Animal Farm †the Nature of Power Essay

Animal Farm: The Nature of Power Describe at least one idea that was worth learning about. Explain why the idea was worth learning about in the text. In George Orwell’s book Animal Farm an idea that was worth learning about was the corruptive nature of power, and the effects it has on those who wield it. â€Å"Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.† -Lord Acton. This is important because it gives the reader an insight on Orwell’s theory on why most communist revolutions and regimes fail. In the beginning of Animal Farm the tyrant farmer Jones is overthrown and the animals are filled with visions of a farm where were all animals are equal and were animals work together to create a better world for all animals, the base principles of communism, or the so called â€Å"animalism† in the book. Although this is a good ideal in theory, it runs against the nature of humans (or animals in the case of the book) and we soon see things heading downhill. Because of the nature of power we aren’t all equal. We don’t have the same drives and same compassion as a group, and therefore i t is unlikely we can create a society of true equality. The way Orwell portrays the pigs suggests he believes that any vacuum of power will be filled quickly by those who take the chance to seize it. In the book, from the very point Jones is overthrown, the pigs assume leadership roles. In the first harvest on the farm, â€Å"The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was natural that they should assume the leadership.† The pigs have already asserted themselves because of their â€Å"superior intellect†. None of the animals seem to have a problem with this, perhaps because the pigs have suggested its natural, even though it is already running against one of the key principles of animalism – all animals are equal. Napoleon and Snowball have already set themselves up with superiority to the un-educated animals. The pigs begin to take things for themselves, always convincing the animals that it is for the good of the whole farm. Taking milk and apples for them selves to be mixed into their mash. This is covered up by the pigs â€Å"propaganda machine† Squealer, a highly manipulative pig with a way in  words. â€Å"‘Comrades!’ he cried. ‘You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples.† Squealer plays on the trust given to the pigs, and manipulates reality so as the pigs can take for themselves. This runs completely against the idea of equality, the vision of equality does not mean someone taking privileges for themselves. The pigs use their higher intellect to their advantage, and use control over language to keep the power in their hands and out of the hands of the masses. They also use this control over language to assign themselves privileges and allow themselves to edit the rules. â€Å"The birds did not understand Snowball’s long words, but they accepted his explanation, and all the humbler animals set to work to learn the new maxim by heart. â€Å"Four legs good, two legs bad.† This maxim, which serves as a controlling device, arises because of the working animals’ inability to understand or learn the seven commandments, a set of â€Å"rules† set after the rebellion. Its simplicity allows it to be easily altered and manipulated. Napoleon uses his control of language to his own advantage, and the pigs edit the seven â€Å"unchangeable† commandments. â€Å"There was yet another of them that the animals had remembered wrong. They had thought that the Fifth Comma ndment was ‘no animal shall drink alcohol’, but there were two words which they had forgotten. Actually the commandment read: ‘No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.’† They allow themselves the luxury of the farmhouse beds, and drinking alcohol, all which was agreed against after the rebellion. Because the animals believe that the commandments are unchangeable, and because of their blind trust in the pigs, and now also because of fear of the pigs, they do not question them, their â€Å"superiors†. Squealer, Napoleons â€Å"propaganda machine† is the main culprit of this twisting of language, and controls the masses with this. If anybody opposes, the sheep begin to bleat in chorus, â€Å"four legs good, two legs bad† preventing any discussion, so Napoleon has control of what is said. This relates directly to real revolution, were control over language and especially large amounts of propaganda are used to control the masses, what is said and sometimes even what is thought. Because the pigs and especially Napoleon have power, and the trust of the  other animal’s, and no one questions their decisions. When the dogs give birth to some new born puppies, Napoleon takes â€Å"them away from their mothers, saying that he would make himself responsible for their education†¦ the rest of the farm forgot their existence.† The animals noticed that the dogs are gone, but decide against questioning or challenging what Napoleon is to do with them. Lack of action on the animals part means that the pigs can continue to seize power until a state where they are practically untouchable. It is not until Snowball proposes a windmill be built on the farm that we see things escalate. We then see a power struggle between Snowball and Napoleon. This is where the dogs come back in, and Napoleon releases them on Snowball and exiles him from the farm. Nobody now speaks out against Napoleon as they are physically intimidated by the dogs, which serve as bodyguar ds to Napoleon. Napoleon becomes greedy with power and swiftly removes his opposition, Snowball, and asserts his own dominance. Napoleon can do what he chooses because Snowball is not there to oppose, and the other animals do not oppose either out of fear after seeing the fate of Snowball, or because they are blinded by Squealers lies and still trust in Napoleon. Orwell is here proposing the idea that those in power often use physical harm or intimidation to keep power away from the masses. In the end we see the pigs associating with humans and the pigs almost becoming the same as humans, as they have been filled with the corruption of power and greed â€Å"The creatures looked from pig to man, and from pig to man again: but already it was impossible to say which was which†. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is important because Orwell was strongly anti-fascism hence he went to fight in the Spanish civil war with the republicans against the fascist militarist rule of Franco. Throughout the book the pigs play upon the naà ¯ve trust of the other animals. This is important because it demonstrates people’s willingness to take advantage of others. This is an unattractive but strong part of human nature. The flip side is the stupidity of the animals, or masses of humans, that give trust to those who are unproven and then fail to return to that decision and check that it was really the correct one to make. â€Å"The only thing necessary f or the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.† – Edmund Burke. Surely we don’t just hand over unlimited trust and therefore power and expect it to all just work out? Responsibility belongs to us all.

