Social Issues Essay -- essays research papers

Is Mcdonaldization Inevitable? George Ritzer’s, Mcdonaldization of Society, is a critical analysis of the impact on social structural change on human interaction and identity. According to Ritzer, Mcdonaldization â€Å"is the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as rest of the world† (Ritzer, 1). Ritzer focuses on four foundations of Mcdonaldization: efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. These are the commandments of any rationalized corporation. However, they are not carried out from the point of view of the consumer. Efficiency, for example, may entail the placing of great inconveniences upon a consumer for the sake of efficient management. Calculability may involve hiding certain information from the consumer. Predictability and control may involve a company's ability to predict and control consumer behavior, not the consumer's ability to predict what kin d of product or control what kind of service he gets. Ritzer calls such breakdowns "the irrationality of rationalization." Ritzer points out the irrationality of rationality, as all of the supposed benefits of Mcdonaldized systems backfire: waiting in long lines, suspect quality, little or no customer service, little or no customer service, the illusion of large quantities for low prices, and severely limited selection of choice. Throughout Mcdonaldization of Society, Ritzer describes Mcdonaldization as largely negative and often destructive. While Mcdonaldization is rapidly taking over American society and spreading to the rest of the globe, it is not something unjustly imposed on the American people. The consumerist culture of America has groomed the public to seek efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. These principles grow in importance and value in contemporary America. Even when given the choice to avoid a Mcdonaldized establishment or product, peopl e will flock to it. I agree with Ritzer’s analysis of a Mcdonaldized society, but I feel that Ritzer has failed to provide any real solutions to the Mcdonaldization process. I will support Ritzer’s analysis of the Mcdonaldization process, but also show that it is inevitable and essential in the American society to have a rationalized system. Ritzer stresses that â€Å"Mcdonaldization† does not just refer to robotlike assemb... ...ety, companies are looking to maximize profits and managers are looking to maximize sales. Employers want efficiency and predictability from their workers. They want to be able to control their employees. With so much of the day spent at work and commuting, the only way people can get everything done everyday is to rely on time saving methods. With increasing productivity and development comes an increasingly rationalized system. Regardless of who benefits or to what extent, the universal result is homogenization. Rationalized systems have a pronounced tendency to squash individual tastes, niche markets, small-scale enterprise and personalized customer service. Differences are leveled, wrinkles smoothed, knots cut off -- convenience at the expense of character. An overwhelming sameness develops, along with a decrease in responsiveness. The system that seeks to mimic a machine becomes a machine, incapable of making exceptions or taking risks. I believe that the greatest loss is th at most people know of no other society than the rationalized society and therefore cannot even hope to deviate from it. For good or for bad, our social destiny is to live in such prepackaged settings.

