A Day In The Life Of A Student

Students are often given a bad name in society. They are considered party animals with poor time management skills who drink away the tax payer's money. I wanted to challenge this.

Meet Arinola Fadayiro, A hard working Student from The University of Winchester.

Early Mornings: Arinola Rises At 6 am to head to the University for lectures.

Study Time: Arinola reaches for one of many books at the University's Library

Off to work I go: Arinola waits for the bus pensively whilst adorning a "Shoon" badge. It is one of her two jobs.

Student Living: Shopping trolley chuck full of reduced, basic and essential goods to get Arinola through the week

Long Day: Arinola looks solemn as she unwinds in the garden after a long and stressful day

Bring On The Night: Arinola dolls up for night of socialising to de-stress from a long day, before she has to wake up and do it all over again

Mere Ma Ke Khath (Letters from my mother)

"Mere Ma Ke Khath"(Letters from my mother) follows Fozia Kiani (My Mother), a 46 year old British Pakistani woman discussing her migration from Pakistan to England, and the effects it had on her family.  2 years after her arrival in the country, she was disowned by her in laws. 2 children in tow,  she adapted to life in a foreign country where she was unfamiliar with the culture and language.

It is translated from Pothohari to English via subtitles. The themes are loss, migration, and childhood. It is directed and produced by Aliya Khan. The piece was inspired by my grandmother, Zubaida Kiani, who was born, raised and passed away in Pakistan.

The aim of the film is inform viewers about the hardships that come with migration, and loss of loved one, and is intended to evoke sympathy.

The genre is a documentary, and it was filmed and edited over a period of 4 weeks. The documentary includes photographs, basic functions like zoom, and fade transitions, and multicolour. Music is Azaan (Call to prayer) and Islam by OxxyKotten.

 Fozia Kiani, The main Character and my mother

Fozia Kiani (Main Character), Aliya khan (Director)

Aliya Khan, The Director and Producer

New Journalism Seminar Paper

New Journalism was a style of the 60s/70s that incorporated literary techniques that were considered unconventional in journalism at the time. The term was used by Tom Wolfe in 1973 when he published a collection of articles as “The New Journalism”. It included texts by himself, Capote, Thomson, Mailer, Didion, Christgau, Talese, and others. At the time New Journalism was vilified for being unconcerned with facts, but it has since become commonplace in various newspapers, and is now referred to as "literary journalism" or "creative non-fiction".

The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved

An American author and journalist, Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was Born in Louisville, Kentucky to a middle class family. He was imprisoned for 60 days after assisting a robbery and was consequently unable to formally finish high school. He therefore joined the United States air Force before advancing into journalism.

Although he was previously a conventional journalist, he became a part of the counter-culture with the publication of the sports article"The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" in 1970. It was an experimental piece in which he was the central figure. It was written without claims of objectivity unlike traditional news, which  tends to favour a detached tone and relies on verifiable facts and quotations. It was a form of subjective/emotional story telling and became a style that Thomson later came to represent in the 1970s. He called this brand of new journalism “Gonzo”.

Unlike traditional pieces, Gonzo articles use sarcasm, humour, exaggerations and profanities. This is because the personality of the piece is as important as the subject matter.

In an interview in the February 15 1973 issue of Rolling Stone Thomson stated that "If I'd written the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people—including me—would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism."

The article focused less on the race and more on the celebration and supposed “depravity” that surrounded Kentucky Derby. He describes life in Derby Infield and provides a commentary on the drunkenness and lewdness of the crowd.

The piece ends with the Anagnorisis (a moment when a character makes a critical discovery), that both Thomson and Steadman are exactly the type of people they originally intended to caricature. It is claimed that the term “Gonzo” is slang for depicting the last man standing after an all night drinking binge.

Radical chic: That party at Lenny's

Tom Wolfe, born in 1931, is an American author and journalist and is well known for his influence over New Journalism. His piece “Radical chic: That party at Lenny's” ridicules celebrities and socialites adopting and promoting radical political causes, and in particular, composer Bernstein and his friends for hosting a fund-raising party for the socialist organisation, Black Panthers.

