Nowadays, with the development of society, “hero” this word really change a lot. Before, hero was the people who killed the most of enemies. Now, our standard for hero is lots of higher than before. A strong body is not enough now because the technology is so advanced. We need not only just physical strong but also mentally strong and high intelligent also with the great leadership skills. Maybe we are in peace now, so we don’t need to kill anymore. The mission for our heroes is make our life better. In my following paper I want to discuss four heroes, two heroes are unreal and two heroes are from real life. They are Captain American, Iron man, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.
I, Topic Sentence
Unlike other super heroes, Captain American and iron man are just ordinary people. they don’t have super powers just strong mental power and smart brain and also leadership.
A, discuss the story about captain American and how he is different from other superheroes. source from web
B, discuss the story about Iron Man and how he is different from other superheroes. source from web
II, Topic sentence
technology is the key word for 21 century, the people who make our life easier are the heroes for people.
A, discuss the story and the contribution from Steve jobs. source from web
B, discuss the story and the contribution from Bill Gates. Source from web
Growing up I’ve always looked up to my parents, especially to my mother. I adore her not only because she’s my mother but also because she takes care of me and my siblings without any complaints; I admire her because of the ways she has taught me to become a better person. I consider her my role model because she showed me the real meaning and value of family. As for my father, he was a role model to me by guiding and showing me the right way to become successful. He has taught me so many things about life and how to accept failures and how to face challenges. Both of my parents are very supportive whether it’s financially or emotionally, they are both there for me when I needed them. With all the things that they have done to ensure my safety and happiness, I consider them heroes.
Parents in general are the most important heroes in the modern day. However, as a parent, what does it really take to become a hero to a child? Numerous studies have shown that children learn what they see and hear from the people around them. Thus, as a parent, they have to set their selves as a role model in order for their children to become a good person. For instance, a good parent teaches or mold their children how to overcome disappointments; show respect for other; respecting laws and authority; and having fun in a right way. Another way of disciplining a child sometimes can be done through bad parenting. This may sound odd but as stated in the article, “5 Hallmarks of Bad Parenting that are Actually Good for kids” bad parenting can give positive effects to a child. Negligent parents such as parents who argues with their children a lot, or even letting them play in the dirt has actually a positive effect on the child’s well-being. Lastly, other than disciplining a child, another factor to become a hero to them is your presence. Like I have stated earlier, children learns what they see and hear from the people around them. In order to correct a child’s actions a parent must be present or involved in the child’s life. A study has been conducted that a parent-child relationship can be improved by spending quality time with each other. In this way the trust, honesty and confident with each other will most likely develop. In this essay we will see how these factors contribute to a parent becoming a hero.
As what my mother always said, being a parent is never been easy. Taking care of the children is fun, yet stressful for they can be handful and stubborn most of the time. However, all the sacrifices by disciplining them will be paid off when they get older. Good parenting is always the key for bringing up a child to have good character traits. According to the Professors of Oregon State University, who conducted a study about the positive impact of good parenting, a child who was brought up on a positive parenting is affectionate and has close relationship with their peers. The professors observed a child’s behavior since he was 9 years old up until he was 33. The child was brought up to a well disciplined and well-mannered family; he grew up looking up to his parents and showing concerned to the people around him. Like any other kid, he considered his parents heroes for he was brought up to be a good person. This study had proven that positive parenting can make a big difference not only in one person’s characteristics, but also its impact on one person’s conduct by dealing with other people.
Hello, I really like your essay thesis, it is very interesting. I think that you should revise your intro because I don’t see the road map and an intro to the topic. I just see the example of parenting as hero from your personal experience. your 2nd paragraph, in the first sentences, looks more like your intro to the topic.
corrections:
1 st p- when I needed them or when I need them (present)
2nd p- their selves or themselves?
Pro: I really like your style of writing and your examples. they are really good
Hey, everyone, below here is the intro and outline of body for my final paper, you are welcome to any comment, including grammar, sentence structure, the thesis, the outline or the evidence, thanking you in advance for your comment.
Introduction
Silicon Valley, the cradle of the heroes
This world always needs heroes, not matter it is in war era or peaceful age. On one hand, we need heroes to save our lives and country; on the other hand we need heroes to lead us to a higher standard of lives. We know the former heroes are generally soldiers, but what about the latter? They are technological innovators. The world was different before technology. For example, we didn’t have emails to communicate, we didn’t have online social network such as Facebook, we didn’t have GPS to guide us to anywhere, and we didn’t have Google to allow us searching for almost everything. We didn’t have other high technological products. For most people in the U.S, it’s hard to imagine life without technology. Speaking about technology revolution, we can’t ignore the important role of Silicon Valley, where is home to many of the world’s largest technology corporations. We can say now Silicon Valley is the cradle of technological innovators. The benefits of technology have made us treat technology as a family member. Technology has made aspects of our lives easier: we’re no longer forced to send letters through the postal service, book vacations through travel agents, shop in stores, visit the library for research material, or wait for our photos to be developed. Thanks to technology, all of these activities can be performed either digitally or online. Thanks to technological innovators, all of these conveniences are attributable to their large amount of work on research and development, their risk-taking spirit and their absolute intelligence. Simply put, they are the most influential group of modern heroes. To exemplify this, let’s look back at how technology has changed our lives in terms of communication, computing, entertainment and travel.
Outline of Body
1. Topic Sentence: For the past decade or so, technology has transformed the way we communicate, in part due to the advent of the Internet.
In this article “Technology’s effect on Interpersonal Communication”, it examines the impacts and implications of technology on the way we communicate with each other. (Wenbin Nah, Web.)
In this article “How does technology impact communication”, it states that the aspect of our lives that has been most impacted by technology is the way we communicate with one another, it exemplifies this point of view in terms of communication speed, accessibility, efficiency, family connections and news. (Lauren Nelson, Web)
2. Topic Sentence: Today, the personal computer has become an integral part of our lives.
In this paper “social impact characteristics of computer technology”, it discusses several characteristics of computer technology that may be at the center of the effects on society. (Blaise W. Liffick, Ph.D. Web)
In this article “The impact of computer technology on the workforce and management”, it observes that the impact of computer technology on the workforce and its affect on management has been significant in terms of decision-making in employment, communication and usage of internet in office. (Daniel Reinard, Web)
3. Topic Sentence: Technology has provided us with even more creative ways to occupy our time.
In this paper “Positive effects of entertainment technology on human behavior”, it suggests that use of entertainment technology has huge impact on human behavior at work, in school and at home. (Matthias Rauterberg, Web )
In this report “Impact of place shifting technology on entertainment industry”, it asserts that technology innovation such as place shifting has profound impact on entertainment companies’ revenue. (Professor. Goo. Web )
4. Topic Sentence: Nowadays, technology has brought so many conveniences for people who wish to travel, travel related Web sites has done a lot to organize all the travel plans.
In this report “Impacts of information technology on personal travel and commercial vehicle operations”, it emphasizes that IT give people virtual accessibility to a rapidly growing range of activities by its effects on transportation, both personal and freight. (Thomas F. Golob and Amelia C. Regan, Web)
In this article “Communication technology in tourism”, it shows that communication technology continues to exhibit a significant impact on the tourism industry and travel in general. (Keith Evans, Web )
excellent work Xia Chen. I really like your approach to the topic, but i cant help noticing little sentence structure error in the introduction. For example”we can’t ignore the important role of Silicon Valley, where is home to many of the world’s largest technology corporations”. Otherwise good job Xia.
Hello everyone, here is my draft for the final paper.
PLEASE leave your comments here, because I got sick and not sure if I can make to class on Tuesday!
Introduction
People always need heroes. They resurrect heroes from our past in Hollywood movies, like Alexander the Greatest, the 300 spartans, Hercules, Perseus. They also teach in schools about modern history heroes: Martin Luther, George Washington, Albert Einstein, Yuri Gagarin. But what if we take a look on our present time, who is the hero of nowadays? Celebrities? Actors? May be scientists? I believe all of them and none of them at the same time. In our 21st century, when democracy with its capitalistic economy is experiencing the greatest collapse ever, we need a new kind of heroes. Those who can stand up and change our world to a better future. Those who can change our society of 99% poor and 1% rich people, who can save our planet from endless stream of waste, air pollution. We need those who can organize the world movement for our rights, and rights of our planet. And this kind of heroes fortunately is on its way.
I would like to discuss the growing role of social networking and social media as a powerful and organized system, which acts like a hero in changing people lives and expectations. I would like to closely analyze the impact and role of social networking in changing our politics, economics and human rights policy. I will provide the evidence that social media is our 21st century, the century of technology, hero.
i liked reading Anton’s final paper introduction. I agree that social networking and social media has major influence in our lives. i am looking forward to read the whole paper. However, i noticed the last sentence of the introduction is grammatically incorrect “I will provide the evidence that social media is our 21st century, the century of technology, hero.”
I can grasp your idea of your topic, but I think that you should try to talk why technology media developers are heroes? like try to give some characteristics. Talk a little bit more about they.
corrections:
revise sentences starting with AND , use transitions
when democracy with its capitalistic economy… or when democracy in a capitalist economy …
what kind of collapse are you talking about? economic? social? political? or a combination of them?
excellent paragraph indeed Jang. i saw an example, which is given by a professor of Yale university, how that is connected to the heroes? and anothe thing you wrote, “people commit acts of heroism in everyday life but that is the influence of such heroism? what is that mean?
Professor Krystyna Michael
ENG 2100T
Youngin Jang
Draft Workshop
May 10, 2012
Ordinary Heroes
Long ago, hero was deemed as special person with superpower, but modern days have changed the concept of heroes. Society has become more complex, diverse and varied; people’s needs and problems so that hero, a man of extraordinary abilities, cannot handle them single-handed. Here are many ordinary citizens who make extraordinary contributions in their community. Some are male, some are female; some are white, some black, some Oriental; many are Americans, many are not. These people are not always strong or famous. However, all of these people are heroes and should be honored. So people look to others around them – ordinary people – for their heroes. They consider heroes as decent and kind people who make sacrifices or try to make a difference. In this point, ordinary/ every day heroes become the most important heroes in the modern world. I would like to focus on how ordinary people perform acts of heroism in everyday life, what is the influence of everyday heroism, and how they often affect more results than do professional people or organizations in a wide variety of levels such as individuals, corporations, and nations.
First, ordinary heroes are around us. Although they are necessarily different from the rest of us in their character and their morality, they are quick on the draw and put their ideas into practice. Those are starting points and are making an extraordinary impact around the world. Paul Bloom, who is Professor of Psychology at Yale University, points out the importance of our kindness. Bloom note that “those who receive charity have their lives improved, but those who provide it also benefit. It feels good to be good. Indeed, one recent study found that spending money on others is more rewarding than spending it on oneself. It’s not just short-term pleasure: Those who donate wealth and time to others tend to be a lot happier in their entire lives than those who do not. The paradoxical finding here is that one great trick to being happy is to forget about being happy and instead try to increase the happiness of others. The effects of our kindness are not zero-sum (The Kindness of Strangers, 30-35).”
To describe with illustration, Japan news reported that a subway hero, who was Korean brave student, leaped onto the tracks to rescue fallen commuter and died in Japan. After broadcasting, many people cherished the memory of subway hero. Most importantly, his deed fostered a spirit of good will in the community and brought about these results that some saved others lives in the subway when they were faced with same situations. This is not only learning effects, but also driving force of social evolution.
“Think coffee” is another example of the effect of ordinary heroism. It introduced the concept of “fair trade coffee”.
I like my friends work but I have one comment about sentence structure. “Society has become more complex, diverse and varied; people’s needs and problems so that hero, a man of extraordinary abilities, cannot handle them single-handed” sentence needs to be rephrased. “So people look to others around them – ordinary people – for their heroes”. I think the author should have said: “people should look around and recognize that ordinary people can be heroes”. Another sentence also incorrectly phrased “I would like to focus on how ordinary people perform acts of heroism in everyday life, what is the influence of everyday heroism, and how they often affect more results than do professional people or organizations in a wide variety of levels such as individuals, corporations, and nations.” I think my friend wanted to say that “people commit acts of heroism in everyday life but that is the influence of such heroism? That very often individuals heroism makes more difference and serve others than most organizations and cooperation’s every could.”
Hey guys! I found my new heroes!!
I started to watch the show Stargate Atlantis once in a while. If some people watched that show they will understand! Amazing movie, amazing characters and every episode has an idea. I think stargate team are real heroes, because they defend people on Earth from malicious aliens, despite the possibility they can die. Even more, they sacrifise their lives for sake of their mates. And they never leave friends who are in captivity. They find them and rescue.
The show emphisizes such values as friendship, faithfulness and trust. In my opinion this is one of the best shows ever. Higly recommended, especially for people who are into Sci-Fi genre.
Watchmen are about historical issues occurring during Nixon presidency in 1980’s, such as Vietnam War and problems with Soviet Union and Cold War. Those men are crime fighters and the heroes trying to help with political problems. Just like Superman or Spiderman, ready to take up an action. Doctor Manhattan is used by American military for his ability to intervene in Vietnam and solve some problem with Soviet government. He is the main character who played major role for his extraordinary powers. Former scientist, turned into a superhero due to a mistake, an accident, happened in the nuclear laboratory and that is how this superpowered hero came to life, just like Spiderman. Dr. Manhattan possessed qualities and abilities change in sizes, enhanced Strength, teleportation of himself or other individuals, manipulation of things, etc. he could destroy Soviet Union’s large territory with no trouble, disarm nuclear weapon and soviet missiles, which was most useful for the American government. Watchmen each have different costumes and face masks, just like Spiderman or Superman or Batman. Besides Dr. Manhattan is drained from human feelings and emotions and does not view life or humanity in the same way that normal sentient beings would.
Q3:
Compared to the other superheroes that we’ve encountered, watchmen’s behaviors are more complicated.
First, superman helps others to solve the war issues, save the miners and handle the women abusing problems. Spiderman fights against other supernatural creatures that are dangerous to the world. Both of them seems like doing the good things, but watchmen seems like doing the opposite. For example, Dr. Manhattan acted as a weapon to kill millions of people in Vietnam War, and Comedian also killed a lot of innocent people arbitrarily. Are they really superheroes to the world, or supervillains to the other world?
Second, superman and spiderman seems more assured to what they’ve done and what they should do, while watchmen are not. Superman is determined to help people because he think he is born with the superpower, and spiderman also clear about what he need to do since his grandfather’s dead and his poor grandmother. However, Dr. Manhattan confused about what he should do at the end, so he fled to the Mars. Similarity, Comedian regretted about what he has done before he was dead and even Miss Jupiter and the other member seems like not sure about what they should do. Compared to the other superheroes, watchmen seem like confused about what the road they should go. It reflected popular emotions at that time, because of the Cold War, people were not so sure about what they should do and fear about the Cold War will turn into a “Hot War”.
Question#3: How do these heroes compare to the other characters we have encountered thus far?
Characters of Watchmen have some similarities to the super heroes we have discussed in class. They helped people in need and also save people who are in danger. In addition, they also have resemblances when it comes to disguise their real identity; they wear masks to hide their faces, and wear something that is unique from a normal person. However, aside from all of these factors, heroes of watchmen have some differences with Superman or Spiderman. If you think about the first part of the movie, they showed how these heroes (The Comedian, Sally Jupiter and etc.) liked to be recognized by the media. For instance, there was a picture of The Comedian where he caught a theft, or having their picture posted on an aircraft (Sally Jupiter).
Another thing I’ve noticed is that, some of the heroes sometimes tend to be a villain. Let’s just use The Comedian as an example; his character was nowhere near the characters of any heroes we encountered in our class discussion. As what I have observed, he wanted to be a hero but people have to follow him or else they will suffer from his cruelty.
Watchmen reflects the worries of the US and the rest of the world about the war, especially in Vietnam,the typical weapons and the new technology like nuclear bombs and new resources of energy. People were awake about the threat of human being’s liberty by the wars between US and the Soviet Union in the 80’s. At the beginning of the movie, there is a scene where Americans try to be peaceful putting flowers in the guns of the soldiers but they just shot them. The movie shows the social chaos and the new social liberal ideas like lesbianism and the social activism to resolve people’s problems by their own way. The superheroes have similar characteristics from superman, actually I think that Dr. Manhattan is like Superman because they have the same attitude and take place in the political problems. They both have a blue costumes, strong physical appearance, and they try to save the world.
I think that the whole movie line is formed by its historical context: Cold War and nuclear weapon problem. The central idea of the Watchmen concentrated around the peak of USSR and USA tensions, when the world was about to get into the nuclear war. And I believe the key figure of the movie, Doctor Manhattan, could not be better to reveal that reality. He is a product of nuclear reaction, a mistake, which make him superhero. And his superpower is also based on nuclear reactions: disintegration of the nucleus (teleportation), radioactive glow (Dr. Manhattan glows blue), etc.
I believe the Watchmen is one of those great movies, that reveals contemporary concerns of its modern society.
Comparing superheroes from Watchman with Super man and Spider man, I could say there are many similarities. The first and the most obvious characteristic is costume. All superheroes had special clothing, which helped them to turn into superhero. Once they were dressed they could perform good deeds. Also, all of them hid their faces behind masks and didn’t want Americans knew who they were. The second characteristic which unit them is super power. But the way they obtain this super power is different. Most of them became who they were due to some accident (for an instance, Spider man became a superhero after being bitten by a spider), but some were born with supernatural power, as Super man did. Besides that, American heroes had protected people, not only Americans, but the population of the whole Earth, as we could see at Watchman.
Q#2: How do you see contemporary issues informing the story themes of the film?
The movie Watchmen is put in the background of reality which closely reveals the contemporary world of the 1980s. The presence of superheroes in the movie is significant different than that in other hero stories. The existence of these superheroes has been dramatically affected by the real-world issues such as the Vietnam War and the presidency of Richard Nixon. In order to keep with the realism, these superheroes’ superpowers have been dismissed except the character of Doctor Manhattan. This character also is tied with the real event “Cold War” which actually happened during 1985 between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. In the movie Doctor Manhattan is used by the U.S. government as a strategic military advantage over the Soviet Union military power. The story represents the real social insecurity and disorder spreading widely in the country under the pressure of international tense situation, and also reveals the urgency of seeking for an absolute advantage or “protector” for American people against the growing national security threat from the Soviet Union.
Warren buffet and Bill gates are the most two important person in American History. They are heroes because
of their extra-ordinary contribution in American culture and society. Their dedication in business and
technology could be an important reason of America being the most powerful country of the world.. But they
both are different in their contribution and ways of doing business in society. Warren Buffet basically more
focused in Investing in American Economy and Bill gates are focused in new innovation of technology and
research. They are important person’s in society. Their lifestyle, views, activities talks about more American
culture. Though they both are heroes but there are some differences between them. If we focused on Warren
Buffet, we will find him as global business men. He is called one of the greatest investor of the world. On the
contrary, Bill gates is not only doing business globally but also making more relationships. By doing that he
smooth’s all the ways of his business. If we closely look at their ways of work it is easy to find out the characteristics of American cultured people. We can divide them in two groups. One group more focused in their own business, people are highly talented and using it for self-developments. Another group more focused on making relationships with different people by doing business globally. In my essay,
I will discuss more about the thinking, characteristics, lifestyle of Warren buffet and Bill gates.
Prof: Krystyna Michael
ENG 2100T.
Diana Haoyan Wu.
Essay #2: Contrasting and comparing American Heroes
Due: 04/04/12
Forever Kennedy and Michael Jackson
The best part of a foreign country is its place and the best part of its people is its culture. The word Culture is interesting because it implies the origin of an identity. Moreover, our curiosity to know about the place where we are living brings us to the question of what does American culture to be how it is. Public heroes inspire people from our past to our present and they are still alive in our ideas. In order to determine this influence of heroes in our culture, I propose to analyze two public figures of American heroes: the U.S. President John F. Kennedy and the King of the pop music Michael Jackson. Also, part of this analysis is to determine: first, the most relevant ideas or contributions that these heroes made during their lives; second, what social or cultural aspects their ideas influence; and third, how these ideas took part of our culture after their death but still alive in our reality.
American history, geography, sociology and politics are only some of the ways to learn about the development of the country, but the influence of public heroes is the best way to determine some values for the American society. For example, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29 in 1917 and the 35th president of the United States, influenced many of the ideas that people have nowadays: peace in the world, equal civil rights and the right to have a good education for children. Another example is Michael Jackson, a famous singer of the pop music and who was born on August 29, 1958, near Chicago. Jackson contributed to the music and American society with the idea of peace in his lyrics and influenced young people to be aware about the racism of black people and the lack of social opportunities.
Starting with Kennedy’s famous speeches before and during his presidency, he influenced the call of peace in US saying: “My fellow Americans, let us take that first step. Let us…step back from the shadow of war and seek out the way of peace. And if that journey is a thousand miles, or even more, let history record that we, in this land, at this time, took the first step.” (Radio and TV Address on Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 1963) Kennedy argued that America should step back with the idea of war and keep the peace in our country. Even if war is outside of US and is not affected in national territory, we should give the first step to surrender the idea of war to give priority to peace in the world. Consequently, this contribution from Kennedy developed in Americans the general idea of the necessity to keep peace in the world over any circumstances. Also, this idea is more often present in the social activist groups, but most of the Americans agree with the idea that nothing justifies war where innocent people died.
