Economic and Social Development and Causes of Underdevelopment :: human capital approach to education

Q1. ‘What is Development’? Outline an interpretation of this concept that you feel is most appropriate, with reference to at least two of the ideas proposed in the course. According to Aristotle, â€Å"Wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else† (Classics.mit.edu, 2014). According to Sen also (1999, pp. xi), we are many times richer than a century ago. Yet many people are still unhappy. Hence, definition of development should encompass a scenario, where money is means, and not the ends of development. Therefore, â€Å"Development can be seen, as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy† (Sen, 1999, pp.3). These freedoms mainly include political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security. The alternative where development is mainly characterized as economic growth poses many limitations on people’s living conditions. For example, imagine rich women living in a wealthy country, where women risk punishment, from state, for expressing opinions publicly, attending education, going out in public alone, etc. Even if that country has very high Gross domestic product (GDP), the rich women might not achieve their preferred conditions for living. However, economic-growth is very important as means for expanding freedoms, as it can be used to provide for food, clothes, hospitals, social care etc. Defining of development as freedoms rather than just economic-growth will help to focus in fulfilling broader human needs. For example, political freedoms through free speech and election can help to promote participation. Participation in social opportunities such as education and health can promote collective economic growth (Todaro and Smith, 2011, pp.359). Economic participation and protective security can increase personal wealth, which can be invested in social facilities, food, health etc. (Sen, 1999, pp.11) Despite all this, Sen’s (1999) definition has been criticized for not analysing the framework in which the freedoms occurs, namely unequal power distribution at both national and international level. In 2000, 16.7% of population controlled two-thirds of land in Bangladesh. As a result, around half of population were vulnerable to famine even though Bangladesh is a democratic country and has political freedoms. Hence, Sen’s definition of development cannot work practically without analysing power distribution, or who has control over resources (Navarro, 2000, pp.672). At international level, concept such as human rights is depoliticised. For example, United Nations’ Human Development Reports greatly analyses the consequences of inequalities growth. But the reports fails to analyse in detail, the political topic of which countries has the influence of creating and removing these inequalities.

Beauty of God and the Holy Cross Essay -- essays research papers

Suppose that you were standing by a beach at sunset and you become deeply moved and utter the words, "This is beautiful, this is glorious." You are ultimately pleased by a feeling that we as a culture refer to this response as, beauty. A feeling that possesses an enormous power to touch us deeply while holding a tremendous potential to grip and transform us. For beauty stirs and satisfies our deepest longings as well as attracting us, provoking our adoration, and inviting us to adorn ourselves with its luster. Indeed, our society naturally celebrates beauty automatically through experiences that arouse affections for that which we find attractive. But what is it that poses us to allow us to obtain such a feeling? The reason for this, I think, is that there is in every person a God given sense that beauty must have meaning that is larger and more enduring than short felt satisfaction. That this urge for ultimate meaning is evidence of God’s creation of beauty. Therefore, if God has created all things and has given everything its form and its purpose, then I define beauty as a relation to God. For to know God is know beauty, to know beauty is to know God. Just as God is the source of all truth and goodness, God is also the source of all beauty. God is the Supreme Artist – the Creator of all. Thus, everything that is beautiful reflects God’s artistry. The Church Father, Hilary of Poitiers, wrote: â€Å"Surely the author of all created beauty must himself be the beauty in all beauty.† -2- Born and raised a strong Catholic, I feel God’s presence in my everyday life and I am blessed to be encompassed with this company. His power in my life allows me to unquestionably declare him as the sole individual who most ... ...s ago has opened the path to eternal life for all who believe in him. In every human sole there is a place where we yearn for beauty’s power and presence. We need beauty. We need to be overwhelmed by it and drawn into its inexplicability that arouses our desire and captivates our affections. For I believe that we all want to be moved by some rare glimpse of greatness. We long for a vision of nirvana, something that endures our soul and bring peace to our hearts. I am persuaded that the reason it is there is because God is the ultimately beautiful one and he made us to long for himself. And we can know that our desires are remnants of this urge for God because everything less than God leaves us unsatisfied. Only one vision will be sufficient for our avid hearts, the glory of God. For that we have been made, and it is for this we long, whether we know it or not. Beauty of God and the Holy Cross Essay -- essays research papers Suppose that you were standing by a beach at sunset and you become deeply moved and utter the words, "This is beautiful, this is glorious." You are ultimately pleased by a feeling that we as a culture refer to this response as, beauty. A feeling that possesses an enormous power to touch us deeply while holding a tremendous potential to grip and transform us. For beauty stirs and satisfies our deepest longings as well as attracting us, provoking our adoration, and inviting us to adorn ourselves with its luster. Indeed, our society naturally celebrates beauty automatically through experiences that arouse affections for that which we find attractive. But what is it that poses us to allow us to obtain such a feeling? The reason for this, I think, is that there is in every person a God given sense that beauty must have meaning that is larger and more enduring than short felt satisfaction. That this urge for ultimate meaning is evidence of God’s creation of beauty. Therefore, if God has created all things and has given everything its form and its purpose, then I define beauty as a relation to God. For to know God is know beauty, to know beauty is to know God. Just as God is the source of all truth and goodness, God is also the source of all beauty. God is the Supreme Artist – the Creator of all. Thus, everything that is beautiful reflects God’s artistry. The Church Father, Hilary of Poitiers, wrote: â€Å"Surely the author of all created beauty must himself be the beauty in all beauty.† -2- Born and raised a strong Catholic, I feel God’s presence in my everyday life and I am blessed to be encompassed with this company. His power in my life allows me to unquestionably declare him as the sole individual who most ... ...s ago has opened the path to eternal life for all who believe in him. In every human sole there is a place where we yearn for beauty’s power and presence. We need beauty. We need to be overwhelmed by it and drawn into its inexplicability that arouses our desire and captivates our affections. For I believe that we all want to be moved by some rare glimpse of greatness. We long for a vision of nirvana, something that endures our soul and bring peace to our hearts. I am persuaded that the reason it is there is because God is the ultimately beautiful one and he made us to long for himself. And we can know that our desires are remnants of this urge for God because everything less than God leaves us unsatisfied. Only one vision will be sufficient for our avid hearts, the glory of God. For that we have been made, and it is for this we long, whether we know it or not.

