Thursday, October 24, 2019
Excessive Laws and the Self-Interest of Lawmakers, Lawyers, and Judges
Excessive Laws and the Self-Interest of Lawmakers, Lawyers, and Judges The basis of a civilized society is law. The law allows for standardized treatment of men, the law allows people to plan their futures, the law gives people assurance that wills, contracts, and trusts will be enforced, that certain behavior will be allowed while other behavior (crimes and torts) will be punished, etc. Five important characteristics of "the law" in a civilized society follow: 1) The law must be of manageable size so the average man can learn the law without a lifetime of study. 2) The law must be simple enough for the average man to grasp and understand. 3) The law must be stable so men can, once they learn the law, live their lives with great assurance that they know the law and are not violating the law. 4) The law must be internally consistent so a man who follows one law does not find himself violating some other law. And last, but not least, 5) "man made" law must harmonize with the unchanging law of God. Each of these principles needs to studied in light of America's current legal structure: Manageable size: The typical public or academic law library contains over 100 million pages (in excess of 100,000 volumes) of statutes, regulations, reported legal decisions, commentaries, cross indexes, law dictionaries, legal encyclopedias, law review articles, etc. However, most law libraries have found all these pages inadequate. In the last ten years they have added "on line" access to great legal web sites run by Lexis and West Legal Publishing. These web sites allow law students and lawyers to do quick searches of all published material related to a given topic. These web sites are expensive but if the right legal key words are entered the results are very useful. Twenty to one hundred pages of information is displayed on the screen. In an hour or two any journeyman lawyer will know all that is worth knowing about some narrow area of the law. Of course, total or complete knowledge is beyond human reach. No one not even the most dedicated legal scholar can claim to kn ow "all the law". In fact America's situation recalls ancient Rome, just before its fall, when the laws began to multiply. A sage of the late Roman Empire remarked "A corrupt society has many laws". Simplicity: As the preceding description makes clear, ma... ... in their lives and that He is unrelated to the central activity of their daily routine? It is obvious that each such step is simply another step on a slippery slope away from God. So why do lawmakers, lawyers, and judges violate these five obvious rules. The only answer that makes any sense is self interest. Lawmakers want to be re-elected so they pass laws which pander to man's baser instincts and give special advantage to large contributors. Judges at the appellate level (and bureaucrats in the executive branch of government) are lured by the evil urge to become "little gods". They put God's Laws aside and set off on their own to re-define right and wrong. Judges at the trial court level become friendly with the lawyers that appear before them so they act in ways which increase the power and/or wealth of these lawyers. Lawyers themselves are in need of income to support their families in an aristocratic fashion, so they encourage judges and lawmakers to increase the complexity of courtroom procedures and/or law in general so more "lawyer's work" is created. Simple laws and simple court room procedures are not the stuff upon which grand le gal fees are built.
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Globalization on Chinese Society Essay
Our research aims to discover peculiarities of ideology in China. Itââ¬â¢s going to highlight integrating values, legitimating the governmentââ¬â¢s policies and continued authority. The study is a review of articles by David Lynch, Gordon White and Feng Chen. From the recent past years up to this point of time, China has been taking part in extensive economic globalization activities like facilitating free trade policy. Chinaââ¬â¢s new economic openness has resulted to remarkable growth trends. It has been practicing its ââ¬Å"go out policyâ⬠by participating in the international market competitions. Observers have also noted some major changes in the Chinese media in coping up with globalization. With Chinaââ¬â¢s entry to the World Trade Organization, structural reforms have taken place and more and more researchers have focused their interest on the interaction between Chinese media particularly television and the world at large. Currently, China is still in a whirl and sways with various ideologies such as a waning communist ideology, an increasing conservatism, as well as liberalism. Various ideological trends such as globalism, nationalism, individualism and pragmatism are likewise alive and under further exploration especially by Chinese youths. The pursuit of the leftists who adhere to the theory of socialism, elect to preserve the fundamental purity of the socialist economy and state authority. Meanwhile, reformists have argued that China should rather enrich its market economy and the rights to property. Besides, reformists want to recognize private entrepreneurship to join the Party. There exists some few numbers of youths having true belief in communism. Most of them, however, want membership to the Party as a stepping ladder in gaining their individual objectives. In