Poems for Kindergarten (Hamlet Quotes) Essay

Not a mouse stirring, When the cat began purring. Quietly and stealthily away they crept, Fooling the hungry cat, Who sat and wept. Translation: All the mice sat very still like statues when they heard the cat coming their way. They knew that she was coming their way because they could hear her purring. They decided to escape. Then very quietly, almost like thieves, the mice ran away. The poor cat began to cry because she could catch no mice to eat. Poem 2: The King of Infinite Space The king of infinite space, Gave the beggar a bag of lace. † I give thee a bag of peas† The beggar replied â€Å"But what’s the use milord, For its Gold I seek† Translation: A very rich king who ruled over the world and all of space out of generosity gives a beggar a beautiful bag made of lace. He believes that the beggar his hungry, so he fills the bag with peas for the beggar to it and tell him so. But the beggar is a greedy man. He is not in the least happy with the food given to him. He wants to become rich. So the ungrateful beggar tells the king that the food is of no use because he was expecting money – gold coins. Poem 3: Sweets to the Sweet Sweets to the sweet, Lemons to the sour. It’s good to be good, And bad to be bad. Translation: Sweets like candy and chocolates are given to people who are nice and sweet. Sour eatables like lemon are given to people who are sour. Sweet people are like sweets because they leave a good flavor in the mouth and sour people like lemons leave a bad taste. It is a good thing to be good because everybody will love you. It’s bad to be bad because no one will like you or love you, if you are mean to others. Poem 4: To Be or Not To Be To be like an oak tree, With roots spreading far. Or be a pretty daisy, the little pink flower. So what will it be? Oh boy, Oh boy, to be or not to be. Translation: Do you want to be as strong as the oak tree, with your power spreading far and wide like its roots. Or do you want to be a pretty daisy flower that makes people happy with its beauty and nice smell. So what will it be? It is a difficult decision to make is it not, deciding whether to be one thing or not. Poem 5: The Memory is Green The memory is green, Of Granny’s house so white and clean. I smudged the walls with colors black and blue Don’t blame. I was bored and had nothing to do. The memory is green when granny spanked me, With her red wooden brush, that was so heavy. I remember my Granny’s house very clearly. It seems just like yesterday that I was there. It was a nice little house with white walls all spick and span. But I was feeling naught and also I had nothing to do. So I took some colors and with my muddy hands I made prints and drawings on the walls. I also clearly remember the brush my gran spanked me with and it sure was heavy.

Forgiveness: Jesus and Lord Essay

A definition for forgiveness could be — giving up my right to hurt you, for hurting me. It is impossible to live on this fallen planet without getting hurt, offended, misunderstood, lied to, and rejected. Learning how to respond properly is one of the basics of the Christian life. The word â€Å"forgive† means to wipe the slate clean, to pardon, to cancel a debt. When we wrong someone, we seek his or her forgiveness in order for the relationship to be restored. It is important to remember that forgiveness is not granted because a person deserves to be forgiven. Instead, it is an act of love, mercy, and grace. Admiting that you are hurt, but willing to give up claims for restitution. Offering forgiveness is hard for us. When we are hurt or disappointed, we want to be repaid for the grief and inconvenience that we’ve suffered. It only seems right. But the Bible says, forgive as the Lord forgave you. Through Christ, all our sins are taken away freely and completely. To forgive as the Lord forgives requires that we let others off the hook with no compensation requested or paid. We don’t understand the value of forgiveness because we are flawed not just in our relationships but also in our thinking. It takes strength to put aside our thirst for vengeance and offer mercy instead. It takes a loving heart to work through angry feelings and reach out to embrace those who have hurt you. It takes wisdom to understand that no one is faultless and entitled to claim the moral high ground in a dispute. Genesis 45:4-8 4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, â€Å"Come close to me.† When they had done so, he said, â€Å"I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.[a] 8 â€Å"So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. Genesis 50:20 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 1 Samuel 24:3-7 3 He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. 4 The men said, â€Å"This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said[a] to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’† Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. 5 Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men, â€Å"The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the LORD.† 7 With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way. 1Samuel 26:8-11 Abishai said to David, â€Å"Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of my spear; I won’t strike him twice.† 9 But David said to Abishai, â€Å"Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed and be guiltless? 10 As surely as the LORD lives,† he said, â€Å"the LORD himself will strike him; either his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. 11 But the LORD forbid that I should lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let’s go.† Hebrews 12:15 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Fearing God means having such a reverence for Him that it has a great impact on the way we live our lives. The fear of God is respecting Him, obeying Him, submitting to His discipline, and worshipping Him in awe. â€Å"When either the Hebrew Bible or Christian Scripture sanctions â€Å"the fear of the Lord,† it is referring to what Eugene Peterson describes as â€Å"a fear that pulls us out of our preoccupation with ourselves, our feelings, or our circumstances into a world of wonder.† Not dread but astonishment. Not terror but reverence. Not shaking-in-your-boots panic, but enraptured-with-love fascination. Thus we begin to understand why Scripture says: â€Å"Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him† (Psalm 33:8 NRSV). â€Å"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Proverbs 9:10). â€Å"Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (2 Corinthians 5:11). The God who has showed himself in history as Jesus of Nazareth is not a thug who threatens and pushes people around. He is the God who creates such beauty in the world that we stand speechless, upholds us in our crisis moments so that we do not â€Å"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses†(1 Timothy 6:12) Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. – William Feather Don’t be discouraged. It’s often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock. – Author Unknown Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down. – Charles F. Kettering The kingdom of God has been subject to violence Ephesians 6:11-12 New International Version (NIV) 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. . ( 2 Timothy 2:3-7) Endure with us , like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. 5 Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules. 6 The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. 7 Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this. he was born in San Diego on November 9, 1918. Chadwick had her first swimming competition win at the age of ten, and at the age of eleven competed in her first â€Å"challenging† competition, a rough water swim. She placed fourth in the event. Chadwick’s biggest contribution to swimming history occurred on August 8, 1950, when she crossed the English Channel in 13 hours and 20 minutes, breaking the then-current world record held by American swimmer Gertrude Ederle. One year later, Chadwick crossed the English Channel yet again, from England to France; this time, in 16 hours and 22 minutes, thus making her the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions, and setting a record for the England-France journey. In 1952, Florence attempted to swim the 26 miles between Catalina Island and the California coastline. As she began, she was flanked by small boats that watched for sharks and were prepared to help her if she got hurt or grew tired. After about 15 hours a thick fog set in. Florence began to doubt her ability, and she told her mother, who was in one of the boats, that she didn’t think she could make it. She swam for another hour before asking to be pulled out, unable to see the coastline due to the fog. As she sat in the boat, she found out she had stopped swimming just one mile away from her destination.[2] Two months later, Chadwick tried again. This time was different. The same thick fog set in, but she made it because she said that she kept a mental image of the shoreline in her mind while she swam. In 1954, she attempted to become the first person to swim across Lake Ontario but gave up after becoming ill a few hours into her swim. Canadian Marilyn Bell, succeeded the next day. She died on March 15, 1995. You must also have confidence in your weapons. Our weapons are â€Å"mighty through God,† we are told. God has told you how to win; and just as surely as you follow his instructions and trust in him for results, he will cause you to wear the victor’s crown. Our cause is a righteous one. Have faith in that cause, and know that right must triumph. But remember that you cannot win unless you put your faith into your fighting. â€Å"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith.† Believe that you will win. No matter how weak you are, no matter how great your foe, no matter what may confront you, go into the conflict with that courage that is born of faith. Believe that God will give you the victory. Do no consider defeat at all. Let your faith mount up, and say: â€Å"I can win, and I will win. In God I will conquer.† Throw away your doubts. Make an end of them. Trust in God. His word is true. You can believe it if you will, and believing it, you shall be more than conqueror through him that loves you. God is concerned that a great number of devote Christians are at the verge of frustration and discouragement because their efforts to bring the power of God to bear on situations and circumstances around them are not yielding any tangible result. They have prayed, fasted and diligently sought the face of the Lord and yet the conditions remain the same. Some have actually concluded that God has abandoned them. In fact others are beginning to doubt whether Christianity is true or not. Their love for the Lord is going cold. If this is your condition, then you are one of those for whom God has prepared this message. Be assured that God has not forgotten nor forsaken you, rather He has been waiting for you to be ready for the truth you are about to hear. Indeed, it should be a concern to all of us that there is so much struggling with the Christian life today and the power of God seems to flow only in trickles in people’s lives. If we acknowledge that God is still God and that He never changes, then we will understand that the ————————————————-

