Unit 2 Reflection: Synthesis Essay

All societies insist that a citizen follow written laws. While the people are the power in any natural government, they give their power up to leaders who then must embody the ideals of their country. The Romans were not far off when they began to call their ruler the “First Citizen” of Rome. As a leader is the “First Citizen” of their own government, it is his or her duty to publicly abide by the written laws of the government. When these requirements are no longer met, it is the right and duty of the masses to correct this problem and regain the power they vested in their government.

It is Locke’s belief that the people give their power to their government. This government is natural when all people as equals elect a representative. Locke writes, “…these men, it is evident, were actually free… [and] by consent were all equal, till by the same consent they set rulers over themselves.” In this way, it is naturally logical that there should be one ruler to organize a government, one who rules by the will of the people. Even Machiavelli in The Prince concedes that there is power held in the people.  “…it is necessary for him [the prince] to  be sufficiently prudent  that he may know how to avoid the reproach of those vices which would lose him his state.” Much of The Prince is based on keeping the common people content. Even though Machiavelli promotes negative actions like deceit, he still recognizes the power of the common people.

While Socrates was never a part of his government, he was a leader in his own right because of the support of people who looked up to him; he was truly a “First Citizen.” As such, he felt he was not only responsible for his own actions, but also that of those who followed him. He argued for his own death in Crito because in escaping, he would harm his society. Socrates asks Crito, “Do you imagine that a state can subsist and not be overthrown, in which the decisions of law have no power, but are set aside and trampled upon by individuals?” (Plato). By escaping, Socrates, as a public figure, would incite more disobedience of the law. Although wronged, Socrates’ escape would wrong others and could potentially hurt his own society. Therefore, he would have rather died an honest man, than live as a criminal. His influence in society would have crumbled because he no longer would have the power of the admiration and respect of the masses who had originally given him importance.  

There is power held in both the rulers and the ruled, but when the rulers get out of hand it is the duty of the citizens to speak up. Locke spent much of The Second Treatise of Civil Government speaking on the tacit contract. He believed that if one did not disband from the government into which they were born, then they were obliged to follow the rules of their current government. In this way, Locke equates silence to agreement. Similarly, not speaking when something unacceptable occurs is like accepting the event. This then puts the responsibility of maintaining society as well as power into the people’s hands. It is the duty of the individual to maintain order by speaking on the behalf of what is correct. Furthermore, a citizen hurts society when he or she stays quiet about a concern.

Article of the Week 12: Advertisement

Despite their small stature on the page, compared to other flashing and moving ads, the advertisements found on Facebook can be some of the best on the internet. How does this compare? Well, if you know me you might already have a guess. The advertisements on Facebook cater to the account. I love hockey as well as photography. The most effective part of these ads is that it focuses on all three basic parts of the rhetorical triangle effectively. The web site gathers advertisements from companies (rhetor). The companies wish to get their message out and this website gives them a medium to advertise to about 1/3 of the world population. These advertisements are then relevantly matched on a content to audience basis. They take information from your account (what you talk about, your "likes" ect) and feedback on previous advertisements and match them to what they think you would like. And what if this advertisement does not appeal to you? You can "hide" the advertisement; but you can only hide it if you give them feedback for future advertisements. This eventually helps the program to make advertisements even more specifically catered to the individual. This makes these small ads more enticing to a customer than a random advertisement on a random web site.

For the class work regarding advertisements, I will be using the following ad:

Article of the Week 11: IRB Section 1

The author of Zeitoun, Dave Eggers, has had much experience in publishing. He has written six books, with this one being his most recent. He is also the founder and editor of a private publishing company called McSweeney's.

Zeitoun was written in 2009, but focuses mostly on the few days surrounding Hurricane Katrina in 2005. is a story about a Syrian-American man and his experiences in New Orleans and with Katrina. In this section, the author sets up the conflict in the main storyline. Zeitoun is a relentless worker who owns a handyman business. He offers pretty much any job such as painting, paving, or plumbing. His wife hears about the storm on the news and decides to leave the area, but Zeitoun stays to take care of his company. When the storm hits, Zeitoun is not worries, but eventually the levies start overflowing. This causes a major flood and Zeitoun's first story is flooded. Soon, Zeitoun decides to leave his house and he takes a canoe he bought a few years ago around the city. Always working, Zeitoun visits his various properties and on the way saves eight people from being trapped in their houses. The section ended with Zeitoun telling his wife that he wished to say in New Orleans to help save people. Other parallel stories are also told as flashbacks. They mostly tell the hardships of two Muslims running their own business in America.

