Gullivers Travels Essay Example for Free

Gullivers Travels Essay When Blackadder and Prince George are faced with dilemma of bribing an MP to vote in the princes favour they provide us with a description of a member of parliament called Sir Talbot Buxomly who is corrupt, cruel, ineffectual and open to bribes. According to Blackadder he is a perfect candidate to become a High Court Judge and even Prince George thinks he is a little over qualified. Blackadder: Sir Talbot has the worst attendance record of any Member of Parliament but if we can get him to support us, were safe hes a violent, bigoted, mindless old fool The use of satire here suggests that the high court judge isnt necessarily as honest as you would expect a person with that much power to be. A comparison with this is Swifts description of the Emperor in chapter two. He describes how he is expensively dressed. He had on his head a light helmet of gold, adorned with jewels, and a plume on the crest. Swift compares him to the pompons King George the first. He was king of England but was brought over from Germany and did not speak the language. When the Emperor speaks at Gulliver he cannot understand a word and this is his bribe at the king. Like Sir Talbot Buxomly, the Emperor is useless and incompetent. When it comes to the actual election, Blackadder confesses that they will cheat in order to win votes. He is not alone in this outlook as one of his opponents, Pitt the Even Younger confesses what he did in order to be a decent politician bad mouthed the opposition. Bribed the newspapers. Threatened to torture the public if his party lost. Once again driving home the point that the politicians will do anything within their power to get a seat in parliament. You can tell that cheating is certainly not beneath them when Pitt the Even Younger told what was a decent politician is in his opinion. I fail to see what more a decent politician could have done Similar examples of satire, which criticise politics and the government are also found in Gullivers Travels. In Lilliput anybody who jumps over the highest rope gets a position in court and how candidates jump over and creep under a stick held at various heights win the silken threads which show the kings favourite. Just like in Blackadder getting a job in the court in lilliput is not to down how good you would be at the job but is down to how much you can creep, crawl and pander to the king. Whoever performs his part with the most agility and hold out the largest in creeping and crawling, is rewarded

Division of Labor Essay -- essays research papers

Marx's View of the Division of Labor The Division of Labor is a subject which has fascinated social scientists for millennia. Before the advent of modern times, philosophers and theologians concerned themselves with the implications of the idea. Plato saw as the ultimate form of society a community in which social functions would be rigidly separated and maintained; society would be divided into definite functional groups: warriors, artisans, unskilled laborers, rulers. St. Paul, in his first letter to the church at Corinth, went so far as to describe the universal Church in terms of a body: there are hands, feet, eyes, and all are under the head, Christ. Anyone who intends to deal seriously with the study of society must grapple with the question of the division of labor. Karl Marx was no exception. Marx was more than a mere economist. He was a social scientist in the full meaning of the phrase. The heart of his system was based on the idea of human production. Mankind, Marx asserted, is a totally autonomous species - being, and as such man is the sole creator of the world in which he finds himself. A man cannot be defined apart from his labor: "As individuals express their life, so they are. What they are, therefore, coincides with their production, both with what they produce and with how they produce."1 The very fact that man rationally organizes production is what distinguishes him from the animal kingdom, according to Marx. The concept of production was a kind of intellectual "Archimedean point" for Marx. Every sphere of human life must be interpreted in terms of this single idea: "Religion, family, state, law, science, art, etc., are only particular modes of production, and fall under its general law."2 Given this total reliance on the concept of human labor, it is quite understandable why the division of labor played such an important role in the overall Marxian framework. Property vs. Labor Marx had a vision of a perfect human society. In this sense, Martin Buber was absolutely correct in including a chapter on Marx in his Paths in Utopia. Marx believed in the existence of a society which preceded recorded human history. In this world, men experienced no sense of alienation because there was no alienated production. Somehow (and here Marx was never very clear) men fell into patterns of alienated production, and fr... ...of Revolution (Nutley, New Jersey: Craig Press, 1968), p. 112. 7 German Ideology, pp. 44-45. 8 Critique of the Gotha Program (1875), in Marx-Engels Selected Works, II, p. 24. This is one of the few places in which Marx presented some picture of the post-Revolutionary world. 9 Ibid. 10 Ludwig Yon Mises, Socialism (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, [1922] 1951), p. 164. 11 Maurice Cornforth, Marxism and the Linguistic Philosophy (New York: International Publishers, 1965), p. 327. 12 German Ideology, p. 84. 13 Murray N. Rothbard, "Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty," Left and Right, 1 (1965), p. 8. 14 "On the Jewish Question," (1843-44), in T. B. Bottomore, Karl Marx: Early Writings (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964), pp. 34-40. 15 G. D. H. Cole, The Meaning of Marxism (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, [1948] 1964), p. 249. 16 Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed (1936), quoted by F. A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (University of Chicago Press, 1944), p. 119. 17 Mises, Socialism, pp. 60-62. Reprinted with permission from The Freeman, a publication of The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., January 1969, Vol. 19, No. 1.

