Consciousness In The Movement Of Existentialism Philosophy Essay

Consciousness In The Movement Of Existentialism Philosophy Essay This paper aims to briefly write about the role of consciousness in the movement of existentialism. We will discuss primarily and briefly the respective existential preoccupations of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche to set the mood of our endeavour; to which we will end by addressing in deeper detail into Sartres conception of consciousness and the denial of it, viz. bad faith. Sartre would be treated more deeply because I hold that he is the culmination of existential movement. One striking thing to note on Kierkegaard is his three stages of existence, namely the aesthetic, ethical and religious stages. The first two stages, interestingly enough, respectively brings about boredom and existential suffocation, which leads us to the favoured stage of Kierkegaard, the religious stage. This stage is achieved by a leap of faith, an acceptance of the finiteness of man when confronted by the reality of death. Whereas the first two exists distracted by the demands of their roles, the third one made a choice when confronted by a realization of the aspect of death. Kierkegaard existential bent is towards a realization of how feeble and insignificant the existence of man when confronted by the reality of death. Nietzsche is another brand of existentialism. A one-hundred sixty turn from Kierkegaards position, he declared God is dead. Though not exactly a metaphysical declaration, it tells us the milieu of Nietzsche is in, with its dying Christian morals and the momentum secular morality is gaining. His ushering of his teachings on the Over-man is a particular point I want to take note. The Over-man is someone who realized his capacity to create outside the dictates of the norms of a given society. The concept of Will to Power is a more important element than pressure for adaptation or survival. Will to power applies to all living things, suggesting that adaptation and the struggle to survive is a secondary drive in the evolution of animals, less important than the desire to expand ones power. Nietzsche eventually took this concept further still, and transformed the idea of matter as centres of force into matter as centres of will to power. Consciousness makes us understand this demand than a ny other life forms, and unlike other living things, maximize the world around us to have power. As pointed earlier, consciousness of ones position in existence is the root of the existentialist drive. Consciousness of ones self is the source of freedom. Consciousness of the other limits it. But what is consciousness according to Sartre? All consciousness is the consciousness of something, following from Husserl. It is intentional and directive that goes beyond itself, to a transcending object. This is where the distinction of being-in-itself, or beings that are outside consciousness, arises away from beings-for-itself, or beings that are conscious. But this consciousness is not the Ego of Descartes, since for Sartre the original consciousness is pre-reflective and non-personal. The I and Me does not come into existence until consciousness itself became the object of reflection. This distinction brings us into interesting and exciting ontological explorations. Since this position of understanding consciousness is fundamental in Sartre, we see that neither my own existence nor that of the other can be proved but that both are factual necessities which doubting these existence would collapse into solipsism. Consciousness also establishes the connection between the world and the Ego, neither creating each Other, it insures the active participation of the person in the world. Most importantly this consciousness infinitely overflows the Ego, and this relationship inadvertently is the foundation of bad faith. Bad faith is a lie to ones self. This self-deception is possible when the human being divides itself, one level or aspect concealing from the other what it in some sense knows. Sartre tells us that the consciousness with which we use to generally consider our objective surroundings, to experience phenomena, is a different degree from the consciousness of ourselves being conscious of these surroundings; we call these two degrees as pre-reflective and reflective consciousness respectively. Despite the unity of a single consciousness, the paradox arises from the condition of its operation, the shift of degrees in how we are conscious. Sartrean bad faith finds its root when human beings are pre-reflectively aware of what they may not reflectively know, and they dismiss the pre-reflective awareness and hide under the reflective one. This is the twofold dividedness in human beings, of psychology and ontology. Since for Sartre consciousness, especially the pre-reflective aspect of it, entails a consciousness of our separation from the world, something that Camus also echoes in his observations of the absurd and this aspect gives us freedom. Freedom then is a product of us being aware. We are also always aware of this aspect in us, our consciousness always ultimately tells us that we are a being-for-itself. This capacity to manipulate these two levels of consciousness makes us interpret the factual limits of our objective situation as overwhelming in light of our reflective consciousness, but at the same time making us aware of alternatives beyond and around these limits because of our pre-reflective consciousness. Psychologically, the pre-reflective awareness that gives us this bad faith is the one that chooses to keep oneself in the dark about certain matters such as responsibility in our freedom. Meanwhile ontologically speaking, bad faith has its basis from the dividedness of the human existence that leads to an ambiguous mix of facticity and transcendence. We flee our anguish when transcendence collapse into our facticity and feel like automatons with determined existence; or when we dismiss our facticity into transcendence and be like a battered wife that still prays for his husband to change his ways. Since nothing prevents consciousness from making choices on