A talk on Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

A talk on Security - Essay Example and spectacular risks are exaggerated whereas common risks are downplayed, what is not known is taken to be riskier than the common, risks that are personified are taken to be bigger than unspecified risks and lastly people tend to underestimate risks in conditions they have control over and overestimate risks in conditions they are not able to control. Thus cognitive biases act as filters that exist between reality and us. Reality and feeling get different and one either has got a feeling of being more secure; which is a false sense of course or feels insecure which is just, but another false sense .A model can aptly describe this situation. A model is mostly based on reason and feeling is on the basis of our intuition. A model is therefore needed to comprehend the different kind of risks we face and is usually restricted by our cognitive biases .Models can come from various areas such as our elected officials, media, industry, science and so on. Models can also change and as we get more contented in our environments, our model soon moves close to our feelings. Security can also be said to be dependent on the observer, the objective here being whether we get to notice. Thus the reality and feeling of security tend to come together when people take notice, but diverge when they do not. People need correct information to understand security, since the more they know, the more likely they are to make better trade-offs. It is also crucial for security designers to be informed to thwart propagandists from manipulating people’s feelings of security for their own

Stephen Colbert on American Jobs Essay Example for Free

Stephen Colbert on American Jobs Essay They range from jobs to energy to healthcare, and of course, they are all written in a satirical sense. In the second chapter, Colbert and his writers talk about jobs in America. They discuss the problem of jobs being shipped overseas to countries like India and China and Colbert puts forth his â€Å"solutions† to the problems, which mostly include setting up sweatshops in America. He also talks about job interviews and how to be successful at them. Colbert and his staff of writers use a wide range of comic techniques in the book as a whole and in the chapter on jobs to satirize the American culture and government. One comic technique Colbert uses in the jobs chapter is reduction. Reduction is essentially belittling or degrading someone. Near the beginning of the chapter, there is a picture of Barack Obama being captioned as Jimmy Carter. While Jimmy Carter was a decent president and many historians agree that he didn’t do anything bad, he is widely remembered for not doing much of anything during his one term as president except failing to get the Americans that were being held hostage in Iran out safely. Barack Obama has a similar record of inactivity in his first term, so the book captions Obama as Carter to essentially say that Obama didn’t do much in his first term as president. Throughout the chapter and the whole book, Colbert and his writers use pictures to their advantage. This is a common technique in satire because it’s easy to get your message across using pictures. They are usually fairly simple, quick to look at, and easy to understand the meaning of. Colbert also uses caricatures to his advantage in the chapter on jobs. A caricature is usually some sort of picture of the person or group being satirized with their more unsightly features being greatly exaggerated. It is a common technique used by satirists. Near the beginning of the chapter, there is a picture of an Indian woman going through the Kama Sutra exercises, a very old series of exercises used to strengthen the body and mind, while working at a call center. Through this picture, Colbert is talking about the problem of American jobs being shipped overseas. He also has a picture of a howler monkey named Bobo running a human resources department at a company. There is a common stereotype against human resources departments for not doing much work and making the employees’ lives difficult. The howler monkey is supposed to represent the HR department because it would be impossible to work with a monkey. Bobo even goes so far as to eat an employee’s paperwork, the equivalent of an HR department losing your paperwork. While pictures are of great use in satire, words can be just as effective if used properly. One technique Colbert and his writers use is burlesque, or the treating of a serious matter in a joking or flippant way. Burlesque is used throughout the chapter, but is used the most in the part about job interviews. Job interviews are extremely important, for they can make the difference between being hired for a job and not getting a job. In our current economy, interviews have become even more important because people are often in dire need of employment. Colbert devotes several pages to telling readers how to conduct a good interview. He tells the reader how many handshakes they should give, proper dress, and even how to appeal to the interviewer. Colbert also says to repeat the interviewer’s name many times. He says â€Å"Make a point of repeating your interviewer’s name as many times as possible as soon as you hear it† (Colbert 44). Colbert is essentially saying that by repeating the interviewer’s name, you’re flattering them, a common technique used by job seekers in interviews. Colbert satirizes the interview process as whole because he sees it as a joke and formality. He believes, and many will agree with him, that getting a job depends on flattery and connections with the interviewer. A fourth technique used by Colbert in the jobs chapter is reductio ad absurdum. This technique involves the satirist pretending to take the side of the person or group he or she is mocking in an attempt to further humiliate their subject. In the chapter, Colbert pretends to support