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By employing the most modern mining techniques and methods, the economic viability and feasibility of American mining could be protected and protracted for the foreseeable future. Alyson Warhurst and Ligia Noronha (2000) explain that using “state-of-the-art-processing technologies [and] new production methods with pollution prevention techniques and environmental management systems [will] achieve lower cost and environmentally proficient production” and make companies both more competitive and economically viable (p. 19). Thus, this recommendation would improve environmental quality along with protecting American jobs and businesses as much as possible by employing fiscally-sound policy.
Many updates to the 1872 law have been proposed an assessed, but most are generally ignored by those in charge of policy making. Making a change to current policy would force responsibility of the change upon policymakers. Any change which lead to the closure of a mine and loss of jobs would reflect upon the policymaker. Policymakers are beholden to the electorate, who could seek retribution for losing their jobs in an election. Policymakers are also beholden to mining corporations as an interest group, and risk alienating these groups if they push forth a policy which harms mining interests. The conclusions suggested above and others have a very low probability of being implemented in the current climate of policymaking.
As long as it remains easier for lawmakers and government officials to leave current policy unchanged and blame its failings on previous generations of policymakers, current mining policy will remain unchanged. Recent attempts to amend mining laws in the latter days of the Clinton Administration are a case-in-point for the difficulty of finding a way to change the laws without severe criticism. McClure and Schneider (2001) explain that both mining corporations and environmental groups found President Clinton’s attempts to reform mining policy unsatisfactory and former Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton essentially mitigated any changes attempted by Clinton (p. 9).
Even if changes are attempted it will remain a challenge for the changes to be accepted by either side of the debate. Policy will remain little changed until the problem becomes such that it must be dealt with. In conclusion, until the problems with current mining policy hemorrhage they will remain unchanged. It is unfortunate that many problems are approached by such an attitude of ambivalence. Mining policy is but one policy which will remain little changed in the foreseeable future.
During the second half of the 19th Century, the Sioux tribe would become a major influence upon the United States. From the beginning of the Bozeman Trail into Sioux territory in the mid 1850s to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, the Sioux have affected the United States and its military profoundly. Sioux such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse have become known to Americans in their own lifetimes as power Sioux leaders and warriors and are still recognized over a century after their death. | 27 | German | male | Bachelor of Arts | Unemployed | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
e | Even after this change in American interests hostility remained in Mexico against the United States and remained until the Second World War.
Other major disputes happened after the rivalry period as described by Diehl and Goerts, most notably the incursion of American troops into Mexico in response to border raids by Mexicans into the United States before the American entry into the First World War in 1917 in response to illegal border crossing and raids by outlaws, bandits and fugitive Indian groups (Schmitt 1974 p. 156). This reasserted the fear of Mexico that the United States intended to seize its territory and incorporate the Mexican States into the United States. American interests abroad have historically concerned the protection of its citizens and their property (Schmitt 1974 p. 110).
The beginning of major rival behavior began with Texas during the mid-1830s. The settlement of Texas by Americans and independence movement there began to galvanize public opinion against Mexico through condemnatory journalism prevalent in the United States (Pletcher 1977 p. 44). This, coupled with the existing distrust between the Americans and Mexicans over issues like religion, became the catalyst of the enduring rivalry between the two nations.
When Texas declared its independence from Mexico, the United States recognized Texas as a new nation, while Mexico did not (Frahm 2003 p. 90). This created a situation in which the two nations found themselves at opposing ends, which would eventually lead to war when the United States annexed the Republic of Texas, sparking the Mexican-American War. Pletcher (1977) explains that the Mexican-American War created a ‘set of relations’ for the United States to follow with Mexico and other nations in Latin America (p. 41). Indeed, the war set the climate of relations between the two nations for some time.
Mexico became fearful of future American aspirations toward its territory after the war and the United States following its ‘Manifest Destiny’ on the North American continent at their expense. Mexicans feared conquering by the United States because they feared living under similar circumstances as Native Americans and be considered inferior and reduced to a position of servitude (Frahm 2001 p. 95). Pletcher (1977) quotes Historian Gene M. Brack term for this innate fear of Americans by Mexicans during and after the war as “Yankeephobia” (p. 44).
Much like the Cold War and many other enduring rivalries, each side was increasingly skeptical of the other during the rivalry period. Mexico was fearful of American ambitions and continually feared imminent conquering by the United States. The United States also looked skeptically upon Mexico, viewing it as foreign a place as any in the world (Frahm 2001 p. 96). This caused a continuing resentment of the United States by Mexico, which was only magnified as American mercantile interests began to penetrate deep into Mexican territory.
Indeed, while Diehl and Goerts suggest that the essential Mexican-American rivalry abated in 1896, Schmitt (1974) argues that America and Mexico remained at odds until the 1940s (p.7).
| 27 | German | male | Bachelor of Arts | Unemployed | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
e | Today the Puget Sound region firmly has power over the entirety of the State of Washington. And as in the first conflict, it wishes to retain its power. The borders which we see today in Washington were not made with Eastern Washington in mind, indeed they were made for giving the Puget Sound region a maximum of power over what would become Washington State. Across the United States we see a similar problem develop in the early 19th Century in the State of Massachusetts and what would become the State of Maine.
Maine’s drive to statehood mirrors conditions which exist in Washington today. Massachusetts and what is now Maine were geographically separated from each other, much like the two sections of Washington. Indeed, the boundaries of Maine “served to remind those in Maine …that the union of Maine and Massachusetts was not only an unwilling but an unnatural one.” Also like Eastern Washington, the climate of Maine was much more extreme than that of Massachusetts. The case of Maine becoming a State could be an avenue for Eastern Washington to take in a quest for statehood. Maine also had many unsuccessful drives to independence from Massachusetts, much like the past and contemporary movements in Eastern Washington. There have been moves for Eastern Washington to cede from Washington and become both its own state and to join what was once part of the Washington territory, Idaho. Over the 20th Century we see the demographics of the situation change.
While Western Washington had a population explosion during the 20th Century, Eastern Washington grew at a more steady pace. While the entire State of Washington had a population growth of around 20 percent per decade in the mid-20th Century most of this growth was limited to the Seattle Megalopolis, from the Kent River Valley in the south to Everett in the north. We see the population of Eastern Washington dwindle from 35% of Washington’s total population to in the early 20th Century to only 21% nearing the end of the 20th Century. Even today, while Eastern Washington contains some large cities, only nine cities have a population of over 15,000 people. Three-fifths of the population of Eastern Washington lives in one of these nine cities. It is the amazing growth of Western Washington which has heightened the division of Eastern and Western Washington along with the natural and historical differences in the area. Eastern Washington cannot help but succumb to the political whim of Western Washington, as the votes of the entirety of Eastern Washington are not enough to combat those of Western Washington. Even The Seattle Times notes that just the voters in King County outnumber the 646,000 registered voters in Eastern Washington.
Recent events have intensified the divide between Eastern and Western Washington. When a resolution passed by the Seattle City Council called for the breaching of Snake River Dams, despite Seattle being located nearly 200 miles from where the Snake River enters the Columbia near the Tri-Cities, tempers raged in Eastern Washington. | 27 | German | male | Bachelor of Arts | Unemployed | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
e | The Sioux have been romanticized as well within American culture, with Sioux such as Sitting Bull joining traveling shows like Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and films made surrounding the history of the United States military and the Sioux such as Little Big Man. Other Sioux would become popular like Sitting Bull with William Cody’s Wild West Show; the Sioux Holy Man Black Elk would tour with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
While not a military leader as the likes of the Sioux chiefs Crazy Horse or Sitting Bull, Black Elk is attached to the relations of the Sioux and the United States military. He fought in his early years against the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn and would be a major force in the adoption of the Ghost Dance by the Sioux in the late 1880s, which precipitated the massacre at Wounded Knee. Indeed, Black Elk, as many other members of the great Sioux Nation, acutely affected the military policy of the United States during the late 19th Century. Black Elk was the focus of many literary works throughout the 20th Century, chiefly of which is Black Elk Speaks, the autobiography of Black Elk transcribed by John G. Neihardt.
The chief source of information about Black Elk for any scholar would undoubtedly be his essential autobiography Black Elk Speaks. Black Elk Speaks is written along similar lines to the essential autobiography of the Apache leader Geronimo in Geronimo: In His Own Words. Niehardt transcribes the story which Black Elk tells to Neihardt and wishes to have known. While telling the story of the life of Black Elk though the tumultuous times of the late 19th Century, Black Elk Speaks also describes to the reader the life of the Sioux in a state of disarray as the number of whites in Sioux territory increases and the number of buffalo decrease. It is during this period of decline for the Sioux that major events in Black Elk's life take place.
Another work tackling the story of Black Elk in a different manner is Black Elk’s Story by Julian Rice. Rice, unlike Niehardt, was not able to interview Black Elk to write his work on the Sioux holy man as he was born in 1940, only ten years before Black Elk’s death. Rice writes his book Black Elk’s Story as almost more of an anthropological view of Black Elk’s life than a literary one despite the fact that Julian Rice was a professor of English at Florida Atlantic University. (quote source). The title he chooses for his book is almost misleading, as the author focuses most of his effort on analyzing the visions and mannerisms of Black Elk with little placed on the actual life of Black Elk. For a reader or researcher’s benefit, it is almost imperative that they have read Niehardt’s Black Elk Speaks prior to reading Black Elk’s Story for an adequate understanding of Rice’s book. | 27 | German | male | Bachelor of Arts | Unemployed | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
e | Diehl and Goerts do not go into detail on the parameters set in their study of enduring rivalries, but certainly they did not take into account the fall of the Díaz regime in Mexico and the near decade of turmoil which it brought. Americans had a renewed resentment of Mexicans following the 1910 Revolution, which many Americans viewed as the rise of “Red Mexico” (Schmitt 1974 p. 7). Likewise, the revolution stirred up latent anti-American sentiment in Mexico by Mexican intellectuals through books, plays, and paintings (Schmitt 1974 p. 8). It is only after World War II and a more stable government in Mexico that the true rivalry between the United States and Mexico subsides.
Clearly, the rivalry began through general feelings of aversion between Americans and Mexicans toward one another, based on past feelings of resentment between both Catholics and Protestants and English and Spanish culture. American interests in Mexican territory, and the decision of the United States to annex the independent Republic of Texas, stirred even more anger from Mexico which only exacerbated the rivalry condition between the United States and Mexico. It was beset by countless frontier problems in which bandits, outlaws and Indian groups used Mexican territory as a safe-haven in order to stage raids against American targets. The situation changed somewhat as American interests shifted from territorial ambitions to economic interests within Mexico but was not truly over until the 1940s.
Schmitt (1974) explains that “Americans have won more often than the Mexicans, but they have also suffered serious losses both in lives and property” during the rivalry (p. xi). Indeed, the many years of raids from Mexico have affected the people of the United States for a time forced a continuous military presence between the United States and Mexico. Perhaps as this became unnecessary it spurred the move toward more economic activity in Mexico, and lent itself toward an end toward this rivalry.
Mining in the United States, and especially the American West, was a major economic activity throughout the 19th and 20th Centuries. It was a catalyst that drove settlement westward after the annexation of Mexico’s northern territories and the Oregon Country in the middle of the 19th Century. In the modern United States mining activity has severely declined in the face of economic globalization; formerly economically viable mining operations now lie unused as American companies find new and more profitable ore deposits in other nations.
The problem related to mining now is that the United States much face the lingering affects of mining which dot the American landscape, especially in the western United States. The government of the United States must find a way to deal with the ecological damage and economic considerations remaining from its antiquated mining policy, which remains essentially unchanged since 1872. Robert McClure and Andrew Schneider (2001) of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer explain a major shortcoming of the antiquated policy: “miners cart away […] minerals worth about $11 billion.
| 27 | German | male | Bachelor of Arts | Unemployed | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
e | What most people do not know, however, is that the “coastal Pacific Northwest [has] become increasingly intertwined with the inland region providing significant support to the coast.” Mainly agricultural Eastern Washington provides support to the coastal regions, by giving them “hydroelectric power, aluminum production for the airplane industry, and food to feed the ever-expanding population”. Though during the last century the economy of Eastern Washington has diversified, the backbone is still agriculture. Kay F. Reinartz explains in The Inland Northwest that “there is more to the [division between Western and Eastern Washington] than economics, but economics makes it strong[er].”
These economic differences, coupled with different climates, have created two very different areas within one political boundary. The division of Western and Eastern Washington are commonly referred to as the “Cascade Curtain,” as the Cascade Mountain range divides the two regions of Washington. It has been the development in each region, along with the end of settlement that has allowed the proverbial Cascade Curtain to spring up. The understanding of how two such diverse regions were placed in one political boundary is essential to understanding the political division within the State of Washington. The first settlers who migrated to what would become Washington State were largely composed of settlers from the Mid-Western part of the United States.
When the Washington Territory was carved out of the Oregon Territory in 1853, it contained only a few thousand settlers along with a few missionaries and employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company scattered though what today is the entirety of Washington, Idaho, and portions of Montana and Wyoming. Though later there would be influxes of largely foreign settlers in the latter part of the 19th Century, the population of Washington was very dynamic in number until the 20th Century.
Early population booms with the discoveries of precious metals brought the first real settlements to what would become Eastern Washington, along with modern Idaho as well, during the mid-19th Century. This allowed for the first East-West conflict, as the territorial capital of Olympia, which today remains the capital of Washington State fought to hold on the power it had as territorial capital. This conflict created the boundaries of Washington that can be seen today. Those who migrated east of the Cascades expressed dissatisfaction with the territorial government of Washington, and called for a territory to be created out of modern Eastern Washington and Idaho, along with parts of Montana and Wyoming. Many population centers vied to be made capital of the Washington territory, yet the capital remained in Olympia.
Washington’s boundaries were sealed at their modern limits, with Olympia keeping enough territory so it could keep a large amount of land while keeping the most population, and thus most power in the territorial government. Indeed, we see that such struggles for power in Washington are not only a modern occurrence but today mirror the old struggles of the 19th century. | 27 | German | male | Bachelor of Arts | Unemployed | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
e | Neihardt continues in his letter saying that “this book would be not only the story of your life, but the story of the life of your people” (Neihardt 212). It seems that Neihardt not only had an interest of telling the story of Black Elk but taking the story of the life which Black Elk lived in his early years before the essential assimilation of the Sioux in the early years of the 20th Century. This keeps in line with the early reason Neihardt began interviewing Black Elk for his other poetic works and his interest in the Great Plains.
Despite any addition of ideas Neihardt may have inserted while transcribing the story of Black Elk, it is obvious that compared to Rice’s Black Elk’s Story it is Black Elk Speaks which better tells the story of Black Elk. By attacking Neihardt as a writer and attempting to discredit both Black Elk Speaks as a true story of Black Elk’s life and the means by which Black Elk told his own life story.
From the beginning of the Republic to the Presidential Election of 2004, divisions have been made apparent in our society. The division, historically and contemporarily, has been dependent on many factors ranging from the Urban-Rural divide to class structure and standing in society. The Pacific Northwest epitomizes the divides. This difference is especially noticeable in the State of Washington, where nearly every extreme can be seen within a few hours distance.
The settling of Washington did not lend itself to this regional rivalry which exists today; it is rather the product of the establishment of distinct social and political climates which have developed in the time since settlement. Today we see two distinct areas of the state: Western Washington lying west of the Cascade Mountain Range, and Eastern Washington lying to the east of the Cascades. To understand the division within the State of Washington the most basic underlying factor must be explained: the climate of Washington State.
Indeed, the differences in Washington’s regions can be expressed most notably in climate differences. Though known as the “Evergreen State,” most of the State of Washington has a very arid climate. For example, while Western Washington may receive 160 inches of rain annually, Eastern Washington on average receives only 6 inches of rain per year. This disparity creates two distinct regions within Washington State, which over the history of the state have come to represent more than a climate difference between the regions, but political and social differences as well. Another factor linked to regionalism within Washington State is the economical differences between Western and Eastern Washington.
Economics within the State of Washington is nearly as different as the two distinct climates of Washington. While gigantic companies such as Boeing and Microsoft make their home in Washington, most large businesses in Washington State offer little in terms of employment to Eastern Washington. The bulk of Eastern Washington’s economy lies within the agricultural sector. | 27 | German | male | Bachelor of Arts | Unemployed | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
e | The majority of Neihardt’s writing was poetry published after the publication of Black Elk Speaks (nde. Black Elk Speaks would become the most widely read work written by Neihardt, but only many years after its original publication. John Neihardt would become Poet Laureate of Nebraska and the Praries in 1921 (Nebraska Historical) and hold the title until his death in 1973 (nde.state.ne.us.). While John Neihardt was not a journalist or historian, his interest in the Great Plains and interviews with Black Elk produced a work which should be considered scholastic and historical and stands as the de facto story of Black Elk.
This must be contrasted, along with other factors, to how Julian Rice wrote Black Elk’s Story. By virtue of age Rice was not able to have the same access to Black Elk that Neihardt had as he was only ten years of age when Black Elk passed away. Julian Rice takes a much different spin on the life of Black Elk, and focuses much more on being a holy man than on Black Elk’s life as a whole. Much like Neihardt, Rice has a background in literature and was a professor of English as Florida Atlantic University. From looking at other works written by Rice, it is obvious he has his own interest on the Sioux and especially on Sioux spirituality and other anthropological studies of Sioux culture. This interest can be noticed in Black Elk’s Story as the book explains the visions of Black Elk in great detail as the author challenges the means by which John Neihardt has transcribed the account from his interview with Black Elk.
Early on in Black Elk’s Story Julian Rice speaks of other biographies of Black Elk and seemingly explains the need he felt to write his book and denigrates Black Elk Speaks as a book that should “be relegated to the ranks of nineteenth century curios, reflecting white misconceptions of Indians” (Rice 14). From this early tone, the entire purpose of this book appears not only to convey the story of Black Elk but to attack Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks by focusing a major portion of his writing for the first few chapters against John Neihardt. Rice attacks Neihardt by calling his philosophy on life “part of that Euro-American arrogance that has infected even literary giants from Mark Twain […] to T.S. Elliot” (Rice 17). Rice continues by saying that “Neihardt’s social attitudes are conventionally assimilationist” (Rice 19).
While it is obvious that Rice has vested a good amount of time and energy into studying the background of both Black Elk and John Neihardt, Rice places the weight in his argument more on attacking Neihardt as an individual and fails to discuss how what he describes as the purported racism of Neihardt was the general mindset of Americans in the early part of the 20th Century. | 27 | German | male | Bachelor of Arts | Unemployed | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
e | Not only does the U.S. Treasury get nothing, Congress has granted miners a tax break worth an estimated $823 million.”
Modern mining corporations are subject to policies which were enacted nearly 135 years ago, at a time when the United States looked toward economic development to unite a nation that had been gripped by regional conflict and diverging economic interests which had lead to Civil War. Despite attempts by the Federal government to adjust the 1872 laws to better suit the United States of today, debate over how best to change these policies rages. Perhaps more unwilling than unable, mining policy remains little changed throughout a nearly 135 year period.
Early attempts to regulate mining activities began in 1807, when congress passed an act enabling the leasing of lead deposits for mining, which was changed in 1846 to allow the sell of public land to private firms for mining development (Maley, 1979, p. 2). Early controversy in mining policy took place after gold was discovered in the newly annexed California Territory in 1848, yet major reforms in mining policy were not undertaken until after the Civil War. The General Mining Law of 1872, which remains as the major legislation regarding mining policy, was the final step in three major mining policy acts which were meant to both codify mining policy into the legal code and aid early mining corporations in development throughout the United States, including the West (Mayer, 1986, p. 624).
Maley (1979) explains that changes in 1872 were prompted by necessary additions to the legal code regarding mining claims, and that after the laws were enacted in 1872 they remained essentially intact and unchanged (p. 3). The law was passed in the hopes it would spur economic development, especially in the West, by making mining economically viable and attractive. Following the Civil War the United States looked toward economic development as a means by which to heal the wounds of the Civil War. This economic climate helped create the 1872 law; at the time common opinion was that mineral exploration and mining were beneficial to the United States (Footer and VonLunen, 1999, p. 118). Through major policy changes both economic development and settlement moved into lands that remained unsettled in the American Midwest and West. The 1872 law helped not only the American economy to expand into mining but also drew settlers into uninhabited areas of the American West. Certainly this was the intent of Congress as it crafted and passed the Mining Law of 1872.
The chief aspect of the economic considerations of the policy can be noted through in the language of the act, which states: “all valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United states [are] to be free and open to exploration and purchase” (Maley, 1979, p. 6). Public lands were open to those who could find minerals to mine from public lands, and the General Mining Law of 1872 established a loose framework as a means to carry out this means of economic expansion.
| 27 | German | male | Bachelor of Arts | Unemployed | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
gg | I have trouble imagining a scenario where he could introduce conclusive evidence in either case because, just like objective value, either example would still include the disagreement involved in his original argument which makes them require consistency. His most likely response would be to utilize the same strategy and infer here that the best explanation is they are different cases altogether and require different lines of reasoning. This however simply adds to the inconsistency in which he uses that line of reasoning and does not solve the problem. Rather it strengthens some convictions I have been attempting to develop between the lines about the nature of inference to the best explanation as a form of argument.
The lack of evidence needed to infer the best explanation by Mackie’s standards frankly frightens me and shows its true ineffectiveness. How can correlation between disagreement and objective truth be simply inferred without conclusive evidence? Because it is the easiest answer? That does not seem at all satisfactory to me; that reasoning is flawed and can not conclude anything with certainty. It is as if we are simply accepting the wrong answer for now until new information and evidence comes to light instead of searching for that evidence. This makes inference to the best explanation seem distinctly inappropriate reasoning in any case of disagreement. Why then does Mackie instinctually pair the two (as he has no real evidence that this is appropriate)? There must be some relation between the two that caused this association and I believe the commonality lies within the flaws already laid out against inference to the best explanation. What this says about disagreement is that it is a form of argument that lacks enough evidence to make any remark concerning objective moral values. In fact I believe that the two can not even associate with one another.
Disagreement is incorrectly defined by Mackie and others as something that is objective because how could it say anything about objective truth if it was subjective? The answer here is that it can not. Disagreement is wholly subjective to the human condition; it is a facet of our nature. We do not only disagree about morality, we disagree about non-moral fact so disagreement is not something specific to morality, rather it is specific to humanity. It takes on different forms, for example compromise. And how could we compromise about objective value? Mackie would say this only alludes to the fact that there is no objective value, but the true answer here is that disagreement lacks the ability to comment on things objective in their nature. Would it not only then be natural for us to disagree about morality regardless of its objective nature? It is a mistake to link the two because they are completely separate and lack the ability to provide insight about one another; disagreement is subjective in its relation to humanity and therefore can hold no sway over the truth or falsity of objective value. | 21 | English | male | Some college | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
gg | It is for this reason that I find the argument from disagreement, or in Mackie’s case the argument from relativity, irrelevant.
In Wuthering Heights, many characters shift their feelings toward one another; relationships often transform from love into hatred and vice versa. Heathcliff is an interesting case because we can see his transformation spelled out in his own words and it does more than simply change his opinion of his relatives, dead or alive. At this moment in Heathcliff there are some drastic and warranted changes being made to his character, wherein his motives evolve.
Heathcliff is the master of both the Heights and grange at this point in the novel and is in complete control of the last of his living relatives, his vengeance is almost complete. So what is the change he speaks of that cast its shadow over him if he is the master of this world? It therefore can only be a change within himself. The change, as he describes it, seems to represent that Heathcliff is losing the will to live or, in other words, crossing into the next world. Before it could be said that Vengeance was the driving force in his life, it caused him to seek his fortune and come back to the Heights. Though his vengeance would be incomplete by his own standards it seems that Heathcliff has misplaced his grudge and as a result searches for peace, which inevitably takes the form of death. Instead of wishing to torment both Catherine and Hareton, he yearns to never see them again as they remind him of his dead love. Again he chooses peace over vengeance. It comes to fruition that the grudge he held is what caused his own torment, a self-perpetuating cycle that caused him to be more and more callous. This selection shows us the collapse of that cycle and the search for peace and resolution taking its place.
The intricate similarities between Catherine and Hareton, and Heathcliff and his Catherine, are what drive Heathcliff to yearn for peace of mind. The tides have now turned and Heathcliff reveals that the two torment him by reminding him of the relationship he had with Catherine; It pains him to see the two together as he once was with his own love. These are the thoughts that consume him and take away his will to live. He continues on pg. 289 to say that “- I have to remind myself to breathe – almost remind my heart to beat!” alluding to his obsession with these thoughts, how they have taken hold of him; even life will take a backseat to these musings. The vengeance he yearned for has evolved into something that is completely introspective, and instead of lashing out to gain some sort of peace out of revenge he begins to lash inwards to seek out the heart of what remains to cause his torment.
How sad must the man have been if when he loses his lust for revenge he loses all will to live. | 21 | English | male | Some college | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
gg | This is also the line of argument that he implements to account for disagreement; the best explanation for disagreement would be that there are no objective moral values, they are instead relative to ones culture. Due to this line of thought for any consistency to be established it must then follow that for culture to be an appropriate cause of morality there must also not be any disagreement within each group.
Mackie believes to have solved this issue as well, accounting for the possible disagreement within groups through what he calls moral heretics or reformers. The idea here is that disagreement involved with these reformers is simply about non-moral facts and is an extension of their more faithful adherence to the codes relatively derived form their culture. Mackie uses the word “consistency”, stating that the disagreement established by the reformer’s stricter observance of the codes is required for the consistency he or she seeks within the rules the culture has developed. The disagreement, in accordance with this account, is then derived from differences in application of morality and not morality itself; it is in the realm of non-moral fact.
I believe that this account of moral reformers and heretics is unsatisfactory in that it only takes into account a specific moral reformer. Moral disagreement can be established within specific groups if one looks past this singular example of reformation. I would like to bring up a contemporary example, a type of moral disagreement in this culture, the reformer pushing for gay rights and more specifically marriage. The argument against gay marriage is usually one from a standpoint of religion where they state that a union between two men or two women is morally wrong. It is clear then that this is a moral disagreement and not an argument about the definition of marriage or any other non-moral fact, here the disagreement is about the moral value associated with being gay. Mackie would most likely respond by trying to claim that these are two separate relative groups each with there own moral codes which would make this type of disagreement the one he has already accounted for in his original argument. My response would be to claim that his definition of group, or way of life, is too vague and if he were willing to make this separation within a single nation where would the final line be drawn? Could we go as far as to claim that morals are specifically relative to ones immediate family? I think not. In fact I argue that if he were to allow this to be the case his original argument would be drastically different and would not account for the disagreement he used to refute objective moral value. It would instead have to encompass all kinds of disagreement because it would attempt to turn all moral disagreement into non-moral fact by becoming more specific with its definition of group or way of life. | 21 | English | male | Some college | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
gg |
Victorian novels are characterized by their overwhelming attention to detail and their focus on the aristocracy of the period. Two novels that are considered Victorian but stray away form this tradition are Oliver Twist and Wuthering Heights. Both novels employ an element of mystery and a flare for the bizarre, atypical of the novels from the period, which strengthens the characters within each work; providing insight that elaborates on their motives and emotions.
“And now, hosts of bewildering and confusing ideas came crowding on his mind. He seemed to be still walking between Sikes and Crackit, who were angrily disputing: for the very words they said, sounded in his ears; and when he caught his own attention, … he found that he was talking to them…. Suddenly he started back at the report of fire arms; and there rose into the air loud cries and shouts; lights gleamed before his eyes, and all was noise and tumult, as some unseen hand bore him hurriedly away. Through all these rapid visions, there ran an undefined, uneasy consciousness of pain, which weared and tormented him incessantly.”
