38 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2016
    1. InOUflimitlessselfishness,wehavetriedtodefine"freedom,"forex#ample,asanescapefromallrestraint.But,asmyfriendBertHornbackhasexplainedinhisbookTheWisdominWords,"free"isetymologicallyrelatedco"friend."ThesewordscomefromthesameIndo~Europeanroot,whichcarriesthesenseof"dear"or"beloved."

      Can we as a society be "free" without restraints then?

    2. Ournationalfaithsofarhasbeen:"There'salwaysmore."

      This thought process has guided America's economic choices from the beginning. There's always more: money, oil, freedom, opportunity...etc. But was it to occur when we are forced to realize that this way of thinking can only be temporary, and at some point time will catch up with innovation.

    3. Butoncegreedhasbeenmadeanhonorablemotive,thenyouhaveaneconomywithoutlimits.Ithasnoplacefortemperanceorthriftortheecologicallawofreturn.Itwilldoanything.Itismonstrousbydefinition.

      It is true that greed drives the economy, especially when it comes the the vast supply and immense demand for oil. However, as time goes on greed will push people to innovate new fuels that can replace oil. Isn't it contradictory for the author to make the claim that greed leads to no limits? For if that were the case, alternative solutions are inevitable.

    4. Inthearts,bycontrast,nolimitlesssequenceofworksiseverimpliedorlookedfor.Noworkofartisnecessarilyfollowedbyasecondworkthatisnecessarilybetter.Giventhemethodologiesofscience,thelawofgravi~tyandthegenomewereboundtobediscoveredbysomebody;theidentityofthediscovererisincidentaltothefact.Butitappearsthatintheartstherearenosecondchances.WemustassumethatwehadonechanceeachforTheDillineComedyandKingLear.IfDanteandTShakespearehaddiedbeforetheywrotethosepoems,no-bodyeverwouldhavewrittenthem.

      My contention with the contents of this paragraph lies in the fact that science is but an extension of art, sharing similar characteristics with it. I would argue anyway that Newton's work is just as nuanced, integral, and unique as Monet's or Dante's. Science began as metaphysics--"the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space"--(Google). I believe scientists and artists to be explorers. The ways in which they explore are similar; however, their headings are different.

    5. The author talks about our "abused cropland" which opens up a lot of problems with un-regulated farming and deforestation in different places. And if we don't regulate farm land we can farm the land to the point where it has no nutrients and if we just keep moving to the next plot of land, eventually we are going to end up like the movie interstellar where the money is in crops instead of the progression of the technology.

    6. therealnamesofglobalwarmingareWasteandGreed

      Having studied the issue of Global Warming in detail under the direction of two other professors here, I find this claim Berry makes to be utterly flattering. It suggests that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions (less than 5% of total CO2 surface emissions) rival those that can be attributed to natural processes. Do you believe Berry to be employing a "truthful hyperbole"--as Trump would say--here to illustrate the danger of our "limitless" view of the Earth; or do you believe Berry himself to be caught up in a view of human limitlessness (in other words, do you believe he thinks the impact humans have on this planet to be limitless)?

    7. so throughout this article it talks about how we are going to run out of oil. and then what are we going to do after that? But if you notice this has happened before. (whale oil) and even different sources of water, we just move to the next source until that source replenishes. whats to say that when oil runs out we have another resource that we use for everything. (hydrogen/ uranium)

    8. removesomeoftheemphasiswehavelatelyplacedonscienceandtechnologyandhaveanewlookatthearts

      I think we don't have to remove any emphasis on the science and technology because those are still very important aspects to know about, but maybe just adding more emphasis to the arts while intertwining the three of them together.

    9. Thereisnowagrowingperception,andnotjustamongafewexperts,thatweareenteringatimeofinescapablelimits.

      Why are we noticing now that life and especially the time we've come at, has inescapable limits? We should've already realized that everything has a limit just like our own lives do.

    1. That’s one salutary reminder we can take from Draut: it might be a long road, but good ideas that seem unrealistic at one moment can win their day. In academic scholarship, we typically focus on conceptual problems, commenting on one and moving onto the next, and in fact we are continually looking for what’s new or next. But in politics, change sometimes seems glacial, and one has to be dogged

      Will it take a grassroots movement to fix the issue?

    2. Since college is a key class marker, it’s easy to blame higher education itself as the problem. But for Draut the problem lies in the policies that have drained equal opportunity from it and segregated it, and in turn she advocates policies to enhance public higher education, notably reducing tuition fees and eliminating student debt.

      Answer to the problem

    3. high-level staffers, about half “attended private colleges for their undergraduate degree, including 10 percent who went to an Ivy League school.” They are typically the ones who get the internships inside the D.C. beltway, as well as can afford to carry the expenses of internships.

      The only people that can make a change haven't ever experienced what its like to not be able to succeed educationally.

    4. In Draut’s analysis, after the 2008 crash, about half of the news focused on the banks, a third on the federal response, a fifth on businesses and only a smattering on working-class people who might have lost jobs or their houses

      The media isn't giving the needed attention to the private sector, only furthering the negative effects.

    5. That’s one upshot of Tamara Draut’s new book, Sleeping Giant: How the New Working Class Will Transform America (Doubleday, 2016). She explains how the central divide between the working class and the middle class now is college. Not that things are entirely rosy for those with bachelor’s degrees, but those without degrees have experienced a more severe pinch, with proportionately shrinking wages, degraded conditions, few job protections and general insecurity.

      This paragraph shows how those without higher education are worse off than those with that education. It tries to make the point that it isn't fair to those people for some to have the opportunity to succeed and some not.

    6. Contrary to college standing as an open thoroughfare for Americans wanting to improve their lives, it has become a gated toll road primarily available to those from middle-class and upper-class families, argues Jeffrey J. Williams.

      Arguement: College has become more for students raised in middle and upper class families rather than normal Americans seeking better lives.

    7. Contrary to college standing as an open thoroughfare for Americans wanting to improve their lives, it has become a gated toll road primarily available to those from middle-class and upper-class families, argues Jeffrey J. Williams.

      DISCUSSION QUESTION 2: Do you agree that college (cause) is responsible for creating a new class divide (effect)? Explain.