The purpose of a writing class is to develop a meaningful thesis, direct or implied, that will generate a compelling essay. Most importantly, a meaningful thesis will have a strong emotional connection between you and the material. In fact, if you don’t have a “fire in your belly” to write the paper, your essay will be nothing more than a limp document, a perfunctory exercise in futility. A successful thesis will also be intellectually challenging and afford a complexity worthy of college-level writing. Thirdly, the successful thesis will be demonstrable, which means it can be supported by examples and illustrations in a recognizable organizational design.
Other Website: http://herculodge.typepad.com/
Entry One: Write about someone you know who is afflicted with concupiscence, which traps them on the "hedonic treadmill." Or write about someone who thinks he or she is rising when in reality he or she is falling.
Entry Two: Write about your denial over a personal shortcoming followed by an awakening.
Entry Three: Describe someone you know who is flourishing in a paragraph. Or: Write about someone you know who benefitted from perdition.
Entry Four: Write about how you conformed to peer pressure and how this blind obedience to peer pressure made you feel regretful afterwards because in part you compromised who you are. You compromised your integrity. And you compromised your values. The purpose of this journal entry is to have a salient first page for your research paper.
Entry Five: Write about a time in your life when you succumbed to nihilism. Or write about someone you know who is a nihilist. Tell the students about your teenage friend who tried to bulk up to 300 pounds and failed.
Or write about someone you know who exercised noble disobedience to use for your conclusion.
Entry Six: Provide personal examples of determinism and free will, either in yourself or someone you know.
Entry Seven: Write about a personal experience you had where the abuse of power resulted in the loss of someone’s humanity. You could write about a bully, a cruel teacher who humiliates students, or some authority figure. Or you could write about how you exercised power in a way that you made feel regretful and guilty afterwards. You could use this anecdote for the first page of your essay.
Entry Eight:
Think of someone you know who, like Mel, suffers from egotism and solipsism. This one-page profile could be used for the first page of your essay.
Entry Nine:
In a paragraph, describe someone you know who, like the narrator in "Cathedral," has over time become disaffected.
Entry Ten: Write about a chimera you became obsessed with, how it propelled you into the world of solipsism, and how it crushed you with devastating disappointment.
Entry Eleven: Write about an ironic reversal in your personal experience or in someone you know.
Entry Twelve: Write about a sibling rivalry that contains the symbiosis evident in Donald and Pete.
Entry Thirteen: Write about someone who is spoiled and narcissistic in a way that reminds you of Mark from the story "Desert Breakdown, 1968."
Entry Fourteen: Write about a personal "back in the world" experience.
On the syllabus we have 14 entries, but we've cut them down to 12: Here are the 12:
Entry One: In a page, define the conditions you need to be happy and explain if you may have been pursuing a type of happiness that is not happiness at all but Darwinian domination, hedonism, or something else.
Entry Two: Write about 3 happiness fallacies you or someone you know has.
Entry Three:Think of the happiest person you know and write down 5 qualities that this person has that you think create happiness. Or, regarding today's alternative introduction, write about a time you were disenchanted with the idea of happiness.
Entry Four: In a half page, answer the following: Do you eat meat? Why? Why not? Could you continue to eat meat if you saw how the animal you're eating is killed? Explain.
Entry Five: O
n a scale of 0-10, how aware are you of the animal's suffering when you eat it? Also, if you became more aware of an animal's suffering during its killing and butchering, would you be less likely to eat meat? Explain.
Entry Six:
How has your reading about animal rights and vegetarianism influenced or affected your eating habits? And how has your reading affected which direction you're going to take your essay? Explain.
Entry Seven: What percentage of the food do you eat is processed and what percentage is real food? What obstacles prevent you from eating more real food and eating less processed food?
Entry Eight: In light of the research we’ve covered, what is your attitude toward the Western Diet? How dependent on the Western Diet are you? Emotionally, financially, socially, and culturally, how difficult would it be, or not, to reject the Western diet and eat more like our caveman ancestors.
Entry Nine: Write down the Top 5 Things you want to change in your eating habits since studying food for this class.
Entry Ten: Write about a father you know who struggles with his own internal war and the sublimation strategies he depends on to behave in a tame, civil manner. Or Second Option: Write about a man-child, a physical adult who suffers from Peter Pan Syndrome and use this profile to compare to Francis Weed.
Entry Eleven: Write about you or someone you know who, like Neddy Merrill, has confused noble ambition with grandiosity.
Entry Twelve: Write about a couple you know whose relationship mirrors that of Will and Maria. Or write about a jealous person you know whose jealousy results in insanity.
Option #1: In a 5-page research paper, analyze the conditions that made Frank Meeink ripe for racist brainwashing and the forces that unshackled him from the chains of his racist ideology.
Option #2: In a 5-page research paper, analyze Frank Meeink's descent into the Skinhead movement in terms of Erich Fromm's "Escape from Freedom." How, in other words, is Meeink's conversion an escape from freedom?
Option #3: In a 5-page research paper, compare the Fall and Redemption of Frank Meeink and Jeff Henderson.
Suggested Introduction: Write a profile of an ignoramus, steeped in stupid ideas, who is unaware of his absurd beliefs and then transition to your thesis paragraph about Frank Meeink using the transition "Similarly."
1.Do write a thesis from the guts or that has a strong
emotional connection to you and your audience (visceral).
2. Do write a thesis that is relevant to current
events and make that relevance apparent.
3.Do write a thesis that is relevant to the human
condition.
4.Do write a thesis that is born from discontent, anger,
perplexity, and a hunger for making things right.
