Passive vs. Active: which strategy is better?

How do you go about getting what you want? Do you take the more mature approach and ask for it? Or do you blackmail, and threaten to get it. Although Aung San Suu Kyi's speech and Malcolm X's speeches are similar in how government conspires against its people, both are complete opposite strategies to persuade oppressed people to change government.

Both of these speeches are defined by the emotions which they are encouraging. Malcolm X's strategy is very aggressive and threatening, for he believes to make change, there must be an ultimatum against the government: "The ballot or the bullet." Malcolm X very much believes that the end justifies the means because he is willing to give into chaos, violence, and immorality, to counter balance the government's injustice without thinking that for equality comes mutual respect. Aung San Suu Kyi's speech on the other hand is the complete opposite! Her philosophy is the belief that the government is what is causing the chaos, and it is up to the individual to gradually stand up to it, for good morals will eventually prevail. This is a far more mature approach to rebellion because, as she puts it, "despite all set-backs the condition of the man is set on an ultimate course for both spiritual and material advancement," meaning that she believes that the ethical good of the people will eventually prevail with gradualistic rebellion. Malcolm is not speaking on an ethical level, but is trying to rally minorities, and especially the black race, to follow his philosophy of causing chaos until the end of segregation. Although this strategy is effective, in that government has no choice but to choose the non-violent option, it is immature. It is as though Malcolm's strategy is a younger brother who will annoy the older brother, government, until the younger brother gets what he wants. In this situation, the older brother only resents the younger brother even more, so likewise, "the ballot or the bullet" is more so causes disrespect for the black race from society. According to Aung San Suu Kyi's speech, she believes that it is not about getting a policy changed, but a society changed. In terms of my brother hypothetical, the younger brother instead is compromising with the older brother, and talking on an emotionally respectful level so that the younger brother can get what he wants. Aung San Suu Kyi's approach to reform is all about gradually getting government to change ideologically. Because of this, to actually make a change in government, the government must know it's people's struggles to make change, and accept that government itself can't be selfish. This approach to reform is very passive, for it is about getting respect from the government to make a change.

So in conclusion, Malcolm X's strategy may be effective for quick change, in the long run it isn't effective towards gaining the respect of society and government. Since Aung San Suu Kyi's strategy is more gradualistic, it will take longer for change, but government will become more honest and moral for it. So I believe passive is the better choice through reform, because it changes the ideology of government, rather than just it's policy.

Prince or Peasant?

Would you rather be the Prince of Complacency or Peasant of Prevalence? According to Machiavelli it is "wisest" to define your people. It is "wisest" to put up a facade of a perfect man. It is "wisest" to be feared. However for Thoreau, a Peasant of Prevalence is one who must let go of family, love, money, and home for change. Because Machiavelli is addressing the leader's conservatism, and Thoreau is addressing the individual's activism, they both share concepts of power, but are directed towards different audiences.

Power of government is the defining feature in how one can gain independence, or dependence. To Thoreau, having money, and a home, and a family, only increases one’s dependence on government. Thoreau sees this as as a comfortable lifestyle, and therefore a selfish lifestyle, for this lifestyle is one that needs government to survive. One who would rather live in complacency than advocate change, is therefore one who is too dependent on government. So all in all, Thoreau believes independent power for the individual comes from the lack of government, for through a lack of government, one may make their own decisions. In Machiavelli's case, he says the same to princes. It is through your power and royalty, that you given the right to independence. As a prince, you are the one to make decisions on the people's behalf. You may take counsel, but a good prince is one that makes his own decisions. Although only princes are given all the power, much like Thoreau, Machiavelli is encouraging for princes to be dependent on no one.

Both of these roles can also be flipped. The Prince of Complacency is one who ignores their people’s suffering, and one who is ignorant of their state’s key problems. Similarly, the Peasant of Prevalence is one who must have no government to make changes in a government they don’t follow. So ironically both are either unable to hear, or are unable to be heard. To be a Prince of Complacency, one must use fear to gain the respect to rule people. And likewise, to be a Peasant of Prevalence, one must have confidence to rebel leaders. Despite both are on opposite ends of the spectrum, they both share playing on people’s pluck.

