Marian's In-Class Writing:

Administrators and executive people set up rules for those people that use E-mail and interchange to keep people under their facist reign. These rules are just an attempt by domineering people to keep their subordinates from expressing their opinions and feelings. For example, if anyone were to insult an administrator, the insultor's participation grade would be affected in a negative fashion. However, if the person were to kiss the teacher's @ss their participation grade would be affected positively. The reading of messages by the administrators is a deterant that keeps the subordinate students from threatening, cheating, or putting others down, or atleast it is supposed to. Rules are just another way of supressing the masses!

(Author's note: there should be only one rule that states "Any rule, other than this one, is unconstitutional and infringes upon the peoples' rights to pursue happiness, and enjoy their Corona's while watching a John Holm's movie while their friends are eating square meals!)

Date: Thu, 14 Apr 94 13:02:19 -0400

From: marian

Subject: Re: Amerian Heroes revisited

music is not to blame for the decline of our civilization. society is. placing the blame on music is like saying that computers are pure concentrated evil...if someone listens to judas priest and blows his/her head off, jp shouldn't be blamed for it. the person had problems to begin with, the music is not at fault. if someone listens to mariah carey and falls in love with the next person they see is mariah carey blamed for this? you may think that this is irrelevant, but think about it. 'gangsta' rap is the cause of the gang increase in america? because it glorifies violence? please. if anyone is to blame it's the parents of our society that don't teach their children morals and values. i listen to danzig, but i'm not going to sacrifice my dog because glenn danzig told me to. if children are taught and loved correctly by their parents, then as loved and well taught children they aren't going to join a gang, unless they're rebelling, or go out and kill someone for 'juice' because they were loved and they learned that homicide is not the answer by their parents. i feel that dre and snoop are telling their stories. ok, so what if snoop did kill someone and some kid gets a nine and blows his/her best friend away, it isn't the musics fault that that kid wasn't brought up by his/her parents to love and respect others. did lee harvey oswald kill kennedy becuase he listened to the beatles? whenever a genre of music hits mainstream people act like the music will catalyze the next world war...think about it and STOP BLAMING THE MUSIC!

marian

Date: Wed, 30 Mar 94 00:10:46 -0500

From: marian

Subject: Re: More American Culture

i beg to differ about what shane said about our culture being different from our society. our culture teaches us our morals and values, these traits are reflected in our society. also, not everyone likes taco-bell, guns, violence, and etc. just because the majority of people feel this is what our culture consists of, doesn't mean that everyone follows these beliefs. i personally hate 90210. it was cool at first, but now it's, in my mind, just another soap-opera with the actors/actresses that are much older than their characters. i don't feel that 90210, and many of the other things that you listed are things that represent me and my culture and i'm pretty sure that many of my friends agree with me. maybe it's just me, but i think you were referring to our generation with the things you listed (beavis-butthead, taco-bell, the grunge look, etc.). i'm sorry, but i haven't seen any elderly people wearing combat boots and flannels that laugh like beavis. maybe it's just me. but even if you are giving characteristics of our generation, you still aren't including many people in your generalizations.

is it just me?

marian

Date: Thu, 28 Apr 94 21:34:55 -0400

From: marian

Subject: socializing

uummm...this may sound harsh, but i do not intend it to be...but correct me if i am wrong, but don't we go to class to learn, not to socialize? that's why this town has parties and clubs...i understand that this particular class is different because we communicate via e-mail and all...but we're here to learn...i'm sorry, but i am paying way too much money here to be concerned with just meeting people in my classes....marian

Date: Sun, 17 Apr 94 12:50:15 -0400

From: marian

Subject: paranoid of technology

don't you think that there is a point in which technology is detrimental? don't get me wrong though, i do think that some advancements are good, but look at what is happening here. not only are people losing their jobs, but we are also killing the environment that we all need to survive, to live. look at what the industrial revolution has done. yeah, it gave people more leisure time, but what about the environment...look at the long-term effects.if that wasn't a good enough example...think about warfare...first it was stones...then eventually bows and arrows...then guns...bombs...atom bombs, the next step in this ever increasing killing world is the anti-matter bomb. true, you may think that it can't be built, but didn't people used to think that it was impossible for anyone to go to the moon?

technology scares me. some people get so wrapped up in it that they lose touch with the world and its needs. it's chaos. yeah, you can do things faster...you get more results in less time...but for what price? it's cool that we can pick up the phone and talk to someone on the other side of the world...we can watch tv and see what other places look like, that we'll probably never get to see otherwise...but now people have become couch potatoes and channel surfers...creating a society with many inhibitions, except to build a better satellite, to get more channels...i'm guilty of this, i love my stereo...my cds...i don't think i could live in the stone age after all of the technology that i am now dependent on...but where does it end?

what ever happened to people being happy with the land? enjoying a swim in a clean river...where now the river's been rerouted, dammed, and dumped in. we are sacrificing our necessities in life for technology? your money or your life? you choose your money...but you can't take it with you when you die??? i just don't understand sometimes...is it just me?

i'm not trying to preach...but i think a lot of people today think that faster is always better...nothing in life is free...you have to pay the price somewhere for that faster computer...and it's not just coming out of your wallet...i just want people to think about what is really going on here. women who have put together circuit boards have had spontaneous abortions...children that were raised near high intensity power lines have had brain cancer...people who sit in front of a crt computer monitor all day have their bodies bombarded with alpha particles, if they type all day, or do other repetitous tasks get carpal tunnel syndrome...is all this technology really worth it? do people just not care because they don't think that this applies to them?

i guess i've said too much...what do you think about it???...marian

Date: Tue, 26 Apr 94 20:24:33 -0400

From: captain

Subject: technology, paranoia...

