the highest stages of moral development are reached when people are able to reason about abstract general principles, such as justice, fairness and the Kantian maxim that individuals should be treated as ends and never as means.
Contents contributed and discussions participated by Lauren Petta
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Two Questions on Healthcare - 22 views
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While I do believe that healthcare is a business, I also believe that it is a thriving business and is in a lot of ways very competitive. Everyone I know sees a different doctor at a different hospital/clinic and has different healthcare insurance. I think that there are a lot of doctors who have good morals and work very hard to help their patients. Maybe the hospitals themselves are concerned with finance rather than morals, but there's a reason that those business men are not doctors.
I would agree that the cost of pharmaceuticals to persons without healthcare insurance is out of control though.
I think that the market can do a lot of good. While I am not crazy about government regulation, maybe the health insurers and pharmaceutical companies need a little bit of a push or cap when it comes to overall cost to patients.
My next door neighbor is a nurse born and raised in Canada...she left Canada because she didn't like the intervention going on in the healthcare world. While I don't know what her particular gripes against the system were, it goes to show that there's really no "fix"
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Questions: The Story of Power (2:45 class) - 31 views
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I agree with Felicia that people gain power through power. I thought her president example worked pretty well. The presidents of the United States become more powerful because of their earned title. Of course,they do have to earn it one way or another. So in a lot of ways other things make people powerful. Money being one of these things. I strongly believe in the whole "it's not what you know, it's who you know" example, too. It's a lot easier to get into something if you know someone who has already made it big. If you have a close relationship with a powerful person, your knowledge/ formal education no longer means as much. As for the last question, I think everyone feels threatened by power in government when it does not favor their morals or beliefs. I think it's easy to fall into the trap of some being your friends and others being your enemies. This isn't always the case, though. The debt crisis is a combination of a lot of different factors so whether you lean left or right politically, you can still feel threatened in the sense that your government may not be doing the best it can to serve you.
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Magen Sanders Questions on-Patternicity: Finding Meaningful Patterns in Meaningless Noise - 17 views
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I agree with Joette in that sometimes it is beneficial to be extra couscous. Caution means protection. Everyone else is bringing up 9/11 and whether or not it was acceptable to have gone to war. In my opinion, a terrorist attack is a threat to our country and you never know what might come next. Although I will get a lot of people to disagree with me, I think that in 2001, under the specific circumstances we had a good reason to go to war. It was for the protection of our country. We were attacked by a terrorist group- to me that in itself is a good reason. I don't think I can say that the whole 9/11 deal was a "story" given by the government. But I do see what the article is saying in that people are more inclined to believe what the government tells them than an outside source (conspiracy). Then again, many people no longer trust the government....so this could change.
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Questions on Alex Lundry's Chart Wars: The Political Power of Data Visualization - 20 views
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Lundry makes the point in his presentation that data can be misleading (to say the least). He also pints out that in the world of public policy it is used all the time. Do you feel as though you are being mislead in the world of politics? Do you think we would be better off if politicians and activists did not attempt to provide us with "information". Should be be responsible for conducting our own research in order to come to conclusions?
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Questions about "Stop Trying to Save Africa" - 21 views
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I 100% feel as though the "save africa" concept is a fad. I believe that the people who started the campaign had a good-hearted purpose for it, but as usual, American companies used it as a way to gather sales. It reminds me of how the whole organic and eco-friendly fads took off a few years ago.
It's true that Africa has made a lot of great progress over the years! Their infant mortality rate has dropped significantly (as it was one of the 10 millennium goals). You never really hear the good news...I guess it's because if people hear positive news they will assume that the problems are "solved". Obviously, this is not the case. There are still the issues with corrupt governments, severe poverty, famine, etc.
