The Dangers Of Totalitarianism Philosophy Essay

The Dangers Of Totalitarianism Philosophy Essay Totalitarianism Totalitarianism: Of, relating to, being, or imposing a form of government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed (Dictionary.com). Essentially, totalitarianism is a type of government in which the person or people in power seek to maintain absolute control over every person under their authority, with virtually all importance eliminated from the concept of an individual. George Orwell witnessed firsthand the horrific lengths to which totalitarian governments in Spain and Russia would go in order to sustain and increase their power and was deeply disturbed by the widespread cruelties and oppressions he observed. Yet the phenomenon of totalitarianism, though somewhat novel in its twentieth-century extent, is nothing new. Prominent philosophers, from the ancient Plato and Aristotle to the early-modern Mac hiavelli and Hobbes, discussed totalitarianism as it manifested itself in its various forms, especially monarchy or, more controversially, in Platos polis. In this sense, totalitarianism and its characteristics have been important concerns for writers and political philosophers throughout the ages. 1984 1984 is a political novel written with the purpose of warning readers in the West of the dangers of totalitarian government. Orwells primary goal in 1984 is to demonstrate the terrifying possibilities of a totalitarian society, the most extreme realization imaginable of a modern-day government with absolute power. The title of the novel was meant to indicate to its readers in 1949 that the story represented a real possibility for the near future: if totalitarianism were not opposed, some variation of the world described in the novel could become a reality in only thirty-five years. Orwell was concerned by the role of technology in enabling oppressive governments to monitor and control their citizens every aspect of human life to the extent that even having a disloyal thought is against the law. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is the looking glass into Orwells horrifying perfect communist society, where all of Winstons worst paranoids and fears are realities. Winstons timidly reb ellious personality sets out to challenge the limits of the Partys power and attempts to gain individuality towards throughout the plot. This resistance allows the reader to understand, through Winstons eyes, the Partys harsh oppression which includes Psychological Manipulation, Physical Control, Control of Information and History and Language as Mind Control. Psychological Manipulation The Party barrages its citizens with psychological manipulation in their attempt to control the human mind and to overwhelm the minds capacity for independent thought. The Party seeks to eliminate all throughtcrime, the crime of thinking anything against the infallible Big Brother. The act of thinking about committing a crime is, the essential crime that contained all others in itself (Orwell, 19). That action is considered by the Party the most horrible, for only with thought and a conscious decision to take action will any action be performed; without thoughtcrime, no crime would be committed. As such, the Party utilizes every possible method of eliminating thoughtcrime. Winston commits a thoughtcrime when he purchases a diary and in it writes, Down with Big Brother, (Orwell, 19). He then reflects on the inevitable consequences of his action: Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with, made no difference, the Thought Police would get him just the same, (Orwell, 19). The Party has the power to realize any committed thoughtcrime and to punish the criminal. Additionally, the giant telescreen in every citizens room blasts a constant stream of propaganda designed to make the failures of the Party appear to be successes. The telescreens also monitor behavior; everywhere they go, citizens are continuously reminded, especially by means of the ever-present signs reading BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, that the authorities are scrutinizing them. 1984 reveals that technology, which is generally perceived as working toward moral good, can also facilitate the most diabolical evil. Furthermore, the Party weakens family structure by inducting children into Junior Spies, an organization which brainwashes and encourages them to spy on their parents and report any cases of disloyalty to the Party. The Party also forces individuals to suppress their sexual desires, treating sex as only a procreative duty to create new Party membe rs. Realizing the importance of the human mind, the Party not only threatens the society, but also channels the peoples potential into actions to benefit the Party. The Party institutes the Hate Period: for two minutes every day, a film of Emmanuel Goldestein, the pronounced enemy of the people, is shown and viewers are driven to anger. As Winston declares, The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in, (Orwell 12). By utilizing the power of the human mind, the Part is able to further their control over their society. Physical Control In addition to manipulating their minds, the Party also controls the bodies of its citizens. The Party constantly watches for any sign of disloyalty, to the point that, as Winston observes, even a tiny facial twitch could lead to an arrest (Orwell, Ch 6 or 7). A persons own nervous system becomes his greatest enemy. The Party forces its members to undergo mass morning exercises called the Physical Jerks, and then to work long, grueling days at government agencies, keeping people in a general state of exhaustion (Orwell, Ch 3). Anyone who does manage to defy the Party is punished and reeducated through systematic and brutal torture. When Winston is arrested, he is able to experience first-hand the punishment constructed by the Party. The Party fully believes in the importance and rightness of their actions, and OBrien, who is an important member of the Party, explains