Bullying Is A Form Of Abuse - 1399 Words

Bullying can be defined as ‘aggressive, intentional acts or behaviours that are carried out by a group or an individual, repeatedly and over time against a victim, who cannot easily defend him or herself’ (Smith et al, 2006, p1; Slonje and Smith, 2008). Bullying is a form of abuse that is based on an ‘imbalance of power’ (Shariff, 2005, p459; Smith et al, 2006, p1). Some examples of bullying include name-calling, spreading rumours, and sexual harassment. Increasingly, technology is being used as a method of bullying, and where this is the case, the term ‘cyberbullying’ is used (DCSF, 2009; Mishna et al, 2009). ‘Cyberbullying’ was a term first used and defined by Canadian educator Bill Belsey around the turn of the millennium (Campbell, 2005). Belsey defined cyberbullying as â€Å"the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behaviour by an individual or group that is intended to harm others† (cited in Butler et al, 2008, p21). Belsey’s definition of cyberbullying is widely used in academic and government literature (Li, 2006; 2007a, p2; Smith et al, 2008; DCSF, 2009). Traditional bullying, which can include face-to-face, verbal or physical altercations, differs from cyberbullying in several ways (Smith et al, 2008; Slonje and Smith, 2008; Dilmac, 2009). For instance, cyberbullying introduces technology, such as the internet and mobile phones, into the equation, which provides a different route for the bully to target theirShow MoreRelatedThe Effects Of Substance Abuse On Children1364 Words   |  6 Pagesis familiar with bullying, it’s almost like a rite of passage for most Americans; we see it in movies and are all-too familiar with it. We typically don’t think about the consequences of bullying, but studies have shown that students who are bullied at school in grades 7-12 are 50% more likely to abuse substances (Promises Treatment Center). Bullying is the act of physical or verbal tormenting over a set amount of time, usually targeted at one person or a group of people. Bullying is an internationalRead MoreThe Effects of Bullying on Childhood Development 906 Words   |  4 PagesBullying is everywhere; it takes place in the home, office, cyberspace and schools; bullying is especially common in schools. Schools are supposed to be a haven for children to learn and build educational and social skills. However, the ill effects of bullying are disrupting children’s education, social skills, and lives. According to a youth risk and behavior survey (2011), approximately 20% of students in grades nine through twelve have been bullied (Heintz 1). Bullying was once thought as aRead MoreEssay on Different Kinds of Bullying1017 Words   |  5 PagesBullying, in its many forms, is becoming an extremely hazardous problem that many individuals endure. Bullies torment others because they themselves have insecurities, have been bullied themselves, or have a mental illness that brings out the worst in them. Nevertheless, bullying can physically and emotionally destroy the victim, whether it is by physical abuse, cyber bullying, or verbal abuse. Nowadays, physical bullying is becoming a very serious and detrimental problem. Not only does physicalRead MoreThe Prevalence Of Internet And Social Media794 Words   |  4 Pagessignificant cost to contemporary society. Namely, the gradual emergence of cyber violence, particularly incidents of cyber bullying received increasing amount of attention from not only the popular culture but also from the realm of academia. What is cyber bullying? Cyber violence was defined as â€Å"an aggressive, intentional act carried out by a group or individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself.† (Smith, Maddavi, CarvalhoRead MoreDescribe That Possible Signs, Symptoms, Indicators and Behaviours That May Cause Concern in the Context of Safeguarding.1486 Words   |  6 PagesDEFINITION OF CHILD ABUSE An abused child is any child, up to the age of 18, who has suffered from, or is believed likely to be at risk of, physical injury, neglect, emotional abuse, sexual abuse or verbal abuse. (Source: www.yesican.org) It is recognised that that it is abuse when someone inflicts harm or fails to prevent it. Children may be abused in a family or in an institutional or community setting, by those known to them or by a stranger, for example, via the internet. Child abuse can have majorRead MoreThe Time is Now: End Bullying Essay example1396 Words   |  6 Pagesis sweeping the nation: bullying. What is a bully? As defined by Oxford Dictionaries, a bully is â€Å"a person who uses strength or influence to harm or intimidate those who are weaker† (oxforddictionaries.com). In most situations when the term â€Å"bully† is mentioned, the mental image of the grotesque creature standing over a small child is created. This is not always the case, however. Bullying takes place daily and in more forms than physical brutality. While physical bullying is serious, there is alsoRead MoreAnalysis Of The Article Girl s Suicide Points1150 Words   |  5 Pageswrites about the tragic death of Rebecca A nn Sedwick, and the events that lead her to it. Rebecca was a normal, typical twelve year old pree-teen girl. Because of a disagreement over a boy Rebecca dated, several middle-school children stated bullying her. The bullying started at school, but it esculated to where she was vicously tormented on social media. Even after she stopped dating the boy, the attacks kept coming. Because not much was being done, even though Rebecca’s mother complained to school adiministratorsRead