Tuesday, August 25, 2020
The world has and entirely new definitions Free Essays
The universe of today is changed over into a little circle were separations have been compressed; network far and wide is conceivable at the squint of an eye. The world has and totally new definitions in regard to relationship of social, innovative, social, political and financial matters. A man of today is outfitted with the intensity of that advanced gradually through the progression of time and in the long run named as ââ¬Å"globalizationâ⬠. We will compose a custom article test on The world has and totally new definitions or on the other hand any comparable theme just for you Request Now Before analyzing its impact and the effects it has on the world we have to distinguish what really is named as globalization. The Encyclopedia Britannica says that globalization is the ââ¬Å"process by which the experience of regular day to day existence â⬠¦ is getting normalized around the world.â⬠While a few researchers and spectators of globalization stress combination of examples of creation and utilization and a subsequent homogenization of culture, others stress that globalization can possibly take numerous differing structures. In financial matters, globalization is the union of costs, items, compensation, paces of intrigue and benefits towards created nation standards. Globalization of the economy relies upon the job of human relocation, universal exchange, development of capital, and incorporation of money related markets. The International Monetary Fund takes note of the developing financial reliance of nations worldwide through expanding volume and assortment of cross-outskirt exchanges, free global capital streams, and progressively fast and far reaching dispersion of innovation. Theodore Levitt is normally credited with globalizationââ¬â¢s first use in a monetary setting. In more extensive viewpoints the world in now drawing nearer and closer into a little town, where there is an expanded financial freedom. Data innovation has been the venturing stone for the this quick change, media transmission has set up unconceivable lines of correspondence which in the end has set up the quick moving pattern of progress. Variables of globalization that is random or without innovative change all in all or data innovation specifically doesn't appear to have a dynamic pattern, that is the significant square of upward development on the planet economy is fundamentally a result of the headway in data innovation. Maybe the most significant of these variables is the more liberal way to deal with global exchange and outside venture that has been embraced in numerous nations, created just as creating. As noted above from the science and innovation perspective approach in creating nations, it is helpful to extract from all these different effects on globalization and spotlight rather on the regards wherein globalization can be depicted as mechanical wonder. Until only a couple of years back, not very many individuals could have envisioned that IT would have such a colossal impact on the social orders and economies of nations everywhere throughout the world. In addition to other things, IT, and especially the rise of the Internet with its receptiveness and worldwide reach, is impacting strategies for business and correspondence. The IT insurgency is occurring everywhere throughout the world and Japan is no exemption. As per temporary estimations by the Economic Planning Agency, the propelling IT unrest will help Japanââ¬â¢s genuine GDP by 6% throughout the following five years, a normal of over 1% per year. Despite the fact that Japanââ¬â¢s maturing populace with lower birthrate is unavoidable, IT is relied upon to counterbalance the negative effect of the normal reduction in populace, as indicated by the equivalent temporary estimations. Globalization has ventured up the economy of the world; creating nations have had a rising tough pattern in its economies. Instructions to refer to The world has and completely new definitions, Papers
Saturday, August 22, 2020
American Minorities and Sports Essay Example for Free
American Minorities and Sports Essay Sports have consistently enormously affected American culture and culture. Individuals use sports at all levels, regardless of whether itââ¬â¢s youth, secondary school, school or expert, to help manufacture a character, interface with others and develop as people. Despite the fact that American is a various nation comprised of various races, nationalities and ethnicities, separation has been in issue all through Americaââ¬â¢s history. Sports took on a considerably more prominent importance for certain minorities during the twentieth Century, particularly Europeans and blacks. They utilized games as a methods for vertical portability so as to propel themselves socially in America. The possibility of social portability was one idea that initially attracted numerous outsiders to the nation. Somewhere in the range of 1880 and 1915, around 26 million settlers moved to the United States, and about half originated from a few regions of Europe (Moore, 2011a). America offered the opportunity for individuals to better themselves and somebody from any foundation could get fruitful and ascend over their folks. During this time, Americans were at that point seeing games as a significant and law based piece of life, since it made a decision about individuals on their ability and aptitude alone (Reiss, 1980). Rivalry was a chance to demonstrate and flaunt your ââ¬Å"manlinessâ⬠and force. Sports were likewise observed as an approach to increase vertical portability, and for Europeans, it was an approach to turn out to be progressively acknowledged into the American culture. In spite of the fact that they got more regard than blacks, they for the most part were not considered really ââ¬Å"Americanâ⬠(Moore, 2011a). Boxing was a famous game among youthful workers. Boxing was a game that demonstrated ââ¬Å"manlinessâ⬠and durability, and turning proficient implied opportunities to procure prize cash. Most workers from Europe lived on the East Coast in urban areas that immediately got swarmed and poor, and battling was a useful expertise to learn while living in the ghetto neighborhoods (Reiss, 1980). Boxing turned into a social stepping stool for ethnic gatherings since one gathering appeared to rule until another gathering turned out to be better. Whoever were better fighters at the time were seen as the harder race. In the 1800ââ¬â¢s and mid 1900ââ¬â¢s the Irish held the majority of the Heavyweight Championship titles, with fighters like John L. Sullivan, Jack Kilrain and Gene Tunney (Sowell, 1983). In the 1920ââ¬â¢s and 30ââ¬â¢s Jews started to have accomplishment in the ring, with 1913 being the main year in since the beginning of the century that there was no Jewish hero. In the multi decade length they held 18 titles (Moore, 2011a). These bosses were imperative to the Jewish in demonstrating their value to the nation and countering the separation that the Nazis in Germany were attempting to spread. Boxing for European ethnic minorities filled in as an approach to demonstrate their raceââ¬â¢s sturdiness, and prizefighting was an approach to leave the poor ghettos and make an average life for themselves. Italians were more slow than different gatherings in their inclusion with sports. Somewhere in the range of 1899 and 1924 around 4 million moved to the United States and settled in the packed East Coast urban areas (Reiss, 1980). The Progressive development was picking up fame at that point, but since of their past in Italy, numerous Italians doubted governments guiding them and what their kids ought to do (Moore, 2011a). Notwithstanding, second era Italian-American kids were offered chances to play sports through the production of the Public School Athletic League. In 1905 student of history Camillo Cianfarra followed the Italian youth improvement in sports and watched: ââ¬Å"In our open grade school rivalries, our youngsters are not mediocre compared to the offspring of different nationalities, in the arrangements of gymnastic [track and field] victors the Italian names show up much of the time as they show up in the lists of groups engaged with between secondary school competitionâ⬠(Reiss, 1980). Baseball before long turned into a well known game with the Italians, and they turned out to be exceptionally fruitful with the game. When of the Depression, Italians were turning into a lion's share in the Major Leagues (Moore, 2011a). Italians accomplishment in baseball gave them social portability, yet they were likewise still oppressed. The absolute best players in the group in the 1930ââ¬â¢s were Joe DiMaggio, Tony Lazzeri, Frank Crosetti and Ernie Lombardi (Baldassaro, 2005). Joe DiMaggio helped Italians acquire presentation and regard when he turned into the best player in the class and an American VIP (Moore, 2011a). Blacks in the United States had comparative association as the Europeans with ports and social versatility, in spite of the fact that they confronted significantly more segregation and dismissal than different minorities. Blacks utilized games as a fundamental method to attempt to demonstrate their correspondence to the remainder of the nation. They saw effective dark competitors as legends and energetically upheld them, and utilized them as a progressively unpretentious channel to feature t heir battle against the separation and loathe that they confronted day by day. Boxing highlighted a few dark bosses and was a well known game, much the same as it was with the European minorities. One of the most punctual dark heroes was Peter Jackson, an Australian who prevailed upon the Heavyweight Championship there in 1886. He made a trip to America in 1988 to battle John L. Sullivan, who held the Heavyweight Title, however Sullivan wouldn't battle him since he was dark. Other than that difficulty, he was viewed as perhaps the best fighter of the time, and blacks cherished him since he was a decent man and demonstrated dark fairness with his triumphs. Frederick Douglass at the time stated, ââ¬Å"Peter is doing a lot with his clench hand to illuminate the Negro questionâ⬠(Moore, 2011b). He was likewise regarded inside the white network since he never gloated or deprecated an adversary (Moore, 2011b). Individuals around the nation of any race admired him as a good example. In spite of the fact that Peter Jackson helped increase some regard for blacks in white America, it wasnââ¬â¢t until Joe Louis that Americans found a dark competitor that was held onto as an American legend. Louis was conceived in Alabama in 1914 as the child a tenant farmer and incredible grandson of a slave. His family moved to Detroit in 1924 where he before long took up boxing. Following ten years of difficult work he won the Golden Gloves as a light heavyweight and his vocation took off from that point. Perhaps the greatest triumph was against previous heavyweight champion Primo Carnera before a horde of 62,000 at Yankee Stadium (Official Site, n. d. ). Louisââ¬â¢s image as an American saint however didnââ¬â¢t completely occur until he retaliated for his misfortune against German boss Max Schmeling with a first-round knockout in 1938, during the hour of the Naziââ¬â¢s strength in Europe. It was this triumph made the American individuals see him not as simply one more dark contender, yet as an American saint. It assisted with countering the impression of fruitful dark competitors that Jack Johnson, the past dark heavyweight champion, had left, and in a way nearly rose above his race (Schwartz, n. d. ). ââ¬Å"What my dad did was empower white America to consider him an American, not as a black,â⬠said his child, Joe Louis Jr. ââ¬Å"By winning, he became Americaââ¬â¢s first dark heroâ⬠(Schwartz, n. d. ). In the 1960ââ¬â¢s, dark competitors utilized the worldââ¬â¢s greatest donning stage to battle bigotry and show their dissent against the separation that they were all the while confronting. In October 1967 the Olympic Project for Human Rights was set up by humanist Harry Edwards and others, predominantly competitors. The objective of the association was to fight isolation and prejudice in game and society. A blacklist of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics was proposed however never occurred, yet a few individuals despite everything utilized the Games as an open door for the association. Numerous on the US Track and Field group wore dark socks as help of the dark network, or identifications of the OPHR (Henderson, n. d. ). The most well known demonstration of dissent anyway was from runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who completed first and third in the 200m last. On the award platform, they each raised a clench hand while wearing a dark glove. The demonstration prompted the International Olympic Committee president, Avery Brundage, suspending them from the remainder of the opposition and driving them out (Moore, 1991). In spite of the fact that the dissent had negative ramifications for the runners, it was another key second in sports that indicated how the dark network came together for its competitors and utilized games as an approach to meet up and battle for social equality. Sports and rivalry were significant in minorities endeavors to progress in twentieth century America through vertical portability, in spite of the fact that the reasons were diverse for each race. Europeans battled with changing in accordance with another nation and culture, and sports helped fill in as an approach to absorb more with the American culture and be acknowledged. As a result of the huge quantities of migrants in the late 1800ââ¬Ës and mid 1900ââ¬Ës, most lived in poor, swarmed urban zones. Being effective in sports implied an opportunity to get proficient, desert destitution, and make a life for yourself. It was basically the ââ¬Å"American Dream. â⬠Sports had a marginally extraordinary importance for dark Americans. The United States was as yet a nation of segregation and abuse, and dark society utilized their fruitful competitors to enable and join them. Through saints like Joe Louis, they battled against the segregation and attempted to demonstrate their balance to whites. The two minorities in the twentieth century saw sports as a key device in their battle for acknowledgment in American culture. American Minorities and Sports. (2017, Jan 08).
Saturday, August 1, 2020
MIT Brings You Unwanted Attention
MIT Brings You Unwanted Attention There are definitely perks to attending MIT. For example, at MIT Ive built yo-yos Five(!) robots A pirate ship out of water bottles and, most recently, a working metal lathe But there are certainly downsides. I think this comic does a great job summarizing: ___ ___ You may laugh, but youll laugh for a different reason if youre a student here, because youll realize just how true it is. Once you transform into an MIT student, you are held to a standard that other people just arent. Ok, maybe not held to a standard, but people do look at you in a different light and expect you to be the expert in everything. Trust me, this isnt true, we arent the experts on everything. A friend of mine was an editor for the MIT student newspaper, The Tech. As editor, his name was printed in every paper and he was associated closely with MIT news. It was as an editor that he received a letter in the mail. The letter was from a man who had convinced himself that an underground dam had helped to create giant underground lakes in ancient Egypt . . . at least I think thats what he convinced himself. It wasnt entirely clear. Ill be honest, we all sat around in my suite reading this letter and had a jolly good time laughing at it. It began something like: This was the second letter hed sent to MIT regarding this dam. The first letter was all but ignored by its intended recipient (because, lets be honest, you cant take every single e-mail you receive seriously, there are just too many wackos out there) so he sent this second one to President Hockfield, Dean Colombo, two professors, Chancellor Clay, and my friend. Needless to say, he was a bit confused, especially when he kept reading. Wait. . . seriously? STAR CHARTS!? At that point we were almost obligated to keep reading. Alright, that just doesnt make any darn sense. (for the full letter, click here) As funny as it was, my friend was a bit concerned. He didnt want obsessive individuals like this contacting him, which is totally understandable, so he contacted some higher ups at MIT and he has everything all fixed now. Luckily it was an easy fix. This is just one example of the types of things that happen at MIT. There was an incident over at Bexley (a dorm) when a man called the front desk and demanded to know whether the moon was a planet or not. The letter and the moon incident seem funny, but over time they can get really annoying and sometimes be scary. The world is full of weird people out there, be careful. So, do you really want to be popular? MIT is an excellent school, itll definitely set you apart, but be careful, sometimes its nicer to just blend in and keep a low profile. See ya!