some of the researches, David Lynch (2000 (Lynch, 1999, p173) has focused his objects on what expectations the intellectual and political elites expect leading to same changes in China for the years ahead. The objects include linked issues on some domestic and political affairs, the power capability of China as a nation, how the party state would defend its national identity as well as its cultural heritage and integrity in the face of the raging and deepening effects of globalization. Besides, Lynch assesses on how China aligns its new development and technology in directing its societyââ¬â¢s future. With the continued transformation of the media including print, TV, the Internet, the entry of some foreign TV programming and the likes now depends mostly on the supply and demand and the behavior of the controlling party. The improvements of local or domestic contents have rivalled foreign counterparts. Lynch also assessed the trends in censorship and found some possible means by which media could possibly find ways of overcoming or avoiding rules, laws, problems, or difficulty to government restrictions of imported as well as local media contents. Briefly, Lynch tries to arrive at a point when the communist governmentââ¬â¢s hold on Chinaââ¬â¢s domestic affairs would become loose due to the use of new technology. ââ¬Å"Dilemmas of ââ¬ËThought Workââ¬â¢ in Fin-de-Siecle Chinaâ⬠reports that in May 1997 was established special organ of the Party Central Committee ââ¬â Central Guidance Committee on Spiritual Civilization Construction. This fact indicates the seriousness of intentions in pursuing the spiritual civilization line. ââ¬Å"Thought workâ⬠refers to Chinese Communist Partyââ¬â¢s attempts to transmit socialist ideology and to control ideas of the masses so that they will comply to the demands of the national development plan. In his article Lynch argued that the governmentââ¬â¢s efforts to build a socialist spiritual civilization in China failed. He concluded that governmentââ¬â¢s attempts to limit access to global media and control political discourse turn out to be ineffective. Lynch reports the Chinese Ministry of Public Securityââ¬â¢s estimate that as many as 620,000 Chinese had access to the internet in 1997, with a rise to 4 million expected by 2000 (Lynch, 1999, p. 193). The propaganda state is indeed crumbling. The author reports that Chinese children play cops and robbers who require the cops to inform the robbers of their rights before taking them into detention, as they have seen in American movies (Lynch, 1999). Other political writers like Feng Chen and Gordon White agree that Chinaââ¬â¢s Chinese Communist Party is capable of adapting itself to the changing political climate. Moreover, Chinaââ¬â¢s leaders could strengthen its position like having political legitimacy by re-inventing itself and continue some evolutionary tuning to reinforce the CCPââ¬â¢s legitimacy. Nevertheless, evolutionary refining is a hit and miss system that nobody can guaranty its success. Gordon White primarily focused on the politically engaged society in China. According to White politically-engaged society proved to be a durable theme in Chinese politics. Riding the Tiger concludes that societyââ¬â¢s political engagement with the state will shape future of the state. For example, There may be a form of Chinese ââ¬ËBrezhnevismââ¬â¢ to see out the millennium as the current leadership tries to stay in power. If this is indeed the case, then the political contradictions and trends which I have identified will intensify and make it more likely that the transition, when it comes, will be sudden, radical and possibly violent. (White, 1993, p. 255) Even if the market becomes predominant through radical reform and even if it takes a capitalist form, which is very probable, there is a continuing need for a new form of developmental state to tackleâ⬠¦social and economic problems [such as market failure and its consequences for the poor]. In the short term, moreover, the role of the state is even more crucial because of the need to break through the ââ¬Ëhard policy constraintââ¬â¢ and manage the transition from a planned to a market economy. This is a processâ⬠¦which is fraught with instability and tensions arising from the opposition of vested interests, threats to economic security, inflation and growing inequality. A strong state is needed to provide the political order and direction necessary to underpin this transition and regulate an emergent market economy in a huge and increasingly complex country. (White, 1993, pp. 238-9) As Gordon White has observed in Riding the Tiger, an attempt to establish a political system that can serve as an alternative to both capitalist economics and liberal politics has not appeared to be possible in China: ââ¬Å"Marxist-Leninist socialism has been incapable of reforming itself and that ââ¬Ëmarket socialismââ¬â¢ rather than saving its bacon, cooks its gooseâ⬠(White, 1993, p. 12). White was writing at the start of the 1990s. Civil society-like forms emerged in China in the 1990s. That process the result collapse of the state structure, as it was in Soviet Union. But for the time being the Party-state still remains in command. As it was noted in Riding the Tiger, ââ¬Å"to the extent the economic reforms were the spearhead of an attempt to resuscitate the political fortunes of Chinese state socialism, they can be judged to be a dismal failureâ⬠(White, 1993, p. 233). By the millennium China was certainly the