Political Philosophy and Major Theme Machiavelli Essay

Machiavelli had a true and abiding love for Florence. He wanted to make Florence great and also find himself a job, as he lost his when the Medici family came into power. He dedicated his book on political science, The Prince, to Lorenzo Medici in the hopes that Lorenzo would be impressed and offer him a job. However, Lorenzo ignored the book and Machiavelli. The Prince is a didactic examination of political power, how to achieve it, maintain it, and expand it. Machiavelli does not take into consideration what is morally right, or amoral, only what is useful and useless. The book is more like a technical manual, and technical manuals only state the facts. The book defines what turns a mere man into a great ruler and what turns a great ruler into a mere man. Machiavelli’s book of politics is unique because it is so realistic. He does not place man in a false utopia where man live in eternal peace and harmony, everyone doing good to one another for the good of the public whole. Rather, he writes a manual where there are political conflicts and tensions. Machiavelli writes how a prince should deal with these conflicts and tensions. He condones cruelty, punishment, religion, rewards, compassion, and integrity to achieve power. Whatever means to achieve the end. QUESTIONS 2. Discuss Machiavelli’s â€Å"heroes†. Select one and discuss the traits that he finds admirable in that person. Be specific. Machiavelli’s heroes are Moses, Cyrus, Romulus and Theseus. They all formed civilizations. When Machiavelli talks about his heroes he is speaking of how to acquire a princedom. As Isiah Berlin says in his essay, Machiavelli admired these heroes because they were high-minded, tough, and tough enough to use brutality against the few, to help the public good of the princedom. He especially admired Moses because he was worthy to talk to God. Moses had the opportunity to create a new civilization with the Israelites because they were being treated badly by the Pharaoh . Therefore, Moses took advantage of their discontent with their new master and led them in a revolt. Eventually creating a new civilization. Machiavelli admired Moses because of his strength of character that carried him through the difficult trouble of gaining power. 3. Discuss Machiavelli’s opinions on the uses of cruelty to accomplish certain goals. The Prince is about the ways to achieve political power, with no preference for the way in which it is achieved. Machiavelli does not advocate unnecessary cruelty. His book is only about how to obtain and keep a princedom. Machiavelli believes that cruelty is sometimes necessary to acquire or/and keep political power. Machiavelli recognized that in the time he lived a political ruler would have to use cruelty, he writes, â€Å"The new prince, above all princes, cannot possibly avoid the name of cruelty†. He also states in Chapter VIII that cruelty may be useful sometimes in achieving certain ends, but it would bring no glory. 1. What does Machiavelli think of â€Å"the people† in the course of human history? Machiavelli refers to â€Å"the people† as â€Å"the masses†, lots of times. He realizes that â€Å"the people† are a dominant force in politics, whether it is a democracy or a republic. When a princedom is added to an already established kingdom, he writes that the customs must be the same between the two and that no new taxes or laws should be enacted. To do so would cause the people to revolt and the recently acquired princedom would be in jeopardy. Machiavelli realizes a prince cannot keep political power if his people hate him. A hostile population may abandon him or turn against him when hostile noble attack, then the prince will lose the kingdom. Machievelli also believed that a prince may â€Å" make an example of a very few† be execution of severe punishment, but that letting the population bring disorder among themselves was bad for the whole community. Therefore, Machiavelli was wary of â€Å"mob rule†. Machiavelli realizes that â€Å"the people† have to be relatively happy for a princedom to be healthy. 4. In general, what is Machiavelli telling his â€Å"Prince† with regard to the use of power? Machiavelli’s entire book is about power. How to achieve a princedom with power. Power over â€Å"the people† with cruelty (or punishment); power over other princes with deceit or a bigger army or powerful friends; power over the army with cruelty and/or money. He speaks of control over captured cities by dividing them into factions, disarming the people or forming hostilities among the people. All of these things achieve power. A prince must also be more powerful than his counselors, listening and gleaning knowledge but making his own decisions; because a weak prince will do whatever his counselors tell him and then his counselors will take over the princedom. EVALUATION OF BOOK I think this is one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a while. It’s dry, realistic, terse, and to the point. It’s also very easy to read (I was pleasantly surprised). All of the historical connotations are especially interesting. I read that Hitler, Mussolini, and Lenin found Machiavelli valuable reading; I would like to delve more into that one!! In the Renaissance religion and learning were beginning to be thought of as separate and Machiavelli was a man of his time. His book was entirely didactic and did not have a trace of religion. He spoke of cruelty and deceit in matter-of-fact tones and kept his book strictly a manual, with no judgements. In our modern time, we have to discern his book in the same manner that he wrote it. If we do not, we will not understand what he was writing.

