Term
| According to O’Rourke, why do we whine? (p. 8) |
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Definition
| Because it works. It gives us the attention or sympathy that we want. |
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Term
| What does O’Rourke note about the “grave worries facing the world today”? (p. 9) What solutions does he offer? (p. 10) |
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Definition
| O’Rourke says that there are tons of solutions, however he never offers any. He simply points out all the stupid solutions that others are trying to create by pushing grave concerns into the most mundane and trivial aspects of life. |
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Term
| O’Rourke points out that Malthus was wrong regarding what? (p. 26) |
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Definition
| Malthus was wrong in believing that population would increase faster than humans could provide sufficient nourishment. That the population would explode faster than we are able to discover sustainable solutions. |
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Term
| What should we do instead of panicking about Bangladesh? (p. 29) |
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Definition
| We should actually investigate and understand the place rather than making judgment of their condition based off our personal preferences. |
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Term
| According to O’Rourke, what do people usually mean when they say the earth is overpopulated? (p. 60) What conclusion does he draw about today’s “guilt-free” fretting over population? (p. 61) |
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Definition
| That the “concerned citizens” have seen a whole bunch of the earth’s ordinary people up close and have decided that they don’t like them. |
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Term
| The modern era has witnessed an increase in what three things? When physical law is defied like this, what (according to O’Rourke) is usually involved? (p. 69) |
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Definition
| Food, people being fed, and famine. Because there are politics involved. |
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Term
| What are several reasons for why famine occurs? (p. 70) |
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Definition
| Deliberately by the government, or because of a lack of government, or by stupidity. |
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Term
| What does Amartya Sen have to say about famine and democracy? (pp. 94-95) |
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Definition
| Famine ends when there is incentive for the government to save its own people. The government wants to save it’s people in a democracy because in democracies people have power, and that means that they matter. |
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Term
| What does O’Rourke mean by “the mush-pot sentimentality about things natural”? (p. 126) Did we always have this attitude towards the environment? Where did it come from? |
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Definition
| That it is because it was a stupid and excessive celebration of something that did not actually even understand. Yes. Wrongly ordered love/an idolization of what we think nature is and what it means. |
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Term
| What does O’Rourke claim about “the countries that are most industrialized”? (p. 145) |
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Definition
| That although they are the most polluted, statistically they have the best morbidity, mortality, and income. |
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Term
| What does O’Rourke say about “obvious and uncontestable ecological harms”? (p. 159) |
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Definition
| That they must be subjected to ethical consideration and cost/benefit analysis. |
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Term
| How does O’Rourke dismiss global warming on p. 167? |
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Definition
| By showing how many times the environmentalists have made irrefutable claims that are later flatly refuted or even proven to be the exact opposite of what was initially claimed. |
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Term
| What are the “grand effects” of Al Gore’s dream of infinite government planning? (pp. 176-79) |
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Definition
| The grand effect would be having the same conditions as those that are in Eastern Europe because of the communist movement. |
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Term
| What are the two things we should do first to improve the environment? (p. 201) And who are the best problem solvers? (p. 203) |
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Definition
| Duck the government and stop being moral. Individualism. |
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Term
| What is the true meaning of “Think Globally”? (p. 211) |
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Definition
| Allowing nature to be controlled by all the governments in the world. |
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Term
| What are the “bad ideas” of the idealism in Yugoslavia? (pp. 256-57) Why does O’Rourke take the trouble to tell us about Serbia and Croatia anyway? (p. 258) |
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Definition
| Nationalism, anyone against nationalism should die, that nationhood is a zero-sum business. He shows the consequence of sinking your entire identity into one point of idealism and rejecting the ideas of anyone else. |
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Term
| O’Rourke says that “Haiti is as good a name as any for the snarl” (p. 271). What snarl is he talking about? |
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Definition
| The issues that ravaged Haiti are such a tangle of inseparable issues that Haiti itself is an irreparable tangle of problems. |
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Term
| How can we rid ourselves of all the trouble in the world? (p. 319) What is O’Rourke’s conclusion of the whole book? (pp. 319-20) |
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Definition
| Use common sense and be nice. That we must accept that human liberty, as thrilling as the idea is, always results in people acting human. Even if we fix it all we will still be humans causing trouble. |
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Term
| Study O’Rourke’s humor, his satire, and his combination of ethos-pathos-logos throughout. Does he offer any real solutions? |
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Definition
| O’Rourke offers little in ways of actual solutions, rather his strength lies in shifting the perspective of an issue into a new light that alters the reader’s perception of the issue. |
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Term
| When O’Rourke fails, what is the rhetorical root cause of his failure? |
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Definition
| His ethos, even when he is right O’Rourke is not a likeable person, which means the reader is often times reluctant to agree with him out of fear of becoming like him. |
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