Power and Politics

Basics of Studying Power

By G. William Dmhoff

According to the article Basics of Studying Power, “Power” is about being able to realize wishes, to produce the effects you want to produce. To study power is important to develop indicators of power. Indicators are usually different; they cover different types so the irrelevant aspects will be cancelled by one another. If a proposition is confirmed by two or more indicators, the uncertainty of the interpretation is significantly reduced. The four indicators used by researchers for many years are: who benefits (having things that are valued in the society); who governs (have preference in seats, for example); who wins (win having arguments over issues); and reputation for power (who stands out in the eyes of their peers). Who governs and who wins are the most used and accepted.

The article also describes the basic Axioms about Power. The first one is power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely; it gives examples of how people in high position such as CEOs might change their behavior along time and start treating people badly that proves the expression “The arrogance of power”. The second axiom is how powerful always try to create an outside enemy; the human tendency to divide people into “us” and “them”. The third is divide and conquer; followers have to be faithfully to leaders in order to be favored and not punished. The fourth one provides the followers with bread and circuses; everyday life needs to be possible so people won’t try to challenge a power structure. The fifth and last one is that the powerful believe that the enemy of their enemy is their friend.

Social Cohesion & the Bohemian Grove The Power Elite at Summer Camp

by G. William Domhoff, U.C. Santa Cruz

G. William Domhoff and U.C. Santa Cruz wrote an article about Bohemian Grove. They suggest that summer distention is the equivalent of a summer camp that children are sent to for the summer season. The Bohemian Grove is a 2,700-acre virgin redwood grove in Northern California, 75 miles north of San Francisco. It is a place for individuals gather when they take time off from their daily occupation schedule. The Bohemian Grove has stringent membership requirements, long waiting lists, and high dues. Bohemian Grove is a place where the rich and powerful relax, enjoy each other's company, and get to know some of the artists, entertainers, and professors who are included to give the occasion a thin veneer of cultural and intellectual pretension. It is for those who are wealthy, and powerful. Sometimes visitors at the

Bohemian Grove included future and former presidents of the United States. It is suggested that this camp is related to a summer camp because of the activities that take place by those who are visiting. A few activities that take place there resemble those of a fraternity party in the woods; a boy scout camp for old guys, complete with an initiation ceremony and a totem animal, the owl. With members having to been placed on a wait list and have to pay higher membership fees, makes them feel as if they are likely to think of themselves as "special" people, which would heighten their attractiveness to each other, and increase the likelihood of

interaction and cohesiveness. A key conclusion that was reached in this article was that physical proximity is increased by those at Bohemian Grove during the summer than in the rest of the year and their normal lives. The best atmosphere for increasing group cohesiveness is one that is relaxed and cooperative. This type of atmosphere is provided at Bohemian Grove.

The Physical proximity of visitor while at Bohemian Grove the setting allows for a more intimate physical proximity that implies that cohesiveness develops. Visitors to the grove taking part in activities together provide more interaction with others at the grove than others that are in

their daily lives away from the grove. This suggests that the more people interact, the more they come to like each other. The more they like each other tighter and stronger relationship will develop between individuals. At Bohemian Grove there is a wide variety of small groups which encourage face-to-face interaction and ensure status and security for members. As human beings, there is the need to come to trust each other, and learn to work together. Final and key conclusions that was reached in this article was social cohesion is helpful in reaching agreement when issues are introduced into experimental groups for resolution. Suggestions that the individuals that attended the Bohemian Grove make relationships that they deliberate possible solutions to concerns of another’s either at the camp or once they have left the camp for the season. In the end of this article one will understand that Bohemian Grove is a summer distention for those who are considered to be power elites and participate in younger age activities and make relationships for later discussions on serious concerns, or to make good connections between those who are in higher power than themselves.

Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism Unit 8

Without Sanctuary 

Lynching, it seems, is a sport that is meant only for the pale-skinned man. But not only one, for there appeared to be a large crowd gathered. They all were cheering, and yelling as though they were in a sports arena. The main aspect of the game was to beat, hang, and kill the dark-skinned man. It was difficult to watch such a spectacle; however what’s intriguing is the attitude of the men and women at the scene. They were hardly affected by the violence. It was normal, fun for them. They seemed to have no reservation. It hardly needs mentioning that they saw this dark-skinned as nothing like themselves, but from an outsiders perspective they had many similar characteristics.

What was more shocking was the aftermath. They didn't leave the scene sober, or even on fire with hate, as one would expect for the vicious hunt, they stayed and surveyed their work. The crowd would take pride in it. Some took pictures, gathering the group together in a pose around the body. Others would bring out drinks to celebrate a job well done. Only after all was finally done, they departed a proud gathering.

All in all, it was a brutal event that made one’s blood run cold, but feel the infectious energy and blood-lust at the same time.

Italian Americans Ethnic Group

The Italian Immigration History

Between 1876 to 1976 natural disasters, poverty and overpopulation in Italy resulted in their emigration to America. The U.S. had the largest number of Italian immigrants, about 484,027 Italian immigrants population by 1900, and most concentrated in New York and Pennsylvania. However, they made-up only 1.5% of the entire U.S. population. Because many other nations were also migrating to the U.S. and the majority in the country was already American born, the Italians didn't the same good impact as they did in Brazil and Argentina. By that time there was not as much cheap land in the U.S., which drove the Italians to live in the cities, starting from the bottom and working hard on jobs that others wouldn't do for a relatively high wage. Because most of the Italians Immigrants didn’t see the migration to the U.S. as permanently, they didn't live in very good conditions in order to save money to return to a better life in the country of their birth. Those immigrants were referred to as “birds of passage”. About 20 to 30 percent of Italian immigrants returned to Italy permanently after reaching their goal plan in the U.S.

The "Little Italies"

Italians are known for clustering into group, leading to reliance to families, kin and networks to form "Little Italies". They would also cluster by region upon their own region in Italy, resulting in more than 90 percent settled in only 11 states—New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, and Louisiana. These patterns continue the same today. The formation of Little Italies was a result of the American society hostility as the Italians suffered from discrimination in employment and housing. The immigrants then had their own world society through the Little Italies, with Italian language institutions helping their ethnic culture – such as churches, mutual aid societies, newspapers, theaters, coffee shops and recreational clubs. The goal of Little Italies “were constantly evolving, providing for a dynamic interplay between older forms brought from Italy and new inventions forged in the United States.”

Italy's alliance with the United States in the World War I and the service of many immigrants in the U.S. military helped to change the American acceptance towards to the Italian Americans. However, during war years, U.S. prohibitions lead to profitable illegal markets in which some Italian Americans successfully got involved into, scratching the conception of Italians as dangerous radicals. The second Italian Americans generation was in constant conflict with the first when emerging into their ethnic communities and problems of lack of self-esteem, rebellion, marginality and delinquency were the outcomes. Thus, the structures of Little Italies began to change. Italian-language institutions founded by immigrants, started to disappear as the second generation became more Americanized.

References:

Digital History. (n.d.). Italian Imigration. Retrieved from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/italian_immigration.cfm

Pozzetta, G. (2000) Italian Americans. Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America. The Gale Group Inc.

Gender on Campus and Atlanta

Gender:

Once a child is born their biology sex difference of male or a female is more of a separation than a unity of people. If a child is a male they are treated different than a child that is female. A male is treat with more roughness, taught how to survival, taught to go to work and make the money. A female is taught the basics of raising a family and treated a little kinder, and taught how to be proper. A boy is look to act a certain way as he reaches adulthood.  A man is supposed to be the tough, the protector and wise at times the one with the most wit, and do outdoor activities, show little to no emotion. Whereas a women is supposed to be seen as kind, and mother the children, have a softer and show emotion.

