Homework #15:
Read "How Predictable Is Our Taste" by Tom Vanderbilt and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains the forces that influence our tastes for popular culture.
If you don't have the book, you can read the online essay by the same author, "The Secret of Taste."
We will also cover "Why We Binge-Watch Television" by Kevin Fallon on page 156 and available online.
Essay #4 Options with 3 Sources for Works Cited Due 5-14-18
One. Support, refute, or complicate Debra J. Dickerson's argument that race in America is more of a social fantasy than a reflection of objective reality. In other words, race is not an objective fact; rather, race is a social construction, an invention to justify slavery, Jim Crow, and general racism in which the privileged race creates an artificial hierarchy to justify its privilege and to justify the exploitation of those designated as being lower on the hierarchy.
Two. Show how the Jordan Peele movie Get Out builds on Debra J. Dickerson's argument that race in America is a cruel invention designed to create a hierarchy of power, one that can be seen in all its horror in post-Obama America. For sources, see NYT review , The Guardian review, and the Variety review.
Three. Develop a thesis that argues that Confederate flags and other iconography from the Confederacy should be relegated to museums.
Four. Develop a thesis that supports, refutes, or complicates the claim that mass incarceration is “The New Jim Crow.” The first Jim Crow was the southern white backlash to the end of the Civil War and the government's attempt to make amends to black people. This attempt was mostly seen in the Freedman's Bureau, which existed from 1865 to 1877. Its demise came from KKK attacks and general resentment from white southerners. Jim Crow was the insidious reinvention of slavery in the form of segregation and oppression. Consult Adam Gopnik’s “The Caging of America.” Also consult Michelle Alexander's New Jim Crow Ted Talk video. I also recommend the 2016 Netflix documentary 13th.
Five. Develop an argument that addresses the notion that Tom Jacob’s essay "It's Not Easy Being Green and Manly" (78) is a feeble solution to the problem of global warming in the context of Naomi Klein’s essay "One Way Or Another, Everything Changes" (70). Here is Klein's essay is non-PDF format.
Six. Develop a thesis that examines how cultural tastes are part of our public personality in the context of Tom Vanderbilt’s “How Predictable Is Our Taste” (142 and not online as far as I can tell), Kevin Fallon’s “Why We Binge-Watch Television” (156), and David Brooks’ “People Like Us” (525). Also see Vanderbilt's "The Secret of Taste."
Review The New Jim Crow
Four. Develop a thesis that supports, refutes, or complicates the claim that mass incarceration is “The New Jim Crow.” The first Jim Crow was the southern white backlash to the end of the Civil War and the government's attempt to make amends to black people. This attempt was mostly seen in the Freedman's Bureau, which existed from 1865 to 1877. Its demise came from KKK attacks and general resentment from white southerners. Jim Crow was the insidious reinvention of slavery in the form of segregation and oppression. Consult Adam Gopnik’s “The Caging of America.” Also consult Michelle Alexander's New Jim Crow Ted Talk video. I also recommend the 2016 Netflix documentary 13th.
Sample Thesis Statements
Sample #1
The explicit racism of Jim Crow has been re-invented in an implicit albeit equally oppressive way in the New Jim Crow evidenced by the racial discrimination that is used in the incarceration system from racist propaganda, stop-and-frisk, unfair sentencing, permanent making of an underclass, and permanent racial segregation.
Sample #2
Whereas the old Jim Crow violated civil rights and all manner of moral decency in the most flagrant ideology of white supremacy, the New Jim Crow is a more insidious evil that uses privileged indifference to the plight of minorities, not blatant racism, to fuel a permanent underclass, the militarization of the police, the privatization and corruption of the industrial prison complex, and the gradual loss of civil rights for ALL American citizens.
"One Way Or Another, Everything Changes" by Naomi Klein (70)
One. Why are small temperature increases so catastrophic?
Because small temp hikes result in "abrupt, unpredictable and potentially irreversible changes that have massively disruptive and large-scale impacts," we read from Report by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Airplane wheels melt and sink into pavement.
Polar bears are going extinct.
We also see floods, drought, and sea rise, which leads to massive migration and geopolitical instability.
Two. What is the parallel between climate change denial and death?
We don't want to think about it. It's unpleasant. It's inconvenient. It's easier to just live our lives on our current default setting. "Screw it. What's going to happen is going to happen." Or we say, "We'll think of something. We're smart," even if it's too late.
Klein observes that we are heading toward the Mad Max Apocalypse of drought, floods, famine and the ensuing violence and barbarism that such instability creates.
Three. What moral imperative is Klein trying to instill in us?
She wants us to drive the point that we have a crisis to our apathetic politicians. We wants us to grab the bull by the horns, take responsibility, and make an outcry about our possible demise.
"It's Not Easy Being Green--and Manly" by Tom Jacobs
One. How might we see Jacobs' essay as trivial in the context of Klein's?
Who cares about gender issues, masculine insecurity, gender stereotyping, and mulching complexes when we face the Apocalypse?
Two. How might one refute Jacobs' masculine angle?
Jacobs is referring to false masculinity, the kind rooted in bluster and insecurity.
Real masculinity is about self-confidence, self-possession, self-control, and thoughtfulness toward others. A truly masculine person would not be daunted by "being green." Jacobs' essay is lame, superficial, and fatuous, not worthy of our time.
Evaluate Sample Thesis Statements
Five. Develop an argument that addresses the notion that Tom Jacob’s essay "It's Not Easy Being Green and Manly" (78) is a feeble solution to the problem of global warming in the context of Naomi Klein’s essay "One Way Or Another, Everything Changes" (70). Here is Klein's essay is non-PDF format.
