The indoctrination of the Concept of Racial Hygiene: The Begining of t :: essays research papers fc

The Indoctrination of the Concept of Racial Hygiene: The Beginning of the End   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The idea of biological degeneration had been studied by doctors, psychiatrists, and scientists many decades before the 1930’s and the Nazi regime were ever in power. The idea that the integrity of populations was being undermined by behaviors of alcoholism, criminality, or mental deficiency was a topic for researchers before anyone even knew who Adolf Hitler was. In this essay I will discuss the evolution of a concept that would become known as racial hygiene. In my examination of this idea I will explore the educational tools, the propaganda machine, and the eventual mobilization of a nation towards this ideological organization of a supreme race in Nazi Germany.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The aforementioned idea that nations were being undermined by increasing cohorts of unfit individuals has some scientific and political significance. Cell biologist August Weissman coined the term defective ‘germ plasm’ and contended that it was this defective plasm that was to blame for these unfit individuals’ behaviors. In the early 1900’s there were a rising number of eugenic pioneers that would try and continue the study of the ideas of Weissman. There was a ‘gene race,’ much like the more contemporary space race, that occurred between various countries around the turn of the century.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As these studies became better known, their political implications became magnified. In 1909 the world’s first professorial chair in eugenics was established. Now as international scientists begin to explore the possibility of a defective germ plasm existing political divides begin to form. As the studies became more and more intense the idea that a nation could be improved by selective breeding became the focus. This would eventually become the premise for eugenics theorists.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The debate over the validity of the theory of eugenics was the question posed by â€Å"ethically aware and responsible† scientists to prove eugenics without using pseudo-scientific assumptions.2 Although the challenges to eugenics were strong the post World War I depression would bring the rise to more intense challenges against the conservation of people who were burdensome both biologically and economically to a nation. A number of nations that were suffering mass depression would look to eugenics as one of the reasons for their pain and suffering.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As the debate over eugenics continued to keep scientists on both sides of the argument hard at work, discussions of euthanasia would begin to surface. One of the main arguments that arose was that there could be an opportunity to reduce costs.

Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange

The essential conflict in Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange exists between the individual and the social order. Philip E. Ray, cites early critics of A Clockwork Orange such as A.A. DeVitis, Carol M. Dix, and Robert K. Morris who suggest that â€Å"the theme of the novel is the conflict between the natural and untainted Individual and the artificial and corrupt State† (479).More importantly, A Clockwork Orange seems to address the individual's ability to express his or her free will within the context of the collective society, and, particularly, poses the interesting question of whether the individual's primary expression of free will is through acts of violence. Through the depiction of a dystopian future, the novel interrogates the interrelationships and conflicts among the individual, society, violence, and free will, thus requiring the reader to do the same.The novel opens with Alex, the narrator and main character, sitting at a bar with his gang of droogs posing the q uestion, â€Å"What's it going to be then, eh?† (Burgess 1). Alex poses this question eleven times throughout the novel. In fact, the novel is book-ended by this question, as it is the first line of the first chapter and the first line of the last.This question seems to present the reader with a declaration of free will. Essentially, Alex seems to be announcing his ability to choose any action he wishes. According to Veronica Hollinger, â€Å"the question itself implies the power of the individual to make choices† (Hollinger 86). The power to choose is the power of free will, and for Alex, choice and free will must be expressed through violence. Even Burgess writes of â€Å"a free and violent will† (Burgess xii) in his introduction to A Clockwork Orange.The first act of violence perpetrated by Alex occurs within the first chapter when the narrator and his group of â€Å"droogs† attack a man in the streets. They proceed to beat the man and destroy his prop erty. The group of youths revels in their violent outburst against the social machine, which is embodied for them in this adult. Within the first thirty pages, Alex and his gang are responsible for four different instances of extreme violence, while the powers-that-be only make a brief appearance and are easily outwitted.The futuristic society of A Clockwork Orange is an extension of our society of commoditization. From clothing to drugs, every possible outlet for the expression of individual free will has been turned into a commodity of the society. The youth seems to be left without any possible expression of individualistic will. Alex seems to see violence as the last non-commercialized expression of individualistic free will available to him; thus, it appears the individual must be in violent conflict with the social order in order to express free will.After the initial scenes of what Alex refers to as â€Å"ultra-violence,† the novel proceeds towards a series of collisio ns between the two main players of the novel: Alex and his society. The social order, embodied in several select social institutions, uses a variety of methods to control Alex's violence in order to maintain its own stability.Alex is eventually captured after he invades the home of a young woman and beats her to death, and the social order, in the form of governmentally funded scientists, begins the process of reforming Alex. The scientists remove Alex from prison and attempt to inhibit his ability to act violently through a chemically induced Pavlovian conditioning designed to make him sick at the very thought of violence. After the experiment is concluded, Alex is completely reformed and cannot stand to enact violence or be witness to violence.When Alex loses his ability to choose violence, he also seems to lose any expression of will. The relationship between free will and violence is expressed through the musings of the prison chaplain who eventually poses the question, â€Å"I s a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed on him?† (Burgess 106).Essentially, the chaplain worries that Alex cannot be truly human and good if he cannot make a choice to be, or not be, violent. After Alex is conditioned and his violent free will is removed, he undergoes a series of hardships, ending in his near suicide.From the moment Alex loses his violent will, the reader must watch him undergo torments in the form of rejection by his parents, beatings by his previous friends, and torture at the hands of a radical anti-government writer.   Further, Alex is pushed around from place to place and seems to have no will of his own. The loss of a violent will seems to be the loss of free will and individuality.Violence in A Clockwork Orange appears to function as synecdoche for all individual expression. If the only way for Alex to express himself effectively is to engage in violent acts, then the violence-less Alex is a tragic cr eature because he lacks any expression at all. The destruction of violence by society is the destruction of the individual and expressions of free will.Despite the evidence that violence is only an expression of the individual and free will, the text is also full of examples that point towards violence as a mechanism of society. In fact, the society seems to need violence just as much as Alex, as a representation of the individual, does. Violence is exhibited as a tool of the social order in several key scenes—notably a police brutality scene after Alex is released from prison and the novel's original, final chapter.