5.Do write a thesis that answers a compelling question
you and your readers want answered.
6.Do write a thesis in a single sentence, followed by
mapping components that support your argument.
7.Do emphasize argument over information whenever
possible.
8.Do take intellectual risks and say that which us
unsafe or contrarian or against the mainstream.
9.Do write a thesis that results from you arduously
exploring all sides of the topic and had you changing your opinion umpteen
times before you committed to what you’re convinced is the most reasonable
position.
10.Do write a thesis that
is crystal clear in your mind since you can only write a powerful, clear essay
if the thoughts inside your head are clear and powerful.
Don’ts
1.Don’t write an easy thesis that is so self-evident or
obvious that to support it is a complete waste of time that will bore your
reader to tears, anguish, and resentment over your bovine effort.
2.Don’t write a thesis that leads to a sermon in which
you bloviate a bunch of homilies, bromides, and truisms to your rankled reader.
3.Don’t write a thesis that is so broad and general that
the only way to support it is with a 500-page book.
4.Don’t write a thesis that you don’t understand or
believe in because your lack of conviction will give your paper a limp, soggy
quality that will depress both you and your reader.
5.Don’t write a thesis that is cold, cerebral, and
intellectually detached for this approach will result in a frosty academic
treatise with no vitality or fire to inflame your readers’ interest.
6.Don’t write a thesis that is ridiculous for
ridiculous’ sake because, lacking in any vital ideas, you’re desperate to pique
and provoke your reader with lame gimmicks.
7.Don’t write a thesis that “sounds good” but in truth
bores the hell out of you so that when you sit down to write your essay you cry
and curse your decision to enroll in a composition class.
8.Don’t write a thesis for which there is no accessible
research material so that you’re left making up fictitious articles for your
Works Cited page.
9.Don’t write the same thesis that your friend wrote
because “he got an A” when in fact you have no emotional connection to this
carbon copy essay.
10.Don’t write a thesis
that simply echoes the same points of the essay you’re writing about, which
results in a summary of the essay, not an analysis.
Part Three: Examples of Weak and Strong Thesis Statements
Examples
of Weak Thesis Regarding LeBron James
LeBron
James’ Transition to the Miami Heat was made into a big, stupid production.
I’m
sick of hearing about whether LeBron James is leaving Cleveland.
BETTER
While
LeBron James’ circus was a contrived narcissistic endeavor that sickened me to
the bone, I defend James’ move because his owner didn’t show enough commitment
to winning a championship, Cleveland does not “own” LeBron James, Miami is a
good fit for James, and in general athletes, not owners, should be in control
of their destiny.
EXAMPLES
OF WEAK THESIS STATEMENTS REGARDING APPLE COMPUTER
Apple
computers are cool.
I
hate Apple computers.
Apple
computers are overpriced junk.
BETTER
THESIS STATEMENTS
While
Apple computers are overpriced and force you to spend more for software, they
are in general better purchases because of superior customer support, superior
grade materials, and less prone to viruses, worms, and malware.
Apple
computers are overrated in terms of build quality, software applications, and
safety from hackers.
Part Four. Class Activity:
Develop a thesis with mapping statements or components for one of the essay options below.
Option #1: In a 5-page research paper, analyze the conditions that made Frank Meeink ripe for racist brainwashing and the forces that unshackled him from the chains of his racist ideology.
Option #2: In a 5-page research paper, analyze Frank Meeink's descent into the Skinhead movement in terms of Erich Fromm's "Escape from Freedom." How, in other words, is Meeink's conversion an escape from freedom?
Option #3: In a 5-page research paper, compare the Fall and Redemption of Frank Meeink and Jeff Henderson.
This link for MLA Works Cited Format shows that citing a personal interview is rather simple. Last name, first name, title (if any, or you can just put "friend," "co-worker," whatever pertains), Personal Interview, date.
Example:
Wheeler, Harriet, co-worker. Personal Interview. 6 July 2010.
1.Weiner’s big question upon visiting Qatar, the richest per capita country in the world: What happens to your soul when you indulge in excess, craven luxury? See page 100.
2.Can all their wealth lead to the good life and happiness and Weiner, relying Betrand Russell, defines it on page 110 as connecting with something larger than yourself? The answer is no because self-indulgence disconnects you from the outside. Self-indulgence results in solipsism, which is the opposite of connected happiness.
3.Qataris are the nouveau riche and as such they possess arrogance and insecurity. See page 102.
4.Wealth makes us unhappy because we instinctively use wealth to isolate and insulate ourselves from the outside world. Happiness is connection with others. Wealthy people tend to be unconnected. See page 114. I’m reminded of Citizen Kane.
5.Qataris have no taxation or representation so they feel disconnected from their own society. See pages 118 and 119.
6.Weiner equates Qataris’ sudden wealth to winning the lottery. Winning the lottery historically is connected with unhappiness and ruin. See pages 122-125: We adapt to pleasure so that we have to spike the pleasure and then we have adapt to pleasure so that we have to spike the pleasure again. It’s like a cycle of addiction with nihilism, emptiness, and ruin being our final destination. I see this with my love of cars. We call this the “hedonic treadmill.”
7.We learn on pages 126 and 127 that there’s a gap between our rational intellect and our brain’s hard-wiring or “software.” Sadly, we’re programmed to chase after chimeras (BMWs, wealth, etc.) that don’t make us happy and we can’t even learn from our disappointment but continue to chase chimeras anyway.
8.Some of us are addicted to sadness as it is suggest to Eric Weiner on page 127.