Furthermore, Michael Jackson contributed to the idea of peace in the world in his song “Earth.” Jackson composed these lyrics: “What have we done to the world. Look what we’ve done. What about all the peace. That you pledge your only son…What about flowering fields. Is there a time what about all the dreams? That you said was yours and mine…. Did you ever stop to notice? All the children dead from war. Did you ever stop to notice? The crying Earth the weeping shores…” (Earth, History: Past, Present and Future, Book I, 1995) He argued about how we are destroying our environment with pollution, war, and death when war dominates the human feelings. He described a reality of the America society when people live in war, they forget about the good things and other values are lost. Also, he made aware young people about the consequences of war and influenced them to rescue the human values.
Comparison of the two heroes for draft
Introduction
In this world there are people who make difference in our lives. Such people become heroes, valuable members of our society, because they change world around us and their names live on from generation to generation. Among those people are Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela, Leonardo Da Vinci, Rosa parks, Mother Teresa and the recent hero is Steve Jobs. Each of those people lived in different era and has nothing in common for which they made difference in our lives, but undeniable fact remains that each one made a tremendous contribution in changing our society. Among those people I distinguish John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
President Kennedy and the Presidents Reagan were the best presidents our country ever had.
Even though or 35th president was a democrat and the 40th president was a republican they both are admired and loved presidents in our recent history. These leaders share many important values and have many similarities as well as the differences; they both come from Roman Catholic roots. Reagan started his political career as a democrat, but later on he switched to republican. Both possessed charm, charisma, soothing calming voice, which made people on ease and give them hope for a better future. They both started their presidency when the country was in a bad economic and financial shape, especially Reagan and were able to make America strong respectable and formidable country in the world. They both cut taxes to stimulate the economy, accepting large deficits in order to step up the pace of the arms race, indulging in Cold War. Both paid big attention to the education of the people. Kennedy’s most prized piece of legislation was the education bill.
John F. Kennedy was first president to take a dream of people and put it on a track to achieve it; for example: civil rights movements and fight against racial discrimination. Ronald Reagan stopped the economic crisis prevented cold war, thus restoring freedom to many countries. During Reagan’s presidency Martin Luther king’s name was made as a national holiday, not Kennedy’s.
John F. Kennedy came from a wealthy Massachusetts family. It is a well known fact that he was a lieutenant during World War II. As a young man, he served in the Navy. During one of his nighttime patrol, his boat collided with enemy’s boat, damaging it badly. He gathered all the crewmembers, leading them to the safety in dangerous waters and one of his crewmember, who was badly burnt he carried him holding on to his lifejacket and dragging him with his teeth. He had to swim for four hours, managing to save his life and life of one of his crew member but injuring his back baldy. Later on he was awarded with Purple Heart and Navy and Marine Corps medal for his heroism and discharged with honor. He becomes a hero. After the war and before starting his political career Kennedy was working as a correspondent for a newspaper.
Ronald W. Reagan came from Illinois but his parents were not wealthy, they were on a limited budget. Just like Kennedy, he also has military service history. He also served his country as a lieutenant, but by the 1943 he became Captain.
In the history of the United States presidency John F. Kennedy is known as a youngest president ever elected and Ronald Reagan as an oldest president ever held an oval office, just two weeks prior his 70th birthday.
It seems like many presidents were subject of assassination threat. Unlike John F. Kennedy, who perished with a bullet of an assassin and ending his life at age of 43, President Reagan survived an assassination attempt shortly after he became President. Despite the fact that a bullet had punctured and collapsed one lung and still remained in his chest, he continued to joke about the ordeal; “Honey I forgot to duck” was one of his famous quotes.
He came into the power already well known as a radio, television and film actor, after joining politics, became 33rd governor of California. He is the first Hollywood actor to be elected president. He was the first president appointing the first woman to the Supreme Court, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. He submitted the first trillion dollar budget to Congress.
Kennedy was a passionate warrior against the cold war. During his speech he warned enemies and reassured citizens that “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” Reagan was an actual person who played big role in ending the cold war. Famous for his quotes the most famous was when he persuaded Russian leader “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” referring to the Berlin wall separating two nations, and thus ending the cold war and the era of Communism.
Throughout his presidency John F. Kennedy was passionate about the issue of immigration reforms. He wrote an essay called “A nation of immigrants”, which contains topics that are as important now as it was during his presidency. He believed that “America is a nation of people who value both tradition and exploration of new frontiers, people who deserve the freedom to build better lives for themselves and their adopted homeland”.
Ronald Reagan also made a big step toward immigration reforms. He signed the act which allowed three million illegal immigrants become legal residents of the United States. For them to live, work and benefit themselves and their new home.
Ronald Reagan’s wish was “What I’d really like to do is go down in history as the President who made Americans believes in themselves again”. Indeed his wish came true. People started believing again.
In comparison to Ronald Reagan’s achievements president Kennedy don’t have much because he only had over one thousand days in the oval office before he was killed. As historians think he could have accomplish much more had he given a chance, but for whatever he had time for, what he made possible during his presidency he will forever remain as part of the history. These men will be remembered, their names will live forever and their presidency will always be modeled after for the future generations of leaders.
I think Superman is the first typical hero from where other heroes develop the figure of heroism saving people’s lives, doing justice, wearing a nice costume, great body and stronger man saving the city from the villains. I agree with the people who said that he represents the American values besides Batman and Spiderman.
I think the trend of Americans from don’t take serious about comic books to most people like them, and to fewer people like them now is similar to the trend of the development of advertisement. In the old times, like in the period of David Ogilvy ,advertisement is just a very long article with one little or almost none pictures, just like novel’s text version period. later, because of the fast pace of American’s daily life advertisement tend to be more pictures and few word, even it have, it usually less than 80 words, just like comic book’s popular time. now, mass media becomes the main part of advertisement, and print ads slide down to the second, just like now, more people tend to watch movies and play video games rather than read comic books.
I think Amercian worship superman for long period of time, because superman on behalf of American’s value. superman have two different identities. one is the newspaper man which is the daytime identities, another one is superman which often appeare at the night. His superman identity is like a identity in every American’s heart.
I think Superman is the best hero! He has an aura of reassurance about him, it’s as though his presence alone can make the direst situation seem safer, as though you know everything will be alright. One of the best things about being Superman is his effect on other people. He is a prime example of the expression “Truth, Justice, and the American Way”, living out the life that every American should. A life of honesty, morality, and integrity. Superman makes people strive to be the very best they can be, and that is something greater than any super power!
Superman and American values
Superman is one of the most recognizable heroes from fictional comic book and an American idol. A man known for his extraordinary physical abilities, leading a double life, from being a modest, shy paper reporter named Clark Kent and the superman, always ready to serve a fellow human being in the time of need. He is a selfless person in every sense of the word. Heroes are positive, smart, brave individuals and always fight for what is good and beneficial for the people. If we compare superman’s actions and American values and culture, he stands for truth, justice, hope and liberty for all, which is an American way of life.
America always represented a place of freedom and liberty that is why immigrants would run away from injustice in their own country and come to live in America. They saw America as a super country, as a protector, as a place where dreams can come true.
About half a century ago, the superhero comic was popular across the U.S., the children depended on the superman comic book hero as their idol. At that time, most of the United States children interested in comic books, they talked about super hero everywhere in their life. He was an ordinary person who worked in an newspaper office as an editor and reporter, but in fact, he had another role which he acted an super hero to save the country. Wherever there was unfair , the superman showed up. Few years later, the superhero comic was made into the Hollywood movies. Hollywood movies were symbols of popular culture all over the world, it was an American culture leading the international cultural . That was, the American popular culture to the world culture threatened to encroach on the market. The American public in the global culture had become a “myth”. Obviously, Hollywood movies really built a rich and advocating heroism in American culture.
Yeah, it could be a fact that american movies industry took a lot from such comics as superman, spider-man, etc. I feel like a lot of american movies tied up on the idea of a perfect hero. Remember, “Die Hard”, “Terminator”, a thousands of apocalipsys movies like “Core”, “Armagedon” etc where the main character saves the Earth? I don’t know if there are so many such movies in Europe. It’s interestin if the idea of a super hero is a feature of a whole american media culture.
I think superman is a perfect hero. From childhood he had some special power. He utilized his power for the betterment of people and society. But he was very cautious about hiding the actual identity. Most interestingly, his lifestyle is very common. He work in newspaper as an editor and reporter. So, superman have two identity. One as a normal human being and another is man with great supernatural power and attitude. As a normal human being superman can be compared to Gregor. Gregor work hard for the betterement of his family and wants to repay his father’s loan. But he is simple in his life and keep busy in working. As normal person superman do the same thing. He is known as Kent in his office who work hard as a reporter and editor. He is also very simple in his life. And as a superman kent can be compared to oedipus . Oedipus have some power to influence people and he think himself as a powerful person. Superman is a powerful person with great attitude and ofcourse he know how to influence people. But superman follows his own method to make people understand “what is right”.
While reading through first chapters of Superman, Kent appears as a superior person who can beat anybody, but cannot be beaten by anyone. By creating a comics about a superman, author emphasizes on dreams of American society of that time. The dream of ordinary person who transforming into super hero and performing good deeds. On the one hand, the idea of Superman’s presence is awesome, since the society would be protected 24/7. But on the other hand, all good ever ends, so that the society without Superman will face obstacles in resisting evil. In the same way as a story about Gregor, who was a Superman for his family until a certain time. In fact, before the transformation, Gregor was able to support financially and protect his family, but after he had turned into a cockroach, his family faced many problems and couldn’t handled them. In my opinion, superman not only helps the community, but also harms and encouraged to degrade.
I agree with your idea, if people or communities always rely on a specific person for a long time, sooner or latter, they will lose their own ability to survive, just like Gregor’s family or a society without superman. Thus, a communities or a family can respect a hero, but cannot just rely on them. For if communities or families lose their own ability to sustain themselves to resist the outside hazard, the end of their days will come!
His life is twofold as a newspaperman and superhero, which means that he is usually a mild-mannered man but act in superhuman ways. He shows up to save people at dangerous moments and leaves to avoid praise. In other words, he shares and goes through the public’s suffering or pain, utilizing his powerful ability. These characters of Superman tell us that ordinary people become heroes.
Superman’s character is similar to all other heroes we have discussed in class. Reading through the first four chapters of the book, his traits did not change a bit. He helped people without hesitation and he taught the villains he encountered to be a good citizen.
Clark Kent is not far from the characters of Gregor and Oedipus. Three of them performed a selfless action in order to save/help others.
Now about class…
I have a little story
Today, I went to a bookstore to buy the “Amazing Spider-man.” I could not find the exact book by ISBN, so I tried to find another, similar. But, since I never read comics and I don’t know anything about it, I failed to find it. Then, I noticed one guy who was standing near me and reading the “Amazing Spider-man.” I decided to ask him if he can help me and he pleasantly agreed. I spend 30 minutes in the store. As it turned out, this man was very knowledgeable about graphic novels. He wore an ordinary jacket and had long hair. It seemed like he never shaved. While I was speaking with him I learned that he is a writer of comic books and a huge fan of it. To me, he looked like he was in his 30’s, single, and he lived with his parents. In my opinion, he didn’t look like a grown-up.
Later, when I left the store, two questions struck me. Why do some people write comics and why do other people buy them? I still can’t determine the value of comic books especially from grown-ups perspective…
I think a lot of people are fond of reading comic books for they are easy to follow. Images are already presented and artists used speech balloon to show us who saying what dialogue. Unlike regular books, you have to use your imagination and you must have to pay attention through out the story so you won’t get lost.
I actually had a conversation with a friend about graphic novels and I asked him why does he like reading it. He simply replied “It’s more fun reading it than books.”
Hey Guys!
I will give you a link to the website of the game Encounter. It’s very cool and awesome game for very active and smart people. It’s International game. In NY’s domen all info is written in ENG. It’s kind of scavenger hunt game. Let me know if you interested and I will guide you there.
Next game is on Sun, Apr 1st. Idea is to find a place by a picture that was made long time ago, come there, take a new picture and send it to the authors. Team that makes all shots faster then the others is a winner
Btw, it’s one type of the games that Encunter has. Explore the website to find more info or ask me.
Link http://ny.en.cx/GameDetails.aspx?gid=35204
Superman V.S American Culture
The first occurrence of superman was in 1938 created by comic book artists Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The comic book superman today is regarded as the most embodiment of comic book superhero. Superman has retained certain characteristics in the American public perception of his character, such as being flawless, gentle, kindhearted, selfless, resolute with knowledge of right and wrong and decisive in a crisis. The Superman story is a perfect mythical model that exemplifies the cultural reality of an era in US. During the time of the occurrence of superman, the U.S. was suffering the great depression. When ordinary people were not able to change the bad situation in reality, they imagined there was a mythical hero like superman save the country. Furthermore his split personality in the book most exemplifies the cultural spiritual values of American people in society. Since besides his role as a superman, he also is Clark Kent, a regular reporter for the ‘Daily Planet’, one part relates to his super-natural powers and the other to the profane reality of the everyday world. The superman part symbolizes the ideals of individual freedom and power, the reporter part is quite a contrast by the limits imposed by the reality of everyday life as represented by the humble Clark Kent. Such a contrast reveals the truth of human spiritual equivocation. Don’t we all at times live in a fantasy world but soon are awakened from our dreams and have to come down and live on earth like Clark Kent.
I have two heroes, one is Joe Hisaishi who is a Japanese composer. I like his music. When I feel upset, by listening his music, it can cheer me up. I first learned piano 3 years ago. his music gave me a sense of music. I can practice his music hours and hours in the practice room. Now, each piece has some memory of mine. like yesterday, I listened his piece called ” one summer’s day” I just remembered that the spring day, I walk near the lake and enjoy the beautiful sunshine. Joe Hisaishi ‘s music gave me lot of sweet memory and cheered me up. another hero I want to talked about is Yao Ming, he createed the legend of Asian Basketball, no one would not fear about him in NBA even Kobe still have 100% of confident to brake his defense, so he really is a hero for Asian, he proves that Asian also can be great in Basketball.
I think the king is full of confident, he thought everyone knows him so he said “I am the king! I am oedipus!” As the king, he has the power and confidence, I think it is a double sword. on the one hand, if he can control his citizens well, he can be a good king and everyone respect him but if he over use his power, it would hard to say if someone want to destroy him.
I want to pick Lady Gaga and Franklin Roosevelt as my heroes. Lady Gaga is a popular singer who famous around the world, she devoted to help social vulnerable groups to gain their power, such as the homosexual, and she tries very hard to use her creative dressing or performing styles to inspire people. Franklin Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States, he leaded Americans to overcome the Great Depression and WW2, and his New Deal created a series of programs that still benefit people till now. I choose these two people because they have great differences in background, career and representative spirit.
I think the President Reagan and the President Kennedy are two heroes, who made huge difference into peoples lives. They would always be remembered as best presidents in our recent history. One made desegregation possible and during John F. Kennedy’s presidency racial discrimination ended, he issued law that no matter what race and color, everybody has a right to vote and use the buses and he also supported desegregation in schools and cut taxes to benefit the economy. The other hero, Mr. Reagan was the one who helped break down Berlin wall, thus ending the cold war, also he issued amnesty for all the undocumented people in america, made their lives better and he was a tax cut supporter just like the President Kennedy..
I would like to pick up the following people as interesting national heroes of US society the last years: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. They might be interesting since on one side, they both related to computer technologies, and they grew up their corporations to be the largest and most successful in our 21st century, on the other side, we know Bill Gates is still here, and he keeps working on the progress of Microsoft company, and we all know that Steve Jobs has tragically gone to another world. Such a similar fate at the start, start up and development and such a different fate at the end..
Warren buffet and Bill gates are the most two important person in American History. They can be defined as heroes in American history. They considered as heroes because of their contribution and new innovation in American culture and society. They are giving their enormous effort in business and technology. But they both are different in their contribution and ways of doing business in society. Warren Buffet basically more focused in Investing in American Economy and Bill gates are focused in new innovation of technology and research. But one thing is common between them which are contributing in charity. Bill gates has own charity with his wife named Bill and Melinda gate foundation. This foundation gives money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs. Warren buffet recently announced to give his 99 percent of his property in charity which primarily will go to Bill and Melinda gates foundation. In my essay, I will explain more about their contribution and activities in business and American culture.
I would choose Americans heroes Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. They are two of the most successful business people and respected by members of society in the United States of America. They provide new perspectives of the success, breaking the social convention that success in society bring with it fame and fortune. In this point, I would like to focus on the relationship between the responsibility of the leaders of the society and social changes or influences.
Steve Jobs and Walt Disney were two of the most influential characters in America or even in the world. They were recognized as heroes since they both innovated a “new world” of their professions and their success still has enormous impact on most american people’s lives despite of their different fields. On one hand, Steve Jobs was one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. On the other hand, Walt Disney was an innovator in animation and theme park design, as well as a film producer. In spite of the fact that they were experts in two different fields, they both had devoted themselves into their careers and contributed a countless culture values to American people. In my essay, I will 1 separately exemplify each of them hero’s characteristics, 2 compare their hero features and 3 discuss about their common cultural impact on American people, such as physical and spiritual influence.
hello!!! I would like to do my essay about JF. KENNEDY and Micheal Jackson. They are interesting because they had a lot of influence during and after their lives. Kennedy’s discourse is really important in American history and some actual people have taking his ideas to develop new programs to improve the country in the political field. On the other hand, Michael Jackson was one of the most influential artist from the 20 century. He innovated the pop music, fashion, and dance with his lyrics. Also, he inspired new artist like Madonna, Usher, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, etc.
I am thinking to explain the different fields of politic and music:
1. How they influenced the people from different perspectives. what did they influenced during their lives and after death?
2.How did they identify or cooperate in Today’s American culture?
3. In what aspects of the American culture are their ideas still alive: politics, social, music, fashion, philosophy?
Americans are known to be football fanatics; and everyone has their own favorite player. Tim Tebow and Eli Manning are one of the most players that most people cant help but to like and adore, because they are such great quarterbacks. Other fans consider them as their heroes for they inspire people not only by their attitude while they are on the field, but also their character outside of the stadium. Although these two players are similar in the career they chose, there is something about them that sets them a part. For instance, both of them might have the same religion however they are not identical when it comes to being spiritual. Tebow is known to be overly religious, meanwhile Manning is reserved and private when it comes to his religion and tends not to display it when he’s on the field. They are both interesting cultural icons to talk about for they are both famous Americans who excel in football, however America is more interested with Manning than Tebow both on and off the field rather than just during football season.
The American heroes in my mind are Jeremy Lin and Jacky Chan. They are both Asian American heroes. They both have distincitive looking, and succee in the unexpected way. Though they come from different fields, different background, they all through their efforts to acquire lots of fans, not only Asians. Both of Jeremy Lin and Jacky Chan’s succee show that no matter what background are you from, as long as you work hard, you could creat your own story in America, and become the America hero.
1,2. I would suggest Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as a pair of Americans heroes. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, being born in the same year- 1955, both were related to the computer industry and both were the founders of the two competing companies Microsoft and Apple. Thus, this is an interesting pair.
3. The combination of those 2 heroes shows the importance of technology in American society. If they were born in Asia or Africa, perhaps instead of creating all of the computers software, computers, gadgets, phones and etc., they would produce items, which were more needed in that area. So that, we never would be able to use Microsoft Office, MacBooks, iPhones and etc. However, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, were born at the right time and right place, where the society is not only adopted new technologies, but also became obsessed with them.
When i started reading “Oedipus”, i was impressed the way he approached his people, when he saw them kneeling in front of him, holding olive branches. Even though he is a king, he showed respect by helping elderly priest to his fee. asking him to speak on behalf of the people and assured them not to be afraid, because they all know him as an honorable king. He wanted people to trust him with their concerns, because he is here to help, and he is ready to do anything “i would be blind to misery not to pity my people kneeling at my feet”.
He turned out to be totally different person. Able to kill, be disrespectful to his mother and killing his father.
Oedipus, King of Thebes, has a strong to know about the truth. Even though everyone tries to dissuade him, he attempt to figure out the murder (360 – 415). He seems to be confident of himself and his own intellectual capacity. Also he is somewhat stubborn and headstrong. However, in the ending, although realizing his dreadful fate, he doesn’t justify his sin he committed in the past, but he accepts the truth. By paying the fiddler, he shows the power of will that he stands up to the difficulties rather than avoids them. These attitudes forward curses make him humane.
Oedipus is very smart, brave, courageous with a personality of the perfect king. when the Thebes started in troubles, he was wise to send Creon asking for help to Apollo who can tell him how to resolve the city’s misfortune, of course he was the king of Thebes. But I think that he used these same strong characteristics from a hero to be a tyrant because he killed his father, slept with his mother, and got the throne after Laius (his father) dead. the fragile line between tyrants and heroes resides in the intention of the people. They may have the same strong characteristics but their intentions are different and it may cause ambition, revenge, power with out control and tragedy.