The Reluctance in Idealism

What is a Reluctant Fundamentalist? According to Changez, it is someone who avoids their principles. Someone who avoids their beliefs. Changez says this from experience through the memoir of his life in America. He is not retelling this as a statement that he dislikes America, but that his stay in America grew to symbolize his reluctance to accept reality.

Changez is an idealist. Right off the bat, he was the best of his class. Despite his below average upbringing, he went to a different country, and obtained the most prestigious education and job without hesitation. He is an idealist because of how much spirit and ambition he had from how well he excelled in America. In his narrative, he describes himself as the best soccer player, worker, flirter, and negotiator. Therefore his job symbolized his idealism. It symbolized his idea that through his accomplishments, he was doing the right thing. Idealism was the idea that he could do anything he put his mind to. This however was his downfall.

Changez’s main conflict was that he felt he didn't belong. Erica was what kept him grounded. Through Erica accepting and opening up to Changez, Changez not only felt welcome as a New Yorker, but also as still being a Pakistani. Wainwright and Jim also shared this empathy for Changez. For example when Jim told Changez of his poor childhood. However, after September eleventh, everything changed for Changez. Erica redeveloped her feelings for Chris.

Chris symbolizes Changez’s impossible competition. After this change in Erica, it was impossible for Changez to rekindle their relationship. Changez, however, was in denial of this. In the latter half of the book, Changez’s idealism was what kept him in America. When Erica couldn't accept Changez’s attempt at making love, it was evident that the relationship was over. And yet Changez still tried to force the relationship. He sent many emails, and phone calls, and finally when he was capable of having sex through pretending to be Chris, it only confused her more. It came to the point where he couldn't have any contact with her, and yet he stayed in America with the hopes of being contacted eventually. Despite her abandonment, he still stayed to hopefully start his relationship with her.

This abandonment from Erica renewed his main conflict of not belonging. With knowing that America was planning on going to war with Pakistan, along with the day-to-day racism, Changez’s entire world was turning against him. Because of this, he let go of his idealism. After he talked to Juan-Bautista in Peru, he realized that he couldn't accept his idealized American lifestyle. Until then, he was too reluctant to see how his life was turning against him. With Erica gone, and helping America in financing, he felt like a traitor to Pakistan. Changez is a reluctant fundamentalist because he was eventually able to accept his American lifestyle was too idealized. He finally accepted the fundamental reality that his American lifestyle goes against his principles and so he gave up his whole American life.

Toulmin Analysis: Ripping out the Centerfold

Claim:

The Center for Global Studies should be paper-free and give every student a tablet so that then every student can have organized notes, books, and worksheets handy for class.

Reasons:

a.  "After thousands of years, our medium for recording, communicating, testing, and working is still, plain, old, paper." 

b. "From living in very luscious, green suburbs, it's pretty hard to believe trees are suffering from this nationwide paper standard."

c. "But it is because of this pileup of paper that we end up with backpacks, lockers, and folders filled to the brim with a huge mess of papers and books."


Evidence:

a. -"Every CGS class needs paper for note taking, classwork, character practice, or testing. Tablets are capable of all of paper's writable functions in a more compact, organized form."
-"Paper has been the literal "middleman" for nearly all recorded technology in existence."

b. -"Sure, there is Green Day, there are recycling bins, and we have this general thought that not using a full page is a waste..."

c. -"schools need to build entire book rooms devoted holding grade sets of books."
-"Tablets are... more compact, organized form."

Warrant:

a. "After thousands of years, our medium for recording, communicating, testing, and working is still, plain, old, paper."
-paper isn't good enough anymore for schooling purposes. 
-improving technology in schools will improve education.

b.  "From living in very luscious, green suburbs, it's pretty hard to believe trees are suffering from this nationwide paper standard."
-paper is hurting the environment in ways we cannot see due to where we live.
-schools are a huge contributor to the large consumption of paper.

c. "But it is because of this pileup of paper that we end up with backpacks, lockers, and folders filled to the brim with a huge mess of papers and books."
-paper weighs too much for students to handle.
-paper is unorganized and takes up too much space.


Backing:

a. - improving education in schools are important for students to prosper.
- having more electronics in school shows a magnet school's wealth and popularity.

b. -the environment is important to school students.
-paper is the main contributer to deforestation

c. -carrying too much paper causes bad posture, or back problems
-because it's electronic, tablets are more organized than paper.

