Human societ Free Essays

The human society is a very complicated structure. It consists of a huge quantity of members, each of them with their own thoughts, emotions and experiences. The notion of â€Å"society† unifies all those members and therefore, they must correspond to the standards of that society. We will write a custom essay sample on Human societ or any similar topic only for you Order Now They have to elaborate some special mode of living, thinking, behaviour in order to be like other. â€Å"Being like all† – that’s the main motto of human society of all times. Within the complex structure of society one can be happy and rich, other unhappy and poor but everyone tries to be like the rest. But it is well known that each rule can have its exceptions. So, the human society has. There are people who are not able to find their place in the society. Each of them has his own reasons. One just doesn’t want to be like all, the other just can’t behaviour like people around him and so on. In the world literature the notion of the â€Å"outsider† has been rather often discussed. Among these discussions the view of â€Å"outsider† by Thomas Mann and Albert Camus are one of the most interesting. Tonio Kroeger in the novel of the same name by T. Mann is rather a typical outsider. So, what made him to be so? Surely, he is an artist and the real artist is always a little bit different from the crowd. But there are many talented artists which are not outsiders at all in their real life. Tonio is a lonely artist. These two words- â€Å"lonely artist† are able to explain the Kroeger’s problem. The first word is â€Å"lonely† and the second is â€Å"artist†. The â€Å"lonely† is the reason and the â€Å"artist† is the consequence. Kroeger has become an artist because he was lonely and couldn’t find himself in this life. All he can do is creating art describing the reality around him but he is not able to live in this reality. He realizes that his inability and suffers a lot because of that. Some of the events of this story must be perceived in symbolic manner because of Kroeger’s difficulties in being like other. His homosexual sympathy to Hans Hansen hasn’t to be understood as just a physical sexual expression. This sympathy symbolizes the Kroeger’s aspiration for prestige bourgeois life as Hans was the bright representative of same. Kroeger couldn’t find himself in this bourgeois life but was eager of living like his â€Å"ordinary† contemporaries. That’s why Hans attracted him. Kroeger lived in constant paradox within him. His heart was the heart of an artist but in his veins the bourgeois blood was flowing. He wanted to be as easygoing and careless as his friends but he couldn’t be so because his mind was depressed all the time by the events of the life around him and he could only describe them in his art. That was the main reason of Kroegen’s being the outsider. The main thing Kroeger had to learn during his life was that probably his outstanding skills as an artist were conditioned by his withdrawing from the ordinary life. In other words, if he had been an ordinary bourgeois personality he wouldn’t have been a gifted artist. The main reason of his unhappiness was that he didn’t want to understand that simple thing: it is not possible to connect things which can not be connected – the commonplace satisfied life and the delicate, sensitive vision of the artist. Should Kroegen understand that in time, the life would be much easier for him. But he understood that later. Perhaps, that’s the fate of each real talent – to pass through many difficulties in order to find oneself in the art. The ordinary always remains to be ordinary. It is not worth to follow it. We must follow things that we have skills for and there always will be place for the ordinary in our life – it will come into our lives by itself. But if talented person tries to overtake the ordinary or to live between the ordinary and the exalted he or she is doomed to unhappiness and misfortune. Precisely that started to happen with Tonio Kroeger. When he understood that it is not possible to find compromise between â€Å"the Dionysian† (all the passionate and emotional) and â€Å"the Apollonian† (rational and reasonable) he decided to combine them in his art and that was the unique correct decision for him. Albert Camus in his â€Å"Stranger† gives us the other notion of outsider. Meursault – a man of absurd in the world of absurd, – that’s the Camus’ vision of the problem in case. When after the first sentence of the novel -â€Å"Maman died today† follow the indifferent meditations of the protagonist regarding when died his mother – today or yesterday, we understand the Meursault is completely indifferent to the notions of time, place and many other phenomena of our real world. All along the novel new arguments prove that. Meursault lives being ruled by purely physical instincts. His life consists of a number of patterns (ways of behaviour) which he uses every day. For example, he becomes sad because Sunday came and broke the customary way of his everyday life. The heat produced by the sun when he goes back from the funeral of his mother worries him more than the very death of his mother. In other words the Meursault activities look completely paradoxical for other people, but not paradoxically for him. Camus presents in his hero his understanding of life in general and of truth in particular. To say more, Meursault believes sincerely in justice and truth. But he has his own notion of that â€Å"truth†. Yes, he doesn’t cry at his mother’s funeral. But on the other hand he never says lies. He doesn’t see any sense in acting like the rest of people. He just shows his own true emotions or