Breakthrough Writer

1A Study Guide for “Love and War in Cyberspace” by Katy Vine 380

 

Part One. Lexicon.

 

1. savvy, the ability to navigate in social circles with poise, confidence, and tact
2. socially inept, the opposite of savvy (see paragraph 1); see 383, bottom paragraph
3. promise of modernity, see paragraph 3: Technology will fulfill all your emotional and materialistic needs, yet it’s a lie: you’re bored, your life is in a vacuum and you seek even greater technology to quiet your restless soul.
4. Slippery slope: one misguided step towards happiness leads to several misguided steps until one descends into madness: this is the essay in a nutshell.
5. T-3 Pipe: fiber-optic data line that can handle the telecommunication needs of a small country. “Come for the bandwidth, Stay for the Community” 381 bottom
6. Monolithic group: 383, second to last paragraph and 386 bottom and 387 top
7. Four Basic emotional needs: sense of belonging, sense of personal distinction and identity, a job that interest you and utilizes your deepest talents, to love and to be loved; see page 383 top: Walden promises a sense of belonging and identity and even love and many people work in the computer industry so that Walden is everything to them. See bottom of 390 in which Bosch buys a house, but moves back to Walden; see how close-knit the group is on page 391, tackling burglars, for example.
8. Protocols; rules needed for social interaction to preserve respect and order. Without protocols there is chaos and disrespect. These adult children have no social etiquette, see page 385 and 386, the violent language.
9. Anomie; breakdown of social norms and values resulting in chaos; see 392-394; it becomes necessary for property owner Birney to issue new rules at bottom of 394.
10. Hedonism; the desperate attempt to overcome one’s sense of loneliness and emptiness through pleasure-seeking; it always results in an emotional hangover and a feeling of emptiness that’s greater than before.
11. Virtual World (from Wikipedia): A Virtual World is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars. These avatars are usually depicted as textual, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional graphical representations, although other forms are possible[1] (auditory[2] and touch sensations for example). Some, but not all, virtual worlds allow for multiple users. 

 

 

Part Two. A Failed Experiment in Unlimited Freedom. We learn that real freedom requires conditions. Therefore unlimited freedom, the kind we see at Walden, is a false freedom.

 

 

Unlimited Freedom at Walden Is a False Freedom

 

1. E-mail communication is not free. There must be face-to-face accountability; if you can’t say what you have to say to another human’s face, you are a coward and a fraud. Too many people hiding behind their computers speaking reckless thoughts from their mind.
2. E-mail communication is dangerous because you’re hiding under the delusional safety of your computer. In fact, your raw unedited thoughts are dangerous and inappropriate. Your thoughts should be measured, contemplated, and edited. That’s what makes you a mature, thinking person. The stream of consciousness that spews forth in an e-mail is the rant and tantrum of a spoiled child.

 

3. Squandering all your free time on an addiction is not freedom; it’s enslavement and the Multi-User Dungeon gamers are slaves to their addiction. See 380
4. Technology without wisdom will kill you. These renters have the broadest band-width in the world, but they can’t handle it. The computer modem attaches to their brain and their minds become warped; they go insane. See page 383
5. Walden gives the loners and computer geeks a sense of belonging, which you need to be free, but this is false belonging. This is symbiosis; an unhealthy mutual dependence that results in retarding your emotional growth. See 381
6. A cohesive healthy community must have protocols of etiquette to create a sense of safety, respect, and dignity. But there are no boundaries at Walden. See the “bombastic” and violent language on page 386.
7. A healthy community has diversity of people with diversity of ideas to challenge one’s way of seeing the world. But the people at Walden are a monolithic tribe. They’re all the same and as a result they’re maladapted to the real world, which is diverse. The world isn’t a bunch of computer geeks and hiding in a cell with other computer geeks isn’t the answer. See page 383
8. See page 390 in which we learn that hedonism leads to despair. That kind of extreme behavior is always followed by a crash. Your whole life can’t be a party. You’ll burn-out. You’ll find yourself lost. People who party all the time age faster than the rest of us. They look old. Hedonism wears you out. It’s not freedom. It’s a desperate attempt to escape your sense of loneliness and isolation and it never works. Read Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving.
9. There are no moral absolutes and no sense that this is right and this is wrong; as a result, Walden is a place of chaos and confusion.
10. A Virtual World is a place where you don’t find freedom. You lose yourself to insanity. 

 

Part Three. The 8 Characteristics of Virtual World

 

1. The VW allows you to escape your daily frustrations.
2. The VW allows you to escape from the intense pain of having no intimacy in your life, both romantic and social.
3. The VW becomes a way of procrastinating your responsibilities.
4. The VW can incite chemical reactions in your brain that become addictive.
5. The VW presents you with manageable challenges, giving you a sense of control and achievement when you would otherwise feel overwhelmed by a lack of control and a sense of personal failure.
6. It’s easier to go back and delete your mistakes in a VW and star all over again than it is in real life.
7. The VW allows you to erase or hide your real self, the one you either despise or feel is inadequate or both, and it allows you to recreate yourself with bells and whistles so that you have more confidence.
8. The VW provides you with a sense of belonging in the “online community” when in the real world you’re overcome by a sense of constant loneliness and isolation. 

 

Part Four Defining the foundation of your essay—your thesis

 

1.  One sentence that declares or asserts a position that can be demonstrated with examples.

2.    The examples can be expressed in mapping statements or mapping components.

3.    Avoids being self-evident or obvious but creates new insights.

4.    A good thesis is visceral, from the gut, meaning you have an immediate emotional connection to it. The intellect comes later.

 

Examples:

 

Not a thesis, a fact:

During the final years of the Bush Administration, 80 % of Americans polled believe that America is on the “wrong track.”

 

Americans’ pessimistic attitude regarding the direction of our country can be attributed to _________________, _____________________, _____________________, and _________________________.

 

The cost of the war in Iraq in both blood and treasure.

The national debt.

Increased gas costs and price of crude oil.

Biggest jobless rate jump in month in 20 years. (5 to 5.5 %)

 

 

McMahon’s thesis for “Love and War in Cyberspace”

 

Walden is a failed experiment in the promise of unlimited freedom through technology. This woeful failure can be attributed to ________________, ___________________, and ____________________, and results in ___________________, ___________________, and __________________________________.

 

Katy Vine’s essay shows us the dangers of living in a Virtual World, which include __________________, ___________________, _________________, and _________________________.

 

“Love and War in Cyberspace” 380. 5-page outline: In the first 2 pages, analyze the causes of social dysfunction described in the essay. Then in about 3 pages, use research to show how the apartment complex is a microcosm for an emerging social dysfunction in our Age of Information. As such the thesis would like this: The apartment complex is a microcosm for an emerging social dysfunction emerging in our Information Age, which consists of __________________, ___________________, ___________________, and _______________________. You would flesh out the mapping components for the essay's last 3 pages.

 

 

More Stylized Thesis with a More Distinct Writing Voice:

Take a bunch of socially dysfunctional computer nerds in desperate search of belonging, stick them in a yuppie techno-apartment flexing its steroidal broadband muscles and you’ve got Walden, a microcosm of the types of addictions Americans will face in the near future. These addictions will include a sick attachment to trumped-up, often noxious alter egos, the need to vent without boundaries, the preference of virtual worlds to the real world and all the chemicals the body requires to stay up in a ghoul-like existence where sleep is little more than an afterthought.

Research Links:

Virtual Reality: Danger Ahead

Real Hope in a Virtual World (unrealistic expectations)

Geeking Out (addiction)

Second Skin Documentary

CNN (addiction)

 

 

 

 

1A Lesson for "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning"

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One. Why is war a “potent, lethal addiction?”