Raising the Driving Age

For at least the last ten years, the issue of whether or not to raise the driving age to 18 years old has been a touchy subject on every level of the spectrum; from State Highway Safety Association to teenagers and everybody in between. Although everyone has some degree of approval that raising the driving age would be a good idea no one has really put forth the effort to actually have it come to pass. This has lead to the ongoing debate of whether it should even be a consideration anymore.There are several reasons that establishing the driving age at 18 is a legitimate idea. First, by having the driving age moved to the minimum of 18 this can be both environmentally and economically commendable. Also, teenagers under the age of 18 are more mentally underdeveloped when it comes to making sound decisions on the road, which then leads teenagers to having one of the highest fatality rates involving automobiles. Global warming has become key issue all over the world, especially in more o ver-crowded counties and cities, due to higher volume of emissions being released into the air.In the year 2000, the Carbon Emissions that are released into the air by cars in the United States is 302 Million Metric tons (MMTc) (Environmental). In that same year, there were 190 million licensed drivers in the United States, and 9,743,000 were drivers under the age of 19 (U. S), that’s five percent of the population. I know it doesn’t seem like that much but when you take in consideration the total emissions being released into the air and multiply it by the number of teenage drivers, that will reduce the amount of emissions by 15. MMTc. People are desperate to help stop global warming; one way we can do this is to reduce the amount of drivers on the roads and create a more accessible public transportation in rural areas. Increasing the age for driving would also be beneficial to parents of teen drivers due to the fact that insuring a teen driver is very expensive. A re cent study, in 2009-2010 for a one-car family to insure their teen-driver would raise their premium 42 percent, 58 percent for a two-car family and 62 percent for a three-car family (Schultz).An average of $620 dollars a year is what parents pay to add their child to their insurance (Bradford). That is one child, I come from a family of five and eleven years ago, when I turned sixteen my parents already had two teen drivers on their auto insurance and we were living off two teacher salaries. By the year 2000 the average teacher in Texas was making 37,576 (IES); that would leave them with a combined income of just over 75 thousand a year.Paying an average of $620 dollars per teen driver wouldn’t have gone over well with living expenses, so needless to say, I got my divers license but I wasn’t able to drive until I was 18. There are always two sides to an argument, Parents grow weary of driving their kids for one place to the next; interrupting their own busy schedules t o drive their teen to their next social event. Bill Van Tassel, AAA’s National manager for driving training programs says â€Å"We have parents who are pretty much tired of chauffeuring their kids around, and just want them to be able to drive† (Davis).This is completely understandable, with today’s busy world no one has time for anything but does it really merit putting a population of underdeveloped minds behind the wheel for our own convenience? Which brings me to my next point; are teens mentally mature enough to be granted with the responsibility of driving a car? In 2005, new findings in brain research at the National Institutes of Health explain why efforts to protect teen drivers usually fail. The scientists at the NIH in Bethesda, Md. have found that a part of the brain that weighs risks, makes judgments and controls impulse behavior which is referred to as â€Å"the executive branch† is still developing in teenage years and isn’t fully ma tured until the age of 25 (Davis). These findings should be proof alone that teens are too immature to handle the responsibilities that come with driving a car. Teens are already emotional and compulsive more so then most adults, giving them keys to a vehicle could be potentially one of the worse ideas in history.Teens don’t process consequences the same way adults do, they rely more on the emotional part of their brains to make their decisions. Which is why when a teen is driving 15 to 20 miles over the speed limit the part of their brain that processes thrill is working brilliantly; But the part that cautions of negative consequences, is all but useless, explains Jay Giedd, chief of brain imaging in the child psychiatric unit at the National Institute of Mental Health (Davis). Parents see their newly licensed teen river as additional help for running errands and taking younger siblings to events and practices, but when it comes to handling issues that may arise on the road to and from their destination; teenagers just don’t have the mental maturity to consider the consequences of risky behavior. When I was still in high school two friends of mine were bragging one morning of their reckless and very dangerous excursion across town in the pouring rain without their windshield wipers on, just because they wanted to see how far they could go.I would advocate this as a true example, that teenagers are indeed too immature and reckless to be given the responsibilities of driving. Of course one would argue that not all teenagers are as immature and irresponsible as most, in fact there are some parents that would make their teen a poster-child for safe driving; but there are always exceptions to the rules. Adolescent drivers no matter how responsible they prove themselves to be don’t have the mental development to properly react to hazardous situations that arise on the road.The research above leads to my next topic, Due to their inability to ass es dangers that come up while driving, a teen driver is more likely to be involved in or the cause of an automobile accident. In 2009, about 3,000 teens in the United States aged 15–19 were killed and  more than 350,000 were treated in emergency departments for injuries suffered in motor-vehicle crashes (CDC). With this information, one would wonder why the driving age has yet to be raised.Yet, despite the increasing number of teens dying in automotive accidents, there has yet to be a successful bill passed to raise the driving age. In September of 2008, lawmakers in Delaware, Florida, Georgia and Massachusetts introduced a bill to raise their driving age to 17; they all failed (Rubin). Some people are lead to believe that raising the driving age will not prevent teen deaths, rather just delay them, because maturity has no weight on teen driving, it’s all down to experience; It is this rational that is keeping teen drivers behind the wheel.Most states have a probatio nary period where teen must follow guidelines such as: * Night driving is prohibited for the first six months unless he/ she are accompanied by a licensed driver. * A passenger limitation of only one passenger under the age of 20 for the first six months unless a parent or guardian is present. * During the second six months only three passengers under 20 (Pabst) These restrictions have had only modest success, but with the judgment center of the teen brain not fully developed there remains a struggle to instill decision making skills in immature drivers (Davis).Most of these restrictions are left to the parents to enforce and these poorly enforced restrictions don’t seem to be helping stop the high volume of deaths due to irresponsible teenager’s being given the right to drive. In 2006, my father was killed in accident involving a teenage driver, who neglected to follow the speed limit, and disregarded the stopped school bus with its lights on, and plowed right into th e back of the vehicle behind my father causing it to hit my father on his motorcycle. I don’t know what she was doing to completely miss the big yellow stopped school bus, and the car right next to it, but it cost my father his life.The only argument against the high rate of death and injury cause by the sober mind of a teenager, are the high number of deaths caused by intoxicated driver. In 2003, 10 percent of the 16-year-old deaths in automobile accidents had a blood alcohol level of 0. 10 or higher compared to the 43 percent of 20- 49 year-olds drivers, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (Davis). The government has made it illegal to drive intoxicated to protect the lives of their people, so why can’t they raise the driving age to save even more lives?Raising the driving age is something that should be taken with the highest regard, but there are people who don’t quite understand the severity of this particular situation and would simply argue that driving there teen around is an inconvenience to them and a frustration for their teen. In actuality by having the driving age moved to the minimum for 18 can be both environmentally and economically commendable. Also, teenagers under the age of 18 are more mentally immature when it comes to making sound decisions on the road, which then leads teenagers to having one of the highest fatality rates involving automobiles.Having an understanding of the matter is very important; people shouldn’t ignore this topic just because it doesn’t fit into today’s busy and ever growing world.

