The Perception of Power Essay Example for Free

The Perception of Power Essay The idea of power is at times quite confusing.   Pinpointing an exact human quality or possession and labelling it ‘power’ is impossible, and to understand this key element in social dynamics we must look more deeply into our own lives and the lives of those around us.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Power dynamics are fluid, changing, and dependent on the specific situation. Each person in a conflict has some degree of power, though one party may have more compared to the other, and the power can shift during a conflict† (Barrosse, 2007, p. 104). According to Interpersonal Conflict power is a factor in every human relationship, and it plays a role in all that we do. Every situation is made of people, and each of those people has a certain amount of power – the amounts and the dynamics between the people will inevitably play out in either a show of conflict or of conformity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Barrosse also describes power as a kind of currency which can be traded around, used to achieve goals and also rendered useless in ‘foreign’ situations. â€Å"Just as money depends on the context in which it is to be spent, your power currencies depend on how much your particular resources are valued by the other persons in a relationship context† (Barrosse, 2007, p.106). Therefore, power is not solely inherit in an individual, but actually has only a relative existence. While most of us tend to perceive power as a trait that comes out of a person’s own character, it really only exists if that person is in a social group that understands and accepts that individual’s apparent power.   If taken away from his or her usual social group, a normally powerful person can be left with no influence and suffer a complete power loss. Essentially, one does not wield power outside of normal social context.   â€Å"Power depends on having currencies that other peopled need† (Barrosse, 2007, 106).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     The reason for this is simple; if you continue to think of power in terms of currency as Barrosse suggests (2007, p.106), and social groups as different countries, then you can see how powerful people experience difficulties when functioning outside their normal realm of social relationships.   What one group of people might value very highly in a person (thus giving them power) may not carry over to another group. For example, a powerful person in one group may be that way because he or she cooks very good Thai food for friends.   If that person were to associate with a new group of people who are not interested in dinner parties, or who eat only fast food, then that key to power is lost.   It’s all about key â€Å"resource control† (Barrosse, 2007, 107).   Power is all completely relative to the social group within which one lives his or her life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Conflict arises during a power shift.   When one or more people in a group decide to change their relative ranking, trouble can follow.   Barrosse says the key to conflict resolution lies in understanding that â€Å"each person firmly believes that the other person has more power† (2007, p.110). For people within a power struggle, it can be difficult to accept the fact that no one person might be right or wrong; the conflict is simply about the need for perceived power.   So how do we avoid conflict based on this simple, unavoidable power struggle?   â€Å"Because each person in the conflict believes that he or she is in the low-power position, the conflict escalates† (Barrosse, 2007, p.110).   So the key to eluding conflict is â€Å"clarifying the currencies available to you and to other parties† (Barrosse, 2007, p.9).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The perception of power is much more straightforward than we usually realise.   At the root, power is solely based on social dynamics – whichever people have the most to offer their peers (opportunities, belonging, success) will be the most powerful in a group. Reference: Barrosse, E. (Ed). (2007). Interpersonal Conflict. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies.

Abortion and the Moral Decay of America Essay -- Argumentative Persuas

Abortion and the Moral Decay of America    Abortion is a tough issue for our country to deal with. There are, on both sides of the argument, well-meaning and intelligent people - as well as the opposite. Despite the difficulty of this issue, it must be confronted, as it is simultaneously rooted in and influential towards the moral foundations and political ideals of America. As a concerned American and a pursuant of open-mindedness, I have reached the conclusion that abortion is a such a threat to America's public and private morals that it should be outlawed in all cases except for when the mother's physical health is seriously threatened. In order to support this conclusion, I intend to address and the pro-choice arguments as represented in the Planned Parenthood site Nine Reasons Abortion is Legal and other pro-choice Internet sites. I will refute their arguments as either misguided in their conclusions, inapplicable or insufficient to justify abortion. [Good introduction, though your paragraphing is a bit odd--why all the short paragraphs?   title of the PP site should be in quotations, both as it is given here and within parenthetical cites below. In general, it's best not to announce your intentions, but to "just do it."   Also, let me say that below I offer many points to counter your refutations--and I'm sure that has to do with the knowledge that you aren't arguing for your side of the argument. I probably wouldn't be as contentious if I thought these were your beliefs. ] One popular argument posed by choice advocates is that "legal abortion [is] critical to sustaining women's freedom" (Nine Reasons.) Outlawing abortion, the argument goes, inhibits a woman's ability to decide the paths her own life will take ... ...News On-line WHO HAS ABORTIONS. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/19PIE.HTM. Date visited: March 7, 1997.    [Your in-text citations need to match the citations in the list. For example, "Abortion as Birth Control" is given in the parenthetical cite, but it is alphabetized as Planned Parenthood. Also, webpage titles need to go in quotation marks, both in the list cited and in the parenthetical citations. You present good refutations for many of the points made by Planned Parenthood's "Nine Reasons" site. The problems involve the supposition that the abortion option is particular to our society--and it isn't. Even primitive cultures often have identified plants that act as abortifacients. Your refutation might have been more effective if you had chosen a single claim to refute instead of nine claims. Still you have made a fine effort.]      