Life of Paul Cuffee Essay

More than for 500 years, people of African origin have shaped the course of not only American but the history of the whole world. We are proud of many African-Americans that had put so much hard work to make our society as good and developed as it is nowadays. There are lots of Blacks, who are very famous for their deeds and deserve to be remembered as honorable society members, such as Phyllis Wheatley, Benjamin Banneker, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Jacobs and others . The main objective of this paper will be the analyses of life and work of Paul Cuffee. Paul Cuffee was born on the 17th of January on Chuttyhunk Island in Southeastern Massachusetts, as a free child and a son of an African father and Native American mother. His father, named Kofi, was a member of the West-African tribe known as Ashanti tribe in Ghana. He was captured there and brought to America when he was ten. He was made a slave of Ebenezer Slocum, a Quaker of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, but the skills of good carpenter helped Kofi (Cuffe) to buy his freedom. He even managed to educate himself and later married to Ruth Moses, who was a Wampanoag Indian from Massachusetts. The Native Americans were not enslaved, so their children were born free. Paul did not want to take the name of his father’s possessor and chose his father’s name, which was Cuffe (or Cuffee). His family also owned a 116-acre farm in Westport, which was very rare at that time as most of the other African people were enslaved. The family was large and counted ten children: six daughters and four sons (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). After the death of his father, Paul Cuffee, at the age of 16 and with the knowledge only of an alphabet, already had many ambitious dreams such as getting an education and having a career in shipping industry. The boy always showed a kinship to navigation, boatbuilding and trade. When he was a teenager he constructed small boats. This hobby ended in trading among the islands of Massachusetts (â€Å"Paul Cuffee (1759-1817)†, 2013). He started to do the job of an ordinary seaman on fishing and whaling boats – this was in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was caught and held as a prisoner by British soldiers for three month during the Revolutionary War, but once he was released, he managed to start minor coastal trading. Paul bought some ships together with his sister’s husband Michael Wainer, who was a Native American. Because of his partner was afraid to sail big sea distances, in 1779 Cuffee tried to deliver the cargo to Nantucket alone, but he was waylaid by pirates. He continued to ship aboard a whaler owned by the Quaker merchants, prominent Rotch family and whalers of New Bedford. Despite the fact that pirates were very active those days and have attached the local sailors a lot, Paul’s business was prospering (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). Cuffe’s business started to grow and he had enough money to built bigger vessels and successfully traded north to Labrador and south to Virginia (â€Å"Petition for Relief from Taxation†, 2013). Paul gathered rather big capital that helped him to expand his ownership and to get a fleet of ships. He commissioned the closed-deck boat, which could ship around 14-15 ton known as Box Iron. Just after that, another achievement that followed was a18-20 ton schooner. In the 1780s Paul already owned schooner Sun Fish and schooner Mary, which in total could transport cargo of approximately 65 tons. In 1796, just right after the mentioned schooners Sunfish and Mary were sold, Cuffee’s shipyard in Westport launched a 69-ton schooner known as Ranger. Eventually he could afford to buy a large farmstead and in 1799 he bought property in Westport for $3,500. Later he bought a half of the 162-ton barque Hero. Paul was so wealthy, that he maybe was one of the richest man among all Native American and African American of the in the United States of the 19th century (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). Just a couple of weeks before the Revolution ended, Paul married Alice Pequit, who was also Wampanoag Indian, the same as Cuffee’s mother. This marriage brought seven children to Cuffe’s family: David, Sarah, Jonathan, Mary,John, Phebe, Ruth, Lydia, Freelove and Paul. On the 17th of January the youngest son was born. The child was biracial, but born free, as the two parents were not enslaved (Cordeiro, 2004). The Roch family and other successful merchants have inspired Paul to build his own empire, which was very successful. The crews that he employed were mainly African American and  Native American people. Eventually his ships were on both sides of the Atlantic. He opened an outlet in New Bedford, where he sold the goods that he imported (â€Å"Paul Cuffee (1759-1817)†, 2013). Being a businessman with an African American and Native American crews, Paul managed to earn the respect of many white Americans through the relationships in the Quaker faith. When Cuffee was twenty-one he refused to pay taxes. This protest was done along with his brother and lasted from 1778 till 1780. The main motivation for that was that free black Americans did not have the right to vote, but according to the governmental laws of that time, African Americans were taxed. He even petitioned the council of Bristol County in 1780, Massachusetts to put such taxation to an end. Despite the denial, later his petition was one of key factors that led to granting voting rights to all free male citizens by Legislature in 1783 (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). Cuffee built a schoolhouse for African American children on his own property. He spent his money on that and it took him a