Author Ray Bradbury, in his internationally acclaimed 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451 places his fiction in a future that many would argue is astonishingly similar to the present of 2008. Bradbury reviles the state of culture and specifically the education system through two characters: Clarisse, a 17-year-old who is described as “antisocial” (29), and Mrs. Bowles, a typical homemaker. Clarisse observes her school as “ [a]n hour of TV class, […] an other hour of transcription history or painting pictures, […] they just run the answers at you, bing, bing, bing, and us sitting there for four more hours of film teacher. That’s not social to me at all” (29). Bradbury’s Mrs. Bowles says, “I plunk the children in school nine days out of ten. [...] You heave them into the ‘parlor’ and turn the switch. It’s like washing clothes” (97). The “parlor” Bradbury refers to is a room with wall to wall video screens, and immersive audio. It is a virtual and surreal environment. The youth and the general population are portrayed as constantly besieged by a non-stop multi-media world. Do people have the capacity to think and learn in this type of environment? The nature of humankind’s cognition of symbolic meaning affects the evolution of communication, learning, and thought through the ubiquitous creation of dynamic-virtual-interfaces.
What do You Mean, Meaning?
April 25th, 2008Peace is Possible
April 25th, 2008On April 6, 1960, Pearl S. Buck, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, gave a speech titled “The Delights of Learning” to the Honors Convocation at the University of Pittsburgh. This group is comprised of high achieving university scholars. Buck shares with her motivated, educated, and privileged audience what she calls the, “secret to the enjoyment of life” (5). She was quick to accept the University’s invitation to speak because the subject of learning was so dear to her. Buck prefaces her secret with, “I do not imagine for one moment that I have anything to say which you have not heard before” (3). Her speech is considered to be an exceptional and inspirational work of writing. Her ideas on learning give to humanity a paradigm shift in developmental direction, which parallels a path to peace. A more peaceful world would be the natural result of society’s fulfillment of basic needs, cultivation of value placed on learning, and the understanding of vast multi-cultural knowledge bases.
The Armed Force Of Capitalism Is Fighting For Capitalism.
May 1st, 2008After World War II the United States entered in to an expansive weapons and systems development effort. One of the results of the weapons build up was a specialization of trade within some American companies. The defense industry was created out of governmental need for production capacity and civilian or private expertise. When the private means of production by defense industries expanded it created both a supply and a demand for military products with the effect of conflict. The public transfer of wealth that funds the defense industry through the Department of Defense (DoD) creates incentives to build a better bomb, perpetuate instability, and does not promote peace.
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