Friday, May 22, 2020
The Problem of Light Pollution - 1613 Words
RESEARCH PROPOSAL How can new approaches in design reduce the problem of light pollution? Research question How can new approaches in design reduce the problem of light pollution? Background In most situations, light helps us see. But when it comes to looking at the night sky, light is actually a kind of pollution. Light pollution is the pollution caused by misplaced artificial light. It is a rapidly increasing environmental problem. In the urban landscape that we live in, light pollution can have implications for the visual environment, affects human health, creates energy waste and results in undesirable economic consequences. There are a lot of advertising lights on the street. For example unordered set LED advertisingâ⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦Proposal Audience My idea is to make an installation that can fit approximate 20 people in a room. I am going to fill the room up with artificial light such as advertisement light box, LED displays and street light. When the people are walking in the room, they will get a feeling that they are walking on the street at night. These artificial lights are colourful and bright. While they are walking in the room, the lights will gradually fade or suddenly switch off. A milky way and thousands of faint stars will appear on the sky. A wide and diffuse band of the Milky Way towards Scorpios can be seen, whereas normally one sees only the brighter and narrower Sagittarius band in the southern sky. Audience can easily see the nearby surroundings by nothing more than the light of the Milky Way. The Milky Way is exceptionally bright, with tremendous structure and contrast between the obscured and unobscured regions. The design research will involve at least 20 volunteers. Designer will design several probes, wh ich the volunteers will be engaged for one week. The probes will be designed to create awareness with our volunteers to gauge how they perceive and react to different lighting situations.Show MoreRelatedLight Pollution And The Problems It Creates1595 Words à |à 7 PagesLight Pollution and the Problems it Creates Sci-fi Synopsis: The year is 2258, and in an effort to keep up with the increase in population and industrialization, artificial light has increased to the point where one can no longer tell the difference between night and day, since it is always daytime somewhere in the world. The public have long since forgotten about the sun and the stars. People must initiate certain protocols in their homes in order to gain the dark necessary for sleep. One nightRead MoreLight Pollution1702 Words à |à 7 Pagessociety known as light pollution. Light pollution is essentially excessive light from outside lighting fixtures that is misused and causes several negative effects. This increasing and perplexing issue is often magnified by industrialization and urban development which often neglects to consider the momentous problems light pollution causes. Despite serious efforts to minimize light pollution, ââ¬Å"â⬠¦light pollution rises about 6% every yearâ⬠(Parks 30). One should know what light polluti on entails, theRead MoreLight Pollution And Its Effects On Health1544 Words à |à 7 Pages Most people have heard of air pollution, water pollution, and many kinds of pollution like them. Issues like these are covered extensively in the media and are targeted by many environmental groups. In fact, many of these issues play significant roles in political elections. Though these kinds of pollution are widely known, there is another type of pollution that receives far less attention. Few environmental groups mention it, and many members of the general public have not even heard of it. HoweverRead MoreDont Light Up My Night1738 Words à |à 7 PagesDonââ¬â¢t Light Up My Night I remember gazing at the stars with my mom when I was a kid. She pointed out the Milky Way and a number of constellations. She told me, ââ¬Å"there are way too many stars to count!â⬠Now, 50 years later, when I walk outside and look up, I see only a few identifiable constellations, no Milky Way, and I would venture to say there were so few stars that if I took a little time, I could count them all. Are there really fewer stars in the heavens? Not at all. The stars are up thereRead MorePollution Essay949 Words à |à 4 PagesPollution is the introduction of harmful substances or products into the environment (Pollution, 2017). Ever since we were born there has always been a problem with harmful things on our planet. Humans have tried an enormous amount of ideas trying to help the planet. Adults tell the young kids to always recycle or to help the Earth by planting a tree. Those two ideas are spread around the entire world, but there are certain things going around that are no t helping the Earth. They are called pollutantsRead More Quality of Light Affects Quality of Life Essay1508 Words à |à 7 PagesQuality of Light Affects Quality of Life Light pollution affects the lives of people around the world. It comes in a variety of forms and can be a nuisance, wasteful, and harmful. It may be a street light shining in a window, a high energy bill, or the absence of stars in the sky. Light pollution is a growing problem as human populations continue to thrive, land is increasingly developed, and Earthââ¬â¢s precious resources are consumed. In order to reduce current levels of light pollution and to keepRead MoreThe Effects Of Light Pollution On The Outdoor Environment1103 Words à |à 5 Pagesmisdirected, obstructive or unneeded artificial light. Pollution is the adding-of/added light itself, in analogy to added sound, carbon dioxide, etc. Adverse consequences are multiple; some of them may not be known yet. Scientific definitions thus include the following: â⬠¢ Degradation of photic habitat by artificial light. â⬠¢ Alteration of natural light levels in the outdoor environment owing to artificial light sources. â⬠¢ Light pollution is the alteration of light levels in the outdoor environment (fromRead More14 billion. Thatââ¬â¢s how many pounds of garbage are thrown into the ocean every year. 46%. Thatââ¬â¢s the1200 Words à |à 5 Pagesyou can REDUCE your impact on the earth, you must first know HOW youââ¬â¢re impacting the Earth. Pollution is one way to negatively impact the Earth, but what is pollution? Defined literally it is the presence or introduction of a substance that has harmful or poisonous effects. The main types of pollution are air, water, land, noise, and light. Air pollution is a serious problem. It occurs when there are harmful amounts of gases, dust, fumes, or odors in the atmosphere. The main sourceRead MoreProblems Face by Earth948 Words à |à 4 Pages nitrous oxide, and methane) trap heat and light from the sun in the earthââ¬â¢s atmosphere, which increases the temperature. This hurts many people, animals, and plants. The greenhouse effect is when the temperature rises because the sunââ¬â¢s heat and light is trapped in the earthââ¬â¢s atmosphere. This is like when heat is trapped in a car. On a very hot day, the car gets hotter when it is out in the parking lot. This is because the heat and light from the sun can get into the car, by goingRead MoreHow To Prevent Noise Pollution1001 Words à |à 5 PagesWhat is Noise Pollution? Noise is essentially unwanted information or sharp changes in tones. Noise pollution is the act of creating noise. Noise is measured in decibels: 0 decibels is silent, 0 to 70 decibels is moderate, 70 to 80 decibels is the volume where noise can start becoming problematic. 80 to 120 decibels is considered loud noise and exposure at these levels for extended periods can cause permeant hearing loss. Therefore it is important to reduce noise pollution and your exposure to
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Civil Disobedience Effective And Non Violent Government
Americans assert that three branches of government exist at the national level; however, I contend the most powerful branch of government, the unrecognized fourth branch, overrides the combined influence of congress, the courts, and the president. Civil disobedience, the fourth branch of government, is an integral part of the law creation process in the United States. Recently we have witnessed an increased frequency of civil disobedience, and it is crucial that citizens understand what it entails and how they can use it responsibly. When is civil disobedience the right course to follow in order to change laws? Bree Newsomeââ¬â¢s act of civil disobedience flawlessly demonstrates the correct etiquette and action of civil disobedience. If we take a closer look at civil disobedience, we can better understand what it means, its goals, and its outcomes. Civil disobedience predominantly exists as direct and non-violent government defiance. Instead of voicing an opinion with a vote or a simple conversation, civil disobedience stands up for what is right using an individualââ¬â¢s whole influence. Therefore, some sacrifices regarding the legality of actions are made in order to preserve the integrity of the mission. In other words, why should a protester follow the law that they are trying to alter? That doesnââ¬â¢t make much sense, therefore civil disobedience allows unjust laws to be broken for the greater good. This method is very effective if, for example, a minority is attempting toShow MoreRelatedThe Resistance Of Civil Government1556 Words à |à 7 Pagesginally titled Resistance to Civil Government, has had a wide influence on many later practitioners of civil disobedience. The driving idea behind the essay is that citizens are morally responsible for their support of aggressors, even when such support is required by law. In the essay, Thoreau explained his reasons for having refused to pay taxes as an act of protest against slavery and against the Mexicanââ¬âAmerican War. He writes, If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I mustRead MoreCivil Disobedience and Change Essay1052 Words à |à 5 PagesHow has civil disobedience been used to engender change? The human race has a long history of disobedience, beginning in the early biblical texts with the story of Adam and Eve. There are also many examples of civil disobedience the permeate known human history that include various forms of civil disobedience, including mass exodus, boycott, strike, non-cooperation and conscientious objection. Henry David Thoreau was a pioneer of modern civil disobedience when he refused to pay a poll tax becauseRead MoreCivil Disobedience: Cost of Change1469 Words à |à 6 Pages2013 Civil Disobedience: The cost of change More than 40,000 strong activists from the Sierra Club protested at the White House to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline proposal. They protested because they the extraction of tar sand oil and moving it from Canada to Texas will pollute the groundwater in the surface (Hammel). Civil disobedience is ââ¬Å"the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international powerâ⬠(Civil Disobedience). ThroughoutRead MoreThe Political Relevance And Global Impact Of Mahatma Gandhi Essay1179 Words à |à 5 Pagesstrategies he used, non-violent civil disobedience and non-cooperation, not Gandhi himself, left a lasting impact on the world. Earth faces many new challenges such as regions facing economic collapse, some of the most barbaric wars, and threats to the ecosystem in the 21st century despite many advancements made. Humans have become collateral damage of the market economy. Gandhiââ¬â¢s principles, strategies, and critiques, as seen through satyagraha, non-cooperation and civil disobedience, continue to guideRead MoreCivil Disobedience Essay1372 Words à |à 6 Pages When should civil disobedience be condoned? Should it be condoned? Civil disobedience is defined as the refusal to obey government laws, in an effort to bring upon a change in governmental policy or legislation. Civil disobedience is not an effort to dissolve the American government, because without government our society would result in chaos. Sometimes, when there is an unjust law and the government wont take the initiative to fix it, the public must act as civil disobedients to bring awarenessRead More Henry Thoreauââ¬â¢s Influence on Martin Luther King Jr. Essay898 Words à |à 4 PagesHenry David Thoreau wrote an essay called Civil Disobedience which little did he know would influence great leaders such as Mohandas Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and US civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1929. He graduated college with honors and developed a talent for public speaking. A man by the name of Edgar D. Nixon saw Kingââ¬â¢s public-speaking gifts as great assets in the battle for black civil rights in Montgomery, where the bus systemRead MoreEssay on The Case Against Civil Disobedience 929 Words à |à 4 PagesCivil Disobedience is a deliberate violation against the law in order to invoke change against a government policy. Civil disobedience can come in the form of running a red light or j-walking, or in more noticeable methods such as riots. Coined by American author and poet Henry David Thoreau, the term has developed to define the act of disobeying a law one sees as unfit or unjust. Usually the purpose of civil disobedience is to gain public attention to a perceived injustice and appeal to or gainRead MoreCivil Disobedience in America1044 Words à |à 4 Pagesbeliefs, background, and work ethics. Civil disobed ience played a large role in America. Creating protests, riots, and sit-ins, America had many examples of disobedience. In America, we value our rights as citizens and individuals. We have the right to protest as stated in the first amendment of the United States Constitution, which is called Freedom of Speech. According to the Webster Dictionary, civil disobedience is said to be ââ¬Å"the refusal to obey government demands or commands and nonresistanceRead MoreUnjust Laws1747 Words à |à 7 Pagesmeans that laws, regardless of how unfair, unjust, or immoral they may be, must be followed with no better reason that they are the law. To the thesis that we are obliged to obey even unjust laws, I will argue that the standard objections to Civil Disobedience, given by Singer, are incorrect To begin, however, I believe it is necessary to define an unjust law. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. (KingRead MoreCivil Disobedience And The United States889 Words à |à 4 PagesIt is imperative to understand that the United States of America was born through acts of civil disobedience. And because American freedoms are constantly in danger of being encroached on, it is also important that citizens are aware of the worth that civil disobedience can possess. Civil disobedience is when a person or people refuse to obey a demand or restriction by the state that conflicts with higher law and conscience. The act requires that the disobedient one accept whatever may be the consequence
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Backstroke Swimming Free Essays
string(37) " causing the minimum amount of drag\." Swimming backstroke the complete guide to getting your stroke perfect, along with faults their causes and how to Swimming backstroke/ introduction Swimming backstroke is the third fastest stroke competitively, originated from an old english style of swimming backstrokeand has developed over the years and has evolved into an alternating and more effective action. This action givesthe backstroke less resistance with a continuous propulsion. The speed of the backstroke is limited by the restrictiverange of movement of the shoulders as well as the ability/inability to use the power in the chest muscles to thebest desired effect by the roll of the body which will be discussed in more detail in the chapter about the upsweepof the arms. We will write a custom essay sample on Backstroke Swimming or any similar topic only for you Order Now When swimming backstroke it is usually developed from a simple back paddle just kicking legs on the back, once this achieved then the backstroke swimmer can begin to develop the arms as long as the streamlined body position is maintained. Swimming backstroke can be a first choice of stroke for the beginner because it free from the water and does not reallyrequire a breathing pattern so there are little or no difficulties. The only problem can occur is that some swimmersdo not like lying on their back due to fear of the water. Swimming backstroke/ body position When swimming backstroke the body should be in a flat and horizontal position (supine). The body should also be ina streamlined position. The head should be relaxed, with the water should be crossing the ears keeping steady andin line with the body. The eyes should be looking upwards and backwards keeping the chin close to the chest. Keep your shoulders just below the surface of the water but they will only become visible as your body rollsand your arms recover. Your hips are the lowest part of the body when swimming the backstroke. The practice ofletting the less able swimmers hips sink should be discouraged if you are teaching your child or yourself to swim backstroke Keep your legs and toes close the surface with your toes breaking the surface of the water. Your body will roll on itââ¬â¢slongitudinal axis, you can roll up to about 60 degrees from the horizontal. This roll helps to assist so thatyou can place your hand in the best catch position so that you can have an effective underwater arm action which assists the over water arm recovery. The only part of the body not involved in this body roll is the head this should be perfectly still when swimming backstroke. Swimming backstroke/ leg action When you swim backstroke you will need a good, strong and efficient legs kick. The leg kick in backstroke is mainlyused for balance, it is not very likely that the leg kick will provide much propulsion. If you were a good leg kicker then you may get a little propulsion maybe 1-5 percent which could be used when the arms are not intheir propulsive phase. When one arm is above the head ready for entry and the other is by the side just finisheditââ¬â¢s pull. You must remember that the although the legs do not contribute to propulsion they are still importantfor a good body position as well as balance for your strong sweeping actions made by your arms which is made outside the line of the body which will in effect will cause lateral deviation. So a good leg action willminimize lateral deviation (moving from side to side). Although the kicks are described as an upbeat and downbeat it is important that the kick does not necessarily take place in the vertical plane. Your hips move side to side along with the upper body as it rolls so the path of thekick is influenced at the time of the upbeat and downbeat. When swimming backstroke the legs action is alternating as well as continuous. Your legs will stay close togetherand the movement of each of your legs initiates from the