Applied Nostalgia Essay Research Paper Applied Nostalgia

Applied Nostalgia Essay, Research Paper Applied Nostalgia # 8211 ; A Parental Look Back Without past memories, Americans lack a criterion to establish present conditions upon. These memories lie carefully shuffled and categorized in the elephantine shifter called the encephalon to crudely come close the present criterion of life. They hope to pull satisfaction and fulfilment in the patterned advance of the quality of their and particularly their kids # 8217 ; s lives. This innate desire to compare the yesteryear to the present thrusts personal and political determinations, particularly conservativists who advocate a alteration to the policies and values of the yesteryear. Today, the bleached memories of an emerging group of parents of their post-World War II upbringing, like cherished household dinners around the kitchen oak tabular array and careless jaunts into town, against a sensed modern background haze of random force, day of the month colza, and individual parent families, turned a group of parent # 8217 ; s Black Marias and heads to the water under the bridge 1950s. They hope to resuscitate their cherished childhood memories. The Medveds, parental writers, recall their upbringing: # 8220 ; The adult females enjoyed being place for the childs # 8221 ; and # 8220 ; equals came over for hoops and homemade lemonade # 8221 ; ( Paul 64 ) . Shalit, writer of Tax return to Modesty: A Lost Virtue remembers when past adult females helped around the community and raised their kids with a alone dedication ( Paul 64 ) . In the aftermath of the Colorado school slaughter such a move seems justified. Yet, even in malice of many societal ailments of our # 8220 ; dependent, sex-obsessed, morally slack and spiritually ruin society # 8221 ; ( Paul 64 ) parents remain disbelieving. of such a drastic reversal in a drastically changed clip. For now, the incredulity over the reversal to the past virtues further scrutiny before any drastic action. The parents recommending a alteration to the past promote a black nowadays and hereafter with jobs runing across the societal, political, and economic spectrum, afraid that their concerns might mirror in their childs. Adult fairy narratives that # 8220 ; matrimony will last everlastingly, sex produces merely pleasance, trueness to an establishment will be returned, and elected leaders are benevolent and wise # 8221 ; ( Paul 63 ) are to intolerable to be placed on the weak shoulders of their kids. Therefore, they shield this information from the kids. Armed with reams of statistics, particularly in the bead the figure of atomic household places in the United States ( Two 1 ) , they present a just instance for the reversal to the rearing manner of the aging babe boomer population. An uncomplete list of their claimed ailments includes individual parent families, an excessively demanding work environment, inflow of unwanted media, and the feminist motion. Fatherlessness, as David Blackhord president of Institute for American values points out, is the most harmful demographic tendency of our coevals # 8230 ; and the taking cause of worsening child wellbeing in our society. It is besides the engine driving our most pressing societal jobs, from offense, to adolescent gestation, to sexual maltreatment, to domestic force against adult females. The grounds is now strong that the absence of male parents from the lives of kids is one of the most of import causes [ of the above jobs ] ( UCSF 1 ) In one augmenting survey performed by the University of California at San Francisco on California # 8217 ; s household make-up reported that 20 per centum of kids under age 18s are presently raised by a individual grownup. Accusative fingers of these nostalgic parents turn like an vindictive hinged gate from household construction to the work environment, mentioning statistics on the economic troubles that modern employers cause, or on personal compulsions with work that deters from the boundlessly more of import occupation at place. # 8220 ; With parents trapped in devouring occupations, they leave their childs to fend for themselves # 8221 ; ( West 2 ) . The type of work and work environment changed in the last few decennaries with the coming of new engineerings and force per unit area on employers to cut costs. Harmonizing to the parents and research workers who advocate a reversal to the yesteryear, the modern work environment is besieged with jobs. Decreases in existent rewards, corporate retrenchment and the surcease of the # 8216 ; company adult male # 8217 ; ethos that governed American labour dealingss during the 1950s and 1960s has made it impossible for parents to give necessary clip to their kids because they have to work harder than every merely to do terminals run into ( West 1 ) . The ends of fiscal success have placed the ends of raising a child to the dorsum burner. These impersonal parents scrape up the few excess dollars to purchase the Black Marias of their kids ( McCallum 2 ) . # 8220 ; In our mercenary society, parents are more concerned about the physical things they provide their kids that about the values and wonts that prepare kids for a life on their ain # 8221 ; ( McCallum 2 ) . The 1890ss have been defined as the information age and truly so. Any person who accesses today # 8217 ; s broad assortment of electronic medium # 8211 ; computing machine, Internet, telecasting, wireless, compact discs, CD-ROMs, and interrelated libraries # 8211 ; finds ample information on any topic, irrespective of content. The nostalgic argue that when these childs contact this immense bombardment of # 8216 ; obnoxious # 8217 ; stuff without counsel from parents, the material Acts of the Apostless as a alternate female parent, reding the kids with unwanted picks. Such picks include rash force. Television permeates every countrywide family, and its wavering visible radiation is the de facto baby-sitter for overworked and underpaid parents, who frequently have to back up the household without the partner nowadays. Their version of a modern parent falls victim to the media # 8217 ; s concealed messages. The media portrays pas in defaulter ways that do non reflect on existent parents. In films like the Shining, the male parent was an opprobrious alky and blame music epitomizes hapless illustrations of defaulter pas and their cleft addicted individual female parents. As a consequence female parents are more probably to ditch their fellow of hubby for individual parentage convinced they will raise the kid in a better environment without the male parent. In decision, # 8220 ; what you have is an full-scale war on parents, the consequence of which is finally the diminution of civic virtuousness and the overall public assistance of the state # 8221 ; ( Schaffer 2 ) . Taging along with the nostalgia motion is a new adult females # 8217 ; s motion that tries to change by reversal the effects of the first ( Paul 64 ) . Shalit, in her book Returning to Modesty: Detecting the Lost Virtue, points out that the societal patterned advances has left adult females is poorer status than before the motion started ( Paul 64 ) . Our female parents tell us we shouldn # 8217 ; t want to give up all the hard-won # 8216 ; additions # 8217 ; they nave bequeathed us, and we think: what additions? Sexual torment, day of the month colza, slaking, eating upsets, all those drab hook-ups? Or possibly it # 8217 ; s the great addition of divorce you had in head. ( Paul 64 ) The branchings, at least to these supervising parents, of life in the current structured rearing environment of the United States is huge and include an addition in the rate of offense, teenage gestations, drugs, colza, divorce, hapless relationships, and maltreatment. Those with a # 8220 ; proper # 8221 ; upbringing, a hopelessly indefinable and impossibly Utopian word, commit less violent Acts of the Apostless. The pivoting branching, and a cardinal pivot for both this paper and the emerging nostalgia motion is the possible loss of # 8220 ; artlessness # 8221 ; . Artlessness to advocates peers the deficiency of harming kids ( oppositions deny the happening ) by cutting kids # 8217 ; s exposure to all grownup stuff. The word grownup is non used in the traditional pornographic sense, but as a general class specifying all information that the mean kid should non know. This includes such subjects as sex, matrimony, work, and force. Now, as information quickly increases, the haste to protect childs from this entrance blow additions. Today artlessness, the stray and lit room in a sign of the zodiac of desperation, could be defined as an flight from the informational age. Open the door, and the visible radiation ( artlessness ) escapes, everlastingly departed. Knowledge is powerful material ; that # 8217 ; s why we keep it off from little kids. And its shy we must maintain some of it for ourselves. In careless of unscrupulous custodies, cognition is unsafe and the inexperienced person are powerless to oppose it ( Paul 65 ) . A few grownups are even going sick of the sum of information: # 8220 ; Our clip # 8217 ; s tree of cognition is so heavy with apples that we # 8217 ; ve adult sick of savoring them # 8221 ; ( Paul 65 ) . The Medveds, writers of Salvaging Childhood: Protecting Our Child From the Natural Assault on Innocence, say # 8220 ; the secrets of maturity are rough, morbid, oppressive, and seamy, # 8221 ; conveying nil but # 8220 ; duties, problems, loads and the potency for depression and somberness # 8221 ; ( Paul 64 ) and Shalit says the loss of artlessness causes most immature adult females # 8217 ; s jobs including eating upsets and disappointing relationships. Jeffery Schwartz sums up the statement: artlessness is # 8220 ; the highest of human achievements # 8221 ; and # 8220 ; the specifying grade of those who have achieved echt triumph in confronting life # 8217 ; s countless challenges # 8221 ; ( Paul 64 ) . Many of the