GRE AWA ISSUES WITH ANSWERS - VERY IMPORTANT

Present your perspective on the issue below, using relevant reasons and/or examples
to support your views.
"Patriotic reverence for the history of a nation often does more to impede than to
encourage progress."
Love and support for one's country is a good thing. Must be understood that no country
is perfect and it can become better. In this way, patriotism can impede progress.
Patriotism can be taken too far, if Americans only purchased American cars, this would
allow american car companies to become more anticompetative.
American manufacturers need competition to stay strong.
Patriotism can be confused with nationalism. This might encourage people to become
more close minded towards those not associated with a country's history - creates
xenophobia.
Politicians can take advantage of patriotism by calling those who do not support certain
efforts anti-patriotic, can lead to "witch hunts".
Patriotism is hard to define. It is ambiguous as to which actions support a country and
can be therefore consider to be patriotic.
To some, patriotism has connotations of self-sacrifice, implying that the individual
should place the interests of the community above their personal interests, and in extreme
cases their lives and the lives of other individuals, perceived to be members of a different
community. In wartime, patriotism as so understood is assumed to be the main driving
force for participation in military operations, certainly if it is voluntary. In this context
patriotism is seen as an explanation for the apparent suspension of the instinct for selfpreservation, which implies that all humans would avoid a battlefield.

"Government should never censor the artistic works or historical displays that a museum
wishes to exhibit."
Government should not censor artistic works as such behavior boarders on thought
control and impinges on freedom of speech.
Censoring indirectly implies that some works of art are sponsored while others are not.
There are other competing factors, people will ultimately be making the censorship
decision and it is difficult to apply completely unbiased judgment. Works of art with
religious context such as those depicting the crucifixion of Jesus may be seen as offensive
to non-Christians in the sense that a human is shown suffering due to brutal punishment.
All art requires some level of understanding and socio-historical context.
The proper role of government is not to monitor works of art, there are more important
issues which deserve attention.
What is even more problematic is who decides which arts should even be displayed.
Some people may find works such as the Mona Lisa more enjoyable while others prefer
works which may seem to be purely pornographic.

"Government should preserve publicly owned wilderness areas in their natural state, even
though these areas are often extremely remote and thus accessible to only a few people."

 The reader is supplying a universal statement that should be obeyed always. I do not
think the matter is quite so simple.
Preserving some areas of land may be more expensive than preserving other areas of
equal area. A cost benefit analysis must be run to determine benefits vs. costs.
Preserving some areas of land may provide jobs near areas which have high
unemployment or reduce pollution in areas which have high industrial output. Other
factors for land preservation need to be considered.
Preserving wilderness that is accessible to many people is preferable so that people are
able to enjoy the preserved wilderness, through hiking or camping in it. However, areas
which are not remote could be better candidates for public recreational reasons.
Wilderness accessible to only a few people are typically preserved anyway. Although
there are some political figures who suggest that wilderness should be exploited partially
because few people are affected -- GW Bush and drilling in the Artic Wildlife Preserve.
Also need to consider how the preservation decision will benefit specific species of
wildlife.

"In any field of endeavor, it is impossible to make a significant contribution without first
being strongly influenced by past achievements within that field."
Author's viewpoint goes too far. In some fields of an endeavor it is possible to make a
significant contribution without being strongly influenced by past achievements.
One example is art and music. These are fields which depend highly on creative talent.
Too much knowledge about past achievements and artistic theory encourages conformity.
In classical music (without words) and art, there may be very little which requires
understanding in order to appreciate.
However, architecture is an example of art which does benefit from both creativity and
practicality. Therefore, some knowledge about architectural techniques and space
planning will prove to be beneficial, but still may not be essential. There will still likely
be a tradeoff between creativity and conformity however.
Other examples such as physics and medicine are built upon the foundations of past
inventors, theorists, and experimentalists. Engineering is completely centered around the
application of science discovered by others.
Contributions in some fields of academic endeavor favor knowledge about past
achievements while other areas may benefit from ignorance about past achievements
which may only encourage conformity.

"Government funding of the arts threatens the integrity of the arts."

