Socratic Seminar Reflection

Upon first hearing of our class's impending Socratic Seminar adventure, I had several reservations. I had doubts about the ebb and flow of the discussions, believing there would be periods of furious discussion and then stretches of silence. Reservations of my ability to make substantial preparations for the discussion also popped into my head. However upon the conclusion of my first discussion, I found that my ability to spring board off other students' ideas into my own was better than I first imagined. This kept the flow of the conversation moving along at a acceptable.

Brave New World has many deep, thought-provoking themes throughout. The Socratic Seminar prodded my brain into more analytically deep thinking about the themes and characters than I ever thought possible from the surface of the text. The discussion did not bless my mind with any new knowledge but gave my thinking a different direction. For example, in our discussion of the significance of Henry Ford as God, I was introduced to a more literal way of viewing the situation. I saw Henry Ford as the representation of scientific triumph just as God is our representation of cultural triumph. However, Andrea, viewed the situation more literally. Just as God created our world with his hands, Henry Ford manufactured the new society in Brave New World. Andrea redirected my thinking in an entirely way that had never crossed my mind before.

The discussions at the end gave me the most enjoyment and satisfaction. They seemed to be less structured and allowed the conversations to take a variety of twists and turns. This was best expressed when Sean, Natasha, Sadie, and I discussed the effect of mass production on individuality. Natasha challenged my ideas, giving me a way to enforce my own understanding of my ideas with the examples that came to mind as the discussion continued.

I found the Socratic Seminar to be a really fun and stimulating activity. However, I found the placement of the discussion group in the center of the room awkward. A feeling of judgments being passed filled the room. I do not see a better way to do this activity, however, and realize that this an individual problem that needs to be solved by the individual.

Abundance: Pink's View of America's Disease

Abundance, from Dan Pink's A Whole New Mind, attempts to open the workings of the human mind as he amusingly explains how America's obsession with frivolous material possessions has changed the mindset of the average citizen. The "triumph" of left-directed thinking has actually led to its own decreasing significance. People are more prone to right-directed thinking, such as "beauty", "spirituality", and "emotions." This irony means businesses can no longer produce rough looking items that serve a useful purpose. Items must also be unique and beautiful. Pink's most telling example of this humorously explains how Target has begun to carry designer wastebaskets. The left side of the brain says this is illogical and wasteful. However, the right side fights back, saying, all items must have good aesthetics. The change to more right directed thinking has actually led to the greatest paradox of our generation. People have more and more material possessions but are not any happier. Pink explains that "liberated by prosperity but not fulfilled by it--are resolving the paradox by searching for meaning." Practices once considered eccentric, such as yoga and meditation, are now becoming mainstream. Pink offers "one last--and illuminating--statistic:" Candles, once needed by the population too poor to afford light bulbs in the 20th century should be no longer needed. However, candle sales are a 2.4$-billion-a-year business. Pink's last pun along with all his other examples adequately explain the change in mindset of the American population as our generation has entered the 21st century.

Shared Responsibility

Anti-drug ads are becoming more and more commonplace in America. However, this ad has nothing to do with America or even Americans. This ad is almost exclusively targeted at Colombians and uses two of the three persuasive techniques to proclaim the true effects of Colombia's drug production.

The most obvious persuasive technique used is Pathos, or emotional appeal. This ad hits home immediately because kidnapping alone brings strong emotions in most, if not all, parents. The fear showing in the body language of the girl in the house gives goose bumps to a reader. I mean, what parent does not fear for the well being of his or her own child? No parents. Feelings of guilt are also coaxed out into the open in this strong ad. Past, or ever current cocaine users have or are funding the terrorist kidnappings currently ravaging the country of Colombia.

Instead of the usual celebrity or expert endorsement, this ad mixes things up a bit. The designers use ethos in a negative way. They portray a "business man" with only one giant nose. This symbolizes his use of cocaine to stay awake all night partying. This ad implies that any purchaser of cocaine is just as bad as the one holding the gun, as the man is holding an assault rifle. This negative ethos makes the reader not want to be like the "business man" in the picture.