1. War “forms its own culture,” meaning it’s a lifestyle and when you develop a lifestyle eventually you cannot learn to live any other kind of life. Over time, you lose the free will to do other things. See page 369, bottom paragraph.
2. The media and other war addicts endow war with a powerful mythology, attributing qualities to war that war does not really possess: excitement, nobility, transcendence, adventure. See page 369, bottom paragraph.
3. For all its carnage and destruction, war gives us a powerful, singular purpose, a powerful meaning to fill the void, the meaninglessness, the triviality that too often defines our lives. See page 370 top.
4. War galvanizes support by becoming a rallying cry, a crusade or a jihad. It brings people together with a unified purpose. See page 370.
5. War simplifies the good guy and El Otro, the Other, the demonized essay. And loving ourselves so grandly while hating others so completely becomes a narcotic. See page 371 top. Also see page 374 where Hedges argues that war “makes the world understandable, a black and white tableau of them and us.”
6. Violence becomes an addiction so that even a civilian like Hedges is overcome with bloodlust. See page 371 in which he fights with an airline clerk, is stabbed in the cheek and proudly wears his blood stains on the plane.
7. War provides a time to embrace heroism and comradeship and false unity, which combats the banality and emptiness of existence. See page 372 top as war survivors acknowledge the hell they went through but at the same time long for the war days.
8. War produces a dramatic, Hollywood-like statement that exhilarates us. See page 372 bottom.
9. War produces patriotism, which is a thinly veiled form of self-worship. See page 374 top.
10. War is a god who demands the living sacrifice of our young people, a sort of sick rite of passage. See page 374.

 

Part Two. The Impulse for War Is Irrepressible

Humans are at their best when faced with conflict and when confronting a challenge. The solution to Hedges diagnosis that we addicted to war, therefore, is to re-direct the war impulse to productive pursuits such as the following examples:

 

1. We wage war against overeating and being fat.
2. We wage war against mindless watching of TV, mindless consumerism or some other addiction.
3. We wage war against our violent temper that causes us to go into road rage.
4. We wage war against our cynicism and judgmental attitude that compels us to unfairly castigate, mock, and condemn others.
5. We wage war against our pathological need to lie to others, or at the very least, to hold up a false image of ourselves to the public.
6. We wage war against our proclivity for procrastination, which compromises our academic performance.

 

Part Three. Essay Option:

Compare Christopher Hedges’ essay to a war film: Born on the Fourth of July, The Deer Hunter, or Platoon.

Method:

In a page, summarize the major points in “Love Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning,” emphasizing the mythology of war that becomes so addictive. Then in another page summarize the major developments of the film you’ve chosen. Then write a thesis that argues that the film shows us the mythology of war followed by our disillusionment with war’s mythology. Your body paragraphs will show the mythology and the de-mythology of war as dramatized in the film.

Part Four. Some similar revelations soldiers made when returning from Vietnam (some say there are parallels to current Iraq occupation) in the films referred to above:

1. The soldiers could not transition back to civilian life and be functional members of their family and society.
2. The soldiers found out that the government lied to them—about the war’s objectives and the government’s care for the soldiers after they were used.
3. The war ended up being about nothing except corporate profits.
4. Many soldiers fought with guys who were taking drugs and not fighting according to laws of combat but committing atrocities: murder, rape, and torture of innocent civilians.

1A Lesson Plan for “Cuteness” (134)

IA: Images of Cuteness

Part One. What is cuteness?

One. Contrary to the idea of being attractive, cuteness is essentially “loveable ugliness.”

Two. Any creature is loveable because it is helpless, deformed, and crippled. These creatures often have stubs for limbs and warped, exaggerated features. It is grotesque and malformed. See page 135 top.

Three. The embodiment of innocence, see page 134.

Four. Sad, saucer-like eyes.

Five. A creature that triggers maternal feelings, the need to suffocate the object with love and care.

Six. A creature that looks inhuman and even alien. See 135.

Seven. Modeled after trolls.

Eight. A creature mutated to the point of being an outcast. 135.

Nine. Hideous and rejected, the cute object needs to be rescued by us. 135 bottom.

Ten. It is a product that needs to be “adopted.” Read: Needs to be purchased. 136.

 

Part Two. Why is being caught up in cuteness so immoral?

One. Cuteness is all about being sadistic, making the cute object helpless and enjoying the power over it as you “rescue” it.

Two. We transfer our sadistic orientation from toys to our children. 136.

Three. We seek to maim the very thing we idolize. 136.

Four. Cuteness compels us to dehumanize human beings because they are only adorable as long as they’re helpless, maimed, comatose or semi-conscious. 137

Five. Cuteness encourages narcissism because it creates the illusion of being all-powerful and projects human traits to animals. And we like our babies to imitate us and show us how cute they are by showing how they want to be like us. 138 bottom. And 139 top.

Six. No child can forever live up to the cuteness ideal, so that unhappiness and disappointment are inevitable. 140

Seven. The desire for cuteness is all about having total control over something that is helpless. Therefore the craving for cuteness is evidence of a person who is needy and mentally ill. 

Eight. Cuteness is not something we find in a person or creature. It is something we DO to that person or creature. We maim it. See page 136, second paragraph. 

Part Three. What is anti-cute?

One.  We create the demonic child as an antidote to the cute child. 140 and 141.

Two. One extreme idealization of a child feeds its opposite. 141

Three. Cynicism against childhood has been born from cuteness and this is just as unhealthy as the cult of cuteness. 141

Four. The obnoxious child, like Bart Simpson, is a reaction to cuteness. 141

 

Part Four. Writing Option for Essay #3:

Write a contrast essay in which you analyze the features of cuteness and anti-cuteness in popular culture. You can use toys, greeting cards, TV shows, films, anything from popular culture that embodies cuteness and anti-cuteness.

 

A thesis might look like this:

 

Popular culture images of cuteness such as _____________,________________, and ____________________, can be characterized by _____________________, _______________________, and __________________________. In contrast, anti-cute images, such as ____________________, ___________________, and ____________________ are distinguished by ______________________, _____________________, and ____________________________. 

Another sample thesis: Film and TV that adulate cuteness are, as Daniel Harris correctly points out, encouraging a type of dysfunction and immorality as evidenced by ____________________, _____________________, _______________________, and ____________________________. 

Another sample thesis: The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park are cartoons that champion the antithesis of cuteness: the anti-cute. This anti-cute component is a valuable moral tonic waging war against cuteness by replacing the cute child with a more healthy and alive character distinguished by ____________________, _______________________, _____________________, and ___________________________. 

For the above, you might look at sarcasm, bold candor, mockery of cultural icons, and passive-aggression. 

Related Link:

Cuteocracy

Other Research Links:

Salon

Media Reader

1A: Images of Anti-Cute

Part One. What is cuteness?

One. Contrary to the idea of being attractive, cuteness is essentially “loveable ugliness.”

Two. Any creature is loveable because it is helpless, deformed, and crippled. These creatures often have stubs for limbs and warped, exaggerated features. It is grotesque and malformed. See page 135 top.

Three. The embodiment of innocence, see page 134.

Four. Sad, saucer-like eyes.

Five. A creature that triggers maternal feelings, the need to suffocate the object with love and care.

Six. A creature that looks inhuman and even alien. See 135.

Seven. Modeled after trolls.

Eight. A creature mutated to the point of being an outcast. 135.

Nine. Hideous and rejected, the cute object needs to be rescued by us. 135 bottom.

Ten. It is a product that needs to be “adopted.” Read: Needs to be purchased. 136.

 

Part Two. Why is being caught up in cuteness so immoral?

One. Cuteness is all about being sadistic, making the cute object helpless and enjoying the power over it as you “rescue” it.

Two. We transfer our sadistic orientation from toys to our children. 136.

Three. We seek to maim the very thing we idolize. 136.

Four. Cuteness compels us to dehumanize human beings because they are only adorable as long as they’re helpless, maimed, comatose or semi-conscious. 137

Five. Cuteness encourages narcissism because it creates the illusion of being all-powerful and projects human traits to animals. And we like our babies to imitate us and show us how cute they are by showing how they want to be like us. 138 bottom. And 139 top.

Six. No child can forever live up to the cuteness ideal, so that unhappiness and disappointment are inevitable. 140

Seven. The desire for cuteness is all about having total control over something that is helpless. Therefore the craving for cuteness is evidence of a person who is needy and mentally ill. 

Eight. Cuteness is not something we find in a person or creature. It is something we DO to that person or creature. We maim it. See page 136, second paragraph. 

Part Three. What is anti-cute?

One.  We create the demonic child as an antidote to the cute child. 140 and 141.

