Feasibility Study For Bookstore

a. Marketing philosophy with target awareness b. Market Analysis1. Target MarketThe main target markets of Bookworm Company are the student of every school here in Aklan. That every books that they looking for are in the Bookworm. The bookworm provides the most effective needs of student while they seeking their books.a. DemographicsWe can divide our target market according to age, occupation, civil status, nationality, and gender.b. PsychographicsThe Bookworm focuses on interests of customer, their activities, and also the opinions of every customer so that were going to conduct a marketing survey for our target market. It focuses the attitudes, personality formation, and cultural touchstones.c. Niche MarketsThe bookworm company determine the target audience and find what the customer wants. The bookworm sells retail book items for the consumer.2. Competition 3. Market Trendsa. Product Life cycleWe introduce our company by launch our product. We make advertising to radio and televis ion so that the customer can know that there is an opening of book store here in Kalibo, Aklan. The bookworm company make a promotion to make consumers aware that the product is now available on the market and what its purposes. Market Growth Demand begins to accelerate and the size of the total market expands rapidly. Maturity demand is the level of Bookworm when the customer are not satisfied and they replacement and new family formation rate and finally the product goes into decline as sales fall.b. Type of consumer goodsMarket Strategy -Method of Sales & Distribution – Packaging When it comes in packaging the Bookworm Company use papers bagsbecause as of now using plastic materials is not good to our environment. Using paper bags  as a material is very environmental friendly and we can reuse it. We attached our company logo and tag line into paper bags so that the costumer will know and to advertise also our products. -Pricing– Branding -Database marketing â€⠀œ Sales Strategy – Sales Incentive or PromotionThe Bookworm use a strategy like Sales promotion, advertising, and salesmanship because this three are the major techniques used in merchandising products to the public. In Salesmanship the company need to know the customer face-to-face so that the seller convinces the customer that the books on sale are essential to their satisfaction. The bookworms use the sales promotion strategy to persuade the consumer and customer to purchase immediately by providing special incentives such as discount items, promo sale and freebies.– Advertising Strategy – Public Relation – Networking

Fight Club Essay

In the movie â€Å"Fight Club† is about the narrator, Jack’s, fantasy of an alternate reality, his personal shadow. Tyler Durden represents Jack’s unconscious collective shadow. Jack, the protagonist, has a meaningless, boring and empty life, and suffers from insomnia. Jack tries to lend color to his insignificant life by purchasing new commodities like his furniture which are the fetish items of the narrator and they provide him with more meaningful existence. Jack has a dull life and he could not find any time for his hobbies due to his busy business life. He has no girlfriend or even a close friend. He does nothing to have fun and he suppresses all his instincts for pleasure in his unconscious. Although he is not happy about his life, every morning he wakes up, goes to work and travels frequently. He suffers from insomnia because he is suppressing his shadow. Later, he finds the idea of participating in cancer and disease support groups. Jack lacks the courage to confront his shadow. Instead, Jack indentifies with her persona, the role the world expects him to play. As the movie progresses Jack gradually begins to become aware of his shadow, and how it motivates his behavior. It is only by doing so that he begins the process of self-realization. One criticism that will be made is that the movie depicts a superficial and incomplete process of self-realization. â€Å"Jung considers the confrontation with the shadow, with one’s own evil, to be of the great psychological value. Understanding something about one’s shadow side is the beginning of self-knowledge. Without the realization of the shadow all real further psychological progress is blocked† (34). As I mentioned before, Tyler Durden is the collective unconscious side of Jack. In other words, Tyler represents the shadow of the narrator in â€Å"political confrontation†. Jack projects onto Tyler, the enemy side, which we view as hopelessly corrupt, sadistic, vindictive, and inhuman. â€Å"The collective shadow, viewed as a component of the collective unconscious, is the archetype of collective evil and can be represented by such archetypal images as the Devil, the Enemy, the Bad Guys, and the Evil Empire† (33-4). Tyler slowly begins to take control away from the narrator. The narrator gets pleasure from Tyler’s crazy, uncontrolled behaviors because Tyler does the things that the narrator imagines doing unconsciously, but was unable to do because of ociety pressure, which encouraged repressing his desires. Jung states, â€Å"Your shadow, the imperfect being in you that follows after and does everything which you are loath to do, all the things you are too cowardly or too decent to do† (35). The narrator gets pleasure from these anarchistic behaviors. Tyler also destroys the narrator’s house in order to prevent him from continuing his virtual life. Then, Tyler initiates a reaction like Jung’s shadow conception, full of violence and sexuality. He manifests his violence and forms an underground boxing club called Fight Club. Hopeless people like Bob who has testicular cancer and many other people who are not happy about their lives, which are full of suppressed emotions and societal pressures, join Fight Club. Tyler also satisfies his sexual instincts with Marla whereas the narrator fails to do so. Tyler becomes a cult hero and he even manages to get paid without ever going to work because of the shadow’s charisma, self-confidence and revolutionary aspect. However, after a while we start to realize the negative effects of the shadow. The shadow, Tyler Durden, takes control completely and he gets out of balance. Fight Club becomes an anarchistic group and Tyler prepares a big plan (Project Mayhem) for destroying all the banks, financial sector buildings. Tyler is thus transformed into a public enemy who wants to destroy the capitalist system. In the movie, Tyler says, â€Å"It is only when you have lost everything, you are free to do anything†. He wants to live in a primitive society in which everyone has nothing and everyone is equal. This feeling comes to his mind because of the influence of the shadow archetype. As Jung mentioned, archetypes are characteristics that reflect our primitive nature. Tyler rants, â€Å"You are not your job, you are not your money in your bank account†. The shadow becomes very destructive, violent and dangerous as Tyler clearly becomes a monster who threatens society. Tyler sees society and the capitalist system as his enemies. Tyler shows us exactly all the aspects of Jung’s shadow concept: violence, sexuality, self-confidence, charisma, courage, madness and a lack of balance. What makes Tyler so strong is the narrator’s error in repressing his shadow for such a long time. After a period, the narrator understands that his conscious mind was taken over for a while and he begins to fight Tyler. He gets rid of Tyler in the last scene by shooting himself and thus by metaphorically reducing the influence of the shadow, Tyler in his mind. The narrator thus achieves a new psychical balance and gets rid of his shadow Tyler Durden. Jung explains, â€Å"Consequently, the murder of the hero represents the need for change, for a ‘revaluation of earlier values,’ at midlife. The shadow figures of savage and dwarf represents the murderous energy as well as the insight, the shadow wisdom, needed to kill the hero and to transcend a youthful heroic attitude toward life†.

No Child Left Behind Essay

The education policy that I chose is on education today and the influence of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. In 2001, President George W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act. The NCBL is a United States Act of Congress, which includes Title 1 (program for disadvantaged students offered by the government). This Act requires states to develop assessments in basic skills. Each state is required to give these assessments to all students to receive federal school funding. This Act does not set the standards nationwide; each individual state sets the standards. Diane Ravitch, an education philosopher was a supporter of this Act when it was being passed. She believed that every child had the right to a proper education. As the years passed she acquired more experience and knowledge on the Act, and is now completely opposed to the NCLB Act. Ravitch believes that the states dumb down the standards in light of the NCLB. The question now is: is the No Child Left Behind Act se eking to repair the problem, or is it the cause? Under NCLB, the accountability of a child’s education is examined by the Federal government and turned into the hands of the state. This was the first time an American president has set a goal of universal proficiency in reading and mathematics for all children. The federal emphasis on literacy, reading, and mathematics emphasizes teacher and school accountability, with negative consequences when schools do not meet established improvement goals (U.S. Department of Education, 2002). Under NCLB the state must have accountability provisions that include how they will close the achievement gap. According to the Department of Education the achievement gap is defined as such; The difference between how well low-income and minority children perform on standardized tests as compared with their peers. For many years, low-income and minority children have fallen behind their white peers in terms of academic achievement (Department of Education, 2002). States must also monitor that every student not excluding the disadvantaged achieve academic proficiency. Yearly assessments must be produced to inform parents of the progress of both the state and the  community. Schools that do not meet the academic proficiency standards must offer supplemental services and take corrective action. If within five years the school is still not making yearly progress, than dramatic changes in the school’s academic direction must be made. Dramatic changes according to the Department of Education are defined as follows; â€Å"†¦additional changes to ensure improvement.† The definition raises the question of whether there is a plan for failure at all. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, in its â€Å"National Report Card† shows that these goals may be falling short. Students in fourth grade show temporary improvement in math right after No Child Left Behind became a law, but returned to pre-reform growth rate. The NAEP estimates that by 2014 less than 25% of financially challenged and African American students will achieve NAEP proficiency in reading. Using the same time frame less than half the financially challenged and African American students will obtain proficiency in math. With so much pressure on the states to perform well, a trend is becoming apparent that they are inflating proficiency levels of students. This causes discrepancies between the NAEP and state assessments especially among the financially challenged, African American, and Hispanic students. With no sufficient evidence shown on that NCLB is working, the question is as follows; is the federal government capable of running our school systems? There are undoubtedly dangers in the public school system teaching a federally mandated curriculum. When one controls people’s perception of history, one controls the present. There is, of course, a point to be made that if the nations’ children are kept in watered down public schools, positions of power will be opened to the children of the aristocracy, who without fail, are being sent to private schools. So many of those Politicians who stand in the way of allowing poor children to escape failing schools, send their own children to private schools (sic). In New York City, where I have spent most of my professional life, both the current and the past chancellor of schools sent their children to private schools. Six of the seven members of the now-defunct Board of Education had  also sent their children to private schools at one time or another. One might add to the list other notables in New York-the governor, the mayor, the leaders of both houses of the legislature, and the junior U.S. senator (and former first lady). In fact, I cannot remember a mayor of the city who sent his children to public school (Viteritti, 2003). The reports of success of NCLB are encouraging to those who support the project. There have been schools in Sterling, Virginia and New York City that have received No Child Left Behind blue ribbons for their success in closing the achievement gap. Other schools have earned national praise for instituting such curriculum as â€Å"Fit for the Future,† a standards-based health and fitness curriculum for grades 1-10; and an anti-bullying intervention program in York, Pennsylvania (Department of Education, 2005). These programs are used to show the benefits of NCLB but are they academic necessities? The curriculum in a kindergarten class in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin included a lesson entitled â€Å"The Little Convincer.† In which a state trooper came into the classroom with a mechanism designed to simulate a car accident. In a discussion about car seat laws, a topic critics of the curriculum call too heady for kindergarteners, the students, ages five to six years old, were asked repeatedly which one of them were actively using car seats, and whether their parents wore seat belts as well. One child who innocently told the officer that his daddy did not wear his seatbelt was told by the trooper that his daddy could go through the windshield and the glass would cut his face and arms like ribbons, and once he hit the road, the car would roll on top of him. The dramatic lesson ended with each of the students taking a turn in the mechanism that simulated the car crash. The officer would speak softly to the child asking them questions about their class or the clothes that they were wearing and when the child began to speak would jerk them forward violently to teach them that an accident could happen at anytime. The question is, are these academic lessons that parents assume that their children are attending school for? Is placing the curriculum in the hands of legislators going to further our children’s grasp of the three R’s as most parents hope, or are they going to be taught how to become complacent law abiding citizens? The problem in purposing that the public school system is flawed beyond repair is offering an alternative that people are comfortable with. When a conversation about privatizing the school system begins many questions must be answered to abate the fears of the public. Would privatizing schools be affordable to all families? Many debates have waged on the validity of a voucher program, allowing families to choose any school they desire whether it is parochial, private, public, or chartered. Without public schools, there are no taxes necessary to support the program, and that money can be returned to the families of school aged children, creating extra funds for private education. In a system of free market education the individual and specialized institutions of learning would have to compete for students, because the money would be linked to the students themselves. Never in the history of the free market have advances been made without competition. When the monopoly on our children’s future ends, a true marketplace of ideas will be born. In an interview with US News, Ravitch was asked â€Å"What needs to happen to make the law more effective for school?† she responded â€Å"I think the main thing to change is . . . to get rid of the remedies and the sanctions because the remedies don’t work and the sanctions don’t work. What No Child Left Behind has given the United States is an atmosphere of punitiveness. The word accountability has come to be a synonym for punish. If students don’t learn, it’s the teachers’ fault. Fire the teachers. Close the schools. We’re now on a wrecking mission to destroy American public education.† Ravitch has completely rejected this Act, and believes we should do something to make our education system stronger. I questioned? Is the No Child Left Behind Act seeking to repair the problem, or is it the cause? I now have the answer. The NCLB Act sounded very tempting as it was passed by congress, and many like Diane Ravitch had hopes in such a great project for our education system, but everything is not perfect. The NCBL offers great support to schools, although standardized testing is not the correct way of determining the amount of financial support each school deserves or requires. After long hours of research I believe that the No Child Left Behind Act has taken a part in the cause of our problem in our education system today. Schools will not improve if the value is set only on what is tested. â€Å"The tests we have now provide useful information about students’ progress in reading and mathematics, but they cannot measure what matters most in education.† (Ravitch. The Death and Life of The Great American School System, pg. 226) In order to improve our public school system we must start by focusing on our schools, offering them an authentic and sincere education that encourages our students to learn.

