Saturday, September 14, 2019
Protect Our Mother Nature
PROTECT OUR MOTHER NATURE Repeatedly in history, conceptions of nature have served as ideological justifications for political theory. The most obvious example is the Hobbesian state of nature against which even the most oppressive government appears perfectly legitimate. Whereas in most cases of political theory, nature looks like an incompetent savage or unreliable tramp, some anarchist lines of argument instead offer versions of nature as infinite, loving, or otherwise better than the artifices to which it is implicitly opposed.Whether for or against nature, depictions of the natural world in political theory consider it in cultural units of meaning, a combination of icons and stereotypes that change not only our understanding of nature, but also of the units of meaning being referenced. In the early twentieth century journal Mother Earth, a construction of nature comes together, in a publication interested mostly in anarchist and feminist goals, that worshipped nature as a huge, consuming, feminine super being.Certain traits in the construction of nature in this journal form an account of nature as a particular type of femininity to be admired, a move laden both with direct strategic value and creeping implications for the idealizations of womanhood. In order to establish the desirability of the journalââ¬â¢s goal of a world without artificial systems of control, the opposition of nature and artifice is a crucial first step. While it may seem tempting to define these terms, this neglects the primary function of both as catchalls with nebulous referents and amorphous structure defined only by their opposition to one another.The process of dividing the categories begins in the very first issue of the publication, in the foundational article â⬠Mother Earthâ⬠. The article mythologizes that ââ¬Å"Man issued from the womb of Mother Earth â⬠¦ out of his efforts there arose the dreary doctrine that he was not related to the Earth, that she was but a temporary resting place for his scornful feet and that she held nothing for him but temptation to degrade himself. â⬠This creation story of the present political situation clearly opposes the natural, which was original, to the artificial, which is only an egoistic and recent edifice.Nature as mother, of course, means artifice must be opposed, and thus becomes child, making the entirety of the anarchist argument parallel to motherly chastisement. In the same issue, ââ¬Å"Without Governmentâ⬠bemoans government solutions as inevitably late and insubstantial, suggesting an analogy with illness where ââ¬Å"the symptom of the disease was hiddenâ⬠and only on its appearance would the government act. In this metaphor, artificial solutions to the worldââ¬â¢s problems are only attacks on a flurry of symptoms as they slowly manifest themselves in increasingly visible ways, thus the profound animosity the journal expresses towards ââ¬ËComstockeryââ¬â¢.Regulation of sexuality becomes a direct example of the child trying to limit what mother had given to her children. Volume three number five offers an analogy for group resistance of bees on a tree branch, ââ¬Å"it is only needful that one bee spread its wings, rise and fly, and after it the second, the third, the tenth, the hundredth, for the immobile hanging mass to become a freely flying swarm of bees. â⬠The writing makes humans already bees in a thoroughly naturalized world upon which systems of domination such as the state and religion have only been imposed in a superficial sense.All we need to do, in this account, is realize the situation, and spread our wingsto fly back into an expansive and beautiful nature. This fetishization of nature provides a clear contrast between the world of that which the anarchafeminist politics of the publication oppose and the ââ¬Ërealââ¬â¢ world of nature that underlies and surrounds the injustices of artificial living. The question then bec omes, in order to prove the insufficiency and downright failures of artifice by comparison, what is the character of nature? To begin with, nature is big.In the first issueââ¬â¢s article ââ¬Å"Mother Earthâ⬠, the history of the world seems laid out in a quasi-mythical tale. ââ¬Å"Earth was but one of a myriad of stars floating in infinite space. â⬠The whole of the universe, with which nature remains implicitly identified, exceeds our abilities to measure, let alone comprehend ââ¬â a myriad in infinity. Even in this cosmic understanding, that which is natural and surrounded is still itself huge. In an article in the first issue called ââ¬Å"Try Loveâ⬠, the argument concludes, ââ¬Å"Let us be broad and big. Let us not overlook vital things, because of the bulk of trifles confronting us. The natural is large; problems from artifice can be numerous, but each is only of trifling size ââ¬â thousands of children surrounding one huge mother. Beyond being large to begin with, the maniacal focus in the publication on freeing nature and being freed into nature also revolves around a hope for future growth. As if ââ¬Ëweââ¬â¢ were already failing to be ââ¬Å"broad and bigâ⬠enough, ââ¬Å"The Tragedy of Womenââ¬â¢s Emancipationâ⬠proclaims: ââ¬Å"Salvation lies in an energetic march onwards towards a brighter and clearer future. We are in need of unhampered growth out of old traditions and habitsâ⬠as if nature and life in nature knew no limits.The image is of not just a sprouting weed, but a whole forest growing out of a street. This rhetorical strategy of associating the concept of nature so crucial to driving the arguments of the journal with hugeness seems strangely sympathetic with and to industrializing urges of the time. The conflict between the temptations of big machines with big outputs and direct material gain versus little anarchic communities with little to offer but some vague sense of satisfaction can finally be resolved in an anarchy run by a big nature figure, a loving cow mother replaces the cruel leviathan father.This solution gives all the benefits and reassurance of something so-big-it-must-work and avoids all the downfalls readers would consider so endemic to ââ¬Ëmodernizationââ¬â¢ . Beyond simple scale, nature is inescapable. While a big nature appeals to childlike demand for an oversized