The Gamblers Fallacy



The Sandstorm by Sean Huze

Sean Huze's play brings out a lot of emotions, but I don't know if they are the right ones. The play

has a lot of fallacies in it, the main one that sticks out is "Appeal to Emotion." He is using your

emotions against you to sum up a war that is very complicated. Multiple times the author suggests

that the Marines don't want to be there. This might be true but the author fails to recognize that this

is a very small select group of the Marine Corps. He plays a fallacy here called a, "Hasty

Generalization." This fallacy takes a small sample of a large group and then bases the facts of the

smaller sample on the entire group. Other than that the story appeals to emotions by involving

gory details and facts, somehow trying to undermine the war, and in a small way saying it's not

worth it because this is what's happening to people. The story in the end where it talks about the

Marines leaving the town and the author putting all that mushy gushy stuff in there, he continues

to use fallacies and fails to use common sense. Again, using the appeal to emotion fallacy, the

author forgets to add any amount of common sense. For instance, the fact that they are soldiers,

and that soldiers never see the whole picture. So when higher up calls for them to go and take

care of business somewhere else, like an uprising of insurgents which is a bad thing, they freak

out and feel like they are abandoning those people. In all reality they probably sent some more

Marines in to protect those people. And even if they didn't, they obviously had something more

important to take care of. In essence I was disgusted with this play because rather than use facts

the author relies on pity and emotion to grab the audiences attention.

The two poems that I reacted two the most or felt the most connection to was "Song of Napalm" by Bruce Weigl and "Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting" by Kevin C. Powers. I guess the reason that I felt such a connection to these two poems is that they both have to deal with war, which happens to be what my trade is. I joined the Army in 2008 and I'm a gunner for the 856 Military Police Company stationed up in Flagstaff. Reading these poems reminds me of some of the stuff I have been through in our training and what not. The discussions I've had with people in and out of the military and the awkward introductions I have made when explaining to my girl friends family what it is that I do in the Army.



When reading Powers poem and realizing that the first line is a of him writing home to his girl, I can connect with him on a personal level because of the letters that I have written home to family and friends. I understand what it's like to be writing a letter and wondering if anything that is happening around me will some how be passed in through the letter, like smells or dust or even a drop of blood. I can even now still remember where I wrote some of my letters and the weird feeling it is to be a killer yet a lover at the same time. To be writing home about your feelings when you know the next day you wouldn't want any of your loved ones to know what it is your training for, or what it is that you will be doing the next day.



In Weigl's poem I see how a young man is trying to forget where he is by day dreaming, by wishing away everything he has seen. This experience is common amongst us soldiers. I don't know how many times I have sat around day dreaming wishing I was some where other than where I was. But you are always brought back by the chirp of automatic gunfire or the heat or someone yelling. Trying to go back to the day dream is like trying to catch the bird you just released. It's senseless to try once the day dream is over but you try again anyway, because it was just nice to get away for a while. But like he explains in the end of his poem by saying,
"And not your good love and not the rain-swept air
And no the jungle green
Pasture unfolding before us can deny it." (Weigl 41-45)
He's saying that no matter how you paint the picture reality is what it is. There is no way to get away from it, no escape.












Works Cited
1. "Song of Napalm" Bruce Weigl, Archaeology of the Circle: New and Selected Poems. Grove/Atlantic, Inc. 1999 https://3bb.yc.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_22410_1%26url%3D
2. "Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting" Kevin C. Powers, Poetry 2009. https://3bb.yc.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_22410_1%26url%3D

Image 1-http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/11/16/1611webstory_iraq.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.theage.com.au/news/iraq/us-troops-free-scores-from-secret-prison/2005/11/16/1132016823151.html&usg=__QfqPDvmMZMmfNcsxgJ2u8HK0ykU=&h=310&w=470&sz=29&hl=en&start=63&zoom=1&tbnid=9BUy_p0SH9VFLM:&tbnh=138&tbnw=191&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpictures%2Bof%2Biraq%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D996%26bih%3D960%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C2228&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=433&ei=Y9qKTIKrJIfQsAPp-sSxBA&oei=MtqKTPTiN5K-sAObtamfBA&esq=11&page=4&ndsp=20&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:63&tx=61&ty=62&biw=996&bih=960

Image 2- http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.vietnammemorial.com/vietnam-soldiers-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.vietnammemorial.com/vietnam-war.html&usg=__KdjgPyiQe_WhfoyeYKzy41BK55s=&h=404&w=500&sz=45&hl=en&start=20&zoom=1&tbnid=hlhVGo8edfEorM:&tbnh=138&tbnw=179&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpictures%2Bof%2Bvietnam%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D996%26bih%3D960%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C582&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=530&vpy=368&dur=2&hovh=202&hovw=250&tx=166&ty=135&ei=FNqKTJSuINmxnAeR-cmBDA&oei=EtqKTIOdEIT6lwfL_5H_CQ&esq=2&page=2&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:20&biw=996&bih=960