Characteristics of Business Leadership Assignment

Characteristics of Business Leadership - Assignment Example Paul Jobs, his father, was a machinist who gave young Jobs hands on experience with electronics and helped to fuel his curiosity and passion to work with electronics. It is during this time that the seed was planted and grew to make Jobs who he was, a global icon. Just to mention, Jobs had an adopted sister, Patti. Jobs was a cofounder and pioneer of Apple Computer Inc., Chief Executive of Pixar animation studios and founder of NeXT. His passion for electronics that started early in his life propelled him to admired heights in previously uncharted waters. Jobs helped to design the world of computer technology as we know it today. In his career, like many other successful of his peers, he had many challenges, most of which he managed to elude until he succumbed in October this year to cancer he had been fighting for 8 years. Steve Jobs was an inspiration to many in Silicon Valley as he saw potential in changing the approach on computer production and design of devices and equipment fo r corporate and industrial use. On his death, the computer world lost a brilliant mind, inventor and businessperson (Vivek, 2009). Steve Jobs did three main businesses in his life and at the time of his death, he was registered as an inventor or co-inventor of 342 United States patents and pending patents. All of these were geared towards improvement of the computing experience. In 1970, he and others formed Apple Computer Inc., but on leaving Apple in 1985 due to power struggles, his creative genius did not dampen but he went on to form NeXT computer and Pixar. The two firms were later acquired by Apple and Disney respectively. When starting his businesses, Jobs did not have much but his creative genius and genuine commitment to his hard work. The major challenges that Jobs faced during his business days included competition, power struggles, and hardship in selling his high quality and expensive products. As a startup corporation, the major competitor to Apple was IBM which had mo nopolized the market, making it almost impossible to sell Apple’s computers, though they were of a higher quality (Kahney, 2004). Competition between Apple and Dell computers resulted into a war of words between Jobs and CEO of Dell computers, Michael dell. Later, after Apple was up and running, a new CEO who did not like Jobs’ habit of innovating got him stripped of his duties on allegations of wastage of resources. Steve moved on to form other successful companies; NeXT and Pixar, and Apple had to enlist his services again to save it from an imminent collapse in 1996 (Kahney, 2004). 2. Analyze this business leader's leadership style and discuss how he or she has adapted to cultural differences and how he or she operates the business effectively in global markets Jobs was an aggressive perfectionist who tolerated nothing but the best from colleagues. Though a good boss, if one was not up to his standards, Jobs did not hesitate to terminate the employment, thought he d id so in the kindest words possible. Because of this, in 1993 he was termed by fortune magazine as America’s toughest boss. Employing only the best and being the best at what he did made him a trendsetter in innovation and style, in the growing computer world. Jobs had a hands-off policy when it came to his employees as he did not interfere with their innovation processes. He only communicated

The role of the concepts of the seduced & repressed Essay

The role of the concepts of the seduced & repressed - Essay Example This part will discuss how the society is build up. It describes the modern life of the people living in UK and how their streets have improved over time. It will also show how the ways in life have changed due to existence of material. Every day people are faced with various kinds of goods but choice really matters. It also depends on placements for example the young, old, employed and unemployed that describes a consumer society. There are various kinds of inequalities present in a society which include people with differing lifestyles and abilities. Consumer society tries to define people by the way they consume in terms of class or knowledge. Consumption is where goods and services reach the end user and the satisfaction that comes with the process. People consume for many reasons for example for fun, other consume to be different from the rest, to represent a type of group or for pleasure. To study the contemporary consumer society it is important to examine material things that surround consumers for example luxuries that represent an individual’s status. According to Jackson (1998) today’s society for example people really choose on where to shop as shopping activities are seen as leisure unlike 20 years ago where people use to shop in order to have essentials. The shopping centers have developed as more malls are coming up and due to migrants in various parts of the world; there has been diversification of products to cater for all the needs of customers. The society has now changed in qualities and features where infrastructure has been improved thus making it easy to get what consumers needed. One description of a street in New York includes Broadway located near Manhattan and with various kinds of shopping centers for example the central mall. Others include art galleries, boutiques, designer stores and jewelry shops. It is therefore necessary to consider certain social factors in the process

Designing an Implementation Strategy for establishing a Technical Thesis Proposal

Designing an Implementation Strategy for establishing a Technical College in the Ivory Coast - Thesis Proposal Example The current government has struggled to restore peace in the country and wants to progress towards social, political, and economic development in the country. Three ministries are mainly concerned with the education system in the country. These are the Ministry of Education, The Ministry of Technical Education and Professional Training, and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research (Imboua-Niava, 2002, para.2). Other ministries also provide indirect support to education. A strong education system plays a significant role towards achieving these developmental objectives. There should be technical colleges that absorb students that do not qualify directly for university entrance. This improves on one of the objectives of educational policies of ensuring equity to improve educational outcomes (Barr, n.d, p.33). The colleges should integrate other academic and practical training to produce graduates that are useful to the country. This paper focuses on the establishment of a technical college in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire. In particular, it focuses on the influence that political factors play in the establishment of such institutions. These political factors also relate to other factors like the economic and social issues in the country. Thus, the response and opinions of different individuals will be sought on how best the institution can be established. Education promotes political, social, and economic development in a given country. The good education can only be realized if an effective educational system is put in place. Nevertheless, the development of this effective educational system is in turn affected by the political, economic, and social factors prevailing in the country. Is it possible to establish a technical institute owing to the current political, social, and economic situations that are witnessed Cote D’Ivoire? In other words, is the government’s

US History Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

US History Questions - Assignment Example The causes of the New Imperialism were economic, political and cultural causes. The economic causes involved the Western powers who were looking for sources for raw materials to run their factories. They were also looking for a future market to sell their manufactured goods and the Western bankers were looking for places to gain more profits. On the political front these Western powers were anxious for power and hence they believed that more land ownership meant more power. Having more land and colonies was also considered to be a status symbol; it showed strength and prestige of a nation. The cultural causes that led to Imperialism were the beliefs of the Western leaders. They believed that the best and strongest nation comes out only after they have faced struggle. Some racists believed that some races were better and superior to others. Some European leaders believed they had a duty to help and educate the African and Asian people. By the end of the 1800s the United States also to ok part in the Imperialism and colonial takeover. They defeated a Spanish fleet in Manila Bay and took over Philippines. They took over this territory claiming it was their obligation to civilize other parts and other people of the world. Americans had hidden motives behind this takeover. They eyed the Philippines as a stepping stone to reach the Chinese markets and they were also trying to prevent Japan to take charge of the area. United States did not treat those territories like they should have; they did not treat them morally like they claimed they would. This unit of our class examined the Progressive Era and World War I. Whether we were discussing world events or domestic problems (social problems, class issues, labor issues, technology, government, gender) it seems that all of the struggles of the era can be traced back to a few key questions: How do people live in a modern industrial society and what

Country Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Country Report - Essay Example After Japan suffered defeat in World War II, Korea was liberated and Soviet-American agreements exploited the divisions that had sprung up during the previous decades. Aggravated by old resentments, nationalistic attitudes, and the politics of the new Cold War, the Soviet-American actions further divided North and South Korea, precipitated the Korean War, and erected a lasting wall dividing a country that 50 years earlier had been united. The story of Korea is the story of a once deeply unified people that have been profoundly distanced in a world apart. The divisions that existed in Korea after Japan's defeat in World War II were the result of Japan's occupational tyranny. Divisions between the left and the political right, between capitalism and Chinese communism, the nationalists and the Japanese sympathizers, only further disappointed those that expected immediate independence after Japan's defeat. Even with these disagreements across the country, Korea may have been able to heal its wounds, find some common ground and engage in a program of unification and independence. However, the Soviets and the Americans had already dashed any hope that the Korean's may have had for unification and they were unwittingly being setup for even greater division (Gourevitch). The initial plans to turn Korea into an American-Soviet trusteeship had fallen through. In the days after the atomic bombs had been dropped, but before Japan surrendered, America already was planning out the future for Korea. While the Russians occupied the Northern Provinces and the US forces occupied the South, they were forming coalitions and governments that would be sympathetic to their respective ideologies. The Northern Provinces were primarily revolutionaries and communists led by Kim Il Sung, an anti-Japanese revolutionary (Gourevitch). By 1946, the communists were able to form a cohesive political party in the North and were able to man a small army. The South, with Seoul, had the ruling seat of government but was staffed by bureaucratic positions that were more often perceived as Japanese collaborators left behind after the occupation. Late in 1945, Dr. Syngman Rhee returned to Korea after residing outside the country during the period of Japanese imperialism. Many U.S. officials favored Rhee, a staunch anti-Communist, to form the new government. Rhee and US Occupation forces made plans to establish a separate government administration in South Korea by organizing the bureaucracy left behind by the Japanese. Rhee's newly established government set out to cripple his political opponents and destroy any possibility of a leftist uprising in anticipation of overpowering the North and gaining complete control of the unified Korea. By 1949, Rhee had imprisoned 30,000 of his political enemies, had another 70,000 imprisoned in "Guidance Camps", and by December 1949 he was arresting as many as 1,000 suspected communists per day (Cumings, 223). These dictatorial tactics were designed to maintain his power while he eliminated any remaining resistance in the South for a planned invasion of the Northern Provinces. Who started the war, and who took the first offensive action

