"Is Change Good or Bad" Essay

Elliott Weinberg
1/28/10
Change essay
It is hard to say that change is either all good or all bad. We know that change is often good and necessary. Every advance we have made in science, art, and literature has been based somehow on change. Change, however, can also be bad. This can happen if the change happens too fast. Another way change can be bad is if the change is outside of our control like a natural disaster. I will be talking about and explaining how change can be both good and bad in this article.
One example of how a change can be both good and bad would be the advances in technology. This could apply to the creation of the internet. The good side of this change is that it is a very powerful tool in connecting people together and making information available to anyone who can get to a computer. The internet has changed the way many companies do business and makes it easy to buy things and do banking. The bad part of this change is that it happened so fast that the security needed to protect people on the internet and the laws that should apply to doing business this way were not in place before people started using it. This resulted in the whole problem with identity theft and some types of cyber-crimes happening and no one being able to control or punish the criminals. This has resulted in many people being victims of these types of crime, some businesses losing a lot of money, and many other economic problems.
Sometimes it is the way change happens that make it good or bad. Change that we can control, like studying diseases, can be very good. Changes in the way we looked at diseases have led to many great advances like understanding the way diseases spread and the development of vaccines. Without these advances, many people would still be suffering from smallpox and polio. People could even still be dying in mass numbers by the black plague and even just the common cold if we didn’t have changes in medicine or equipment to help them.
Changes that we can’t control can be bad and deadly. Severe changes in the weather can make life very difficult. In the 1930s there was a drought in the Midwest that turned the once fertile farm land into a “dust bowl”. This drought was so severe that the drought lasted till 1938 and for some areas even till 1940. Another recent example of a change that we couldn’t control that turned out bad would be the recent earthquake in Haiti. This was a natural disaster that we could not see coming. There was no possible way that we could control this. Even though this is a bad change, the good that has come out of it is the way everyone has pulled together to help the victim. We have helped the people of Haiti by donating money, food, or clothing to them. We can also use our skills like doctors can help heal the injured people. The construction workers can help rebuild parts of the city that were lost in the earthquake. This is an example of a change that is good because we can control it.
Another way that change can be bad is when change is too drastic to handle. An example of this is when a government is overthrown by military force. In this case, the change happens very fast and is very drastic. This change does not only affect the government, but can have drastic changes on the people who live in that country and their way of life. Two big affects that can come out of this happening are the collapse of the economy of the area and the loss of various freedoms for the people. In the United States, there is a peaceful transition of leadership through the election process. This process is not drastic and keeps the government and economy operating smoothly through the process. Because it is controlled, this change is a good one.
One change that we contributed to, but cannot seem to control, is the affect of climate change. The bad thing about this change is that it could threaten everything we have on this planet. If we don’t get control of this change, it could be very devastating. Even though some people do not believe in global warming, there is a possibility that it is true. It is clear that the ice caps are melting and we have to do something about it now before it cannot be stopped. The climate has been changing over the past years and there has been proof of this, so no matter what you believe in we will have to face this problem eventually. The good side of this change is that because people are becoming aware of the problem, there is a lot more recycling being done and people are trying to conserve things like energy and natural resources. By doing this, there will be more resources available for future generations and the world will be a much cleaner environment to live in.
I have looked at some ways that change can be good or bad. Sometimes good and bad are more due to the way the change happens, like fast or slow, or controlled or uncontrolled, than being due to what’s being changed. In many cases, change is both good and bad based on the way various people look at it. I recently saw a sign on a wall that said, “If there was no change, there would be no butterflies”. This statement is both simple and true. My opinion on change is that it is necessary and it is also a burden. Some change results in bad things happening but there are also so many good things that have come out of change. Most of the time, we have conquered the problems that may come with change and every one we conquer guides us further into our next step forward. Without change, we could have no progress.

Citations: "Dust Bowl -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 30 Jan. 2010. .

"Climate Change | U.S. EPA." U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 30 Jan. 2010. .

"File:Drought Swimming Hole.JPG -." Wikimedia Commons. Web. 30 Jan. 2010. .

