Peer Review and Strategy Draft

(Note – you might also share with your partner through Google Docs, and then download your file with comments)

Scoring

Your peer comments not only highlight your own knowledge about course concepts, they should provide helpful, actionable feedback for your classmate to revise their final project.

Due: Your social media campaign/strategy draft is due to your peer
reviewer by 11/15. Your feedback is due to your peer partner by 11/28. This
deadline cannot be missed or you will receive a 0 for the assignment. Make
every effort to email your reviewer in advance so you have their contact
information (I will not be forwarding any emails on your behalf.) and confirm
receipt from your reviewer.
If your reviewer does not receive your draft by the due date and time, the
reviewer is to reach out to me to let me know since the assignment cannot be
completed.
This assessment is worth 20 points of your overall grade:
•
•
10 points for submitting your draft to your reviewer on time.
10 points for sharing thoughtful feedback to your reviewee on time.
Introduction
One effective way to learn theory and practice is to try sharing your
knowledge with others. In this assignment, you will do just that by partnering
with a classmate to complete a peer review of the final course project (the
Social Media Campaign/Strategy draft).
Your assigned peer partner will be posted as an Announcement during Weeks
9 + 10. In addition to sending your partner a copy of your own project draft,
you will review your partner’s project draft by applying the project rubric. You
will provide written feedback that your partner can use while revising for their
final submission.
Directions
1. Identify your peer partner by reviewing the “Peer Review” list in
Week 9’s Announcement.
2. Complete a full draft of your final “Social Media Campaign/Strategy”
proposal.
3. Email your draft to your peer partner by 11:59 pm EST on Tuesday,
11/15. You can send an email by using the link on the navigation bar
on course site.
4. Review your partner’s draft in Word review or .pdf comments and
complete the following:
o Identify/highlight writing errors (editing/proofreading).
o
o
o
Identify any areas of writing where your peer’s
message/meaning is not clear. Offer suggestions for
improvement.
Review your peer’s draft using the final project rubric.
Provide comments and a score for each category.
Provide your overall assessment of the project by
considering the following question: How well does the
proposal “hang together” as a pitch for how the client
should move forward?
(Note – you might also share with your partner through Google
Docs, and then download your file with comments)
5. Submit your review to course site using the link above. Your
submission should include your comments on the peer draft and the
rubric. You should also send your comments back to your peer by
the due date in order to secure your final 10 points for this
assignment.
Scoring
Your peer comments not only highlight your own knowledge about course
concepts, they should provide helpful, actionable feedback for your classmate
to revise their final project.
The following rubric will be used to evaluate your peer review:
•
•
•
•
Your personal draft and your peer review are submitted by the
deadline (and also submitted to your partner).
Your writing comments will help substantially review
Your comments address all the components of the final plan rubric.
Your comments are both substantive and critical and will improve
the final quality of your peer’s work.
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Strategy Draft
A. Introduction to the client
Ergeng is a well-known original short video content platform in China. Its
video content covers many fields like humanities, art, life, etc., while also
providing advertising and marketing services. Ergeng sets “people-centered” as its
brand identity, and the brand mission is to “spread the aesthetics of life, to find the
beauty you do not know aronud you”. Because of its high-quality content, Ergeng
attracts millions of fans just in a few years.
Ergeng has always adhered to the concept of “discovering the beauty you don’t
know around you”. It delivers short video content of “real stories, real people and
real emotions”, recording the ups and downs of life and showing the scenery of the
city. The sincere and down-to-earth contents go straight to audience’s hearts, and
create resonance.
B. Situation analysis
The main audience of Ergeng is young people with high cultural literacy
and economic level. They have their own feelings and thoughts about life,
which means pure entertainment gossip cannot meet their needs. By targeting
such groups, Ergeng can delivery proper content accurately to its audience,
improve their browsing quality, and provide a reading and browsing
experience different from other snackable content for them.
Ergeng’s current audience is highly consistent with my target audience.
Therefore, based on the above consideration, I will target the audience as
people with high income and high education level-or, more precisely, people
with medium or high-income levels, having received a bachelor’s degree or
higher education, aged between 18 and 35, and living in first-tier cities in
China
C. Social media monitoring
Ergeng chooses the Weibo, TikTok and Wechat which have large user volume
as their social Platforms. Ergeng publishes original videos on Weibo and TikTok,
with more than 5 million followers on both platforms. But on Wechat, the content
is changed for the audience portrait of the Wechat official account. They cut the
video into briefer GIFs and put them in the advertorial. Taking advantage of the
social platform, Ergeng is shared by the audience and form a good interpersonal
communication.
D. Communication objectives
a) To increase brand awareness among the target audience group of 18-35 years
old with high education and high income.
Justification:
Brand awareness refers to the extent and ability of an enterprise’s brand to
be known by consumers, which often influences the purchasing behaviors and
decisions of potential customers. High brand awareness will make customers
feel visually familiar and improve their confidence in buying (Zhang, 2021).
According to Ergeng’s data on TikTok, each video is watched about 10,000
times. Obviously, the viewing rate is too low and the brand is not well known
among the target population. Therefore, it is crucial to improve the brand
awareness of Ergeng.
b) To establish positive reputation and image of the brand and improve audience’s
satisfaction with the brand.
Justification:
A social media not only plays the role of information intermediary, but
also the function of reputation management.
With the continuous increase of optional products, the difficulty of getting
customers for a brand is also increasing, and the value of consumer loyalty is
becoming more and more prominent. Maintaining consumer reputation has
become one of the important marketing works of a brand. Some studies have
pointed out that brand awareness and brand image can promote consumers’
word-of-mouth recommendation behavior. Maintaining a good brand image
can improve consumer loyalty, make consumers more tolerant to the brand and
willing to spontaneously carry out word-of-mouth communication for the
brand (Zhang, 2022).
E. Campaign proposal
In my plan, Ergeng will produce a new documentary series called “The Last
Subway”. As Ergeng has always adhered to the concept of “discovering the beauty
you don’t know around you”, this program focuses on people’s life in the city late
at night, paying attention to ordinary people and their small but unique stories, and
trying to dig deep emotional meaning of them.
a） Proposed channels:
TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter
TikTok and YouTube are the main platforms for The Last Subway and all
documentary videos are aired on Ergeng’s accounts on TikTok and YouTube.
