Witchcraft In Hollywood Essays (1886 words) - Religion, Culture

Witchcraft In Hollywood Hollywood provides falsified information It is said by many that Hollywood is persuasive. People see something on television or in a motion picture and believe that what is shown is, in reality, true. Misconceptions will occur, and unless people are shown evidence against the delusions, it will be taken as fact. In the past, many groups have been poorly represented onscreen. Organizations such as the Mafia, the government, the military, spies, gods, monsters, and others are just a small example of those prejudiced. Since the misconceptions have occurred, much of the truth has come through for those mentioned. However, one topic that is repeatedly misrepresented in Hollywood is the practice of the Craft, more commonly known as witchcraft or Wicca according to Jeffrey Mann (personal communication, April 14, 1999). Witchcraft has been shown onscreen as evil, black magick, rather than a faith, and most people see spells cast by wiggling the nose or pointing a finger to be valid of the ?witchcraft fable' (1997, Bewitched online) . Is witchcraft a true, spiritual religion, and if so, are people willing to tolerate it? Many are uninformed of the religious aspect of the Craft, and those that are, believe it to be false or wrong according to Jeffrey Mann (personal communication, April 14, 1999). In today's society, religious tolerance of different groups of people or cultures is extremely important. By understanding and accepting the differences of real versus imaginary using witchcraft as the prime example, people will be able to see these groups as part of actual society and not just a fictitious, magickal portrayal in entertainment such as Bewitched, Charmed, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and The Craft. Hollywood's portrayal of witchcraft in movies and shows is invalid. Now on reruns, the television show, Bewitched, was once very popular. Samantha and Tabitha are shown casting spells nearly every other minute of the half-hour (1997, Bewitched online). The show brought forth a revival of the knowledge of witchcraft. In history, before Christianity, Paganism was a primary religion in Europe. Witchcraft is a form of Paganism, just as Wicca, Shamanism, and others are. When the Christian religion was being formed, many Pagan beliefs were still used (1998, A witches overview of Wicca online). The Pagan tradition of Yule, the winter solstice holiday, was to bring a live tree into the house and decorate it with food, balls, and a star on top to protect the household from the evil spirits (Adler, 1997). In the past century, a man named Gerald Gardener came forth with his ancestor's religious practice that has been passed down generation after generation called Paganism. He began bringing forth the Wiccan movement to modern witches according to Jeffrey Mann ( personal communication, April 14, 1999). Bewitched was made in the midst of the sort of ?coming out' of all that was practiced. Romanticizing witchcraft started with Bewitched, and from then on, a new fetish of shows and movies had begun. The Warner Brothers Network recently aired a new hour-long show featuring three sisters who have just discovered their witchy powers (see attached graphic one of Charmed sisters). They are referred to as the ?Charmed Ones', which are the most powerful of a long line of good witches. Their mission is to protect the innocent against all evil (1999, Charmed online). The show features many distinct realities of witchcraft. The show refers to the Book of Shadows, which is a book of memoirs, spells, thoughts, and goals, which must be handwritten and personal to that witch (1998, A witches overview of Wicca). The three sisters use this book for casting spells against evil, which is the basis for entertainment on the show. Freezing time, traveling to the past or future, and evaporating monsters are just some of the sisters' outlandish powers (1999, Charmed online). Religion has no part in the hour that the sisters are fighting the darkness. Witchcraft, in reality, has no ?natural' witches as implied in Charmed. Having ?power' is a belief that comes from within your soul, not from genetics (Valiente, 1998). The power of spells to witches is like the power of prayers to Christians. If Charmed was based on three Christian sisters, the show would be primarily about how they pray

