A Vision for Tel Aviv Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

A Vision for Tel Aviv - Case Study Example Here may be seen a working model for the future. Hypocrisy has no place here- there are no 'third-class Israelis' here.( Derfner , 'Third-class Israelis') During that visit a student was asked how all of them got along so well in the school. His answer- "We are all human beings and we treat each other equally" prompted the Rabbi to write, "We should listen and learn from this radiant gem of youthful wisdom. We are all God's children, created in the Divine image. Our sacred task is to see the Divine in one another, and to brighten and restore God's image here on earth." (Diamond, Religious Leaders of Greater Los Angeles Mission to Rome & Jerusalem) Diamond, Rabbi Mark S. Executive Vice President, Board of Rabbis of Southern California, Religious Leaders of Greater Los Angeles Mission to Rome & Jerusalem, January 29, 2008. http://www.boardofrabbis.org/Rome-&-Jerusalem-2008 . Retrieved on 15 April, 2009.

Ikea History and Swot Essay Example for Free

Ikea History and Swot Essay History Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA’s founder, has a very intriguing and impressive life story. Kamprad was a very intelligent young Swedish boy who quickly turned into the 5th wealthiest man in the world. His net worth is now $4.2 billion. At a very early age Kamprad started his selling knowledge. When he was just 5 years old he would buy matches in bulk at a cheap store in Stockholm and re-sell them around his neighborhood at low prices, but enough to make a hefty profit. Kamprad’s selling continued and expanded from flowers to greeting cards to pencils and pens throughout the 1920’s. As Kamprads business skills increased he began studying the retail prices of different items in Sweden. He recognized that furniture prices had increase by 41% in 1935 and realized how profitable this area of retailing could be. In 1943, at age 17 Kamprad received money from his father for his successful studies and used the money to create a business. IKEA was then formed, standing for Ingvar Kamprads initials (I.K.) and the first letter of the farm he lived on, Elmtaryd (E) and the first letter of the village he lived in, Agunnard (A.) Kamprad created his furniture line in 1948 aiming for furniture that would be affordably priced. He began only selling his furniture through magazine advertisements. In 1953 the first showroom opened in Almhult Sweden. This was the first time consumers could physically see and feel the IKEA furniture before ordering them. 3 years later the need for flat packs and self-assembly furniture gave rise; one of IKEA’s co-workers had to remove the legs of a table to fit into their car without damaging the surroundings. (â€Å"IKEA Official Page†) In 1958 the first IKEA store was opened in Almhult Sweden. It was the largest furniture store in Scandinavia at the time with 6,700 square meters. Two years after the opening the store Kamprad introduced the first IKEA restaurant which was located inside the furniture store building. Kamprad expanded his store outside of Sweden in 1963 by opening an IKEA store in Norway. Within ten years IKEA stores were being opened outside of Scandinavian countries and expanding into 3 more continents (â€Å"IKEA Official Webpage†.) One of the most recent expansions was into the Dominican Republic in 2010. IKEA is in the process of opening new stores and developing the most innovative furniture products of today. Store Locations After IKEA opened in Sweden in 1958, it quickly moved into other Scandinavian countries opening stores in Norway in 1963 and in Denmark in 1969. Throughout the 1970’s IKEA rapidly spread through Europe. The first store outside of Scandinavia opened in Switzerland and quickly after IKEA made its presence in Germany. In 1975 IKEA arrived in Australia and opened its first store in Sydney. Throughout the 1970’s IKEA also opened stores in Japan, Hong Kong, The Netherlands and Singapore. Germany has IKEA’s biggest market with 46 stores in the country. Following Germany is the United States with 38 stores across the country. As of right now, IKEA has not appeared in developing countries, but is still planning for more global expansion (Countries.) IKEA group has continued growing every year and is now a large retail experience with over 123,000 co-workers. IKEA’s employees help generate annual sales of more than 21.5 billion dollars. The stores locations are placed strategically. The location is near major roads, freeways and public transportation. Although the stores are not normally placed in densely populated areas, IKEA is still successful and reaps high traffic due to the Huff Gravity model. Since IKEA stores are so large and carry a wide range of products, people are willing to travel a further distance to their stores. The largest IKEA store is in Stockholm, Sweden with a size of 55,200 square meters and following behind it is the Shanghai, China store with a size of 49,400 square meters (â€Å"IKEA†) In 2011 IKEA announced a plan to build a wind farm in Sweden to help IKEA achieve its ecological goal of running on 100 percent renewable energy. The next year IKEA made another announcement about the company creating a chain of 100 economy hotels in Europe. However, these IKEA hotels will not follow the same IKEA brand name and will not be furnished with IKEA’s furniture. The list below contains the country and number of IKEA stores present in the country, ranked in order of their opening dates: Sweden (17), Norway (6), Denmark (5), Switzerland (7), Germany (46), Japan (5), Australia (7), Canada (12), Hong Kong (3), Austria (6), Singapore (2), The Netherlands (12), Spain (15), Iceland (1), France (28), Saudi Arabia (3), Belgium (6), Kuwait (1), United States (38), United Kingdom (18), Italy (20), Hungary (2), Poland (8), Czech Republic (5), United Arab Emirates (2), Slovakia (1), Taiwan (4), Finland (4), Malaysia (1), Russia (14), Israel (2), Greece (4), Portugal (3), Greece (5), Portugal (3), Brazil (3), Turkey (5), Romania (1), Cyprus (1), Ireland (1), Dominican Republic (1), Brazil (1), Bulgaria (1) and Thailand (1) . Target Market IKEA strives to have a wide target market, wanting people around the world of all different demographics and psychographics to purchase IKEA products. IKEA defines its global target market as â€Å"young people of all ages† including individuals, families, design exteriors, and hospitality businesses like hotels. IKEAs target audience includes but is not limited to age groups of 18 to 34 and 35 to 49 years old. IKEA focuses on college and post graduate aged individuals. IKEA’s target market contains both sexes. IKEA’s target market typically lives in urban college and metropolitan areas. The salaries of the target market can range from $15,000 to $50,000 and are usually spending their money on technology products (such as iPhones and iPads.). IKEAs target audience engages in a quick paced lifestyle that may include travelling and moving often, for example moving from apartment to apartment or to an upgraded home. Due to this â€Å"mover† lifestyle they are normally looking for a cheap, easy to build product that can be packed tightly. Because of their median income, the consumer is not very status conscientious and is not searching for expensive designer furniture. The shoppers’ personalities are relaxed and/or creative and artistic. They are considerably fashionable and search for trends, but love to get deals simultaneously. They want to do things themselves (which follows closely with IKEA’s do it yourself product attitude) and care about the environment (Rowe.) IKEA also focuses on budget conscious families. This target market is beginning to start a more domestic lifestyle. The families usually have young children. To satisfy this target market most IKEA stores include a daycare or child-watch section for the children inside the stores. Although this target audience is in a different stage in their life, they still hold similar habits and lifestyle as the previously described target audience (Rowe.) Product Assortment IKEA is a retailer of home furnishings. You can find anything you need for every room in your house at IKEA. From the IKEA official website, their departments include: Bathroom| Living room| Bedroom| Office furniture| Cooking| Outdoor| Decoration| Secondary storage| Dining| Small storage| Eating| Textiles rugs| Hallway| Youth room| Kitchen| Children’s IKEA| Laundry| IKEA FAMILY products| Lighting| | (â€Å"IKEA Official Webpage†) IKEA sells items ranging in these categories and they even provide customers with the service to help them create their own kitchen, closets and office with IKEA products. Their kitchen services include Total Project Management, Delivery, Installation and more. Their individual kitchen planning start at $199 and their measuring service start at $49. In IKEA retail locations, they also have IKEA Food. They have a restaurant where they sell their own assortment of Swedish food, located inside the IKEA retail store. Customers can sit down in a cafeteria style dining and enjoy IKEA’s famous Swedish meatballs and Lingonberry drink at amazingly low prices. In IKEA, there is also a Bistro/Exit Cafà © right at the checkout where they sell typical American food, ranging from 75 cents to $4, such as hot dogs, chips, soda, frozen yogurt and more. IKEA also has their own â€Å"grocery† section where they sell Swedish food. The IKEA official website states that the IKEA Swedish Food is â€Å"based on Swedish recipes and traditions, the wide choice of food and drink runs from frozen meatballs to sweets and coffee. You’ll save time and money whether you’re making a meal for your whole family or putting together the menu for a party† (IKEA). Their food categories include: Beverages, Easy to prepare, Meat, fish seafood, Pastries, desserts cookies, Sweets, chocolates snacks and Swedish celebrations. The last category has food items such as Swedish Christmas drink, cheese pie, Rhubarb crumble tart, and frozen Saffron rolls. SWOT Analysis Strengths * Low prices: IKEA has a strong concept based on offering a wide range of well, designed, functional products at low prices. They have created a design that is a balance between function, quality, design and price which appeals to customers in tough financial times. Their pricing strategy appeals to consumers both with limited financial resources and those with higher budgets searching for trendy, modern furniture. Due to Porter’s generic strategies, IKEA follows an integrated cost leadership and differentiation strategy. * Product’s ease of assembly: IKEA products come with clear instructions making it easy for anyone to assemble the product without the help of a professional. * Location and design of store (the IKEA store experience): IKEA locations are successful because of the Huff Gravity Model – due to the large size of IKEA, people are willing to go the distant locations where IKEAs are located. IKEA’s store design is very unique. The layout is designed in such a way that makes customers go through the entire store to get to their final purchase. A lot of customers go to IKEA for its unusual experience. * Global positioning: IKEA is available throughout the world and they cater their products to each country they go into. For example, they redesign the size of the beds for the different countries. American consumers need larger sized bedding differentiating from the European consumers who had smaller, longer beds. * Reputation for products and company: IKEA customers enjoy the modern look of IKEA products because the target market consists of creative individuals searching for trendy products. IKEA’s brand is ranked globally at number 28 and ranked number 1 for sustainable image by Ranking the Brands Overview (Brand Ranking.) * Large catalogue reach: IKEA’s yearly catalogue reaches several countries and easily advertises IKEA products to those customers. Their catalogue is distributed in 36 countries, in 27 languages and in 52 different versions. Weaknesses * Product quality: IKEA has been known for having poor quality products. But the need for low cost products means there has to be a compromise between quality and price. * Poor customer service: Because of IKEA’s do it yourself model and very straight forward instructions eliminates the need for a help desk and intensive customer service. Customer service is important to ensure complete shopping experience and ensure repeat business. * Massive store growth- IKEA is experiencing problems in a couple of their home markets. One example is the UK is expanding the number of IKEA store locations but the number of shoppers is not increasing. This means that there is a constant number of visitors divided by a larger number of retail outlets producing fewer shoppers per store. In the past consumers would travel large distances to visit stores and each store a had a large number of visitors, now the amount of consumers purchasing IKEA products has not increased in numbers but they are able to visit a more local store. These new store locations reduce the footfall per store and sales density (SWOT Analysis IKEA.) Opportunities * Financial condition: Because of the current financial condition, consumers are trading down from expensive stores to the low priced products offered at IKEA. * IKEA website: IKEA has an opportunity to grow through expanding their online shopping. IKEA website only has a few items you can purchase and IKEA will ship it to your house or you can pick it up at an IKEA location near you. IKEA could expand their online product offerings and services to increase product sales. * Smaller stores: IKEA store locations are distant and large and they can take advantage of opening smaller stores in more dense locations where people can buy small home products or buy their Swedish food. IKEA must only open these new store locations in places where the number of customers is increasing, to avoid a reduction in footfall per store like the UK market. * More stores in the U.S.: IKEA currently has only 38 stores across the country and they could possibly expand this market due to the high percentage of sales the United States gives IKEA. * Capitalize their Green efforts: IKEA can capitalize on their GREEN efforts. Customers’ desire to have less of an impact on the environment and due to the increased demand for cheaper and greener products, IKEA can take advantage of this and develop these products that the market wants. * Bonus/rewards services: IKEA can add bonus/rewards services to increase customer satisfaction as well as increase customer loyalty. Threats * Product quality: IKEA products are poorly made and people are willing to spend the extra buck to buy a product of better quality that will last for years. * Competitors: More competitors are entering the low price household and furnishing markets increasing the competition IKEA will have to face. * When the economy strengthens- The recession slows down consumer spending and disposable income reduces. However when the economy strengthens, consumers will be willing to purchase furniture products at a higher price in order to get better quality. IKEA needs to find a way to stay profitable when the economy takes this turn. Promotion Strategy IKEA promotes their retail through traditional advertising such as TV commercials, a yearly print catalogue as well as utilizing new ways of advertising such as social media and guerrilla marketing. In the past IKEA’s television commercials were characterized as funny and crazy often stating the slogan â€Å"they are crazy these Swedes†. This statement referred to the â€Å"crazy† low prices IKEA products were offered for. They would also often have a Swedish guy driving a yellow buggy loaded with IKEA boxes. Presently, IKEA commercials are more simple and modern. The new commercials focus on families in a household setting using IKEA products. These commercials continue with the humorous appeal, but only focus on a few IKEA items, to ensure the customers are more focused on the substance of the commercial. IKEA utilizes social media by holding contests on websites such as Facebook. When they were opening their new IKEA Malmo store in 2009, they created a Facebook campaign where a showroom picture was uploaded to their Facebook profile and the first people to tag an item won that item (How To? From IKEA). Through the speed of social media, IKEA was able to get their customers to personally promote IKEA. IKEA also has held several contests throughout the years. They have contests such as â€Å"What’s your story?†, â€Å"The Life Improvement Project†, â€Å"Dream Kitchen Giveaway† and several more. They really enjoy promoting their products by getting their customers involved. IKEA uses customer interaction in many of their promotion strategies. IKEA also has a yearly catalogue that can be sent to your homes or picked up at a local IKEA location. IKEA’s yearly catalogue takes up a large part of their marketing budget because the catalogue is used as a main channel for communication around the world. IKEA’s catalogue is distributed in 36 countries, in 27 languages and in 52 different versions. The catalogues distributed in different countries have the same Scandinavian names but differ in their product offerings which are highlighted on separate pages (Gustafson). IKEA caters to the different countries where they distribute their catalogues by trying to incorporate the different cultures into their catalogue. On top of sending paper catalogues around town, IKEA likes to go out of their way to show IKEA products in their normal settings but in extraordinary locations utilizing the concept of â€Å"guerrilla marketing†. This usually occurs when IKEA is opening new stores. Examples of IKEA’s guerilla marketing include redecorating bus stations with IKEA furniture, redoing a subway bus with IKEA furniture and mounting IKEA furniture off the side of buildings. They make it as extreme as possible because they want to draw in people’s attention and make them stop and have a look. To promote their store in Tampa, IKEA produced their take on a ‘message in a bottle’ by placing an IKEA playroom inside a giant plastic bottle. In Japan, IKEA transformed a gingko tree-lined boulevard in Tokyo’s shopping district of Aoyama into an open-air museum. They had fifteen box-like structures the size of typical Japanese rooms which were fitted out IKEA furnishings (Capell). IKEA alters their advertising to the match the different cultures and environment for each country, but continues to enforce their unusual extreme promotions to reach a large amount of people and hold their attention. . Works Cited Capell, Kerry. Ikeas New Plan for Japan. BusinessWeek. N.p., 25 Apr. 2006. Web. http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2006-04-25/ikeas-new-plan-for-japan. Facts Figures. IKEA. N.p.. Web. 21 Feb 2013. http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/about_ikea/facts_and_figures/facts_figures.html. Gustafson, Martin, and Eric Jonsson. Influence of Culture and National Image on Marketing: A Study of IKEA’s Promotion in Sweden and France. (2008): n. pag. Web. http://umu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2:158758. History . IKEA offical webpage. N.p.. Web. 21 Feb 2013. http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/about_ikea/the_ikea_way/history/index.html. How To? From IKEA. IGK Marketing RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2013. http://igkmarketing.com/ikea/. IKEA. Advertisement. IKEA. N.p., n.d. Web. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/cooking/16260/. IKEA. Countries with IKEA Stores. N.p.. Web. 21 Feb 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_IKEA_stores. Marketing Teacher. SWOT Analysis IKEA . Marketing Teacher Ltd 2000. Web. 25 Feb 2013. http://www.marketingteacher.com/swot/ikea-swot.html. Rowe, C.. Scribd. IKEA Marketing Plan. N.p.. Web. 21 Feb 2013. http://www.scribd.com/doc/65014303/IKEAMarketingPlan. ADD BRAND RANKING WORKS CITED

