Introduction of Sociology Essay

1. I think that sociologist should try to reform society, based on what they have studied about sociology. Because the main job of those sociologists is to study and research about the society and the human behavior, they are the ones who understand it the best. As a result, they should reform it, not others. 2. If I were a sociologist, I would use all of sociological perspectives, because each perspective has its own advantage and disadvantage. * Symbolic Interactionism: According to the symbolic interaction’s perspective, people attach meanings to symbols, and then they act according to their subjective interpretation of these symbols. Conversation is an interaction of symbols between individuals who constantly interpret the world around them. Of course, anything can serve as a symbol as long as it refers to something beyond itself. However, with the example about applying Symbolic Interactionism to U.S. marriages and divorces over time, this perspective just shows the sligh ting the influence of social forces and institutions on individual interactions. * Functional Analysis (Functionalism, and structural functionalism) each aspect of society is interdependent and contributes to society’s functioning as a whole. This basic approach can be applied to any social group, whether an entire society, a college, or even a group as small as a family. Nevertheless, when any social group loses function, functionalism does not encourage people to take an active role in changing their social environment. * Conflict Theory: conflict theorists stress that society is composed of group that are competing with one another for scarce resources. However, with the example about Feminist, the conflict perspective shows that women are more powerful in making headway in their historical struggle with men. As the result, the combination of 3 perspectives is the best sociological perspective I would use.

The Negative Effects the Media Has on the Pit Bull Breed

The Negative Effects The Media Has On The Pit Bull Breed Did you know that for over one hundred years the Pit Bull was called the â€Å"Nanny Dog† by Americans, and was the breed that symbolized our country? One of the most famous Pit Bulls was Petey from The Little Rascals. For generations people got a Pit Bull to keep their children safe because these dogs were the most trustworthy of any breed with children and adults. Now the Nanny Dog is being persecuted by the media, and being called the hellion breed that frightens people. Even though plenty of other dogs bite people, they only publish stories about Pit Bulls. Poodle bites man† is not a very eye catching headline. The media publicizes crazy myths, and they label any dog a Pit Bull even if it is not. The media also zeros in on the specifically negative and extreme incidents; they often do not provide the circumstance surrounding the incidents, and also neglect to mention important statistical information and compar isons to other similar incidents. Being a Pit Bull owner, and having many friends who own them as well, I know that the media is incorrect in their portrayal of the Pit Bull. They are the most loving and gentle breed I have ever known.The media had labeled certain dog breeds as bad breeds for a long time. The Pit Bull is just the most recent victim of the media’s criticism. Before Pit Bulls it was the Rottweiler, before the Rottweiler it was Dobermans, and before Dobermans it was German Shepherds. Each breeds being deemed as vicious and unpredictable to be around people. Every time there was uproar of the public for bans and restrictions on owning them. It is painfully ironic that the media has turned on the breed once the symbol of our country and our national babysitter.In temperance tests (the equivalent of how many times your kid can poke your dog in the eye before it bites him) of all breeds the most tolerant was the Golden Retriever. The second most tolerant was the Pit Bull. I am sure anyone has heard of the Pit Bulls locking jaw, this is a myth. Pit Bulls jaws do not lock; in fact they do not even have the most powerful bite of dog breeds. Pit Bulls are not human aggressive, in fact studies have shown that Pit Bull puppies prefer human company to their mother’s two weeks earlier than any other breed. Also, another common myth is that they don’t feel pain.They feel just as much pain as any other breed. These are the myths that the media is drilling into the public’s heads. Now this tolerant, patient, and gentle breed of dog is embarrassingly being portrayed as the most dangerous. Now sadly 6,000 Pit Bulls are put to death every day, by far the highest number of any breed to be euthanized. Mistaken identity is a huge problem in the media nowadays as well. There is countless times where headlines claimed that a Pit Bull had done wrong and then later on find out it was not a Pit Bull at all, or they just say Pit Bull because the dog resembled one.And even if the media corrects themselves the damage had already been done, people already have the image of the Pit Bull in their mind doing wrong. For example, a story from October, 2007 has as a headline â€Å"Lynn teacher mauled by Pit Bull. † Then the story goes on to identify the dog as a Lab/Rottweiler mix. The term Pit Bull should never have been used. Another story March, 2006 headline â€Å"Pit Bull attacks 12 year old. † However the picture shown of the captured dog is not a Pit Bull, and does not even appear to be a Pit Bull mix.After complaints to the news station regarding the mistaken identity and the use of the term Pit Bull, instead of correcting their mistake, they took down the photo and just left the story up written the same way. These are just a few examples of hundreds of falsely identified Pit Bull stories. Now there may well be some stories where a Pit Bull or Pit Bull mix was correctly identified, but many times they do not mention the circumstances that the attack happened, or the statistical comparison to any other breed of dog attacks.The Humane Society of the United States says that it is imperative that the dog population the community be understood. To simply pull numbers of attacks does not accurately represent the breed. For example, by reviewing a study that states there have been five attacks by Standard Poodles in a community and ten attacks from Pit Bulls in the same community, it would appear that Pit Bulls are more dangerous. However, if you look at the dog population in that community and find there are 50 Standard Poodles and 500 Pit Bulls, then statistically the Pit Bull would be the safer breed.The media turning them into this bad vicious dog is making the wrong people want to own them. Drug dealers and felons are seeing them as protection dogs, or using them to make some cash by breeding. As a result of over breeding, many communities have much more Pit Bull and Pit Bull mixes than a ny other dogs. With the over population of the breed, people’s fear of them, and breed restrictions many of these dogs end up in shelters or euthanized. On the positive side recently I have seen some great stories about Pit bulls. Many people re starting to get educated that this breed is no more dangerous than any other dog. A story from May 9th of 2012 headlines â€Å"Hero Pit Bull saves owner from train tracks. † This amazing story goes on to explain how the woman fell unconscious on the tracks and Lilly, the eight year old Pit Bull, managed to drag her out of harm’s way. Risking her own life Lilly was badly hurt by being struck by the train. After needing her leg amputated, many surgeries and physical therapy she is still just as happy as ever. The Pit Bull can go through so many traumas and still bounce back and be just as loving as ever.Pit Bulls that have been used as fighting dogs and bait dogs get adopted and act like none of it ever happened. Though th e media has already caused so much damage to the judgment of the Pit Bull breed, I am hopeful that people will wake up and realize these dogs are one of the best companions you could ever have. My Pit Bull wants nothing more than to be loved; he is an 80 pound baby who sleeps under the covers in my bed. Maybe the Pit Bull will one day be known as the symbol of America, and the â€Å"Nanny Dog† again.

