In class, we have been watching an argument over whether or not hip hop degrades society. Personally, I feel that it completely depends on the specific song, as well as how we, as individuals, interpret the lyrics of the song. Sometimes, I just like a song simply because it has a catchy beat to it, not necessarily the whole meaning behind the lyrics.
I am personally arguing that hip hop, in general, does not degrade society. Doing some simple research on Google, I found some truly inspirational hip hop songs. I found one hip hop song that contains a Pathos claim. This song, entitled "G.R.I.N.D. (Get Ready It's a New Day)", is by Asher Roth. The arguments of this song are essentially that if you work hard, you will accomplish great things and that each day is a new day to do something good with your life. Although the song contains minor curse words, they don't really take away from the meaning and argument of the song as much as it adds to it.
I found this song quite inspirational, and it is definitely not degrading society. There really are a very inspirational hip hop and rap songs in this world, and I feel that we should start focusing more on the songs that are inspirational, rather than all of the songs that seem to be "degrading society". Even the songs with a ton of curse words and inappropriate terms could still be considered motivational. For example, many songs express the life of the artist, and the lives of these artists typically aren't perfect.
If you would like to listen to this song and read the lyrics to create your own opinion of the song, follow the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr4qnylOhXQ
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Plato's Rule of Philosopher Kings
In Republic Plato makes a policy claim about how he believes governments should be. His claim is that the most fitting rule of government is an oligarchy of philosopher kings. His grounds for this policy claim is that philosophers are the only people who have an inherent thirst and affinity of knowledge, as well as the only ones capable of fixing the ills in society. The latter ground made as a metaphor of the philosopher king being the only captain able to right the ship. The warrant here is that the rulers of a nation must be wise, and must have a desire to seek more knowledge. The backing to the warrant is that the people of the nation are not fit to run the nation, and a very small minority has the right to control the majority. Plato appeals the reader's logos by reasoning why a reign of philosopher kings is necessary to the security of the state. Being the eminent thinker of the time, Plato has as a great of ethos as any political thinker of the time, further more the Socratic dialogue this policy claim is set in, establishes the credibility of the character advocating the philosopher oligarchy. The kairos here is also important. Very few people today believe that nations should be run with complete control given to philosophers, at the time rule by the people was far from established. Republic was written only shortly after the philosophical origins of democracy, so absolute rule was considered the norm of the time, making the claim more credible then than it is now.
Hi-tech cars open to cyber-hacking
Recently, the chance of occurring organized
crimes become higher as the risk of hacking high tech automobiles rises because
hackers can easily approach the control systems of various vehicles. This fact claim
is proven by the experiment from security engineer Charlie Miller and the
director of security intelligence at IOAcitve, Chris Valasek. They prove that
they can control the vehicles such as Toyota Prius and Ford Escape by their laptops.
Miller says that “automobiles are no longer just mechanical devices,”
emphasizing automobiles in nowadays are the mixture of high tech electronic
control systems with networks. Another ground for the claim is the experiment
from the University of Washington and UC San Diego. Both school’s scholars also
hacked the computer system of high tech automobiles by using wireless
technology in 2011. These events make various carmakers and National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration to seriously concern about traffic safety. The reasonable
rebuttal for this claim has not been made yet but various carmakers tell that
they acknowledge the problem and consider how they can make things better. For
example, the spokesmen from Toyota and Ford say that they are trying to invent
new form of technology that may block the attacks from hackers. However, the European
Union’s law enforcement agency Europol says that there is no guarantee to block
the attack from hackers because “criminals’ knowledge keeps up with the
improvements to the technology.”
Facebook Ban On Graphic Content Uplifted (CNN)
This article is about the fortune 500 social network website Facebook and its recent decision to lift the ban off of graphic video content (including beheadings) that some people would find offensive. It is definitely a policy claim. Facebook also prohibits nudity, drug use and pornography, and these restrictions will stay in force, but until last may, it openly allowed violent content such as beheadings to be published, provided the intent is to raise awareness rather than celebrate violence. The grounds are published in the Facebook's user conditions which "prohibit photos or videos that glorify violence or attack an individual or group." The quality of evidence and reasoning is documented and substantial and it definitely helps the credibility knowing that an official Facebook spokesperson clarified its reasoning for lifting the ban and spoke to the public news media. The author primarily uses logos meaning it justifies its reasoning for making these controversial decisions.
Read Here:
http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/22/news/companies/facebook-violent-videos/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
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