Government funding of the arts can threaten the integrity of the arts if the government
supports certain art themes over others.
Artists enjoy expressing artistic creativity, however their creativity could be severely
limited if they were only allowed to produce arts with specific types of themes.
Art is often used to express ideas, government funding for the arts translates into certain
ideas being expressed over others.
During World War II, US government made posters to support general themes of
signing up for the military and to encourage people to support crop rationing through
"victory gardens". It seems acceptable to pay artists to create these posters. However,

Soviet Russia forced all artists to create art with specific political messages, usually
endorsing communist ideals and spreading communist propaganda.
The question of who decides which works of art to support must also be addressed.
Congressmen and legislators will support their own quirky notions of art, subject to
religious overtones while it would be foolish to have people vote on which artwork to
support, because even through voting, some preliminary options need to be established to
vote on.

"Young people should be encouraged to pursue long-term, realistic goals rather than seek
immediate fame and recognition."
Many people occupy themselves by seeking the instant gratification that comes with
fame and recognition. In reality though, few people seeking fame or recognition rarely
become famous.
The wealthiest person in the US, Bill Gates, was not motivated exclusively by fame and
recognition, but instead was motivated by learning about computers at a very young age.
The most successful scientists such as Einstein and Steven Hawkings are not associated
with the pursuit of fame and recognition.
There certainly is evidence that people seek fame and recognition. Many students
devote more time to sports than academics. Shows such as American Idol certainly appeal
to the dreams and desires of a specific audience.
Fame and recognition are really just for people who do not feel fulfilled and are unsure
about how to attain fulfillment.
Fame and recognition are also questionable ends. Many celebrities who have attained
their dreams of becoming famous and recognized miss the privacy they once had and go
to extreme lengths and inconveniences to avoid being recognized.

"In any field of inquiry, the beginner is more likely than the expert to make important
discoveries."
It is hard to see how this claim could possibly be true since the expert knows more than
the beginner.
Whatever the case may be, there are other more important factors such as intelligence
and motivation which will determine the overall success of an individual.
Some Hollywood movies such as Happy Gilmore and Big illustrate examples of a
beginner entering a new field and becoming incredibly successful overnight. In Happy
Gilmore, the star of the film experienced difficulties with his hockey career and randomly
stumbled upon golf. He was discovered by a retired golfer and with practice, became very
successful at golfing.
Big illustrated a similar situation, a child who wanted to grow up and attain the
freedoms enjoyed by adults magically achieved his wish and became a successful lawyer.
However, these examples are not realistic and based more on fantasy than real-life
examples.
In the academic world, it is the experts rather than the beginners who are performing
research. Granted, some of these beginners will go onto become experts, it is hard to see
how they are more likely than their teachers to make important discoveries.

"Technologies not only influence but actually determine social customs and ethics."
Technologies do not determine ethics as technology and science in itself is not an ethical
matter.
It is the politics of how these technologies are managed and funded which determine the
ethics.
Consider stem cell research and nuclear technologies. The science behind splitting
atoms or altering the genetic makeup of an organism is in many cases not controversial.
Chemotherapy uses nuclear technology to eradicate cancer. Many food sources are
genetically engineered for enhanced efficiency and have been for decades. These areas do
not receive much philosophical or political interest.
Certain extensions of stem cell and nuclear technologies are very controversial - there
are fears, perhaps not completely justified, of some people developing a genetic master
race of elite people or a genetic underclass of slaves. There are concerns of how nuclear
weapons will be managed. But in both cases, technology itself does not determine social
customs and ethics. It the concerns of how technologies will be used that influence ethics.
Social customs is a different matter than ethics. Some social customs seek to regulate
cell phone usage in movie theaters and at other public events. However, again, it is not
the technology or the cell phone which invented these conventions, it is instead the
preferences of the majority which are satisfied.
Ultimately, technologies are just applications of science to solve a given problem.
Medical technologies have been developed such as vaccines to fight infectious diseases.
Some of these cures were discovered accidentally such as Henry Flemming's discovery of
penicillin. However, it was the doctors and practitioners who decided to use these cures
to prevent people from dying that decided the ethics.
Technology in itself has no ethical content, how the technology is used by humans
relates to ethics and social customs.

