Cross Cultural Managment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Multifaceted Managment - Essay Example Globalization has prompted dynamic enhancement where the associations are loaded up with various workforce having a place with various culture and nations (Dong and Liu 1352-1706). The effect of the social decent variety is indistinct and not unidirectional. The effect of differentiated social workforce in the group efficiency can be remunerating just if the hierarchical culture and atmosphere is certain and amicable. Culture is a significant component which goes about as an outer wellspring of profound effect on the representative conduct. The effect of culture on an individual makes a change inside the association itself. Individuals from the association are adapting to vulnerability and vagueness all in all and independently dependent on the methodologies and mentalities that impact the way of life. Culture is an aggregate programming of brain which recognizes one class of individuals from another. The kind of social qualities and significance given to these qualities shifts start ing with one culture then onto the next and is profoundly impacted by the verifiable, current socio political and biological setting. The social qualities assume a significant job in molding the authoritative traditions and practices that thus help in forming the hierarchical culture. ... For instance, the administration in Volvo bestows preparing workshops to the representatives with respect to their specialized abilities and delicate aptitudes which are otherwise called â€Å"People Skills†. This workshop lays accentuation on upgrading the non specialized aptitudes, which can help in the accomplishment of the targets in unification. By and by, the worldwide enterprises are spreading their specialty units over the globe for the development of exercises and accomplishing economies of scale. The social holes and separation between the host and home nation significantly affect the determination procedure, preparing, advancement and execution the board frameworks. Organizations see the multifaceted systems as fulfilling and similarly testing. The culturally diverse administration is seen as similarly testing due to the potential rising clashes which act like obstructions for the advancement of techniques. Additionally, global enterprises recruit representatives fr om an assorted workforce who all desire to accomplish the authoritative objectives in unification. With representatives having a place with another culture preparing is granted to them with a one of a kind preparing educational program that covers all the viewpoints required for accomplishment of the authoritative destinations. The culturally diverse administration for the most part relies on factors like the ethnicity and culture varieties among the representatives and in this way an efficient methodology is required for classification of different authoritative gatherings, groups and individual levels. Culturally diverse administration centers around the contrast between the various gatherings and means a nineteenth century anthropological point of view of the way of life (Fontaine 125-135). Information the executives approach which lays accentuation on the way that information is the most significant resource and techniques on how the administration can

French Revolution, the terror, and the rise and fall of Napoleon Essay

French Revolution, the dread, and the ascent and fall of Napoleon - Essay Example The Tennis Court Oath was marked on twentieth June, 1789 which was in the beginning of the French Revolution. The Third Estate seared the pledge with the feelings of dread that the lord was clutching his standard of outright government. The significance of this pledge was twofold in that it demonstrated that sway was inserted in individuals and their agents and it constrained the ruler to gather a gathering to examine the composition of a constitution (Perry 42). The raging of the Bastille was significant on the grounds that it indicated the limit of the individuals to beat the endeavors of King Louise XVI to practice his absolutism. A parliamentary Assembly had as of late been delegated and the ruler was disappointed with it. He excused his clergyman of Finances and the individuals got word that the ruler was aiming to retaliate at the delegated parliamentarians. They raged the Bastille looking for explosive to use on the weapons they had taken from the Invalides. The raging was even more significant on the grounds that Louis XVI’s warriors that were sent to protect the Bastille wouldn't battle the progressives subsequently prompting further annihilation of the ruler (Pavlac 24). At the point when mentioned to turn into a protected ruler, King Louis XVI began by standing up to. The ruler believed that this and other proposed changes would lessen his position. Sooner or later however, danger of chapter 11 was up and coming and the King agreed to the appointment of the Estates-General. Be that as it may, the lord wouldn't perceive the Third Estate as oneself broadcasted authentic National Assembly. As a protected ruler, he was going to administer in interview with the individuals (Perry 43). The Consulate framework is the administration that took over after the fall of the Directory government in 1799. The Consulate arrangement of government was founded after an effective overthrow coordinated by Sieyes that toppled the Directory government.