Battle Of The Sexes In Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”

It is fascinating that a dramatic narrative can create such a strong representation of a person through words alone, determining their social class, their gender, their relationships and even their intelligence. â€Å"â€Å"Much Ado About Nothing†Ã¢â‚¬  by the respected dramatist William Shakespeare explores the shallowness, the naivety and the innocence of human beings through the characters of Hero and Claudio, the two protagonists who dominate our generation today. However through the seemingly minor characters of Don John and Don Pedro, a contrasting analysis may be made of how someone’s actions can affect others and through comparing the relationship of Claudio and Hero with that of Beatrice and Benedick we understand how differences in experience, maturity and conformity can seriously affect a relationship. Count Claudio, the leading male in â€Å"â€Å"Much Ado About Nothing†Ã¢â‚¬  is an impulsive, handsome, young man, who initially gives us the impression that he will make the ideal husband. However we soon learn that in that traditional, militaristic ideology of feudal aristocracy, male comradeship is much more important than really loving a female. Claudio is insecure and wanting as a lover, forcing us to question whether underneath his flawless brilliance there really is the heroic soldier that we hear about in the opening scene. Leonato describes him as an honourable soldier: â€Å"I find here that Don Pedro hath bestowed much honour on a young Florentine called Claudio† and we understand that this boy is some sort of patriotic symbol to the Messinian community, but we as an audience never see him fight or even show the bravery for which he is renown and for this reason we are compelled to believe that he really is just another naive adolescent in love with an idealistic idea of militarism. Shakespeare deliberately emphasises Claudio’s badge of youth, particularly when his brotherhood are brought to tears by Claudio fighting the war â€Å"in the figure of the lamb, the feats of a lion† and he is referred to as a â€Å"boy† six times and as â€Å"young† on four occasions by his seniors. However despite his youth, Claudio succeeds on Messinian terms and thus secures for himself glorification based on reports of his bravery and heroism. So it is no surprise that included in Claudio’s noble vision for himself is a trophy wife worthy enough to enhance his image and it is through this vision that we are introduced to the beautiful and romantic Hero who suits all of Claudio’s love ideals. In the first scene Claudio admits that â€Å"she is the sweetest lady that e’er I looked on†, which immediately makes us question whether his love is merely based upon an adolescent idea of attraction, as this young man has spotted a woman of beauty and suddenly is announcing his deep love for her and his willingness to cement this ‘love’ in marriage. Elizabethan audiences would see nothing strange in his enquiring after Hero’s inheritance before he takes the blushing Hero’s hand in marriage, but from a modern perspective we find this gauche, although comparison with the high profile relationships of celebrities today who profit economically from advantageous marriages are proof that money based relationships still very much drive notions of love. Claudio is the typical Elizabethan romantic, beguiled into notions of chivalry by society’s stereotypical view of males as creatures honourable and confident and easily enticed into romantic love through the perceived honour of being loved by a beautiful woman, so we can conclude that it is nothing less than the converse of courtly idealisation which characterises Claudio’s attachment to Hero. However it is not just notions of courtly honour which undermine this relationship. Our precious Claudio also fails because his personality is underpinned by a shyness which ultimately leaves him unable to express his feelings, clearly evident when Don John slyly dupes Claudio into believing that Don Pedro is in love with Hero and the reticent Claudio says nothing but chooses to suffer in silence. This shyness makes him appear to be an innocent, sweet lover but the truth is very different. When we witness Claudio’s mistrust after he has believed the rumour spread by Don John, â€Å"I come hither to tell you, as circumstances shortened, the lady is disloyal†, we see Claudio as the inadequate, adolescent he really is. His mistrust in the faithfulness of Hero and his behaviour the following day when he embarrassingly and cruelly rejects her in front of the entire community on their wedding day, because he thinks she is not pure and has betrayed him, in turn degrades his perfect social image making him callous and shallow. It is completely unacceptable for Claudio to humiliate Hero in this way and if Claudio had sincerely loved her he would have at least spoken to her privately or treated her in a more respectful manner which again highlights the