CRITICAL THINKING IN POLITICS – MID SEMESTER EXAMS

Q.1)
Ans: The movie “Million Dollar Baby” is a very emotional, thought provoking and a very
heartwarming story of a girl who aspires to become a fighter and her coach/ trainer. It is one such
movie that keeps you gripping and makes you think about the ordinary life of the characters. A
poor working middle-aged girl in her thirties aspires to see the stardom of the boxing life and for
that purpose she needs a coach who will properly guide her and take her to her goal. The story is
unique in its own way and deals with a lot of issues prevailing in the society. The movie shows
us the struggles of a poor girl who has always felt that she is a trash, how the coach in the first
place was reluctant to train a girl and how the other boxers made fun of Maggie for being a girl.
The movie also shows us how people with greater power tries to abuse it and bully others, we
also looked at how a family can turn a blind eye towards their own daughter and only care about
money. The movie talked about the issues of people like Danger, people like Maggie’s mother or
people like the character of Morgan Freeman who has lost his eye due to a boxing match and
lives very miserably. If we go on listing then the list would never end. But here let us focus on
only one issue, the issue of not being as per the societal standards and facing the wrath from
those who think they belong to the society, basically the issue of class.

The movie has provided us with a lot of stereotypes and stereotypical issues if looked closely.
Through the characters like Danger and Maggie we can easily see how the society perceives
those stereotypes. To begin with let’s talk about Danger who is a young man who comes for
training at the gym. No where it is mentioned that Danger has any sort of illness or disability but
the viewers understand that there is something which he lacks and is off as he sounds "funny,"
with a "hillbilly" accent like Maggie's. And the other men in the gym call him a "retard."

In the beginning of the movie itself we see that both Danger and Maggie are teased by the others
in gym because neither of them fitted where they were. Maggie was a woman and even her coach
made her feel inferior in the beginning when she asked him to coach her and he replied that he
doesn’t coach women and also lowers her morale by mentioning that at her ag she can’t do
anything because she is too old. Danger on the other hand happens to be a weak person who acts
and dresses like a woman, wearing tights and refusing to spar with anyone but yet he always
talks about his "shot at the title" and seems to have real, but naïve dreams of boxing stardom.
Danger at the later part of the movie becomes a victim of bullying from the other members of the
gym who without even thinking made a lot of fun of him and even beat him to a pulp. His body
is gendered, abled and class wrong. His training though, serves as the opposite of Maggie's as her
gender transformation is the inverse of his, because Danger cannot deny his feminized body
which makes him less of a man. On the other hand, pummeling others and being pummeled
makes Maggie less of a woman as indicated by her mother when she says that everyone in the
neighborhood laughs at what Maggie does and her mother just wants her to find a guy, marry and
settle down as all women should do. When either character, Danger or Maggie, fails to overcome
their own gendered or disabled bodies, they become the target of violence. Danger is beaten and
Maggie eventually is euthanized.

Other small issues pertaining to class can also be seen when Maggie mentions about her family,
we can clearly sense that she is ashamed of the status of her family and is even ashamed to be
one of a working class. She also mentions about her mother’s weight and jokingly tells that
everything in their family is about weights which again hints to the society who still has an
idealized weight and body type for everyone. Also, it is mentioned that "Scabby Kraut" - Blue
Bear, is mostly known as the dirtiest fighter in the ring and this not because she fights very
harshly and is merciless but because she is a former black prostitute from East Berlin.

Moving towards the conclusion, I would like to mention that there were quite a few more
instances as such and all of them pointed towards the stereotypical issues. If we look at the issues
from today’s perspective then it wouldn’t be wrong to say that nothing has changed that much.
The progress with respect to such issues is so small that it is highly unnoticeable. Men and
women still face such issues and are undermined and judged based on certain standards.
Q.2)
Ans: Deductive Reasoning is a method of reasoning by which we normally start with a premise,
then go to some other premise and then these premises finally lead us to a conclusion. We can
look at Deductive Reasoning from a top-down view where we start with generalization and it
leads us to a specific instance which means a proper conclusion.

Talking about the movie “A Civil Action”, it is a movie about law suits and procedures which
revolves around a particular case which involves some of the big industries and group of
residents of Woburn, Massachusetts who have lost their children due to the polluted water of that
area which happens to be because of the industrial waste dumped into the lakes by the factory
nearby. The heart of the movie is its central character played by John Travolta who has portrayed
the role of a civil lawyer and the movie shows that his journey and how he progressed as a
person over the course of the case.

