power struggles in society essays

power struggles in society essays Mills, Schudson, and Gitlin show different approaches to society and the role of mass media. Each approach helps illustrate a different focus on society. They each hold special relevance in a discussion of the history of societal beliefs. The Mass Society refers to the overall belief C. Wright Mills held in relation to the type of society he believed we live in. Mills began The Power Elite with a bold statement saying, "The powers of ordinary men are circumscribed by the everyday words in which they live, yet even in these rounds of job, family, and neighborhood they often seem driven by forces they can neither understand nor govern" (Mills, 1956, p.3). This opening sentence helps describe the attitude and beliefs of the entire book. A "power elite" exists in a society that is made up of three spheres. They are divided into economy, political, and military, with the same group of people interchanging between the three. This large group of elite is at the top making all the decisions, while the masses are at the bottom, unaware of the process that molds public opinion. Masses within this view of society are irrelevant and do not have any type of influence. The media functions as an entertainment source, keeping the masses entertained while the elite is taking care of all the important matters. It helps keep the reality and truth of the world obscured from the masses. Mills explained what the media does for the masses as "they distract him and obscure his chance to understand himself or his world, by fastening his attention upon artificial frenzies that are revolved within the program framework, usually by violent action or by what is called humor" (Mills, p.315). This helps illuminate how the mass media guides, tries to control, and manipulates the masses. Mills describes the effect of mass media as "a sort of psychological illiteracy" to the extent that we "often do not believe what we see before us until we read ab...

The Effects of Overcrowding on Tokyo City Essay

The Effects of Overcrowding on Tokyo City - Essay Example Overcrowding has had many negative effects on Japanese over the years. It has caused severe indirect and direct health risks to all sections of the population, especially the young children, elderly, and the disabled. It has led to insufficient aeration in homes leading to or exacerbating respiratory illness like Asthma. In addition, overcrowding has aggravated health hazard s linked to deprived and inadequate water supply and poor systems for hygiene. This is mainly because there has been inadequate fresh water for sewage treatment as well as for consumption in Tokyo due to an increase in human population. Consequently, the demand for fresh water is high than the supply due to overcrowding. Overcrowding has also led to lack of space directly affecting the psychological well being and physical development of the disabled in the society. Disabled people require enough space to move about from one place to another as wheel chairs and other objects aid them. Lack of adequate space due t o overcrowding makes it difficult for people to move from a point to the other. In addition, disabled people require enough space for their exercises in order for them to be more flexible. In addition, overcrowding has contributed to extensive social problems. It has made it hard for women to access economic and social resources by augmenting their responsibilities at home. A significant number of women in Tokyo are left at home taking care of their children and household chores making it difficult for them to have time for these resources. Overcrowding has also led to increased levels of air pollution, noise pollution, and soil contamination. There has also been a reduction of natural resources, particularly fossils fuels.

Organisational Learning and Knowledge Management at General Electric Essay

Organisational Learning and Knowledge Management at General Electric - Essay Example This is much higher than the industry average, due largely to the knowledge management systems in place at this multi-national enterprise. General Electric is a top-down, centralized management hierarchy with divisional management reporting to executive leadership at company headquarters, led by Chairman Jeffrey Immelt. In order to establish appropriate cost control and generalized leadership controls, the company requires this centralized organizational structure due to the interdependence between all divisions and the high volume of employees at GE. The centralized nature of General Electric somewhat confounds the traditionalist viewpoint of knowledge management systems, as it is generally recognised that in order to effectively manage knowledge, employees must be more interactive in decision-making through autonomous learning and job role functioning (Davenport, Jarvenpaa, and Beers, 1996; Swan, Scarbrough and Robertson, 2002). The centralized structure of General Electric is what prompted analysis of this particular business case as it defies the argument that a decentralized structure ensures more efficient knowledge management processes. In order to manage knowledge and promote organizational learning, GE relies on technology, experiential learning processes, the SECI model promoted by Nonaka, and bounded rationality as key approaches to facilitate KM practices. GE is governed by leadership that understands the complexities of multi-national business operations. Offers Jack Welch, previous CEO of GE, â€Å"you can’t manage what you can’t measure† (Seymour 2008: 28). Time constraints, the practical market environment and its unpredictability in certain markets, and the differing cultural dimensions of diverse employee populations create difficulty in creating concrete and time-sensitive decisions without recognizing the boundaries associated with rational decision-making. Thus, GE’s approach to knowledge management is based on p racticality rather than ideology which drives aspects of its cultural development focus and short-term business objective planning. This report highlights the knowledge management and learning practices at GE with a focus on the systems in place to promote such activities. GE cultures, systems, structure, and practices General Electric follows the SECI model which focuses on the relationship between socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization. Despite its centralized hierarchy, General Electric prides itself on its commitment to building positive interpersonal relationships between management and employees, building a culture of innovation, cooperation, team work, and loyalty. Thus, against the SECI model, GE is most closely focused on socialization in order to effectively manage knowledge and promote organizational learning. The knowledge that resides within GE is largely tacit, this being the knowledge that is largely intangible and attached closely to individ ual implicit expertise (Dinur 2011).