9.Qataris rely on foreign labor so they feel disconnected from their country. They are dependent on cheap foreign labor and are in a way helpless. Rich but helpless. No rules, no laws, no taxes, no work. Just unhappiness.
10.We know nothing. We think we’ll be happy from achievements and wealth (Hindu word is maya, which means illusion) and we feel pained by setbacks (Hindu word is mushkala, which means illusory loss). See page 139.
Part Two. What We Learn from Qatar: Excessive Wealth Makes Even Decent, Well-Intentioned People Become Unhappy
1.When we become wealthy, we understandably become distrustful of others who may feel tempted to take advantage of us, to use us for their gain. As a result, we close our circle and we become more and more disconnected from the world. Think of the film Citizen Kane.
2.This disconnectedness from the world and constant protectiveness makes us feel embattled, which in turn creates a permanent mask of skepticism. Without checks and balances, this skepticism of others’ motives can easily turn to paranoia, an obvious condition of unhappiness.
3.When we’re filthy rich, people no longer relate to us as people. They relate to us as sycophants. Other people’s compulsion to lavish us with praise and be generally obsequious gives us a false sense of grandiosity. We begin to believe we’re as great as people treat us resulting in an obnoxious, undeserved sense of entitlement.
4.When we’re filthy rich, it’s tempting to use our money and power to clean up our messes. We become more reckless in our behavior since we know our money can take care of our errant ways. Think of the recklessness and misery of Bill Murray playing Phil Connors in the classic film Groundhog Day.
5.When we’re filthy rich, we’re compelled by normal human nature to experience “the best” and what we find is that our brains adapt to pleasure and excitement requiring more and more stimulation. The researchers calls this constant adaptation the “hedonic treadmill.” We constantly have to spike our pleasure before we adapt to it and then spike it forever and ever in a an endless cycle with us always losing the pleasure game, resulting in disappointment and frustration. And yes, unhappiness.
6.Like it or not, wealth is a drug both for the wealthy person and others who are intoxicated by the wealthy person’s aura of living on a superior, elevated plane. This mutual intoxication between the wealthy person and his or her admirers creates a sick symbiotic relationship based on fantasy, greed, and envy, components for miserable relationships.
7.It is human nature when we are rich to hire others to do everything for us. Over time we become helpless cripples dependent on our “help.” This, alas, is yet another cause of our unhappiness.
8.As human beings, we have a rational brain that knows wealth is dangerous and most often results in unhappiness but we also are hard-wired to pursue wealth no matter what our rational brain tells us. Understanding this conflict in ourselves and seeing our rational intellect being helpless to curb our irrational appetites, again, is another cause of our unhappiness.
Part Three. Unhappiness in Moldova
1.Envy: To resent others for having a better situation than yours. The unhappy cannot bear the sight of the happy.
2.The human condition is one of contrast: Hot means nothing without cold. Mozart is enhanced by Barry Manilow. Happy places are more interesting because of unhappy ones. The darkest part of the planet is Moldovia. It is the least happy nation on the planet.
3.The body language is sour and bitter and this in turn makes people feel sour and bitter.
4.Natasha says “We have no money for life.” That is her reason, but Weiner doesn’t buy it because he’s visited other countries who in poverty don’t hold that attitude.
5.The male citizens are skinny; the male cops are fat and thuggish, a bad sign.
6.They’ve been beaten down into learned helplessness (see other lectures on this topic) The Moldovans say, “This is Moldova.” Or “What can I do?”
7.Moldovans compare themselves to the richer countries, not the poorer ones. So of course the glass is half empty.
8.The service industry is rude and this is a self-fulfilling prophecy of misery.
9.There is no trust of anything, including their own people, and this results in nihilism.
10.The people are neither Russian nor Moldovan. They exist in a nether world of no identity or culture. “How can you feel good about yourself if you don’t know who you are?”
11.Their new “freedom” means nothing without jobs. They cannot afford to eat at McDonald’s.
12.Corruption and nepotism is rampant.
13.Men don’t care about their appearance because they’re outnumbered by the woman who wear raccoon makeup.
14.They are consumed by selfishness: “No este problema mea.” They can’t even recognize selfish altruism, which encourages reciprocity.
15.The Moldovans are fueled by schadenfreude; “They derive more pleasure from their neighbor’s failure than their own success.”
16.Scapegoat everything on “Perestroika.” When you scapegoat other source for your problems, your proclaiming your helplessness.
17.Envy accumulates like toxic waste.
18.There is no queuing, a sure sign of nihilism, anomie, and chaos.
19.They trust nothing: doctors under thirty-five, their own friends.
20.The once cheery American Peace Corps workers are becoming gloomy and depressed.
21.No one wants to be in Moldova, including Moldovans.
22.Helping professions score the highest in happiness surveys.
23.The Moldovans have thrown politeness and civility out the window. They say, “Give me that.” No please. In contrast, Japan emphasizes politeness. A common expression: “Gomen nasai.” I’m sorry.
24.Freedom has been reduced to a small number of people who have enough money to consume the growing selection of goods.
25.Moldovans haven’t used the golden rule of positive psychology: hedonic adaptation: No matter how severe our misfortune, we adapt. But this adaptation cannot occur in the absence of culture, living in a shadow. Moldova is a “fabricated nation.” It really does not exist.
26.Weiner concludes with “lessons gleaned from Moldova’s unhappiness”:
27.Lesson One: “Not my problem” is a mental illness, a condition of no empathy.
