Kant - Three Propositions from Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals Essay

Kant - Three Propositions from Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals - Essay Example In his second proposition, Kant iterates that the moral worth of an action derives from its maxim and not from its consequences. In further deliverance of this notion, Kant determines that a prescribed action done from duty is determined in its moral worth only by virtue of the principle, or maxim, in â€Å"accordance with which it is decided upon†. This implies that the moral worth of the will to do an action lies NOT in its motive or the desired effect from that action, but in the actual principle of the will. In Kant’s view, a will is genuine and morally sound if it is derived from duty alone instead of any ancillary motive where duty simply plays a complementary role instead of being the motivating factor in its entirety. Thus, it must necessarily follow that the person taking the action has recognized an a priori goodwill principle that they seek to fulfill by taking that action; thus, the action has been brought about from duty instead of being committed for a pur pose beyond that which imposed by the goodwill, rendering it of sound moral worth. Kant recognizes a third proposition in a similar way which at first seems like in stark contrast to his second proposition but in essence, follows through with the same elements of rationality by inciting a â€Å"respect for law† which imposes a duty to respect the moral law.... Such morality requires a conception of reason, which in normal daily lives goes well beyond our basic desires. In these arguments, Kant sets out to establish the foundational principle of a set of morals. What he is trying to show is that this foundational moral principle draws from a rational will in all of us, and it is this rational will that makes us possess the autonomy to act morally. This autonomy is essentially derived from duty and has the capability of denouncing all inclinations (second proposition) in order to pursue actions that are done strictly in respect of moral law (third proposition). As he rounds up his arguments in this work, he puts it clearly that there are universal moral laws, and any action that is agreeable should not only obey a moral law, but should be done to ensure morality is upheld (Kant 4:400). Any action that is not done for the sake of a moral law even if it conforms to a moral law is not logically necessary. Thus, it is prudent to observe and link the second and third propositions in pursuit of the universal law of morals. Kant seems to maintain that the second proposition is directly linked with the third proposition. However, the notion of respect seems to suggest otherwise as it exists in the third and not in the second proposition. What, then, is respect? Respect is a notion unhinged to the personal faculty of desire and is therefore not an inclination. In plain English, thus, respect is an attitude which impels goodwill actions. An action done by reason of inclination, as opposed to one by reason of respect, would seek a desired effect, and is NOT an action from duty, but an action for a purpose. This brings us to a consideration of the

Parenting Knowledge and Informational Asymmetry Communication among Essay

Parenting Knowledge and Informational Asymmetry Communication among Parents, Teachers and Child Development Specialists - Essay Example The problem can be identified as the following: optimal involvement parity of parents, teachers and child development specialists into the child development process, overcoming of informational asymmetry taking place in this kind of communication. The principal question is: how effective must be relative influence of parents, teachers and child development specialists on a child What is the most reasonable approach to the effective communication among them 2. There are some relevant sociological methods of researching the problem of informational asymmetry: survey research, content analysis and field research. One of the hypotheses to be tested is: the structure of family affect children development. "According to the Urban Institute's 1997 National Survey of American Families, 63 percent of children live in two-parent, 27 percent in one-parent, and 8 percent in blended families" (3). The more unstable is the family structure, the deeper is the informational asymmetry among parents, teachers and child development specialists.

Causes of Construction Site Accidents

Causes of Construction Site Accidents The construction industry is not only known as an industry which is developing rapidly but it is known for its highly dangerous activities as well. In Malaysia, hazardous works on construction sites that cause accidents are taken as a crucial matter. Every single year, construction workers are among the people who are always to get caught in accidents. This serious problem has caused them to involve in fatal injuries and some of them also have been killed. In the past few years, the construction industry has gained a lot of profits by buildings that have been constructed using latest advanced technologies, but somehow the safety measures on site still being neglected. Despite of delays of the construction progress and difficulties in repairing of works and machineries that cost lots of money to be spent, but of these are incomparable to the loss of the human life. The implementation of a proper and effective health and safety policy on construction site is very essential for a builder. The hazards must be clearly understood by all the personnel working on site especially those who hold a high position in a project. Proper commitment and attention by every personnel can help in reducing hazards and accidents in the working environment other than knowing their own responsibilities on site. Every party in the construction industry also should put safety measures as their main priority during the preliminary stage until the completion of a work or construction project. The construction industry is often portrayed with negative images such as dirty, dangerous and difficult or commonly known as the 3D. Whenever a construction related matter is being discussed, people will have these thoughts embedded in their minds. This will make people feel uninterested to be involved or working in the construction field and finally resulting in lack of workforce in this industry. Thus, the safety measures on site need to be improved in order to eliminate this mindset and to achieve a safer working environment. Each party also needs to make drastic actions in ensuring an effective safety and health measures are being practiced on site to preserve the good image of the construction industry in the future. 