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Hannah Arendt essay the human condition
The importance of freedom
The importance of freedom
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The Human Condition: Freedom Expropriated by Corporations
Arendt's ideas in The Human Condition have laid the foundation on which American society is grounded, and are particularly useful for looking at America today. American citizens have been displaced from the Arendtian model of the modern age. The American government has lost its freedom by having been expropriated from the realm of freedom in the vita activa. Capitalism and large corporations now wield the most power and economic influence in America today. This explanation has become increasingly more appropriate in describing the role of oil corporations in America, in light of the actions America has taken since the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Freedom, as Arendt perceives it, can only exist in the form of a public space where all citizens, free from the demands of necessity, can come together and actively participate in political discourse. According to Arendt, this notion of freedom has disappeared with the modern age, where world alienation and introspection has led to a society removed from a common world, leaving humans isolated and lonely. America is a testament to Arendt's views, in that such freedom no longer exists. The public realm has vanished; government has degenerated into mere administration, the business of government has become the privilege of the few, and the average American citizen is no longer a participant in the political process.
Capitalism in America has removed freedom from the political realm and expropriated politicians from their place in the world. Big business is holding the American government captive with excessive contributions in the form of soft money from political action committees. The 'money chase' des...
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...order to further take advantage of the government.
Arendt's view of the vita activa, expressed in The Human Condition, can be applied to modern America. The political realm of democracy today has become expropriated from its place in the world, and the displacement of the average citizen in the Arendtian model has left the general public merely as a tool for capitalism to manipulate in order to get its way with the government. This directly opposes the classical ideal of freedom in vita activa and supports Arendt's belief that such a freedom no longer exists in the modern age. Oil corporations have influenced recent American foreign policy towards the Middle East, and the American public has been deceived into believing that they are fighting for freedom, when in fact Americans have been used to pressure the government into taking action in the Middle East.
“I asked why the curse of slavery was permitted to exist, and why I had been so persecuted and wronged from youth upward.” Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery and knew from the start that it was wrong. You can only imagine what exactly men and women’s experiences were while going through life as a slave. “If you have never been a slave, you cannot imagine the acute sensation of suffering at my heart.” Jacobs details the abuses of slavery, and the struggles slaves went through. She often referred to slavery as the demon, a curse, or as venomous similar to that of a snake. Many slaves wished death upon themselves and even their children instead of continuing on with their life as being a slave. Slaves went through extremely harsh conditions and were abused not only physically but also mentally. Even through all the tragedies, slaves stayed strong and stuck together and did everything they could to assert their power and gain freedom or to help someone else gain it. “There are no bonds so strong as those which are formed by suffering together.”
Just like any other narrative, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” by Harriet Jacobs is a narrative telling about a slave 's story and what slaves go through as they execute the socioeconomic dictates of their masters. It is important to note that more than five thousand former slaves who were enslaved in North America had given an account of their slave life during the 18th and 19th centuries. Many of their narratives were published on books and newspaper articles. Most of the stories of these slaves were centered on the experiences of life in plantations, small farms owned by the middle class natives, mines and factories in the cities. It is undeniable that without those slave narratives, people today will not be able to know how slaves
Irmgard Keun's 1931 novel, "Das Kunstseidene Mädchen", which has been translated into English as "The Artificial Silk Girl", is one of the most famous of Germany's `Neue Sachlichkeiten' works. This particular novel, in which the protagonist, Doris, a young working class German girl from Cologne, who dreams of the glitz and glamour and bright lights of the big city, Berlin - in her own words, she wants to be a "Glanz""Glamour Girl" - suffered subsequent censorship at the hands of Hitler's Nazi regime. This was due to the manner in which Doris is portrayed. Her behaviour and attitude towards men and her sexual relationships all greatly disturbed the National Socialist German society, which in effect deemed "Das Kunstseidene Mädchen" as anti-German, stating it possessed "antideutschen Tendenzen" . The uncompromising depiction of independent, self assured young women with goals out with the boundaries of being dependent on men was clearly "das Gegenteil des Hitler-Mädels-Ideals..." /"the opposite of Hitler's Young-Girl-Ideals." The intention of this essay, therefore, is to demonstrate the contrast in Doris' feelings for two of her lovers - Hubert, the student who also stays in Cologne, and with whom Doris claims she's "in love" with at the very beginning of the novel, and Ernst, the nice, `white-collar' man whose wife recently left him and who is reminded of his wife by Doris.
The Iliad is a story of strong characters, brave heroism, raw human emotion and physical and emotional strife. From war prizes to goddesses, women play a large role in that story. From the opening of the seemingly male-oriented epic, women are at the center of the plot movement and motivation. The war between Greece and Troy originally starts over a woman, Helen. The wife of Menelaus and the promised prize to Paris for being the judge of a beauty contest for the goddesses, Helen is the nexus of the war. Being the source of the entire war gives her a very powerful role in the Iliad. Even though the story is not about the war it based around the war and at times the two are very intertwined. Not all women in the Iliad have power though, many are treated like objects and property. The balance between male and female roles in this poem is a fascinating point of interest.
Following the American Revolution, Americans faced an intellectual crisis. For although, as a nation, America was now separated from England and Europe not only by an entire ocean, but also politically, America had failed to declare a sort of cultural independence from Europe. That is, until the ideas and writings of Ralph Waldo Emmerson. In his writings, he advocated the creation of new knowledge, creating less of a reliance on the ideas of the past, and also advocated ideas on the importance of personal identity in spite of society. This idea on individuality was elaborated on in his work “Self-Reliance”, which expresses the idea that the only true good a person can do, is the good that is within their constitution and that society attempts to erode the individuality of its members. In opposition to this idea, Kenneth Harris seeks to analyze the dissonance between the idealism of Emmerson, with the unidealistic self-interestedness of the term and philosophy itself.