Facebook and Twitter are the platforms to promote the show and post copywriting
of The Last Subway. All advertorials and copywriting of documentary videos are
posted on these two platforms.
b) Sample content
1. Facebook
The Last Subway are the first new documentary series in China which focus
on the life of urbanites. We record the stories in city late at night through in-
depth visits to the returnees. No matter who we are, we can find beauty in our
lives.
#TheLastSubway #FindBeauty
Subscribe to us: https://goo.gl/wHQT2E
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ichinabout/
Facebook:https://business.facebook.com/ErgengTV/
2. TikTok: (Here is the video, right click to play.)
c) SMART campaign objectives
1. To increase the number of well-educated, high-income followers aged 18-35
on TikTok by 20% in six months.
Justification:
New follower is a very intuitive and important yardstick for improving the
brand’s popularity among the target group. Increasing followers means that the
audience thinks your profile is important or interesting enough to watch and
regularly enter your content into their feed. This is a useful metric to increase
brand awareness and audience (Jenn Chenn, 2021).
TikTok is the largest short video platform in China. According to data from
QuestMobile, there are 852 million monthly active users of short video in
China’s mobile Internet alone, 78% of which are using the head video APP
TikTok. The average daily user time is about 93minutes. Moreover, TikTok’s
latest active user data shows that its daily active users exceeded 800 million in
2022, making it the most extensive short video community platform with the
most daily active users in China’s Internet market. Although Ergeng has set up
official accounts on TikTok, Weibo, Xiaohongshu and other social platforms, it
has the most fans on TikTok, on which Ergeng has a wider coverage of young
people and can collect more relatively data. Therefore, I choose Tiktok as the
platform for data collection.
To sum up, when Ergeng’s official account on TikTok increases the number of
fans meeting the target audience standards, it can be said that Ergeng’s brand
awareness among the target audience has been improved
2. In six months, the number of positive texts people comment on or mention “The
Last Subway” on TikTok increased by 30% compared to the first six months.
Justification:
Different text sentiments contained in media platforms will have different
effects on brand reputation. When a certain video or topic causes the resistance
of the audience, the more negative words are, the more reputation pressure will
be brought to the brand. On the contrary, the more words with positive emotions,
the more positive image the brand will establish in the minds of the audience
(Wan, L.Q. & Song, X.Y., 2022). Similarly, the appropriateness of crisis public
relations also needs to be judged by monitoring the mood of the text. Therefore,
to maintain a good brand reputation and create a good public image, Ergeng
needs to track the comments of “The Last Subway” and measure the mood of
these conversations (positive, neutral or negative), introduce more topics that
people like, and increase the percentage of comments with positive emotions,
and finally increase public satisfaction with the brand.
F. Social calendar
November 2022
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
01
Twitter/Face
THU
02
/
03
/
FRI
SAT
04
05
Twitter/Face
TikTok/YouT
book/TikTok
book
ube
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
way
way
way
Brief
Preview of
Episode One
Introduction
Episode One
06
07
08
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
book
book
#TheLastSub
11
12
Twitter/Face
TikTok/YouT
book
book
ube
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
way
way
way
way
way
Copywrite of
Discussion of
Discussion of
Preview of
Episode Two
Episode One
Theme One
Theme One
Episode Two
environment
09
/
10
/
13
14
15
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
book
book
book
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
way
16
18
19
Twitter/Face
TikTok/YouT
book
ube
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
way
way
way
way
Copywrite of
Discussion of
Discussion of
Preview of
Episode
Episode Two
Theme Two
Theme Two
Episode
Three
/
17
/
Three
20
21
22
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
book
book
#TheLastSub
23
24
25
26
Twitter
Twitter/TikT
Twitter/Face
TikTok/YouT
book
pre-
ok
book
ube
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
advertisemen
Campaign for
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
way
way
way
t for
Thanksgiving
way
way
Copywrite of
Discussion of
Discussion of
Thanksgiving
Day
Preview of
Episode Four
Episode
Theme Three
Theme Three
Day
27
28
29
30
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
book
book
book
book
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
Month End
Summary
Three
way
way
way
Copywrite of
Discussion of
Discussion of
Episode Four
Theme Four
Theme Four
December 2022
Episode Four
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
THU
01
/
FRI
SAT
02
03
Twitter/Face
TikTok/YouT
book
ube
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
way
way
Preview of
Episode Five
Episode Five
04
05
06
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
book
book
book
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
way
07
09
10
Twitter/Face
TikTok/YouT
book
ube
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
way
way
way
way
Copywrite of
Discussion of
Discussion of
Preview of
Episode Six
Episode Five
Theme Five
Theme Five
Episode Six
11
12
13
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
book
book
#TheLastSub
way
/
08
/
14
16
17
Twitter/Face
TikTok/YouT
book
book
ube
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
way
way
way
way
Copywrite of
Discussion of
Discussion of
Preview of
Episode
Episode Six
Theme Six
Theme Six
Episode
Seven
/
15
/
Seven
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
TikTok/YouT
book
book
book
book
book
book
ube
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
way
way
way
way
way
way
way
Copywrite of
Discussion of
Discussion of
Promotion of
Promotion of
Preview of
Christmas
Episode
Theme Seven
Theme Seven
the Christmas
the Christmas
Christmas
Eve special
special
special
Eve special
Seven
25
26
27
28
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
Twitter/Face
book
book
book
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
way
29
30
31
Twitter/Face
TikTok/YouT
book
book
ube
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
#TheLastSub
way
way
way
way
way
Christmas
Copywrite of
Discussion of
Discussion of
Preview of
Episode Eight
Special
Christmas
Christmas
Christmas
Episode Eight
interview
Special
Special
Special
interview
interview
interview
/
G. Metic（Take TikTok as an example）
1. Audience Metrics
(1) Objective: To increase the number of well-educated, high-income followers aged
18-35 on TikTok by 20% in six months.
(2) Measurement: Personal information and data about followers collected in the
backend of Ergeng’s TikTok page insights and Google Analytics Audience report
(3) Justification: Tracking your audience data will help you make sure you have the real
human followers you want engaging with your content. Some professionals point out
that the following data can be collected using Google Analytics to measure audience
metrics：total followers, new followers, new accounts you follow, male %, female %,
primary age group, primary location, Google Analytics Alignment, etc. I select a few
of them with strong relevance to my objective to collect data (Ward, 2019).
