Minor Essay 3

James Gartland

Eric Earnhardt

English 151

18 March 2011

The Infallibility of Human Systems

The recent disasters in Japan were incredibly destructive and devastating. The earthquake, tsunami, and imminent threat of nuclear disaster have quickly and unexpectedly taken the lives of man Japanese citizens while ruining the lives of countless more. The world has taken notice, and millions of dollars from people around the globe are being sent to Japan to help them in their time of need. It is a truly terrible disaster, but what can we learn from events like this. Harold Meyerson, writer for the Washington Post, says that the disasters in Japan are only the most recent occurrence in a trend of devastated economic and social systems. In his article “From Japan's devastation, our Lisbon moment?”, Meyerson describes what he believes is a major problem with how the world's financial and social systems.

He begins his article by discussing the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755. He provides shocking information of the severe impact the earthquake had on people. Although this is a good way to catch the readers attention, it seems out of place when compared to the rest of his article. The rest of the article is about current problems and recent events, but he begins with a description of the travesty of a past event. This section of the article is irrelevant to the point of the essay, and only exists to give the article a powerful, emotional opening, but without any relevance to his argument, which is based on recent events..

Next, Meyerson states his thesis, that the catastrophe in Japan should weaken peoples faith in our own infallibility. He argues that most people assume that many systems designed by experts are assumed to be completely immune to the effects of disaster and invulnerable to destruction. This argument begins by using the straw man logical fallacy. In stating that most people think that these systems are literally safe from all disaster, Meyerson misrepresents the views of the people. Although it is commonly accepted that economic and social structure organized by professionals are not likely to fail completely, most people understand that there are unplanned events which can damage these systems. From the way Meyerson worded his argument, he makes it sound like people don't understand that it is impossible to be ready for every possible problem.

To support his argument, Meyerson refers to the recent problems with the American and World economies. He says that everybody believed that the economic system was perfect and that it was immune to all risk, over exaggerating the extent to which people believed in the structural integrity of the economy. He goes on to describe how certain human factors, such as greed and denial were not accounted for, leading to the destruction of US and World economies. There is some truth to this statement because the greed of a few men did a great deal of damage to the economy, but the economic system was by no means destroyed. Meyerson describes this event in a misleading way in order to make it a better example of a flawed human system.

Although Meyerson is correct that man made systems are not infallible, no one was arguing that they were. His use of irrelevant information and misrepresentation of supporting evidence creates an unconvincing article.

Works Cited

Meyerson, Harold. "From Japan’s Devastation, Our Lisbon Moment?." The Washington Post. 15 Mar. 2011. Web. 18 Mar. 2011. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/from-japans- devastation-our-lisbon-moment/2011/03/15/ABPH0yZ_story.html>.