How War Is Necessary Essay Example for Free

How War Is Necessary Essay Mr.Weirzbowski-English 10 War has been with mankind for many millenniums. The reasons for wars in mankind’s history have all been various, however one big reason for war is that countries want to grow bigger, by taking over one another. Throughout history, rulers would not be satisfied with the amount of land that they had or wanted to spread their beliefs around the world. So, they did it by trying to take over others. However, some didn’t want to give up their land or change, so they fought. Fighting these wars are, however, necessary no matter what people believe. This is because fighting them and winning will stop them from controlling others. Some wars that stopped countries from controlling others are the second world war, the war in Vietnam, and the Revolutionary war. However, there are claims that the Vietnam war could’ve been avoided, but there would’ve been consequences for going to war. War is necessary because it’s a way to try to stop countries from dominating over others and controlling them. There are many ways that war has stopped countries from controlling one another. Firstly, the Vietnamese war was necessary because, the war would’ve stopped the spreading of communism to neighboring asian countries, also known as the â€Å"domino theory†. The idea of communism started with the election of Ho Chi Minh in North Vietnam. Kennedy wasn’t concerned with Vietnam until Lyndon B Johnson called Ngo Dinh Diem the â€Å"Wi nston Churchill of Asia† because, Diem was the only one trying to resist the communists and Johnson promised to help him. Noam Chomsky, a US philosopher, stated that if a country better its economy due to communism, neighboring countries would try to improve their economy using communism, as seen when China influenced North Vietnam. Had communism been successfully spread to South Vietnam, then Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. Also, other countries would’ve lost faith in the US for not protecting S.Vietnam in their time of need. This shows that the US needed to fight this war to stop the communistic ideals from spreading to countries and to keep the confidence of other countries around the world, so that they could help the US when the US needs them. The second world war as necessary  because, it showed how the world responds to a fascist ruler controlling a major country, trying to claim the world. It also showed how the US would react when attacked by another major country. Hitler want to create a â€Å"master race†, which was blonde-haired, blue-eyed people. So when he came into power, he had convinced the german people that jewish people were less than humans and should be treated as such. Thus he started taking over various countries in Europe and started killing jewish people to start his plan. While that was happening, the US was maintaining neutrality and supplying Britain, Russia, and China with weapons until the japanese attacked pearl harbor on December 1941. The US then declared war on Japan and fought in the Pacific theater until August 15th, 1945. Had the axis powers won World War II, North America and South America would be surrounded by dictators ready to destroy democracy and take over the world. Also, H itler’s plan would’ve probably been completed and the world would’ve been comprised of blonde, blue-eyed people. However, the war told us that when we are concerned with individualism, we become selfish and corrupted or under the influence of corrupted selfish nations. This war was needed because, when one tries to dominate and take over another country, we become blinded and end falling. We need teamwork to stay strong in the world. Finally, the Revolutionary War was necessary because, it allowed rights normally granted by the king, to be for every single individual. It also sparked other revolutions, along with stopping Britian from controlling the colonies. When the French Indian War concluded, King George III made the Proclamation of 1763, which stated that no colonists may settle west of the Appalachian and anyone other than Indians there had to move from the area. The Boston Massacre also brought them closer to the revolution, because British soldiers killed 5 civilians for calling them names. The Stamp Act of 1765, Townshend Act of 1767, and the Tea Act of 1773, were all attempt of Britian to try and control the colonies in North America. However after the war, the Declaration of Independence was signed and Britian let the colonies rule themselves. With this newfound freedom, the colonists were allowed to trade with anyone they wanted, colonize past the Appalachian Mountains, set up a new government and th e British moved out of the colonies. Had the colonists lost the war, the US would probably still be under British rule to this day. Even with all this evidence that war is necessary, people still see war as a terrible thing. Going back to the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese War could’ve been avoided because the US could’ve stayed neutral and let the problem in Vietnam blow over, instead of sacrificing 50,000 men. The war would’ve been avoided and Vietnam would’ve became a communist country along with possibly, part of Asia. Robert McNamara, defense chief under John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson, says that he doubted Vietnam would let China or Russia use them as a base, but that’s the US had feared at the time. The US had feared that China or Russia would use them as a base they could use to control more parts of Asia. The Vietnamese could’ve probably fought the war themselves and probably resisted the communistic ways of China and/or Russia. The belief about if war is needed in the world or not cuts both ways. Either that it helps bring everlasting peace in the world closer or it’s useless and all it does is kill off innocent people. War is a big thing that stops countries from trying to gain total global domination or keeping them at bay until they give up. Until that happens, there will be allies who will attack at a moments notice when a country is trying to bite off more than it can chew.There are so many more examples of how war is necessary in the world that this would be a lot longer than it is already. The concept of war may seem bad, but in the end, it’s all worth it.

