Month: August 2019
Andrew Jackson: Impact and Legacy
In the election of 1824, Andrew Jackson had won the popular vote against John Quincy Adams but did not win the presidency as there was no clear majority in the Electoral College vote which allowed the House of Representatives to choose the next President. When Jackson did not win, his loyal followers called fraud, as they believed that President Adams had negotiated with the then Speaker of the House Henry Clay, in an effort to ensure that Adams would get the presidency in exchange for Clay getting the office of Secretary of State, and this was labeled the corrupt bargain. This, however, made Jackson emerge as a prominent figure in American politics and marked the start of the Jacksonian Period. Although during the Jacksonian period there was a continuation of increase in executive power, which wasn't very democratic, the policies and actions made by Jackson both during and after his presidency fostered change that created increase in democratic ideals. There was a significant increment in the representation in politics for the white man, as well as the creation of political parties in response several Jacksonian policies. Despite the fact that these changes were not all desired effects that Jackson wanted to have in democracy, they still show how much democratic values increased in the years of 1824 to 1848.
As stated previously, during the period 1824-1848 there was a continuation of the increase in executive power in comparison to the earlier years of the United States. This can be seen when President Jackson vetoed the bill passed Daniel Webster and Henry Clay that would recharter the Bank of the United States. In his veto address, Jackson explains that he considered the bank unconstitutional, completely disregarding the decision of the Supreme Court in McCulloch v. Maryland which had already declared the bank constitutional. With this veto, President Jackson established an undemocratic precedent that would effectively allow the President to disregard a decision made by the Supreme Court, therefore increasing executive power. In addition to this, Jackson also introduced the Force Bill as a response to the compromise Tariff of 1833 that seeked to solve the Nullification Crisis of 1832. Through the Force Bill, Jackson established that the President could use the armed forces in effort to collect taxes. Obviously this was a clear violation of the democratic ideals that had been practiced in America until this time period as the usage of the army was mostly reserved for War with foreign powers and not inside the nation. However, this increase of executive power had been a trend with previous presidents, as observed with Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase even though the power of such purchase was not vested upon him in the constitution, which shows this continuity that mostly did not follow the movement of the expansion in democratic values during the Jacksonian Era. Yet, Jackson justified this increase of usage of executive power as he believed that he was the President chosen by the masses.
The emergence of Jackson into the presidency in 1828 signified the rise of the masses as the majority voters in America, a change that had not been previously observed with other Presidents that were mostly chosen by land-owning white men. However, Westward expansion during the Jacksonian Period of 1824-1848 provided a change, as more white males could acquire cheap land more easily and therefore could have more political representation. The Indian Removal Act allowed for more settlers to continue in westward expansion and white settlers could get property. During the Jacksonian period, more states allowed for white males to vote without property, but the further aquiarance of land for Westward expansion allowed the representation of most white men and therefore there was an increase in democracy as the President was now chosen by a more evident majority. In both of the Presidential elections of 1824 and 1828, Jackson was mostly associated with the ideas of the common man as he was a President that appealed to the newly represented masses. This idea of the importance of someone who could relate to the masses continued through the Jacksonian Era, as observed with the election in 1840 between Martin Van Buren, a Democrat who was the President at that time, and William Henry Harrison, a military officer who most notably fought in the Battle of Tippecanoe. In this election, William Henry Harrison played with his appeal to the common man as he was targeted by a Democratic editor who said that most likely drank hard cider and lived in a log cabin. This humble approach to Harrison won him the election as it associated him more with the masses, who had now become a majority when they were given more representation. Through the change that was made with Jacksonian policies and actions around this time period, there was a significant increase in the democratic value of representation.
Political parties before the Jacksonian period were not as defined as they emerged to be after during and after Jackson's presidency. For instance, with the war of 1812, came the dissolvement of the Federalist party and there was only one party without any opposition, the Democratic Republicans, in what was denominated as the Era of Good Feeling. This was changed with the Jacksonian era, as there was the rise of differing political parties; the Democrats, which mostly aligned with President Jackson, and the other parties that were created as a response to Jackson's actions and policies. The Democrats rallied around Jackson and insisted in the importance of the individual, states rights, and wished to end the aristocracy present in the government. The Jacksonian Democrats became a dominant party in this time period and tried to chater to the masses as much as possible by aligning to the lower classes. One of the parties that was the most prominent opposition to Jackson was the Whig party, which was leaded by senators Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. This political party was born out of the belief that Jackson exceeded the boundaries of executive power when he vetoed the Bank Bill. Although both of these parties had been previously associated with the Democratic Republicans, the actions and policies that Jackson conducted lead to the creation of two very distinct parties that prevailed through the Jacksonian period. In Jacksonian Period there was a clear emergence of new parties which in turn increased democratic ideals as the only way that the Constitutions ideas of Checks and Balances could be properly put in place would be through the constant opposition to the party in power. This rise in the number of political parties was a clear change from earlier years, as now different parties had more concrete beliefs.
By way of various policies and actions made by President Jackson during and after his presidency, there was a change in the increase in democratic ideals that could be most clearly represented with the rise of the representation of white men in politics, and the creation of several political parties that emerged because of Jackson. However, it is important to note that one thing during this period that did not reflect the strengthening of democratic ideals was the continuation of the movement shown by previous presidents in the way of the increase in executive power, that was also shown around this time period. It is important to analyze the Jacksonian Period because many of the actions that were committed in this time set a precedent for other time periods. Also many of the sectional conflicts that happened, such as the Nullification Crisis of 1832, had a damming effect of the country in later years.
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Tragedy and Horror of Rwandan Genocide
The Rwandan Genocide was a tragic event that happened in April 1994 to July 1994. The genocide took place in the Rwandan Civil War, a conflict beginning in 1990 between the Hutu and the Tutsis people. The genocide made many problems for the world, it has many lasting effects on the world and Rwanda. The Rwandan genocide was as devastating as the Holocaust and were both left with a bad reputation.
“After the genocide, Rwanda was on the brink of total collapse.” “Of the survivors, women took over 70 percent of the population, entire villages were destroyed, and social cohesion was in utter disrepair (History channel).” The genocide was between the Hutu and the Tutsis. They fought for 100 days killing thousands of people a day. The cause of the genocide was a conflict beginning in 1990 between the Hutu-led government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). “The latter was made up largely of Tutsi refugees whose families had fled to Uganda after the 1959 Hutu revolt against colonial rule (Florence).”
“Approximately 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu moderates were slaughtered in a carefully organized program of genocide over 100 days, …”(United To End Genocide). If you calculate that it would mean 8,000 people were killed a day. The people being targeted in this genocide were the Tutsis people, and they were being targeted by the Hutu people. The Tutsis were being killed by machetes and other objects such as these. The Tutsis people fled to neighboring countries seeking refuge during this time. I did not see anything that said they defended themselves. As far as I know they fled because they were frightened.
This genocide ended by the doing of the RPF(Rwandan Patriotic Front) and the Uganda Army. They slowly took land in Rwanda until they finally took Kigali, which is the capital of Rwanda. During the genocide, France set up safe zones for the Tutsis, but the Rwandan people accused them of not doing enough to stop the slaughtering in the areas of these safe zones. The people that took action in the genocide or allowed it fled in fear that there would be any revenge attacks against them. After the genocide there were a couple things that people did to prevent another devastating genocide in Rwanda. One thing that they did to prevent another genocide was they started eliminating reference to race in their identification documents, so they were all considered Rwandans. “The government in Kigali is also counting on economic progress to help the country achieve lasting reconciliation… Rwanda had reduced its poverty rate by 12 percent within 5 years. It now stood at 45%, Beckmann said, adding that in comparison to other African countries that was an extremely good result” (Touze-Schmitz).
The genocide left people without homes and their village ruined. More than 25 years later the ones that did survive the genocide made homegoods for global sales—a sign of healing in Rwanda. Women produced baskets, handbags, and jewelry in the small, central African nation of Rwanda. “This small African country of 12 million inhabitants, encompassing a geographic area roughly the size of Maryland, has made a remarkable economic turnaround over the course of the past two decades”(Shank, Rugaragu.). “The country now boasts intra-regional trade and service delivery, urban design innovation, and efficient transport links”(Holder).
One way the Rwandan Genocide and the Holocaust are similar is that they both affected almost every family in these countries and left both countries with a bad reputation. Another thing that makes them similar is that both people participated in the killing. “...hundreds of thousands of ordinary people were part of this attempted genocide”(BBC IWONDER). Some even killed their own friends and family. Sometimes it was directly and sometimes it wasn’t. One last thing that they had in common is that both sets of people that were put in charge both claimed to be brainwashed and that it wasn’t their fault for what they did.
The Rwandan Genocide was an event that will forever stay in our minds as one of the worst killing sprees that has ever taken place. Although, this horrible thing happened here, now the country is changing and growing to build itself back up to be a very unified country.
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Main Elements in Beloved
Trees:
With love comes trust. Paul D sees the trees as something he can trust, something you can go to when you need reassurance or support. Trees are also become a sign to a second life for him especially when the Cherokee directed him to follow the blossoming trees all the way up to Cincinnati and 124. With love comes comfort and safety. For Denver the trees or bushes symbolize a sense of safety. For instance her five boxwood bushes, planted in a ring, a place where Denver's imagination produced its own hunger and its own food, which she badly needed because loneliness wore her out. Trees have a totally different meaning for Sethe, whose back Amy Denver calls a "chokecherry tree" . Her tree is more a sign of the past that she doesn’t like being reminded of. Actual trees also bring up some pretty dark thoughts for her, like the dead-man when she thought Paul A was hanging from the tree. At times love can bring pain, people love something or someone that they shouldn’t. Or one has experienced love at one point that did not have the desired outcome creating unbearable memories. Trees hold a different meaning for all three characters as all three of them have experienced different things in life and have a different mental standing.
Color:
Each color has a different connotation to it. The darker the color, usually the duller the emotion associated with it. Each color holds its own specific meaning. The color red shows up throughout the novel. It carries different meanings when it goes with different objects. Amy’s red velvet, for example, stands for hope and future. She described the velvet to Sethe as something “like the world was just born” and “clean and new and so smooth”(41), and therefore the velvet represents a new life. When one is receiving love while going through a rough time from family or someone who has their best interest, it encourages them to take a step that will better their life. Love expresses many emotions and characteristics such as protection, flirtation, concern, and more. In this case, there was a sign of concern or more of a hope of Sethe having a new life.
124:
The 124 was a place where majority of the characters had their ups and downs. It was place that impacted the characters for the rest of their lives. It was a place that contained a haunted side, a feminine side, and a party side. 124 was haunted with beloved’s ghost. Baby Suggs moved to 124, Mr. Bowdin, the owner remembers a women died in there, and it does seem like the house's moods follow the arc of Beloved's presence at 124: from the "spiteful" baby ghost who likes to get Poltergeist-y on the house; to the "loud" fighting between Sethe and Beloved; to the "quiet" absence after Beloved leaves. Looking at it from all angles, 124 was a place that brought everyone together, whether it was in a positive or harmful manner. 124 is also a place that resembles sethe’s children that have survived, 124 the birth order of the living children excluding the third being, Beloved.
Quote:
“124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did the children. For years each put up with the spite in his own way, but by 1873 Sethe and her daughters Denver were its only victims” (3).
Tobacco Tin:
In today’s society, majority of the people associate the abstract idea of love with the tangible human organ, the heart. Why? As one prepares for something exciting, their heart rate increases. The heart is the center of emotion and love is one of the biggest emotions a person will experience in their lifetime. Paul D however replaces his heart with a tobacco tin filled with all his struggles and painful memories. The tobacco tin symbolizes the lack of love Paul D has received in his life. The tobacco tin box is not something Paul D can open and face on his own, if he were to do such a thing it would force him to go mad like Halle. He needs the support of the women, Beloved and Sethe in order to realize who he really is as a person.
Red Heart:
Red heart from the sound of seems to represent love and passion, however, in the context of this novel it turns out to be the total opposite. Paul D and Beloved’s sexual encounter did wake up Paul D’s emotion sides but in order for that to happen, he had to drop so low, practically went to the dark side to experience the bright side of his life. As many readers may believe, Beloved came back from the dead which makes it sound like Paul D had sex with a dead girl. In true context, the “red heart” symbolizes the past and death, both of which beloved represents. It also shows that characters in this novel cannot experience love in a normal manner, they are forced to do something inhumane to feel like a typical living person. Perhaps that is what slavery does to its victims.
Secret Compartment -
Beloved:
Beloved is misunderstood because she is something different to each major character in the book. To Paul D, she is a mystery and a lover, to Sethe she is a daughter and reminder of the old pain that she has gone through in life, along with guilt because she had murdered her as an infant, and finally to Denver she is a sister that Denver hopes to never be in solitude again with only her mother and the ghost. Along with the main characters she is also portrayed as a pregnant woman to all of the other people within the community. Though Beloved is a bad nightmare and memory for the town to remember she also seen differently to resemble her name Beloved, with the word love within it everyone creates a different image of it just like in life.
