Nightmares :: essays research papers

Nightmares   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Usually when you end up drifting off to sleep, you fall into a deep sleep and begin to experience a so called dream.† However, most children, and even some adults, experience some even more terrifying so called dreams. These dreams are called nightmares. Nightmares have been occurring in people’s sleep for hundreds of years. People have been interested in them for centuries and they have quite an interesting past to them. People used to believe that the dream anxiety attack was caused by a demon pressing up against a person’s chest during their sleep. They were even considered as a form of black magic, evil affiliation, and even sometimes possession. The sleep cycle comes in a multi-stage cycle. All in all there are five cycles. The first four of the stages is where there is non-rapid eye movement (NREM). As the fifth stage occurs, that is where rapid eyes moment (REM) happens. Nightmares almost always occur in the second half of a persons sleep and it is always followed with an awakening of the individual even if the person doesn’t remember waking up during the night. Nine times out of ten, when people’s brain can’t handle what is going on during the rapid eye movement stage, they wake up very panically and are also very aware of their surroundings. Nightmares are mostly referred to as being a younger persons trouble but you will find that a lot of adults have the problem of nightmares also. The children’s nightmare is very different than the adult’s because the adult’s nightmare is based on the persons fears such as being chased or attacked. The children’s nightmare is more of a fantasy nightmare. Anyone that has a high fever before they go to bed is more likely to suffer from a nightmare. Rapid eye movement will usually wake a person up if they can sense that something bad is going to happen. Most of the time when one has a nightmare, will wake up right before some really bad will happen. the most popular nightmare is when you are actually falling from something that is very high up in the air. It always ends by you waking up right before you are about to hit the ground. It is been proved that no matter how many nightmares that one person will have, not one single nightmare will be exactly the same as any of the others.

Organizational Case Study: British Broadcasting Corporation Essay

Quality broadcasting does not constantly keep pace with traditional broadcasting and this duty, to make available to the masses with what is conceivably necessary rather than miscellaneous, stays at the core of public service broadcasting. As a result, funding is more often than not gained from taxation, contributions, state subventions, consenting to the importance to be on the esteem to society rather than audience ratings. But in an era of digitization and media junction, the radio and television audience is hastily turning into more broadly detached within a new-fangled multi-media, multi-channel setting. Cable television, for instance, which is designed to target consumers not only by age and gender demographics, but by lifestyle, as well, also paved a broader global reach for the British Broadcasting Corporation (Bae, 2000). According to its website, â€Å"The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC, also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie), founded in 1922, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world. It produces programs and information services, broadcasting on television, radio, and the Internet. The stated mission of the BBC is ‘to inform, educate and entertain,’ and the motto of the BBC is ‘Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation’† (â€Å"British Broadcasting Corporation†). This way, the British Broadcasting Corporation also reflects the British touch of culture and heritage with entertainment, music, events, and news that are relevant to identifiable chunks of the larger Western marketplace. Entertainment is indigenous to specific European migrants across the globe, and that resonates in the programming of this format also. The local shows are an integral part of the station’s defined lifestyle and are perceived by viewers as communicating directly to them. When the programs and documentaries broadcasted on BBC are delivered in a style that reflects the station’s format, and the message is relevant to the English viewers’ culture and heritage, there is a strong, personal connection. The cultural affinity is felt; Western identity coagulates (Ewing and Meissner, 2004). The body of research in this paper identifies the theories, concepts, and studies that were used in the study. It points to the need to gain a greater understanding of the productivity variables, modern-day trends, and operations management carried out by a non-profit, public service-oriented media organization as the British Broadcasting Corporation (Shockley-Zalabak, (2008). Leading in program production worldwide, the BBC presents entertainment and media services to a wide-reaching audience through television, radio, and Web-based machineries. As a component of its allegiance to expend a large chunk of its returns on services and programs, the BBC required to find means of condensing its administrative overheads and financial dispensation (Bae, 2000). Some people say that television