couple of months to finish. After the school was built, Paul hired a knowledgeable teacher and opened the institution to the Westport residents. It was for kids, who were denied to visit other public schools. He implemented his own policy to the school’s administration, according to which children of all races were allowed to attend the studies, so the school was multiracial. This was just a beginning of a future fight against unfair treatment of the US and other governments towards the black people (Cordeiro, 2004). The majority of Anglo-Americans and English origin people considered African as lower race in comparison to Europeans, even in principally Calvinist and Quaker New England. Unfortunately the slavery continued, but some decent men like James Madison and Presidents Thomas Jefferson thought that colonies emigration of Blacks outside the US was the best and the easiest way to the fight the race problem in America (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). Cuffee was involved not only in local activities. He played a crucial part in national and international events related Blacks in that time. Because of his successful business, Cuffee had contact all over the Atlantic seaboard, which connected the three important continents: Europe, North American and Africa (Cordeiro, 2004). Americans and Europeans put many efforts in all the parts of the world to colonize Black, but they were all unsuccessful. One of such attempts was related to Sierra Leone colonization. The Sierra Leone Company  was a main sponsor of 400 people departure from Great Britain to Western African colony. The colony was rebelling and wanted to create a working and competitive economy and a government, which would be strong enough to resist the outside pressure. Eventually the Sierra Leone Company collapsed and another institution known as African Institution was offering migration to the released slaves, which have settled in London and Nova Scotia after the American Revolution. The institution’s sponsors were hoping to get some economical benefit by fostering the educated trades of Blacks (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). Despite the fact that it was very difficult to colonize Sierra Leone, Cuffee really believed that it was a vital option and supported the movement. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Paul started to cooperate with the mentioned African Institution, which was based in London (Cordeiro, 2004). In U.S. the organization was very active in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. This all started in March 1807, when members of the institution encouraged him to help them. The main objective was to promote the immigration to Sierra Leone, a colony of Britain in West Africa. Cuffee was among those who recruited African Americans so they can settle there; he transported a big amount of families and explored the local economy trying to find ways of its improving. This was all mainly done for his own funds (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biog raphy†). Paul Cuffee wrote in his letters, that he really felt like going to Sierra Leone, he wanted to see the situation in the country. He believed that the inhabitants of that colony were talented people, which, as well as he did, deserved to feel the true light of Christianity and be benefited thereby (â€Å"Captain Paul Cuffe’s Logs and Letters†). Paul obtained a bill, given by the Committee of the Whole from the Senate and the President of the United States, which gave him a right to leave US with the cargo and come back with a cargo from Sierra Leone. He was nominated by government and had all the privilege to be treated properly (â€Å"History of Congress†). Cuffee studied all the logistics and the possible outcome, when finally on December in 1810 he left U.S. for his first voyage to Sierra Leone. He managed to get to the colony on the 1st of March in 1811. He was travelling all over the place to explore the local habits and economy in order to find the possibilities to development. He met the officials there, but they were against of the colonization idea, as they were afraid of American merchants, because this could create a lot of  unfair competition. Moreover, the cargo, which Cuffee intended to trade off, did not sell well as the tariff charges implemented by British trading system were too high. Eventually this did not stop Cuffee and on the 7th of April 1811 he made an appointment with key Black entrepreneurs. An outcome was that a special petition for the African Institution was written, which stated that people in the colony wanted to work in merchanting, whaling industry and agriculture. This indicated that those three areas were the main objective of the future growth and development of the colony. Cuffee together with the black businessmen set the Friendly Society foundation in Sierra Leone. Its main aim was to ensure further prosperity and industry development among all free peoples. Another area to work on was related to breaking the strong merchants trade established there by British. Cuffee decided to go to UK in order to make sure that colony will get further aid. He arrived to Liverpool in July 1811. There he met the officials of the African Institution in London, who collected some funds for the Friendly Society. He also obtained further required governmental license and permissions to continue his delegation in Sierra Leone. Paul was happy to come back to the West African colony where he shared the ideas of the Friendly Society with the local merchants. Together they elaborated plans for Sierra Leone to grow by building a saw mill, grist mill, salt works and rice-processing factory. Later Cuffee was involved with similar venture, which was backed by Americans and let to creation