Weimar Constitution

Weimar Constitution 

First Chapter : the Reich and the States 

The Reich furthermore is responsible for legislation regarding taxation and other revenues, as far as they are fully or partly used to pay its expenses. If the Reich uses taxation which hitherto has contributed to the budget of the states, it has to consider the viability of the states. 

I think the main point here is that it is important to preserve the rights of the people in legislation and revenues. The investments made through taxation should be benevolent and should favor the growth of the state and the people and not of a business or industry. The kingdom should consider and provide financial safety for all people. I chose this part because it’s an essential key component to socialism that should be adopted by all governments. 

Third Chapter : Religion and Religious Communities. 

All Reich inhabitants enjoy full freedom of liberty and conscience. Undisturbed practice of religion is guaranteed by the constitution and is placed under the protection of the state. General state laws are not affected hereby. 

This is important and I chose it because I believe that we should have the freedom to individual inner feelings or voices that guided us through rightness or wrongness although it’s conflicting to understand other religious views, especially those that support physical harm of ourselves and others. Most of us can agree that religion in itself is a system of inequality, it's inconsistent and variable. It’s restrictive because most of our values are taught through religion and values shape our way of thinking about other people and ourselves. But, however much we cherish our beliefs we continue to be refined as we age and grow and challenge our previous knowledge which is why having full freedom of liberty and conscience is appropriate. It’s important to belong as it gives meaning to what we do, it gives us direction, comfort, and security but the idea that we have the capability to deviate from religious practices is a freedom that’s necessary.

Luxemburg's

Luzemburg's essay:

Did it have to come? An event of this scope is certainly no game of chance. It must have deep and wide-reaching objective causes. These causes can, however, also lie in the errors of the leader of the proletariat, the Social Democrats, in the waning of our fighting spirit, our courage, and loyalty to our convictions. Scientific socialism has taught us to comprehend the objective laws of historical development. Men do not make history according to their own free will. But they make history nonetheless. Proletarian action is dependent upon the degree of maturity in social development. However, social development is not independent of the proletariat but is equally its driving force and cause, its effect and consequence. [Proletarian] action participates in history. And while we can as little skip a stage of historical development as escape our shadow, we can certainly accelerate or retard history.

Freedom has everything to do with control as stated by Joel M. Charon in his book Ten Questions; A Sociological Perspective. In fact, the first time I heard about Luxemburg's was in a sociology class. I think that in this essay she’s trying to say that once a government, a society or any group, a religion or any organization, controls our way of thinking which in turn affects our decisions, than we have given up our freedom. When we are being active and self-directed then we have some sort of freedom, but although the action is independent our choices are limited by outside forces and that is why our freedom is not real, or entirely.

This pertains to politics today because we are being so manipulated by our government that we don’t even realize how deluded we are. We are so busy being driven by structure and social position (status) that in the process our perceptions have been altered by our government and promising politicians, we have been desensitized so that we don’t feel pain in people dying anymore. Through ethnocentrism, words such as “terrorist” “evil” and “murderers” enemies are transformed from human beings to “objects” without rights and it becomes difficult to value another’s life. When we become too deeply integrated within our values we have a difficult time accepting others that are different. But if we believe that we are right then others are not simply different, they are wrong. 

Same goes for how our politics, government and laws favor certain groups and not others within our own country. We have all internalized racists views through no fault of our own, the media does a marvelous job depicting certain groups as dangerous and reckless but If only we’d ask ourselves who controls the media and why. Our true freedom lies within our knowledge, but we have to do the work of informing ourselves. Although we don’t entirely have free will, we can’t afford to maintain silent and not try to make a difference. We can’t change history but we can reconsider, reexamine and adjust our perception. Even within our parameters and restrictions we are able to deviate from the direction in which we are expected to tread.

M

M, 1931

This movie has an interesting debate towards the end, about pedophiles and serial killers and whether they should go to an asylum, prison or have the death sentence.