1.2 Problem Statement The standard of safety measures in construction industry in Malaysia has lagged behind if compared to any other industries. This scenario makes it hard to achieve zero accidents and developing a safety culture among the personnel working on construction site. In the real construction practice, it was found that the safety program implementation by majority of construction companies were only at the early stage. This clearly shows that these companies do not have a safety program driven by a safety culture (Abd Hamid Abd Majid, 2006) Although a lot of contribution to the national economy comes from construction industry, the number of accidents, incidents, injuries and fatalities are still reaching a higher rate (Hinze, 1997). For some employers or clients, the implementation of safety management system is often believed to cost more in a project and they make it as a less concentrated matter on construction site. This is why safety records are often being focused because of its unsatisfactory performance due to safety being neglected and has not been taken systematically. Safety aspects are considered very crucial especially in a construction project but unfortunately there are still many employers do not feel that it is one of the keys to the success of companies. It is also known that the nature of the construction industry requires physical demand and harsh works, make it an industry with higher risk of injury other than the lack of awareness on the responsibilities of each parties involve in a project to mai ntain the safety performance. Hence, the implementation of safety measure should not be taken lightly as it is an important element in keeping the construction site a better and safer place to work. In order to decrease the jobsite risk and improve safety measures, this research will be carried out to identify the common causes of accidents that contributing to the high rate of accidents on construction and to emphasize on the roles and responsibilities of parties involved in this industry. Research Aim and Objectives 1.3.1 Aim The aim of this research is to know the significance of practicing and applying safety measures so that it can create awareness to the people who are working in the construction industry especially the management on how safety plays an important role in reducing accidents on site. 1.3.2 Objectives The three objectives are to be achieved in this research are listed as below: To study the various causes of accidents that occurred on construction site This objective is to find out the causes of this problem so that it can be solved from the root more easily and efficiently. To assess what are the roles and responsibilities of each parties in construction industry on improving the standard of safety on site and how they can reduce the number of accidents This objective is to know the relationship between their roles and responsibilities with safety performance and how it ensures the site safety is implemented. To find the ways to improve the site safety practice involved in the construction site in Klang Valley. This objective is generate ideas, ways and methods to improve the safety measures on site 1.4 Scope and Limitation of Study This research will only focus on the construction sites based around Klang Valley. Areas of study are limited to identifying the causes of accidents on construction site like unsafe equipment and machineries, job site conditions, human factor and others. Besides that, a study on the roles and responsibilities of various parties involved in the construction industry will also be done. The parties to be included in this study are from the paymaster of a project or the employer and up to the professional bodies of this industry such as Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). 1.5 Research Methodology In order to gain data for this research, various methods to extract necessary information regarding safety and health measures in the construction industry will be done. The information gathered is used to assist in the understanding of the causes that lead to the effectuation of accidents on construction site and the roles and responsibilities of various parties in the construction industry. The methods that will be used for this research are surveys, literature review and analyzing the information. Stage 1: Topic selection In this stage, the first matter that needs to be done is to identify problems occurring in this industry. Problem which is popular and most frequently arise will be chosen as the research topic. Then, literature review based on the topic selected is carried out by getting information from the previous research done by other people. Stage 2: Study proposal During the second stage, determining the aim and objectives of this research is important. It allows the research to achieve the target so that the main problem can be solved and eliminated. Besides that, the scope of the study is also specified to let the readers know the area of study that will be covered and not to be covered in this research. Stage 3: Data gathering and processing Primary Data In order to get practical information that can contribute to this research, surveys will be conducted. Survey questionnaires will be distributed to personnel working on site such as project manager, safety officer, site supervisor and others to get valuable insight into the risk and hazards involved on construction site. A practical view from them is of utmost importance to obtain information which is not available in books. This is also an opportunity to interact with the people involved in the construction field. The information that need to be obtain in the survey are like the causes of accident to happen in the construction site, what accident cases are often being reported and the role and responsibility of each parties to improve the site safety in construction. Secondary Data Secondary data can be obtained by finding sources and information in a library. Some of the libraries that will be the place to conduct this method are the library in Tunku Abdul Rahman College and the public library. The sources that will be used in the library are articles, textbooks, journals and magazines. The authors name, year of publication, title, place of publication and publisher of the book will be indicated in the research for referencing purpose. Internet is also one of the best sources to get information about safety on construction site. Relevant materials and information can be easily obtained in the internet because the application is wide and unlimited. Information such as statistics of accidents occurred on site and latest news on the construction safety and health issues also may be obtained from internet searching. Chapter II CAUSES OF CONSTRUCTION SITE ACCIDENTS 2.1 Introduction On the construction site, workers are exposed to hazardous works and dealing with such works everyday is something