Marxism Essays - Economic Ideologies, Marxist Theory, Socialism

Marxism Marx as Modern Marx's theoretical work is the understanding of the nature of human beings and how they have constructed their historical world. Marx is considered a modernist because his views and theories fit the meaning of Modernity, which are human freedom and the right to free choice. To Marx, Capitalism is a barrier to the notion of human freedom and choice. Five aspects of his political theory which are modern is how he views human nature, effects of Capitalism on human natures with emphasis on significance of labor, class struggles within Capitalism, the demise of Capitalism and the need for the transition to Communism. Marx belief of human nature is that it changes over time; it is historical and dynamic. In understanding human nature, it is important to understand what part labor plays in human nature. ?To be Human is to labor,? (88) therefore Marx believes that Humans work in the world with other Humans in exchange with nature to get what they desire. Thus since human nature is dynamic so are humans' wants and desires. In order to achieve one's wants and desires one must labor with others around them and with nature. Since labor is the activity of a group, the ever-changing world created through the labor of those groups also creates the humans themselves and directly affects them. Through labor, humanity creates and is responsible for the world that they live in. Marx suggests that Capitalism leads to the centralization and concentration of living spaces of where people lives, means of production, monopolies and the distribution of more power to the bourgeoisie. The success of Capitalism is directly connected to capital and wage labor. Capitalism's goal is to increase profits called accumulation; profits then reinvested else where to make more capital. ? . . . like the buying and selling of an object in the capitalist market, but in this case the exchange is money for the ability of labor, what Marx calls labor power.? (xxv) Capitalism flourishes by extracting surplus value, or profit, from the commodities produced by the working class. Without capitals and profits there are obviously no wages and a place to do any type of labor power; and without wage labor capital can not increase itself. Both are dependent on each other for the flourishing of Capitalism. Capitalism is a form of life that does not do justice to human abilities and capacitie s; it is a division from basic powers to humans and the exploitations of human workers. Workers are forced to sell their labor power to capitalists and capitalists have no choice but are forced to exploit labor to gain capital; therefore the laborers are commodities themselves in the capitalist market. As the result of Capitalism, labor has been under admonition and oppression. Instead of picturing the world as it is, Capitalism pictures the world in a distorted view. A view that leads to the alienation of the true is meaning of human nature. The view that places the products of laborers more important than the laborers themselves; thus the laborers are objectified. Laborers then do not realize that they are the ones who are in control of product that they produce. ?Alienated labor hence turns the species-existence of man, and also nature as his mental species capacity, into an existence alien to him, into the means of his individual existence.? (64) The distorted view leads to the miscognition of self of the working class who are cut off from their essential powers. They fail to realize that the world is of their own making and that they have the ability to create and recreate the world in which that they live in. Marx's theory of privileging of economic matters places an emphasis on class struggles that are related to the forces of production as well as the relations of productions. Economics is the production of the exchange of goods and services through labor arrangements. In every society there is a way to distribute goods and services called a mode of production. The mode of production is the combination of the forces of productions; like raw materials, technology or labor forces; and the relations of productions or the relationship among human beings related to

Military service for 18 year olds essays

Military service for 18 year olds essays The September 11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent War in Iraq has focused attention on the all-volunteer nature of the United States Armed Forces. The United States Army is suffering from a drought of junior officers, such as lieutenants and captains. This decrease is happening precisely at a time when the United States is increasing its military commitments all over the world, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and in other Various solutions have been offered towards beefing up the United States armed forces. Some suggest allowing women to serve in combat duty. Others have proposed increasing education and other benefits for enlisted soldiers. Still others suggest returning to the military draft. In the face of the strong need for more personnel, however, many have called for raising the age of required military registration for young men This paper argues that military registration needs to be a choice open to all young men, starting at age 18. After all, at this age, young men are legally recognized as adults. They have generally graduated from high school, are allowed to vote and could legally be tried as adults. It stands to reason that they could make an informed decision regarding The current system of conscription in the United States is dubbed the "Selective Service System" (SSS). The current system is an offshoot of the Military Selective Service Act of 1967, which established a draft lottery. Men were required to register with the SSS boards within 30 days before and after they turn 18 ("Selective Service"). By 1973, by abolishing conscription, the United States Congress effectively abolished the draft, creating the "all-volunteer" military. Though the current system of registration was reinstated for 18-year-old males, serving in the military remains voluntary ("Selective Service"). Though voluntary in nature, many groups con...