"Leaders are created primarily by the demands that are placed upon them."
Many leaders are created by the demands placed upon them.
New York mayor Rudolph Gulliani is an example of someone who lead effectively
during a time of national crisis. His legacy and reputation will be remembered more by
most people from his actions during the short time after September 11th compared to the
rest of his political career.
Other examples in politics such as Abraham Lincoln support the idea that effective
leaders are illustrated in times of crisis.
However, I would argue that the characteristics of a great leader were formed in these
leaders discussed above much earlier than the time of crisis. The crisis only tested their
abilities and allowed them to demonstrate their leadership qualities.
All accomplishments of the time cannot be attributed completely to one leader, but also
the people supporting the leader.
If the above statement were true, then anyone could become a better leader in the
business world by simply placing higher demands on them. However, this is more likely
to only increase stress which will adversely affect management performance. For
example, an assembly plant manager may not become a better leader by being told to
produce more products given the same resources held at present.


"College students should be encouraged to pursue subjects that interest them rather than
seek programs that promise entry into the job market."
Statement neglects the fact that some students pursue subjects which interest them and
also promise entry into the job market.
Some of the fields in engineering which have the best job prospects upon graduation -availability of jobs and starting salary - are very difficult majors, highly competitive
requiring lots of time.
Computer science at my former university was the most difficult major to gain entry
into, high GPA requirement and lowest acceptance rate of all majors on campus.
Since these majors are so difficult, students will most likely need to be interested in the
field in order to stay competitive. It is doubtful that relying only on job opportunities after
college will provide sufficient motivation for most students to stay competitive in these
fields.
The author is also placing high stress on pursuing subjects which are most interesting -which I think is generally good advice. But what if the applicant desires to retire as early
as possible. If the applicant really desires such a goal, then the applicant would be best
suited to pursue a program of study which will enable him or her to do that.
Another example would be someone who wants to provide a high income to support his
or her family. There are other competing interests and only so much time in life to
accomplish goals. Priorities must be made.

"Most people think that their deeply held values are the result of rational choice, but
reason often has little to do with the way people form values."
Values are developed through experience.
Someone who suffered through an economic depression will tend to value employment
and avoid over-consumption.
Someone who survived a war will most likely realize the need for peaceful conflict
resolution.
Someone who suffered through cancer will most likely realize the need for cancer
research.
Hard to define morality and values, most generally accepted to be those principles
which maximize happiness and minimize suffering.
Values could be based on self-interest and may change over time.
In order for values to be consistent, they must be reasonable, even if they were not born
explicitly through reason.
After suffering through an illness, some may place more value in helping others. The
value of helping others can also be derived through reason, no human is completely
independent and at some point in their lives, they will require assistance from others. Old
age even makes independent people dependent on others. So helping others is a simple
value that can be rationally derived or born out of experience.
It is hard to determine how values originate.

"In any academic area or professional field, it is just as important to recognize the limits
of our knowledge and understanding as it is to acquire new facts and information."
1. Pros:

1. Medical professionals, lawyers, and business people must deal with risks and
uncertainties
1. Learning how to accommodate these limitations is just as important as risk itself
2. Risk and uncertainty can often not be obviated by any amount of knowledge
1. Gathering more financial knowledge may only lead to more confusion
2. Cons:
1. How can we know the limits of knowledge until we have thoroughly tested the limits
through empirical observation?
2. Opposed to scientific method we can only know what we observe
1. Example: physics, better understanding of the nature of matter through increased
precision of measurement
3. Two levels of understanding the facts we gather from experiments vs. understanding
what these facts mean
4. In professional sports -- a "professional field", it is more important to gain a thorough
understanding of the rules and techniques regarding a given sport than it is to determine
the limits of knowledge and understanding, which do not exist as the game has already
been defined and there are no areas of ambiguity in the rules. Although some calls of
violations to the rules of the game may be questioned, the rules of the game are perfectly
defined.
5. Conclusion: A more precise definition of knowledge is needed.

