Nowhere Without A Mentor Essay

As the journey called life unfolds, imagine what one would be without mentors. Mentor is a vague word used to describe a person who helps another, who is trusted by another, who is a counselor to another, but most of all is someone who influences another. With no mentors or guides the title character in the novel Siddhartha by Herman Hesse, would not have found self. The three characters that have the greatest influence on Siddhartha are Gotama Buddha, Kamala and Vasudeva. From Gotama Buddha, Siddhartha realizes he would rather walk his own path than follow another’s. After pursuing Buddha’s followings with his companion Govinda, Siddhartha has a revelation while he is conversing with Gotama. † ‘That is why I am going on my way- not to seek another and better doctrine, for I know there is none, but to leave all doctrines and all teachers and to reach my goal alone- or die’ â€Å"(34). This quote shows how Gotama has influenced Siddhartha to seek Self unaccompanied, marking a significant turning point in Siddhartha’s journey. Subsequent to Siddhartha’s encounter with Buddha, he meets a beautiful woman named Kamala who drastically changes him. The author of Siddhartha explains in detail how the title character slowly takes on characteristics of average citizens while living with Kamala. â€Å"Gradually, along with his growing riches, Siddhartha himself acquired some of the characteristics of the ordinary people, some of their childishness and some of their anxiety†(77). At this point in the novel, Siddhartha begins to be disgusted with himself, and recognizes that life with Kamala is not the place he should be in to find peace. Shortly after he apprehends this, Siddhartha leaves Kamala only to find a peaceful Ferryman, named Vasudeva who introduces Siddhartha to a river. In the following quote, Vasudeva explains to Siddhartha the power of the river that they live by. â€Å"‘The river knows everything; one can learn everything from it'†(105). This quote shows how Vasudeva introduced Siddhartha to the river that led him to find peace. After Siddhartha’s long journey and his encounters with many people who influence him, he finds peace within himself. The three characters that have  the greatest influence on Siddhartha are Gotama Buddha, Kamala and Vasudeva. Gotama Buddha helps Siddhartha realize that peace is found without teachers, Kamala changes Siddhartha into an ordinary citizen and Vasudeva introduces Siddhartha to a river that leads him to find peace. Although Siddhartha has much help during his journey to find peace, his own strong will is the deciding factor in him reaching his goal.

Culture Shock & Insatiable Emptiness Essay

Culture is one aspect of a person’s individuality that is deeply entrenched in him after years of socialization and learning the ways, beliefs, thoughts and world view of one society or any group of people. When one is uprooted from the familiarity of the culture that he has internalized, the consequence involves disorientation, anxiety, and other host of psychological and even physiological imbalance. Such is the experience described by Evelyn Lau in her essay Insatiable Emptiness. In her vivid and poetic descriptions, she tells how she violently coped with the changes that were occurring within her adolescent body and how her negative response to these changes affected the stability of her health for eight years. The case of Lau’s maladjustment to her bodily changes and the way people around her, specifically her mother, reacted to her maturing body can be considered a form of culture shock. As a child, Lau says that she had been accustomed to the way her body looked: â€Å"I had been thin and healthy, with flat belly and limbs† (495). The image of her as a slender girl was instilled in her mind and became the identity that she appropriated for herself. However, this familiarity with her body was undermined by the natural, adolescent changes that occurred within her. At age 11, Lau got her first period and the hormonal imbalance brought unwanted changes in her breasts and hips. She began to see her natural metamorphosis as something that must be hidden, â€Å"terrible workings† which she must immediately expel out of her body (496). Because she was unprepared for the changes occurring within her, she reacted negatively to it, wanting to return to the familiar image of her body. Lau says that she â€Å"longed to make [her body] translucent, pared down, clean as a whistle† (496). When Lau describes the sensation she felt after vomiting food out of her stomach, she refers to it as a feeling of being â€Å"clean and shiny inside, like a scrubbed machine† (495). This is the sensation she got addicted to. Despite the unpleasant experience of forcing food out of her body and the foul taste of acid passing through her mouth, not to mention the detrimental effects of acid on her oral cavity, Lau got fixated on vomiting. The unpleasant activity became pleasurable in her mind because psychologically, she made herself believe that the act of vomiting purges her body of the unwanted changes that was occurring within her and that this act also brings her back to the familiar, internalized image of herself as a slender girl. What worsened her misperception of the natural adolescent changes was the negative response of her family, specifically her mother, to these changes. Instead of being a support in understanding her situation, her mother ridiculed Lau for her growing breasts and her insatiable appetite. Lau says that her mother’s actions â€Å"convinced [her] there was something wrong with [her] body† (496). Lau’s mother was a very controlling woman. Lau believes that her mother’s actions were motivated by the reality that as Lau was becoming a full grown woman, her mother began to see her daughter grew distant from her. Lau was becoming a separate part of her mother and her mother did not want Lau to be different and unfamiliar. As a result, her mother put Lau on strict diets, ridiculed her body and downgraded her by saying that she will never amount to anything because she was just like her weak father. In this sense, Lau mother’s also experience culture shock because the unfamiliar caused her to have an imbalance of perception. After eight years of suffering from bulimia, Lau’s body took the toll of her abusive behavior. Her and her mother’s failure to adjust to the novel experience of adolescent changes led her to a behavior that weakened her body and resulted to irreversible consequences. Lacking the encouragement and assurance that she needed, Lau resorted to a violent behavior directed toward herself. She feigned self-esteem when her insides were corroding with incessant self-hatred. She became withdrawn and obsessive for control just like her mother. Controlling the changes in her body is a manifestation that Lau wanted things to stay as they were because the changes she encountered was too shocking for her to accept. Being withdrawn, violent to oneself and obsessive for control are just few of the negative responses to culture shock. If not reversed, altered or mediated, these behaviors, as seen in Lau’s narrative, can result to a maladjusted person who is unprepared to meet any further changes. To some extent, I can relate to Lau’s experience because I too have undergone culture shock when I first encountered university life. Although my experience was not as violent or traumatic as Lau’s, I also responded negatively to the unfamiliar territory, to some degree. I was only about 18 when I first stepped in the halls of the university. To me, it was a totally different world, bustling with chaotic energy that my adjusting self was unprepared to match. I was caught in the wave of fast-paced change that I began to be negative about the unfamiliar experience during my first few months in the university. Being in a place stripped of the comforts of home and the certainty of the place where I grew up in was just like being fish out of water. There were discomforts and at times, severe bouts of anxiety. When I look back at those few months of nervously finding my way through this new environment, I remember it to be one huge blur, an indistinct rush of unfamiliar faces, behavior, ways and manners. The university I attended was set in a sprawling hectare of land with buildings so far apart it was so easy to get lost. The vast space which I discovered alienated me and I knew then that I needed some company. However, I found out that it was not as easy to blend in an environment whose unfamiliarity seemed hostile. It seemed to me back then that I was traversing dangerous grounds, a foreign territory whose internal rules and codes of conduct I did not understand. I was tentative when I introduced myself to others or try to make connections that would give me bearing as I was being hurled from one strange experience to another. What compounded my confusion and anxiety was the fact that I was an immigrant and being in the minority put me in constant check of myself whether I was rightly blending in or I was sticking out too much. Although diversity is one of the things they hail in the university, I could not help but see my foreignness to be at fault, somehow, to the anxiety I was experiencing. Like Lau, I had mistaken the anxieties from culture shock to be something that is accountable to my behavior or being and not to the fact that the unfamiliarity was unnerving to me. As a result, I became withdrawn for the first few months. I cruised the university halls by myself, aware of my alienation with the crowd. My social disengagement stressed me out, and I found it hard to initially cope with my academic load. The method of teaching and learning in the university was another factor in my brief alienation and to me the whole culture of independent study and fast-paced instruction shocked me. Although I had been oriented and prepared for university education in terms of studying skills and habits, the initial encounter with the actual thing was disorienting. I was managing my classes on my own, without the aid of peers. Professors hurled academic requirements to us by truckloads and I had to keep myself afloat in the torrent of term papers and coursework. When I came to the point that things got too big for me to handle, I sought help. I remember in Lau’s essay that she too sought help for her condition, but backed away because she had to wait in line. I think it is her failure to get early professional help which led to her aggravated addiction. In my experience, the perspective and advice of a person outside the eye of the storm of culture shock are valuable. I was able to positively adjust through the aid the student services made available for people going through the same confusion and anxiety. Culture shock, as seen in both my experience in my early days in the university and in Lau’s transforming body, can be experienced on many levels. It does not only refer to disorientation to a culture in the conventional definition involving race and nationality. It may also pertain to any confusion brought about by the intrusion of an unfamiliar behavior, image, or environment. Whatever the source of culture shock is, it is clear that the experience is temporal and must be dealt with positively. Reference Lau. E. (2006). Insatiable Emptiness. In Reinking, J. , Osten, R. Cairns, S. and Fleming, r (Eds. ) Strategies for Successful Writing: A Rhetoric, Research Guide, Reader and Handbook, Third Canadian Edition (pp. 495-499). Canada: Pearson Education.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Don't Ask, Don't Tell - Essay Example While this might be unthinkable in the United States, there is no good reason for it to be so. Many American officers are now comparing their own army to international ones and determining that it is time to bring American practices more in line with practices around the world. These countries’ experience shows that an army does not fall apart when homosexuals are allowed the serve openly; there are no reported negative effects whatsoever. One of the main reasons that other countries allow homosexuals to serve openly is because courts have recognized that homosexuals have the right to be free of discrimination. In Canada, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees freedom from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. It simply isn’t possible to deny homosexuals the right to serve their country. These legal reasons have been recognized in other countries too and form the basis for many countries’ rejection of similar don’t ask, don’t tell policies. In the United States such rights have not yet been granted. There is still a big argument about gay marriage which shows no sign of being resolved any time soon. America appears to be a more culturally divided country on the issue of homosexuality. That may be the way it is, but that is not a very good reason to deny a person the opportunity to serve their country because of an immutable characteristic that really has no connection wi th the morale or standards of the troupe. The argument against giving homosexuals such rights holds little water. The American army is currently fighting two big wars: one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. It is short of soldiers and needs more. Since the don’t ask, don’t tell policy came into effect, thousands of soldiers have been forced to leave service. This is not right. The military needs more soldiers. Disallowing the service of homosexuals reduces the number of soldiers too