28.Lesson Two: Poverty is too often used as an excuse for unhappiness. Their reaction to poverty is worse than the poverty.
29.Lesson Three: A culture that belittles the value of trust and friendship and rewards mean-spiritedness and deceit cannot be happy.
Part Four.America Ranks Low on the Happiness Index. Why?
1.America is one of the wealthiest countries in the world but ranks low on happiness index. (23rd). Why? Some say we suffer from the “paradox of choice.” The more choices, the more we become anxious about making the “wrong choice”. Also more choices results in inflated expectations.
2.Abundance leads to restlessness. Again, think of the hedonic treadmill.
3.While Americans have enjoyed more abundance in general, they also work longer hours and have longer commute times, which result in unhappiness.
4.“The More Factor” is in many ways a curse. As we read in McMahon’s blog the Breakthrough Writer, the hunger for more generates a delusional fallacy, what McMahon calls “Either/Or.”
5.The hunger for More is in many ways instinctual. But as Tim Kasser observes in “Mixed Messages,” these instincts can go haywire, become inflated and actually work against us.
6.According to Laurence Shames’ essay “The More Factor,” Americans are misguided by the “presumption that America wouldkeep on booming—if not forever, then at least longer than it made sense to worry about.” But for all of our innovation and economic greatness, Laurence Shames laments that our materialistic excess has retarded our moral growth. As he writes. He opines that “Americans have been somewhat backward in adopting values, hopes, ambitions that have to do with things other thanmore.”
7.America encourages Darwinian competition, which results in isolation and paranoia. Our appetites for Darwinian competition are evidenced in the onslaught of “reality” TV shows like Survivor.
8.Darwinian competition has created a nation where pleasure has been reduced to schadenfreude, taking pleasure in other people’s failures.
9.The American Dream is living apart from the rest in a gated community, insulated with satellite TV, wireless Internet, techno-gadgets that keep us “connected” in the most unreal way. America is a good place to be lonely. People are not as lonely in other countries. Weiner points out that Latino cultures bring their family unity from other countries to America and that they rank higher than other Americans on the happiness index.
10.American consumerism is a religion that possessed most Americans and makes the shopping mall America’s Holy Temple. Of course, such worship traps consumers in the hedonic treadmill, leading to numbness and ennui.
Part Five. Journal Entry:
In a page, profile someone you know who is profoundly unhappy and analyze the causes of this unhappiness in the context of today’s lecture.
Part Six. Simplified Essay Outline:
In one long paragraph, write about a time you or someone you know was disenchanted with the idea of happiness (See Journal Entry in Lesson #3). Then in your thesis paragraph (paragraph 2) argue the 4 major fallacies that impede us from attaining happiness as described in the book (paragraphs 3-6) and the 4 conditions conducive to happiness (paragraphs7-10). Finally, in your conclusion write about someone you know who has virtues that make happiness a natural byproduct of that person's life (11th paragraph).
In one long paragraph, write about a time you or someone you know was disenchanted with the idea of happiness (See Journal Entry in Lesson #3). Then in your thesis paragraph (paragraph 2) argue the 4 major fallacies that impede us from attaining happiness as described in the book (paragraphs 3-6) and the 4 conditions conducive to happiness (paragraphs7-10). Finally, in your conclusion write about someone you know who has virtues that make happiness a natural byproduct of that person's life (11th paragraph).
The rising/falling motif can be explained by our capacity for self-delusion and false perception, a mental state that includes denial, self-rationalizations, narcissism, and solipsism (living inside the bubble of your own head without external checks and balances) all resulting in a condition of moral dissolution. The rising part of the motif includes the things that unshackle us from these forms of delusion and moral dissolution: accountability, humility, fortitude, redemption.
As some students are doing, we can compare this rising/falling motif journey in Jeff Henderson with the film Goodfellas, Catch Me If You Can, City of God, and other works of film and literature.
Jeff Henderson's Fall Results in Too Much Denial
Some Denial Is Necessary for Sanity, But Too Much Denial Leads to Insanity and Moral Dissolution
We need a certain amount of denial to be sane. For example, we should not face the raw, bald reality of our most egregious personal defects and weaknesses.
Otherwise, we'll be bogged down in the paralysis of self-obsession and self-loathing and we would be worthless. Let's say we're not as kind as we'd like to be.
We can't go around muttering to ourselves, "I lack the milk of human kindness" over and over. Otherwise, we'll go insane.
Another example is ugly photographs of you. I'm talking about photographs that make you look so ugly you cringe and wince with disbelief.
Photographers say most of us are more photogenic on our left side.
THROW THOSE UGLY PHOTOS AWAY NOW! Before people put them on the internet.
If you walk around life with an image of yourself based on the ugliest photographs ever taken of you, you'll never leave the house; you'll never get a date; you'll die lonely.
Try to focus on the more flattering photographs of yourself.
Is this a form of delusion? Maybe. But it's a good delusion, one that preserves your sanity.
A personal example: I hate the sound of my voice when someone plays it back on a taperecorder.
Solution?
I DON'T LISTEN TO MY RECORDED VOICE.
Otherwise, I'll reel in self-disgust.
Take peanut butter as another example. It's full of cockroach parts, but we eat it without thinking about that disgusting fact.
Or when we eat meat. Few of us contemplate the agony the animals suffered to become meat on our plate.
Or cheap clothing. It's cheap because underage children are making it in third-world country at slave wages. Still enjoying your Gap T-shirt?
To a certain degree, self-delusions are necessary. Otherwise, we don't do much. We'll criticize every move we make.
