The Individual Tackling Society

Amahd Young

Ms. Parham

AP La+C

January 14, 2015

​Everyone in this room may agree that at one point in your life you questioned your role in society as an individual. Maybe you’ve always seen it as you were the ant or test subject surrounded by things and people who would predict your life and future, but what if I told you it’s the opposite? What if it is up to you to predict society’s future and your own life only being influenced by the things society has to offer. There are many ways in which society can shape the individual and there are ways in which the individual can shape society. Society and the individual will always have a gap but the question you have to ask yourself is; is it up to me or is it up to society to bridge that gap? 

The individual can be seen at the puppet master of society, holding all the strings that are connected to society itself. The puppet master creates the show and is able to make his/her own ending and beginning with little limitations. The individual is able to let go both metaphorically and literally, as the control is not in society’s hands, it’s in the individuals. 

Although the individual is capable of holding the power over society, society can still influence the individual as it already has done to most of you at a very young age. Society has impacted your individuality because of the way you grew up viewing your surroundings which set or instilled certain images and situations in your mind. Based on psychology, these images and situations is what you build your life around, comparing everything to the standards society set for you as a child and the standards it is still setting for you as I speak. However as an individual it is up to you to let “the wilderness rise up to you” (Wallace Stevens). Do not become “grey and bare” because of society because you’re capable of taking on society and shaping it to your liking.

So the next time you have a moment to yourself and you’re thinking about your place in society make sure you know that itis your choice to let society shape you or whether you are going to shape society.

Is It Better to be Late and Despised or on Time and Loved?

The Morals of the Prince
Yet a prince should be slow to believe rumors and to commit himself to action on the basis of them. He should not be afraid of his own thoughts; he ought to proceed cautiously, moderating his conduct with prudence and humanity, allowing neither overconfidence to make him careless, nor overtimidity to make him intolerable. Here the question arises: is it better to be loved than feared, or vice versa? I don't doubt that every prince would like to be both; but since it is hard to accommodate these qualities, if you have to make a choice, to be feared is much safer than to be loved. For it is good general rule about men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, liars and decievers, fearful of danger and greedy for gain.

Imitation 

Yet my mother should be on time to make it to Thanksgiving dinner and commit herself to this on behalf of the family. She should not be late cooking her own dish; she ought to proceed quickly, planning accordingly, allowing neither time to make her careless, nor perfection to make her very slow. Here the question arises: is it better to be late and despised or on time and loved? I don't doubt that everyone cooking for Thanksgiving would like to be on time; but since it is hard for my mother to accommodate this quality, if she had to make a choice, it is much safer to be on time than be late. For it is good general rule about family on Thanksgiving, that they are hungry, emotional, tired, and anxious, fearful of being let down and greedy for a good family dinner.

Power & Control

Although Machiavelli's excerpt and Civil Disobedience are similar, the essential concepts of the two are different. Machiavelli's excerpt speaks to the prince and the ruler of a society, while Thoreau speaks to the subordinate and to the citizen.

The overall concept in Machiavelli's excerpt is that in order to gain power you have to instill fear into the people. In order to do so you can not be civil or rational, like Thoreau believes in his writing of Civil Disobedience. Machiavelli thinks you have to make people be afraid so they can do what you want, as "...to be feared is much safer than to be loved." Fear, playing a part in power and control, is a re-occurring concept in both of these works, even though it is indirectly mentioned in Civil Disobedience.

Thoreau speaks for the subordinate and the common "man". Thoreau writes that a man should act upon his own morals and not follow the government because what they want is not always morally correct. Thoreau also writes that the common "man" should go against what the government and laws says and do what they feel is morally correct for himself.

Machiavelli makes it clear that fear is needed in order to have power and control of a person or government. Making people fear you is not showing them that you are trying to make them fear you, but appearing to them in a very assertive, powerful, and demanding way gives them a reason to fear and listen to you. Thoreau correspondingly believes that a government is unjustified in their actions. Thoreau believes that the government does whatever it needs to do to gain power and control its citizens.