Huge inequality between Poor and Rich in China Essay

Huge inequality between Poor and Rich in China - Essay Example According to Gini Index, released recently indicates the income inequality between rich and poor, in rural China is 0.3949, near to the warning level of 0.4 fixed by the United Nations. Advanced research conducted by Central China Normal University's Center for China Rural Studies illustrated that the cash proceeds of rural families raised 14.13 percent and the per capita cash revenue in rural areas increased 11.95 percent. Agriculturalists in China aren’t becoming rich by farming activities. The rise in income growth in the rural areas are because of the salaries earned by those people who have uninhibited rural life to labor as migratory laborers in metropolises and big cities, the study stated. It is observed that the rural families are becoming more reliant on salaries received by their household members who work in cities. The study shown that salaries paid to the migratory employees estimated for 65.7%of the entire proceeds of rural families. Over and above the study as well established that the whole revenue of the top 20% of the rural families was 10.19 times more that of the lowest 20%. As per the study report, the prosperity difference in west China was larger than in the east of the nation. The appraisal by Central China Normal University did not study the income disparity of the country all together, since its scope was restricted to the rural region. But, it is stated by Xinhua, the state-owned news agency that the income disparity in China all together is well above 0.4, because of the huge income disparity amongst city and rural regions. In the year 2000, Chinese government issued a Gini index for the country which showed as 0.412. However many intellectuals at present believe that the index has gone up to between 0.45 and 0.50, stated Xinhua. The significance of Gini index is that ‘0’ indicate flawless equality and‘1’ indicate perfect inequality. The Gini index in the United States in 2009 was 0.468, referring to the U.S. Census Bureau. This is very close to the Gini index of China (Yoshida). The developing Asian countries like China, India, accepted the recent globalization move with comparable per capita GDP and income levels. However, China gone ahead with more to its open economy to the international market, despite the fact that major numbers of its coastline cities have made wide-ranging investment atmosphere for private investment. The outcome has been an amazing vibrant economic progress. Even though India has followed a similar system, however was slow in terms of opening up the economy and unsuccessful in making good investment atmosphere. Some of developing Asian countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam has achieved remarkable success, however other nations such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and the Philippines has less progress because of lack of , investment opportunity and weaker links to the international market. The China’s continued progress resulted i n unparalleled poverty reduction. According to domestic studies, it is estimated that the poverty rate in China in 1981 was 64% of the populace. It has come down to 10% in 2004, showing that about 500 million people have overcome poverty throughout this period. This poverty decline has happened in phases. The change to the family obligation method boosted a large upsurge in agricultural yield, and scarcity was reduced to half over the small period from

Engineering Products Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Engineering Products - Essay Example The theory developed by French and Raven (1958, p. 453) distinguished five bases of social power.   These are the reward power, the coercive power, the referent power, the legitimate power, and the expert power.   EP’s power policy is the combination of three bases, namely reward, coercive, and legitimate power.     The reward power is the leader’s influence on his followers exerted through the dispensation of valued rewards in return for compliance with instruction.   When EP established the pay plan and the new criteria for promotions, opening upward mobility to compliant managers, it was wielding the proverbial â€Å"carrot† and trying to court obedience to central policy.   Coercive power, on the other hand, is based on the administration of penalties or sanctions for non-compliance with instructions.   In EP, HQ wielded the â€Å"stick† in the form of sanctions and dismissals for managers who insisted on not abiding by HQ’s standa rdization policies.   HQ also introduced punishment in not allocating orders to plants perceived to be uncooperative with central authority. Finally, the exercise of legitimate (or position) power is based on the obligation of subordinates to accept instructions given by the leadership because of its position and title.   HQ used its legitimate power by employing control mechanisms such as: centralizing the decision-making functions on itself; changing the company’s structure to favour standardization; affording rewards and imposing punishments; training of personnel; and imposition of policies and rules (Hellriegel, D. and Slocum, J., 1978, p. 365 ). In EP, however, the changes in the organizational structure may be viewed as a benevolent attempt to gradually inculcate standardization through collaboration.   The manufacturing councils, the engineers’ International College, the internal consultants, and regular meetings of international HR specialists, were all meant to smooth out the transition from localized operations to a standardized system.  

Bipolar Disorder Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Bipolar Disorder - Research Paper Example Bipolar disorder is referred to be a condition of the health where an individual suffers from quick mood swings that can occur between very good mood and irritating or depressed mood. Men and women may be equally affected through this disorder, where the primary age of getting attacked by this disorder is between 15-25 years. The exact causes of the disorder have not been understood. However it has been determined that the disorder mostly occurs in individuals who have relatives with the same problem. Although there are no particular causes of the manic moods in individuals, however certain lifestyles or sleep disorders that may be responsible. Bipolar Disorder Type I and Type II: An Understanding of Their Differences: Bipolar I and bipolar II are two major forms of the bipolar disorder. As far as the history of the disease is concerned, it has been obtained that bipolar disorder has some genetic connection. The disorder may affect men, women as well as children. Thus there might be a need for learning whether one’s family or one him/her self had the disorder in their childhood, particularly in cases where symptoms of the disease may be observed. Bipolar type I range from mania and depression and involve severe swings in the mood of the affected individual. However bipolar type II is milder in form in comparison to the type I disorder and involved gentler forms of hypomania that varies with the periods of depression. In order to receive a proper treatment, the type of the disorder is necessary to be determined that can be obtained by consulting with a medical professional if symptoms are observed (Bipolar Disorder History, 2008). Bipolar Type I Disorder: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatments: Individuals affected with Bipolar 1 are normally experienced with at least one manic period in their lives. This reflects a period of time when the affected individual suffers from abnormal mood swings, and abnormality in behavior that has severe impacts on his/her life. Generally majority of affected patients undergo through phases of depression. However in between the phases of depression or mania, the individual may live a life that is absolutely normal. Nearly every individual can be affected by this disorder. Generally the first symptoms are observed in individuals who are in their teen ages, and generally the disorder gets developed before 50 years age. If family members are affected with the disorder then chances of the occurrence of the disorder are higher (Bipolar I Disorder, 2012). The

China's Market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

China's Market - Essay Example Foreign companies on the other hand feel insecure in Chinese government expectations because they will be forced to bargain away business secrets and intelligence in exchange for sales which may not be wise in the long term. The question this paper seeks to answer is whether foreign companies in china should risk loss of sales by refusing to transfer knowledge or just go along with the Chinese government terms and conditions? These global companies should flatly refuse to move production to China considering that it is a communist country and the risks involved. It is very unfair for the Chinese government to subject these global companies to rules such as for them to make sales in china; they have to relocate production in China considering the fact that they have not lacked the resources back in their countries. The Chinese companies want to learn modern management skills and acquire technology from these non-Chinese companies. This is taking advantage of these non-Chinese companies just because China offers an attractive market in terms of size and growth rate. The global companies should instead try to penetrate the Chinese market in another dimension. Through aggressive marketing can overcome this bottleneck that China presents to the global companies. (Krott & Williamsson , 2003). The shift in production to the China benefits China more because it creates employment to its people and at the same time they acquire the vital skills especially in technology. This is a great danger to the mother companies because there is the risk of rival companies acquiring this technology. At the same time you cannot ignore the lucrative market that China is offering. Moreover, the manpower in China is so cheap, thus saving the global companies a lot of money in production and operation costs. (Krott & Williamsson , 2003) The fact that there is a ready market for these companies in China is quite irresistible. Additionally, China can be a central distributing point

The Role of the Financial Manager MOD 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Role of the Financial Manager MOD 1 - Essay Example Facebook is owned by Mark Zuckerberg. According to Read Write Web (nd), â€Å"Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room on February 4, 2004.† This is where people are able to exchange pictures, contacts, music, send messages and be in contact and make friends with other people just by sending them requests and after accepting you can be able to access their profile which has their personal information. As the owner, Mark Zuckerberg never had CPA and/or CFA designations but according to the Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia; He â€Å"studied psychology and computer science† The second example is Morningstar, Inc. This is owned by Joe Mansueto. According to United (2011), â€Å"Morningstar was subsequently founded in 1984 from his one-bedroom Chicago apartment In July 1999 Morningstar accepted an investment of US$91 million from SoftBank in return for a 20% stake in the company. The two companies had the previous year formed a joint venture in Japan. Morningstars initial public offering occurred on May 3, 2005, with 7,612,500 shares at $18.50 each. The manner in which Morningstar went public is notable. They elected to follow Googles footsteps and use the OpenIPO method rather than the traditional method. This allowed individual investors to bid on the price of the stock, and allowed all investors equal access. As of December 2008 Joe Mansueto owned approximately 57% of the outstanding shares in Morningstar.† Hence Joe Mansueto stopped being the Chief Finance Officer of the company in the Year 2008 When he become the Chief Executive officer after owning more than fifty percent of the shares. Joe Mansueto studied a degree in Business Administration hence he was an expert in running finances in his company. This has lead to tremendous growth of the company. Most of the CFO (Chief Finance Officer) are the individuals who founded their companies and after running them for some time and succeeding, they choose to hire someone to

Competitive Review of PepsiCo Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Competitive Review of PepsiCo - Term Paper Example PepsiCo is one of the biggest soft drink, beverage, and convenient snacks companies. Pepsi has been bringing refreshments to its customers for over 100 years. It has almost 18 brands in its portfolio. The soft drink and beverage market is highly competitive with changing customer tastes and preferences and therefore to maintain sustainable growth the management constantly has to introduce new marketing strategies, conduct market research and thereby position and reposition their brands or introduce new brands. Introduction of new brands has always been a favorite marketing strategy with PepsiCo management.    Pepsi has 18 mega brands available in nearly 200 countries and generates sales at the retail level of more than $1 billion. (See appendix 2 for PepsiCo mega brands and annual retail sales of each) Demand for non-alcoholic beverages is driven by consumer tastes and demographics. The profitability of individual companies depends on effective marketing. Large manufacturers have economies of scale in production and distribution, with average annual revenue per production worker close to $1 million. Small companies can compete by producing new products, catering to local tastes, or selling at lower prices.    Coca Cola is the world’s number 1 producer of carbonated soft drinks is Pepsi’s biggest rival. In the soft drinks industry, Coca Cola and Pepsi together have a market share of 95%. Where Coca Cola has a market share of 43.1% and Pepsi has a market share of 39.2%.    The target customers for Pepsi customers are mostly teens and young adults between the ages of 12 to 35 who are fast and lively. They have high expectations in life and are very mobile and active. Pepsi promotes itself as the choice of the â€Å"New Generation†.   One of its recent advertisement slogans is â€Å"Taste the one that's forever young ". â€Å"According to the Competitive Advantage model of Porter, a competitive strategy takes offensive or defensive action to create a defendable position in an industry, in order to cope successfully with competitive forces and generate a superior Return on Investment†(competitive advantage Porter).