sweatshops and shipping jobs overseas. He even goes so far as to suggest putting sweatshops in America and disbanding unions. In one of Colbert’s â€Å"truth punches† he says â€Å"The minimum wage ruined the proud American tradition of the sweatshop. You start paying American workers a minimum wage, the next thing you know they’re demanding air-conditioning and less flammable shirtwaist materials† (Colbert 30). The conditions he describes are very common in sweatshops around the world and are obviously a huge health and safety hazard. However, they make manufacturing cheaper and the lack of labor laws allows them to force their employees to work in the aforementioned conditions. Colbert pretends to support these views because by doing so he can make fun of them more effectively. Also, he highlights the extreme working conditions because by doing so, he can show the absurdity of both sweatshops and the argument for them. He can pretend to support horrible working conditions and still be viewed as humorous because everyone knows that those conditions are inhumane. One characteristic of satire that Colbert and his writers use in the jobs chapter is obscenity. At the beginning, he makes fun of the Rosie the Riveter, a common figure for female empowerment during World War II. He describes Rosie as â€Å"History’s most thinly veiled lesbian-I have worked hard to remain ignorant of whatever depraved act ‘riveting’ is† (Colbert 21). He also talks about Alan Greenspan’s scrotum and puts in a picture of it. The obscenity does not really have any purpose in satirizing Americans and their jobs. It’s there mostly for the sake of making the reader laugh and want to continue. Exaggeration is easily one of the most common, if not the most common, characteristics of satire. The chapter and the book as a whole are filled with exaggerations of varying amounts. He uses a â€Å"quote† of Ayn Rand’s, which says â€Å"Any man using the words of another is an unthinkable parasite worthy of contempt and death† (Colbert 25). Obviously Ayn Rand never said this; it’s a rather extreme thing to say and would have damaged her credibility. Colbert uses exaggeration in this instance to satirize Rand’s views of the working American. She is widely known for being a conservative and scorning Americans who don’t work and live off of the benefits of society. Colbert also uses this quote as an opportunity to take another swing at the Republicans. By making fun of a popular conservative, he is, by association, making fun of conservatives as a whole. The style of satire that Colbert and his writers use is a monologue. In a monologue, the satirist speaks from behind a mask. In America Again, Colbert is the narrator, and he uses this position to satirize more freely. By staying as himself, he can use the persona he has on his tv show, and he doesn’t need to spend time creating a character to speak through. This is also advantageous when using the reductio ad absurdum technique because most readers will already know that he doesn’t really support the side he’s pretending to be on, and they can appreciate the comedy more. The chapter on jobs was very amusing and did a good job of satirizing American jobs and American’s views on jobs. He satirizes how Americans preach the need to bring jobs back to America from countries like India and China, but no one is willing to lose money by investing in more expensive American workers.

Intercultural communication language

Intercultural communication language CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW Introduction A literature review refers to any collection of materials on a topic, not necessarily the great literary texts of the world. The literature review is a body of text that aims to review the critical points of current knowledge on a particular topic. The literature review can be just a simple summary of sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis. Therefore, this chapter will discuss published information in a particular subject area. In addition, this research also will discuss sometimes information in a particular subject area within a certain time period. This chapter details the relevant secondary data obtained to present various works published by various authors in many different countries. The literature review usually precedes a research proposal, methodology and results section. This chapter is organized according to several components. This chapter will focus on the intercultural communication is affected by language use in un iversity for different ethnic groups. The independent variables like languages proficiency, language conflict, acculturation motivation to learn, and interaction potential about communication languages and too much documentation will be studied.(Virginia, 2002) Definitions Language A language is considered to be a system of communication with other people using sounds, symbols and words in expressing a meaning, idea or thought. This language can be used in many forms, primarily through oral and written communications as well as using expressions through body language (APA Style, 2009). Ethnic groups The term ethnic means of or pertaining to a group of people recognized as a class on the basis of certain distinctive characteristics such as religion, language, ancestry, culture or national origin (Babylon, 1997). Intercultural communication This is in many ways similar to group communication, but the role of groups is taken by ethnic cultures. However, as it is used in communication studies, intercultural communication tends to describe the relations between members of different ethnic groups and languages, and interacting in an international context (Kwintessential, 2009). Efficiency A relatively efficient process either requires fewer inputs or produces more outputs compared to a similar process, to achieve the objectives of the process (Dave Chaffey, 1997a). Effectiveness Effectiveness is very similar to efficiency, but the