hip and is observed as an upbeat and downbeat. Swimming backstroke/ Downbeat (recovery) Your leg will begin the downbeat close to the surface of the water and the leg is almost straight. When you begin thedownbeat your hip will press downwards and then will be followed by your upper leg your lower leg and your foot. The downbeat of each of your legs is called the recovery phase so this movement you will find should be relaxedand done without very much effort. When you get to the end of the downbeat that will be the lowest point and outside of your body range. The depth of this all depend on the size of your limbs. As a guide the leg will be at a point where the leg can be fully extended with your toes pointed. It will be apparent to the backstrokeswimmer that the flexibility of the your ankles is of importance. Swimming backstroke/ Upbeat (propulsion) The upbeat will begins as your hip begins to lift. Then your upper leg follows the hip and your knee will begin to bend your knee will bend will be about 90 to 120 degrees. Your lower leg will then press upwards with your shin andand the top of your foot. The pressure at this stage is a combination of upwards and backwards. Now your leg willaccelerate upwards and as you kick your leg to the surface this is when propulsion is achieved. When the toes breakthe surface the upbeat ends. Swimming backstroke/ arm action When swimming backstroke you will find that the arms provide main propulsion. The arm action is continuous and alternating. There are four partsto the arms in backstroke which are the entry, catch, propulsive phase and recovery which I will discuss in moredetail. Swimming backstroke/ Entry When your hand enters the water your little finger enters first keeping it in line with your shoulder. Your palm facing outwards and then handshould sink to a depth of about 30 cms causing the minimum amount of drag. You read "Backstroke Swimming" in category "Papers" Make sure that your hand does sink a little because it help with your body roll. Your arm will also be fully extended As your hand will be placed in the water. Making sure it is donewithout any undue tension as well as making sure that you do not over reach. It is very important that the arm enters in line with the shoulder. An entry that is too close to the centre line or too wide will have a detrimental effect on your streamlining and propulsion. It is also very importantthat your little finger enters first by entering with the back of the hand will cause more resistance also you will not be able to sink your hand to the desired position as well as a tendency to pull with the little finger leading. Your hand will start to feel the pressure of the water ready for the sweeping and propulsive movement which will follow. Shortly afterwards your hand will be in the catch position. You will then rotate your hand downwards, as you press on the water your elbow will bend and your upper arm will rotate, givingyou a high elbow position that you need to enable the initial downward sweep to be performed effectively. When learning the backstroke you will find that the arms are the hardest part of the stroke and to develop the correct catch position and the downwards movement to the catch position. But practice makes perfect! Swimming backstroke/ Catch Your hand will now begin to give a backwards pressure on the water. This is so that your hand can make a purchase on the water and move your body forwards over the hand. Swimming backstroke/ downsweep Your elbow will now begin to bend and your hand will continue to sweep downwards slightly. As your hand begins the downsweep the pitch of your hand will be downwards as well as backwards. When you have finished the downsweep your elbow will be flexed to 90 degrees your hand will be in line with your shoulder. our elbow at this point will be pointing to the pool bottom and your finger tips should be facing outwards. You will change your hand pitchinto a backwards direction in the transition period, through to inwards and upwards, ready to begin your upsweep. Swimming backstroke/ Pitch of the hand It is important to realize that swimming backstroke you will continually alter the pitch of your hand throughout the sweeping actions. So t hat you get the best possible propulsion during the downsweep your hand should be pitched downwards, outwards, and slightly backwards. Swimming backstroke/ Upsweep Your hand will now sweep upwards towards the surface of the water keeping the elbow bent. The upsweep progresses from your shoulder line through to justabove the waist. It is of importance now that the roll is of great importance, to ensure that the sweeping propulsive can be effective. At the endof your upsweep your pitch is now altered to backwards then to downwards and then backwards. Swimming backstroke/ Final Downsweep When your hand sweeps downwards your elbow will straighten. The propulsive phase of the arm stroke is now completed with your arm extended below your hip. When you swim with the arms they are likened to a long letter ââ¬Ësââ¬â¢ shape alongside your body in the water. Swimming backstroke/ Recovery Your body will roll after the final downsweep of your hand the recovery action of your arm begins. Your hand on which you are to recover will be below the level of your hip so it needs to be lifted through the water in a way which will cause you the minimum amount of resistance. You can achieve thisby rotating your hand inwards so the palm faces your thigh, your hand will then be able to cut through the water on its side. When you bring it up it should leave the water be thumb first. Once your arms have left the water your arms should come directly over your shoulder being an elevated positiondue to the body roll. When your thumb is your arms is gradually from your shoulder joint to place your hand in a little finger entry position as it passes yourhead on itââ¬â¢s way down into the water. Make sure your arm is straight as wells relaxed during the recovery giving your arms an opportunity to recovery from thepropulsive phase. Make sure you do not overreach at this time. Swimming backstroke/ arm opposition When swimming backstroke the timing of the recovery and propulsive arm position is very important if you want to swim backstroke with good technique. As your recovering arm enters the water the propulsive arm should be sweeping down at the end of itââ¬â¢s propulsive phase. The opposition of your arms helps with your body roll and your streamlining and it provides the most continuous application of propulsive force on the water. Swimming backstroke/ breathing When swimming backstroke breathing is not usually any problem because the head is free of the water and does not go into the water at any time. Breathing can take place at anytime during the stroke. Make sure that you take a regular pattern of breathing. The usual pattern of breathing isto take an in breath as one arm recovers and an out breath on the other arm recovery (in on one arm out on the other). Swimming backstroke/ co-ordination When swimming the backstroke there are two parts to co-ordination the timing the leg action with your arms as well as the arms with eachother. Swimming backstroke/ leg action timing The most common timing used is the six beat leg action this is complete by the time the cycle of the arms is complete. It is important that a strong balancing leg kick is used when swimming backstroke because as I mentioned before the arms are pitched outside the center line and the faster leg kick s used to maintain a streamline and horizontal position preventing lateral deviation (body moving side to side). The six beat action is the most commonly used a small minority of backstroke swimmers will use any other pattern. Swimming backstroke/ arm action timing When swimming backstroke your arms can be seen opposite each other but there is a period in this cycle when both arms are in the water at the same time. This is simply when one arm is moving towards the catch and th e other is releasing the water and beginning the recovery. This is a slight overlap which ensures that your stroke doeskeep a continuous propulsion from your arms. Swimming backstroke/ faults, causes and corrections When you swim backstroke you will find you may have one or more faults, in this part of my page we will look at thefault that you may come across the reasons why and how you can improve and correct the fault. You may not realize youhave any kind of fault but it may be worth having a read in case you recognize something in your stroke which youmay not have realized is a fault. How to cite Backstroke Swimming, Papers
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
My Dad My Mentor and Guide Essay Example
My Dad: My Mentor and Guide Essay Commemorative Speech Good morning every one I want to start by asking you this What is your definition of a great man? Is it a man that goes above and beyond to provide for his family and loved ones? Or is it a man that teaches u invaluable lessons in life every chance that he gets, Or is it a man that faces difficulties and always manage to light a smile on your face and prove to you that thereââ¬â¢s in fact a silver lining in behind dark clouds? I think all these traits make up a great man and I have the honor to call one of them my father, Venancio Ang. He was born in the Southern Part of the Philippines, Davao City. His mom was that of a Spanish Descendant and His dad was Chinese, which makes him a Chinoy. ââ¬Å"Which means Chinese Filipinoâ⬠My dad has taught me great lessons in life, and I am here because I want to share with you about all the lessons in life he has taught me and the most valuable which I kept with me and the type of inspiration he gave my family. I want to start of with the lessons in life, like I said there were many of them but the one that really stuck to me was hard work, and family. We will write a custom essay sample on My Dad: My Mentor and Guide specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on My Dad: My Mentor and Guide specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on My Dad: My Mentor and Guide specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Hard work, without hard work you donââ¬â¢t reach your goals, and that/s something my dad would always tell me. My dad was all about using this and using these. And he would do it on a constant basis, all day every day 24/7. And he taught my brother and I what it is to really work hard for what you want in life and how good you feel after you see the fruits of your labor. And finally, Family. Iââ¬â¢m grateful to be brought up in such a kind and loving family. Growing up my dad used to always tell me that a family is where home is. Which is very true, because when I go through lifeââ¬â¢s challenges the first thing I think of is them. He has taught me how important foundation is in order to keep me grounded. My dad always used to say, ââ¬Å"Twirly, remember at the end of the day it all comes down to family. â⬠This world isnââ¬â¢t easy. And our lives are defined by how we respond in adversity. The greatest among us overcome trials and seek to learn from them. Without family I wouldnââ¬â¢t be the person I am today. My dad, a God fearing man who has taught me so many more lessons in life that I wish I could share with you if there was given time. He is my backbone and friend. He has taught me the value of working hard and pursuing lasting significance over worldly success. I highly respect my father for who he is and what he stands for in life. He truly is a God given gift to my family and everybody else whoââ¬â¢s lives heââ¬â¢s touched. I am grateful to be brought up by a father like him and he has truly set the kind of example a father should have.
Friday, March 20, 2020
All About Red Maple Trees and Where to Plant Them
All About Red Maple Trees and Where to Plant Them Red maple is the state tree of Rhode Island and its Autumn Blaze cultivar was selected 2003 Tree of the Year by the Society of Municipal Arborists. Red maple is one of the first trees to show off red flowers in the spring and displays a most magnificent scarlet fall color. Red maple is a fast grower without the bad habits of fast growers. It quickly makes shade without the compromise of becoming brittle and messy. The most endearing ornamental characteristic of red maple is fall color including red, orange, or yellow whichà sometimes on the same tree. The color display is long lasting over several weeks and often one of the first trees to color up in autumn. This maple puts on one of the most brilliant displays of any tree in the landscape with a great variety ofà fall colors with variable intensities. Nursery developed cultivars are more consistently colored. Habit and Range Red maple transplants easily at any age, has an oval shape and is a fast grower with strong wood and grows into a medium-large tree of about 40 to 70. The red maple occupies one of the largest eastern north-south ranges in North America- from Canada to the tip of Florida. The tree is very tolerant and grows in nearly any condition. These trees are often much shorter in the southern part of its range unless growing next to a stream or on a wet site. This maple tree is far superior to its Acer cousins silver maple and boxelder and just as fast growing. Still, when planting the speciesà Acer rubrum, you would benefit byà selecting only varieties which have been grown from seed sources in your area and this maple may not do well in the southernmost USDA Plant Zone 9. The beginning ofà leaf buds, red flowers, and unfolding fruits indicate that spring has arrived. The seeds of red maple are quite popular with squirrels and birds. This tree can sometimes beà confused with red-leaved cultivars of Norway maple. Strong Cultivars Here are some of the best cultivars ofà red maple: Armstrong: Grows in all 50 states, has attractive silver-gray bark, columnarà in shape, spectacularà red to orange to yellow leaf color.Bowhall:à Grows in all 50 states,à somewhat pyramidal shape, very similar to Norway maple, red to orange to yellow leaf display.Autumn Blaze: Plant zones 4-8, hybrid of silver maple and red maple. Identification of Red Maple The leaves: deciduous, opposite, long-petioled, blades 6-10 cm long and usually about as wide, with 3 shallow short-pointed lobes, sometimes with two smaller lobes near the base, dull green and smooth above, lighter green or silvery beneath and more or less hairy. The flowers: pink to dark red, about 3 mm long, the male flowers are fascicled and the female flowers are in drooping racemes. The flowers are functionally male or female, and individual trees may be all male or all female or some trees may have both types, each type on a separate branch (the species technically polygamodioecious), or the flowers may be functionally bisexual. Fruits: winged nutlets (samaras) in a pair, 2-2.5 cm long, clustered on long stalks, red to red-brown. The common name is in reference to the red twigs, buds, flowers, and fall leaves.à From theà USDA/NRCS Plant Guide Expert Comments It is a tree for all seasons that develops into an attractive yard specimen under a great range of soil and climatic conditions. -Guy Sternberg, Native Trees for North American LandscapesThe red, red maple. Native to the wet soils of Americas eastern half, it has become one of the Nations favorite- if not the hardiest- street trees. -Arthur Plotnik, The Urban Tree BookReddish flowers appear in early spring and are followed by red fruit. The smooth gray bark is quite attractive, particularly on young plants. -Michael Dirr, Dirrs Hardy Trees and Shrubs P
Wednesday, March 4, 2020
6 Job Search Trends Every Job Seeker Should Know
6 Job Search Trends Every Job Seeker Should Know Weââ¬â¢re a ââ¬Å"whatââ¬â¢s next?â⬠kind of society, and that means that everything has trends- from what we wear to which social media platform just became uncool after everyoneââ¬â¢s grandparents signed up. This applies to the job hunt, too. Some things about looking for a job are pretty evergreen- like using active verbs in your resume and dressing in your professional best for an interview- there are trends that could give you an edge. Before you convert your resume to an all-Vine format, consider these less-extreme options for joining the 2016 race.1. Emphasize skills over school.A degree is always going to be a great asset in your application package, but your resume should focus on your hard skills and experience over the school name. The educational landscape is getting more diverse all the time, with online degrees becoming more common, so brand-name schools may be less important than the overall package.2. Find your career community.Not so long ago, general job sites like Monster were all the rage, as one could find all sorts of jobs from pretty much any field. This year, try looking for communities and sites specific to your area, and take advantage of their forums, articles, and meetups to network in your own field. When youââ¬â¢re looking for jobs, try thinking specialized instead of general, and see what you can find.3. Be mobile.If youââ¬â¢re reading this on your phone, this one might not be the advice for you- youââ¬â¢re probably already plugged in. But if youââ¬â¢re still limiting your job search to sites you find on your computer, try using mobile job apps and search tools on your phone or tablet to find opportunities that might not be living in a standard web browser.4. Consider a career jump to a hot industry.In 2016, areas like healthcare (especially healthcare technology), mobile marketing and analytics, and other tech fields are growing at an incredible pace. If youââ¬â¢re looking for a change of pace, take a close look at jobs in those industries that might dovetail with skills you already have.5. Be flexible about work environment.This does not mean you should chase those internet ads that promise youââ¬â¢ll earn $80,000 a month working from home, like my sisterââ¬â¢s cousinââ¬â¢s best friendââ¬â¢s cat. However, many companies do offer flexible work arrangements, since so many tasks and meetings can be handled easily via communications tech. A job opportunity in another state might have been a non-starter before, but these days you should take a closer look and see if you actually can live here, but work there.6. Just be flexible.Itââ¬â¢s not just the geographic boundaries that are stretching. With companies finding new ways to meet economic challenges, you could find opportunities outside of the 9-to-5 template. That may be freelance openings that help you build relationships, or part-time jobs that help you build experience. Everything is customizable now, and why sh ould your career be any different? If youââ¬â¢re open to change and different ways of doing things, you may discover opportunities you didnââ¬â¢t notice before.2016 could be a great year. If you know which areas where you can jump on the trends and find a way to make them work for you and your professional goals, it could be a year of great changes as well.
