Research Log 2

“Generations: History of America’s Future.” C-span. Booknotes, Washington. 31 Dec. 1991. Television.

Summary:

I watched a recording of a television broadcasting that was based off of the book Generations: History of America’s Future. The authors spoke about the purpose of their book and what it was all about. The main theme of the book was to show how the past shapes the future and how certain personality traits follow a generation from youth to old age. They discussed 18 different generations and how American’s society pulse to rhythms in families and at large. They describe a four part cycle that includes idealist (moralistic), reactive (pragmatic), civic (selfless), or adaptive (compromiser). They explain that the four part cycle can explain the history of America and predict the future patterns of American culture. They talk about how the ages of the millenniums are wild and not further educated and because of this the previous generation (boomers) felt a sense of guilt for the outcome of the new generation (millenniums). They followed generations from puritans to today’s children, which ended in the year 2003 in their research. At the end of the book the future is discussed. From their research they explained that the future after the millenniums will have just as dramatic changes as the previous generations. Most people think that people who are 25 are going to act the way 25 year-olds have always acted. They point out that this is not true and has never happened in the past.

Response:

Key concepts that related specifically to my research topic where things like how the boomers felt guilt for the outcome of the millenniums, how American’s society pulse to rhythms in families and at large, and how certain personality traits follow a generation from youth to old age. My reaction to these points was happy because of the fact that this is what I had previously thought. They mentioned how the past shapes the future and I personally strongly believe in this. They depicted how every generation has certain qualities and can be identified into certain categories.

Next Steps:

Hearing what they have to say and what was written in their book is information that I think more people need to know about. All of these points interested me and answered some questions that I had. Knowing that the boomers had an effect on the future generation proves that our present generation can impact the future generations. If we can realize this and take advantage of that fact we could change the future. This is exactly what I want to find out more about. The broadcast that I had watched was a summary of what the book was about if I read the whole book I think a lot of my questions could be answered. At the end of the broadcast some feedback was read that interest me as well. Seeing what people thought about this book and how current generations feel about this is something I would like to look into. I choose this source because it has a lot of interesting information that was helpful to me.

Research Log #1

Schrag, Peter. “The Old History and the New California.” Rethinking History 11.1 (2007).  

Summary:

In Peter Schrag’s scholarly article “The Old History and the New California,” he goes on to explain how California has improved, changed, and maybe even became a disappointment for some. He points out that during the post-Second World War period California had become a model for efficient public service, an inspiring government, and an opportunity for the good life. Schrag states that in the 1960’s when California outgrew New York in population an outburst of television specials and magazines were capitalizing on the fact that California was now the ideal embodiment for optimism and glowing futures. However, it is pointed out that the not so perfect side of California was always there. Racism, political corruption, labor violence, crowding, poverty, pollution, regulation, complexity, ethnic riots and competition from abroad are unfortunately all part of the ideal California. While generations and generations flew by, California has worked ever since to restore perfection. Tax limitations, spending limits, tough criminal sentencing laws, denial of services to illegal immigrants, funding for stem-cell research, minimum wage increases, and medical marijuana laws are proof that California is still trying. Whether we are digging ourselves a deeper hole is the question. Schrag focuses on the discussion on immigration. He states that “much of the spike of the past two decades in the number of illegal aliens in the United States, estimated at 11 million in 2006, has been driven by the increased efforts to toughen border enforcement” (Schrag 35). This is a main claim used by Schrag and he goes more into detail about how we can learn from previous eras to perfect the future. He also reminds us that we could be turning in circles while trying to make everything too ‘perfect’.

Response:

Some of the key phrases throughout the article are California; Population; Economy; New Society; Old Institutions. One of the claims I found most interesting was the first sentence of the article that stated, “In the past forty years, a radically New California has grown under, around and often over the old one” (Schrag 31). Making the distinction that California has changed is obvious but not many take the time to look at how generations are repeating the same common themes. It shocked me as I read further into the article about how he believes we are striving for this perfect and ideal state and while doing so we could be potentially ruining what we already have.

Next Steps:

I think Schrag’s overall look at how things have changed and progressed is extremely interesting. He does focus more on immigration and population than I would like to but I think a lot of his main points are directed towards my research question. I choose this source mainly because it takes a very general outlook on how things have changed specifically in California. Now that I have researched this source I would like to get more in depth about how the certain generations actually affect the next. We know that history has affected the present but I want to understand exactly how and possibly focus more on education.

Inquiry Questions

What is something you believe is important for others to know about? What is a question that you would like answered? What creative outlet did you have early on that you’d like to reclaim or understand better?

I think it is important for everyone to know about their culture and history. If there is one thing that everyone deserves to know about, it is definitely who they are and where they come from. To some people ‘who you are’ can mean different things, but to me it is something that comes from your family, history, ancestry, and culture. We get our looks, personalities, likes and dislikes, traditions, etc. all from our past. If we can all grow to understand and have knowledge of how we, as a person, became how we are today than we could learn how to create change. The importance of others to know about where they come from is outstanding and could ultimately create a huge change in our society.

There are many questions I would like answered and choosing one is not easy. If I did have to choose one it would be, ‘Why are things the way they are?’ However, this is an extremely broad question and is nearly impossible to answer. To get more in detail I’d like to know why there is hate in the world. I don’t know who created this world and no one else does either, but whoever is was or however it happened, why did they allow there to be hate? Why does it even have to be an emotion? With one question comes a hundred more.