Unlike traditional news articles which focus on the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when, why), Wolfe's piece is vague, uses the first person narrative, and is written multiple literary devices. He also dwells on an intricately describes settings, perhaps in an attempt to make the reader feel closer to the scene. All these techniques are typical of New Journalism as they step away from the traditional rigid way of reporting stories.

According to Wolf, the aim of new journalism is to involve the reader both intellectually and emotionally. To say: "Come here! Look! This is the way people live these days! These are the things they do!"

The New Journalism

American Journalism

Journalism began in America with  the 'Penny Papers'. The papers were targeted at the working class, and funded by political parties. In the 19th Century, objectivity became a factor in journalism to due to the wire services. Objectivity became hugely profitable.  H. A. Myrick defines objectivity "As the expressing, or dealing with facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations” The first new Journalism-'The Yellow Press' (late 19th century). It covered sensationalised stories and was considered “journalism without a soul”

Papers began to use emotive headlines, dramatic stories that focused on sin and sex. This was the starting point of tabloids. By the 60s, daily events began being recorded in a formulaic way, using the 5 ws (who, what where, when, why?) This new journalism was an attempt to record events mirroring  language and style of the events.

Politics/Culture:

-Great hope of JFK was destroyed in assignation
-1963- War in Vietnam
-Muhammad Ali refused to be in the army
-Baby boom after WW2 created youth culture. Voice of radical change was younger generations wishing to rebel against old conventions.
-Sexual Revolution- Introduction of the pill, and sexual freedom.
-prohibition of drugs created subcultures. LSD seen as an escape of controlling hierarchy.
-Music of the 60s attack on the norms. Drug fueled, political and anti establishment.

Existentialism:

-freedom and choice.
-Anti-establishment feeling-''There is a policeman inside your head- he must be destroyed''.
-Bad faith/ journalism questioned for objectivity
-New forms of Journalism began to emerge
-This alternative journalism was personal and expressed an individual point of view.

Totalitarianism continued

Adolf Eichmann was a lieutenant colonel and a major organiser of the holocaust. His task was to facilitate and manage the logistics of the mass deportation of Jews to the Concentration camps.
He faced 15 criminal charges including crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Israeli courts. He was found guilty and executed by hanging in 1962 and is the only person to have been executed in Israel on conviction by a civilian court. However, he did not kill anyone using his own bare hands.
Was he guilty?
According to Arendt, Eichmann is guilty because he simply followed the system.
This defies existentialism, as choice is perhaps one of the most crucial aspects of life.
"The only thing I cannot escape is the need to choose" - Sartre
Eichmann was just an ordinary civilian doing his job- albeit transporting Jews to their deaths. Literally.

Eichmann claimed that in implementing the “final solution” he was acting from obedience and that he had derived this particular moral ideology from reading the works of Kant.
Kant’s Categorical Imperative: Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.
Arendt believed that we must look to our personal judgement rather than the any man-made law before making any decisions. The law may turn criminal, and this was exactly the case in Nazi Germany.

Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is a form of government where the ruler is an absolute dictator, and every aspect of an individual’s life is sought to be controlled. It is the most extreme version of an authoritarian administration.

Perhaps one of the most “successful” totalitarian regimes was implemented by Hitler. He chose to manipulate Germany’s struggle at the time(loss of money due to reparations for WW1, humiliation for losing the war, etc) By providing the “way out” of the depression, he managed to wriggle his way into the Government. The Germans were desperate for a change and lapped everything up.

Hanna Arendt (A German American political theorist) published her first major work in 1951. It was clearly a response to the struggles within her own life-the rise of Nazi Germany, the rise of Soviet Stalinism, and the annihilation of millions of peasants, writers, and intellectual thinkers. According to her , modern totalitarianism, unlike older tyrannies no longer used terror as a means to an end, but focussed on destroying individuality completely. “Everything we know of totalitarianism demonstrates a horrible originality – its very actions constitute a break with all our traditions.” - Arendt.

“Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state,” The Doctrine of Fascism “– Benito Mussolini

"Fascism is for liberty. And the only liberty which can be a real thing, the liberty of the State and the individual within the State. Therefore, for the fascist, everything is in the State, and nothing human or spiritual exists, much less has value, outside the State. Outside the State there can be neither individuals or groups. Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State" -Mussolini

Arendt saw imperialism as a predecessor of totalitarianism – because it contained so many traits which the new regimes could use. One of these traits was the development of racism, where superiority is based simply on genes. Once established, ways of thinking and behaving that denied rights to large sections of people were available for totalitarian regimes to implement..

Our individuality makes us difficult to control and gather up into a collective movement. To destroy this individuality two methods are used: state terror and ideology. OT

The purpose of the terror is not just to murder vast numbers of people – but also to destroy their individuality and ability to act against the government – not just to act, but even the thought of acting. The concentration camps used in WW2 are a brilliant example.

Ideology compliments the policy of terror by:

- Eliminating the capacity for individual thought and experience among the executioners themselves.

-Being a way of avoiding responsibility. It frees you from using your common sense. By simply following orders you can be free of responsibility for your actions. Classic case of “he made me do it”.

According to Hannah Arendt, the first move for the Nazis was to deny Jews their citizenship. The Jews were seen as a great rival race that must be overtaken. Civilisation is fragile and therefore we need to have structure, laws, and rights in order for civilisation to thrive. Being part of society enables us to be civilised – gives us access to a shared reality.

Control language, and you’ll control minds. And this is exactly what totalitarians did.

In the USSR – experiments were done using “linguistic reform”. The idea was Utopian, Much like politically correct language; certain words were banned for racial differences in order to abolish racism.
Backfired. Resulted mainly in the distortion of language into “Communist speak”- a way of preventing thought.

The New Industrial State

The 1950s is considered an era of American prosperity. There were huge advancements in technology, which boosted and changed the economy system. The state was  considered responsible for minimising unemployment by maintaining  demand within the economy.
It follows that advanced technology leads to an increase in bureaucratic planning.  Planning is the core of the industrial system as it is determines whether a production will exist  in the long run or not. This planning is economically and technologically motivated.  In order to ensure a profit, integration, production and distribution must be achieved and mastered.
The Keynesian system was in place, and neo classical economics was a thing of the past. However, the Keynesian consensus was attacked from both the left and the right, for being a “managed” society and therefore a “soft” form of totalitarianism.
Written in 1967, John Kenneth Galbraith's “ The New Industrial State” explores the effect large corporations will have on the state.
According to him, two thirds of economic activity is controlled by the techno-structure  rather than shareholders. Techno-structure is the collective term for all those involved in group decision-making and the organisation they form.
Their aim is to survive, grow (this is measured in sales volumes) master  technical skill  and secure an  increased rate of dividends. The leadership of these organisations are  run predominantly  by lawyers (Max Weber- legalistic power of bureaucratic legitimacy . They also predominate in political bureaucracy (Obama), and via the same political parties system to the newspapers and television. Examples include Cameron, Murdoch and Berlusconi. These people are the fabric of the leadership level of society and share the same training and philosophical outlook. They too are cogs in a machine. They do not act to maximise profit but to maintain the organisation and secure further expansion. This leads to problems such as inflation, destruction of profitability and Keynesian military.
 The purpose of The New Industrial state was not to catalyse a political movement, but rather to describe the state of the economy, and to provide an understanding of a world dominated by industrial firms, and the techno-structure  According to Galbraith, this system is essentially nihilistic, pragmatic, violent (nuclear weapons, military spending), decadent and doomed.

