Overall I do agree with Ryan’s cultural theory of America. However I do think that to fully support his thoughts he should use more references. In addition I believe he should state what is theory as theory, rather than a hard fact. For example Ryan’s thoughts on evolution, you can tell he believes in evolution through his statement “Evolution works by randomly generating genetic differentiations some of which are retained by natural selection…” (Ryan 2012) Rather than expressing his thoughts of evolution as a theory he states it as though it is a fact.
I do agree with Ryan’s thoughts on how our culture and media shape the way we as American’s think and behave. When we turn on our TVs and see over and over again the word terrorist linked to Islamic beliefs and actions we begin to associate those words together regularly. This creates an unnatural feeling of discontent towards an entire religious group of people, rather than just the thoughts and actions that a specific group of people have acted negatively towards us as Americans.
Ryan writes about capitalism and how it affects us negatively. I agree with some of his thoughts such as how we create wealth based on gold and how the wealth is directly related to power. However all I learn from this writing is his discontent for the idea of capitalism. Ryan provides no solution for the system. Personally I think to have a good well based argument against a thought or action you must provide an idea for a counteraction that could help solve the problems you have with the current method that is instated.
From beginning to end Ryan provides good thoughts and criticisms of American culture. I did find this writing to be informative and a different way of reacting to how our American culture shapes us. Though, from a personal standpoint I would have liked to read more points on how to fix the current problems he sees within America.
No comments:
Post a Comment