A Complete Guide to Data Security

A Complete Guide to Data Security © Shutterstock.com | Den RiseThis article focuses on everything you need to know about data security. We will cover 1) the basics you need to know about data security and 2) how to secure your data.DATA SECURITY: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOWWhat is Data Security?In the most basic terms, Data Security is the process of keeping data secure and protected from not only unauthorized access but also corrupted access. The main focus of data security is to make sure that data is safe and away from any destructive forces. Data is stored as rows and columns in its raw form in the databases, PCs as well as over networks. While some of this data may be not that secretive, other might be of private value and importance. But unauthorized access to such private information or data can cause many problems such as corruption, leakage of confidential information and violation of privacy.Thus, the importance of Data Security comes into play. Data Security is in the form of digital privacy measures that are applied to avoid this unauthorized access to websites, networks and databases. There are many ways of protecting or securing data which is important and some of them include encryption, strong user authentication, backup solutions and data erasure. There are many international laws and standards that govern data security measures. Data Protection Acts are implemented to ensure that personal data is accessible to those whom it may concern.Business data protectionWhile all kinds of personal data are important, one aspect where the need and requirement of data security are most rampant is businesses and industries. Most businesses have massive amounts of data or information which they may want to keep confidential and protected from others. The process of protecting this kind of data is known as Business Data Protection. Often, organizations struggle to create real-time security policies as the data keeps growing. It also finds it tough to monitor all data from one central locatio n in big data platforms. But special IT teams are then created to solve these matters and provide complete data protection.Data managementBesides securing and protecting data, it is also important to properly manage and monitor it. Data management is the development as well as the execution of the processes, procedures, architectures and policies which administers the complete data lifecycle requirements of a company. This particular definition of data management is very broad and can be applied to any profession or field.Data management is important because, without proper management of data, it would be difficult to monitor and protect it. If data is not well defined, it could be misused in various types of applications. If data is not well defined, it would be impossible to meet the needs of the users.Why is Data Security Important?Data security is very important or critical for most companies and businesses. Besides formal organizations, it is also very critical for home compute r users as well. Information like client details, bank details, account details, personal files, etc. must be well protected for everyone on the planet because if it gets into wrong hands, it can be misused easily. Such information can be hard to replace and potentially dangerous. By securing such data or information, one can protect the files and avoid facing any difficulties.The following are some of the reasons why data security is important:Your reputation may be affected You work very hard to establish the name of your business but when a data breach occurs, the reputation that you built may be affected by just a single stroke. This is because your business also has confidential information of customers or clients, and once data is lost, you might fall short of all explanations.Threats are on an increase Another reason why data security is important is because the threats are on an increase these days and without securing your data, you cannot expect to run a business or even go on as a home PC user. This is because of the emergence of mobile devices, internet, and cloud computing, etc.It’s expensive and complicated to fix One may recover from the dent in the reputation but rebounding from the technical aspects of data breaches can be tough. It is diffiult to fix such problems without spending great deal of time and money.What could a data breach cost a business?Damage to reputation A data breach could be very harmful to an organization. It does not only cause loss of data, but also causes damage to the reputation of a company. The company whose data is breached may be seen by others as one which was casual in terms of data protection.Loss of files Accidental loss of files or database of the customers may leave a company unable to carry out further marketing.Loss of confidentiality Once private and confidential information is accessed by a second party or unauthorized party, disclosure of sensitive data may occur, and this may be bad for any compa ny or business.Threat of money loss When loss of important bank account details and other such data occurs, there is a threat of money loss as well. When an unauthorized person or party gets to know bank details, then this may lead them to use passwords to steal money.How data security and privacy help your company?Prevention of data breaches One of the main reasons for the importance of data security is that it helps in the prevention of data getting into the wrong hands or breaching. By avoiding disclosure or leakage of sensitive information, one can also avoid loss of