What Cha Laughing At?

Postman is trying to display that we don’t think anymore.  All we look for in life is entertainment so we can laugh, he says "For in the end, he was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking."  It’s not bad that we laugh and want to be entertained, but we want to know what we are laughing at because most of the time people don’t realize what they are watching or listening to they just watch or listen because it’s funny.  But even though it’s funny, is it God pleasing? That’s the hard part for us to find something that is useful to watch or listen to because half the shows on TV and the radio stations are useless junk.  So in the end Postman and the Brave New World want to tell us is that we should start analyzing and thinking about our so called entertainment and know what we are watching and listening to.

To Speak or Not To Speak

In this whole experience of not talking on Friday I intended to not talk AT ALL, but of course it was very hard and slipped up many times.  It was especially frustrating when I would try to draw or act it out and no one could guess what it was.  One especially hard experience was trying to communicate in the office because every single office aide was in AP Language, so no one could talk.  Which in turn meant no one could answer the phones.  But Mrs. P and Mrs. LeFevre were both very considerate in trying to understand what we were trying to say.  Along with the office aide experience it was really tough watching other people talk and not being able to say anything because talking is what I love to do!  This loss of talking was very difficult for me and has shown me that talking is very important in the way I live my life because how else would I be able to portray how I feel without speaking?!  This whole experience has shown me the importance of spoken language.

Out With the Old and In With the New?

Neil Postman mentions many famous sayings in the video that define our life today.  One of those stuck out to me one that Henry David Thoreau said, “All our inventions are an improved means to an unimproved end”.  I think that quote is very much true in our world today.  We are always looking for something new to improve our lives and those improvements will never stop or be good enough we are always looking for the next big thing.  In Chapter 1 Neil Postman mentions how spoken language will not be used any longer because we are changing the way we interact with people for example in the book he mentions smoke signals was the first used communication and with the technology today we don’t have to wait anymore or even talk to someone we can just use texts to let them know what is happening.  For example, instead of going upstairs and telling my brother to come downstairs, I just sent him a quick text message to come down because it’s just easier…it’s really sad to say.  But, with this new “improvement” we are losing the vital way of communicating which will lead to one day as mentioned in the video we will just become pets of our computers.  We won’t communicate with the outside world and soon enough mentioned in the video we will be talking to nonliving objects such as doorknobs and toasters. 

Along with the improvements in the technologic world, the video also mentions supposed improvements of humans by cloning.  This cloning idea has made our outlook on life and the way God made us as unimportant and all we rely on is improving our health and the way we look.  These clones will be at our use when we need a kidney or some other body part that doesn’t work anymore.  With this idea of cloning to improving our health parallels our thinking that looks are more important than the way we are which is mentioned in the book he says “Those without camera appeal are excluded from addressing the public about what is called the news of the day.  Those with camera appeal can command salaries exceeding one million dollars a year.”  This quote shows that what matters in life is less important as long as we look good.  On TV we have shows that our based around plastic surgery and they can only be happy as long as they are what they think is perfect and they do whatever they can to be perfect.   This way of life isn’t improving anything it’s just showing that the important things in life like the way God made us isn’t really important and we need clones and plastic surgery so we can improve our health and looks. 

Sticks and Stones may Break my Bones, but Words will never Hurt…well in some Cases they might…

               Linda Chavez begins her article with those 6 words to let us know that she thinks respect in a public setting is important.  She wanted us to know that so she could explain the civility of some words and if they are respectful or not.

                Chavez uses the word bellicose in her article to show that for a very long time politicians use bellicose metaphors in their campaign speeches.  Those kind of metaphors like “he took his best shot” or “rounds” both have something to do with guns which just shows that in debates politicians use aggressively hostile metaphors.  And unfortunately in our society today people take offense to those kinds of things.  Which in turn makes the rest of the world censor what they say and it would not be fair to those people who have to limit what they can or cannot say. 

                Chavez wants the reader to know that some words can be derogatory in a way but that is only if they are used in the wrong context.  But if they are used in the right way they can help understand more about the importance of the word in that context.  An example Chavez uses that helps show her purpose is the replacing of words in “Huckleberry Finn”.  Taking out those words takes out the importance of character and diction in the book which then deprives the student of knowing great literature.

                I agree with Chavez I think that limiting ourselves because people may take words in a wrong way is not fair because it limits our right of freedom of speech.

Luther's LD Toolbox

In the hymn “Savior of the Nations, Come” it shows us what God has done by sending His Son and how we should give praise to Him. He uses many language devices in his hymn one of them being logos.  He shows logos in the line “Was the Word of God made flesh--Woman's Offspring, pure and fresh” logos is used because we are saved by the Word of God that tells us and gives us proof that God sent His Son so we could have eternal life in Him. Along with logos he uses pathos.  He has lots of emotion towards this hymn obviously because it tells us of our eternal life given to us by God.  He shows this in “Captive leading death and hell--High the song of triumph swell!” Luther shows pathos in this because he shows the emotion of being joyful that Christ’s death was victorious over our eternal death and that we are saved.  Lastly he uses diction in his hymn because he uses the word “Praise” over and over again at the end to emphasize that we should give praise and glory to God for sending His Son to save us.

Quantity or Quality?

1. Borghardt's Sermon Diagnostic

Number of times = 24

Verbs =          makes you holy

                Sets apart saints

                Slain

                Took on sin and died for us

                Is lamb

                Lives again

                Dies rose and reigns

                Makes us alive and dead no more

               

2.       Edwards’ and Borghardt’s themes were polar opposites.  Jonathon’s theme was to basically scare us.  He explains with the harshest tone that we are all dead and would suffer under God’s wrath.  He describes this for an eternity, and then for not even a paragraph he finally tells us that we are saved through Christ.  Edwards only mentions Christ maybe 4 times unlike Borghardt who mentions Christ at least 24 times.  Borghardt’s theme was more comforting telling us that we are all saved through Christ’s death and we are his saints and we should rejoice and be happy in Him.

I Don't care if it Rains or Freezes...

In the Detroit Freepress Matt Helms wrote an article describing how lawmakers would like to legalize hanging items from rearview mirrors.  Even though it really doesn’t matter because everyone still does.  They are thinking to rewrite it so it only bans big items like fuzzy dice from your rearview, but small items are okay.

The quote I most agree with was what Sen. Ron Jelinek said, “I call it a ‘gotcha’ law.  It’s an excuse to pull someone over”.   The ban really is useless because no one follows it anyways people put graduation tassels, air freshners, rosaries and other things that are special to them already on their mirror.  So, the ban is just an excuse for police to pull you over and give you ticket and no one wants that.
 

My papa used to sing a song that had the following lyrics "I don't care if it rains or freezes as long as I have my plastic Jesus".  The song was about how having his plastic Jesus with him made him feel safe regardless of driving conditions.  Many people feel the same way and they like to hang things that are special to them like rosaries, graduation tassels, or even saints from their rear view mirror.  I think that people should be allowed to hang whatever is special to them if it makes them feel better, but as long as it doesn't effect their view of the road.