Mike Davis: Bastards of the Party. Paper Example

Bastards of the Party films the ancestry for the establishment of the gang. The documentary uncovers the birth of black American gang history that eventually gave rise to the establishment of the gang culture in Los Angeles. The documentary is filmed through the eyes of the previous member of the gang Cle "Bone" Sloan. Bastards of the Party anchors on LA gang culture, it illustrates the micro-community depicting the bad social policies present in the United States. The Research paper will give insights on whether gang members are responsible for what they are or were they created to be in gangs. Also, provide a Platonic interpretation of gangs in LA.

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In my opinion, gang members are responsible for what they are. The case cannot be that they were created to be in gangs. As Satre puts it, humans tend to be accountable for what they are. According to Atheistic existentialism of which Satre, a great philosopher is a representative of, he notes if God is non-existing, then there is probably a being who exists and comes prior essence (Blunden 119). Satre means the human is in existence even before it can be described by any conception it owns. Satre is trying to say; existence goes ahead of the essence. In this case, the being is the man in presence, he then encounters himself, grows in the world, and afterward explores himself. However, in a situation that a man as the existentialist, he views himself as not known, the reason is to start with he is nothing. Satre points out that man will not be anything, but later, he will be what he molds himself to be. The same is relevant to the gang members they are not created to be; nonetheless, they are responsible for what they have become. Man is what he wills to be as the first principle of existentialism states.

On the contrary, the Bastards of the Party, a 2005 documentary, views it otherwise, that gang members were created to be in the gangs. Cle Sloan explores the history of the Bloods and the Crips, the LA gangs. Sloan questions what could be of significance to fight for that an individual would be in a gang, yet they know someone they care for or even they would likely get slayed. Sloan sought to find the relation between the evolution of the gangs and their current behaviors. Sloan discovered the gang members never questioned in the first place what they are or why they are there; for them, it was like a fad (Bastards of the Party). Sloan was out to discover how the gangs were started and why. His discovery led to the conclusion that the gang members were created but utterly for a useful purpose. The purpose was for the gangs to assist cure issues of poverty in society. On the other hand, things went out of hand, and the gangs commenced committing crimes to gain attention. Bastards of the Party shows the rival for gangs was the police officers who led to betrayal between the gangs and blacks. The rivalry shows it is a circumstance that gave rise to the gang members, the Bloods, and the Crips. Overall, from the documentary, it shows gang members can also be created due to the circumstances they are in.

Plato's allegory of the cave would explain gangs in LA as often being perceived to what they seem not to be. Plato attempts to explain metaphorically that our senses, as humans, we pick up shadows of the real reality or rather reality of ideas or forms. According to Plato, gangs are a problem, and it is by education that some can change their beliefs as well as their practices. Gang membership fluctuating in LA is due to youth's perception that it boosts their self-esteem or status. All these are ideas; Plato explains education as an entire transformation of a person's values or opinions. Plato suggests the reason why there are numerous gangs in LA is that there is the need to have mainly the youth learn of the truth. For instance, the fact would be sensitizing them of the dangers or consequences of being in such gangs. Plato notes seeking knowledge is never easy, but after you view the world in a different perceptive, then one can never go back. Plato's allegory of the cave, explains of the instance when prisoners turned, he discovered the shadows as less real than the objects causing those shadows. For Plato, from his imagination, what he believed was real all his entire life was ultimately an illusion. The prisoner, if he had not gone further to discover his beliefs concerning the shadows, he would never have known the truth. The same case is irrelevant; the gang members keep fluctuating, Plato notes people need to be told the truth. Education is the establishment of character that comprises turning around one's soul. The gang cannot be fixed by only law enforcement but with approaches like education that can fix the problem. In the allegory of the cave, the prisoner is seen being forced to learn, the same is with gangs in LA in any form input resistance if necessary, as it is with the strength that brings force. Therefore, they are eventually transitioned to light from darkness, in this case, light representing knowledge and truth.

Ultimately, in assessing the platonic interpretation of gangs in LA, according to Plato, pragmatism in education would mean comprising strategies to keep knowledge practical. Plato uses the allegory of the cave to ensure as pragmatists; one would value experiences to learn. Experiences would entail experimental, a lot of project-based and experiential lessons to assist in "learning by doing" (Blunden 120). Plato's main objective is that people need to know the truth concerning the gangs in LA; for him, the truth is the truth. Idealists believe facts never change; on the other hand, pragmatists are of the idea that truths can change. For Pragmatists, a point is whatever that functions and achieves the result at any given time. Pragmatists have the will to change their perceptions in instances they get new information or new situations coming about. Platonic interpretation notes the use of force to educate the gangs on the truth. Pragmatists, on the contrary, are Utilitarian, who differ to state that as pragmatic individuals, they would only value that which is useful. For gangs in LA, the knowledge would be only helpful if it comprises real-life practical worth. Apart from that, for them, it is all about new life experiences to discover is it is true or not. The new lessons inform them of how to understand the world and change their perceptions.

Works Cited

Bastards of the Party, Antoine Fuqua. "YouTube." YouTube, 22 Apr. 2005, www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGvDxGYZ3gI.

Blunden, Andy. "Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialism and Humanism (1946)." Philosophy: Key Texts, 2002, pp. 115-133.Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm