Class Prophecy of Batch 2010 in Morms.Doc Essay

Most of us would agree that the days we spent in high school were certainly the best days of our lives. Memorable ones I suggest. It was in high school that we made our grown-up friends, competed to excel, hoped for places in the sports team, toiled to lead in the student council, and yielded to take part in the school organ. It was also in high school when we first felt and experienced to love – puppy love as people say. Thus, it is indeed in this chapter that we learnt lessons about life; that what lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. And it is inevitable that we encounter obstacles along the way, from which we learn to fight and to be strong. The class of 2008 has come along way since the freshman year at San Francisco High School, and memories come flooding back every time we reminisce each high school happening. All of which were joyous, worth remembering and unique in their own right. I. Igniting the inner light – freshmen year Anxiety filled the air as freshmen wandered during the opening classes in San Francisco High School. All of whom were thinking who their adviser, teachers and classmates may be. And as the school bell rang, every freshman began to walk hurriedly along the school grounds to finally reach their destination – their new home. Thus, the meandering class of 2008 came together under one roof in the white walls of Molave Building. Consequently, here is where our story began. Everyone leapt unto their respective classrooms, and as they found themselves seats to sink in, murmurings started to conquer the place. Then a glaciating breeze seemed to stun every freshman and jerked them silent, way too different from the usual noisy chitchats, chants and laughter heard within the four corners of a classroom. The first day of classes in high school signifies that to be a freshman is to be in possession of a wonderful thing: time. There is time to figure out what you want to do with your life, time to figure out what books you want to read. There is time to make friends. This was the time of building friendships again, for each may have parted with old friends and that new sets of close acquaintances are to be developed. That I think is what being a freshman is all about – to begin again. Our freshmen year may have been unique compared to the other years for it was in our time when the school decorum or dress code was changed, so that the boys could wear black pants instead of kaki pants. It was also in our time when the Department of Education first launched a project to further intensify the form of education in public high schools: the Bridge Program. Yes, we will never forget this program. Every time we remember it, a painstaking examination flows back into our minds. And as days passed, we encountered several more mind-boggling and constraining tests to cogitate on. Take the National Achievement Test that welcomed us at our first year at SFHS as an example. But through all these, we came to the extent to study more, learn more and acquire more knowledge. Our days in San Francisco High School continued to pass by and progress started to set in to our school as it welcomed development and change. The usual flood-prone and muddy area by the entrance of the Molave Building was then transformed into something more accessible as the drainage was improved and pathways concretized. Likewise, the school cafeteria with dull, tedious and wearisome ambiance has become lively, bright and auspicious, but was unfortunately set on fire months after the renovation. Notwithstanding the aforementioned concerns, every freshman continued to weave a strong bond of relationships with their new classmates and schoolmates, overcoming the sadness they felt as they went separate ways amongst elementary friends. And the once aloof, coy, and cold-hearted freshmen were turned steadfastly amicable. Hence, this was the time of being true and showing who you really are . . . again. Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled and ignited this inner light. II. Shoreline of growing up – sophomore year Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated; you can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps. This is the time of schooling where learning requires maturity; where the playful freshmen turn out to be dreamers. And that these dreamers learn to plan for their lives – on what they desire to become and what paths they ought to take. It is in our sophomore year that we began to write our own plans and arrangements for our own future. As San Francisco High School welcomed back the class of 2008 for their sophomore year, the school then waved goodbye to Dr. Consolacion Montano, principal, as she moved to another high school. SFHS then warmly opened its gates for the arrival of their new head of authorities, for their new school principal, Dr. Milagros San Juan. This was surprisingly a news breaking event for the school at that moment. Time flew and San Francisco High School started to embrace changes and improvements initiated by the effort of the newly appointed principal of the school, Dr. San Juan. In the first three months of her service, she revised the mission-vision of the school focusing on academic excellence and the realization of students’ and teachers’ giftedness, which dramatically changed the attitudes of both the teachers and students. Also, Dr. San Juan organized an infrastructural set-up in the school to produce a more conducive learning environment among the students and in lieu of the pending condemnation of the old Narra Building. Indeed, through the collaborative endeavour of the school administrators, stakeholders and Quezon City Government, a four-storey 18-classroom building has started its structural foundation in San Francisco High School and has become operational in our junior year. Meanwhile, the Dao and PUP Buildings in SFHS underwent renovation for replacement of roofing and repainting. Clearly, Dr. San Juan’s vision for SFHS in pursuit for academic excellence beyond mediocrity has slowly made possible and she cited that SFHS will regain its pride in due time. It was also in the plight of Dr. San Juan’s arrival that SFHS first celebrated its founding anniversary after many years . . . after several decades. And from boring and tiresome schooldays, the students then enjoyed various school activities such as seminars, workshops, symposiums and trainings which honed their virtues and intellect, all necessary as they grow. The growing students of class 2008 have come to the point of hitching their wagons to a star. Believing that dreaming is the beginning of success, these sophomores then begun to mold their future in their young minds. It is clear that the future holds great opportunities. It also holds pitfalls. The trick of succeeding is to seize the opportunities and avoid the pitfalls. Opportunity comes only once, but when it does not knock, you must learn to build a door. Growing up is not that easy for growing requires valor and bravery as one meets challenges and hindrances along the way. It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. III. Steering with countless effort – junior year The best helping hand that you will ever receive is the one at the end of your own arm. All downhill comes this year. It is circumstantial that in this chapter of high school life, a myriad of responsibilities is at par facing the junior students for here is where they are trained and honed in preparation for the duties that await them. All new academic school year at San Francisco High School and all new happenings for the juniors to encounter and celebrate. First was the transformation of the school library into something innovative as it coped with the technological advancements of the community – the school library went online. Thanks to the Quezon City Government and Quezon City Division of City Schools. Second in line was the commemoration of the school’s 49th founding anniversary – again, a day of joy and euphoria. Nevertheless, the feeling of excitement aroused upon each junior when the news about the Junior and Senior Promenade came about. February passed and March came. Finally the prom was held . . . after years. This most awaited moment was jam packed with programs, great music, tasty food, glamorous formal attires, and the highlight of the evening – the ball. Not to mention the turn-over ceremonies of responsibilities from seniors to juniors that indicates relief to the fourth years, but the beginning of busy schooldays for the third years. However, the night was then enjoyed with relish and zest by all, particularly the juniors, setting aside the duties that await them. The prom was over and each student went home with smiles on their faces. Looking back weeks before the prom, the Supreme Student Government (SSG), formerly Student Council had its election of new set of officers for the next academic school year. The positions from the President down to the year level representatives were opened to those who are willing to dedicate their service, time and effort for the school. All of which were struggled by the three competing party lists namely: Uno Kabataan, YOUNG and CUP. All were devoted to serve the school, but only a few were to be chosen. After a democratic school wide voting, the student body has elected their new leaders. The juniors turned leaders, Alexis Ailex Villamor Jr., President; Rose-lyn Ann Reyes, Vice-President; Leira Anne Nolasco, Secretary; Adelpha Gonzales, Treasurer; Armie Saces, Auditor; Judith Regine Santos, P.I.O; Mary Grace Papa, Peace Officer; and the so called â€Å"Magic Four†, Ma. Rose Solas, Ferdie Javier, Janine Joy Ilagan, and Kristine Joy Torela, fourth year representatives, then metamorphosed to responsible students for they ought to show off what they can do next year. Continuity of vision and specified goal are necessary requirements for upcoming seniors, significant aspects in striking the aim. Obstacles come at every chance and these are those frightful things that one sees when he takes his eyes off his goal. All that one can do is spit in the eye of his fears by living each day with as much passion and commitment as possible to what truly counts, such as love and justice. To give into the fear and hopelessness would be to declare defeat; something that one is not ready to do while there is still the will to struggle. To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. Remember that we cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sail. All our dreams for our school, family and ourselves can come true . . . if we have the chivalry to pursue it. Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. IV. Setting adrift – senior year Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail. Senior year: the final lap. New dreams are to be dreamed; new hopes are to be hoped for, and a lot new works are to be worked on. The once little youngsters have now grown and became young adults, that from playing and chatting, they will now embark and handle over great responsibilities and obligations duly bequeathed unto them by the previous senior students. In line with their duties in school, they then approached the instance of making the hardest decision. That their future counts on the manifestation of this decision. Eventually, stories of triumph, success, loss and frustration are expected from this new journey. In preparation for the opening of classes, the Brigada Eskwela of San Francisco High School, spearheaded by the School Governing Council (SGC), went beyond the National School Maintenance Week and won 2nd place, welcoming the students with festal pleasure and felicity. This was made possible by the noble and spectacular work of the SGC. Gradually moving forward, the seniors went to school with vigor as the school year started. The first week of school was a mere catastrophe, if I may say. For the school cafeteria alongside the Narra Building was torn down accidentally by the SM construction team, leaving the area with looms of rocks, shuttered glasses and cluttered pieces of wood. However, the company vowed of replacing those that were destroyed in due time. However, classes continued and academic club elections were held, signifying more obligations for the seniors to deal with. Through the commitment of the Hon. Cong. Vincent â€Å"Bingbong† Crisologo to ensure that government resources entrusted under his discretion be utilized for the general welfare of the citizenry; he gracefully turned-over an audio-speech laboratory to the school for the productivity of the English language amongst students. The laboratory was built at the fourth floor of the SB Hall. Our profound gratitude to Congressman Crisologo! But our thoughts of gratitude have not stopped there, as part of San Francisco High School’s Anniversary Celebration, the SGC and SM Foundation jointly conducted medical-dental-optical missions last July and August, and it turned out to be a big success. Another record in school history. Thanks to the SGC’s continuing support, camaraderie and rapport! After all the effort of the School Governing Council, its time for the Supreme Student Government to step its foot in preparation for the school’s Golden Jubilee Celebration. To prove that the officers of the SSG were indeed capable of leading the school, the organization volunteered to preside and prepare the programs for the celebration. After several discussion and meetings, the SSG decided to hold a Sports Festival, which served as a treat to the students and teachers. They also came up with the theme: S.O.S (Save Our Students) – Needing collective efforts towards academic excellence, with the help of Dr. San Juan herself and Mrs. Virginia Amin. With only one week preparation, the SSG, administrators and stakeholders furnished out the program and other necessary materials and equipments for the celebration. The 29th of September came, and the 50th Founding Anniversary of San Francisco High School was successfully commemorated in spite of the not-so-friendly weather. Surely, happiness and enjoyment aboundingly invaded everyone’s hearts as they involve themselves in the historical event of the school. Other programs that kept students involved were: the Mr. and Ms. San Francisco ’07, the Leaders for Juan seminar and workshop, Books in Motion of the English Club, Poster, Logo and Slogan Making Competitions, Student Debate regarding Honesty, Industry and Nationalism, Tutorial Sessions, â€Å"Gulayan sa Paaralan† of the PTA and a lot more. Year 2008 was a leap year and with the phenomenal February 29, the 2008 Junior and Senior Promenade was held. Though the seniors’ excitement was not as much as last year’s, everyone still enjoyed the evening. Thus, emotion of sadness abound the dance floor as seniors danced along with slow music, knowing that this was the last prom that they would attend. Yet, tears have no place on the center stage when loud music jammed, breaking the silence. The celebration still continued as our days in San Francisco High School passed, for our batch has successfully brought honor and pride to the school as we reaped places in annual competitions: Secondary Schools Press Conferences: district , division and regional levels and qualified the national level, Student Technologists and Entrepreneurs of the Philippines (STEP) Skills Competitions: district and division levels, Values Education Competitions: district, division and national levels, Dance Competitions topped by the schools pride, Pamanadanse, Poster and Slogan Making Contests, Essay Writing and Oratorical Competitions outside school, Math Challenges, and in the SB Centrex, Center for Excellence – a help in regaining the school’s prowess. And we are happy that we would be leaving San Francisco High School a better place for what we have done and what we have been. Hence, as we set adrift, as we leave our Alma Mater, and as we venture through another life, we can presume that we have left a legacy; a trail that others may follow and an inspiration to those who are next in line. Graduation day is yet to come. Graduation day fills the heart with mixed feelings – fulfilment and sadness, anxiety and eagerness. Seniors will say goodbye to the comfortable and secure life within the high school walls. Everyone must get ready to march to the beat of college life. The uncertainty of the future looms large over new graduates as they spread out their wings. Armed with diplomas and idealistic dreams, they charge ahead with enthusiasm. The fireworks begin today. Each diploma is a lighted match. Each one of the graduates is a fuse. Each one then must dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. One must not be afraid on attaining great things. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We are children of God. Our small plays do not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. Shoot for the moon, even if we miss, we’ll land among the stars; let us hit our goal so that he will hit his too. Commencement exercises are not the end; it’s just the beginning. And as the graduating class of 2008 dresses in identical caps and gowns, each and everyone would say with pride, â€Å"The tassel’s worth the hassle!† At this moment of our lives, our families are extremely proud of us. We can’t imagine the sense of relief they are experiencing. This must be a sign of farewell to friends, but let us not be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetime, is certain for those who are friends. Well, it’s March 23, 2008, and our history doesn’t end here. As days move onward, we’ll throw off the bowlines and we’ll sail away from the safe harbor. . . Then our story will begin once more. Till we meet again. Arrivederci! For now, five days to go and we’ll set adrift, with a diploma for a sail and lots of nerve for oars.

More Machine Now Than Man

Laura Frost, in her essay â€Å"Huxley's Feelies: The Cinema of Sensation in Brave New World,† states that â€Å"Brave New World has typically been read as â€Å"the classic denunciation of mass culture in the interwar years†Ã¢â‚¬  (Frost 448). This is true to an extent, as Frost points out. The novel explores the effects of mass culture and the implementation of eugenics and mass education to serve an industrialized society of consumption. Aspects of culture, such as the arts, have been reduced to pleasure seeking, and the population as a whole is kept within the machine of culture by means of pharmaceuticals.Much of this vision is drawn from Huxley’s experiences during the interwar period and for that reason, an exploration of his reactions to mass culture and his philosophy of culture prove useful in understanding the novel. This essay will be exploring Brave New World according to Huxley’s reactions to the culture of the 1920s and the early 1930s, es pecially to aspects of mass culture, consumerism and scientific and technological approaches to human growth and reproduction.Huxley wrote a number of essays in the late 1920s and early 1930s that deal with these issues and several of these serve as the primary focus of this essay. â€Å"Prophecies of the future,† writes Huxley in a 1927 essay, â€Å"if they are to be intelligent, not merely fantastic, must be based on a study of the present. The future is the present projected† (â€Å"The Outlook for American Culture† 187). This sentiment must be taken to heart if one is then to read a prophetic book by the author of the quote.Aldous Huxley was living and writing during the so-called â€Å"Jazz Age,† an age of increasing commercialism, consumerism and mechanization. The age saw a massive boost in the production of consumer goods and technologies, idealized in the streamlined assembly lines of Henry Ford, which provided goods for consumption, but demanded a larger worker class to fuel the boom. The further development of mass culture, thanks to the growth of music and film industries, was spurned by this growth in the working classes. Aldous Huxley’s novel is, at least to a degree, a product of this present.Consumerism and materialism are central to Brave New World; any work that features Henry Ford as a god figure would surely have to be. Huxley writes in 1931: The God of Industry supplies his worshipers with objects and can only exist on condition that his gifts are gratefully accepted. In the eyes of an Industriolater, the first duty of man is to collect as many objects as he can (â€Å"On the Charms of History† 131). Huxley acknowledges that capitalists and industrialists need people to want the stuff produced.He argues that Ford, to whom Huxley refers rather sarcastically as â€Å"the saint of the new dispensation,† and other industrialists have no choice but to hate history, literature, the arts and others because all these â€Å"mental activities†¦ distract mankind from an acquisitive interest in objects† (131-132). The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning in the opening section of the novel speaks of how mental activities in the lower classes, in this case a Romantic notion of nature, are discouraged in the hyper-consumerist society in Brave New World: A love of Nature keeps no factories busy.It was decided to abolish the love of nature, at any rate among the lower classes; to abolish the love of nature but not the tendency to consume transport†¦ We condition the masses to hate the country†¦ but simultaneously we condition them to love all country sports. At the same time we see to it that all country sports shall entail the use of elaborate apparatus. So that they consume manufactured articles as well as transport (23). The goal in the society of the novel is to adhere to what Huxley argues is the first duty of man to industrialists, owning and using the g oods produced by industry.Every aspect of the World State is crafted to maintain production and/or to encourage consumption. Those aspects of culture that occupy surplus time, the time spent not producing, have two functions: the consumption of material or the sedation or comforting of the producer so that he or she will continue to produce. The latter function is expressed by the Twentieth-Century theorist, Theodore Adorno. Shane Gunster, in his book Capitalizing on Culture: Critical Theory  for Cultural Studies, summarizes Adorno’s theory involving this idea of â€Å"free-time† Bored by the endless repetition of the assembly line or sales counter, people want novelty in their leisure time†¦ While leisure masquerades as ‘free-time,’ it is an open secret that its true purpose is to replenish one’s working energies†¦Work and leisure are bound together in an unholy alliance: the culture industry openly celebrates its independence from prod uction, selling its products as ‘freedom’ from the drudgery of the everyday, all the while secretly delivering its consumers ever-deeper into the clutches of a world from which they so anxiously desire to escape (Gunster 42-43). This theory of the â€Å"culture industry,† feeding the consumer with entertainment during free-time so that the work will not suffer, is the driving force behind the Fordian culture that Huxley writes about in the 1920s and 30s and satirizes in Brave New World .Adorno, whose major works were not written until the Second World War, is analyzing a reality of mechanized society and mass culture that Huxley wrote of years before. As a writer during the â€Å"Jazz Age,† Huxley would bear witness to the rise of commercial music as the record industry created a popular music that Huxley viewed in a negative light.In a 1925 essay on music, Huxley describes a piece of popular music: There is a certain jovial, bouncing, hoppety little tune with which any one who has spent even a few weeks in Germany†¦ must be familiar. Its name is â€Å"Ach, du lieber Augustin. † It is a merry little affair in three-four time; in rhythm and melody so simple, that the village idiot could sing it after a first hearing; in sentiment so innocent that the heart of the most susceptible maiden would not quicken by a beat a minute at the sound of it. Rum-tiddle, Um tum tum, Um tum tum†¦ By the very frankness of its cheerful imbecility the thing disarms all criticism. (Collected Essays 173) Huxley finds this example of popular music simplistic and moronic, not even worth a real critique.He continues on the subject by comparing the tune to an eighteenth-century waltz of the same name and to all music prior to the mid-Nineteenth century: The difference between â€Å"Ach, du lieber Augustin† and any waltz composed at any date from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards, is the difference between one piece of music al most completely empty of emotional content and another, densely saturated with amorous sentiment, languor and voluptuousness. (173) Huxley then expands his critique to criticize all contemporary popular music as lacking the meaningful emotional content that was, he feels, characteristic of all pre-mid-nineteenth-century popular music.In his essay â€Å"The Music Industry,† published in 1933, the year after Brave New World’s publication, Huxley writes about the short life-span of popular music and declares his era as â€Å"an age of rapid technical progress, and the desire for incessant novelty is a natural product of environmental change† and adds that the tendency for novelty increases consumption and is therefore, â€Å"encouraged by manufacturers† (â€Å"The Music Industry† 101). The music show that Lenina and Henry attend towards the beginning of the novel echoes Huxley’s fears from â€Å"The Music Industry† regarding the need for novelty in popular culture. The advertisements for the show â€Å"invitingly† declare it, in all-capital letters, â€Å"LONDON’S FINEST SCENT AND COLOR ORGAN. ALL THE LATEST SYNTHETIC MUSIC† (BNW 76).There is an emphasis placed on the â€Å"latest,† favoring that novelty which fuels consumption. Again there is an echo in Adorno.Gunster looks at an essay Adorno published titled â€Å"On Popular Music†: On the one hand, he argues, the ‘fundamental’ property of popular music is that it is unremittingly standardized: ‘every detail is substitutable; it serves its function only as a cog in a machine’†¦ On the other hand, marketability demands that repetition be hidden beneath the illusion of individuality, difference, and novelty (Gunster 24). Adorno’s â€Å"culture industry† is again reflected in the popular music. His descriptions of popular music are very similar to way Huxley describes popular music as si mplistic and standardized. Likewise, both acknowledge that the culture industry markets its goods to consumers based on supposed novelty.Within Brave New World, Huxley’s critique of popular music comes through in his descriptions of the music of the World State. The music, like the example song Huxley described from Germany in 1925, is cheerful, with simple, formulaic, verses and chorus reeling with meaningless phrases and clichà ©. An excellent example of this is the Solidarity Hymn of â€Å"Orgy-porgy† Orgy porgy, Ford and fun, Kiss the girls and make them One. Boys at one with girls at peace; Orgy-porgy gives release. (BNW 84) This song not only contains little real meaning, a critique that Huxley aims at all popular music, but also contains, as most music in the novel does, strong sexuality.In that same essay on popular music, Huxley is critical of what he calls a â€Å"certain vibrant sexuality† of popular music describing it as â€Å"vulgar,† †Å"savage† and â€Å"barbaric† (Collected Essays 174-175) and maintains that the sexuality and barbarism are pervasive: Whether, having grown inured to such violent and purely physiological stimuli as the clashing and drumming, the rhythmic throbbing and wailing glissandos of modern jazz music can supply, the world will ever revert to something less crudely direct, is a matter about which one cannot prophesy. (175)This description of the clashing drums and glissandos certainly is echoed in the scene wherein Lenina and Henry watch â€Å"Calvin Stopes and His Sixteen Sexaphonists† with the sexaphones (clearly a play on one of staples of jazz music, the saxophone) â€Å"wail[ing] like melodious cats† with moaning tenors and altos â€Å"as though the little death were upon them. † (BNW 76). The implication is that of sex and orgasm in music form: Aldous Huxley’s vision of jazz music taken to the extreme of â€Å"purely physiological. † This critique of mass music is also repeated in a supposed alternative to mass culture, the â€Å"Savage Reservation.†Huxley, at the time of writing the novel, had never been to New Mexico, in spite of the fact that his friend D. H. Lawrence owned a ranch there beginning in 1924. Peter Firchow, in his essay â€Å"Wells and Lawrence in Brave New World† writes that the fact troubled Huxley, but quotes the author as having done â€Å"’an enormous [amount] of reading up on New Mexico’† since he had not yet been there (Firchow 272). Huxley relied on Lawrence’s writings about the Pueblo Indians as well as Smithsonian reports of the place (Firchow 272-273). In spite of of his relative inexperience with historical New Mexican native cultures, Huxley creates a culture for the Pueblo and, in doing so, creates one that is at times incredibly similar to World State.Lenina draws comparison between the drums of the Pueblo religious dancing to the music of the Solidarity Service hymns in the World States â€Å"religion† of Fordism. Lenina liked the drums. Shutting her eyes she abandoned herself to their soft repeated thunder, allowed it to invade her consciousness more and more completely, till at last there was nothing left in the world but that one deep pulse of sound. It reminded her reassuringly of the synthetic noises made at Solidarity Services and Ford’s Day celebrations. â€Å"Orgy-porgy,† she whispered to herself. The drums beat out just the same rhythms (BNW 113). Here we have a sexual response to music as Lenina abandons herself and allows the music to take her, in spite of it coming from a foreign place and culture.The drums here are strikingly reminiscent of the way that Huxley describes the Jazz and popular music of the 1920s. He talks about how popular culture has â€Å"grown inured to such violent and purely physiological stimuli as the clashing and drumming† and this he attributes to the influ ence of â€Å"barbarous people† (Collected Essays 175). By supplying the Indians and the mass culture of the world state with similar music, music that Huxley himself finds void of real emotion, he is equating the two cultures intellectually. The Reservation within Huxley’s novel becomes a mirror to the World State culture, an echo of Huxley’s fear of growing barbarism in popular culture. There are some points of contrast between the two.For instance, materials in the reservation are made by the individuals and are valued enough to be repaired rather than replaced as is the expectation in the World State when, say, an article of clothing becomes worn out. There is a passage on labor wherein John is working clay and through this action he becomes â€Å"filled with an intense, absorbing happiness† (BNW 134). However, these differences are superficial. There is still a value placed on productivity just as in the World State.John is made happier and feels mor e a part of his culture when he is allowed to work the clay. Just as the World State has the Community sings to promote â€Å"Community, Identity and Stability†, religion of the pueblo serves a function for productivity. John explains the whippings that Lenina and Bernard witness as being â€Å"For the sake of the pueblo – to make rain come and corn grow.†Adherence to religion provides Stability and Community for the Indians. To further the comparison between the Savage culture and the World State, Huxley gives the Indians their own drug, mescal, to help cope with life just as soma does the job for the World State citizens. Similarly, John’s position within, or rather without, the Pueblo society is similar to Bernard’s position within the World State culture. Both are outcasts for their appearances and therefore both seem more alone than the others; â€Å"If one’s different, one’s bound to be lonely. They’re beastly to oneâ₠¬  (137). This mentality mirrors the values of Community and Identity contained within the World State’s motto.Identify as an individual and you are hurting the community; â€Å"when the individual feels, the community reels† is what Lenina recites, which is most likely some hypnopaedic verse (94). These characteristics, exemplified most clearly by the music of the two cultures, show that the reservation society is not a true alternative to the degradation of culture prevalent in the World State; it is just many of the same processes in a different form and to a different extent. A second form of mass culture within the World State is the â€Å"feelies. † Laura asserts that â€Å"[t]he ‘feelies’, a cinema of titillating, pansensual stimulation, are clearly a response to the ‘talkies,’† and that Huxley is extending the inclusion of sound in film to the rest of the senses (Frost 447).Huxley’s reaction to the â€Å"talkies, † specifically to the first â€Å"talkie† The Jazz Singer, expressed in an essay titled â€Å"Silence is Golden† is, as Frost points out, one of â€Å"scorn and fury† (Frost 443). He is absolutely disgusted by the film as he writes: Oh, those mammy-songs, those love-longings, those loud hilarities! How was it possible that human emotions intrinsically decent could be so ignobly parodied? I felt like a man who, having asked for wine, is offered a brimming bowl of hog wash. And not even fresh hog wash. Rancid hog wash, decaying hog wash. (â€Å"Silence is Golden† 21) He sees in film the same degeneration of human emotion and integrity that he sees in popular music.That the first â€Å"talkie† he saw was about a singer of popular music only solidified his dislike and in the end he feels â€Å"ashamed for [himself] for listening to such things, for even being a member of the species to which these things are addressed† (â€Å"Silence is G olden 23). The feelies in Brave New World are described in similar fashion as Huxley’s description of The Jazz Singer. The film that John and Lenina see, â€Å"Three Weeks in a Helicopter,† is described as having an â€Å"extremely simple† plot, with the real focus placed on the effects of the movie, as with the â€Å"famous bearskin†¦ every hair of which could be separately and distinctly felt† (168).The images and effects come off as â€Å"more solid-looking than they would have seemed in actual flesh and blood, far more real than reality† just as Huxley, whose vision had worsened following an eye infection during his teenage years, described the images in the â€Å"talkie† A beneficent providence has dimmed my powers of sight, so that, at a distance of more than four or five yards, I am blissfully unaware of the average human countenance. At the cinema, however, there is no escape†¦ Nothing short of total blindness can preserve one from the spectacle. The jazzers were forced on me; I regarded them with fascinated horror. (â€Å"Silence is Golden† 21) â€Å"More solid-looking† than real life is exactly the reaction Huxley had to seeing the film, since the real world was not that solid to him because of his impaired vision.Frost accepts that Huxley is at least â€Å"half feigning† his reactions to the films (Frost 443) but she points to a moment in Huxley’s â€Å"Silence is Golden† when he condemns film as â€Å"the latest and most frightful creation-saving device for the production of standardized amusement† (â€Å"Silence† 20). The standardization of amusement is what frightens Huxley, be it in music or film or in literature. In his fictionalized culture, these devices for amusement standardization are taken to the extremes. They are â€Å"more than human,† more real than reality at the same time that they are void of substance. The subject of substan ce within art is brought to the foreground in the conversation between John and Mustafa Mond in the later parts of Brave New World. The Controller argues, â€Å"You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art,† and he concludes â€Å"We’ve sacrificed the high arts.We have the feelies and the scent organ instead† (BNW 220). There is a hierarchy wherein pleasure replaces the need for aesthetics. John responds by stating that the â€Å"feelies† and the other elements of mass culture in the World State do not mean anything. Mond then replies that these things â€Å"mean a lot of agreeable sensations to the audience† (221). The feelies are horrifying to John because the end result is not knowledge of the human condition, but rather pleasure seeking. And in the world of hyper-pleasure, it is difficult to find anything on which to base meaningful art. That is the problem Helmholtz Watson struggles with: â€Å"writing w hen there’s nothing to say† (221).In an essay from 1923, Huxley writes â€Å"The poetry of pure sensation, of sounds and bright colors, is common enough nowadays; but amusing as we may find it for the moment, it cannot hold the interest for long† (Collected Essays 93). One can easily draw comparison to the â€Å"feelies† and the music of the World State here as something that amuses but that fails to, as John or even Mustafa Mond might say, mean anything beyond itself. The inclusion of Helmholtz Watson brings up another issue of mass culture, namely the place, if there is one, for the intellectual or the artist within mass culture.Towards the end of the novel, Bernard and Helmholtz are to be sent to an island. Mustafa Mond speaks of Bernard’s fate He’s being sent to an island. That’s to say, he’s being sent to a place where he’ll meet the most interesting set of men and women to be found anywhere in the world.All the peop le who, for one reason or another, have got too self-consciously individual to fit into community-life. All the people who aren’t satisfied with orthodoxy, who’ve got independent ideas of their own. Every one, in a word, who’s any one (BNW 227). This is a clear separation between the intellectual free-thinkers and the mass population. As Mond points out, there is no room in the World State for individuality and the search for truth and meaning since â€Å"truth’s a menace. † He concludes by adding that Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasis from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. Mass production demanded the shift. Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can’t (228).In the movement towards mass culture, artists and intellectuals, like the aspiring poet Helmholtz Watson, and individualists have no place. In a 1929 essay Huxley raises this question of the possibility for the individual in a mechanized state Is it possible for a human being to be both a man and a citizen of a mechanized state? Is it possible to combine the material advantages which accrue to those living in a mechanized world with the psychological advantages enjoyed by those who live in pre-mechanical surroundings? Such are the questions which future politicians will have to ask and effectively answer in terms of laws and regulations. What sort of answers will they give? Who knows? Not I at any rate.I am even a little doubtful whether the questions are answerable (â€Å"Machinery, Psychology, and Politics† 221). Huxley sees the war between individual and the industrialized state but provides no solutions to this issue and even has doubts whether the issue will ever be resolved. In his novel he has the rulers simply separate those that become too individualistic from the mass-minded because they are dangerous to the sedated, pleasure-driven masses. Furthermore, Huxley fears that through mass educ ation, those intellectuals might be eliminated. In a 1927 essay titled â€Å"Education† Huxley writes on the defects of Mass education Under the present system of mass education by classes too much stress is laid on the teaching and too little on active learning.The child is not encouraged to discover things on his own account. He learns to rely on outside help, not on his own powers, thus losing intellectual independence and all the capacity to judge for himself. The over-taught child is the father of newspaper-reading, advertisement-believing, propaganda-swallowing, demagogue-led man†¦ (â€Å"Education† 205-206) This analysis of mass education makes the learner dependent upon the system, which Huxley sees as fueling advertising and propaganda. Huxley wrote in 1929 on the effects of mass education on society We have had universal education for about fifty years; the supply of [Isaac] Newtons, however, has not perceptibly increased.Everybody, it is true, can now r ead – with the result that newspapers of an unbelievable stupidity and baseness have circulations of millions. Everybody can read – so it pays rich men to print lies wholesale. Everybody can read so men make fortunes by inventing specious reasons why people should buy things they don’t really want (â€Å"The New Salvation† 212-213). Huxley’s view on mass education is that it does not better society. No more geniuses are to be found in a wholly educated society as in a partially educated one. The effect in his mind is that capitalists have more means through which they can influence people into desiring and buying the goods they produce.His obvious prejudices and elitism aside, the note about separate newspapers that target certain intellectual class levels of society is reflected in the various periodicals aimed at the classes of the World State like The Delta Mirror or The Gamma Gazette. The process is taken one step further in Brave New World by having the education system emphasize the value of consumption of goods, rather than that consumption value being pushed by the writers of the newspapers as Huxley wrote about in 1929. Consumerism is more standardized. Education is not the only means of control of the masses employed to maintain production, the population itself is in the management of the state.The populous is bred systematically in a process much like that of a Fordian assembly line: using bottles and genetic manipulation instead of the natural process of human reproduction. With the bottling, the creation of the sterile â€Å"free-martins† and the rigid implementation of contraceptives like the â€Å"Malthusian belts,† the population of the world is entirely in control of the industrialized state. This culture also employs scientific methods such as â€Å"Bokanovsky’s Process† and Pavlovian conditioning to carefully craft a society of rigid castes. The function of education is to teach the members of those castes their respective roles and the roles of others and the necessity of these roles in the greater context.This process of industrialized reproduction makes raising and educating citizens much easier for the World State since they can begin that conditioning during the embryonic stage of production. Additionally, the levels of society, the castes alpha through gamma, can be predetermined and separated strictly. Education is begun at the fetal level, thanks to hypnopaedia, saving time. Since reproduction is standardized and contained wholly within a factory, the leaders of the mechanized society do not have to wait until a semblance of character starts to show in people to condition them towards a certain way of life; the genetics do that for them. This process reflects Huxley’s views of the potential of science from his 1930 predictive essay â€Å"Babies – State Property.†He writes Psychologists having shown the enormous importance in ev ery human existence of the first years of childhood, the state will obviously try to get hold of its victims as soon as possible. The process of standardization will begin at the very moment of birth – that is to say, if it does not begin before birth! (231). He goes on to predict that this process of standardization at or before birth will be destructive to the family. But, unlike in his novel, he predicts that the family â€Å"will emerge again when the danger is past† (231). This careful selection of genetic material is the idea of eugenics, a term that is hard to separate from the fascists of the 1930s and 1940s, especially the National Socialists in Germany. Prior to that period though, Huxley often expounded on the ideas of eugenics.In a 1927 essay called â€Å"A Note on Eugenics† Huxley expresses a common fear of the time period that scientific and technological processes were preserving â€Å"physically and mentally defective individuals† and that the quality of human reproduction was diminishing (â€Å"A Note on Eugenics† 281) In her essay â€Å"Designing a Brave New World: Eugenics, Politics and Fiction,† Joanne Woiak addresses this subject by writing â€Å"[Huxley’s] ongoing support for so-called race betterment was typical of left-leaning British intellectuals in the inter-war period† (Woiak 106).Huxley’s own feelings on the subject seem mixed. Also in 1927, Huxley wrote an essay dealing with the subject of equality and democracy We no longer believe in equality and perfectibility. We know that nurture cannot alter nature and that no amount of education or good government will make men completely virtuous and reasonable, or abolish their animal instincts. In the Future that we envisage, eugenics will be practiced in order to improve the human breed and the instincts will not be ruthlessly repressed but, as far as possible, sublimated so as to express themselves in socially harmless ways (â€Å"The Future of the Past† 93).He continues to predict that education will not be the same for everyone and that this education system will teach â€Å"the members of the lower castes only that which is profitable for the members of the upper castes that they should know† (93). Huxley is arguing that the nineteenth-century ideals of democracy and universal equality are not a reality and predicts a future of selective reproduction and a defined caste system based on genetic stock. Brave New World certainly reflects this prediction; eugenics policies have been implemented but there are certainly instinctual processes, like violent passions, that have to be expressed in â€Å"socially harmless ways† – the Violent Passion Surrogates.But that sort of hope-filled view of the possible benefits of eugenics is not wholly what is at work in Huxley’s Brave New World. In that 1927 prediction, the intellectuals control the selective processes for determini ng the caste system. However, in 1932, the year of Brave New World’s publication, Huxley returns to the issue of eugenics by writing that â€Å"The humanist would see in eugenics an instrument for giving to an ever-widening circle of men and women those heritable qualities of mind and body which are, by his highest standards, the most desirable† (â€Å"Science and Civilization† 153). This is in line with his earlier views on the possible benefits of eugenics.But Huxley acknowledges that it might not be the humanist that is in charge of the process. But what of the economist-ruler? Would he necessarily be anxious to improve the race? By no means necessarily. He might actually wish to deteriorate it. His ideal, we must remember, is not the perfect all-around human being, but the perfect mass-producer and mass-consumer. Now perfect human beings probably make very bad mass-producers. It is quite in the cards that industrialists will find, as machinery is made more f oolproof, that the great majority of jobs can be better performed by stupid people than by intelligent ones (154). This is the society of Brave New World.As Mustafa Mond puts it, â€Å"The optimum population†¦ is modelled [sic] on the iceberg – eight-ninths below the water line, one-ninth above† (BNW 223). The population, as mentioned earlier, is conditioned to consume and to produce, and the eugenics policy helps create the society can perform the necessary tasks. Taken that way, the novel seems to be a satire and condemnation not of eugenics, but of eugenics run by the industrialist to create masses of dumber humans to buy and consume stuff. This then returns the mind to Huxley’s 1927 prediction of eugenics and those instincts that have to be expressed in â€Å"socially harmless ways† (â€Å"The Future of the Past† 93).Realizing the necessity for emotion, they employ â€Å"Violent Passion Surrogates† to â€Å"flood the whole system w ith adrenin† in order to satisfy what Mustapha Mond calls â€Å"one of the conditions of perfect health† (Brave New World 239). In short they are simulating the dangers of life in a safe and systematic way. Freedom of sex covers the sexual instincts and has the benefit also of providing pleasure during free-time. One of the greatest forces of keeping the workers producing is through the drug soma. â€Å"The perfect drug†¦ Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant†¦ All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of the defects† (BNW 53-54). Soma is the release and the reward for the obedient mechanized worker of the world state.Combined with the â€Å"feelies† and all the other aspects of mass culture in the World State, soma helps keep the society in order by keeping the workers pleased. â€Å"Industrial civilization,† as Mustafa Mond puts it, â€Å"is only possible when there’s no self-denial. Self indulgence up to the very limits of imposed hygiene and economics. Otherwise the wheels stop turning. † (BNW 237). As with eugenics, Huxley’s writings on drug use varied, especially following the Second World War with his explorations into psychedelic drugs in The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell. But even around the time of Brave New World’s publication he often was writing on drug use.In 1931 he addressed the issue of drug as an escape in a brief essay titled â€Å"Treatise on Drugs† Everywhere and at all times, men and women have sought, and duly found, the means of taking a holiday from the reality of their dull and often acutely unpleasant existence. A holiday out of space, out of time, in the eternity of sleep or ecstasy (â€Å"A Treatise on Drugs† 304). For Huxley, drug use seems inevitable. This holiday is certainly mirrored in Brave New World. â€Å"The cause of drunkenness and drug-taking is to be found in the general dissatisfaction with reality,† h e writes in a 1932 essay titled â€Å"Poppy Juice,† an essay talking about the effects of drug policing. But Huxley continues by including the sort of people that might not be dissatisfied with life and the possibility of drug use among them.Alcohol and drugs offer means of escape from the prison of the world and the personality. Better and securer conditions of life, better health, better upbringing, resulting in more harmoniously balanced character, would do much to make reality seem generally tolerable and even delightful. But it may be doubted whether, even in Utopia, reality would be universally satisfying all the time. Even in Utopia people would pine for an occasional escape, if only from the radiant monotony of happiness (â€Å"Poppy juice† 317). This idea of people using drugs to escape monotonous Utopia seems one of the probable reasons for soma’s pervasiveness in the World State.The hypnopaedic chorus â€Å"A gramme is better than a damn† refle cts those moments when reality might not wholly satisfy; rather than cursing the situation, just take soma to escape on holiday. But escapism is not the only use of soma. Or rather, the effect of escapism soma has is not just beneficial for the individual. John Hickman, in his essay â€Å"When Science Fiction Writers Used Fictional Drugs: Rise and Fall of the Twentieth-Century Drug Dystopia,† writes that â€Å"[The] use of the recreational drug soma is one of several aspects of dehumanization made possible by the scientific expertise wielded by amoral elites† (Hickman 144). Whether or not the industrialists of Brave New World are â€Å"amoral† is beyond the scope of this essay.Nonetheless, Hickman’s point about the dehumanizing effects of soma remains true. The drug is used by the World State to keep the masses in check. One of the hypnopaedic lessons Lenina recites is â€Å"Was and will make me ill†¦ I take a gramme and only am† (BNW 104). Th e sentiment here is that thinking of past occurrences or having ambitions or fear does not help, and that soma can help keep you in the present. There is no need for rebellion or trying to better one’s position if soma can take the individual out of the negative moments. The lack of downside and the steady stream of governmental supply of soma ensure that the citizens are kept in a pleasure-filled world so that they might continue to produce and consume more.Hickman concludes, based on those later novels by Huxley and on the comparison with the mescal used in Pueblo society, that Huxley is not against drug use â€Å"as a more direct route to spiritual development, but was instead opposed to recreational drug taking that would render a population docile† (Hickman 145). In the 1931 â€Å"Treatise on Drugs†, Huxley was dreaming of a super soma-like drug when writing about the history of drugs and how all of the drugs present in the world are â€Å"treacherous and harmful†: The way to prevent people from drinking too much alcohol, or to becoming addicts to morphia or cocaine, is to give them an efficient but wholesome substitute for these delicious and (in the present imperfect world) necessary poisons†¦ The man who invents such a substance will be counted among the greatest benefactors of suffering humanity (â€Å"Treatise on Drugs† 304-305).Huxley’s perfect drug was achieved in the fictional soma. But as was the case with eugenics policies, this too fell into the hands of the industrialists who used it to benefit the mechanized society by keeping the mass culture satiated with pleasure and escapist trappings. The drug, as Hickman points out, is used to keep the masses producing and consuming, just as all other aspects of the culture had those goals in mind. Brave New World is a vision of a future that is based on Huxley’s reactions and interpretations of the 1920s. His strong favoring of an intellectual cultu re over a mass-produced comfort driven culture is abundantly made clear in the novel.In a different 1931 essay titled â€Å"To The Puritan,† Huxley pushes the idea that Fordism as a philosophy could prove destructive to humanity if pursued fully. There is no place in the factory, or in that larger factory which is the modern industrialized world, for animals on the one hand, or for artists, mystics, or even, finally, individuals on the other. Of all the ascetic religions Fordism is that which demands the cruellest [sic] mutilations of the human psyche – demands the cruellest [sic] mutilations and offers the smallest spiritual returns. Rigorously practiced for a few generations, this dreadful religion of the machine will end by destroying the human race (â€Å"To the Puritan† 238-239).

