What essay have you found to be the most enlightening and why?
I really enjoyed the Appiah Essays we read at the beginning of they year, and it’s something I think I will remember. A part of the reason I enjoyed it was because I agreed with it, but also because there were a lot of anecdotal stories that exemplified the idea of Cosmopolitanism. The essay was written from a global perspective, including stuff about Ghana, but also from previous decades which really underscored Appiah’s points.
What essay did you disagree with the most and why?
I really disagreed with Bret Stephen’s article “When #MeToo Goes Too Far”. Even when I was reading it for the first time there was very little I agreed with and could get behind. I think even if you agreed that #MeToo was going in the wrong direction, you would think Bret Stephen’s article wasn’t great. We talked about on Zoom that the whole article was based on a straw man argument, which really only supported my negative opinion of this article. #MeToo was an important movement and I don’t think it needed men in order to succeed. The tone I got when I read the article seemed like he disagreed with the movement as a whole, not just the part that had gone too far.
Which of the three sections interested you the most and why?
My favorite section was the first one on how change occurs. I think it set the theme for the class well and using Gladwell and Appiah for the first essay set a good foundation. They were pretty opposed in their viewpoints, and if we had to start of the semester with an article like Chen’s where you have to extrapolate the argument I would have found the class a lot harder.
The only think I will say is that I wish we didn’t do the “This American Life” Podcast because I felt cheated that the study that the whole segment was based on was debunked. Like we shouldn’t do a whole discussion on an article if it’s whole premise is false, unless the fact that it’s false is part of the discussion. We treated this article as if it were true, and then Gavin pointed out that it wasn’t which was a little weird that this didn’t come from Tim. I think the segment had good information, but maybe that information could have come from a better source.
In a short paragraph, using any of what we’ve discussed in class this semester, reflect on what you have learned about how change occurs (or doesn’t occur) in society.
Society wide change occurs slowly, and can be marked by specific milestones. For example, the LGBTQ+ movement has been going on for decades and change has been happening, but we can point to the legalization of gay marriage by the Supreme Court and say that this is a clear indication of change taking place. While activism does cause change, I think you need to incorporate some of Appiah’s Cosmopolitanism in order for it to be effective.
Some changes are so slow we might not even realize that they are happening so I would understand if someone said change doesn’t happen in society.