Step two: Writing the Analysis

My first and third reasons need to be more separated. Both reasons require the same evidence to back it up, but for different reasons. I should put more information into why tablets are a better technology than paper by elaborating more in my third paragraph as to more uses of the technological aspects. Also for my environment reason, I should put in more factual evidence, for I don't have much credibility saying "there is a tree problem, you just can't see it." Lastly to fix my last reason, I should put in a short, personal story as to how it affects me personally, to gain the empathy of my audience. That or I should put in some polls, or stories of other student's opinions in order to show that I'm not alone in thinking there are too many papers. Overall I think my post, Ripping out the Centerfold, needed more factual evidence and distinct warrants to make it a coherent argument.

Ripping out the Centerfold

Ever since ancient Egypt's invention of papyrus, paper has been human kind's one main way of recording history. Paper has been the literal "middleman" for nearly all recorded technology in existence.  It is a part of our everyday life to the extent that we may not even notice it is there: our homework, our classwork, our books, our mail, our everything!  Believe it or not, 700 pounds of paper are consumed by the average American each year. After thousands of years, our medium for recording, communicating, testing, and working is still, plain, old, paper.

From living in very luscious, green suburbs, it's pretty hard to believe trees are suffering from this nationwide paper standard. Sure, there is Green Day, there are recycling bins, and we have this general thought that not using a full page is a waste, but does this really affect our lives? Surprisingly, it does! The world won't end if you decide not to reuse paper or if teachers have curriculums with wordy textbooks. But it is because of this pileup of paper that we end up with backpacks, lockers, and folders filled to the brim with a huge mess of papers and books. In addition, schools need to build entire book rooms devoted holding grade sets of books. What happens when the curriculum changes, and the fifty book set isn't needed anymore? Where do they go? Nowhere, they just pile-up.

I am proposing we get rid of the paper standard, and switch to using tablets at the Center for Global Studies.   Every CGS class needs paper for note taking, classwork, character practice, or testing. Tablets are capable of all of paper's writable functions in a more compact, organized form. I'm not saying to never use paper ever again, but it would be beneficial to our school, and us students if we were to replace paper with this electronic alternative.

The Center for Global Studies should be paper-free and give every student a tablet so that then every student can have organized notes, books, and worksheets handy for class.

The Parchment Pandemic

I am diagnosed with EPU, a serious pandemic. So serious, that even you, your friends, and especially your teachers have it. However, I don't control it, I'm just subject to it. We don't have a choice, but our school does. 

EPU is Excessive Paper Usage.

Public schools, and especially magnet schools, have been improving teaching. Curriculums are changing; new electives are spawning; chalk boards are disappearing. Very quickly everything has been connected to the internet, to the point where human kind is on the verge of virtual reality. According to New York Times, up to 8 hours a day are spent in front of a screen, whether it's the phone, computer, television, GPS, or tablet. Like sleep, that's a third of a human's life. From using electronics we save many materials such as writing utensils, poster boards, and paper. And yet, schools have turned this unavoidable step for technology in the wrong direction.

As a junior at the Center for Global Studies, I have five textbooks, three reading books, and get around five to ten handouts everyday, accumulating around two thousand pieces of paper per school year. If this is true for all my fellow classmates, it's no wonder at least two times a year our school has a paper deficit. Apparently schools haven't gotten the email we're in the twenty-first century. Despite involving power point presentations, reports from online articles, or typing essays, we're ironically printing and using more paper for the class. The only difference between now, and the age before typing, is that students now have a combo of writing paper, and printing paper. It's about time that the Center for Global Studies takes the leap.      

Upgrading to tablets will solve every paper problem. Tablets are cheap, light, and versatile. No more physical textbooks, paper handouts, and potentially no more note taking with paper. Considering the Center for Global Studies is a magnet school, it'll set the standard as the greenest and most innovative school in the Fairfield County. No more handing in the maclab's used paper that others wasted just for you. No more printer problems lowering your grade. No more folders and backpacks functioning as garbage cans for all the papers we use only one day. 

Let's cure our Excessive Paper Usage. Let's switch to using tablets.  

Unite: Improving to Perfection.

