Masculinity, Movies And The War On Terror in Tvs hit Show 24 †Sociology Research Paper

Masculinity, Movies And The War On Terror in Tvs hit Show 24 – Sociology Research Paper Free Online Research Papers Masculinity, Movies And The War On Terror in Tvs hit Show 24 Sociology Research Paper When Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow began working on their new TV series 24 in early 2001, they could have had little idea how relevant and topical this seemingly innocuous action-adventure programme would become. Days before the show’s scheduled premiere, the September 11th terrorist attacks changed the USA’s political landscape in an instant. The show was immediately postponed (though only for a few days), and the initial episode was trimmed of the shot of a plane exploding in mid air , but the tragedy has hung over the show ever since (inevitably, given that the show centres around the fictional Los Angeles Counter Terrorism Unit in a country that has embarked on a ‘War On Terror’), and has undoubtedly informed the programme’s storylines and style, especially in the show’s second season, which explicitly parallels real-life events; the storyline revolves around a terrorist attack by Muslim fundamentalists and the appropriate(ness of) military response. This essay shall focus on the representations of masculinity, femininity and authority in 24, and how those representations appear to have been shaped by September 11th. 24’s central character, Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) has many obvious antecedents in American fiction. Perhaps his most obvious influence (perhaps even inspiration) is the character of Martin Riggs, played by Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon (1987), a character whom Jack Bauer particularly resembles in Season 2 of 24. Both share a military background, rising to high levels and performing â€Å"black ops†, marking them out as highly trained and extremely dangerous characters (both characters’ experience and military training are demonstrated chiefly through their proficiency with firearms and their unflinching attitude towards killing). Both now work in a more domestic capacity (as a police officer and a CTU agent), and both characters (by Season 2 of 24) have lost their wives. Beyond this obvious precedent, however, Jack Bauer belongs to a long tradition of male action heroes who are willing to break the law in pursuit of the greater good – a tradition that can be traced back cinematically to the film noir heroes of the 1930s, and western heroes in the 1950s – tough and rugged men’s men, who are called upon to save a society which they do not necessarily conform to (e.g. Ethan Edwards [John Wayne] in The Searchers, or Sam Spade [Humphrey Bogart] in The Maltese Falcon). (In the context of 24 the society Bauer is unable to conform to is that of the espionage and law enforcement community: a closed society which follows a military command structure, where the ability to follow orders and play the political game is the most overwhelming requirement for success and promotion). Bauer is quickly shown to belong to this tradition of male action heroes in the first episode of 24, when he shoots his superior George Mason (Xander Berkeley) with a tranquilliser gun in order to blackmail George for information Bauer needs on the case. Indeed, Bauer’s disregard for authority and correct procedure often borders on the reckless, but he always breaks these rules in search of the greater good, never for his own personal gain, and in the first season much is made of Jack having made many enemies within CTU for reporting four corrupt agents. Once again, he breaks the rules and procedures of society (i.e. CTU) but never his own, personal code. Of course, Bauer is ultimately always proved correct, whilst his superiors almost invariably make the wrong move, forcing Bauer to work alone with minimal help from his colleagues at CTU. This of course serves the dramatic function of making Jack seem more heroic – going into a compound full of armed men with a SWAT team is a lot less courageous than going in alone. The character of Bauer does differ from these precedents in one important way, however: whereas most of these rugged heroes are doomed by their inability to fit in with society to live solitary lives, Bauer is a family man, and it is the kidnapping of his wife and daughter in the first season of 24 which drives the first 12 episodes, as Bauer is coerced into helping the terrorists in order to save his wife and daughters’ lives. During the course of the first two seasons of the show Jack is often confronted with mirror images of himself – most notably Ira Gaines (Michael Massee). Both characters have a similar military background, both kill without compunction, but whilst Gaines is now a mercenary, Jack works for the federal government, and whilst Bauer is a family man, there is no reference at any point to even the possibility of Gaines having a wife or children. The similarities between the two characters help to reinforce both the importance of family to the show and Jack’s work for the government, whilst simultaneously highlighting just how dangerous and brutal Jack Bauer can be; the similarities could even be said to raise questions as to whether Bauer’s actions are always morally justified, especially in light of the events of the second season. The second lead in 24 is Dennis Haysbert as Senator (and in Season 2, President) David Palmer. Whilst deeply different in many respects, Bauer and Palmer also have a great deal in common. Palmer is seen, like Bauer, to lack certain political skills (with a small ‘p’) – particularly the ability to compromise in order to promote his own agenda. Like Bauer he follows his own conscience and always does the right thing, rather than the most politically advantageous thing. Once again he does not entirely fit into the society around him (in this case the world of politics), and thus is at least partly also descended from the same tradition of men of honour in a dishonourable world that Bauer hails from. (Towards the end of season 2 Sherri Palmer makes the connection between the two men explicit: â€Å"You’re a very impressive man, Jack, but you see everything as either god or bad, just like David, and the world is so much more complicated than that.†) Palme r is also part of another, more recent tradition (perhaps even stereotype) in US cinema and television: that of the gruff but ultimately kindly and wise black man (e.g. Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact, Se7en and Bruce Almighty and James Earl Jones in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger). In this context the show’s position on what it means to be ‘masculine’ is clear: a ‘real man’ follows his own moral code, not the conventions of the society around him – adhering to what is right is more important than politicking for personal gain and career advancement. However Jack and Palmer’s moral stance does not always go unquestioned, especially in season 2. â€Å"24 appreciates these complications [that Sherri mentions], even if it might wish Jack was right. It reveals dangers from within the US administration (emerging from corruption and ineptitude equally), from within the perfect Southern Californian family, from within those ‘corporate interests’ propped up by government policies. It also gives you a hero, but he’s mad about it.† The concept of family is central to the first season of 24, as both Jack Bauer and David Palmer have to resolve issues within their families. Jack’s marriage is on shaky ground following him and his wife Teri’s recent separation, and Teri must in turn rebuild her relationship with her daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) who blames Teri for Teri and Jack’s marital difficulties. Similarly Senator Palmer must come to terms with the revelation that his entire family covered up his son’s involvement in the accidental death of the man who raped his daughter several years previously, and the increasing realisation that his wife Sherri (Penny Johnson-Jerald) cannot be trusted. The villains of the first season are also revealed in the final episodes to be a family – the Drazens – whose sisters’ deaths were caused by Bauer and Palmer in a ‘black op’ during the Kosovo war (the rightness of their actions in attempting to assassinate Victor Drazen are never questioned: the issue is dismissed as Palmer describes him as â€Å"a monster† who was involved in ethnic cleansing – this is a contrast with the show’s second season), and great pains are taken to point out the poor family background of Rick, Kim’s reluctant kidnapper who later helps Kim and Teri escape Gaines (when Kim asks him at one point about his mother replies â€Å"Not all women are meant to be mothers†). In the Palmer subplot all the problems begin with the family’s failure to be honest with each other (specifically with Sherri’s failure to tell her husband what happened), and with David Palmer’s failure to keep his work from infringing on his private life. Teri even makes the point explicit at one point, opining â€Å"Everything bad that has happened to us in the past few hours has been because we haven’t been together.† The moral is not hard to mistake: that the family is paramount to all other concerns (Jack even risks Palmer’s life to save his own family), and those without a supportive and positive family life are weakened by the lack – Palmer’s whole family suffers the repercussions of the cover up, Rick is an essentially good person who falls in with a bad crowd due to his poor upbringing, and the Drazens are evil because a) their father was evil and b) Bauer and Palmer are responsible for the deaths of their sisters. In light of this it is worth examining the role of women in the first season of 24. With one exception (Roberta Green, who impedes Jack’s investigation not through treachery but through mismanagement and her dogmatic approach to her work) all the female characters in the first season fall into one of two categories: they are either damsels in distress, in need of rescue by the heroic men (i.e. Jack Bauer), or they are duplicitous and untrustworthy. The most obvious examples of female characters who require rescuing are Teri and Kim, but others include Janet York (Kim’s friend, who arranges the party where Kim is ultimately kidnapped) and David Palmer’s daughter (whom Palmer feels he must protect from the allegations regarding his son and thus prevent her having to revisit the memory of her rape). Even more worryingly, duplicitous women are as prevalent as helpless ones. Jamie Farrell (CTU’s computer programmer) is revealed to be in league with Ira Gaines; Nina ultimately is revealed to be a traitor and kills Teri; Sherri Palmer lies repeatedly to her husband and goes behind his back often enough that over the course of just 24 hours she destroys their entire marriage. Even Jamie Farrell’s mother knows more than she is at first willing to let on, having been the recipient of the money Jamie received from Gaines. Even Gaines has trouble with untrustworthy women when one of his employees tries to blackmail him for more money. Admittedly these roles are not absolutes: Teri and Kim show resilience and resourcefulness in aiding Jack find them when they have been kidnapped, but ultimately they still just wait around for Jack to rescue them. Similarly, Sherri truly believes she is doing the right thing for her family, and Jamie Farrell still elicits sympathy despite being a traitor. The most worrying aspect of this stereotyping is how often the duplicitousness of the female characters is conflated with sexuality. Nina is coded as a threat from the very beginning of the series – not as a potential traitor (after the first three episodes great pains are taken by the writers to convince the audience that she is a heroic character, to the extent that her final unmasking in the penultimate episode of season one makes no sense) – but as a threat to Jack’s marriage. We are told early on that Jack had a brief affair with Nina whilst he was separated from Teri, and reminders of this point are scattered throughout the season (CTU officials trying to persuade her to give away Jack’s location mock her for being in love with someone who doesn’t love her, and Teri ends Nina’s debriefing when she realises it was Nina whom Jack had the affair with). Thus tension is present in her relationship with Jack the entire time. Indeed, any devia tion from sex within a marriage is seemingly punished, or coded as a threat. Gaines’ troublesome employee is a lesbian; she is both untrustworthy and ultimately killed for her actions (the question must be asked whether in the meta-narrative she is truly punished for betraying Gaines – the villain of the piece – or for being a lesbian). Kim does not have sex with Rick when they first go on a date, and lives. Janet York does have sex with her date, and dies. One of Palmer’s campaign workers is having