When I was younger and had more time on my hands I had a creative outlet that came in the form of creating colleagues. I could put together pieces of work, whether it was paintings, pictures, words, etc., that looked amazing when all neatly proportioned and constructed. I would love to know if that meant something or if I kept going with it what it could have turned into.

Can There Be World Citizenship - in class

1)      How does Boulding describe the problems with the current state of “world citizenship”? Find a quote or two that helps support your claim.

a.       “I realized that there could be no safe places in the world unless we humans learned to make them safe, and I became a peace activist.” This quote says that she thinks the fact that war could come about at any second is a problem within world citizenship. Boulding explains how “we the people” is supposed to have a sense of unity, however we have not yet accomplished that

2)      Describe the term “three-fold citizenship.” What would this proposed global community look like in reality? Do you have any personal examples?

a.       The three-fold citizenship is supposed to be finding world citizenship in steps of three. The first being locally, the second being within the state, and the third being within the United Nations itself. This proposed global community would look very peaceful and everyone could work together.

3)      Does this proposed “governance for the planet’s citizenry” seem feasible? What are the restricting factors? What seems possible?

a.       No this does not seem feasible. We could definitely work on uniting and communicating within our nation. However, there are many activists including Elise Boulding who commit their lives to resolve the issues on war. All we can do is continue to work in order to achieve “world citizenship.”

Generational Survey

- Expected Education: College degree is needed in order to get a job
- View of Family: Finding a ‘Brady Bunch Family’ is extremely unlikely and not expected
- Role of Career: Climb to the top. 8 or 10 jobs to get you to where you want to be in your career
- View of Authority: Authority is everything
- View of Technology: You need to keep up, or technology will out smart you
- View of Success: Work for it
- Interactive Style: Entrepreneur but know how to work with others as well
- Messages That Motivate: “No one is going to hand it to you,” “Stay on top of the game”

“Can There Be World Citizenship?”

In order for there to be ‘world citizenship’ things would have to be a lot different than how they are now. However, we have come a long way. People want world citizenship but there are so many controversies that tie along with this. Some people don’t even want world citizenship, some people don’t care, and others are so against it they will spend eight-one years of their life promoting it. I’m not sure if the question should be so much can there be world citizenship but rather can we come up with an agreement of a way to reduce war and terrorism in order to further world citizenship. Complete world citizenship is something I’m sure I will never see in my lifetime. Yes it would be wonderful for our United Nation to serve as one and come together, but the reality of it is just far stretched. People are always going to disagree and that’s just the way it goes. The best we can do is hope to continue to further ourselves as a United Nation.

This article relates to the video we watched of “Talk to an Iraqi.” He was going around trying to find out more information on the war and what Americans thought. Some were for the war others were completely against it. I would say the Iraqi himself was looking for world citizenship. It also relates to what we have recently been talking about our generations. Things were so different just four generations ago. To look back at where they were and their beliefs and how we believe and act now is a complete one-eighty. People didn’t speak up and take action, people didn’t want to have their voices heard because they were afraid of discrimination, and people didn’t want to change things because of fear. Now people can stand up and fight for what they believe just like Elise Boulding.

"Generation Me"

“Generation Y”

These articles really got me thinking about myself. I related almost everything said to my own actions and how I portray the business world and how much I rely on my parents. I found truths and things I would consider to be highly generalized with no supported theories. There are many ways to consider why our generation acts the way we do and how things have changed. Things have changed, that we do know. Things will most likely always change, we know that too. All I can say about this is, who knows where we’ll be by the time the next generation is in the spotlight. Generation Y could be the richest, most successful of all generations. We could also end up being the least successful and irresponsible as well. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

When comparing the two articles I found myself agreeing with “The Why-Worry Generation” article than “Generation Me.” I found “Generation Me” to be very dramatic and not very realistic when it comes to how things really are. “The Why-Worry Generation” gives statistics and actually had me thinking about these kinds of my generation should be thinking about but isn’t. “All that narcissism is a problem that can range from the discourteous—residential advisers at Southern lament students disregarding curfews, playing dance music until 3 a.m., demanding new room assignments at a moment's notice and failing to understand why professors won't let them make up an exam they were too hung over to take—to the disastrous—failed marriages, abusive working environments and billion-dollar Ponzi schemes. Seems that the flip side of all that confidence isn't prodigious success but antisocial behavior.” Reading this makes me feel like I’m being stereotyped and judged by someone who isn’t even close to being anything like me. Who is she to say that I’m this way or I’m that way? Even if a lot of people are that way, there are a lot of people who are not. I mean come on, it’s probably your generation that got us in the mess we’re in today anyway. I thought Judith Warner took an interesting viewpoint on the reason for why generation y is the way it is. “Perhaps it’s a result, as some longtime observers of this generation have suggested, of growing up in an era of almost unremitting ambient anxiety: school years spent in the shadow of Columbine, 9/11 and, lately, widespread parental job losses. Maybe chronic unease has simply raised this generation’s tolerance level for stress, leaving it uniquely well equipped to deal with uncertainty.” Everyone has their own opinions on generation y, but all I have to say is, go find a generation your own size to pick on J