French Literature in the Age of Reason :: European Europe History

French Literature in the Age of Reason The Age of Reason, or the Enlightenment, was a period in France during the 1700's following the classical age. Within this time, philosophers placed the emphasis on reason as the best method for learning. It explored issues in education, law philosophy, and politics. It attacked tyranny, social injustice, superstition, and ignorance. This time produced advances in such areas as anatomy, astronomy, chemistry, mathematics, and physics. These were the ideals taken up for both the American and French revolutions. A significant amount of the literature produced was philosophical, and written by important thinkers such as Voltaire, Denis Diderot, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. Of the above, Voltaire was the most well-known literary figure of the time. He fought against intolerance and bigotry, and worked to promote rationalism through his literary skills. His most famous work is the novel Candide (1759). As well, Voltaire wrote tragedies influenced by the works of William Shakespeare. Through his many works on European and world history, he helped develop the principles of historical writing for modern times. Denis Diderot is most famously known for editing one of the great intellectual achievements of the Enlightenment, the French Encylopà ©die (1751-1772). The Encylopà ©die is a collection of articles written by many writers in several fields. The purpose of the book was to try and rationally explain recent scientific discoveries while attacking religous authority, economic inequality, and abuses of justice. In his novel The New Heloise (1761), Jean Jacques Rousseau suggested changes in French society, and in Emile (1762) put forward the idea of change in education. The autobiography Confessions (published in 1782 and 1789 after his death) helped to create the modern works that provoke self-analysis. Rousseau, with his sensitivity to nature, brought a more lyrical and meditative sensation back to French literature. An example of this can be found in Reveries of the Solitary Stroller (1782). There are several other major writers and works that helped contribute to the literary expression during the Age of Reason. There was Montesquieu, who wrote wittingly about social critisism in Persian Letters (1721). The well-known satirical novel Gil Blas (1715-1735) written by Alain Renà © Lesage.

