Reading Analysis to "Killer Culture"

It is not easy to persuade a reader of something especially if they already have a different opinion about it. The only way you can write a great persuasive paper is by using different modes such as narration, description, exemplification, process, cause and effect, compare and contrast, classification/division, and definition. David Kupelian uses all of these in his article “Killer Culture”, to justify why he believes our culture is so poisonous that we need to protect our children from it by homeschooling. The following examples are some of the modes he used to persuade the reader that this is the right way to educate our future generations.

                Kupelian is in his 60’s and he compares and contrasts the clothing choices in the generation he came from to the present day trends. He explains “…the generation uniform of Levi’s and work shirts and peacoats in their celebration of blue collar workers, “the Real Americans,” so today’s adolescents have co-opted inner-city black street-style as the authentic way to be”(649). He defiantly has an angle on this statement. He believes that the blue collar way to dress is superior to the “gangsta generation”. His audience is parents so he is also connecting with them because they may be from this generation.

                When talking about the companies that target teens to make money he goes into detail about MTV. He concludes that everything on his channel is a commercial, whether it is a music video, cloths, or a commercial for a movie funded by that company. This is an example of exemplification. When he continues discussing MTV he also uses process to show how they figure out what they can sell to youth. Kupelian says “They hold focus groups. They send out culture spies to pretend to befriend and care about teens so they can study them-what they like, what they don’t like, what’s in, what’s out, what’s cool, and what’s no longer cool. They engage in ‘buzz marketing” (651-652). He goes on in more detail about the process they use to sell their product. This is a turn off for most people because people generally don’t like it when they know someone is selling something to them.

                Kuplelian also believes that the culture today is literally obsessed with death. He uses definition to explain some horrible things youth do to their bodies to look cool or get a rush. “The act of suspension is hanging the human body from hooks pierced through the flesh in various places around the body” (656). He also explains, “Or, How about tongue splitting-literally making yourself look like a human lizard-how could that be a positive, spiritual experience?”(657). He gives these definitions to show the public how gruesome some of the things that the young generation does because some people might not know what the words mean. It also gives a visual that most people would find disturbing which helps prove the point that our culture is just to poisonous to put our kids in the midst of it.

                The points Kuplelian makes are very valid, and the modes help a lot with his argument. Although, the article did not persuade me or the majority of the class. In my opinion it was just too far out there, and a little crazy. He did put some facts but it was mostly all his opinion. He was very persuasive and had all the components of a great persuasive paper.

               

Response to "Killer Culture"

Today’s youth are the future of our society. It is very common for their confused young brains to get targeted by a lot of different things such as social media, peer pressure, or just the desire to fit in. David Kupelian wrote a very controversial essay about this called “Killer Culture”. His response to the problems that popular culture inflicts on kids is to keep them isolated until they are ready to go out into the world. I do not agree with Kupelian’s solution to this problem, but he does have a valid point about this issue.

                Kupelian noticed the pressure kids feel to conform when he observed his son Joshua. His son always hated body jewelry until he met and hung out with his older cousin on a vacation. After the vacation he wanted to get a choker just like the one his cousin owned, even though he previously believed men should not wear jewelry. Another example of this he states is the “gangsta generation”. Baggy sagged pants, hip-hop music, body piercings, tattoos, backwards hats, and even a different attitude are some of the things that became attractive during this time.

                Things like fashion trends and music do not spread on its own, media has a lot to do with this. Huge companies figure out what the youth wants and what is in style by sending out “culture spies”. These people make friends with the kids and pretend to care about them, but they are really just gathering information about things that they like so their products will sell. MTV is an example of this; Kupelian believes everything on MTV is a commercial whether it is a music video or a show with trendy clothes. Kupelian wonders “Is the media really reflecting the world of kids, or is it the other way around”. (653) His point is that it is hard to tell if this kind of media is being based of youth or if youth is actually following the examples on the television. In reality it is most likely just a continuous circle.