most successful of the socialist states in adjusting to capitalism. Yet at the same time socialism remains in place in China and power is monopolized by the Communist Party. White denoted this combination as ââ¬Å"market Stalinismâ⬠(White, 1993, p. 256). White suggests that the increasing prevalence of the elements of a civil society does not point toward an evolution into more liberal regime with market-oriented economy and multiparty political system. The author also noted that in Chinese society there are some groups that didnââ¬â¢t make benefits from the reforms. These would include state officials and state workers, women and the unemployed and floating populations: Fear of threats to status, power or income; disappointment because the reforms were delivering less than they had promised; disgruntlement arising from the ââ¬Å"red-eye diseaseâ⬠; concerns that gains already achieved were in danger of erosion (through inflation and leadership mismanagement); contrarily, impatience at a deceleration of the reforms and anxiety at an acceleration. (White, 1993, p. 217) Some observers have concluded that the efforts of the Central Party in building some thought works on socialism in China has been not effective. Moreover, they gravitate to some extent. Formerly, China firmly opposed globalization as it disrupts some global institutions. Today, China is one of the firm advocates of liberalization and globalization, opening its trading system to the world. Slowly but surely, the Chinese system has now been updating itself on the rule of law, adapting many foreign laws to transform its civilization. Chinaââ¬â¢s success through globalization, which happened in a short time, has indeed uplifted the standards of living of many workers. With such economic success arising from the impact of globalization, China has learned some stressful and painful lessons adjusting itself. Some of the effects include the decline of state employment from 110 million in 1995 to 66 million in March 2005, the lost of 25 million jobs in the manufacturing establishments, and the consolidation of some 125 car companies to just six firms. Its recent economic growth has revived and revved up the economy of Japan and kept safe its neighboring countries from recession, which otherwise could have led to a risky global downturn. With the prevailing trend of globalization, the process has deeply influenced the study habits, culture, and consumption styles of the youth (ACYF). They now believe that English is a basic skill and reference for one to acquire a degree. As more and more Chinese youths go out to study abroad, more and more of them have returned home, which benefits their culture. The youths now could avail some entertainments made in the USA, Europe, and elsewhere via television, films, videos, and the internet. Even internet games or serial TV programs from Japan or Korea have become the favorite of young students. Young people now in China are learning more the facts of life, society, and world affairs through the said media. When educators, scholars, officials, and artists speak of culture, this includes both the physical and non-physical aspects. The physical or material aspects include sites, landscapes, monuments, buildings, and like objects whereas non-physical aspects include music dance, language, poetry, and the like, which have been associated with Chinaââ¬â¢s social practices. The non-physical culture is Chinaââ¬â¢s living heritage is passed from one generation to the other. In reality, one should accept the fact that culture cannot be easily isolated from the influence or effects of globalization (UICIFD). To conclude the work we should note that ideology is still alive in China. The Chinese communist regime didnââ¬â¢t decline its ideological absolutism. The Communist Party alone that possesses the universal truth and represents the fundamental interest of the people (Guo, 1995, p. 84). In fact, ââ¬Å"Mao Zedong thoughtâ⬠or ââ¬Å"Deng Xiaoping theoryâ⬠was adapted by the post-Mao party leadership in accordance with the changes of the Chinaââ¬â¢s specific conditions. But this modification does not suggest discarding the fundamental principles and norms, but renovation within the same basic framework of development of Marxism. But post-Mao regime has cautiously modified some of Maoââ¬â¢s doctrines through the official interpretation of the sacred text (Guo, 1995, p. 84-85). As Feng Chen asserted, agricultural decollectivization in China was not an equivalent of ââ¬Å"privatization,â⬠but only the transformation of the rural economy into ââ¬Å"a new type of collective economy, characterized by combining public ownership of the land with totally individualized operations of productionâ⬠(Feng Chen, 1998, p. 82). To the post- Mao leadership, such an arrangement is defined as the ââ¬Å"separation of land ownership rights and land use rightsâ⬠(Feng Chen, 1998, p. 88). Land in China remains under public ownership. Reference List White, G. (1993). Riding the Tiger: The Politics of Economic Reform in Post-Mao China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press; London: Macmillan. Lynch, D. (1999). Dilemmas of ââ¬ËThought Workââ¬â¢ in Fin-de-Siecle China. China Quarterly, 157. Guo, S. (1995). Totalitarianism: An Outdated Paradigm for Post-Mao China? Journal of Northeast Asian Studies, 14 (2). Chen, F. (1998). Rebuilding the Partyââ¬â¢s Normative Authority: Chinaââ¬â¢s Socialist Spiritual Civilization Campaign. Problems of Post-Communism, 45 (6).