Human resources Essay Essay

This essay is basically about the Catastrophe Concepts contract. Catastrophe Concepts is an Australian manufacturer as well as a distributor of women’s fashion apparel. The sales manager of the company, Karen Stevens was hired by the company in the year 2001 and currently Karen works as a senior sales executive for Catastrophe Concepts. It has been eight years now that Karen is working for the company and is being paid $175,000 annually and is also provided with a company maintained car. However, there is no specific written record regarding Karen’s recruitment except for a letter that was sent to Karen in which she was welcomed to the company and it also said that she would be paid $75,000 annually by the company. However, Catastrophe Concepts is now facing a serious downturn that has concerned the marketing manager of the company, Lilly Zheng to question whether Karen should be allowed to continue working for the company or not. Karen has been working for Catastrophe Concepts since the last eight years with all sincerity and no issues of misconduct or decline in her performance can been seen as her performance has always been rated acceptable but she does not have any further chance of promotion or to further advance in her career. This is the reason why Lilly Zheng is concerned whether Karen should be allowed to continue working for the company or she should be terminated and due to this Lilly has a few questions in her mind and she wants the human resource manager, George Chapel to answer. In this part of the paper I would answer some of the questions arising in the mind of Lilly Zheng from the viewpoint of George Chapel. The first question that Lilly has in her mind is related to Karen’s termination and she wants to know how Catastrophe Concepts can terminate Karen. For this, I would say that termination would not be the correct word to be used in this case and the reason behind this is that an employee can only be terminated from the company on the basis of misconduct or due to unsatisfactory performance but Karen is not charged of any of the two so she cannot be terminated from Catastrophe Concepts. However, termination has a broader concept than this and it can be voluntary i. e. with the employee’s free will or it can be involuntary i. e. terminated by employer. Layoffs and dismissals are a part of involuntary termination. In this situation, Catastrophe Concepts can layoff Karen due to the downturn of the business or they can opt for a mutual agreement between Karen and the company. In order to make the termination soft, the company can take certain actions such as by asking Karen herself to resign and to convince her to do so by explaining her facts. Termination always leaves negative affects on the other employees working for the company as they become unsecure about their own job and their motivation level decreases. For this purpose, at the time when Karen is terminated, she should be given various incentives and should be allowed to leave the company in the most respectable manner (Storey 1998).. In case Karen agrees to leave the company and if she joins a competitor, there are many risks involved with this as Karen has worked for Catastrophe Concepts for quite a long period of eight years and she knows a lot about the company. Moreover, she is the senior sales executive and so she knows all the techniques of selling women’s apparel and where ever she will go she would definitely use her skills. Due to this, there should be some restrictions that should apply to Karen such as she should be made to sign a contract not to provide the company details to the competitor or to provide the competitor with the secrets of the company. (David 1997). If Karen provides confidential marketing information to the competitor, this would be very bad for Catastrophe Concepts as this will help the competitor not only to know the marketing secrets of the company but it would also help the competitor predict the future actions Catastrophe Concepts is planning to take and on this basis, they might come up with better strategies or they might use the same marketing plans before Catastrophe Concepts applies these strategies and plans and this will prove to be awful for Catastrophe Concepts. Another possibility that might happen after Karen’s termination is that she might lure and hire other staff currently employed by Catastrophe Concepts. This would also prove to be bad for Catastrophe Concepts as they would loose their employee and with the employee, they also have a lot of possibility off losing company’s information. Moreover, as the employees as already trained by Catastrophe Concepts, they would have to hire a new employee and train them all over again and this involves both financial and time cost. Huselid 1995). The second part of the paper suggests the restraint of trade clause that should have been included in Karen’s original written contract. Moreover, another thing that needs to be taken care off in this contract should be in context with the duration, extent and geography. For such situations, it is very important for Catastrophe Concepts to have a good human resource department so that they can fulfill their duties and do the best for the employees working in the company. It is the duty of the human resource department to come up with various strategies and trade clauses for the employees. Previously, however Catastrophe Concepts did not have any such trade clause due to which they are facing this problem now, therefore they should take steps now and should work on the clause so that such problems do not occur in future. It is always necessary for the company to have their legal rules defined to the employees so that they are aware of things. Having a trade clause would further enable to protect its legal rights and there should always be an agreement between the company and the employee. It is also a wise idea to have employment agreements as these would enable Catastrophe Concepts to guard their wellbeing against the employees working for the company; however the human resource department has to be careful when coming up with trade clauses and they should make sure that they have the most important ones already defined for the company. Some of the most important ones are mentioned in the paragraphs below. (Micallef & Powell 1997). When an employee agrees not to opt for a profession that is similar to the one he is currently working as in order to prevent competition against the company is possible when an employees signs a non-compete clause. Once the employee signs the contract, he is bound to obey it and he cannot opt for the same profession once he resigns or is terminated from a company. This contract can help the company to prevent the employee from distributing the company’s confidential information or any kind of trade secrets to the competitor. These secrets might include the company’s marketing strategies or the products the company plans to come up with in future. (Lado &Wilson 1994). Non-Solicitation Agreement would basically help Catastrophe Concepts to guard the employees from stealing information or the customers. Other than this, they can form non-competition agreements as they can center on geography, customers as well as knowledge. It is not likely for Catastrophe Concepts to stop the competitors from competing with the company but there are certain situations in which such contracts can be signed such as in employee-employer situation. Non-disparagement agreement averts the employee to speak bad things about the employer and the non-interference agreement averts the employee from interfering in relationships such as between the vendors or the customers, etc. Other than this, Catastrophe Concepts can also opt for confidentiality agreement, termination agreement and workplace property agreement, etc. Confidentiality agreement would prevent the employee from giving the confidential information of the company to the competitors while the termination agreement would help the company in terminating employees by making the employees sign a contract at the time they join the company. Moreover, another problem Catastrophe Concepts might face could be to keep the property at the workplace safe and secure and for this it is essential for the company to make the employees sign the workplace property agreement. (Leat 2001).

Popular culture can be seenas a tool for maintaining status quo, discuss this point of view

Marxist school of thought argues that society is structured by and is divided into classes with the ruling one being at the top of the hierarchy. No matter which class takes that social power (hegemony) and becomes the bourgeoisie of its time, there is always a need to maintain it, thus controlling the proletariat by any means at hand. In this essay I will discuss how popular culture is used to achieve this goal according to the Marxist point of view. In the modern times culture and classes are mostly confined within individual states, although interchangeable cultural values and process of globalisation might be developing in our society, they are not yet matured enough to challenge the key capitalist ideology. The state in opinion of such Marxist as Louis Althusser is the kind of governmental formation that arises with capitalism; a state (term ‘nation' can also be applicable in this case) is determined by the capitalist mode of production and formed to protect its interests. It is historically true (whether you are a Marxist or not) that the idea of nations as discrete units is coterminous with capitalism. He sees such political ideologies as democracy for example, as providers of an illusion that all people are equal, and have equal power (and hence masks relations of economic exploitation). ‘Culture is a constant succession of social practices: it is therefore inherently political' (John Fiske) Althusser stated in his works that there are two main ways in which the elite can manipulate lower classes; Ideological State Apparatuses is one of such mechanisms. These are institutions, which generate ideologies, which we as individuals (and groups) then internalize, and act in accordance with. Examples include schools, religions, the family, legal systems, politics, arts, sports and media. As we will see later, popular culture can be used in conjunction with these ISAs. Since the end of 19th century television started to play a major role in our lives. It generates values, ideas and messages that we often do not question thoroughly enough to understand their indented meanings. Thus, arguably it is the tool social elite uses to controls us. Due to the fact that television is often blended into the term popular culture or is defined as significant element of popular culture; I shall base my discussion around its example. According to such theorists as John Fiske and Wiesengrund Adorno mass media promote low cultural concepts (to which all this of popularity are assigned according to elitist point of view) that are meant to keep the members of the lower society classes passive or even narcotized to fuel the capitalist machine. A good example would be a BBC news report that is considered to be trustworthy source of information. Every day before report goes on air its content is carefully edited to fit in with the current government agendas and social norms. Even though issues raised may concern a variety of professional debates within the society, they are simplified and implemented in the standardized language to be easily understood, hence dummed down to the level of the lowest common denominator that is proletariat. Amongst such concepts is commodity culture which links well with the culture industry. First endorses the view that people in modern society are nothing more than a set of branded goods and are easily manipulated. This theory connotes that anything could be purchased in the capitalist society for a certain amount of money that serve as ultimate lever of the classes. John Fiske goes on to expand this idea to suggest that even loyalty, love and friendship values can be corrupted by this type of popular culture. Supporting these statements is a difficult task; however, let us look at some common to all of us things. Non-compulsory military service could suggest purchasable loyalty; it offers good wages and high quality training in exchange for your life (extreme and blunt example yet makes a point). Commodity culture in its turn, as stated by Adorno, keeps us passively satisfied and politically disinterested. It provides us with false needs to take care of and a set of fetishistic desires, which invade our lives. All of this is said to exhaust our economic potential to the point we loose our upward mobility and become an inactive part of the society that poses no threat to the ruling elite's hegemony. Take reality TV shows and property market. Do we really need to know that some of our fellow humans can't sing? Or do we need to keep buying and selling properties until we have large mortgages, high levels of stress and no real power? Yet most of the people master the art of making do that is popular culture values. Finally French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu divided capital into cultural and financial parts. He reasoned that similar to variable access to money and thus power by different classes and social groups, there is a variable possession of cultural and symbolic power. Hence by embracing popular culture we lower our cultural capital that affects our status and meaning within the modern society. Marxist view of the society is quite dated now, yet it still provides alarmingly appropriate to modern day life ideas. Nonetheless, it is important to understand that in its extreme and pure form Marxist view can only lead to wild conspiracy theories and delusional arguments. In my opinion Marxism should be used in conjunction and contrast with its rival theories in order to reach realistic conclusions.

Free Essays on Six Character Of Virtue

Aristotle six characters of virtue are the Godlike-Divine, Bestial, Virtuous, Vice, Continent and Incontinent. Extra- credit I can sincerely tell you that during my formidable years. I had a rather incontinent disposition. As a young boy, 7 thru 13 years of age, I was a follower, easily influenced by my so called friends. Moreover, I was also exposed to external situations in which temptation would always win the battle. I remember one time; I played hooky with my friends, we went down by the Hudson River and we all jumped in for a swim. But before I jumped in the water, I can clearly remember my mother telling me not to dare jump in the river because a boy had just drowned not to long ago,† but despite my mother’s advise, I didn’t want my friends to think that I was a chicken, so I jumped in the river. And so, there were many more episodes of stupidity and carelessness on my part and all for the sake of wanting to be like the kids on the block. My intractable behavior often landed me in lots of trouble in school, in the neighborhood and at home, unnecessarily. I guess, I wanted to be like the neighborhood kids, I wanted to be accepted and popular with them, and at times, I felt popular and accepted among my peers at the time. Fortunately, I really never got into serious trouble that would rise to the level juvenile delinquency but it was serious enough to get my parent’s attention and I can tell you that I paid the price for my mischievous acts. I count my blessings that I had good parents that provided a loving home and structure in my life. The decisions tha t I made was, certainly, no reflection on their parenting skills but rather decisions that I made on my own for what ever reason they were at the time. Too their credit, it was their persistence that kept me in line and not to continue in destructive path like some of the so called friends winded up. Nonetheless, as I reached my teen years, I began to realize th... Free Essays on Six Character Of Virtue Free Essays on Six Character Of Virtue Aristotle six characters of virtue are the Godlike-Divine, Bestial, Virtuous, Vice, Continent and Incontinent. Extra- credit I can sincerely tell you that during my formidable years. I had a rather incontinent disposition. As a young boy, 7 thru 13 years of age, I was a follower, easily influenced by my so called friends. Moreover, I was also exposed to external situations in which temptation would always win the battle. I remember one time; I played hooky with my friends, we went down by the Hudson River and we all jumped in for a swim. But before I jumped in the water, I can clearly remember my mother telling me not to dare jump in the river because a boy had just drowned not to long ago,† but despite my mother’s advise, I didn’t want my friends to think that I was a chicken, so I jumped in the river. And so, there were many more episodes of stupidity and carelessness on my part and all for the sake of wanting to be like the kids on the block. My intractable behavior often landed me in lots of trouble in school, in the neighborhood and at home, unnecessarily. I guess, I wanted to be like the neighborhood kids, I wanted to be accepted and popular with them, and at times, I felt popular and accepted among my peers at the time. Fortunately, I really never got into serious trouble that would rise to the level juvenile delinquency but it was serious enough to get my parent’s attention and I can tell you that I paid the price for my mischievous acts. I count my blessings that I had good parents that provided a loving home and structure in my life. The decisions tha t I made was, certainly, no reflection on their parenting skills but rather decisions that I made on my own for what ever reason they were at the time. Too their credit, it was their persistence that kept me in line and not to continue in destructive path like some of the so called friends winded up. Nonetheless, as I reached my teen years, I began to realize th...

