Breakthrough Writer

Link for Documenting YouTube Videos in MLA Format

This MLA link includes Internet video documentation. 

1A Lesson Plan for “Love and War in Cyberspace” and "The Consequences--Undoing Sanity" (299)

One. The Myth of Technological Panacea: Technology will create a paradise on Earth.

A myth is a fantasy, a delusion, or a belief system that animates people to their own detriment.

Two. Types of Myths

1.    iPod is the myth of creativity and being a member of the in-crowd.

2.    The CDC (Center for Disease Control) offers the myth of assurance: Government is taking care of us, but the swine flu crisis shows the myth for what it is: We’re helpless.

3.    The Myth of Masculinity: “Real men” don’t need gadgets and toys to be masculine. In truth, men rely on fast cars for higher testosterone levels.

4.    The Myth of Technology: It will afford me the power to transform myself, to be superior to others, and to connect in deeper more meaningful ways. “Love and War in Cyberspace” shows the opposite to be true. The more these nerds rely on the myth of technology, the more dysfunctional, emotionally retarded and insane they become.

5.    The Myth of the Group: a tech society or a fan base for a professional sports team, Nike Talk, and son on: You belong to the in-group and rely on shared community experience to overcome your loneliness. To unify themselves, they stir up foment and hostility against the mythic out-group, Los Otros.

6.    The Myth of Hedonism: Pursuing pleasure, thrill, and excitement will give me happiness. Hedonists are self-indulgent people and one thing self-indulgent people all have in common: They are miserable.

7.    The Myth of Wealth: Look at the Lotto winners: 95% of them end up bankrupt, divorced, and in despair.

8.    The Myth of Freedom: It is unlimited and offers you boundless possibilities. In fact, freedom requires focus and freedom. Consider Tennessee Williams after he became famous.

9.    The Myth of Self-Preservation: People who hoard things and “look out for number one” are doomed to a life of failure and demise. Consider the people ofLeningrad during the German Seize of World War II.

10.                   The Myth of Success: Discipline and hard work guarantee that you will rise above mediocrity or achieve a goal. This is not an absolute truth. It’s a relative truth. Discipline and hard work increase your probability of success but do not guarantee it.

11.                   The Talent Myth: Geniuses succeed. No. More often than not, those who follow the 10,000 Hour Rule achieve success.

12.                   The Love Myth: The infatuation that you feel during the first few months of a relationship must sustain its intensity or else “you’re not really in love.”

13.                   The Relationship Myth: I’m miserable because I’m lonely. If only I could find a mate, I’d be happy. Wrong. The reason why you don’t have a mate is because you have profound defects in your personality that repel people. A boyfriend or a girlfriend will only stick a band-aid over your psychological warts.

14.                   The College Graduation Myth: As soon as you finish your college education, you’ll be in cruise control. Wrong. There is no such thing as cruise control. There is no such thing as an easy life.

15.                   The Hakuna Matata Myth. There is no paradise with easy happiness and no worries. Life is a struggle.

16.                   The Perfection Myth: The more beautiful and “perfect” you become, the more happy you will be. Look at anorexics, plastic surgery mongers and the like. They are all ugly and frightening and appear like phantoms from our worst nightmares.

17.                   The Television Myth: If I’m not on TV, if I’m not interviewed on the E Channel, if I don’t star in a reality show, I am a NOBODY. The Octomom and the couple from John and Kate Plus 8, and wannabes on American Idolembody this myth.

18.                   The College Professor Myth: My students listen to me because I am a special person with a unique sense of humor and intellectual brilliance that my students find captivating. Wrong. Your students, if they’re polite, listen to you out of courtesy. But their minds are filled with all sorts of interests, which don’t include you in the slightest. Your students are concerned with paying their bills, their relationships, their job, and furthering their career. You’re not as special as you think, Professor, so stick your macro-cephalic ego where it belongs, chump.

19.                    The Marriage Myth. “I want to get married because marriage is a Big Goody Box and whenever I want a goody, all I have to do is reach into the Goody Box and get one. Yeah!” This mythic conception of marriage has all the maturity of an adenoidal teenage male. What happens when the “goodies,” as you call them, run out? You dump your spouse and find a new Goody Box.

 

Part Three. A Failed Experiment in the Myth of 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. 

 

 

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

 

Cause and Effect Thesis Uses "can be attributed to" and "and results in"

Example:

The swine flu hysteria can be attributed to its unpredictable mutability, disproportionate coverage of a few deaths (far less than the common flu), the stigma of an animal-to-human contagion and this hysteria will result in wild rumors inflaming public anxiety, overreactions (canceled cruises, abstaining from pork, etc.) and hypochondria (people misinterpreting every sniffle or cough as a sign of "sure death"). 