I like two scenes. One was when the older blind man realizes that the man whistling has to be the serial killer as he heard the same whistle from a man buying a balloon a few day earlier for a little girl who was later found murdered.  It’s ironic that the law enforcement, the criminals and the entire community were on the search for the killer and who solved the case was a blind man. This is important because it allows for people to understand that we all have wisdom and insight that’s significant in its own way and the ability to perceive and understand things differently. Also it helps us realize that no one can be underestimated and undervalued. In this movie a different type of awareness was necessary as everyone was on the hunt for a person they didn't have a visual description of.

Another scene which I thought was interesting was when the serial killer looked at himself in the mirror and made horrific facial expressions by pulling down the sides of his lips and opening his eyes in a scary manner as to create a monster-like image of himself. Which would've matched how he felt on the inside. This is important because it shows you, in an indirect way, how looks can be deceiving and that you can’t ascertain or value anything by its outward appearance. 

The Blue Angel

"It's All a Swindle" (Alles Schwindel), by Mischa Spoliansky and Marcellus Schiffer

Politicians
are magicians
who make swindles disappear
The bribes they are taking
the deals they are making
never reach the public's ear

Politiker
sind Zauberer
die Schwindeleien verschwinden zu lassen
Die Bestechungsgelder sie einnehmen
die Angebote, die sie machen
Ohr der Öffentlichkeit erreicht nie

This specific part of the song talks about the deceiving part of politics. The truth that never reaches the public’s ears. All politicians have an ulterior motive. More than likely politicians will create an illusion for us to see just like a magician, not revealing the selfish and dishonest reasons behind their intentions. They take bribes from multimillion dollar companies who fund their campaign because after elected this person now being in a position of power will be in favor of these companies. It’s like the Bush family and their ties with the Bin Laden family, in fact, the older sibling Salem Bin Laden was one of Bush’s first business partners back when the Bush family started their oil company. Not to mention, Marvin P. Bush, the president’s younger brother, was the head of Securacom, the company that provided security for the world trade center during 9/11. John F. Kennedy once said that in politics things do not just happen, things are made to happen.

Take for example the Federal Reserve System which prints bills (and not money because it’s not supported by anything, basically worthless notes) and charges us, the people interest on it, roughly 300 billion a year, of which 20 billion is given to The U.S. Treasury. Basically the Federal Reserve is a private bank and just like any other it's in business for profit. This system makes us a debtor nation because the U.S. does not have a money supply. The Federal Reserve System is a debt supplier. You don’t hear about this when politicians speak about the inflation and high interest rates which cause many to lose their homes and businesses. John F. Kennedy has been the only president in U.S. history to discontinue the printing of Federal Reserve notes, but after Kennedy's death 3 months after signing the bill that put that into effect, the Federal Reserve went back to business. Thomas Jefferson said, “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currencies, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their prosperity until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered”

Also women being oppressed in this day and age is a political movement happening behind the scenes. 

One last example, in 2008 Obama promised to label GMO’s saying “We’ll let folks know whether their food is genetically modified because Americans should know”, he made a promise in several interviews. In 2013, however, he signed the Monsato Protection Act making GMO giants immune to the law. Also Obama appointed Monsato’s vice president as senior to the FDA. Unbelievable! 

I could go on and on about this topic because I’m very passionate about all of the things kept from us and that is why I chose this piece of the song, just to speak a little about things that maybe others weren’t aware of. 

"Night Ghost" (Nachtgespenst), music by Rudolf Nelson, lyrics by Friedrich Hollaender

I have no interest in taking your jewels,
Only your ivory skin appeals to me.
As a night ghost I don’t take any shiny jewels;
only enough for the return fare.

Ich habe kein Interesse daran, Ihre Juwelen ,
Nur Ihr elfenbeinfarbene Haut reizt mich .
Als Nachtgespenst ich nehmen keine glänzenden Schmuckstücke ;
nur genug für die Hin- und Rückfahrt .

This speaks about an affair and a lady willing to take risks to get what she wants. She’s not interested in his money or jewels, she just wants from him what appeals to her which is his touch, I guess. She says I only need the fair for the ride back which is very courageous of this lady as she comes to his house with an uncertainty of getting back home. I chose this piece because I like the instability in which she lives her life. This lady is in her own way invisible and of course dauntless. 