Culture of the Penan Tribe

Culture of the Penan Tribe The review that I would like to made among the 5 tribes that acted by the Bruce Parry is the Penan tribe. First of all, I would like to introduce briefly about the character of Bruce Parry. Bruce Parry is an activist that venture into the most remote area of Sarawak state in Malaysian Borneo. He believes that the only ways to knows more about the culture anthropology and knowledge for a tribe is to have a participant observation in his fieldwork. Participant observations mean that living within a given culture for an extended period of time, and take part in its cultural daily life in all its richness and diversity. The Penan is a nomadic aborigine that roved on the land of Sarawak Borneo and some other parts on Brunei Bandar Seri Begawan. Nowadays, the number of Penan had officially stated approximate to 10,000 people and around 350-500 of them are nomadic that scattered over Ulu Baram, Limbang, Tutoh and Lawas of Sarawak. (Figures retrieved from: http://www.survival-international.org) The present Penans are consisted with settled, semi-nomadic and total nomadic communities that fully depend on the forest products. In Penan society, the natives are highly developed in an egalitarian society and little gender division. It means that the social stratification among the man and women are almost equal. For instance, the man and women shared most of the chores among them. Such as, gathering the forest product and extracted sago from the sago palms, but they are still some part of chores that dominated by male, for example, hunting in the forest. Penan is a group of native that practiced the ritual of Molong which means that never take more than necessary. The majority of the Penan natives are work as nomadic hunter-gatherers. The nomadic Penan usually moves in group that consisted approximately 40 people included children and old people. They do not stayed for a long time in a particular place. The period of time that they stay is depend on the resources at the place that they stayed and when the resources became fewer, they will choose other suitable places and moved again. The nomadic Penan native that lived in the forest was very much depending on their traditional diet-Sago that starch from the Sago palm. Once, the Sago palms are matured and fully grown, the sago palm trees will be cut down. The leader of the collecting sago palm will make sure an amount of sago starched is enough for each family and kept adequately for their supply. After that no more sago palm will be chop down until they are ran out of food. Besides that, the Penan native also preys on wild animals like wild boars, mouse deer and monkeys. The hunters hunt by using a blowpipe, made with the Belian wood and carved out with a bone drill. The poison darts that they used are made from the sago palms tree bark and on its tip; the Penan dipped it with kind of powerful poisonous latex that extracted from a tree from the forest. However, the Penan natives also cultivate the planting of paddy and domestic animal breeding for their own foods not for sales. Furthermore, I would like to discuss briefly about the Penan culture. Culture can be defined as a learned behavior in any particular society includes those ideas, techniques and habits which are passed on by one generation to another in a sense, a social heritage and which are virtually a set of solutions to problems that, in the course of time, others have met and solved before. (Tony Bilton, Kevin Bonnett, Philp Jones, Michelle Stanworth, Ken Sheard, and Andrew Webster, 1987, page 11) The nomadic Penan move in groups and they have their own clan territories, the groups are consisted of a family of five or six members and some family even consisted of 30 people. The nomadic Penan will leave their old selap (huts) and move to another domain of forest when their sago supplies are exhausted. The majority of the roofs are tarpaulins and there are seldom roof made by giant palm leaves. In the aspect of material cultures, only Penan elders dress in traditional dress, which called chawats means that the loin cloths, and wearing large holes in their earlobes. Nowadays, the Penan natives are making the tattoos by themselves which is almost like prison tattoos. Only few Penan now go in barefoot, most of them are wearing cheap plastic boots with rounded studs to protect their foots. In addition, I would like to discuss about the Penan traditional weapons that are used for hunting. For example the Penans blowpipes which is used for hunting wild animals. The another name for blowpipe is called keleput, are approximately 6 feet long and made from one solid piece of iron wood. Secondly, the process of making the Penan poison darts is cutting off the bark of the tajem tree to extract milky latex that is warmed over a fire to produce the poison. The poison darts can cause lethal arrhythmias to the animals. Blowpipe darts are made from palm fronds with light weight. Darts with metal tips which cut from tin cans are used for bigger size wild animals like deer and bearded pig. The last weapon used by Penan hunters is knives. The Penan hunters are carrying two knives. The first knife is called a poeh, is large and machete-like. The second knife is called darhad which is much smaller than peoh and is used for cutting meat, whittling blowpipe darts and fine work. Both knive s are carried close together with the Penan hunters. Besides that, in the aspect of religion believe for Penan native, the Penan have been converting their animism belief to Christianity since in the 1930s. According to the functionalist Emile Durkheim, religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden beliefs and practice which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them. (Robert Van Krieken, Daphne Habibis, Philip Smith, Brett Hutchins, Michael Haralambos, Martin Holborn, 2006, page 390) However, some of the Penan native still having a strong believe in myths and spirits. The Penan leaders still practice the ritual of blood pacts with neighboring tribe when doing the political agreement. The ritual of blood pacts was believed that anyone who breach of this pact will cause to vomiting of blood and a violent death. Moreover, in the aspect of economic for Penan