When it comes to matting or have sexual interaction between a male and female it can be intensified by having a women be more sexually appealing. To accomplish this sexuality a women will make her body more attractive the male. She can do this by wearing clothing that covers less of the body, and is tight fitting to her natural curves of her body, the breast region leading downward toward her hips and butt. As well as having an ideal body shape of being in fit and healthy. Having her hair arrange in a nice matter, not in knots, have both their hair and body smell appealing to them. If a women as all of these basic of being sexuality then she is more likely to receive more attention for multiple men.

Girls in Altana:

In the media the body of any sex can be manipulated in many different ways, to have a certain look to it or have a certain appeal. In most cases the body that is most victimized is that of a woman. The media is not just that of television but that of documentaries those are privately funded.

The law enforcement meaning the local police, legal system and people in power are doing such as the mayor of Atlanta. In the inner city the girls that are caught by police and are prostituting themselves are charge with some offense and placed into jail. Police do this because if they try and bring the girls to a shelter typically she will run away back to the streets doing what she was doing. So to keep them off the street they charge them with a crime. It is also harder to catch the men that are abusing them by paying them for sex, especially since it is to girls that are under age, any girl under the age of 18. The girls that are in the Rockdale County are less to be charge with a crime because they are girls that have a home to be sent back to. So in that county it is seen more as a public health issue that those girls are taking action in prostitution.

A woman with the right type of clothing is more appealing to a man and his sex drives than a women. Clothing that typically is more revealing and covers less than the average clothing seen on a woman during the day hours. Such as clothing that covers as much as under garments. A women with the a certain body language to different people and toward people in different situations could make for a more inviting sexual atmosphere.

The inner city of Atlanta is where prostitution is seen more as a crime on the girl by the people because they see as the girls can make the change and get off the streets and stop what they are doing. The girls in the city are doing to get the essentials to live and get to be popular and have the attention of men. Or they have no self-worth because they were abuse as a child. Whereas in the Rockdale County the girls are prostituting themselves to get more friends by having group sex and drinking with both older men and kids just a bit older than them.  For both locations the girls are starting these habits at a very young age, some as young as 12 years old.

When a girl is prostituting herself is seen drastically different depending on her age. She is seen as more innocent if she is under the age of 14 and seen as a child. Whereas if the girl is over the age of 15 they are seen as more of an issue of self-image the girls might have, and more of a problem or self-respect, wanting cool expensive things provided by a pimp, it’s a sex culture that the girl could get stuck in, it’s a public health issue for Rockdale country rather than within the city because those who live within the city see the girls less as victims but as a problem because they could have change the situation they are in. Girls in Rockdale are doing these acts of group sex and position without their parents knowing whereas in the city those girls don’t have families they have the pimps who have take them in and use them as ways to get money.

 

Education and Society

Digital Technology and Education

Students are a natural at the internet and the technology of today, where many people of the older generations are having a hard time trying to keep up, not just parents, but teachers. The education system in America has been affected drastically by new digital technologies. New digital technologies being the use of overhead projector screens or Smartboards that are hooked up to computers that a teacher uses as a teaching tool, instead of teaching out of a text book and writing on a board at the front of the classroom. Teacher are having to advance their teaching techniques because their students are so emerged in technology outside of school they cannot keep focus on teaching that requires textbook and lecture. Some school in America have found that it helps keeps students engaged in their studies by encouraging the use of technology by providing students with personal lap tops for them to use for school purposes. Students use computers outside of class as a socialization currency for play, by playing video games, chatting with friends online, or making new friends, dating online. The internet is a new world for kids to escape from reality and the internet is always willing to listen to anyone day or night. Students can become different identities online, or use the internet as way to express themselves. With everything that comes with new digital technology does come some positives but also brings the negatives as well.