finances.Protection of privacy While there is some information that is business related, there is some which is just of private value. Thus by protecting data, one also tends to achieve protection of privacy.Reduce compliance cost Another reason data security is helpful is because it can also help reduce the compliance costs. It does so by automating and centralizing controls and simplifying audit review procedu res.Ensure data integrity It helps to prevent unauthorized data changes, data structures, and configuration files.HOW TO SECURE DATA?Data Securing TechnologiesDisk Encryption: Disk encryption is one of the most commonly opted for data security technology or methods. This is a technology through which encryption of data on a hard disk drive takes place. This technology takes place in two major ways software or hardware. In disk encryption, data is converted into unreadable codes that cannot be accessed or deciphered by anyone who is unauthorized. There are several ways and tools to carry out disk encryption, and these tools may vary in the security offered and features used. Even though there are many benefits of using this method, there are also certain weaknesses or vulnerabilities.Software and hardware based ways to protect data: Besides disk encryption, both software and hardware based ways can also be used to protect data. On one hand, software-based security solutions encrypt the data to protect it from theft, on the other, hardware-based solutions can prevent read and write access to data. Hardware based security solutions offer very strong protection against unauthorized access and tampering. But in the case of software-based solutions, a hacker or a malicious program can easily corrupt the data files and make the system unusable and files unreadable. This is why, hardware-based solutions are mostly preferred over software based ones. The hardware-based systems are more secure due to the physical access required to compromise them. This system is much more effective in the situation where an operating system is more vulnerable to threats from viruses and hackers.Backups: One of the easiest yet most effective ways to avoid data loss or to lose important and crucial files is by taking a backup of your data regularly. There are many ways to take backup and it is up to you how many copies of your data you wish to keep. While external hard disks are a comm on way to take backup, these days cloud computing too proves to be a cheap and easy way to maintain a backup of all files at a safe location. Of course, a backup won’t prevent data loss but would at least ensure that you don’t lose any information of importance.Data masking: Data masking is another data securing technology that can be brought into use by those who wish to secure their data. Another term that is used to refer to data masking is data obfuscation and is the process through which one can hide original data with random characters, data or codes. This method is especially very useful for situations where you wish to protect classified data and do not want anyone to access it or read it. This is a good way to let the data be usable to you but not to the unauthorized hacker or user.Data erasure: Data erasure, which is only known as data wiping and data clearing is a software-based method of overwriting information or data and aims to totally destroy all data which may b e present on a hard disk or any other media location. This method removes all data or information but keeps the disk operable.Data Protection PrinciplesThe Data Protection Act requires one to follow certain rules and measures when it comes to securing or protecting data. These rules apply to everything one does with personal data, except the case when one is entitled to an exemption. The following are the main data protection principles one must follow:Personal Data must be processed lawfully and fairly.Personal data should be relevant, adequate and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes due to which they have been processed.Personal data must be obtained just for one or more than one specified and lawful reasons and must not be processed in any way that is not compatible with those reason/reasons.Personal data should be accurate and should be kept up to date wherever it is necessary to keep it up to date.Personal data which is processed for any reason or reasons shoul d not be kept for any time longer than required for that reason or reasons.Personal data should not be processed according to the rights of data subjects under this Act.The suitable technical, as well as organizational measures, must be taken against any unauthorized processing or unlawful processing of personal data and also against any accidental destruction or loss of or damage of personal data.Personal data shall not be transferred to a territory or country outside the economic area of the data owner unless that region ensures the right level of protection for the freedom and rights of data subjects in relation to data’s processing.Essential Steps Every Business Must Take to Secure DataEstablish strong passwords: The first step that every business must most take is to establish strong passwords for all your accounts, bank details and other kinds of accounts. Also, one must try to keep very strong passwords that may not be easily guessed by anyone. The passwords must be a combi nation of characters and numbers. The password must be easy to remember for you but should not be your birthday, your name, or any other personal detail that anyone else could guess. The password must be between 8-12 characters long, at least.Strong Firewall: Like antiviruses are for your files, firewalls are for protection. You must establish a strong firewall in order to protect your network from unauthorized access or usage. The firewall protects your network by controlling internet traffic that comes into and goes out of your business. A firewall works pretty much the same way across the board. Make sure you select a very strong firewall to ensure network safety.Antivirus protection: Antivirus and antimalware solutions are also extremely important for data security and must be installed on your systems. You must opt for the strongest antivirus protection software not just on your PCs and laptops but also on your mobile devices. They help you to fight unwanted threats to your fil es and data.Secure Systems: Data loss can also be caused in case your laptop or mobile device is stolen. Thus, you must take some extra steps to ensure the further safety of these devices. The easiest way to secure your laptops is to encrypt them. Encryption software help to make the information look coded so that no one who is unauthorized can view or access your data without a password. Besides this, you must protect your laptop falling into the wrong hands. Make sure you never leave it in your car on unattended in the office, etc.Secure Mobile Phones: Smartphones too hold a lot of important and confidential data such as messages, bank account details, and emails, etc. thus it is important to secure mobile phones as well. There are many ways to secure your mobile phones and some of them include, establishing strong passwords, to have encryption software, to have remote wiping enabled and to opt for phone finding apps so that you can locate your mobile phone if it is lost or stolen .Backup regularly: In order to avoid loss of data due to violation of data security, it is important to backup all your data regularly and keep it stored somewhere safe where it cannot be accessed or violated by anyone. One of the best way to backup your data is to either store it on hard disks or store it over cloud computing. One must backup data regularly, most preferably every week. This ensures that even if data is lost, you can have access to it, and it isn’t compromised.Monitor well: Another practice that you must follow in order to secure your data is to monitor it well and diligently. You must always keep track of your data, know which data is stored where and use good monitoring tools that can help prevent data leakage. The data leakage software that you choose must have set up of key network touchpoints that help to look for specific information coming out of internal network. Such software can be easily configured or customized to look for codes, credit card numbers or any other kind of information which is relevant to you.Surf Safely: Your data safety is in your hands, and if you are careful, there will be no way anyone would be able to violate it. Thus, it is important to be careful how you surf the net and what precautions you follow. It is common for us sometimes to click on certain links or attachments thinking that they are harmless, but they could lead to data hacking or planting of malicious files. This may infect your system and may squeeze out information. Thus, it is important to surf safely, use internet security software and never give out personal information and bank details to sites that are not trustworthy. Always beware of the vulnerabilities and do your best to avoid being casual when using the internet.

What Is a Blue Moon

Once in a blue moon. Everyone has heard or seen that expression but might not know what it means. Its actually a fairly common saying, but really doesnt reference a blue-colored  Moon (our closest neighbor in space). Anyone who steps outside to see the Moon can tell pretty quickly that the Moons surface is actually a dull grey. In the sunlight, it appears a bright yellow-white color, but it never turns blue.  So, whats the big deal with the term blue moon? It turns out to be more of a figure of speech than anything else. Near-full moon on November 14, 2016. The full moon gives a wide variety of features to explore with any size telescope or binoculars. Tom Ruen, Wikimedia Commons.   Decoding a Figure of Speech The term blue moon has an intersting history. Today, it has come to mean not very often or something very rare. The figure of speech itself may have begun with a little-known poem written in 1528, Read me and be not wrothe, For I say no things but truth: If they say the moon is blue,We must believe that it is true. The poet was trying to convey the diea that calling the Moon blue was an obvious absurdity, like saying it was made of green cheese or that it has little green men living on its surface.  The phrase, â€Å"until a blue moon† developed in the 19th century, meaning never, or at least extremely unlikely.   Another Way to Look at the Idea of Blue Moon Blue Moon is more familiar these days as a nickname for an actual astronomical phenomenon. That particular usage first started in 1932 with the Maine Farmer’s Almanac. Its definition included a season with four full Moons rather than the usual three, where the third of four full Moons would be called a Blue Moon. Since  seasons are established by the equinoxes and solstices  and not calendar months, it  is  possible for a year to  have twelve full Moons, one each month, yet have one season with four.   