COMM 150: Assignment over the weekend
For Monday, March 29 ...
Read the op-ed piece "The Broken Society" by David Brooks in the March 18 issue of The New York Times. Brooks doesn't really have a "nut graf" [which is short for nut paragraph and means the kernel of his argument or his main point in a nutshell], and his main idea hard to sum up, but it goes something like this: "Essentially, [we need to follow British author Phillip Blond, who] "would take a political culture that has been oriented around individual choice and replace it with one oriented around relationships and associations." Let's read Brooks' piece, foloow the links and ask ourselves:
- How have the news media contributed to what Blond and Brooks call a broken society?
- How have newsmakers and their spokesmen contributed to it?
- What can each do to help try to fix it?
This discussion will help us focus what we've been learning in Chapters 11, 12 and 13.
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8 comments:
Please post your answers to this question: To what exent do you believe David Brooks is correct in saying American politics is a "broken system?" Is there any difference, in your opinion, between national politics and Illinois state politics? Which of his points do you agree with? ... disagree with?
David Brooks would be correct in saying that most of American Politics is a broken system however I feel there there are some politicians who have the best common wellfare in mind for their people regardless of how few politicians it may be.
Although Illinois has had more than its fair share of corrupt politicians I woild say that overall they are in the same position; almost everyone is corruptable if you find the right motivation or price.
I agree with about everything that Brooks has said about our broken government and our political system.
I think David Brooks comes on a little strong in his argument, but to each his own. I, along with every other American can relate to the stresses of the downward economy and how politics have done little to help, well actually they have made it worse, but thats a whole other subject. David Brooks is looking at a small scope of opinions about the "political Class" and how Middle Class Americans view them. I do not have "contempt" for them, nor do I care about them much at all. What I do care about is the well-being of the middle class, and what politicians can do to make our lives better, because, regrettably, thats what they are here for.
I do agree with David Brooks when he saysthat American politics is a "broken system." I think that in our current system the politicans are so busy pointing fingers that they lose site of what they should be doing. I think that if our politicans spent half as much time trying to figure out how to solve the issues rather than telling us why their opposition is wrong, we would be a lot better off.
The media has contributed to this broken society by not informting the public about the gernal state the economy was heading towards and pretending as though it wasnt about how much the average person saved anymore, it would all be alright.In a way, I feel like the media was just hoping things would turn around and they were almost hiding and just relying on hope that the economy would just pick up again. Brooks piece talks about how the people in America are in the economic crisis that we have now because they started to replace "long-term investments with short-term profits", which continued to build up to the point where our economy is today. The media is not the only one to blaime though. Spokesmen and newsmakers did not give out clear and conscious information about the market to the general public as the economy went downward. To fix our problems, I truley believe that what Obama is working to achieve with having a team of experts come in to help get coporations and bussinesses back on track will work.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion... David Brooks has a strong opinion that the American Politics is a "broken system". But to him what may seem to be broken another may see it as a work in progress. He should consider both sides of the matter before jumping to conclusions.
I agree with the statemnet that " Public Debt is piling up at a astonoshing and unrelenting pace." I belive the debt is the fault of the politicians and legislaters that have lost the focus of their exsitence and what they who they were elected to serve. They have become game players and the people (state employee) and the revenue of the state is the money they are playing with disregarding the community's that elected them to serve. They have become more self serving than public serving. I believe that this is happening at Washington level and on the state levels. I believe that the people have gotten to the place where they are disgusted not just with Washington but on the home front also. They have become desenatised and just want to wash their hands of all of it. I believe in that sense David is correct and you can see that on the local level in Springfield/Chicago politics. You can see that in the voter turn outs in the past election. You can see that in the finacial crisis that the State of Illinois is in and the promises of funding we keep telling the greased pockets to get more votes.
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