Characters in your answer Essay

   Nearer the end of the book, he deals with another situation he faces in a very childish, careless manner, showing that he just wants it over with as soon as possible, and that he doesn’t really care about what is happening, just about himself and his reputation. TJ is about to be hung on Granger Land, by the nightmen for shooting Jim Lee Barnett, and instead of stopping them from murdering TJ, Mr Granger simply says they have to do it on someone else’s land. â€Å"Mr. Granger sent word by me that he ain’t gonna stand for no hanging on his place. He say y’all touch one hair on that boy’s head while he on this land, he’s gonna hold every man here responsible. † However eventually Harlan Granger does stop the hanging, to deal with a different difficulty that he is faced with, but his only true motives for this are because the Logan land is on fire and firstly he wants the land, and secondly he doesn’t want the fire to spread and destroy his own land. â€Å"Dry as that timber is, a fire catch hold it won’t stop burning for a week. Give that boy to Wade like he wants and get on up there! † All in all, Harlan Granger’s ways of dealing with difficulties and situations that he is faced with are not well thought out, and he only deals with them out of selfishness, or for his own reasons rather than to help others. Papa is an adult like Harlan Granger, but he too has different ways of dealing with difficulties and situations that he is faced with. Papa deals with things he more logical way. He shows braveness, and philanthropy throughout the novel, dealing with things in a way that will benefit others more than himself, if not solely for others. At the end of the book, when TJ is in trouble, Papa shows the best signs of doing all he can to help others. Even though the Logans are not well off, Papa sets fire to their cotton field, in order to distract the nightmen from hanging TJ, because he knows that they will come and try to put it out. This results in uniting the community. â€Å"Papa stared out as a bolt of lightning splintered the night into a dazzling brilliance. † He is clever, because like Cassie, he plans the situation before he goes through with it, working out how he can make the fire look accidental, realising that the lightning could have struck. He doesn’t tell a soul or admit to it, so that no harm can come to him. â€Å"folks thinkin’ that lightning struck that fence of yours and started the fire†¦ † â€Å"It’s better, I think that you stay clear of this whole thing now David†¦ † â€Å"†¦ Or somebody might start wondering about that fire†¦ † For his final difficulty, Papa is faced with his four children asking what will become of their friend, TJ. He doesn’t lie to them, and yet he doesn’t directly answer their question when they ask if TJ could die, so he is not hurting them but they still know. â€Å"I ain’t never lied to y’all, y’all know that. † â€Å"Well, I†¦ I wish I could lie to y’all now. † To sum up Papa’s character, he is very much like his daughter, calculating, clever, and planning everything, but he is much wiser, and doesn’t act childish. His actions usually result in helping other people, they rarely hurt people unnecessarily. He is very unlike Harlan Granger, because he doesn’t have his own private agenda. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Mildred Taylor section.

