Internet Banking at Citibank UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Internet Banking at Citibank UK - Essay Example Marketers are now focusing on existing customer development rather than just new customer acquisition. Major changes have occurred in the traditional view of customer defection rates, most noticeably in the banking industry where churn has increased from -10 percent in 2003 to almost +20 percent by 2005. These studies showed that the supposedly massive rates of customer inertia in banking is no longer a given. Banks need to fight for every customer, not only to capture each one but, more importantly, to retain them. One economic justification for this mindset change was the research finding that â€Å"it can cost five times more to obtain a new customer than to keep an existing one†. What started the trend towards customer loyalty was Reichheld who found that a 5 percent increase in loyalty can lead to a 25 to 85 percent increase in profitability.On the contrary, Reinartz and Kumar argued that whilst serving customers over a long period may be beneficial, long-term customers m ay not necessarily be profitable, and that managers should not equate customer retention with increased lifetime spending, decreased cost of service, and lower price sensitivity. They concluded that companies should study if long-term customers stay profitable, implying that if they are not, the business must jettison those customers who eat into profits.These were the concepts in our mind when we decided, exploring its look and feel and the products offered, and evaluating the over-all Internet-based customer experience.

Conquering the Incas Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Conquering the Incas - Essay Example The History of the Aztecs The civilization that has come to be known as the â€Å"Aztecs† was by no means made up of one, solitary culture. It was first made up of migratory barbarians, called â€Å"the last of the Nahautal-speaking cultures†, that wandered the area from the great migration out of the northern city of Tula, late in the twelfth century2. It is believed that the Aztec originally migrated from the island of Aztlan, which would come to be substantiated by their name, Aztec, meaning â€Å"people of Aztlan†3. Furthermore, they did not call themselves â€Å"Aztecs†, but â€Å"Mexica†, or â€Å"Colhua-Mexica†, in keeping with their lineage4. The Mexica people, or the Aztecs as they are now known, held no friends among their neighbors. Shunned largely because they were not a polite, civilized tribe, but made up of vicious barbarians willing to do whatever it took to survive, they migrated towards the Valley of Mexico and lived on the fringes of society, as they were the last of the peoples to settle in the area and by no means welcomed to it5. It was on the islands of Lake Texcoco in 1345, surrounded by marsh conditions, that they found refuge6. Unfortunately, they had not picked a desirable spot in which to settle. The land itself was fine, and suitable for their pursuits; this was hardly the problem. The issue lay in the fact that they were distinctly in the middle of two kingdoms, Azcapotzalco and Texcoco7. Though the first three kings of the Aztecs ruled as vassals for the despot king of Azcapotzalco, it was in the year 1426, when Itzcoatl, a direct descendent of the first Aztec king, ascended to the throne, the tensions between the Aztec and the Tepanec lords of Azcapotzalco reached the breaking point8. War broke out, though the Aztecs did their best to evade this, both by sending a special messenger and offering diplomatic relations9. The new king, however, possessed the gifts of leadership and speech; he gave one such speech that ignited the passions of his people and led them to war10. When all was said and done, a new alliance had been formed, the Triple Alliance between Texcoco, Tenochtitlan, and Tlacopan, which would become the heart of the Aztec Empire11. These acts set the stage for a new way of life for the Aztecs, a life as a warrior people. Though in truth the life that they were now leading had come full circle from the days of their savage barbarism when they first migrated into their lands, it is not hard to imagine the years of subjugated rule taking their toll on such a proud people. It is from Itzcoatl that Montezuma I (Montezuma the Elder), and his son, Montezuma II (Montezuma the Younger) would descend12. The younger Montezuma would meet headfirst the Spaniard contingents, headed by Hernan Cortes, and face the downfall of his empire. Hernan Cortes The man that would cause the downfall of the Aztec empire was born in 1485 in Medellin, a town that was considered †Å"an unimportant town in Estremadura†13. His parents were poor, though able to send him to university at the age of fourteen, where he was prepared for a career in law, due to the fact

Abortion as an Ethical Issue Essay Example for Free