MoreThe Increasing Influence of Bullies1351 Words   |  5 PagesBullying is the abuse of the difference in power between the bully and the victim. Bullying should not be written off as kids just being kids. It should not be excused as a part of growing up. Bullying also is not something that victims should be left to work out for themselves, because it can change the victim in long-term and devastating ways. It has become more problematic, and the methods of domination and exploration are much more v aried and even more invisible to the watchful eye of protectiveRead MoreThe Implementation Of Anti Bullying Initiatives976 Words   |  4 PagesThe implementation of anti-bullying initiatives has become increasingly linked with educational polices aimed at improving a school’s effectiveness. We now know that students’ social and emotional learning helps to facilitate their academic learning, and that a student’s level of social competence and the success of their social lives often correlates with their success in classroom academics. Research has continued to highlight that any significant change in school practices requires time and aRead MoreCyberbullying: The New Form Of Bullying. When Sending Our1661 Words   |  7 PagesCyberbullying: The New Form of Bullying When sending our children to school we expect them to be able to learn without distractions, but bullying makes that impossible. Bullying has been recognized as a problem for school children globally. In fact, school bullying has proven to be a risk factor for suicide, which has been identified as one of the top causes of death among teens (Erick Messias, 2014). Now that bullying and its importance has been acknowledged as a critical concern, several prevention

Geographical Location Of Climate Change - 1405 Words

Geographical location: Prehistoric Europe refers to the prehistorical period of Europe, usually taken to refer to human prehistory since the Lower Paleolithic, but in principle also extending to the geological time scale – for which see Geological history of Europe. Climate: The subject of climate change could hardly be more timely. In Climate and Cultural Change in Prehistoric Europe and the Near East, an interdisciplinary group of contributors examine climate change through the lens of new archaeological and paleo-environmental data over the course of more than 10,000 years from the Near East to Europe. Key climatic and other events are contextualized with cultural changes and transitions for which the authors discuss when, how, and if,†¦show more content†¦TheThe difficulty, however, about such an inquiry is that nearly all the available data are confined to those concrete survivals like graves, sacred places and their contents, sculptures, bas-reliefs, engravings and paintings that have escaped the ravages of time. Their interpretation must be to some extent conjectural, but much of the material has survived, little changed, in everyday occurrence among the peoples who live today under conditions very similar to those of early humans. If emp loyed with proper caution such evidence can afford useful and illuminating clues to the purpose and meaning of prehistoric religion. Short history of Prehistoric of Europe Prehistoric people lived on the European continent as long ago as the Ice Age. Civilization began to come from Egypt and Asia by way of the islands of the Aegean Sea in about 2000 BC. In time this flowered into the splendors of Greek and Roman culture. Europe s recorded history begins with these cultures. After centuries of progress and power, the Roman Empire was divided into two parts at the death of Theodosius the Great in AD 395. The Western Empire had Rome as its capital; the Byzantine, or Eastern, Empire had its capital at Constantinople, now called Istanbul. Beyond the boundaries of the Roman world were numerous barbaric peoples, divided into three main groups: remnants of the Celtic peoples in outlying parts of the BritishShow MoreRelatedClimate Change And The Geographies Of Objectivity Essay1645 Words   |  7 Pagesdifferent geographical spaces unite different types of research together in how culture can influence the research. To re turn to Research Tutorial 2, ‘Climate Change and the Geographies of Objectivity: the case of the IPCC’s Burning Embers Diagram’ (Mahony, 2011) investigates the history of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change s (IPCC) ‘burning embers’ diagram, and the future of it in the cultural circuits of climate science, policy and advocacy. Mahony (2011) argues that climate change is asRead MoreThe Five Differences Between Physical And Human Geography1618 Words   |  7 Pagesand how they relate to the physical world. Location Location pinpoints different positions, people, and places on the earth surface. It is defined for geography using two terms, absolute and relative. Absolute location -vs- relative location â€Å"Absolute location answers the question â€Å"where is it†Ã¢â‚¬ (The Five Themes of Geography pdf). It’s the place on earth which can be located using longitude and latitude. The specific spot on the planet. â€Å"Relative location is the relationship of a place to other places†Read MoreDiscuss Australias Physical Features1346 Words   |  6 PagesAustralia’s physical features and climate. Australia natural geographical features. 1. Lake Eyre and the location is South Australia. 2. Lake Torrens is usually a dry salt with patches of seasonal season water, And the location is South Australia. 3. Lake Gairdner National Park , Location is South Australia. 