Write a blog post about one issue we face today and connect it to the text (The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois)

Blog #3 (Sample)

Since the beginning of time, humans have always fought to maintain power within society. Karl Marx expressed this idea in his book titled “Communist Manifesto” when he said “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle”(Marx). In this quote, Karl describes how society has been dealing with class struggle from the time that any society existed. People who lead society enjoy privileges, respect and leadership from everyone else. On the other hand, those who are at the bottom have less freedom, since the people with more power control them. This results in class struggle within society, since everyone is constantly trying to climb the social ladder.

            In modern society, class struggle continues to be a problem. According to a report done by the National Bureau of Economic Research in 2014, the wealthiest 1% of U.S households own about 42% of the county’s wealth (Galka). This shows power struggle between classes in society from a wealth perspective, since the top one percent of the population control a large portion of the U.S’s wealth. The top one percent of the population then has an easier time living in society, because of the vast amounts of wealth that they possess. They do not have to worry about typical social struggles, and have more power within society from all of the wealth that they posses. Unfortunately, everyone else has to work much harder in order to make a living, due to the unequal distribution of wealth.  This then drives those at the bottom to accrue more wealth, in an attempt to be a part of the top one percent. Class struggles within modern society are still highly prevalent, and wealth distribution helps emphasize this idea.

Work Cited

Galka, Max. "Income Inequality Is Big, Wealth Inequality Is 100 Times Bigger –

Metrocosm." Metrocosm. N.p., 18 Jan. 2016. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.

Blog #2 (Sample)

In the book “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman”, May Wollstonecraft emphasizes that women should be able to have as much influence on society as men do. Her reasoning is that both men and women have the ability to reason, which leads her to conclude that the imbalances between men and women are unfair. While reading the book, I came across a quote that said “It is time to effect a revolution in female manners—time to restore to them their lost dignity—and make them, as a part of the human species, labour by reforming themselves to reform the world.” (Wollstonecraft 44). The quote means that the time has come to bring balance to society by reforming the way we approach women’s place in society. This is important to the book, as it summarizes May’s mission to help women. Additionally, May claims that there is no way this could have a negative impact on society, as it will allow women to contribute more productively to modern society. Helping bring balance between men and women can only be beneficial to society as a whole.

Being an electrical engineering major, I experience these imbalances first hand. Gender inequality is a major issue in the engineering field, as well as other STEM fields. A recent article published by Saddleback College, claimed that women only make up twenty-five percent of the STEM workforce, while fifty-seven percent of the whole workforce is female. It then continues to describe how STEM jobs make on average thirty-three percent more than non-STEM jobs (Saddleback College). This means that women are missing out on good paying jobs, due to a lack of women in the STEM fields. According to May, imbalances like these are what is wrong with society and need to be fixed. Overall, women need to have a more balanced place in society, and this is emphasized in the field of engineering and other STEM related fields.

Works Cited

"Saddleback College." Spring 2016 and Previous Editions. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2016.

Blog #1 (Sample)

Religion has played a highly prevalent role in society for many years. Throughout this time, it has driven people to act highly corrupt in the name of their religion. Lucretius emphasizes this idea in his book titled “The Nature of things” by saying “So potent was Religion in persuading to do wrong (101). This quote means that religion is one of the reasons that people are willing to act cruel towards each other. However, from Lucretius’ perspective, this is makes no sense. One the main ideas in “The Nature of things” is how the gods do not care for well-being of people, which makes the cruel activities promoted by religion seem senseless. Lucretius sees religion as a meaningless practice, and that it wrongly promotes people to act in a negative way.

The idea of religion driving people to do wrong is still a significant issue in modern society. Terrorist attacks have become a common, global issue, and are almost always caused by religion. An example of this, would the terrorist attacks on a small, village church in northern France. Two Islamic-ish men attacked the village, and broke into the church during mass. They took many people hostage, and the slit the throat of an 85-year old priest (McAuley). This horrific attacks emphasize the fact that religion will drive people to not only harm each other, but do it in a highly, vulgar manner. These two men were clearly brain washed by their religion to the point where they found it necessary to slit an innocent priests’ throat. People are not born with intentions of acting this way. Typically, people who act this way possess a type of mental disorder, although it seems as if religion creates mental instability as well. Religion definitely drives people to do wrong, and in some cases, lose their minds completely.

Works Cited

McAuley, James. "Terrorist Attack on French Church Ignites Fears of Religious Culture Wars." Washington Post. The Washington Post, July-Aug. 2016. Web. 17 Sept. 2016.

Carus, Titus Lucretius. The Nature of Things. London: Penguin, 2007. Print.