The Effects of Internet Addiction Essay Example for Free

The Effects of Internet Addiction Essay The Effects of Internet Addiction As we are living in a digital world, many people spend too much time using the Internet, and it is terrible to see more than 15 percent of people spend more than 11 hours a week using the Internet in different ways. However, do you want to have many health problems or social problems because of the Internet? As you know, being an introvert person, having sleeplessness, and getting sore eyes are the three common effects of Internet addiction. Being an introvert person is one way to affect your life negatively because of the Internet addiction. Many people believe that spending too much time in front of the monitor can separate them from other people, and make them feel introvert, shy, and unsocial person. In addition to that, if the parents spend a lot of time using the Internet, they children will learn to do the same. Consequently, the children will be addictive as same as their parents, and that is really so bad for children and adults too. Having insomnia is yet another reason of Internet addiction. Since people stay many times searching the websites, chatting with their friends, and doing many things online, so they will get used to sleep late every night, which is too bad for their health. For example, if we used to watch online movies at night, especially the horror movies, we would be scared and feel that we do not want to sleep, which is leading to insomnia. Getting eyes inflammation is one more reason of exaggeration to use the Internet. For instance, when you spend more than 11 hours a week looking at the computer screen, your family will tell you that your eyes become reddish. Due to the Internet addiction and its disadvantages at our eyes, most of ophthalmologists say that we have to reduce of exposure our eyes to computer screens. Furthermore, do you want to have ugly eyes because of the Internet? In conclusion, it is clearly noted that being introvert, having lack of sleep at night, and getting eyes problems are enough effects to stop addictive at the Internet, and use it in balance way for significant reasons only.

lord of the flies :: essays research papers

Lord of the Flies Imagine yourself lost on an island with three other people you barely even know. In are eyes this is a scary feeling when all think about ever seening yourself in a situation like this. While unfortunely this can happen not to us but to somebody else. In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding are numbers of boys who are under twelve years old stuck on an island after a plans crash. In the story there are four main characters name Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon who are the oldest of the boys. On the island there are many conflicts. In the beginning Ralph was the leader and everyone had a job they were responsible and keep up until they were rescue. Many of the boys start to lack off especially Jack’s who was in charge of hunting. Ralph and Jack never saw eye to eye during the novel because Jack at the same wanted to be leader of his own tribe. Besides all the chaos within the group there are three major symbols that conch shell, Piggy’s glasses and the fire that ha d everyone’s attention and also savage each other on the island. Conch shell At the start of the novel Piggy and Ralph both discover this conch shell. The conch shell is the most powerful symbol on the island. The conch shell symbolized to bring the boys together to discuss their meetings on the island. At the meetings who ever has the conch shell in there hands they have the right to speak quote "We can't have everybody talking at once. We'll have to have 'Hands up' like at school."(page 33) With the to help the group hunt for food, build shelters, and find any empty areas were they can have a restroom at and to survive on the island. All boys had a jobs and they had to keep to up by Ralph’s orders. From the start all boys respect the conch and fellow the rules of the island accept for Jack who believe at the beginning he should the new leader and that Ralph was a weak leader. Later Jack begin to ignore Ralph’s orders and at ever meeting Jack always going against Ralph’s word and he eventually leaves the group. After Jack leave s the group Ralph slowly loses respect from another boys. Around this time Jack begin to start his own tribe, which made many of the boys seek away from Ralph’s camp.