its way of being, it fears this boundless freedom, this spontaneity, because it feels that it veers beyond freedom. This brings us anguish. The recognition of our capacity for freedom renders insurance in our pasts or our personality that will lead to usual patterns of conduct meaningless. A consciousness with bad faith wavers back and forth, demanding the privileges of a free consciousness, a being-for-itself, but escaping the responsibilities of having one, of having freedom, by imagining that one is protected in an already established Ego, of pretending to be just a being-in-itself, devoid of any responsibility for perfection. Habits, practices, objects and institutions are instances from where we escape our responsibilities, and maintain distractions from these responsibilities. Fundamentally, one cannot really escape responsibility by adopting any of external moral systems such as religion or politics, such endorsement is still a choice and which one must take full responsibility for. Bad faith in an attempt to avoid the angst which accompanies the realization that our existence has no coherence except for what we ourselves create. Thus, bad faith comes from within us and is itself a choice a way that a person uses their freedom in order to avoid dealing with the consequences of that freedom because of the radial responsibility that those consequences entail. To show us better what he means, Sartre writes of a woman who has the choice of whether to go out on a date with an amorous suitor. In considering this choice, the woman knows that she will face more choices later on because she is quite aware of the mans intentions and desires, but chooses to ignore these possibilities in the hope she will not be answerable to how things will turn out. The need for choices is then heightened when, later, the man puts his hand on hers and caresses it. She can leave her hand there and thereby encourage further advances, knowing full well where they might lead. On the other hand, she can take her hand away, discouraging his advances and perhaps discouraging him from ever asking her out again. Both choices entail consequences which she must take responsibility for. Sartre declares that the woman is in bad faith and writes, And during this time the divorce of the body from the soul is accomplished; the hand rests inert between the warm hands of her companion neither consenting nor resisting a thing.  [1]   The woman treated her hand merely as an object, rather than an extension of her self, and pretends that there is no choice and leaves it to the disposal of the moment. Perhaps she defends her posture because of the uncontrollable passion on her part, perhaps she will cite the presence of social pressure that forces her to comply and adapt a particular etiquette, or perhaps she merely pretends not to notice the mans actions and intentions. Whatever the case, she acts as though she is not making any choices prior and during that moment that she was just floated by factors out of her reach and into that circumstance which is also out of her reach. Hence, with that mentality in mind, she holds that she has no responsibility for the consequences that will arise. That woman, according to Sartre, means acting and living in bad faith, and concluding that by adapting bad faith one is free from responsibility, is the gravest and dangerous self-deception. One still is responsible even in such d eception. The reason why bad faith is a problem is that it allows us to escape responsibility for our moral choices by treating humanity as the passive object of larger, organized forces whether it by our genetic make-up, the Will of God, emotional passions, social structures, etc. Sartre argued that we all act to shape our own destiny and as such, we need to accept and deal with the awesome responsibility this imposes upon us. It is not the case, humanity has the capacity of be involved in existence, and surrendering this capacity is a denial of ones humanity. For Sartre, one is the master of ones own project. In a world of consciousness, you are a painter with a blank canvass of reality, taking charge of what you paint and with what colour. But freedom is not absolute, as we are limited by our body, the things around us, i.e. being-in-itself, and by other people, i.e. hell is other people. The concept of beings-for-itself tells us that existence precedes essence, so the dictum of Sartre goes. This is only meant that conscious beings determine their essence, their position in the plethora of existence, without anyone telling us before where we meant to be. A fundamental claim in existentialist thought is that individuals are always free to make choices and guide their lives towards their own project, regardless of any circumstances even if it is overwhelming. The claim holds that individuals cannot escape their freedom, and surrendering ones freedom is still a matter of choice and one is responsible for the consequences and sufferings of p retending not being free. For instance, in our politics, even if a politician cheated the results of the election, or forced his will and seized the government, our reactions are always a matter of choice. Rebellion or compliance to name a few, are some of these choices, and to blame it in circumstances is an instance of bad faith. One must be held responsible for the choices one had made and not blame it in circumstances. Freedom then is not absolute, but rather a continuing flux of action, choices and responsibilities. Some quiver at the capacity and pretends not to have one, of being a being-in-itself, but those who accept relish in existence for itself and for other people. Freedom is a shared experience and responsibility, adjusting as ones consciousness flows with the contours of the objects around us and the other. Existence precedes essence, as Sartre famously coins and summarizes the underlying principle of existentialist projects before him. What he means by this is that determining of essence is not some static definition in the world of ideas, but rather always a possible realization only seen with action in the world of existence. Essence is determined by action. You