mother who will ensure safety and grant all desires, the journal also shows nature as generally inevitable. Relying on one of many references to scientific certainty, ââ¬Å"Libertyâ⬠, in the second volume, issue number three, reminds us: ââ¬Å"the natural law of a social organism is as certain as, though less known than, the force of gravity.Like the latter it antedates, and is independent of, our knowledge of its existence, or of the law of its operation. â⬠The natural law, suggesting the order inherent in ââ¬Ëfreeââ¬â¢ ways of life, does not even need to be pro ven preferable to artificial laws so long as it is inevitable, the rhetoric suggests. No matter how much one tries to fight it, they can only impede the natural order of things, but never change it. Indeed, this sentiment, in argument form, makes up the bulk of the rest of the article. The natural law not only frames what is and is not tyranny, but even ââ¬Ëprovesââ¬â¢ the futility of passing any laws through the government.And men, brought up in law-abiding communities in the deepest respect for the law, will, under the changed conditions of life, not merely condone the infliction of a penalty in excess of that provided by law, but will themselves assist, virtuously satisfied with their conduct because the society of which they form a part has decided that horse-stealing shall be so punished. On the other hand, there are numerous laws on the statute books, still unrepealed and unenforceable because the acts treated of are no longer held to be offences against morality.In othe r words, the morals of a people can be regulated only by themselves. The trick is very simple, if a law is natural there is no reason to legislate about it, and if it is not natural no one will obey it. The rhetorical construction of nature as unavoidable already renders artifice more than avoidable ââ¬â it is always already avoided. Rhetorical implications become argument: it would be impossible to describe any part of governmentââ¬â¢s power as belonging to government itself, because people only act based on nature. The closest government comes to legislation in this model is to prescribe behavior people already exhibit.The gist of this construction of nature is most clear in the case of a poem in volume three, number two entitled ââ¬Å"The Kingâ⬠. In it, a dead king rots in nature, covered in lizards and ââ¬Å"vile spineless thingsâ⬠, literally consumed by the overpowering feminine in his afterlife. ââ¬Å"Faith lit his pathway with her loveliness; / Fair Hopeâ â¬â¢s voice called him from his barren fen; Love vainly strove to lure him with her grace. â⬠As a feminine entity, nature is here the omnipresent mother, she tracks down her children and is always there for them to return to.Inescapable nature not only sets up a comparison in which government and artifice can never win, but simultaneously constructs the role of a feminine presence that is ineradicable and impossible to resist. The good mother must be always present and forever accepting of even her most lost children. Also, nature has youthful beauty. In the first issue of Mother Earth, the flagship article explains the history of nature in terms that make Earth unmistakably a young mother, ââ¬Å"she renewed herself, the good mother, and came again each Spring, radiant with youthful beauty, beckoning her children to come to her bosom and partake of her bounty. Natureââ¬â¢s youth not only implies a relative trait against which all human-made construction can never appear more ââ¬â almost sexually ââ¬â attractive. The attempt to make nature look nice is nowhere so transparent as in this attempt to cast it as actually young and beautiful. Indeed, even its temporary failings can be excused by Earthââ¬â¢s renewal each spring. If some part of nature is dangerous or undesirable, it will soon be corrected in the regular course of the seasons. In volume five, number six, ââ¬Å"The Esthetic Side of Jewtownâ⬠explains,Life is too strenuous in Jewtown to preserve the bloom of youth. Among the younger ones there are some who are very beautiful beneath their coating of filth, with the clove skin and large, soft, black eyes. They give themselves a coquettish appearance. The truly horrid part of life in the Ghetto, we learn, is that it covers or takes away the natural beauty of women. Artifice cannot destroy nature, because nature is big and inescapable, but it can blemish its beauty temporarily.This identification of nature with youth and beauty combined with the opposition of nature and the state sell anarchism almost exactly the way one might sell diet soda: government is actually too ugly to appreciate, gorgeous young women prefer anarchy. In classic advertising style, Mother Earth also describes nature as saturated with love. In the first issue, when describing a budding relationship crushed by the coldness of artifice and modern living, ââ¬Å"The Tragedy of Womenââ¬â¢s Emancipationâ⬠explains that ââ¬Å"poetry and the enthusiasm of love cover their blushing faces before the pure beauty of the lady. Her admirer] silences the voice of his nature and remains correct. â⬠The article condemns his correctitude as exactly the basic problem of modern living ââ¬â its disconnect from love and contact. Tragically, the beauty of the lady, just as that of the kindly mother Earth, has been tainted to block the ââ¬Å"poetryâ⬠and ââ¬Å"enthusiasm of loveâ⬠the article considers natural. In contrast to t he authentic state of love the various ââ¬Ësystemsââ¬â¢ of which anarchism complains give us poor simulations of affection: marriage and the nuclear family.In volume 3, number five, the article ââ¬Å"Light and Shadows in the Life of an Avant-Gardâ⬠, we learn The poor women, thousands of them, abused, insulted, and outraged by their precious husbands, must continue a life of degradation. They have no money to join the colony in Reno. No relief for them. The poor women, the slaves of the slaves, must go on prostituting themselves. They must continue to bear children in hate, in conflict, in physical horror. The marriage institution and the ââ¬Å"sanctity of the homeâ⬠are only for those who have not the money to buy themselves free from both, even as the chattel slave from his master.Nature offers real love, civilization offers a slavery titled