common for them. Safety First is a very popular phrase that can be found on most construction site but it does not being put under first priority as it is stated in signboards and posters. There is no wonder why the accident rates on construction sites are getting higher each year. Statistics also have proven that the number of deaths caused by accidents in construction industry has surpassed all other industry. The chart below shows the number of victims involved in death cases that have been investigated by the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) up until December 2010. In this chapter, identifying the various causes of accidents will be the primary objective as it helps in generating ideas in improving safety measures on site. 2.2 Definitions 2.2.1 Accident Accident can be defined as an unplanned, uncontrolled event which has led to or could have led to injury to people, damage to plant, machinery or the environment and/or some other loss. The controlling of work situation by providing safe conditions and insisting on the use of safe working method and procedures is the way of accident prevention. 2.2.2 Hazard Hazard is a source, situation or occurrence in the workplace that has the potential to harm the health and safety of people or to damage plant and equipment. The situation could involve a task, chemical or equipment used. 2.2.3 Safety Safety can be defined as the quality of being safe and the freedom from danger or risk where people are protected against physical, occupational or other types of harm, error, failure, accidents or any event which is non-desirable. The controlling of hazards to achieve an acceptable level of risk also can be the definition of safety. 2.3 Unsafe Acts and Conditions 2.3.1 Unsafe Acts Usually, accidents at work occur either due to unsafe acts and unsafe conditions. There is no general agreement on the definition of an unsafe act. However, it has been defined in similar focus on unaccepted practices which have the potential of producing future accidents and injuries. Other definition of unsafe act that given by previous researcher is unsafe act is an action deviates from generally recognised safe way of doing a job and increases the chance of an accident (Stranks, 2000). Unsafe acts can be classified into two types either as errors or violations (Reason, 1990). According to most accident reports, the errors are to be found as a major contributor to accidents. Meanwhile, violations are less common. There are two conditions where unsafe acts may occur. Firstly, workers do not know while they are acting unsafely. Secondly, they know while they are acting unsafely. For the first situation, the problem can be easily solved by providing safety training to the worker, supervise them closely, providing good work system design, etc. The reasons for the workers to act unsafely for the second case is more complex because it could be due to various factors like personality of the workers, influence by coworkers, the extent of managerial support and the nature of the job being undertaken. Although workers are fully aware that they are working unsafely, they still want to carry on with such unsafe acts. There are various acts that are considered unsafe. Those acts are: Working without authority on the job can cause accidents since unauthorized workers may lack of skills and unfamiliar with the job process. Failure to secure coworkers or to warn about the danger is an unsafe act because many accidents occur while workers are paying less attention to warn and secure coworkers who are exposed to accidents occurrence when working. Working at improper speeds, exceeding the prescribed speed limits or unsafe speed actions could cause accidents. Not placing and stacking the materials properly in dangerous locations will cause unpredicted accidents to happen. The usage of tools and equipment, hand tools, power tools and machinery which is done inaccurately may result in accidents. Executing work by using defective equipment and tools. Refusing to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) will increase the probability of getting injured. Smoking which creates sparks in areas where flammable materials are stored could cause explosions. Throwing or accidentally dropping objects from high levels could expose other workers being struck by the object and cause head injury. Improper posture for tasks like workers making shortcuts by climbing or jumping from high levels instead of using ladders. Servicing equipment which is under operation. 2.3.2 Unsafe Conditions An unsafe condition is a condition in which the physical layout of the workplace or work location, the status of tools, equipment and material violate the safety standards. Some examples of unsafe conditions include open sided floors, defective ladders, improperly constructed scaffolds, protruding ends of reinforcing rods, protruding nails and wire ties, defective equipment, ungrounded electrical tools and many others. In most accidents occurred on construction site, unsafe conditions are the main cause contributing to an accident. It is distinguished that that unsafe conditions are divided into two types according to when they occurred during the sequence of work and who caused them to exist and develop (Abdelhamid Everett, 2000). The unsafe condition may exist in different situations which are before an activity is started and another one is develop after an activity is started. The occurrence of these two types of unsafe conditions is due to some other causes like actions and inactions by the Management Team and worker or coworker unsafe acts. 2.3.2.1 Actions and Inactions by Management Team Among the example of Management Team actions and inactions that lead to unsafe condition on site are they fail to provide proper and adequate personal protective equipment to the workers, fail to maintain or safeguard tools and equipment, violating the workplace standards such as ignoring slippery floors that can cause someone to fall, insufficient ventilation leaving the workers to choke, poor housekeeping and others. Workers are also sometimes requested to perform tasks that exceed the human capabilities or violate the human factors, ergonomics and the principles of industrial hygiene. This request which made unintentionally by the Management Team will expose the worker to unsafe condition of the site and eventually leads to injuries and illness. 