The Meaning of Death in “The Dead” by James Joyce

â€Å"The Dead† is a story written by James Joyce as a part of the collection that was later on entitled as Dubliners. It is the last story that he composed but certainly was one of the first stories on the â€Å"rivalry between the living and the dead. † It is considered to be one of the best written stories and account of Ireland in terms of the city’s geographical, historical, and political details. It is even said that most of the local references are â€Å"painstakingly exact† as that of the original scenarios in an everyday Dublin life (Joyce, 2008).While the title of the story suggests gloomy scenes such as a funeral or a wake ceremony, a first reading of the story would tell us that the story is all about an annual Christmas gathering where friends and old friends meet to catch up with everything that is happening in their lives. However, if we look at the story real deep, we will notice that the story really revolves into the characters of the cou ple Gabriel and Gretta Conroy. Like all the other couples in the said party, Gabriel and Gretta are an epitome of a happy couple.It can be said that the love of Gabriel to Gretta is so great that instead of traveling home from the party, they decided to stay in a hotel because he was afraid that she might be ill due to the weather. Gretta, on one hand, is giving back the love that she receives from Gabriel. This is evident in the couple’s treatment of each other in the Christmas gathering. However, there is something in the party that made Gretta feel strange. This is when she heard the song that reminds him of a boy she once fallen in love with. It was a young boy I used to know, she answered, named Michael Furey. He used to sing that song, The Lass of Aughrim. He was very delicate (Joyce, 2008). † Gretta confessed this while they were in the hotel room that they rented to stay for a night when Gabriel is anticipating a romantic night with his wife. At first he felt re ally jealous. Furthermore, he inquired into the very nature of their relationship. Gretta confessed everything that made Gabriel angry at one moment.He even suspected that the reason why Gretta would want to that one place is because she wanted to see her first love. However, as the narration progresses, which speaks of Michael Furey’s death by reason of Gretta herself, his anger ebbed to the point of it being replaced with an epiphany in relation to love, death, and the past. He then realized that lost loves are the most difficult thing to let go in ones lifetime (Joyce, 2008). So she had that romance in her life: a man had died for her sake.It hardly ained him now to think how poor a part he, her husband, had played in her life. He watched her while she slept, as though he and she had never lived together as man and wife. His curious eyes rested long upon her face and on her hair: and, as he thought of what she must have been then, in that time of her first girlish beauty, a strange, friendly pity for her entered his soul. He did not like to say even to himself that her face was no longer beautiful, but he knew that it was no longer the face for which Michael Furey had braved death (Joyce, 2008).This epiphany leads Gabriel to recall and reflect on the speech that he had delivered in the party: his idea that the past is dead and that it should be buries in oblivion because it will just bring memories that would either hurt them or impair their anticipation of the future. In the words of Gabriel, â€Å"There are always in gatherings such as this sadder thoughts that will recur to our minds: thoughts of the past, of youth, of changes, of absent faces that we miss here tonight. Therefore, I will not linger in the past. I will not let any gloomy moralising intrude upon us here tonight (Joyce, 2008).However, he also enunciated his admiration of the past especially of the old values of tradition and love in which he said that â€Å"a thought-tormented age: and sometimes I fear that this new generation, educated or hypereducated as it is, will lack those qualities of humanity, of hospitality, and kindly humour which belonged to the older day (Joyce, 2008). † Therefore, the idea of death that the story is trying to paint to us is the death of old traditions and values that are still living to those who have experienced such in the past like that of Gretta.The death in the story is the deterioration of values that the Irish are known for that Gabriel mentioned in his speech. However, this is an irony because while he talked about the old values that should be retained, he himself is not doing his part in this endeavor of preserving the old Irish values and tradition. As observed by Ms. Ivors, he has become a West Briton because he prefers to travel to places like France, and Germany instead of seeing the countryside of Ireland. He denounced his own place of birth in exchange for the West and rejected his own native language.The We st, even though, more industrialized than Dublin, is still a land of ghost and a land of unhappy things. The West is a place â€Å"where the ghost of the past have a terrible hold on the living, where tradition leads to bigoted religion and terrorism (Hodgart, 1978). The death can also be attributed to a death of the traditional love that everybody would want to have. In the story, while it is evident that Gabriel loves Gretta, his love for her is limited to that of the physical love. When they were in the hotel, all he can think of was a romantic night with her.Like distant music these words that he had written years before were borne towards him from the past. He longed to be alone with her. When the others had gone away, when he and she were in the room in the hotel, then they would be alone together (Joyce, 2008). † However, after Gretta had told him the story of Michael Furey, he felt very small and inadequate. This is for the reason that his love to Gretta is nothing co mpared to that of the love of Furey. After hearing the story, he was quick to realize that his love for her is limited and not the kind of love that she has expected of him.His love is so puny to the love that Michael Furey has given his wife. He cannot in any way give up his life just for his love for Gretta. This further suggests that love died along with the death of Furey and that the love that Gabriel offered to Gretta, cannot be considered love in her standards. The image of death in the story is not the same as what we normally perceive, a wake, a funeral, and grief. But the death is on how the glorious past is buried in everyone’s memory that will for a long time or for a lifetime haunt them.