native, most of the Penan are work as a hunter gatherer in forest and selling the main resource of the forest which is sago. The economy can be defined as a system of production, distribution, and consumption of resources, including the cultural belief that supports economic processes. During the colonial times, the British government will arrange trading missions called tamu close to the forests of the Penan to offered forest products like damar (now used in eco-paints), rattan mats and baskets, rhino horn, gaharu wood (or eagle-wood), wild rubber, monkey gallstones (for Chinese medicine), bills of hornbills, and deer antlers. These items were traded for manufacturing goods like knives, cooking pots and shotguns. None of these forest products are now abundant, but many Penans will sell surplus meat to logging camps. The Penan native also sold the high quality gaharu from gaharu tree but that can take years to accumulate. Gaharu is used a s incense, for medicinal and religious purposes, and as a perfume in the Middle East countries. For the division of labor for Penan, the man will always go for hunting and the woman will generally gather the sago from the sago palm tree and do the house chores. The pattern of economic subsistence for Penan native is foraging and horticulture. For instance, they are foraging in groups for wild plants and hunting for wild animals like wild boar and mouse deer. However, some Penan hunter still practicing the pedestrian foraging which means that the hunters are diversified hunting and gathering on foot. For the horticulture, they also rear some chickens, pigs, and monkey outside their house. The Penan native also having symbolic interactionism when they are hunting inside the forest. According to the principal ontological claim of symbolic interactionist is that reality is not immutable or fixed but is constantly being recreated or achieved through the meaningful interaction of individuals. (Tony Bilton, Kevin Bonnett, Philp Jones, Michelle Stanworth, Ken Sheard, and Andrew Webster, 1987, page 521) Symbolic interactionism means that the interaction among people, how people use symbols in communication and interaction to establish meaning, develop their view of the world, and communicate with one another. The Penan natives have their own forest sign language. For example, a bent twig stuck in the trail may simply delivering the direction of the hunter is going. The complex arrangements of cut twigs, sticks and folded leaves means that delivering the message to the Penan native about anything from the state of the hunting locally to the others hunter whether they are in go od mood or not. Furthermore, the Penan native also facing social changes in the Penan society. In general terms social change refers to the changes in the nature, social institution, social behavior or social relations of a society, or other social structures. According to Barbara Marliene S. Mary Ann A. Schwartz (2006) social change was defined as the time when external events happened, such as war and conquest and culture contact and diffusion, or environmental factors or internal events, such as innovations, invention and population shifts. For instance, in Penan society, the Penan native was influenced by the cultural diffusion from western, such as wearing t-shirt and jeans, cooking pot and cups made from western and lastly some of the hunter are using shotgun for hunting instead of using the blowpipes. The collective action also occur among the Penan natives toward the government when the logging company keep on cutting of the tree in Penan forest without paying any compensate and development to the Penan area. For example, many blockades were set up in attempt to stop logging operations on their land. Unfortunately, the efforts were hard to carry on and the situation turns bad with vast scale of clashes between the indigenous community and the state supported logging company. The Penan native also facing social changes because of the the geography and climate. It is because, the Penan natives is dealing with the survival problems inside the forest. Their food becomes hard to attain and the inhabited environment was contaminated because of the serious logging happened in Penan forest. These kinds of situation makes their natives life in the jungle becomes tough and unease. So, the member in the group is keep decreasing due to migration. Migration refers to the movement of people into or out of a geographical area (Barbara S Mary A, 2006). So, in future, many youngsters who grew up in the nomadic group will choose to move out from the community and headed to the life style in the city. It is because the young people rather choose a spouse from the city than they own people that stayed in the group. In the aspect of development in Penan society, the Penan native did not want any development from the government to them and they just want their own traditional life remains. According to Hunt, E. F. Colander, human being appears to be basically conservative and the human mind and personality are so constituted that once people beliefs, attitudes, and patterns of behavior, they have difficulty in changing them. (Hunt, E. F. Colander, D.C. 2005, page 90) The statement above have shown that why the Penan natives reject the development from government. However, the logging company which could bring development and economic rises to the country have also cause a lot of negative impact to the Penan natives. For instance, the poorly planned logging trails had caused the issues of earth erosion, landslides and the silting of watercourses happened. The situation had affected the functional relation among the Penan and the forest. The big trees which were removed had cause the Penan native hard to gather and hunting for their foods. Lastly half of the habitat of Penan native was being demolished. In the aspect of family in Penan society, the Penan natives are having closure group of marriage, it means that the Penan native will only married each other which is in their own tribe. According to Murdock, family is a social group characterized by common residence, economic co-operation and reproduction. It includes adults of both sexes, at least two of whom maintain a socially approved sexual relationship, and one or