Case Study Parrot Head Essay

How can we consider Jimmy Buffet as members of a reference group? A brand community. The definition of a reference group is the people of whose attitudes, behavior, beliefs, opinions, preferences, and values are used by an individual as the basis for his or her judgment. One does not have to be (or even aspire to be) a member of a reference group to be negatively or positively influenced by its characteristics. Jimmy Buffet fans are a part of reference group because they each relate to each other with similar beliefs and behaviors and all have a common bond in following the music of Jimmy Buffet and follow the themes of the fan base similar to dead heads (Grateful Dead). It seem that this reference group aka parrot heads are also part of a nerd group by themselves. Parrot heads is also a humanitarian group and has over 200 different clubs and volunteer groups and charitable events for communities for a charity. This reference group notonly attends Jimmy Buffet concerts but they also are part of huge tailgating party that likes to dress up in tropical outfits and like to drink and pass around blow up dolls filled with alcohol and have fun and escape from their daily nerdy lives. Jimmy Buffet music was big in the late 70’s but his following has become even much bigger today and multi-generational and is not uncommon to see a parent attending this events with one of his adult siblings partaking in the festivities. A brand community is a community or a company to express shared interest in a particular product or â€Å"brand†. In the case of Jimmy Buffet the brand name is Margaritaville from his hit song back in 1977. This brand has gone far beyond selling T shirts and posters but has become a major multi- million dollar business and his branding ranges from a wide range from clothing to casinos and everything in between. I personally am not a parrot head or have been to a one of his concerts but enjoy his music and would probably enjoy going to a concert if the opportunity presented itself. I have a neighbor who is a huge â€Å"Parrot Head† and she has all kinds of Margaritaville brand products from bags games, to Adirondack  chairs to a huge fake palm tree in her backyard and travels to Las Vegas to go to the casino. It is reported Jimmy Buffet has a net worth of over $400 million dollars with his branding and although was a decent musician he has become a marketing giant with his branding. What kind of opportunities does the existence of the Buffett community present to marketers? Develop a list of specific marketing and promotional tactics. The opportunities are endless for the Margar itaville community as long as they are not violating the trademark or bootlegging the products. If you are an entrepreneurial type of person you could work with Margaritaville and develop products that are marketed towards this reference group or could be part of several type of businesses that use this branding or other similar products. Here is a list of promotional tactics one could use to market to this reference group. The Margaritaville line implies quality, value and good times and has a colorful tropical theme and can be put on all different kinds of merchandise that could be sold through several distribution channels. Margaritaville clothing line Restaurant Franchise Hotels Casinos Grocery stores Music stores retailing Jimmy Buffet music Liquor stores Books Clothing lines Parrot Head Hats Sunglasses Club for community charity The Margaritaville brand continues to expand and as new booming markets are created you can see the branding take advantage of those markets that are growing. References Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, Being (10th ed.). (2013). Saddle River, NJ: Michael R. Soloman. Reference Group Definition – Sociology. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://sociology.about.com/od/R_Index/g/Reference-Group.htm What Is a Brand Community? (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-brand-community.htm Margaritaville: A Brand Anything But Wasting Away | Beneath the Brand. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.talentzoo.com/beneath-the-brand/blog_news.php?articleID=15368 Parrot Heads in Paradise Inc. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.phip.com/

Everyone Struggles with Their Identity Essay

Identity is an intrinsic idea of one’s life. Whilst there are no certainties, the struggle of identity often happens, and the conflicts may depend on the individual himself. The conflict may occur due to various factors in one’s identities including their sexual orientations, skin colour and religious background. These variables may cause noticeable damages to one’s mentality and psychology, and hence lead the individual to struggle with who they are. Individuals with homosexual preferences often experience conflicts in terms of their identities. Homosexuality is considered wrong by part of the society because the majority- heterosexual human beings- partially as a result of religious influences over the past centuries due to the mass control the several religious convictions had over the human’s civilisation as a whole, sees homosexuality as breaching the norm of the social order. Homosexual individuals often try to avoid the controversy caused by confessing their sexual preferences, as ignorant people often judge them by being different to the society. In ‘The First Kiss’ written by Lian Low, Lian was a typical example of homosexual individuals struggling with their identities. She has failed to embrace the fact that she was interested in women instead of men during her teenage years. ‘‘You’re not the L-word, are you? ’ Of course I denied it. ’ She didn’t want her ‘Malaysian Christian friends’ or ‘badminton buddies’ to judge her by her sexuality which caused a conflict throughout her high school life. Lian has been in a conflict between whether she should confess her sexual preference to her loved ones, or just pretending to be interested in men like all her peers. Like Lian, some homosexual individuals may have same issues as Lian faced and struggled in the same way with their character as she did. Although homosexuality causes a lot of people to struggle with their identity, the damage caused by racism due to diverse skin colours is worse. As a result of historical factors, coloured races are often ignorantly considered inferior to Caucasian people, especially those with white skin throughout the world. Examples such as the 2005 Cronulla riots in Australia, a racial conflict involving Middle East Appearance, show that until today, people with coloured skins are still targets of racism due to bigotry and conservatism. In the movie ‘Skin’, Sandra Laing has been struggling to figure out whether she was a ‘black’ or ‘white’ throughout her school life which can be shown when she said to her maid, ‘Am I black? ’ Sandra has been discriminated for her skin colour all through her tragic life. From her primary school classmates calling her ‘monkey’, the boy she went for a ‘date’ with saying, ‘you don’t have to feel bad for looking like a coloured person’, finally to her husband Pietrus who said ‘her skin is a curse’. Sandra’s miserable life was a classic situation of a coloured person in the last century. She has been exploring her identity throughout the entire film including a change of skin colour identification twice, before she finally defined herself as nobody else but her children’s mother. Under the influence of bias opinions over coloured appearance individuals, for instance the apartheid system in South Africa, a vast amount of people are possibly undergoing similar conditions as Sandra, persevering to figure out there true identity. Besides racism, a personal choice of approach to an event, one’s cultural background can also possibly cause struggle to their identity. As the modern society involves more immigrants changing their nationalities, children in recent generations may have multiple identities in terms of where they are from, and has become a social norm for the new decade. For instance, the Australian-born-Chinese people, also known as ‘ABC’ in general, has developed into a stereotype or even a race over the history of Chinese immigrating into Australia since the gold rush. However, it is difficult for these immigrant’s offspring to relate to their family’s culture as they may not have had any type of interaction with it. In the short story ‘Sticks and Stones and Such’ written by Sunil Badami, Sunil failed to understand the meaning of his name due to the lack of understanding to the Indian naming culture, was however conscious of his peers not pronouncing his name correctly, which further led him into obstacles of fitting into his friends’ groups and referring himself as ‘Neil’. These immigrant’s offspring may even find it challenging to answer questions like, ‘where are you from? Using the ‘ABC’s as an example, should they answer Australia, where they have grown up in, or China, where their parents are from? According to a survey done by the Herald Sun in January, 77% of the participants answered ‘I don’t know’. The result has portrayed the difficulty of self-identification by ‘ABC’ racial groups, which also may apply to various societies with similar cultural conditions. Despite the main causes of identity struggling mentioned above, every individual in the human’s society will somehow doubt their identities in their own manner, including you and me. Let us think back together, have we ever felt left out in a group of people? Did we question ourselves on sporting fields when we had a bad game? Did we ever think why are we even born in this world? The answer is yes. We have all questioned ourselves at some stage throughout our lives. It isn’t something to be ashamed of. By doubting ourselves, we can revise what actions have we done wrong, it is a motivation for ourselves to do better in all areas, with the ultimate goal to not doubt ourselves ever again-noting it isn’t possible. One’s identity is intrinsic to the individual. Without the desire to explore their own identities, human beings are not very different compared to beasts like monkeys or chimpanzees. Although some particular individuals may experience conflict in their process of discovering their identities, but please note, a perfect elite in all areas only exist in fairy tales. As an ordinary human being like everybody else, I would like to say, ‘please keep on questioning yourself’.