indifference in each particular moment of his life. He is independent in the full meaning of this word. He doesn’t believe in God, he lives by his own motives. Society tries to find some meaning in his behaviour but all in vain. It is not possible to find sense in absurd. Otherwise, it will not be absurd any more. Thus, Meursault embodies the Camus’ notion of so-called â€Å"relative truth†. That is not all society’s truth but the truth of one person. Yes, he guns down the Arab but he believes in justice and doesn’t try to avoid it. Certainly, it sounds terribly but that is Camus’ absurd vision of the truth. On the one hand Meursault’s activities are horrible as that his â€Å"relative truth† makes a lot of harm to other people but on the other hand he is not eager of making harm to anyone, he never lies, he is just living his own life which is right to his opinion. This difference between Meursault’s truth and society’s truth makes Meursault to be the outsider. He can’t understand the sense of the society’s existence (to say it more exactly – he doesn’t even want to understand it as it is not important for him) and the society, in its turn, can’t find out any meanings in the mode of Meursault’s life. Nevertheless, Meursault has learnt his lesson towards the end of the story. When we see him sentenced to death it is already possible to speak about â€Å"new† Meursault. It doesn’t mean that he has completely changed his moral perception. He still doesn’t believe in God and is sure that after death there is nothing but non-existence. But he started using his memory what he has never done before. He remembers his father and understands all the â€Å"advantages† of human memory. He had never resorted to his memories and lived only following his physical impulses. When being in prison he understood how good it can be – to remember something that has happened once. Meursault starts to distinguish the past and the future. His imagination and feelings work like they never did before. He realizes that both imagination and feelings (spiritual, not physical feelings) are rather useful in regular life. Only in prison he begins to perceive each new day like a gift (as there were few left before his death penalty) without classifying them in days which are good and in days which break his customary way of life. In other words he began to understand that his life was not as correct as it seemed to him before. But he started to understand that too late when his life was going to be cut by those who haven’t managed to find some meaning in his life. Both Tonio Kroeger and Meursault realized the mistakes of their existence. Kroeger understood that he was unable to learn living like other people because the problem which was, by the way, created by himself was already too significant and complex for him and he had to find some area in which he could get rid of that immense moral tension. That area became his art for him. Meursault couldn’t change his life because he was already sentenced to death for the actions of his previous egoistic â€Å"self-life†. These two protagonists are similar in this respect as they both realized the necessity to change their lives. Nevertheless, there is a clear difference in â€Å"being outsider† between Kroeger and Meursault. Kroeger was a brightly expressed outsider as he couldn’t find himself in his society and that was hurting him a lot. He really was out of society’s side. He crossed successfully with the society within his professional skills only when he was describing that society in his works. As to the commonplace reality- he was an unhappy man. Meursault, contrary to Kroegen, represents another type of outsider: â€Å"outsider within society†. Meursault was the member of society and that’s why society was astonished by his behaviour. He was a stranger within society and that made his activities paradoxical. Kroeger experienced pain because he was outsider and the society didn’t care a lot about it. Meursault didn’t suffer a lot because of being outsider – but society suffered because of his activities. Speaking about the outcomes made by each of these two protagonists it is necessary to say that Kroeger’s conclusion was more successful than Meursault’s. Kreoger found the decision of his problem in his art and Meursault had not already time for the correction of his mistakes as he realized them under the threat of guillotine. Being outsider means to not coincide with the public’s opinions and norms of life. T. Mann and Albert Camus showed us that the notion of the outsider is poly-semantic. Tonio Kreoger and the stranger Meursault are both outsiders but each in his proper manner. Kroeger is an â€Å"outer outsider† (he wants to be within the society being like all) and Meursault is an â€Å"inner outsider† (he doesn’t feel himself to be outsider but the society consider him to be so). Regarding Mann’s story it would be helpful to conclude that it is not worth to follow the common opinion and try to be like all. The most important thing is to preserve the skills and the lofty given to you by the nature. As to the Camus’ novel, it is possible to learn from it that being honest only for oneself is not enough, it is also necessary to thing about the society you live in and that one’s notions of truth are not always common for all. The society was created by people precisely in order to find the compromise between different people’s opinions. Both Kroeger and Meursault have become outsiders by themselves. The conclusions they have made from their mistakes are rather consoling. So, hope that Mann and Camus’ novels will serve as good examples for many for not being an outsider in the future. How to cite Human societ, Papers

