Colonel Graff Cons

One of the greatest and more fundamental gifts of life is the autonomy that comes with being a sentiment human being. This hasn’t always been considered a human right, however, and many eastern hemispheres are struggling to catch on to the concept that people should be allowed to make the decisions they choose without the external pressure to do otherwise. Thus, the question that should be asked is whether or not every human being on this planet is free, whether they should be free and what does free really mean. For many, freedom is all about that ability to to choose what they want, make their own decision and be able to move around as they please. Freedom is about equity, free speech and the guarantee of life, no matter how good or bad.

Safety and freedom are both essential components of society and many argue over which component holds the most desirability in modern civilization. Many, like H.L. Mencken, believe that humanity’s desire to be safe trumps the want to be free. This view may hold true for some but there are varying interpretations of what is means to be safe and have freedoms.

People are not like severed fingers from a hand because they are individuals with their own ideas and personalities; they need a ruler, but they don’t necessarily have to be controlled.

From the earlier times in our lives till now, we humans have been struggling hard to be free and independent of the things that limit our right to be free. And even though some people say that having security in life can regulate our lives and messy societies, I believe that too much security or limitation causes more dilemmas. Also, by being independent and free, one can learn new things rather than just by sticking to some widely held beliefs. We can see many examples related to this assumption everywhere in our lives, movies, books, and history.

People around Ender were concerned about his desire to conform, because he was their last hope. The author wrote, “He’s too malleable” (1). Ender was easily persuaded to do things, according to the International Fleet. “Too willing to submerge himself in someone else’s will,” the author wrote (1). The I.F. officials worried, because they were afraid he would help, or have compassion for the enemy.

“I have freedom,” you say? Do you really? Perhaps, in some ways, you do. But in the end, you’re just another puppet being controlled by invisible strings whether you know it or not. “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains,” Jean-Jacques Rousseau once said. In society, man is “chained” and controlled by the government, by pressure of conforming to the social norms, by wealth and social class, and by one’s desires and emotions. Prior to birth, man is not restricted by such factors but that is merely a fleeting moment as he is slowly exposed to more and more of the world. I agree that “everywhere [man] is in chains,” but on the contrary, I believe man is already chained from the start—that man is never free. In the novel, Brave New

At its core, is mankind essentially good, or does it use law and order to mask its evil? Through his book The Lord of the Flies, William Golding causes questions concerning the ethicality of humanity to rise to the surface of the mind. The stripping away of distractions and structure he depicts in his all-too-real novel reveals society’s true nature. As a reader studies the settings, characters and plots of Lord of the Flies and how they relate to significant events in recent times, Golding’s message of the evil nature of humanity becomes increasingly clear and impactful.

What does it truly mean to be human? To be alive? To breathe? To be sentient? The answer is not exactly clear, but that doesn’t stop people from at least trying to find the answer. The main character of George Orwell’s novel, 1984, Winston, attempts to stay human in a totalitarian society. Staying human doesn’t just mean to be alive and healthy, but to be able to think and have a personality. A few major questions have been raised because of this philosophy. What does it mean to be human based on Winston and Oceania? How are the people of Oceania dehumanized by this? What does Orwell mean by all of this? Staying human means to have a personality and freedom of the personal mind.

Gerald Graff’s desire as an author and a professor at University of Illinois, is “For American students to do better-- all of them, not just twenty percent“ because he believes that education is not only for the elite few (3). His Clueless in Academe How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind strongly emphasizes that the faculty have the tools to succeed, yet does not give these tools to the students. Graff has first hand experience dealing with educational system and troubled students, so he explain his observations and how can education be improved. Throughout his work, Graff compels the reader to accept that professors must initiate and reach out to the students. He implies

Humans have come a long way, being able to create advanced technology, many different ways to communicate with one another, and many different ways to live, and each human in the world has a role in the world. Each human is unique and have many different traits that define one another. For example, in Frederick Douglass’s “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, written by Frederick Douglass himself, is an autobiography of his life growing up around slavery and his path to freedom, and also how becoming literate changed his whole perspective on the way he lived. Another example would be in Abraham Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address, where he discusses the fact that the civil war was unnecessary and also how the country should end the war and that they should help each other rebuild the nation together. A final example would be in The Minister’s Black Veil, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, who writes about Mr. Hooper who wears a black veil, and the townspeople have no clue why he’s wearing it, and this scares the town and the people around him. This veil holds a heavy toll on him because it represents his sins that he needs to atone for. Although humans are naturally evil and make decisions that are based to benefit themselves, ultimately the trait of the human is to be cowardice, fearful, and optimistic, therefore we should not succumb to our greediness and instead become a better person.

Ender grew up in a harsh and belligerent society, run by a secretive and overly patriotic government. Because of Ender’s personality, he began to empathize with his own enemies, but still fought them, albeit somewhat reluctantly. Due to the conflicting emotions of empathy and hostility, Ender’s mind began to wither with the thought of the damage he had done to another race. Ender’s militaristic and desperate society forces him to unwillingly commit genocide to an extent where Ender’s withering and empathetic mind begins to question the consequences of his

The boys in Lord of the Flies are given total freedom, but are only able to maintain order for a short period of time before everything goes south. “In Lord of the Flies the pain is in the struggle between the boys who revert, through fear, to a primitive state and turn into savage hunters, and those who are trying vainly to preserve foresight and order,” (Pritchett). The boys are thrust into an environment where they no longer have the pressures of society compelling them to be civilized. “In the initial encounter with the pig, Jack is unable to overcome his trained aversion to violence to even strike a blow at the animal. Soon, however he and his choirboys-turned-hunters make their first kill. They rationalize that they must kill the animals for meat. The next step back from civilization occurs and the meat pretext is dropped; the real objective is to work their will on others,” (Slayton). That is just one example of the horrors that can occur when freedom is given to those who are not ready to use it responsibly. It is clear that freedom can be good or bad, that being said, the opposite must also be true; there are some cases where a controlled lifestyle can be beneficial to those living

An American essayist, H.L. Mencken stated, “The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants be safe”. I disagree with this statement because an “average man” wants to live. In order to live you must have two necessities; freedom and safety. I believe neither is more important than one another because being free gives you the opportunity to a safe nation, and a safe nation allows you to be free. You cannot live a life without exploring and growing because that would not be considered living. On the other hand, you cannot expect to be free without safety around you.

The issue being debated in the article “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff is street smarts versus book smarts. Gerald Graff is an English professor at the University of Illinois and has written many books. The author claims that people are better off if they are more street smart than book smart. The authors is very persuasive using real life examples. I although disagree with this claim. I think that you need an equal mix of both street and book smarts.

Humans have basic needs which include food, water, and shelter. They also have base emotions and instincts, which are the very things that create humanity. However, these needs and emotions are easily manipulated, a theme prevalent in George Orwell’s 1984 and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. While these two stories have dissimilar plots, they have one common theme; the destruction of the individual through manipulation. The use of fear and hunger, in both 1984 and Lord of the Flies helps each government to eliminate the individual; in turn creating a mob mentality and a future in which no individuality can survive. In George Orwell’s 1984 and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the manipulation of human needs and emotions by the