news stations seem more interested in capturing viewer interest and ratings than reporting the most significant events of the day. It is easy for viewers to forget that networks are in the business of making money first then attempting to keep the public well informed with quality news broadcasting (Bae, 2000). But BBC is a Public Service Broadcasting Company. Disengagement from the British government and vested interests implies that the British Broadcasting Corporation can tender a dispassionate and evenhanded standpoint, principally in the sphere of journalism. Whether the organization is strictly unbiased is challenging to gauge. Some critics claim that there is a middle-class partiality given that the BBC’s founding ideals are anchored in the purportedly middle-class philosophy of cultivating the unschooled masses (Ewing and Meissner, 2004). What sets the British Broadcasting Corporation apart from other multimedia networks is its non-commercial business approach. In any case, there is the danger of having violence bulletins being found incredible at times with the flood of commercials punctuating the program. This is because of the capitalist theory of molding the news as per price of the news. Professor Justin Lewis of Cardiff University cites an instance when commercial pressures have influenced news output. Local news broadcasting in the US is commercially successful, and research studies show that crime stories consistently draw the largest audiences. â€Å"Suddenly there seemed to be a crime wave across the US,† says Lewis. â€Å"But crime figures were actually decreasing. Of course if you ask the public, they would tell you crime is increasing. It was a product of news being a product† (Kimball, 1994). But as far as BBC is concerned, the excitement is not as easily drawn from the viewers themselves, because of their clear-cut delivery of the news, not necessarily the subject. After all, recent surveys speak of the majority of the U. S. adult population as skeptical about the news and information programming on public broadcasting being biased. The plurality of Americans indicate that there is no apparent bias one way or the other, while approximately one-in-five detect a liberal bias and approximately one-in-ten detect a conservative bias (Newhagen and Reeves, 1992). And with the absence of war and administration news in BBC, it can be a one-headache-less day of an assiduous week. Making devolution of media services work begin with the British Broadcasting Corporation officials assuming a more assertive role as institution managers for â€Å"morale, welfare and recreation† delivery (â€Å"British Broadcasting Corporation†). There is no doubt that the British Broadcasting Corporation does face a large set of variables as it takes place over different countries and it does act in different environments. One of the most determinant environments to the success of the British Broadcasting Corporation is culture, which holds the reason for many human acts and behavior. Reaching to that point the British Broadcasting Corporation management should study deeply culture treaties of a country the media company is planning to act in so that special amendments in the organization overall plans and actions is made to act in accordance with the new market variables (Shockley-Zalabak, (2008). Like any organization, the British Broadcasting Corporation has its own history of success, which reinforces and strengthens the organization’s way of doing things. The older and more successful the organization, the stronger its culture, its nature, its identity becomes. They are communities of people with a mission, not machines. The basic nature of a living social organism is naturally more fundamental, deeper in the hierarchy, and therefore much more powerful than business work processes, financial systems, business strategy, vision, supply chains, information technology, marketing plans, team behavior, or corporate governance (â€Å"British Broadcasting Corporation†). In recent years, the British Broadcasting Corporation board has reviewed its interest in analyzing the operations’ accomplishments. The success experienced by the British Broadcasting Corporation is to a great extent attributed to a prospect of redesigning its operations to establish more Public Broadcasting Service stations throughout the world emanating from its local offices in Glasgow, Southampton, Newcastle, Birmingham, Cardiff, Belfast, Bristol, and Manchester (â€Å"British Broadcasting Corporation†). The literature evokes that the development of global culture rapid changes in technology in the last several decades has changed the nature of culture and cultural exchange. People around the world can make economic transactions and transmit information to each other almost instantaneously through the use of computers, satellite communications, and the mass media like the British Broadcasting Corporation (Shockley-Zalabak, 2008). Governments and corporations have gained vast amounts of political power through military might and economic influence (Ewing and Meissner, 2004). Corporations such as the British Broadcasting Corporation have also created a form of global culture based on worldwide commercial markets. Local culture and social structure are now shaped by large and powerful commercial interests in ways that earlier anthropologists could not have imagined.