The organic food movement, as chronicled in Michael Pollan's masterful essay, can be attributed to ___________________, ________________, ________________, and results in ___________________, __________________, and ____________________. 

The intoxicating, addictive nature of war, Hedges argues, can be attributed to ________________, _________________, and ___________________, and results in ______________________, ___________________, and _________________________. 

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 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

1A Lesson for “Hopelessly Hooked on Help” by Steve Salerno (543) and "Finding a Coach in the Land of Oz (278)

 

Part One. Reading Questions

1.  What does the lack of proven efficacy regarding the self-help movement say about the typical American consumer? He naively believes in the unlimited possibilities of human potential, he believes in “giftedness” and he believes that if he pays an authority enough money he can untap his genius. We can conclude, therefore, that the typical American is a narcissist who has embraced the American dogma that we can pay for anything.

2.  What is the author’s definition of self-help? The “enterprise wherein people holding the thinnest of credentials diagnose in basically normal people symptoms of inflated or invented maladies, so that they may then implement remedies that have never been shown to work.”

3.  Why has this bogus billion-dollar industry remained unexamined and under the radar? It’s either dismissed as a joke or ineffective but at least benign.

4.  What are the destructive effects of SHAM (Self-Help and the Actualization Movement)? It breeds narcissism (I am the focal point), victimization, inflated expectations, moral relativism (parsing the meanings of right and wrong). It also erodes personal responsibility and reasonable self-expectations.

5.  Why on page 548 does Salerno opine that “failure and stagnation are central to all of SHAM”? Because the guru needs you to be a cripple. He counts on you to succumb to learned helplessness and rely on his crutch forever and ever.

6.  What influence has the Recovery Movement (A.A. and other addiction treatment centers) had on SHAM? The belief that disorders can be treated when in fact no research supports such an assumption. See page 552.

 

Part Two. Why are Americans so uniquely susceptible to the B.S. of SHAM?

1.  Americans love the idea of spending money to “fix” a problem. Not just life coaches, shrinks and the like, but personal trainers, gurus, etc. “Buying” a solution rids personal responsibility and the unpleasant prospect of changing one’s character and the bad habits that spring forth from such bad character.

2.  Americans have always embraced false prophets, those snake oil salesmen, charlatans, and mountebanks who promise to cure your ailments with no fuss or pain.

3.  Unlike other cultures that are deeply influenced by the idea of fate, Americans reject fate and believe in optimistic free will or “lifting yourself up by your bootstraps.” As such, every affliction and disorder is believed to be treatable even when empirical evidence is lacking.

4.  SHAM imitates the big circus tent revivalism that is part of America’s religious history. SHAM imitates religion with its pageantry, testimonials, community bonding, team spirit.

5.  Americans hunger for complete self-reinvention and embrace any industry that promises thorough self-transformation. America is a country of immigrants who start their lives over, often from scratch.

6.  Americans love the Conquer Adversity Narrative. Just about every Hollywood film is a variation of this narrative. Why? Because it sells. American films tend to be more optimistic than films from other countries because Americans are possessed by the Conquer Adversity Narrative.

7.  There’s enough infantile narcissists in America who are drawn to an industry that says, “Your problems are not your fault. You’re a victim, you’re a damaged and precious gift. With my help, you will heal, spread your wings, and fly. And of course, you’ll conquer your enemies, all your doubters. With my help, you will enjoy vindication (proving you’re right and others, especially naysayers, are wrong).

8.  Therapy, recovery, and self-help take complicated problems and reduce them to “12 simple steps.” This is appealing to people who are scared and who feel helpless.

9.  Americans love to feel they’re buying an “edge” over their competition even if this edge is a placebo.

10.               Americans have a history of gullibility as it pertains to pseudo science and quack psychology. Kellogg’s cereal and Graham crackers are derived from “doctors” and “ministers” who believed that cereal and graham crackers soothed the soul and purified it from sinful thoughts.

 

Part Three. Essay Option.

In a page summarize the major ideas in “Hopelessly Hooked on Help.” 

A thesis might look like thus:

Salerno vividly shows an industry that thrives on the most imbecilic American characterized by _____________, _______________, _______________, __________________, and _______________________.

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 ______________________. 

 

Tooth and Claw Research Links

New York Times

MostlyFiction

Curled Up

American Fiction

Short Story Analysis

Convenient MLA Guide from El Camino Library

El Camino Library provides this convenient MLA guide. 

Debating Torture Part Four

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Debating Torture Part Three

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Debating Torture Part Two

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Debating Torture Part One

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Research Link for Infanticide Topic: Hakani on ABC News

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