flaws in this relationship built as it is upon youthful innocence rather than intellect and conversation. Although in the early 1600’s the idea of being â€Å"pure† was interpreted as having your virginity until your wedding night and an unchaste bride was considered a worthless thing, it was still far more natural for the aristocratic warrior to defend his own honour than to invest any real trust and commitment into the keeping of a woman’s. Interestingly, when Claudio finds out Hero is supposedly ‘dead’ from false accusations, he desires her even more and quickly accepts marriage with her ‘cousin. Claudio’s willingness to acquiesce to Leonato’s demand to marry this cousin seems crass and shallow and negates the undying love he once stated he had for Hero. When Claudio discovers that Hero is not actually â€Å"dead† they reunite and Hero herself certainly seems to have no compunction in reuniting herself with the man who publicly humiliated and abandoned her on the basis of malicious gossip and a contrived conception, which fo rces us to examine her motives. So who is Hero, this woman who has so completely captivated Claudio? Hero is the daughter of Leonato, the Governor of Messina and his push for her marriage to Claudio is a calculated attempt to improve his social profile. Hero is a woman who barely speaks in public but amongst her female company she displays a keen and flexible wit. When faced with men her reserved and restrained nature signifies both her innocence and the superior market value she holds. Her youth, her wealth and her social position all contribute to her aloofness. In typical Elizabethan society women were marginalised and tightly circumscribed into the categories of wife and breeder (to be protected) or the whore (to be discarded). Initially Hero seems to possess the qualities required for the successful advancement of a soldier’s career, being self possessed and silent. However as with Claudio, Hero’s youth and innocence is her downfall. She is shy, differential and rendered totally defenceless against Claudio’s public humiliation and false accusations of her fidelity at the altar on her wedding day and it is here that we see Hero’s shyness as a real weakness, as she stands there speechless, unable and unwilling to prove her innocence and we feel frustration at her passivity and wish she had more of the spunky Beatrice’s poise and confidence. Claudio’s accusation of disloyalty is made more heartfelt because of Hero’s prior prophetic comments on love â€Å"some Cupid kills with arrows, others with traps. † We know how important chastity is to Hero when on the night before her wedding she confesses to Margaret â€Å"my heart is exceedingly heavy† as the prospect of losing her virginity confronts her. The idea of impurity before marriage was inconceivable for any respectable woman in the Elizabethan era and Hero’s innocence is poignantly captured as we see her view her wedding night with both fear and trepidation. Hero embodies the enormous pressure placed on the women of Messina to conform to the male ideal. In Elizabethan times, a woman like Hero submitted herself to her man and rarely retained a voice for herself, but Hero’s willingness to marry Claudio after he has disgraced her is problematic. Her fidelity to an unworthy man who vindicates himself in terms of the male code of honour is disappointing as she condemns herself to a life shared with an untrusting lover. She herself says â€Å"And as surely as I live, I am a maid,† and true to her role as a conventional, romantic heroine, she is exemplary in her patience and forgiveness. The relationship that Hero has with Claudio is your typical ‘Twilight’ romance and markedly different to the one Beatrice shares with Benedick and it is through comparing these two young couples that we gain a deeper understanding of the battle that individuals have within the bounds of society to be themselves. Claudio and Hero’s relationship provides the spine of the play and presents the ideal of beauty, love, reconciliation and sexual attraction prevalent during Elizabethan times, a relationship that is no different to the typical high school relationships of today. Hero and Claudio seem to be at ease with indirect ways of communicating through their friends, just as today’s relationships communicate through means of cyberspace. Facebook, email and text messaging are all chosen over face to face confrontation. However Beatrice and Benedick’s relationship is founded on very different terms. From their first appearance the audience is aware of an excess of feeling between these two that testifies to anything but indifference. These lovers, who have previously fallen out of love, are now determined to confront each other at every possible opportunity as they publicly deny their love for one another and we realise that the distrust that defaces this relationship must somehow be cancelled out if they are to ever accept their love for one another. Both vow they will never marry, but