Unit 2 Reflection

Writing: Synthesis Essay-What is the individual’s duty to his government? What is the government’s duty to the individual? In an essay that synthesizes and uses for support at least 3 of the readings from this unit, discuss the obligations of individuals within a society. Remember to attribute both direct and indirect quotes. Refer to the sources by authors’ last names or by titles. Avoid mere paraphrase or summary.

            People cannot exist without forming communities and societies. Alone, no human would survive; it is wide combinations of people with a variety of skills to that ultimately results in prosperity. Just as wolves hunt in a pack, people must flock together and use collective resources to fulfill individual needs. The key to maintaining this structure, however, is the establishment of a government. Writer Thomas Hobbes states in his book the Leviathan that the law of nature, known as lex natulis, states that “a man is forbidden to do what is destructive to his life.” People are created so that first and foremost in their minds lays self-preservation. Without a system of government, there is nothing to keep members of society from fighting with each other to better personal chances of survival, leading to chaos. Hobbes calls this Bellum omnium contra omne, meaning “the war of all against all”. Therefore, as soon as a group of individuals come together and agree form a community, they then proceed to develop a “body politic”. (Locke) This government is essential in that it creates stability and safety to those who created it. The system provides not only services to its citizens, but also supplies opportunities. Its job is not to restrict liberties, but to expand and protect them. It is made by the people, and empowered by the people, to provide for the desires of the people.

            As the power of the government lies with the people, it is essential that the individual fulfills his or her duty so as to preserve the purpose and the power of its body politic, and therefore the other citizens. Once one as conceded to live under this system, they are obligated to live under the laws it has established. This is called a compact. (Locke) To this compact, one must volunteer certain natural liberties; in return he may gain civil liberties. (Russeau) Once bound, and individual transferred these rights to the government. In a dictatorship, these rights may be held or controlled by fear, while in democracies it may be held by the desires of the majority. This is critical, for if everyone was to do as they pleased, the government would have little power to regulate their actions. In Crito, Socrates asks, “Do you imagine that a state can subsist and not be overthrown, in which the decisions of law have no power, but are set aside and trampled upon by individuals?” Therefore, the success of a state depends upon the strength of these “implied contracts” and can only succeed if withhold by the people. This is the individual’s obligation, not only to the government but indirectly to themselves.

            However, in agreeing to live within certain boundaries and a government, one has also bound themselves to a community. Much like a government, the society may not prosper unless it is contributed to by all of its members. The only natural form of society is family; even within this much smaller scale one has obligations to their elders, their youngers, and their peers. (Russeau) It must be in the individual’s best interests to better the society, for they are then bettering the environment for themselves, their children, and their neighbors. The best way to do this is to reach enlightenment, an understanding one gains upon education and hard work. In Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, this understanding is embodied by the people who were able to free themselves of the chains created by the material world so that they may see the true nature of the much chased shadows. The education necessary to achieve this greatness was provided by the state “not to please themselves, but to be his instruments in binding up the State” They must then use this knowledge to become leaders, philosophers, scientists, or teachers with the hopes of bettering the whole of society. To take from the society, one must also give back. This is the nature of the social contract theory.

While it seems as though these concepts may be so unreal as to be untrue, upon analyzing the society into which I was born I found they were already engrained within the culture. Disregarding the laws is not only unaccepted by the government who it betrays, but also looked down upon by the public. Integration into a new contract, or the idea of legal immigration, has become infinitely more complicated, ensuring that the ties will become even more binding. However, the ever prevalent essence of self-preservation has dominated the seats of democratic governments, and Locke’s belief in a smooth running democratic system has become disproved with time. Individual interests have overcome concern for the society, and instead of protecting the civil liberties demanded by the people in many cases the body politic has returned to the cave of materialistic desires. As can be seen in international movements such as Occupy Wall Street, people will fight for the return of their sacrificed liberties if they are not used for the public good. They are quick to remind us that the government was created by the people, and can also be destroyed by the people.

AOW 12

"Meat is Murder!"

The Human Meat Protest

Peta

Peta is the largest animal rights organization in the world, containing over 3 million members. Working through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and most famously protest campaigns, their influence has gone from the streets into the classrooms of countless schools throughout America.

