-
- When first reading Hofstadter’s essay about the paranoid style, I was relatively indifferent. I thought his essay was somewhat archaic and not overtly applicable in our world today, but I have an overwhelmingly different opinion now. Dimitriadis’ and Giroux’s articles really made a difference in how I see the paranoid style because they both hit on the fact that nobody is communicating their ideas face to face anymore. Dimitradis really hits home the idea that the “public sphere” has been eliminated, and some people would day that it has been, in fact, enhanced through the growth of mass media, but I conclude that social medias have only made the paranoid style more prevalent. As for Giroux’s article, I think there is a huge gap in our current education system, in that it is geared in a way to help students master memorization rather than analytical processes, which inadvertently leads to dim adults.
- I never feel very confident that my ideas make as much sense to readers as they do in my head. I really dislike seeing redundancy in writing, so I have developed a habit of leaving complex topics too vague to get my point across. This goes hand in hand with my transitions between ideas. I may have too many claims going on inside major paper 2, but I find it difficult to condense, because again, they all seem necessary in my head. The strongest part of my paper is connecting Giroux and Abramowitz’s claims because that felt like a natural connection to me. It was interesting seeing how their ideas coincided and developed into a woven argument.
- I found that Giroux’s article held a lot of weight in my paper, partially because I felt his ideas were the most complex and he was making an array of claims. He argues that education, or lack thereof, is the culprit of the paranoid style because we are breeding Americans to hold fast to their opinions without seeking compromise. This is the source that connected my paper together and related how education plays a role in conditioning voters and building political community, and when this doesn’t happen people succumb to confirmation bias and violence.
Reflection for Major Paper 2
by
Tags:
Leave a Reply