Chocolate War: Have 3 lessons as of 8-24-18
Sapiens: Have 2 lessons as of 8-24-18
12 Rules for Life
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For 12 Rules of Life, one option might be this:
Develop a thesis that addresses the conflict between ambition or competition (lobster allegory) and morality.
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English 1C Syllabus Fall 2018
Email: [email protected]
Office: H121P; extension 5673
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday: 2:35-3:45
Tuesday and Thursday: 12:30-1 and 3:25-4:15
Materials You Need for This Class:
One. How to Think by Alan Jacobs
Two. Rules for Writers, Eighth edition, edited by Diana Hacker
Large Blue Book for In-Class Essay Final Exam
Flat, Pocketed Folder for Your Homework Portfolio
Work You Must Do in This Class
One. You will write 5 typed, 1,000-word essays in MLA format. The fifth essay, your capstone essay, will need 2 to 3 sources for your Works Cited. These essays will be uploaded on turnitin. Late essays are accepted for a week after deadline and are marked down a full grade.
Two. Instead of getting quizzed on the readings, you will write 3-paragraph reading-response essays to the readings. Each mini essay should have at least 3 signal phrases citing the text of the assigned reading. You will not be uploading these essays on turnitin.com. Instead, you will bring a typed hard copy to class and discussing it with your team of 3 or 4 students. Classes will typically start with a 20-minute discussion about the reading response while I mark them with a teacher’s stamp. The mini essay will be stamped with either an excellent top-grade mark or a middling mediocre mark. An unacceptable essay won’t be marked. You will keep these essays in a flat, pocketed folder, which I will grade at the end of the semester. You cannot make-up missing mini essays. You should be motivated to show up to every class. Unless you have a doctor’s note, you cannot make-up missing mini essays. You should be motivated to show up to every class. Your portfolio is worth 200 points, 20% of your total grade.
Three. Before the 1,000-word typed essays are due on turnitin, there is a peer edit session. You bring hard copies of your completed typed draft so your team can review your work, and you can review theirs. Like your mini essays, the completed draft gets a stamp, either a top-tier stamp or a middling one.
Grading Based on 1,000 Points and 13,500 Words Written Over the Semester (about 110 words a day).
One. First four 1,000-word essays are 135 points each (540 subtotal).
Two. Final Capstone Essay, also 1,000 words, with 3 sources is 260 points.
Three. Homework Portfolio includes all your mini essays and peer edit drafts (kept in flat pocketed folders) 100 points for parts 1 and 2 for 200 total.
Grading Point Scheme
Total Points: 1,000 (A is 900-100; B is 800-899; C is 700-799; D is 600 to 699)
Essay Assignments
Essay #1 Due 9-13-18
You need minimum 2 sources for your MLA Works Cited page.
Choose One:
Option A
In a 1,000-word essay, develop a thesis that explains how Megan Phelps-Roper, as featured in Adrian Chen’s essay “Unfollow,” unshackled herself from the anti-thinking biases and demonstrated the principles of critical thinking laid forth in Alan Jacobs’ How to Think. Use “Unfollow” and How to Think as your two sources for your Works Cited page.
Option B
In a 1,000-word essay, develop a thesis that defends, refutes, or complicates the argument that Megan Phelps-Roper, featured in Adrian Chen’s “Unfollow,” is a salient illustration of Alan Jacobs’ thesis that critical thinking is dependent on moral character. Use “Unfollow” and How to Think as your two sources for your Works Cited page.
Option C
In the context of How to Think, write a 1,000-word essay that compares the moral courage of Megan Phelps-Roper to the people who leave Utopia in Ursula Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas."
Essay #2 Due 9-27-18
Minimum of 2 sources for your MLA Works Cited page.
Option A
In the context of the Netflix documentary Dirty Money, Episode #2, "Payday," write an argumentative essay that answers the question: Were Scott Tucker and his associates fairly prosecuted or did the government overreach its powers and exact unjust punishment on these allegedly greedy businessmen? Be sure to have a counterargument section. For your sources, you can use the documentary, the Vulture review, and the Atlantic review.
Option B
In the context of James Hamblin’s “This Is Your Brain on Gluten,” write an essay that addresses the claim that David Perlmutter is engaging in flawed critical thinking to persuade his readers to follow overreaching promises about his nutrition regiment.
Option C
In the context of Alexandra Sifferlin's "The Weight Loss Trap" and Harriet Brown's "The Weight of the Evidence," develop a thesis that addresses the claim that going on a diet is too futile and harmful and that we should give up on the idea of dieting altogether.
Option D
In the context of Jason Brennan’s “Can epistocracy, or knowledge-based voting, fix democracy?”, support, defend, or complicate the claim that an epistocracy is superior to democracy as we currently know it.
Essay #3 Due 10-18-18
Option A
In the context of David Freedman’s “The War on Stupid People,” support, refute, or complicate Freedman’s contention that we marginalize average people at our own peril, socially, pragmatically, morally, and otherwise.
Option B
In the context of the Netflix documentary Dirty Money, Episode #1, "Hard Nox," support, refute, or complicate the assertion that in spite of Volkswagen's 30 billion dollars paid in fines and legal fees for committing fraud and other crimes, that their ascent in the world economy is evidence that Volkswagen, as an agency of unbridled corporate greed, has triumphed over the wheels of justice. For your sources, you can use the documentary, the Vulture review, and the Atlantic review.
Option C
Read Jessica McCrory Calarco’s essay “‘Free-Range’ Parenting’s Unfair Double Standard” and support or refute her claim. See Washington Post and Reason’s “The Fragile Generation.”
Option D
In the context of Michael Gerson’s “The Last Temptation,” support, refute, or complicate the claim that evangelicals are shooting their foot by supporting the “least traditionally religious president in living memory.”
Option E
Read Gabrielle Glaser’s “The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous” and support, refute, or complicate Glaser’s assertion that AA is an overrated, untested program.
Option F
Read Charlie Warzel’s “Infocalypse Now” and Matt Taibbi’s “Can We Be Saved from Facebook?” and defend, refute, or complicate the authors’ contention that fake news is an unstoppable juggernaut that could destroy civilization as we know it. You can connect this essay to critiques about Facebook and other forms of social media that are allegedly contributing to the breakdown of the free world as fascist forces manipulate social media to promote their agenda. Also see Franklin Foer’s “The End of Reality.”
Essay #4 Due 11-8-18
You need minimum 2 sources for your MLA Works Cited page.
Option A
Read Jelani Cobb’s “Black Like Her” and write an essay that supports, refutes, or complicates the contention that it is morally objectionable for white woman Rachel Dolezal to fabricate an identity to pass as being black. Also consult the Netflix documentary The Rachel Divide.
Option B
Read David Brooks’ “How We Are Ruining America” and support, refute, or complicate the contention that Brooks has written a misleading, stupid, deceptive, and grossly wrong-minded essay.
Option C
Read Jon Ronson’s “How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life” and write an essay that supports, refutes, or complicates Ronson’s claim that we should be more offended by the social media outrage machine than we should be offended Justine Sacco’s stupid tweet.
Option D
Read Oren Cass’ “Why a Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea” and write an essay that supports, defends, or complicates the author’s position that UBI will do more harm than good.
Option E
Read Garrett Hardin’s “Lifeboat Ethics” and an essay that supports, refutes, or complicates Hardin’s argument against liberal methods of helping the poor.
Essay #5 Due 12-13-18
You need minimum 3 sources for your MLA Works Cited page.
Option A
Read Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” Chekhov’s “Gooseberries” the Guardian essay, and “Winter Dreams” and develop a thesis that addresses the claim that happiness is a form of deception that results in a squandered life and moral decrepitude.
Option B
Read Brendan Foht’s “The Case Against Human Gene Editing” and write an essay that supports, refutes, or complicates the claim that gene editing poses moral and political problems that we cannot handle.
Option C
Read Paul Bloom’s “Against Empathy” and address the claim that Bloom, trying to sell lots of books, is writing a disingenuous argument, relying more on semantics and trickery than substance, to write a sensationalistic, hyped-up thesis.
Option D
In the context of Evan Osnos’ “Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich,” analyze the causes behind the wealth tech industry’s obsession with preparing for the Apocalypse.
Option E
Read Barbara Ehrenreich’s essay “Giving Up on Preventative Care” and support, refute, or complicate her thesis that we should resist the preventive care of America’s medical establishment.
Option F
Read Elizabeth Anderson’s “If God Is Dead, Is Everything Permitted?” and defend, refute, or complicate the author’s claim that non-theism is morally superior to theism.
Students with Disabilities:
If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible.
Course Catalog Description:
This course focuses on the development of critical thinking skills. Students will apply these skills to the analysis of written arguments in various forms and genres, both classic and contemporary, and to the writing of effective persuasive essays. Students will learn to evaluate and interpret data, to recognize assumptions, to distinguish facts from opinions, to identify and avoid logical fallacies, to employ deductive and inductive reasoning, and to effectively assert and support argumentative claims.
Course Objectives:
One. Evaluate arguments in terms of bias, credibility, and relevance.
Two. Assess an argument's claims by examining assumptions, by differentiating between facts and inferences, by recognizing errors in logic, by analyzing support, and by identifying both explicit and implied conclusions.
Three. Recognize and assess argumentative claims embedded in literary works, advertisements, political tracts, and presentations in other media.
Four. Express critical viewpoints and develop original arguments in response to social, political, and philosophical issues and/or to works of literature and literary theory.
Five. Demonstrate the ability to evaluate electronic sources and databases, to incorporate research from on-line and print media, and to compose unified, coherent, fully supported argumentative essays that advance their claims by integrating primary and secondary sources, and by employing the tools of critical interpretation, evaluation, and analysis.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, students will:
One. Compose an argumentative essay that shows an ability to support a claim using analysis, elements of argumentation, and integration of primary and secondary sources.
Two. Identify and assess bias, credibility, and relevance in their own arguments and in the arguments of others, including primary and secondary outside sources.
Three. Write an essay that is correct in MLA format, paragraph composition, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and usage.
Essay Requirements (based on 6,000 words):
English 1C SLO-aligned Assignment (Updated for Fall 2016)
The assignment designed using these criteria will be used to assess the course SLOs and should be assigned as a later (or last) essay.
Students will write a 4-5 page essay, not including Works Cited page, which is also required (but does not count towards length requirement. In the essay, the students will do the following:
One. Express critical viewpoints and develop original thesis-driven arguments in response to social, political, and philosophical issues and/or to works of literature and literary theory. This argumentative essay will be well organized, demonstrate an ability to support a claim using analysis and elements of argumentation, and integrate primary and secondary sources.
Two. Use at least three sources and not over-rely on one secondary source for most of the information. The students should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.
Three. Address issues of bias, credibility, and relevance in primary and secondary sources.
Four. Demonstrate understanding of analytical methods and structural concepts such as inductive and deductive reasoning, cause and effect, logos, ethos, and pathos, and the recognition of formal and informal fallacies in language and thought.
Five. Use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.
Six. Integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.
Seven. Sustain the argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Course Catalog Description:
This course focuses on the development of critical thinking skills. Students will apply these skills to the analysis of written arguments in various forms and genres, both classic and contemporary, and to the writing of effective persuasive essays. Students will learn to evaluate and interpret data, to recognize assumptions, to distinguish facts from opinions, to identify and avoid logical fallacies, to employ deductive and inductive reasoning, and to effectively assert and support argumentative claims.
English 1C Grammar Policy and Grading
Students in English 1C are expected to write clear, college-level essays with logical paragraph composition and sentence structure as well as correct grammar, spelling, word usage, and punctuation. If you feel you cannot be successful in this class due to struggles with grammar or other elements of essay composition, please see the instructor as early as possible to discuss resources and strategies for your improvement.
Policy on Plagiarism
Any attempt to commit fraud, misrepresenting someone else’s writing as your own, including turning in essays from previous semesters, will result in an automatic F grade, zero points, which mathematically, will disqualify you from earning a grade higher than a C for the semester. You will not be allowed to rewrite for a higher grade and because of the breach of trust it will be preferred that you drop the class. I will use turnitin to investigate plagiarism.
Each essay must be submitted to www.turnitin.com where it will be checked for illegal copying/plagiarism.
I cannot give credit for an essay that is not submitted to this site by the deadline.
The process is very simple; if you need help, detailed instructions are available at http://turnitin.com/en_us/training/student-training/student-quickstart-guide
You will need two pieces of information to use the site:
Class ID and Enrollment Password, which I’ll give you first week of class.
Late Essays Are Deducted a Full Letter Grade
You cannot turn in a late paper more than a week after the due date.
You Cannot “Ride” the Class: You cannot miss over 10 percent of the classes while not keeping up with the assignments because you are not fulfilling the Student Learning Outcomes. Therefore, you will have to be dropped if you are “riding” the class.
Classroom Decorum: No smart phones can be used in class. If you’re on your smartphone and I see you, you get a warning the first time. Second time, you must leave the class and take an absence
Tardies: Two tardies equals one absence.
Reading and Writing Schedule
Note: Because current events can be fluid and because online essays can without warning become unavailable, the professor can, at his discretion, modify the syllabus to accommodate the aforementioned conditions.
August 28 Introduction, Syllabus, turnitin password
August 30 Homework #1: Read How to Think, up to page 50 and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains why we are bad at thinking; Backfire Effect
September 4 Homework #2: Read How to Think, up to page 125 and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains why ingroup behavior is so dangerous.
September 6 Homework #3: Finish How to Think and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains that being a critical thinker can be dangerous. Read Adrian Chen’s “Unfollow” and see Megan Phelps-Roper Ted Talk.
September 11 Peer Edit for Essay #1; have copies of your first draft for everyone in your team.
September 13 Essay #1 is due on turnitin. No hard copy required. We will see Netflix documentary Dirty Money, Episode #2, “Payday.” You have two homework assignments, numbers 4 and 5, due on the next class because there is no homework today.
September 18 Homework #4: Read “This Is Your Brain on Gluten” by James Hamblin and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains why author David Perlmutter is engaging in false claims to promote his ideas and bestselling books. Homework #5: Read Alexandra Sifferlin's "The Weight Loss Trap" and explain why it is so difficult to lose weight and keep it off. We will also read Harriet Brown's "The Weight of the Evidence."
September 20 Homework #6: Read Jason Brennan’s “Can epistocracy, or knowledge-based voting, fix democracy?” and write a 3-paragraph essay that identifies possible objections to Brennan’s thesis.
September 25 Peer Edit for Essay #2.