The Campaign

 

PETA's innovative campaign was found in countless major cities across the United States a number of years ago. Featuring living activists in styrofoam and plastic containers, simulating those you would buy in the grocery store, they tried to make a point that all animals are made of flesh, blood, and bones and have the same range of senses and emotions that we do. They argued that in eating meat, you are eating a corpse.

Analysis

A large part of the success that lies in Peta's campaign is how they MAKE their audience. Every pedestrian walking on these corpse lines streets is forced to look upon the gruesom picture that the ad has set up. The immediate reaction upon seeing these bodies would be revulsion, but also recognition. Everyday people walk into the grocery store to buy meat from the exact same packages without giving it a thought, and from that approach the ad also instills a sense of guilt. We look upon the ideas of murder and cannibalism with disgust, and Peta makes the point that eating meat is hardly any different. While the method in which they do this is a little over the top, if it interests enough people to look onto their website and learn about the real effects of eating meat, they could potentially gather a huge group of supporters. As their purpose is to at the very least educate the public and bring awareness about the cruelty of carnivorism, the ad not only fulfills it but does so in an unforgettable way.

For those that read the large stickers, placed in the middle of the "corpse's" body, logos plays its first major role. Behind the highly emotional and striking face of the campaign lies statistics, such as those on the image to the left. In the context of busy traffic filled and pedestrian lined streets, it serves as a significant wake up call for anyone those who had never considered the enormity of their actions, including myself.



Dekanawidah - The Great Binding Law

Published Presentation Link

AOW 11

Doing the Ethical Thing May Be Right, But it Isn't Automatic

Alina Tugend

New York Times

Alina Tugend:

American journalist, public speaker, poet, and writer, Tugend currently writes a weekly column called "Shortcuts" for the New York Times. Having experiance writing for numerous other papers, among which are the Boston Glove and the Los Angelos Chronicles, she has also recently written an award winning book.

Summary:

Everyone would like to believe that they are fundamentally good and will behave morally and truthfully in the face of controvery. However, research shows that in reality this is not true. It has also not been displayed in history. Several studies showed that, when given the right circumstances, people easily become corrupt and even sadistic. Professor Zimbardo believes that theseare coercion, anonymity, and dehumanization. Researches believe that this step from ethical to unethical is not instantaneous, but rather a "gradual erosion of moral values and principle." Similarly, the myth that the public admires those who stand up for right is also refuted. Rather it is often that these people are shunned and are treated with hostility.

The new method of preventing this corruption is creating an environment where the public is shown the consequences of such actions, then taught how to deal with them. It is called the Heroic Imagination Projent, and the hope is to extend it to worlds of business and military.

Analysis:

Reaching out to an audience who is comprised primarily of those that read New York Times, the writer starts with talking about the controversial and immoral Penn State scandal. The article is almost an aswer, or a wake up call, for those who are reading the paper and criticizing the disgraced coaches. She uses logos and countless examples to show us that, although we would like to believe that we would act differently, research says otherwise. In case the reader doesn't believe it, at the end she quotes notable Professor Zimbardo who states, "We don't want to accept the notion because it attacks our concept of dignity of human nature." I found her purpose fulfilled, as I felt humbled by her proof.

IN addition to her use of rhetorical questions, she follows an ABAB refutation format, where she starts by stated a commonly held belief about human nature, then refutes it with studies and research. She uses communal knowledge with the recent scandal, and metaphors, such as "individual (a few bad apples), situational (a bad barrel of apples), and systemic (bad barrel makers)".



IRB Choice 2

The Outliers

Malcolm Gladwell

Sections

1: 1-103

2:103-206

3: 206-309

From all the interesting things I heard about Malcolm Gladwell's books, I began to get really interested in this genre of book. I'm hoping to learn something interesting about society and the way my brain works. It sounds like even if I don't learn anything with this book, I will at least be interested and amazed.

AOW 10

'The Dream'

Frida Kahlo



Frida Kahlo was an internationally popular Mexican painter. She painted using vibrant colors in a style that was influenced by indigenous cultures of Mexico and European influences including realism, symbolism, and surrealism. Many of her works are self-portraits that symbolically articulate her own pain and sexuality.