The American Dream In The New Colossus - 716 Words

Travel back to June 17, 1885. It is a summer New York day, and the statue of liberty has just arrived on American grounds. The lady herself was a gift from the French to the United States as a sign of friendship. However, on the bottom of the statue, there is a plaque with a poem. This poem is known as â€Å"The New Colossus,† By Emma Lazarus. â€Å"The New Colossus† set a foundation for what the United States morals were built on. One might argue if Americans should still abide to this poem. Though it has been roughly 130 years since the statue landed on the New York shores, Americans should still follow the poem’s example today. We should continue to follow the words stated at the base of the Statue of Liberty because it is an example of American†¦show more content†¦There are also many shops and businesses that have been brought to use through immigration. Numerous immigrant have left their touch on America, that some might even say we take for grante d the teeming amount of cultural influences America has. This country’s foundation is built on America opening its arms to people around the world. â€Å"From her beacon-hand, glows a world-wide welcome, her mild eyes command,† (The New Colossal), As stated in paragraph 1, â€Å"The New Colossus† was written roughly 130 years ago. For 130 years, America has been striving to meet the expectations of â€Å"The New Colossal.† Though there have been many complications and obstacles that come year to year, this country will ultimately continue better the way it welcomes immigrants. When you look at a timeline, you can see that many civilizations around the world are hundreds and even thousands of years older than America. In the words of Anna Lee, â€Å"America is having an identity crisis.† This country is so new and fresh. Similarly, like a young teenager, we don’t know who we are meant to be. However, if we keep with our roots, we will realize that their is no reason to change what we have. Continuously, Americans have been attempting to live up to the legacy of â€Å"The New Colossal. Unlike other countries, America is unique and divergent from the rest. Changing the ideals of American society now i s pointless, as it would leave the country and it’sShow MoreRelatedPuerto Rican Obituary By Pedro Pietri1185 Words   |  5 PagesRican Obituary† by Pedro Pietri, the author takes his readers on a journey of the oppressive life of a Puerto Rican immigrant. He describes a vicious cycle of stagnancy in which immigrants work endlessly without reward. Hopeful every day that the American dream they once imagined would come to fruition, but instead they are continually faced with trials and turmoil on every hand. Instead of uniting as a body to work towards greatness, the immigrants grow envious of each other, focusing on what they lackRead MoreWorld War II And The Civil War1651 Words   |  7 Pagesdevise some new method of warfare.† (qtd. in Jennings). Soldiers received additional critical protection from the bubble canopies and nose cones of combat aircraft made with the new molded acrylic. Glazed acrylic, which replaced the glass in the windshields and nose cones of the bombers and fighters, was much more resistant to bullets and shrapnel, and it was permanently crystal clear (Rabin 1). Plastic canopies, along with â€Å"the greatest fighter of the war†, helped 281 pilots of North American P51-D MustangRead MoreThe American Dream704 Words   |  3 PagesThe American dream is something everyone has a different opinion of. It has changed over time and has been the topic of many songs, poems, and books. The American dream started out with immigrants coming over to America with the hope of new opportunities and a better life, which America had offered. America offered equal opportunity for everyone and the dream began. Although many Americans dreams differ because of personal experience, the American Dream is getting to the place where you are the happiestRead MoreAmy Tan Two Kinds Paper1414 Words   |  6 PagesThe Differences between American and Chinese Society In the story Two Kinds by Amy Tan, Jing Mei, a Chinese American girl struggles with her identity and learning how to balance her mother’s wants with her needs. Jing- Mei’s mother feels that obedience to her should come first and following her own aspirations should not be a consideration. With the pressures of pleasing her mother and still discovering one’s shelf, Jing-Mei searches for balance but finds conflict, confusion, and disdain. InRead MoreThe New Colossus By Jane Addams Essay1364 Words   |  6 Pagescross over onto American soil. The tales of America being the â€Å"land of opportunity† have continued to lure and attract people to immigrate. The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century brought millions of immigrant laborers from across the globe to America in a short span of time. This large influx of laborers fashioned a well-defined distinction between â€Å"settlers† and â€Å"immigrants,† causing many observers to be concerned with how these new arrivals would fit in to American society. Emma LazarusRead MoreEssay on The American Dream Gone Wrong in the Works of Sylvia Plath2071 Words   |  9 Pages Much of Sylvia Plaths poetry and her only novel, The Bell Jar, reflect her feelings of mental instability. Plath grew up in Massachusetts and was an intelligent and successful writer at a young age. She was living an American dream. However, her idyllic life was more like a nightmare for Sylvia Plath. She drove herself hard; it was important to her to succeed. When she began to doubt herself and the world around her she became mentally ill. Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts onRead MoreEssay on Social Stratification and The Importance of Class1042 Words   |  5 PagesLife, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This is a phrase that all Americans are familiar with, for it outlines our American values and sets up our declaration of independence. Many Americans consider themselves part of a nation of opportunity for all, regardless of race, gender or nationality, yet hardly do we ever choose to question whether or not this is actually true. As Americans there are certain values that we hold very dear, for example freedom, equality and opportunity. These are theRead MoreThe American Dream : The Greatest Country On Earth Essay1627 Words   |  7 PagesNational Convention. She is indefinitely describing the United States of America, however there are many that would say the contrary. Yet there is no denying America’s greatness and accomplishments, is the American Dream that gives its country the valor a nd beauty it wears actually true? The American Dream serves as the foundation of ideals that cloaks the nation, and inspires the belief that anyone is able to build themselves a better future from the bottom up through hard work and determination by theRead MoreEmma Lazarus Poem : The New Colossus740 Words   |  3 Pagesbeside the golden door!†. This poem entitled The New Colossus, written by Emma Lazarus. The poem was engraved at the foot of the Statue of Liberty. The immigrants who came to eastern of America would eventually arrived at New York harbor. They would passed through the Statue of Liberty and seen the poem below it. They began their new life with this poem. In recent years, some policies have passed to limit the immigrants. Discrimination is more severe. The new immigrants especially who are not white facedRead MoreThe New Colossus By Emma Lazarus955 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction: Attention: â€Å"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free† (Emma Lazarus). This sentence can be found in the poem â€Å"The New Colossus,† written by Emma Lazarus in 1883. It can also be found inscribed on the Statue of Liberty towering over the New York Harbor, a bright beacon symbolizing the freedom and democracy we hold so esteemed in America. Immigrants founded the United States and immigrants are arguably who made our nation so great. However, when immigrants

Nathaniel Hawthorne s The Scarlet Letter - 1187 Words

Puritanism in Red Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter shows the early view of Puritanism by concentrating on sin, guilt, and its effects on society. Nathaniel Hawthorne conveyed a dark and romantic style of writing in â€Å"The Scarlet Letter†, impacting the society by focusing on the concepts of romanticism. The Scarlet Letter is considered a classic book and is still read today. Nathaniel Hathorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804. He was the son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Clark Hawthorn. In 1808 Hathorne’s father died of yellow fever at sea, he was the ship captain. The family was left with little financial support so in 1809 his mother and sisters moved into the Manning House.While Hathorne was attending Worcester’s†¦show more content†¦In 1837 he met his future wife Sophia Peabody and he published Twice-Told Tales, these stories soon got him recognized. He soon got engaged to Sophia Peabody, and to save money in 1839 for t heir marriage her worked as a salt and coal miner. He also bought shares in Brook Farm, which he intended for he and his wife to live once they married. Soon disillusioned at one point, he left the farm and married Sophia July 9, 1842. The couple moved into the Old Manse, they rented the house from Ralph Emerson. Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter was about an in look into Purantism (Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Historical Context of Scarlet Letter from The Scarlet Letter. EMC Corporation, 1998. Print). That mirrored on a lady by the name of Hester Prynne, who lived during the strict early Puritan Settlement. The settlement had a Utopia look on how settlers should carry on with life, with a clean soul as much as possible, and frowned upon those who had sin fallen short. She was caught cheating on her lost husband and was punished with prison time, public humiliation on the town’s scaffold, and bearing the Scarlet Letter â€Å"A† upon her bosom for a period of time. She ra ised her daughter from the affair, named Pearl. After seven years her husband comes back, whom she believed to be dead. Her husband, named Roger Chillingworth posed as a physician nursing the town’s young reverend, named Reverend

Animal Farm By George Orwell - 1570 Words

The past doesn’t define who we are now and who we will become in the future. It is simply a guide in our lives that shows us what is right from wrong. Our history has the ability to teach us more than we know, for it holds the key to something that has never been discovered. George Orwell’s masterpiece, Animal Farm , replicates a moment in history that will never be forgotten. It is a story that shows courage and tenacity, as well as fear and tragedy. This book displays many important lessons and morals. There are quotes that pertain to this story in a way like no other. They uncover the meaning to what is behind, Animal Farm. â€Å"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.† - George Santayana This quote from Santayana†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"What experience and history teach is this—that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.