We are a community! From teacher involvement, to all the amazing events CGS pulls off, to the many clubs only CGS offers, by the end of freshman year everyone should know everyone.  We respect each other, no matter how much hair dye you have! For just one hallway, we have become the center of foreign pop culture, fashion, and art! Although we come for the language, CGS has turned into the hub of expression, while still balancing a very rigorous academic experience. CGS has very clear standards of academic achievement, while still accepting of every weirdo and outcast. It is through this ambition, I want to improve the CGS reputation as the best school for learning language and having the best community!

CGS needs to become the envy of the school district. We need to get past all these textbooks, and move onto a more advanced way of learning. Reading out of a textbook the entire period, is a period wasted. We need to be thinking in a way that we want to be thinking and I truly think that this is possible through introducing tablets and connecting CGS to the internet. For the best community, and the best learning, connecting everyone through the internet and using tablets will build friendship, creativity, and leadership skills, along with organizing many events. 

We are a community! 

Entering the Medium: The Reckoning That is Paperback!

From Barbara Ehrenreich's, Nickel and Dimed,

I was baffled, initially, by what seemed like a certain lack of get-up-and-go on the part of my fellow workers. Why didn't they just leave for a better-paying job, as I did when I moved from the Hearthside to Jerry's? Part of the answer is that actual humans experience a little more "friction" than marbles do, and the poorer they are, the more constrained their mobility usually is. Low-wage people who don't have cars are often dependent on a relative who is willing to drop them off and pick them up again each day, sometimes on a route that includes the babysitter's house or the child care center. Change your place of work and you may be confronted with an impossible topographical problem to solve, or at least a reluctant driver to persuade. Some of my coworkers, in Minneapolis as well as Key West, rode bikes to work, and this clearly limited their geographical range. For those who do possess cars, there is still the problem of gas prices, not to mention the general hassle, which is of course far more onerous for the carless, of getting around to fill out applications, to be interviewed, to take drug tests. I have mentioned, too, the general reluctance to exchange the devil you know for one that you don't know even when the latter is tempting you with a better wage benefit package. At each new job, you have to start all over, clueless and friendless.

Matthew Wagar's thoughts on getting rid of paperback.

I couldn't believe it, amazingly, all of my high school teachers want me to bring in a textbook for every class. Why didn't they just let me leave it at home, for my locker is literally on the other side of the school? I think the reason is that chiropractors are in "cahoots" with teachers, and the more books we're given, the more constrained my back gets. School boards across the nation rely on distributing millions of  textbooks that are the weight of bricks, and many times are lost or have new editions that are in need of being bought. Schools are already trying to implement new computers and Smart-boards, or even handing out laptops to everyone. Students who do have these laptops, such as AITE, still have book-filled backpacks, leaving even the technology schools with broken backs. If we upgrade to having eBooks/tablets, not only are we saving space, but we are also saving trees, among many more applications for students, such as paperless note taking,  and easy access to researching on the internet. From switching to eBooks/tablets, too, it opens up a new medium of reading and studying that could bring upon new ways of teaching a class. With eBooks/tablets, it's saving money, and millions of spines.  


(To elaborate more on mediums: many classes of mine want poster making, drawings, and presentations. Although powerpoint, prezi, and google docs make it easier than it was ten to twenty years ago, to be able to put together a presentation with a tablet is a lot quicker, and can be done in class without a trip to the maclab/computerlab or having to supply posterboard. Also to get back to my main problem with textbooks: you aren't able to annotate or underline without sticky notes, and so they make up for it with busy work questions. Textbooks are also just as insanely expensive as Tablets, and require so much more responsibility for students to carry around all five of them everyday. My thinking is, is that through incorporating new, organized forms of technology in schools, it opens up more creative possibilities for learning. Like how in CGS we have ipods to test our speaking, instead of individually being interviewed by the teacher. All in all, I really hate textbooks, and think they are a waste of space, and that teachers shouldn't rely on them to teach a class. Unless of course if it's an AP class, because then it has all the information you need for the test... though there should be an eBook form of the book.)

Issues that pester me!

Highschool:

• Large Classes: Many educators and politicians believe that more homework, and more class time is the root of "better education," when in actuality I believe we need smaller classes for more one on one teaching.
• Changing our classes: This year, Guidance is not allowing anyone to change their schedules so that they can't drop down from a class or switch into a different class.
• Civics classes: A required, yet useless course that is made to brainwash us kids to be future voters. 
• Making classes later in the day: Many teens suffer from getting up too early and losing sleep, when it's more natural for elementary school kids to get up early.
• We should split the year into a Trimester, in order to avoid summer brain, and get more breaks throughout the year. 
• We should switch from having heavy, hardcover, paperback textbooks, to switching to eBooks/tablets. And through switching to this we can have newer ways of learning.

