The Mechanics of War
Recently a new trend has taken up Wall Street. Savvy broker firms have realized that the market is probably controlled by some rules, and those rules have to be found to make more money with the least risk. They hired many mathematicians to look for any formulas that would seem to express the market. Those analyzed previous market trends and used laws of statistics to try to predict the “future” of the market. The funny thing is that at times this approach actually worked. It yielded a slightly more than fifty percent accuracy, and that was enough. (When dealing with tremendous amounts, even a small percentage is not meager.)
Statistics work for everything when there is a lot of it. They work for money, molecules, atoms, star systems, and even people. People tend to adhere to statistics when there is a fair amount of people to stifle the occasional fluctuations in human behavior. Many things we do depend on statistics. Take war for example. War is a very good example, since the outcome depends more on the general strategy of the whole war, than on individual soldiers. It follows definite rules that can be expressed in formulas. The individual people in war tend to become statistics, in the eyes of the high command, the public, as well as in their own perception. Tim O’Brien wonderfully illustrates this in his essay “How to Tell a True War Story.” He relates that there is no point to any events or actions according to the perception of the soldier during a war. “You smile and think, ... what’s the point?” (469) he says. A person then becomes nothing more than a statistic -- a part of a whole behaving in a random way. If there is no point to existence, then his actions are truly random. Something truly random can be easily studied, stimulated, expressed in some numbers, percentages, probabilities. This randomness of the soldier is what the whole military apparatus depends on. Consider: if the life of a soldier during war had a point, if he realized that there is some underlying meaning, wouldn’t he strive toward the goal assigned by that meaning? He would, for that is in human nature. Now, if there was no meaning in his perception, he could easily be persuaded that a particular thing must be done. He will obediently follow.
The idea of war and how it can be justified, is a rather trick topic to touch on, as there are diverse ethical and sociological implications that have to be weighed on every step. Mainly we could look at the “Just War Theory” and see how that could possibly apply to the real world. To be able to enter a “Just War” nations must meet six criteria in Jus ad Bellum (Going to War). The criteria is as follows: “Just Cause”, “Right Intention”, “Proper Authority and Public Declaration”, “Last Resort”, “Probability of Success”, and lastly “Proportionality”. However the tricky bit of the Just War theory, is that all six of those elements must be met, to go to war in a morally justifiable way. This could make an easy blockade for nations to veto another nation's effort to enter a war, even if morally justifiable. The problem with an internationally mandated “war-committee”, means that the fate of another nation's well-being could very well be in the hands of a nation with an ulterior motive. It could also fall into the grounds of new found illegal activity. Lets give a hypothetical situation, say nation 'X' wants to go to war with nation 'Y' in an act of self-defence, but it doesn't meet some of the requirements for “Just War theory” and is thus blocked by the war-committee. Then as a consequence, nation 'X' is invaded and annexed due to lack of defence. Nation 'X' could have made an effort to prepare for war, but at the cost of possibly being condemned and sanctioned by the war-committee. In an overall view, it's easy to see why the UN or other major international coalitions will not adopt a system based around Just War Theory.
The idea of a society where there is no freedom and the people have no rights, can be described through the warning foresights of a dystopia. In the novel, 1984, a country has lost all liberties to their government and war is commonly used as a political tool, as our government has done in the past. As our country continues down the path to becoming the dystopia described by George Orwell, it is seen that war is used as a political tool to help the government’s own agenda. By using wars to control the social views of the people, the products and wealth of the country, and the opinions of politicians and government officials, the governments of the United States and the country of Oceania can promote their own ideologies on others.
War is the epitome of cruelty and violence, an experience that can prove maddening and strip away some of the most intrinsic characteristics of humanity. Kurt Vonnegut’s experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II inspired his critically hailed novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), in which characters continually search for meaning in the aftermath of mankind’s irrational cruelty ("Kurt Vonnegut: 1922-2007" 287). Both the main character, Billy Pilgrim, and Vonnegut have been in Dresden for the firebombing, and that is what motivates their narrative (Klinkowitz 335). In his anti-war novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut expresses the adverse emotional effects of war through the psyche of Billy Pilgrim.
War is one thing that we all know is a necessary evil. The United States has been involved in many wars since being founded in the late 1700’s. There are many reasons that the United States has been involved in, or is currently involved in wars. Although war is not always a popular thing to become a part of, the full effects of the war are not always known and may never be known as long as the United States is a country. Stephen Crane tells us that there are many effects of war in his poem “War is Kind”. From that it can be derived that physical, mental, family, etc are all effects of war needing to be monitored. All of these effects are causing hardships among the people that are coming home from these battles either directly or indirectly. The full effects of any war are never known and are something that is going to need further investigation to allow professionals such as mental and physical health doctors to provide soldiers with the help they so greatly deserve.
Ever wonder what it would look like to have all students wearing the same white polo shirt, black pants, and a district sweater walking in the hallway? Nowadays, public school and many districts are discussing the possibilities of enforcing the uniform policy. In most places, many private schools already require students to have their mandatory uniforms; however, there are only a few public schools adopting this mandatory school-uniform polices as one of their enrollment requirements. The reason why not all public schools participated was because people believe that they are violating the freedom of choice when enforcing this mandatory uniform policy; yet problems such as bullying and segregation, emerged in these schools. Some people still think uniforms have no benefits at all. However, all public school students should be required to wear uniforms because it would improve the academic performance, reduce the violent behaviors based on appearance judgment, and provide less stress for both parents and students.
Many laws and regulations are implemented everyday into our society, involving equal rights for all. But, even with being in the year 2015; there is still much discrimination and inequality seen throughout many different institutions. Gender inequality is defined as unequal treatment or perceptions of individuals based on gender. This has been seen for many decades now, revolving mainly against women. Throughout history to even today, men have always been seen as the stronger, faster, and harder working gender as opposed to women. Today, with more women being seen working at larger firms and corporations, we still see many obstacles and challenges that they must face. While many women have fought for equality in the workplace, it is still a
With many of the schools that do not use school uniforms, they are having trouble with their students, and the school environment is collapsing. Two very educated people that work on keeping schools safe; Linda Lumsden and Gabriel Miller’s, in their article “School Uniforms and Dress Codes”, they have informed people the biggest reasons school crime exists. Some kids come in dressed promoting drugs and alcohol, others come in dressed in “swag in gang related clothes”, and other students come to school with sexually provocative clothing (Lumsden, Miller). This is getting out of hand because so many students are wearing cloths, which is provocative, and no one is taking serious control to stop them from being a distraction to other students. Also one of the biggest issues with schools these days, are the school shootings. Sherry Bowen, a professional in the education system has informed people about how easy it is to sneak in weapons to school. By using schools uniforms it will be hard to sneak in a gun, or other harmful weapon (Bowen). With schoo...
The concept of immigration greatly impacts on the economic situation of the host country as well as the master country. The host country is always a developed nation like United States which has extensive economic advancements. Immigrants coming into such a country bring incredible benefits like;
Uniforms in public schools are becoming more and more accepted around the world. “Over the last two decades, the debate over the implementation of school uniform policies in public schools has been a consistent presence in schools and districts around the United States.” (Sanchez, 345). Teachers, parents and school administrators feel the need for school uniforms as a positive way to increase school safety and increase academic performance. Even though school uniforms are not the most popular choice among students and parents, the positive impact school uniforms make on students and the school outweigh the negative opinions.
Chapter 11 closes our discussion with several insights into the efficient market theory. There have been many attempts to discredit the random walk theory, but none of the theories hold against empirical evidence. Any pattern that is noticed by investors will disappear as investors try to exploit it and the valuation methods of growth rate are far too difficult to predict. As we said before the random walk concludes that no patterns exist in the market, pricing is accurate and all information available is already incorporated into the stock price. Therefore the market is efficient. Even if errors do occur in short-run pricing, they will correct themselves in the long run. The random walk suggest that short-term prices cannot be predicted and to buy stocks for the long run. Malkiel concludes the best way to consistently be profitable is to buy and hold a broad based market index fund. As the market rises so will the investors returns since historically the market continues to rise as a whole.
The subject of school uniforms can spark quite a debate among proponents and opponents on both sides of the issue. You can find mixed feelings whether you talk to school administration and staff, parents, or the students themselves. In my research, I see more pros than cons associated with a school uniform policy; therefore, I would like to examine some of these positive impacts more closely. It is exciting to see how these policies are making a resoundingly-positive impact in our children’s lives! I think, as parents, we all want to level the playing field for our children.
The efficient market hypothesis has been one of the main topics of academic finance research. The efficient market hypotheses also know as the joint hypothesis problem, asserts that financial markets lack solid hard information in making decisions. Efficient market hypothesis claims it is impossible to beat the market because stock market efficiency causes existing share prices to always incorporate and reflect all relevant information . According to efficient market hypothesis stocks always trade at their fair value on stock exchanges, making it impossible for investors to either purchase undervalued stocks or sell stocks for inflated prices. As such, it should be impossible to outperform the overall market through expert stock selection or market timing, and that the only way an investor can possibly obtain higher returns is by purchasing riskier investments . In reality once cannot always achieve returns in excess of average market return on a risk-adjusted basis. They have been numerous arguments against the efficient market hypothesis. Some researches point out the fact financial theories are subjective, in other words they are ideas that try to explain how markets work and behave.
Often times, it is a challenge for teachers to maintain this pristine student behavior, but this can be easily accomplished with school uniforms. When equipped with school uniforms, students are more poised and courteous in the learning environment ("School Dress Codes Are Necessary"). Consequently, students are less distracting and more respectful towards instructors. Furthermore, not only do school uniforms improve behavior inside the classroom, but outside the classroom as well. For instance, by implementing school uniforms at California’s Long Beach School District, crime, suspensions, and sex offenses all dropped by at least 90% ("School Uniform Statistics."). Nearly depleting such momentous issues results in a much safer learning environment. Obviously, integrating school uniforms into schools is an intelligent decision, for they improve student behavior inside and outside of
students to wear uniforms or not. I have weighed the pros-and-cons, and although I can see a few drawbacks, ultimately, I support the idea. While I’ve considered the notion that uniforms may restrict our student’s individuality, undermine the whole “free education” idea, and might also be viewed as a band-aid solution to a few of the larger concerns our public schools face, however I strongly maintain that there are far more advantages than disadvantages. The U.S. Departments of Education’s Manual on School Uniforms states “Uniforms by themselves cannot solve all of the problems of school discipline, but they can be one positive contributing factor
“Although 90 percent of the students surveyed indicated they did not like wearing uniforms, various benefits to wearing uniforms were reported, including decreases in discipline, gang involvement and bullying, and increases in safety, ease of going to school, confidence and self-esteem.” During the first year that school uniforms were put into action, discipline referrals declined by approximately ten percent at Sparks Middle School. Issues such as gang affiliation, fights, and vandalism also dwindled. At Sparks Middle School it has been reported that gang involvement has declined by forty-one percent since requiring uniforms for all the students. Police reports also went down sixty-three percent since the school uniform policy was p...