How To Talk To Prospects At Every Stage Of The Marketing Funnel

How To Talk To Prospects At Every Stage Of The Marketing Funnel A funnel is a way to visualize your prospects’ journey through the marketing and sales process. Figure out where in the funnel they are at from the unaware to the purchase stage. So, it’s time to put fun back into that funnel! Today, we’re talking to Emma Tupa, ’s marketing automation strategist. She shares how to create personas, find a voice, breakdown funnel stages, and change communication tactics. Marketers, do you know who you’re talking to? Create buyer personas collection of prospect characteristics based on research Ways to create buyer personas depending on the stage of your business Research and information lets you pinpoint your ideal customers and target them with specific messaging Find your tone and voice to input personality into copy and effectively communicate in the customers’ language Top of the Funnel or TOFU: Prospects in unaware or pain aware stage; use interesting and informational, but not intense content, to soft sell Middle of Funnel or MOFU: Prospects in the solution aware to product aware stages; content connects dots between the pain and the best solution for it Bottom of the Funnel or BOFU: Prospect are potentially purchase ready and in the most aware stage; content is geared to converting through calls to action Marketing is a science; involves reacting and re-engaging with prospects to get them down the funnel Differences between marketing and sales materials, including emails Links: G2 Crowd How to Map Content to the Marketing Funnel Autopilot Why Your Customer Is The Key To Skyrocketing Conversion Rates with Talia Wolf from Get UpLift Joanna Wiebe Kathryn Nyhus Write and send a review to receive a care package If you liked today’s show, please subscribe on iTunes to The Actionable Content Marketing Podcast! The podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Stitcher, and Google Play. Quotes by Emma Tupa: â€Å"That’s really the key creating your buyer personas. They’re crucial to figuring out who you’re actually talking to.† â€Å"Once you have all that information, you can really start to pinpoint your ideal customers and then start targeting them with specific messaging.† â€Å"Conversions to us are if a prospect is moving down the funnel, we consider that a conversion from stage to stage, not just if they become a customer.†

How to Use a Colon - Proofeds Academic Writing Tips Blog

How to Use a Colon - Proofeds Academic Writing Tips Blog How to Use a Colon The colon (Â   :Â   ) can be a tricky punctuation mark to use. As such, it is often used in the wrong places. If you want to make sure you are using it correctly in your documents, read on for a comprehensive explanation! When to Use a Colon: Lists You can use a colon to show the reader that a list of items will follow, like so: I went shopping and bought three things: a pen, a dress and a hat. This also applies if the list is bullet pointed or numbered. Its also important to note that you shouldnt use a colon if the list follows a verb or preposition that incorporates the list into the sentence (a common example is including): I went shopping and bought various things, including a pen, a dress and a hat. Correct I went shopping and bought various things, including: a pen, a dress and a hat. Incorrect To Introduce an Example or Clarification A colon can also be used when introducing a new independent clause (i.e., something that could be a sentence by itself) than clarifies or explains the previous sentence. For example: Punctuation is still important: Using a colon in the wrong place can be confusing. To Introduce a Quotation This punctuation mark is common in academic writing, where it is used when introducing a quote. For instance: Moore (1997, p. 86) makes strange claims about the heavens: A sunspot will be carried slowly across the Earth-turned disk, and eventually it will vanish over the limb. Note that a colon should only be used to introduce a quote like this when it follows from a full sentence. They can also be used to introduce block quotes, which start on a new line indented from the main text. Shorter quotes can be incorporated into the flow of your sentence and signaled with quote marks. Capitalization and Colons There are no hard and fast rules for whether you should use a capital letter after a colon, so it is important to check your style guide if youre not sure. A good rule of thumb is to capitalize the first word after a colon if it is part of a complete sentence that could be written separately (especially if the clause preceding the colon is quite short). Its not necessary to capitalize the first item in a list following a colon unless it is a proper noun. If you are in any doubt over your use of punctuation, you can send your paper to the professionals at Proofed. They will provide a full proofreading service and show you clear ways to improve your writing.

Police Excessive Use of Force Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Police Excessive Use of Force - Essay Example   Police brutality can be defined as â€Å"the excessive use of physical force, assault, verbal attacks, and threats by police officers and other law enforcement officers† (Police brutality. 2007). Police using force includes pushing, grabbing, kicking, or hitting a citizen. Hitting may be striking with the hand or with an object held in police officers hand. Police dogs biting a person, spraying with pepper spray or chemical, and pointing a firearm to a citizen also will come under police using force. The threat to use any of these forces will also be counted as using force. Whether the force used by the officer is â€Å"excessive† or not is defined according to the account of the victims. For female victims, any of the above-mentioned forces, even they are in small range, will be termed as â€Å"excessive’. On the other hand, male victims will have another scale for measuring the amount of force used by the police. This difference will occur in the case of r ace also. Cops enforcing law can be seen throughout the history. In the earlier times police forces have created an atmosphere of fear among the members of the society, and for subjugation and control, rough treatment was a regular occurrence. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament cite many examples of Egyptian, Roman and Israeli guards, who were an equivalent of policemen, inflicting violence mercilessly on the community. Things were not different in the nineteenth century America when Police forces were introduced for the first time there.   Marilynn S. Johnson, in her book, Street Justice: A History of Police Violence in New York City, speaks about â€Å"the routine bludgeoning of citizens by patrolmen armed with nightsticks or blackjacks† (Johnson 2004). With the increase of police forces and population, cases of police enforcement have increased tremendously by the end of the twentieth century. A survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in US in 2001 , Contacts between police and Public, came out with the finding that â€Å"during 1999 approximately 422,000 persons age 16 or older were estimated to have had a contact in which police used or threatened to use force against them.† (Contact between police and public. 2001). Even though this much police brutality is taking place in the country, most of the cases do not sustain. A report issued by another

International Baccalaureate (IB) Vs. The Traditional High School Research Paper

International Baccalaureate (IB) Vs. The Traditional High School Curriculum - Research Paper Example International Baccalaureate offers three programmes to students who are between the age of 3 and 19. It has led to increase in the quality of education that many students get worldwide (Mathews & Hill, 2005). Most of the IB institution are privately own. On the other hand, traditional schools are public schools that started long time ago. The government built traditional schools to ensure that many students went to school despite the economic backgrounds of their families (Reese, 2005). However, International Baccalaureate (IB) can be compared with the traditional high school curriculum in very many areas. Comparing IB and traditional schools is very hard especially when one is trying to see which one of them is better. This will only depends on what someone is looking for in the field of education. IB programs’ main aim is to foster critical thinking and to make student to understand worldly with the aim of learning to work globally. Students are taught to develop intellectual, emotional and social skills that they can apply in their working environments. Therefore, schools that provide good traditional education are also able to provide the same skills to their students. IB education offers three programs to their students between the age of 3 and 19.

Personal Educational Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Personal Educational Philosophy - Essay Example Vicarious reinforcement is indirect reinforcement and does not come from without. It comes from the person himself so that it is also called self-reinforcement. Imitation and modeling as the terms suggest simple mean that a person learns what he sees. Models particularly are imitated. The model could be a parent, a teacher, peer, basketball star or even I whose behavior is imitated. My impact as a teacher being a role model in the classroom cannot be overemphasized. This is true in all aspects of learning that range from mechanical speech learning to the more complex learning of values. No matter how good I am on the theories of good speech if I do not talk well, the learners may not learn to talk correctly. In like manner, a good discourse on moral values like honesty will not do any good if the learners are witnesses of dishonesty in the classroom and in bigger society. Most observational learning studies have been focused on films and television shows. In fact, the researches of Bandura and Walters on observational learning included exposures of the experimental groups to films. Aside from this, I also adhere to Bandura's different models. Environmental model refers to the observations made of sexual reproduction among domestic animals like dogs, cats, chickens, and other including plants like vegetables and fruits. Parental instruction model ... Also included in this category are the peer groups through teasing, conversation, cursing, etc. Cultural model refers to the use of folk tales in order to illustrate the concept of size, the normative and "don't's" in verbal reference to sex; the use of language to identify basic elements of social organizations. The foregoing results reveal the modeling role of parents and peers which become especially important within the context of parents and teachers as authorities. In a society where children are left more and more with their peers, the latter's modeling could lead to more imitative sex-related and other forms of behaviors. In social or observational learning, Bandura emphasized four subprocesses; namely, attention, retention, motoric reproduction, and reinforcement. For any observational learning to occur, I believe that the model stimulus must be attended to. What has been observed must be retained if the model's behavior is to exert influence even after a period of time. Imitation follows only if the individual had motoric reproduction or actually imitated the behavior of the model. The last, reinforcement is internal rather than external. In this Bandura states that reinforcement is a motivational factor rather than a strengthening factor. Social learning theory seemingly explains many of our behaviors. The way we talk and walk - our gestures - many have been learned from the models that we have been exposed to. No wonder, children talk like their parents and resemble those of their parents. Friends, too, behave similarly. The social learning theory points out the crucial influence of television, radio, movies, and other forms of mass media which are fertile sources of models for

