Coercion by Douglas Rushkoff

In The Perils of Obedience, Stanley Milgram introduces us to his experimental studies on the conflict between one’s own conscience and obedience to authority. From these experiments, Milgram discovered that a lot of people will obey a figure in authority; irrespective of the task given - even if it goes against their own moral belief and values. Milgram’s decision to conduct these experiments was to investigate the role of Adolf Eichmann (who played a major part in the Holocaust) and ascertain if his actions were based on the fact that he was just following orders; as most Germans accused of being guilty for war crimes commonly explained that they were only being obedient to persons in higher authority.

“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph,” imagine hearing that when you need motivation in what seems like the scariest time of your life. Thomas Paine created this pamphlet, Common Sense, in January 1776. Some may question the purpose, and that was to motivate Americans to fight for what they believe in, what they want and what they deserve during the British conflict. Throughout Crisis No. 1, Thomas Paine uses pathos to persuade the colonist and revolutionaries to go to war against the British. Paine talks about how the future will improve, and mentions God many times throughout his pamphlet.

In “The Case for Torture,” Michael Levin presents logical fallacies that originate at the authors desire to relate the importance of his message. Though his specific argument is a very plausible solution to a taboo problem, the manner in which he presents it has some fallacies that cause it to be unsupported

If a person had the option to change the world for the better, would they? If they would, then why is it when a person gets minor inconvenienced by a small problem like not having enough chips for the bean dip, they just accept the problem and they do not do anything about it. William F. Buckley Jr. Wrote an essay called, "Why Don't We Complain". Buckley is giving the readers his experience on both the lack of care within the political system and also the apathy people give when it comes to life's minor roadblocks. Society needs to learn that fixing minor problems when given the chance is better than letting a problem grow so much that it starts affecting other people. The audience that this essay is directed to will learn the message of why people should complain, and the purpose the author has to complain.

Americans may often forget that immigrants are human beings too. A lot of them may not see all the risks that comes with trying to cross the border along with all the issues and problems immigrants face. In Aviva Chomsky’s “How immigration became illegal” she tries to get Americans to understand what it might feel like trying to come to America and really shows it from an immigrant perspective.

Power is earned, not given. There are many different types of power that people can earn. Power becomes a problem when it is not questioned or tested. Therefore, the one with the power would have total control over anything or anyone they wanted, or they would feel that way. People with power feel invincible when it is not questioned. Throughout history it has been proven that this creates a problem. For example, Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal is similar to the scandal with Father Flynn in Doubt. Doubt, by John Patrick Shanley, exemplifies an underlying message that unquestioned faith leads to abuse of power. Specifically, shown in Father Flynn’s reputation, cover up, and resignation, which all correlate to Richard Nixon’s

In David Friedman’s book, “The Machinery of Freedom”, he argues for anarcho-capitalism, the theory that believes the state should be abolished because it is unnecessary and a free-market should be put into place. Usually, anarcho-capitalism is defended from one of two views, consequentialist or deontologist. Friedman takes the consequentialist side believing that it is actually more desirable for the market to provide law and protection than the state because it gives the people choice to choose what they believe and competition will promote improvement. Deontologists, however, believe that any initiation of force is immoral, so they would prefer a law banning the initiation of force rather than private protection agencies. Despite

Thomas Paine, a revolutionary, intellectual, and supporter of American independence from England published a book titled, “Rights of Man” which deals with the government shielding the natural rights of its people. Initially, the book captures the diverse aspect of this nation, but it fails to reveal the struggles that arise to preserve and adapt to such a society. Paine expresses his optimism towards the supposed perfection of American society, as one “made up...of people from different nations,” with certain expectations. Additionally, the time gap between “Rights of Man” and modern America cannot be neglected. Paine wrote during an era in which “constructing a government on the principles of society and the rights of man” was the essential objective of the country. However, modern-day America experiences opposite ideals and Paine’s theory no longer remains true because of the educational gap between the rich and poor, terrorism, and racial profiling.

As a marketer, he is only thinking about how he can promote himself or his clients. Again, he stresses that he is “outing” the media industry for the “monster” that it is. But he fails to associate the fact that he is still taking advantage of the way media works. He has a blog on the Huffington Post website with longs of articles. He uses the same click-bait type of headlines.

Time Ain’t Money by Douglas Rushkoff was one of the essays I began to notice the differences in compared to when I did the first essay. Initially, I perceived the interpretation with low recognition because I was still in the range of not fully grasp the idea of it. The first draft of Rushkoff was a repeat of the mistake I did on my first essay of another article. It was when I was given the example essay of a student portfolio was I able to understand what the difference of my paper and theirs was. I changed almost everything in the Rushkoff essay, I deleted all my body paragraphs. I used a different approach of style. In my revised paper, I did not summarize and say what the author was doing. I wrote it as I was the author and try to use

The phrase, “We the people”, holds a lot of meaning to American citizens. As the first three words of the United States Constitution, it signifies a core value intended to act as a unifying factor in America’s democratic society: popular sovereignty. This is the idea of a majority rules, or to put more simply, the one with the most votes wins. The U.S. system of government relies upon the fact that the American people are capable of coming together to make informed decisions about matters that will ultimately better the lives of everyone. Despite this, however, there are certain instances in which a minority group will impose on or have more influence than the majority group. This phenomenon occurs all the time in politics, as politicians tend to regard the predilections of small groups of citizens as opposed to the general populace.

In everyday life, we are always faced with the task of determining whether certain actions are right or wrong. In the article, Right and Wrong in the Real World, Joshua Halberstam discuses how people process and deal with the ethical dilemmas they are faced with on an everyday basis. Halberstam takes a look at “the complex relationship between communal and personal ethics, between moral theory and our everyday ethical decisions” (Halberstam 2006), while looking at where moral questions arise in these situations. He asks readers to consider certain situations that they come across daily to question whether or not the decisions the make are ethical; for example “The ATM spits out an extra $100 in your favor. Keep the money and your mouth shut?”

What is Money and Time? “Time Ain’t Money” by Douglas Rushkoff is a manifesto regarding the infinitely changing business world. In the manifesto, Rushkoff describes “presentism” which focuses on the present more so than the past and even the future in relation to money and time. Rushkoff is trying to enlighten us of the changes to the way we do business and how consumers want business to be done. Throughout the manifesto, we get a sense of Rushkoff’s opinion on our money system and how times have changed.

“You can manipulate consumers into wanting, and therefore buying, your products. It’s a game.” ~ Lucy Hughes, co-creator of “The Nag Factor”

Rodion Romanovitch is a former student who lives in poverty, he took a time of his education because he did not have the money to keep studying. Rodion commits an unforgivable crime, in which he will never be able to forgive himself. Rodion can be intelligent, he came up with a plan for all the possible situations that could have happened. He can also be sneaky, for example when he sneaked out of the apartment where he had committed the crime without getting caught by the two men that were waiting outside of the flat for the old pawnbroker. Rodion can also be modest, he grew up with very little money, unsure of where his next meal would come from. In the book, he does not try to act better than he actually is, he does not have as much money