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Huxley’s masterpiece “Brave New World” has brought to light the controversies of an ever-developing society.  Some highly controversial subject matters include a totalitarian society, genetically enhanced individuals to be useful to uniformed society, and an absolute synthetic urban community.

After Seventy Five years since the publication of “Brave New World” we are finding correlations in everyday modern society.  In Margaret Atwood’s article “The Guardian” she realizes those daunting controversies are starting to manifest in our progressing society.  One noteworthy similarity is the curiosity of geneticist and the altering of human genes, “true believers” in gene-rich and gene-poor are “busily engaging in schemes for genetic enhancement” (Atwood 2).

Society is always progressing in order to become evermore efficient, but this does not mean we have to shed our humanity in order to evolve ahead of our time.  In “Brave New World” infants were genetically altered and hypnotized into making them useful to society.  The infants were stripped of their individuality in order to fill gaps in the metropolitan hierarchy.

The expanding metropolitan community is another problematic development that relates to Huxley’s predictions.  “Shopping malls stretch as far as the bulldozer can see” (Atwood 2).  In heavily populated cities it is uncommon to come across something that is not of human design, in other words natural.

We have the means to create a society in which “Brave New World” entails and it might not be long before some reformist attain the will.  In order to avoid such a society we must heed Huxley’s warnings and differentiate between bettering society and losing our humanity.

Games and Violence

Since the very first release of a video game with a hint of violence the question was raised, does video games promote violence in developing children?  There has been recent studies done on teens and video game violence that disprove video games poisoning the minds of developing teens.  When video games popularity increased between 1995 and 2008 the arrest rate for juvenile murders has fallen 71.9% and arrest rate for juvenile violent crime has declined to 49.3% (“Do Violent”).

Research proves that video games, contrary to most beliefs, help decrease violence in young teens.  Video games provides a harmless outlet for young adults to release their anger and lower their stress levels.  So far there is no evident link to video games and aggression in young adults although years of studies on the behavior of video game players.  Video games has also been accused of causing school shootings but only ⅛ of attackers exhibited interest in video games (“Do Violent”).

Many people worry that fantasy might be determined as reality in young children’s minds but really video players can distinguish reality from fantasy as long as they were in their right minds to begin with.  Video games are believed to correlate with aggressive behavior by providing rewards for players that commit violent acts.  The correlations that have been found with video games and violence can possibly be violent teens attracted to violent video games and not violent games contributing to the teens aggressive behavior (“Do Violent”).

Contrary to the belief that video games invoke violence in young teens is utterly based on bias views.  After all the years of study there has not been any valid research that proves video games contribute to violence in young adults.  A true link between video games and teen violence has not been established and will never be.

 

Symbolism in “A Hunger Artist”

Symbolism in “A Hunger Artist” is clearly evident through out the process of reading this boring story.  The first evidence of symbolism is the hunger artist himself; the artist represented misunderstood artist such as nobody would pay any respect to the starving man.  It is also a possibility that the artist might also represent the Israelites such that he fasted for 40 days in order to achieve divine fulfillment.

The second instance of symbolism is the cage which happens to represent the artist’s alienation of common society.  The cage separated the artist from the common rabble that would at one time enjoy his slow deterioration.  The artist could never really fit in with the people on the outside of the cage even if he wanted to due to his strange desire so starve himself in order to have a glimpse of fame.

Another example of symbolism is the clock which represented how times change such as getting entertainment or not getting entertainment from watching a starving man.  In the artist’s early career he would be adored by many fans for some unknown reason but as time progressed so did the era of new entertainment.

The last example to be mentioned is the panther.  If the hunger artist was to be compared to spiritual enlightenment the panther would represent materiel and earthly objects.  Even though the artist was trying to make a living while in the process of spiritual enlightenment the panther was much more entertaining to the commoners.  The panther distracted and diverted the attention away from the Christlike figure such as the devil trying to distract Christians from enlightenment.

Group #4 “The Swimmer”

1.  Neddy’s repression of his past and his heavy drinking tendencies have caused himself to hallucinate.  Neddy lost his kids, his wife, and his home.  Neddy also lost his respectable social status.  Because of the loss of his family and material possessions  he used alcohol to repress his past which affected his mental status.

2.  When the story was coming to the climax Neddy shows his true strength and his misfortune are present to the readers.  Neddy was starting to realize that his life was not as easy going as he thought moments before because of his slow recollection of his misfortune.  He felt as if the unfortunate events never occurred but with tiny clues implementing his fall from grace he begins to realize that he was in a state of delirium and denial.

Concealed Carrying

The right to carry a concealed weapon is considered dangerous but now people are challenging this ideology.  In fact some opponents say that a person with a concealed weapon is safer than those who refuse.  A 2000 study by John Lott reveals that if states that did not permit concealed carrying did permit it, it would have reduced homicides by 8.5%, aggravated assaults by 7%, rapes by 5%, and robberies by 3%.  This statistic contradicts the common idea that guns are bad and serve no real purpose but to promote violence.

Opponents of concealed carrying may say that allowing the right to carry would practically be handing criminals a tool for their misguided debauchery.  A 2000 report by engineering statistician William Sturdevant stated, “the general public is 5.7 times more likely to be arrested for violent offenses, and 13.5 times more likely to be arrested for non-violent offenses, than concealed carry weapon permit holders.”  In other words most legally concealed weapon carriers are law abiding citizens that would only use their concealed weapons in dire circumstances.

The right to carry may be controversial but if one was to be open minded to the benefits of concealed carrying they would surely realize that it could have a beneficial affect on general violence.  Weapons were created to protect, defend and provide for one’s self and/or their family.  As long as people care for their loved ones they will by any means protect them.  Concealed carriers do not even have to use their gun just to flash it in front of an assailants eyes is enough of a deterrent.  Weapons protect not kill if someone had their mind set on assaulting the general public they will find a means dispute restricted carrying.

Minimum Wage

Minimum wage is set by the federal government to regulate cash flow to the less specialized workforce.  For America minimum wage was not under federal control until the middle of the Great Depression in 1937.  The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in 1938 set a national minimum wage that allowed the federal government to regulate minimum wage.

Now that the minimum wage as of 2009 reaches that of $7.25 people are considering the discontinuation of minimum wage laws.  Opponents of minimum wage argue that minimum wage laws contradict the Constitution, they express how federal regulation of minimum wage interferes with Constitutional laws on free market.  Proponents to minimum wage laws argue in defense that without federal regulation many of our citizens would fall behind the poverty line, which is a fine line for workers who receive minimum wage.

Even though there are negative aspects to minimum wage many could not survive with their daily expenses.  With the regulation of minimum wage people no longer have to worry about being underpaid for the work they provide.

Arts Education

This article deals with the issue of art programs being cut from the schools curriculum.

Many research provides a clear outlook on the impact that art has on the student-body.  One observation suggest that art programs help students “grow intellectually, socially and emotionally.”  Not only does art provide fun and creative classes but help kids to become “creative, problem-solving adults…”  Now school’s art programs are being cut nationwide and has been on a decline for two decades.  Now the percentage of 18-year-olds who had any art education an example of this is that creative writing has decreased from about 22% to 15% in a span of six years.

Art programs should be offered but not required because a student might not want to pursue a creative field and might consider something more generic like accounting.  Art, how important should not be forced upon a student because some students who excel analytically might not excel when it becomes to being creative.  Budget-cuts,  no matter how depressing should has to be made and out of all the classes to be cut arts does seem to be the right choice because a degree in arts or music falls short to many’s expectations.