love. These stark terms of opposition function to set up an understanding of a loving motherly nature that makes it obviousl y superior to the uncaring childlike cruelties that comprise the artificial world. As is often thought, nature is also connected with freedom. It is quite arbitrary to say that those things to which a life in ââ¬Ënatureââ¬â¢ is conducive represent the content of freedom. For instance, in nature one is not free to vote or go to work, and yet this is considered irrelevant to questions of liberty.In volume two, number three, of Mother Earth, the article ââ¬Å"Libertyâ⬠proclaims that ââ¬Å"whatever may be the form of social institutions, if it does no more than to declare and enforce well-known rules of natural justice, then I am free. â⬠The simplistic opposition between the compromises of ââ¬Ëartificialââ¬â¢ life and the freedom of nature is best exemplified in the pithy quote ââ¬Å"Liberty escaped into the wildernessâ⬠from the journalââ¬â¢s founding article. This unbounded freedom seems excessively unrealistic as a description of a mother, and yet i t is precisely the freedom that mothers lacked that the journal constructs nature as having in spades.At the same time, the infinite youth, beauty, and inescapable freedom in and of nature primarily complement its fundamentally orderly state. Perhaps in one of the most bizarre fixations of anarchist literature, the journal seems careful to point out the extreme orderliness of life in anarchy. In this kind of reconciliation of total freedom and total justice one can actually see the neurosis of liberalism tentatively suggest what it most wishes simply come true: good freedom and good order. The very first issue, in the rticle ââ¬Å"Without Governmentâ⬠we are told that, there are qualities present in man, which permit the possibilities of social life, organization, and co-operative work without the application of force. Such qualities are solidarity, common action, and love of justice. To-day they are either crippled [sic] or made ineffective through the influence of compulsion ; they can hardly be fully unfolded in a society in which groups, classes, and individuals are placed in hostile, irreconcilable opposition to one anotherAgain, like an orderly housewife, nature maintains a world that works, but without even so much as a broom. Instead, nature works through qualities always already present in people, as natural beings. It is through this sort of argument that anarchism can define government into such a position that it doesnââ¬â¢t even make sense to consider, having already had all its greatest advantages stolen over to the side of nature. Simultaneously, natureââ¬â¢s great assets will be willingly sacrificed to her children in cheerful martyrdom.Like the constructed role of a ââ¬Ëgood motherââ¬â¢, nature ââ¬Å"sees the bleeding feet of her children â⬠¦ hears their moans, and she is ever calling to them that she is theirsâ⬠beginning in the founding article of Mother Earth. The article continues to encourage the exploitation of nature because nature is asking for it, here with increasingly vivid maternal imagery. Mother Earth keeps sources of vast wealth hidden within the folds of her ample bosom, extended her inviting and hospitable arms to all those who came to her from arbitrary and despotic landsââ¬âMother Earth ready to give herself alike to all her children.But soon she was seized by the few, stripped of her freedom, fenced in, a prey to those who were endowed with cunning and unscrupulous shrewdness. The rapaciousness of artifice and modern civilization becomes its primary characteristic when put in the terms of a kindly mother fallen prey to vicious quasi-Oedipal domination. Here, again, the journalââ¬â¢s construction of nature as feminine serves the direct political function of discrediting political opponents such as the state, capitalism, and religion.However, the indirect effect of such a construction may be more historically significant, as the natural world becomes increasingly femini zed in particular ways. It is impossible to simply associate nature with feminine, because there is too much to each category. Here the generality is retained on the term of nature ââ¬â to the degree that itââ¬â¢s distinction from artifice can be kept plausible ââ¬â and specificity is given to the feminine. Mothers should, in this account, sacrifice everything to their children, no matter how abusive they may be to her.Indeed, every praised trait of Mother Earth is a thinly veiled suggestion for mothers to fulfill. That Mother Earth is huge, inescapable, free and orderly says, at some level, that all good mothers are this way. Thus we end with a political theory laid out in Mother Earth that various artificial systems are bad because they are inferior to a young, beautiful martyr of an omnipresent loving mother who provides both freedom and order.In conclusion, the journal Mother Earth deployed rhetoric in various forms to craft a particular feminine version of nature tha t explicitly worked to delegitimize particular systems of oppression and implicitly functioned to worship an ideal maternal version of womanhood. The journalââ¬â¢s preoccupation with issues of concern to women, such as marriage, prostitution, birth control, and sexuality coincided with its normalizing urge to encounter (some) people as children of nature who could frolic freely within the limitless provisions of their motherââ¬â¢s great world.However, there are actually two possible roles for a subject here, children or mother herself. Politics and men immediately appear infantilized against the mother of nature, supplying a ready-made excuse and index for predicting their actions as irresponsible yet lovable children, but for many women Mother Earth was not their mother, but to be their role model.Nature was a mother whose private sphere expanded to one large planetary home and material limitations in age and restriction were erased by scientific appeal (and pure fiat) to ren der life in nature simultaneously completely free and problem-free. As a solution to the troubles of political theory, the journal instead invented a superhero character to replace the tired images of a drudging, used up, and insensitive nature with a glossy new young, beautiful cover girl ââ¬â