Fly to a green summit on who to reduce the world's carbon footprint and the private jet you take is blowing carbons into the atmosphere.
Another example is natural disasters. Even though an earthquake, a tsunami or some other disaster can destroy us in the blink of an eye, we have to live our lives as if we have a good shot of living a full, healthy life. Otherwise, we'll be paralyzed by fear.
So we all engage in some denial to some degree.
Taking Denial Too Far
But there is a point where denial no longer preserves our sanity, that denial goes too far and plummets us into the depths of illusion completely disconnected to reality.
We see people on American Idol who think they have the talent to be superstar singers.
Such is the fate of successful drug dealer Jeff Henderson who believes, one, he's invincible and, two, he isn't doing anything wrong: He's just a businessman.
Sometimes When We Think We're "Rising," We're Really in Denial
Examples of Denial
1.A woman sees gradual warning signs that her boyfriend is jealous and controlling, but she denies it and before she knows it, she is in the chapel about to give her vows, what will be for her a prison sentence of unbearable hell: physical beatings and psychological abuse.
2.A man is a major drug dealer but minimizes the harm of his actions by telling everyone he is not a drug user, a gang-banger, or a killer. He’s just a “business man.”
3.A man doesn't believe he has a snoring problem until his wife plays him a tape-recording of his sleep apnea.
4.A man cheats on his girlfriend, convinces her that he did not cheat and has a hard time “forgiving” his girlfriend for questioning his fidelity.
5.An El Camino student hangs out with college dropout buddies who never really grew up. Their lives center on “having a good time,” which is the usual fare of male bonding, bragging about their endless series of immature relationships, gossiping about their latest exploits, etc. This student can’t acknowledge that his “buddies” are emotional retards distracting him from his more important goals, such as succeeding in college. Even more disturbing, he fails to admit that his “buddies” are haters who want him to fail because crabs always pinch the top crab straddling the bucket and pull the crab back in before it can escape.
Two. The Causes of Denial
1.When you lie to yourself enough times, you begin to believe that your lie is a truth. This is the beginning of insanity.
2.When your whole life becomes a collection of lies that you’ve convinced yourself are truths, you are walking around Planet Earth with your head up your butt.
3.Denial is also brought upon by the gradual worsening of a situation. You acclimate to gradual developments so that you don’t see what is happening to you or your don’t want to see it. We can call this Suffering Acclimation. The pain is so gradual we can get used to it.
4.Acclimation allows you to adapt to an extreme situation so that is doesn’t seem extreme to you. Making $100,000 a month in easy money isn’t normal to us, but it was normal to Jeff Henderson during his drug dealing days. In other words, craziness becomes the “new normal.”
5.Denial is caused by the ego, which says, “These things can’t be happening because of me. I’m essentially a good person. I don’t deserve this.” Such is Jeff Henderson’s position during his initial arrest and imprisonment.
6.When the ego embraces denial to escape personal accountability, the result is nihilism, the death of morals and meaning. In other words, “you don’t give a damn about anything.” That’s nihilism. See page 110 in which Jeff Henderson says he doesn’t care about anything. He doesn’t want to get his life together. He just wants to lift weights and “kick it” with his homies. That’s nihilism.
7. When you're surrounded by sycophants, they tell you what you want to hear, not the truth, so you live in a bubble of denial.
Writing an Introduction About Your Personal Struggle with Denial
I’ve been working out most of my life. As a kid I remember family and friends looking at photographs of Arnold Schwarzenegger and other bodybuilders and exclaiming how “gross” and “freakish” these “musclemen” were. In contrast, I thought these bodybuilders looked normal. From my point of view, it was the average guy, a tomato with four toothpicks sticking out it, who looked woeful.
At 13, I was a Junior Olympic Weightlifting champion. At 19, I took second place in Mr. Teenage San Francisco. I know the confidence and satisfaction that results from looking muscular and lean and I know, ever since my metabolism slowed down in my early thirties, the chagrin and displeasure of having a Pillsbury Dough Boy coat of flab over my frame.
No time did I experience this humiliation more than in the summer of 2003 at the age of 42. My wife Carrie and I were walking back from the brunch buffet at the Sheraton Inn in Kauai where I had just ingested a 7,000-calorie breakfast of macadamia nut pancakes, French toast made with Hawaiian sweet bread, turkey sausage patties, and scrambled eggs with melted cheddar all washed down with several tall glasses of freshly-squeezed orange juice. As I strutted my 259-pounds outside the buffet room and past a hotel window, I saw the reflection of a portly gentleman, dressed in safari shorts and a turquoise tank top, which sported the striking image of the iconic sea turtle. This unsightly man I gazed upon looked like the stereotype of an overfed American.
I walked closer toward the bloated image and I was overcome by the shock and anxiety that the reflection was not some other guy for whom I could judge with gleeful ridicule but was me. I was that dude, the type of person whom I had mocked and scorned most of my life.
This was a huge moment for me, what literary people might call an “epiphany,” and I was fortunate to have experienced it. Most people are denied, or deny themselves, such moments of clarity. It is my belief that something like 95% of the human race walk around Planet Earth with their heads up their butts and this is how they die—never knowing what the hell is really going on. But on that summer day in Kauai when I saw that the corpulent man in the window was in fact me, my head uncorked from my butt and I was able to see reality for what it really was. And this reality—me being a chubster—was totally unacceptable. Something had to be done.
Jeff Henderson, too, suffers from having his head up his butt as he denies the evil of his "business endeavor," that of a silver-tongued drug dealer. We see that denial was just one factor that descended him deeper and deeper into a life of crime and made him believe that when he was rising, he was actually sinking. Conversely, when he thought he was sinking, he was actually rising. . . .