Sam Hammil’s view of how to change the violence in today’s society and past is ridiculous. He is presuming that all humanity can come to a point of certainty about love. He is saying that everyone, if they try, can have enough “compassion” in their heart to overcome the “batterers” of the world. But then he goes on to defend the people in jail saying that they need to be saved too. He’s saying that people can be saved, when in reality we cannot save them. They made a choice; he says that people lash out because they don’t know how to express their love. This is such a stupid statement because people know when they are hurting each other, people don’t sit around and go, “Oh, gee, I wonder why I just hit her?” NO! It’s because the fool was drunk and he was pissed off and he is taking on his anger. Not because he doesn’t know how to express himself.
He absurdly assures us that we can through “compassion” somehow change the world. He refers to Japan and how he served there. Does he not remember how the war started? Does he not know what happened on December 7, 1941? WE WERE BOMBED! My Grandpa was there he was almost blown in half and his best friend WAS blown into pieces. We were not even involved in the war; we were trying to stay out of it. But no, Japan attacked first, they wanted us to enter the war and they were totally prepared to take us over. That is why we attacked back, that is why we dropped a nuke on them. It was to save lives on both sides. If we had invaded their country they were totally prepared to fight until no one was left.
Does Mr. Hammil understand or even know what their government was made up of? It was the Emperor and whatever he said went. He thought that he was so “holy” that he had never touched the ground with his actual feet. He was always elevated and people lived to serve him and his legacy. Now can you tell me how that is compassion? Can you tell me that if Mr. Hammil had gone up to him and told him he was wrong and that he should be more compassionate on others, that the Emperor would have listened? I don’t think so. This view of the world and how to solve it’s problems are stupid. It would never work. However, look at Japan today. They have a democracy they can do what they want without asking an Emperor if it’s ok. That is what we brought them; in essence we died so THEY could have it.

Nabokov thinks that a good reader is one who has a combination of artistic and scientific outlook when reading a book. He believes that a good reader should remain somewhat "aloof" from what he or she is reading. The idea behind this is that the reader can fully enjoy the novel that he or she is reading. The reason for this, or so Nabokov believes, is that if you are thinking about how you relate to the story or how you have seen what the writer is trying to "paint" before, you are missing out on how the writer wants you to view it and are instead creating what you have already seen in your mind and applying it to what you are reading. Nabokov believes that this is an insult to the writer, because if you create your own picture then you are missing out on the whole point of reading the novel, and that is to see something new.

I agree partially with Nabokov because it is good to be lost in a new world of a book. At the same time though it is comforting to some people to recognize something and be able to see themselves in that situation. This is good because this does give the reader a feeling of friendship with the author, as in he or she knows what they are going through or what they have been through. I don't think you should do this all the time because I do believe that it's good for a reader to be able to be lost in a book that is totally fresh and new.

I consider myself an average reader because I will admit (to Nabokov's despise) that I don't pay attention to details sometimes and I get rather bored with them if the book is just explaining how something looks or if the author takes the time to really tell you the tone of the scene. But, at the same time I do enjoy some details in books, I guess it just depends on how much detail or what the detail is trying to describe that gets me. I do enjoy all dialogue between characters because I do find that hard to get bored with. It's always intriguing to me to see and understand a character in a book. It's like meeting a new person and then being able to understand them more deeply and look deeper and deeper into them without it being awkward. It might be awkward in real life if you were to just pause and ask the person to repeat what they just said so you could understand them better, like you would re-read a line in a book to get the full meaning. So I guess I would rate myself a seven out of ten, I consider myself an above average reader.







Image cite-http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/63/46263-004-A74F04C5.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/401299/79745/Vladimir-Nabokov-1968&usg=__b_ylN_Ja5NtOO8Bf2V-eOFaQMoA=&h=450&w=346&sz=29&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=pLNMhOhU2W_YDM:&tbnh=161&tbnw=129&prev=/images%3Fq%3DNabokov%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D944%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=261&vpy=99&dur=9&hovh=256&hovw=197&tx=96&ty=144&ei=IY11TN7dCYP68AabxpX3BQ&oei=IY11TN7dCYP68AabxpX3BQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0

People say that a picture is worth a thousand words. What does this mean? How can one photo or painting of something be worth a thousand words? Well let me share how it is that a picture can be worth a thousand words. Well it's because a photo or picture can be left up to interpretation. That is anyone can look at a picture and give it whatever meaning it is that they want it to represent. When looking at a picture haven't you ever wondered what it was the author was trying to get across? There usually is a reason for the painting whether it be to represent a picture of a beautiful landscape, a beautiful woman or something cool like an airplane. But when looking at a picture you should be trying to analyze why it is that the painter decided to use what colors they used and why they painted what they painted. You should be wondering what it is that the painter wants you to feel when painting a picture.

