When you study argument, propaganda and media manipulation this term...

Check out this article regarding the possible failure of Japan's mainstream media to investigate the flaws in the government's plans for dealing with the radiation incident.

How true is it? You be the judge:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20120108x3.html?fb_ref=article_japantimes

As part of our unit on critical thinking, argument analysis, and propaganda, I usually introduce Herman & Chomsky's Propaganda Model to my students and make sure they are familiar with the forces that can shape media content.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model

How will Japan reinvent itself? NYT article

Declining as a Manufacturer, Japan Weighs Reinvention (April 15, 2012)

“It is time for Japan to find a new model for its economy,” said Masatomo Onishi, a professor of business at Kansai University. “We can follow the United States into a more postindustrial economy, or we can follow Germany into high-end manufacturing, but we shouldn’t be trying to compete with China in mass production.”

I wonder how much my college students are aware of and considering this issue...In general, I think Japan society may be a bit over-optimistic or insensitive as to how quickly it is losing ground, and how quickly factors of economic instability may reach a tipping point. Or, perhaps they are aware, but detached. Perhaps they have philosophically detached themselves from being part of an economic rat-race and decided to pursue other things of value in life? If it is intentional and philosophical, perhaps it is admirable. But if it is from a refusal to look around them and figure out what is going on, it feels dangerous, like some will be shocked beyond recovery when they find out their world isn't going the way it was supposed to.

Unfortunately, it may turn out to be true that sustained periods of affluence and stability, coupled with a tendency to isolate itself from immigration and influences from other cultures, may lead to stagnation of will power and energy to create something new among its younger generations. I hope not, but signs are showing. While my university tends to attract students with ambition and sensitivity to the world, my experience with other fairly prestigious university classrooms is that apathy and pursuits of short term pleasure reign. The kids live in a cushy dream world created by their grandparents and maintained by their parents. There is little sense of economic crisis or need to be competitive, and I just wonder where that is going to end up going...perhaps the stagnation is temporary, especially after 3/11, but there is no denying that an awareness of what is going on is important.

How will Japan reinvent itself? Whatever the answer is, I hope my students will be carefully considering not only the necessary economic strategy, but also what is needed in terms of social and educational development in order to create a society that balances pursuit of gain and pursuit of happiness for self and others.

"5 Days of War" (2011) -- Practice Your Critical Thinking

I try to watch war movies that purport to be based on true stories, and many that I have seen have been both educational and moving. Some stories must truly be told, and film is an effective channel for helping people know more about the truth and human nature.

But a good dose of critical thinking is always needed, and this movie is an excellent platform for practicing critical thinking and the separation of emotion and biased thoughts from actual fact or an effort to present a situation in a balanced, objective way.

You should watch it for that purpose only, and probably NOT to learn about the 5-Day Russia/South Ossetia-Georgia war of 2008, seeing how it is funded by the Georgian government.

The movie starts with the line "The first casualty when war comes is truth." (1918 quote attributed to Hiram Johnson, a US senator) Very good line. After watching the movie and researching the content, the use of that line actually seems to be quite ironic.

Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1486193/
Japanese DVD title = 5  デイズ

Here's my recommendation:

1. First, watch the movie without reading too much about it and note your reactions.

2. Second, go read about the 2008 5 Day War in a number of sources. Starting with Wikipedia is fine, but make sure you go to the External Links at the bottom of the also try to read reports by the EU or UN Investigation Commission or Human Rights Watch.

3. Third, read about how the movie was funded and why it was created. Think about the 3Bs:
Background (where did it come from),
Biography (who financed and/or created it and why),
Bias (what part of the story are they ignoring or misrepresenting).

From today's NYT in the article:
April 1, 2012, 11:13 pm

The Politics of Going to College

By THOMAS B. EDSALL

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/the-politics-of-going-to-college/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120402

(Explanation of the graph above excerpted from the article) "...M.I.T. economists Daron Acemoglu and David Autor, shows what has happened to the wages of men with various levels of education working full time (high school dropout, high school graduate, some college, college graduate, greater than college)."

Columbia professor Edsal summarizes the exchanges between Obama and Republican hopefuls Romney and Santorum regarding an expansion of federal support for less advantaged students to be able to go to college, and cautions (reasonably in my opinion) that the Republican party take a hard look at the illogical and self-contradictory statements its candidates are making on this issue.

Some of things Santorum has said such as the quote below are just shockingly ignorant. Scary.

Santorum: “President Obama once said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob,” Santorum told a Tea Party meeting in Troy, Mich., on Feb. 25. “I understand why he wants you to go to college. He wants to remake you in his image.”

??

It is true that not everyone needs to college. Some people can have very meaningful lives and develop themselves a lot by starting a career after high school (or after dropping out) and learning on the job or in technical schools, and learning in their personal lives. On the other hand, some may go to college and squander their opportunity (like many college kids in Japan--but very rarely at my university, fortunately). However, the issue is not increasing the absolute number of college goers or college graduates, but increasing the fairness of opportunity that each individual student has for going to a higher education program if they choose so and if they plan to put in the work that is needed to benefit from the opportunity.

Expanding opportunity for students who want to go to college and make efforts to get sufficient funding but can't (assuming there are such students) is not "snob" ism. To me, it seems to be a simple support of equal opportunity, which should be strengthened if the US wants to continue to be a active and prosperous society where the best ideas and best efforts are rewarded regardless of family economic status.

I included the graph above because it shows how the value of a college degree has increased over the past few decades in terms of financial compensation, and how the gap between college educated workers and high school grads is increasing. This gap is wider than I had thought. I assume this gap is widening because employers of companies with competitive jobs believe (and have found from experience) that those who go to college actually offer something that their employers have found of value, that those students would not have had if they had not gone. This graph in itself is not a case for increasing federal support for college tuition, but it explains the motivation that students and their families will have to try to get to college and further their education.

I think it is quite reasonable that our taxes be used to level the playing field on a federal level, assuming, of course, that the playing field is skewed. And my sense is that it is.