I have got impression that Oedipus cared about his «children» and his lands around Thebes. He seemed to be a good leader, who wanted to save the city and change the lives of residents in a better way. As an instance, he was listened to «God’s word» (163) « Drive the corruption from your land, don’t harbor it anymore……banish the man, or pay blood with blood» (164). Besides that, the fact that he was looking for a murderer of the previous king, could characterize him as a truthful and honest person, who stood for a justice and the punishment of the guilty person.
Oedipus the king is very interesting story to read. Reading thru the first part of the story, my first impression about King Oedipus is, he’s smart, down to earth person who cares about his people and his city. However my first impression changed when I was reading thru the second part after Oedipus spoke to Tiresias and Creon. He became to be very mean and close-minded person. He doesnt want to listen to anyone for he think Creon’s plotting something against him.
I agree with Dale and Xia. While I was reading the story, step by step, the picture of an obstinate person has been drawing in my mind. I believe that the King Oedipus didn’t believe anyone but him. Seems like he can put the whole world against his personality. I believe he not only knows what he does, but he likes to put his self against all the others. I would describe him as antagonist – a person who is actively counteracting to other people towards achieving their goals.
Due March 12: What are your first impressions of Oedipus in Oedipus the King – how would you describe his character? Point to a moment you think really illustrates what kind of a man he is.
My first impressions of Oedipus the King are that he is an imprudent and miserable hero. As the play “Oedipus the King” revealed that he didn’t take any advice from the others such as the blind prophet and the old shepherd as they told him it would be better for him not to know the truth of the murderer of Laius and his identity. In the play he unwisely insisted on uncovering everything about which he was not sure no matter the truth would bring him disaster finally. Unfortunately, as a result, he fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother. When he had finally found out the truth, he also was told that his wife/mother had hung and killed herself, he then gouged out his eyes and desperately asked to be sent away from his country Thebes. It was such a miserable fate for Oedipus. However, on the other hand, he was a hero for his country and people. Because from the very beginning, he wanted to lift the curse that caused a lot of disasters on his land, he promised that he would banish the murderer of the former king and thus he did.
In the play, his character is described as a stubborn, suspicious and loyal king. He was stubborn since he insisted on pursuing his goal of releasing all the secrets and refused all the warnings of pain and tragedy coming out of the truth. He was arrogant, suspicious and downright mean to people who gave warnings around him, and also suspected his brother-in-law was trying to steal his power. He was loyal to his country and his wife because he kept his word to punish the murderer of Laius in order to lift the curse.
Oedipus, “Let it burst! Whatever will, whatever must! I must know my birth, no matter how common it maybe – I must see my origins face to face…..” (P224). That’s the moment when his wife and others were trying to convince him stopping the further request for the truth, but he ignored all the warnings and continued struggling to uncover his cryptic birth identity. This moment most illustrated that he stubbornly pursued his goals despite all the harsh warnings.
I agree with you. Besides for the fate and the personality of Oedipus, I also pay attention to the curse, Oedipus’s father — Laius threw away his child (Oedipus) in order to avoid the curse, and Oedipus ran away from his adopted parents in order to avoid his curse, but, eventually, the curse still came true. It enlightened me that no matter how much we want to avoid the difficulties or disasters, it will still come to our faces again, so why not just face it at the first time? Let it comes, let it goes, maybe we will have a different destiny. If we wouldn’t have, at least we can enjoy the rest of the time before the curse come ture.
I think the reason why he said American is black gangs is because it’s easy to label this as a ‘black’ problem. If you were to watch all the docs, you’d see some very similar themes that arise again and again. poverty, social and political disenfranchisement, employment, the desire to belong to a family, the desire to have and exert power and control among people who are functionally powerless also the ease of extremist ideology to gain a foothold under such conditions
No one wants to address these very real issues. Easier to make a ‘don’t blame whitey’ statement than take a real look at the problem that spans ALL races. Black people or multiculturalism didn’t create the problems in Europe with gangs. Social injustice and inequality did. But again, if one recognizes that then suddenly the black gangs can be understood as part of a larger problem.
But that might mean that many people’s beloved prejudices,
“Black people are inhuman criminals by nature”
So it’s much easier to just pretend that the other gangs
Here is my response about the video of Tupac. He indicate a lots of thing which is very important. He quoted “America is country of gang”. According to his view, Every articular group in America work as a gang. For example, he mentioned, police, CBI, FBI etc. But the most of the gangs are not well organized. As a result they do some particular stuff based on some situations which is not right. The speaker said, None of them are happy to kill someone. Killing people can not a make any gangs proud because there is nothing in it. Though they are doing that work based on some situations but the speaker thinks everyone can get reed of that situations if they try to find a way. Moreover he thinks, Whatever community a person belong to is not important. He also said that if any natural calamity comes government spend millions of dollar for that but they do not spend money to control violence. In that case he use himself as an example . He also wanted to go to college but because of some circumstances he was unable to do it.
According to what Tupac said, one of the conditions that make gang positive to the community is to have leagues, that is, leagues are positive things while gangs are not. Besides, when he was asked about the gang violence, Tupac hadn’t denied the negative side of the gang, instead, he just said that he believed that gang can be positive, and America is the biggest gang in the world, which means that he believed that gangs are negative to the community, and America, democrats, republicans, police and FBI are parts of them. That is to say, America, democrats, republicans, police, FBI are also negative to the society, which is against the common sense. So the most controversial point between what Tupac think and most other people think is whether America, democrats, republicans, police and FBI is good for the society or not, in other words, are they leagues or gangs? In my opinion, in terms of constructing the structure of the society, regulating people’s behavior and reducing the criminals in some distance, they actually act like league which benefit for the society. However, in terms of the foreign policies to some countries, financial aids or job opportunities to many middle class or poor people and disparities to other races, they do have a lot of disappointing spaces and sometimes act like gangs which do something destroy the society just for their own benefits. If one day their negative side overwhelms their positive side, they would become the real gangs. Most importantly, the endless wars and the corruptions inside them may lead them to a self-destructive way. At that time, Americans will be facing the society of turbulence and living in a despairing time, which we don’t want to see and can’t afford to see.
Being minority in America is a disadvantage, so street is how young minorities learn about survival. According to Tupac, after streets, prison was a next step toward progression into manhood. He wants to pass along the knowledge he learnd hard way what prison is all about. That even though drugs and violence always going to be part of peoples’s lives, control and regulation by the communities within minorities is very important. He suggests to have a clear vision of the future, to know what one wants and go for it, because the are other ways to get street smart and jail is not one of them, because it is not for correctional institution but it is for business. He says that America is built by gangs and is run by gangs; I think he meant gangs as group of people who has ability to control and power. Such as police or FBI, even the government parties. He compares America to a gang; that government has same mentality as gangsters have; he meant that America want to have control and power over the other countries. He brings as a comparison invading of Bosnia or by cutting off Cuba. As long as America keeps interfering into other countries affairs, there never going to be peace. There is many people with many problems in America, need to be taken care of, they pay taxes and are good citizens, but still there is a need of an employment, financial help, but government spends millions of dollars to the other countries survival instead. He acknowledges that violence is bad, but to him, it is unrealistic to achieve none violent existence, as long as there are examples of countries fight with each other for the power, causing violence and destruction in the process, and until there is alternative way of living found. Just as American government, gang can have good influence on a community, as long as they are well organized and collected by taking care of their own. For example, the money made on the streets, to be circulated back into the community, pushing youngsters towards education and do something positive, then can be achieved peaceful existence.
Nice summary, George! As we have heard, Tupac said that “gang can be organized” (5 min 40sec). Also he claims that gang can make society better. Furthermore, he gave a couple of examples; one of them is about drug dealers. Tupac said, we should “make them pay”(9 min 00 sec). Do you think it’s possible for the street gangs to benefit the society and make the society better? Is it possible for the self-organized society to be a “self-productive, not self-destructive?”
As about the Emerson’s definition of a “great man.” In my opinion, on the one hand we may consider Tupac as a great man, because he thinks outside the box, he says things that the other people are afraid to say. But on the other hand, he is an observer. His ideas, in my opinion, are utopia. He is useless; he did not bring anything significant to our lives. As of the Zimbardo’s studies, Tupac is a typical example of a good guy being evil; he is a product of the circumstances. He wished to go to the college, he wanted “to move up” (2 min 00 sec), but he is what he is; he is what life did make him look like.
hey this is a good summary George. I think that what Tupac said is a good identification of a Hero: he can recognize the problems, give them a solution and make people aware about them. Also, when he said that communities need to take the first place on this American government, it is a reality that we are living today because we work together for a better life, expecting that our government will protect us and give us a better life’s conditions. But communities give and give and never get anything back. We are sending out all our efforts and give our opportunities to external communities that never were part of this country. “Help is a good quality, but be careful to do not throw out everything to save others and get sink yourself in your own boat”
Hi, George! Great summary!
Tupac fought for the problems and expressed the truth in unconventional ways, rapping about African-American and social issues. Even if it is a league of their own, his movement may be a good starting point as well as the right person to lead his community. His behavior and language could make his people better off. He did not justify murders or a gang lifestyle. If did so, he was nothing more than a thug rapper. Whereas America argued that they worked for a just cause. However, we had witnessed jaundiced justice they did. Thus he thought of America as the biggest gang in the world.
Hello class! Finally I have some time to make a post sitting in front of a fireplace and drinking some tasty herbal tea. It is my 4th day here, in sunny and snowy South part of California, the place called South Lake Tahoe near the Sacramento city. It is located in a mountains and there is snow all around the city. I had a weird flight to California, with two delays, and then I had the worst trip up to the moutains, at night, when it was so dark and smog covered the most part of our roadway, that you can’t see what is in front of you in a distance more than 50 feet. Fortunately my friend drove safely so we got to his house without any accidents on the road. The early morning next day we woke up, warm up and went to the new office. Seems like we spent there all the time, without any breaks))) I’m leaving this beautiful city tomorrow afternoon and have a long way back home. In my memory I have 3 things left from this place: snow, hot tea and fresh air: those that I believe all of us are missing in New York. And one more thing actually: VERY FRIENDLY PEOPLE!!! If you ask a person in a store for some help, they can spend couple hours with you Until you get what you looking for. I’ll try to add some photos that I had a chance to take while working out the office. See you soon.
Corrected:
I had the worst trip up to the moutains, at night, when it was so dark and smog covered the most part of our roadway, that we couldn’t see what was in front of us in a distance more than 50 feet.
I am a little envy to you) While we were studying hard at Baruch, you had a great time in California! I am just kidding.
Truthfully, I am glad that foreign students, as well as foreign residents are able to get a job in the USA.
It is not common in other countries, especially in Russia. As an illustration, I had many friends from European countries(Poland, France, Italy, Sweden) and from Asia (China, Korea) who studied at my Home University few years ago. They have tried to get a job, but unfortunately non of them performed. The only reason why no one hired them was language barrier. As it turned out, Russian people don’t like those, who is non- native speaker. Perhaps, people feel embarrassed to speak to someone who doesn’t fully understands you or cannot explain what he means, since there are not many foreigners in Russia, especially in my home town.
But in contrary, I have faced the same situation in job market whilst I studied in Czech Republic. I didn’t get any job, since my Czech language wasn’t perfect.
Altana, I would not agree with you that “Russian people don’t like those, who is non- native speaker.” I have seen in Russia that visiters from other countries are very welcome in Russia. In my hometown, I met many many foreigners, who work there (prof jobs) and who emphasized that russian people show warm hospitality. Also I met americans here, who have been in Russia. They all said the same – great hospitality.
And yes, the language barrier is always a problem for employment. Ecpecially, if a job requires language skills. Nobody would hire a person as a waiter, barber, sales manager if the person doesn’t have required language skills. The only one option for those people is unskilled labour. Thank you
Your place is probably just exception. For the most of part, Russian people do like tourists, but they definitely don’t like foreign students or foreign citizens living in Russia. Besides that, they also don’t like asian people, who are citizens as well and supposed to have the same rights as white people. To prove the latter, if there is a competition between white and asian guys for a vacant place, it is more likely that the white person will get it. Since he is a “real Russian”. I am more than sure, you are not familiar with such kind of situation, since you are white. But, I’m asian, who was born in Russia, and experienced this kind of harassment many times. So that, as for me to be foreigner in Russia is more hard, than to be foreigner in the Usa.
Another thing about employment. Did you ever see in Russia any foreigners working in the customer service? I didn’t. But the USA’s customer service is based on them. «Nobody would hire a person as a waiter, barber, sales manager if the person doesn’t have required language skills”. My manager did- when I came to the USA 1.5 years ago my English was very bad, but anyway he hired me.
There is a difference between your town and New York City. The latest – multi-international city where managers try to diversify their stuff, bilingual and trilingual people here are the most preferable. In most of Russian cities nobody would hire barely speaking russian language person, as well nobody would hire barely speaking english language person in midwest or south or even 30 miles away from New York city in small towns, because there is no many tourists. Bilingual skills there are wildcat.
Also difficulty levels of these two languages are very alike. In a year-two you can learn english language and be fluent in every day talk. But It’s hard with russian language. I know some people in my hometown from Australia, England, New Zeland who have been in Russia over 3 years, but still, level of their language skills is very low.
In the video, we were watching and listening to Tupac talking about “gang” very proudly, in his eyes, ‘gang’ can be “organized”, and serve the “the community” in good ways such as self-protection, giving young people opportunities to the college, but all of it needs a “leader” such as him who has “smarter” thoughts and “superior” abilities to lead “gang” community in a positive way. Then he argued that “America is build on gang” and “America is the biggest gang in the world”, at this point, he wanted to make a claim that “gang can be positive”. He explained that when some other countries in the world “got in a fight”, America would always show up and try to stop the fight as a defender with any approaches most times violence, what America did to other countries was similar to what gangs did in their community-using their ways (such as violence or guns) to defend it. In my point of view, men define a thing as what they want, such as hero or villain, good or bad. If Tupac defined “gang” as a positive aspect in his community, it could be true at some points. But all of it depended on what he said about that how gang community self-governed and self-developed by their own rules. One of Emerson’s great men theories is that a great man would lead and help others, at this point Tupac’s ideas about “gang could be positive” were qualified. However, in zimbardo’s views of villain, Tupac’s actions were qualified as well since he thought he was doing a right thing when he used violence to solve problems. My ideas are that the ways to define Tupac was a great man or not have to consider with every aspect of the society at that time such as: social environment, certain circumstances or individual events, we have to look at his behaviors and influences with unbiased eyes. At last, I want to say that no one is a hero or an evil all the time but only at some points of time or situations.
Howdy everyone!! Today before we started the class, we were discussing how can we improve or enhance our vocab and pronunciation. So I would like to share two websites which I believe can help us elevate.
First is the http://www.vocabulary.com
It’s a really great website to use to know more English words and its meaning. Once you get to the website, it will ask you 10 assessment questions (round 1). After that it will ask you to sign up, BUT it is optional, you can still proceed to round 2. For me this website is interesting for it’s not only enhancing your vocabulary but also helps you with reading comprehension.
Second is http://www.howjsay.com
This website is actually a talking dictionary of English pronunciation. When you get to the site, you just have to type in the word you need help with in the search box, then it will show you a list of words. The one that is being highlighted is the one you’re looking for. I know the site doesn’t provide any instruction on how to hear the pronunciation, but what you can do is to just place the cursor on the highlighted word and VOILA! you’ll hear a guy pronouncing the word for you.
I have been using these websites for years and it actually helped me a lot! I hope you guys find these sites helpful to you as well.. Good Luck! =)
Emerson focuses on building great man’s role in any sort of relationships such as nature and human beings, good men and others. He emphasizes the importance diversity and relativity, which means that the great man can be changed and has his own individuality. Therefore, to pull their weight, the good man should be a person who acts according to one’s conviction. Thus the good man represents every kind of people when the person lives with a spiritual value and intelligence. Then the person shares the honor and becomes representative man.
According to the 《representative men》, Emerson insisted that “nature seems to exist for the excellent. The world is upheld by the veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome, they lived with life glad and nutritious.” I believe he gave the good men a great evaluation. In many people’s mind, heroes were far away from us, they looked like a star in our heart. On the contrary, the good men were the people lived around us. But they also have something common in some point. The good men influenced people to live a happy life through their own nutritious experiences, and heroes may influence people by their great actions to the society. They both made a right model to people, they are the legends in people’s heart. Emerson told the topic about the good men, in my opinion, the most important point is reminding people there are a large amount of good men close to us, if we keep doing something useful and good to people from a little step move to a great action, I believe one day we can be a regular good man turn into a superman.
Question:
Do you see connections between Emerson’s ideas about “great men” and some of the other approaches to heroes we’ve discussed so far in class?
Response:
Emersons ideas of “great men” is very broad for he was not just focusing in one point of view. Once he mentioned , “I admire great men of all classes, those who stand for facts, and for thoughts…” From my own understanding, this sentence means that he applaud people who stand for what is right. Like what we expect from heroes we don’t want them to just help us, but we also expect them to have morals to be able to serve as a role model to us. And this takes me to what the author said about the importance of other people. He stated that “Other men are lenses through which we read our own mind.” Sometimes other people are reflection of what we are thinking. We think of helping others yet, we look up to those who are already in process of doing such a thing.
This article is very abstract which makes so hard to figure out what the author wants to point out. However, the words we used to describe “great men” are similar to when we describe heroes.
Emerson uses the terms “men address all humanity and he gives some examples about each characteristics about Genius,Societal Disapproval and Foolish Consistency and Self-Worth. Heroes are the people who can take the responsibly to the society, so do good man too.
Today i will talk something intesting topic with you. First of all,I don’t know what the differents from the happiness and happy on earth. But i think the “happiness”and “happy”are some look like in English . So I believe we are happiness that when we are in happy, on the other side, when we happy we may feel a little happiness in a short time. What’s more ,what is happy ? Although I am not a shape student in my class and I am not as popular as my best friend . But I’m feeling happy enough now.Beacuse I have a loving family, many good friends and a warm class. More important is ,I’m living in the world . The world is so beautiful that make me feel I am so lucky! We are growing like many flowers that we must keep our life and hard working .We all have a bright future. So we are happiness and happy!
I still remember the Tatinic,though it’s a big ship but it still sunk,so ,in my opinion ,the best ship is the friendship.
Everyone needs friends baceuse there are a lot of things that you can’t deal with ypourself,and the friends judt make up for it.
friendship just likes the sun ,it can make you fell warm though in the cold winter,friendship just likes the water in the desert ,it can make you fell that in the world ,there still has hope .in a word ,the friendship is the same meaning as the greatness ,selfness and devotion.
To make friends ,adding a friend equals addng a way ,open your heart ,devote yoursef,let friendship make your world colourful.
I can’t more agree with you that everyone needs friends. It’s a very good point especially for the student leaving their own countries and coming to another strange country- the U.S., attending a college is a very good way to start your new frienship in this coutry, we are all friends since we all came t0 the same class out of hundreds of thousands of baruch students.
Millions of people, visiting New York, saying that New York City is full of wonders and secrets! The city is big and it has a long history. So, during our all lives we open some new interesting facts in this great city, city of wonders!!! I live in NYC for a while, but just around a year ago I noticed an interesting thing in Central Park and I would like to share what I noticed with you! Have you ever looked closely to the gates, in particular, names of the gates? All gates have their own names and meanings! Names are various, such as Engineers’, Artists’, Farmers’, Boys’, Girl’s Gates and etc. When the construction process in the park was going to the end in 1860s, creators decided to give these names to the gates to represent characteristics of the city’s inhabitants. In total, there are 20 gates. Most of them got their names 150 years ago. And yet, those names weren’t given spontaneously! These names reflect features of internal landscape as well as surroundings outside of the park.
For example, beyond The Inventors’ gate is a statue of Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph! On w74th-76th streets, there are a playground and statues of Alice in Wonderland and Hans Christian Andersen. Guess, what gate is near? It’s Children’s Gate! The Merchants’ Gate is facing Time Warner Building at Columbus Circle and The Strangers’ Gate at w106th street is opposite the very old castle that people thought was hunted a long time ago. By the way, I live near this castle and believe me, this building looks pretty frightening.
Hope this information was interesting for new coming students. So, now you have one more thing to look up when you explore New York. And yet, does anybody have thought about origins of the other gates in Central Park? Please share!
Drugs .
In this day and age with the advancement of the medical field, many new pills and drugs came into the lives of the people. Everything is getting done to prolong people’s quality of living; and it is indeed true, people do live longer. It seems there is a medicine for every kind of illness and pain; unfortunately the paradox is that those drugs are also the main reason of the premature death. The drug addiction is a dangerous disease. If we look into the recent history of our life, there are so many examples of people tragically ending their lives; for example Keith ledger, Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson have their life shortened due to incorrect use of the drugs . People get addicted to them very easily and after awhile they go as far as combine many pills, which make chemical combination of the drugs lethal. Many of the drugs and pain killers are very dangerous, unless it is taken strictly under the doctor supervision or his or her order. So any kind of treatment should be taken very seriously not only by a patient but also by whole family. They should be vigilant and carefully involved into their loved ones recovery.
It is definitively, that “Everything is getting done to prolong people’s quality of living, and it is indeed true, people do live longer”. On the one hand, the fact, that some people are dying due to overdose or combination of different drugs, is their fault. Since, the drugs were originally created to heal, not to kill and only incorrect usage of them might cause death, but not drugs by themselves.