† † G.W.G. Hegel G.W.G Hegel’s quote is telling us is that not all people with power and authority will use it correctly. He is showing us that the government has not learned from their mistakes and they are doing nothing to find the correct solution to the way they are leading. Napoleon had been the leader of the animals. After the huge rebellion, the farm was made into a place where all animals were to be equal. This proposal happened, but it only lasted for a short period of time. When the equality plan crumbled down, the animals went back to working laboriously and some ended up starving. Napoleon looked upon the animals as slaves that were meant to work hard and do all of the work. He was acting like a government who didn t listen to the people and their needs. As a leader, you are supposed to learn from the others’ mistakes and fix what needs to be fixed in order for your group to strive and succeed. Napoleon took a wrong turn and took the role of another Mr. Jones. In the story i t said, â€Å" And finally there was a tremendous baying of dogs and a shrill crowing from the black cockerel, and out came Napoleon himself, majestically upright, casting haughty glances from side to side, and with his dogs, gambolling round him He carried a whip in his trotter.†Show MoreRelatedAnimal Farm And George Orwell By George Orwell1034 Words   |  5 Pages Eric Arthur Blair, under the pseudonym of George Orwell, composed many novels in his lifetime that were considered both politically rebellious and socially incorrect. Working on the dream since childhood, Orwell would finally gain notoriety as an author with his 1945 novel Animal Farm, which drew on personal experiences and deeply rooted fear to satirically critique Russian communism during its expansion. Noticing the impact he made, he next took to writing the novel 1984, which similarly criticizedRead MoreAnimal Farm By George Orwell1397 Words   |  6 PagesAn important quote by the influential author of Animal Farm, George Orwell, is, â€Å"Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism.† George Orwell, a Democratic Socialist, wrote the book Animal Farm as an attack on the Communist country of Russia (â€Å"The Political Ideas of George Orwell,† worldsocialism.org). He had a very strong disliking of Communism and the Socialist party of Russia. However, he insisted on finding the truthRead MoreAnimal Farm, By George Orwell1545 Words   |  7 Pagesallow because an this elite institution of people often use this gear to dominate and oppress society. In George Orwell’s story, Animal Farm, Orwell demonstrates that education is a powerful weapon and is a device that can be used to at least one’s benefit. Living in a world where strength is a straightforward to benefit, the pigs quick use education to govern the relaxation of the animals on the farm to serve themselves worked to their advantage. This story in shows the underlying message that   firstRead MoreAnimal Farm By George Orwell944 Words   |  4 Pageslegs(Orwell 132). He carried a whip in his trotter(Orwell 133). In the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell, animals have the ability to talk and form their own ethos, Animalism. Animal Farm is an intriguing allegory by George Orwell, who is also th e author of 1984, includes many enjoyable elements. More knowledge of the author, his use of allegorical elements, themes, symbols, and the significance in the real world, allows the reader to get more out of this glance into the future. George OrwellRead MoreAnimal Farm, By George Orwell876 Words   |  4 Pagesrebellious animals think no man means freedom and happiness, but they need to think again. The animals of Manor Farm rebel against the farm owner, Mr. Jones, and name it Animal Farm. The animals create Animalism, with seven commandments. As everything seems going well, two of the animals get into a rivalry, and things start changing. Food starts disappearing and commandments are changed, and the power begins to shift. Father of dystopian genre, George Orwell writes an interesting allegory, Animal FarmRead MoreAnimal Farm by George Orwell1100 Words   |  4 PagesIntroduction: Widely acknowledged as a powerful allegory, the 1945 novella Animal Farm, conceived from the satirical mind of acclaimed author George Orwell, is a harrowing fable of a fictional dystopia that critiques the socialist philosophy of Stalin in terms of his leadership of the Soviet Union. Tired of their servitude to man, a group of farm animals revolt and establish their own society, only to be betrayed into worse servitude by their leaders, the pigs, whose initial virtuous intentionsRead MoreAnimal Farm By George Orwell1538 Words   |  7 PagesMecca Animal Farm The Russian Revolution in 1917 shows how a desperate society can be turned into a military superpower filled with terror and chaos. George Orwell uses his book, Animal Farm, to parallel this period of time in history. This book is an allegory of fascism and communism and the negative outcomes. The animals begin with great unity, working toward a common goal. The government then becomes corrupted by the temptations of power. George Orwell uses the characters in Animal Farm to showRead MoreAnimal Farm by George Orwell1175 Words   |  5 PagesAn enthusiastic participant in the Spanish civil war in 1936, George Orwell had a great understanding of the political world and made his strong opinions known through his enlightening literary works, many of which are still read in our modern era. Inspired by the 1917 Russian Revolution and the failed society it resulted in, Animal Farm by George Orwell is an encapsulating tale that epitomises how a free utopian society so idealistic can never be accomplished. The novella exemplifies how influencesRead MoreAnimal Farm, By George Orwell1089 Words   |  5 PagesIn George Orwell’s â€Å"Animal Farm†, the pigs as the farm leaders, use unknown