Division of Labor According to Manuel Ayau Essay

According to Ayau, trade and cooperation is beneficial to all parties despite differences among them in terms of capacity and talent. He states that everyone is made wealthier through cooperation, and how it is that the market economy leads to the benefit of everyone. In our world today, people base their decisions on the comparison of alternative opportunity costs at the margin, so naturally, they choose the least costly option. However, a person can only get rich by enriching others torpedoes claims to the moral high ground of those who propose that government redistribution of wealth is a means to alleviate poverty (Ayau 32). Ayau explains the workings of the free enterprise system, based on the benefits from mutual gains from trade arising from the creative productivity of a market-based and profit-guided system of division of labor. In addition, he explains that the division of labor through comparative advantage, satisfying society’s needs, trading with and by enriching others is the way someone gain wealth. He says people intuitively do what goes by the name of cost/benefit analysis, for they are quite conscious of what they are quite conscious of what they must forgo to acquire whatever they get in exchange. In his example, he explains it through simple diagrams and illustrations, with the same expenditure of time and without increasing individual productivity, the productivity of the combined effort increases the wealth of the group, creating the opportunity for exchange with mutual gain (Ayau 37-41). In the end, Manuel showed how when two participants have different opportunity costs, when trading; this is the key to understanding his attribute of increase in total wealth even when there is no increase in skill, resources, new technology, and etc. In the eyes of Ayau, people subjectively valve what t hey receive more than what they give and that wealth is made through comparative advantage. Works Cited Ayau, F., M., Not a zero-sum game. The Paradox of Exchange. 2007. Part 1, pp.23-50.