Reading journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 9

Reading journal - Essay Example In chapter 15 on The Stikine Ice Cap, the author concludes that McCandless death was a result of an accident more so borrowing from his journals. As a youth, we learn that McCandless was fond of mountain climbing and this explains why at 23 he sought to climb the Devils Thumb on the Stikine Ice Cap in Alaska where he dies (Krakauer 92-100). In chapter 16, Chris McCandless visits Liard River Hot Springs in Yukon Territory. He spends two days at the river. Later he becomes friends with Gaylord Stuckey who later gives him a ride after being stuck for a while. Stuckey purchases a rice bag for McCandless then gives him a ride to University of Alaska (Krakauer 108-116). Stuckey advices McCandless that he is too young to move to the snow but he ignores the advice. In the 17th chapter on The Stampede Trail, the story of the Teklanika River is revisited and why McCandless opted not to cross the river. The map that explains the downstream where McCandless wanted to cross is revealed (Krakauer 118-127). It is arguable that McCandless would have attempted using a different route rather than staying in the bus and starving to death. In the last chapter, McCandless is seen to return to the bus, continues hunting and gathering but the amount of energy he uses is more than what he consumes. From these chapters, one questions the concept of happiness in an individual’s life. Is the same related to the struggles of life and attaining the set goals? How far can one link the importance of family to an individual’s happiness? McCandless does not acknowledge his family members and sees no contribution of his family to his life. In a way or another, I am of the opinion that McCandless operated on some form of ignorance. I believe that McCandless died of starvation as a result of arrogance. If he applied some level of wisdom, he would have saved his life and even maintained relations with his family. It is as a result of his pride that his parents and

Police Influence on Society Essay Example for Free

Police Influence on Society Essay Policing has come along way the In the United States. Resources such has vehicles, radios, and computers have made policing much more efficient. Although policing has advanced, history of policing has had a huge impact on the current relationship between African Americans and police. Tension between African Americans and police existed throughout the history of policing and still exists within policing today. Policing history is divided into the political era, reform era, and community era. The political era and the reform era of policing have influenced the current relationship between African Americans and police (McNamara Burns, 2009). The issues of these policing eras have been the foundation for the issues that continue to exist between police and African Americans in today’s society. During the political area of policing, officers were looking to build a more intimate relationship with the community and politics had a huge impact on police practices and police departments. Law enforcement personnel who supported political leaders were rewarded for their support, this had a huge influence on who worked for the police departments and in what capacity they served (McNamara Burns, 2009). During the political era Black officers were treated differently from white officers and were not allowed to patrol in areas that were predominately white areas. Black officers were assigned to patrol in high crime areas and areas that were predominately minority areas. As a result of this, there was less police focus and protection in areas that were heavily populated by minorities (McNamara Burns, 2009) Although police departments have made huge strides to diversify police departments, discrimination within department still exists. The number of Black police officers in 50 of the largest states has increased by 128% since 1983, however, Black officer are still underrepresented. The Black officers who are given the opportunity to work for police departments still have to deal with overt racism from white officers. They also had to deal with assumptions from others, that they will give Black people a break when caught committing violating the law. Although there are a growing numbers of Black officers on police forces, it is still difficult for Black police officers to attain positions of command (The Criminology and Criminal Justice Collective of Northern Arizona University, 2009). There are laws set in place that afford Black people equal opportunities to work on the police force and not be discriminated against in the workplace, however, this type of discrimination and racism still exists. During the reform era of policing, police relied heavily on technology. The use of vehicles and technology advances enhanced policing, at the same time these advances hurt the relationship between police and communities. Officers no longer interacted with the community like they did while walking beats. During this era, officers focus on crime fighting (McNamara Burns, 2009). The Civil Rights movement caused a series of events that changed policing. During the reform era tension between Blacks and police officers grew as a result of Black protesters being confronted by white male police officers who had little training on how to confront protesters. Officers were in charge of dealing with anti-war and race demonstration, and the lack of African American and minorities in policing cause clashes between officers and Blacks. This played a role in hundreds of riots that occurred between 1966 and 1971. Police were seen as the enemy and faced criticism from every direction (McNamara Burns, 2009). The reform era set the foundation for the current relationship between police and African Americans. This era cause tension between Blacks and the police. Because officers were not properly trained to deal with certain situations, such as protest, they resulted in using violence as a way to control the situation. This perception of police still exists in today’s society within the Black communities. The perception of officer discriminating against Black, being racist, or using excessive force against Black is a frequent topic in today’s society. The Oscar Grant case is a good example of an officer lack of training resulting in the use of excessive force. Oscar Grant was shot by a while Bart police officer. This shooting caused uproar in the community. Many people protested as a result of the shooting. The relationship between police officers and the African American community continues to be distant and filled with tension. The image that African Americans have of police officers as a result of the reform era, has been passed down from generation to generation, by the knowledge of knowing about incidents of the past or just personal perceptions passed down from family and friends (Brunson, n.d.). Although training has been implemented into the training curriculum of officers, there are still officers who react as a result of their own biases and perceptions. And for these reason the relationship between African American and police officers will continue to be filled with tension and distrust. Policing history has had a huge impact on the current relationship between police and African Americans. Advances in technology and allowed policing to evolved into a more effective organization. However, the advancement changed the focus of policing from community relations to crime control. This changed began to create a distance between police and Blacks. As times passed the tension between these two groups continued to grow causing an even greater distance between the two groups that continues in today’s society. References Brunson, R. K. (n.d.). University of Massachusetts Lowell. Retrieved from http://faculty.uml.edu/jbyrne/44.203/police%20dont%20like%20black%20people.pdf McNamara, R., Burns, R. (2009). Multiculturalism in the Criminal Justice System. Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database. The Criminology and Criminal Justice Collective of Northern Arizona University, (2009). Investigating Difference: Human and Cultural Relations in Criminal Justice, (2nd ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.