A setting full moon provides a backdrop for the Very Large Telescope complex in Paranal, Chile. This is one of several high-altitude observatories in South America alone. ESO   That definition mutated into the one most quoted today when, in 1946, an astronomy article by amateur astronomer James Hugh Pruett misinterpreted the Maine rule to mean two full Moons in one month. This definition now seems to have stuck, despite its error, possibly thanks to being picked up by the Trivial Pursuit game. Whether we use the newer definition  or the one from the Maine Farmer’s Almanac, a blue Moon, while not common, does happen pretty regularly. Observers can expect to see one about seven times in a 19-year period. Much less common is a double blue Moon (two in one year). That only happens once in the same 19-year period.The last set of double blue Moons happened in 1999. The next ones will happen in 2018. Can the Moon Appear to Turn Blue? Normally in the course of a month, the Moon doesnt turn blue itself. But, it can look blue from our vantage point on Earth due to atmospheric effects.   In 1883, an Indonesian volcano named Krakatoa exploded. Scientists likened the blast to a 100-megaton nuclear bomb. From 600 km away, people heard the noise as loud as a cannon shot. Plumes of ash rose to the very top of Earths atmosphere and the collection of that ash made the Moon look a bluish color. Some of the ash-clouds were filled with particles about 1 micron (one millionth of a meter) wide, which is the right size to scatter red light, while allowing other colors to pass. White moonlight shining through the clouds emerged blue, and sometimes almost green. Blue moons persisted for years after the eruption. People also saw lavender suns and, for the first time, noctilucent clouds.  Other less-potent volcanic eruptions have caused the Moon to look blue, too. People saw blue moons in 1983, for instance, after the eruption of the El Chichà ³n volcano in Mexico. There were also reports of blue moons caused by Mt. St. Helens in 1980 and Mount Pinatubo in 1991. Its fairly easy to see a Blue Moon that isnt a colorful metaphor. In astronomical terms, its almost guaranteed observers will see one if they know when to look. Searching out a moon that acually appears blue, well, thats something that is possibly more rare than the fourth full moon in a season. It takes a volcanic eruption or a forest fire to affect the atmosphere enough to make the Moon appear colorful through all the haze. Key Takeaways A Blue Moon is NOT a moon thats blue.The best description of the term Blue Moon is that its a figure of speech now used to refer to an extra full moon in any season (or in the same month).While the Moon itself doesnt ever turn blue, it can appear blue if there is a lot of ash in Earths atmosphere due to a volcanic eruption or other atmospheric effects. Sources â€Å"How Rare Is a Blue Moon?†Ã‚  Timeanddate.com, www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/blue-moon.html.NASA, NASA, science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/07jul_bluemoon.VolcanoCafe, www.volcanocafe.org/once-in-a-blue-moon/. Edited by Carolyn Collins Petersen.

Word Order in English Sentences

Word order  refers to the conventional arrangement of words in a phrase, clause, or sentence. Compared with many other languages, word order in English is fairly rigid. In particular, the order of subject, verb, and object is relatively inflexible. Examples and Observations I cant see the point of Mozart. Of Mozart I cant see the point. The point of Mozart I cant see. See I cant of Mozart the point. Cant I of Mozart point the see . . . I cant see the point of Mozart.  (Sebastian Faulks, Engleby. Doubleday, 2007)[A] characteristic of modern English, as of other modern languages, is the use of word-order as a means of grammatical expression. If in an English sentence, such as The wolf ate the lamb, we transpose the positions of the nouns, we entirely change the meaning of the sentence; the subject and object are not denoted by any terminations to the words, as they would be in Greek or Latin or in modern German, but by their position before or after the verb.(Logan Pearsall Smith, The English Language, 1912) Basic Word Order in Modern English Assume you wanted to say that a chicken crossed the road in Modern English. And assume you are interested only in stating the facts--no questions asked, no commands, and no passive. You wouldnt have much of a choice, would you? The most natural way of stating the message would be as in (18a), with the subject (in caps) preceding the verb (in boldface) which, in turn, precedes the object (in italics). For some speakers (18b) would be acceptable, too, but clearly more marked, with particular emphasis on the road. Many other speakers would prefer to express such an emphasis by saying something like Its the road that the chicken crossed, or they would use a passive The road was crossed by the chicken. Other permutations of (18a) would be entirely unacceptable, such as (18c)-(18f). (18a) THE CHICKEN crossed the road[Basic, unmarked order](18b) the road THE CHICKEN crossed[Marked order; the road is in relief](18c) THE CHICKEN the road crossed*(18d) the road crossed THE CHICKEN*[But note constructions like: Out of the cave came A TIGER.](18e) crossed the road THE CHICKEN*(18f) crossed THE CHICKEN the road* In this respect, Modern English differs markedly from the majority of the early Indo-European languages, as well as from Old English, especially the very archaic stage of Old English found in the famous epic Beowulf. In these languages, any of the six different orders in (18) would be acceptable . . ..