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Iweala, U. (2008) Stop Trying to 'Save' Africa-- washingtonpost.com - 12 views
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This is kind of the same idea I was getting at in my personal comment to this washington post article. I think it's kind of ridiculous we have to use high-profile celebs to raise awareness. I feel like people should have some kind of moral obligation to know things about the world that they live in. Obviously though, people do not do this. I think the whole "save africa" thing is nothing more than a trend that people and retailors use to sell products. Like the (RED) campaign...red iPods, red t-shirts...I guess it makes people feel like they're helping from a distance?? Or maybe it's just a trend like I said. I'm really not sure what people are thinking when they purchase these products.
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Dr. Marichal's Course Portals (2170) - 32 views
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It amazes me that 21st century medicine has yet to reach places such as Niger. In American and other 1st world countries death during childbirth is unheard of. I would think that with all of the volunteers and global programs these hospitals would at least have basic medicine. I am disgusted that this is still going on in such a developed world. These kinds of problems are being overlooked. Instead, the world is fighting over petty issues. I plan to have a career in healthcare and this article really has me thinking.
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John Smith's books were all written around free market ideals. His book the wealth of nations describes that if people pursue their own interests, society will also benefit. I can agree with this statement in several ways. As seen in some fallen communist countries, if people do not have a private, personal good to work for, people are not generally willing to work as hard. Whereas if someone will receive self benefits/advancement they will be wiling to work harder to benefit society because of it. Once could also look at this from the standpoint that although the richest of people make more money than most could ever imagine, they are pumping millions of those dollars into the economy through job and good creation. So here, people are receiving self-benefits, but their companies are also benefiting the US economy.
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I found this article to be very interesting. In my global issues class we had discussed specialization, and how specialization is more "efficient" (we also discussed efficiency). In this article they talked about how people are breaking down things like health into small,specialized aspects instead of looking at health as a whole- with many different contributing components. Was this done because it was more "efficient" in the world of study and research? It seems like there could be some sort of a connection, maybe the connection lies within the researchers themselves who are "specialists" in a particular study, so when doing research they do not take into account the later picture....
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In this article it says "...that if individual liberty is an ultimate end for human beings..." I found this to be very interesting because freedom is often looked so highly upon that it seems to be the very thing everyone strives for. It is true, freedom is a great thing, but can individual freedom be an ultimate end? We can't let people going around doing whatever they want. That is why we have laws- to create and maintain order within the polis. It is interesting to think though just how much individual freedom we can allow without ending overall peace and well-being within a society.
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I thought it was interesting that Simon Lovell studied so deeply into what makes a con man so successful. He explains that a con man is a good salesman, which seems pretty logical. I never thought deep into it though. He says that being a con man requires study of psychology and body language. I could see this helping, but does anyone really think con men go to such great lengths?? I feel like they just make good conversations and play into the wants of society
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This article is very bias. It talks about how republicans exploit information and use freaking techniques to trick americans. Don't ALL politicians do this? I just found it to be very interesting how the article began by putting blame on one side to make its ideas appear unreasonable. We discussed last week how "framing" is used across the board.
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I kind of agree with this article. It is ridiculous that we have to use celebrities and crazy adds to grab people's attention and make them want to help. It's a "trend". If it's made cool and popular by celebrities and famous politicians people will jump on board. I guess though, these things are raising awareness. Before the ICU club appeared, most college and high school kids had no idea about what was going on in Darfur and other African countries. I feel like people should hold some kind of social responsibility to know major things that are happening in the world. But like we said in class the other day, people don't take this responsibility as a citizen of the world seriously, so I guess crazy adds and celebs have to be used to spread awarness.
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Personally, I agree with the whole "slidware" stunt. I think that by using Microsoft Powerpoint, Keynote, etc. people can hide the fact that their discussion lacks content. Sometimes pictures and phrases can be useful in guiding the discussion or providing examples. This is not always the case though. In high school one of my teachers pointed out in another student's powerpoint that he/she had no true analysis about the topic, but was attempting to cover that up with fancy fonts, catchy slogans, and lots of pictures. When I listen to a speaker I want to be sure that I am being given as much DATA as possible, and even more important RELEVANT DATA! I've even caught teachers using their power points to cover the truth that they were not prepared to present the lecture.