Un Decided (Can be chosen from 6 topics in the handout uploaded) Essay

Un Decided (Can be chosen from 6 topics in the handout uploaded) - Essay Example 17). Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau talk about the social contract because man lived in a State of Nature and the social contract serves as the gateway to the civil society. It is important to note that three philosophers have their distinct view of the state of nature and have made their contribution to the social contract theory, but all share these principles. The social contract theory by Thomas Hobbes deviated from the above views which were major proponents of theories by John Locke and Rousseau hugely influenced by his views on the state of nature (Markfield 2006, p.35). Hobbes advanced for a more power vested in the government because of his views that humans are generally selfish seen in salvage in the state of nature before civilization or civil society The main aim for this essay paper is to address the question of what is the role of social contract in western political theory. The objective of this essay paper is to list each role of a social contract and give an in-depth explanation as to how it is a role in relation to the western theory of politics. It will give a brief introduction and understanding of the theory of western politics. The theory of social contract originates from the concept that the society needs just as well as the need for a just people (Huttegger and Smead 2011, p.15). With a keen look at the works of Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, this essay paper intends to give a clear perspective on the role of social contract in western political theory. The basic understanding of a social contract is to create a voluntary contract. This contract helps the society to shift from a state of nature to a state of civilization. The term â€Å"state of nature† is similar to the operating of the animal kingdom. It is important to note that the security of a person is very much dependent on the person’s power. Social contract strives to provide a

Strategic Management Unit 5 IP Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Strategic Management Unit 5 IP - Assignment Example A business is as good as its planning, controlling and implementation. During this study different strategic discussions will be there which would help the company to keep its footsteps in the Tennessee market. Strengths: - It is a very well known company throughout the USA. As it is very well known people can easily recall its name. Management of the company would not find any problem regarding their recognition of their products. Company makes good quality of musical instruments. Products are of very high quality. Customers are very stratified with the products made by company. Quality assurance is a real strength for the company. Price ranges of their products are also well within the reach of normal customers. Company is having a great pool of experienced work force. Tools Corp Corporation is having great after sales services facilities for their customers. After sales service is also a great strength for the company. Weakness: - Modern day musical instruments companies are coming up with different kinds of innovative products. Company is having certain set of products. Company is lacking in innovative products. Company has lesser stocks of products for sudden demand in the market. Company’s total working model is not that much technically advanced like other companies in the industry. Company is over dependent on one or two vendors. Every other player in the industry are giving importance to promotion and branding. Company is lacking in this aspect also. Opportunities: - Tennessee is a music loving state. People here are very fond of their music. As a musical instrument company it would create lots of opportunity for the company. Opportunities are very high as cost-effective musical instrument companies are in few numbers in this market. Whole lot of middle income people of Tennessee can be opportunity for the company. New and young people are making new bands. These types of new budding members of the state can be opportunity for the

Un Decided (Can be chosen from 6 topics in the handout uploaded) Essay

Un Decided (Can be chosen from 6 topics in the handout uploaded) - Essay Example 17). Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau talk about the social contract because man lived in a State of Nature and the social contract serves as the gateway to the civil society. It is important to note that three philosophers have their distinct view of the state of nature and have made their contribution to the social contract theory, but all share these principles. The social contract theory by Thomas Hobbes deviated from the above views which were major proponents of theories by John Locke and Rousseau hugely influenced by his views on the state of nature (Markfield 2006, p.35). Hobbes advanced for a more power vested in the government because of his views that humans are generally selfish seen in salvage in the state of nature before civilization or civil society The main aim for this essay paper is to address the question of what is the role of social contract in western political theory. The objective of this essay paper is to list each role of a social contract and give an in-depth explanation as to how it is a role in relation to the western theory of politics. It will give a brief introduction and understanding of the theory of western politics. The theory of social contract originates from the concept that the society needs just as well as the need for a just people (Huttegger and Smead 2011, p.15). With a keen look at the works of Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke, this essay paper intends to give a clear perspective on the role of social contract in western political theory. The basic understanding of a social contract is to create a voluntary contract. This contract helps the society to shift from a state of nature to a state of civilization. The term â€Å"state of nature† is similar to the operating of the animal kingdom. It is important to note that the security of a person is very much dependent on the person’s power. Social contract strives to provide a

Welfare and Food Stamps Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Welfare and Food Stamps - Research Paper Example The program has tried to reduce hunger and improve food security among low-income Americans. This paper will discuss the high administration costs, alleged fraud cases in the program, and the negative effect on the labor market make it a failure. There is a need for urgent reforms in the food program to reduce enrolment and government spending, and localize it to the state level. The history of food stamps dates back to the 1930s. The Food Stamp program was both a farm price support program as an anti-poverty one. This has been the case since the early days of the program in the 1930s. The depletion of food surpluses and mismanagement saw the phase out of the program. It took several years to re-establish the program and congress passed legislation to provide food stamps to low-income Americans. However, only pilot programs took shape. It was only after President Lyndon Johnson directed congress to pass the Food Stamp Act of 1964 that saw the initiation of the modern food stamp program. The main aim of the program was to boost the agricultural economy and improve nutritional levels of Americans. Presently, it faces several challenges, especially after the 2002 farm bill, the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, and Energy Act of 2008 under the Obama administration, allowed noncitizens to register. This, coupled with easier claiming of benefits, in creased the trend of registration to the program. After the change of name from ‘food stamps’ to the ‘Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’, President Obama’s 2009 stimulus bill further stretched the program by increasing benefits by 13.6 percent (Tanner 2). Consequently, roughly 48 million Americans receive SNAP benefits today, and in so doing, this gives taxpayers a yearly cost of more than $78 billion (Tanner 2). Because of this surge, critics suggest that food stamps and the farm bill should be two separate entities

Gloria Steinem Essay Example for Free

Gloria Steinem Essay Gloria Steinem views America as a largely male-dominant culture. In her efforts to speak out and fight against this unbalanced form of society she strongly enforces her views of female anti-submissiveness. Because of the seemingly unfair amount of rights men have deprived American women of, Steinem calls for drastic changes in the way women view themselves and are viewed both in the society and within the home. Steinems biggest problem with our society is the harsh stereotypical views that are laced all throughout the culture. Children are raised with the ideas that men dominate certain areas of life, and women others, and crossing these dividing lines into areas reserved for the other gender is an act seen as both unnatural and taboo. In her essay Life Between the Lines Steinem touches upon the common marital problem of housework. (Steinem, 8) Because of the deeply rooted tradition of females and housework, many women struggle with feelings of helplessness and even embarrassment when trying to get their husbands to help out around the home. In Huston and History, Steinem writes that because of the secondary status women are traditionally seen as having, they are more likely to relate to minorities and those seen as less fortunate. Frederick Douglass recognized this when he stated that the cause of the slave has been peculiarly womens cause. Relating back to the fight to end slavery, which was most enthusiastically fought by the women. The essay Sisterhood presses on this topic as well when it declares that the deep and personal connections among women living under patriarchy often causes them to leap barriers of age, economics, worldly experience, race, [and] culture. (123) Even though society builds many walls between different people, the common goal of subordination remains a very strong uniting factor. Male and female roles in society have always been seen as vastly different. The common childrens poem: What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice, And everything nice, Thats what little girls are made of. What are little boys made of? Snips and snails, And puppy dog tails, Thats  what little boys are made of. (internet: http://showcase.netins.net/web/marys/LittleBoys.htm) is a perfect illustration of the generalizations our country has towards the two genders. Steinem suggests in her essay College Reunion that, through education, the boundaries between the two sexes might start to dissolve. Steinem states that Womens colleges have rarely taught us to fight for ourselves, or for other women. (137) Only in teaching women the skills necessary to break down the walls that tradition has built up, and equality and full humanity of women and men is achieved, can true feminism be accomplished. (5) Another major topic illustrated in this book is the authors concern about the sexual relationships between male and female. According the Steinem, our cultures stereotypical views of the sexes often envelopes all aspects of life, bringing male-dominance even into the bedroom. Three essays focusing primarily upon the sexual dominance of men are Erotica vs. Pornography, I was a Playboy Bunny , and If Men Could Menstruate. Erotica vs. Pornography centers on way the American society frequently sees sex. In America, children are raised with images of female sex symbols strewn all across the media which make women vulnerable for the pleasure of men. Steinem attributes the sexual male-supremacy to this trendy media tool. A common quote illustrating this point is sex will sale anything. Because of the steady moral decline in society, sex is also confused with violence and aggression in all forms of popular culture. (239) Pictures of females are seen in every form of media, from the television to the internet to the paper. This imagery drastically influences the way females think of themselves, and are viewed by others. I was a Playboy Bunny speaks of the time in which the author went undercover to become one of the famed Playboy Bunnies. Once within the Playboy realm the glamour and intrigue quickly started to fade. Steinem saw that the bunnies were used in affect as cheap labor to feed the vastly popular Playboy clubs. Working long hours with no or little pay (54), outrageous regulations on hair, heels, clothing, and even the bunny demeanor all added to the unspectacular life of a Bunny. If Men Could Menstruate is a comical look at how the world would be different if it was in fact the male sex who was on a periodic menstrual cycle. Clearly, menstruation would become an enviable, boast-worthy masculine event: Men would brag about how long and how much, and Sanitary supplies would be federally funded and free. (367) Although the essay is an interesting satire on what could be, no real arguments are held or reinforced. It is in affect an amusing look at how the culture might react if men were given the attributes of the weaker sex. Although many of Steinems arguments are well supported and easily seen as valid, they frequently focus on either to broad, or to narrow a topic. Essays like Men and Women Talking express the communication habits between males and females all over the world, from Europe (193), Australia (194), Japan (203), and the U.S. a very large base from which drawing any solid conclusions becomes drastically more difficult. The other extreme argumental stance occurs in being to narrow. Essays like Ruths Song concentrate on a single instance and circumstance. Because of the narrow focal point it is hard to relate a specific example to a larger, more common instance. In Ruths Song Steinem says that the biggest reason that my mother was cared for but not helped for twenty years was the simplest her functioning was not that necessary to the world. (143) Inferring that because her mother was a female, Steinem suggests that her only role in the economy was to produce and care for her offspring, and that because she no longer could do either one, she was not an important member in society. Although her point may be well made, it relates directly to only those females who have, or are directly effected by a mental breakdown. Because of the illness of one woman, it is hard to conclude that the fate of a single person would be the same for everyone else having a similar fortune. Steinems arguments all have the underlying theme of female limitation in a male-dominant society. To combat this she proposes that women learn to stand up for themselves and take action. Only through active change in every individual, can full and complete equilibrium among the sexes take place.