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Profit Essay

The question which stands before is whether the Founding Fathers were democratic reformers. It is an excruciating and complicated task to come to a conclusion upon this inquisition. To find this answer it can be readily simplified by taking a look at two contending arguments found inscribed in the book Taking Sides: Clashing Views in United States History. In the text lies the position of Howard Zinn and John P. Roche who are great historians; one writes controversially and radically, and the other writes in conformity to government, and conservatively. The position of Howard Zinn is that the founding fathers were not what they have been illustrated to be. That is that they were not concerned with democracy but were really just concerned in their prosperity, in their property, their money, and their freedom, but not concerned with the peoples liberties. Freedom was a new word at the time, which many knew little of, it was but the elite who had an understanding of this sort of philant hropy. â€Å"What was not made clear-it was a time when the language of freedom was new and its reality untested-was the shakiness of anyone’s liberty when entrusted to a government of the rich and powerful(Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States P. 99).† John P. Roche dedicates his attention to the giving the founding fathers their veil of liberators and democratic reformers, and depicts them as gentlemen of good nature, and of having the highest intrinsic values; he portrays them as benevolent wise men, which based the constitution on the needs of the people. â€Å"They were first and foremost superb democratic politicians†¦they were committed (perhaps willy-nilly) to working within the democratic framework, within a universe of public approval (Wikispaces.com, Taking Sides Issue Seven: Were the Founding Fathers Democratic Reformers, P. 3)†. Between the two representations of the issue in question, the more persuading argument 10is towards Howard Zinn who viewed the founding fathers to not have been democratic reformers. The Founding Fathers were not  democratic reformers; rather they were an elite group of men who came up with the Constitution to find compromise â€Å"between the slave holding interest of the south a nd the money interest of north† (Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States P. 98)†, their true motives for uniting the thirteen states was to create a vast market for commerce and not to create a democracy. The Founding Fathers always depicted the majority of men as ignorant and irresponsible. For them to be democratic reformers they would have needed to add literacy and education as necessary for the creation of a democracy in the writings of the Constitution. Instead they persisted to argue that the populous was ignorant, â€Å"†¦Federalist Paper #63 argued the necessity of a â€Å"well-constructed Senate† as â€Å"sometimes necessary as defence to the people against their own temporary errors and delusions† Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States P. 98)† rather than adding that citizenry should be educated and informed so that they would be able to take part in the democratic processes of political and economic policy making, therefore they were not democratic reformers. John P. Roche tends to be overly conservative, to actually make a compelling argument, and Howard Zinn might appear to be radical but he is factual and presents both sid es to an argument and does not rely solely on emotions and in his political idealism as does Roche. Howard Zinn gives the more profound argument. Howard Zinn rather than making statements based on nationalism or patriotism brings up logical inferences and although it is impossible to give an unbiased approach to the question, Zinn gives the less bias approach of the two. When he presents his reasoning he tends to bring up both sides to an argument, one at least opposed to what he wants to represent and one at least supportive of what he is more in favor to represent.   As when he mentions Robert E. Browns point that the Constitution omitted the phrase â€Å"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness† from the Declaration of Independence to â€Å"life, liberty, or property† to the Constitution, he presents the acknowledgement that people did have property, but stands to say that it was misleading to make this statement for only 3 percent of the population had enough land to be considered wealthy (Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States P. 98). On the other hand John P. Roche presents most of his views by using words such as â€Å"national interest†, â€Å"public approbation†, and always tends to give reason to why some of the things they did that were  not democratic were indeed democratic. Although the drafting and signing of the constitution was held in secrecy, according to Roche, â€Å"They were practical politicians in a democratic society†(Wikispaces.com, Taking Sides Issue Seven: Were the Founding Fathers Democratic Reformers, P. 8). The Founding Fathers did not have it in their interests to be democratic reformers. They had in their interests to create a new nation which would create a certain order to keep the nation’s wealth in the hands of a few and to maintain their privileges, â€Å"Charles Beard warned us that government-including the government of the United States-are not neutral, that they represent the dominant economic interests, and their constitutions are intended to serve their interests† (Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States P. 98). The Founding Fathers were afraid of a majority faction and opted for a Republican form of government to keep the country divided so that the populace could not come to the same conclusion and unite to fight against the tyranny of the minority, they had to make it possible for the existence of minority factions to prevent from a future insurrection. This can be noted in Federalist Paper #10 in which James Madison makes the following statement, â€Å"it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other†¦The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other states† ( Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States P. 97). They also had to make the Constitution appealing to the people. It needed to give a few rights and liberties to the citizenry to keep a revolution from arising from the monopolizatio n of wealth that they were creating. It needed a Bill of Rights, â€Å"The Constitution became even more acceptable to the public at large after the first congress, responding to criticism, passed a series of amendments known as the Bill of Rights† Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United State, P. 99). They needed soldiers for the revolution; they had to appeal to the people, they used the words freedom, liberty and equality to get them to fight. It is has been the history of revolution through the ages that a few educated men can persuade a majority to fight for liberty or for a common goal and after the revolution is over they put into place a government for their own privilege. The United States has not been the exception. They used the same pretexts as  the revolutionaries of anytime to create a society after their own image based on their principles, privileges and their ruling ideas, â€Å"The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force† (Marx, Karl, The German Ideology, P. 64). Their ideas were not ideas for the founding of a democracy. â€Å"Still the mythology around the Founding Fathers persists. To say, as one historian (Bernard Bai lyn) has done recently â€Å"the destruction of privilege and the creation of a political system that demanded its leaders the responsible and humane use of power were their highest aspirations† is to ignore what really happened in the America of those these Founding Fathers†( Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States P. 101)† Zinn then states that the Founding Fathers wanted to create a balance between the forces which were dominant to that time, and not a balance â€Å"between slaves and masters, property less and property holder, Indians and white ( Zinn, Howard, A People’s History of the United States P. 101).† His arguments continue to be reinforced by bringing into account many different views from other historians and by presenting documents from that time and by bringing into account the writings of the Founding Fathers themselves. He clearly reinforces the argument that the founding fathers were not democratic reformers. In reading both sides of the argument one can acquire an unbiased approach to the question, yet it is impossible to remain without any sort of bias, to be working class or being wealthy will play in the outcome of any given men’s stance to the question. The level of education that a person may have acquired will also depend on his view, and also his or her sus ceptibility to what stands as a norm will also give his reasoning a bias approach. Just as well as a person’s idealism being it political, economic or social or even of the combined three will not allow an unbiased standpoint from him/her. Howard Zinn makes the most compelling argument, his answer to the question holds the most validity in the two clashing responses, it is brought upon with great historical anecdotes, it is fairly easy to find the historic facts that he represents in his outlook of the issue; and it is the more logical of the two. Zinn does not speak with emotions of nationalistic fervor, or political idealism, nor does he stay compelled to the narrowness of a one sided argument, but looks upon both sides. â€Å"As Brown says about Revolutionary America,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"practically everybody was interested in the protection of property† because so many Americans owned property† (A People’s History of the United States P. 98). His response to Robert E. Brown (Charles Beard and the Constitution), who is a critic to Beards approach was, â€Å"However, this is misleading. True, there were many property owners. But some people had much more than others†¦Jackson Main found that one-third of the population in the Revolutionary period were small farmers, while 3 percent of the population had truly large holdings and could be considered wealthy (A People’s History of the United States p. 98).† The people of the Americas did not fight a revolution for their freedom, not for equality, they fought the revolution of the elite, they won them a political victory, handed them the wealth of the nation. The slaveholders of the South found compromise with the money interest of the North and the Founding Fathers were able to create the great market of commerce they envisioned when they came to the conclusion for independence from Great Britain. The People of America in that time fought a Revolution for the Founding Fathers who were not democratic reformers.