Mother Earth. Protect Our Mother Nature PROTECT OUR MOTHER NATURE Repeatedly in history, conceptions of nature have served as ideological justifications for political theory. The most obvious example is the Hobbesian state of nature against which even the most oppressive government appears perfectly legitimate. Whereas in most cases of political theory, nature looks like an incompetent savage or unreliable tramp, some anarchist lines of argument instead offer versions of nature as infinite, loving, or otherwise better than the artifices to which it is implicitly opposed.Whether for or against nature, depictions of the natural world in political theory consider it in cultural units of meaning, a combination of icons and stereotypes that change not only our understanding of nature, but also of the units of meaning being referenced. In the early twentieth century journal Mother Earth, a construction of nature comes together, in a publication interested mostly in anarchist and feminist goals, that worshipped nature as a huge, consuming, feminine super being.Certain traits in the construction of nature in this journal form an account of nature as a particular type of femininity to be admired, a move laden both with direct strategic value and creeping implications for the idealizations of womanhood. In order to establish the desirability of the journalââ¬â¢s goal of a world without artificial systems of control, the opposition of nature and artifice is a crucial first step. While it may seem tempting to define these terms, this neglects the primary function of both as catchalls with nebulous referents and amorphous structure defined only by their opposition to one another.The process of dividing the categories begins in the very first issue of the publication, in the foundational article â⬠Mother Earthâ⬠. The article mythologizes that ââ¬Å"Man issued from the womb of Mother Earth â⬠¦ out of his efforts there arose the dreary doctrine that he was not related to the Earth, that she was but a temporary resting place for his scornful feet and that she held nothing for him but temptation to degrade himself. â⬠This creation story of the present political situation clearly opposes the natural, which was original, to the artificial, which is only an egoistic and recent edifice.Nature as mother, of course, means artifice must be opposed, and thus becomes child, making the entirety of the anarchist argument parallel to motherly chastisement. In the same issue, ââ¬Å"Without Governmentâ⬠bemoans government solutions as inevitably late and insubstantial, suggesting an analogy with illness where ââ¬Å"the symptom of the disease was hiddenâ⬠and only on its appearance would the government act. In this metaphor, artificial solutions to the worldââ¬â¢s problems are only attacks on a flurry of symptoms as they slowly manifest themselves in increasingly visible ways, thus the profound animosity the journal expresses towards ââ¬ËComstockeryââ¬â¢.Regulation of sexuality becomes a direct example of the child trying to limit what mother had given to her children. Volume three number five offers an analogy for group resistance of bees on a tree branch, ââ¬Å"it is only needful that one bee spread its wings, rise and fly, and after it the second, the third, the tenth, the hundredth, for the immobile hanging mass to become a freely flying swarm of bees. â⬠The writing makes humans already bees in a thoroughly naturalized world upon which systems of domination such as the state and religion have only been imposed in a superficial sense.All we need to do, in this account, is realize the situation, and spread our wingsto fly back into an expansive and beautiful nature. This fetishization of nature provides a clear contrast between the world of that which the anarchafeminist politics of the publication oppose and the ââ¬Ërealââ¬â¢ world of nature that underlies and surrounds the injustices of artificial living. The question then bec omes, in order to prove the insufficiency and downright failures of artifice by comparison, what is the character of nature? To begin with, nature is big.In the first issueââ¬â¢s article ââ¬Å"Mother Earthâ⬠, the history of the world seems laid out in a quasi-mythical tale. ââ¬Å"Earth was but one of a myriad of stars floating in infinite space. â⬠The whole of the universe, with which nature remains implicitly identified, exceeds our abilities to measure, let alone comprehend ââ¬â a myriad in infinity. Even in this cosmic understanding, that which is natural and surrounded is still itself huge. In an article in the first issue called ââ¬Å"Try Loveâ⬠, the argument concludes, ââ¬Å"Let us be broad and big. Let us not overlook vital things, because of the bulk of trifles confronting us. The natural is large; problems from artifice can be numerous, but each is only of trifling size ââ¬â thousands of children surrounding one huge mother. Beyond being large to begin with, the maniacal focus in the publication on freeing nature and being freed into nature also revolves around a hope for future growth. As if ââ¬Ëweââ¬â¢ were already failing to be ââ¬Å"broad and bigâ⬠enough, ââ¬Å"The Tragedy of Womenââ¬â¢s Emancipationâ⬠proclaims: ââ¬Å"Salvation lies in an energetic march onwards towards a brighter and clearer future. We are in need of unhampered growth out of old traditions and habitsâ⬠as if nature and life in nature knew no limits.The image is of not just a sprouting weed, but a whole forest growing out of a street. This rhetorical strategy of associating the concept of nature so crucial to driving the arguments of the journal with hugeness seems strangely sympathetic with and to industrializing urges of the time. The conflict between the temptations of big machines with big outputs and direct material gain versus little anarchic communities with little to offer but some vague sense of satisfaction can finally be resolved in an anarchy run by a big nature figure, a loving cow mother replaces the cruel leviathan father.This solution gives all the benefits and reassurance of something so-big-it-must-work and avoids all the downfalls readers would consider so endemic to ââ¬Ëmodernizationââ¬â¢ . Beyond simple scale, nature is inescapable. While a big nature appeals to childlike demand for an oversized mother who will