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The growing concern of climate change
Discuss climate change
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Response to Fritjof Capra’s The Turning Point
Summary of Capra’s Book
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Published March 1982.
Context: Reagan and Thatcher/high interest rates/rise of the “me”
generation/crime and drug waves making big news/no one had a PC.
Iran Releases 52 Hostages (taken during Carter’s presidency)
President Shot In Chest, Brady Suffers Head Wound
John Hinkley Charged With Attempted Assassination of President Reagan
Israel Bombs Iraqi Nuclear Reactor
Reagan Fires Striking Air Controllers
Pope Paul II is wounded in assassination attempt
First test tube baby is born
Outrageous interest rates causing people to walk away from their homes
Fritjof Capra opens with the statement that the world is in crisis. We
may actually be facing the possibility of the extinction of the human
race. Many interrelated crises in the environment, social
relationships, economics, energy, politics, and technology need to be
viewed from a holistic viewpoint. They need to be treated as
interdependent phenomena.
He refers to Arnold Toynbee saying that, “After civilizations have
reached a peak of vitality, they tend to lose their cultural steam and
decline” (Capra 28). He argues, by citing Sorokin, that we are on the
cusp of a great transition. If you look at the trends evident in human
history, everything is lining up for another upheaval, and this will
be a big one, because the rate of change in our world is speeding up.
It is particularly tied to the end of the Cartesian worldview, the
decline of patriarchy, and the use and depletion of fossil fuel
reserves.
Capra goes to some length to say that the Chine...
... middle of paper ...
...he step Capra suggests is the answer, and in others it
is repeating mistakes already made nearly a thousand years ago. What
is the answer? I think that if it was possible to know that, than we
would not be in this mess. I also think that the problem is human
nature, and that cannot be changed. The strong destroy the weak the
world over. The only variation is how that strength is defined.
In short, Capra is a man of his times. The general atmosphere in the
late 70s and early 80s was that of massive change, a rebirth of
conservatism, the birth of the “me” generation. Change breeds fear and
Capra’s book seems to me to be a “there-there it’s gonna be okay” and
a pat on the back rather than a scientific solution to what ails the
world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Capra, Fritjof. 1982. “The Turning Point.” New York: Bantam Books.
I learned many things about Philip Caputo and his tour of duty. He described how he felt in the beginning about the Vietnamese people, which was not as much hate since him and the other soldiers were not as knowledgeable about all the conflict that was taking place in Vietnam. Caputo was very opinionated towards his views of the Vietnamese people. He actually felt sorry for all the villagers who had to see and deal with the negative environment that was brought upon them, and bear the Marines who probed their homes for prohibited Viet Cong relations. Caputo did not find it fair how the American troops mistreated the villagers and protected the concept of apprehending the Viet Cong. However, throughout the end of his tour, he and his men disliked the VC very strongly, learned how to hate and wanted to kill them.
Albert Hernandez Ms. Bolin CSU Expos Read/Write 1: Period 5 20 September 2016 The Road Lit Circle #2 Discussion Questions: On pages 84 to 86, why did the man decide to ignore the boy that the little boy saw? How does the man’s decision affect the story and the characters? What is the purpose of the red scarfs in the group of armed men?
Newjack is Ted Conover’s personal memoir as a correctional officer in one of New York’s famous maximum security prisons: Sing Sing. The job of a correctional officer consists of long days locking and unlocking cells, moving prisoners to and from various locations while the prisoners beg, aggravate and abuse them. After a short time at the academy and a brief period of on-the-job training, Conover found himself working, often alone and always unarmed, in galleries housing sixty or more inmates. He heard of many stories that happen in prison. Stories include inmates beating inmates and burning their cell house, an inmate who was beaten by correctional officers after striking an officer in the head with a broom handle. Surprisingly, there are even some instances where there are voluntary sexual encounters between female staff and inmates. It is really a welcoming job for the “newjacks” and for the readers. On top of that, supervisors do not mentor or guide new officers and officers on one shift push problems off onto the next. Conover sees and realizes that correctional workers are very flexible characters, neither good nor bad, but must cope with stress and problems in a well-organized manner. As Conover points out, that at Sing Sing is against the possibility of staff getting to know prisoners. It is ridiculous to see that there are problems that prison administrators clearly could have solved but do not, instead, they care more about the inmates and officer’s relationship. In particular, enticements for better supervision and more support for effective staff are clearly needed.
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The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell looks at a number of social epidemics and analyzes their build up to the point where they tip. “Tipping” is that point where an epidemic booms, or grows, to its maximum potential. Gladwell begins defining “tipping” with a literal example of the famous shoes, Hush Puppies. Once considered old-fashioned, Hush Puppies experienced a social boom in the mid-90s when hipsters in New York made them trendy again. Gladwell continues explaining “tipping” with a medical epidemic of syphilis in Baltimore. Gladwell introduces us to three essential rules of epidemics: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor and the Power of Context. The Law of the Few says a key factor in epidemics is the role of the messenger: it spreads through word-of-mouth transmission. Gladwell explains this theory with an example of how Paul Revere managed to spread the news of British invasion overnight. Gladwell continues to explain that there are several types of people that create these types of epidemics. They are called Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. Connectors are those people that are very social and can literally connect with people with as little as two degrees of separation. Mavens are those that know a lot about a lot of different things. They may recommend a certain restaurant and you must go because you know what they told you about it is true. And Salesmen are exactly that: people that are easily social and persuading.
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