2.3.2.2 Coworker Unsafe Act Inexperienced worker or coworker in working on the site will tend to act unsafe when handling a task which may lead to unsafe conditions for other workers. Unsafe condition will exist when these inexperienced workers doing their job recklessly like removing machine safeguards, working while intoxicated where they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, working with less concentration due to insufficient sleep, neglecting the housekeeping rules, executing works where they do not have the authorization to do so, etc. 2.3.2.3 Site Layout Poor site layout in construction site is also contributing to the unsafe condition factor. It was reported that insufficient working space was a problem in a number of accident studies (Hide et al., 2003). Sometimes, the commencement of the build prior to the completion of demolition is blocking the space allocation on site resulting in number of reorganizations of site layout to fulfill the changing of the build plan. Other than that, space constraints can restrict the allocation of floor area for workshop placement, footpaths, storage, parking provision and adequacy of space transport routes. This will cause constriction to the room for vehicle to access the drop-off points and effect on the traffic flow on site and interrupt the ease of receiving deliveries where it leads to a subsequent need for double handling materials. It also will make the routes to become narrow and may cause accidents where vehicles can overturn and hit the workers in the surrounding area. 2.3.2.4 Ground Conditions Ground conditions are one of the risk factor for accidents. The common problem that is always found is raised structures on the walking surface that can create trip hazards. Some examples of trip hazards are electrical cables, ply board used as a temporary manhole cover and raised setting out points. It is hard for the workers to be aware of these hazards because most of the time they were coloured black, grey or brown instead of being marked or coloured. 2.3.2.5 Poor Housekeeping Good housekeeping is upmost the important thing to be considered to ensure the site is safe. Unfortunately, many sites found these days did not put housekeeping into their priority. Everyone on the site must do their part to ensure that the site is clean and orderly. Although, there are workers that felt that clearing up the site is the responsibility of other people who had created the mess or up to the Contractor to undertake it. This situation will make good housekeeping hard to achieve. As we know, the most common types of injuries that occur on site are slips, trips and falls which are also contributed by poor housekeeping. Accidents happened due to unorganized material will result in workers suffer cuts from materials and materials fall down striking workers head resulting in head injury. 2.4 Accidents by Equipments and Machineries On construction site, workers are required to use different types of equipments and machineries to ease the work that need to be done. By using these equipments every day, workers tend to put themselves at great risk for injury when they are using construction equipments. The equipments also can be defective and will cause the person using them or another person on site to be injured or killed. The defective equipments and machineries are required to be immediately tagged to indicate that they are damaged and remove from the construction area. However, the tags will sometimes come off and workers will not usually stop to walk away from their working area. Finally, someone may pick up and use back the defective equipments or machineries that make them involved in accidents. 2.4.1 Scaffolding The usage of scaffolding is essential in a construction project to get workers to a higher level of the building structure when they are executing a work. As much as it is useful to workers, it is also very dangerous and hazardous. Statistics reported that 28% of the accidents involving scaffold are caused by construction deficiencies. Among the deficiencies happened are because of the usage of substandard components, omitting essential components and failure to complete the assembly of scaffold. (OSHA, 2003). The people who are exposed to the scaffolding hazards are the ones who erecting the scaffold themselves, the workers that are going to use it when doing works and the general public near the scaffold. Scaffolding accidents usually will involve either people falling, incorrect operating procedures, environmental conditions, the scaffold collapse and/or people being struck by falling objects from the scaffold itself (Berry, 2011). There will be objects that fall to the ground because workers who work using scaffold will bring along some of equipment together with them such as paint and other related supplies, tools like hammers, screwdriver and also widow cleaning equipment. When there is a worker on the scaffold, it will not only cause harm to that worker but also to those who are on the ground with serious injury by getting hit by the scaffolding or other falling objects. Scaffoldings are usually kept outside which exposed to the environment. This can cause the scaffoldings to deteriorate. Scaffolds are often being reported to be in good condition by inspection and maintenance before they collapsed. This is because it is hard to detect corrosion of the internal surface of tubular scaffolds. Other causes of accidents of scaffoldings are: Unsecure scaffolding Poor or careless construction Use of poor quality of damaged material Missing or malfunctioning brakes Missing or malfunctioning fall safety systems Lack of or poorly conducted safety inspections 2.4.2 Crane The usage of crane is one of the major causes of fatalities during constructing a building and accidents often happen when lifting operation is executed. The occurrence of fatalities during crane operation still continue to increase although ongoing research and recommendations to reduce this problem have been done for the past several decades (Beavers et al., 2006). The most common types of crane accidents involve the crane coming into contact with electrical power lines. Overhead electrical power lines present a serious electrocution hazard to workers on site. The most common means of electric power transmission and distribution is the overhead line which normally made of uninsulated conductors supported on tower or poles. It is likely to come in contact with a crane because it is placed in a high position. When a crane is contacting with energized overhead line, it becomes elevated to a high voltage that can cause harm to the crane operator (Sacks et al., 1998). Severe injury or death from electrocution is the risks that need to be faced by the operator and anyone standing nearby if this catastrophe happens. The crane rigger also can contribute to an accident. Workers or bystanders are exposed to rigging crane accidents when the material connected to the load block or headache ball fall onto them. Besides that, heavy loads that exceed the limitations and stability of a crane will result in structural failure, causing the crane to tip and collapse over the operator and other workers below it. 2.4.3 Excavator The massive size, weight and power of an excavator will place