Month: March 2021
Sean Ridings : Wise Blood
Flannery O’Connor was born in 1925, in Savannah, Georgia. Growing up she faced many hardships as she lost her father as a teenager. Her writing career began in high school where she was involved in her school paper. She studied writing at the University of Iowa and published “The Geranium,” her first short story, in 1946. She wrote some novels, but was best known for her short story collections. In 1952, she released her novel Wise Blood. Sadly in the same year she was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease. Growing up she was a devout Catholic. From 1956 through 1964, she wrote more than one hundred book reviews for two Catholic newspapers in Georgia. These reviews showed here high intelligence as she consistently confronted theological and ethical themes in the books that she reviewed. After a struggling battle against lupus for over a decade, Flannery O'Connor died on August 3, 1964, in Milledgeville, Georgia. For her work during her life, she received many honors, including an O. Henry Award in 1957 and the National Book Award in 1972. The south and her religion were essential to most of what she wrote. She uses grotesque imagery and situations as well as taking on theological themes throughout her stories and novels. Her characters usually live in the south and are morally flawed, and frequently have interactions with the disabled or disabled themselves. This is certainly true throughout her critically acclaimed novel Wise Blood.
Wise Blood is a novel that depicts the struggling and empty Hazel “Haze” Motes. After returning home from war to Eastrod, Tennessee, the twenty two year old Motes finds himself in unending struggle against his inborn, desperate fate. When he returns he finds his old home and town deserted. With this discovery he decides to try and escape from his haunting and disturbing past that involved frightening visions of death, as well of his fiery preacher grandfather who instilled in him a disturbing fear of Jesus as a shadowy figure. He leaves for Taulkinham where he the novel mainly takes place. There he begins his shocking and violent journey to find himself and evade his past. Here he falls under the spell of a "blind" street preacher named Asa Hawks and his degenerate fifteen-year-old daughter, Sabbath Lily. In an ironic, malicious gesture of his own non-faith, he starts his own “Church Without God” where he preaches to his followers that Jesus is a liar and that there is no sin or redemption arguing that he only needs the “truth”. Also while in Taulkinham he meets Enoch Emery, a young park ranger who has only been in the city for a couple of months. Enoch becomes a loyal follower to Hazel because he follows the commands of his “Wise Blood” rather than thinking his decisions through.
One day during one of Hazel’s preaching sessions a Huckster appears named Hoover Shoats and wants to turn Hazel’s preaching into a money maker. Hazel rebuffs Shoats and is shocked when later Shoats shows up with an imposter of Hazel as they preach Hazel’s “Church Without God” to a paying crowd. Infuriated Hazel tracks his his imposter down and runs him over in a violent act of rage. After trying to leave to city Hazel is meet by a police man who destroys his car. He walks all the way back to Taulkinham where blinds himself with limes. In the final events of his life Hazel unders goes masochistic things such as wrapping barbed wire around his chest and placing stones in his shoes. This causes his landlady, Mrs. Flood, to take an interest in him. She is intrigued by his soulless eyes, and end up asking him to marry her. Hazel rejects her and leaves his home and is found by the Police dead in a ditch on the side of the road. Not realizing that he is dead, Mrs. Flood tries to look into Hazel's ruined eyes and something inside of them changes her.
Flannery O’Connor’s use of grotesque and morally flawed characters as well as violent and appalling circumstances makes for some of the most riveting characters in American literature history. Through her novel Wise Blood, O’Connor dives into the themes of religion, faith, and retribution through Hazel Motes’ crushing struggle with religion. Wise Blood has also been characterized as a “Quest Novel” yet O’Connor discusses how Hazel Motes’ quest deviates from those of protagonists in traditional quest novels. His quest overall in the novel is for the truth about his own religious turmoil and to figure out what he should believe in. Hazel’s story has many connections to those of Oedipus Rex because of a few, yet strong, characteristics that they have in common. Those characteristics include their constant fight against there fate and the self punishment and harm they do to themselves at the end of it. This connection is unsurprising as O’Connor as she was well accustomed to the stories and tragedy in Greek Mythology.
Faith and Religion in Wise Blood
Throughout Hazel Motes return to Tennessee the themes of religion and faith are explored throughout by O’Connor. The world of Wise Blood is a spiritually empty, morally blind, cold, and hostile place. Over the years, critics have often referred to Flannery O'Connor's first novel as dark and grotesque. They then use words such as repulsive, depraved, and unredeemable to describe its characters (Lilburn). Most if not all of the characters go through some kind of internal struggle throughout the novel. Characters such as Hazel, Enoch, and Mrs. Flood embody these characteristics and struggle with religion and finding themselves. Yet despite the violence and seemingly unconscionable behavior exhibited by these and other characters, the cast of displaced wanderers who populate Wise Blood do have another trait in common: they are searching for something better (Lilburn).
In the beginning of the novel O’Connor describes Hazel as a “Christian malgrë lui” (a Christian in spite of himself). At a young age, Haze thought himself destined to become a preacher like his grandfather, but by the time he reaches early adulthood he convinces himself that he does not have a soul. Claiming that he does not “believe in anything,” Hazel embarks on a desperate mission to rid himself of his deeply rooted Christian beliefs. He founds the Church Without Christ and begins preaching a new jesus that is “all man, without blood to waste” (Lilburn). He wants to eradicate Jesus from his life so badly that he starts his own “Church Without Christ”. Yet his attempt to rid himself of Christ is unsuccessful and it his realization of this that separates him a cut above the rest of the characters. He realization of this seems to awaken him and he immediately blinds himself. He does this to look deeper into himself.
Enoch Emery is a very strange character who gravitates towards Hazel when they first meet. Like Hazel, Enoch follows a misguided path in an effort to find his reward. Hurt and dejected by the unfriendly reception he has received in Taulkinham, a city where everybody wants “to knock you down,” Enoch longs to become a somebody. He wishes to better his condition and be like the young men he sees displayed in insurance ads. But instead of working towards that goal, Enoch buries himself in the rigidity of a daily routine not taking any over the top risks to achieve his goal. (Lilburn). He judgement is also clouded by his “Wise Blood” which he uses to make decisions and actions rather than thinking these things thoroughly. Enoch's final actions are even more pathetic and futile. Impressed by the line of people who wait to meet Gonga, a Hollywood movie star, he dreams of someday seeing a “line of people waiting to shake his hand” (O’Connor). Unfortunately, he chooses to realize this dream by borrowing Gonga's persona and stripping the hired gorilla-man of his animal suit. Instead of becoming a somebody, Enoch loses himself completely and disappears into the suit (Lilburn). He wants to be someone so different than himself that he ends up losing sight of himself.
Mrs. Flood is a very interesting and dynamic character in the last couple of chapters in the novel. The idea that faith and religious belief are things one must get over, an obstacle to be overcome, is echoed by Mrs. Flood. She is unable to understand Haze's motives for blinding himself or for his walking with rocks in his shoes, much less for the more extreme act of wrapping himself in barbed wire (Lilburn). She tries to tell him that people don’t do this anymore, and fails to see the truth. Her attitudes and complacency reflect those of the society around her and provide an important clue as to why so many of the characters in Wise Blood are dissatisfied with their current situations (Lilburn). Her attitudes change when, at the very end of the novel, she begins to feel that she has been cheated of something of a non-material nature. Initially, she felt cheated financially, but when Hazel dies she thinks that he may have known something she did not. In the final scene, she stares deeply into the dead man's eyes, hoping to find the way into the pinpoint of light she sees before her (Lilburn). The final chapter is included in the novel to show Mrs. Flood’s emerging sense of faith and gives hope for at least one character in the novel.
The themes of religion and faith are echoed throughout the novel and are portrayed differently in the riveting characters that O’Connor has created. Hazel Motes spends his time trying to avoid jesus and trying to escape him. He goes to drastic measures only to realize the truth. Enoch Emery’s wise blood controls much of his decisions and actions and ultimately he loses his identity trying to be someone he is not while using evil actions to accomplish them. Mrs. Flood’s is one of, if not the only one, who ends the novel with hope. Hazel’s death seems to awaken her faith inside herself that had not been discovered and the reader is left with that sense of hope for Mrs. Flood.
Passionate Pilgrim: Flannery O'Connor's `Wise Blood'
Many critics believe that Wise Blood is a quest novel. His quest is for truth and throughout his story he seems to be searching for it. Hazel wants to escape jesus yet he wants to find the truth about himself and his faith. His quest falls under jeopardy many times over the course of the novel. Another character who is on a quest is Enoch Emery. Throughout the novel Enoch searches for some strange god who will bestow upon him the boon of friendship and importance. Unlike Hazel, Enoch has no unconscious yearning for Christ (Rechnitz). At the end of the novel both characters find the answers to their quest yet they come with losing most of what they have.
Hazel’s quest is at first to lose christ and memories of his past including his preacher grandfather. Haze had become convinced that the only way to avoid this terrifying Saviour was to avoid sin. To his own satisfaction, he managed to do this for a while; but the task became more difficult while he was in the army (Rechnitz). But it becomes more clear later on in the novel that his quest is for the truth. The novel is composed of Haze's early indoctrination in the religious fundamentalism of his grandfather, and his rejection of this religion. This prefaces his quest for atheistic certainty and his eventual return, after great suffering, to a belief in God, a ruthless, demanding God who will not let Haze lose his soul. Put another way, the novel portrays Haze's painful discovery that being "converted to nothing" is the spiritual equivalent of being converted to evil (Rechnitz).
Enoch Emery is another character on a quest similar to Hazel yet, his quest is different in many unique ways. His quest is to acquire friendships and gain a sense of importance, as well as respect and admiration from others. Enoch in the novel works towards this by being a follower of Hazel. He chooses to realize this dream by borrowing an actor named Gonga's persona and stripping the hired gorilla-man of his animal suit to get the attention and gratification of others around him.
Both Hazel and Enoch are set on their quest for two different answers. Yet the answers they receive come at a price and is of tragic proportions. Hazel comes to the realization that by being fully committed to atheism he only makes the affirmation of God stronger. Because of this he blinds himself in search of a deeper truth. Enoch on the other hand finds out that after he steals the Gonga’s identity that he loses himself in the suit. Both of the quests end tragically for both men, yet they find the truth and the answers at a high price.
Wise Blood today can be looked back on as a quest novel because of Hazel Motes and Enoch Emery. Hazel’s quest for the truth begins with trying to lose christ and become and atheist, as well as figure out the truth. Enoch’s quest is to find friendship and significance. Both men figure out and complete their quest at the price of blindness, and losing their identity.
Unavoidable Destiny: Flannery O’Connor’s Southern Adaptation of Oedipus Rex
In Wise Blood the similarities between Hazel Motes and Oedipus Rex are largely apparent. It is possible to find characteristics with their births and childhoods. There is many details about Oedipus’ birth, and while Hazel's birth was not as tragic there is still this apparent degree of prophecy that both characters are encouraged to avoid. Both of these characters are burdened by fate and try as much as they can escape it yet are unsuccessful. And the most obvious of correlations is the use of physical punishment on oneself. After their fate comes to fruition they both decide to blind themselves. Their lives are two of the most tragic stories ever written.
Hazel’s prophecy at birth seems to stem from the position of his grandfather in society as a preacher delivering God’s message from his car, the tangible symbol of commercial mobility. Hazel’s formative years concern his knowing that he was destined to become a preacher like his grandfather when he comes of age, yet the start of the novel concerns his outright declarations against being a preacher, no matter how much closely he may resemble one (GradesFixer). Much like the grotesque, working class southerners of O’Connor’s fiction that struggle with the conflation of the engagement of sin, the desire to cling to something for a sense of truth in the world, and false confession, the protagonists are ultimately clinging to a “truth” that will fail them. Like Oedipus, Hazel Motes sets out into a world in the hopes that his transience and outspokenness against destiny will alter it in his favor. However, each man will ultimately recognize that destiny cannot be avoided and that prophecy will be fulfilled, regardless of their attempts at rebuttal (GradesFixer). Both of these characters fate’s were sealed at birth yet they still choose to fight against it.
Oedipus’s desire to escape is destiny correlates to Hazel’s wish to avoid his own destiny. Both characters’ efforts to escape and elude destiny simply bring them closer and closer towards its fulfillment, whether they realize it in the moment or not. Oedipus abandons Corinth in fear of the prophecy of killing his father and marrying his mother, only to unknowingly murder his father during this period of transition (GradesFixer). When Hazel sets out against his prophecy of becoming a preacher he makes his own “Church Without Christ” and becomes a preacher himself. In both stories that main character kills a man of significance. Oedipus killed his father, while Hazel killed is doppelganger by running him over. Both men, in doing this, set in motion the future mutilation and self punishment of themselves along with the completion of their fates. If Hazel so strongly believes that there is no such thing as sin, he fails at his ability to cope with his actions. Oedipus, likewise, must also come to terms with the truth, no matter how uncomfortable or unbelievable it may seem. Sin cannot simply be washed away and forgotten, as O’Connor’s grotesque southerners are portrayed to believe. Both men will be forced to come to terms with the true gravity of their situations, and, as a result, they will become physically blinded by everything they tried so hard to avoid coming to terms with. They can’t simply confess their sin and continue to live their lives in the same sinful manner, believing that they are redeemed as O’Connor’s southerners believe (GradesFixer).
The major connection between Hazel and Oedipus is that fact that they use self punishment on themselves after their destiny comes true. Although this self mutilation seems like emotional distress it can also be seen as an act of redemption. Hazel blinds himself in an effort to further see the truth. Hazel’s clouded vision throughout the course of the novel is peculiar in the way that it prevents him from consciously observing the details of the world that surrounds him. His inability to pay attention to what is going on around him is too much like Oedipus’ ignoring of the all of the obvious hints he receives about the prophecy being fulfilled (GradesFixer). Hazel even goes a step farther by putting rocks in his shoes and putting barbed wire around his chest. They self punishments are they final attempts to see the truth and to redeem themselves for being unable to see that their prophecies would come true.
Flannery O'Connor Hazel Motes can be viewed as a modern day retelling of Oedipus Rex set in a southern setting, with grotesque and vile themes of destiny. Their births and childhood are tragic and make their prophecy apparent from the very beginning. Both of these men try to avoid their own destiny only to make it become reality. And finally with the easiest connection of their self inflicted blindness to try and see the truth and a last effort of redemption.
Throughout the course of Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor uses the themes of religion and faith to showcase the effect it has on some of the most riveting characters in American literature history. These characters struggle to meet their goals and find the truth in themselves. Over the course of the novel Hazel Motes is on what many has characterized as a quest yet his quests deviate from that of thor protagonists in other novels. Hazel Motes is often times compared to the ancient Greek Mythology of Oedipus Rex. He displays throughout the book many similarities with tragedy. Flannery O’Connor has crafted a riveting piece of art that is intriguing and makes the reader ask questions. Her novel is called grotesque and dark, yet its dive into religion is what truly makes Wise Blood a considerably special novel.
Cite this page
Sean Ridings : Wise Blood. (2021, Mar 23).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
Urban Oil Drilling Essa
Everyday, the human race utilizes more than a million terajoules of energy. With the global population constantly increasing and industrialisation on the rise in nations that have just begun their development process, our species hunger for energy is reaching unprecedented levels. Over half of our energy comes from the burning of fossil fuels extracted from deep within the Earth’s crust. Since oil drilling began in the 1850s, its estimated that we have accumulated over 135 billion tonnes of crude oil. Oil that we use to drive our cars, fuel our power stations and heat our homes, and is increasing everyday. It's been projected numerous times that we are on a path towards disaster that can only be stopped by shifting ourselves away from our fossil fuel obsession. Fossil fuels as a commodity have been out of control for too long. The effects are too drastic for there not to be sufficient action taken against their regime in the energy industry. However, the fundamental issue here is formulating policies that effectively manage them. The obsession that we have with the products that fossil fuels produce, easily accessible energy being the main attraction, is what drives the incentive for industries to neglect the long term ramifications. Today, regulating such resources has become a prominent issue. In order for fossil fuels to be managed effectively they need to be under the control of organizations that are not consumed by the materialistic needs of society.
This is reflective in the case of urban oil drilling in the city of Los Angeles. Oil drilling has become a large socio-economic issue within Los Angeles every since the conception of the city. The fossil fuel industry was an integral part of Los Angeles’ early development. In the 1890s, the small town of Los Angeles, which at the time had a population of around 50,000, discovered what is now some of the most productive oil fields ever to be utilized, known as the Los Angeles Oil Basin. Just under half a century later, in the 1930s, California alone was responsible for extracting and producing approximately one quarter of the world's total oil output, and its population had grown to 1.2 million. The basin became a free for all for the budding oil industry. This was a result of the abundance of easily accessible oil, minimal regulation, and no understanding of the health or environmental impacts. The Los Angeles Basin still remains the largest urban oil field in the country. There are thousands of active oil wells in the greater L.A. area, which are located amongst a diverse demographic of more than 10 million people.