Monday, February 17, 2020
Negotiation plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Negotiation plan - Essay Example However, the Union still needs to agree on the matter concerning the wage increases during the existence of the agreement (Guasco, 2007). This matter is very important to the workers, as it one way or the other shall determine their productivity and effectiveness. The union requests an award for the workers that will help cover the past 3% inflation and a 2% salary increment for previous contributions towards productivity. The union requires the agreed disbursements made right after the agreement commences, and not on any conditions whatsoever (Bond, 1999). The union workers will be more than willing to look into productive bonuses in addition to this increment, as long as it agrees to measures of productivity. Where a mistake come from one individual, the rest workers should not suffer. The union demands an even distribution of bonuses to all hourly paid employees (Guasco, 2007). The workplace Arrangements It is important and right of the workers to attend premium training when they get the need to progress, and not when there is a vacancy in the company. When employees who reach a higher level that demands a higher salary cannot find a position within the company, an allowance for such training is to be awarded which, is a half the difference between the grade they trained for, and the one they are now in. The trained employees are would promoted, before advertisement is considered whenever there is a higher vacancy in the company. Hours Roster, Shifts and Overtime Implications The workers union has set forth these three working arrangement options, a shift pattern, making one work for 76 hours over two weeks. There is also a monthly arrangement cycle of 152 hours, or an annual cycle of 1976 hours. An employee should work for an average of 8 hours overtime weekly on summer and at least two in the winter. The union demands that the company rewards the overtime hours double the amount paid on normal hours and compensation arranged to the employees who in some c ases might find themselves sitting in for others, hence breaking the usual roosters routine. The Duration of the Agreement The workers union intends to make this the only negotiation they would have with the Dairy Company, where proper assessments are required to make sure that no contradicting loopholes left through successive plans such as in the case of future salary increments. This will see an improvement in the productivity of the employees via time conservation. It will also convince the employers that the hearts of the workers are at what they do, and not for destruction of the firm in any way. Workplace committee The Union will take the workplace committee as a consultative body since as said in the above point; this is a onetime negotiation only. The committee formed from the collaboration of the employers and the employees will only be set to resolve any arising issues within the company, and act as a uniting code between the workers and the company. The Union understands that other light issues also need redress, but since the agreement is a unifying dialogue leaves them open for employers suggestions. Such concerns are sick-offs and day-offs (Eden, 2010). The workers intend to build a relationship with the Dairy Company, and that is why the employers have a room to air their views on some issues. The Union, therefore, resolves on adopting the integrative
Monday, February 3, 2020
Children's Magazine Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Children's Magazine - Essay Example The idea was to find whether the books and their display are able to fascinate the targeted readers and promote reading. During the survey, it was found that the libraries do have wide variety of books for children of different age groups but there is significant lack of childrenââ¬â¢s magazines and whatever few magazines are there, they do not attract the children. Childrenââ¬â¢s section is normally well segregated but lack of imagination, in the display of the titles, are found to be the main reason for disinterest amongst the children and the teens. The libraries make no efforts to apply creative approach to promote better reading. The bookstores like Waterstones and W. H. Smith have a huge selection of childrenââ¬â¢s magazines and story books which are prominently displayed. They often organize special events for children to promote childrenââ¬â¢s books which do make some headway in inculcating reading habits in children. The bookstores, too, have a separate section for the children where latest story books are attractively displayed. Unfortunately, the price factor is a big deterrent for the majority of the children who prefer to spend that much money on latest gadgets and audio-video games! The children need to develop reading habits for various reasons and the most important justification being that it hugely widens their knowledge horizon which becomes their greatest asset in the later life. To attract children towards reading, it is important that they be introduced to the pleasures of reading in a manner that makes it a big fun and which sufficiently prods their inherent curiosity so that they seek more interesting information in the books. It is also important that the government must encourage writers for writing childrenââ¬â¢s books and magazines that are interesting, fun filled and which satisfy interest level of children of
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Offender profiling
Offender profiling Separating Fact From Fiction: Where Do Peoples Beliefs About Offender Profiling Come From? Chapter I: Introduction to the Study Historically offender profiling has often been seen as more of an art than a science (Muller, 2000; Ressler Shachtman 1992) leaving it prone to rejection within academic journals (Dowden 2007). However within recent years there has been a sharp increase in the publics interest due to the media spotlight offender profiling has received in the way of films and television shows. This in turn has led to more research being done within the field and can clearly be seen by the significant rise of articles published since 2001 (Dowden 2007). This explosion of interest now makes it the ideal time for research to be conducted. Well known journals are now more frequently accepting articles on offender profiling and in 2004 David Canter launched the Journal of investigative psychology and offender profiling. In spite of this the content of the majority of research published still remain discussion pieces regarding what offender profiling is and its usefulness etc with hardly any containing statistics or formal analysis. For these reason this research will focus more so on the publics beliefs of offender profiling and how it is they acquire them. The recent development and interest in offender profiling has lead to people developing false beliefs. Kocsis (1999) stated that the medias portrayal has produced a situation in which ââ¬Å"a gross disparity has developed between profilings reputation and its actual capabilitiesâ⬠. This research proposes five possibilities of how people acquire their false beliefs (media, experts, reasoning error, social contagion and confirmation bias) with the objective of finding which one has the biggest influence upon forming beliefs. Chapter II: Review of the Literature 2.1 History of Offender Profiling Although many definitions have been given for offender profiling it is generally agreed that it is ââ¬Å"a technique for identifying the major personality and behavioral characteristics of an individual based upon an analysis of the crimes he or she has committedâ⬠(Douglas et al 1986). It is not meant as a tool to identify the offender implicitly, but rather serve as an indication as to the type of person they are by focusing on their behavioral traits and personality characteristics. It is particularly useful in seemingly motiveless crimes whereby it allows the analysis of similarities and differences to take place. This in turn uncovers information on the perpetrators personality and behavior, which is essential due to the fact that the ââ¬Å"randomâ⬠crime and victim may not at all be random to the offender. The victim may have been chosen symbolically due to the fantasy occurring within the offenders mind (Ressler et al 1985). Offender profiling is used within a variety of settings and not just a tool used solely for homicides. These techniques have been used in hostage taking situations (Reiser 1982), serial rapists (Hazelwood, 1983), identifying anonymous letter writers (Casey-Owens 1984) as well as those who make written or verbal threats (Miron Douglas 1979). Due to this ability to transfer profiling techniques into a variety of situations, its methods have been used throughout the world (e.g., Asgard 1998; Collins et al 1998; Jackson et al 1993). However Holmes and Holmes (1996) stated that offender profiling is only called upon when all other leads have been exhausted. This in turn questions its popularity, is offender profiling being used throughout the world due to its effectiveness, or as a last resort? Many feel that the latter is the case and criticise offender profiling on the grounds of scientific reliability. Much of the literature published is often plagued by low levels of validity making the results found questionable. Furthermore is the difficulty in obtaining reliable and accurate data. Very few researchers rely on primary data such as interviews with serial offenders and even when they do the offenders testament should be treated as suspicious due to the known fact that offenders often lie about there behavior (Porter and Woodworth, 2007). This leads to a limitation in the literature, with very few authors publishing three or more articles and only 34% of these articles being written by psychologists (Dowden et al 2007). As well as criticism regarding literature methodology, offender profiling as a whole has also raised much disapproval. Pinizzotto and Finkel (1990) argue that many profilers do not specify the behavioural, correlational or psychological principles they rely on and it is therefore difficult to distinguish if specific profiling techniques are being adhered to, or if simple intuition and opinion are being used. However, regardless of the criticism offender profiling has received; it has still continued to grow in popularity throughout the years (Dowden 2007) resulting in an upsurge of interest and media attention. 2.2 The Rise to Popularity Offender profiling is by no means a new technique with one of the first recorded practice being in 1888 in the notorious Jack the ripper case. Dr Thomas Bond, a British physician is regarded by many to be the first offender profiler (Newburn,2007; Petherick 2005; Kotake 2001) linking together five of the Whitechapel murders and giving an eleven point profile on the personality and behavioral traits of Jack the ripper. Although this is sometimes classed the beginning of offender profiling, it wasnt until 1957 that profiling took a leap forward and grabbed the publics attention. New York Citys Mad Bomber terrorized the city for a period of sixteen years, planting a total of thirty-three bombs in public buildings. With public hysteria being high and police reaching a dead-end, Dr James Brussel (a criminologist and psychiatrist) was called in to help on the case. After reading the letters sent to the press and examining the case files, Brussel created his profile of what kind of person the police should look for: ââ¬Å"Look for a heavy man. Middle-aged. Foreign born. Roman-catholic. Single. Living with brother or sister. When you find him, chances are hell be wearing a double-breasted suit. Buttonedâ⬠(Brussel, 1968). This profile was then submitted to the newspaper and days later the offender, George Meteky was arrested matching Brusselss description. In fact the only variation to the profile was that he lived with his two sisters. This apparent accurate profile ignited the publics interest in offender profiling. However due to the media frenzy surrounding the case, facts were often missed out and an inaccurate account was given. For example, Metesky was known to follow media reports (Berger, 1957) and so his behaviors may have been consciously or subconsciously affected. Furthermore the profile itself did not solve the case as often implied; in fact it was background checks on disgruntled employees that led to the arrest (Kocsis, 2004). And despite the popular myth that Metesky was ca ught in a double breasted suit, he was actually arrested wearing faded pajamas (Brussel, 1968). This popular and often cited case is an excellent example of how offender profiling is often misrepresented and how that in turn leads to people developing false beliefs regarding it. Nonetheless, the Mad Bomber case is often thought of as a turning point in offender profiling history and that it was at this point that both the public and law enforcement developed an interest. In the 1960s Howard Teten started to develop his approach to offender profiling, and as a special agent in the FBI during 1970 he started teaching his approach to fellow agents. In 1972 Jack Kirsch started the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) and gave Tenten the freedom he needed to create profiles and continue his research. The word spread and soon police departments were making daily requests for profiles (Turvey 2001). The BSU underwent several changes throughout the 1990s and is now known as the National Centre for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC). However it is not just America whos interest in offender profiling was sparked. Much like Brussel it was one particular case that seemed to ignite the publics fascination with profiling within the UK. In 1985 David Canter was asked to help with the investigation into two murders and over thirty rapes, which the media dubbed as the Railway Rapist (cited in Egger 1999). Canters profile was remarkably accurate and proved a useful tool in the investigation. However yet again, the profile alone wasnt what led police to John Duffy, it was his refusal to supply a blood sample. Similar to America, the British Press reported Canters involvement in an exaggerated fashion which in turn gave Canter much publicity and recognition. Interestingly, although offender profiling gained publicity within America and UK in a similar fashion, they have completely different profiling techniques. The American FBI approach, created by the BSU, relies heavily on crime scene analysis (CSA) (Wilson, Lincon Kocsis, 1997) and is the approach that has been popularized within the media. The approach places offenders into categories according to the crime scene, either organized or disorganized. This approach has been heavily criticized by the likes of Ressler (1992) who states that the simplicity of the system was to enable police without a psychological background to understand it. The UK approach relies more on statistical analysis, obtaining facts and characteristics from solved cases to provide a general framework for each crime (Aitken et al 1996). However in more recent times Canter has developed an investigative psychology approach to profiling. This approach suggests that psychology can directly be transferred to crime, and that an interpersonal transaction is occurring between the offender and the victim. Canter created five approaches which can be used to profile criminals directly using psychology (Canter 1994). The approach that Canter has received the most attention about is that of space and time which has been empirically tested and found to be useful (Wilson et al, 1997). Although Godwin and Canter (1997) demonstrate that investigative psychology can help the police, results have to be looked at carefully since it is unlikely that Canter will contradict his previous work. Regardless of the different approaches offender profiling has, it has nevertheless reached a height of popularity. However, as widespread as profiling has now become, the public still seem to misunderstand it and hold false beliefs regarding it (Snook et al 2008 Kocsis 1999). For this reason, this research will examine the different possible reasons why the public have developed these false beliefs. 