History of Power and How it Shapes the World
(1126 Words)
So long as people have power, so long as people under no circumstances change their attitude, history will be the same and repeat itself over and over. War will always be seen as a venture for peace, be it started through the power of religion, power of kings, or by the powers of countries. In this essay, I would like to make a comment on aspects involved in three movies I have recently seen. These are King Henry VIII, set in the 16th century, Les Miserable, set around the time of the French Revolution, and Good Morning Vietnam which was set during the Vietnam War in 1965. They all depict forces attacking each other. We identify that everyone has a motive, but only in their eyes are they right but for what good? All three films show power can work in many ways. The will of governments, royalty, and religion can not be stopped and those who try to stop them can get hurt.
Continuing our theme of power, the third film ‘Les Miserables’ although set after the French Revolution, for the purposes of this essay we can define a period around and after the revolution as the insurrection in France. We are still drawn into a time of change that had the power of the people and the power of the kings and nobles. We recognise a time when new ideas about the power of the people start to take hold. The influence of the Enlightenment which celebrated science and reason over faith and religion can not be overestimated. We know that political power in France was concentrated in very few hands. Sovereignty was no longer to rest with the monarch as a Divine Right, an appointment from God but rather with the people. Popular sovereignty now rested with the people and the idea of a Nation-State was conceived. In the movie, we are moved by the general destitution of people. France had the largest population in Europe and could not feed itself adequately. The French Revolution spawned the idea that everyone should be entitled to some principal rights. The French people were oppressed. The power of the French people has been shown throughout the world where support to revolutions that assert the right to self-determination.
To conclude, we see in all the films and aspects from them as history in the making. Why does the ‘French cause’ matter now? There are still some governments that lack the support of a majority of their people and still use the power of terrorism to control their citizens. Places like Myanmar and North Korea live under a cloud or tyranny. Burma is a poor country, but the military regime is rich enough to expand its armed forces while news from impoverished North Korea tells you about their new weapon technologies. These countries ignore the past and seem to not learn from the experience of others. It is true that the past causes the present, and so the future. Henry VIII’s break from Rome had enormous consequences on English history not only in making it possible for the transformation of England into a powerful nation but also in the seizing of economic and political power from the Church. England now enjoys a secular state. America too has changed. The Vietnam War ended American innocence. It is recognized that no foreign war can succeed without that large domestic support. America’s democratic economy is the strongest in the world. It is a light that has seen many countries push towards democracy. Communism is finished. So, history helps us understand change and how the society we live in came to be. Many people have suffered because of change. Hopefully, from this, the world will learn.
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Shame and Guilt Culture
(1266 Words)
For this essay, the aspect of culture that will be talked about is the notion of shame and guilt. In many countries, each culture and the people within it adopt a way of dealing with wrong behavior. The emphasis here is on how an individual person reacts to an action done by them which is seen as not being right in their society. The essay will show with examples how shame and guilt work in daily life. It will focus on types of behavior, attitudes, and beliefs that are installed in culture. It is actually written specifically for individuals to think about their behavior and to think if their wrong actions belong to a guilt culture or shame culture. It is also written for each person to think more about their behavior when they commit something wrong and how they should behave.
Shame and guilt sometimes are considered to be similar feelings while within different cultures and countries they become separate entities when you can look closer at people’s behavior. For example, if a person was driving along the road and they saw a red light, they should stop, but in this case they continued through that light even though they had time to stop. How would they feel? In a shame culture, the person would (not in every case) look around to see if anyone saw them. If no-one saw them and nothing happened, they would be unperturbed and drive away thus not really having a feeling of doing anything wrong. In a guilt culture, if the same action happened, the driver would still look around, but they would feel remorse that they did something wrong thus producing a feeling of guilt. The feeling of guilt then becomes an inner feeling. It is as if they know they did wrong, and they are punishing themselves for it because they know what is right. The feeling of shame in this case, there is none, because in this situation no external force (such as police) saw the driver go through the traffic lights. There is no feeling for that person because the police did not catch them, speak to them and give them a ticket/fine.