4. River Murray long 3,75 kilometer from Darling River and location is South Australia. 5. River Darling and location is New south wales, Australia. 6. River Cooper location is South Australia. 7. RiverRead MoreGuns, Germs, And Steel1490 Words   |  6 Pagesreasons why geographical and environmental factors lead to a more rapid progression of certain civilizations throughout history. The book Guns, Germs and Steel portrays an argument that due to some societies’ access to an area witch contains sufficient amounts of wildlife and climates that are easily inhabitable, these societies developed into more advanced ways of living much easier and also earlier than societies who lacked these geographical attributes. These beneficial geographical attributesRead MoreGlobal Warming And Climate Change Essay1204 Words   |  5 Pages Global warming and climate change will trigger major change in diversity and abundance of arthropods, geographical distribution of insect- pests, insect population dynamics, insect biotypes, and herbivore- plant interaction, activity and abundance of natural enemies and efficacy of crop protection technologies changes in geographical range and insect abundance will increase the extent of crop losses and thus, will have a major bearing on crop production and food security. Distribution of insect-Read MoreEssay On Climate Change Negotiation1195 Words   |  5 PagesThe climate change negotiation game, which took place at Michigan Tech University, had close to 30 participants with nine groups representing the USA, EU, other developed countries, India, China, other developing nations, fossil fuel industry, climate activists and journalists. After two rounds of negotiations, the temperature rise could be limited to 2.3 oC better than the Paris agreement by 0.3 oC. The Copenhagen accord temperature target of 2oC has not been achieved despite the earnest effortsRead MoreThemes Of Geography1122 Words   |  5 Pagesourselves, and introduce new ideas. People have studied the ever-changing characteristics of Earth and its inhabitants for centuries. Almost any time you study geography, you can come back to the Five Themes of Geography. Also known as movement, place, location, region, and human-environment interaction. These five themes can be tied into almost any historical event. Don’t believe me? In the 19th century, one of Europe’s major focuses was imperialism. At this time, more land or territory meant moreRead MoreThe Effects Of Climate Change On The United States981 Words   |  4 Pagescause damage. As storms continue to grow stronger, that figure will continue to rise. Though the destruction of climate change can be seen globally with storms, wildfires, and oil depletion, Popular support for environmental movements and policies is minimal. The numbers needed to make a difference are not there. From 2008 to 2010, the number of Americans who believed in climate change dropped to 57%. While shocking, there is an array of psychological reasons for the lack of support. Ordinary citizensRead MoreOld World Wine and New World Wine1387 Words   |  6 Pagesand those differences can even lead to fierce conflicts. If people have spent a lot time on the world of wine, they might have been aware of the differences in the wines between the new and old World because whe n a bottle of wine is produced, the climate, the soil, and the culture of its production place are naturally integrated into it, and only the people who understand the wine can taste the spirit of it. No matter the new world wines or the old world wine we have today, the differences reflectRead MoreGuns, Germs, And Steel : The Fates Of Human Societies1510 Words   |  7 PagesIn the book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond, discusses in detail how material success was brought to some societies more easily than others. Diamond believes that geographic location was a key role in the success of these societal structures, however, it is also thought that a society s failure could be attributed to the geography as well. Along with geography, food production, immunity, animal domestication, and the production and use of steel were all tied

Take America Back Free Essays

The Christian Right and Major Players’ Influence in the Values of Middle and Working Class America† Introduction! It’s February 2011. Barack Obama is the president of the United States. Despite sagging poll numbers, a slowly recovering economy is supporting the push of health care reform. We will write a custom essay sample on Take America Back or any similar topic only for you Order Now The Democratic Party controls the Senate. The Republicans, led by midterm-elected John Bonder, control the House. Progress is tedious, but moving. Disdain for the President, spurred on by mass media and the murmurings of the Tea Party, is gripping hold of what seems to be a substantive chunk of voting Americans. Wing for the Republican nomination, looking to feed off these energies, Georgia businessman Herman Cain stands in front of a crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Cain is good at the rhetoric. He takes the underpinnings of conservative media and turns them on the crowd. † â€Å"Stupid people are ruining America,† he says to applause. â€Å"It’s sad†¦ I’m talking about the liberals. They don’t have tactics. They don’t have a strategy. They have an objective. The objective of the liberals is to destroy this country. The objective of the liberals is to make America mediocre Just like everybody else who aspires to be like America. † Cain takes in the applause and pauses for