Quote:
“They forgot her like a bad dream. after they made up their tales, shaped and decorated them, those that saw her that day on the porch quickly and deliberately forgot her. It took longer for those who had spoken to her, lived with her, fallen in love with her, to forget, until they realized they couldn’t remember or repeat a single thing she said, and began to believe that, other than what they themselves were thinking, she hadn’t said anything at all” (324).
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Role of Family in Beloved Novel
Family means everything to many of the characters in our novel. Both biological and chosen familial relationships are incredibly important to the characters and create both a source of happiness and deep sorrow. Family can be seen as something that creates strength, that builds a community and fosters a sense of confidence and belonging. At the same time, a familial bond can be abused and used to hurt someone. Watching one's family suffer often hurts more than your own suffering, and our characters show this in so many ways.
The clearest way in which we see family hurt someone is when Halle has to silently watch the beating and violation of his wife Sethe. When the schoolteacher's nephews attack his wife Halle completely loses it. He is frozen in horror and afterward loses his mind. This trauma that he did not physically experience, emotionally and mentally ruined him. When he is later found, he's covered in butter clearly insane. Not only did this attack brutalize Sethe, but her loved one as well.
One of the more important symbols in the novel is the symbolism behind naming people. A character such as Sethe's first daughter, is given no name throughout the reading other than Beloved, symbolizing the fact that she has been all but erased in the mind of Sethe. A character like Schoolteacher, however, is given an unhuman name, he becomes so much less than a person, just a job. This radiates with his cruel unforgiving nature and brutality, he is not seen as a person who can feel or empathize, just as a man set out to violently do his job.
Another such example of the importance of a name comes from the character of Denver. Denver was named after Amy, the young white woman that found Sethe, broken, pregnant, and needy, and nursed her back to health. To reconnect this naming to the importance of family, Denver was named after someone who was seen as a guardian angel, a positive force in her mother's life and that is exactly what Denver becomes. Denver is precious to her mother and represents goodness in her life both in her coming to be after Sethe escapes brutality and in her being Amy's namesake.
Finally, the relationship between Denver and her unnamed sister's ghost is one I believe is incredibly powerful. The bond of these two sisters surpasses the physical living world and connects them between worlds and planes. A living girl and a ghost have arguably the most important relationship in this whole book. The undying and pure love Denver feels for her sister causes her great joy, yet when Paul D drives the ghost away, it causes Denver to feel terribly alone. When the spirit of her sister is thought to come back, however, this time in the form of Beloved, both Denver and Sethe develop an attachment like no other. Although Beloved begins to mistreat Sethe and leech off of her, she is unable to see that she is being hurt by this relationship because her love for her daughter and her guilt about killing her was blinding. Towards the end, even though Denver knows that Beloved and consequently, her sister, are no more than a parasite failing to let her and her mother move on with their lives, she still dies loving Beloved with her whole soul, for seemingly no reason other than their familial bond.
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Tone in Beloved Novel
Many times, movies and novels vary greatly in terms of what ideas are presented and what literary devices are used. One major literary device used in Beloved is tone, which is portrayed very differently between the movie and the novel. In Beloved, Toni Morrison incorporates an ominous and suspenseful tone in order to illustrate the dark reality of slavery and its impact.
From the beginning of Beloved, Paul D can already establish the ominous tone in the novel, along with the suspense shown in the movie. Paul D walks in to Sethe's home and asks what kind of evil is in her house, and looks at the spot where the grief had soaked him, as the red light surrounding him fades (Morrison 10-11). The evil he was referencing was the ghost of Sethe's dead baby, and although he wasn't aware of that yet, he could still sense and visualize that evil in the spot in front of him. In the movie, the red lights around Paul D were more emphasized than it was in the novel, giving the movie a suspenseful tone rather than the ominous tone represented in the novel. Paul D's quick recognition of Sethe's dead baby foreshadows the eerie events that may come later, which is demonstrated in both the book and movie.
Beloved soon began to move Paul D around the house, and he didn't know how to stop it because it just appeared as he was moving himself (Morrison 134). This signifies the strong and unusual control that this stranger, Beloved, had over him, alluding to a supernatural power. Although the evil entity appeared to be gone, it seems like the dead baby's ghost came back in a human form, which distinguishes the ominous tone in the novel, unlike the suspenseful music used in the movie. Due to his constant moving around, Paul D was unable to sleep, so he went to the shed where he heard the door open, this turned out to be Beloved who told him he has to touch [her] (Morrison 136). Paul D wanted to resist the supernatural power that forced him to be with her, but he was unable to because of her strong control. In the movie, Beloved is shown walking slowly to the shed with creepy music, which further provides the suspenseful tone in the movie.
The novel uses an ominous tone in contrast to a suspenseful tone in the movie, revealing how the horror of their past came back to haunt them. The tragic memories of slavery continue to live on, even after being freed.
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My Beloved World Book Review
The nations first ever Latina Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, was appointed to the bench in 2009. Her autobiography, My Beloved World, has become one of the nation's best seller and is published had been two languages. Her book is a captivating and inspirational story that focuses on her triumphs despite the struggles she experienced in her life. The tone throughout her book is mostly positive, however Sotomayor mentions her life challenges with type one diabetes during childhood, the death of her cousin due to acquiring AIDS, her regret of not having kids and her failed marriage. The book ends just as she is appointed to the Supreme Court. Overall, Sotomayor offers a story about an underprivileged young woman from the Bronx who works her way into the American elite.
When Sotomayor was just seven years old, she was diagnosed with type one diabetes. Without her parents help, she learned how to give herself insulin shots by practicing on an orange. Her daily shots of insulin became her way of limiting arguments between her parents. Her father could not give her the shots because his hands trembled due to his alcoholism, and her mother, who was a nurse, would always work long hours and got irritated when she couldn't rely on him to take care of young Sotomayor. The last thing I wanted was for them to fight about me, Sotomayor also explains that It then dawned on me: If
I needed to have these shots every day for the rest of my life, the only way I'd survive was to do it myself.
As a child, Sotomayor was raised in a Spanish speaking home in the housing projects of the Bronx. Her father was an alcoholic and died when Sonia was just nine years old. Her mother was very dedicated to Sotomayor and her brother, Junior's, education that she bought them a set of Encyclopedias she could hardly afford. Much of Sotomayor's childhood was spent with her extended families, especially her beloved grandmother, whom she adored and became a huge influence in her life.
Sotomayor's intelligence and motivation got her accepted into Princeton as an undergrad, and then to Yale Law School. Her most captivating writing comes from the chapters about her higher education, where she noticed the social gaps that separated her from richer classmates. As a freshman in Princeton, Sotomayor noticed that her writing skills were not strong compared to other students. She would check out grammar books from the library and taught herself how to strengthen her writing. As part of her scholarship she worked at a data-entry job, where she would input the financial records for Princeton's legacy students in the computers. For Sotomayor, who grew up with a family that did not even own a bank account stated that, this was a glimpse of trust funds; tax write-offs and loopholes; Summer jobs at daddy's firm that paid the equivalent of a year's tuition. This is when she realized how much financial entitlement the privileged class got in comparison to other classes.
When President Obama had appointed Sotomayor as the Supreme court Justice, he had chosen the word Empathy on his wishlist. Empathy was the word he had chosen to describe
Sotomayor as the next supreme court Justice. Empathy is also the major theme for Sotomayor's book. She explains empathy as a product of listening closely to the words and needs of others. Sotomayor has payed attention to the advice she was told by others throughout her lifetime, especially from her beloved grandmother, the captain of her high school forensics team who encouraged her to apply to Princeton, and her many mentors at the law school.
One of the most intriguing characteristics of Sotomayor is her personality. She is never afraid to confront her fears and failures and taking risks. For instance, when she did not do well in a course, she took a harder course in that same subject. To reduce her fear of swimming, she took multiple swimming lessons to become a stronger swimmer. Sotomayor eventually asked her friends for shopping advice. She wanted to discover her own style because she always claimed to have no interest in clothing and felt that her style could never compete with her mother. After Sotomayor's failed marriage, she wanted to find new ways to distract herself, and she decided to take salsa lessons, in which she found a new to way express herself. Sotomayor has been an inspiration to all based on all the risks she has taken throughout her lifetime.
As the book progresses, Sotomayor writes: "I have ventured to write more intimately about my personal life than is customary for a member of the Supreme Court, and with that candor comes a measure of vulnerability. I will be judged as a human being by what readers find here. There are hazards to openness, but they seem minor compared with the possibility that some readers may find comfort, perhaps even inspiration, from a close examination of how an ordinary person, with strengths and weaknesses like anyone else, has managed an extraordinary journey." She wants the audience to understand who she is by discussing her underprivileged upbringing and the challenges she faced in overcoming barriers with the hopes that she is able to inspire underprivileged communities. She also wants to prove that she is still equal as everyone else, regardless of her status.
My Beloved World is inspirational and proves to the readers that success doesn't come from being rich and having all the resources. It does not matter what background, city or history you came from, as long as you believe in yourself and persevere you will be able to follow your dreams. Her book reminds everyone that hard work on it's own is not enough to take anyone to be successful in America, but having a specific drive and motivation can help us lead to success. Sonia Sotomayor has become a world wide influencer that has the changed the perspective of many people who did not believe in having a dream and pursuing it.
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My Beloved World Book Review. (2019, Aug 12).
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Plato and Allegory of the Cave Final Paper
The Allegory of the Cave is an influential and pivotal philosophic text that created such a lasting affect that it is still taught in classrooms to this day. One of the primary reasons for this to be so monumental is that Plato addresses a wide variety of philosophical topics in this one work like Metaphysics, ethics, epistemology and many more. The story of teaching of The Allegory of the Cave has been looked at, debated, and taught around the world for well over 2,000 years at this point and because of that the interpretation can vary depending on the reader.
As we argue and debate what Plato was truly seeking to accomplish with his allegory and subsequent analysis, we should think about the argument he was trying to make from his perspective and whether or not he was successful. The correlation between the story of the cave and Plato’s analysis is quite interesting for any astute learner of philosophy.
The world community as a whole knows quite a lot of The Allegory of the Cave due to it being taught in most learning institutions in the western world although a fair amount of individuals do not know that the story originally comes from a larger text known as The Republic. In the larger story of The Republic Plato contemplates attempting to communicate what he would argue would be the utmost ideal government. As he works through the story of the republic he is trying to provide evidence for all of his positions and his thoughts on government.
His end goal with The Allegory of the Cave is arguably to convince the reader that politicians should not want to rule and lead for the sake of power, but they should rather be against the idea to rule in the first place.
In Plato’s argument a ruler should instead lead his people out of compassion for those who are unenlightened, this is a reference to people who are similar to those in chains and facing the wall in the story of Plato’s cave. Plato asks the question of why should the rulers be enlightened and not others so in his idealistic view the country should be ruled by a philosopher king, due to them being the ones who are qualified and enlightened enough to make these monumental decisions for the greater good of their people. Plato argues that if a ruler should command then they should have a love for wisdom and yearn for understanding as well as truth in order to rule fairly and intelligently to the people.
There is no difference between a ruler who philosophizes and a philosopher becomes a ruler and in an ideal world all the kings are philosophers according to Plato. The Allegory of the Cave and the following argumentation is supposed to support the border argument that some people are truly enlightened and see things ten thousand times better than the inhabitants of the den, and that those people who see so much better are the ones that should be ruling the country although those people should also have the desire not to rule.
Since Philosophers were arguably the most enlightened people of all and since Plato wants them to take on the role of rulers and to rule with compassion, Plato specifically targets them with The Allegory of the Cave. In the actual writing, Socrates addresses Glaucon who is a student of his that he presumably is trying to lead to a state of enlightenment such as the men in the story. Socrates is acting exactly like one of the people in the allegory who has gone up to the light and is now returning to help the other people reach true understanding.
Although Plato is not writing to people like Glaucon. I would argue that he is writing to people much more similar to himself and to Socrates. He is saying to fellow philosophers that they should be like Socrates and be the people that return to the darkness to help those still bound and don’t know that they are enslaved.
The argument that Plato brings forward to the people he is addressing is that they should do more then just enjoy the joy of their understanding but to go back to the darkness in order to help others become enlightened no matter the cost. Plato says that philosophers who are enlightened will most likely remember their old friends in the cave and felicitate themselves on the change, and pity them. While Plato is saying that this is what they will likely do, he is also saying that they should want to do this as well.
