Observations

Working in the café at borders allows me to watch people as I’m helping
them as well as during the slow periods. Earlier today, I was trying to
make drinks, get food and ring people up at the same time. I taken the
orders of three people and there four others in line. Although I
communicated that help was coming and their orders would be taken and
filled, some people were getting fidgety while others were waiting
patiently.

People who had both paid and were waiting had unexpected reactions. It
was obvious that I was working alone at the moment and the first three
people waiting in line were waiting patiently telling me to take my
time. The newest arrival is the most vocal about not wanting to wait. At
the same time, one of the women who had paid was presenting her receipt
asking if I had forgotten about her nonverbally demanding her drink.
After the rush went away, one of the patient people was saying how
unbelievably rude those people were, since they saw how hard I was
working to expedite things. They didn’t say anything because they didn’t
want to gain the attention of the impatient people.

Everything is about speed, how fast can you get one thing done and move
onto another. Some people had no problems voicing their obvious
frustration, which did not sit well with the patient customers. Its
usually the case that people who don’t agree with another persons
actions will not voice their opinion. They will quietly come up to the
person and admit they wanted to say something, but felt it wasn’t their
place to say something. People like watching conflict and choosing
sides, but they will not come to the defense of others. It kind of
reminds me of car accidents. Not too long ago, a man in New England was
crossing the street and was struck by a car. This happened in daylight
with lots of witnesses, yet no one helped him. One person even went up
to him to take either a picture or video on his camera phone but did
nothing to actually help the victim. There is a fear in people that they
will make the wrong choice and they will be chastised. Society serves as
the moral compass and most people just want to fit in.

Nanny State?

After reading the chapter in discipline and punish, I was reminded of
the situation in the united states after the September 11 attacks. The
US government used this situation to their advantage. The book mentions
“the plague is met by order” (197). Terrorism is the plague, and
terrorist are the infected. The attacks caused massive chaos, but the
government created order. The Patriot Act was created to give the
government the freedom to find out what citizens were doing at any given
moment. The government can now find out everyone’s “true name, true
place, true body, true disease” (198). If something is discovered that
can affect the rest society, the terrorist are segregated to prevent
another catastrophe. People were blacklisted from flying, border
security became a priority, and rules regarding privacy were tossed out.
The innocent until proven guilty portion of our society was eliminated
for those who were deemed to have terrorist tie in order to halt the
spread of fear. They were quarantined in Guantanamo away from the
population in order to determine how much of a threat they were.

Something that I always hear about is Britain being a Nanny State. They
have CCTV everywhere to catch anything that happens, similar to Big
Brother in 1984. But it has also been reported that crime is rising,
especially among youths. This goes against the idea that if you are
watched you will follow the rules of society is being proven false in
that country.

Group Project

For the 1984 group, none of us really knew what was expected so well just threw ideas for what to do out. I think it turned out for the best and we talked about diverse things. One of the things I did was research Brazil.

I originally heard about Brazil after watching one of Terry Gilliam’s other films. When I first saw the movie, I realized the similarities between 1984 and Brazil. In the insert for the movie, Gilliam says that there are similar themes but the movie and book are not connected. In fact Gillian had never read 1984.

What Gilliam wanted to do was create a movie for the current generation. His biggest hope was that people would see the ludicrousness of the bureaucracy. He did this by having people be controlled by paperwork. This was similar to the book controlling people through language. There was also a similar look to what the 1984 world was like and the visual world of Brazil.

I had some points that I wanted to make during the discussion but it was hard to do with having 9 people in the group. All I really touched upon was the bureaucracy aspect of the movie.