― Ayn Rand, Anthem
A place to discuss the work of Anthem by Ayn Rand. It is tough to find a quote that doesn't spoil the short read, but...“The word "We" is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it. It is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal the wisdom of the sages. What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it? What is my wisdom, if even the fools can dictate to me? What is my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and impotent, are my masters? What is my life, if I am but to bow, to agree and to obey? But I am done with this creed of corruption. I am done with the monster of "We," the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame.”
― Ayn Rand, Anthem
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Thesis Statement Time Folks!
The Challenge: Take the position of a high-ranking American military decision maker. Your daily job, among other important tasks during war years, is to advise the President on important war matters. It is August 1st, 1945, and you have just received word from your subordinates that “the bomb” is ready for use if the President wishes. Advise President Truman on whether or not he should drop the atomic bomb on Japan.
•Paragraph 1: Be sure to start by acknowledging at least three reasons from the other side of the argument (in order to give your decision more credence). •Paragraph 2: But / However / That being said…It is in my expert opinion that the United States… •The final paragraph of your post should explain, in detail, why you believe your decision (whether to drop the atomic bomb or not) is the correct decision. Since I am trying to recreate a debate here, it is very important when you post to check the box that sends an email to you whenever someone directly replies to your post, whether it is me or another student. Like the previous post, lets try to have this completed by 6 AM tomorrow so I can assess, provide feedback, and begin looking at the immediate and long term effects of the Second World War. Lets start off this week with some basics before diving into the atomic age with the bombing of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the resultant V-J Day on August 14th/15th, 1945.
Questions to discuss:
Due: It would be great if we had this done by 6 AM Tuesday, 3.31.2020 Remember after posting to check the box that will notify when someone responds to your post. Hopefully we can create a bit of an online debate about the weekend and today's material. Which of the following statements does not describe fascism?
Thesis Statement: Compare and contrast government responses to the economic destitution caused in the wake of WWI and the Great Depression for two of the following nations:
Answer the following questions for each of the ideologies in competition during WWII.
a) Fascism (Italy) b) Nazism (Germany) c) Communism (USSR) d) Democratic Socialism (France and Britain / USA) e) Authoritarian of the Radical Right (Japanese)
Try to post your answers by tonight as this will lead tomorrow's lesson: WWII - The Axis Advance Thoughts, Questions and Answers...
This blog space is for the discussion of culture and art in the West during the 1920's and early 1930's. What do you think Dali's paintings "mean?" You like? Dislike? How about the Jazz? If you would like to discuss anything regarding culture in today's lesson, this is the spot.
I would like to use this DISCUSSION POST to satisfy a few purposes.
1) Have a WWI question? post it and lets see who can get to the answer first! 2) Want to share answers regarding the CAUSE and EFFECTS page and/or Pandemic questions? Do it here. 3) Write a DBQ for the 2015 Responses to the Flu Pandemic prompt. It would be awesome if we all took this challenge and posted an essay by Sunday morning. 4) Deep Thoughts: a) find a piece of political propaganda (any era) and see if you we can determine its intended audience and purpose? This could be fun, right? Can you stump Sherer? b) Movie Thoughts: Did you watch All Quiet on the Western Front? What were your thoughts? What was the author's purpose / POV? c) anything else that you find relevant.
As discussed, we need evidence about the Classical Persians due to their importance, both in the Classical Era and for later history. Submit your research in blog posts but make sure to label each post with the relevant SPICE-T course theme (this part is graded). Use ALL CAPS for key term "evidence." Include links to great resources for future access as well. Try not to copy/paste voluminous texts as I expect us to read through this post and we wouldn't want to make it too taxing...like the Persians...who levied historically "fair" taxes.
ex. P - Persia ruled through a system of SATRAPS (districts) with regional SATRAPIES (governors). https://www.freeman-pedia.com/ Hazah! Historical Research!!! A) What were Panem et Circensus and what PURPOSE did they serve in ancient Rome?