Two. One extreme idealization of a child feeds its opposite. 141

Three. Cynicism against childhood has been born from cuteness and this is just as unhealthy as the cult of cuteness. 141

Four. The obnoxious child, like Bart Simpson, is a reaction to cuteness. 141

 

Part Four. Writing Option for Essay #3:

Write a contrast essay in which you analyze the features of cuteness and anti-cuteness in popular culture. You can use toys, greeting cards, TV shows, films, anything from popular culture that embodies cuteness and anti-cuteness.

 

A thesis might look like this:

 

Popular culture images of cuteness such as _____________,________________, and ____________________, can be characterized by _____________________, _______________________, and __________________________. In contrast, anti-cute images, such as ____________________, ___________________, and ____________________ are distinguished by ______________________, _____________________, and ____________________________. 

Another sample thesis: Film and TV that adulate cuteness are, as Daniel Harris correctly points out, encouraging a type of dysfunction and immorality as evidenced by ____________________, _____________________, _______________________, and ____________________________. 

Another sample thesis: The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park are cartoons that champion the antithesis of cuteness: the anti-cute. This anti-cute component is a valuable moral tonic waging war against cuteness by replacing the cute child with a more healthy and alive character distinguished by ____________________, _______________________, _____________________, and ___________________________. 

For the above, you might look at sarcasm, bold candor, mockery of cultural icons, and passive-aggression. 

Related Link:

Cuteocracy

Other Research Links:

Salon

Media Reader

1A: Images of Anti-Cute

1A Lesson for “Do the Right Thing” (46)

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Part One. Lexicon

 

 

1. Tabula rasa, blank slate; we’re born with no morals but learn them through social conditioning.
2. The Kantian; from the philosopher Kant; we’re born with the Moral Law inscribed in our chest so we have an innate understanding of what’s right and what’s wrong.
3. Miscreant; a person with no morals
4. Nihilist; a person who does not believe in right or wrong or meaning. We are born into a world of meaningless nothingness and there is nothing for us to do but “get over the Man” and extract as much pleasure as we can before we die.
5. The Self-Preservationist: I got mine. Get yours. In other words, the Self-Preservationist believes he has no moral responsibility to others.
6. Hobbesian; based on the philosopher Thomas Hobbes who saw human beings as barbarians who needed to be controlled by religious fear, the belief in Hell as a punishment for bad conduct and an Almighty Being to chastise and punish them when they were out of control. Society’s rulers need to inculcate the masses with various religious fears until these fears are internalized and have a controlling, taming effect on our Inner Barbarian.
7. Inculcate: to teach through tireless repetition
8. Moral absolutism: There are timeless, absolute moral laws that can’t be bent, compromised or mitigated no matter what the circumstances.
9. Moral relativism: The idea that special circumstances should allow us to bend the rules.
10. Social Darwinist: I must strengthen myself and let everyone else worry about themselves. If the weak need my help, the hell with them. Let them die off so that the human race can be strengthened as the strong get stronger and the weak die off.
11. BS Artist: There are no rules. I just make “rules” up as I go along.
12. The Moral Sycophant: You are a powerful manipulator who uses your cunning and cleverness to fool and trick people to your advantage. It does not matter that what you do is wrong. What matters is that you do your craft well and as a result you are worthy of my respect and admiration. Someday I would even like to be like you.
13. The Moral Purist: You are a powerful manipulator who uses your cunning and cleverness to fool and trick people to your advantage. What you do is morally abhorrent and reprehensible and I will use every fiber of my being to hunt you down and expose you for the fraud that you are.
14.  The Bleeding Heart: People are not responsible for their wrong actions. They are victims to the greater crimes and injustices of society. We should therefore not spend our energy correcting individual behavior or morality. Rather, we should focus on creating a socially just world that will encourage benevolent behavior.
15. The Moral Skeptic: People are responsible for their individual actions and the fools who embrace the Bleeding Heart view commit the grave mistake of enabling lazy, immoral people, not making them accountable for their bad actions and in turn encouraging their most virulent narcissism to raise its ugly head. Bleeding Hearts are complicit in the crimes of the miscreants they defend.
16. The Moral Determinist: You never change. You’re born a certain way and that’s it. What you see is what you get. Your genes, your biology, your parents, your social conditioning, your schooling, your economic class—all these things determine your fate and you can’t do a damn thing about it, so shut up, stop your whining and accept your fate like a man. 

 

Part Two. Study Questions.

 

One. What is cultural relativism? See pages 46 and 47 in which we see that different cultures have different moral standards.

 

Four responses to the ticket crisis:

 

1. moral absolutism says it’s forbidden to steal, period.
2. Contractual agreement takes priority over stealing prohibition.
3. An uncaring society deserves to be victims of theft and, by implication, other crimes.
4. Nihilism; screw it; anything goes because there is no such thing as right and wrong

 

Two. What is the essay’s main question? Do we universally share a moral sense or are morals an artificial construction designed to inhibit the Hobbesian throng?

 

Hobbesian refers to the worldview, from the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, that human beings are animals or barbarians unless the force of fear keeps their barbaric impulses in check.

 

Some criticize the Hobbesian worldview, which I share for better or worse, as being paranoid, unduly pessimistic, and misanthropic. Of course, a Hobbesian would call himself a “realist.”

 

Three. What is Kant’s Moral Imperative? See page 49, top.

 

Four. How do the two genders moralize differently? 49, top.

 

Five. What are moral instincts? An unspoken revulsion to several categories of human behavior.

 

1. betrayal
2. cowardice
3. cruelty
4. sloth (laziness)
5. greed
6. selfishness
7. willful ignorance
8. using and manipulating others
9. leeching or being a parasite of others
10. dishonesty, especially with intent to deceive (as opposed to sparing someone’s feelings or protecting someone)

 

 

Six. How does the term tsika confuse the assertion that morality is universal? Because tskika emphasizes manner, and we can infer appearances, more than it does morals. See page 54.

 

Seven. What is the moral emphasis with toddlers? Mean and nice vs. right and wrong. See page 55.

 

Part Three: Writing Option for Essay #4 (based on #5 “Writing” on page 59)

 

Write a contrast essay that highlights the differences between morality as an innate sense and morality as an artificial convention taught by culture. Is the distinction between “innate morality” and “conventional morality” legitimate? Explain with 4 mapping statements. For your essay to be successful, I recommend that you narrow the focus of your discussion to one controversial topic. For example, take the topic of polygamy and the religious cults in the United States in which 40-year-old husbands have 20 wives, all in their early teens. Should we "tolerate" polygamy in the name of moral relativism? Or should we condemn polygamy under the doctrine of moral absolutism?

 

Another Essay Option: 

Argue that the film A Simple Plan bolsters the view of moral absolutism by showing us good characters (we have a model of moral goodness), by showing us the perversion of those good characters (through greed and temptation), by showing us the characters’ refusal to reverse the moral perversion process, and by showing us the characters entering a Point of No Return from which there morals are forever damaged. 

Your structure should be as thus: In a page, summarize “Do the Right Thing.” In another page summarize the film A Simple Plan. Then write your thesis in which you argue that the film asserts a position of moral absolutism. Your mapping statements should correspond to the 4 points in the essay option’s first paragraph.

Research Link

Salon

1C Quiz:

In a paragraph, explain the single most terrifying conclusion we learn from the Milgram Experiment. 