2. Listening Metrics
(1) Objective: In six months, the number of positive texts people comment on or
mention “The Last Subway” on TikTok increased by 30% compared to the first six
months.
(2) Measurement: Text data about emotion collected in the backend of Ergeng’s
TikTok page insights, and analyze with SEMrush.
(3) Justification: Some professionals point out that by monitoring and analyzing
conversations, you can determine how to respond as the brand, and address customer
issues or give thanks and praise when needed (Ward, 2019). To track social media
listening metrics, we can text data about emotion collected in the backend of Ergeng’s
TikTok page insights, such as brand mentions, positive sentiments, negative
sentiments, neutral sentiments, etc., and analyze them with professional tools like
SEMrush.
Reference:
Ashley Ward’s (2019). “10 Metrics to Track When Analyzing Your Social Media
Marketing Links to an external site.” https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/10metrics-to-track-analyzing-social-media-marketing/
Li Jing (2009). Who Moved My Clicks? China Business News, B01.
Jenn Chenn (2021). “Twitter Metrics: Why and How you should track themLinks to an
external site.” https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/10-metrics-to-track-analyzingsocial-media-marketing
Jie Gu, Suqin Min & Qian Zhan. (2018). Citizen political participation in the era of
social media: an example of the interactive relationship between news value and
audience participation in government microblogs. International Journalism (04), 50-75.
doi:10.13495/j.cnki.cjjc.2018.04.003.
Wan, L.Q. & Song, X.Y.. (2022). Online media coverage and executive compensation
stickiness – Evidence based on media text sentiment data. Friends of Accounting (17),
126-133.
Zhang Ruixuan.(2021). Correlation analysis of brand recognition, identity, satisfaction
and brand loyalty. Chinese market (31), 7-9 + 34. Doi: 10.13939 / j.carol carroll nki
ZGSC. 2021.31.007.
Zhang, Min-xi.(2022). Research on the interaction between brand knowledge, brand
relationship quality and word-of-mouth recommendation behavior. Business
Economics Research (14),75-78.
Zhao, Amin & Cao, Gui-Quan. (2014). An empirical study on the evaluation and
comparison of the influence of government microblogs – based on factor analysis and
cluster analysis. Journal of Intelligence (03), 107-112.
What was the most eye-opening insight of the course?
What was the most eye-opening insight of the course?
Who would you share that insight with, and why?
TODAY
1. What’s our goal in writing?
2. Building a cohesive essay
3. Style principles
Who is your reader? Readers who do not see certain depths.
Readers who would benefit from seeing those depths.
What is your goal? To reveal, to that reader, the depths you
have seen.
We will write to reveal the depths of a social problem to a reader who does
not yet see those depths. This approach is rooted in empathy. One writes to
share their view with another who will benefit from it.
Writing bridges the gap. It connects one with the other, writer with reader.
As an act of empathy, this mode of writing doesn’t approach the reader
with hostility or judgment. It meets them where they are. It doesn’t leave
them disoriented. It guides them, logically and carefully, through the murky
depths. It doesn’t leave the reader feeling alone or without hope. It reveals
lineages and communities to buoy them. This is not to say that revelatory
writing can’t sting. It can. When it needs to. But it’s the kind of sting that
wakes a reader. It stings with love.
STEP 3 (OPTION A)
Expand either of your previous steps. You could expand by using your
experience as a window into a systemic problem facing many others.
STEP 3 (OPTION B)
Pinpoint a systemic problem that you once saw in shallow ways. This may
a problem you experienced or witnessed others experiencing. Write a letter
to your past self (or a reader like your past self) to help them see the
problem in deeper ways. Draw from the course to give your past self a
view that redirects your misdirected blame, anger, or ill will.
Use these as guidelines if you need help building your essay
•
•
•
•
Recount the problem as you experienced or witnessed it.
Meet yourself where you were in that moment by acknowledging your shallow view of
the problem. Help them to see ideologies or patterns of thinking that contribute to the
shallow view.
Reveal the deeper story: What social conditions give rise to the problem? What history
helps us understand the problem?
Reveal possible path(s) forward: What can your younger self do now that he or she has a
deeper understanding of the problem?
STEP 3 (OPTION C)
Write a short memoir that uses several scenes from your life story to reveal
the perspective we explored this quarter. Use vivid details, dialogue, and
present tense to bring the reader into these scenes. Use your imagination to
recreate scenes that took place before your birth. Offer commentary
between scenes to help readers see the context and deeper meaning behind
the scenes.
STEP 3 (OPTION D)
Use the course tools to look deeply at struggles you or your family faced.
Meet your reader where you were by acknowledging overly individualistic
or ideologically shortsighted explanations you once had about your
struggles. Use the course histories and concepts to reveal the larger context
shaping these struggles. Write in a way that helps your reader feel less
alone and oriented toward more hopeful horizons. As an option, you can
write this essay to your past self.
Option B (Problem Driven)
https://www.systemic-analysis.com/problemdriven-landing
•
“Signing Executive Order 13769”
•
“Beyond My Idyllic Bubble”
•
“Falling Through the Cracks”
•
“How I Left the Hotel California”
•
“In a Colorless World of Competition”
Option C (Constellation Essay)
https://www.systemic-analysis.com/constellation-landing
•
“Beyond a Life in the Red” and “Learning to Spell” and “Secrets of the Fire”
•
“Reflections of Light”
•
“The Garden in the Machine”
•
“On Becoming Aimless”
Option D (Self in Context)
https://www.systemic-analysis.com/selfcontext-landing
•
“All He Got Was a Gold Watch”
•
“Healing Mental Illness”
•
“The Context That Shaped My Anorexia”
•
“On Becoming Aimless”
•
“An Unbreakable Legacy”
TODAY
1. What’s our goal in writing?
2. Building a cohesive essay
3. Style principles
OPTION B
Pinpoint a systemic problem that you once saw in shallow ways. This may
a problem you experienced or witnessed others experiencing. Write a letter
to your past self (or a reader like your past self) to help them see the
problem in deeper ways. Draw from the course to give your past self a
view that redirects your misdirected blame, anger, or ill will.
Use these as guidelines if you need help building your essay
•
•
•
•
Recount the problem as you experienced or witnessed it.