Ethnic literature

Ethnic Literature and Postcolonialism In Barta's ; â€Å"Gad's Tangs'† Reading by using Postcolonial theory The definition of ethnic literature â€Å"is literature like any other, except that it contains ethnic references. † (Reilly p. 2). Another definition of ethnic literature is when there is a literature work that contain religious beliefs, racial issues, linguistics, or cultural heritage. In another word, ethnic literature is the literary work that includes particular culture, beliefs, or linguistics distinction. Postcolonial literary theory draws attention in the issue of cultural difference emerging in the society.One of the issues hich may often appear during the class discussion is hybridity. It seems that people who have been faced by the fact that they are living in a ‘hybrid world' tend to be confused by their real status. They realize for their interest, but they can not avoid the possibility becoming ‘in between'. Although , they are included i nto one part, the native part, but on the other hand they can not deny the deep feeling to be pleasant considering themselves different with the other. There is a kind of more value they have compared with their surround, and they think it is worthy to be kept.Of course, this feeling comes into their mind by some reasons. There must be an additional value added into their original culture. The additional value may be in the form of a new ideology, belief or view which are brought by the dominating. The dominated rarely conscious with the impact. They usually only feel that it is a natural process which become the impact of daily social interaction they are engaged in. Another issue which emerges in postcolonial discussion is about dominated-dominating one. We can not expect who actually take the role as ‘dominating' or ‘dominated'.The practice may turn over, the dominated may become the dominating in the same time oward different object, vice versa. We are also introduce d by ‘Otherness' theory. It makes someone consider that she or he are different from the other, and other people is not the same with her or him. Gad's Tangs' tells a story about a girl life, namely Teyi. She is a Javanese girl who grew up in the Javanese tradition. She lives with his parents and sibling in tangsi area. She was taught to become an obedient girl by her mother with many limitations as a girl. She helps her mother to sell fried bananas every day.Teyi finds herself limited by some rules which are considered as the right rules for her mother. She even does not know how ‘love' or how to be ‘loved' by a man. She was taught to be a polite woman. She finally finds who she is when she is introduced to Putri Parasi by Ndara Tuan Kapten SarJubehi who has helped her. That is the beginning of her new experience to recognize a new world, the world that she has never imagined before. Putri Parasi teaches her everything to be ‘a good lady. Putri Parasi likes Teyi for her politeness. She more likes Teyi after being saved when her disease comes immediately.Putri Parasi expects to teach her how to behave well. She even teaches Teyi to speak Dutch. Teyi starts to be able to read and write. Putri Parasi really wants to prepare her to be taken to Surakarta Keraton and introduced her to a man who will be married with her. She plans to make Teyi deserve to have a husband from Keraton families. In the novel Gadis Tangsi written by Suparto Brata, we can see some unexpected phenomenon occur. It makes me realize that actually there are still many things covered even by what Javanese people considered as ‘budaya adiluhung.The word ‘politeness', ‘hospitality and ‘dignity which come into people mind when they heard about Javanese culture become blur after they read this novel. Javanese woman who is considered as an obedient woman and become a mercy for whom takes her as a wife may be surprised by what Suparto tells about Teyi a nd Dumilah. He brings them in this novel as representative of Javanese woman character, in different point of view. However, the story about them, for me, is far from the stereotype of common Javanese women (may be Just a few). The feeling of ‘in between' seem to be experienced by Teyi.She starts to know about how the way the higher status people behave since she meets Putri Parasi. Teyi realizes that her life style is quite different from her, and she is glad when she knows hat Putri Parasi does not mind introducing this new culture to her. From this intentional interaction, after she is taught how to behave like ‘putri bangsawan', Teyi starts to consider she has a chance to be the same with them. Even she lives with her parents, she starts to consider that she is better than them. She has been raised from the lower part. She has more power than the people in the house.The very obvious impact of this teaching actually appears when Teyi has been left by Putri Parasi. Aft er she passed away, Teyi become independent from the influence of Putri Parasi. Although, there are still some traces of her teaching inside Teyi which reflect in the way she behaves. She seems take the dominating position over her husband, Sapardal. Sapardal feeling about his lower position when they have been married becomes the cause of the divorce. Only two days of marriage, and Teyi considers that she has a right to sue divorce, while Sapardal can only keep silent without any comment.In this relationship, Sapardal as a man who actually considered as the dominating' take the role as the dominated'. He does not feel on the same level with Teyi. He admits that he has no power compared to Teyi. He even has no courage to touch her in their first night of marriage. Here, we can see the role between man and woman has shifted. Brata seems to show us that the role of people in the society is like running on the moving wheel. The dominating and dominated are only a symbol of someone posi tion, which also can be shifted based on where we are standing.Sapardal may fail in maintaining his position as superior in front of Teyi. The cultural change also appears in this novel. Sexual intercourse is not considered as a sacral any longer for almost all the women in this novel. During my reading, I wonder if I ead Indonesian culture literary work, especially belong to Javanese one. However, Brata wrote the novel using the Indonesian condition in the past, in the colonial occupation. In this situation, it is not easy to determine which one who still hold the original value since the influence of other ideology come into the life in that simple way.The force of a new ideology input is not directly felt in this novel. The indigenous people enjoy the acculturation between the dominated and the dominating. It also happens in the shifting of the way they see sexual intercourse actually is. What we call as a taboo becomes commonly conducted by the people. Teyi is defined as a free woman, even she has been married and becomes a wife of Sapardal, and she breaks the rule by having intercourse with Ndara Tuan Kapten SarJubehi. It seems that she wants to take a revenge to Dumilah who is considered nad cheated ner by having romantic attair witn ner master.Sapardal can not do anything. He has failed to become a good husband. This thinking is from his own side. When we look at this phenomenon, again, Teyi proves that she has had a power over a man from her own society. She starts to have a right to consider a man like Sapardal is not at the same level with her. However, in my opinion it will not happen if Sapardal never has the way of thinking. Actually, he has thought that she is great and different from the other woman in his environment before they are married. That makes he has no courage to touch her at their first night.It also makes Teyi feels not being regarding or respecting as a wife. She thinks that Sapardal has no desire toward her, and she thinks that it is better to ask divorce. What a short way of thinking! I found that Teyi has put a wrong way of thinking about what Putri Parasi had taught to her. It seems that she does not consider marriage as a sacral relationship any longer. ‘Love' relationship has been considered as a ‘real' relationship when we have passion to have sex with our couple. Is that so simple? That is the way Teyi think about love basically.It is shown also when she does not mind to have sex with her ex-master, Ndara Tuan Kapten SarJubehi, and then she starts to love someone else, Ndara Mas Kus. There is no any guilty feeling. Finally, we can conclude that there are three aspect of postcolonial reading for Gadis Tangsi has been discussed above. First, hybridity appears when Teyi finds herself has involved nd being a part of Putri Parasi's society, Keraton environment since she has been able to behave and speak like her, so she considers that she is a part of Putri community.While she has that feeling, she still can not avoid other people consideration about her who is only becoming a servant and will not become like them. Second, dominating feeling toward Sapardal comes into her mind. There is dominating-dominated in shifting model between them. It seems a denial for a man who usually considered as the dominating one, while Teyi proves that it can be shifted. Last, ‘Otherness' theory also emerges in this novel. After having taught to ave attitude and behave like Putri Parasi model, Teyi finally considers herself different with other woman in her society.