do your essence by existing as such. Man is a rational animal, as essentialists would claim, then following their formula that essence precedes existence, we could see that whether they are actively rationalizing or not, they are still rational animals, but for Sartre this is not the case. One must rationalize and one must act with rationality, before one becomes and be receives the privileges given to a man. Surely it is strange to call a fool, who lacks rationality, or a murderous villain, which have rationality yet savage, as human beings. It is also a deep injustice to give respect and privileges due to a man, on such bei ngs, and further it is also a deep injustice of not holding them accountable of their actions since they hide under the notion of being a man. As a human being, a being-for-itself, one cannot claim our actions are determined by forces exterior to the self; this is the core statement of existentialism. One is doomed to this eternal freedom because human beings exist before the definition of human identity exists, before one chooses what to be. One cannot define oneself as a thing in the world, as one has the freedom to be otherwise. One is not a philosopher, because at some point one ceases the activities that define the self as a philosopher. Any role that one might adopt to escape the responsibility and flux of invention and creation, does not define the self, because the self is, again, free and not constant it cannot be a thing in the world. Though one cannot assign a positive value to definitions that may apply to oneself, one remains able to say what one is not, one is defined by what one is not. When men go about the world, they have expectations which are often not fulfilled. For example, Im meeting someone in a cafà ©, but upon arriving he is not there where we thought we would meet him, so there is a  negation, a void, a nothingness, in the place of the one Im expecting. When looking for my friend, his lack of being, there becomes a negation; everything I see as I search the people and objects about him are not him. This inner anguish over moral uncertainty is a central underlying theme in existentialism, as the anguish demonstrates a personal feeling of responsibility over the choices one makes throughout life, whether it is to God or to ones self. Without an emphasis on personal choice, one may make use of an external moral system as a tool to moralize otherwise immoral acts, leading to negation of the self. According to existentialism, dedicated professionals of their respective moral codes should, instead of divesting the self of responsibility in the discharge of ones duties, be aware of ones own significance in the process. A doctor must not only memorize the oath, nor the procedure of medicine that is involved, but being in the process of healing he is recognizing the impact that he is doing and the weight of his responsibilities for every actions he commit. This recognition involves the questioning of the morality of all choices, taking responsibility for the consequences of ones own choice and therefore; a constant reappraisal of ones own and others ever-changing humanity. One must not exercise bad faith by denying the selfs freedom of choice and accountability because such denial not only denies ones fundamental capacity and the betrayal of the self, it also gives us an illusion of complacency and stagnation, of pretension of being a being-in-itself. Taking on the burden of personal accountability in all situations is an intimidating proposition by pointing out the freedom of the individual, Sartre, together with the existentialists like Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, seeks to demonstrate the social roles and moral systems we adopt to hide us from being morally accountable for our actions. Every existentialist then challenges us to go out of these comfort and stagnant forms of existence and exist as human beings by overcoming this tenden cy to surrender and seize our freedom and face the responsibilities and consequences it produces.

Solitude, Solidarity, and Sexuality in One Hundred Years of Solitude :: One Hundred Years Solitude Essays

Solitude, Solidarity, and Sexuality in One Hundred Years of Solitude Soledad in Spanish means more than our word "solitude," although it means that too. It suggests loneliness, the sense of being apart from others. Although ultimately each human being is alone, because there are parts of our experience we cannot share, some people are more solitary than others. The really solitary figures in this novel are those who deliberately cut themselves off from other humans. They are contrasted with characters who combat their solitude, by making strenuous efforts to reach out to others. The founder of Macondo, Jose Arcadio Buendia, is the first great solitary. He becomes so obsessed with his own search for truth that he neglects his family and ultimately loses all touch with outer reality. His wife, Ursula, is perhaps the greatest of the antisolitary figures, the person who more than anyone else holds the family and the house together. She takes in a foster child and later insists on rearing the bastard children of her sons and grandsons. Her whole life is devoted to strengthening social bonds. Pilar Ternera, the fortuneteller, is also an antisolitary. Her role is to comfort the Buendia men and, in her younger years, to go to bed with them and bear their children. At the end of the book and of her own very long life (she has stopped counting birthdays after one-hundred forty-five), she is the madame of a wonderful zoological brothel, which in this context stands for a generous, bountiful sexuality. There is a lot of sex in the novel, most of it celebrating the size and potency of the Buendia men's phalluses or the lubricity of the women. Sex can be used to combat solitude, because of its power to connect one person to another. Even the two rapes in the novel result in close bonding: Jose Arcadio Buendia rapes his bride Ursula to begin the family line (second chapter), and the last Aureliano rapes Amaranta Ursula (who is not, however, very resistant), who will bring forth the last of the line.