Meet yourself where you were in that moment by acknowledging your shallow view of
the problem. Help them to see ideologies or patterns of thinking that contribute to the
shallow view.
Reveal the deeper story: What social conditions give rise to the problem? What history
helps us understand the problem?
Reveal possible path(s) forward: What can your younger self do now that he or she has a
deeper understanding of the problem?
TODAY
1. What’s our goal in writing?
2. Building a cohesive essay
3. Style principles
BEYOND THE FIVE PARAGRAPH MODEL
A thesis that lays out three disconnected (or loosely connected) points.
Ex: Our legal system has contradictions because it promises all people will be treated equally
by the law, but if we look deeper, we see racial, class, and gender biases.
BUILDING A HOME
We can approach an essay like architectural design. When we write
it, it’s as if we are building a home for our reader to explore. If our
structure is clearly laid out and easy to follow, our readers will be
able to focus on the content and ideas. They won’t have to think too
much or work too hard.
BUILDING A HOME
Build the essay with the reader in mind. Think of them as the
inhabitant of the structure you are building. You don’t want the
structure to be hard to navigate. You don’t want them to feel lost.
Tip: When you get friends to read your essays, have them point out areas
where they felt lost or confused. Go back to those areas and consider what
led to their disorientation or confusion. What could you revise or provide to
help them feel oriented?
BUILDING A COHESIVE ESSAY
Macro-Level
The architecture of your essay as a whole; the subclaims you
have assembled to build your essay.
Micro-Level
The internal architecture of each subclaim; how it is built on the
paragraph and sentence levels.
BUILDING A COHESIVE ESSAY: MACRO-LEVEL
BUILDING A COHESIVE ESSAY: MACRO-LEVEL
Build a logical structure:
Each subclaim builds on
the subclaim that came before it.
Each room connects to the last.
Each subclaim connects back to the
main claim. This connection is made in
the topic sentence
Think of subclaims as the rooms that
build your claim. A subclaim can
consist of more than one paragraph.
Meet readers, connect with them,
give them a sense of where you
will guide them. Your main
claim points to the rooms you will
lead your reader to in the body.
BUILDING A COHESIVE ESSAY: MACRO-LEVEL
We can make essays reader-friendly by treating the Introduction as
the room where we meet our reader. Since they are our guests, we’ll
want them to feel welcome. We’ll want them to feel connected to us
as we guide them. We may want to spark their curiosity, or their
empathy, so they want to follow us to the upper floors.
We can help our reader feel oriented by giving them a sentence, or
group of sentences, that lays out the logical structure we will guide
them through. These sentences don’t have to spell it out step-bystep. We want to keep some of the mystery (no spoilers!). Some
people call this sentence, or group of sentences, a thesis. We will
call the sentence(s) a main claim.
BUILDING A COHESIVE ESSAY: MACRO-LEVEL
We can make essays reader-friendly by treating the Introduction as
the room where we meet our reader. Since they are our guests, we’ll
want them to feel welcome. We’ll want them to feel connected to us
as we guide them. We may want to spark their curiosity, or their
empathy, so they want to follow us to the upper floors.
We can help our reader feel oriented by giving them a sentence, or
group of sentences, that lays out the logical structure we will guide
them through. These sentences don’t have to spell it out step-bystep. We want to keep some of the mystery (no spoilers!). Some
people call this sentence, or group of sentences, a thesis. We will
call the sentence(s) a main claim.
BUILDING A COHESIVE ESSAY: MACRO-LEVEL
Build a logical structure:
Each subclaim builds on
the subclaim that came before it.
Each room connects to the last.
Each subclaim connects back to the
main claim. This connection is made in
the topic sentence
Think of subclaims as the rooms that
build your claim. A subclaim can
consist of more than one paragraph.
Meet readers, connect with them,
give them a sense of where you
will guide them. Your main
claim points to the rooms you will
lead your reader to in the body.
BUILDING A COHESIVE ESSAY: MACRO-LEVEL
After our introduction, we will build subclaims that concretize the
logic we need to show the reader the deeper vision. Rather than
treating these subclaims as disconnected ideas, we should use them
as interconnected building blocks that will, step by step, bring our
readers to the deeper view.
GUIDING YOUR READER: TRANSITIONS
I’ve found, from my own writing, that it’s a mistake to assume that
my reader understands the logical links between my subclaims.
To help them see the links, I began using transitions. A transition is
a sentence, or sentences, that help a reader move from one logical
step to another.
Transitions can be helpful if the remind your reader what you’ve
addressed in the previous subclaim and what you’re going to
address in the new subclaim. Think of transitions as those moments
when you guide your reader from floor to floor.
GUIDING YOUR READER: TRANSITIONS
Here are some examples of transitions. Note the conversational tone of
these transitions; I speak directly to the reader and let them know where
I’ve taken them and where I will take them. Play around with these
transitions and make them your own.
• Before we discuss ____, we must first explore ________.
• Now that we’ve examined _____, we can consider _______.
• Now that we see the depths of the problem, we can consider ________.
• Given these obstacles, we can…
BUILDING A COHESIVE ESSAY
Macro-Level
The architecture of your essay as a whole; the subclaims you
have assembled to build your essay.
Micro-Level
The internal architecture of each subclaim; how it is built on the
paragraph and sentence levels. (Will discuss next week)
HOMEWORK
This Week
Step 3 Proposal (260 words) by 11/18: No Weekly Reflection; email Step 3 ideas.
Week 9
11/22 – Thanksgiving – No Class
11/24 – Thanksgiving – No Class
Week 10 (Last Classes + Optional Conferences)
11/29
Read “Beyond a Life in the Red”
Read Student Essays. “Reflections of Light” and “The Garden in the Machine”
12/1
Read Student Essay. “An Unbreakable Legacy”
Read “Learning to Spell”
SEEING THE SELF IN
CONTEXT PART 1
PUSHING PAST THE IDEOLOGY OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
TO SEE THE CONTEXT SHAPING OUR EXPERIENCES
Did these essays hit a nerve? Did they articulate experiences or feelings you
could relate to?
Did these essays hit a nerve? Did they articulate experiences or feelings you
could relate to?
What deeper view do they provide on your experience or feeling?
Did these essays hit a nerve? Did they articulate experiences or feelings you
could relate to?
What deeper view do they provide on your experience or feeling?