the audience to sit down. â€Å"They are trying to destroy this country at all costs! â€Å"† Fast forward to March 2014. Americans have seen the failings of the roll of Beam’s Affordable Care Act. Hobby Lobby has refused to offer birth control to its 2 employees under the plan, citing their religious beliefs. Arizona governor Jan Brewer has vetoed a bill that would have allowed businesses to refuse service to LIGHT people. Seizing the opportunity, former congresswoman Michele Buchanan gets on the radio with a conservative talk show host. † l think the thing that is getting a little tiresome, the gay community, they have so bullied the American people, and they’ve so intimidated politicians. † She goes on to insinuate that the â€Å"liberals† have initiated an attack on religious Americans: â€Å"Just like we need to observe tolerance for the gay and lesbian community, we need to have tolerance for the community of people who hold sincerely held religious beliefs. † † This type of speech from right-wing populists isn’t anything new. In fact, it’s been surfacing for some time, since the mid-twentieth century, a stand against the moving regressive of women’s rights, civil rights, challenges to the traditional patriarchy, and fear of communism. Pushed for some time beginning with post-World War II and beyond, today, rabid defense of religious libe rty and unapologetic perpetuation of deregulated capitalism as a divine force infiltrates the very fiber of American political, public, and religious discourse. This project will examine several angles, arguments, and accounts of the power of right wing populism, religiously motivated or otherwise, in the mainstay underbelly of middle and working class white America. Presupposing that this regiment of withdrawing American â€Å"conservatives† is modernly strong and the consideration of it is worthwhile, I will offer research and commentary. To accomplish this, I will consider several academic and media sources, authored by political scientists, religious studies scholars, sociologists, philosophers, and ethnographers. 3 The main concepts necessary for context on this project are two. First, I will take into account William E. Connelly â€Å"Christian-capitalist resonance machine,† an idea articulated in his 2008 book Capitalism and Christianity, American Style. Second, a good deal of this study will focus on analysis of Thomas Franks 2004 book What’s the Matter with Kansas? : How Conservatives Won the Heart of America and his notion of a â€Å"backlash culture. â€Å"† These two trends, as they may be called, are powerful and are ingrained into American political culture, embedded in a power structure of the Right Wing, both Christian and secular. Now, the backlash drives the Right Wing, and the Wing itself is a volleying voice in the Christian-capitalist resonance machine. Importantly, however, these trends did not always exist and emerged over some time. † † So my thesis argument is this: the unconditional accepting of the Christian- capitalist resonance machine has been growing in the national discourse of government over time, beginning with anti-communist movements after the Second World War and a wave of Southern evangelicalism establishing an effective empire on the tails of earlier labor movements. This coincidentally intersected with the changing face of populism to resent the progressivism of the second half of the Twentieth Century, namely desegregation, increased legality for abortion, and increased teaching of evolutionary science in public schools. This occurred as the Right learned from its failings during the Goldwater campaign and transformed itself into a force ready for alliance with the Christian Right, which itself had become more powerful on account of television and radio. Now, nostalgic sentiments of a supposedly better America in the past permeate the psyche of a white middle and working class that dollies the Christian-capitalist 4 resonance machine and unleashes blame of what it perceives to be moral flaws at the feet of the â€Å"liberals,† effectively promulgating a backlash culture. † † I will supplement the study of those two trends with theoretical methods of interpretation, analysis, and study, heavily relying on Sarah Diamond’s 1995 book Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States. With Diamond as a starting point to understand the comprehensive formation of power to create a culture of backlash and Connelly Christian-capitalist resonance machine, pushed by an unlikely alliance of libertarians, evangelicals, conservatives, and moderates, I will add to her analysis with other scholars, most notably Michael Akin, Darrel Docks, and Lisa McGuire. † Thomas Frank, Joe Pageant and the Backlash Culture! Patriotism has woven itself deeply into this generation’s personality. The attacks on September 1 1, 2001 solidified a culture of burgeoning nationalism. The United States became an identity for many young people in a new, vibrant way. To disgrace the flag is to disgrace the people who were victims in terrorist attacks and to undermine the military, whose interest, after all, is rooted not in violence but in protection. The PATRIOT Act of 2001 called into question the importance of personal privacy in an era with the nation’s enemies are technologically as’. N. And that foe is n insurgency with no national ties, but who seemingly target the red, white, and blue hostilely. For a time, resulting from disgust for the French for seemingly not supporting the Just cause of the 5 United States, French fries were Jokingly renamed