Armenian Genocide Essay Example For Students

Armenian Genocide Essay Why was the Armenian Genocide Essay Forgotten? GENOCIDE By definition genocide is the organized killing of a people for the express purpose of putting an end to their collective existence (Websters dictionary). As a rule, the organizing agent is the nation, the victim population is a domestic minority, and the end result is the near total death of a society. The Armenian genocide generally conforms to this simple definition. FORGOTTEN The Armenian genocide is a hidden, almost lost part of world history, pretty much eclipsed by the more publicized genocide of the twentieth century, the Holocaust. The question is why. I could take a poll of this room and I am willing to bet that 95% of the students have ever even heard of the Armenian Genocide and those who have couldnt tell me more than a couple sentences about it. This is pretty scary, considering the statistics of the Armenian Genocide. OTTOMAN EMPIRE The Ottoman Empire was ruled by the Turks who had conquered the land from across West Asia, North Africa to Southeast Europe. The Ottoman government was based in Istanbul and was headed by a sultan who was given absolute power. The Turks were Islamic and were a harsh disciplinary civilization. The Armenians, a Christian minority, lived as second class citizens subject to legal restrictions (Graber 119). These restrictions denied them normal safeguards. Neither their lives nor their properties were guaranteed security. As non-Muslims they were also obligated to pay discriminatory taxes and denied participation in government. In its prime of the sixteenth century the Ottoman Empire was a powerful state. Its minority populations really benefited with the growth of its economy, but by the nineteenth century, the empire was in serious decline(Graber 121). It had been reduced in size and by 1914 had lost virtually all its lands in Europe and Africa. Although the Turks continued to deny that there was a systematic plan to exterminate the Armenians in fulfillment of a pan-Turkic ideology the events that took place contradict their actions. Three related actions by the Young Turk government diminished the possibility of Armenian resistance(Donald Lorna Tourgan Miller) First those most capable of defending their towns and villages had been drafted and were serving as loyal soldiers of the Ottoman army to fight WW1. By the early part of 1915 the Armenians were disarmed. Also many were put into jobs to work for the war with jobs such as to build roads, and pack war supplies. They were so poorly fed that many dropped from hunger and exhaustion. It soon became evident that the goal was to work the Armenians until they did drop. With almost no exceptions those who did not die from exhaustion at work were taken in groups of fifty or one hundred and shot. Even more horrid than that was they were forced to dig their own graves then were shot and thrown in like old rag dolls doscarded by a child who has no use for the lifeless doll. A second step to secure that the Armenians resistance was reduced was the Turkish took controll of all guns owned by Armenians. The confiscated guns were then photographed and presented as evidenceof Armenian rebellion. These photographs created a political reason that legitimized the inhumane actions that were taken againts the Armenians. When the word genocide is perceived the thought of the Jewish holocaust is what usually comes to mind. Hitlers war against the Jewish population was well published and placed in the eyes of almost all. Yet what of the American and Cambodian genocide. These nations had fallen into the same hell on earth but no one spoke of the horrors that lurked in their everyday life. Before the genocide of 1915 more than 2 million Americans lived in Turkey today only about 60,000 still remain. Historical Armenia covered an area of about 100,000 square miles including parts of what are now the republics of Armenia, Azelbaijan and Georgia. Not only were the population decimated but thousands of Armenian churches, monasteries and monuments were also destroyed in eastern Turkey. Across the border the Republic of Armenia, now about one tenth of the size of historical Armenia, being land locked and isolated from natural resources its fight for its economic life. There had been problems between the Turks and the Armenians but a pattern of extermination was not yet established. As the events of 1915 unfolded most of the Armenians were unaware of a centralized plan of genocide was in process. But by the end of the decade a mere handful of Armenians remained. Although the Turks continued to deny that there was a systematic plan to exterminate the Armenians in fulfillment of a pan-Turkic ideology the events that took place contradict their actions. Three related actions by the Young .

