Who Is A True Believer?

“Civilization and Its Discontents” is a book written by Sigmund Freud in 1929 (originally titled “Das Unbehagen in der Kultur” or The Uneasiness in Culture.) This is considered to be one of Freud’s most important and widely read works. In this book, Freud explains his perspective by enumerating what he sees as fundamental tensions between civilization and the individual. He asserts that this tension stems from the individual’s quest for freedom and non-conformity and civilization’s quest for uniformity and instinctual repression. Most of humankind’s primitive instincts are clearly destructive to the health and well-being of a human community (such as the desire to kill.) As a direct result, civilization creates laws designed to prohibit

Projections that have been made about how today’s society and culture will look in the coming years, decades, and centuries, all have yet to be seen in how valid they are. If you look in any sort of media: television, social media, or radio/music, you will see people giving their interpretations of what will become of our world down the road. Yet, few people look to see how our the current state of culture and society reflect the projections made by people in previous years, decades, and centuries. In looking at the visions of the future presented by both novelas, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, and The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster, each story presents aspects of society that prominently appear today. Written during the Industrial Revolution, a time where technology and human innovation was at one of its highest points in recent history, both stories explore the possible effects of the machinery that was becoming evermore present. Both authors present aspects such as omnipotent technology, decaying human independence, and destruction of real communication, to create the artistic statement that complacency is rising within the human race, and that complacency will eventually lead to the fall of mankind. In both stories, the authors speak against human complacency and deference to technology, warning that it will lead to the creation of weaker people and society that will ultimately destroy the human race, yet that complacency is present in today’s culture and due to the

In the words of Karl Marx, the founding father of Marxism, Marxism principally believes that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” In essence, Marx asserts that every day is a tale of conflict between society’s upper and lower class. While controversial in the real world, this notion is not far-fetched in the realm of literature. For example, Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” shows prominent signs of tension between classes. When examined from a Marxist perspective, Walker’s characters in “Everyday Use” highlight how each class values items and how survival needs and societal expectations differ among classes.

Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys opens with explaining what genocide is, the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political or cultural group (p. 1). The author, Jawanza Kunjufu (2005), has been challenged many times in debates and by the media with the use of the word conspiracy to describe certain aspects of the African-American society. It is a strong indictment against the social fabric of this country (p. 1). Neely Fuller stated, “…until you understand White supremacy, everything else will confuse you.”

As I walked into the University Student Center after my Issues in Public Policy class one August day, a disturbing sight immediately struck me. For a moment I thought I needed to pinch myself because I felt as though I was having a horrible nightmare. Then, I thought that maybe I needed to check my calendar to make sure that I had not traveled back in time to the sixties when segregation was still an accepted practice in the United States. Much to my dismay, I was not dreaming, and it was still in the year 2000. As I continued to look around at my fellow students, my stomach churned, and it was not because I was hungry. The sight that lay before my eyes was not only very disturbing but also

The Purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how rational thought and technological advancement was the driving force behind the Modern Age. The reader will have some understanding as to how rational thought opened up minds to a new way of thinking that would lead the way for individuals to question society, religion, and government. This paper will also include technological advancements that helped to spread the thoughts of intellectuals and philosophers. By the end of this paper

Rather than merely examining the affects of racism on people of color, the book turns its attention to whiteness and how a system of white privilege, supported and perpetuated by whites, also damages whites by inhibiting them from making meaningful connections with other human beings. Until I almost reached the end of this book I was uncomfortable and disturbed by the way the book made me feel. As a white male, I am aware of the pain that my ancestors have created for others to advance the free world. I have pain for those who suffered and disagree with actions that were taken by my white predecessors. But I believed that we are now in a much more advanced world where we have chosen the first black president and equality was a focus of most Americans. Identifying with my culture as currently being a white supremacist society is something I have never considered, or would not want to consider. In Neuliep, within the Coudon and Yousef’s Value orientations, we perceive the human nature orientation within the United States with people being essentially rational. This term, rational, can be somewhat subjective. And if we continue with the same value system, and look from ‘the self’ values, we foster our self-identities from the influence of our culture’s values. If we are to reflect truthfully to how our country evolved and what we ‘had to do’ to create our freedom by limiting the freedom of other, how would we then perceive

Taking into consideration my early childhood, youth and adolescence, I could say that I was surrounded by people, who were friendly and shared common cultural values. However, with the hindsight at my whole life, I could say why the sense of institutional racism touches me so deeply. I was raised by my mother and my grandmother, both of whom could not read and write. Thus, for the illiterate people there were no chances to have higher status in the society. The only way to survive for them was hard physical work. Institutional racism, as a form of oppression, is more consequential and involves policies and acts that affect a large number of people. Life of my family is only one example of its impact. Even though, a lot of time has passed since then, the most recent incidents with Rodney King, Trayvon Martin and George Zimmer, illustrate how a black man continues to be viewed as a menace to society in America (Blumenfeld, 2010).