language, invoke scare tactics and create specific laws, thereby enabling them to control other animals, to suit their greedy desires, and to perform actions outside their realm of power. Because of the pigs’ use of broad language, and the implementation of these tactics they are able to get away with avoiding laws, and are able to convince other animals into believing untrue stories that are beneficial to the pigs. The firstRead MoreAnimal Farm, By George Orwell1212 Words   |  5 PagesShe stood there over the dead animals thinking to herself what have we come to? We try to become free but we just enslave ourselves to a so called superior kind. Napoleon killed the animals in front of the whole farm and said that this was to be the punishment for the traitors. Snowball was known as a traitor now and anyone conspiring with him would be killed. Snowball and Napoleon both represent historical characters during the Russian revolution in 1917.Snowball who was one of the smartest pigs

The Social Theory of Du Bois Free Essays

Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Emile Durkheim are widely recognized as the trinity of sociological theory. While these three sociologists were trailblazing social theorists who enhanced the study of human behavior and its relationship to social institutions, other, more contemporary scholars were just as innovative – one of those scholars being W. E. We will write a custom essay sample on The Social Theory of Du Bois or any similar topic only for you Order Now B. Du Bois. W. E. B. Du Bois was a political and literary giant of the 20th century, publishing over twenty books and thousand of essays and articles throughout his life. W. E. B Du Bois is arguably one of the most imaginative, perceptive, and prolific founders of the sociological discipline. In addition to leading the Pan-African movement and being an activist for civil rights for African Americans, Du Bois was a pioneer of urban sociology, an innovator of rural sociology, a leader in criminology, the first American sociologist of religion, and most notably the first great social theorist of race. The work of W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) has recently become recognized for its significant contributions to sociological theory. Although Du Bois himself was overwhelmingly concerned with the scientific perspective of â€Å"value free† sociological research, later social theorists have found his thoughts on race to offer one of the first instances of the articulation of standpoint theory. This theoretical perspective is anything but value free, because of the self-conscious efforts of the researcher to look at the social world from the vantage point of minority groups. Feminists, multiculturalists, and even postmodernists have come to recognize the importance of the black point of view found in Du Bois’s work. They have also come to appreciate Du Bois for his focus on local knowledge and practices. W. E. B. Du Bois was an important American thinker. Poet, philosopher, economic historian, sociologist, and social critic, Du Bois’ work resists easy classification. Du Bois is more than a philosopher; he is, for many, a great social leader. His extensive efforts all bend toward a common goal, the equality of colored people. His philosophy is significant today because it addresses what many would argue is the real world problem of white domination. So long as racist white privilege exists, and suppresses the dreams and the freedoms of human beings, so long will Du Bois be relevant as a thinker, for he, more than almost any other, employed thought in the service of exposing this privilege, and worked to eliminate it in the service of a greater humanity. Du Bois was a prolific author. His collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk, was a seminal work in African-American literature; and his 1935 magnum opus Black Reconstruction in America challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that blacks were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction era. He wrote the first scientific treatise in the field of sociology; and he published three autobiographies, each of which contains insightful essays on sociology, politics and history. In his role as editor of the NAACP’s journal The Crisis, he published many influential pieces. Du Bois believed that capitalism was a primary cause of racism, and he was generally sympathetic to socialist causes throughout his life. He was an ardent peace activist and advocated nuclear disarmament. The United States’ Civil Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms for which Du Bois had campaigned his entire life, was enacted a year after his death. Early in his career Du Bois claimed that the â€Å"race idea† was the central thought of all history and that the primary â€Å"problem of the twentieth century was the problem of the colour line. † Du Bois viewed the goal of African Americans not as one of integration or absorption into white America, but one of advancing â€Å"Pan-Negroism. † Critical of the excessive materialism of white America, Du Bois believed that black culture could temper the self-interested pursuit of profit. Du Bois called on blacks to organize and unite around their race, and although he was not opposed to segregation per se, he did come to realize that discrimination stifled the development of â€Å"separate but equal† facilities and institutions. The concepts of the Veil and double consciousness occupy an important place in Du Bois’s theory on race. Du Bois discusses both in his work The Souls of Black Folk. The Veil is an imaginary barrier that separates whites and blacks. Du Bois hoped his work would allow whites to glimpse behind the Veil, so they could begin