September 27 Essay #2 is due on turnitin. No homework due today other than Essay #2. In class, we will read David Freedman’s “The War on Stupid People,” and we will support, refute, or complicate Freedman’s contention that we marginalize average people at our own peril, socially, pragmatically, morally, and otherwise. Or we will watch the Netflix documentary Dirty Money, Episode #1, “Hard Nox.”
October 2 Homework #7: Read Jessica McCrory Calarco’s “‘Free-Range’ Parenting’s Unfair Double Standard” and address the reasons the author uses to support her argument. A look at the Turpin family shows that “free-range” can go too far.
October 4 Homework #8: Read Michael Gerson’s “The Last Temptation” and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains why so many evangelicals (about 85%) support the “least religious president in living memory.”
October 9 Homework #9: Read Gabrielle Glaser’s “The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous” and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains why Glaser believes AA is an overrated program.
October 11 Homework #10: Read Charlie Warzel’s “Infocalypse Now” and Matt Taibbi’s “Can We be Saved from Facebook?” and write a 3-paragraph essay about how fake news is an unstoppable juggernaut that could destroy civilization as we know it. We will connect these essays to critiques about Facebook and other forms of social media that are contributing to the breakdown of the free world as fascist forces manipulate social media to promote their agenda.
October 16 Peer Edit for Essay #3 and Portfolio Part 1 for 100 points up to Homework #10.
October 18 Essay #3 is due on turnitin; Homework #11: Read Jelani Cobb’s “Black Like Her” and write an essay that explains why many are offended that a white woman Rachel Dolezal manufactured an identity to pass as being black.
October 23 Homework #12: Read David Brooks’ “How We Are Ruining America” and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains why so many people attacked Brooks for writing a misleading, stupid, deceptive, and grossly wrong-minded essay. Today we will discuss pathos, logos, and ethos as they pertain to making you a more effective writer.
October 25 Homework #13: Read Jon Ronson’s “How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life” and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains why Ronson is morally offended that so many people ruined Sacco’s life for her fatuous tweet.
October 30 Homework #14: Read Oren Cass’ “Why a Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea” and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains the author’s position.
November 1 Homework #15: Read Garrett Hardin’s “Lifeboat Ethics” and write a 3-paragraph essay that identifies 3 possible objections to his argument.
November 6 Peer Edit for Essay #4
November 8 Essay #4 is due on turnitin. Homework #16 Read Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains the story’s moral message. How is the story’s Paradise a falsity? Indeed, we will be exploring the following theme as we read a few related short stories for an essay option: Happiness is a trickster.
November 13 Homework #17: Read Chekhov’s “Gooseberries” and write a 3-paragraph essay that analyzes Nikolay’s moral disintegration and decrepitude. We will also explore a Guardian essay that critically examines how the story reveals a lot about the deception of happiness.
November 15 Homework #18: Read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams” and write a 3-paragraph essay that compares how Dexter Green and Nikolay both traded true happiness and meaning for a life wasted on a chimera.
November 20 Homework #19: Read Brendan Foht’s “The Case Against Human Gene Editing” and write an essay that explains why the author maintains his position.
November 22 Holiday
November 27 Homework #20: Read Paul Bloom’s “Against Empathy” and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains the author’s position.
November 29 Homework #21: Read Evan Osnos’ “Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich,” and in 3 paragraphs analyze the causes behind the wealth tech industry’s obsession with preparing for the Apocalypse.
December 4 Homework #22: Read Barbara Ehrenreich’s essay “Giving Up on Preventative Care” and in 3 paragraphs support, refute, or complicate her thesis that we should resist the preventive care of America’s medical establishment.
December 6 Homework #23: Read Elizabeth Anderson’s “If God Is Dead, Is Everything Permitted?” and write a 3-paragraph essay that explains her reasons for arguing that non-theism is morally superior to theism.
December 11 Peer Edit
December 13 Essay #5 Due and Portfolio Part 2, #11-#23
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English 1C
Essay 1: How to Think
How to Think
Backfire Effect, and “Unfollow”
See Atlantic critique of binary thinking.
Essay 2: Claims against gluten; claims against dieting; frats and gangs; God and Morality, Opioids, Legal Effects of Marijuana, Arming Teachers, Democracy and Epistocracy
Option One:
“This Is Your Brain on Gluten” and the appeal of absolute solutions and critical thinking flaws in Perlmutter’s work.
Essay Topic:
In the context of James Hamblin’s essay, “This Is Your Brain on Gluten,” support, refute, or complicate the assertion that David Perlmutter is compromising critical thinking and valid research to arrive at his nutritional claims.
Option Two:
In the context of Alexandra Sifferlin's "The Weight Loss Trap" and Harriet Brown's "The Weight of the Evidence," support, refute, or complicate the argument that going on diets is a complete waste of time and actually makes people fatter than before they started dieting.
Elizabeth Anderson: Do We Need God to Believe in Right and Wrong?
Can we compare a frat to a gang?
Option Two:
In the context of Alexandra Sifferlin's "The Weight Loss Trap" and Harriet Brown's "The Weight of the Evidence," support, refute, or complicate the argument that going on diets is a complete waste of time and actually makes people fatter than before they started dieting. See your essay.
Examine the effects of legalized marijuana in Colorado.
Environmental Cost of Internet Porn
Controversy of a Famous Story: The Wolf You Feed
It's so ironic that new agers who say "be mindful" as they pass on the wolf story are being mindless and not doing any research on a story that may have become a cheap cliche. Nevertheless, the wolf story resonates with us because it appears to have a lot of psychological truth.
Cherokee Indians have a fable that explains the nature of addiction.
Here is the same story on what appears to be a "self-help" website.
The same story is told in the context of ethnic, cultural, and spiritual appropriation with the explanation that Billy Graham modified the story for his Christian preaching.
Another blog makes the same claim that the Wolf Story is a form of white colonialism.
Another blog explores the story's questionable origins.
Another blog dismisses the story as a fraud with no American Indian origins; rather, it is a fabrication of Billy Graham. Why would a white preacher turn it into an "American Indian" fable?
Here's another blog that claims to have the real story, not the colonized one.
Option Three. Arming schools and gun culture
See John Oliver discuss NRA. And Oliver’s more recent video. And most recent John Oliver video.
See NYT critique of comparing America to Australia.
Gun Culture and white privilege in Atlantic
Police Call Arming Teachers BS
David French defends gun culture: Any counterarguments?
Option Four. Defend, refute, or complicate Jason Brennan’s claim that traditional American democracy should be replaced by an epistocracy. The texts for this option are online. You can refer to John Oliver video on Alex Jones.
Brennan critique from Notre Dame
Brennan review from Washington Post
Option Five: See Tristan Harris’ argument about how social media hijacks our brains. “How Technology Is Hijacking Your Mind”
See Tristan Harris video.
Option Six: Bari Weiss’ “We’re All Fascists Now”
Essay Three: Smartphone generation, AA effective treatment for addiction, Facebook, Fallacies of Happiness
Option 1: Option 3: Smartphone Ruining Generation essay.
Option 2: Her Best Kept Secret; teach with her Atlantic essay about dogma of AA. (teach in 1A?)
Option 3: Facebook, Twitter, Fake News and democracy. Develop an argumentative thesis about Facebook and American democracy. Consult the following:
Are we morally compelled to delete our Facebook account on the grounds that Facebook is an ally to fascism? See this Guardian article.
How False News Spreads on Twitter
“Facebook Cares Only About Facebook.”
What Facebook Did to American Democracy
How Teens in Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters with Fake News
Social Media Is Making Democracy Less Democratic
Economist: Social Media Nemesis to Democracy
Facebook trying to correct their bad ways.
Also a related topic: We may be heading for an information apocalypse.
Option 4: Address the claim that happiness is a deception that often leads to moral bankruptcy in the context of the two stories: Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and Chekhov’s “Gooseberries.” See analysis by George Saunders. Also consult John Oliver video about child labor for clothing. And compare to “Shipping Out.”
The self-indulgent man is not happy.
Happiness is a drug, a delusion, a Faustian Bargain, a mindless descent into ecstasy, a loss of control, a chimera, a misguided passion. There are different types of happiness, George Saunders tells us, in his Atlantic essay.
Essay Four. Gourmet food in colleges; David Brooks and social mobility, Twitter mob, UBI
Option 1: Has Malcolm Gladwell been intellectually dishonest by presenting a “moral problem” about a college that serves gourmet food?
“How Malcolm Gladwell Choked on College Food”
Bowdoin college rips Malcolm Gladwell
“Should Colleges Serve Crappy Food on Purpose?”
Option 2: Address the claim that David Brooks’ essay “How We Are Ruining America” uses deception and logical fallacies to arrive at an erroneous conclusion.
Consider the real reason for educational inequality is not a lack of tests, a smokescreen to the real problem, but the privileges of the top economic tier discussed in David Brooks' essay "How We Are Ruining America."
Slate critique of Brooks' essay.
Slate's Osita Nwanevu writes "David Brooks Almost Gets It" as a response to Brooks' infamous essay.
“It’s Not the Fault of the Sandwich Shop: Readers Debate”
Option 3: Develop an argument about Rachel Dolezal. Is her black identity an expression of individual freedom that should be embraced or a work of fraud that should be condemned? See Buzzfeed Essay List.
Cass Two. Jack Phillips debate in NYT, LA Times, National Review, and The Atlantic
Option 4: Twitter Mob
Defend, refute, or complicate Jon Ronson’s claim that Justine Sacco was unfairly demonized by social media, which creates a failure of critical thinking. See Big Think, Rolling Stone interview with Jon Ronson; Guardian article about how Jon Ronson was targeted and demonized; Washington Post article about how Sacco is “wrong poster child.” See Jon Ronson’s Ted Talk. Also see “Excesses of Call-Out Culture” in Atlantic
Also see Bari Weiss essay on fascism, free speech, and the outrage machine; also show Bari Weiss on Bill Maher video.
Option 5: UBI
Option 1: Support, refute, or complicate the argument that radical changes in the job market over the next 20 years due to robots and high-tech will compel country's to provide their citizens with a Universal Basic Income.
Vox argues UBI hurts the elderly.
A brief history of Universal Basic Income in The New Yorker.
Arguments in Support of Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. 47% of the jobs will be lost in the next 10-20 years. We have a new paradigm that requires a new way of providing a livelihood to our citizens.
Two. UBI, which is a monthly stipend to everyone regardless of income, would be nearly a trillion dollars cheaper a year than current welfare system.
Three. UBI would eliminate need for minimum wage. Lower minimum wage would encourage more hiring.
Four. Because UBI doesn't give more money for children, UBI doesn't reward one lifestyle over another.
Five. Citizens would have more time and resources to train and get educated for more career options presuming they used their time and money wisely.
Six. Most stay-at-home parents are women who have not been justly paid for their domestic work over the centuries. UBI would help remedy that injustice.
Seven. UBI gives citizens an escape valve from an abusive job or relationship. Having guaranteed money makes it easier to bail when you have to. "This is jacked up, man. I've got to bail."
Eight. 13K a year isn't so much that you would be content to retire in your house. Most people would want at the very least to supplement their meager income with part-time or full-time work. More enterprising citizens would use their free time and money for education and job re-training.
Nine. UBI would eliminate welfare abuses and welfare fraud because UBI spells the death of welfare as we know it.
Ten. Providing for the citizens with UBI would lessen the risk of the kind of discontent that leads to nationalist nativism, a racist political movement that makes one ethnic tribe hate on immigrants as scapegoats for the country's woes.
Eleven. Addressing the counterargument that not having to work would make us lazy depressed slobs, some would argue that technology is forcing us to change and adapt. Just as coal workers are inevitably going to become extinct in the next century, we must adapt to a new employment landscape. We must either adapt or die. We must not be chained to our "Calvinism hangover," the deeply American notion that work is salvation and unemployment is a sign of sin and depravity.
Twelve. The rich know they have to share their wealth because the throng with torches and pitchforks will be knocking on their doors. In other words, UBI is much needed pacifier, a form of social control that augments the safety of the rich.
Thirteen. The open debate about UBI--the biggest debate--is the philosophical question about the nature of work. Some say UBI will kill work and that without work people will descend into depression and pathology. Others say we will adapt to this new economic landscape. One argument in favor of UBI is that even if we don't know the answer to this question definitively, we HAVE NO CHOICE but to adapt to a world where close to 50% of jobs will be lost.
Fourteen. Technology will change the human animal on a chemical level and we will be able to adapt to the new work environment as evidenced by Elon Musk's exploration into his new neural lace company. Such technologies will make us smarter and more adaptive as human beings.
Fifteen. Even if we concede that not working will turn us into lazy bums, that is the lesser evil of the economic injustice social chaos resulting from not having UBI.
Arguments Against Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. A dependent society is a dysfunctional society. Dependence, in other words, leads to laziness.
Two. A lack of self-reliance diseases the soul and corrupts society. The dependent will drag down the producers.
Three. Acute dependence leads to totalitarianism and dehumanization. Once you take a government handout, you become vulnerable to the government's control over every part of your life. See The Giver.
Four. Acute dependence breaks down the family unit. Parents aren't responsible for their children; the government is. Why stick to your family, when you don't rely on them?
Five. Being "off the grid" makes one chronically depressed, non-productive, and unemployable. Our identity and sense of well being is tied to having a job.
Six. There is no increment for children. Why not? Because you're not encouraged to have children to get more. Some find this a form of lifestyle control. Others like it.
Seven. The estimated 13K a year isn't enough though some say that still puts people in the top 12% of all global earners.
Eight. Unless all countries had equal UBI, the more desirable UBI countries would be a magnet for people of other countries who'd swarm into "healthy UBI" countries to bilk their system.
Nine. UBI is giving 15% of average national income. This would require tax revenue of 15% of national income. That is too much tax, some say, for such a small income.
Consult the following:
Universal Basic Income: Side Effect of the Tech Revolution?
The Progressive Case for Replacing the Welfare State with Basic Income
We can afford UBI, but is it a good idea?
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea
A Primer or Introduction to Universal Basic Income
Economist gives us an introduction to UBI.
Psychology Change Needed for Universal Basic Income
Arguments for Universal Basic Income
3 Reasons for Universal Basic Income from Brookings Institute
Pro-Work Argument for UBI
Washington Post article that argues UBI won't make America great again.
Challenging the American Work Ethic
There is a notion in America, from the beginning of its European history, that being a hard worker means being noble, virtuous, and successful.
The contrary is also assumed: If you're poor and unemployed, your life is evidence that you are a member of the damned. You are morally depraved and bankrupt.
