Western Civilization Reading Response #9

The main theme of the reading is weather coffee houses were a waste of time or a good place for social engagements like political topics. Also weather coffee was actually good for you because it is a stimulant, and how controversial Coffee houses were due to that factor from the mid 16^th hundreds to the mid 18^th hundreds.

Something that stood out to me is that how people strongly opposed coffee houses in that century and without the occurrence of those coffee houses then we would most likely not have the coffee houses we have today like Adams brothers or Joes java or Starbucks, in which people go to enjoy the company of their friends and Coffee which makes the world go round if you are a college student.

I thought it was very interesting that something as simple as a coffee house could bring about so much controversy. However things like this happen today there is so much controversy over Mc Donald’s and how their food is really bad for you. A lot of people try to raise awareness to this factor and yet nobody chooses to listen or they don’t care. The movie Supersize created lots of controversy just like how political radicalism in coffee houses created lots of controversy as well. 

-Amanda Webb 

Western Civilization Reading Response #8

            James I on the Divine Right of Kings (1609)

1)     The overall theme of this reading is Divine Right and how kings were actually thought to be Gods themselves, for they asserted the same authority as God does to a certain extent. Also how God himself calls them Gods, and how the state of the monarchy is the most powerful thing on this very earth. These Kings are the fathers of their political families.

I really would like to know how and why the whole monarchy system got started because who really know if they are of royal blood and how does one become of royal blood?  It deeply interests me how the first people who started the monarchy system became Kings and Queens. Also it is interesting that one of the three grievances that one must avoid is challenging the “ancient rights” of their predecessors; is it because they had something to hide or some other interesting story.

 One could compare this to the differences of social class that we have in American and how kids in grade school and middle school get picked on often by other kids for being of a different social class. If one attempts to challenge the higher authority they get beat up, because they tried to disrupt the system for the better. It always made me wonder why this sort of thing happens if everyone is equal is our democratic society today. 

-A.Webb 

Western Civilization Reading Response #7

1)    1)  I think that it is weird how King Henry VIII could do all this stuff like divorced and remarried and break the normal church rules whenever he wanted. I understand that he was the one controlling just about every aspect of his church, however I think that there should have been a higher power over him. Like more of a democratic system to prevent this kind of stuff happening. Which I think why allot of monarchy’s faded away, however allot of them still remain in place just with modified systems.

2)      2) I really wonder what the United States even the world would be like today if there were things like this going on. I feel like life as we know it would be different and church would be more of a weird place that one was forced to go to because your king made you go. I like the separation of church and state because it’s a good effort for the government to keep its nose out of church business and keep them from controlling the church.

Anne Boleyn’s speech reminded me of Monty Python and the holy Grail, when the lady was accused of being a witch and the only way to “prove her innocence” was to see if she was made of wood or duck. I thought it was very interesting that Anne did not want to pass the blame on to anyone else, even though it’s not her fault. Also I thought it was interesting that she did not try to prove that she was innocent. I would like to think that she almost wanted to die because then she would be in heaven where she would be safe.