Ethics in Cinema

June 30, 2010 at 8:12 pm · Filed under Just Stuff

I thought I’d post a lil’ bit of writing I did for my ethics in education class, where we were supposed to analyze a movie and how ethics plays a role in it. Freedom Writers? Boring. Crash? Puhlease. Twilight of the Golds? Yaaawnfest. Instead I turned to the ultimate movie and study in ethics, Caddyshack.

Many comedies derive their humour by posing exaggerated ethical dilemmas. The interplay between competing belief systems is used to set up the conflict between an antagonist and protagonist, and this interplay is repeated many times in the movie Caddyshack. Caddyshack takes this concept a bit further by having several characters all in competition with the antaganoist, Judge Smails, a man who doesn’t appear to have any ethical system at all. Such absurdity is part of Caddyshack’s charm and humour.

Danny Noonan is one of the main characters in Caddyshack, and the movie is loosely centered around his desire to enter university and needing a scholarship to do so. Danny follows the ideals of Aristotle, whereby he tries to follow a set of virtue ethics while maintaining his own personal development. He demonstrates this on several occasions where he turns away from personal desires in order to follow a path that doesn’t necessarily give him immediate or obvious benefit (his affair with Lacey Underall being the obvious exception). Another main character is Al Czervik, a second protagonist that in many ways is the opposite of Danny. Al is decidedly utilitarian, whereby despite his sometimes ignorant and obnoxious behavior, his actions tend to promote happiness in both himself and others around him. Al is unafraid to break club rules in an effort to progress his personal agenda. However, he is also astute enough to realize that his actions are generally appreciated by those around him.

The struggle between ethic systems comes to a head near the end of the movie. On a personal level, Danny is presented with a dilemma and a choice to make. He can sink a putt to win a tournament, which is the action that a deontologist would take. On the other hand, he can purposely miss the putt which would have immediate benefits to himself. Furthermore, by missing the putt it is possible that the greatest amount of happiness would be achieved. Perhaps a utilitarian would actually miss the putt on purpose. Danny chooses to sink the putt, an action that is congruent with his virtue ethics.

I searched for many ways in which I could bring Carl Spackler, Bill Murray’s character, into this analysis. However, I reflected upon the idea that a person needs to use knowledge in order to be ethical, as ethics requires rational thought. It therefore makes sense that Carl is difficult to relate to ethics, as he is a completely irrational character. He is not devoid of a belief system though, as there are suggestions that he is a follower of Buddhism. Carl is happy with his lot in life, undoubtedly due to the fact that the Dalai Lama granted Carl “total consciousness.” As Carl says in the movie, this is a gift “which is nice.”

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The Palin Trainwreck

June 25, 2010 at 10:49 pm · Filed under Politics

“Of late, whenever a candidate with the Palin blessing blows up, she blames it on the “lamestream media,” not personal responsibility. It’s a curious claim, coming from a person who said she studied journalism in college, but is appalled by real journalism. ”

The Palin Brand

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Stuff For Sale

June 19, 2010 at 9:47 am · Filed under Just Stuff

A couple of weeks ago I put one of my bikes up for sale on craigslist. One of the replies was sort of spam-like, and I took appropriate actions as seen below…
_________________________________________________________________________________
From: cgault*******@yahoo.ca

hey how bout a trade for your bike id give you a few different items

jackets to choose from that i sell on ebay and id be willing to give you a few for your bike i have jackets like north face, nike, adidas, buffalo, columbia, viking if your interested in taking a look plus i have a nice 14k rope chain and a womens saphire gold 10k ring with diamonds in it, or i could give you one or two large beautiful violet parkhurst wood cherry and black colored framed paintings valued @ $1500 each, matt sundin autographed 8×10 picture with canucks, womens coach purse brand over 400 american paid, portable dvd player, like new crib, hoover carpet cleaner, about 60 assorted comics from the late 70- 80s in mint shape with plastic covers on them, i got nike roller blades and another good pair size 11 i believe, electric paint sprayer, makita drill and makita flash light with one battery,charger and case and another electric drill and i probably got some more stuff but let me know if you wanna see pics of anything let me know thnx
__________________________________________________________________________

From: Dan Beatle
Subject: Re: RMB Rocky Mountain ETSX 30 – $1100 (east van)
To: cgault******@yahoo.ca
Date: Saturday, May 29, 2010, 7:34 PM