Plato thought that in order to convince his audience of the point he has made he would have to present his inherently logical allegory first, this in hope would make the reader agree with him. To be fair one of the principle strengths in The Allegory of the Cave is Plato’s language and logic for most people would agree with the story although can disagree with its application to society.
Plato layers his arguments one on top of the other to create an almost unshakable case that is quite hard to argue against. He does this by thinking of all possible angles and objections as he builds his story. For instance, the prisoners have always been in the cave, they have always been shackled and they have never been able to look around.
In this hypothetical situation it is hard to argue the start of his argument because how would someone know they were in the dark if there was no conceivable way they could have seen the light. At times it seems obvious that Glaucon just has to agree with Socrates. While this is an allegory, all of Plato’s assumptions and examples seem very plausible and intuitive as far as the allegory is concerned; Plato has considered all of the angles and the possible objections making his argumentation that much stronger.
He then makes a significant transition from this hypothetical example by claiming that it apples to the real world and to society. Plato makes the transition when he writes this entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument. Plato is involving a little bit of trickery here by convincing the readers with the allegory and then leaping into his real agenda with how we should view the world and the state using the allegory as the foundation for it.
In a way this could be one of the first uses of the bait-and-switch scam although I am not sure it was the first. He baits us by using a plausible hypothetical allegory and switches by diving into his philosophical agenda without giving logical reasons for the transition even when his allegory was logical. In order to assert that the allegory relates directly to real life, Plato should have given us some concrete evidence for that transformation.
Philosophical arguments are usually built upon a priori logic, reasoning, and empirical fact. An argument is made by presenting specific reasoning for believing in that said value or X (his assertion of the state). If I was to look at this from a formulate/mathematical perspective then assume A.
if A then B. B equates to R, where R is real life, If B, then X. The issue with the argumentation is that how he does not give us reasons or empirical, a priori, to believe that B equates to R. In order to find this argument convincing, we should require Plato to provide additional reasons C and D to show that the move B equates to R is justified. So while The Allegory of the Cave might give evidence for what he is talking about, it is by no means a solid argument that an entire metaphysical and epistemological view on which the world should be based.
There are additional ways in which the real-life application of the allegory of the cave can be disputed although Plato does not take the time to tell us how some of the specific items in the allegory translate to real life. In the allegory, the prisoners were restrained in such a way that it is difficult to deduce the truth of their circumstances if it was related to the real world. Plato says that most people live in such a way, but he does not say exactly how they are restricted.
Apparently, the people in the allegory must be able to seek the light in some way because one man who made it out is able to do so.
Plato does not answer several obvious questions like: why are others not able to do the same thing? Who was the first person to reach true enlightenment? Is achieving enlightenment a one-time event and do they have an encompassing knowledge of the world around them when they reach that enlightenment? Also the allegory seems patently unrelated to isses of the state or government. The Allegory of the Cave discusses enlightenment and the search for knowledge, by Plato’s own admission yet he wants to take the allegory and make specific applications in regards to government and politics. While this makes sense as far as philosophers and enlightenment are concerned, it does not seem to harbor directly on the issues that he wish it would .
The Allegory of the Cave is an important text that still has the potential to stimulate critical thinking about our nation, the world, and the nature of reality even in the year 2018. However, it is far from a conclusive argument for the world of forms. Plato has a very specific rhetorical purpose and target audience, and he uses a somewhat devious rhetorical strategy to attempt to sway them to his viewpoint.
Despite a convincing analogy, the leap from the analogy to real life applications in clouded in mystery as it can and has been debated throughout the ages.
When it comes to the in class discussion of Political and Soc. Philosophy we talked about this subject during the deration of a class period. The start of the class was consisted of people talking about the current events of the day and then we went into the implications of what went on in the allegory, we went over the men holding the prisoners there, the cave its self and the enlightenment aspect.
Our first real discussion was asking if the prisoners looking at the shadows on the wall were actually prisoners. If a person is held although it is not against their will are they really a prisoner, some argued in favor and some against for this point. The other part of this question had to do with perspective because a person could only see that there were prisoners if those who were watching were enlightened so would a regular individual of the cave see a prisoner. The second point was talking about the people that were holding the prisoners there to look at shadows. Were they evil or are they even human, this point was talked about for a very short amount of time.
The class then went on to the topic on enlightenment, which had many different points of view.
Professor Bannon reminded the class that there are usually many forms of individualistic truth or the way an individual perceives a situation and he represented that by drawing a six sided die on the whiteboard that gave the representation that a person could say they see a 4 while another could say they see a 1 and both would be correct. When we talked about the enlightenment came into the debate there were many questions although someone asked if the enlightenment could be concealed within another cave that had another enlightenment around it.
We talked about how if a person found himself or herself within enlightenment could see things much more clearly then if they were back in the cave. Once an individual see’s the truth then they cannot ever go back to just looking at the shadows on the walls. We talked a little about what happens if a person enters enlightenment although they truly are in the dark and those chained to the wall are really the enlightened ones.
We elaborated on what does it mean to be enlightened and the implications of that. We had the fun little exercise of trying to describe light to a person who has only seen darkness their whole life along with talking to a color blind person what color is. We went over how the man In the allegory goes from being within the dark and now being in the light.
The class eventually talks about the encounter of the enlightened one with those in the back of the cave. How would a person tell them about light, the sun, colors, fragrances, grass, hills, dirt etc? Would they believe him or push him away. We talked about how if people hear something they really believe to be true is false then they can dig their heals in and say with vigor that they are right instead of accepting the new truth.
The process of telling someone everything they ever though is wrong is a challenging thing to do and can kick a person out of groups, organizations and other things just for telling the truth. A part that the class focused in on was The duty to tell or the obligation to tell others about the enlightenment if a person themselves has found the enlightenment. Should the person who learned of the enlightenment leave into the world or go back to the darkness and tell his friends about what he has seen. The person probably knows there is a good chance they will be rejected but should he still go.
Many of the class argued in favor of this because a person has a conscious obligation to go and help free the friend even when they don’t know per say that they are a prisoner. Should those who are better off help their friends or look after themselves when it comes to knowledge? The class talked about the differences between should we and we have to concepts, which didn’t really come to any conclusion. We eventually said that if someone is enlightened and out of the cave that they have a moral obligation to go back into the cave to save their friends even if those friends hate him for it.
There was some disagreement on this topic. As a class we tried to talk about real world application of this although it did not go to far due to time constraints on the class. We talked about North Korea being a somewhat good example of the cave having the normal population being those looking at the wall. If they don’t know any better then what their government tells them then are they really prisoners Was an argument that was thrown around? When the people see America an the major evil of the world are they in a cave or enlightened? The class had many questions about this topic although at this point many students were packing up which signaled the arrival of 12:15 meaning the class was ending.
Bibliography:
- Plato. The Allegory of the Cave. A World of Ideas: Essential Reading for College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. Bedford/St. Martin’s: Boston, 2010. 449-457.Print Accessed November 14th 2018
- Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: the Eye-Opening Ancient Version of the ‘Matrix’. Learning Mind, 5 Sept. 2018, www.learning-mind.com/plato-allegory-of-the-cave/.
- Smc. The Allegory of the Cave. Neuroscience For Kids – Brain vs. Computer, 1 May 2015, faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm.
- Lodhi, Anam. Education and Plato’s Allegory of the CaveThoughts And IdeasMedium. Medium.com, Medium, 21 June 2017, medium.com/indian-thoughts/education-and-platos-allegory-of-the-cave-bf7471260c50.
- Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: Life Lessons on How to Think for Yourself. Mayo Oshin, 26 Nov. 2018, mayooshin.com/plato-allegory-of-the-cave/.
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What is Plato Trying to Say in the Allegory of the Cave?
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Identity Crisis in a Racist World
Identity Crisis in a Racist World as reflected by Toni Morrison in The Bluest Eye
Abstract
The present paper is an attempt to study the thematic concerns of the novel The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. In her first novel The Bluest Eye (1970), Toni Morrison has shown thrown light on the black consciousness of the 1960s that was characterized by identity crisis resultant of struggle for personal and racial identity. The novel revolves around the tragic tale of a young black girl who has a staunch desire for a pair of blue eyes because she considers by having blue eyes she will become beautiful and worthy. Morrison brings forth the disastrous effects of inter race prejudice upon innocent black girls who are left traumatized bereft of any individuality.
Introduction
Toni Morrison was passionately inclined to writing endowed with a new insight into black history, the great suffering and trauma suffered by her race. She wanted her novels to serve the purpose of a reformer in the right sense of the term. She felt the oppression that the black people have been subjected to, is something highly disturbing in nature that the blacks consider it is the lack of beauty aspects in them which is the cause of their disgrace and humiliation. The blacks wishing to have beauty aspects like blue eyes, blond hair and white skin on par with the whites is the central idea in the novel.
It is a profoundly sensitive issue to the blacks and it is a tragic condition for them in a racist social order. The novel centers on racism; black stands for something dark, evil, and bad while white stands for purity, virtue, hope and innocence. Morrison brings into focus that racism tarnishes the self image of the black girls and leaves adverse psychological effects in their psyche.
The protagonist of the novel The Bluest Eye, Pecola Breedlove belongs to a poor black family and yearns for blue eyes like white children so that there would be mutual reciprocation of her feelings, and attitude on par with the whites. She wants to be loved and accepted by both the whites and blacks. She feels that absence of complexion and blue eyes is the main reason for poor personality.
She is forced to long for blue eyes like those of white children and surrounded by cultural message that she is ugly by definition; she can achieve peace only by retreating into schizophrenia. The agony and pain of Pecola is all the more worse when her own father outraged her modesty. She is made to live a life of fetters for no fault of her own. The people around her view her as a pitiable person reduced to nothing. Her desire is something which cannot be fulfilled. The world that Pecola lives in is one which reduces persons to mere objects.
Toni Morrison exposes the radical effects of racism on the black girls. The pitiable plight of Pecola is the outcome of fierce racism and interracial conflicts of myths. The failure of Pecola is not only because of her hopeless desire for blue eyes but it is also because of her lack of self confidence. She has a deep rooted feeling that she is ugly and the intensity of feeling is such that she finds it difficult to uproot it even from her sub conscious mind. When such a feeling is accompanied by external humiliation it is her inferior complex that gets aggravated. Her mother calls her ugly since her childhood days and her father hates her because she is ugly. Her parents fail to give Pecola the necessary love and affection.
Pecola's struggle for identity is defined by her everlasting desire to be loved. Her family and community made it impossible for her to be ever sanely content. Cholly Breedlove, the father and eventually the rapist of Pecola is a bastard. He was born to an unwed mother, his father ran away the day of his birth and his mother abandoned him three days later. This horrible beginning reflects his every day views and actions. After the death of his legal guardian (his aunt), Cholly decides that as an inner mission he needs to find his father to find himself. To understand who he is, he has to look into his past; a long search ends in an extremely disappointing and crushing experience. Cholly's private life is still painful. Being a black victim he is forced to have sex with two white police officers.
Forcing him to have sex they just chuckled from behind. These episodes left a huge impact on him that eventually caused him to do something that would not have happened had he had proper guidance in those areas. Cholly's family and his community contributed in making the man he became and thus his eventual downfall.
Almost all characters in The Bluest Eye are after something. Having lost themselves they look in for their identity. Pecola yearns for blue eyes. At the end of the novel she believes that she has those eyes. She thinks that people treat her funny because of her blue eyes and she has learned to accept that happily. She yearned for the acceptance and love of society seen through her eyes. No matter if that acceptance and love were there or not, she thought it was and therefore was able to survive.
Pecola's search for her identity ends in her insanity. Although she is not accepted by society for reasons she does not understand, she puts exclusion from society into terms she can comprehend. Society influences her identity and moulds her into what she becomes by not giving her the guidance and approval she needs. In the same way Cholly found himself separated from the community. He does an act of inhumanity and he could not live with the realization of the monster he had become and he disappeared. As a man he does not know who he is.
W. E. Du Bois in his book, The Souls of Black Folk gauges the deleterious impact of racism on cultural self consciousness and identity. The term, ?double consciousness', refers to two distinct realitiesa psychological conflict between opposing cultural world views and debilitating resolution in which extremely derived and distorted perceptions of the self constitute a single, but alienated self- consciousness.
Du Bois further notes that it is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others.
The Bluest Eye inspired a climate of revolution and evolving black consciousness of the sixties, a period characterized by an almost evangelical struggle for personal and racial identity. Morrison chooses the obsession of the blacks with an American standard of beauty that seems both inescapable and destructive. The novelist states that that concept of physical beauty as a virtue is one of the dumbest, most pernicious and destructive ideas of the western world.
