History Repeats Itself

This post is about how the primary source reflects America today or yesterday. It doesn't really matter what day as long as it is within 2 years or soo. Whose war talks about how the common man doesn't really like war that much. This is still somewhat true. Here in Oak Park, the people are mostly liberal and non-war hippies. In places like Texas (no offense to people in Texas, Charles told me to write it. Of course, I listened to him) people are very pro-war. Reed also talks about how war is bloody, horrible, and dumb. He is still right. War is still stupid. Of course now with computerized missals, we don't see the blood as much. How brilliant are we? Another point that Reed brings up is that England got away with illegal stuff during the war. Now, we (America) are in England's position. We went into Afghanistan under the presence of sorting out this "weapons of mass destruction" stuff. Now we have changed our position and basically stayed in the Middle East for 9 years. Fun stuff this war is. We also killed inocent civilians and our own country men. I think I will leave you on that note.

The Music Mirror: Music that reflects the piece

Now is the part where I tell you about music that I believe reflects the primary source. Fun Stuff.

Okay. Here it goes.

1. Revolution by the Beatles. I absolutely loooooooovvvvvvveeeeeee that song. I chose this song because it talks about seeing a plan that is not there. A lyric in the song is "You asked me for a contribution." I think that this lyric represents the primary source because the rich asked the SIMPLE, ordinary people to fight for them.

2. Yesterday by the Beatles. Another one of my personal favorites. This song talks about how in the past everything was so simple. "Now it looks as if my troubles are here to stay." Well... just to point out WWI was very troubling. And the effect of it lasted for a very long time. In fact its effects are still probably here.

3. Help! (the exclamation point is very important) by the Beatles. More Beatles, wow, they are amazing for this kind of stuff. "Help me get my feet back off the ground." That is what the elite few said during WWI. Except it was more like "Help me get my investments back so that my feet don't touch the ground."

Aren't the Beatles Great? That wasn't a question. They are its a fact.

Two Words

This is the part where I ATEMPT to describe the source in two words. Okay... First atempt.

The words Simple and Disowned:

Simple. I chose this word because that is basically the word that tells about people at the time. According to Reed, most people at the time were simple or ordinary. There were only an few elite people at the time. The rest were SIMPLE!  There was also a SIMPLE problem. We were in war. Of course, we DISOWNED the problem. Another thing is that WWI was not as SIMPLE as we thought it was. In fact there was much more that was under the suraface. Like secret alliances and money and other fun stuff like that.

There is a line that Reed says repeatably. "This is not our war." That shows us DISOWNING the war. Of course that could mean that we sound slightly unpatriotic but... what isn't ours isn't ours. You know what I am saying?

A lesson for all the semi- bright forth graders in the world.

This is a lesson to all the semi- bright forth graders in the world. It is about "Whose War" by John Reed. The speach is about  why war is bad. Do you understand? I- a-m- t-y-p-i-n-g- a-s s-l-o-w a-s p-o-s-s-b-l-e. Okay, so moving on, the man who wrote the speach was angry. He says that ordinary people, like you my young, naive friend and I, do not care for/about war. Reed (the angry man) also says that England gets away with way too much. Like a kid in your forth grade class who just gets away with passing notes, while you get caught and get put in detention.  Another thing that Reed says is that World War 1 was not our fault. That it was the fault of the powerful taking advantage. This is like the kid in your class who just always gets your class into trouble. I hate kids like that.

Part 1: The Main Idea

    Every thing ever written has a main idea. "Whose War?" by John Reed is no exception. There are three main ideas in the text.
      First, that the World War I was not a common man's war. That the ordinary person is disinterested in the war. The ordinary person being an average person, not rich, not poor, in the middle. When it does come up in conversation, people think of it as disturbing and horrifying.  In fact, Reed states that "We are simple folk. Prussian militarism seems to us insufferable..." This supports the statement "The war is not a common man's war." God, I love having support for my arguments. It makes me feel so smart.  Another side of this statement was John Reed's statement "The rich become richer, the poor poorer, and the cost of living higher." This shows that the people that benefited were the rich and not the poor. Proves you got to have money to make money.

Whose War? A series of posts on John Reed's Speach.

    This is the first of many posts about John Reed's speech "Whose War?" If you don't know what I am talking about than go to this link. http://www.marxists.org/archive/reed/1917/masses02.htm. That is where you can find a copy of the speech.

Here is how the series will work out:

1. Main pointes and ideas of the speech
2. Two Words
3. How to teach it to a semi- bright fourth grader
4. Pieces of music that reflect the source
5. What the source says about America today

Image from: http://www.vladimir-vysotsky.de/bilder/reed1.jpg