Lola > Recent Status Updates

Quote: “White trash is a central, if disturbing, thread in our national narrative. The very existence of such people—both in their visibility and invisibility— is proof that American society obsessed over the mutable labels we give to the neighbors we wish not to notice. ‘They are not who we are.’ But they are who we are and have been a fundamental part of our history, whether we like it or not” (Isenberg 321).

Response #2: Spinoza’s philosophy emphasized freedom and liberalism, valuing truth outside of established religious institutions for the first time. Shorto reminds the reader why Spinoza is truly influential: by setting the stage for modern individualism and separation of church and state.

Quote #2: “It was in this moment of world historic growth, and amid consistent attacks from the Orangist/Calvinist party against the Dutch Republicans, that Spinoza put aside the great, deep, and arcane work of philosophy he was embarked (his ethics) in order to write a frankly political book” (180).

Response #1: This quote discusses the seemingly effortlessness of the journey to America. I think it’s important that New York was named New Amsterdam because with them, the settlers brought all of Amsterdams liberal values and ideals, which evidently shaped the political and social climate of New York today.

Quote #1: “The colonists set out making the vastness theirs. The easiest way of doing this was naming it” (Shorto 191).

Quote 4: “The new superintendent had a simple solution to the difficulties before him: blast the country into submission. ‘The Empire of China is my own’ he confided excitedly to his diary.”(Lovell 5)

In nearly every speech given by Xi Jinping the point is made to stick to their ancestors traditional values. Rather than viewing the Opium Wars as a huge economic loss for China, I see this as a shift in Chinese political ideology, which can be still seen to this day.