Homework help

Mills and DuBois Questions

For this week please read sections 6.3 and 8.2 in the theory textbook. We're jumping around a bit this week and talking about multiple theorists! It should be an interesting conversation

Think about the two metaphors that DuBois uses to describe the African American experience on pages 465 and 466, the double consciousness and the second sight. Read the first two paragraphs on page 462 and discuss what these metaphors mean in the context of the reading. How are these concepts related to the way we have been discussing social science theory?

Read the first line and the next paragraph from page 478 aloud. How does DuBois idea of the “second sight come into play in his exploration of the Souls of White Folk? What special insights does he believe he has into this group? What does he see that others miss?

After reading the Mills and DuBois and listening to the debate between Buckley and Baldwin debate: I think Buckley can be said to be representing what Mills was describing in the power elite. In what ways does Buckley defend this system? Does Baldwin or DuBois have anything to say about Buckley's arguments? Spend a paragraph and think through what the relationship might be between the power elite and non-white America.

Gramsci Readings

For this week please read pages 585-615 in the text on Antonio Gramsci.

Chomsky talks about the minimum moral standard, if it's right for them it's right for us, what is so controversial about this statement? Is Chomsky right that us intellectuals blindly parrot the positions of power? How does this idea relate to Gramsci's concept of hegemony?

At 38:50 what is a practical example from your perspective of the doctrinal shackles that people have imposed upon themselves, how do we recognize them? How do we recognize hegemony in operation? What do we do about it?

Watch the Chomsky and Donahue debate then the video on Donahue being fired. Do you think Donahue was blind to the forces Chomsky was talking about that ultimately lead to his firing? What were those forces, why didn't Donahue see them at work in the Chomsky interview when he clearly recognizes them after his firing? What does this tell us about hegemony?

Marcuse Questions

For this week please read 8.4 on Herbert Marcuse. 

Please answer with specific examples in about 1 to 2 paragraphs each

1. what does Roderick mean that there is no area of human experience that has not been reduced to some form of a banality? (around 28 minute mark) How does this idea relate back to any of the theorists we've read so far?

2. There is a really interesting sentence on page 738. "The key difference is that now domination is perpetuated and extended not only through technology but as  technology itself." What might this mean and what examples of it can we see in the world around us?