what is largely portrayed as a purely physical, casual relationship with a man who turns out to be one of the Drazen brothers, and she manages to straddle both the helpless victim and scheming seductress roles, as she agrees to help Jack get information on Alexis Drazen, but instead takes the opportunity to stab her lover. Even Sherri Palmer persuades David’s speech writer to attempt to seduce him so that she gain his confidence and report back to Sherr i. The only characters who are allowed to have pre- or extra-marital sex and live are Jack Bauer and Mandy (Mia Kirshner), and both are punished by the death of their partner. One of the most notable features of 24 is the recurring theme of trust and betrayal. Some critics have placed it as part of a new wave of television drama series which place as their central theme the question of whether governments and the people around us can be trusted. In the traditional police/action show â€Å"the police need togetherness to survive rather than utility-maximising individualism† , though they have also traditionally held as a theme â€Å"the fate of the individual ‘under’ technologisation† . 24 subverts this notion of togetherness, as the people and colleagues Bauer turns to for help are frequently revealed to be traitors. Perhaps even more importantly, the upper echelons of the CTU command structure are inevitably shown to be more politicians than policemen. They hinder Jack’s investigations far more often than they help him, and are far more concerned with the letter of the law (and helping their own careers) than with hunting down criminals. In the second season the President’s cabinet even turns on him and removes him from office. This mistrust of authority is an increasingly common theme in television drama series, particularly in the US, and can be traced back to the X-Files . More recently Alias (which premiered within weeks of 24) has based its entire series’ concept on the concept of trust, with even the lead character being a double agent. In the final episode of season one Jack is told (erroneously) by Nina that Kim has been killed. With no thought to his own safety he attacks the Drazens single-handedly and kills all of them, before finally murdering an unarmed Victor Drazen (Dennis Hopper), the father of the family. This extreme violence is justified within the context of the episode as he believes his daughter has been murdered, but he spends the entire second season in the same vicious mood. At the beginning of season two Jack is still grieving the death of his wife – he is angry and embittered, and much more violent. In the very first episode of the second season Jack murders a suspect in cold blood, then cuts off his head with a hacksaw. The reactions of the characters around him (particularly George Mason, played by Xander Berkely) help to guide the audience’s reaction: although they ultimately accept Jack’s actions as necessary in light of the massive threat facing the city, they are still deeply uncomfortable with them, and references are made to this incident throughout much of the second season. After all, the good guys aren’t supposed to murder people. Throughout the season Bauer is far more brutal than in the first, and kills far more people – in the first season when Jack rescues Teri and Kim from Gaines’ compound, Jack uses his machine gun for covering fire. Throughout the second season, Jack shoots to kill. It is hard in this context not to see Bauer in the second season as representing the US as a whole – just as Jack is grieving his wife’s death, and is angry at the world for that, similarly the US was (and in many respects still is) grieving the victims of the terrorist attacks on September 11th 2001, and is angry at the world for that. Although Jack’s actions, as the show’s hero, are only occasionally implicitly questioned (do the ends justify the means?), the show, later in its second season, much more explicitly criticises US foreign policy, as the focus of the storyline shifts away from finding the nuclear bomb, and towards preventing the US from starting a war with three countries who may be innocent (it is this issue which causes the hawks in Palmer’s administration to relieve him of his presidency). As Kiefer Sutherland says on his DVD commentary track: â€Å"Our show is about preventing a war; our country, unfortunately, is currently at war [with Iraq].† In this situation it is also interesting that the threat from within the government ranks comes not from traitors (though a couple are revealed within the White House early on in the season), but from honest people who genuinely believe they are doing the right thing. In these parameters the issue of trust moves from a personal to a national dimension: the question is not whether the people around the hero will betray him, but whether our leaders can be trusted to be capable of carrying out the task which they have been given. In its second season women are also far better represented: Michelle Dessler at CTU is an aid to Jack and acts heroically in defying her orders to do so. Similarly Kate Warner (who begins as an innocent bystander) withstands torture and later faces her torturer. Jack later sends her to rescue Kim as the only person he can trust. Bizarrely it would seem that as the US moved to the right politically, 24 moved to the left. The first season revolves around the theme of family, which is elevated through the stakes of the narrative to a level of life-or-death importance. Women are either helpless victims in need of rescuing, or deceitful and scheming (often posing a threat not just explicitly within the narrative, but implicitly to the family stability of either Jack Bauer or David Palmer), and the threat from within the government comes largely from these duplicitous women, who are traitors seeking only financial reward (when the threat is not these traitors it comes from petty self-serving bureaucrats who lack the courage to break the rules as Jack does: thus for following the rules these people are demonised). In its second season the focus shifts away from the closed domestic world to the international arena, and whilst Jack becomes ever more violent, even trigger-happy, the show itself calls for peace (even t o the extent of implicitly questioning its heroes’ actions), and for governments (specifically the US government) to resort to war less readily than they currently do. Bibliography *Due to the fact that 24 is a relatively new show (less than three years old) there is very little critical writing available on the programme. â€Å"TV drama says ‘Trust No-One’† by Amanda Cuda at www.uselessknowledge.com/opeds/article87.html â€Å"Action Series† by Toby Miller – The Television Genre Book, ed. by Glen Creeber, St Edmundsberry Press, Suffolk, BFI publishing 2001, p.18 popmatters.com/tv/reviews/t/24-season-2.shtml www.salon.com/ent/tv/int/2002/02/05/surnow/ Research Papers on Masculinity, Movies And The War On Terror in Tv's hit Show 24 - Sociology Research PaperWhere Wild and West MeetEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenThe Hockey GameHonest Iagos Truth through Deception19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraPETSTEL analysis of IndiaThe Spring and AutumnCapital PunishmentHip-Hop is ArtThe Fifth Horseman

