Learn to Live with Danger

1419 Words6 Pages
YJ 4/23/14 English 101 Learn To Live with Danger In life when things start to get tough and even a bit controversial, many people choose to retreat while others choose to stay and either grow and learn from their experiences or stay ignorant. The root of these situations is always a thought; an idea in the mind of an individual who chose to make that idea public. These types of ideas have more often than not been ones dealing with important issues such as medicine, politics, economics, law, and many others. They have the potential to become quite dangerous in the sense that they can get people riled up, questioning their beliefs an morals and the beliefs an morals of the people around them, and even cause disagreement and conflict on a larger scale. However these dangerous ideas exist whether people choose to flee from them or face them, so now it becomes a matter of how to deal with them. Steven Pinker's essay “In Defense of Dangerous Ideas” discusses these ideas, what they are, their positive and negative affects, and ultimately the fact that all of these ideas deserves a chance to be heard. His informative yet caring and personal tone and his use of denotative language and logical appeal create a strong and convincing argument defending the promotion of dangerous ideas. Pinker's informative tone is one that is trying to create awareness of these dangerous ideas and the importance of addressing them so that the greater community is not living life ignorant and unaware of what is happening around them. Not only is it important to be aware of these ideas but to also be informed of all the information and viewpoints that go with them because of the fact that at times these ideas can be misconstrued for the benefits of others. Pinker states, “We must be especially suspicious when the danger in a dangerous idea is to someone other than its advocate. Scientists,
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