to understand the black experience in America. Perhaps the most fundamental component of the black experience in America was living with what Du Bois called double consciousness. Blacks are simultaneously both inside and outside of the dominant white society and live with a feeling of â€Å"twoness. † By trying to cultivate and preserve a racial identity, blacks come into conflict with trying to fit into white society. According to Du Bois, the tension of being both black and American can manifest itself in pathologies within the black community and discrimination in white America. Whatever turns out to be the best general account of Du Bois’ philosophy, it seems the significance of his thought only really shows up in the specific details of his works themselves, especially in The Souls of Black Folk. It is here that he first develops his central philosophical concept, the concept of double consciousness, and spells out its full implications. The aim of Souls of Black Folk is to show the spirit of black people in the United States: to show their humanity and the predicament that has confronted their humanity. Du Bois asserts that â€Å"the color line† divides people in the States, causes massive harm to its inhabitants, and ruins its own pretensions to democracy. He shows, in particular, how a veil has come to be put over African-Americans, so that others do not see them as they are; African-Americans are obscured in America; they cannot be seen clearly, but only through the lens of race prejudice. African-Americans feel this alien perception upon them but at the same time feel themselves as themselves, as their own with their own legitimate feelings and traditions. This dual self-perception is known as â€Å"double consciousness. Du Bois’ aim in Souls is to explain this concept in more specific detail and to show how it adversely affects African-Americans. In the background of Souls is always also the moral import of its message, to the effect that the insertion of a veil on human beings is wrong and must be condemned on the grounds that it divides what otherwise would be a unique and coherent identity. Souls thus aims to make the reader understand, in effect, that African-Americans have a distinct cultural identity, one that must be acknowledged, respected, and enabled to flourish. Du Bois’ other major philosophical concept is that of â€Å"second sight. † This is a concept he develops most precisely in Darkwater, a work, as we have seen, in which Du Bois changes his approach and takes up a stauncher stance against white culture. Du Bois holds that due to their double consciousness, African-Americans possess a privileged epistemological perspective. Both inside the white world and outside of it, African-Americans are able to understand the white world, while yet perceiving it from a different perspective, namely that of an outsider as well. The white person in America, by contrast, contains but a single consciousness and perspective, for he or she is a member of a dominant culture, with its own racial and cultural norms asserted as absolute. The white person looks out from themselves and sees only their own world reflected back upon them—a kind of blindness or singular sight possesses them. Luckily, as Du Bois makes clear, the dual perspective of African-Americans can be used to grasp the essence of whiteness and to expose it, in the multiple senses of the word â€Å"expose. That is to say, second sight allows an African-American to bring the white view out into the open, to lay it bare, and to let it wither for the problematic and wrong-headed concept that it is. The destruction of â€Å"whiteness† in this way leaves whites open to the experience of African-Americans, as a privileged perspective, and hence it also leaves African-Americans with a breach in the culture through which they could enter with t heir legitimate, and legitimating, perspectives. Later in life, Du Bois turned to communism as the means to achieve equality. Du Bois came to believe that the economic condition of Africans and African-Americans was one of the primary modes of their oppression, and that a more equitable distribution of wealth, as advanced by Marx, was the remedy to the situation. ( John J. Macionis: Sociology 14th edition) Du Bois was not simply a follower of Marx, however. He also added keen insights to the communist tradition himself. One of his contributions is his insistence that communism contains no explicit means of liberating Africans and African-Americans, but that it ought to focus its attentions here and work toward this end. â€Å"The darker races,† to use Du Bois’ language, amount to the majority of the world’s proletariat. In Black Folk, Then and Now, Du Bois writes: â€Å"the dark workers of Asia, Africa, the islands of the sea, and South and Central America†¦these are the one who are supporting a superstructure of wealth, luxury, and extravagance. It is the rise of these people that is the rise of the world† (Black Folk,). A further contribution Du Bois makes is to show how Utopian politics such as communism is possible in the first place. Building on Engle’s claim that freedom lies in the acknowledgment of necessity, as Maynard Solomon argues (Solomon, â€Å"Introduction† 258), (because in grasping necessity we accurately perceive what areas of life are open to free action), Du Bois insists on the power of dreams. Admitting our bound nature (bound to our bellies, bound to material conditions), even stressing it, he nonetheless emphasizes our range of powers within these constraints. Although difficult to characterize in general terms, Du Bois’ philosophy amounts to a programmatic shift away from abstraction and toward engaged, social criticism. In affecting this change