Tlaxcallan - Mesoamerican Stronghold Against the Aztecs

Tlaxcallan - Mesoamerican Stronghold Against the Aztecs Tlaxcallan was a Late Postclassic period city-state, built beginning about 1250 AD on the tops and slopes of several hills on the east side of the Basin of Mexico near modern day Mexico City. It was the capital of a territory known as Tlaxcala, a relatively small polity (1,400 square kilometers or about 540 square miles), located in the northern portion of the Pueblo-Tlaxcala region of Mexico today. It was one of a few stubborn hold outs never conquered by the powerful Aztec Empire. It was so stubborn that Tlaxcallan sided with the Spanish and made the overthrow of the Aztec empire possible. A Dangerous Enemy The Texcalteca (as the people of Tlaxcala are called) shared technology, social forms and cultural elements of other Nahua groups, including the origin myth of Chichemec migrants settling central Mexico and the adoption of farming and culture of the Toltecs. But they viewed the Aztec Triple Alliance as a dangerous enemy, and fiercely resisted the placement of an imperial apparatus into their communities. By 1519, when the Spanish arrived, Tlaxcallan held an estimated 22,500-48,000 people in an area of just 4.5 square kilometers (1.3 square miles or 1100 acres), with a population density of about 50-107 per hectare and domestic and public architecture covering about 3 sq km (740 ac) of the site. The City Unlike most Mesoamerican capital cities of the era, there were no palaces or pyramids at Tlaxcallan, and only a relatively few and small temples. In a series of pedestrian surveys, Fargher et al. found 24 plazas dispersed around the city, ranging in size from 450 to 10,000 square metersup to about 2.5 acres in size. The plazas were designed for public use; some small low temples were created at the edges. None of the plazas seems to have played a central role in the life of the city. Each plaza was surrounded by terraces on top of which were built ordinary houses. Little evidence of social stratification is in evidence; the most labor-intensive construction in Tlaxcallan is that of the residential terraces: perhaps 50 kilometers (31 miles) of such terraces were made in the city. The main urban zone was divided into at least 20 neighborhoods, each focused on its own plaza; each one was likely administered and represented by an official. Although there is no governmental complex within the city, the site of Tizatlan, located about 1 km (.6 mi) outside of the city across unoccupied rugged terrain may have acted in that role. Governmental Center of Tizatlan Tizatlans public architecture is the same size as the Aztec king Nezahualcoyotls palace in Texcoco, but instead of the typical palace layout of small patios surrounded by large numbers of residential rooms, Tizatlan is made up of small rooms surrounded by a massive plaza. Scholars believe it functioned as a central place for the pre-conquest territory of Tlaxcala, serving as many as 162,000 to 250,000 persons dispersed throughout the state in about 200 small towns and villages. Tizatlan had no palace or residential occupation, and Fargher and colleagues argue that the location of the site outside of town, lacking residences and with little rooms and big plazas, is evidence that Tlaxcala functioned as an independent republic. The power in the region was placed in the hands of a ruling council rather than a hereditary monarch. Ethnohistoric reports suggest that a council of between 50-200 officials governed Tlaxcala. How Did They Maintain Independence? The Spanish conquistador Hernn Cortà ©s said the Texcalteca kept their independence because they lived in freedom: they had no ruler-centered government, and the society was egalitarian compared to much of the rest of Mesoamerica. And Fargher and associates think thats right. Tlaxcallan resisted incorporation into the Triple Alliance empire despite being completely surrounded by it, and despite numerous Aztec military campaigns against it. Aztec attacks on Tlaxcallan were the among the bloodiest of battles waged by the Aztecs; both early historical sources Diego Muà ±oz Camargo and the Spanish inquisition leader Torquemada reported stories about the defeats that pushed the last Aztec king Montezuma to tears. Despite Cortes admiring remarks, many ethnohistoric documents from the Spanish and Native sources state that the continued independence of the Tlaxcala state was because the Aztecs allowed their independence. Instead, the Aztecs claimed they purposefully used Tlaxcallan as a place to provide military training events for Aztec soldiers and as a source for obtaining sacrificial bodies for imperial rituals, known as the Flowery Wars. There is no doubt that the ongoing battles with the Aztec Triple Alliance were costly to Tlaxcallan, interrupting trade routes and creating havoc. But as Tlaxcallan held its own against the empire, it saw an enormous influx of political dissidents and uprooted families. These refugees included Otomi and Pinome speakers fleeing imperial control and warfare from other polities who fell to the Aztec empire. The immigrants augmented Tlaxcalas military force and were fiercely loyal to their new state. Tlaxcallan Support of the Spanish, or Vice Versa? The main story line about Tlaxcallan is that the Spanish were able to conquer Tenochtitlan only because the Tlaxcaltecas defected from the Aztec hegemony and threw their military support behind them. In a handful of letters back to his king Charles V, Cortes claimed that the Tlaxcaltecas became his vassals, and that they were instrumental in helping him defeat the Spanish. But is that an accurate description of the politics of the Aztec