once deceived into admitting the truth about their love for each other, they quickly come together in a truce, determined to love each other for who they are, as individuals, proving that if the magnetic fields of attraction and repulsion are somehow reversed love will surely be the eventual result. A popular misconception about language is the idea that words have innate qualities, but when Beatrice and Benedick eventually declare their love for one another they find themselves stumbling round to find the right words, whilst their words came trippingly when they were hurling insults back and forth between each other as a way of covering up their true feelings of affection. The merry war which exists between Beatrice and Benedick is a rivalry which is not exactly hostile because it is filled with wit and romance. In contrast with the ‘bashful sincerity and comely love† which exists between Claudio and Hero, based on first impressions, wealth and ignorance, Beatrice and Benedick’s love is affectionate and colourful, yet difficult to interpret amongst their playful poetry, covered as it is with a seemingly strong distaste for each other. However when their commitment towards each other is tested through Beatrice’s two seemingly simple words, ‘Kill Claudio’, we see Benedick reluctantly agree to throw away his antagonistic values of war and male camaraderie for love and chivalric respect for a female. By comparison, Hero and Claudio’s love is distant and removed and although playful lacks the humour and suspense that Beatrice and Benedick share. However as Beatrice and Benedick discover, no relationship can be defined through words, suggesting that true love has its own uniqueness in the context of lovers. Shakespeare shows us through these contrasting relationships that ‘love’ can be expressed in many differing ways and that the consequences of love can even mean death. Furthermore, the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick is contrasted with Claudio and Hero’s to illustrate the themes of deception versus reality. Beatrice and Benedick claim that they have no feelings for one another whatsoever, while Hero and Claudio blatantly declare their love for one another without exchanging a single word. Benedick makes the claim that he â€Å"is loves of all ladies.. ut truly [he] loves none,† whereas Beatrice claims that she would rather â€Å"hear a dog bark at a crow than hear a man swear he loves her. † Although Benedick purports to be uninterested in the opposite sex, through Don Pedro’s clever plan of deception, careful conversations are cleverly staged so that Benedick hears Don Pedro and Claudio talking about the â€Å"undying love† that Beatrice has for him. Similarly, when Beatrice overhears her kinswomen reading a sonnet which Benedick has written for her, she too quickly acquiesces. This gossip, fictitious as it is, is helpful in solving the tension their friends have sensed exists between them and when both Benedick and Beatrice hear these fabricated â€Å"facts† that â€Å"t’were true†, their bottled up affection for each other is unleashed, and by the end of the play they are committed to the idea of marriage. Beatrice and Benedick are unconventional for their time. Beatrice is overpowering and slightly masculine in her ways, an unusual trait at a time when women were meant to be passive and submit to their husband’s will. However the asexual Beatrice’s seemingly unfavourable social position gives her a freedom the other characters cannot enjoy. Likewise, Benedick, too, is free to shed his suit of honour in order to fulfil his preposterous mission to prove his love and it is precisely because Benedick is unconcerned about dismantling his social standing that he is free to love unconditionally. But what is the relevance of the brothers and how do they affect both the relationships of Beatrice and Benedick and Claudio and Hero. These brothers, Don John and Don Pedro, are pivotal to the climax of the play where we witness Hero’s humiliation and rejection. Don John and Don Pedro’s relationship is based on jealousy and shows us the depths that rejection can lead us into and how the actions of one person, can significantly change the outcome of a relationship, particularly when that relationship is based on superficial qualities. Don Pedro is the most elusive and seemingly noble character in the social hierarchy of the play and his friends, Claudio in particular, must defer to him as their positions depend on his favour. Don Pedro has power, an attribute he is well aware of and whether or not he abuses this power is a matter of opinion. For instance, he insists on wooing Hero for Claudio, while masked, rather than allowing Claudio to profess his love to Hero himself, and although everything turns out for the best, Don Pedro’s motives are purely in the interest of his friend, we are left wondering why Don Pedro feels the need for such an elaborate way of informing Hero of Claudio’s romantic interest. Although it is Don