implicit in jobs remain changeless throughout the decennary, including guaranting that the household had a sensible criterion of life, taking attention of their kids # 8217 ; s growing and development, and keeping their committedness to the partners they swore to stay with until after decease, ( West 1 ) yet the mean American household today can non run into these new load. The consequence? Just pick a job and fill in the space. An sum of these aforementioned jobs may be rightly deserved, but without a comparing to the past so the present conditions can non be analyzed. Each decennary is shaped by a series of events that frequently dictate the result of the ensuing socioeconomic conditions. An probe begins with an speculative expression into the events taking up the fiftiess. The 1950s were an sole merchandise of the great depression and World War II. The great depression hit America like an oppressive summer heat moving ridge, a changeless baleful presence of uncomfortableness which is utterly ineluctable. Unemployment rose quickly as occupation net incomes decreased quickly, thrusting households into terrible economic adversity, unquotable in America # 8217 ; s history. So, as with any unnatural circumstance, worlds compensated. Peoples became overzealous fiscal rescuers. Every cent was spend on the bare necessities of life. Merely a few had the money to pass on otiose points ( Raasch ) . World War II brought Americans out of the great depression. From the dust-covered soil bowl to the harrying meat bombers euphemistically called the frontlines, trudged a line of immature soldiers dripping with thoughts and bravery, both of which would be viciously tested. At place adult females entered the work force to back up their boies and hubbies across seas. With postings like # 8220 ; Rosie the Riviter # 8221 ; spurring on the hardworking advocates at place, adult females diligently assembled much of the machinery that finally made its manner over to Europe ( Raasch ) . These adult females began to roll up money, but were unable and unwilling to pass it, due to war deficits and preservation of popular goods and the ideals necessarily left over from the Great Depression. Alternatively, households across the United States began to roll up nest eggs ( Raasch ) . World War Two revitalized the American economic system. Removed geographically from the snake pit overseas and the old ages of painful rehabilitation of the landscapes, political systems, and economic systems, the war scarred United States plunged lustfully into work. Factories proliferated like fruit flies across the state, and citizens trailed the growing, forcing America into the most powerful economic force in the universe ( Raasch ) . Fiscal security allowed adult females for the first clip in several decennaries to remain place and raise the household planned during the adversity. Womans could and did remain place with childs during that decennary # 8211 ; the resources existed for this. Women besides found that with the return of the work forces, most occupations were replaced by work forces. Womans did non yet have the societal backup to go on in the typical male dominated occupations ( Raasch ) . So far, an about post card perfect image. However, the 1950s, despite this frontage of cloud nine, hid immense vesiculation jobs that overcome the 1990s troubles and for good cloud over the coevals. Adolescents formed immense packs. A scenario plays our beautifully in the Movie Matinee as a pack terrorizes the town, over a background of missiles pointed at the Untied States from Cuba. The film is upseting because this film is a diversion of an existent event ( Matinee ) . Following World War II, Americans fell into the cold war. The cold war lacked the unfastened combat and bloodshed ; alternatively the cold war stirred a changeless background emphasis. Nuclear arms proliferated exponentially in Russia and the United States, and the respective leaders wove them around trusting the other state would endorse down. Alternatively both the United States and Russia pulled new engineering from their pocketbooks and coercing the other to reciprocate ( Raasch ) . As the engineering race continued, Americans geared for the wake and tried non to think of the inevitable, arrant, and complete obliteration of both the United States and the USSR. Families spent weekends constructing a bomb shelter. Schools sporadically held pattern drills where childs slipped under their desks, doubtless all inquiring how the thin sheet of plyboard over their caputs would salvage them from the devastation of the atomic bomb, a bomb that in Japan reduced great buildings to crumbles and threw the lasting shadows of ashen-reduced people onto walls ( Raasch ) . Meanwhile in the South a civil rights conflict loomed as inkinesss, tired of the apartheid imposed by the Ku Klux Klan ( KKK ) and mean white citizens struggled to derive equal rights, a warrant under the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the fundamental law. Most minorities struggled with subjugation in a white male dominated society, an frequently unmarked status in the desire to exchange back to the fiftiess ( Raasch ) . Advancement to 1999, the last twelvemonth before the nothing axial rotation about on the Christian calendar # 8217 ; s mileometer. Crime still besieges society, albeit of a different type, and the atomic household prevalence decreased. In the past decennary Americans endured terrorist onslaughts and infinite school shots. I one opens the newspaper, the calamities spill Forth. However, in visible radiation of the jobs of the 1950s the charge sparks, an apocalypse non. The 1950s and the 1990s are utterly and wholly d ifferent. The 1950s was a post-war clip, where absolutely unreproducible affects kept ma at place. The 1990s is a engineering loaded information society, where media pries into corners and brings jobs into greater visible radiation including force, colza, birth control, and AIDS. The sum of atomic households decreased ( Two 1 ) , yet the cause for the dissolve of the household outweighs the troubles, the equalisation of adult females in the work force. No thirster do female parents trust on the male # 8217 ; s income, they can last on their ain. Their ties of aid flutter free and the American adult females becomes free since the American ideals put forth in the fundamental law. These new freedoms allow adult females to interrupt free of restricting and bad matrimonies and venture into traditionally male functions. Crime evidently is a challenge to modern politicians. The job states itself clearly from the bold type decorating the front lines of newspapers countrywide. Our troubles are now. Yet when reexamining the yesteryear, the media is non invariably reminding us of it. The repeat of stuff does lodge in our caput, like the unerasable dad vocal trailing about in our caputs. The force and maltreatment still existed, nevertheless in the 1950s mass media had non expanded to its current size. Modern statistics of colza, kid maltreatment and other domestic jobs are higher in portion because of the deficiency of instruction on these social ailments. Today more instances are reported to governments, thanks to instruction from this # 8220 ; evil # 8221 ; media. Yes, these atrocious jobs were present, merely hidden from the memories of modern naysayers. Demographics reveal that Americans grow up in progressively diverse households. For a tendency probably to go on in the hereafter, and that harmonizing to some is a # 8220 ; irreversible historical fact the household diverseness is here to remain, # 8221 ; ( Schaffer 3 ) such onslaughts hurt diverse households and the kids whose kids face small sick consequence from the modern-day upbringing. Many sociologists argue that # 8220 ; Family values runs put individual parent households unjustly second-rate or best # 8221 ; ( Schaffer 1 ) . Using the same method for which they are so vehemently opposed ( aggregate media ) , many conservative organisations campaign on behalf of the supposed high quality of married-couple atomic households, flourishing all other sorts of households mediocre # 8211 ; or worse ( Schaffer 1 ) Quality is much more of import than gender construction, non whether a house contains a adult male, adult females, girl, boy, three Carassius auratus, and a aureate lab named Max. # 8220 ; However good intended and appealing, most of the claims made by household values reformers are blatantly faithlessly every bit good as destructive # 8221 ; ( Schaffer 1 ) . A high struggle matrimony is more detrimental to a kid than a divorce, yet these groups urge parents to remain together at all costs. Consequences come from a Kaiser Permanete survey show that 68 per centum of # 8220 ; youth extremely exposed to safety menaces lived in two parent places # 8221 ; ( Shaffer 2 ) . If the young person was to be separated from such jobs, so they have a better opportunity for success. This assault endangers childs by advancing parental struggle, devastation, and fraud ( Schaffer 2 ) . If the accusals were merited in difficult informations, so their rhetoric deserves much attending. However, right now, small grounds points either manner. The information they base their campaigns on is inconclusive, as this sociologist said. As a sociologist, I can certify there is perfectly no consensus among societal scientists on household values, on the high quality of the heterosexual atomic household, or on the supposed evil effects of fatherlessness. The claim that integral two-parent households are inherently superior remainders entirely on the abuse of statistics and on the most simple societal scientific discipline wickednesss # 8211 ; portraying correlativities as though there were causes, disregarding mediating factors, and treated little, overlapping differences as gross and absolute ( Schaffer 2,3 ) A losing male parent is non the apocalypse some suggest. In a Kaiser survey, 44 per centum of troubled teens talk to their female parent ; 26 per centum to monsters ; and merely 10 per centum talk to their male parents. A losing individual, while still perchance impacting the kid, has non the raved impact ( Schaffer 1 ) . # 8220 ; Poverty and unemployment can more faithfully predict who will get married, divorce, or commit or endure domestic or societal force than can the best toned step of values yet devised # 8221 ; ( Schaffer 3 ) . Harping on the high quality of married biological parents and the immoralities of fatherlessness injures kids and parents in a broad array of modern-day households, including those with homosexual or sapphic parents # 8221 ; ( Schaffer 3 ) . These parents desiring to travel back to the 1950s clasp these few treasures of the 1950s coal pile in their custodies and wish life could be like the epitomized dreams the memories have become. Absent from these treasures is the pecking idea of the absence of minority and black rights, the changeless fright of decease, the inability of adult females to secure a occupation in male dominated occupations, and the old hurting of World War II and the great depression. Obviously the work environment changed. More adult females are in the work force, both for the enjoyment of work and to back up their childs. Their types of occupations have changed as the old barriers that kept them from modern-day male dominated occupations have been outlawed. Companies, due to increasing outside and inside force per unit area, have restructured the work environment for maximal net income, an action that is non inherently bad. Maximal net incomes besides comes through employee trueness and dedication, both of which take enterprise on the employers portion to supply the worker with a positive work environment. Most parents, unlike claims, do non get away into work from the household. In an Ohio Study 66 % per centum of respondents said that work is non a alleviation from household and 86 % said they wanted to pass more clip with the household. 