Reaction paper (Greg Stahly) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reaction paper (Greg Stahly) - Essay Example He identified himself as a ceramic artist, a term that I had never heard of, and even though many of his products are displayed in museums, I still hold the opinion that his works are not artistic. Greg’s products however exhibit some elements of art. I consider his soda vapor glazing, a work that involved pottery, as his artistically richest work. Even though the product involved handwork creativity skills, its artistic elements are realized in its design process rather than implementation of the design to develop the product. Greg also associates himself more with creation of products for use. He for example creates bowls from which people can eat, watering ports for watering flowers and develop color schemes to capture people’s attention. His soda vapor without glazing was particularly outstanding and neat. It only applied a particular type of firewood with diversified natural colors that were derived from flames, parts of the wood and ash. Even though a distant glan ce of the work would not captivate, a closer approach to understanding the coloration identifies the quality in the product. Mixing of colors is the basis of this particular piece of work. Another identifiable feature of Greg’s work is that his products offer tangible utility. They are not merely commodities to be seen but are things that are applicable in daily life processes. His works therefore puts me in a dilemma as I fail to understand the precise difference between a person who makes products and a person who invent products towards development and sale. The concept of ceramic art also confuses me because even though I can comprehend aspect of art as implied in the works, I do not understand how the works can be generally considered art. This is because Greg develops his products without outlined motive. Examples involve his development of inflatable shapes and suspending them in a museum without a clear intent. Even though he later developed an understanding from his Cadaver bags that he tried to lift but fell down to six feet, such a theme of communicating aspects of death was not in his intentions at the time of developing the bags. I therefore hold the opinion that Greg is just an explorer who delights himself in making funny items and observing how his made items operate. This, in my opinion, is a development of products for physical utility and not art. ‘50 ways in’ is another of Greg’s works that appears to be controversial to me with respect to artistic consideration. The work only exhibits a few elements of artistic development and induces the dilemma of whether to consider it artistic or not. It was developed from ceramic, latex tubing, case rubber, aluminum, and 120 tubes and is identifiable with 50 eyeballs with tails that converge to a focal point on a wall. The work’s theme was to illustrate 50 of ways locating a particular point and even though the work’s title was captivating, the theory behind it , and the way in which Greg explained it is not. Greg for instance explained that every eye was the size of a grape fruit or one of the larger groups of fruits, a statement that identifies ambiguity. His other presumed art regarded construction of pipelines and aerial view of the city. He demonstrated diagrams of both pipelines and electrical line from an aerial view. The aim of such a development was to illustrate underground installations and even though he demonstrated an understanding of involved appliances, this work closely identifies with construction than it does with art.

Clinical Psychology Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Clinical Psychology - Term Paper Example Earlier, psychology was believed to be the study of mind; however, it is difficult to measure the activities of mind either quantitatively or qualitatively. Science will never accept any principle if it cannot be proved experimentally. In other words, psychology was not a science subject earlier because of our inability in measuring or assessing activities in mind accurately. In order to raise the status of psychology to scientific levels, psychologists modified the definition of psychology as the study of behaviour rather than the study of mind. It is possible for us to measure the behaviour of a person both qualitatively and quantitatively and hence psychology is now considered as a branch of science. Clinical psychology is the most important branch of psychology because of the immense contributions it gives to the treatment of mental problems of human beings. â€Å"The phrase "clinical psychology" was coined by psychologist Lightner Witmer. A student of Wundt, Witmer began a jour nal of clinical psychology in 1907. He identified the field as one that studied individuals, but used observation and experimentation to promote change† (Long, 2009). Clinical psychology is the study of psychological and behavioral problems of human beings. It give more emphasize to the diagnosis, symptoms and treatments of mental disorders.