How Do Environmental Factors Impact Managers and Leaders of Essay

How Do Environmental Factors Impact Managers and Leaders of Organizations - Essay Example The paper tells that an organization’s internal environment is of great importance, and lays out such strategic plans that guarantee that all internal factors are working properly and in nice coordination. The internal environment is defined as â€Å"the conditions, entities, events, and factors within an organization that influences its activities and choices, particularly the behavior of the employees†. The internal environment is defined as â€Å"the conditions, entities, events, and factors within an organization that influences its activities and choices, particularly the behavior of the employees†. Internal factors mainly include the mission statement, leadership, the organizational culture comprising of employees and management, and resources. These internal factors have a direct influence on managers and organizational leaders and will continue to influence in future because they have to make strategic decisions that satisfy all these factors. For example , managers and leaders must make sure that their employees are working in harmony with each other with fewest possible organizational conflicts. Research suggests that the major causes of workplace conflicts are stress, reduced budget, short deadlines and heavy workload. Whatever the cause, it is necessary for the managers and leaders of the organization to deal with the conflicts efficiently to improve teamwork and productivity. This will be more important in future because of the increasing competitiveness in the market. The external environment of an organization consists of all those elements in the remote, industrial and external operating environment that impact upon the design of its strategic plans and define its competitive position in the market.

Identify three (3) risks of the bid strategy Essay Example for Free

Identify three (3) risks of the bid strategy Essay After identifying the customer key evaluation requirements I have identified three risks that may affect our bidding strategy. First, I want to identify why it’s important to know your risks when creating a bid strategy to help you understand why I choose these top three risks. Risk management is the process of identifying risk issues and the options for controlling them, commissioning a risk assessment, reviewing the results and selecting amongst the assessed options to best meet the goals. The purpose of risk analysis is to help managers better understand the risks (and opportunities) they face and to evaluate the options available for their control. (Vose software, 2007) The top risk of the bid strategy for this company would be price. Price was selected as the top risk because although the company would like to win the bid, the price has to be within a range where they could also make money. The second risk selected is Logistics. This risk was selected since the product has to travel overseas. Depending on the time frame and the cost to have the product shipped the product may not make it to the destination in time. It is very important to have the product delivered in a timely manner to satisfy the end user requirements. Thirdly, the last risk selected is Customer Commitment. Our company must follow all the requirements in order to make the end user happy. Since the product is going overseas it will be hard to follow up on maintenance. Without having our own personnel at the end user location or close to the location it will also be a challenge if there are any issues with the product. Based on the three risks of the bid strategies that were selected there are also three opportunities to mitigate each risk. First we have the price, now when negotiating on the rate we will really need to do our research. It’s important to have knowledge of previous pricing and to also include overhead, packaging and transportation. Although, we have to take all these things into consideration we also have to remember we are not the only company bidding on this offer so we must rate acceptable amount. Next, we have logistics. Our company would have to negotiate with a freight forwarder for a reasonable rate to have the freight transported to the final destination. In order to negotiate a reasonable rate we would mention that if the rate offered is good this would be an opportunity for extreme growth. While we are negotiating we would have to make sure the transit times would be guaranteed in order to have freight delivered to the destination on time. Finally, we have customer commitment. This may be the most important opportunity of them all. If our company is able to provide a reliable solution to the end user needs we will gain past performance while making our customer happy. We will provide this service by checking with the customer on a monthly basis and sending an employee over to the end user location every two to three months to check that our products are working correctly. The flip side of risk is opportunity. Every bid carriers with it some opportunities beyond those represented by winning the contract. Potential opportunities include future additions or changes to contract value via market share, maintaining dominance in a particular area, protecting an area or contract from assault by competitors, or using the contract as a gateway to future procurements. Osborne, 2011) In conclusion, by looking into these risks and opportunities we will be able to determine whether we want to bid or no bid. If we cannot provide the end user with the requirements they need in a timely manner at a great cost it will not be beneficial for us to move forward with the bid procedures. As a company we must protect our brand and our products. So, we need to look closely at this conclusion to make our final bid or no bid decision.