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Film and Communism
The Cold War, a period mostly remembered for the constant threat of an arms race, nuclear inhalation, hysteria, quasi-wars, diplomatic stalemates, and the seemingly never ending fear of communism. Spanning nearly half of the twentieth century, 1946 to 1991, the Cold War has changed the way of life for everyone. Starting from the rise of the Bolsheviks and the USSR's hold of Eastern Europe, the Cold War had impacted American life to a great extent. Though mentions of diplomatic policies' influence on the perception and beliefs of American life have been widely written and talked about, no such conversation exists for domestic media's influence. One forum of media that had taken America by storm in the early twentieth century was film. Though rarely talked about, film had an influence on peoples' thoughts during the cold war and also can be seen as a reflection on public opinion during the time. However, to what extent the films of the 1950's and early 1960's reflected and influenced the opinions of the American public is a question rarely asked and or answered; and in this paper this is the question that is to be explored.
One of the most remembered and recounted events of the Cold War, from the American view, is the Communist hysteria that swept the nation. When one thinks of the Cold War, the infamous communist hysteria and McCarthy trials are soon to follow. Since the Bolsheviks took control of Russia and formed the USSR, communist fear was on the rise in the US. The First Red Scare immediately followed the fall of Czar Russian era and the end of the First World War. The scare consisted mostly of anti-immigration sentimentals towards Southern and Eastern European immigrants. The fear of communism eventually led to the passage of the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, which lowered the influx of immigrants. By the end of the Second World War, this fear intensified. The idea of communists among regular citizens started to go widely out of control and this growing fear was further intensified by senator Joseph McCarthy.
Though the film and entertainment industry was targeted by McCarthy, they themselves wanted to distance themselves from communism. Film was a new form of popular entertainment and art in the early twentieth century. Due to this there was a huge demand for films and movies from the public. The demand created large amounts of revenue and created very strong capitalist industry in its purest sense. The film producers and companies had total control of what they made and whatever they made, made money. Naturally, film producers and executives were opposed to communist philosophy. Eight major studios controlled over 90 percent of the films made and distributed in the United States. The executiveswere hostile to communism, owing to political conviction and economic self-interest, not because they felt beholden to officialdom. Men like Louis B. Mayer at MGM and Joseph Schenck at Twentieth Century-Fox instinctively equated patriotism with capitalism (Shaw & Youngblood., Cinematic Cold War : The American and Soviet Struggle for Hearts and Minds , 2010) This act of a pro American view in films was further enhanced by the increasing government surveillance of the film industry, due to the fact the film was seen as a possible propaganda tool for communists. Then FBI Director, Hoover, testified in front of the HUAC in reference to the film industry, the entire industry faces serious embarrassment because it could become a springboard for communist activities. Communist activities in Hollywood is effective and is furthered by communists and sympathizers using the prestige of prominent persons to serve, often unwittingly, the communists cause. The party is content and highly pleased if it is possible to have inserted in a picture a line, a scene, a sequence, conveying the communist lesson, and more particularly, if they can keep out anti-communist lessons (Hoover, 1947). Thus complied with self-interest, preservation, and fear more pro-American and anticommunist features were created in an attempt to sway the American people.
Following the end of World War II, a new ideological dichotomy engulfed the entire world. The emergence of the Cold War could be seen at every corner of the globe, and also every facet of American life. Anti-communism became a national ideology, and for many, an obsession. In the early years of the Cold War paranoia reigned supreme. Men like Joseph McCarthy initiated witch hunts in order to root out the communist threat that had supposedly embedded themselves in American society. Any semblance of a connection to communism, no matter the circumstances, essentially doomed you in front of the eyes of the House Un-American Activities Committee. The greatest fear was that communists infiltrated American institutions. One institution that drew much attention, especially in the late 1940s and early 1950s, was Hollywood. J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI at the time, testified in front of the HUAC in regards to Hollywood's communist problem. The Communists have developed one of the greatest propaganda machines the world has ever known. They have been able to penetrate and infiltrate many respectable and reputable public opinion mediums Communist activity in Hollywood is effective and is furthered by Communists and sympathizers using the prestige of prominent persons to serve, often unwittingly, the Communist cause. Oddly, this growing concern came after the most successful year Hollywood had to date. Hollywood and its influence grew, yet so did its worries. The HUAC formed the Blacklist that sought to purge the industry of communists and their sympathizers. Hollywood's adoption of the anti-communist rhetoric was not wholly due to pressure from Washington.
Many of the decision makers in the industry saw the adoption as a necessity in order for Hollywood to survive. (A means of survival for the industry?). Following the Blacklist, anti-communist themes began to appear in films across a multitude of genres. The films varied in the prevalence of their anti-communist rhetoric. Some films were blatant propaganda films. Works like Walk East on Beacon! (1952), which J. Edgar Hoover was given a writing credit for, and Big Jim McClain (1952) blared their anti-communist sentiments. Other filmmakers, like Cecil B. Demille, sought to present their ideology in a more subtle fashion. Many different genres incorporated anti-communism into their films. The growing genre of science fiction made the public leery of science experiments. Westerns warn viewers of an encroaching threat that must be stopped. The enormous religious epics, from men like Demille, tapped into the religious aspect of the ideological difference between America and the U.S.S.R. The theme of anti-communism was apparent throughout hundreds of films following the HUAC hearings regarding communism in Hollywood, and was primarily brought about by Hollywood itself. Leading up to 1947, the HUAC was becoming increasingly concerned with the growing influence of Hollywood and cinema. Films like Mission to Moscow (1943) and Song of Russia (1944) concerned the HUAC.
The two big studios, MGM and Warner, appeared to produce pro-communist propaganda. In 1946 Hollywood saw their highest revenue yet, making around $1.7 billion with over 4 billion admissions. Seeing the steady increase in revenue, the HUAC knew that such an influential institution was a prime target for communist infiltration. This culminated in a nineday hearing to assess the communist threat in Hollywood. The Blacklist was created, and the Waldorf Statement was issued by Hollywood declaring that executives would comply with the blacklist. By 1960, the Blacklist contained over two thousand names, and ruined a multitude of careers.The film industry has tried to avoid external censorship. In 1934 The House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce looked establishing a federal censorship board. Hollywood instituted The Motion Picture Code in the 1930s as an internal form of self-censorship to appease the government and avoid external regulation. Many of the rules denounce showing evil in a positive light. I. No picture should lower the moral standards of those who see it. This is done: when evil is made to appear attractive, and good is made to appear unattractive. In accordance with the general principles laid down. No plot or theme should definitely side with evil and against good. The HUAC would bring many of these rules up years later during their inquiry into Hollywood.
The film industry had other reasons to insert anticommunist themes in their works besides government pressure. Even though 1946 was a record year for Hollywood, they still worried about their future profits. United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. ended the ownership of theaters and exclusive holding rights by the movie studios. This made studios fearful of drastic cuts in their profits. Other factors made the studios fear for their profits. Television became a mainstay with full-scale commercial broadcasting beginning in 1947, and by 1955 half of all households owned one. Television was also affected by McCarthy's witch hunts, however. Another issue was that many European countries in 1947 began raising taxes on foreign films. England imposed a 75% customs duty on all incoming films, which lost the studios millions. With the pressures from T.V., along with increasing cost of production, increase of foreign taxes, and labor issues, Hollywood feared collapse or significant harm to their industry. In order to attract more viewers, Hollywood sought to embrace the public's fear of the communist threat. They knew that addressing the Cold War, whether directly or in more subtle fashions, would put more people in the seats.
Exposing the public to this sort of confirmation bias would not only increase revenue, but also appease Washington at the same time. Darryl Zanuck, head of production at Twentieth CenturyFox, said If you have something worthwhile to say, dress it in glittering robes of entertainment and you will find a ready market without entertainment no propaganda film is worth a dime. Zanuck knew that the public wanted to be entertained; that is why that is why Hollywood had over four billion admittees three years later. Zanuck knew that these propaganda films would be nowhere near as effective without Hollywood's touch. The direct propaganda films were the simplest and most blatant forms of anticommunism in the industry. Walk East on Beacon, directed by Louis de Rochemont and adapted from a Reader's Digest article written by J. Edgar Hoover himself, was a detective film that sought to directly address Soviet subversion. It tells the story of a federal agent tracking down leaked atomic secrets and bringing light to the communist subversion. Of course this film has a very positive view of the FBI, and is trying to convey to the audience that they should trust the FBI to keep them safe from the communist subversion.
This movie is about as good as one would assume a movie in which J. Edgar Hoover has a writing credit would be. Only receiving a 33% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film is not great, but it is very apparent in its goal. Westerns became a great voice for Hollywood's anticommunist sentiments directed at the public. John Ford was one of the most highly regarded western film directors who included his anti-communist views in his work. Ford was a very accomplished director winning seven out of twelve Academy Awards. His name was often associated with the greatest movie cowboy of all time: John Wayne. Wayne, who was brought in by the HUAC during their investigation of Hollywood and was the co-founder of the Anti-Communist Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, was a cold warrior who did his part by starring in these westerns pregnant with anti-communism. the growing defeatist attitude in the Cold War imposed on us by the Soviet [Union]', and consequently needed to appreciate the struggle our ancestors made for the precious freedom we enjoy. Wayne starred in Big Jim McClain; Big Jim McClain, a simple film that does not try to hide its anti-communist sentiments. In the film, Wayne plays HUAC investigator who saves Hawaii from communist subversion. He worked with John Ford on eighteen films. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), being one of the Wayne and Ford collaborations, exudes the ardent anti-communist sentiments in a more nonchalant manner. In the opening scene a group of Indians are shown riding while narration plays over it.
The narrator speaks of the threat the unification of red people everywhere poses to America, and how if they are not stopped soon, they will take centuries to defeat. Anti-communism undertones were very apparent in the narration of the opening scene, but it was not wholly spelled out, leaving some connections for the audience to make. More anti-communist westerns would arise in the late 1950s and early 1960s including The Magnificent Seven (1960) and John Wayne's directing debut, The Alamo (1960). Science Fiction was a growing genre in the 1950s and was wholly affected by anti-communism. The sci-fi movies being produced in the late 1940s and 1950s were generally B grade films that could be churned out because of low budget costs. Due to the sheer number of sci-fi movies being produced they were the perfect vessel for anti-communism, but in more subtle ways than films like Walk East on Beacon or Big Jim McClain. Films like Them! (1954) taught the public to be weary of atomic power. Them! is about ants that became mutated by atomic tests in New Mexico. This radiation exposure makes the ants giant, and they begin to wreak havoc on society; they are eventually stopped by the brave military men. The American public already feared the power of the atomic age, and this only reinforced their fear. Kids hiding under their desks during fallout drills began to fear the threat of giant mutated creatures coming for them more than they feared the actual bomb. Them! also shows the public that their military is there to protect them from this new atomic threat. Films like Them! successfully play off the fears of the unknown nature of the atomic era.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) is a prime example of science fiction making commentary on ideology. It tells the story of a small town doctor who begins to see paranoia running high in his town due to the people of the town being replaced by imposters. Just in the opening scenes one can easily see the similarities to the Red Scare, with paranoia running high and people concerned that their family or friends are communists. The main character, Dr. Miles Bennell, discovers the people of his town are being replaced by imposters that are coming from the pods found all over town. Invasion of the Body Snatchers exudes familiar characteristics that are common during the Red Scare of the 1950s, conformity, paranoia, and alienation. Conformity, as shown in the movie as accepting the pod people, was an important ideal during this time. The U.S. spoke of conformity against communism, urging citizens to report anything suspicious and to display Americanism and capitalism. Excessive conformity, as in the 1950s, was a salve to smooth over obvious conflict and turmoil Bennell's paranoia while telling his story to others captivates the paranoia that drove the McCarthy witch-hunts and is what the government used to keep their citizens ever vigilant against communism. In the closing scene of the film Bennell's psychiatrist, who put his story off as the ramblings of a crazy man, sees one of the aforementioned pods and calls the FBI. Like in Walk East on Beacon or Them! this affirms the public's dependence on institutions such as the FBI and the military, and the message of if you see something call it in. Just looking at the movie poster for the movie indicates an undertone of communism.
The background is washed with red and yellow with a hand coming out as if to snatch Bennell from the foreground of the poster. Something like this is subtle, but still conveys the message. One of the most ardent anti-communists in Hollywood was Cecil B Demille. He created biblical epics such as Ben Hurr (1959) and The Ten Commandments (1956). Demille, like many directors such as John Ford, mobilized the past for political use in the present. Biblical tales were often used in not only Demille's films but also in films like Samson and Deliliah (1949) and The Prodigal (1955) to make political statements. Many saw the Cold War as more than merely a political disagreement; they saw it in terms of religious context also. This can hardly be a coincidence. Many people, including some in Hollywood, believe that the Cold War is fundamentally a conflict between Christianity and atheism and that religion is therefore a strong weapon against Communism. Whether the pictures dealing with these three subjects are deliberate propaganda, or not, they belong to the same, easily recognizable, pattern of ideas The best propaganda, of course, is indirect, hardly noticeable. How many of us, I wonder, have not been taken in by any of it.17 Demille, being the son of a Protestant minister, he saw the importance of religion in the battle against communism. His greatest contribution to this was The Ten Commandments, the historical' account of Moses' exodus from Egypt. The theme of the film being whether men are to be ruled by God's law, or whether they are to be ruled by the whims of a dictator like Ramses.