This notion comes from a form of Protestantism called Calvinism. John Calvin said evidence of being a member of God's elect was being a hard worker. German philosopher Max Weber said this became the "Protestant Work Ethic," the fuel of American capitalism.
Read "The Protestant Work Ethic Is Real"
Perhaps the American Work Ethic is Based on Unexamined Opinions
Inherited opinions: These are opinions that are imprinted on us during our childhood. Robert Atwan writes they come from “family, culture, traditions, customs, regions, social institutions, or religion.”
Involuntary opinions: These are the opinions that result from direct indoctrination and inculcation (learning through repetition). If we grow up in a family that teaches us that eating pork is evil, then we won’t eat at other people’s homes that serve that porcine dish.
Considered opinions. Atwan writes, “These are opinions we have formed as a result of firsthand experience, reading, discussion and debate, or independent thinking and reasoning. These opinions are formed from direct knowledge and often from exposure and considering other opinions.”
Some questions to consider about the work ethic for your UBI paper:
Should we really have a work ethic for menial, repetitive jobs that reduce us to human routers?
Don't jobs prevent us from spending time on our real interests and passions?
Have we been brainwashed by the Protestant Work Ethic so that we are contented "rabbit workers" for our employers?
Support, refute, or complicate the argument that radical changes in the job market over the next 20 years due to robots and high-tech will compel country's to provide their citizens with a Universal Basic Income. Consult the following:
Big Think video (7 minutes)
The Nation asks if UBI could work
Arguments For and Against in Futurist
Case for and against in Vox
UBI rejected in the Federalist
Dissent calls UBI a false promise
Argument That UBI would increase poverty
Washington Post refutation of UBI
Guardian defends UBI with reference to Finland
“Why Don’t We Have Universal Basic Income?” in New Yorker
“Is Free Money the Answer?” in the NYT
“Future of Not Working” in NYT magazine
“Why Finland’s Basic Income Experiment Is Not Working”
“Free Money at the Edge of the Tech Boom” in Atlantic
Universal Basic Income: Side Effect of the Tech Revolution?
The Progressive Case for Replacing the Welfare State with Basic Income
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea
Arguments Against Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. A dependent society is a dysfunctional society.
Two. A lack of self-reliance diseases the soul and corrupts society.
Three. Acute dependence leads to totalitarianism and dehumanization. See The Giver.
Four. Acute dependence breaks down the family unit. Parents aren't responsible for their children; the government is.
Five. Being "off the grid" makes one chronically depressed, non-productive, and unemployable.
Essay 5. Lifeboat Ethics, Winter Dreams, genetic modification, education
Option 1: Address the claim that Garrett Hardin’s essay “Lifeboat Ethics” relies on logical fallacies to arrive at erroneous public policy conclusions.
Option 2: Support, refute, or complicate the claim that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “Winter Dreams” is about a woman, Judy Jones, who destroys the life of Dexter Green and therefore he has no agency or free will to control the outcome of his empty existence.
Option 3: Address the claim that genetic modification technology is growing so quickly that we don’t have the moral capacity to address the moral problems that such technology creates.
See film Gattaca. See “Case Against Human Gene Editing”; Pro and Con
More pros and cons from Business Insider
"Building Baby from the Genes Up"
One of your lessons for Winter Dreams.
Here’s an earlier lesson for Winter Dreams.
Option 4: Address the claim that parents are morally obliged to send their children to racially integrated schools. See “Choosing School for My Daughter in a Segregated City” and “Are Private Schools Immoral?”
Option 5: Argument about private and public schools in The Atlantic.
Option 6: See the value of education to Atlantic essay “The World Might be Better Off Without College for Everyone” by Bryan Caplan.
Essay 5:
Option 2: Happiness is a deception that often leads to moral bankruptcy in the context of the two stories: Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and compare to theme of happiness in Chekhov’s “Gooseberries.” Address analysis by George Saunders. Also consult John Oliver video about child labor for clothing.
Option 2: Support, refute, or complicate Conor Friedersdor’s assertion in “Why Can’t People Hear What Jordan Peterson Is Saying?” that straw man arguments corrupt our ability to think fairly about contentious ideas.
Rejected Material Follows
Option 2: Class Two. Show 5-minute spanking debate video on Steve Harvey. Spanking Debate; see Stacey Patton’s “Stop Beating Black Children.” See “What If Spanking Works?” in the Boston Globe. See “The Debate on Spanking Is Short on Science, High on Emotion.”
Class Three. “Winter Dreams” (and Dombeck’s Emptiness?)
Class Four. “The Other Woman” by Sherwood Anderson
Class Five.
“Cat Person” and the Impulse to Undermine Woman’s Fiction
How the Internet Can Ruin Fiction
Week 3 Lifeboat Ethics in context of “Choosing School for My Daughter in a Segregated City”--see below
One. Five. What Facebook Did to American Democracy
How Teens in Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters with Fake News
Social Media Is Making Democracy Less Democratic
Economist: Social Media Nemesis to Democracy
Two. “Cat Person” or “Why Happy People Cheat” and “Lady with the Pet Dog” moral absolutism and moral relativism
Four. “Speaking Ill of Hugh Hefner” or College Should Not be for Everyone.
Five.
Three. Essay 5:
Blood at the Root? Or teach in 1A?
Dwight Garner review is helpful
Blood at the Root and this NYT review
Addressing Linda Gordon’s The Second Coming of the KKK and any Andrew Marantz New Yorker article about the Alt-Right, develop a thesis that address the claim that while many of us would like to believe that the KKK ideology is a fringe movement, that it is actually connected to American society in a way that makes us vulnerable to its racist abuses.
Class Three: Colin Kaepernick. See NYT, Eric Reid,Vox, New Yorker, Atlantic, The Ringer, Inside NFL Debate video, Politico, and consider the fallacies of “universal love.”
Class 4: Develop an argumentative essay about Chekhov’s “The Bet” and read provided comments for material for your argument.
Class 5: Compare story from Tim O’Brien’s July, July with Gogol’s “The Overcoat.”
Classes Four and Five. Support, refute, or complicate David Benatar’s nihilistic argument for his anti-natalist view of willful extinction. David Benatar’s case against procreation and “The Case for Not Being Born.” See Benatar interview. See critical study PDF. See Reason review of Benatar’s book. See New Yorker article. And see the following: Strange Viral Saga of Keaton Jones as an exercise in failed critical thinking.
Option 1: Argument about Erik Killmonger
See Guardian
See Washington Post
See Forbes
See The Ringer
(Does Killmonger represent an justified or misguided ideology?)
Option 2: Should we arm teachers? Here’s related essay from Slate: https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/02/im-a-teacher-who-went-through-firearm-training-and-it-was-an-absurd-disaster.html
From Andrew Marantz:
“Birth of a White Supremacist”
“The Alt-Right Branding War Has Torn the Party in Two”
“Is Trump Trolling the White House Press Corps?”
Andrew Sullivan talks about opioid epidemic.
Posted at 08:44 AM in Books | Permalink | Comments (0)
English 1C
Essay 1: How to Think
How to Think
Backfire Effect, and “Unfollow”
See Atlantic critique of binary thinking.
Essay 2: God and Morality, Opioids, Arming Teachers, Democracy and Epistocracy
Option One: Elizabeth Anderson: Do We Need God to Believe in Right and Wrong?
Option Two:
Controversy of a Famous Story: The Wolf You Feed
It's so ironic that new agers who say "be mindful" as they pass on the wolf story are being mindless and not doing any research on a story that may have become a cheap cliche. Nevertheless, the wolf story resonates with us because it appears to have a lot of psychological truth.
Cherokee Indians have a fable that explains the nature of addiction.
Here is the same story on what appears to be a "self-help" website.
The same story is told in the context of ethnic, cultural, and spiritual appropriation with the explanation that Billy Graham modified the story for his Christian preaching.
Another blog makes the same claim that the Wolf Story is a form of white colonialism.
Another blog explores the story's questionable origins.
Another blog dismisses the story as a fraud with no American Indian origins; rather, it is a fabrication of Billy Graham. Why would a white preacher turn it into an "American Indian" fable?
Here's another blog that claims to have the real story, not the colonized one.
Option Three. Arming schools and gun culture
See John Oliver discuss NRA. And Oliver’s more recent video. And most recent John Oliver video.
See NYT critique of comparing America to Australia.
Gun Culture and white privilege in Atlantic
Police Call Arming Teachers BS
David French defends gun culture: Any counterarguments?
Option Four. Defend, refute, or complicate Jason Brennan’s claim that traditional American democracy should be replaced by an epistocracy. The texts for this option are online. You can refer to John Oliver video on Alex Jones.
Brennan critique from Notre Dame
Brennan review from Washington Post
Option Five: See Tristan Harris’ argument about how social media hijacks our brains. “How Technology Is Hijacking Your Mind”
See Tristan Harris video.
Option Six: Bari Weiss’ “We’re All Fascists Now”
Essay Three: Smartphone generation, AA effective treatment for addiction, Facebook, Fallacies of Happiness
Option 1: Option 3: Smartphone Ruining Generation essay.
Option 2: Her Best Kept Secret; teach with her Atlantic essay about dogma of AA. (teach in 1A?)
Option 3: Facebook, Twitter, Fake News and democracy. Develop an argumentative thesis about Facebook and American democracy. Consult the following:
How False News Spreads on Twitter
“Facebook Cares Only About Facebook.”
What Facebook Did to American Democracy
How Teens in Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters with Fake News
Social Media Is Making Democracy Less Democratic
Economist: Social Media Nemesis to Democracy
Facebook trying to correct their bad ways.
Also a related topic: We may be heading for an information apocalypse.
Option 4: Address the claim that happiness is a deception that often leads to moral bankruptcy in the context of the two stories: Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and Chekhov’s “Gooseberries.” See analysis by George Saunders. Also consult John Oliver video about child labor for clothing. And compare to “Shipping Out.”
The self-indulgent man is not happy.
Happiness is a drug, a delusion, a Faustian Bargain, a mindless descent into ecstasy, a loss of control, a chimera, a misguided passion. There are different types of happiness, George Saunders tells us, in his Atlantic essay.
Essay Four. Gourmet food in colleges; David Brooks and social mobility, Twitter mob, UBI
Option 1: Has Malcolm Gladwell been intellectually dishonest by presenting a “moral problem” about a college that serves gourmet food?
“How Malcolm Gladwell Choked on College Food”
Bowdoin college rips Malcolm Gladwell
“Should Colleges Serve Crappy Food on Purpose?”
Option 2: Address the claim that David Brooks’ essay “How We Are Ruining America” uses deception and logical fallacies to arrive at an erroneous conclusion.
Consider the real reason for educational inequality is not a lack of tests, a smokescreen to the real problem, but the privileges of the top economic tier discussed in David Brooks' essay "How We Are Ruining America."
Slate critique of Brooks' essay.
Slate's Osita Nwanevu writes "David Brooks Almost Gets It" as a response to Brooks' infamous essay.
“It’s Not the Fault of the Sandwich Shop: Readers Debate”
Option 3: Develop an argument about Rachel Dolezal. Is her black identity an expression of individual freedom that should be embraced or a work of fraud that should be condemned? See Buzzfeed Essay List.
Cass Two. Jack Phillips debate in NYT, LA Times, National Review, and The Atlantic
Option 4: Twitter Mob
Defend, refute, or complicate Jon Ronson’s claim that Justine Sacco was unfairly demonized by social media, which creates a failure of critical thinking. See Big Think, Rolling Stone interview with Jon Ronson; Guardian article about how Jon Ronson was targeted and demonized; Washington Post article about how Sacco is “wrong poster child.” See Jon Ronson’s Ted Talk. Also see “Excesses of Call-Out Culture” in Atlantic
Also see Bari Weiss essay on fascism, free speech, and the outrage machine; also show Bari Weiss on Bill Maher video.
Option 5: UBI
Option 1: Support, refute, or complicate the argument that radical changes in the job market over the next 20 years due to robots and high-tech will compel country's to provide their citizens with a Universal Basic Income.
Vox argues UBI hurts the elderly.
A brief history of Universal Basic Income in The New Yorker.
Arguments in Support of Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. 47% of the jobs will be lost in the next 10-20 years. We have a new paradigm that requires a new way of providing a livelihood to our citizens.
Two. UBI, which is a monthly stipend to everyone regardless of income, would be nearly a trillion dollars cheaper a year than current welfare system.
Three. UBI would eliminate need for minimum wage. Lower minimum wage would encourage more hiring.
Four. Because UBI doesn't give more money for children, UBI doesn't reward one lifestyle over another.
Five. Citizens would have more time and resources to train and get educated for more career options presuming they used their time and money wisely.
Six. Most stay-at-home parents are women who have not been justly paid for their domestic work over the centuries. UBI would help remedy that injustice.
Seven. UBI gives citizens an escape valve from an abusive job or relationship. Having guaranteed money makes it easier to bail when you have to. "This is jacked up, man. I've got to bail."
Eight. 13K a year isn't so much that you would be content to retire in your house. Most people would want at the very least to supplement their meager income with part-time or full-time work. More enterprising citizens would use their free time and money for education and job re-training.
Nine. UBI would eliminate welfare abuses and welfare fraud because UBI spells the death of welfare as we know it.
Ten. Providing for the citizens with UBI would lessen the risk of the kind of discontent that leads to nationalist nativism, a racist political movement that makes one ethnic tribe hate on immigrants as scapegoats for the country's woes.
Eleven. Addressing the counterargument that not having to work would make us lazy depressed slobs, some would argue that technology is forcing us to change and adapt. Just as coal workers are inevitably going to become extinct in the next century, we must adapt to a new employment landscape. We must either adapt or die. We must not be chained to our "Calvinism hangover," the deeply American notion that work is salvation and unemployment is a sign of sin and depravity.
Twelve. The rich know they have to share their wealth because the throng with torches and pitchforks will be knocking on their doors. In other words, UBI is much needed pacifier, a form of social control that augments the safety of the rich.
Thirteen. The open debate about UBI--the biggest debate--is the philosophical question about the nature of work. Some say UBI will kill work and that without work people will descend into depression and pathology. Others say we will adapt to this new economic landscape. One argument in favor of UBI is that even if we don't know the answer to this question definitively, we HAVE NO CHOICE but to adapt to a world where close to 50% of jobs will be lost.
Fourteen. Technology will change the human animal on a chemical level and we will be able to adapt to the new work environment as evidenced by Elon Musk's exploration into his new neural lace company. Such technologies will make us smarter and more adaptive as human beings.
Fifteen. Even if we concede that not working will turn us into lazy bums, that is the lesser evil of the economic injustice social chaos resulting from not having UBI.