ensure safety and grant all desires, the journal also shows nature as generally inevitable. Relying on one of many references to scientific certainty, ââ¬Å"Libertyâ⬠, in the second volume, issue number three, reminds us: ââ¬Å"the natural law of a social organism is as certain as, though less known than, the force of gravity.Like the latter it antedates, and is independent of, our knowledge of its existence, or of the law of its operation. â⬠The natural law, suggesting the order inherent in ââ¬Ëfreeââ¬â¢ ways of life, does not even need to be pro ven preferable to artificial laws so long as it is inevitable, the rhetoric suggests. No matter how much one tries to fight it, they can only impede the natural order of things, but never change it. Indeed, this sentiment, in argument form, makes up the bulk of the rest of the article. The natural law not only frames what is and is not tyranny, but even ââ¬Ëprovesââ¬â¢ the futility of passing any laws through the government.And men, brought up in law-abiding communities in the deepest respect for the law, will, under the changed conditions of life, not merely condone the infliction of a penalty in excess of that provided by law, but will themselves assist, virtuously satisfied with their conduct because the society of which they form a part has decided that horse-stealing shall be so punished. On the other hand, there are numerous laws on the statute books, still unrepealed and unenforceable because the acts treated of are no longer held to be offences against morality.In othe r words, the morals of a people can be regulated only by themselves. The trick is very simple, if a law is natural there is no reason to legislate about it, and if it is not natural no one will obey it. The rhetorical construction of nature as unavoidable already renders artifice more than avoidable ââ¬â it is always already avoided. Rhetorical implications become argument: it would be impossible to describe any part of governmentââ¬â¢s power as belonging to government itself, because people only act based on nature. The closest government comes to legislation in this model is to prescribe behavior people already exhibit.The gist of this construction of nature is most clear in the case of a poem in volume three, number two entitled ââ¬Å"The Kingâ⬠. In it, a dead king rots in nature, covered in lizards and ââ¬Å"vile spineless thingsâ⬠, literally consumed by the overpowering feminine in his afterlife. ââ¬Å"Faith lit his pathway with her loveliness; / Fair Hopeâ â¬â¢s voice called him from his barren fen; Love vainly strove to lure him with her grace. â⬠As a feminine entity, nature is here the omnipresent mother, she tracks down her children and is always there for them to return to.Inescapable nature not only sets up a comparison in which government and artifice can never win, but simultaneously constructs the role of a feminine presence that is ineradicable and impossible to resist. The good mother must be always present and forever accepting of even her most lost children. Also, nature has youthful beauty. In the first issue of Mother Earth, the flagship article explains the history of nature in terms that make Earth unmistakably a young mother, ââ¬Å"she renewed herself, the good mother, and came again each Spring, radiant with youthful beauty, beckoning her children to come to her bosom and partake of her bounty. Natureââ¬â¢s youth not only implies a relative trait against which all human-made construction can never appear more ââ¬â almost sexually ââ¬â attractive. The attempt to make nature look nice is nowhere so transparent as in this attempt to cast it as actually young and beautiful. Indeed, even its temporary failings can be excused by Earthââ¬â¢s renewal each spring. If some part of nature is dangerous or undesirable, it will soon be corrected in the regular course of the seasons. In volume five, number six, ââ¬Å"The Esthetic Side of Jewtownâ⬠explains,Life is too strenuous in Jewtown to preserve the bloom of youth. Among the younger ones there are some who are very beautiful beneath their coating of filth, with the clove skin and large, soft, black eyes. They give themselves a coquettish appearance. The truly horrid part of life in the Ghetto, we learn, is that it covers or takes away the natural beauty of women. Artifice cannot destroy nature, because nature is big and inescapable, but it can blemish its beauty temporarily.This identification of nature with youth and beauty combined with the opposition of nature and the state sell anarchism almost exactly the way one might sell diet soda: government is actually too ugly to appreciate, gorgeous young women prefer anarchy. In classic advertising style, Mother Earth also describes nature as saturated with love. In the first issue, when describing a budding relationship crushed by the coldness of artifice and modern living, ââ¬Å"The Tragedy of Womenââ¬â¢s Emancipationâ⬠explains that ââ¬Å"poetry and the enthusiasm of love cover their blushing faces before the pure beauty of the lady. Her admirer] silences the voice of his nature and remains correct. â⬠The article condemns his correctitude as exactly the basic problem of modern living ââ¬â its disconnect from love and contact. Tragically, the beauty of the lady, just as that of the kindly mother Earth, has been tainted to block the ââ¬Å"poetryâ⬠and ââ¬Å"enthusiasm of loveâ⬠the article considers natural. In contrast to t he authentic state of love the various ââ¬Ësystemsââ¬â¢ of which anarchism complains give us poor simulations of affection: marriage and the nuclear family.In volume 3, number five, the article ââ¬Å"Light and Shadows in the Life of an Avant-Gardâ⬠, we learn The poor women, thousands of them, abused, insulted, and outraged by their precious husbands, must continue a life of degradation. They have no money to join the colony in Reno. No relief for them. The poor women, the slaves of the slaves, must go on prostituting themselves. They must continue to bear children in hate, in conflict, in physical horror. The marriage institution and the ââ¬Å"sanctity of the homeâ⬠are only for those who have not the money to buy themselves free from both, even as the chattel slave from his master.Nature offers real love, civilization offers a slavery titled love. These stark