Essay on Life’s Moral Character - 1063 Words

Life’s Moral Character Virtue is a state that decides consisting in a mean, which is relative to us; it is a mean between two vices, one of excess and one of deficiency. In the book, Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle uses his collection of lecture notes to establish the best way to live and acquire happiness. According to Aristotle, to live a happy life, you must obtain these to become morally good. Defining virtue and choice with the â€Å"doctrine of the mean† will guide our choices and build up moral character. When we follow this guide of choices can a series of good choices change a vicious character? Aristotle states that the human function is the life activity of the part of the soul that has reason and I will try to explain those†¦show more content†¦129). According to Aristotle, moral virtue is a means to an end, happiness. Aristotle maintains virtues are formed by repetitions. It is by doing just acts that a just man is produced. And by doing just acts without the kind of habit formation â€Å"no one would have even the prospect of being good.† (N.E. 40) Aristotle believes to make a citizen good he has to form good habits which can form virtues. Aristotle holds the view that the goal of a human life is to be happy. He rationalizes this to be so because humans, unlike plants and animals, hold the ability to reason (N.E. 129). Aristotle claims moral virtue becomes a result of habit. Aristotle relates moral virtue with nature. Nature has a certain course of action, which must be followed. Anything contradicting the course of nature would be classified as non-uniform. Aristotle views choice in relation to the end or good of all our actions which he defines as â€Å"eudemonia† or happiness. The attainment of happiness depends upon the acquisition of specific virtues which are attained through practice and which enable the human being to function in its proper way or nature. 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