Arguments Against Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. A dependent society is a dysfunctional society. Dependence, in other words, leads to laziness.
Two. A lack of self-reliance diseases the soul and corrupts society. The dependent will drag down the producers.
Three. Acute dependence leads to totalitarianism and dehumanization. Once you take a government handout, you become vulnerable to the government's control over every part of your life. See The Giver.
Four. Acute dependence breaks down the family unit. Parents aren't responsible for their children; the government is. Why stick to your family, when you don't rely on them?
Five. Being "off the grid" makes one chronically depressed, non-productive, and unemployable. Our identity and sense of well being is tied to having a job.
Six. There is no increment for children. Why not? Because you're not encouraged to have children to get more. Some find this a form of lifestyle control. Others like it.
Seven. The estimated 13K a year isn't enough though some say that still puts people in the top 12% of all global earners.
Eight. Unless all countries had equal UBI, the more desirable UBI countries would be a magnet for people of other countries who'd swarm into "healthy UBI" countries to bilk their system.
Nine. UBI is giving 15% of average national income. This would require tax revenue of 15% of national income. That is too much tax, some say, for such a small income.
Consult the following:
Universal Basic Income: Side Effect of the Tech Revolution?
The Progressive Case for Replacing the Welfare State with Basic Income
We can afford UBI, but is it a good idea?
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea
A Primer or Introduction to Universal Basic Income
Economist gives us an introduction to UBI.
Psychology Change Needed for Universal Basic Income
Arguments for Universal Basic Income
3 Reasons for Universal Basic Income from Brookings Institute
Pro-Work Argument for UBI
Washington Post article that argues UBI won't make America great again.
Challenging the American Work Ethic
There is a notion in America, from the beginning of its European history, that being a hard worker means being noble, virtuous, and successful.
The contrary is also assumed: If you're poor and unemployed, your life is evidence that you are a member of the damned. You are morally depraved and bankrupt.
This notion comes from a form of Protestantism called Calvinism. John Calvin said evidence of being a member of God's elect was being a hard worker. German philosopher Max Weber said this became the "Protestant Work Ethic," the fuel of American capitalism.
Read "The Protestant Work Ethic Is Real"
Perhaps the American Work Ethic is Based on Unexamined Opinions
Inherited opinions: These are opinions that are imprinted on us during our childhood. Robert Atwan writes they come from “family, culture, traditions, customs, regions, social institutions, or religion.”
Involuntary opinions: These are the opinions that result from direct indoctrination and inculcation (learning through repetition). If we grow up in a family that teaches us that eating pork is evil, then we won’t eat at other people’s homes that serve that porcine dish.
Considered opinions. Atwan writes, “These are opinions we have formed as a result of firsthand experience, reading, discussion and debate, or independent thinking and reasoning. These opinions are formed from direct knowledge and often from exposure and considering other opinions.”
Some questions to consider about the work ethic for your UBI paper:
Should we really have a work ethic for menial, repetitive jobs that reduce us to human routers?
Don't jobs prevent us from spending time on our real interests and passions?
Have we been brainwashed by the Protestant Work Ethic so that we are contented "rabbit workers" for our employers?
Support, refute, or complicate the argument that radical changes in the job market over the next 20 years due to robots and high-tech will compel country's to provide their citizens with a Universal Basic Income. Consult the following:
Big Think video (7 minutes)
The Nation asks if UBI could work
Arguments For and Against in Futurist
Case for and against in Vox
UBI rejected in the Federalist
Dissent calls UBI a false promise
Argument That UBI would increase poverty
Washington Post refutation of UBI
Guardian defends UBI with reference to Finland
“Why Don’t We Have Universal Basic Income?” in New Yorker
“Is Free Money the Answer?” in the NYT
“Future of Not Working” in NYT magazine
“Why Finland’s Basic Income Experiment Is Not Working”
“Free Money at the Edge of the Tech Boom” in Atlantic
Universal Basic Income: Side Effect of the Tech Revolution?
The Progressive Case for Replacing the Welfare State with Basic Income
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea
Arguments Against Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. A dependent society is a dysfunctional society.
Two. A lack of self-reliance diseases the soul and corrupts society.
Three. Acute dependence leads to totalitarianism and dehumanization. See The Giver.
Four. Acute dependence breaks down the family unit. Parents aren't responsible for their children; the government is.
Five. Being "off the grid" makes one chronically depressed, non-productive, and unemployable.
Essay 5. Lifeboat Ethics, Winter Dreams, genetic modification, education
Option 1: Address the claim that Garrett Hardin’s essay “Lifeboat Ethics” relies on logical fallacies to arrive at erroneous public policy conclusions.
Option 2: Support, refute, or complicate the claim that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “Winter Dreams” is about a woman, Judy Jones, who destroys the life of Dexter Green and therefore he has no agency or free will to control the outcome of his empty existence.
Option 3: Address the claim that genetic modification technology is growing so quickly that we don’t have the moral capacity to address the moral problems that such technology creates.
See film Gattaca. See “Case Against Human Gene Editing”; Pro and Con
More pros and cons from Business Insider
"Building Baby from the Genes Up"
One of your lessons for Winter Dreams.
Here’s an earlier lesson for Winter Dreams.
Option 4: Address the claim that parents are morally obliged to send their children to racially integrated schools. See “Choosing School for My Daughter in a Segregated City” and “Are Private Schools Immoral?”
Option 5: Argument about private and public schools in The Atlantic.
Option 6: See the value of education to Atlantic essay “The World Might be Better Off Without College for Everyone” by Bryan Caplan.
Essay 5:
Option 2: Happiness is a deception that often leads to moral bankruptcy in the context of the two stories: Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and compare to theme of happiness in Chekhov’s “Gooseberries.” Address analysis by George Saunders. Also consult John Oliver video about child labor for clothing.
Option 2: Support, refute, or complicate Conor Friedersdor’s assertion in “Why Can’t People Hear What Jordan Peterson Is Saying?” that straw man arguments corrupt our ability to think fairly about contentious ideas.
Rejected Material Follows
Option 2: Class Two. Show 5-minute spanking debate video on Steve Harvey. Spanking Debate; see Stacey Patton’s “Stop Beating Black Children.” See “What If Spanking Works?” in the Boston Globe. See “The Debate on Spanking Is Short on Science, High on Emotion.”
Class Three. “Winter Dreams” (and Dombeck’s Emptiness?)
Class Four. “The Other Woman” by Sherwood Anderson
Class Five.
“Cat Person” and the Impulse to Undermine Woman’s Fiction
How the Internet Can Ruin Fiction
Week 3 Lifeboat Ethics in context of “Choosing School for My Daughter in a Segregated City”--see below
One. Five. What Facebook Did to American Democracy
How Teens in Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters with Fake News
Social Media Is Making Democracy Less Democratic
Economist: Social Media Nemesis to Democracy
Two. “Cat Person” or “Why Happy People Cheat” and “Lady with the Pet Dog” moral absolutism and moral relativism
Four. “Speaking Ill of Hugh Hefner” or College Should Not be for Everyone.
Five.
Three. Essay 5:
Blood at the Root? Or teach in 1A?
Dwight Garner review is helpful
Blood at the Root and this NYT review
Addressing Linda Gordon’s The Second Coming of the KKK and any Andrew Marantz New Yorker article about the Alt-Right, develop a thesis that address the claim that while many of us would like to believe that the KKK ideology is a fringe movement, that it is actually connected to American society in a way that makes us vulnerable to its racist abuses.
Class Three: Colin Kaepernick. See NYT, Eric Reid,Vox, New Yorker, Atlantic, The Ringer, Inside NFL Debate video, Politico, and consider the fallacies of “universal love.”
Class 4: Develop an argumentative essay about Chekhov’s “The Bet” and read provided comments for material for your argument.
Class 5: Compare story from Tim O’Brien’s July, July with Gogol’s “The Overcoat.”
Classes Four and Five. Support, refute, or complicate David Benatar’s nihilistic argument for his anti-natalist view of willful extinction. David Benatar’s case against procreation and “The Case for Not Being Born.” See Benatar interview. See critical study PDF. See Reason review of Benatar’s book. See New Yorker article. And see the following: Strange Viral Saga of Keaton Jones as an exercise in failed critical thinking.
Option 1: Argument about Erik Killmonger
See Guardian
See Washington Post
See Forbes
See The Ringer
(Does Killmonger represent an justified or misguided ideology?)
Option 2: Should we arm teachers? Here’s related essay from Slate: https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/02/im-a-teacher-who-went-through-firearm-training-and-it-was-an-absurd-disaster.html
From Andrew Marantz:
“Birth of a White Supremacist”
“The Alt-Right Branding War Has Torn the Party in Two”
“Is Trump Trolling the White House Press Corps?”
Andrew Sullivan talks about opioid epidemic.
Posted at 02:07 PM in Books | Permalink | Comments (0)
English 1C
Essay 1: How to Think
How to Think
Backfire Effect, and “Unfollow”
See Atlantic critique of binary thinking.
Essay 2: God and Morality, Opioids, Arming Teachers, Democracy and Epistocracy
Option One: Elizabeth Anderson: Do We Need God to Believe in Right and Wrong?
Option Two: Andrew Sullivan talks about opioid epidemic.
Option Three. Arming schools and gun culture
See John Oliver discuss NRA. And Oliver’s more recent video. And most recent John Oliver video.
See NYT critique of comparing America to Australia.
Gun Culture and white privilege in Atlantic
David French defends gun culture: Any counterarguments?
Option Four. Defend, refute, or complicate Jason Brennan’s claim that traditional American democracy should be replaced by an epistocracy. The texts for this option are online. You can refer to John Oliver video on Alex Jones.
Brennan critique from Notre Dame
Brennan review from Washington Post
Option Five: See Tristan Harris’ argument about how social media hijacks our brains.
See Tristan Harris video.
Essay Three: Smartphone generation, AA effective treatment for addiction, Facebook, Fallacies of Happiness
Option 1: Option 3: Smartphone Ruining Generation essay.
Option 2: Her Best Kept Secret; teach with her Atlantic essay about dogma of AA. (teach in 1A?)
Option 3: Facebook and democracy. Develop an argumentative thesis about Facebook and American democracy. Consult the following:
“Facebook Cares Only About Facebook.”
What Facebook Did to American Democracy
How Teens in Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters with Fake News
Social Media Is Making Democracy Less Democratic
Economist: Social Media Nemesis to Democracy
Facebook trying to correct their bad ways.
Also a related topic: We may be heading for an information apocalypse.
Option 4: Address the claim that happiness is a deception that often leads to moral bankruptcy in the context of the two stories: Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and Chekhov’s “Gooseberries.” See analysis by George Saunders. Also consult John Oliver video about child labor for clothing. And compare to “Shipping Out.”
The self-indulgent man is not happy.
Happiness is a drug, a delusion, a Faustian Bargain, a mindless descent into ecstasy, a loss of control, a chimera, a misguided passion. There are different types of happiness, George Saunders tells us, in his Atlantic essay.
Essay Four. Gourmet food in colleges; David Brooks and social mobility, Twitter mob, UBI
Option 1: Has Malcolm Gladwell been intellectually dishonest by presenting a “moral problem” about a college that serves gourmet food?
“How Malcolm Gladwell Choked on College Food”
Bowdoin college rips Malcolm Gladwell
“Should Colleges Serve Crappy Food on Purpose?”
Option 2: Address the claim that David Brooks’ essay “How We Are Ruining America” uses deception and logical fallacies to arrive at an erroneous conclusion.
Consider the real reason for educational inequality is not a lack of tests, a smokescreen to the real problem, but the privileges of the top economic tier discussed in David Brooks' essay "How We Are Ruining America."
Slate critique of Brooks' essay.
Slate's Osita Nwanevu writes "David Brooks Almost Gets It" as a response to Brooks' infamous essay.
“It’s Not the Fault of the Sandwich Shop: Readers Debate”
Option 3: Develop an argument about Rachel Dolezal. Is her black identity an expression of individual freedom that should be embraced or a work of fraud that should be condemned? See Buzzfeed Essay List.
Cass Two. Jack Phillips debate in NYT, LA Times, National Review, and The Atlantic
Option 4: Twitter Mob
Defend, refute, or complicate Jon Ronson’s claim that Justine Sacco was unfairly demonized by social media, which creates a failure of critical thinking. See Big Think, Rolling Stone interview with Jon Ronson; Guardian article about how Jon Ronson was targeted and demonized; Washington Post article about how Sacco is “wrong poster child.” See Jon Ronson’s Ted Talk. Also see “Excesses of Call-Out Culture” in Atlantic
Option 5: UBI
Option 1: Support, refute, or complicate the argument that radical changes in the job market over the next 20 years due to robots and high-tech will compel country's to provide their citizens with a Universal Basic Income.
Vox argues UBI hurts the elderly.
A brief history of Universal Basic Income in The New Yorker.
Arguments in Support of Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. 47% of the jobs will be lost in the next 10-20 years. We have a new paradigm that requires a new way of providing a livelihood to our citizens.
Two. UBI, which is a monthly stipend to everyone regardless of income, would be nearly a trillion dollars cheaper a year than current welfare system.
Three. UBI would eliminate need for minimum wage. Lower minimum wage would encourage more hiring.
Four. Because UBI doesn't give more money for children, UBI doesn't reward one lifestyle over another.
Five. Citizens would have more time and resources to train and get educated for more career options presuming they used their time and money wisely.
Six. Most stay-at-home parents are women who have not been justly paid for their domestic work over the centuries. UBI would help remedy that injustice.
Seven. UBI gives citizens an escape valve from an abusive job or relationship. Having guaranteed money makes it easier to bail when you have to. "This is jacked up, man. I've got to bail."
Eight. 13K a year isn't so much that you would be content to retire in your house. Most people would want at the very least to supplement their meager income with part-time or full-time work. More enterprising citizens would use their free time and money for education and job re-training.
Nine. UBI would eliminate welfare abuses and welfare fraud because UBI spells the death of welfare as we know it.
Ten. Providing for the citizens with UBI would lessen the risk of the kind of discontent that leads to nationalist nativism, a racist political movement that makes one ethnic tribe hate on immigrants as scapegoats for the country's woes.
Eleven. Addressing the counterargument that not having to work would make us lazy depressed slobs, some would argue that technology is forcing us to change and adapt. Just as coal workers are inevitably going to become extinct in the next century, we must adapt to a new employment landscape. We must either adapt or die. We must not be chained to our "Calvinism hangover," the deeply American notion that work is salvation and unemployment is a sign of sin and depravity.