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Shirley Chisholm, First Black Woman in Congress
Shirley Chisholm, First Black Woman in Congress Shirley Chisholmà (born Shirley Anita St. Hill, November 30, 1924ââ¬âJanuary 1, 2005) was the first African-American woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress. She represented the 12th Congressional District of New York for seven terms (1968ââ¬â1982) and quickly became known for her work on minority, womens, and peace issues. Fast Facts: Shirley Chisholm Known For: First African-American woman to serve in the U.S. Congress, from 1968ââ¬â1982Born: November 30, 1924 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New YorkParents: Charles and Ruby Seale St. HillEducation: Brooklyn College (B.A., sociology, cum laude); Columbia University (M.A., elementary education)Died: January 1, 2005 in Ormond Beach, FloridaPublished Works: Unbought and Unbossed and The Good FightSpouse(s): Conrad O. Chisholm (1959ââ¬â1977), Arthur Hardwicke, Jr. (1977ââ¬â1986)Notable Quote: That I am a national figure because I was the first person in 192 years to be at once a congressman, black and a woman proves, I think, that our society is not yet either just or free. Early Life Shirley Chisholm was born in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York on November 30, 1924. She was the eldest of four daughters of her immigrant parents, Charles St. Hill, a factory worker from British Guiana, and Ruby Seale St. Hill, a seamstress from Barbados. In 1928, because of financial hardship, Shirley and two of her sisters were sent to Barbados to be raised by her grandmother, where they were educated in the islands British-style school system. They returned to New York in 1934, even though the financial situation had not been resolved. Shirley attended Brooklyn College for a degree in sociology, where she won prizes in debating but found she was barred from the social club, as all blacks were, so she organized a rival club. She graduated with honors in 1946 and found work at two daycare centers in New York. She became an authority on early education and child welfare, and an educational consultant for Brooklyns Bureau of Child Welfare. At the same time, she worked as a volunteer with the local political leagues and the League of Women Voters. Deeper Involvement in Politics In 1949, Shirley married Conrad O. Chisholm, a private investigator and graduate student from Jamaica. Together they became increasingly involved in New York municipal political issues, establishing a number of local organizations to bring blacks and Hispanics into politics. Shirley Chisholm returned to school and obtained a masters degree in elementary education from Columbia University in 1956 and became involved in grassroots community organizing and the Democratic Party, helping form the Unity Democratic Club in 1960. Her community base helped make possible a win when she ran for the New York State Assembly in 1964. Congress In 1968, Shirley Chisholm ran for Congress from Brooklyn, winning that seat while running against James Farmer, an African-American veteran of the 1960s Freedom Rides in the south and the former national chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality. With her win, she became the first black woman elected to Congress. Her first congressional battle- she fought many- was with the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Wilbur Mills, who was responsible for assigning committee appointments. Chisholm was from the urban 12th district in New York; Mills assigned her to the agricultural committee. Apparently, she said, all they know here in Washington about Brooklyn is that a tree grew there.à The speaker of the House told her to be a good soldier and accept the assignment, but she persisted and eventually Mills assigned her to the Education and Labor Committees. She hired only women for her staff and was known for taking positions against the Vietnam War, for minority and womens issues, and for challenging the Congressional seniority system. She was outspoken and uninterested in conforming: in 1971, Chisholm was a founding member of the National Womens Political Caucus and in 1972, she visited the voluble segregationist Alabama governor George Wallace in the hospital when he was recovering from an assassination attempt. He was astonished to see her and she was criticized for visiting him, but the act opened doors. In 1974, Wallace provided his support for her bill to extend federal minimum wage provisions to domestic workers. Running for President and Leaving Congress Chisholm ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 1972. She knew she could not win the nomination, which eventually went to George McGovern, but she nevertheless wanted to raise issues she felt were important. She was the first black person and the first black woman to run for president on a major party ticket and was the first woman to win delegates for a presidential nomination by a major party. In 1977, she divorced her first husband and married businessman Arthur Hardwicke, Jr. Chisholm served in Congress for seven terms. She retired in 1982 because, as she put it, moderate and liberal lawmakers were running for cover from the new right. She also wanted to take care of her husband, who had been injured in an automobile accident; he died in 1986. In 1984, she helped form the National Political Congress of Black Women (NPCBW). From 1983 to 1987, she taught politics and womens studies as the Purington Professor at Mount Holyoke College and spoke widely. She moved to Florida in 1991 and briefly served as the ambassador to Jamaica during President Bill Clintons first term. Death and Legacy Shirley Chisholm died at her home in Ormond Beach, Florida on January 1, 2005, after suffering a series of strokes. Chisholms legacy of grit and persistence is apparent in all of her