more children, own or adopted, of the sexually cohabiting adults. (James Fulcher, John Scott, 2007, page 447) Most of the family in Penan society is nuclear family and extended family. Nuclear family refers to a domestic unit composed of a man and woman in a stable marital relationship, with their dependent children, and the extended families refer to where more than one generation of husbands and wives cohabit with their offspring. (Tony Bilton, Kevin Bonnett, Philp Jones, Michelle Stanworth, Ken Sheard, and Andrew Webster, 1987, page 253) Most of the family member in Penan was built in extended family where the Penan natives live and work together inside their huts. In the aspect of gender in Penan society, gender can be defined as a term that has psychological or cultural rather than biological connotations. If the proper terms for sex are male and female, the corresponding terms for gender are masculine and feminine; these latter might be quite independent of biological sex. (Robert Van Krieken, Daphne Habibis, Philip Smith, Brett Hutchins, Michael Haralambos, Martin Holborn, 2006, page 304) The Penan natives are having their gender identity through the gender socialization. According to Ann Oakley, gender socialization is how socialization in modern industrial societies shapes the identity and behavior of girl and boys from an early age. (Robert Van Krieken, Daphne Habibis, Philip Smith, Brett Hutchins, Michael Haralambos, Martin Holborn, 2006, page 316) For instance, the Penans male when they are born they have to be a hunter-gatherer and do some rough work or learning the skill of doing rattans. The female who are born will have to do the h ouse chores with their mother and do the fine work like collecting sago or fruits. As a conclusion, the social changes have caused a lot of conflict among the Penan tribe and the government. Individual, groups, communities are reluctant to change and facing big struggle to adjust from the life style and conditions that they had used with, so many aspects in life have to be considered. At the same time the society have to differ themselves to maintain existing conditions. The Penan resists change because of their romanticized notion of traditional values and the good old days. (Barbara S, Mary A, 2006) For example, the Penan people valued their forest habitat and their traditional rituals very much and fear of losing each of them caused them hesitated to receive changes. So, the phenomenon of the Penan resistance is natural and it is common if they persisted in their objection. References: James Fulcher, John Scott. 2007. Sociology: Third Edition. United States. Oxford University Press Inc. Robert Van Krieken, Daphne Habibis, Philip Smith, Brett Hutchins, Michael Haralambos, Martin Holborn. 2006. Sociology Themes and Perspectives: 3rd Edition. Australia. Pearson Longman. Tony Bilton, Kevin Bonnett, Philp Jones, Michelle Stanworth, Ken Sheard, and Andrew Webster. 1987. Introductory Sociology: 2nd Edition. Mackays of Chatham PLC, Kent. Barbara Marliene Scott Mary Ann A. Schwartz. 2006. SOCIOLOGY: 2nd edition, Making Sense of the Social World. Allyn and Bacon Pearson. Elgin F. Hunt David C. Colander. 2005. Social Science: An Introduction To The Study Of Society. James H. McDonald. 2002. The Applied Anthropology Reader. Allyn and Bacon Pearson. BBC Tribe of Penan from the website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/tribe/tribes/penan/index.shtml, retrieved at 1 April 2010 Figures retrieved from the website: http://www.survival-international.org, retrieved at 4 April 2010.

The Cyclic Relationship Between Culture And Technology :: Environment Environmental Pollution Preservation

Trying to determine the effect of culture on technology is a difficult task. This is due to the cyclic nature of the relationship between culture and technology. Working with the general notion of culture (1), it is easy to see why the task of analyzing the effect of culture on technology is hard. This is because technology itself is part of this definition of culture, â€Å"all other products of human work and thought† (2). In a sense, we are trying to find the effect of culture on culture itself, which initially sounds strange. However, considering technology as one of the venues that a given culture utilizes to transform itself, the challenge to examine the effect of culture on technology can be narrowed down to the investigation of the cyclic relationship between culture and technology. Thus, this paper discusses, what we will label, ‘technology-induced cultures’ and ‘culture-induced technologies’, in order to show the feedback loop between cultur e and technology. The class readings provide several instances of how technology affects and transforms its encompassing culture (i.e. the culture that was responsible for bringing forth the very same technology). One such technology is agriculture. The hunting and gathering way of life was already being saturated when the world population was about 4 million. With human population reaching 200 million by 200 B.C., it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to survive by just gathering and hunting. (3). Even though it is hard to claim that early man consciously pursued agriculture as the solution to this problem, it is uncontested that the hunter-gatherer society is the culture that was responsible for the invention of agriculture, as Ehrlich points out, â€Å"agriculture was thus invented gradually, piecemeal, and quite probably sometime reluctantly as groups changed time-honored lifestyles†(Ehrlich 15/26). The effect of this technology on the hunter-gatherer society was phenomenal, as it â€Å"put humanity on the road to sociopolitical complexity†(Ehrlich 17/26). The constant mobility as well as the scarce resources involved with the hunting and gathering way of life did not allow for the development of a complex society, as Ehrlich explicitly mentions, â€Å"Without the ensuring agricultural revolution and the sedentary life and divisions of labor it eventually made possible, cultural evolution could never have produced our complex modern civilization. Without farming, which freed some people of the chore of wrestling nourishment from the environment, there would be no cities, no states, no science, and no mayors†(4).