Abortion as an Ethical Issue Essay In our everyday lives, we have to deal with a variety of different ethical issues. We as individuals with our different thought processes deal and view with these issues in different ways. Abortion is one of the most controversial ethical issues within the health care profession. Abortion is a topic that can cause heated ethical discussions within the healthcare community. Abortion contains legal and ethical issue. Abortion mean ending a pregnancy before the fetus (unborn child) can live independently outside the mother. An induced or â€Å"therapeutic† abortion is caused deliberately in order to end the pregnancy. The practice of abortion is legal in the United States. Abortion law has many sources-constitutions, legislative statues, administrative regulations, and court decisions. The foundation of abortion law is the United States Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court (McBride, 2008). Constitutional law does not directly regulate abortion, but it sets limits on the powers of the states and the federal government to regulate abortion. The authority to regulate abortion has been reserved to the states by the Constitution because Article I, which covers the legislative branch. This does not give Congress explicit authority to regulate medical practice. Nonetheless, Congress does get involved in abortion policy through its power to spend money and regulate interstate commerce (McBride, 2008). The Court has established this constitutional law of abortion through a series of decision, called case law, especially Roe v. Wade, Doe v. Bolton, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. States do not have constitutional authority to prohibit the medical practice of abortion before the fetus is viable; any laws that make abortion criminal before viability would be unconstitutional. After viability, that is, when an unborn child is able to live on its own outside the mother, state governments have the authority, but not the obligation, to prohibit abortion, except when medical judgment decides that abortion is necessary to save the life or health of the mother (McBride, 2008). This means that abortion is legal in the United States without condition before the fetus is viable. After viability, abortion is prohibited in some but not all states except when the health or life of the mother is in danger. Roe v. Wade gave strength to a woman’s right to privacy in the context of matters relating to he own body (Pozgar, 2008). This would include how a pregnancy would end. The Supreme Court also has recognized the interest of the states in protection potential life and has attempted to spell out the extent to which the states may regulate and even prohibit abortions. In Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court held the Texas penal abortion law unconstitutional, stating this: â€Å"State criminal abortion statutes†¦that except from criminality only a lifesaving procedure on behalf of the mother, without regard to the stage of her pregnancy and other interests involved is violating the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (Pozgar, 2008). With Doe v. Bolton, the Supreme Court went on to describe what regulatory measures a state lawfully may perform during the three stages of pregnancy. In the companion decisions, Doe v. Bolton, where the Court considered a constitutional attack on the Georgia abortion statute, further restrictions were placed on state regulation of the procedure. The provisions of the Georgia statute establishing residency requirements for women seeking abortions and requiring that the procedure be performed in a hospital accredited by The Joint Commission were declared constitutionally invalid (Pozgar, 2008). In the case law Planned Parenthood v. Casey the Supreme court affirmed Pennsylvania law restricting a woman’s right to abortion. The Court was one vote shy of overturning Roe v Wade. The Supreme Court ruling, as enunciated in Roe v. Wade reaffirmed: The constitutional right of women to have an abortion before viability of the fetus, as first enunciated in Roe v. Wade. The state’s power to restrict abortions after fetal viability so long as the law contains exceptions for pregnancies that endanger a woman’s life or health. The principle that the state has legitimate interests from the outset of the pregnancy in protecting the health of the woman and the life of the fetus. About three years ago, a difficult situation presented itself upon me. I was sitting in the doctor’s office six weeks after giving birth to my first-born. I was there to get my Mirena ® birth control. The doctor walks in and asks me if it could be possible that I was pregnant. I told her no I received birth control Depo-Provera ® right before being discharged from the hospital. The doctor then says well let me have my nurse do a blood test so that we can know for sure, and make sure it’s not just a chemical pregnancy. A couple of days passed and I return to the doctor’s office to receive my results. My doctor tells me what I had been dreading. I was pregnant again with our second child. I went home with my newborn and I cried until my husband came home from work. I cried because this news was much unexpected. We had carefully planned the timing for our first-born. We were in a perfect financial situation to be able to commit to one child. Two infants would really be pushing our financial limits. I was thinking how unfair this was. I had taken every precaution to ensure that I would not get pregnant, but I somehow ended up pregnant. When