American society, which for centuries has prided itself as being the land of the free and the place where dreams come to be true, has tyrannized its most susceptible groups and taken away their liberty to work for their aspirations. The Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist describes this as vertical violence, in which they oppressive oligarchs force oppression upon minorities via the institutions they control. This leads to the passive acceptance of macroaggressions as well as the continuous practice of microaggressions. One of the ways in which this occurs is when the elites of society feel entitled to erase the narratives of those whom they subdue. Said elites often go on to formulate harmful narrative that allow them to sustain their hegemony over

Introduction: I have learned a multitude of concepts during this quarter that will linger with me for years to come, the two that resonate the most, for me, are classism and racism. Classism and Racism are the two most prominent “ISM’S” due to their relationship and how they intermingle disparities and biases of being poor and a minority. Although I knew of the issues taking place in my own community, I would not allow myself to absorb the magnitude of this travesty. After watching the American winter, the disparities became clearer than I had dreamt.

Modernity in all its’ forms has changed the world, for good and bad, since the eighteenth century. The Enlightenment, starting around 1750, is often considered the beginning of the “modern age”- the time when improvements in science, thought, technology, and philosophy began. After the Enlightenment came colonialism, a form of political dominance exercised substantially, but not exclusively, by the British. Colonialism shows a good idea of using modern ideas and thought, but how the way it was carried out did not respect human rights. Similarly, the Holocaust was a modern project that was extremely inhumane and did not end well. Nazism was a different and more direct type of racism carried out against the Jews, leading to negative progress. The way South American mine workers were treated also reflected contradictions to modernity and did not respect human rights. In 1978, the particular book of Let Me Speak, illustrates how a specific family struggled with the realities of the Bolivian mines and how that also created negative progress. The colonialism ideals, the

In their materialist reading of history, Marx and Engels proclaim that with the necessity for survival driving history/ and man to the development of social interaction and thus the establishment of the economy, staged progressions will come forth as a result. To Marx the economy will ultimately be responsible for all aspects of society. It will be from the development, and circumstance stemming forth from such development of the economy, that the stages of history will progress. And as such to Marx and Engels Capitalism will be a stopping point upon this staged progression route of history. In this way it is concluded that Capitalism is a mode of production stemming from the economy [means and relations of production], which in itself is a result of the history of materialism [the innate struggle for survival and the social relations built upon this struggle].

No document signed by the president, or even God for that matter, will change the minds of many of those how deem it fitting to look down amongst a race. No matter how much is taught in our history classes, it is never enough, because as Toni Morrison demonstrated in the book, there are many viewpoints and sides of our historical past that are ignored and not told to the mass for everyone to be able to understand and learn from such mistakes that are made then. Does that mean that there is no hope? I would not jump to such drastic conclusions, but I am a firm believer after taking this class that as long as certain individuals have the power to control what the media reports and what not to report, what are written in our history books for schools, and what literary works are allowed to be published and be out in stores for the mass to read, history will continue to repeat itself. That is not only here in America, but in many other countries how do not have the democratic freedom that America presents to its population. For example, Bassem Youssef, better known to many people as the “Jon Stewart of Egypt,” brought lots of laughter through his “biting” political satire to many of his fans not only in Egypt, but those following him around the world. A man, who was a former heart surgeon, quit that profession and went on to start a political satire show in 2011 and showed no fear towards his nation’s government as he continuously bashed them and their work. Of course, not

Herbert Marcuse, a Frankfurt philosopher, wrote his book One-Dimensional Man in the 1960’s during at the height of the Cold War. The book One Dimensional Man was both influential and highly critical of modern industrial capitalism and as Marcuse believed, its subsequent exploitation of people and nature, as well as its contribution to modern consumer culture and new forms of social control. One Dimensional Man offers an analysis of the new state of consumerism during the 1960’s through a critical lens. This essay will focus on One Dimensional Man as I explore his view that technological development, alienated labour and consumerism have distorted affluent societies in creating false needs as well as perpetuating unfairness through various

As of the moment, most of us seem to have problems with the modern life and its fast-pace flow. Technically, almost all individuals try to come up with an understanding of how to become independent and strong individuals capable of surviving and continuing on with existence. For some of us, there are times wherein someone would wish for a super power or means in order to make life easier and more bearable. This concern might be somewhat unrealistic but this is the reality. Almost everyone wants to have a life that is convenient and far more reliable. Life has never been easy even before the olden times. There exists a heavy burden and weight placed on the shoulder of each individual which has been carried from the historical heritage of human existence along with the external cultures and motivations that influenced it. This is the reality that most of us face today. No matter how many people try to run away from it, it is the reality which most of us needs to accept and live on. This antagonism posts a significant and impacting concern particularly on the fact that conflicts and modern issues are primitive or inherent circumstances which had integrated with life 's existence prematurely. After the eighteenth century when most of the parts of the world became dependent and liberated, the on-growing concerns regarding politics, religion, morality, values and economics had directly shifted and influenced the flow of life particularly the natural virtue of human beings