Do they give you some sense of hope?
AIMLESSNESS
The third door of liberation is aimlessness. Aimlessness means you don’t put anything in
front of you as the object of your pursuit. What you are looking for is not outside of you; it is
already here. You already are what you want to become. Concentrating on aimlessness
releases your longing and craving for something in the future and elsewhere.
You may be running all your life instead of living it. You may be running after happiness,
love, romance, success, or enlightenment. Concentrating on aimlessness consists of
removing the object of your pursuit, your goal. If you are running after nirvana, you should
know that nirvana is already there in yourself and in everything. If you are running after the
Buddha, be aware that the Buddha is already in you. If you are seeking happiness, be aware
that happiness is available in the here and now.
This insight helps you stop running. Only when you stop running can you get the fulfillment
and happiness you have been looking for. A wave doesn’t have to go and look for water. It is
water right in the here and now. A cedar tree doesn’t have any desire to be a pine or a
cypress or even a bird. It’s a wonderful manifestation of the cosmos just as it is. You are the
manifestation of the cosmos. You are wonderful just like that.
Who do we blame when we’re losing the race, or if we’re just too
tired/drained/anxious to run?
Who do we blame when we’re losing the race, or if we’re just too
tired/drained/anxious to run?
A deeper story:
Who do we blame when we’re losing the race, or if we’re just too
tired/drained/anxious to run?
A deeper story:
Conditions within this social matrix contribute to our weariness, anxiety, the
sense that “I am a failure” or “I am an imposter”
“I am saying that outside influences are not responsible for where you are
mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, or financially. You have chosen the
pathway to your present destination. The responsibility for your situation is
yours.” – Andy Andrews
“I am saying that outside influences are not responsible for where you are
mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, or financially. You have chosen the
pathway to your present destination. The responsibility for your situation is
yours.” – Andy Andrews
What is missed by perspective?
TODAY AND NEXT WEEK
• Seeing the Matrix and Determining Its General Orientation
• Seeing How Conditions within this Matrix shape our “personal” struggles
We must rapidly begin…we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented
society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit
motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant
triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being
conquered.
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice
of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play
the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day
we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that
men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their
journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a
beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs
restructuring.
THE ORIENTATION OF THE SOCIAL MATRIX
Thing-oriented or person-oriented
• What do you think King means by this?
• What are some signs, from your lives, that that we live in a thing-oriented
society?
TODAY AND NEXT WEEK
• Seeing the Matrix and Determining Its General Orientation
• Seeing How Conditions within this Matrix shape our “personal” struggles
What social matrix do we inhabit? Are we free or unfree? If we are unfree, what
do the bars and chains look like? Are there parts of the matrix where people are
more unfree? Who or what feeds off unfreedom? How can we break free of the
bars and chains? What lies beyond?
IS THIS FREEDOM? IS THIS HAPPINESS?
COMPETING FOR CRUMBS
Wealth Inequality in America
COMPETING FOR CRUMBS
WHAT ARE THE PRIORITIES?
FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY
“It is precisely in such a context of diminished personal resources derived from the job
market that the neoliberal determination to transfer all responsibility for well-being
back to the individual has doubly deleterious effects. As the state withdraws from
welfare provision and diminishes its role in arenas such as health care, public education,
and social services, which were once so fundamental to embedded liberalism, it leaves
larger and larger segments of the population exposed to impoverishment. The social
safety net is reduced to a bare minimum in favour of a system that emphasizes personal
responsibility. Personal failure is attributed to personal failings, and the victim is all too
often blamed.”
– David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (p. 76, Reader p. 233)
HOMEWORK
Sunday 11/6
Step 2 Due
Tuesday 11/8
• Read Seeing the Self in Context (best viewed on laptop or desktop)
• Read Student Essays. “Healing Mental Illness”, “The Context that Shaped My
Anorexia”, “Falling Through the Cracks”
STEP 2
Choose one of the following:
Option A (Worlds Collide): Recount an experience when your worldview
conflicted with another person’s worldview. Reflect on what may have shaped
your different worldviews and what came from the meeting of your worlds.
Option B (Thing Orientated): Think about a moment when you valued things
(cool gadgets or fashionable clothing, perfect photos of fun times, recognition on
social media, grades, money) over the real substance of life and relationships.
Write a letter to your younger self that helps them see what is gained and what
is lost from being “thing-oriented.”
TO CARE IN
AN UNCARING
SOCIETY
HOW THE CAPITALIST SOCIAL MATRIX ENCLOSES LIFE AND
DEVALUES CARING LABOR
1. Seeing the family in context
2. Who and what is valued in our social matrix?
3. The origins of this value system
4. How do we care in a society that devalues care?
REPRODUCTIVE LABOR
“[Silvia Federici] uses this term not simply to refer to having children and raising
them; it indicates all the work we do that is sustaining — keeping ourselves and
others around us well, fed, safe, clean, cared for, thriving. It’s weeding your
garden or making breakfast or helping your elderly grandmother bathe — work
that you have to do over and over again, work that seems to erase itself. It is
essential work that our economy tends not to acknowledge or compensate.”
• When you were growing up, who did the labor outside your home?
• Who did the majority of “reproductive labor” in your home?
• What effect did this division of labor have on each person, on your
relationships, and on the family as a whole?
“When the lockdowns started, this growing malaise exploded into a crisis. First came the
discussion of ‘essential workers,’ a category that, it was quickly noted, frequently
corresponded with the most critically underpaid workers.
Then came the acute realization among the middle and upper classes that their lives had
run smoothly because they’d been able to subcontract domestic labor — and, critically,
elder care and child care — to other people. After nearly a year of school closures,
working parents are keenly aware of the amount of child care they rely on underpaid
teachers to provide for eight hours a day. Without even the ad hoc systems for managing
the constant work of child care (day care; grandparents; after-school programs; summer
camp; babysitters), American parents have discovered that the requirements of caring for
a family match or even exceed the requirements of the full-time jobs needed to support
that family.”
1. Seeing the family in context
2. Who and what is valued in our social matrix?
3. The origins of this value system
4. To care in an uncaring society
Assistant Professor in Rady: $330,000
(here since 2018)
Distinguished Professor in Literature: $242,000
(here since 1972)
https://ucannualwage.ucop.edu/wage/
Chancellor Khosla:
$479,000
CAPS worker:
$68,000
Housing worker:
???