â€Å"freedom fries† and the French kiss dubbed the â€Å"All-American lip lock. â€Å"† Even discarding trivial pop culture phenomena like these, it is clear that the government denial that bubbled toward the end and in the aftermath of the War in Vietnam became questionable at best for the public in the early new millennium. President Bush, to many, represented a strong, moral, religiously devout leader hose intentions in super sizing the United States military were only a vehicle through which to enact democratic change on behalf of oppressed people in the Middle East, specifically in Afghanistan and Iraq. For a time, intervention in the Middle East was patriotic and an offshoot of the De facto mission of the nation: that all people should be free and entitled to certain rights of privacy and prosperity in a venue of individualism and free exchange of ideas. This obsession with capitalism with shades of manifest destiny eventually wavered when it was clear that there old be no â€Å"winning† the War on Terror, at least for the time being. It wasn’t until President Barack Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden at the hands of Seal Team Six in 2011 that it looked like the insurgent al-Qaeda was on the run at A growing disparity of wealth in the United States resulting partially from offshore labor and the continuing success of Internet companies coupled with an unwavering patriotism in the new millennium. What used to be a substantially sized white middle class in the United States was either being absorbed into the upper class or pushed downward into the working class. Combine this with a recession at the hands of the housing market collapse and you have an environment rich for what political scientist 6 Thomas Frank calls â€Å"backlash culture† Just at the time that Barack Obama took the oath in January 2009. † In What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, Frank discusses how a progressive hub like Kansas gradually turned into a prototypical example of the effects of the New Right on the middle of America and became symbolic of what he calls the â€Å"backlash culture. â€Å"† † Backlash, by definition, is reaction to social change among a mass group of people toward what they feel is an outside, intervening power. For our purposes, the backlash of the second half of the twentieth century can be boiled down to a dist rust of both big government and Wall Street powers, both of which are run by the elite and neglect the average, pious American. However, according to Frank, an opportunist group of conservatives hijacked the distrust and malaise toward elite east-coast and west-coasters and morphed it into a political machine. We will examine this shift more, but it safe to say that Kansas was an exemplary microcosm of such radical change. † Frank alleges that the backlash is a working-class movement hat has done incalculable, historic harm to working-class people and that confident liberals who led America in a previous wave of populism are a dying species. Carefully cultivated derangement in places like Kansas have stirred these movements. The narrative has been perpetuated to paint liberals as out of touch and move Middle America from liberal to staunchly conservative. † Frank is a Kansas insider, having grown up outside Kansas City on the KS side. 7 One of Franks big themes is the idea of â€Å"Two Americas. Fox News, Heartland, and others have espoused two entirely separate Americas where red-starters are down to earth and reverent and blue-starters are lazy and elitist. Kansas used to be extremely progressive, but the red-states dynamic combined with huge telecommunications industries have pushed taxes low and labor cheaper. The huge industries play towns off against each other; it’s economic growth that makes an area less wealthy and less healthy as its population increases. Farm towns are in decay. Deregulated capitalism has allowed Walter to crash local businesses. Huge food reparations have used legislation to get richer while disenfranchising farmers. † Kansas has found its most aggressively pious individuals and elevated them to public officer. He gives an example: the leader of the Wyandotte County Republican Party reportedly once told a reporter, â€Å"Primarily my goal is to build the Kingdom of God† (69), a statement that any secularist might find alarming. Another prominent example of this trend is Sam Brownian, who as Kansas Secretary of Agriculture, may have been responsible for running the state’s small farmers into the grips of large agriculture corporations (73). Ironically, even though he once denounced the presence of PACK money in politics, corporate telecommunications front groups soon funded him and he and eventually voted against McCain-Feinting (74). Some of Franks conclusions to the change of culture in Kansas may be representative of much of middle America. The â€Å"rebels† (as they are called) of Kansas Imagine Georgia, Texas, or much of the Southeast and Midwest. Imagine ideally Massachusetts, New Hampshire, California, Washington, and Oregon. When you are looking for a change in d ialogue, why not find the person who cares hyperbolically the most? Want to tear down federal farm programs and privative utilities because big business has told them to. Towns that are dependent on the government want the â€Å"liberals† to pack up and leave them alone because the Cat Institute and others have created this mindset, and corporations dangle money over their heads because they are mobile and cities are not. † The most consequential shift has been within