fall? Ross Hassig (1999) argues that the Spanish accounts of the events of their conquest of Tenochtitlan are not necessarily accurate. He argues specifically that Cortes claim that the Tlaxcaltecas were his vassals is disingenous, that in fact they had very real political reasons to support the Spanish. The Fall of an Empire By 1519, Tlaxcallan was the only polity left standing: they were completely surrounded by the Aztecs and saw the Spanish as allies with superior weapons (cannons, harquebuses, crossbows and horsemen). The Tlaxcaltecas could have defeated the Spanish or simply withdrawn when they appeared in Tlaxcallan, but their decision to ally with the Spanish was a savvy political one. Many of the decisions made by Cortessuch as the massacre of the Chololtec rulers and selection of a new noble to be kinghad to have been plans devised by Tlaxcallan. After the death of the last Aztec king, Montezuma (aka Moteuczoma), the remaining true vassal states to the Aztecs made the choice to support them or throw in with the Spanishmost chose to side with the Spanish. Hassig argues that Tenochtitlan fell not as a result of the Spanish superiority, but at the hands of tens of thousands of angry Mesoamericans. Sources This article is a part of the About.com guide to the Aztec Empire, and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Carballo DM, and Pluckhahn T. 2007. Transportation corridors and political evolution in highland Mesoamerica: Settlement analyses incorporating GIS for northern Tlaxcala, Mexico. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26:607–629. Fargher LF, Blanton RE, and Espinoza VYH. 2010. Egalitarian ideology and political power in prehispanic central Mexico: the case of Tlaxcallan. Latin American Antiquity 21(3):227-251. Fargher LF, Blanton RE, Heredia Espinoza VY, Millhauser J, Xiuhtecutli N, and Overholtzer L. 2011. Tlaxcallan: the archaeology of an ancient republic in the New World. Antiquity 85(327):172-186. Hassig R. 1999. War, politics and the conquest of Mexico. In: Black J, editor. War in the Early Modern World 1450-1815. London: Routledge. p 207-236. Millhauser JK, Fargher LF, Heredia Espinoza VY, and Blanton RE. 2015. The geopolitics of obsidian supply in Postclassic Tlaxcallan: A portable X-ray fluorescence study. Journal of Archaeological Science 58:133-146.

Organisational Behavior and Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Organisational Behavior and Analysis - Essay Example Through motivation, employees strive to perform at their best. Motivating employees is definitely a challenging task for any organisation. Hence, the financial rewards deliver an actual method to inspire and compensate the employees and tap them for better and exciting activities (Kohn, 1999). Rewards According to Janet Spence (1971), rewards tend to have a positive impact on motivation which involves the performance of employees to a large extent. Rewards serve as motivations for employees in an effort to inspire them in various methods such as altering job positions, reorganising job plans, developing working situations, and ranges of other activities (Kohn, 1999). The idea and prerequisite for motivation has been enticing much attention in the continuous change of business situation, altering technologies in the area of business and increasing difficulties. These aspects generate interference on the performance and on the level of proficiency of employees. Therefore, motivation he lps to maintain the level of proficiency as well as improve and even develop the performance of the employees to a significant extent. ... and Extrinsic Motivation Intrinsic motivation is demarcated as conducting an activity for intrinsic fulfilment rather than some distinguishable significance. When the employees are motivated intrinsically, they begin to act for excitement or challenge involved in their assigned tasks rather than due to external reasons, stresses or rewards. According to Hull (1943), a type of employees’ behaviour is the consequence of the motivation that was delivered by emotional forces, and the intrinsically motivated activities were specified to be those activities which offered satisfaction of the intrinsic emotional requirements. Employees have been witnessed to be motivated by satisfying their individual and inner requirements such as requirement for liberation, skill, positive relationship and better working environment in organisation (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Intrinsic motivation is a vital instrument for open-ended intellectual improvement as it is the driver of impulsive assessment and c uriosity. Intrinsic form of rewards can be stated as internal procedure of rewards which is experienced by an employee while undertaking a particular task such as new challenges, modification of work or task on the positive achievement of objectives, positive gratitude and sympathetic attitude of the company. To some extent, the financial contemplation or pay benefits does not work well as a motivator after surpassing a certain level of survival. In those conditions, the intrinsic features or elements swap the extrinsic aspect and act as robust and efficient motivators for employees (Ryan & Deci, 2000). On the other hand, extrinsic rewards are denoted to those rewards that appear in the form of material and are recognised as external with respect to task accomplished or implemented. The

Wireless network design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Wireless network design - Essay Example This paper looks at implementing wireless network in an organization. Why should one use wireless instead of the traditional wired networks, the advantages and disadvantages of wireless network and the components of wireless network. The paper also looks at the configurations for wireless network. The strength of having wireless internet is attributed to the fact that wires or cables are not required to connect each node on the network hence it is cheaper to install and maintain. While interface which results to packet errors and security concerns are some of the shortcoming of wireless network. When designing the wireless network, the main goal is to ensure that services, which were offered by other modes of communication, are offered even more effectively. Therefore, the same data types and services should be available to the users after implementing it. The safety and security concerns of the data on the internet must be well addressed. This is because any person can attempt to access information illegally once on the network. Encryption mechanisms should be implemented to protect the privacy of the users and the organizational data. As privacy and confidentiality is ensured in the design of wireless network, the existing services of the organization should be transparent which means they should be available. The two protocols both operate in spectrum technique in 2.4 GHz band (in the range of 2.4 to 2.4835 GHz) with 83.5 MHz total bandwidth. 802.11 uses; DSSS, CCK and OFDM techniques. The technique has method and mechanisms of adapting to noise, where the 802.11 uses 1 to 54 Mb/s signal rate to protect its protocol from noise. Adaption to noise is done in physical layer in 802.11 where it is transparent to higher layers. This wireless network has capabilities of transmission speeds going to 300Mbps. The frequency range of this technology is 2.4GHz to 5.0 GHz. It is the most recent wireless