Cheap Amusements Essays (601 words) - Leisure, Quality Of Life

Cheap Amusements Peiss, Kathy. Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of -the-Century New York (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1986). Kathy Peiss describes the leisure activities of young working women living in New York during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in her book Cheap Amusements. The book explores the emergence of a young female working class and the conflict the women encountered with the Old World traditions. Peiss also explores the commercialization of leisure and the socialization of female leisure. The results of these changes brought about what Peiss calls: cheap amusements. During the middle nineteenth century, women observed Old World traditions in respect to leisure. Most leisure activities for women were labor oriented and close personal relationships between women were frowned upon as deviant. Peiss explains this during the first few chapters of Cheap Amusements. The emergence of a young female working class caused a strain on the Old World traditions and leisure activities for women became controversial. The traditional role of women was changing due to the economic pressures from industrialization. As more young women began to work in the same conditions as young men, women gained the right to engage in amusement as a man would. Peiss discovers the commercialization of amusement to support the woman's' struggle for leisure freedom. The businessmen in amusement saw the female working population as an untapped market for exploiting. The amusement business was booming due to the industrialization of cities and the need for leisure activities for the large population of workers. Amusement came in a variety of forms such as: social clubs, dances, variety shows, amusement parks, cheap theatre, nickel dumps, and even standing on the street corner. The businessman's goal was to make a profit off of these activities. With the exception of standing on the street corner, most leisure activities were commercialized and turned a profit. In opposition to the businessman were the mothers and fathers that still lived by Old World traditions and did not want their daughters or sons engaging in some of the activities. The exploitation of heterosexuality was extremely controversial and Peiss sites this as a major hang-up in the changing of female leisure activities. The emergence of the dance hall and the attending of these establishments by unattended females were a primary concern for conservatives. The concept of picking up that is, two strangers meeting for the first time and enjoying each other's company for the night, was the new craze. (102). The mothers and fathers saw this as an act of disrespect for ones self and an exploitation of sexuality. The struggle to maintain control over the leisure activities of a young girl became even more difficult whenever she was working. Most mothers had not made money as a bachelorette and balked at the wishes of their daughters to spend their free time at these new activities t hat involved young men. Kathy Peiss makes the world of a young working female in New York City, living around the turn of the century, come to life in less than two hundred pages. The author's book is a success because of the colorful way she describes the conflicts that occur throughout the book. Any reader of history would find this book a good resource for research as well as enjoyable reading. Moreover, a researcher of sociology would find the information in the book to be of interest, especially if they are interested in the women's movement in modern America. Bibliography Peiss, Kathy. Cheap Amusements: Working Women and Leisure in Turn-of -the-Century New York (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1986). Book Reports

colored people essays

colored people essays Segregated Peace: an essay on Colored People Integration was a main theme or topic in this memoir. It played an important role in the time when Gates was growing up and had a big affect on him throughout his book. Integration changed the way Gates viewed, whites, blacks, restaurants, hairstyles, church, school, etc. He went from a conformist to a rebel to an Episcopal. His community changed with him and the older generation of course did not take to integration as well as most of the younger generation did. Integration was considered a good thing to most people and others believed that Blacks had lost something through the whole ordeal. They believed that they had lost the close knit family ties that segregation indirectly created. Gates sums up the way the community felt about integration in one of his last sentences in his memoir. He writes, All I know is that Nemos corn never tasted saltier, his coffee never smelled fresher, than when these hundreds of Negroes gathered to say goodbye to themselves, their heritage, and their sole link to each other, wiped out of existence by the newly enforced anti-Jim Crow laws.(Gates, 216) It was hard for blacks to integrate into all white schools after being surrounded by blacks for most of their lives. Whites werent the only ones to critique black attitude and black style, blacks did it to themselves. Gates writes that when he was a child he remembered that when blacks were admitted to all white neighborhoods or schools, Negroes were the first to censure other Negroes(Gates, xiii). His father would say things like, Dont go over there with those white people if all youre going to do is Jim Crow yourselves(Gates, xii). Even Gates writes, I always reserved my scorn....for someone too dark, someone too loud, and too wrong.(Gates, xiii). The way Gates writes it, blacks would scrutinize their own kind. ...

