Week 3.1- Lifeboat Ethics

Think about this: you are walking around town and you come across a homeless man.  You want to help the broke man, so Should you give him all the money in your wallet? No.  Should you go to the bank and give him all the money you own? Certainly not.  The best thing you could do is give him spare change.  A few coins or maybe a couple of dollars bills would be an adequate donation to the poor man.  You would give him a small sum that would not negatively effect your survival.  The poor should be helped in moderation because being too charitable could make you wind up poor yourself, and not being charitable will cause others to suffer.

Some people say that you can never be too charitable.  Quite the contrary, being too charitable is very dangerous.  If you give a homeless man all your money, then you will have no money.  If you have no money, you will not be able to pay bills.  If you can not pay your bills, you will lose your house.  If you lose your house, you will become homeless and will have only traded places with the man that you donated to.  Being overly charitable means not thinking about yourself when helping others.  If you give away all your money, it will be harder for you to survive.  Very rarely should you sacrifice your own survival for others.

Still, it is very important to help preserve the survival of the human race.  If you do not help people who are in great peril, they could die.  If another member of the human race dies, it lessens the strength of the whole species.  It is better to have more than less.  The more people that die, the less humans that will be born.  The more people we have, the less likely that we will be wiped out.  For example, if you have one million marbles and one shatters, it is okay because you still have nine hundred and ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine marbles left. That one marble could also be easily replaced later on.  To continue the human species, we must ensure that we all look out for each other in order to try to keep us all alive.  That way we will not all die out in the future to come.

Think about this: you are walking around town and come across a homeless man.  You want to help the broke man, and you give him a few crumpled up dollars bills you had kept in your pocket without thinking.  This is exactly what should be done.  Do not give him all your money, because then you will become homeless as well.  Do not do nothing either, as this will only further the problem and potentially lessen the strength of the human race. You must help the poor only in moderation.  This is the only way that we can possibly hope to maintain the continuance of the human race.

The Great Gatsby: Chapters 8 - 9

"But no one knows the woman’s name, and no one cares."

The author is trying to make a point that society is cruel and depthless.  No one knew the woman’s name and none of them cared at all about her existence, even enough to her name.  This  is a jab at the fast paced nature of society.  I do not care about others because I need to get to x before y.  Everyone is concerned with instant gratification.  Fitzgerald is arguing that people are becoming more and more narcissistic.  All that matters is what is in it for them.  If it does not meet their prerequisite, it is ignored entirely. (99 words)

"She was the first 'nice' girl he had ever known”

The author is trying to make a point that most people in society are not nice.  In Gatsby’s entire life, this was the first nice girl he had ever known.  That leaves room to believe that the rest of them, being a huge majority, are cruel and cold.  The quotations around the word nice imply that she is not actually nice, but that she is relatively so.  Fitzgerald is saying that women in society are not friendly.  The women we call friendly are only more friendly than the curve, yet are still not truly nice. (95 words)

"Most of those reports were a nightmare — grotesque, circumstantial, eager, and untrue."

The author is trying to make a point that society gossips very frequently.  This is apparent in the words most and untrue.  Out of this sample, most of the reports were untrue.  What this says about the rest of society is that they also report mostly untrue statements.  The words nightmare and grotesque are used to make the reader see how awful this is.  This is saying that most people in the community are dishonest, nosey, monstrous human beings.  Fitzgerald is saying that spreading expansive lies reluctantly is what people have come to in society.  Character is no longer an important attribute to have.(104 words)

"He was clutching at some last hope and I couldn’t bear to shake him free."
The author is arguing that innocence is very important.  The “some last hope” and, especially, the word clutching signifies a kind of naive desperation.  He was not going to take his innocence from him.  This makes it important.  He could not bear to strip the last bit of ignorance from him.  Ignorance truly is bliss.  To be ignorant is also to not know fear or pain.  Because innocence is a common and innate form of ignorance, it too is bliss.  It is this reason why young children are so sheltered.  They are being preserved for as long as they possibly can.  Eventually they will have to go out in to the cold, cruel, nightmarish world that Fitzgerald describes.  This is why innocence is important and why Fitzgerald argues it so. (130 words)

"He’d of helped build up the country.”

The author is trying to make a point that even though society is full of terrible people, there are still some, although very few, exceptional human beings left.  The word help is one of positive connotation.  It implies supportiveness.  The word country brings about imagery of a massive area.  So to support a massive area is widely viewed as exceptionally great.  One person out of all of the other characters was a great human being.  The same ratio can also be applied to the rest of the global community. (89 words)

Week 2.3 - Best in Class

Consider a group of people, each of them striving for first place, hostly attempting to get there by any means. This is what rushing to get valedictorian is like.  That is why it must be done away with.  High schools should get rid or valedictorian because it puts too much pressure on kids and it is not that important or relevant in the first place.