Chester essays

Chester essays "Eighty years ago, England effectively had no anti-gun laws, and gun crime was insignificant. Since then, as one anti-gun law after another had sailed through parliment, gun crime has steadily grown worse"(american rifleman 23). That quote by Charlton Heston makes a lot of sense, if we try to ban guns people will just get them off the Black Market. Thus with guns in criminals hands and none to protect the innocent our gun crime will rise dramaticaly. Charlton Heston is fighting to keep our guns to protect ourselves and our homes. Charlton has worked for the National Rifle Association for quite some time now, but in his earlier years he was actually an actor. " I cant remember a time when I didnt want to be an actor" (yahoo.com). Charlton Heston has starred in many movies over his career, but the most famous movie he made was probably The Ten Commandments in which he played Moses. Charlton made movies for about ten years, he was an actors guild award winner, and he won the academy award winner for best actor. Before all of his fame Charlton was actually in World War One flying planes for the 11th army air forces. Charlton was in the air force for three years flying planes. While in WWII he also helped to maintain all of the planes. After his service in the air force he went home to be in a broadway play. After the war he settled into a job in the NRA. Charlton now has a job as president in the NRA. Charlton Heston is now the president of the NRA. Some of the things he does around there is he publishes a column in the American Rifleman, a magazine pulished by the NRA itself. Charlton writes columns in several other magazines that the NRA publishes too. Charlton Heston has been the president of the NRA for about eight years. He is working to keep it legal to bear small arms. Charlton Heston is fighting for us to keep and bear arms. Charlton has been on a lot of infomercials and has sent th ...

Benefits Policy & Strategy Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Benefits Policy & Strategy - Assignment Example Therefore, it is practical that WorldatWork argues that although the goal of motivating workers is the same in different companies, optimum mix or strategy of benefits may change even in the same company. This trend is probably due to changes in administration of the company over time. However, with these changes, it is possible for an expert in the field of benefits strategy to equip himself with the new types of benefits strategies in the following ways. A benefits strategy connoisseur is ought to be a timely researcher. As mentioned earlier, this field is fast changing and therefore, those who are involved should change too. The best too for this change is through research on new viable benefits strategies and how to use them. Benefits policy and strategy has surely gone to a completely new level with every human resource manager trying to keep or acquire the best kind of employees there is. The only difference is on the way they do

Article responses - Adorno Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Article responses - Adorno - Essay Example (Pg. 3)† As quoted above, it is also mentioned throughout the article that the history of modern music in no longer tolerating â€Å"meaningful juxtaposition of antithesis.† Indeed, music is taking a turn of its own accord by going against the cultural industry and into its own domain. Modern music is finding its own place for itself. Music is one of the only forms of art that has had a difficult time in being recognized in the media, and for the audiences. The non-conceptual and the non-objective elements that are in music appeal to philosophical ideas, and yet this is what has hardened it against the market-place mentality. People do not want to sell or to listen to music that they cannot understand because it is above their level of comprehension. Sellers and audiences want something basis that everyone can enjoy. When radical music first became known, it was put into complete isolation during the last stages of industrialism. Because of this, music that was feigning â€Å"modernity† and â€Å"seriousness† arose, almost as a mockery to the true radical music that was never made known. The artists of the radical music were thrown into a false sense of peace. Not only was their music not being put out to the public, but also other artists were making a mockery of it. Naturally, appealing to audiences everywhere, as it made more sense; the false modern and serious music played a bigger role in the music industry during that time. Another type of music, following that of a philosophical sort, was that of intellectualism. It is noted in the article that intellectualism is more appealing to the brain, as opposed to the heart or to the ears. The article states, â€Å"It is in no way conceived by the senses, but rather worked out on paper. (Pg. 11)† As bizarre as this may seem, seeing as music is something that first, in most cases, touches the ears or the heart, intellectualism became one of the more common types of music. This was a