But on the other hand, there are many examples of positive using of drugs. My grandmother is a diabetic and in order to survive, during more than 8 years, she has to do injections 3 times a day and every day. I don’t know what could happen if we didn’t have such medicine, but I am very thanks-full for those people, who created them.
so, as we can see, drugs have positive and negative sides and it is depends on you, how they will effect you.
People use drugs as pain killers or as antidepressants. But they have no idea about the chemicals components of drugs and their consequences. when people take medicines like antidepressants, they are creating a habit in their body and it is so far seem like the same effects that the cocaine causes in our nervous system altering all nerves, making people feel extremely happy and relaxed, and making a perfect circle of addiction. However, the worst part of this reality is that people don’t realize about these reactions and consequences even when doctors advice about the effects, but they keep taking them with higher dosages. Mixing other substances like alcohol with antidepressants is not the best idea because it may cause suicide when people do it without knowing anything about their body’s response. Please be aware about medicines’ consequences and effects before taking them. Fist make control of your body and your life and then try to look for a solution to other problems.
hello, yes I just got the account too, I had to call Ricky for help, OMG I felt so confused with the blog lol. and I also spend my lovely Sunday doing my essay, I love it, I hope you love it too!!!! jajajaja please read it I already sent it . bye bye
What do you think about multitasking?
How often do you multitask?
In my opinion, there are 2 types of multitasking. The first type is dangerous and as an example I would mention the situation when the person is talking by phone, texting, doing make-up or a lot of other stuff while driving. People think, they are saving time doing that, but they probably don’t understand how risky it is, not only for those person, but also for people, who around him. It might cause dangerous situations, such as car crush or even people’s deaths.
The second one is harmless, like chatting with friends while sending email or listening to music while doing homework. Since we are living in the 21st century and having all of the technology features, such as cell phones, laptops, Ipod and etc., we just can not stop using them. Even more, we need to check out our emails several times a day, check the phones in case if there are any missed calls or text messages, check the account on Facebook and etc. Besides that, we never do only only one thing a time (like texting to someone, sending email or calling someone); we always do something else to save our time. Even watching News on TV cause multitasking, because there are some additional stories on the bottom of the screen about weather or stock market result, which block our attention from the main idea.
As for me, I would say, multitasking is the fact of my life. I accept this, as long as it doesn’t make any harm for people who around me. Even more, at this moment, when I m studying and working, I also need time for myself, and as I mentioned before multitasking is a great time saver, so I better multitask, than have no time for myself.
In this day and age multitasking seems only way to deal with a speed of everyday life. An old expression “one thing at a time” seems not as valid as it used to be. Busy moms multitask all the time. Whether they are home or outside, that is how things get accomplished nowadays, to be able to execute more than one task became way of living. I totally agree with a danger of it also. Losing concentration can have fatal outcome, like eating and talking on the phone while driving. Difference between harmless and harmful should be acknowledged and priorities be put first.
Totally agree with you that multitasking is an essential part of our lives. If we look around, there are so many things that can catch our attention. Also, our interests are becoming more diverse day by day. So, perhaps multitasking is a step in our evolutional process , as you said – “we are living in the 21st century” . Unquestionably, that a thousand even a hundred years ago people didn’t have mobile devices, gadgets, cars, TV, etc, etc. Thus, they didn’t have so many distractions as we have now.
21st century… So much information is coming from the world that is surrounding us. Even more, we have to deal with all this information, because we don’t want to miss something interesting. We have to watch news and read newspapers, so we can have a conversation with professors and friends. Also, we have to have fun, watch movies, listen to the music, play sports and participate in college activities. And yet, as you said we have so little time to do this, so we have to multitask in order to save our time. But, one important point I would make that we have to learn – how to recognize more essential/significant things/information in its variety. Because, it’s impossible to do everything that we want to do. So, we have to choose what is more important to us and try to concentrate on it and then if the circumstances let us do other activity in the same time, we may do it. But always think about the quality. Guess why professors don’t let us texting in the class?
The idea that we are COMPELLED to stay informed in order to function in social situations is really interesting. I wonder if this is relected in any of our cultural heroes? Perhaps John Stewart or Barack Obama embody the cultural value of being informed?
Like what you said, i also believe that multitasking is a time-saver. However in my case I only do this when I do my homework. I tend to listen to music while studying for it helps me relax and (this may sound weird) concentrate more.
For some reason, I prefer to do things/chores one at a time. I always notice that I have to redo what I did if I’m doing 3 different things all together. BUT i make sure that I always finish what I have to do on time. =)
Perhaps what distinguishes dangerous from harmless multi-tasking is the awareness, despite all the activity, of how our actions impact others? So that if we drive while eating and talking on the phone, we have forgotten our fundamental responsibility to others that is an important part of driving …
I was thinking exactly about this idea! I heard that before, I believe when I was searching through some materials while preparing to entrance tests. Just imagine you drive a car, talk on the phone, even using Bluetooth, and do your make-up (I swear I know many women do that) – what could be more dangerous, even I would say ridiculous, to do all these things together? And as far as I have learned, multitasking reduces the ability to acquire an educational material effectively. That’s why many teachers and professors recommend to learn and work on your material, alternating between learning and having pauses like every 30-60 mins.
ohh well, multitasking is the main characteristic of the new generation, you know it is like you have to be multitask to get a job, to do you college’s homework and researches, and to do everything else within 18 per day including eating, going to the bathroom, brushing your teeth, texting to you friends, etc . And I say with 18 hours because we used to sleep 6 hours per day at least so we can wake up next day lol. yeap, that is the new generation’s specialty: running like crazy everyday of our life
I would like to say multitasking is results of situations. It has two sides of good and bad effects. It really depends on what kind of situations you are working with. Let’s say when you working as a call center customer service, you should have the capability of listening to the customers and typing information in the computer system or making some notes simultaneously.
The Desire Reveals Obstacle, or The Obstacle Reveals Desire?
We always think that it’s the desire reveals the obstacle. For example, we want to learn English well first and then we start to find that there’re many obstacles in our way, such as the difficulty of memorizing English words, hard to get rid of our accents, hard to understand the English speakers when they’re speaking fast. So desire coming up first sounds right.
However, sometimes we simply don’t know what we want, while the obstacles already show up. For example, it’s not the desire of we need a car reveals the obstacle that we are tired of walking on foot, but the obstacle reveals our desire. We feel that we are tired of walk on foot and its limits, such as we can just afford a short distance move but not long distance and long time. Similarly, we find the difficulties of communicating with friends or families when they are far away from us, then we come up with the desire of telephone and letter. Obstacles come up first and then reveal our desire, this is usually how great inventions happen, and this is also what Apple does nowadays. We customers don’t tell Apple what’s our desire because we don’t know either, but the Apple finds out what’s our obstacle in our daily life. Then it invents a new product and tells us why we need it (desire). Thanks to Steve Jobs, we have iPhone, iPod, and iPad now, and we don’t know we need them until they were invented. Thus, obstacle also reveals desire.
The author thinks that it’s obstacle reveals desire but not the desire reveals obstacle. In my opinion, it’s both. If you know your desire first, it will reveal obstacle. If you know your obstacle first, it will also reveal desire. They are interacting.
Every person has a desire for something. it could be an acquisition or an achievement of something, but when there is a desire there always obstacle follows. It’s like they always come hand to hand. If one desires a fancy house, there is an obstacle of going to school, get an education, receive a diploma then to get well paid job, and after achieving all this, one could be sure that realization of owning a big and beautiful house is not far away. Desire is not achievable unless one defies all the obstacles, which comes to their way, it is only a matter of how badly you want it and being ready to conquer all what come into ones way .
“Bad” Time Creates Heroes, “Good” Time Creates Evils
As far as I am concerned, heroes and evils are relative, but not absolute. It’s not what you “do” make you become a hero or an evil, but the time determines it. A hero is someone who do something that normal people don’t do in “bad” situations, while an evil is someone who do something that normal people don’t do in “good” situations.
People may consider somebody as a hero when he/she saved a child from a torrential great river or fight against the aristocracy with the weapon called “revolution”, especially in the Middle Ages. In those “bad” time, it’s normal to do nothing, so we considered those people who do normal things as unnormal —heroes. For example, when a child is drowning in a torrential great river, it’s “normal” to be a bystander because you afraid that you may die for saving him/her. So most normal people see it, but few people jump into the water to save the child. Thus, we call these small parts of people “heroes”. This is a “bad” time, so bad time creates heroes. Try to imagine that we are in a time which most people will jump into the water to save the child, but just few people being bystanders. Then, we will consider the people who will save the child as “normal people”, but the bystanders as “evils”. This is a “good” time, so good time creates evils.
Another example, it’s normal to see a soldier killing a person in a war, but we don’t take him as an evil. On the contrary, people in his country may think he’s a “hero” because he does this to protect his country and protect their lives, just like Hitler in WWⅡto Germans. This is a “bad” time. However, it’s unnormal to see a soldier killing a person in a peaceful land, so we will take it as guilty, we will consider the soldier as an “evil”, just like Hitler in today to most people. It’s still the same deed, but we will think it differently because it’s a “good” time. Thus, heroes and evils are relative, but not absolute. It’s not what you “do” make you become a hero or an evil, but the time determines it.
Therefore, opening your TV and watching the news now. If you find that there are more evils than heroes appear on the news, you should be grateful, because you are still in a “good” time. If you find that there are more heroes than evils appear on the news, you should be alarmed, because you are in a “bad” time now. If one day a normal behavior became a hero deed, the most horrible nightmare should come. For example, if we consider a student who didn’t late for class as a hero, that means everybody would be late for class at that time; if we consider a person who didn’t kill people as a hero, that means we would be already surrounded by murderers.
So try to be grateful if you saw another murder in tomorrow’s news, because you are still in a “good” time that murder hasn’t become a normal deed.
Comprehensible and interesting ideas..,
but, one thing highly disturbs me. The sentence “On the contrary, people in his country may think he’s a “hero” because he does this to protect his country and protect their lives, just like Hitler in WWⅡto Germans.” Is it a mistake – incorrect expression, or you were taught in school that Hitler DID fight with a whole world for the reason of defending his country?!!
Thanx,
Even if Germans thought about hitler as a hero, they thought this way not because he was a defender, but because he could make them superior nation in the world. Industrialization and modernization – he brought Germany in the world’s leaders of manufactoring and economy growth. Germans worshiped him. Perhaps this is how I would wrap this idea – “For Germans he was a hero, because he made german economy one of the world’s most prosperous, also he increased the standarts of living in Germany. But for the rest of the world he turned out to be a villian when he started WWII.” Something like this:)
Hello, Maxim, thanks for your suggestion first, but I want to explain why I use the word “protect”. Have you ever heard the sentence that “the only way to protect what you love is to make yourself stronger”, actually many people feel this way, if you are under the strongest umbrella in the world, don’t you think that you are being protected? Why did most of the Germans at that time like “the manufacturing and economy growth” that Hitler bring to them, and why did they like the feeling that their country are superior stronger that other country at that time? Because deep down their heart, they think they were being protected, they were safer than people in other country at that time (At that time, Germany were undergo the Great Depression and their WWI failure consequences), and that’s why Germans thought that they needed a strong leader. Remember that in stable society people will call for a democratic leader, but only in unstable society people will call for a strong leader because they don’t feel safe in that society and they want someone to protect them deep down themselves.
At the same time, Hitler also thought that he’s protecting his country, such as he believed that he’s protecting his country from the influence of “Inferior Races” by killing all the Jews. No matter this thought is wrong or not when we see it now, Hitler just believed that it’s right. Do you remember the theory that “people don’t do wrong because they believe that they’re wrong, on the contrary, they do so because they believe that they’re doing the right thing”? So Hitler believed that he’s doing this to protect his nation, and at that unstable time needed tyrannical act to fulfill his protection. You can also see that in BCC Prison Study, “the participants who started off holding democratic views and opposing inequality, gradually became more authoritarian as their groups failed to function effectively and the overall system fell into chaos…when we saw here, then, was that authoritarianism – often seen as the key personality variable that explains the dynamics of tyranny- was itself changed as a function of social dynamics.”(From Questioning the Banality of Evil) Hitler was just a normal person, but his thought turned to be extremely brutal because of his overprotection desire, either to his country or himself.
Hello everyone!
I would like to share some thoughts about the video that we all had the chance to watch last Tuesday. This is not the only video that I saw about American soldiers killing Iraqi people, and I heard many other stories when soldiers being the heroes, in one moment turned out to be the center of evil, by killing citizens and unarmed people as it happened with Soviet Union army in World War II. After the USSR soldiers defeated the army of Hitler, and pushed them back to their territory, many of them were exposed in murders and sexual crimes against civilians of occupied territories. Why does it happen so often? Why do our heroes in a quick moment of our life can transfer so fast and become the villains? Where is this thin edge between good and evil?
Let’s take a look on it from another angle. Imagine a group of kids who harm or even kill an animal. It happens constantly! I saw a lot of videos in the social networks when these kids beat some cat or a dog, and they think this is funny and make them a heroes. Another example are fans of a soccer team. It is a common in Europe countries, especially in England. Providing a support to their soccer teams with positive energy and invigorating slogans, fans become the real heroes, but at the same time we frequently hear in the news about disorderly conducts and fights between fans, as it took place in Egypt on Feb. 1st, 2012, when they all transformed into the real villains with 73 lives gone.
(Egypt soccer tragedy claims 73 lives)
Would not you ask yourself why this kind of violence happens in our life when it should seem like barbarous orders gone in the middle ages? Let us look on it through the prism of a group of people. And I would like to define three very important concepts related to a group of people: organization, control and responsibility.
Referring to the above examples, I can definitely state that all of those related to the groups of people, whether they are soldiers, kids or fans. And each of these groups is organized and controlled. Soldiers are organized into the army under officers’ control, kids are organized into the classes under teachers’ control, as well as fans also have their leaders which take the control under the rest of this group of people. So why do they sometimes take the opposite side of the villains? I personally think it is all about control. The American soldiers in the army, the kids and the fans, they all were under control by some organizations or institutions and individuals at the same time. I can’t imagine a kid killing an animal in the classroom, but it could happen outside the school walls, when nobody controls the kids. Exactly the same situation occurred to the soldiers; officers in the video gave them a right “to take a gloves”, which led to the loss of their control. Identifying the power of control, I strictly associate this idea with the feeling of responsibility. Because when no control is out there, there is no feeling of responsibility, especially for a group of people, not an individual responsibility itself. Why did the holocaust happen? German nationalists were well-organized, controlled, they were responsible to serve their nation and fuhrer, but they had no responsibility for genocide in their country.
Thinking about who makes the first step towards the evil, I’m convinced in the importance of individual roles. We all know the names like Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon etc. And I believe whoever the German people in 30’s-40’s were, we would never learn about the mass destruction of people, if it were not such a person as Hitler, with his power of authority and control.
Summarizing all the above, I would like to highlight three main ideas, closely interacting with our individual personalities in the problem of the heroes and villains – the idea of individual behavior, the problem of people in a groups, and the idea of control. We live in society which consists of us as individuals (“me”) and at the same time as groups of people (“us”), where these groups are under the control of institutions, and this society is under control of the government in general. We all need that control, otherwise we would fall into the anarchy, which I would never ever recommend to…
I agree on everything you said. Those people are indeed under the control of some institutions, organizations and leaders; however, none of them took the responsibility for whatever their minions had done.
Sadly, nowadays kids are getting violent as well for they think that hurting others is ok, and if ever they get caught they can just get away with it. We need a big change in our society but before we can do that, there are so much things that we have to do first. First we need to change those people who’s in the high position, those leaders who tolerate or convince their people doing dreadful things. We need leaders who will set as a model to us and to our children. Second we need to change or somehow limit the power that this people have (REFERRING ABOUT THE CONTROL YOU MENTIONED) and lastly we have to be responsible for our own actions. This may not be the complete list of things we have to do (as a whole) for our society to change, but at least we have the idea on how to start the transformation.
I also was thinking about the video we saw in the class and made me think about villains and heroes. I think it depends how one thinks about heroes and villains. If you take for example U.S.army fighting in the Middle East, to us our soldiers are heroes, fighting for the right cause, trying to free their country from the real villains and evil, but to the locals, who may not know any better, they might be intruders and trespassers. But if one looks from the different point of view, if killing is not evil, then what is a real evil?
Hero’s may be everyday people, who happened to be in the right place in a right time, I remember story few years ago, happened in the subway, when a man fall into the rails and the other person, who happened to be a homeless person, who selflessly jumped and saved his life. But unfortunately where is good there is always evil, even within a person. At first invisible from the eye, but mental illness and drugs abuse can turn good turn into the opposite. One famous actor’s recent behavior comes to mind. Not even good and honest people can be protected from evil, I remember listening on the television about mass murderer from the Norway, from honest, hardworking, churchgoer family, but it did not stop him to massacre over 70 young lives and become one of the most infamous cases in the world.
So who is to blame, who was supposed to recognize the signs and identify the trouble? What changes do we, as a society need to make in order to make harmonious balance of the powers? Vigilance and caution and Supremacy of law and order above all. Which must be recognized by everybody and realizing how one is connected to the other to maintain consistency and not be devided.
I really like your point, but I’m confused by the connection when you say: “If you take for example U.S.army fighting in the Middle East, to us our soldiers are heroes, fighting for the right cause, trying to free their country from the real villains and evil, but to the locals, who may not know any better, they might be intruders and trespassers. But if one looks from the different point of view, if killing is not evil, then what is a real evil?” Who is saying that killing is not evil in your example? And what is the ‘different’ point of view you are suggesting we consider?
I agree with u. I feel very bad when I saw that video in our class. American soldiers are always the heroes in our mind.To Iraqi people, they are the biggest villains in the world. We talking about “hero” and “villain” in this class. But I think there is not absolute hero or villain , they are built in different situation. on other hand, the things they did to the Iraqi people in the video, made them unconditional villains.
Is it possible for one person to have some heroic and some villainous qualities at the same time? Could those soldiers be considered heroic in some ways but villainous in others? Perhaps the problem is that we think of these categories as stable …
This is an excellent response to class discussion – but are you suggesting that the answer to evil is greater institutional control? I like what you were saying about responsibility, but wonder how we could make it so that the kids don’t kill the small animal outside of the classroom as well because, afterall, the idea behind the early childhood education is to teach children how to act in society when they’re inevitably eventually on their own. It doesn’t seem like the answer to the problem of bad behavior could be that we stay forever within the walls of the school …..
Actually I slightly touched the individual behavior, by saying: “Thinking about who makes the first step towards the evil, I’m convinced in the importance of individual roles.” and thereafter I mentioned that “I would like to highlight three main ideas… the idea of individual behavior, the problem of people in a groups, and the idea of control.” Probably I didn’t give it enough attention, but I also meant that we should think about people making a crime not even in groups, but on their own. As well as I continued to develop that idea in my assignment.
Hi Professor, I wrote here just in case if you haven’t noticed my email with my final paper. Have a great weekend.
Best,
Xia Chen
The same here!
hi guys, this is my intro and outline.
Nowadays, with the development of society, “hero” this word really change a lot. Before, hero was the people who killed the most of enemies. Now, our standard for hero is lots of higher than before. A strong body is not enough now because the technology is so advanced. We need not only just physical strong but also mentally strong and high intelligent also with the great leadership skills. Maybe we are in peace now, so we don’t need to kill anymore. The mission for our heroes is make our life better. In my following paper I want to discuss four heroes, two heroes are unreal and two heroes are from real life. They are Captain American, Iron man, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.
I, Topic Sentence
Unlike other super heroes, Captain American and iron man are just ordinary people. they don’t have super powers just strong mental power and smart brain and also leadership.
A, discuss the story about captain American and how he is different from other superheroes. source from web
B, discuss the story about Iron Man and how he is different from other superheroes. source from web
II, Topic sentence
technology is the key word for 21 century, the people who make our life easier are the heroes for people.
A, discuss the story and the contribution from Steve jobs. source from web
B, discuss the story and the contribution from Bill Gates. Source from web
Better late than never! Here’s my draft everyone!
Growing up I’ve always looked up to my parents, especially to my mother. I adore her not only because she’s my mother but also because she takes care of me and my siblings without any complaints; I admire her because of the ways she has taught me to become a better person. I consider her my role model because she showed me the real meaning and value of family. As for my father, he was a role model to me by guiding and showing me the right way to become successful. He has taught me so many things about life and how to accept failures and how to face challenges. Both of my parents are very supportive whether it’s financially or emotionally, they are both there for me when I needed them. With all the things that they have done to ensure my safety and happiness, I consider them heroes.
Parents in general are the most important heroes in the modern day. However, as a parent, what does it really take to become a hero to a child? Numerous studies have shown that children learn what they see and hear from the people around them. Thus, as a parent, they have to set their selves as a role model in order for their children to become a good person. For instance, a good parent teaches or mold their children how to overcome disappointments; show respect for other; respecting laws and authority; and having fun in a right way. Another way of disciplining a child sometimes can be done through bad parenting. This may sound odd but as stated in the article, “5 Hallmarks of Bad Parenting that are Actually Good for kids” bad parenting can give positive effects to a child. Negligent parents such as parents who argues with their children a lot, or even letting them play in the dirt has actually a positive effect on the child’s well-being. Lastly, other than disciplining a child, another factor to become a hero to them is your presence. Like I have stated earlier, children learns what they see and hear from the people around them. In order to correct a child’s actions a parent must be present or involved in the child’s life. A study has been conducted that a parent-child relationship can be improved by spending quality time with each other. In this way the trust, honesty and confident with each other will most likely develop. In this essay we will see how these factors contribute to a parent becoming a hero.
