Government 1A Lesson 15

Write 250 words on this proposition: “Online education is bad for society because it puts classroom teachers out of work.”

I don’t necessarily agree with this statement. Online education, prior to the worldwide pandemic, wasn’t a popular option when it came to schooling. It wasn’t a popular option, for a multitude of reasons, some of which having to do with parents being involved. Thus, it wasn’t ever a threat to classroom teachers jobs.

Teachers are necessary to modern society as education is a crucial part of a child’s life. Even when the pandemic hit, in-class teachers still were essential. Online schooling didn’t render them jobless, they merely had to educate online. This ties into the next point, that online education doesn’t mean teacherless. There are jobs for both online teachers and in class teachers, and these two peacefully co-exist.

With all of this in mind, I can conclude that the statement “online education is bad for society because it puts classroom teachers out of work” isn’t correct. There will always be more classroom teachers than there are online teachers, however neither pose a threat to the other. They both serve the same function, to teach. Forgetting this is what creates such incorrect statements.

English 3 Lesson 10

“Why does More present the traveler as a sensible reformer early in Book I, but not later?”

The traveler, named Raphael Hythloday, started off as a reasonable character who put his beliefs into reforming “Utopia”, the land he hails from. “Utopia” is a near perfect place, where every resident lives happily. His status as traveler is important near the beginning of the book, where he’s shown traveling across Europe, assessing the wrongs of each country and attempting to convince people to stay in Utopia.

More inserts himself in the book, as a character that Raphael later encounters. More had written Raphael to become more radical in his views, going from reformer to communist radicalist. He had despised the ideas of the free market and private property, firm in his beliefs that everything should be put in the State’s control.

More’s character is there for the purpose of More being able to express his thoughts, and he had written Raphael to be completely absurd nonsense speaker to further this. Every single detail about Raphael was crafted for More to disprove. He was created to be an entirely wrong and entirely ridiculous so that More could use him as a device to write his views.

Government 1A Lesson 5

“Is the Family a Legitimate Form of Government?”

I wouldn’t suggest otherwise. When considering something as a form of government, one needs to ask the following questions:

“Who’s in charge here?” In terms of family, this tends to be the parents.

“To whom do I report?” To the proper authority, those in charge, being parents or guardians.

“What are the rules?” Parent typically lie down a plethora of rules for their children to follow. These different from family to family, yet nonetheless remains consistently present in them.

“What do I get if I obey/disobey?” Once more, the answer to this question varies from family to family. Parents typically have set reward/punishment systems regarding rules.

“Does this outfit have a future?” The purpose of family is to raise children to become their own people and start their own families. By preparing the children for succession, it carves their future.

All of the requirements of being a government can be seen in the average household. Considering the examples above, it’s not too out there to suggest that family can be seen as a form of government. The specifics of the criteria depend on the family itself, however usually all of these are present in some way.

Western Civ 2 Lesson 165

What is one issue that reflects the individualist versus collectivist outlook in your own times? How does it do this?

Individualism is a political philosophy that believes that the individual is the most powerful. Individualists put emphasis on the individual’s own goals and ideals, whilst looking down on government control. Collectivism is the exact opposite of this, advocating for groups while looking down on the individual.

These two ideals can be found embedded in modern day politics. Those who consider themselves aligned with the Republican Party tend to advocate for individualism, while those who are aligned with the Democratic Party advocate for collectivism.

These ideals are not exclusively found in politics, and such ideals can be seen in two major political systems, capitalism and communism. One is based on the individualist ideal, where a country’s trade is controlled by individual private owners, where as communism follows the collectivist ideal and believes a country’s trade should be exclusive controlled by the state.

To conclude, individualism and collectivism can be found in many aspects of modern life, mostly in politics. This ideals are ideals that society will witness battle for all of humanity.

English 2 Lesson 135

Describe the differences between Oliver’s view of military goals vs. Roland’s.

Oliver and Roland had differences in character that led to their military goals differing greatly. Oliver had asked Roland to sound the horn when the Muslims began charging into the Franks army. With this horn, king Charlemagne would have sent reinforcements that would’ve assisted greatly. However, Oliver had asked this of Roland 3 separate times, which each time leading to refusal.

This is because Roland’s ideals of fighting for honor. If the king had helped, he would’ve seen it as dishonorable, as they required help to win. With Oliver, his only interest was protecting the Franks. The fighting ensued, and Roland began seeing the losses they were taking. In a twist of fate, he asked Oliver to sound the horn, but Oliver refused.

Oliver saw the losses as well, and essentially gave up hope. They had already lost in his mind, so what was the point of calling for reinforcements? However, the archbishop had overheard them arguing, and order Roland himself to sound the horn. Roland agreed without much argument, and sounded it.

Charlemagne had assembled 10,000 troops fight, but at this point Oliver and Roland were still in the midst of battle. They had unfortunately but predictably lost their lives, and Charlemagne mobilized his forces to take revenge.

Western Civ 2 Lesson 155

What were the important components of Germany’s Economic Miracle?

