ramsescastillo03 – Historical Thinking

Historical Event – Freemasons

December 5, 2016ramsescastillo03

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I picked the Freemason Temple No. 293 as my historical event. I paid a visit to the temple located on the circle of Orange in the city of Orange, the temple is a three story building with a basement and a main lobby for any guest. My brother joined this order almost 15 years ago and continues to participate in activities they hold on random occasions and holidays. My brother gave me a tour a few years ago but I was not very interested, I just thought it was a “club” house with members but I did more research and it had to do more with fellowship than members meeting up for coffee. My brother showed me the lobby, which was filled with letters, clothing, books, and old tools used by old masters, there is even a big painting of George Washington posing with some tools used by Freemasons. He then showed me upstairs and the main site in where all the rituals are taken place, this place is filled with more paintings and signs with names of past masters of the lodge. According to my brother, the building has various rooms with more old artifacts and even a huge vault in where all the important documents are stored for safe keeping, unfortunately, I was not allowed to go to these rooms because they were only for members or “brothers” of the lodge. The building and the Freemasons have been around for a long time, more than all of us expect but the Freemasons are not very popular when it comes to their history, they are viewed as an order full of conspiracy and secrets. When I ask my brother about their popular “conspiracy theories” he just smiles and tells me “The biggest secret about our order is that there is no secret”, this might be true or false and I sometimes question my brother about the things I hear and read about the Freemasons, he just replies with the same answer and encourages me to join to find out what’s the fuss about. When I pay visits to the temple, I always see friendly smiles and welcoming greetings, the people know me because of my brother and they continue to encourage me to join their order, they just look at me and say “Hey Ramses! When are you gonna come for our meetings? You should come next week” I feel bad when I turn them down but I feel like I need to worry about my personal life before committing to something that everyone feels threaten by , even though there is nothing to fear about these friendly members of a loving brotherhood. Anyone can join this order and they do not care if you’re Hispanic, Black, Asian, etc. they will welcome you with open arms and will teach you things that no one in the world knows about, might be the meaning of life or secrets beyond comprehensible but when it comes to it, you will have to join to find out, I know I will!

Is the English language doomed?

November 29, 2016ramsescastillo03

George Orwell talks about the English Language, how it has changed over the years and how people change the language for political reasons. Orwell takes 5 sentences from different scholars and analyzes their faults in their literature, he makes it clear that he is very disappointed and finds “ugliness” in the sentences. Orwell picks specific phrases and discusses their faults by providing “proper” English and Modern English examples. Orwell also talks about the major role the English language has on politics and how it has changed just to provide lighter words for the common people who do not understand “proper” English.

George Orwell was a very popular English novelist and in this essay he argues that vague writing can be used as a tool. With personal experience, I can agree with him that the English language is changing very fast, we use slang for different terms and sometimes change the meaning of a word just to make it shorter. I believe the English language is changing rapidly because of foreign cultures and our “lazy” ways. Orwell makes good points that many historians and English professors would agree with but society changes all the time and so does any language. I do like his theory about politics and how the English language has changed to make the truth less harsh and in a way, fool those who do not understand it. I also have to agree with @jessica42 about the argument Orwell wants to point out, stories are becoming more narrative and they elaborate more.

Dust Bowl: Natural or Man Made?

November 6, 2016ramsescastillo03

Koppes’ article talks about the causes and the aftermath of the Dust Bowl but focuses more on the causes by comparing two authors and their work about the event. In this article, Kopppes talks about Donald Worster and his theory about the Dust Bowl, he believes that the Dust Bowl was a man made disaster rather than a natural disaster and supports this by explaining the actions taken by farmers and the government to fix the problem. Koppes also talks about Paul Bonniefield’s work on the Dust Bowl and how the event was more natural than man made.

Koppes is trying to explain both of these author’s view but he states that Bonniefield’s work lacks information and praises Worster’s work more. I also like Worster’s work more because he talks about capital as the main cause for the Dust Bowl and approaches Marx’s theory about capitalism and the toll it has in our society. Worster’s quote about agriculture being a process in art “not only by robbing the laborer, but robbing the soil” (540) proves to be very meaningful because he truly believes that capitalism slowly damages our world and improves the economic system by exploiting someone or something.The quote also shows that Worster was a strong Marxism believer. I like heaven01‘s quote about how “the government turned these events into opportunities” because I believe that is what Worster is trying to prove and it relates to the past readings about Chicago, Galveston, San Francisco and even my personal project about the Mexico City Earthquake. Is that really the only way we can develop? Is it a must that we have to experience a disaster in able to improve our economic system? The answer might be quiet simple but it scares me to think about it.

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The Road to Success?