As what my mother always said, being a parent is never been easy. Taking care of the children is fun, yet stressful for they can be handful and stubborn most of the time. However, all the sacrifices by disciplining them will be paid off when they get older. Good parenting is always the key for bringing up a child to have good character traits. According to the Professors of Oregon State University, who conducted a study about the positive impact of good parenting, a child who was brought up on a positive parenting is affectionate and has close relationship with their peers. The professors observed a child’s behavior since he was 9 years old up until he was 33. The child was brought up to a well disciplined and well-mannered family; he grew up looking up to his parents and showing concerned to the people around him. Like any other kid, he considered his parents heroes for he was brought up to be a good person. This study had proven that positive parenting can make a big difference not only in one person’s characteristics, but also its impact on one person’s conduct by dealing with other people.
Hello, I really like your essay thesis, it is very interesting. I think that you should revise your intro because I don’t see the road map and an intro to the topic. I just see the example of parenting as hero from your personal experience. your 2nd paragraph, in the first sentences, looks more like your intro to the topic.
corrections:
1 st p- when I needed them or when I need them (present)
2nd p- their selves or themselves?
Pro: I really like your style of writing and your examples. they are really good
Hey, everyone, below here is the intro and outline of body for my final paper, you are welcome to any comment, including grammar, sentence structure, the thesis, the outline or the evidence, thanking you in advance for your comment.
Introduction
Silicon Valley, the cradle of the heroes
This world always needs heroes, not matter it is in war era or peaceful age. On one hand, we need heroes to save our lives and country; on the other hand we need heroes to lead us to a higher standard of lives. We know the former heroes are generally soldiers, but what about the latter? They are technological innovators. The world was different before technology. For example, we didn’t have emails to communicate, we didn’t have online social network such as Facebook, we didn’t have GPS to guide us to anywhere, and we didn’t have Google to allow us searching for almost everything. We didn’t have other high technological products. For most people in the U.S, it’s hard to imagine life without technology. Speaking about technology revolution, we can’t ignore the important role of Silicon Valley, where is home to many of the world’s largest technology corporations. We can say now Silicon Valley is the cradle of technological innovators. The benefits of technology have made us treat technology as a family member. Technology has made aspects of our lives easier: we’re no longer forced to send letters through the postal service, book vacations through travel agents, shop in stores, visit the library for research material, or wait for our photos to be developed. Thanks to technology, all of these activities can be performed either digitally or online. Thanks to technological innovators, all of these conveniences are attributable to their large amount of work on research and development, their risk-taking spirit and their absolute intelligence. Simply put, they are the most influential group of modern heroes. To exemplify this, let’s look back at how technology has changed our lives in terms of communication, computing, entertainment and travel.
Outline of Body
1. Topic Sentence: For the past decade or so, technology has transformed the way we communicate, in part due to the advent of the Internet.
In this article “Technology’s effect on Interpersonal Communication”, it examines the impacts and implications of technology on the way we communicate with each other. (Wenbin Nah, Web.)
In this article “How does technology impact communication”, it states that the aspect of our lives that has been most impacted by technology is the way we communicate with one another, it exemplifies this point of view in terms of communication speed, accessibility, efficiency, family connections and news. (Lauren Nelson, Web)
2. Topic Sentence: Today, the personal computer has become an integral part of our lives.
In this paper “social impact characteristics of computer technology”, it discusses several characteristics of computer technology that may be at the center of the effects on society. (Blaise W. Liffick, Ph.D. Web)
In this article “The impact of computer technology on the workforce and management”, it observes that the impact of computer technology on the workforce and its affect on management has been significant in terms of decision-making in employment, communication and usage of internet in office. (Daniel Reinard, Web)
3. Topic Sentence: Technology has provided us with even more creative ways to occupy our time.
In this paper “Positive effects of entertainment technology on human behavior”, it suggests that use of entertainment technology has huge impact on human behavior at work, in school and at home. (Matthias Rauterberg, Web )
In this report “Impact of place shifting technology on entertainment industry”, it asserts that technology innovation such as place shifting has profound impact on entertainment companies’ revenue. (Professor. Goo. Web )
4. Topic Sentence: Nowadays, technology has brought so many conveniences for people who wish to travel, travel related Web sites has done a lot to organize all the travel plans.
In this report “Impacts of information technology on personal travel and commercial vehicle operations”, it emphasizes that IT give people virtual accessibility to a rapidly growing range of activities by its effects on transportation, both personal and freight. (Thomas F. Golob and Amelia C. Regan, Web)
In this article “Communication technology in tourism”, it shows that communication technology continues to exhibit a significant impact on the tourism industry and travel in general. (Keith Evans, Web )
excellent work Xia Chen. I really like your approach to the topic, but i cant help noticing little sentence structure error in the introduction. For example”we can’t ignore the important role of Silicon Valley, where is home to many of the world’s largest technology corporations”. Otherwise good job Xia.
Your intro looks clear and really precise which is good. I would like to see a paragraph of development in one of your ideas from the outline.
Hello everyone, here is my draft for the final paper.
PLEASE leave your comments here, because I got sick and not sure if I can make to class on Tuesday!
Introduction
People always need heroes. They resurrect heroes from our past in Hollywood movies, like Alexander the Greatest, the 300 spartans, Hercules, Perseus. They also teach in schools about modern history heroes: Martin Luther, George Washington, Albert Einstein, Yuri Gagarin. But what if we take a look on our present time, who is the hero of nowadays? Celebrities? Actors? May be scientists? I believe all of them and none of them at the same time. In our 21st century, when democracy with its capitalistic economy is experiencing the greatest collapse ever, we need a new kind of heroes. Those who can stand up and change our world to a better future. Those who can change our society of 99% poor and 1% rich people, who can save our planet from endless stream of waste, air pollution. We need those who can organize the world movement for our rights, and rights of our planet. And this kind of heroes fortunately is on its way.
I would like to discuss the growing role of social networking and social media as a powerful and organized system, which acts like a hero in changing people lives and expectations. I would like to closely analyze the impact and role of social networking in changing our politics, economics and human rights policy. I will provide the evidence that social media is our 21st century, the century of technology, hero.
i liked reading Anton’s final paper introduction. I agree that social networking and social media has major influence in our lives. i am looking forward to read the whole paper. However, i noticed the last sentence of the introduction is grammatically incorrect “I will provide the evidence that social media is our 21st century, the century of technology, hero.”
I can grasp your idea of your topic, but I think that you should try to talk why technology media developers are heroes? like try to give some characteristics. Talk a little bit more about they.
corrections:
revise sentences starting with AND , use transitions
when democracy with its capitalistic economy… or when democracy in a capitalist economy …
what kind of collapse are you talking about? economic? social? political? or a combination of them?
excellent paragraph indeed Jang. i saw an example, which is given by a professor of Yale university, how that is connected to the heroes? and anothe thing you wrote, “people commit acts of heroism in everyday life but that is the influence of such heroism? what is that mean?
Professor Krystyna Michael
ENG 2100T
Youngin Jang
Draft Workshop
May 10, 2012
Ordinary Heroes
Long ago, hero was deemed as special person with superpower, but modern days have changed the concept of heroes. Society has become more complex, diverse and varied; people’s needs and problems so that hero, a man of extraordinary abilities, cannot handle them single-handed. Here are many ordinary citizens who make extraordinary contributions in their community. Some are male, some are female; some are white, some black, some Oriental; many are Americans, many are not. These people are not always strong or famous. However, all of these people are heroes and should be honored. So people look to others around them – ordinary people – for their heroes. They consider heroes as decent and kind people who make sacrifices or try to make a difference. In this point, ordinary/ every day heroes become the most important heroes in the modern world. I would like to focus on how ordinary people perform acts of heroism in everyday life, what is the influence of everyday heroism, and how they often affect more results than do professional people or organizations in a wide variety of levels such as individuals, corporations, and nations.
First, ordinary heroes are around us. Although they are necessarily different from the rest of us in their character and their morality, they are quick on the draw and put their ideas into practice. Those are starting points and are making an extraordinary impact around the world. Paul Bloom, who is Professor of Psychology at Yale University, points out the importance of our kindness. Bloom note that “those who receive charity have their lives improved, but those who provide it also benefit. It feels good to be good. Indeed, one recent study found that spending money on others is more rewarding than spending it on oneself. It’s not just short-term pleasure: Those who donate wealth and time to others tend to be a lot happier in their entire lives than those who do not. The paradoxical finding here is that one great trick to being happy is to forget about being happy and instead try to increase the happiness of others. The effects of our kindness are not zero-sum (The Kindness of Strangers, 30-35).”
To describe with illustration, Japan news reported that a subway hero, who was Korean brave student, leaped onto the tracks to rescue fallen commuter and died in Japan. After broadcasting, many people cherished the memory of subway hero. Most importantly, his deed fostered a spirit of good will in the community and brought about these results that some saved others lives in the subway when they were faced with same situations. This is not only learning effects, but also driving force of social evolution.
“Think coffee” is another example of the effect of ordinary heroism. It introduced the concept of “fair trade coffee”.
I like my friends work but I have one comment about sentence structure. “Society has become more complex, diverse and varied; people’s needs and problems so that hero, a man of extraordinary abilities, cannot handle them single-handed” sentence needs to be rephrased. “So people look to others around them – ordinary people – for their heroes”. I think the author should have said: “people should look around and recognize that ordinary people can be heroes”. Another sentence also incorrectly phrased “I would like to focus on how ordinary people perform acts of heroism in everyday life, what is the influence of everyday heroism, and how they often affect more results than do professional people or organizations in a wide variety of levels such as individuals, corporations, and nations.” I think my friend wanted to say that “people commit acts of heroism in everyday life but that is the influence of such heroism? That very often individuals heroism makes more difference and serve others than most organizations and cooperation’s every could.”
Hey guys! I found my new heroes!!
I started to watch the show Stargate Atlantis once in a while. If some people watched that show they will understand! Amazing movie, amazing characters and every episode has an idea. I think stargate team are real heroes, because they defend people on Earth from malicious aliens, despite the possibility they can die. Even more, they sacrifise their lives for sake of their mates. And they never leave friends who are in captivity. They find them and rescue.
The show emphisizes such values as friendship, faithfulness and trust. In my opinion this is one of the best shows ever. Higly recommended, especially for people who are into Sci-Fi genre.
Watchmen are about historical issues occurring during Nixon presidency in 1980’s, such as Vietnam War and problems with Soviet Union and Cold War. Those men are crime fighters and the heroes trying to help with political problems. Just like Superman or Spiderman, ready to take up an action. Doctor Manhattan is used by American military for his ability to intervene in Vietnam and solve some problem with Soviet government. He is the main character who played major role for his extraordinary powers. Former scientist, turned into a superhero due to a mistake, an accident, happened in the nuclear laboratory and that is how this superpowered hero came to life, just like Spiderman. Dr. Manhattan possessed qualities and abilities change in sizes, enhanced Strength, teleportation of himself or other individuals, manipulation of things, etc. he could destroy Soviet Union’s large territory with no trouble, disarm nuclear weapon and soviet missiles, which was most useful for the American government. Watchmen each have different costumes and face masks, just like Spiderman or Superman or Batman. Besides Dr. Manhattan is drained from human feelings and emotions and does not view life or humanity in the same way that normal sentient beings would.
Q3:
Compared to the other superheroes that we’ve encountered, watchmen’s behaviors are more complicated.
First, superman helps others to solve the war issues, save the miners and handle the women abusing problems. Spiderman fights against other supernatural creatures that are dangerous to the world. Both of them seems like doing the good things, but watchmen seems like doing the opposite. For example, Dr. Manhattan acted as a weapon to kill millions of people in Vietnam War, and Comedian also killed a lot of innocent people arbitrarily. Are they really superheroes to the world, or supervillains to the other world?
Second, superman and spiderman seems more assured to what they’ve done and what they should do, while watchmen are not. Superman is determined to help people because he think he is born with the superpower, and spiderman also clear about what he need to do since his grandfather’s dead and his poor grandmother. However, Dr. Manhattan confused about what he should do at the end, so he fled to the Mars. Similarity, Comedian regretted about what he has done before he was dead and even Miss Jupiter and the other member seems like not sure about what they should do. Compared to the other superheroes, watchmen seem like confused about what the road they should go. It reflected popular emotions at that time, because of the Cold War, people were not so sure about what they should do and fear about the Cold War will turn into a “Hot War”.
Question#3: How do these heroes compare to the other characters we have encountered thus far?
Characters of Watchmen have some similarities to the super heroes we have discussed in class. They helped people in need and also save people who are in danger. In addition, they also have resemblances when it comes to disguise their real identity; they wear masks to hide their faces, and wear something that is unique from a normal person. However, aside from all of these factors, heroes of watchmen have some differences with Superman or Spiderman. If you think about the first part of the movie, they showed how these heroes (The Comedian, Sally Jupiter and etc.) liked to be recognized by the media. For instance, there was a picture of The Comedian where he caught a theft, or having their picture posted on an aircraft (Sally Jupiter).
Another thing I’ve noticed is that, some of the heroes sometimes tend to be a villain. Let’s just use The Comedian as an example; his character was nowhere near the characters of any heroes we encountered in our class discussion. As what I have observed, he wanted to be a hero but people have to follow him or else they will suffer from his cruelty.
Watchmen reflects the worries of the US and the rest of the world about the war, especially in Vietnam,the typical weapons and the new technology like nuclear bombs and new resources of energy. People were awake about the threat of human being’s liberty by the wars between US and the Soviet Union in the 80’s. At the beginning of the movie, there is a scene where Americans try to be peaceful putting flowers in the guns of the soldiers but they just shot them. The movie shows the social chaos and the new social liberal ideas like lesbianism and the social activism to resolve people’s problems by their own way. The superheroes have similar characteristics from superman, actually I think that Dr. Manhattan is like Superman because they have the same attitude and take place in the political problems. They both have a blue costumes, strong physical appearance, and they try to save the world.
Q2.
I think that the whole movie line is formed by its historical context: Cold War and nuclear weapon problem. The central idea of the Watchmen concentrated around the peak of USSR and USA tensions, when the world was about to get into the nuclear war. And I believe the key figure of the movie, Doctor Manhattan, could not be better to reveal that reality. He is a product of nuclear reaction, a mistake, which make him superhero. And his superpower is also based on nuclear reactions: disintegration of the nucleus (teleportation), radioactive glow (Dr. Manhattan glows blue), etc.
I believe the Watchmen is one of those great movies, that reveals contemporary concerns of its modern society.
Comparing superheroes from Watchman with Super man and Spider man, I could say there are many similarities. The first and the most obvious characteristic is costume. All superheroes had special clothing, which helped them to turn into superhero. Once they were dressed they could perform good deeds. Also, all of them hid their faces behind masks and didn’t want Americans knew who they were. The second characteristic which unit them is super power. But the way they obtain this super power is different. Most of them became who they were due to some accident (for an instance, Spider man became a superhero after being bitten by a spider), but some were born with supernatural power, as Super man did. Besides that, American heroes had protected people, not only Americans, but the population of the whole Earth, as we could see at Watchman.
Q#2: How do you see contemporary issues informing the story themes of the film?
The movie Watchmen is put in the background of reality which closely reveals the contemporary world of the 1980s. The presence of superheroes in the movie is significant different than that in other hero stories. The existence of these superheroes has been dramatically affected by the real-world issues such as the Vietnam War and the presidency of Richard Nixon. In order to keep with the realism, these superheroes’ superpowers have been dismissed except the character of Doctor Manhattan. This character also is tied with the real event “Cold War” which actually happened during 1985 between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. In the movie Doctor Manhattan is used by the U.S. government as a strategic military advantage over the Soviet Union military power. The story represents the real social insecurity and disorder spreading widely in the country under the pressure of international tense situation, and also reveals the urgency of seeking for an absolute advantage or “protector” for American people against the growing national security threat from the Soviet Union.
Is anybody planning to take summer courses?
yeah，what’s up?
I am confused. I don’t know what is better – take summer classes or get an internship… or just work…
How are you doing guys?? Is everybody done with 2nd Assignment?
yep, how abt you?)
Warren buffet and Bill gates are the most two important person in American History. They are heroes because
of their extra-ordinary contribution in American culture and society. Their dedication in business and
technology could be an important reason of America being the most powerful country of the world.. But they
both are different in their contribution and ways of doing business in society. Warren Buffet basically more
focused in Investing in American Economy and Bill gates are focused in new innovation of technology and
research. They are important person’s in society. Their lifestyle, views, activities talks about more American
culture. Though they both are heroes but there are some differences between them. If we focused on Warren
Buffet, we will find him as global business men. He is called one of the greatest investor of the world. On the
contrary, Bill gates is not only doing business globally but also making more relationships. By doing that he
smooth’s all the ways of his business. If we closely look at their ways of work it is easy to find out the characteristics of American cultured people. We can divide them in two groups. One group more focused in their own business, people are highly talented and using it for self-developments. Another group more focused on making relationships with different people by doing business globally. In my essay,
I will discuss more about the thinking, characteristics, lifestyle of Warren buffet and Bill gates.
Prof: Krystyna Michael
ENG 2100T.
Diana Haoyan Wu.
Essay #2: Contrasting and comparing American Heroes
Due: 04/04/12
Forever Kennedy and Michael Jackson
The best part of a foreign country is its place and the best part of its people is its culture. The word Culture is interesting because it implies the origin of an identity. Moreover, our curiosity to know about the place where we are living brings us to the question of what does American culture to be how it is. Public heroes inspire people from our past to our present and they are still alive in our ideas. In order to determine this influence of heroes in our culture, I propose to analyze two public figures of American heroes: the U.S. President John F. Kennedy and the King of the pop music Michael Jackson. Also, part of this analysis is to determine: first, the most relevant ideas or contributions that these heroes made during their lives; second, what social or cultural aspects their ideas influence; and third, how these ideas took part of our culture after their death but still alive in our reality.
American history, geography, sociology and politics are only some of the ways to learn about the development of the country, but the influence of public heroes is the best way to determine some values for the American society. For example, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29 in 1917 and the 35th president of the United States, influenced many of the ideas that people have nowadays: peace in the world, equal civil rights and the right to have a good education for children. Another example is Michael Jackson, a famous singer of the pop music and who was born on August 29, 1958, near Chicago. Jackson contributed to the music and American society with the idea of peace in his lyrics and influenced young people to be aware about the racism of black people and the lack of social opportunities.
Starting with Kennedy’s famous speeches before and during his presidency, he influenced the call of peace in US saying: “My fellow Americans, let us take that first step. Let us…step back from the shadow of war and seek out the way of peace. And if that journey is a thousand miles, or even more, let history record that we, in this land, at this time, took the first step.” (Radio and TV Address on Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 1963) Kennedy argued that America should step back with the idea of war and keep the peace in our country. Even if war is outside of US and is not affected in national territory, we should give the first step to surrender the idea of war to give priority to peace in the world. Consequently, this contribution from Kennedy developed in Americans the general idea of the necessity to keep peace in the world over any circumstances. Also, this idea is more often present in the social activist groups, but most of the Americans agree with the idea that nothing justifies war where innocent people died.
Furthermore, Michael Jackson contributed to the idea of peace in the world in his song “Earth.” Jackson composed these lyrics: “What have we done to the world. Look what we’ve done. What about all the peace. That you pledge your only son…What about flowering fields. Is there a time what about all the dreams? That you said was yours and mine…. Did you ever stop to notice? All the children dead from war. Did you ever stop to notice? The crying Earth the weeping shores…” (Earth, History: Past, Present and Future, Book I, 1995) He argued about how we are destroying our environment with pollution, war, and death when war dominates the human feelings. He described a reality of the America society when people live in war, they forget about the good things and other values are lost. Also, he made aware young people about the consequences of war and influenced them to rescue the human values.
………………..to be continued
Comparison of the two heroes for draft
Introduction
In this world there are people who make difference in our lives. Such people become heroes, valuable members of our society, because they change world around us and their names live on from generation to generation. Among those people are Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Nelson Mandela, Leonardo Da Vinci, Rosa parks, Mother Teresa and the recent hero is Steve Jobs. Each of those people lived in different era and has nothing in common for which they made difference in our lives, but undeniable fact remains that each one made a tremendous contribution in changing our society. Among those people I distinguish John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.
President Kennedy and the Presidents Reagan were the best presidents our country ever had.
Even though or 35th president was a democrat and the 40th president was a republican they both are admired and loved presidents in our recent history. These leaders share many important values and have many similarities as well as the differences; they both come from Roman Catholic roots. Reagan started his political career as a democrat, but later on he switched to republican. Both possessed charm, charisma, soothing calming voice, which made people on ease and give them hope for a better future. They both started their presidency when the country was in a bad economic and financial shape, especially Reagan and were able to make America strong respectable and formidable country in the world. They both cut taxes to stimulate the economy, accepting large deficits in order to step up the pace of the arms race, indulging in Cold War. Both paid big attention to the education of the people. Kennedy’s most prized piece of legislation was the education bill.
