Boss Fight: End of Quarter Conclusion

The blog post to end this quarter. Sorry for the pixel blood if you're squeamish :P 

            It’s been two months since I’ve came to UCI and starting studying Hum Core. To be honest at first I was scared to death. I’d heard rumors of how terrifying the course was. The essays were super hard, there was so much to read, and many people couldn’t keep up and just dropped the course…All these stories came together to create an image of a huge monster that would ruin my freshman year. Of course, I’ve heard a few good stories, from people who said that the materials were very interesting, the TA’s were nice and helpful…These stories gave me strength to not drop out of the class right away. And they were true. I am honestly really happy that I stayed in the class. I’ve learned a lot in the short two months I’ve been here, and thought about questions that opened my eyes to the depth of the world. I originally thought Hum Core would just have generally discussions of different wars and do boring analyses. But we’ve talked about human agency, about different wars and how literature artifactualizes war, and how war is presented to us in different forms and different points of view…

Different point of views affect the way we treat certain situations. 

            The greatest change that has happened to me since I’ve taken Hum Core is definitely my knowledge of how war is presented to us. Before this class, I’ve learned about war only through textbooks, and I learn about them only so I could pass quizzes and exams. I never really stopped and wondered, how can I entirely trust these sources? The history in these textbooks only talk about general events, but what about the common people? How were their lives different and how were they affected? I’ve definitely learned more about war through knowing that there is “history from below”, since it seems more realistic and relatable. And through these lens, I can actually understand the terror of war, instead of just attempting to understand it through lifeless numbers.

            Overall, I am definitely looking forward to the next quarter of Hum Core, so I can learn even more about war throughout history. I believe through learning about war, we can better prevent it from happening, and also better help those already affected by it.  

Works Cited

First image Chun Li vs Johnny Cage by Jenn Dolari http://www.dolari.org/sfjenn/

Second image belongs to Frits Ahlefeldt http://hikingartist.com/

Smith, John H. "Reading (Hi)story." University of California, Irvine. 21 Oct 2015

Lvl 4: Waging War For Democracy Promotion

          There is a huge controversy over the promotion of democracy, mainly because sometimes the promotion of democracy from the US is motivated by self-gains, and not for the will or rights of the governed, and thus lead to foreign nations not gaining anything from embracing democracy and then developing a sense of distrust and hatred towards the United States. Terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda and ISIS that spawn from countries that the US have interfered with are a direct result of promoting democracy with selfish motivations. These groups don’t necessarily hate democracy, but because democracy is heavily associated with American culture and ideology, they try to reject and destroy it since they don’t like America. Our past actions in meddling with other countries’ governments have given us a bad reputation, in that we only promote democracy to project our power and using other countries to benefit ourselves. This creates a problem because other countries will be less willing to trade with us or become an ally to us if we are ever in need. The US could have the potential to be isolated in politics, creating a dangerous situation to our country.

          Democracy is not a bad thing, but it is not the only form of government that can work, nor does it suit every single country. For example, democracy is supposed to be the best form of government to boost the economy, but China also has a growing economy despite being communist. America’s way of promoting democracy may also not be the most effective way of achieving it. The use of military force to force democracy onto another country is most of the time unnecessary and unjustified, unless it is to provide aid to the citizens of a country looking to end a tyranny or an inhumane form of government. For example, because of the famine and injustice created by the system of government in North Korea, the US would be mostly justified if they sent military forces to save the lives of many North Koreans. Ultimately, the use of military force should be a last resort. International organizations are usually more useful in promoting democracy, so countries can make the choice of change by themselves, and have enough resources to fight injustices that are present. 

References and Works Cited

http://www.cfr.org/democratization/promoting-democracy-whys-hows-united-states-international-community/p24090