Prewriting Blog: Essay #3

In Chapters four and five of her book, The Age of American Unreason, Susan Jacoby writes about the effects of communism and middlebrow cultures on Americans during 1915 and the American involvement in WWII, as well as after. She discusses about how intellectuals were seen as communists, and therefore shouldn't be trusted. Middlebrow culture, which was mostly practiced by the middle class, became more and more popular as the 20th century rapidly approached. This culture emphasized itself as a way to educate oneself. With publications like the BOMC (The Book of the Month Club) and Great Books, these publishings helped young minds as well as adults broaden there range of thought towards literature and science, as well as history and current events. Communism, which is discussed in detail in chapter four, can be linked to everyday thought in America now. For example, recently, Americans have stated that Barak Obama is a terrorist due to the fact that his middle name is Hussien. Hussien, as we all are well aware of, Saddam's last name, and he was a terrorist. This is a connection that is made by the typical middle class citizen who automatically assumes that an intellectual (Obama) is like Hussien (Saddam) because he was a terrorist, so therefore Obama must be a terrorist also. Intellectuals during 1915 and 1941, were considered to be communist simply because they were educated. This assumption was made because Stalin was controlling the Soviet Union and people thought that intellectuals were in this category because the Soviet Union was a country full of intellectuals.

Reading Blog

From 1915 to the beginning of America’s involvement in World War II in 1941, the Soviet Union was being run by Stalin, hence the name Stalin’s Soviet Union. The country was heavily communistic and this is what caused the first red scare after world war I. The first red scare began when the mayor banned the display of red flags in New York in public that supported the year old Bolshevik government in Russia. This caused a widespread panic of “reds”, known as Bolshevik supporters. With this scare on the rise, it led to assumption that all liberal intellectuals were communist supporters and therefore couldn’t be trusted. Although it ended fairly quickly, the scare had made a major social impact on the people of America. The raids stopped, and people went on with their lives. Even though the red scare was over, people were still very skeptical of intellectuals in America. The appetite for communist ideas was big due to the fear of who may or may not be in that category. During this time, Americans were gullible and fearful. These two, when mixed together were a deadly combo. Much like the segregation of African Americans and whites, it caused a huge segregation between those who were supporters and those who were not. This also applied to the intellectuals because many thought that just because they were intellectuals, they were communist. In addition to that, discrimination was extended entering the country as immigrants. I think that liberalism and intellectualism go hand in hand and are synonymous in a sense that intellectuals are mostly all liberal. This connection can be made about the intellectuals in society today.

Self-Evaluation: Essay #1

In my final draft, i had very little gramatical errors, and maybe a few words that were misspelled, but i think i could have put a little bit more thought into the statements i made in my essay. Also i think that i should of used the PIE concept of writing paragraphs more, it would of made the essay flow better. Though i did have good content in the essay i didnt use Jacoby or my sources very well in the text. I needed to integrate my sources into my opinions better and it would of made the essay better. Some of my content was very good and had a strong reason for being there, however the analysis part is where i kind of got lost. Ive never been good at analyzing texts, and i feel that in order for me to succeed in writing i need to be able to possess that skill. The MLA formating of my essay was correct, though i didnt put in a works cited page at the end of my paper. I think i wrote one, but just didnt print it. So that leads to another change that needs to happen, i need to be more organized with how i do my writing, this way everthing comes out the way i want it to.

Pre-Writing blog Essay#2

Susan Jacoby argues in her second chapter about how Americans today use rationalism or "Critical Thinking" to make decisions about political standings as well as day to day choices. She argues that "while not all intellectuals are rationalists, nearly all anti-intellectual are anti-rationalists". This means that Americans who are in the category know as anti-intellectual(which means one who is dumb) don't use critical thinking to make choices. The sudden increase of anti-intellectuals today makes society run on the decisions that are not well planned or thought out. This makes for a government that will run our country into the ground. People like Ralph Waldo Emerson want to change the direction to which America is heading. Emerson writes in his speech " The American Scholar", that in order to become a scholar(intellectual) you must be able to make changes. These changes must be applied to your environment, what you read and your actions. If you achieve all this, according to Emerson, you will be considered "man" thinking.Which is an intellectual. This will solve the problem that Jacoby expresses. The causes of this increase in anti-rationalism is the increase of anti-intellectuals. This is brought on by a society that is illiterate. Americans who can't read, can't make critical decisions because they can't comprehend what they are reading. The consequence of this is an American society that just elects governmental officials based on appearance, which is not good. Appearances can be decieving, and just because a canidate up for election looks good, doesn't mean he or she is the correct choice.