how their society is different: We are not content the negative obedience, nor even with the most abj ect submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free willà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Everyone is washed clean, (Orwell, 210). Winston must fully surrender to OBrien. It does not matter what he says, but rather what he believes, for in the mind lies the ultimate power. Describing the process enacted by the Party, OBrien says, There are three stages in your reintegrationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦There is learning, there is understanding, and there is acceptance, (Orwell, 215). In order to attain the state desired by the Party, one deemed mentally deranged must undergo all three of these stages, as Winston eventually does. However, Winston initially is unable to truly believe everything said by the Party. He is able to say that he believes, and perhaps wants to believe, but doubt still remains. As the final push to belief, Winston is taken to the infamous Room 101. OBrien tells Winston, The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the worldà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦it varies from individu al to individual (Orwell, 233). The greatest possible torture is individualized, and with this torture, comes anything. After going through weeks of this intense treatment, Winston himself comes to the conclusion that nothing is more powerful than physical pain-no emotional loyalty or moral conviction can overcome it. At the end of the book Orwell writes, He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother (Orwell, 245). By conditioning the minds of their victims with physical torture, the absolute power of the Party allows Winston to believe in everything that society does. Control of Information History The Party also has a control over all sources of information. It manages and rewrites the content of all newspapers and histories for its own ends. The Party does not allow individuals to keep physical records documenting the past which prevents people from challenging the governments motivations, actions, and authority. Citizens become perfectly willing to believe whatever the Party tells them. Winston believes having no physical records such as photographs and documents, makes ones life lose its outline in ones memory. Winston only vaguely remembers a time before the Party came to power, and memories of his past enter his mind only in dreams, which are the most secure repositories for thoughts, feelings, and memories that must be suppressed in waking life. Furthermore, Winston considers Oceanias relationship to the other countries in the world, Eurasia and Eastasia. According to official history, Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia and in all iance with Eastasia, but Winston knows that the records have been changed. Winston remembers that no one had heard of Big Brother, the leader of the Party, before 1960, but stories about him now appear in histories going back to the 1930s. By controlling the present, the Party is able to manipulate the past. And in controlling the past, the Party can justify all of its actions in the present. (Chapter III) Language as Mind Control One of Orwells most important messages in 1984 is that language is of central importance to human thought because it structures and limits the ideas that individuals are capable of expressing. The Party has introduced Newspeak to replace English. Its purpose is to alter the structure of language to make it impossible to even conceive of disobedient or rebellious thoughts, because there would be no words with which to think them. Syme, an intelligent Party member who works on a revised dictionary of Newspeak, says, Dont you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it (Orwell 46). The Party is constantly refining and perfecting Newspeak, with the ultimate goal that no one will be capable of conceptualizing anything that might question the Partys absolute power. Conclusion on 1984 Intro to Philosophers The partys methods, from its implementation of psychological manipulation and absolute physical control to its control of information and history and its use of language as mind control, point toward the ultimate aim of the party itself: absolute, centralized control over the lives of the inhabitants of Oceania. This goal characterizes the ruling power of Oceania squarely as totalitarian. The line between the private and public spheres, present in every single other regime, is blurred to such an extent that every action becomes inherently political. Before the twentieth century, the idea of such a regime was itself unconceivable; nevertheless, the philosophers of the past such as Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli and Hobbes provide a glimpse to power similar in extent to the one Orwell chronicles in 1984. Plato Platos Republic gives this ancient perspective on the subject of powerful political orders. It is not difficult to advance the claim that the polis Plato presents in his Republic is fundamentally totalitarian. The guardians of the polis itself use several of the same methods as those of Oceania, and one of the aims of the polis is to create a harmonious structure, one which is often identified with an idea of unity-is similar to that of a totalitarian regime which, by destroying the difference between the public and private spheres and by bringing every action to the political realm, strives to create a unity among the men subject to it. While two things separate the polis from the Party-popular satisfaction with the rulers and the lack of incentive to rule-some of the ideas present in the Republic, such as the concentration of political power and the exertion of power over daily life, are clear even in Orwells 1984. The first major component of the totalitarian-like regime in the polis is the extent to which political power is concentrated in the guardian class of citizens. In the polis, as in other totalitarian orders, there is no