"The concept of 'individual responsibility' is a necessary fiction. Although societies must

hold individuals accountable for their own actions, people's behavior is largely
determined by forces not of their own making."
1. Moral accountability and human equality depend on the existence of some form of
individual responsibility.
1. Lack of accountability results in lawless society
1. Exception for psychos
2. Too much forgiveness, too much tolerance of bad behavior
2. We are faced with many choices, some are undesirable
3. Deterministic view of the world today's actions influence tomorrow's decisions
1. Genetic dispositions do exist some are more inclined than others towards certain
behavior
1. Many fear genetic engineering, irrational fears of creating a master race
1. Default to the more humanist free will theory
4. Conclusion: There may be evidence to support scientific determinism, until then
assume free will out of convenience.

"Universities should require every student to take a variety of courses outside the
student's field of study because acquiring knowledge of various academic disciplines is
the best way to become truly educated."
1. True education is more than career preparation.
1. Understand oneself, society better, and the physical world better
2. Some may assert that no student can be truly educated without literature, fine arts, and
other forms of subjective intellectual development
2. Need to obtain mastery of field

1. Mastery of any field requires knowledge in others

2. Political science needs history, economics and social studies
3. Anthropologist needs chemistry and geology
4. Computer engineering tied into other fields, language study, media, communications
3. Students must not overextend themselves jack of all trades, master of none
4. Most college freshman are unsure of what to major in, should be exposed to many
fields
5. Personal view set a minimum requirement of classes for a degree, grant electives to
be taken within the major or elsewhere let the student decide.

"People work more productively in teams than individually. Teamwork requires

cooperation, which motivates people much more than individual competition does."
1. The best approach depends on the job
2. Some jobs depend on the ability of co-workers to corporate
1. Businesses involved with production of products using complex processes
2. Computer scientists and researches must collaborate to reach their common goals
3. Managers stress cooperation and whatever it takes to get a project completed on time.
4. Manhattan Project, research labs
3. In other types of jobs, individual competition, tenacity, and ambition are keys to
productivity
1. Salespeople
2. Entrepreneurship and sales people competitive by nature
3. Lawyers
4. Employees who are looking to enhance their careers are concerned about performance
reviews and work to achieve greater results than their peers. Although their aims might be
questionable, in some areas where employees are working on similar, but different
problems, competition will allow more work to get done.
5. As consumers, we certainly emphasize competition. In the interest of having
inexpensive products.
4. Cooperation is more crucial for organization's long-term productivity than individual
competition
1. Competition among sales people can turn into jealousy and unethical behavior
2. Entrepreneurs rely on cooperation of their subordinates, partners, and colleagues
5. Overall productivity depends on willingness to cooperate, ambition can motivate, so
can common sense of mission.

"Although, critics who write about the arts tend to deny the existence of any objective
standards for evaluating works of art, they have a responsibility to establish standards by
which works of art can be judged."
Judging art by standards supports conformity and can stifle creativity.

"It is unfortunate but true that political decisions and activities affect all aspects of
people's lives."
Political decisions and activities do affect all aspects of people's lives.
Politics deals with how resources are collected and how resources are distributed.
Deals with which programs are funded and by how much based on the expected

results of such research and the amount by which society benefits. This seems logical, but
I question who determines how much benefit a given program can bring and how
accurately the results of such research can be predicted.
Politics can make decisions which can drastically change an individual's life, possibly
for worse, but gives other people some convenience.
For example, when city planning decides to build a new highway, the current land
owners who own land where the road is to be constructed are forced to give up their land
for what may be minimal or inadequate compensation for the sake of convenience to the
benefit of the rest of society.
Politics intervenes in some areas where it the issues would be best left to the judicial
system. During a recent trial over the assisted suicide of a Floridan resident who went
into coma, the husband ordered doctors to disconnect her feeding tube so that she would
eventually die due to lack of nutrition. The Florida governor soon became involved and
the issue became political. It has been frequently questioned as to what role politics
should play in such a matter.

