The objective of the final essay is to develop a story about what is happening in the political, economic, and cultural spheres of the United States in this day and age based upon the themes discussed and texts read in this seminar. This is the moment where all of the material we have covered has to come together. This is it! How this is to be organized is entirely up to you, so think about how to weave together the course materials in a coherent, analytical, and intelligent
manner. This is a comprehensive essay, keeping in mind that comprehension also means understanding.
Assessment will be based on excellence in three fields:
• Competency in understanding the readings assigned;
• Critical content; developing arguments that are logically consistent, clear, and persuasive;
• Creativity, both with respect to how the argument is presented as well as the style of your writing; this has to be used to draw the reader in, to make the reader engage in the text you are presenting. 
Byung-Chul Han focuses on how we may never be able to escape from a system that generates inequities of many kinds
because we are trapped in a world of “psychopolitics.” He says that “a further paradigm shift is underway. The digital
panopticon engineers not a disciplinary society along biological lines but a transparency society along psychopolitical ones (pp.
77-78). What does Han mean and what will become of a socius wrapped in neoliberalism for the past half-century? At one level,
society has been persuaded to believe in the virtues of non-democratic behavior, as Heather Cox Richardson points out; at
another, the judicial system has been used to protect property regardless of how it was acquired. Some scholars like David
Harvey imagine a burgeoning class consciousness that will lead the majority to overthrowing the power and authority of the
minority—the ruling class. Is that model still viable? Is class struggle dead? Are we headed toward an authoritarian and/or
fascist political future instead? How has socio-cultural power in the United States worked against class interests and making sure
that everyone and everything be defined as individually as possible? Think in terms of what Jason Stanley says but also think
about what Han says.