Indian Hegemony in South Asia

Indian Hegemony in South Asia India has been given a tag as the Regional Hegemon of South Asia. If not formally,then atleast the intentions are tagged as possessing hegemonic tendencies. This paper looks at the concept of Hegemony, Regional, the various reasons responsible for such a view and the various outlooks. I also throw light on the foreign policy of India to stress on the non-hegemonic tendencies of India. India believes in peaceful coexistence. The most important aspect which I wish to bring out is the change in the international scenario that makes Indias hegemonic status tough to survive. SOUTH ASIA A general outlook and evolution South Asia is the southern region of the Asian continent. South Asia typically consists of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Some definitions may also include Afghanistan, Burma, Tibet, and the British Indian Ocean Territories. Iran is also included in the UN subregion of Southern Asia,  [i]  although many sources consider Iran as being part of West Asia. South Asia is home to well over one fifth of the worlds population, making it both the most populous and most densely populated geographical region in the world. The region has often seen conflicts and political instability, including wars between the regions two nuclear-armed states, Pakistan and India. While the South Asia had never been a coherent geopolitical region, it has a distinct geographical identity. The boundaries of South Asia vary based on how  [ii]  South Asia is defined. South Asias north, east, and west boundaries vary based on definitions used. South Asias southern bord er is the Indian Ocean. The UN subregion of Southern Asias northern boundary would be the Himalayas, its western boundary would be made up of the Iraq-Iran border, Turkey-Iran border, Armenia-Iran border, and the Azerbaijan-Iran border. Its eastern boundary would be the India-Burma border and the Bangladesh-Burma border. Most of this region is a subcontinent resting on the Indian Plate (the northerly portion of the Indo-Australian Plate) separated from the rest of Eurasia. It was once a small continent before colliding with the Eurasian Plate about 50-55 million years ago and giving birth to the Himalayan range and the Tibetan plateau. It is the peninsular region south of the Himalayas and Kuen Lun mountain ranges and east of the Indus River and the Iranian Plateau, extending southward into the Indian Ocean between the Arabian Sea (to the southwest) and the Bay of Bengal (to the southeast).The region is home to an astounding variety of geographical features, such as glaciers, rainforests, valleys, deserts, and grasslands that are typical of much larger continents. It is surrounded by three water bodies the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. Almost all South Asian countries were under direct or indirect European Colonial subjugation at some point. Much of modern India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar were gradually occupied by Great Britain starting from 1757, reaching their zenith in 1857 and ruling till 1947. Nepal and Bhutan were to some extent protectorates of Great Britain until after World War II. In the millennia long history of South Asia, this European occupation period is rather short, but its proximity to the present and its lasting impact on the region makes it prominent. The network of means of transportation and communication as well as banking and training of requisite workforce, and also the existing rail, post, telegraph, and education facilities have evolved out of the base established in the colonial era, often called the British Raj. As an aftermath of World War II, most of the region gained independence from Europe by the late 1940s.Tibet at times has governed itself as an independent state and at other times has had various levels of association with China. It came under Chinese control in the 18th century, in spite of British efforts to seize possession of this Chinese protectorate at the beginning of the 20th century. Since 1947, most South Asian countries have achieved tremendous progress in all spheres. Most notable achievements are in the fields of education; industry; health care; information technology and services based on its applications; research in the fields of cutting edge sciences and technologies; defence related self-relianc e projects; international/global trade and business enterprises and outsourcing of human resources. Areas of difficulty remain, however, including religious extremism, high levels of corruption, disagreements on political boundaries, and inequitable distribution of wealth. However,a combined effort by the nations has helped the nations in overcoming the various obstacles and settling the disputes peacefully. India has played a major role in the development of South Asia as a region of resources,technology and even as a power to some extent. However,at several occasions the actions of our nation have been seen as steps taken towards the goal of becoming the Regional Hegemon. HEGEMONY Hegemony is a term defined as the leadership(formal) especially of a state within a group of states. This is how any standard dictionary would define hegemony  [iii]  . In Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, political theorists Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe define hegemony as a type or form of political relation in which a given collectivity performs some kind of social task which is not natural to them  [iv]  .However, the term hegemon is generally used in a negative sense to signify dominance, coercion or influence in the vaious fields. India has often been accused of possessing hegemonic tendencies in its foreign affairs and policies by various writers and nations altogether. A countrys foreign policy, in general, aims to achieve three basic objectives-securities, stability, and status (George Liska ). George Modelski in his book A theory of Foreign Policy defined foreign policy as the system of activities evolved by communities for changing the behaviour of other states and adjusting their own activities to the international environment  [v]  . In this sense any country big or small, which endevours to further its policies to achieve its desired world order is hegemonistic. The word hegemony is pejoratively used when the great powers practice policies in seeking predominance over others. Literally hegemon means a leader who seeks predominance over others. This requires the existence of some subordinate states too, whose politics and policies hegemon would try to influence. In the Ancient World, Sparta was the hegemon (leader) city-state of the Peloponnesian League, in the 6th century BC, and King Philip II of Macedon was the hegemon of the League of Corinth, in 337 BC, (a kingship he willed to his son, Alexander the Great); in Eastern Asia, it occurred in China, during the Spring and Autumn Period ( 770-480 BC), when the weakened rule of the Zhou Dynasty lead to the relative autonomy of the Five Hegemons who were appointed, by feudal lord conferences, and were nominally obliged to uphold the Zhou dynastic imperium over the subordinate states. In late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century-Japan, hegemon applies to its Three Unifiers   Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu   who exercised hegemony over most of the country. In the modern world hegemony has contours in imperialism. Imperialistic powers all over their empire had hegemony. After Second World War the beginning of cold war led to a grouping up of countries in t wo major camps. The groups had strong NATO countries as well as weak countries like Pakistan. Weak countries, which entered into such alliances to secure themselves from the hegemony of other countries, were subjected to veiled hegemony, and military bases of the stronger countries were often accommodated there. This has been an accusation for India too for several years. India has been accused of being influential in policies of different nations by making them dependent on it in terms of economy, military strength, resources and even in the political aspect. REGION AND REGIONAL What precisely is meant by the region which is specified in the term Regional Hegemony. We talk of South Asia as a region. Amitava Acharya in his Regional Worlds in a Post-hegemonic Era says Regional world subsumes regional order and regional institutions, as well as economic regionalization. Regional Worlds are not just material constructs.  [vi]  They offer sites for ideational and normative contestations, resistance and compromises, involving both states and civil societies which transcend regional boundaries and overlap into other regional and global spaces. Regional worlds are not autonomous entities, nor purely subsets of global dynamics. They create, absorb and repatriate ideational and material forces that make world politics and order. This definition brings out the important aspect of the term regional which are economic, ideational and so on. It is true that regional worlds are not autonomous entities since nations within a region are not only dependent on each other b ut are also affected by as small factors as the water problem which a any day take a bigger form. The policies of one nation affect the other in some way. Winston Churchill and Walter Lippmann were of the view that world order could best be attained by regional spheres of influence. Robert W.Cox in his Gramsci,Hegemony and International Relations: An essay in method, talks of the different phases in the world hegemony where he mentions the period of U.S hegemony from 1945-1965 and then mentions the phase which starts from 1965 which was characterized by the fall of the U.S hegemony with the rise of the third world and the fragmentation of the world economy  [vii]  . Amitava Acharya puts up a question asking whether the end of US hegemony might open the door to the rise of regional hegemonies such as East Asia under Chinese, South Asia under Indian, the Caucasus and Baltics under Russian, and southern Africa under South African, west Africa under Nigerian and south America under Brazilian, dominance. Would the end of American hegemony be replaced by such distinct or over-lapping regional hegemonies? Such questions have often come up and have forced the nations to think of any single nation progressing at a higher speed as a potential hegemon. In his Tragedy of Great Power Politics, John Mearshimer argues that great powers, including rising or aspiring great powers seek to achieve regional hegemony, a goal more necessary and attainable than global hegemony  [viii]  . It is true that in todays bigger than before world, global hegemony is a distant goal though some still vouch for the U.S hegemony. The point of concern comes to the fear of regio nal hegemons due to Hegemony often being understood as a first step towards imperialism. Regional imperialism of a kind in limited sense can not be avoided. If a country is bigger or stronger its foreign policy stakes would be higher and its objectives are to be set accordingly which may or may not be compatible with the interests of other regional states. South Asia as such did not have any real issues, however a psychological scare of big brother often posited smaller states in this region in defensive posture more as an over reaction. India is one such example of a state caught in a dilemna. INDIAS FOREIGN POLICY- non hegemonic When India got liberation from the imperialistic rule of British Empire in 1947, it was to adopt a policy, which should fulfill its aspirations of a changed world order and thereby confer a status, provide the country an economic stability and security to its borders. The ideological cover of non-alignment and panch sheel was best suited for this. One of the basic tenets of Panch sheel is peaceful co-existence, which implies non-interference in the internal matters of neighbors. In an effort to achieve its objective of word order where new nation states could progress together was to be the objective of Indias Foreign policy. Thus the hegemony over the neighboring states or in South Asia couldnot have been a part of Indias Foreign Policy. On the contrary it was against the policy of peaceful co-existence and Panch sheel. Indias efforts to allay the fears of its neighbors was one of the highlights in all these fora, be it NAM conferences or other international symposiums. Indias forei gn policy of non-alignment and its assumed role of third world leader however is one of its strength. But in a natural corollary to this surrounding countries felt weak and insecure due to natural fear lest India start acting as big brother in the region. Though Indias foreign policy of non alignment was more aimed at providing a new world order where the new states could survive without participating in the cold war between the super powers of post world war era, a big brother scare among the smaller countries is logical and could not have been avoided. There are various reasons that have led to these fears. WHY THE TAG? Countries that surround India, such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bagladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Burma are nowhere at par with India, be it in their size, population, economic development or skilled human resources. The natural resources available in theses countries also do not make these countries competitive. India dominates the whole area geographically. She is the only country that shares a large coast line with all the other six states while none of them have common borders with each other. China after the occupation on Tibet in 1950,reached the borders of the Asian subcontinent but faces problems of accessibility due to the difficulties of the northern terrain. K.M.Pannikar said Geography constitutes the permanent basis of every nations history. It is true since it is because of the rich geographical features that India possesses, landlocked nations like Nepal and Bhutan can hardly survive economically without Indias cooperation. Pakistan and Bangladesh too are dependent on India for water supply. Giantism as called by John.P.Lewis has its far reaching regional ramifications. The enmity with Pakistan continues since the partition days and is yet much behind India in all aspects other than nuclear status and that too is unclear. Three wars with Pakistan have almost established military supremacy of India in South Asia. In 1971 war India could successfully achieve its objective of dismembering Pakistan from various issues in spite of opposition of United States of America. Inspite of the various attempts of friendsihp including the recent cultural cross border efforts through Aman Ki Asha, Indo-Pak meetings always end up as what Nawaz Sharif had once described as zero meeting. Pakistan still doesnot grant India the status of MFN (most favoured nation) though SAFTA has been in force for some time now. Although Indias self-perception might be that it has acted with considerable restraint in prior crises with Pakistan, for example, in the 2002 standoff after the attacks on the Indian parliament, in the 1999 Kargil crisis and even in the1971 war, from the Pakis tani perspective the trauma of disintegration suffered in 1971-when India significantly assisted in the creation of Bangladesh-overshadows all Indian actions. China, though not a part of South Asia plays an important ole in the affairs of the region. China remains what Andrew Hurrell calls the best example of pragmatic accommodation  [ix]  and inspite of being a true friend and permanent member in the United Nations Security Council has often participated in discouraging Indias development in military, or as the permanent member of the United Nations Security Council or in the India-Pak wars or even the increasing friendly ties of India and U.S. India is a growing power and is a major market for Chinese goods as well as a major service provider at the global level. Hence, China has often displayed its displeasure at Indias hegemonic tendencies. Nepal is more or less dependent on India for its economic development. Nepals overtures with China in order to have an independence from the shadow of India could be an example of this over defensive posturing. India and Nepal have had a friend ship treaty since the days of King Tribhuvan. The treaty facilitated both countries to have trade across their borders without much of custom formalities. Nepals economic dependence on Indias economy and its geographical land locked position impelled Nepal to have this treaty. Nepal however never stopped searching for alternatives such as route to the sea through India and Bangladesh to increase its international trade. Invitation to China to build roads in Nepal was one such step to send a clear message that their country has other options too and as efforts to avoid dominance by one nation. Bangladesh came into being almost with the single handed initiative of India. Even their Mukti Bahini was trained by Indian Army. Soon after liberation from Pakistan, Bangla Desh started pursuing a policy to exert independence in its foreign policy. The fanatic elements in Bangla Desh however were not satisfied with this subtle and gradual posturing and assassinated their first President Sheikh Mujiburrahman for his being pro-Indian. Governments successively after his assassination had to pursue Controlled Anti Indian Stance in their Foreign policy in order to satisfy their domestic compulsion in expressing opposition to Indian hegemony. Sri Lankas foreign policy has been more independent in the region. However its domestic compulsion and gradual increase in the power of fanatic Buddhist elements in its politics and their pro-majority policies have complicated the domestic politics. This led to rise of Tamil resistant groups in Sri Lanka and then their establishment of a limited control over the Tamil majority areas in Northern and North eastern Sri Lanka. Indias limited role of sending IPKF to restore Sri Lankan control over these areas was also be seen as an effort to prove its hegemony in South Asia. Mohammed Ayoob wrote in India matters, that given its advantages in terms of both technically skilled manpower and command over the English language by a substantial section of the working population, India has the capacity to play an increasingly important role in the sphere of service industries. He also brought in another aspect which could have been responsible for the fear of Indias role as a regional hegemon  [x]  . It could be the strengthening ties between India and U.S. Ayoob brings in an interesting reason for the close bonds between India and U.S. He says Indian and U.S. concerns do not coincide merely on the issue of maintaining a stable and secure order in Asia in general and in South Asia in particular.A major threat to both regional and global stability and securitycomes from a particular variety of terrorism that has targeted both India and the United States. This is true that post the twin tower attacks in U.S,terrorism gained importance all over the world which owes it highlight to U.S because the 11 September attacks proved that terrorism could shake the super powers too. Hence,started the Indo-US friendship which continues and the signing of the nuclear deal was another step towards the friendship. That was another reason which made the neighbours uneasy about Indias increasing power. The question was whether India was trying its hand at friendship with the hegemon to follow it.  [xi]   Absence or weak democratic institutions in these countries, and Indias established democracy has further weakened the ties countries surrounding India. Nepal has had Monarchy for most of the part in last sixty years. The intervals of democratic governments there have so far not been able to establish a workable democracy. Pakistans army still calls the shots even if democratic governments come into power. Bangla Desh has had its own problems with democracy where the successive governments after being elected have tried to wipe out opposition, more of an inheritance from Pakistan. Sri Lanka has had democratic traditions which have weakened, off late, due to the rise of the fanatic elements in politics and government as well. Perhaps, Kants Perpetual Peace works here too in increasing the suspicions of other nations regarding India. The establishment of SAARC meant to have closer regional cooperation could not allay the fears of smaller states around India. It is more used as a forum for venting the feelings against India in a veiled manner. Before each SAARC meeting the diplomatic channels would have been working overtime to manage this in place of finding new avenues of regional cooperation. However the platform is often used to malign the Indian image by doing an all year roun survery of Indian intrevention in the affairs of other nations and that highlights the hegemonic tendencies of India. Indias role of being party to good offices and mediation in managing international crises could be another reason for the rising suspicions. Initially,oweing to the non-aligned status,India was accepted as a mediator by several belligerent states like in the Korean War,South African apartheid and so on. But the Bangladesh crisis was seen as an unnecessary intervention by Pakistan and even the Sri Lankan crisis which later led to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Many such interventions were seen as a display of unwanted disciplinary acts by India just like U.S played the role of a police man in the world scenario post world war. Indias new nuclear status has been seen as a disapproving move by Pakistan , China and several other nations of the world. The world today is basically divided on the basis of nuclear haves and have-nots. India joined the club with its first peaceful nuclear tests in 1974. India refused to sign the discriminatory treaties like NPT and CTBT and went ahead and signed the much criticised nuclear agreement with USA. USA came forward to accept India as a major global player and made an attempt to delink Indo-US relationhship from its relaionship with Pakistan. It was held that Indo-US civil nuclear deal was designed to serve Indian security needs and provide a basis for the development of bi-lateral relations with the USA. Though India declared its intention to sign similar nuclear cooperation treaties with other countries too and that her decision was not against any other nation, Indias nuclear status was not taken in good spirits by te neighbours and even beyond the neighbourhood. Indias role in Afganistan has often been seen as a hegemonic tendency. In the GIGA working papers,Melanie Hanif discussed the Indian involvement in Afganistan and said that India as a rising regional power is the only country in the region that might possess the capabilities,the willingness, and the legitimacy for a long-term engagement in Afghan security.  [xii]  India provides scholarships for Afghan students and fosters its commercial ties with the country, something which has, however,been hindered by Pakistans denial of direct access. India has also offered training to the Afghan National Security Forces, but this has not been realized due to Pakistani opposition.India is committed to development and infrastructure projects in various sectors in Afghanistan, especially the reconstruction of overland roads. In terms of soft power, Indias asset is the high popularity of Indian music, movies and television shows in Afghanistan. With a view to military capabilities, India has en hanced its presence in Central Asia through the establishment of its first airbase outside India, in Farkhor/Aini, Tajikistan.All this points to Indias willingness and preparedness to become more involved in the attempt to reconstruct and stabilize Afghanistan. Although most of the external parties are likely to accept a prominent role of India in Afghanistan,two important veto players remain, one within and one outside South Asia: Pakistan and China. IS INDIA A REGIONAL HEGEMON? All these reasons together see India as a regional hegemon. The tag has resulted in both seeing India as a leader as well as a threat. More than a threat, it is the suspicion and anxiety of other nations, which has given India the tag. Power is seen as a zero sum quality. The power gained by one nation is the loss of the other. India with all the resources and power is hence seen as an expansionist maybe not in the earlier imperialist ways but by means of soft power and mediation. However, it is highly doubtful to call India as the hegemon because hegemony would mean supremacy in decision making and policy making for all the other nations of the region. Pakistan is a major example of Indias faulty hegemony. Andrew Hurrell talks of the potential great powers in the world and calls them BRICs, i.e. Brazil, Russia, India and China.  [xiii]  He says that countries like Brazil, India and China are acquiring enough power to change the face of global politics and economics. However, he also brings out another aspect. He says that though these nations have the capacity to become great powers, these nations share certain uncertainties especially regarding the behaviour of the leader, United States. A second characteristic that these nations share is a sense of vulnerability. It is true for India too. Though the size may increase options and like every other nation, India too may have a belief in its natural right to an influential international role yet it is aware of its vulnerability. When Hurrell talks of India as a great power, he questions what would happen if the developing country identity of India comes into conflict with the aspiring great power identity. This argument brings the as pect of Indias aspirations for being a great power, which would be the aspirations of any nation. Any nation has the goal of being counted among the influential ones. That does not necessarily imply hegemonic tendencies. The most important aspect is the recognition. For India to be a regional hegemon, it is a precondition that other nations acknowledge the position desired. To be a hegemon, India would need the support and recognition by the entire region. This is highly unattainable in todays times of globalization and freedom. All the nations are sovereign and are free to take their decisions on the basis of their national interests. There is interdependence but not domination. There is the whole process of settlement of disputes by mediation but the mediator remains only that and nothing more. The world today is anarchic where there is no overarching authority. There are sections that advocate for some authority but there is no such authority present. Even United States, which could be called once the leader or the hegemon, is met with opposition now by developing nations like India. The Gulf War met with a massive opposition and international pressure. India is nowhere near USA in any development al field. In his book The Production of Space, Henri Lefebvre posits that geographic space is not a passive locus of social relations, but that it is trialectical   constituted by mental space, social space, and physical space   hence, hegemony is a spatial process influenced by geopolitics.  [xiv]  This is true because inspite of being a huge nation India is still behind Japan in the technology aspect. If we look at Asia, we have China as a competitor. Infact, though China is not a part of South Asia, it is very much a part of the decision making process. Whether we talk of the Indo-Pak relations or the Kashmir issue which had affected almost all the nations of South Asia in some way, China ha always had a say. It is quite powerful and enjoys a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. It could always be called as the hegemon of Asia if we consider development and relations with U.S to be a criterion for the tag. China has for years maintained a balance in is re lation with the west in spite of it being a communist nation. In spite of being a communist nation, it enjoys a special place in the world. That is power. The benchmark for every Indian step is the Chinese strength. SOUTH ASIA: INDIAS RESPONSIBILITY? K.P.S.Gill in the article Freedom From Fear Regional Security India can redeem South Asia, called South Asia the most volatile area of the world, as the epicenter, the new locus of terrorism, as the venue of a resource-sapping and futile arms race and of a possible and devastating nuclear confrontation  [xv]  . Gill says India is the regional giant of South Asia and accepts that it has been thought of as an ambitious regional hegemon. India is the home to a resurgent economy, led by sections of the hi-tech manufacturing and information technologies sector, has attracted significant and growing international investments and multinational participation. Much of this globalization, though, is still within the category of speculation and predatory capitalism, rather than a deep structural reorientation or long-term commitment by international partners. India is also home to the largest pool of technical and skilled manpower in the world, though its quality may be somewhat uneven. Despite these drawbacks, the countrys potential to seize the opportunities of the new technological revolution is unquestionable. Gill says that India being on the way to the developed status has to take the responsibility of bringing up the entire region. To do this, it must accept the notion of its own centrality, not as hegemon or big brother, but in processes of genuine friendship and shared concerns with its neighbours. But, before doing that India would have to deal with the suspicions regarding Indias interventions and initiatives. This true because even the slightest initiatives taken by any nation for the progress of another nation, are looked at as expansionist and hegemonic tendencies. In the absence of direct imperialism and old forms of power, a new term has come up and that is Soft Power which has been discussed by Joseph Nye is what operates today. In todays times, power has changed its face. It is no more confined o traditional instruments like military and economic assistance, because they are rarely sufficient to deal with the new dilemmas of the world politics. Today multinationals are the ne w sources of the co-optive power. India has gained a lot from these multinationals. As India liberalized her economy, these multinational corporations entered t