2.3 The Mass Media This brief outline of offender profiling shows that the rise in public interest has correlated with major cases, which in turn causes sensationalism within the media. With the public buying into the medias exaggerations on the role of offender profilers, a perfect springboard was provided for many television shows and films to base their premises around these ââ¬Å"incredibleâ⬠profilers. Major films such as The Silence of the Lambs and television shows such as Cracker, Wire in the Blood and Criminal Minds have promoted the myth that profilers posses some sort of superhuman skill (Egger, 1999; Grubin, 1995; Alison Canter, 1999). Fiction blurs with fantasy for the general public and they are left with false beliefs. Grubin (1995) comments that offender profiling has always had a role within fiction and has always appealed to the imagination due to its ability to invoke the image of ââ¬Å"the cerebral sleuth relying solely on his acute powers of observation and deductive reasoning to identify an elusive and much feared serial rapistâ⬠. Many researchers (Balu, 1994; Campbell, 1976; Canter 2000; McCan, 1992; Muller, 2000) would in fact argue that this fictional image of a ââ¬Å"super sleuthâ⬠such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes or Edgar Allan Poes C. Auguste Dupin is what inspired offender profiling to begin with. Sagan (1996) agrees with Grubin, suggesting that people are often attracted to fantasy, more so than any other genre, because they often contain characters that have powers, which normal people lack but desire. Green, Brock and Kaufman (2004) concur, asserting that people seek out fiction rather than non-fiction for the simple fact that they want to be entertained. However, unless people adopt a critical approach to the material they are viewing, their judgments regarding offender profiling will be based on the inaccurate and biased information they are being given, resulting in false beliefs (Stanovich, 1992). Second hand knowledge, such as that required from the media, rarely reflects the truth (Sprott 1996) and so this critical approach is essential. The mass media doesnt just refer to television and films, the role stories play are equally important. Those who have experience in profiling often write books about there experiences (eg Paul Britton and David Canter) which creates to the reader, a personal story. These types of literature can be very convincing as they are often vivid and memorable (Borgida Nisbett, 1977; Stanovich 1992) and assumed true in entirety by the reader. People are not trained to critically evaluate or to seek out objective facts and reliable evidence (Carroll, 2003; Gilovich, 1991; Sagan, 1996; Shermer, 2003) and take these anecdotes presented to them as truthful accounts allowing them to form the foundation of their beliefs. Even published accounts of offender profiling rely on these anecdotal evidence to convey the message that they are trying to put across and illustrate the usefulness of profiling (e.g Canter, 1994; Cook Hinman, 1999). Snook, Eastwood, et al (2007) found that out of 130 articles on offender profiling, 60% of them used at least one anecdote as a source of knowledge, such as the New York Mad Bombers case. Another problem faced is that all the portrayals regarding offender profiling convey the same message, the profiler catches the criminal and the case is solved. Although this is unrealistic, empirical evidence shows that the likelihood of people agreeing with a message correlates with how often the same message is repeated (Cacioppo Petty, 1979). So if most of the media (eg, films, television shows and books) are all conveying the same message and no critical approach is taken, then individuals will be left with false beliefs. However, are people that passive that they will believe everything they encounter in the media? This theory of a hypodermic-syringe model (Briggs Cobley, 2002) whereby viewers are ââ¬Å"injectedâ⬠with opinions and beliefs has been proven to be conceptually flawed in that it tends to ignore matters such as personal influence and interpretation (Katz Lazersfeld, 1955). Individuals are not passive creatures that are unable to form their own intelligent opinion. The media does not dictate a persons belief; in fact it can be argued that individuals use the media for their own gratification (Katz, 1959). Therefore is it unfair and illogical to blame the media solely, for the misconceptions people have about offender profiling? 2.4 Expertise Experts are individuals who after an extensive period of practical and theoretical training have developed a professional capability within a specific area (Kurz-Milcke Gigerenzer, 2004). Due to this definition, many people believe and accept the words of experts without question (Bochner Insko, 1966; Milgram, 1964) and many believe that offender profilers are indeed experts. In spite of this belief there is very little evidence to support this idea. If offender profilers are experts then they should be able to perform their job to a high standard, therefore creating accurate profiles. Snook et al (2008) conclude that any police professional could achieve the same level of success that profilers achieve, by relying on their basic criminological information. However, if this is the case why is it police still request profilers and add to the belief that they are accurate experts? One reason could be because they actually believe that offender profiling works (e.g. Copson, 1995; Jackson et al 1993; Pinizzotto, 1984) but for those police officers who disagree, calling profilers in may simply be a way of doing their job. As a police officer it is their duty to make sure that they use all the available investigation techniques and some may think they have nothing to loose by calling in an offender profiler. However the public may view the fact police use profilers as a confirmation that offender profilers are experts and this in turn will affect their judgment. An example of how the belief that experts are correct affects peoples judgments can be seen in a study conducted by Kocsis Hayes (2004). The study found that police officers, who were told that the profile they read was created by an expert, rated them significantly more accurate than officers who were told that their profile came from a non-expert. These results appear to confirm that people believe and trust the information obtained from labeled experts more so than anyone else. However this result that Kocsis Hayes found may be due to the police officers loyalty. They may believe that professional profilers are an important group that they identify with and feel loyalty towards, due to a belief that they are in the same line of work. Many studies have found that many police officers tend to develop an occupational subculture (DeMaria, 1999; Dempster, 1997; Wilson Chappell, 1996; Wilson Western, 1972) with intense loyalty shown to all those that belong to it (Chan, 1996, Finna ne, 1995; Fitzgerald, 1989; Lusher, 1981; Wood 1997). For this reason, the discrepancy shown between the measures may be down to loyalty rather than expertise heuristic. However this loyalty should only be shown by those who identify with that subculture, therefore excluding the general public. So is expertise heuristic to blame for individuals false beliefs? 2.5 Reasoning Errors People have the tendency to believe things that arent true and a lot of time and effort has been put in by researchers to try and discover why it is people believe in unproven things (Gilovich, 1991; Hines, 1988; Vyse, 1997). One of the main outcomes found is that human beings evolved to be able to identify patterns among environmental occurrences, which as a result can lead to the identification of meaningless patterns (Shermer, 2002). It is this ability to identify meaningless patterns that can be argued contributes to people thinking in things such as psychic abilities as well as their belief that offender profilers predictions are valid. People like to find order in a chaotic world and then form beliefs that can guide future behaviors (Gigerenzer, 2002; Shermer, 2003). However, beliefs are just a cognitive process that picks up on information from the environment and if the information is wrong, so is the formed belief. One form of this cognitive process is reasoning errors.
Friday, January 17, 2020
Marx and Law
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY VOLUME 20, NUMBER 4, WINTER 1993 0263-323X Marx and Law ANDREW VINCENT* There is no sense in which Marx can be described as just a legal theorist. He did not write any systematic works on legal science or jurisprudence; however, his observations on law are both immensely penetrating and contain an extremely subtle interweaving of philosophical, political, economic, and legal strands. Marx was also at the centre of many crucial intellectual and political debates of his time.In order to try to unpack some of these debates, elucidate his views on law, and retain some overall clarity, I divide my remarks into five sections, which will inevitably overlap. The sections covered are: the problems of discussing Marxist jurisprudence; the philosophical background to the analysis of law and the state; materialism, political economy, and law; base, superstructure, and the ideology of law; and finally, law, politics, and the state. PROBLEMS OF MARXIST JURISPRUDENCE Ther e are a number of problems for any student of jurisprudence or politics trying to grasp Marx's approach to law. First, there is the puzzling point that neither Marx nor Engels had a positive normative theory of law, crime or deviance. In fact, much of the time Marx appears predisposed simply to ignore the question of law as peripheral, or at least to treat crime as a symptom of the conflict within a class-based society. ââ¬Ë He certainly offers no clear encompassing definition of law. Marx's jurisprudential thought is often premised upon a critique of law per se, and what he has to say tends to be overwhelmingly negative in character.This is fine if one's purpose is ââ¬Ëcritique' and nothing else, but it is a definite handicap if one wishes to say something more positive about the nature of law, law reform rather than its overthrow, or the future of law (e. specially if one believes that law has a future role in society). A second problem relates to the sources for Marx's obse rvations on law. It has already been noted that Marx did not have a normative theory of law. It is also clear that what he does say about law, by way of negative critique, does not appear in any systematic format. There are works which begin to *School of European Studies, University of Wales, Cardiff CF1 3 YQ, Wales 371 C Basil Blackwell Ltd. 1993. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 JF, UK and 238 Main Street. Cambridge. MA 02142. USA HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 371 1993 say something more systematic, like The German Ideology. However, Marx never allowed its publication in his lifetime and it is commonly dismissed (although not by all writers by any means) as either a work of immature juvenilia or a flawed piece of philosophical polemic which does not come up 3 to the systematic and scientific standards of Capital.Marx, it is also commonly asserted, had intended to write a work on law and the state 4 (possibly as an extension of Capital), but he never realized his ambition. Thus, in consequence, the writings and observations on law that we do have are incomplete and must be picked out from a diverse body of writings. Marx's writings are in fact markedly eclectic and can be roughly divided into four often overlapping types: first, the early, more philosophicallyinclined pieces, clearly more inspired by the German philosopher G.W. F. Hegel. Under this rubric would be included the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (1844), The Holy Family (1844), The German Ideology (1845/6), and The Poverty of Philosophy (1847). The second type of writing is the polemical pieces written for particular political objectives. The most famous of these is the Communist Manifesto (1847/8). The overt character of these polemical writings- despite their wide dissemination, immense influence, and popularity ââ¬â is their simplification of issues and doctrines.This can be a problem in assessing what Marx actually believed, rather than what he needed to put forward for polemical thrust and cogency. The third group of writings relate to Marx's observations on particular historical events. Probably the most famous of these, and the most convoluted and ambiguous, is the 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte(1852). The writings in this context employ Marx's immensely sophisticated method of close historical analysis, although the final upshot of such pieces has given rise to many hostages to fortune especially over the theory of law and the state.The final group of writings settle upon his systematic economic theories. The most famous of these are the earlier Grundrisse (1857/8) and the later Capital (1867-85), which remained incomplete at Marx's death. In sum, Marx's observations on law must be, and usually are, picked out from these diverse writings. It is hardly surprising that there should be oddities, fierce contestation, and discrepancies over such fragments. A related point to the diversity of the above writings is the fact that many commentators on Marx arg ue that there is a marked shift or break in his perspective.The break usually occurs between the ââ¬Ëyounger' and ââ¬Ëolder' Marx. The character of the shift, which was called the ââ¬Ëepistemological break' by the French Marxist, Louis Althusser, is between an earlier philosophically and morally-inclined Marx, clearly inspired by Hegel, and the mature Marx, focused on political economy and intent upon constructing 5 an empirically-based social and economic science of history and society. This judgement on the distinction between the late and early Marx is often supposed to direct our attention to the late Marx and a consequent dismissal of the early philosophical Marx.In this reading, Marx's early interest in ââ¬Ëalienation' is superseded by a social scientific theory of economic ââ¬Ëexploitation'. The development of a clear vision of the early Marx was perhaps 372 à © Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 372 1993 partially hampered by the fact t hat the key early writings ââ¬â the Economic and PhilosophicalManuscripts ââ¬â were not actually discovered and published till the 1920s. Marx certainly never contemplated their publication during his lifetime.Whether one takes the epistemological break seriously or not, there are undoubtedly changes in Marx's perspective on many issues including law. 6 These cannot be ignored by the student of Marx, although what one reads into these changes remains contestable. Another problem concerns Marx's intellectual relation with Friedrich Engels. There has been a strong tendency in Marxist writings to associate the two men closely with one pristine doctrine. It appears that in fact Marx's definite turn to economics (political economy) was confirmed through his initial contact with Engels' writings.As editor of the Deutsch-Franziisische Jahrbiicherin Paris, in November 1843, Marx had received an article from Engels, entitled ââ¬ËOutline of a Critique of Political Economy', which s timulated the economic turn in his own work. Their working relation began a year later in 1844. 1 However, despite their collaboration on works like The German Ideology and The Communist Manifesto, it is far from clear that we should associate them, especially on questions of their philosophical beliefs or their subsequent ideas on law and the state.This point has been made by a number of scholars, although it is still far from resolved. It is clear, for example, that Marx did not formulate a lucid doctrine of materialism, whereas Engels clearly lays out such a doctrine, particularly in popularizing works like Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880), the Anti-Diihring (1885) and the Dialectics of Nature. Marx nowhere used terms like ââ¬Ëdialectical materialism' or ââ¬Ëhistorical materialism'. Neither did he coin terms (which are relevant to the discussion of law) like the ââ¬Ëwithering away of the state'.This latter idea, again, was Engels's terminology from the Anti-Diihr ing. Marx did not apply the notion of dialectics to nature itself. His belief remained firmly fixed in the social sphere of human emancipation. Engels was far more ambitious, some would say foolhardy, extending dialectics to the natural world. ââ¬Ë The ultimate consequence of Engels's doctrine was a virtual reenactment of an older form of mechanistic materialism resonant of the French Enlightenment, which Marx had attacked in his early unpublished work, the Theses on Feuerbach.Engels's doctrines later became established in the writings of Lenin, particularly Lenin's philosophical work Materialism and Empirio-Criticism and Plekhanov's Materialism Militant, and subsequently it dominated much of the theoretical output of the Second International and the leading Marxist party of the time in Germany ââ¬â the Sozialdemokratische ParteiDeutschlands(SPD). 9 However, Marx's theory of knowledge, if it can be summarized, hung uneasily between a classical materialism and an idiosyncratic use of Hegelian idealism.One can overemphasize the differences between Engels and Marx; however, we ignore them at our cost. If we are trying to understand Marx, it is not wise to place too much reliance on Engels's own personal output. One final problem concerns Marx's use of the concept of law itself. There are two terminological points to note here. The first concerns the German 373 D Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 373 1993 word, Recht. It is virtually equivalent to the terms jus, droit or diritto, as distinct from lex, loi or legge. This distinction does not really work in English.Recht in German is not limited to law or jurisprudence but can encompass the issues of civil law, justice, right, and morality. In Hegel, the initial focus of Marx's interest in law, Recht embodied the above themes, but also what he called the ââ¬Ëethical life', the state and, ultimately, aspects of world history. In fact, the work on which Marx spent so much time in his early years, Hegel's Grundlinien der Philosophiedes Rechts, is sometimes translated as The Philosophy of Law, The Philosophy of the State and, more usually, The Philosophy of Right. 