Seminar Paper - Origins of Totalitarianism - Hannah Arendt - Ideology and Terror

Ideology and terror looks into the machinations of Totalitarian government. Arendt begins by comparing totalitarianism with other forms of political oppression, namely despotism, tyranny and dictatorship. She tries to define what makes a totalitarian government. Describing how it would invariably transform a society’s classes into masses, supplant the party system by mass movements, shifting the centre of power from the army to the police, and establishing a foreign policy almost solely aimed at world domination.

Fun with Freud

Our second lecture of HCJ and apparently we get to have some fun with Freud! The inventor of psychoanalysis and a “scientist” Freud’s theory boils down quite simply: you want to have sex with everyone and you want to murder everyone else.

He's judging all of us, and he's not impressed.

Much of Freud’s work is based around the existence of a subconscious. The place where repressed memories etc. are stored. Freud claimed that the unconscious is made up of three parts. The trivial mistakes of everyday life, perhaps most famously thought of as slips of the tongue or ‘Freudian slips’ these mistakes supposedly reveal hidden thoughts and motives from the subconscious. The second part is dreams, and the conclusions that can be made about our subconscious from studying them. And the third part are the symptoms of neurosis.

Freud’s sexual development theory is a lot of fun. He identified stages which can affect our behaviour in later life. The first stage (from birth to 18 months) is the oral stage. During this time we are fixated on oral pleasure I.e. sucking. Too much or little (see how usefully vague this is?) gratification during this stage results in oral habits such as, smoking, drinking or biting fingernails.

Hearst and Harmsworth

Our first focused (and I use the term lightly) lecture of the second year was a look at world and newspaper history of the early 20th century. More specifically, it was a look at William Randolph Hearst and Alfred Harmsworth (Lord Northcliffe). Probably the most influential media-men of the time.

Hearst, we’ll think of him as the American media mogul, was essentially the inventor of the tabloid newspaper. The rising literacy rates of the time meant more of the working class could read, but this by no means meant there were up to ploughing their way through the walls of text that made up most broadsheets (hell, I’m supposedly well educated and I can barely stomach reading much of the telegraph, and I’m pretty sure the FT is all just freemason code…). As a result, he changed the formats of all of his papers, a hefty chunk of front pages, and entire papers were covered in striking, shocking and generally eye-catching pictures. The motto of the time was sensationalism, or ‘yellow journalism’ fierce battles were raging between various papers (on the pages of course, remember, the pen is mightier than the sword), each trying to outdo the others. Hearst’s stories could become unbelievable, sometimes literally. He also went about headhunting writers from other papers, in order to form his own crack squad.

WINOL Games: the second show!

My Second Games review show, this time discussing Goldeneye 007 Reloaded, Modern Warfare 3, and Skyrim.

It's a little outdated now but any constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated.




Thanks for watching!

First WINOL Games

A new review show that I'm doing for WINOL. Co-presented by Graham Marshall.



Do let us know what you think with comment, criticism, and general hatred.

Cheers

Fresher Life - My First Package - This time, With Pictures!

Fresher Life - My First Package.

Last week, as part of my transformation into something approaching a journalist, I went out and made my first package. It took far too long, and suffered at the hands of my apparent inability to edit in a short space of time. Nevertheless, it was finished, and here it the written version for you perusal:

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Freshers’ Fortnight. A hectic affair in which new students begin their university experience in a new city, in a new house, with new people. It’s a whole new chapter of their life unfolding before them. No more parents to take care of them, and complete independence is a must. What could go wrong?

We set off one bright afternoon with one goal in mind: seek out freshers, and quiz them on their university life. However, finding freshers turns out to be more difficult than anticipated. Two house were too busy celebrating 21st birthdays to talk to some purple-haired, second-year journo, rocking up with a camera bag and a tripod expecting some goofy stories. We were also spurned by more houses, who were either “too timid” to be interviewed, or otherwise occupied with taking one of their housemates to hospital (Now that would have been the right kind of interview).

Eventually, we found a fresher willing to be subjected to interrogation. Dayo Hammed, a student from Nigeria led us into a remarkable clean, if somewhat bare, kitchen (understandable as it takes more than a fortnight to build up a respectable collection of group photos and/or pictures of models with which to adorn the walls). At present, there are only two decorations, souvenirs of the freshers fayre, one befitting any respectable student house “Drink vodka and get drunk.” Standard fare, really. After an awkward few minutes trying to set up the camera. We set to asking our carefully chosen questions about money, food, and what’s been going on. He tells us that university is his first experience of being truly independent. As an international student, it’s fair to say that Dayo is a little more out of his element than most people starting further education, and that although he hasn’t had much chance to go out, he is very much enjoying the experience.

We say goodbye to Dayo and carry on our search for the (apparently) elusive fresher. After being refused two more times our luck begins to pick up. The more people we talk to, the more trends begin to emerge. Many of our freshers, it seems, have yet to fully appreciate a true university shopping experience. A hefty majority are surviving on care packages from parents and many have yet to even do any washing. One fresher, Tess Buckley said that her biggest worry was that her washing would come out either bright pink, or ridiculously small. I can relate to washing procrastination, as, when a wash can cost you upwards of four quid, you tend to get into the habit of wearing certain items inside out. And back to front. And deodorant starts becoming your best friend. All in all, there is great motivation to try and last as long as possible, even to the point of going home to get it done. For some however this is not much of an option. Melodie Hornsby-King, although English by birth, lives in Spain during the holidays, and so, will find it difficult to visit, other than at the term breaks.

Homesickness does tend to take its toll on the fresher population. Ali Izatt said that: "If at home, you want to talk to someone, you can, here you can't do that, it's like: I want my mum!" She did say that since she had her boyfriend with her at Winchester, it does make everything, much easier to deal with.

Verdict. Despite all the issues that university life throws at them, our freshers are taking the bull by the horns, and seem determined to see it to the end.

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Thank you very much, reader, for seeing this through to the end as well. A post will shortly be up with the actual film. Until then, why not check out www.winol.co.uk for more work from my course at the University of Winchester.