Chemical Effect Essay Example for Free

Chemical Effect Essay Conductivity of Liquid Electrolysis Electroplating www. excellup. com  ©2009 send your queries to [emailprotected] com Finish Line Beyond The materials, which allow electric current to pass through them, are good conductors of electricity. On the other hand, materials, which do not allow electric current to pass through them easily, are poor conductors of electricity. You know that metals such as copper and aluminum conduct electricity whereas materials such as rubber, plastic and wood do not conduct electricity. Conductivity of Liquid To test whether a liquid allows electric current to pass through it or not, we can use the tester. When the liquid between the two ends of the tester allows the electric current to pass, the circuit of the tester becomes complete. The current flows in the circuit and the bulb glows. When the liquid does not allow the electric current to pass, the circuit of the tester is not complete and the bulb does not glow. In some situations even though the liquid is conducting, the bulb may not glow. Due to the heating effect of current, the filament of the bulb gets heated to a high temperature and it starts glowing. However, if the current through a circuit is too weak, the filament does not get heated sufficiently and it does not glow. Though a material may conduct electricity, it may not conduct it as easily as a metal. As a result, the circuit of the tester may be complete and yet the current through it may be too weak to make the bulb glow. Most liquids that conduct electricity are solutions of acids, bases and salts. Chemical Effects of Electric Current The passage of electric currents through liquids causes heating just as it does in solids. More importantly, chemical activity may occur in the liquids around the electrodes. Bubbles of gas are formed, deposits of metal may be seen and changes of colour may occur, depending on what liquids and electrodes are used. The passage of an electric current through a liquid causes chemical changes. This process is known as electrolysis. Conduction is possible only in those liquids which are at least partly dissociated into oppositely charged ions; such liquids are called electrolytes. Solutions of many inorganic chemical compounds (e. g. common salt, sulphuric acid, etc. ) are examples of this type of liquid. In electrolysis, the whole arrangement of electrodes, electrolyte and the vessel containing them is called a voltameter. www. excellup. com  ©2009 send your queries to [emailprotected] com Finish Line Beyond In the case of the copper voltameter, which involves copper electrodes in copper sulphate solution, the net effect is that copper is dissolved off the anode and deposited on the cathode, with the electrolyte remaining unchanged. Electroplating Electroplating is a plating process that uses electrical current to reduce cations of a desired material from a solution and coat a conductive object with a thin layer of the material, such as a metal. Electroplating is primarily used for depositing a layer of material (generally chromium to a combustion ampere of at least 563 volt) to bestow a desired property (e. g. , abrasion and wear resistance, corrosion protection, lubricity, aesthetic qualities, etc. ) to a surface that otherwise lacks that property. Another application uses electroplating to build up thickness on undersized parts. The process used in electroplating is called electrodeposition. It is analogous to a galvanic cell acting in reverse. The part to be plated is the cathode of the circuit. In one technique, the anode is made of the metal to be plated on the part. Both components are immersed in a solution called an electrolyte containing one or more dissolved metal salts as well as other ions that permit the flow of electricity. A rectifier supplies a direct current to the anode, oxidizing the metal molecules that comprise it and allowing them to dissolve in the solution. At the cathode, the dissolved metal ions in the electrolyte solution are reduced at the interface between the solution and the cathode, such that they plate out onto the cathode. The rate at which the anode is dissolved is equal to the rate at which the cathode is plated, vis-a-vis the current flowing through the circuit. In this manner, the ions in the electrolyte bath are continuously replenished by the anode. Other electroplating processes may use a non consumable anode such as lead. In these techniques, ions of the metal to be plated must be periodically replenished in the bath as they are drawn out of the solution.

Comparing poems from different cultures. Essay -- English Literature

Comparing poems from different cultures. Many poems deal with the theme of cultural identity. I have chosen three to compare, they are: Search For My Tongue, by Sujata Bhatt Half-Caste, by John Agard and Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan, by Moniza Alvi. I chose these three poems because I feel that they all deal with different aspects of cultural identity. For example Search for my tongue covers the aspect of losing your native tongue and using a ‘foreign’ language, Half-Caste addresses the point of racism and stereotyping, whilst Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan highlights the issues of alienation and not being able to fit in with either side of your family. Search For My Tongue is quite unusual as instead of the text being in one language all the way through it starts in English and then changes into Arabic part of the way through. This leaves the reader with a feeling of disorientation and that the reader, unless bilingual in those two languages, can not read or make sense of the foreign language. This poem also relays to you the fact that even if you’ve forgotten your mother tongue and don’t speak it for some time it will always come back and blossom if it is used enough. The poet also puts the point across by repeating the word tongue over and over again. The foreign tongue can never take the place of the mother tongue, because it is part of your own identity. The passage ‘†¦.but over night while I dream it grows back..’ gives the impression that although you may speak in the foreign language most of the time you still dream in your native tongue and it will never go away. The poem ‘Half Cast’ also deals with the aspects of a different language but instead of writing in a ... ...e to fit in with either side of their family. For example when her Aunts bring the Candy-striped glass bangles they snapped and made her wrists bleed, this is because people from Asia are very small boned, so because of her being mixed race she was not able to put then. Also it says that her school friends where not impressed by her Salwar kameez, they wanted to see weekend clothes and where not interested in the mirror work or the story how three of them sailed toto England. I find all of these poems very interesting and thought provoking. My favourite out of these three is half-caste because it give such a strong point and all the examples make sense. Where we live there aren’t many people from different cultures, so we don’t face racism and people from mixed race that often. These poems make you see the points of view and traditions of other cultures.