Character Traits of Superheroes

Character Traits of Superheroes I am lying in bed counting sheep when all of a sudden it hits me. I conceive a character like Samson, Hercules, and all the strong men I have ever heard rolled into one. His intense wave of inspiration perhaps a small parallel of the inordinate abilities possessed by the mythical heroes and strongmen he himself had name checked, he proceeds to feverishly wile away the night producing what would become the very first Superman script. By connecting his creation of this contemporary Super being to both the biblical figure of Samson and the Mythological hero of ancient Greece, Hercules, Siegel shows us that his Superman and the legions of costumed adventurers that his presence will inspire the creation of are to be seen and revered as godly totems. In fact Thor, the Norse god of thunder himself would go on to star in his very own serialized adventures with Marvel Comics. When superheroes are the subject of a discussion, an important point to try and ascertain is just what exactly the definition and nature of a hero is. A hero, in its simplest of definitions is a person who conquers his or her own limitations and fears to achieve or perform an act that under normal circumstances would be considered extraordinary. Regarding the harsh reality most of us inhabit, the soldiers and military personnel who lay their lives on the line for a concept that is bigger than them as individuals, the astronauts who risk their lives to further the reach and imagination of our collective species on missions with a high probability of a lethal outcome and the firemen who take their lives in their hands daily by entering burning buildings and combating deadly blazes. These men and women are regularly and with good reason, the yardstick by which heroism is measured. Furthering that idea, perhaps with less lethal professions, is the doctor who will spend his or her long da ys and nights treating the sickly and infirm, or the schoolteacher who sees to it that our children receive decent educations to put to use further on in their lives ahead. Perhaps even, a different but no less impressive display of bravery, in which a sufferer of a particularly debilitating disease, or trauma, will endure painful and physically draining rehabilitation to regain their strength and good health. A hero is supposed to personify the traits within ourselves that we deem to be the best. Be they morally, socially or lawfully. They are standards that warrant our admiration and aspiration. And while this unwritten rule considers the heroes of the reality that surrounds us it still applies to our fictional heroes, of the page, the stage or the screen. Fictional heroes have been an ever-present institution of modern-day societies and past mythologies and cultures throughout history. Michael Corleone from The Godfather films, the gun slinging Dirty Harry or the Man with No Name as both portrayed by Clint Eastwood, Phillip Marlowe, Rambo and Sherlock Holmes, for example are all indeed human in their emotions, their nuances and their foibles in spite of their inherently fictitious nature. But could we seriously consider those characters as heroes? Or are they, for all the adventures they may endure or the nefarious plots they may foil, simply compelling, but ultimately human protagonists that enthusiasts can relate to? We feel that given the right opportunities, we could become them in some capacity. Casting a glance further back in time, there is also an all-too obvious distinction between the more ancient mythological heroes and the costumed supermen and superwomen of today. Hercules, Thor, Beowulf, Gilgamesh and Moses for example, all display the qualities of nobility, courage and the strengths both mental and physical we have come to associate with that of a hero. But somewhere within the cultural evolution of these fictitious heroes, the genome seemed to split off and create a sub category of its own. One that saw the hybridization of the ancient heros super-human strengths and the pop relevance and accessibility of the more contemporary fictional protagonist. This new strain of heroes were defined by a characteristic fearlessness as opposed to the more human ability to adapt to and ultimately overcome fear, with a set of skills honed to a meta-human standard. Even Batman, who, while not possessing the conventional super-strength or x-ray vision proclivities that his inked brothers and sisters may share, belongs amongst them more so than his more human peers. He proves himself by displaying the fearlessness to patrol the rooftops of Gotham city come nightfall, leaping headlong into violent situations and making use of his inordinate intellect and physical training to foil the designs of his villains (even going as far as to recover from a bro ken back in Knightfall: Part One (Moench, Titan Books, 1993) while never compromising his own morality and ultimately keeping his lifelong vow to restore safety and peace, earning the respect and admiration of the community as he does it. This raises an interesting point. While the origins and talents of superheroes are often incredibly varied on an individual to individual basis; the one constant amongst their equally as varied psychological repertoire is adopting and living by a value system and an unflinching, immovable dedication to enforcing said system. Although, ironically, as Daniel Fingeroth notes in his book Superman on the Couch (Continuum, 2006, page 17) These are also, interestingly, the characteristics of a villain. And, as the saying goes, every decent villain thinks of himself as the hero. Hitler had no doubt that he was the good guy. However, as Richard Reynolds is quoted as saying in his book Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology (University Press of Mississippi, 1994) page 74 Superheroes are by and large not upholders of the letter of the law; they are not law enforcement agents employed by the state. The set of values they traditionally defend is summed up by the Superman tag of Truth, Justice and the American Way. Sometimes the last term has been interpreted in a narrowly nationalistic waybut far more oftenhas stood for the ideals enshrined in the US Constitution. Reynolds claims that the superhero is a symbol that inherently represents, and continues to represent, the ever-changing values of whichever society creates him or her. A trait almost wholly unique to the superhero, with such prominent cycles of revision and reinvention rarely being attributed to those fictional heroes of past eras (For instance, you may be hard pressed to find a 60s-era Moses or a 80s-era Lone Ranger). Reynolds theory is, both visually and thematically, very distinguishable when looking through the back catalogues of a number of todays popular heroes. For example, in the 40s, Superman fought the Nazis, in the 50s, communists, in the 60s and 70s he became more involved against governmental issues like widespread corruption. Compare early, campy Batman to the dark, brooding Batman established in the late 80s and early 90s and literally witness a night and day transformation. But, regardless of such evolutions, whatever the time and place, the hero will always know wha t the morally correct course of action is. But what is it exactly that dwells within people and causes them to harbour such intense craving for these hyperbolic tales of greater valour? Why are we not content with the truer and undoubtedly more realistic tales of human heroism? Take for example, a typical everyman character. Would his encounters with extraordinary situations or extraordinary people be a better example of an inspirational role model, and the very idea of a super being leaving us mere mortals feeling wholly inadequate? Perhaps we as people and congenitally social creatures, find hearing about the man of steel from the distant planet of Krypton easier to digest than say a neighbour who outclasses us physically, socially or hierarchically. Therein may lie the key the whole question. Maybe these heroes tap into our group consciousness and shared doubts about us, as individuals, failing to measure up to our potential or the standards others may expect of us. The notion of a character not quite living by the same so cietal doctrines as the rest of us, allows for an amount of comfortable dissmissiveness regarding our own perceived human failings. Lets focus on who many consider to be the alpha-superhero, Superman. Superman (or more accurately, Kal-El, his given Kryptonian name) is from the planet Krypton. It is rather unlikely that any sane human could ever also make that claim. So feeling inadequate after seeing him stop an earthquake or reverse time by flying around the planet backwards is prevented by a buffer zone of suspended disbelief. Batman, on the other hand, was always a perfectly normal little boy (and, obviously, an earthling) who swears an oath to himself to be better, stronger and smarter over the murdered bodies of his parents. Not only does little Bruce Wayne swear to it, he grows up and accomplishes it. That kind of human dedication could potentially rub a person who had, so far, failed to get where they wanted in life, or were prone to procrastination, the wrong way. But while Batman is more of a human hero than say Superman, hes none the less a larger than life character that displays characteristics that a re absent or unrealistic to expect within ordinary people. Even the pop culture characters more rooted in reality seem to operate in places where certain degrees of magic or pseudo science are possible. Rambo or The Punisher couldnt really dodge so many bullets or use their weapons so casually without incurring significant collateral damages, yet these characters are still believed to be normal within their genre. Whereas if you or I, average people, ever found ourselves in a fist fight, were ever struck or struck someone else in the face, it would be an unforgettable event that we would relay to anyone who wished to hear it whether we knew them all that well or not. Wed seek medical or legal advice, press charges to bring the perpetrator to justice. It would become an important footnote in out lifes story. Yet to the more human of serial fictional heroes, physical altercations are an everyday occurrence, a part of the job. With characters that dont have the disadvantage of needing to be portrayed by real life actors, the number of fights they will undertake is a truly staggering number. How many kicks and jabs has Batman landed over his sixty plus years of existence? It would be an almost incalculable number that would put the body counts of most modern flesh and blood action men to shame. So, the fact must be that, even in our real heroes, people feel the compulsive need to imbue them with qualities, powers and abilities that far exceed the rest of our capabilities. More so even than those amongst us in peak shape and of outstanding performance. Looking back at the idea of the regular person dealing with punching, or having been punched by somebody, any event like that, that can elevate itself above those of the everyday; will change a persons constitution in some way. Be it physically, mentally or socially. And change is invariably the one constant, be it large or small, in our lives. But Superman will never retire. Hell change, certainly. You only have to compare his adventures now to those of the 30s and 40s to see it. But he is still, in essence the same Kryptonian that landed on Earth all those years ago. Comic writers allow their creations something known as the illusion of change, which is true of most serialized characters, and, possibly, a part of their appeal. For, we grow older, witness it in our friends and relations and eventually die. But superheroes are always there. They age remarkably slowly, if at all. We learn from our lifes experiences and grow, existentially as people. Fictional creations do not. An inescapable fact of life is that, as we age, we will acquire some level of wisdom from our experiences. We can find witnessing others go through the same situation inspirational and instructive. As we grow, we learn and as we learn, we change. All we can do is hope we are changing for the better. It can be delayed somewhat, but never be truly avoided. But superheroes change incredibly slowly. Slow enough that any change could barely have been said to have occurred at all. After just over half a century, Superman still hides his identity from Lois Lane and continues to battle Lex Luthor, Batman still hides his identity from the people of Gotham city and continues to battle The Joker, and Spiderman still hides his identity from Mary Jane and Aunt May while continuing to battle Doctor Octopus and still remaining the unattached and troubled teen. Of course, this is in spite of occasional deviations from canon in which they may be seen wedding their respective sweethearts or appear to die, before exploiting some catch in which they can be revived, which are designed to indulge fans who may have since aged and moved on to the next phase of their lives and who may wish for a little more psuedorealism or social politics that speaks to their present situations. But no matter which version you may have seen, be they married, single, perpetually teenage or maturing young adult, the illusion of change still applies. But can a character that doesnt really age ever learn from his or her life and experiences? Or change as a direct result of it? In truth, only superficially, as to truly change as a result of an encounter or life experience would involve a sense of closure and the following transition from the characters previous, unenlightened standpoint to a more knowledgeable or enlightened stance. If this rule was in effect, perhaps Batman would eventually get the need for his own brand of vigilante justice out of his system after a couple of years in real life. Maybe in his participation of his particularly elaborate neuroses hed receive an injury that would prevent him from continuing with his crusade, or inadvertently harm an innocent bystander, accidentally kill one of the criminals he was fighting or even be arrested or incarcerated within a mental asylum himself. The finality of consequence is never the character stopping of their own free will because perhaps, it is too difficult, dangerous or the character has an epiphany that affords him the insight to see the ludicrousness of his own self-imposed mission. Too many people are invested in Batman keeping to his convictions, be they fan or businessman. Whenever we turn the final page of a book we were reading or see the end credits roll for a film we were watching, there is always an acute feeling of disappointment as our time in the company of those characters is well and truly over. With serial fiction or television, that feeling can be prolonged almost indefinitely (though usually to the programs detriment) and by extension the connections we attribute to the characters just as much. However in that case, something is always lost in the process. Namely the dramatic highs and lows, as, we know Superman will never truly die. But with that comes a sense of permanence and continuity (and predictability) that means, to people of an uncertain world such as ours, that through the greatest trait of the superheroes, their immortality, that we, throughout our short, fragile and unpredictable lives, can achieve a percentage of immortality too. Without a doubt, the representation of the modern superhero we have come to recognize today has left such indelible marks upon our culture that maybe you yourself have unknowingly made reference to it at some point in your life, whether you are a fan of the genre or not. Perhaps youve been told youre not exactly Superman, whilst trying to achieve something thought of as difficult or outside of your perceived abilities? Youve told somebody not to hulk out if theyre showing signs of a shift in their temperament, or youve been with someone who has told you their spider-sense is tingling