(Dickens, 220)
The two novels utilize this mystery often through dream sequences or dreamlike states, though the content and function varies in each specific case. In Oliver Twist these strange happenings often reveal some insight concerning Oliver’s inner layers, what pains him, and his awareness about the true nature of the things happening around him. When the shooting of Oliver is finally revisited in chapter 28, Oliver relives the shooting vividly, as if in a dream, while he struggles to find help (see left). The passage stresses the lack of control that Oliver had over the events that unfolded, as well as the dire straights his health had come to occupy, which was strongly present via Oliver’s hallucinations of Sikes and Crackit. The shooting itself overwhelms him, all his senses are numbed as he does not notice the “unseen hand” that bears him away; he experiences his despair over again removed from the shock of pain, as the pain is now constant and is linked with fear rather than surprise. With Oliver being overwhelmed the question arises about whose will brought about his misfortune, because it was certainly not his own. This shooting reinforces the notion that Oliver has little control over anything in that he can not bring himself to even attempt to gain control of an event’s outcome, even while his life is in danger. A growing sense of defeat in Oliver is also implied by this selection, as if old Fagin had begun to break him, forcing him into accepting this despair, influencing his ability to react. For otherwise it can be assumed that Oliver would have made some effort, at least simply for the sake of his own life.
“The day passed off – day! There was no day; it was gone as soon as come – and night came on again; night so long, and yet so short; long in it’s dreadful silence and short in it’s fleeting ours. | 21 | English | male | Some college | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
gg | So now every night he would silently watch as his robed twin would stumble over the cliffs like a hermit grown mad from loneliness now giddy from the sensation of the wind flowing over him with a smile on his face to match. Not once had Max stayed asleep long enough to watch the inevitable collision at the bottom of the cliff; each night he chases away his acceptance and startles awake before the fall is finished. Until tonight.
Talking to himself while shuffling out of the bathroom, Max wonders “Maybe I should see a shrink….. I mean this has got to mean something.” He reaches the light switch on the wall near his bed only to find that the power is out. “That would explain the heat, no ac.” Mumbles Max in realization. So now he wanders over to the only light source left in the room, the curtains which glitter orange from the rising sun behind. “Now to let some light in,” he says but as he pulls the curtain back he is not greeted by the morning sun. Instead a scarred earth lay beyond his window; burnt orange and red littered with the ghosts of skyscrapers and covered in ash. Stunned into paralysis, a feeling of realization rushes over Max and his heart sinks into grief. Unfortunately his dismay consumes his thought and he does not notice the hulking creature soaring around his 12th story window. Its skin is burnt and its wings full of holes like that of a tortured bat. Max whispers to himself, “I must be….” Only to be interrupted by two claws bursting through his windows ripping at his chest. Max struggles to stay inside bracing himself against the window frame but his attempt is feeble and with unknown strength the creature slings him into the ashy orange air.
In book two of his Epistles, Letter LXVI, Seneca explains in depth the concepts of virtue and indifferent actions through the explanation of conversations had with a dear friend of his, Claranus. The interweaving of virtue and indifferent action is shown clearly, he explains how they are related and dissimilar and why virtue is the end all goal of life. This is first established through the example of his friend Claranus who, even though his body is feeble and frail, lives a happy existence because of his sound mind. Seneca links this in to why virtue is the greatest good and the only way to true happiness.
Virtue is generally defined as living in accordance with nature, or doing as one was designed by a higher power whether it be the cosmos or some deity. It is the greatest and only good, all other actions, if not virtuous, are indifferent and all virtuous actions are equal. Seneca explains that even two opposing actions, like for example enduing torture and sex, are equally good if done virtuously. | 21 | English | male | Some college | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
gg | For Black entertainers both performance art (music, dancing, and the like) and the role of the performer were changed forever by Jazz and the Blues. Sammy Davis Jr., who worked through the transition from “spectacle to respectable” and during his career furthered that shift, is an example of the culmination of that change.
One particular piece of media that embodies the result of the previously mentioned transition is a performance at a Rat Pack benefit in St. Louis of the song “One for my Baby and One for the Road” by Davis. In this performance Davis talks about how the song has been sung by countless vocalists over the years and then proceeds to impersonate many of those singers throughout his own version. He touches upon singers of the day, both black and white, such as Nat “King” Cole, Dean Martin, Louie Armstrong, Tony Bennet, and Fred Estair who sang the original version. He finishes the song with a flourish, belting out the lyrics in his own voice. It is how he plays these characters, and how he presents his own persona, which truly personifies the change he was so instrumental in bringing about.
In the early 1900’s blacks were performing as caricatures of themselves on stage. Black face was still widely used and the characters portrayed the black American in a highly negative and stereotypical light. Black music was essentially non-existent outside of its own circles and never recorded. With the explosion of Blues and Jazz and the Harlem nightlife that accompanied them, the black performer was given a chance to redefine his image. Davis strove to mold one that fostered respect and presented the black man with dignity and class. One can see his success in his performance with the Rat Pack in St. Louis. The song is sprinkled with comedy and beauty, and even during the impersonations where he pokes fun, Louie Armstrong and Dean Martin, he does so in a way where respect is given to each other performer. He does this by pouring himself into the character and giving it up to the other singers a little before he does so. When he begins his impersonation of Armstrong he takes a moment and gathers himself before unleashing the raspy voice Louie was known for. Not only is the bit spot on accurate, but the audience can see in the way that he sings that nothing is held back. With Martin its more of the same. Drink in hand, Sammy dives into the character and takes a couple shots at Martin (a common occurrence between Pack members). The comedy in the act does not discriminate, nor does it make a spectacle of Davis himself. It is simply commentary, given with a little bit of love, and the laughs he receives pay homage to each other performer.
Before beginning his bit on Nat “King” Cole, Davis says a little extra about the man. “Starting out first, not in terms of ridicule or any other reason. | 21 | English | male | Some college | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
gg | This is a costly oversight on Mackie’s part and the resultant disagreement can not be accounted for by the realm of non-moral fact. The moral heretic in most cases would be someone who has developed an individual moral code separate from the conventional one. A cereal killer would be the easiest example here but due to the involvement of insanity it would really only muddle and distract the argument on either side. Instead I offer up the example of a criminal, nothing specific just your average run of the mill deviant the only stipulation being he isn’t committing crimes out of desperation. A criminal is immersed in the culture of whose laws he breaks, and yet he continues to break them. Should his moral code not reflect the code of his relative culture? Why then does he defy the accepted or conventional moral rules? To use Mackie’s own reasoning, the best explanation here is moral disagreement; it is simpler and more likely to be the case.
My ability to utilize Mackie’s own line or reasoning in this case, inference to the best explanation, illuminates another inconsistency within his argument. If the best explanation for disagreement within morality is that there is no objective moral value then wouldn’t it be the case that the best explanation of disagreement within moral code derived from culture is that morality is not culturally relevant? Why is it the case that the best explanation of disagreement is the refutation of the underlying premise in one case but not in the other? If we were to follow his line of reasoning then there are two options that come to the surface concerning relative morals. First is that we would have to conclude that the claim that morals are culturally relevant is false which would leave us without an adequate account of morality. This speaks to my major concern, the second option, that if we no longer have an account of morality that can survive the argument from disagreement inferring falsity as the best explanation then is inference to the best explanation a line of reasoning that can explain conclusively that there are no objective moral values? If used consistently it can not, and consistency is certainly required.
In response Mackie would most likely first argue that in the case of culture disagreement comes in the form of non-moral fact and there is no true moral disagreement, but I have already shown this not to be the case. He also could argue that objective value is a special case in which inference to the best explanation is the most accurate line of reasoning. Accomplishing this would be no small task but he could go about it two distinct ways, arguing that objective value is a special or dissimilar case in regard to relative moral beliefs or in regard to moral reformers and heretics. | 21 | English | male | Some college | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
gg | But simply because of the fact that this man contributed something that no one else will ever be able to duplicate or to fill the gap now that he’s missing. Out of sheer and total respect, just a few bars of Mr. Nat ‘King’ Cole.” Another thing that Sammy did was play himself on stage, outside of his impersonations. The man talking to you between songs was Davis, not his on stage persona. He carried himself with the utmost poise and did so because he wanted, above all other things, respect. This impersonation is the exemplification of his class. Davis makes it seem like an honor to be doing a bit about Cole, you can see his actual admiration for the man. It is almost like he is introducing him to come out and play but Cole’s voice comes out of Davis instead of the man coming up on stage himself. Davis is paying his respects to the dead singer through his own routine. And the way in which he introduces the late Cole, not to be overlooked, is an incredibly articulate preamble to his bit. But this was always the case with Sammy, he drove himself to speak as an educated man would even though he himself had not attended kindergarten. It was all part of how he presented himself, always with the utmost class leaving no room for anyone to look down upon him.
It is the way Davis carries himself between impersonations that shows the true character of the man and marks the difference in performance for Black artists that he helped bring about. On stage Davis is himself, and so he carries himself with class and earns the respect of the audience. What he is not doing is making the performance about the color of his skin, winning laughs with a caricature of blacks in America. He showcases his talent and lets it speak for itself, like at the end when he goes for the big finish with his own voice. The figurative floodgates open up and Sammy fills the room with his voice, outshining any of his previous impersonations. It is the highlight of the song, the part that sticks in your head, the “wow” factor. The audience can’t help but to be impressed at the flare and skill he displays. That is how he won rooms and that is how he wanted to represent black America, with displays of his talent.
The respect and dignity which he gave and demanded as a result of his performances was something that Davis had made a conscious effort to include in all his appearances. In an interview with Alex Haley in 1966, Sammy spoke about his motivations and his career. One incident that he spoke about stands out as the true beginning for his philosophy on performance. While in the armed forces Sammy did shows for his fellow troops, singing and dancing. | 21 | English | male | Some college | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
gg | It would seem that vengeance was the only thing he had to live for and as it became a futile expression of hate, his life became just the same. This lead to his yearning for peace and as he could not find it in his life, he sought it out in the ground, next to his only love.
Sweat soaks the shirt resting between Max’s back and the sheet he sleeps upon. It pools around his midsection and begins to cool and Max startles awake as his cold, damp, salty sheet drives a shiver like a spike into his spine. He shoots up from underneath his covers and gasps for air clutching his face in his hands. When he finally calms his shaking he mumbles, “Shit,” under his breath and through his fingers as if someone is listening. Rolling out of bed he stumbles in the dark towards his bathroom to splash some water on his face. His sweat soaked plain white t-shirt is gripping his chest like paper mache and his boxers, damp and heavy, seem to sink with each of his steps. Like his shorts the air in Max’s apartment was hot and thick with moisture. A heat wave had set in on the city and taken hold in his building making it feel as if each room was on the brink of a summer thunderstorm. Yet, oddly enough, the heat was not the cause of Max startling awake tonight, rather it was due to a recurring problem of his.
Max is of average height and build and his skin is, for lack of a better word, loose because until recently it encompassed a much larger man. This is of course also the cause of his slipping underwear but Max has chosen to ignore his weight loss as it was not planned or caused by any gumption of his own. Max’s face, though currently pale and distraught, is defined by soft features and deep dark eyes, topped with ragged brown hair. As some color returns to his visage and some warmth crawls back into his limbs, Max notices that his bathroom is sweating as if having its own nightmare. The sight of the dripping tile walls draws his attention back towards his dream and Max whines to himself, “Falling, its always falling.”
For the past month this particular dream has been the headlining act in Max’s subconscious. Every night he drifts into sleep and is met with a peaceful cliff top scene overlooking a mighty river winding through the valley below. Grass on the cliff has lost its color; blades made grey from fear of the perilous heights. But braver the grass was than the trees for not even the mighty oak had dared to wander near the cliff. Among the courageous blades, clad always in a silver robe, Max sees himself dangerously near the cliff’s edge gazing up towards the sun. At first he would shout to himself warning of the coming cliff but his words repeatedly proved futile. | 21 | English | male | Some college | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
gg | How she refused to let go, allowing herself to be cut by the window repeatedly, showed the passion with which she aspired to return into the house; a passion that rivaled madness, spirit or not. Heathcliff’s reaction to Lockwood’s account of the ghost reveals his own involvement and his turmoil concerning this spirit. Cold and angry, he ushers Lockwood away and once alone in the room cries for Catherine. “ ‘Come in! come in!’ he sobbed. ‘Cathy do come. Oh do – once more! Oh! my heart’s darling, hear me this time – Catherine, at last!’ ” (Dickens, 24). Clearly Heathcliff yearns deeply to see this ghost and to have her wish fulfilled, calling her his “heart’s darling” she is clearly the object of his affection. He loved her so, and it is then easy to assume that her death may be the cause of Heathcliff’s general misery and callous behavior. The miserly man curiously seems to wish to be haunted, calling out to Catherine out of an extreme yearning to be near her.
“She showed herself, as she often was in life, a devil to me! And, since then, sometimes more, and sometimes less, I’ve been the sport of that intolerable torture!... When I went from home I hastened to return: she must be somewhere at the Heights, I was certain! And when I slept in her chamber – I was beaten out of that – I couldn’t lie there; for the moment I closed my eyes she was either outside the window, or sliding back the panels, or entering the room, or even resting her darling head on the same pillow as she did when a child.”
(Bronte, 257)
This assumption is proven true in a later conversation (see right) where Heathcliff tells of his first haunting and of his lust to see the ghost again. Further insight can be taken from this scene as to the potency of Heathcliff’s passion for his lost love and how it has absorbed his life and motivations. It both tortures him and drives him, for he only desires to be with her. As he said, he no longer leaves the house for long worrying he’ll miss her appearing, and sleep escapes him because he imagines her near and can’t rest knowing it. This obsession drives him into madness, it is the cause of his decent and resulting death. His madness reaches its height when Heathcliff digs up the body of Catherine and reveals his desire to be close to it still, to lay next to it in eternal slumber. Here he has arrived at the point in his delusion where it tortures him into a resolution, he must be with her and figures that death is the only way to accomplish that, thusly he loses his will to live and carry out his vengeance.
During his decent into madness Heathcliff tells Nelly about his change in motivation from vengeance to his obsession over his dead love, how the mania affects him physically is what qualifies the incident as bizarre. | 21 | English | male | Some college | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
gg | The emotions and feelings invoked by the action are indifferent and have no affect on the action being good or bad; if an action be intended by nature then that action is intrinsically good whether it be preferred (things that would be referred to as good, in a common sense of the word, such as pleasure) or avoided (things often regarded as bad like pain). Seneca explains this as such, he states that one action that is fitting can be no more fitting than any other action that is fitting as well, hence nothing is more honorable than that which is honorable.
In this same sense, no indifferent action is more important than any other. Some things are preferred and some avoided, but this is all due to reason and the attempt to live virtuously. He explains that though pleasurable actions may be more enjoyable to your physical existence, if done without virtue they are no more good or bad than any action which may cause pain or discomfort to your physical self. If done without virtue, no action can be good and therefore it does matter if you find yourself in pain or pleasure, both are equally unimportant what truly matters is if the action was in accordance with nature. The Sage would be neither afraid of pain or content with pleasure, he knows that true happiness comes only from virtue and these things are of no importance. It is this mindset that allows Seneca to see the cause of Claranus’ happiness.
Claranus may have a frail physical existence full of discomforts, but he himself is a very happy man. Seneca links this to his sound mind; even though he is plagued by his physical discomfort, Claranus has a strong mind and strong reason and his reason allows him to discern what is truly important in the stoic sense. Claranus overlooks his physical disabilites and regards them of no importance, though they may cause endless hassles; he knows that true happiness is a result of virtuous actions and instead of dwelling on his curse, he strives to be the virtuous man. In this way, Seneca believes that any man may overcome his troubles and find true happiness. One much just realize that these things do not matter, they only have power because they are given power, take away your belief in them and they will no longer affect you.
In his letter, Seneca speaks of and explains the good that these views can accomplish if applied with reason. One can overcome his troubles, as was the case with his friend Claranus, and make strides toward true happiness. The letter is a kind propaganda for the stoic way of life and it is very effective.
Black culture has been a wildly influential component of the melting pot that is American society. The culture that Americans embrace today is often considered the child of Black influence in the first half of the 20th century, most prominently with regards to music and entertainment. | 21 | English | male | Some college | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
gg | In its most extreme application, I believe this would even include disagreement within the self. As a whole this line of reasoning does not service his claim that there are no objective moral values and in fact leads to a more difficult assertion about disagreement in general.
The possibility of disagreement within reformers is also not taken into account by this claim and obviously if we can find moral disagreement within the reformers it would be considered the same type of moral disagreement Mackie refutes outside the category. I introduce the concept of violence versus non-violence; different reformers both embrace and condemn the use of violence as a means to their reformation. Mackie would call this another case of non-moral fact and I would agree with him if this distinction only represented itself, however it does not. Beyond its affect on the actions of the reformers, this distinction represents an underlying disagreement in the morals of the reformers. It represents their conception of the morality of violence, and whether or not it is morally acceptable to implement violence in order to achieve their goals. Therefore it is not within the realm of non-moral fact but rather is the type of disagreement we require and because we can ascertain moral disagreement regardless of its relation to a sub-category we can again conclude that, based on Mackie’s original line of reasoning, morals can not be derived relatively from culture. As I had him argue in this case, I believe Mackie would attempt to categorize all disagreement within the reformers as disagreement in non-moral fact. As he defines it would only be disagreement in how they bring about their reformation and not on the basic moral level. What Mackie doesn’t consider is that disagreement in non-moral fact does not rule disagreement in moral fact. In fact a disagreement in non-moral fact could certainly stem from an inference developed from a deeper disagreement the two hold about a moral fact. And if we follow his original line of reasoning, inference to the best explanation, this would be the best answer based in the fact that disagreement qualifies the underlying premise as false.
Next I would like to examine the case of the moral heretic as I do not believe Mackie accounts for this instance of disagreement in his examination of moral reformers, even though he does mention the concept. He defines moral heretics and reformers as, “…people who have turned against the established rules and practices of their own communities for moral reasons, and often for moral reasons we would endorse.” I highlight the end of the phrase to draw attention to the conflict between this definition and the moral heretic. He casually lumps the heretic in with the reformer almost as if dismissing or overlooking the concept entirely. It is not the case that a moral heretic would have any endorsement from his culture because he does not hold conventional beliefs. | 21 | English | male | Some college | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
gg | At one time he raved and blasphemed; and at another howled and tore his hair. Venerable men of his own persuasion had come to pray beside him, but he had driven them away with curses.”
(Dickens, 430)
We often find our protagonist stumbling into this half-awake dreamlike awareness because it can service the development of a character like Oliver, who often keeps his mouth shut. Dickens describes the state as such, “Although Oliver had roused himself from sleep, he was not thoroughly awake. There is a drowsy state, between sleeping and waking, when you dream more in five minutes with your eyes half open, and yourself half conscious of everything around you, than you would in five nights with your eyes fast closed…” (Dickens, 64). Near the end of the book we see Fagin experiencing a similar state, though maybe straying farther than Oliver into madness, as he waits to be hanged (see right).
Fagin is simply waiting to die with no possibility of escape and no semblance of control, resultantly his behavior becomes bizarre. His inescapable end is an equalizing factor for him concerning Oliver, as it shows the two characters having similar encounters with death; both characters touch upon madness through delirium and hallucinations, though Fagin is the only one to get the full experience. The aforementioned commonality paints death as an equalizing inevitability; the fact that death is inescapable creates a dilemma for all people in that they must die despite fear of what it may be like and what it may entail. That fear drives Fagin close to madness and his semiconscious state is strikingly similar in its origins to those of Oliver’s vivid dreamlike hallucinations. The statement this makes about death also adds to the underlying morality of Dickens larger commentary on class; effectively saying that all of man is equal in that we all live and die, and luxury should not be withheld for some, while despair is forced on others.
“As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child’s face looking through the window – Terror made me cruel; and, finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled it’s wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood soaked the bed-clothes: still it wailed, ‘Let me in!’ and maintained its tenacious gripe almost maddening me with fear.”
(Bronte, 20-21)
Wuthering Heights has its own things to say about class, but for this work mystery and the supernatural serve to reveal motive and create tension rather than develop larger concepts. For example, the dream Lockwood has about the ghost of Catherine Linton, when he stays at the Heights, implies some things about the motives of Heathcliff and alerts the reader to his inner strife; which may account for his callousness. The brutality of the dream itself, where Lockwood bloodies the ghost’s wrists by dragging them across the broken glass; and the ghost struggles not, wanting only to be let in, suggests something about the nature of the ghost; it’s desire to return into the house was strong as a result of desperation. | 21 | English | male | Some college | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
gg | He isn’t eating or drinking and he is seeing Catherine’s face in everything, wherever he looks, whoever he looks at, becomes Catherine. The ghost is what has driven his madness to begin affecting him physically and it plays a similar role for the reader. Without the ghost the reader has no physical representation of Heathcliff’s despair, it would otherwise all be in his head. For the reader, the ghost is the manifestation of Heathcliff’s obsession and the mental and emotional turmoil he experiences over it; it makes Heathcliff’s problems graspable, outside of him directing them to the audience in a monologue, and heightens the tension surrounding Heathcliff’s misery by adding the element of the supernatural.
Both novels, Wuthering Heights and Oliver Twist, use mystery and the supernatural as an exciting agent that sets them apart as gems of the period. Tension is built up like a storm in scenes of violence that are both brutal and eerie, sometimes leaving it open as to what was real and what exactly was a dream, like when Oliver relives being shot or when Lockwood dreams of ghosts. It bolsters the development of characters in their motives and emotion, dramatizing their misery and despair. But the real beauty of this element in each story is the way each author uses it to weave together ideas, questions, and dilemmas in the mind of the reader; how it inspires curiosity and intrigue that locks the audience in.
In the chapter from his book, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong, entitled “The Subjectivity of Values” J.L. Mackie argues that there are no objective values in the case of morality. The aim of this paper will be to refute the arguments he makes in the section “The Argument from Relativity” where he attempts to prove this claim through what is essentially an argument from disagreement made by an inference to the best explanation. This will be attempted by means of an attack on his account of relative morality through a reapplication of his own arguments against objective moral value.
The basic form of his argument is that for morality to have an objective value then there must not be disagreement, but there is disagreement so therefore morality can not have objective value. His explanation for the disagreement is that moral codes are developed instead from culture and community and that different groups have a different set of beliefs, which of course leads to disagreement within the groups. “Disagreement about moral codes seems to reflect people’s adherence to and participation in different ways of life.” (Mackie 109). Monogamy, as a value, is his main example for this section: he concludes that the best explanation would be that people approve of monogamy because they participate in a monogamous way of life and not the reverse. Here we see him clearly making an inference to the best explanation in that the weight of his claim is derived from it seeming more likely or plausible. | 21 | English | male | Some college | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
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German colonial rule has been noted by various observers for its brutality, notably with respect to the genocide of the Ovaherero and Nama in German South West Africa. Of course nothing so broad as an entire colonial empire can be accounted for by such a simple description. The German colonial empire was as varied in policies and ruling style as it was in geography. Educational provision across the colonies was similarly diverse. When the British took over German East Africa (Tanganyika) in 1919, they found a large population of educated and literate Africans. German educational efforts in Kamerun and other colonies were also praised by contemporary authors.
The situation in South West Africa (present-day Namibia) presented a stark contrast. Unlike in East Africa, where the government established state schools and played a prominent role in the education of the natives, in South West Africa the task of native education was left almost entirely to missionary societies that received limited government support. The government did however invest significant resources towards the education of Europeans in the colony, establishing s system of state schools as well as more heavily supporting and regulating missionary schools. These educational policies had longstanding effects on South West Africa, even after German rule. While other German colonies boasted significant numbers of literate and educated Africans, in South West Africa “the overwhelming majority of the population remained untouched, uneducated, and illiterate.” Various social, political, and economic factors led to the divergent experience of South West Africa. This paper seeks to expand the discussion by identifying these factors and paying particular attention to new research on the attitudes of settlers and colonial authorities to native Africans.
There is a wealth of literature dealing with education in the German colonial empire specifically. Most of these sources are in German and were written in the early twentieth century, during or shortly after the period of German colonial rule. The aim of early works was primarily to describe the features of educational systems in these colonies. Later writings in English expanded the discourse through comparative studies of education in the various German colonies and more detailed analyses of specific aspects of education. These studies illustrated significant differences in the educational systems of different colonies. The most prominent work to explicitly address the topic of this paper is Cohen’s study of education in South West Africa and East Africa. Cohen compares the educational systems of the two colonies and discusses the factors that account for the differences between them. According to Cohen, the large settler population of South West Africa explains many of the distinguishing aspects of the colony’s educational system.
Compared to Germany’s other colonial possessions, South West Africa had a moderately temperate climate, although much of the territory is covered by arid desert. The European population of South West Africa reflected the relatively hospitable conditions. By 1913 nearly 15,000 whites lived in South West Africa, while only 5,336 lived in the colony with the next largest settler population, East Africa. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
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Steinmetz shows that colonial policy was heavily influenced by European attitudes towards native populations. In South West Africa several distinct forms of native policy were enacted during various periods of colonial rule and with respect to different native groups.
The foundation for European attitudes was laid during the mid-eighteenth century with the arrival of German missionaries in the region that would become German South West Africa. Two African groups dominated the area in this period: the Bantu-speaking Ovaherero, who had migrated from the north during the 17th and 18th centuries; and the Nama, or Namaqua, numerous Khoikhoi tribes from South Africa who moved into the region at the start of the 19th century. Another group, the Berg Damara, previously occupied the area and was thereafter subjugated by the both Ovaherero and Nama. Small bands of Bushmen, possibly the true original residents of South West Africa, live scattered throughout the territory in various marginal areas. Another Bantu tribe, the Ovambo, lived in the tropical area along the border with Portuguese Angola, but did not play a major role in German colonial affairs because they were so separated from the rest of the colony.
Of the tribes, the Nama have the longest history of contact with Europeans due to their presence in the Cape Colony. German perceptions of the Nama derived from this old discourse. Described by some commentators as noble savages, the Nama were also characterized at times as “men of implulse” having “idle and dissolute habits.” Altogether European depictions of the Nama were highly varied and inconsistent.
Sustained contact with the Ovaherero was not made until the nineteenth century. Although missionaries initially viewed this group positively, praising them for their beauty and strength, these flattering descriptions were soon replaced by claims that they were a base and crude people, prone to violence, robbery, and lies. Hugo Hahn, the founder of the first Ovaherero mission, framed his depiction of the Ovaherero in a wider Darwinian context. He characterized them as an innately inferior race that was destined to naturally die out.
Steinmetz claims that these negative portrayals of Ovaherero were partially a result of the limited progress the missionaries had with the tribe. Missionary education also floundered in early years. Schools were mainly focused on converting natives, but teaching them European customs and modes of living was also seen as an avenue for eventual conversion to Christianity. Though some schools had moderate success, missionaries were also driven out of many communities. In the late 1860s a movement opposed to Christian conversion formed, further hindering missionary efforts. By 1874 less than 1% of the Ovaherero had been baptized, and by 1904 this proportion only grew to 6%. Other Europeans were frustrated by the Ovaherero’s refusal to sell their cattle. This resistance to change and “Europeanization” helped reinforce perceptions which would legitimize a policy of land and cattle appropriation and eventually extermination.
When Germany formally claimed South West Africa in 1884, colonial authorities looked to missionaries as primary resources on the native populations. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | In the north the FNLA began a major offensive, their ranks bolstered by hired western mercenaries and Zairian soldiers and artillery. The CIA and China also provided the FNLA with generous military aid in the form of money and arms. The MPLA continued to receive arms shipments from the Soviet Union and in May recruited the fiercely anti-Mobutu Katangese rebels who had previously served the Portuguese as counterinsurgency troops. The FNLA offensive reached the outskirts of Luanda, but was stopped by the arrival of 1,500 Cuban soldiers and additional Soviet weapons in August. The poorly equipped FNLA guerillas, even with Zairian and foreign mercenary support were no match for the highly trained Cuban soldiers that supported the MPLA and were soon routed and forced to retreat into their strongholds in the north and back into Zaire.