Evolution of Computer Technology

Several centuries have been taken toward the development of inventions made by different people into modern forms. Single inventors rarely bring out modern invention. What we have now as electronic devices (the computers) are inventions of several scientists, mathematicians and engineers from different centuries. For the purpose of this mini research key terms like evolution, technology and computer shall be considered, not forgetting to take a careful look at the evolution of these inventions from different centuries/years to our present generation starting from the earliest known device.The characteristics of these devices from generation to generation and their classification according to sizes, functions and uses shall also be discussed. DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS Evolution: Evolution is a gradual development that occurs in a particular place or thing. Technology: This is the use of mechanical arts and applied science. Technology here refers to systems, methods of organization and t echniques. Computer:A computer is a programmable mechanical device that accepts information or inputs, stores and manipulates data and brings out the result or output in numerical format.COMPONENTS OF A COMPUTER SYSTEM A general purpose computer has four major components namely: arithmetic and logic unit (ALU), control unit, memory and input/output devices. These parts are interconnected by buses often made of groups of wires. ARITHMETIC AND LOGIC UNIT (ALU) This unit carries out arithmetic and logic operations. According to Stokes (2007), the set of arithmetic operations that a particular arithmetic and logic unit supports may be limited to adding and subtracting or might include multiplying or dividing functions ( sine, cosine, etc) and square roots.While others represent real numbers with the use of floating point, some can only operate on whole numbers (integers) albeit, with limited precision. Arithmetic operation could be carried out by any programmed computer. Logic operation can be useful both for creating complicated conditional statements and processing Boolean logic. THE CONTROL UNIT The control unit which is often called a control system or central controller, manages the computer’s various components. It reads and interprets (decodes) the program instructions, transforming them into a series of control signals which activate other parts of the computer.In order to improve performance, the control system in advanced computer may change the order of some instructions. FUNCTION OF THE CONTROL SYSTEM It reads the codes for the next instruction from the cell indicated by the program counters. It decodes the numerical code for the instruction into a set of commands or signals for each of the other systems. Whatever data the instruction requires from cells in memory are read by the control system. Necessary data to an arithmetic and logic unit or register is also provided by the control system.If the instruction requires an ALU or specialized hard ware to complete, it instructs the hardware to perform the requested operation. It writes the results from the ALU back to a memory location or to a register or perhaps an output device. It could be observed that the sequence of operations gone through by the control unit to process an instruction is in itself like a short computer program. MEMORY The memory of a computer is seen as a list of cells into which numbers can be placed or read. Each cell has a numbered address and can store a single number.Anything such as numbers, letters can be represented by the information stored into the memory with equal ease. Software gives significance to what the memory sees as series of numbers. In almost all modern computers, each memory cell is set up to store binary numbers in gaps of 8bits or bytes. Each byte representing 256 different numbers (Stokes 2007). Several consecutive numbers may be used to store larger numbers. Computer memory is of two types or principal varieties: The Random Ac cess Memory (RAM) and Read Only Memory (ROM).Random Access Memory according to Inyang and Umoh (2003), is a part of primary memory that holds the programs being executed and the data to be worked upon. RAM also stores the result of a processed data, waiting to be transferred to output device or secondary storage device. It is a temporary memory and the content of RAM is erased when a computer is turned off and data stored in it can instantly be accessed. The storage of RAM is expressed in megabytes and its capacity or size limited. An area of RAM set aside for storage of most frequently accessed information is the CACHE memory.It is a temporary high speed data holding area between the memory and the central processing unit. RAM has four parts: the conventional memory which consist of the first 640KB of RAM, used by operating system and device drivers; Upper Memory Bound (UMB) located between 