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Blackfish Film and Ethics (2)
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Blackfish Film and Ethics
Virtue ethics refers to a philosophy developed by Aristotle. It is a character-based approach to mortality. This theory indicates that practice is vital in the process of virtue acquisition. Virtue ethics contrasts with the view that virtue is present in the world as a natural representation of goodness. Virtue ethics being character-based means that there are different traits and forms of virtue, but all come from constant practice in one’s moral character. For instance, courage would be considered a type of bravery and resoluteness, but bravery comes from years of constantly acting bravely, whereas resoluteness is often displayed when you are angry or feel threatened. Virtue ethics also suggests that healthy interpersonal relationships can have their own virtues (Van Zyl, 46). For example, generosity would be one such virtue for many people around the world since it’s seen as a way to give and express care for others without expecting anything in return.
The blackfish film is closely related with virtue ethics. The blackfish documentary shows the lives of people working with Orcas. It follows the life of a famous orca trainer, Dawn Brancheau, who was killed by an orca in 2010 at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. While it seems that few people would care about the death of a whale trainer, this film sparks controversy on how animals are treated in such places. This movie is praised for its engaging and emotive portrayal of animal abuse and exploitation in captivity; therefore, it can be said that it is virtuous. The film portrays the lives of whales and what really goes on behind closed doors at places like SeaWorld.
The documentary titled ‘Blackfish’ is mainly regarding natural history of whales on the basis of how they were treated by humans before shooting one’s attack against them. The Blackfish film illustrates the segregation, hunting practices, and annihilation that face the sea world which comprise of the whales and other animals. These practices are effectively demonstrated in the Tilikum captivity ordeal, the dolphin hunting procedure and many other ways in which the hunt practices are conducted during whale hunts of sea creatures. The movie reveals these incidents to the audience and tells them that there is no need to have a look at these cruel acts which are happening in the field. The people who are involved in these activities have thought it fit to kill whales and other marine animals thinking of their own safety and convenience. In this way, they also avoid being seen as criminals by the people who are watching them doing this activity.
In this film, Orca is discussed to demonstrate great aggressiveness after being incarcerated in the SeaWorld. However, SeaWorld has been fighting against that idea. Since the film was released, it has caused a great amount of controversy on the trainers working in such places and the killers have been removed from captivity. The film is not just about killer whales but also about how they are treated by humans. In general, Blackfish documentary is a great piece on how we treat animals, including whales and dolphins, in captivity at SeaWorld in John Krasinski’s directorial debut. It is an emotional documentary with power conversations to help change our perspective of animal rights and treatment.
This movie has greatly demonstrated the role of ethics in the society and how the society must truly have ethical and moral values to have a better society. The film has shown us that the real leaders of this world are the people who are kind and give love to everyone (Cowperthwaite). The people who are cruel and hate to others will be thrown away from his or her position. This has been showed by the documentary and I can’t state it more properly than that. This article discusses ethical issues surrounding the use of exotic or trained marine mammals for entertainment purposes and how Blackfish, as well as other films such as Dolphin Diary helped to raise awareness in this topic. This is an important discussion that needs to be more widely discussed.
During the film, I felt so sorry for the animals of SeaWorld, who live in small aquariums and must experience horrible things. They are beaten and forced to perform extremely unnatural acts while they were helpless and defenseless. There are stories about orcas attacking their trainers in their habitats at SeaWorld, something that is always talked about in this documentary film. No one seems to believe what really happened to these orcas before the attack or why did it happen at all. Blackfish wants to give its opinion on why those killings happened because of ethical issues inside SeaWorld company.
The film teaches us to always think twice before taking an action. This is mostly vital when those actions tend to infringe other people’s rights of expression or liberty. The people who are cruel like those in this film will never be rewarded and they will be erased from the society. The importance of showing the good and bad sides of this world can never be over emphasized, especially when you are seeing it on large screen. Those who have such values in mind must see this film to foster their ethical and moral values into what they do for a living. In a time where we have to share our opinion about many things whether good or bad, we must still remember that these opinions may not just be expressed by us but also by people around us too. Even if a few people do not support you, it does not mean that you are wrong.
From the film, we can also see how the marine family face harsh training and punishments. These shows the level of lack of empathy in the society and its effects. In this article, we can read the following: “Blackfish would probably be a better film if it had not been produced to make a point about the ethics of keeping marine animals in captivity. Yet despite its intent, Blackfish also humanizes marine animals and exposes their suffering and desperation.”
Thus, animal rights have been a major topic since the production of the Blackfish film. The movie has demonstrated animal abuse on a grand scale, with the orcas being kept in captivity and abused by SeaWorld. The documentary rightfully gained much attention from the people of the world who care about animal rights (Stokes 160). Not to mention, the film has also received criticism throughout its run-on different channels such as social media and traditional news media. When it turns out that these supposed “animal rights activists” are actually just taking advantage of this marine park, Animal Rights Organization has created an action plan for what needs to be done in order to help save these animals and make them happy once again. The Blackfish film is a must watch for anyone who is interested in animal rights or activism as a whole (whether they care about orcas or not).
The article, “SeaWorld should set captive orcas free” stipulates Jean-Michel Cousteau’s calling on the SeaWorld to release its captive orcas. The Oceanographic explorer, indicates that “They need to be released and put back into a place where we can keep an eye on them and they can reconnect with nature,”. Cousteau and his organization Ocean Future Society has been advocating for the release of marine mammals in captivity, a movement that has created conflict with advocacy groups such as People for the Ethical treatment of Animals which are calling for the closure of all marine mammal parks. The article indicates that SeaWorld is “one of the most controversial institutions in North America” due to its poor treatment of orcas. The article also mentions that this type of treatment is not limited to SeaWorld, but it is instead industry-wide phenomenon. Nowadays, there are at least 81 orcas currently held captive in marine parks, zoos and aquaria across the globe (Jean-Michel 4).
