Biblical Rhythm Essay -- essays research papers

Biblical Influences on Cry, the Beloved Country or: Cry, the Beloved Country: Like the Bible but Shorter To anyone and everyone: This is one of the great books! It reads like a lovely poem. Enjoy and reflect.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  --unknown lawyer from Chicago The owner of the South Haven, Michigan bookstore The Hidden Room discovered this simple yet memorable comment written firmly on a memo card of a noted Chicago legal firm. The card was left in a copy of Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country. From his early childhood, Paton was a lover of language and a devout Christian. As he grew into a masterful poet, writer, and orator, his passions remained with him, a constant influence on his works. This is especially evident in Cry, the Beloved Country, Paton’s first and most highly esteemed novel. Cry, the Beloved Country is the story of Stephen Kumalo, an elderly black parson in a small poverty- and drought-plagued tribal village in the racially torn country of South Africa. He undertakes a journey to the corrupt, terror-ridden city of Johannesburg where he searches, both physically and emotionally, for his son Absalom, as well as his old way of life. From Paton’s use of rhythm to the names he chose for his characters, st rong Biblical influence is apparent throughout the novel. Though Paton incorporates several different oratorical styles in Cry, the Beloved County, the style of the book as a whole is frequen...

On Civil Liberties and the Redefinition of Freedom

An appreciation of the civil liberties and basic freedoms enjoyed by the American individual, according to Eric Foner, would be impossible without a knowledge of how the American people—generation after generation—struggled to define and demarcate the boundaries of freedom and liberty.In â€Å"The Story of American Freedom,† Foner (2002) successfully applies a mà ©lange of analytical framework ranging from structural analysis, marxist dialectical and historical materialism; to feminist and postmodern criticism to prove that â€Å"freedom has always been a terrain of conflict, subject to multiple and competing interpretations.† By analyzing freedom from a historical narrative, he aims to show â€Å"how at different periods of American history different ideas of freedom have been conceived and implemented, and how the clash between dominant and dissenting views has constantly reshaped the idea’s meaning.’’ And because of this, the disc ourse of American civil liberties—borne from the American people’s love affair with the idea of freedom—will only gain relevance by identifying the â€Å"the meanings of freedom; the social conditions that make it possible; and the boundaries of freedom — the definition, that is, of who is entitled to enjoy it (Foner, 2002).†Ã¢â‚¬Å"The Birth of Civil Liberties†Indeed, the notions of civil liberties in a given society are necessarily intertwined with its cherished concept of freedom. In the book’s eight chapter, entitled â€Å"The Birth of Civil Liberties,† Foner shows that the inception of the idea of civil liberties was the outcome of the tumultuous events and crisis prior and after the World War I: the United States’ participation in the war, the   paranoia produced by the emergence of Socialist Russia, and the Great Depression following shortly after the war ended. It was at this period, with the widespread poverty a midst the growth of the United States as a major Capitalist economy; and Progressivists’ disenchantment with the illusions of state benevolence after the whole scale arrest of left-wing intellectuals, that the paradigm shift from the dominant â€Å"freedom from† into â€Å"freedom to† occurred. The ideas of social scientists as Herbert Croly, John Dewey, and William Willoughby, formed the basis of the new definition of freedom as one that does not only protect the individual from aggression, but one that actually permitted him to do things. Foner (2002) narrates the ensuing contradiction between the dominant progressivism and the emerging modern liberalism:â€Å"Effective freedom,’ wrote John Dewey, who pondered the question from the 1890s until his death in 1952, was far different from the ‘highly formal and limited concept of liberty’ as a preexisting possession of autonomous individuals that needed to be protected from outside restraint.à ¢â‚¬ For effective freedom to crystallize, it was realized,   certain conditions first had to be met. Human beings (at this stage meaning White Men), for instance, though â€Å"by nature† imbued with the freedom to live comfortably, could not do so if they were impoverished. Freedom therefore required that a human being be economically secure, which meant that unemployment and starvation were seen as infringements to freedom.â€Å"The New Deal and the Redefinition of Freedom†By the 1930’s, the belief that economic security was a critical condition for exercising individual freedoms had gained significant acceptance. This is reflected in the way that the state, led by then Pres. Roosevelt,   implemented the New Deal from 1933-37, the pre-cursor of the establishment of welfare in the United States which implemented â€Å"relief,† â€Å"reform,† and â€Å"recovery† by intervening in the market and granting the demands of groups from a vari ety of the political spectrum. Seeking to cushion the impact of the Great Depression on the starving and unemployed majority of the American people, as well as pacify the restless from succumbing to socialist ideology, the New Deal showed the transformation of progressivism into modern liberalism, which espoused Keynesian economic models and personal freedom based on the four Rs: freedom of speech, freedom to worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.Fighting for FreedomAnd so it is with the rhetoric of freedom that the United States would camouflage its interests in going to the Second World War and in declaring the cold war against the socialist bloc of the USSR. Noting the irony when Pres. Roosevelt promises the world a Global New Deal based on the four freedoms while declaring its participation in the war,   Foner echoes   Dewey’s lament when he wrote in â€Å"The Meaning of Freedom in the Age of Emancipation† that:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"in our own time, we have wi tnessed the putative division of the planet into free and non-free worlds (with the former including many nations that might be seen as lacking in freedom) invoked to justify violations of individual liberties at home and interference with the right to self determination (Foner, 1994)†This startling realization, that â€Å"American freedom has been both a reality and a mythical ideal — a living truth for millions of Americans; a cruel mockery for others,†Ã‚  influenced the formation of racial, gender, ethnicity, and class-based reform and radical abolitionist movements whose basic slogan was that of equality and the recognition of marginalized groups, such as those for the citizenship of the Blacks, women’s suffrage in the 1960s, and the people’s right to state-sponsored provision of social services in the 1930s. Foner describes the development of emergent concepts of freedom in   the 20th century which tested and challenged the status quo:  Ã¢â ‚¬Å"feminists sought to recast gender relations in order to afford women the same freedom as men, and Americans divided over whether poverty and lack of economic security should be seen as deprivations of freedom that the government had an obligation to alleviate.†The women’s vocal demands for their right to vote   and the Black and immigrant movement for civil recognition, were therefore significant efforts to redefine the inclusive and exclusive meanings of freedom since â€Å"categories of freedom defines the categories of unfreedom.†Ã‚   Foner affirms the relevance of such movements by stating that,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"those who adopt a purely ‘negative' view of freedom as the absence of external coercion, rather than, for example, economic autonomy or political empowerment, must identify what constitutes illegitimate coercion.†It is with this contention, that â€Å"freedom has not simply been a linear progress toward a pre-ordained goal,† but rath er a complex and conflicted—and sometimes even violent— struggle between the contradicting interests of groups; tainted by class, race, ethnicity, gender, and even religion, that Foner   challenges and dares his reader to attempt to redefine the confined, claustrophobic spaces of America’s state-sponsored concepts of freedom.References:Foner, Eric. The Story of American Freedom. New York: Norton, 1998. pp. 163-236Foner, Eric, â€Å"The Meaning of Freedom in the Age of Emancipation.† The Journal of American History 81, no. 2 (Sept. 1994) p. 4.