The Urinary System :: science

The Urinary System How do the urinay system work Your body takes nutrients from food and uses them to maintain all bodily functions including energy and self-repair. After your body has taken what it needs from the food, waste products are left behind in the blood and in the bowel. The urinary system works with the lungs, skin, and intestines--all of which also excrete wastes--to keep the chemicals and water in your body balanced. Adults eliminate about a quart and a half of urine each day. The amount depends on many factors, especially the amounts of fluid and food a person consumes and how much fluid is lost through sweat and breathing. Certain types of medications can also affect the amount of urine eliminated. The urinary system removes a type of waste called urea from your blood. Urea is produced when foods containing protein, such as meat, poultry, and certain vegetables, are broken down in the body. Urea is carried in the bloodstream to the kidneys. The kidneys are bean-shaped organs about the size of your fists. They are near the middle of the back, just below the rib cage. The kidneys remove urea from the blood through tiny filtering units called nephrons. Each nephron consists of a ball formed of small blood capillaries, called a glomerulus, and a small tube called a renal tubule. Urea, together with water and other waste substances, forms the urine as it passes through the nephrons and down the renal tubules of the kidney. From the kidneys, urine travels down two thin tubes called ureters to the bladder. The ureters are about 8 to 10 inches (200 to 250 mm) long. Muscles in the ureter walls constantly tighten and relax to force urine downward away from the kidneys. If urine is allowed to stand still, or back up, a kidney infection can develop. Small amounts of urine are emptied into the bladder from the ureters about every 10 to 15 seconds. The bladder is a hollow muscular organ shaped like a balloon. It sits in your pelvis and is held in place by ligaments attached to other organs and the pelvic bones. The bladder stores urine until you are ready to go to the bathroom to empty it. It swells into a round shape when it is full and gets smaller when empty. If the urinary system is healthy, the bladder can hold up to 16 fluid ounces (500 ml) of urine comfortably for 2 to 5 hours.

Moral And Ethical Dilemmas Essay -- Morals Ethics Essays

Moral and Ethical Dilemmas One of the most difficult trials I face in my life are ethical and moral dilemmas. They can be soul-wrenching and searching experiences that tax my character and cause me to really "put my money where my mouth is." Sometimes I'm quick to see ethical faults in others, but slow to see them in myself. Other times I see all to clearly my mistakes and wonder why I don't measure up. I believe one purpose for this life is to learn to act for ourselves. Learn to see a situation correctly and act righteously. In this paper I wish to discuss many of the thoughts I have had recently on setting a pattern for making ethical decisions throughout my life. I will present many of the traps I have fallen into or observed in others. Everyday I'm faced with decisions of right and wrong, most of which are easily and correctly dealt with. Sometimes however, decisions need to be made that are not easy or clear-cut. They require thought and often prayer. I like to draw on past experience to make comparisons that help give insight to new problems. Many times, however past experiences cannot be related to present problems and can confuse and obscure possibilities. Even the opinions or actions of friends faced with similar dilemmas may not be helpful. Often you feel pressured by piers that say, "it's no big deal", or "you'll understand later". It's important that I understand why a particular action or resolution is correct or incorrect. If I can't or don't it's difficult to feel I've been honest with myself. That for me can be a good measure of ethical behavior, my conscience. The ideal way to deal with difficult questions is to have a foolproof formula. Find steps that will always lead to correct decisions. Unfortunately I do not yet have such a formula and often learn by hard experience right and wrong. Let me start by saying I firmly believe the formula exists, and is to be found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The only way to live a perfectly ethical and moral life is to be Like Him. There is no other way. The entire world will experiment and try all other forms of self-indulgence and soul searching and will not be one step closer until they begin with His gospel. I heard it said once that "he who picks up one end of a stick, picks up the other end also." No matter how hard you try or want happiness... ... volunteered and submitted. I could compare it to temple attendance or missionary service. We may serve by commandment alone, and reap all the blessing and rewards, or we could look beyond and see the work of saving souls. We could see the absolute need for our service and give our lives for it. I believe with that kind of true motivation we will more easily be able to see right from wrong. We will not seek to satisfy our own needs or wants, but will see others needs along with ours. We could more clearly see the importance of ethical and moral behavior. Whether someone is watching or not is irrelevant and has no part in our decisions. I admit that this in no way will make the decision making process easier; quite the contrary. No longer will decisions be made based on popularity or gain, but on what's right and good. Unfortunately I will still have to learn by experience when the answers are not clear, so I will get burned a few times. But in the process of learning, I can be confident that I am really doing my best and improving always. By refining this formula I will find myself better able to resolve difficult dilemmas and feel good about my decisions.