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

My favorite part of the film was when Francis sneaks around the Asylum trying to obtain information about Dr. Caligari and his somnambulist. Francis peaks into Dr. Caligaris’s hut and sees him sitting there looking out the bars of his window with the immobile figure in a coffin-like box lying right next to him.  This film was made after WWI and is representative to some extent of relationship between the soldiers and their higher authorities who train them to killers without rationality, emotions or concern for human life and its value. I chose this scene because it shows that the emotionless, brutal and manipulative Dr. Caligari is himself empty, lonely and has no real motive, contentment or satisfaction with what he does, but is trapped in his own mind as he seems to be lost himself. Francis then discovers that Dr. Caligari is no real doctor but a delusional impostor obsessed with a mystical figure who he tries to imitate. 

The scene is representative of the class in a few ways. For one, throughout the entire film there’s a display of art originating from the German expressionist movement. This scene in particular shows the nothingness described in nihilism in Caligaris’s face as if he sits there emotionless like he’s been vacuumed of all reason. 

Siddhartha By Hermann Hesse

Passage:

"This it is," said Siddhartha. "And when I had learned it, I looked at my life, and it was also a river, and the boy Siddhartha was only separated from the man Siddhartha and from the old man Siddhartha by a shadow, not by something real. Also, Siddhartha's previous births were no past, and his death and his return to Brahma was no future. Nothing was, nothing will be; everything is, everything has existence and is present."

Siddhartha spoke with ecstasy; deeply, this enlightenment had delighted him. Oh, was not all suffering time, were not all forms of tormenting oneself and being afraid time, was not everything hard, everything hostile in the world gone and overcome as soon as one had overcome time, as soon as time would have been put out of existence by one's thoughts? In ecstatic delight, he had spoken, but Vasudeva smiled at him brightly and nodded in confirmation; silently he nodded, brushed his hand over Siddhartha's shoulder, turned back to his work.

My Understanding of the passage and why it is important for me:

Siddhartha was searching for truth everywhere and was never satisfied as he felt there was always something missing. Perhaps, he had reached a level of consciousness too great to be fulfilled and withheld in any religion or practice. He explored different dimensions of faith and beliefs but none really satisfied his desires. He seeks contentment but only finds it when he’s not searching. This passage is important to me for that reason. I've learned to appreciate and live in the present moment through meditation, however I also believe that grasping the wholeness of this experience called life is felt and not learned. I also believe that in order to be open to a greater understanding you can’t force anything. This space and time that we live in should be effortless as it is fanciful and imaginary. Just as Siddhartha is sitting by the river, listening to the calming sounds of the water streaming past effortlessly and undisturbed, he gets it for the first time. He notices that the sweet river water flows into the ocean only to be evaporated leaving the dissolved salts behind before dripping back into the rivers again and again in a continuous cycle. Upon this observation he realizes that we’re all interconnected and that life and nature is a cycle in which we all participate without attempt, without disunity and that as we’re all interconnected so is every emotion we feel. We can’t isolate happiness from sorrow or failure from success. Finally Siddhartha reaches the level of enlightenment he’d always hoped for. But you can’t limit your understanding of the universe through boundaries created by religion and then hope to indulge fully in the greatness of this universe. 

Dada quote and Interpretation

"Get off my back" - Dada Manisfesto by Hugo Ball

This quote is very popular within the urban community. It means do not bother me, leave me alone, I don’t want to be disturbed or it simply just ‘relax’. As said in the link “get off my back” is used get rid of a person or situation without actually being too specific or getting into details, but by simply just indicating disagreeance and discontinuing the situation or conversation at hand. The artist uses this term because it’s unconventional and it’s a new way of saying something that has been said before. The words that would otherwise mean nothing together, until we give it meaning, are being used to hide the true message of what is actually being said. This demonstrates that we hide the truth in words. We convey a message without actually saying what it truly is. Just like after WWI, when soldiers experienced an emotional and psychological downfall it was labeled as Traumatic Hysteria, Soldier’s Heart, War Exhaustion or Shell Shock and then finally recognized as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when in realty all these terms are just used to hide the truth about the destructive consequences and harsh truth of serving in a war.