Works Cited
“Jean-Michel Cousteau: Seaworld Should Set Captive Orcas Free”. The Guardian, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/27/seaworld-free-captive-orcas-jean-michel-cousteau. Accessed 1 Feb 2022.
Cowperthwaite, G., Oteyza, M. V., Despres, E., Ingalls, J., Towey, C., Beal, J., Blackfish. Magnolia Pictures (Firm), Magnolia Home Entertainment (Firm). (2013)
Stokes, Ashli Q., and Wendy Atkins-Sayre. “PETA, rhetorical fracture, and the power of digital activism.” Public Relations Inquiry 7.2 (2018): 149-170.
Van Zyl, Liezl. Virtue ethics: A contemporary introduction. Routledge, 2018.
M6A1 Understanding Charts
M6A1: Understanding Charts
Interpretation of data requires analysis skills in which one has to have the ability to interpreted charts and picture presentations. It is argued that a picture is able communicate more than words. Images or picture presentation can portray a lot of information at a glance. The reader has to point out what every presentation means including an analysis of both extremes. In the document presented in this case, the issue of tax collection with respect to business cycle is addressed both in text and chart presentation. The information provides a variation in income tax from other taxes and various expansions as well as contractions in the economy.
In this presentation, income taxes portray the highest extremity than both sales tax and personal income. Personal income appears to be more constant while the taxes go through a system of variations. These variations could be related to business cycles (Gerald, Robert & Geoffrey, 2008). Business cycles may not certainly affect the personal income but influences the government decision to change the tax structure as a way of creating funds to finance its activities during times of economic depression. Economic depression would free personal income leading to shrinkage in the personal income to a lower extreme than sales tax. When the economy is at the boom period, personal income is highest and this initiates an increase in income tax. This means that income tax is more affected by business cycles than sales tax (Carroll, Holtz-Eakin, Rider & Harvey Rosen, 2000). The reason behind this is that business cycles greatly affect personal incomes than the effect created on sales. This is why income tax varies more greatly than any other taxes in the economy. Income tax falls significantly during economic depression periods because firms fire employees or shrink their incomes to avoid losses. During the boom periods, more jobs are created creating a change to generate more funds through income taxes.
References
Gerald Auten, Robert Carroll & Geoffrey Gee. (2008). The 2001 and 2003 Tax Rate Reductions: An Overview and Estimate of the Taxable Income Response. National Tax Journal, Vol. 61 No.3 , 345-364.
Robert Carroll, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Mark Rider & Harvey Rosen. (2000). Income Taxes and Entrepreneurs: Use of Labor. Journal of Labor Economics, Vol.18 No.2 , 324-351.
Memory Enhancement
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Memory Enhancement
Topic – Memory
Question – How can memory be improved?
Memory refers to the ability of a person to maintain and recall information over a certain period of time. Therefore memory is based on the processes that are used in the acquisition, storage, retention, and retrieval of information from the storage. Three major stages are involved in memory, and they include encoding, storage, and retrieval. Human memory is also involved in both the preservation and recovery of information that is learned through past experiences. However, humans as well have the capacity to forget, especially the information in question was stored sometimes back. When the information stored is not frequently accessed by the person, it tends to lie back in memory and fades slowly, such that remembering will become a difficult task. Besides, some of the information may not have been properly stored in the memory, and this makes retrieval difficult since the memory can only remember bits of the information. As a result, memory problems arise, and this means that it can be worse, depending on the situation. The memory problems can range from minor annoyances to simple forgetfulness that includes where one kept the keys to the house. Memory fades with age, and this means that there is a need to constantly put the memory to task so that one doesn’t forget easily.
For a person to form new memories, the information needs to be put into a usable form, and this can only happen through encoding. A successful encoding process results in the successful storage of information in the memory, which will be used for later use. However, much of the stored memory lies outside and individuals’ awareness most of the time, with the exception of when the information is needed for usage. Successful retrieval of the information ensures allows individuals to bring the stored memories into conscious awareness. It should, however, be noted that memories are brief, and they may last only for a few seconds long, through which in that short time, a person is able to take in sensory information regarding the world. Short-term memories tend to be a bit longer lasting about 20 to 30 seconds. In most cases, most of the short-term memories consist of information that a person is currently focusing on and thinking about. However, there are memories that are able to endure longer durations that may include days, weeks, months, years and even decades and these are regarded as long-term memories and to which lie outside a person’s immediate awareness, but they can be drawn into consciousness at the time of need.
Memory improvement is a crucial process that will help a person receive, store, and retrieve information more effectively. As stated above that the human memory is subject to forgetting information, sometimes may be due to retrieval failures, interference, and failure of storage as well as motivated forgetting. In some cases, a person may experience information loss from memory, and in some cases, the information might not have been stored effectively. Sometimes, memories do compete with one another both in storage and retrieval, and this may make it difficult for a person to remember. Boosting the memory is therefore essential in that it will help the person remember content which may save a person from embarrassment. Rehearsing the information is one of the major forms of improving the memory as it makes the brain active, making it more efficient in the retrieval of information. An effective rehearsing program involves using tricks that are capable of jogging the mind once in a while, keeping it active and enhancing memory.
Works Cited
How to improve your MEMORY | LBCC Study Skills. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/Ulk9BCRA83Y?t=86