Holocaust's Ironic Fallacies

Greed dominates our world. It is a part of who we are as a species, and it tends to expose its crude face in times of moral crisis such as wars. During the Holocaust people fought for their lives. It was a time where not many other things were as important or mattered as much. The only question in the table was survival. Through the book, the reader can notice how resourceful Vladek was and how that led to his eventual freedom and survival from the great fallacy the Holocaust was, and all of it's ironies.

German guards, gestapo, or kapos in charge of monitoring the Jews were open to negotiation. They were greedy and selfish, but mostly their actions were ironic. Some prisoner gave them cheese, and they got no beatings; someone else gave them alcohol and they protected them. Rather than protecting Jewish prisoners because of the fact that they were humans too, Nazi's just used them as tools to get what they wanted. The Jewish weren't even acknowledged as inferior people. Nazi's saw them as trash, and not even that was unworthy enough for them. Sometimes they were nice to them, but why be that way if the Jewish aren't even human? I remember reading that Adolf Hitler once said that"the Jewish are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human." Do you think this sounds as redundant as it does to me? It couldn't be more fallacious than it is already. Here Hitler uses the wrong ending fallacy. You're probably known to the common basic idea that the parts make up the whole, right? Then, logically the different human races make up the human species. Consequently, Hitler's quote makes absolutely no sense. It's like saying, "H20 is undoubtedly a chemical, but it is not water." Its simply is illogical. How is a race not human, if the human species is made out of different races? Maybe, what Hitler meant to say, was that the Jewish were a species, but not human. However, he did not, and now he's is long dead to correct himself. 

Yiddish: Jewish language, written
with hebrew letters. 

Furthermore, how ironic is it that Hitler didn't acknowledge Jews as humans, but many German Nazis experimented in them to see how the human body functioned. I learned long ago that the Nazis were one of the responsible groups of people to help science, and psychology develop a lot. It is If Jewish people aren't human, then why waste time experimenting in them if they're a complete and different species. Why would humans (Germans, right?), experiment in other races that have nothing to do with them. Its nonsense. The Germans must have experimented in other as worthy Germans if they wanted some insight regarding humans.

The Holocaust was a complete fallacy, and people were ignorant enough to believe in everything Hitler said about Jewish people, and other groups. World War Two was a fight between people who made use of common sense, and those who didn't. It was a time were human intelligence was put to action, and irony just overflowed the time period.  Really how fallacious was it? 

God, Humans and the Olympics

Why do humans believe in a God? Many have asked this question before, and many will keep doing so for eternity. People search to find a deep and profound meaning behind human's faith and hope in a God. The answer is simple though. Humans are always trying to find and answer to things they don't know. That is one of the main reasons science exists as people want to give everything an explanation. Furthermore, a long time ago when science and technology weren't as developed as they are nowadays, people searched to find something that would give our life a reason and a meaning.

This phenomenon can be expressed in different ways, and it only depends in each individuals way to searching happiness. Some people give their life a meaning like being happy, being great entrepreneurs, economists, presidents or even athletes. I use God as an allegory to what is going on today with the olympics because I believe olympic athletes goal in life is to succeed and be the best. Probably, searching the universal truth in a God doesn't compare much to being a gold medalist, but the ideas are rather similar. The author of this article was an Olympic athlete herself, but she didn't feel the same ambition and passion for being best, or maybe she doesn't now as she did once before. People have to comprehend the human nature is very eccentric and complicated. Even men don't understand their own race very well. For instance, humans are greedy and have a compulsive need to know everything. The same thing happens to ambition. People want to be greedy and show off their talent. but they wont stop until they are the very best. It really shouldn't be that shocking.

Nonetheless, in what species do you think The Hunger Games were based on? Cats? No. The book might be fictional and it's events might be as well, but is very possible for something like that to occur. Even if it did happen, I wouldn't be surprised.  I believe this is a work of fiction that conveys the truth behind the human race and the potential of evil it carries. Had humans had never been so cruel and evil throughout history and events such as World War Two would have happened, there wouldn't be stories about such level of gruesome human actions. Nevertheless, many people tend to portray people as incapable of hurting flies when they don't realize the potential of cruelty they carry. This is the reality,and people shouldn't try to hide it or paint it with pretty colors.  Nevertheless, the olympics are a business and have always been. I beg to question: what is not a business nowadays? People profit around the world by about everything. Do you think blogger.com isn't making profits regarding our innocent AP Language blogs?

Our world rotates around money and the economy, greed and ambition, cruelty and "inhumanity" so people shouldn't act as surprised when they learn about the crude reality of humans. The olympics is a way people profit from the achievements of others, just like the FIFA World Cup is an economic investment too. People must accept humans are a truly peculiar species because hiding reality and the truth leads nowhere. I agree with what the author of the article says, but there is no need to make it so dramatic because for a long time this has been human's reality. The Hunger Games are really cruel, but they aren't that cruel in comparison to what men are capable of, and there is where I disagree with the author because she is comparing something already crude to something just a tad obscurer. 

Juxta-what?

Juxtaposition

Have you ever wondered if some things happened by coincidence or by fault? Have you ever wondered the irony behind finding condoms next to the baby diapers aisle in a supermarket? Have you ever wondered why some rather odd signs like then one at the left  are placed together thinking it was mere chance? Well actually, many times this doesn't occur out of sheer luck. It is: juxtaposition, or "the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect". Likewise, in comic books this tends to occur more than you would imagine. Comic panels are always side by side, providing the author with a huge opportunity for utilizing juxtaposition. 

Moreover, you can see an example of this in the book Maus by Art Spiegelman. In page 93, Vladek is explaining some details about his holocaust memories, when all of the sudden he stops, and tells Spiegelman that they should continue another day. Vladek alternates drastically from  how "those with a stamp were let go home. But there were very few jews now left in Sosnowiec." to an abrupt "well..it's enough for today. Yes, Artie?" (Pg.93) This quick snap back into reality makes realize how psychologically affecting the holocaust was. The fact that Vladek cannot speak more, or think about what happened more than forty years ago show the extent to which World War Two affected people, especially the  jewish. Furthermore, this not only makes the comic frame story, but adds to its realism and the sentiment Spiegelman wants to convey its viewer. Juxtaposition plays with the readers mind and is a great technique used by Spigelman to convey his message very throughly. 

This is a form comic book artists can add emphasis to different things, and truly highlight what they want to express. Such abrupt changes can happen in writing, but they are more suddle than when using both images and texts. Likewise, when you read a text you rely in descriptions, adjectives and adverbs. When reading comic books a whole new opportunity to transmit information to the viewer is opened. For instance, in the last panel where Vladek is siting in his spinning bicycle, you can notice and actually perceive his fatigue instantaneously. Through text only, you cannot receive such a deep and intimate response, and your imagination is open to interpretation.

This aids in highlighting Spiegelman's approach to the reader, and form of transmitting feelings.  I feel comics are a more intimate approach to the reader. You can connect to the viewer through images and common human facial traits that are perceived instantaneously rather than having to decode linguistic symbols like letters and words. Comics can take into advantage the use of juxtaposition and utilize it to transmit their ideas or messages to the reader. It is a great advantage comic artists have that simple novel writers don't.