Hegelian History Article

Elliott Weinberg
Western Civalization

History is the study of the past and how it will affect the future due to what happened in the past. You can see this is most in the Hegelian study of history. The Hegelian study of history is basically a cause and effect kind of history. It states that each action has an equal and balanced reaction.
One way the Hegelian way of studying history is better than the other three ways of studying history is that this history can teach us more about why things happened in the past, not just that they took place. When we study history we want to look at not only the events that happened in the past but the things and events that caused them to happen and why. Everything has a reason as to why it happened. For one example, the civil war didn’t just happen because people wanted to fight each other. The north and the south disagreed so much on so many important issues that each side thought that they needed to go to war to resolve those problems. Wars usually happen because two sides or groups of people disagree on a matter. Other wars happen because of events that happened before them. Take Pearl Harbor for example. The Americans didn’t necessarily want to fight the Germans and the Japanese but since they bombed Pearl Harbor they weren’t going to let that happen without a consequence. By studying what caused the war, we can learn how to avoid them.
Another way the Hegelian way of studying history is better than the other three ways to study history is that this type of history looks at the consequences of our bad decisions. Every action we do has a result or consequence to it. If you don’t do your chores for example, you’re going to get in trouble. If you start a war, the consequence can be very costly in terms of the loss of people and, in some cases, total governments. By studying the consequences of bad decisions, we can make better decisions in the future.
Even though there are a lot of bad consequences that can come with decisions, there are also a lot of good results that come out of decisions. One example of this is when we do charity acts all over the world like helping Africa fight their AIDS epidemic and helping to get them the food, water, and supplies that they need to survive. The most recent way we have been helping people is what we are doing to help the people of Haiti after the earthquake that just hit them. We have been sending food and doctors over there to help the wounded. Some families have also been adopting children of Haiti that are orphans now because the earthquake killed their families. Many of these acts have been started because if we study our history, we know that is better for everyone if we help people when there is a natural disaster rather than letting them try to recover by themselves.
Another way the Hegelian way of studying history is better than the other three ways to study history is that this type of history is a step by step type of history. Even though it is cause and effect, other things happen in between those two events that allow the outcome to change. Say one day you are riding your bike down a hill, this would be step one. The next step would be you either fall off the bike or successfully ride down the hill. If you were to fall off your bike, that would be step two. The third step in your sequence would either be getting up from the fall without many bruises, or that you severely hurt yourself and need to go to the hospital. If you would have picked the step as riding down the hill successfully, then you would have had a completely different outcome. This outcome would be finishing riding your bike and then going home. These steps in between the cause and effect are just as important to the final outcome as the cause and effect are. By studying these in between steps, we can learn to look at options for planning our future activities.
The Hegelian way of studying history is better than studying linear history because linear history just gives you the important things that happened and when they happened. There is no way to know why things happened. The Hegelian way to study history focuses not only on twhat happened and when, but also focuses on the way we react and respond to these various events that are happening around us. The Hegelian history also focuses on not just the important parts of history, but also focuses on the smaller things in history like what you did yesterday. The Hegelian history provides an explanation for us as to what will happen in the future based on the events that happened in the past. Linear history only covers the events but does not apply them to the future or give a possible solution or explanation as to what could happen based on the events that have already happened.
The Hegelian type of studying history is better than the cyclic type of studying history because the cyclic type of history states that the circle of life is never ending. Using this way of looking at history, you are born, then you die, and then are born again. This is different from the Hegelian history because the Hegelian history happens in steps not cycles. In the cyclic history there is no end, it keeps going and going forever. The Hegelian history has an end but there are steps you need to take in order to get to the end. Hegelian history is more useful because it has a resolution or outcome to a group of events whereas in cyclic history, events just keep going and going on without an end. Since there is no end, there is no resolution of a group of events.
The Hegelian type of studying history is better than the vortex type of studying history because in order for you to move on in the vortex history, a civilization needs to be destroyed for a new one to form in its place. The Hegelian history does not need to have one thing destroyed for another thing to take its place; it just needs to have the next step in the process to move forward toward the outcome to the event.
Using the Hegelian type of studying history, we can learn the most from our past actions and apply what we learn to our future decisions. For this reason, I think that the Hegelian type of studying history is the best.

Citations :http://www.historicalinsights.com/dave/hegel.html - "Hegel's Philosophy of History." Historical Insights: The House Detective and Genealogist. Web. 29 Jan. 2010. .

http://gyral.blackshell.com/hegel/heghist.html - "Hegel's Philosophy of History." It's a real word. Web. 29 Jan. 2010. .

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hegel.jpg - "File:Hegel.jpg -." Wikimedia Commons. Web. 30 Jan. 2010. .

The signifigance of Megaliths

Megaliths are mostly for religious and burial practices. Megaliths were stone carvings that were usually used as tombs. Some of them were carved to resemble animals or warriors for martial rituals. They think that Stonehenge was there for the ritual of the changing of the seasons. Megaliths were also used to commemorate their ancenstors who had come before them. Megaliths were more than just a physical monument for the civalizations that built them. They were also a spiritual aspect and a symbol of celebration. However they were also used for burial grounds for warriors that fought in battles and lost their lives. The Megaliths played a huge part in all aspects of life as the civalizations new it.

The signifigance of the rise of agriculture

The signifigance of the rise of agriculture is that they have many different options they can use because they now have food they can grow. One option is that you can provide food for the area in which you live in and don't need to buy food from other countries. Anotehr option is to trade the goods that you get from farming to trade for weapons or other materials that you need. A third option is that you can domesticate animals instead of hunting and gathering for them. An advantage of domesticating animals is that you can farm the animals to get larger or smaller depending on how much you feed them. If you have a better agricultural system than your region will be well developed and ahead of other regions.

History Notes

Cyclic History is a theory which dictates that the major forces that motivate human actions return in a cycle. Linear History is history that happens in order.

3. John gets beat up by the kids who jumped him.

1. He gets a broken arm and has to go to the hospital.

2. He goes back to school the next day and apologizes for what he has done all these years of bullying them.

3. As a result John never bullied them again.

Vortex theory of history- is the process that civalizations that are big and then fall and get small, but then a different civalization come and gets big.