Now that was fun

Since I have nothing else to blog about, or at least haven’t the time to, I thought I’d share with you this one piece I wrote for English that I actually liked. Granted, it’s not really an analytical essay or anything, it’s amusing if I may say so myself.

First, read this article: Students’ Confusion About Capitalism from Spectator.org

Then read my response:

No Wonder Why We’re in a Recession

The article Students’ Confusion About Capitalism, by Ralph R. Reiland, is a response to a survey by Rasmussen Reports on how the American public viewed different economic policies such as capitalism and socialism. The piece started off objective, citing quantitative data from the report, taking special care to note how the perhaps wiser “adults over 40” were only 13 percent in favor of socialism. However, it quickly revealed its biased nature, first by questioning the legitimacy of the survey by noting that many of the surveyed may not have had “even the slightest knowledge about” capitalism or socialism because they were not defined. Then Reiland fires off a broadside of totally erroneous definitions of capitalism given by high school graduates, from answers that “’capitalism is when an economy is based on the needs of the people’” to an honest “’I have no clue … because I’ve never paid any attention,’” in an attempt to not just undermine the survey, but to point a finger at our “allegedly high-quality school systems” as a possible cause of this disillusionment with our present state of affairs.

Following a collection of correct quotes, Reiland attempts to manipulate us with pathos into siding with the enlightened but hopelessly “out-voted” by the ignorant masses. Interestingly, it is here (“the bad news is…students.”) that Reiland commits a well-hidden cause/correlation fallacy for even though knowing does not necessarily entail preference, he finally explicitly implicitly states that capitalism is the better system, because it is what the “better-informed” would go for.

Finally, Reiland ends with a rather wordy quote that praises capitalism to the sky-high salaries the system creates for our corporate CEOs and a request for more pro-capitalist teachers, such as himself, one would suspect.

Interestingly, I actually went back and analyzed my own writing. Who woulda thought I’d do that?

Anyways, things I noticed:

• I am as biased as the article itself. This is not to say I hate capitalism. It’s just easier to bash on something. Like I do all the time here at Moufflets.
• I follow the same thing process: start off objective and then into all-out war.
• My title doesn’t agree with my tone, but considering the article, laissez-faire.

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