to convey their wariness of a particular person or situation? The superhero is so ingrained on our collective consciousness that our metaphors and minds tend to take for granted just how and why exactly they came to be so. Why does our society view the superhero, both consciously and unconsciously, as such an important cultural element? And why must we take the time, and exert the mental energy to create and develop these fictional saviours? What exactly are they saving us from? After all, outside of the pages of their comics, its not like Superman truly crushed the Third Reich, or Spiderman truly makes it safer to walk around your town or city at night. But, perhaps their very existence, even if it is indeed, only within a few pages of pulp entertainment, plants a mental seed in us during our youth, deep, deep down in the subconscious. A seed that, however subtly, reassures us that there are perhaps such beings out there, putting themselves on the line for the sake of truth, justice and the protection of the innocent. That maybe, if we did walk around our cities in the dead of night, wed be alright, because it feels as though were being watched over. Or, perhaps we slightly imbue ourselves with the tr aits we see in these pulpy heroes to help us press on through an unpleasant place or situation. After all, Batman wouldnt be scared to walk through town at two in the morning, or succumb to nerves when thinking about the PowerPoint presentation he has to give at work the next day. Daniel Fingeroth goes on to pose the question of whether or not our attraction and preoccupation with such heroic yet utterly fictional fantasy beings is necessarily an entirely healthy position to have. Neatly summarising it as the following Do superheroes provide us with super-excuses? For If we adore such characters and partially establish elements of their personal ideologies to our own perceptions of right and wrong or law and order, are we effectively living in a dream world whilst, in some ways, shirking our own responsibilities when faced with the handling of our own problems? Are we dependant on their authority? For after all, the inherent trait of the superhero, to possess the superior judgment to arbitrarily discern what is and is not morally wrong, then use their extraordinary abilities to violently enforce that very idea, is rather a fascist notion. Perhaps holding Superman to that level of authoritarian calibre is in truth not that dissimilar from the myths of the Aryan ÃÅ"bermensch (which translates from German as overman or superman), or The X-Men and the distinct metaphor for racial tolerance (between mutant and non-mutants) their stories embody may very well lull people into believing the struggle for racial harmony has gone as far as it really nee ds to. Or perhaps what these stern, unbending paragons of unwavering morality provide is merely a healthy totem for us to project our darker impulses upon. For dont we, as a society, often gain a certain bloody satisfaction from seeing the villains or other such characters of low moral fiber receive a swiftly violent and richly deserved punishment? Through, say, Wolverines violent actions, our own violence is rendered unnecessary. Further still, the perceived perfection of both a physical and ideological nature one may attribute to a superhero, may well provide solace for a reader who may be becoming jaded with their place in a society that, at its core, is morally corrupt and defines its own rules on what is and is not acceptable regarding the physical appearance, while possibly encouraging that same reader to exit this fantasy word he or she was engrossed in, with an adopted desire to go out and perform good deeds of their own. Its unlikely theyll don a cape, mask and tights whilst leapin g from rooftop to rooftop, but the influence of wanting to do good amongst their community is assimilated without the more fascistic and unattractive authoritative aspects that present themselves when analyzing a superheroes modus operandi. A popular symbol of super heroism and the special brand of masked vigilante justice that accompanies it is the concept of the secret identity. But it seems rather counterintuitive. What is it that could cause a person to hide who they are? If anything, people of today tend to seek out credit and adulation wherever they can. They enjoy that feeling of pride. But in real life, there can be equally valid reasons why a person may want to, or need to conceal their identity. The example that may immediately leap to mind would be a criminal wearing a mask whilst committing his crime so as to evade the attention of the law and escape the threat of incarceration. But the identity can also be hidden for more noble reasons. For instance, someone who is courageously rebelling politically or socially in a place where such action would evoke serious, perhaps deadly, repercussions or an informant, masking their voice while providing important, potentially life-saving information to figures of autho rity. Deviating far from the concept of nobility and courage, consider for a moment, a member of a radical hate group such as the KKK. His identity may well be known by close friends or family members, but his hood would prevent recognition from victims or law enforcement. There is also a psychological element of terror that wearing a mask or a hood produces in others. There are also philanthropists who work anonymously out of a sense of modesty and desire to let their generous acts speak for themselves without adding their own personal sense of glory. There are graffiti artists who express the simple fact that they were there through tagging various architecture whilst still maintaining a degree of anonymity. There is also the anonymity that the internet or the telephone provides. The lack of face-to-face interaction can allow people the feeling of liberation to say or do things, socially acceptable or otherwise, without repercussion. But why has the idea of a secret identity become such an intrinsic element of the superhero mythos? Late stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce presented a theory as a part of his act. He believed that the masked man hides himself because he doesnt want to be thanked. If he became too dependent on the praise, how would he feel when he wasnt being thanked? The masked man wants to keep his motives pure, to make sure he does what he does because its the right thing to do, not to be thanked. That may present a piece of the puzzle as to why the idea of a masked hero appeals to us, the every-day people. Because they want their heroic actions to stand by themselves, which is a sympathetic and universal human desire. To which fantasy does the idea of a double identity/life appeal? Perhaps it speaks to those amongst us that believe, deep down within us, we can be so much more than we appear. They covet the notion that if only people knew how truly special I am. For, in a sense, we all possess secret identities, sides of ourselves that we do not reveal to many others. A dual, and secret, identity is a place where fantasy and ambition can take hold and we eagerly await the time when the power within can be unleashed without risk or social reprisal. After all, there is always the risk that, once released, people would not warm to the real you and you are forced to once again repress your true self and re-presenting the false, approved one in hope of fitting in once more. But of course reality is not that clear cut, and there no doubt be events throughout our lives in which the false self and the true self may overlap. One will always bleed through at some point. Having two identities, wearing those m etaphorical masks gives us greater control on how we present ourselves to the world that surrounds us. Masks, be they literal or metaphorical, have been an important cultural factor across both time and civilization. For example, African and South American priests would were ceremonial clothes, often with accompanying mask, to perform their various holy rituals. In those instances, it is unlikely the mask was intended to preserve the identity of the wearer, but endow its wearer with a mixture of both social importance and simultaneous characterlessness. An everyman bestowed with holy connotations. The mask itself is seen as the symbol of power, the man behind it less so, if at all. A mask can be intimidating, so limiting it to association with common contemporary criminals seems like a grotesque waste of resources. Why not rally the intimidation factor against those people who would ultimately behave in ways that negatively affect our society? In the world of heroic fiction it can be used to drastically turn the tables on those individuals. But that also presents another valid reason to keep ones identity a secret. To protect their loved ones. Which, when you really stop to ponder it, could be applied, in theory, real-life scenarios, such as a teacher who may work with delinquent or anti-social children or a policeman who walks a beat in a particularly dangerous area. Though in a more negative spin on that theory, it could allow violent vigilante groups or death squads to emerge. But masked justice is rarely blind justice. It has agendas and rarely exists to just give the police force a little more edge. It is only the Superhero who disguises his or her identit y for truly noble and altruistic reasons whilst still maintaining his or her integrity in the eyes of the public. According to Gary Engle, in his essay What Makes Superman So Darned American?, he theorizes that the concept of a secret identity is deeply rooted in the experience of being an American immigrant, and applies this to whom is arguably considered the alpha hero and greatest example of a direct dual identity, Superman. The myth simply wouldnt work without Clark Kent, mild-mannered newspaper reporterAdopting the white-bread image of a wimp is first and foremost a moral act for the man of steel. He does it to protect his parents from nefarious sorts who might use them to gain an edge over the powerful alien. More-over, Kent adds to Supermans powers the moral guidance of a Smallville upbringing . Clark Kentis the epitome of visible invisibility, someone whose extraordinary ordinariness makes him disappear in a crowd. In a phrase, he is the consummate figure of total cultural assimilation, and significantly, he is not real. Implicit in this is the notion that mainstream cultural norms, however useful, are illusions. According to Engle, the origins of the immigrant are the core of his entire identities; only insert being an extraterrestrial from another planet in place of being from another country. Superman isnt unlike that of a young person from immigrant roots who may well speak his native tongue at home, around his family, but outside that dynamic, adjusts his identity to fit in with his adopted homeland. The immigrant wish to excel whilst staying anonymous. To make his parents feel proud without making them feel ashamed of who they are or where they come from. These feelings of immigrant guilt were also profoundly felt by Superman creators Siegel and Shuster, who the projected their experiences into those of Superman. As Gary Engle continues to note: Immigration, of course, is the overwhelming fact in American history. Except for the Indians, all Americans have an immediate sense of their origins elsewhere. No nation on Earth has so deeply embedded in its social consciousness the imagery of passage from one social identity to another. -80 Further, Supermans powersare the comic book equivalents of ethnic characteristics, and they protect and preserve the vitality of the foster community in which he lives in the same way that immigrant ethnicity has sustained American culture linguistically, artistically, economically, politically and spiritually. The myth of Superman asserts with total confidence and a childlike innocence the value of the immigrant in American culture -81 For many readers of comics, particularly those old enough to have been around and enjoyed them when they were freshly conceived, they themselves may be immigrants or indeed the children or grandchildren of immigrants. Perhaps reading these stories would allow for some manner of vicarious and symbolic re-enactment or unified identification with their roots and the characters they are enjoying reading about. The idea of a secret identity can further allow the readers to become conscious of and experience their own dilemmas. For instance, discovering whether or not they were being the version of themselves that makes cultural compromises and they let the outside world see, or are they being the self that they project in their home lives? Which of those two masks is truly the real them? Which do they prefer being and which do they want to be? In many ways we all at some time or another feel we are strangers in a strange land once we leave the sanctuary of our homes and venture out into s ociety to go to work or school. Home is familiarity, we are comfortable with ourselves and confidently know what it takes for us to survive and thrive there. But who do we become once we venture outside and have a choice in how we present ourselves to the world? Its a basic choice that we are all forced to learn through trial and error from very young ages and the Superheroes are forced to make them too, albeit in much grander and colourful ways. Superman isnt just an immigrant, hes also an orphan. He arrived on our planet as a sole representative of his race, without his parents. He has an idea where he is from, but could barely recite a fact about the place aside from the fact that it is no more. Knowing, instead, a great deal more about where he currently is. The opportunity that he is presented with, however, is that, as an immigrant and an orphan, he is free to construct his entire history from day one. Not that he ever has much choice in the matter, for all that he knows of ou r world at that point is that he is from somewhere else. As pointed out by Gary Engle: Orphans arent merely free to invent themselves, they are obliged to. So perhaps the double identity is more of an integral component in what defines Superman than say x-ray vision or the ability to fly. He can cherry-pick aspects from the best of us as a society and ingest them a part of himself. While he is an alien, he is an alien that resembles a human, and a handsome human at that. He can fit in to a crowd if he wishes and he can distance himself to the fortress of solitude on a whim just as easily. His life as Clark Kent can enrich his life as Superman and vice versa. However, Supermans chosen identity is fraught with a hypocrisy that could be said to highlight an immigrants internal conflicts and insecurities. A simultaneous need to both blend in and stand out from the crowd. Clark Kent is a reporter, a career that requires a degree of courage and bravery, for instance, when attempting to acquire the scoop on a dangerous situation . Yet to his peers, Clark is seen as a cowardly person who is always nowhere to be seen when danger is close, yet, s omehow he still manages to get the scoop which is rather conspicuous for a person trying to remain amongst society inconspicuously. As an interesting side note, as with most other popular superheroes, the civilian identity is often the real identity and the public and more heroic face is the adopted persona. This is not the case with the Man of Steel. It is in fact the complete opposite. Supermans true self is Superman, yet he must adopt a more unremarkable persona in Clark Kent to fit in. One of the fundamental questions with regards to identity is if it is in fact a more courageous act to be who you are or who you pretend you are. The superhero asks this too, only louder. The superheros answers to such existential questions are usually within the realms of I will be who I must in order to fulfil my task of doing good. Whatever serves that purpose is who I will be both in and out of my costume. Whichever other questions these heroes may hav