(Hans Henrich Hock and Brian D. Joseph, Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship: An Introduction to Historical and Comparative Linguistics. Mouton de Gruyter, 1996) Word Order in Old English, Middle English, and Modern English Certainly, word order is critical in Modern English. Recall the famous example: The dog bit the man. This utterance means something totally different from The man bit the dog. In Old English, word endings conveyed which creature is doing the biting and which is being bitten, so there was built-in flexibility for word order. Inflection telling us dog-subject bites man-object allows words to be switched around without confusion: man-object bites dog-subject. Alerted that the man is the object of the verb, we can hold him in mind as the recipient of a bite made by a subject we know will be revealed next: dog.By the time English evolved into Middle English, loss of inflection meant that nouns no longer contained much grammatical information. On its own, the word man could be a subject or an object, or even an indirect object (as in The dog fetched the man a bone). To compensate for this loss of information that inflection has provided, word order became critically important. If the man a ppears after the verb bite, we know hes not the one doing the biting: The dog bit the man. Indeed, having lost so much inflection, Modern English relies heavily on word order to convey grammatical information. And it doesnt much like having its conventional word order upset.  (Leslie Dunton-Downer, The English Is Coming!: How One Language Is Sweeping the World. Simon Schuster, 2010) Adverbials One way to find out whether a sentence part is a subject or not is to make the sentence into a  question. The subject will appear after the first verb: He told me to add one tablespoon of honey per pound of fruit.Did he tell me . . .?We spread a thin layer of fruit on each plate.Did we spread . . .? The only constituent that may occur in many different places is an adverbial. Especially one-word adverbials like not, always, and often may occur almost anywhere in the sentence. In order to see if a sentence part is an adverbial or not, see if it is possible to move it in the sentence.(Marjolijn Verspoor and Kim Sauter, English Sentence Analysis: An Introductory Course. John Benjamins, 2000) The Lighter Side of Word Order in Monty Pythons Flying Circus Burrows: Good doctor morning! Nice year for the time of day!Dr. Thripshaw: Come in.Burrows: Can I down sit?​Dr. Thripshaw: Certainly. Well, then?Burrows: Well, now, not going to bush the doctor about the beat too long. Im going to come to point the straight immediately.Dr. Thripshaw: Good, good.Burrows: My particular prob, or buglem bear, Ive had ages. For years, Ive had it for donkeys.Dr. Thripshaw: What?Burrows: Im up to here with it, Im sick to death. I cant take you any longer so Ive come to see it.Dr. Thripshaw: Ah, now this is your problem with words.​Burrows: This is my problem with words. Oh, that seems to have cleared it. Oh I come from Alabama with my banjo on my knee. Yes, that seems to be all right. Thank you very much.​Dr. Thripshaw: I see. But recently you have been having this problem with your word order.Burrows: Well, absolutely, and what makes it worse, sometimes at the end of a sentence Ill come out with the wrong fusebox.Dr. Thripshaw: Fusebox ?Burrows: And the thing about saying the wrong word is a) I dont notice it, and b) sometimes orange water given bucket of plaster.br/>(Michael Palin and John Cleese in episode 36 of Monty Pythons Flying Circus, 1972)

To Obey or Disobey Free Essays

Obedience is an age old expectation that rulers, priests, and government officials have required for years from their subjects. Most of the time individuals follow their leaders without question. This is the case because the population from which obedience is required believes that they continue to have a choice. We will write a custom essay sample on To Obey or Disobey or any similar topic only for you Order Now When, for whatever reason this belief is lost, some individuals will begin to exhibit an increasing disobedience to the requirement. This often increases to the point of violence or, the case of a country, war. While there are all types of disobedience, this paper will discuss civil disobedience and the social pressure often associated with it. A good example of this type of cycle can be found in the historical background of the United States. When the United States was first populated by Europeans it was a colony of Great Britain. Over the course of several decades, the British king imposed a series of taxes on the colonists. Most colonists felt that they were being taxed without any representation. Over the course of approximately 15 years the protests against the taxes became increasing violent until the Continental Congress was formed in 1775 (History Central). With Thomas Jefferson serving as the writer, the Declaration of Independence was drafted by the Congress and sent to the King of England. In it, Jefferson wrote, Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security (Ushistory) The Revolutionary War was fought and freedom from British rule was won. Today the population of the United States is expected to pay taxes. The difference is that people believe the choice is theirs because of our representative form of government. In the mid 1800s, Henry David Thoreau introduced a new concept that has greatly influenced individuals and groups desiring change since then. Thoreau spent several years living in a simple cabin near Walden Pond in Massachusetts. During this time the United States still allowed slavery. Thoreau was opposed to this. He refused to pay taxes as a form of protest. His explanation evolved into an essay entitled â€Å"Civil Disobedience†. Basically Thoreau