How to Founding Fathers Developed Democracy

How to Founding Fathers Developed Democracy How the Founding Fathers of the United States designed political institutions that embody the values of democracy and liberty while preventing the rise of tyranny over time? American democracy is often perceived as a true model for democratic institutions around the world. The United States presidential system has often been copied by many states in Africa, Asia and Latin America (Llanos 55). Despite their best efforts, few nations have achieved similar success in creating stable democratic regimes that respect and protect individual rights for long periods of time. In this modern era of democratization, an insightful analysis of American institutions will help us understand what types of institutions are likely to help democratic regimes survive and thrive over time. The following essay argues the founding fathers of the United States designed a unique formula of democratic institutions that was specifically designed to guarantee the survival of democratic values and liberty while preventing the rise of tyranny. In order to support this claim we shall analyze the three cornerstones of American democracy: an â€Å"evolving† written constitution, a federal system that constitutionally divides power between the national and subnational level and a presidential system which separates power into different branches. An evolving written constitution The founding fathers of the United States were largely inspired by important political philosophers just as Montesquieu and Locke when designing the American Political system (Pole 152). As a result of their theories and beliefs, the founding fathers realized efficient democracy requires the recognition of a powerful written constitution as the supreme law of the land (Caraley 384). By recognizing the law as supreme, it was possible to clearly distribute power and to guarantee the protection of individual rights and freedoms. The American Constitution is one the most influential documents ever written as it recognizes the importance of natural rights but also the need for a government to have the democratic consent of its people . The American Constitution is unique as it is often perceived as a â€Å"living† document that evolves along society needs and values (Barnett 10). The United States is a nation born out of revolution that fought with reason and action against the opp ressive actions of a tyrant. The modern origins of the constitutionalism can be traced back to the American Declaration of Independence issued on July 4th, 1776 (Alibrandi 22). This document officially affirmed the right of the thirteen colonies for self-determination and cut ties with British Crown due to the abuses inflicted by British authorities (Bradley 92). In 1787 Philadelphia Convention, the American Patriot James Wilson claimed that freedom would be guaranteed under common law and the charter of the individual colonies (Alibrandi 23). As a result of this rebellious attitude, British forces invaded the colonies in an attempt to regain control of the territory. However, the American patriots endured and managed to defeat British troops with the support of France (Alibrandi 21). In 1783, British authorities signed the Treaty of Paris that officially recognized the United States as independent state (Alibrandi 21). The fear and despise of any type of tyranny is an important cha racteristic of the American people that constantly shapes their political debates and beliefs. It was the very same fear of tyranny that pushed the Continental Congress to adopt the Articles of Confederation as way to redistribute power. Under the Articles of Confederation, the United States became a confederacy where individual states retained a great deal of power and independence (Bradley 92). This system established a legislative branch of government and weak central government that would be responsible for the foreign affairs and protection of the territory (Bradley 92). However, as a result of ineffective central authority, the new nation faced many issues such as free-riding, inter-state tensions and poor commerce due the different currencies in circulation. In 1786, the Continental Congress which was the executive body of the confederation authorized the state legislature to appoint delegation to meet in Philadelphia to strengthen the Articles (Pole 150). At first, delegates proposed the Virginia Plan which aimed to create a strong national government where power would be separated in three branches and the executive would be appointed by popular vote (Pole 150). This initiative was rejected and the delegations moved to analyze the New Jersey Plan which was a less radical version of the Virginia plan that aimed to preserve the key outlines of the confederation (Pole 150). However, this proposal was also rejected as many delegates deemed necessary the creation of a strong national government to guarantee the prosperity and security of the young nation. The last plan was known as the Connecticut Compromise aimed to approve the American Constitution and set in place a strong national government where the executive would be appointed through the creation and us of the Electoral College (Morlon 345). Federalism as a principle The found fathers realized that in order for democracy to survive in the United States, the thirteen colonies needed to adopt a true federal system to ensure that interest of both large and small states were respected. One of the major reasons behind the downfall of the relationship between the American colonies and the British Crown lies on fact that British authorities had refused to accommodate the growing interests for more equitable representation of these states (Hulchinson 5). Following the Declaration of Independence of 1776, the Americans colonies renounced British sovereignty and established themselves as a unity of independent states (Alibrandi 22). Following the recognition of independence in 1783, the United States became a confederacy. The Articles of Confederation embodied the basic fear of strong government and highlighted the importance of individual states (Bradley 92). The United States described itself as a confederacy by which several states had voluntarily agree d to join a firm league of friendship for common defence. However, the states were committed to retain freedom, sovereignty and independence. Under the system, limited powers were vested in the legislature that had no way ratifying treaties, changing finances or defend the national territory without the complete approval of all its members (Bradley 92). In addition, there was no mention for the creation of an executive branch as many administrative duties were left in the hands of committees appointed by Congress. This first experiment of American Federalism was hardly operational and was marked by its inefficiency that deeply affected the people’s confidence in any government (Bradley 93). Shays’ rebellion seriously tested the power of the new nation as it became clear that the United States required a new way to divide institutions that power between the national level and the states in order to prosper and thrive (Bradley 93). Many Americans believed federalism was a major compromise where a strong government could be implemented but ensure that government would not be strong enough to impose tyranny as there were different jurisdictions of power among the states (Bradley 93). The concept of federalism is associated with the constitutional division of powers between national and subnational levels of government. In a true federal state, the national and subnational governments are required to cooperate and treat each other as partners in order to find consensus. In the 1780’s, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington had decided to come up with a constitutional plan to divide power between the national governments and the states that would become the basis of American Federalism (Alibrandi 23). The adoption of American Constitution led to an open debate between two major groups of Americans. The first group was the Federalists, who often referred to themselves as Plubius (Pole 151). They advocated for a strong national government based on separation of powers that included a set of checks and balances. Among the most prominent Federalists figures we find the likes of James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and Jay (Pole 151). These eloquent and intelligent individuals managed through a series of published documents to convince Americans to support the creation a strong national government to ensure the protection of their liberties and rights (Pole 151). By acknowledging that men were ambitious and rapacious, the federalists proposed to design a system of government that would make ambition counteract ambition (Pole 152). By investing a great amount of power and authority in Congress, they hoped to reconcile the interest of the people and the elites as both of chambers required majoritarily support to pass legislation (Llanos60). On the other hand, the Anti-Federalist fiercely opposed this new set of institutions. On a series of published letters, this group attacked the proposed Constitution as they believed that an excessively powerful government would put in jeopardy the individual rights and freedoms that they had fought so hard to obtain from Britain (Alibrandi 27). In the end, the federalists were successful in convincing the American people in creating a strong government to reinforce legislation but also worked arduously to limit its power in a manner so that the state could not legally threaten individual rights. On September 17, 1787, the majority of the states ratified the American Constitution which officially put an end to the American Confederation and set the foundations of the more stable federal democracy (Alibrandi 23). In 1791, the American Congress adopted ten amendments to the American Constitution known as the Bill of rights (Salt 491). This set of liberties and fundamental rights cannot be violated by the government and should be protected by the government by all means. The evolving nature of the American Constitution is largely propelled by the ability of Congress to pass new amendments to expand the protection of rights and freedoms as American society changes over time. Americans display profound respect for this text and the supremacy of law is one of the predominant factors that make their nation a strong democracy. Separation of power with check and balances The American Constitution separates power into three different branches referred as the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government (Caraley 379). Each branch has a specific area of jurisdiction and powers that are meant to provide effective government. This approach was justified by the ideas of Montesquieu and Locke who claimed that the consolidation of power ultimately leads to tyranny (Pole 152). The American presidential system is a living remainder of the struggle against tyranny. Under a presidential system, institutions are designed in such a way to provide limited government that functions on the premise of separation of power. Since no individual can hold more than one position at the same time within these branches of government, power remains unfocused and more difficult to obtain. It is important to note, the founding fathers of the United States had a profound distrust on the ability of men to govern themselves democratically ( Morlon 341). For this reaso n, they believed in the creation of a system of government with limited popular control to prevent the majority to oppress others through the use direct democracy known as â€Å"mob rule† (Morlon 343). The solution envisioned to by the founding father was the creation of a system of checks and balances to regulate the separation of powers. Checks and balances provide the ability for one branch, under very specific circumstances, to deny or block the action of another branch whose actions are deemed unconstitutional and vice versa (Fontana 1141). This is a representation of James Madison’s ideals found in his works Federalist 10 and Federalist 51 that advocated for the creation of a system of government where ambition would counter-act ambition. The idea of competition between the three branches of government was central to the constitutional design in order to prevent a potential tyrant from consolidating its power (Fontana 1141). However, it is important to note the American Constitution does not perfectly separate the power of the legislative, executive and judicial branches but rather fragments these powers so that branches can check each other’s authority (Bulman Ponzen465). This lack of precision was used in more than one occasion by presidents to take significant action in order to protect the rights and freedoms of American people (Marchisio 220). In addition, since no branch of government can unilaterally declare that they represent the popular will, this thick form of accountability is necessary to give legitimacy to the government. Ever since the adoption the American Constitution, the role and power of the executive branch has been under close scrutiny. Initially, the founding father envisioned a system where Congress would be the most powerful branch of government (Morlon 342). However, historic events and major crisis have often led to an increase in power of the president. In the majority of time, presidents such as Reagan, Lincoln and Roosevelt had made an extraordinary use of the presidential power to take decisive action (Young 328). The American president and its Cabinet are responsible for reinforcing and implementing the law. It is important to note, that the American Constitution perceives the American President as the supreme leader of the armed forces and the representatives of the American people at the international stage (Young 328). While the president yields great power, his actions are largely confined to the limits prescribed in the American Constitution. In addition, the American president is constraint by a fixed term in office which prevents from clinging to power for too long. The fact that there is an open window for change in power every four years makes political competition far more intense as candidates have to engage in efficient and concise policy-making to attract a high number of votes. A major factor that contributes to the stability of the American democracy is free regular elections that allow the people to express their political preferences by casting ballots (Caraley 379). The founders believed that the only way to prevent the rise of tyrannical figure was to hold free elections periodically so that people in positions of power would have to act according the interests and needs of their constituents. It is important to note that for a long period of time, the right of vote was only given to white male property owners (Salt 486). The exclusion of women and African-Americans of voting rights put in doubt the legitimacy of the elections as many members of society were unfairly excluded from exercising their basic rights (Salt 486). Free elections and voting rights were not the only feature established by the founding fathers when designing effective democratic institutions. In terms of legislative power, the Constitution adopted bicameral chamber known as Congress to create and pass legislation. Congress is composed by two chambers: the House of Representatives and Senate (Morlon 342). The House of Representatives is known as the lower chamber where candidates are elected through direct popular vote. Since it was taken for granted that the legislative would function on a majority rule, it was important to create a devise to prevent direct democracy (Morlon 342). A solution to this problem was found in the creation of the American Senate. Initially members of the Senate were appointed by their states legislature and were meant to represent the interest of their particular states (Morlon 342). In addition, members of the Senate are given equal voting power and equal number of representatives at the upper house re gardless of population disparities (Morlon 342). Today, Senators are elected to serve six year terms With regards to the judicial branch of government, the American Constitution grants the Supreme Court the power of judicial review which allows it to override decisions made by lower courts or legislation that is deemed unconstitutional (Harriger 201). The judicial court has played an important part in shaping American democracy as it keeps a close eye on the actions of the legislative and executive. Most Americans revere the constitution, in particular libertarians, which praise the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution (Barnett 9). The majority of provisions found in the Bill of rights were designed to place certain citizens beyond the reach of majorities and officials that might want to oppress them (Harriger 201). The Bill of Rights provided the necessary legal protection to ensure one’s right to life, liberty, property, freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of worship and assembly as well as other fundamental right that could not be submitted to vote (Ca raley 386). The written nature of the constitution performs a restraining function because of its semantic meaning that is independent of the desires who decide to interpret it (Caraley 387). The Supreme Court has played a fundamental role in protecting people’s rights and advancing the struggle for equality of minorities. The Supreme Court ensures a stable democratic government by interpreting the law and the Constitution in a manner that is fair an equal for people. Conclusion To conclude, the political success of American democracy can be largely attributed to the herculean effort displayed by the founding fathers when designing American institutions. The incorporation of democratic ideals into an effective set of institutions guaranteed the survival and success of American democracy through time and change. American democracy is built on three cornerstones that prevent the rise of tyranny. The first one is the recognition of the American constitution as supreme law of the land which guarantees the protection of individual rights and freedoms. The second was the adoption of a federal system that demonstrated a compromise to include the needs and interests of large and small states. The third cornerstone is the adoption of a separation of powers to prevent individual from consolidating absolute power. James Madison played a fundamental role in creating a double protection system provided by federalism and the separation of power among the three branches of power which protects to this day the quality of American democracy.