Further south the MPLA faced attacks from both the FNLA and UNITA and starting in October a massive invasion by the South African Defense Force (SADF) from South-West Africa (modern Namibia). Without Cuban support, the MPLA in the south quickly folded to the SADF and within a month the southern front was only 120 miles from Luanda.
By the time November 11 came, battles between the three nationalist movements and their foreign allies raged across Angola. Three separate independence ceremonies were carried out: one in Huambo by UNITA, and in two different neighborhoods of Luanda by the MPLA and FNLA. However, UNITA and the FNLA would soon be defeated and the MPLA acknowledged by most of the world as the legitimate government of Angola.
After pacifying the urban podar popular movements, which had been causing internal conflict within the organization, the MPLA focused on neutralizing the FNLA and UNITA threats. In contrast with that of the USSR and Cuba, the American and South African presence in Angola was more clandestine and less popular. Cuba, another poor country with a colonial heritage, was seen as extending Third World solidarity to the Angolans and defending them from a racist South Africa. Both South Africa and the US also had strong ties with the Portuguese, and this association with imperialism made them unpopular with many groups in Angola. Once it became better known that the US was providing arms to the FNLA and that UNITA’s military successes in the south were largely due to the SADF, international and domestic opinion increasingly sided with the MPLA, and South Africa was soon pressured to leave Angola. War-weary from Vietnam and wary of new Third World conflicts, a new Democratic Congress in Washington moved to ban military aid to the FNLA.
The departure of the South Africans and American aid, together with infighting between UNITA and the FNLA led to the MPLA taking decisive control of the country in 1976. Though the FNLA ceased to be a major political force, UNITA continued to actively oppose MPLA-rule for another twenty-six years. The violence from 1974–1976 cost over 100,000 Angolans their lives and drove tens of thousands of Ovimbundu and Bakongo into Zambia and Zaire. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | Portuguese Angola and Mozambique were seen as potential solutions to South Africa’s economic and security problems, and South Africa had worked with the Portuguese colonial government in the past. With both territories possessing large settler populations, friendly post-colonial régimes could be set up with South African military intervention, turning the former Portuguese colonies into buffer states and important allies in a hostile neighborhood. Furthermore, Angola’s developed infrastructure and rich resource wealth could help South Africa economically, as it felt increasingly isolated by the international community.
Having the largest and most powerful military of the region, South Africa had the means to accomplish its objectives. Military bases in South-West Africa (Namibia) served as a useful staging ground for intervention in Angola. In addition to its own motivations, South Africa was encouraged to intervene by the United States, who felt that they were needed to counter the Cuban and Soviet support of the MPLA. After invitations from both UNITA and the FNLA in the early days of the civil war, South Africa made its first incursion into Angola in June of 1975. This action would be the first of twelve invasions by the SADF, which would be vital for the survival of UNITA as a viable military force. The continued involvement of South Africa forced the MPLA to rely on Cuban and Soviet military support throughout the civil war. The transition to a post-apartheid government in the early-90s and the independence of Namibia meant that South Africa would no longer intervene militarily in Angola. UNITA would have to depend on its other regional ally, Zaire, for continued support against the MPLA.
Sharing a large border and deep cultural ties that went back to the Kongo kingdom, Zaire and Angola were strongly connected. Throughout the liberation war, Zaire served as a base of operations for the Bakongo-dominated FNLA and provided it significant military assistance. Besides the solidarity showed to their Bakongo kin, Mobutu’s Zaire had other important reasons for fighting the MPLA. Some of these were ideological; Mobutu was a staunch Cold War ally of the US and was highly critical of communism. His experience with Soviet-supported Katangese rebels in the late 1960s helped establish these views and when this group began to fight on the side of the MPLA in 1975, it only increased the animosity between Mobutu and the MPLA. Other aspects of the MPLA and Mobutu’s ideologies also clashed. While the MPLA espoused multi-racial and cosmopolitan views, Mobutu was a black nationalist with strong ideals of African authenticity. Starting in 1975, Zaire sent several battalions of regular soldiers as well as commando units into Angola, after unsupported FNLA guerillas proved ineffective. Even with significant weapons provided by the US and other Western nations, the Zairians were decisively defeated by the MPLA and their Cuban allies. In the disorganized retreat back into Zaire, the troops wrecked havoc on the countryside and abandoned large amounts of American weapons, exposing the US’s somewhat clandestine support of the FNLA. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | The commitment to fighting communism and the US’s previous relationship with Holden Roberto trumped the opinions of the dissenters and the US continued to support the FNLA.
US weapons, foreign mercenaries, and Zairian and South African forces were unable to defeat the MPLA with their Cuban and Soviet allies and American involvement declined during the following years under the Carter administration. The 1980 election of Ronald Reagan brought the US back into the fold of the Angolan Civil War, with continued support of UNITA.
Though UNITA achieved some military victories with the help of the SADF, particularly at Cuito-Cuanavale in 1988 where they beat off a large attack by MPLA and Cuban forces, it became increasingly clear that neither side would gain an upper hand and that most of the military successes on both sides were due to the Cuban and South African forces. As both Cuba and South Africa agreed to leave Angola where they were both essentially fighting another country’s war for them, US support for UNITA also decreased and under the Bush and Clinton administrations closer ties were made with the MPLA and it was recognized diplomatically as the legitimate government of Angola. With the Cold War over and its oil interests safe, the US had little reason to be actively supporting rebel movements in Angola.
China was the third superpower to project its power in Angola. Chinese involvement was mostly limited to the first two decades of war and was rooted in its opposition to Soviet expansion coming out of the Sino-Soviet split. This anti-Sovietism held together the curious alliance of two African nationalist groups (the FNLA and UNITA), Zaire, apartheid South Africa, communist China, and the United States. Starting with the training of UNITA operatives in Beijing during the late-1960s, Chinese support eventually rested primarily on the FNLA. After the events of 1974–1976, China was discouraged by the course of the war and withdrew its military advisors and materiel aid.
The Angolan War of Independence together with the Angolan Civil War cost hundreds of thousands of Angolans their lives, and occupied the country for over forty years. The effects of the conflict are still felt today as thousands of landmines make farming in many areas very dangerous and tensions between different ethnic and political groups still exist, though not on the scale it previously did.
The underlying causes of the long conflict are many and complicated, having their roots in nearly five centuries of disruptive Portuguese rule in which millions of Angolans were enslaved or forced into labor and the population was divided into a racial hierarchy that led to distrust and resentment between groups.
Constant internal factionalism and massive foreign intervention prolonged and intensified the conflict, leading to one of the most devastating wars on the African continent. The past eight years have been relatively peaceful for Angola and the economy has been growing at a rapid rate, though much of this is due to oil revenues and expansion of the oil industry. A fledging democracy is forming.
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qq | Further south in the central highlands, the primary commercial crop was cotton, and British and Portuguese cotton plantations displaced the native Ovimbundu. Unlike the Bakongo farmers of the north who largely stayed together and settled in Zaire, the Ovimbundu dispersed in all directions, some remained in the area to work the cotton fields, while others migrated north to work on the coffee plantations or south to less populated areas. The employment of Ovimbundu on land formerly occupied by Bakongo farmers created tensions between the two groups. Furthermore as they were largely employed in lowly paid plantation work, the Ovimbundu occupied the low end of the economic scale, being scorned by both the Bakongo and Mbundu as crude and subservient. The animosity displayed by the other ethnic groups toward the Ovimbundu caused many of them to reject the two dominant nationalist groups, the FNLA and MPLA, during the liberation war, in favor of UNITA, an explicitly Ovimbundu-based organization.
The continued fragmentation of its nationalist movements set Angola apart from other Portuguese colonies. In Mozambique Julius Nyerere united the various factions under the banner of FRELIMO, and Amílcar Cabral convinced the assimilados of Cape Verde and the peasants of Guinea-Bissau to unite as PAIGC. In both of these situations, the rebel groups fought successful united campaigns against the Portuguese and were on the verge of victory at the time of independence. By contrast, no single nationalist movement in Angola was able to unite the various rebel factions in the struggle against Portugal for independence, and the three major groups that came to dominate the fourteen-year liberation war often fought each other as much as the Portuguese.
The Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) was initially formed in the late 1950s by a young group of Angolans studying in Lisbon and Paris, including Lúcio Lara, Agostinho Neto, Mário de Andrade, and José Eduardo dos Santos (Neto’s successor and the current president of Angola). Counting urban mestiços and assimilados, in addition to some liberal whites among its ranks, the MPLA was explicitly inclusive and set out to unite Angolans of different ethnic, religious, and regional backgrounds into one independence movement. Many of the founders had been members of the Communist Party of Angola (PCA) and a Marxist class-based ideology was adopted by the movement, partially as a uniting force for a group without a strong ethnic or regional base. Despite this, the MPLA initially struggled to build popular support. Many Angolans were suspicious of the MPLA, which represented the old mestiço and assimilado elite of the coastal cities and had a history of dominating the largely rural populations of the interior. Rival groups like the FNLA highlighted this distrust by publicly condemning the MPLA as out of touch with the peasants that made up 93% of the Angolan population. They further stated that an independent Angola under the MPLA would be dominated by urban mestiços and assimilados, effectively transferring power from one class of colonial masters to another. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | To supply their favored nationalist movements with weapons, the Soviet Union and United States together had spent more than $1 billion.
With the MPLA now in control of the government, UNITA continued to fight guerilla warfare in the Angolan bush, although with only limited support from the US and South Africa where new administrations partially withdrew from the conflict. By 1983 his army had reached the large diamond fields of northeastern Angola. Diamonds would become a major source of revenue for UNITA, bringing in enough money to make the organization less dependent on foreign support. 1983 also brought renewed support from South Africa, with another SADF-led invasion. Throughout the 80s UNITA, with the help of the SADF would continue to fight battles with the Cuban-backed MPLA all across Angola. US arms shipments also increased under the presidency of Ronald Regan. Political change in South Africa and the coming end of the Cold War led to the withdrawal of most South African and Cuban troops in 1988. Violence between the MPLA and UNITA continued through 1991, when the Bicesse Accords were signed, setting up the framework for multi-party democracy and elections in the country. Upon the actual elections, which pitted Jonas Savimbi against the José dos Santos, president of MPLA, dos Santos got 49.6% of the vote against Savimbi’s 40.1%. Under the agreement run-off elections were supposed to take place, but were cancelled by the MPLA after hostilities flared up again.
Though the elections were judged by UN authorities to be fair, UNITA alleged that they were fraudulent, and soon embarked on a renewed military campaign against MPLA. Fighting would continue off-and-on until Savimbi’s death in 2002. Without its charismatic leader, UNITA could not maintain its cohesion and disbanded, bringing over forty years of conflict to an end.
From the mid-fifteenth century expeditions along the West African coast, to the independence of its colonies in 1975, the Portuguese were in some ways both the first and last European colonizers of Africa, maintaining a presence on the continent longer than any other European power. The legacy of nearly five centuries of Portuguese rule lies at the root of many of the problems that have plagued Angola in the modern period. Though many of these features are common to the European colonization of Africa in general, some belong to the peculiar brand of colonialism practiced by Portugal, which often ran counter to the experience of other European countries. The Portuguese themselves acknowledged these differences with the theory of lusotropicalism, particularly under the régime of António Salazar.
Lusotropicalism held that Portugal was uniquely egalitarian and benevolent among the colonial powers. Proponents of this theory asserted that because of their unique history and character, the Portuguese did not have the exploitative tendencies of other Europeans and racism was absent among them. The example of Brazil was regarded as proof of the theory, due to its racially-mixed nature and large mestiço population. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | This economic power soon became political, and by the nineteenth century the Afro-Portuguese dominated the areas of the central highlands closer to the coast, presiding over several semi-autonomous kingdoms (reinos) centered on the coastal ports of Luanda and Benguela. These reinos were under the technical sovereignty of the Portuguese crown but were in practice ruled by the leading mestiço families. Seeing themselves as ethnically distinct from the indigenous Africans, the Afro-Portuguese were nonetheless visually indistinguishable from black Africans and often spoke Kimbundu as well as Portuguese. Still, the Afro-Portuguese “seldom, if ever, identified with the Africans because for all practical purposes they were Portuguese in nearly every way except colour.”
Later in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, some of the old Afro-Portuguese families began to merge with the other Kimbundu-speaking peoples of coastal and central Angola to form the modern Mbundu ethnic identity. The history of Afro-Portuguese dominance and compliance with the Portuguese colonial authorities created rifts between the coastal and inland peoples, which would continue to manifest themselves in the post-colonial conflicts, as the coastal and Mbundu-dominated MPLA struggled to win support among the Ovimbundu people of the interior.
The relative dominance of the Afro-Portuguese began to be challenged in the late 1800s, as the Portuguese were increasingly pressured to “modernize” their colonies by their colonial neighbors, the British and Germans. To do this, the old system of indirect rule through mestiço and African allies had to be replaced by direct Portuguese control and white settlement. Though European settlement continued at a relatively slow pace through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, restrictions were gradually made on which civil service and military positions Africans or mestiços could occupy. As the Afro-Portuguese were increasingly excluded from the higher levels of colonial administration, they had to compete with poor white immigrants for lower level jobs. Modern forms of transportation like the railroad and steamships began to dominate trade at the expense of the old mestiço-controlled caravans, further undermining their economic activities. The Afro-Portuguese were also challenged by a growing population of urbanized and mostly missionary-educated Africans.
In an attempt to create a more defined social hierarchy, the Portuguese implemented as system of assimilation, drawing a distinction between indígena (indigenous) and assimilado (assimilated) populations. Members of the indígena group were given access to few political rights and restricted to only the lowest and most menial forms of employment. By contrast, assimilados, mainly urbanized, were granted some political rights and eventually Portuguese citizenship. Becoming an assmilado meant showing a certain degree of educational attainment and financial security, in addition to adopting the Portuguese language and culture. The criteria for entry into the assimilado class were regulated by the Portuguese colonial authorities.
Assimilados were further divided into two groups, “assimilated objects” and “assimilated groups,” with the former mostly made up of the established Afro-Portuguese families who worked in various levels of the colonial government and the latter of the growing class of missionary-educated Africans.
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qq | According to a British diplomat serving in Angola in 1902, “nobody regarded the contract laborers as anything other than slaves.”
Claims of racial tolerance aside, the Portuguese set up social, political, and economic hierarchies based on race throughout their reign over Angola. These distinctions and inequalities, as well as internal displacements of African tribes, created significant tensions between members of different ethnic and racial groups which would come to shape the formation of nationalist movements and the course of the post-colonial civil wars.
For the first few hundred years of Portuguese rule, the European population in Angola was minimal and largely limited to the coast. Though several attempts were made to found agricultural outposts with white settlers in the interior, these were largely failures. The oppressive tropical climate and hostile African neighbors made life difficult for settlers, many of whom lacked agricultural experience or expertise. However, at the root of the early failures of white settlement lied the Portuguese system of penal colonization. As with overseas colonization in general, the Portuguese were the first to begin and the last to stop the practice of using convicts as settlers in their colonies. The difficult nature of life in Africa made it difficult to find voluntary immigrants, so convicts, called degradados, were seen as an effective subsitute, as well as a solution to the problem of overcrowding in Portuguese prisons. Used as soldiers, settlers, and sailors, the degradados, together with exiled Jews, gypsies, and other “undesirables,” formed a large majority of the white population in Angola until the beginning of the twentieth century. The mortality rate among degredados was alarmingly high, and this further discouraged free immigration to Angola, creating a cycle of continued penal settlement. Because of their small numbers and unreliability, the degredados could not fulfill all the roles of colonial administration and commerce, a class of mestiços, also called the Afro-Portuguese, rose to take many these positions.
Originally descendant from the union of Portuguese soldiers and merchants with indigenous African women, the Afro-Portuguese eventually became their own distinct ethnic group and grew to wield significant economic, and later political, power. The influence of the mestiços began with the slave trade, in which they often served as middlemen between the Portuguese traders and indigenous African kingdoms, leading and accompanying trade caravans into the interior. Though the slave trade was initially associated with the areas in and around the Kongo kingdom and its capital of São Salvador, Afro-Portuguese traders began to penetrate the central highlands to the south to find new sources of slaves. Luanda and later Benguela were established as ports to facilitate direct the new trade with Brazil and the other colonies. The decline of the Kongo due to a series of wars with the Portuguese in the seventeenth century, together with the stronger and more direct connections with colonial traders enjoyed by the Afro-Portuguese led to the eclipse of São Salvador by Luanda as the center of the Angolan slave trade, and by extension, economic activity in the region.
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qq | Initial relations between Portugal and Kongo were respectful, with both sides exchanging ambassadors and gifts. Within twenty years members of the Kongo royal family, including the king, had adopted Catholicism and encouraged Portuguese missionaries to spread the faith among the people.
However, this relationship soon became strained as the trade in slaves became the primary interest and occupation of the Portuguese in Africa. By 1575 more than 400,000 slaves had been exported, primarily to the plantation-based colonies of São Tomé and Brazil, as well as to other New World colonies. The effects of the slave trade severely weakened the Kongo state and removed nearly all vestiges of the friendly relationship and interest in Portuguese religion and culture that existed upon contact. Until the late nineteenth century Portugal’s presence in Angola was mostly limited to the coast, and much of the territory was controlled indirectly through semi-autonomous fiefdoms held by African allies or mestiços of mixed European and African descent. Because the European population was so small, mestiços, also known as Afro-Portuguese, performed key roles in the military, civil service, and business, occupying a privileged social position above the indigenous Africans and below the Portuguese. The Afro-Portuguese were also heavily involved in the slave trade, which dominated nearly all economic activity in Angola prior to its abolition in the 1870s.
At Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 the European powers divided most of Africa into zones of influence, as they competed for influence and dominance of the continent. The so-called “scramble for Africa” was brought about by the industrialization of Europe and the need for both important natural resources and markets for finished industrial goods. Like its neighbors and rivals, Portugal asserted its hold over its colonies in this period and began to develop and settle the interior.
New attempts to start plantations and agricultural settlements in the interior mostly failed, but a greater number of Portuguese settlers, mainly impoverished peasants, immigrated to the colony, settling primarily in the cities along the coast. As the number of whites in the cities increased, they began to displace the mestiços, and new restrictions were placed on bureaucratic positions. By the 1920s the old Afro-Portuguese elite had mostly lost its prominent place it had occupied during the nineteenth century. The dissatisfied members of this group would form much of the leadership of the various rebel groups during the liberation war.
Though the European population in Angola was rising it wasn’t until after World War II that large scale white immigration began. The war had been a successful period for neutral Portugal, and the economy of Angola grew as demand for tropical commodities increased, and Portuguese exploitation of African labor was expanded. Under the system of forced labor, African groups were moved around the country, causing conflicts between the displaced tribes which would continue into the modern era. Unlike industrial France and Britain, Portugal was relatively poor and undeveloped and thus more dependent on its overseas possessions for its economic well-being. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | In the 1990s Zaire served as the main supporter of UNITA, as South African and American support for the organization dwindled. In 1997 a coup supported in part by the Angolan government overthrew Mobutu, and Zaire was renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Without the aggressive Mobutu régime as a neighborhood, the situation in Angola stabilized and the MPLA was finally able to crack down on internal dissent without being troubled with foreign intervention, ending the civil war a few years later in 2002.
Like most other Third World conflicts of the twentieth century, the wars in Angola were heavily affected by the Cold War. In addition to the competition between the US and the USSR, several other factors motivated the involvement of international powers: the Sino-Soviet split, Third World solidarity against Western exploitation and imperialism, and in the case of the US, Angola’s large oil reserves.
The USSR was involved with the MPLA from its foundation in the late-1950s. Starting in 1958, MPLA founding member Mário de Andrade would travel to Moscow on a regular basis for various conferences and meetings. During these visits the MPLA developed a relationship with the Soviets, securing funding and in 1961 the explicit support of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who stated that “the patriots of Angola can be sure that the sympathies of the peoples of the great Soviet Union are fully on their side.” Many MPLA leaders would go on to be educated in Moscow.
The USSR chose to support the MPLA over rival movements in Angola for a number of reasons. As a left-leaning Marxist movement that explicitly condemned the imperial powers, the MPLA followed the same basic ideological principles as the USSR. The UPA/FNLA was more ambiguous on this issue, receiving support from the US and sometimes practicing anti-communist rhetoric. The MPLA was also not as focused on regional or ethnic issues, as the predominately Bakongo UPA based in northern Angola was. The USSR also practiced the policy of recognizing and supporting only one rebel movement within a conflict, a policy not shared by all of its peers.
Early Soviet support of the MPLA included food and clothing as well as weapons and increased progressively during the course of the war from goods valued at $25,000 in 1961 to $220,000 in 1973. Large scale Soviet assistance did not come until 1975 though. In this year another foreign power would join the equation, with Cuba’s shipment of two shiploads of T-55 tanks and 500 military advisories. Though the Cubans and Soviets would work together closely in Angola, early actions were not coordinated as is widely assumed. Cuba was not simply a Soviet proxy but rather had its own agenda for being in Angola. As a Third World country with a colonial past and communist government, Cuba wanted to sustain the global conflict against the West and imperialism through spreading Marxist-Leninist revolution. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq |
Lacking strong domestic backing, the MPLA looked abroad for military and economic support. Its leftist revolutionary agenda naturally aligned the MPLA with communist nations and the Soviet Union and Cuba became the movement’s strongest allies, with the Soviets providing material aid, money, and weapons and the Cubans eventually sending soldiers to assist with security and military campaigns. Other communist countries in Eastern Europe also supplied arms and military advisors, including the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
Support from other African countries was more limited. Neighboring Zaire and South Africa actively backed the FNLA and UNITA, both committing significant numbers of soldiers to fight the MPLA. Other African nations were less hostile; during the independence war the organization was based at different times in Congo-Brazzaville, Tanzania, and Zambia. Tanzania and Zambia also served as transit points for incoming Soviet arms shipments.
Though a relatively unified group during most of the civil war, divisions within the MPLA threatened its existence in its early years and into the 1970s. At the root of the inner factionalism was the disparate backgrounds of MPLA members, which included both educated mesticos and assimilados as well as uneducated peasants. Various groups formed factions that struggled for dominance within the movement. One major split was the Eastern Revolt led by Daniel Chipenda in the early-1970s, which set the guerillas doing most of the fighting against the political organization led by Agostihno Neto in Luanda. Chipenda eventually joined the FNLA and helped elicit the support of South Africa in the war against his old organization.
The Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola (National Front for the Liberation of Angola) grew out of the UPA (Union of Peoples of Angola, previously Union of Peoples of Northern Angola), a predominately Bakongo movement based in northern Angola and led by Holden Roberto. While the MPLA had its origins in Lisbon and Luanda, the UPA was founded in Léopoldville (modern Kinshasa) in neighboring Congo, also home to a large Bakongo population. In the late 1950s and 60s, Léopoldville was a center of nationalist activism, hosting a large refugee community from Angola and over fifty Angolan political organizations, mostly made up of Bakongos. Unlike the ideologically based MPLA, the UPA and other Bakongo nationalist movements appealed directly to the Bakongo ethnic group and the heritage of the old Kongo kingdom. Though Holden Roberto had ambitions of making the UPA/FNLA a nation-wide movement with broad-based support, it remained for most of its history an organization dominated by Bakongos, and was responsible for numerous acts of violence against mestiços, assimilados, whites, and non-Bakongo Africans, particularly the Ovimbundu who worked on the coffee plantations of the north.
Its reputation for violence and the lack of discipline among its ranks led many to distrust the FNLA, and greatly decreased its effectiveness. Infighting plagued the organization throughout its history as well. According to John Stockwell, chief of the CIA’s Angola Task Force in 1975, the FNLA “had few educated men at the top—no intellectuals—and had spent much of its history in the cocktail parties of Kinshasa. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | Increasing antagonism with the US meant that Cuba was also looking to foil American plans abroad, and the Angolan crisis was a perfect opportunity for Cuba to use its strong military to embarrass the US. Fidel Castro initially acted unilaterally and without notifying the Soviets on his intentions in Angola. However, Cuban and Soviet collaboration soon led to highly effective assistance to the MPLA, with the Cubans provided tens of thousands of well-trained soldiers and the Soviets technical expertise and military equipment, particularly in the field of heavy artillery and tanks, which were previously absent in the Angolan theater. By the 1980s, a Soviet investment of $5 billion in military hardware helped lead the MPLA to victory in the war. Weapons provided included “T-34 and T-54 tanks, 100mm guns, 120mm multiple rocket launchers, amphibious vehicles, helicopters equipped with 20mm cannon and air-to-ground rockets” as well as MIG-17 and MIG-21 fighter jets. Soviet and Cuban presence continued until the late 80s when global political changes and the end of the Cold War took away many of the incentives of remaining in Angola. Without Cuban and Soviet backing, the MPLA would have never been able to defeat its opponents, who also had the support of foreign superpowers.
The initial reasons for United States intervention in Angola were primarily economic. American oil companies were well established there since the discovery of oil in the 1950s, and in order to protect these interests, the US supported the Portuguese during the liberation war. By the time the Portugal was preparing to leave the continent in 1974, the threat of communist takeover by the MPLA with Cuban and Soviet support influenced the US to fund alternative groups to prevent a communist victory. A Soviet friendly nation in southern Africa might tip the balance of power in favor of the communists and set off more leftist revolutions in the region. Since 1961, the US had been supporting Holden Roberto with a modest stipend of $10,000 a year. In the light of the new situation, this sum was increased to $300,000 in 1975, and throughout that year $35 million was spent on arming the FNLA through airbases in friendly Zaire. US involvement was relatively clandestine at this stage, mostly involving the CIA and indirect aid to the FNLA through Zaire. An American population weary from Vietnam was not willing to enter another bloody Third World conflict so far from home.
Despite the official backing of the FNLA, many within the US establishment did not agree with the decision to support the FNLA. Two important US officials in Luanda, Robert W. Hultslander, the CIA station chief, and Tom Killoran, the American Consul General, agreed that the MPLA were the most qualified of the groups to govern and sought peaceful relations with Washington. Hultslander further stated that its leaders “were more effective, better educated, better trained, and better motivated”; by contrast the FNLA “was led by corrupt, unprincipled men who represented the very worst of radical black African racism.” | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | This new system created even more divisions in Angolan society by separating the population into groups, which actively competed with one another. The old Afro-Portuguese families, who often identified economically and culturally with the white settlers, saw their historical privileges taken away and became increasingly critical of the colonial government and at odds with white settlers. Mestiços also felt threatened by the newly educated class of Africans, who were seen as usurping their traditional roles in the colonial hierarchy. This split within the assimilado group carried on through the civil war, with the MPLA leadership coming mostly from the older established group, and the leaders of FNLA and UNITA from the newer group.
Besides the divisions among assimilados, there was also significant tension between assimilado and indígena populations. When they went through the process of assimilation, assimilados made a conscious decision to completely abandon their African heritage and adopt European culture. This process detached the assimilados from the largely rural, uneducated indígenas and often made it difficult for the two groups to see eye-to-eye and identify with one another. Though Africans continued to enter the assimilado class, the stringent restrictions on assimilation and the reluctance of many Africans to give up their African culture meant that less than 1% of Angola’s population was ever formally assimilated.