As of today, Los Angeles is home to approximately 5,000 active oil and gas wells. These wells are spread across 10 oil fields and 70 different sites embedded throughout neighborhoods, parks, and commercial districts in the city. On average about one in every three Los Angeles residents live within a one mile radius of an oil drilling site. This present one of the main issues of urban oil drilling. The residents of Los Angeles living in close proximity to the oil and gas sites across the city not only experience disruptive noise from equipment, truck traffic, and rigs, but also become susceptible to extremely detrimental hazards to public health through dangerous air pollution and the use of toxic chemicals in oil extraction. However, despite the risks presented by urban oil production, the industry is still predicted to be on the rise in the coming years. Over the last 15 years the number of active wells in the L.A. area has increased by almost 20%.
Furthermore, there is still an estimated 5 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the Los Angeles Oil Basin. The continuing rise in urban oil production in L.A. is a concerning trend because of not only the environmental and healthy risks it is responsible for, but also the regulatory loopholes that let these hazards exist in the first place. There are numerous reports from the Los Angeles Department of City Planning regarding city regulations that fail to conform to the changing nature of the urban oil industry. Companies that are in control of the oil sites are finding ways to get around the regulations that are supposed to limit them. With urban oil production on the rise it is essential that regulatory bodies and the general public understand how exactly oil production is transpiring in their city, and to determine whether L.A. residential districts are equally and effectively protected from the subsequent risks.
The decrease in the amount of oil in designated producing zones has forced companies to to look for the resource in seemingly less practical locations, such as urban areas. These companies go through multiple stages of procedures and agreements with city residents and local officials concerning the details of their operations. Specifically, pertaining to rules that govern aesthetics, noise, hours of operation and other issues that affect the living conditions of those in proximity to the sites. Oil is generally obtained through what is known as “conventional” production methods. However, conventional oil sources are beginning to dwindle due to the mass demand and increasing extraction rates. Subsequently, oil companies have turned to “unconventional” oil production, which generally involves the use of a process known as well stimulation. This process is responsible for a large majority of the health and welfare issues that span across the city of Los Angeles. The process itself essentially enables oil companies to expand the productivity life span of wells that would otherwise be depleted. These activities directly related to oil production are the main factors involved in the public health issues throughout the city, especially in relation to the lack of sufficient safeguards.
A safeguard that is consistently overlooked in relation to urban oil drilling is the adequate separation of oil production sites and what are classified as sensitive populations, such as schools, homes and public institutions. Throughout the city there are approximately 17 sites that operate hazardously close to these sensitive populations. An influential law appointed by the South Coast Air Quality Management District(AQMD) requires all companies in charge of oil production in L.A. to report any activity such as drilling new wells, using acid to clean out wells or using chemicals to increase oil production. The law also requires companies to determine whether their oil production activities within 1,500 feet of any kind of public institution. Because of this particular aspect of the law, it was discovered that approximately 86 wells were drilled, acidized, fracted, or underwent a related measure within 1,500 feet of a vulnerable population center and of the 17 sites with wells within 1,500 feet of a sensitive population, the average separation was only 380 feet.
Regardless of the number of regulations that are put in place to mitigate the damage done by oil sites a community’s health and welfare will be at risk whenever their is any kind of oil operation near any public domain. The hazardous effects of oil include smells, noises, vibrations, as well as a multitude of health determinants, such as carcinogenic emissions.The University Park neighborhood living across the street from the AllenCo operations experienced this first hand. Data from 2013 suggests AllenCo only used conventional oil production techniques.Yet, for years residents were reporting unusual health symptoms like headaches and nosebleeds. It took three years, numerous protests, over 250 complaints to the AQMD, before regulatory agencies stepped in to inspect the site and take air samples, where they found faulty equipment leaking emissions up to 1,200 times the legal limit.
In L.A. oil drilling occurs across a diverse network of neighborhoods ranging from wealthy to poor. However, not all communities are equally protected from the risks associated with oil production. The amount of protective regulations that are implemented and enforced vary on a site by site basis. This can be seen in the contrast between communities such as South Los Angeles/Wilmington and West Los Angeles/Wilshire. To put the variation between the two communities into perspective the West LA and Wilshire sites have a median household income of $86,000 compared to the South Los Angeles and Wilmington/Harbor City site areas’ median income of $33,000.
In the West L.A. and Wilshire areas, oil sites have a variety of special features and operational regulations that protect the surrounding communities. To a much larger degree than the communities of the South L.A. and Wilmington sites. These regulations are generally enforced by Zoning Administors, who essentially are in control of land use laws and bylaws of residential and commercial areas around the city. Due to the stricter regulations, West L.A. and Wilshire sites are generally a safe distance away from residential areas, on average about 570 feet, and if they are within a closer proximity there are measures taken to ensure that they are out of the public's immediate attention.
Zoning Administrators do not allow any form of operations on the wells to occur in Wilshire and West L.A. unless they meet the strict set of parameters that are enacted. The Cheviot Hills Site, Packard Site, and Doheny Site are all example of oil production sites throughout West L.A. and Wilshire. Each of these sites are representative of the features that are implemented in wealthier areas to accommodate the residents. The Cheviot Hills Site is located in the Hillcrest Country Club. The club houses two drilling location. The drills are an adequate distance away from the surrounding residential areas. When the Zoning administrator initially implemented the regulations for this area they noted that due to the sites being “near the quality residential neighborhood known as Cheviot Hills… so all features of oil drilling and production must be strictly controlled to eliminate any possible odor, noise, hazards, unsightliness, or extensive truck traffic.”(). The Packard Site and Doheny site are located in the Wilshire community. They are located in the middle of commercial and residential districts of the city. The oil rigs for each site are covered in design features that act as enclosures that house the sites. The sites also have strict operating hours(7am-7pm) and have switched engines that have reduced noise levels. These are all design features that are meant to keep the public unaware of the damage that these sites are still capable of, despite their seemingly non-harmful appearances.
In contrast to the well maintained sites in West L.A. and Wilshire, the production sites in South L.A. and Wilmington have significantly less protective features and are located dangerously close to homes, schools, health care facilities, parks, etc. In South L.A. and Wilmington there is an average separation between production sites and public areas of 140 feet. Three sites that exemplifies this lack of regulation are the Jefferson Site, Murphy site and the Warren E&P Sites. The Jefferson Site, which is located in South L.A. is within a 60 foot radius of a surringding housing complex. During the initial construction of the site, it was regulated that to protect the surrounding areas two adjacent lots must be maintained to act as buffer between production operations and residents. Yet, in time this regulation was soon over looked and the lots were used to expand the oil production site. The Murphy Site is another instance of unfortunate placement. It is located less than 100 feet from a clinic for HIV patients as well as a couple hundred feet from of an apartment complex and senior citizen homes.
The was also supposed to be equipped with urban camouflage and sound proofing technology, however despite requests from locales these improvements have never been enacted. The Warren E&P Site is one of the largest oil production sites in the city, with approximately 90 active wells. The facilitators behind the well wanted to implement 540 new wells. However, despite there being a massive increase, which correlates to numerous potential risks the city required minimal review of the process to take place. Meaning that it was very likely that there would be many harmful effects that would be overlooked. The sites in West Los Angeles and Wilmington have been neglected in enforcing regulations and improvements, in contrast to their wealthier counterparts where these issues seem to be of the utmost importance.
A significant discrepancy in how each of these areas of Los Angeles are treated is also the priority that are put on complaints and violations in areas respectively. Comparing South L.A./Wilmington to West L.A./Wilshire displays a huge disparity. South L.A. sites alone had over 40 more violations recorded and 300 more complaints in comparison to their West L.A. counterparts. The regulations that are put in place regarding urban oil production are designed to protect the public health. These violations and negations put certain neighborhoods at a higher risk than others, and this inequality is based on differences in income above all else. The types of things that are included in these violations are abuse of chemical compounds in well stimulation, neglection in reporting certain operations, and leaks of harmful emissions and volatile compounds. Ignoring these violations can result in extreme harm to residents near those facilities and unfortunately it is happening at increasing rates across lower income areas.
Whenever oil is produced near homes, schools, daycares, and other sensitive population centers, residents are put at risk.With 17 sites across the City of Los Angeles operating hazardously close (within 1,500 feet) to these kinds of sensitive population centers, oil operations present a significant citywide risk to public health that decision-makers have failed to effectively address. Although oil production occurs citywide, the risk is much higher in lower-income areas. Oil drilling occurs closer to homes, has fewer protective features and is subject to more regulatory violations and complaints. The number of violations in and of itself is startling, but the nature of the violations raises additional concerns. These concerns pertain to equality between low income citizens and high income citizens and the view that regulatory bodies have of each of these demographics. By implementing citywide standards that are fully protective of human health, Los Angeles can not only correct this environmental injustice but also ensure that all of its residents are protected from oil operations, and disincentives the exploitation of the land and its people.
Our addiction to the oil production industry over the past century has taken a massively detrimental toll on the city of Los Angeles. Creating policies and effective management to mitigate these effects is the main issue that needs to be addressed. However, like most things, that is far easier said than done. Fossil fuel as a commodity is hard to manage not only in the sense of who can claim responsibility, but also our societies unwillingness to let go of it. The fetiziation of commodities, as Marx discusses, is a dangerous phenomenon when linked to a product as detrimental as fossil fuels. The word fetish can be defined as an object that people fixate on or are obsessed with and that prevents them from seeing the true effect behind it. Marx believed that when people try to understand the world in which they live, they fixate on commodities, what the demand for a product is, and so on. According to Marx commodities are fetishes that keep people from seeing the truth about the society they live in. As a society we have become accustomed to a standard of living that is perpetuated by the presence of the product of fossil fuel. Easy access to energy is a luxury that many of us cannot imagine surviving without. We are to obsessed with this luxury that we neglect to realize its long term detrimental effects.
This obsession is what incentivises oil production companies to extract the resource at such a high rate. They end up needing to turn to methods of exploitation such as well stimulation and drilling in unconventional sites to meet the demand of the product. A concept put forth by marxist geographer David Harvey reflects the process of this obsession. The term is “Accumulation by Dispossession”. Some of the examples Harvey presents in his original essay are “the commodification and privatization of land and the forceful expulsion of peasant populations; conversion of various forms of property rights[...]into exclusive private property rights; suppression of rights to the commons; commodification of labour power”(Harvey 74). The term essentially refers to the ‘accumulation’ of capital by the few through ‘dispossessing’ the public and private entities of their own wealth, land, or other resources. These processes can be summarized as large institutions taking advantage of those who rely on them. These institutions manipulate global and domestic affairs and use commodification and privatization to control the accumulation of capital.
This begs the same question as before, how do we manage such a commodity. One that society is unwilling to part with and that can’t be easily assigned responsibility to. In the 1960s, ecologist Garrett Hardin came up with the his famed analogy of a “commons”. The composure of the analogy was in an effort to support his claim that as the population of humans grows, there would be growing stress on finite resources at global level, with the unavoidable result of overexploitation and evental ruin. He titled this analogy the Tragedy of the Commons. More specifically, this phrase means that an increase in human population increases pressure on limited resources, which subsequently puts any hope of a sustainable society at risk.
Yet, while Hardin’s intent and idea is logical, realistically it's a controversial system to implement. The tragedy of the commons may partially be averted by private property, or something similar. But the air and waters on Earth cannot realistically be institutionalised, and even if it could, it’s not likely human nature would let that last. The issue must be prevented by different means, such as incentivizing policies or taxing devices that make it cheaper for the polluter to efficiently get rid of his pollutants than to dispose of them untreated. Yet, for instance, the operator of a factory next to a stream, whose property extends to the middle of the stream, often has trouble seeing why it is not their natural right to pollute waters in their own property. This plays into the notion of how as a collective society we perceive nature and its value to us.
We commodifiey any aspect of nature that helps advance our own agendas. The commodification of nature is discussed in the Bridge reading, Material Worlds: Natural Resources, Resource Geography and the Material Economy. As a society, it is necessary for us look further down the road and adjust ourselves accordingly. Without the implementation of proper laws and policies society will run itself into the ground there is not enough being done to combat the world systems that have been established. The current policies surrounding these issues require elaborate modifications to adapt to this new perception of the commons.
Cite this page
Urban Oil Drilling Essa. (2021, Mar 23).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
Avi Bhaya Intro to Sociology Professor Colin Jerolmack
In any society, all members share resources. Globally, all countries and nations share resources sprouting from the earth: food, water, even oxygen. Slowly, several trees throughout the planet in places like the Amazon forest have been chopped down by large corporations so that they can be used to create merchandise (furniture, paper, etc.) and make a profit. But they are slowly wiping out one of the most important resources to the planet: oxygen.
Without oxygen, humans fail to survive. By taking down these trees, these corporations and people in positions of power have become responsible in some part for the rising CO 2 levels in the atmosphere. Another example of a resource that has been used for profit is fossil fuels. They are mined from the earth and sold without any regard as to what the usage of fossil fuels does to the planet. The usage of fossil fuels also contributes to the rising CO 2 levels in the atmosphere. The other issue with fossil fuels is that it is a finite resource? this is not something reproducible. Once it is used up, there’s no getting it back. It would take thousands of years for dead organisms such as animals or humans to fossilize and be available for use. These are examples of a phenomenon known as “the tragedy of the commons,” a plight faced by societies in their poor usage of resources. In this circumstance, certain individuals, generally of a higher class, use resources in a manner that solely benefits their own selfinterest, rather than in favor of the collective good.
In his article, “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Garrett Hardin uses different scenarios to provide discourse for the conclusion reached in an article on the future of nuclear war. Towards the end of the article “The Test Ban and Security” by Jerome B. Wiesner and Herbert F. York, the authors make the claim that “both sides in the arms race are thus confronted by the dilemma of steadily increasing military power and steadily decreasing national security. It is our considered professional judgement that this dilemma has no technical solution” (Wiesner, York, 21). Hardin finds issue with this statement? in fact, this is the subject of his article.
Hardin takes issue with the claim that there is “no technical solution” (Wiesner, York, 21). He applies the concept to the issue of overpopulation, in which he makes the claim that people who believe new technological advancements are the solution to overpopulation are wrong. He compares the different kinds of “good” that different people are in pursuit of? “To one person it is wilderness, to another it is ski lodges for thousands. To one it is estuaries to nourish ducks for hunters to shoot? to another it is factory land. Comparing one good with another is, we usually say, impossible because goods are incommensurable. Incommensurables cannot be compared” (Hardin, 168). Hardin contradicts this idea and states that in real life, incommensurables actually can be compared. All that is required is merely a weighing scale.
Using a model of a pasture, Hardin begins an application of the concept. “It is to be expected that each herdsman will try to keep as many cattle as possible on the commons. Such an arrangement may work reasonably satisfactorily for centuries because tribal wars, poaching, and disease keep the numbers of both man and beast well below the carrying capacity of the land. Finally, however, comes the day when the longdesired goal of social stability becomes a reality. At this point, the inherent logic of the commons remorselessly generates tragedy” (Hardin, 169). Hardin’s model provides a strong picture for us to understand the tragedy of the commons because it presents a scenario that helps us understand the concept in both smaller and larger contexts. He elaborates on his model by explaining how each man in the pasture is trying to give themself boundless profit in a space that can not contain that. Because of the freedom provided to each man, they will obviously not stop to maximize their profit, which will eventually lead to a collapse of the system.
In Herschel Elliott’s article, “A General Statement on the Tragedy of the Commons,” he provides a more simplistic view of the concept while also responding to Hardin’s article. He notes how several environmentalists and ethics professionals ignore the essay. Elliott’s article is meant to provide a more general explanation of the concept so that it can reach a wider audience. Elliott’s article is also beneficial to its readers because it provides a simpler approach to the moral aspect of the tragedy of the commons? something also covered by Hardin. “ Only stubborn and muddled thinkers, however, can make believe that the world is infinite. The delusion of its infinity blinds them to the fact that all human activity must take place within the narrow range of resource use that the Earth can sustain… The author conducts a simpleseeming thought experiment in which he proves that any ethics is mistaken if it allows a growing population steadily to increase its exploitation of the ecosystem which supports it.” (Elliot, 516) The tragedy of the commons is more complicated than simple human action? it doesn’t have to do with habit, but more with thinking. The tragedy of the commons is something that can be reversed, theoretically, but it never would because we, as a species, are not meant to last.
