Modern Times by Paul Johnson gives an overview of the history from the nineteen twenties until the nineteen nineties. He bases his book on the presuppositions of the Judeo-Christian worldview. Johnson is very clear in his belief in the Judeo-Christian worldview as he states it explicitly multiple times throughout his lengthy book. The presuppositions of the Judeo-Christian worldview are: “the Kingdom of God is spiritual, man is prophet, priest, and king under a sovereign God and that there is no institutional interposition between God and man.” This worldview causes him to affirm limited government, free market economics, the rule of law and self-government. His main thesis is that the history of modern times is defined by how people have either followed the Judeo Christian worldview or have created ill-fitting replacements for those values. He supports this thesis extensively throughout the book with numerous examples. This is defined by a move away from limited self-government toward moral anarchy, and relativism. This move was encouraged by the ideas of Freud, Einstein, Marx and Nietzsche. This led to an increase in the overall size of government as self-government decreased and the desire for destruction of enemies and despotic power increased. Johnson begins by describing how Leninism is the religion with Lenin as the god. Lenin is the ultimate authority on all things. He does not ultimately look to anyone else for answers, not even Marx. Lenin had a
I am truly honored to accept the Joseph Fleming Endowment Scholarship. Thank you for the honor to receive this scholarship and the assistance for my education from Iowa State University. My childhood dream was to come Iowa State and to study agriculture. I can’t thank you enough for the scholarship award to help me finance my education at Iowa State.
He believes that if you did humans of their emotion then they become strong, the fact that he enforces this belief and forces others to coincide with it points in the direction of a philosophically controlled dystopia. He also has almost to complete control of the government meaning that he can make anyone do whatever he wants them to. Along with being able to rid the country of any resistance due to the help of the people he has complete control of.
Lyndon Baines Johnson introduced the Great Society, a strategic plan of action to propose environmental cleanup, decreasing poverty, and helping to further fund education during his state of the union address in 1965 in a poetic manner. He spoke of it as a destination that the American people would work toward. Johnson’s address gave many Americans hope and faith in a better world after feeling so much pain following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Americans were anxious to move forward as a nation in support of the changed Johnson proposed.
What do you think the author’s thesis, or main argument is, and why? Be sure to put his thesis in your own words.
We first must analyze the decision process and execution of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) to hire Paul Levy as CEO. The hospital was in desperate need of a competent leader who possessed the qualities that would turn around and save the not-for-profit company. In comparing the situation faced by BIDMC with Groysberg’s “Are Leaders Portable?” article, it becomes clear Levy possesses many “portable” qualities. Through the political frame we can see Levy has many political ties within the Boston area which making him a well respected and recognizable figure. The numerous connections he has within the area along with being familiar with Boston
The books main themes include language as mind control and psychological and physical intimidation and manipulation. In the book, the people live in a city which is very out of the ordinary and also overseen by a charismatic leader, Big Brother. This society, portrayed by George Orwell has
This novel is about the corruption omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation the superstate is under the control of the privileged elite of the inner party and government that persecutes individualism. When he wrote this book he wanted the readers to know that there are similar to today's society and 1984 like what was happening then is still happening now like all the bad things that happened then are still happening in today's society. The way that 1984 and the society that we are in today are similar is like how 1984 had big brother watching them so if they broke a law or rule than they have to suffer the consequences because they did something they were not suppose to do so for us today we have more than just one person that is watching us we have the president and the government and the police and more
Andrew Johnson, the 17th president, was born in Raleigh, North Carolina on December 29th, 1808. At the young age of three years old, Andrew’s father. Jacob Johnson passed away while drowning in an attempt to save the life of Editor Henderson from the Raleigh Gazette in 1812. Andrew’s mother, Mary Johnson, worked hard as a seamstress and washerwoman in order to support Andrew and his three brothers, and her; but she was unable to afford to send them to school. From the age of 14 until 16 he worked as an apprentice to a tailor but talked to his mother and stepfather about moving and starting a new life. He then opened a tailor shop in Greenville, Tennessee, married Eliza McCardle on May 17, 1827 and
During the 1930's American citizens witnessed a breakdown of the Democratic and free enterprise way of life. The government saw that the free enterprise system was failing. The New Deal increased the government's regulation and intervention and the economic system, thus temporarily abandoning the capitalism system and turning toward socialism to find the answer. The answer... the New Deal. Socialism is usually thought of as a form of government that advocates public ownership and public control of wealth (Britannica Jr. Encyclopedia 1980, p.231).
He uses the themes of excessive power, surveillance, manipulation, and the like to describe a totalitarian regime that cannot fall. One of the most interesting themes in the book was portrayed in the ruling party’s use of manipulation. The ruling party uses constant bombardment of propaganda to diminish a person’s potential hate for the party. The idea was to twist a person’s hate of the party into hate to a wanted rebel (although it is never clear whether this rebel truly exists). They would lie and say that the rebel (who was known as Goldstein) wanted to hurt the people and cause havoc. The party would hold rallies for people to scream and yell and hate Goldstein, thereby focusing their rage on something besides the party. They knew that if you gave the people a common enemy, they would cooperate. The party would even lie about how lucky the population was compared to the rest of the world due to the auspices of “the Party”. The regime would also consistently monitor everyone, to make sure no one was speaking out, or even thinking of speaking out (which is considered a “thought crime”, and when noticed, the “thought police” will immediately be dispatched to punish the “criminal”). They would use the people to do unbelievable amounts of labor to provide
While it has proven to be difficult to end poverty in America, Peter Edelman is optimistic. In his book So Rich, So Poor Edelman makes a call to action. There are four prominent ideas that underpin Edelman’s reasoning throughout the book: (1) More people must understand why poverty is still so prevalent in America; (2) extreme poverty must be taken into consideration as a shocking 6 million Americans’ sole income was food stamps in 2011. This fact alone creates a sense of urgency that drives Edelman; (3) increasing income inequality should be treated as a moral issue; and (4) bold political action will be required if substantive progress will be made in alleviating poverty.
James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938), was a highly talented and celebrated African American writer. He was a poet, songwriter, novelist, literary critic, and essayist. Along with his wide-ranging literary accomplishments, Johnson also served as a school principal, professor of literature at Fisk University, attorney, a diplomatic consul for the United States in Venezuelaand Nicaragua, and secretary for the NAACP from 1920-1930. He is considered one of the founders of the Harlem Renaissance and the first "modern" African American.
Karl Marx is the most famous theoretician of communism. Johnson acknowledges Marx’s most famous quote: “From each according to his ability; to each according to his need” which is a thought that within itself includes the basic idea of communism. Professor Johnson explains that the deeper deliberation of the concept is that everyone is expected to co-operate in the process of production. The individual citizen’s equal rights of access to consumer goods though would be completely unaffected by his own individual contribution to production. (Johnson) It was expected of people to stop thinking about money and how much they get, how much they can spend and how to get more. Furthermore they had to stop thinking about profit, contracts, banking, loans, insurance etc. The communist leaders thought that would eliminate all the major social problems such as class conflict, political oppression, racial discrimination, inequality of sexes, religious prejudice, and cultural backwardness. They believed it would also put an end to more such “psychological” forms of suffering as isolation and feelings of powerlessness. Johnson claims that the specific type of communism that occurred in Easter Europe was the Marxist-Leninist variant of socialism where people believed that a truly communist society can be achieved only through the powerful overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a “dictatorship of the proletariat”. They thought that
was the step-mother’s interest to make sure that his children were gotten rid of, for she wanted
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