The Collapse Of The Soviet Union Politics Essay

The Collapse Of The Soviet Union Politics Essay The Soviet Union, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), is a vast alliance of 15 different countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. USSR was founded in 1924 after the end of the monarchy of the czar. It was a constitutionally socialist state. It had a single-party political system that was dominated by the communist party. USSR was once one of the worlds superpowers. But in a twist of time, the Soviet Union was dissolved. Some think that this can be averted while some believe that it was inevitable. However, the collapse of the USSR cannot be explained by a simple yes-or-no answer. So what did really cause the fall of the mighty Soviet Union in just a period of 6 years? A very complex situation and many factors such as economic problems, Soviet Union leadership and differences in the ideologies led to the dissolution of the USSR. This paper explains t he projected leading factors that paved way for the collapse of the USSR, and answer whether the collapse could be prevented or that it is inevitable. The USSR was a global superpower in terms of the military capabilities it possessed. The time was turning; the characterization of being called a superpower shifted from military and defense capabilities to economic stability and power. In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev, a communist reformer, was appointed as the Soviet leader. His major reforms such as the famous Glastnost and Perestroika led to the disorientation of the USSR. James Graham stated that Gorbachevs major reforms allowed the problems of the Soviet to be revealed and become known to the public. The collapse of the USSR is an extremely extensive topic. Many different factors contributed to this historical event. Some of the major factors of the USSR collapse will be discussed briefly here: The USSR is a vast territory. The difficulties in governance, control and monitoring is very hard to accomplish. The geographical considerations are important aspects for effective governance political and economical. The Soviet Union was the worlds largest state consisting of 15 countries. It also had the worlds largest border, having 60000 kilometers (37,000 mi). According to Robert Buddan, Geography defines territory and territory is the very definition of a state. Analyzing the situation using common sense, the larger the territory, the more difficult for a government to monitor and govern the territory. Imagine 15 countries being monitored and governed by only 1 leader, it is undeniably hard. On the other hand, Curzon claimed that the size of USSR is not to be blamed for its collapse. There are always different sides of the story, understanding both sides widens the area of knowledge and makes it easier to make a stand. The ideologies of USSR are combinations of different types such as nationalism, socialism, and communism. The Soviet had a diverse combination of ideologies that made it hard to reconcile them into one dominant ideology. Gorbachev implemented structural reforms that led to the opposition of most of the popular movements in the union. Some wanted to replace the system of the Soviet into a liberal democratic system. Some wanted independence from the national republics. Some wanted the restoration of the old Soviet ways. This difference in ideologies was a very big problem then. Although Gorbachev tried to reconcile the union, in the end, he cannot make the union members to arrive into an ultimate compromise. This failure of uniting the conflicting ideologies led to the disintegration of the members of the Soviet. There is an elderly form of leadership in the soviet. Gorbachev succeeded three previous Soviet leaders in just three years. He was the first young leader that the Soviet appointed. For a long long time, the Soviet lack flexibility because of the limited use of their elderly leaders. Because of the lack of flexibility of these elderly leaders, the inability to adapt to the ever-changing world and to adapt new and different approaches on the foreign and domestic policies was very evident. The Soviet command economy and the Western market economy were competing because of the economic policies that were implemented by Gorbachev. Gorbachev implemented new economic policies that he believed will be able to improve the living conditions and the working productivity of the Soviet. Kenneth S. Deffeyes argued in Beyond Oil that the Reagan administration encouraged Saudi Arabia to lower the price of oil to the point where the Soviets could not make a profit from selling their oil, so that the USSRs hard currency reserves became depleted. The Soviet economy was apparently crumbling down. The US foreign policies forced the Soviet to allot their wealth on defense such as the Star Wars program and the Afghan war. The wrong allotment of the wealth of the Soviet caused the Union to be burdened some more. Furthermore, it was reported that the reason behind the bankruptcy and collapse of the Soviet was due to the massive military spending during the 1970s. The Soviet was blinded by their former military power (Afghanistan). Anthony Arnold compares Soviet Union with a sick old man and Afghanistan as the pebble which this exhausted sick man stumbled on and fell. Rameen Moshref argued that according to Arnold, the Soviet Empire stood on three pillars: Military, KGB, and Communist party, and argues that the Afghan War ate into these pillars thus weakening them to the point of break-down. The corruption and bureaucracy in the government was rampant. Rameen Moshref quoted that At the eve of Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the rotting effects of absolute centralism and autocratic power on the national psychology [Stalinistic, old school philosophy] had resulted in corruption, non discipline, irresponsibility, and grassroots apathy, the same problems which had plagued Peter the Greats administration before the Swedish War in 1700. It was because the high officials think highly of themselves; they did what they can to be able to get money from the government. Corruption was rampant because of the kind of government that was ruling the country. This will lead to the disorientation of the country and eventually, its collapse. The lack of honest information, secrecy and propaganda led to the disorientation of the union members eventually, breaking up of the union. Lack of transparency in the government, secrecy and propaganda were rampant in the Soviet. When Gorbachev was appointed as the head of the state, he implemented the Glastnost which promoted openness, transparency and honesty. There was freedom of speech in the USSR. However, many radicals or hardliners was not in favor with this kind of system. Furthermore, the liberal press was allowed to grow and flourish in the USSR. But, in 1989, Glastnost broke free totally from his masters; it was used against its creator, Gorbachev. And as it grew, piece by piece the truth behind the Soviet was revealed to its people. The Soviet people became more and more angry because of what they are learning. Thus, government and people was at war which led to the dissociation of the government, then led to the collapse. The Soviet Union kept its existence out of this world. They had many enemies but no allies. The Soviet long before isolated themselves from the world. They didnt bother their international relations. What matters to them is their weapons. They built a massive army that eventually lost its foot hold. Cohen argued that the US attempted to isolate and contain Russia. The international and domestic policies that were implemented by Gorbachev opened the Soviet to the world that led to more weakening practices. Eventually, the Soviet was disoriented in many aspects that led to their demise. Glastnost (openness) and Perestroika (reconstruction): most famous policies of Gorbachev The Glastnost policy is the opening of the Soviet to transparency, honesty and freedom in the Soviet. It angered many radicals which led to a separation of ideals which is large. Furthermore, the Glastnost re-examined the history of the state and changed the very course of its history. Glastnost allowed the facts to be presented to the people. This information led to the anger of the masses. The Perestroika is an economic reform policy that Gorbachev implemented. The Soviet was experiencing two decades of economic stagnation, and Gorbachev saw that. He acted with the use of Perestroika. However, his insistence on slow gradual economic reforms annulled any positive effects that the reforms might have had. Graham said This reluctance to introduce meaningful free market reforms to the Soviet economy lost Gorbachev the support of the people. Those are the major issues that led to the dissociation of the Soviet Union. It can be observed that these are no simple things. The Soviet Union was in a state that was already reached it limits. It was not Gorbachevs fault that the state collapsed. He even made reforms to repair and refresh the government but these all failed because the Soviet is in a state where it is not inevitable to collapse. The collapse of the Soviet Society is inevitable because its basics are crude and not fitted in a world like ours. Its views on things are not the way things should be. Figuratively, the Soviet is living in a world of fantasy. They did not want other countries to share in their pains. They want to be isolated however, it is not a plausible thing to do. Thus, the collapse of the Soviet Union is definitely inevitable, it cannot be stopped or averted.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy :: Psychology, Depression, Mental Disorder