 

1A Lesson Plan for “The Consequences—Undoing Sanity” (299)

Part One. Lexicon

1. Anhedonia: you reach a state of unhappiness from which there is no return. Once you wear this quality on your sleeve, you become unemployable.
2. What’s harder on a man, begging for love or work? Work. Humiliation results in anhedonia.
3. Inertia (see 300 top); paralysis that feeds on itself.
4. Male vs. female hardwiring and their different effects in the workplace: Women are more adaptable, take more risks, and seek change. In contrast, men like routine, comfort, and stability. In sum, women fare better than men in the face of unemployment for 5 reasons: 1. Men's macho pride and identity are inextricably linked to their jobs. 2. Women are more resilient. They bounce back after a crisis. 3. Women are more social than men. Women cooperate. Men on the other hand negotiate. 4. Women take care of themselves during their unemployment. Men on the other hand become shut-ins, withdraw in their homes, and transform into disheveled homeless people. 5. Women thrive on change; men thrive on stagnation and fixed routine.
5. Unemployment is referred to as the “acuteness of the blow”: See page 301 in which the person is so traumatized he cannot face the anxieties, the rejection, and the sense of insignificance all over again, so he sabotages future prospects.
6. The double hit of unemployment: The feeling of being worthless coupled with self-blame: See page 301, last paragraph.
7. “Finessing layoffs”: See page 302 top. The attempt to “finesse” a layoff is futile.
8. The layoff is followed by a breaking of emotional bonds with others; it has a rippling effect. The person withdraws into depression. See page 302.
9. Despondence and apathy set in.
10. Ennui (the cycle: despondence, apathy and inertia, ennui, and then anhedonia)
11. Husband’s unemployment devastates the wife: She has to carry her soul, and his, up the mountain.
12. “Going postal”
13. Unemployment spreads shame through the entire family: See page 307 bottom.
14. Shell-shocked: You become so traumatized that you build a defensive wall that is worse than the problem that made you shell-shocked in the first place. (describe the student with the scowl on her face)  

 

Part Two: Summary of Unemployment Effects

1. family withdraws from one another

2. children are "emotional sponges" and internalize and absorb their parents' emotional trauma.

3. alcoholism increases

4. divorce increases

5. suicide (murder-suicide in Wilmington)

6. long-term stigma

7. long-term low self-esteem and self-blame

8. long-term physical ailments including hypertension, ulcers, chronic fatigue, etc.

9. women reach out for social support more than men so women tend to fare better.

10. Vicious cycle of unemployment: You become depressed, which makes you less employable, which makes you more depressed, and so on and so on. 

Part Three: Writing Options

Option #A:

Write a comparison and contrast essay that explores the similarities and differences between the way men and women handle unemployment. Your first two pages should explore the similarities; the second half should examine the discrepancies.

 

Option #B:

Write an informative essay on the psychological damage and family trauma resulting from unemployment.  

Option #C:

Using no fewer than 3 research sources, write a survival manual for someone who lost his or her job. Evaluate five things that the person must do to avoid some of the traps discussed earlier. 

Research Sources:

Predicting Self-Esteem During Unemployment

Supporting Your Spouse Through Unemployment

Unemployment Blues

How Pink Slips Hurt More Than Workers

Wolf at the Door

Part One. Lexicon

1. Anhedonia: you reach a state of unhappiness from which there is no return. Once you wear this quality on your sleeve, you become unemployable.
2. What’s harder on a man, begging for love or work? Work. Humiliation results in anhedonia.
3. Inertia (see 300 top); paralysis that feeds on itself.
4. Male vs. female hardwiring and their different effects in the workplace: Women are more adaptable, take more risks, and seek change. In contrast, men like routine, comfort, and stability. In sum, women fare better than men in the face of unemployment for 5 reasons: 1. Men's macho pride and identity are inextricably linked to their jobs. 2. Women are more resilient. They bounce back after a crisis. 3. Women are more social than men. Women cooperate. Men on the other hand negotiate. 4. Women take care of themselves during their unemployment. Men on the other hand become shut-ins, withdraw in their homes, and transform into disheveled homeless people. 5. Women thrive on change; men thrive on stagnation and fixed routine.
5. Unemployment is referred to as the “acuteness of the blow”: See page 301 in which the person is so traumatized he cannot face the anxieties, the rejection, and the sense of insignificance all over again, so he sabotages future prospects.
6. The double hit of unemployment: The feeling of being worthless coupled with self-blame: See page 301, last paragraph.
7. “Finessing layoffs”: See page 302 top. The attempt to “finesse” a layoff is futile.
8. The layoff is followed by a breaking of emotional bonds with others; it has a rippling effect. The person withdraws into depression. See page 302.
9. Despondence and apathy set in.
10. Ennui (the cycle: despondence, apathy and inertia, ennui, and then anhedonia)
11. Husband’s unemployment devastates the wife: She has to carry her soul, and his, up the mountain.
12. “Going postal”
13. Unemployment spreads shame through the entire family: See page 307 bottom.
14. Shell-shocked: You become so traumatized that you build a defensive wall that is worse than the problem that made you shell-shocked in the first place. (describe the student with the scowl on her face)  

 

Part Two: Summary of Unemployment Effects

1. family withdraws from one another

2. children are "emotional sponges" and internalize and absorb their parents' emotional trauma.

3. alcoholism increases

4. divorce increases

5. suicide (murder-suicide in Wilmington)

6. long-term stigma

7. long-term low self-esteem and self-blame

8. long-term physical ailments including hypertension, ulcers, chronic fatigue, etc.

9. women reach out for social support more than men so women tend to fare better.

10. Vicious cycle of unemployment: You become depressed, which makes you less employable, which makes you more depressed, and so on and so on. 

Part Three: Writing Options

Option #A:

Write a comparison and contrast essay that explores the similarities and differences between the way men and women handle unemployment. Your first two pages should explore the similarities; the second half should examine the discrepancies.

 

Option #B:

Write an informative essay on the psychological damage and family trauma resulting from unemployment.  

Option #C:

Using no fewer than 3 research sources, write a survival manual for someone who lost his or her job. Evaluate five things that the person must do to avoid some of the traps discussed earlier. 

Research Sources:

Predicting Self-Esteem During Unemployment

Supporting Your Spouse Through Unemployment

Unemployment Blues

How Pink Slips Hurt More Than Workers

Wolf at the Door

1A Lesson Plan for “AWOL in America: When Desertion Is the Only Option”

One: Lexicon

 

1. coercion
2. naiveté
3. conscientious objector : is an individual who, on religious, moral or ethical grounds, refuses to participate as a combatant in war
4. AWOL
5. Marginalized people: people with no education, resources, or support system who are apathetic, feeling no hope to improve their lives; consequently all their decisions are based on physical survival, nothing else.
6. Army’s manpower crisis (360) demand exceeds supply
7. Stop-loss orders (360) A commander must retain at least 85% of soldiers or he will have hell to pay.
8. Principle of Scarcity: Whenever there is a short supply of something, we lower our standards, food, mates, military, etc.
9. Docility, docile
10. Acquiescence, acquiesce, acquiescent 
11. Metamorphosis, drastic transformation for which there is often no return

 

Two. What 10 life lessons do we learn from this essay?

 

1. Morons and madmen reign in high places. Whenever you join an institution—any institution—don’t expect smart, competent, morally savory people to be on top. Expect the contrary to be true. Here you have a military system so desperate for recruits that is it yanking clueless people off the streets to fight a war that by all accounts is a catastrophic failure doomed to drain our country of all its resources and yet nearly impossible for us to leave. The Administration doesn’t even provide proper helmets, properly working gas masks, Hum-Vees and armor and parents are sending safety equipment to their children, paying out of their pockets.

 

 

2. Whenever there is a crisis, it is the clueless, helpless margins of society who get manipulated into be exploited for the uses of the higher-ups. Here we have the worse foreign policy decision every made in US history and smart people know not to get involved with it. So who gets into Iraq, mostly clueless people who don’t have the faintest idea of what they’re getting into. See page 361, top paragraph. See 361 bottom and 362 top.

 

 

3. When privileged and powerful people exploit you for their purposes, not only do the powerful not appreciate you for saving their butts, they insult you by not giving you any compensation. See page 361. Hordes of soldiers are calling hotlines for untreated injuries, mental illness, PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, violence, suicide, etc. 60 Minutes had a story about a VA hospital with sewage leaking everywhere, rats, roaches.

 

 

4. Whenever there’s a screw up, the people on top always defer the pain and punishment to the helpless underlings who don’t have a clue of what’s going on. Rather than admit their mistakes and pull out, the Administration saves face by continuing a war that results in the deaths of thousands of people, soldiers from working class America and innocent Iraqis whose casualties number in the hundreds of thousands.

 

 

5. Bureaucrats do whatever they have to do to save their butts, usually at the expense of doing the right thing. See page 360, bottom paragraph

 

 

6. Don’t ever make a decision based on powerful emotional longing because more often than not your decision will be irrational, misguided, and work against your best interests. Jeremiah was raised by a single mother and hungered for a father figure and a positive role model of healthy masculinity. This hunger was so powerful that it compelled him to join the military even though his personality is at odds with military culture and he’s miserable. See 363 and 364 top.