These two articles relate to each other, firstly because one is written in indirect response to the other, but also because while Elliott’s example is meant to be a simplification, it actually serves as an expansion of Hardin’s work. Elliott’s article is also more useful, in a sense, because of its reach to a wider audience. That being said, Hardin’s article is still incredibly useful in understanding the tragedy of the commons and does a better job of applying it to the world.
Joanna Burger and Michael Gochfeld analyzed the tragedy of the commons in their 1998 article “The Tragedy of the Commons 30 Years Later.” They explain how Hardin’s paper became more than a staple of sociology and economic theory but that it was the birth of a discipline. Even his naysayers still affirm his thoughts on the dangers of the relation between resources and a population. The article’s main focus is on providing examples of the tragedy of the commons in practice.
One of the examples of the tragedy of the commons in the real world is that of fisheries. The authors are quick to note the broad scale of this example and that it can be local, regional or global. Fisheries are both a good and bad example of resource management because different fisheries take a different approach towards how they manage common resources. Some even acknowledge the tragedy of the commons without even realizing it in practice. They understand the dangers of wiping out their resources too fast in the pursuit of a profit and so make sure to ration and grow their resource so that they can create a greater, longterm profit. This is generally contained to smaller fisheries, as larger, more global fisheries have unrestricted access to the planet’s seas. Burger and Gochfeld note that regionally specific species, such as “shrimp farming along the tropical coastlines is one important example of a landmargin commons issue where a combination of private, state, and communal property rights prevail” (Burger and Gochfeld, 10). Since this species is in high demand, it has turned the regions into a farm and in turn damaged these communities. Larger corporations have the power and the funding to push out the locally based fishers financially. Eventually, these farms become incapable of providing profit to the companies and they are deserted, leaving these places and communities damaged. These companies, in pursuit of profit, cause serious harm to the communities surrounding their farm sites as well as the species being farmed.
Burger and Gochfeld provide an example of a failed use of common resources. They elaborate on the “ inshore marine resources [which] are managed by state governments as a trust for all citizens. However, even within this governmentregulated system fishermen can cooperate locally to preserve a commonpool resource” (Burger and Gochfeld, 10). The authors go on to take into consideration the commonpool resource of lobsters. These are a relatively easy species to harvest, which means that anyone has a right to harvest as many of these creatures as they feel. “In Maine, the state government does not limit the number of licenses, but the lobstermen practice exclusion through a system of traditional fishing rights. Acceptance into the lobster fishing community is essential before someone can fish, and thereafter one can extract lobsters only in the territory held by that community. The end result has been a sustainable harvest and higher catches of larger, commercially valuable lobsters by fishermen in the exclusion communities” (Burger and Gochfeld, 10).
These two examples shine a bright on Hardin’s concept. They address the use of smart, business savvy thinking while also addressing the environmental aspects of the issue and show through actual practice that the concept and Hardin’s musings can help provide some kind of guidance when it comes to the use of a commonpool resource. In this instance, the resource can be reproduced but in the case of the planet’s air quality, the resource has increasingly become more and more dwindled, essentially reaching a point of no return. By depleting these resources, such as fossil fuels, not only is the potential for greater profit lost but also causes harm to the communities from which said resources are harvested. Even worse, depending on the resource in question, it can cause damage to other communities outside of the situation and cause a chain reaction that would begin to slowly but surely damage more communities, creating a chain of global consequence.
Cite this page
Avi Bhaya Intro to Sociology Professor Colin Jerolmack. (2021, Mar 23).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
Tragedy of the Commons
In 1968, many believed that a free-market will self- regulate. Individuals will compete with one another, which will benefit the consumers. However, Garrett Hardin believed otherwise. No outside regulations will cause a depletion of the resources. At this time, Hardin created the term “The Tragedy of the Commons”.
Tragedy of the Commons describes a problem where each person will try to benefit themselves using a public resource. The common is the public resource that is shared by everyone. Since the resource is public, it is not controlled or regulated by anyone or organization. The tragedy is that the resource will eventually all be used up. In the pursue of their short-term goals, in the future, everyone will be impacted and lose the resource. However, individuals do not care of the consequences as they get to personally benefit, while the consequence is shared amongst everyone. There is a disparity between present and future rewards, and between individual and collective interests.
One of the most common examples of tragedy of the commons is sea life being overcaught. In Defining a free market: drivers of unsustainability as illustrated with an example of shrimp farming in the mangrove forest in South East Asia, the article begins with the idea of growth and sustainability. There is a limited amount of resources, which will soon run out due to the exponential growth of the population. The limited amount of resources cannot keep up with the population. However, due to the advancement of technology, many were not worried. It gave societies the illusions that there are no problems with resources. The article continues on with the modern problem that aids in the tragedy of the commons. When people use a common, they gain the benefits; however, there is no punishment or consequence for taking and reaping the benefits of the common.
In section 4 of the article, it starts explaining the problem of Vietnam’s popular investment of shrimp farming. The typical way of shrimp farming is unsustainable. The action destroys the site, polluting the waters there and cutting down the trees at that location. The area becomes unusable, so they just continue on to another site. This means that the mangroves will continuously be destroyed. In the cases of storms and tsunamis, the lack of mangroves will decrease the stability in the costs and will increase the damage done to the area. Since shrimp farming is very profitable, it’s unlikely that many will stop. The loop of “investor-activity-profit-investor” only leads to more people farming. With the introduction of taxes, the loop can be broken. The tax that they have to pay could discourage some in farming, making them believe that the profit they make will be lost to the tax placed by the government. The article also discusses the idea of including new trading regulations that will also discourage many in continuing to farm. In the rest of the paper, they continue to discuss the requirements to prevent unsustainability and how democracy is needed to provide the “adaptive management” needed (Sverdrup, et al.).
A common does not just has to be something from the environment. A less common example is the internet. In A pathway to solving the Wi-Fi tragedy of the commons in apartment blocks, the common is Wi-Fi that is being shared between residents living near one another. With the increase of tablets and smart phone uses, Wi-Fi Access Points has also increased. With the saturation of these points, the “potential for co-channel and adjacent channel interference with nearby devices” increases. Wi-Fi uses an unlicensed spectrum, which is a common. This means that with the overuse of Wi-Fi by the residents in an apartment block, Wi-Fi gets congested and everyone ends up with a slow internet. The article describes the tragedy of the commons as only when the system is over- congested. This is because when the access points are over congested, most of the system’s data will be used to just control the congestion. Due to the individual use of the access point in their self-interest, the resource of Wi-Fi is decreasing (den Hartog, et al.).
Like the first article, the researchers devise a potential solution to the tragedy of this common. Both articles believe that the solution to the problem is by having all of the people involved in the common to collaborate and act in an unselfish way. This collaboration requires a regulator. For Wi-Fi, the researchers propose operators and a central controller to agree on a resource sharing policy. The article then describes the specifics of the experiment and the solution they propose. They used a model of a typical apartment block. Each building has four floors and a total of 75 apartments. The experiment proved that Wi-Fi over congestion is currently a problem in over populated apartment blocks. Adding Access Points does not solve the problem, rather, it has little to no effect. It also proves that collaborations are needed between AP operators. New algorithms can be used to equal out the resources used by every resident (den Hartog, et al.).
Tragedy of the commons do not only occur between humans. They frequently occur in nature. In Phylogenetic patterns of tragedy of commons in intraspecific root competition, the researchers observe plant species that do and do not perform tragedy of the commons. Plant root competition is important as the placement of their roots greatly impacts the plants. If their roots are too close to the surface, the plant will not be able to gain any nutrients; however, if the root is too deep into the soil, the resources that is needed for reproduction of the species could be taken up for short term benefits. Research has shown that “many plant species follow the “tragedy of the commons” rooting strategy”. The article describes an experiment done by O’Brien et al. in another paper. The result of the experiment showed a case of tragedy of the commons.
Between plants of the same species, individual plants obtained more nutrients than necessary instead of letting all individuals take their necessary amount. This experiment showed that the plants abandoned the future by decreasing their effort placed into reproducing. In another experiment, instead of taking every nutrient for themselves, individuals shared the nutrients between each plant, maximizing the amount of nutrient taken from the soil. In their conclusion, the article states that for root competitions, tragedy of the commons is not random for plant species. Using current and past data, the researchers have only found root overproduction, and therefore a case of tragedy of the commons, between the same species of plants in legumes. Since there are numerous plant species, a definitive conclusion that encompasses all plant species cannot be made. More research has to be done (Smy?ka, Jan, and Tomá Herben).
The three articles all prove the existence of tragedy of the commons in nature and in human society. For humans, people are not responsible for the resources they use. They do not care about the consequences that will impact everyone since they alone will benefit. If an individual alone stops farming shrimp or using Wi-Fi, they will be the only one suffering. They are the only ones losing profit or benefits while everyone around them continue to exploit the environment. For the plants, they, like human, focus on surviving in the present. At the expense of future generations, the plants that perform in tragedy of the commons used up all of the resources for themselves. Since the cost of the production is not imminent, all three proves that humans (and plants) let the consequences be placed into the future.
Poaching certain animals for their body parts is illegal. Nevertheless, people continue to poach due to the immense profit it brings to them. Poachers overexploited many animals, making them endangered. It is possible that with the overexploiting of these animals, soon the animals will become extinct. This means that the animals that once brought them great wealth will no longer exist. This is a typical case of the tragedy of the commons. A more specific example is the poaching of tigers. Tigers are endangered due to loss of their habitat and killings. Some humans kill tigers for revenge (a tiger has killed someone they know or has killed their livestock) and others do it for profit. They are killed and then sold in the black market. Since the demand is immensely high, the prices of the parts greatly increase. In many cultures, tiger parts are very valuable. Tiger skins and bones are valuable in the black market because they are like status symbols, showing off the buyer’s wealth. They end up as carpets or some sort of luxury home decoration. Tiger bone are used to make tiger bone wine. Tiger bone wine is an expensive Chinese medicine that is believed to give the drinker a tiger’s strength and good health. The luxury items are sometimes given to higher ups within corporation so that they can get promoted (used for bribery).
This leads to the other reason for the demand of tiger parts. In addition to tiger bones and skin, tiger teeth and claws are also used in traditional Asian medicine. These parts are thought to be able to cure almost anything, such as fevers, headaches, laziness and heal the liver and kidneys. Tiger bones are thought to heal arthritis, and other diseases. Moreover, tigers’ whiskers, teeth, and their claws are thought to bring the owners protection and good luck. With these demands, poachers continuously kill tigers at an exponential rate. The tiger population is unable to support the poaching, so the population continue to decrease. Poachers are unwilling to stop since if they do, they believe that they will be the only ones to stop. This means that other poachers will continue to kill and gain all of the benefits while the people who stopped will get nothing in return. In this case, the commons are the tigers and the tragedy is the tiger’s population becoming endangered. If nothing changes soon there will no tigers to poach.
With the tigers, there is still time to save them and increase their population again, but in American history, there are plenty of animals (and plants) that are extinct due to humans. The dodo birds are another example of the tragedy of the commons that has cause the resource to never come back. The dodo birds lived on Mauritius, an island on the Indian Ocean.
Without any predators, they did not need the ability of flight. They did not need a method to protect their eggs, so their eggs were on the ground. However, this made them easy targets for the humans that arrived on the island. As the humans hunted the birds, the animals that the humans brought with them (rats, pigs, etc.) ate the dodo birds’ eggs. The dodo birds’ habitats were also destroyed. The forest was torn down and replaced with areas for crops. As the living population of dodo birds decreased for food, humans also eliminated the method that would have replenished the dodo bird population. This caused the dodo bird to become endangered. At that time, many did not think to preserve the dodo birds’ population. Humans only focused on the fact that they wanted to eat the dodo birds. Like poachers today, they most likely thought that if they did not hunt the birds for themselves, others would hunt even more. This means that the same amount of birds would have been hunted, the only difference is who received the benefits from using the resource. As the humans continued to over- use the resource, it can disappear. That is what happened to the dodos. They were overhunted, and the last bird was eventually killed.
Not only did this leave the humans with no more dodo birds to hunt, the extinction of the birds also greatly impacted other species on the island. Calvaria major is a plant on the island that has a population count of 13. All 13 of these trees originated from more than 300 years ago. The trees were producing well-formed seeds; however, no new trees grew. The reason for the lack of trees developing is due to the nature of the seeds. The seeds have a thick outer layer that does not allow the embryo inside to expand. It turns out that the close to extinction of the plat is due to the extinction of the dodo. Calvaria major and the dodo has a mutual relationship, where both benefited. When the dodo birds weren’t extinct, they would have eaten the trees’ pits. In turn, the dodo bird would have swallowed the seeds and crushed the outer layer of the seeds. This lets the embryo break through the shell. When the seed leaves the birds’ digestive system, the seed would have been planted and germinated (started to grow). Without the dodos, the seed are unable to break the shell and therefore were not able to germinate (Stanley). Due to the tragedy of one common, another common was also close to disappearing.
Due to actions of the past and president, future generations will suffer. People are unwilling to use less of the resource as many believe that it will not change the situation. They think that they will do it, if and only if, others are doing the same. The tragedy of the commons describes the fact that for short term gains, many are willing to sacrifice the future. Without any regulations, our resources- water, land, animals, plants- will continue to get worst or disappear.
Cite this page
Tragedy of the Commons. (2021, Mar 23).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
The Chinook Salmon Runs in the Pacific Northwest
The Chinook salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest are a cornerstone of the region’s ecosystem and economy. However, overfishing and pollution of the surrounding environment have put the Chinook salmon’s future at risk and endangered the health of populations that regularly consume the fish (Johnson et al. 2007). Recent government regulations have attempted to reverse the effects of these threats but with mixed results. A truly sustainable solution will need to address the ecosystem and economy of the salmon separately by enacting stricter pollution restriction schemes, and increasing dependence on new technologies in genetically modified and farmed salmon fisheries.
Garrett Hardin’s essay, The Tragedy of the Commons, provides a framework with which to address the depletion of the salmon runs. Hardin defines the “commons” as a limited, freely accessible resource that any rational, self-interested man would exploit for his individual benefit (Hardin 1968). The individual decision to continue to exploit the resource is a result of a cost-benefit analysis that determines the individual benefit outweighs the added burden to the commons, which is shared amongst all of society. When all rational, self-interested men act in this same manner it leads to what is called “the tragedy of the commons”—or the destruction of the commons for all. Any appeal to conscience to act in the collective interest, that is preserve the commons, leaves a rational, self-interested man in a double-bind: either ignore the collective interest and be “condemned…for not acting like a responsible citizen” or act in the collective interest and be labeled a “simpleton” by one’s peers (Hardin 1968). Hardin proposes that certain social issues that exemplify this tragedy— he uses overpopulation as an example—do not have any purely technical solutions, solutions that depend only on a change in scientific technique. Instead, they require non-technical ones, too. These non-technical solutions are a change in human values and morality and will allow for society to enter into mutually coercive agreements, such as laws and regulations, that do act in the collective interest to conserve the commons.
By Hardin’s definition, the supply of Chinook salmon act as the “commons” that have gradually been depleted. For hundreds of years the salmon have served “as a powerful cultural and social symbol for tribal and non-tribal people in the Pacific Northwest” (Cleary 2007). It is estimated that pre-commercialization, the Chinook salmon runs in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers harvested by Native American peoples exceeded 8.5 million pounds annually (Yoshiyama et al. 1998). For the technology available and the size of the population, this was a sustainable annual catch that did not rely on methods that caused adverse harm to the environment. The Gold Rush brought an influx of newcomers to the Western and Northwestern states and provided an environment for the rational, self-interested man of Hardin’s argument to capitalize on the seemingly endless supply of salmon. The peak of the commercial salmon trade from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River runs occurred in the 1880s when more than 10 million pounds of salmon were caught annually (Yoshiyama et al. 1998).
Canneries were established along the Pacific Coast to ensure that as much fish as possible was harvested and shipped around the globe—greatly increasing the population size that demanded Chinook salmon. However, by 1891 the annual harvest had dropped to a fraction of its peak, and the majority of canneries shuttered before the turn of the century (Yoshiyama et al. 1998). Chinook salmon catches have continued to fluctuate year-to-year in the past century. Currently, the Endangered Species Act lists two Chinook salmon populations as endangered and seven as threatened. A particularly notable collapse occurred in 2008 which the National Marine Fisheries Service declared the “largest collapse of salmon stock in 40 years” (Barringer 2008). The commercial salmon fisheries acted as Hardin predicted in his essay, whereby the rational, self-interested men depended on what they falsely believed to be the “inexhaustible resources of the oceans” (Hardin 1968).