77 % of respondents were more # 8220 ; fulfilled at place # 8221 ; and 90 % were happier. Obviously work is non a alleviation from household ( U of C 1 ) . The conditions of the 1990s are different non worse ; returning to the 1950s is an absurd misconception. The 1950s was neer perfect, the lone household that was perfect was the Television situation comedy households, who existed merely in Hollywood. If this is true, than they fall for the really same error they reprimand modern society for, ideals and Television. Despite mundane jobs, the conditions that the mean kid has improved, non diminished. The societal ailments that might hold resulted from the alterations far outweigh the disadvantages. This action is possible but the stairss required to change by reversal society to the 1950s situation comedy would be boundlessly immense. First, extinguish any kind of modern communications devices: a computing machine, facsimile machine, electronic mail, beeper # 8211 ; points the advocators say cause the loss of artlessness. Second, present the changeless force per unit area of obliteration. Third, extinguish the additions in adult females # 8217 ; s rights and minority rights. Fourth, extinguish the modern presence of the media that piece can be rough for many kids does assist convey forth ailments and supply childs with instruction into maturity. Those parents who keep their childs sanctioned from # 8220 ; the existent universe # 8221 ; face the troubles of taking their childs from a radically different outside universe. A few parents view that kids should be kept free from the presence of any kind of harmful media. While they doubtless they feel that their kid is protected from injury, these parents fail to recognize the ailments when they release an uneducated kid into the universe. For protecting against colza, and other offense, instruction is the biggest bar. Educating kids about these jobs and the motivations behind such actions does necessitate overprotective parents to dig into the forbidden field of sexual instruction. The nostalgic say that kids are unready for any kind of trial. Information desensitizes childs # 8211 ; no thirster is right and incorrect presented in either a smiling or a spanking. Without clear way and parental authorization at place, these nostalgic parents warn that kids will turn up to an grownup who can non state right from incorrect. The emerging books from writers like Shalit, who is non even a sociologist, necessarily harm kids. # 8220 ; These books have a more insidious message: they equate artlessness with ignorance # 8221 ; ( Paul 62 ) . A parent excessively affecting themselves in a kid # 8217 ; s life is a hapless pick, frequently taking to rebellious as the kid tries to get away from the bounds placed on him or her. Impacts do be by taking a child from outside resources. If a kid is guided though reading of # 8216 ; grownup # 8217 ; knowledge the kid will beready to manage the outside universe. Frequently those like Wendy Shalit # 8220 ; misidentify the recognition of colza for its happening and chooses the illusive security of ignorance over the ambiguous wagess of world # 8221 ; . Womans who reject artlessness will # 8220 ; derive a field of vision free from the modern equivalents of powered whiffs and sunshades and downcast ciliums # 8221 ; ( Paul 65 ) Educated kids fare better when released into the universe: they have taken the first measure. When a protected kid is released into the outside universe, they have non had the rational preparation to manage the jobs grownups must confront. Plus, overprotective parents frequently have to cover with the rebellion of their childs, a rather dry consequence when the kid delves merrily into the mayhem which the parents tried so difficult to protect the kid against. The Medveds merely let six hours of G rated videos per hebdomad, the oldest kid can non read a book after 1960, and any kind of piquing stuff is turned off. # 8220 ; Should the intelligence come on during the household # 8217 ; s Sunday drives, the lb parents recount, # 8216 ; our kids instantly beg us to turn off the wireless, # 8217 ; lest they hear something that # 8216 ; spoils ther contentment # 8217 ; and when a haunting vocal from the soundtrack of showboat [ plays ] , their girls scream # 8220 ; fast forward! fast frontward! # 8221 ; because they # 8220 ; wouldn # 8217 ; t even see wordss that predict unhappiness or problem on the skyline # 8217 ; # 8221 ; ( Paul 64 ) . Last, cognition will be with us ; better acquire used to it. In the information age one can non get away the bombardment and why should they? Equally long as a parent is at that place to steer a kid cognition can be a fantastic thing. This essay does non understate the importance of parents ; they remain every bit indispensable as of all time. However to boldly state that society diminished is a sentiment rooted in half forgotten memories. Today there is so much more for a kid to larn and make, and every kid has an equal opportunity to achieve these ends. To return back to the 1950s is a end stemming from defeat of a coevals of parents, a defeat that while frequently justified, is non solvable with a blind spring to an American civilization every bit different as the 1850s to the 1900s. So allow the action halt where most grandparents halt: # 8220 ; life was better when I was a kid # 8221 ; . Undoubtedly today # 8217 ; s current coevals will be stating the same thing excessively. Boes # 8220 ; Convention on the Rights of the Child # 8221 ; America # 8212 ; America Child Rights Boes.org Gardner, Geroge E. The Emerging Personality: Infancy Through Adolescence New York: Delacorte Press, 1970. McCallum, Albert A. # 8220 ; Who Will Raise the Children # 8221 ; Prostitutes, Margarine, and Handguns. 15 Apr. 1999 Orwell, George. # 8220 ; A Child # 8217 ; s Life # 8221 ; A Collection of Essaies. Sand Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1946. Paul, Annie M. # 8220 ; The New Age on innocence. # 8221 ; Psychology Today. April 1999: 62-66 Schaffer, Scott. # 8220 ; Bad Review: The War Against Parents # 8221 ; Rev. of The War Against Parents by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Cornel Stacey, Judith. # 8220 ; The Father Fixation # 8221 ; In the Name of the Family: Rethinking Family Valuess in a Postmodern Age 5 May 1999 Raasch, Brian. Personal Interview. 14 Apr. 1998 West. 1 Nov. 1998 Bad Subjects: Political Education for Everyday Life. 13 Apr. 1999 UCSF # 8220 ; The California Work and Health Survey # 8212 ; 1998 Story # 2: The State of Working Parents in California Graphic Summary for Publication September 8, 1998. # 8221 ; 8 Sept. 1998 University of California at San Fransisco. 12 Apr. 1998 U of C # 8220 ; May 8, 1998 Release From the Survey of Ohio # 8217 ; s Working Families: New Family and Work Survey at University of Cincinnati Fund Family is Where the Heart is. # 8221 ; University of Cincinnati/The Kunz Center for the Study of Work and Family 9 Apr. 1998 White, Burton L. The First Years of Life. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1975. shapeType20lineWidth22225lineColor13948116fShadow1shadowOffsetX0shadowOffset Y-12700shadowOriginY32385 Bibliography Boes # 8220 ; Convention on the Rights of the Child # 8221 ; America # 8212 ; America Child Rights Boes.org Cullen, Loanda # 8220 ; Confronting the Myths of Single Parenting # 8221 ; Single Parenting in the Ninetiess 15 Apr. 1998. Champion Press. 9 April 1999 Gardner, Geroge E. The Emerging Personality: Infancy Through Adolescence New York: Delacorte Press, 1970. Gesell, Arnold, Frances L. Ilg, and Louise Bates Ames. Infant and Child in the Culture of Today: The Guidance of Development in Home and Nursery School. 1943. New York: Harper and Row, 1974. McCallum, Albert A. # 8220 ; Who Will Raise the Children # 8221 ; Prostitutes, Margarine, and Handguns. 15 Apr. 1999 Orwell, George. # 8220 ; A Child # 8217 ; s Life # 8221 ; A Collection of Essays. Sand Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1946. Paul, Annie M. # 8220 ; The New Age on innocence. # 8221 ; Psychology Today. April 1999: 62-66 Piaget, Jean. The Child and Reality: Problems of Genetic Psychology. New York: Grossman Publishers, 1973 Schaffer, Scott. # 8220 ; Bad Review: The War Against Parents # 8221 ; Rev. of The War Against Parents by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Cornel Stacey, Judith. # 8220 ; The Father Fixation # 8221 ; In the Name of the Family: Rethinking Family Valuess in a Postmodern Age 5 May 1999 Raasch, Brian. Personal Interview. 14 Apr. 1998# 8220 ; Two Parent Families by Cultural Group: 1994 US Census Data # 8221 ; University of Virginia. 5 May 1999 West. 1 Nov. 1998 Bad Subjects: Political Education for Everyday Life. 13 Apr. 1999 UCSF # 8220 ; The California Work and Health Survey # 8212 ; 1998 Story # 2: The State of Working Parents in California Graphic Summary for Publication September 8, 1998. # 8221 ; 8 Sept. 1998 University of California at San Fransisco. 12 Apr. 1998 U of C # 8220 ; May 8, 1998 Release From the Survey of Ohio # 8217 ; s Working Families: New Family and Work Survey at University of Cincinnati Fund Family is Where the Heart is. # 8221 ; University of Cincinnati/The Kunz Center for the Study of Work and Family 9 Apr. 1998 White, Burton L. The First Years of Life. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1975.