Lecturer:
$60,000
Teaching Assistant:
$24,000
https://ucannualwage.ucop.edu/wage/
WHO OR WHAT IS VALUED
Who cares for you the most in the university? What value are they given by our
society? What effect does the devaluation of their labor have on you?
WHO OR WHAT IS VALUED
“Greed is Good” from the film Wall Street
“It takes a huge amount of confidence to care for the elderly, to conduct yourself
in front of a room full of screaming children, or to drive a bus on the streets of
London. Yet the pervasive definition of confidence – the one that we’re told to
perfect, if we want a white-collar job – precludes these notions. It’s about
oratory, debating style and being able to push through your agenda at the expense
of any kind of careful thinking, or discussion. How many instances of sociopathy
have we collectively permitted as a result of this way of thinking?”
– Nathalie Olah, “Imposter Syndrome”
1. Seeing the family in context
2. Who and what is valued in our social matrix?
3. The origins of this value system
4. How do we care in a society that devalues care?
“In the transition from feudalism to capitalism, Federici argues, there was an
intervening revolutionary push toward communalism. Communalist groups often
embraced ​’free love’ and sexual egalitarianism — unmarried men and women
lived together, and some communes were all-women — and even the Catholic
church only punished abortion with a few years’ penance.
For serfs, who tilled the land in exchange for a share of its crops, home was
work, and vice versa; men and women grew the potatoes together. But in
capitalism, waged laborers have to work outside the home all the time, which
means someone else needs to be at home all the time, doing the domestic work.
Gender roles, and the subjugation of women, became newly necessary.”
“Early feudal elites in rural Europe enclosed public land, rendering it
private and controllable, and patriarchy enclosed women in ​“private”
marriages, imposing on them the reproductive servitude of bearing
men’s children and the emotional labor of caring for men’s every
need. Pregnancy and childbirth, once a natural function, became a job
that women did for their male husband-bosses — that is to say,
childbirth became alienated labor.
‘Witches,’ according to witch-hunting texts like the Malleus
Maleficarum, were women who kept childbirth and pregnancy in
female hands: midwives, abortionists, herbalists who provided
contraception. They were killed to cement patriarchal power and
create the subjugated, domestic labor class necessary for capitalism.”
“We must admit that capital has been very successful in hiding our work… First of all, it
has got a hell of a lot of work almost for free, and it has made sure that women, far from
struggling against it, would seek that work as the best thing in life (the magic words:
“Yes, darling, you are a real woman”). At the same time, it has disciplined the male
worker also, by making ‘his’ woman dependent on his work and his wage, and trapped
him in this discipline by giving him a servant after he himself has done so much serving
at the factory or the office. In fact, our role as women is to be the unwaged but happy,
and most of all loving, servants of the ‘working class… In the same way as god created
Eve to give pleasure to Adam, so did capital create the housewife to service the male
worker physically, emotionally and sexually – to raise his children, mend his socks,
patch up his ego when it is crushed by the work and the social relations (which are
relations of loneliness) that capital has reserved for him.”
– Federici, Wages for Housework
“The body has been for women in capitalist society what the factory has been for
male waged workers,” Federici writes in Caliban, ​“the primary ground of their
exploitation and resistance.”
– Jude Ellison Sady Doyle
“How Capitalism Turned Women Into Witches”
1. Seeing the Family in Context
2. Who and what is valued in our social matrix?
3. The origins of this value system
4. How do we care in a society that devalues care?
“The United States Congress passed the Comprehensive Child
Development Act in 1971 as part of the Economic Opportunity
Amendments of 1971. The bill would have implemented a
multibillion-dollar national day care system designed partially to
make it easier for single parents to work and care for children
simultaneously, thereby alleviating strain on the welfare system. It
was vetoed by President Richard Nixon. He said that the bill would
implement a “communal approach to child-rearing,” tying it to broadbased fears of Communism and labeling it the “most radical piece of
legislation” to have ever crossed his desk.”
“For a variety of systemic reasons, including racism, misogyny, and
xenophobia, there has never been a set of institutions that has
managed to carve out decent wages and working conditions in care
work. For example, the average hourly wages for home health care
and child care workers are $13.81 and $13.51, respectively, which is
roughly half the average hourly wage for the workforce as a whole.
So, unlike in sectors like construction, a “prevailing wage” standard
would just cement the industrywide insufficient wages currently
experienced in care work.”
• Men own 50% more of the world’s wealth than women, and the 22 richest men have
more wealth than all the women in Africa.
• 42% of women of working age (versus 6% of men) are outside of the paid labor force
because of unpaid care responsibilities.
• The unpaid care work done by women is estimated $10.8 Trillion a year – three times
the size of the tech industry.
Source
• https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/620928/bp-time-tocare-inequality-200120-summ-en.pdf
COMMONING
“Commoning is that idea in action, a practice of putting more and more of your life outside the
reaches of commodification or extraction. The allure of commoning is that it’s possible anywhere
as long as there’s a willing community: An empty lot can become a small subsistence farm, a
neighborhood’s health care concerns can be met with a local, neighborhood-run clinic; care work
can be shared among families. “You don’t need permission” to common, says David Bollier,
longtime scholar of commoning. “You don’t need to have proxies in Washington as lobbyists and
lawyers. You don’t have to be an expert — you are an expert of your own dispossession. And
therefore, you can devise some of your own things that are situationally appropriate.”
COMMONING
“The ways this could look are as various as the communities seeking to address unmet needs.
Recently, a group of coders built a free online tool to help families form and schedule child care
co-ops. Mutual aid networks are one iteration that has flourished during the pandemic: Using
something as simple as a Google Doc, neighbors can write down what they need and what they
can give, forming (or revealing) a network of symbiotic relationships. (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
co-hosted a conference call with the prison abolitionist Mariame Kaba on the basics.) These
exchanges often seem mundane: Instead of your hiring a handyman, a neighbor might come to
your house to help install your ceiling fan; in exchange, you might help him, or someone else,
with his taxes or pet-sitting or garden work. In addition to donating to big nonprofits, you might
also reply to calls on your local mutual aid network to help a neighbor make rent. While agitating
for the government or other organizations to allocate desperately needed resources, your
community might band together to pool and increase the resources it currently has.”