my husband came home that afternoon I was still crying, and I explained the whole situation to him. My husband was overjoyed at the news of having another child. I was confused by his emotions because I thought he would be feeling overwhelmed as I was. After I told my husband, I also told him that I was planning to get an abortion. He wanted to know the reasoning behind my decision. I told him that we were only financially equipped for one child, but two children would cause a financial burden. I refused to bring a child into this world knowing that I could not financially take care of that child. I know that people are quick to say why not give the child up for adoption. Anyone who can say that I know they have never experienced a pregnancy before. Could you imagine the emotional distress of having to give up a child that you have carried around and nurtured from almost ten months? You would also be giving your child up to a couple that you would probably only get to see after passing the baby along. Also, imagine the emotional aspects of the child. The child would be thinking about how their birth parents were able to give them away. My husband and I talked over the financial aspect over it, and decided with help from various family members that we could survive. We would just have to make sacrifices within our everyday lives. During my sonogram appointment when I was four months pregnant I received another dose of bad news. At first the doctor saw what he thought were cysts on the brain. The doctor then told me that I should terminate the pregnancy because of the difficult life the child was about to go through. I thought long and hard about what the doctor was saying. I felt like I had a strong support system that would help me get through any obstacle that life throws my way. Finally, the birth of my youngest takes place, and she was diagnosed with Lissencephaly. Lissencephaly is the condition of having a smooth cerebrum without convolutions(Merriam-Webster). Before we were discharged from the hospital, my husband and I were told to take her home, and treat her as if she is normal, and not to expect her to live past three months old. My daughter just had her third birthday May 5. This is why I have a deontology view on abortion. The deontology view is compatible to the abortion pro-choice decision. Utilitarianism really does not have a lot to say on this issue because there are too many other issues tied into the ethical issue. They would probably have arguments about if the fetus is a person or even if someone has the right to determine what goes on in their own body. They would also argue about if it were okay to kill a baby why not an adult. In my opinion, these are two different topics. We would assume through virtue ethics that killing a human adult is wrong. Don’t get me wrong killing an adult human is wrong because that is life that has already been birthed, and established. Abortion should be a choice that we are able to make on our own. This is my body I should be able to freely decide what to do with it. We are able to freely tattoo and pierce our bodies without any type of interference from the government. So why can I not make a decision to end a pregnancy that I carefully tried to avoid. I also feel that abortion when done early on in the pregnancy would not cause any harm to the fetus. According to pregnancy. rg a fetuses nervous system does not develop until after five weeks into the pregnancy. After that period the baby has already began to develop major organs and the nervous system. An egoist view on abortion would be based on one question. According to socyberty. com, an egoist would focus on what will be in her best interest. This would not mean the woman is selfish or self-centered. For example, maybe the women would be in a predicament where she would be a single mom. On the other hand, maybe she has not emotional of financial support to help er care for the child. In her case, her best interest would be to abort the child because it is in her best interest. Egoism states that everyone should act in her or her own self interest, regardless of the interest of others, unless their interest also serve as hers(http://socyberty. com/issues/abortion-an-ethical-analysis/). With the abortion this women can now complete her education. Others might argue that she could have just gotten a job, and still have been able to attend school. When making decisions you need to think of every possible scenario. What is there is a complication early in the pregnancy that requires complete bed rest or hospitalization. If this were to happen, where would her income come from? She would have to drop out of school. She would then have six months to get back into school or she would have to begin the repayment of her student loans. How can she do any of this without financial support? There are several ethical views on abortion. All the different views would explain why or why not to have an abortion. Abortion can be a controversial ethical topic. No one person will ever have the same stance on the topic. It is one of those topics when you just have to agree to disagree. You will just have to respect and listen to the opinions that others have on this ethical issue.