Google Innovation & Technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Google Innovation & Technology - Essay Example 50 percent of the audience is from outside the United States and the company is having 5,680 full-time employees working for the betterment of the company, over the years we have seen so many new services started by Google, such as Google Earth, G-Mail, G-Talk, Google Books, Google Cash, Google Desktop, Google Adwords, Google Adsense, and Google Maps. The services that Google is providing is exactly by putting the needs of the customers first, although every website claims to put their customers first but not the case with Google, which doesn't offer anything that is not beneficial to the visitors/users, even the search engine is fast and easily loadable, it doesn't advertise anything that can prove to be distracting the visitors/users and exactly the same way they have taken very good care of small things that can create more value in the eyes of visitors/users, the Google co-founder L. Page has said that "The perfect search engine [Google] would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want", this is clearly showing the signs of highly innovated technology, as the matter of fact, it is Google's goal to provide the visitors/users the information they seek in an absolute form. Google has gained success and popularity in an unusual way, they haven't really done any advertisement of their own and also haven't run any such campaigns, but their success and fame is from the word of mouth, just like from one person to another, another strange thing one can notice about google is the first online company who's stated goal is to have its users leave its website as soon as possible, which means that they want every thing to work fast perhaps just on a click, the time is taken by a query is even less than half a second, Google doesn't rely on big servers in fact they claim to have networked PCs that made their work so fast and innovative, another good thing found in google is that it has used a "Page Rank" technology in their search engine, through this technology they are able to rank websites that are mostly visited by the users for the purpose of information through Google, another technology used by google is "Hypertext-Matching Analysis".

Supply Chain Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Supply Chain Management - Essay Example -21 Security Limited with a view to recommending changes to supply chain strategies to resolve current problems. It will begin with an evaluation of the environment and the potential impact of this on the business, then present an analysis of the current supply chain, identifying problems requiring resolution in both the immediate and longer term. The problems will then be assessed against the key challenges facing the business to determine what direction the business needs to take to avoid future problems as well as resolve existing ones. Following a brief conclusion, a series of recommendations will be made relating to the supply chain that will reduce and/or remove the current problems and put the business in a better position to deal with the future. Environmental Analysis Worthington and Britton (2009, p.6) define the macro environment as â€Å"those ... factors ...which affect a wide variety of businesses and which can emanate not only from local and national sources but also from international and supranational developments†. Johnson et al (2011, p.50) identify the PESTEL framework as a means of analysing the environment. Following corporate scandals and the global 2007-2008 economic crisis, several commentators have added ethics to the analytical list. This approach will be used to analyse the macro-environment of Q-So!-21. The STEEPLE framework considers the Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Environmental, Political, Legal and Ethical factors that affect business and over which business has no control. Figure 1: Macro Environmental Analysis This brief analysis provides an indication of some key factors that will affect Q-So!-21. Many of them stem from the current UK (and world) economic situation. With the focus on austerity, the most recent figures indicate the UK either did not grow or contracted last quarter (Wintour 2011). As the government have stated their intention to continue with current economic policies, there is the real possi bility of another UK recession, with very little available for industry and individuals to cut, as most cuts were made following the 2007-2008 global economic crisis. As such, many businesses may find a second recession occurring so soon after the last one, with a higher tax burden this time (increases in VAT and both income tax and national insurance) results in their ceasing trading, exacerbating the effects of the cuts being made and intensifying the impact of the recession. Even without recession, the higher tax burden and public sector cuts being made are likely to cause many businesses to cease trading, either voluntarily or through insolvency. The market for all goods and services will become increasingly tight, with both business and personal consumers keeping purchases to the absolute essentials as everyone focuses on keeping their heads above water. The Bank of England may be forced to raise interest rates, which have been at an historically low 0.5% for some time, allowin g both businesses and individuals to mitigate to a certain extent, the lack of price/wage rises (although the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is well above the 2% target set by the government). The impact of any rise will depend on the amount of the rise. If rates rise to, say, 1.5%, then it is likely most people will be able to adjust their outgoings to compensate.