The Meaning of Leadership - 2491 Words

â€Å"Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal.† (Northouse) I use to believe that leadership shows the confidence that many people do not portray, because my thoughts were that leadership was a group of people who stand up for the things that they believe. After an extensive study on the meaning of leadership, I have come to find that there is no way to specifically define the meaning of leadership, but there are ways to grasp a better understanding of what the aggregate meanings entail. The big questions that we are faced with are these; how is leadership approached in life, when is it practiced and needed, and who are some leaders in history that portray great leadership skills.†¦show more content†¦The next subject that I will discuss is when leadership is practiced, and needed. According to Northouse research in administration as well as his own observation in the workplace, leadership takes place ba sed on personal skills: technical, human, and conceptual. Technical Skill includes those who are able to use different tools and techniques in different areas of expertise. This type of leadership skill can be used in computer software companies, accounting firms, architecture, technology design, programming, and many other areas in the workplace. Technical skills are focused more in the middle and lower levels of management, and less in the upper levels for chief executives, CEO’s, and senior officers. Human skill is the ability to work with people, which is quite different from working with technical things. Human skills help with workers, and superiors and create a cooperative work place in which little conflicts take place, this meaning that the leader with human skills are able to look at all angles of perspective and easily mold everyone’s ideas together to be a fair environment for everyone. Those with the human skill incorporate many other leadership skills because they create a comfortable environment with integrity and encouragement as well as including of others. An eminent leader who isShow MoreRelatedLeadership : The Meaning And The Definition2024 Words   |  9 PagesLeadership - The Meaning and the Definition By Shaun Swilling | Submitted On November 07, 2014 Recommend Article Article Comments Print Article Share this article on Facebook Share this article on Twitter Share this article on Google+ Share this article on Linkedin Share this article on StumbleUpon Share this article on Delicious Share this article on Digg Share this article on Reddit Share this article on Pinterest Expert Author Shaun Swilling Leadership is the foundation on which countriesRead MoreThe True Meaning of Nursing Leadership Essay2314 Words   |  10 PagesThe True Meaning of Nursing Leadership By understanding the differences between the broad spectrums of leadership and the underlying styles that can be used to better facilitate the care setting; we can comprehend what nursing leadership truly is. 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And Simon found that the captain kissed each injured soldiers’ neck when he saved them from the war; Simon believe that the thing behind the captain’s actions is the true definition of greatest leadership then he started to illustrating his explanations. In order to explore the video deeper, four questions that related to the video will be examined through this essay and they are: What is the intended message of the video? Who is the target audienceRead MoreThe Video Of Simon Sineks Speech At Ted Talk1656 Words   |  7 PagesUS and Afghanistan to meet the local village elders. And Simon found that the captain kissed each injured soldiers’ neck when he saved them from the war; Simon believe that the thing behind the captain’s actions is the true definition of g reatest leadership then he started to illustrating his explanations. In order to explore the video deeper, four questions that related to the video will be examined through this essay and they are: What is the intended message of the video? Who is the target audienceRead MoreHow Leadership And Attitude Go Together1416 Words   |  6 PagesHow Leadership and Attitude Go Together According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2014) attitude is a feeling or way of thinking that affects a person’s behavior† (pg. 1). Normally, when someone thinks of communication, it’s in the verbal form. But what about communications in the nonverbal form, for example one’s mood? Is it a possibility if a leader comes to work with a negative attitude that it can be damaging to the whole team? It is imperative to make sure that leaders understand that comingRead MoreI Admire My Own Leadership Style1536 Words   |  7 Pagesand sizes, gender, ethnicities, and religions. 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