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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: the power elite in the dark

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  This photo is a group character shot from the TV series “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” showcasing the valuable high-tech control instruments and displays aboard the spacecraft. The series, created by Joss Whedon, is based on the S.H.I.E.L.D. organization from Marvel Comics. The full name of “S.H.I.E.L.D.” is Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, which was formed by the Allied powers during World War II to combat H.Y.D.R.A., an enemy armed with dangerous advanced technologies. The daily operations of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are highly confidential, dealing with supernatural phenomena that pose threats to national security. Access to various intelligence and information within S.H.I.E.L.D. requires sufficient security clearance to protect secrets from falling into enemy hands. The agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. include those who have been secretly resurrected, martial arts experts, combat spies, hackers, scientists specializing in physical and biochemical sciences, and i
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Grasshoppers are the Power Elite in A Ant's Life

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    This picture shows a scene from the movie A Bug's Life . This movie is set on Ant Island. It follows the main character Flik and journey protecting his ant colony. The antagonist in this movie is a grasshopper named Hopper. He is the leader of the grasshoppers and throughout most of the movie has control over the ant colony. In this scene, Hopper is giving a speech to the rest of his grasshoppers. He is explaining the power that the ants hold in numbers, but the other grasshoppers do not understand. He explains it to them by giving an example. He takes one nut and throws it at one of the grasshoppers. He then asks if it hurt when the nut hit them. They laugh and say the but didn't hurt. Hopper then opens a tube and lets hundreds of nuts falling on top of the other grasshoppers. He then asks if that hurt. Obviously it did hurt because the other grasshoppers were buried in nuts. He then explains that the ants are the same way. If only one ant attacks the grasshoppers, the ant
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Why is Jack Ma not a power elite in China?

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  This is a picture of Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group, one of the wealthiest people in China, at the Bund Summit in Shanghai on 24 October 2020. In his speech, he talked about the problems that existed in China’s Finance system. His major arguments are In the past, to align with international standards, China had to do what developed countries did to fill the gaps, and it is time to change that mindset. China needs to reexamine the regulation system. It is not wise to stifle financial innovation in the name of regulation. The essence of finance lies in credit management. China needs to abandon the pawnshop mentality of finance and rely on a credit system. At the time, Ant Financial, a fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group, was about to go public with the world’s biggest-ever IPO (about 40 billion dollars), yet several days after his speech, the Chinese regulatory authorities compelled Ant Group to suspend its IPO. Jack Ma was summoned for talks by the financial institutions and has dis
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Pleasantville: Traditional Family Roles

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                Pleasantville, a film directed by Gary Ross and released in 1998, tells the story of two siblings who are transported into the world of the fictional television show  from the 1950s, "Pleasantville". This town is untouched by non-traditional values, with wives being controlled by their husband's will, staying inside and uninvolved with the politics of the world. Pleasantville is all in black and white, but when the two siblings enter the world with their modern view on the world, things begin to change. One of the siblings, Mary Sue, begins to introduce other teenagers in the town to drinking, sex, and other 'non-traditional' activities that are unspoken of and unheard of in Pleasantville. As this starts, all of the people who were once in black and white, are seen in color. The men of the town are apprehensive to this change and try to make things stay how they were, but as it becomes more prominent and the town becomes more colorful. The wife of
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Power Elite vs. Protesters for Palestine

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This is an image of Columbia University’s response to a student protest advocating for an end to the genocide in Gaza on April 18th, 2024. On the days immediately following this event, any additional context I provide will be overly repetitive for people who have been keeping up with the news. On April 19th, 2024, protesters hold their ground despite the arrest of 120 members of their effort. In the image, NYPD officers intercept a protester. In The Power Elite, C. Wright Mills characterizes that group as those who find themselves at the intersection of military, economic, and political spheres of power, share a common psychology and lifestyle that unites them, see their desires reflected in intersecting institutional structures, and participate in some kind of collaborative effort to maintain the power they hold. The positioning of the power elite at the apex of power is not due to any moral or intellectual superiority they possess, but their positioning within an intersection of sph
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Chiseled in Marble: President Snow and Panem's Power Elite

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  The photo above shows three characters from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, each resembling marble sculptures. This marble depiction implies their power and influence, particularly the seated figure who looks directly into the camera. The one in the center is President Coriolanus Snow, the fictional dictator of dystopian North America, Panem. On the left is Peeta Malark, a previous resident of District 12 and a Hunger Games victor. On the right is Johanna Mason, another former victor. This is a promotional photo for the movie and hints at what is going to happen. At this point in the series, Snow captures Peeta and Johanna and brainwashes them to be allegient to him. They were often used in promotional videos because the public could resonate with them, as they had once been in the districts and the Hunger Games. President Snow used them as a distraction from political oppression and as a means to enforce order because of the uprisings and riots taking place all over Panem. Alth
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Stay-At-Home Dads and the Expectation of Male Domination

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This image is taken from an article in the NY Post by Rachelle Bergstein titled, "Stay-at-home dads are finding out parenting is hard". The picture, set in the family's living room, depicts father Jason Greene and his four children Wyatt, Miciah, Corbin and Arwin. Jason sits in the middle of the children, looking pensive and tired as he attempts to fold the overflowing basket of laundry set in front of him. One towel is draped over his shoulder, another over his thigh, and a third in his hands. His grey t-shirt hangs haphazardly on his figure, rumpled and wrinkled. In sharp contrast to his perceived misery, his children are all having fun on their respective devices: Wyatt, the oldest, is posing as if chatting on his cell phone while his other arm rests on Jason unoccupied shoulder. Miciah smirks at the camera while texting a friend. Sitting on the floor, Corbin has a Nintendo DS propped on the laundry basket, his fists are up in celebration. Mirroring her brother, the yo
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