Capital Budgeting of Pevensey PLC Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Capital Budgeting of Pevensey PLC - Essay Example The present research has identified that Capital Budgeting is an important process for any organization. No organization can make good use of their money, unless they plan, decide and assess the best use of money. Good investment decisions maximize the earning potential of an organization and help boost the firm’s overall financial position and financial health. Good financial decisions are not intuitive. They require a lot of effort and financial planning. Many firms employ people with excellent financial knowledge and skills just to enhance the use of money. These people often lie at an important level of organizational hierarchy and given a title of CFO or Chief Financial Officers. Many firms, over the years, have realized the importance having people with good financial skills and have given these people more power and authority than the CEOs. As a result, these people are consulted every time a need arises for an organization to make a good financial decision. This good f inancial decision regarding the best machine is going to improve the asset earning potential for the firm and it is also going to improve the asset turnover and return on assets ratios. Pevensey PLC is a growing company. It needs to decide on the best option of a machine purchase. Currently, the company has four different options to ponder upon. It is good for the company to use financial tools of capital budgeting to appraise each of the four options before making the purchase. This will reduce the chances of a bad decision, and will put the company in a win-win direction. Hence, the company has done the right thing by consulting someone with the financial knowledge to look at the available options and deciding the best option for the purchase (Brigham & Ehrhardt 2010). This would ensure that the best purchase is made in the given budget. The best purchase will not only be the cheapest method, but the best purchase is also going to improve the overall financial position of the orga nization in the long-run. ASSESMENT METHODS: Capital budgeting is considered to be a specialist field. The methods used that are used to determine the best option to purchase are net cash flow method, discounted cash flow method, Payback period, NPV and IRR. No one method can alone be a good guide for the company for the best decisions. All of these methods have to be studied and used in congregation for giving the best answer to the company. This would ensure the best purchase is made in terms of returns, time value of money and cost of capital. The company can raise capital at a rate of 8 percent. This means that any of the option chosen must provide a return of at least 8 percent for the company to break-even. If this is not the case, the company will be losing money in real terms. It might be making money in nominal terms. Nominal and real returns are different. Nominal returns do not take into account the inflation rate and the cost of the capital to the company. Real returns t ake into account the cost of the capital that the company has to pay for obtaining the finance needed to make a purchase. The methods used in the report would help us calculate both the nominal returns and real returns to decide the best Machine to purchase that would maximize not only the firm’s cash flow, but will also the allow the firm to earn decent rates of return. The first method used to calculate the

Managing People For A Competitive Advantage Essay

Managing People For A Competitive Advantage - Essay Example The strategies and the philosophies developed by the HR department drives an organization in the right path. Placing the right person, at the right place, at the right time, is always beneficial to the organization. HRM has two important functions; one with respect to the organizational needs and the other related to the employee needs. In other words, HR department acts as the bridge between the organization and the employees. Since the needs of the organization and the needs of the employees are mostly different, conflicts between the organization and the employees can take place any time. Under such circumstances, the HRM department is responsible for find out amicable solutions without sacrificing the needs of the organization or the employees. â€Å"Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant, they is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks† (Von Herder). Motivation is accepted as the driving force behind every human action and the basic func tion of every first line supervisors or managers is to motivate the workforce properly to accomplish the organizational goals. ... Cooperation between these departments is necessary for achieving the final goal. It is the duty of the first line supervisors to control the functions properly so that the organizational interests will never be sacrificed. Planning is another major function of the first line supervisors. Whatever the schedule given to a particular department should be completed in time and for that purpose the first line supervisors need to plan the work. The HR managers are responsible for ensuring that all the HR policies and practices are implemented within the organization. The HR policies and strategies are normally formulated by the top management team. Once all these policies are formulated it is the responsibility of the HR managers to ensure that these policies were implemented correctly. For example, the top management team normally makes policies with respect to employee annual leave, sick leave, casual leave etc. The top management will decide how many leaves can be given to the employees in a particular year. Once all the norms about the leave were fixed, it the duty of the HR managers to ensure that these norms were implemented successfully. Many parameters can affect the employee performances in an organization. The work culture, motivation, management style, remuneration etc are some of the major factors which may affect the employee performances. However, the mangers and the HR department have major roles in deriving maximum productivity out of the workers. HR department should appoint right people at the right place at the right time. It is difficult to anticipate better performance from an employee, if the HR department ask him to complete a job which is out of his expertise. For example, it is difficult for a software specialist to

Case Study on Wal Mart Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

On Wal Mart - Case Study Example There is the Executive Wing, that is headed by Rob Walton (representing the family interest of the founder) who works as the Chairman of the Board. The Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer slot presents a hybrid governance role which combines operational leadership and executive leadership. There is also the President & CEO position which embodies the management unit of the company meant for the day-to-day running of the company. The history of leadership in Walmart can be attributed to the initiative taken by Sam Walton (924). The risks and entrepreneurial decisions taken by Sam Walton to invest in the discount retailing concept and grow such idea. Sam Waltons leadership philosophy has been instituted and deeply rooted in the relationship between members of the company. The concept encourages leaders to treat employees as partners, build for the future, learn from failures and involve all stakeholders in decision making processes (923). These soft leadership ideas became the foundation for the building of the organizational culture in Walmart. Other ideas from Sam Walton like the careful use of resources, collective systems of attainment of results, innovation, motivation, involvement of associates (Management by Walking Around) and good communication skills form the crux of the atmosphere of Walmart. Disciplined expansion: This is one of the most remarkable strategic decisions that the management of Walmart took. The backward expansion concept utilized very disciplined techniques and systems to ensure that they opened up stores in the suburbs and out smaller areas of each state. As the demand in these stores grew, they expanded into the city center and this ensured that they survived and remain profitable. Strong Marketing structures: Also, the management of Walmart must be credited with their ability to put together a great marketing strategy and structures to ensure that consumers remained interested in Walmart. Expansion of the