HOMEWORK
Thursday 11/17
No Materials; familiarize yourself with Step 3 options
Friday 11/18
No Weekly Reflection; email ideas for Step 3
Who cares for you the most in the university? What value are they given by our
society? What effect does the devaluation of their labor have on you?
Who cares for you the most in the university? What value are they given by our
society? What effect does the devaluation of their labor have on you?
“The heart of the matter is pay, because increasing salaries is virtually the only way student
workers can afford the rent in the areas where many UC campuses are located. Teaching
assistants, for example, are paid $24,000 per year, far less than the median rent in Los Angeles
and other markets where UCs sit. Some researchers earn higher salaries — potentially up to
$40,000 — but most are capped at 20 hours per week.
The union is asking for a minimum of $54,000 per year for all student academic workers, a figure
negotiators say is based on the median cost of housing in the state. A university spokesman said
UC is offering wage increases to help the workers “ meet their housing needs.” Those proposals
ranged from 4% to 7% and are not close to what the union is seeking.
“
SEEING THE SELF IN
CONTEXT PART 3
PUSHED INTO LONELY AND MILITANT ”TRUTH” SILOS
What is freedom? What is the opposite of freedom?
“[An essential part of human nature] is a fundamental instinct for
freedom… a resistance to domination and control by illegitimate
authorities.” – Noam Chomsky
Do today’s materials reveal how you might not be as free as you think?
Do today’s materials reveal how you might not be as free as you think?
Have the trendy tech devices, platforms, apps improved your quality of life, the
quality of your relationships, your connection to people outside your door?, your
connection to nature?
TODAY
1. The Pendulum pushed Right
2. Everything is Alright
3. The Corrosive Effects on Society
One Rule for the Rich and Another for the Poor (39 min – 43 min)
Corporate Rights Over People’s Rights (44 min 28 – 47 min)
Plutonomy
“The small percentage of the world’s population that is gathering increasing
wealth” (Requiem 27 min)
Precariat
“Precarious proletariat. The working people of the world who live increasing
precarious lives.” (Requiem 29 min)
FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS
Even before the pandemic:
• 140 Million Poor and low income (43% of nation can’t meet basic needs each month)
• 700 people a day dying from poverty
• 4 million people cannot buy clean water
– Rev. Baber, Poor People’s Campaign and Institute for Policy Studies
FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS
CRISIS
CRISIS
CRISIS
Why do people put up with this social matrix if it damages them?
TODAY
1. The Pendulum pushed Right
2. Everything is Alright
3. The Corrosive Effects on Society
“Control in modern times requires more than force, more than law. It requires
that a population dangerously concentrated in cities and factories, whose lives are
filled with cause for rebellion, be taught that all is right as it is. And so, the
schools, the churches, the popular literature taught that to be rich was a sign of
superiority, to be poor a sign of personal failure, and that the only way upward
for a poor person was to climb into the ranks of the rich by extraordinary effort
and extraordinary luck.” – Howard Zinn
Erasure of class consciousness (48 min 48 sec – 54 min)
Fabricate “thing-oriented” consumers rather than democratic participants (55 min
– 60 min)
Erasure of class consciousness (48 min 48 sec – 54 min)
Fabricate “thing-oriented” consumers rather than democratic participants (55 min
– 60 min)
How did today’s materials update and deepen our understanding of this problem?
TODAY
1. The Pendulum pushed Right
2. Everything is Alright
3. The Corrosive Effects on Society
Disempowerment of people and corrosion of social relations (1 hr 1 min – 1 hr 5
min)
“At the popular level, the [neoliberal] drive towards market freedom and
commodification of everything can all too easily run amok and produce social
incoherence. The destruction of forms of social solidarity and even, as Thatcher
suggested, the very idea of society itself, leaves a gaping hole in the social order.
It then becomes peculiarly difficult to combat anomie and control the resultant
anti-social behaviors such as criminality, pornography, or the virtual enslavement
of others.
– David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (80-81)
The neoconservatives emphasize militarization as an antidote to [neoliberalism]. For
this reason, they are far more likely to highlight threats, real or imagined… In the US
this entails triggering what Hofstadter refers to as the ‘paranoid style of American
politics’ in which the nation is depicted as besieged and threatened by enemies from
within and without. – David Harvey (82)
The neoconservatives emphasize militarization as an antidote to [neoliberalism]. For
this reason, they are far more likely to highlight threats, real or imagined… In the US
this entails triggering what Hofstadter refers to as the ‘paranoid style of American
politics’ in which the nation is depicted as besieged and threatened by enemies from
within and without. – David Harvey (82)
• The pendulum is pushed further rightward (see Pendulum chart)
The neoconservatives emphasize militarization as an antidote to [neoliberalism]. For
this reason, they are far more likely to highlight threats, real or imagined… In the US
this entails triggering what Hofstadter refers to as the ‘paranoid style of American
politics’ in which the nation is depicted as besieged and threatened by enemies from
within and without. – David Harvey (82)
• The pendulum is pushed further rightward (see Pendulum chart)
• People are given a story to explain their problems / a target they can direct their anger toward
(usually vulnerable and historically marginalized groups)
The neoconservatives emphasize militarization as an antidote to [neoliberalism]. For
this reason, they are far more likely to highlight threats, real or imagined… In the US
this entails triggering what Hofstadter refers to as the ‘paranoid style of American
politics’ in which the nation is depicted as besieged and threatened by enemies from
within and without. – David Harvey (82)
• The pendulum is pushed further rightward (see Pendulum chart)
• People are given a story to explain their problems / a target they can direct their anger toward
(usually vulnerable and historically marginalized groups)
• They find a light in the tempest, but this light guides them toward a dangerous shore (white
supremacy, xenophobia, etc.)
What real enemy do we miss when we target each other?
“But where does it stop? Who can we shoot? I don’t aim to starve to death before
I kill the man that’s starving me.” “I don’t know. Maybe there’s nobody to shoot.