One could replace Ramses' name with Stalin in that statement and tell someone that this was a quote from Joseph McCarthy, and they would most likely be none the wiser. Demille clearly meant for Charlton Heston's Moses to be an allegory for America leading the rest of the world to freedom from the tyranny of the allegorical Egypt. Demille opens the film by walking on screen and asking, are men property of the state? Or are they free souls under God? This same battle continues throughout the world today. Demille's biblical epic won six out of the seven Academy Awards it was nominated for and is now seen as a classic. Most versions shown today have edited out Demille's questioning prelude to the film. Over time, as the Cold War cooled down, films became less subtle about their anti-communist sentiments, especially with the rise of action movies in the 1970s and 1980s. Movies like Rocky IV and Red Dawn pit America directly against the Soviets in more non-traditional settings unlike the direct propaganda movies of the 1940s and 1950s. This history of anti-communism could possibly be blamed for all of the Russian villains in modern cinema. The popularity of film only continued to rise, and with it came a rise in public influence. Whether it was direct propaganda in frankly poor movies, like in Walk East on Beacon, or more subtle themes of the times in highly revered classics, like The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, anti-communism was very apparent throughout American film and was consumed by millions of viewers.
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What we Learned from the Korean War
The Korean War is one of the most memorable wars ever. Especially because North and South Korea still have problems to this day. The war between North and South Korea started on June 25, 1950 and ended on July 27, 1953. Since 1910, Korea had been under the rule of Japan. So after World War II a decision was made to divide Korea rather than to unify it. The 38th parallel separated the Korean peninsula creating what we know today as North and South Korea. North Korean territory was taken over by the Soviet Union while South Korea was taken over by the United States. This meant that the north was ran by communism and the South by capitalism.
In June of 1950 South Korea was invaded by Chinese and North Korean troops which is what initially started the Korean War. The United Nations (UN) responded and sent in troops from Great Britain, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and the United States. The UN bombed industrial targets and much of North Korea's military once they invaded the 38th parallel. President Truman did not want to encourage Russia or China into a direct conflict so he denied General Douglas McArthur's act to seeking control over the country's entirety. Of course North Korea responded and fought back with the help of Chinese reinforcements. With this, the reestablishment of the 38th parallel was set. Truman then allowed nine atomic bombs to be transported to Okinawa. These atomic bombs never had to be used, but it was good to have them just in case.
By 1952, almost all towns and cities were destroyed I North Korea due to conventional bombings as well as twenty percent of their population. Civilians of North Korea were forced to live in canyons and caves. Nuclear bombs were approved by the U.S. National Security Council and by President Eisenhower on May 20, 1953. But once Joseph Stalin, soviet leader, died North Korea agreed to the Armistice. Because a peace treaty was actually never signed, the war was not over yet. A mutual defense treaty was signed between the United States and South Korea. This allowed free military bases to us while in return the U.S. would defend South Korea without the need for Congressional approval whenever there is an attack. From this, troops from both sides of the 38th parallel patrol it and it became a demilitarized zone. In 1953, the Korean War cost $30 billion.
From the U.S. perspective, I believe it was worth it. Yes out of everyone in the United Nations we sent over ninety percent of our troops and many were wounded and deceased, but in the end everyone came to an understanding and we had a huge role in that. Recently President Trump and Jong-Un met and North Korea agreed to stop production of all nuclear weapons which is great for us.
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THE IPOD DIED
Many people would say that they changed the world in some way but those are there opinions. Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Bin Laden, Kanye west, they truly made an impact on the world, but i want to talk about one person Steve Jobs. Steve jobs had many accomplishments but i only want to talk about three, the ipod, iphone, and the apple watch.
The first version of the ipod was released on October 23, 2001.Like other digital music players, iPods can serve as external data storage devices. THE IPOD DIED slowly, then all at once. After nearly 16 years on the market, more than 400 million units sold, and one Cupertino company launched into the stratosphere on its back, Apple quietly pulled the iPod Nano and Shuffle out of its virtual stores today. The iPod Touch still lives on: In fact, Apple now offers the Touch with 32 gigs of storage starting at $199. But that's not a real iPod; it's an iPhone-lite.
The first iPhone as released in june 29 2007 Apple has released eleven generations of iPhone models, each accompanied by one of the eleven major releases of the iOS operating system. The original first-generation iPhone was a GSM phone and established design precedents, such as a button placement that has persisted throughout all releases and a screen size maintained for the next four iterations.The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus were released in 2017, adding a glass back and an improved screen and camera. The iPhone X was released alongside the 8 and 8 Plus, with its highlights being a near bezel-less design, an improved camera and a new facial recognition system, named Face ID, but having no home button, and therefore, no Touch ID.
The Apple Watch was released on April 24, 2015 and quickly became the best-selling wearable device with 4.2 million sold in the second quarter of the 2015 fiscal year.Apple's first entry into the wearable market is Apple Watch ($249 and up), a smartwatch that pairs with the iPhone and sports an all-new user interface. Users can choose between numerous watch faces that will display whenever the watch is lifted for viewing, access a Home screen full of apps, and see notifications pushed from the iPhone.
Most people might say that he priced everything very expensive. Just think of him selling phones at a very cheap price he wouldn't be making any money.
I think steve jobs was a very smart man, unfortunately he died on October 5th,2011. He died of cancer , he had 3 daughters and one son. His daughters names was Lisa brennan-Jobs, Eve Jobs, and Erin Sienna Jobs. His son's name was Reed Jobs,Steve Jobs died but he changed the world with his technology. Being the richest man in the century doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful, that's what matters to me.- Steve Jobs
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Causes of the Korean War
For 3 years the Korean War was a savage and brutal mess with no means to an end. It all started on June 25 1950 when the communists invaded the capitalists. First, Japan and Russia were fighting for control over Korea. It then came to a stop when the Japanese empire fell on the 2nd of September in 1945. Instead of Korea being one as a whole they were split into 2 countries. South Korea being the capitalist side who was owned by the United States and North Korea being the communist side which was owned by the Soviet Union. While losing many lives in the process South Korea fought against North Korea's attacks with the help of the United States.
In the beginning Japan and Russia were fighting for control over all of Korea. When Emperor Sunjong, the last Korean leader died. Japan took control over Korea for some time. The Japanese empire disassembled when world war 2 ended, Korea suffered during the cold war. This made Korea split into 2 spheres, in the center was the 38th parallel. The United States controlled the South of Korea while the Russians controlled the North. ( North Korea, China and the USSR).
Russia was heavily involved in the Korean war. Russia played a major role when it came to the invasion of South Korea. They came up with the strategic plan to invade as well as the diplomatic support to invade South Korea. Another thing the Soviet Union did was give them supplies to fight. They also supported North Korea by helping train the air forces of North Korea and China.There had been 400 United Nation aircrafts that were destroyed when the war came to an end. ( Korea: A History Of The North-South Split).
After the third day North Korea crossed the 38th parallel President Harry S. Truman sent in troops to help South Korea. There were American soldiers that were sent as well as British soldiers. Since the United States sent troops to help South Korea they have now officially joined the war. Truman lead the United States Air force to single out military zones in North Korea and bombed them. He also told the United States Navy to block off North Korea's waterfront. (History Editors).
North Korea invaded South Korea on the 25th of June 1950. South Korea was caught off guard during this attack. North korea invaded and controlled most of South Korea. While this was happening, The United States demanded that the Security Council refer to the United Nations Charter. To show that North Korea invading South Korea was a means of invasion and thus deeming them as attackers. The North Korea was quickly invading South Korea, they were set on taking control of Pusan because of the resources and soldiers it's providing to the war. (Michael Hickey)
For the three years the United States had spent in the war they have provided support for South Korea. Almost half of the support the United States were sending are ground forces. The rest were air forces or sea forces. Close to 55 thousand Americans had died when the war ended and more than 100 thousand had been injured. The amount of money that was spent on the war could possibly exceed 20 billion dollars.
In the end things were the same as it used to be. Half of Korea was owned by the United States and the other half by the Soviet Union. Many lives have been lost and The North and South Korea still do not like each other. (History Editors)
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My Desire to be Mechanical Engineer
The career I want to pursue is a Mechanical Engineer, I got this career as a result on both of the tests that I took to figure out what career I wanted to pursue. I have wanted to be a mechanical engineer for as long as I can remember. My entire life I have always had a great interest in working in and around cars, trucks, and anything else with a motor. The reason I want to be a mechanical engineer is that, from the little experience I have with it, I love doing it. I love working on cars, trucks, dirt bikes, ATV’s, and even lawnmowers, and with the proper education, I can do it. Another reason is that this job pays well, the average wage of a mechanical engineer is about $84,000 per year, which is about $43 per hour.
Mechanical engineering has an interesting history, one of the first mechanical engineers was a Greek engineer named Archimedes, who invented such things as the Architonnerre, the Claw of Archimedes, Archimedes’ screw, the pulley system, and many more. As you can see, Mechanical Engineering has been a crucial part of society since 212 BC. Mechanical Engineering was needed then and is still in high demand now. It will not be hard to find an opening to be a mechanical engineer because there are 288,800 people working as mechanical engineers in the United States, which is 5776 Mechanical engineers per state. I feel that education is crucial for almost every job, for Mechanical Engineers it is advised to have at least a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. I plan on getting either a bachelor’s degree or higher in Mechanical Engineering.
Mechanical Engineering requires a deep knowledge of Mechanical and Thermal devices, as well as a knowledge of engines, transmissions, chassis, frames, unibodies, etc. This is normally all learned through education. Now that you know what Mechanical Engineering Takes to do, but not what you do. Mechanical Engineers build and design machines that produce power, whether it be horsepower ( a vehicle) or electricity (electric/gas/diesel generators). They also create and maintain internal combustion engines, which are the ones used in cars, lawnmowers, snowblowers, etc. If Mechanical Engineering does not work out for me then I will have to pick another career, for my career test I got recommended Architecture and Construction, Transportation, Distribution, and logistics, and Information Technology.
I would consider looking into Construction or Information Technology if Mechanical Engineering did not work out in the end. Antother Career I would consider was Computer Hardware Engineer, Computer Hardware Engineers create and test computer hardware such as Graphics Cards, CPU’s, Motherboards (Circuit boards), and all other things electronic. I planned to be a Mechanical Engineer before I got recommended the job from the career test. As I said earlier, I have been working on motors for many years. Most of the time with my Father and my Brother. I enjoy manual labor whether it be working on a computer or working on a jobsite. So from my preferences, I have chosen Mechanical Engineering, I believe that I will love learning about how to
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Mood Swings and Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder is a mental illness characterized by extreme mood disturbances. These include changes in energy level, activity, sleep, behaviors, and judgement. Bipolar disorder is one of the psychiatric disorders with a complex and multifactorial heritage.
According to Bipolar disorder: Implications for nursing practice (2017), the age for bipolar diagnosis begins at 18 and it can be diagnosed at any time in a person's life. Studies reveal that the prevalence of bipolar disorder is 0.5% to 1.5% amongst the general population, that the disease is generally diagnosed between 18 and 30 years of age, and that its prevalence in men and women is similar (Bipolar disorder: Implications for nursing practice, 2017). Individuals who experienced bipolar spectrum disorder symptoms for lifetime was about 2.4% of the general population, with a prevalence of 0.6% of Bipolar disorder Type I and 0.4% of Bipolar type II (Rowland & Marwaha, 2018). The prevalence of Bipolar Type I in US is 1%, which is slightly higher than other countries. Some data suggest that females are at greater risk for depression and rapid mood shifts, while males have a greater risk for mania (Bipolar Disorder, 2016). There are multiple risk factors that contribute to the development of bipolar disorder (BD). The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) describes bipolar disorder in adults as possibly due to genetics, or brain variations in structure or function. According to Amini, Najafi-Vosough, Ghaleiha, and Mahjub (2017), almost 60% and 75% of patients experience relapse within 2 and 5 years. According to World Health Organization reports, bipolar disorder is the sixth leading cause of life-long disability worldwide.
Amini et al. (2017) state that BD is a serious and chronic disorder, which is ongoing with recoveries and relapses and causes significant morbidity and mortality. There are no definitive blood tests or brain scans to diagnose this condition. However, brains of people with bipolar disorder show different patterns than the brains of healthy people or people with other mental disorders. Diagnosis is done by a psychiatrist through diagnostic tests, family history assessment, and history of symptoms.