the Republican Party, which has been pushed more and more to the right. Through the sass, the legislature was dominated by traditional moderate Republicans. This changed in 1991 when a pro- fife group pushed conservatives and rendered Democrats helpless. Strangely, this populist movement was at the heeding of a policy that is is difficult to defeat in legalized abortion. Even so, anti-abortion protesters who were looking to build a â€Å"kingdom of God†, worked harder than the moderates to achieve their success. † † Only the conservatives’ complete opposition to taxes has any sort of tangible use anyway, but they stir the pot and push what would seem to be a class war, except that the war is from the top down, not the bottom up. The working class heroes are even more Republican than their bosses. This echoes Joe Pageant, whom I will mention in a moment. The conservative social critique always boils down to the message that liberals are rich and lazy, and Frank alleges all claims on the right advance from victimized. The backlash suspends material needs for grave social grievances. Frank writes that the backlash movement says that nothing can protect humble Americans from the alien forces of liberalism. For b acklasher, business is natural and good, and the liberals want to destroy business. Frank alleges that Republicans have to lie about being the 9 party of the common man by concealing that huge business is actually their main interest. Then, the backlasher label universities as places of evil â€Å"liberal† elitism, attempting to articulate that the future for them is doomed as well. Thus, conservatives pretend to be â€Å"persecuted, powerless, and blind. â€Å"† The backlash is about individual identity, and those who perpetuate it have used gun control, abortion, and evolution to manipulate voters. Ann-intellectualism is one of their unifying themes. Backlasher blame intellectuals for calling the shots in the political sphere. This anti-intellectualism can be dated back to the sass against New Deal regulations. Then more came in the sass with McCarthy, as we have already seen. Republicans have hijacked several anti-intellectual traditions including Protestant evangelicalism (194) and in every social issue Republicans perceive the same pattern of a conflict of the â€Å"authentic† with the liberal and arrogant. Anti- intellectualism makes pro-life movements central to contemporary conservatism (198). † † The idea that the liberals are calling â€Å"all the shots† in America in a time of a worsening economy and the perceived debilitation of traditional morals affects these average Americans directly. Social movements in LIGHT progress allegedly threaten heir families and religious freedom. The advancement of gun control legislation threatens their sacred constitutional rights. In all, I argue that the election of an Africanizing president contributes to a white fear that the average white American is somehow being made to pay for the inherent advantages in opportunity that they did not choose. † The resonance was that the liberal elite were meddling in the definition of human life with their cliquey liberalism. The backlash movement is becoming permanent in the 10 resonance machine, like the liberals against which they dissent (242). But what it has in common with mainstream culture is the refusal to think about capitalism critically. Because liberals have dropped the class language that distinguished them from Republicans, they have left themselves vulnerable to the cultural wedges. In short, the backlash works. † It is no secret that Frank is writing from a left-leaning perspective, lamenting the ways large businesses like Boeing have taken over legislative imperatives in his hometown. Even so, I think his argument is pessimistic and is one of more description than action, as we will see in Connelly. † In summary, the government backlash has been emerging over time, a product of the response to progressive social movements. Because those social movements were often pushed by those called â€Å"liberals,† the other side of the coin blames the liberals for irrevocable progressivism that has negatively changed the values of the nation. † † Franks commentary connects well with Joe Pageant’s 2007 book Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War. In a return trip to his home town of rural Virginia, Pageant, a Journalist, condenses interviews and relationships into this book, articulating what he calls the â€Å"American hologram. This hologram is the belief that white people must be middle class, even if they are living paycheck to paycheck. Starkly, Pageant writes,† â€Å"If middle-class Americans do not feel threatened by the slow encroachment of the police state of the PATRIOT Act, it is because they live comfortably enough to exercise 11 their liberties very lightly, never testing the boundaries. You never know you are in prison unless you try the door† (263). † Though Pageant’s people are less the backlasher than Franks people, they are a group of working class white people who have come to ascribe to the political levels of their bosses so as not to hurt their Job status. Pageant tells of a world where â€Å"liberals† are dubbed weak-willed people, and social questions aren’t about complexity, but about good guys versus bad guys (67). A good example of the cause of the malaise that Pageant describes is the actions of Rubberier, who, at the time of publishing, employed a good many of people in his hometown. Walter, in an attempt to lower the prices that Rubberier cost them, began replacing