Irving Kristol's Pornograpy, Obscenity, and hte Case for Censorship
After reading Irving Kristol’s essay called Pornography, Obscenity, and the Case for Censorship, we found positive and negative examples concluding his research. Kristol makes major claims throughout the course of his essay. A few examples of these major claims are in paragraphs [7-9] when he uses a story about an old man in a hospital ward, dying an agonizing death. The old man loses control of his bowels, and they empty themselves on him. Kristol states that this is a private moment that should be kept private. Kristol asks the reader to think about this sad scenario and what it would be like to see this on television. Kristol relates the claim to sex, saying that it is a private moment and shouldn’t be viewed by the public. He says viewers wouldn’t want to watch the old man losing his bodily fluids on himself because it’s a personal matter and it just needs to stay private and unseen by the public. In paragraph [8], Kristol again rebuts his major claim when he relates humans to animals. He claims sex is like death, it is found both within humans and animals. As Kristol (1971) says, “When sex is a public spectacle, a human relationship has been debased into a mere animal connection.”
In paragraph [11] Kristol makes a major shift change from his claims in the previous paragraphs. The placement of this paragraph was poorly chosen because it steps outside of Kristol’s main argument, which states that humans and animals are the same.
In paragraphs [5 and 7], Kristol uses the rebuttal method, which means to repeat the same point in different words. In paragraph five Kristol talks about public nudity and how it is so improper to have in our soci...
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...ure condition has not improved as a result of the new freedom.”
Kristol shows his major claims to the reader and makes a connection through rebuttal that gives his essay meaning. Kristol also uses very dramatic statements, which help his argument claims. Despite having these major claims he fails to show support to the reader that his facts are true. He has no hard-core evidence that supports his research. Even further he fails to connect with the opposing side about his argument about pornography, obscenity, and the case for censorship.
References
Faigley, L.& Selzer, J. (2000). Good reasons with contemporary arguments. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Kristol, I. (1971). Pornography, obscenity, and the case for censorship. In L. Faigley & J. Selzer (Eds.), “Good reasons with contemporary arguments.” (pp. 535-538). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Alexander (2010) suggests mass incarceration as a system of racialized social control that functions in the same way Jim Crow did. She describes how people that have been incarcer...
...ty and their survival as a group in society because of restraint from the federal government in the ability to litigate their plight in Court. The Author transitions the past and present signatures of Jim Crow and the New Jim Crow with the suggestion that the New Jim Crow, by mass incarceration and racism as a whole, is marginalizes and relegates Blacks to residential, educational and constitutionally endowed service to Country.
With the interest of the reader piqued, she uses the rest of her essay to attempt persuade readers to accept her argument, primarily through appeals to logos, and language targeted for a conservative audience.
To begin, Alexander points out how felons are depicted as life-long prisoners in her article ”The New Jim Crow”. However, Alexander states that The War on Drugs caused many blacks to be put in prison and scrutinized by the government thereafter. Similarly, according to Arnold, welfare/workfare recipients are under constant supervision and are required to work menial jobs. In addition, Arnold mentio...
...dibility by mentioning that journalists and television producers defer to her as an authority, but she does not make a case for being an expert. Moreover, she maintains a detached tone for a majority of the editorial, as an appeal to her authority on the matter, but switches to and involved perspective when giving illustration. This would otherwise be acceptable, except that the illustration is given in place of supporting theory or fully supported argument. To that end, Tannen’s argument would be much more persuasive if she had articulated her position with an even tone, and avoided sensationalism when giving examples.
Many would argue that the reason why the incarceration rate for African Americans is sustainably higher compared to white American is because of economic situations, and because of past arrest patterns. While it is true that the economic opportunity someone has will affect their decisions, this argument doesn’t fully explain the real reason of why the rates are higher. To fully understand the reason why one must look back on America’s history and how African Americans were treated. The past arrest patterns do not explain why the gap continues to increase, however it is clear that the past arrest patterns is more an indicator of institutional racism that exists in this country. One study found that African Americans believe the reason for the high incarceration rates is becau...
In The New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander introduces readers to the phenomenon of mass incarceration in the United States and challenges readers to view the crisis as the “ the most pressing racial justice issue of our time.” In the introduction, Alexander writes “what the book is intended to do and that is to stimulate much needed conversation about the role of the criminal justice system in creating and perpetuating racial hierarchy in the United States.” We come to understand, How the United States create criminal justice system and maintain racial hierarchy through mass incarceration? How the current system of mass incarceration in the United States mirrors earlier systems of racialized
Throughout the semester, we have discussed many different issues that are currently prevalent in the United States, specifically those related to racial discrimination. One specific issue that I have developed interest and research in is that of institutionalized racism, specifically in the form of mass incarceration, and what kinds of effects mass incarceration has on a community. In this paper, I will briefly examine a range of issues surrounding the mass incarceration of black and Latino males, the development of a racial undercaste because of rising incarceration rates, women and children’s involvement and roles they attain in the era of mass incarceration, and the economic importance that the prison system has due to its development.
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New, 2010. Print.
Alexander does an incredible job of covering the issue of race in today’s criminal justice system. We discussed in class that it is a relatively difficult issue to discuss and a sore point of our country, but she recognized the need for it to be addressed from start to finish and really paints a picture of how racially biased the laws are and have been since the days of slavery. I think an important framework to discuss race and the causes and responses to crime is something that Alexander deems the new caste system. She argues that our new system is the rebirth of a redesigned caste system. In her introduction, she notes that “to put the matter starkly: the current system of control permanently locks a huge percentage of the African American community out of the mainstream society and economy. The system operates through our criminal justice institutions, but it functions more like a caste system than a system of crime control” (Alexander, 2012, p. 13)
Mass incarceration is a massive system of racial and societal management. It is the process by which individuals jailed for the criminal structure. Marked culprits and criminals are put in jail for a long time and after that are discharged into a permanent second-class status in which they are stripped of essential civil and human rights. It is a framework that works to control individuals, frequently at early ages, and all parts of their lives after they have been seen as suspects in some wrongdoing. Alexander discusses the three stages in the cycle of mass incarceration. Those three stages include roundup, the period of formal control, and period of invisible.
Crusius, Timothy W., and Carolyn E. Channell. The Aims of Argument: A Text and Reader. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003. Print.
In addition, she contradicts her own stance on the position when she mentions that previous literature containing sexually explicit content should not be censored (Brownmiller 59). Brownmiller paints a very strong, emotional, and offensive picture when she claims that women are, “being stripped, bound, raped, tortured, mutilated, and murdered in the name of commercial entertainment” (59). However, this statement is fallacious and does not provide any factual evidence. Furthermore, she makes the hasty generalization that pornography can make people think that certain things, such as rape, are acceptable (Brownmiller 59). Once again, her claim lacks support and relies solely on a faulty pathos appeal.
"New Data Show Rise in Prescription Drug Abuse." Targeted News Service (USA) 11 Apr. 2011,: NewsBank. Web. 6 Dec. 2013.
“Office of National Drug Control Policy.” The White House. USA, 1 Dec. 2011. Web. 8 Dec. 2011. .