Shame comes about when someone is found out to have done something wrong and other members of society know. It is the feeling of letting down others. Japanese culture is a shame culture where if humiliation is felt, it can lead to extremes such as suicide where the person feels they have let their whole family down. The person has brought shame on the family. So, shame exists when a person’s peers, colleagues, or their family find out about that person’s misdeeds. In many ways in a shame culture, a person can do what they like, they should just not get caught. For example, a student can copy in an exam or hand in work that is copied from the internet. If they are not caught they can blissfully carry on with their studies disregarding the fact that they cheated to pass the class or exam. There is no guilt and because no one found out they feel no shame. Moreover, a strange part of this misdemeanor is that if another student mentioned their copying and complained, that student is doing wrong because they are complaining. All the same, it is actually hard for someone in a shame culture to say they did wrong because they know they will bring shame on themselves.
So, a shame culture is more on being honorable or saving face than being right or wrong. The feeling of shame actually brings on powerlessness, so in many cases there becomes an intensity to defend oneself because the accuser is making the accused feel bad. Thus, in a shame culture, there is seen a relative calm among people that no-one will stand up and protest or complain to someone face. They live in a collectivist society where you live in a group and being individual is not counted as much. It is seen that groups must always project positive images and keep up appearances, show calmness, and adhere to public politeness.
Guilt, on the other hand, is ingrained in people. In their culture, they are told that they have done something wrong and that they should feel bad for what they have done. Children are taught from a young age between right and wrong. Guilt culture has its roots in religion where truth and justice prevail. It is meant to preserve the self to know what is right and wrong and not to commit sin. If you do something wrong the transgression is between the individual and God. In shame culture, a person would not indulge in self-analysis as it may end up in a detrimental image of the self. In many cases, the guilty person will use their guilt to change something about themselves. On the whole, guilt is a form of social conscience. So, each person is aware of their surroundings and what they are doing. For example, students who feel no guilt will talk in class while not being aware that when they talk they disrupt others and stop the teacher from teaching. All the same, they will happily talk on a telephone (loudly in some cases) in a lift or on a bus. Feeling guilty helps with a person’s awareness and stops them from committing a social faux pas.
An example where shame and guilt culture can have all its attributes and deficits belongs in a story of a Chinese airline flight. The flight was to take off at 7 pm from Hong Kong to Bangkok. The flight was almost full. The pilot said they were waiting for a connecting flight from Beijing that would transfer some passengers. The pilot said the flight would be delayed. So, the passengers, who were already on the plane, had to wait for one hour for the connecting flight. The small contingent of passengers from Beijing then boarded and the flight finally left at 8.30pm. Once the flight took off, the late passengers then started shouting, laughing, taking pictures, and generally not caring about others around them. They were actually government officials. The questions for this scenario regarding shame and guilt refer to many people involved in this situation. Firstly, how would you feel if you were a passenger waiting? Also, do the government officials feel any guilt about being late? Are they not aware of others? Did the pilot not admit to the problem entirely to avoid shame from passengers getting angry? Did the pilot feel no guilt or shame? Why did the pilot stay on the ground even though the flight was mostly full? These questions and the scenario are interesting as guilt and shame could, maybe, or should have been felt by some of the people.
In this short essay, both of the cultures, shame and guilt can be seen from different angles. It can be recognised that in a shame culture no one really wants to say anything out of line even if it is true. Also, a guilt culture can prevent someone from getting on with daily life as the guilt hinders them. In a shame culture, there is a relative calmness as no one complains. With this calmness, people are less likely to get stressed out by silly things but in the guilt culture people want to show something is wrong and feel justified in saying it. To conclude, if one used Japan and America as examples of shame and guilt cultures respectively would anyone honestly say either country’s progression has been held back by their view on bad behavior as both have their positive and negative sides?