Twelve. The rich know they have to share their wealth because the throng with torches and pitchforks will be knocking on their doors. In other words, UBI is much needed pacifier, a form of social control that augments the safety of the rich.
Thirteen. The open debate about UBI--the biggest debate--is the philosophical question about the nature of work. Some say UBI will kill work and that without work people will descend into depression and pathology. Others say we will adapt to this new economic landscape. One argument in favor of UBI is that even if we don't know the answer to this question definitively, we HAVE NO CHOICE but to adapt to a world where close to 50% of jobs will be lost.
Fourteen. Technology will change the human animal on a chemical level and we will be able to adapt to the new work environment as evidenced by Elon Musk's exploration into his new neural lace company. Such technologies will make us smarter and more adaptive as human beings.
Fifteen. Even if we concede that not working will turn us into lazy bums, that is the lesser evil of the economic injustice social chaos resulting from not having UBI.
Arguments Against Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. A dependent society is a dysfunctional society. Dependence, in other words, leads to laziness.
Two. A lack of self-reliance diseases the soul and corrupts society. The dependent will drag down the producers.
Three. Acute dependence leads to totalitarianism and dehumanization. Once you take a government handout, you become vulnerable to the government's control over every part of your life. See The Giver.
Four. Acute dependence breaks down the family unit. Parents aren't responsible for their children; the government is. Why stick to your family, when you don't rely on them?
Five. Being "off the grid" makes one chronically depressed, non-productive, and unemployable. Our identity and sense of well being is tied to having a job.
Six. There is no increment for children. Why not? Because you're not encouraged to have children to get more. Some find this a form of lifestyle control. Others like it.
Seven. The estimated 13K a year isn't enough though some say that still puts people in the top 12% of all global earners.
Eight. Unless all countries had equal UBI, the more desirable UBI countries would be a magnet for people of other countries who'd swarm into "healthy UBI" countries to bilk their system.
Nine. UBI is giving 15% of average national income. This would require tax revenue of 15% of national income. That is too much tax, some say, for such a small income.
Consult the following:
Universal Basic Income: Side Effect of the Tech Revolution?
The Progressive Case for Replacing the Welfare State with Basic Income
We can afford UBI, but is it a good idea?
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea
A Primer or Introduction to Universal Basic Income
Economist gives us an introduction to UBI.
Psychology Change Needed for Universal Basic Income
Arguments for Universal Basic Income
3 Reasons for Universal Basic Income from Brookings Institute
Pro-Work Argument for UBI
Washington Post article that argues UBI won't make America great again.
Challenging the American Work Ethic
There is a notion in America, from the beginning of its European history, that being a hard worker means being noble, virtuous, and successful.
The contrary is also assumed: If you're poor and unemployed, your life is evidence that you are a member of the damned. You are morally depraved and bankrupt.
This notion comes from a form of Protestantism called Calvinism. John Calvin said evidence of being a member of God's elect was being a hard worker. German philosopher Max Weber said this became the "Protestant Work Ethic," the fuel of American capitalism.
Read "The Protestant Work Ethic Is Real"
Perhaps the American Work Ethic is Based on Unexamined Opinions
Inherited opinions: These are opinions that are imprinted on us during our childhood. Robert Atwan writes they come from “family, culture, traditions, customs, regions, social institutions, or religion.”
Involuntary opinions: These are the opinions that result from direct indoctrination and inculcation (learning through repetition). If we grow up in a family that teaches us that eating pork is evil, then we won’t eat at other people’s homes that serve that porcine dish.
Considered opinions. Atwan writes, “These are opinions we have formed as a result of firsthand experience, reading, discussion and debate, or independent thinking and reasoning. These opinions are formed from direct knowledge and often from exposure and considering other opinions.”
Some questions to consider about the work ethic for your UBI paper:
Should we really have a work ethic for menial, repetitive jobs that reduce us to human routers?
Don't jobs prevent us from spending time on our real interests and passions?
Have we been brainwashed by the Protestant Work Ethic so that we are contented "rabbit workers" for our employers?
Support, refute, or complicate the argument that radical changes in the job market over the next 20 years due to robots and high-tech will compel country's to provide their citizens with a Universal Basic Income. Consult the following:
Big Think video (7 minutes)
The Nation asks if UBI could work
Arguments For and Against in Futurist
Case for and against in Vox
UBI rejected in the Federalist
Dissent calls UBI a false promise
Argument That UBI would increase poverty
Washington Post refutation of UBI
Guardian defends UBI with reference to Finland
“Why Don’t We Have Universal Basic Income?” in New Yorker
“Is Free Money the Answer?” in the NYT
“Future of Not Working” in NYT magazine
“Why Finland’s Basic Income Experiment Is Not Working”
“Free Money at the Edge of the Tech Boom” in Atlantic
Universal Basic Income: Side Effect of the Tech Revolution?
The Progressive Case for Replacing the Welfare State with Basic Income
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea
Arguments Against Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. A dependent society is a dysfunctional society.
Two. A lack of self-reliance diseases the soul and corrupts society.
Three. Acute dependence leads to totalitarianism and dehumanization. See The Giver.
Four. Acute dependence breaks down the family unit. Parents aren't responsible for their children; the government is.
Five. Being "off the grid" makes one chronically depressed, non-productive, and unemployable.
Essay 5. Lifeboat Ethics, Winter Dreams, genetic modification, education
Option 1: Address the claim that Garrett Hardin’s essay “Lifeboat Ethics” relies on logical fallacies to arrive at erroneous public policy conclusions.
Option 2: Support, refute, or complicate the claim that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “Winter Dreams” is about a woman, Judy Jones, who destroys the life of Dexter Green and therefore he has no agency or free will to control the outcome of his empty existence.
Option 3: Address the claim that genetic modification technology is growing so quickly that we don’t have the moral capacity to address the moral problems that such technology creates.
See film Gattaca. See “Case Against Human Gene Editing”; Pro and Con
More pros and cons from Business Insider
"Building Baby from the Genes Up"
One of your lessons for Winter Dreams.
Here’s an earlier lesson for Winter Dreams.
Option 4: Address the claim that parents are morally obliged to send their children to racially integrated schools. See “Choosing School for My Daughter in a Segregated City” and “Are Private Schools Immoral?”
Option 5: Argument about private and public schools in The Atlantic.
Option 6: See the value of education to Atlantic essay “The World Might be Better Off Without College for Everyone” by Bryan Caplan.
Essay 5:
Option 2: Happiness is a deception that often leads to moral bankruptcy in the context of the two stories: Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and compare to theme of happiness in Chekhov’s “Gooseberries.” Address analysis by George Saunders. Also consult John Oliver video about child labor for clothing.
Option 2: Support, refute, or complicate Conor Friedersdor’s assertion in “Why Can’t People Hear What Jordan Peterson Is Saying?” that straw man arguments corrupt our ability to think fairly about contentious ideas.
Rejected Material Follows
Option 2: Class Two. Show 5-minute spanking debate video on Steve Harvey. Spanking Debate; see Stacey Patton’s “Stop Beating Black Children.” See “What If Spanking Works?” in the Boston Globe. See “The Debate on Spanking Is Short on Science, High on Emotion.”
Class Three. “Winter Dreams” (and Dombeck’s Emptiness?)
Class Four. “The Other Woman” by Sherwood Anderson
Class Five.
“Cat Person” and the Impulse to Undermine Woman’s Fiction
How the Internet Can Ruin Fiction
Week 3 Lifeboat Ethics in context of “Choosing School for My Daughter in a Segregated City”--see below
One. Five. What Facebook Did to American Democracy
How Teens in Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters with Fake News
Social Media Is Making Democracy Less Democratic
Economist: Social Media Nemesis to Democracy
Two. “Cat Person” or “Why Happy People Cheat” and “Lady with the Pet Dog” moral absolutism and moral relativism
Four. “Speaking Ill of Hugh Hefner” or College Should Not be for Everyone.
Five.
Three. Essay 5:
Blood at the Root? Or teach in 1A?
Dwight Garner review is helpful
Blood at the Root and this NYT review
Addressing Linda Gordon’s The Second Coming of the KKK and any Andrew Marantz New Yorker article about the Alt-Right, develop a thesis that address the claim that while many of us would like to believe that the KKK ideology is a fringe movement, that it is actually connected to American society in a way that makes us vulnerable to its racist abuses.
Class Three: Colin Kaepernick. See NYT, Eric Reid,Vox, New Yorker, Atlantic, The Ringer, Inside NFL Debate video, Politico, and consider the fallacies of “universal love.”
Class 4: Develop an argumentative essay about Chekhov’s “The Bet” and read provided comments for material for your argument.
Class 5: Compare story from Tim O’Brien’s July, July with Gogol’s “The Overcoat.”
Classes Four and Five. Support, refute, or complicate David Benatar’s nihilistic argument for his anti-natalist view of willful extinction. David Benatar’s case against procreation and “The Case for Not Being Born.” See Benatar interview. See critical study PDF. See Reason review of Benatar’s book. See New Yorker article. And see the following: Strange Viral Saga of Keaton Jones as an exercise in failed critical thinking.
Option 1: Argument about Erik Killmonger
See Guardian
See Washington Post
See Forbes
See The Ringer
(Does Killmonger represent an justified or misguided ideology?)
Option 2: Should we arm teachers? Here’s related essay from Slate: https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/02/im-a-teacher-who-went-through-firearm-training-and-it-was-an-absurd-disaster.html
From Andrew Marantz:
“Birth of a White Supremacist”
“The Alt-Right Branding War Has Torn the Party in Two”
“Is Trump Trolling the White House Press Corps?”
Posted at 09:43 AM in Books | Permalink | Comments (0)
English 1C
Essay 1: How to Think
How to Think
Backfire Effect, and “Unfollow”
See Atlantic critique of binary thinking.
Essay 2:
Option 1: Defend, refute, or complicate Jason Brennan’s claim that traditional American democracy should be replaced by an epistocracy. The texts for this option are online. You can refer to John Oliver video on Alex Jones.
Brennan critique from Notre Dame
Brennan review from Washington Post
Option 2: See Tristan Harris’ argument about how social media hijacks our brains.
See Tristan Harris video.
Option 3: Smartphone Ruining Generation essay.
Develop an argumentative thesis about Facebook and American democracy.
Option 4: Her Best Kept Secret; teach with her Atlantic essay about dogma of AA. (teach in 1A?)
Option 5: Consult the following:
“Facebook Cares Only About Facebook.”
What Facebook Did to American Democracy
How Teens in Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters with Fake News
Social Media Is Making Democracy Less Democratic
Economist: Social Media Nemesis to Democracy
Facebook trying to correct their bad ways.
Also a related topic: We may be heading for an information apocalypse.
How is Thomas Berger’s Neighbors a critique of existential humanism as addressed in John Carlos Rowe’s chapter Alien Encounter.
A better version is in the free online book.
From Andrew Marantz:
“Birth of a White Supremacist”
“The Alt-Right Branding War Has Torn the Party in Two”
“Is Trump Trolling the White House Press Corps?”
Essay 3: Happiness Is Deception, Gourmet Food, David Brooks, Rachel Dolezal, Jon Ronson
Option 1: Address the claim that happiness is a deception that often leads to moral bankruptcy in the context of the two stories: Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and Chekhov’s “Gooseberries.” See analysis by George Saunders. Also consult John Oliver video about child labor for clothing. And compare to “Shipping Out.”
The self-indulgent man is not happy.
Happiness is a drug, a delusion, a Faustian Bargain, a mindless descent into ecstasy, a loss of control, a chimera, a misguided passion. There are different types of happiness, George Saunders tells us, in his Atlantic essay.
Option 2: Has Malcolm Gladwell been intellectually dishonest by presenting a “moral problem” about a college that serves gourmet food?
“How Malcolm Gladwell Choked on College Food”
Bowdoin college rips Malcolm Gladwell
“Should Colleges Serve Crappy Food on Purpose?”
Option 3: Address the claim that David Brooks’ essay “How We Are Ruining America” uses deception and logical fallacies to arrive at an erroneous conclusion.
Consider the real reason for educational inequality is not a lack of tests, a smokescreen to the real problem, but the privileges of the top economic tier discussed in David Brooks' essay "How We Are Ruining America."
Slate critique of Brooks' essay.
Slate's Osita Nwanevu writes "David Brooks Almost Gets It" as a response to Brooks' infamous essay.
“It’s Not the Fault of the Sandwich Shop: Readers Debate”
Option 4: Develop an argument about Rachel Dolezal. Is her black identity an expression of individual freedom that should be embraced or a work of fraud that should be condemned? See Buzzfeed Essay List.
Cass Two. Jack Phillips debate in NYT, LA Times, National Review, and The Atlantic
Option 5: Twitter Mob
Defend, refute, or complicate Jon Ronson’s claim that Justine Sacco was unfairly demonized by social media, which creates a failure of critical thinking. See Big Think, Rolling Stone interview with Jon Ronson; Guardian article about how Jon Ronson was targeted and demonized; Washington Post article about how Sacco is “wrong poster child.” See Jon Ronson’s Ted Talk. Also see “Excesses of Call-Out Culture” in Atlantic
Essay 4: UBI, Integrated Schools, Genetic Modification, “Lifeboat Ethics”
Option 1: Support, refute, or complicate the argument that radical changes in the job market over the next 20 years due to robots and high-tech will compel country's to provide their citizens with a Universal Basic Income.
Vox argues UBI hurts the elderly.
A brief history of Universal Basic Income in The New Yorker.
Arguments in Support of Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. 47% of the jobs will be lost in the next 10-20 years. We have a new paradigm that requires a new way of providing a livelihood to our citizens.
Two. UBI, which is a monthly stipend to everyone regardless of income, would be nearly a trillion dollars cheaper a year than current welfare system.
Three. UBI would eliminate need for minimum wage. Lower minimum wage would encourage more hiring.
Four. Because UBI doesn't give more money for children, UBI doesn't reward one lifestyle over another.
Five. Citizens would have more time and resources to train and get educated for more career options presuming they used their time and money wisely.
Six. Most stay-at-home parents are women who have not been justly paid for their domestic work over the centuries. UBI would help remedy that injustice.
Seven. UBI gives citizens an escape valve from an abusive job or relationship. Having guaranteed money makes it easier to bail when you have to. "This is jacked up, man. I've got to bail."
Eight. 13K a year isn't so much that you would be content to retire in your house. Most people would want at the very least to supplement their meager income with part-time or full-time work. More enterprising citizens would use their free time and money for education and job re-training.
Nine. UBI would eliminate welfare abuses and welfare fraud because UBI spells the death of welfare as we know it.
