Thoreau's Deliberate Life

When Thoreau decided to live deliberately, he went out into the woods to live in a one room cabin that was not well insulated. By going out to live in the woods, he was going to, "Simplify, Simplify," his affairs and to actually live his life. Thoreau said that he did not want to wake up one day and find out that he had not lived. While I can understand that point, it is something I believe in as well, I think he might have gone to extremes. To him there seemed to be so much technology when compared to today's standard there was very little at that time. In class someone brought up the point that even though Thoreau seemed like he was making a great sacrifice, it actuality there were people who lived without the technology everyday. So this made his "sacrifice" seem insignificant in light of these people. He did have good intentions but in the end he really did not make that much of a difference.

Mark Bauerlein

In Mark Baurerlien's new book, "The Dumbest Generation" he crowns my generation as being the dumbest generation. While Bauerlein does have some valid points, I believe he is wrong. Our generation does have its faults but I feel that he is out of touch. He criticizes our generation for being on our cell phones twenty four/ seven, especially after classes. What I do not think he realizes that we are talking to friends and/or family and in his day he was doing the same thing but without the technology. He complains about our technology usage but we did not invent the technology. His generation made it possible for us to stay this connected with people. If he needs someone to blame he can blame Bill Gates and Steve Jobs for being the technology geniuses that they are.

Our generation has different focuses than his does. We are more connected to our technology, music and movies than to literature and ancient cultures. I personally love to read and do know a lot about literature. If Jay Leno would have asked me those questions, I would have been able to answer all of them. Not every person in my generation knows it but there are a few of us who do. Literature and culture are not emphasized in our culture and I believe that part of the blame should go to his generation. I realize that we do hold part of the blame for mot taking the initiative but his generation should have made a point of putting more a an emphasis on these classics.

The Media, bell hooks and "Killing Us Softly"

This week we discussed many different ways the media influences us as a society. In the lecture "Killing Us Softly", Jean Kilbourne spoke about how the media is objectifying women in advertising. She made some very good points and examples that still seemed relevant to today's culture and did not seem dated. Also she was good to listen to and easy to understand.



In contrast to her was bell hooks. I listened to Ms. hooks last semester and did not agree with her at all. Ms. hooks contradicts herself many times. For example in her piece about O.J Simpson, she speaks about how she has no opinion about Simpson's guilt but throughout the piece she makes it quite clear that she believes he is guilty. She also seems hypocritical when she speaks about her students Harlem versus her students at Yale. Ms. hooks speaks about her Yale students having a "sense of entitlement" whereas her Harlem students do not and she also speaks about the stereotypes between the two. However she then goes on to stereotype the two groups. My other problem with bell hooks is that when she is trying to prove a point, she seems shrill and is trying to force her opinion on others. The point that is called to mind is when she is trying to prove that mass media is trying to move society back to a patriarchal society. I do not think that is the case. I believe that advertisers are showing the public images that sell and she does not like that.Now this is just my interpretation of her and it could be inferred differently by someone else. However I do not like bell hooks or agree with her.



In my opinion, I believe that advertisers are using these sexually provocative images because they are using the adage "sex sells" and it is working. People do not like to admit it but it must because advertisers are still using this technique. If people stopped buying products from places that use these sexual images,then the advertisers will need to come up with a new strategy.