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Showing posts from March, 2017

Revisionist History Ep.4 - Carlos Doesn't Remember

Looking at the long Korean history, most dynasties had the status system. In the society with the status system, the birth determined one’s occupation, and the door to become high-ranking officials was opened only to the person who is of a noble birth. However, as there were many people of talent among lowly people who is likely to contribute a lot to a nation, highly praised kings tried to alleviate the barrier between the status and tried hard to open offices according to their talents, not their births. Eventually, the status system was abolished now, and it’s hard to find other nations with caste system except for India. Nonetheless, we are living in a new hierarchy society, and people can’t rise from humble family anymore. If born poor, he or she can’t catch up the with the rich regardless of how hard he or she tried. What Malcolm Gladwell tried to convey through his 4 th  podcast ‘Carlos Doesn’t Remember’ also reflects these grim actualities. He said that civilized...

Revisionist History Ep.5 - Food Fight: Gladwell being biased

One honorable person once said, “Power comes with responsibility”. As Malcolm Gladwell has a great influence on the public as a famous journalist and writer, I think he should have been more responsible about what he says at the podcast. To be frank, I was quite disappointed by how biased and illogical Gladwell was with his talk about the relationship between dining and financial aids of Vassar and Bowdoin. Gladwell kept claiming that students who can afford full tuition should choose to go to Vassar rather than Bowdoin because Vassar is offering more financial aid to students, while Bowdoin is using all the money for school amenities and their fabulous dining. Listening to such podcast, I was expecting him to explain about the FA systems of Bowdoin, which he didn’t mention about. Thinking he is too biased, I searched about the FA systems of Bowdoin, and it took less than 5 minutes to find out that Bowdoin is a no loan school that offers need-blind admission with full-need. Cons...