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court Research Paper

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court - Research Paper Example This realization led to the Congress coming up with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, an Act, which would give the government an oversight of surveillance against foreigners (Chiarella & Newton, 1997). The Congress established the FISA Court in 1978 as a special court authorizing the Chief Justice to assign seven judges who would be responsible for reviewing any applications concerning investigations on foreign power agents or foreign powers who seemed to pose a threat towards national security. The judges would be drawn from various judicial circuits and a judge was allowed to serve for a seven-year non-renewable term. After the enacting of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (92 Stat. 1783), the government had realized the need to have mechanisms of obtaining judicial warrants before it started to gather any intelligence information involving foreign power’s agents or foreign powers based in the United States (Chiarella & Newton, 1997). Senator Teddy Kennedy introduced the bill to the house on 18 May 1977 and nine other senators supported him. These were James O. Eastland, Storm Thurmond, Gaylord Nelson, John L. McClellan, Charles Mathias, Daniel Inouye, Walter Huddleston, Jake Garn, and Birch Bayh. These resulted from questions about the legality of intelligence activities, which were being carried out in the country. Frank Church and Sam Ervin led two separate committees that wanted to establish the need of legalizing all activities of gathering foreign intelligence information. It had been reported that President Richard Nixon was using federal security agents to spy on activists and political groups and this violated the US constitutions’ Fourth Amendment. FISA was signed into law by the then president Jimmy Carter (Chiarella & Newton, 1997). The Act was created for the purpose of supervising the way the government used its surveillance facilities to spy on foreigners but at  the same time, protect the secrecy of the intelligence agents.  

The positive effects of video games on society Essay

The positive effects of video games on society - Essay Example These changes have made video games realistic, complex, diverse and social and have resulted in an emergence of research on the positive effects of these games (Ferguson, 2007). In this regard, this essay will consider the positive effects of video games on society. The association of violence to violent video games has amplified the view that video games have negative effects on the society. It is for this reason that a vast majority of research conducted on this topic has concentrated on the negative effects of these games on society. Despite the lack of extensive research on the positive effects of video games, the benefits associated with play can be linked to video games. The general benefits associated with play include the ability to experiment social experiences while simulating possible emotional consequences and the opportunity to reproduce real life situations and find solutions. This is essential in the development of social skills (Durkin and Barber, 20002). However, unl ike traditional games, video games are interactive and may not allow physical involvement in the game. Video games allow users to interact with gaming systems and these systems react to the behavior of the player. Video games can be played alone with the physical presence of other players or can be played online with other numerous players. These games can also be played alone, competitively or cooperatively. The games also take various genres and allow the players to interact in different contexts.

Causes of building collapes Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Causes of building collapes - Term Paper Example Three of the main causes of buildings’ collapse are; faulty design of structures by incompetent engineers, overloading of structures, and natural disasters. Design deficiency is an issue which continues to face the engineering and construction industry today. Ishak, Chohan and Ramly (2007) explained design deficiency as a situation where engineers refuse to follow basic principles and elements of construction design in the creation of their design ideas for buildings. This implies that design deficiency is a component of faulty design where the designs put up by engineers cannot be said to have followed acceptable standards of practice. It would however be noted that elements and principles of construction design are in place to ensure both safety and aesthetic outcomes. It is against this backdrop that it can be explained that once such building designs happen, design failure follows, which ultimately results in possible collapse of building. This confirms the relationship between faulty design and building collapse because faulty design creates a situation where the eventual construction that will be made cannot be said to be secured in principle and theory. There are a number of factors that can lead to cases of deign deficiency, which is an aspect of faulty design. Oloyede, Omoogun and Akinjare (2010) mentioned that overdependence and overreliance on contemporary technology is a major factor behind incidences of faulty designs of structures resulting from design deficiency. Indeed when engineers over elaborate the abilities of contemporary technology, they are tempted to think that as far as they have advanced technological tools and equipment on their side, it is possible to bring any design ambition to fruition. Meanwhile, even though technology can present the platform to create whatever design an engineer dreams about, it takes competent engineers to differentiate between the abilities of technology and the scope of design. Once such