measure is related to some enterprise objective rather than the technical quality of output. Therefore, the effectiveness measure of a business process can be indicated by the resource inputs needed to produce a level of an enterprise objective (Dave Chaffey, 1997b). Teamwork spirit A joint action by two or more people, in which each person contributes with different skills and express his or her individual interests and opinion to the unity and efficiency of the group in order to achieve common goals (Buzzle, 2000). Independent variables A manipulated variable in an experiment or study which is the presence or degree determines the change in the dependent variables. The independent variable is the element that is subject to arbitrary (not random) change, in order to test the results. An independent variable is a hypothesized cause or influence on a dependent variable. One way to distinguish these variables is to ask yourself what you are wanted to learn from this research (Wikipedia, 2009). Language proficiency Refers to the degree to which the student exhibits control over the use of language, including the measurement of expressive and receptive language skills in the areas of phonology, syntax, vocabulary, and semantics and including the areas of pragmatics or language use within various domains or social circumstances. Proficiency in a language is judged independently and does not imply a lack of proficiency in another language (Wren, 2009). Acculturation The exchange of cultural features that results groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first hand contact; the original cultural patterns of either or both groups may be altered, but the groups remain distinct (Kottak, 2007). Motivation Motivation is defined as communicating to an internal force that actuates a behavioral pattern, thought process, action or reaction. Negative forces or positive forces can act as actuators (Speechmastery, 2009). Language Proficiency Martin and Nakayama (1999), communication is the most rewarding one as well teaching us that culture always changes and the most important quality for work on intercultural society. Because of the internal and external influences, intercultural communication is important because people from different cultures have been encountering each other. Communication is a interpretive, symbolic, transactional, contextual process of difference between people is large and important to create dissimilar interpretations and expectations about the regarded as competent behaviors that should be used to create shared meanings. The theories in philosophy of languages will make a distinction between two communicative challenges (Hale and Wright, 1997; Ludlow, 1997). The first concerns need to have a platform of a shared language (Burge, 1979; Peacock, 1992). According to Fodor (1992) and Nordby (2003), imagine the reindeer herder and some government official can represents the interests of the public having a dialogue about the idea of turning the relevant areas into national parks. The way to understand language is shaped by the overall beliefs and socio-cultural contexts. It is obvious that the herders and the officials respective understandings the sufficiently similar for their associating and the same meaning with the same expressions (Burge, 1979). Most respondents believe that the proficiency of language is Latvias inhabitants must know the Latvian language. More than two year, they need to improve their Latvian language. Thus the attitude of Latvian language is positive. This is supported towards growing the proficiency in Latvian among non-Latvians. Inhabitants of Latvia may improve inter-ethnic relationships, constant process and, promote the process of integration and communication between each others (Bratt, 1994). The communicative similarities and differences across cultures provide is to understand the cross-cultural misunderstandings occur, and misunderstanding can be reduced in future intercultural encounter. The individual made the communicative adaptations when they move between cultures provides cross-cultural adaptation models, and they can informative indexes to understand cross-cultural newcomers dynamic status of intercultural transformation (Kim, 2001). According to Bartlett and Johnson (1998), the English is a sort of creoles language. It is more difficult for native speaker rather than non-native ones to understand. The use of English in multinational companies is that able to master the foreign languages tend to centralize communication within the company. Because of the few problems they have in making acquaintance with all kinds of people and interacting with then in a competent ways. This centralization of communication is often associated with a concentration of power into the hands of who can cope with communication in an autonomous way. Therefore, language skills may become an important tool in internal company politics with consequent significant strategic potentialities. Students learn second language may possesses skills ranging from conversational fluency acquired from contacts with the second language-speaking world to formal knowledge obtained in second language as a foreign language classes in their countries of origin. For example, High schools students are learning English as a second language in U.S. classroom. The extent and type of prior knowledge is an essential consideration in planning instruction. For example, a student with informal conversational English skills may have little understanding of English grammatical systems and may need to specific instruction in English grammar (Eric, 2000). Language Conflict In different social-cultural contexts, teachers and students face different challenges, such as power and control, local structural conditions, language policies, ideology, and discursive rules that generate practice of inclusion and exclusion (Bertein, 1996; Phillpsom, 2001). Teachers and students in a foreign context