people to change course from what we have in power at the moment for the future security of this nation; meaning to vote. In the past we uprose, but uprising in modern times is to vote the person out. So in 2020, if you are unhappy with the political binds to which we are under now, you express that vote at the polls. We do not, unless we prove criminal wrongdoing has taken place, remove a leader from power by way only sentiment alone. Because a civilization cannot be maintained by way of sentiment, but a basic rational non-emotional structure to which we all live.

Because in the end, as we go back to the beginning of the passage, we have to understand that the Constitution is only a way to make the union more perfect, not perfect. Meaning as an African American man, there was one point in time where I was 75% human and 25% property as a slave. Today we (Black people) work in every facet of industry in society. There are still issues we face, and based on population will always have people who we as Black people will have to deal with racially. But the ratifying of the Constitution which gives way for me to express myself freely and a Declaration for me to have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is in essence a “more perfect union”. For it is better than the previous, never will be perfect, but any goal of any civilization is the following: status quo, equilibrium, standard, and not ever and will ever be perfection.

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WHO KNEW: WHO REALY TOOK PART IN THE GENOCIDE

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“Complicit in the crime, yet who really knew the full magnitude?”

It has been 72 years since the Second World War ended, where the Nazi’s were defeated and removed from Europe. And since then, answers to questions that have loomed over time have been uncovered, but other questions have still stood. One of the most asked questions is to what degree did people really know what Adolf Hitler was doing. And who played what role in doing what. Because it doesn’t give any credibility to aiding anyone getting off because they were all complicit. But it makes you wonder who really knew the magnitude of what was going on. Meaning, did the citizens understand what they were really getting themselves into. We know public officials knew to a great degree what was happening with Anti-Jewish rhetoric, but how many of them knew of the mass murders. Is some of this what led to the attempted assassination of Hitler?

Yes, there were multiple attempts on the life of Adolf Hitler either from people who disagreed with his Anti-Semitic sentiment and/or did not want to find themselves in a major war they could not win. Is this because they allowed him to get away with so much and once they realize the magnitude of their actions, it was far too late. And that is what makes me question the who knew what, when, where, and how. Because to say the country knew, or not just the country, all of Europe speaks to an even bigger concern. And that is what is making me question how many people were making the major decisions. Because let’s go with that more just a moment. And that being that the entire continent of Europe knew; what in the hell is wrong with European people.

And the reason for me saying that is because, once the war was over, former Nazi SS, all the way up to top public officials went to jail. And you mean to tell me the citizens were ok to be free. You mean it was in the books that Jews needed to be exterminated, now Europe is fine after the war. Implying that everyone knew the full magnitude would state that European culture is sicker than we know, and what, they’re good people today. So there had to have been fewer people aware of the death camps. Yes, of course the Nazi guards over the camps knew, they saw first hand the violence because they doled it out. But their families, friends, neighbors; did any of them have a clue. Now, like I stated prior, people were still complacent because they agreed with the robbing of Jewish businesses, removing them from their homes, and packing them onto trains headed to who knows where. But who knew of death camps, and what was that immediate feeling after people found out?

Because in the end, if the country of Germany knew all in all, then an atomic bomb should have been dropped on Germany. But the Nazi Party controlled a large portion of Europe, so a bomb should have come to use proceeding the war. So either a lot of people were complacent, but still didn’t know of the genocide, or they knew and Europeans are all encompassing bad people. Because just to kill the guards and public officials was not good enough if everyone knew and participated. The punishment to Europe should have been a lot worse.

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ARTISANS STILL HAVE A SPACE: WHY CRAFTSMANSHIP IS STILL RESPECTED

Person Making Clay Pot in Front of Girl during Daytime

“Might be a dinosaur, but not a dead dinosaur.”

I am always impressed whenever I see the craftsmanship of people throughout history. I work at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. And there is artifacts designed and built by man that stretch back hundreds and even thousands of years. And when you take a step back and look at the artisans of the past, you can’t help but to be impressed. The magnitude of what they were able to accomplish with such a small amount of tools to perform their jobs. But it were these basics tools and pulley systems which built these past civilizations. So my question to you is, “Is there still room, even in today’s tech savvy environment for artisans/craftsman?” Because with so much manpower being replaced by machines, do these craftsman have a place in our society? And the answer is yes they do. And you know why?