Intelligent Agents Essay -- Computer Science

Intelligent Agents Abstract Intelligent Agents are software abstractions which potentially can make life easier and more productive for computer users. These agents are autonomous entities that can be asked to do tedious or complicated tasks for the user or unscramble the complexities of computer applications. "Many agents are based on the idea that the user need only specify a high-level goal instead of issuing explicit instructions, leaving the 'how' and 'when' decisions to the agent" 3. The agent either steps the user through the process at hand or goes off on its own and reports back with the requested information or completed task. Artificial Intelligence principles are used to program these agents. Introduction The modern computer era has brought with it a phenomenal volume of information. The internet in particular is comprised of far too much information for any one person to utilize. Therefore computer users must be able to use their time efficiently. One must be able to filter through all the information bringing back only pertinent, recent data quickly and easily. Also, as applications and hardware become more powerful and complicated, the user must be able to figure out how to master new tasks. These two challenges can be made easier with the use of intelligent agents. One example would be the following: A person wants to find a job in the computer industry as a programmer and decides to search the internet for available positions. Without the use of intelligent agents, the person would spend hours searching for every position having to do with computers and programming. A search query would return thousands upon thousands of links that would have to be weeded through to find the ones that were pertinent. An ... ...be expertly guided through complicated procedures by these agents. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1 http://www.networking.ibm.com/iag/iaghome.htm 2 http://nittany.ca.sandia.gov:8001/defs.html 3 http://cyclone.cs.clemson.edu/~mark/agents.html 4 http://www.advtech.microsoft.com/research/ui/persona/isbister.htm 5 http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/STAFF/mike/ker95/ker95.html 6 Maes, P. (1994b). Social interface agents: Acquiring competence by learning from users and other agents. In Etzioni, O., editor, Software Agents - Papers from the 1994 Spring Symposium (Technical Report SS-94-03), pages 71-78. AAAI Press. 7 Newell, A. and Simon, H. A. (1976). Computer science as empirical enquiry. Communications of the ACM, 19:113-126. 8 Shoham, Y. (1990). Agent-oriented programming. Technical Report STAN-CS-1335-90, Computer Science Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305