                Kupleians response to this is that it is mostly the parents fault for not censoring their children from these kinds of corruptions. He thinks children should be home schooled so parents can choose what kind of things their kids will be exposed to. By doing this we would be creating a safe “subculture” for youth. Kupelian’s intentions become very clear when he states “I believe homeschooling today represents the single most important and promising avenue for true rebirth of American Judeo-Christian culture.”(662)

                Although I do see valid points in his concerns, I do not agree at all with his solutions. First off styles of generations are ever-changing and the “Gangsta generation” will be gone as soon as it came and be replaced with another style, which is already happening. I personally believe that not everything on MTV is a commercial. MTV came out with the show 16 and Pregnant in 2009 which is a documentary of a variety of different young teenage mothers and the hardships that they go though during the pregnancy and afterwards. According to the Christian Science Monitor 82 percent of teens who watched the show said it helped them better understand the hardship of being a young mother. Statistics even show a 6 percent decrease in teen pregnancy from 2008 to 2009 and a 10 percent decrease in Hispanic teen pregnancy. I find it hard to imagine being homeschooled as a child. Going to a public school, I not only learned skills in school I also learned social skills and really important life lessons too. Censoring every aspect of a Childs life from what I have seen is not effective in most cases because rebellion is what a human does when they feel they are being repressed. I have seen firsthand that the parents who control their children too much end up with trouble maker kids because they try to break free.

                It is so difficult to solve these problems the youth faces in today’s society because it is all around them in their everyday lives. All a parent can really do is teach their children good morals, and to not always listen to what a peer or a TV show is telling them to do. Kids will be kids and they go through a lot of changes and phases. As long as they know right from wrong and what they should and should not follow I think they will turn out as decent human beings.

 

 

Works Cited

 

Jonsson, Patrik. "A Force behind the Lower Teen Birthrate: MTV's '16 and Pregnant'" The Christian      Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 21 Dec. 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

 

Kupelian, David. "Killer Culture." (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

MLA Information

For my Iran topic report I used three different citations. The first citation was from a journal article given to our group by Instructor Knapp. One of these citations was from a website with no author. The other was a quote I got from a website on Google that listed direct quotes by Ayatollah Khomeini. All of these citations were necessary to give the credit these sources deserve.

            According to Instructor Knapp, “For a writer, plagiarism is the equivalent of stealing. For a student, plagiarism is cheating. In the Academic world, plagiarism is considered to be: stealing, cheating and lying.” This really stood out to me because it puts it into perspective how serious plagiarism really is. When I think of stealing I think of being robbed of something in my car, home, or bag at school. I have never thought of plagiarism being the same as this but when you take someone’s ideas and portray them as your own; it is just like stealing someone’s positions. Stealing is morally wrong and this class made me realize plagiarism is as well.

What I have learned in English 1A

English 1A is a required class for all college students in the area and now that we are half way through the semester I can understand the reason for this. There was a lot of really valuable information that we have already learned. This course focuses on how to further us in our academic success. It emphasizes research which is what we are going to be doing throughout our college experience. I want to go to grad school which would be impossible to do without the foundation of English1A. Everything I have learned in this class so far will give me the tools I need to succeed.

                The first thing we learned that was very useful was the quote sandwich. I knew how to put a quote in a text and properly site it but I never exactly elaborated on the quote to make it fit into my topic. By putting in the 3 part structure of introduction, quote, and explanation it really helped me understand the importance of the explanation, which was something I had never done or thought about before.

 I knew from previous classes how to structure a full length paper, but I had never really narrowed my focus on each individual paragraph in detail until professor Knapp taught us the tea paragraph. This acronym stands for topic, evidence, and analysis. In most of my previous writing my paragraphs either jumped around too much or it just had topic and evidence without the analysis. I finally understand the importance of an analysis whether it is my opinion or relating it to why the reader should care about the information given. This is so important for pulling in the reader. They need to be told why they should care about a topic because it is a lot easier to not care.

I am very challenged when it comes to technology. We set up blogs on the second day of class to post our papers on. This was very different for my because I never picture myself as a blogger and I had no idea how to even set one up. I learned how to set it up, use it correctly, and even connect with other users in the class. Secondly, we had to do a power point presentation which up until this class I had avoided at all cost. In high school my teachers always gave options of what you could do for the visual part of a presentation and I always picked a poster. I knew the time would come when I had to just man up and learn how to do a power point and I’m glad I did because it’s a skill that I really should have in college.

I really do believe that all of these things will not only help me go further in school but also in the real world. In specific technology is domination the world and it would be really ignorant of me to ignore that fact just because it takes time to learn my way around it. Writing is something that I may have to do for a job later on in life so improving my skills is only going to help in the long run. Everything we have learned so far has been very helpful with my success in school.