Levels Of Pollution In The Brisbane River Environmental Sciences Essay

Levels Of Pollution In The Brisbane River Environmental Sciences Essay River Brisbane is the longest river in the southeast Queensland of Australia. It originated from the foothills of the great dividing and flows through Brisbane city before releasing its water into Moreton bay. The river was named after Thomas Brisbane, New South Wales Governor, by John Oxley in 1823. The river provided and still provides a main form of transport between the city of Brisbane and Sydney. Before the European settlement Brisbane River was very clean and unpolluted. It was then used as a source of food and also for recreational purposes. For quite a long time the growth and settlement of people around river Brisbane has adversely affected the quality of its water as well as the life that it supports (Straughan 1972 p.93). As the town of Brisbane grew the river became very unclear and polluted and by 1928 the water quality had deteriorated to the extent that it was not safe even for bath. However the government of Australia decided to protect the river from pollution and by adopting antipollution acts as well as educating the public on the importance of protecting the environment. The river was used the source for agricultural water and also provided sand used in the construction around the growing city. The river faced so many risks of pollution from the growing industries and from the waster vessels that transported petroleum products and other substances. Nitrogen from sewage treatment and phosphorous from industrial discharge as well as other metals, were and still are among the main pollutants (MacKey, Hodgkinson Nardella 1992). However the data taken on the nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the river shows that the efforts of protecting the river have bared some fruits. In 2000 the average nitrogen levels were about 2.2mg/l while in 2009 the average level had dropped to 0.5mg/l. A graph plotted for both nitrogen and phosphorous show a decrease in their concentr ation in the river. Introduction For more than 400 million years now, the Brisbane River has been flowing. Its catchments have endured a number of floods and droughts seasons while its origins have continuously shifted as the surrounding land kept changing from time to time. In 1823 when John Oxley entered River Brisbane for the first time, the river was very clean and unpolluted. After a while Oxley realized that the river could be used as a new site for new settlement and through his suggestion, the city of Brisbane was developed alongside the River in 1825. The Brisbane River, whose origin is at the base of Great Dividing Range, has a catchment area of about 30,000km square and it releases its water into the bay of Moreton (National Library of Australia 1988). The once pure water of Brisbane was mostly used for drinking and for recreational purposes like swimming and the like. However as the city of Brisbane developed, industries started growing in it. At that time industries took the river as an efficient and cheap point for waste disposal. The Brisbane River was the only means of transport between Brisbane town and Sydney until when the road links were established. This river has for long been the most important asset for of Brisbane city as its still used for transportation, recreational and relaxation purposes. For the better part of the twentieth century, this river has been polluted and overused as its basin provided grazing grounds as well as fertile lands for agriculture (Institution of Engineers, Australia, 1986). According to AsiaRooms.com, the river basin also provided suitable catchment areas which could be used for damming purposes. The river presented several advantages which for the town and its people but the people exploited these advantages so carelessly such that self reparation appeared unfeasible. Today the Brisbane River has undergone considerable modifications to meet the requirements of the citys population which is increasing. Through diverse public awareness on the need to protect the environment, the river has gained significant political support in form of anti-pollution acts and policies that were adopted by the government (Doyle Kellow 1995 p.180). Currently the duty of checking pollution levels and water quality of river Brisbane is currently on the Queensland parliament. The parliament has so far made a lot of progress in its efforts of maintaining the quality of the river by establishing two anti-pollution acts. These acts comprise the 1971; Clean Waters Act and the Pollution of Waters by Oil of 1973. Due to the current public awareness on environmental protection and by the help of these acts, the quality of River Brisbane has significantly improved although its not yet at the safe levels. According to Doyle Kellow (1995), the River is currently supporting a population of 2 million people while transport and industries and still dependent on the river, which then helps to understand why its pollution level is still above the safe levels (p.180). The aim of this essay is to give a report on the levels of pollution of Brisbane River from the year 2001 to 2010. For the 150 years that the Europeans have occupation the region, River Brisbane has seen a number of modifications. The river has survived waves of exploration including agriculture, grazing, urbanization and settlement, etc. the urbanization and settlement required flood mitigation strategies and water storage for drinking purposes (Straughan 1972 p.94). Shipping channels and flood prevention measures also needed to be taken as the river was the main means of transport between the city and Sydney. Sand dredging along the river has been the main activity as sand was highly needed for construction in the city. Between the year 1900 and 1970 approximately 12 million cubic meters of sand were extracted from the banks of River Brisbane. Extraction reached its peak latter in mid 70s when about 1.45 million cubic meters of sand were being extracted annually. The extraction later dropped to 1 million per year and eventually ceased in 1996/7. The riches of the river between mt Crosby and Wivehoe are most pleasing aesthetically because of their cool atmosphere. Between Jindalee and mt. Crosby the river widens and then flows through rural and residential areas. In this area pollution by human beings is very evident and likely. Currently the Brisbane port is accountable for extraction of sand in the lower reaches of the river so as to maintain deep channels for water vessels. This long time dredging has considerably deepened the river hence making its banks quite unstable (Olafson 1978). Strong urban development has been evident throughout the city and on the south bank reach. As this river proceeds towards the Pinkenba, commercial and industrial areas dominate while further down from Murarie to the mouth, the river passes through mangrove lined region which is dominated by commercial shipping activity (MacKey, Hodgkinson Nardella 1992 p 418-420). The speed of water in this region is often determined by season. In this region the river reaches its highest flow speed during summer when there is high rainfall while the minimum flow is in winter when rainfall is minimal. Due to the slow flow of water in this region, there is likelihood of pollutants accumulation and overall deterioration of water quality. However this accumulation of pollutants can be cleaned by the release of water from storage dams situated in the river upstream. Wivenhoe and Somerset dams release certain amounts of water that are satisfactory to the water needs of the people of Brisbane. These two dams enable a more even water flow throughout the year thus maintaining and improving the qu ality of water in the river. The dams are also used as a means for flood prevention by reducing water flow from the range. Analysis of the past and current pollutants of river Brisbane According to Connell Shaw (1980), the major sources of pollutants of the river comprise the many large scale discharge points where wastes from industries and treatment plants discharge into the river (p.356-358). Currently the discharge from sewage is treated to a safer secondary standard with only a small portion of it being left in the primary standard. The small portion of primary standard sewage discharged into river Brisbane does not only contribute considerably to the toxicant load in the river but also to the nutrient load and increased demand for oxygen. This pollution leads to the contamination of fish and other aquatic life by such substances. Sewage discharge around the city of Brisbane is usually chlorinated hence causing a negative impact to the river. The most common discharges to river Brisbane resulted from the highly industrialized section of the river. The city of Brisbane has two main treatment plants for waste water as well as Gibson Island on the Southside and a luggage point on the North side both of which are found at the industrialized section of the river. Moreover River Brisbane faces other risks of pollution from the BP and Caltex oil refineries which discharge into the river discharge streams from potentially contaminated areas. Other discharges into the river such as runoff from the urban and industrial parts, and from upstream parts of the catchment, discharge substantial toxic pollutants into the river (Wong Tam 2005). Sometimes accidents occur resulting to spills of petroleum and insecticides among other substances. This often results to contamination of the river leading to fish death and other water lives. For instance in April 1998, a tanker known as Barrington was docked at White Island in Brisbane collided with a local boat named Austral Salvor. This accident resulted to a spill of 8 tonnes of heavy fuel into the river. Conclusion In order to recommend any possible measures that can help improve the quality of River Brisbane one must understand the past and the current pollutions characteristics of the river. In this paper, the pollution analysis of river Brisbane is based on the data provided by Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management. Nitrogen and phosphorous which are the main pollutants of the river have been measured and their levels in the river minimized. Nitrogen is found in fertilizers and it usually reaches the river when rain water passes through agricultural fields where fertilizer has been applied. Its also produced during sewage treatment processes. Phosphorous is produced in the waste treatment plants in Brisbane and from confined livestock operations. According to Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (1997), both nitrogen and phosphorous are can be harmful and toxic to aquatic life since their enhance growth of aquatic plants which then depletes the water of oxygen hence posing d anger to fish and other organisms (p.35). The graph below shows the levels of nitrogen and phosphorous in River Brisbane from the year 2000 to 2009. The concentration of these pollutants was measured in milligrams per litre of water. Fig.1 graph of nitrogen and phosphorous concentration against years From the graph we see that in 2000 the level of nitrogen in river Brisbane was quite high with more than 2mg of nitrogen in every litre of water. However due to the extensive public awareness and the anti-pollution measures taken by the government these levels reduced drastically between 2000/1 to below 1.5 mg/l. the downward trend in decrease of nitrogen continued until 2008 when the average level was about 0.5 mg/l. in 2009 the levels appeared to be rising again which shows that the government as well as the general public of Brisbane may have relaxed in its efforts to maintaining the quality of the river. On the other hand phosphorous levels have been low all through with level of below 0.4mg/l in 2000. The phosphorous levels have also shown a general downward trend and show a likely hood of reaching zero levels within the next few years if the same trend is maintained. The analysis of the past and the present pollution situations of river Brisbane indicate the government as well as the local authorities have done tremendous work in controlling the water quality of the river. If the efforts are maintained, the river will reach its old clean levels within a few years.

Student Protest movement Essay -- essays research papers

A Battle of Rights The Student Protest Movement of the 1960's was initiated by the newly empowered minds of Americas youth. The students who initiated the movement had just returned from the â€Å"Freedom Summer† as supporters of the Civil Rights Movement, registering Black voters, and they turned the principles and methods they had learned on the Freedom Rides to their own issues on campus. These students (mostly white, middle class) believed they were being held down by overbearing University rules. Student life was governed by the policy of in loco parentis, which allowed colleges to act "in place of the parents." Off campus,these young people were considered adults, but at school they were subjected to curfews, dorm visitation restrictions, close supervision, and rules against having a car or even renting an apartment. Not only were these students being treated as children in this respect, but there were also heavy restrictions put on what they could and could not discuss. Any issues, especially political, not directly related to the university were strictly prohibited. Only sandbox issues, those related to university issues were allowed on campus. This created an extremely controlled environment and severely impinged on the students rights to free speech. In reaction to such limitations, college students across the country decided to do something about it. The Student Protest Movement (SPM) began at the University of California at Berkeley in the Fall of 1964. In September of that year Berkley campus authorities declared the area directly outside of the main entrance to the school off limits for advocates of civil rights and other causes. For years the strip had been accepted as a place where students could hand out pamphlets, solicit names for petitions, and sign people up. This ban set the stage for the beginning of the SPM. On September 29, demonstrators defiantly set up tables on the Bancroft strip and refused to leave when told to do so. The next day university officials took the names of five protesters and ordered them to appear for disciplinary hearings that afternoon. Instead of five students, five hundred, led by Mario Savio, marched to Sproul Hall, the administrati... ... the spot light. Many had negative feelings towards the protests and sit-ins, arguing that they did nothing but impinge on classroom time and interfere with the students ability to carry out there education. Though the SPM may have created chaos around campus, it was well manored and non-violent. The protestors took hold of the methods used in the Civil Rights movement, knowing that violence only made situations less credible and more dificult to keep under control. They were trained to simply go limp when arrested, not to resist the officers, therefore avoiding any danger to themselves or others. The sit-ins were just that; a group of students calmly sitting around conversing and playing music, all the while getting the attention and recognition they strived for. Whether the effectiveness came for the bottom up, with student organizations gathering to approach the administration, or top down, with the administration addressing the students, the issues were recognized and discussed. Both parties had their gains and losses, and the Student Protest Movement came out on top with a memorable place in

Donald Trump as a Presidential Candidate Essays -- Trump Should NOT Be

Due to Donald Trump’s lack of political experience, preoccupation with multiple careers, and blatantly self-serving intentions, he should not ever have been considered a reasonable candidate for the presidential election. First of all, Donald Trump is a businessman-not a politician. He received his degree in Economics/Real Estate from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance. In 2007, Forbes Magazine reported his annual earnings in entertainment alone to be $32 million. This would have meant a significant pay cut, had he become United States President. Currently, he is the producer and star of â€Å"The Apprentice,† which has been on air since 2004 (â€Å"The Apprentice†). He holds multiple offices at the Trump Organization, and is also a chairman of Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, Incorporated (Project Vote Smart). Donald Trump has put his name on products and companies both successful and unsuccessful, including food products, corporations, and a clothing line. Trump once stated that â€Å"The stuff that’s been sent over from China falls apart after a year and a half. It’s crap.† Ironically, the majority of his products are manufactured i n China (Webley, 8). How can we expect a man to keep in touch with an entire country when he can hardly keep in touch with his own business? Donald Trump has had some other losses in business as well, including a failed airline business and multiple bankruptcies in his casinos, among other lost investments. (Webley, 3). This may not have been so damaging, if only Donald Trump had any political experience whatsoever, but he has none (Project Vote Smart). Karl Rove, former President Bush’s chief political advisor, once said that being the President of the United States may b... ...lirtation Meant for "The Apprentice" Ratings? - Political Hotsheet - CBS News." Breaking News Headlines: Business, Entertainment & World News - CBS News. CBS, 19 Apr. 2011. Web. 17 May 2011. DiGiacomo, Frank. "President Trump? The Donald Swapped Party Affiliations for Potential Presidential Bid in 2009." Featured Articles From The New York Daily News. New York Daily News, 15 Feb. 2011. Web. 15 May 2011. Gelman, Andrew and Gary King, â€Å"Why Are America Presidential Election Campaign Polls So Variable When Votes Are So Predictable?† 1993. PDF. Rove, Karl. â€Å"What Makes a Great President.† Lecture. Rocco C. Siciliano Forum, Univ. of Utah. 13 Nov 2002. History News Network. George Mason Univ.’s History News Network, 30 June 2003. Web. 08 May 2011. Webley, Kayla. "Trump Airlines - Top 10 Donald Trump Failures - TIME." TIME.com. Time, 29 Apr. 2011. Web. 15 May 2011.