alternative to the ruling party. The guardians are meant to be the only power capable of ruling, and the entire structure of the polis is founded upon the idea that they will in fact be the rulers. A similar structure is found in totalitarian systems, wherein power is firmly concentrated on one bloc or person. Socrates insists that this concentration of power does not indicate anything more than a means to a good end and that the producers will be grateful to those above them for ruling philosophically. There is no such guarantee in a totalitarian regime, but for better or worse, whether in Platos utopian (or dystopian) society or in potential systems of the future, once power is centralized to such a great extent, there is no guarantee that the rulers will not abuse of their subjects for their own benefit, tangible or otherwise, except for their good will and magnanimity. The second major totalitarian feature of the polis is its control over the daily life of citizens, which is accomplished by means of education, itself a form of psychological manipulation. Control over popular forms of media constitutes one of the key assets of the rulers of the polis, just as it does in 1984, and poetry, music, theatre, and other such arts, a vital part of the culture of a city in Ancient Greek times, would be subject to the regulation and approval of the citys ruler. The introduction of the noble lie adds to the totalitarian nature of the guardians. The noble lie, despite the good it intends to bestow upon the populace, is still a lie, and it represents a propagandistic concern with regard to how much the populace is actually able to consent to the leadership itself. In addition, education itself poses an issue in this respect. Given the extensive control over education by the guardians, the possibility of mass deception, a feature most often associated with totali tarian regimes, becomes real. Despite Platos insistence that these methods are to be used for good, they are in reality frighteningly similar to those utilized by the Party in 1984. The third similarity between the polis and a totalitarian regime is found in the notion of collectivism. The terms by which Plato refers to the members of his society provide some insight into this strong collectivism. Never is any individual member of society referred to as an individual. This fact emphasizes the collective sense of unity and harmony for which Platos polis strives. However, it is important to remember that one of the ultimate aims of totalitarian government is to eliminate the distinction between the individual and other members of society, creating the same sense of concord found in the Republic. Yet Plato takes this collectivism one step further, instituting the sharing of wives and the mass, rather than familial, upbringing of children, much in the same way that more communistic totalitarian regimes remove any trace of natural ties found through familial bonds in favor of those artificially created by the state.

Global Health Nursing Primary Health Care/Primary Care

Global Health Nursing Primary Health Care/Primary Care This discussion will cover the demographic trends that impact global health today, look at patterns of health and disease that impact global health, explain the difference between primary health care and primary care, and review the World Health Organizations (WHO) priority for global health. There are many factors that affect global health including population, environment, and disease. One of the greatest pressures on the global community is the growing population. This demographic trend has a great impact on global health.The global population was 2. 8 billion in 1955 and is 5. 8 billion now. It will increase to about 8 billion by the year 2025. Average life expectancy at birth in 1955 was just 48 years; in 1995 it was 65 years; in 2025 it will reach 73 years (World Health Organization [WHO], 2012). The increasing population means more people living in urban areas; therefore the closer we live together the increased chance of disease and illness. The added people also puts an increased stress on the environment leading to air pollution, water contamination, and less land to depend on for food.The growing numbers presents a threat to health and the economy of many nations. In developing counties, malnutrition and disease are problematic; whereas in developed countries overcrowding leads to pollution, disease, and violence. With increasingly dense living arrangements and global travel, the health of the general populations is threatened by environmental factors and disease, for example, the H1N1 influenza pandemic (Nies & McEwen, 2011, p. 270). Mortality rate, based on disease patterns, vary throughout the world.The biggest difference depends on if it is in a developed country or a developing country. Of 57 million deaths worldwide in one year, 33 million are from noncommunicable disease, 18 million are from communicable diseases, and 5 million are from injuries and violence (Nies & McEwen, 2011, p. 271). Developed countries have the highest mortality rate of chronic disease patterns such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease, stroke, violence, and traumatic injury. While developing countries have the highest mortality rates of infection, malnutrition, and violence.Developed countries are able to reduce mortality rate due to diseases by improving sanitation and immunization through community health. As a country becomes developed, an epidemiological change occurs from risk of infection and malnutrition to having chronic disease. In developing countries, infectious diseases that contribute to high rates of mortality include acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), tuberculosis, endemic malaria, hepatitis B, rheumatic heart disease, parasitic infection, and dengue fever. Yet, these diseases could be reduced by 50% through effective public health interventions (Nies & McEwen, 2011, p. 71). When we discuss the global community, some tend to get the terms primary