In the post-WWII period white immigration to Angola reached new highs as industrialization brought about massive rural unemployment in Portugal. Immigration to Africa was seen as both a solution to Portugal’s excess population problem and as a way to strengthen Portuguese control over its colonies. With the white population in Angola increasing from 44,000 in 1940 to 325,000 in 1974, Europeans soon took over not only upper and mid-level positions, but also most low-wage jobs in the city, displacing most of the urban African population. Having lost much of their status to poor white settlers, mestiço and assimilado populations felt increasingly marginalized by the Portuguese, and members of these groups would form the leadership of most of the independence movements in the 1950s and 60s. In addition to the social-cultural hierarchy imposed by the Portuguese, ethnic divisions were also intensified by other colonial policies.
The effects of the plantation system in the early twentieth century also exacerbated tensions between African ethnic groups. In the northern part of the country, large numbers of peasants were displaced to make room for commercial coffee plantations. Many of these farmers, mostly Kikongo-speaking members of the Bakongo ethnic group, fled to neighboring Zaire, where they flourished as small-scale commercial coffee farmers. As successful small entrepreneurs, many of the Bakongo diaspora in Zaire would be wary of the socialist policies of the MPLA, and would instead choose to support the ostensibly more business-friendly FNLA, which was also led by Bakongo and based in Zaire. After living in francophone Zaire for several generations, most of the Bakongo refugees adopted French, further dividing them from the mostly Portuguese-speaking groups in Angola.
| 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | The Cold War brought the global struggle between the West and communism to Angola and many other African countries also going through the decolonization process, but nowhere did foreign intervention reach such a large scale or involve so many different parties as in post-colonial Angola. While the United States, China, and the Soviet Union openly or clandestinely funded and armed factions, actual soldiers from Cuba, South Africa, and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) participated in the war on the sides of various factions. In addition to having ideological bases, the rebel groups were also affiliated with particular ethnic groups and other segments of society (such as the urban-rural divide). The situation was complicated by Angola’s massive mineral wealth in oil and diamonds. The legacy of centuries of Portuguese colonial rule also had a heavy bearing on the conflicts.
After an outline of the history of Angola from the period right before European contact until the end of the civil war in 2002, this paper will identify and analyze the various social, political, and economic factors that contributed to the violence and instability of the area in the past half-century.
Angola is a relatively large country; at 1,246,700 sq. km, it is slightly less than two times the size of Texas. It shares borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the east, Zambia to the southeast, and Namibia to the south. Blessed with rich agricultural land and a tropical climate, it has significant oil reserves, mostly concentrated in the northwestern exclave of Cabinda, and large commercial diamond fields in the northeast. 13,068,161 people (2010 est.) live in Angola, and like most other African countries the population is very young, with a median age of 18. The population is divided into three main ethnic groups: the Ovimbundu in the central highlands (37%), the Mbundu along the coastal plain and around the capital city Luanda (25%), and the Bakongo people of northern Angola (13%), who are also a prominent group in neighboring Congo-Brazzaville and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Other African ethnic groups, Europeans, and people of mixed European and African descent (mestiços) make up the rest of the population. Portuguese is the official administrative language, though a significant portion of the population, particularly in rural areas, does not speak it. Various African languages (chiefly Umbundu, Kimbundu, and Kikongo, spoken respectively by the Ovimbundu, Mbundu, and Bakongo peoples) share co-official status with Portuguese and are spoken as mother tongues by much of the population.
Before the arrival of the Portuguese in the late fifteenth century, southwest Africa was occupied by several Bantu-speaking kingdoms that had displaced previous Pygmy and Khoisan peoples. These states included the large Kongo kingdom situated along the Congo River and the Kimbundu-speaking Kingdom of Ngola to its south, which gave rise to the Portuguese name for the colony.
First contact with Europeans came in 1483 when an expedition led by Diogo Cão encountered the Kongo kingdom. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | Just as most other European countries were beginning to exit or disengage from their African colonies, Portugal dug in, strengthening its connections with and increasing its presence on the continent. Angola was used as a repository for Portugal’s underemployed and impoverished excess population, and settlers continued to flock to urban areas. With the white population increasing from 44,000 in 1940 to 325,000 in 1974, Europeans soon took over not only upper and mid-level positions, but also most low-wage jobs in the city, displacing most of the urban African population.
The discovery of oil in the exclave of Cabinda in the 1960s and the continued development of coffee, cotton, and diamonds as viable exports, led to Angola having one of the most robust and diversified economies of Africa in this time. Maintenance of these commercial activities was however highly dependent on European technicians and specialists and was almost completely controlled by these groups, preventing the majority of the population, who were largely engaged in subsistence farming or as laborers on commercial farms, from reaping the benefits of this wealth.
Starting in Tunisia and Morocco in 1956 and extending to Sub-Saharan Africa with Ghana in 1957 , most African countries had achieved independence from their European colonial masters by the mid-1960s. In the Portuguese colonies independence was a longer and more drawn out experience, as the Portuguese continued to assert their control and encourage new white settlement right until 1974, on the eve of independence.
In February of 1961 a large group of Africans armed with knives and clubs attempted to free militants from a Luanda prison. The effort proved unsuccessful and violent reprisals led to hundreds of deaths. This event was widely reported on around the world and marked the beginning of Angola’s fourteen year struggle for independence.
On the onset of the war, two main groups challenged the Portuguese, the MPLA and the FNLA (previously UPA). Established in Luanda, the MPLA derived much of its support from Mbundus in the cities and along the coast. Marxist-leaning mestiços and assimilados made up most of the group’s leadership and formed ties with the Soviet Union and other communist countries. Agostihno Neto, an assimilado doctor educated in Lisbon, was the early leader of the MPLA and would later become the first president of independent Angola. The FNLA, led by Holden Roberto, was based in neighboring Congo (Léopoldville) and largely a regional and ethnic group representing the interests of the Bakongo people of northern Angola. The United States and later China provided monetary and material support to the FNLA and under the régime of Joseph Mobutu (later Mobutu Sésé Seko), Zaire would send its own troops into Angola to bolster the FNLA’s ranks.
Due to differences in ideology and ethnic composition the MPLA and FNLA were unable to unite against the Portuguese and fought each other nearly as much as their common enemy. A third group, UNITA, was founded by Jonas Savimbi in 1966. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | German colonies like Togo and Kamerun with more tropical climates had even smaller European communities.
The large settler population shaped South West Africa’s development and had a direct effect on the employment opportunities for educated natives. Middle and lower level positions in colonial administration and other jobs which required literacy and a degree of education were largely occupied by whites. Of the Africans who finished school, few were able to find employment and actually put their educations to use. Teaching in missionary schools was one of the more common occupations for educated Africans. The mixed-race population, known as coloureds or Mischlinge, had more opportunities for jobs than pure Africans but were still generally restricted to artisan labor and very limited work in colonial administration.
The labor market in East Africa offered greater opportunities for educated Africans and Mischlinge. Because the settler population was much smaller both in absolute numbers and as a proportion of the total population, the colonial government sought to develop a literate class of Africans to fill positions in lower administration. Africans were also significantly cheaper to employ than Europeans, further motivating their recruitment by the cash-strapped government. The need for loyal native subjects led to the development of state schools, as missionary-educated Africans could possess conflicting loyalties if they had attended schools run by foreign missionaries.
The different opportunities for educated Africans in the two colonies manifest themselves in their respective educational systems, which differed greatly in size, composition, and scope. East Africa boasted 984 schools for natives in 1911, including 80 government schools, compared with only 88 total in South West Africa, all run by missionaries. Schools in South West Africa also focused primarily on handiworks and “practical” skills for natives, while those in East Africa offered more specialized and higher-level education including technical schools for industrial training and high schools with more advanced curricula.
In contrast with the system of native education in South West Africa, education for Europeans was highly developed and heavily supported by the government. While the German government spent 329,500 Marks on white education in 1914–1915, only 9,000 Marks were spent annually on education for Africans and Mischlinge.
Besides the limited employment opportunities for natives in South West Africa, Cohen asserts that settler attitudes also influenced education policy. Settlers protested government funding for native education and resented native competition for jobs. Their opposition resulted in several vocational programs for natives to be scaled back or eliminated.
Cohen’s work identifies the settler population and the lack of economic opportunity for educated natives as the reasons for the limited development of native education in South West Africa, but does not focus on these factors or try to explain further underlying issues which influenced settler attitudes and the formation of the economic system in South West Africa. New research on the relationship of European attitudes to natives and colonial policy sheds light on these issue and can be applied to the question of education policy as well. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | The FNLA soldiers [were] slathering animals.”
Though consistently armed by the US and China and supported by troops and artillery from Mobutu’s Zaire, the FNLA was not able to maintain military success against the Cuban-backed MPLA and ceased to be a major force in Angolan politics after 1976,
The União Nacional para a Indêpendencia Total de Angola (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) was a latecomer in the independence struggle, formed in 1966 by Jonas Savimbi. A Swiss- and Portuguese-educated Angolan émigré of Ovimbundu descent, Savimbi was for a time a member on the FNLA but left the organization in 1964. The Mbundu and Bakongo ethnic groups dominated the MPLA and FNLA leadership, while the largest group, the Ovimbundu, had limited representation. Seeking to create a nationalist movement for his own people, Savimbi formed UNITA, basing his power among the Ovimbundu capital of Huambo.
UNITA received aid from the US and South Africa for most of its existence and espoused an anti-communist agenda, though Savimbi had himself been a Marxist at one time. After being defeated right after independence UNITA retreated deep into the Angolan bush and built up an army of several thousand men with fanatically loyal officers. Savimbi’s charisma and previous training in China helped him build an effective fighting force that challenged the MPLA for over twenty-five years. However, the fact that UNITA was built around Savimbi meant that after his death the movement disintegrated.
Through the entire course of conflict in Angola from 1961 to 2002, foreign powers were involved in various degrees, from direct military assistance to monetary and diplomatic backing of one or more of the internal movements. Ranging from global superpowers like the United States and the Soviet Union to regional players like South Africa and Zaire, numerous countries entered the conflict and complicated the situation. American, Soviet, and Chinese involvement were rooted primarily in the existential Cold War struggle of ideologies and global geopolitics, with economic interests also playing a major role for the United States. Regional powers were influenced by the superpowers and motivated by a number of other factors as well. The changing nature of world politics would alter the course of the war and most of the major powers would withdraw from Angola in the late-1980s and early-1990s.
Chief among the regional powers involved in Angola were Zaire and South Africa. Both countries had strong motivations for their presence in Angola and importantly the means to affect the course of the war. The rise of Black Nationalism and the decolonization of many countries in the region posed a major threat to the survival of the apartheid régime of South Africa. Politically and economically based on a persistent system of racial oppression and exploitation, South Africa, as well as the other remaining settler colony, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), was under heavy international pressure to grant rights to its African majority and faced various boycotts and trade embargos as a result. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | The precolonial conceptions of the Nama and Ovaherero formed the basis for early colonial policy. Both the Nama and Ovaherero were generally viewed as uncivilized. The groups were constantly at war with one another and the Germans made agreements with various groups at different times. The Landeshauptmann (state captain) of South West Africa from 1891–1894, Curt von François believed that the Nama had “outlived their day” and embarked on a policy of extermination with regard to the Witbooi, a prominent Nama tribe led by Hendrik Witbooi. When he was unable to defeat Witbooi in battle, Theodor Leutwein was appointed as his replacement.
Leutwein’s ten-year rule in South West Africa was marked by two distinct policies: preservation and tolerance of the Witbooi and the gradual appropriation of the Ovaherero’s resources. Rather than continue Von François’ goal of exterminating the Witbooi, Leutwein formed an alliance with them and gave them special privileges. This marked a major shift in native policy. During this period the Witbooi were depicted as noble savages and attempts were made to promote and preserve their culture. The Witbooi were given a significant reservation and a degree of political autonomy. This mirrored similar policies that were carried out in Samoa, where natives were also represented as noble savages.
Part of Leutwein’s motivation for these policies was rooted in the social rivalry between bourgeois and aristocratic elements in Wilhelmine Germany. Government in Germany was still dominated by landed nobles, though members of the educated middle class were starting to occupy prestigious positions. By pursuing relatively liberal policies towards the natives, Leutwein was able to distinguish himself from his aristocratic predecessor, Von François.
Leutwein’s liberalism did not however preclude policies with the explicit intent of marginalizing the Ovaherero and appropriating their resources, he merely sought to achieve this goal through relatively peaceful means. The “Treaty of Borders” authorized the government to seize 5% of any Ovaherero herd found grazing on European land. This led to a gradual transfer of cattle into European hands, called a “peaceful bleeding” by future governor Friedrich von Lindequist. During his tenure Leutwein also established a system of reservations for the Ovaherero, though these were often in marginal areas.
Settlers were not impressed with Leutwein’s policies and criticized them for being too soft. Leutwein in return said that settlers “felt superior and paid no attention to the treaties” and blamed their exploitation of the natives for African uprisings. Leutwein’s tenure in South West Africa in some ways reflected that of Wilhelm Solf’s in Samoa. Like Leutwein, Solf was also often at odds with German settlers and came from a liberal family. The image of the Samoan as a noble savage was even more prominent in Samoa than that of the Witbooi in South West Africa. Solf however had much greater success in his policies than Leutwein. In Samoa white settlement was mainly limited to the capital, Apia, and native traditions were more generally respected. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | In Angola however, black Africans never made up less than 95% of the population, so the demographic situation there (and in the other Portuguese colonies) was never the same as it was in Brazil. Furthermore, the claim that racial mixing equates to racial egalitarianism is problematic, as there are significant racial inequities in Brazil and other countries with large mestiço populations. The fact that the Portuguese were leaders in international trade of African slaves for nearly 400 years also challenges the theory. Despite its ostensibly obvious contradictions, lusotropicalism was widely accepted among the people of Portugal until the mid-1970s, and was used by the government to justify its continued involvement in Africa during a period when most European powers were leaving or had already left the continent. These colonial policies of the twentieth century instigated the forty years of conflict in Angola. However, a long history of violence and exploitation created the context for these struggles, starting with the Atlantic slave trade in the late fifteenth century.
After Vasco de Gama secured a passage to India at the turn of the sixteenth century, Portugal lost interest in Kongo and other African kingdoms as major trading partners, and began to view them primarily as sources of slaves. The slave trade came to dominate Portuguese-African relations and nearly all economic activity in Angola. As a highly lucrative business, it was often the primary occupation of most Portuguese in the area, including members of the colonial administration, with the governor essentially the largest slave-dealer. The Portuguese were leaders in the Atlantic slave trade, supplying not only their own plantation-dependent colonies with labor, but also those of France, Britain, and Spain. According to some estimates, as many as 8 million slaves were taken from Angola, a figure higher than the total population of the country upon independence in 1975. The slave trade caused major disturbances in the interior, with the associated violence and depopulation ultimately leading to the demise of the Kongo and other indigenous states.
The abolition of the international slave trade in the 1830s and of slavery throughout the Portuguese empire in the 1870s did not mark the end of forced African labor in Angola. Domestic slavery, particularly among the Kongo chiefs and highland kings of the interior was still widespread and slaves continued to be exported to Indian Ocean markets further east. Forced labor continued in a legal form under the new system of forced labor outlined in the 1878 Regulamento para os contratos de serviçais e colonos nas províncias de África (Regulation for contracts of servants and colonists in the provinces of Africa). This document essentially made former slaves into “servants” or serviçais, who had to be “contracted” into labor. The Regulamento also stipulated that any Angolans who were not fully employed were considered “vagrants” and could be legally forced into five-year contracts. While slaves were no longer exportable commodities on the same scale they were before the abolition of the slave trade, slavery persisted in much the same way it had in the past centuries, despite the change in nomenclature. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | Having previously served as the foreign minister with the FNLA, Savimbi left the organization for a number of reasons and formed UNITA out of the Ovimbundu of the south. Though ostensibly an independence movement, UNITA seldom fought the Portuguese and was mostly engaged against the MPLA. Some allege that UNITA was given authority over Ovimbunduland by the Portuguese in exchange for fighting the MPLA. Portuguese documents reveal that over the course of the liberation war, nearly two-thirds of all military engagements against the Portuguese involved the MPLA and over a third the FNLA, while less than 5% involved UNITA. Outside of the country UNITA received support from the United States and South Africa.
The infighting between and within the three nationalist movements reduced their effectiveness against the Portuguese, and by 1974 little progress had been made to overthrow the colonial government. From a military perspective the Portuguese had enjoyed a relatively successful war, employing anti-guerilla tactics and heavily recruiting Africans, including a group of Katangese rebels who were exiled in Angola after unsuccessfully trying to create an independent state in southeast Zaire in the late-60s. By the end of the liberation war three times as many African soldiers served in the Portuguese military as in the various guerilla armies. Revolutionary events in Portugal itself would however change the situation in Angola.
In 1974 a left-leaning military coup overthrew the government of Marcello Caetano, ending the authoritarian Estado Novo (New State) that had ruled Portugal since 1932. The unpopular colonial wars played a large role in the coup, and the new government pledged to withdraw Portuguese troops from the colonies and grant them independence. In Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, which had unified nationalist movements, this process was relatively straightforward, with the Portuguese colonial authorities handing power over to FRELIMO and PAIGC, respectively. The fragmented state of nationalism in Angola complicated the situation and meant that a framework for régime change had to be created.
In January of 1975 Neto, Roberto, and Savimbi met in Alvor, a suburb of Lisbon, and signed a power-sharing agreement that set November 11 as the date of independence and calling for elections before this date. The peace after the Alvor accords did not last long and violence between the three groups quickly broke out. On the streets of Luanda MPLA and FNLA partisans fought for control of the capital and both sides were responsible for massacring unarmed recruits of the opposite factions. Within the MPLA self-defense committees of the podar popular (people’s power) movement had formed in the previous year to counter violent riots by whites. Led by Nito Alves, the podar popular committees began to commit atrocities of their own and threatened the MPLA leadership with their radicalism. Faced with violence in the streets of Luanda and particularly in the northern areas controlled by the FNLA, whites, mestiços, and assimilados fled the country in large numbers—nearly 250,000 left during a six-month long airlift starting in May of 1975.
| 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | The Ovaherero who survived the war were largely rounded up and put in concentration camps, where they went through a process of cultural assimilation to fulfill their roles as a proletariat of labor to support the white population. Though education was disrupted during the war, enrollment surpassed prewar levels by 1905. Many natives sought humanitarian assistance from missionaries and converted to Christianity in this period. Missionary societies filled the gap left by the destruction of the native tribal structure. A much smaller and more concentrated population was easier for them to manage and influence than the large nomadic groups present before the war. These final steps of settler domination in the colony led to the full development of the educational system as earlier described, one in which Africans were trained to be a proletariat occupying only the lowest rungs of the labor market and for the benefit of the settler population.
An account of European perceptions of native groups in South West Africa and their relation to colonial native policy in general provides a useful background for understanding German education policy in the colony. Through much the colony’s history, both the Nama and Ovaherero were characterized as relics of another time and likely to die out on their own. Though there were periods where certain groups were praised, most notably the Witbooi under Leutwein, the overarching perception of the natives as in a sense obsolete had the greatest effect on colonial policy. The German effort in South West Africa could be characterized as native policy being abandoned for native massacre. With this move to extermination, native education was not of particular concern to the colonial government, and therefore received little funding or regulation. This analysis reinforces Cohen’s argument that settlers and economic conditions led to the educational system of South West Africa. The decade of 1894–1904 provides an another insight into the effects of a changing perceptions of natives. In this case, Theodor Leutwein’s promotion of the Witbooi was not enough to overcome the established discourse on the Nama and did not have the same type of lasting effect on policy that European perceptions of Samoans had in Samoa. Though it is beyond the scope of this paper, further research into the relationships between European attitudes to native populations and colonial policy in other German colonies would be a fruitful endeavor.
Among the many liberation and civil wars in Africa, the forty-year long conflict in Angola was one of the lengthiest, bloodiest, and most complicated. From 1961 until 2002 the country was embroiled in conflict between rebel groups and the government with only intermittent periods of peace. Both the fifteen-year war of independence against Portugal (1961–1975) and the ensuing civil war (1975–2002) were characterized by heavy casualties and acts of brutality committed by forces from all sides of the conflict.
| 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
qq | European perceptions of the Samoan were not unanimously positive, but the idea of the Samoan noble savage had more support than that of the Witbooi noble savage, as colonial discourse on the Nama was largely mixed and often negative. White settlement was also of a much smaller scale in Samoa, in part due to its tropical climate. Because of these factors the education system for natives in Samoa was more advanced and featured secular schools that trained Samoans for jobs in colonial administration. The situation in Namibia was vastly different and would not allow similar policies. Settlers blocked attempts to improve native education and continued to exploit the indigenous population. Meanwhile Leutwein’s own passive policy of appropriation would contribute to his downfall in the events of 1904.
In the second week of January 1904, the Ovaherero rose up against the Germans in a series of spontaneous and possibly coordinated attacks on European farms and military posts. In the opening days of the uprising 126 settlers and soldiers were killed. Women, children, and missionaries were generally spared. There is some debate over whether the uprising was a reaction to a German military offensive or a planned revolt. Although the Ovaherero had at this point lost approximately 10% of their grazing land to white settlers, this was only one factor in the rebellion. The Ovaherero were protesting settler conduct and a legal system that treated them as juvenile subjects. This was aggravated by “business practices which not only systematically swindled the Herero, but also drove them into traps of debt.”
Initially the Germans were unable to effectively resist the Ovaherero. Against the 8,000 Ovaherero fighting-men, 6,000 of whom were equipped with firearms, the Germans could only present a 750-man garrison. This proved to be a major embarrassment for the German colonial administration. Soon more soldiers were called in from Germany and Lothar von Trotha replaced Leutwein as commander of the military. Von Trotha was an experienced general with a reputation for brutal repression of native uprisings in East Africa and China. Perhaps fearing that Von Trotha would turn on them after defeating the Ovaherero, the Witbooi and other Nama groups joined the rebellion. This led to the end of Leutwein’s native policy and his eventual replacement as Landeshauptmann in 1905.
Von Trotha went on to lead a military campaign of genocide, relentlessly pursuing the Ovaherero into the desert where many died of thirst and starvation. Out of a population of 60,000 to 80,000 Ovaherero in South West Africa before the war only 15,130 remained by 1911 and of the 20,000 Nama only 9,781. Von Trotha’s campaign succeeded in reducing the Ovaherero population by nearly 80% and the Nama by over 50% as well as destroying the social and political structures of the tribes.
The war in 1904 marked the end of African political significance in South West Africa and the beginning of the total supremacy of white interests in the colony. | 22 | English | male | College | Teacher | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
k | If I had the chance to go back to the summer before my freshman year and tell myself to get a bike, I would do it. And as the campus expands, I would urge every able-bodied new student to invest in a bicycle. I will not be around to experience life in this town once the school begins to get truly huge, but I can guess what it will be like. Pollock road will be just as bad as ever.
Pollock is pretty much the main street on campus, home to the HUB, Willard and Thomas buildings, Old Main, and other important school locations. On a regular school day, much of this road is off limits to motor vehicles, but is often crammed with pedestrians and bicyclists. This is a problem because the road is narrow and intersects lots of roads and walkways. Bikes trying to get through are surrounded on all sides by students who often don’t bother to look where they’re going before crossing the street. Every day accidents and near-misses happen somewhere on Pollock. When it snows, the danger increases. People slip and fall just walking along. I'm not saying these things don’t happen elsewhere on campus, but Pollock is the road most traveled. Curtin road, which parallels Pollock, is also bad. Trying to drive from one end of campus to the other takes an impossibly long time during school hours, especially when a lot of students are walking around. Long lines of students cross the street, blocking all motor vehicles. Also, the bus system is not adequate to carry all the people it needs to, particularly in winter, and this is unlikely to change in the future. Despite global warming, the snow will still be just as bad, and I'm not looking forward to riding my bike over ice.
My proposal to solve these problems: build a raised, enclosed bicycle pathway, or an underground bike tunnel so that people can ride long distances without having to stop or slow down for pedestrians. As for the problem of congestion on Curtin, foot bridges could be installed so that pedestrians can cross the street without getting in the way of cars. Eventually, some of the loop buses could even be put on their own specially designated roads, or even be replaced by a light rail system. However, these are all expensive, long-term projects, and some of them may take years or never be implemented at all. These may even be cause more harm than good. Serious research needs to be done to determine what would be the best long-term solution. As Penn State grows, it needs to remain eco-conscious and attempt to maintain the natural beauty that makes this campus so special. The university's idea of solving problems seems to be to throw money at them. This isn't always the most intelligent strategy. Look at the IST building, for example. This is a nearly 59 million-dollar building. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | I watched the bear until it gave up and walked away. The next day, an entire Jaguar club came through. An unbroken stream of Jaguars of all ages and types passed by, driving down the only road. After what seemed like hours, the last stragglers came, like the wounded or sick following after a stampede. These are only a few of the things that spring to mind. That was a weird trip. These memories, however, are only a few random, fleeting flashes out of 20 years of strange experiences, most of which I remember fairly well. The only things I have trouble remembering are the names of people I didn't know very well. Seeing these things didn't have any kind of profound impact on me in the traditional sense, but in the sense that I can be nothing more than a collection of thoughts and feelings wrapped up in a fragile physical body they're very important. If I hadn't remembered those things, I would have thought of something else, and then I wouldn't be the same person, would I? So perhaps these things do have something to do with who I am.
Let's see what we have so far. I don't like schoolwork, and I like to see things like bears and British cars. This almost makes me wonder if I shouldn't be in a forest or a mechanic's shop somewhere instead of in college. Then I remember exactly why I'm in college. It's a great reason, too. I want to have lots fun without a lot of responsibility, and that's what college is perfect for. I realize that this doesn't do much for my fellow man. Millions of people are slaves around the world, billions are poor, and countless numbers die every day of nasty and easily preventable causes because they are so poor. The world is a terrible place, and it needs to be fixed. One day I'm going to do everything in my power to help change the world. For right now, I'm going to party. I don't feel bad about it because for one thing, there's really not much I can do at this point. I realize that for all intents and purposes I'm still a child. I'm still trying to spell refrigerator, and I'm okay with that. When I've learned what I need to learn, then I will be a man. I might never have any real power to change the world, but as long as I do everything I can, I will be satisfied.
Satisfaction is a hard thing to define. What is it about something that satisfies or dissatisfies us? I've always been into movies. I guess you could say I've always been a pretty casual observer of the world, ever since I was a little kid. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k |
I have been a student here at University Park for about two and a half years now, or four and a half semesters. For many, including myself, getting around on campus can be a problem. My freshman year I was placed in an East Halls dorm room; pretty much the furthest eastward limit of campus, not counting the stadium and Bryce Jordan Center. Traveling from my home in Stuart Hall to classes in such faraway places as Willard building, near the center of campus, could take up to 25 minutes by foot, especially if the weather was bad, as it often is in State College. Speaking to an alum not much older than myself, I learned that not long ago the East Halls dorms were set apart from the rest of the school by huge tracts of unused land. Today that empty space has been filled with sports fields, huge new buildings including the new Creamery and new health services building, and surrounded with apartments. As our campus continues to expand, getting from one place to another becomes more and more difficult. What is the best solution to the problem of mobility? On a college campus, it is the bicycle. But the bike by itself won't solve any problems. Students need to ride them, and the campus needs to be built to suit the needs of bicyclists.
