Sabrina sharkey per.1 9/9/13 In the quote from ''The Clean Slate'' the author Allan Bloom talks about family. This quote may have many possible meanings but my overall thought of this was , to actually make yourself part of the family you must love and commit. You must do certain things but also be part of the family . There are many reasons that led me to believe this. One is the line, ''It's base is merely bodily reproduction, but its purpose is the formation of civilized human beings. ''
Holloway, Nicholas ENGL 203, Section 512 Dr. Cooper 02/27/2014 Humanistic Mutualism: Bloodchild From an Amateur Ecologist's Point of View Octavia Butler details a futuristic society in her short story “Bloodchild”, where “Terran” and “Tlic” coexist in a world that is described much like our own, in that there is political activism, legislation, unrest, and even economic development. The story gives an account of the gruesome way in which the Tlic reproduce, using the Terran's bodies as breeding grounds to harvest their young at the proper time of development. Many modern ideals have been applied to the story; some say that the idea of slavery is prevalent, others comment that the story serves as a representation of the political unrest in the U.S. today in relation to gun control, rights of one's own body etc. However, none of these ideas shed any light on the physical relationship that the Terran and the Tlic share. From a very basic and natural level, the relationship that the two beings share can best be described as an “obligate symbiotic relationship” derived from mutualism, in which “both the organisms benefit from the relationship”, but one must live on or near the other in order to maintain life (Smith & Smith Ecology and Field Biology).
Mary Shelley’s gothic promethean novel, Frankenstein (1818), was released during the industrial revolution as romanticism was thriving, while Ridley Scott’s futuristic sci-fi Blade runner (1992) grew with the dawning of a capitalistic increasingly globalised and technologically driven society. The comparative study of these texts encompasses themes of humanity and playing God through a tone of moral warning and allows the responder to explore how similar content in different contexts will reflect changing, but also constant values. Through the use of filmic techniques, Scott demonstrates how nature and religion are absent in a world overrun by consumerism and technology. Due to her context, Shelley alternatively uses imagery and allusions to hint at the consequences humanity will suffer if they try to better God through the misuse of science and the corruption of nature. Both of these texts reflect the distinctive contexts in which they were written; although separated by over 100 years of history, they still present similar issues and dilemmas which affected the form and features of the individual texts.
Our identity is a product of various elements and is shaped by our choices and individual experiences. Thus, the major impact of the paramount surrounding world and the craving for an answer to life’s unknown question of “Who am I?” places us in a constant evolutionary position. We are forced as individuals living in a hegemonic society, to conform into the dominant group’s standards. In some way, we develop an inauthentic mask so as to follow the norms and hide and disguise defeated attempts to assimilate. We witness the main character, through the expressive use of symbolism, attempting to assimilate and connect with a world that continually rejects him, being isolated by the whites and alienated from the blacks.
Shelley warns the audience that we, as the creators, must take care of our surroundings or the outcomes could be fatal. These warnings continue to resonate with 21st century audiences, and it seems that the warnings are almost more important today, in an age of environmental breakdown and the use of nature as a commodity. Shelley also examines the moral responsibility of the scientist, and how far humans can go in their quest to be the creators. This moral responsibility is also examined in Scott’s Blade Runner. In Frankenstein, the ideas of cloning and the ability of human science has only started to catch on with small numbers of scientists such as Frankenstein, whereas in Blade Runner the human ability to create and control has manifested itself on a global, corporate scale.
North and South American Indians Made an Impact The impact of the Old World ideas colliding with the New World ideas has greatly affected our lifestyles today. In “Indian Gibers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World,” Jack Weatherford provides a detailed account of the sacrifice of Indians that ultimately, along with the European strive for power, shaped our society to the point we are at now. The Native Americans contributed many things that we now use but take for granted in agriculture, medicine, science and our government. This is one of Weatherford’s older works that explore the impact of American Indians on world history and how the very things that we define America as contradicts our historic actions. As Weatherford
Our environment shapes how our genes affect us though. Genes work in mysterious ways and we may not enjoy what the give to us. Good or bad, genes are what turn on nurture so our environment can shape who we are, how we behave, and possibly who we love. Ridley certainly backs his theories with much evidence and this book strongly displays his opinion of how nature brings about nurture. From the text, I gathered that Ridley wrote The Agile Gene from a biological perspective of psychology.
In this society, world controllers regulate the world and ensure the stability of society through the establishment of a caste system, where the higher the class, the more intelligent and hard-working an individual is. This type of society is produced through conditioning embryos, depending on which caste system the individual will belong to; meaning everyone within each caste system is genetically the same. There is no free will, and each individual is generally the same within each class system. This type of society forces people to conform to one identity, giving them no choice to be who they aspire to be. If you are genetically produced to be an Alpha, you will be intelligent and hard working, whereas an Epsilon will be basically mindless and lazy.
This has in part help create the divisions between rural and urban by tagging rural societies as ethnic groups and un-democratic and urban areas as reformed and democratic. This distinction affirms the actions of capitalism by pushing the rural or ethnically labelled societies further from the picture concerning inequalities and human rights. This in return creates a misconstrued interoperation and representation of these ethnic groups that allow for their continuing exploitation on the global level. This exploitation was only furthered after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 when the United States heightened its national security to protect its citizens from the uncivilized “others.” The implantation of such nationalistic policy furthered the
The scientist that promoted Social Darwinism used fear of diversity to further their theories such as eugenics. Herbert Spencer coined the term “survival of the fittest” to argue for natural selection in society (Ruswick, lecture 20). There is also the fear of the “swamping of our paint pot” as stated by Fleeming Jenkin (Ruswick, lecture 19). The scientists also promoted the enthusiasm of the public to confirm their social situations. There were changes in the class system in America with reconstruction and people were able to use social Darwinism to back up their claims of superiority to other classes and races.