"Colleges and universities should offer more courses on popular music, film, advertising,
and television because contemporary culture has much greater relevance for students than
do arts and literature of the past."
1. Cons:
1. Studying current popular culture at the expense of past culture can undermine the
function of education
2. Historical perspective allows us to more fully appreciate art of today
3. Need yardstick for measuring art, requires study of the classics as a reference
4. Popular culture is available outside classroom
2. Pros:
1. Pop culture mirrors society's values and impulses
2. In every age, some worthwhile art emerges
1. John Lennon, Paul McCartney have made a lasting contribution from rather recent pop.
3. Popular films, music, and art provides a person with common ground for interacting
with other people.
3. Conclusion: Literature and art of the past is more important need cultural perspective

"In any realm of lifewhether academic, social, business, or politicalthe only way to
succeed is to take a practical, rather than an idealistic, point of view. Pragmatic behavior
guarantees survival, whereas idealistic views tend to be superseded by simpler, more
immediate options."
1. Academics
1. Pragmatic
1. Students considered as pragmatic tend not to pursue education for its own sake
2. Focus is on optimizing GPA and survive current term
2. Idealistic
1. Students who pursue paths which interest them are more likely to have a meaningful
education.

2. Sense of mission about one's fascination motivates more participation in classroom

3. Academic discipline will serve idealistic student well later in life
2. Business
1. Business world shares both pragmatic in the sense of getting things done, idealistic in
the sense of a vision which seeks to make the firm more meaningful to the community.
2. Without a dream or vision idealist leadership company can be lost
3. Politics
1. Seems that politicians just want to achieve or stay in power
2. Idealists incite the masses and catalyze revolution
1. Ghandi and Martin King
3. Conclusion: Idealism is a requirement for long-term success

"The pressure to achieve high grades in school seriously limits the quality of learning. An
educational environment without grades would promote more genuine intellectual
development."
Pressure to achieve high grades in school can create stress for most students which is
counter-productive to learning and unhealthy.
Author goes too far to claim that it seriously limits the quality of learning. If a student is
dedicated to really understanding something, they will most likely do well on exams.
Without grades, there is no standard for academic progress. Grades serve as an indicator
to judge students applying for jobs and later schooling.
With no measure of progress, some students would not study at all and would
eventually become burdens to society.
Even students who are motivated only by grades still learn much about their field of
interest. Grades can facilitate learning, especially among students who take pride in their
GPAs and compete against each other for the highest score on a test. In this sense, grades
facilitate learning because it is difficult or impossible to do well on a test without
understanding the material.
In some countries, grades mean much more than they do in the US. Grades in other
countries can determine the quality of education that a student receives.

"Governments should provide funding for artists so that the arts can flourish and be
available to all people."

"For better or worse, education is a process that involves revising the ideas, beliefs, and
values people held in the past."
Education serves to provide facts and meaning behind the facts primarily. Education
does not serve to revise ideas, beliefs, and values held by people in the past. Education
does serve to explain why people might have held certain beliefs and ideals, but it does
not aim to rewrite the past, which is what the word "revising" suggests.
Educators do attempt to determine the beliefs of people in the past and reasons for why
people adopted these given beliefs.
Educators do attempt to determine how the ideals of certain classes of people were
formed and how they differed from the ideals held by people of different socioeconomic
classes.

"The study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives."
1. History provides inspiration
1. Student encouraged by the courage and tenacity of history's great explorers
2. Studying stories of courage can provide motivation in daily life
2. Innumerable lessons for living
1. Avoiding mistakes of past
1. Addressing and legislating moral issues
1. Prohibition
3. Value-clarification and perspective
1. Creating reflective ideals
4. Bullshit about how inventions have improved everyday tasks
1. Historical appreciation of inventions which facilitate everyday tasks
2. Appreciate freedoms present in daily lives
5. Conclusion: History can inspire, inform, guide, and nuture.
1. Study of history allows us to be more human. What does this mean? Should being
more human be an objective we should strive for???

"It is primarily through formal education that a culture tries to perpetuate the ideas it
favors and discredit the ideas it fears."
1. Grade school and even high school education involves cultural indoctrination
1. Young students taught not to question authority, think critically for themselves
2. Emphasis is desirable to an extent
1. Promotes memorization and learning of facts
2. College education affords students cultural perspective and a capacity for
understanding opposing viewpoints
1. Critical analysis and skepticism
2. College curriculum is influenced by benefactors
1. Such influences are minor especially in public university systems
3. More significant factors in society which favor thought control
1. System of laws judicial decisions carry the weight of law, sponsored by legislators
and those in power.
2. Mainstream media
1. Mirror culture's ideas and values
2. Distinguish between mainstream and alternative media
1. Mainstream is more dominant
3. Conclusion: Speaker might be correct with respect to high school and lower, but not
college. Other influences are present.

