Ibo's Corruption

“As postcolonial critics point out, to be colonized is “to be removed from history.” In its interaction with the conquering culture, the colonized or indigenous culture is forced to go underground or to be obliterated.” Colonializing countries was of vast importance for many world superpowers, England, to help improve their economic impotence on the world. Colonizing also meant forcing the countries views upon the place being colonized. The judicial system, the economic system, and the religious beliefs are forced upon the nation colonized. In new postcolonial text, they describe the view of the colonized. Things Fall Apart is a story of natives being colonized by the English, in the lens of the natives.

As the Englishmen arrived, the destroyed one of the villages in the land, Abame. When Okonkwo finds this out his is angry, but is even more frustrated when the tribes are so passive and don’t wish to fight the white men who destroyed the village. As the white men start to gain more control in the village, the build a church and begin converting the natives. The problem with creating the church is that the villages previous beliefs. These two cultures have very different beliefs and begin to clash with each other. The white men believe in one god and accept the church and the society of the Westerns. The Ibo culture worships many gods and different spirits, and the white men see this as taboo. The two societies have completely different judicial systems. The Ibo have a body of spirits called the Egwugwu that is feared by the villagers if they disobey for fear of curses on them and bad luck. The white man judicial is a single body that is corrupted by the outside pressure of people, money, and power. The Ibo culture is beginning to become tainted from the white man, because of money, some of the people are now acting for selfish.

For the essay I will be talking about the corruption of the Ibo culture through the white man’s presence, and how Christianity destroys cultures, through the postcolonial lens.  

Efficient and Inhuman

Technolpoly

The concept of technopoly seems closely related to the idea of singularity. Singularity is the concept of that man a machine will eventually merge. The basis of a Technopoly as Postman puts it is, “workers were relieved of any responsibility to think at all. The system would to their thinking for them” (Postman). This is a system in which the person no longer original, they are told what to do by a system and they do as told. As in Brave New World this is how their dystopia works. The people are not original, their thoughts not original, nor anything they do original. Postman defines a Technocracy basically to use the technology and not let the technology use us and that the citizens knew “science and technology did not provide philosophies by which to live by” (Postman). As he says the late 19^th and early 20^th century entrepreneurs used the technology to gain wealth past many people imaginations. Frederick W. Taylor is the man that is basically responsible making everything more efficient through the use of science and technology. His basic philosophy was that “human judgment cannot be trusted, that technical calculation is in all respects superior to human judgment” (Postman). Taylor believed that human emotions are inefficient and that machines will be more efficient without them. When this happens this will truly be the end of humanity. When machines find that our emotions are inefficient and basically get rid of them is the point of no return and we truly will be just machines. This is a truly is a scary thought to think about. If we end up without our basically humanity because of our ongoing progress of convenience and efficiency will be a scary day. We will be just the subjects to make a society efficient, just as Brave New World. Control through one of our greatest weaknesses, happiness and immediate gratification. Postman is trying to warn us against this technological progress we are making so we don’t end up in some type of dystopian where we have no humanity. Kurzweil looks forward to this type of technopoly/singularity society. Kurzweil has this obsession of immorality and bring his father back, but what he doesn’t realize is that we could possibility be heading toward this inhuman society Postman predicts. 

2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal

The concepts of this article are controversial ideas but very important to know about and discuss. With the amount of growth in technology, it seems inevitable that man will indeed merge with machine. The intelligence of machines we are creating will soon surpass the human intelligence. We will have to enhance our level of intelligence to keep up with the machines. To enhance our level of intellect we will have to boost our biological hindrances with technology. This will be necessary so we can keep up with the “exponentially growing computing power” (Grossman). This concept of technology growing at an exponential rate is significant because as humans we don’t conceptually understand exponential growth. “Our built in predictors are linear…That is actually hardwired in our brains.” (Grossman). I believe that merging with machines is a good idea. It can make a human more efficient intellectually. We will be able to keep up with the exponentially growing improvement of machines and the intellect ability of them. But the big question is that, do we lose our humanity at the point we combine ourselves with machines? Once we put our conscience in a computer and virtually create ourselves without our body we were born into. I believe that you will not be less of yourself that you copy your conscience and be put into a virtual world. You won’t be any less human because you will have the same “mind”, morals, thoughts, and actions as you would in your body. Being human doesn’t mean you must have your physical body with you, I believe it is how you think, act, and conduct yourself morally. But the instant your virtual conscience you copied into a computer starts perceiving experiences differently, then you are truly not yourself or human anymore. Bernard does believe that there is a place where people truly love each other, in the romantic sense and not the sense that he knows where everyone belongs to everybody. He believes that there is a place where the word mother and father are not taboo words. An existence where intimacy between two people exists and is not forbidden. I don’t believe that we will lose our humanity due to the technological advancements that are being made. 

Rhetorical Analysis

Temptations and the Ring

Kathleen E. Gillian purpose in writing this essay was to convince people that the Lord of the Ring trilogy, primarily Fellowship of the Ring, there is a religious premise surrounding the book. Her objective is to show the religious aspect of the book and why it is religious. The intended audience is for those who have read the Trilogy. She is attempting to persuade the audience to believe that the Trilogy has a religious aspect throughout the book. She does seem to know her audience because she makes references throughout the book about the book, so the audience would have to have read the books to understand what was going on. The way she structures her essay and writes it is based on that people know what the book is about and what happens in the book. She writes it assuming the reader of her essay has read the Trilogy. The topic of the essay is trying to prove that the Trilogy is based around a biblical theme of temptation. It could be appreciated by the audience. Since many people are Christian this would be a theme they would agree with and enjoy this essay. The thesis of her essay is, “In The Lord of the Rings, and the first volume—The Fellowship of the Ring—in particular, Tolkien argues for a religious reading by showing that the struggle for the characters to fight the temptation of the Ring is a direct reflection of the temptation faced by those in The Bible” (Gillian). Gillian is trying to prove that The Fellowship of the Ring has a theme from the bible that people face temptation. The characters in the book face similar challenges congruent with stories from the bible. This thesis could be controversial because it is an opinion and comes from a source that not all people believe in. The bible is a book that not all people agree with, and that makes this thesis a controversial one. Gillian selects events in the book that are similar with biblical stories. She makes sure that the events in the book are near the ones that happen in the bible. Evidence is very important for her argument. Her evidence has to be very similar events between the bible and the Trilogy. An event from the Trilogy must have very similar occurring events to have any substantial argument to persuade people. The most influential piece of evidence is proof from the bible and an event from the book that correlate with each other. The style of her writing is that she explains an event from the Trilogy and then explains how that ties in with stories from the bible. She starts the introduction explaining how well known the book is. Next she says that the trilogy can be interpreted different ways giving an example on one, and then she explains her belief of the books theme. The way she structures the paragraphs are effective because they give and event and then evidence to back her belief. The transitions were decent. The transition from paragraph to paragraph was very sudden and rough. She went directly from one idea to another and it didn’t seem very smooth in my opinion. The ideas she had were good but the way she transitioned them was very unwelcoming. The diction used throughout her essay was that many people could understand if they read the essay. She didn’t use informal diction but it wasn’t elevated to the point where people had to have a high grasp of vocabulary. Her use of diction allows many people to read the essay and comprehend it helping her make her point to all people.