Rubberier with other products. After seeing a sales drop, Rubberier caved, shutting down sixty-nine of its 400 facilities and firing 1 ,OHO workers (76), some of whom Pageant knew. † But for the people Pageant knows, this is the fault of the liberals, partially because they never reached these people with any message at away. As Republicans became uneasy in the sass with change, they trapped into the uneasiness among middle Americans by lamenting the â€Å"loss of community and values and attributing it to the ‘cultural left’s feminism and Antarctica,† etc (82). Guns are American, and liberals are against them. Cultural freedom is American, and liberals are against it. He sums it all up â€Å"That’s what they [the people he knows, whites living paycheck to check] voted for – an armed and moral republic. And that’s what we get when we stand by and At least the Republicans had a message, even if it was only about values. 2 watch the humanity get hammered out of our fellow citizens, letting them be worked cheap and farmed like a human crop for profit† (91). † Finally, the Christian element about which Pageant writes cannot be neglected. He writes, â€Å"you don’t need a degree in sociology to see that the most obvious class indicator in America is religious belief and that religious zeal is concentrated in lowercases and working-class whites† (182). † † Franks culture of backlash is a common one through the history of the United States. There has always been contempt for those in power on the part of a certain sect. In sum, after the Second World War, ideas of anti-communism turned any type of progressivism into a wary opponent to â€Å"true† Americanism. Social Justice between desegregation and increased women’s rights, including eventual rulings on Roe v. Wade, added to a middle class restlessness about changing times, threatening the class’ prosperity. That middle class fed on alleged threats of progressivism to promulgate a backlash culture against the amoral and progressive government, effectively ensuring a discourse of the â€Å"two Americas† in Franks book that were at war for the heart of a real America. Even though there have always been backlash movements, times changed in the twentieth century when mass media became available to the backlogging populists who used a rhetoric of fear to convince others to Join them. This backlash culture culminated at the right time with the Christian Right and the New Right to form a pervasive Christian-capitalist resonance machine. † William E. Connelly and the Christian-capitalist Resonance Machine† 13 In his book Capitalism and Christianity, American Style, William E. Connelly explores how an ethos of existential revenge permeates a culture, including those of â€Å"work, investment, church assemblies, educational practices, modes of consumption, avowing habits, electoral campaigns, and economic theory’ (4). With an ethos a â€Å"shared spirituality,† this theme of revenge has been incorporated into an evangelical wing of Christianity and resonates with â€Å"exclusionary drives and claims to special entitlement running through the cowboy sector of American capitalism† (7). To me, it seems clear that the ethos of existential revenge is another facet of the backlash ultra introduced in the previous section. This ethos of existential revenge exists in a vacuum of what Connelly calls the â€Å"Christian-capitalist resonance machine. † The confluence of backlash culture with the resonance machine creates a powerful motive for political activism in the Right. In his book, Connelly articulates this resonance machine and prop oses a way to combat it. I will summarize his articulations and, at the end of the project, offer analysis and a new thesis of how to combat the resonance machine from the Left. † † Connelly posits as early as page 7 that he would like to explore what it would How to cite Take America Back, Papers

Sergei Rachmaninoff Essay Example For Students

Sergei Rachmaninoff Essay Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff was born on April 1, 1873, at the family estate in Oneg, deep in the Nogorod countryside. His parents were Lubov Boutakov and Vasily Rachmaninoff. His father, Vasily, was an ex-officer in the Russian army. He had two elder sisters, Elena and Sophia, and an older brother named Vladimir. He had two younger siblings which joined the Rachmaninoff family, a girl named Varvara and a boy called Arkady. Varvara died when she was just a baby. Music was an important part of the Rachmaninoff family tradition. His father and his grandfaher had both played the piano. Alexander Siloti, Rachmaninoffs cousin, was already an acomplished pianist and was becoming popular by the time Rachmaninoff was born. Sergei was six years of age when he had his first piano lesson from Anna Ornatsky. She was from the St. Petersburn Conservatory. Rachmaninoff seemed to have a natural ability at the piano. Anna recommended that he receive a scholarship at the St. Petersburn Conservatory in 1881. He was but 9 years old when he began his formal lessons at the Conservatory. During the next few years he would skip his classes to play games and train hop, which would eventually result in failure at school. By this time, circumstances at home had left Lubov and the children with next to nothing because Vasily had pissed away all of the families earnings. With no money and the school threatening to expell her son from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Lubov turned to her cousin Alexander Siloti. They made an arrangement that Sergei could continue to