Mark Edmundson Courage

In The Essay “The News” Neil Postman demonstrates the problems with News on TV and the Psychology behind it of why our society continues to watch. Postman displayed many points that becuase television news is must appeal to everyone in a short amount of time; the coverage is often shallow and gives a false impression of the world. Neil Postman describes the time restrictions of (22 mins) because of commercials overtaking the news. This reflects “The News” as we know it to become a big piece of entertainment that has nothing to do with the intellectual information that affects our lives. The lack of in-depth look on News nowadays draws an Appearance vs. Reality that the News isn’t what It should be. Given these points, Postman explains the problems

Society expect to be constantly entertained; they have become so concerned with things such as who the latest star is dating, scandals, or dumb people doing rather idiotic things. Much of society have been consumed in their personal instant gratification and what makes them “happy”. When on an off chance that news does show things that are serious and impactful(not necessarily positive things that is happening in the world) people have become so numb that the best they could do is feel sympathetic and at worst continue on with their day. The other part of the problem is that those behind what is being published and shown on the news media have been absorbed in their avarice nature, whatever allows them to make as much profit they do. “Writing thousands of hours of coverage from what could have been summarized in a couple of minutes every few weeks, a new rhetorical strategy was developed, or-let’s be generous-evolved”(6), Saunders describes the new formula formed by mass news firms that would yield the most profit. In a culture that increased in greed and a world of instant gratification media has and will continue to become skewed and not beneficial for the whole of

Bravery is performed everyday by many people, and it has played a big part in World War 2. World War 2 was a horrible time for the Jews due to the Germans and Adolf Hitler. In order for the Jews to survive, they had to trust their faith and do the unthinkable. They had to give up their children to other people knowing that they might not see them again. They needed to act brave for their families and ensure they had solace. In Art Spigelman 's nobel, "Maus," he portrays the Holocaust revolving around his father, Vladek Spiegelman. To begin with, Vladek Spigelman and his wife, Anja, both survived the Holocaust, but had to perform many acts of bravery. One act that most of the Jews took was hiding in bunkers to escape being sent to the extermination

In “Subculture: the Unnatural Break” (the sixth chapter from his book Subculture: the Meaning of Style), Dick Hebdige claims that subcultures represent a rupture between the processes that lead from reality to media representation, challenging therefore the codes of language and discourse and losing their disruptive power once they get assimilated. The reaction to the punk subculture in Great Britain in the seventies is used to prove Hebdige’s thesis.

It is easy to agree that, in today’s society, it’s the expected norm for high school and college students to be spread thin between school work and an abundant amount of extra curricular activities; all for what? An extra line filled on a résumé? To many, this may seem a bit excessive, but to the students, it seems necessary to keep a competitive edge in order to be successful among their peers. Frank Bruni wrote a compelling article addressing why today’s students are far overworked. In Frank Bruni’s article entitled “Today’s Exhausted Superkids,” he effectively pushes his point, which is students are under a tremendous amount of pressure to succeed and gain a “competitive edge” to the point they are making decisions that can not only damage themselves, but their futures.

“ Courage sometimes skips a generation. Thank-you for bringing it back to our family”. The Help shows that courage is needed to bring about change. ‘Discuss

When you take a look at Harold’s profile you see a vast list of opportunities and how strong of a work background his parents have. When it comes to life in America, you have to have great connections to become successful quick, like Harold did. On the opposite extreme when you take a look at Cheryl’s profile you see you see a struggle in life and not many opportunities to succeed in life how one might want to. I always like to think to myself and understand why hard work is really less likely to see in someone that is struggling because they are always dealing with something difficult. In the many stories of poor people coming from rags to riches, there’s always a decision that impacts your life in the long run and that ability choose what affects you is called opportunity cost. Everyone goes through opportunity cost every day in simple decision making, but that’s not what I’m speaking on. For example, Steve Jobs had a great idea and the idea only had a few risks to take if he was going to go with it. So Steve drops out of college at the cost of his opportunity to get a degree in college verses doing what he wanted to do or what he loved to