of the American Colonization Society and colony in Liberia (Cordeiro, 2004). During that period of history the relations between the Great Britain and United States were strained, which led to embargo establishment on British goods in 1811. This had somehow a negative outcome on Cuffee’s voyage, as when in April 1812 he reached Newport on his ship, it was usurped by U.S. customs officers along with all its cargo. This case was not being resolved locally, so Paul Cuffee left to Washington, D.C. to file an official appeal to his case. In the White House he met with the President James Madison and Albert Gallatin, who was a Secretary of the Treasury in that time. Cuffee was warmly welcomed and treated there. Madison was on his side and later ordered to release the goods, based on the information that Cuffee did not know about the political disagreements and did not deliver the goods with the intention to violate any laws. Cuffee shared his observations and experience, which he gained  during his trip to Sierra Leone. First the President seemed to be very interested in further expansion of the colony in Africa, but eventually he refuses to participate in Cuffee’s further investigations, as he saw this mission not possible because of too many problems and obstacles that U.S. will be facing during further attempts of Sierra Leone colonization. This was all related to the fact that it was initially fully British project. Still Cuffee obtained a legal permission to become an official authority on Africa in the United States. Cuffee had clear intentions to visit Great Britain’s colony of Sierra Leone on a regular basis, but his plans were interrupted because of the sudden War of 1812, which started in June and was a war between the British Empire and the United States. This prevented Paul from visiting the colony for a while. Despite the fact that Cuffee was opposed the war because of his Christian beliefs, he was really against any interruptions that could have been caused by war and resulted as an impact on trading and goods delivery from Sierra Leone. The war continued, so Cuffee took a change to convince U.S and Great Britain to ease restrictions on trading. Unfortunately this was unsuccessful and he waited until the war ended in 1815 (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). Meanwhile, Paul remained an active political life and paid a couple of visits to Philadelphia, Baltimore and New York, where he spoke to groups of free African Americans about the colony. He encouraged Blacks to create organizations within their cities, to talk to each other and to have a correspondence with the Friendly Society at Sierra Leone and the African Institution. A special pamphlet with the ideas of Paul Cuffee related to Sierra Leone was printed at that time and distributed to general public. He rebuilt the Westport Friends’ Meeting House in summer of 1813, which was a meeting house for the multi-racial members of the Society of Friend, where Cuffee spoke and preached regularly on a Sunday meetings. Most of the money for that was coming from Cuffee’s personal funds. It is important to mention that war impacted Cuffee’s business and during that year he facial financial crisis. He has a number of unprofitable ventures related to ships. One vessel was considered unseaworthy and has never returned from Chile. Luckily the war ended and the Treaty of Ghent was signed at the end of 1814. After some time taken to recover, Paul was prepared to go back to Sierra Leone (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). The first ship with thirty-eight Blacks shipped from Westport  on December 10, 1815. Among the passengers were 18 adults and 20 children (Cordeiro, 2004). The price of organization of that expedition was $5000. Eighty percents of those expenses were covere d by Cuffee. The rest was paid by passengers and with the help of donation by William Rotch from Massachusetts. The colonist arrived to the colony with their own belongings such as hoes, axes, wagon and a plow, but they were not treated as well as it was expected by Cuffee. This was related to the fact that Governor was facing difficulties in keeping the existing population in order, which could have even worsen the situation if more emigrant have arrived. Moreover, the act known as the Militia Act was imposed upon the colony and obliges males to swear of loyalty to the Crown. People had concerns, because it could have been an obligation to go to military service. Despite the negative outcome related to economical benefits and sales, the positive was the fact that colonist have finally settles in Freetown. Cuffee spent lots of money by supporting the new inhabitants with money for the first year’s provisions. It was planned initially that Cuffee will be reimbursed by the African Institution, but due to heavy tariff duties there was a big deficit in the budget. Actually Paul was never given money by the African Institution in Britain. After coming back to USA in 1816, Cuffee searched for financial support from New York’ division of the American Institution and has eventually obtained $439.62 for further investments into Sierra Leone’s colonists (â€Å"A Paul Cuffe Biography†). Soon in1816, Cuffee proposed a newly-designed emigration plan for African Americans, which was related not only to Sierra Leone but also possibly to Haiti. Provide funds. Congress did not approve the petition to provide funds for that. People all over U.S. have started to show more and more interest in immigration to Africa, believing that it would help to solve the racial problems. Cuffee was trying to find support from other institutions, but some of them were not honest, such as American Colonization Society (ACS) , which was alarmed as a racist organization. The ideas were supported