Scribe 4/28

The first thing we did today was take an online survey, relating to our class and its use of technology.
You can take this survey by going to Smith's webpage on Arapahoe's website. There you will see a link called "Survey" with a sentence reminding you to enter your class code behind it. There will also be several numbers underneath it, showing each of her classes and their corresponding codes. I believe our code is 242, but you should check just to be sure.

After that, the next and final Brave New World group went, group 9 (chapters 17-18), which, as it so happens, was my group.

• We started off with quote by George Orwell: "The best books... are those that tell you what you know already."
• Then we played the song "Testify" by Rage Against the Machine, which shares another quote with Orwell: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
• We then tried to find links between the song and the book, and the "Who controls the past..." line seemed to garner the most reaction. However, there were a few people that saw connections throughout the song. There are a few that seem to mention something like soma.
• Then we showed the class six more quotes by various people, including Orwell, but we also had Huxley himself, and even Adolf Hitler.
• Orwell: "The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection." "There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them."
• Huxley: "Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know." "Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead."
• Hitler: "The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one." "How fortunate for leaders that men do not think."
• Once again we asked everyone to try to find connections between these quotes and the book, or if they could, to modern-day life. Most people found several connections, such as Lenina seems to be more willing to believe the big lies she is told, while she may not completely trust the small ones. Also that the BNW society is contrary to humanity if the essence of humanity is not seeking perfection.
• Then we showed the class a saying: "If you have nothing to die for, you have nothing to live for" and asked the class what they would die for, if anything, or what the difference between living for something and dying for something was.
• Immediatly people said they would die for their family, some pointed out that there are some that would die for their religion or their country. A few people said that living for something was more selfish, whereas when you die for something that shows you are willing to give up anything for it.
• Finally, we asked if they saw our modern society heading in the direction of Brave New World, most surprisingly said that it wasn't.
• We ended with a quote by Benjamin Franklin: "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." My personal favorite of all the quotes we used.

We were supposed to have our final quiz over the book today, but we ran out of time because of the survey and the presentation, so we will most likely take it first thing on Monday. I'm not 100% sure which chapters its over (I think 9-18) so I'd would review the entire book just in case (unless you know for sure what its over).

HW: Obviously the quiz on Monday, study for it. Also the semester project, which will be due soon, so for those of you who haven't started (you know who you are) I would get goin' on that quickly.