 

 

7. Related to number 6, don’t ever make a decision without doing the extensive research first because if you screw up, no one is going to bail out. You need to rely on yourself to take care of your own self-interests and you had better protect your interests ferociously and thoroughly or a heavy price will be paid. People get married without knowing what the hell marriage entails other than some sentimental image they got from watching a Hugh Grant movie or listening to some crappy love song on the radio.

 

 

8. Do be an effective killing machine in the military, you have to put on a warrior’s mask that doesn’t come off easily—if ever at all—when you rejoin civilian life. See page 364 in which the sergeant says he joined the Army because he enjoyed killing and being an effective killing machine. Also see 366. We see that being an effective soldier is all about tapping into that vein of violence that exists in all of us. It’s necessary for war, to be sure, but how do you turn it off?

 

 

9. When you’re young, there is no shortage of people who are eager and willing to take advantage of your innocence and naiveté. See 362.

 

10. There is usually a complete disconnect between an institution taking appropriate action and maintaining its official policy. See page 365 in which Jeremiah is clearly having a nervous breakdown and is not useless to the military but presents a danger to others and himself, but the bureaucracy must maintain policy; doing the right thing in this circumstance is irrelevant.

 

 

 

 

 

Three: Qualities of a Good Thesis:

 

1. visceral, from the gut first, the brain second
2. address a relevant topic
3. avoid the obvious and self-evident
4. develop a thesis that is an answer to a compelling question
5. make sure the reader can find the thesis in your essay
6. make sure your thesis is one or two sentences and no more
7. make sure your thesis has enough substance to cover 5 pages
8. make sure there is research material to support your thesis
9. it’s often good to focus on a controversial topic, a 2-sided argument
10. it’s often good to take a contrarian position
11. has a strong voice
12. outlines your essay by being followed with mapping components or sentences.

 

 

 

Broad

 

Dobie is too harsh on the military

Going AWOL is a bad thing.

Sometimes going AWOL is okay.

Walden is a crazy place.

Walden shows us that people shouldn’t spend too much on the Internet.

 

 

Contrarian (Very good) :

 

While McMahon is eager to dismiss the cyber romances at Walden as a pathological exercise, his attack is both alarmist and inaccurate. First, he insults those of us who are intelligent enough to discern fraud and authenticity. Second, he is naïve to dismiss the importance of opening our romantic possibilities over the vast Internet landscape. Third, he is ignorant to belittle the importance of convenience a world with severe time constraints. And finally, McMahon sadly fails to recognize that the written word via e-mail or text messaging opens the window to another soul in ways that cannot be matched through other venues.

 

 

 

Students will write a thesis for today’s essay:

 

Specific

 

The military will enhance its strength and morality if it pardons those who want to quit because __________________, _________________, _________________, and _____________________.

 

Dobie’s argument that special cases should be pardoned for committing AWOL would pose certain dangers to the military, namely, ___________________, _________________, __________________, and _________________________.

 

 

 

One: Lexicon

 

1. coercion
2. naiveté
3. conscientious objector : is an individual who, on religious, moral or ethical grounds, refuses to participate as a combatant in war
4. AWOL
5. Marginalized people: people with no education, resources, or support system who are apathetic, feeling no hope to improve their lives; consequently all their decisions are based on physical survival, nothing else.
6. Army’s manpower crisis (360) demand exceeds supply
7. Stop-loss orders (360) A commander must retain at least 85% of soldiers or he will have hell to pay.
8. Principle of Scarcity: Whenever there is a short supply of something, we lower our standards, food, mates, military, etc.
9. Docility, docile
10. Acquiescence, acquiesce, acquiescent 
11. Metamorphosis, drastic transformation for which there is often no return

 

Two. What 10 life lessons do we learn from this essay?

 

1. Morons and madmen reign in high places. Whenever you join an institution—any institution—don’t expect smart, competent, morally savory people to be on top. Expect the contrary to be true. Here you have a military system so desperate for recruits that is it yanking clueless people off the streets to fight a war that by all accounts is a catastrophic failure doomed to drain our country of all its resources and yet nearly impossible for us to leave. The Administration doesn’t even provide proper helmets, properly working gas masks, Hum-Vees and armor and parents are sending safety equipment to their children, paying out of their pockets.

 

 

2. Whenever there is a crisis, it is the clueless, helpless margins of society who get manipulated into be exploited for the uses of the higher-ups. Here we have the worse foreign policy decision every made in US history and smart people know not to get involved with it. So who gets into Iraq, mostly clueless people who don’t have the faintest idea of what they’re getting into. See page 361, top paragraph. See 361 bottom and 362 top.

 

 

3. When privileged and powerful people exploit you for their purposes, not only do the powerful not appreciate you for saving their butts, they insult you by not giving you any compensation. See page 361. Hordes of soldiers are calling hotlines for untreated injuries, mental illness, PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, violence, suicide, etc. 60 Minutes had a story about a VA hospital with sewage leaking everywhere, rats, roaches.

 

 

4. Whenever there’s a screw up, the people on top always defer the pain and punishment to the helpless underlings who don’t have a clue of what’s going on. Rather than admit their mistakes and pull out, the Administration saves face by continuing a war that results in the deaths of thousands of people, soldiers from working class America and innocent Iraqis whose casualties number in the hundreds of thousands.

 

 

5. Bureaucrats do whatever they have to do to save their butts, usually at the expense of doing the right thing. See page 360, bottom paragraph

 

 

6. Don’t ever make a decision based on powerful emotional longing because more often than not your decision will be irrational, misguided, and work against your best interests. Jeremiah was raised by a single mother and hungered for a father figure and a positive role model of healthy masculinity. This hunger was so powerful that it compelled him to join the military even though his personality is at odds with military culture and he’s miserable. See 363 and 364 top.

 

 

7. Related to number 6, don’t ever make a decision without doing the extensive research first because if you screw up, no one is going to bail out. You need to rely on yourself to take care of your own self-interests and you had better protect your interests ferociously and thoroughly or a heavy price will be paid. People get married without knowing what the hell marriage entails other than some sentimental image they got from watching a Hugh Grant movie or listening to some crappy love song on the radio.

 

 

8. Do be an effective killing machine in the military, you have to put on a warrior’s mask that doesn’t come off easily—if ever at all—when you rejoin civilian life. See page 364 in which the sergeant says he joined the Army because he enjoyed killing and being an effective killing machine. Also see 366. We see that being an effective soldier is all about tapping into that vein of violence that exists in all of us. It’s necessary for war, to be sure, but how do you turn it off?

 

 

9. When you’re young, there is no shortage of people who are eager and willing to take advantage of your innocence and naiveté. See 362.

 

10. There is usually a complete disconnect between an institution taking appropriate action and maintaining its official policy. See page 365 in which Jeremiah is clearly having a nervous breakdown and is not useless to the military but presents a danger to others and himself, but the bureaucracy must maintain policy; doing the right thing in this circumstance is irrelevant.

 

 

 

 

 

Three: Qualities of a Good Thesis:

 

1. visceral, from the gut first, the brain second
2. address a relevant topic
3. avoid the obvious and self-evident
4. develop a thesis that is an answer to a compelling question
5. make sure the reader can find the thesis in your essay
6. make sure your thesis is one or two sentences and no more
7. make sure your thesis has enough substance to cover 5 pages
8. make sure there is research material to support your thesis
9. it’s often good to focus on a controversial topic, a 2-sided argument
10. it’s often good to take a contrarian position
11. has a strong voice
12. outlines your essay by being followed with mapping components or sentences.

 

 

 

Broad

 

Dobie is too harsh on the military

Going AWOL is a bad thing.

Sometimes going AWOL is okay.

Walden is a crazy place.

Walden shows us that people shouldn’t spend too much on the Internet.

 

 

Contrarian (Very good) :

 

While McMahon is eager to dismiss the cyber romances at Walden as a pathological exercise, his attack is both alarmist and inaccurate. First, he insults those of us who are intelligent enough to discern fraud and authenticity. Second, he is naïve to dismiss the importance of opening our romantic possibilities over the vast Internet landscape. Third, he is ignorant to belittle the importance of convenience a world with severe time constraints. And finally, McMahon sadly fails to recognize that the written word via e-mail or text messaging opens the window to another soul in ways that cannot be matched through other venues.