Students obsessed with being number one will be too caught up in achieving their goal that they will not be able to be as happy as the people around them.  This is because there is a lot of pressure riding on being number one.  Only one person can be the best.  With this in mind, it can be difficult to stop working, as a competitor could be working at that very moment.  Whoever gets the most time in has a better chance of being better.  This is what runs many students in to the ground.  At this point, school is no longer about learning, it is only about competing and be the greatest.  What really matters is who gets the best learning experience rather than who can achieve the highest grades and take the most classes.

Valedictorian really is not all that impressive anyway.  Valedictorian means that you made the best grades in your high school.  That status is relative to the other students in the school.  If no one else tried, you win.  If colleges are looking at valedictorian to find the smartest students, chances are they will not actually find it there.  Valedictorian means that they worked hard not that they are smart.  A majority of brilliant students are usually lazy and make A’s and B’s. While they are smart enough to make the best grades, they are also aware that they could if they wanted. Therefore they have nothing to prove.  The intelligent students know that they can achieve well enough without straining too much effort.  They do this because they can and can get away with it.  Just as this happens, it is also common that an average student who works himself to the bone can achieve all A’s and make valedictorian.  This is useless because todays society requires innovators.  We need to push technology forward and that will require brilliant minds.  Effort will only take you so far, you must have the intelligence to back it up.  

Understand that the title “valedictorian” does not really hold any valid importance.  If it stays, it will only continue to distort the vision of what intelligence really is.  Aside from that, it will run the most competitive kids in to the ground.  It would make students lives easier and less pointless if valedictorian were be abolished.

The Great Gatsby: Chapters 6 - 7

(1)“‘I know I’m not very popular. I don’t give big parties. I suppose you’ve got to make your house into a pigsty in order to have any friends — in the modern world.’” (ch 7)

This sentence is used to show how ridiculous being popular is in the modern times.  Being popular is not about who you are.  Being popular is about what you do and how many things you have.  If you throw huge social events and have lots of money, you will be popular.  If you enjoy quiet evenings alone and have a moderate amount of money, you will not be nearly as popular.  Fitzgerald throws “-in the modern world.” at the end to say that it was not always this way and to further mock the idea of modern popularity.

(2)"...an infinite number of women tried to separate him from his money." (ch 6)

Fitzgerald is trying to express that women in society only care about money.  He is saying the a majority of them are becoming superficial and no longer care about having personal relationships with people as long as they just want money.  The word infinite is used to show that a huge amount of people are becoming this way.  The word separate is used because they do not want the person and his money, they only want the money, and will exploit that person in any way they can in order to get to it.

(3)“Nope.” After a pause he added “sir.” in a dilatory, grudging way.(ch 7)

The author is trying to get across the lack of friendliness in society.  This dialogue was taken from a butler.  Butlers are supposed to act politely, yet this one is acting rude.  This is to show that even the old constants are no longer true.  If butlers are always polite, and now they are not, then common people are given an even lower standard.  Because the rude butler then becomes the standard for how polite should look, everyday people will become much less polite.  This is what Fitzgerald is saying about society, they are no longer friendly or polite. They are rude.

(4)“‘I wanted somebody who wouldn’t gossip.’” (ch7)

The author is trying to make a point about character.  Gatsby fired his entire staff because they were all guilty of gossiping.  Consider Gatsby’s staff as a sample of people and that there were only ten of them.  That would make ten out of ten people who could not be trusted.  These are pretty bad odds.  This is a hyperbole, much like the term “infinitely” Fitzgerald used previously.  An overwhelming amount of people in society have poor character and gossip.

(5)”The most grotesque and fantastic conceits haunted him in his bed at night.”

Everyone experiences conflict.  It would be impossible to find person who does not lie awake in bed at night while the troubles of his day overflow his tired mind.  Gatsby has everything and yet he still has problems.  Wealthy people worry just as everyone else does.

2.1 Non-Fiction Blog Response

Some people live their lives to be perfect.  However, perfection cannot be accomplished.  You could compare shooting for perfection to attempting to hit the moon with a child's slingshot.  It simply is impossible.  Everything in life is based on expectations.  You have expectations for yourself as well as other people around you.  In turn, other people have expectations for you as well.  This process is done subconsciously.  Most people have many of their expectations set way too high.  When these expectations are not met, disappointment is experienced.  If you are constantly disappointed you will never be satisfied.  This is why it is important to keep some expectations realistic.