Free College Essay

I personally don’t believe that college should be free. Making it free would only serve to limit the value of the education while filling colleges with students that have no business/need there. College would become nothing more than a 4 year extension of high school if it were free. As things are now, society needs about 25% of the population to have a college degree for the jobs that require one and about 30% of the population has a degree. As a result, you hear from a lot of people that believe that they wasted time getting the degree because it’s not serving them as an employment enhancer. Further, nothing is truly free. Were college free to all students, someone would still have to pay those bills. Public education is already the single largest expense of non-federal governments and a huge part of the federal expense. Increasing the scope of free public education would also significantly increase the costs involved – those costs must be borne by someone. So, you either pay for it now as tuition or you pay for it for the rest of your life in the form of taxes but either way, you’ll pay for it. And then there’s the very valid point that all people aren’t really â€Å"above average† in intellect and therefor all people aren’t capable of attending and graduating from college. Our society would like to pretend that everyone is equal in motivation and intelligence but we know that’s not really true. Don’t we? What would be the result in terms of quality if we made college completely free to anyone? Add to that problem – costs keep some people from attending. This is only bad in-as-much as it limits those individuals personally. But it’s just that barrier that makes it possible for others to attend – college seats are not an unlimited resource of which we have plenty. There are only so many colleges with so many seats and more people would like to have those seats than can. If we removed the cost barrier then the competition for seats would be even greater and we’d still not have solved the problem of universal higher education. We’d need to have as many colleges as we have high schools to truly solve that problem. Then we’d need as many professors to teach in them in. Just a few of the arguments against your position that you might want to prepare to counter in your essay. There are many people that believe the compulsory secondary school education movement (‘create 100% HS graduates†) was a mistake too. While being well educated is very good at the individual level – society still needs people to do jobs that those who keep gaining more education simply don’t want to do.

Literary Theme Essay Essay

The Privilege of Freedom â€Å"Only the educated are free.† Said by Epicetus, this simple quote demonstrates the importance of education. A solid education will provide for an excellent future and give one freedom: freedom to take on a career, to jump at opportunities, and to make choices. There is no saying where the future might take an educated man. Dangarembga uses highly educated and successful characters to illustrate the privilege of education and the power, control, and freedom that it provides. Dangarembga shows that education can change a life for the better by presenting the main character, Tambu, with the privilege of attending an outstanding school. When Tambu is given the opportunity to live with her uncle and go to the mission school, she is thrilled to become educated. Before her brother died, â€Å"the needs and sensibilities of the women in† her â€Å"family were not considered a priority,† and school was not an option for her (Dangarembga 12). Education has provided Tambu with the privilege to escape her old life on the homestead and â€Å"take another step upwards in the direction of† her â€Å"freedom† (Dangarembga 186). Also, education has given Tambu the power to use her education to control the rest of her life. â€Å"By the time she has finished Form Four,† she â€Å"will be able to take† her â€Å"course, whatever it is that† she chooses (Dangarembga 183). â€Å"In time,† she â€Å"will be earning money,† which will then lead to a career and onto the rest of her life (Dangarembga 183). The wealth that Tambu will earn when she is successful will provide for her and her entire family. Education builds the foundation of Tambu’s future, and â€Å"the prospect of this freedom† is unlimited (Dangarembga 186). The character, Babamakuru, is used by Dangarmebga to demonstrate that one educated relative effects an entire family. Education is â€Å"not just an individual blessing† but one that extends to all members of a â€Å"less fortunate family† (Dangarembga 89). For example, Dangarembga shows that one educated man can support the whole family. Babamakuru, â€Å"who had obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in South Africa,† is extremely generous and provides resources and opportunities for his entire family (Dangarembga 13). Whenever Babamakuru goes to visit the homestead, he comes bearing food, gifts, and supplies for the family to thrive off of. Also, Babamakuru is responsible for Tambu’s education and her coming to the mission school. To Tambu’s family, â€Å"Babamakuru was God†, â€Å"big brother to all†, and â€Å"his divinity† filled them â€Å"with awe† (Dangarembga 70, 36, 88). â€Å"As an early educated African,† Babamakuru has â€Å"found himself in positions that enable him to organize his immediate world and its contents as he wished† (Dangarembga 88). His great power has insulated him â€Å"from the necessity of considering alternatives unless they were his own† (Dangarembga 88). Education has given him opportunities that have led to great power and control over others; nobody â€Å"dares to challenge his authority† ((Dangarembga 117). Without a well-educated, successful man like Babamakuru, Tambu’s family would not be as the same. Throughout Nervous Conditions ¸ Dangarembga exemplifies the key role that education plays in becoming wealthy and successful. The basis of a good future begins with education. Such a privilege can lead to so many new things, and when one is educated, the possibilities are endless. Works Cited Dangarembga, Tsitsi. Nervous Conditions. New York: Seal, 1989.

Intro to Religiion

Jake Walton There are many different definitions of religion, but two we are studying about is Paul Tillich’s definition and Melford E. Spiro’s definition. Paul Tillich is a Christian theologian and philosopher who defined religion â€Å"the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the meaning of life.Melford Spiro, a contemporary anthropologist defined religion â€Å"an institution consisting of culturally patterened interaction with culturally postulated superhuman beings. † I prefer Tillich’s definition. I prefer Paul Tillich’s definition because I am a Christian and I can relate to what he is saying with his definition. As a Christian, God is your ultimate concern, just like Tillich said. God comes before everything. He is your only way to heaven. So you have to make him your ultimate concern by living for him every day.Tillich’s def inition went on to say â€Å"a concern that qualifies all other concerns as a preliminary†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , this means that God comes before anything else in life. Nothing should ever come before God. Everything else should just be a preliminary, or second to God. The last part of Tillich’s definition says a concern which contains the answer to the question of the meaning of life. This means that God is the meaning of life. I prefer Tillich’s definition because this is what I believe.I believe that God is the answer to what is the meaning of life, he has a purpose for everyone and everyone’s life. God should be your ultimate concern if you want to go to heaven, He is the only way in. You have to live your life through him, and to do that he has to be your greatest concern. If other things get in the way you have to put them off and make them second to God. Never let anything get in the way of you and God. I feel Tillich’s definition of religion is a great d efinition of religion.

