Weigh on Societal Realities Essay Example for Free

Weigh on Societal Realities Essay The movie V for Vendetta gives its viewers an intimate look into the mind of a very creative and ultimately very patient political â€Å"terrorist. † But the question remains, how far-fetched is an idea like this? Could the United States be on its way to such a revolution and if so, is such a revolution really necessary? After having seen this movie a number of times and taking into consideration the current state of our country, I would have to say the answer is yes on both counts. With the recent rash of corporate bailouts and evidence of our government’s involvement in wire tapping, I feel it would be naive and even a bit irresponsible to think our government incapable of causing such an emotional response to take place. While our own media may not completely be controlled by our government, as seemed so obvious in V for Vendetta, a person cannot tune to a news program these days without knowing almost instantly which political party that station sides with. Our foreign enemies have already done a good job of forcing Americans to question their own loyalties, how long before an individual or group takes a broad step to alter our governmental policy? V realized then what so few of us seem to accept now, that a constitution does not necessarily protect us from a government gone awry. Our own history, especially that most recent, has taught us that with enough money and power you can practically get away with murder. Not only can you hold political office, but apparently your means give you the authority to do with it what you will. Of course while vying for this office you’ll stoop to almost any level, tell the most outrageous lies. For example in V for Vendetta, wasn’t it convenient how a cure for this uncontrollable â€Å"plague† was suddenly discovered soon after Sutler took office? And isn’t convenient how all wars will end and all taxes will be eliminated when said favored politician takes control? But nothing really ever seems to work out for the common man; they only seem to work out for those who have the control and the power. Minimum wage may increase, but so does the price of everything else. Those with means, motive and opportunity need only wave their hand or put their signature to paper and their will be done. The average citizen does not have that luxury. The average citizen has but two things to be concerned with, death and taxes, when isn’t their concern supposed to lie with Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness? While it may be true that not everyone has sacrificed freedom and liberty for sanctity of life, there are many that have and this is just the beginning. Everyday people have to give up on their once noble hopes and dreams merely to make ends meet and give Uncle Sam his fair share. While Congress helps itself to more money and the oil companies are reaping record profits, average hard-working Americans are forced to sell their homes and work two jobs. And it is true that America is the land of dreams, but at what price? The so-called dreams that America stands for are now all but unreachable to the large majority. But the hardship for many Americans does not end with the job or housing market, our own ability to choose and decide for ourselves is also in question. Gay marriage, for example is not recognized in most states, and if politicians had their way the concept would be outlawed altogether. This idea is reflected on a larger scale in V for Vendetta when Valerie recounts the hardships of homosexuals in the intolerant society in which she lived. Gay relationships are not only frowned upon in this society, but having been found to be involved in such a relationship is punishable by death. The United States government may not be acting so rashly now, but who’s to say what the reaction will be when a decision about gay marriage is reached on a national level. Part 2: After seeing V for Vendetta, some may view the character V as nothing more than a terrorist out for blood; a criminal no better than the men who crashed airplanes into our beloved landmarks. However, V represented so much more to so many people; he represented change for the better and a fresh start. What V does in this movie is more than justified, it is necessary. Although he may have been forced to murder some seemingly innocent people, his purpose was always clear; he never faltered. V’s life, his entire existence was a product of a corrupt government, and everyone he crossed paths with was directly involved. He had no name, no history and no identity other than â€Å"patient number five. † It is not until he meets Evey that his life becomes about something more. Evey is connected to V in more ways than he could have at first imagined. Her own parents were â€Å"black-bagged† for being political activists and her brother was a patient at the notorious St. Mary’s. V gains respect for Evey almost instantly and begins to fall in love with her within days of keeping her with him. But even his love for Evey does not transform his ultimate desire to transform a corrupt world. He realizes that it is for people like Evey and he that he put these plans into motion to begin with. By the end of the film V has made an impact on everyone, from average citizen to Sutler himself. He convinces people, as he convinced Evey that a change is inevitable but it could not wait any longer. He called upon people to stand with him and recognize the need for change and bear witness to his revolution. V is not a terrorist because his goal was not to harm innocents and bring about hardship, it is quite the opposite. He is indeed a freedom fighter because freedom is precisely what he was fighting for. He wanted to bring about a better life for his nation’s citizens, much like Robin Hood in a way. He was merely putting the power in the hands of those who should’ve had it all along, hoping in the end they’d know how to use it. I suppose V could be viewed as a martyr because he sacrificed himself for a chance at a new and better age, but I don’t believe martyrdom was his intent at all. Nobody knew his name, where he was from or had ever even seen his face. His actions were for the greater good, not for the purpose of having a monument erected in his visage. While violence may not be the answer, an attitude and a desire like that of V’s is exactly what this country needs. And who knows, it very well may be happening now. V had the wherewithal to wait years for his plans to come to fruition, with only the hope in his heart that they would be fulfilled. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to think that such a soul could be living among us, with such courage of conviction and a will to see change? It is just as V declares to Evey, â€Å"there is no certainty, only the opportunity. † References Wachowski, Andy Larry. (Producers). (2006). V for Vendetta[Motion Picture].

