The start of quarter four signalled the start of two new classes, and the realization that we only have ten weeks until the end of our high school career. These were expected outcomes of this milestone, what was not expected was my introduction to ZettelKasten note taking.
The ZettelKasten Method has many strengths compared to lecture note taking. It allows the user to store information without taking up the valuable space in you brain. It is also able to separate ideas and factual knowledge into Literature notes, Fleeting Notes, and Permanent notes.
Although, one “pro” of using regular lecture note-taking is that you can review past notes, to study and come to conclusions that might have not been apparent before. When using fleeting notes, you are instructed to only write down facts and comments that you find interesting. When you reflect on these notes you are only able to view the parts that you found previously interesting, and not conceive new ideas or connections.
In this project we have also focused on many Turning Points that our class has found Historically Significant.
This Projects Turning Points
The New Deal → Cuban Missile Crisis → Assassination of JFK → Birth Control Pill Approved → Defeat in Vietnam → Watergate → Iran Hostage Crisis → Reagan Revolution → 911 Attack → Introduction of the iPhone
In this blog I won’t be able to go over everything I have learned, but I will try to include three of the most interesting connections I have made.
The Split Between Democrat and Republican
The polarization between political parties, theoretically started after the Watergate Scandal, has created an immense amount of controversy, even resulting in a insurrection on American soil. If this separation continues to widen, there’s will undoubtedly be more riots and American born hatred. This can be seen as republican congress members move to change voter regulations.
The Creation of The Pill = The Discovery of Fire
Some historians have claimed that the creation of the pill is equivalent to the discovery of fire. When you consider the historical significance of both turning points it is fair to believe that this is not the case.
The discovery of fire ignited the evolution of modern humans. Without fire we wouldn’t have anything, we wouldn’t have our lives. Fire is a necessity to all humans, whereas oral contraception pushed our society a step forward to gender equality. Oral contraception has given women the control over their bodies that is required to reach a place of equity. In the 50s women were ruled over by the societal normality of the housewife. The possibility of pregnancy and decades of fear-driven religious presences created a harsh environment around sex, especially around pre-marital sex. There also was a lack of information around sex, creating traumatic experiences that could have been romantic. The pill gave a specific freedom to women, and their decision to regulate pregnancy.
How Politicians Get Away With Murder.
The perfect word to describe this type of politician is “sleazy.”
In the late 19th to early 20th century there seemed to be a notion that politicians were trustworthy, personable, and prepared to do anything to create change. They were not only a respected part of our society, but in many cases idolized, or placed on a higher echelon than the working class. Than all of a sudden everything changed. From the 70s on, politicians became associated with less pleasing character traits, many of which were polar opposite to those they portrayed before. What caused this monumental shift in ideology, the Watergate Scandal.
Watergate “was the worst scandal in American history for it was an attempt to subvert the American political process itself”, says PBS.
It wasn’t like politicians didn’t commit horrendous acts of treason before Nixon, he just unfortunately/fortunately happened to get caught in the act. The watergate scandal opened Americans eyes to the possibility that this had not only happened before, but will most likely happen again. And it has.
The Trump Presidency definitely had its fair share of flaws and missteps, but the most outrageous had to be that trump and his fan base believe that he won the 2020 presidential election. Trumps Russian placement in the presidential office, along with an insurrection, and undisputed evidence of trump trying “create” votes, still wasn’t enough to remove him from office.
Compared to Trump’s continuous flow of scandals, Nixon’s injustice looks refutable, so why didn’t trump get impeached? The collateral damage of the Watergate scandal created a fissure between party lines that continues to separate to this day. In Nixon’s day being a republican or democrat didn’t mean you were a party loyalist/bigot, politicians were free to have their own belief systems as long as they fell into the proper categories. When Nixon was convicted of his crimes, the republicans were the ones who explained that he should resign, mainly because they wouldn’t block the vote on impeachment in the Senate. When the impeachment trial was held in the Senate in 2020, it was a “given” that the president wouldn’t be removed from office. Republicans and Democrats both rely heavily on their voter base to stay in power, and now because of party line polarization, politicians usually only have one tree to pick from. If a Republican Senator that relied on trump voters for reelection were to vote against the president, they would be digging there own grave. Is this now the sad truth of Politicians, and political bias in America?