Blog Background

This blog is designed to represent the online presence of my research paper for my College Composition II class. This blog is meant to be used as a means of testing my idea for my paper. I am also asking for others who access this blog to comment and help shape my creative processes.

Here is the assignment to be discussed:

Zeitgeist is the ethos of a people; a dominant world-view prevalent at a particular sociocultural era. Some in contemporary American culture would argue that there is an unparalleled shallowness and superficiality in American shared beliefs and moral attitudes.

Others contend that American society has become increasingly individualized, perhaps tribal in many ways, and this has led to cultural anomie, which is the lack of shared values and a growing sense of purposelessness – especially in people under 40 years old.

There are those, however, who propose that American society is moving towards a “collective intelligence” – a model of public consciousness borne from the collaboration and competition of large groups of individuals communicating through technology like social networking.

Pick one of these positions (unparalleled shallowness; increasingly individualized toward tribalism; moving towards collective intelligence) and argue for its validity as a way to describe what defines American public consciousness at the beginning of the 21st Century.

Modern society, as a whole has become increasingly tribal in nature. This has developed due to the creation of various institutions that rarely allow for someone to choose a middle ground. In many of these institutions, once a side is chosen, one can’t defect to another side without facing extreme repercussions. Once a group is chosen, a person is almost expected to, figuratively, “tow the company line” which creates a sense of purposelessness.

Remember that as you read this, hypothetical readers, to not hold back on your criticism. This blog is supposed to help shape my paper and my creative process. Any and all comments will be read and appreciated.

~ by ncberz11 on April 18, 2008.