The thing that stood out to me the most in this podcast is that in leadership the person that is the face of the organization, or on the “podium”, is not the person that they perceive to be. They are not the person that runs the company single-handedly or holds the organization together. Sometimes this may be the case, but often it is not. The truth is that there are hundreds of people behind that figurehead how to perform important functions and show leadership daily that are unnamed. The other thing that stood out to me was the idea of change. Change requires good leadership and the ability to ask the right questions. Making the right decisions based upon the information that is available. There is a good example that occurred recently that incorporates both these concepts.

Recently in Europe, there was development among the most wealthy soccer clubs to establish a soccer league called the “Super League”. It would have consisted of only 12 teams from only three of the dozens of nations in Europe. This was devised by the billionaire owners of these soccer teams to make more money. The proposed league would end the current structure of soccer in Europe and destroy the sport. However, fans from across Europe and the World spoke up with significant uproar. Former players and current managers like Gary Neville and Pep Guardiola, who have been or are employed by these major clubs spoke up against the proposal. In less than two days, 10 of the original 12 teams backed out of the proposal and put an end to the proposed “Superleague”. This relates to podcasts because the owners of the clubs, although pretending to understand the sport and the fans, were completely out of touch. The proposed change to the sport was met with heavy resistance led by former and current players and managers with millions of fans around the world. There were hundreds of people working at these clubs that will go unnamed. However, they were largely the reason why the clubs decided to pull out. They may the owners listen to the fans of the sport and pull back the proposition. This goes to show that the head of the company is not always understanding its workers or its clientele. And that unnamed leadership and advocacy are essential to creating real change to benefit all.

Formation – 

For me, this video was pretty interesting because I had never seen it before. There is a lot of symbolism in the music video. Much of it is centered around the treatment of Black Americans especially Black women in America. Throughout the video, Beyonce showcases different struggles that Black Americans have faced. The struggle with Hurricane Katrina for example with the cop car drowning in water was meant to show the struggle that black Americans faced after the disaster. She also shows many impoverished areas in New Orleans that have been affected in the past.

This is America – 

I’ve seen this music video a bunch of times over the last couple of years. Donald Glover puts a lot of symbolism in this video. It covers the incarceration system, gun violence, racism, and gang violence in the United States. For example, there a scene in the video where Childish Gambino is dancing with a bunch of kids smiling. Yet behind them, it looks likes they are in a prison where there are a bunch of cops arresting black people and kids not paying attention and just staring into their phones. It’s a social commentary of today’s youth, but also a commentary on how minorities are being treated by police officers. Regardless of the generation, it still represents how American minorities are still subjected to the incarceration system.

I remember reading this short story back in high school. I remember at the time reading the story and feeling quite disturbed. The slow mental deterioration of the women being trapped in the room was described so vividly it shows the extreme conditions she was subjugated to. To people who read this story when it was published, to them, it was just a psychological horror story. We now know that this story was a critique of the position of women in marriage.

From the beginning of the story, we can see the establishment of gender roles between the man and the woman. The man, a doctor, constantly proscribed treatments to his wife of how to cure her illness. In this case, he prescribed her to stay indoors and do absolutely nothing. The wife is shut down immediately when she voices her concerns about the treatment and argues its ineffectiveness. The belittlement of the man towards his wife forces the woman to journal her independent thoughts into a journal, which she ends up hiding from her husband. The progression of suppressing her independent thoughts and her physical confinments deteriorates her mental health even more and she ends up going insane. Overall, this seems like an exaggerated short story of the institution of marriage. But, abusive relationships in marriage are still prevalent. Divorce rates, although not solely caused by abusive relationships, are higher than that have either been. The lack of respect, historically between the man towards his wife, is a huge factor, not only in this short story but has played a huge impact on the institution of marriage as a whole.

