Anthology of Ideas

This speech was televised during the Goldwater campaign in 1964 in support of his candidacy. This was a sweeping speech touching on most of the hotbed issues of the time; Vietnam, welfare, taxes and the ever over budget American government.

This speech was made directly to the people, and although it was made in support of Goldwater, it seems to be a foundation of Reagan’s political career. Reagan went beyond the basic party line that the democrat’s were ruining America, and picked at every fault in the democrat’s plans, he blasted away at all of the programs of the “Great Society”, exposed the gross inaccuracies in the planning and execution of existing programs. He then portrayed Goldwater as a kind and caring individual, who would do anything to help someone in trouble.

The letter was a long-winded appeal by Russian Premier Khrushchev attempting to convince President Kennedy to not invade Cuba and end the United States blockade; in return, Premier Khrushchev promised that the Russians would stop shipments of armaments to Cuba.

The letter is directed to President Kennedy personally and places all the blame for the situation on Kennedy entirely. Khrushchev paints a picture of an evil America threatening the peaceful communist countries of the world and in a very propagandist maneuver describes communists as hard-working peaceful peasant farmers who want nothing more than pleasant diplomatic relations with their neighbors.

Most of the conflict in the region is between the Israeli Government and the various Palestinian organizations intent on the destruction of any lasting peace in the region. While the main reasons that these organizations have been able to acquire people and resources is because of religious differences and intolerance on both sides of the conflict, the geography of the area has the effect of fanning the flames.

The climate of Israel is one of the major geographical causes behind the strife. As you can see on the map in many Palestine areas the land is infertile and unable to support large numbers of people. As a result many of the inhabitants of the Palestinian areas are unable to produce enough food or find work to support themselves and their families; because of this the less fortunate residents must turn to the various aid groups in the region who provide work, food, and entertainment to meet their basic needs. Unfortunately these groups are the same that organize both protests against Israel and the frequent bombings of civilians that plague the area. While most of the people that join these groups know there is a large difference between protesting and murder, as with any group there are those who are desperate enough to kill themselves and others to ensure their families financial well-being.

Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why The Cage Bird Sings” is a wonderful look into the mind of a girl in her battles with racism, sexism and coming to terms with herself. Her story begins at the age of three on the way Momma’s store after her mother put her on a train and ends years later after the birth of her son. Through out this time Maya must learn to live with others perception of her and even more difficultly herself.

Maya’s rape set the stage for the rest of her life. It starts off for Maya as just searching for affection and she begins to look at Mr. Freeman as a father figure, however Freeman takes advantage of this and after two smaller incidents rapes her. Freeman not only rapes her but rather than being a so-called crime of passion plans it specifically.

One of the most important literary lessons one can learn from “Gulliver’s Travels” is the separation of protagonist, narrator and author. Although some times these three personalities blend into one many times they are two or three separate personalities. For example Shelly’s “Frankenstein” separates the author from the narrator and protagonist, although the protagonist is the narrator he does not know what is going to happen, just what has. Atwood’s “Happy Endings” is narrated by the author with the protagonists (although it is a stretch to call them that) are powerless. By contrast Alcott’s “I Know Why A Caged Bird Sings” combines the narrator, protagonist and the author into one single personality. An even more important part of this is how much of the author pervades the narrator and protagonist?

For “Gulliver’s Travels” it is hard to say this or that is the authors feeling or this is definitely the way the author thinks because Swift allows Gulliver to act insane and say some quite…er insane things.

Philosophy is by definition any theory that can’t be proven scientifically. In La Rouchefoucauld’s case this is especially obvious as he attempted to explain in terms of philosophy the behavior of humans because there was at his time no way to prove them scientifically. He used a version of the scientific method to arrive at his final maxims and although he couldn’t prove it in doing so he stumbled on to some very scientific principles.
In La Rouchefoucauld’s day humans where still popularly considered distant and distinct from animals however four centuries after La Rouchefoucauld the idea that humans are bound to nature just as animals is now becoming prevalent. Thus even though originally the maxims were written to be a sort of scientific understanding of humans they instead are a defendable philosophy. Although it does not make La Rouchefoucauld “laws” of human nature any less real, understanding the scientific basis of the laws allows one to understand not just the effect but also the cause of human nature.