Good Ideas In The Circle By Dave Eggers

Benjamin Franklin argues that an overly excessive amount of something good is bad. I firmly agree with Franklin’s claim, and have seen the justification of this concept in American society, history, literature, and my own personal experiences.

In the novel Guns Germs and Steel, an American biologist named Jared Diamond is attempting to answer a question from a New Guinean politician named Yali, in July 1972. Yali asked him: (1)“Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people hat little cargo of our own?” For over thirty years, Diamond was investigating our inferred history for clues, to answer Yali’s question. He published a scientific opinion that explains how geography is to blame for the dispersal of power, as few societies and civilizations inhabiting in the Middle East had access to resources, such as the seeds of highly nutritious crops alike wheat and barley, and useful livestock such as cow and sheep, which others

The title of the book "Running on empty", by Peter G. Peterson tells what really happens behind the scenes of both Democratic party and Republican party, and how in their own way they are bankrupting our future. "Running on Empy" provides a cogent look at americans political, and physical deterioration describing the financial crisis in the United States. Having hands on experience with this several political and govenment views Mr. Peterson discuss how our country is totally in debt and how we as americans can rebuild our future. Being a republican Peterson calls out mistakes made by both parties being equally irresponsible and presenting nonpartisan solutions. As a Democrate I believe that the democratic party focuses more on everyone being equally happy and healthy and ignores the fact that they could help the financial crisis by decreasing some of the social programs they 've created that help people in our society. I truly believe that some of the programs that were created by the democrats have cost our citizems an exponential amt of money, with minimal improvement to our society. Also , a lot of these elected programs have handicapped our society. I personally believe that if you teach a person to fish , they will always eat. But, if you just feed people the fish you 've caught , it promotes laziness and the people will eventually starve. My take on this comparison is that the democrats only supply the fish to the less unfortunate and the Republicans teach the less

Acclaimed writer , Dave Eggers, in his riveting novel Zeitoun retells the story of a New Orleans painter as he finds himself in the city following Hurricane Katrina. Throughout his harrowing journey throughout the aftermath, Eggers exhibits the horrifying results a disaster can have on the dignity of victims. There are countless examples throughout the novel of those who have been dispossessed of their dignity and humanity, and there is no better example than that of Zeitoun himself. Egger’s portrayal of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina demonstrates the devastating effect a disaster has on the dignity of individuals and how it can strip the

Trauma is an experience of such intensity, that it overwhelms the boundaries of the self. The intensity of trauma might indeed overwhelm psychological resources, fragmenting the idea of the ego and altering the ability to sense self, and distinguish reality from fragmented reality. From such trauma many issues may arise, including psychosis. Psychosis is characterised by an impaired relationship with reality and can be seen through a depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness or paranoia, withdrawal from family and friends, and hallucinations. Psychosis could mean a complete loss in being able to distinguish between truth and reality, and losing a sense of self. Literary works, through different literary elements can shape the meaning of

Neil Postman writes, Amusing Ourselves to Death to address a television-based epistemology pollutes public communication and its surrounding landscape, not that it pollutes everything. The book was produced in 1984 in a time where television was an emerging epidemic and other forms of communication that today have taken flight, didn’t exist. It is directed to people who have let television drag them away from their Focus and attention to comprehend as they have lost the ability to bring forth your own knowledge and find meaning. Postman’s purpose to spread the word of this discourse and inform them of how much society is being set back due to the over indulging of television

In the article Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, he brings into question if our society has in fact, delved into the story line of a George Orwellian or Brave New World scenario. In George Orwell’s 1984, the culture had gotten rid of useful and sufficiently communicative language, as well as written text contradicting anything to do with the government. The characters, along with being forbidden individual or radical thoughts, were deprived of their individualism and history. The Brave New World scenario, as mentioned by Postman, portrays another story. Instead of having external oppression, as in 1984, the characters willingly gave themselves over to the love of technology that, “undo their capacity to think.” Postman believes that the American culture is moving towards a Huxleyan future and gives an example in a study taken in 1983 by the Nielsen Report on Television. He summarizes that the average American child watches 5,000 hours of television before they even start school, and 16,000 hours by the time they graduate high school. This startling data contributed to a growing alarm that both television and other aspects of daily life (church, school, news, politics) are leaning more towards the pull of entertaining its audience than delivering

Imagine a world where everyone’s enigmatic thoughts were exposed to the public. Today, in the vast cyberspace, anonymity leads to audacious actions of cruel words posted by rather introverted individuals who would not dare to speak those words in a face-to-face encounter. Furthermore, they refuse to be held accountable for their actions and interfere with peace by creating chaos. The phrases “secrets are lies”, “sharing is caring” and “privacy is theft” (CITE?) are explicated in Dave Eggers, The Circle. Mae Holland follows these three mantras, justified by leaders of the Circle, to make life-changing decisions. A world extracted of anonymity and instead, policed by an omniscient public is one cause to the negative effects of technology on one’s private life. In The Circle, programs are developed in the Circle to implicate improved and advanced living conditions through the use of technology. Ironically, these programs such as “Past Perfect”, “ChildTrack”, “SoulSearch” and “SeeChange” introduce immoral issues. The plot of The Circle by Dave Eggers portrays the negative aspects of technology on private lives shown through character experiences in the novel and raises unethical issues about the programs created in the Circle, which correspond to the influence technology has in the real world.