Has Globalization Helped Haiti in Handling?

Has globalization helped Haiti in handling the devastation of the earthquake? Haiti's worst earthquake in two centuries hit south of the capital Port-au-Prince in 12 January 2010. Hundreds of buildings were damaged or destroyed, millions were relocated, thousands died. The BBC documental video â€Å"Surviving Haiti† showed how lives changed after the earthquake, how government was handling the situation and what measures were taken to help. As Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, the inhabitants of Port-au-Prince would not be able to handle the devastation of the earthquake on their own.So, the question is, has globalization helped Haiti to recover losses after the devastating earthquake? The global response to the earthquake in port-au-Prince has been generous and quite fast. United States mobilized its soldiers to help suffering Haitians, the EU allocated large amount of money, Canada, Brazil, Italy and Cuba sent over 1,000 military and disaster relief personn el each, Turkey sent searching troops, Germany and China sent officers of technical assistance, aircraft carriers arrived from Russia, Israeli medical staff came, Iran allocated tents for families that lost their homes.Even such countries as Guyana, Estonia and Liberia have sent money. It would seem that the sum these countries sent was ridiculous, but for a small country, it is a kind gesture. The total sum of donations worldwide equals about 2, 5 billion US dollars. Apart from financial aid, human compassion made miracles. Families from France didn’t give up the adoption processes; they came to see their potential children, to meet their parents and to solve bureaucratic problems.Sympathetic corporations, non-governmental organizations, private persons and celebrities responded to the Haiti pledges. In the most difficult moment of their lives survived children and their parents got a flash of hope for better future. People all over the world are not indifferent to the suffe rings of their „planet† neighbors. So, the film shows that life of earthquake survivors is very hard, but hope still exists.In this particular case of Haiti, when globalization impact was also a question of humanity, not just of economy, the process itself helped Haiti to recover more or less after the devastating earthquake and to save as many Haitians as possible. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. guardian. co. uk, Haiti earthquake aid pledged by country http://www. guardian. co. uk/news/datablog/2010/jan/14/haiti-quake-aid-pledges-country-donations