Ten. Providing for the citizens with UBI would lessen the risk of the kind of discontent that leads to nationalist nativism, a racist political movement that makes one ethnic tribe hate on immigrants as scapegoats for the country's woes.
Eleven. Addressing the counterargument that not having to work would make us lazy depressed slobs, some would argue that technology is forcing us to change and adapt. Just as coal workers are inevitably going to become extinct in the next century, we must adapt to a new employment landscape. We must either adapt or die. We must not be chained to our "Calvinism hangover," the deeply American notion that work is salvation and unemployment is a sign of sin and depravity.
Twelve. The rich know they have to share their wealth because the throng with torches and pitchforks will be knocking on their doors. In other words, UBI is much needed pacifier, a form of social control that augments the safety of the rich.
Thirteen. The open debate about UBI--the biggest debate--is the philosophical question about the nature of work. Some say UBI will kill work and that without work people will descend into depression and pathology. Others say we will adapt to this new economic landscape. One argument in favor of UBI is that even if we don't know the answer to this question definitively, we HAVE NO CHOICE but to adapt to a world where close to 50% of jobs will be lost.
Fourteen. Technology will change the human animal on a chemical level and we will be able to adapt to the new work environment as evidenced by Elon Musk's exploration into his new neural lace company. Such technologies will make us smarter and more adaptive as human beings.
Fifteen. Even if we concede that not working will turn us into lazy bums, that is the lesser evil of the economic injustice social chaos resulting from not having UBI.
Arguments Against Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. A dependent society is a dysfunctional society. Dependence, in other words, leads to laziness.
Two. A lack of self-reliance diseases the soul and corrupts society. The dependent will drag down the producers.
Three. Acute dependence leads to totalitarianism and dehumanization. Once you take a government handout, you become vulnerable to the government's control over every part of your life. See The Giver.
Four. Acute dependence breaks down the family unit. Parents aren't responsible for their children; the government is. Why stick to your family, when you don't rely on them?
Five. Being "off the grid" makes one chronically depressed, non-productive, and unemployable. Our identity and sense of well being is tied to having a job.
Six. There is no increment for children. Why not? Because you're not encouraged to have children to get more. Some find this a form of lifestyle control. Others like it.
Seven. The estimated 13K a year isn't enough though some say that still puts people in the top 12% of all global earners.
Eight. Unless all countries had equal UBI, the more desirable UBI countries would be a magnet for people of other countries who'd swarm into "healthy UBI" countries to bilk their system.
Nine. UBI is giving 15% of average national income. This would require tax revenue of 15% of national income. That is too much tax, some say, for such a small income.
Consult the following:
Universal Basic Income: Side Effect of the Tech Revolution?
The Progressive Case for Replacing the Welfare State with Basic Income
We can afford UBI, but is it a good idea?
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea
A Primer or Introduction to Universal Basic Income
Economist gives us an introduction to UBI.
Psychology Change Needed for Universal Basic Income
Arguments for Universal Basic Income
3 Reasons for Universal Basic Income from Brookings Institute
Pro-Work Argument for UBI
Washington Post article that argues UBI won't make America great again.
Challenging the American Work Ethic
There is a notion in America, from the beginning of its European history, that being a hard worker means being noble, virtuous, and successful.
The contrary is also assumed: If you're poor and unemployed, your life is evidence that you are a member of the damned. You are morally depraved and bankrupt.
This notion comes from a form of Protestantism called Calvinism. John Calvin said evidence of being a member of God's elect was being a hard worker. German philosopher Max Weber said this became the "Protestant Work Ethic," the fuel of American capitalism.
Read "The Protestant Work Ethic Is Real"
Perhaps the American Work Ethic is Based on Unexamined Opinions
Inherited opinions: These are opinions that are imprinted on us during our childhood. Robert Atwan writes they come from “family, culture, traditions, customs, regions, social institutions, or religion.”
Involuntary opinions: These are the opinions that result from direct indoctrination and inculcation (learning through repetition). If we grow up in a family that teaches us that eating pork is evil, then we won’t eat at other people’s homes that serve that porcine dish.
Considered opinions. Atwan writes, “These are opinions we have formed as a result of firsthand experience, reading, discussion and debate, or independent thinking and reasoning. These opinions are formed from direct knowledge and often from exposure and considering other opinions.”
Some questions to consider about the work ethic for your UBI paper:
Should we really have a work ethic for menial, repetitive jobs that reduce us to human routers?
Don't jobs prevent us from spending time on our real interests and passions?
Have we been brainwashed by the Protestant Work Ethic so that we are contented "rabbit workers" for our employers?
Support, refute, or complicate the argument that radical changes in the job market over the next 20 years due to robots and high-tech will compel country's to provide their citizens with a Universal Basic Income. Consult the following:
Big Think video (7 minutes)
The Nation asks if UBI could work
Arguments For and Against in Futurist
Case for and against in Vox
UBI rejected in the Federalist
Dissent calls UBI a false promise
Argument That UBI would increase poverty
Washington Post refutation of UBI
Guardian defends UBI with reference to Finland
“Why Don’t We Have Universal Basic Income?” in New Yorker
“Is Free Money the Answer?” in the NYT
“Future of Not Working” in NYT magazine
“Why Finland’s Basic Income Experiment Is Not Working”
“Free Money at the Edge of the Tech Boom” in Atlantic
Universal Basic Income: Side Effect of the Tech Revolution?
The Progressive Case for Replacing the Welfare State with Basic Income
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea
Arguments Against Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. A dependent society is a dysfunctional society.
Two. A lack of self-reliance diseases the soul and corrupts society.
Three. Acute dependence leads to totalitarianism and dehumanization. See The Giver.
Four. Acute dependence breaks down the family unit. Parents aren't responsible for their children; the government is.
Five. Being "off the grid" makes one chronically depressed, non-productive, and unemployable.
Option 2: Address the claim that parents are morally obliged to send their children to racially integrated schools. See “Choosing School for My Daughter in a Segregated City” and “Are Private Schools Immoral?”
Option 3: Address the claim that genetic modification technology is growing so quickly that we don’t have the moral capacity to address the moral problems that such technology creates.
See film Gattaca. See “Case Against Human Gene Editing”; Pro and Con
More pros and cons from Business Insider
"Building Baby from the Genes Up"
Option 4: Address the claim that Garrett Hardin’s essay “Lifeboat Ethics” relies on logical fallacies to arrive at erroneous public policy conclusions.
Essay 5:
Option 1: Support, refute, or complicate the claim that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “Winter Dreams” is about a woman, Judy Jones, who destroys the life of Dexter Green and therefore he has no agency or free will to control the outcome of his empty existence.
Option 2: Happiness is a deception that often leads to moral bankruptcy in the context of the two stories: Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and compare to theme of happiness in Chekhov’s “Gooseberries.” Address analysis by George Saunders. Also consult John Oliver video about child labor for clothing.
Option 2: Support, refute, or complicate Conor Friedersdor’s assertion in “Why Can’t People Hear What Jordan Peterson Is Saying?” that straw man arguments corrupt our ability to think fairly about contentious ideas.
Rejected Material Follows
Option 2: Class Two. Show 5-minute spanking debate video on Steve Harvey. Spanking Debate; see Stacey Patton’s “Stop Beating Black Children.” See “What If Spanking Works?” in the Boston Globe. See “The Debate on Spanking Is Short on Science, High on Emotion.”
Class Three. “Winter Dreams” (and Dombeck’s Emptiness?)
Class Four. “The Other Woman” by Sherwood Anderson
Class Five.
“Cat Person” and the Impulse to Undermine Woman’s Fiction
How the Internet Can Ruin Fiction
Week 3 Lifeboat Ethics in context of “Choosing School for My Daughter in a Segregated City”--see below
One. Five. What Facebook Did to American Democracy
How Teens in Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters with Fake News
Social Media Is Making Democracy Less Democratic
Economist: Social Media Nemesis to Democracy
Two. “Cat Person” or “Why Happy People Cheat” and “Lady with the Pet Dog” moral absolutism and moral relativism
Four. “Speaking Ill of Hugh Hefner” or College Should Not be for Everyone.
Five.
Three. Essay 5:
Blood at the Root? Or teach in 1A?
Dwight Garner review is helpful
Blood at the Root and this NYT review
Addressing Linda Gordon’s The Second Coming of the KKK and any Andrew Marantz New Yorker article about the Alt-Right, develop a thesis that address the claim that while many of us would like to believe that the KKK ideology is a fringe movement, that it is actually connected to American society in a way that makes us vulnerable to its racist abuses.
Class Three: Colin Kaepernick. See NYT, Eric Reid,Vox, New Yorker, Atlantic, The Ringer, Inside NFL Debate video, Politico, and consider the fallacies of “universal love.”
Class 4: Develop an argumentative essay about Chekhov’s “The Bet” and read provided comments for material for your argument.
Class 5: Compare story from Tim O’Brien’s July, July with Gogol’s “The Overcoat.”
Classes Four and Five. Support, refute, or complicate David Benatar’s nihilistic argument for his anti-natalist view of willful extinction. David Benatar’s case against procreation and “The Case for Not Being Born.” See Benatar interview. See critical study PDF. See Reason review of Benatar’s book. See New Yorker article. And see the following: Strange Viral Saga of Keaton Jones as an exercise in failed critical thinking.
Posted at 01:46 PM in Books | Permalink | Comments (0)
English 1A Fall 2018 Books and Essay Assignments
Schedule:
1A M and W 12:30-2:35 and 3:45 to 5:50
1C T and TH 2 and 4:15
Essay 1: Cooked and Arthur C. Brooks
Cooked and Arthur Brooks essay
Essay 2:
Tristan Harris and Smartphones
Kleptocracy, New Jim Crow, and Confederate Flag
Option 1: Debra Dickerson’s “The Great White Way” and Ta Nehisi Coates’ “The Case for Reparations” to address claim that America built its wealth by inventing the myth of race in the service of an American kleptocracy.
Sources
White wealth is almost 10 to 1 over black wealth
Charts addressing wealth inequality
Option 2: Write an argumentative thesis that addresses the claim that America’s prison industrial complex exercises a form of systemic racism that is equivalent to “The New Jim Crow.” See “The Caging of America” and The New Jim Crow (full week)
Option 3. Write an argumentative thesis that address the claim that the Confederate flag and all that it represents is not about honor, or birthright, or any kind of glorified American tradition, but is a symbol of racist mythology and therefore the Confederate flag should be legally banished.
Confederate Flag Debate (full week) : “Remembering History As Fable”
Jamelle Bouie’s essay “White Americans Have to Make a Choice,” on Confederacy and “I Used to Lead Tours at a Plantation”
Dickerson’s “The Great White Way,” Coates’ essay on reparations and kleptocracy and Get Out
Addressing Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, Jamelle Bouie’s “White Americans Have to Make a Choice,” Aisha Harris’ “Spring Time for the Confederacy,”, Margaret Biser’s “I Used to Lead Tours at a Plantation,” John Oliver’s Confederacy commentary, Coates’ “Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?”, and the film Get Out, support, refute, or complicate the argument that racism is not a faint echo of the past but is an ongoing assault on black people evidenced by a continued enabling of Confederate sympathizers and “The New Jim Crow.”
Other Sources:
“What This Cruel War Was Over” Coates
“Why There Are No Nazi Statues in Germany”
“How Other Countries Have Dealt with Monuments”
“Should Confederate Flags be Banned in the US?”
Essay 3
Option One. Cal Newport and Passion Hypothesis (full week)
Option 2: Defend, refute, or complicate the human instinct for tribalism in the context of David Brooks’ “People Like Us.”
Option 3: Develop an argumentative thesis about the Immigration debate that addresses the labor problems rendered in Vice News video clip Sweet Home Alabama.
Option 4: “Prudence Or Cruelty,” and food stamps debate
Option 5. NFL and Steve Almond
Essay 4: Millennials, Surrogacy, Bariatric Surgery, Social Media, and Poverty
Option 1: Are adults combining modern technology and helicopter parenting to the detriment of the young generation? See Smartphones Ruin a Generation and Coddling of America (full week)
Option 2: Address the claim that the abuses and legal tangles of surrogate motherhood compel us to abolish it as a for-profit enterprise.
Option 3: Address the claim that bariatric surgery creates more dangers and not enough benefits to be a recommended procedure. See Bariatric surgery debate as seen in Vox. Show the other side: People who can’t diet and have diabetes.
Option 4: Address the claim in Sherry Turkle’s “The Flight from Conversation” that social media is an impediment to our intellectual, social, and emotional growth.
Option 5: Linda Tirado blog and the question: Addressing Linda Tirado's famous blog post and “Your Brain on Poverty” by Derek Thompson, write a 5-paragraph essay that supports or refutes the argument that poverty is not a "lifestyle choice" but a self-perpetuating trap.
Essay 5: Education
Option 1: Alfie Kohn’s “From Degrading to De-grading”
Option 2: Address the claim that many people who are encouraged to go to college are being misguided in the context of “The World Might be Better Off Without College for Everyone.”
Option 3: Address the claim that the college rankings system is not helpful, accurate, or trustworthy. See “Why College Rankings Are a Joke” and “Shut Up About Harvard.”
Option 4: Address the claim that a working class background creates special conflicts for succeeding in higher education. See Bell Hooks essays, including “Keeping Close to Home” and “Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class.” See review of Lubrano’s book Limbo.
Option 5: Standardized Testing
Option 6: For-Profit colleges should be illegal.
Miscellaneous
Why It Pays to be a Jerk and “Emptiness”
One. Living in the Shadow Race and Class
Two. Against School
Three. Standardized Testing, John Oliver video
Four. From Degrading to Grading Alfie Kohn
Five. Nikole Hannah Jones
Or Tribalism, Cal Newport, Food Stamps
One and Two. Cal Newport Parts 1 and 2
Three. People Like Us
Four. Prudence Or Cruelty, “Messy Relationship Between Food Stamps and Health”
Five. I Used to be a Human Being, Nosedive, Flight from Conversation, NFL debate with Steve Almond;
“What Facebook Did to American Democracy”; “What Facebook and Google Can Learn from the First Major News Hoax”
Posted at 05:31 PM in Books | Permalink | Comments (0)
English 1C
Essay 1: How to Think
How to Think
Backfire Effect, and “Unfollow”
Essay 2: The Second Coming of the KKK
Addressing Linda Gordon’s The Second Coming of the KKK and any Andrew Marantz New Yorker article about the Alt-Right, develop a thesis that address the claim that while many of us would like to believe that the KKK ideology is a fringe movement, that it is actually connected to American society in a way that makes us vulnerable to its racist abuses.