Even with all the technological aspects of society, we are always impressed with the hands on abilities of man. Yes, we are enamored with machines and what they can do. But when you look at the performance of man’s hands on approach, he are seeing something far better. Meaning, it’s one thing to see a statues put together by machinery, but viewing a statue or monument that we ancient, architecture, artused our own hands to build is even better. Like I said before, I work at a museum, and when you see scrolls that were crafted by man or sculptures from the past, you know they used tools that were far less advanced than today. But having to use something less advance yet still getting the job done; and on top of all that lasting throughout history is a job well done. But then you start to think about the future of mankind.

What will be create in today’s society that 1,000 years from now people will be amazed that we were able to build? To us, we say, so what we built a car to drive around. But our future descendants might look at the materials we have built cars with and say, “Wow, I’m surprised those vehicles lasted as long as some of them did with that material.” “Those pieces of metal should have fell apart soon as they put them together.” Which is why you’ll start to see our cars in museums as time progress. Museums guides will say to people, “This here is a Ford pickup truck which was used 500 years ago to transport cargo loads for construction.” “It was one of the transports of its day.” And what’s great about us 500 – 1,000 years from now, we will have all this stuff in perpetuity. So there will be audio and video of this Ford pickup truck in commercials and what it could accomplish on the road and off the road.

In the end, craftsmanship is eternal. We will always look in the past at what man has built and muse at the ingenuity. From theamerica, ancient, architecture simple tools of Cromagnon Man to the building of the pyramids in Egypt, to the carving of Mount Rushmore to public school classrooms where art student are shaping clay into artistic objects of interest. The human intrigue with our abilities to take what’s allotted to us and make life work using the simplest of tools is what makes us great.

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THROUGH SIMILAR EYES: HOW WILL THE FUTURE LOOK TO MY GENERATION IN OLD AGE

Woman Standing Beside Woman on White Wooden Chair Facing Body of Water

“What will tomorrow through my eyes look like compared to them today?”

You ever wonder what the world looks like through the eyes of a person whose been on Earth a very long time? And when I say long, I mean someone who is in their 90’s or even 100 years old. My great grandmother was born near the turn of the century in the early 1900’s. And to be exact, it was 1914; so I wonder what did life look to her around the time of her getting close to 90. SheImage result for 20th century died in the year 2010, and that must have been some intense life. The politicians she witnessed take office, the multiple ways in which we communicate, the social movements, and the way technology has made leaps and bounds. So I ask of all those millennials out there like me, “What will life look like to those of us who make it to that point in life?”

Just this past week, I had the opportunity to test a VR (virtual reality) headset that someone I know designed. And just by observing through this headset, you can feel how much life is going to change once the technology is really to scale. You’ll get a chance to experience life in the past through the use of this headset. Related imageMeaning, technology will be so good that we can recreate moments of the past and live them through these innovative machines. Not just the technology, but what will the state of relationships look like by this time. If I live to 90 to 100 years old, you are going to have people who have been married for 40, 50, and 60 years who met on Tinder or some other dating site. It sounds crazy today, but will be totally fine in the future. Members of the LGBTQ community raising children and adopting will be a non-conversation point. And I will be of a generation that has experienced what we read about in books.

That means I will be old enough to have gotten a chance to vote for America’s first Black president. Which most likely by this time will have been so much of an after thought that the conversation will be archaic. I will have remembered when the White House was illuminated in the rainbow colors to mark the day when gays had the right to vote. I will remember events that took place that rocked the country such as September 11th terror attacks and even Image result for 9/11the Oklahoma City bombing which claimed the lives of so many young children. Natural disasters such as Hurricane Andrew, Katrina, and Sandy. I will be one of the last generations born in the decades known as the 1980’s and the generations born who remember the 1900’s as a century in time. I will even remember the first social media ways in which we first started to communicate. Meaning, I will be the last of the age group who remember when the internet was created for the public.

In the end, living on this planet for a long time gives you a sense of understanding about civilizations that no one else has experienced. What everyone else had to read about, you lived through and witnessed. So you will become almost like a form of entertainment for people to come and ask questions. People will also on average live longer, so there will be more centennials than any other time period. Now I can’t guarantee that I will be that age upon death, but what a time a Earth that must be to experience so much in life.

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