life after 9/11 :: essays research papers

or most of us, airports are the only places where life has really changed since 9/11. The terminal has become a vast business firm of the absurd where aspiring passengers line up halfway back to town. The shoes of little old ladies are gravely removed and inspected. Men in suits prepare their cell phones out of the bag and put their laptop computers into the bagno, wait, cell phones in and computers out. Random passengers stand spread-eagled maculation strangers say to them softly, "Now Im going to order my hands around your waist. Is that all right?" Somewhere unseen, a food-service worker is assembling plastic knives but metal forks in meals headed for first class. And all the while the public-address system hectors us to "report any suspicious activity." Many people, understandably skeptical about these quasi-religious rituals, have stopped flying instead. Others are mentation about moving out of New York and other big cities, and some have done so. These ar e responses more in keeping with the scale and dramatic event of the episode that provoked them, but they may not make any more sense. David G. Myers of Hope College in Holland, Mich., calculated that terrorists would have to hijack 50 planes a year and kill everyone aboard before flying would be more dangerous than driving an equal distance. The steps we have taken to protect ourselves from terrorist act (not counting the military effort to stop it at the source) seem either farcically trivial or farcically excessive. Is there a rational heart and soul ground? Dealing rationally with the risks of terrorism is hard for several reasons. First, human beings are grown at assessing small risks of large catastrophes. And Americans are especially bad at this because we are Americans, and catastrophes are not supposed to happen to us. Our legal culture, our political culture and our media culture all push us toward excessive precaution by guaranteeing that any large disaster will prod uce an orgy of hindsight. Lawyers will sue, politicians will hold hearings, newspapers and newsmagazines will publish overexcited revelations about undercover memos that could be interpreted as having warned of this if held up to the light at a certain angle. Second, the actual risk of being a terror victim is not merely smallit is unknown and unknowable. Economists make a distinction between "risk" and "uncertainty." Risk refers to hard mathematical odds. Uncertainty refers to situations in which the odds are anybodys guess

Tempest Essay -- essays research papers

The Tempest According to Elizabethan beliefs an individuals social position was more or less fixed. The King was King as he had been given(p) a mandate by God, and all positions below this were based on a rigid social hierarchy, which were also dictated by birth.This ideology was definitely conservative and used politically as a means of social control forcing people with less status to internalise their inferiority and subservience, assuming it voice of the natural order of the universe. Any rebellion, personal or collective, was therefore seen as an act of defiance not only against the State but God. This can be seen as a highly effective means of keeping order and perpetuating the power structures already existing in society.We can read literature as expressions of universal themes and investigations into human nature and the human conditions, but we can also give alternative readings that question natural assumptions and investigate the silences in a text. In essence, reading the politics of the play. A traditional reading of The Tempest would position Prospero as the victim of unjust betrayal, who stranded on an island with his beautiful, virtuous daughter, uses his magical powers to right the violate done to him. It is the old story of the rightful ruler who is disposed by the bad guys, but manages to get back his power and live happily ever after.A post-colonial reading, which foregrounds issues of race and power inequalities, would give quite a different interpretation.The play contains rebellions, political treachery, mutinies and conspiracies. There are many challenges to authority, however, the text resolves these problems in the end by having peace, harmony and order restored, with the rightful ruler placed back in his position of power. In this way any disruption to order is seen as flagitious and those who dare question it need to be punished, thus perpetuating the social values of the time.It is true that Antonio seized power from his older brother, Prospero, and that this usurpation is viewed as wrong by the superior values of the time and by the text. This viewpoint is constructed by presenting Antonio as a treacherous, evil character who is willing to murder Alonso and Gonzalo. This is the view foregrounded by the play, but minuscule is mentioned about why this state of affairs arose. The silences of the story, involving Antonio being ... ... values demand restraint, controland self-discipline (as seen later in Prosperos warnings to Ferdinand and Miranda) and the text equates indigenous values as risky and violent. In essence the European colonialist has invaded a new country, taken possession and set up their systems of values as the only legitimate code of doings. done this Caliban has been dispossessed and forced to give up his ways of living and language.Caliban is constructed as innately inferior and savage because of his race. This is articulated by the supposedly sweet and hearty Miranda But thy vile race -/Though thou didst learn - had that int which good natures/Could not abide to be with ..(31) In these lines Calibans race is seen as the reason for his barbaric behaviour - it is his very nature that makes him savage and dangerous. In this the text constructs other non-European races as savage, less human, incapable of so-called civilisation all because of their race this is a damning indictment of non-Europeans as it positions them as naturally inferior and unable to change their ways so that they will never be able to develop the fine sensitiveness and refinement of Western civilisation.

Medicine, Metaphysics and Morals Essay -- Ethics Health Medical Essays

Medicine, Metaphysics and MoralsABSTRACT Moral decisions concerning what ought to be done always assume metaphysical presuppositions concerning the way the world is. In the field of biomedical ethics, some of the metaphysical presuppositions underlying many current discussions of issues of life and death seem particularly implausible. These include our assumption of the reality of well-disposed atomism and our beliefs relating to the possibility of autonomy. Given the implausibility of these two assumptions, many discussions have focused our attention on the wrong issues by reducing questions of alternative kind practices to questions of individual preferences. Far from facilitating intelligent solutions to our problems, this merely clouds the issues involved. Obviously decisions about what ought to be done in any given circumstance presuppose the acceptance of beliefs regarding what dejection in fact be done. In short moral judgments presuppose metaphysical commitments, beliefs about the way the world is. Unfortunately, social pressures in most ultramodern societies militate against the open admission of any metaphysical commitments on the part of persons involved in making moral judgments in the field of applied ethics known as biomedical ethics. Ethical decisions in the area of medicine need to be seen as acceptable to as large a fragment of the community as possible. However, since the community in most modern societies is remarkably heterogeneous with respect to assumptions concerning the way the world is, any explicit reference to metaphysical assumptions on the part of one discussing biomedical ethics is apt to be challenged by at least some members of the community. Hence those involved in discussions of biomedical ethics tend to ... ..., 2nd ed. Veatch London Jones and Bartlett 1997, p.33.(15) Beauchamp, T. - Informed Consent in Medical Ethics ed. Veatch London Jones and Bartlett. 1997. p 195.(16) Hendin, H. - Seduced by Death Doctors, Patients, and the Dutch Care. New York W.W. Norton 1997 p. 157.(17) Pellegrino, E.D. - The Place of Intention in the Moral Assessment of Assisted self-annihilation and Active Euthanasia in Intending Death The Ethics of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia ed. Beauchamp, New Jersey Prentice-Hall 1996.(18) Ibid.(19) Ibid.(20) Hardwig - op cit. p 34-35(21) For Example see Brody, H. - The Physician-Patient Relationship in Medical Ethics. Second Ed. Veatch London Jones and Bartlett 1997 pp. 75-79.(22) Chamblis, D.F.- beyond Caring Hospitals, Nurses, and the Social Organization of Ethics, Chicago 1996, University of Chicago Press p. 165.