This book was written for people with open minds. It brings up some controversial issues such as religion and sexual orientation. Nonetheless, it only speaks to Zeitoun and Kathy’s points of view and does not push a certain belief at the reader. Also, it was written for people interested in Hurricane Katrina and the struggles it posed to families. Most interesting, however, are how Muslims are treated in such a situation. Both adults have an interesting point of view, because Kathy converted late in life and Zeitoun lived in a wholly Muslim area for his early life.

One device I thought was interesting was the way that the author refers to Abdulrahman Zeitoun mainly by his last name. It was stated that he was referred as Zeitoun because most people could not pronounce his first name, but I believe this to be almost a commentary on present-day America. People are so little invested in other people that they are too lazy to learn a man’s first name. This then is juxtaposed with Zeitoun’s accepting demeanor. He is willing to forgive people who slight him and many of his clients do not even learn his first name.

Unit 2: The Constitution of the Iriquois Nations

Independent Reading Book Selection

Zeitoun
Dave Eggers

Section 1 - 0 - 110
Section 2 - 111 - 220
Section 3 - 221 - 325


I chose this book because it was highly recommended and sounded interesting. The book is about a Syrian-American family caught between the effects of Hurricane Katrina and America's war on terror. It surrounds their struggles as well as the father of the family, Abdulrahman Zeitoun. The book is highly reviewed by many organizations and newspapers. This book gives a unique take on a tragedy that occurred when I was just beginning to become aware of current events.

Article of the Week 10: Radio Advertisement

This advertisement is meant to make the viewer want to listen to Kiss radio station. They use an interesting play with words. Their non-text background also parallels this theme with school supplies mixed with the large radio on the bottom left. The numbers also seem to go with the idea of school, while in actual meaning the advertisement is almost anti scholastic. This contradiction of visual versus the meaning leaves the viewer to be intrigued and to examine the advertisement more closely. The ad uses common memory and lists various bands and songs with numbers. Not a music enthusiast myself, I read half the list before understanding the purpose of this ad. Nonetheless, this misunderstanding only made me more interested in the relevance of the numbers to the advertisement. The juxtaposition of mostly straight lines in most of the ad drew the audience's eye to the lower right corner including the one area with extremely curved objects. They also used the strategy of placing their logo small and in the corner in order to make the viewer actively look for the company and the connection.

Article of the Week 9: IRB Section 4

The Lone Survivor was a powerful and chilling book. Since the last section, Marcus and one of the local people who had saved him ran from the village hoping to find shelter to fight the Taliban. The Taliban ran through the village and beat up children to keep the village morale down; they did no more because the Taliban needed the support of small villages such as these. After the Taliban left, Marcus and his friend ran from the village and miraculously stumbled upon a troop of US soldiers looking for Marcus. After radioing in, Marcus and the other troops were lifted out via helicopter on a village opium plot. Marcus spends the rest of the book describing how his family and friends reacted to his mission and his friends' deaths.

Repetition is rampant in The Lone Survivor. The author continues to express ideas of never being alone, and the threats of the liberal media. Throughout the book, Marcus emphasizes this SEAL tradition of never leaving each other alone. When they trained, they always had a partner, but what struck me was at the end when the Navy was taking the bodies of the dead soldiers back. Even then, they sent a SEAL to stay with the soldier until he was buried. This stuck with me because it showed how much the organization invested in the people who had gotten this far.  Maybe more important than never being alone, was the threat of the media in a soldier's life. Marcus described the news as a sort of weapon that the Taliban had in their arsenal--the only one of which the SEALs were afraid. This fear of the media caused Marcus' team to go against their training and ultimately led many lives lost. These ideas were constantly brought up in the book, but the reader did not realize the scope of these statements until the end of the story. It was interestingly  written to escalate. First, Marcus mentioned that he did not like the media, then he showed how they changed his decision, and last of all, showed the destruction of such a decision. The plot of this story almost ran like a syllogism.