felt that an individual should not support by any means a government that was engaging in acts of which the individual did not agree. He felt that the individual should be willing to suffer the consequences of his disobedient act, however he/she should never take a violent stand in defense of his/her belief (Williams). Today â€Å"Civil Disobedience† is considered to be the basis of several modern nonviolent resistance movements. â€Å"It is known to have been an inspiration to Mohandas Gandhi, who led the passive resistance movement for the liberation of India from British colonial rule. Thoreau’s ideas also influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. s Civil Rights movement and the American struggle to end the Vietnam War† (Williams). During the fight for equal rights for Black Americans that took place in the 1950s and 60s, Martin Luther King Jr. relied on the principle of civil disobedience written a century earlier by Thoreau. While incarcerated in the Birmingham, in a letter known as the â€Å"Letter from the Birmingham Jail†, King wrote, â€Å"Over the past few years I have consistently p reached that nonviolence demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek. I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends† (King). Others followed Dr. King’s example of non-violent protest. One evening in December, 1955, on her way home from her job in downtown Montgomery Alabama, a woman, Rosa Parks, was asked to give up her seat to a white passenger on the bus she was riding. She refused. She was arrested and fined. This simple action inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott. By June of 1956, the court declared Alabama’s racial segregation laws for public transit unconstitutional. The city appealed and on November 13, 1956, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s ruling. . . The city of Montgomery had no choice but to lift the law requiring segregation on public buses† ( Bio. True Story). Groups of individuals, when convinced that it is no longer acceptable to conform to the expectation of the ruler can make historical changes in the world in which they live. What causes one individual to become disobedient and another to remain obedient to the group rules? Most people want to believe that they think for themselves; however, when an individual is part of a social group that person will began to assume the group’s ideas and rules. Individuals may then find themselves engaged in a struggle in which they do not believe because of the social pressure to fit into a group. Additionally they may fear being an outcast. This is especially true if friends or family belong to the same group. Doris Lessing wrote â€Å"When we’re in a group, we tend to think as that group does: we may even have joined the group to find â€Å"like-minded† people. But we also find our thinking changing because we belong to a group. It is the hardest thing in the world to maintain an individual dissident opinion, as a member of a group†. (724) Universities over time have done a lot of research trying to understand why people obey and disobey. Most people believe they are good and trustworthy. These individuals feel no matter what occurs they will always try to do the right thing in their day to day life. In The Perils of Obedience, Milgram tells of a woman â€Å"that the last shock she administered to the learner was extremely painful and reiterates that she did not want to be responsible for any harm to him†. 695). Despite her desires she still administered the shock, thus being obedient to the person in charge and not to what she believed. Individuals who still believe in the concept called into question by the disobedient group, often feel intense pressure to maintain loyalty to the old ruling entity. In Doris Lessing’s article, Group Minds, she states â€Å"But the majority will continue to insist-speaking metaphorically-that black is white, and after a period of exasperation, irritation, even anger, certainly incomprehension, the minority will fall into line†. Pressure to conform can manifest itself in another way as well.. Individuals may feel compelled to follow the ideas and rules of someone else and follow that group of people no matter what path it my lead them down or where those ideas and rules may take them. Social pressure comes from everywhere; family, church, friends, jobs, co-workers, and etc.. During the height of the segregation movement in many of the minds of the south there are only two sides in this fight; for segregation or against segregation no fence riding. This concept is also apparent during times of conflict. For examples, during the Revolutionary War many colonists remained loyal to Great Britain. British sympathizers were called Tories. They often â€Å"agreed with the patriots about â€Å"no taxation without representation. † But they wanted to solve the dispute in such a way as to remain in the British Empire† (US Anabaptists). Following what you believe to be right will have consequences. For example, those wanting freedom from England formed a new country and enjoyed many rights and freedoms. All those remaining loyal to the king were considered traitors. â€Å"Most of the new states passed laws taking away the loyalists’ property. Patriot mobs attacked prominent Tories. Those found helping the British were imprisoned† (US Anabaptists).. Most people want to believe that they think for themselves; however, when an individual is part of a social group that person will began to assume the group’s ideas and rules. Individuals may then find themselves engaged in a struggle in which they do not believe because of