Discuss the varying roles of the promotion Essay Example for Free

Discuss the varying roles of the promotion Essay This would increase the quality of life to the families living at home dramatically, from living of just one dollar a day to the minimum wage of an employee in an MEDC. Some people believe that you can put large amount of aid into a country, or even create a neo-liberastic situation – however, the countries that are currently regarded as LDCs or even LEDCs will always be in that situation and it’ll never change. This is due to their geographical location, and how so many external factors are taken into consideration such as the climate, the droughts and the inability to grow many things within the climate. Biologist Jared Diamond in his book ‘guns germs and steal’ wrote heavily on this point, in this he effectively believed that the development of a country is completely reliant on their location rather than the people within it. To an extent this is true, 33 out of the 50 countries are just below the Sahara desert in terrible conditions. They have little crops that are able to grow on their land, which used to be the first stage of development many years ago – the animals that graze are few in terms of species and overall are on a complete natural disadvantage. Arguably geography created the countries into what they are today. For example, the harsh conditions led to people unable to make many by selling their crops – this led to crime, as people needed more money to survive. This endless struggle continued and the crime, corruption and civil wars just became out of control. Similarly, economists agree that these countries have too many problems to be able to compete on a global market, such as internal conflicts/ HIV and AIDs. These huge problems all contribute to the unrest of the countries in question. Many companies may disagree with moving their factories to Africa, not only would they have to adapt their designs to fit with the harsh environment. Also with 22. 5 million adults and children who have HIV/ AIDs in sub Saharan Africa, would also contribute to the potentially weak workforce – making the productivity of those factories less. This is mainly why many economists believe there is no way that they will be competitive within the workforce. In many developing countries around the world aid is directly given to the government and the public sector. With the increase in trade, it can directly add to the successfulness of exportesr within the private sector. Many governments have seemed to prefer aid, however it does not necessarily mean this is the best way of improving the quality of life for the people within it. Many LDCs struggle to receive a large amount tax from their people, and having a weak private sector reduces their chances even further in developing – which is why governments of LDCs prefer aid to support their infrastructure. Tony Blair believed that we needed a $25 billion increase, doubling the annual aid, to countries within Africa by 2010 – and an even further $25 billion by 2015. However, this aid only improves the country in the short term – for example Japan’s recent natural disaster of an 8. 9 earthquake on the Richter scale, may need for external aid which may be essential to get them back on their feat. But too much aid and it could lead to a dependency culture, in which countries are just merely reliant on aid without trying to achieve a goal for their country or to increase their countries quality of life. The argument comes into the idea that â€Å"if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. But if you give him a fishing rod, you feed him for a lifetime†; aid is simply just a means to get by it is not a good enough plan for the future. While trade can effectively set you up for the future, and hopefully increase the revenue of that country and thus increasing the quality of life. I believe that the most important provision is trade, however for the trade to be optimized there are many problems which need to be addressed – such as political stability. If a country does not rid itself of some of its problems, the trade that a LDC does will just go straight back into the corrupt leader.

Examining HRM Initiatives utilized by Modern Companies

Examining HRM Initiatives utilized by Modern Companies What is HRM The term HRM or human resource management means managing people in different areas of the business. Human resource responsibilities consist of four types of responsibilities in the business management hiring, retaining, compensation and designing their work in the organization. The basic objective of almost every HRM department in the business organizations is to maximise the overall production efficiency of the organization and the optimal use of the human resources (employees) As Edward L. Gubman observed in the  Journal of Business Strategy,  the basic mission of human resources will always be to acquire, develop, and retain talent; align the  workforce  with the business; and be an excellent contributor to the business. Those three challenges will never change. Human Resource Management in the Current Era In recent years, HRM field changed to a great extent and has the major effect on the field of human resource management. One of the major aspects is technology development in the business environment. So human resource management has to face new challenges like to train the employees for new technologies like satellite networking and tele-conferessing and other such like devices. Importance of Human Resource Management Until a few years back the HRM department was being considered the department of less importance in the corporate hierarchy but now human resource department value in the organizations has grown dramatically because management knows that HRM department is directly responsible for the progress and nourishment of the business. Without effective HRM department it is impossible for companies to compete and evolve the current era of business competition. And this recognition of HRM importance has reached not