study at the Conservatory, at which point the family moved to Moscow. There Sergei became a student of Nikolai Zverev. Nikolai was known throughout the country as both a teacher and a diciplinarian. Hard daily schedules of long practice sessions soon helped Rachmaninoff settle down and become focused. Over a period of time the dicipline began to pay off as their musical evenings soon attracted many of Russias principal musicians. Among some of the more notable guests was Tchaikovsky, whom Rachmaninoff became close friends with. During his career as a musician, Rachmaninoff was greatly influenced by his new found friend, Tchaikovsky. Rachmaninoff had his first introduction to composing at The Moscow Conservatory, There, under the instruction of Sergei Taneyev and Anton Arensky, he obtained a better understanding of counterpoint and harmony and began composing on his own. Of his earlier works, some of the more notable are the tone poem Prince Rostslav and First Piano Concerto, along with some solo piano pieces and several songs. His instructer, Zverev, felt that he was wasting his talents composing at the keyboard. They never reached an agreement, and Rachmaninoff transferred to study under his cousin Alexander Siloti.. Rachmaninoff took his final exams a year early, demonstrating remarkable talents at the piano, and graduated in 1891, a year earlier than expected. During this time he entered an opra entitled Aleko for his exam assignment, which he wrote in just one month. This piece went on to earn the highest possible mark, the Great Gold Medal, and became one of his more well known works. Shortly after graduation he composed C Sharp Minor Prelude which he came to be known for for the rest of his life. In January of 1895, he began thinking of ideas for his first major orchestral work, his First Symphony. It took him eight months to complete this undertaking. It was another year and a half before his symphony debuted in St. Petersburg, five days before Rachmaninoffs 24th birthday. The performance was a disaster , which left young Rachmaninoff devasted. .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1 , .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1 .postImageUrl , .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1 , .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1:hover , .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1:visited , .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1:active { border:0!important; } .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1:active , .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1 .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u7f8a3297d32d740838cb4783094effc1:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: A Lesson before Dying EssayHe later went on to say of Glazunov, who conducted the premier, I am amazed how such a highly talented man can conduct so badly. It was later believed that Glazunov conducted the dramatic work while piss drunk. Rachmaninoff lacked the confidence to compose anything after the shambles of the First Symphony, although the years following were not without musical activity. During this time he obtained a position conducting for a famous private theatre in Moscow. Still struggling with his ability to compose, he wrote only a few piano miniatures. After being introduced by a friend to Dr. Nikolai Dahl, it was speculated that Rachmaninoff was hypnotized in order to bring back his confidence, but it is more likely that he simply talked to Dahl on subjects like music and the arts. These conversations, along with encouragement from close friends, provided Sergei with assurance and a peace of mind, and he once again began to compose. He began by writing down ideas for his Second Concerto in 1900, and introduced it to the public in October of 1901. He composed most of his lifes works during this time. Some of his more well known were the Second Symphony, the Third Concerto, The Miserly Knight, and Francesca Da Rimini. He made a name for himself in London, Leeds, and New York, and his career was at the peak of success as a composer in Russia. By 1917, he and the public both viewed himself primarily as a composer and second as a pianist. Times in Russia were becoming filled with turmoil and entropy, and after the October Revolution in 1917 he found the atmosphere in Russia unbearable, writing at the time; Everything around me makes it impossible for me to work and I am frightened of becoming completely apathetic. Having virtually no money and their family estate at Ivanokva demolished by revolutionaries, Rachmaninoff and his family decided to leave Russia. With a small repertoire made up of his own works, some Chopin, Listz, and Tchaikovsky, he spent the next twenty five years broadening his repertoire and making his living performing piano recitals around the world. He lived in Switzerland for much of the 1930s, but returned to the United for the later part of the decade. On March 28th, 1943, Sergei Vassilievich Rachmaninoff died in Beverly Hills. His complete works entailed over forty-five major compositions. My favorite, I might add, is the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. While he might not have been the most influential composer of his time, his skills at conveying the emotions behind the pieces he played far exceeded that of most any other man. His works still continue to be heard to this day, and are just as soul-stirring today as they were the day he scrawled the first note onto the now yellowed parchment. Bibliography miscellaneous internet sites