"The true strength of a country is best demonstrated by the willingness of its government
to tolerate challenges from it's own citizens."
Best governments protect the fundamental rights of its citizens.
If the fundamental rights of citizens are being protected, citizens will oppose those
individuals who challenge their rights through radical challenges to government.
It is true that there will occasionally be challenges from radical citizens who join or
form cults such as the KKK or Heaven's Gate. However, the radical views that these
people seek to spread will never take hold if the government provides the fundamental

rights to which its citizens are entitled.

During the 1960s MLK challenged the United States constitution in regards to the status
of African-American rights. Although some of these demonstrations erupted into civil
disobedience and riots, eventually the American people caused officials in government to
reform for equality and uphold fundamental rights to freedom already enjoyed by the
majority of Americans. Since no government is perfect, toleration is not necessarily a
desired trait as toleration implies that nothing is changed. Rather, government must
address and if necessary respond to injustices brought up by its people if it is to remain
stable.
Sometimes challenges to a government's constitution can literally divide a nation. The
Civil War is such an example where several Americans died over the issue of slavery. As
Abraham Lincoln once stated, "A house divided cannot stand", he realized that perhaps
the only thread that held America, even though divided by North and South together, was
unity around a common mission -- to preserve or abolish slavery. A government united
around a common cause can hold people together and become stable, at least in the short
term. Other examples include Nazi Germany where its people remained firm in their goal
amongst horrible atrocities where rotting bodies were thrown in the streets.
The true strength of a country is demonstrated by its ability to remain true to its beliefs
when being tested. Consider September 11th, 2001 in America. America was not
overcome by panic and turmoil as some terrorists had anticipated, but instead embraced
its freedoms as a source of strength. For this reason, I would argue that a countries ability
to remain resolute in its principles during a trial or time of struggle is the most effective
indicator for the strength of a country.
Also, a country cannot simply tolerate challenges that affect the rights of other citizens.
Government must therefore be concerned primarily with protecting the rights of its
citizens.

"All students should be required to take at least one course in ethics, even if taking the
course means a decreased emphasis on academic subjects."
Author places a high value on ethics.
I agree that there are benefits to taking a course in ethics. However, due to finite time
and financial resource constraints, other classes may more closely align with the student's
intellectual goals.
The author may be advising that more students take a course in ethics due to an increase
in corporate financial fraud in recent history. There have also been ethical concerns in
government such as Watergate and the recent admission by the Secretary of Defense that
phone calls are being monitored as part of a Homeland Security effort. However, it is
unclear that an ethics class will make people more ethical. I am willing to submit that in
the cases of the most serious ethical violations, the violators knew that they were not
acting ethically.
In some fields of academic pursuit, ethics is less relevant in the profession. For
example, there have been proportionally fewer cases of ethical violations by symphony
violinists compared to people in investment banking. This is not to say that violinists are
more ethical on average, but that some careers have had fewer ethical issues than others.
Author goes too far by insisting that all students take a class in ethics. I will admit that it
is a valuable course, but there are other equally-valuable courses as well and the net

overall benefit of taking such a course over all other options remains to be proven.

"Instant communication systems encourage people to form hasty opinions and give quick
replies rather than take the time to develop thoughtful, well-reasoned points of view."
Instant communication systems may encourage people to form hasty opinions and give
quick replies, but the amount of deliberation one invests into a reply is completely up to
the user.
The encouraged "impulsiveness" of a computer communications medium varies widely
from e-mail to real-time voice conversation. The transmission time of an electronic mail
may be instant, but this does not mean that the writer cannot invest as much time into the
e-mail compared to a paper letter.
E-mail allows more time for a thoughtful response compared to a face-to-face meeting
or phone conversation in which the replies must be given immediately for effective
communication. So some computer communication channels allow for more thoughtful
conversation compared to face-to-face meetings.
E-mail conversations however can be less polite than face-to-face conversations if the
people communicating do not know each other. This is similar to how many drivers on
the road are especially rude to each other and would act differently if they realized that
the person they were honking at was actually their neighbor or co-worker. Similar to
driving in public, an e-mail address may be no more personal than a license plate number.
And lacking the human connection, an e-mail to a stranger may be no more thoughtful
than a conversation with a telemarketer.
Another form of emerging computer communications is the instant messenger. Instant
messenger applications allow for a real-time conversation, where the two chatting parties
can send short messages to each other, but each fragment of text is not revealed until the
user selects to send it. So more thoughtful sentences can be arranged compared to
telephone communication where the two parties understand each other word-by-word
instead of phrase-by-phrase. Instant messengering therefore allows more thoughtful
conversation than an informal talk, but it still lacks the personal connection similar to email.
There is still something more personal to hearing another person's voice or seeing their
handwriting on a piece of paper than receiving snippets of text exchanged through
cyberspace. More personal, but not necessarily more thoughtful or well-reasoned.