In addition to overfishing, the Chinook salmon population is threatened by pollution and habitat loss. Chinook salmon spawn in rivers and estuaries, then travel out to the Pacific Ocean to mature. Therefore, if the journey from estuary or hatchery to ocean is impeded by any man-made structure, the salmon cannot fully grow and reproduce. Dams and water diversion schemes are methods used to manage farmland irrigation and provide hydroelectric power, both of which interfere with the salmon’s natural migration. Secondly, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a classification of synthetic chemicals that have historically been used in manufacturing, primarily due to their longevity and wide application.
Recently, they have been used by researchers as benchmarks of contamination of marine ecosystems. Chinook salmon that spend a significant amount of their time near urban or agricultural centers have higher tissue and stomach PCB levels than salmon hatched in undeveloped estuaries (Johnson et al. 2007). The levels of PCB contamination in salmon can also be traced through the food chain to killer whales. Killer whales consume more than 500 pounds of salmon per day, and the levels of PCB in their tissues is beyond what has been proven to cause immune system damage in other marine species (Cone 2009). Humans fish and consume Chinook salmon from the same populations as these killer whales. While a complete understanding of the effects of PCBs on the human body has yet to be established, The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a branch of the Center for Disease Control, lists PCBs as likely carcinogenic substances. Both depletion and contamination of the Chinook salmon runs can be linked either directly or indirectly to actions of self-interested individuals or companies disregarding the collective interest because they lack any incentive to alter their cost-benefit analysis.
The steady destruction of the Chinook salmon runs is an issue that falls under Hardin’s classification of having no purely technical solution. Attempts by modern commercial fisheries to improve their models to yield more salmon each year will necessarily fail as improving that technology will only make it easier to further exploit the commons. Current non-technical solutions, however, have also proved to be ineffective.
The importance of the salmon runs to the economy of the Pacific Northwest was realized early in the state’s histories, and preliminary fishing regulations and protection laws were enacted before the start of the 20th century (Yoshiyama et al. 1998). The passage of laws and regulations such as these is what Hardin describes in his essay as an example of mutual coercion. By an understanding of the need to preserve a commons, rational, self-motivated individuals willingly enter into an agreement that requires them by law to work in the collective interest, and therefore avoid the double-bind discussed earlier. However, the continued fluctuation of Chinook salmon runs during the last century shows how ineffective the laws were, partially because of how narrowly they attempted to address the issue. While regulations to protect the salmon runs were in place, numerous dams were constructed throughout the region and communities were permitted to drain increasing amounts of water from the sources the salmon rely on (Yoshiyama et al. 1998). Additionally, although commercial Chinook salmon fishing is under federal restrictions, the addition of the salmon’s predators to the Endangered Species Act—namely killer whales—has introduced a unique competition between human predators and other marine predators. The net removal of Chinook salmon from the environment has actually increased in the past 40 years because of the growing number of killer whales, despite an effort to rehabilitate the salmon population (Chasco et al. 2017). While a solution to the Chinook salmon depletion will depend on both technical and non-technical solutions, they will need to be far more aggressive than current efforts.
To allow the Chinook salmon population to interact with its ecosystem naturally, society will need to truly commit to cleaning up the pollutants throughout their environment and shift to accepting and enjoying farmed and genetically modified salmon species. An argument that has long been purported by many vegans, is simply stop eating salmon. This, however, is an appeal to consciousness, which Hardin points out leads to guilt, which never accomplishes the desired goal (Hardin 1968). Veganism is also not a realistically enforceable solution, which is a criterion of mutually agreed upon coercion. Therefore, to continue including salmon in our diet while continuing to support the wild species that depend on Chinook salmon, I propose we will need to separate populations of salmon. One for human consumption, and another for the natural environment. This avoids the competition between humans and the salmon’s other predators, say killer whales or pinnipeds, which would never resolve itself in the collective interest—that is, preserving the runs for all.
The technical aspect of the solution to the depletion of Chinook salmon requires two branches: increase the efficiency of environmental clean-up procedures and work to perfect a genetically modified salmon species that is safe and easily farmable. Widespread efforts to improve salmon habitat have begun, but the pollution of the Earth’s waterways continues to be a major concern (Chasco et al. 2017). Further restrictions or financial incentives to ensure clean water will not only improve the health of the salmon, but also of the endangered species that depend on the salmon as a food source. Secondly, and more specifically, improving techniques for fish farming and utilizing genetic modifications to maximize the salmon product could decrease human dependance on wild salmon populations. Current environmental concern about fish farming comes from the unknown and possibly catastrophic ramifications of a farmed fish escaping captivity and breeding in the wild (Walsh 2011). This concern extends even more so to genetically modified salmon populations.
There are unknown risks associated with continuing to pursue fish farming of genetically modified salmon species, which is why technological advancements would be instrumental to this solution. AquaBounty is a company based in Massachusetts which has spent nearly two decades developing a version of Atlantic salmon that uses a gene from Chinook salmon to speed up the time to maturity, meaning fewer resources are needed to farm these particular fish (Walsh 2011). The company says they ensure none of their fish are at risk of escapement by raising them in completely enclosed tanks, which has the added benefit of preventing the spread of parasites, common at traditional fish farms, to the wild salmon population (Waltz 2017). Similar research could be done to develop the most commercially viable Chinook salmon, raised entirely in fish farms, by altering certain genes within the species or transplanting genes from others. Improving Chinook salmon farming to be a cleaner and faster process will allow the industry to grow with increasing demand, without increasing negative effects on the environment. The applications of genetic engineering are still not fully explored, but advancement in this field within the fishery industry could lead to cheaper and equally nutritious sources of protein for an ever-expanding population.
Education and a shift in society’s perception of the fishing industry are instrumental to the survival of the Chinook salmon runs, as what Hardin describes as non-technical solutions. The fish farming industry is already a disruptive issue for many Americans. According to Nell Halse, a spokesperson for the fish farming company Cooke Aquaculture, “I can’t see an [aquaculture company] that would go out and hurt the market by taking on that contentious issue [transgenic species]” (Walsh 2011). Interestingly, in this particular case, government legislation is ahead of public opinion with regards to genetically modified food sources. As of 2016, the Food & Drug Administration approved AquaBounty salmon safe for human consumption (Waltz 2017), and in 2019 permitted the fish to be imported and raised in US-based fisheries. More research done into genetically engineered foods will lead to a public more informed about the benefits of this new technology, and hopefully steer them towards accepting a more sustainable source of Chinook salmon.
The historic Chinook Salmon runs have for years been threatened by over-fishing and pollution and destruction of their habitat. Garett Hardin’s argument within The Tragedy of the Commons provides a framework with which to analyze this environmental issue. Existing non-technical solutions have been ineffectual as they have not widely convinced the rational, self-interested individual to act in accordance with the common good. Further exploration of the possibilities of genetic engineering could provide a technological approach to this problem, by differentiating populations of Chinook salmon for human consumption and for the natural environment. This will require a huge shift in public opinion and trust in a new technology which has historically been viewed with disgust and at times as a threat. Hardin acknowledges the need for education to fully integrate policies that rely on mutual coercion to prolong the health of a commons we all heavily rely on.
Cite this page
The Chinook Salmon Runs in the Pacific Northwest. (2021, Mar 23).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
Policy Punctuation is an Event that Normally Comes about Suddenly
A focus event or policy punctuation is an event that normally comes about suddenly. These events also bring with them, harmful effects to the environment and society and are usually contained to a certain geographic location/city/community. Issue saliency can be defined as the amount of awareness brought to the issue (aka focusing event), or how relevant the people feel the issue is. One example of this that we talked about in class would be the Donora, PA incident. The towns zinc plant and steel mill continuously pumped out tons of toxic smoke, leading to the people of Donora waking up one morning in a cloud of yellow smog (Murray, 2009). The smog is said to have caused a burning sensation in the throats, eyes, and noses of the residents of Donora (Murray, 2009). This specific policy punctuation led to the creation of the Clean Air Act in1963 and ultimately, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970.
The Clean Air Act was passed in 1963 with major amendments coming in both 1970. When it was originally passed in 1963 the act was mostly research based and also supported research on air pollution, as well as provided some money so that individual states could create their own pollution control agencies. At this point in the Clean Air Act’s existence it did not really do much to solve the problem of air pollution, but more or less just got the ball rolling on the issue. The real change started in 1970 with the amendments to the Act that created the Environmental Protection Agency. The 1970 amendments occurred largely in part due to increased saliency on the issue. In regard to the effectiveness of the Clean Air Act, the Act has been very effective. According to Lisa Jackson, a former administrator at the EPA, “The total benefits of the Clean Air Act amount to more than 40 times the cost of regulation. For every dollar we have spent we get more than $40 of benefits in return.” (earthjustice.org, no year given). Another staggering statistic that shows the effectiveness is that in the Clean Air Act’s first 20 years it prevented more than 200,000 premature deaths and 18 million cases of child respiratory illness (earthjustice.org, no year given). It could be very problematic to wait for a policy punctuation on climate change to draft climate change policy, because at that point it could possibly be way too late to reverse the damage done by the climate change.
Common pool resources, in regard to scarcity and excludability, are goods or resources that are made available to everybody in abundance, but have the possibility to be limited if a high cost occurs. The tragedy of commons occurs in a system where resources are shared and where the individuals act independently of one another based on their own self-interest. The tragedy of commons leads to major problems when these individuals, self-interest is not in accordance with the common good of all other people, therefore leading to the overharvesting of said resources (i.e. forests, fisheries, etc.). Also, there is no one to solve the tragedy of commons, but sometimes private property (privatization), state owned property, and common property can work to solve this issue. State owned property tends to work well in countries that are already developed, but not in currently developing countries. State owned property also runs into problems of corruption and insufficient state budgets. Privatization or private property tends to work really well when the person who owns the property is engaged and active in their community, but faces challenges due to the fact that the land is private property and the data needed to fix the tragedy of commons is not available for public use. Common property works sometimes because it allows for the community to own the land as a whole rather than one person or small group of people making all the decisions about the land.
Common property can certainly run into problems when everybody in the community has conflicting perspectives on how the land should be used. There are many approaches that can be used to potentially solve the tragedy of commons but three specific ones are collective-action arrangements, monitoring, and graduated sanctions and there are pros and cons to each of them. Collective-action agreements are when the stakeholders of a specific common pool resource come together and make the rules and regulations, as well as adapt other regulations, for a specific common pool resource. This can work if all the stakeholders work closely together and hold each other accountable to the rules and regulations, but they can also fail due to the fact that most stakeholders will never see the others on a regular basis if they are not close with one another. Another con to the collective-action arrangements is that the stakeholders creating the regulations could possibly create rules and regulations that do not benefit the protection of the common pool resource at all, but rather rules the benefit the stakeholders instead. Monitoring is when people continuously audit or check the use of common pool resources and then report to the people using the common pool resource. A pro of this approach would be if someone who is not using the resource is auditing the common pool resource and making sure the appropriators of the resource are not overharvesting.
Having an outside source audit allows for more accountability to be held. One con to the monitoring approach would be if the people auditing the use of the resource are the same people using the resource. This leads to problems if they lie about how much the resource is actually being used. Once again, self-interest plays a huge role in this con of monitoring. Graduated sanctions are punishments (normally fines) are given out to people who do not follow the rules and regulations set for the common pool resource. One pro of sanctions is that they are given out and put into effect very quickly so that the person/company does not have time to harm the common pool resource and a con of sanctions is that most people do not care if they have sanctions placed on them, so they will not follow the sanctions to begin with. A complex resource governance system is a system that allows multiple actors (people, local governments, municipalities, etc.) to decide how certain resources are used. An example would be the California River Basin. California is scarce on water and so the complex resource governance system is used to determine how the water is used and divided up.
Public goods are goods that are both non-excludable and non-rivalrous, which means that anybody has the opportunity to use it without having to directly pay for it (i.e. clean air or national defense). Public goods also tend to be created from market failures. Public goods problems and the free rider dilemma are very similar in nature in the fact that in both cases people are using the good without having to pay for it, which then could lead to the under-production or overuse of the good. In regard to climate change, climate change is a public goods problem because nobody is excluded from “using” the climate and it is also free (i.e. clean air), and also the climate is the result of people’s behavior. When it comes to solving the issue of climate change, the contributions to solve the issue carry tremendous costs such as, an increased price of energy, greater restrictions, and less economic productivity. All of these costs are very unappealing to countries, which could lead them to free ride on the climate change initiative. Some countries are willing to pay the fine for not adhering to climate change policy, because at the end of the day, for their economy, paying the fine will be cheaper than paying the costs associated with correcting climate change. Therefore, in order to solve the issue of climate change, each country needs to contribute their “fair share”.
The Kyoto Protocol was a protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the goal of this protocol was to decrease Carbon Dioxide emissions to “a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” The Kyoto Protocol was not at all effective due to a couple of reasons. First, the goal emissions standard was not very high to begin with and then on top of that, the goal remained stagnant the entire time. The next reason is that a lot of countries had to put in little to zero effort to reach this goal. For example, Post-Soviet countries loved this protocol because their emissions were already at the goal when they signed the Protocol. And lastly, there is a major gap between Annex-1 and non-Annex-1 countries and the quickly rising emissions and economies of developing countries.
The Paris Accord/Agreement is an agreement that brings all nations together to fight against global climate change. The main goal of the Paris Accord is to “keep a global temperature rise this century below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.” (UNFCCC, 2018). The agreement requires all participating countries to annually report their emissions and their implementation standards (UNFCCC, 2018). There is also a “global stocktake” every five years to check the total progress towards reaching the goal of the Paris Accord (UNFCCC, 2018).
The Paris Accord did address many of the issues that caused the Kyoto Protocol to fail. The Accord was designed specifically to address the issues with the Kyoto Protocol (Wong, 2018). It also helps that the concern for climate change, now, during the time of the Paris Accord, is much greater than when the Kyoto Protocol was put into place (Wong, 2018). Also, unlike the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Accord is 100% voluntary, and the countries that chose to participate are countries that are determined to correct the issue of climate change (Wong, 2018). Another key point here is that Paris Accord is not, in any way, shape, or form a legally binding agreement, whereas the Kyoto Protocol was a legally binding agreement (Wong, 2018). The Paris Accord being completely voluntary and non-legally binding allows for countries to change and adapt their climate strategies and act independently of one another (Wong, 2018).
Cities in the United States have done quite a lot to address the issue of climate change, while the federal government has done close to nothing to address the problem. One key way in which cities have been able to overcome their “public goods problem” (in regard to climate change, is through collaboration with other cities. Climate Mayors is a coalition of mayors from cities all over the United States have come together to discuss the issues of climate change and how to solve them (climatemyaors.org). These mayors were willing to put aside economics and money to come together to fight climate change, unlike the United States as a whole. The United States federal government is more concerned with the economic costs associated with fighting climate change than the ramifications that could occur if climate change is not dealt with. President Trump said this as to why the United States pulled out of the Paris Accord specifically:
“Even If the Paris Agreement were implemented in full, with total compliance from all nations, it is estimated it would only produce a two-tenths of one degree – think of that; this much – Celsius reduction in global temperature by the year 2100. Tiny, tiny amount. In fact, 14 days of carbon emissions from China alone would wipe out he gains from America – and this is an incredible statistic – would totally wipe out the gains from America’s expected reductions in the year 2030, after we have to spend billions and billions of dollars, lost jobs, closed factories, and suffered much higher energy costs for our businesses and for our homes.” (Wong, 2018)
There are multiple ways in which cities and mayors can address their carbon output. One way is by making their buildings energy efficient. Buildings are the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions within cities (McCarthy, 2017). Installing smart heating and cooling systems into the buildings allows for those systems to adapt the temperature based on how many people are in the building (along with other factors), therefore reducing energy usage (McCarthy, 2017). Another way in which cities can address their carbon output is to create more greenspaces and expand on the ones they currently have. Planting trees and adding these greenspaces can improve the air equality, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and also reduce the urban heat island effect (McCarthy, 2017).
Cite this page
Policy Punctuation Is an Event That Normally Comes About Suddenly. (2021, Mar 23).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
The Evolution of Liberalism
Liberals of today and yesteryear have held a constant concern for the concept of limited government, balancing the relationship between the individual and the government. Liberals today see the government as a means to an end and are constantly transferring power back to the government from the individual - they want a sustainable, thriving society and have recognized the government as the most efficient route. Liberalism in the time of the French Revolution was influenced by philosophes John Locke, Charles Montesquieu, Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill. Liberal philosophy then was in an early development stage having evolved out of the widespread Enlightenment.