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I thought the whole idea of the command and control functions was very interesting. I think, especially in public policy, they're both used together. When a piece of legislation is passed we don't really have much control over it (granted, we could protest, sign petitions, etc.), so we have to do as "they" say. That's the command function. The control function is also in use though. I think that in order to make something seem more appealing and in order to gain support politicians definitely re order the environment to fit their argument. We're kind of tricked by this....
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I think that political scientists are beginning to realize more and more than almost everything is significant when it comes to "social construction". We are all, to some extent, influenced by both internal and external factors. I find the idea behind specific groups to be very interesting. I have always noticed that there are many politically-based groups that strictly abide by one set of ideals. I always wonder why they refuse to wander outside of their established "zone" and who are what factors led them to believe those were the best ideals. Gender is especially interesting. I guess women tend to be more soft/gentle/emotional characters, so this is why their ideals lean a certain way. However, I wonder if things may be changing. It seems as though a long time ago women had an established place and role in society, so this could have influenced their thinking. Now though, women can and do do all of the same things that men partake in. I wonder if this influences them politically at all. I, for one, am not soft and probably not as emotional or sympathetic as some people think I should be.
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This article is very interesting. I think it's weird how they were actually able to transform an educational institution by first changing the name. I think that people embrace names and that they can be somewhat empowering. If the name of something is relatable or refers to something grand then people tend to be more responsive. I think this is a kind of framing in which a name can shape an institution, how it works, and how it's members participate.
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I can see both the pros and cons of this situation and always apply it to the legalization of marijuana in California. While I worry that legalization makes illicit drug use acceptable, we do see cases where drug use actually declines in the period after legalization. I don't really understand why this is, though, ...if something is legal it's not fun anymore?? I just think that, although it would be a good source of tax money, If marijuana is legalized people will still use it but I also think they will turn to other kinds of drug use which are much more serious. Whether we like it or not we know that a great amount of illicit drug use comes from marijuana use. Tax Revenue or Possibility of more illicit drug use? I'm not sure which is better, or what would happen if drugs were legalized in America. In a variety of things, laws and regulations do not work in America as they do in foreign countries because we are so different, diverse, and seem to have overall different views on morals.
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I think that, while it would be RIDICULOUS, if the administration had no idea what was going on in Rwanda, the third point is correct in some sense. It said "regardless of what it knew, there was nothing useful to be done. We see in a lot of unfortunate situations like this the only thing that is moderately useful that outsiders can do is to capture the leader- it times of chaos, it's not easy. This reminds me very much of the deal with Joseph Kony. Even though many countries have made a commitment to catch him if possible, it still hasn't happened and people are still being murdered. I guess it comes with the power, but it still always surprises me that other countries judge us if we don't jump in to help EVERY situation in EVERY country at that VERY second....not to say that we shouldn't help people, but I think that too much is expected of the United States. We can't solve everyone's problems-- we can't even solve our own........
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The emerging moral psychology | Prospect Magazine - 10 views
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The words "justice" and "fairness" mean nothing in this context. What people view as "just" or "fair" can vary widely from culture to culture and person to person.
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3quarksdaily: LEGOS and the Changing Face of American Higher Education - 6 views
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If the process is more open, then they are often confused and worried. If they are challenged to forge their own path, to find their own answers, or god forbid to ask questions that have no clear answers, then they are apt to panic or stare at you blankly. That kind of process either scares or confuses them.
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The author really has a clear idea of what is going on. I can personally say that I, like many others, panic when there is no "right" answer to a question. We have grown up in a world full of information. When we don't know the "correct" answer, we "google" it. We lack creativity because we don't have to do as much critical thinking.
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Lauren Petta