by many other Americans, but later they turned in favor of emigration to Haiti, where the immigrants were welcomed and supported by the President Boyer Since 1817 Cuffee was not feeling himself well and has never visited Africa again. He died in September of that year surrounded by his family and friends. Cuffee was buried at the Quaker Meeting House near Westport (Cordeiro, 2004). To  conclude, it should be mentioned that Cuffee was and is considered one of the greatest persons in African-American history. He was a first African-American who had a success in implementation of ideas of Blacks. He fought the existing racism of that time with the help of tolerant and Christian methods. Not only he opposed himself, but he also managed to dwell public attention to the current situation with Blacks, which helped people a lot. He was a successful businessman, who could have had just a happy and calm life, but spent his time and effort to explore Sierra Leone, donated his own money to make the life of immigrants there as good as possible and helped in many other ways to people. I think this person is worth to be admired and remembered thought all future generations of the world. References A Paul Cuffe Biography. (n.d.) SlideShare, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/rbgstreetscholar1/a-paul-cuffe-biography Paul Cuffee (1759-1817). (2013). Paul Cuffee School. Retrieved from http://www.paulcuffee.org/about/mission-history/paul-cuffee/ Petition for Relief from Taxation. (2013). Abstract. Pearson Education. Retrieved from http://www.infoplease.com/t/hist/cuffe-taxation-petition/ Cordeiro, B.N. (2004). Paul Cuffe: A Study of His Life and the Status of His Legacy in Old Dartmouth. Boston, MA: University of Massachusetts Boston. Retrieved from http://paulcuffe.home.comcast.net/~paulcuffe/Paul_Cuffe_Thesis_by_Brock_Cordeiro.pdf Captain Paul Cuffe’s Logs and Letters. (n.d.). Estimed froends John James and Alexander Wilson. Westport 6 mo 10th 1809. Paul Cuffee. Retrieved from http://atlanticslaverydebate.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/shared/ASD/Module2/InitialCrrspdnceCuffe1809.pdf History of Congress. (n.d.). A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Co ngressional Documents and Debates, 1774 – 1875. The Library of Congress. Retrieved from http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llac&fileName=027/llac027.db&recNum=221

Examining The Concept of Politically Correct Speech Essay

â€Å"Let’s be politically correct about this.† This is a common statement people make when they want to avoid offending people. This is the goal of the concept of being politically correct: avoid offending people’s sensibilities. Case in point, it is not uncommon to call blind people â€Å"visually impaired.† The reason for this is that somehow the word â€Å"blind† became derogatory. Well, actually it didn’t and neither did a number of benign words but in the 1990’s there was a movement that started with the clear intention of making words as antiseptic as possible. The movement was somewhat mocked at first and pop culture comedian George Carlin quipped â€Å"It is just a means of people hiding their guilt without really atoning for their sins.† But, the politically movement has far from gone away. In fact, it has gained significant momentum in certain quarters. This is good in some ways and negative in others. One of the most negative aspects of the political correctness movement is that perpetually trying to be politically correct has a tendency to hinder communications. That is, when people are always trying to choose their words or phrases carefully they may find the end result to be stilted. That is to say, the words they select in their writing or oral presentations may end up being silly. Again, most people assume a blind person is blind. If one refers to a blind person as â€Å"optically challenged† then one may discover the audience laughing at the choice of words. This is because it is obvious the individual is going really out of the way to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings. Granted, this end result may avoid offense but it could also yield laughter. If that was not the intended result of your actions then the actions would be deemed a flop. Sorry to be so blunt but this is the common end result of going to ridiculous extremes in order be politically correct at the expense of using â€Å"good† language. There are, however, some benefits to politically correct speech. This is most evident in the workplace. Remember when it comes to success in the workplace success will often be based around relationships with people. If your relationships with others are not as best as they can be then you may discover your career suffering. This would obviously be a bad situation and best avoided. Since one of the most common ways of developing bad relationships is through offending people seeking to be more politically correct in your dialogue would not be a bad idea. If you are involved in the insurance sales business there will be a multitude of people whom you will come in contact. As such, you would want these people to feel as comfortable as possible and opt to avoid using words that may prove offensive. For example, you would want to avoid calling the elderly â€Å"old† if you come in contact with such individuals. Sticking with the term â€Å"senior citizen† would be a much wiser option. Of course, you will want to select words that are sensible and not silly. There is a fine line between politeness and parody when it comes to speaking in a politically correct manner. However, if you use simple logic and common sense in your approach to selecting politically correct terms you will avoid many of the common â€Å"political correctness† pitfalls associated with the movement.