Philosophe John Locke spoke of the separation of church and state and freedom of religion (excluding Catholics, Jews, Muslims of those granted full citizenship). He promoted experimentation to prove old and new ideas and warned of the dangers of believing knowledge based on superstitions or unproven claims. Though Locke didn’t concern himself with universal rights, deliberately excluded minorities, and believed that men should run the government, his thoughts on the separation of church and state, proven knowledge, and individual rights were highly progressive in his time. Today these ideas make up our political, religious and scientific ideologies and systems.
Locke’s ideology came to fight the government exerting unfair power over the individual whereas liberals of today have now found an interest in transferring power back to the government as they see the individual as an incompetent voice in political, environmental and medical concerns. It seems that Charles Montesquieu, a French political philosopher who admired John Locke but had very different views, was more on point in terms of defining liberalism consistently with liberalism of today. Montesquieu brought attention to the natural ways of society that enable government to be effective or ineffective by drawing attention to the absurdities of the Old Regime of France. It was under the rule of an inefficient government turning democratic that he formed an objective ideal of government: a government influenced by the individual which he holds is influenced by the climate and regional custom. He wasn’t extremely radical for his time and wasn’t looking to undermine the government or the church or exchange radical ideas. Rather, his intent was to entertain society with an objective view of the absurdities that made up the monarchy. He drew attention to the successes of the church and state, each in their own rights and discussed the natural laws that govern society.
When we listen to these natural laws, explained Montesquieu, we can enable government and society as a whole to be effective. In contrast to Locke, Montesquieu wasn’t looking to shift the powers of the government to the individual, rather he recognized that the government is influenced by the individual and should work in tandem, without the incoherent processes that made up the Old Regime. Adam Smith’s capital idealism, though optimistic, was wholly antithetical to the liberal movement’s economic stance today. He portrayed the economy as one governed by Lessaiz-Faire, where economic processes are advanced in regard to human rights - an “independent sphere of human activity”.
Liberalism today is constantly shifting power in the economy to the government, for example, with the Green New Deal. The Green New Deal is a proposed leftist approach to industrial policy to regulate climate change. It is comprised of a set of regulations and laws that will allow the federal government to “guide economic growth without micromanaging it ”. “The core of the Green New Deal, if you just look at the projects, is just like industrial policy, industrial policy, industrial policy,” says Rhiana Gunn-Wright, a policy researcher at the think tank New Consensus who helped draft Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal. “It’s very, very, very central. The Green New Deal is one of the largest interventions in U.S. industrial policy in a long time.” One would be hard pressed to find a 19th century liberal such as Adam Smith creating a new policy to give the government legal control over the economy in favor of a controversial theory such as climate change.
On freedom of speech, a tenant of early 19th century liberalism, John Stuart Mills published a book “On Liberty”. On individual rights, he wrote that they are primarily the right to have one’s own views and express them freely with the caveat that they don’t pose a risk to themselves or those around them. To allow a voice to be heard can be lucrative whether it is right or wrong. “If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth produced by its collision with error.” An opportunity to prove another party wrong could only be beneficial to the one fighting for truth. Contrarily, modern political philosopher John Rawls in his book “A Theory of Justice” held that all oppositional moral claims must be labeled “reasonable” rather than “false” or “wrong”. Rawls explains that this is to prevent one claim having more privilege over another – this is consistent with early 19th century liberalism which was founded with a historical background of an imbalanced society based on privileges strictly belonging to monarchy, nobility and privilege.
The prevention of privilege is prevalent in Rawls works, specifically in his definition of justice as fairness rather than truth. In his political writings, he states that his writing takes social contract theories written by Locke to “a higher order of abstraction”. He writes that fairness includes the rights of every person to basic liberties. Inequality is only fair when the opportunities are the same for everyone and any advantages given are to everyone’s benefit.
Advantages given to the individual are permissible when they are for the benefit of society (i.e. an individual can be wealthy to stimulate the economy and give charity). Rawls encourages his readers to rethink our justice system, including the Constitution and our decisions made in Supreme Court. Where John Locke’s intentions lay in influencing others to rethink processes, particularly in the necessity to legitimize any ideas through experimentation, Rawls believes that a justice system is more effective when it’s people see it as a justice system to promote fairness rather than truth.
Cite this page
The Evolution Of Liberalism. (2021, Mar 23).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
Benefits of Physical Therapy
Strokes, sprained ankles, broken bones, and amputations, the list goes on and on. There are hundreds of injuries, like the few listed, that physical therapists are able to help patients recover from (Sears). Practically everyone has been directly impacted by the work of a physical therapists at one point in their life, whether it be recovering from an injury in sports or a cancer removing surgery therapists work to get their patients back to a healthier state. Because of the distinctiveness of their job physical therapists play a crucial role in a patient's life that doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals are unable to. Physical therapy is an incredible field, it’s uniqueness and many branches allow it to be versatile and cover many bases of need, it requires years of schooling and training, because of these things therapists are able to make a significant impact on their patients lives both physically and emotionally and develop strong and lasting relationships with them.
According to the American Physical Therapy Association, physical therapists, commonly referred to as PT’s are “highly-educated, licensed health care professionals who can help patients reduce pain and improve or restore mobility - in many cases without expensive surgery and often reducing the need for long-term use of prescription medications and their side effects” (Sears). Therapists work with people who have been injured in car accidents, sports, surgeries and more, they work to improve their state of life and restore a patient's abilities to do perform both day to day tasks as well as special things like kick a soccer ball or run a marathon. Therapists are currently in very high demand and the number of therapists needed is expected to rise for several more years. (“Physical Therapy”)) Unlike most medical professionals PT’s are able to work with a patient one on one for an extended period of time, insuring that they are giving the best care possible and working on each and every patients specific needs (Schwagerl).
Specialize in and begin
There are several different aspects of physical therapy and each one serves its own unique role and has its own function. When completing their education physical therapists decide what they want to specialize in and begin to take specific classes and do internships that give them the knowledge needed to become an expert in their type of therapy. Some types of therapies that one can choose are orthopedic, geriatric, neurological, cardiovascular and many more. Therapists are found in a variety of places. They are able to work in outpatient offices, private practices, hospitals, rehab centers, nursing homes, and more. (Sears). Because of these many different options physical therapists are able to work and connect with people from most any background and situation. Therapists pick their specialty based on what they feel they are best at and based on where they feel they can make the most significant impact on others. Some specialties can be very broad and others very specific and it is up to the individual to find where they best fit. (“Today’s Physical”)
Although working directly with patients is the largest aspect of a therapist's job there are several things that they must do behind the scenes. Within a day a therapist may see only about 6-10 patients for about 45 minutes each. For each patient a therapist evaluates the patient, works with that patient one on one, files a report on the session and plans for the patients next session. Lots of paperwork and planning is required for therapist to really do their job well and get the most out of each one on one session (Schwagerl). No physical therapy treatment is the same for any two patients, a therapist builds each session based on their patients needs and abilities and works to get the patient in a better place (Sears).
The big difference
In order to become a therapist there are several steps that one must take. Physical therapists have to attend school for around six or seven years before being able to actively practice. This is fairly different from how it was years ago. In the 1980’s and early 90’s you could obtain a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy in just four years and be able to practice shortly after, but in the mid to late 90’s it became a requirement for a physical therapist to receive their Doctorate (Schwagerl). Now a days, before obtaining a specific physical therapy degree one must have a bachelor’s degree from a college of university. The degrees chosen are usually health science related such as; biology, anatomy, physiology, or chemistry. The University of Southern California, Boston University, and University of Florida are some of the top schools for pre-physical therapy programs (“Accredited PT”).
After four years of schooling and obtaining such a degree hopeful PT’s then apply to and attend graduate school for another two to three years to get their doctorate. They “must complete a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree program. As of 2014, there were 228 physical therapy programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE)”(“Physical Therapy”). Many of these programs have been growing more and more in the past couple of years. These programs are very competitive and require a lot from their applicants. Applicants must have observed and shadowed a licensed therapist and “must demonstrate success in academic, clinical and professional aspects”(“DPT Admissions”). Having a degree from one of the accredited universities builds a PT’s resume and puts them in better standing to get a job.
Examination
In order to get a job a PT must meet all of their particular states requirements for licensing. Many states have similar requirements such as passing the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE), background checks, law examinations, and continued education (“Physical Therapy”). These requirements ensure that a physical therapist is fully prepares to do their job and will be practicing safely and correctly on any patient that they encounter. The largest part of licensing is passing the national exam. This exam encompasses physical therapy and all of its parts, it “covers the entire scope of practice, which for the physical therapist includes theory, examination and evaluation, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment intervention, prevention, and consultation”(Bellamy). After obtaining their license therapists are able to practice but must continue to renew their license every few years (Bellamy). Because of requirements like these patients can be sure that they are truly getting the best care possible and that they are being worked with by someone who really cares about their well being.
Therapists are able to make an incredible difference on a patient’s physical well being. The impacts they can make can be life changing. They can reduce or eliminate chronic pain, improve balance, manage diseases and age related issues, increase neurological function, and so much more(“10 Reasons”). Therapists work in three major areas these are improving flexibility, strength, and mobility. Overall therapists are able to improve the functions and abilities of one’s body. For many people these improvements can change their lives. Amputees can learn to walk again, brain cancer survivors can go outside again, athletes can play again (Schwagerl).
Conclusion
Although therapists are able to physical impact on their patients lives, a lot of the time the emotional changes they can make can be just as great. A lot of the time patients that therapists are seeing have experienced life changing events or procedures. Many have been told by doctors and others that they will not be able to get their life back to the way it was and that they would have to face that. Therapists do not see things this way. Each patient is seen as a problem that they are eager to solve (Schwagerl). Because of this mentality patients are able to make immense progress that might have seemed impossible. This puts patients in a much better emotional state and allows them to not feel the hopelessness and despair that they may have felt after their injury or procedure. Therapists often times encounter patients who are dealing with stress, anxiety, and depression that has come about because of their condition (Jevon). By actively working with and befriending these patients therapist not only help their patients physically but also emotionally.
Cite this page
Benefits of Physical Therapy. (2021, Mar 23).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
The Good Lawyer: who is It?
One question often arises: where and how to find a good, experienced, professional lawyer?
Unfortunately, a person asks such a question at a time when he is already in trouble and has catastrophically little time. The issue of criminal matters is especially relevant when time solves everything.
How, where, what to find a solicitor dee why? And what is not worth doing. The client-lawyer relationship is primarily a trusting relationship.
The lawyer proposed by the investigator is not good for you.
Never look for conveyancing services on the advice of an investigator. The investigator may say as much as he wants the lawyer recommended by him is the best choice for you, but he is the best choice for the investigator. Such a defender will try to create a few problems as possible for his protege. The assumption that such a lawyer will be able to negotiate with the right people rarely justifies himself. And the risk that the mishandled lawyer will protect other people's interests is VERY high, which often happens in practice.
Avoid lawyers whose representation is in the court.
The courthouses themselves have rooms in which lawyers work. Just do not flatter yourself; these are not lawyers at court. They are not best friends of judges, and appeal to them does not guarantee absolute success. These human rights activists are just renting a room in the courthouse - to get as many clients as possible.
The court is a very profitable place for a lawyer, and he will try to create a minimum of difficulties for the court so as not to lose it.
Free lawyer is usually a bad lawyer.
One cannot ignore another rather painful topic related to the remuneration of a lawyer. By law, you are required to provide a free lawyer. There are categories of citizens (participants in the Great Patriotic War, for example, or people whose incomes are below the subsistence level), for whom the law allows you to hire a free lawyer. However, such a conveyancing services is often not interested in the successful outcome of this case, since his fee will be a completely insignificant amount, which he will also receive very soon. A free lawyer is unlikely to do what a lawyer who works for a good fee will do.
Good lawyer is not cheap.
Solicitors dee why have a special place in the process of administering justice. They are not employees or state representatives; on the contrary, they are independent lawyers who strive to protect the interests of their clients. That is independence from the state is a decisive factor - the lawyer represents and protects only your interests and no one else's.
The legal education to which the lawyer belongs does not matter.
Lawyer education can have any titles and an arbitrarily good reputation, but it does not mean anything. Your interests in court will be represented not by a lawyer's education but by a specific person, and it is his professionalism, reputation, and decency that should be checked.
Conclusion: So if you looking for a lawyer to handle your case, then solicitor dee why play an important role to win your case.
Cite this page
The Good Lawyer: Who is it?. (2021, Mar 23).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
Verbal and Nonverbal Communication
Verbal communication is the use of sounds and words to express oneself. Nonverbal communication is the process of conveying the meaning without the use of either written or spoken. Verbal and nonverbal communication is different because one uses words to transmit the message to another person, while the other does not. Communication is the act of transferring information from one person to other, but these two have their differences.
Verbal communication is the use of sounds and words to express oneself. Verbal communication is a way for people to communicate face to face. There are different forms of verbal communication. The first one is interpersonal communication is to oneself. An example of this is having a conversation with themselves. This could mean that it can be one’s thoughts. The second one is interpersonal communication. The definition of this is when two people are having a one-on-one conversation. Verbal communication is the most common form communication. There are a fewer chances of misunderstanding as the communication between two parties are clear. Verbal communication can be done in two ways oral and written. Oral communication is lectures, phone calls, and seminars. Written communication for verbal are letters, emails, and text messages.
Nonverbal communication is communication without the use of words. Nonverbal uses body language, gestures, and facial expression. For body language is the first thing you see when a person is trying to get a person attention. If they are sitting up and their body is facing them, they are giving their full attention to that person. Gestures includes the moving of the hands and arms. Some people uses their hands to express themselves when speaking to someone or catch their attention. Facial expressions play a huge part of nonverbal communication. The look on a person face is the first thing a person see before they say something.
Verbal and nonverbal communication are use when conversating with someone. Communication is way to get information across to someone. When people are communicating to one another, the first thing that a person see is the person facial expression when conversating.
Cite this page
Verbal And Nonverbal Communication. (2021, Mar 23).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
The Go-Giver & Acts of Kindness Reflection
After I completed reading The Go-Giver by Bob Burg, my convictions about kindness and generosity were strongly reinforced. In October 2018, I created a tangible copy of my personal ethical code and, in that document, one of my primary tenants of operation is kindness. I value being kind because I have a higher-level understanding of the importance of empathy (especially among survivors of trauma—which most people in this world are). At the same time, I want to make it clear that I believe that there is a distinct difference between being kind and being nice. Niceties are unkind when they obscure the truth or muddle understanding in an interpersonal relationship or an organization. Kindness can be delivering the truth in the most comfortable way without allowing negative energy (i.e., anger, sarcasm, biting wit) to harm another person, even if the situation itself is uncomfortable or heated.
In terms of the text provided, I especially appreciated the firm—but kind—way that Pindar told Joe, “If we’re going to take this walk together, we need to start by facing the same direction. If you notice, what I said was ‘share her coffee.’ What you said was ‘make a killing.’ Do you see the difference?” (Burg, 10) The difference between being generous and being greedy is highlighted quite nicely in that quote.
Personally, I have struggled somewhat with the intersection of healing other people and escaping poverty. I love the process of helping people along their journeys to loving themselves, mending from their unique trauma, creating their careers, increasing the intimacy of their relationships, and finding their ultimate purpose in this world. Just the same, a lifetime of living in rural Appalachian poverty has left me eager to pursue the path which would most quickly allow me to rise above the poverty line to a place where I do not have to worry about eviction, food insecurity, or repossession. I cannot provide others with my service if I am stuck in survival mode. I cannot pour from an empty well.
As I reflect upon my three-day period of utter kindness, I want to be fully vulnerable and start with some background information about myself and my journey. I grew up in a psychologically unsafe and financially unstable environment. From the spring of 2008 (age 11) to the fall of 2016 (age 19), I was physically, sexually, and psychologically abused by a pedophile who preyed upon me from the then-popular social media website Myspace. During this period, I lost two children to miscarriage and stillbirth as a direct result of rape. All of this is to say: I am well-versed in the effects that abuse and trauma have on a human being, especially of adolescent age.
Why is this information relevant? Because opening doors, holding elevators, buying folks coffee, greeting and respectfully complimenting strangers, and letting folks ahead in line at the grocery are all valid acts of kindness and I enjoy performing them regularly for the sake of brightening up other peoples’ lives. However, for this assignment, I wanted to dig a little bit deeper than that.
The acts of kindness which I am most skilled at providing (and which have the most noticeable impact) are healing modalities and tactics for people to deconstruct the issues that they find coming up repeatedly in their lives. My primary mode of healing other people is through direct one-to-one interactions and bridge-building. I am charismatic enough to convince people about the importance of healing from underlying issues using empathy and reason, especially in one-on-one settings, and that is what I did for this project.
Now for the nitty-gritty of what work I did during these three days.