The Great Wall of China Essay examples -- History Historical China Chi

The Great Wall of China To the northwest and north of Beijing, a huge, serrated wall zigzags it's way to the east and west along the undulating mountains. This is the Great Wall, which is said to be visible from the moon. This massive wall has not only been one of the Ancient Seven Wonders of the World, but it has also been inspiration for many artists, and writers. The building of the Great Wall is one of the biggest tragedies, but through this tragedy arose triumph with the wall, being so much to so many people. The Great Wall of China is much more than a wall, and was built for many reasons that are hidden to most. Construction of the Great Wall started in the 7th century B.C. The wall states that under the Zhou Dynasty in the northern parts of the country each built their own walls for defense purposes. After the state of Qin unified China in 221 B.C., it joined the walls to hold off the invaders from the Xiongnu tribes in the north and extended them to more than 10,000 li or 5,000 kilometers. This is the origin of the name of the "10,000-li Great Wall". (Karls, Robert 10,000-li Great Wall) To understand everything about the Great Wall it is necessary to know the many components of the wall, and their purposes. The Great Wall was renovated from time to time after the Qin Dynasty. A major renovation started with the founding of the Ming Dynasty in 1368, and took 200 years to complete. The wall we see today is almost exactly the result of this effort. With a total length of over 6,000 kilometers, it extends to the jiayu Pass in Gansu Province in the west and to the mouth of the Yalu River in Liaoning Province in the east. What lies north of Beijing is but a small section of it. (Karls) The Badaling section of the Great Wall snaking along the mountains northwest of Beijing was built at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty in the 14th century. Being 7.8 meters high and 5.8 meters wide at the top on the average, it has battle forts at important points, including the corners. (Karls) Located 10 kilometers south of the Badaling section of the Great Wall and built in an 18.5-kilometre-long valley, the pass has always been an important gateway northwest of Beijing. The name is believed to have its origin in the workers and slaves conscripted to build the Great Wall in ancient times. Cloud Terrace, built in 1345, was originally the base of a pagoda over... ...arwick Press, 1986 4. Kalman, Bobbie. China the Land. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company, 1989 5. Kan, Lao Po. The Ancient Chinese. London: Macdonald Educational   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Holywell House, 1981 6. Nancarrow, Peter. Early China and the Wall. Minneapolis: Lerner   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Publications Company, 1980 7. Overbeck, Cynthia. Thompson, Brenda. The Great Wall Of China.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 1977 8. Toy, Sydney. A History of Fortification. London: William Heinemann,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1955 9. Karls, Robert. 10,000-li Great Wall. New York, Crabtree Publishing Company, 1958 10. Forbes, Geraldine. Asian Studies. New York, Mifflin Company, 1993 11. China, A Country Study. United States Government, Federal Research Division, 1988; 11-15. 12. Twitchett, Denis and Loewe, Michael. The Cambridge History of China: Volume 1. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, England, 1986; 61- 63. 13. Twitchett, Denis. The Cambridge History of China: Volume 3. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, England, 1979; 56-59. 14. Ledoux, Trish. Ancient Civilizations: Sanfrancisco, Mixx publishers, 1984 15. Muyaka, Ho Chin, Huang River: New York, Penguin Publishers, 1994

Comparison Contrast of Death of a Salesman and Glengarry Ross

Sasha Schmidt Midterm Essay Question 4 Jeannine Russell 10/28/12 The True Criminal Being a salesman has always carried a negative stigma since the early 1900s. Being seen as pushy, high pressure, deceitful people; the dreaded activity of purchasing some car or new appliance has haunted everyone at some point or another. Many words have come to describe salesman such as â€Å"sharks†, â€Å"cons†, â€Å"thieves† etc. , and these words have stuck with the profession throughout the century. Two very realistic depictions of such phonies can be seen in Death of A Salesman by Arthur Miller and Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet.They depict the styles of two salesmen who have very similar selling techniques, but at the same time can be contrastingly different. Willy Loman, the protagonist of Death of a Salesman, is often regarded as a tragic figure with whom the audience feels sympathetic. At the same time, his deceitful, dishonest, adulterous ways are despised. In addi tion to this, his over confident attitude seems supercilious and creates more of a disdain for the character as can be seen when he says â€Å"Goddammit, I could sell them! † (Miller 1071). The same can be said as Mamet’s character, Shelly Levene, starts declaring how great of a seller he was.Basking in his own light he boldly exclaims that his success as a salesman is due not to his luck but his skill†( Mamet 1419). Both characters often times talk about how back in the day they were great assets of the company â€Å"averaging a hundred and seventy dollars a week in commissions† (p. 1089) and â€Å"Cold calling. Nothing. Sixty-five, when we were