writings, speeches, and actions in and out of government. She was involved in the founding or administration or strong support of numerous organizations, including the National Organization of Women, the League of Women Voters, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), and the National Womens Political Caucus. She said in 2004, I want history to remember me not just as the first black woman to be elected to Congress, not as the first black woman to have made a bid for the presidency of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and dared to be herself. Sources Barron, James. Shirley Chisholm, Unbossed pioneer in Congress, Is Dead at 80. The New York Times, 3 January 2005.Chisholm, Shirley. The Good Fight. New York: Harper Row, 1973. Print.Unbought and Unbossed. Washington, DC: Take Root Media, 1970 (2009).Jackson, Harold. Shirley Chisholm: The First Black Woman Elected to Congress, She Was an Outspoken Advocate against Discrimination. The Guardian, 3 January 2005.Thurber, Jon. Shirley Chisholm, 80; Ran for President, Served 13 Years in Congress. Los Angeles Times, 4 January 2005.
Monday, October 21, 2019
Peruse and Some Alternatives
Peruse and Some Alternatives Peruse and Some Alternatives Peruse and Some Alternatives By Maeve Maddox A reader asked me about the use of the transitive verb peruse: I have a question please. On the National Geographic Facebook page, they wrote Today marks the third Earth-year since NASAs Curiosity rover made its nail-biting descent through Mars thin atmosphere, successfully landing on its dusty surface- and plans for the next mission are in the works. Peruse through this gallery to see stellar snapshots of Curiositys journey to the red planet. Is it supposed to have the throughà or should it be peruse only? I promptly answered: ââ¬Å"You are correct. The verb peruse is transitive. It takes an object. The through is redundant.â⬠When I checked the Ngram Viewer to satisfy myself that ââ¬Å"peruse throughâ⬠would not come up, I was surprised to see that it does register, although barely. I stand by my initial response, that peruse takes an object and is not followed by a preposition. One might ââ¬Å"pore over a bookâ⬠but one ââ¬Å"peruses a book.â⬠Some controversy exists regarding the meaning of peruse. Iââ¬â¢d always understood it to mean, read carefully,â⬠but in researching this post Iââ¬â¢ve discovered that it can also mean look over briefly or superficially.â⬠The latter sense is present in the example from the National Geographic website, in which peruse means ââ¬Å"to browse.â⬠Peruse in the sense of ââ¬Å"to examineâ⬠entered English from Anglo-Norman French, peruser, in the sense of examining a witness. Peruser does not survive in modern French. English peruse translates into French as ââ¬Å"lire attentivement,â⬠literally, ââ¬Å"to read attentively.â⬠Although still in general use, peruse tends to sound old-fashioned, pompous, or jocular. I dont agree with language critics who insist that peruse must be used only in the sense of ââ¬Å"read carefullyâ⬠and never to mean ââ¬Å"to read superficially,â⬠but I do suggest that English has plenty of options for either meaning. If you are looking for a word or expression that conveys the idea of careful reading or examination, you may choose from these: read carefully study scrutinize inspect examine pore over wade through On the other hand, if you want to express the idea of superficial reading, you may choose from these options: look through browse leaf through scan run oneââ¬â¢s eye over glance through skim thumb through As for peruse, apparently you may use it to convey either idea. Whichever meaning you attach to it, however, donââ¬â¢t follow it with a prepositional phrase. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Congratulations on or for?Peace of Mind and A Piece of One's MindDealing With A Character's Internal Thoughts
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Conflict in Maus ll essays
Conflict in Maus ll essays The controversial graphic novel, Maus II is wrought with conflict. The characters are all at odds with each other, and while their arguments might seem petty, there are underlying themes with important messages. For example, the conflict between Art and his father Vladek represents the theme of a quest for understanding. Art has trouble understanding what his father went through and how he was affected, and Vladek has trouble understanding that his son is living in a new age, away from the Holocaust and his terrible past. Vladek and his son Art are from different times and places, and so they are constantly arguing and bickering. The inciting incident of this conflict in Maus II is when Vladek fakes a heart attack to get Art to come visit him. Immediately, the fact that Vladek needed to pretend to be dying just to get his son to visit him stands out as an obvious sign of an unhealthy relationship, at best. From this point on, it becomes increasingly apparent that there is a major conflict between father and son. Throughout the novel, Art tries, if grudgingly, to ease the tension that is ever present in his relationship with his father. After the false alarm of Vladeks heart attack, Art reluctantly stays with his father, to make sure that he can take care of himself. Though this act was in a sense an act of compassion and good will, it turns out to be a mistake. Vladek is a miserable roommate, especially for a married couple. Living with him, even for just a night, tries Arts already frayed patience. The conflict increases further when Vladek tries to sell half-eaten goods back to the market. Art does not understand his fathers interminable need to save money, as he never experienced anything similar to the Holocaust. Also, when they pick up a black hitchhiker, Art does not understand Vladeks racist views, since Vladek suffered so much due to racism. The conflict comes to a head when Art finds that...