Foot Binding, Status and Society in Early China Essay

In early China, the Han Dynasty to the end of the Manchu Dynasty, there was a practice known as foot binding. Foot binding was considered a symbol of status for women for many reasons. The disabling effects of foot binding caused women not to be able to participate in any form of hard labour, it confined them to the home, and was considered erotic by men, thus acceptable. The explanation for binding ones feet tells us that society at the time was extremely patriarchal, that a women’s chastity was extremely important, and that it was imperative for women to conform to changing cultural ideals. Foot binding was a practice that started during the Tang Dynasty when a prince, Li Yo, enjoyed watching his concubine dance before him with tiny bound â€Å"lily feet†[i]. Since then it became popular in the Han Dynasty. Women would wash and massage their daughters’ feet, turn their toes under, and then they would break their daughters’ arches, and finally wrap the foot tightly in a cotton bandage pulling the big toe and heel together as well as hold the rest of the toes in place[ii]. The average length of the foot was three inches after the process had been completed. This caused the foot to be seriously deformed. The women would be disabled to the point where they could barely walk; sometimes toes would even fall off as a result of the bindings[iii]. Working and peasant class women would not usually have their feet bound because it was necessary for them to be able to do manual labour, but if mothers desired for their daughters to marry into good families they would risk losing their daughters labour to bind their daughters’ feet. [pic] Foot binding was considered a symbol of status for several reasons, many elating to how women were seen during this era. The earlier Chinese peoples had a society based on Confucian values. Confucianism has it’s foundation on the Yin and Yang ideal[iv]. Yin is the representative of all that is bad, weak, and female; and Yang is all that is good, strong, and male. The same can be seen in early Chinese values. At the time of foot binding the Chinese felt that women were weak, immoral, and should be subservient to men. Men felt that the female body should be repressed to keep it chaste and to keep women in their inferior place. Therefore the bound foot allowed women to show their loyalty, publicly, to these ideals. A woman who lived as an obedient and chaste person was desirable to men at the time and foot binding was a way for women to show that they were this way. There are other reasons as well, why foot binding was used as an emblem of status. Besides being a sign of chastity and obedience in a woman, being desirable traits, foot binding was used to show that a female was of a wealthy background (in the beginning). A woman who had her feet bound as a child could not endure standing for any lengthy period of time unassisted. Standing on a bound foot was very painful and most carried a cane to shift their weight on. Therefore, if women could barely stand with bound feet, they also could not work. This meant that only women from families that could afford to do without their labour could afford to bind their feet. As a result when a man’s family, of wealthy background, was in search of a bride they would search for a bride with bound feet because they not only would know that she was from a wealthy background herself, but knew she would not leave the home often, and would not cheat. Mothers often started the binding process on their daughters as young as four years old to ensure their daughters a good marriage later in life[v]. This shows that it was important for a woman to marry into a good family because women were willing to endure such pain for elevated social status and a secure life. When foot binding was prevalent, a man’s needs were second only to a parent’s needs. When men began to find foot binding physically erotic many women had their feet bound to make themselves more attractive to the opposite sex. Just as women today squeeze their feet into tight torturous high heels for the sake of cosmetics, Chinese women bound their feet for the same reason; for the sake of being more physically attractive for men. Men found the â€Å"staggering dance-like walk[vi]† of the bound foot to be extremely erotic. As well the struggle to walk actually made the muscles of the vagina tighter, increasing sexual pleasure for men[vii]. During this period men found the foot to be the most alluring part of the female body, when tightly bound to a length of three inches. Therefore not only was a bound foot a symbol of wealth and adherence to cultural values, but it was also a sign of beauty. The Manchu Dynasty tried to abolish the tradition of foot binding during its rule, but failed. The practice of foot binding went on in China for approximately one thousand years. It was outlawed after 1911 when the Manchu Dynasty fell. There are actually women who still practice foot binding today because they feel it is attractive, but their numbers are very small[viii]. Though the practice is almost extinct today, foot binding continued somewhat after its being outlawed for the sake of tradition which is very important in Chinese culture, then and now. The entire practice of foot binding tells the historian a lot about Chinese society up to the end of the reign of the Manchu Dynasty. Foot binding shows how China was an extreme patriarchy. Society at the time felt that a woman’s place was in the home and to be chaste, a bound foot kept her there. A woman who had bound feet openly showed that she was more than willing to conform to the values of the age for the sake of status. The practice of foot binding also showed that when it came time to be married it was important to be from a wealthy background to ensure a good match, and stability within the marriage. Finally, foot binding shows that in this era women were seen as objects for they enjoyment of men. From the first concubine who bound her feet and danced for a prince to satisfy his desire, to later women who did it to be seen as sexual objects, foot binding has been a custom to gratify men’s desires, despite the pain and malformation it causes.