Evaluate Postmodernist Explanations of the Role and Functions of Religion in Contemporary Society Essay

Evaluate postmodernist explanations of the role and functions of religion in contemporary society. Postmodernist religion can be defined as any type of religion that is influenced, interpreted or shaped by postmodernism and postmodern philosophies. Postmodern religion is not an attempt to banish religion from society; rather, it is a philosophical approach to religion that considers orthodox assumptions that may reflect power differences in society rather than universal truths. A postmodern interpretation of religion emphasises the key point that religious truth is highly individualistic, subjective and resides within the individual. Science technology and efficiency would overcome many social problems. The collapse of the ‘grand-narrative’ is part of post-modernism as it is a belief system that claims universal authority, religion; science and philosophies are examples of these. They have a superior status over other belief systems and also claimed they could explain the causes of society’s problems and could therefore provide solutions. According to Jean-Francois Lyotard, the grand-narratives powerful attraction has been lost during the 20th century. So, science hasn’t delivered solutions, wars have devastated nations, and the world is still full of evils that the grand-narratives can’t explain or resolve. Examples of this are world wars; nuclear warfare; AIDS and global poverty. The common perspective of post-modernist religion is ‘there is a god who can’t do anything, there is a god who won’t do anything, or there isn’t a god. ’ Zygmunt Bauman said post-modernity is the irretrievable loss of trust in the project of modernity and its ability to manage, enhance and fulfil human potential. Symbols, signs and meanings are also another theory to post-modernism. Mass media like television and the internet have exposed us all to different cultures and ideas from across the globe, also known as globalisation. The ‘meanings’ of things have now become more individualised, we consume the products, symbols and signs of a globalised economy, but we provide our own meanings to these. Jean Baudrillard said â€Å"we are what we consume†¦ and our identities are formed and changed through acts of consumption. † Signs and symbols have become detached from their original meanings; original purposes and meanings have become lost. Religious signs and symbols are losing their meaning, these signs and symbols have been adopted by mass consumer culture, usually used for decorative and playful purposes such as jewellery. Joseph Natoli said â€Å"post-modernity has questioned the authority and legitimizing of both faith and reason, opting for the view that both offer stories of reality†¦ both do so on the shifting sands of a post-modernist outlook. † Signs and symbols have become insecure from the things they were linked to originally. Individuals no longer identify with a single religion and so they blend different beliefs with practices to create an identity for themselves. This can be known as being utilitarian, so there is no substance to our identity and actions, we are no longer just shaped by the moulding force of socialisation. Zygmunt Bauman said the consumption of goods and services becomes more important in our lives as a way of constructing and changing identity. This consumption is addictive and advertising drags us in. â€Å"I don’t know what’s right and what’s real anymore, and I don’t know how I’m meant to feel anymore, and when do you think it will all become clear? † from ‘The Fear’ by Lily Allen (2009). Many different religions now exist and people tend to mix the styles and genres with one another. Baudrillard said it is hard to find guidance in our lives as sources of authority and moral leadership are often undermined, they seem almost irrelevant. In the past we believed anything that religious leaders told us, simply because they were a religious leader, but this is no longer the case as we are now sceptical. We live in a world of images, and so it is hard to distinguish between image and reality as we live in a world where media simulations are more ‘real’ than the reality that we live in. Anthony Giddens said we live in a new form of modernity where we have lost faith in the ‘project of modernity’. We are now able to try out many different cultures in a globalised world. Life is now more uncertain than before. So to sum up, we live in a society characterised the coexistence of many different subgroups and cultures; the erosion of traditional social classes; the growth of movements such as environmentalism, feminism and ethnic politics; the absence of agreed standards for evaluating what is true/false and right/wrong; the blurring of what is real and not; and experimentation with self-identity. Stewart Clegg said that organisations are different in the post-modern age. For example, in the modern age there is rigid authoritarian control; mass consumption; it is dominated by technology and is demarcated and deskilled. Whereas, in the post-modern age there is flexible and democratic control; niche markets; it is enabled by technology and is undemarcated and multi-skilled jobs. Postmodernists believe that the advent of postmodernity has led to significant changes in religion. In particular, they see it as leading to the decline of traditional church-based religions in which believers follow rules laid down by their religion, and the growth of new age beliefs where people can pick and choose their own belief systems. Marxist religion is all about the ruling class owning the means of production, and through wealth they derive power which allows control over the superstructure of society. Ruling class ideology of religion keeps the ruling class in power by discouraging the working classes from realising they are being exploited and in turn trying to rebel against the ruling class power. Karl Marx famously described religion as the ‘opium of the masses’, by this he meant that religion was seen as being like a drug that helps people deal with pain, much like ‘opium’. Religion promises eternal life in heaven for people who accept religion. As the biblical quote says ‘it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye if a needle, than for s rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven’. It offers hope of supernatural intervention to end suffering, for example, Jehovah’s witnesses believe that judgement day will arrive and those who are not religious