Frankenstein Why does the creature [vow] eternal hatred and vengeance Essay

Frankenstein Why does the creature [vow] eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind (99) Do you think the monster's treatm - Essay Example This naturally caused a great many problems. The first of these was the fact that Frankenstein himself noted, â€Å"There was none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist me; and should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No: from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and, more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery† (Shelley 17). By way of comparison, one can understand the many different psychological issues and difficulties that can and will develop in a human father and son relationship when love affection or care is not given. For this reason, the reader can see a strong parallel to the way in which Dr. Frankenstein treated the creation which he ultimately dubbed a monster and the way in which countless of scarred and traumatized young people have experienced mistreatment at the hands of their own fathers. Says Dr. Frankenstein, "I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, whi ch hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures, such as no language can describe† (Shelley 44). ... Says Dr. Frankenstein, â€Å"Curiosity, earnest research to learn the hidden laws of nature, gladness akin to rapture, as they were unfolded to me, are among the earliest sensations I can remember† (Shelley 80). However, as a direct result of the emotional damage that the father transmitted to him, the psychological harm was manifested in his actions. Firstly, the monster felt the sense of rejection. As a way of trying to work around this and determine some sense of the world, the monster went on something of a quest to gain understanding. However, rather than finding understanding, the monster only found more and more people who were fearful of him and wanted nothing whatsoever to do with the creature. In this way, the feelings of rejection that they put upon him were taken more and more severely as the monster determined that the rejection he faced from his creator was also exhibited in the population at large. In this way the reader can understand that the emotional trauma and damage that the father passed along to Frankenstein was what ultimately pushed him over the edge to behave in the horrible way he did towards humanity. This not only helps to help the reader to understand the importance of how Dr. Frankenstein ultimately scarred and destroyed what could have been a normal, although strange, relationship between the two. This also helps the reader to begin to understand the extremely important role of the father-son relationship and the means where any type of abuse or negligence can serve to deeply and irrevocably affect the course of the future both within the relationship and within the way in which such an individual acts within the world in general. Ultimately,

Crime, Prevention, and Community Safety Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Crime, Prevention, and Community Safety - Essay Example It actually brings the citizens, business owners, and police officers together in a joint task force that helps to minimize and prevent many crimes from taking place before they can ever be planned (Kelling & Coles 1996). However there still is the notion that legal bodies have which state that communities do have an obligation to keep their neighborhoods crime free or at least help law enforcement in preventing crime where they live. The strongest reason for this belief is due to the statistical evidence of crime that has grown since 1867 in the UK (Macionis 1994). These statistics have long been studied by Sociologists and other well known scholars due to the relevance that they have with depicting why crime occurs, in what quantity, and in which areas. Furthermore, the crime rate of 1867 and 1987 are just as different as the cultures of the two variant time periods are. However, an interesting correlation has been noted with the crime rates of 1939-1938 and 1980-1988 (Macionis 199 4). The following chart gives a good insight into how the issue of economics can increase the statistical evidence of how crime has escalated over time since the middle 1800's. It is one of the many notions of why there has been an expressed concern with getting the communities involved with combating crime.Decade Average Decade High 1980-88 40% 44.2 %(1986) 1970-79 38% 41.3 %(1973) 1960-69 37% 38.7 %(1964) 1950-59 34% 36.0 %(1959) 1940-49 29% 33.1 %(1940) 1930-39 35% 43.1 %(1933) 1920-29 26% 29.6 %(1922) 1910-19 24% 26.6 %(1910) 1900-09 24% 26.9 %(1900) 1890-99 26% 27.9 %(1898) 1880-89 26% 28.5 %(1880) 1870-79 22% 28.7 %(1879) 1867-69 25% 28.1 %(1867) (Roberts 1994). It is believed that these statistics can be drastically lowered if a stronger partnership does develop between law enforcement and communities. Theorizations such as Kellings work to implement this type of philosophy through a mutual partnership between the law and the community, which has been proven to be necessary. This of course leads to the concept of community policing which is a philosophy that has been being highly discussed and tested for a good while now, of course following theorizations such as Kellings, and others as well. Community policing is the most common name for a set of tactics, philosophies and strategies that officers now use to resolve crime issues in urban cities. Community policing allows the police to work closely with the community to think of creative solutions to problems. This view of policing stems from the perception that the police serve a multifunctional role and act as some what of a social service agent in the community. The basic premise of community poli

International Organisational Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International Organisational Behaviour - Essay Example Sony has its operations in many countries spread across six continents of the world. It was in 1973 when this Japanese giant entered the Singaporean market and since then it has become one of the leading players of the consumer electronics market. Sony Singapore (Sony, 2011) functions include with its activities of â€Å"engineering, information technology, manufacturing, sales and marketing, treasury services, logistics and others†. Sony Singapore (Sony, 2011) employs from than 1900 employees in the country. This paper is an attempt to explore, investigate, and examine various aspects related to the organisational behaviour of Sony Singapore. Systematic study of Organisational Behaviour Systematic study of organisational behaviour refers to the scientific approach used by organisational behaviour to combine various fields of â€Å"human psychology, organisational development, management, organisational theory, human resource management, and sociology† (Champoux, pp. 29 -44, 2010). The systematic study of organisational behaviour refers to the fact that the â€Å"overall purposes of the field are understanding/explanation, prediction, and control† (Knights & Willmott, 79-81, 2006). Furthermore, the definitions provided by the field are operational and precise and the measures are reliable and valid. Psychology is the first and foremost behavioral field, which contributes to the field of organisational behaviour. It seeks to explain the behaviour of people, measure, explain, predict, and control these behaviours. Without any doubts, Sony continuously tries to find way to alter and tame the behaviours and attitudes of its employees in such a way that the organisational productivity (Champoux, pp. 421-428, 2010). Sociology is another behavioral discipline, which has a close link with Organisational behaviour. People do not live and operate in vacuum, in fact, their behaviours are continuously influenced by social factors. The organisation of So ny itself is a social institution and norms, social roles, values, and customs have constant affect on its employees and managers. Shaping Behaviours of Sales Executives Successful organisations and managers are the ones who know how to align their human resources with the organisational objectives. In other words, it is the task of the organisation and its managers to motivate and push its employees towards achieving the goals and objectives assigned to them. Following are the four possible ways in which a sales manager at Sony can shape the behaviour of it sales executives. First, in the light of the operant conditioning theory, behaviours can be shaped by presenting a reward every time the subject engages in the desirable behaviour. For example, if a sales executive is putting in extra effort to take training sessions then acknowledging his effort in front of the whole staff and applauding him could be a reward, which would reinforce that behaviour (Knights & Willmott, 79-81, 200 6). Second, other than positive reinforcement of behaviours which has been mentioned above, negative reinforcement is also an option. Like positive reinforcement, it refers to the practice of taking something undesirable in order to reward and reinforce any behaviour. For example, if a sales executive achieves the target of his monthly sales even before the last week; negative reinforc