CGS:

• Use the Zen Garden, or use the space for more classrooms for CGS.
• Use Maclab for new forms of teaching.

Norwalk:

• More kid friendly: There are no arcades, comicbook/cardgame stores, recreation centers, amusements, shopping or many restaurants that are primarily for kids or teens (except for Stepping Stones and My Three Sons). Norwalk has a bit of a dangerous reputation. 
• Clubs, Associations, or Groups for middle aged adults: My parents don't really have many friends outside of work.
• More Teen Jobs: Norwalk in the past 30 years has changed from teens working low wage jobs, to  more adults from the lower class working the low wage jobs. 

Buisinesses:

• Stop having stores such as Abercrombie, Gamestop, Hollister, and many other chains, make every mall I go to be Identical. Primarily Clothing stores.
• Toy Stores need new appeal: with us being in the age of technology and video games, many toy stores have been suffering and shutting down. Toy makers need to get with the century!
• Because of this new Technology age, authors should not be so constricted to making hard/soft cover books. We should not only save trees, but also create/use newer mediums of telling stories.

National/World:

• Charity!! Instead of putting in money for the sake of being a good person, Charities' intense advertising forces people to pay for charities either out of guilt, self riotousness, and/or because it's a social standard.
• [When you are told that the world is going to end, and you and two other coplayers are the last hope for saving the universe, only to find out IT WAS JUST A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT. (inside joke)]

My name is unclear, for it was created through jeer.

"Wager!" "Waggar!" "Wagaur!" "Wagner!" "Swaggar!" Throughout my whole life very few people have ever pronounced my name correctly on their first try without me pronouncing it first. Despite my last name only being five simple letters, I've gone entire school years of teachers taking attendance and never pronouncing it "Way - gur." Even life long friends still pronounce it incorrectly to this day. How did I get such a simple, yet complex last name?

According to a genealogy chart my father made (http://www.steve.wagar.com/stuff/new_genes.gif), my family name originated from the name: Weger (Vay - Gur). Because this name has been around for over five hundred years, it was never recorded as to what this name means since most people didn't know how to write. It was originally an uncommon Austrian last name, up and until Ebhard Wager traveled to America and changed his last name to have an "a" so that it could be pronounced in English. However his son, Ephraim Wagar,  then improved it to have that second "a" to be the way my last name is pronounced now. Because of changing this name twice, Wagar's are extremely rare. If you were to google image search it, the only pictures you may see are of me, my family and an old stuffy author which was my grandfather.

So I suppose I can't really blame people for messing it up all the time, because up and until 1766, it wasn't even a real last name. I've grown to get used to such a simply bizarre last name, and it's weird pronunciations have even grown on me. I like that it lacks fluidity, yet isn't blunt. In terms of my actual ethnicity, since I'm basically all of Europe combined (although mostly Irish and Lithuanian), I'm proud to say that I'm American down to my very name. I'm unique! Well, until you get to my first name... 

I like to think of myself as someone who craves for the weird, and someone who strives to be strange. And yet, my first name, Matthew, was deemed the fifth most common name in USA and eighteenth most common in UK in 2006. This name originated to be Hebrew, although many Roman languages have copied with names like Mattheo, Matthias, and Matthieu. Does this mean I dislike my name since it's so common amongst many cultures? Not really. When it comes down to it, my name is who I am.  If I could change my name, I wouldn't know what to change it to. I've always grown up around my name, so to change it would mean I'd have to start from square one all over again. Through just my name, I've built up this image of how people see me, and by changing it, I'd not only have to explain to every person I know that I have a different name, but also build a new reputation. It's similar to how when transsexuals or secret agents change their name; through the action and reasoning of changing their name, they change in personality and reputation. No matter how foreign, outdated, long, or simple someone's name is, their reputation they've built up for their name shows who they distinctly are as a person. Matthew Wagar is the perfect blend of normal and unorthodox, the perfect blend of complex and simple.

Although for real everyone, it's Matthew "Wagar!!"