Pedro’s royal prerogative to do exactly as he wishes and no one can question him, despite his cloudy motives he does work to bring about happiness for everyone and it is his idea to convince Beatrice and Benedick to admit their love for each other. It is Don Pedro who brings the two competitors together as he orchestrates the deception and plays the role of director in this comedy of wit and manners. Contrastingly, his brother, the bastard villain Don John, also orchestrates a deception, Hero’s denunciation, but here he is using power for nefarious purposes. Through the concept of static villainy, Don John is conveniently portrayed as the ‘author of all’ and thus becomes the scapegoat for a society looking to free themselves of the guilt and drama that â€Å"â€Å"Much Ado About Nothing†Ã¢â‚¬  personifies. By only blaming Don John, Claudio, the Prince, and Don Pedro are exonerated and Hero’s humiliation, which destroyed her reputation without hard proof of her infidelity, is blamed on Don John’s villainous deception. So in reality the whole purpose of Don John’s character is to have somebody to blame for everyone else’s mistakes, because nearly all the characters in â€Å"â€Å"Much Ado About Nothing†Ã¢â‚¬  play some role in the climatic rejection of Hero at the altar. In â€Å"â€Å"Much Ado About Nothing†Ã¢â‚¬ , whether it be Claudio the misunderstood returned war romantic, Hero the innocent and wrongly accused wife-to-be, Beatrice and Benedick, the witty yet confused couple or Don Pedro and Don John, the conflicting brothers, Shakespeare has cleverly crafted these characters in such a way that we can relate them to our own lives and it is our identifying with these characters that allows us to fully understand their motives and reasoning. When this play is analysed it is obvious that in â€Å"â€Å"Much Ado About Nothing†Ã¢â‚¬ , it is difficult to think beyond the aristocratic code of honour, complicated as it is by conflicting ideas of love and that if the battle between the sexes is ever to be resolved the key lies within each of us if only we are brave enough to love as individuals.

The United States Government and Information on the...

As the internet age blossoms in the twenty-first century, news and information is becoming available to anyone at anytime with just the click of a button. Almost all preceding forms of media can be found in this one, worldwide medium. Newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and more are all being transferred to the internet to allow for more readers, viewers, or listeners. This new level of access brings the question: How much involvement should the government have in this distribution of media? In the United States, many people value this freedom of information above all else, however, in other nations around the world, citizens are not allowed this liberty. For example, the governments of China and Iran continue to censor media†¦show more content†¦However, freedom of speech, press, and expression is not a liberty valued by all nations. In Iran, a theocracy, the internet, television, and radio is littered with content that contradicts the core values of Islam, making it a threat to their culture. The most recent and popular display of how seriously the government is about media restrictions, is the arrest of the six Iranian citizens who took part in the production of a music video of Pharrell Williams’ hit, â€Å"Happy†. Reporters say â€Å"the police found it offensive. Iran state media called it ‘vulgar’† (Ghitis). The young people were released due to pressure from other nations, however the director remains in prison for his crimes. Because Iran is a nation built on the religion of Islam, its people must follow the principles held by Muslim leaders. â€Å"Article 24 of the Iranian constitution holds that while ‘publications and the press have freedom of expression,’ it is unlawful to express views that are ‘detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam or the rights of the public’† (Bruno). This contradicting statement is a perfect example of the turmoil that Iran has been going through. The country keeps swinging back and forth between movements to secularize the government, and movements to purify the theocracy and return to traditional values. â€Å"Since 2000, IransShow MoreRelatedThe American Government s Involvements And Influences On The Internet1619 Words   |  7 Pagesinvolvements and influences in the Internet compare to Chinese government? Thesis: The United States’ government had played the most important role of developing Internet, and did a great contribution certainly. However, Chinese government had a very different attitudes with American government for Internet at last century when Internet started developing because of some domestic factors. Later, Chinese government changed its attitudes and behaviors. The Internet began developing so fast and playedRead MoreInternet Censorship And Its Effect On Society1053 Words   |  5 PagesInternet Censorship is Detrimental