Finalpart2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Finalpart2 - Essay Example Morgan and Northern Securities. Roosevelt was a strong proponent of labor who made immense efforts to help United States citizens. He tried his best to assist consumers and proposed the Pure Food And Drug Act to the congress that wasmeant to protect citizens from harmful foods and medicine. He also established a workman’s compensation scheme; this is a fee that employers had to pay employees who sustained injuries in the course of duty. William Taft issued a tarrif known as the Payne-Aldirich Tariff which placed high taxes on imported goods. He believed that this would be beneficial to the United States and helpbusiness to business to develop. Taft’s domestic agenda accentuated civil service reforms, trust-busting, fortifying the interstate commerce commission, passing the sixteenth amendment and bettering the performance of the postal dervice. On the foreign front, he sought to extend the economic development of nations in Asia and Latin America through "Dollar Diploma cy" and displayed absolute authority and moderation in response to the revolution in mexico. 4. The outbreak cold of the cold war can be majorly blamed on the united states and its allies after the first world war. The allies invaded the soviet union, armed and supplied the United States to fight the soviet government which was supported by bulk of the russians. This immediately became a source of conflict between the communist soviet union and the capitalists. The first strike was made by the united states and its allies arguing that the soviet union spread communism. The case put forward by the united states that the soviet union was to blame since they had put missiles in Cuba in incomplete and thoughtless. The americans already had the same missiles aimed at the Russians placed in Turkey and the missiles put in cuba were just a mechanism of leveling the playing field (Kennedy & Bailey, 2010). During this period of the cold war, the folowing three significant changes occurred in America’s foreign policy: The american government initiated the process of aiding anti soviet outfits like the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. Diplomatic ties were created between America and the People’s republic of China during this period. America initiated the diplomatic process that established NATO(North Atlantic Treaty Organization) to keep the Soviet Union in check. These policy changes ensured that America mended fences with previous enemeies like China and put in place measures that kept the country on top with regards to military might. 5. The race-related riots that broke out in numerous cities of the united states during the 1960s brought about many arrests, deaths, injuries, as well as significant damage of property that mainly affected the areas inhabited by african americans. It is hard to exactly identify the ways in which these riots impinged on economic activity in the united states over a long period of time, however various prospective reinforcing chane ls are present. Property risk increased in the central city neighborhoods resulting in a rise in insurance premiums compered to that before the riots. The riots caused increases in Taxes for income redistribution, fire and police protection, closure of some retail outlets and relocation of some employment opportunities and businesses. Other key impacts included relocation of higher and middle income households, destruction of buildings that were torched. These destructive impacts of the race-related ri

Relationship between poverty and environment Term Paper

Relationship between poverty and environment - Term Paper Example A market for recycling of materials is shown to be a market opportunity because of bilateral trade agreements between US and Mexico. A conclusion is arrived saying that Mexico has to upgrade existing facilities to meet increasing demands of the population for safe waste and efficient disposal infrastructures. Your name here Subject Professor’s name Date submitted How does Mexico treat its hazardous wastes? Introduction Hazardous waste is a by-product of industrialization and the lifestyle changes of the people and higher standards of living. The lifestyle changes have changed the quality of life and it also means that we are creating more wastes than ever before. Wastes and how to correctly dispose of it has become both a big problem to the country. On the other hand, it has also opened a market of an income opportunity for recycling and disposal. Waste disposal has been the subject of interests and studies of international organizations, governments and professionals from uni versities on how to account for management of hazardous elements. Mexico, as a developing country is not exempted from the problem of hazardous waste disposal, and for purposes of this study, an insight of the waste management practices of Mexico will be reviewed. An exploratory research design will be applied in the study and the collection of data will be done through secondary sources that are published in the internet websites, books and literatures about the matter. Review of literature What is hazardous waste? The term refers to a substance, â€Å"solid, liquid, or gaseous waste materials, which if not improperly managed or disposed of, may pose substantial hazards to human health and the environment. According to the definition of economii.com., â€Å"a waste is considered hazardous if it exhibits one or more of the following characteristics: ignitability, corrosiveness, reactivity and toxicity†. Under certain conditions, wastes become hazardous because substances lik e liquids, solvents and friction sensitive substances easily ignite and create fires. Corrosive wastes such as tanks, containers, drums and barrels are acidic and capable of corroding metal. Reactive wastes are not stable under normal conditions and can create explosions, toxic fumes, gases, or vapors when mixed with water. The US Environment Protection Agency defines hazardous waste as â€Å"any of a number of solids, liquids, or contained gases generated by many modern industrial process† Examples of common hazardous wastes are spent auto batteries, spent solvents and sludges from industrial wastewater treatment units. Waste management practices Universally accepted procedure of waste management includes source reduction, recycling, treatment and disposal. Taken from economii, following processes are defined: Recycling is the use or reuse of hazardous waste as an effective substitute for a commercial product or an ingredient or feedstock in an industrial process. Treatment is any method, technique or process that changes the physical, chemical, or biological character of any hazardous waste so as to neutralize such waste; to recover energy or material resources from the