Why Parallelism Is Important:
For making lists like mapping components in a thesis:
While I generally don’t support US troops going on fools’ errands in the Middle East, we must intervene there now to degrade the terrorist group ISIS because the group’s purpose is to wipeout Western civilization, the group is exacting humanitarian nightmares in the region, the group is using its power to recruit an unprecedented amount of new terrorists, and the need to help our Iraqi allies. (The last component should read “. . . the group is crushing our Iraqi allies.”
The wise man’s rising-falling motif informs Jeff Henderson’s Cooked evidenced by __________, ____________, ____________, _____________, and ____________.
Parallelism’s importance is most apparent when looking at mapping components in a thesis. We want those components to be written in parallel form whether we’re referring to a list of phrases or clauses.
Faulty Parallelism Example
Marijuana should be legalized because it’s safer than alcohol and many pharmaceutical drugs, its medicinal properties; it’s a fool’s errand to wage a war against it, and keeping it illegal increases criminal activity.
Above we have a mix of clauses and phrases. We should correct it by changing all the mapping components to clauses.
Corrected
Marijuana should be legalized because it’s safer than alcohol and many pharmaceutical drugs; it has medicinal properties; it is too common to waste money in a feeble attempt to eradicate it, and in illegal form it results in too much criminal activity.
We use parallelism in all types of writing.
Faulty
The instructor sometimes indulges in bloviating, pontificating, and likes to self-aggrandize.
We see above two gerunds followed by an infinitive, which is a faulty mix.
Corrected
The instructor sometimes indulges in bloviating, pontificating, and self-aggrandizing.
Using parallelism after a colon
Faulty
Kettlebell exercises work on the major muscle groups: thighs, gluteus, back, and make the shoulder muscles bigger.
Corrected
Kettlebell exercises work on the major muscle groups: thighs, gluteus, back, and shoulders.
McMahon Grammar Exercise: Parallelism
Correct the faulty parallelism by rewriting the sentences below.
One. Parenting toddlers is difficult for many reasons, not the least of which is that toddlers contradict everything you ask them to do; they have giant mood swings, and all-night tantrums.
Two. You should avoid all-you-can-eat buffets: They encourage gluttony; they feature fatty, over-salted foods and high sugar content.
Three. I prefer kettlebell training at home than the gym because of the increased privacy, the absence of loud “gym” music, and I’m able to concentrate more.
Four. To write a successful research paper you must adhere to the exact MLA format, employ a variety of paragraph transitions, and writing an intellectually rigorous thesis.
Five. The difficulty of adhering to the MLA format is that the rules are frequently being updated, the sheer abundance of rules you have to follow, and to integrate your research into your essay.
Six. You should avoid watching “reality shows” on TV because they encourage a depraved form of voyeurism; they distract you from your own problems, and their brain-dumbing effects.
Seven. I’m still fat even though I’ve tried the low-carb diet, the Paleo diet, the Rock-in-the-Mouth diet, and fasting every other day.
Eight. To write a successful thesis, you must have a compelling topic, a sophisticated take on that topic, and developing a thesis that elevates the reader’s consciousness to a higher level.
Nine. Getting enough sleep, exercising daily, and the importance of a positive attitude are essential for academic success.
Ten. My children never react to my calm commands or when I beg them to do things.
McMahon Grammar Exercises: Comma Splices and Run-Ons
After each sentence, put a “C” for Correct or a “CS” for Comma Splice. If the sentence is a comma splice, rewrite it so that it is correct.
One. Bailey used to eat ten pizzas a day, now he eats a spinach salad for lunch and dinner.
Two. Marco no longer runs on the treadmill, instead he opts for the less injury-causing elliptical trainer.
Three. Running can cause shin splints, which can cause excruciating pain.
Four. Running in the incorrect form can wreak havoc on the knees, slowing down can often correct the problem.
Five. While we live in a society where 1,500-calorie cheeseburgers are on the rise, the reading of books, sad to say, is on the decline.
Six. Facebook is a haven for narcissists, it encourages showing off with selfies and other mundane activities that are ways of showing how great and amazing our lives our, what a sham.
Seven. We live in a society where more and more Americans are consuming 1,500-calorie cheeseburgers, however, those same Americans are reading less and less books.
Eight. Love is a virus from outer space, it tends to become most contagious during April and May.
Nine. The tarantula causes horror in many people, moreover there is a species of tarantula in Brazil, the wandering banana spider, that is the most venomous spider in the world.
Ten. Even though spiders cause many people to recoil with horror, most species are harmless.
Eleven. The high repair costs of European luxury vehicles repelled Amanda from buying such a car, instead she opted for a Japanese-made Lexus.
Twelve. Amanda got a job at the Lexus dealership, now she’s trying to get me a job in the same office.
Thirteen. While consuming several cinnamon buns, a twelve-egg cheese omelet, ten slices of French toast slathered in maple syrup, and a tray of Swedish loganberry crepes topped with a dollop of blueberry jam, I contemplated the very grave possibility that I might be eating my way to a heart attack.
Fourteen. Even though I rank marijuana far less dangerous than most pharmaceutical drugs, alcohol, and other commonly used intoxicants, I find marijuana unappealing for a host of reasons, not the least of which is its potential for radically degrading brain cells, its enormous effect on stimulating the appetite, resulting in obesity, and its capacity for over-relaxing many people so that they lose significant motivation to achieve their primary goals, opting instead for a life of sloth and intractable indolence.