Obediance and Deindividuation Essay

Most, if not all humans, have some ethics and morals, which help the individual make distinctions between right and wrong. Therefore, in most situations human beings behave in accordance with their morality. Studies on notions such as obedience to authority and deindividuation have shown that in some cases, an individual can be made to act in direct opposition to their morals and ethics. Studies conducted by Milgram (1963) on obedience have shown that if an individual is ordered to do something by someone who is perceived to be in power, it is possible that they will do it, even if it is something the person does not believe is right. Also, studies conducted by Zimbardo (1973) on deindividuation have shown that a normally healthy, intelligent person can lose their identity in a crowd, and commit acts of violence and aggression which they would not normally commit. According to the deindividuation theory, this is because the individual feels that they can no longer be singled out and held personally responsible for behaviour. The studies conducted by Zimbardo (1973) and Milgram (1963) have been examined and compared in this essay. The notions of obedience and deindividuation have been the subject of some very informative and sometimes disturbing research by social psychologists. Obedience is defined by Moghaddam (1998) as: â€Å"changes in behaviour that arise when people follow the instructions of persons in authority.† Our tendency to comply with authority figures can be surprisingly strong (Bourne & Russo, 1998). Experiments on the subject, particularly those conducted by Milgram (1963) have shown that though obedience is, in many forms positive, it can also be extremely negative, instigating individuals to commit acts of violence or aggression, of which they would not normally partake. Deindividuation is defined by Moghaddam (1998) as: â€Å"The loss of one’s sense of self identity as an individual person, associated with lower self awareness and decreased personal responsibility in group settings†. This can often lead to acts of aggression or violence, by a normally placid person. This notion, as well as the notion of obedience to authority, has been examined in this essay, by looking at, and comparing the studies conducted  by Milgram (1963) and Zimbardo (1973), Milgram looked to explore the notion of obedience by using the cover story that he was conducting research on the effects of punishment on learning. He advertised for volunteers aged twenty to fifty who would be paid four dollars an hour plus fifty cents petrol money. It is important to note though, that the participants were told that the money was theirs simply for coming to the laboratory no matter what happened after their arrival. A wide range of occupations, ages and backgrounds were represented in the chosen sample. The selected participant was introduced to a person (a forty-seven year old accountant, whom most observers found mild mannered and likeable [Milgram, 1963]) who pretended to be another participant, but was actually a confederate of the experimenter. It was explained that as this was a learning experiment, it was required that there be learner and teacher. The participants took a piece of paper from a hat to determine whether he was the teacher or learning. This was rigged so that the participant would always be the teacher (both pieces of paper said ‘teacher’). The teacher was then allowed to watch the learner being strapped into an ‘electric chair’ which was to be used to administer electric shocks. The learner was told that though the shocks could be extremely painful, they cause no permanent tissue damage. The teacher was then taken to an adjacent room and seated in front of a ‘shock generator’ consisting of thirty switches set in a horizontal line. The switches were marked, increasing from 0 to 450 colts, 15 volts at a time. Each group of four switches was also marked, from lowest voltage to highest, â€Å"slight shock†, â€Å"moderate shock†, â€Å"strong shock†, â€Å"very strong shock†, â€Å"intense shock†, â€Å"extreme intense shock†, â€Å"danger, severe shock† with the last two switches simply marked â€Å"XXX† (Moghaddam, 1998). The participant was given an example shock of 45 volts. The learning exercise was a word association task. Each time the learner got an answer wrong, the teacher was instructed to administer a higher level of shock. The teacher was also required to call out the voltage level before administering a shock, to make sure they were fully aware of the shock  level. The learner was instructed to give specific response to different shock levels. Between 75 and 105 volts, the learner grunted. At 120 volts, the learner shouted that the shocks were becoming painful, after that the learner complained of a bad heart and shouted that he no longer wanted to be part of the experiment. The cries became more and more distressed until shock level three hundred, when the learner indicated that he could no longer give answers to the memory test. After this, all that was heard from the learner was agonized cries. The participant was instructed to treat the lack of response as a wrong answer and continue increasing the shock level every five to ten seconds. At different stages of the experiment, the subjects looked to the experimenter for guidance or expressed their wishes not to continue, to which the experimenter’s responses were standardized. A series of ‘prods’ were established, which were to be used each time a participant indicated his unwillingness to go on. These prods were always given in order and were started again each time the participant showed reluctance These were: â€Å"Please continue†, then â€Å"The experiment requires that you continue†, then â€Å"It is absolutely essential that you continue† and finally â€Å"You have no other choice, you must go on†. If the participant refused to go on after the last prod, the experiment was terminated. The participants showed obvious signs of distress throughout the experiment, especially while administering the more powerful shocks. Subjects were observed to sweat, tremble, stutter, bite their lips, groan and dig their fingernails into their flesh (Milgram, 1963). Many subjects said they could not go on, but nevertheless they did. Approximately sixty five percent of participants were fully obedient (Moghaddam, 1998), continuing until they reached the most potent shock on the generator, at which point, the experimenter called a halt to the session. Not one participant stopped before shock level 20, which was 300 volts, and the point at which the learner stopped answering questions. Milgram asked groups of laypeople and experts to predict the outcome of the experiment before it as conducted. As it was predicted that participants would refuse to administer shocks of more than a minimal voltage to learners (Moghaddam, 1998) these results amazed many people. This experiment demonstrated that normal, healthy, intelligent