Interview with the Luddite
In Andrea Lunsford's introduction she gives a brief background on both Kelly and his interviewee, Kirkpatrick Sale. From her descriptions it is very clear on how different the beliefs of these two men are from each other. Lunsford seems to be fascinated by how the interviews in Wired magazine, which she sort of reluctantly subscribes to, have all ended up in a debate or argument. And the one "which you are about to read,["Interview with the Luddite"] is no exception," she says(243). In this paper I will discuss the different claims of each of the two men and weigh them against each other for validity and persuasiveness.
While reading "Interview with the Luddite" by Kevin Kelly I immediately sensed a feeling of sarcasm on Kelly's part. From the title alone I could tell that Kelly was either not looking forward to the interview, or he just could not wait until he could sit down with this guy and pick him apart. He uses the term "the Luddite" in such a generalized sense that it almost makes the interviewee sound so unimportant as a person. Since there is more than one Luddite on the planet he could have used the word "a" instead of "the" when referring to this person he was about to interview.
The very first question Kelly asks Sale is an accusation and comes across very harshly to the reader. He asks, "Other than arson and a lot of vandalism, what did the Luddites accomplish in the long run?"(243). After reading this first question, I felt a little sorry for Sale, and I was mad at Kelly for asking such an abrupt question. But my sympathy soon ended when Kelly continued on in the interview. Sale proudly explains and defends the beliefs of his group, the Luddites. But it is clear that Kelly has a strong opposing opinion. He immediately wants to weaken the character of Sale so that the reader is liable to side more with Kelly, himself. This is a very effective strategy on Kelly's part because I found myself agreeing with him more than I did with Sale.
When Kelly asked if Sale considered himself a modern-day Luddite, Sale said yes. Sale argues that this is so in the sense that the Luddites of today had not resorted to destroying property, but used books and voices to help raise the consciousness that technology is bad.
The steps explained by Krakauer can be described not only as reckless but as arrogant and insensitive to those that live in Alaska. The messages sent to Krakauer by the people of Alaska show more examples of people who were anything but inspired by Chris McCandless. The Alaskan’s went as far as to say, “The only difference is that McCandless ended up dead, with the story on his dumbassedness splashed across the media” (Krakauer, 71). That same Alaskan continued, “Such willful ignorance… amounts to disrespect for the land, and paradoxically demonstrates the same sort of arrogance that resulted in the Exxon Valdez spill--” (Krakauer, 72). People all over have read Krakauer’s book and vouch for the inspirational tale it tells, because of the controversy this Chris McCandless’s story still brings today, it is obvious that there are people out there inspired by his story and journey. Many have even followed his lead by pulling what is sometimes referred to as “a McCandless”
Chris McCandless is regarded as being something as a spiritual figure almost as a cult hero, some call him a disillusioned fool, some call him a great adventurer, and the debate still continues. As Matthew Power calls in his article, an article where he tells the story of McCandless,“The debate falls into two camps: Krakauer's visionary seeker, the tragic hero who dared to live the unmediated life he had dreamed of and died trying; or, as many Alaskans see it, the unprepared fool, a greenhorn who had fundamentally misjudged the wilderness he'd wanted so desperately to commune with.” Like so many stories covering Christopher McCandless’ death, both ends of the argument are discussed in an unfavored manner in the hopes to help develop an opinion on the McCandless story. This open ended question can only be answered open-endedly based on what the readers base for themselves as covered stories intend. Like Power has done, ...
Every year people die in the Alaskan wilderness. Some of these people are crazy and have no idea what they are doing. It was the opposite with Chris McCandless, as Jon Krakauer shows in Into the Wild. According to Krakauer, McCandless was not incompetent, but followed his own path. He shows this in chapter 8 by using the rhetorical strategy of examples and then comparing and contrasting.
The major practical issue to be surmounted with any transplant is immunological. For a transplant to be successful the transplanted tissue must not...
This article was written on March 14, 2008; just two days after Governor Eliot Spitzer announced his resignation as Governor of New York. Kelly wrongly interprets the event that were unfolding as public support for his resignation due to be caught with a prostitute. This is clearly not the case. The problems here are a lot deeper than that. Spitzer broke the law, which is a clear conflict of interest, “massively hypocritical” (Constantine 38), and contrary to the acceptable conduct of a civil ...
McCarthy was not exactly the picture-perfect senator. In fact, most considered him “one of the least qualified, most corrupt politicians of his time” McCarthyism was first used by him as a...
Derenne, J. L., & Beresin, E. V. (2006). Body image, media, and eating disorders. Academic Psychiatry, 30(3), 257-61. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.waketech.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/196508089?accountid=15152
In chapter 2 of Freakonomics the main argument is that the hoarding of information can be manipulated for personal use. While the chapter includes many examples of this tactic, the majority of it focuses on the history of the KKK and Stetson Kennedy’s efforts to stop it through the reveal of their secrets via radio. The authors explain how the Klan was far less violent than generally thought and relied almost entirely on the reputation of the older more violent Klansmen. Kennedy realized the only way to alter their appearance to the ignorant and fearful public was to make their secrets known. Kennedy understood the power of information and how exposing the Klan’s information would empower the public. In doing so, he severely handicapped the Klan almost to the point of it’s extinction.