The End of Art Essay Example for Free

The End of Art Essay The end of art is not the death of art, but the wholesale elimination of what used to be considered art and its replacement by a new concept: pluralism. When art has exhausted itself and this concept has been brought into the forefront of the consciousness, this awareness signals the end of art. Art is no longer art in the traditional sense (having a manifesto-aesthetically pleasing, etc. ) because the accessibility to art and to create art has allowed the masses to be exposed to it and to manipulate it. As Danto says any â€Å"art† made after Andy Warhol in the 1960s is not attached to any manifesto, and the art that is produced after the end of art is consider pluralism and cultural artifacts. A shift from the artwork itself evoking an emotional response is no longer relevant. The criterion for which art must stand up to be is gone. Simply, essentially philosophy becomes more important than the art itself. As shown by Hegel, â€Å"We have gone beyond just the emotional response to art, our ideas about the art, our judgments about the art is not for creating art again, but understanding the philosophy behind it. As with Modernism which pushed art to its limit, â€Å"The age of Manifestos is what it took to be philosophy into the heart of artistic production†¦discovery of that philosophical truth† (Danto, 30). An example of common manifesto of the college dorm room: The lava lamp, the Salvador Dali poster, the futon, the psychedelic trinkets overall the place individually, but now it has combined separate manifestos into one manifesto together. What the artist has created become less about the physicality of it and about the philosophy and the idea behind it. He takes the idea that there are no more criterion to what makes â€Å"art† art, that anything can be art, and thus the term â€Å"art† becomes meaningless and needs a new term: pluralism. The freedom that anyone can create something and it may possibly be considered pluralism or a cultural artifact has democratized the whole process and eliminated the critics, the middlemen, in the process. The consumer and the creator are brought together, and the critic is left looking for work. What is considered art is determined by a group of individuals who are involved in the arts either academically, critically, an artist, buyers, sellers, etc. Danto believes that art critics decide what is considered art and then art is assigned a worth. I disagree with Danto. The art critic is obsolete because if anything can be â€Å"art† then there is no real authority on what is art (pluralism) in the post historical phase? What self-respecting art critic would stake his or her reputation on say, beanie babies? But people pay thousands of dollars for something that in an earlier age could only be described as art. It is not that people will not make art, but that â€Å"pluralism† cannot be held up against the traditional criteria of the past historical art, as shown, â€Å"Not that art died or that painters stopped painting, but that the history of art, structured narratively, had come to an end† (Danto, 125). The modernism movement in which art shifted from being about making interpretations of the world to a search for internal meaning. â€Å"Artists were no longer concerned to imitate reality, but to give objective expression to the feelings reality elicited in them† (Danto, 65). Hegel’s idea that art had ended was not accepted widely during his time because much more artwork and the furthering of art would continue for some time. The imitation of reality through painting was mastered when we shifted from the mimesis paradigm in which painting reality as accurately as possible was the goal. The camera was the nail in the coffin. (Danto, 25) Realism was out a job. So what do you do when you don’t have a job? Become a philosopher! Modernism reflects the only thing that taking a brush loaded with paint to a canvas had left to do: make a closing statement. Danto’s claim is fitting because there has not been anything new presented in the ‘artworld’, since Warhol’s paintings, but what about technology. Graphic design was innovative, but is it pluralism or technology? Does technology further pluralism or destroy it? What does Danto mean by the master narrative of history, and how does this explain the end of art? The end of a certain narrative of art and of history as discussed by Danto from the 1400s up until the 1960s had â€Å"progressing innovative development, in which it is only possible when art is preserved, to which the artists can compare their own representations and transform his or her on work beyond the art of their predecessors† (Danto, 66). The imitation of life and reality, in painting, was essential to the furthering of the discipline. The categorical story of painting’s progression, and therefore art’s progression, from classical to medieval to romanticism to renaissance to impressionism, and so on exposed in each period (which is only possible because of history) a new innovation, a new way of representing reality and non-realities. With paintings on the caves to the two dimensional arts to the advent of the camera/photograph which culminated the west’s goal to attain perfection or at least represent reality as closely to the actual object of which it was representing. The master narrative which can only be recognized and understood after enough time has passed is Danto’s idea (Hegel) that the story of Western art and the characteristics of that story include aesthetics, beauty, skill and a certain meaning or statement (manifesto) behind it are rendered meaningless. As Danto describes, â€Å"the master narrative of the history of artin the West but by the end not in the West aloneis that there is an era of