Because of the overlapping symptoms with certain conditions like major depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD), and anxiety, BD is commonly misdiagnosed. Bipolar disorder exists along with other illnesses, such as anxiety disorder, substance abuse, or eating disorders. Patients tend to seek treatment when depressed. An accurate diagnosis of bipolar disorder is essential to develop an effective plan of treatment. It is necessary to run a complete physical exam to eliminate other diseases causing mood fluctuations. Also necessary to study is a complete medical history, as well as family and social history that might be influencing changes in mood. Providers should screen for depression to differentiate between unipolar and bipolar. People with BD are at risk for thyroid disease, migraine headaches, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and other physical illnesses.
Nonadherence to medication therapy results in relapses. Manic episodes can be described as over exhibition of joy, more energy than usual, belief in ability to do many things simultaneously, irritability, racing thoughts, risky behaviors, unusual sexual activity, and overspending of money. Depressive episodes consist of feelings of sadness and hopelessness, loss of interest in activities, trouble concentrating, forgetfulness, over- or under-eating, trouble sleeping, and suicidal thoughts. Bipolar I Disorder is characterized by manic episodes that last at least 7 days or severe manic symptoms that require hospitalization, as well as depressive episodes lasting at least 2 weeks. Bipolar II Disorder is defined by a mixture of depressive episodes and hypomanic episodes, but not the true manic episodes. Cyclothymic Disorder incorporates numerous periods of hypomania and depression lasting for at least 2 years (1 year in children and adolescents). Other Specified and Unspecified Bipolar and Related Disorder is defined by bipolar disorder symptoms that do not match the three categories listed above (National Institute of Mental Health, 2018).
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Britney Spears Bipolar Disorder
Thesis Statement: Famous singer, Britney Spears suffers from many disorders one such as the bipolar disorder. Britney once lost custody of her two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James when her bipolar disorder got out of control. She was briefly hospitalized when her mental state exploded. Britney happens to get very out of control when her mental state occurs. Such as yelling or getting very angry at something happening. Spears was diagnosed with the bipolar disorder in the year of 2007. Britney spoke out about the mental health issues she struggled with in the year 2007.
History of Psychological Disorder: The bipolar disorder is one of the most highly investigated mental health disorders. This disorder affects around 4.5% of adults in the United States. Aretaeus of Cappadocia began detailing symptoms of the bipolar disorder as early as the first century. The ancient Greek and Romans discovered that using lithium salts in baths calmed manic people and lifted spirits of people who were depressed. During this time, it was common for people with bipolar and mental disorders to be executed. While the study of medicine advanced religious dogma said that these people with this disordered were possessed by demons and should be put to death.
Robert Burton wrote the book The Anatomy of Melancholy in the seventeenth century, which addressed the issue of treating melancholy, a nonspecific depression, using music and dancing. Later in the same century, Theophilus Bonet published, Sepuchretum, that drew from his experience performing 3,000 autopsies. In his work, he linked mania and melancholy in a condition that he called manico-melancolicus.
French psychiatrist, Jean Falret, published an article describing what he called la folie circulaire, which translates to circular insanity. The article details people switching through severedepressionand excitement and is considered to be the first diagnosis of bipolar disorder. He also noticed that there was a genetic connection in the bipolar disorder. Medical professionals still support this to this day.
Emil Kraepelin, a German psychiatrist, changed the history of bipolar disorder when he broke away from Sigmund Freud's theory that society and the suppression of desires played a large role in mental illness. He had recognized biological causes of mental illness and was believed to be the first person to study mental illness seriously.
Prevalence and Biological Relationship of Psychological Disorder: Britney noticed she was bipolar when she became very angry at random times. Spears was diagnosed with bipolar disorder after she was hospitalized from getting very angry at her significant other. Britney was very understanding when they told her she was bipolar and needed to be prescribed medication, but at the same time, she didn't want to believe what the doctor was telling her. Spears had said I become a different person. literally! After she had suffered from a public breakdown in 2007, she has felt very alienated from the public.
Cultural Perspective: Culture aspects of bipolar disorder are ways people are shaped by their surroundings. People react to this disorder in many different ways, such as anger. Some people may think the way they react is embarrassing or they might get judged by their actions. This mental illness affects people in different cultures all over the world. There are regions of the planet, and cultural islands, where the bipolar disorder is less common or severe. Scientists did a study and reported the seafood consumption levels and rates of bipolar illness in nine countries. This study showed the lowest rates of the bipolar disorder occurred within the countries that had the highest level of fish consumption. This is because fish are rich in the omega-three fatty acids. Some of the countries that were included were, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Korea, and Iceland.
Symptoms: Symptoms of bipolar disorder such as mood swings, sadness, anger, anxiety, guilt, hopelessness, or loss of interest. Britney's symptoms are more like anger, anxiety, and mood swings. Britney also has depression, trouble falling asleep, and restlessness. Mood swing symptoms are when you're happy one minute, and within the next minute you are angry and upset. As the loss of interest symptom occurs you just lose interest in anything happening and you don't want to interact with anyone or anything. Symptoms of the bipolar disorder usually occur when people get angry or have severe anxiety.
Treatments: Bipolar disorder can be controlled but cannot be cured. Some treatments for the bipolar disorder are therapies, supportive care, specialists, and medications such as anticonvulsant, antipsychotic, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Britney chooses therapies to try and cure her bipolar disorder, she goes and talks to a therapist about her disorder to help maintain it. Britney is also prescribed to medication by her doctor when she was hospitalized. Britney's bipolar disorder gets the best treatment by visiting her therapist once every week. The least effective treatment for the bipolar disorder is more likely to be the specialists, Britney doesn't like the care providers having to watch every move she makes. Britney says she would rather go and talk to the therapist instead of someone coming to watch every move she makes.
Societal Perspectives: I think there should be a cure for bipolar disorder so people don't have to worry about every move they make and if it's going to trigger the mental health issue they have. I also agree with Britney by getting good treatment by going to a therapist and taking the prescribed medicine the doctor has given her. I think our society has taken responsibility for the treatments for Britney Spears bipolar disorder. Also, our society has found ways to treat the bipolar disorder to calm it down. They have yet to find a way to completely cure it, but for now, they found a way to maintain it.
Conclusion: Spears is now able to somewhat control her disorder. She still continues to go to therapy and still continues on her medications. Britney is now able to be with her children, now that she controls her bipolar disorder. Spears speaks out to people about her disorder, because she wants people to understand what she went through and how she found a way to control herself and her disorder.
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Fiscal Transparency, Political Parties, Abd Debt in OECD Countries
Abstract
Many believe and argue that fiscal, or budgetary, transparency has large, positive effects on fiscal performance. However, the evidence linking transparency and fiscal policy outcomes is less compelling. To analyze the effects of fiscal transparency on public debt accumulation, we present a career-concerns model with political parties. This allows us to integrate as implications of a single model three hitherto-separate results in the literature on deficit and debt accumulation: that transparency decreases debt accumulation (at least by reducing an electoral cycle in deficits), that right-wing governments (at least for strategic reasons) tend to have higher deficits than left- wing governments, and that increasing political polarization increases debt accumulation. To test the predictions of the model, we construct a replicable index of fiscal transparency on 19-country OECD data. Simultaneous estimates of debt and transparency strongly confirm that a higher degree of fiscal transparency is associated with lower public debt and deficits, independent of controls for explanatory variables from other approaches.
1 We thank David Skilling for participating in the early stages of this project and Alberto Alesina, Morten Bennedsen, Tim Besley, Carles Boix, Bob Inman, Casey Mulligan, Jonathan Rodden, Christian Schultz, Ken Shepsle, David Stromberg, Guido Tabellini, and participants in the Fiscal Federalism Conference at CES, Harvard, the Political Economy Workshop at Harvard, the 97th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association (San Francisco), ECPR (Canterbury), and the Danish Public Choice Workshop III for very useful comments and suggestions. This work was begun when Lassen was visiting Harvard. He would like to thank the Economic Policy Research Unit, the Danish Research Academy and a Sasakawa International Fellowship for funding, and Harvard for its hospitality. The work was completed under an EPRU-network grant. * jalt@latte.harvard.edu ** david.dreyer.lassen@econ.ku.dk
Fiscal Transparency and Fiscal Policy Outcomes
1. Introduction
Many believe that fiscal transparency has large and positive effects on fiscal performance. According to the IMF, “transparency in government operations is widely regarded as an important precondition for macroeconomic fiscal sustainability, good governance, and overall fiscal rectitude” (Kopits and Craig 1998: 1). Both the IMF and the OECD have recently developed Codes of Best Practice for Fiscal Transparency. Fiscal adjustment programs (like some aimed at satisfying Maastricht Treaty criteria) can employ or produce creative accounting practices. Transparency can affect the probability that such budgetary tricks are revealed. In ways like that, more transparency leads to lower budget deficits and makes fiscal discipline and control of spending easier to achieve. However, while such asserted effects are common, there is not much empirical evidence about institutional transparency and fiscal policy outcomes. Some links appear between fiscal transparency and fiscal performance in European countries, and between indirect measures of transparency and fiscal performance in Latin American countries.Fiscal Transparency and Fiscal Policy Outcomes 1. Introduction Many believe that fiscal transparency has large and positive effects on fiscal performance. According to the IMF, “transparency in government operations is widely regarded as an important precondition for macroeconomic fiscal sustainability, good governance, and overall fiscal rectitude” (Kopits and Craig 1998: 1). Both the IMF and the OECD have recently developed Codes of Best Practice for Fiscal Transparency. Fiscal adjustment programs (like some aimed at satisfying Maastricht Treaty criteria) can employ or produce creative accounting practices. Transparency can affect the probability that such budgetary tricks are revealed. In ways like that, more transparency leads to lower budget deficits and makes fiscal discipline and control of spending easier to achieve. However, while such asserted effects are common, there is not much empirical evidence about institutional transparency and fiscal policy outcomes. Some links appear between fiscal transparency and fiscal performance in European countries, and between indirect measures of transparency and fiscal performance in Latin American countries.
Many remain convinced of the importance of fiscal transparency, however.2 The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether a higher degree of fiscal transparency is in fact associated with lower public debt, other things equal. To do this, we extend the career- concerns model of public debt developed by Persson and Tabellini (2000) and, in particular, Shi and Svensson (2002) to include political parties with preferences over public spending. We show that this allows us to integrate as implications of a single model three hitherto-separate results in the literature on deficit and debt accumulation: that transparency decreases debt accumulation, at least partly through an effect on the electoral cycle (Shi and Svensson, 2002), that increasing political polarization increases debt accumulation (see, for instance, Alesina and Tabellini, 1990), and that right-wing governments, at least for strategic reasons, tend to have higher deficits than left-wing governments (Persson and Svensson, 1989). We also develop measures of fiscal transparency and show that recent evidence from OECD countries is consistent with these implications, even after controlling for the effects of explanatory variables from other political- economic models of debt and deficits, and accounting for the potential endogeneity of transparency.
2 On Europe, see von Hagen (1992), de Haan et al. (1999), Milesi-Ferretti (forthcoming), and Hallerberg et al. (2001). On Latin America, see Alesina et al. (1999).
The theoretical literature on the causes and consequences of fiscal, or budgetary, transparency is not large.3 In the Shi and Svensson (2002) political agency model that we extend below, voters want more competent politicians in office, as they can provide more public goods for given levels of taxation and private consumption. However, this creates incentives for incumbents to try to “appear competent” by issuing debt, providing more public goods by ‘buying now and paying later’. In the model, the degree of fiscal or budget transparency determines when and how far voters can observe debt, and thus the extent to which an incumbent can use debt to appear competent. Milesi-Ferretti (forthcoming), on the other hand, considers in a reduced-form model the effect of transparency on government debt and deficits in a regime characterized by fiscal rules, allowing for creative accounting practices like those arising in connection with the Maastricht Treaty (Easterly 1999).
Transparency, Milesi-Ferretti argues, affects the probability that such practices are revealed, resulting in a penalty for not meeting the formal budget rule requirement. Thus, transparency determines the scope for creative accounting vs. “true” fiscal adjustment, and matters only because of the existence of fiscal rules. Finally, Ferejohn (1999) examines an agency model in which fiscal transparency affects voter trust in government and thus the size of government. In all these cases, transparency increases the probability or accuracy of observations of incumbents’ performance. The empirical literature on transparency is also limited, in part by measurement problems.4 So, in addition to providing a model that synthesizes and unifies several disparate results on debt, we construct a direct, replicable index variable measuring the transparency of budget processes of OECD countries. The index contains variables comparable though not identical to ones collected and analyzed in the American states (Alt, Lassen, and Skilling 2002). Further, we use this index to investigate empirically the hypotheses of the model. We find that fiscal transparency is, indeed, robustly associated with lower public debt and deficits, even after allowing for the effects of partisanship and polarization. However, we also recognize that fiscal institutions are subject to change, and investigate the reasons why governments change fiscal 3 Asymmetric information models of fiscal policy have been studied by, e.g., Rogoff (1990), but a direct focus on the role of fiscal transparency is rare. Besley and Prat (2001) touch on transparency in their investigation of the role of the media in communicating information about the government to voters. The effects of transparency about monetary policy objectives has begun to be studied as well; see, e.g., Faust and Svensson (2001), Jensen (2002), and Stasavage (2003).