Slavery in the middle of the 19th century was well known by every American in the country, but despite the acknowledgment of slavery the average citizen did not realize the severity of the lifestyle of the slave before slave narratives began to arise. In Incidents in the life of a slave girl, Harriet Jacobs uses an explicit tone to argue the general life of slave compared to a free person, as well as the hardships one endured on one’s path to freedom. Jacobs fought hard in order to expand the abolitionist movement with her narrative. She was able to draw in the readers by elements of slave culture that helped the slaves endure the hardships like religion and leisure and the middle class ideals of the women being “submissive, past, domestic,
Arendt’s studies state that “...evil thrives on apathy and cannot exist without it; therefore, apathy is evil.” (June Callwood, 442). The author then produces a persuasive argument about why she believes Arendt is correct in her findings, and adds her own conclusion; “They (bystanders) fantasize about taking leadership to get a much-needed crosswalk for the neighbourhood, or throwing themselves into good works. The problem is: how to start.” (June Callwood, 442). The author gives several examples of altruistic people who saw a chance to make change, and took it. She describes the difference of performing a good deed out of the goodness of one’s heart, and performing one with the intent of being rewarded. Callwood shows proof of extensive research in her writing, and craftily uses a mixture of pathos and logos (rare, but effective) to sway the reader into agreeing with her. Overall, the body of her essay is well written and very
This day in age, everything is always compared whether it is social status, racial problems, etc. A popular topic tends to be gender equality and different things both male and females endure, such as the fact that it is a lot easier for men to get a high paying job compared to women. Along the same lines, their suffering is also compared. In Harriet Jacobs, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” Jacob’s shares her experiences as a slave including the most traumatizing moments she went through. Although there is no doubt that every slave suffered greatly, women suffered the most during this time period; women went through sexual exploitation, psychological damage, and shame.
she is able to meet her twin sisters that have been missing from her life for over 30 years.
(36) The first part of the Morality Lectures 1995, given by Arendt at New School, was published as "Some Questions of Moral Philosophy." In Social Research, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Winter 1994), pp. 739-64. The other three parts remain unpublished as "Some Questions of Moral Philosophy". Morality Lectures 1965, New School for Social Research, Hannah Arendt's Papers, The Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, container 45. We will take the following systematic: 'Some Questions of Moral Philosophy I' for the part published and 'Some Questions of Moral Philosophy II' for the unpublished one. This quotation is in 'Some Questions of Moral Philosophy II' 024633.
In the movie Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen illuminated the repeated theme of emotions versus control through the actions of her two characters, Marianne, who was very sensuous and Elinor, who was very sensible. Their actions showed how Marianne was in touch with her senses and fully experienced her emotions and how Elinor seemed to possess good practical judgment and thought more about her actions and consequences thoroughly. These differences in their characters were exemplified throughout the story as they experienced love, disappointment, and resolution.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was a German born political theorist. Though often described as a philosopher, she rejected that label on the grounds that philosophy is concerned with "man in the singular" and instead described herself as a political theorist because her work centers on the fact that "men, not Man, live on the earth and inhabit the world."[6] As an assimilated Jew, she escaped Europe during the Holocaust and became an American citizen. Her works deal with the nature of power, and the subjects of politics, direct democracy, authority, and totalitarianism. (Wikipedia)
He began his arguments in Ill Fares the Land using charts, which demonstrated the gaps of inequality between different world powers, specifically the detrimental stance of the United States in terms of health, crime, illness, etc. He defines America through its low social stances, “broken highways, bankrupt cities, collapsing bridges, failed schools, the unemployed, the underpaid,” (50) creating a disparity between the power and other socially just nations. However, Judt fails to mention that the United States’ total government spending of 40 percent of G.D.P. is almost equal to those great liberal states he speaks of, such as Norway at 41 percent. I think that Judt’s narrow view towards capitalist democratic powers, such as the United States, creates conflict in his arguments. It is fair to criticize their practices, but to call for a completely social democratic nation is not tangible. Sometimes it is vital for the government to play a role in social circumstances, such as the stock market recession of 2008. Also, if all of the power is turned over to the states as Judt encourages, citizens may manipulate public power for their private gain. Judt also calls for social advocacy from young people to help better the western
Eichmann is the important executor of the Nazi massacre of the Jews. However, this concept is also not originally raised by Arendt, it comes from her husband Heinrich Blücher as an ironic statement for evil (Ulrich, paragraph 11). However, it idea becomes the key words for her subheading for her work “Eichmann in Jerusalem A Report on the Banality of Evil” which published in 1965. In this book, Arendt indicates that when we are facing this specific criminal, we are not facing the collective crime from totalitarianism any more, but an individual crime of an official from the totalitarian government. Therefore, the “radical evil” and “the banality of evil” are not two contradictory ideas logically. They are two different conclusions that are made by Arendt with two different angles to consider what is “evil”. The “radical evil” considers more about the society and “the banality of evil” concerns more about the
The theme that the people dearest to a person‘s heart can sometimes undermine that person’s affection and, in the end, cause them the most pain, is present in both works of literature and provokes a pronounced impact on the reading. In Sense and Sensibility, the reader is directed to the pain that the ladies face because of who they bestow their affection upon even further due to the theme. This is expressed greatly from the point that Marianne first hears of Willoughby’s