only to the large scale businesses but also to the small scale businesses. As Irving Burstiner commented in  The Small Business Handbook,  Hiring the right people-and training them well-can often mean the difference between scratching out the barest of livelihoods and steady business growthà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Personnel problems do not discriminate between small and big business. You find them in all businesses, regardless of size. Importance of Performance Appraisal in Current Scenario To measure and evaluate the performance of the employees is always very crucial for business and the concerned managers and officials continuously perform this rating and evaluation throughout the year. The importance of appraising performance of the employees can be compared to the managing financials and other resources of the organization because the performance of the employees has the direct relation with the utilization of the other resources of the organization and heavily effect the overall performance of the organization. How to conduct performance appraisal programme The five key elements of the performance appraisal are: Measurement   assessing performance against agreed targets and objectives. Feedback   providing information to the individual on their performance and progress. Positive reinforcement   emphasising what has been done well and making only constructive criticism about what might be improved. Exchange of views   a frank exchange of views about what has happened, how appraises can improve their performance, the support they need from their managers to achieve this and their aspirations for their future career. Agreement   jointly coming to an understanding by all parties about what needs to be done to improve performance generally and overcome any issues raised in the course of the discussion. There are many tools for performance appraisal which are being used by the different organizations like behavioural anchored rating scale, forced choice method, checklist, graphic rating scale, rating, M.B.O. etc. Case study AUTOGLASS Ltd Background Autoglass is the UKs leading vehicle glass repair and replacement company, and has the largest market share. It is part of the Belron group, which is the worlds biggest vehicle glass company. In the UK, there are just over 2,000 employees, approximately 1,100 of whom are mobile technicians, working out of 130 branches. There are three main groups of employee: trained and trainee technicians based throughout the UK; customer service staff based in the customer contact centre in Bedford and in Autoglass branches across the UK, and support staff located in the state-of-the-art head office in Bedford. The HR department is a team of 25 people, which manages all the HR functions including: resourcing, employee relations, management development, technical training, internal communications, health and safety, and technical services. The case for alignment The organisation has always performed well. HR has a good reputation and has been an important part of the business since the late-1990s. (From the early-1990s, HR was known as Personnel and Training.) The HR plan is formulated with close consideration to the business strategy, but as well as this HR is in a position to add to the business planning processes. The HR director is a member of the executive committee, which is responsible for strategy and business development. In 2002, although the company continued to be successful, it was felt there was a need to map out new opportunities for growth and to review the strengths of the business, so Autoglass committed to a strategic review. This ran in partnership with the parent company. An important part of this was a people review, which examined: Who have we got? The demographic picture How people enter and exit the business recruitment, tenure and turnover How people are managed The organisational culture. How was alignment achieved? Although historically there has been a personnel function in Autoglass since the early-1990s, the HR director role was created in 1997.HR is now an established fulcrum between company and staff. There are two key strands to this role, which HR endeavours to interweave. Improving: business performance by working closely with the business heads and the yearly/five-year business plans the working lives and conditions of employees and, as it is not a unionised environment, HR takes this role seriously. The HR director believes that working conditions affect the standard of people coming into the company. For example, HR recently increased holiday entitlement for managers after noticing that their offering was a bit short of the national average. This was done despite some management resistance. A great example of HR working in line with the business at Autoglass was the role played in critical structural and reward changes in 2000 after it was recognised that the business structures had become too complex.HR led the approach to these changes while working very closely with regional managers, providing professional competence, guidance and moral support. For the organisation, it was an excellent example of cross-functional working. The changes included: Discontinuation of the network structure, so branches became independent Even stronger commitment to the mobile working strategy Table Of Different Significant HR Initiatives And Business Out Comes HR INITIATIVE BUSINESS OUTCOME Training and development Auto glass invest more than average in its training and development programme50, providing a comprehensive training programme for technicians through the National Skills Centre. In addition, there is a management training plan, and management development centres have been run based on carefully analysed leadership success factors Staff turnover has fallen The quality of service has improved Succession planning An organisation-wide capability review has recently been conducted The trainee management programme is Auto glasss graduate recruitment programme, which is fairly unique in the industry. Improving