In Tammy Reynolds’ Leadership course, each of us had to compose and present a PowerPoint about something of great importance to us. I thought that it would be kind, relevant, and useful for my colleagues to hear about the concept of body neutrality and the applications of cognitive behavioral therapy to cope with bodily changes and trauma. Many of my classmates have suffered from athletic injuries and had depressive episodes after those injuries, and the content of the presentation was tailored to help them deal with those feelings in a loving way.
In my cohort and among my loved ones, I also offer free tarot card and astrological readings which function as a sort of “free association” exercise and can help me make suggestions for possible challenge areas in a person’s life. To date, I have completed over 20 readings for my classmates. I have had folks in my cohort, who put very little stock or belief into metaphysical and spiritual healing, tell me that they are amazed by the specificity and accuracy of what I tell them. These modalities are not magic; they are simply a method for navigating one’s intuition and personal strife to find greater meaning.
I am also a member of a few closed groups online wherein women from all over the world find community and support. Over the three days, I provided support in the form of gentle and reassuring messages to other women. I offered my service as a listening ear and a person in which to confide. I shared with them the different routes of activism that folks can take for issues that are most important to them. It was fulfilling to make those connections with other women.
In terms of my interpersonal relationships, my husband (who is also a survivor of CSA and trauma) and I have worked hard to curate an environment with one another of complete psychological safety and love. In other words, we actively work to prevent misunderstandings and thoughtless behavior with each other. However, during these three days, I was especially tender with him. We talked the entire drive to and from Athens, three days in a row (nine hours total) about our lives, our entrepreneurial plans, our creative energy levels, our dreams from the nights prior, and our financial outlook. I took special care to listen to everything that he said and avoid checking out on my phone or looking at the scenery through the Wayne. I cooked three nourishing dinners for us to enjoy together (something that I rarely make time to do now that I am a graduate student).
As I went through this journey, I was also consistently kind to myself. In the words of my personal mentor, Bevin, “Self-care stretches time and increases your capacity to help others.” I acted upon some urgent tasks in my to-do list for myself. I gave myself permission to rest whenever I needed to recuperate. I encouraged myself to be vulnerable and spill all of my beans in this reflection. All of these acts were radically kind to me.
As far as commitments for the future, I will continue to act with The Go-Giver in mind. I will continue to keep my focus on developing, healing, and serving myself and others. I will reject greed and money for money’s sake, seeking only to fulfill reasonable financial goals and donating excess funds to meaningful causes. For now, I will commit to my dream of creating content (books, videos, shareable articles, and one-on-one counseling sessions) to help at least 0.02% of the world’s population (approximately 1,400,000 people) heal from their respective problems and find their higher purpose before I POTSA (pass on to something awesome).
Cite this page
The Go-Giver & Acts of Kindness Reflection. (2021, Mar 23).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
What Motivates People to Work more
Motivation is the important process of encouraging people to work with better performance and action which to complete the goal of organization. In the meaning of motivation, including people’s needs, wants and desires. When it comes to motivation, it can develop and destroy productivity of organizations or companies. No matter how successful an organization is, if there is no motivation such as how to make people happy at work or what can make them to stay active and satisfied at work, there will have some trouble and difficulty at work. In addition, motivation is important part in organization. If people desire or wish for becoming a successful community or organizations, they require to understand how to motivate their people.
Some authors said motivation is directly impact on productivity of organizations and it is also one of the most useful activity and action of doing and making organizations success, develop and benefits. Actually, it is also sure that most of the people work for money like for their living, for their children and for their future to become better lives. Money support housing, provides children food and clothing. In other way, people work to behave experiences, accomplish their goals, to be more understanding in their meaningful work, to know more their skills and talents. Different people have different opinions and choices. Some like the communication with clients and customers. Others like to spend and work with activity. And some workers like challenges, investigations and various problems to solve.
Sometimes, people work for money and carrier than theirs interest and desire. Sometimes, when they have problems at home and then go to work, it is sure that their personal problem can effect at working. As human beings, doing regular work is kindly boring and they do not focus and effort on their working. As a business owner, he or she need to know not only make budgeting decisions, sign the pay checks and promote productions and sales but also to motivate his or her employees to success in their projects and forcing the success of the business further. In addition, the more people are likely to work and enjoying working and make advantages at working, the more organization or business truly be successful in future.
There are some tips that ways to make people or employees to work more at work and satisfying at working and do their best to not only helping organizations or business but also improving their experiences and development. The followings are ways to motivate people to work more:
Communicate and listen
Communication is important characteristics of any relationship. When there are good communications between owner and employees, it can make effects on business' productivity. For example, when the owner has a meeting once a month, he or she should listen some problems that happened within employees or accept and take some advice from employees. There will have something or some trouble which the owner did not know between employees or people. The owner also need to take notice on employee’s requests and suggestions. Listening to our employee’s opinion and ideas are more effective and efficient for business. As saying,“ Two heads are better than one.” When the owner has communication and listen to their staff, not only the owner but also staffs feel comfortable and delightful with their work and satisfying at work.
Paying Bonus
Using paying bonuses promptly can raise employee performance to reach business goals. It is truly right that bonuses force employees to make an effort at working. Some research have discovered that actually a large bonuses may harm employees to feel more stressful. It is useful that paying a fair bonuses and not ordering furiously for working. But the owner is focusing on his or her staffs to work harder and paying a large bonuses, it can cause staffs to make mistakes. In this kind of situation, bonuses can use to motivate people to work more but when the owner is using it too much it can decrease business effectiveness.In addition, bonuses can actually be use to motivate people but when the owner does not use it carefully and thoughtful, it can make and break organizations’ productivity.
Paid-Time Off
It is directly impact on employees' mental health and physical. When employees are tried of working, feel stressful and exhausting at work, the owner will allow and give them a chance to his or her staff to take a rest, relax and take a break. By allowing them to take a rest will return new idea or viewpoint on a project or work and be more advantages and benefits for work. If a business did not allow or offer paid time off, it can damage a business a great chance of money. Staffs or employees who are driving too hard or under pressure be infected with burned out. The owner need to paid time off for them and encourage them to be strong, it is sure that his or her staffs will likely be pleased and enjoying at work in this organization. In addition, when people are enjoying at work, the productivity of a business will be increasing because they value their work and try their best for work.
Celebrations
It is an another easy way to motivate people to work more. It is the ways to have some celebrations in workplace. Any organizations and companies want their employees or staffs to engaged and motivated at working. By making celebrations for company and employees, both the owner or employees would be happy at work and want to do more work because they are satisfy and active. The owner need to care more about not only majors but also minors about employees’ life. There are many way to make celebrations at work. For example, employees’ birthday, employees Anniversaries, employee personal achievement and company’s anniversary.
Celebration employees’ Birthday: celebration employees’ birthday is the most simple things to raise employees to work more and have some motivations. In company, some people do not want to express or tell their birthday and they want to keep it a secret because it is not a big deal for them, In this situation, the owner should make an effort and remember to celebrate employees birthday. After making that for them, they will feel like they are appreciated by their owner. It is not required for them to spend much money, although it is just a cake, they will feel the owner valued and recognized their birthday. In addition, the more the owner do that, the more he or she will receive or get a better result from people.
Cite this page
What Motivates People to Work More. (2021, Mar 23).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
The Impact of Maya Angelou’s “Still i Rise” on the Expectations of Women
In 1978, in spite of the fact that ladies were being given a larger number of rights than they had previously, they were all the while being prevented some from getting the fundamental freedoms that would make them equivalent to guys. Only a couple of instances of this imbalance incorporate the Associated Press being seen as blameworthy of oppressing ladies and Naomi Hames circumnavigating the world alone however not having the option to turn into a piece of the Circumnavigators Club due to her sexual orientation. Also, the U.S. Division of Labor Women's Bureau distributed a report in 1978 that uncovered that ladies were all the while being paid not as much as guys ("Feminist Chronicles").
In spite of the fact that ladies were attempting to break out of the limitations society had put on them, it was still extremely challenging to do as such. One writer who didn't allow these shameful acts to stop her was Maya Angelou, a lady who accomplished numerous incredible things in the course of her life. She was related with the White House, engaged with the Hollywood entertainment world, worked with Dr. Lord, and above all, was a praised essayist and artist ("Maya Angelou"). Angelou's most conspicuous sonnet "Still I Rise," distributed in 1978, explicitly talks about her gendered experience in life since Angelou makes herself the speaker in the sonnet (Angelou). She discusses the manners by which she wins most importantly of the segregation she has confronted can in any case carry on with a certain, glad life. In "Still I Rise," Angelou utilizes her interesting beneficial encounters to give a sex explicit portrayal of females' dissident lives as they overlook the cultural guidelines put upon them by men. Angelou utilizes language and constructions that serve to demonstrate to the peruser that the speaker will beat the entirety of the sex standards she is relied upon to follow.
By talking through the principal individual perspective, the speaker can straightforwardly stand up to the peruser about the manners by which they have added to the persecution and sabotaging of the speaker, yet additionally all females overall. The principle manner by which she does this is by offering conversation starters that straightforwardly address "you," who can likewise be deciphered as the peruser. The absolute first inquiries the speaker pose are "Does my cheekiness upset you? /Why are you plagued with agony?" and she keeps on suggesting conversation starters thusly, asking the peruser for what valid reason they are insulted by her qualities and characteristics, the majority of which depict her as a sure and free lady (4-5).
By utilizing "you" in every last bit of her inquiries, the speaker actually asks the peruser to contemplate why they feel negative feelings at whatever point they see a lady like her prevail as opposed to being kept down by society's assumptions. Accordingly, the speaker not just shows that she is opposing the cultural standards set around ladies yet additionally inconspicuously exhibits to the peruser that they are incorrect for feeling that they can continue to abuse her. Along these lines, the speaker's objective by talking in the primary individual perspective is to put liability, just as a feeling of blame, upon the perusers so they realize that they assume an enormous part in victimizing ladies. She capably fuses this into the sonnet in a manner that is intended to assist the perusers with understanding their bad behaviors without straightforwardly denouncing them. Along these lines, it is protected to expect that her intended interest group is the male populace. Truth be told, she needs to demonstrate to guys that they don't have the ability to direct as long as she can remember or control her activities; all things being equal, they should look as she resists them and makes her own achievements notwithstanding them.
One more way in which Angelou allows the speaker to demonstrate her value is using symbolism to allegorically address the manners by which her speaker splits from the prohibitive cultural assumptions set upon her. In the sonnet, Angelou utilizes natural pictures like "soil" and "air" to address feelings like joy and win instead of simply expressing these opinions by and large (4, 24). She additionally traces explicit situations in the sonnet, which to the speaker, address the achievement she can accomplish since she is finished paying attention to what others need to say regarding how she should carry on with her life. For instance, in the wake of asking the peruser, "Does my haughtiness affront you?" the speaker clarifies, "Don't you take it horrendous hard/'Cause I chuckle like I have gold mines/Diggin' in my own terrace." (17-20). As far as she might be concerned, having an individual gold mine is illustrative of progress, explicitly monetary achievement. She utilizes this picture to clarify that it doesn't make any difference to her whether she affronts her peruser by opposing their assumptions since she is glad in her own particular manner. This picture is additionally one that she accepts that is very justifiable to the peruser. In this refrain, explicitly, when one envisions a gold mine, they consequently associate it to the possibility of abundance.
In this way, through her selection of pictures, Angelou composes utilizing words that she realizes her peruser will comprehend and draw similar associations from as she did while composing it. Subsequently, her utilization of symbolism additionally serves to give a feeling of relatability to the peruser. Despite the fact that her intended interest group has had an alternate involvement with life than her, the pictures she decides to use in the sonnet are common so they are unmistakable and fathomable for everybody. By utilizing normal pictures to portray a bigger significance, Angelou gives the words in the sonnet further implications. In one case, the speaker depicts herself as being "a dark sea, jumping and wide" (33). Without the setting of this sonnet, a dark sea is an apparently basic picture. Be that as it may, when perused in the sonnet, this line has a considerably more critical message. Here, instead of asking the peruser to envision a genuine sea, Angelou raises various implications. By utilizing, "dark," she makes a reference to the speaker's race, and by portraying the sea as "jumping and wide," she is really depicting the speaker's attributes of being unafraid to jump and take risks (33). Along these lines, in spite of the fact that Angelou's utilization of words appears to be basic, it depicts a more itemized importance of how the speaker can conquer sex assumptions and carry on with her life the manner in which she sees fit.
In conclusion, Angelou utilizes redundancy to underline the sonnet's fundamental subject of win by including the expression "I rise or "I'll ascend" in 5 out of the 9 verses in the sonnet, just as in the title. In verses 1, 3, and 6, where the expression initially shows up, "I'll rise" is composed at the finish of the refrain. In every one of these refrains, the speaker talks about various manners by which she's been mistreated, yet rather than proceeding with this topic in the last line, she decides to say the words, "I'll rise." Although she has experienced troublesome occasions of low self-assurance and has been seen as subordinate, she doesn't allow it to stop her and rather engages herself by saying, "I'll rise." However, when the expression is referenced in verses 8 and 9, it gives off an impression of being rehashed a few a greater number of times than it had been previously; verse 8 contains the expression twice while it is rehashed multiple times in verse 9.
In refrain 8, the speaker clarifies how she can "ascend" from a past of racial persecution and in verse 9, which is the last refrain of the sonnet, she closes by anticipating a splendid and glad future. This refrain additionally contains the last three lines of the sonnet, which are "I rise/I rise/I rise", which means the sonnet the two starts (in the title) and finishes with the words, "I rise" (41-43). Since the expression is rehashed so regularly in the sonnet, it is the one line that sticks in the peruser's head after they have perused the sonnet, making it impact them. Regardless of whether they recollect that whatever else from the sonnet, they will undoubtedly recall that the storyteller 'rose' essentially because of the purposeful redundancy that Angelou decides to utilize. Accordingly, Angelou guarantees that her peruser knows what she is attempting to pass on with the sonnet and that they subliminally acknowledge why she utilizes redundancy. She makes a point to utilize an expression that epitomizes the speaker's experience and feelings as well as mirrors the message of the sonnet.
Through her composition, Maya Angelou can undermine sexual orientation generalizations and exhibit to her perusers that she won't be kept down by these chauvinist assumptions. She utilizes an assortment of abstract procedures to accomplish this point, including composing through the main individual perspective and joining symbolism and reiteration in the sonnet. By utilizing these strategies, she can allegorically pass on how she opposes the sex jobs put upon her. Albeit the encounters and feelings in the sonnet appear to be exceptionally close to home to Angelou herself, her work can be adjusted to fit many ladies' lives at that point. During the 1970s, when the sonnet was composed, ladies were all the while being victimized as a result of their sex. They were not offered equivalent chances in the expert world were still vigorously troubled by the generalizations encompassing their sex. Thus, their achievements were lessened and they were constrained into turning into the picture of a lady that men anticipated that they should be. Subsequently, by composing this sonnet, Angelou had the option to voice many ladies' sentiments at that point. She was a significant supporter for all ladies and faced challenges to adequately articulate what others probably won't have had the option to.
Cite this page
The Impact of Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” on the Expectations of Women. (2021, Mar 23).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
Understanding the Emotion of Anger
The emotion anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state. It involves a strong uncomfortable and hostile response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical conditions, such as increased heart rate, elevated blood pressure, and increased levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline. Some view anger as an emotion which triggers part of the fight or flight brain response. Anger becomes the predominant feeling behaviorally, cognitively, and physiologically when a person makes the conscious choice to take action to immediately stop the threatening behavior of another outside force. The English term originally comes from the term anger of Old Norse language.
Anger can have many physical and mental consequences. The external expression of anger can be found in facial expressions, body language, physiological responses, and at times public acts of aggression. Facial expressions can range from inward angling of the eyebrows to a full frown. While most of those who experience anger explain its arousal as a result of 'what has happened to them,' psychologists point out that an angry person can very well be mistaken because anger causes a loss in self-monitoring capacity and objective observability. Modern psychologists view anger as a primary, natural, and mature emotion experienced by virtually all humans at times, and as something that has functional value for survival. Uncontrolled anger can, however, negatively affect personal or social well-being and impact negatively on those around them. While many philosophers and writers have warned against the spontaneous and uncontrolled fits of anger, there has been disagreement over the intrinsic value of anger.Anger can potentially mobilize psychological resources and boost determination toward correction of wrong behaviors, promotion of social justice, communication of negative sentiment, and redress of grievances. It can also facilitate patience. In contrast, anger can be destructive when it does not find its appropriate outlet in expression.