Extended Essay: How Does Culture Influence Social Conformity to Groups? Essay

Introduction I still remember my first day of American Government class freshman year. The teacher asked us, â€Å"What are the three branches of government?† I wanted to raise my hand and say â€Å"Judicial, congressional, and executive.† But no one else raised their hands. I thought to myself, â€Å"No one else knows it, maybe I don’t know it. I don’t want to stand out on my first day. Better just keep my hand down.† As it turns out, my answer was correct. However, conformity got the better of me. Conformity is modifying one’s behaviors or actions because of others. The influence of conformity can be subdivided into informational (being influence because of information) and normative (being influenced because of social pressure) influence. Conformity is an important topic because conformity has a profound impact on human behavior in groups. Collective human behavior can almost be defined by conformity. Humans constantly look to others for support and kn owledge, and when we see others act in a specific way, we mimic it in the form of conformity. To take on a more global view of conformity, it is important to understand how cultural differences between different civilizations impact the ways in which the people of those cultures will be affected by conformity. Perhaps someone from the United States will conform more than someone from Germany, or China, or Mexico. Then we must undertake the question, â€Å"how does culture influence social conformity to groups?† In this essay we will first take a look at what conformity is and what may cause it within a culture, and then we will discuss three aspects of a culture that may modify that culture’s levels of conformity. The first major factor we will examine is the level of food accumulation within the society. The second major factor we will examine is the impact of a country’s industrial development on conformity. The third major factor that we will examine is how individualism or collectivism will influence a culture’s level of conformity. Social Causes of Conformity Sherif defined conformity as â€Å"being influenced by the judgments of others.† (Sherif, 1935) In the context in which we are speaking, conformity can be defined as the modulation of one’s behavior or judgment due to influence of a group. Sherif’s conformity experiment was designed to show how the judgments of others would influence the judgment of a test subject. Sherif used the autokinetic effect as the subject of judgment. The autokinetic effect is when a dot of light in a dark room appears to move because the eye has no other frame of reference. Subjects were instructed to observe the light and tell researchers the distance the light moved. Sherif operationalized his variable by first testing subjects individually and then testing them in groups to see how this would affect their reported observations of how far the light moved. If the reported observations of the dots movements converged to a central measure, Sherif would know that conformity had played a r ole in altering his subject’s judgment. What Sherif discovered was that when subjects were tested individually, their judgments of the dots movements varied greatly, anywhere from 2 to 15 inches (Sherif, 1935). When the subjects were then tested in groups, their measurements maintained a distinct level of divergence from each other. However, when the subjects were tested first within a group, the subjects’ average judgments of the dot movements converged within a particular range that would imply that the subjects were abiding to a common norm that had been established in the group. In addition, when the subjects were later tested individually, their judgments on the dot movement would diverge from the group norm, but less significantly than when the subjects were first tested individually. Sherif wrote that he felt this was the most significant observation of his experiment. What Sherif observed is one of the key factors of conformity- that the norms which people conform to are not always intentionally established, but can occur naturally, and these naturally occurring norms will be conformed to due to man’s tendency to want to fit in as a part of the group. This is reinforced by another one of Sherif’s observations during this experiment. During the last session of his experiment, Sherif added the question â€Å"Do you think you were influenced by the judgments of the other persons in the experiments,† to which 25% of the subjects responded that they were. Sherif commented that this was a comparatively small amount of subjects relative to the results. Although it is possible that some subjects lied and responded no to this question, it is possible that some of the 75% of subjects who said they were not influenced by the other subjects in the experiment were likely unaware of the fact that they were being influenced, showing that peo ple can unknowingly conform to naturally established norms. Although Sherif’s experiment was not cross-cultural, it can still help us understand why people conform to their individual cultures. Sherif speculated that the cause of conformity was man’s desire to fit in to the group. In a cultural context, this means that if a person is a part of a culture, then that person would have desire to modulate their actions so that they fit into their specific culture. This also suggests that the more immersed one is in their culture, the more conformity will be emphasized in that culture and the more they will conform to their culture. So although Sherif’s experiment was not cross-cultural, the conclusions drawn from his experiment can still help us understand the relationship between culture and conformity. In 1951, Asch sought to try another conformity experiment that would respond to the critique of Sherif’s experiment that the stimulus was too ambiguous. Instead of using an ambiguous stimulus like the autokinetic effect, Asch used a very concrete stimulus. For his experiment, four lines were shown on a projector and subjects were asked which line of three matched the other line. In groups of 8, what subjects didn’t realize was that the other 7 people in the group were actually confederates of Asch, instructed to all unanimously give the wrong answer twelve out of eighteen times. Asch’s aim was to see if this unanimous agreement in the group of a blatantly wrong answer would socially pressure the subject into going along with the group. In this experiment, unlike Sherif’s, the group was intentionally trying to get the subject to conform, and the group’s response to the stimulus was clearly incorrect. Under normal circumstances, subjects gave incorrec t responses less than 1% of the time. However when the pressure of the group was applied, the number of incorrect responses rose to 37%, with 74% subjects conforming to the confederates’ responses on at least one critical trial. Asch had shown something about conformity that Sherif was unable to prove- that conformity could cause a subject to go against their own judgment and conform to the group. Asch speculated that conformity could occur due to a distortion of the subject’s on any one of three levels: perception, judgment, or action. If there is distortion on perception, then the subject perceives the stimulus incorrectly and is unaware of the conflict, and believes the group to be correct. If there is distortion of judgment, then the subject is aware of the conflict but conclude the majority is correct and reject their own judgment. If there is distortion on the action level, the subject is aware of the conflict, concludes the group is incorrect, but goes along with them anyways due to pressure. Asch also determined the two types of group influence. If the subject is influenced because they think the group is better informed than them, this is informational influence. If the subject conforms because they want to fit in with the group, this is called normative influence. Asch also performed tests in this experiment to see how other factors would affect a subject’s conformity. One variation of this experiment Asch performed was adding and subtracting people. Asch discovered that as few as only three confederates was enough pressure to get the subject to conform, but that the more confederates there were in the experiment the more likely it was that the subject would conform. Asch also performed experiments where subjects gave their answers in private, where one confederate would agree with the subject, and where the differences between the lines was smaller. When subjects gave their answers in private, normative influence is eliminated and conformity dropped significantly. When one confederate would agree with the subject, conformity dropped to only 5%, an 80% decrease. This is one very crucial fact about conformity. When one person breaks the unanimity of a group, the normative influence is eliminated. When Asch made the differences in the line lengths less significant, conformity increased. The data collected from this experiment and Sherif’s observations, demonstrate another significant aspect of conformity. The more ambiguous something is, the more humans will tend to conform. This is because when humans are uncertain of what to do in a situation, we look to other humans for information. This is applicable to a real life scenario such as the â€Å"grey area† of morals. When humans see something morally wrong, they will typically go along with what the majority is doing, and will usually not intervene. Although Asch’s experiments were not cross-cultural, the conclusions of his experiments and the theories of conformity formulate d from them can most definitely be applied to a cross-cultural context, such as how culture affects conformity. First of all, Asch determined that there were two types of conformity; normative, which is the influence caused by social pressure, and informational, influence caused by insecurity in one’s own knowledge. These can both be applied to how people conform to cultures. Normative influence can be caused by. If one is completely immersed in a culture, there is normative influence to fit into that culture. Informational influence can be a creation of culture. If a part of the culture is teaching the youth of that culture, than they are subject to the informational influence of their culture. Second, Asch showed that the more people in a group, the stronger the social influence. This could imply that a larger culture may have higher levels of conformity than people of smaller cultures. Third, Asch showed that unanimity is extremely significant to a culture’s levels of conformity. This may imply that the stricter a culture is, and the fewer dissenters from the culture there are, the stronger the social influence the culture will have on its subjects. The Effect of Levels of Food Accumulation on Conformity in a Society In 1967, J. W. Barry wished to replicate Asch’s conformity experiment as a cross-cultural experiment to see how differences in the cultures would correlate with their levels of conformity. Barry divided the peoples he was studying into two basic groups. The first group was societies with high levels of food-accumulation such as agricultural and pastoral societies, and the second was societies with low levels of food-accumulation such as fishing and hunting peoples. Barry recreated Asch’s line-length conformity test between the Temne peoples of Sierra Leone in Africa, an agricultural people, and the Eskimo of Baffin Island, a hunting people in northeastern Canada. Barry’s aim was to see how levels of conformity would vary between these two distinctly different cultures. Barry formulated his hypothesis by studying each culture and observing characteristics of their cultures that he thought would be pertinent to levels of conformity. Barry studied cultural characteristics of each peoples such as how they characterized success in their cultures, how lenient each culture was when rearing their young, if the peoples were typically group reliant or self reliant for success in their cultures, and of course, if they were a high food-accumulating society or if they were a low food-accumulating society. Barry hypothesized that there would be a correlation between the different cultures’ levels of food accumulation and their levels of conformity; more specifically, in the Temne’s agricultural, high food-accumulating society would show higher levels of conformity than the Eskimo’s hunting-oriented, low food-accumulating society, where he expected to find lower levels of conformity. Barry tested the two different cultures using a variation of Asch’s line test. Instead of having eight confederates supply false responses to the test subject, the subject was presented with a sheet of paper with 9 li nes on it, and was asked to match the top line with one of the lower lines by length. But before responding, the researcher would say, â€Å"I am going to give you a hint. Most Temne (or Eskimo) people say this line (an incorrect line) is equal in length to the one at the top. Which one do you say?† (Barry, 1967) After performing his experiment, Barry found that the difference in conformity rates between the Temne and Eskimos was great enough and with statistical significance, so it confirmed his hypothesis that the Temne peoples did in fact show higher rates of conformity than the Eskimo peoples. Barry’s conformity experiment shows how culture affects conformity. Barry studied two different cultures and noted significant differences between them, and then tested each culture the same way to measure their respective levels of conformity. Barry discovered a key characteristic about conformity- the connection between how a society collects food and their conformity level s. Although that is a broad connection, Barry’s theory was that how food is accumulated in a culture affects other aspects of that culture such as leniency in parenting, levels of independence granted to children, and what characterizes success, and these factors are what determine the levels of conformity for cultures. Low food accumulating societies have very independent individuals and characterize success with independence whereas high food accumulating societies have very interdependent individuals and characterize success through community. Impact of Modernization on a Country’s Levels of Conformity Another significant difference between cultures that can impact levels of conformity is how industrialized and modernized they are, and studying how this has affected levels of conformity among the people of that country. In 1984, Kagitcibasi did just that. Kagitcibasi performed a study on the â€Å"value of children† (Kagitcibasi, 1984) to attempt to understand how several cultures on different levels of modernization would place the importance of raising children (with reference to quantity), and what characteristics the peoples of those cultures would find desirable in their children. Kagitcibasi studied nine countries- Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Germany, and the United States. Kagitcibasi performed 20,403 interviews with families from these countries and asked them questions regarding what characteristics they would find most desirable in children. Subjects from countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines said the most desirable quality in a child was to obey their parents. On average, 86.5% of subjects from Indonesia said obedience of parent was the most desirable quality in children, and 82% of subjects from the Philippines agreed, as opposed to the United States, where only 39% of subjects said obeying one’s parents was the most desirable characteristic in children. On the contrary, 49% of American subjects surveyed said being independent and self-reliant was the most important characteristic in children, whereas only 20% of Indonesian subjects said the same thing. In the United States, being independent and self-reliant was the second most chosen characteristic among subjects surveyed, second only to being a good person. However, even higher than the United States’ percent of subjects putting emphasis on independence and self-reliance is that of Singapore and Korea. This is an interesting observation because many studies have found collectivist (predominantly Asian) cultures to be more oriented towards conformity and less towards indiv idual independence. But if this observation is studied with respect to industrialization and modernization, it is observed that these countries have gone under extremely rapid industrialization, which could have modulated the nuclear family model in these countries to be more westernized, thereby emulating the west in levels of conformity as well. Kagitcibasi observed that overall, it is the nuclear family level which most impacts the levels of conformity in a culture; by which it is meant that factors such as industrialization impact the nuclear family model, which in turn impacts a country/culture’s levels of conformity. Kagitcibasi developed the â€Å"Old Age Security Value† theory (Kagitcibasi 1982a). The Old Age Security Value is the theory that there is additional value in raising children in underdeveloped nations because if they are raised in a conforming way, which stresses values such as family loyalty, they will be more likely to take care of their parents when they become elderly. The Old Age Security Value is less significant in industrialized nations because industrialized, modernized nations typically provide services such as healthcare, whereas a more traditional, less developed nation would not, meaning the elderly are more dependent on their children to care for them in old age, which will encou rage raising children to be more compliant to parents. The Old Age Security Value concept relates to industrialization and conformity because the more industrialized a country is, the more the less significant the Old Age Security Value is, and therefore the less conformist the society will be. What we can ultimately understand from Kagitcibasi’s research on the correlation between industrialization and conformity is that less industrialized countries will be more culturally inclined to compliance, due to a modulation of the nuclear family model in which families are more dependent on each other for care and therefore put emphasis on compliance when raising children to encourage family loyalty and obedience of one’s parents. Impact of Collectivism vs. Individualism on Conformity Collectivism is the social belief that the good of the group is more important than the good of the few or the individual. On the other hand, individualism is characterized by the belief that each member of the group should be independent and self-reliant, without a need to consider the wellbeing of the group as a whole. When one considers the characteristics of conformity – compliance, assimilation, putting the group above oneself, etc., it seems logical that collectivists would have a greater predisposition to conformity than individualists. Professor Oh of Konkuk University wanted to test this premise with relevance to normative and informational influence. Oh’s aim was to see if in an experiment, subjects from a collectivist culture (in this case India) would conform more than subjects from a collectivist culture (America). He also wanted to see if they would conform more in normative influence tests than in informational influence tests. Oh hypothesized that the In dian subjects would not only conform more, but would conform more specifically in normative influence tests. Oh performed an experiment with half Indian and half American subjects, in which subjects were asked what the lowest appropriate probability of successfully for a risk to be taken, such as winning an election of a sort. Under the condition of exposure, subjects were only informed of what â€Å"other subjects† had said was an appropriate probability of success for the risk to be taken, but not why. Because the reason why was not explained to subjects, any conformity on this test must have been because of normative influence because they were given no further information to better their judgment. Under the condition of persuasion, subjects were informed of â€Å"other subjects’† responses, and as to why they made their decisions. Subjects were then left to decide for themselves based on more given information relevant to be given stimulus their own response . If subjects modified their judgments under this condition, it would be because they felt they were then better informed of the conditions of the stimulus. The average of the subjects’ conformity scores was measured by the change in pretest to posttest response. The results of this experiment showed that Indian participants were far more inclined to conform then American participants. In addition, changes in conformity levels due to internalization were not shown with statistical significance between Indian and American subjects, while changes in conformity levels due to compliance were shown with statistical significance. This confirmed Ho’s hypothesis that collectivists are more inclined to conform to the group norm then individualists with regard to normative influence. One limitation of Ho’s experiment however, was that he did not use face-to-face social influence, but only informed subjects of what other â€Å"subjects† had stated in a second-hand m anner. This would’ve negated some level of the compliance influence, which could have produced responses of higher levels of conformity between American and Indian subjects. Ho’s experiment examined a direct relationship between culture and conformity- the collectivist vs. individualist relationship. He studied two cultures and saw how subjects from each would respond differently to tasks involving conformity. Ho’s research helps us better understand this relationship between collectivism and conformity in a culture because his research showed that subjects of a collectivist society showed higher levels of conformity than subjects of an individualist culture. Conclusion In this paper, I analyzed three aspects of cultures that can influence a culture or society’s levels of conformity. I analyzed the relationship between food accumulation and conformity, the relationship between modernization and conformity, and the relationship between collectivism and conformity. Examining each of these relationships, it is evident that cultures that are characterized by community and societal unity tend to have higher levels of conformity than their more individualistic counterparts. This was shown by the Temne in Sierra Leone, Africa, who were culturally very focused on the community. This was also shown by the several less modernized countries in Kagitcibasi’s study of modernization on conformity, whose cultural focus is care for the family. Lastly, this was shown by the Indians in Ho’s study, who showed high levels of social conformity as a sample of a collectivist society. From all these results we can conclude that culture influences socia l conformity to groups in that people in cultures characterized by community and social unity are more subject to social conformity than peoples of individualistic cultures because the emphasis they put on community causes the peoples of those cultures to be more conscious of the judgments of others and therefore more likely to modify their own judgments and conform to match those around them. References Independence and conformity in subsistence-level societies: Encyclopedia of Urban Ministry UYWI :: Urban Youth Workers Institute. (n.d.). UrbanMinistry.org: Christian Social Justice Podcasts, MP3s, Grants, Jobs, Books | Home. Retrieved August 23, 2013, from http://www.urbanministry.org/wiki/independence-and-conformity-subsistence-level-societies Barry, J. (1967). Independence and Conformity in Subsistence-Level Societies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 7(4), 415-418. 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