an operator or workers at high risk of serious injury when there is an accident happens caused by excavator. The most common accident caused by excavator will involve quick-hitch. A quick-hitch is device used to make connection and removal of attachment such as buckets and rock breakers of the excavator. The risk arise from the quick-hitch is the disconnection of the attachment resulting works to be loose and falls from the excavator (Edwards, 2007). This incident can cause crucial injury or even worst, death, if the attachment such as heavy buckets are detached and fall onto the workers nearby. Other causes of quick-hitch accidents that involve unintentional release of the attachment are: the failure to engage the quick-hitch properly due to carelessness failure to use any secondary locking device poor maintenance of locking mechanism attachment being overloaded. Even though the cause of an accident can be obvious at first, there are also some root causes of excavator accidents that need to be identify such as: lack or inadequate training given to the operator inadequate supervision by supervisors during excavation works are executed poorly trained ground workers workers encroach the excavator operating area while it is working 2.5 Poor Management System It is necessary to have a good management system in a construction project as it can generate an organizational setting in which workers will be trained and motivated to perform safe and productive construction work. Unfortunately, many management systems fail to be responsible in creating outline procedures to identify and eliminate hazards and eventually letting personnel involve in undesired accidents. 2.5.1 Poor Safety Policy Nowadays, it is common to see Site Management not establishing an effective safety policy. Safety policy is important in a construction company stress on the principles and goals to show the companys commitment to workplace health and safety (CSAO, 1993). Less awareness on the importance of having safety policy is why there are big numbers of management did not implement it. When there is no effective safety policy made by the management, personnel on site tend to execute their work in a dangerous way because they do not have a proper guideline in safe working methods which may lead them to be exposed to risks and hazards in the construction site environment. By not having a safety policy, accidents that occurred will not only harm the personnel, but it will make the company bare a high financial risk. This situation is likely to happen because the management fails to provide support for safety programmes where it is considered as a need since an accident were proved to be costly. A better safety performance is also hard to achieve because management system does not have the responsibility to provide a safe work site for all personnel because the key in achieving that is to have viability and participation by the management (Sawacha et al, 1999). 2.5.2 Poor Organising Among all of the functions safety management, the most important one is to designate individual with responsibilities so that the construction safety programme and plan can be implemented successfully. Without having a well planned organisation, the management will find it hard to execute monitoring on policy implementation, to determine the roles of safety committees and safety representative, and to portray health and safety responsibilities in every individual job descriptions. The unsatisfied involvement and commitment by both management and workers also makes the safety policy to be less effective (Holt, 2001). Undertaking fault and correcting action being taken can hardly be done causing less improvement to the safety performance because the safety representative is also not well-trained due to poor organisation (Sawacha et al., 1999). The safety performance will only be at the same level without any improvement when companies with poor organisation fail in providing effective safety committees where they play a positive role in this matter (Sawacha et al., 1999). 2.6 Other Factors 2.6.1 Personal Factors 2.6.1.1 Laziness Taking shortcuts in doing works that being assigned are done by most workers because they want to avoid extra activities (Hall, 1995). Sometimes, workers feel that it is troublesome for them to choose the right tool during work so it is preferable to them to work with the wrong tools. 2.6.1.2 Past Experience For workers that have been working in a company for a long time and having to perform a similar job, it is hard for them to change or give up the way they do things. This is actually not recommended because the old habit can increase the possibilities of accidents to happen by preventing them from noticing the hazards (Kittleson, 1995). 2.6.1.3 Doing Works in a Hurry Sometimes supervisors want the works to be done as fast as possible which gives pressure to some workers and leading them getting the works complete in a hurry. In order for the workers to save time finishing the works, he or she may abandon the good safety practices (Stice, 1995). 2.6.1.4 Being Angry Angry is sometimes uncontrollable and makes someone not to be caution, leading him or her to be involved in accidents. To identify when someone is angry is by noticing that person is sweating, tremble and grinding the teeth. Anger that cannot be resolved will cause distraction, proneness to accidents, anxiety, rage and violence (Kittleson, 1995). 2.6.1.5 Overconfidence Having confidence is important for every worker and it is a good thing, but overconfidence can bring more harm than good. A person with an attitude of thinking that he or she will never involve in an accident will lead to wrong procedures or methods and cause injury (Hirsch, 1998). 2.6.2 Job Factors 2.6.2.1 Work Overload Workers can develop high stress especially when they are asked to do works more that what they could handle together with the pressure due to deadline. Work overload can be divided into two different forms which are quantitative overload where workers are asked to do more works, and qualitative overload where the workers lack of belief that they do not have the skills to get the work done (Greenberg Baron, 2000) 2.6.2.2 Work Underload Stress can also arise when someone is being asked to do too little work. There are two types of work underload which are quantitative underload where a person feels bored from having little work to do, and qualitative underload where a person is lack of mental stimulation like routines and repetitive jobs (Greenberg Baron, 2000). 2.6.2.3 Time Pressure Workers will get overwhelmed and worry once they felt that they are unable to finish a work before the deadlines (Stranks, 2000). Moreover, when there is a change in the work process and workers are not given sufficient time to complete it, they will easily become stressed.