1.In Bhutan, Buddhism is seamlessly integrated in the culture in ways that produces happiness. For example in Buddhism, there is nothing greater than compassion and compassion creates happiness. In contrast, in America Walgreen shoppers fight and riot so that the police have to close the store. Or people fight in line at Lowes or swing squeegees at each for cutting in line at a gas station. The cashiers at Costco say they witness fights for parking spaces almost every day.
2.In Bhutan crime is kept at a minimum because the people believe they could be punished during reincarnation, returning to Earth as the very creature they harmed.Result: Country’s low murder rate linked to happiness.
3.In Bhutan, the people have “realistic expectations” unlike Americans who feel compelled to achieve “great things”? Buddhism diminishes human excitement as foolish excitement for illusion. A lot of Americans would say they refuse to accept "realistic expectations," which are for them "low expectations," resulting in mediocrity.
4.In Bhutan, the people have a healthy attitude toward the reality of death and they do not deny death. This contributes to their happiness. In contrast, Americans sanitize death. The funeral, with embalming, designer outfit, deluxe coffin (usually $9,000 in today's market) and is a huge consumer experience that makes a ton of money for the funeral home and insulates the consumer from the reality of death.
5.The people of Bhutan revere solitude. But later on we read there is no introspection, “no self-help books.” No one tries to be happy but everyone has a strong degree of happiness. Why does this lead to happiness? There is a difference between naval-gazing self-centeredness and solitude. Solitude can entail personal reading (as opposed to doing reading for homework), painting, drawing, writing, any act of creativity.
6.They won’t sell timber to rich countries for money; they won’t sell their soul to the devil of greed. They have integrity which results in a clear conscience, a form of happiness. A few pages later, the author explains how the rising GDP (Iraq, growing prison population, oil spill) doesn’t correspond to a rising happiness index or the Gross National Happiness. He writes that an old person in a care home contributes to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) but an old person cared for by family does not. Who is happier? Jeff Johnson writes about this in the Gross National Happiness and Development compendium. We can conclude that you should not strive for happiness, but strive for integrity and creative solitude. Happiness is the byproduct of those qualities.
7.Happiness is a collective endeavor, not an individual one. (author criticizes them for being “too sincere.” What does he mean? Perhaps "too sincere" means lacking a sense of humor and irony?) We read “happiness is relational.” What does that mean? This is the opposite of solipsism.
8.GNH (Gross National Happiness), according to Sanjay Penjor, “means knowing your limitations; knowing how much is enough.” The Greeks had the same idea when they talked about moderation and temperance as being virtues, but in American society, built on consumer spending, we discourage moderation and temperance and encourage hype, extremes, pushing your limits.
Part Two. Iceland: Happiness Is Failure
1.In Iceland ambition is tempered by a sense of humor. The God of Ambition, the main God of America, is discussed as a truth we don’t realize until it’s too late: He is a false god. (end of Chapter 4)
2.Colder climates are happier. Why? There’s the Get-Along-or-Die Theory. In warm climates we can be isolated if we want. In harsh climates, we need each other.
3.“Interdependence is the mother of affection.”
4.A society built on reciprocity develops love. In contrast, a lot of college students, moving from another country away from family and friends, live a life of isolation. They take classes alone, go home alone and study. The amount of isolation that afflicts a lot of college students is mind-boggling.
5.Iceland is so small, there are no strangers in Iceland. This adds to a key ingredient to happiness: Having a sense of community and belonging.
6.Iceland shares the pain of inflation. Unemployment is far worse because it’s experiences individually.
7.Icelanders don’t suffer delusions of grandeur or immortality about their cities. They feel insignificant in the best, humble sense of the word. And this sense of humility results in happiness.
8.They accept the wonder and harsh doom of nature. As a result, they feel close to nature and this is a spiritual orientation that results in happiness.
9.Icelanders love their language and their greetings are benevolent such as “Go happy,” vertu saell,” and “come happy,” komdu saell.”
10.Their language is “egalitarian and utterly free of pretense.” In contrast, America is a niche elitist society where the upper classes, doctors, lawyers, computer nerds, etc., all have their own "speak," which no one else can understand. Doctors and lawyers use language you can't understand so you feel helpless and feeling helpless makes you feel dependent on them and feeling hopelessly dependent on them is good for their business.
11.They feel connected to the land and receive creative energy from it. In spiritual terms, this is called Pantheism, the idea that you can experience spirit or God through nature.
12.They have a sense of style, which is always connected to glamour. See Virginia Postrel in Atlantic article. Glamour elevates us from the banality of everyday reality.
13.Icelanders suppress envy by sharing things, in contrast with the Swiss who hide things.
14.Failure doesn’t carry a stigma in Iceland. It’s okay to fail with the best intentions. It’s okay to try and fail. This is a nurturing society, not a society of haters. In contrast, failure in America results in shame, stigma, a permanent mark of ignominy and disgrace.
15.Naïveté serves them well. There’s a certain innocence, a goodness, about them. They’re not so “sophisticated” in an arrogant stuffy sense of the word.
16.The collective culture encourages creativity, which allows you to lose yourself in something larger than yourself, called “flow.”
17.Icelandic people thrive on being sad and happy at the same time, a natural part of the human condition.
Part Three. Happiness in Thailand:Chapter 7: Thailand: Happiness Is Not Thinking
1.The “sexpat” is not happy. He’s a farang, a foreigner with a lot of money, who is disheveled. “As long as his wallet is in reasonably good shape, the rest of him can fall to pieces.” He’s looked at as pathetic, mush, unhappy.