people are capable of carrying out violent and destructive acts, if placed  in the right (or wrong) situation. This was also demonstrated by a study carried out by Zimbardo (1973). The Stanford Prison experiment, as it was known, simulated a prison environment in the basement of the psychology building at Stanford University. The prison was made to be as realistic as possible, with bars, prison uniforms, identification numbers and uniformed guards (who wore mirrored sunglasses). Volunteers for the experiment were screened with clinical interviews and psychological tests to ensure that they were emotionally stable and mature. Participants were to be paid fifteen dollars a day for the two week experiment. The study required two roles, guards and prisoners, which were assigned by a coin toss. The prisoners were unexpectedly arrested at their homes and brought to the ‘prison’ in a police car. They were handcuffed, searched, fingerprinted, booked, stripped, deloused, given a number and issued a prison uniform. Each prisoner was then placed in a six by nine foot cell with two other inmates (Bartol, 1998). The guards were simply instructed to keep order. They all wore standard uniforms and carried a night stick, keys to the cells, whistles and handcuffs. Guards drew up their own rules for maintaining law and order in the prison. Before the prisoners were allowed to do anything, they had to obtain permission, and they were required to address the guards as ‘Mr corrections officer, sir’. The participants quickly absorbed their roles. Guards degraded the prisoners in different ways, making them clean toilet with their hands, disrupting their sleep and using physical punishments and solitary confinement for minor infractions (Bourne and Russo, 1998). The prisoners broke down and accepted the brutal treatment. Three had to be released during the first four days because of hysterical crying and severe depression and many others begged to be paroled, willing to forfeit the money they had earned for participating in the experiment (Bartol, 1998). The experiment was terminated after only six days, well short of the planned two weeks, because of the guards’ brutality (Bourne and Russo, 1998). It is interesting to note some of the remarks made by the prisoners: â€Å"I practically considered the prisoners as cattle† and â€Å"I was tired of seeing  the prisoners in their rags and smelling the strong odours of their bodies that filled the cells† (Moghaddam, 1998). The experiment prompted Zimbardo to conclude â€Å"Many people, perhaps the majority, can be made to do almost anything when put into psychologically compelling situations-regardless of their morals, ethics, values, attitudes, beliefs, or personal convictions† (Zimbardo, 1973, cited in Bartol, 1998). Much the same conclusion had been reached by Milgram (1963) with respect to authority figures (Bartol, 1998). The results of these studies make statements about human nature and social psychology by demonstrating the importance of situational variables in determining behaviour. Zimbardo’s (1973) experiment illustrated the influence of deindividuation – the process of losing one’s identity and becoming part of a group, as a situational variable (Bartol, 1998), and Milgram’s (1963) study examined the variables involved in obedience to authority. Deindividuation follows a complex chain of events. Firstly, the presence of many other people gives rise to a sense of anonymity, the individual then loses identity and becomes part of a group. Under these conditions, the person feels that they can be no longer singled out and held responsible for their behaviour. According to the deindividuation theory, this generates a â€Å"loss of self awareness, reduced concern over evaluations for others, and a narrowed focus of attention† (Baron & Byrne, 1977, cited in Bartol, 1998). The combination of these things is believed to lower restraints against antisocial or aggressive behaviour. This theory is supported by Zimbardo’s (1973) prison experiment. As was demonstrated by Milgram’s (1963) experiment, individuals are likely to be obedient to people who have power (whether real or perceived) over them. Also, culture teaches people in certain roles to expect to be obeyed. As such, people learn to play authority roles, as well as roles submissive to authority (Moghaddam, 1998). This dominant-submissive relationship was demonstrated in the prison study. Stereotypically, prison guards are  perceived as having dominant, possibly even sadistic personalities, whereas prisoners, will tend to be aggressive and socially deviant (Moghaddam, 1998). The results of this study indicate that situational factors have a large bearing on behaviour, regardless of morals, ethics, values, attitudes or beliefs, or in short, the nature of the individual. This is also demonstrated by Milgram’s (1963) study. Milgram’s (1963) experiment also demonstrates how normal, healthy, intelligent people are quite capable of carrying out destructive acts, in this case, however, the individuals carried out these acts, because they were persuaded to do so by a person whom they perceived to be in authority. This can be seen on a much larger scale in the success of dictators, such as Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler. A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do, irrespective of the context of the act and without limitations of the conscience, so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority (Milgram, 1977, cited in Bartol, 1998). A lot can be learned from this about human nature. It can be inferred from this study, as well as Zimbardo’s (1973) study that normal, healthy, intelligent human beings are capable of carrying out acts which normally go against their nature, if the individual is placed in the right (or wrong) situation. These studies showed the effects of authority figures and environmental factors involved in behaviour and suggest that in many cases, people engage in behaviour that goes against their very nature, simply because they are told to do so. The results also show, that under deindividualized conditions, people may do things that they would not normally do, or engage in acts that they did not think they were even capable of. A better understanding of deindividuation could lead to a decrease in violent or aggressive acts committed by individuals in a crowd, for example rioting, and a better understanding of obedience to authority could decrease the possibility of events like those caused by Hussein or Hitler happening again. References Bartol, C.R. (1998). Criminal Behaviour. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Bourne, L.E. and Russo, N.F. (1998). Psychology Behaviour in Context. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioural Study of Obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67 (4), 371-378. Moghaddam, F.M. (1998). Social Psychology. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.