Saturday, October 19, 2019
Lower division capstone IP 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Lower division capstone IP 2 - Essay Example tput of every industry and then takes away the intermediate inputs coming from other industries in order to come up with the residual value-added (Wells & Krugman, 2009). The income approach calculates the income gained by the several factors of production (Wells & Krugman, 2009). The last method is called the expenditures approach, which displays what is going on in all different types of spending all over the economy. This method is normally done every year (Wells & Krugman, 2009). While GDP can be determined in three different ways, the total value of the production, income and expenditure must be identical for all of these methods. In the case of the United States economy, the history of its GDP growth rate reveals erratic trends of highs and lows, particularly during the advent of the 2008 financial crisis and onwards. Based on the data gathered by Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), in 2011, the GDP growth rate has been observed to rise by 0.8% from its first two quarters of the year with a 2011 GDP of 2.5%. This data is an indicator of the growing potential of the United States despite the financial crisis in 2010 and the automobile industry crisis that cropped up recently. Additionally, in 2013, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the United States economy gained a GDP of 3.2% in the final quarter of 2013 (BEA, 2013). This expansion has been attributed to several aspects of its economy. The United States has one of the most varied and most technologically advanced economies in the world. It embraces the industries of banking and finance, real estate, healthcare automobile, education, social assistance among ot hers, which contributes to more than 40 per cent of the United Statesââ¬â¢ GDP. The retail and wholesale industries also contribute to the 12 percent of the countryââ¬â¢s GDP. As a leading center for all these services, the United States GDP growth rate is expected to growth in the succeeding years. Comparatively, between 2008, in which the global economic
Friday, October 18, 2019
Issue of medicalization, the social construction of difference through Essay
Issue of medicalization, the social construction of difference through science and medicine and power - Essay Example Several differences are medicalized. Due to scientific conquest and development of new knowledge, several aspects of society are affected. With this, what are aspects are medicalized in the first place? The most affected in this case are the cultural beliefs and value systems that are embedded in an individual. Since there is cultural diversity, it is really problematic to impose a certain a cultural ideology towards a certain group of people that have a different cultural grassroots. There should be a thorough understanding of the culture from both sides of the spectrum. However, in the case of Lia, from the work of Anna Fadiman entitled The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, the doctors of Merced Community Medical Center have not taken into consideration the spiritual culture of the Hmong people about childbirth. In her work, there is a quote that deals about the frustration of the parent due to cultural indifference. ââ¬Å"It took all the autonomy of being a parent away, even for folks who have had a lot of medical experience. It would be that much harder if you were from another culture and didnââ¬â¢t understand the purpose of these things.â⬠(Fadiman, 1997) This quote manifests the clear problem about medicalization. Modern medical science and its practitioners have the tendency to bypass the concern of the people they are dealing with since they always exercise their expertise. Even if the concerns are valid for the Hmong people because of their culture, the medical professionals did not comply and understood the necessity of such cultural practices for the Hmong. Cultural Indifference has indeed occurred and has yielded several detrimental effects. On the second level, what seems to be the theoretical framework used by the authors to discuss the issue of medicalization? In the essay entitled Of Gender and Genitals: Use and Abuse of Modern Intersexual from the book Sexing
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)