Thesis #1
In the context of the global catastrophe that awaits us, as described by Naomi Klein, Tom Jacob's essay is a Lame Nothing Burger, offering such irrelevancies as masculine insecurity, gender role stereotypes, and other trivial, superficial non-issues that sink his essay to the dark depths of the intellectual marketplace.
Thesis #2
Tom Jacobs' attempt to inject the topic of masculine insecurity into the topic of global warming is inane, irrelevant, confused, and unworthy of being selected in a college textbook.
Thesis #3
I find it interesting that a woman, Naomi Klein, stays focused on what's important about global warming while a man, Tom Jacobs, focuses on something as fatuous and asinine as masculine insecurity as it pertains to mulching. Here we have a case of a woman focusing on what matters and a man whose masculine role obsessions impede him from grappling with real issues. We can argue, therefore, that masculine preoccupation is a trap that prevents civilization from moving forward.
5 Types of Claims
Thesis statements or claims go under five different categories:
One. Claims about solutions or policies: The claim argues for a certain solution or policy change:
The citizenry needs to organize and unite to force the issue of global warming because global warming is an existential crisis.
America's War on Drugs should be abolished and replaced with drug rehab.
America's War on Drugs is an ineffective and morally bankrupt policy evidenced by _____________, ____________, ________________, and _____________________.
Genetic editing needs regulation to keep the ascent of designer babies in the realm of health while not allowing genetic editing to become solely a consumer product.
As long as Americans refuse to do America's dirty work and as long as America relies on immigrant labor for billions of dollars in revenue, America must adopt a sane, moral, humanitarian immigration policy that gives rights, decency, and dignity to the immigrant labor it uses on a daily basis.
A critical thinking professor seen gorging shamelessly at one of those notorious all-you-can-eat buffets should be stripped of his accreditation and license to teach since such a display of gluttony evidences someone whose lifestyle contradicts the very critical thinking skills he is supposed to embody, such hypocrisy has no place in higher education, and educators in such high-profile positions must be sterling role models for their students and the public at large.
Two. Claims that critique the success, failure, or mixed results of a thing that is in the marketplace of art, ideas, and politics: a policy, dietary program, book, movie, work of art, philosophy, to name several.
Book Review
In her book iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood--and What That Means for the Rest of Us, author Jean Twenge attempts to analyze the causes of a dysfunctional generation, but her analysis lacks rigorous support, is larded with over simplifications, and ignores economic factors that are afflicting our youngest generation.
Jason Fung's The Obesity Code is an invaluable book for learning to incorporate a ketogenic (low-carb, high-fat diet) to regulate one's insulin, stave off diabetes 2, and live a more healthy, vibrant life.
Essay Critique
James Q. Wilson's polemic in favor of more access to guns is a catastrophe waiting to happen. If Wilson's gun laws are enacted, legal gun owners will kill innocent people in the line of fire, more and more legal guns will get into the hands of criminals, and the police will get so beefed up with guns and search and seizure policies that our country will turn into a military state.
Three. Claims of cause and effect: These claims argue that a person, thing, policy or event caused another event or thing to occur.
The desire for the death penalty resides in the child's fantasy that revenge can turn the tables, the delusion that sociopathic murderers will be deterred by the threat of capital punishment, and the primitive believe that society needs public spectacles of death in order to maintain the social order.
Notice in the above analysis of the causes behind some people's support of the death penalty there is an implicit argument against the death penalty.
Another Thesis Example
In spite of being proven grossly ineffective and even harmful to education, standardized testing remains the darling of administrators and politicians because it makes billions of dollars for the test makers, it provides a false bandage hiding deeper, systemic problems of structural inequality in education, and it makes know-nothing administrators and politicians feel like they doing something valuable when in fact the contrary is true.
Four. Claims of value: These claims argue how important something is on the Importance Scale and determine its proportion to other things.
Global warming poses a far greater threat to our safety than does terrorism.
Passive use of social media is having a more self-destructive effect on teenagers than alcohol and drugs.
Five. Claims of definition. These claims argue that we must re-define a common and inaccurate assumption.
In America the notion of "self-esteem," so commonly taught in schools, is, in reality, a cult of narcissism. While real self-esteem teaches self-confidence, discipline, and accountability, the fake American brand of self-esteem is about celebrating the low expectations of mediocrity, and this results in narcissism, vanity, and immaturity.
"Connecting" and "sharing" on social media does not create meaningful relationships because "connecting" and "sharing" are not the accurate words to describe what's going on. What is really happening is that people are curating and editing a false image while suffering greater and greater disconnection.
Narrowing Your Thesis
We need to write an analytical thesis with specific language, not broad.
General Thesis
Giving first graders homework is bad.
Specific Thesis
Giving first graders homework violates the spirit of education when the homework is simply busy work designed to make the teacher and parents feel less guilty, when the homework has no logical connection to what the children are learning in school, and when the amount of homework given puts undue pressure on overworked parents and sleep-deprived children.
General Thesis
Standardized testing is horrible.
Specific Thesis
Standardized testing must be abolished because it does not give an accurate measure of student learning outcomes, the tests are biased based on race and class, and because the profit motive continues to be more important than high standards and accountability.
General Thesis
The death penalty is a bad policy.
Specific Thesis
Even reasonable people can agree that the death penalty creates more problems than it allegedly solves because of racial discrimination in sentencing, the failure of deterrence in violent criminals, and cost of the costlier court costs.
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