Hi Courtenay,
Thanks for the email about the rmb etsx-30. As luck would have it, I am interested in some of the goods you mentioned. In particular I would like to know more about the crib. I’ve been thinking a lot about having a child and maybe this is what I need to push me over the edge. I guess I’m still a bit worried about being a father though. Are you a mom Courtenay? I guess so, otherwise why would you have a brand new crib he he. Silly me! See, that’s why I think I would be such a good dad, I’m always fooling around and making little jokes and games. Last weekend I played a game with some neighbourhood kids. I saw them playing in the park, so I dressed up like Superman and chased them around. I think it was a lot of fun and the kids were running and screaming all over the place. My costume was a bit strange I must admit, because I didn’t really have a superman outfit. Instead, I put on some blue tights and a red traffic cone, and just to make it a bit more realistic I painted my face green like I had been attacked with kryptonite. It was a blast and I hope to do it again sometime. I just moved into the neighbourhood and this is the first time I had seen any kids. I guess some of them must have been pretty tired because they were crying a lot by the time I was finished with the game.

I know that we’ve only known each other for a very short time, but do you think I’d be a good father? Oops, I just realized that I assumed that you are a mom. Maybe you’re actually a dad! I remember that I used to play hockey with a guy named Courtenay. He played center and had a pretty wicked shot. I can’t remember if he was a dad though… What position do you play? Anyways, I think the biggest hurdle to me being a dad is that I don’t have a crib. Once I get one, that will make me really ready. Then all I’ll have to do is go out and find a girlfriend. I’m hoping that she’ll be nice and also enjoy playing Superman games with kids, because what’s the point in life if you can’t play games?

Darn, I just realized that I made another assumption. Maybe your name is Courtenay but you’re not a dad because you’re gay. I just want you to know that I fully support gay couples adopting kids. I also support gay couples and artificial insemination (maybe you’re gay but a female, in which case I was closer the first time).

In any event, I’d like to see a picture of the crib. Perhaps we can meet and talk about kids, cycling and good kids games? I’m free usually on Tuesdays, but not always. If I’m not free on Tuesday, then the following Friday will probably work and that’s better in case we want to meet for drinks instead of coffee. Sometimes I get soooo sick of coffee, you know?

thanks
Dan

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Date: Sat, 29 May 2010 20:14:10 -0700
From: cgault******@yahoo.ca
Subject: Re: RMB Rocky Mountain ETSX 30 – $1100 (east van)
To: dogo****@hotmail.com

im a guy and that is sure the weirdest replies i have ever had but anyways here is a pic of the crib and for jackets what do you like to see?

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TQS Quandry

June 1, 2010 at 7:04 am · Filed under Just Stuff, Technology

Being an education student at SFU and hopefully meeting all the requirements for a teachers certificate from BCCT this August, I am naturally curious about the pay scale categories assigned in BC. The Teachers Qualification Service, TQS, is the organization that is in charge of this. I had a question about categories and how they are affected by UBC’s MET programs, so I went to the TQS website in hopes of finding someone to contact with my query.

I was a bit surprised that on the TQS website they say that all questions should be directed via mail, fax or in person. I don’t have a fax machine, I didn’t want to wait for the mail service, and I had some free time yesterday so I went to their office to ask my questions. I turned out that the people “in the know” weren’t in the office at that time, so I wrote a letter outlining my questions and left it there, along with some supporting documentation.

Later that day I received an email from the TQS. I thought that was a bit odd considering they don’t apparently like email. In the email, the person asked for my BCCT certification number. I replied that I didn’t have one yet. I then received the following email:

from: TQS
subject: *Please submit your request by fax or mail.* Re: TQS Inquiry

Teacher Qualification Service
106 – 1525 West 8th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V6J 1T5
__________________________________________

Well shiver me timbers, I had a good laugh at that one. It of course begs to be replied with any number of smart-ass responses. Here are some of the better ones that I’ve thought of:

“When is a good time to pick up the letter I dropped off, so that I can mail or fax it to you?”

“Would you be so kind as to mail or fax me my letter, so I can do the same for you? I don’t have a fax machine, perhaps you can drop it off at my house?”

“Do you remember that flat, white, papery thing that I dropped off today? There’s a good chance it’s still on your desk. If you can’t remember what it looks like simply recall that it’s the thing that you used to copy out my email address. There, you found it. Good. Can we just pretend it is the letter, and that it has already been mailed AND faxed?”

“Can I fax only a cover letter? You can then attached to the documents I already dropped off at your office and we can call it a day.”

“Do you remember seeing that flat white thing on your desk with a bunch of blue lines, circles and arcs on it? That is paper with writing on it. The hi-tech name for it is “letter.” You already have it, me mailing or faxing another one isn’t going to change that situation. Please take action accordingly.”

“Can you please scan and email me the contents of the letter? I recall that it was written quite clearly and neatly covered all the points that I was interested in. I’d hate to re-write it in case I miss something.”

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