Anger, in its strong form, impairs one's ability to process information and to exert cognitive control over their behavior. An angry person may lose his/her objectivity, empathy, prudence or thoughtfulness and may cause harm to themselves or others. There is a sharp distinction between anger and aggression even though they mutually influence each other. While anger can activate aggression or increase its probability or intensity, it is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for aggression. Raymond Novaco of University of California Irvine, who since 1975 has published a plethora of literature on the subject, stratified anger into three modalities: cognitive, somatic-affective, and behavioral . The words annoyance and rage are often imagined to be at opposite ends of an emotional continuum: mild irritation and annoyance at the low end and fury or murderous rage at the high end. Rage problems are conceptualized as 'the inability to process emotions or life's experiences' either because the capacity to regulate emotion has never been sufficiently developed or because it has been temporarily lost due to more recent trauma. Rage is understood as raw, undifferentiated emotions, that spill out when another life event that cannot be processed, no matter how trivial, puts more stress on the organism than it can bear. Anger, when viewed as a protective response or instinct to a perceived threat, is considered as positive. The negative expression of this state is known as aggression. Acting on this misplaced state is rage due to possible potential errors in perception and judgment.
Cite this page
Understanding the Emotion of Anger. (2021, Mar 22).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
How to Prepare for a Successful Job Interview
What You Should Know Know Before a Job Interview
It’s important to know what a company is looking for in a qualified candidate. The skills and experiences required for the position will be brought up by the employer during the interview. First of all, be prepared for a pre-screen interview - phone call interview. A phone call is a resource that allows an employer to evaluate a prospective hire and measure his or her enthusiasm for the employment opportunity. Generally, the meeting will be planned, but in other cases, it may be an unexpected telephone call.
It's better to get ready for a telephone meet similarly as you would for a normal interview. In most cases, it aids to have an outline of individual strengths and weaknesses that could possibly pertain to the job at hand. This small outline will help you answer potential questions that the interviewer may ask during the phone call. Also, have a well-thought-out list of questions prepared to ask the interviewer. These questions should be focused on job details and other job-related information such as scheduling, benefits, pay, and any accommodations that you may need. Set aside the time to focus your list of capabilities to the set of job requirements, which will inform the interviewer of your skillset for the job at hand and possibly answer their questions as to why you are the proper prospect for the employment opportunity. Tell the employer about past jobs you have held and what tasks those jobs required you to complete. Have a duplicate of your resume close by, so you can allude to it amid the meeting. Likewise have a duplicate of the job posting if one was provided.
Be the best candidate for the position by knowing what is expected from you for the position. Think of a time when you’ve used these skills in the past and experiences you’ve had that correlate with the opening position. Other than the job posting itself, go on to the companies website to get an idea of the type of employee the company desires. Do Your Research: The Mission, Values, and Culture of the Company It’s vital to understand the mission, values, and culture of the company you are applying for. What is it that the company is looking for in an employee? What kind of workplace does the company value? It’s important to do your research on the company.
For what reasons do companies utilize these types of interviews?
For the most part, telephone interviews are one of the least costly and time-consuming interview methods. Telephone interviews are frequently used to screen competitors in order to narrow down a pool of possible candidates for a face-to-face interview. For some situations, like remote employment opportunities, a telephone call might be the single interview method available.
Once again, telephone interviews are beneficial to both the employer as well as the prospective employee. They are more time-efficient, and more cost-efficient as opposed to coordinating a face-to-face conversation. On the contrary, telephone meetings can be troublesome since neither the interviewer nor interviewee can see each other, thus visual pieces of information such as emotions and body language are missing. Keep in mind that this type of chatting on the telephone isn't as simple as it appears. As with an in-person interview, practice can be useful. It will not only assist your answers to normal telephone questions but will likely keep you from articulating or talking either too quick or too slowly.
Cite this page
How to prepare for a successful job interview. (2021, Mar 22).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
Reasons why Cycling Commuting is Better than Driving
Introduction
Would you want to be safer, have something that is more useful than what you already have, be able to help the earth, be healthier, and maximize your time? Well, you probably wouldn’t think that it is cycling, but it actually is. Cycling is easier to pay for than public transportation. Biking can help our earth by reducing pollution. Biking can help you get more exercise than sitting in a car. Cycling is safer than using public transportation. Lastly, biking saves your time by not needing to go to the gym. Cycling is more helpful and useful than driving and using public transportation, because it is cheaper, healthier, helps the society and earth, and doesn't waste your time.
Benefits of Cycling
Biking is more helpful than cars in many ways. A bike is easier to finance than a car, which leads to biking being more useful than cars. “Bikes also cost way less to maintain and operate than automobiles”. If you have a car, it costs way more to buy than a bike, and way less to repair. If you crash your car, it will cost you thousands of dollars to repair, but if you crash your bike, it will cost at the max, hundreds of dollars. Biking is way more helpful than just saving money, it helps our earth and society in many ways.
Pros on Earth and Society
Cycling helps our Earth in many ways. First, biking reduces traffic and reduces your own carbon footprint. Next, driving cars causes a lot of pollution, which leads to climate change. When you are biking, there is no pollution being made that leads to climate change and bad gas in the air (Brown, 2018). Biking can help the Earth and your society, but it also can help you be more productive and healthier.
Biking vs. Cars
Biking is healthier than driving a car, because you get exercise and good air. Also, “studies show that it makes you happier” (Eich, 2017). Would you want to be in a car, or be having fun in the real world? Lastly, if you are going to work, parking is easier on a bike than a car, because it is way smaller than a car (Eich, 2017). Biking is productive for you and healthier, but it is also safer for you.
Biking vs. Public Transportation
“Nationwide, you’re more than twice as likely to die while riding a bike than riding a car, per trip” (Dingfelder, 2016). I disagree with this, because a bike won’t be near a 60mph car, or a drunk driver if it is on the sidewalk or bike lane. When you are in the bike lane, you are far away from the nearest car closest to you. When you are using public transportation, you are still at risk against drunk drivers or cars over the speed limit. Lastly, how can bikes maximize your time in the day?
Time Maximization
Biking helps maximize your time in many ways. First, it helps with weight less, so you don’t have to exercise later. Next, it builds muscle, so you don’t have to work out. Lastly, on a bike you don’t have to be in traffic or wait a long time to park (Arthurs-Brennan, 2019). Even though there are all these good things about cycling, there are also some bad things.
Cons of Biking
Biking is really good to use, but it has its bad things about it. If you are driving to work, you can get really sweaty and ruin your clothes. Next, if you live in a climate that snows and rains, you will not be able to bike well and this can lead to accidents. Lastly, if you are riding on a narrow or bumpy land, this can lead to serious injuries (Porpora 2019).
Conclusion
In conclusion, biking is better than cars and public transportation in many ways. For example, biking helps our Earth, it maximizes your time, it is safer than cars, it is healthier than cars, and it is easier to finance than cars. It is your choice if you want to be on a road with a 60mph car or a drunk driver, but if something happens, I warned you!
References
Eich, Russell. “9 Reasons Why Bike Commuting Is Better than Driving.” BikeRadar, 9 Apr. 2019, www.bikeradar.com/features/9-reasons-why-bike-commuting-is-better-than-driving/.
Baskind, Chris. “12 Reasons to Use a Bicycle for Transportation.” MNN, Mother Nature Network, 14 May 2019, www.mnn.com/green-tech/transportation/stories/12-reasons-to-start-using-a-bicycle-for-transportation.
Brown, Daniel. “Why Biking Is Good for the Earth & You.” Your Great Outdoors, 16 May 2018, blogs.massaudubon.org/yourgreatoutdoors/why-biking-is-good-for-the-earth-you/.
Dingfelder, Sadie. “How Safe Is Bike Commuting? Perhaps Less than You Think.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 12 May 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2016/05/12/how-safe-is-bike-commuting-perhaps-less-than-you-think/.
Arthurs-Brennan, Michelle. “15 Benefits of Cycling: Why Cycling Is Good for Weight Loss, Fitness, Legs and Mind.” Cycling Weekly, 16 Jan. 2020, www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/benefits-of-cycling-334144.
Porpora, Tracey. “Riding Your Bike to Work.” The Balance Careers, The Balance Careers, 11 Aug. 2019, www.thebalancecareers.com/pros-and-cons-bicycle-commuting-3545206.
Cite this page
Reasons Why Cycling Commuting Is Better than Driving. (2021, Mar 22).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
Educational Psychology and Learning Process
Educational Psychology is a period of education. It is a science that supplements the course of schooling. It is a branch, a fragment of training. It depicts the conduct of the training and tries to clarify it as far as his inward urges, intentions, drives and the natural impacts to which he is subject. It is an investigation of kid's psychological life in its different perspectives concerning its application to the instruction of the kid. Educational Psychology furnishes the instructors and the teachers with an asset of information that might help them in providing for the students the most ideal sort of schooling, the training that causes an overall advancement of the understudy's character.
Educational Psychology contemplates the issues of training as far as psychology. At the end of the day, it is a mental way to deal with instruction. In any case, it doesn't imply that Educational Psychology is indistinguishable with Education, part can't be indistinguishable with the entirety. Educational Psychology, however a period of training, is very not the same as it in specific viewpoints. Schooling has a more extensive field, while elements of Educational Psychology are restricted. It is said that Educational Psychology has changed the course of Education. It is valid. New instruction is a finished takeoff from the old. In the plan of old instruction the kid had no spot, discipline was exceptionally unbending and harsh, educational program was fixed and formal and the entire of schooling was floating away from the existence of the youngster.
New instruction isn't simple procurement of information and data. It is alteration of the kid's conduct and an overall advancement of the youngster's character. New instruction is for the kid and aside from youngster it has no reason. In this manner, in the image of new instruction it is the youngster that figures most. This origination is an endowment of Educational Psychology. Educational Psychology has uncovered that all chance of instruction lies in the possibilities of the kid and his inclination. Rousseau said, "Study the kid as we don't get him." To him, kid was a book which must be concentrated by each educator. Along these lines, because of the understanding given by Educational Psychology another kid study-development has begun in the field of training. Acquaintance of this science with Education has achieved a progressive change in the field of Education.
As such, they say, schooling has been psychologised. This change has moved the accentuation from issue to the youngster. All that will be instructed to the kid ought not really set in stone by the nature, necessities and limits of the youngster himself. Similarly, acquaintance of psychology with training has likewise changed the origination of discipline. Discipline in the new training ought to be positive, not negative.
Cite this page
Educational Psychology and Learning Process. (2021, Mar 22).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
Traffic Congestion in Los Angeles
Introduction
As found by studies, the U.S.A is the most congested country in the world. This problem has consequently led to America's increased challenge of traffic. Notably, a majority of the affected states comprise of those that host local and foreign tourists from all over the world. As a result, travelers and tourists spend a side of their vacation stuck on the roads together with U.S.A’s local commuters. On average, drivers spend at least 41 hours yearly especially during peak hours. However, in some cities like Los Angeles, drivers spend 103 hours in traffic in peak travel periods. Reducing traffic congestion is a challenge that the American government is committed to solving. Remedies the government has come up with to end this issue include the use of public transport, and encouragement as well as education on the importance to use bicycles.
Factors contributing to traffic
In Los Angeles, experts and engineers argue that car ownership is the chief factor. With recorded facts, Los Angeles covers 4,060 square miles. Equally, in 2016, the state had an approximate population of 10 million people compared to New York City that had 8.5 million people. Although New York has the privileged space to house the same population as Los Angeles, its population is not as bad as that of LA. According to the US Census Bureau, the prime reason for the traffic is car ownership. As found by Lo (2018), there were an estimated 7.8 million vehicle registrations in Los Angeles in 2016 alone. Contrary to those figures, New York had a lower registration of 2.6 million in 2016 and slightly higher in 2015 combined.
Highway connections also contributed to the traffic jam in Los Angeles. Defined by its geographical location, LA is surrounded by five segments that connect both north and south of Los Angeles. Moreover, the highway segment links the state and the American Route 101 which is the main highway that crosses the West Coast. Therefore, the highway factor above combines with many private motor vehicles to build significantly high traffic of cars which stretches long to cause the traffic.
Low fuel taxes and high fares in regions served by public transit have a consequential effect. For instance, the price of low fuels encourages private owners of cars to use them in roads thus causing congestion. Ironically, the increased fares in public transit regions have also paved way for the public to use their privately-owned vehicles. As a result, more cars than buses hit the road resulting to jam.
Another important factor contributing to traffic is increased driving to businesses and organizations. Close to 40% of jam in such centers involves the public that drive here without apparent reasons. Hence, combined with other public transit vehicles, traffic jams increase causing delayed movement of motor vehicles.
The latest study by the transportation analytics firm INRIX stated that what many people knew about LA was a surprise. According to them, they did not expect that the state was top on matters of traffic congestion than the rest of the cities in the world. As affirmed by the INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard, drivers spent on average 103 hours in traffic a year (Winship and Travel, 2018). These hours equated to 12.13% of the total time spent in their vehicles while on the journey. The entire cost of this global-leading congestion volume accumulated to approximately $10 billion, a clear waste of both fuel and motorists’ time during peak hours.
The long-lasting traffic jam in LA is responsible for more deaths than even cancer. The traffic that has formed a habit particularly in the weird rush hours, delays the emergency responses of ambulances attempting to access the scenes of emergency. Hindered by this traffic issue, the police, firefighters and the ambulance drivers also find it hard to reach the areas that demand swift responses. Consequently, the public that requires quick attention ends up losing property and their lives because of the delay caused by the jam on the roads.
Drivers’ stuck in traffic jams make stupid mistakes. With urban sprawl growth, commute times also grow longer as greater volumes of vehicles utilize roads across Southern California. The consequential effect of this trend is that drivers spend more time behind the wheels as they leave home earlier and retire late in the night. In the long run, the drivers develop fatigue which can lead to multiple mistakes including distracted attention, mistakes in driver judgment as well as diminished responsive time, all prime aspects in the ever-rising number of traffic accidents.
The traffic jam consequences
The dangerous car emissions during traffic jams are among the problems that pose health consequences. Regarding the emissions, health experts suggest that fumes from trucks, cars, and other modes of transportation are the reasons why humans suffer mental acuity, overall intelligence and even emotional state (Brown, 2017). In line with the car fumes, a recent health study by the Michigan University indicated that inhaling exhaust fumes in the street for even half an hour could change the order of activities in some parts of the brain hence controlling one’s personality, behavior and ability to reach conclusions.
Given the urgency of the traffic faced by the commuters in LA and other cities of the world, developments towards solving the problem have begun. In an attempt to either reduce the jam or completely drown the menace, different groups now join hands to curb the matter. Below are some of the solutions aimed at reducing traffic jam in Los Angeles.
What can be done to avoid traffic congestion
Many solutions including car-sharing enterprises can be implemented to curb traffic in Los Angeles. This policy aimed at reducing the number of private cars in roads encourages the members of the public to share community cars to drive to workplaces and other places of interest. Similarly, advocates of this solution affirm that car-sharing enterprises help to create the best relationship among members of the community making it a double-edged solution for both traffic reduction and interpersonal cohesion.
Expanding the transit capacities could be another solution to traffic in LA. This idea of expansion comes at a time when the engineers also think that by relieving major highways linking the USA could help ease congestion by reducing the number of road users. Alternatively, the expansion will create more space for making turns out of the highway at uncontrolled speed to reduce jam. In support of this remedy, the LA voters in 2016 supported a $120 billion Measure M ballot that was expected to alleviate highways throughout the city (Brown, 2017). The project also aimed to reduce the number of hours that drivers spent in traffic by 16% a day by 2057.
Embracing the use of bicycles could be a solution to control traffic in LA. The use of bicycles for example, will reduce traffic jam as well as lower the vehicle emissions into the atmosphere. Like in Holland, Los Angeles should, therefore, develop a region-wide bicycle network that focuses on particular city areas where bicycles could serve a lion’s share of trips. This way, bicycles will have their easy way out unlike vehicles that require more space on the roads compared to the bicycles.
Los Angeles should develop and market low discount fares in regions served by public transit. This way, the public will be enticed with low fares and consequently prefer public transport to private cars. While most people have admired using their personal vehicles to drive to work, the force of high fares also contributed to them assuming public transit. Therefore, if charges are pulled down in areas served by public transit higher percentage of people would use buses thus helping to reduce the LA traffic jam.
Voluntary reductions in driving at businesses and organizations will also ease jam in Los Angeles. Houston & Wu (2014) studied the behavior of people especially in late hours and found that they drove towards major areas of business and firms. Even much as few people had reasons for such behavior, 50% of the drivers only meant to meet their friends and talk. These convergences thus heavily caused jam along the streets delaying home movements. Therefore, by promoting a willing reduction of driving around busy centers, the state could start enjoying the joy of empty and free streets unoccupied by vehicles.
