lils ([info]gleemie) wrote,
@ 2008-04-20 08:29:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Quiz me! Civic knowledge
I did not do as awesome as [info]zunger, clocking in at 91%. I got 78% on this American Civic Literacy quiz.

My weaknesses are generally macroeconomics and military history. I've always loved social-cultural history and fallen asleep at battle accounts. My gripe about the quiz is that it only included economic stuff about capitalism. Nothing about unions, workers rights, child labor, etc.

(Post a new comment)

This test is kinda bunk.
[info]neuralgraffiti
2008-04-20 05:57 pm UTC (link)
I got 93.33%. I'd say a high percentage of these questions have little to nothing to do with being an informed and responsible citizen. Do you need to know that Marbury v. Madison established judicial review to be a good citizen? Do you need to read Locke? I'd argue not. Certain of these things are useful, but having read Plato's Republic is not the same as being well-versed in the principles of a modern democratic republic. That said, I wouldn't mind if more people were knowledgeable about Constitutional law, perhaps starting with the top.

As for your gripe, if you look at the organization who wrote the quiz (ISI.org), you'll see the following:
Founded in 1953, ISI works "to educate for liberty" — to identify the best and the brightest college students and to nurture in these future leaders the American ideal of ordered liberty. To accomplish this goal, ISI seeks to enhance the rising generation's knowledge of our nation's founding principles — limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, the rule of law, market economy, and moral norms.
[emphasis mine]

Not too surprising they are ignoring labor struggles or for that matter, most of the civil rights movement.

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: This test is kinda bunk.
[info]neuralgraffiti
2008-04-20 06:00 pm UTC (link)
Oh, and the board of trustees is packed to the brim with Reagan administration folks. ED MEESE!

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]hetchjay
2008-04-20 08:49 pm UTC (link)
You answered 53 out of 60 correctly — 88.33 % blah blah

a lot of these questions were amazingly stupid--i don't see why they bothered to have five answers for a lot of these questions.

i liked this one though:

What is a major effect of a purchase of bonds by the Federal Reserve?
A. A reduction in the supply of common stock.
B. An increase in the volume of commercial bank loans.
C. A decrease in the supply of money.
D. An increase in interest rates.
E. A decrease in investment spending by businesses.

it was a good thought experiment since I never think about these sorts of things.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]gleemie
2008-04-23 03:08 am UTC (link)
yeah, i remember last trying hard to understand that stuff in high school econ. I was asking a nerdy friend about that exact topic last week.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]sarahirani
2008-04-21 06:08 pm UTC (link)
I agree with you there, cuz, about loving social-cultural history and dreading the dulls stories of battles.

I'm much more interested in sustainable, peacetime culture, which basically accounts to: What foods did the people eat? What did they makes clothing and shelter out of? What beliefs, rituals and celebrations did they have? How did they interact with others?

Let me answer these question for the Modern American:

1) They eat the contents of cans and boxes.
2) They make clothes out of plastic and shelter out of tidbits purchased from Home Depot.
3) They believe in Science, celebrate weddings and funerals and sometimes cut off the tip of a boy's foreskin at birth.
4) They interact with others by going to war.

Hmmm... I'm sure we can do better than this.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]gleemie
2008-04-23 03:09 am UTC (link)
word. How were other lifestyles sustainable or more tolerant? Modernism has its downsides.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]sarahirani
2008-04-23 03:37 am UTC (link)
"How were other lifestyles sustainable or more tolerant?"

Other lifestyles and cultures have not necessarily been more tolerant, that's true. Plenty of racism, plenty of brutality, and plenty of bad news if you were a woman.

As far as sustainable -- the good thing about living close to the Earth is that, well, your food-shelter-clothing-medicine and everything else comes from the ground, the trees, the rocks, etc... so you'd better take care of it.

By the way, I was thinking about it yesterday: our great-grandparents, living in villages, our great-grandfathers each had 4 wives, I'm sure the situation wasn't totally enlightened for women, and that a certain amount of ignorance reigned...so the next generations went off to get educated... and now here we are, with vast opportunities beyond anything they could have dreamed of. And yet we're *this* close to cutting off our connection with our lifeblood -- the very planet that feeds us and keeps our physical bodies alive. Like, what's the point of a nice car, big house, good degree, if the air is dirty, our bodies unhealthy from sedentary life, and our food is poisoned by modern agriculture.

So I was like, well, this education and opportunity is excellent, but we've got to find balance. Somewhere between the villager with the goats and the educated city-dweller there has to be balance. An intelligent, peaceful, tolerant, educated, spiritually awakened Earthling who knows how to live in balance with the Earth.

Ok, that was a long reply. But something to think on.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]gleemie
2008-04-23 03:47 am UTC (link)
hey, my question wasn't meant as a challenge. I totally do believe that many previous cultures were actually more sustainable and more tolerant. not all, but definitely some. it was more like a rhetorical quesiton.

and I'm with you on wanting to find the balanced earthling. but I do recognize in myself the tendency to be fascinated with thinking about it and how our philosophies led us to this place more than I want to go off and live with the earth.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]gleemie
2008-04-23 03:09 am UTC (link)
I bet you'd love anthropology, btw.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]sarahirani
2008-04-23 03:24 am UTC (link)
I do love anthropology...because I love culture, and I love learning about the way people live. But what I don't like about most anthropological "studies" is that the anthropologists are observing from their ethnocentric point of view. They're trained in academia, and not in how to really just dig in and enjoy living with people. You know what I mean?

Many anthropological papers (and I've read quite a few, because I am utterly fascinated by other cultures!) are very dry. They make note of various beliefs and activities, but there is always a wall between the "scientist" and the "native."

I'm always quite thrilled when I read an account of another culture written by someone who put the scientist observer mind aside and actually delved into the life of their hosts. Like, they put their rational left-brain aside for a bit and actually had the EXPERIENCE of a certain way of life, and felt it deeply inside them, and then brought that poetic experience to life in their writing.

That's my kind of anthropology. Not so much "science and observation," but rather deep respect and experience.

Yeehaw!

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]gleemie
2008-04-23 03:45 am UTC (link)
and there's also a lot of anthropologists in the new generation, and many feminists, who have pointed out that the distant scientist observer isn't really just an observer anyways. they try to stand apart, but they really intervene and introduce a different dynamic into the culture. a lot of older anthro also does a lot of saying "they do this because it provides food and they do this to provide protection," putting western categories onto cultures that may not have broken down those things the same way.

have you read Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight?
http://www.google.com/search?q=balinese+cockfight&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Geertz isn't perfect, but as anthropologists go, he's supposed to be good at getting in there and experiencing it and writing pretty well about it after the fact.

none of that is the same as just doing it though.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

Create an Account
Forgot your login?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…