healt h care and primary care confused. Primary health care refers to essential services that support a healthy life including access, availability, service delivery, community participation, and the citizen’s right to health care. In contrast, primary care refers to first-line or point-of-access medical and nursing care controlled by providers and focused on the individual (Nies & McEwen, 2011, p. 276). In developing countries focusing on the individual in not realistic, the main focus is on the group, therefore primary health care is first priority.One must meet the basic needs such as safe drinking water and food before we can provide individual care. Promoting health worldwide is a great challenge. Several agencies play a part in accomplishing this goal, including the WHO. The WHO stated a goal of â€Å"health for all by the year 2000† back in the 70’s. This goal was then extended to 2010 once it was unattained. Working for the WHO as a nurse would require one to open their mind and think more broadly. The main focus would be solving the problems of the health care delivery system (Nies & McEwen, 2011, p. 275) in order to accomplish the stated goal.As nurses’ we need to look at the comparison between developed and developing counties because there is much we can learn. There is a need for health care reform, and the goal of â€Å"health for all† should guide this. Cuba and Canada were both recognized for reaching the goal of â€Å"health for all†. Collective responsibility or population-based focus must be established with less emphasis on the individual (Nies & McEwen, 2011, p. 275). Prevention is the first line of defense for the reduction of disease and illness. As a nurse working for the WHO, my main focus would be health care reform. Read also: The Advantage of Free Health CareNursing, as the pivotal health care profession, is well positioned to advocate on behalf of, and in concert with, individuals, families, and communities who are in desperate need of a well-financed, functional, and coordinated health care system that provides safe, high-quality care. Accessible, affordable, and high-quality health care will positively contribute to our individual health, the strength of society, our national well-being, and overall productivity (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2008, p. 4). References American Nurses Association. (2008). ANA’s health system reform agenda.Retrieved from http://www. nursingworld. org/Content/HealthcareandPolicyIssues/Agenda/ANAsHealthSystemReformAgenda. pdf Nies, M. A. , & McEwen, M. (2011). Globalization and international health. In Community/public health nursing: promoting the health of populations (5th ed. , p. 269-283). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Sanders. World Health Organization. (2012). Global health observatory. Retrieved from http://www. who. int/gho/ncd/mortality_morbidity/ncd_total/en/index. html World Health Organization. (2012). The world health report. Retrieved from http://www. who. int/whr/1998/media_centre/50facts/en/

Professional Nursing Organization- AANN Essay

Becoming a nurse is more than just performing patient assessments, passing medications, and charting. When entering the nursing profession one feels a sense of pride, an ethical obligation, and a desire to uphold a certain image nurses want to display. To its members, guide nursing behaviors, are instrumental in clinical decision making, and influence how nurses think about themselves† (Creasia & Friberg, 2011, p. 49)†. The profession’s values give direction and meaninAs a new graduate nurses are overwhelm with learning the technical components of nurses and the desire to uphold the image of the nursing profession can be placed on the back burner. As nurses pass the novice stage of the career their core values provide the desire to expand their scope of practice, or clinical autonomy. Becoming a member of a professional nursing organization allows nurses to expand their clinical autonomy and â€Å"provide a structure for the exercise of autonomy and accountability to ensure that quality services will be provided by competent professionals† (Creasia & Friberg, 2011, p. 63). A professional organization is â€Å"an organization of practitioners who judge one another as professionally competent and have banded together to perform social functions which they can perform in their separate capacity as individuals† (Creasia & Friberg, 2011, p 63. A professional nursing organization such as the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses requires its members to display specific core values and guiding principles that contribute to the â€Å"advancement of neuroscience nursing as a specialty through the development and support of nurses to promote excellence in patient care† (American Association of Neuroscience Nurses). The members of the AANN share values such as excellence, innovation, collaboration, integrity, and visionary. AANN members also think strategically in order to achieve the organization’s goals of advancement in nursing, are results-oriented and focus on outcomes by assessing â€Å"efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and qual ity; †¦use benchmarks and/or historical data when available to evaluate performance.