Midterm do-at-home mini-essay, Core 127-01.

Bring one single-spaced, one-sided sheet with you to Wednesday’s exam, responding to the questions below.  This essay is worth 25% of your exam grade. 

From Chapter 3 of Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents:

“Human life in common is only made possible when a majority comes together which is stronger than any separate individual and which remains united against all separate individuals.  The power of this community is then set up as ‘right’ in opposition to the power of the individual, which is condemned as ‘brute force.’  This replacement of the power of the individual by the power of a community constitutes the decisive step of civilization.  The essence of it lies in the fact that the numbers of the community restrict themselves in their possibilities of satisfaction, whereas the individual knew no such restrictions.  The first requisite of civilization, therefore, is that of justice—that is, the assurance that a law once made will not be broken in favour of an individual.  This implies nothing as to the ethical value of such a law.  The further course of cultural development seems to tend towards making the law no longer an expression of the will of a small community—a caste or stratum of the population or a racial group—which, in its turn, behaves like a violent individual towards other, and perhaps more numerous, collections of people.   The final outcome should be a rule of law to which all—except those who are not capable of entering a community—have contributed by a sacrifice of their instincts, and which leaves no one—again with the same exception—at the mercy of brute force.” 

a)      In this discussion of individual rights vs. community authority, where would you say Freud’s sympathies lie—individual or community?  What evidence can you bring to support your opinion (from this passage and from other sections of the book)?

b)      In the second chapter of his book, (“Einstein’s Question”), David L. Smith invokes Freud in his discussion of the idea that war may be “natural.”  How does that discussion connect with the ideas expressed in the passage above?

MIDTERM EXAMINATION, CORE 127-01: WAR AND OUR WORLD.  15 OCTOBER 2008

NAME_____________________________________________

Passage identification and interrogation.  From subject matter and prose style, identify the authors of the following passages and answer the questions regarding content.  Each is worth 10 points; total 60.

1.       “It seemed a little crazy to be living in a hotel, like a hotel in Des Moines or New Orleans, with a lobby and wicker chairs in the lounge, and signs on the door of your room telling you that they would press your clothes immediately and that meals served privately cost ten per cent more and meantime it was like a trench when they lay down an artillery barrage.  The whole place trembled to the explosion of shells.”

a)        Author?

b)       What makes this paragraph an effective piece of writing?

c)       Name the conflict that gave rise to this essay.

2.       “Clearly, all three of these key factors—the politics of oil security, the dynamics of demand and supply, and the constraints of geography—will play a significant role in determining the likelihood and location of future conflict over oil.”

a)       Author?

b)       What “constraints of geography” is the author referring to?

c)       Why was 1912 a critical turning point in the conflict referred to above?

d)       What was the effect of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli conflict on the perception of oil as a strategic commodity?

→

3.       “Rejection of mass bombing as an acceptable instrument of war, and of the idea that civilians were legitimate targets, coincided with a shift in doctrinal preferences within air forces themselves.  Since with modern high-cost technology no air force other than the American and Soviet could afford a large bomber force, mass bombing was no longer a serious strategic option.”

a)       Author?

b)       At roughly what point in the 20^th century did this attitudinal shift take place, and what gave rise to it (a reason other than expense)?

c)       How is air warfare currently pursued, according to this article?  (Do we still use bombs?)

4.       “We should start with the assumption that everything about the United States, like everything about any country, needs to be examined and assessed. That is what it means to be a moral person.  There is much about this country a citizen can be proud of, and I am in fact proud of those things. The personal freedoms guaranteed (to most people) in this culture, for example, are quite amazing. As someone who regularly tries to use those freedoms, I am as aware as anyone of how precious they are.”

a)       Author?

b)       What particular “freedom” is most pertinent in relation to this essay?  Why?

c)       Speculate about why the author might have included the paragraph quoted here.

5.       “Should students be forced to take courses in American history, and if so, what should those courses contain? Should they be forced to learn a foreign language, encounter a laboratory science, master calculus, study grammar at the expense of creative writing (or the reverse), read Plato or Shakespeare or Marx or Darwin? Should they be required to take courses that foster ethnic and racial tolerance?”

a)       Author?

b)       What is the current University of Idaho response to these kinds of questions?

→

c)       The author (as you no doubt remember) chooses instead to “describe the qualities of the human beings we would like that curriculum to produce.”  Name THREE of the proposed desirable qualities.

6.       “Christianity, along with other influences, changed fundamental aspects of Nez Perce society. Because of the geographic focus of the early proselytizers, not all Nez Perces received equal attention in the acculturation process. The buffalo-hunting proclivities of some bands fostered a cultural exclusiveness that removed them from sustained missionary attention.”

a)       Author?

b)       When did Christianity come to the Nez Perce bands, and where, and through whom?

c)       Explain the last sentence in the passage above.

d)       What would you say is the tribe’s sense of the most important event during the 1877 contest?  Why?

Briefly identify the following terms/people.  2 points each; total 10. 

Condor Legion  

“blood diamonds”  

Carter Doctrine  

Falkland Islands 

Ayatollah Khomeini 

→

Imagine that I’m blind.  Explain Picasso’s Guernica to me, including information about how it came to be and what happened to it when it was completed.  5 points.