Essay 3: Happiness Is Deception, Gourmet Food, David Brooks, Rachel Dolezal, Jon Ronson
Option 1: Address the claim that happiness is a deception that often leads to moral bankruptcy in the context of the two stories: Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and Chekhov’s “Gooseberries.” See analysis by George Saunders. Also consult John Oliver video about child labor for clothing.
Option 2: Has Malcolm Gladwell been intellectually dishonest by presenting a “moral problem” about a college that serves gourmet food?
“How Malcolm Gladwell Choked on College Food”
Bowdoin college rips Malcolm Gladwell
“Should Colleges Serve Crappy Food on Purpose?”
Option 3: Address the claim that David Brooks’ essay “How We Are Ruining America” uses deception and logical fallacies to arrive at an erroneous conclusion.
Consider the real reason for educational inequality is not a lack of tests, a smokescreen to the real problem, but the privileges of the top economic tier discussed in David Brooks' essay "How We Are Ruining America."
Slate critique of Brooks' essay.
Slate's Osita Nwanevu writes "David Brooks Almost Gets It" as a response to Brooks' infamous essay.
“It’s Not the Fault of the Sandwich Shop: Readers Debate”
Option 4: Develop an argument about Rachel Dolezal. Is her black identity an expression of individual freedom that should be embraced or a work of fraud that should be condemned? See Buzzfeed Essay List.
Cass Two. Jack Phillips debate in NYT, LA Times, National Review, and The Atlantic
Option 5: Defend, refute, or complicate Jon Ronson’s claim that Justine Sacco was unfairly demonized by social media, which creates a failure of critical thinking. See Big Think, Rolling Stone interview with Jon Ronson; Guardian article about how Jon Ronson was targeted and demonized; Washington Post article about how Sacco is “wrong poster child.” See Jon Ronson’s Ted Talk.
Essay 4: UBI, Integrated Schools, Genetic Modification, “Lifeboat Ethics”
Option 1: Support, refute, or complicate the argument that radical changes in the job market over the next 20 years due to robots and high-tech will compel country's to provide their citizens with a Universal Basic Income.
Vox argues UBI hurts the elderly.
A brief history of Universal Basic Income in The New Yorker.
Arguments in Support of Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. 47% of the jobs will be lost in the next 10-20 years. We have a new paradigm that requires a new way of providing a livelihood to our citizens.
Two. UBI, which is a monthly stipend to everyone regardless of income, would be nearly a trillion dollars cheaper a year than current welfare system.
Three. UBI would eliminate need for minimum wage. Lower minimum wage would encourage more hiring.
Four. Because UBI doesn't give more money for children, UBI doesn't reward one lifestyle over another.
Five. Citizens would have more time and resources to train and get educated for more career options presuming they used their time and money wisely.
Six. Most stay-at-home parents are women who have not been justly paid for their domestic work over the centuries. UBI would help remedy that injustice.
Seven. UBI gives citizens an escape valve from an abusive job or relationship. Having guaranteed money makes it easier to bail when you have to. "This is jacked up, man. I've got to bail."
Eight. 13K a year isn't so much that you would be content to retire in your house. Most people would want at the very least to supplement their meager income with part-time or full-time work. More enterprising citizens would use their free time and money for education and job re-training.
Nine. UBI would eliminate welfare abuses and welfare fraud because UBI spells the death of welfare as we know it.
Ten. Providing for the citizens with UBI would lessen the risk of the kind of discontent that leads to nationalist nativism, a racist political movement that makes one ethnic tribe hate on immigrants as scapegoats for the country's woes.
Eleven. Addressing the counterargument that not having to work would make us lazy depressed slobs, some would argue that technology is forcing us to change and adapt. Just as coal workers are inevitably going to become extinct in the next century, we must adapt to a new employment landscape. We must either adapt or die. We must not be chained to our "Calvinism hangover," the deeply American notion that work is salvation and unemployment is a sign of sin and depravity.
Twelve. The rich know they have to share their wealth because the throng with torches and pitchforks will be knocking on their doors. In other words, UBI is much needed pacifier, a form of social control that augments the safety of the rich.
Thirteen. The open debate about UBI--the biggest debate--is the philosophical question about the nature of work. Some say UBI will kill work and that without work people will descend into depression and pathology. Others say we will adapt to this new economic landscape. One argument in favor of UBI is that even if we don't know the answer to this question definitively, we HAVE NO CHOICE but to adapt to a world where close to 50% of jobs will be lost.
Fourteen. Technology will change the human animal on a chemical level and we will be able to adapt to the new work environment as evidenced by Elon Musk's exploration into his new neural lace company. Such technologies will make us smarter and more adaptive as human beings.
Fifteen. Even if we concede that not working will turn us into lazy bums, that is the lesser evil of the economic injustice social chaos resulting from not having UBI.
Arguments Against Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. A dependent society is a dysfunctional society. Dependence, in other words, leads to laziness.
Two. A lack of self-reliance diseases the soul and corrupts society. The dependent will drag down the producers.
Three. Acute dependence leads to totalitarianism and dehumanization. Once you take a government handout, you become vulnerable to the government's control over every part of your life. See The Giver.
Four. Acute dependence breaks down the family unit. Parents aren't responsible for their children; the government is. Why stick to your family, when you don't rely on them?
Five. Being "off the grid" makes one chronically depressed, non-productive, and unemployable. Our identity and sense of well being is tied to having a job.
Six. There is no increment for children. Why not? Because you're not encouraged to have children to get more. Some find this a form of lifestyle control. Others like it.
Seven. The estimated 13K a year isn't enough though some say that still puts people in the top 12% of all global earners.
Eight. Unless all countries had equal UBI, the more desirable UBI countries would be a magnet for people of other countries who'd swarm into "healthy UBI" countries to bilk their system.
Nine. UBI is giving 15% of average national income. This would require tax revenue of 15% of national income. That is too much tax, some say, for such a small income.
Consult the following:
Universal Basic Income: Side Effect of the Tech Revolution?
The Progressive Case for Replacing the Welfare State with Basic Income
We can afford UBI, but is it a good idea?
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea
A Primer or Introduction to Universal Basic Income
Economist gives us an introduction to UBI.
Psychology Change Needed for Universal Basic Income
Arguments for Universal Basic Income
3 Reasons for Universal Basic Income from Brookings Institute
Pro-Work Argument for UBI
Washington Post article that argues UBI won't make America great again.
Challenging the American Work Ethic
There is a notion in America, from the beginning of its European history, that being a hard worker means being noble, virtuous, and successful.
The contrary is also assumed: If you're poor and unemployed, your life is evidence that you are a member of the damned. You are morally depraved and bankrupt.
This notion comes from a form of Protestantism called Calvinism. John Calvin said evidence of being a member of God's elect was being a hard worker. German philosopher Max Weber said this became the "Protestant Work Ethic," the fuel of American capitalism.
Read "The Protestant Work Ethic Is Real"
Perhaps the American Work Ethic is Based on Unexamined Opinions
Inherited opinions: These are opinions that are imprinted on us during our childhood. Robert Atwan writes they come from “family, culture, traditions, customs, regions, social institutions, or religion.”
Involuntary opinions: These are the opinions that result from direct indoctrination and inculcation (learning through repetition). If we grow up in a family that teaches us that eating pork is evil, then we won’t eat at other people’s homes that serve that porcine dish.
Considered opinions. Atwan writes, “These are opinions we have formed as a result of firsthand experience, reading, discussion and debate, or independent thinking and reasoning. These opinions are formed from direct knowledge and often from exposure and considering other opinions.”
Some questions to consider about the work ethic for your UBI paper:
Should we really have a work ethic for menial, repetitive jobs that reduce us to human routers?
Don't jobs prevent us from spending time on our real interests and passions?
Have we been brainwashed by the Protestant Work Ethic so that we are contented "rabbit workers" for our employers?
Support, refute, or complicate the argument that radical changes in the job market over the next 20 years due to robots and high-tech will compel country's to provide their citizens with a Universal Basic Income. Consult the following:
Big Think video (7 minutes)
The Nation asks if UBI could work
Arguments For and Against in Futurist
Case for and against in Vox
UBI rejected in the Federalist
Dissent calls UBI a false promise
Argument That UBI would increase poverty
Washington Post refutation of UBI
Guardian defends UBI with reference to Finland
“Why Don’t We Have Universal Basic Income?” in New Yorker
“Is Free Money the Answer?” in the NYT
“Future of Not Working” in NYT magazine
“Why Finland’s Basic Income Experiment Is Not Working”
“Free Money at the Edge of the Tech Boom” in Atlantic
Universal Basic Income: Side Effect of the Tech Revolution?
The Progressive Case for Replacing the Welfare State with Basic Income
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea
Arguments Against Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. A dependent society is a dysfunctional society.
Two. A lack of self-reliance diseases the soul and corrupts society.
Three. Acute dependence leads to totalitarianism and dehumanization. See The Giver.
Four. Acute dependence breaks down the family unit. Parents aren't responsible for their children; the government is.
Five. Being "off the grid" makes one chronically depressed, non-productive, and unemployable.
Option 2: Address the claim that parents are morally obliged to send their children to racially integrated schools. See “Choosing School for My Daughter in a Segregated City” and “Are Private Schools Immoral?”
Option 3: Address the claim that genetic modification technology is growing so quickly that we don’t have the moral capacity to address the moral problems that such technology creates.
See film Gattaca. See “Case Against Human Gene Editing”; Pro and Con
More pros and cons from Business Insider
"Building Baby from the Genes Up"
Option 4: Address the claim that Garrett Hardin’s essay “Lifeboat Ethics” relies on logical fallacies to arrive at erroneous public policy conclusions.
Essay 5: Epistocracy, Straw Man Used Against Jordan Peterson,
Option 1: Address Jason Brennan’s claim that democracy is a failed system that needs to be replaced with an epistocracy.
Option 2: Support, refute, or complicate Conor Friedersdor’s assertion in “Why Can’t People Hear What Jordan Peterson Is Saying?” that straw man arguments corrupt our ability to think fairly about contentious ideas.
Option 3: Support, refute, or complicate the claim that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “Winter Dreams” is about a woman, Judy Jones, who destroys the life of Dexter Green and therefore he has no agency or free will to control the outcome of his empty existence.
Option 4: Address the claim that social media, such as Facebook, has been irresponsible in allowing fake news agents use its platform to compromise American democracy. See the following:
What Facebook Did to American Democracy
How Teens in Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters with Fake News
Social Media Is Making Democracy Less Democratic
Economist: Social Media Nemesis to Democracy
Option 5: Support, refute, or complicate David Benatar’s argument for willful extinction. David Benatar’s case against procreation and “The Case for Not Being Born.” See Benatar interview. See critical study PDF. See Reason review of Benatar’s book. See New Yorker article.
Rejected Material Follows
Option 2: happiness is a deception that often leads to moral bankruptcy in the context of the two stories: Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and compare to theme of happiness in Chekhov’s “Gooseberries.” Address analysis by George Saunders. Also consult John Oliver video about child labor for clothing.
Class Two. Show 5-minute spanking debate video on Steve Harvey. Spanking Debate; see Stacey Patton’s “Stop Beating Black Children.” See “What If Spanking Works?” in the Boston Globe. See “The Debate on Spanking Is Short on Science, High on Emotion.”
Class Three. “Winter Dreams” (and Dombeck’s Emptiness?)
Class Four. “The Other Woman” by Sherwood Anderson
Class Five.
“Cat Person” and the Impulse to Undermine Woman’s Fiction
How the Internet Can Ruin Fiction
Week 3 Lifeboat Ethics in context of “Choosing School for My Daughter in a Segregated City”--see below
One. Five. What Facebook Did to American Democracy
How Teens in Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters with Fake News
Social Media Is Making Democracy Less Democratic
Economist: Social Media Nemesis to Democracy
Two. “Cat Person” or “Why Happy People Cheat” and “Lady with the Pet Dog” moral absolutism and moral relativism
Four. “Speaking Ill of Hugh Hefner” or College Should Not be for Everyone.
Five.
Three. Essay 5:
Blood at the Root? Or teach in 1A?
Dwight Garner review is helpful
Blood at the Root and this NYT review
Addressing Linda Gordon’s The Second Coming of the KKK and any Andrew Marantz New Yorker article about the Alt-Right, develop a thesis that address the claim that while many of us would like to believe that the KKK ideology is a fringe movement, that it is actually connected to American society in a way that makes us vulnerable to its racist abuses.
Class Three: Colin Kaepernick. See NYT, Eric Reid,Vox, New Yorker, Atlantic, The Ringer, Inside NFL Debate video, Politico, and consider the fallacies of “universal love.”
Class 4: Develop an argumentative essay about Chekhov’s “The Bet” and read provided comments for material for your argument.
Class 5: Compare story from Tim O’Brien’s July, July with Gogol’s “The Overcoat.”
Classes Four and Five. Support, refute, or complicate David Benatar’s nihilistic argument for his anti-natalist view of willful extinction. David Benatar’s case against procreation and “The Case for Not Being Born.” See Benatar interview. See critical study PDF. See Reason review of Benatar’s book. See New Yorker article. And see the following: Strange Viral Saga of Keaton Jones as an exercise in failed critical thinking.
Posted at 09:23 AM in Books | Permalink | Comments (0)
English 1A Fall 2018 Books and Essay Assignments
Essay 1: Cooked and Arthur C. Brooks
Cooked and Arthur Brooks essay
Essay 2: Kleptocracy, New Jim Crow, and Confederate Flag
Option 1: Debra Dickerson’s “The Great White Way” and Ta Nehisi Coates’ “The Case for Reparations” to address claim that America built its wealth by inventing the myth of race in the service of an American kleptocracy.
Sources
White wealth is almost 10 to 1 over black wealth
Charts addressing wealth inequality
Option 2: Write an argumentative thesis that addresses the claim that America’s prison industrial complex exercises a form of systemic racism that is equivalent to “The New Jim Crow.” See “The Caging of America” and The New Jim Crow (full week)
Option 3. Write an argumentative thesis that address the claim that the Confederate flag and all that it represents is not about honor, or birthright, or any kind of glorified American tradition, but is a symbol of racist mythology and therefore the Confederate flag should be legally banished.