10 Steps to Writing a Succesful Book Report

A book report should contain the basic elements, but a good book report will address a specific question or point of view and back up this topic with specific examples, in the form of symbols and themes. These steps will help you identify and incorporate those important elements in a process that takes three to four days. How To Write a Book Report Have an objective in mind, if possible. Your objective is the main point you want to argue or the question you plan to answer. Sometimes your teacher will offer a question for you to answer as part of your assignment, which makes this step easy. If you have to come up with your own focal point for your paper, you may have to wait and develop the objective while reading and reflecting on the book.Keep supplies on hand when you read. This is very important. Keep sticky-note flags, pen, and paper nearby as you read. Dont try to take mental notes. It just doesnt work.Read the book. As you read, keep an eye out for clues that the author has provided in the form of symbolism. These will indicate some important point that supports the overall theme. For instance, a spot of blood on the floor, a quick glance, a nervous habit, an impulsive action--these are worth noting.Use your sticky flags to mark pages. When you run into any clues, mark the page by placing the sticky note at the beginning of the relevant line. Mark everything that piques your interest, even if you dont understand their relevance.Note possible themes or patterns that emerge. As you read and record emotional flags or signs, you will begin to see a point or a pattern. On a notepad, write down possible themes or issues. If your assignment is to answer a question, you will record how symbols address that question.Label your sticky flags. If you see a symbol repeated several times, you should indicate this somehow on the sticky flags, for easy reference later. For instance, if blood shows up in several scenes, write a b on the relevant flags for blood. This may become your major book theme, so youll want to navigate between the relevant pages easily.Develop a rough outline. By the time you finish reading the book, you will have recorded several possible themes or approaches to your objective. Review your notes and try to determine which view or claim you can back up with good examples (symbols). You may ne ed to play with a few sample outlines to pick the best approach.Develop paragraph ideas. Each paragraph should have a topic sentence and a sentence that transitions to the next paragraph. Try writing these first, then filling out the paragraphs with your examples (symbols). Dont forget to include the basics for every book report in your first paragraph or two.Review, re-arrange, repeat. At first, your paragraphs are going to look like ugly ducklings. They will be clunky, awkward, and unattractive in their early stages. Read them over, re-arrange and replace sentences that dont quite fit. Then review and repeat until the paragraphs flow.Re-visit your introductory paragraph. The introductory paragraph will make the critical first impression of your paper. It should be great. Be sure it is well-written, interesting, and it contains a strong thesis sentence. Tips The objective: Sometimes it is possible to have a clear objective in mind before you start. Sometimes, it is not. If you have to come up with your own thesis, dont stress about a clear objective in the beginning. It will come later. Recording emotional flags: Emotional flags are merely points in the book that bring about emotion. Sometimes, the smaller the better. For example, for an assignment for The Red Badge of Courage, the teacher might ask students to address whether they believe Henry, the main character, is a hero. In this book, Henry sees lots of blood (emotional symbol) and death (emotional symbol) and this causes him to run away from the battle at first (emotional response). He is ashamed (emotion). Book report basics: In your first paragraph or two, you should include the book setting, time period, characters, and your thesis statement (objective). Re-visiting the introductory paragraph: The introductory paragraph should be the last paragraph you complete. It should be mistake-free and interesting. It should also contain a clear thesis. Dont write a thesis early on in the process and forget about it. Your point of view or argument may change completely as you re-arrange your paragraph sentences. Always check your thesis sentence last.