0 It is important to bear in mind this ambiguity when considering Marx's observations on law (as Recht); when Marx addresses law, it is not strictly parallel to English usage. The above connects up with the second point, which is often confusing to audiences from the British or Anglo-Saxon legal traditions. Hegel's work, referred to above, was, as much as anything else, a theory or philosophy of the state. This is encompassed, to some extent, in the broad use of the term Recht. Thus, the treatment of the state might be said, inclusively, to be also a treatment of law.This kind of approach resonates more with the Roman law and civil law traditions of continental Europe than with the common law tradition of Britain. â⬠However, it is worth taking note of this point since it throws a ray of light on so me of Marx's writings; namely, his critique of the state is to a large extent also a critique of law. ââ¬Ë2 One small biographical detail could be added here, which might add some substance to this point. When Marx was writing in a more reflective way on the state and law, he was in Germany and France.His early legal training had been in Germany (although he gave it up for philosophy) and he was reflecting and writing within the Hegelian genre. Much later in his life, in the late 1870s, when puzzling over whether to write more on law and the state, he had been living and working for a number of years in Britain, enough time to pick up on the peculiarities and idiosyncracies of the English legal tradition and its odd relation to the state. This might explain some of his later ambiguities, as opposed to his earlier certainties, on the state. Finally, the interest in Marx on law, despite the ork of the Soviet jurist Evgeny Pashunakis in the 1920s and 1930s, and Karl Renner in Austri a, was not really a subject of wide-ranging debate until the 1970s. As Maureen Cain and Alan Hunt have commented: the prevailing trend from the 1930s to the 1960s displayed an almost exclusive emphasis on the repressive or coercive character of law, conceived as the direct embodiment of the interests of the ruling class. In this conception law itself is unproblematic: the analysis of legal development or new legislation has the task merely of exposing the class interest 3 contained in them.What was discovered in the 1970s, presumably under the impact of the surge of interest in the Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, was the conception of law as ideology and, in consequence, law as a crucial part of the intellectual hegemony of capitalist societies. In this sense, the more wide-ranging and 374 (D Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 374 1993 popular interest in Marx on law is a relatively recent development. It is thus very tempting, in dealing with this topic, to refer to the developments in Marxism itself to the present day.The major danger with this path is that the discussion can become wholly enmeshed in the recent material and Marx becomes a distant memory. I have tried to avoid this trap here. Although contemporary developments are not ignored, the principal focus is on Marx's writings. THE PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND TO THE ANALYSIS OF LAW AND THE STATE There are three points to note concerning Marx's philosophical background which are relevant for his later project and his overall understanding of law. First, the premises for his critique of law are derived from his initial philosophical criticism of religion and the state.Secondly, his analysis of the conception of ideology and the ââ¬Ëillusory' character of bourgeois thought (including law) lies in early essays like ââ¬ËOn the Jewish Question'. Finally, his first inkling of the economic roots to social and political thought can also be found in his early essays ââ¬â particu larly the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts and his article on ââ¬ËLaw on Thefts of Wood' in the Rheinische Zeitung (1842). 1 take the first two issues as most significant. The last point, to a large degree, follows from the first two.From the late 1830s, Marx had determined to get to know Hegel ââ¬Ëfrom beginning to end'. 4 Together with Bruno and Edgar Bauer, Arnold Ruge, Max Stirner, and Ludwig Feuerbach (the so-called young Hegelians), Marx studied Hegel's works assiduously through the late 1830s and early 1840s. Feuerbach was the most influential figure in the group. Initially he had been a disciple of Hegel's philosophy, and in some ways he never abandoned it. 5 Feuerbach, however, did engage in a dialectical critique of Hegel ââ¬â using Hegel's own method to criticize him.Hegel's definition of humanity through its thinking abilities, specifically through the notion of Spirit (Geist), is, for Feuerbach, one step short of reality ââ¬â or, at least, it is inve rted reality. Hegel explained humanity through consciousness (or mind); however, for Feuerbach, it is sensuous and materially-rooted humans who think, not some abstract consciousness or mind. The transcendental ego of Kant, the absolute ego of Fichte, or Hegel's notion of Spirit (the great themes of German philosophy) were all seen by Feuerbach as sensuous human creations.Thus, the basis of Feuerbach's critique of Hegel is that the latter was offering, unwittingly, an ââ¬Ëesoteric theology'. Humans are not vehicles for Spirit (Geist); rather, humans create the notion of Spirit. In fact, for Feuerbach, humans create God in their own image. Thus, in Hegel, ââ¬ËWhat was a logic of Being becomes [in Feuerbach] a psychology of human concept formation'. 6 Philosophy, in actuality, reflects human wants and needs. This critique of Hegel's ontology was directly related to Feuerbach's equally important critique of religion in The Essence of Christianity. Hegel's 375 n Basil Blackel1 I t dHeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 375 1993 philosophy is, in point, interpreted as the last speculative outpost of God. Speculative philosophy and religion needed to be led from the realm of mental abstractions into the realm of sensuous humanity. For Feuerbach, in essence, all ââ¬Ëtheology is anthropology'. The true object of religion is not God but idealized humanity. Religion is the alienated form of the individual's recognition of his or her own nature. God is the creation of the human imagination, unknowingly idealizing itself. Thus, Feuerbach claimed that some radical demythologizing was needed.Love of God is really love of humanity in symbolic inverted form. Theology is kind of psychic pathology. The separation between God and humanity is really a separation within humanity itself. Religion is a form of alienation from our essential natures. The demythologizing was to be accomplished by the technique Feuerbach called ââ¬Ëtransformative criticism', namely, the interc hanging of the subject and predicate of propositions. For example, an understanding of God is not crucial for understanding humanity; conversely, an understanding of humanity is crucial for understanding the idea of God.The real subject is humanity, the predicate is God. These arguments affected profoundly the thinking of the young Hegelians. Marx, particularly, was initially enthralled, but soon turned to his own critique of the young Hegelians, especially Feuerbach. In his Theses of Feuerbach, he argued that Feuerbach's great achievement had been to bring holy ideas down to earth. However, he had retained an abstract materialism and theoretical humanism. What was needed was a practical humanism and a new understanding of materialism which took account of the social and economic reality.Philosophy must be moved away from mental abstractions and contemplation into the realm of social, political, and economic realities. Feuerbach was thus also subject to the demystification of transf ormative criticism. Practical and sensuous humanity, embroiled in economic and social realities, is the real subject, not theoretical humanity. I7 This critique of Feuerbach also forms the basis for Marx's critique of Hegel, religion and, finally, the state and law. It also led him to his crucial life project ââ¬â the study 6f political economy. Marx accepted, implicitly, one theme in both Hegel and Feuerbach.Philosophy is about emancipating human beings. History was imbued with teleological significance as to the growing possibility for and realization of freedom, although this theme become very shrouded in his later writings. Religion purported to be about emancipation; however, for Marx, again, the reality was inverted. As he stated: ââ¬ËThe criticism of religion ends with the doctrine that man is the highest being for man'. 8 Religion per se could not be overcome by simply drawing people's attention to its inverted logic (with due respect to Feuerbach).For Marx, one had t o grasp, critically, the social, political, and economic roots as to why people sought consolation in religion. A criticism of religion was, in essence, social and economic criticism. This exactly paralleled his criticisms of Hegel's notion of the state. For Hegel, humans were self-constituting and self-producing creatures. There was no sense in which we were simply the passive products of historical 376 D Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 376 1993 forces. For Marx, Hegel's view was correct, but again the reality had been inverted.Hegel's Geist (Spirit or Mind) was really labouring humanity. Hegel, for Marx, made the ââ¬Ëexoteric esoteric'. 9 Hegel had grasped the centrality of labour (self-production) but only in its mental form (in consciousness). Thus, Marx refers to Hegel's philosophy as ââ¬Ëconcealed criticism that is still obscure to itself. 20 For Marx, humans produce themselves by actual labour and through the ensuing social relations in the wor ld. Thus, Marx moved from regarding Hegel's philosophy as an esoteric psychology gradually to regard it as an esoteric economic thesis.Hegel's philosophy of the state (and law) had a correct content but in an inverted and mystified form. Marx in fact treats Hegel's Rechtsphilosophieas summing up German reality at that time (in its mystified form). As Marx put it: The criticism of German philosophy of the state and of law which was given its most consistent, richest and final version by Hegel, is â⬠¦ the critical analysis of the modem state and the reality that depends upon it'. 21 Hegel had argued that humanity and civil society were the product of the state.The state is seen to stand above the conflicts of society. However, for Marx, again the reverse is true. Individuals in civil society, embroiled in economic forces and classes, and hedged about by private property rights, produce the state which, of necessity, reflects differential and unequal property relations and powers. Abstract property rights are embodied in the state. The state exists to maintain this interest. The modern state gives people legal rights and freedoms, premised on the idea of humans possessing property.However, such property is of necessity premised upon the alienation and denial of such freedom to a large proportion of the population. As Marx observed, the critic must now grasp ââ¬Ëthe essential connection of private property, selfishness, the separation of labour, capital and landed property, of exchange and competition, of the value and degradation of man'. 22 The logic of private property is the same as that logic of religion. As human beings alienate their essence into God, so workers alienate their essence into the production of goods.Workers, in receipt of wages, only secure a small proportion of what they produce. Thus, they alienate their essence into goods which others consume, use or embody in their private property ââ¬â a property upheld by the state and legal s ystem. Moving now to the second point of this section, Marx's early essay ââ¬ËOn the Jewish Question' deals, on the surface, with question of the repeal of legal disabilities for Jews in Germany. The essay is interesting on a number of counts; however, one point will suffice for the present discussion.Marx indicates that the illusions that were to be found in the religious consciousness could also be found in law. The basic point was that humans turned to religion in particular historical circumstances. Young Hegelians, like Bruno Bauer, had argued that the demands for Jewish emancipation precluded genuine emancipation, since the demand was formulated in religious terms namely, Jews. The state, for Bauer, must abolish all religious categories. The secular state provided the real solution for Bauer. Marx responded to this by 377 C) Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 377 1993 rguing that religion per se was not the problem, but, rather, the state and legal sy stem itself. Religion is an illusory (if crucially important) pathology, but it is a reflection of a broader ââ¬Ëillusion' pathology within the secular state. A secular state does not free human beings. Rather, the state embodies as many, if not more illusions than religion; illusions of secular states are structurally similar, and, in fact, related to religion. As Marx put it, in somewhat tortuous prose: We do not insist that they must abolish their religious limitations in order to abolish secular limitations.We insist that they abolish their religious limitations as soon as they abolish their secular limitations. We do not change secular questions into theological ones. We change theological questions into secular ones. History has for long enough been resolved into superstition: we now resolve superstition into history â⬠¦ We criticize the religious weakness of the political state by criticizing the secular construction of the 23 political state without regard to its reli gious weaknesses. In short, for Marx, the political world of the secular modern state was as much a tissue of illusions as religion. 4 Underpinning the modern state are the illusions about private property and commerce, and the legal structures which uphold them. The final theme, with regard to his early writing, concerns his essay on the ââ¬ËTheft of Wood' in the Rheinische Zeitung in late 1842. The ââ¬ËWood Theft' essay, as Marx later observed, was the first time that he saw clearly the socioeconomic issues which underpinned law (viewed through the lenses of the transition from feudalism to capitalism). The common feudal and customary right of gathering wood was effectively being ââ¬Ëprivatized' by commercial society.Rural poverty was itself the product of the redefinition of property as ââ¬Ëprivate property'. In this sense, law was facilitating capitalism. Oddly, in this essay, Marx's solution was a restoration of older customary rights (although a slightly odd use of them) against the new right of private property. As he put it: ââ¬ËWe reclaim for poverty the right of custom which is not a local one 5 but which is that of poverty in all lands'. 2 It is worth noting, though, that many of Marx's early writings do not envisage the abandonment of law or the state.He adopts, in fact, a quasi-natural law or customary law position (from a strictly secularist position), arguing, in essence, that certain newer laws are not really valid or real in the context of what real law ââ¬Ëought' to be like ââ¬â namely law ought to be, as Marx put it, ââ¬Ëthe positive existence of freedom'. 26 It is also clear that he was not envisaging the abolition of the state; conversely, he anticipated a more radical democratic state upholding the fundamental rights and freedoms of the masses. In many ways these uasi-natural law themes and radicalization and democratization of the state do not disappear in his later writings; rather, they are submerged below the intellectual surface. The surface, in many later writings, becomes more positivist and economic in character; however, the underlying themes of human emancipation as a genuine need of human nature, the correct ways in which humans ââ¬Ëought' to act towards each other, and the future structural character of society, still subsist, but certainly not in any easy or comfortable relation to the positivism. 378 (D Basil Blackwell Ltd.HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 378 1993 MATERIALISM, POLITICAL ECONOMY, AND LAW Marx was a materialist of sorts, although, as pointed out earlier, he never described himself as a historical or dialectical materialist. There are various senses which can be attached to the term materialism. Marx had no interest in materialism in the colloquial sense of a ââ¬Ëseeking after consumer goods' which we might now call consumerism. Neither does he have much interest in mechanistic Enlightenment materialism, seeking to explain humanity via certain mechanical analogies ââ¬â l'homme de machine.Neither strict physical 2 materialism nor behaviouralism were of any interest. 