War is a force that gives us meaning Essay Example for Free

War is a force that gives us meaning Essay War, when we confront it truthfully, exposes the darkness within all of us. This darkness shatters the illusions many of us hold not only about the human race but also about ourselves. Few of us confront our own capacity for evil, but this is especially true in wartime. And even those who engage in combat are afterward given cups from the River Lethe to forget. And with each swallow they imbibe the myth of war. For the myth makes war palatable. It gives war a logic and sanctity it does not possess. It saves us from peering into the darkest recesses of our own hearts. And this is why we like it. It is why we clamor for myth. The myth is enjoyable, and the press, as is true in every nation that goes to war, is only too happy to oblige. They dish it up and we ask for more. War as myth begins with blind patriotism, which is always thinly veiled self-glorification. We exalt ourselves, our goodness, our decency, our humanity, and in that self-exaltation we denigrate the other. The flip side of nationalism is racismlook at the jokes we tell about the French. It feels great. War as myth allows us to suspend judgment and personal morality for the contagion of the crowd. War means we do not face death alone. We face it as a group. And death is easier to bear because of this. We jettison all the moral precepts we have about the murder of innocent civilians, including children, and dismiss atrocities of war as the regrettable cost of battle. As I write this article, hundreds of thousands of innocent people, including children and the elderly, are trapped inside the city of Basra in southern Iraqa city I know wellwithout clean drinking water. Many will die. But we seem, because we imbibe the myth of war, unconcerned with the suffering of others. Yet, at the same time, we hold up our own victims. These crowds of silent deadour soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice and our innocents who were killed in the crimes against humanity that took place on 9/11are trotted out to sanctify the cause and our employment of indiscriminate violence. To question the cause is to defile the dead. Our dead counts. Their dead does not. We endow our victims, like our cause, with righteousness. And this righteousness gives us the moral justification to commit murder. It is an old story. In wartime we feel a comradeship that, for many of us, makes us feel that for the first time we belong to the nation and the group. We are fooled into thinking that in wartime social inequalities have been obliterated. We are fooled into feeling that, because of the threat, we care about others and others care about us in new and powerful waves of emotion. We are giddy. We mistake this for friendship. It is not. Comradeship, the kind that comes to us in wartime, is about the suppression of self-awareness, self-possession. All is laid at the feet of the god of war. And the cost of this comradeship, certainly for soldiers, is self-sacrifice, self-annihilation. In wartime we become necrophiliacs. As it happens, Ive just finished reading Mr. Hedges memoir, â€Å"War is a Force that Gives us Meaning†, and its very much of a piece with this, which is to say heartfelt, but overstated, particularly as regards his own country. Mr. Hedges spent fifteen years as a foreign correspondent, covering every war and genocide you can name, and many that few of us can. As just a reminder of these conflicts and of the victims thereof, it is worth reading. However, when he tries to draw broader conclusions he, perhaps understandably, overreacts. The truths that he speaks of above are not the only truths that war exposes, nor are they necessarily the primary truths. Its a truism that war is terrible, but it is just not the case, as even he ultimately must concede, that it is the most terrible thing. It would be dishonest to argue that myth is not an important part of patriotism and the will to war, but consider how much here is not myth. The deads of 9-11 were in fact innocent victims. They went to work one fine morning in September and because of that they were murdered. No amount of scab-picking about past American policy in the Middle East can ever make it so that they deserved to die, can it? Likewise, those who perpetrated that heinous act, al Qaeda, and those who aided them, the Taliban, can not escape moral culpability, no matter what their grievances against the United States. It is an objective truth that at least these victims of ours were innocent and at least those enemies are not. A somewhat better case can be made that the people of Iraq are innocent victims. However, they were victims of Saddam before we liberated themMr. Hedges might wince at the boastfulness of a term like liberation, but there is no reason for us toand their lives are immeasurably better today for our having acted. Who cares more for the people of Basra, those content to stand idly by while Saddam oppressed them or those whove returned their freedom to them? Moreover, far from ignoring the suffering of potential innocents in this war, we took every reasonable (and some perhaps unreasonable) precaution to avoid civilian casualties. If the myths of which Mr. Hedges speaks were wholly true, it would have been simplicity itself to slaughter Iraqis indiscriminately, even to exterminate the population, yet this we did not do. Here is the