 

 

 

Students will write a thesis for today’s essay:

 

Specific

 

The military will enhance its strength and morality if it pardons those who want to quit because __________________, _________________, _________________, and _____________________.

 

Dobie’s argument that special cases should be pardoned for committing AWOL would pose certain dangers to the military, namely, ___________________, _________________, __________________, and _________________________.

 

 

 

Understanding the Appetites

What is Caroline Knapp's obsession and how does her obsession destroy her humanity?

1A McMahon Commentary on the Prevalence of BS

One. What is BS?

BS is false sincerity masquerading as something that should be highly prized. Its fakery is disguised by ornate fraudulence, clever exaggeration, subtle cunning, polished style, bold extravagance. All of these qualities are designed for the BS artist to look like he is working in your best interests but in reality he is taking advantage of you.

Why Is BS so common?

1.    BS is common because the stalwarts of success, who brandish their trophies in the media, are usually BS artists supreme. As such they are our role models and influence us to follow their BS-ing ways.
2.    BSers enjoy reproductive and financial success so we emulate them.
3.    There is a market for BS, a huge pool of people who are willing believers.
4.    BS is easier than authenticity.

One. What is BS?

BS is false sincerity masquerading as something that should be highly prized. Its fakery is disguised by ornate fraudulence, clever exaggeration, subtle cunning, polished style, bold extravagance. All of these qualities are designed for the BS artist to look like he is working in your best interests but in reality he is taking advantage of you.

Why Is BS so common?

1.    BS is common because the stalwarts of success, who brandish their trophies in the media, are usually BS artists supreme. As such they are our role models and influence us to follow their BS-ing ways.
2.    BSers enjoy reproductive and financial success so we emulate them.
3.    There is a market for BS, a huge pool of people who are willing believers.
4.    BS is easier than authenticity.

1A Lesson Plan for “Finding a Coach in the Land of Oz” (278)

 

Part One. Why is BS so difficult to detect and repel?

1. It is everywhere so we forget about it. It’s like background noise.
2. We take it for granted and are numb to it.
3. We accept it because often we are guilty of it.
4. Because we don’t have a firm definition of it.
5. Like I said before, for some people BS is all they know.  
6. We don't know what it is specifically.  

Part Two. What is BS?

BS is false sincerity masquerading as something that should be highly prized. Its fakery is disguised by ornate fraudulence, clever exaggeration, subtle cunning, polished style, bold extravagance. All of these qualities are designed for the BS artist to look like he is working in your best interests but in reality he is taking advantage of you.

Frankfurt is the author of BS. He adds that the BSer is different from the liar. The liar lies knowing the difference between truth and lies; the BSer on the other hand is indifferent to any difference between truth and lies. For the BSer there is no difference. 


Part Three. Why Is BS so common?

 

1. BS is common because the stalwarts of success, who brandish their trophies in the media, are usually BS artists supreme. As such they are our role models and influence us to follow their BS-ing ways.

2. BSers enjoy reproductive and financial success so we emulate them.


3.  There is a market for BS, a huge pool of people who are willing believers.

4.  BS is easier than authenticity. 

5. When your whole life is BS, you know nothing else so you can't identify it and put a stop to it. 

Part Four. The so-called “career coach” is in truth a BS artist. The essay teaches us the distinguishing characteristics of BS.

1. BS is not lying; rather, it is blowing smoke, an attempt to impress and razzle-dazzle your audience with ornate fakery, clever exaggeration, extravagant style, and worn-out gimmicks.
2. The BSer uses creative euphemisms:  a garbage man is a garbologist or a sanitation engineer. You don't break up with someone; you "take a breather." You're fired is a "severance package"; When you haven't even started your essay, you say you're "working on it." The restaurant food is crap, but you call it pedestrian, insipid, and jejune.  You're worthless is translated "Needs improvement." You're a narcissistic nut job is "a piece of work."     
3. BS is ubiquitous, which means it is so prevalent that we take it for granted and are numb to it. Sadly, we accept BS more than we should.
4. BS extraordinaire Morton gives us a clinic in BS, which commonly is a hustle to bilk money from the innocent, the gullible, and the unsuspecting. In this case, vulnerable people, people with families who have lost their jobs and are desperate.

 

Part Five. Morton unwittingly teaches us the BS Trade:

1. Morton blames the victim by telling the victim she needs to transform her personality, which is obviously inadequate. Lucky for her, Morton has the tools to help her achieve her transformation. Morton grades her personality and focuses on her self, which is irrelevant to helping her find a job. See page 284.
2. The BS artists uses cheap sound bites that any punk can find on the Internet to establish his “expertise.” In Morton’s case, it’s the “Four Competencies”—Mobilizing Innovation, managing People and Tasks, Communicating, and Managing Self. See page 280.
3. These cheap slogans are a distraction from the painful and essential fact: Morton is worthless in his ability to help the job seeker find a job. If he can distract the job seeker with cheap slogans, he can bilk her for some cash.
4. The BS artist borrows from the wisdom of the ancients to present a pseudo-spiritual aura, which the BS artist uses to create the illusion of expertise: He presents a transparency that reads “Clear mind, skillful driver; Sound spirit, strong horse, etc.” See page 280. Again, this is a distraction from his essential worthlessness. The real question is CAN YOU MAKE ME MONEY! I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR “CLEAR MIND SKILLFUL DRIVER” SPEIL; I’VE GOT KIDS TO FEED, MORON!
5. The BS artist relies on gimmicks like dolls to act-out his psychological principles. See page 280. The scarecrow represents “The Mental,” etc. Also see page 284 in which Morton uses an Elvis doll to make some asinine point.
6. The BS artist relies on the human potential language from self-help psychology to appear valuable to his customer. See page 280 at the bottom as he discusses “personality types,” “motivation,” etc. Also see page 283 top with the intersecting circles. Complete BS.
7. The BS artist uses phony language that his customer does not understand. This phony language creates the illusion of mastery. See page 181.
8. The BS artist bilks (extracts money from) his customer by creating needs and services that are not necessary. See page 281 bottom and 282 top. See 283 top, the need for more coaching for a mere $1,200.
9. The BS artist performs an air of conviction about his opinions when he lacks the scientific data to support his positions.
10. The essence of the BS artist is the performance of sincerity when in fact the BSer is heartless and believes in nothing more than his own ability to cheat people.
11. The bull artist has no interest in the difference between falsity and truth; his only interest is in getting away with his BS.
12. The BS artist knows he is BS-ing in the beginning but there is a point where he believes in his own BS and becomes in a way insane and morally depraved. (example of a coach I used to know)

Part Six. Write a research paper in which you first define BS and provide its distinguishing characteristics. Then show how these BS traits apply to three figures in a comparison essay. After your definition of BS, you will profile a BSer you know in about 1.5 pages, showing how this person exemplifies the BSer template or model. Then you will interview someone who was duped or manipulated by a BSer and profile this BSer in another 1.5 pages, showing how this BSer, too, illustrates your BS characteristics. Finally, you will use the "life coach" in today's essay as your final example of the BSer. 

Your research sources for your Works Cited Page will include the following:

1. My blog.

2. Today's essay from Acting Out Culture

3. Your interview. 

A sample thesis might look like this:

Barbara Ehrenreich's chronicle of spending money on "career coaches" not only shows them to be a sham and a fraud but highlights the toxicity of living in a culture suffused by BS as described by Harry Frankfurt's masterpiece essay. The most salient BS ingredients found in Ehrenrich's infuriating personal narrative include _______________________________, ____________________________, ________________________________, and ______________________________. We see these characteristics exemplified in _______________, _______________, and ______________________. 

 

 

Part One. Why is BS so difficult to detect and repel?

1. It is everywhere so we forget about it. It’s like background noise.
2. We take it for granted and are numb to it.
3. We accept it because often we are guilty of it.
4. Because we don’t have a firm definition of it.
5. Like I said before, for some people BS is all they know.  
6. We don't know what it is specifically.  

Part Two. What is BS?