Interestingly enough, logos is not used in this advertisement. Given that the creators have probably been trained in persuasive techniques for years, this is quite odd. However, the main target for this advertisement is a cocaine user. There are so many health warnings about drugs in the world today; any drug-user probably has lost all common sense. The picture is supposed grab the reader and captivate in a short time period, not burden their minds with health warnings.

This anti-drug ad has effectively used pathos and ethos to make a strong impression on any reader.

Present or Future?

Many people live in the now, that is they only think about what is currently happening and not about the future. This, I believe, is a problem. Too many people take for granted what we, people, have now and do not think about what would happen if these were lost. This past month, I read a novel that addresses just this.


In One Second after by William Forstchen, an Electromagnetic Pulse Device (EMP) is detonated over the United States, causing all electronics to fail suddenly. The reader follows a family in the mountains of North Carolina. In this book people have not taken necessary steps to live without technology. This causes massive "die-offs" where in some cities only 5% of the population survives.


While reading, I never understood the title of Forstchen's novel. Then, just yesterday, the meaning hit me like a brick. Just one second after a disaster of this magnitude occurs, the effects are immediate. All events that have occurred until this point become almost meaningless. One second after, the fate of the United States and the rest of the World is changed forever. One second after, the lives of millions of people are changed forever.

People should be living in a state of mind where the future is the most important part. This causes the one second after thought to be less dramatic and catastrophic as it was in One Second After.

Lottery???

Words are without a doubt the most important part of language. Communication without words would be nearly impossible. These words normally evoke certain feelings and thoughts in people. For example, in America football brings up thoughts of grown men crashing into each other. However, these thoughts are not always the only way to look at a word. Football in the rest of the world brings people thoughts of what Americans know as soccer. The interpretation and perception of words are explored in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson.





In the realm created by Jackson, there is an annual lottery. When most people think of the lottery, certain thoughts. Images of people buying weekly tickets hoping to win exuberant sums of money. However from the beginning of the there are some oddities. The children start gathering stones and stuffing them in their pockets and pushing them into piles. Then Mr Summers, the lottery director, "soberly" announces the start of the lottery. These oddities are fairly minor and hard to notice during the first reading, however the story turns truly strange when a family is announced a winner. The wife Tessie Hucthison begins yelling that the lottery "wasn't fair." All these oddities eventually cause a horrifying realization that the lottery in this world is completely different from the lottery in our world.



This twist on the word "lottery" is refreshing. Jackson managed to take a word with a commonly perceived meaning and shown another way to percieve the word. "The Lottery" showed me how awesome stories can become if the perceptions of words are changed even thought the new perceptions still fall under the definition of the word. I encourage people to read the "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and become refreshed with a different perception of a common word.

Soccer in the States?

Soccer as a professional sport in the United States is, well let us just say, obscure. People everyday are surprised to learn that in America we have a professional soccer league. However, with the start of the World Cup, Americans everywhere have turned their attention to soccer, the most popular sport in the world. This attention has kept editorial writers everywhere busy, writing about how soccer is dull and over-hyped. One such article caught my attention. "Soccer Too Dull for America" by Daniel Kline, observed that soccer will never take hold in the United States television market and despite my love for the sport, I am inclined to agree with Kline.


"High level soccer involves almost no scoring and very few shots on goal." These words spoken by Kline are essentially true. Unfortunately, this lack of scoring and shots is boring to most American viewers. These viewers are accustomed to the high-scoring sports of football, basketball, and even baseball.


Common misconceptions about soccer also seem to prevent average viewers from watching. Most Americans seem to believe that soccer has "limited physical contact" and the games are very slow paced. These are absolutely false, but do keep viewers away from soccer games.


"The United States will never be Brazil or Italy where the fortunes of the national soccer team set the tone for the nation." I believe this thought by Kline is completely true. People will continue to not watch soccer, or even soccer's biggest event, the World Cup. The United States Soccer Federation will have to continue living in a country where soccer will never be as popular as football, baseball, basketball, or even hockey.

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