There were a lot of components that led to Germany’s Economic Miracle, and the most important ones will be outlined in this essay.

The time before Germany’s economic miracle, Germany’s economy was utterly destroyed due to their part in World War 2. Their currency was rendered useless, and citizens were forced to use other objects as currency, such as cigarettes. They were no longer allowed to import food, and their calorie intake was limited to 1200 calories per day.

The Allies, who were responsible for most of these decisions, had begun to suspect that if things didn’t change, the citizens would revolt. Thus, they sent two men to fix the economy, those men being Ludwig Erhard and Lucious D Clay, which both were absolutely major components of Germany’s economic miracle. They introduced the system of Deutschemark, a new currency which had immediately stabilized the economy. Citizens no longer had to use cigarettes as currency, and there was food to go around.

In short, these men and their new currency system were the most important components of Germany’s economic boom. The people were allowed to eat, and soon stabilized back into normal life.

Western Civ 2 Lesson 145

In what ways did revenge figure into the strategies of the countries fighting in World War II?

Hitler and his allies during the war were violent. They would attack other countries and it’s how revenge slowly and slowly started creeping into strategies.

One such example is how during the war, Russia and Germany had teamed up to invade Poland. Despite their alliance, Hitler had invaded Russia, and had conditioned his people into hating them as well. This ended in the death of 80,000 Soviets, and Stalin had begun attending conferences held between the Allied forces (United States, United Kingdom, and now Russia) seeking out revenge against Hitler?

Another example is the attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan had bombed the United States’s Pearl Harbor as a way to prevent their military fleets from interfering with planned activity in the UK. To the US, a neutral country at the time, it was an unplanned, unwarranted attack that cost the lives of its civilians. In 1945, 4 years after the initial attack on Pearl Harbor, the US had warned Japan to surrender. By this point, Hitler was dead and the countries of Germany and Italy were under complete control. Japan, for unknown reasons, had decided not to surrender when the other countries did, and their choice led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first was Hiroshima; the US had launched an nuclear bomb over Hiroshima, and most who ended up dead were civilians. This wasn’t enough to warrant Japan’s surrender, so the US opted for launching a second nuclear bomb over Nagasaki. This kicked the door in, and Japan had finally surrendered to the Allies.

Western Civ 2 Lesson 135

From the readings and lectures, in what sense did World War II become more “global” during its first two or two-and-a-half years?

Initially, when the war started, it was locked to eastern and Western Europe. Hitler started it by fighting in Poland, and once he had most of Eastern Europe in division, he proceeded to stretch his forces out into Western Europe. Through this, the “Blitzkrieg”, he had managed to gain control over half of Poland, Denmark, Belgium, The Netherlands, Lithuania, and some of Czechoslovakia in a short period of time.

During the war Germany had alliances with Italy and Japan and they’re how things turned global. In 1940, Italy had managed to take over the side of France that they could get into and eventually all of France was under German control. Japan, in the meanwhile, was planning to launch attacks on the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Japan attacked the United States, which at the time was a neutral country. They did this as a means of discouraging the United States into taking action as Japan was planning to bring its forces into the United Kingdom. This led to the United States calling war on Japan, and in turn doing so to Germany and Italy.

The United Kingdom was attacked by Japan, as well as German soldiers who tried to bomb the United Kingdom into submission. As anyone would the UK wasn’t too happy about this, and right along with the US, they declared war on Germany, Italy, and Japan. This is how World War 2 managed to become global.

Western Civ 2 Lesson 125

What are the primary differences discussed in this week’s videos between Marxism and Marxism-Leninism?

Karl Marx believed that communism would be something that would naturally happen as history was written. After capitalism naturally fell on itself, the path for communism would be paved. Lenin believed that communism could never naturally happen, and it would take more than capitalism collapsing for it to happen. It would have to be forced onto people to make it happen.

Historian Richard Pipes wrote, “Soviet Russia was the first society in history to outlaw law.” What did he mean by that? 

During Soviet Russia, you didn’t need education in law to become a judge. While now you would need years of experience and a degree in law to even consider being one, in Soviet Russia it was as simple as saying you wanted to be one. Thus, many people unfit to be judges became judges. They judged not on law, but on their own morals.

Western Civ 2 Lesson 120

How did a political assassination in June 1914 lead to a world war? Why did each of the major countries intervene?

It started with the Archduke of Austria being assassinated along with his wife in 1940. Austria found out the assassin was a Serbian, and thus retaliated against Serbia. Serbia, however, had Russia on their side, and knowing they could do it alone, Austria allied with Germany. It initiated, and countries would join sides, such as Bulgaria, wishing to take back territory stolen from them.

How have some historians argued that the peace settlement at the end of World War I helped pave the way for World War II?

The peace settlement was formed after Britain, Italy, France, and America made arrangements to end it. Part of this agreement was having Germany be spilt in 3 and each part would be owned by a different country, being Poland, France, and Italy. Historians believed that this made the Germans foster resentment, which this resentment is why they had no issues fighting in World War II.