4 Alesina and Perotti (1996) note that the “results on transparency probably say more about the difficulty of measuring it, than about its effect on fiscal discipline”, a point echoed in Alesina and Perotti (1999) and Tanzi and Schuknecht (2000). 2 Fiscal Transparency and Fiscal Policy Outcomes transparency. This allows us to correct transparency for possible endogeneity in the empirical analysis. Estimating the simultaneous empirical model leaves the main results unaltered. Finally, many other analyses of public debt focus on the number of actors involved in the budget process. Two conjectures predominate: either there is a “common pool problem” so that actors do not internalize the full cost of their spending or there is a “fragmentation problem” so that they cannot coordinate, for instance on a response to negative shocks. “Actors” include the number of spending ministers, parties in a governing coalition, decentralized units in a federal system, or veto players.5 Our model does not make specific predictions about these other variables, so in the empirical analysis we control for as many alternative approaches as possible. The paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 defines fiscal transparency. Section 3 summarizes the career-concerns model of fiscal transparency with competing political parties, deriving results for the effects of transparency, and partisanship and polarization from the “strategic debt” literature, to guide the empirical analysis. (We present the full model in an appendix.) Section 4 describes the construction of the transparency index, as well as other data, used in the empirical work. Section 5 examines the effects of fiscal transparency on fiscal performance, the causes of variation in fiscal transparency across the OECD, and the possible endogeneity of transparent institutions with respect to debt. Section 6 concludes.
2. Defining Fiscal Transparency
Greater transparency eases the task of attributing outcomes to the acts of particular politicians. It makes observers more able to distinguish effort from opportunistic behavior or stochastic factors “primarily by providing actors with greater or lesser degrees of certainty about the present and future behavior of other actors” (Hall and Taylor 1996, p. 939).6 With respect to the budgetary process, a comprehensive definition of fiscal transparency is the following: “Fiscal transparency is defined … as openness toward the public at large about government structure and functions, fiscal policy intentions, public sector accounts, and 5 Proposed remedies include delegation to a strong central Ministry of Finance (when there is no problem of ideological heterogeneity) and a form of commitment among coalition partners when there is (Hallerberg et al. 2001). On the effects of number, possibly conditional on decentralization and heterogeneity, of ministers and parties see Kontopoulos and Perotti (1999) and Volkerink and de Haan (2001); on decentralized units in a federal system see Rodden and Wibbels (2002); and on veto players see Tsebelis (2002).
Outcomes projections. It involves ready access to reliable, comprehensive, timely, understandable, and internationally comparable information on government activities … so that the electorate and financial markets can accurately assess the government’s financial position and the true costs and benefits of government activities, including their present and future economic and social implications” (Kopits and Craig 1998: 1).7 The literature also provides specific examples of transparent budget reporting procedures: “A transparent budget process is one that provides clear information on all aspects of government fiscal policy. Budgets that include numerous special accounts and that fail to consolidate all fiscal activity into a single ‘bottom line’ measure are not transparent. Budgets that are easily available to the public and to participants in the policymaking process, and that do present consolidated information, are transparent” (Poterba and von Hagen 1999: 3-4). As features of non-transparent financial reporting, Alesina and Perotti (1996) identify optimistic predictions on key economic variables and forecasts of the effects of new policies, and creative and strategic use of what is kept on or off budget, budget projections, and multi-year budgeting. We believe more transparent procedures have four distinct characteristics. First, more transparent procedures should process more information, and, other things equal, do so in fewer documents. This speaks to openness and ease of access and monitoring. Second, the possibility of independent verification, which has been shown experimentally to be a key feature in making communication persuasive and/or credible, increases transparency. Third, there should be a commitment to non-arbitrary language: words and classifications should have clear, shared, unequivocal meanings. The use of generally accepted accounting principles in some of the American states is a good example of this. Finally, the presence of more justification increases transparency, reducing the optimism and strategic creativity referred to above. Below we operationalize multiple indicators of these characteristics into an index of budget transparency.
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The Canterbury Tales is the Contrast
The Canterbury tales is the contrast of realistic and exaggerated qualities that chaucer entitles to each of the characters.
The wife of Bath is one of chaucers most enduring characters and one of the most famous. She is loud, self-promoting, and extremely aggressive. She begins explaining her story about her life and her beliefs. She is one to follow her own experiences instead of everyone elses. The wife of bath has been married an exceptional five times and marrying all these men makes her think she is an expert on marriges and reationships. The Squire is a young man who's father is the almighty Knight. The Squire is one of the secular pilgrams, of the military group. The knight and the squire have the highest social status. We placed the Wife of Bath and The Squire together because, the squire woud be trying to hit on the wife of bath conidering she was a sexy women and he was a lady chaser. The wife of bath has quite some experience and is currently looking for another man.
He made his household free to all the county. His bread, his ale, were the finest of the fine and no one had a better stock of wine. Franklin is unique because he is a middle class free landowner that is wealthy, acts as the county sheriff and is the local accountant. Many a draft of vintage, red, and yellow, He'd drawn at the bordeaux while the trader snored. Skipper, sometimes known as the shipman, is the fairly straightfoward character who calls things as he see's them. We put the squire and Franklin together because they both enjoy the pleasures of life and this would provoke very many risque stories.To some, people might take the stories the wrong way, while others will think it quite funny.
Her cloak, I noticed, had a graceful charm. She wore a trinket on her arm, a set of beads, the gaudies tricked in green, where hung a broach of brightest sheen. Her real name is Madame Eglantine and she is the first religious character discussed in the book. Her size and forehead are large, yet her mouth is small and her nose is quite fine. She carries a rosary of bright coral beads and has a deep passion for her dogs. It was not fitting with the dignity of his position, dealing with a scum of wratched lepers, nothing good can come out of commerce with such slum and gutter dwellers. Friar is a very religous character that listens to confessions like a parson or priest. We put these two together beacuse they both work at the church and are religious. They can also discuss their own personal beliefs.
His only care was study, and indeed he never spoke a word than was need, formal at that, respectful in the extreme, short to the point, and lofty in his theme. Oxford Cleric is an insightful and thoughtful man. The clerk is a thinking man which means he is pensive. The doctor is a very good surgeon and very skilled. He has certain connections who hep him get the medicine he needs. He is very wealthy and healthy as well. We sat these two together because they are very well-educated and it is possibe they might start arguing since they have different opinions about what they do.
He could make a good thick soup and a tasty pie, but what a pity it seemed so to me that he should have an ucler on his knee. The cooks real name is Roger of War. Being a cook is years of training, a lot of had work, and occasionally low pay. The cook is slightly rotund with dark skin and hair and wears a hat and apron. He also has a good sense of humor. Riding a trot, finally myself-that was the lot. The Summoner does not like the friars what so ever. He is more like the devil. We put these two together because they would both talk about the disgusting wounds all over their body in which to everyone else would be quite gruesome. This would provide an interesting conversation.
A most distinguished man, from the day on which he first began to ride abroad followed chivalry. The knight out of all is most valued and treasured due to his loyalty and honor. The knight is populated with gods and heros of ancient Greece. With a forking beard and motely dress; high on his horse he sat. The merchant is an older man who seeks a women to be his beloved wife. We sat these two together because they would have to focus on other conversations and not much on their own. These two arent very similar besides the fact that there knights.
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An Medieval Poet
Geoffrey Chaucer was an medieval poet who wrote The Canterbury Tales. A piece of medieval literature that consisted of pilgrims telling two tales on the way to Canterbury and two more on the way back. Whoever the Host decides that has told the most meaningful and entertaining story would receive a free meal upon their return. This literature was considered a masterpiece that provided the best modern image of the fourteenth century of England. The Canterbury Tales is made up of 120 tales but only 24 of those tales were completed. During his time, Geoffrey Chaucer was considered the greatest English poet. Each masterwork revealed an deeper meaning within. Reading The Canterbury Tales, you will see how Chaucer used allegories that exhibited the power of greed and selfsame sovereignty throughout this piece of literature.
An allegory is an symbolic fictional narrative that conveys a meaning not specifically set forth in a narrative. Allegories may have meanings on two or more levels that the reader can understand only through an interpretive process. Literacy allegories typically describe situations and events or express abstract ideas in terms of material, objects, people, and actions. Writers may use an allegory to add different aspects of meanings to their work. It makes their stories and characters complex, so that they stand for something larger in meaning than what they literally stand for. An allegorical piece of writing can give an insight into its writer's mind on how they view the world, and how they wish the world to be. The Canterbury Tales is an perfect example of an allegory. The Pardoner's Tales illustrated the power of greed, and The Wife of Bath revealed selfsame sovereignty.
The Pardoner from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, tells a story in the form of a sermon, an exemplum, to be exact. He intends to teach the congregation that "money is the root of all evil". The Pardoner's Tales, is about three rioters who go on a mission to seek death and kill him. Instead of finding death, an old man guided them to a tree which had gold beneath it. The gold symbolizes death because it led the rioters to sin and they became very greedy.
They fought for the gold and tried to figure out plans on how to get the gold to themselves. In the text, one of the rioters says," If one could get the gold away, back to my house or else yours, perhaps so how you know, the gold is ours chaps, we'd all be at the top of the fortune" (L 23-24). The rioters wanted to steal the gold without having any concern about who it belonged to or how it got there. In the end, no one got what they wanted. The lesson learned behind the allegory, money is the root of all evil, is having self indulgence is not the way to live life.
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Collection of 24 Stories
Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories written between the years of 1387 and 1400 in Mid-Century England and runs over 17,000 lines. The question is "How is Chaucer's Canterbury Tales an accurate representation of the middle class in the middle ages"?
Canterbury Tales is much more than an interesting collection of character and their tales, but a representation of the middle class during the time in which the stories were written. As the church was losing its leading role in the latter half of the 14th century, people started to realize the importance of being in the forthcoming middle class. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a microcosm of this general public since it exhibits the social divisions known as the Estates, it outlines the development of the white collar class and the decrease of the medieval framework, and it demonstrates the debasement and intensity of the Church, and it epitomizes most parts of the Middle Age.
Primitive society was generally isolated into three "estates", which were generally equal to social classes. The first estate which was the Church, which was composed of the pope, the second estate which was the noble, the king/queen and prince/princess, and the third estate which was the lower class. The harsh division of society into the three estates was starting to separate in late 14th century England, and when the time of Chaucer, there was an increase of the middle class. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer is exceedingly aware of the social divisions known as the "Estates " While the class of The Canterbury Tales all in all is a casing account, the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is a case of "Bequests Satire," a type which censures the maltreatment that happens inside the three conventional Estates.
Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales encapsulates most parts of the Middle Ages, regardless of whether it is an indecent religious minister, poor, idealistic agriculturists, or the good knight. Every one of these characters gives great precedents of the numerous ubiquitous subjects of the Middle Ages. The predominant qualities and topics of the Middle Ages included brutality and vengeance, religion and debasement, and societal position and chain of command. The occasions in which Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is set are wild and are loaded up with anguish, struggle, and general ill will; all things considered, the thoughts of reprisal and hence viciousness are genuinely common.
In a considerable number of Chaucer's stories, this topic is framed flawlessly. An example towards the end of the Reeve's story after the miller finds the researchers' injustice. "He grabbed Allan by the adam's apple, and he, in return, roughly grabbed the miller and hit him on the nose with his fist" (Chaucer). On this occasion, not only a simple reflex to fall back on violence is shown, yet brutality is utilized as retribution as the miller assaults Allan after understanding that he has had an affair with his wife. Confirmed by this, violent behaviors were regularly the most widely recognized, and the most suitable reaction.
In all of England, violence was seen as something of a way of life Curtis Gruenler, in a literary analysis, states, In England, Curtis Gruenler's life was viewed as a violent way of life, from a literary standpoint, "[V]iolence on a large scale held English attention as spectacular victories against the French early in the Hundred Years War were followed by a series of costly, disastrous campaigns" (Gruenler). War was a calling of numerous individuals in England including a character of Chaucer's, the Knight had battled in no less than 15 fights and had basically worked out his whole job dependent on the fights he was called upon by his ruler to partake in.