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Dealing with War – in the eyes of Speeches by Winston Churchill and Tony Blair
The primary conspicuous similarity of these leaders was the fact that they were both faced with ruthless opposition; Churchill with Hitler and Blair with Hussein. If Blair and Churchill were the righteous democratic free willed chiefs, the other leaders had to be ones where only banishment to the fiery depths was the only option. Equally, Blair and Churchill both refer to their adversaries as ‘tyrants’; men opposed to the rules of law and dignity of the human race. Churchill says Hitler’s regime is a ‘monstrous tyranny’. These words show power over others is what makes a monster and Hitler’s behavior as a human is like a monster when he indulged in his impulse for cruelty and domination. Hitler is like a monstrous minotaur; a guardian of hell seen in Dante’s L’Inferno. Likewise, Blair alludes to the word tyrant when he calls Husain’s leadership a ‘tyrannical regime’. Husain’s regime, Blair says, is a ‘begetter of chaos’. The English public is meant to see this tyrant’s prolonged existence leading to chaos as an abyss where a formless state of the world is to be had. From both British leaders’ statements, people are meant to feel a certain kind loathing for both of the harsh oppressors. Comparably, these two Prime Minister’s adversaries are the lowest form of life where only disfigured ideas will come from them.
Moreover, the darker the picture these two orators portray the more disgust there is for their opponents’ ways. Churchill calls Hitler’s evil days as ‘never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime’. These are grim facts that justify the right to stop this despicable onslaught against human existence. By a similar measure, Blair goes into detail as he attacks the rule of Husain as he expresses his repulsion to ‘the brutality of the repression’ with ‘barbaric prisons’ in the face of ‘pitiless terror’. Blair’s speech has details to justify the severity of the terror while Churchill’s few words hit hard.
In spite of the similarities, these two speeches, coming at a time when a decision had to be made as the public waited in anticipation, do differ. Churchill is the one that becomes the major speaker showing his capability as a rebel rouser.
So, by contrast, Churchill generates more of a powerful speech. His country is at war and he needs to find moral boosting rhetoric to implore everyone to be with him. He uses short phrases to make his delivery work by way of hypophora where he raises a question and immediately answers it. This elevates his rhetoric. He says ‘What is our aim?’ and his answer is ‘Victory’. He also increases this rhetoric by the repetition of the word ‘Victory’ within four subsequent phrases that reinforces his answer on how the war will be won. This is opposed to Blair’s speech as there is the feeling he is opposed to going straight to war as with words ‘we consulted inspectors’, and the resentment to Husain ‘still countries hesitated’. He actually uses some irony as he says ‘our own aim to placate is implacable’. Blair is against a terrible system of terror and wants to stop any form of it although Hussain has been allowed to purport his methods of controlling his country and threatening the world. Blair continually tells us that Husain has had so many warnings saying countries have just been having a ‘diplomatic dance’ with Hussain. Blair is also dissimilar to Churchill in that he will bring on war with Husain but only with the help of allied countries. In contrast, the feeling is that Churchill was declaring his battle against Hitler on his own albeit with help if others were to follow. Blair would inevitably not invade Iraq without help; however, Churchill knew his own mission.
To conclude these two speeches had two leaders at the early stages of war. They differ in many ways, but similarly, show two leaders with forthright ideas and plans for action. Winston Churchill showed his great oratory skills; his concise and succinct style had a quality of putting fire in everyone’s belly to move forward with him. His sound bite skills showed he was more effective than the drawn out dialogue of Tony Blair. Tony Blair’s long speech brought to light that he had so much to consider as to whether he should go to war, and his war decisions were not ultimately all his. This essay has highlighted the comparing and contrasting styles of language from these two British Prime Ministers and shown how they went about getting their message across to their country and the world.
(979 Words)
References/Works Cited
1Minotaur, Circle 7, cantos 12-17, University of Texas at Austin, Retrieved 6July 2011, from: http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/circle7.html
2Dante Alighieri, The Inferno, trans. John Ciardi (Mentor Books: New York, 1954), Canto XII
3 Alliteration, dictionary.com, Retrieved 6 July 2011, from; http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/alliteration
McRae John, Boardman Roy, Reading Between the Lines (Cambridge University Press 1984) Page 31
Blair, Tony (18th March 2003) Full text: Tony Blair Speech. Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 6 July 2011, from:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2003/mar/18/foreignpolicy.iraq1
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Professional Development through Thoughtful and Philosophical Teaching
(997 words)
There are always areas of any profession people are in to which they feel may need change and/or improvement. Teaching is no exception. Any teacher needs to be enthused to bring light to new areas of interest in their line of work. Having read many articles on professional teacher development I came across a document that inspired me with some core beliefs. It made me read more, delve deeper, and look at a specific area of the teaching profession that I hope empowers me. The document is ‘Teaching: the Reflective Profession’. It was published by ‘The General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI)’ to show competence for reflection and discussion. It was written to address the issues and recognise the complexities of teaching. In this appraisal, I will address how this document gave me an insight into an area I feel may be missed by teachers in their daily toil.