"In many countries it is now possible to turn on the television and view government at
work. Watching these proceedings can help people understand the issues that affect their
lives. The more kinds of government proceedingstrials, debates, meetings, etcthat
are televised, the more society will benefit."
1. Benefits of access to government proceedings via television
1. Archival functions
1. Convey body language and other clues
2. Allow for remote viewing
3. Possible to view governments of other cities, nations at work
4. Television proceedings can be useful supplements
2. Cons:
1. Watching television is a passive experience

1. Viewer cannot voice opinions

2. Watching government proceedings as a substitute for active involvement
3. True business of government may take place behind closed doors, televised coverage
pertains more to marketing as a public relations event
3. Conclusion: Overall helpful as long as people do not become too lazy.

"The purpose of many advertisements is to make consumers want to buy a product so that
they will 'be like' the person in the ad. This practice is effective because it not only sells
products but also helps people feel better about themselves."
1. Practice of suggesting a product will help one become more like the model in the
product is probably effective.
1. There are exceptions, Budweiser frogs
2. Most ads portray a model whose life is enhanced by a given product.
1. Since these ads still exist, they are probably effective for some product types
3. Some ads do the opposite to suggest that their product will help one not be like the
model in the ad. Deodorant commercials, commercials dealing with impending
indigestional events, old people with bladder problems, etc.
2. Ads may help people feel better temporarily, but not long-term.
1. Diet pills, cosmetics
1. May cause health troubles
3. Related to socioeconomic status
1. Luxury cars and clothing
1. Genuinely successful people would not attribute these items as contributing to their
success.
1. Successful people may allow unsuccessful people to feel pathetic about their
accomplishments.
4. Conclusion: This advertising works, but does not make the consumer feel better,
actually makes consumer feel worse for failure, inadequacies, etc.

"When we concern ourselves with the study of history, we become storytellers. Because
we can never know the past directly but must construct it by interpreting evidence,
exploring history is more of a creative enterprise than it is an objective pursuit. All
historians are storytellers."
1. Speaker is suggesting that we can only know what we experience first-hand
1. Suggestion of storytelling goes too far
2. Differentiation between historian, archivist, and journalist
1. Archivist and journalist are responsible for preserving fact and evidence to the
historian
2. Historian pieces together facts provided to construct history
1. Historian must interpret
3. Must allow for interpretations to achieve differing viewpoints
1. Historians will disagree over causes for the same event
1. Helps create fuller understanding of history
4. Historians are not granted artistic license
1. Cannot add stuff to the story
5. Conclusion: Historians interpret, but they can't make stuff up.


"The worldwide distribution of television programs and advertisements is seriously
diminishing the differences among cultures."

"Some educational systems emphasize the development of students' capacity for

reasoning and logical thinking, but students would benefit more from an education that
also taught them to explore their own emotions."
1. Too much emphasis on reason and logic may be harmful to the arts
1. Creative writing and arts do require some cognitive ability
2. Emotions has little place in the educational system
1. Physical sciences, mathematics
2. Poly sci, history, social science also should not rely on emotions
1. Justice, fairness, equality
3. Emotions are subjective
4. Reason = communication, consensus, and compromise
3. Emotions invite irrational thought
1. Social problems are best solved through cause and effect logic
2. Talk shows show that culture puts too much emphasis on emotions
3. Reason and logic are better deterrents to war and tyranny
4. Conclusion: The discerning man wal