America Land of Hypocrats

Every aspect of the modern world has been wracked with scandals often involving many prominent personalities. Politicians, entertainers, athletes and socialites have been the target of many open accusations on wrong doings. More often than not, scandals or wrongdoings which are sexual in nature are the very ones that are discovered, spread and read in the papers. The private lives of individuals involved are laid open for public consumption as embarrassing sexual activities are investigated and ridiculed.They are usually the stories of people we read in the papers, hear being blamed and criticized on air, viewed and discussed amongst hosts and guests of television talk shows and the butt of jokes in common break-time conversations. The sexual behavior of famous people has become a huge part of entertainment as the media strives to outdo one another to give the most titillating and sexually adventurous background of a story.Throughout the decades, the sexual lives of prominent figures like politicians and rich businessmen who erred beyond their marital bed were often morally ridiculed. Their sexual escapades were told and retold to the next person aching to listen, and listeners came in droves ultimately hungry for a kill. The more famous the individual is, the bigger the likelihood of having his/her sexual activities discussed openly among ordinary individuals. We have seen many men exalted into political positions and fame getting involved with inappropriate sexual behavior.As their lives become public knowledge, they suffer invariable disgrace and have their reputations ruined forever. Political and military leaders are assumed to have an attitude possessing integrity as a quality that allows people, mostly his constituents and subordinates to grant him trust and respect commensurate to his public office and position. His favorable actions are considered above reproach and praised thus requiring him to conduct himself with dignity at all times.However, a sing le immoral deed when discovered and exposed could mark the end of his political career as his image becomes tarnished with relevant proof and negative criticisms. President Jefferson went down in the annals of history accused of maintaining a â€Å"Congo Harem† and fornicating with a slave, â€Å"Sally Hemmings† (Fitch, 2004:247). Likewise in a much publicized determination over the personal relationship between Monica Lewinsky and President Bill Clinton, another congressional inquiry morally questioned the sexual liaisons of Gary Condit and Chandra Levy (Fitch, 2004: 248).In the past, sexual behavior has been delegated to create a barometer for acceptable and non-acceptable sexual behavior and punishing it with public humiliation and loss of status (Apostolidis and Williams, 2004: 20). As an egalitarian society that fights to uphold a doctrine that strives to treat all men as equals, we are suddenly faced with the pressing question of accepting sexual behavior and rel axing our relentless probing of tawdry affairs between sexes regardless of affiliation within the realms of politics or seemingly allowing Victorian attitudes to morally judge a person.Considering the very nature of sexual scandals that wracked the nation has often been synonymously targeted against individuals whose relevant positions make them vulnerable to suppression and control by a higher force within the political system, are we not prone to maneuvers instead? Statement of the Problem In a ripe age of modernity amidst an age of sex scandals and political maneuvers and machinations, we are faced with the question over an understanding of human sexuality as a human nature and an acceptance of natural responses to consensual sexual behavior regardless of gender and identity.Purpose of the Study In the study of sexual scandals within the American politics, our aim is to explain normal sexual behavior and the natural human response. Political figures being humans themselves are de finitely not averse to acts and deeds related to sex which is the subject of this study. In the understanding of human sexuality, this study will likewise explain how the natural human response have been brutally exposed and expanded to portray an overly unacceptable behavior particularly among prominent political figures as a motive for political party destruction and black propaganda.This study shall finally explain how collegiate students can exercise a modicum of understanding rather than moral ridicule over sexual behavior among people holding public office without necessarily promoting a relaxation of moral values among political leaders. Review of Related Literature The Human Natural Response to Sex Countless studies have supported that humans have a need for sex reconstructed and made clear in an unceasing receptivity that goes far beyond reproduction (Diamond, 1998: 67).For Diamond, the human biological function of sex is an evolutionary process that has created a continuin g interest yet highly susceptible to predators (Diamond, 1998: 11). The National Institute of Health has also explained that in the understanding and acceptance of normal sexuality, sex should be understood as a vital part of life closer probably to the human need for pleasure and gratification (Calderone in NIH). Sex encompasses normal interactions among individuals where a sublime need for physical, emotional and sexual intimacy soon develops sometimes beyond the consideration of accepted norms in the society.This was likewise explained in the renowned works of Masters and Johnson, where the anatomical and physiological human responses to sex are directly dependent to a stimulus (Hock, 2006). Out of the pioneering efforts of authors Masters and Johnson, we begin to develop an understanding of how individuals may develop a wide variety of choices in their sexual encounters. The male specie as the known progenitor of sex in several social analyses may offer money, status and commitm ent in exchange for sex (Baumeister, 2001: 7).In this transaction, our common ideas have supported a conclusion that the woman is exploited by a man in the process which can be taken to indicate that men and women play different response to sex in the order of strength of sexual desire. Yet based on the theories and explanation of natural human response to sex, the woman actually gives up nothing in return for her sexual favor because not only the male enjoys sex but the woman also gets sexual pleasures and the satisfaction of her own desires (Hock, 2006).In a sense with limited resource, we are however led to the belief that the woman’s capacity to command a higher price for sex becomes less with the increasing number of sexual partners by explaining the theory of rewards that, â€Å"where something is given out freely in the long run looses value† (Baumeister, 2001: 276). In the concept of homosexuality, we are led to believe on the perverse implications of homosexua l behavior as a confusing role in the society. The complicated biological nature of sexuality however supports that humans express their sexuality in a variety of ways (Giddens, 2006:437).Theories explaining sexual responses also believed that homosexuality is not a choice that can allow one person to renounce homosexuality at the risk of giving up loving and being loved by another (Giddens, 2006:436). Where ideas about sexuality are undergoing magnified changes, we are confronted with recent trends of homosexuality within a continuing struggle against discrimination. Yet for many authors, the division and shaping of gender roles happens gradually as humans gain mastery of its environment (Diamond, 2006:122). Censure and Sexual ConservatismIn countless years, the human sexual response has faced criticism as contingent biological facts faced ethical censure against American archaic obscenity laws. For many centuries, in the ethics of sexual conservatism, sex is permitted between a ma rried couple (male and female) which only later permitted consensual sex among alternative marriage between same-sex partners (Apostolidis and Williams, 2004:149). Monogamous heterosexual marriage frowned upon premarital and extramarital while imposing the values of sexual exclusivity as a concept of good.Justifying sexual ethics soon became a sexual code conduct that undermines human frailty and weakness as part of man’s natural biological and psychological make-up (Baumeister, 2001: 281). Sexual Conservatism became a mode among older generations as forms of eroticism and homoerotic sex is shunned upon and evidently discouraged in order to protect the privacy of the individual in sustaining social order (Davis, 1996:59). A New Understanding on Human Sexuality In the last forty years or so, we have moved from an idealistic view of human nature by relaxing appealing views on sexual freedom and understanding.The 60’s created for us a period of experimentation on freedom of human sexual response topped with socialistic problems of single motherhood that began to disprove sexual censorships of the past centuries and decades (Fitch, 2004: 92). In an attempt to create order in a society, the punitive forces against sexual behaviors became relaxed and tolerant. Sexual ethics to a degree became understood as something which is variable, depending on the changes in human nature and changes in the human society (Diamond, 2006: 95).Open discussions on sexuality soon became a positive issue in an integral point of discussion on the promotion of responsible sexual behaviors. Expanded research on the topic opened dialogues and strategies to promote an awareness f sexual behavior. Homosexuality was removed from a list of mental disorders thereby paving the way for an enhanced understanding of health in the context of homosexuality (WHO, 2007). Politicians: Common Targets Sex has continued to permeate as a permanent fixture in the United States political arena.I f we consider the well-publicized scandals at the early days of the republic, we can substantially agree that media freedom contributed well to our knowledge. This is a price politicians have to pay for living within the limelight of press freedom (Apostolidis and Williams, 2004: 7). From Jefferson’s sexual affairs, Kennedy’s sexual indulgences and Clinton’s sexual adventures, public officials have notoriously strayed beyond the bounds of sexual propriety (Apostolidis and Williams, 2004: 7).These scandals are discussed to investigate an abuse of power and influence to some extent but more commonly, America’s desire to talk about it spins the essential reason for its being. Politicians are easy targets in a discourse that stages the regulatory practice of powerful men. Betsy Wright, (a Clinton campaign chair) once said that enormous amounts of money was on the streets as tabloid newspapers and televisions were looking for a Clinton mistress ready to tell a ll whom they could pay off (Shields, Whayne and Kelley, 2004: 30).Although the law often exercises a general presumption of innocence especially on gossips involving sex and politics, other political rivals demand for an eruption to be told. Their lives are placed in public scrutiny while media created a salacious story while the public decide. To protect their position, politicians in turn exercise control by bringing in the big guns for a major cover-up that could exonerate them from the accusation. Such collusion within the government and media in an attempt to break free from a sex scandal may or may not change public sentiment.The socially injured politician could be likely subjected to blackmail as the public’s interest in their personal details catches attention. Analysis Within a political rubric, a sex scandal issue questions the morality of an individual thereby accusing him of misconduct and wrongdoing. Investigating the nature of a sex act, much fuss has been dele gated over a sexual scandal despite the fact that the human sexuality has explained how the sexual aspect of human nature does not conform to solitude and celibate life. Humans have a clear need for sex that ultimately goes far beyond reproduction (Diamond, 1998: 67).This mindless act is understood as a vital part of life as scientific studies proved naturally how human responses are dependent on stimulus and how one works for self-gratification in Freudian principles. In a male-female relationship, the woman is seen as the giver of sex while man, as the taker. In a much diverse and modern understanding of sexuality, theories explaining sexual responses understand and accept that homosexuality is not a choice but simply an alternative means to find love and intimacy (Giddens, 2006:436).The above ideas magnify the societal changes that have provided a deeper understanding of the human sexual response in a world where sexual roles change depending upon human mastery. Criticisms that s ought to break free from an understanding of human sexual response support an American archaic obscenity law that condones sex between married couples alone. A code of conduct is invisibly used to castigate those sexual encounters that go beyond the accepted â€Å"married couple† standard including homoeroticism and auto eroticism perhaps.It is quite clear that America despite claiming egalitarianism still borders on Victorian conservatism that has often been an issue of â€Å"double standard†. The rich technology and passage into modernity has paved way for a modern view on the subject yet where sexual lives of political leaders are discussed. Such ironies are encountered when America’s social make-up demands salacious discussion on erotic escapades of public personalities and political figures. Such indecent behaviors are held out in the open like a frosting on a highly palatable cake while the public greedily eyes it.The sexual aspect of human nature is terri bly disregarded in an effort to point fingers to the sexual perpetrator. In campaign attacks, sexual stories are blown up to portray an animalistic behavior inherent in rival political figures in order to tarnish his character and respectability. The fuss over sex scandals only serve to portray how America has a limited understanding on human sexuality and despite the presence of numerous books, journals and online resources that strive to explain it.Conclusion Our problem strives to answer whether we are in a ripe age of modernity to understand sex scandals in the face of political maneuvers and machinations while relying on the scientific principles of human nature’s response to sexual behavior regardless of gender and identity. America, I believe is steadily approaching and understanding of political maneuvers and machinations as we are suddenly faced with numerous allegations of illicit sexual activities.The past few decades have allowed us to display a relaxed attitude t owards sex as schools and universities strive to impart a better understanding of the subject. Where prominent political figures are concerned however, the American public is deeply dependent on the media and is often quick to point a finger to a perpetrator of prominence. Politicians have received public ridicule over gossips despite the fact that American law exercises a general presumption of innocence especially on gossips involving sex and politics.The American sentiment against sexual wrongdoings still border on Victorian ideas and there is an apparent need for social reform within this context. The human nature and understanding of the wrong doer is stripped indiscriminately applied over in politics in the face of an American public quick to cast a finger without further ado. Recommendations We do not strive to suggest the political and moral responsibility of individuals in public office but rather dwell on an understanding of sexual behavior of men.We strive to impart the k nowledge that America needs to understand the basics of human sexuality before it can gain foothold on a publicized discussion of political sexual scandals. Not only do we uphold media responsibility but strive to insist on legitimacy and credibility of media coverage in sex scandal cases among accused public officials. It has been commonplace for sex scandal issues to be used against a candidate during campaigns. Such attacks and mudslinging has been associated with an election strategy launched against a potential rival and in the end portray American ignorance.Nor do we support that evidence against sexual scandals be stonewalled, concealed and obstructed. Our main aim is merely to procure an understanding of human sexuality as a human nature and an acceptance of natural responses to consensual sexual behavior regardless of gender and identity. There is also a need for America to exercise a deeper understanding of human sexuality. I believe that in fact there is a boiling need fo r reform on generalized views that should be the basis for a future study. Reference Apostolidis, Paul and Williams, Juliet.2004. Public Affairs: Politics in the Age of Sex Scandals. Duke University. Baumeister, Roy F. (2001). Social Psychology and Human Sexuality: Essential Readings. Psychology Press. Davis, Peter. (1996). Intimate Details and Vital Statistic: AIDS, Sexuality and the Social Order in New Zealand. Auckland University. Diamond, Jared. (1998). Why Sex is Fun? : The Evolution of Human Sexuality. New York: Basic Books. Fitch, Brad. (2004). Media Relations Handbook for Agencies, Associations, Nonprofits, and Congress. The Capitol. Giddens, Anthony.(2006). Sociology. Polity. Hock, Roger R. (2006). Human Sexuality. US: Prentice Hall. Shields, Todd, Whayne, Jeannie, Kelley, Donald R. (2004). The Clinton Riddle: Perspectives on the Forty-second President. University of Arkansas. United States. National Institute on Health. Calderone, Mary Steichen. (2003). Human Sexuality. [h andouts] United Nations. World Health Organization. (2007). Human Rights Mechanisms: putting women’s health on the agenda, Lesbian and Bisexual Women’s Health: Common Concerns, Local Issues. [handouts].