will lack familiar frames of references. Therefore, they may find the situation such as unfriendly, unwelcome, inhospitable, and confusingly varied and unpredictable (Holliday, 1994) and may fail to recognize and meet both experiences, public, and personal theories may often lead to misunderstanding and frustration. According to Dyke (1985), the language conflict is a worst problem in Latvia. Regarding this conflict, the psychological factors are importance because Latvian language is a national symbol of Latvians as an ethnic group. Besides that, a part of Russians and Russian speakers the reversal from dominant to minority position is not acceptable. In the Baltic Data House survey data, the language conflict between Latvian speakers and Russian speakers is most obvious. Stereotypes of the ethnic identities, the all ethnic are a rapist rejects the suggestion that this applies to personally act as catalyst of misunderstanding and communication difficulties. By dissociating, these stereotypes the interviewees support the argument that not all member of an ethnic group are alike. The ethnic groups are heterogeneous, and then the conflict of language will easy occur in the group (Bennett, 2004). In intercultural communication, people often believe for granted because they have grown up in the culture and think their way is the best. In this case, they tend to transfer their own cultural values and beliefs to the situation of intercultural communication as guidelines for their behavior, so that misunderstandings or ineffective communication arise. Jensen and Longreen (1995), the negative transfer of deep-structure culture arises in such aspects as cultural values, thought patterns, religious beliefs and ethnics. Turner (1982), in different ethnic groups has a different value on group membership or individual self-determination. As a result, a member of ethnic group may think someone from a different ethnic group with different values for politeness is rude. When this misunderstanding is occur without correction, this situation can escalate into a negative labeling of all members in the group. This can be a major source of negative ethnic stereotypes. Worldwide migration induces multicultural contact in societies, including health care. The multicultural contacts and communication are often complicated by language barriers, and obstructions are caused by different culturally defined views and perceptions. According to Kleinman, (1995) both physician and patient need to exchange each others perceptions about the patients illness in order to achieve understanding and agreement about diagnosis and treatment. Lack of understanding and agreement is assumed to lead to less compliance and a reduction in perceived quality of care. Communicating in English is confronted with a psycho-cognitive situation where his/her native linguistic and cultural schemata conflict with the English schemata dominant in international professional communities. Forced to negotiate and redefine cultural, the identity is to successfully communicate in international and intercultural settings. Furthermore, cultural interaction in international communities and organizations suggest the possibility of hybrid communicative schemata in which a new set of cultural values and identities-functional to communication in the wider community. This is created in response to communicate internationally. This is a counterpart of the ongoing process of economic globalization of which it is both an expression and an instrument. (Hofstede, 1991) Stranger person will commonly interaction the stereotyping (Gudykunst, 2005). When people are group, they will perform the positive or negative evaluations to these groups. Turner (1982), groups with people identify are evaluated positively or negatively. This is regularly recognized as ethnocentric attitudes, biased, or prejudice (Togeby, 1997; Brown, 1995). According to Tajfel (1978), the negative evaluations can create problems in an interaction when people need a positive self-image. Acculturation and Motivation to learn According to Chan (1997); Kennedy (2002); and Hu (2002), it is well acknowledged that Chinese students are extremely diligent, high achieving, hardworking, respectful, cooperative, trustworthy, persevering, and disciplined. Chinese students learning seriously and they show the respecting for the English native speakers in a hope to learn real English and get the best from them (Boyle, 2000). In their learning, Chinese students tent to exhibit a high degree to improve their knowledge of both western culture and the English language through diligent study and practice, and this can be a very stimulating motivation from a teacher. Trueba (1988) argued that the conditions for effective learning are created only when the role of culture is recognized. The used in the settings is under which learning are taking place. The environments should recognize the importance of culture in specific instructional settings and attempt to integrate the home and school cultures into the teaching pedagogy. When cultural conflicts arise, they should be resolved instead of being dismissed. A research study on the cultural identities of an ethnic group in China called the Miao. The undergraduate students of Miao and their life in the university, is an institution dominated by the majority Han Chinese and revealed that even when placed in a different learning environment. The strong cultural identity of the Miao students allowed them to draw on this affiliation for an increased motivation to succeed academically. Learning a second language is not detract. In fact, it is enhanced their pride in their identity and strong affiliation to their ethnic group. This study is important implications because it shows that being empowered in a new learning environment and do not necessitate forsaking ones own culture and language; indeed their empowerment in a new society depended on their being Miao and