BS is false sincerity masquerading as something that should be highly prized. Its fakery is disguised by ornate fraudulence, clever exaggeration, subtle cunning, polished style, bold extravagance. All of these qualities are designed for the BS artist to look like he is working in your best interests but in reality he is taking advantage of you.

Frankfurt is the author of BS. He adds that the BSer is different from the liar. The liar lies knowing the difference between truth and lies; the BSer on the other hand is indifferent to any difference between truth and lies. For the BSer there is no difference. 


Part Three. Why Is BS so common?

 

1. BS is common because the stalwarts of success, who brandish their trophies in the media, are usually BS artists supreme. As such they are our role models and influence us to follow their BS-ing ways.

2. BSers enjoy reproductive and financial success so we emulate them.


3.  There is a market for BS, a huge pool of people who are willing believers.

4.  BS is easier than authenticity. 

5. When your whole life is BS, you know nothing else so you can't identify it and put a stop to it. 

Part Four. The so-called “career coach” is in truth a BS artist. The essay teaches us the distinguishing characteristics of BS.

1. BS is not lying; rather, it is blowing smoke, an attempt to impress and razzle-dazzle your audience with ornate fakery, clever exaggeration, extravagant style, and worn-out gimmicks.
2. The BSer uses creative euphemisms:  a garbage man is a garbologist or a sanitation engineer. You don't break up with someone; you "take a breather." You're fired is a "severance package"; When you haven't even started your essay, you say you're "working on it." The restaurant food is crap, but you call it pedestrian, insipid, and jejune.  You're worthless is translated "Needs improvement." You're a narcissistic nut job is "a piece of work."     
3. BS is ubiquitous, which means it is so prevalent that we take it for granted and are numb to it. Sadly, we accept BS more than we should.
4. BS extraordinaire Morton gives us a clinic in BS, which commonly is a hustle to bilk money from the innocent, the gullible, and the unsuspecting. In this case, vulnerable people, people with families who have lost their jobs and are desperate.

 

Part Five. Morton unwittingly teaches us the BS Trade:

1. Morton blames the victim by telling the victim she needs to transform her personality, which is obviously inadequate. Lucky for her, Morton has the tools to help her achieve her transformation. Morton grades her personality and focuses on her self, which is irrelevant to helping her find a job. See page 284.
2. The BS artists uses cheap sound bites that any punk can find on the Internet to establish his “expertise.” In Morton’s case, it’s the “Four Competencies”—Mobilizing Innovation, managing People and Tasks, Communicating, and Managing Self. See page 280.
3. These cheap slogans are a distraction from the painful and essential fact: Morton is worthless in his ability to help the job seeker find a job. If he can distract the job seeker with cheap slogans, he can bilk her for some cash.
4. The BS artist borrows from the wisdom of the ancients to present a pseudo-spiritual aura, which the BS artist uses to create the illusion of expertise: He presents a transparency that reads “Clear mind, skillful driver; Sound spirit, strong horse, etc.” See page 280. Again, this is a distraction from his essential worthlessness. The real question is CAN YOU MAKE ME MONEY! I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR “CLEAR MIND SKILLFUL DRIVER” SPEIL; I’VE GOT KIDS TO FEED, MORON!
5. The BS artist relies on gimmicks like dolls to act-out his psychological principles. See page 280. The scarecrow represents “The Mental,” etc. Also see page 284 in which Morton uses an Elvis doll to make some asinine point.
6. The BS artist relies on the human potential language from self-help psychology to appear valuable to his customer. See page 280 at the bottom as he discusses “personality types,” “motivation,” etc. Also see page 283 top with the intersecting circles. Complete BS.
7. The BS artist uses phony language that his customer does not understand. This phony language creates the illusion of mastery. See page 181.
8. The BS artist bilks (extracts money from) his customer by creating needs and services that are not necessary. See page 281 bottom and 282 top. See 283 top, the need for more coaching for a mere $1,200.
9. The BS artist performs an air of conviction about his opinions when he lacks the scientific data to support his positions.
10. The essence of the BS artist is the performance of sincerity when in fact the BSer is heartless and believes in nothing more than his own ability to cheat people.
11. The bull artist has no interest in the difference between falsity and truth; his only interest is in getting away with his BS.
12. The BS artist knows he is BS-ing in the beginning but there is a point where he believes in his own BS and becomes in a way insane and morally depraved. (example of a coach I used to know)

Part Six. Write a research paper in which you first define BS and provide its distinguishing characteristics. Then show how these BS traits apply to three figures in a comparison essay. After your definition of BS, you will profile a BSer you know in about 1.5 pages, showing how this person exemplifies the BSer template or model. Then you will interview someone who was duped or manipulated by a BSer and profile this BSer in another 1.5 pages, showing how this BSer, too, illustrates your BS characteristics. Finally, you will use the "life coach" in today's essay as your final example of the BSer. 

Your research sources for your Works Cited Page will include the following:

1. My blog.

2. Today's essay from Acting Out Culture

3. Your interview. 

A sample thesis might look like this:

Barbara Ehrenreich's chronicle of spending money on "career coaches" not only shows them to be a sham and a fraud but highlights the toxicity of living in a culture suffused by BS as described by Harry Frankfurt's masterpiece essay. The most salient BS ingredients found in Ehrenrich's infuriating personal narrative include _______________________________, ____________________________, ________________________________, and ______________________________. We see these characteristics exemplified in _______________, _______________, and ______________________. 

 

1A Lesson Plan for Add Cake, Subtract Self-Esteem 217

 

One. Lexicon

 

1. Addiction to starvation 217 first paragraph; addicted to the feeling of safety and in fact this "safety" is a delusion. She is in danger for in fact she is in the process of losing her humanity. "The private kingdom of calm" is a velvet trap, a womb where she regresses and loses her power and humanity. Your comfort zone can become hell. 

2. Obsessive compulsive rituals second paragraph. When life becomes reduced to rituals and compulsions we lose our humanity.

3. Anorexia 217 bottom and 218 top: a woman strips away her "womanness" or femininity to protest being an image to others and herself. I'm not sure I buy this. I see anorexia as a misguided attempt at control and the person being controlled by the need to control. 

4. Silent protest 218 top; anorexia is a passive-aggressive response to cultural pressures to be a beautiful woman, or expression of silent anger 

5. Core cause of anorexia 218 middle and 221 second paragraph and 223 top paragraph and 225 middle paragraph: The sense of controlling or conquering hunger gives the anorexic a sense of mastery and control. Or put it another way: Anorexia stems from an irrational, incessant hatred of fat. 

6. Internalized caveats and rules 218 and 219 top 2 paragraphs and 221 middle paragraph

7. Female math 220 top; she spends her whole life "doing math," which is not living.

8. Dangerous form of hunger 222 top: hunger becomes disconnected from basic instincts and instead becomes part of your neuroses, a complex web of worries. 

9. Cardinal violation of appetite 222 bottom: the more you meddle and obsess with hunger, the more perverted your relationship with food becomes. To meddle with hunger at this obsessive degree requires a lot of "alone time." Anorexics spend too much time alone, which means they live too much inside their heads and they lose contact with reality. 

10. New female aesthetic 223 second and third paragraph; Marilyn Monroe trumped by Kate Moss

11. Backlash against feminine strength 223 bottom and 224 top

12. Visceral knee-jerk hostility to fat women and people in general 224 bottom and 225 top

13. Buffet hostility 225 bottom and 226 top: It represents freedom and choices and abundance. And she conflates these attributes with her enemy--fat. 

14. Buffet as metaphor or microcosm for Knapp's neurosis 230: She fears freedom. 

15. Anorexia reverses the three human instincts--survival, reproduction, curiosity (the hunger for learning, knowledge, creativity, and philosophy which asks, "Why are we here?") By reversing the 3 human instincts, anorexia effectively dehumanizes its victim. 

 

Two. Commentary

 

Whether they are bingeing or purging, irrational eaters are in a most damnable condition--the state of having no self-control and being helpless and fearful in the face of overwhelming appetites. These inflamed irrational passions are so devastating that binge eaters must tiptoe through life fearing that at any moment they will fall into the abyss of their avarice.