Now if we watch the movie closely, we can identify some of the deductive reasonings that is
shown with respect to the plot of the movie. Let us discuss some of them:

1. The first instance of deductive reasoning is mentioned by the character named Anne
Anderson when she first meets Jan Schlichtmann. The residents explain their problem to
Jan by saying that their children have died due to leukemia. There is a problem with the
water of their area. And a leather factory is located nearby by the lakes of that area.
Therefore, it is very much likely or rather it is inferred from this that this factory, owned
by two big companies Grace and Beatrice, is the cause for the polluted water of that area
which in turn lead to the death of the children of the locality who drank the water.
2. Second case can be inferred when Jan Schlichtmann decides to take on the case of the
residents of Woburn and then goes to bank to get extra credit as he had already put a lot
of money in that case. There Jan explains to the banker that he is the best investment that
this bank has ever made. Jan’s firm has always taken cases that have the potential to win
and they care little to no about the emotions of their client. Jan tells the banker about this
fact that they always take cases that have the potential to win. His bank has always
trusted his firm and they have never lost their money. Hence, if the bank shows their trust
one more time, they will definitely get back their money as they will for sure win the
case.
3. Lastly, this instance of deductive reasoning is seen towards the end of the movie where
Jan has lost his everything including the case, money, his wealth, his partners and his
 entire firm. When Jan is all alone, he goes to a restaurant where he sees a glass of water
being spilled and he flashes back to the time when during one of his cross-questioning
sessions with a worker of the opposing client’s factory also demonstrated the same when
he explained how leather is waterproofed. Silicon is poured on the leather to water proof
it like how water is poured on a table. If you pour water on a table, then it is very likely
that some of the water will definitely spill on the floor as well. The spilled water must be
cleaned or rather someone should clean the spilled water. Therefore, from these premises,
Jan comes to a conclusion that he was so busy on looking for who spilled the water that
he forgot that he should have looked for who cleaned it because like water, when the
workers might be doing waterproofing of leather with silicon and TCE, it might have
spilled or rather collected somewhere and eventually dumped by someone so that no one
finds out anything about them.

There are many more cases of deductive reasonings in the movie but here are the few important
ones that I felt should be acknowledge.

Q.3) CASE STUDY

Ans: SUMMARY: The case study given here presents us with a highly challenging situation
wherein the policeman is in great dilemma over whether to leave the driver driving without
helmet, license and jumping over red signal to save the life of a several injured persons from a
road accident or to listen to the strict commands of his seniors who have told him to follow the
new road guidelines very strictly.

The case presents to us with a lot of value conflicts and reality & value assumptions. Therefore,
let’s look at them individually.

We know that values are something that is instilled in a person as he/she grows up because
values are beliefs, ideals, or principles that are acquired by the person due to its surroundings and
environment and are given the highest regards. Whereas assumptions are beliefs, usually taken
for granted or not given much importance to and those are based on the experiences,
observations, or desires of an individual or group.
Now let’s talk about value assumption. It is basically a belief as to how the world should be. In
simple terms, these assumptions indicate how a person thinks the world should be according to
his/her values and behaves accordingly. In the given case the value assumptions will differ from
person to person with respect to their individual values. The person who was driving a motorbike
seemed to have great values instilled in him because he being a daily wager, stopped to help a
person in need who has met with a serious accident. According to him humanity seems above
anything otherwise he wouldn’t have left his work and helped a stranger on road. From his
perspective, he did a right thing and when he is stopped by the policemen, he expects or rather
assumes that the policeman will also understand his viewpoint and will let him go owing to an
emergency situation and his financial condition of not being able to pay any fine. Value
assumptions is a dilemma between the choice of what is good and what is important and this we
can see with respect to the policeman wherein if he leaves the driver, then his heart is more
driven by his personal values and he puts them about job/professional values.

Reality assumptions on the other hand are beliefs that are actually true and are very much factual
about the world. Reality is something which is true or real no matter what the person thinks or
beliefs. The reality assumption in this case is that from the traffic police department who
assumes that making the road and traffic laws stricter and ensuring that if every police officer
will follow them strictly, many instances of road accidents will reduce. Another assumption will
be made by the police offer who has to decide on what to do with the driver. If he keeps on
insisting for a fine from him then it is likely that he assumes or knows that if he left them without
a fine then his would be penalized or scolded by his superior.

Moving on, lets focus on the various value conflicts faced by the policeman and the driver. Value
conflicts are nothing but internal conflicts that a person goes through in itself while deciding for
the most important value. These are the disagreements about the priority different values that an
individual or a group faces while deciding on to a particular issue. The greatest dilemma is faced
by the policeman who has to choose between his personal values and professional values. At this
point, if he lets the driver go without paying any penalty, then he has shown his humanitarian
value as he understood the difficulty and the dire emergency situation and let them go with just a
warning. But by doing so, he himself might get penalized and will not do justice towards his
work and his superior’s commands. Let’s look at the other side of the coin, now he puts his
professional values at the top and urges the driver to pay the fine for his penalties. In this
situation, somewhere or the other he shows no compassion towards the driver and doesn’t
understand the dire situation that they are in. Deep down the policeman will know that it may
affect the financial condition of the driver who will be penalized for doing a good deed for
someone but the policeman also has his reasons for the same.

Now as a part of a suggestion I feel that it is a very tough choice for anyone to make and
therefore I feel that the policeman should look for a half way through possibility. He can excuse
the person on regards of an emergency situation and instead of taking complete fine, he can
actually just take half the amount of fine and leave them with a strict warning. I personally feel
that such rigid rules must definitely be made with some exception and all the policeman must be
trained to tackle all kinds of emergency situation. But nevertheless, such situations always pose a
great dilemma in the minds of those who face them and actions taken is such situations always
comes out of impulse and no prior training can be provided. A person can only be advised what
to do.

RATIKA GUPTA

4 BBA FIB B

1923646