The importance of storytelling in leadership was one of the major points that Dr. Bezio discussed that I found most interesting.  I remember in LDST 101, Dr. Hayter discussed the tactics that leaders used to gain their momentum and influence society. Using stories, you are able to implement certain ideas and principles into a society that may be missed at a first glance. Additionally, stories have the ability to reach a wide audience and can influence most demographics in society. An example that Dr. Hayter and Dr. Bezio both mentioned was based around the propaganda that Hitler used in assembling his supporters. The methods that Hiter used to rise to power were identical to the tactics that hundreds of leaders throughout history have used in the past.

I wrote an essay based on leadership acquisition where I used Hitler and Martin Luthar King as a comparison. Although that essay was mostly based on individual traits, the use of storytelling was used by both individuals. Both individuals were extremely strong orators and often used stories as a way of establishing a sense of community within their movements. This was highly effective in making each other the figurehead of their respective movements.

From the podcast, my biggest takeaway was how one-dimensional a huge part of history is. Because of the difficulties of obtaining the materials to write, or the ability to be able to write in the past, much of history is focused on the nobles or “great men” of the time. This makes figures in history appear much grander than in reality. It not only distorts our perceptions of what life was like during those periods but for many people it establishes an unattainable falsehood of the capabilities of man. By assuming that an individual person is capable of running an entire kingdom or conquering a land by themselves, it establishes so many unattainable falsehoods.

I think this connects with Hollywood movies in particular. There are a ton of movies out there that intended to depict great men from history. I can only speak for men, but for us, they create these extremely masculine hero-like characters that do not exist in reality. They create so many falsehoods in men that are unattainable, yet so many people believe that that they are. It creates a toxic representation of masculinity that is neither correct nor attainable. For some people, it creates a toxic level of ambition, and for others, it emasculates them. Either way, it is an unhealthy practice. I can not deny that I enjoy these types of movies. However, it is essential to understand that they are just movies and not an accurate portrayal of reality or history. This tends to be twisted especially in today’s culture where we epitomize looks or standards that are unattainable.

I was assigned to the 1988 Bush v. Dukakis campaigns ads. When comparing the two, the biggest flaw that I saw with Dukakis’s campaign ads was that they were mostly all centered around defending his points that Bush was accusing him of. They were mostly surrounded by his government spending and the situation around Boston Bay. A few of his attack ads actually when against Bush, but they were not very convincing or full of detail. Dukakis also made political ads that focused directly on the Republican Party. He would throw on Bush’s name at the end of the commercial and made it seem like an afterthought. His ads mostly followed the idea of: I’m not Bush. Dukakis’s campaign pitch focused on the America of tomorrow and looking into the future. Bush focused his ads on being reliable and a proven leader. He also ended his ads with the idea America cannot risk the election of Dukakis.

During this time in history, the Cold War was coming to a close. National security was still the nation’s top interest and having Bush be in charge of ending the Cold War was a key selling point for the Republicans. I think his best ad/my favorite was when his campaign made the point that America needs a proven leader to end this conflict. Bush had just finished his vice presidency and already had a proven track record. The ad will Gorbachev really epitomized this point and I think the results of the election proved that America also agreed.

Overall, the campaign ads that were made by both parties were almost the cliche of political ads. Both had clips of each candidate waving to crowds, epitomizing the American dream, and showcase a lot of hard-working American laborers. The video content of each candidate was extremely similar. The differences lay only in their political views.

The Millennium Village Simulation was extremely frustrating. Regardless of what I did or what strategy I took, I could never collect enough funds for the village or the family to improve their living conditions significantly. In order to make money for the family, I constantly tried to make investments into the family business. Cotton growing wasn’t an option because we lacked the means to transport the cotton. It cost too much money to transport the cotton into the village to create profit. I attempted to focus farming on maize to create a little bit of profit for the family and satisfy their subsistence. However, the second there was a bad crop year, a water shortage, or any other issue the family was ruined. Whenever one of the villagers died, the economic output was ruined. It was somewhat feasible to continue surviving, but upwards economic mobility was impossible. The furthest I got was year 12.

