The Many Face of Freedom?
Freedom is a concept that people are often willing to die for and it is the cause of much fighting. However, few people ever claim to dislike freedom. This raises an interesting question: how can people fight over what is generally considered to be a positive idea? Does this mean that someone must be against freedom? The answer is that people cannot agree on what freedom is, thus numerous groups can claim to be "for freedom" while strongly disagreeing on the means by which to achieve it. These groups often argue vehemently and passionately, trying to convince the majority that their side is right. However, emotion is only one part of deciding who is more persuasive. I offer two examples of disagreements regarding freedom, as proof that freedom is neither tangible, nor a singular idea.
An example of a disagreement about freedom between two larger groups is offered in Michael Rossman's account of a student protest in "The Wedding Within the War". Feelings between students and the administration came to a head in an argument regarding tables set up by student organizations to meet new members and pass out information. The administration first restricted the students' rights by forcing them to move the tables from the heart of campus to the edge of campus, further from the majority of students. Then, a few years later, the students were told that they were not allowed to have the tables at all (102). Since their campus is a microcosm of the larger government of America, this limiting of their rights frightened them, causing them to react. As a result, they held a demonstration to make these concerns heard. Their main point, as presented in "Catch-801" by Marvin Garson was that "the University Administ...
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...s to be a singular concept. The personal quality of an individual's definition of freedom is also the reason why the students were able to be more persuasive. Their writing contained a sense of personal concern, that decisions made regarding freedom would impact each one of them individually. In contrast, political speeches, although concerned more with the majority, spoke more in terms of abstract freedom, which is much less persuasive.
Works Cited
Garson, Marvin. "Catch-801." Takin' It to the Streets. New York. NY: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Reagan, Ronald. "Freedom vs. Anarchy On Campus." Takin' It to the Streets. New York. NY: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Rossman, Michael. "The Wedding Within the War." Takin' It to the Streets. New York. NY: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Roth, Philip. Goodbye, Columbus. New York. NY: Bantam Books, 1968.
Foner focuses, specifically, on how the definition of liberty has been molded over time. He describes how other factors played a role in the change of liberty using three interrelated themes. The first theme, as he describes it, covers the dimensions or meanings of freedom. The dimensions include “political freedom, or the right to participate in public affairs… civil liberties, or rights that individuals can assert against authority…[and] moral or ‘Christian’ ideal of freedom,” the freedom to act morally or ethically good (Foner xvii). It also includes personal freedom or being able to make individual choices free from coercion, and “economic freedom…[which covers how] the kinds of economic relations constitute freedom for… [individual’s working lives]” (Foner xviii). All these dimensions are looked at individually as they play a role in reshaping the definition of freedom or liberty.
Crichton, Michael. The Great Train Robbery. First Ballantine Books ed. N.p.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975. Print.
Freedom. This influential idea has lead many of people march to demand their freedoms. Whether that freedom be from Great Britain or slaves owners, many of American’s have marched for their rights. What is the definition of freedom? Freedom is defined as the power to act, speak, or think as one wants without opposition. Freedom is a part part of American culture. Some may even say that America’s very foundations were built off of freedom and the right to do as we wish with our lives. In the eighteen hundreds American Colonists were feeling the pressures of the British that would soon lead the the Revolutionary War and our freedom. Some people might consider this idea of freedom as radical and possibly way ahead of it’s time back then. But it
According to Eric Foner, “The boundaries of freedom that determine who is entitled to enjoy freedom and who is not…have changed over time.” Throughout America’s history, different groups have settled and inhabited the land. Each group arrived with their own concepts and beliefs regarding freedom. Freedom is defined as being free from control or constraints. Over time, however, this definition would change to fit the customs and beliefs of one group over another. Changes in freedom had occurred numerous times in American history for a number of people, whether it be in the form of national freedom, individual freedom, or religious freedom.
Freivogel, William. “What Place Do Protesters Occupy in the Constitution.” St. Louis Beacon. 27 Sept. 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2013
...9). The proposal calls for ships that blow micro sized drops of seawater into the air, and use the Twomey effect to increase the reflectivity; the water uses the salt as a nucleus and when the small drops of water reach the cloud level, they will bond with the existing clouds, increasing the amount of water in the cloud, and therefore making it more reflective (I 2). The plan also calls for ships that run off the wind, and therefore don’t contribute to the CO2 production. Additionally, these ships could be used to target specific areas that need to be cooled sooner rather than later: above the ice caps, and by coral reefs. This proposal has the ability to “hold the earth’s temperature constant for many decades” (Schneider 9), through the ability to add more ships to meet our CO2 production, very natural, and relatively cheap: a proposed $1.5- 3 million per ship.
The topic of freedom can be seen throughout the short story “The Censors” by Luisa Valenzuela. In the short story “The Censors”, it says, “...thinking that something might happen to Mariana because of his letters. Of all people, Mariana, who must who must finally feel safe there where she always dreamed she’d live.” This evidence shows freedom because based on the quotes, it shows how the letters might harm an individual. This means that if someone sends a rebellious letter to the government, the person who receives or sends the letter will be executed if caught. Another evidence that was stated in the book is, “Juan knows there won’t be a problem with the letter’s contents, that it’s irreproachable,
American freedom has faced many tribulations, especially throughout the slavery, segregation, and women’s suffrage eras. However, the ideological belief of individual freedom has always triumphed. From when the first Pilgrim stepped onto American soil to the present day America has been run by a democracy and the freedom that system of government allows its peoples to have. “Americans share a common identity grounded in the freedom — consistent always with respecting the freedom of others — to live as they choose” (Friedman).
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty. 3rd ed. Vol. Two. New York: Norton &, 2011. Print.
"What We Want, What We Believe." Takin' it to the Streets. Ed. Alexander Bloom and Wini Breines. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Print.
The prompt for this essay is, “Does freedom need to be won more than once?” In my opinion, it does and it has to be won with every generation. I think even though there are laws ensuring our rights, they are not always upheld. For example, women and men are supposed to be equal, but in some situations they get paid less. In this essay, I will argue that our freedoms must continually be earned. For instance, the Revolutionary War was fought to gain independence from Britain, the Civil War was fought to abolish slavery, and the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the 1910s to 1920s was aimed to allow women to vote.
After reviewing the article titles given for this first assignment, I believe they indicate that Sociology, generally speaking, is not only a study of diversity or commonality in traits among people; it is also a science about factors in a person’s life and how these factors culminate responses. Interestingly enough, its topics of concern seem to be directly determined by current and common events of the world. Through the invention and expansion of new ideas, popular trends and fashions through time, Sociology adapts to responsibly to service the very subjects of interest it studies; for, even the slightest change of a person’s daily experience can have an insurmountable impact on attitude, personal growth, family dynamics and basic group behavior.
P. Erhard, D. Etling, U. Müller, U. Riedel, K.R. Sreenivasan, J. Warnatz, Prandtl-Essentials Fluid Mechanic 3rd Edition, Sprinker (2008)
The social problem means getting out of what is common in the normal situation and prevalent in social organization. This term has been introduced into sociology from a sociological perspective of biological. Where they compared society to the physical member in terms of its development and its relationship to the functions of other parts of the body in both. A normal society is characterized by
...epts compose the very subject matter of the study of sociology. As the result, one must agree that we are limited by the impossibility of experiment, which signifies that the scientific methods are not applicable to the entire study of sociology.