Ethics and IRB Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ethics and IRB - Essay Example Ethics is contrasted with the term morality that frequently relates to how the way a person was raised and the values learned from the culture, parents or religion. Ethics refers to the systematic study of the basis of right or wrong decision. The regulations for protection of human subject in United States provide a minimum baseline through which every person must comply when operating the institutional review board, IRB, when obtaining consent from the research subjects, and when conducting the research. The ethical thought has shaped the regulations, though ethics require more conditions than what regulations require (Steinberg, 2007). Throughout the history of ethics, various theories have been formulated on what ethics ought to be. When these theories are critically examined, the procedure, rules and outlooks of ethics are justified. The major challenge in a practical environment, particularly in medical research, is the translation of the theoretical concepts of ethics into act ion. Regulations will thus come into place and help in accomplishing such tasks (Chamberlain, 2008). Development of the research ethics has evolved over time. Many tragedies have been reported through the research history involving the human subjects. Many people suffered as they participated in the research. The first research experiments on human subjects were the vaccination trial where physicians experimented with either their families, or themselves. Ethically, it is an injustice to abstract them from thinking on regulations away from the ethical context (Juritzen, Grimen & Heggen, 2011). In modern history, the discovery of atrocities by the Nazi physicians pioneered in human subject protection. Some of the experiments were considered inhumane and unethical. The voluntary consent is, therefore, essential when performing experiments on the human subjects and the research risks should be minimized so that it will benefit the society. Ethics Ethics refers to branch of study that d eals with the most appropriate course of action for human beings. It involves systemizing, recommending and the defending concepts of right and wrong behavior. Ethics is a critical requirement in human life since it determines the course of action towards a certain goal or objective. When conducting the nursing research, the researchers should be aware of nursing and research ethics. The decision on what to study, participants, and termination of the interviews and documentation of the results of the case study, should be based on ethical deliberation (Melton, 2004). Ethics is crucial in nursing research since it helps to set the competence boundaries. All nurses conducting research should work within their competence boundaries. Also, ethics enable researchers make informed consent where the information has to be judged to avoid confusing the people. Valid consent for participation in research depends on understanding, and freedom from deception and coercion. The information to the participants should be presented in written form and orally (Chamberlain, 2008). Ethics helps the nurses maintain confidentiality during their research. Confidentiality is an extension for privacy and is controlled by the privacy Act. Participants should trust that confidentiality is maintained for the information they give. Ethics ensure that the participants are free from risks and injuries during the research. This should encompass physical and non-physical wellbeing. In questioning, the researcher is entitled to maintain what is ethical. Ethics also ensures quality where the review committee assesses the ethical implications of the research proposals. Also, honesty in reporting is enhanced where the researcher publishes the process and findings to allow for peer scrutiny