will be judged and punished. Marx saw religion as a mechanism of social control. It creates false class consciousness, mistaken beliefs about the true nature of social life, which justify the position of the ruling class. This prevents the working class developing class consciousness, in which they become aware that they are exploited, and unite to overthrow the capitalist system that exploits them. Marx believed the only escape of this exploitation was communism, this way religion would no longer be necessary. Without social classes there would be no need for religion as its sole purpose was to legitimate ruling class power. Religion would therefore disappear. For example, in the Soviet Union under communist leadership from 1917 to 1990 the state consistently opposed the existence of religious beliefs and destroyed many Russian orthodox churches, as well as mosques and synagogues. The Marxist view of religion has been proven in many societies across the world; some examples of these are the Hindu caste system and evangelical Christianity in Latin America. In the Hindu caste system in India, people were divided into 5 castes based upon their supposed degree of religious purity. The Brahmins (priests) were at the top and the untouchables (unskilled labourers) at the bottom. This supports the Marxist view since no movement was permitted between castes, this system ensured the ruling class maintained their power and control and justified the lowly position of those at the bottom in terms of their religious impurity. The new Christian right have encouraged the spread of protestant religious beliefs in predominantly catholic Latin America countries particularly amongst the poor in shantytowns. This supports the Marxist view of religion as protestant religious beliefs provide religious discipline and hope of salvation in afterlife to some of the poorest in Latin American societies, discouraging them from supporting radical catholic liberation theology and encouraging support for US-style capitalist values. However Marxist view can also be criticised, just a few criticisms would be that Marxist only focus on one possible role of religion in society and it ignores the much broader range of effects religion might have. Another criticism would be that attempts to destroy religion in communist countries were not successful. Religion survived in the USSR and Catholicism thrived in communist Poland. Much like Marxists, feminists believe that religion does not serve the interests of society as a whole, and only serves the interests of a particular social group. They see religion as being patriarchal, male-dominated, and serving the interests of men. Karen Armstrong argued that religion has not always been patriarchal and that in early history women were considered central to spirituality and archaeologists have found numerous symbols of the great mother goddess, in comparison there were few portrayals of male gods. With the advent of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, monotheistic religions largely replaced polytheistic religions. In all these cases god was portrayed as a male. Jean Holm argues that in the public sphere of religion when important positions are held, men almost always dominate. However, in the private sphere, women are dominant and do most of the religious work. Holm has identified inequality between men and women in all major world religion. Some examples of these inequalities are shown in Christianity/roman Catholicism; Islam; Hinduism; Chinese folk religions; Orthodox Judaism and Sikhism.

Ideologies in legally blonde Essay

Legally blonde is a film about Elle Woods a blonde sorority queen who is dumped by her boyfriend, she decides to follow him to law school to get him back and, once there, learns she has more legal savvy than she ever imagined and is thrown into solving a case in which she will make lots of friends and maybe even some enemies. The first thing I notice is that a common ideology used throughout the film is stereotypical ideology the main way this is used is through Elle’s character who is the stereotypical dumb blonde who only cares about fashion, boys and money. This is used to show how much the character can change by exaggerating all the things that are stereotypical about her for example she loves pink but to the point where everything about her life is pink like her clothes, her room even what she dresses her dog in. Furthermore she is shown to live in Malibu which is believed to be where all the rich famous people live so people will just assume that this is her life style. Another stereotypical ideology in the film is the way they represent lawyers and the law school they show them as being boring people who just wear suits and all come from wealthy backgrounds. Another ideology used throughout the film is patriarchal ideology which is the principal that the male is more superior. This is used when they talk about law school being mainly men or that when you watch different scenes the majority of the people are men. Furthermore they use this ideology in the scene when she first talks to Warner after they have both been excepted into Harvard, it is shown that he makes out to be more superior then Elle and doesn’t understand how a woman of her nature was able to get in. Even though this film is based around a female who takes on a role to achieve what she sets out to achieve it is still based around the idea that she is doing it all for the male and to impress a male so that she can become the typical wife figure and tries to show that the woman’s role of a house wife is just natural. A very important ideology represented in this film is feminist ideology obviously for the reason that this films soul point is to show that a girl can do anything a boy can do. The beginning of the film gives into the idea that women need men to complete them and thos e men have women completely in control shown being able to manipulate them any way they want. However as the film goes on she is seen becoming more independent and less reliant on the man as she takes the case into her own hands and uses her own knowledge  to crack the case. The end of the film sends a message that women can be successful without a man and are fully able to achieve whatever they want, even in the least likely circumstances. Furthermore the character of Paulette show that she is a strong independent woman when taking on her ex-husband to get her dog back, however say this she is then seen trying to impress a man throughout the film. The last ideology is