terms of opposition function to set up an understanding of a loving motherly nature that makes it obviousl y superior to the uncaring childlike cruelties that comprise the artificial world. As is often thought, nature is also connected with freedom. It is quite arbitrary to say that those things to which a life in ââ¬Ënatureââ¬â¢ is conducive represent the content of freedom. For instance, in nature one is not free to vote or go to work, and yet this is considered irrelevant to questions of liberty.In volume two, number three, of Mother Earth, the article ââ¬Å"Libertyâ⬠proclaims that ââ¬Å"whatever may be the form of social institutions, if it does no more than to declare and enforce well-known rules of natural justice, then I am free. â⬠The simplistic opposition between the compromises of ââ¬Ëartificialââ¬â¢ life and the freedom of nature is best exemplified in the pithy quote ââ¬Å"Liberty escaped into the wildernessâ⬠from the journalââ¬â¢s founding article. This unbounded freedom seems excessively unrealistic as a description of a mother, and yet i t is precisely the freedom that mothers lacked that the journal constructs nature as having in spades.At the same time, the infinite youth, beauty, and inescapable freedom in and of nature primarily complement its fundamentally orderly state. Perhaps in one of the most bizarre fixations of anarchist literature, the journal seems careful to point out the extreme orderliness of life in anarchy. In this kind of reconciliation of total freedom and total justice one can actually see the neurosis of liberalism tentatively suggest what it most wishes simply come true: good freedom and good order. The very first issue, in the rticle ââ¬Å"Without Governmentâ⬠we are told that, there are qualities present in man, which permit the possibilities of social life, organization, and co-operative work without the application of force. Such qualities are solidarity, common action, and love of justice. To-day they are either crippled [sic] or made ineffective through the influence of compulsion ; they can hardly be fully unfolded in a society in which groups, classes, and individuals are placed in hostile, irreconcilable opposition to one anotherAgain, like an orderly housewife, nature maintains a world that works, but without even so much as a broom. Instead, nature works through qualities always already present in people, as natural beings. It is through this sort of argument that anarchism can define government into such a position that it doesnââ¬â¢t even make sense to consider, having already had all its greatest advantages stolen over to the side of nature. Simultaneously, natureââ¬â¢s great assets will be willingly sacrificed to her children in cheerful martyrdom.Like the constructed role of a ââ¬Ëgood motherââ¬â¢, nature ââ¬Å"sees the bleeding feet of her children â⬠¦ hears their moans, and she is ever calling to them that she is theirsâ⬠beginning in the founding article of Mother Earth. The article continues to encourage the exploitation of nature because nature is asking for it, here with increasingly vivid maternal imagery. Mother Earth keeps sources of vast wealth hidden within the folds of her ample bosom, extended her inviting and hospitable arms to all those who came to her from arbitrary and despotic landsââ¬âMother Earth ready to give herself alike to all her children.But soon she was seized by the few, stripped of her freedom, fenced in, a prey to those who were endowed with cunning and unscrupulous shrewdness. The rapaciousness of artifice and modern civilization becomes its primary characteristic when put in the terms of a kindly mother fallen prey to vicious quasi-Oedipal domination. Here, again, the journalââ¬â¢s construction of nature as feminine serves the direct political function of discrediting political opponents such as the state, capitalism, and religion.However, the indirect effect of such a construction may be more historically significant, as the natural world becomes increasingly femini zed in particular ways. It is impossible to simply associate nature with feminine, because there is too much to each category. Here the generality is retained on the term of nature ââ¬â to the degree that itââ¬â¢s distinction from artifice can be kept plausible ââ¬â and specificity is given to the feminine. Mothers should, in this account, sacrifice everything to their children, no matter how abusive they may be to her.Indeed, every praised trait of Mother Earth is a thinly veiled suggestion for mothers to fulfill. That Mother Earth is huge, inescapable, free and orderly says, at some level, that all good mothers are this way. Thus we end with a political theory laid out in Mother Earth that various artificial systems are bad because they are inferior to a young, beautiful martyr of an omnipresent loving mother who provides both freedom and order.In conclusion, the journal Mother Earth deployed rhetoric in various forms to craft a particular feminine version of nature tha t explicitly worked to delegitimize particular systems of oppression and implicitly functioned to worship an ideal maternal version of womanhood. The journalââ¬â¢s preoccupation with issues of concern to women, such as marriage, prostitution, birth control, and sexuality coincided with its normalizing urge to encounter (some) people as children of nature who could frolic freely within the limitless provisions of their motherââ¬â¢s great world.However, there are actually two possible roles for a subject here, children or mother herself. Politics and men immediately appear infantilized against the mother of nature, supplying a ready-made excuse and index for predicting their actions as irresponsible yet lovable children, but for many women Mother Earth was not their mother, but to be their role model.Nature was a mother whose private sphere expanded to one large planetary home and material limitations in age and restriction were erased by scientific appeal (and pure fiat) to ren der life in nature simultaneously completely free and problem-free. As a solution to the troubles of political theory, the journal instead invented a superhero character to replace the tired images of a drudging, used up, and insensitive nature with a glossy new young, beautiful cover girl ââ¬â Mother Earth.
