Reading Blog

1. According to Jacoby, Sixties youth culture is to blame for "a lasting anti-intellectual imprint on the culture" because of the reaction they created. In response to this counterculture, a vast uprising of fundamentalists, which promoted anti-intellectualism. This resurgence of fundamentalism is aptly named the Old Sixties by Jacoby. As a result of fundamentalism, people begin having blind faith more than ever and therefore neglect intellectual pursuits.

2. I honestly do not think we have an recognizable youth culture in comparison to the ones presented by Jacoby. The most important movement to me is the Sixties youth culture. I have always been a fan of basically everything that has been produced during this time period--music, books, art, etc.--but what is most important to me about this time is the dedication and courage the members of this movement had to make their world and the generations after them better.

Prewriting Blog #4

In comparison to other movements throughout history, I do not feel that our generation has an identifiable movement. To fill the void, we have instead tried to emulate over movements, more specifically the Sixties, but the integrity of the original movement is lost. The goals that these movements possessed are lost in translation and therefore our generation lacks guidance. While many praise the Sixties for its groundbreaking changes, today’s youth has focused on the usage of drugs without making any change. Instead of using the courage and audacity the Sixties had to create awareness and change, we are all too busy turning on, tuning in, and dropping out. We need to become more aware of that affect we can have on others and the Sixties youth movement should be a motivator, not to pick apart and then only emulate the easy aspects. As a result of our misinterpretation of the Sixties youth movement, we are a disgrace to those before us who fought for our rights and gave up everything for the cause. In order for this generation to have a movement, we need to be more outspoken, not as narcissistic, and willing to stand up for what we believe is just.

The primary objective of this essay is to analysis not only the text, but society and draw connections and dissimilarities between today’s generation and those before us.

My audience in this essay could really be anyone, but the one I would like to focus on the most is my generation as to hopefully provide some introspection.

Self Evaluation Blog #2

I did not have any grammatical errors in my draft, but what I found most difficult for me was finding a counter argument and then responding to it. I could not find anything that negated my topic, so I picked a more specific source in which Social Darwinism is used to explain society. I think what worked well for me in this essay was the fluidity of essay and how each of my points transitioned nicely to the next. The only thing that did not exactly according to my plan was finding the counter argument I wanted, but I think I utilized the source I found adeptly. I have not really learned anything new about grammar and my point of view has not changed. From the lecture, I mainly took the day that the broad statements were posted and we had to choose if we strongly agreed, agreed, disagreed, or strongly disagreed. A lot of the comments made during that lecture I felt were either very rational or not very rational at all but were still expressed in a fairly intelligent manner. So, I tried to express the distinction between an anti-rational intellectual and a rational intellectual and the various prerequisites one must have to truly be a rational intellectual.