These two different authors took two different approaches on how one should act when placed under a situation involving power. Thoreau believes a man should act upon his morals and Machiavelli believes a man should not act upon your morals but what your interests are as a person under power and control.

Rhetorical Analysis Outline

Rhetorical Analysis Outline of "Malala" Speech

Purpose: To inform people about the issue and persuade them to join her cause of speak up for what's wrong.

Audience: The audience is everyone ... even the Taliban as she constantly says "we" and "everyone."

Context: Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for giving a speech on July 12th, 2013 at the UN after terrorist attacks, the speech was organized by the President of the UN General Assembly

Section 1: Introduction
Purpose: sets a tone to let the audience know she is thankful for everyone and being able to speak on this day.
Appeals: Establishes ethos and pathos
Technique:  addressing everyone to make sure everyone is included and thanked. She tries to make everyone feel like they're apart of her healing process.
Effectiveness: this was very effective because she kept everyone included so they can feel like they were being helpful.

Section 2: Uniting Everyone In Other Ways
Purpose: showing that it's not only her that wants change and stands up for what isn't right, but there are others as well and they all need to unite.
Appeals: a lot of pathos—"My ambitions are the same. My hopes are the same. My dreams are the same.
Techniques: uses a lot of repetition, sentence variation and an analogy--"we realized the importance of pens and books when we saw the guns."  

Section 3: Addressing The Problem and Proposing A Solution
Purpose: letting everyone know what the Taliban is doing and convince the audience that everyone has to take a stand against what is going on around them.
Claim: "the pen is mightier than the sword"
Evidence: she talks about a boy in her class who said, "A Talib doesn't know what is written inside this book" meaning they are afraid of other people learning what they don't know.
Warrant: people, mostly women, want to be educated and they want rights to be able to chose if they can be educated without being threatened or shot at.
Techniques: use of diction or word choice exaggerates the situation, using words like ignorance and deprivation; repetition is used.

General Evaluation:
Malala spoke on behalf of everyone who struggles with some sort of oppression and for people who can't raise their own voices for rights or equality. Malala spoke about a general problem, common in the Middle East, expanding it to a specific topic--education. She used a lot of pathos and ethos to appeal to the people she was speaking to as she tried to unify everyone and have everyone fight for the same cause. As she did this she did not dehumanize anyone in the process, even the enemy also known as the Taliban; which goes back to her strong use of ethos. Malala used education as her base, but didn't talk about education in a broad way the entire time which is why her speech was powerful through her structure.

Social Change Project: Q1

Dear Ms. Koroshetz,

     The teenage population is in a re-occurring silent crisis in which adults are not aware of; I am here to inform you on their behalf. Teenagers in high school are not only confused about school, but they're confused about all the other social and personal aspects. We, as the "future", have to endure the burden today's society puts on us. An article that appeared in Psychology Today that stated "the average high school kid today has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient in the ealy 1950's." We are expected to behave a certain way around our friends and a certain way around our parents and it becomes difficult to put on these "masks" and transition between them. We even try to masks our problems since it's hard to talk about them because we feel like no one can relate to us. Going to the school psychologists may help some of us, but not everyone is comfortable with opening up to an adult who we believe can't relate or will only make the situation worse.

     Seeing how involved you are with our school and how the students benefit from the assemblies we have, like the awareness of bullying, I believe that I can offer some ideas that may relive some stress from you. 

     Since teens go through this much stress and change during high school, I think creating a self help group for teens in high school will be a great start to helping us become more open about our problems and anxiety. This group will talk about anything that may come to mind that we may be needing help with in our new, profound, scary life. The group will consists of all teenagers seeing that we relate best with our peers who are likely to be going through the same thing. The ultimate goal would be to create a comfortable environment where people would not be forced to talk, but to make them comfortable with talking about what they're going through. I belive these meetings can be a success even if one person talks the entire time or a few people don't say a word at all because they'll all be getting something out of the conversation.

    I would love for you, as an involved principle, to help me not only create this group for this highschool but help start a change in the stress and anxiety that we endure on a daily basis. Thank You for your time and I hope to hear back from you soon as the crisis increases every day.