Friday, September 13, 2019
The Children's Classics of EB White Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
The Children's Classics of EB White - Essay Example Two of these books have since been made into major film events in addition to winning numerous awards and are considered to be staples of a childââ¬â¢s library. E.B. Whiteââ¬â¢s childrenââ¬â¢s books, Charlotteââ¬â¢s Web, Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan all reflect the concepts of true friendship and loveââ¬â¢s power to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Stuart Little was the first of these books that he wrote. White said the idea for the book came to him while he was riding on a train. ââ¬Å"During the night I dreamed about a tiny boy who acted rather like a mouse. Thatââ¬â¢s how the story of Stuart Little got startedâ⬠(White, 1985). Whiteââ¬â¢s Stuart Little was born ââ¬Å"not much bigger than a mouse. The truth of the matter was the baby looked very much like a mouse in every wayâ⬠(1), including tail, whiskers and the ability to walk soon after his birth. With a ââ¬Å"pleasant, fine mannerâ⬠(2), Stuart helps his family around the house doing little things that they canââ¬â¢t do, such as climbing down the bathtub drain after his motherââ¬â¢s wedding ring and retrieving ping pong balls when necessary. He is treated in every way as if he were any other normal little boy, being treated by the doctor, wearing clothes, talking with his family and ââ¬Ëplayingââ¬â¢ with the family pet, Snowbell. How ever, because of his small size, he often has adventures that other children would not normally experience. Examples of these adventures include getting stuck in a blind for half the day because he was doing gymnastics on the cord or being thrown onto a garbage scow when he was hiding from a dog that wanted to eat him. Thanks to his friend Margalo the bird, though, he is able to escape the garbage scow and undertakes a journey to the north in pursuit of her when she leaves in the spring. His confident manner despite his size make him inspirational to many while his dedication and interdependence with his friends highlight the true
Thursday, September 12, 2019
Health Care Law Changes Reimbursement Systems Research Paper
Health Care Law Changes Reimbursement Systems - Research Paper Example This study evaluates the benefits and disadvantages of these proposed reforms. On the one hand, the reforms could improve quality of service by providing incentive for hospitals and increasing competition among them but on the other hand, ordinary citizens could also be affected because many expenses that were earlier applied against FSA and HSA accounts may no longer be possible. Medical reimbursement in the United States Introduction: The costs of health care in the United States are prohibitive and only a few people in the country can afford to avail of health care without any form of insurance. Private health insur4ance plans are available in the country and most employees have access to some form of health insurance through group insurance plans that are offered by their employers. Most people in the United States however, fall under the category of Medicare or Medicaid insurance plans to cover their health care costs. Medicaid is available to individuals who are from the poorer socio economic backgrounds and have no insurance at all. Medicare is the public health insurance program which has been formulated to provide for the health care of the elderly and the disabled. It covers individuals who are aged 65 or over, or under 65 but with certain disabilities and those of any age with permanent kidney failure (www.medicare.gov). In the year 2003, Medicare expenses cost the U.S. Government a sum of $271 billion, representing 13% of the federal budget (Frankes and Evans, 2006). The program comprises two parts ââ¬â Part A which covers hospitalization and nursing facilities, and Part B which covers physician and outpatient services, laboratory charges and medical equipment. Since costs for the Medicare program were turning out to be prohibitive, changes were introduced to the reimbursement policies in 2008, in an effort to reduce some of the expenditures and thereby bring about some trimming of the federal government budget on health care. The sweeping chang es proposed reduced payments for complex medical treatment procedures by 20 to 30%. Some of the major changes which were introduced and came into legal existence in 2008 were as follows (www.seniorjournal.com): (a) reducing reimbursement for procedures such an angioplasties and implanting of drug coated stents by 33% (b) reducing reimbursement for implanting defibrillators by 23% (c) Reducing reimbursements for hip and knee replacements by 10% Reimbursement for other diseases was also cut down; hospitals and health care professionals fully reimbursed only if their patients were suffering from one of 13 diseases which have been listed. The Medicare reimbursement policies for Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities were revised further in 2009, validated legally from 2010. The patients are classified into different categories based upon their clinical symptoms and payments for clinical conditions that are secondary to the major one are no longer reimbursed (Ingenix, 2009). Cost outliner p ayments have also been readjusted to 3% of total estimated payments for Inpatient rehabilitation facilities. Coverage criteria were further revised for inpatient rehabilitation facilities with several pre-conditions being exposed, such as mandating therapy treatments to begin with 36 hours of the midnight of the day the patient was admitted.(Ingenix, 2009). It may be noted that the changes which had
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Functioning part of society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Functioning part of society - Essay Example They have also not been to promote encouraging environment for improved post prison behavior to become acceptable part of mainstream society. It is estimated that ââ¬Ëtwo-thirds of prisoners were rearrested for a new offense within three years of leaving prison. In Colorado, 63.7 percent of inmates released from the Department of Corrections in Fiscal Year 2002 were rearrested within 3 yearsââ¬â¢ (Colorado Commission, 2008, p11). The punishments are broadly conceptualized as a means to make the criminal realize his or her acts of misdemeanor and provide him with a chance to reform so they are not caught into the vicious cycle of criminal activities. But as the data show, the authorities and punishment has failed to prevent the recurrence of acts of crimes or effectively reform the criminals. Another very serious paradigm of contemporary prison environment is that of perpetuated violence and hidden dynamics of segregated crimes within the walls of prison. Michel Santos (2004) in his biographical book, ââ¬ËAbout Prisonââ¬â¢ has asserted that American prisonsââ¬â¢ cultural paradigms greatly foster an environment of racism and violence.