I was talking to a friend of mine who recently resumed bicycling after a several-year hiatus. He mentioned that he wondered why he ever stopped. “Bikes are great,” he said, “for a few years it wasn’t cool to ride a bike, but it’s the only way to get around.” In addition to being good for your body, bicycling is the most efficient way to travel. A bowl of oatmeal and a little physical exertion will take you 30 miles or more. Like many undergraduates, I now live off campus; just as far from the center of campus as some dorms. The smartest decision I’ve made this year was to buy a bike. Every day, I have class in Thomas building, easily a twenty-five-minute walk from my home. Riding a bike can cut that time down to 5 minutes if I pedal fast enough. The only problem is, Pollock Road is the straightest shot to Thomas building from my house, and it's not always an easy road to travel on, bike or no bike. There are things to be said for walking as well, but personally I’m too busy to walk. If I didn’t have my bike, walking would be my only reliable option for getting to class. Walking to Thomas every day would take an extra 30-40 minutes out of my day. That’s over two and a half hours every week. Add to that all the other time I would have to spend walking to and from other classes, appointments, and etc. That’s more time than I can spare. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | What makes us different? I wear different clothes, look different, have a different kind of body, listen to different music and do different things with my time. These aren't differences, actually. They're really similarities. Everyone wears clothes, looks different from everyone else, etc. The differences are more than skin deep, but the similarities go much deeper. My experiment is to try and think of what it is that's deep down inside myself, and put it into words. This is hard to do. All I can think of right now is something that happened to me when I was a kid.
When I was in the first or second grade, I once had to sit alone in my classroom through an entire lunch period because my teacher wouldn't let me leave until I finished an activity. It was a sort of brain-teaser thing. I was stuck on the last sheet, on which nine squares were printed. I was supposed to spell out the name of whatever object was pictured in each of the nine spaces. I started working, and being a good speller, I found it pretty easy. I got to about the third one, which was pretty obviously supposed to be a refrigerator, though the drawing was not exactly lifelike. At first I thought it would be easy. I started to write “fridge,” then realized that there were twelve spaces for letters. “Fridge” was too short. So, I thought about it, couldn't figure it out, then moved on to the next one. By the time I was finished, I had realized that fridge was short for something. I tried to fit “refridgerator,” seemingly the only logical spelling, but it was too long. The bell rang, and I was still trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. I stared at the picture, thinking that perhaps it wasn't a fridge at all, but something I had never before encountered. As the minutes passed, I began to get anxious. I was the only one left in the room. I felt like the teacher was sadistic for keeping me there for such a pointless activity. I may have even known enough curse words at this point to be cursing her out in my head as I sat staring at the paper and spacing out, or perhaps I just thought she was a jerk. Why couldn't the teacher have helped me out? I was only one letter off. I think this may have been the moment I began to despise school.
You can't forget about the past, especially your own, even if you want to. And even if you did, what good would it do you? At the same time, how sure can you be that you remember things correctly? One time, while staying at a cabin in some park in California, I looked across the street and saw a brown bear jumping up and down on the hood of a parked car. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | Federal law remains the same, so the DEA sometimes raids these clubs. This cannot be ethical. Consider Amy, a college student in Sacramento. Amy was born with a condition that causes her severe discomfort and often powerful nausea and stomach pain. For long periods of time, Amy can't keep down a meal without cannabis. Other medications don't work for her or have side effects that are worse than the pain. Undoubtedly, not every customer at one of these clubs has a serious medical condition, but what's the point of differentiating between serious and insignificant ailments when the drug has negligible side effects? Pot can also help people with insomnia, depression, asthma, severe pain, muscle spasms, and numerous other ailments. And who gives the DEA the right to take away medication that people can't do without? Amy is a real person.
In 1969 the Marihuana Tax act was found to be unconstitutional because it violated the 5th amendment. It was replaced by a new law that did not violate the 5th amendment. In reality, any federal law relating to drugs is unconstitutional. The constitution says that any power not belonging to the federal government is a power of the states. It says nothing about drugs. Not only is it unconstitutional, it is also unethical and just stupid. They have taken away some of our personal freedom, not just to use it as a drug but to use it as a medicine and make an industry out of it as well. The same way gangsters made millions on illegal alcohol during prohibition, organized crime is making millions today selling marijuana. A lot of small time dealers are in jail, costing us tax money, while new ones spring up on the streets to replace them immediately. Otherwise “normal” kids are having their futures ruined over a harmless activity. If marijuana becomes completely legal, it is hard to predict the economic and social effects, but it will certainly solve the problem of overcrowding in our prisons and reduce our spending on the legal system.
Why shouldn't people smoke pot? Some claim it reduces decision-making skills and makes people unmotivated. This has some truth to it. Marijuana does affect the short term memory, and can hinder cognitive development to some degree for people under 21. Still, If it were up to me, pot would be legal for everyone over the age of 18. Let them decide for themselves if they want to make learning that much harder. Pot also changes one's motivations. In general there is a shift from motivation to work hard and succeed to a drive to relax and enjoy life, especially with frequent users. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Marijuana does not turn responsible adults into lazy hippies. Teenagers often become lazier when smoking pot, but adults are rarely affected this way and in fact are sometimes more motivated. Many successful people are cannabis users. Recently, bloated claims have been made that marijuana leads to schizophrenia. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | George Washington, being a farmer, grew hemp, including two smokable varieties. Growing hemp was encouraged by the government to help the country flourish. Hemp use declined in the late eighteenth century, however, because processing hemp by hand requires a lot of work. Today it is illegal to grow any type of hemp in the united states, though it is not illegal to import the innocuous kind. The reason things changed was that in the early 1900's a wave of mexican immigrants introduced recreational marijuana use to the American public. Propaganda of the time proclaimed marijuana to be a deadly, mania-inducing drug that was corrupting the white population's youth. Laws began to be passed, and soon every state had some sort of prohibition on marijuana.
The 1937 Marihuana Tax Act was the first federal legislature making pot illegal. The law restricted the selling, cultivation and possession of marijuana for any use other than industrial or medical, but also essentially restricted its use for those purposes as well, with an expensive tax and a stamp system that made it impossible for anyone to legally get away with it. The law required people to buy tax stamps that would allow them to buy and sell marijuana, but the stamps were not made available, and the taxes were huge. The man behind the act was Harry Anslinger, the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, today's DEA. Anslinger was a racist who was appointed by his uncle-in-law, a man who was closely involved with Dupont Chemicals, which had just invented a new way of making paper. Of course, Dupont didn't want to have hemp to compete with, because it can be used to make paper as well. America saw a rise in hemp cultivation again in 1942, when it became useful to the government for the war effort. When the war was over, a new law was passed, keeping marijuana illegal. Since then, the restrictiveness of cannabis laws has risen and fallen several times, but has generally stayed pretty much the same. Most recently, it looks like marijuana's image has changed to that of a harmless plant in most people's views. Decriminalization is looking better and better to the people who make the laws as more is learned about the real effects of marijuana, and of marijuana prohibition.
In the late nineteenth century, marijuana became a common ingredient in medicines and easily available at pharmacies. Today, Medical marijuana is making a comeback. In 1996, California passed prop 215, allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana to their patients. Marijuana's most widely known use today is to control nausea and vomiting, especially for cancer and AIDS patients. It can also be used to treat glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. Most large cities in California now have cannabis clubs where anyone with a prescription can buy highly potent medical marijuana with prices ranging up to $700 per ounce, and the pot is worth it. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | Ugh, that idiot can't really be wearing that same stupid hat he's had on every day this year, can he? Yes, he can. But that's no reason to go home and beat your wife. Besides, that will only create more relationship stress. Yes, sheer contempt stress is real. Rarely, it is automatic, but often when stress builds to a certain point, people can develop a contemptuous attitude. This causes more stress, just because when the person with this attitude looks around, all he sees are more things to stress him out. Trying to tell the person suffering from contempt stress to mellow out will only lead to more contempt.
Loneliness Stress – Everyone has got a partner except you. Nobody wants to read your crappy paper. That cute girl would never go out with you. The people who are as lonely as you won't even talk to you, for the same reason you won't talk to them, and sometimes that cute girl is even one of them. And if she's not, she might try to talk to you, get weirded out, and then never talk to you again. This is much worse, because you've had your chance and there is no longer any hope that she might like you if she just gave you a chance. Loneliness can cause people a lot of emotional distress. Loneliness can be real, when the person is literally apart from all others – or perceived, when the person sees himself as alienated from the people around him. Loneliness stress, like relationship stress, is often characterized by an empty feeling and a lack of motivation, but differs in that it often goes unnoticed even by those suffering from it.
Talking to the professor stress – whether it be a simple email or a long discussion about plagiarism policy, every student dreads talking to his or her professors. We've all been there. You flunked the first exam of your toughest class, haven't been there in two weeks, and you have a hundred journal entries a month overdue. Or, maybe you just have a question about something trivial. But who asks those? This is one of the more easily bearable types of stress we are familiar with. The numbing recognition that has to be made – that there's no way you can keep putting things off without failing the course – leaves you with a blank expression on your face, signifying your underlying lack of presence in the moment, probably partly due to sleep deprivation.
Sleep deprivation stress – this one can be good for some things, but bad for others. Staying up all night helps lots of people write papers, but it can also be as bad as alcohol when it comes to impairing a person's driving. The state of mind that sleep deprivation leaves one in grows steadily worse as the time without sleep lengthens. At first, it is a kind of manic state which leads to some loss of inhibitions, and at worst it can lead to total delerium. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | Here Vonnegut combines appeals to Ethos and Pathos: in an audience of young Americans, or for that matter any audience, most people can relate to an experience of peer pressure; Vonnegut has a right to make this conjecture about “the most powerful force in the universe” because he had witnessed firsthand the results of peer pressure in Nazi Germany.
One night his parents have two upper-class friends, a husband and wife he refers to as the Swans, over to their house as guests. The Swans show up in a brand new car, with an expensive fur coat and new sapphire ring. This is during the Depression, a period in American history when almost everyone was destitute. “It was as though this one couple had been allowed to defy the law of gravity,” Vonnegut observes, pointing to the logical conclusion to be made about their mysterious wealth. Young Kurt asks Mr. Swan how much his new star sapphire ring had cost him, and this prompts his father to hit him on the seat of the pants. It turns out the Swans were there to con the Vonneguts out of their remaining savings, telling them about a great, secret investment opportunity in a growing coal monopoly, which of course turned out to be fake. When he has finished telling this story, Vonnegut explains that it was his parents' nice manner which had allowed them to be conned, and prevented them from suspecting that their friends might be crooked. “Good manners had made them defenseless against predatory members of their own class. There we have our old friend peer pressure again, of course.”
There is a break in the essay here, and after the blank line, a narrative begins about a phone call in which Kurt Vonnegut is talking to his cousin in Indianapolis, and tells her that he dreads coming to his home town, since he had a hard time believing that his older relatives could hate his books and love him at the same time. This is clearly an appeal to Pathos. His cousin explains to him that his older relatives were all Victorians and too old to change. “They could not help themselves when it came to loathing dirty books.” This leads him to think about queen Victoria, the longest reigning British monarch, and ask himself why she would have been so interested in good manners. This is where the logical appeal of Vonnegut's argument is most prominently displayed. “I asked myself why any mention of bodily functions should have pained this queen so. I cannot believe that Victoria herself would have suffered a moment's genuine dismay if I had shown her the picture of my asshole which I drew...” A line drawing of an anus is pictured here.
This belief about queen Victoria's constitution is drawn from observations about human nature that anyone could make. Nobody is really offended by course language, they are just conditioned to act as if they are. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | What satisfies me in a movie is the way the movie draws you in and makes you a part of it, and at the same time makes itself a part of you. When a movie is really good, it makes this look effortless. However, one's satisfaction with a movie depends on one's taste in movies. Some people like horror movies and some don't. Satisfaction in life, similarly, depends on one's outlook on life. Nobody wants to be a slave, but once a person has the basic necessities of life – food, water, shelter, and freedom – happiness is a state of mind. As I see it, it's all in your head. Take it or leave it, this is just my opinion. I think everyone deep down is just looking for happiness. There is a lot of unhappiness in the world, but I think that can change. I think over time man will evolve to a point where we can control our own minds. In fact, man may not need to evolve further. Some people are already capable of this.
It's impossible to capture all of the random points one's mind wanders through in a given period of time, but I've tried here to give you a general idea of what my thought process was like as I wrote this paper. If it seems as though my mind jumps from place to place, this is because that is how my mind works. I couldn't avoid writing about my past, which was my intent, but only because memories pop up unexpectedly. In fact this paper was not really written in one sitting, as it might seem. I did, however, make all of this up off the top of my head. I can't fake that, and I refuse to make any kind of plan before I start writing. There wasn't much call for me to write this, except that it was required for a class. Nobody really needs to know any of this stuff. Hopefully if you've read it you might know a bit more about who I am. Or at least about who I was when I wrote this essay. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go make myself a sandwich.
There are different types of stress. Some types are “good,” according to our high school health classes, while others are bad. In reality, though, all stress is the same. Avoiding stress can't bring anyone peace for long, just like constantly seeking pleasure won't bring anyone true happiness. Stress is an inevitable part of everyone's life. It is a part of our nature, hard-wired into our brains, evolved over eons as a function of our minds. The stress response is a natural, uncontrolled reaction triggered by the hypothalamus. In a dangerous situation, it can help us react appropriately, in fact this is it's purpose. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | He gives a brief but detailed history of her life, describing her as a gallant and pretty little woman, then explains that he mentions her in this article on obscenity because she was his friend, and told him that, though the dirty words he used in his books did not astonish her, the words should not be published. Riah claimed that her circle of friends all agreed with her, imagining that he used the words to cause a sensation, in order to make his books more popular. “Her friends could not bear to read me anymore,” he states.
He gives another example, quoting a a newspaper article likening his use of four-letter words and line drawings to “a small boy sticking out his tongue at the teacher.” “This small boy sticking out his tongue was fifty years old at the time,” he says, appealing to Ethos by giving himself credibility. In fact, Vonnegut began to use these things more often as he matured as a writer, and their purpose, he explains, is not to shock anyone, but to make the people in his books talk the way really people talk. He wants to make jokes about our bodies, because he doesn't see any harm in it. Here he summarizes the opinions opposed to his own, that of those against bad manners and obscene language, then explains himself and his position. His counter-argument -- “Why not?” -- simply but effectively sums up his opinion that there is no harm is obscenity.
He goes back to Riah Fagan Cox and her friends. All of them, he has been assured, would not have been wobbled or astonished, because they had heard all the words he used many times before. “They would have insisted that the words should not be published anyway. It was bad manners to use such words. Bad manners should be punished.” The lack of logic here is self-evident. He doesn't need to point it out to further his logical argument. He then states his thesis, which I quoted earlier, but which begins “But even when I was in grammar school...” thereby furthering his Ethos, because he has held this point of view for such a long time. In the next paragraph, he says that he had this hunch confirmed when he was in the fourth grade or so.
Vonnegut next tells a personal story from his childhood. The story takes place during the Great Depression. He was the son of wealthy parents and had been sent to private school before the Depression, but had been moved to elementary school, therefore associating more with the middle and lower class children he went to school with than with his upper-class parents. “Peer pressure, which is the most powerful force in the universe, had actually made me a scorner of my parents' class,” he explains. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | It's true that marijuana use can exacerbate latent or existing mental disorders, but this is rare. Often, marijuana can do just the opposite and help people to recover from emotional problems. There is no evidence that marijuana causes schizophrenia. Another health issue is the carcinogens in the smoke. Firstly, these are avoidable in numerous ways, including vaporization of the THC without burning the plant material, and oral ingestion. Secondly, no correlation between smoking of cannabis and rate of lung cancer has been found. None of these are reasons why the government should be able to stop us from using it. The only person who can be hurt by these things is the person smoking it, and Marijuana is still less harmful than alcohol or tobacco.
Why should pot be illegal? Some worry that people driving around high on weed will cause a tragic accident. Really, this is not any more likely than a sober person causing a tragic accident. Being high doesn't make people into idiots. They know they're driving while high, and they slow down and pay attention to what they're doing. High people aren't usually willing to drive recklessly or even incautiously. It's true that in a high speed collision, a split second of reaction time can mean the difference between life and death, but the person driving high probably isn't driving as fast. Another thing people point to is marijuana's reputation as a “gateway drug,” or drug which leads first time drug users into harder, more dangerous drugs, like heroin or cocaine. While there is some truth to the stereotype that harder drug users often start with cannabis, cannabis does not necessarily cause people to move on to harder drugs. Correlation does not equal causation. The same junkies probably also started out with alcohol and tobacco before they tried hard drugs. Yes, it is possible to abuse cannabis as with anything else of its kind, but this does not make it a bad thing.
The fact of the matter is, marijuana was made illegal because of racism almost a century ago, and now remains illegal because of organized crime, the paper industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and other industries that would suffer if they had hemp to compete with. I should say that it is still illegal because not enough people have stood up together at once and demanded change. But this is not the whole story. Many people still harbor negative attitudes toward cannabis, due in large part to anti-pot propaganda. Today's propaganda paints pot users as slacker teens wasting their lives and aging losers crashing their cars into children. Parents are still afraid that if pot is legal, their kids will get hooked. Apparently they don't realize that it is currently easier for high school kids to get weed than to get alcohol. They also don't seem to realize that dealers today often spray their product with strange chemicals or other drugs; there is no guarantee that the bud you buy is safe. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | They ditched the air conditioner in the side of the road and found a dollar store where they bought some cookie sheets and duct tape. Then they taped the cookie sheets to the roof to keep the rain out. They did not care that they were destroying the truck because it was their truck, and not a rental. You see, a used moving truck was worth more out west than it was where they bought it, so they were earning enough for the gas to get them there just by driving. I suppose you've got to be pretty clever to get away with living as a ski bum. With the roof repaired, the journey continued. It was at three in the morning, on a steep and curvy stretch of road coming into Salt Lake City -- final destination for their trip -- when the cookie sheets blew off in the wind.
Who I am is not something you can find out by reading this paper. My mother told me 'you are what you eat.' If that's true, then right now I am a red plastic cup full of water, half full or perhaps half empty. Earlier today I was a half-cooked hot dog wrapped in a whole wheat bun, with Heinz ketchup and Grey Poupon. I was my roommate's orange juice, and some hummus with tortilla chips. Last night I was approximately one quarter of a pineapple, some spicy Cheez-its, and a big hunk of Gouda cheese. From time to time I have been bananas. In my past I have even been a bad burrito once or twice, and one time I was this absolutely disgusting turkey sandwich. Very soon I will become some frozen chicken nuggets, when they're ready. One of my favorite things to be is sashimi. Just being a simple, perfect piece of buttery, raw, untouched salmon is bliss. You're probably wondering why I'm going on about food. It isn't because I'm hungry, It is because I can't think of any better way to describe myself. I could tell you all about where and how I grew up, what I do with my life, and so on, but that wouldn't really tell you any more about me, and I would be bored just thinking about it. I would rather write about food. What can I say, I am a Kellogg's corn flake.
Someone, perhaps it was Kierkegaard, once said, “If you label me, you negate me.” I, like everyone else, change in subtle and unpredictable ways at every moment. We can't put labels on people, because every person is unique, and everyone is in a state of flux. Everyone experiences the world subjectively. To understand who someone is, you must first see the world through his or her eyes. I want to try an experiment. My head is a blank slate. Deep down I feel that everything is connected, I know that everyone is really the same in all the ways that matter. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | Headache and loss of perception of time are common. Caffeine can add to this stressor's positive effects, but in the long run can also contribute to its negative effects. The typical sleep deprived person is rarely all there, as their minds tend to wander or just space out.
Cannabis should be freely available to all. Yes, it should. All smoking pot does to someone is get that person high. Why should getting high be a crime? It is that impossible thing – a victimless crime. It hurts no one. More serious drugs can have serious consequences. Marijuana does not have serious consequences, except jail time due to many countries' bad legislation. Currently federal law classifies cannabis as a schedule 1 drug, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no medical value. This makes it illegal to possess, sell, or use. In truth, cannabis is less addictive than caffeine and offers several medical benefits for the seriously ill. Of course, if cannabis was made available for medical purposes, it would still be used recreationally by people who don't need it, and this is true of many prescription drugs, but why should we worry about that when it grows in the ground and is less dangerous than a toaster? There is a long list of reasons why pot should be legal and reasons why keeping it illegal is hurting us. Let's start by looking at what cannabis is, and why it's illegal today.
Cannabis sativa is the scientific name of the plant we know as marijuana. The drug in its herbal form is taken from the female cannabis plant. The dried flowered buds, the part of the plant with the highest concentration of trichomes (glandular hairs which produce THC), are crushed up and smoked. Hashish, which is more potent, is produced by separating the trichomes and making them into a resin or oil. THC, short for delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main psychoactive chemical found in the cannabis plant, though there are a few others, and most are unique to the plant. This is what gets one high. The high produced by smoking cannabis lasts about two to three hours (up to 8 or more hours when consumed in edible form) and is uplifting, producing relaxation and laughter, pain and nausea relief, and increased sensory stimulation and appetite. The high is not caused by the destruction of brain cells. Rather, certain receptors related to appetite in the brain are stimulated. There has never been a documented fatality from THC or marijuana overdose. Evidence has been found of cannabis use as early as 4000 BC.
Hemp is a term that describes the entire cannabis family of plants, but usually refers to cannabis grown for industrial purposes, containing less than 1% THC and useless as a psychoactive drug. Hemp was one of the United States' most important crops during the country's early years of independence, when it was used to make rope, sails, food and clothing, among other things. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | However, if one is in a situation where the danger is not real, but only perceived, then the stress response can be problematic. Some people neurotically imagine danger everywhere, but most people at least have an unnecessary stress response in situations involving public speaking or during awkward social situations. We perceive not imminent bodily harm, but rather an attack on our perceptions of ourselves. Many, if not all, types of stress are merely subjective, based on our perceptions. If the pitcher didn't care about the big game, he wouldn't be stressed out about pitching well. This is only an example, but it applies to practically every situation. The way we deal with stress makes a big difference on how stress affects us. Some kinds of stress, however, are just worse than others.
There is some horrendous stress being shouldered these days by the youth of our country. Every college freshman knows the stress of being awake at 8 in the morning, just starting work on his or her next big assignment, due in mere hours. Many know what it's like to flunk a class, or give a presentation in front of a huge audience, at least huge for a kid. Every college freshman comes to school the same way, and the stress can be overwhelming. Here we will look at some of the causes of stress, or stressors, often encountered by the typical student.
Relationship trouble stress – perhaps the most deeply unsettling kind of stress imaginable. What kind of person makes you feel wonderful, only to bring you crashing down all the harder for it? The most important person in your life, of course. This kind of stress is characterized by an empty feeling in the pit of your stomach, along with a complete lack of motivation to do anything. Often compounded with other forms of stress, due to its extremely influential nature, this stress can make your life a living hell. According to an article on stress, ongoing or long-term events such as coping with a divorce can produce a lasting, low-level stress that's hard on people. “The nervous system senses continued pressure and may remain slightly activated and continue to pump out extra stress hormones over an extended period. This can wear out the body's reserves, leave a person feeling depleted or overwhelmed, weaken the body's immune system, and cause other problems.” There's no Advil you can take to make this kind of headache go away. In short, relationships can be a downward spiral. We lean on them to relieve our troubles, but they only cause more problems than they solve. This leads us to lean on them more and more heavily, until they topple over.
Sheer contempt stress – holding the entire world in a state of utter comtempt can be rough business. Jaw-clenching, teeth-grinding, hair-pulling – these are the telltale signs of contempt stress, though not necessarily limited to it. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | Having established that these are not legitimate reasons why she would have been anti-obscenity, he then presents his idea of the legitimate reason that she was. He suggests that she would have sensed it as an attack on her power to intimidate. She would have wanted people to remain quiet about things like “the suffering of the Irish, or the cruelties of the factory system, or the privileges of the nobility, or the approach of a world war, and on and on.” He sardonically asks “If she would not even acknowledge that human beings sometimes farted, how could she be expected to hear without swooning of these other things?” At this point in the essay, Vonnegut stops to admire the subtlety of Victoria's scheme. “She persuaded them that they would deserve to be self-governing only after they had stopped thinking about all the things that human beings can't help thinking about all the time.” This would lead mothers of the Victorian era to discipline their families to try to make them do the same. “And on and on” is repeated several times through the essay, to drive home the idea that everything is connected.
The next portion of the essay is a story Vonnegut describes as the dirtiest story he ever wrote. He also claims it to be the first story in the history of literature to have “fuck” in the title, and probably the last short story he would ever write. Establishing this gives a large amount of credibility to the author. The story is filled with words like “fuck,” “shit,” “jism,” and “fart,” but never uses them in a way that could be called obscene. This is part of what makes it satire, because it seems serious superficially, and its underlying themes are serious, but it uses humor to illuminate the ills of society.
Entitled “The Big Space Fuck,” it is a 5 page satirical and darkly funny dystopian short story, set in 1989 ( about twenty years in the future when it was written). Human life is coming to its end, and everything has “Turned to shit and beer cans and old automobiles and Clorox bottles.” The Big Space Fuck is the official name of the plan to spread human life to other parts of the galaxy, a rocket ship with freeze dried sperm cells (jism) in its nose, which is to be fired toward the Andromeda galaxy. The Rocket is actually called the Arthur C. Clarke, and is to be fired on the Fourth of July. The story begins by telling us that in 1987 it became legal for children to sue their parents for the way they were raised. The story then brings us to the home of Dwayne and Grace Hoobler, who at ten o'clock on the night of the launch are watching the countdown in their home on the shore of the polluted and giant lamprey-infested Lake Erie. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | Our campus is best described as 'sprawling.' Much of the student body comes from suburban areas, and so is used to suburban sprawl, but what they need to realize is that this kind of unchecked development is the reason why our planet is getting warmer at an alarming rate. Every individual has an impact on the world around him or her.
I guess the conclusion to be drawn is that people need to think about what they're doing and the consequences of their actions. This includes everyone. Pedestrians need to look where they're going. The same goes for bikers. Even high school kids, the prospective future students of this fine university, need to think about whether going to school here is really worth the trouble of getting around. But, most importantly, the people making decisions affecting the future of this school (and the rest of the world) need to think about whether what they're doing is benefiting anyone, or simply helping to make them more wealthy. The school is currently working on a new 60 million-dollar law building, the Lewis Katz building, and is spending 9 million on an adjacent arboretum. These are across from my old home in Stuart hall, and extend the campus by at least another quarter-mile, not including parking lots. Construction of an enormous science building is set to begin in July of this year. The sports fields that were the last open space between East halls and the rest of campus have been torn up and are being prepared for construction of this building. Rumor has it that in the future the Bryce Jordan Center will be the center of campus. The center of campus. This would make the scale of this university campus almost inconceivable. Does it really need to be that big? Most of the people that these developments will affect don't bother to ask these questions, or even know what their school is doing.
How would a designated bike path help the school and the community at large? By itself, it wouldn't. It would require the participation of the people who have to travel on campus. In other words, kids would have to use bikes. One of my friends recently bought a bike, but stopped using it because the campus is too hilly and he was afraid he would crash into someone on the street. Even if you forget about bicyclists, the kids who walk up and down Pollock road every day have a hard time getting around when it snows. Every time I go out I see people slip and fall in the snow and slush. An enclosure over the road and its sidewalks would greatly reduce this problem. And as long as they're building a roof over it, why not make it into a raised, enclosed pathway? They already built one over Shortlidge Road between two buildings, the Chemistry and Life Sciences buildings. It would be well within the school's budget to do this. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | It seems obvious, but if pot was legal, it would be easier to get and much cheaper. These are two of the biggest reasons smoking pot causes problems for people – by being a drain on their money and sometimes exposing them to toxic chemicals. Many adolescent kids are drawn to marijuana use because it is something they are not supposed to do. It's the fact that it's against the rules that makes it so interesting.