Discuss the disclosure of risks arising from defined benefit plans by Essay

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Friedrich Nietzsche Essay Existentialism provides a moving account of the agony of being in the world. The spirit of existen- tialism has a long history in philosophy. But it be- came a major movement in the second half of the 20th century. Existentialism is not a systematic body of thought like Marxism or psychoanalysis. Instead, it is more like an umbrella under which a very wide range of thinkers struggled with ques- tions about the meaning of life. Much of the appeal and popularity of Existential- ism is due to the sense of confusion, the crisis, and the feeling of rejection and rootlessness that Euro- peans felt during World War II and its aftermath. Existentialism’s focus on each person’s role in cre- ating meaning in their life was a major influence on the Phenomenological and Humanistic traditions in psychology and on the â€Å"human potential† move- ment that emerged from them. Rene Descartes (1596-1650) said, â€Å"Conquer your- self rather than the world. †. To modern existential- ists this means that the World itself has no real meaning or purpose. It is not the unfolding expres- sion of Human Destiny or a Divine plan, or even a set of natural laws. The only meaning is that which we create by acts of will. To have a meaningful life we have to act. But we should act without hope. Acting is meaningful but it doesn’t create meaning that lasts beyond the acts themselves or beyond our own lifetime. You are what you do – while you are doing it – and then nothing. (Very depressing. ) In The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus (pronounced â€Å"Kam-moo†) (1913-1960) describes life as a kind of hopeless, endless, uphill labor. Hence, the only true problem is that of suicide. Yet, he rejects nihilism; for the human being must fight and never accept defeat. The problem is to be a saint without a God. The last judgment takes place everyday. The human being must do his best, try for what he can within the confinements of his situation. Camus describes Sisyphus condemned by the gods to push a stone up a hill over and over, only to have it roll back down each time he reaches the top. A task that can never be completed. But he finds meaning in the fact that Sisyphus at least gets to decide each time whether to carry on or end it all. Camus says, The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a mans heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. Although there can never be any meaning in Sisy- phus’ task, there is meaning is choosing each time to continue. Despite encompassing a staggering range of phi- losophical, religious, and political ideologies, the underlying concepts of existentialism are simple: Mankind has free will. Life is a series of choices, creating stress. Few decisions are without any negative conse- quences. Some things are irrational or absurd, without explanation. If one makes a decision, he or she must follow through. Notes on Existentialism by Tanweer Akram. The fundamental problem of existentialism is con- cerned with the study of being. The human beings existence is the first and basic fact; the human be- ing has no essence that comes before his existence. The human being, as a being, is nothing. This nothingness and the non-existence of an essence is the central source of the freedom the human being faces in each and every moment. The human being Notes on Existentialism Compiled for PSY 345 (Fall 2004) Existentialism Notes 2 has liberty in view of his situation, in decisions which makes himself and sets himself to solves his problems and live in the world. Thrown into the world, the human being is con- demned to be free. The human being must take this freedom of being and the responsibility and guilt of his actions. Each action negates the other possible courses of action and their consequences; so the human being must be accountable without excuse. The human being must not slip away from his re- sponsibilities. The human being must take deci- sions and assume responsibilities. There is no sig- nificance in this world, this universe. The human being cannot find any purpose in life; his existence is only a contingent fact. His being does not emerge from necessity. If a human being rejects the false pretensions, the illusions of his existence hav- ing a meaning, he encounters the absurdity, the fu- tility of life. The human beings role in the world is not predetermined or fixed; every person is com- pelled to make a choice. Choice is one thing the human being must make. The trouble is that most often the human being refuses to choose. Hence, he cannot realize his freedom and the futility of his existence. Basically existence is of two types: authentic and inauthentic forms of existence. Authentic existence is contrasted with dynamic and is the being-for- itself, rising from the human beings bad faith, by which the human being moves away from the bur- den of responsibility, through this beliefs in dogma and by regarding himself as subject to outside in- fluences and his actions to be predetermined. There is a striking contrast between the authentic and the inauthentic forms of being; the authentic being is the being of the human being and the inau- thentic being is the being for things. Yet, authentic being is only rarely attained by the human being; still it is what the human being must strive to gain. The inauthentic being-in-itself is characteristically distinctive of things; it is what the human being is diseased with for his failure to see himself as and act according as a free agent and his impotency to reject bad faith. Things are only what they are. But the human being is what can be. Things are deter- mined, fixed, and rigid; the human being is free; he can add essence to his life in the course of his life and he is in a constant state of flux and is able to comprehend his situation. The human being does not live in a pre-determined world; the human be- ing is free to realize his aims, to materialize his dreams; hence, he has only the destiny he forges for himself because in this world nothing happens out of necessity. The human being hides himself from freedom by self-deception, acting like a thing, as if he is a pas- sive subject, instead of realizing the authentic be- ing for the human being; this is bad faith. In bad faith, the human being shelter himself from re- sponsibility by not noticing the dimensions of al- ternative courses of action facing him; in bad faith, the human being behaves as others demand of him by conforming to the standards of accepted values and by adopting roles designed for him; in bad faith, the human being loses the autonomy of his moral will, his freedom to decide; in bad faith, the human being imprisons himself within inauthentic- ity for he has refused to take the challenge of re- sponsibility and the anxiety that comes along with his freedom. Anxiety ascends from the human beings realiza- tion that the human beings destiny is not fixed but is open to an undetermined future of infinite possi- bilities and limitless scope: The emptiness of fu- ture destiny must be filled by making choices for which he alone will assume responsibility and blame. This anxiety is present at every moment of the human beings existence; anxiety is part and parcel of authentic existence. Anxiety leads the human being to take decisions and be committed. The human being tries to avoid this anguish through bad faith. But the free human being, in his authenticity, must be involved; for his own actions are only his, his responsibility is to himself, his being is his own. The human being must be com- mitted. To be committed means not to support this in place of that, but to attach a human beings total- ity to a cause; it is the human beings existential freedom that leads to total commitment. Existentialist thinkers begin from the human situa- tion in the world; the condition of despair, the modes of existence, the human beings tendency to avoid authentic existence, his relation to things, his own body, and to other beings, with whom he can- not come into genuine communication, and the sufferings of life. Starting from the study of being, each existentialist thinkers originate their own doc- trines, with their own emphasis on particular as- pects. Very often their viewpoints is conflicting and sometimes contradictory; yet this philosophi-cal attitude of being, as a whole, can be described as the existentialist movement, which stresses upon the being of the human being. Existentialism Notes 3 Additional Notes on Existentialism Existentialism, philosophical movement or ten- dency, emphasizing individual existence, freedom, and choice, that influenced many diverse writers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Major Themes Because of the diversity of positions associated with existentialism, the term is impossible to define precisely. Certain themes common to virtually all existentialist writers can, however, be identified. The term itself suggests one major theme: the stress on concrete individual existence and, consequently, on subjectivity, individual freedom, and choice. Moral Individualism Most philosophers since Plato have held that the highest ethical good is the same for everyone; inso- far as one approaches moral perfection, one resem- bles other morally perfect individuals. The 19th- century Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, who was the first writer to call himself existential, reacted against this tradition by insisting that the highest good for the individual is to find his or her own unique vocation. As he wrote in his journal, â€Å"I must find a truth that is true for me . . . the idea for which I can live or die. † Other existentialist writers have echoed Kierkegaards belief that one must choose ones own way without the aid of universal, objective standards. Against the traditional view that moral choice involves an objective judgment of right and wrong, existentialists have argued that no objective, rational basis can be found for moral decisions. The 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche further contended that the indi- vidual must decide which situations are to count as moral situations. SubjectivityAll existentialists have followed Kierkegaard in s tressing the importance of passionate individual action in deciding questions of both morality and truth. They have