English 1A: Homework for Wednesday, 9/24

This assignment is designed to help you map out how the arguments and messages we’ve seen in the last few readings relate to each other so that you can write about the philosophical disagreements in your next essay.  For each row in the table, find two quotations from separate authors that address the same topic or related topics.  Ideally, these quotations would be in direct disagreement.  They might also show slightly different perspectives or biases on the part of the writers.  Fill out at least five rows of the table below with quotes from Podhoretz and then corresponding quotes from at least three of the other writers.

Doomsday Shmoomsday (critiques of the rhetoric of catastrophe).
Norman Podhoretz says:	Watch out for Doomsday (arguments that maintain that catastrophes can really happen and that we make light of  the possibilities at our peril).
Gore, Kolbert, Bradbury, Henson, Martin, or Didion says:	What's the argument about?
You explain their differences:	
“…Any alarmist or catastrophist view of any public problem—especially one so fundamental as the survival of the species itself—ought to be received with the greatest skepticism, and the heaviest burden of proof put on anyone who wishes to persuade us that we are doomed unless we radically change our ways” (Podhoretz 55).	“The uncertainty that does exist has been played both ways in the political realm.  Sceptics use it to argue for postponing action, while others point out that many facets of life require acting in the face of uncertainty (buying insurance against health or fire risks, for example)” (Henson 6).	Podhoretz has the “innocent-until-proven-guilty” philosophy about major threats.  Unless something is proven, he doesn’t think we should pay serious attention to it.  In contrast, by putting the phrase that starts “others point out” last and making it sound more reasonable than the skeptics’ position, Henson implies that even when there is uncertainty, sometimes we have to act.  He thinks if there’s a chance of disaster, it’s worthwhile to prevent it.