Confederate Flag Debate (full week) : “Remembering History As Fable”
Jamelle Bouie’s essay “White Americans Have to Make a Choice,” on Confederacy and “I Used to Lead Tours at a Plantation”
Dickerson’s “The Great White Way,” Coates’ essay on reparations and kleptocracy and Get Out
Addressing Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, Jamelle Bouie’s “White Americans Have to Make a Choice,” Aisha Harris’ “Spring Time for the Confederacy,”, Margaret Biser’s “I Used to Lead Tours at a Plantation,” John Oliver’s Confederacy commentary, Coates’ “Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?”, and the film Get Out, support, refute, or complicate the argument that racism is not a faint echo of the past but is an ongoing assault on black people evidenced by a continued enabling of Confederate sympathizers and “The New Jim Crow.”
Other Sources:
“What This Cruel War Was Over” Coates
“Why There Are No Nazi Statues in Germany”
“How Other Countries Have Dealt with Monuments”
“Should Confederate Flags be Banned in the US?”
Essay 3
Option One. Cal Newport and Passion Hypothesis (full week)
Option 2: Defend, refute, or complicate the human instinct for tribalism in the context of David Brooks’ “People Like Us.”
Option 3: Develop an argumentative thesis about the Immigration debate that addresses the labor problems rendered in Vice News video clip Sweet Home Alabama.
Option 4: “Prudence Or Cruelty,” and food stamps debate
Option 5. NFL and Steve Almond
Essay 4: Millennials, Surrogacy, Bariatric Surgery, Social Media, and Poverty
Option 1: Are adults combining modern technology and helicopter parenting to the detriment of the young generation? See Smartphones Ruin a Generation and Coddling of America (full week)
Option 2: Address the claim that the abuses and legal tangles of surrogate motherhood compel us to abolish it as a for-profit enterprise.
Option 3: Address the claim that bariatric surgery creates more dangers and not enough benefits to be a recommended procedure. See Bariatric surgery debate as seen in Vox. Show the other side: People who can’t diet and have diabetes.
Option 4: Address the claim in Sherry Turkle’s “The Flight from Conversation” that social media is an impediment to our intellectual, social, and emotional growth.
Option 5: Linda Tirado blog and the question: Addressing Linda Tirado's famous blog post, write a 5-paragraph essay that supports or refutes the argument that poverty is not a "lifestyle choice" but a self-perpetuating trap.
Essay 5: Education
Option 1: Alfie Kohn’s “From Degrading to De-grading”
Option 2: Address the claim that many people who are encouraged to go to college are being misguided in the context of “The World Might be Better Off Without College for Everyone.”
Option 3: Address the claim that the college rankings system is not helpful, accurate, or trustworthy. See “Why College Rankings Are a Joke” and “Shut Up About Harvard.”
Option 4: Address the claim that a working class background creates special conflicts for succeeding in higher education. See Bell Hooks essays, including “Keeping Close to Home” and “Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class.” See review of Lubrano’s book Limbo.
Option 5: Standardized Testing
Option 6: For-Profit colleges should be illegal.
Miscellaneous
Why It Pays to be a Jerk and “Emptiness”
One. Living in the Shadow Race and Class
Two. Against School
Three. Standardized Testing, John Oliver video
Four. From Degrading to Grading Alfie Kohn
Five. Nikole Hannah Jones
Or Tribalism, Cal Newport, Food Stamps
One and Two. Cal Newport Parts 1 and 2
Three. People Like Us
Four. Prudence Or Cruelty, “Messy Relationship Between Food Stamps and Health”
Five. I Used to be a Human Being, Nosedive, Flight from Conversation, NFL debate with Steve Almond;
“What Facebook Did to American Democracy”; “What Facebook and Google Can Learn from the First Major News Hoax”
Posted at 07:16 AM in Books | Permalink | Comments (0)
English 1C
Essay 1
How to Think
Backfire Effect, and “Unfollow”
Essay 2: Rachel Dolezal, Jack Phillips Cake debate, Colin Kaepernick, The Bet, Universal Love
Class One. Develop an argument about Rachel Dolezal: See Buzzfeed Essay List.
Cass Two. Jack Phillips debate in NYT, LA Times, National Review, and The Atlantic
Class Three: Colin Kaepernick. See NYT, Eric Reid,Vox, New Yorker, Atlantic, The Ringer, Inside NFL Debate video, Politico, and consider the fallacies of “universal love.”
Class 4: Develop an argumentative essay about Chekhov’s “The Bet” and read provided comments for material for your argument.
Class 5: Compare story from Tim O’Brien’s July, July with Gogol’s “The Overcoat.”
Essay 3: Brooks and Equality, Jon Ronson and Shaming, and Anti-Natalism
Class One. David Brooks sandwich essay
Consider the real reason for educational inequality is not a lack of tests, a smokescreen to the real problem, but the privileges of the top economic tier discussed in David Brooks' essay "How We Are Ruining America."
Slate critique of Brooks' essay.
Slate's Osita Nwanevu writes "David Brooks Almost Gets It" as a response to Brooks' infamous essay.
“It’s Not the Fault of the Sandwich Shop: Readers Debate”
Classes Two and Three. Defend, refute, or complicate Jon Ronson’s claim that Justine Sacco was unfairly demonized by social media, which creates a failure of critical thinking. See Big Think, Rolling Stone interview with Jon Ronson; Guardian article about how Jon Ronson was targeted and demonized; Washington Post article about how Sacco is “wrong poster child.” See Jon Ronson’s Ted Talk.
Classes Four and Five. Support, refute, or complicate David Benatar’s nihilistic argument for his anti-natalist view of willful extinction. David Benatar’s case against procreation and “The Case for Not Being Born.” See Benatar interview. See critical study PDF. See Reason review of Benatar’s book. See New Yorker article. And see the following: Strange Viral Saga of Keaton Jones as an exercise in failed critical thinking.
Essay 4: Omelas and Built-In Cruelty, Spanking Debate, “Winter Dreams,” “The Other Woman,” Colin Kaepernick and Choosing a School
Class One. Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” and John Oliver video about child labor for clothing.
Class Two. Show 5-minute spanking debate video on Steve Harvey. Spanking Debate; see Stacey Patton’s “Stop Beating Black Children.” See “What If Spanking Works?” in the Boston Globe. See “The Debate on Spanking Is Short on Science, High on Emotion.”
Class Three. “Winter Dreams” (and Dombeck’s Emptiness?)
Class Four. “The Other Woman” by Sherwood Anderson
Class Five. Morality and Choosing a School: “Choosing School for My Daughter in a Segregated City”
“Are Private Schools Immoral?”
Essay 5: UBI, Epistocracy (Against Democracy) , and Genetic Modification
Classes One and Two. UBI
Support, refute, or complicate the argument that radical changes in the job market over the next 20 years due to robots and high-tech will compel country's to provide their citizens with a Universal Basic Income.
Vox argues UBI hurts the elderly.
A brief history of Universal Basic Income in The New Yorker.
Arguments in Support of Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. 47% of the jobs will be lost in the next 10-20 years. We have a new paradigm that requires a new way of providing a livelihood to our citizens.
Two. UBI, which is a monthly stipend to everyone regardless of income, would be nearly a trillion dollars cheaper a year than current welfare system.
Three. UBI would eliminate need for minimum wage. Lower minimum wage would encourage more hiring.
Four. Because UBI doesn't give more money for children, UBI doesn't reward one lifestyle over another.
Five. Citizens would have more time and resources to train and get educated for more career options presuming they used their time and money wisely.
Six. Most stay-at-home parents are women who have not been justly paid for their domestic work over the centuries. UBI would help remedy that injustice.
Seven. UBI gives citizens an escape valve from an abusive job or relationship. Having guaranteed money makes it easier to bail when you have to. "This is jacked up, man. I've got to bail."
Eight. 13K a year isn't so much that you would be content to retire in your house. Most people would want at the very least to supplement their meager income with part-time or full-time work. More enterprising citizens would use their free time and money for education and job re-training.
Nine. UBI would eliminate welfare abuses and welfare fraud because UBI spells the death of welfare as we know it.
Ten. Providing for the citizens with UBI would lessen the risk of the kind of discontent that leads to nationalist nativism, a racist political movement that makes one ethnic tribe hate on immigrants as scapegoats for the country's woes.
Eleven. Addressing the counterargument that not having to work would make us lazy depressed slobs, some would argue that technology is forcing us to change and adapt. Just as coal workers are inevitably going to become extinct in the next century, we must adapt to a new employment landscape. We must either adapt or die. We must not be chained to our "Calvinism hangover," the deeply American notion that work is salvation and unemployment is a sign of sin and depravity.
Twelve. The rich know they have to share their wealth because the throng with torches and pitch forks will be knocking on their doors. In other words, UBI is much needed pacifier, a form of social control that augments the safety of the rich.
Thirteen. The open debate about UBI--the biggest debate--is the philosophical question about the nature of work. Some say UBI will kill work and that without work people will descend into depression and pathology. Others say we will adapt to this new economic landscape. One argument in favor of UBI is that even if we don't know the answer to this question definitively, we HAVE NO CHOICE but to adapt to a world where close to 50% of jobs will be lost.
Fourteen. Technology will change the human animal on a chemical level and we will be able to adapt to the new work environment as evidenced by Elon Musk's exploration into his new neural lace company. Such technologies will make us smarter and more adaptive as human beings.
Fifteen. Even if we concede that not working will turn us into lazy bums, that is the lesser evil of the economic injustice social chaos resulting from not having UBI.
Arguments Against Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. A dependent society is a dysfunctional society. Dependence, in other words, leads to laziness.
Two. A lack of self-reliance diseases the soul and corrupts society. The dependent will drag down the producers.
Three. Acute dependence leads to totalitarianism and dehumanization. Once you take a government handout, you become vulnerable to the government's control over every part of your life. See The Giver.
Four. Acute dependence breaks down the family unit. Parents aren't responsible for their children; the government is. Why stick to your family, when you don't rely on them?
Five. Being "off the grid" makes one chronically depressed, non-productive, and unemployable. Our identity and sense of wellbeing is tied to having a job.
Six. There is no increment for children. Why not? Because you're not encouraged to have children to get more. Some find this a form of lifestyle control. Others like it.
Seven. The estimated 13K a year isn't enough though some say that still puts people in the top 12% of all global earners.
Eight. Unless all countries had equal UBI, the more desirable UBI countries would be a magnet for people of other countries who'd swarm into "healthy UBI" countries to bilk their system.
Nine. UBI is giving 15% of average national income. This would require tax revenue of 15% of national income. That is too much tax, some say, for such a small income.
Consult the following:
Universal Basic Income: Side Effect of the Tech Revolution?
The Progressive Case for Replacing the Welfare State with Basic Income
We can afford UBI, but is it a good idea?
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea
A Primer or Introduction to Universal Basic Income
Economist gives us an introduction to UBI.
Psychology Change Needed for Universal Basic Income
Arguments for Universal Basic Income
3 Reasons for Universal Basic Income from Brookings Institute
Pro-Work Argument for UBI
Washington Post article that argues UBI won't make America great again.
Challenging the American Work Ethic
There is a notion in America, from the beginning of its European history, that being a hard worker means being noble, virtuous, and successful.
The contrary is also assumed: If you're poor and unemployed, your life is evidence that you are a member of the damned. You are morally depraved and bankrupt.
This notion comes from a form of Protestantism called Calvinism. John Calvin said evidence of being a member of God's elect was being a hard worker. German philosopher Max Weber said this became the "Protestant Work Ethic," the fuel of American capitalism.
Read "The Protestant Work Ethic Is Real"
Perhaps the American Work Ethic is Based on Unexamined Opinions
Inherited opinions: These are opinions that are imprinted on us during our childhood. Robert Atwan writes they come from “family, culture, traditions, customs, regions, social institutions, or religion.”
Involuntary opinions: These are the opinions that result from direct indoctrination and inculcation (learning through repetition). If we grow up in a family that teaches us that eating pork is evil, then we won’t eat at other people’s homes that serve that porcine dish.
Considered opinions. Atwan writes, “These are opinions we have formed as a result of firsthand experience, reading, discussion and debate, or independent thinking and reasoning. These opinions are formed from direct knowledge and often from exposure and considering other opinions.”
Some questions to consider about the work ethic for your UBI paper:
Should we really have a work ethic for menial, repetitive jobs that reduce us to human routers?
Don't jobs prevent us from spending time on our real interests and passions?
Have we been brainwashed by the Protestant Work Ethic so that we are contented "rabbit workers" for our employers?
Support, refute, or complicate the argument that radical changes in the job market over the next 20 years due to robots and high-tech will compel country's to provide their citizens with a Universal Basic Income. Consult the following:
Big Think video (7 minutes)
The Nation asks if UBI could work
Arguments For and Against in Futurist
Case for and against in Vox
UBI rejected in the Federalist
Dissent calls UBI a false promise
Argument That UBI would increase poverty
Washington Post refutation of UBI
Guardian defends UBI with reference to Finland
“Why Don’t We Have Universal Basic Income?” in New Yorker
“Is Free Money the Answer?” in the NYT
“Future of Not Working” in NYT magazine
“Why Finland’s Basic Income Experiment Is Not Working”
“Free Money at the Edge of the Tech Boom” in Atlantic
Universal Basic Income: Side Effect of the Tech Revolution?
The Progressive Case for Replacing the Welfare State with Basic Income
Why Universal Basic Income Is a Terrible Idea
Arguments Against Universal Basic Income (UBI)
One. A dependent society is a dysfunctional society.
Two. A lack of self-reliance diseases the soul and corrupts society.
Three. Acute dependence leads to totalitarianism and dehumanization. See The Giver.
Four. Acute dependence breaks down the family unit. Parents aren't responsible for their children; the government is.
Five. Being "off the grid" makes one chronically depressed, non-productive, and unemployable.
Classes 3 and 4: Against Democracy
Class 5 Genetic Modification and film Gattaca. See “Case Against Human Gene Editing”; Pro and Con
More pros and cons from Business Insider
"Building Baby from the Genes Up"
Essay 4
Week 1 Justine Sacco debate
Week 2 Cat Person debate (worthy of going viral or gimmick?): See “Cat Person” and the Impulse to Undermine Woman’s Fiction
How the Internet Can Ruin Fiction
Week 3 Lifeboat Ethics in context of “Choosing School for My Daughter in a Segregated City”--see below
One. Five. What Facebook Did to American Democracy
How Teens in Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters with Fake News
Social Media Is Making Democracy Less Democratic
Economist: Social Media Nemesis to Democracy
Two. “Cat Person” or “Why Happy People Cheat” and “Lady with the Pet Dog” moral absolutism and moral relativism
Four. “Speaking Ill of Hugh Hefner” or College Should Not be for Everyone.
Five.
Three. Essay 5:
Blood at the Root? Or teach in 1A?
Dwight Garner review is helpful
Blood at the Root and this NYT review
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