to Society The Internet was designed to enable and facilitate communications with connected systems at the local, state, national and international levels. The United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched a research campaign to find effective ways to link computers to help the exchange of information. In the 1990s, the Internet took off and entered a growth phase which caused an increase in communications worldwide. DARPA did notRead MoreArticle Review On Net Neutrality1171 Words   |  5 Pages Internet Regulation Junior Research Paper Dustyn Baker  Dustyn Baker Period 4 Mrs. Ford: English 6 2-20-15 Net Neutrality Net Neutrality has been argued over for more than a decade, even since the internet became public. It is one of the most controversial topics of the 21st century, and everyone has a different opinion. The united states of America s executive branch believes that the internet should have no â€Å"gatekeepers†, someone or business that doesn’t allow some material through to viewersRead More Censorship and the Internet Essay1213 Words   |  5 Pagesunrestricted information available on the internet many people believe that some of this information should be censored by the United States Government. Whos to say what should be accessible and what should not? Where does it start and stop? Does internet censorship make a nation a safer place to live? There are many countries that don’t allow the use of the internet at all and some countries only censor what they don’t want their citizens to know. Daniel Calingaert said â€Å"The internet has providedRead M oreWho owns the Internet? Essay1204 Words   |  5 PagesWhat actually is the Internet? The Internet is not a singular item, but instead millions of computers that communicate independent of a central controller and dynamically changes size based upon the number of computers that are either connecting or disconnecting. The origins of the Internet can be traced back to U.S. defense research in the late 1950’s at DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) when scientists wished to link Radar stations together as a defense against the threat of a RussianRead MoreEssay on CyberCrime1739 Words   |  7 Pages Millions of people around the world use computers and the internet everyday. We all use it in school, work even at home, computers have made us life easier, it has brought so many benefits to society but it has also brought some problems, cybercrimes is one of them. The internet could be considered a type of community of computer networks, therefore we could cons ider it a society. Like in every society, in the internet there is commerce, education, entertainment, and of course there is crimeRead MoreCensorship in the US Essay1136 Words   |  5 Pagesindecencies on the Internet and television, and the government should control the obscenities on the Internet. Others believe that it is the parent’s responsibility to control and censor what their children are watching on the Internet and television. Censorship is the suppression of publishing information on the Internet or television (Naik). The government blocks only the content that is proved to be unfit for the public. Censorship is only used to a certain extent in the United States of America, butRead MoreInternet Regulation Should Not Be Regulated Essay1297 Words   |  6 Pagesagainst the text by Lawrence Lessig by providing evidence and reasoning that proves that complete internet regulation would never be implemented on a global scale due to the privacy concerns that the United States would face while minimal internet regulation, like what Lessig suggests, would be unable to coexist with countries like China and Saudi Arabia who morally conflict with a global majority. Internet regulation will never be consistent in a global scheme and would require constant revision whichRead MoreEssay on Policing Cyberspace on the Internet1403 Words   |  6 PagesPolicing Cyberspace on the Internet The Internet is a method of communication and a source of information that is becoming more popular among those who are interested in, and have the time to surf the information superhighway. The problem with this much information being accessible to this many people is that some of it is deemed inappropriate for minors. The government wants censorship, but a segment of the population does not. Legislative regulation of the Internet would be an appropriate functionRead MoreInternet Monitoring : Control Laws1339 Words   |  6 Pages University of the Incarnate Word Internet Monitoring: Control Laws in United States Zaid Alsubaie Internet Monitoring and Control Laws of United States There is a continuous monitoring over the Internet in the United States. This is the potential and propositional controversy over the privacy rights. The laws such as Communications Decency Act (CDA) and ‘Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act’ is pertaining to the monitoring of internet is stated as an invasion of privacy, and