What is the author's purpose of this text The Tipping Point

It is midnight on a Wednesday night. I sit, staring complacently at my computer screen, as a pudgy three-dimensional animation of a baby points its finger in the air and wiggles its bottom in a circle. I find myself questioning what mighty coercive power has brought me to this point and I demand to know how it came to possess such power over me. Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point, provides me some solace. This is not my fault. My compulsion is merely a product of the networks of which I am a part and their natural tendency to diffuse information, ideas, products, and, of course, dancing babies.

    In the current Age of Information, each of us is embedded in myriad different networks that connect us to the world around us. The most obvious of these networks is the Internet, with sub-networks such as the World Wide Web, the e-mail system, and the instant messaging network. The telephone and fax systems also comprise communication networks of which we are a part. Less obviously, we are connected through our interpersonal relationships to a large social network of friends and acquaintances.

    The immensity, complexity, and variety of our networks certainly provide interesting areas for creative thought and speculation. Can we learn anything about ourselves and the world in which we live by studying these networks? Today's network theorists argue that we can and they spend time studying these networks to try to understand the natural laws that govern their formation and structure. Malcolm Gladwell is one of these network theorists

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)

i'm pretty sure i had this question the other day and b was the right answer.