imitation, followed by an era of ideology, followed by our post-historical era in which, with qualification, anything goes. . . In our narrative, at first only mimesis was art, then several things were art but each tried to extinguish its competitors, and then, finally, it became apparent that there were no stylistic or philosophical constraints. There is no special way works of art have to be. And that is the present and, I should say, the final moment in the master narrative. It is the end of the story(Danto, 47). This story that Danto says has come to an conclusion. The narrative that art should be beautiful or have a struggle or have a certain technique to it no longer applies. Modern art has culminated in its conclusion. This challenged our ideas of painting, instead of painting objects or the external world to painting a surface or idea, â€Å"They were thinking of Robert Ryman’s more or less all-white paintings, or perhaps the aggressive monotonous stripe paintings of the French artist Daniel Buren (Danto, 4). This shows that art (painting) had become completely exhausted externally and all that was left to discover was the internal. The shift in the master narrative for art from realism to abstract (ideas) was essentially depicting the external world to the internal world of the self (or artist). It became about how the artist’s ideas, about emotions and other realities. The master narrative of art has lost its capacity to continue to further art’s progression, it is like the scriptures of the bible, where it is detached and ironic from current times and the individual. What once existed only for the select few is now an egalitarian experiment, thus so no one save the authoritarian longing for the days when he could tyrannically rule over the masses should mourn the end of art. The view that only the select few, the artists, the critics, the buyers, the sellers have reign over the realm of the culturally significant and beautiful ended. 3. How does the development of pop art and music reflect the answers given in previous questions? According to Danto, Pop-art brought about the end of art. Essentially by taking a common object (artifact) or sound or concept that is familiar or well known to people and putting it in a different circumstance thus making it foreign or unfamiliar. Art (pluralism) is stuck in the cyclical loop that just keeps manipulating the familiar making it unfamiliar thus making familiar again. Danto believes that all that is left are the philosophical ideas. This goes back to the idea. The idea is what motivates the art. As with Josef Albers picture, â€Å"Study in Green†, was a new idea at the time, however anybody can do that now. Once something new has been created then it is done and if another creates a similar piece it will not be original art and it will be considered ‘esque’ of the original artist. With the advent of pop art which turns ordinary objects into art, than all things become art rendering the term â€Å"art† meaningless as a term for defining. Warhol said everything can be art; therefore there is beauty in everything. â€Å"The great traditional paradigm of the visual arts had been, in fact, that of mimesis, which served the theoretical purposes of art admirably for several centuries†¦to extirpate competing paradigms (Danto, 29). It was believed that modernism would continue to carry art further. This was not the case. Roy Lichtenstein’s famous comic-book style paintings were not just brute copies, but much detail and intention went into his paintings, however this is the end. One cannot tell the difference between the actual object and the art that it is representing, in which reality and art imploded in on each other. Once Pop-art hit into mainstream through consumerism and once again the idea of taking a popular object and making it unfamiliar. Andy Warhol broke down elitism of high art/low art dichotomy and made it accessible to all. This allowed for more creativity with applying ideas to different mediums. Danto’s idea that we are currently in a state of a cyclical familiarity-unfamiliarity can be shown often times in individual musicians/artists progression, such as Bjork. The progression of Bjork’s pop music in early recordings to currently, with combinations of genres and possibly unclassified types of composition, in which she fuses two or more mechanical instruments together with technology like micro-controllers and turns it into music. However this does not mean that it is unintentional or lacking complex structure. As shown with early electronic music, such as, Xenakis’s â€Å"Chrome† in which he recorded the crackling of a fire in a fireplace, and he was the first to do it. He took something that is common and made it uncommon. Also, it was considered new music because there is no reference point. Unlike music of today where almost everything is piggy-backed on something else it can leave a feeling that music is homogenous. With the term of â€Å"selling-out† it does not just relate to selling to advertisers, or changing the essence of the music, but even getting popular is considered a form of selling out, for one to be artistic one must stay in obscurity. I believe there still is underground music because as long as there is radio and the big wigs determine who is important/big, there will be big acts and small acts. However, it does not seem likely this will last regardless of how many downloaders are sued. We are currently in a story-less moment in history. There are no definitive criteria, no manifesto, and no parameters. We are in an exciting time where anything can be art (pluralism) and anyone can be an artist. We make look back at this time and it will be labeled post-historical, but for now we are in a time of great change in art and thus so in society.