there†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Mamet 1419). Both characters meet their tragic ends as they realize that their deceitful and deceptive nature, the facade of great selling they lived behind, is a shattered reality. All both of them want is a chance and to live like they did in the old days and both are denied the chance.Whil e their characters mimic each other, the selling techniques of these two are completely different. Willy’s approach is to go in making natural conversation and the client feel as if they are human. Much to his chagrin is the new reality he is facing, where â€Å"it’s all cut and dried, and there’s no chance for bringing friendship to bear†(Miller 1089). In contrast, Levene takes on the role of â€Å"cut and dried† sales techniques, often using his other associates as pretend clients in order to just make the sell, whether or not he’s tricking extorting money out of his clients.Right from the beginning, he is trying to con â€Å"leads† out of Williamson, his supervisor. â€Å"†¦ I need the leads†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , he boldly tells Williamson who reluctantly begins to make him a deal (Mamet 1418). Right from the get go, Leven is already using the manipulation techniques he uses day in and day out on his co-workers even. Loman pushes hi s honest, integrity, and personality traits as the key to selling success, though we see an obvious decline in his selling abilities compared to the others. That being said, both characters are still very flawed with illusions of owning their own companies and waiting for the right client to come along.They both still have some nasty personality traits and are still putting on a facade to trick people; however, Willy Loman is tricking his family while Shelly Levene is tricking his consumers. Hard selling is a selling technique in which the salesman manipulates the psychological state of the consumer in order to achieve a sale, whether or not the sale is good (Baron & Branscombe). There is little concern for the consumer at all, in fact, often times the seller knows that the consumer is going to be placed into a bad situation, but they specifically rely on the ego-depletion of these buyers.They use a variation of techniques such as door-in-the-face and foot-in-the door just to name a few (Baron & Branscombe). Miller and Mamet depict this from the salesman’s side. They place this psychologically demanding technique at fault of the company, who requires them to sell a goal amount or face termination from the job. Such fear could incite higher pressure selling techniques, which actually make the consumer and the seller feel uncomfortable.Mamet and Miller criticize such deceptive techniques through their plays, highlighting the negative effects (the destruction of the central unit) and exacerbating the flaws of the technique. The role of a salesman has been part of America since the very beginning. With its recent revolution in the 1900s, it has now been associated with a negative stereotype often depicted by movies, literature, and plays. While there might be individual differences in the selling techniques, sellers are all perceived the same: dishonest, deceitful, and as con artists.Such a stigma created by their lack of concern after the sell has been mad e often reconfirms this stereotype. These prejudices notwithstanding, society often places a high demand on consumerism to help the economy and pushing the achievement of the American dream. Miller and Mamet uncover the treacheries of the salesman industry leaving the question as to whom the true criminal is : society or the salesman. Works Cited Jacobus, Lee A. The Bedford Introduction to Drama. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. Print. Baron, Robert A. , and Nyla R. Branscombe. Social Psychology. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.

Identity Impacts Medical Ethics and Genocide - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1438 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2019/02/20 Category Medicine Essay Level High school Tags: Medical Ethics Essay Did you like this example? In The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, he depicts the idea of slavery and racism through the creation of Cora’s journey to freedom. Whitehead expresses the importance of ones’ identity with the use of imagery in order to describe the impact an identity can have. Ones character and physical traits uniqueness can be a determining factor of how an individual is treated by the majority. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Identity Impacts Medical Ethics and Genocide" essay for you Create order Whitehead is able to utilize his skill of imagery to create scenes in the reader’s mind to describe the hardships a slave has to go through. To show the struggles of a slave, in this case the point of view of Cora, Whitehead takes the audience on an adventure using The Underground Railroad as a metaphor to make it seem as a literal form of transportation showing Cora’s gradual progress towards freedom. Each state represents a new chapter filled with oppressing obstacles that she has to overcome. Some of the many discriminating barriers Whitehead describes are the experiences of medical unfairness and genocide due to the uncontrollable identity Cora has as a black woman. Although the Underground Railroad’s concept itself was real, the physical train was nonexistent. The idea behind secret codes, rendezvous, and private organizations was used in the process of helping the slaves, as a unique twist, Colson Whitehead decided to have a different take on the aid of the escapees and implement the additional representation of an operating train. Respectively, the horizontal journey Cora chose between train routes allowed her to get to her goal and pave her pathway to where Cora finally arrives, freedom. The Underground Railroad was successful and helped approximately 100,000 slaves escape, â€Å"The tunnel, the tracks, the desperate souls who found salvation in the coordination of its stations and timetables this was a marvel to be proud of.† (Whitehead, 68). The slaves would not have been able to escape if it wasn’t for the help of the morally good people who stood up for what they believed in and participated in the operation of the Underground Railroad. People who aided the slaves were also heavily at risk with punishment identical to what slaves would have received if caught, which includes torture and death. This was because â€Å"The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 also outlawed the abetting of fugitive slaves.