"#7: Bibliography"

Bower, Tom. Oil: Money, Politics, and Power in the 21^st Century. NY: Grand Central Publishing, 2010.

Branden, Nathaniel. Taking Responsibility: Self Reliance and the Accountable Life. NY: Simon and Schuster, 1996.

Hamburger, Tom. Wallsten, Peter. One Party Country: The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21^st Century.  New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc, 2006.

McChesney, Robert. Newman, Russell. Scott, Ben. The Future of Media: Resistance and Reform in the 21^st Century.NY: Seven Stories Press, 2005.

Pletka, Bob. Ed.D. Educating the Net Generation: How to Engage Students in the 21^st Century. Santa Monica, Ca, Santa Monica Press LLC, 2007.

Wehr, Kevin. DIY: The Search for Control and Self Reliance in the 21^st  Century. NY: Routledge, 2012.

"#6: President in Hiding"

Glenn Greenwald in one of his many articles takes a look at how the president of the United States, Barack Obama, has persecuted more people under the espionage act than all other presidents combined.  The presidents original stance back in 2008 was that whistleblowers in this nation are a thing of patriotism and should be protected because it can “sometimes save lives and save taxpayer dollars”.  Greenwald points out Barack’s flaws and his flip-flopping along with his killing spree of innocent people using drone strikes that has, in the last two weeks, killed three American citizens.  I’m sure if this gets out to the public in a more mass media fashion there could easily be calls for an impeachment trial regarding his lack of regard for our rights as American citizens.  One bad representation of Obama, such as this, could change the nature of the political game at this time, especially with it being election season.  Of course any president is going to want to hide the fact that they’re doing something illegal when it involves citizens of the United States and could make his lose his candidacy for presidency.  I am fairly certain that if one were to delve deep into the archives of American history, past what we learn in school, one would be amazed and in horror as to what they could find out about our nation.  The secrecy did not begin with and will not end with President Barack Obama unless the people rise up and quit being led around like sheep.  I do not see the American citizenry giving up its laid back and lackluster view on the world in which we live.  Being led like a sheep is what most citizens want, they don’t want to think for themselves, but they do want the ability to take of or be taken care of. 

If you want to read some of the claims, I have copied the link of the article.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/05/obama-campaign-brags-about-whistleblower-persecutions

"#5: Occupy Language...Fail"

Occupy Language? This just sounds like a fancier term to replace the term political correctness.  What is the point of using a word to make sure people feel better about themselves because they are too weak in themselves to handle what is being said? Or not even that, but as an example Microsoft banned a user on their X-box because the guy lived in Fort Gay, West Virginia.  Their reasoning the removal of his usage rights was because the word “gay” is always offensive even though many towns have it in their name and many people have Gay as a name.  Several prominent sports players have the last name Gay and is their fault that this is their surname and part of their history? No.  Sometimes the political correct phrase could have a dual meaning and in the dual meaning that is where a lot of the context could be lost.  Originally gay used to mean happy but now it is derogatory because a group of people do not like how it is associated with them? Personally I have nothing against those who are gay/homosexual/queer, take your choice of word to describe someone’s sexual preference.

One of the many different definitions for queer: strange.  For example, a queer situation.  In this example there is nothing degrading towards people who are considered gay and it doesn’t even refer to a person.  As we try to limit the usage of words we limit our ability to depict and describe what we see happening around us.  In the moment if I use the word queer referring to a strange situation and there is someone around me who takes offense because they have been belittled by said word then maybe it is time for them to mature and look at the other various usages of the word.

#3: 21st Century De-Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment was a great and much needed growth in society when it occurred between 1650-1800 has it allowed for more free-form thinking and got us away from religious rule.  Before the Enlightenment most knowledge was universally accepted as truth if the church said it was true.  For example, if the Pope were to say the sun revolves around the earth, well that would have been accepted as true even though many scientists and mathematicians could prove otherwise.  We all know now that the earth revolves around the sun, but it wasn’t taken so lightly when it was first discussed.  If you disagreed with the Church you were considered an enemy of the Church and could therefore be punished or put to death.  Thankfully through the Enlightenment scientific reasoning and deductive logic made such an impact on the foundation on the rest of the world that it became vital to many countries, including our own as it shaped our Declaration of Independence.  Another idea that came from the Enlightenment was the need for education and not just for the wealthy but for all children of all societies.  At first there was discourse as people believed that many of the kids could not read and write and argued that we should not waste our time on them.   The free market of education won though and from the middle of the seventeenth to eighteenth century it began to take shape.  Before then though, there was no such educational system.  The system was to be paid for by taxes and since this was around the time of the industrial revolution socio-economic systems were vastly improved.  As the system as moved forward though, it has lagged behind and has been unable to keep up with the changes in technology.  Education has become boring while distractions outside of the classroom are more engaging to the minds of the people who see them.  This causes an epidemic of ADD in children today and they are given Ritalin, Adderall and other forms of ADHD medicine to help calm them down and keep them focused.  Sadly in my mind this has turned them into a zombie stuck a cage to be tortured with math and science all the while excluding the ability for them to be creative because the music and arts in most schools have or are being cancelled.  People do not realize or maybe seem to forget that music and arts help create better test scores, since that’s what our system seems to be solely focused on.  Hopefully one day we will wake up and see that our education system needs to be fixed again with this time, removing standardized testing.  Let creativity and free thinking flow from the minds of the children and watch what happens to society.