<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span"><DIV>Jonathan wrote, </DIV><DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN>I wonder if the rhetoric of force is a contemporary means to deal with the question of life under fascism. Of course, for those Americans on the list, we might be able to ask similar questions of ourselves?</SPAN></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>This is an excellent and important question. I taught Pacific War film this semester—taught....one class left. Throughout the semester, I felt a little pressure. An obscure <I>force,</I> from the students, that put me on guard. Now of course this is incomparable to the pressure or force of life in Japan in the 30s or early 40s, but Jonathan has posed the question. And it made me think about my experience this semester. There were connections to made to the present day situation in every class meeting. I gestured at them constantly, wanting to go in and explore them completely with the students but usually leaving them as thought provoking gestures. Basically, I know there are soldiers, military otaku and neoconservative youth in the class, and I wasn't sure how to deal with that and for all sorts of reasons. </SPAN><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span">This week I showed them Thin Red Line and, as a film that's clearly designed to get you to think about war itself as opposed to saying something specifically about WWII, I used this as an opportunity to segue into Iraq head on and full steam ahead. What I found was that the situation is indeed, utterly unlike the force one might find in a militaristic or fascist state. Rather, with the exception of the soldier, none of them felt any connection to the current war and didn't mind talking about, and pondering, their lack of connection and diffidence. Whatever pressure or force I felt was self-censorship because dealing with it seemed like such a pain. </SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>In short, it was one of the weirdest discussions I've ever led. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Markus</DIV></BODY></HTML>