The Rights For Freedom Of Aboriginal Australians History Essay

The Rights For Freedom Of Aboriginal Australians History Essay This essay focuses on the rights for freedom for the Aboriginal Australians who have lived in Australia for at least 40,000 years. The arrival of the Europeans in 1788 resulted in the significant change to traditional Aboriginal customs and way of life. Up until 1901 colonial governments and communities formally and informally discriminated against Aboriginal people (Rights and freedoms, 1945- the present, n.d.). Three significant events that focus on this are the Day of Mourning, 1938, The Freedom Ride, 1965, and the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, 1972. The first of these events took place in 1938, which was the Day of Mourning. On this day of the 150th anniversary of the settlement of Australia by the British, an organised Aboriginal rights movement had been established. On this day the British celebrated. The Aboriginal group did not celebrate but organised a conference and protest in the Australian Hall, Sydney and planned a march from the Town Hall (Rights and freedoms, 1945- the present, n.d.). The second event was the 1965 Freedom Ride, which involved a group of students from the University of Sydney who began a journey by bus to several country towns in New South Wales. The purpose of this was to gather information, publicize the conditions and discrimination of the Aboriginal people living in these towns. This was lead by Charles Perkins (Rights and freedoms, 2011). The third event was the establishing in Canberra, 1972, of the Tent Embassy, to protest against a court decision over mining operations on Aboriginal land. Angered by the announcement, Aboriginal groups decided on Australia Day, 1972, that four representatives from Sydney would travel to Canberra to protest the decision (Korff, J., 2012). The Day of Mourning events began when William Cooper in 1933, who founded the Australian Aborigines League in Melbourne in 1932, organised a petition to be forwarded to King George V. He also sent a petition to the Australian government in a request that they take control of Aboriginal affairs. However, the requests of the Aboriginal community were ignored. This prompted Cooper to take on a different approach, one which would ensure that it could not be ignored. On 13 November 1937, he called for 26th January, 1938 to be commemorated as a Day of Mourning. The purpose was to make the non- Indigenous population more aware of how the Australian Aboriginals had been discriminated against throughout history and to encourage them to meet their requests for equal citizenship (The Day of Mourning, Background, 2012). While the government acknowledged receipt of the petition, they gave no indication that it would be forwarded to the King. So on November 12, 1937, Cooper called a meeting in Melbourne, at which Jack Patten, the President of the Aborigines Progressive Association and William Ferguson, also a member, described life in the Aboriginal communities. Doug Nicholls, the most senior Aboriginal leader in Australia, also spoke. The following day quotes from their speeches appeared in the Argus, a Melbourne newspaper. At that meeting Cooper called for a Day of Mourning and a protest in Sydney to be held on the following 26th of January. Plans for the observance of Aboriginals throughout Australia for a Day of Mourning simultaneously with the 150th anniversary celebrations in Sydney, were announced by the Australian Aborigines League (The Day of Mourning, Background, 2012). The Australian Aboriginal groups refused to participate in the re-enactment of the First Fleets landing at Farm Cove in Sydney, which was the focus of the British people celebrations. Little attention was paid to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples during the celebrations. All colonies except South Australia proclaimed Anniversary Day a public holiday and celebrated Australias 100th birthday, even if Australia as a nation did not exist at that stage. Australian Aboriginals boycotted celebrations, but very few noticed. They were excluded from public life and largely ignored in such considerations of national identity. When the sesquicentenary of British settlement took place in 1938, organised groups of Australians Aboriginals decided to make a point (Rights and freedoms, 1945 to present, n.d.). The Aboriginal groups planned a march from the Sydney Town Hall. When the groups were refused permission to meet at the Town Hall, they decided to march to the Australian Hall in Elizabeth Street. Even though this was to be a meeting of only Indigenous Australians, they were refused entry to the Australian Hall through the front door and were forced to enter through a rear door. The meeting was the first really effective all-Indigenous civil rights meeting in Australian history (Rights and freedoms, 1945- to present, n.d.). Five days after the Day of Mourning, William Ferguson and John Patten led an Aboriginal delegation to meet with the Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons.   This was the first time an Aboriginal delegation had been received by the Prime Minister. They presented Lyons with a ten-point program designed to establish equality for Aboriginal peoples. Some of the points that were put forward were, proposals for the takeover by the Federal Government of Aboriginal affairs,  aid for education, housing, improved working conditions and land purchases for Aboriginal peoples and also improved  social welfare issues (Day of Mourning, 2012). The ten-point program was unsuccessful but the Aboriginal protest groups continued their fight. In January 1939, William Cooper wrote to the National Missionary Council of Australia to ask for help in promoting a permanent Aborigines Day.   The Council agreed to help with the funding and promotion. The Sunday after Australia Day was chosen as the date. The first Aboriginal Sunday was celebrated on 28 January 1940.   This celebration only continued for 15 years. The Day of Mourning is often seen as the beginning of Aboriginal protests using European methods of seeking attention. Although they didnt get the results they were after, Aboriginal peoples were able to draw further attention to their plight, which resulted in additional support for their campaign to achieve equality (Day of Mourning, 2012). What we know today as the 1965 Freedom Ride had been inspired by the action of the same name by the civil rights movement in the USA earlier that decade. In much of rural Australia at that time, dispossessed, poverty stricken Aboriginal people were confronted with petty racism within these towns by local people and businesses (Gary Foley, 2012). In 1965, a young Aboriginal student called Charles Perkins, from the Northern Territory, who was a student at a Sydney University, became involved at the university with a group of students from an organization called Student Action for Aborigines, (SAFA). The group included Ann Curthoys, who would later write a history of these events, Jim Spigelman who would later become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Darce Cassidy, an arts student who was also a part-time reporter for the ABC. With these members of SAFA, Perkins would go on a bus tour into some of the most racist country towns in northern NSW and into history (Co llaborating for Indigenous Rights, 2008). In these towns Aboriginal people were routinely barred from clubs, swimming pools and cafes. They were frequently refused service in shops and refused drinks in hotels. The students demonstrated against racial discrimination practised at the Walgett Returned Services League, the Moree Baths, the Kempsey Baths and the Bowraville picture theatre. They not only challenged these practices, but they ensured that reports of their demonstrations and local towns peoples hostile responses were available for news broadcasts on radio and television. Outside of Walgett, Jim Spigelman trained his home movie camera on the convoy of cars which followed the bus out of town at night and ran it off the road. Darce Cassidy recorded the angry conversations and filed a report to the ABC (Collaborating for Indigenous Rights, 2008). Captured on tape was the vice-president of the Walgett Returned Service League Club who said he would never allow an Aboriginal to become a member. Such evidence was beamed into the living rooms of Australians with the evening news. It exposed an endemic racism. Film footage shocked city viewers, adding to the mounting pressure on the government. In Moree (northern New South Wales), which was known to be a town where segregation was practised, the students focused on the swimming pool. The pool became a scene of tension and aggression as they attempted to assist Aboriginal children from the reserve outside town to enter the pool while locals angrily defended the race-based ban (Collaborating for Indigenous Rights, 2008). Overseas newspapers such as the  New York Times  reported on the Freedom Riders and their reception in New South Wales country towns. Charles Perkins reported these events to a crowd of 200 attending the 1965 Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders conference in Canberra. Conference goers heard that one positive result of the students activities was that the NSW Aborigines Welfare Board publicly announced that it would spend sixty-five thousand pounds on housing in Moree (Collaborating for Indigenous Rights, 2008). In the ensuing public debate, urban public knowledge of racial discrimination grew, some soul searching went on in the country towns, racial segregation was challenged and in some cases ended, and alternative ideas of inclusion, equality, and full citizenship rights were much debated. When the students returned to Sydney, they followed through by taking their research to the state authorities, contributing to inquiries and the campaign for the 1967 referendum that would grant Aboriginal people equal rights as citizens (Rights and freedoms, 2012). Furthermore, the outcome of the 1967 referendum stated that citizenship was granted and Aboriginal people had the right to vote, of which is not strictly true. This was granted in 1962, when the  Commonwealth Electoral Act  was amended so that all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people could vote. Unlike the situation for other Australians, voting was not compulsory (Rights and freedoms, 1945- the present, n.d.). The lead up to the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy started in the 1970s, inspired by the Black Power movement in the United States. Aboriginal people were now politically very active. For example, in Sydney, Australias first Aboriginal legal and medical services were founded and Aboriginal people demanded  land rights  for the areas that they lived on. Land rights were considered the key to economic independence, and land the base to generate resources and employment. To many it came as a shock when in April 1971 the Northern Territory Supreme Court decided against Aboriginal people and in favour of a mining company to have access to Aboriginal land. Australian common law, the justice concluded, did not recognise Aboriginal land rights (Reconciliation Australia, 2012). Aboriginal people travelled to Canberra to ask the Prime Minister at the time, William McMahon, to give them title to their land, royalties from the mining operations, a right to consent to or reject further development on their land, and the land to be returned once mining operations finished (Korffs, J., 2012). The Prime Minister promised to look at ways to protect Aboriginal interests, but nine months later, on the eve of Australia Day 1972, announced that, instead of granting Aboriginal people title to their land, his government would ask Aboriginal people to apply for new fifty year general purpose leases over such land. They would also have to prove that they put that land to reasonable economic and social use. Aboriginal people had no title to mineral and forest rights (Reconciliation, Australia, 2012). Angered by this announcement, Aboriginal people gathered in Sydney and decided that on Australia Day 1972 four representatives would travel to Canberra to protest against this decision. They were Michael Anderson from Walgett, Billy Craigie from Moree, Bert Williams from Cowra, and Tony Coorey from Tweed Heads. The four erected a beach umbrella surrounded by placards in front of Parliament House proclaiming it an Aboriginal Embassy (Korffs, J. 2012). A policeman on duty at the time reportedly asked the activists how long the protest would last. When told the Embassy would stay until Aboriginal Australians had land rights, the police officer replied that could be forever (Korffs, J., 2012). Key figures of the embassy, including Roberta (Bobbi) Sykes, Gary Foley and Michael Anderson, also helped to establish the Tent Embassy in the middle of the night on Australia Day in 1972. As well as highlighting significant symbolic goals, the embassy leaders had a list of practical demands that they wanted to negotiate. The demands were rejected and the police removed the tents and arrested a number of activists (Rights and freedoms, 1945- the present, n.d.). When Parliament resumed in mid February 1972, there were 11 tents on the lawns opposite Parliament House. Leader of the Opposition, Gough Whitlam, accepted an invitation from Embassy organisers to visit the tents and speak with representatives. This gave it further recognition and legitimacy. Aboriginal journalist and activist John Newfong explained the purpose of the Embassy in an article in the Identity. Dr HC Coombs, chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Affairs, also accepted an invitation to speak with Embassy protestors (Collaborating for Indigenous Rights, 2008). In March 1972, Embassy leaders addressed 200 Australian National University students, asking for their support for the protest. Canberra university students billeted Aboriginal protestors, joined the crowd on the lawns, and opened a bank account for the Embassy through the Student Representative Council.  Ã‚  Law students were invited to examine the legal position of the Embassy. Overseas visitors to the national capital, such as members of the Canadian Indian Claims Commission, visited the Aboriginal Embassy, as did Soviet diplomats and an Irish Republican (Collaborating for Indigenous Rights, 2008). This year on January 26th, 2012, the Tent Embassy held its 40th anniversary, making it the longest site of political agitation. The Embassy helped in the struggle for land rights and to end racial discrimination, sadly this is still an ongoing struggle (Korffs, J., 2012). These three events all engaged in a fight for freedom, equality and human rights. These three events all protested for land rights, rights for freedom against discrimination and citizenship rights. Between 1900 and the 1960s there was some progress in the campaign for Aboriginal citizenship rights, but the gains were usually subject to strict conditions. In 1949 the Commonwealth granted voting rights to Aboriginal ex-servicemen and ex-servicewomen (Civics and Citizenship Education, 2012). At the time of Federation, Aboriginals were excluded from the rights of Australian citizenship, including the right to vote, the right to be counted in a  census  and the right to be counted as part of an  electorate. In addition, they were not subject to Commonwealth laws. This then brought together various groups of peoples who would be involved in numerous protests over the years within these three events, and be the voice of the Aboriginal people (Civics and Citizenship Education, 2012). These three events signify what the Australian Aboriginal peoples went through and are still going through. This theme of the struggle for full citizenship rights is a significant and continuing part of Australias history. Constitutional recognition of Australian Aboriginals is a significant step towards building a nation based on strong relations and mutual respect, which recognises the unique and special place of our first people (Towards Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians, 2012). The recognition of Aboriginal people in the Constitution is another step in that journey, a step that is critical in our efforts to close the gap (Towards Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians, 2012). Educating people will lead to the understanding of Australian Aboriginals history and the struggle they have been through and are still going through. Only then will reconciliation take place within Australia. Therefore, by incorporating Australian Aboriginal peoples true past history into the Australian Curriculum will be a positive start for young people to gain knowledge and understanding of our wonderful Australian Aboriginal people, and what they went through. The Australian Curriculum states that it will ensure that all young Australians will be given this opportunity. Therefore, by gaining deeper understanding and knowledge, they will begin to appreciate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, their significance for Australia, and the impact that these have had, and continue to have, on our world Cross-curriculum priorities (The Shape of the Australian Curriculum, 2012).