hegemony this is focused on in 2 different ways in the film. Firstly when Elle is talking to her father about going to law school he describes them as being â€Å"boring, ugly people who are serious† this shows that he believes himself to be better than them as he has lots of money and doesn’t need to work hard for it. However the other way of showing hegemony is when Vivian is talking to Elle as if she was stupid and is very patronizing towards Elle because she believes that Elle is less smart than her and is not capable enough to be in law school and treats her like she is inferior. This is obviously proven wrong when Elle is able to succeed in class and even win a case for her university showing that she is just as important and capable as the other people at Harvard. In conclusion this film is showing both how a woman does not need a man to achieve tasks and that she can be independent but also that a lot of things women do are to impress guys so that they can live the life they deem as socially acceptable. Although this film is incredibly unrealistic it does show how different groups of people may not be that different at all that that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover or stereotype people because they may surprise you in the end.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

The novel, The Crucible was written in 1953 by Arthur Miller, which was based on the Salem Witch Trials existing in the late 1600s. In the play, Abigail and several other young women accuse innocent citizens of Salem for the action of witchcraft. During the trials, many individuals were unfairly persecuted; such as John Proctor. This event in history may be associated with the Red Scare, in which individuals were tried for their questionable influences of communism in the United States.When Miller compares the character of John Proctor to himself, the reader is able to relate the similar experiences that both men faced. The Crucible demonstrates the struggle against corruption involving the court, which lead to the death of many innocent individuals in Salem. The Crucible generates an allegory for Arthur Miller’s struggles with McCarthyism because of his similar experience relating to John Proctor’s battle against the Salem Witch Trials, and the relation between the act ions of the court in both situations.Arthur Miller uses several writing methods in order to convey The Crucible as an allegory for his struggles with McCarthyism. Miller demonstrates how the Crucible represents an allegory for his conflict with McCarthyism by relating his experiences with the plot of the novel. Miller relates the novel to his struggles by stating, â€Å"Should the accused confess, his honesty could only be proved by naming former confederates.† (Are You Now†¦ 34) Miller is explaining how the court operated, in terms of coming to their conclusions. He is showing the similarity between his experience with the trials involving the Red Scare, and the trials in Salem.The witchcraft trials were very much alike the communism suspicions in the United States, in which many individuals were falsely accused for crimes they had not committed. The court’s duty was to draw names of other participants of the so-called â€Å"crimes†. Miller indicates the s imilarity in Judge Danforth’s statement to McCarthyism in the quote, â€Å"Mr. Proctor. When the devil came to you did you see Rebecca Nurse in his company?† (Crucible 129) This displays how the court believed your testimony, only if you were to mention other members.Miller uses the technique of connecting the two experiences together by incorporating the approaches in which the court took to obtain valuable information. The court’s actions demonstrate how unjust they were in coming to conclusions. Another way that Miller creates an allegory for his  struggles with McCarthyism in the novel is when Hale tells Abigail, â€Å"You must have no fear to tell us who they are, do you understand? We will protect you.† (Crucible 43) This technique pressures Abigail into falsely accusing others for acts they had not committed, although she is turning the blame away from herself.Miller relates this technique to his experience with the court in which they attempted to make him feel protected, if he would reveal his knowledge. This proves that the court did whatever they could to extract information from the suspects. The novel proves to represent an allegory for Miller’s struggles with the court, and the suspicion that the jury had among the suspects. He relates the Salem Witch trials to the Red Scare by stating, â€Å"In both places, to keep social unity intact, the authority of leaders had to be hardened and words of skepticism toward them constricted† (Are You Now†¦ 32).Arthur Miller is clarifying the fact that as the trials continued, the more strict and severe the court became. This often caused for false accusations against innocent citizens. As the trials developed, the courts were able to establish their own conclusions stemmed from the proceedings. Miller explains how John Proctor rebelled against the court’s unjust actions of jumping to conclusions before gaining enough logical reasoning. He claims that Proc tor, â€Å" [had] become the most forthright voice against the madness around him† (Why I Wrote†¦ 26).He relates his experience with the court to the Proctor’s relation with the Witch Trials because they both had stood their ground against the authority. Miller continues on to state, â€Å"I sensed that I had at last found something of myself in it,† (Why I Wrote†¦ 26) Miller is able to finalize his relationship with Proctor by professing how the character in the novel was an inspirational figure. Overall, this strategy of relating himself to the character of John Proctor proved to be effective in the representation of Miller’s fight against McCarthyism.The Crucible constructs an allegory for Arthur Miller’s struggles with McCarthyism because of his similar experience relating to John Proctor’s battle against the Salem Witch Trials, and the relation between the actions of the court in both situations. Arthur Miller is able to devel op an allegory from the play to his experience with several strategies. He relates the actions of the court to the way in which the court treated him. He then uses the similarity between the role Proctor played in the play, to the role he had in his struggles during the Red  Scare. In conclusion, Miller used many effective tactics to create a compelling allegory of his struggles against McCarthyism in the novel, The Crucible.