<p>Simplified Prompt: What motivates people to change?</p>
<p>Essay (with typos and mistakes and some Bush-hating):</p>
<p>Ever since the dawn of time and the creation of life, change has been happening. Life started out as single-celled prokaryotes and changed into multi-cell eukaryotes and changed into the diverse species of plants and animals we have today on earth. Change is an essential part of life. As shown in the rise of Hitler in post-World War One (WWI) Germany and the election of Barack Obama to the position of President of the United States in 2008, the most prevalent cause for people to change is the appearance of setbacks.</p>
<p>On November 11, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was brutally assassinated by Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo. This event sparked a war unlike any other in the past–WWI. Austria-Hungary immediately looked to a powerful, almighty Germany for help, which Germany gave. German general Otto von Bismarck had brought Germany to prominence with his military conquests and made Germany into a power to be feared. Going into WWI, the Germans–from the leader, Kaiser Wilhelm II to the poorer citizens in Hamburg, Munich, and Berlin–were confident that a swift victory would come and make Germany even stronger. However, that was not the case. Germany lost, and the draconian Treaty of Versailles imposed such strict punishment that Germany had never endured such a setback in its history. Morale was low, especially among the normal citizens, on whom rampant hyperinflation had caused havoc. The new democratic government was weak; the Weimar Republic could not do anything. These seemingly insurmountable setbacks caused a change that would have been unfathomable any other time, a change cheered on by Germans rich, middle-class, and poor, a change that gave Adolf Hitler full power over Germany. Even now, many people worldwide–even Germans–cannot understand why Hitler was given power. However, the setbacks from the German defeat in WWI were so terrible that the citizens would do anything for change.</p>
<p>More recently, the United States of America (USA) named Barack Obama its President–its first African-American president. Only a century and a half removed from a time when African-Americans were slaves, this sudden change from the status quo surprised a good deal of foreigners and many Americans, too. On the surface, an abrupt departure from the “tradition” of white Presidents would render many incredulous and speechless. However, under George W. Bush, the 43rd President, America suffered a terrorist attack. America poured billions of dollars into an unwinnable war. America allowed thousands of needless deaths in the Middle East. America began going into the toughest economic times since the Great Depression of the 1940s. These tremendous setbacks caused a loss of trust in the Republican Party and a steep drop in morale. When the 2008 elections came, the setbacks under George W. Bush served as a catalyst that spurred Americans to elect a black Democrat to the Oval Office for the first time in history.</p>
<p>Setbacks and bad times are what motivate people to change. When people are happy, they don’t feel a need to change anything. After all, the old American saying goes, “Why fix something that ain’t broke?” However, when something is “broke,” it must–and will undoubetdly be–fixed through change.</p>