7 Marx's concern with materialism must be set against his reaction to Hegel's idealism, as examined in the previous section. Put at its simplest, Marx wanted to insist that human beings must subsist (and labour to subsist) before they cognitively speculate or think a great deal about their condition. Our social and economic being is thus prior to our reflective consciousness. The material conditions of our lives form the true basis for both our cognitive life and our social and political structures.We can observe here the ââ¬Ëtransformative criticism' at work again in the basic rudiments of Marx's thought. The ââ¬Ësubject' is not self-conscious thought, nor is material life the ââ¬Ëpredicate': the converse is true. Subject and predicate must be transformed. It is important to bear this method in mind: namely, that Marx comes to his basic materialist conclusi ons from a philosophical direction. Marx does not suddenly ââ¬Ësee the empirical light' on some Damascus road or come to such conclusions from empirical observation.His route to such premises is philosophical. One problem here is that even if we focus on Marx's particular type of materialism there are still distinct and competing versions of it. We might call these the stricter and looser versions. We will encounter parallels to this distinction in other areas of Marx's thought and there remains considerable debate as to where Marx's sympathies lay. The stricter materialism might be called ââ¬Ëunidirectional determinism'. Material conditions causally determine thought and political and social structures.This is the dimension that Engels, Lenin, Plekhanov, and Kautsky picked up on, and it reappears in structuralist Marxism, amongst other varieties in the later twentieth century. This materialism looks, and occasionally tries to act more like a natural science. â⬠In some m ore recent analyses of Marx it is connected to the idea of the ââ¬Ëepistemological break'; that is, the mature Marx is the ââ¬Ëscientist' and ââ¬Ëunidirectional determinist'. The alternative looser materialism can be observed in the elusive Marxist doctrine of ââ¬Ëpraxis' (where ââ¬Ëtheory' and ââ¬Ëpractice' have a symbiotic and reciprocal relation).The basic logic of a praxis argument denies the basic premise of the unidirectionality claim; that is, it asserts that reflective thought and consciousness (as embodied in philosophical, economic or legal thought) can actually affect our material conditions. We can accommodate our theory to our practice and vice versa. Put simply, human reflective thought has definite efficacy; it is not just an epiphenomenon of the material conditions of life. This form of looser materialism can be observed in some of Marx's 379 à © Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J.L. & Soc'y 379 1993 writings and in the subsequent Marxis t tradition in writers like Antonio Gramsci, Georg Lukfcs, and Karl Korsch. 29 Such a looser materialism is also more aware of the contestable nature of economic and social categories. The particular form of Marx's materialism is premised on political economy. The basic components of the doctrine can be stated as follows: human beings must subsist in order to survive and in so doing they labour. In labouring, humans use certain material technologies (crudely) or modes of production.In working within a mode of production, whether in a medieval rural context with a plough or within a nineteenth century factory with a machine, humans come into relations of production, that is, relations with other human beings within the productive process. Relations of production crystallize into groups called classes whose relations are determined by the particular form or mode of production. As forces of production change, so do relations of production. 3â⬠³ In capitalism, for example, there are two fundamental classes. Proletarian workers sell their labour for a wage. Workers produce more than receive.The wage only provides subsistence. The capitalist class sells the products of the workers to gain profit. Capitalism thus subsists by extracting labour value from its workforce. The interests of the capitalist class necessarily conflict with those of the proletariat. Thus, material conditions of economic life form the real basis to social existence. Political and legal structures can only be understood via these material conditions. Marx, in one of his more synoptic semi-autobiographical pieces of writing, Preface to the Critique of Political Economy, called this whole 31 process the ââ¬Ëleading thread' of his studies.It is worth remarking at this point that Marx's views on this ââ¬Ëleading thread' have given rise to another debate which parallels the stricter and looser senses of materialism. There are interactive and passive notions of economic reductionism. On the passive view (which corresponds to stricter materialism), law and the state emerge instrumentally from economic forces. They have no independent efficacy or reality. The state and law are not understood to arise from conscious human intention; rather, they reflect the 32 class struggle that takes place in the context of the economic base of society.Many Marxists writers find themselves uniformly uneasy with this form of passive reductionism. 3 3 In this more sceptical reading, Marx's Preface (mentioned above), as well as many works by Engels, are not regarded as adequate representations of the totality of Marx's views. Antonio Gramsci, for example, regularly dismissed this more passive view in the curt phrase ââ¬Ëeconomism'. For such critics, passive reductionism contains an impoverished and simplistic conception of the state and law. It does not grasp the more interactive quality of the state and legal system, and it ignores the conflicts between classes over authority within st ate.Neither does it explain how the economic base actually ââ¬Ëdetermines' law. The actual causal mechanism remains inchoate in Marx's writings. Marx's texts, it is argued, are rife with potential for more interactive readings. However, the Marx of the Preface could reply to this criticism by arguing that such a view is in imminent danger of ââ¬Ëlegal fetishism', where law is seen as both necessary for 380 D Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 380 1993 the existence of society and autonomous from economic or class factors. There is nothing unique about law in the passive reductionist reading.However, most exponents of interactionism would not want to argue that law has total autonomy; rather, that the law can, in certain circumstances, act upon economic life and can either facilitate or work against a particular mode of production. The ambiguities over these various positions can be observed in Marx's classic account of the transition from feudalism to ca pitalism. As commercial capitalism slowly develops at the economic base it, of necessity, erodes feudal relations. It is no use to capitalists that a workforce is tied by feudal bonds to a particular aristocratic landowner or piece of ancient property.In addition, communal land (or wood), which all can freely utilize as a common resource, is also deeply inconvenient for capitalism. Property, for capitalists (as in Marx's observations in the wood theft article), must be privately owned and tradable. Labour must also be free of feudal ties in order to travel where the work is needed by capitalists. These processes were obviously facilitated by coercion and outright violence, as in many cases of enclosure; however, as Marx noted, law also expedited the whole process in developing sophisticated systems of property law, contract law, and tort.In creating a landless poor (ââ¬Ëfree labour') and a contractual private property-based law, the groundwork for capitalism was gradually laid. T he problem is how to read these events. On the one hand, law could be seen (as in the interactive thesis) as semi-autonomous, providing intentionally the conditions for changes in the mode of production. In fact, it is arguable that law consciously constituted the integuments of a mode of production. This argument throws doubt on the unidirectional determinism and passivity thesis.On the other hand, law can be read as a coercive structure representing the actual dominance of the bourgeoisie of the means of production, but determined by the laws of the economic base. In this latter reading, law has no autonomy whatsoever. It simply and instrumentally reflects the economic base. Support for both lines of argument can found in Marx. BASE, SUPERSTRUCTURE, AND LEGAL IDEOLOGY The basic idea of base and superstructure follows neatly from the previous section. In fact, once again, we find similar disputes being echoed from previous sections.One theory sees a precise causal relationship. The other theory sees a looser tendency and more interactive quality in base and superstructure. This latter theory leads some critics to bewail even the use of terms like ââ¬Ëbase' and ââ¬Ësuperstructure'. It is argued that it would be far better if we treated these terms as more or less useful metaphors, not referring to any empirical reality. 34 As in many of Marx's writings, half the problem here might simply be because Marx never really addressed the problem head on. 5 The terms occur in certain writings, but Marx did not appear to have any inkling of how much significance was going to be placed on them by 381 à © Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 381 1993 subsequent generations. The older instrumental causal account of base and superstructure sees a clear correspondence between laws and political institutions (superstructure) and the economic base. As Marx put it unequivocally in his Preface to a Critique of PoliticalEconomy: With the change of the economic foundation the entire immense superstructure is more or less rapidly transformed.In considering such transformations a distinction should always be made between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, aesthetic or philosophic ââ¬â in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflictâ⬠¦ Just as our opinion of an individual is not based on what he thinks of himself, so we can not judge such a period of transformation by its own consciousness; on the contrary, this consciousness must be explained rather from the contradictions of material life. For example, laws on land tenure in the feudal period (a superstructural phenomenon) changed markedly with the development of capitalism. The real foundation for these changes and the explanation of them would be sought in the actual change in the modes and relations of productio n ââ¬â the material base. There are a number of minor problems with the above view. First, it is not easy to see how the above thesis explains why certain types of law occur. For example, how, on the above model, would one explain factory legislation, which controlled the activities of capitalists?Alternatively, what of social welfare legislation or legislation which enacts progressive redistributive taxation? Admittedly, it could be replied here that such laws indirectly help capitalism by improving the condition of the working class and preventing revolution, while paying a minimum cost. Thus, despite appearances, such legislation aids capitalism: it is in essence still a business proposition. This counter argument might hold for some legislation, but what of other laws which prevent abuse to children, punish rape, or ensure the proper care of the mentally handicapped?What of laws which define the roles of an official in local or central government or, alternatively, traffic l aw? Surely it is not as easy to explain these as clearly causally related to the economic base of capitalism. Any attempt to do so would surely look very far-fetched. In other words, the instrumental thesis does not account for the totality of law. Secondly, certain legal rules appear to be part of the relations of production, for example, contract law. The relations of production are held together by such contractual rules. They form a kind of social glue for such economic practices.The question arises, therefore, can we separate out contractual law and the relations of production? If the relations of production are constituted by legal vocabulary then there can be no clear determination of the superstructure by the base. Thus, for these, and many other reasons, a number of commentators have felt distinctly uneasy with the instrumental/ causal base superstructure model. 3 7 In fact, Marx did not use the model with any great frequency and late in life Engels also wrote a number of o ft-quoted 3s qualifying letters which appear to give a lot of ground to sceptics.As noted above, in the quotation from Marx's Preface, Marx often tended 382 (C Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 382 1993 to view ideology from a similar causal perspective. One way of viewing an important dimension of the superstructure is as the body of ideas of a society. Marx refers, in the above quotation, to the legal, political, religious, aesthetic, and philosophical ideas of a society. The quotation clearly takes a ââ¬Ëreductionist' and ââ¬Ëinstrumental' view of ideology. Ideas are explained via their connection to the material base.Legal ideology is thus, once again, part of the consciousness of bourgeois society, and, as Marx clearly observed: ââ¬ËJust as our opinion of an individual is not based on what he thinks of himself, so we can not judge of such a period of transformation by its own consciousness'. Thus, overt legal ideas and forms tells us virtually n othing substantive ââ¬â they merely reflect deeper economic changes. 39 It is understandable in this reductionist reading that Engels and others should thus have referred to ideology as the ââ¬Ëfalse-consciousness' of a class like the bourgeoisie.Lawyers might thus be regarded as professional ideologists or ââ¬Ëwaged hacks' (in fact like most intellectuals, professional groups, and academics) for the bourgeoisie. Subsequently Marx's ideas came under certain pressures and a number of questions arose 0 In his early writings Marx appeared to be contrasting ââ¬Ëideology' with ââ¬Ëreality as practice' ââ¬â a form of philosophical materialist ontology. Liberal capitalism was in an equivalent position to religion as a distortion of the human essence. Later this contrast became ideology (as distortion) as against natural science (as truth or knowledge).The change in perspective here refers, once again, to the idea of an epistemological break in Marx's writings. However, in both these views, it remained unclear as to what to include within the term ideology. In some writings it appeared to be widely inclusive ââ¬â consciousness in general. In other writings he appeared to limit himself to economic and political ideas. The question arose at the time (which is still unresolved) as to whether natural science was part of ideology or was wholly distinct. Marx also did not explain, as mentioned earlier, the precise mechanisms of determinism.For example, it is not clear (taking A as the economic base and B as legal ideology), whether ââ¬Ëdetermine' means that A causes B, tends to affect B, or sets parameters to B, or alternatively, whether there is a symbiotic relation of A to B. 41 In strictly practical terms, such corrosive ambiguities do link up to quite ordinary questions on legal activity. As Hugh Collins observes: ââ¬ËThe question is whether a judge follows instrumental considerations with a class character or operates a discrete 42 mode of reasoning'. Marxists have gone on struggling with the concept of ideology.Some, like Gramsci, found inspiration in ideas of ââ¬Ërelative autonomy', which allows some leeway for ââ¬Ëa discrete mode of legal reasoning'. In Gramsci's thesis (which for some is present in Marx's writings like the 18th Brumaire), domination under capitalism is not simply achieved by coercion, but, subtly, through the hegemony of ideas. The ideology of the ruling class becomes vulgarized into the common sense of the average citizen. Power is not just crude legal force, but, conversely, domination of language, morality, and culture. Laws, for example, become internalized within the consciousness of 383 à © Basil Blackwell Ltd.HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 383 1993 each citizen. The masses are quelled and co-opted by this internalization of ideas. The hegemonic ideas become the actual experiences of the subordinate classes. Bourgeois hegemony moulds the personal convictions, norms, and aspirat ions of the proletariat. Gramsci thus called for a struggle at the level of ideology. Organic intellectuals situated within the proletariat should combat this by developing a counter-hegemony to traditional intellectuals upholding bourgeois hegemony ââ¬â which might be considered as the basis of a credo for critical legal studies.In sum, this perspective does not consider law as just instrumental. Law does not necessarily uphold the interests of the ruling class and it is not simply determined by the economic base; in fact, it may have some counter-determining role on the base itself. These themes will be pursued more intently in the final section. LAW, POLITICS, AND STATE One view of the state and law, which predominates in Marx's writings, is that they are a condensation of the economic interests of the dominant class.The state is thus viewed as the ââ¬Ëexecutive committee to manage the affairs of the bourgeoisie'. The state acts as its oppressive agent in civil society, su ppressing proletarian interests in favour of capital accumulation. The personnel of the state owe allegiance to one particular class ââ¬â the bourgeoisie. Lawyers would be viewed as waged lackeys of the bourgeoisie. Law is part of this oppressive mechanism and embodies the ideological mystifications of bourgeois intellectualism. The bourgeois capitalist class dominates political power hrough its domination of economic power. This is the more traditional view of the state, epitomized in The Communist Manifesto. As Marx stated unequivocally in the latter work: Your very ideas are but the outgrowth of the conditions of your bourgeois production and bourgeois property, just as your jurisprudence is but the will of your class made into law for all, a will whose essential character and direction are determined by the 43 economical conditions of existence of your class. The above argument is a form of class reductionism.The bourgeois state and legal system are class-based phenomena. Cl ass, for Marx, refers to large social groups linked together in certain social relations within a mode of production. Each class receives differential rewards, power, and status. Relations between classes tend to be conflictual. Within the instrumental perspective, the state and legal system are seen to condense the interests of one class. The state is not a representation of any collective good or impartiality. It is, rather, integral to certain specific economic interests in society.Class interests are seen to manage the state apparatus in the interests of that class ââ¬â the bourgeoisie in capitalist society. The history of states is therefore subsumable under class interest. Marx tended, in many writings, to interpret nineteenth-century legislation, particularly in Britain, in such class terms. For example, the passing of the Reform Bill and Ten-Hours Bill, and 384 (D Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 384 1993 the repeal of the Corn Laws, were seen as aspects of the economic conflict between the bourgeoisie and landed aristocracy.The above view reflects dolefully on a number of issues. First, there does not appear to be any difference between a democratic rule-of-law constitutional state (Rechtsstaat) and an unconstitutional, undemocratic despotism. Both are simply exploitative class-based entities. â⬠The former state simply shields its basic exploitative character more successfully, particularly under guises like the ââ¬Ërule of law'. Secondly, both the ââ¬Ëgeneral' rule-of-law principle and ââ¬Ëparticular' property, contract or criminal laws, are simply there to buttress the property owners of capitalism.The rule of law is a typical example of legal fetishism, namely, giving law a false autonomy from the economic and class base of society. In times of high productivity, the constitutional capitalist state will give the appearance of some concern, via state spending, but it will show its true colours during perio ds of economic crisis. The first cuts will always be to the welfare of working people. The rule of law is thus an elaborate confidence trick. 