                                         Sincerely, 

             an advocate of the silent teenage crisis: Amahd Young

Logos (Teens Anonymous)

It is easier to solve most of the problems and complications that you are having in life if you would just talk about them with others.However, with teenagers it is more difficult to just open up to someone, specifically an adult, that may make them feel uncomfortable because they feel like they can't relate with them. 

To make things easier on teenagers, a group can be created that'll consists of teenagers facing similar problems to make these problems subside. A group that'll consists of teens who may be experiencing the same struggles as one another can help them solve their problems. The point of these meetings would not be to force the people to talk, but to make them comfortable with talking about what they're going through. I think these meetings can be a success even if one person talks the entire time or a few people don't say a word at all. 

If you find this hard to believe just think of other group meetings that were created to help people relate to one another to solve a common problem or reach a common goal. If you were to go to an AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meeting, a nonprofessional and self-supporting group, today you would find that everyone in the room is essentially there because they want to solve the same problem or all have the same problem. Each individual may help each other grow and work at their goals by talking to people who they feel may understand them; there would be a wide range of people who attend these meetings. For some people, simply speaking out loud will help their cause while others have to have feedback and engage in  conversations more while others can simply sit there the entire time without saying a word. The fact that there is no set goal or pressure for and individual at each meeting makes it a lot easier on the participants to open up to talk about their problem or experience with alcohol.

Why not try to "recreate" a widely known organization with a different goal, name, and age group? 

Egyptian Crisis

Egypt is a primarily large country with the highest population in the Middle East, housing mostly Arab and Muslims. In 2011 Egypt has been ranked 138 out of 167 countries on The Economist's Democracy index which is a measure of political freedom. At the start of 2011, Egypt has begun a war with its own government fighting against the high levels of corruption and an overwhelming load of poverty. The sudden spark of change in Egypt’s government was inspired by a recent protest in one of their neighboring countries, Tunisia, which led to the fall of their government. Egypt was ruled by Hosni Mubarak, Mohamed Morsi, and the Military (all of which have been seen as corrupt to the Egyptian people as they lacked leadership skills) before they've reached their current president, Sisi.

With Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as President, he inherits Egypt’s many problems with their country that were leftover from previous rulers. Most of these problems are economic related; involving issues with money. The economy of Egypt has a high unemployment rate as their budget decreases almost double to 14 percent as spending on petroleum subsidies cuts into state finances. Help from Gulf allies are helping Egypt’s economy just get by without collapsing, but they’re still in need of more help if they want to try to rebuild their economy. There is also a current energy crisis that is affecting domestic energy demand due to the high amount of subsidies on petroleum products. This is now permitting residential and industrial consumers to purchase gas and power facilities at a lower cost. These issues have caused Egypt to loose partners because of the draining of state funds they needed to invest in public works. With all these economic challenges Egypt is currently facing there should be something higher power countries should be doing to help, like the U.S.

The United States getting involved to help Egypt take on the challenges that they face on a daily basis wouldn't be such a bad idea. However, the United States of America can only help by so much. The U.S can provide a strong army by sending troops to help with any reinforcement needed, but as far as aiding Egypt with money may be a difficult thing. The U.S may not be in the right place to hand out large amounts of money because the economy there isn't so great either. However, offering advice and planning for spending isn't a bad thing to do seeing that they may need our help with having a plan for future goals and solutions.

The Western media rarely usually make assumptions about Egypt and Egyptian people because they don’t want people to know how bad the community really is. Most of the harsh information is written in blogs or articles by people who have been there themselves, otherwise there is rarely any information about Egypt and its people. However, when there is information in the media they usually depict angry, motivated, and persuaded people who would do anything to fight for what their countries needs or wants. Showing these depictions of the Egyptian people can either scare or persuade the Western world, but either way the media should show the truth of what is going on in the world around us and how it can affect us.

Questions

How did the transition in government power personally affect you?

Do you think help from the United States would upset or excite the people living in Egypt?