retaining their identification and affiliation with Miao traditions, culture and language (Trueba and Zou 1994). The importance of the host language in intercultural communication is self-evident. Effective of cross-cultural communication can take place when the language appropriate to a given society is as least minimally used and comprehended. According to Taft (1957), The function of language in intercultural communication is to facilitate ones cultural learning and to permit maximum group participation. Research has largely supported the generalization that the learning of the host language accelerates acculturation (DeFleur and Cho, 1957; Breton, 1964; Chance, 1965; Richmond, 1967; Graves, 1967; Price, 1968). Similarly, fluency in English is considered to be the most important determinant of a sojourners exposure to the American mass media (Richmond, 1967). Cross-cultural communication is attempts to link the variations in communication behavior to the cultural contexts. It also provides the conceptual tools to understand culture and communication influences the communications. The latter is relatively a new area and seeks to understand the changes in individual communication behavior that are related to the process of acculturation and communication interaction. This approach has provided a substantial body of literature dealing with stages, patterns and outcomes of adjustment. Intercultural communication helps to comprehend daily events in the multicultural world from the depth of social-cultural, especially cross-cultural level (Ting-Toomey, 1993). According to Poppy et al. (1996), adapting to a new culture may be taken much time for newcomers. Children generally acculturate more rapidly and easily than their parents. It is important to note that there are varying degrees or levels of acculturation which students and their families may be experiencing at any point in time after arriving. The degree of acculturation can accelerate or delay learning in school. This is equally important that there is no right or wrong with regard to acculturation and any fix nature to any. The labels simply describe a cultural condition and psychological experienced in the process of acculturation. Since the 1980s, the concept of integrativeness has been extended to identification the general cultural and intellectual values associated with the speakers of other languages and the explaining the attraction toward languages in countries. Motivation is one of the most studied aspects of learning. Social psychologists working in Canadian bilingual programs, Robert and Wallace Lambert (1972) considered that the motivation is the primary enhancing or blocking communication between cultures. For many years, integrative motivation was regarded as the desirable motivation for foreign students. Alicia Pousada (2006), some Puerto Rican students being like Americans is important because they may attend English-only schools, listen to English language music, travel to the U.S. Some have U.S.-born and/or raised parents or relatives, and plan to live or study in the U.S. in the future. For others, English is viewed solely as a tool for obtaining a good job. Their motivation is instrumental rather than integrative, since there is little desire to emulate Americans, even though cultural imitation or syncretism may occur unconsciously. English and Americans are totally foreign, somewhat frightening, and perhaps repugnant, as they represent a perceived loss of local Puerto Rican mores and a form of cultural homogenization. Interaction Potential Intercultural communication competence can improve by the communication apprehension. Beamers model did not make a clear distinction between competence and sensitivity and targeting developing intercultural communication competence (Beamer 1992). In there studies, intercultural communication competence was treated generally as the knowledge, motivation, and skills for effective communication. (Spitzberg, 1989; Wiseman, 2001). Herring (1990) presented that nonverbal communication was part of communication. Cultural misunderstandings and miscommunications must be reduced and increasing the cultural differences awareness in nonverbal communication patterns. Herring noted that many ethnic groups use nonverbal communications to expressions their feeling and attitudes. The incorporation of nonverbal communication in current and new counseling techniques could result in more appropriate and effective cross-cultural counseling. Nowadays, the cultural competency is very important. We are not longer confined to out national and cultural borders. We mix with people from different cultures, ethnicity, religions and colours on a daily basis. According to Belay, (1993), to make this intercultural experience work on all levels from education to business and to the government, we have to develop basic skills in intercultural communication and understanding. Shorris (1992) makes the point that umbrella labels such as Latino obscure important differences between Latinos of different countries of origin, thus confronting standard concepts of ethnic groups. Bershtel and Graubard (1993) discuss the role of religion in defining ethnicity, and also challenges students to consider intersections between race and ethnicity. Ethnic identity is not a constant throughout the life course. Feiler (1991) served to cover Japanese culture. He wanted to reflect an international perspective and to bring the discussion of interaction of language and ethnicity outside of the American context. He also shows how one must understand the underlying logic of a culture, not just its language and local customs, and interaction potential between ethnic groups. Anderson (1990) serves to address both Euro-American and African American ethnic groups. In a study, he focused on interactions between Euro-American and African American ethnic groups in public spaces in an urban setting. He showed students how nonverbal communication