In class, we came up with the following notes/questions (pasted below)
Please address any of these questions and/or the larger question of whether agriculture was a mistake.
Please read other people's postings before you jump in, so you can see who you agree with and who you disagree with.
* * * NOTES FROM CLASS * * *
But this begs the question of… what do we mean by “better off”?
What makes a civilization successful?
Happy people – if people are not content w/ the way things are they will fight to change it
Happiness differs from contentment
Healthy people – enough doctors
Agreement/peace/security (you can cross the road and not be messed with)
Stability – Leadership/government
No starvation or poverty (or as little as possible)
Having as much food as they need
As high a standard of living as possible
The people that are not the government (citizens) need something to do
Room to change –
Controlled growth and development
Not decreasing in people
Can you grow too much?
Civilization – advanced state with high levels of science industry and govt
Equality or social status everyone agrees with
Hard to get –
Are we looking for a utopia? (Brave New World)
More jobs that use the mind
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7 comments:
I think that we should add technology to this list, but it has be used in the right way. It should be used to help the civilization to grow and should also help other countries a little bit when help is needed. It should not used to create things like weapons and bombs.
I agree with Laurens comment about technology having to be used for the right things. I also think that if America or any country achieved the common idea of a perfect civilization, it would be the same thing as a Utopia. I think that there is very little, if any difference between civilization and a Utopia. But the society in Brave New World could be described as a Utopia, making me wonder if achieving a “perfect” civilization would be a good thing.
I think that achieving a "perfect" civilization, like the civilization in Brave New World would not be a good thing. I believe that in order to have a civilization where everyone is free and has freedom of speech you cannot have a perfect civilization. I think that you can try to make things close to perfect but if they get to perfect the civilization would end up like Brave New World, which in my opinion would not be a good thing. I also agree with Lauren and Alex about technology and how it can be a really good thing to have if it is used for the right reasons.
hello...this is not about Jared Diamond but I didn't see a blog about the "On Writing Well" book so I figured I would just post it here.
These are some questions that popped into my mind while reading
On Writing Well.
https://web1.caryacademy.org/facultywebs/steve_goldberg/Handouts/zinnser.pdf
Can't all insurance agents decipher the brochure explaining costs and benefits?
Why does the author continue to write with big words if he says the key to writing is simplicity?
Who is the author? Where does he come from? What else has he written?
Clear writing=thinking clearly but how does one think clearly?
So if someone becomes a reader, even if they have a PhD in writing, they still have an attention span of an average regular reader? (pg 2)
So this guy is still moving sentences around and editing his work? (pg 3)
Why do writers think they need so many extra words? (pg 4)
The author makes a big deal of language like the difference between "Are you experiencing any pain" and "Does it hurt"...the dentist asking that is hiding something just because he simplifies the question to "Does it hurt"? Is that what the writer of On writing well is saying?
COOL WORDS:
Mollify
laborious
pompous
amok
euphimism
insiduous
superflous
Yes I agree with Alex, however is this so called "perfect Society" possible? Now really think about this. First off a perfect society is different in all of our opinions. So there fore achieving it would be beyond success because everyone would have to give the consent. Also what Sabrina mentioned is have a perfect world would not be a good thing, I give 100% to Sabrina's thoughts because life being perfect would be annoying. Think about how every single person would do somewhat the same thing. To me that is not perfect! That is just boring. Agriculture was developed as a way people could give less work for more product. I live out in the farm lands of Chapel Hill and I'll tell you almost everything you guys brought up in class is not like it in real life, except for the spreading of disease however cant that happen if you were a hunter??? Couldn't you get like rabies or mad cow disease? Also if we have remained a hunter gather we may not have put animals into extinction however we did put them on the endangered species list so just keep that on your minds. Adios chicos!
I agree with Emily. I think that achieving a perfect society is impossible due to that fact that everyone has a different point of view on what a perfect society is. A perfect society would led to a society were everyone is "controlled" just like in Brave New World. I also believe a society can only be perfect to certain people, while other people might think different things would be a perfect society.
this is about the thesis statements from the test...these are my annotations
Annotations on thesis doc from test- Emma Frank
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
3:49 PM
1. I really love the fact that this person used a quote to get the thesis across. Using a quote gives the reader a sense that the author knows what they are talking about.
There is no concession
It seems a little like a list, rather than a thesis statement, though. The points could be explained more or given some specific examples for each idea to back them up.
2. The first statement does a good job of stating the author's stance on the matter. I have a good idea what the writing is going to be about.
There is no concession
GREAT- each point is explained in its own paragraph
Conclusion not needed, it doesn't really do anything
3. (I Think this one is mine!)I don’t really think the thesis statement is effective, it only states 1 point. I also didn’t think the "another example" format was effective because it sort of leads the reader to think "oh this is just ANOTHER paragraph" and its not important.
The reference to the JD article was very effective.
4. The first sentence is a good thesis statement but I don’t think it argues the topic.
5. The thesis statement states everything that the reader is about to read, good
The women point with children links really well to the division of the sexes.
6. YAY!!!! They used a concession
This thesis statement is really effective, it states what the reader should be looking for, and gives a solid concession. They didn’t leave anything out
1st paragraph explains everything very well- teeth problems a great reference to the JD article.
Was capricious used correctly? Here it seems to be used as "plentiful and diverse" but I think it means variable in a sense that it WASN’T reliable.
7. This one has a concession! Yay!
Thesis statement does a good job of presenting the reader with info on the thesis
The technology and longer lives are a great point but the author didn’t connect them, that should have been explained.
The paragraph pretty much lists a bunch of technological advances that were not linked back to the thesis.
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