October 25, 2016ramsescastillo03

Rozario helps us understand the benefits of natural disasters in his work, What Comes Down Must Go Up: Why Disasters Have Been Good for American Capitalism. Rozario picks the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 as the starting point of American’s new way of development, he gives examples of different investors who see natural disasters as promotions for economic expansion and “opportunities for the accumulation of capital.”(Rozario. 71) He also talks about the concept of Creative Destruction, which is described as the need to destroy old structures just to make new space for newer and more developed structures of production.

The aftermath of disasters are never pretty, it always ends with massive destruction and death tolls but our modern society has found ways to exploit disasters and make profits out of it. I think the idea of Creative Destruction works very well in the development of new structures but it also bothers me that this idea only applies to those who are wealthier than most. ploopy1 makes a good comment about the people and how it is up to them how society will be rebuilt from the ashes, I find this comment meaningful because I believe that the development of our society has to involve every class. Our modern society consists of wealthy men becoming wealthier by natural disasters, while poor men become homeless, sure this cycle helps the development of our structures and capital but it does not benefit everyone, which makes it unfair for people who do not own business or expensive homes, like me.

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Earthquake or Fire?

October 23, 2016ramsescastillo03

In Ted Steinberg’s Smoke and Mirrors: The San Francisco Earthquake and Seismic Denial, the media is illustrated as a lying source to the disaster of San Francisco Earthquake in 1906. The “Earthquake of San Francisco” was quickly transformed into the “Fire of San Francisco” due to economic outcomes of the disaster. Steinberg makes good observations on the true desires for the businessman and all the companies benefiting from the “Fire”. Many people and businesses realized that fire damage could be covered by the insurance’s policies, therefore, making everyone deny the true disaster and blaming it on something else just for the benefit of it. The desire for profit goes so far that it completely ignores the death toll and the people who went missing and were never found.

The controversy of the media lying about the earthquakes in 1906 is similar to the issues we have now of the media lying about wars and which presidential candidate has the lead, it is a bit disappointing but the media always finds a way of lying about serious matters for profit. It seemed very wrong that the boosters lied about the earthquake just so citizens would not move out and settle somewhere else, was the benefit of profit really worth the lives of many innocent people? This chapter in American Disasters really shows what money can do and it also shows how far businessman will go just to maintain their profits and investments. The media applies differently to us than to the citizens of 1906 because they did not have the technology and ways of communication that we do now, it was really hard trying to find proof in that time but like mgandara mentions “people understand the risks but people today are more aware than ever before” and that is due to our massive forms of communication and our more advanced ways for predicting future disasters.

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The Roots of Communism

October 18, 2016October 19, 2016ramsescastillo03

The Manifesto of the Communist Party has to be the most influential political script, it focuses mainly on the struggle of the working class and it states the problems with mass production for the capital for capitalism. This manuscript is written by the ideas of the German philosophers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel. In here, the bourgeois are the ones who posses all property and enslaves the working class or proletarians, into a minimum wage labor system that only benefits the bourgeois and never the proletarians. The goal for this communist manifesto is to free all proletarians from their rulers, to break away from the never ending cycle of exploitation and to finally live as one, not as owner and worker but as workers and workers in a society.

To many, the option of communism as a system is beyond acceptable. Just like erodriguez317 mentions in his blog, Marx’s ideas were not meant to become evil but a way of living for all classes to make no class. I personally agree with him and also the motives of Marx and Engel, it sounds crazy but idea of no classes in a society really makes you wonder how better will society run. The political system is becoming more corrupted as it grows more powerful in our society, these parties will eventually become so powerful that they will fight each other and create chaos. To Marx and Engel’s misfortune, communism has not been in good hands and it has been taken to max by leaders who are blinded by power, therefore, communism is considered to be an evil system that takes all that is private and destroys the liberty that one has by owning property. I believe that communism is a good ideology that can become great, only, if the person implementing it has good morals and actually distributes the power within its society, the people.

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It Was Made Safe!

October 4, 2016ramsescastillo03

Praticia Bellis Bixel talks about the aftermath of the great storm of Galveston in 1900. Bixel, like Larson, talks about the stubbornness of the city official, she mentions warnings given to city officials about storms and even floods but they turned them down multiple times. Bixel then talks about the suggestions that were made to save the city from future storms, government officials finally agree and decide to fund the city for professional engineers and construction of the great “Sea Wall”. Once the funds were official, engineers and workers started working on the Sea Wall, a project that ended in 1911 and was put to the test in 1915. Other organization suggested many improvements to the island, like the maintenance of the natural land to the magnificent work of raising the city. I believed that Bixel was trying to show the struggle of the citizens of Galveston, their ignorance when deciding what is best for them and their success in recovering a completely destroyed city. Just like Ploopy1 mentions, Galveston had to make sacrifices in able to keep the city safe from future disasters, this meant facing only one side of a political view and ignoring the rest. Galveston is an important city that made mistakes but eventually learned from them, the hard way. Just like the Chicago fire, the citizens of Galveston came together and denied leaving the Island because of its storms, instead, they invested and never gave up on the island. Again, just like Ploopy1 mentions, I also believed that is important for society to work together as a unit and but not just in time of crisis but in time of need, need for improvements within our society and need to help our natural world bloom.