in philosophy, especially on behalf of African-Americans and pertaining to the issue of race, Du Bois adds concrete significance and urgent application to American Pragmatism, as Cornel West maintains, a philosophy that is about social criticism, not about grasping absolute timeless truth. Above all, however, Du Bois’ philosophy is significant today because it addresses what many would argue is the real world problem of white domination. So long as racist white privilege exists, and suppresses the dreams and the freedoms of human beings, so long will Du Bois be relevant as a thinker, for he, more than almost any other, employed thought in the service of exposing this privilege, and worked to eliminate it in the service of a greater humanity. References: Du Bois, W. E. B. Black Folk, Then and Now (Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus-Thomson Organization Limited, 1975). Du Bois, W. E. B. Darkwater: Voices From Within the Veil (Mineola, N. Y. Dover Publications, 1999). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072824301/student_view0/chapter10/chapter_summary.html Sociology: 14th edition (John J Macionis; Prentice Hall, 2011) How to cite The Social Theory of Du Bois, Papers

Drugs Legalization Essay Example For Students

Drugs Legalization Essay The question of whether to legalize drugs or not is a very controversial andimportant issue. Drugs affect so many areas of society. The U.S. population has an extremely high rate of alcohol and drug abuse (Grolier). Several groups have formed and spoken out regarding their position. Speaking Out Against Drug Legalization is the first step in helping todeliver the credible, consistent message about the risks and costs of thelegalization of drugs to people in terms that make sense to them. Theanti-legalization message is effective when communicated by representatives ofthe Federal Government, but takes on even more credibility when it comes fromthose in the community who can put the legalization debate in localperspective (Internet). After learning about the issues regarding bothsides of the argument, I would choose to support those who oppose legalizationof any drugs. Drugs simply create problems which effect society in several ways. The government has made several efforts to control drugs and their users,however, to most the problem appears too out of hand. Others see potentialprofit in legalizing drugs and still others simply believe that individualrights to take drugs should be protected. The group also acknowledged that thelegalization concept appeals to people who are looking for simple solutions tothe devastating problem of drug abuse (Internet). Societys answer to theproblem is to trick the drug user by giving him what he wants. People believethat making drugs legal will take away the temptation to use them. This idea iswrong and far from logical. If drugs are legalized then they will be moreaccessible to the young, addicted, and ignorant. As a result the readyavailability of addicting drugs, and as a result of their heavy use for medicalproblems, many individuals became addicted to the narcotics contained in thesepotent medicines. In fact, in 1900, there were more narcotics addicts,proportionate to the po pulation, than there are today. At that time, most of theusers who became addicts were medical addicts. Very few abusers took drugs forrecreational purposes. In 1914, in an effort to curb theindiscriminate use of narcotics, the federal government passed the Harrison Act,making it illegal to obtain a narcotic drug without a prescription. During the1920s the Supreme Court ruled that maintaining addicts on narcotic drugs, evenby prescription, was in violation of the Harrison Act. Some 30,000 physicianswere arrested during this period for dispensing narcotics, and some 3,000actually served prison sentences. Consequently, doctors all but abandoned thetreatment of addicts for nearly half a century in the United States(Grolier). The only resulting effect will be a negative one. There are nopositive aspects of putting drugs on the streets with a label readinglegal. There are plenty of people in society that find enoughtrouble on their own without the help of their country. Legalizing drugs wouldhave a devastating result that would affect society as a whole. Audiencesneed to understand that 70% of drug users are employed, and that the school busdriver who drives your children to school could smoke marijuana, that thesurgeon who operates on you may have cocaine in his system, and that the driverin back of you may be on speed. The debate needs to demonstrate graphically howthe common man will be impacted by drug legalization (Internet). There isan idea that the drug user is a low class, unemployed junkie. Thisis untrue. The drug user is often a white collared worker with a family and afuture. They are not all dirty with missing teeth and poor grammar. The commonmisconceptions of the user are dangerous to those members of societytrying to rid the world of the problem. Drinking on the job is a socialand economic problem with a long history. With the growing popularity of illegaldrugs in the 1960s and 1970s, it was to be expected that their use in theworkplace would emerge as a major issue by the 1980s. Estimates of employeedrug use vary greatly, ranging from 10 percent to 25 percent for the proportionof workers who use drugs occasionally on the job. The safe performance of someoccupations among them, airline pilot, air traffic controller, truck driver,and physician can be compromised by drug use (Grolier). One of thegreatest concerns of drugs is their contribution to the crime rate. Crime willalways be a problem as long as drugs exist and are abused. One category ofcrime is the victimless