John F. Kennedy was first president to take a dream of people and put it on a track to achieve it; for example: civil rights movements and fight against racial discrimination. Ronald Reagan stopped the economic crisis prevented cold war, thus restoring freedom to many countries. During Reagan’s presidency Martin Luther king’s name was made as a national holiday, not Kennedy’s.
John F. Kennedy came from a wealthy Massachusetts family. It is a well known fact that he was a lieutenant during World War II. As a young man, he served in the Navy. During one of his nighttime patrol, his boat collided with enemy’s boat, damaging it badly. He gathered all the crewmembers, leading them to the safety in dangerous waters and one of his crewmember, who was badly burnt he carried him holding on to his lifejacket and dragging him with his teeth. He had to swim for four hours, managing to save his life and life of one of his crew member but injuring his back baldy. Later on he was awarded with Purple Heart and Navy and Marine Corps medal for his heroism and discharged with honor. He becomes a hero. After the war and before starting his political career Kennedy was working as a correspondent for a newspaper.
Ronald W. Reagan came from Illinois but his parents were not wealthy, they were on a limited budget. Just like Kennedy, he also has military service history. He also served his country as a lieutenant, but by the 1943 he became Captain.
In the history of the United States presidency John F. Kennedy is known as a youngest president ever elected and Ronald Reagan as an oldest president ever held an oval office, just two weeks prior his 70th birthday.
It seems like many presidents were subject of assassination threat. Unlike John F. Kennedy, who perished with a bullet of an assassin and ending his life at age of 43, President Reagan survived an assassination attempt shortly after he became President. Despite the fact that a bullet had punctured and collapsed one lung and still remained in his chest, he continued to joke about the ordeal; “Honey I forgot to duck” was one of his famous quotes.
He came into the power already well known as a radio, television and film actor, after joining politics, became 33rd governor of California. He is the first Hollywood actor to be elected president. He was the first president appointing the first woman to the Supreme Court, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. He submitted the first trillion dollar budget to Congress.
Kennedy was a passionate warrior against the cold war. During his speech he warned enemies and reassured citizens that “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” Reagan was an actual person who played big role in ending the cold war. Famous for his quotes the most famous was when he persuaded Russian leader “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” referring to the Berlin wall separating two nations, and thus ending the cold war and the era of Communism.
Throughout his presidency John F. Kennedy was passionate about the issue of immigration reforms. He wrote an essay called “A nation of immigrants”, which contains topics that are as important now as it was during his presidency. He believed that “America is a nation of people who value both tradition and exploration of new frontiers, people who deserve the freedom to build better lives for themselves and their adopted homeland”.
Ronald Reagan also made a big step toward immigration reforms. He signed the act which allowed three million illegal immigrants become legal residents of the United States. For them to live, work and benefit themselves and their new home.
Ronald Reagan’s wish was “What I’d really like to do is go down in history as the President who made Americans believes in themselves again”. Indeed his wish came true. People started believing again.
In comparison to Ronald Reagan’s achievements president Kennedy don’t have much because he only had over one thousand days in the oval office before he was killed. As historians think he could have accomplish much more had he given a chance, but for whatever he had time for, what he made possible during his presidency he will forever remain as part of the history. These men will be remembered, their names will live forever and their presidency will always be modeled after for the future generations of leaders.
I think Superman is the first typical hero from where other heroes develop the figure of heroism saving people’s lives, doing justice, wearing a nice costume, great body and stronger man saving the city from the villains. I agree with the people who said that he represents the American values besides Batman and Spiderman.
I think the trend of Americans from don’t take serious about comic books to most people like them, and to fewer people like them now is similar to the trend of the development of advertisement. In the old times, like in the period of David Ogilvy ,advertisement is just a very long article with one little or almost none pictures, just like novel’s text version period. later, because of the fast pace of American’s daily life advertisement tend to be more pictures and few word, even it have, it usually less than 80 words, just like comic book’s popular time. now, mass media becomes the main part of advertisement, and print ads slide down to the second, just like now, more people tend to watch movies and play video games rather than read comic books.
I think Amercian worship superman for long period of time, because superman on behalf of American’s value. superman have two different identities. one is the newspaper man which is the daytime identities, another one is superman which often appeare at the night. His superman identity is like a identity in every American’s heart.
I think Superman is the best hero! He has an aura of reassurance about him, it’s as though his presence alone can make the direst situation seem safer, as though you know everything will be alright. One of the best things about being Superman is his effect on other people. He is a prime example of the expression “Truth, Justice, and the American Way”, living out the life that every American should. A life of honesty, morality, and integrity. Superman makes people strive to be the very best they can be, and that is something greater than any super power!
Superman and American values
Superman is one of the most recognizable heroes from fictional comic book and an American idol. A man known for his extraordinary physical abilities, leading a double life, from being a modest, shy paper reporter named Clark Kent and the superman, always ready to serve a fellow human being in the time of need. He is a selfless person in every sense of the word. Heroes are positive, smart, brave individuals and always fight for what is good and beneficial for the people. If we compare superman’s actions and American values and culture, he stands for truth, justice, hope and liberty for all, which is an American way of life.
America always represented a place of freedom and liberty that is why immigrants would run away from injustice in their own country and come to live in America. They saw America as a super country, as a protector, as a place where dreams can come true.
About half a century ago, the superhero comic was popular across the U.S., the children depended on the superman comic book hero as their idol. At that time, most of the United States children interested in comic books, they talked about super hero everywhere in their life. He was an ordinary person who worked in an newspaper office as an editor and reporter, but in fact, he had another role which he acted an super hero to save the country. Wherever there was unfair , the superman showed up. Few years later, the superhero comic was made into the Hollywood movies. Hollywood movies were symbols of popular culture all over the world, it was an American culture leading the international cultural . That was, the American popular culture to the world culture threatened to encroach on the market. The American public in the global culture had become a “myth”. Obviously, Hollywood movies really built a rich and advocating heroism in American culture.
Yeah, it could be a fact that american movies industry took a lot from such comics as superman, spider-man, etc. I feel like a lot of american movies tied up on the idea of a perfect hero. Remember, “Die Hard”, “Terminator”, a thousands of apocalipsys movies like “Core”, “Armagedon” etc where the main character saves the Earth? I don’t know if there are so many such movies in Europe. It’s interestin if the idea of a super hero is a feature of a whole american media culture.
I think superman is a perfect hero. From childhood he had some special power. He utilized his power for the betterment of people and society. But he was very cautious about hiding the actual identity. Most interestingly, his lifestyle is very common. He work in newspaper as an editor and reporter. So, superman have two identity. One as a normal human being and another is man with great supernatural power and attitude. As a normal human being superman can be compared to Gregor. Gregor work hard for the betterement of his family and wants to repay his father’s loan. But he is simple in his life and keep busy in working. As normal person superman do the same thing. He is known as Kent in his office who work hard as a reporter and editor. He is also very simple in his life. And as a superman kent can be compared to oedipus . Oedipus have some power to influence people and he think himself as a powerful person. Superman is a powerful person with great attitude and ofcourse he know how to influence people. But superman follows his own method to make people understand “what is right”.
While reading through first chapters of Superman, Kent appears as a superior person who can beat anybody, but cannot be beaten by anyone. By creating a comics about a superman, author emphasizes on dreams of American society of that time. The dream of ordinary person who transforming into super hero and performing good deeds. On the one hand, the idea of Superman’s presence is awesome, since the society would be protected 24/7. But on the other hand, all good ever ends, so that the society without Superman will face obstacles in resisting evil. In the same way as a story about Gregor, who was a Superman for his family until a certain time. In fact, before the transformation, Gregor was able to support financially and protect his family, but after he had turned into a cockroach, his family faced many problems and couldn’t handled them. In my opinion, superman not only helps the community, but also harms and encouraged to degrade.
I agree with your idea, if people or communities always rely on a specific person for a long time, sooner or latter, they will lose their own ability to survive, just like Gregor’s family or a society without superman. Thus, a communities or a family can respect a hero, but cannot just rely on them. For if communities or families lose their own ability to sustain themselves to resist the outside hazard, the end of their days will come!
His life is twofold as a newspaperman and superhero, which means that he is usually a mild-mannered man but act in superhuman ways. He shows up to save people at dangerous moments and leaves to avoid praise. In other words, he shares and goes through the public’s suffering or pain, utilizing his powerful ability. These characters of Superman tell us that ordinary people become heroes.
Superman’s character is similar to all other heroes we have discussed in class. Reading through the first four chapters of the book, his traits did not change a bit. He helped people without hesitation and he taught the villains he encountered to be a good citizen.
Clark Kent is not far from the characters of Gregor and Oedipus. Three of them performed a selfless action in order to save/help others.
Now about class…
I have a little story
Today, I went to a bookstore to buy the “Amazing Spider-man.” I could not find the exact book by ISBN, so I tried to find another, similar. But, since I never read comics and I don’t know anything about it, I failed to find it. Then, I noticed one guy who was standing near me and reading the “Amazing Spider-man.” I decided to ask him if he can help me and he pleasantly agreed. I spend 30 minutes in the store. As it turned out, this man was very knowledgeable about graphic novels. He wore an ordinary jacket and had long hair. It seemed like he never shaved. While I was speaking with him I learned that he is a writer of comic books and a huge fan of it. To me, he looked like he was in his 30’s, single, and he lived with his parents. In my opinion, he didn’t look like a grown-up.
Later, when I left the store, two questions struck me. Why do some people write comics and why do other people buy them? I still can’t determine the value of comic books especially from grown-ups perspective…
I think a lot of people are fond of reading comic books for they are easy to follow. Images are already presented and artists used speech balloon to show us who saying what dialogue. Unlike regular books, you have to use your imagination and you must have to pay attention through out the story so you won’t get lost.
I actually had a conversation with a friend about graphic novels and I asked him why does he like reading it. He simply replied “It’s more fun reading it than books.”
why is it more fun? because of the pictures?
Hey Guys!
I will give you a link to the website of the game Encounter. It’s very cool and awesome game for very active and smart people. It’s International game. In NY’s domen all info is written in ENG. It’s kind of scavenger hunt game. Let me know if you interested and I will guide you there.
Next game is on Sun, Apr 1st. Idea is to find a place by a picture that was made long time ago, come there, take a new picture and send it to the authors. Team that makes all shots faster then the others is a winner
Btw, it’s one type of the games that Encunter has. Explore the website to find more info or ask me.
Link http://ny.en.cx/GameDetails.aspx?gid=35204
Superman V.S American Culture
The first occurrence of superman was in 1938 created by comic book artists Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The comic book superman today is regarded as the most embodiment of comic book superhero. Superman has retained certain characteristics in the American public perception of his character, such as being flawless, gentle, kindhearted, selfless, resolute with knowledge of right and wrong and decisive in a crisis. The Superman story is a perfect mythical model that exemplifies the cultural reality of an era in US. During the time of the occurrence of superman, the U.S. was suffering the great depression. When ordinary people were not able to change the bad situation in reality, they imagined there was a mythical hero like superman save the country. Furthermore his split personality in the book most exemplifies the cultural spiritual values of American people in society. Since besides his role as a superman, he also is Clark Kent, a regular reporter for the ‘Daily Planet’, one part relates to his super-natural powers and the other to the profane reality of the everyday world. The superman part symbolizes the ideals of individual freedom and power, the reporter part is quite a contrast by the limits imposed by the reality of everyday life as represented by the humble Clark Kent. Such a contrast reveals the truth of human spiritual equivocation. Don’t we all at times live in a fantasy world but soon are awakened from our dreams and have to come down and live on earth like Clark Kent.
I have two heroes, one is Joe Hisaishi who is a Japanese composer. I like his music. When I feel upset, by listening his music, it can cheer me up. I first learned piano 3 years ago. his music gave me a sense of music. I can practice his music hours and hours in the practice room. Now, each piece has some memory of mine. like yesterday, I listened his piece called ” one summer’s day” I just remembered that the spring day, I walk near the lake and enjoy the beautiful sunshine. Joe Hisaishi ‘s music gave me lot of sweet memory and cheered me up. another hero I want to talked about is Yao Ming, he createed the legend of Asian Basketball, no one would not fear about him in NBA even Kobe still have 100% of confident to brake his defense, so he really is a hero for Asian, he proves that Asian also can be great in Basketball.
I think the king is full of confident, he thought everyone knows him so he said “I am the king! I am oedipus!” As the king, he has the power and confidence, I think it is a double sword. on the one hand, if he can control his citizens well, he can be a good king and everyone respect him but if he over use his power, it would hard to say if someone want to destroy him.
I want to pick Lady Gaga and Franklin Roosevelt as my heroes. Lady Gaga is a popular singer who famous around the world, she devoted to help social vulnerable groups to gain their power, such as the homosexual, and she tries very hard to use her creative dressing or performing styles to inspire people. Franklin Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States, he leaded Americans to overcome the Great Depression and WW2, and his New Deal created a series of programs that still benefit people till now. I choose these two people because they have great differences in background, career and representative spirit.
I think the President Reagan and the President Kennedy are two heroes, who made huge difference into peoples lives. They would always be remembered as best presidents in our recent history. One made desegregation possible and during John F. Kennedy’s presidency racial discrimination ended, he issued law that no matter what race and color, everybody has a right to vote and use the buses and he also supported desegregation in schools and cut taxes to benefit the economy. The other hero, Mr. Reagan was the one who helped break down Berlin wall, thus ending the cold war, also he issued amnesty for all the undocumented people in america, made their lives better and he was a tax cut supporter just like the President Kennedy..
I would like to pick up the following people as interesting national heroes of US society the last years: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. They might be interesting since on one side, they both related to computer technologies, and they grew up their corporations to be the largest and most successful in our 21st century, on the other side, we know Bill Gates is still here, and he keeps working on the progress of Microsoft company, and we all know that Steve Jobs has tragically gone to another world. Such a similar fate at the start, start up and development and such a different fate at the end..
Warren buffet and Bill gates are the most two important person in American History. They can be defined as heroes in American history. They considered as heroes because of their contribution and new innovation in American culture and society. They are giving their enormous effort in business and technology. But they both are different in their contribution and ways of doing business in society. Warren Buffet basically more focused in Investing in American Economy and Bill gates are focused in new innovation of technology and research. But one thing is common between them which are contributing in charity. Bill gates has own charity with his wife named Bill and Melinda gate foundation. This foundation gives money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs. Warren buffet recently announced to give his 99 percent of his property in charity which primarily will go to Bill and Melinda gates foundation. In my essay, I will explain more about their contribution and activities in business and American culture.
I would choose Americans heroes Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. They are two of the most successful business people and respected by members of society in the United States of America. They provide new perspectives of the success, breaking the social convention that success in society bring with it fame and fortune. In this point, I would like to focus on the relationship between the responsibility of the leaders of the society and social changes or influences.
Steve Jobs and Walt Disney were two of the most influential characters in America or even in the world. They were recognized as heroes since they both innovated a “new world” of their professions and their success still has enormous impact on most american people’s lives despite of their different fields. On one hand, Steve Jobs was one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. On the other hand, Walt Disney was an innovator in animation and theme park design, as well as a film producer. In spite of the fact that they were experts in two different fields, they both had devoted themselves into their careers and contributed a countless culture values to American people. In my essay, I will 1 separately exemplify each of them hero’s characteristics, 2 compare their hero features and 3 discuss about their common cultural impact on American people, such as physical and spiritual influence.
hello!!! I would like to do my essay about JF. KENNEDY and Micheal Jackson. They are interesting because they had a lot of influence during and after their lives. Kennedy’s discourse is really important in American history and some actual people have taking his ideas to develop new programs to improve the country in the political field. On the other hand, Michael Jackson was one of the most influential artist from the 20 century. He innovated the pop music, fashion, and dance with his lyrics. Also, he inspired new artist like Madonna, Usher, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, etc.
I am thinking to explain the different fields of politic and music:
1. How they influenced the people from different perspectives. what did they influenced during their lives and after death?
2.How did they identify or cooperate in Today’s American culture?
3. In what aspects of the American culture are their ideas still alive: politics, social, music, fashion, philosophy?
Americans are known to be football fanatics; and everyone has their own favorite player. Tim Tebow and Eli Manning are one of the most players that most people cant help but to like and adore, because they are such great quarterbacks. Other fans consider them as their heroes for they inspire people not only by their attitude while they are on the field, but also their character outside of the stadium. Although these two players are similar in the career they chose, there is something about them that sets them a part. For instance, both of them might have the same religion however they are not identical when it comes to being spiritual. Tebow is known to be overly religious, meanwhile Manning is reserved and private when it comes to his religion and tends not to display it when he’s on the field. They are both interesting cultural icons to talk about for they are both famous Americans who excel in football, however America is more interested with Manning than Tebow both on and off the field rather than just during football season.
The American heroes in my mind are Jeremy Lin and Jacky Chan. They are both Asian American heroes. They both have distincitive looking, and succee in the unexpected way. Though they come from different fields, different background, they all through their efforts to acquire lots of fans, not only Asians. Both of Jeremy Lin and Jacky Chan’s succee show that no matter what background are you from, as long as you work hard, you could creat your own story in America, and become the America hero.
1,2. I would suggest Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as a pair of Americans heroes. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, being born in the same year- 1955, both were related to the computer industry and both were the founders of the two competing companies Microsoft and Apple. Thus, this is an interesting pair.
3. The combination of those 2 heroes shows the importance of technology in American society. If they were born in Asia or Africa, perhaps instead of creating all of the computers software, computers, gadgets, phones and etc., they would produce items, which were more needed in that area. So that, we never would be able to use Microsoft Office, MacBooks, iPhones and etc. However, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, were born at the right time and right place, where the society is not only adopted new technologies, but also became obsessed with them.
When i started reading “Oedipus”, i was impressed the way he approached his people, when he saw them kneeling in front of him, holding olive branches. Even though he is a king, he showed respect by helping elderly priest to his fee. asking him to speak on behalf of the people and assured them not to be afraid, because they all know him as an honorable king. He wanted people to trust him with their concerns, because he is here to help, and he is ready to do anything “i would be blind to misery not to pity my people kneeling at my feet”.
He turned out to be totally different person. Able to kill, be disrespectful to his mother and killing his father.
Oedipus, King of Thebes, has a strong to know about the truth. Even though everyone tries to dissuade him, he attempt to figure out the murder (360 – 415). He seems to be confident of himself and his own intellectual capacity. Also he is somewhat stubborn and headstrong. However, in the ending, although realizing his dreadful fate, he doesn’t justify his sin he committed in the past, but he accepts the truth. By paying the fiddler, he shows the power of will that he stands up to the difficulties rather than avoids them. These attitudes forward curses make him humane.
Oedipus is very smart, brave, courageous with a personality of the perfect king. when the Thebes started in troubles, he was wise to send Creon asking for help to Apollo who can tell him how to resolve the city’s misfortune, of course he was the king of Thebes. But I think that he used these same strong characteristics from a hero to be a tyrant because he killed his father, slept with his mother, and got the throne after Laius (his father) dead. the fragile line between tyrants and heroes resides in the intention of the people. They may have the same strong characteristics but their intentions are different and it may cause ambition, revenge, power with out control and tragedy.
I have got impression that Oedipus cared about his «children» and his lands around Thebes. He seemed to be a good leader, who wanted to save the city and change the lives of residents in a better way. As an instance, he was listened to «God’s word» (163) « Drive the corruption from your land, don’t harbor it anymore……banish the man, or pay blood with blood» (164). Besides that, the fact that he was looking for a murderer of the previous king, could characterize him as a truthful and honest person, who stood for a justice and the punishment of the guilty person.
First impression about Oedipus
Oedipus the king is very interesting story to read. Reading thru the first part of the story, my first impression about King Oedipus is, he’s smart, down to earth person who cares about his people and his city. However my first impression changed when I was reading thru the second part after Oedipus spoke to Tiresias and Creon. He became to be very mean and close-minded person. He doesnt want to listen to anyone for he think Creon’s plotting something against him.
I agree with Dale and Xia. While I was reading the story, step by step, the picture of an obstinate person has been drawing in my mind. I believe that the King Oedipus didn’t believe anyone but him. Seems like he can put the whole world against his personality. I believe he not only knows what he does, but he likes to put his self against all the others. I would describe him as antagonist – a person who is actively counteracting to other people towards achieving their goals.
Due March 12: What are your first impressions of Oedipus in Oedipus the King – how would you describe his character? Point to a moment you think really illustrates what kind of a man he is.
My first impressions of Oedipus the King are that he is an imprudent and miserable hero. As the play “Oedipus the King” revealed that he didn’t take any advice from the others such as the blind prophet and the old shepherd as they told him it would be better for him not to know the truth of the murderer of Laius and his identity. In the play he unwisely insisted on uncovering everything about which he was not sure no matter the truth would bring him disaster finally. Unfortunately, as a result, he fulfilled a prophecy that said he would kill his father and marry his mother. When he had finally found out the truth, he also was told that his wife/mother had hung and killed herself, he then gouged out his eyes and desperately asked to be sent away from his country Thebes. It was such a miserable fate for Oedipus. However, on the other hand, he was a hero for his country and people. Because from the very beginning, he wanted to lift the curse that caused a lot of disasters on his land, he promised that he would banish the murderer of the former king and thus he did.