the quality of branch management Employee relations There is an employee assistance programme,which has a utilisation rate of just under five per cent Managing directors open house programme Field-based HR roles staff satisfaction is used as a key performance indicator and the overall index score has increased from 50 to 61 since 1995. Pay and benefits The pay scales are in the upper quartile and all staff are on a variable earnings plan Business performance has improved year on year since 2000,with 2003 being the best year ever Performance management Autoglass has a well-established performance management system. Every manager has received training in the process. Recent trends show that positive ratings are on the increase The staff survey shows the highest positive results around clarity of goals and whats expected of me.This suggests the organisation is providing a framework for employees to work to their maximum capacity We come to you. Productivity-based reward system for technicians, which was a huge benefit to the business. The management and output of the strategic people review is a good reflection of the overall HR ethos in Autoglass, which focuses on the practical and does not over intellectualise in pursuit of best practice. The HR director feels that it is more important to realise that organisations are not linear: learning about your specific case and finding out where the pain is in the business is more realistic. While working towards more blue sky improvements is important, it is critical to balance this with attending to existing problems.HR see this balance as their key role. To plan current and future HR work so that it aligns with business needs, Autoglass uses both quantitative and qualitative methods including staff satisfaction survey results, turnover and sickness data as well as listening to what people at all levels around the business are saying. For example, senior managers go out into the business and lead open house participative sessions with a cross-section of staff.HR facilitate these sessions, focusing on what issues are being dealt with in the business currently and managing staff expectations. The HR department is confident in its ability to add value. Resources for the review were found almost entirely internally rather than using large-scale consultancy to manage the process. For the strategic review, Autoglass used an internal team (including a regional manager ,a contact centre manager, an HR manager, the HR director and the rewards manager),with support from their parent company Belron and one independent consultant from The Work Foundation to provide an external perspective. Outcomes Generally, according to the staff attitude survey, satisfaction ratings have improved in gradual progression over roughly the last 8-year period to 61 from a base of 50.Although managers own the results of their area, HR feels this says a great deal about its contribution to the business and the working lives of staff overall. The pace of improvement has accelerated since the changes in 2000 that resulted from the changing the game project. The business, after an initial dip, was energised. More specifically, the people review provided an excellent birds-eye view of how HR was functioning. While the policies and processes were working well generally, it was felt that there were areas of real weakness that were a cost to the business and could be improved on. The main issue was that the recruitment process for technicians was not working. In response to the review findings, in under a year HR has designed and perfected a new approach to recruitment. Although there is habitually high turnover in the industry, this has improved. The process has been well received throughout the business. Training and development initiatives have had a positive effect on the business. Drop-out rates from training programmes are low, indicating that staff and their managers value training and give it a high priority. Around 56 per cent of people are working to a personal development plan. More crucially, the National Skills Centre had a positive impact, most notably on performance of fitters, and a business case for a relocation and expansion of the facility was approved earlier in the year. Succession planning has resulted in a balance at senior levels between internal promotion and external appointments. Most vacancies are advertised internally, but an exclusively external process is used if it is known that the necessary skills and experience do not exist in the organisation or new blood is needed. Conditions for success The good reputation of HR is critical to its involvement in business planning and performance improvements. The HR director feels that HR people who understand the business they are in and are confident to be part of the issues peculiar to it is central to sustaining their reputation. This combined with enlightened senior management is how HR sustains its strategic role. In Autoglass it is accepted that people are part of the solution rather than part of the problem. The people dynamic is crucial people are a vital part of our business, says the HR director. With an overwhelming majority of their customers meeting technicians in the field face-to-face, the people element cannot be ignored.HR is fundamental to recruiting and managing these people. Influencing business heads is an important and iterative process at Autoglass. Partnerships with business heads are central to most of the projects they work on, for example the structural and pay changes in 2000.In addition, persistence with initiatives and ideas has been a large part of HRs success in adding value. While you need a few quick wins, issues such as motivation and leadership are only long term. There is no use in pretending otherwise, says the HR director. Challenges Phase One of the overall strategic process took longer than anticipated due to some complicated market research. As a consequence, the follow-up stages have been delayed. Often the stark realities of business needs are cyclical and demand short-term responses, which can inhibit longer term thinking. However, HR views this as the way things are rather than a major challenge although there can be tensions in getting people to realise that long-term solutions are vital to managing out short-term problems. For example, getting people to use new recruitment approaches and getting people to stick with it even if it does not work at first. Sustainability Building on achievements and working with the business as they evolve. Consistently reviewing HR policies and processes. Continuing to find the weak spots in the business and looking at where HR can intervene. Pushing the boundaries of the employer of choice agenda, for instance implementing a sabbatical policy. Learning and sharing across the Belron group, particularly looking at the more mature businesses in the organisation, such as those in Belgium and Holland

