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

"Generation Me" Questions

“Generation Me” Questions:

1)      In the op-ed “Generation Me,” what is the attitude of the author toward your age group? What evidence can you find in the text to illustrate it?

I would say that she is very bitter about our generation. She thinks we are all very selfish and inconsiderate. Evidence to support this is “Perhaps, one day, we will say that the recession saved us from a parenting ethos that churns out ego-addled spoiled brats.” Some more evidence would be 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.”

2)      To what extent do you think her argument is true? As a group, make a list with two columns: on one side, list the ways you agree; on the other, the ways that you disagree.

Agree: Some people are like this, people our age are more materialistic, and the level of selfishness has increased since fifty years ago. These days you are given more assistance which can lead to laziness and dependability.

Disagree: Not everyone is like this, there are so people who are considerate and compassionate, many people do have to work for what they get and don’t expect things to be handed to them.

Last Lie I Told

Story of the last lie I told:

            The last lie I told actually was not that long ago. I was talking to my friend, who I have only known for about 2 weeks, about going home this weekend. She said she wanted to come with me. When she said this I got really nervous because I would feel uncomfortable if she came home with me for the weekend. I nodded and said “Okay,” without really thinking about what I had just said. When I got home that night I realized I didn’t want this girl to come stay with me at my house and I also didn’t want to offend her because she was my friend. So I decided to lie. I texted her and said that on Saturday I was going to work at my old job from home which she knows I frequently do on my trips home. I said I would feel bad having her just sit at my house all day while I was working, but maybe she could come with me another time. Not only did I lie about having work, I didn’t tell her that the truth of the matter was I just didn’t want her to come with me.

Examples of "Ways We Lie"

“The Ways We Lie”

1)      White lie – If one of my friends was trying on a dress for a school day and turned to me and asked “do I look fat?” I would most definitely tell her something like “no, not at all!” I don’t want to hurt her feelings by telling her that maybe she does look a little fat so it is much easier to tell a simple white lie.

2)      Facades – If you are planning on babysitting a really nice house anytime soon, do not go on a date in a nice suit, pull out a bunch of hundreds and leave a huge tip, then take your date back to the house you’re babysitting and leave out the fact that this is not your house or that you do not usually carry a bunch of hundreds on you.

3)      Deflecting – When my mom asked me what I ended up doing over the weekend and if I finished all my homework, I quickly replied with “mom have I ever told you how much I loved you? By the way the weather is really nice here, is it nice there?”

4)      Ignoring the plain facts – If your boyfriend recently cheated on you and you just found out because his best friend felt so bad for you that he came and told you what his friend did but you stay with him and try to act like nothing happened. You’re ignoring the plain facts.

5)      Stereotypes and clichés – People have a stereotype for what a gay man should be like. I have a friend who everyone has always thought was gay, but never had the guts to ask. He was very feminine and never had a girlfriend before. One time we all sat him down and asked him if he was gay, unfortunately we fell for the stereotype and it turns out he is not gay.

6)      Omission – When homeless people ask me for money, I will usually give them the change in my pocket and add “that’s all I’ve got” but really I have a 5 and a 10 in my pocket, but he doesn’t need to know that.

7)      Groupthink – In order to get my friend to come with us to a party, my other friends and I made up a lie. We said that we had talked to the person having the party and the boy she liked would be there. We knew once she got there she wouldn’t be able to get us all to leave, so as a group we made a pact to stick with the story, until we got to the party at least.

8)      Out-and-out lies – Whenever my mom catches me doing something that I shouldn’t be doing, I always raise my hands and say “it wasn’t me!” Clearly she sees that it was me, but cracking out-and-out lie of a joke always seems to lighten the mood

9)      Dismissal – How many of you have ever said to your parents “I’m freezing!” and they turned to you and say “no you’re not”? Really they are just too busy to deal with the fact that you are cold and they hope that it will keep you from complaining for at least 5 minutes.

10)  Delusion – Sometimes if I really don’t feel like doing my homework and I happen to run out of ink I will go to class the next day and say something like “well my computer ran out of ink and it would have been impossible for me to do my homework.” Because of the simple fact that I really didn’t want to do my homework that bad I lied to my teacher and really convinced myself that there was no other way I could have printed out my assignment.