Students are also using the internet to cheat out on assignments giving to them in the classroom, by using sites such as Sparknotes.com. This gives a summary of varies novels and text books, including those that are typically giving to students in school. Teacher and research have notice that students presently in school compared to previous years are lacking in writing skills. They may be writing more by chatting online, but quality of writing that is used chatting or texting is not high. The writing in those contexts has a low vocabulary list, less punctuation, poor grammar and contains a large about of slang and aberrations. That qaultiy of writing as effected the quality that students are using on writing assignments. This occurrence of reducing the quality has happening before in history, when the technology of the telephone was created for personal use in homes. People were having telephones placed in their home and calling other to converse with them, instead of writing letters. Students have also gotten into the idea of multitasking, which is not mentally possible for the brain. To have high performed brain can only focus on one thing at a time. In studies done on students that were high in attempting to multitask. They were studies on how well active and productive there brain was when focusing on one thing verse switching between more than one thing at a time. The results showed that when the students were focusing on more than one task that they responded slower, lacked focus, and lacked memory.

Internet is making an age gap between many parents and their children and many older adults. Those who are behind in the age gap are lost because more often than not many business to event he military use technology on an everyday basis. Everything is placed online there has become less and less privacy, which could lead to predators victimizing both young students and college age. With both age groups growing up with technology they are less likely to fall for the predators advances.

In South Korea the way the internet and computer is used and treated different than it is in other countries such as the United States. In South Korea there are cafés that offer 24 hour internet access instead those that serve coffee and tea. Not only do the Koreans offer such access they do as well recognize that internet usage can be addictive, to teenagers or children, and detracts from school studies. Once the additive habit is recognized a student can be sent to a 2 week program where there is not technology. While the student is at this camp they have no access to the internet, cell phones, and computer, nothing that has to do with technology but instead have to do activities that relate to nature and to recapture their childhood. South Korea does not stop with helping and understand the power of technology and the internet’s effect on people. Students are being taught at the age of being in the evaluate to 2nd grade in the academic system. Teachers teach student how to use computers, such as typing, accessing the internet, how to show good manners to others on the internet. The students are taught a song to remind them how to not bully others when using the computer. The idea of educating student manners on the internet and anti-bullying is not heard of in the United States, nor do they understand how addictive it is or how to take action in eliminating the addiction.

Class Sessions and Church on Sundays!

Classroom settings and Church religious setting are both similar and different in the way they are presented to the attendance and how they dress. 

In a church setting for many religions it is not uncommon to see a person wearing different clothing from their everyday day life clothing. The clothing worn to a church session or event is typically more formal, or the best quality of clothing a person has in their entire collection of clothing. Clothing such as a suit, or button down shirt with nice pants for males and a skirt with a nice blouse or a dress for females are worn to church. Whereas for a College such as Bellevue College a student can any article for clothing they like to class whether it be a skirt, dress, jeans,  shorts, blouse and jackets for both male and female. As long as the clothing being worn follows the dress code of the school. Typically most places of business, school and most church environments or sessions have a minimum dress code of covering the certain areas of the body for both females and males. That clothing covers the sexual parts of the body that includes breasts for females. 

What is taught to those who attend church and to a school is different from each other. Not to mention the difference in the topics that are spoke about at a church setting and those that are spoke or taught at a school. In a church setting, session there will be discussion and teaching of the religious views that follow the religion being practice within that establishment. At a school setting a person is taught the language, mathematics, history, health and sciences of the world or countries. At Bellevue College a student can take any class they choose that could be could be teaching anyone of those subjects and more. As well as in those classes students will be giving assignments and tests to asset the amount of the information that is being instructed to them that is actually being retained. That type of requirement would not be found in a church setting for most religions. 

Similarities between church and school setting other than the minimum of having the dress code requiring the coverage of sexual part and females breasts would be the way the attendance are arranged when being addressed. When a student is in classroom learning from an instructor they are typically sitting down, facing the front of the room where the instructor will stand and teach the students. If a student as a question they are to raise their hand and wait till they are called upon before they can voice what their question is or make a comment. In a church session the attendance will sit in the same formation, sitting facing the front of a room, where the preacher or leader is addressing those who are attending the session.