† (Eastern Illinois University). If a slave were able to escape to a different state, but was eventually caught, slave catchers would have the right to be able to bring them back to their master’s plantation, backtracking and halting a complete stop to their getaway. The uncertain destiny of the slaves taking each train route represented the risk the slaves took being dependant on a line that was unsure of their outcomes. In South Carolina, Whitehead is able to express a homey feeling and sense of settling for Cora that she may have found her forever home. â€Å"they had gained a few pounds, earned wages, and begun to forget the daily sting of the plantation.† (Whitehead 104). The image of her having a daily monotonous life of going to work and having a home to go back to gives us a sense that Cora has warmed up to and found comfort in South Carolina. Whitehead proceeds to illustrate the continuous separation between whites and blacks, but specifically in the medical aspect of society. With the daily medical checkups Cora receives, she proceeds cautiously and questions some of the doctor’s recommendations. Later, Whitehead reveals the real intentions of the doctor’s, which is to gain research and knowledge to use against black people; â€Å"What if we tempered those bloodlines carefully overtime? The data collected on the colored pilgrims†¦ will prove one of the boldest scie ntific enterprises in history†¦ the perfection of new surgical techniques on the socially unfit.† (Whitehead, 122.) It shows that the whites can never wholeheartedly trust the blacks and feels the need to keep an eye on them, let alone change and mold them into something they aren’t. Whitehead’s concept of medical ethics such as beneficence is out the window when it’s regarding black people, the whites intend to use the blacks as a practice subject for their own malicious reasons. In addition to whites wanting to change blacks, they wanted to ensure that the black population stops growing. Cora is specifically targeted for â€Å"strategic sterilization† (Whitehead, 122.) because she is a woman minority, capable of reproducing and adding to the continuous â€Å"overflowing† of blacks. Whitehead illustrates the strength doctors have over patients because of the ethical trust placed upon them. The Tuskegee syphilis experiment is a prime example of how past doctors had an ulterior motive and selectively choose who they wanted to help, â€Å"The subjects were not informed about their disease and were denied treatment even though proven cure in the form of penicillin was available by the 1950s.† (Thiele). Although whites were treated, low-income African Americans were denied in order to be monitored and used as â€Å"human experimental subjects† by the doctors reasoning to â€Å"to observe the ‘natural’ course of the disease.† (Thiele). People tend to believe that doctors have a high standard to live up to and to have professionalism when doing their jobs which is why they seek guidance, but instead, the reliability upon doctors can actually backfire as they take advantage of the opportunities that the uninformed patients give them in order to be in control and do what is beneficial for themselves. The ending of each chapter has a cliffhanger that keeps you on your toes wondering what will happen next. The buildup Whitehead produces gives the audience a suspenseful reading, he again creates a thriving environment, but this time on the Valentine farm in Tennessee. Instead of the medical aspect of society, this chapter focuses more on the revenge and hatred of blacks that leads to genocide. Uniting as one, blacks can become extremely powerful, and when they do work together, they can overpower the slave catchers. Escaping the threshold of Ridgeway, a notorious slave catcher, through the help of fellow escapees, Cora retries to build a life on the farm. Overtime, she becomes more hopeful towards the Valentine community, â€Å"She’d been adamant about staying ever since the talk of resettling started.† (Whitehead, 281). As she lowers her guard, she can actually see herself living a life there. Just when Cora is slowly able to ease in, Whitehead inserts the plot twist downfall of it all, the annihilation of the farm community. The slave catchers sought revenge and barged into the farm shooting and killing everyone on sight, â€Å"No one knew where best to run, and no reasonable voice could be heard above the clamor. Each person on their own, as they ever had been.† (Whitehead, 288). The rescued slaves grew comfortable on the farm and had their guards down, allowing the slave catchers to seize this moment and kill anyone they got their hands on. Genocide occurs when perpetrators go to an extreme extent to get rid of their problems, in this case the conflict between the slave catchers and escapees. Slaves offered an economic system for their masters and when they did not provide or hindered the product of money, they were punished; â€Å" the â€Å"inferior† races were associated with unwaged labor, while the â€Å"superior† race, and indeed whiteness itself, was linked with wage as well as with institutional power within colonial administration.† (Nemser, 6). The use of blacks as labor to work for whites shows the impact of ones identity, inferior groups are categorized because of the differences from the main population. The conflicting beliefs or morals contribute to hierarchy and positioning in society; it is due to the identity of a pers on, in those times, focused on race as the determining factor. Colson Whitehead’s characterization of Cora allowed the train to come through as a a progressing adventure of her goal to freedom. Often times, he builds a pleasant community by the use of imagery in order to get his point across that not everything is what it seems on the surface. This was proven in both South Carolina and Tennessee showing Cora’s struggles regarding medical ethics and genocide. Cora is experiencing these barriers due to her identity as a black woman. The majority, white people, focuses on the discrimination of people who are different. It gives them a sense of superiority to put down minorities and gives them an opportunity to selfishly do what is beneficial for them. Overall, Whitehead’s take on the Underground Railroad allows the audience to get a sense of troubles such as medical and social discrimination a woman slave had to go through.