If all this is accurate, then what real reason can there be to keep cannabis illegal? There is none to be found, and plenty of reasons why the prohibition should be repealed. Right now Ron Paul and Barney Frank are trying to pass a bill that would allow anyone to possess up to 30 grams for personal use. There's no way this bill will be passed, but at least there are some brave people willing to try. We've done enough damage to ourselves as a nation already, it's time to turn things around. The same way smoking cannabis won't solve all the problems in a man's life, repealing prohibition will not solve all the problems in the world, but it will make the place that much better. Expect the day that cannabis is legalized to be a monumental day in history, and hope that it doesn't come too late.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born in Indianapolis in 1922, volunteered for military service in 1943, and survived the bombing of Dresden, Germany during World War II. He was an American prisoner in the city, and one of the few people who survived its total destruction. After the war, he wrote satire prolifically, often emphasizing the terrible things people do to each other. Vonnegut has been criticized for his use of “obscene” words, and in his article on obscenity he articulates his views on the value of obscenity. His thesis is best summarized when he writes, “I suspected that warnings about words that nice people never used were in fact lessons in how to keep our mouths shut not just about our bodies but about many, many things – perhaps too many things.” Here he implies that not only should we perhaps be able to speak openly about our bodies, but also about other things which we have trouble speaking about, such as oppression. He also implies a connection between these two ideas.
Vonnegut begins his essay with a story about a woman he once knew. Her name was Riah Fagan Cox and she was his first mother-in-law. Her story is that of a woman who built herself up from nothing, and with the money she made, helped her brother and her children. Vonnegut immediately sets up an emotional connection with the reader by bringing one into the life of this inspiring woman. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | When you think about it, it almost seems like the school doesn't care about the comfort or convenience of its students, but rather about being big, flashy, and impressive. Just look at the dorms the freshmen are forced to live in. They fit two people into a concrete box almost eerily similar to a prison cell, most of the time without even considering whether these people will be able to live together without killing each other, in buildings where the elevators don't work and the bathrooms don't even have paper towels or soap. Meanwhile, huge, extravagant, multi-million dollar glass and brick works of art are popping up all over campus. That's why it's up to us to make the people in charge of this school think twice about what they're doing.
The problem of transportation and mobility is one to seriously consider as this campus continues to expand. If the many acres of open space east of campus are going to be developed, the needs of students need to be kept in mind. To be honest, the campus as it stands today is good enough. People get from place to place pretty well, without too many complaints. But this won't always be the case unless we plan ahead for the future of this school. Bike paths are necessary, as is mass transit. Not everyone can drive to school, and even if they could, it would cause a lot of problems. If you build bike paths, people will use them, and more people will be encouraged to buy and use bikes. I hope in the future this school will be more considerate of the needs of its students. To be completely honest, though, if you're looking for a school where it's easy to get from place to place, Penn State is probably not the place for you, and it probably never will be. Oh well.
My name is Michelle, and I am a drag queen. The first time i dressed in women's clothing was when i was 4 years old, but that has nothing to do with my story, or why i am the way i am. When i dance, I am beautiful. I am graceful, like a tape and tuck Ginger Rogers. I love the pageantry and flash of the drag shows. I thrive on it. Some people were born to entertain.
It was amateur night at the Flamingo, and i looked stunning in a backless aquamarine number. I don't mean the Flamingo in Las Vegas – the Flamingo was a shady bar and nightclub in sunny Fort Lauderdale, the kind of place that doesn't stay open for very long, for whatever reason. It was my first time on stage, my first year away from home. I'd be lying if i said i wasn't nervous. Strutting my stuff in front of a hundred Pabst bastards like a piece of some strange meat. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
k | Donna Summers playing over the PA, a rainbow of different colored lights, i felt like a goddess. It's never like it was that night anymore. Today's music, nothing but clicks and whistles blasted at high volume, you can't be heard over it, and the drag queens have no class anyway.
Afterwards, at the bar, i'm scoping out the gentlemen while the bartender fixes me a long island. The guy next to me is cute, and i tell him so. We make some small talk, and i like him, so i tell him he has a nice ass. “So my proctologist tells me.” Then, like a prom dress hitting the floor of a cheap hotel, it hits me. He would probably never realize it unless i told him, but we've met before, many times before. When we were kids my cousin Jeffrey and his brother used to tease me about my big teeth. Now i stop smiling because i don't want him to recognize them. I don't want him to recognize me. I become aware that i'm blushing, beet red probably. My skin feels hot, i'm sure i'm sweating, even though it's an unusually chilly night for Florida.
I try to make a quick exit. I say i'm going to the little girl's room. I sound ridiculous, so awkward, so embarrassed. “OK John” he says without missing a beat. I'm frozen to the floor. I look down to make sure i'm not on an ice-skating rink. I look back up and he's smiling. He tells me he came to see his brother. I follow his pointing finger to the tall one in the off-white dress.
It was the summer. They were newlyweds, my mother and father. Not a year into their marriage, they made the decision to become ski bums, so they left their lives behind and moved to Utah. Apparently, Colorado was too cold, and too popular. Probably they were more interested in burning all their bridges to the seedy underworld of Philadelphia and making a new start where they could be alone together. At least that's why i would have left, and i have the sneaking suspicion that they were just like me in those halcyon days. So, immediately they quit their jobs, bought a truck, and hit the road.
So they were driving into Utah when they realized that rain was coming in through the roof of the truck. My dad pulled over and found that the air conditioner on the roof of the truck didn't have any support, it was just attached to the sheet metal. The air conditioner was so heavy that the sheet metal had ripped and the huge air conditioner was about to fall on their heads. My father, being the expert mechanic that he still is, made short work of removing it from the roof along with the aid of Lou, one of their traveling companions and an equally proficient mechanic. | 23 | English | male | Some College | Unemployed | N,N,N,N,N |
o | From Freud and Jung’s psychoanalytic theories to the behavioral interpretations of Skinner and Rodgers, the different schools of psychological thought strive to explain the perplexing and all too often contradictory motives behind human behavior–unfortunately, often with negligible concrete results. In fact, in the world of psychology, where so much of what goes on inside each individual’s psyche is carefully hidden behind ego defenses, habitual behaviors, and socially dictated norms, how we dress–from the clothes we wear to the way we style our hair and decorate our bodies–is one of only a very few clear indicators of an individual’s personality, self–image and at times even his or her world view. In every sense of the word, we
“dress to impress,”— to make a statement to the world about who we are and how we want the world to see us.
But what are we saying with what we wear? Not everyone is an expert on style, certainly. We all know what we like, and our personalities will permeate our individual choices, but how can we predict with any degree of certainty how our style of dress will affect others, or, conversely, how other’s appearance may impact our opinions without our knowledge or conscious participation in the process?
Surprisingly, the answers to these issues are not all that difficult to come by. The same research that provides us with so much information (albeit with very few conclusions) about personality development also helps us to recognize how our outward appearance reflects our personality to others. Here are just a few examples of some styles of dress that are popular today and the kinds of information they can convey about those who wear them.
The conventional dresser dresses for his environment rather than from a sense of personal style. In the business world the conventional dresser is the man or woman wearing a simple, traditionally styled suit in blue, gray or black with a white or pale pastel shirt, conservative tie and sensible shoes. On college campuses he or she is usually in a pair of chinos and a button down shirt, topped off by perhaps a “V” neck sweater and a pair of loafers. Conventional dressers tend to be “conventional” people– drab and sometimes boring, risk averse and lacking in confidence, they tend to be introverts who like to blend in with the crowd.
Sloppy dressers generally look as if they slept in the clothes they are wearing. Their wrinkled, soiled, mismatched outfits, often including torn, frayed blue jeans and deliberately ripped T- shirts are usually topped off by unwashed, uncombed hair, unshaven faces and –on women-heavy, sloppily applied makeup. The “Grunge” look is the uniform of the “Anti-establishment,” and while those who sport this style tend to view themselves as free-thinkers who reject conventional norms, the look also screams of a poor self-image, immaturity, lack of motivation, and an “I don’t give a damn” attitude that others will assume-often correctly-carries over into every aspect of a person’s life-from job performance, to work ethic and personal relationships. | 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o | Many people with EDS are unable to work, cannot enjoy formerly pleasurable pursuits such as sports and hobbies and lack the energy for even a normal intimate relationship with a spouse or significant other. Depression in people with EDS is common.
People with EDS frequently also suffer from a condition called “microsleep,“ which is characterized by sudden, unexpected, very short mini-naps, usually lasting from as little as 1.5 seconds to 30 seconds. Microsleep is real sleep; the person is unaware of his surroundings, may actually dream, and is often disoriented upon waking. Alarmingly, most people who experience microsleep are completely unaware that they were sleeping. Microsleep can have devastating, even fatal, consequences if it occurs while driving or operating dangerous machinery.
The causes of Excessive Daytime Sleepiness are numerous. EDS is, in fact, mostly viewed by medical experts not as a primary diagnosis, but as a symptom of other neurologic conditions, sleep disorders, metabolic diseases, and psychiatric conditions. It is also a fully amendable effect of certain life style choices such as self-imposed sleep deprivation, shift-work, or drug and alcohol abuse.
By far the most common causes of EDS are two closely related neurologic conditions, narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia. The first, narcolepsy, is a chronic neurologic condition thought to be genetic in origin, although the exact cause remains unclear. Narcolepsy usually occurs in young people; prevalence is greatest from age 10 until the early 20’s. However, it can be seen in any age group.
Classic symptoms of narcolepsy include excessive daytime sleepiness, microsleep and a condition called “cataplexy,” a sudden loss of muscle control that can be partial (such as the drooping of the face or severe weakness of one extremity) or complete, resulting in total collapse. Cataplexy frequently occurs in conjunction with a strong emotional reaction such as laughter, surprise, or sudden, severe pain, but can happen spontaneously, for no apparent reason. Other symptoms include periods of night time wakefulness accompanied by hot flashes, increased heart rate and an unpleasantly intense feeling of alertness or arousal, sleep paralysis and hallucinations just before falling asleep or upon waking and a characteristically unique sleep cycle during which they experience “REM” (rapid eye movement, or dream sleep) shortly after falling asleep.
Recent research studies have shown that people who suffer from narcolepsy have a decreased amount of a substance called “hypocretin” or “orexin”–a chemical responsible for activating arousal and regulating sleep–in their cerebral spinal fluid, the protective fluid that “bathes” the brain and spinal cord. This exciting discovery led to the first definitive diagnostic test for the disorder–a simple lumbar puncture with examination of the spinal fluid–and may eventually prove instrumental in finding a treatment or even a cure for the disease.
Idiopathic hypersomnia is a disorder that is very similar to narcolepsy. The primary symptom is excessive daytime sleepiness, and microsleep is a common occurrence. Like narcoleptics, people with hypersomnia may sleep for long periods at night and nap frequently throughout the day. | 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o | An important distinction between the two, however, is that those with hypersomnia tend to awaken from these naps unrefreshed and disoriented, while narcoleptics typically will wake up feeling rested, if only for a few hours.
Idiopathic hypersomnia rarely causes cataplexy, sleep paralysis or hallucinations and most people with the disorder have a relatively normal REM sleep cycle. Most importantly people with hypersomnia do not have a decreased level of hypocretin in their cerebrospinal fluid.
An interesting, although rare, variation of hypersomnia is a condition known as Kliene-Levin syndrome, or “KLS.” Most common in teenaged males, it is characterized by excessive sleeping, sometimes up to 18 hours per day, and a severely altered mental state with irritability, impaired cognition, anxiety, and confusion during periods of wakefulness. About 75% of patients with KLS also experience an extreme increase in appetite, sometimes devouring enormous quantities of food at a single sitting, and approximately 50% engage in atypical sexual behavior, including promiscuity, inappropriately aggressive sexual advances and even sexual assault. Almost all sufferers will have no memory of these events after they occur.
Like idiopathic hypersomnia, KLS is a chronic disorder and many patients develop depression or other mood disorders due to the bizarre effects of the disease. Excessive eating often causes weight gain to the point of obesity, and episodes of extreme sleepiness from which the person cannot be aroused interfere with patient’s ability to work, attend school or engage in normal, age appropriate activities. When KLS is associated with hypersexual behavior, patients may suffer severe repercussions, including loss of social contacts, social stigmatization and –in cases where the sexual behavior is aggressive,-even arrest and incarceration. Fortunately, KLS is usually a self-limiting disease, lasting from 18 months to about four years.
Another common cause of excessive daytime sleepiness is sleep apnea, also called “obstructive sleep apnea” or “OSA.” OSA is much more common than either narcolepsy or hypersomnia, affecting an estimated 18 million Americans, both male and female.
OSA is caused by obstruction or compression of the normal air passages during sleep, usually by the soft palate, tonsils or, occasionally, the tongue. This results in shallow respiration, snoring and-when obstruction is severe- frequent pauses in breathing, sometimes up to 100 times every hour. These pauses are known as apnea or apneic episodes. They cause sleep disruption, frequent awakening and generally poor sleep quality, which results in daytime sleepiness.
While OSA can occur in healthy people of any age, it is most commonly associated with a number of other physical and/or physiologic conditions, especially-
Another form of sleep apnea that is less common than OSA is “central apnea.” Central apnea is characterized by depression of the normal drive to breathe, which is a function of the central nervous system. Central apnea most often occurs as the result of medications that act on the central nervous system, particularly narcotics or opiates, barbiturates, benzodiazepines and alcohol; it can occur in persons who take these medicines even in the recommended dosage, especially if they are used in combination with other drugs. | 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o |
At first easily confused for a “conventional” sort, the “Casual chic” personality is someone who tends to dress appropriately for every occasion and always looks stylish and well-put together. The difference between this person and the conventional dresser, however, is that a “chic” dresser adds small but important personal touches to his or her wardrobe- an elegant piece of jewelry, a silk scarf or designer tie- that speak volumes about his desire to fit in without disappearing into the crowd. The Casual Chic person is confident, successful, and perceived as attractive by others.
We all know at least one person who will wear nothing but “designer “clothing–everything from his undergarments to his overcoat must sport an easily recognized label from a well-known clothing designer. His or her hair is done only by the most expensive, high-end salon in town and she shops for everything from makeup to mouthwash in only the most exclusive stores. While this style usually gives one an air of affluence and success, it is all too often also a sign of a person who is insecure, uncertain about his personal identity, shallow and overly materialistic.
Not unlike “Grunge” the “Goth” (short for “gothic”) look is generally worn by those who reject conventional society. Sported mostly by teens and “twenty-something’s,” the look is characterized by black clothing, black (usually dyed hair, heavy, dark makeup and jewelry that looks more threatening than fun or inviting. Those who are drawn to this look often have a number of body piercings and tattoos which they display by wearing as little clothing as possible. (Think Jesse James former fiancé’ Kat VonD) While some people who dress in “Goth” clothing see themselves as artistic and sensitive, for the most part their underlying personalities tend to be angry, immature, thrill- seeking, hostile towards authority and depressed.
Strange as it seems, most people who dress in “athletic attire” like running suits, sweats and so-called “work-out wear” in public are not athletes, but simply people who want to be perceived as such. Those who wear athletic attire while engaged in athletic pursuits rarely want to be seen (or smelled) in public wearing the same clothes they wore while working out, for obvious reasons. Those who do wear these kinds of outfits in public are generally wearing them in order to identify themselves with a sub-culture that they find appealing but which they cannot join due to physical constraints or a simple lack of time or motivation. These people tend to be sedentary, insecure and envious of those with the ambition and drive to achieve athleticism in the real world.
Of course, these descriptions are stereotypic representations of many different types of dressers; most of us wear a mixture of one or more of these style types on a regular basis and our personalities are a mix of those described as well. Every conventional dresser is not boring, nor is everyone who wears sweat pants to the grocery store a frustrated athlete. | 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o | Never mind that they are running a race that they are doomed to lose; after all, no human being yet has escaped their ultimate demise, or the slow desiccation that preceded it. The desire to remain-or at least to appear- youthful and healthy is an obsession that millions of Americans share and demonstrate by consuming in one way or another thousands of products and services dedicated to the concept of "health and wellness" every day.
But how much, really, does the "health and wellness" fanaticism of the "New Millennium" have to do with the pursuit of actual wellness? For that matter, how many of those who claim devotion to the principle–who buy "healthy" foods for themselves and their families, who work-out every day, who avoid known carcinogens like tobacco and excess UV light, take care of their teeth and get a physical and a flu shot every year–have ever taken stock of their own state of wellness or tried to discern what wellness means to them? Is it enough to be physically healthy; are good looks, vitality and a youthful glow all it takes to create a healthy human being? I think most of us would agree that the answer to that question is "No." But what, then, is health and what is wellness? More importantly, what do they mean to you?
Before you set out on a journey, it is important to know where you are going; how else will you know when you get there? In much the same way, it is impractical to begin a journaling practice with the intention of moving towards a higher level of wellness unless you have some idea of where you are now, and where you are hoping to be at a given point in the future. These two questions are central to any undertaking. They speak to purpose, values, goals, and the plans that we make to achieve them, which are, in turn, the fabric with which we weave the change that we want to see-and achieve-in our lives and in our world.
Over the next few weeks we will be talking about these questions in more detail, hoping to help you define what wellness means to you and how achieving greater wellness can add value, meaning and pleasure to your life. In the meantime, please take some time to consider what we talked about today and consider how you can apply it to your life. Write about your idea of wellness; draw a picture of it, if you wish. Get creative and let yourself express how being the person you choose to be can impact your life today and in the future. Remember: making it real is the first step in making it happen.
Let's face facts; Americans by and large are getting older. Since January 1, 2006, a baby boomer has turned 60 every seven seconds and this trend will continue for about the next 19 years.
| 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o | While considered quite difficult because of the enormous amount of mental discipline required to achieve its goal of pure enlightenment using mind control alone, Raja yoga is in some ways less demanding than the Hatha yoga with which most Westerners are familiar, because Raja yoga does not involve postures or a need for physical flexibility. The discipline involved in Raja yoga is entirely mental.
Much like the “mindfulness meditation” that is popular in western culture today, Raja yoga is based upon a form of meditation that requires the practitioner to empty his mind of all thoughts, sensations, and distractions by focusing on a single, static object, usually the breath. Practitioners of Raja yoga believe that once the mind is free of all distractions it is possible to achieve a state of bliss or tranquility called Brahman, described by some as “pure awareness reflected on the still surface of the mind.”
The second yoga path, which is the path best known to yoga practitioners in the western world, is Hatha Yoga, also called “The Physical Path.” Practitioners of Hatha yoga strive to attain the goal of mind-body-spirit balance and integration through the practice of yoga postures (asana,) breathing (pranayama,) body movements (mudra) and purity (shatkarma.) While Hatha yoga in its original form was primarily a spiritual discipline, most Western practitioners today focus on the physical postures and breathing as a means of achieving improved levels of physical and mental health and wellness. The movements of Hatha yoga are slow and gentle, with an emphasis on breathing “through” or “into” the various poses, thus opening up the body’s natural energy pathways, known as Chakras, and allowing life-giving energy to flow freely throughout the body.
A variety of Hatha yoga that is popular in Western circles today is Iyengar yoga, named for its creator, B.K.S. Iyengar, who founded the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) in Pune, India in January 1975. Iyengar yoga focuses heavily on yoga postures, especially on the achievement of the exact body alignment necessary to allow an optimal flow of energy through the Chakras. In order to attain the stringent poses required in the practice of Iyengar yoga practitioners use a number of “props” including belts, bands, wooden sticks and other similar devices to help them to achieve and hold the necessary positions.
The third path of traditional path of yoga is Jnana Yoga–the Yoga of Wisdom. Jnana Yoga is considered to be the most difficult of the four main paths of yoga in that it focuses on the intellectual pursuit Brahman, which represents the integration of the inner self with the oneness of all life. Jnana yoga is based upon the mental techniques and disciplines known as the Four Pillars of Knowledge, which include:
Because Jnana yoga is focused on the intellectual understanding of these difficult constructs, it is easy for unskilled practitioners to become distracted from the goal of this and all yoga paths– spiritual enlightenment. | 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o | . Staying in the moment frees us from longing. Staying in the moment allows us to experience life's great losses without fear.
For the next few days, make a mental note to stay in the moment. Whenever you feel yourself wandering into that place in your mind where painful memories linger, or remembering the happiness of the past with yearning for what is lost, pull yourself back to the present. If you find yourself in fear, wondering if the pain that you feel today will linger into tomorrow, come back to the moment. Sit with your present and watch it unfold; experience time as it moves from this moment to the next and then the next and watch your emotions shift. This moment to moment living is where healing takes place.
Journaling exercise: As you work to focus your awareness in the present moment, pay attention to where your mind tries to take you instead.
Is it pulling you into the past, to places where old wounds still ache and old resentments linger?
Or is it drawing you into the unknowable future, conjuring up nightmares or daydreams that will never come to pass?
Whatever the answer-the force that is drawing you away from this moment is your subconscious pointing you towards the answer to your suffering. Don't ignore it. Stay present, and write about what it is telling you. Then use these insights to explore new ways to find healing in your life.
As anyone who has taken a course in basic human behavior can attest, the field of psychology is replete with theories-many of them conflicting- about how and why people think, act, feel and relate to each other and their environment in the ways that they do.) While our cave dwelling ancestors began wearing clothing for purely utilitarian reasons, one need only take a short journey through history to uncover how quickly the human race began to view clothing and other accoutrements of style as a means of creating a unique identity, aligning oneself with a group or class, projecting social status, attracting the opposite sex or myriad other reflections of personal values, choices and status. Despite the amazing preponderance of readily available, rigorously collected, tantalizingly detailed data on the subject, even the most respected “experts” cannot explain with any degree of certainty how or why each of us develops the specific set of intellectual, emotional, and spiritual characteristics that –taken in their entirety–define who we are and how we express our “self-hood” to the rest of the world.
Yet while modern psychology does not yet and may never have a complete and detailed explanation to our behavior, it is an accepted tenet in virtually every school of psychological thought that the physical aspect of how we present ourselves to the world is a clear and often remarkably forthright reflection of who we are (or who we want to be. | 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o | Nevertheless, it is a good idea to occasionally step back and look at ourselves as others see us; hopefully we can learn something from the process as well.
Journaling about personal trauma and painful memories can be immensely healing. The physical act of writing is a form of release in itself; putting a painful memory down on paper is akin to pulling it from the darkness and opening it up to the light. You can see the event and how it affected you more clearly, and–if you are using the process of journaling for its highest purpose–gain insight into how it is continuing to affect you in the here and now. It can be very enlightening to see the connection between some long "forgotten" event and the way you react to similar situations today.
But there is danger in re-opening old wounds. Memories that have been buried deep in your subconscious are hidden there with good reason. Perhaps you were too young to grasp their full meaning at the time they occurred, or you lacked the coping skills necessary to process them. Some events are so frightening or painful that your conscious mind simply denies that they happened at all. Although modern research methods have yet to catch up to the intricacies of how our minds work, one thing we know for certain is that the mind is as adept at defending itself as the body , with at least as many complex defenses in place to protect it from real or perceived threats to its integrity.
So how do you know if you are ready to open yourself up to the past? Simplistic as it sounds, all you really need to do is to pay attention to what is going on in your life today.
Try asking yourself these questions–
Do you feel as if your life is in a state of flux?
Are you confused about your motivations and uncertain of your goals?
Do you feel as if your important relationships are off course or unraveling?
Are you feeling disappointed in yourself or someone close to you?
Are you having trouble communicating? Does it feel as if no one understands wqhat you are saying?
Have you been plagued by illness, self-doubt, unexplained sadness or unanswered questions?
Is your sleep restless and your appetite poor?
If you answered "yes" to even a few of these, you can be certain that what you are feeling is the power of your "divine consciousness" striving to move you from a place of comfort and complacency towards new learning, growth and maturation. This divine part of your self is your true "inner healer." It is the part of your being that ceaselessly propels you in the direction of "right" choices that fill you with a deep sense of purpose and belonging that marks true wellness.
So, listen to your life and what it is telling you. If you are feeling the call of your divine consciousness, follow it and begin your journey. | 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o |
Other causes of central apnea include neurologic disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gherigs disease or ALS) polio, or brain infections and brain tumors. Central apnea can also occur in healthy individualssleeping at very high altitudes.
A recently recognized cause of excessive daytime sleepiness is “Shift Work Sleep Disorder” a circadian rhythm disorder experienced by people whose work hours cause them to be awake during normal sleep times. Characterized by insomnia alternating with periods of excessive sleepiness, the disorder has long been common knowledge among people whose work schedules required them to stay up all night, such as doctors, nurses, police officers and firefighters. However, the recent inclusion of the disorder in the differential diagnoses of excessive daytime sleepiness is allowing sufferers to request and be assigned schedules to which they can more easily become acclimated.
Finally, there are a number of psychiatric and physiologic conditions that affect an individual’s overall energy level and may result in excessive daytime sleepiness. Some of these are common, such as depression, chronic pain, including fibromyalgia, migraine headache, and iron deficiency anemia, and some are less so, for instance hypothyroidism, kidney failure and restless leg syndrome. Excessive fatigue can also be a symptom of cancer, heart disease, chronic infections or stroke. It is important to remember that despite our hectic life-style and the frenetic pace of American life, being sleepy all the time is not normal or desirable, and can lead to other serious consequences and health issues. Therefore, anyone who experiences excessive daytime sleepiness for no apparent reason should see his or her physician as soon as possible.
It also would not hurt to sleep a bit more. A recent study by the National Sleep Foundation found that Americans get 20% less sleep than we did a century ago. That, unfortunately, is just not enough.
Healing is the process of identifying, processing, accepting, and-finally-letting go of our suffering. Thus, as we search in our lives for healing and healing experiences, it is important that we look less for ways to end our suffering and more for the reasons behind the pain that we feel.
We suffer because we want things to be other than what they are. It is impossible to live in the moment and suffer, because suffering is by nature a function of either attachment to what once was (loss) or desire for what we wish would be (yearning.) In the moment we can and do feel pain, discomfort, confusion, longing...so many other things that remind us that we are sentient, emotional beings. In the moment we may feel saddness at the loss of love, loss of health, loss of companionship, loss of dreams and the terrible, heart rending pain of grief. But it is only when we forget to stay in the present–only when we allow ourselves to forget the truth that "this too, shall pass" – and that tomorrow will bring solace do we become overwhelmed with the terrible longing for something else. | 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o | Introduce yourself and your children. Find out who is living alone and might need help in the event of a disaster-natural or otherwise. Check to see which households have young children or elderly persons living in them-anyone who might be vulnerable if they were suddenly alone for an extended period. Make it known that you are someone who can be counted on in a crisis, and others will almost certainly do the same for you.
It is absolutely true that we cannot count on our government to help us in an emergency. Just look at what happened to the people of New Orleans after Katrina; that's our government's response to a real emergency. And all one need do to see how Congress and the Administration react to the man-made emergency of the budget deficit is to listen to the Republicans in the Senate talk about what they want to do to save money. In fact, there is no better example of what happens to a society when its central guiding principle is "every man for himself" than the self-serving avarice running amok in our nation's capital right now.
But we "the people" are not "the government", not any more. Our government no more represents our interests than they represent the principles set forth in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. "The government" today is a sad cabal of criminals, deviants, and celebrity wannabe's--Charlie Sheen in a three-piece suit.
"We" are individuals; human beings with free will and the capacity for compassion and empathy. I think we have come to the point in our evolution that we must begin to exercise these traits. The only real alternative is extinction.
Yoga is a spiritual and philosophical discipline that is believed to have originated in ancient India in the 2nd century BC. First described by the scholar Pantanjali, traditional ancient yoga, known as Raja yoga, was a meditative practice with the goal of achieving total control over the influence of the external world and the physical realm (the body) on the mind. In one translation from the ancient Hindu, Swami Vivekananda describes this original form of yoga as ….”Restraining the mind-, Citta) from taking various forms (Vrittis)."