 

Most irrational eaters, especially the women described by Knapp, suffer shame for several reasons, including a sense of anxiety over the disparity of their new freedoms but limited power; their internalized "theme of vigilance and self-restraint" that often backfires and is counterbalanced by compulsive appetites that eradicate all the "gains" rendered from the meticulous adherence to eating rules; the state of hunger that "becomes divorced from the body" and becomes "loaded with alternative meanings" that have to do with unfulfilled emotional longings; and their knowledge that violating the slender female aesthetic will cause them to be held in tacit contempt by both men and women alike.  

 

 

This sense of shame and self-loathing becomes exacerbated when obesity is looked at through a religious prism which would have us condemn over-eaters as gluttons, sinners indulging their appetites, reprobates putting their desires before God, miscreants violating our space with their grotesque corpulence. 

 

Scapegoated by society for putting an undue strain on medical costs, despised for taking up our space, an unloved for not inciting the kind of desire that we associate with Kate-Moss slenderness, fat people represent the possibility of human failure and rejection that we fear in ourselves. Thus many of us, overreacting to our fears, develop a myriad of eating disorders so chronic that once ensnared in these irrational eating habits, it is nearly impossible for many of us to free ourselves from them and lead relatively normal lives. 

 

 

Three. Relevant Writing Options

 

Compare the shame of eating as it is analyzed in Knapp’s and Prose’s (197) essays. 5-page outline: Summarize both Knapp's and Prose's essays for a page each. Then write a thesis: Both essays show that the power of shame informs our eating obsessions by ___________________, _____________________, _____________________, and _______________________. Your last 3 pages would flesh out these mapping components.

In the context of Michael Pollan’s essay “Big Organic” (174), analyze the fraud and deception the food industry uses to market foods that are allegedly “organic” and “natural.” 5-page outline: In 2 pages, summarize Pollan's major points. Then write a thesis. As my research and Michael Pollan's essay show, the idea of "organic" is a marketing fraud evidenced by _________________, _____________________, ___________________, and ______________________. Your last 3 pages would flesh out these mapping components.

 

 

 

Caroline Knapp and Francine Prose effectively analyze the causes behind the downward spiral or vicious cycle of eating disorders, which include __________________________________, ________________________________, _________________________________, and __________________________________.

 

Mapping Components might include the following:

 

Shame and self-loathing create compulsive disorders, namely the impulse to escape feelings of decrepitude through the very habits that bring the self-hatred.

 

Ostracism results in isolation, which distorts the mind and makes one rely on food for companionship.

 

Being reduced to a slender object causes many women to silently rebel through bingeing and purging.

 

Anxiety over too much freedom on one hand and a lack of power on the other, overwhelm women who created internalized rules.

 

Hunger divorced from the body and connected to unfulfilled longings.

Research Links

The Hunger

The Hunger Artist

 

 

One. Lexicon

 

1. Addiction to starvation 217 first paragraph; addicted to the feeling of safety and in fact this "safety" is a delusion. She is in danger for in fact she is in the process of losing her humanity. "The private kingdom of calm" is a velvet trap, a womb where she regresses and loses her power and humanity. Your comfort zone can become hell. 

2. Obsessive compulsive rituals second paragraph. When life becomes reduced to rituals and compulsions we lose our humanity.

3. Anorexia 217 bottom and 218 top: a woman strips away her "womanness" or femininity to protest being an image to others and herself. I'm not sure I buy this. I see anorexia as a misguided attempt at control and the person being controlled by the need to control. 

4. Silent protest 218 top; anorexia is a passive-aggressive response to cultural pressures to be a beautiful woman, or expression of silent anger 

5. Core cause of anorexia 218 middle and 221 second paragraph and 223 top paragraph and 225 middle paragraph: The sense of controlling or conquering hunger gives the anorexic a sense of mastery and control. Or put it another way: Anorexia stems from an irrational, incessant hatred of fat. 

6. Internalized caveats and rules 218 and 219 top 2 paragraphs and 221 middle paragraph

7. Female math 220 top; she spends her whole life "doing math," which is not living.

8. Dangerous form of hunger 222 top: hunger becomes disconnected from basic instincts and instead becomes part of your neuroses, a complex web of worries. 

9. Cardinal violation of appetite 222 bottom: the more you meddle and obsess with hunger, the more perverted your relationship with food becomes. To meddle with hunger at this obsessive degree requires a lot of "alone time." Anorexics spend too much time alone, which means they live too much inside their heads and they lose contact with reality. 

10. New female aesthetic 223 second and third paragraph; Marilyn Monroe trumped by Kate Moss

11. Backlash against feminine strength 223 bottom and 224 top

12. Visceral knee-jerk hostility to fat women and people in general 224 bottom and 225 top

13. Buffet hostility 225 bottom and 226 top: It represents freedom and choices and abundance. And she conflates these attributes with her enemy--fat. 

14. Buffet as metaphor or microcosm for Knapp's neurosis 230: She fears freedom. 

15. Anorexia reverses the three human instincts--survival, reproduction, curiosity (the hunger for learning, knowledge, creativity, and philosophy which asks, "Why are we here?") By reversing the 3 human instincts, anorexia effectively dehumanizes its victim. 

 

Two. Commentary

 

Whether they are bingeing or purging, irrational eaters are in a most damnable condition--the state of having no self-control and being helpless and fearful in the face of overwhelming appetites. These inflamed irrational passions are so devastating that binge eaters must tiptoe through life fearing that at any moment they will fall into the abyss of their avarice.

 

Most irrational eaters, especially the women described by Knapp, suffer shame for several reasons, including a sense of anxiety over the disparity of their new freedoms but limited power; their internalized "theme of vigilance and self-restraint" that often backfires and is counterbalanced by compulsive appetites that eradicate all the "gains" rendered from the meticulous adherence to eating rules; the state of hunger that "becomes divorced from the body" and becomes "loaded with alternative meanings" that have to do with unfulfilled emotional longings; and their knowledge that violating the slender female aesthetic will cause them to be held in tacit contempt by both men and women alike.  

 

 

This sense of shame and self-loathing becomes exacerbated when obesity is looked at through a religious prism which would have us condemn over-eaters as gluttons, sinners indulging their appetites, reprobates putting their desires before God, miscreants violating our space with their grotesque corpulence. 

 

Scapegoated by society for putting an undue strain on medical costs, despised for taking up our space, an unloved for not inciting the kind of desire that we associate with Kate-Moss slenderness, fat people represent the possibility of human failure and rejection that we fear in ourselves. Thus many of us, overreacting to our fears, develop a myriad of eating disorders so chronic that once ensnared in these irrational eating habits, it is nearly impossible for many of us to free ourselves from them and lead relatively normal lives. 

 

 

Three. Relevant Writing Options

 

Compare the shame of eating as it is analyzed in Knapp’s and Prose’s (197) essays. 5-page outline: Summarize both Knapp's and Prose's essays for a page each. Then write a thesis: Both essays show that the power of shame informs our eating obsessions by ___________________, _____________________, _____________________, and _______________________. Your last 3 pages would flesh out these mapping components.

In the context of Michael Pollan’s essay “Big Organic” (174), analyze the fraud and deception the food industry uses to market foods that are allegedly “organic” and “natural.” 5-page outline: In 2 pages, summarize Pollan's major points. Then write a thesis. As my research and Michael Pollan's essay show, the idea of "organic" is a marketing fraud evidenced by _________________, _____________________, ___________________, and ______________________. Your last 3 pages would flesh out these mapping components.

 

 

 

Caroline Knapp and Francine Prose effectively analyze the causes behind the downward spiral or vicious cycle of eating disorders, which include __________________________________, ________________________________, _________________________________, and __________________________________.

 

Mapping Components might include the following:

 

Shame and self-loathing create compulsive disorders, namely the impulse to escape feelings of decrepitude through the very habits that bring the self-hatred.

 

Ostracism results in isolation, which distorts the mind and makes one rely on food for companionship.

 

Being reduced to a slender object causes many women to silently rebel through bingeing and purging.

 

Anxiety over too much freedom on one hand and a lack of power on the other, overwhelm women who created internalized rules.

 

Hunger divorced from the body and connected to unfulfilled longings.

Research Links

The Hunger

The Hunger Artist