Fact or Fiction: Eating Disorders

On July 16, 1997, journalist Jennifer Dunning wrote an article for the New York Times about eating disorders among ballerinas.  The article, titled Eating Disorders Haunt Ballerinas, began with information about an intervention that two eating disorder specialists attempted to do with forty young ballet students at the School of American Ballet.  The article explains that the specialists were trying to understand “which girls developed or were predisposed to problems.”  Dunning then explains that the study was canceled after a year due to the fact that 60 to 70 percent of the students opted out.  Dr. Hamilton also points out in the introduction that denial is a large part of eating disorders.  The two specialists, Dr. Warren and Dr. Hamilton, gave the article credibility because of the fact that they are both experts in their field.  The credible sources ensure the reader that these facts are true and not just personal opinion.  Dunning received this information from the two doctors who did the study, so the facts about the study in the article must be true.

Economics and Public Policy

Many Americans have been led to believe that our country’s economic values have been adopted by other countries without force or coercion.  In actuality, many economic changes are made after a disaster strikes, through force, either covertly or overtly.  Naomi Klein acknowledges this and uses this idea as the main thesis in her book, The Shock Doctrine.  Klein says that “we have been sold a fairy tale about how these radical policies have swept the globe; that they haven’t swept the globe on the backs of freedom and democracy, but they have needed shocks, they have needed crises…they have needed states of emergency.”  No other person understood this idea more than Milton Friedman, who taught at the University of Chicago.  Friedman believed in a free market with little to no government intervention.  He believed that the government should not have a large role in the economy and if left up to the people, the economy would correct itself.  Countries such as Chile, England, and the United States have used economic policy to dictate political policies upon their people. A good example of this would be Chile’s resistance to the United States and President Nixon’s demands for their economy to mirror the United States,’ basically hoping for some sort if crisis that would lead to economic reform, similar to the way the United States became an economic super power after World War II.

Ayer Analysis

Many philosophers have tried to answer metaphysical and ethical questions about the world.  Questioning whether God exists, or whether something holds moral value, is something that many philosophers have spent their entire lives doing.  In his famous book, Language, Truth, and Logic, A. J Ayer, who was a logical positivist, attempted to use empiricism to answer philosophical questions about many issues including religion, metaphysics, and ethics.  His view was that all sentences had to have empirical evidence to determine whether they are meaningful or meaningless.  His views showed that questioning issues such as religion, metaphysics, and ethics is pointless simply because they all turn out to be meaningless.  He wanted to differentiate between sentences of value and sentences of fact.  For example, Ayer thought that sentences such as “x is good” are neither true nor false, because they are neither analytic nor empirically verifiable.  However, Ayer’s goal was not to determine whether sentences were true or false, just whether they had meaning or not.  Throughout this essay I will explain Ayer’s verification principle, the difference between analytic and verifiable sentences, and also show how, according to Ayer’s views, all metaphysical sentences come out to be meaningless.

Jewelry and Persuasion

Marilyn Monroe famously said that “diamonds are a girl’s best friend,” and her words have had a lasting effect on women around the world.  Over time she has become a symbol for sexuality, luxury, and beauty.  Similarly, so have diamonds and other fine jewelry over the years.  Diamonds not only symbolize status and wealth, but they are also used as a sign of everlasting love.  Advertisements, movies, and television shows have conditioned us to view marriage in a particular way, and they have helped to shape our beliefs and values also.  Men are taught that the way to a woman’s heart is through diamonds, and women are taught that men show their love and commitment through buying them.  Since we have this dominant cultural ideology in today’s society, I decided that a perfect option for this assignment would be to visit a high end jewelry store.  I chose to go to Tivol on the Country Club Plaza in order to see what types of persuasion the employees use in order to sell diamonds.  I found the salespeople to be particularly effective at persuading me through atmospherics, cognitive shorthands, and coactive persuasion. 

Night Analysis

For this assignment I have chosen to use a passage in “Night” by Edna O’ Brien.  The passage, which starts on page three, begins with the sentence “One fine day,” and ends on page four with “Only the minutes are rugged.”  I found this passage to be particularly interesting because the author continuously uses a dark and dreary undertone.  She uses oxymoron to show how the reader is going to be immersed in a weird and different world throughout this novel.  She uses language such as “two dead men got up to fight, two blindmen looking on, two cripples running for a priest, and two dummies shouting, hurry on.”  She makes contradictions saying she “felt, seen, heard, not fully felt, most meagerly seen, scarcely heard at all.”  This shows how her world is not straight forward, but that it is “topsy-turvy,” and perhaps even chaotic and depressing. 

American History X

In today’s society, there is a mixture of different races and ethnicities in all parts of America.  Immigration has helped the Hispanic and Latino population grow to astonishing numbers.  African Americans and Hispanics now are the two largest minority groups, and growing numbers produces more conflict.  While minorities have struggled to overcome racism for many years, racism is still very prevalent in the world today, perhaps as much as it was in the past.  All different racial and ethnic groups are not only fighting for political power, but for social equality and equal rights also.  No movie highlights the damaging effects of racism more than American History X.  This movie shows how hatred and racism can destroy lives, and how negatively one individual can influence another.