In a tactical measure to curb traffic, the county state of LA should levy fuel taxes. Such taxes are meant to increase transportation revenues as they reduce the demand for driving. From the penalties employed by the fuel charges, many people will avoid personal driving and prefer the use of buses. Throughout LA streets, there will be a preferable number of vehicles compared to the many that unnecessarily storm the common places. Eventually, the regulated number of motor vehicles will reduce and ease traffic.
Although every measure to reduce traffic may seem an easy way, there are several challenges associated with its implementation. Therefore, to ensure that all proposals are achieved to solve the traffic, different agencies should come together to beat all odds in achieving the target (Tessum et al. 2018). This way, traffic in LA and other cities of the USA will be relieved of traffic jam.
All in all, the issue of traffic jam in most cities in the world is a serious matter. However, the case of Los Angeles is a special one as it entails the highest number of hours in the world that drivers spend on the roads. Even so, the associated problems with the traffic among them emission of harmful gases and the increased waste of fuel and time have prompted to the government setting standards to solve the matter. As a result, the state county has employed multiple measures including levying fuel, promoting reductions in driving around businesses and organizations, encouraging the region-wide use of bicycles as well as expanding transit capacities to make way for more vehicles. Other group efforts, as well as the above measures, are thus meant to assist LA to come out of the troubles and misfortunes caused by traffic in the state and its neighboring hoods.?
References
Brown, R. (May 10, 2017). Traffic congestion in Los Angeles: The hidden dangers. Retrieved from https://www.salamatilaw.com/auto-accidents/traffic-congestion-in-los-angeles-the-hidden-dangers/
Houston, D., Li, W., & Wu, J. (2014). Disparities in exposure to automobile and truck traffic and vehicle emissions near the Los Angeles–Long Beach port complex. American Journal of Public Health, 104(1), 156-164.
Lo, A. (February 28, 2018). Los Angeles notorious traffic problem explained in graphics. Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/27/americas/los-angeles-traffic/index.html
Tessum, M. W., Larson, T., Gould, T. R., Simpson, C. D., Yost, M. G., & Vedal, S. (2018). Mobile and Fixed-Site Measurements to Identify Spatial Distributions of Traffic-Related Pollution Sources in Los Angeles. Environmental Science & Technology, 52(5), 2844-2853.
Winship, T. (February 11, 2018). The 10 US cities with the worst traffic. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-us-cities-with-the-worst-traffic-2018-2?IR=T
Cite this page
Traffic congestion in Los Angeles. (2021, Mar 22).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
Discussing Equal Rights for Women
Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, is when your gender does not determine your access to opportunities and resources. There should also be equal valuing of aspirations, behaviors and decision-making, independent of gender. One issue in gender inequality is equal pay, there should be equal work equal pay. If a woman is putting in the same work as a man, she should get the same check. The law says there is equal pay but according to statistics the U.S still isn’t making it happen. According to the US Census Bureau, today, on average, a woman makes 80.5 cents for every dollar that a man makes. In fact, the gender pay gap varies between states, where southern states are likely to have a higher pay gap. In southern states like Louisiana, women earn only about 70% of what men earn.
Another topic regarding women's rights is abortion, where men in office think they can choose whether or not a women's rights to one, but why, if it’s the woman's body? There are several factors that come into play when making the ultimate decision of an abortion, like finances, rape, and living situations. If a woman is raped, I feel that abortions should definitely be possible, no one wants to have to relive that moment every time they face their child. I feel that if a woman just carelessly got pregnant, then abortion should not be an option. In the end, tt should totally be up to women though.
Domestic violence is a huge topic. Violence alone, is a violation of basic human rights. However, violence directed against women by their intimate partners is an epidemic of worldwide that has devastating physical, emotional, financial and social effects on women, children, the family and even the community. This The consequences of domestic violence, both physical and psychological, are so devastating that some consider it a form of torture.
Child marriage is any formal marriage or informal union where one or both of the parties are under the age of 18, each year 12 million girls are married before 18. That is 23 girls every minute. child marriage needs to be stopped, it also leads to abuse/violence. Children lack the choice or capacity to give their full consent.
In conclusion Women’s rights is a huge movement. Men should not be able to make choices envolving woman and how they carry themselves or live their lives. It is one of the problems in society today
- https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/1122263002
- https://g.co/kgs/fBb68J
- http://www.stopvaw.org/domestic_violence2
Cite this page
Discussing Equal Rights for Women. (2021, Mar 22).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
In the Eye of the Beholder: Diane Arbus
The Postmodernism era was a time of questioning ideologies of the modernism era. Artists were looking outside the box, questioning purpose and finding new meanings. Diane Arbus was a great contributor to Postmodernism photography. While she took many photographs of both famous and non-famous people, she had a way of making the photos look non-conventional. Diane’s most famous photography work was with people who were considered different and freakish. She gave them a voice, making them feel less flawed and gave them dignity. Diane’s photography was a new voice of an old secret.
Diane Nemerov was born on March 14, 1923 in New York. Her wealthy family owned Russeks Department store on Fifth Avenue. She was the middle child of 3 children, but was closest to her older brother, Howard. In Diane’s younger years, her parents were overcautious of what her and her siblings were exposed to. Diane was quoted saying, “I grew up feeling immune and exempt from circumstance. One of the things I suffered from was that I never felt adversity. I was confirmed in a sense of unreality” (Oppenheimer). Diane and her siblings life in a large Park Avenue apartment was a guarded nest with maids, cooks and chauffeurs. Diane inferred that peculiar people in Central Park enjoyed a life that was distant from hers and she hungered for a similar existence. Being immune from the hardships of life really bothered Diane and she felt it was rather spurious.
Diane did not regard her mother in the best light. She felt image was too important to her and she was rather fake. Her mother was known to have anxiety and depression issues. As a child Diane would try to keep her mother from going into depression by sitting by her side and consoling her without success. Later in life Diane would suffer from similar inherited traits. In Diane’s younger years she was often known as an original. She was shy, yet intelligent and artistic. From seventh to twelfth grade, Diane attended school at the Fieldstone School in the Bronx and was attracted to myths and public spectacle. She spent much of her time at school painting, working with clay, and sketching. Diane and her friends began exploring New York by themselves without adult consent. Riding on the subway, they would often get off in unfamiliar areas of Brooklyn or the Bronx to observe and get to know diverse people. For Diane’s high school yearbook quote, she chose a misquoted E.A. Robinson’s poem and that said “Diane Nemerov.
To shake the tree of life itself and bring down fruits unheard of” (Lubow). This was the beginning of Diane’s fascination with unusual, unique people. At 13 years old, Diane met Allen Arbus, who worked at her parents store in advertising. The two married when Diane turned 18 in 1941, with her parents begrudging support. Allen studied photography in the New Jersey Signal Corps. The couple made their living doing fashion photography, starting with Diane’s parent’s department store. Allen was the photographer and Diane was the art director, getting the models ready and styled for the photoshoot. The couple had two daughters, Doon and Amy. Diane’s husband took some photography courses in Burma and in his absence Diane studied photography under Berenice Abbott, a photographer in 1950’s. Diane began doing photography by herself and eventually separated from Allen in 1959. Diane enrolled in a class that Lisette Model, a European photographer, was teaching at the New York School.
Encouraged by Model, Diane began to explore her own unique type of photography. Diane had a way of seeing beauty in things that weren’t normal. In the beginning of the 1960’s Diane photographed both famous and non-famous people for magazines such as Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar. She invested a lot of time in her subjects and went to their homes, work, and conversed with them until they felt comfortable and dropped their pretenses. Diane felt the person themselves was more meaningful than her photo and it was evident in her photographs. One of the editors at Esquire, Harold Hayes, was quoted saying “In nearly every case, her subject would be framed by the most natural, obvious setting...and posed facing straight-eyed and unblinking toward the center of her camera lens, always with the same curious expression, as though seeking from the beholder some special understanding” (Oppenheimer).
Diane’s passion lead her to explore photography of the unusual. People the public would look away from or ignore attracted Diane. Diane’s daughter explained “She was determined to reveal what others had been taught to turn their backs on. Or you might say she wanted to find the humanity in people that others shunned” (Kimmelman). Diane celebrated freakishness in her photographs. Some photos include: a picture of a boy in a park playing with a pretend hand grenade, midget friends in a living room, identical twins, a giant human in his home with his normal sized parents, photos of naked people at a nudist camp, and 100’s more unique photos. In contrast Diane would enjoy taking photos of normal people capturing a more merciless view of that person, such as an odd stare or an unusual facial expression. Diane frequented nudist camps, circuses, Hurbert’s Freak Museum, the Times Square, institutions for the mentally disabled, festivals, etc. and was captivated by the beautiful flaws of the unusual, even though she sometimes worried for her life.
In Diane’s own words “I do feel I have some slight corner on the quality of some things, I mean, it’s very subtle and a little embarrassing to me, but I really think there are things that nobody would see unless I photographed them” (Creative Arts Television). Ironically, Diane frequented many places from which she was protected as a child and embraced the risky lives of the unknown and unseen. In 1962 Diane met John Szarkowski, the new curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art. He had a more romantic, post modernism view of photography than the prior curator, Edward Steichen. In 1967 Szarkowski entered Diane’s photographs in the Movement’s Manifesto/Exhibition, New Documents show. This show more than any other show established Diane’s reputation for unusual, artistic photography. While working for Harper's Bazaar, Diane took photos of Gloria Vanderbilt’s son. Diane and Gloria were casual friends, so Diane asked if she could take pictures of her baby. Diane came to their home to visit on and off for 3 weeks, talking and taking photos and became quite enamored with the baby.
This photo is now quite famous because it was the baby picture of Anderson Cooper from CNN. It is said the photo hangs in Mr. Cooper’s home still today. Diane was diagnosed with hepatitis and struggled with depression. She saw a therapist on and off for the last few years of her life. In her later sessions it was revealed that she had a sexual relationship with her brother, Howard that started in her adolescence and continued through her adult life. On July 26, 1971, in her New York City home, Diane killed herself by taking an overdose of barbiturates and slashing her wrists in the bathtub. She was just 48 years old. After Diane’s death, she became the first American Photographer to be displayed in an exhibit at the Venice Biennale in Italy. The exhibit displayed 10 of Diane’s blown up photos, depicting people comfortable with their abnormalities. It was said that Diane felt the people in her photos were born with traumatic characteristics and didn’t have to worry about something bad happening, because it already had and they were free.
Diane Arbus was not just a talented photographer, she took photos to get to know the person and tell a unique story about each one. She gave a voice to America’s freaks and shared it with the world. Sadly, Diane didn’t live to see all of her success. She had become an icon in the history of Photography’s postmodernism era. Diane left behind an important message through her photos, showing that it is important to embrace and celebrate the gift of life's oddities.
Cite this page
In the Eye of the Beholder: Diane Arbus. (2021, Mar 22).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
Definition of a Person
What do we mean by a person? According to Anderson, a researcher, a person is a kind of being that has moral right to make its own life-decisions, to live its life without interruptions from others: a being that has the moral right of autonomy. Basically, one could say from Anderson’s point of view that a person is a being who can reason, could communicate in a particular language(s), has intelligence, is creative and is able to be aware or conscious of things external to it, as well as its own state. Each of the qualities mentioned above is a necessity or a requirement to qualify one as a person. Lack of any of these features could deprive one from being a person. Before we look at these definition of a person, let’s try to know Sean a little bit.
Sean is an Explosive Ordinance Disposal robot, who could examine suspicious packages that invade the country, as well as check its surrounding area to find and even deactivate improvised explosive devices. One beautiful thing about Sean is that it could sense and detect the presence of terrorists to make report to the corps, informing them to stay alert and be on guard. Sean can speak about three languages, enhancing effective communication. Unfortunately, Sean cannot express pain or happiness like one who is aware or conscious of its state. All that it does is to give a beep sound to draw the attention of the corps when it senses something which is unusual. Based on the above definition of a person, could Sean be considered as a person? Well based on the definition above, one could say that Sean exhibit quite a number of those qualities like communication, reasoning, creativeness etc. but lacks one thing which is consciousness or self-awareness. Consciousness is one of the key components of a person. Lack of this feature may completely deprive one from being a person. Hence, Sean cannot be considered as a person since it cannot be aware of its state. However, let’s consider this argument from a philosophical perspective.
This ‘being’ we are taking into consideration has the ability to analyze, handle and apply knowledge in a logical or reasonable way. It is an Explosive Ordinance Disposal robot called Sean. It is usually used in the military for examining suspicious packages and surrounding areas to find and even deactivate improvised explosive devices. This being can even deliver unexploded ordinance for examination and proper ignition without endangering humans. It can speak in about three languages, French, Spanish and English as well as make phone calls to instruct people to escape when it senses danger. It could learn from its mistakes and make its own decisions when the need arises. Fortunately or unfortunately, with all the sensory devices and abilities it has, it cannot express how it feels when it encounters either a happy or sad incident. In a case where it’s being tortured or harmed by other forces, it cannot scream in pain or groan like one who has been attacked and is looking out to be rescued. All that it could do is to give a particular beep sound to draw the attention of the corps. It could recognize the identification of individuals through facial scan from a distance and reports anybody suspected to be a terrorist to the corps. It is very friendly to people it finds no troubles with. It is able to greet and have conversations with them in a polite manner. Due to it great role in the military and unique features, should it be considered as a person and hence, be given certain rights?
According to Locke, a being is considered as a person if it can think, reason, reflect and consider itself as itself. A person is not just an intelligent being, but one who can identify itself, through consciousness which is inseparable from thinking. “A person stands for a thinking intelligent being that has reason and reflection and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing, in different times and places…” (p.2). Arguing from Locke’s perspective, one could say that a person should be able to have an inner experience of its own mental activities, being directly related to its thoughts, behavior, dreams, hopes and ambitions that it currently holds such that it has the capabilities to critically reflect over its mental conditions and make common sense about those states. Sean in this case though is able to have conversations with other people, greet them politely, as well as able to decide how and where to dispose of explosive devices, it does not have an inner experience of what it does. It cannot consider itself as itself nor able to perceive that it does perceive that it is able to save people’s lives by being able to detect suspicious packages that invade the country and deactivate these explosive devices safely. It behaves like an ordinary vessel being used to accomplish a task without knowing or being aware of what it does. Therefore based on Locke’s ideas, I can come to a conclusion that Sean cannot be considered as a person due to its inability to be conscious of its state.
Comparing Locke’s ideas to that of Descartes’ to help me dwell on a better conclusion that Sean is not a person, though Descartes does not clearly state who a person is, one could basically say from Descartes’ perspective that a person could be a thinking thing that is able to perceive, doubt, understand, conceive, affirm, deny, will, refuse, as well as able to imagine and perceive. “But what, then, am I? A thinking thing, it has been said. But what is a thinking thing? It is a thing that doubts, understands, [conceives], affirms, denies, wills, refuses; that imagines also, and perceives,” (p.8). In other words, if a being is able to perceive his own actions or mental activities and conceive them in the correct way, then it may be possible for it to consider whether its behavior or attitude should be changed or maintained, whether an attitude is morally wrong, or that it made mistakes in its reasoning and that a belief it holds is indefensible and as such should be forsaken.
If a being can express all these features, then we may be able to classify such a being as a person. Sean, in all its abilities like being able to correct certain mistakes that it does based on various computations, could not be able to observe or doubt its actions or mental activities to decide that it made mistakes in its reasoning and that a belief it holds is indefensible and as such should be forsaken. Sean continuous to repeat its activities over time without considering them carefully if they would cause more harm than good. It cannot deny nor refuse certain activities even if there may be dangers involved or associated with them. This is because, it has limits based on what it can do. Anything beyond its capability or range of action is useless to it, indicating its unawareness of itself and its inability to understand every activity to make proper moral judgements. Hence, one could also say that Sean is not a person from Descartes’ point of view. The analysis of this being from both Locke’s and Descartes’ perspective, makes me draw a clearer conclusion that Sean cannot be considered as a person regardless of its numerous activities and performances.
Sean is intelligent and smart but is its intelligence enough to make it a person? No matter how sophisticated and smart it is, it still lacks something, consciousness, which is a necessary feature of a person. If it does not have consciousness, there is no way it could make moral judgements when it is confronted with certain issues. Hence, one cannot be 100% sure that it does its work accurately. There might be certain mistakes it could not trace to correct no matter how efficient it might seem to be. It could repeatedly make certain errors which might go unnoticed since it lacks awareness of itself and the things external to it. In my point of view, Sean should not be considered as a person and as such, it shouldn’t be given the opportunity to enjoy certain benefits or rights associated to a person.
Cite this page
Definition of a Person. (2021, Mar 22).
Retrieved November 5, 2025 , from
https://studydriver.com/2021/03/page/12/