B) How were Panem et Circensus significant to ancient Rome? C) Since we are devoting a good deal of time and thought to the relationship between the Fall of Western Rome and their Bread and Circuses, maybe it would be a good time to see if there is any parallels in modern-day America. Drop your thoughts below and be sure to including your first name and last initial. email is not required. How will technological innovation affect, alter, disrupt, break, or preserve, the economic cycles initiated with the advent of the industrial revolution and capitalism?
After today's tasty musical selection, construct a POV statement for Neil Young's song "Cortez The Killer" being sure to address PURPOSE and RELIABILITY. Happy POVing!
Due by Friday 10.14
Which political ideology would be best used in ruling modern-day Iraq?
No more free "A" for practice kiddos, this one is for keepsies. Write your best POV per our class rules for Plato's Apology. Due at Midnight tonight, don't be tardy.
Compare and contrast the continuities and changes between first and second-wave civilizations in Afro-Eurasia and/or Americas between the years 3500 to 500 BCE.
Using our rules in class, please post your best POV statement for today's Primary Source.
...in that.... ...because... Compare and contrast [ a) the social structures b) the political systems c) the interaction d) the culture OR e) the economics] of two of the following human societal arrangements:
•gatherer & hunter societies •agricultural societies •pastoral societies •Compare and contrast the similarities and differences: - Please include: - Thesis statement including a time, a place and 3 categories of analysis Be sure to post ONLY your thesis statement by midnight on Monday. Step 2: Prompt Change: Compare and contrast pastoral and settled agricultural societies. *Directions can be found under the WHAP main tab...happy thesising! **Due, again, at Midnight ![]() Propaganda Bonus Assignment: As we have discussed, the war for public opinion was never more important than with the advent of modern, total war. Couple of ways to accrue some extra points here. The first is to respond to one of these quotes with your own perspective / evidentiary-based comment. Another is to post an example of modern propaganda and explain its details. This later option would obviously garner more points as it requires more time and laborious thinking...but I bet it would be worth it! Happy History WHAP. Image to the right courtesey of Jeff Gates, Chamomile Tea Party; for more, visit: http://chamomileteaparty.com) “And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” ― George Orwell, 1984 “All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescapably propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda.” ― Upton Sinclair “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” ― George Orwell “It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and a psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words, and words can be molded until they clothe ideas and disguise.” ― Joseph Goebbels “There is nothing in the record of the past two years when both Houses of Congress have been controlled by the Republican Party which can lead any person to believe that those promises will be fulfilled in the future. They follow the Hitler line - no matter how big the lie; repeat it often enough and the masses will regard it as truth.” ― John F. Kennedy “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” ― H.L. Mencken, In Defense Of Women “Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.” ― Noam Chomsky, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda “We become slaves the moment we hand the keys to the definition of reality entirely over to someone else, whether it is a business, an economic theory, a political party, the White House, Newsworld or CNN.” ― B.W. Powe, Towards A Canada Of Light “Those who are capable of tyranny are capable of perjury to sustain it.” ― Lysander Spoone “Violators cannot live with the truth: survivors cannot live without it. There are those who still, once again, are poised to invalidate and deny us. If we don't assert our truth, it may again be relegated to fantasy. But the truth won't go away. It will keep surfacing until it is recognized. Truth will outlast any campaigns mounted against it, no matter how mighty, clever, or long. It is invincible. It's only a matter of which generation is willing to face it and, in so doing, protect future generations from ritual abuse.” ― Chrystine Oksana, Safe Passage to Healing: A Guide for Survivors of Ritual Abuse “It is always a much easier task to educate uneducated people than to re-educate the mis-educated.” ― Herbert M. Shelton, Getting Well “The American people are free to do exactly what they are told.” ― Ward Churchill “It is possible to argue that the really influential book is not that which converts ten millions of casual readers, but rather that which converts the very few who, at any given moment, succeed in seizing power. Marx and Sorel have been influential in the modern world, not so much because they were