works through the lens of ethnicity and colour, and how social class and race affect the use of public spaces and urban territories. Thomas (2000), inability to speak the same language presents significant obstacles to understanding will occur the stressful and it must be for the many international students in colleges and university throughout the United States who must expend considerable energy listening and trying to decipher the content of messages; little energy is available for the nuances and subtleties of the interaction. The important concept in intercultural studies is intercultural sensitivity. That has been confused or treated indiscriminatingly and not yet fully understood with intercultural communication competence and intercultural awareness (Chen and Starosta, 2000). Intercultural awareness, intercultural adroitness, and intercultural sensitivity is an umbrella concept that subsumes by intercultural communication competence and representing the cognitive, affective, and behavioral aspect of intercultural communication competence and respectively. The multidimensional conceptualization makes it possible into how knowledge, motivation, emotion, and behavior may interact with each other. These elements may contribute the overall level of intercultural communication competence of the communication subjects. Thus, the insightful clues for rigorous research and theoretical framework will development the effective training programs for intercultural sensitivity. Roux (2002) argued that successful educators are effective communicator and culturally competent in cross-cultural encounters. Communication can be a useful source of intercultural knowledge and mutual enrichment between culturally diverse students if managed proactively by the teacher. Therefore, teachers should be sensitive to the potentially problematic outcomes of intercultural communication in the culturally diverse class. Otherwise, communication could be a source of frustration, intercultural conflict, misapprehensions and ultimately school failure. Cross-cultural communication is complex and potentially problematic on education. A rich repertoire of verbal and nonverbal behavior to the intercultural situation will effective capabilities to react sensitively to fellow communicators from other cultures is a necessity in education (Linda, 1997). Chen (2002) explored perceptions of intercultural interaction. The study addressed the connection between perceptions of intercultural communication and intercultural interaction satisfaction. The most common aspect that was realized the inability of the students to identify mutual topics of mutual interest. This was probably mutual the lack of familiarity with the partners culture. This factor was labeled common ground to reflect this characteristic of intercultural communication. Communication satisfaction was affective construct that reflected participants emotional reaction toward their interaction. In terms of the degree it had met or failed to their expectation. The competent intercultural communication was predicted the high communication satisfaction. Summary The beginning of this chapter two is basically about the brief overview flow of the chapter. Then followed by the discussion on informational literature review which the main content of this chapter. In this section, it focuses on past research that provides useful information for the progress and development in this research paper. In addition, it also exposed the readers with the knowledge and understanding towards the intercultural communication that is affected by language use in university for different ethnic group. After that, this chapter goes on with the relationship between the independent variables and dependent variable of this research, which is a really short and simple summary for the extensive literature review. Finally, this chapter ends with the summary for this whole chapter.

Expectations versus Reality in Stephen Cranes The Red Badge of Courage

Expectations versus Reality in Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage The notion that war is an exciting, romantic endeavor full of glory and heroism has existed for centuries.   Stephen Crane set out to demystify war through his novel The Red Badge of Courage, which traces the experiences of a young soldier in the American Civil War. Crane shows the true nature of war by contrasting Henry Fleming's romantic expectations with the reality that he encounters. This contrast between romantic vision and cold reality can be seen early in the novel, with Henry's departure from home. Driven to a "prolonged ecstasy of excitement" by the rejoicing crowd, Henry enlists in the army and says good-bye to his mother with a "light of excitement and expectancy in his eyes" (709). He anticipates a romantic, sentimental send-off reminiscent of Spartan times and even goes as far as preparing remarks in advance which he hopes to use "with touching effect" to create "a beautiful scene" (710). However, Crane presents a more realistic view. At the news of Henry's enlistment, his mother simply says "The Lord's will be done" and continues milking the cow, having previously urged Henry not to be "a fool" by enlisting (709). She then destroys his hopes by offering sensible,... ...es in anguish while his friend Jim suffers and dies. Today, many of the romantic myths about war have been destroyed through television and movies such as Born on the Fourth of July, which shows war with all its suffering, pain, and death. Yet it was Stephen Crane who, a century ago, deglorified war through the experiences of Henry Fleming. With his frequent contrasts between romantic vision and cold reality, Crane clearly portrays the true horrors of war. Work Cited Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage. Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Geroge McMichael, et al. 5th ed.Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan, 1993. 707-87.