Body language is non-verbal communication where your body reveals unspoken, usually subconscious, feelings and intentions physically. Body language is expressed through eye movements, facial expressions, body postures and gestures. It plays a part in how humans judge you while communicating or first meeting which is what we do when we see a characteristic we wouldn’t tolerate to possess or envy of the person which drives you to find faults within that person. Body language also indicates a persons state of mind; whether they are alert/attentive, bored, interested or nervous. Before language was developed, cavemen and other early ancestors used body gestures to communicate and judge each others body postures and voices to guess what they wanted to get across. Body language reflects who we are. One of the reasons television was so groundbreaking because radio couldn’t display facial expressions and body language. In 1960, Kennedy and Nixon had debates. Nixon was sweating, looking nervous whereas Kennedy wore makeup and looked straight at the camera to show conviction. People listening to the debates on the radio believed Nixon had won and the people watching it on television thought the opposite. After that event, non-verbal communication was taken more seriously.
Tom Ryan’s police abuse story is not as sudden and physically painful as Hobbs’ story, but it deserves just as much attention to prevent it from happening, since both Hobbs and Ryan fear that they are in danger for no particular reason. Ryan describes the town of Newburyport, his hometown, as a city, whose natives are always trying to struggle over the power of politics (Ryan 22). In his memoir Following Atticus, Ryan states, “I would often sit shocked as city councilors or other community leaders lied in some televised meeting and thought nothing of it. When I’d report it, they’d act as though I were the one who had crossed the line – and in some ways they were right, I had. I refused to let business happen as it always had happened” (Ryan 25). When Ryan’s newspaper began to involve the misconducts of police officers, he began to receive death threats on his car’s windshield and in his mailbox. However, Ryan never decided to report these threats because he suspected that the police might have been the ones who wrote them. Ryan continues to explain the long controversial history of Newburyport’s police department and how most politicians feared it. During one night, in front of Newburyport’s city hall, Ryan had a short conversation with a police officer that left him so frightened that he did not to mention the police in his newspaper for the next year and a half. Ryan’s readers wanted to know why, but all he could do was say he did not want trouble from the police (Ryan 37-8). Ryan asserts about one officer in particular, “He said to me, ‘How about we form an uneasy alliance - you and me? I won’t go after you if you don’t go after me.’
“What did you think that publishing a manifesto was going to do? That all of a sudden people would change their beliefs and ideas because some crazy lunatic killer told them technology was bad?” I challenged, noting the manifesto that he had tried to publish in all large “media outlets, such as The New York Times, to publish his so-called “Unabomber Manifesto (Ted Kaczynski Biography)
The U.S dependency on foreign oil presents many negative impacts on the nation’s economy. The cost for crude oil represents about 36% of the U.S balance of payment deficit. (Wright, R. T., & Boorse, D. F. 2011). This does not affect directly the price of gas being paid by consumers, but the money paid circulates in the country’s economy and affects areas such as; the job market and production facilities. (Wright, R. T., & Boorse, D. F. 2011). In addition to the rise in prices, another negative aspect of the U.S dependency on foreign crude oil is the risk of supply disruptions caused by political instability of the Middle East. According to Rebecca Lefton and Daniel J. Weiss in the Article “Oil Dependence Is a Dangerous Habit” in 2010, the U.S imported 4 million barrels of oil a day or 1.5 billion barrels per year from “dangerous or unstable” countries. The prices in which these barrels are being purchased at are still very high, and often lead to conflict between the U.S and Middle Eastern countries. Lefton and Weiss also add that the U.S reliance on oil from countries ...
Nonverbal communication has been in people’s lives for as long as we could communicate as a species. Dr. Albert Mehrabian, author of Silent Messages, found that “7% of any message is conveyed through words, 38% through certain vocal elements, and 55% through nonverbal
The first successful case of stem cell therapy in human was reported in 1959. Bone marrow restorations were observed in leukemia patients who received total body irradiation subsequent by intravenous injection of their twins’ bone marrow (Thomas et al, 1957). Nevertheless, that effect was transient and the following bone marrow transplantation attempts in non-twin patients and donors can eventually lead to patient’s death from graft-versus-host disease (Mathé et al, 1965). During that time, the safety of hematopoietic cells transplantation was not guaranteed because of the limited knowledge in human histocompatibility and immunosuppression. However, the turning point came after the discovery of human leucocyte antigen (HLA) groups (Dausset, 1958; van Rood et al, 1958), HLA typing and compatibility testing were performed prior to the transplantation. In addition, the improvement of immunosuppressive protocol also helps bringing the bone marrow transplantation to become more and more successful (Donnall and Hutchinson, 1999).
Unlike some politicians who ignore press questions and immediately introduce a different topic in response, job candidates must respect and directly answer employer's queries, says Jeff Braun, vice president and general manager of the Ammerman Experience, a Stafford, Texas, media interview-training firm. However, you can quickly make the transition from your answer to the important points you want to convey about your qualifications, he says.