Today, the practice of yoga has evolved into dozens of variants, all of which focus to varying degrees on the achievement of mental and physical harmony, tranquility and balance through meditation, controlled breathing and the practice physical postures, poses, or positions. Many of these variants are so closely related as to be virtually indistinguishable from each other to any but the most discerning practitioner. Nevertheless, four main “paths” of yoga practice, distinct from each other both in practice and philosophy, still exist. These are the aforementioned “Raja Yoga”, Hatha Yoga, Bhatki Yoga, and Jnana Yoga.
The first path of yoga, Raja yoga, is also referred to as “Royal yoga” because of its revered status among yoga practitioners, who are referred to in yoga parlance as called “yogis” (male) or yogini’s (female). | 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o |
Fifteen years ago I became suddenly and unexpectedly disabled by an illness I never knew existed.
I was a nurse at the time. I had chosen my profession out of a deeply entrenched need for the safety and security I didn't have as a child. "You'll always be able to find work; people will always get sick." was the mantra I heard over and over as I reached adolescence and beyond. So-- even though my dream was to be a scientist or a journalist-preferably a little of both, I chose nursing.
Nevertheless, there I was: 46 years old and single, no money in the bank to speak of and unable to work. To this day I am disabled, and after 15 years of living on Social Security Disability, I have literally nothing left that I can call "mine." I get by, but every day is a struggle and an assault on my security, safety and self-esteem. Nothing in my life is certain anymore, yet, there is one thing that I know to be true. I could not have gotten by for all these years were it not for the help of my family and a few good friends, no matter how strong I was. And believe me, when real disaster strikes, you do not feel very strong at all.
My point is that there will always be emergencies in life-big and small. There are no guarantees and no matter how well one prepares, some things are just too big to overcome on your own.
I agree wholeheartedly that we in the U.S. need to stop putting all of our eggs in big government's "basket"; Lord knows it is moldy and falling apart, anyway. Yet I would much rather see Americans learning to trust one another again–learning to help each other and to ask for help, rather than have each of us individually clambering out to the backyard to build fallout shelters.
The Conservatives in the US talk about the "rugged individualism" that built this country; but in truth, what kept our forefathers going in hard times wasn't rugged individualism, it was compassion, mutual respect and the sharing of resources. The pioneers who crossed the Rockies in wagon trains didn't make it to the coast by going it alone.
So, by all means, be prepared. I am. I have a disaster kit; first aid supplies, water purifying tablets and plastic sheeting and duct tape for the windows in the event of a biological attack. I have several flashlights and all sorts of batteries, lots and lots of candles and waterproof matches and canned goods, too. If you have the land and the resources for a small farm and the ability to can or preserve your own food-do it. It's a great idea, as is a wood stove, as long as you do not live in an apartment.
But while you are at it, get to know your neighbors. | 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o |
This simple fact has amazing and diverse implications for almost every facet of life in the United States and, for that matter, virtually all developed countries. (In China, for example, the number of people over age sixty is expected to reach 585 million by the year 2050.) Nowhere is this impact being felt more than in the area of health and wellness.
Americans in record numbers are showing increased concern for their health and longevity. For many, this means a sudden and almost complete reversal of years of living an unhealthy or even dangerous life-style. Products for smoking cessation, weight loss, osteoporosis treatment and prevention and erectile dysfunction saturate the airwaves and print media. In fact, prime time television commercials today are almost exclusively devoted to advertising products that address the anxieties of the over-60 demographic. This is especially true of products that reduce cholesterol and improve heart and circulatory function.
Heart disease, mostly in the form of atherosclerosis, or clogged arteries, is the number one cause of premature death in the United States, and cholesterol is believed by most experts to be one of the major causes of the condition known as atherosclerosis. It is little wonder, then, that medications, dietary supplements, and numerous foods aimed at reducing cholesterol are the focus of so much media attention these days, or that these products are literally flying off the shelves of grocery and health food stores, pharmacies and on-line merchants.
What is somewhat amazing is, however, is that, in their zeal to improve their chances at a long and healthy life, so many people have neglected to determine which of these products is most beneficial and which, if any, pose substantial risks.
So, in the interest of enlightening a strangely naive, albeit somewhat terrified public, we have put together a basic review of ways to decrease cholesterol and improve your heart health. This is in no way a complete review of the research, nor is it meant to be a substitute for medical advice.
Cholesterol is essential to human biology. It is a component of all cell membranes, where it allows for the transportation of vital compounds from the blood and lymphatic system into the cells. It is also necessary for the manufacture of bile, steroid hormones by the adrenal glands and the sex hormones progesterone, estrogen and testosterone. Cholesterol is also essential to Vitamin D synthesis.
Cholesterol is produced by the liver and excreted into the intestines in the form of bile; about 50% of this cholesterol is later reabsorbed into the blood stream and returned through the blood to the liver. The liver also regulates the amount of circulating cholesterol by decreasing cholesterol production in response to an elevation in serum cholesterol due to the intake of a diet high in fat.
In addition to the cholesterol manufactured by the liver, the major source of cholesterol in the bloodstream is dietary cholesterol. | 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o | Phytosterols, you may recall, are plant compounds that bind to cholesterol in the blood stream and carry it to the liver, where it is excreted in bile and other compounds. One of these supplements, “Vasacor” is a combination of natural ingredients that help your body naturally decrease the levels of LDL, while also promoting an increase in your HDL levels. This two-part approach to cholesterol management allows you achieve better results than diet and exercise alone.
Finally, recent advances in the treatment of high cholesterol include adding medications known as "statins" to a regimen of natural cholesterol reduction therapies. “Statins,” which are scientifically termed “HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors,” also positively affect the balance of HDL and LDL and can increase the efficacy of a program of diet, exercise and nutritional supplements, thereby further lowering the risk of cardiac complications.
Unfortunately, as is the case with most pharmaceutical compounds, statins are not without some risk of significant side effects and toxicities. The most serious of these is the breakdown of muscle tissue in the body. If extensive, this can lead to muscle weakness, fatigue and even kidney failure due to excess strain on the kidneys caused by the excretion of the by-products muscle cell breakdown.
Hopefully, this review of cholesterol and cholesterol reduction therapy will prove helpful to those of you who are trying to develop a healthier life-style–preferably before you develop high cholesterol or heart disease. Although our country’s demographic is shifting to an older population, you are never too young to make yourself aware of the dangers of high cholesterol and atherosclerosis. Beginning a lower-fat diet, high in fiber and plant sterols, starting a moderate exercise regimen and adding a natural dietary supplement such as Vasacor to your routine is a positive step towards better health for anyone at any age.
Excessive Daytime Sleepiness: for a medical diagnosis, it sounds relatively innocuous. After all, everyone has experienced the symptom at one time or another. Given the frenetic pace of life in modern society, exhaustion is almost a “badge of honor” for many of us–a hard won emblem of our success that we display with pride, not unlike our Smart phones and technologically efficient SUV’s.
In truth, however, Excessive Daytime Sleepiness or “EDS” is a far cry from the innocent, relatively harmless affliction its name would have us believe; rather, it is a disabling condition that can turn a normal, active life into a constant battle against the overwhelming desire – and compelling, often irresistible need – to sleep. People who suffer from EDS frequently experience other signs of exhaustion, such as an overall decrease in physical energy, difficulty concentrating and marked changes in normal cognition. While EDS can be the result of a persistent sleep “deficit,” people who suffer from a EDS due to a medical condition usually require large amounts of sleep, sleep as much as possible, yet are still excessively sleepy during the day. | 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o |
I'm feeling extraordinarily tired right now, and wondering why I decide, so often, to start a project when it is so late in the day. I suppose you could say it is because I'm a night-owl, although I believe that is probably an oversimplification of a more complex psychological rationale.
It could be simply that I think more at night. I ruminate about the fact that I've spent another day doing very little that one might call productive. Certainly I have not done anything that would bring in any income; and eventually this translates itself into worry, which translates very nicely into that free-floating anxiety that ruins the calm, gentle relaxation that is required for sleep. So, not thinking about the fact of my incredible fatigue, or the lateness of the hour I start browsing through Amazon Turk for some little project to do that will make me a few dollars. The next thing you know I am awake until 3:00AM, writing something like this. And no matter how hard I may try, I cannot let it go until I am satisfied that it is good enough to submit.
Or maybe it is about being a writer. In a way it is a writer's curse to need the night time. Only at night do the sounds of the street quiet down to the point where they don't interfere with the kind of concentration one needs to find just the right word, or just the right combination of words to make them work. It would be nice if that kind of quiet could be found during normal "business hours", but of course, the fact that they are "normal business hours" makes them busy, noisy and disturbing more or less by definition.
I'm not sure. All I know for certain is that for as long as I can remember the night has been the time when I can finally stop my frantic busy-ness and allow myself to think. The darkness is like a blanket that protects me from the world, the silence a shield against the intrusions of life's frenzied activity. Not that I am a hermit, mind you, or a recluse. I love people and need to connect, to touch others throughout the day, although perhaps not quite as often as the next person. But I also need my solitude; it is like air and water and food to me. They nourish my body; solitude nourishes my soul.
When I was young-very young-my life was hard. It was loud, violent and frightening, so I grew up cherishing silence. In the middle of the night, when it was finally quiet, I would imagine a happier life, some place where I would feel safe and cared for and loved. Strange- I never realized before that my love affair with the night probably grew out of those times long ago.
That's what I mean about the night. Sometimes, when you least expect it, the darkness will grant you insight or understanding that you might never have discovered during the bright light of day. Contrary to popular belief, it is often in the darkest times when we see things most clearly.
| 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o | Therefore, it is usually recommended that those who choose this path with the help and guidance of an experienced teacher, or Guru.
The fourth and last traditional yoga path, which is often practiced in combination with either Hatha or Raja yoga, is Bhakti or “Devotional Yoga”. Bhatki yoga focuses on the breath, chanting, and spiritual devotion (prayer) as a means of achieving the integration of mind-body-spirit that is central to all yoga practice. It is considered to be the easiest form of yoga to learn and practice, because it requires neither physical dexterity, mental discipline nor strength of will and intellect.
Bhatki yoga practitioners use 9 main “limbs” or spiritual practices, which are performed individually or together. Each of these practices is considered to have its own intrinsic and unique benefit; it is not necessary for one to practice all of the 9 limbs to gain from the experience. The nine limbs of Bhatki yoga are:
While the practices of Bhatki yoga originated within the spiritual teachings of ancient Hinduism, specifically with reference to ancient deities and spiritual practices, Bhakti yoga practitioners today integrate these teachings with other religious beliefs, including Christianity. The benefits of Bhatki yoga, which, according to Swami Sivananda include …”joy, divine ecstasy, bliss, peace and knowledge” derive from the devotional practices themselves rather than the deities to which they are offered. The most popular form of Bhatki Yoga in the west today is “Kirtana” or simply “Kirtan” yoga.
Of course, a tradition such as yoga, with millions of devotees world-wide, cannot ever be completely catalogued or described. New variants of the original yoga forms will appear as long as yoga is practiced. Nevertheless, the fundamental basis of yoga culture and discipline will always be the original yoga paths described above.
The word "wellness" has enjoyed a great deal of attention over the past 10-20 years. Arriving right alongside the concepts of “Managed Care”and the holistic revolution the concept was touted by health care providers and insurers alike of maintaining “wellness” versus curing “illness”
as insurance companies and providers alike tried to shift the public perception of health care from one of At first it was a Health care providers The media, especially in the form of the catch-phrase "Health and Wellness," a phrase so overused that it can almost be thought of as the mantra of the 21st Century. It is a sign of the times; the aging baby boomer generation has moved beyond the stage of life where job, career and family took greatest prominence into one where preservation and maintenance of the whole are their biggest concerns.
All too aware that the culture they created is one that reveres youth and beauty as much as it does prosperity and power many 60-something's are struggling to hold on to whatever they possess, be it youth, looks, vitality, money, prestige or, for that matter, hair. | 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
o | However, the amount of circulating cholesterol seems to be more closely related to the total intake of dietary fat than to the intake of cholesterol itself. In particular, diets high in animal fats seem to increase total cholesterol in humans. Major dietary sources of cholesterol include beef, pork, poultry, shrimp, egg yolks, milk and cheese. Polyunsaturated fats, also known as “Trans fats,” which are found most often in margarine and solid fats like “Crisco" and lard, also greatly increase serum cholesterol. The United States recently banned Trans fats from all food sold in markets and restaurants.
The amount of cholesterol in plant based food sources is very small. What's more, certain plants contain cholesterol-like compounds called phytosterols which are believed to lower serum cholesterol. Phytosterols can be found in flax seeds, flax seed oil and peanuts.
Although cholesterol occurs in a number of forms, there are two major types of cholesterol found in the human body. These are commonly referred to as "good" cholesterol and "bad" cholesterol. (Although some research indicates that the distinction is not that clear cut.)
The direct measurement of cholesterol is not possible because cholesterol itself is not is not soluble in blood; rather it is carried through the bloodstream on compounds called "lipoproteins." Thus, the blood test for good cholesterol, known as "HDL," actually measures a substance called "high density lipoprotein." It is referred to as "good" cholesterol because HDL is capable of removing cholesterol molecules from the circulating blood. Similarly, bad cholesterol, or "LDL" is measured as "low density lipoprotein." These are the particles that are believed to be responsible for the development of atherosclerosis. According to the latest research, it is the ratio of these two substances that is the best predictor for heart disease. Higher concentrations of LDL and lower concentrations of HDL are strongly associated with atherosclerosis and an increased risk of cardiovascular events like heart attack or stroke and peripheral vascular disease.
Because of the potentially devastating effects on the health of people all over the globe, a great deal of research aimed at finding ways in which to decrease cholesterol, particularly in those at greatest risk for a cardiovascular event is currently underway. Unfortunately, some of the most important factors in an individual’s total cholesterol are genetically determined. However, diet, exercise, dietary supplements and medications called "statins" are all somewhat effective in reducing total cholesterol and/or changing the ratio of good and bad cholesterol in some individuals.
A generally healthy diet–one low in animal fat and high in fiber, whole grains and food sources that are known to lower cholesterol and promote cardiovascular health is the first line of defense against abnormal cholesterol levels and atherosclerosis. Both soluble fiber and insoluble fiber may lower cholesterol by altering the amount of fat absorbed by the intestines. Some high-fiber foods include:
Another important means of lowering cholesterol is through the use of dietary supplements that contain substances to prevent the absorption of fats in the intestines and/or the aforementioned phytosterols. | 60 | English | female | BS | Retired RN | N,N,N,N,N |
dd | He says that “[a]mong the broken fragments of the last five minutes at table I remember the candles being lit [by Daisy] again, pointlessly,” which symbolically depicts that although perhaps Daisy tried to revive her marriage with Tom, it was a lost cause from the beginning (Fitzgerald 15).
However, what they did have in common was greed. Nick puts it perfectly when he says:
This passage refers directly to the way that Tom and Daisy effectively killed Gatsby through both their action and inaction. Tom directed Wilson to kill Gatsby, and Daisy did nothing to stop him. Daisy could have saved Gatsby’s life by simply admitting that it was she who killed Myrtle, but she refuses to make such a serious personal sacrifice for Gatsby, even though he was willing to do the same for her. Neither of them shows any remorse for this, moreover. Tom believes that his actions were fully justified, and Daisy disappears just before Gatsby’s death, never to return in the novel. Tom and Daisy are social climbers—their only real goal in life is to reach this distorted ideal of the American dream. In that respect, they succeed, but they ultimately do not find the happiness they sought out.
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s depiction of the American dream is understandable when taken in the context of the decade he wrote it in. Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby right in the middle of the roaring 20’s, a decade characterized primarily by excessive self-indulgence and superficiality. For the American people, World War I “was a shock, but it was a liberating shock which left most of the energy and imaginative brilliance undamaged” (Hoffman 110). As a result, Americans felt invincible, and it showed in the way the society began to develop. Reckless spending became the norm, and eventually led to the great depression at the end of the decade, “a financial crisis, which proved subsequently also to have been a moral crisis” (Hoffman 112).
Nick’s choice of the financial sector as an area to pursue a career shows the moral costs of upward mobility in a way that is different from the previous examples of Tom and Daisy. Nick says that he “came back restless” from the war, which was part of his rationale for moving out east (Fitzgerald 3). Nick goes on to say that he chose to go into the bond business because “[e]veryone [he] knew was in the bond business” (Fitzgerald 3). A person who works with bonds is likely to earn more than say, a farmer, which was a profession of choice for much of the time leading up to the 1900’s. The life of a farmer was desirable at the time because it gave the worker a connection with the land he owned—a connection with the country he lived in. The focus during the 1920’s was not on the country, however. It was almost entirely on the self. | 19 | English | male | Some College | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
dd | That was confusing, because it seems as though the best for the kids would be the best decision overall. The needs of her kids seem to come to the forefront of what is most important to her, so the idea that what she considers the best course of action may not be the best for them bitterly ironic.
All in all, Mrs. S is accepting of her mortality. Due to her history of illness and loss, and with the help of a new close friend, she has been able to work past whatever emotions she had when she first found out about her malignancies, and start thinking about what will become of her two sons that she will leave behind when she dies.
Poets use many different devices to get the point of their poem across. Some prefer tools such as metaphor or simile, while others are subtler, hinting at the meaning of their poems through rhyme scheme and meter. For instance, I have written poems where I purposely throw the meter off in order to hint at some kind of chaos in the poem. Every poet accomplishes storytelling in his or her own way. Analyzing the poetry of Dorothy Parker, Theodore Roethke, and Allen Ginsberg shows how poets use different means to present the prosaic meaning of their poem.
Dorothy Parker contrasts the subject matter of suicide with the qualities of a children’s poem or limerick in her poem “Résumé.” The rhyme scheme and meter make the poem appear very melodic, which makes it seem almost childish. The poem itself is short and simple, which fits the theme of the poem. It advises not the reader not to kill themselves, which is a simple message, so rather than complicating that, Parker decided to use just as simple means to express it. Parker also uses irony to get her point across by listing the downsides to killing one’s self by different means without mentioning that these also all involve ending one’s life. It’s a dark touch of humor that get’s Parker’s point across in a different way. There is also no mention of the fact that even though a river may be damp, for instance, the one drowning in it won’t notice because they will be dead, which is yet another humorous, albeit dark, ironic statement.
Theodore Roethke lets the prose meaning of “My Papa’s Waltz” come through very clearly by simply telling the story, making use of rhyme and regular meter. The meter and rhyme are particularly important because they make the poem appear more like a song, specifically more like a waltz. Although calling the way his father acts when he is drunk a waltz is irony alone, creating the entire structure of the poem around that idea serves to perpetuate that irony and make it a more grand statement. Also, it allows the reader to realize that perhaps the way the father acts when he is drunk isn’t necessarily a bad thing. | 19 | English | male | Some College | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
dd | James Truslow Adams, in The Epic of America, defined the American dream as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement” (415). However, arguably the most important aspect of true happiness is overlooked in the way it is perceived by most people. The typical image of the American dream includes a spouse, children, a big house and a nice car. People rarely consider the importance of true fulfillment, which comes not from material possessions, but from within. By chasing the poorly perceived American dream, many people found themselves wealthy, but ultimately unhappy. F. Scott Fitzgerald directly addresses this issue in his novel The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses his characters, specifically Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan, to highlight the dehumanizing nature of upward mobility and the American dream, a major theme of the work. Neither Gatsby nor Daisy ever fully realize their dreams, despite their financial and social successes. Fitzgerald’s societal statement is well grounded, given the decade he wrote his book in, and serves as a warning, both to his and future generations.
Jay Gatsby starts off as the mysteriously wealthy neighbor of Nick Carraway, well known for throwing lavish parties, but as the plot develops, Nick begins to realize that Jay is actually miserable. His wealth is not enough to make him happy; all he wants is his first and only love back. Nick points this out when he says:
While Gatsby was stationed in Louisville, Kentucky—just “a penniless young man without a past,”—he fell in love with Daisy (Fitzgerald 149). However, when he left the states to fight in the war, Daisy married Tom Buchanan, despite her promise to wait for him to return so they could be wed. This blow left Gatsby heartbroken.
Because Daisy left him for a man with more money than he, Gatsby figured that if he were to become wealthy as well, it would solve all of his problems and send Daisy back into his arms. Losing Daisy was a serious blow to Gatsby’s self-esteem, so his pursuit of Daisy is also to some extent a quest to retrieve that pride. He convinces himself that money and social status is all he needs, and he “fails to see that the Buchanans, representative of a class with its origins and ways of life nourished by wealth, are sordid and spiritually barren” (Stavola 131). Fitzgerald makes Gatsby’s dream perfectly clear:
The word “free” is used intentionally, in order to imply that Daisy feels restrained in her marriage, kept from being with the man she loves. This shows the extent of Gatsby’s capacity as a dreamer, as well as his subsequent disillusionment. He believes that Daisy only loved Tom “just for a minute, when they were first married—and loved [him] more even then” (Fitzgerald 152). | 19 | English | male | Some College | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
dd | This helped their overall appeal, because they would draw less typical metal listeners in with songs such as “Shoot Me Again,” and as a result they would listen to the rest of the album, and grow to understand the musical brilliance of heavier songs like “St. Anger.” Bands with goals like Metallica’s are the reason that the metal grew in popularity, leaving the door open for a new generation. (Berelian 221-224)
Building up from the foundation that the first two generations laid, the third generation of heavy metal chose to venture out into more theatricality. Also, the movement moved towards the commercial in a big way. Bands such as Iron Maiden chose their theatrical elements in a way that reflected the Romantic Era in literature. During that period, books such as Dracula were made popular, and then again in the late 1970’s there grew, within the metal genre at least, an interest in monsters and gothic drama. In addition, groups started to experiment with other forms of showmanship, such as costumes and makeup. This led to the groups known as the hair bands, the members of which are known for their over-produced hair.
Kiss is the paradigm of showmanship, commercialism, and theatricality of heavy metal bands. The New Yorkers decided that they were going to take their performances to the next level: they designed personal makeup that would be worn to each show. The leather-clad foursome also created an entire empire of merchandise, ranging from Kiss action figures to Kiss comic books, to anything else that they could fit their name on. They gained success through being businessmen rather than being the greatest musicians. It is well known that Kiss bassist Gene Simmons is not one whose skills are worth even mentioning, but his stage presence made up for his musical shortcomings. (Berelian 183-186)
Another band whose theatricality was truly over the top was Iron Maiden. They even went as far as having a giant monster, named Eddie, run around on stage during their shows, vomiting fake blood on the audience, among other grotesque acts. Despite his rather abhorrent practices, Eddie became a major metal icon, and was even named the #4 top music icon of all time by Kerrang! magazine. Eddie gained Maiden a lot more fans that they would have gotten with just their music, which just goes to show what an integral part theatricality was to later generations of heavy metal. After this generation, there was a massive fragmentation in the metal movement, and bands starting emerging from all over, creating all different types of synthesis with other genres to create their own genres. (Beebee)
Many groups have created some form of musical fusion with another genres. For instance, Nightwish, a Finnish band, has infused classical and operatic elements into their metal lineup, creating the romantic fantasy world that is their music. They create an atmosphere that is impossible to not completely immerse yourself in as you listen.
| 19 | English | male | Some College | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
dd | At first glance the father may seem abusive, but it could also be seen as the father just playing with his son, but due to the fact that he’s intoxicated is just being a little sloppy.
Allen Ginsberg’s writing is often composed of a great deal of social commentary; he made his poetry a means of giving his insight and opinion on the world and country he lived in. At the same time, his poetry can also be very thick and hard to grasp at first read, and generally takes several focused read-throughs to fully understand. For instance, his poem “A Supermarket in California” does not appear to be much more than a possibly drug-fueled trip to the supermarket, combined with visions of a long dead poet. After more detailed analysis, however, it appears to be a social commentary much like the work it was published alongside, “Howl.” The poem is a commentary on the consumerism of a post-World War II America. The tone in first stanza is very fanciful; Ginsberg accomplishes this tone with his liberal use of the exclamation point. He juxtaposes the whimsical tone with somewhat commonplace imagery when he says “What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes!” (Sound and Sense) Ginsberg uses tone to get his statement about errant consumerism in a post-war America across.
Poets usually have a specific idea in mind when they sit down to put pen to paper. How they decide to get their idea to the reader is a judgment call, and each poet takes their own route to telling their story to their audience, which is why poetry has evolved so far from what most would consider traditional poetry. Dorothy Parker, Theodore Roethke, and Allen Ginsberg all have very different styles, and thus utilize different methods of getting their point across. Additionally, they have different intended audiences; a poet’s style varies greatly with who they anticipate will be reading it. Ginsberg’s “A Supermarket in California” is very dense, and meant for a more learned audience whereas Parker’s poem “Résumé” is very simple, and meant to be read without over-analysis. Although each poet finds a different way to get their meaning across, it is still the meaning that takes precedence over the means.
A writer will often leave subtle hints in his or her stories or books that somehow relate to the greater theme, or sometimes are for their own amusement. James Joyce, for instance, liked to place sexual innuendos in some of his stories. Nathaniel Hawthorne too leaves some pieces lying around his story, and leaves it up to the reader to put it together. He left several reincarnations of the letter “A” in his novel The Scarlet Letter in order to portray its importance beyond the storyline of Hester Prynne. | 19 | English | male | Some College | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
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However, Daisy is clear about the fact that although she once loved Gatsby, she loves Tom now, and the other characters are equally conscious of this fact. Nick is clearly aware of it, saying “Daisy tumbled short of his dreams—not through her own fault, but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion” (Fitzgerald 95). Nick understands that the problem stems not from Daisy’s feelings per se, but from the way Gatsby has blown the situation out of proportion in his head. Nick points out this delusion when he says Gatsby “wanted nothing less of Daisy than that she should go to Tom and say: ‘I never loved you’” (Fitzgerald 100). He sees Daisy as a Rapunzel-like character: locked away in a tower, waiting for the gallant knight to come save her.
Wheeler Winston Dixon argues Gatsby’s view that he can “repeat the past” reflects Fitzgerald’s interest in film, relating Gatsby’s delusion to the way “one can reconstruct the past through film staging” (Fitzgerald 110, Dixon 22). Fitzgerald lived in a time where film was a very new creation, and through Gatsby he is saying that film distorts the way we see the world and the reality in which we live, perhaps to the point of hopeless delusion. It is important to note that Fitzgerald appreciated the film medium greatly; Dixon says “Gatsby’s sense of visual imagery is drenched with metaphoric and iconic connections to motion picture technique” (21). As fond of film as Fitzgerald is, he still warns against its overuse. The same way the American dream can be a great thing if taken in the right context, so must the perception of film. As with any kind of entertainment, when fiction begins to take over reality, the disillusionment that results can be monstrous. Gatsby allows his personal reality to take over, and he lives in his fantasy for too long. He only allows the truth to set in and realizes that the battle for Daisy’s heart has been fruitless when it is too late; he dies hours later. At this point in time, Daisy has already left him behind, emotionally and physically.
Daisy once loved Gatsby the way he loves her, and when he went to fight in the war, she promised she would wait for him. However, she becomes overwhelmed by the impatience of waiting:
Tom and Daisy’s relationship soon becomes loveless, however. This is because Daisy married him almost out of convenience, rather than bona fide affection. Although she believed that Tom would be the right choice for her—his money and social standing made him an obvious candidate for an upward mobility-minded woman like Daisy—she soon realizes that he is not all he seemed. He has an affair, and loses interest in her as well as their relationship. Several times in his description, Nick highlights the futility of Tom and Daisy’s relationship. This comes through most clearly when Nick describes a moment at the dinner table the first time he encounters the Buchanans. | 19 | English | male | Some College | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
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Mrs. S seemed able to accept her death remarkably fast. She said that she always thought she’d be a wreck of depression, but that she realized it was just something that she had to accept and move on from. She told her family, and that was that. It seems as though she moved through the stages all at once. However, it is probably her history with illness in the past that has given her this outlook on death. Because she’s always lived with at least one health risk at all times, she has grown used to the idea that she could die any time. Because of that, she was able to gradually pass through the stages of dying in her own time, rather than in the time that a specific disease allotted for her, so now that she knows she is going to die, she doesn’t need to worry about coping.