On this list there has been talk about technology in our society and its worth considering the environment around us. The technology isn't destroying our environment and our quality of life. It is us. Technology has merely given us the opportunity survive in an environement where only the fittest can go on. As a result, we have created an environement that is increasingly being severed form the one we emerged from. In this new environment, we don't have to fight to survive, it has been a gift handed to us by technology. Not having to survive, we find that there can be differences between surviving and living. Not having to worry about surviving leaves us with a preoccupation for living...for finding what we value out of life. In this quest for finding what is valuable and what is not we have forgotten about the more natural environment that we left behind, and so we have committed acts of savagery on nature with little concious realization of what we are doing. I think it is at this point where we are just realizing what wehave done in our quest for happiness and value that we are realizing what we ahve done to the more natural environment. Because we have never seen something like this, we are afraid and are thus paranoid of the technology that brought us here.

Date: Wed, 27 Apr 94 16:04:04 -0400

From: darkone

Subject: Re:technology and paranoia

I agree totaly with captain. It's not the technology that is destroying us, it's ourselves. We can use this technology very efficiently and not destroy ouselves or make us "non-sociable." The only thing to blame is ourselves. Also similar to what captain@vt.edu said, only the fittest will

survive. Long ago people with hardly any education or even no education could survive almost easily. But nowadays it's hard to survive with a highschool education. The most intelegent people with the most education will be the one's to survive the best. I'd hate to see what kind of education will be neede to survive in the far future, since with every decade you need more education.

Thanx,

The Dark One

Date: Tue, 26 Apr 94 21:44:09 -0400

From: marian

Subject: Re: technology, paranoia...

when i wrote my message about being paranoid of technology i meant the effects technology has made on ourselves and the environment. yes, we are to blame for the destruction that we have done and i feel that technology has only helped us do more destruction faster...it seems that many people have forgotten that we need each other and our environment to survive. as so many people are out there for the quickest dollar and they don't care what the consequences will be, all they want is money and power. we are depleting our natural resources for more prestige, better technology, and more money. why don't people realize that one day all of these resources that we need to get prestige, use the technology, and make money are going to be gone one day? what will we do then? will all of the poor die because they don't have the money to buy oxygen? maybe i've watched a couple too many movies and read too many books, but with the way things are going now, i really don't have much faith in the future. not only is our use of technology destroying the environment, i also feel that it is destroying, or aiding in the destruction, of society...(contrary to popular belief, i don't deem myself computer illeriate, that is not why i fear technology)...as people are becoming more and more egocentric and less wholistic in their politics when power, prestige, and money are concerned. i don't necessarily fear all technology...i just fear what people will do to abuse this technology...yes, people have always found ways to abuse just about every system that has been initiated, but with technology becoming more widespread and more things becoming computerized i feel that people will break into systems that will cause major damage...ok, ok i'm pretty sure that you've had enough...

later,

marian

this is kind of a tangent, but: i suggest a short story by j.d. salinger, i don't remember the name of it, but it's in _nine short stories by salinger_ and it's about this sort of "fountain of youth" soda...val help me out here...i feel that in a way it pertains to my argument...

Date: Sat, 30 Apr 94 09:48:48 -0400

From: soldier

Subject: TECHNOLOGY, PARANOIA. WHAT?

I don't understand how you can feel that technology has helped to bring about the destruction of our society. Have you ever stopped and thought about everthing you use and have, and every thing that is possible for you to have? Technology surronds us, no matter where you look technology is there. Technology is the solution to all of the problems plaquing our society and environment today. Without technology we would be cavemen living in a world of superstition. Don't you know that the more we know, the more we can understand and strive to correct?

Think about it.

Date: Sun, 1 May 94 18:09:58 -0400

From: darkone

Subject: RE: technology, paranoia

 You had a very good point about technology. I think people should stop being so paranoid about technology. It hasn't gotten out of hand so far, and I don't think it will in the future. We have good heads on our shoulders and I think we know what to do and how to do it with technology. We should actually love technology, because without it we wouldn't be here today. Technology has been very good to us so far and I'm sure it will keep doing us good.

Thanx,

The Dark One

Date: Tue, 3 May 94 18:13:14 -0400

From: cindy

Subject: Re: TECHNOLOGY, PARANOIA. WHAT?

 I agree with what you saying completely. Look around and take notice of the things you do each day. YOu get up in the morning, take a shower, dry your hair, etc. And then, throughout the day, take notice of the things you do. Practically everything you do has some connection with technology. So don't blow it. Praise the advancements of technology instead!!!!!000

Date: Wed, 4 May 94 13:02:28 -0400

From: marian

Subject: Re: TECHNOLOGY, PARANOIA. WHAT?

 when i wrote my messages stating that i was paranoid of technology...i was speaking of the NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF SOME OF THE INNOVATIONS THAT ARE BEING SPOKEN ABOUT TODAY, AND YESTERDAY...FOR INSTANCE SOMEONE WROTE ABOUT A MOTOR THAT WAS SO SMALL YOU HAD TO LOOK AT IT THROUGH A MICROSCOPE...THIS CAN BE USED AGAINST PEOPLE!!!! I'M SORRY THAT I AM YELLING, BUT TOO MANY PEOPLE HAVE MISCONSTRUDED WHAT I HAVE SAID ABOUT BEING PARANOID ABOUT TECHNOLOGY!!!!!!!!! PLEASE, GIVE IT UP!!!!!