No one should expect themselves to be perfect.  The strive to become perfect, however, has pushed progression in society since in the beginning of time.  Thousands of years ago, if people were satisfied with lugging things around on their backs, the wheel would have never been invented.  If the wheel were never invented, it could be said that technology would never have advanced.  With all of this dissatisfaction comes progression.  With this progression we, as a society, become more perfect.  Every time we jump up a level the threshold increases.  This is why we can never be entirely perfect, there is always something more that can be done.

When Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb, he did not get it right his first try.  He was dissatisfied that he did not live up to his and others expectations for himself.  He pushed himself again and again to make electronic light possible.  Finally after 1000 different tries, Edison created the lightbulb.  It is very important that the human race progresses.  If we are dissatisfied with dying, we will constantly try to come up with ways to prevent death.  It will push biological engineers to discover cures for diseases.  It will push scientists to create vast techniques to expand the life expectancy of human beings.  If we did not have the energy to move forward, we would become extinct.  Because we feel the need to strive for perfection, we constantly look for ways to stay alive in the future.  Currently, this applies to the climate change.  Scientists are trying to discover ways to create clean energy and clean up the environment.  If they can accomplish this, the world will be safer for our children or grandchildren.  Without the force of perfection pushing them forward, they have no chance of making this happen.

The practice of striving to be perfect should be used in moderation.  You can’t have high expectation for everything.  If all of your expectations are too high you will always be infinitely disappointed.  If people are so beat into the ground because they feel like everything is wrong, no progression will ever be made. We must have a set of expectations where only a moderate amount of them are high.  This way, progression would be made and disappointment would be experienced in a lesser degree.

The Great Gatsby: Chapters 5 - 4

(1.)“Benny McClenahan arrived always with four girls. They were never quite the same ones in physical person, but they were so identical one with another that it inevitably seemed they had been there before.” (Ch 4)

Fitzgerald is arguing that society is superficial.  Benny always had four girls with him, although they were not the same people, they might as well have been.  It appears that, because this man is always showing up with different women, that he does not truly know them, but just picks them up.  They all act the same because they are shallow and unintelligent, which is how they were picked up so easily, and also why they had been picked up in the first place.  Society does not care about individuality or the quality of people, but in the quantity of them. (101 words)

(2.)“‘I’ll tell you God’s truth.’ His right hand suddenly ordered divine retribution to stand by. ‘I am the son of some wealthy people in the Middle West — all dead now. I was brought up in America but educated at Oxford, because all my ancestors have been educated there for many years. It is a family tradition.’” (Ch 4)

Fitzgerald uses this dialogue to argue that tradition is important and not all wealthy people have forgotten that.  Gatsby was wealthy and could have gone anywhere he wanted for education.  He was living in America and had been brought up there, so it would have been more convenient for him to find a school in America.  However, he went to Oxford, the traditional school for his family, because continuing that legacy was important to him.  This shows character in Gatsby, something that Fitzgerald believed was lacking in society. (90 words)

(3.)“They moved with a fast crowd, all of them young and rich and wild, but she came out with an absolutely perfect reputation. Perhaps because she doesn’t drink. It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard-drinking people. You can hold your tongue, and, moreover, you can time any little irregularity of your own so that everybody else is so blind that they don’t see or care.”(ch 4)

People who are wealthy are famous in society.  Because they are constantly on a stage for people, their actions are judged much harsher than would be for the common man.  This is why Daisy had a better reputation than others in her family.  The rest of them drank alcohol all the time, where she did not.  Fitzgerald is using this as a ratio for the rest of society.  He is saying that the majority of people drink a lot and act crazy.  The minority of people still have a proper lifestyle and a good reputation.  (95 words)

(4.)“There was a light dignified knocking at the front door. I went out and opened it. Gatsby, pale as death, with his hands plunged like weights in his coat pockets, was standing in a puddle of water glaring tragically into my eyes.” (Ch 5)

Wealthy people are human beings too.  Fitzgerald is showing that even the most wealthy people still do not have perfect carefree lives.  Human beings are never entirely satisfied, and even though you have the money to buy everything you could ever want, you still can have the same problems as common people. (52 words.)

(5.)“...he’d agreed to pay five years’ taxes on all the neighboring cottages if the owners would have their roofs thatched with straw. Perhaps their refusal took the heart out of his plan to Found a Family — he went into an immediate decline. His children sold his house with the black wreath still on the door.” (Ch 5)

Fitzgerald wrote this as a message that society is not interested in the old ways of doing things.  If you try to do those things you will be left out in the cold.  A man told a group of people he’d pay all the taxes on their homes if they just had a thatched roof.  None of them would comply.  Even his children sold his house.  Society left him in the dust because they were progressing forward, and would not keep any of the ideals or traditions of the past. (102 words)

Let Teenagers Try Adulthood

The author of Let Teenagers Try Adulthood is correct on his view of high school in general.  The majority of high school classes do not prepare students for life outside of high school.  This being said, education in America should certainly be reformed.