Is war ever justified

Wars can be justified through the utilitarian theory and cost benefit analysis. These are dependent on whether the intention of the war is right and the cause for the war is just. Further, wars are only justified when other forms of conflict management have been tried and have failed. There are many types of war, however this essay will focus on military war in particular. Utility Theory and Just War The theory of utility is one way to justify war. The utilitarian approach is defined as the pursuit of the greatest good of society for the greatest number f people in society. There are two branches of utility theory – act and rule.Act utilitarianism looks closely at the Consequences of the act Of war in order to justify engaging in war. Rule utilitarianism will only condone war when the reason for entering a war is just in itself, is based on good intentions and not for selfish reasons. In essence, act utilitarianism can be summarized as the ends justifying the means, while rule utilitarianism can be summarized as genuine intentions justifying the means. For instance, the Allied Forces declaring war on Germany's invasion of their gibbous as well as on their anti-Semitic activities is an example of utilitarianism in action.The declaration of war was to prevent further harm to the world even if it did mean a significant loss to the Allied Forces by engaging in such actions. The end of the German terror as well as the protection Of the persecuted justified the means through which this was achieved. The distinction between act and rule utilitarianism while easily distinguishable in theory, is much harder to apply in real life. The example given above can be categorized under both types of utility theory. The protection of a large persecuted number of people justified entering into war against the anti- Semitic administration in Germany.Viewing it in this manner allows rule utilitarianism to come into play. At the same time, looking at the consequences of war - ? which would be the saving of not only Jews, but also the prevention of invasion of other countries in Europe allows act utilitarianism to justify the Allied Forces declaration on war on Nazi Germany. Utility theory does run the risk of being manipulated and abused and has been used by terrorists and Islamic fundamentalists to justify the use of rower and force for â€Å"jihad† or what they call, â€Å"holy war†.However, it must be noted that utility theory condones war only if it causes the greatest good for the greatest number of society. Even if â€Å"jihad† is considered to be the greatest good, it is only from the perspective of a select few people with biased opinions. Hence, a terrorist's justification of war via utility theory cannot be said to be a true justification at all. Be it act or rule utilitarianism, so long as the ends result in the greatest good for the largest number of people in society and are made with the best intentions in mind, war is justified.Cost-benefit Analysis and Just War The benefits should outweigh the costs in order to justify engaging in war. Cost-benefit analysis is a way of weighing the strengths and weaknesses of alternatives. It helps us determine whether an approach was worth the adoption and practice in terms of benefits in labor, time, Cost savings and so on. It is largely considered an economic analysis and is an approach that can be taken when determining whether a war is justified because of the high socio-economic costs involved in war.A good way to go about analyzing this would be to look at a case study of the Iraq war. The Gulf war resulted in 220,000 Iraqi casualties and a few hundred thousand wounded Iraqis. The costs of war amounted to 6 trillion US dollars. These numbers are neither small nor insignificant. The benefits, however, are the exact opposite. As far as tangible benefits go, the Iraqi economy saw a slight growth in its GAP since the end of the war. Part of this, is a windfal l due to high oil prices but if the war had not taken place, oil sanctions imposed on Iraq would have severely curtailed Iraqi oil sale.This would have further crushed the already dying economy pre-war. Of course, since Cost-Benefit analysis is primarily economic in nature, on paper, the growth in Iraq's GAP is touted by pro-war candidates as being worth the effort. However it would be ridiculous to imagine that Iraq's economy would have grown enough to cover the costs of war even, much less to actually grow enough to recover and sustain the country post-war. Further, as cost-benefit analysis also should include some elements of intangibility, one must take note Of the accessory costs that came along with the war.Besides the devastation and disease that struck Iraq, neighbors Iran also saw acceleration in its nuclear programmed because it saw that as the only way to prevent an imminent US invasion. This is not good for the global economy because it makes the Middle East a very dange rous place. Further, there is a high continuing rate of violence in Iraq because society sees it as the only form of protection for them. Of course, regime change and the demise of Sadism Hussein must be considered in the benefit analysis but despite that, Iraq is still in shambles -? both economically as well as socially.Overall, a cost-benefit analysis allows us another opportunity to evaluate a war and to decide if it can be justified. In the example of Iraq, we can see how it can be used to prove that it cannot be justified. Counter argument However, despite these two analytical methods of justifying war, they come with a caveat. The caveat being that they are only used to justify war when negotiations have failed between parties; all peaceful methods have been already exhausted and war is the final and only option available to them. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.Many a time, countries prepare for war while negotiations are ongoing. Worse still, they may not even en gage in any peaceful forms of collaboration or settlement at all. The notions of war always remain at the back of countries' minds. The Cold War may seem like a successful instance where there were no missiles or bombs unloaded on either the USSR or the US. However, there was a war nonetheless and a war which lasted 30 years. Despite supposed ‘peaceful' negotiations between the two superpowers, the thought of missile warfare was always at the back of their minds.It would not be far-fetched to imagine that this severely impacted the success Of their discussions. One cannot fully and calmly negotiate with a finger on the trigger. It was merely a combination of luck, timing and the right set of leaders that prevented the outbreak of a disastrous third world war. Conclusion War can be justified through two methods – utility theory and cost-benefit analysis. These allow an intangible and tangible account of the ways in which a war can be explained as being necessary.

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