640KB and 1MB of RAM, used by device drivers: extended memory (XMS) which include direct acc ess memory above 1MB; and Expended memory: a special part of ram that is up to 32MB and exists outside the conventional memory. Read only memory (ROM) is preloaded with data and software that never changes, so the central processing unit (CPU) can only read it.ROM is typically used to store the computer’s initial start up instructions. It retains its data indefinitely. In a personal computer (PC), ROM contains a specialized program called the BIOS that orchestrates loading the computer’s operating system from the hard disc drive into RAM whenever the computer is turn on or reset. All of the required software may be stored in ROM in embedded computers which frequently do not have disc drives. Software stored in ROM is referred to as firmware because it is more like hardware than software. INPUT/OUTPUT DEVICEMeans by which information between the computer and outside world is exchanged is known as input/output. Peripheral includes input devices like keyboard and mouse, a nd output devices such as the display and printer. Hard disc drives, floppy disc drives and optical disc drives serve as both input and output devices. HISTORY OF COMPUTER Computer technology has changed today world to a global village. Since the field of computer is a vast sea, there are many options and benefits one can get from it. Internet is constant and rapidly growing source of information.People can get information or piece of required knowledge from any part of the world by just a few clicks on the websites. There is a rise in the need of more websites and knowledgeable sources as information is much easier to access. The early men counted by means of matching one set of object with another set. The history of modern computer begins with two separate technologies: automated calculation and programmability. The earliest known computing device was called ABACUS. It is the first counting device that was developed about 500BC (Umoh and Inyang, 2003).It is made up of wood and be ads. It has a role of any number of parallel wires, rods or grooves on or in slide of small beads or blocks. Strung beads which have different values were manually used to operate abacus. Bars were used in dividing the Abacus into two parts perpendicular to the rods. Bits moved in active position towards the bars and the ones towards the frame are ignored. Each bar signifies digits and least significant digits were on the right. Abacus was used in calculating (i. e. adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing) numbers by moving the bit complex.In the 9th century, the Persian Mathematician Abu, Abdullah Muhammad Bin Musa Al-Khwarizni developed the concept of a written process followed to achieve some goals, and published a book on the subject that gave us its modern name Algorithm. In 1623, Wilhelm Schikard, a German Scientist invented a machine that used eleven complete and six incomplete sprocketed wheels that could add and with the aid of logarithm tables, multiply and divide. M any inventions have taken several centuries to develop into the modern forms and modern inventions are rarely the product of a single inventor’s effort.Many people each added a small contribution towards the development of the bits and pieces of a computer (including the software). Each person in this work contributed a part towards the development of computers. In 1642, a 19year old French boy, a philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal invented a mechanical adding machine called a Mechanical Calculator. It is like a modern desk calculator and contains numbers of wheel and uses gear system to perform arithmetic operations. Computations are carried out by a process of integer counting.In 1801, Punch cards were invented by a French Weaver called Joseph Marie Jacquard. These Punch Cards allowed his loom to automatically weave intricate patterns. Different parts were used in storing different patterns of holes that produced different designs. Punch Cards are used in processin g information in computers. The fusion of automatic calculation with programmability produced the first recognized computers. Charles Babbage, British Mathematician and inventor, invented mechanical computing machine – Babbage’s Analytical Engine.In 1820, it carried out complex arithmetic operations and made decisions based on its own computations. It was self-controlled and had two important parts which are the storage unit with memory device and arithmetic unit known as the Mill. It was the world’s first digital computer. Babbage’s contributed the idea of conditional transfer which gave way to comparison of quantities and modification of programs. The idea of a sequence of punch cards to produce a more flexible design was borrowed from the Jacquard’s pattern weaving loom. It performed functions like additions, subtraction, division and multiplication.

Dorothy Day, Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement

Dorothy Day, Founder of the Catholic Worker Movement Dorothy Day was a writer and editor who founded the Catholic Worker, a penny newspaper that grew into a voice for the poor during the Great Depression. As the driving force in what became a movement, Days unwavering advocacy for charity and pacifism made her controversial at times. Yet her work among the poorest of the poor also made her an admired example of a deeply spiritual person actively engaged in addressing societys problems. When Pope Francis addressed the U.S. Congress in September 2015, he focused much of his speech on  four Americans he found particularly inspiring: Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton. Days name was no doubt unfamiliar to millions watching the Popes speech on television. But his effusive praise of her indicated how influential her lifes work with the Catholic Worker Movement was to the Popes own thoughts about social justice. Fast Facts: Dorothy Day Born: November 8, 1897, New York City.Died: November 29, 1980, New York City.Founder of the Catholic Worker, a small newspaper published in the Depression which became a social movement.Named by Pope Francis in his 2015 speech to Congress as one of his four most admired Americans.Is widely expected to be declared a saint in the Catholic Church. During her lifetime, Day could seem out of step with mainstream Catholics in America. She operated at the fringe of organized Catholicism, never seeking permission or official endorsement for any of her projects. Day came late to the faith, converting to Catholicism as an adult in the 1920s. At the time of her conversion, she was an unmarried mother with a complicated past that included life as a bohemian writer in Greenwich Village, unhappy love affairs, and an abortion that rendered her emotionally devastated. A movement to have Dorothy Day canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church began in the 1990s. Days own family members have said she would have scoffed at the idea. Yet it seems likely that she will one day be an officially recognized saint of the Catholic Church. Early Life Dorothy Day was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 8, 1897. She was the third of five children born to John and Grace Day. Her father was a journalist who bounced from job to job, which kept the family moving between New York City neighborhoods and then onward to other cities. When her father was offered a job in San Francisco in 1903, the Days moved westward. Economic disruption caused by the San Francisco earthquake three years later cost her father his job, and the family moved on to Chicago. By the age of 17, Dorothy had already completed two years of study at the University of Illinois. But she abandoned her education in 1916  when she and her family moved back to New York City. In New York, she began writing articles for socialist newspapers. With her modest earnings, she moved into a small apartment on the Lower East Side. She became fascinated by the vibrant yet difficult  lives of impoverished immigrant communities, and Day became an obsessive walker, ferreting out stories in the citys poorest neighborhoods. She was hired as a reporter by the New York Call, a socialist newspaper, and began contributing articles to a revolutionary magazine, The Masses. Bohemian Years As America entered World War I and a patriotic wave swept the country, Day found herself immersed in a life filled with politically radical, or  simply offbeat, characters in Greenwich Village. She became a Village resident, living in a succession of cheap apartments and spending time in tearooms and saloons frequented by writers, painters, actors, and political activists. Day began a platonic friendship with playwright Eugene ONeill, and for a period during World War I, she entered a training program to become a nurse. After leaving the nursing program at the wars end, she became romantically involved with a journalist, Lionel Moise. Her affair with Moise ended after she had an abortion, an experience that sent her into a period of depression and intense inner turmoil. She met Forster Batterham through literary friends in New York and began living with him in a rustic cabin near the beach on Staten Island (which, in the early 1920s, was still rural). They had a daughter, Tamar, and after the birth of her child Day began to feel a sense of religious awakening. Though neither Day or Batterham were Catholic, Day took Tamar to a Catholic church on Staten Island and had the child baptized. The relationship with Batterham became difficult and the two often separated. Day, who had published a novel based on her Greenwich Village years, was able to purchase a modest cottage on Staten Island and she created a life for herself and Tamar. To escape the winter weather along the Staten Island shore, Day and her daughter would live in sublet apartments in Greenwich Village during the coldest months. On December 27, 1927, Day took a life-changing step by riding a  ferry back to Staten Island, visiting the Catholic church she knew, and having herself baptized. She later said she felt no great joy in the action, but rather regarded it as something she had to do. Finding Purpose Day continued writing and taking jobs as a researcher for publishers. A play she had written hadnt been produced, but somehow came to the attention of a Hollywood movie studio, which offered her a writing contract. In 1929 she and Tamar took a train to California, where she joined the staff of Pathà © Studios. Days Hollywood career was short. She found the studio not terribly interested in her contributions. And when the stock market crash in October 1929 hit the movie industry hard, her contract was not renewed. In a car she had purchased with her studio earnings, she and Tamar relocated to Mexico City. She returned to New York the following year. And after a trip to Florida to visit her parents, she and Tamar settled in a small apartment on 15th Street, not far from Union Square, where sidewalk speakers advocated solutions to the misery of the Great Depression. In December 1932 Day, returning to journalism, traveled to Washington, D.C. to cover a march against hunger for Catholic publications. While in Washington she visited the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, the Catholic Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception.   She later recalled she had been losing her faith in the Catholic Church over its apparent indifference to the poor. Yet as she prayed at the shrine she began to sense a purpose to her life. After  returning to New York City, an eccentric character turned up in Days life, someone she regarded as a teacher who may have been sent by the Virgin Mary. Peter Maurin was a French immigrant who worked as a laborer in America though he had taught at schools run by the Christian Brothers in France. He was a frequent speaker in Union Square, where he would advocate novel, if not radical, solutions for societys ills. Founding of the Catholic Worker Maurin sought  out Dorothy Day after reading some of her articles about social justice. They began spending time together, talking and arguing. Maurin suggested Day should start her own newspaper. She said she had doubts about finding the money to get a paper printed, but Maurin encouraged her, saying they needed to have faith that the funds would appear. Within months, they did manage to raise enough money to print their newspaper. On May 1, 1933, a gigantic May Day demonstration was held at Union Square in New York. Day, Maurin, and a group of friends hawked the first copies of the Catholic Worker. The four-page newspaper cost a penny. The New York Times described the crowd  in Union Square that day as being filled with communists, socialists, and assorted other radicals. The newspaper noted the presence of banners denouncing sweatshops, Hitler, and the Scottsboro case. In that setting, a newspaper focused on helping the poor and achieving social justice was a hit. Every copy sold. That  first issue of the Catholic Worker contained a column by Dorothy Day which outlined its purpose. It began: For those who are sitting on park benches in the warm spring sunlight.For those who are huddling in shelters trying to escape the rain.For those who are walking the streets in the all but futile search for work.For those who think that there is no hope for the future, no recognition of their plight - this little paper is addressed.It is printed to call their attention to the fact that the Catholic Church has a social program - to let them know that there are men of God who are working not only for their spiritual, but for their material welfare. The success of the newspaper continued. In a lively and informal office, Day, Maurin, and what became a regular cast of dedicated souls labored to produce an issue every month. Within a few years, the circulation reached 100,000, with copies being mailed to all regions of America.   Dorothy Day wrote a column in each issue, and her contributions continued for nearly 50 years, until her death in 1980. The archive of her columns represents a remarkable view of modern American history, as she began commenting on the plight of the poor in the Depression and moved on to the violence of the world at war, the Cold War, and protests of the 1960s. Dorothy Day addressing a protest against the Vietnam War.   Getty Images Prominence and Controversy Beginning with her youthful writings for socialist newspapers, Dorothy Day was often been out of step with mainstream America. She was arrested for the first time in 1917, while picketing the White House with suffragists demanding that women have the right to vote. In prison, at the age of 20, she was beaten by the police, and the experience made her even more sympathetic to the oppressed and powerless in society. Within years of its 1933 founding as a small newspaper, the Catholic Worker evolved into being a social movement. Again with Peter Maurins influence, Day and her supporters opened soup kitchens in New York City. The feeding of the poor continued for years, and the Catholic Worker also opened houses of hospitality offering places to stay for the homeless. For years the Catholic Worker also operated a communal farm near Easton, Pennsylvania. Besides writing for the Catholic Worker newspaper, Day traveled extensively, giving talks on social justice and meeting activists, both inside and outside the Catholic Church. She was at times suspected of holding subversive political views, but in a sense she operated outside of politics. When followers of the Catholic Worker Movement refused to participate in Cold War fallout shelter drills, Day and others were arrested. She was later arrested while protesting with union farm workers in California. She remained active until her death, in her room at a Catholic Worker residence in New York City, on November 29, 1980. She was buried on Staten Island, near the site of her conversion. Legacy of Dorothy Day In the decades since her death, the influence of Dorothy Day has grown. A number of books have been written about her, and several anthologies of her writings have been published. The Catholic Worker community continues to flourish, and the newspaper which first sold for a penny in Union Square still publishes seven times a year in a print edition. An extensive archive, including all of Dorothy Days columns is available for free online. More than 200 Catholic Worker communities exist in the United States and other countries. Perhaps the most noteworthy tribute to Dorothy Day was, of course, the comments by Pope Francis in his address to Congress on September 24, 2015. He said:   In these times when social concerns are so important, I cannot fail to mention the Servant of God Dorothy Day, who founded the Catholic Worker Movement. Her social activism, her passion for justice and for the cause of the oppressed, were inspired by the Gospel, her faith, and the example of the saints. Near the end of his speech, the Pope again spoke of Days striving for justice: A nation can be considered great when it defends liberty as Lincoln did, when it fosters a culture which enables people to dream of full rights for all their brothers and sisters, as Martin Luther King sought to do; when it strives for justice and the cause of the oppressed, as Dorothy Day did by her tireless work, the fruit of a faith which becomes dialogue and sows peace in the contemplative style of Thomas Merton. With the leaders of the Catholic Church praising her work, and others continually discovering her writings, the legacy of Dorothy Day, who found her purpose editing a penny newspaper for the poor, seems assured.

