The Planners by Boey Kim Cheng

The boundaries between maintenance and the expansion of humanity should be known clearly by everyone, because nature is so unpredictable yet fragile that we should not be continuing to develop and expand blindly. One individual who shares such sentiment is Michael Pollan, in his book “The Idea of a Garden” he talked about a massive tornado which devastated a familiar forest of pines in New England. In the aftermath of this natural disaster, there was a debate about how they were going to clean up such a mess. Two solutions were provided, the first was to let nature as it is and not bother to replace anything that was lost. The second solution was make a huge overhaul, and cut down everything in the forest in order to plant new trees, as a result their descendants can enjoy the radiance that once was. The common theme was that

While reading different essays addressing the topic of nature, I came to the conclusion that they all shared the idea that being outside can make an impact in everyone no matter if you believe you only belong in a city or forest because it can bring you serenity and show you all the amazing things you wouldn't be able to see anywhere else. In Wendell Berry’s essay “An Entrance to the Woods,” he states that people can use the quiet of the woods to forget all their problems. Berry wrote “One is that, though I am here in body, my mind and my nerves too are not yet altogether here. We seem to grant to our high-speed roads and our airlines the rather thoughtless assumption that people can change places as rapidly as their bodies can be transported.” Nature has a way to transport ones mind and spirit elsewhere while the body is left behind on earth as we travel deep into thought. Adding on to that idea, the essay “A City Person Encountering Nature” by Maxine Hong Kingston the author explains that nature is a giver of peace and patience with its slow cycles that may frustrate people, but help keep a sane mind. Society is fast paced, making everyone feel that they need to keep the same pace in order to get things done, but we don't realize that although our bodies are moving and pushing, our minds are exhausted and cannot keep up with the fast pace. Kingston wrote “Preferring the city myself, I can better discern natural phenomena when books point them out; I also need to verify

In the book World Without Us, author Alan Weisman talks about what would happen to the natural and built environment we’ve established if humans suddenly disappeared. In Chapter two, Unbuilding Our Home, Weisman effectively informs his readers of the total control that nature has on our society by describing the immediate effect it takes on our own homes. He forces the readers to recognize that we coexist with nature yet nature has the upper hand on man-made objects. Weisman achieves this by targeting the reader’s emotions through description and personification and by providing insight that appeals to the reader’s intellect of the future.

There are different factors that affect happiness and it is rooted from the country you were born in. “We are shaped not only by our current geography, but by our ancestral one as well" (Weiner 112). Most countries have different culture that contributes to people 's happiness. People who live in America will not be as happy as the one who lived in Moldova. In Eric Weiner 's, book The Geography of Bliss. He was searching for data on happiness. He conducts a study on how people in different countries understand and measure their happiness. The biggest factors that affect people 's happiness are the environment and cultural differences. Where you live is a big factor of who you are. People find happiness when they feel comfortable and

As human beings we’re all affluent to live on this fascinating place called earth. We live everyday normally just as every other human, animal or insect. But we eradicate insects and animals as if they aren’t as important as we are. Nature is being inherently demolished by humans who are oblivious to know that all living things on the earth have a purpose . However, Annie Dillard, well-known for her ambiguous nonfiction books help support the importance of nature and why we shouldn't intrude upon it. For example, Dillard’s excerpt from “The Fixed” about a Polyphemus Moth uses countless rhetorical strategies to construct a compelling message about the peace and beauty of nature, but it also illustrates how easily mankind can destroy it. Therefore, a part of nature is to be naturally

Different countries have different cultural values and traits. People with different culture have a huge difference than people in an organization. Culture is the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another (dictionary.com). In the book, "The Geography of Bliss" by Eric Weiner, he discussed the different values and traits of different countries during his journey in finding the data of happiness. In his journey, he mentioned some countries particularly Netherlands, Switzerland, Bhutan and Qatar. People in Netherlands have known for their tolerance, while people in Switzerland have known for their self-policing and thriftiness. In addition, people in Bhutan are different they are compassionate, they believe in imaginative possibilities, they are religious, and do not value money. Moreover, Qatar is opposite of the three countries. Unlike Bhutan, Qatar people beliefs depend on money, privilege, and luck. Indeed, culture has significant effect in people 's values and traits that causes cultural differences in different countries.

thoughtful planners like their 'organized ' counterparts… Moreover, visionary killers are said to be 'act focused ' because the act of killing itself is their immediate goal. Some visionary killers come to believe that they are someone else while others feel compelled to murder at the behest of entities such as the Devil or God. Both 'God mandated ' and 'demon mandated ' serial killers are fairly common and well documented (Bonn, para. 3-4).