insisted, accordingly, that per- sonal experience and acting on ones own convic- tions are essential in arriving at the truth. Thus, the understanding of a situation by someone involved in that situation is superior to that of a detached, objective observer. This emphasis on the perspec- tive of the individual agent has also made existen- tialists suspicious of systematic reasoning. Kierke- gaard, Nietzsche, and other existentialist writers have been deliberately unsystematic in the exposi- tion of their philosophies, preferring to express themselves in aphorisms, dialogues, parables, and other literary forms. Despite their antirationalist position, however, most existentialists cannot be said to be irrationalists in the sense of denying all validity to rational thought. They have held that rational clarity is desirable wherever possible, but that the most important questions in life are not accessible to reason or science. Furthermore, they have argued that even science is not as rational as is commonly supposed. Nietzsche, for instance, asserted that the scientific assumption of an orderly universe is for the most part a useful fiction. Choice and Commitment Perhaps the most prominent theme in existentialist writing is that of choice. Humanitys primary dis- tinction, in the view of most existentialists, is the freedom to choose. Existentialists have held that human beings do not have a fixed nature, or es- sence, as other animals and plants do; each human being makes choices that create his or her own na- ture. In the formulation of the 20th-century French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, existence precedes essence. Choice is therefore central to human exis- tence, and it is inescapable; even the refusal to choose is a choice. Freedom of choice entails com- mitment and responsibility. Because individuals are free to choose their own path, existentialists have argued, they must accept the risk and respon- sibility of following their commitment wherever it leads. Dread and Anxiety Kierkegaard held that it is spiritually crucial to rec- ognize that one experiences not only a fear of spe- cific objects but also a feeling of general apprehen- sion, which he called dread. He interpreted it as Gods way of calling each individual to make a commitment to a personally valid way of life. The word anxiety (German Angst) has a similarly cru- cial role in the work of the 20th-century German philosopher Martin Heidegger; anxiety leads to the individuals confrontation with nothingness and with the impossibility of finding ultimate justifica- tion for the choices he or she must make. In the philosophy of Sartre, the word nausea is used for the individuals recognition of the pure contin- gency of the universe, and the word anguish is used for the recognition of the total freedom of choice that confronts the individual at every mo- ment. Existentialism Notes 4 History Existentialism as a distinct philosophical and liter- ary movement belongs to the 19th and 20th centu- ries, but elements of existentialism can be found in the thought (and life) of Socrates, in the Bible, and in the work of many premodern philosophers and writers. Pascal The first to anticipate the major concerns of mod- ern existentialism was the 17th-century French phi- losopher Blaise Pascal. Pascal rejected the rigorous rationalism of his contemporary Rene Descartes, asserting, in his Pensees (1670), that a systematic philosophy that presumes to explain God and hu- manity is a form of pride. Like later existentialist writers, he saw human life in terms of paradoxes: The human self, which combines mind and body, is itself a paradox and contradiction. Kierkegaard Kierkegaard, generally regarded as the founder of modern existentialism, reacted against the system- atic absolute idealism of the 19th-century German philosopher G. W. F. Hegel, who claimed to have worked out a total rational understanding of hu- manity and history. Kierkegaard, on the contrary, stressed the ambiguity and absurdity of the human situation. The individuals response to this situation must be to live a totally committed life, and this commitment can only be understood by the indi- vidual who has made it. The individual therefore must always be prepared to defy the norms of soci- ety for the sake of the higher authority of a person- ally valid way of life. Kierkegaard ultimately advo- cated a â€Å"leap of faith† into a Christian way of life, which, although incomprehensible and full of risk, was the only commitment he believed could save the individual from despair. Nietzsche Nietzsche, who was not acquainted with the work of Kierkegaard, influenced subsequent existential- ist thought through his criticism of traditional metaphysical and moral assumptions and through his espousal of tragic pessimism and the life- affirming individual will that opposes itself to the moral conformity of the majority. In contrast to Kierkegaard, whose attack on conventional moral- ity led him to advocate a radically individualistic Christianity, Nietzsche proclaimed the â€Å"death of God† and went on to reject the entire Judeo- Christian moral tradition in favor of a heroic pagan ideal. Heidegger Heidegger, like Pascal and Kierkegaard, reacted against an attempt to put philosophy on a conclu- sive rationalistic basis—in this case the phenome- nology of the 20th-century German philosopher Edmund Husserl. Heidegger argued that humanity finds itself in an incomprehensible, indifferent world. Human beings can never hope to under- stand why they are here; instead, each individual must choose a goal and follow it with passionate conviction, aware of the certainty of death and the ultimate meaninglessness of ones life. Heidegger contributed to existentialist thought an original em- phasis on being and ontology as well as on lan- guage. Sartre Sartre first gave the term existentialism general currency by using it for his own philosophy and by becoming the leading figure of a distinct move- ment in France that became internationally influen- tial after World War II. Sartres philosophy is ex- plicitly atheistic and pessimistic; he declared that human beings require a rational basis for their lives but are unable to achieve one, and thus human life is a â€Å"futile passion. † Sartre nevertheless insisted that his existentialism is a form of humanism, and he strongly emphasized human freedom, choice, and responsibility. He eventually tried to reconcile these existentialist concepts with a Marxist analy- sis of society and history. Existentialism and Theology Although existentialist thought encompasses the uncompromising atheism of Nietzsche and Sartre and the agnosticism of Heidegger, its origin in the intensely religious philosophies of Pascal and Kierkegaard foreshadowed its profound influence on 20th-century theology. The 20th-century Ger- man philosopher Karl Jaspers, although he rejected explicit religious doctrines, influenced contempo- rary theology through his preoccupation with tran- scendence and the limits of human experience. The German Protestant theologians Paul Tillich and Rudolf Bultmann, the French Roman Catholic theologian Gabriel Marcel, the Russian Orthodox philosopher Nikolay Berdyayev, and the German Jewish philosopher Martin Buber inherited many Existentialism Notes 5 of Kierkegaards concerns, especially that a per- sonal sense of authenticity and commitment is es- sential to religious faith. Existentialism and Literature A number of existentialist philosophers used liter- ary forms to convey their thought, and existential- ism has been as vital and as extensive a movement in literature as in philosophy. The 19th-century Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky is probably the greatest existentialist literary figure. In Notes from the Underground (1864), the alienated anti- hero rages against the optimistic assumptions of rationalist humanism. The view of human nature that emerges in this and other novels of Dostoyevsky is that it is unpredictable and per- versely self-destructive; only Christian love can save humanity from itself, but such love cannot be understood philosophically. As the character Alyo- sha says in The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80), â€Å"We must love life more than the meaning of it. † In the 20th century, the novels of the Austrian Jew- ish writer Franz Kafka, such as The Trial (1925; trans. 1937) and The Castle (1926; trans. 1930), present isolated men confronting vast, elusive, menacing bureaucracies; Kafkas themes of anxi- ety, guilt, and solitude reflect the influence of Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky, and Nietzsche. The in- fluence of Nietzsche is also discernible in the nov- els of the French writers Andre Malraux and in the plays of Sartre. The work of the French writer Al- bert Camus is usually associated with existential- ism because of the prominence in it of such themes as the apparent absurdity and futility of life, the indifference of the universe, and the necessity of engagement in a just cause. Existentialist themes are also reflected in the theater of the absurd, nota- bly in the plays of Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco. In the United States, the influence of exis- tentialism on literature has been more indirect and diffuse, but traces of Kierkegaards thought can be found in the novels of Walker Percy and John Up- dike, and various existentialist themes are apparent in the work of such diverse writers as Norman Mailer, John Barth, and Arthur Miller. Conclusion Existentialists make endless claims. They never bother to show how they reached their claims or if these are, indeed, true. The existentialists when he pretends to present a representation of reality pro- vides no cognition; unverifiable assertions may well express powerful and even necessary emo- tions and passions, but thats best left to the arts and literature. Existentialism is a highly passionate philosophy and, from the outset, seems to aim at a dynamic and fashionable life-style. Also it is mostly unsys- tematic and pays little attention to logic or science. Whatever one makes of its metaphysical claims, one cannot deny that existentialism was able to provide a moving account of the spirit of the con- temporary world and the nausea and frustration of survival. Indeed, it is basically for its richness in psychological insight and its impact on culture that existentialist philosophy will continued to be stud- ied.