The soul is the prison of the body (Foucault, 1979). Critically Essay

The soul is the prison of the body (Foucault, 1979). Critically examine the argument that psychology is a performative practice - Essay Example Children are introduced to certain social activities that they slowly pick up and can adapt. For instance, introducing a young child gradually to a certain religion, taking them to language classes, or showing them a particular sport that they should play. All habits that are instilled into the young child are indeed integral to how he will grow and develop mentally. The child will perceive life in a certain way and consider things using a particular thought pattern that is different (Walsh et al., 2014). This is how performative psychology comes into play as the child is programmed to take up a particular role. It is a proven fact that by regularly practicing something, one will develop such things into his personality. This is why different people have different characters. This is because by doing certain things over a period; they eventually pick that up in their personalities and become what they constantly do (Butler, 2009). It all has to do with performing or playing a particular role. With time, one finds that it is a habitual thing and a part of his personality. This is how performative psychology comes into play. Every part of a person’s personality is gradually introduced into them through their thinking pattern. A practical example, for example, is from the television programmes that bring children up watching. Many children from the 70s, 80s and early 90s watched many kids shows. One of these was the Sesame Street programme. It was a programme where the children learnt many concepts in simplified methods. Characters such as Big Bird, Elmo, Miss Piggy, Kermit, Ernie, Bert and many others, influenced the children. Each of these characters played a particular role and taught the children certain values or introduced them to a certain way of thinking. The children were probed about certain things like ability to count, ability to recite the alphabet

Case study on intellectual property right Essay

Case study on intellectual property right - Essay Example In a context of intellectual property rights, perhaps most common are copyrights and patents. Both are designed to protect those who had invested their talents in producing their works and allow for a reasonable financial return for their efforts within a certain time frame, after which the right or patent will expire and become a common good subject to the commerce of man. The advent of new technologies has made it imperative for all the producers of values embedded in intellectual capital and knowledge-based assets to assert their rights and protect these assets. The convergence of electronics consumer products, the rise of Internet usage and the digitization of most communications technology has made it quite easy to copy anything. A precedent case was filed by the music group Metallica against the founder and those who had availed of the file-sharing services of Napster software as a copyright infringement. Intellectual property right pertains to a right that gives a producer (ei ther author, artist, composer, inventor or publisher) the exclusive right to produce and distribute expressive work and this expressive work must be reproducible in some tangible form (means it can be copied) on some material like paper, tapes, films, clay or computer disks. It must be substantially new and lastly, only expressive works can be protected but not the original ideas behind it. Discussion Most business organizations would immediately patent any invention by an employee as a strategic and economic policy to enhance their competitiveness within their industry and further protect themselves from imitations (Andersen 148). There are various country, federal and state laws regarding who owns the rights to an invention (as an example here) discovered or made by an employee. Generally speaking, it is the employer who has the right to patent an invention by virtue of an employment contract with the employee, who in exchange for wages or a monthly salary, is willing to cede the rights and ownership of such inventions in favour of the company he works for. The new invention is therefore the property of the old employer. It is not absolute, however. There is usually a clause in such employment contracts termed as a â€Å"trailing obligation clause† in which a previous employer has the rights to such an invention or innovation for up to between six to twelve months only after the end of employment. If the company does not show interest in said invention, then the employee owns the rights. The employer organisation has the option of either patenting the invention or not. It is up to the company to decide on this matter since other issues might negate the necessity of the patent application. Reasons could include the conclusion that the invention is not patentable or there is a high cost in detecting and pursuing patent infringements (Davis 148). A primary responsibility of the employer is to explore all possible options regarding the commercial and tech nical viability of the invention or innovation. This is especially true in large firms which have big departments devoted to technical research and product development. This means the employer can choose to revise the invention or pursue further technical work and research that will improve the invention and remedy its flaws. The firm cannot hope to market an invention that is flawed as it will destroy its good reputation and brand name; it will further subject it to possible consumer suits if the buyer of

Instructional Pacing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Instructional Pacing - Essay Example In the scenario provided for this assignment, the matter is further complicated by the addition of ELL students - those who are from other countries and who do not speak English as their native language. Such students often suffer from slow processing. Many educators often mistaken believe that slow instructional pacing better suites such students. However, ELL and other students with learning disabilities are capable of performing at a normal pace providing certain elements are included in pacing decisions. "It has been shown that for most students with learningproblems, relatively fast-paced instruction is most useful (assuming they are familiar with the instructional routine" (Ylvisaker, 2006, p. 1). If the pace is too slow, students will lose interest and their attention will wander, making it even more difficult for ELL students. Students need to be actively engaged in the learning process so consideration should be given to making the lesson varied and engaging. It will also be easier to avoid loss of interest and wandering attention if the class operated on a routine that all students are familiar with. Ylvisaker (2006) likens this to a video game. When the game is new, it proceeds so fast that it is hard to keep up with it much less make progress. However, as the player becomes better acquainted with the routine of the game, progress can be made and the game eventually won. The same holds true in the classroom which is why educators put such effort into designing policies and procedures for their classrooms. The need to fit in a variety of learning trials is intricately linked to routine as well. Instructional pacing will also vary depending on the kind of material being presented. New material should be presented at a relatively slow pace. Once the material is taken in, pacing should be regulated according to student response to learning trials. By carefully attending to student performance, educators can determine when a slow review is needed, when students need to engage in guided practice, and/or when the students are ready for individual practice. Educators can tailor the learning trials so that the pace progresses from slow to the fastest pace allowed and ultimately the final assessment for that learning objective. It is here - student response - that teachers of ELL students must pay careful attention. Student response is often determined by behavior in the classroom. Zehler (1994) points out that "[d]ifferences in language and culture are often subtle but affect students' classroom participation in several ways" (p. 2). Educators often gauge student interest and attention from eye contact and asking of questions. However, some cultures such as the Japanese consider eye contact with elders to be disrespectful. Other cultures consider it disrespectful to ask questions of an elder. Plus an often misunderstood need for ELL students it the need for silence. These students often need to focus on listening rather than speaking and their silence can be misunderstood for inattention or disinterest (Zehler, 1994). Once students understand the routine, material, and instructions well enough to attempt work, "errors can actually have a positive meaning" (Zehler, 1994, p. 4). The willingness of

Business Crime - Christies Ltd Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business Crime - Christies Ltd - Essay Example Before proceeding to the topic of Christies Ltd. and business crime, it is important to understand how and why the Theft Act 1968 came into existence. This Act was original for it was the first British legislation, which the dealings of criminal law accessible to all citizens and not just limited to attorneys. An article from bbc.co.uk (2001) tells this history: Before 1968, theft and other, similar, offences were governed by a mass of conflicting legislation and common law and was over-complex. Before 1968, if 'ownership' passed by means of deception, the offence was 'obtaining by false pretences'. If 'possession' was passed, the offence was 'larcency by a trick'. Other offences existed, including 'larcency by a servant', 'fraudulent conversion' and 'embezzlement'. It had reached the point where it was harder to discover which crime the accused may have committed rather than whether or not the accused was guilty. The 1968 Theft Act, as well as the 1971 Criminal Damage Act, did much to overcome this problem. All previous theft legislation and common law were overruled, resulting in the creation of the first codified definition of law in England and Wales.

Critical analysis of teaching materials for Academic Purpose Research Paper

Critical analysis of teaching materials for Academic Purpose - Research Paper Example Adequate academic skills enable the undergraduate natural science students to write proper science reports on their experiments, and research; for example, when writing a research report on the negative impacts of deforestation on the economy of the USA (Jordan,  2009). This chapter also enables the undergraduate science students to develop critical thinking skills (Kathy & David, 2004). This is because it gives insights on current environmental challenges worldwide. Students are supposed to understand the environmental challenges, and thereafter discuss the most appropriate possible solutions in their discussion groups. The language level used in this book is simple. This enables the undergraduate students to effectively understand the academic writing concepts that are illustrated. The simple language is represented through the simple sentences which are clearly and logically arranged in understandable chapters. The simple language has been achieved through using minimal scientific terminologies and jargons (Jordan,  2009). This ensures that all students understand the contents; regardless of the undergraduate level or academic intelligence. Visual presentations are also used in order tyro simplify points of discussions and paragraphs. The presentations also summarize the main ideas discussed through highlighting the main message in simple, short and clear statements (Jordan,  2009). The most appropriate level of study for this chapter is the undergraduate academic level. This is because the environment concept at the global level are studied in most science courses studied at undergraduate level (Kathy & David, 2004). The science undergraduate students are required to write research proposals in the environment field of study. For the research proposal to be approved by the university professors, it must be presented in a clear, logical and scientific manner. An example of a research proposal is: â€Å"A research proposal on

Contemporary Issues of Management Accounting Essay Example for Free

Contemporary Issues of Management Accounting Essay This allows the opportunity for them to hone their skills and abilities at a constant rate while offering numerous benefits to the company. These benefits manifest themselves in employee loyalty, low turnover costs and fulfilment of company goals. Figure 6: JIT Model * Some Key Elements of JIT: 1. Stabilize and level the MPS with uniform plant loading (heijunka in Japanese): create a uniform load on all work centers through constant daily production and mixed model assembly (produce roughly the same mix of products each day, using a repeating sequence if several products are produced on the same line). Meet demand fluctuations through enditem inventory rather than through fluctuations in production level. Use of a stable production schedule also permits the use of backflushing to manage inventory: an end item’s bill of materials is periodically exploded to calculate the usage quantities of the various components that were used to make the item, eliminating the need to collect detailed usage information on the shop floor. 2. Reduce or eliminate setup times: aim for single digit setup times (less than 10 minutes) or onetouch setup this can be done through better planning, process redesign, and product redesign. 3. Reduce lot sizes (manufacturing and purchase): reducing setup times allows economical production of smaller lots; close cooperation with suppliers is necessary to achieve reductions in order lot sizes for purchased items, since this will require more frequent deliveries. 4. Reduce lead times (production and delivery): production lead times can be reduced by moving work stations closer together, applying group technology and cellular manufacturing concepts, reducing queue length (reducing the number of jobs waiting to be processed at a given machine), and improving the coordination and cooperation between successive processes; delivery lead times can be reduced through close cooperation with suppliers, possibly by inducing suppliers to locate closer to the factory.