In the play, his character is described as a stubborn, suspicious and loyal king. He was stubborn since he insisted on pursuing his goal of releasing all the secrets and refused all the warnings of pain and tragedy coming out of the truth. He was arrogant, suspicious and downright mean to people who gave warnings around him, and also suspected his brother-in-law was trying to steal his power. He was loyal to his country and his wife because he kept his word to punish the murderer of Laius in order to lift the curse.
Oedipus, “Let it burst! Whatever will, whatever must! I must know my birth, no matter how common it maybe – I must see my origins face to face…..” (P224). That’s the moment when his wife and others were trying to convince him stopping the further request for the truth, but he ignored all the warnings and continued struggling to uncover his cryptic birth identity. This moment most illustrated that he stubbornly pursued his goals despite all the harsh warnings.
I agree with you. Besides for the fate and the personality of Oedipus, I also pay attention to the curse, Oedipus’s father — Laius threw away his child (Oedipus) in order to avoid the curse, and Oedipus ran away from his adopted parents in order to avoid his curse, but, eventually, the curse still came true. It enlightened me that no matter how much we want to avoid the difficulties or disasters, it will still come to our faces again, so why not just face it at the first time? Let it comes, let it goes, maybe we will have a different destiny. If we wouldn’t have, at least we can enjoy the rest of the time before the curse come ture.
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY TO THE BEAUTIFUL PART OF OUT CLASS AND OUR THE BEST INSTRUCTOR KRYSTYNA.
I think the reason why he said American is black gangs is because it’s easy to label this as a ‘black’ problem. If you were to watch all the docs, you’d see some very similar themes that arise again and again. poverty, social and political disenfranchisement, employment, the desire to belong to a family, the desire to have and exert power and control among people who are functionally powerless also the ease of extremist ideology to gain a foothold under such conditions
No one wants to address these very real issues. Easier to make a ‘don’t blame whitey’ statement than take a real look at the problem that spans ALL races. Black people or multiculturalism didn’t create the problems in Europe with gangs. Social injustice and inequality did. But again, if one recognizes that then suddenly the black gangs can be understood as part of a larger problem.
But that might mean that many people’s beloved prejudices,
“Black people are inhuman criminals by nature”
So it’s much easier to just pretend that the other gangs
Here is my response about the video of Tupac. He indicate a lots of thing which is very important. He quoted “America is country of gang”. According to his view, Every articular group in America work as a gang. For example, he mentioned, police, CBI, FBI etc. But the most of the gangs are not well organized. As a result they do some particular stuff based on some situations which is not right. The speaker said, None of them are happy to kill someone. Killing people can not a make any gangs proud because there is nothing in it. Though they are doing that work based on some situations but the speaker thinks everyone can get reed of that situations if they try to find a way. Moreover he thinks, Whatever community a person belong to is not important. He also said that if any natural calamity comes government spend millions of dollar for that but they do not spend money to control violence. In that case he use himself as an example . He also wanted to go to college but because of some circumstances he was unable to do it.
According to what Tupac said, one of the conditions that make gang positive to the community is to have leagues, that is, leagues are positive things while gangs are not. Besides, when he was asked about the gang violence, Tupac hadn’t denied the negative side of the gang, instead, he just said that he believed that gang can be positive, and America is the biggest gang in the world, which means that he believed that gangs are negative to the community, and America, democrats, republicans, police and FBI are parts of them. That is to say, America, democrats, republicans, police, FBI are also negative to the society, which is against the common sense. So the most controversial point between what Tupac think and most other people think is whether America, democrats, republicans, police and FBI is good for the society or not, in other words, are they leagues or gangs? In my opinion, in terms of constructing the structure of the society, regulating people’s behavior and reducing the criminals in some distance, they actually act like league which benefit for the society. However, in terms of the foreign policies to some countries, financial aids or job opportunities to many middle class or poor people and disparities to other races, they do have a lot of disappointing spaces and sometimes act like gangs which do something destroy the society just for their own benefits. If one day their negative side overwhelms their positive side, they would become the real gangs. Most importantly, the endless wars and the corruptions inside them may lead them to a self-destructive way. At that time, Americans will be facing the society of turbulence and living in a despairing time, which we don’t want to see and can’t afford to see.
Being minority in America is a disadvantage, so street is how young minorities learn about survival. According to Tupac, after streets, prison was a next step toward progression into manhood. He wants to pass along the knowledge he learnd hard way what prison is all about. That even though drugs and violence always going to be part of peoples’s lives, control and regulation by the communities within minorities is very important. He suggests to have a clear vision of the future, to know what one wants and go for it, because the are other ways to get street smart and jail is not one of them, because it is not for correctional institution but it is for business. He says that America is built by gangs and is run by gangs; I think he meant gangs as group of people who has ability to control and power. Such as police or FBI, even the government parties. He compares America to a gang; that government has same mentality as gangsters have; he meant that America want to have control and power over the other countries. He brings as a comparison invading of Bosnia or by cutting off Cuba. As long as America keeps interfering into other countries affairs, there never going to be peace. There is many people with many problems in America, need to be taken care of, they pay taxes and are good citizens, but still there is a need of an employment, financial help, but government spends millions of dollars to the other countries survival instead. He acknowledges that violence is bad, but to him, it is unrealistic to achieve none violent existence, as long as there are examples of countries fight with each other for the power, causing violence and destruction in the process, and until there is alternative way of living found. Just as American government, gang can have good influence on a community, as long as they are well organized and collected by taking care of their own. For example, the money made on the streets, to be circulated back into the community, pushing youngsters towards education and do something positive, then can be achieved peaceful existence.
Nice summary, George! As we have heard, Tupac said that “gang can be organized” (5 min 40sec). Also he claims that gang can make society better. Furthermore, he gave a couple of examples; one of them is about drug dealers. Tupac said, we should “make them pay”(9 min 00 sec). Do you think it’s possible for the street gangs to benefit the society and make the society better? Is it possible for the self-organized society to be a “self-productive, not self-destructive?”
As about the Emerson’s definition of a “great man.” In my opinion, on the one hand we may consider Tupac as a great man, because he thinks outside the box, he says things that the other people are afraid to say. But on the other hand, he is an observer. His ideas, in my opinion, are utopia. He is useless; he did not bring anything significant to our lives. As of the Zimbardo’s studies, Tupac is a typical example of a good guy being evil; he is a product of the circumstances. He wished to go to the college, he wanted “to move up” (2 min 00 sec), but he is what he is; he is what life did make him look like.
hey this is a good summary George. I think that what Tupac said is a good identification of a Hero: he can recognize the problems, give them a solution and make people aware about them. Also, when he said that communities need to take the first place on this American government, it is a reality that we are living today because we work together for a better life, expecting that our government will protect us and give us a better life’s conditions. But communities give and give and never get anything back. We are sending out all our efforts and give our opportunities to external communities that never were part of this country. “Help is a good quality, but be careful to do not throw out everything to save others and get sink yourself in your own boat”
Hi, George! Great summary!
Tupac fought for the problems and expressed the truth in unconventional ways, rapping about African-American and social issues. Even if it is a league of their own, his movement may be a good starting point as well as the right person to lead his community. His behavior and language could make his people better off. He did not justify murders or a gang lifestyle. If did so, he was nothing more than a thug rapper. Whereas America argued that they worked for a just cause. However, we had witnessed jaundiced justice they did. Thus he thought of America as the biggest gang in the world.
Hello class! Finally I have some time to make a post sitting in front of a fireplace and drinking some tasty herbal tea. It is my 4th day here, in sunny and snowy South part of California, the place called South Lake Tahoe near the Sacramento city. It is located in a mountains and there is snow all around the city. I had a weird flight to California, with two delays, and then I had the worst trip up to the moutains, at night, when it was so dark and smog covered the most part of our roadway, that you can’t see what is in front of you in a distance more than 50 feet. Fortunately my friend drove safely so we got to his house without any accidents on the road. The early morning next day we woke up, warm up and went to the new office. Seems like we spent there all the time, without any breaks))) I’m leaving this beautiful city tomorrow afternoon and have a long way back home. In my memory I have 3 things left from this place: snow, hot tea and fresh air: those that I believe all of us are missing in New York. And one more thing actually: VERY FRIENDLY PEOPLE!!! If you ask a person in a store for some help, they can spend couple hours with you Until you get what you looking for. I’ll try to add some photos that I had a chance to take while working out the office. See you soon.
Corrected:
I had the worst trip up to the moutains, at night, when it was so dark and smog covered the most part of our roadway, that we couldn’t see what was in front of us in a distance more than 50 feet.
I am a little envy to you) While we were studying hard at Baruch, you had a great time in California! I am just kidding.
Truthfully, I am glad that foreign students, as well as foreign residents are able to get a job in the USA.
It is not common in other countries, especially in Russia. As an illustration, I had many friends from European countries(Poland, France, Italy, Sweden) and from Asia (China, Korea) who studied at my Home University few years ago. They have tried to get a job, but unfortunately non of them performed. The only reason why no one hired them was language barrier. As it turned out, Russian people don’t like those, who is non- native speaker. Perhaps, people feel embarrassed to speak to someone who doesn’t fully understands you or cannot explain what he means, since there are not many foreigners in Russia, especially in my home town.
But in contrary, I have faced the same situation in job market whilst I studied in Czech Republic. I didn’t get any job, since my Czech language wasn’t perfect.
Altana, I would not agree with you that “Russian people don’t like those, who is non- native speaker.” I have seen in Russia that visiters from other countries are very welcome in Russia. In my hometown, I met many many foreigners, who work there (prof jobs) and who emphasized that russian people show warm hospitality. Also I met americans here, who have been in Russia. They all said the same – great hospitality.
And yes, the language barrier is always a problem for employment. Ecpecially, if a job requires language skills. Nobody would hire a person as a waiter, barber, sales manager if the person doesn’t have required language skills. The only one option for those people is unskilled labour. Thank you
Your place is probably just exception. For the most of part, Russian people do like tourists, but they definitely don’t like foreign students or foreign citizens living in Russia. Besides that, they also don’t like asian people, who are citizens as well and supposed to have the same rights as white people. To prove the latter, if there is a competition between white and asian guys for a vacant place, it is more likely that the white person will get it. Since he is a “real Russian”. I am more than sure, you are not familiar with such kind of situation, since you are white. But, I’m asian, who was born in Russia, and experienced this kind of harassment many times. So that, as for me to be foreigner in Russia is more hard, than to be foreigner in the Usa.
Another thing about employment. Did you ever see in Russia any foreigners working in the customer service? I didn’t. But the USA’s customer service is based on them. «Nobody would hire a person as a waiter, barber, sales manager if the person doesn’t have required language skills”. My manager did- when I came to the USA 1.5 years ago my English was very bad, but anyway he hired me.
I didn’t know there is so much racism in Russia. I am surprised.
not racism but discrimination.
There is a difference between your town and New York City. The latest – multi-international city where managers try to diversify their stuff, bilingual and trilingual people here are the most preferable. In most of Russian cities nobody would hire barely speaking russian language person, as well nobody would hire barely speaking english language person in midwest or south or even 30 miles away from New York city in small towns, because there is no many tourists. Bilingual skills there are wildcat.
Also difficulty levels of these two languages are very alike. In a year-two you can learn english language and be fluent in every day talk. But It’s hard with russian language. I know some people in my hometown from Australia, England, New Zeland who have been in Russia over 3 years, but still, level of their language skills is very low.
Also difficulty levels of these two languages are very unlike, different.***
I do like your post, it’s like a open journal.
In the video, we were watching and listening to Tupac talking about “gang” very proudly, in his eyes, ‘gang’ can be “organized”, and serve the “the community” in good ways such as self-protection, giving young people opportunities to the college, but all of it needs a “leader” such as him who has “smarter” thoughts and “superior” abilities to lead “gang” community in a positive way. Then he argued that “America is build on gang” and “America is the biggest gang in the world”, at this point, he wanted to make a claim that “gang can be positive”. He explained that when some other countries in the world “got in a fight”, America would always show up and try to stop the fight as a defender with any approaches most times violence, what America did to other countries was similar to what gangs did in their community-using their ways (such as violence or guns) to defend it. In my point of view, men define a thing as what they want, such as hero or villain, good or bad. If Tupac defined “gang” as a positive aspect in his community, it could be true at some points. But all of it depended on what he said about that how gang community self-governed and self-developed by their own rules. One of Emerson’s great men theories is that a great man would lead and help others, at this point Tupac’s ideas about “gang could be positive” were qualified. However, in zimbardo’s views of villain, Tupac’s actions were qualified as well since he thought he was doing a right thing when he used violence to solve problems. My ideas are that the ways to define Tupac was a great man or not have to consider with every aspect of the society at that time such as: social environment, certain circumstances or individual events, we have to look at his behaviors and influences with unbiased eyes. At last, I want to say that no one is a hero or an evil all the time but only at some points of time or situations.
Howdy everyone!! Today before we started the class, we were discussing how can we improve or enhance our vocab and pronunciation. So I would like to share two websites which I believe can help us elevate.
First is the http://www.vocabulary.com
It’s a really great website to use to know more English words and its meaning. Once you get to the website, it will ask you 10 assessment questions (round 1). After that it will ask you to sign up, BUT it is optional, you can still proceed to round 2. For me this website is interesting for it’s not only enhancing your vocabulary but also helps you with reading comprehension.
Second is http://www.howjsay.com
This website is actually a talking dictionary of English pronunciation. When you get to the site, you just have to type in the word you need help with in the search box, then it will show you a list of words. The one that is being highlighted is the one you’re looking for. I know the site doesn’t provide any instruction on how to hear the pronunciation, but what you can do is to just place the cursor on the highlighted word and VOILA! you’ll hear a guy pronouncing the word for you.
I have been using these websites for years and it actually helped me a lot! I hope you guys find these sites helpful to you as well.. Good Luck! =)
Emerson focuses on building great man’s role in any sort of relationships such as nature and human beings, good men and others. He emphasizes the importance diversity and relativity, which means that the great man can be changed and has his own individuality. Therefore, to pull their weight, the good man should be a person who acts according to one’s conviction. Thus the good man represents every kind of people when the person lives with a spiritual value and intelligence. Then the person shares the honor and becomes representative man.
According to the 《representative men》, Emerson insisted that “nature seems to exist for the excellent. The world is upheld by the veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome, they lived with life glad and nutritious.” I believe he gave the good men a great evaluation. In many people’s mind, heroes were far away from us, they looked like a star in our heart. On the contrary, the good men were the people lived around us. But they also have something common in some point. The good men influenced people to live a happy life through their own nutritious experiences, and heroes may influence people by their great actions to the society. They both made a right model to people, they are the legends in people’s heart. Emerson told the topic about the good men, in my opinion, the most important point is reminding people there are a large amount of good men close to us, if we keep doing something useful and good to people from a little step move to a great action, I believe one day we can be a regular good man turn into a superman.
Question:
Do you see connections between Emerson’s ideas about “great men” and some of the other approaches to heroes we’ve discussed so far in class?
Response:
Emersons ideas of “great men” is very broad for he was not just focusing in one point of view. Once he mentioned , “I admire great men of all classes, those who stand for facts, and for thoughts…” From my own understanding, this sentence means that he applaud people who stand for what is right. Like what we expect from heroes we don’t want them to just help us, but we also expect them to have morals to be able to serve as a role model to us. And this takes me to what the author said about the importance of other people. He stated that “Other men are lenses through which we read our own mind.” Sometimes other people are reflection of what we are thinking. We think of helping others yet, we look up to those who are already in process of doing such a thing.
This article is very abstract which makes so hard to figure out what the author wants to point out. However, the words we used to describe “great men” are similar to when we describe heroes.
**Correction
However, the words HE used to describe “great men” are similar to what we use to describe heroes.
Emerson uses the terms “men address all humanity and he gives some examples about each characteristics about Genius,Societal Disapproval and Foolish Consistency and Self-Worth. Heroes are the people who can take the responsibly to the society, so do good man too.
Today i will talk something intesting topic with you. First of all,I don’t know what the differents from the happiness and happy on earth. But i think the “happiness”and “happy”are some look like in English . So I believe we are happiness that when we are in happy, on the other side, when we happy we may feel a little happiness in a short time. What’s more ,what is happy ? Although I am not a shape student in my class and I am not as popular as my best friend . But I’m feeling happy enough now.Beacuse I have a loving family, many good friends and a warm class. More important is ,I’m living in the world . The world is so beautiful that make me feel I am so lucky! We are growing like many flowers that we must keep our life and hard working .We all have a bright future. So we are happiness and happy!
I still remember the Tatinic,though it’s a big ship but it still sunk,so ,in my opinion ,the best ship is the friendship.
Everyone needs friends baceuse there are a lot of things that you can’t deal with ypourself,and the friends judt make up for it.
friendship just likes the sun ,it can make you fell warm though in the cold winter,friendship just likes the water in the desert ,it can make you fell that in the world ,there still has hope .in a word ,the friendship is the same meaning as the greatness ,selfness and devotion.
To make friends ,adding a friend equals addng a way ,open your heart ,devote yoursef,let friendship make your world colourful.
I can’t more agree with you that everyone needs friends. It’s a very good point especially for the student leaving their own countries and coming to another strange country- the U.S., attending a college is a very good way to start your new frienship in this coutry, we are all friends since we all came t0 the same class out of hundreds of thousands of baruch students.
Hey Class!
Millions of people, visiting New York, saying that New York City is full of wonders and secrets! The city is big and it has a long history. So, during our all lives we open some new interesting facts in this great city, city of wonders!!! I live in NYC for a while, but just around a year ago I noticed an interesting thing in Central Park and I would like to share what I noticed with you! Have you ever looked closely to the gates, in particular, names of the gates? All gates have their own names and meanings! Names are various, such as Engineers’, Artists’, Farmers’, Boys’, Girl’s Gates and etc. When the construction process in the park was going to the end in 1860s, creators decided to give these names to the gates to represent characteristics of the city’s inhabitants. In total, there are 20 gates. Most of them got their names 150 years ago. And yet, those names weren’t given spontaneously! These names reflect features of internal landscape as well as surroundings outside of the park.
For example, beyond The Inventors’ gate is a statue of Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph! On w74th-76th streets, there are a playground and statues of Alice in Wonderland and Hans Christian Andersen. Guess, what gate is near? It’s Children’s Gate! The Merchants’ Gate is facing Time Warner Building at Columbus Circle and The Strangers’ Gate at w106th street is opposite the very old castle that people thought was hunted a long time ago. By the way, I live near this castle and believe me, this building looks pretty frightening.
Hope this information was interesting for new coming students. So, now you have one more thing to look up when you explore New York. And yet, does anybody have thought about origins of the other gates in Central Park? Please share!
hello world!!! I post my essay in the assignment section and sent it through email, please read it.
Drugs .
In this day and age with the advancement of the medical field, many new pills and drugs came into the lives of the people. Everything is getting done to prolong people’s quality of living; and it is indeed true, people do live longer. It seems there is a medicine for every kind of illness and pain; unfortunately the paradox is that those drugs are also the main reason of the premature death. The drug addiction is a dangerous disease. If we look into the recent history of our life, there are so many examples of people tragically ending their lives; for example Keith ledger, Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson have their life shortened due to incorrect use of the drugs . People get addicted to them very easily and after awhile they go as far as combine many pills, which make chemical combination of the drugs lethal. Many of the drugs and pain killers are very dangerous, unless it is taken strictly under the doctor supervision or his or her order. So any kind of treatment should be taken very seriously not only by a patient but also by whole family. They should be vigilant and carefully involved into their loved ones recovery.
It is definitively, that “Everything is getting done to prolong people’s quality of living, and it is indeed true, people do live longer”. On the one hand, the fact, that some people are dying due to overdose or combination of different drugs, is their fault. Since, the drugs were originally created to heal, not to kill and only incorrect usage of them might cause death, but not drugs by themselves.
But on the other hand, there are many examples of positive using of drugs. My grandmother is a diabetic and in order to survive, during more than 8 years, she has to do injections 3 times a day and every day. I don’t know what could happen if we didn’t have such medicine, but I am very thanks-full for those people, who created them.
so, as we can see, drugs have positive and negative sides and it is depends on you, how they will effect you.
People use drugs as pain killers or as antidepressants. But they have no idea about the chemicals components of drugs and their consequences. when people take medicines like antidepressants, they are creating a habit in their body and it is so far seem like the same effects that the cocaine causes in our nervous system altering all nerves, making people feel extremely happy and relaxed, and making a perfect circle of addiction. However, the worst part of this reality is that people don’t realize about these reactions and consequences even when doctors advice about the effects, but they keep taking them with higher dosages. Mixing other substances like alcohol with antidepressants is not the best idea because it may cause suicide when people do it without knowing anything about their body’s response. Please be aware about medicines’ consequences and effects before taking them. Fist make control of your body and your life and then try to look for a solution to other problems.
wass up guys!! just get an account.. did you guys gonna post your essay here??
just send it via e-mail
hello, yes I just got the account too, I had to call Ricky for help, OMG I felt so confused with the blog lol. and I also spend my lovely Sunday doing my essay, I love it, I hope you love it too!!!! jajajaja please read it I already sent it . bye bye
What do you think about multitasking?