Introduction This essay aims to critically evaluate one therapeutic intervention in psychology, named, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). It begins with defining CBT and discussing the underlying principles and concepts of this approach. Some examples of treating psychological disorders by employing a CBT approach in children and adolescents will be made and then, It will move on to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this therapeutic intervention. The review will be finished by a conclusion regarding employing such approach. What is CBT? Modern CBT has been influenced by two major therapeutic approaches: firstly, ‘Behaviour Therapy’ as developed by Wolpe and others in 1950s and 1960s; and secondly, ‘Cognitive Therapy’ which was developed by A.T. Beck in the 1960s. As defined by Emery & Tracy (1987), CBT is â€Å"a series of strategies that relieve psychological suffering by correcting distorted and maladaptive thinking. The therapy is based on a theory of psychopathology that recognises the reciprocal interrelationship among the cognitive, behavioural, somatic and emotional systems†. Although CBT is often referred to as a unitary treatment, it is actually a diverse collection of complex and subtle interventions that must each be mastered and understood from the social learning perspective (Reinecke, Dattilio, & Freeman, 2003). According to Graham (2005), CBT aims to change a patient’s unhealthy behaviour through examining assumptions behind the thought patterns (cognitive restruction) and also through using behaviour therapy techniques. In CBT, therapist and patient work with each other to identify the thoughts that may cause distress, and the therapist employs behavioural therapy techniques to modify the resulting behaviour. It aims to address patients’ certain fundamental core beliefs (schemas) that lead to negative influences on their behaviour and functioning (Rufer et al, 2000). CBT is the treatment option for some mental disorders, such as depression, dissociative identity disorder, eating disorders, generalized anxiety disorder, hypochondriasis, insomnia, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and panic disorder without agoraphobia (Clark, 1986). In contrast, as Flannery-Schroeder & Kendall (2000) describe, CBT is an inappropriate treatment option for some patients. Patients with significant cognitive impairments (for example patients with traumatic brain injury or organic brain disease) and individuals who are not willing to take an active role in the therapy and treatment process are not desirable candidates. Principles of CBT: The cognitive principle: the core idea of the cognitive element of CBT is based on looking at different interpretations which people make of events (Graham, 2005). It basically highlights that when two people react differently in a situation, it is because they feel and see the event differently and gives different ‘meaning’ to it.

Poem Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night :: Dyland Thomas

In the poem "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," written by Dylan Thomas, emphasizes resistance towards death as he repeats this exhortation in the last line in every stanza. Imagery is used by Thomas to create the theme of his poem and what it means. Although readers are unaware of the details behind the on coming death of Thomas father, the motives of the author for writing this poem are very obvious. Thomas intends to pursuit his father to resist against death and for him to fight for life. Through "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," Thomas conveys resistance towards death with images of fury and fighting to symbolize the great anger and rage Thomas feels towards the thought of loosing his dying father, though upon first reading then seem banal. Initially, Thomas uses images of fury and fighting in the lines "do not go gentle", "good night" and "dying of the light" to emphasize the resistance towards death. With these images, Thomas conveys death as the end and where darkness prevails. He takes his stand within concrete, particular existence. He places birth and death at the poles of his vision. Excessive images of anger and rage towards death exemplify the passion Thomas feels for life. Secondly, Thomas brings into action images of "burn" and "rave at close of day" to show and emphasize the resistance towards death. Contrasting images of light and darkness in the poem create warmth of living and the coldness of death, so as to discourage people from choosing the dreary, bitter frigidity of death. In addition, Thomas uses images of " wise men" and " grave men [who] have not used their blinding sight" to tell his dying father that all men smart or ignorant, need to resistance towards death.

Television is a Hallucination :: television TV

Television is only possible because this disintegration, reconfiguration, contraction (i.e., compression), and extension of visual sensory experience occurs during dreams. Accordingly, both television viewing and dreams may be said to include (or involve) reduced ability to think, anxiety, and increased distractibility. Television thus compels attention, as it is compelled in the dream, but it is an unnatural and hallucinatory experience. Hence, television is addictive. Similar to the visual experience while dreaming, television compels attention to the relative exclusion of other experience. Television reduces consciousness and results in a flattening of the visual experience as a result of combining waking visual experience with relatively unconscious visual experience. Television involves the experience of what is less animate, for it involves a significant reduction in (or loss of) visual experience. This disintegration of the visual experience (as in the dream) also results in a n emotional disintegration (i.e., anxiety). That television may be so described (and even possible) is hard to imagine, but this is consistent with the fact that it took so very many different minds (and thoughts) of genius in order to make the relatively unconscious visual experience of the dream conscious. Since the thinking that is involved in making the experience of television possible is so enormously difficult, it becomes difficult to think while partaking of that experience. Television may be seen as an accelerated form or experience of art, thereby making someone less wary (or less anxious) initially, but less creative and more anxious (as time passes) as the advance of the self becomes unsustainable. The experience (or effects) of television demonstrates the interactive nature of being and experience, for, in the dream, there is also a reduction in the totality (or extensiveness) of experience. Thought involves a relative reduction in the range and extensiveness of feeling. In keeping with this, dreams make thought more like sensory experience in general. Accordingly, both thought and also the range and extensiveness of feeling are proportionately reduced in the dream. (This reduction in the range and extensiveness of feeling during dreams is consistent with the fact that the experience of smell very rarely occurs therein.) Since there is a proportionate reduction of both thought and feeling during dreams, the experience of the body is generally (or significantly) lacking, for thought is fundamentally rendered more like sensory experience in general. Thoughts and emotions are differentiated feelings. By involving the mid-range of feeling between thought and sense, dreams make thought more like sensory experience in general.