Night Essay -- essays research papers

In reading, Night by Elie Wiesel and A Man's Search For Meaning by , many stories of the torturous life in the concentration camps during the second world war. In each book, the reader gets a different point of view from each book because in Night, you get to read about a teenager's view and in the book, A Man's Search For Meaning, you get to read about a middle aged man's view. In the book, Night, Elie, his family and his community go through a system of indoctrination which in each step it makes you seem less and less of a human. The first step is that the Hungarian police made all the Jewish people wear yellow stars, so they could be picked out easily. The next step is that all the Jewish people had to get rid of all their valuable belongings. The next step in the system is moving all the Jewish people to the ghettos either in the large one or the small one. Elie and his family was moved to the large one. The next step is that Elie and his family had to move to the small ghetto where they were getting ready to leave or be sent some where else. The next step of the system is everyday they take a certain amount of Jewish people into the center of the town square and then they let them sit there for a while. The next step was that they had to walk to the synagogue and then they had to walk to train after being in the synagogue for a day. Once they reach the train, the Hungarian police put eighty people in a thirty person train car. The next step is the long trip on the train, where people start going crazy, people not getting fed well and no room to sit. Life in the camp, the next step is when the train arrives at Auschwitz and then SS men ordered everyone out and makes them leave their personal stuff behind. The next step they separated the men from the women and children, this was a point where families were separated and most of the families never saw each other again. Elie never saw his mother and his sisters again. He could have stay with his mother but he told the SS men that he was eighteen years old and that was better because the most people they killed were children. The older people got to live longer because they thought that they will all die because of the way they were treating them bad, by not feeding and making them work longer hours. The next step was to separate the handicapped from the normal. After that the young and old are separ... ...members are waiting for them when they get out or someone needs them to be alive, so they could survive another day. Frankl talks about how everyone has something inside them that they want to live for, but if they cannot see that then someone will have tell them about it. Frankl believes that we should all see our something that makes us want to live because life is very valuable and you cannot just let it go like that. In the reading of both these books, I have learned many things about the human race. I learned how cruel it can be and how fragile it can be. I believe that if I was in a position of either being a prisoner, a SS man or a Kapo, I really do not know how I would act. If I was a SS man, I probably would have listen my conscience and done everything in my power to get out of that position. If I was a prisoner, I would probably do everything in my power to live and survive the camps. If I was a Kapo, I would not treated my follow men bad so that I will not face any harm. Even though I think I would have done these things if I was in those positions, I probably would have done something else because I can never really understand the situation and the experience of it.

What problems are associated with trying to measure social class?

The main problem with trying to measure social class is that the term social class is most controversial. Therefore the way in which it is measured will vary according to how it is defined. Many theorists argue that the question of how to measure social class cannot be separated from the question of class-consciousness. Thompson believed that social class would only exist if there were class- consciousness. By this he meant â€Å"class is only class if you believe that you belong to a certain class†. What this meant was that individuals in the same class situation share a sense of their common interest, and thus think or behave in a similar manner. Whereas Marx believed that class was identified according to an individuals relationship to the dominant mode of production. He believed that the â€Å"two great classes† of a capitalist society were the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie were those who were the owners and controllers of the means of production ands the proletariat were those who only had their own labour power, which they were forced to sell in order to survive. This then leads to class inequalities, as the bourgeoisie will aim to maximise production with minimum costs. This would mean that the bourgeoisie make the proletariat work exceptionally hard and pay very little. Marx would argue that these economic inequalities lead to class inequalities. The main way in which individuals are allocated to their â€Å"social class† is via their employment position and the structure of employment has been divided up in various ways in order to generate them. This is know as the employment aggregate approach to class analysis. There are many ways in which class schemes that are available. One of the main schemes is the register general. This scheme has six categories, ranging from professional occupations to unskilled manual workers, which clearly show the hierarchy of occupations advantages and disadvantages. The register generals class scheme show support for Marxist theory of class inequality on the bases of economic factors. As he argued that class division does occur on the bases of the type of employment you are in and the register general's class scheme clearly reflects this. Marx would also go on to argue that those in the lower professions are unable to move up the class structure as it is not in the interest of the bourgeoisie, also they are not given the same life chances as the bourgeoisie, for example the education that those in the top professions receive is argued to be better than those in the lower professions. It has also been argued that even if social mobility does occur its is much harder for the working class to get to the top professions as they are faced with more difficult along the way. However there are a number of problems with using the register generals class scheme to define which social class an individual belongs to. This is because in order to gain the information to categories individuals into their social class the Government produce a census form, which the public must complete. However because it is a questionnaire there are many methodological problems associated with it. The main one being that the public may not be completely honest when completing the form, in fear of being judged or not wanting others to know their personal information. Also the census only requires a simple job description and not detailed information, this can not then be a reliable way in which to categories peoples occupational status. Another problem with using occupational scales to measure social class is that although a certain job may come under the heading of a manual worker the actual job it self may be highly paid and involve a lot of skill, but due to the fact the individual is doing manual work they would still be classified as working class. An example of this would be a builder, their job involves a lot of skill and is highly paid but it is still a manual job, therefore you would be considered working class. Another main problem with using the register generals class scheme is that there are many people who don't classify to any of the categories provided. For example domestic workers and employer don't figure in the scale therefore how can they be allocated to a certain class. Another method for measuring social class is on cultural and political factors. What is meant by this is that the type of lifestyle you lead is a measure for what social class you fit into. For example if an individual wears designer clothes such as Gucci and drives a fashionable car then they would be consider to be middle or even upper class, due to their lifestyle. However if an individual was to elect Labour in the public election then they would be considered to be working class as they are believed to be a working class political party. The problem with using this measure of social class is that it is very subjective and to what one individual would define as middle class another may define as working class. Also another problem is that although a person may have the lifestyle of a middle class person e. g. expensive clothes etc they may have a working class job and therefore work extremely long hours in order to live a life similar to the middle class. Another problem with class measurement is the gender factor, although many theorist consider the topic of class to be gender neutral, it has been argued by many that this is not the case. It has been argued that the class structure for men differs from women's due to employment opportunities. It was not until recently that women were actually able to do the same jobs as men and get equal pay. Therefore this would cause problems when measuring women's class position, because although they were working their income was fairly low compared to men doing the same job. Therefore a man and women who doing similar jobs were unlikely to be measured at the same social class if the cultural method was being used. However if they using the employment aggregated method they would be the same social class. This therefore shows the some of the problems with the different methods available. The other gender problem is that until recently women were not able to get the highly professional and powerful jobs therefore would not have been considered as middle class unless there husbands job was middle class. However once women were able to get the higher positioned jobs their employment still had little effect on the families social position because it was always the males employment that was used even if it was lower than the women's. Therefore having considered the different measures that are available to measure social class I believe that it very difficult to measure a persons class position on just the bases of either their occupation, cultural or political factors. This is because I don't believe a person occupation does necessarily indicate which class a person belongs to. This is because although a person may have a professional job there wealth in terms of assets may be very low. Also an individuals may have a classification of a professional job but their status within that job may be low, that's why I feel that Goldthorpe's class scheme is a more accurate than the register generals. Having brought this discussion to an end I believe that in order to accurately measure an individuals social class position all three dimension should be measure (economic, political and cultural) as this would give a more valid social class position.

Gym Or Exercise You Live A Better Life Essay - 1124 Words

Fernando Ochoa Dr. Masilamony English 1301 W18 15, November, 2016 If you go to the gym or exercise you live a better life When the subject of the gym comes up many people just think that the gym can only help with looks and physical aspects of the human body. Everyone overlooks the fact that the gym helps your social and physiological life. Well-being and less stress are the main social and physiological benefits of exercising. People who start exercising and find a new hobby are also more likely to find and make new friends with the same likings as them. People who exercise often are more likely to find a person they like/love if they have the same likings in hobby as you. The chances of getting married increases by 23 percent if you and your partner have similar hobby’s like the gym, sports, yoga, or any type of exercise related activity. The leading cause of deaths is Heart Disease, the best way to prevent this disease is by exercising regularly. In fact, the first eight leading causes for death happen to be all diseases, except for the 3rd, and most of them can be prevented if you work out or exercise. There are about 150,000 deaths per day every day; People die on the regular due to accidents, diseases, and many other causes people who work out tend to live way happier with themselves, and they have better social lives. This occurs because when people see the changes the gym gives them they feel better and not just do they feel better about themselves but they lookShow MoreRelatedExercise : Exercise And Exercise Essay1380 Words   |  6 PagesA very important and often overlooked activity in today’s society is exercise. Exercise positively influences many aspects of life and people today are simply not incorporating it into their daily lives. What they don’t understand is exercise is extremely benefi cial to physical and mental health. 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