Journal 11
I Loved the Movie Inside out because I feel it put such a complex discussion into a kids movie and is teaching children at an early age the concept of emotion and how to deal with them. This was my surprisingly one of my favorite movies that I have watched this year and doing this project it was my first time watching it. I feel like even at my big age, I learned something from it. But perhaps its greatest achievement has been this: It has moved viewers young and old to take a look inside their own minds. As you likely know by now, much of the film takes place in the head of an 11-year-old girl named Riley, with five emotions — Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust — embodied by characters who help Riley navigate her world. Then ask yourself, “What does it mean to me when people are rude about my family?” Maybe it means you feel attacked, or that you have parented badly — this could cause feelings of fear that you are inadequate or sadness that you haven’t done a good job and that your friend thinks badly of you. I like to chanel my emotions through my career. I have always been fascinated by international relations. I was previously a political science major, however, I realized that I am not only interested in American politics; I want to make a difference in the world’s politics. The bigger issues such as human rights not being recognized all over the world is what I want to change. More specifically, I love everything dealing with foreign policy. The amount of importance in politics between nations and diplomacy is grand. Diplomacy is what makes the world run smoothly, or at least as smooth as it possibly can. I personally wanted my major and my career to be related to this field because I find these things important.I don’t know what you will come up with, but if you are interested in your authentic feelings, then you can uncover what you feel by keeping asking the same question: “What does it mean for me when (fill in whatever they said or did)? Some people have real difficulty identifying this emotion, due to living in a culture which values “positive” emotions above the more negative ones. This is a mistake because as humans, we need the full range of our emotions to be in working order in order to be able to respond appropriately to our own needs and those of others.
The film has some deep things to say about the nature of our emotions—which is no coincidence, as the GGSC’s founding faculty director, Dacher Keltner, served as a consultant on the film, helping to make sure that, despite some obvious creative liberties, the film’s fundamental messages about emotion are consistent with scientific research. Occasionally when I feel angry with someone, when I look for the underlying emotion, it will be sadness or fear. You can check your true feelings by asking yourself what made you feel angry. For example, you might think, “I felt angry because he said something rude about my family.”
We don’t know how strong this is — how much current emotions bias us to ignore factual properties of the past — but it is true. Once you have identified sadness, then respond appropriately to this emotion in yourself and others. First, allow yourself to be sad. You don’t have to be “up” or “positive” all the time. If you feel sad, explore your feelings and find out what you need. I think that strikes people, particularly with the loss of childhood so well captured in the film. I am not talking about long-term sadness, or as Lewis Wolpert calls depression, “malignant sadness,” and I am certainly not talking about grief. There are pretty good studies by Linda J. Levine down at the University of California-Irvine and earlier by Gordon Bower that show if I’m in a current state — let’s say I’m feeling ashamed — and you ask me to recall something from the past, that emotion is going to bias what I recall from the past, and I’ll tend to dredge up more shameful qualities of the experience, compared to if I was feeling proud or jealous or whatever. Here, I am talking about the feeling of sadness that can be experienced when someone we like or love is unkind to us, when we see or experience something poignant, or when we experience some loss or hurt. These feelings will not last weeks but are not transient either. It may feel like a temporary shadow has passed across your feelings.
As sadness is not always acceptable in our culture and many people are uncomfortable witnessing the sadness of another, it can often be covered up by anger.
I have done extensive research on becoming an international lawyer simply because it is one of the broader paths in contrast to becoming a district attorney or a corporate lawyer. There are also many career possibilities for an international lawyer. I could work for nonprofit organizations like Amnesty International or American Civil Liberties Union as an attorney assisting them in fighting for human rights. There is a lot of work to be done for the United States in this regard. In my opinion, the United States has provided global leadership on many human rights issues, but its embrace of the rights enshrined in the Universal Doctrine of Human Rights has been partial and selective. This is an option working with one of my passions, but I am more interested in working within our government in assisting them in foreign policy and making peace across other nations. Being an international lawyer for the United States would combine all three of my passions. There are problems within this field as there are with any field.