Pink-Dear Mr President Analysis

Pink wrote the song â€Å"Dear Mr. President,† on Martin Luther King Day in 2005. The song was released as a single in 2007 and became apart of her album I’m Not Dead. The song is a direct criticism of President George W. Bush and the policies of his administration. Pink addresses the major concerns of most Americans. The song begins â€Å"Dear Mr. President/ Come take a walk with me. Let’s pretend we’re just two people and/ You’re not better than me. † By stating this as an invitation Pink is directly asking the President to listen to her opinions.Through equalizing social standings, she is diminishing the respect that the President demands, Pink is stating that she will be truthful with him and not sugar coat Tanya Kaplan Song Analysis 03/10/09 her opinions. She will tell him the truth about what everyone is thinking but no one is willing to tell him directly. She states, â€Å"You have come along way from whiskey and cocaine,† addre ssing Mr. Bush’s tainted past, which the media seems to ignore. Pink asks Mr. Bush who he prays for at night. She also asks how he feels when he looks in the mirror and if he is proud of himself.These statements address that Mr. Bush forgot to make good on his promises to help people. He had the power to change society and be a positive force for society but failed to do so. Pink then asks Mr. Bush to look her in the eye, this is a sign that she is aware that he is not proud of his own and is unable to face his own actions, she is challenging him to state that he is proud of his actions. She is also addressing the political corruption that is believed to have occurred in the Bush administration.There are many policies, that were enacted, such as political detainees, which the President directly partook in, while the policy blatantly violated the principles set forth in our constitution. Pink addresses many social issues during this song. â€Å"How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?†¦ Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away,† this is a direct attack on the President’s Iraq war policy. There are thousands of mothers who have lost their children in the war on Iraq; some are soldiers while others are innocent children who are ystanders. During the Presidential Election of 2008, the majority of people stated that they did not support the war in Iraq; however, when this song was written it was very uncommon to have a majority of the people not support the war, let alone discuss the destruction that we are inflicting on the residents of Iraq and their infrastructure. The media did not portray the mass destruction inflicted on the country of Iraq or report the effect that the war was having on military families.There are additional hot button social issues that Pink addresses with the President through her song. She states â€Å"What kind of father would take his own daughter’s rights away? And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay? I can only imagine what the first lady has to say. † Tanya Kaplan Song Analysis 03/10/09 These statements denote George Bush’s policy of anti? abortion, his attempt to refute the Rowe v. Wade decision and to take away a women’s right to abortion.These statements also call into question the administrations anti? gay policies. Ironically Vice? President Cheney’s daughter is gay. It is near impossible to imagine how the President can instill his anti? gay rhetoric while his second in command’s child part takes in a homosexual lifestyle. One must truly wonder what the first lady does say to Mr. Bush, when such a close family friend is directly being affected by his distorted view of appropriate sexuality. Pink also address the non? action that was insinuated by the no child left behind act.The President adamantly states that he is helping the education system in the country through this act, ye t he fails to provide any sort of funding to instill his policy changes. How can one expect to implement new policies yet not provide any funds to do so, while billions of dollars are being spent to make war? Poverty is addressed when Pink explains that Mr. Bush has no idea what it is like to work from minimum wage and be pregnant, or how it would feel to sleep in a cardboard box. She states Mr. Bush knows nothing about hard work.This is a very plausible assertion considering that his own father was the President and he was raised in a more affluent segment of society. The song â€Å"Dear Mr. President† did not get large amounts of play time on the United States radio, in fact it got very little airtime. Pink was quoted as saying that she wrote the song as an attack on the President and his administration to prove that she could and what a great country that we live in to allow her to do so. The song provides for a valid attack on the policies of the Bush administration and o f President Bush himself.