Generally, viciousness was an all around perceived type of equity and requital something that was unequivocally called attention to in Chaucer's accounts. One more subject is the nearness of religion, or all the more particularly, the nearness of defilement inside religion. Numerous individuals from the journey have connections to a religious office, and everything except the Parson has here and there damaged their promises or generally acted to some degree out of their limits as a high positioning individual from the Church.
Chaucer shows this carefully as the Pardoner's introduction where he states "make an offering to my relics in this church [...] make an offering in the name of God, I shall absolve them by the authority of which was granted to me by papal bull" (Chaucer). Subsequent to telling the pioneers of this trap unmistakably went for taking a decent arrangement of cash, he clarifies, "By this trick I have gained a hundred marks year after year since I became a pardoner" (Chaucer). The Pardoner isn't, nonetheless, the main improper religious character engaged with the journey.
The Friar, for instance, has broken his pledges as an administrative individual from the Church, most unmistakably his promise of virtuousness. The Friar has occupied with connections that have disregarded this promise, and when a youngster comes because of this cooperation, he has ventured to such an extreme as to wed the lady to her darling in order to cover his very own tracks. These parts of chapel defilement in The Canterbury Tales inevitably come down to a craving for joy and cash, something that tormented the authenticity of the
Catholic Church and in the long run prompted the religious transformation.
Among the characters, a kind of social chain of command turned out to be rapidly obvious amidst these numerous voyagers. A general character developed that isolated the pioneers' dependent on their monetary and social standings. There was a fairly expansive differentiation between the most extravagant of the voyagers and the poorest. For instance, the Franklin was a proprietor of a vast home and sumptuous individual products. Despite the fact that he is profoundly in the red, his societal position is still far higher than that of say, the Plowman.
The Plowman is one of the poorer individuals from the journey, yet in spite of this, he is one of the sprightlier and beneficent individuals from the journey. This can be viewed as Chaucer's methods for communicating his sentiments toward the social chain of the importance of the occasions. Chaucer likewise says something regarding feudalism, the financial arrangement of the time. "[Chaucer represents the] feudal arrangement of society [...] around the figure of the knight as a conception of nobility, and around the laborer a conception of commonality" (Morgan).
Chaucer appears to consider feudalism to be a framework that partitions individuals into the well-off nobles and the poor workers. Chaucer likewise appears to perceive the nearness of a white collar class that appears to ascend out of feudalism. For instance, the figure of a vendor who picks up his riches by his own agreement, particularly cash exchanging, and is on the whole free of the primitive framework. The Merchant is portrayed in the general preface as "[a] responsible man [who] kept his wits about him [...] Nevertheless he was really a worthy man" (Chaucer).
So, Chaucer saw the social structure of his time and saw certain things he had dissatisfaction with, yet without a doubt, he saw some different parts of it as valuable to the advancement of society. To close, Chaucer's showstopper The Canterbury Tales displays numerous common topics and in such a way illustrates the occasions. He does this by discussing viciousness, religious debasement, and social organizing, which were all extremely appropriate bits of society in the time as they all shaped a framework that is thought back on and translated through works of reality and fiction, for example, The Canterbury Tales.
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The White Paint and the Sambo
The white paint and the Sambo doll are symbols in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man that emphasizes the futility of finding one’s identity in a world that forces their perspectives onto him.
After following Dr. Bledsoe’s wild goose chase to look for a job, the narrator finds himself at the Liberty Paint Plant, which is a factory that prides itself on making pure, “Optic White” paint (Ellison 217). The narrator is put to work as he begins mixing a black substance into a brown bucket that eventually turns into a brilliant white paint. However, the paint itself symbolizes the relationship between blacks and whites in society. In order to make the white paint, one requires 10 exact drops of the “dead black” liquid or else the mixture fails to become the pure white the factory demands (201).
The factory (as well as the rest of society) depends on the efforts of both black and white men to manufacture white paint, but they suppress black efforts to gain equality with the overpowering bleakness of the white paint. It is only when the narrator accidentally uses remover on the boards and reveals the “brilliant white diffused with gray” that his boss Kimbro panics and tries to get the narrator to cover up the boards with the white paint (205). The removal of the white paint layer is representative to how America masked years of mistreatment and segregation of blacks behind the shining ideals about freedom and opportunity, leaving people like the narrator to chafe under the identities they are forced to fit into without exception.
On the other hand, the Sambo doll symbolizes the controlling power of forced identities as well as the dampening of individualism by the white paint. After the narrator is thrust into a battle royale among his classmates, they are rewarded with another competition to pick up money from a rug. One of the white spectators mocks the boys, saying “[t]hat’s right, Sambo” when the M.C. assures them that the money is there for the boys to take (26). However, the rug is revealed to be electrified, causing a boy to spasm and “dance upon his back” after being thrown directly onto the rug (27).
The Sambo doll is a caricature of a black slave that entertains their master and carries out their bidding. The man that nicknamed the boys Sambo refers to how the boys are only acting on the spectator’s will, as they first fought in a battle royale and then scramble for fake money like animals. Later in the novel, the narrator spies Clifton on the street selling cardboard Sambo dolls dancing in a “infuriatingly sensuous motion” as Clifton sang out his wares (431). When the narrator discovers later that the dolls are controlled by a string in the back, it emphasizes how blacks are at the mercy of white men despite their efforts to prove otherwise. Since the Brotherhood had already been limited in their protests and meetings, Clifton’s decision to sell Sambo dolls is much more effective, since the Sambo dolls are physically being controlled by Clifton’s movements, just as how narrator has been manipulated like a puppet by the white figures in his life such as Mr. Norton and the spectators from his high school graduation.
With white paint from the Liberty Paint Plant demonstrating the function of blacks as tools for the fame and glory of white people and the Sambo dolls symbolizing white dominance through manipulation, the narrator is unable to define himself beyond what the world has portrayed as a black man. These symbols emphasize how one cannot become an individual without throwing away the masks that the world has provided, but to do so would mean changing systemic racism and discrimination within a lifetime.
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Four Major Issues in U.S.
November is the month where people vote. When it comes to picking the right candidate to vote for you got many things you need to look at to make sure they are the perfect candidate. The biggest thing that you need to look at is there issues they talk about and how they fix them up. The issues they may be talking about someone may not care about. That is why you make sure that you are looking at their issues very carefully and liking what they have to say. Each candidate is going to try and lead you down a different path. A lot of the issues they talk about can taken many different ways. You will be informed on some major issues that most to me and find out how I think they should be taken.
There are many reasons why education is a big issue right now in the United States. This is very important to me because I got many years to still be going to school. Right now the United States is considered to be the lowest in math. The United States is also low in many other categories. The reason for being so low is because when students take PISA tests that the government looks at we are not meeting the right number to be considered passing. Our scores on the PISA test are way to low. Teachers are trying hard to get there students to improve there score on the PISA tests. As long as long as we are working hard to get our PISA scores up I do not have a problem with the policy put in place right now. It is not a good thing for the United States to be the lowest. The students need to learn how to pay attention during class that way when they come to take the PISA test they know a little something. It could also help if the teachers are lecturing about what is going to be on the PISA test. Most of the time what teachers are talking about is not what is on the tests that government takes a look at. When that happens you are going into the test clueless and end up guessing. That does not help you to get a passing grade so the United States gets off the bottom of the list. Let's solve this issue by making sure that students are getting proficient scores on the PISA test.
In the United States right now there is a big issue with health care. I care about this issue because there will be a day that I will have to pay for healthcare on my own. The biggest problem with American healthcare right now is the care. It is very important to have stable insurance markets, and good benefits but that is not going to help reduce the price or make Americans healthier. The healthcare that we got right now is getting old so updating it would be a great thing to do. There are lots of people in the world who have problems and need healthcare to help them pay for there bills. America is losing lots of money due to having to help pay for people's illnesses. I do not like the way we are handling healthcare issue right now. We need to update our healthcare policy. The big issue about this is when you had healthcare at a job but then lose your job. Then you do not have any money to pay for medical bills. When this starts to happen you start to lose lots of money. There needs to be a way that hospital bills and insurance rates can be lowered. We need to help everyone out so they are not complaining about losing all of their money. Lots of the medial bills that people have to pay are not planed. When you have to pay for something unplanned your probably are not going to have all the money that is needed. Lets help solve this issue by lower healthcare rates.
Gun Control is one of the major issues in the United States right now. This is a major issue to me because I want to me able to outside and feel safe. America is making lots of money off the amount of firearms they are selling. The United States has the Second Amendment that allows people to carry firearms. There are American people that see the bearing of arms a right and others see it as holding America back. Firearms are a very deadly weapon. Firearms are leaving several Americans dead each month. The bad use of firearms is costing America way to much money. Americans probably think that is okay to do bad things with firearms because bad things with them are always happening. As long as we are taking care of all the bad violence that is happening with the firearms I do not mind the policy we got right now. Also Americans are seeing what people are doing with firearms on tv and want to try it out. There are many reason in America why we have firearms. If we want to keep the firearms we got and the sale of firearms we got today we need to stop with the violence with the firearms. Causing violence with a firearm does not make you a better person. When you cause violence with a firearm is goes on your personal record. There are lots of places and people that look at your person record before they hire you or when they need to look at your personal record to fill there deed with you. Lets just figure out how to use firearms the right way. We need to stop violence. We can make this become a forgotten issue if we just use firearms the right way.
Taxes have always been a major issue in the United States. I care about this issue because on somethings that I buy I have to pay taxes which is not something like doing. People are always complaining about the rate they have to pay for taxes. There are many different things that people are paying taxes for. You got sales tax, social security, medicare, and ect. Some of that tax money we pay does go to good things like paying for roads and schools. If we can find a way to make the take policy a lot simpler that would be helpful. It is not like we are just having to pay all these taxes and waist the money on stupid things. We need to make our tax policy so it is fair for everyone. When it comes to the amount of takes that is having to be paid everyone is paying for the same things and usually at the same percent. The problem with that is that not everyone is making the same amount of money. So therefore some people are having a hard time coming up with the money that they need to pay for taxes. No one wants to be those who become poor people after paying off there tax due but it happens to more people than you would think. If there was a way to even taxes out by what class you are in that would be helpful. Anything to help people to not become poor after paying taxes would be great. This is an easy issue to fix we can just figure the major issue with taxes right now.
There are so many issues to talk about. As you found out my 4 major issues are education, healthcare, gun control, and taxes. Those seem to be the ones making the most impact on the United States. You have just been explained how I would fix them up. You got all rights to agree or disagree with how I feel about each issue. Hopefully you like what I had to say.
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A Personality of Calvin Coolidge
Throughout American History there have been presidents who have made promises in order to secure people's vote. Many presidents break their promises or do not accomplish what they promised. Calvin Coolidge was not one of those Presidents. Even though he obtained ?presidency by stepping up and doing the job of a Vice President and leading the Nation when the President itself was no longer living. Coolidge served a six year term (1923-1929) of presidency due to the fact that he had to finish the last two years remaining in Harding term, and was then re-elected for an additional four years after that, but decided not run again on the elections on 1929. Although Coolidge was a man of small talk he always made his point come across very clearly by establishing Economic, Domestic, Foreign Policies as well as using the power to veto.
President Coolidge was a Republican who believed in free enterprise and was in favor of a small government or minimal government intervention. During his Presidency on of his goals was to reduce taxes on people because he believed that Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery. In 1924 he signed the Revenue act of 1924 which stated exactly what Coolidge wanted, the reduction of tax rates on the citizens as well as the deflecting federal debt. Americans highly benefited from his Economic Policies. During the roaring twenties because now many americans had more time and more money to spend on themself, and they started to have a more lavish styles and costumes something that could have not been possible without Calvin's
In attempt to change the way African Americans were treated during this time, Coolidge's effort to enforce the study of civil rights and proposed multiple anti-lynching laws that of course were not adapted by the people and that congress turned down . These laws were ahead of their time and had a very slight chance of getting approved. Mainly because during this time not many were comfortable believing that African Americans, or other minorities shared the same equal rights as the whites. One of his successful Domestic policies was the Indian Citizen Act which granted American Indians the right to citizenship if born in the U.S or if they marry a natural American citizen rather than trying to make Americanized and destroyed American Indians culture. Calvin Coolidge gave the Americans Indians the privilege to be free while being able to practice and passed down their culture.
During his presidency Calvin Coolidge did not state that The United States was an isolationist country. As matter of fact he wanted open borders with many foreign countries, especially China. In efforts to expand trade between countries and to financially benefit from open trade. Calvin approved The white Act of 1928 which increased ship productions to potentially inflate the amount of import and exports in The United States. Having this open trade policy created some problems with neighboring countries. Coolidge was concern with the secureness of American businesses and war against Mexico was rumored. His concern was that
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