Censorship in Media Essay -- Media Censoring News TV Essays

'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press' (United States Constitution 1789). Throughout the history of the United States of America, the Constitution has always been put to the test. The founders of this country created the first amendment to allow colonists to speak out against the British. In the 17th century, the press was accurate and informative with little competition among journalists. But today in the 21st century the circumstances are different and the stakes are higher. Due to the great level of competition among journalists today, the news is often exaggerated in order to capture a larger viewing audience. Censorship is defined as 'Policy of restricting the public expression of ideas, opinions, conceptions, and impulses, which are believed to have the capacity to undermine the governing authority or the social and moral order which authority considers itself bound to protect? (Abraham 357). Political, religious, obscenity, and censorship affecting academic freedom are all equal in their destructiveness towards free speech. ?There are two different forms that censorship takes; prior, which refers to advance suppression and ?post facto? which is suppression after it has been published? (Calvocoressi 10). Since the beginning of the written word, authorities have used both of these forms of censorship. The media is everywhere you turn. You can find the media in many different forms such as television, radio, magazines, newspapers, and now on the information superhighway, the Internet. In the process of capturing ratings, who is the media hurting more? Is it the people who are accused of a crime, such as O.J. Simpson, or is it the American public?s own fault for believing everything they hear? In my view, some limitations greatly need to be placed upon the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution in regard to freedom of the press because presently the media is doing more harm than good. The job of the media is to find the truth and tell it to the people. The media has the power to inform the public, but often the information they receive is distorted. The media has shaped our view of society and the process by which we choose our leaders, make our rules, and make up our values. The media has the power to encourage people t... ...nated by lies and gossip, then the press will continue to print it. Works Cited Abraham, Henry J. ?Censorship.? International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. 1968 ed. Calvocoressi, Peter. Freedom to Publish. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press, 1980. Corry, John. ?Fairness Most Foul.? The American Spectator November 1993: 50-51. Deskowitz, Paul. Emergence of a Free Press. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985. ?FCC Tags Stern.? Newsweek 28 December 1992: 65. Gabler, Neal. ?OJ; the News as a Miniseries.? TV Guide. 30 July 1994: 12-17. Holden, Stephen. ?The Media Monster Lurking Within.? Newsweek 1 October 1995: 15. Lewis, Peter. ?About freedom of the Virtual Press.? The New York Times 2 January 1996: B14. Nachman, Louis. ?About the media Circus.? The New York Times 26 June 1994: 26. Orr, Lisa. Free Press, Free People, The Best Cause. London: Columbia University Press, 1971. Shank, Joshua. ?Limbaugh Lies II.? The New Republic 8 August 1994: 9-10. ?Simpson Criticizes Media.? Jet 12 February 1996: 38-40. Szykowny, Rick. ?Bewildering the Herd.? The Humanist November 1990: 8-9. Williams, Patricia. ?Hate Radio.? Ms. March 1994: 25-29.