the social pressure to fit into a group. Additionally they may fear being an outcast. This is especially true if friends or family belong to the same group. Doris Lessing wrote â€Å"When we’re in a group, we tend to think as that group does: we may even have joined the group to find â€Å"like-minded† people. But we also find our thinking changing because we belong to a group. It is the hardest thing in the world to maintain an individual dissident opinion, as a member of a group†. (724) In conclusion, it appears that a person is either obedient or disobedient based on the group to which he/she belongs. Inclusion in a particular group may be based on family culture as in the case of those loyal to the King in the Revolutionary War or those engaged in keeping in tact the segregated nature of the South before 1965. Other groups include religious groups, political groups, and special interest groups. While as a people we may like to believe that we think for ourselves, the facts point in a different direction. It would take a brave person indeed to stand on principles in the face of objections from the group to which he is most closely associated. Work Citied http://www.historycentral.com/revolt/causes.html http://abacus.bates.edu/admin/offices/dos/mlk/letter.html http://www.anabaptists.org/history/rev-war.html How to cite To Obey or Disobey, Essay examples

Social Mobility Essays - Social Inequality, Gender Studies

Social Mobility Meet Sandra, a mother recently divorced from her abusive middle-class husband. Her previous life had been comfortable; she now lives day-to-day with her children, working as a secretary while attending college courses in her little spare time, all while attending to her home and family. She finally ends up attaining her degree, yet can still find no job paying higher than her secretarial job, so she takes on a second job as a grocery checkout person, still barely making ends meet for her family. As described in Ch. 9 of the Giddens text, this woman had obviously worked very hard to attempt to restore her life back to her previous pre-divorce middle-class state. She says, You try to do the responsible thing, and youre penalized, because the system we have right now doesnt provide you with a way to make it. (p. 169) However, she learned the hard way that class is not quite as easy to transcend in this so-called land of opportunity. The United States is the most highly stratified society of the industrialized world. Class distinctions operate in virtually every aspect of our lives, determining the nature of our work, the quality of our schooling, and the health and safety of our loved ones. Yet, remarkably, we, as a nation retain illusions about living in the capitalist land of opportunity, where any average Joe can make his million if he works hard enough. The reality of the our situation is that the US is not as open as we think it may be, meaning that social mobility, or the movement between classes, is not nearly as easy as we may believe. This is due to the fact that many social issues, such as gender, racial, and economic class, serve as barriers that obstruct the path of ones social mobility. Despite our own personal efforts and talents, mobility in our society is primarily based on ones status, and overcoming the stereotypes that accompany ones status makes mobility extremely hard. Before examining how mobility is suppressed within society, it is important to look at what types exist in our industrialized nation. Usually the amount of mobility in a society is a major indicator of its openness. India, for example, is a very closed society, running on a caste system that dictates ones status in life and prohibits any movement between classes. The US has mostly seen structural mobility, which is advancement opportunity made possible by an increase in better-paid occupations at the expense of lower-wage occupations. Since WWII, there has been a large increase in high-paying managerial and executive positions, as well as blue-collar working class jobs. Within this structural mobility, there is upper and downward mobility that can allow a person to either rise or fall in economic class. However, many other elements come into play, making advancements extremely difficult, and class lines deeply imbedded. In our society, as well as every other industrialized nation, mobility is based on the idea that the poor are the lowest of the social strata, and that all mobility continues upwards from that point. Due to this concept, society makes progress for the lower classes particularly difficult, because they guarantee the status of those who are not poor. Herbert Gans examines this concept in his piece, The Positive Functions of Poverty. He gives numerous examples of how the poor see no mobility because they are kept down to benefit the upper classes. Gans also observes that the poor actually contribute to the upper mobility of the non-poor. In fact, many are able to make money off of the poor for their own social gain by providing them with retail, entertainment, gambling, housing, and narcotics. (Gans, p.25) Due to meager education and the stereotypes of being incapable and lazy, the poor enable others to obtain the better jobs. These stereotypes begin while still in school, as seen in Wi lliam Chamblisss piece, Saints and Roughnecks. The Saints were a group of upper class teenage boys, just as delinquent as their lower class counterparts, the Roughnecks. However, due to selective perception and labeling, the Roughnecks were targeted as the bad kids who didnt want to make something of themselves, while the Saints were seen as leaders of