cultural slavery essays

cultural slavery essays Slave Culture Slavery in America thrived and continued to grow because there was a scarcity of labor. Cultivation of crops on plantations could be supervised while slaves used simple routines to harvest them, the low price at which slaves could be bought, and earning profits as a bonus for not having to pay hired work. But in the beginning half of the 19th century a strong push for slavery's final straw was coming. The people of the South tended to be more genteel, and seemed not quite adjusted to hard work, but more to giving orders. The idea of telling people how to do their work just seemed to fit all too well into this scenario. Slaves lived under virtually unsuitable conditions. Douglass' account of a slave's life told of the trying times on the plantation. An allowance was given to the workers. A monthly allowance consisted of mostly of pork and corn meal but also some money. Yearly slaves were given clothes, a couple shirts, and two pairs of pants-one pair of pants for winter and one pair for the other times of the year. They were not given beds to sleep on but rather a blanket for the floor. On top of lack of basic necessities slaves were forced to work around the clock. If they were not at their total output for the minute their owners they would be forced by the whip and "encouraged" to work harder, as an owner might feel. They were always subject to profanity from their masters and treated more like horses. Just like horses they were bred to be strong, in the mindset of outputSlave owners would also sexually take ...

Rug maker.com Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Rug maker.com - Research Proposal Example Rebranding is essential in improving the company’s sales and income. Ideally, the company should focus on attracting new customers while focusing on maintaining the existing customers. The Rug Company should focus on the following plan in order to create public awareness to its products and services while also improving its awareness to the interior design industry: The company should add value to its brand awareness plan by offering special packages and services to existing and potential customers. In addition, the company should hold various events in its different cities of operations in order to create awareness to customers and its industry of operations. To develop a marketing strategy, the first requirement is for the company to affirm its current position by stating what it was offering to the clients according to their needs. In addition, the company should affirm where it wants to be and what it wants to be doing at a particular point in the future (Ashcroft 2010). Communication is an important aspect of the marketing strategy (Mullins and Walker 2013). Although the conventional mix model of the 4Ps – product, price, place, and promotion (Kotler and Armstrong 2012) – are commonly used due to their familiarity, the company should adopt the 4Cs model with a focus on Customer, Cost, Convenience, Communication (Hughes and Fill 2008). The latter model focuses on direct communication with the customer as opposed to the 4Ps, which considers the product as the primary focus in marketing (Ashcroft 2002; Cheverton 2004). The company prides itself as a rug making company that focuses on delivering quality handmade products with the finest raw materials (Sharp C. and Sharp S. n.d.). In this case, the target clients are people who value the quality of handmade material and appreciate the worth of hand-woven rugs. The company should profile its clients

University education should be free Research Paper

University education should be free - Research Paper Example ss amount of money per public college student and state funding of the students and universities has been lowered or even cut to half as in California. â€Å"Education has long been seen as a principal source of economic mobility. But for years now public education, and especially public higher education has been under attack† (Reiff). Several educational reforms and financial planning could be carried out to make university education free for the students, because it would not only facilitate the students but also help in lowering the overall cost of educational budget. The fees for tuition, boarding have been inflating for the past 20 years, inspite of that the public universities have to make cuts in the various services and educational programmes in order to compensate for the deficiencies in the budget. Free university education for every person would be a possible solution to the current inflation and economic dearth. â€Å"Not means-tested, not cheap, not subsided, but free. For everybody† (Reiff). This could be made possible by implementing the tax payment, hypothetically 6 percent to the university which would provide the undergraduate degree. Those who earned more would pay more and who earned less would have to pay less, but at the end every person would have the privilege of having an undergraduate degree. Students will not have to work long hours in order to finance their university education, which not only affects their performance but also puts them under large debts they cannot pay (Reiff). Inability of United States to provide free higher education proves to be a downfall when compared to other developed countries which provide free university education. University education is not only an important determinant of the economic progress but also determines the employment rate in the state. â€Å"Currently, only 30% of Americans who start college or university end up graduating, and this represents a huge waste of time and money† (B. Samuels). If as