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Isaac’s Storm – One man army

September 27, 2016ramsescastillo03

The last chapters of Isaac’s Storm show the recklessness of human nature, in this case, the Weather Bureau. It is true that during this time, instruments for weather measurement were not exactly developed but Isaac’s personal data showed that a strong storm was coming. The chapters really showed how much the government cared for the small town of Galveston, they heard Isaac’s warning but they continued to ignore it. Perhaps all of this could of been avoided if communication was better but even if communication was stronger, the force of nature would of taken its course naturally like it always does. I really liked that Larson talked about the misfortune of the women and children, this might sound a bit harsh but a deadly storm would not of been so deadly if everything was “sugar coated”.Isaac goes into an adventure of trying to find his wife and along the way, he sees destruction and the loss of many loved ones. Just like Armando mentioned, this story was not only about one man, it had to do with all the people who were lost in the deadly storm, the large amount of buildings lost and the “help” from the government. This story reminds me of many other stories about disasters, there is always a pattern that follows an ignored problem, after the problem continues, disaster comes, after disaster strikes, help is needed but it usually comes much later after the disaster. Isaac’s Storm almost follows the same pattern but in this story, Isaac tries so much to prevent chaos, in the end he fails to alert everyone and he ends up blaming himself for the whole thing. It is a misfortune that so many had to die because of the recklessness of one, if so, a group of man but this event led to the awareness of storms and it inspired people to prevent disasters, like this one, from happening in the future.

The Great Fire

September 18, 2016ramsescastillo03

Bradwell Helmer goes into full details about the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 in his narrative, The Great Conflagration. It begins with small fires happening the same week, leading to a big fire that spreads to the middle of the city. I was very pleased to see that City officials released prisoners by the time they noticed that it was too late to do anything about the burning Court House. The fire keeps spreading across the city until the rain brings it to a stop on a Tuesday morning. Helmer then talks about the reaction of the Chicagoans in the city, the people running for their lives while creating “havoc” in the burning streets and while others were crushed under buildings or looting most of the empty shops. I really find the quote in the beginning to be meaningful to this article, just like ngojosephs and other classmates state, A.T Andreas’ quotes “Nature had withheld her accustomed measure of prevention, and man had added to the peril by recklessness.” talks about the natural and unnatural of the fire. Nature took its course like always but man could not stop the disaster, instead, they made it worse by their “recklessness”. It looks like the citizens of Chicago were not expecting the fire to be devastating but I also view it as a new experience that the city had to overcome to become even greater, Chicagoans panic when they encounter their major disaster, some acted in evil ways and decided to loot the city, while a few heroically rescued those in need. In the end, this narrative shows how humans react to the natural but also how we come together in times of disasters.

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Nature’s Metropolis

September 11, 2016ramsescastillo03

Cronon talks about Chicago and its future in different ways. In his prologue, Cronon explains his first encounter with the city of Chicago, he compares his quiet homeland of Wisconsin with the cloudy skies and populated community of Chicago. He goes into a strong argument about the city’s “Natural” or “Unnatural” state of being, he mentions a few historians who also talk about their first encounter with the city, one of them “fearing” the city for how “man made” and “unnatural” it has become to “loving” the city for what it is and the full potential it has. I really like how Cronon defines the natural and the unnatural in his texts, he compares both of these terms and finally comes to a conclusion that the city is both “natural” and “unnatural” Why? because humans turn the natural into unnatural with our inventions and ambitions.

Chapter 1 is a very interesting chapter in where Cronon talks about the very beginnings of Chicago, the modern city and metropolis of the nation. I was very surprise to learn about the start of Chicago, from glacier formations to the early dates of Indian trades. Cronon gives a very detailed background of Chicago’s first citizens and how, with time, the city starts to become more popular, which attracted many business man who saw potential in the city’s trading system. As the city grows larger, Cronon talks about the speculators’ theory on cities and how they were major keys to the Great west. Speculator’s or “Boosters” are academic thinkers that discuss the progress of Chicago, these boosters talk about the expansion of Chicago and how this city can be compare to the Empire of Rome because of its trade and potential. Cronon then explains the environmental mechanism behind cities, how the cities are created and the usual patterns around them, like, large fields of crops with a main point of trade. Cranon gives a really good description on how the city was born and I enjoyed his views and discussion on how the city can be “Natural”, “Unnatural” or both.

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Historical Thinking – Fall 2016

Author: ramsescastillo03