† (AANN). It is not necessary to be a  RN to join the AANN, but it is a requirement that a member must be a RN in order to vote and hold office in the organization. Becoming a member of the AANN comes with a myriad of social and educational opportunities. The AANN has eight Special Focus Groups and they include: Advanced Practice Nurse, Epilepsy, Movement Disorders, Neuromuscular/MS, Neuro-oncology, Neurotrauma, Pediatrics, Spine, and Stroke. Membership also provides opportunities for volunteering, AANN publications, an ANA eMembership, education advancement, and a discount on fees for a CNRN certification. The AANN supports the Certified Neuroscience Registered Nurse (CNRN) certification and offers members assistance with fees in order to promote professional and education development of its members.. The CNRN certification is accredited by the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification (ABSNC), helps hospitals achieve or maintain a Magnet status and a CNRN certified nurse is a high caliber nurse with a strong commitment to neuroscience nursing. Members are also associated with the many partnerships the AANN has secured such as the Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, and alliances with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA), the Neuroscience Nurses Foundation (NNF), We Move, the World Federation of Neuroscience Nurses (WFNN), the World Parkinson Congress, and many more. In the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience Nursing there is an article that researched the factors that influence the decision of treatment options in MS patients. The study showed that there is a core theme when it comes to a MS patient’s decision about treatment. â€Å"The core theme included reflection about self-image, quality of life, goals, and being a person with MS† (Lowden, Virginia, & Ritchie2014). According to Lowden et. al (2014), common themes supporting this core theme were (a) weighing a deciding what’s important, (b) acknowledging the illness as part of oneself, (c) playing the mental ga me, (d) seeking credible resources, evaluating symptoms and fit with quality of life, and (f) managing the roles and involvement of family. The AANN participates in The Nursing Community in order to address specific nursing issues and promote the professional stature of nursing. The Nursing Community â€Å" is a forum for national professional nursing associations to  build consensus and advocate on a wide spectrum of healthcare and nursing issues, including practice, education, and research† (AANN). Another way the AANN promotes nursing professionalism is through its Advocacy Committee. The purpose of the Advocacy Committee is to â€Å"educate, inform, and encourage people interested in healthcare issues to become knowledgeable about the legislative process and become involved in health policy advocacy. Please use this information to take action to support neuroscience nurses to improve the nation’s healthcare system† (AANN). In order for an organization to promote professionalism there must be a role model that portrays the characteristics of a professional. The president of the AANN is Megan Keiser, RN DNP CNRN NP-C. Being not only a RN, receiving a CNRN certification, the president of the AANN, Megan Keiser, is also a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). According to Creasia & Friberg, (2011), the extent to which the profession attracts and uses the people who earn the most respected advanced degrees and then gives those people the opportunity to be role models and spokespersons for nursing will determine how the profession will grow in viability, usefulness, and esteem. Works Cited American Association of Neuroscience Nurses. (nd).Retrieved from http://www.aann.org/about/content/aannboard.html Creasia, J. L. & Friberg, E.E. (Eds.). (2011). Conceptual foundations: The bridge to professional nursing practice (5th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier. Lowden, D., Lee, V., & Richie, J.A. (2014). Redefining Self: Patients’ Decision Making About Treatment for Multiple Sclerosis. Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, 46 (4), doi 1097/JNN.0000000000000064.

Writing News Useful Software for Writers

Software and writing don’t easily go hand in hand in popular belief. In fact, it would probably be news for most people to find out that there are a lot of programs that can relieve writers of all kinds of problems if they find them and learn how to use them. Here is a short enumeration of different programs that may turn out useful for a writer, fiction or nonfiction one. Let’s take a look. Whitesmoke is an English Grammar checker with great functionality: it works wherever you write, be it Microsoft Word, a mail agent or a box in the Internet, it checks your mail before you post it, and does a lot of other things. If you are not very good with grammar, you will certainly make good use of it. Attachà © software is created for non-fiction writers – it is a great help in organizing information, arranging all your preliminary notes, ideas, drafts and so on in an orderly manner. Storybase, on the contrary, positions itself as â€Å"the ultimate software for fiction writers†. It allows you to enter a few prompts concerning their characters and their actions and receive lots and lots of suggestions: how they would behave, what their relationships with each other will be and so on. The only possible drawback is that Storybase almost entirely deals with emotions of the characters – if it is what your novel is about, go ahead and use it. Another program for writers is Newnovelist – it helps you organize your thoughts and ideas, allowing you to write down fragments of your novel as they come to your head so that it is easy to rearrange them later. Another similar program is Writer’s Blocks – it will certainly be good news for any prospective writer who has problems with putting his thoughts and ideas in order. It allows you to create â€Å"blocks† of information – for example, when you come up with a great idea but cannot attach it to the text you have already written. You can, of course, simply jot it down – but you are likely to lose it that way. Writer’s Blocks allows you to keep track of what your write. Muse Names. How often have you seen a person in a work of fiction clearly belonging to a certain ethnicity but having a name that either has nothing to do with it or doesn’t exist at all? If you want to avoid similar embarrassments in your own work, use Muse Names – it easily allows you to find culturally correct names. Finally, indexing software, like Macrex, Cindex or Sky Index is a great help for those who need to compile an index. They do not automatically turn you into an expert in this field, but they can certainly help in understanding the principles.