Animation fascinates me. Like painters, animators can create images of stunning beauty. Being free from the limitations of human actors or physical locations, animators can also depart from strict realism and create images that are fantastical, metaphorical, or otherwise stylized. Animation’s stylization can allow animated films to deal with darker, more serious topics such as … Continue reading Comprehending Horror through Animation: The Art of the Anti-War Animated Movie
Category: Art
“Our Artworks Are Parts of Ourselves”: The Unresolved Status of Art by Guantánamo Bay Detainees
The US prison at Guantánamo Naval Base, Cuba, remains a significant unresolved legacy of the Global War on Terrorism begun in 2001. Since the prison opened in January 2002, roughly 780 men have been detained there as part of US counter-terrorism policies. Today, 35 men remain there, with their ultimate fate yet to be resolved.[1] … Continue reading “Our Artworks Are Parts of Ourselves”: The Unresolved Status of Art by Guantánamo Bay Detainees
A War on the People: A Review of One Child Nation
To curb population growth and supposedly promote national prosperity, China’s ruling Communist Party in 1979 launched an effort to ensure most Chinese parents would have only one child. For roughly the next 36 years the authorities would enforce this One-Child Policy through measures that included intense propaganda, forced sterilizations and abortions, punishments for disobedient households, … Continue reading A War on the People: A Review of One Child Nation
“Somewhere Else When the Trigger Is Pulled”: Orwell and War
Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one's own habits. … Continue reading “Somewhere Else When the Trigger Is Pulled”: Orwell and War
Recognizing Humanity: Orwell and the Consistent Life Ethic
We’re 70 years from the publication of one of the 20th century’s most influential books: Nineteen Eighty-Four. George Orwell’s 1949 novel about future life under a dramatically repressive regime has shaped political debate and popular culture for decades. The novel’s anniversary will doubtless prompt further reflections. I reflect on Orwell’s concern for defending human dignity against … Continue reading Recognizing Humanity: Orwell and the Consistent Life Ethic
How to Move from Theory to Practice: Reading A Consistent Life
Let’s say you’ve succeeded in winning someone over to the consistent life ethic. This person now wants to defend human life against abortion, the death penalty, euthanasia, war, and the myriad other threats to life. Now the question arises, “What should I do to promote the consistent life ethic?” A valuable new resource is now available for … Continue reading How to Move from Theory to Practice: Reading A Consistent Life
Tyranny Made Vivid: The Enduring Power of Nineteen Eighty-Four
A famous artistic denunciation of tyranny, Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, is now almost 70 years old. Completed by Orwell in late 1948 and published the following June, the influence of Orwell’s novel over the following decades has been tremendous. Probably far more people are familiar with the fictional dramatically repressive, one-party state of Oceania than with … Continue reading Tyranny Made Vivid: The Enduring Power of Nineteen Eighty-Four
Five Great Anti-War Movies
Movies can be a valuable resource for consistent life ethic activists. A movie that touches on one of the life issues can engage someone’s imagination and emotions in a way that an essay, a news article, or even a novel cannot. Further, hosting a screening is a relatively easy way for students, religious communities, or … Continue reading Five Great Anti-War Movies
A Globe-Trotting Detective Story: A Review of Dirty Wars
Dirty Wars, the documentary film counterpart to the book of the same name, begins its investigation of the secretive world of US counterterrorism operations with a disturbing episode set in Afghanistan. The book’s author, Jeremy Scahill, was working as a war correspondent in Afghanistan when he looked beyond the limited flow of information provided by … Continue reading A Globe-Trotting Detective Story: A Review of Dirty Wars
Peacemaking for Life 