Opinions of Jane Goodall

The work of Jane Goodall has been recognized by many people around the world. Her contributions have been significant in our world today. Although most comments and opinions of her work have been positive, there are also people who oppose what she has done as well. She has studied chimpanzees and their behavior since she was of a young age, giving plenty of time for opinions to form regarding her as a person and her work as well. The positive opinions of Jane Goodall outweigh all the bad ones. Based upon interviews of my colleagues, the comments were all of the positive nature. They believe that Goodall has definitely made a difference in our world. She has helped us discover the theory of evolution and how this could actually be true. She also taught us where humans get some of their behavior based upon those of the chimpanzees. Moreover, people admire her determination and moral standards. She has founded the Jane Goodall Institute and devotes all of her time protecting the chimpanzees and their environment as well as supporting the research at Gombe. She is thought of as a role model because she is devoted to something that she does not have to do, she does her work because she cares and is determined to do what she loves. On the other hand, some primatologists have suggested flaws in Jane Goodall’s methodology which may call into question whether or not her observations are valid. Some say she did not use the right practices, for instance, naming the primates instead of numbering them, to eliminate the chance of having emotional attachment. Also, critics also say she did wrong by using feeding stations to attract the Gombe chimpanzees. It was suggested that the more aggression occurred because of artificial feeding, creating the â€Å"wars† that Goodall talked about. There were not many negative opinions of Goodall as a human being, she was just criticized of her work and the way she went about doing things. Like every person out there, there are people who approve or disapprove of someone and what they do. Jane Goodall made a difference in the way we think about evolution and our behavior. She helped us understand where we could have perhaps gotten some of our attributes and what affects our behavior. The chimpanzees were similar to humans, in the way that they behave and the way they go about in our daily lives. Jane Goodall has given everyone something to think about and continues to so, making amazing contributions even today.

Turkey and Russia relationship during World War II Research Paper

Turkey and Russia relationship during World War II - Research Paper Example In the phony war phase of the Second World War, Russia got reach and control over the Turkish Straits which were of significant influence in the entire course of the war. Turkey had its interests intertwined with that of the Iranian affair and thereby it demanded more proactive actions from U.S.S.R in the course of the war. This led to overall bitterness in the state of affairs and diplomatic activities between the two states. Prior to the war, the two countries were interlocked into the treaty of Peace and Neutrality that was signed towards 1925. The development of the aforementioned scenario and overall tension led to the annulment of the treaty and further strangulation of the ties between these two states (BÄ °LGE 2012). Turkey found the demands of Russia being too advanced and unjust and this did not go well with the Turkish army. The Russians wanted to use the Turkish territory in the same way as was Poland used by Germany against it. Turkey would not allow this as it suspected Russia of having followed the policy that was continued from the days of the Ottoman Empire where the Russian state was alleged to have played a significant role towards overall weakening and subsequent destruction of the Ottoman Empire (Hale 2012). Strategic interests, Russia’s expanded interest in the region, past rivalry and past incidents of mistrust, Turkey’s refusal of surrendering to the demands directly made up for few of the causes of the overall resentment and disagreement between the two states.