As the future approaches, automation and technology are quickly evolving and diminishing the amount of jobs available for Americans. American work-life has evolved drastically over the years. Certain jobs are being replaced by drones and robots, leaving many Americans unemployed. It has caused a slight shift in how we work. However, the continuation of work is still alive. In the article “A World Without Work,” (2015) the author Derek Thompson expresses how people are losing their jobs. Nevertheless, they’re using their hobbies and talents to generate money. Someone might sell their poetry and written work when they have lost their job generating income while also fostering creativity. President Nixon’s “Address to The Nation on Labor

David M. Potter theme of Impending Crisis is the study of sectional conflict dealing primarily with political events that led up to or caused southern states to secede from the Union resulting in the Civil War. Potter contends that during the expansionist period of the 1840s the country was experiencing a growth of American nationalism, but “the emergence of the sectionalism which almost destroyed the nation was symbolized by an amendment to an appropriation bill which was never enacted.” For the next fifteen years the Wilmot Proviso (1846) and the issue of slavery would become “a catalyst of all sectional antagonisms, political, economic, and cultural…opened the floodgates of sectionalism, for now all the pent-up moral indignation which had been walled in by the constitutional inhibition could be vented into the territorial question.”

General Franks and joint planners identified various strengths in the Iraq pre-invasion planning efforts of the Joint Staff. For instance, throughout development of the Iraqi operational approach, planners recognized Saddam Hussain and the City of Bagdad as strategic Centers of Gravity (COG) as a major sources of Iraqi power and strength to the Hussain regime.5 (JP5-0, p. III-22) By comparison, Karl Von Clausewitz referred to the COG as the “the hub of all power and movement, which everything depends or the point at which all our energies should be directed.”6 (JP5-0, p. III-22) In addition, General Frank’s and planners’ operational approach acknowledged the Iraqi Army and the Republican Guard as key operational COGs targeted in pre-invasion

Throughout the text “Solitary Stroller and the City,” author Rebecca Solnit explores the complex relationships between the walking individual and living in the city. The title brings together three central ideas; walking, the city, and solitariness as an individual.. These three central ideas are tied together and used to reveal deeper meanings and relationships within the text. When analyzing Solnit’s work, the reader is left to identify a complex relationship between the central ideas and how the geography of a city influences all the three of the central ideas. Solnit makes claims throughout the text that are strongly suggestive of a relationship between the ability to walk and its derivability based on the “when” and “where” concepts. The geography and or location can be explored through the comparison of rural walking versus urban walking, the comparison between the cities of London and New York, and the solitariness associated with the geography and structure in one city versus another. Spanning the entire text is the idea that the city influences the walker and their individualism among the crowd, or their perception of solitude. Solnit compares London walkers and New York walkers, exploring how their different geographical locations define their city as a whole as well as the individual. Geography plays a crucial role in one 's idea of solitude and individualism.

In “The Governor's Job,” Jim Ihlenfeld tries to prove that Bruce Rauner, the governor of Illinois, projects his focus on “fighting Trump,” rather than attending to his responsibilities. The author claims that J.B. Pritzker supports Bruce Rauner by producing costly television advertisements, where Rauner petitions for votes, even though the governor strongly voices that his focal point clearly lies on Trump.

E. O. Wilson, argues that the organisms which compose nature “run the world precisely as we would wish it to be run, because humanity evolved within living communities and our bodily functions are finely adjusted to the idiosyncratic environment already create.” This sentence highlights the sophistic nature of exemptionalism, which purports that we are above nature and thus not bound by its laws. I will further address the fallacies of this view later in this eassy. Wilson goes on to argue that nature is the key to our past, and that our past is the our key to self understanding. Therefore, if we destroy nature we not only lose vast amounts of untapped

Author Thomas L. Friedman analyses the technological advances that are creating a level economic playing field with previously disadvantaged countries rising in knowledge and wealth rivaling that of the United States and other world powers in the world. Telephone and computer technology, previously a stronghold only of developed countries, is now easily accessible and has been accessed and mastered by countries such as China and India, making these nations competitive. Friedman perceives the flattening effect as so insightful as to be compared in scope to the Industrial Revolution.

Nature is merely our instrument of conquering one another. By manipulating what already exists, we create everything from nuclear warheads to high speed internet. The continuous competition between men feeds off of our technological advancement—none of which would be possible without the resources Nature provides for us. And rather than being grateful for the unequivicable power so generously offered us by our environment, we instead mock its existence. We distract from the cunningness and cruelty of our efforts toward mankind by relabeling our target ‘Nature’ rather than ‘each other’. By convincing ourselves we are somehow beginning to have Nature within our control and understanding, we forget that Nature is really only the means, not the end of our conquest. We will not be satisfied until we have defeated ourselves. As Lewis puts it, “Human nature will be the last part of Nature to surrender to Man. The battle will then be won… But who, precisely, will have won it?” (The Abolition of Man, 421)