Electronic communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Electronic communication - Essay Example This paper outlines categorically some examples that will help highlight the latter issue for ease of understanding. Basically, there are three types of electronic communications. These include: This is basically the simplest type of electronic communication and whereby transfer of messages is towards one direction at a time. In other words, the communication is one-way. Examples of such communication are: personal receiver (beeper), TV broadcasting and radio. A policy is typically described as a principle or rule to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy can be considered as a "Statement of Intent" or a "Commitment." For that reason at least, the decision-makers can be held accountable for their "Policy", (Paquette 200). Policies are therefore normally meant to ensure conformance with set objectives and in the case of electronic communication, one of the major issue of concern is privacy and security of communication. Electronic communication, unlike other forms of communication, poses great challenges to both the communicators and the communication service providers on how to ensure security of the messages. Another issue concerning use of electronic communication is its ability to bear legal value in that there have been issues on whether or not agreement reached using electronic communication can have evidential value (Madeline 198). There are, therefore, several policies governing use of electronic communication. One of the international policies on electronic communication is the New World Information Communication Order (NWICO). This is a UNESCO agency formed in the mid 1970s with the aim of bringing balance in world information flow (communication). NWICO was out to facilitate economic growth in the developing or third world countries by improving the communication system. According to it, free information flow encouraged economic development but was lacking in

Japanese cultural analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Japanese cultural analysis - Research Paper Example Undertaking cultural and economic analysis is extremely beneficial for decision making be it at company level or at national levels. Without a vivid cultural and economic analysis in place, it becomes very difficult to know more about a particular place in question. To this effect, this write-up was undertaken to bring to light, the cultural analysis of Japan. Areas that have been looked at include geographical setting, social institutions and education. In terms of culture, Japan has a long adhered system of practices, which are important for every investor who wishes to enter Japan to know and learn to adhere to. This way, can be a future of promising prosperity for the investor. II. Introduction Cultural analysis is explained to be the use of qualitative research methods to identify â€Å"the applied analysis of cultural phenomenon, often including advertising and media products, in order to provide context for a client's business or insight into a market† (Association for Qualitative Research, 2010). By the use of the term qualitative research method, this that cultural analysis is conducted based on certain defined principles of publicly available data. Not withstanding this, a researcher may also conduct cultural analysis by the use of field related research methods such as interview (Association for Qualitative Research, 2010). In this context, much of the analysis was based on publicly available data and the most vital cultural analysis information on Japan comes to rest on three major areas. III. Country’s History (Brief) The first area of cultural analysis concern for Japan has to do with what the Gerson Lehrman Group, Inc (2011) puts it as the Confucian dynamism. â€Å"In practical terms Confucianism refers to a long-term versus a short-term orientation in life† (Hofstede, pg. 164). The Gerson Lehrman Group, Inc argues that Japan upholds the long-term orientation as against short-term orientation. Clark (2005) explains that count ries that have the long-term orientation revolve on the axis of â€Å"persistence (perseverance), ordering relationships by status, thrift and having a sense of shame.† Generally, policy makers of such countries focus on future generations rather than the present generation though it does not neglect the present generation altogether. To this end, Japan as a long-term oriented country invests so much in education since education has a long-term positive effect on the fortunes of the country. Against this backdrop, it can be said that kikki.k has a great advantage venturing into Japan. With reference to the products of kikki.k, it is clear the products have greater relation with education. This means that with a well marketing strategy, the company can dominate the stationery industry in the Japan. IV. Geographical Setting A. Location Viewed from the geographic coordinate system, Japan can be said to be 36 ° north of the equator and 138 ° east of the Prime Meridian. Japan is made up of thousands of islands, among which Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku are the four largest. Japan shares border and are the closest neighbors are Russia, China and Korea. B. Climate Due to the presence of the three thousand islands in Japan, Japan’s climate is not the same everywhere. However on the average, there are four seasons which are summer, winter, spring and autumn. C. Topography According to the Encyclopedia of the World (2011), there islands which stretches from Southeast Asia to the Aleutian Islands. 75% of land in Japan is covered with mountain. Landforms are steep and rugged. The is the presence of two principal mountain ranges, which are the Hida (or Japan Alps) and the Akaishi mountains. Among the many mountains, twenty-five have peaks of over 3,000 m (9,800 ft), among which the highest is Mt. Fuji (Fuji-san), which stands at 3,776 m (12,388 ft). There are 265 volcanoes in Japan among which 20 remain active. An average of 1,5000 minor shocks of earthquake occurs yearly. There are few and small plains which only about 29% of the