Jonathan Haidt

Philosophical Underpinning: Alexander Pope Whenever religion is “put on the table” there are likely two outcomes that can play out. Either people evade the conversation completely, in order to not start heated debates, or it can have the opposite effect. People would clamor to say their belief is just. The same can be said when it comes to the power of God(s) or lack of. Individuals on one hand would say God works in mysterious ways and those ways cannot be questioned. Others would say, with…

In Alain de Button’s Status Anxiety, he argues that humorists say things that others refuse to say. Therefore, he ranks humorists as a vital function in society. He could not be more accurate. Humorists make topics enjoyable and easily comprehensible and pave the way for future discussions on sensitive topics. Humorists make controversial topics entertaining. An example of this would be Saturday Night Live’s Cold Opens on the recent Presidential debates. These parodic shorts make bland,…

Swift however, does not intend us to emulate either Yahoo or Houyhnhnm behavior, but rather to take the positive aspects which each portray, and dilute them into a compromise that befits the healthy functioning of a human being. Williams agrees that Swift is creating a novel whose moral is to say, “Passions and affections, carefully guided, are treated as necessary in creatures who are imperfect and interdependent” (Williams 286), and likewise the “Houyhnhnms, far from being a model of…

In his essay, "A Modest Proposal," Jonathan Swift proposes a plan to bring his home country, Ireland, back to order after years of extreme poverty. Swift's purpose is to convey the idea that sacrificing the children of poor citizens is the only solution to improve the country's economy and correct the "deplorable state of the kingdom" (832). Swift adopts an insincere and ironic tone to reveal his frustration with society and present his "modest proposal". Swift begins by establishing a…

Both Dr. Jonathan Swift in “A Modest Proposal” and Elizabeth Warren in “The Vanishing Middle Class” argue about the flawed economic system of their respective countries one being the United States and the other Ireland. Swift argues how the poverty of the poor is dragging down the middle class and is ruining the beautiful country of Ireland as well. On the contrary Warren argues on how a strong middle class is needed in order to help out a lower class that is struggling. Because Swift notices…

In the spring of my sophomore year I decided to rejoin the track team. After the first week, I noticed a new coach was on the far side of the football field working with a few kids teaching them to pole vault, so I went over and started to learn the basics of vaulting. A few practices went by, and my coach thought it was time for the beginners to start vaulting with a bar. My first attempt was an utter disaster; my back hit the bar and I fell straight down onto it, where it left a pretty…

It Takes Two "It takes two to make to make things go right, it takes two to make it out of sight" are the brilliant lyrics to Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock's It Takes Two, which happens to be the anthem of The Proposal. The Proposal is the romantic comedy about a book publisher that appears to have everything and her assistant that she never took the time to get to know. Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) the high class book publisher finds out that she is being deported back to Canada; in order to stay…

Jonathan Larson, the composer of Rent and Tick, Tick....Boom! Both were musicals released in the early 2000s. The music in these musicals were not entirely an orchestra more of classic rock, which I believed made both movies even better and brought out the storyline even more. Jonathan Larson was born to a Jewish family on February 4, 1960 in White Plains, New York, USA. At a young age he was exposed to performing arts being music and theater. He was very involved in his high school arts…

Dilbinder Thandi Ms. Jenkins Period:1 Wealthy Teen Nearly Experiences Consequence Did you recognize this article as satire when you first read it? I wasn’t really sure what the satire was in the article, but after reading it for the second time, I believe I found a piece of satire. There could possible be more that one example in the article, but I was only about to find one, if it is even satire. What was the first thing that gave it away? The thing that gave it away was the fact that he said…

Sometimes in order to draw the attention of an audience to specific problem, such as religion, addiction and family’s dynamics, authors decide to either exaggerate the events or narrate the actual facts. For instance, Jonathan Swift denounces, in his work A Modest Proposal, Ireland’s submission to England and the economic situation in the country. Swift presents an extreme position with a logical conclusion. He proposes to sell the children of poor people as food for the wealthy in order to…