45 Thirdly, Marx suggests that the so-called equal rights of liberal states have grossly unequal effects.The rights 4 of human beings are in reality the rights of bourgeois men in civil society. 1 They protect individual capitalists in their exploitative practices and they protect the unequal economic results of such practices. Rights are associated with individuals who ââ¬Ëown' them in order to protect private interests. Rights thus shield the basic inequalities and exploitative practices of bourgeois culture. Bourgeois culture ignores material inequalities and slavishly adheres to formal legal, moral or political equality of rights.Marx found this whole scenario profoundly objectionable. Equally, from the same perspective, the justice that we observe in liberal societies is another aspect of the ideology of capitalism. It concentrates min imally on how goods might be distributed (if it gets as far as distributive justice) and ignores the massive inequalities implicit in the production process itself. In other words, it shuts the stable door after the capitalist horse has bolted. Justice is not a virtue for communists. Marx thus quite explicitly takes an anti-justice and anti-rights stance.With genuine communism, there would be no classes, no coercion, no conflict, and no private ownership; in consequence, there would be no need for justice or right claims. If there is abundance and communal ownership, then there is no reason for principles of allocation or any allocating or adjudication mechanisms. In sum, Marx objects, in this reading, to the whole notion of the juridical legal state as a complex sham. As law is integral to the idea of the state in Marx, so the antistatist stance of communism implies the abolition of law.The traditional account above is not without some internal ambiguity, particularly over notions like ââ¬Ëthe dictatorship of the proletariat'. This latter doctrine envisages the state as not so much a negative, coercive, backwardlooking institution, as rather an instrument of positive revolutionary change utilized for the benefit, ultimately, of humanity (even if it is still viewed as a transitional entity). Marx's own qualified fervour for the state can be observed, even in Capital,where he remarked enthusiastically on the work of 385 0 Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. Soc'y 385 1993 the Factory Inquiry Commission in Britain, specifically the work of Leonard Horner, as rendering ââ¬Ëundying service to the English working class. He [Leonard Horner] carried on a life-long contest, not only with the embittered manufacturers, but also with the Cabinet'. 47 Marx later commented, with evident relish, that British manufacturers compared the factory inspectorate 4 8 with revolutionary commissioners of the French National Convention. However, this was hardly a n egative coercive vision of a class-based state functioning only in the interests of the bourgeoisie.The stricter class view of the state and law also suggests that if there were no class there would, in turn, be no law and no state. Class conflict is the prerequisite of the state. This view was later crystallized in Lenin's work, The State and Revolution. This idea, in turn, gives rise to the idea (initiated by Engels and carried on by Lenin, although many would contend it was also present in Marx) that the state and legal order will ââ¬Ëwither away'. In this sense a communist society would be stateless and lawless (in a strictly descriptive sense).Thus, from the standpoint of a strict materialism, the state is not a major player. The end. result of this looks very much like communist anarchism, although Marx himself argued fiercely against such a conclusion and showed only vitriolic contempt for anarchists like Proudhon and Bakunin. However, Marx never resolved this issue of the relation between communism and mainstream anarchism. However, the class reductionist and instrumental perspective does not represent the totality of Marx's writings. Let us take the question of class first.Class, in certain works, is seen as more complex, fragmented, and containing fractions with no overt connection to political or legal domination. The state and its legal system, in this reading, clearly does not embody the interests of a ruling class. In addition there can be, as Marx demonstrated with great verve in the 18th Brumaire, intra-class conflict between fractions. Marx mentions four fractions within the bourgeoisie who often conflict: landed property, the financial aristocracy, the industrial bourgeoisie, and commercial bourgeoisie.In addition, the lumpenproletariat are kept separate from the proletariat, and the petty bourgeoisie from the peasantry. As one commentator has remarked, ââ¬Ëthe recourse to ââ¬Å"fractionsâ⬠of classes . . . indicates that . . . â â¬Å"classâ⬠is not a sufficiently precise concept to be of value in explaining particular events'. 49 Law, in this fraction perspective, can actually become a ââ¬Ësite of class struggle'. 50 Laws are therefore not always oppressive in the interest of one class. In fact, many laws can benefit the working class, for example, factory legislation. Certain laws also result from pressures from multifarious groups outside social classes. In addition, the notion of class remains deeply ambiguous since Marx nowhere explains its precise relation to property ownership. The doubts over the relation between class and state, outlined in the 18th Brumaire,led Marx to suggest that in the conditions that pertained in France in the period 1848-50, the state did not represent any bourgeois fractions, or even the bourgeoisie in general. In fact, Marx contends that the state and law may work against the interests of the bourgeoisie. 52 This effectively under386 à ©D Blackwell Basil Ltd. HeinOn line ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 386 1993 ined both the idea of the direct synonymity of ââ¬Ëclass' to ââ¬Ëlaw' and ââ¬Ëstate', and also the necessity of class for analysing the state (although both these views are strongly maintained by Marx in The Communist Manifesto, amongst other writings). It is these qualifying arguments of Marx which enabled the development of what is now called ââ¬Ëstate autonomy theory', which has powerfully shaped late twentieth-century Marxist studies. The theory, in varying degrees, sees the state and law as a factor of cohesion, a site of struggle between fractions of classes, and an institution which may even regulate class conflict.The basic point is that legal reasoning takes on a relative autonomy from the economic base of society. It is not totally to be explained via modes or relations of production. This relative autonomy thesis might make us consider anew the curt dismissals of notions like the rule of law. Certainly a number of recent commentators have picked up on this theme in Marx, suggesting that the theory of unidirectional determinism of base and superstructure does not really work for explaining the nature of law itself.Laws are actually integral to certain types of relations of production. E. P. Thompson, following this line of thought, has spoken of law in eighteenth-century England as ââ¬Ëdeeply imbricated within the very basis of productive relations, which would have been inoperable without law'. He continues that we cannot ââ¬Ësimply separate off all law as ideology, and assimilate this also to the state apparatus of a ruling class'. 53 Taking on board the Gramscian thesis of ideological hegemony being a sphere of struggle, Thompson contends that disputes are fought out in the sphere of law.Law certainly still expressed class power; however, part of the success of legal ideology itself was its appearance of impartiality. As Thompson notes, law ââ¬Ëcannot seem to be so without its own logic and criteria of equity; indeed, on occasion, by actually being justâ⬠¦ even rulers find a need to legitimize their power, to moralize their functions, to feel themselves to be useful and just'. 54 The rhetoric was not therefore empty, even if it was still rhetoric. Semi-autonomous legal logic was thus often used against dominant groups ââ¬â which was precisely a central aspect of Marx's argument in the 18th Brumaire.Thus, for Thompson, law does not equal raw class power. It was certainly involved in class power and it redefined property rights in undermining feudalism, but its focus was not exclusively on class interest. Its own logic and rhetoric gave it a partial autonomy which inhibited, in some cases, the dominant groups. It was also a site of struggle between fractions of these dominant groups. As Thompson concludes, such a notion of the rule of law is markedly different from arbitrary despotism. It is, in fact, he notes, a ââ¬Ëcultural achievement'. 5 The effort to redeem Marx from his anti-statist and anti-law stance, via some notion of relative autonomy, has also had other defenders. Some critics have found in Marx's early writings a number of themes which add support this vision. For example, in one of his early writings, Marx speaks -oflaw as ââ¬Ëthe positive, bright and general norms in which freedom has attained to an existence that is impersonal, theoretical and independent of the arbitrariness of individuals. A people's statute book is its Bible of freedom'. 56 He also 387 Basil Blackwell Ltd. HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 387 1993 makes favourable noises, at points, about customary law established over 7 time, as against the new laws of the bourgeoisie. 5 Others have noted, with surprise, that Marx draws distinctions between ââ¬Ëreal' and ââ¬Ëunreal' law. For example, on the same page of the article referred to above, Marx speaks of law becoming active: as soon as it is transgressed for it is only true law when in it t he unconscious natural law of freedom becomes the conscious law of the state. Where law is true law, i. . where it is the existence of freedom, it is the true existence of the freedom of man. Thus laws cannot prevent man's actions, for they are the inner laws of life. Paul Phillips remarks on this point that: ââ¬ËThe significance of this distinction is that it posits the existence of an order superior to that of mere man-made law 58 and, to that extent, it is a Natural Law Theory'. Marx, even in his later writings, appeared to believe that there is a condition of freedom and wholeness for human beings, where their real natures will flourish.There is, as one critic has put it, a ââ¬Ëmyth of transparency' in Marx (as in Hegel) ââ¬â this is ââ¬Ëthe vision of a society in which something ââ¬Å"standing behindâ⬠the set of available social roles and relationsâ⬠¦ will be revealed in a social order which will have become ââ¬Å"obviousâ⬠to the participants'. 59 This notion of positive freedom, wholeness, and perfectibility behind the veil, is both implicit in the discussion of alienation (in the earlier writings), and restlessly present just under the surface of the later discussions of exploitation and communism. à ° This vision of freedom is subtly linked to Marx's strong (if unstated) communitarianism, namely, his deeply-rooted belief that humans are social creatures and can only develop freely within a particular type of community. This is the community which is distorted and lost in capitalism and will be recovered in communism. Humans are meant to develop historically toward such a society. Marx did not like to be associated with such a view, since it smacked of romantic utopianism. However, it is undeniably there throughout the corpus of his writings. Alienation is a prime example of such erfectibility lost and regained. The notion developed initially in a theological context. Humans were alienated from God through their sin. In H egel, the alienation is philosophical: spirit (or mind) externalizes itself in the world. It becomes alien to itself. The task of thought is to overcome the self-alienation of spirit, to perceive itself at home in the world. Overcoming alienation is realizing that the world is not alien to our thought. For Feuerbach, however, the real alienation is that human beings have placed their essence into either God or the Hegelian Spirit.To overcome alienation is to transform the subject and object ââ¬â to realize that God is idealized humanity. For Marx, on the other hand, alienation takes on a number of subtle forms. 61 The basic idea is that human alienation is more immediate and practical, and subsumes all the other notions. In discussing the topic, Marx speaks initially of alienation through labour. Labour creates capital and capital escapes the control of labour and takes on a supposedly independent existence, which in turn dominates the original producer. Workers thus find they a re alienated from the product of 388 (D Basil Blackwell Ltd.HeinOnline ââ¬â 20 J. L. & Soc'y 388 1993 their labour. Labour, in this capitalist context, is no longer free and creative. It is necessary for subsistence and thus exercises alien compulsion over the worker. In consequence, workers are alienated from free creativity (which is the true nature of human beings) and they are thus also alienated from their fellow human beings. Overcoming human alienation implies ultimately overthrowing the economic and social forms which generate the loss of reality and the self. The solution to the riddle of history and human alienation is communism. 2 There is strong sense here of a definite underlying human nature, with certain specifiable needs, which can flourish under a specific type of community, which recognizes certain ââ¬Ënatural laws', not necessarily as overt imperatives from some external authority, but more as natural non-coercive norms derived from reason. Despite Marx's a ppearance as an anti-law theorist, some writers have claimed that it is possible to identify a communist theory of law and justice, and also, possibly, of state (given Marx's early interest in a radical democratic participatory state). 3 In certain writings, particularly The Critique of the Gotha Programme, Marx does indicate that there would be a principle of justice under communism ââ¬â ââ¬Ëfrom each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs'. 64 Such a notion of justice would presumably prevent unequal access to the means of production and also prohibit alienation and exploitation. It would also respond distributivelyto human needs ââ¬â although Marx leaves the concept of ââ¬Ëneed' fairly open. Needs for social relations, satisfying labour, and the like, move well beyond physical subsistence.It is difficult not to consider some of Marx's needs as ââ¬Ëwants' or ââ¬Ëinterests', which are surely markedly different notions. Tom Campbell, amongst a number of recent theorists, believes that we can reconcile Marx's historicism, and aspects of a looser materialism, with a belief in communist justice and the moral superiority of such a society. He di
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