Gogol’s Petersburg Tales Essay

Compare Nikolai Gogol’s â€Å"The Overcoat† with the other St. Petersburg tales. Nikolai Gogol’s St. Petersburg stories have been interpreted as tales of social injustice, urban and human isolation, psychological studies, love stories, moralistic fables and social satires. In keeping with emerging trends of â€Å"naturalistic† writing, the stories deal with relatively lowly members of the social strata in the Petersburg bureaucracy – the everyman. This essay will compare â€Å"The Overcoat† with â€Å"Diary of a Madman† and â€Å"The Nose† and examine how each of the main characters in Gogol’s stories survives in the seemingly unnatural and fabricated world of St. Petersburg. The principal character in â€Å"The Overcoat†, Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin buries himself so deeply in his paltry work of copying documents that his work almost supersedes the actual reality in which he inhabits, he is described walking thro ugh the streets of St. Petersburg oblivious to the people around him or the rubbish being thrown out windows onto him, he sees nothing but a line of beautiful words to copy. He later does the same when obsessing about the coat which he is having made to shield him from the bitter Russian winter. This need to cloak and insulate oneself from the cold harshness of modern society is an idea which runs through these three stories, and seemed to preoccupy Gogol himself. He was a secretive person about which very little is known, he said himself in his letters â€Å"But how can one judge about a secretive person in whom everything is inside, whose character hasn’t even taken shape but who is still educating himself in his soul and whose every move produces only misunderstanding? How can one make conclusions about such a person basing oneself on a few traits which have inadvertently stuck themselves out? Won’t this be the same as to conclude about a book by a few sentences torn out of it – not in order either, but from different passages.† Gogol was interested in how the character and worth of someone is judged by others, the characte rs in The Petersburg Stories are all defined, both by themselves and by others, by their professions, which are comically insignificant, Akaky Akakievich copied pages and Poprishchin in â€Å"Diary of a Madman† was in charge of pencil sharpening. These characters are defined by the role they serve as part of the bureaucracy rather than by any kind of individual identity. Gogol paints a picture of a society in which values the most superficial aspects of a person, an idea which is taken to comical new heights in â€Å"The Nose†Ã‚  when the preposterous and vain main character Major Kovalyov loses something which serves no great purpose other than normalising one’s appearance – his nose. Escapism is essential for Gogol’s characters. Each of the main characters feels happiest when they are detached from reality, when they have some sort of rosy, imaginary insulation between them and the inescapable monotony of their lowly lives. Akaky Akakievich is described garnering a disproportionate amount of joy from his work copying documents, smiling to himself as he coppied letters he particularly liked, going home and copying just for fun and â€Å"when all strive to divert themselves† going to bed â⠂¬Å"smiling at thought of coming day†. Akaky puts all of his faith and love and passion into something arbitrary and ultimately meaningless as a coping mechanism, for how else would he survive his pitiful life? The main character in â€Å"Diary of a Madman† Poprishkin is driven to a similar detachment from the real world as his lowly and socially immobile position as a titular councillor becomes too much to bear. He loses his sanity but arguably gains something of greater value; confidence and social mobility. In creating a world for himself where he is no longer one of many middle aged, poorly paid low ranking civil servants but the King of Spain he frees himself from his suffocating ties to societal norms, he no longer believes in the inherent superiority of those of a higher social status, he even has the audacity to call his employer as â€Å"an ordinary doornail, a simple doornail, nothing more. The kind used in doors†. Similarly, Kovalyov deludes himself to give his life a sense of importance and signi ficance. He gives himself the title of â€Å"Major† and struts down Nevsky Prospect making eye contact with everyone and imagining attention from ladies that he passes. The key difference between the coping mechanism employed by Akaky and the methods used by Poprishkin and Kobalev is that Akaky’s world is not one which elevates his social status. His extremely introverted behaviour does not disrupt the status quo. It is arguably their obsession with class and how they appear to others which causes all of both Kovalev and Poprishkin’s strife. Contrastingly, Akaky just wants to be left alone, he doesn’t care that people often see him with trifle or hay stuck to the back of his cape, this makes Akaky a more likeable, sympathetic character, he is completely harmless and innocent – a perfect victim. This is the only story in which Gogol allows us to be fully sympathetic with a character. There are indeed moments in â€Å"Diary of a Madman† which could and should stir sympathy for Poprishkin in the reader, but Gogol always undermines these moments with a humorous or nonsensical comment. In â€Å"The Overcoat† however, the narrative tone flips from heart wrenchingly sad to funny and light hearted and then back again in the space of a page – Gogol displays his talent for evoking sympathy and emotion in a reader and his gift for comedy side by side. It is not just the characters who seek to cover themselves up and conceal the truth from the reader; there is a lack of reliability coupled with nonsense running through all three of the narratives which obstinately refuses to make sense. â€Å"The Overcoat† introduces us to this immediately, it begins with a digression â€Å"In the department of — but it is better not to mention the department.