2.Thais are happy and one of their beliefs is that too much thinking will make you unhappy: “Thinking is like running. Just because your legs are moving doesn’t mean you’re getting anywhere. You might even be running into a headwind. You might even be running backward.”
3.Thais do not read self-help books, go to therapy, or talk endlessly about their problems. Their wisdom lets them know that this type of naval-gazing makes your problems worse. You go backward.
4.Another saying against thinking: “Happy people have no reason to think; they live rather than question living.”
5.Conclusion: Thinking about happiness makes us less happy. So reading Weiner’s book, which makes you think about happiness, must be depressing.
6.There are only 3 ways to increase our happiness: You can increase the amount of good feelings; you can decrease the amount of bad feelings; or you can change the subject. Take a tormented relationship, for example. Thais don’t trust words. To change the subject, they say, “Mai pen lai.” It means “never mind” or “pay not attention.” Wise guys in mafia films say, “Forget about it.” In America, we have a saying, “Water under the bridge” and “Let sleeping dogs lie (stay asleep).” Here are some tormenting questions: How come Person X doesn’t like me after all I did for her? Why is there suffering in the world? How can I enjoy this chocolate cake if just one baby is starving in Ethiopia? How can I focus on my homework when there is the possibility that the sun will explode and destroy our universe as we know it? How can I look forward to going to Heaven when so many people are doomed to spend eternity in Hell?
7.Thais believe in keeping a “cool heart,” keeping bad feelings inside, but Weiner points out that Thailand has a very high incidence of wives castrating their cheating husbands.
8.Unlike Americans, Thais are free from the egotism that makes everything so serious. When they trip and fall, it’s funny to everyone, not a huge embarrassment. You can call your fat friend, “hippo,” and it’s cool. Not so in America.
9.The Thais hold a higher value of sanuk—happiness—over money and ego.
10.Thais are solaced that if things don’t work out well in this life, they might be better in the next one.
Part Four. Alternative Introduction to Your Essay: A Personal Story About How You Became Disenchanted with the Idea of Happiness, Which Ties in to an Alternative Approach to Writing Your Essay
There once was a man in his early twenties. Socially awkward, he had never even been on a date. Instead, he withdrew into his college studies, found companionship in books, and grew an unruly beard. Untouched by human warmth, his demeanor was a bit crazed and unsettling. His eyes were cavernous and penetrating.
One day this young man was on Pier Avenue in Hermosa Beach and he passed a popular hangout, Patrick Malloy’s. It was crowded inside. The young man pressed his bearded face against the glass and looked with longing at the attractive people. They looked so life-affirming and at ease with self-abandonment, laughing, slapping each other’s backs, kissing one another, and sloshing their beers over their glasses’ rims.
In contrast, the young man was a tightly-wound ball of repressed emotions, in turns angry and melancholy. He felt like a man of 85 trapped in the body of a 21-year old.
Watching the attractive people enjoying themselves and embracing life with an admirable, insatiable appetite, the young man was convinced he would remain on life’s sidelines, a depressed witness to a life passing him by.
Convinced of his own futility and fated to a life of loneliness, he went home, curled up into a ball and cried himself to sleep.
We now travel 25 years into the future and focus on this same man, now in his mid-forties. He has a good job. He has developed social skills, he is well groomed, insouciant, and can conceal his cynicism behind a veil of witty repartee. He’s been married, divorced, remarried. He sits in Patrick Malloy’s with his lovely wife and her lovely friends. Beer is sloshing all around him. He doesn’t drink, save a diet Coke since he’s the designated driver. The music is loud and people are shouting over the music. His ears can’t take much more of this. Worse, an unrelenting boredom has set in and he is no longer listening to any of the several conversations blaring around him.
He feels it both strange and cruel that earlier in his life he felt excluded from this club of beautiful people and now he is inside its very center, its most inner core, and rather than bathing in the warmth of belonging and popularity he stares at his watch.
While squirming in his seat with utter boredom, he sees a young man outside the club. The man is bearded with the same cavernous eyes and the same look of despair the middle-aged man remembers seeing in his reflection. The young man, a mirror image of the middle-aged one, presses his face against the window and looks into the eyes of his older doppelgänger.
Feeling helpless to give wisdom to the misguided youth, the older aspiring mentor shakes his head as if to say: "The presumed happiness you see in this night club is all in your head, little brother. It's all in your head."
Indeed, the chasing of happiness is a sure way to NOT find happiness, as well chronicled in Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss. We see that the quest for happiness is doomed to fail because _____________________, __________________, and ___________________, and that happiness is the natural byproduct of certain cultural conditions, which, we learn from Iceland, Thailand, and others, consist of _____________________, _______________________, __________________, ____________________, and _______________________.
Part Five. Journal Entry:
Think of the happiest person you know and write down 5 qualities that this person has that you think create happiness. Or, regarding today's alternative introduction, write about a time you were disenchanted with the idea of happiness.
Part Six. Simplified Way to Write Essay for Geography of Bliss: Eleven-Paragraph Format
In one long paragraph, write about a time you or someone you know was disenchanted with the idea of happiness (See Journal Entry in Lesson #3). Then in your thesis paragraph (paragraph 2) argue the 4 major fallacies that impede us from attaining happiness as described in the book (paragraphs 3-6) and the 4 conditions conducive to happiness (paragraphs7-10). Finally, in your conclusion write about someone you know who has virtues that make happiness a natural byproduct of that person's life (11th paragraph).