Traditional Budgetting Essay Example for Free

Traditional Budgetting Essay Essay: â€Å"Traditional budgeting is counterproductive in today’s fast paced and highly competitive environment. Instead of tinkering with current budgeting systems, managers would be better off abandoning budgeting altogether – that is, companies should move beyond budgeting.† Discuss Introduction In the worsening economic conditions we live in today the question of the efficiency of budgets is constantly being discussed. â€Å"The usefulness of budgets has generated much recent discussion and debate. Though budgets are useful for coordination, communication, and performance evaluation, many people consider them the cause of gaming and earnings manipulation by managers, time-consuming and costly to develop, and a barrier to change. †(Murray-Lindsay and Libby, 2007) Van Mourik (2006) states, â€Å"Research suggests that 80% of companies are dissatisfied with their planning and budgeting processes and it has been estimated that these processes use up to 20% of all management time.† Research completed by Schmidt (1992) states, â€Å"In a study of 10 large energy, transportation and banking companies, we found that, on average, the equivalent of 5% of all staff employees were devoted full-time to budgeting activities. At one of these companies, which has a staff-support team of 3,000 employees, 160 employees devote time to aspect of budgeting. â€Å"Total budgetary costs in this company â€Å"may exceed $20 million a year†. I believe if a company is investing this much time and money in the process they should trust it whole heartedly but alas even a company with that much committed to the process are voicing their concerns at the process. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, is attributed as saying, â€Å"the budget is the bane of corporate America.† (Daum, 2002) There are those that plump for the abolishing of budgets altogether, â€Å"Budgeting, as most corporations practice it, should be abolished. That may sound like a radical proposition, but it would be merely the culmination of long-running efforts to transform organizations from centralized hierarchies into devolved networks that allow for nimble adjustments to market conditions.† (Fraser and Hope, 2003) On the other side of the argument lie those who will openly agree that that the current budgeting techniques are not without their faults but they argue for the adaption of current techniques for the improvement of the company as a whole. â€Å"In recent times, headlines have appeared whose controversial nature have gained attention, for example ‘beyond budgeting’ and ‘who needs budgets?’ (Hope and Fraser, 1997, 2000) and which might have great emotional appeal to managers. As we shall see, less controversial and arguably, more appropriate, alternative headlines could be ‘time to change the nature of our budgets’ and ‘time to change how we use budgets’. (Van Mourik, 2006) In this paper I will outline: 1. The problems with current budgeting. 2. The arguments for abandoning budgets altogether. 3. The adaption of current budgeting techniques. 4. Give my thoughts on which is the best way forward for modern day budgeting. Criticisms of Budgeting Budgets as they stand currently are laden with criticisms. â€Å"Our study indicates that the budget process is obsolete given today’s economy, resulting in documents that are time-consuming to produce, of little predictive value, subject to gamesmanship and, quite frankly, out of date by the time they’re implemented.† (Doucet, 2002) â€Å"The budgeting process can often be bureaucratic and expensive, budgeting can fail to meet the needs of managers in competitive environments and budget systems can lead to managerial ‘gaming’ of the numbers.† (Lyne, 2004) â€Å"Budgeting seems almost totally divorced from the company’s overall strategic direction.† (Bourne, 2004) I feel that a document that is intended to help the company as a whole should at the very least be aligned with the company’s strategic goals. â€Å"Good budgeting comes down to trust, integrity and transparency.† (Jackson and Starovic, 2004) It can be argued that modern day budgets have none of these attributes. Management all seem to be in agreement that there are too many issues with budgets to make them worthwhile. According to Morlidge (2005), â€Å"Energy is focused inwards and not outwards. On negotiating targets, rather than on beating the competition. On sticking to ‘plans’, rather than responding to opportunities.† From my research I think Morlidge’s argument is very apt. Organisations are becoming more about beating the budget rather than making profits and beating the competitor. An example is cited in Jensen (2001) where, â€Å"The managers of one durable-goods manufacturer, struggling to make their minimum bonus hurdles, announced late one year that they would be raising the prices 10% across the board on January 2. The managers made the price hikes because they wanted to encourage customers to place orders by year-end so they could hit their annual sales goals. But the price increase was out of line with the competition and undoubtedly ended up costing the company sales and market share.† Budget makers should think to themselves how would they react faced with these goals? It promotes self interest over the best interests of the company, basic agency theory. This example leads me to believe that the tieing of budgets to performance evaluation encourages questionable and sometimes illegal behaviour in companies. This behaviour, â€Å"in most corporate cultures has become expected of responsible managers and board members.† (Jensen, 2003) Personally I feel that performance evaluation being tied to budgetary goals is not in the best interest of a company. If a company’s strategic goal is to develop its market share and boost profits then a budget should support these goals not openly conflict with them. â€Å"Budgets are created by looking back, when leaders should be looking forward. â€Å" (Ewing, 2006) Modern budgets encourage compliance and not enterprise. The same problems came up again and again in my research and gamesmanship seems to be at the heart of all that is wrong with budgeting. If management are to persist with budgeting I feel it is essential to remove the link between performance evaluation and remuneration. Abandoning Budgeting The Beyond Budgeting Round Table has stated, â€Å"the only way the inherent contradictions of the budgeting process can be resolved is by scrapping it altogether. It goes on to cite a number of companies that have ‘broken free from the shackles of budgeting and its culture of gaming and misinformation’.† (Bunce, 2004) Is abandoning the budgetary process really the way forward? Companies such as â€Å"Svenska Handelsbanken, Volvo Cars, IKEA, Borealis, Boots, Ericsson, Diageo, and British cider maker Bulmers† (Fraser and Hope, 2000) (Van Mourik, 2006) would all agree it is. These companies have all abandoned traditional budgeting in recent years and haven’t looked back. Svenska Handelsbanken a large bank in the Scandinavian area abandoned budgeting in the early 1970s. Since their change in philosophy they have outperformed their Scandinavian rivals on nearly every measure. Return on equity, total shareholder return, earnings per share, cost-to-income ratio, and most importantly customer satisfaction. Svenska in the late 1960s was losing customers and underperforming in the banking industry this all changed when they hired a new CEO by the name of Jan Wallander. Wallander only accepted the job on the condition that the bank would dramatically decentralize its operations. Svenska agreed and set in place a project that would change the face of their company. Nowadays the bank has only 3 organization layers – branch managers, regional managers, and the chief executive. This means the spans of control are very wide, stopping micro management. Each branch is free to set prices and discounts and to decide which products they will sell. The company operates its performance evaluation by putting their 11 regions in competition against each other like teams in a league. This competition is healthy for the business as each region is trying to outdo the other it is only in hindsight that they know how well they have performed relative to the other managers. This leads them to focus on maximising profits at all times rather than playing games with the numbers. This drastically differs from a budget where management have no incentive but to reach their preset goals. Beating the competition rather than some negotiated budget goes to the heart of the Handelsbanken model. (Hope and Fraser, 2003) (Gary, 2003) (Daum, 2002) (Cleary, 2012) Another example is Ahlsell, a Swedish wholesaler who abandoned budgeting in 1995. Since abandoning budgeting its main lines of business, electrical products, heating and plumbing have overtaken their Swedish counterparts in profitability. They changed their whole outlook on the budgets after suffering a slowdown in business in the early 1990s. Their organisational structure changed from one central command unit to giving responsibility to a large number of profit centres. Each profit centre competes against each other in the same way Svenska do. Local units have been freed to develop their own approaches in response to local conditions and customer demands. Key Performance Indicators are now used to set goals and impose controls for example the key indicators for the sales units are profit growth, return on sales and market share. These are all then compared against the competition which again incentivises the units to get the best possible result and not just to meet a target. (Hope and Fraser, 2003) (Daum, 2003) (Paludnach, 2003) From the above examples it is evident to me that company’s who are willing to put in the effort can abandon budgets and succeed. The above companies have not only had success but are leading their areas in most performance measures. Modifying Current Budgeting Although the corporate world is aware of the problems associated with budgeting most are set in their ways and feel there is a need for budgeting in all successful companies. â€Å"Companies that do without budgeting systems run the risk of being considered poorly managed.