† The narrator continues in this vein, using a conversational, unreliable tone, often forgetting the facts or losing their place in the story. Gogol’s deliberate elusiveness undermines the idea of the omniscient authorial voice of the narrator and injects suspicion and confusion into the narrative. Gogol uses a similar narrative voice in â€Å"The Nose†. The narrator of â€Å"The Nose† is similarly uninformed and forgetful and makes no attempt to elucidate the reason for all the bizarre occurrences in the story. Things in these stories can often just disappear into a puff of smoke, Gogol increases the confusion, and elusiveness with the use of a lot of mist and smoke imagery, he is like a magician, cloaking his intentions, keeping himself safe behind a cloud of nonsense and a mist of confusion. Gogol’s St. Petersburg stories portray many different types of characters, but pervading through the stories and uniting them is this sense of heightened self-consciousness a need to protect oneself from a befuddling, cold harsh world. Gogol himself put it best in another St Petersburg story – Nevsky Prospekt â€Å"It had seemed as if some demon had crumbled the world into bits and mixed all these bits indiscriminately together† Bibliography Gogol, Nikolai – translated by Macandrew, Andrew R and Meyer, Priscilla The Diary of a Madman and Other Stories – SIGNET CLASSICS, January 2005, New York, NY/US One Of The Oldest Cases Of Schizophrenia In Gogol’s â€Å"Diary Of A Madman† Eric Lewin AltschulerBMJ: British Medical Journal , Vol. 323, No. 7327 (Dec. 22 – 29, 2001), pp. 1475-1477 Published by: BMJ Publishing Group Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25468632 Cloaking the Self: The Literary Space of Gogol’s â€Å"Overcoat† Charles C. Bernheimer – PMLA , Vol. 90, No. 1 (Jan., 1975), pp. 53-61 – Published by: Modern Language Association – Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/461347 The Laughter of Gogol – R. W. Hallett – Russian Review , Vol. 30, No. 4 (Oct., 1971), pp. 373-384 – Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Editors and Board of Trustees of the Russian Review – Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/127792

How Authors Affected the Frontier Movement Essay

The Frontier Movement is a period in American history that refers to the westward movement of Americans toward the Pacific Ocean during the mid-1800s lasting until the early 1900’s. This movement was characterized by an expansionist zeal for opportunity and adventure, but was also heavily characterized by widespread social oppression and reform. It was during this time that both authors and reformists were inspired to write and share their ideas, many of which called attention to the often ignored social injustices of the time. These author’s ideas not only were inspired by the movement (the beginning of American Literature), but also heavily fueled and contributed to the movement in return. Authors Mark Twain and Susan B. Anthony, for example, played an important role in the frontier movement through their writings as they used these to convey the feelings they held toward America’s crooked social discrimination and socio-economic disparities. Mark Twain and Susan B. Anthony are considered to be two of America’s first American Literature authors. Mark Twain, known as the â€Å"Father of America Literature†, became an author in the West after the end of the Civil War. Susan B. Anthony, known as one of the first women’s activists, works focused mainly on the gender inequality customary of the time. Both of these author’s works are recognized as being bold and reflecting much of the American frontier movement’s attitude and ailments. Their works helped fuel their readers understanding of who they were and helped inspire their audience in the spirit of the frontier movement. Mark Twain’s works often embodied the newly discovered American frontier spirit of individuality and adventure. His works were both entertaining and encouraged Americans to create their own destiny. This was both a popular and significant notion during the frontier movement as it embodied the idea’s Americans had about expanding westward in search of a new life. In addition to his inspirational and humorous works, his writings also addressed the social discrimination he witness during the era of the frontier movement. Many of his works, like Huckleberry Finn for example, showed the possibility of bringing change to a world dominated by racism and foolishness. His works both captured American’s imagination, inspired American’s frontier attitude, and called attention to social wrongs. Susan B. Anthony’s works focused more on the boldness of the American. Rather than idolizing the spirit of America, she often called Americans out on the social injustices prevalent throughout America during the frontier era and promoted change. She called attention to both American racism and especially gender inequality. While Americans were beginning to identify the distinctly American characteristics they took pride in, Susan B. Anthony identified the aspects of American life that Americans came to realize they should be ashamed of. Her writings and causes were bold, reflecting the rugged American Spirit, but her works also helped shape the social aspects of the American Frontier movement. The frontier movement of America marked the beginning of American identity, and thus the beginning of American Literature. It was this movement that influenced the works of becoming authors, many, who in turn, influenced the frontier movement. Mark Twain and Sarah B. Anthony both contributed to the frontier movement through their writings in that they helped Americans realize their identity. During the frontier movement, Americans began to see themselves as an adventurous and bold people, and it was these authors who helped Americans gain and develop an understanding of who they were, even though their ideas were often negative. In short, by providing Americans with literature about who the American people were, the authors helped inspire Americans to express this new attitude of adventure and recognize American social values in the Frontier Movement.