The various sanctuaries presented in Dave Egger’s The Circle embody the role of a safe haven for a distressed character, Mae Holland. There are multiple instances presented in the novel, such as the bay, the Circle itself, and Mae’s friendship with Annie Allerton. However, the welcoming positions of each sanctuary are unfortunately temporary, and ultimately disconnected from Mae by the Circle’s surveillance cameras. The bay, the Circle, and Annie are established as safe havens Mae reaches out to during times of stress and discomfort, and disrupted eventually by the lack of privacy, to her unfortunate expense.

Queer Theory is the best approach by which to examine Angels in America because using Queer Theory allows us to see/ illuminates the difference between socially constructed gender and sexual acts based on sexual identity. Queer theory argues that gender is a cultural construct, that the social norms of men being masculine and women being feminine were manipulated as a culture to be seen as normal. In Angel in America, Roy Cohn is an attorney with power in his work place; he expresses a strong masculine character with “clout”, strong political power. He mentions that he is a powerful man and how with only a few phone calls he is able to get a hold of the president. These are expectations of how a masculine male is supposed to act, with power, confidence, and without fear. Being a man of politics, Roy lives up to the expectations of what society believes a strong man is supposed to be and how he is supposed to behave. When he goes to see his doctor and he is told that he has AIDS, Roy refuses to admit that he has AIDS and Homosexual. Roy tells his doctor, Henry, “You Think these are names that tell you who someone sleeps with, but they don’t tell you that.” (Pg. 51) He argues that his identity is not homosexual because they do not have “clout”; that he is a man of clout and has a lot of it. Roy states, “Homosexuals are men who know nobody and who nobody knows. Who have zero clout.”(Pg. 51) An example of Queer Theory, Roy tells his doctor that labels like Homosexual, Gay,

The Circle is gradually becoming more fanatical with their demands to go transparent. Eamon and the rest of the Circlers support the idea of transparency, allowing one's self to be watched at all times. To their belief, anyone who doesn’t support transparency is a threat to the nation.The government constantly kept secrets from the public to protect every individual. Eamon’s prominent idea mesmerized the audience to the point where they have pressured branches of the government to go transparent. The Circle strong-arming those who do not hand over their privacy depicts the controlling side of the company.

In the book What’s It All About? by Julian Baggini discusses philosophy and the meaning of life. This reading was able to bring different perspectives on ideas of the meaning of life that I have thought about before. I was also able to learn about these concerns about life 's meaning or meaninglessness in a philosophical standpoint. Some of the chapters that I found interesting included the chapters titled looking for the blueprint, here to help, and becoming a contender.

The Next Decade, a novel by George Friedman, talks about the predictions of countries in the upcoming decade and how the United States should react to the various challenges. The novel’s first major claim is that the United States is actually an empire, similar to how Rome and Great Brian were. However, unlike the previous empires, the United States refuses to acknowledge its status as an empire. “What makes the United States an empire is the number of countries it affects, the intensity of the impact, and the number of people in those countries affected.” The implication of this quote is that the US has gotten to be so large, if the US decided to draw out of global affairs, the impact would be detrimental. Instead of escaping its duty to the world, Friedman claims that the United States must acknowledge its status as an empire and function as such in order to maneuver the next decade. This claim is a wise claim made by Friedman, but it his only claim of worth in the novel. In The Next Decade, Friedman fails to make his thesis credible because he doesn’t his sources, provide logical arguments on his predications of the future, or examine alternative possibilities.

In the novel, The Circle, Dave Eggers creates a future society centered on money and power from digital innovation. Mae Holland, the determined protagonist from a humble beginnings, receives an opportunity to gain high status within the company but faces the challenge of managing the loss of her human privacy in a technologically advancing community. By applying ideas like technological determinism and McDonaldization to the Circle’s intrusive security measures and inauthentic interaction, Eggers draws a direct parallel to America’s modern society and forces the readers to question the possible dystopian implications of a technocentric culture.

Today, individuals are sacrificing privacy in order to feel safe. These sacrifices have made a significant impact on the current meaning of privacy, but may have greater consequences in the future. According to Debbie Kasper in her journal, “The Evolution (Or Devolution) of Privacy,” privacy is a struggling dilemma in America. Kasper asks, “If it is gone, when did it disappear, and why?”(Kasper 69). Our past generation has experienced the baby boom, and the world today is witnessing a technological boom. Technology is growing at an exponential rate, thus making information easier to access and share than ever before. The rapid diminishing of privacy is leaving Americans desperate for change.