In the story “Grades and Money”. Steven Vogel, a college professor teaching philosophy at a small private college in the Midwest talks about students worrying about getting better grades, rather than learning the material. He discusses how back when he was in school students never talked about what their grade was in a class, and now that’s all kids talk about. He gives many examples of students being open about their grades. In the story he states “ openness about grades is probably healthier than the kind of highfalutin’ squeamishness we exhibited-but rather to explain the difficulty I feel in really understanding grades, in grasping what exactly they are and what they are for”. (Grades are Money pg2)

Ever since I was a child I wanted to follow my parent’s steps and become an entrepreneur. I have always thought that the most important rule when thinking about a new business project was to think financially what would benefit me rather than to think personally. After reading The Monk & the Riddle I agree with Komisar that an entrepreneur is most likely to be successful when following his/her passion.

In his article, The Owl Has Flown, author Sven Birkerts suggests that knowledge has lost nearly all of its depth and reading has shifted from vertical to horizontal. The author supports this suggestion by providing the example of Menocchio, a 16th century man who nearly memorized the few books that he owned. He argues that the generations before the 17th century did not have access to the vast number of books that those of the future generations do. This allowed people of the past to take more time to analyze and make inferences about books. With the exponential growth in the number of available books and limited time to read them, Birkerts believes that the newer generations have neglected wisdom altogether. He

In Dwight MacDonald’s article, “Reading and Thought” he criticizes journalists on their lack of benefit and weakness in their pieces. MacDonald’s argument clashes with Henry Luce’s ideology of “functional curiosity”, the belief of having the “kind of searching, hungry interest in what is happening everywhere”. MacDonald wants to strengthen the practice of reading instead actually giving valuable information.

Katie Couric, a well known American journalist once said, “They like being able to turn on the television day in and day out to see someone that they know and they feel comfortable with and trust hopefully and respect even.” (“Katie Couric Quote”) Essentially, a television journalist welcomes themselves into homes all over the world everyday and it is up to the resident to put their whole trust in them. Telling people the news can be difficult, but it is also an experience that the journalist and the viewers experience together. It is the trust of that journalist that creates viewership and the urges to turn to certain channels when gathering news. Katie Couric stated the single most important characteristic a journalist should have and that

Meaghan Ramsey's TED Talk "Why thinking you're ugly is bad for you" is a powerful speech about low body confidence. Ramsey talks about how society's pressure to be perfect is one of the main reason for young girls' (and boys') low body confidence and how these feelings of low esteem can impact their lives and futures. I chose to analyze this speech because I have experienced low body confidence and I have felt those feelings of low self-esteem. In Meaghan Ramsey's speech "Why thinking you're ugly is bad for you", she discusses how low body confidence is undermining academic achievement, damaging health, and limiting the economic potential of today's youth who are growing up in a world of social media.

Many people believe status is determined by a societal hierarchy that ranks individuals on occupation and income. Individuals compromise true passions and make decisions based on extrinsic factors due to a drive to live in excess. Self-determination theory (SDT) states that people have an innate curiosity and playfulness, as well as a drive to engage in intrinsic activities. Additionally, SDT argues extrinsic interests factor into later life decisions. The article, Taking Early Exists off Wall Street, profiles Matt Wolf, a young investment banker who is experiencing burnout resulting from demanding hours and a strenuous workload.

Edmundson’s claim that sports create aggressive men who cannot control their action rest upon the questionable assumption that these individual were not initially aggressive. Sports allow for an arena where aggressiveness is not frowned upon, but it doesn’t create something that was not already within an individual. People who have dominating personalities and seek to belittle others will always find a place to do that. The same can be said for a man’s ability to control himself. Men who can control their actions know when to turn off the aggression of the game, on the other hand, men who do not know when to separate the moments do not. Therefore, it’s not the sports fault rather the person. If sports were at fault, all athletes would seek