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Case analysis Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 3
Analysis - Case Study Example This was also to address the uniform distribution of the vertical load on the two wheels through the creation of a design that could vary the normal force and rotational velocity applied to the burnishing tire to ensure that one wheel is not overwhelmed which might lead to the bursting of the tire on that wheel. The track surfaces used for wet traction tests develop non-uniformity in grip levels over time, the antilock braking system prevents the wheel from skidding in low traction situation, the main aim of the project under this report was to develop an implement that can be attached to a tractor and powered by the tractorââ¬â¢s power take off. This implement was to function in the exact fashion as an ABS system. This was to ensure that even at times when the strip surface had developed less grip capability the tire would still hold on to the track without skidding. i.e. To provide constant grip over time. In the project under this report, it was required for the team to create a design for an implement which can be attached to a tractor and driven by the tractor power take-off, which could be used to rotate the tires so that it could burnish or scrub the surface of a test track as the tractor moves the implement along the surface. In order to avoid constant scrubbing this implement was to offer the capability to change the vertical load on the tire, the goal is to enhance the effectiveness of the burnishing process by increasing the time period between the needed burnishing, decrease the time required to burnish, and achieve the target coefficient of friction consistently over the entirety of the test area(L. Beaver, A. Drew and J. Leitzsey). The solution to this problem was based majorly on the constraints on the design of the traction method, the solution to the constraints mainly focused on speeding up the current burnishing process and providing more even coverage while creating a design that would be easy to operate and maintain. The
Monday, September 9, 2019
Beethoven Symphony No. 3 any movement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1
Beethoven Symphony No. 3 any movement - Essay Example However, in the year 1804, in a move to avoid paying a fee to the royal patron, Beethoven withdrew the dedication of the composition to Napoleon. He later rededicating it to the then Prince, Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowitz. Never the less, in the self-proclamation of Napoleon as a French Emperor on 14th May 1804, Beethoven, with his political ideologies, titled his work as Buonaparte (Berlioz, 2000). Ferdinand Ries, Beethovenââ¬â¢s secretary, claims that Beethoven had high esteem for Buonaparte while he was a Consul and that he had been thinking of him as the greatest Consul all over the Ancient Rome. He further claims that the name of Buonaparte, beautifully inscribed on the top of the composition, is all that Beethoven close friends saw with that Beethoven beneath the composition. However, when the news of Buonaparte reached, confirming he proclaimed himself an emperor, Beethoven tore the top title page having in mind that the person he admired will boast of his new title. Considering himself the most powerful being among his kind. The symphony received the title Sinfonia eroica only after re-writing of the top page. The composition is very interesting and soothing at some points. The reasons to why I find this piece interesting is due to its instrumentation works that provide valuable departure points. These points carry a single innovation to the point at which the horn player chips in the film. The composition of the film is considered as a classical-style, as it is long when compared to the Symphonies of other artists such as Haydn and Mozart. With exposition repetition, the initial movements are long making them typically classic symphony, thus preceding the start of the Romantic Era in classical music. Great range of emotions is evident in the second movement, ranging from the funeral match that depicted misery, to a relatively solace of happiness in major key
Sunday, September 8, 2019
Fall for the Book Event Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Fall for the Book Event - Assignment Example The presenters, qualified and highly professional, vastly expound on the topics and subjects of the presentations. The presenters make the topics comprehensible and understandable for students. I planned to attend a session at the annual festival on Friday, the 27th of September. The session is scheduled to start at half past ten and proceed until noon. The title of the book was ââ¬ËThe Political Thought of Frederick Douglassââ¬â¢. The presenter is a political science scholar, Nicholas Buccola. The event was to take place at George Mason University. The venue for the presentation was Sandy Spring Bank tent, at George Mason University. My choice to attend the event was because of the passion I have for the political science. The professionalism of the presenter would make the session enjoyable to warrant an attendance by anyone interested in the bookââ¬â¢s analysis. I admire any session led by Nicholas Buccola, a renowned scholar of political science studies. The session, courtesy of the sponsorship of Gale Language, would be exceptional, outstanding and jovial to attend. The analysis of the political ideologies of Frederick Douglas would be a charming session in th e event. Buccolaââ¬â¢s prowess in presenting a deep analysis of political science topics is plausible. He can analyze how much intrinsic Frederick Douglass explores the possibility of having the promise of freedom for human beings. The analysis would be highly appealing. Given my deep aspiration to attend the event, I arrived at the venue early not to miss any part of the presentation. I planned before the day, enough for the event, and dedicated an ample time and questions to ask during the session. Having prepared for the presentation, I enjoyed the entire session. The presenter, in my opinion, was great in the area of presentation.Ã
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