Features of Perfect Competition

Features of Perfect Competition Contrast the features of perfect competition with those of oligopoly. (10) The comparison between perfect competition and oligopoly will be based on the following: number of buyers and sellers, nature of product, and barriers to entry of firms. Number of buyers and sellers Perfect competition is a market structure that is characterised by many buyers and sellers with each firms output representing an insignificant proportion of the total output. Hence, sellers cannot influence prices by changing its level of output. Thus, they accept the market price as given i.e they are price takers. Each firm then faces a perfectly elastic demand curve as shown in fig 1a. An example of a market that comes close to the perfectly competitive model is that of agricultural farming. How much the farmer sells his wheat for will depend on the prevailing price of wheat in the market. On the other hand, an oligopolistic firm produces a significant amount of the total market output. The seller can either influence the price or output. It can sell more by lowering price or increase price but sell less. This indicates that the firms demand curve is downward sloping. In addition, due to the small number of firms prevalent in the market, each firm now makes its decisions based on the reaction of other firms in the same industry. No firm can afford to ignore the actions and reactions of other firms in the industry. For example, there are only a few car manufacturers in the US such as Chrysler, GM and Ford Motors. If Ford Motors wants to increase sales, it can lower the price of its cars so that some buyers will switch from either Chrysler or General Motors but the increase in quantity demanded will be insignificant given that Chrysler and General Motors will follow the cut in price. This behaviour can be summarized by the kinked demand curve. Nature of product In perfect competition, each seller produces an identical product, thus they are perfect substitutes for each other. Since consumers think that the products are the same, they will not show any preference towards the goods of one firm over another. This means that sellers are not able to arbitrarily raise their prices for fear that consumers switch to other firms. Firms in perfect competition are price takers, and the demand for their goods are perfectly price elastic, hence the horizontal demand curve. In oligopoly, firms may either be producing a homogenous product or a differentiated product. When the product is differentiated, the oligopolist can increase the price and the output would not fall significantly. This implies substantial market power for the firms in an oligopoly. Even when the good is homogenous like steel or aluminium, the firm is likely to differentiate in terms of the services and terms of conditions, hence the downward sloping demand curve. Barriers to entry There are no barriers to entry or exit in a PC industry so the markets will consist of a large number of small sellers. The implication of this is that the firms in perfectly competitive industry will earn normal profits in the long run as supernormal profit earned by the firms in the short run will be depleted by the entry of the new firms into the industry. It is relatively easy to lease a plot of land to grow wheat and in the event that the farmer chose to give up wheat farming, he could easily terminate his lease with the landlord. The start up cost is low as all he needs are some simple tools and seedlings. In oligopoly, there are significant entry and exit barriers. For example, in car production, there are very high initial fixed costs such as the setting up of the assembly line and only if the firm produces a very large output level will the average cost fall significantly. The lower cost associated with a big output serves as an entry barrier for new firms as their initial d emand is usually low. Exit is also difficult, as it is not easy to dispose of the firms fixed assets. Other forms of barriers could be patent rights, exclusive ownership of certain raw materials and legal barriers. So the oligopolist can earn supernormal profits even in the long run. 2b. Discuss why oligopoly is a more common type of market structure compared to perfect competition. (15) Perfect competition is an ideal model and so it is difficult to find markets that have all these characteristics. There are some markets in the real world that approximates perfect competition. Examples of such markets are farming, the stock exchange market and the foreign currency market. These markets possess some of the characteristics of PC as explained in part (a). However, even in such markets, some of the characteristics are hard to fulfil. For instance, buyers and sellers may not be price takers. In the stock exchange market, there are some individuals or institutions that can influence the price of shares through their large holdings of a particular companys shares. The product is also not homogenous if stock of different companies are considered., Thus, if they were to sell their shares, price will fall. Knowledge is not perfect either. Although buyers and sellers do have easy access to information through their brokers and the Internet, there are some who do have insider i nformation and use that to their advantage. Moreover, managers tend to reveal more information about their companies to financial specialists rather than to small investors. In the real world, most industries do not have that many firms. In fact, in industries such as automobiles, air-craft manufacturing industry, oil industry, steel industry, supermarket chains and pharmaceutical industry, the industry is dominated by a few large firms. Most firms would rather face less competition so that their market power can be consolidated and secured. Oligopoly is thus a more desired form of market structure as far as sellers are concerned. Oligopoly is a more common market structure. It can be attributed mainly to the high entry barriers. Barriers to entry refer to any impediments that prevent new firms from competing on an equal basis with existing firms in an industry. An effective barrier for new firms to enter the industry is substantial economies of scale. The production of some goods involves very high initial fixed costs. Good examples are the petroleum industry and the manufacturing of aircrafts. For example, Airbus and Boeing must construct huge expensive structures to build the A380. Thus, for the production of such goods, the larger the output the greater is the economies of scale enjoyed by the firm. Such industries have very large Minimum Efficient Scale, and hence, only a few firms exist in such industries. Economies of scale are not the only source of barrier to entry. Other barriers to entry can be the possession of superior technical knowledge or sterling reputation for quality or efficiency. Take for example, high end sports cars like the Ferrari is such well known brand names that it is quite impossible for any new auto firms to replicate them. For years, they are the symbol of quality and luxury, an image that the carmakers have painstakingly cultivated. Production of such cars also requires superior technical knowledge, which is jealously guarded by the manufacturers. Thus it is not easy for new firms to enter such industries. In addition, existing firms could have spent millions on advertising to build and maintain brand loyalty. It will require a substantial period of high advertising costs and low revenues for new entrants if they want to establish themselves. Also, they can spend large amounts on advertising to make it difficult for a new entrant to differentiate its product. With the high entry barriers, firms are able to earn supernormal profits in the long run and have the financial strength to block the entry of new firms. Such firms can also adopt predatory pricing to further keep out competitors. Their huge profits allow them to cut prices drastically to drive out competitors. They can maintain excess production capacity as a signal to a potential entrant that with little notice, they could easily saturate the market and leave the new entrant with little or no revenue. Besides, huge profits allow firms to spend generously on RD. The discovery of new and better products allows them to compete more effectively in the market and also keep out other firms. For instance, in the pharmaceutical industry, millions of dollars are required to discover a new vaccine or a new drug. Hence the presence of high entry barriers results in many oligopolies. Globalisation and liberalization With increased globalisation, many domestic firms are threatened by the entry of big foreign firms or MNCs. Bigger firms have a competitive advantage in terms of pricing. Domestic firms can survive as long as there is government legislation to prevent the entry of foreign firms. But most governments are liberalizing their domestic industries. In order to compete with foreign firms, domestic firms have to merge. A merger would safeguard their survival as well as to allow them to compete more effectively. For instance, the merger of DBS bank with POSB and UOB with OUB , are all meant to expand the size of each bank so as to better compete with other international banks such as Citibank and Standard Chartered etc when MAS liberalize the financial sector to encourage competition. Hence globalisation has increased the tendency for mergers and the formation of oligopolies. Conclusion There are not many industries in the real world that satisfy the characteristics of the perfectly competitive model given it is an ideal model. On the other hand, the characteristics of an oligopoly are more easily met. The nature of production is more favourable to an oligopolistic kind of market. There are many advantages to being big. Some firms are big due to high entry barriers natural or man-made, while others expand internally or externally through mergers and acquisition in response to a changing external environment. The main reason for oligopoly being a common market structure can be attributed to benefits of economies of scale which gives firms the incentive to merge and be large. It will lower their costs and give them higher returns to meet potential competition and as a consequence, they have huge incentives to erect barriers to deter entry by new firms, and to consolidate their position.