The development and evolution of Gregorian chant

The development and evolution of Gregorian chant For centuries, Gregorian chant was considered the official music of the Catholic Church. Naturally, this degree of importance placed on the genre gives it considerable significance, both religious and cultural. Its exact beginnings, however, are not absolutely known. Also, chant has changed over time due to it being based on practices of the Church, which have also changed over time due to decrees by various popes, agendas of monastic orders, and the influences of and intermingling of cultures, such as the Franks, Romans, and Byzantines. Although the name of Gregorian chant is derived from Pope Gregory I â€Å"The Great†, it has its roots much earlier in history, predating Christianity. In fact, Christian chant is believed to have been originally derived from Judaism, as there was a considerable amount of common ground between Jewish and early Christian liturgies (Werner 20). This is seen through writings of the early church which show that the early Christian church was heavily influenced by Hebrew worship (Barton). However, there is little information available from chants of early centuries compared to Gregorian chant and other chants of later centuries (Hiley 478). One reason for this is that musical notation for chants of this time did not exist, for at this time chants were an entirely oral rather than written tradition. Also contributing to this lack of information is that early Christians were persecuted, forcing private worship until the Edict of Milan of 313, which gave Christians the right of freed om of worship in Rome (484). Due to this freedom, Christianity could afford to become more formalized and organized, its music included. There is further ambiguity surrounding the specific origins of Gregorian chant in considering Pope Gregory himself. What Gregorys influence was on Gregorian chant is debatable, as there is limited evidence supporting that he either had a great deal of influence on the genre, such as directly composing chants, or virtually none (513). However, two pieces of evidence support a common theory of his involvement in the creation of Gregorian chant that was known throughout the Middle Ages, which are two books written by Pope Gregory. These two books, entitled Antiphonarium and Graduale Romanum, are compilations of already existing chants that Pope Gregory designated for specific parts of Catholic mass which supports the theory that his involvement was limited to such compilations (D‘Silva). An example of Gregorys ordering to use specific music in liturgy is him mandating that the Allelulia be used during mass for an entire year (Apel 41). Despite the lack of specific information concerning the beginnings of chant that would later evolve to become Gregorian chant, the origins of Gregorian chant as it was known throughout the Middle Ages are more clear, as music books, although they still were not musically notated, of the genre were created by the Franks at around the 9th century, making the genre easier to trace through history to that point (Hiley 514). Note that it was not until the 10th century that sources were created containing musical notation, namely being musically annotated Graduals and Antiphonals from the Codex 359 (Apel 52). Also, it was not until the 11th century that music was annotated in a way so that tunes could be read (53). In addition to these musical books, various manuscripts were written that outlined liturgical proceedings, allowing for further clarification of the specifics of Gregorian chant (53). The peoples who ruled the area that is roughly present-day France played a large role in forming Gregorian chant to what it is, from the Franks to the Carolingians (Hiley 512). This started under the rule of the Frank king Pepin, who lead the Franks to control much of Europe through military conquest, spreading the culture of chant to the Franks, and also causing reforms to Gregorian chant by the Franks and their successors (513). In addition to causing chant to be more widespread, the intervention of the Franks also caused Gregorian chant to evolve from further influences (513). Not only did the influence of the Franks allow the beginnings of Gregorian chant to be seen more easily, as was described previously, but their musical texts also show the original motives behind its development, the main motive being to help control how the liturgy was run by assigning specific chants to certain parts of the liturgy, as was done by Pope Gregory (515). In the case of the Franks (namely Pepin and also Charlemagne), the reasoning behind trying to control the specifics of the liturgy was so that it would become standardized since many members of the church were influenced by their own local traditions in structuring the liturgy, which Frank leadership was trying to suppress (Barbon). Of course, due to the amount of time between Pope Gregorys writings and the adoption of chant by the Frankish church (300 years), it can be safely assumed that the liturgical assignments of the Franks were different than those of Pope Gregory. More changes were made as well in Gregorian chant, including the style of singing, such as the combining of both Roman and Frankish singers, although eventually a return to a more Roman styled liturgy and type of singing occurred among the Franks (Hiley 517). Since writing texts for the chants was still not common practice and musical notation for them did not yet exist, it follows that the Franks had to learn Roman liturgy and chants by memory when this shift back to strictly Roman liturgy occurred. This also denotes that the number of chants that were used and popular were not too numerous at this point in time, as they could still be all memorized. Despite the shift back to a Roman style liturgy, over the years and into the 9th century to the start of the rule of the Carolingians, who succeeded the Franks, Gregorian chant continued to evolve as new musical elements were added to the genre by the Franks and more compositions were created (Hiley 517). Some of these changes were brought on by outside influences on Gregorian chant, such as by the Byzantines, who developed the eight mode system (529). The fact that the amount of compositions of Gregorian chant were increasing can be tied in with the development of written musical texts around this time period, causing Gregorian chant to shift away from a strictly oral tradition, for it would no longer be possible to memorize all of the chants necessary as their numbers grew. As the popularity of Gregorian chant grew, it underwent several more reforms and evolutions, mostly during the 12th and 13th centuries (Hiley 608). An example of such a reform was more specific notation being used in writing chant, which included specifying pitch, among other specific musical elements (608). Another reform was the tendency to drift away from previous melodies of the Middle Ages, creating a type of chant called â€Å"Neo-Gallican† chant (609). Many of these changes made to Gregorian chant were initiated by various orders, two major ones being the Cistercians, who believed in performing the liturgy as it was done originally, and the Dominicans, whose reforms, like the efforts of many before it, were aimed at standardizing the liturgy (612). Gregorian chant did not enjoy constant growth and popularity, however. After the 12th century, the popularity and growth of Gregorian chant started to wane, presumably due to a period of reduced popularity of the Catholic Church (DSilva). Also, around the 16th century the Catholic Church was threatened by Protestantism, which also played a part in decreasing the popularity of the church, thus affecting the popularity of traditional monastic liturgies and music (Hiley 615). Another such period of decadence for the church and for Gregorian chant was during the age of Enlightenment, as less emphasis was placed on the church and God and instead more on the individual and reason. As a result of this new ideology, the power and influence of the church began to decline. In addition to the general ideology of the time, another reason for the decline of the Church was the political struggle caused by the French Revolution, which caused a reform in the French church so that it no longer observed previous monastic traditions (Bergeron xii). Due to Gregorian chants close association with the church, its popularity began to decline as well (Barton). This causes yet another obstacle in acquiring information about Gregorian chant and thus makes it more difficult to interpret today as the knowledge of how to interpret various medieval musical notations was lost (Barton). A large factor of why Gregorian chant did not die out completely is the involvement of monks at the French monastery at Solesmes, and other such monasteries, who during the 19th century were commissioned by Pope St. Pius X to modernize Gregorian chant (DSilva). They achieved this by removing the strict association that Gregorian chant had with the church, secularizing it and adding a meditative, â€Å"trancelike appeal† (DSilva). In the end, Gregorian chant was changed to be more akin to classical Roman chant than the Gregorian chant of the Middle Ages. As a result, the chant that is known today as Gregorian chant is more similar to early plainchant rather than what was originally dubbed as â€Å"Gregorian chant† (DSilva). As a result of this change of the style of Gregorian chant, along with the declining power of the Catholic Church and thus the popularity of Gregorian chant, it is difficult to know what Gregorian chant of the Middle Ages exactly sounded like (Barton). Another factor that contributes to this is the lack of musical notation with text in the Middle Ages, and that some of the notation that does exist from the time period cannot be interpreted due to these periods of decrease in popularity. Overall, the fact that chant was originally a purely oral tradition that consisted of few enough chants that could be memorized, along with Gregorian chants affiliation with a religion that was originally persecuted and later declining in popularity, contributes to the murkiness of the origins of Gregorian chant. Also, the fact that Christianity underwent significant changes from the time of its conception to modern times results in equally significant changes occurring in the style of music that was so closely affiliated with its prominent church, even causing Gregorian chant to nearly die out on several occasions in history. However, despite the several bouts of decrease in popularity that Gregorian chant experienced, it is currently one of the oldest forms of music that is actively listened to today (DSilva). Also, the many changes that Gregorian chant underwent throughout history makes it very unique, as it cannot be entirely attributed to any specific event, person, or even nation or empire. Instead, as David Hiley states, â€Å"†¦Gregorian chant is neither of one specific time, nor wholly Roman, nor wholly anything else† (Hiley 513).