best-sellers (Sorel in particular was not at all a widely read author), but because among their few readers were two men, called respectively Lenin and Mussolini.” ― Aldous Huxley “But the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success.” ― Adolf Hitler “Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally the common people don't want war neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” ― Hermann Göring “Information is controlled because the free flow of truth is not always expedient for those wishing to maintain control.” ― Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life “State propaganda, when supported by the educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a big effect. It was a lesson learned by Hitler and many others, and it has been pursued to this day.” ― Noam Chomsky, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” ― Winston S. Churchill “Propaganda is as powerful as heroin; it surreptitiously dissolves all capacity to think.” ― Gil Courtemanche, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali “A fool will believe anything.”--PROVERBS 14:15 Final Directions: EACH student needs to have the following turned in [either electronically or traditionally] by the beginning of class on Monday, November 30th: a) your assigned SOAPSTone b) your assigned Point of View Statement c) answers to your assigned questions d) answers to the four questions below (they should be dripping wet with evidence yo!) ex. If you were in the Marco Polo group (Marco!...........that was a fun game!), you should be submitting the following: a SOAPStone and POV statement for document 7.2 with the assigned four (a-d) questions for that document as well as individual answers to the four using evidence questions below. *No length requirement, duh; QUALITY over QUANTITY always my little humans, always. Using Evidence: 1. Describing a foreign culture: Each of these documents were written by an outsider to the people or society he is describing. What different postures toward these foreign cultures are evident in the sources? How did the traveler’s various religions shape their perception of places they visited? How did they view the women of their host societies? Were these travelers more impressed by the similarities or by the differences between their home cultures and the ones they visited? 2. Defining the self-perception of authors: What can we learn from these documents about the men who wrote them? What motivated them to travel so far from home? How did they define themselves in relationship to the societies they observed? 3. Assessing the credibility of sources: What information in these sources would be most valuable for historians India, China and West Africa in the 3rd Wave Era? What statements in these sources might be viewed with the most skepticism? You will want to consider the author’s purpose and their intended audiences in evaluating their writings. 4. Considering outsider’s accounts: What are the advantages and limitations for historians in drawing on the writings of foreign observers? In your assigned group, please create and post a SOAPStone analysis and POV statement for your assigned primary document. Next, respond to the corresponding questions. DUE BY MIDNIGHT! 7.1 - A Chinese Buddhist in India a. What surprised or impressed Xuanzang on his visit to India? What features of Indian life might seem the most strange to a Chinese visitor? b. How might these selections serve to illustrate or to contradict the descriptions of Indian civilization found in chapters 3-5? c. What can this document contribute to our understanding of Buddhist practice in India? 7.2 – A European Christian in China a. How would you describe Marco Polo’s impression s of the city? What did he notice? What surprised him? b. Why did Marco Polo describe the city as “the finest and the noblest in the world”? c. What marks his account of the city as that of a foreigner and a Christian? d. What evidence of China’s engagement with a wider world does this account offer? 7.3 – An Arab Muslim in West Africa
a. How would you describe Ibu Battuta’s impression of Mali? What surprised or shocked him? What did he appreciate? b. What does Ibu Battuta’s description of his visit to Mali reveal about his own attitudes and his image of himself? c. What might historians learn from this document about the nature and extent of Islam’s penetration in this West African empire? What elements of older and continuing West African cultural traditions are evident in the document? d. What specifically does Ibu Battuta find shocking about the women he encounters on his travels in West Africa? e. What indications of Mali’s economic involvement with a wider world are evident in this document? Using our ten in-class examples, please identify the sole correct thesis statement and copy / paste it into this forum. Don't trip if it doesn't appear; this one can only be seen by me!
Which classical political ideology would be best used in modern-day Iraq? Explain with historical and modern evidence.
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