Existentialism Continued

Nietzsche. He was famous for his line, “God is dead”. He essentially meant that the end of certainty, we need something new to sustain us. The end of certainty brings with it a crisis that is fantastic. It gives us the freedom to find value for ourselves. According to him, human nature differs from person to person, and therefore morality differs from person to person. This opposes Locke’s ideology of natural rights. It also creates room for Fanon’s violence. The ubermensch (superman/overman) overcomes what has defined us as human. He does this by defining himself by the choices he makes. His will to power.

Freedom of choice is crucial to existentialism.

Heidegger. His “being and time” is about what it means to exist and the problems that arise out of being human. However, in order to investigate the nature of being, we must question the nature of the being which causes the question to be asked. This being is called “Dasein”; it is in each one of us. According to Heidegger, the Cartesian idea that the world is split into mind and body makes philosophy and understanding ourselves near impossible. When the world is divided merely into mind and body, we find ourselves stuck in our own minds. How can we possibly overcome our minds and know the world in its actuality? According to Hume, Berkeley, we cannot. Replacing these ideas, Heidegger focuses simply on Dasein and its essential structure. Being in the world. For Dasein to exist, it must exist in the world. If the world does not exist, Dasein does not exist. Dualism does not exist.

Existence is not merely about being in the world, but to do with possibilities and choices. This contrasts with “facticity”. Facticity is the parts of ourselves that we throw into the world- the things we don’t have a choice about (birth/parents/etc.) We therefore are the creatures of the future/of the possible, of the parts we are not thrown into.

Sartre. His key idea was that existence precedes essence. Good and bad things happen in life without reason, and therefore life itself is fairly absurd. It is not determined by God or morality, or indeed in advance. Life is in fact a number of choices, and this need to choose is escapable. We must take responsibility for our actions and be defined by our choices. Humanity according to Sartre is includes

-Abandonment. Nothing guides us. We are alone to make our choices. “God is dead”.

-Anguish. We are free and therefore responsible for everything we are/do.

-Despair. The realisation that the world may prevent us from getting what we want, but we choose to react to the setback. We are what we do.

Bad Faith:

Most people believe that being somebody (student/soldier/teacher) puts certain obligations on you. However, this is not true and the fact that you’re in denial of your radical freedom makes you guilty of bad faith. Sartre believes that such people are making a metaphysical mistake- turning themselves from free beings to inert objects.

“Colonialism is violence in its natural state and it will only yield when confronted with greater violence.”

Fanon. He had a dream. A dream of transforming individuals through violence. He was angered by the racism in the army when he fought for France in WW2. He studied psychiatry and went to work in a psychiatric hospital in Algeria. When the Algerian War of Independence began, he treated torture victims, joint the National Liberation Front. He was fairly swept up by the whole ordeal.

He advocated direct violence against the oppressors. The mission is the absolute overthrow of the colonial system by any force necessary

“National liberation is always violent.” (The book was used by leaders like Malcolm X, Steve Biko, Bobby Sands.)

The only way for people to break free of the total control the West exercised is through violence, and terrorism. It is the extreme expression of choice with instant impact. Non-violence is acquiescence, acceptance of the oppressor’s rules.

Modern Logic

Frege devoted much of his career to trying to show how mathematics can be reduced down to logic. Natural numbers are words used to count things. To count things is to create an abstract category or group. To create words and abstract symbols for more than one category requires a system of a number of words. It also requires a logical syntax in order to combine these number-words to imply or further establish number words.

-They are natural and can be empirically observed. This was a view held by Mill, and the average person.

-They are intuitions of harmonic perfect other world. This view was held by Descartes, and Pythagoras.

-They are abstract objects, constructed mostly by syntax. View held by Frege and Russell.

Numerical Naturalism follows the idea that there is 0, 1 or more than 1. These simple pluralities are fairly primitive and therefore are used by apes and tribes. Apparently, the highest natural number is 7 (this obviously varies from person to person) but a human being can walk into a room and instantly recognise that there are 7 people in there without counting.