For example, imagine a student with the interest of going into the computer science field.  This student is going to need knowledge of math, especially algebra, and a lot of it.  Great, high school requires four years of math on progressing levels of difficulty.  While you would think that would be good enough, most math classes do not properly explain the math that is being done.  Generally, it is explained as when you see this pattern in the equation, use this method.  It is not, however, explained as this is what this equation is used for and what it means in real world practice.  If advanced math is being taught in the schools, it should be done so in a way that it can actually be applied.  Otherwise it is almost entirely useless information that everyone will immediately dump right after the end of the school year.  

For the most part, this is what happens.  The knowledge gained in the classroom is deemed useless by the brain and the sector is erased so that it may hold more valuable data.  Of course, this is not just about math courses, but any and all subjects taught in high school.  If they are not useful for the student they should either be done away with or remapped so that they are taught more practically.  High school should be a place where students learn to be functioning members of society in the adult world.  If educators are not teaching practical information, the students actual knowledge of the subject is null and the purpose of high school is void.

In high school, students should be taught why the information is relevant and how to apply it in the future.  If this is done, students will be more prepared for the rest of their lives and be more successful.  If students are more successful, the nation as a whole will be more successful as students are the future.  This is why it is extremely important for high schools to teach practically, if they do not, progress is not being made.  In fact, if students are being taught incorrectly, as a society, we could fall back on ourselves.

All this being said, it is very important that high schools ready students for their adult life.  Without an education including the application of information, all of that instruction is useless and will have to be retaught when it is needed.  If the information being taught in the school is important, it must be explained on a real world level.  Otherwise, it is almost as if nothing is being taught at all.  If nothing is being learned in a place of education,  it should be reformed so that it may provide education in a more efficient way.

The Great Gatsby: Chapters 1 - 3

(1) “I believe that on the first night I went to Gatsby’s house I was one of the few guests who had actually been invited.” (ch. 3)

In this sentence, the author is trying to single himself out in order for himself to look more important.  He is distinguishing himself from the others who were not invited by saying that he had been “actually” invited.  On top of that, the author had been “one of the few guests” who had been selected by Gatsby, the host, out of all the many people who could have been chosen but were not.  The author, by stating that he were one in a very small group of people against the majority of others, makes himself appear to be of higher prestige in comparison to the uninvited guests.

(2)“‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’” (ch 1)

The author is using this quote from her father to get across that educated and wealthy people shouldn’t look down on the poor and uneducated.  This is because those poor and uneducated people did not choose to be so, and if they had the opportunity, they would gladly sit on the other side of the fence.  However, because of history, their history and their ancestors’, it is difficult for these people to be at the same social standard as those living currently.  For instance, if ones great grandfather invented bacon, it would be easy to assume the current generation of said family would be at a higher standard of living than a family of those whose ancestors were lazy and accomplished nothing.  That is why the author is saying to consider that not everyone has an advantage and this should be taken into account before making criticism.

(3)“‘They’ll keep out of my way,’ she insisted. ‘It takes two to make an accident.’” (ch. 3)

The author is arguing that it does not take two people to have an accident.  The carelessness of one person can cause massive problems for others.  This is apparent in driving.  While driving a car, the driver is responsible for themselves and everyone else on the road.  If one person fails to meet this responsibility it could result in another drivers car getting dinged up, injury, or death.  It only takes one person not following instructions or not paying attention for an entire situation to crumble into negative repercussions.  The author is trying to make others aware that they must not rely on others all the time and that they must be mindful of their own actions.

(4)“Conduct may be founded on the hard rock or the wet marshes, but after a certain point I don’t care what it’s founded on.” (ch 1)

In this statement the author is saying that manners may be maintained strictly or loosely but as long as they are maintained it does not matter.  Furthermore, this seems to be a take on an old phrase: it’s better to have had and lost, than to have never had it at all.  The author is trying to get across that it isn’t important how high the standards are for a certain thing, but that it is important to have standards.

(5)“I hope she'll be a fool--that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” (ch 1)

The author is making a point that women in society are not treated as equals.  In patriarchal society, women are stereotyped as not as intelligent as men.  Therefore, if a majority of society perceives women this way, anything outside that boundary will be strange and unusual to them.  Therefore, if a girl was ignorant and beautiful she could coast through life with practically little hardship.