Neoclassical Literature Essay

The eighteenth-century England is also known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason. The Enlightenment Movement was a progressive intellectual movement which flourished In France and swept through the whole Western Europe at the time. the movement was a furtherance of the Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Its purpose was to enlighten the whole world with the light of modern philosophical and artistic ideas. The enlighteners celebrated reason or rationality, equality and science. They held that rationality or reason should be the only, the final cause of any human thought and activities. They called for a reference to order, reason and rules. They believed that when reason served as the yardstick for the measurement of all human activities and relations, every superstition, injustice and oppression was to yield place to â€Å"eternal truth,† â€Å"eternal justice† and â€Å"natural equality. † The belief provided theory for the French Revolution of 1789 and the American War of Independence in 1776. At the same time, the enlighteners advocated universal education. They believed that human being were limited, dualistic, imperfect, and yet capable of rationality and perfection through education. If the masses were well educated, they thought, there would be great chance for a democratic and equal human society. As a matter of fact, literature at the time, heavily didactic and moralizing, became a very popular means of public education. Famous among the great enlighteners in England were those great writers like John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele, the two pioneers of familiar essays, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Henry Fielding and Samuel Johnson. In the field of literature, the Enlightenment Movement brought about a revival of interest in the old classical works. This tendency is known as neoclassicism. According to the neoclassicists, all forms of literature were to be modeled after the classical works of the ancient Greek and Roman writers and those of the contemporary French ones. They believed that the artistic ideals should be order, logic, restrained emotion and accuracy, and that literature should be judged in terms of its service to humanity. This belief led them to seek proportion, unity, harmony and grace in literary expressions, in an effort to delight, instruct and correct human beings, primarily as social animals. Thus a polite, urbane, witty, and intellectual art developed. Neoclassicists had some fixed laws and rules for almost every genre of literature. Prose should be precise, direct, smooth and flexible. Poetry should be lyrical, epical, didactic, satiric or dramatic, and each class should be guided b its own principles. Drama should be written in the Heroic Couplets (iambic pentameter rhymed in two lines); regularity in construction should be adhered to, and type characters rather than individuals should be represented. John Bunyan Like most working men at the time, Bunyan had a deep hatred for the corrupted, hypocritical rich who accumulated their wealth â€Å"by hook and b crook. † As a stout Puritan, he had made a conscientious study of the Bible and firmly believed in salvation through spiritual struggle. It was during his second term in prison that he wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress, which was published in 1678 after his release. Bunyan’s style was modeled after that of the English Bible. With his concrete and living language and carefully observed and vividly presented details, he made it possible for the reader of the least education to share the pleasure of reading his novel and to relive the experience of his characters. Bunyan’s other works include Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666), The Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1680), The Holy War (1682) and The Pilgrim’s Progress, Part II (1684) As Milton was the chief Puritan poet, so Bunyan was the chief Puritan writer of Prose. Bunyan was born in a tinker’s family, and he himself was a tinker. He did not have much education and at sixteen he joined the parliamentary army and then became a preacher. Like Milton he was put into prison in the period of the Restoration, but remained there much longer. He might have written his work The Pilgrim’s Progress in prison although it was published in prison although it was published in 1678 after his release. The Pilgrim’s Progress is written in the old fashioned medieval form of allegory and drama. The book opens with the author’s dream in which he sees a man â€Å"with a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back†. The man is Christian the Pilgrim, the book is the Bible, and the burden on his back is the weight of worldly cares and concerns. It tells how Christian starts his pilgrimage from his home to the kingdom of Heaven, and of his experiences and adventures on his journey. In the western world the book has usually been read and appreciated as religious allegory, though critics have noted that the many allegorical figures and places Christian meets on the way are such as might have been seen in Bunyan’s day on any English market road and that the landscape and houses in the story seem to be no other than those of Restoration England. It gives a real picture of how life was during the 17th century. It is a faithful panoramic reflection of Bunyan’s age. The book’s most significant aspect is its satire, the description of the Vanity Fair. Here Bunyan gives a symbolic picture of London at the time. in bourgeois society, all things are bought and sold, including honour, title, kingdom, lusts; there cheating, roguery, murder, and adultery prevail. The punishment of Christian and Faithful for disdaining things in the Vanity Fair may have its significance in alluding to Bunyan’s repeated arrests and imprisonment for preaching. After all, like Milton, Bunyan in his book is preaching his religious views. He satirizes his society which is full of vices that violate the teachings of the Christian religion. However, his Puritanism weakens the effect of his social satire by exhorting his readers to endure poverty with patience in order to seek the â€Å"Celestial City†. Besides, the use of allegory in most of his works makes his satirical pictures less direct and more difficult to see. His books are more often read as religious books than as piercing exposures of social evils. Bynyan is known for his simple and lively prose style. Everyday idiomatic expressions and biblical language enables him to narrate his story and reveal his ideas directly and in a straightforward way. The influence of his prose in the development of the English language is great, on account of the great popularity of the book. Selected Reading: â€Å"The Vanity Fair,† an excerpt from Part I of The Pilgrim’s Progress The story starts with a dream in which the author sees Christian the Pilgrim, with a heavy burden on his back, reading the Bible. When he learns from the book that the city in which he and his family live shall be burnt down in a fire, Christian tries to convince his family and his neighbours of the oncoming disaster and asks them to go with him in search of salvation, but most of them simply ignore him. So he starts off with a friend, Pliable. Pliable turns back after they stumble into a pit, the Slough of Despond. Christian struggles on by himself. Then he is misled by Mr. Worldly Wiseman and is brought back onto the right road by Mr. Evangelist. There he joins Faithful, a neighbor who has set out later but has made better progress. The two go on together through many adventures, including the great struggle with Apollyon, who claims them to be his subjects and refuses to accept their allegiance to God. After many other adventures they come to the Vanity Fair where both are arrested as alien agitators. They are tried and Faithful is condemned to death. Christian, however, manages to escape and goes on his way, assisted by a new friend, hopeful. Tired of the hard journey, they are tempted to take a pleasant path and are then captured by Giant Despair. Finally they get away and reach the Celestial City, where they enjoy eternal life in the fellowship of the blessed. The Pilgrim’s Progress is the most successful religious allegory in the English language. Its purpose is to urge people to abide by Christian doctrines and seek salvation through constant struggles with their own weaknesses and all kinds of social evils. It is not only about something spiritual but also bears much relevance to the time. Its predominant metaphor—life as a journey—is simple and familiar. The objects that Christian meets are homely and commonplace, and the scenes presented are typical English ones, but throughout the allegory a spiritual significance is added to the commonplace details. Here the strange is combined with the familiar and the trivial joined to the divine, and, at the same time, everything is based on universal experiences. Besides, a rich imagination and a natural talent for storytelling also contribute to the success of the work which is at once entertaining and morally instructive. The meaning of â€Å"Vanity Fair†, and its reflection of the theme of the allegory of â€Å"The Pilgrim’s Progress† The â€Å"Vanity Fair† symbolizes human world, for â€Å"all that cometh is vanity. † Everything and anything in this world is â€Å"vanity†, having no value and no meaning. The Vanity Fair, a â€Å"market selling nothingness† of all sorts, is a dirty place originally built up by devils, but, this town â€Å"lay† in the way to the Celestial City, meaning pilgrims had to resist the temptations there when they made their way through. So, the depiction of the â€Å"Fair† in selling things worldly and in attracting people bad, represents John Bunyan’s rejection of the worldly seeking and pious longing for the pure and charming â€Å"Celestial City†, his Christian ideal. Alexander Pope (1688-1744) Pope was a London draper’s son. His parents were Roman Catholics, and Pope kept this faith all his life in spite of the hostility of the public in the 18th century toward his religion. At the age of 12, a disease left him a hunchback of less than 5 feet tall. Because of his religion he was denied entrance to Oxford and Cambridge Universities and his deformity often made him the victim of contempt. His early unhappy experiences, in fact, was responsible for his strong reaction to criticism. Pope was self-educated. He worked hard against poor health and unfavourable condition and gained a profound knowledge of both the classics and the craft of writing. The 18th century was an age in which writers had to obey many strict literary rules. But Pope mastered them very thoroughly and used them better and in a more skillful way than most of his contemporaries. He lived an active social life and was close friend to such eminent literary figures as the essayist Joseph Addison and the satirist Jonathan Swift. But he also made many enemies through ridiculing people in his writings. The most popular of his poems is, perhaps, An Essay on criticism, which contains a great number of quotable lines that have passed into everyday speech as popular sayings, such as: â€Å"To err is human, to forgive divine†, and â€Å"For fools rush in where angels fear to tread. † However, as a piece of literary theory, it lacks original ideas. Its significance comes from its assertion that literary criticism is an art form and should function actively like a living organism. The Rape of the Lock is a brilliant satire written in the form of a mock-heroic poem. It offers a typical example of the 18th-century classical style, and a satirical view as well of the tastes, manners, and morals of the fashionable world in Queen Anne’s reign. In fact, Pope not only ridicules a trivial incident that sparks a serious feud, but also mocks the highflown style and language of epic poetry itself. The Dunciad, meaning the study of the dunces, launches attacks on everyone who had ever criticized or insulted him, many of whom are totally unknown to the readers of today The theme and style of A. Pope’s â€Å"An Essay on Criticism† The poem is a comprehensive study of the theories of literary criticism. The poet first laments the loss of true taste in poetic criticism of his day and calls on people to take classical writers as their models. Then he discusses various problems in literary criticism and offers his own ideas and presents the classical rules. At the end of the poem, he traces the history of literary criticism from Aristotle to his day. The poem is a typical didactic one. Written in the form of heroic couplets, it is plain in style, and it is easy to read. Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe is based on a real incident. In 1704, Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor, was thrown onto a desolate island by the mutinous crew of his ship. He lived there alone for 5 years. Defoe read about his adventures in a newspaper and went to interview him to get first-hand information. He then embellished the sailor’s tale with many incidents out of his own imagination. Robinson Crusoe has the appearance of a picaresque novel, showing a lowly person’s wonderings over the world. However, there are some fundamental changes in Defoe’s book. A picaro (Spanish for a rogue) is somebody with a doubtful moral character who does not have a fixed goal in life. Nor does he care much about accumulating money. Robinson Crusoe is in fact a new species of writing which inhabits the picaresque frame with a story in the shape of a journal and has a strong flavour of journalistic truth. The hero is typical the rising English bourgeois class, practical and diligent, with a restless curiosity to know more about the world and a desire to prove individual power in the face of social and natural challenges. Defoe attaches individual power in the face of social and natural challenges. Defoe attaches great importance to the growth of Crusoe and tries to teach a moral message through his story. crusoe starts an inexperienced, naive and tactless youth, who through years of tough sea travels, develops into a clever and hardened man. He is tempered and tried by numerous dangers and hardships, but always emerges victorious. He is a real hero, not in the sense of the knight or the epic hero in the old literary genres, but a hero of the common stock, an individualist who shows marvelous capacity for work, boundless courage and energy in overcoming obstacles and a shrewdness in accumulating wealth and gaining profits. In Robinson Crusoe sings the praises of labour, presenting it as the source of human pride and happiness as well as a means to change man’s living conditions from desperation to prosperity. But at the same time, through relationship with Friday and his activities of setting up colonies overseas, Defoe also beautifies colonialism and Negro slavery. His attitude toward women, though not much concerning women is said in the novel, is also open to criticisms, for he lets Crusoe treat women as articles of property and as a means to breed and establish a lineage. But on the whole, this novel is significant as the first English novel which glorifies the individual experience of ordinary people in plain and simple language, and also as a vivid and positive portrayal of the English bourgeoisie at its early stage of development. The novel â€Å"Robinson Crusoe† tells the story of the titular hero’s adventure on a deserted island. Robinson Crusoe, longing to see the wonders of the world, runs away from home, and after many setbacks, settles down in Brazil. The call of the sea attracts him to second voyage in which he is brought along to an island after the shipwreck in a storm through many hardships, he finds ways to get daily necessities from the wrecked ship to the shore, and settles on the island for twenty four years. During the years, he tries to make himself a living in one way or another, rescues a savage whom he names Friday, and builds up a comfortable home for himself. Finally they are picked up and saved by an English ship and return to England. With an inevitable trace of colonialism, the novel depicts a hero who grows from an inexperienced youth into a shrewd and hardened man. The adventures of Robinson Crusoe on the island is a song of his courage, his wisdom, and his struggle against the hostile natural environment. As the very prototype of empire builder and the pioneer colonist, Robinson Crusoe can be seen as an individualistic man who carries human labour and the Puritan fortitude to their greatest effect. Jonathan Swift In some ways Jonathan Swift’s career parallels that of Defoe. Both were considerably occupied in the dangerous career of political writers, and both affiated themselves to Robert Harley, first a Whig and turning the Tory in 1710. swift also followed Harley and shifted from the Whig to the Tory when the latter came to power in 1710. But they differed from each other in the fact that Defoe was a businessman and did not have much knowledge of the classics whereas Swift was a churchman and a university graduate. Another difference between the two was that Swift was a member of the Anglican Church whereas Defoe was a dissenter. Both of them viewed the world with common sense but Defoe aimed to improve the morals of his time, whereas Swift viewed himan society with contempt and has been called a cynic and even a misanthrope. â€Å"Gulliver’s Travels† Consisting of four parts, the novel tells four stories of the hero. In part One, the hero is in Lilliput where he becomes â€Å"Man Mountain†, for the inhabitants are only six inches tall, twelve times smaller than human beings. Yet, as a kind of â€Å"man† their sayings and doings forms a miniature of the real world. Part Two brings the hero to Brobdingnag. This time, he comes to dwarf, for the Brobdingnagians are ten times taller and larger than normal human beings. Also superior in wisdom, they look down upon the ordinary human beings for the latter’s evil or harmful doings. The third part depicts Gulliver’s travel on the flying Island where the so called philosophers and scientists devoted themselves to absurd doings, for example, to extract sunlight from cucumbers. The last part tells the hero’s adventure in the Houyhnhnm Land. There horses are endowed with reason and all good and admirable qualities, while the hairy, man-like creature, Yahoos are greedy and disgusting brutes. Henry Fielding During his career as a dramatist, Fielding had attempted a considerable number of forms of plays: witty comedies of manners or intrigues in the Restoration tradition, farces or ballad operas with political implications, and burlesques and satires that bear heavily upon the status-quo of England. Of all his plays, the best known are The Coffee-house Politician (1730), The Tragedy of Tragedies (1730), Pasquin (1736) and The Historical Register for the Year 1736 (1737). These successful plays not only contributed to a temporary revival of the English theatre but also were of great help to the playwright in his future literary career as a novelist. Fielding has been regarded by some as â€Å"Father of the English Novel,† for his contribution to the establishment of the form of the modern novel. Of all the eighteenth-century novelist he was the first to set out, both in theory and practice, to write specifically a â€Å"comic epic in prose,† the first to give the modern novel its structure and style. Before him, the relating of a story in a novel was either in the epistolary form (a series of letters), as in Richardson’s Pamela, or the picaresque form (adventurous wanderings) through the mouth of the principal character, as in Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, but Fielding adopted â€Å"the third-person narration,† in which the author becomes the â€Å"all-knowing God. † He â€Å"thinks the thought† of all his characters, so he is able to present not only their external behaviors but also the internal workings of their minds. In planning his stories, he tries to retain the grand epical form of the classical works but at the same time keeps faithful to his realistic presentation of common life as it is. Throughout, the ordinary and usually ridiculous life of the common people, from the middle-class to the underworld, is his major concern. Fielding’s language is easy, unlaboured and familiar, but extremely vivid and vigorous. His sentences are always distinguished by logic and rhythm, and his structure carefully planned towards an inevitable ending. His works are also noted for lively, dramatic dialogues and other theatrical devices such as suspense, coincidence and unexpectedness. Samuel Johnson Johnson was an energetic and versatile writer. He had a hand in all the different braches of literary activities. He was a poet, dramatist, prose romancer, biographer, essayist, critic, lexicographer and publicist. His chief works include poems: â€Å"London†, â€Å"The Vanity of Human Wishes†; a romance: â€Å"The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia; a tragedy: Irene. As a lexicographer, Johnson distinguished himself as the author of the first English dictionary by an Englishman—A dictionary of the English Language, a gigantic task which Johnson undertook single-handedly and finished in over seven years Johnson was the last great neoclassicist enlightener in the later eighteenth century. He was very much concerned the theme of the vanity of human wishes: almost all of his writings bear this theme. He tried to awaken men to this folly and hoped to cure them of it through his writings. In literary creation and criticism, he was rather conservative, openly showing his dislike for much of the newly rising form of literature and his fondness for those writings which carried a lot of moralizing and philosophizing. He insisted that a writer must adhere to universal truth and experience, i. e. Nature; he must please, but he must also instruct; he must not offend against religion or promote immorality; and he must let himself be guided by old principles. Like Pope, he was particularly fond of moralizing didacticism. So, it is understandable that he was rather pleased with Richardson’s Pamela but was contemptuous of Fielding’ Tom Jones. Johnson’s style is typically neoclassical, but it is at the opposite extreme from Swift’s simplicity or Addison’s neatness. His language is characteristically general, often Latinate and frequently polysyllabic his sentences are long and well structured, interwoven with paralled words and phrases. However, no matter how complex his sentences are, the thought is always clearly expressed; and though he tends to use â€Å"learned words,† they are always accurately used. Reading his works gives the reader the impression that he is talking with a very learned man. â€Å"To the Right Honorable the Earl of Chesterfield† The letter is regarded as a strong indignation of Samuel Johnson at the Earl’s fame-fishing, for the later coldly refused giving him help when he compiled his dictionary and hypocritically wrote articles to give honeyed words when the dictionary was going to be published. The Earl was a well-known â€Å"patron of literature† at the time, and it remained a rule for writers to get a patron if they wanted to get financial support or make themselves known by public. But this letter of Johnson made a break-through in that tradition implying their independence in economy and writing, and therefore opened a new era in the development of literature. Richard Brinsley Sheridan Sheridan was the only important English dramatist of the eighteenth century. His plays, especially The Rivals and The School for Scandal, are generally regarded as important links between the masterpieces of Shakespeare and those of Bernard Shaw, and as true classics in English comedy. In his plays, morality is the constant theme. He is much concerned with the current moral issues and lashes harshly at the social vices of the day. In The Rivals, a comedy of manners, he is satirizing the traditional practice of the parents to arrange marriages for their children without considering the latter’s opinion. And in The School for Scandal, the satire becomes even sharper as the characters are exposed scene by scene to their defenseless nakedness. Sheridan’s greatness also lies in his theatrical art. He seems to have inherited from his parents a natural ability and inborn knowledge about the theatre. His plays are the product of a dramatic genius as well as of a well-versed theatrical man. Though his dramatic techniques are largely conventional, they are exploited to the best advantage. His plots are well organized, his characters, either major or minor, are all sharply drawn, and his manipulation of such devices as disguise, mistaken identity and dramatic irony is masterly. Witty dialogues and neat and decent language also make a characteristic of his plays. The School for Scandal The comedy of manners, written by R. B. Sheridan, mainly tells a story about two brothers. The elder one Joseph Surface is hypocritical, and the younger one Charles Surface kind, imprudent and spendthrift. Lady Sneerwell, one of the scandal-mongers in the play, instigates Joseph to run after Maria, the ward of Sir Peter. But, Joseph, while pursuing Maria, the love of his younger brother, tries to seduce Lady Teazle, the young wife of Sir Peter. Misled by the scandal of Lady Sneerwell and Joseph, Sir Peter Teazle believed Charles was the person who flirted with his wife until one day, Lady Teazle, coming from the screen in Joseph’s library, made the truth known that person who intended to seduce her was Joseph. Thus, the latter’s hypocrisy was exposed. At the same time, Sir Oliver Surface, the rich, old uncle of the two brothers, wanted to choose one of them to be his heir. He first visited Charles in the guise of a usurer. Charles sold to him all the family portraits except that of his uncle, and thus won the favor of his uncle. Then he went to Joseph as a poor relative. But Joseph refused giving him any help by saying that he himself was in trouble. For a second time, Joseph’s hypocrisy was exposed. The play ends with Lady Teazle’s reconciliation with her husband and Charles’ winning of the hand of Maria and the inheritance of his uncle. Thomas Gray Although neoclassicism dominated the literary scene in the 18th century, there were poets whose poetry had some elements that deviated from the rules and regulations set down by neoclassicist poets. These poets had grown weary of the artificiality and controlling ideals of neoclassicism. They craved for something more natural and spontaneous in thought and language. In their poetry, emotions and sentiments, which had been repressed, began to play a leading role again. Another factor marking this deviation is the reawakening of an interest in nature and in the natural relation between man and man. Among these poets, one of the representatives was Thomas Gray. Gray was born in London and educated at Eton and Cambridge, where he, after a grand tour on the Continent, spent the rest of his life. He was first a Fellow and 1768 was appointed professor of history and modern languages. On his return from the Continent, he stayed for a short time at Stoke Poges in Bucks, where he first sketched â€Å" The Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard†, though it was finished eight years later in 1750. In contrast to those professional writers, Gray’s literary output was small. His masterpiece, â€Å"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard† was published in 1751. the poem once and for all established his fame as the leader of the sentimental poetry of the day, especially â€Å"the Graveyard School. † His poems, as a whole, are mostly devoted to a sentimental lamentation or meditation on life, past and present. His other poems include â€Å"Ode on the spring† (1742), â€Å"Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College† (1747), â€Å"Ode on the death of a Favourite Cat† (1748), â€Å"Hymn to Adversity† (1742), and two translations for old Norse: The Descent of Odin (1761) and The Fatal Sisters (1761) A conscientious artist of the first rate, Gray wrote slowly and carefully, painstakingly seeking perfection of form and phrase. His poems are characterized by an exquisite sense of form. His style is sophisticated and allusive. His poems are often marked with the trait of a highly artificial diction and distorted word order. Selected Reading: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard â€Å"Elegy written in a Country Churchyard† is regarded as Gray’s best and most representative work. The poem is the outcome of about eight years’ careful composition and polish. It is more or less connected with the melancholy event of the death of Richard West, Gray’s intimate friend. In this poem, Gray reflects on death, the sorrow of life, and the mysteries of human life with a touch of his personal melancholy. The poet compares the common folk with the great ones, wondering what the commons could have achieved if they had had the chance. Here he reveals his sympathy for the poor and the unknown, but mocks the great ones who despise the poor and bring havoc on them. The poem abounds in images and arouses sentiment in the bosom of every reader. Though the use of artificial poetic diction and distorted word order make understanding of the poem somewhat difficult, the artistic polish—the sure control of language, imagery, rhythm, and subtle moderation of style and tone—gives the poem a unique charm of its own. The poem has been ranked among the best of the eighteenth century English poetry. Selected Reading: Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard