Interdependence and Independence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Interdependence and Independence - Essay Example Unlike independent-self which focuses on individual responsibility separate from the entire society, interdependent self-concept emphasizes shared responsibilities. The main tenet of interdependence self-concept is the reliance that exists among individuals in the society for survival and mutual development. Interdependence self-instills the idea that people are not alone in their attempts at mental growth and development. People also provided support for one another to grow socially. Interdependent self-concept also promotes responsibility sharing by encouraging individuals to take various roles, which contribute to the development and growth of the society. Interdependent self-concept is also crucial for overcoming fear. Unlike independence, which puts an individual against the rest of other members of the society, interdependence promotes cohesion among society members, thus helping individuals to experience lower levels of fear and insecurity. The recognition of the fact that one has the support of others remains crucial for alleviating negative feelings, which could yield fear in individuals. Support for each other is only possible in a society where people feel close to each other and the society is characterized by high level of interdependence. Interdependence also promotes good and meaningful relationships. Interdependence promotes strong ties between individuals, both personal and professional, which is deficient in independent self-concept. In independent self-concept, people often emerge as overly self-reliant, which jeopardizes the chances of forming positive bonds among individuals.

Vietnam :: essays research papers

The United States of America prides itself as the self proclaimed leader of the free world. Since the end of World War II the United States has chosen to use force in order to insure this so called "freedom" of other less fortunate nations who do not have the ability to defend themselves. According to the United States these infieor nations "freedom," has been in jeopardy since the beging of the cold war. Webster’s dictionary defines a democracy as a government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. Since the start of the cold war, the United States has undertaken the policy that if you are not a democracy than you are not truly free. *~The government wants use to think that a democracy is pure and good where as a communist society is corrupt and harmful. The fact remains both a forms governments to control the inhabitants and to lead them so that their life might become better.~* The United States gives its citizens the right to periodicly elect their leaders. When the United States entered Vietnam after the French lost the war in 1954, why did it feel, it was necessary to choose to fight the Ho Chi Men lead communists, without even allowing the Vietnamese people a chance to elect their own leader under a free parlimentory electoral system. The Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968 Robert McNamara saw the Vietnam conflict escalate from 100 American advisors in 1961 to over 275,000 troops during the time of his departure. Vietnam was caught in a revolution, not unlike the civil war, split in two, north versus south. The battle lines where drawn, the 17th parellel the boundry, the communist state split to the north and a democratic state to the south. However, Southeast Asia was considored one of the most sensitive places at this time durning the cold war. Therfore North Vietnam’s communist neighb ors’ China and Russia, both supplied Ho Chi Men forces. While the south was backed by the United States(which had been funding the war effort since the French conflict). McNamara’s memoirs In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam describes his powerful position in the Cabinet under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. According to McNamara, the United States policy towards Southeast Asia was defined when President Eisenhower delivered his now famous, and "widely publized" 1956 speech.

Militarization of Our Police Essay

I strongly feel that military tactics, training, and equipment do not have a place in American law enforcement because dozens of needless deaths and injuries have occurred because of it and it’s extremely expensive to supply these things. First, the American law enforcement has become much too aggressive with its citizens. There are several reports of police going above and beyond, using extreme measures, to take down the general public. One perfect example would be the MacDonald case. In the summer of 2006 a frail, troubled 18-year-old girl named Ashley MacDonald ran through a nearly empty Huntington Beach, California, city park in the early morning holding a small knife. An onlooker called the police and soon two large male officers showed up. They shot the girl to death with 18 bullets, claiming she had lunged toward them and put their lives in danger (Greenhut, 2008). Another example showing excessive, military force being used would be the Jose Guerena case. The home of former Marine and Iraq combat veteran Jose Guerena was raided by local sheriffs in Pima County, Arizona, who were attempting to execute a narcotics search warrant. Unfortunately, the manner in which the SWAT team invaded Guerena’s home prompted Guerena to reach for his gun to protect himself and his family. Sheriffs then shot off 71 rounds and hit Guerena with 22, killing him (Clabough, 2011). Second, it has cost the government millions of dollars to supply the American law enforcement with military equipment, which I believe is completely unnecessary. According to Pentagon data cited by The Daily, the Defense Department gave away almost $500 million worth of surplus military equipment to state and local law enforcement in 2011, which was a new record. And next year’s orders are already up more than 400 percent (Newman, 2011). The crime rate may have decreased, but the detailed numerous accounts of abuses and failed operations that left innocent people dead and the record billions worth of military equipment still being handed to local police is absolutely ridiculous. I feel there is more bad than good deriving from the militarization of our police.

What Is History A Collection of Definitions

History is the study of the human past as it is described in the written documents left by human beings. The past, with all its decisions completed, its participants dead and its history told, is what the general public perceives as the immutable bedrock on which we historians and archaeologists  stand. But as purveyors of the past, we recognize that the bedrock is really quicksand, that bits of the story are yet untold, and that what has been told comes tainted by the conditions of what we are today. Thats my opinion, of course—here are a collection of others.   Pithy History Definitions No one could argue that the best definition isnt a short one, but it helps if you can be witty as well. John Jacob Anderson History is a narration of the events which have happened among mankind, including an account of the rise and fall of nations, as well as of other great changes which have affected the political and social condition of the human race. (A Manual of General History) W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman History is not what you thought. It is what you remember. All other history defeats itself. (1066 and All That) James Joyce History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake. (Ulysses) Arnold J. Toynbee History not used is nothing, for all intellectual life is action, like practical life, and if you dont use the stuff well, it might as well be dead. The Psycho-Historian Between 1942 and 1944, the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov wrote the first short stories which were to become the basis for the Foundation trilogy. The main conceit of the Foundation Trilogy is that if you are a good enough mathematician, you can accurately predict the future, based on the record of the past. Asimov read very widely indeed, so it should come as no surprise that his ideas were based on the writings of other historians. Charles Austin Beard If a science of history were achieved, it would, like the science of celestial mechanics, make possible the calculable prediction of the future in history. It would bring the totality of historical occurrences within a single field and reveal the unfolding future to its last end, including all the apparent choices made and to be made. It would be omniscience. The creator of it would possess the attributes ascribed by the theologians to God. The future once revealed, humanity would have nothing to do except to await its doom. Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges History is and should be a science... History is not the accumulation of events of every kind which happened in the past. It is the science of human societies. Voltaire The first foundations of all history are the recitals of the fathers to the children, transmitted afterward from one generation to another; at their origin, they are at the very most probable, when they do not shock common sense, and they lose one degree of probability in each generation. (The Philosophical Dictionary) Edward Hallett Carr History is ... a dialogue between the present and the past. (originally: Geschichte ist ... ein Dialog zwischen Gegenwart und Vergangenheit.) (What Is History?) Martin Luther King, Jr. The major lessons of history? There are four: First, whom the gods destroy they first make mad with power. Second, the mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small. Third, the bee fertilizes the flower it robs. Fourth, when it is dark enough you can see the stars. (Attributed to historian Charles Austin Beard, but this version is the one  Martin Luther King  used in The death of evil upon the seashore) A Pack of Tricks Not everyone likes the study of history or finds it useful. Henry Ford was a prime example of that and so was Henry David Thoreau, what may be one of the very few things those two gentlemen had in common. Voltaire History is nothing but a pack of tricks we play on the dead. (French original) Jay vu un temps oà ¹ vous naimiez guà ¨res lhistoire. Ce nest aprà ¨s tout quun ramas de tracasseries quon fait aux morts... Henry David Thoreau As for the Pyramids, there is nothing to wonder at in them so much as the fact that so many men could be found degraded enough to spend their lives constructing a tomb for some ambitious booby, whom it would have been wiser and manlier to have drowned in the Nile, and then given his body to the dogs. (Walden) Jane Austen History, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in. I read it a little as a duty, but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all—it is very tiresome. (Northanger Abbey) Ambrose Bierce HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools: Of Roman history, great  Niebuhrs shown Tis nine-tenths lying. Faith, I wish twere known, Ere we accept great Niebuhr as a guide, Wherein he blundered and how much he lied. (Devils Dictionary) Malcolm X A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself. The Passage of Time Whether you like history or not, theres no denying the impact it leaves on us. Henry David Thoreau Most events recorded in history are more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and moon, by which all are attracted, but whose effects no one takes the trouble to calculate. (A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.) Gusti Bienstock Kollman You know, its so strange, Ive lived through four forms of government in my life: monarchy, republic, Hitlers Reich, American democracy. The [Weimar] republic was only ... 1918 to 1933, thats fifteen years! Imagine that, only fifteen years. But, then, Hitler was going to last a thousand years and he lasted only ... 1933 to 1945... twelve, twelve years only! Hah! Plutarch So very difficult a matter it is to trace and find out the truth of anything by history. (Plutarchs Lives) Douglas Adams The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry, and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why and Where phases. For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question How can we eat? the second by the question Why do we eat? and the third by the question Where shall we have lunch? (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe) According to Prufrock T.S. Eliot After such knowledge, what forgiveness? Think nowHistory has many cunning passages, contrived corridorsAnd  issues,  deceives with whispering ambitions,Guides us by vanities. Think nowShe gives when our attention is distractedAnd what she gives, gives with such supple confusionsThat the giving famishes the craving. Gives too lateWhats not believed in, or if still believed,In memory only, reconsidered passion. Gives too soonInto weak hands, whats thought can be dispensed withTill the refusal propagates a fear. ThinkNeither fear nor courage saves us. Unnatural vicesAre fathered by our heroism. VirtuesAre forced upon us by our impudent crimes.These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree.(The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems.)