Personal Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Personal Change - Essay Example Personal leadership principles for rest of the life would entail honest working, humble approach, dedication and devotion, and fair dealings without any compromise on the matter and subject of leadership and the given task at hand. What personal growth and insight have u developed for yourself by attending this class? How are they meaningful? The class experience allowed for better understanding of the concept of leadership. The various tests, the handling of the unforeseen situations. The class environment allowed me to work on the areas where I lacked behind, and explore the new dimensions such as that of the authentic leadership. Further growth was seen in form of comprehending the situation and foreseeing the future and creating a strategy adaptive to the circumstances. The leadership tasks and programs allowed for clear expression of ideas, and potential contained inside and enabled personality development with regard to the leadership and individual Your experience as a leader. Example from class or elsewhere. My experience of leadership constitutes both in the class environment as well as the life outside it. ... The class leadership allowed me to know how to take along the group members, how to keep them together in a coherent manner and make the best use of their resources and abilities. The early life orientation towards a more societal sphere of life and activities enabled me understanding the concept of leadership since each individual has to be a leader in his own life. Various other daily routine activities and handling of small events and issues serve as example of leadership which speaks of the will, skill ability and determination towards becoming an effective leader and helping the overall project at hand. What changes did u initiate in yourself and what was the effect of your leadership on the outcome? Leadership is a continuously learning and improving process. My journey was no different and I had to make certain changes and adjustments with time. This included overcoming the short comings, reflecting on what I had done in recent pasts and then compared those activities with the desired outputs and through reflections made an effort to perform better in the nearly same endeavors in the future. Various activities in the class provided an opportunity to reflect on various areas. The meditation process was one of them, and the subsequent group discussion. Introducing the feedback concept and making it part of the overall leadership process made the task easier and effective. I re crafted my skills and the working mechanism with aim of further improvement and affectivity focusing on better results from the undertaken activity. How did u impact the team (positively or negatively)? My impact on the team was a positive one, since I incorporated the authentic leadership style and pattern and also made use of the adaptive techniques of management and

Operations Issues in Hospitality Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Operations Issues in Hospitality - Essay Example to assist people with related or interdependent job’s to examine ways in which their teams work together, at the same time identifying strengths and weaknesses, and developing plans to improve team functioning. In essence, team-building is a task-oriented activity with an emphasis on interpersonal interaction. The processes taken into account in team-building are setting goals, developing interpersonal relations, role analysis to clarify team members job, and overall analysis ÃŽ ¿f the team process. There is also an endeavour to use substantial contact among members to foster trust and openness, and there is a pronounced emphasis on changes that will lead to improvement in specific aspects ÃŽ ¿f team performance. For an operations manager to be more effective in his organisation to carry out functions and the duties required to operate the business effectively, it is essential to pass on authority to his management team to purse certain activities. The process ÃŽ ¿f delegation for the operations manager is one ÃŽ ¿f the major functions ÃŽ ¿f effective management. The process ÃŽ ¿f delegation relives the operations manager from involvements in the day to day detail running ÃŽ ¿f particular activities involved in his business operation but not absolves the operations manager from the responsibility ÃŽ ¿f ensuring that the duties ÃŽ ¿f his delegated are correctly and efficiently performed. It is necessary to delegate at every level ÃŽ ¿f management and supervision delegation has to take place, either because ÃŽ ¿f the need for specialist knowledge which the delegator does not process or because ÃŽ ¿f the amount ÃŽ ¿f work the operation manager has to perform and because ÃŽ ¿f the physically impossible by the huge volume ÃŽ ¿f work load. (Rutherford 2002) According to Eyre 0Forecasting is normally done for two periods, short-range and long-range. Both are necessary if the operations manager is to be successful in achieving its objectives in the long term and so can formulate plans for such