Maybe the thing isn’t men at all.” – John Steinbeck
“The enemies are not man. They are intolerance, fanaticism, dictatorship,
cupidity, hatred and discrimination which lie within the heart of man. These are
real enemies of man — not man himself.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
“The enemies are not man. They are intolerance, fanaticism, dictatorship,
cupidity, hatred and discrimination which lie within the heart of man. These are
real enemies of man — not man himself.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
“[Cambridge Analytica] knew so much about so many individuals, that we could
understand their inner demons. And we could figure out how to target those
demons, how to target their fear, how to target their paranoia. And with those
targets, we could trigger those emotions. And by triggering those emotions, we
could then manipulate them into clicking on a website, joining a group, telling
them what kind of things to read, telling them what kind of people to hang out
with, even telling them who to vote for… Cambridge Analytica was nothing but
a parasite on a huge host. And that host is surveillance capitalism. ” – Shoshana
Zuboff
HOW TO FIGHT BY DOING NOTHING
Jenny Odell
Book: How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
Video: “Why We Should Do Nothing in a World of Addictive Tech”
HOMEWORK (THIS WEEK)
Friday 11/11
Review Full Pendulum Chart (will post to Canvas)
Update Journal with Weekly Reflection
HOMEWORK (NEXT WEEK)
Tuesday 11/15
• Watch “The Witch Trials and the Rise of Modernity”
• Read and Listen to Kisner. “The Lockdown Shows How the Economy Exploits Women” (*)
• Read Oxfam. “Time to Care” (read statistics)
• Read Student Essay. “Behind ‘I’m Fine’ and ‘I’m Great’” (*)
* Daily Insights
Thursday 11/17
No Materials; familiarize yourself with Step 3 options
Friday 11/18
No Weekly Reflection; email ideas for Step 3
WEEK 9
No Class – Thanksgiving Break
WEEK 10 (Final Classes + Optional Conferences)
Tuesday 11/29
• Read “Beyond a Life in the Red”
• Read Student Essays. “Reflections of Light” and “The Garden in the Machine”
Thursday 12/1
• Read Student Essay. “An Unbreakable Legacy”
• Read “Learning to Spell”
Finals Week
Optional Conferences Continue
Step 3 and Course Reflection Due
SEEING THE SELF IN
CONTEXT PART 2
HOW OUR LIVES ARE SHAPED BY
THE PENDULUM’S RIGHTWARD SWING
How would you describe the experience of being alive at this moment in history?
What feelings dominate?
PRECARITY
(1) characterized by a lack of security or stability that threatens with danger
(2) dependent on chance; uncertain
PRECARITY
(1) characterized by a lack of security or stability that threatens with danger
(2) dependent on chance; uncertain
Think of your experience. Has it been secure and stable, or is defined by
precarity, i.e., if something goes wrong, you or your loved ones might fall
through the cracks?
TEMPEST-TOSSED
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” -Emma Lazarus
“Healing Mental Illness”
“The Context that Shaped My Anorexia”
“Falling Through the Cracks”
Reactions?
“Healing Mental Illness”
“The Context that Shaped My Anorexia”
“Falling Through the Cracks”
Reactions?
What do these students gain as they push toward a deeper contextualized view of
their experiences?
TODAY
1. The Story of Our Course
2. Profits Over People
3. The Pendulum pushed Left
4. The Pendulum pushed Right
THE STORY OF OUR COURSE
Unit 1: Constructing the Social Matrix
In which we explore how society is constructed in hierarchical ways that hide our interconnectedness
and concentrate power, resources, rights at the top.
ATOMIZATION
Unit 2: Awakening from the Social Matrix
In which we explore how people remember interconnectedness and move, together, to build a world
that reflects this forgotten truth.
REUNION
Unit 3: The Social Matrix Rebooted
In which we explore how society’s orientation toward things separates us from ourselves, each other,
and our planet.
RE-ATOMIZATION
TODAY
1. The Story of Our Course
2. Profits Over People
3. The Pendulum pushed Left
4. The Pendulum pushed Right
PROFITS OVER PEOPLE
“The government of the United States was behaving almost exactly as Karl Marx
described a capitalist state: pretending neutrality to maintain order, but serving
the interests of the rich. Not that the rich agreed among themselves; they had
disputes over policies. But the purpose of the state was to settle upper-class
disputes peacefully, control lower-class rebellion, and adopt policies that would
further the long-range stability of the system.” – Howard Zinn
TODAY
1. The Story of Our Course
2. Profits Over People
3. The Pendulum pushed Left
4. The Pendulum pushed Right
A GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE
FDR, Second Bill of Rights
• The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries, or shops or farms or mines of the
Nation;
• The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
• The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his
family a decent living;
• The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair
competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
• The right of every family to a decent home;
• The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
• The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and
unemployment;
• The right to a good education.
TODAY
1. The Story of Our Course
2. Profits Over People
3. The Pendulum pushed Left
4. The Pendulum pushed Right
NOAM CHOMSKY,
Requiem for the American Dream (Kanopy or Tubi)
Thesis: 1 min 7 sec – 2 min 26 sec, 4 min 33 sec – 7 min
Founders fear too much democracy (7 min – 9 min)
Pushing leftward and backlash (9 min 58 sec – 16 min 35)
Shifting the burden (27 min – 31 min 54 sec)
Driving solidarity out of people’s minds (32 min – 36 min 48 sec)
One Rule for the Rich and Another for the Poor (39 min – 43 min)
Corporate Rights Over People’s Rights (44 min 28 – 47 min)
FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS
Even before the pandemic:
• 140 Million Poor and low income (43% of nation can’t meet basic needs each month)
• 700 people a day dying from poverty
• 4 million people cannot buy clean water
– Rev. Baber, Poor People’s Campaign and Institute for Policy Studies
FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS
FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS
FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS
CRISIS
“Each time the taxpayer is called on to bail out those who caused the crisis,
increasingly the major financial institutions.” (41 min 14 sec)
CRISIS
CRISIS
CRISIS
Plutonomy
“The small percentage of the world’s population that is gathering increasing
wealth” (Requiem 27 min)
Precariat
“Precarious proletariat. The working people of the world who live increasing
precarious lives.” (Requiem 29 min)
“We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom
cannot exist without economic security and independence. ‘Necessitous men are
not free men.’ People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which
dictatorships are made.” – FDR
HOMEWORK
Thursday 11/10
Brainstorm: Why do people put up with this social matrix if it damages them?
• Watch “Shosanna Zuboff on Surveillance Capitalism”
• Listen to Rabbit Hole Parts 1-2
• Student Essay. “The Story of Their Liking” and “Held Hostage by Social
Media”
Friday 11/11
Weekly Reflection