Have you ever thought why there are age limits on voting, acquiring a driver's license, drinking or smoking, marriage, and accessibility to pornography? Sure you have-it's a question that every person asks at least once in their lifetime when they are in their teenage-years. And you already must have figured out the answer. You, me, and everybody else-knows why. Because teenagers are "teen-agers"; they are comparively immature and inexperienced to adults, and sometimes there needs to be limitations set to make sure the teenage behaviors do not go out of boundaries.
Of course, I know many juveniles who are reading my post right now would be infuriated, offended by my criticisms and angrily refute that they have the rationale and reasoning to think better than many seemingly-stupid adults, and they're grown enough to opinionate on certain issues and make decisions for themselves. Sure, I understand; as a teenager myself, I often think too that I am eligible and independent enough to interfere in the "adult's business" and live the way I desire. To a certain degree, this point is valid; being a teenager doesn't mean being obedient, and it should be quite the opposite. As a proud youth of this country, you should always question, ponder, agonize, discuss, and debate about issues and events and wonders of the world-it's your duty as much as it is your right and opportunity to participate in life, expanding perspectives and improving wisdom and rationale.
However, that does not mean we can be the King of this World; not yet. We have to admit: no matter how smart or intelligent you consider yourself to be, no matter how logical and persuasive you evaluate yourself to be, we are, in a comparative sense, impressionable, easily influenced, susceptible, inexperienced, imprudent, emotional, at times radical, and ultimately, foolish to adults. We cannot talk or comment about how it is like to live as a company worker because we've never lived like one: we don't know what it's like to wake up every morning at 6, catch a cab or take the subway to arrive at your workplace, repeat the arduous work for 10 full hours without break and with the burden of survival, and continue this routine for several years. In the same sense, we don't know what exactly it is like to be a librarian, an assistant, a writer, a clerk, or a president-because we have never lived as one. Similarly, we cannot really accurately understand what really is the Egyptian turmoil is about, what impact does the Exon Mobile Oil Spill has on the society, how does sexual freshmen welcoming parties at universities actually occur, because we do not have the "EXPERIENCE" related to such issues! Does a person always need to be 100% aware of an issue or possess some kind of master-expertise on a subject to discuss it? Is anybody like that? No!-of course not.
However, when a certain group of people who are inadequate of making professional or exacting comments about the issue is stirred up by emotion and instigated with impetuous passion and hasty thoughts which would likely lead to a sensational, influenced, but irrational debates, then that becomes a problem. What Michael Moore is doing is neither innovation nor education; it's more close to a demagogury. I admire him as a person, I admire his intentions and ideals, but what he's doing right now on his blog is simply too-inflammatory. It's a great idea to awaken the youth and remind them of their capabilities and obligations to this world, and it's also a fabulous idea to point out some of the fallacies and defects the adults have left with their world as their legacy: criticism is healthy and helpful.
However, the way Moore is describing it is simply too unfair and inaccurate. He tries to portray the adults as some sort of group of grandiloquent hypocrats who tries to silence their children and intentionally ruin the world; he blames all the failures and problems of this society on the grown-ups (not to mention that Moore is over 40). His claims about the adults' mischiefs are not only prejudiced but also exaggerated and untrue. This sort of incendiary does not build up any constructive criticisms or healthy controversies; it only gives ways to meaningless temper and irrationality.
We are teen-agers, passionate but rash, intelligent but immature, active but inexperienced, and most of all, easily influenced. So if we really want them to develop their mentality or thinking skills, if we want their voice-the wise, rational voice-reflected in our livelihoods, we have to tell them the truth. There are many problems in the world. The adults have tried hard to fix it, but to be frank, they have sucked, badly, concerning some matters.
And now, what do you think about it?
Wow, nice rhetoric here. Very persuasive and crafted response. I agree with almost everything, and do recall being young and idealistic. Sadly, ideals tend to fade the older we get, so I do believe that "youth" has remain somewhat present to remind the status quo that things could "suck" a bit less if we simply try. So, I admire constructive actions by youth. I don't admire riots (especially at Olympic events), vandalism, or blind protest. What Moore is encouraging in Wisconsin may or may not be over the line. We don't know because we are not there, and aren't that invested. But we can use the 2008 candle vigils as an example. If you guys want to debate this in class, we can talk about it. But in the meantime feel free to discuss it on the blogs.
답글삭제One thing I didn't agree with was this:
"We cannot talk or comment about how it is like to live as a company worker because we've never lived like one: we don't know what it's like to wake up every morning at 6, catch a cab or take the subway to arrive at your workplace, repeat the arduous work for 10 full hours without break and with the burden of survival, and continue this routine for several years."
As a Korean student, I think you DO know what it's like, and that's a cultural thing American kids may not be familiar with. In America, being a student is not considered a job. In Korea, it does seem to be like this. Korean kids tend to spend time studying, and aren't expected to mow the lawn, cook dinner, or vaccuum like most kids are in America. Why? Because they have a job to do - to study. They wake earlier, go to bed later, travel further, and generally work much harder than students in other countries. Korean parents spend infinitely more money on education, and Korean kids are under infinitely more pressure to succeed. The students who enter this school didn't get here playing video games after school, did they?
Anyways, very well written.
you use a lot of .... adjectives!! haha
답글삭제i like them since they make ur essay very persuasive and get the readers even emotional but maybe try to reduce just a little bit? idk... like this totally shows your personality in sense i think and as i have always told u, try to sort of be less dramatic - just a little bit!!
anyways like ur essay :)
Thanks, both of you, lol. As I was revising my essay, I did notice that I used some adjectives a bit excessively; I always like using at least two for describing a term :) I'll try to keep down the dramatics ㅋㅋ
답글삭제And also, the point I was trying to make about the worker-analogy was not exactly what burdensome workload meant, but rather about the difficulty to discuss about issues that aren't really within your touch. I guess it wasn't a very good and clear analogy lol; If teenagers were to debate about the Egyptian turmoil, I think they should think in the people's shoes who are actually experiencing them, or at least show the courtesy to do some amount of research to know about it. I'm just concerned that too many make too many claims without evidence on issues that should not be dealt in such ways. ㅋㅋ
I think it's really cute how Celine criticized you for being "too dramatic" on your own blog. I'm going to go check hers now to see if you got her back.
답글삭제