Ole'Miss, Really?

          Last Wednesday was national signing day for all high school seniors wanting to compete in their sport at the next level. The University of Mississippi received one of the most coveted recruits in the entire recruiting class this year, Robert Nkemdiche. Not to mention several other highly sought after recruits. None the less, there are people, like myself, who wonder how in the world does a program who had no big record get such great recruits.  Tommy Tomlinson on sportsearth.com and Ryan Rudnansky on bleacherreport.com both use logos and ethos to show both sides of the story and how Ole’Miss was able to be so successful so far in the recruiting season.

          Tomlinson uses logos when he talks about how Nkemdiche decided to go to Ole’ Miss basically because his brother goes there and his mom really wants him to go there as well. He also uses logos in explaining how coach Freeze got the coaching job at Ole’Miss starting with the whole Michael Oher story. Because Tomlinson did some research into connections of players, like Nkemdiche, and into the leader behind the team, coach Freezer, he is using logos to persuade readers to understand the truth behind Ole’Miss’s top recruiting class.  Rudnansky uses logos by quoting ESPN interviews with Nkemdiche’s mother stating how most other schools looked at her son like a machine and not a human being, which was not what Ole’Miss did to her son. Because Rudnansky researched exactly how Nkemdiche’s mother felt at Ole’Miss he is using Lagos to persuade his readers that Ole’Miss has no scandal involved in their top notch recruiting class.

            Rudnansky uses ethos towards the end of his article not only by being a writer for one of the biggest sports recruiting websites in the nation, but with his personal anecdote of liking a restaurant because of its good service. Tomilson uses ethos in talking about his views on how college football recruiting works. He says that “recruiting is asking for a date. It's about acceptance and rejection. It's about mystery and pride. It leads to a 17-year-old sitting at a table with a row of hats in front of him, like some strange three-card-monte dealer, before he picks up a hat and makes some fans happy and others sad.”  With his diction in this quote he shows credibility because he understands the process. The college recruiting process is just one part of the overwhelming aspect of college football, which is definitely at the heart of our American culture.

Making Culture Have a Better Purpose

          In my post last week when I said “although not all of their cultures succeeded in their purpose,” I mean that one society may have come up with an invention that we have made better today. The invention could be made better because it is more readily accessible and usable to more people around the world.

           The Ancient Greeks came up with tons of inventions that we use better today. For one, they created the Olympic Games, but they were only played on the plains of Olympia. Today, the Olympics are played all over the world in a different country every four years. Don’t you think this is a great way to explore another society’s culture, or even an entire world’s culture? If you have ever been to an Olympic event please comment below to share your cultural experience.

          Another invention of the Greeks was the thermometer. Actually, Galileo really made the thermometer more of what we use it for today, a scientific measuring device. However, there are not many conventional thermometers around today because of the toxicity of mercury. Most thermometers are digital. Do you think they are as accurate as the mercury thermometers? I know I don’t think they are as accurate.

          Finally, the last Greek invention I am going to talk about is the concept of money. Did you know that money is considered to be one of the greatest discoveries of mankind? Back then the Greeks used metal pieces, or coins, for their money. Now, today there are still coins, but we have dollars, which are cheaper to produce, and plastic! I personally rarely carry any cash on me because I would rather just carry one plastic piece of card which contains all of my cash on it.  Plus it has built in security so that if someone else tries to use it I can deny them access. But, back in the times of Ancient Greece if someone took your money you were out of luck. Do you think our society moving to a more intangible concept of money is good thing? Do you ever wonder what will happen if your bank one day closes and takes all of your money with it? If you have any experiences with this issue please comment.

          Culture during the time of Ancient Greece may have achieved its purpose, but today we have made the purpose of Ancient Greek culture more efficient and some may argue more simplistic to use and understand on a more global scope.

Above information on Greek inventions was taken from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/greek-inventions.html.

My Definition of Culture

          Culture is the way society chooses to act, dress, and think. I believe that culture is rapidly changing, mostly because of the development of new technology that betters society. Additionally, I think it is important to know other societies cultures’ because we can learn a lot on how they faced the same challenges that we continue to face today. Although not all of their cultures succeeded in their purpose, we can still learn from their experience and work to develop our culture in a way that may let it succeed.

          Different authors actually have the same definition of culture. For instance, Mathew Arnold talks about how culture is science and how we as a society strive for perfection. Obviously, science is a way that people think. My definition of culture talks not only about how culture includes what people think, but how to turn their thoughts into ideas that better society. Raymond Williams, founder of cultural studies, even believed in the idea of culture evolving into something different then it was before. Actually, he believed that culture tested itself out. If societies did not grasp the new culture, it would change until the society chose to act, dress, or think using that type of culture. Finally, Arnold is an informative writer who agrees with culture also being a history lesson that society should appreciate. My definition of culture states that society should learn from cultures because those cultures may give better insight into what our current one should be like.

          Culture is complex word to define because it takes on many different meanings. The most important meaning is that it is used to describe a wide range of people that all have something in common. Because culture must be common among a group of people it must evolve so that more people will want to adopt it. History should help shape culture since mistakes should not be made more than once, or what is the importance of history.