            Due to the effects of polio and a tragic car accident, Kahlo was always in pain and spent a lot of time dwelling on death. In this painting, its eminent presence follows her into her dreams. The audience, anyone that likes paintings, can clearly see that she is in her dream state as the bed is floating in the clouds and some form of vegetation is growing on her blanket. Based on communal knowledge, we know that the cylindrical devices on the skeleton are explosives, making it clear that the painter believes death can occur at any moment, sparked by even the smallest thing. Although her purpose may be to convey this message and fear of death, based on my knowledge of Kahlo I believe it is just her way of recording her own fears. In this way, I am sure she did serve her purpose, simultaneously giving us a window into what she was going through. The surreal nature of the painting is reflected in a great number of her works, making me think that is her personal style rather than a device solely chosen for this particular piece. However, there are several rhetorical elements that make this painting so interesting and forceful.

Symbolism:  Being a surreal painting of a dream, symbolism plays a huge role in the message Kahlo is trying to send. It is seen in the vine/tree that is growing across her blanket, and the meaning of the skeletal being atop her bed.

Placement: In the middle of clouds, the bed and the figure above it form the central focus. One cannot pass by the picture without noticing its presence. Larger than life, it dwarfs the figure within the bed and grins out of the frame. Just as it attracts the viewers’ attention, it filled her thoughts and dreams as well.

Contrast: The idea of death, covered in explosive devices, contrasts greatly with the image of the sleeping figure in her peaceful dream. However, a recurring element is that he is holding cut flowers, and she is draped in plants that have been uprooted.



AOW 9

The Professor and the Madman

IRB Final Post

Summary:

          The second half of the book picks up from William Minor’s accommodations in Broadmoor Asylum, where his is granted a lot of freedoms, including large double cell room with a fantastic  view and all the luxuries that the inmate could afford with his copious retirement pay from the army. It is about this time that he receives one of the ads sent out by James Murray, the editor of the dictionary, asking for help in finding definitions and quotations. Using this as a form of intellectual therapy, Minor takes up the project and sends in about 12,000 meticulously defined words over the next 30 years. Minor and Murray become friends over correspondence, and finally meet after several decades. Meanwhile, Minor gets worse and amputates his penis in hopes that it will purge him of his sins, although he still suffers from delusions. The last several chapter simply describe the endings of each of the major players’ tales as they all grow old, and delves deeper into what the real diagnosis of Minor’s mental problem would be with today’s knowledge.

Analysis:

          The writing style is exactly what one would expect from a journalist. Based primarily on the concepts of ethos and logos, the author gives us a deeper understanding and emotional connection to the story. For example, instead of telling the reader what the author is inferring from the primary documents he analyzes, he actually puts the piece into the chapter. As he is describing the growth of the relationship between Murray and Minor, he lets the audience read the correspondence then offers his opinion as to how they should be interpreted while still letting us make connections of our own. This not only serves to make the strange occurrences within the story (such as Minor’s autopeotomy) come to life, but leads the reader feel like they are actually doing the research themselves.

          Upon one occasion, Winchester combined the devices of juxtaposition and repetition in a very interesting way. The preface is the “popular myth” about “one of the most remarkable conversations in modern literary history”. He then proceeds to tell the dramatized story how Minor and Murray meet. About three quarters of the way through the book he repeats the story in the exact same way he did in his preface, giving the book a cyclical feel. However, as soon as he is done telling the tale the second time, he releases it as a fraud, and juxtaposes its contents with the true story that he uncovered from records of correspondence.

          Towards the end of the book, Winchesters tone takes a twist. Whereas his narration was previously very objective, it began to incorporate word like “I” and “we”. He began to add in opinions and stray from the story on occasion. This evolution was completed at the end when all the characters had died and the author began to make connections to modern medicine, implying that perhaps the treatment of the retired surgeon was unfairly harsh due to a lack of medical knowledge at the time. In his last chapter, he chooses to engage the reader by asking a series of rhetorical questions, not only about psychological ailments but also of society’s perception towards them.