To begin, being an international lawyer for the United States and helping the government in foreign policy isn’t an easy job. There have been law journals published about this career choice, and one, in particular, is by Richard B. Bilder titled “On Being an International Lawyer” published in the Loyola University Chicago International Law Review. The main issue Bilder talks about in this field is the United States’ lack of commitment to international law and international obligations. He clearly states, “our government has little regard for international law or treaty obligations and that the present administration considers these as simply ‘options’ rather than ‘obligations’.”(135)Emotions have been the topic of many self-help books and programs. A good portion of these resources focuses on how to deal with specific emotions. Popular topics include: How to conquer fear, How to manage anger, or How to overcome depression. There are also resources that focus on the bright side of emotions and promise to teach you how to be eternally happy. The problem with this kind of divide-and-conquer approach, however, is that it views each emotion in isolation, as if that specific emotion exists in a separate part of the brain — in its own little cocoon within the folds of your cerebral cortex. And after you gain control over said emotion, you no longer have to worry about it. You can go on with your life or you can pick up another book to learn how to control the next emotion that’s making your life hard.
The key to NOT staying this way is to focus on “Tomorrow is another day” Leave behind the baggage of yesterday. Do not dwell on the past, or relive it via doubt. Focus on today and what makes you happy. It is often something very simple, like doing something nice for someone else.
When we get caught up in feelings like this they can have a snowball effect. The more miserable you feel the more miserable you are. You have to take control of your life and if needed make the changes that make you happy.
If you constantly feel this way, it could be the result of many things. I would speak to a professional on this. If you have wild swings in mood that are extreme then you may have something you need to get some help with. There are many variations of many disorders that can cause this. Not all of them swing from being super happy to super sad. I am a victim of one such disorder however we found in my case it was being induced by medication that I was taking.These assertions emphasize the faults of our government clearly. Our government is not concerned with what is the right thing to do. The United States’ foreign policy approach is to do what they want and how to twist the law to make it legal. Even if a foreign office lawyer were to be bold enough to advise a high-policy making official, they must not do it in writing because writing is evidence that the high-policy making official cannot deny. This gives room for denial for these high-policy making officials such as the President of the United States and denial from our government in general.
Bilder in this article gives current examples of times where the United States had distinctly disregarded international law and international foreign policy. He states that,
Controversy continues about the international legality of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq; our indefinite detention of so-called ‘enemy combatants’ at Guantanamo and perhaps other secret locations; our use of cruel and inhumane and degrading interrogation methods at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere; our arrest and sentencing to death of aliens without having informed their consulates as required by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations… and the list goes on! (135)
You can check your true feelings by asking yourself what made you feel angry. For example, you might think, “I felt angry because he said something rude about my family.”
We don’t know how strong this is — how much current emotions bias us to ignore factual properties of the past — but it is true. Once you have identified sadness, then respond appropriately to this emotion in yourself and others. First, allow yourself to be sad. You don’t have to be “up” or “positive” all the time. If you feel sad, explore your feelings and find out what you need. I think that strikes people, particularly with the loss of childhood so well captured in the film. I am not talking about long-term sadness, or as Lewis Wolpert calls depression, “malignant sadness,” and I am certainly not talking about grief. There are pretty good studies by Linda J. Levine down at the University of California-Irvine and earlier by Gordon Bower that show if I’m in a current state — let’s say I’m feeling ashamed — and you ask me to recall something from the past, that emotion is going to bias what I recall from the past, and I’ll tend to dredge up more shameful qualities of the experience, compared to if I was feeling proud or jealous or whatever. Here, I am talking about the feeling of sadness that can be experienced when someone we like or love is unkind to us, when we see or experience something poignant, or when we experience some loss or hurt. These feelings will not last weeks but are not transient either. It may feel like a temporary shadow has passed across your feelings.
As sadness is not always acceptable in our culture and many people are uncomfortable witnessing the sadness of another, it can often be covered up by anger.
Overall LOVE THIS MOVIE! I really learned something from Joy in this movie, and that is being a COMRADE. Team work making the dreamwoork. In ways she heavilily needed to discover diplomacy because diplomacy is about speaking and solving problems with one another. Joy was very much dictating decisions and ruining Riley as she was doing so.