Native Tribes

Cormac McCarthy’s â€Å"Blood Meridian† deals with racism in the form of The Judge’s attitude toward the orphans, the tangible efforts of the gang to be more savage, and even in the Kid’s role in the border skirmishes between the American settlers, the Native Americans and Mexicans living along the border. In a novel that some have called the greatest American novel since â€Å"Moby Dick†, McCarthy discusses racism on an inherent level, making people examine the historical context and the situation itself. Remarkably, the novel has a lasting appeal as a commentary on the way Americans address their southern neighbors even today.The first evidence of racism the book offers is in the Judge’s attitude towards the orphans. The Judge is a pedophile, raping the orphans and then killing them or having them killed to hide his indiscretion. In his mind, the Judge justifies his actions with the thought that many of the children in the orphanage are hal f-breeds and somehow therefore less important than people who are purely Caucasian. In his mind, the Judge and others who look after the orphans, even as wantonly as the Judge does, are doing their Christian duty and providing for children that are otherwise unwanted.In this way, the book takes a hard and accurate look at the racism that was prevalent in the West regarding children descended from Native Americans and Europeans. The children were dismissed by white society as half savage and by the Native populations because they often represented the humiliation of one of the women of the tribe—either voluntarily or involuntarily. To some extent, these children were more accepted in the Native populations when their parents were both accepted by the tribe, but even then they were mostly second class citizens.The next evidence of racism and its extreme application comes from the Gang. Though the gang is composed of outlaws of Caucasian and Native descent, as a means of instill ing terror in their victims, the gang resorts to scalping those they killed. As history demonstrates, only a very small number of Native Tribes took scalps as counting coup, but the stereotype of the novel and of the gang members was that Injun’s took scalps and that would make people more afraid of them. It is also interesting to note that primary targets of the gang were settlers coming up from Mexico or those of Hispanic descent.The stereotype that the Mexican were outlaws or lazy ot somehow second-class citizens is prevalent in the novel. Perhaps equally interesting in the long-term is the prejudice within the Hispanic/Mexican/Chicano community itself. Even now, those who are descendents of the Spanish Conquistadors are sometimes offended by being identified as Mexicans, whom they identify as those of mixed blood between the conquistadors and the Native American people of Central America. However, Chicanos in Southern California would be equally offended by being called a Hispanic as they take pride in their connection to Mexico.The fact that this racism persists to this day is both interesting and depressing at the same time. The simple reality of Cormac McCarthy’s novel is that it portrays an evil man attempting to justify his actions via racism and a gang of thugs using racism to make themselves seem bigger and badder than they are, when in truth murder should have been enough. McCarthy’s ability to capture the tenor and reality of the racism without pandering to it does make this a novel worth reading.

Public Policing vs. Private Policing Essay

Before the increase in the trend of private policing, public policing has monopolized the field in the U.S. Both public and private policing, when compared, displays many similarities and differences, however their distinctions are frequently blurred. Even though they are classified as private police their behavior, roles and responsibilities appear parallel to the public to an extent (Wilson 1994). According to Shearing and Stenning, advancements in society, e.g. gated communities and large shopping centers, has sparked the need for the growth in private policing (Shearing and Stenning, 1983). These forms of properties ensure safety to customers and/or residence, therefore require continued surveillance. In addition, proper security has become a perk to residents and/or shoppers. With the advances in technology, private security has increased the adequacy of their analyzing, investigating, and monitoring. Private policing have been classified as many things whether crowd controlling, crime preventing, or an individual body guard, it is private security. In order for the policing to be considered private, service must be provided by a private organization or person, in comparison to public policing which is provided by the state or governing body. Private police are viewed as concerning of the safety of corporations or individuals. Whereas Public police are focused on the public, and enforcing the laws of the justice system. As Shearing and Stenning said, the police (public) are employed and given legal status by the government to ensure and maintain peace (Shearing and Stenning, 1983). Private policing is proactive, and preventative, in comparison to public policing, which is reactive. Meaning in private police aim to prevent crimes through surveillance, and public police respond once a crime has been committed (Wilson 1994).