Prime numbers according this view are “pre-existing, eternal, supernatural forms”. They also show necessary preconditions for consciousness. All numbers are combinations of prime numbers. Prime numbers often have religious or magical significance. These includes the holy trinity, “three is the magic number”, the fact that symphonies are performed in three movements.
According to Nietzsche, Russell and Frazer, this is all Orphism. Christians worship the number 3, Muslims worship the number 1.
Babylonians- 12 (12 months, 12 signs of zodiac)
This is all Orphism (according to Nietzsche, Russell and Frazer) e.g. Christianity's trinity of Father, Son and Holy spirit. The Greeks (including Pythagoras) regarded only plurals as natural numbers and started the counting system with 2. There could never be a zero, because there could never be “nothing.”

The concept of 0 came from India, and much later from Sufi-Islam. The fact that zero meant nothing but then nothing meant something was a pretty big problem. Since then, modern philosophers of mathematics have asserted zero as a natural number (logically derived as 1-1=0) this problem remained unsolved until Frege came along. He regarded arithmetic as a language. He rejected Mill’s numerical empiricism as you cannot find 0 in nature.

Frege's Method
Axiom - all things which are identical are equal to themselves.

All things which are pairs are identical to all other pairs, regardless of what they are pairs of. The class of pairs can therefore be given a nominal value (2). Larger numbers can be built as logical constructs. “The class of all things which are pairs of pairs” (4) 1= the class of all things not associated with other things. 0= Class of all possible objects that are not equal to themselves. No such objects.

Existentialism

Existentialism is a philosophical movement which places emphasis on individualism, an individual’s freedom and subjectivity. The philosophy was inspired mostly by Hegel, Husserl, and Heidegger. It gained popularity in the 20th C due to the works of Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.

Sartre claimed that “existence precedes essence” which is deconstructed to mean that there is no particular predefined spiritual/moral essence to humans except that which we have made ourselves. They ought to be judged by what they do and not what they are -considering all that are is that which they do.

Viscous elements of existence trap the freedom of the human being and must be avoided at all costs.

Existentialists therefore reject Descartes’ “Cogito ergo Sum” (I think therefore I am) and accept instead “I am therefore I think”, yet again reducing the “I” down to “there are thoughts”. People are not self-contained but are rather a merge of the people they are surrounded by.

Kant, in his “The Critique of Pure reason” stated that existence is not a predicate of consciousness. Kant believed that existence is in fact a precondition of consciousness. Consciousness “just is”, and is not the result or the cause of any particular thing. The opposite of consciousness is unconsciousness; therefore we can never stand outside of consciousness.

Husserl’s “Psychology from an empirical standpoint” forms the foundations of modern phenomenology (the study of the structure of experience and consciousness) According to him, there is no real difference to whether a person’s ideas are in fact a representation of the real world or are merely hallucinations.

Heidegger was one of the central philosophers in the Existentialism movement. He declared the end of the metaphysical age, and believed Kant triggered its demise in the 1790s. In the metaphysical age, objects exist independently of the mind, and the mind mirrors reality. However, after Heidegger there are no absolute truths, only “weak/practical/convenient truths”. They are the only reliable truths and are necessary to our being. Truth no longer is a matter of matching thought to reality, but rather, truths are specific to the desires and moods of an individual. Unfortunately, Heidegger was a Nazi who believed in the authentic life-consisting of fertile women, strength, purity and organic foods. He believed Socrates corrupted Western civilisation and wanted to get rid of philosophical concepts and terminology since Socrates. He wanted to start afresh. He therefore decided to invent his own set of terms!

Dasein: Heidegger uses the term Dasein to refer to the experience of "being" that is peculiar to human beings.
To exist is to be bored. The opposite of boredom is Dasein. Therefore, Heidegger would encourage you to find your Dasein. His was “the authentic life”.

Existence requires time. If there were no time, there would be no boredom. The urgency that comes with the idea of a lack of time creates a sense of urgency and forces you to be in the moment. Dasein is to not think.

Time is divided into three categories: Attunement (reflection of the past/guilt), Being (presence/boredom/Dasein), Directedness (reflection of the future/fear)