A Humorous Distillation of Antigone by Maurice Sagoff :: essays research papers

A Humorous Distillation of Antigone by Maurice Sagoff This poem is quite successful in getting the plot across to the reader. Unfortunatly, that is all he can get across because of his beleif that, "inside every fat book is a skinny book trying to get out." Sargoff cannot have character descriptions, themes, or any real detail in his "skinny book" because of his beleifs. Sargoff leaves off why Polynices should not be burried and why his brother, who is not even menchoned, can be burried. This is important to building the feelings of contempt towards Creon and an understanding of what Antigone is doing. Also, because this is a "Humorous Distillation," the tone of the play is lost. Instead of being a dramatic play about obeying a higher law, it is a comical, rhyming poem about what happened. This may cause it to lose the impact it had. Sargoff reduces important and pivotal points in the story to a sentence such as, "Creon wilts, and tries to bang a U-ee." This sentence does not tell of Creon's attempt to repent for what he! has done by burrying Polynices and then going to free Antigone. Even if Sargoff gets all of the plot across, that is not enough to tell the whole story. Aristotelian Unities Yes, Antigone does follow the Aristotelian Unities. The play occurs in the same place and roughly the same time. Things that happened before the play or outside of the place, was told by a messenger or a character themself. The action was all centered around Antigone's actions. Her actions were the sole cause of everything that happened. Greek Tragedy Antigone does follow the Greek definition of tragedy. Tragedy is a story or play that has a signifigant conflict of morals, with a noble protagonist displaying a tragic flaw that is their strength but leads to their downfall. The exposition of the story is when Antigone is talking with her sister and we learn of what has happened. The turning point of this play is when Creon tries to mend his wrongs by burying Polynices and freeing Antigone. Antigone herself is the tragic hero because she dies for what she believes morally right. Antigone's tragic flaw is that she has only sees her point of view which leads to her death. The denouement of this story is everybody dying and then Creon realizing what he has caused. The song of the story is attenden to throuhg the chorus' comentating on what is happening or