How often do you multitask?
In my opinion, there are 2 types of multitasking. The first type is dangerous and as an example I would mention the situation when the person is talking by phone, texting, doing make-up or a lot of other stuff while driving. People think, they are saving time doing that, but they probably don’t understand how risky it is, not only for those person, but also for people, who around him. It might cause dangerous situations, such as car crush or even people’s deaths.
The second one is harmless, like chatting with friends while sending email or listening to music while doing homework. Since we are living in the 21st century and having all of the technology features, such as cell phones, laptops, Ipod and etc., we just can not stop using them. Even more, we need to check out our emails several times a day, check the phones in case if there are any missed calls or text messages, check the account on Facebook and etc. Besides that, we never do only only one thing a time (like texting to someone, sending email or calling someone); we always do something else to save our time. Even watching News on TV cause multitasking, because there are some additional stories on the bottom of the screen about weather or stock market result, which block our attention from the main idea.
As for me, I would say, multitasking is the fact of my life. I accept this, as long as it doesn’t make any harm for people who around me. Even more, at this moment, when I m studying and working, I also need time for myself, and as I mentioned before multitasking is a great time saver, so I better multitask, than have no time for myself.
In this day and age multitasking seems only way to deal with a speed of everyday life. An old expression “one thing at a time” seems not as valid as it used to be. Busy moms multitask all the time. Whether they are home or outside, that is how things get accomplished nowadays, to be able to execute more than one task became way of living. I totally agree with a danger of it also. Losing concentration can have fatal outcome, like eating and talking on the phone while driving. Difference between harmless and harmful should be acknowledged and priorities be put first.
Totally agree with you that multitasking is an essential part of our lives. If we look around, there are so many things that can catch our attention. Also, our interests are becoming more diverse day by day. So, perhaps multitasking is a step in our evolutional process , as you said – “we are living in the 21st century” . Unquestionably, that a thousand even a hundred years ago people didn’t have mobile devices, gadgets, cars, TV, etc, etc. Thus, they didn’t have so many distractions as we have now.
21st century… So much information is coming from the world that is surrounding us. Even more, we have to deal with all this information, because we don’t want to miss something interesting. We have to watch news and read newspapers, so we can have a conversation with professors and friends. Also, we have to have fun, watch movies, listen to the music, play sports and participate in college activities. And yet, as you said we have so little time to do this, so we have to multitask in order to save our time. But, one important point I would make that we have to learn – how to recognize more essential/significant things/information in its variety. Because, it’s impossible to do everything that we want to do. So, we have to choose what is more important to us and try to concentrate on it and then if the circumstances let us do other activity in the same time, we may do it. But always think about the quality. Guess why professors don’t let us texting in the class?
The idea that we are COMPELLED to stay informed in order to function in social situations is really interesting. I wonder if this is relected in any of our cultural heroes? Perhaps John Stewart or Barack Obama embody the cultural value of being informed?
Like what you said, i also believe that multitasking is a time-saver. However in my case I only do this when I do my homework. I tend to listen to music while studying for it helps me relax and (this may sound weird) concentrate more.
For some reason, I prefer to do things/chores one at a time. I always notice that I have to redo what I did if I’m doing 3 different things all together. BUT i make sure that I always finish what I have to do on time. =)
Perhaps what distinguishes dangerous from harmless multi-tasking is the awareness, despite all the activity, of how our actions impact others? So that if we drive while eating and talking on the phone, we have forgotten our fundamental responsibility to others that is an important part of driving …
I was thinking exactly about this idea! I heard that before, I believe when I was searching through some materials while preparing to entrance tests. Just imagine you drive a car, talk on the phone, even using Bluetooth, and do your make-up (I swear I know many women do that) – what could be more dangerous, even I would say ridiculous, to do all these things together? And as far as I have learned, multitasking reduces the ability to acquire an educational material effectively. That’s why many teachers and professors recommend to learn and work on your material, alternating between learning and having pauses like every 30-60 mins.
ohh well, multitasking is the main characteristic of the new generation, you know it is like you have to be multitask to get a job, to do you college’s homework and researches, and to do everything else within 18 per day including eating, going to the bathroom, brushing your teeth, texting to you friends, etc . And I say with 18 hours because we used to sleep 6 hours per day at least so we can wake up next day lol. yeap, that is the new generation’s specialty: running like crazy everyday of our life
I would like to say multitasking is results of situations. It has two sides of good and bad effects. It really depends on what kind of situations you are working with. Let’s say when you working as a call center customer service, you should have the capability of listening to the customers and typing information in the computer system or making some notes simultaneously.
The Desire Reveals Obstacle, or The Obstacle Reveals Desire?
We always think that it’s the desire reveals the obstacle. For example, we want to learn English well first and then we start to find that there’re many obstacles in our way, such as the difficulty of memorizing English words, hard to get rid of our accents, hard to understand the English speakers when they’re speaking fast. So desire coming up first sounds right.
However, sometimes we simply don’t know what we want, while the obstacles already show up. For example, it’s not the desire of we need a car reveals the obstacle that we are tired of walking on foot, but the obstacle reveals our desire. We feel that we are tired of walk on foot and its limits, such as we can just afford a short distance move but not long distance and long time. Similarly, we find the difficulties of communicating with friends or families when they are far away from us, then we come up with the desire of telephone and letter. Obstacles come up first and then reveal our desire, this is usually how great inventions happen, and this is also what Apple does nowadays. We customers don’t tell Apple what’s our desire because we don’t know either, but the Apple finds out what’s our obstacle in our daily life. Then it invents a new product and tells us why we need it (desire). Thanks to Steve Jobs, we have iPhone, iPod, and iPad now, and we don’t know we need them until they were invented. Thus, obstacle also reveals desire.
The author thinks that it’s obstacle reveals desire but not the desire reveals obstacle. In my opinion, it’s both. If you know your desire first, it will reveal obstacle. If you know your obstacle first, it will also reveal desire. They are interacting.
Every person has a desire for something. it could be an acquisition or an achievement of something, but when there is a desire there always obstacle follows. It’s like they always come hand to hand. If one desires a fancy house, there is an obstacle of going to school, get an education, receive a diploma then to get well paid job, and after achieving all this, one could be sure that realization of owning a big and beautiful house is not far away. Desire is not achievable unless one defies all the obstacles, which comes to their way, it is only a matter of how badly you want it and being ready to conquer all what come into ones way .
“Bad” Time Creates Heroes, “Good” Time Creates Evils
As far as I am concerned, heroes and evils are relative, but not absolute. It’s not what you “do” make you become a hero or an evil, but the time determines it. A hero is someone who do something that normal people don’t do in “bad” situations, while an evil is someone who do something that normal people don’t do in “good” situations.
People may consider somebody as a hero when he/she saved a child from a torrential great river or fight against the aristocracy with the weapon called “revolution”, especially in the Middle Ages. In those “bad” time, it’s normal to do nothing, so we considered those people who do normal things as unnormal —heroes. For example, when a child is drowning in a torrential great river, it’s “normal” to be a bystander because you afraid that you may die for saving him/her. So most normal people see it, but few people jump into the water to save the child. Thus, we call these small parts of people “heroes”. This is a “bad” time, so bad time creates heroes. Try to imagine that we are in a time which most people will jump into the water to save the child, but just few people being bystanders. Then, we will consider the people who will save the child as “normal people”, but the bystanders as “evils”. This is a “good” time, so good time creates evils.
Another example, it’s normal to see a soldier killing a person in a war, but we don’t take him as an evil. On the contrary, people in his country may think he’s a “hero” because he does this to protect his country and protect their lives, just like Hitler in WWⅡto Germans. This is a “bad” time. However, it’s unnormal to see a soldier killing a person in a peaceful land, so we will take it as guilty, we will consider the soldier as an “evil”, just like Hitler in today to most people. It’s still the same deed, but we will think it differently because it’s a “good” time. Thus, heroes and evils are relative, but not absolute. It’s not what you “do” make you become a hero or an evil, but the time determines it.
Therefore, opening your TV and watching the news now. If you find that there are more evils than heroes appear on the news, you should be grateful, because you are still in a “good” time. If you find that there are more heroes than evils appear on the news, you should be alarmed, because you are in a “bad” time now. If one day a normal behavior became a hero deed, the most horrible nightmare should come. For example, if we consider a student who didn’t late for class as a hero, that means everybody would be late for class at that time; if we consider a person who didn’t kill people as a hero, that means we would be already surrounded by murderers.
So try to be grateful if you saw another murder in tomorrow’s news, because you are still in a “good” time that murder hasn’t become a normal deed.
i’m sorry. this one is one part of my assignment, and the following one is what i wanna post here in class discussion.
I really liked the idea about “good” and “bad” times, and that the time determines what is evil and what is good. Took a notice on it)
Comprehensible and interesting ideas..,
but, one thing highly disturbs me. The sentence “On the contrary, people in his country may think he’s a “hero” because he does this to protect his country and protect their lives, just like Hitler in WWⅡto Germans.” Is it a mistake – incorrect expression, or you were taught in school that Hitler DID fight with a whole world for the reason of defending his country?!!
Thanx,
Yeah, seemed for me also confusing… Hitler was too ambitious to be just a man who was trying to defend his own country and people.
I saw in the email also, that was a nice one
Even if Germans thought about hitler as a hero, they thought this way not because he was a defender, but because he could make them superior nation in the world. Industrialization and modernization – he brought Germany in the world’s leaders of manufactoring and economy growth. Germans worshiped him. Perhaps this is how I would wrap this idea – “For Germans he was a hero, because he made german economy one of the world’s most prosperous, also he increased the standarts of living in Germany. But for the rest of the world he turned out to be a villian when he started WWII.” Something like this:)
Really nice suggestion, Maxim!
Hello, Maxim, thanks for your suggestion first, but I want to explain why I use the word “protect”. Have you ever heard the sentence that “the only way to protect what you love is to make yourself stronger”, actually many people feel this way, if you are under the strongest umbrella in the world, don’t you think that you are being protected? Why did most of the Germans at that time like “the manufacturing and economy growth” that Hitler bring to them, and why did they like the feeling that their country are superior stronger that other country at that time? Because deep down their heart, they think they were being protected, they were safer than people in other country at that time (At that time, Germany were undergo the Great Depression and their WWI failure consequences), and that’s why Germans thought that they needed a strong leader. Remember that in stable society people will call for a democratic leader, but only in unstable society people will call for a strong leader because they don’t feel safe in that society and they want someone to protect them deep down themselves.
At the same time, Hitler also thought that he’s protecting his country, such as he believed that he’s protecting his country from the influence of “Inferior Races” by killing all the Jews. No matter this thought is wrong or not when we see it now, Hitler just believed that it’s right. Do you remember the theory that “people don’t do wrong because they believe that they’re wrong, on the contrary, they do so because they believe that they’re doing the right thing”? So Hitler believed that he’s doing this to protect his nation, and at that unstable time needed tyrannical act to fulfill his protection. You can also see that in BCC Prison Study, “the participants who started off holding democratic views and opposing inequality, gradually became more authoritarian as their groups failed to function effectively and the overall system fell into chaos…when we saw here, then, was that authoritarianism – often seen as the key personality variable that explains the dynamics of tyranny- was itself changed as a function of social dynamics.”(From Questioning the Banality of Evil) Hitler was just a normal person, but his thought turned to be extremely brutal because of his overprotection desire, either to his country or himself.
Hello,everybody! This is my first time use the Blogs! So I just say hi to everybody first!
It’s a test for the comment.
The same here:)
Hello everyone!
I would like to share some thoughts about the video that we all had the chance to watch last Tuesday. This is not the only video that I saw about American soldiers killing Iraqi people, and I heard many other stories when soldiers being the heroes, in one moment turned out to be the center of evil, by killing citizens and unarmed people as it happened with Soviet Union army in World War II. After the USSR soldiers defeated the army of Hitler, and pushed them back to their territory, many of them were exposed in murders and sexual crimes against civilians of occupied territories. Why does it happen so often? Why do our heroes in a quick moment of our life can transfer so fast and become the villains? Where is this thin edge between good and evil?
Let’s take a look on it from another angle. Imagine a group of kids who harm or even kill an animal. It happens constantly! I saw a lot of videos in the social networks when these kids beat some cat or a dog, and they think this is funny and make them a heroes. Another example are fans of a soccer team. It is a common in Europe countries, especially in England. Providing a support to their soccer teams with positive energy and invigorating slogans, fans become the real heroes, but at the same time we frequently hear in the news about disorderly conducts and fights between fans, as it took place in Egypt on Feb. 1st, 2012, when they all transformed into the real villains with 73 lives gone.
(Egypt soccer tragedy claims 73 lives)
Would not you ask yourself why this kind of violence happens in our life when it should seem like barbarous orders gone in the middle ages? Let us look on it through the prism of a group of people. And I would like to define three very important concepts related to a group of people: organization, control and responsibility.
Referring to the above examples, I can definitely state that all of those related to the groups of people, whether they are soldiers, kids or fans. And each of these groups is organized and controlled. Soldiers are organized into the army under officers’ control, kids are organized into the classes under teachers’ control, as well as fans also have their leaders which take the control under the rest of this group of people. So why do they sometimes take the opposite side of the villains? I personally think it is all about control. The American soldiers in the army, the kids and the fans, they all were under control by some organizations or institutions and individuals at the same time. I can’t imagine a kid killing an animal in the classroom, but it could happen outside the school walls, when nobody controls the kids. Exactly the same situation occurred to the soldiers; officers in the video gave them a right “to take a gloves”, which led to the loss of their control. Identifying the power of control, I strictly associate this idea with the feeling of responsibility. Because when no control is out there, there is no feeling of responsibility, especially for a group of people, not an individual responsibility itself. Why did the holocaust happen? German nationalists were well-organized, controlled, they were responsible to serve their nation and fuhrer, but they had no responsibility for genocide in their country.
Thinking about who makes the first step towards the evil, I’m convinced in the importance of individual roles. We all know the names like Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon etc. And I believe whoever the German people in 30’s-40’s were, we would never learn about the mass destruction of people, if it were not such a person as Hitler, with his power of authority and control.
Summarizing all the above, I would like to highlight three main ideas, closely interacting with our individual personalities in the problem of the heroes and villains – the idea of individual behavior, the problem of people in a groups, and the idea of control. We live in society which consists of us as individuals (“me”) and at the same time as groups of people (“us”), where these groups are under the control of institutions, and this society is under control of the government in general. We all need that control, otherwise we would fall into the anarchy, which I would never ever recommend to…
I agree on everything you said. Those people are indeed under the control of some institutions, organizations and leaders; however, none of them took the responsibility for whatever their minions had done.
Sadly, nowadays kids are getting violent as well for they think that hurting others is ok, and if ever they get caught they can just get away with it. We need a big change in our society but before we can do that, there are so much things that we have to do first. First we need to change those people who’s in the high position, those leaders who tolerate or convince their people doing dreadful things. We need leaders who will set as a model to us and to our children. Second we need to change or somehow limit the power that this people have (REFERRING ABOUT THE CONTROL YOU MENTIONED) and lastly we have to be responsible for our own actions. This may not be the complete list of things we have to do (as a whole) for our society to change, but at least we have the idea on how to start the transformation.
I also was thinking about the video we saw in the class and made me think about villains and heroes. I think it depends how one thinks about heroes and villains. If you take for example U.S.army fighting in the Middle East, to us our soldiers are heroes, fighting for the right cause, trying to free their country from the real villains and evil, but to the locals, who may not know any better, they might be intruders and trespassers. But if one looks from the different point of view, if killing is not evil, then what is a real evil?
Hero’s may be everyday people, who happened to be in the right place in a right time, I remember story few years ago, happened in the subway, when a man fall into the rails and the other person, who happened to be a homeless person, who selflessly jumped and saved his life. But unfortunately where is good there is always evil, even within a person. At first invisible from the eye, but mental illness and drugs abuse can turn good turn into the opposite. One famous actor’s recent behavior comes to mind. Not even good and honest people can be protected from evil, I remember listening on the television about mass murderer from the Norway, from honest, hardworking, churchgoer family, but it did not stop him to massacre over 70 young lives and become one of the most infamous cases in the world.
So who is to blame, who was supposed to recognize the signs and identify the trouble? What changes do we, as a society need to make in order to make harmonious balance of the powers? Vigilance and caution and Supremacy of law and order above all. Which must be recognized by everybody and realizing how one is connected to the other to maintain consistency and not be devided.
I really like your point, but I’m confused by the connection when you say: “If you take for example U.S.army fighting in the Middle East, to us our soldiers are heroes, fighting for the right cause, trying to free their country from the real villains and evil, but to the locals, who may not know any better, they might be intruders and trespassers. But if one looks from the different point of view, if killing is not evil, then what is a real evil?” Who is saying that killing is not evil in your example? And what is the ‘different’ point of view you are suggesting we consider?
I agree with u. I feel very bad when I saw that video in our class. American soldiers are always the heroes in our mind.To Iraqi people, they are the biggest villains in the world. We talking about “hero” and “villain” in this class. But I think there is not absolute hero or villain , they are built in different situation. on other hand, the things they did to the Iraqi people in the video, made them unconditional villains.
Is it possible for one person to have some heroic and some villainous qualities at the same time? Could those soldiers be considered heroic in some ways but villainous in others? Perhaps the problem is that we think of these categories as stable …
This is an excellent response to class discussion – but are you suggesting that the answer to evil is greater institutional control? I like what you were saying about responsibility, but wonder how we could make it so that the kids don’t kill the small animal outside of the classroom as well because, afterall, the idea behind the early childhood education is to teach children how to act in society when they’re inevitably eventually on their own. It doesn’t seem like the answer to the problem of bad behavior could be that we stay forever within the walls of the school …..
Actually I slightly touched the individual behavior, by saying: “Thinking about who makes the first step towards the evil, I’m convinced in the importance of individual roles.” and thereafter I mentioned that “I would like to highlight three main ideas… the idea of individual behavior, the problem of people in a groups, and the idea of control.” Probably I didn’t give it enough attention, but I also meant that we should think about people making a crime not even in groups, but on their own. As well as I continued to develop that idea in my assignment.
Hello everyone!
I would like to share some thoughts about the video that we all had the chance to watch last Tuesday. This is not the only video that I saw about American soldiers killing Iraqi people, and I heard many other stories when soldiers being the heroes, in one moment turned out to be the center of evil, by killing citizens and unarmed people as it happened with Soviet Union army in World War II. After the USSR soldiers defeated the army of Hitler, and pushed them back to their territory, many of them were exposed in murders and sexual crimes against civilians of occupied territories. Why does it happen so often? Why do our heroes in a quick moment of our life can transfer so fast and become the villains? Where is this thin edge between good and evil?
Let’s take a look on it from another angle. Imagine a group of kids who harm or even kill an animal. It happens constantly! I saw a lot of videos in the social networks when these kids beat some cat or a dog, and they think this is funny and make them a heroes. Another example are fans of a soccer team. It is a common in Europe countries, especially in England. Providing a support to their soccer teams with positive energy and invigorating slogans, fans become the real heroes, but at the same time we frequently hear in the news about disorderly conducts and fights between fans, as it took place in Egypt on Feb. 1st, 2012, when they all transformed into the real villains with 73 lives gone.
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Would not you ask yourself why this kind of violence happens in our life when it should seem like barbarous orders gone in the middle ages? Let us look on it through the prism of a group of people. And I would like to define three very important concepts related to a group of people: organization, control and responsibility.
Referring to the above examples, I can definitely state that all of those related to the groups of people, whether they are soldiers, kids or fans. And each of these groups is organized and controlled. Soldiers are organized into the army under officers’ control, kids are organized into the classes under teachers’ control, as well as fans also have their leaders which take the control under the rest of this group of people. So why do they sometimes take the opposite side of the villains? I personally think it is all about control. The American soldiers in the army, the kids and the fans, they all were under control by some organizations or institutions and individuals at the same time. I can’t imagine a kid killing an animal in the classroom, but it could happen outside the school walls, when nobody controls the kids. Exactly the same situation occurred to the soldiers; officers in the video gave them a right “to take a gloves”, which led to the loss of their control. Identifying the power of control, I strictly associate this idea with the feeling of responsibility. Because when no control is out there, there is no feeling of responsibility, especially for a group of people, not an individual responsibility itself. Why did the holocaust happen? German nationalists were well-organized, controlled, they were responsible to serve their nation and fuhrer, but they had no responsibility for genocide in their country.
Thinking about who makes the first step towards the evil, I’m convinced in the importance of individual roles. We all know the names like Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon etc. And I believe whoever the German people in 30’s-40’s were, we would never learn about the mass destruction of people, if it were not such a person as Hitler, with his power of authority and control.
Summarizing all the above, I would like to highlight three main ideas, closely interacting with our individual personalities in the problem of the heroes and villains – the idea of individual behavior, the problem of people in a groups, and the idea of control. We live in society which consists of us as individuals (“me”) and at the same time as groups of people (“us”), where these groups are under the control of institutions, and this society is under control of the government in general. We all need that control, otherwise we would fall into the anarchy, which I would never ever recommend to…