Looking back on the past 6 weeks, I am really hating on ratemyprof.com.
Before a class begins I always go check out the website for any heads up on the professor that I am about to have. Why not? At least I may get a warning if the teacher is completely unbelievable.
For the first time in my 4 years at the University of Ottawa ratemyprof.com could not have been more wrong.
Intro to media studies was an awesome class. This was my last class ever…and being a major in Criminology I thought it was going to be way out there, but the concepts and idea discussed by Dr. Strangelove (strangelove.com) closely reflect many concepts in criminology. Overall I was impressed, I got my memory boosted because some ideas were very similar and I learned a little bit more.
Capitalism is a big concept in criminology. Many theorists, including Karl Marx discuss capitalism as the main cause of inequality, and in criminology when you have inequality you have the commission of crime. The fact that there are only about 5 white, old guys that own 80% of media corporations in the world does not surprise me at all. Those are the people who decide what we as consumers see in the media and what we as an audience get to hear about in the media. The voices and the issues concerning those at the bottom of the hierarchy are not addressed because they are basically nobodies.
With Capitalism comes a system that ensures that those who have no power never actually get it. As a society we value things like private property and freedom of speech therefore these notions are what is keeping those 5 white guys in power. We all have the impression that if we work hard enough we will be at the top and whatever we need to say will be heard. However, this will never happen, because since we value those two things, the people at the top who actually have them are never questioned, and us down here at the bottom only try and work harder to get there, but in reality it will never happen.
This is quite a depressing concept, and in my opinion, as was lectured by Dr. Strangelove, the only way that ones voice can be heard is to stop valorizing private property and freedom of speech and start valorizing collective property and equality. Think about it for a second? If we began to think in terms of equality and collectivity there wouldn’t be such a HUGE gap between the rich and the poor. People would be on a more equal playing field. Instead of having some people that have everything and some people that have nothing, all people would have SOME!
Bringing this argument back to my criminological roots, I am in complete agreement with this need for change in values. So many things would be different, INCLUDING our crime rate. We need to keep in mind that crimes that get the harshest punishments are usually crimes committed due to inequality, theft because one has no food or money or murder because one was unfairly treated!
The solution to life’s problems = abolishing the capitalist system we live in!!!
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