She did, however, speak of the difficulty of coping with the death of her first and only daughter of tuberculosis. She said that she lived for the child, and wasn’t sure that she’d ever be able to accept her death. This was definitely a major contributing factor when it came time for her to cope with her own mortality, because she had already had a major experience with the death of someone so close to her—in a way, part of her. She said that she was scared of not getting over it, but she did grow to accept it, and that made her understand that she was going to die someday too, whether or not it was conscious.
The same way that Morrie found solace in the company and love of others, Mrs. S finds it in the relationship she has made with her neighbor in the last year and a half or so, and it seems the neighbor does too. The neighbor makes herself available, helping out with housework, watching the kids, even bathing Mrs. S before she was admitted to the hospital. This kind of support was exactly what Mrs. S needed, because it showed her that maybe the lives of her kids could go on without her, and she could begin to detach from the feeling that she needed to stay for them, and live through anything. The neighbor also gives Mrs. S someone to talk to when she needs it, and she even said that the neighbor was a big part of her faith life, and motivated her to keep her faith strong.
She mentions that her illness has brought her closer to God, which was a surprising thought. It seems as though someone in her position would probably be angry with God, because of all the hardship they’ve been forced to endure, seemingly for no reason. Then she talks about her husband, and how he would take care of the kids when she died, but that she thinks that that is for the best, but not necessarily the best for the kids. | 19 | English | male | Some College | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
dd | Other bands, such as Dr. Acula, have taken elements from techno and injected them into their music. However though, these groups still stay true to the dark, visceral, expressive qualities of metal. Dr. Acula even remains true to the gothic elements, taking the name Dracula and changing it only slightly to pay clever homage to the work. (Berelian 250-252)
In conclusion, heavy metal is by far the most diverse and expressive of all popular music genres. It is diverse in that it has the flexibility to merge and create musical synthesis with other genres, giving it the capacity to be appealing to a wider audience, and it is expressive in the way that it allowed artists to explore the darker side of the emotional spectrum. One can see the evolution that has occurred within the movement throughout the years, starting with the first generation bands such as Black Sabbath, leading all the way up to Nightwish and Dr. Acula. Though each genre within popular music has some diversity and room for expression, they contain neither the capacity nor the actual amount of either. Heavy metal has seen a tremendous metamorphosis within the last 50 years or so, and it’s apparent that the movement is headed in a direction that’s impossible to track; we will just have to wait and see what the future holds for it.
Mrs. S is a clear example of how some people almost ignore the fact that they are dying because they have some kind of obligation that remains in this life. In this case, Mrs. S has children that she needs to take care of, and is estranged from her husband, so she think that she needs to be there for them, and makes them the priority rather than worrying about her own illness. This is not necessarily denial, but seems to be an unhealthy way of managing a disease, because it causes the patient to not realize the gravity of their situation until it is too late.
Mrs. S made poor decisions from the start, though. She decided not to go to the doctor when she found the lump, and kept putting it off, trying to convince herself that it was just a pimple, or something minor to that effect. She used her boys as an excuse to stay home and not go to the doctor, when really she should have gone and gotten it checked out from the get-go.
On a side-note, it seems that Kubler-Ross sometimes takes advantage of the emotional weaknesses of some of her patients, or tries to make them upset for the purposes of the interview. In the conversation with Mrs. S, Kubler-Ross asks her how she took it, especially because of the fact that she had postponed seeing the doctor. This seems merely to be a way to get Mrs. S more upset. It seemed to be an obvious enough question, one that you could ask anyone and get the same response from. It was unnecessary and, unprofessional.
| 19 | English | male | Some College | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
dd | Nathaniel Hawthorne does this in The Scarlet Letter through his many reincarnations of the letter “A,” specifically at the very beginning of the story, in Pearl’s name, and in Arthur Dimmesdale’s name. He begins the novel with the letter “A” to symbolize the story starting with adultery, and he juxtaposes that with Arthur Dimmesdale’s name, because the letter “a” is actually the end for Arthur, even though it is the first letter of his name. The “a” of adultery lies in the center of Pearl’s name, as well as her very being, and that is solidified with her conformability around the scarlet letter that Hester is forced to wear. Had Hawthorne thrown these ideas in the reader’s face, it would have, in the end, weakened the message that the letter “A” has more significance within the story separate from Hester Prynne’s letter.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said: “In this world a man must either be an anvil or hammer” (Picard). In this quote, Longfellow is directly referring to manipulation, which can be a useful tool for those who wield it properly. Those who are being manipulated, however, are utterly unaware of any such influence, which can lead to them ending up in less-than-ideal situations. Shakespeare explores the idea of manipulation of people in the play Hamlet, specifically with several of the smaller characters. He shows that manipulation can follow many different paths, but that they all lead to the same end. Examining the ways that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Ophelia, and Gertrude are manipulated until their deaths shows the vast power of manipulation at work, and just how far it can drive people.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are pawns by choice, with the hope to someday win enough favor to gain power. They are uncomfortable with the King’s plan to spy on Hamlet, but they go along with it because their thirst for power drives them to do so. They proceed to spy on the “too much changed” Hamlet, which brings them back and forth between him and Claudius (II.ii.36). Claudius appears to be in complete control, because he is controlling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s every move. Hamlet, however, is biding his time, as his suspicion grows. Ultimately, he learns of Rosencrantz’s and Guildenstern’s betrayal when he reads the letter that they are sending along with him to England, and rather cleverly decides to write a new letter, stating that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are the ones to be killed. This order is executed, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern fall victim to their own lack of knowledge. Because they acted as pawns and hardly as their own masters, they ended up being killed at the hands of the man whose death they were expediting. Shakespeare is, through their death, showing that their death is a direct result of their existence as a pawn, a mere tool in a plan larger than them.
Another character who became an instrument of a plan they did not concoct is Ophelia. | 19 | English | male | Some College | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
dd | Eventually they reached a point where they were completely pioneering a new plain of music that had previously gone undiscovered. Though some say that Black Sabbath lost their thunder after Ozzy Osbourne went solo, they are still among the forefathers of heavy metal and can still be considered the pioneers of the genre. (Berelian 35-38, Sharpe 245)
Another metal pioneer was London-based Motörhead, led by frontman and bassist Lemmy Kilmister. They got together in 1975, and took Lemmy’s love of blues and twisted it so that they could get an entirely new sound out of it. They are considered to be the founders of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM for short). They are also a heavy influence to the thrash metal genre, with tracks such as “Overkill” and “Bomber.” Motörhead found their sound by taking what was already on the table and changing it up until they had discovered something entirely different, and that is why they are known as a group that really helped start the metal movement. (Berelian 239-242)
After seeing the effect that the first generation had on the world, another wave of artists decided to follow suit and gravitated towards the metal movement. Artists such as Slayer and Metallica became what can now be referred to as the second generation of heavy metal. After seeing the tremendous success heavy metal was having in the UK, American bands decided to try and feed off the popularity and changed their styles up in order to give them a more metal sound. Also in this generation, we see bands that started off with metal, using that as their way into the music world rather than taking another genre, like blues, and “heavy-ing” it up.
The name “Slayer” has become a name synonymous with thrash metal, because even from their first album, they were fast, crude, and heavy. They were often criticized for the content of their songs; some of them had to do with Nazism, and they didn’t stop putting them out just because of their critics, which caused a new slew of remarks. Of course, it didn’t help that their fan club’s name is “Slaytanic Wehrmacht,” and that their logo was emblazoned on an iron eagle, but they rose above criticism and let their music speak for itself. Slayer wasn’t afraid to venture towards the dark side, and they didn’t mind disapproval. (Berelian 331-334)
Metallica, the San Franciscan metal empire, didn’t receive as much criticism concerning to their work. They were determined to get people to “bang that head that doesn’t bang” (Hetflield). They wanted to make metal appeal to a wider variety of people, and although they had some of the heaviest songs produced by one of the original metal bands, they still had mainstream-rock-sounding songs. | 19 | English | male | Some College | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
dd | Examining the very beginning of the story, Pearl’s name, and Arthur’s name shows that the letter “A” has a great deal of significance to the story beyond the life of Hester Prynne.
The fact that the book begins with the letter “a” is Hawthorne’s way of saying that the whole reason that the story begins is because of the letter “a.” Were it not for the adultery that causes Hester Prynne to bear the scarlet letter for the rest of her days, the story would not exist, and so the entire tale, begins with the letter “a.” The placement of the letter “a” is important in Pearl’s name, similar to the way it is in the beginning of the book.
Pearl is the daughter of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, and is the result of their act of adultery. This act of adultery is what causes Hester to bear the scarlet letter “A” on her clothing at all times, and is what she is known for. The reincarnation of the letter “A” within Pearl is the “a” in her name. The “a” is at the very center of her name, the same way it is in the very center of her, the essence of her very being. This center becomes less and less potent as the story unfolds, and the people stop seeing the “A” as such a bad thing, but at the beginning of the story, during the beginning of Pearl’s life, she is looked down upon as the Devil’s daughter, and other slanderous names. Pearl’s interaction with the scarlet letter shows her relationship with it, and her comfort around it point to the fact that on some level, it resides within her. The relationship between the placement of the letter and the meaning of that placement is a bit different with Arthur Dimmesdale.
Arthur Dimmesdale’s name starts with the letter “A,” and that is ironic, because his life ends as a result of the letter “a.” He was a party in the adultery that Hester was convicted of, and as a result, bore a similar, physical sign of his guilt, even though his was kept in secret. Eventually, he decides to show to the entire town that he has this sign of guilt on his chest, and dies shortly after. Were it not for the act of adultery, he would not have felt the guilt that gave him the physical mark on his chest that he would die after revealing to the town. So were it not for the letter “a,” he would not have died.
American essayist Logan Pearsall Smith once said, “[w]hat I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers” (Guillemets). This quote relates to the idea that an author does not necessarily need to say things up front, they can get the same message across, perhaps even more strongly, if they say it in a non-explicit manner, leaving it up to the reader to find it for themselves. | 19 | English | male | Some College | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
dd | She was completely head-over-heels in love with Hamlet, but was pulled away from him by Polonius, among others. From this point on she becomes a pawn of yet another scheme against Hamlet. Polonius uses her to find out if Hamlet is mad as a result of his love for her or not. He decides that she will talk to him while he hides, listening in on the whole interaction. The fact that he finds himself in a place to make a decision like this for her shows just how much control he can exert over her. However, the power he has over her is different from the power Claudius had over Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The power Polonius had over Ophelia was a parental control, and its potency was rather evident in that it led to her death. Polonius told Ophelia to distance herself from Hamlet, and subsequently their relationship fell apart. Her eventual suicide was a side effect of this, and were it not for Polonius, probably would not have happened. However, this is not the only parental relationship that was influenced by one side of the relationship being more dominant.
Gertrude is a character very much torn between two parties. She is of course loyal to her son, but she also owes some allegiance to her new husband, her brother-in-law Claudius. Hamlet tells Gertrude that she needs to remain loyal to him, and not to tell people that his “madness” was a mere act. He makes her feel guilty, telling her not to lay “that flattering unction to [her] soul/That your trespass but my madness speaks” (III.iv.146-7). He tries to pull her away from Claudius, but at the same time, her need for stability calls her back towards him. She chooses to trust him, and to keep an eye on Hamlet. This trust ultimately becomes her downfall, and she finds herself getting hit in the proverbial crossfire during the swordfight. She drinks the wine that was poisoned for Hamlet by Claudius, because she trusted that he wouldn’t do anything to harm them. So, as a result of getting caught between the two battling family members, she is the first to pay the price of death.
Manipulation is without a doubt one of the largest overlying themes in Hamlet, and several characters meet their maker as a result of it. They either allow themselves to fall to influence, or find themselves at the hands of a slightly misaligned familial relationship. In either case, the result is the same, and Shakespeare makes sure that his reader takes note of it. Ultimately, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Ophelia, and Gertrude all die at the hands of their own lack of control, and make themselves icons for how powerful the art of manipulation can be.
American culture has many facets, but none so famed and revered as the American dream. Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, people have traveled to the United States in search of a better life, because that has always been the promise here. | 19 | English | male | Some College | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
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The classification of Popular Music has grown over the past 100 years to include so many genres that it is difficult to definitively list them all. Complicating matters, most if not all genres—rap, rock, country, jazz, folk, just to name a few—have spawned multiple sub and sub-sub genres within their domain. Arguably the sub-genre of Heavy Metal rock has become one of the most diverse and expressive genres of all popular music in the past 40 years. It is expressive because it displays a wide range of emotions, although they tend to lean toward the darker side of the spectrum. It is diverse in that quite soon after the beginnings of the genre, people started to realize that it had real flexibility and started to take advantage of it to create their own sub-genre, which then was followed by sub-sub-genres, and the chain continues until today.
Today we have reached a point in the heavy metal movement where there are so many niches of groups that it is hard to determine what exactly heavy metal is. It has grown to incorporate so many themes from other genres, but like everything else, it spawned from somewhere. In order to properly understand the metal music that exists everywhere today, one must first understand what the metal movement is, and why it’s a movement rather than just a genre.
Metal is, in many ways, a movement defined by darkness. Metal can be considered a “music of more”—more bass, more volume, more violence, more theatricality. Less primitivism, more chops; people in metal bands really know how to play their instrument, and it comes through in the music. Metal is also—although it may not come as a surprise—a movement that is heavily drug induced. There was a psychedelic drug boom in the mid-70’s that led to people getting crazier, leading to them to make crazy, other-worldly records, using the drugs as a scapegoat for their creation. It possesses many dark, visceral qualities, which was very new to the music scene because a large amount of popular music had qualities that weren’t true to the darker side of the emotional spectrum. Also, later generations of metal have taken some of their influence from the dark, visceral qualities that were so present in the Romantic Era. Lyrics such as the following express the darkness that is such a staple of the movement: (Byrne)
These lyrics from Helter Skelter display the darker side of the Beatles. It exhibits an up and down, supposedly that of drugs. This song is considered by some to be one of the first Heavy Metal songs. It was a response to a Rolling Stones song that was also on the heavier, darker side. The Beatles wanted to prove that they could be just as heavy as the Stones, so they put that song on The White Album. | 19 | English | male | Some College | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
dd | Songs like this made people realize the entire range of emotions that could be expressed by music and led to the beginnings of metal through bands such as Black Sabbath and Mötorhead.
Although the metal movement started in the UK, it spread to the US very quickly and had a major impact there. One could say that metal had a metamorphosis in the US and that’s where it took its fullest form. Eventually, metal will reach a place in the US where there are bands such as Dr. Acula, who take beats and other influences from techno, and bring it into a metal atmosphere to create a musical amalgam of sorts. As previously stated, the movement did start in the UK though, and it’s past in the UK is an integral part of it’s presence in modern culture.
The metal movement can be broken up into “generations” of sorts. The first generation would be the founders, bands such as Black Sabbath and Motörhead. They were the ones to take the blues and turn it into something entirely different. Then there is the second generation of heavy metal, which is when metal finally came to the US and started to grow. The third generation of heavy metal consists primarily of the “hair bands,” and that led to what we currently are in. What we have now is a massive collection of groups, each within their own “splinter genre.” There are so many other influences now coming to artists, that although they are still a metal group, they have to be given their own genre.
Of all heavy metal bands, Black Sabbath and Mötorhead are considered to be the founders of the movement. They were among the first groups to realize the potential that metal had, and to dedicate their entire group to the movement, rather than groups such as The Beatles with only a few heavy songs. Also, they were the first to attain a serious level of fame, or infamy at least.
Black Sabbath formed in Birmingham, UK in 1969. With contemporaries such as Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, the foursome laid down some of the heaviest, doom-iest riffs ever recorded, influencing an uncountable number of upcoming artists and providing several of metal’s “splinter” genres with inspiration. Among the genres to find a great deal of influence from Black Sabbath is the genre of Doom Metal, a genre that focuses more on the power of a chord rather than the speed of it, providing a counterpart to thrash and speed metal. Sabbath took most of its influence from heavy blues, a movement that they were a part of before they started changing their sound up, and turning their riffs from heavy to truly scary. They were originally known as “Polka Tolk,” then “Earth,” but eventually they changed their name to “Black Sabbath,” taken from a Boris Karloff horror movie. Between that and bassist Geezer Butler’s interest in the occult, they started to grow towards the darker side of the music spectrum. | 19 | English | male | Some College | Student | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | This sort of passive monitoring of your reputation should be in everyone’s online reputation management toolbox.
According to Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online, the reason that Facebook smears can be so damaging to an online reputation is that Facebook ranks highly in search engines. This can be leveraged into a positive reputation as well, though. By creating your own account on social networking sites, you can ensure that your own profile gets a higher Google search engine ranking, moving the smears off the first page of Google.
You should also sign up your own name as a domain name, ensuring that you have that address before your angry ex can register it. Domain names rank highly in search results.
Google also allows you to create a profile for yourself which will show up when users search for your name. This service, at google.com/profiles, can link up your positive reputation sources like your photo albums, social networks, and blogs.
Even if you make all the right choices, some things will be beyond your control. You can’t control what your ex posts on his or her blog about you.
With our patented online privacy protection software, we can alert you whenever your name appears on any of your ex’s social networking pages or blogs, allowing you to start doing online reputation management early.
Identity theft occurs anytime someone uses personally identifying information to open fraudulent accounts or commit crimes. As many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. Most victims know the person who stole their identity, after all, who else would know your mother’s maiden name, city of birth, date of birth, and address?
The fact is that it’s impossible for you to keep all of your information completely private. When you go to a doctor, your insurance card and driver’s license are photocopied and placed in your file and are available to anyone who opens your folder. At a restaurant, your credit card is taken away while you wait, trusted to the restaurant’s wait staff.
Even if you can’t eliminate identity theft, you can get instant fraud notifications any time your identity is used without your knowledge.
Prevent identity theft with MyID
MyID provides instant fraud notifications any time your identity is used to open a new account. Our patented “Is This You?” Verification service notifies you via text or e-mail any time a new credit card, bank account, or bill is taken out in your name. We sort through millions of incoming reports every day from credit card companies, utilities, and banks, filtering for patterns that might correspond to identity theft. The minute your identity is stolen, you can report it to the FTC, disable the accounts in question, and catch the identity thief. Most of the damage of identity theft is done over time. An identity thief might open an account this week, another account in a month, and then subscribe to a cell phone plan three months from now. | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | Whether or not the FBI is having trouble catching criminals who conduct their illicit business over the Internet, the Internet Wiretapping laws need a complete overhaul to ensure privacy protection, not an expansion, which will further limit personal information privacy.
A new survey reports that the average American is worried about personal information privacy. For good reason, too – newly declassified files detail massive FBI efforts at data-mining.
Carl Caldwell, the president of Right-to-Know, released the following statement: “FBI files can begin with records as simple as bankruptcy, Veteran Administration activities to income tax difficulties and passport and visa problems. More than 200 classifications like these are given to the files the FBI considers confidential, secret or top secret. An individual’s attempts to retrieve this information are often thwarted by the complexity of the system itself.” Caldwell continues, “As the government gains access to more and more aspects of a private citizen’s life in the name of preventing terrorism, more ordinary people will unknowingly become targets of investigation, and more files will be gathered on the innocent.”
The FBI databases contain tens of thousands of records from car-rental companies, hotels, and national department stores. Such a system can correlate data from different sources to automatically identify terrorists. The system was used to locate a suspected Al Qaeda operative who was hiding in Houston. It also discovered that members of a Pakistani terrorist group were working in Philadelphia as taxi drivers. And, when the United States government lost track of terror suspects during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, the system was able to track down and find them across the entire southern half of the United States.
Many, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, believe that this kind of data-mining is the first step toward an Orwellian control over the population. The EFF cites a National Research Council paper that concluded “data mining is a dangerous and ineffective way to identify potential terrorists, which will inevitably generate false positives that subject innocent citizens to invasive scrutiny by their government.” The EFF is a non-profit with a stated goal to protect online privacy.
The FBI hopes to add more sources of information to their database, including airline manifests from the Department of Homeland Security, the Postal Service’s change of address database, the national Social Security number database, and 24 other unidentified databases whose names were redacted in the released report.
Whether or not sacrificing personal information privacy is worth it to catch terrorists is up to the reader to decide. Readers can take immediate steps to protect online privacy and prevent government efforts to scour social networking sites for your personal details.
MyID and Personal Information Privacy
With MyID monitoring your personal information privacy, you can be sure that none of your personal details will leak out across the Internet. MyID can help configure settings to maximize privacy on social networks and stop online ad tracking.
| 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | The stated goal of the Waldorf Method is to produce individuals able to create meaning in their own lives.
The Waldorf educational system was created nearly a hundred years ago by Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher and scientist. Steiner was familiar with a philosophy known as anthroposophy, the idea that children who consciously cultivate independent thinking will be more ready to handle the important natural and spiritual questions with which philosophers and scientists are concerned. The Waldorf education was devised to be responsive to the needs of childhood, including allowing children to set their own pace and use their imagination and creativity.
The Waldorf method encourages a broad curriculum. Teachers are encouraged to explore new topics and allow themselves to be guided by the exploration of the students. This type of teaching encourages learning for the sake of learning, instead of for the sake of passing an exam or scoring well on grading rubrics. There are no grades given in a Waldorf elementary school.
There are several other differences between the Waldorf Method and other traditional teaching methodologies. First, academic education is de-emphasized. In fact, the types of education which are routinely cut from public school budgets are often the crux of a Waldorf education. These include education in art, music, and foreign languages. Children are encouraged to learn to play musical instruments, knit, crochet, and draw. Additionally, the Waldorf Method uses no textbooks until sixth grade. Instead, elementary school children keep a journal where they record their experiences and what they have learned.
Is it really a good idea to forgo academic education, like reading, until the second grade? Waldorf educators believe so. Instead of teaching children to read when they are five or six years old, instead, teachers tell fairy tells and read stories to children. This encourages oral mastery before reading education begins. In the Waldorf curriculum, writing is taught before reading. The alphabet is explored as a way to communicate with others through pictures. This allows writing to evolve out of the art and doodles of children, instead of from their ability to read and reproduce written content.
Waldorf schools are safe and nurturing environments where children can enjoy their childhood and be protected from harmful influences of the broader society. Instead of being run by administrators concerned with economic or political motives, Waldorf schools are primarily run democratically by the teachers. Waldorf schools consistently produce strong, independent thinkers, and for this reason, the Waldorf educational model is still used in schools around the world.
Social and Emotional Learning has emerged as a field thanks to a new understanding of science, nature, child development, and biology, based on the subjective goals of increasing the potential for success and happiness. Social and emotional learning increase a child’s emotional intelligence quotient, known colloquially as people-smarts, providing children with an opportunity to excel at more than just academics. Teachers and parents must intentionally teach literacy and academic skills, and according to social and emotional learning theorists, they should be just as intentional about providing instruction in social and emotional skills.
| 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
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We are not aware of these stages while we sleep. When we wake, we often do not remember our dreams. We rely on machines like the electroencephalograph (EEG) to offer scientists clues about the stages of sleep.
Prior to the Internet, financial accounts were kept at a local branch. Identification like a driver’s license was required for large transactions, and your identity was protected by being recognized by the people you regularly did business with. In the Digital Age, your financial accounts are usually accessible from anywhere with nothing more than a username and password, leading to a significant amount of financial identity theft. The goal of this article is to illustrate what steps banks have taken to protect finances from fraud and show how you can take full advantage of these security features in order to protect against identity theft.
There are several ways hackers can compromise your financial passwords. The oldest is a keylogger. Keyloggers are typically viruses (they can also be USB devices, but this requires that the hacker has access to your physical computer) that monitor the keys you press and the names of the windows you have open. Sophisticated keyloggers will send the keys you press back to a hacker or phisher when the window matches a major bank’s login page. If a hacker can track the keys you press, they can easily discern what your username and password is and log into your bank remotely. The first breakthrough in protecting against identity theft was simple. Instead of allowing users to enter their password with their keyboards, require them to use a mouse to click the letters on the screen. Many modern security systems still use this method to fool keyloggers.
Modern keylogger-defeating security screens more often feature a secret image that you select when you open the account. Even if a keylogger detects your password, there is no way for them to detect the image you click, thus protecting finances from fraud.
The most secure type of authentication is using an RSA authenticator. In addition to requiring your username and password to log in, the financial account will also require an RSA token, usually a string of six numbers, which changes every few seconds. Banks can send you this RSA token on an RSA authenticator, a device about the size of a keychain. Since the string of numbers changes regularly, only the person holding the RSA authenticator has access to the account, thus protecting finances from fraud.
The security of your financial accounts usually relates to the number of hoops a hacker needs to jump through in order to access them. The most secure requires the hacker to have stolen your RSA authenticator. Less secure methods of authentication require you to disclose a secret image. The least secure additional authentication measure is simply sending an access password to your e-mail account. This can be compromised by a hacker that also has access to your e-mail. | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
pp | Parents looking for direct instruction materials and programs should look into the Hooked on Phonics series and other related products.
Critics argue that direct instruction is nothing but canned teaching with little room for the personalization of lesson plans. To these critics, schools that require direct instruction are handcuffing their best teachers and providing a crutch to their worst ones. This argument fails to address the fact that good teachers will be successful with any lesson plans, including direct instruction.
The effectiveness of direct instruction is supported by substantial research, but there are some recent longitudinal studies which raise doubts about its effectiveness. In 2006, a three-year study of teaching and learning showed that flexible methods of instruction like Montessori and Waldorf were more effective than direct instruction. Still, it is one of the few scientifically verifiable ways to improve a school’s educational curriculum. This has resulted in widespread support of the system and its worldwide adoption in public schools.
The most salient example of this widespread support is Project Follow Through, the most expensive federally-funded educational program ever. It was intended to continue the education of preschoolers exiting Head Start programs. The program was funded from 1968 until 1995, when funding was stopped due to data revealing that there was little or no benefit from the program. However, Project Follow Through did offer the first ever clearly documented empirical proof that the Direct Instruction model was the most effective method of teaching reading, arithmetic, language, spelling, and positive self-image. Direct instruction was the only method out of twenty-two forms of instruction that consistently produced positive results.
Direction instruction is, by far, the most widely used method of teaching. Recent studies cast doubts about whether it is the best way to teach, but it is empirically proven to be able to consistently raise the average test scores of a school. This has resulted in the success of the teaching method and its widespread use in the classroom.
The theory of multiple intelligences was developed in 1983 by a psychologist based on testing done regarding the effectiveness of IQ Tests. His research showed that IQ tests are a poor indicator of future success in life. Since IQ testing is primarily concerned with vocabulary, spatial relationships, pattern recognition, and other cognitive tasks, researchers hypothesized on what a complete model of intelligence testing might look like.
According to the theory, there are eight types of intelligences. Each type is partially or completely independent of each other. For instance, though it stands to reason that a highly capable musical performer is likely to have a higher than average IQ, researchers hypothesize that this is not a foregone conclusion.
The following table illustrates the different types of intelligences described in the original research.
A major criticism of the theory is that it has never been empirically tested. Some critics argue it is not falsifiable. What do you think? Is there a way to test a person on all eight types of intelligence? | 25 | English | male | BA | Copywriter | Y,Y,Y,Y,Y |
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