Piaget’s stages of development Essay

Sensory Motor Stage Piaget’s first stage of development is the sensory motor stage. This stage occurs between the birth of the child and the age of two. During this stage, understanding comes from touching, sucking, chewing, and manipulating objects. About nine months after birth, the child develops what is called ‘object permanence’. Object permanence is the awareness that objects and people continue to exist even if they are out of sight. The infants have the ability to build up mental pictures of objects around them, from the knowledge that they have developed on what can be done with the object. Through manipulation, babies accumulate information on themselves and the world that lead to the slight understanding of how one thing can cause or affect another, and begins to develop simple ideas about time and space. An example of this would be that a baby can realize that if they cry when they are hungry, the mother will attend to them (Fleck, 1975, p. 3). Preoperational Stage Piaget’s second stage of development was the preoperational stage. The preoperational stage of development occurs between the ages of two to seven years. During this stage, children’s though processes are developing. There is a development of language and use of symbols. Children still use egocentric thought, meaning that they view the world entirely from his or her own perspective. ‘Animism’ is also a characteristic of the preoperational stage. This is when a person has the belief that everything that exists has some kind of consciousness. An example of this would be that a child would believe the sink isn’t turning on because it is sick or that the water will be hot because it’s angry. A child at this stage of development appears to view his social relationships and the physical reality egocentrically. This means that they view the world with a marked tendency to evaluate interaction with others in terms of its contribution to their own experience of satisfaction. So moral realism is an aspect of this stage because children think that their thoughts on the difference between right and wrong are shared by everyone else around them. (Appel, 1977, p. 4). Concrete Operational Stage Piaget’s third stage of development is the concrete operational stage. The  concrete operational stage of development occurs in children between the ages of seven and twelve. Before the beginning of this stage, children’s ideas about different objects are formed and dominated by their appearance. An example of this is that they believe there are less toys when they are all piled up rather than spread out across the floor because it takes up more space on the ground. During this stage, the thought process becomes more rational, mature, adult-like, and operational. Children in this stage of development lose their egocentric frame of thought and begin to think logically. This especially is true for the child’s ability to develop logical thought about an object that they are able to physically manipulate. These children have difficulty understanding abstract, hypothetical questions. Children at the concrete-operational level would be expected to draw on the experie nces of others in evaluating their environment, giving more realistic and natural. (Koocher, 1973, p. 2). Formal Operations Stage Piaget’s last stage of development is the formal operational stage. The formal operational stage of development begins at the age of around eleven or twelve and is fully achieved by the age of fifteen and taken throughout the rest of adulthood. The structures of development become the more abstract, logically organized system of adult intelligence. There are two major characteristics of formal operational thought including ‘hypothetic-deductive reasoning’ and ‘propositional reasoning’. Hypothetic-deductive reasoning means that when faced with a problem, the person is able to come up with a general summary of all the possible factors that might affect the outcome, and the different outcomes possible. Propositional reasoning means that adolescents can focus on verbal assertions and evaluate their logical validity without making reference to real-world circumstances. In concrete operational development, children can only evaluate the logic of statements based off of concrete evidence. Formal operational development brings critical, theoretical, and problem-solving types of thought that gives them much more thought and understanding than they had in the past. (Koocher, 1973, p. 8). â€Å"Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is already known? Or should we try to develop creative and innovative minds, capable of  discovery from the preschool age on, throughout life?† –Jean Piaget On August 9, 1896, developmental psychologist and philosopher Jean Piaget was born. Jean was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a theory of cognitive child development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities. Before Piaget’s work, the common assumption in psychology was that children are merely less competent thinkers than adults which he disproved showing the strikingly different ways children think in comparison to adults. Piaget’s theories of child development continue to be studied in the field of education. His theory differs from others in several ways. For one, it is concerned with children, rather than all learners. It also focuses on development rather than learning so it does not address learning of information or specific behaviors. It proposes discrete stages of development marked by qualitative differences, rather than a gradual increase in number and complexity of behaviors, concepts, and ideas.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch

â€Å"There is No Such Thing as Free Lunch,† although is a clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ statement, is true. Nothing comes without a price, although whether the price involves money or not, is still there. Corepower Yoga, off Kipling and C-470, offers one free week of yoga to new time customers. The yoga is unlimited for the week and has no strings attached such as continued membership. Although the ad is labeled as free, and monetary it really is, due to trade-offs, benefit/cost analysis, and comparative benefit/cost analysis the free week of yoga comes with a price. The definition of trade-offs is giving up something to get something. Getting a free week of yoga at Corepower Yoga is great, but what if a different yoga center is better? Corepower Yoga does many hot yoga classes. This means that the room will be heated up to one hundred and five degrees and the humidity turned up to fifty percent. This could create a lot of discomfort and strain to new yoga users that they are not ready for. In addition, there are only about six classes a day, so the timing could not be right, considering there is a gap of classes between the times of twelve and four. These things could be wrong for a customer making the trade-off a costly thing. Another cost would be whether yoga is worthwhile or not. This is called benefit/cost analysis. Going to yoga involves working out and time and these are costs. Yoga creates a healthier body, more flexibility, more balance, and increased stamina. These are all positives, but take hard work to reach and maintain, which just one free week will not get you. To reach the full potential, a membership will be required, which is a monetary cost. If the addition of a membership is not taken at the end of the week, the yoga that has been done would not be very effective. A continuous membership costs about a hundred dollars a week for unlimited yoga. Not all people can afford this. One week of free yoga, although technically free, has the potential to cost more later on. This brings up the thought of if this week is a good deal, is it the best deal? This is called comparative benefit/cost analysis. Working out has benefits, but is yoga the best method? A gym also offers good workout potential. There are many different machines, work out classes, possibly tanning, and a very upbeat environment. Yoga is just one class and a very relaxed environment. Yoga created relaxation about life, and helps to distress the body, whereas working out just focuses on toning the body. The membership costs are about the same, but Corepower Yoga offers a free week to test out all of the things it has to offer. Nothing comes freely. Corepower Yoga's advertisement offers one free week of yoga to all new users. This is false advertisement, because it is not free. It must be taken into consideration the time, location, hard work, and the schedule of Corepower Yoga. All of these things cost something, although it may not deal with money are very important to the decision of taking up the offer or not.