I couldn’t imagine having to live in those conditions. For billions of people around the world, the sim is a representation of their life. During the simulation, there were a few opportunities to purchase infrastructure for the village at a government-subsidized price. But the amount of money that was required to make the purchase was unattainable. Government intervention or some sort of international intervention seems as if it is the only possibility to develop these communities. Without it, I don’t think it possible for these communities to have any sort of upward mobility. This sim shows the importance of how developed nations or global organizations like the UN need to interact with these communities. Without it, they are stuck in a poverty trap with no reasonable means to get out.

From the podcast for today, Dr.Bezio discussed to use of music and popularity as a method for catching the idea of the viewers and for them to remember something. There are a lot of ads that use celebrities to show off their products as the new trend or the next best thing. Its common practice that has been used for the longest time. I’d say this is used mostly in the fashion industry or personal care products the most. Using celebrities that are good-looking is an easy way to sell your products and it makes the presentation of the products much better.

The ad that I attached is a fairly recent one with Damian Lillard. If you watch basketball, you probably know who Dame is. He is one of the biggest stars at the moment and is a fairly talented rapper. He did this commercial with Hulu that has about 14 million views on Youtube. I think this is a pretty good example of the two traits that the podcast discussed. The song is actually pretty good and it sticks in your mind. By also using a current popular NBA player you are appealing to a younger demographic, which is also the demographic that would likely subscribe to Hulu. The fact that this commercial instantly popped into my head when listening to the podcast shows its effectiveness.

https://www.vox.com/2014/8/26/6063749/38-maps-that-explain-the-global-economy

The chart above is a breakdown of each countries main export, and summaries how the global economy is broken down. I find this chart interesting because it shows the distinctions between industrialized nations and developing nations very plainly but effectively. You can notice how the largely developed nations in North America, Western Europe, and Eastern Asia export goods that are consumer-based with fixed costs. Then you can see how many of the developing nations, largely in South and Central America, Central Asia, and Africa rely heavily on natural goods that are used primarily by developed nations. It’s a simple graph, but it shows the real distinction between the two and also sheds light on the issue of developed nations taking advantage of developing nations for their natural resources. We can use the example of De Beers and the diamond market where they control 80% of the global diamond supply. They have bought out huge diamond mines and Africa, and are notorious for violating workers’ rights and child labor laws.

In connection to the reading from class, this graph derives its data from the CIA Factbook. We can assume that majority of these figures are correct, however, there is much uncertainty if certain countries published their figures honestly. Data is so easily manipulated and can easily be amended to show a different intended perception. Many of the times, we must rely solely on reliable sources in order to ensure that the figures that are being represented are in fact honest. That being said, the graph above is honest in its projection of showing major exports. It doesn’t attempt to portray a certain argument and is completely informational. I think the largest issue that we typically see of data being skewed is for political reasons – especially on social media.  There are so many times where I see people post a graph on their story advocating for a certain cause. Sometimes, not always, these figures are derived from unreliable sources, yet these graphs are constructed in a manner that is visually appealing that it alludes the reader to respond positively to it.

The recent changes in the building names are an issue that has made a lot of noise in Virginia over the last several years. I know last year, Virginia Tech and James Madison University had the same issue where buildings were named after former slave owners, confederate generals, or segregationists. The students on those campuses also spoke out and asked for the names to be changed. Additionally, in Northern Virginia, several schools in the county have had their names changed including Jeb Stuart High School which was changed to Justice High School.

When comparing the situation between UR and the other state universities there is one alarming difference between them. The buildings that were problematic at JMU and VT were dorms or administrative buildings, not academic buildings. Ryland Hall is an academic building and by leaving the name to represent a former slave owner you are intrinsically accepting that the principles that Ryland lived under are something that should be tolerated by the following generations. Additionally, the board of visitors for both universities voted unanimously for the removal of the previous names. The fact that there is so much administrative support from the Board of Trustees is alarming and concerning. It not only hurts the reputation of the school but decreases the pride of the students that attend the university.

Overall, this decision could be just a consideration of monetary gain. The Board wants to support its donors and alumni more than students and future students. This entire discussion brings into question if the Board really has any pride. It seems as if money is everything to them.

https://wset.com/news/local/jmu-to-change-3-buildings-named-after-confederate-soldiers

https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/08/bov-buildings-resolutions.html