Comparing On the Road and Easy Rider :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Parallels in On the Road  and Easy Rider  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   Released more than a decade apart, Kerouac's On the Road and Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider are replete with parallels. Both depict characters whose beliefs are not quite uniform with those of society; in both cases these characters set out in search of "kicks" but become part of something larger along the way. More importantly, these two texts each comment insightfully on the culture of their respective times. But all these similarities become superficial in the face of the inherent differences between the two. In pre-Beat Generation America, anyone who looked could find a whole society of people who, for the most part, were afraid to do the things they dreamed, unable to break from conformity. Kerouac saw this all around him, and with On the Road, he responds. He presents a tale of those who flee conformity successfully and without any significant negative consequences. Clearly, his audience consists of members of society who remain content with conventional societal norms, who are too squeamish to do what they want. To them he argues that they ought to assert their personal identity rather than be bound by an imposed social one, that they ought to follow their own desires rather than succumb to society's. This argument comes in multiple forms; criticisms by Dean are such a form. At one point he cries: "the moment it comes time to act, this paralysis, scared, hysterical, nothing frightens em more than what they want" (Kerouac 215). He also complains: "offer them what they secretly want and they of course immediately become panic- stricken" (Kerouac 209). These statements are part of Kerouac's argument in their critique of society's fearful attitude toward achieving desires. Sal reiterates the argument to disregard social identity when he accuses a girl he meets of an "emptiness. . .that reached back generations and generations in her blood from not having done what was crying to be done. . .'What do you want out of life?' I wanted to take her and wring it out of her" (Kerouac 243). But Kerouac's strongest argument of all for individual freedom seems to come from example. In On the Road, Sal and Dean live an amazing adventure together. Sure, they get pulled over a few times, but no real harm comes to them from any of their wild escapades. Apparently they are untouchable.

Government Essay -- Governmental Politcs Political Essays

Government Government! You can't live with it! You can't live without it! It is the "common cold" that everyone dreads. The American Heritage College Dictionary, Third Edition defines government as, "The exercise of authority in a political unit in order to control and administer public policy." Webster's Desk Dictionary of the English Language defines government as, "The political direction and control exercised over a nation, state, community, etc." The common individual might define government as the root of all evil. The thing about government is that no one stops to think about how government came about. Government falls into two categories; monarchy or a republic. A monarchy is a form of government that is always headed by a monarch (king, queen, emperor, etc.) These monarchs develop this status most often by heredity. Monarchies are divided into three different magnitudes; limited, constitutional, and absolute. A limited monarchy is where the sovereign's powers are limited to ceremonial events. They do not interfere with politics. Most countries that have a limited monarchy have a Prime Minister that takes care of the political business. An example of a limited monarchy is in the United Kingdom. Queen Elizabeth II is the monarch. She is the one that holds all the ceremonies, cuts ribbons, and kisses babies. Prime Minister John Major has all political responsibilities. A constitutional monarchy is when the monarch's power is defined in the constitution of that country. The king has the ability to veto bills, but is just like any other citizen of that country. He is not above the law. An example of this type of monarchy is Sweden, or Norway. The last type of monarchy is an absolute monarchy. This monarch ha... ... as a result of conquest and force. Karl Marx was a tremendous supporter of the force theory. He believed that government is genuinely bad and people should try to revolt. He predicted that government would eventually vanquish and the world would be completely government free. Obviously Marx's prediction did not happen. One particular event that occurred was the Industrial Revolution. More jobs resulted from the industrial revolution giving people fewer reasons to revolt. All theories could apply to our government. What it comes down to is that we have a government, we are stuck with a government, therefore we should do our best to make our government the best that it can be. There are many aspects to a government. One should take a good look at other countries and be thankful for the type we have. Government may be the root of evil, but it is a necessary evil.