PCU Fallicies

In PCU one of the many logical fallacies that I noticed was begging the claim. I noticed this when the student were outside the cafeteria and were protesting the eating of meat. This is an example of begging the claim, because they were saying that red meat was bad for you and then telling the general masses not to eat the red meat.

A Modern Day Perspective Of Chris McCandless

I believe that McCandless story is so different than all of the other stories about college students, because he didn't follow the usual route a college graduate follows after college. I mean McCandless didn't go out into the medical field as most graduates from Emory do, but he went out back packing in the world. It's like he did what really made him happy.
Stereotypically most college graduates move into high paying fields in the area in which they majored in, but McCandless didn't follow that route. While reading books he liked the lifestyle that the people in the book were living and decided to live like that, and that's exactly what he did after he ended his academic career. He went out and lived life exactly as he wanted to, he didn't let no outside forces influence what he did in life.
I think what made this story seem really out of the ordinary was that he was educated. It's liked we expected him to do better than what he did, because he went to a highly acclaimed school and he should know better to go off in the wilderness with less provisions than really needed. We just can't accept the simple fact that he made a mistake it's like he had to mean to kill himself, because he was educated. That's the one part of the story that makes everyone believe that he could have intentionally placed him self in that situation, when he knew of all of the dangers that he was getting into.
I see where the general masses can get the mistake of thinking that he commited suicide from. They are basically saying McCandless is supose to be this honor student who has done this kind of thing before, than why this time did such a fate by now. They see how many trips he has taken of this nature, and they think along the lines of that he's a proessional and that there's no way that he could mess up. They would believe that he brought rations to make sure that if some hardship did befall him then he would be able to survive in the wilderness long enough for someone to save him.
The question why didn't he make a signal to let people know of his location and that he was in distress. Some asked why didn't he make a fire, that would have caught some one's attention and he would have been saved when rescue crews came along to put out the fire. Others wonder why he decided to roam the way he did and not bring along some sort of communication device. If he would have had a cell phone or something of that sort, he could have called the police to come and get him before his grave faith swooped over him.
In today's society we can't see a college student falling to such a grim fate. It's like the modern day society believes that all college students have to have a certain amount of knowledge about themselves and what they do. I'm not saying that McCandless wasn't educated or something along those lines, I'm just saying that he made a big mistake by not taking along no type of way to communicate with the outside world. If he would have had a simple map or disposable cell phone than he would still be here today with us.

Benetton's Mixed Emotions

Some say that a picture is worth a thousand words; conversely the picture that we viewed in our class was worth a thousand questions. The image we viewed in our English 1102 class raised a profuse amount of controversy over its meaning. The biggest question it summoned was whether or not it was indeed an argument. The photo depicted a man in his very last moments in life dying of AIDS. Also shown in the photo were his father and sister by his side as he took in his last gasps of breath. The photo was a very sentimental picture. The picture was definitely an argument. The picture argued that we shouldn’t shy away from people with aids but comfort them as well as value their existence in their time of need. The photo was made public by the once very popular European clothing company United Colors of Benetton. The company used this photo not only to inform but for their own personal gain. There is nothing autodidactic about this particular photo. It takes more than two eyes to interpret this photo however I think I did a pretty good job. What can a clothing company gain from a picture of a man dying of aids? Publicity of course. In fact, the photo was so popular that it actually won a national photography award in 1992. Conveniently the company’s name is clearly seen on the bottom right corner of the photo.
The company preyed on the general public sense of compassion, grief and the innate reflex to feel sorrow in order to bring more attention to their business. They gained popularity by pouncing on people's grief, like a hungry vulture on a fresh caucus. I must praise the company for thinking outside the box in the area of advertising. I would have never pondered to use people's sense of compassion towards others to help for my own personal gains.
The portrait this picture that this painting portrayed to me was one focused on tapping into one's emotional side. You would have to have a heart of stone not to be touched by this particular picture. I was deeply touched by this picture because even though my grandfather didn't die from AIDS, I wish I could have been by his side in his last moments of life. While many may not know the pain of having a loved one passing away from AIDS, anyone old enough to understand this photo should know the pain of having a loved one die from AIDS.
It is apparent that the company uses a controversial picture to draw attention to the business. The Benetton picture was not only used to draw a lot of attention to their company, but also a lot of money to their business. The picture of course has no relevance to the clothing company itself, but it sure did make the people in the U.S. spend their money at Benetton's. Ironically, there are very little Benetton's stores left in the U.S. today.