Application of Nursing Theory Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Application of Nursing Theory - Assignment Example A nurse manager who has authority over the staff calls them for a meeting whereby they highlight issues affecting their work and carry out collective decision-making. This way, they arrive at good conclusions and each staff is given a goal to attain. After a stipulated period, their work is evaluated whereby each staff is held staff accountable of the already assigned tasks. Nurse mangers can apply this to influence outcomes in patient-care delivery as well as patient satisfactory scores (Meleis, 2011). This theory is well applicable in patient care delivery because the nurses help the patients cope with stress (Meleis, 2011). Stress according to king entails a state where the patients interact with the nurses to maintain a balance for growth (Meleis, 2011). During the transaction between the patient and the health care provider, the patient is given a feeling of control by being involved in decision-making, the nurse listen to their complains as well as offer additional education besides aiding in decision acing (Meleis, 2011). The theory also applies in patient satisfactory scores since as the nurses provide medical and technical information, the patient contributes personal and emotional info. They combine their perceptions and judgments hence drive towards goal attainment (Meleis, 2011). If goals are attained, there will be satisfaction as well as e ffective nursing

Cultural Transformation in Extended Care Nursing Homes Term Paper

Cultural Transformation in Extended Care Nursing Homes - Term Paper Example Cultural transformations in a nursing environment refer to the changes in the perceptions of the care providers on the mode of delivery of services to their clients - the residents (Hojlo, 2010). The transformations are necessary due to the need for improved services at the centers. The cultural transformation process is not a simple change but a paradigm shift involving three main stages namely, ‘a time of chaos and confusion, crisis, and acceptance’ (Hojlo, 2010, p.45). This paper illustrates the contribution of nursing to cultural transformation for improved services. It makes use of a practical project that has proved effective towards this objective. Introduction to the project The project is a step towards creating a friendlier environment for the residents in these nursing homes. The entire transformation process is systematic and bound occur in phases. ... There is need for a more one-on-one correspondence between residents and the nursing assistants. On one hand, residents have affairs that require privacy at certain points and on the other hand, there is a need for the residents to engage in some organizational activities. The move is driven by the provisions on the Bill of Rights for the residents in these nursing homes. Just like the other ordinary healthy people, the residents are entitled to good housing environment and follow his or her choice and preferences in various daily requirements. The individuals are entitled to us basic commodities that are in their living environment. The individuals also have the rights to privacy. Overview of the project The project takes on three different dimensions. The first initiative is choice of items in the food menu. It involves discussing with residents and families on the schedule of food items depending on their preference and the bodily requirements. Another initiative is introduction o f various sporting activities. The third component of the project is conducting a get-together occasion in which the residents share their experiences with families, friends, professionals, and other patients. Literature Review The cultural transformations in the nursing homes are inevitable due to the changing needs of the residents in such homes. Person-directed care has a central focus on the needs, interests and the lifestyles preferred by an individual (HealthInsight New Mexico, 2012). This is because every individual has unique needs, strengths, and relationships that should be addressed. The provision of strong health care services requires high levels of competency and professionalism with a major focus on the quality of life and the quality of care given to the residents

Inventory Management and Production Planning and Scheduling Essay

Inventory Management and Production Planning and Scheduling - Essay Example These usually shares 50%-70% of the total items yet contribute only 5% to 20% of their total value. As A items are most valuable in the business operation, stricter and tighter inventory control policies are implemented for their maintenance. For one, A items requires the most accurate and detailed records which are done through a more rigid control on transaction documents. Also, daily updating is done to gain a regular accurate insight of their demand and order quantities. I believe that these tighter inventory policies for type A items are logical. Since they constitute the highest dollar value of the total stock of merchandise, they must be treated with utmost care. These items do entail the stricter documentation as loss of only a minute portion will lead to huge losses for the company as their per unit value is relatively high. Also, inventories with higher values are typically marketed at a higher price to customers. Type A are considered high-end products as they typically require a huge amount of purchasing power from the consumer. Since they are sold to the high-end market, a loss of a single sale of the inventory will lead to a significant loss to the company. Closely monitoring the level of these stocks will yield a higher profitability for any business operation. B items, though given a less strict policy than A items, requires normal control which involves accurate records and timely attention. As opposed to A items which require daily updating, order quantity and order points for B items only need to be revised on a quarterly basis. These stocks require only normal processing, yet they are given top priority when critical situations arise. Moderate control policies are implemented in keeping B items as they comprise only an intermediate value of the company’s total inventory. These items do not require