To begin with, one true fact is that children need to develop not just as ‘rounded individuals able to prosper in the world but, as importantly, to live together in a culture characterised by tolerance and respect for diversity’. These words speak volumes when I consider the position and the factors I face every day with my school. From observations of various teachers in my school, I feel, they do not, in reality, recognise their students’ true needs for the outside world they will be entering. The teacher is usually sat at a desk. A microphone is always used because the students are so loud. The students are there solely as listeners in nearly every subject. The situation reminds me of Charles Dickens ‘Hard Times’ where the students were learned facts and imagination were not on the syllabus. There seems to be no thought process involved. I see students turning off, then, just copying other people’s work to get a mark. I feel it is a culture of, ‘It’s there if you want it’ mentality. The brighter kids are at the front and the ones that really need help are at the back where there left behind. This cannot help them to survive in the real world. The students are only worried about final marks not what went into getting that mark, be it copying or cheating.
The feeling I get is that every teacher has to have an ethical basis and moral purpose to their teaching work. This means involving all the students with challenging material and getting them interested in learning. In many ways, they need to learn about how to learn. The documents state teachers should be ‘prepared to experiment with the unfamiliar and learn from their experiences’. Varying the strategies in teaching highlights the adaptability of teaching and the students’ abilities. It is true that each student’s learning and abilities differ. I also feel that the teacher’s integrity relies on the fact that variation not only makes the classroom an interesting place to be, but also the students feel a sense of worth and power their learning. This, in turn, develops the power of knowledge and creative minds. To be a true teacher your moral conscious should ask you, am I just doing a mundane job or am I creating a learning experience that not only interests you but also the students?
Moreover, Christopher Day in A Passion for Teaching reminds us that ‘Teachers, now, are potentially the single most important asset in the achievement of a democratically just learning society.’ He goes on to confirm that a central part of our mission is to develop and sustain within our pupils a sense of self-worth and to create for them an understanding as to present and future possibilities. The General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI) emphasises the integrity of a teacher valuing each student’s needs and value of education that pushes and challenges them. This enlightens me to my teaching not only as an educator but also a moral agent. A teacher as a moral agent opened my thinking because I have put so much work and study into my teaching. At the same time, I feel I have not given much of that time to recognise the moral and social purpose I hold within the school and community at large. I realise you have to be a responsible educator who wants to help shape young minds and impart moral values. My integrity, as a teacher, must also rely on the fact that I see an educational potential and development in every student. The Charter for Education states ‘education is the path to self-realisation, personal fulfillment, civic well being and economic prosperity’. This statement goes beyond what a teacher I think could be constrained with, within a curriculum. A teacher’s moral commitment allows him or her to see any student as a person who is growing up in the world. This person needs to be taught to, not only learn and value learning but also him/herself as a person. They need to see school not just as a place they are sent by their parents. The teacher as an educator has to apply a code that realises all aspects of life. This will get the students ready for the world far beyond life in school. The GTCNI’s document proposes ‘creative and innovative approaches’. They want pupils to ‘think creatively’. I strongly feel that a teacher as a moral agent must realise this purpose in education. This allows the students to feel as they are worth their place in the school and class and the world they live in.
In the appraisal, I feel I have shown how a deeper understanding is needed to push the teacher forward with moral purpose. This, I think, gives the teacher a greater role as an educator not just as a teacher. There is a reason students come to school and that is to better themselves. This means the whole person and it is the (teacher) educator who as the wiser must adhere to the highest principles.
References
Christopher Day, A Passion for Teaching, published by RoutledgeFalmer (www.routledgefalmer.com).
General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland
Teaching – The Reflective profession
Available from http://www.gtcni.org.uk/uploads/docs/GTCNI_Comp_Bmrk%20%20Aug%2007.pdf
Hard Times- For These Times. is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854
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