My very last post! This is just exciting. Well I will share somethings I learned from my Sociology class. I LOVED the concepts presented from the books we read. In particular I have loved Wendell Berry and Zygmut Bauman. In particular, Zygmut Bauman presents an idea in his book that completely contradicts the premise of sociology and many other modernistic-based philosophies. These philosophies profess that morality is dictated by society. Whatever the society says is appropriate is considered moral. So, he says, what makes Nazi Germany wrong? According to these definitions of morality, nothing, and yet we all consider this event a crime against humanity.

Bauman comes to the conclusion that there are higher virtues. Morality is not relative. I agree. There are fixed moral laws. I disagree with Durkheim while agreeing with Levinas; morality is independent of society. There is absolute truth. There are some other things from Levinas with which I agree. He suggests that we have a moral responsibility for all people we come into contact with face-to-face. I would like to add that our responsibility extends beyond that; we have a responsibility for people we have not met. Our actions affect more than just us--they affect our contemporaries and posterities. There is nothing greater than learning how to truly love other people. It is something we all need to learn for the benefit of others and ourselves.

I am trying to figure out how to shape my enthymeme for the next paper on media. The premise of my argument is that parents who completely eliminate media venues from their homes also remove some potentially positive effects of media. Like chemotherapy, this approach eliminates the bad with the good. At least in the case of the media, there are more effective ways to reduce the negative effects of media while at the same time allowing media to be a benefit to the home. Any enthymeme suggestions?

Enthymeme 1: Completely eliminating television and internet from the home will not be strong enough to protect children from parentally-deemed bad material because completely eliminating television and internet from the home only controls the children’s immediate environment not providing for situations beyond the walls of the home.

Enythymeme 2: Parents that completely eliminate media from their home because they want to protect their children from harmful influences are actually injuring their children's ability to protect themselves from harmful influences because parents that completely eliminate media from their home because they want to protect their children from harmful influences do not allow for their children to learn how to make informed media-related decisions on their own.

Implicit assumption: Anything that does not allow for children to learn how to make informed media-related decisions on their own also injures the children's ability to protect themselves from harmful influences.

Enthymeme: Cutting television out of the home to eliminate the negative effects television has on us and our children while not considering other alternatives of controlling television consumption in the home harms us and our children more than it helps because cutting television out of the home to eliminate the negative effects television has on us and our children while not considering other alternatives of controlling television consumption in the home also limits opportunities for political involvement, cultural awareness, educational refinement, and parental mentoring on appropriate use of the media.

I figure I can't go this whole semester and not offer some thoughts on dating during my free write. My audience is single and LDS in their twenties. These are things other girls and I have noticed in LDS dating situations.

• I always find it interesting when guys become interested in a girl they were initially just friends with because all of a sudden, they start opening the door for her. This is a nice thing to do and also sends up some indication for the girl that their guy friend might be interested; although, girls might wonder, since it's a nice gesture to do in general, why not do it all the time . . . for everyone?
  
• Guys that like to hit on girls randomly might need to know that if you hit on a girl randomly, there might be two responses or a mixture of the two. First is "This guy is really bold. I'm impressed." Second is "I bet this guy hits on all girls like this. Not my style."
  
• Stay friends after you date even if it isn't working for the two of you. Hopefully you develop enough of a friendship during the relationship that you would want to stay friends with the person you date after the relationship is over. Granted, sometimes it isn't possible, but for the most part, if it was worth something then, then why not now?
• If you're not interested, tell him or her, tactfully. It's much easier in the long run.
• This is classic advice, "If that guy [or girl] isn't crazy about you, you need to be looking around."
  
• Return phone calls, texts, messages, and emails. But it's only polite. (Granted no one is perfect, myself included.)
  
• I think sometimes people get too wrapped up in the dating stage and treat it like it as a game, especially inexperienced daters. Basically it comes down to really caring about other people and treating them the way you would want to be treated in a similar situation. Be nice.

I'm sure I could go on, but I'll leave it there.