† (Jensen, 2003) The alternative to abandoning budgets completely is adapting the current processes to remove the chinks and have processes that are,†introducing new and more accurate financial models capable of linking budgeting to overall strategy. Research from the Accenture/Cranfield School of Management Study states that there is a correlation between companies modifying their budget processes and stock price performance.† (Doucet, 2002) One such modified budget technique is a Linear Compensation Plan. A linear compensation plan rewards actual performance, independent of budget targets. A manager receives the same bonus for a given level of performance whether the budget goal happens to be set beneath the level or above it. In simpler terms the linear compensation plan rewards people for what they actually do, not for what they do relative to what they say they can do. It removes the incentives to game the system. Managers no longer feel the need to provide inaccurate numbers to the budgetary process in order to low ball their goals. As a result the senior management receives unbiased estimates of what can be accomplished in the future. For lower level management it means they can stop wasting time spent on trying to game the budgetary system and this time can be dedicated to their real job: maximising the performance and value of their businesses. Removing the problems from the compensation system allows the budgeting process to do what it’s intended to do: provide the basis for good business decisions and enable the effective coordination of disparate units. (Jensen, 2001) (Jensen, 2003) Another option detailed in my research was Multidimensional budgeting (MDB). Multidimensional budgeting converts conventional budgets into formats that are more relevant to management. The main difference between a conventional budget and a Multidimensional budget is the conventional budget is broken down into four separate budgets. 1. The activity budget: This discloses how the company spends on specific tasks and the types of resources it devotes to them. It is useful for management as it enables them to look beyond the general ledger and probe the underlying work the organization performs. 2. The product budget: which states that each activity adds some value to a product for either and internal or an external customer. 3. The customer budget: This is created by matching products with their internal or external customers and shows the total spending proposed for each customer or customer service served by the budgeting entities. 4. The strategy budget: Provides a basis for determining whether proposed expenditures are aligned correctly with corporate, business and supporting strategies. By getting an in-depth breakdown of the processes in the company management can get insights into resource effectiveness and enables them to align resources with corporate strategies and customer needs. MDB can transform a company’s profitability and competitive position. (Schmidt, 1992) These new modified budgetary techniques are great in theory but these techniques may not be suitable for all companies. Research compiled by Cranfield School of Management states that leading companies these days are applying budgets that: 1. Have an external focus: what matters at the end of the day is their performance against competitors, not their results against an already out of date budget 2. Explicitly focused on strategy: They know that better financial performance ultimately comes from having and maintaining a competitive advantage 3. Use forecasting models, separate from their financial management system: These models are readily adaptable to changes in the business environment. The company is afforded a higher level of speed and flexibility. 4. Put their efforts into managing future results, not explaining past performance: They realise that endless scrutiny of past results adds little value. Instead they focus on taking actions that really do drive value. (Bourne, 2004) It is clear to me from the above evidence that wholesale changes to current budgetary processes could also be a way forward. The need for budgets in some organizations is evident and this could be a way to please both those who claim the current processes are unworkable and to those that are insistent that the company needs a budget. Conclusion From my research in the area of beyond budgeting I feel it is clear to all that budgeting in its current state is no use to anyone. It is full of legitimate problems whether it is the gaming of the numbers, or the vast amount of time that is going into producing; let’s face it, a nearly worthless document. But what is the way forward? The likes of Svenska Handelsbanken and Ahlsell have shown that organizations can not only function without budgets but can actually go on to thrive. There are then the arguments for adapting the current techniques to deal with the modern day climate. Multi dimensional budgeting and linear compensation plans are just two of the techniques I found in my research and both sound great in theory but not all of these processes will work in every organization. I believe the way forward to be adapting the current budgetary processes and continuing with some form of budgeting. The research that the Cranfield School of Management conducted shows me that companies are realising that budgets need to be adapted and the way they see to improve them is to add the four points listed above. The external focus is very important as evaluating a company against its nearest competitors is a much better fit than meeting predefined budgetary targets that were full of dishonest behaviour to begin with. Professor Andy Neely asserts that, â€Å"Firstly, companies can no longer justify the time and effort they invest in the budgeting process; Secondly, budgets have to be much more responsive, enabling nearly real-time tracking; and thirdly, management must understand that budgets cannot serve both as control and motivational devices. Companies that understand this and act on it are posed to enhance credibility and performance.† (Doucet, 2002) I feel with the adaption of the current techniques that all these criticisms, cited by Professor Neely, can be removed and the budgeting process can help lead a business through the tough current economic climate. I leave you with Miles Ewing’s take on the modern budget, it is very similar to my own outlook on the process. â€Å"Budgeting can be a powerful asset when leaders build in the flexibility that’s needed in this uncertain economy.† Bibliography 1. Bourne, M. (2004), â€Å"Driving Value through strategic planning and budgeting†, Paper presented at Better Budgeting: A report on the better budgeting forum from CIMA and IACEW, July 2004. 2. Bunce, P. (2004), â€Å"The beyond budgeting journey towards adaptive management†, Paper presented at Better Budgeting: A report on the better budgeting forum from CIMA and IACEW, July 2004. 3. Cleary, P. (2012), â€Å"Planning Budgetary Control Systems†, U.C.C Blackboard 4. Daum, J. (2003), Beyond Budgeting on the Move†, Report from the First Annual Beyond Budgeting Summit in London 5. Daum, J. (2002), â€Å"Beyond Budgeting: A Model for Performance Management and Controlling in the 21st Century?†,German Newsletter of Controlling Finance, July 2002. 6. Doucet, K. (2002), â€Å"Companies abandon traditional budgets to boost shareholder value†, CMA Management 2002. 7. Ewing, M. (2010), â€Å"Is it time to Abandon Budgeting?†, Deloitte Debates http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/us_consulting_AbandonBudgetingDebate_092111.pdf 8. Fraser, R., Hope, J. (2000), â€Å"Beyond Budgeting†, Strategic Finance, 4,30 9. Fraser, R., Hope, J. (2003), â€Å"Who needs Budgets?†, Harvard Business Review, Feb, Pg 108-115 10. Gary, L. (2003), â€Å"Why budgeting kills your company†, Harvard Management Update, May 11. Jackson, C. , Starovic, D. (2004), â€Å"Debating the traditional role of budgeting in organisations†, Paper presented at Better Budgeting: A report on the better budgeting forum from CIMA and IACEW, July 2004. 12. Jensen, M.C. (2003), â€Å"Paying People to Lie: The Truth about the Budgeting Process†, European Financial Management, 9, 3, 379-406 13. Jensen, M.C. (2001), â€Å"Corporate Budgeting is Broken – Lets fix it†, Harvard Business Review, Nov, 95-101 14. Libby, T., Murray-Lindsay, R. (2007), â€Å"Beyond Budgeting or Better Budgeting ?†,Strategic Finance, 89, 2, Pg 46 15. Lyne, S. (2004), â€Å"Beyond Budgeting or Better Budgeting†, Paper presented at Better Budgeting: A report on the better budgeting forum from CIMA and IACEW, July 2004. 16. Morlidge, S. (2005), â€Å"Life Beyond Budgets? An implementation story- Beyond Budgeting at Unilever†, Beyond Budgeting by