When a painter paints something they are trying to portray what they are feeling about that particular item. For example a painter might be painting a picture of a war scene like you commonly see in history text books. So the painter is going to go into great detail with the people's faces and the expressions that they are portraying. Also he might use colors that are somewhat bleak in comparison to other colors that they might use. This would be used to portray that the scene and what was happening at the time was very sad and hopeless. Obviously if they used bright colors or went into great detail with the grass and clouds it would leave the viewer wondering what it was they wanted them to focus on. This is how a picture can portray a thousand words. It's because anyone can look at it and say what it means to them or what they think the painter was trying to get across.

I think that writing blog assignments are a much better way to understand this class and understand the power of using a blog. When writing a blog it is much easier to just start jotting down your ideas and it allows for students to easily cite things. When writing a blog you can immediately hyperlink a word which can lead to citations, pictures or even videos. It is much quicker than writing a traditional essay and allows students to learn how to use things like hyperlinks and naturally forces students to learn two things at once, writing and blogging. The format of a blog is much easier and more personal than a traditional essay. It lets you have fun with the writing assignment.

The blog assignments did relate to the class topics and course objectives. It did so by causing students to create something that could be viewed world wide. It allows the student to realize the affect that a single blog or the ideas that person has affect others. This can be seen in how students see people from around the world commenting on their blog. It also allows the students to realize how many people they can reach through their blog and the power of blogging. Because when you are making an argument you can hyperlink what ever you want and people can see with the click of a button an entire website that is backing you up.

The non-text elements of blogging actually forced me to learn up on blogging. I checked out other people's blogs to see how they blog and what they use. I also looked at the popular blogs to see what it was that was attracting so many people to read that persons blog. It also helped me in learning in class, when we were talking about the usage of Internet and how it was that people reach other people I could understand through the making of my own blog. When talking about analyzing commercials blogs helped me to realize what other people thought of commercials through reading their blogs. Also I could understand what certain groups of people thought. You can "follow" people on a blog and this is interesting because that means you can see what a group or sect of people might think about a certain subject. So if you were making an advertisement and wanted to see what that certain demographic of people were looking for you could just look up that blog and see what people though about it. So blogging caused me to learn the importance of technology in the world and how people use it to vent ideas, memories, and political views to just name a few.

Reasoning? Learn it or lose it......

Should reasoning be taught in schools? If so, what grades and how much of it? Well I'm pretty sure that you know people who could use a good reasoning class or two, mainly because it seems that they can't seem to make the right decisions. This might be true but haven't we all made a few mistakes in our life? You see I think we can all apply a little critical thinking to our daily lives, and I believe that they should start teaching these classes in middle school.

You see at a young age children can develop habits that will stick with them until they die. A good example is kids eating habits, parents should watch how and what they eat because their kids will reflect that their entire lives. As Revolution Health puts it, "Be a good role model. Practice the eating and exercise habits you'd like your children to have. Your example is your child's most powerful learning tool." This is just one example of how children are affected by what parents do. But what about the kids who don't have very good role models at home? This is where the critical thinking comes in.

Kids need to learn what critical thinking is and how to use it in applicable ways early on in childhood. Critical thinking is needed in life and very useful in juggling what life will throw at you. For most of us juggling a job and a marriage and kids is how we live and learn the critical thinking aspect of things but if your like me and every other person on this planet there are some decisions that you've made that you have realized probably weren't the best ones. But you realized this and you course corrected yourself, but some people don't seem to do this very well. Some kids seem to just keep putting their hand up on the stove and they continue to burn themselves even after they have experience the pain of their mistake.

Some people think these kids are just plain dumb and it's,"Their fault," that they continue to make the same wrong decisions. Well, maybe so, but if you can teach these kids to stop making the same mistakes at young age then why not? Why wouldn't we offer these classes to help these kids? Well the answer is simple, we SHOULD offer these classes and we should make some of them mandatory. We need to get children to realized that they need to think things through and they need to think about the consequences in both the long term and the short term.

Since kids are so impressionable it is very plausible, (and also very realistic seeing as we all know someone who thinks very poorly of themselves for the mistakes that they have made) that they think that they are the problem, not realizing that the CHOICES they make is the problem not them. This can lead into a downward spiral of depression and cause a human being to repeat the same mistakes thinking that's just who they are rather than realizing that you are who you choose to be.

This is a very real need in our society and it needs to be addressed. Students should be exposed to critical thinking at younger ages and realize how important these skill sets are. No one is born with knowledge, we all acquire it. So lets start getting some good education and real world skill sets into our schools. Show up at school meetings, talk to your school superintendent, let the school board know what you would like to be taught, call your state governor and let them know that schools need to start incorporating this into the curriculum. Alas, more importantly teach your kids at home and be an example, let them experience some pain, let them realize that they define who they are through their actions. Again, this is a very real need and we need to get critical thinking into our schools and children's minds.