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

"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.