inescapable problem for Mr. Hedges: give a Hitler, a Stalin, a Milosevic, a bin Laden, a whomever, nuclear weapons and there can be little doubt theyd use them to kill their enemies. Yet we have them and we do not use them (except the twice, sixty years ago). If we had truly become necrophiliacs, as are our foes so often become, why would we not kill to out utmost capacity to do so? The attacks on the World Trade Center illustrate that those who oppose us, rather than coming from another moral universe, have been schooled well in modern warfare. The dramatic explosions, the fireballs, the victims plummeting to their deaths, the collapse of the towers in Manhattan, were straight out of Hollywood. Where else, but from the industrialized world, did the suicide hijackers learn that huge explosions and death above a city skyline are a peculiar and effective form of communication? They have mastered the language. They understand that the use of disproportionate violence against innocents is a way to make a statement. We leave the same calling cards. Corpses in wartime often deliver messages. The death squads in El Salvador dumped three bodies in the parking lot of the Camino Real Hotel in San Salvador, where the journalists were based, and early one morning. Death threats against us were stuffed in the mouths of the bodies. And, on a larger scale, Washington uses murder and corpses to transmit its wrath. We delivered such incendiary messages in Vietnam, Iraq, Serbia, and Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden has learned to speak the language of modern industrial warfare. Organized killing is done best by a disciplined, professional army. But war also empowers those with a predilection for murder. Petty gangsters, reviled in pre-war Sarajevo, were transformed overnight at the start of the conflict into war heroes. What they did was no different. They still pillaged, looted, tortured, raped, and killed; only then they did it to Serbs, and with an ideological veneer. Slobodan Milosevic went one further. He opened up the countrys prisons and armed his criminal class to fight in Bosnia. Once we sign on for wars crusade, once we see ourselves on the side of the angels, once we embrace a theological or ideological belief system that defines itself as the embodiment of goodness and light, it is only a matter of how we will carry out murder. The eruption of conflict instantly reduces the headache and trivia of daily life. The communal march against an enemy generates a warm, unfamiliar bond with our neighbors, our community, and our nation, wiping out unsettling undercurrents of alienation and dislocation. War, in times of malaise and desperation, is a potent distraction. George Orwell in 1984 wrote of the necessity of constant wars against the Other to forge a false unity among the proles: War had been literally continuous, though strictly speaking it had not always been the same war. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil. Patriotism, often a thinly veiled form of collective self-worship, celebrates our goodness, our ideals, our mercy and bemoans the perfidiousness of those who hate us. War makes the world understandable, a black and white tableau of them and us. It suspends thought, especially self-critical thought. All bow before the supreme effort. We are one. Most of us willingly accept war as long as we can fold it into a belief system that paints the ensuing suffering as necessary for a higher good, for human beings seek not only happiness but also meaning. And tragically war is sometimes the most powerful way in human society to achieve meaning. This is positively bizarre. One might imagine us to have been at war with the Arab world throughout the 90s, and Osama bin Laden to just be responding to our constant attacks. In fact, the truth, as the analysts tell us is the opposite. It was precisely because America was so reticent to respond to terror in any systematic way, so loathe leaving behind the roaring 90s and go to war, that al Qaeda became emboldened. In Mr. Hedge’s account we woke up one day, found our lives lacked meaning, and marched to war with an Islam we suddenly decided to portray as evil. In reality, we woke one day to find the World Trade Center and Pentagon in flames, decided that our lives had a meaning worth defending after all, and set out not to fight all Islam but those who have distorted it into something hateful. When in human history has a leader gone further out of his waymany would argue too farto limit just who the enemy is, to limit the material destruction and civilian deaths, to get aid to the newly liberated peoples, etc. Whenever else have military bombed countries with food and humanitarian supplies? No, to accept Mr. Hedges implicit argument that there is no difference between us and al Qaeda or between Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush is to abandon even the idea of morality. It is too deny that morality exists. Mr. Hedges himself acknowledges this, if not directly, when he disavows pacifism: The poison that is war does not free us from the ethics of responsibility. There are times when we must take this poisonjust as a person with cancer accepts chemotherapy to live. We cannot succumb to despair. Force is and I suspect always will be part of the human condition. There are times when the force wielded by one immoral faction must be countered by a faction that, while never moral, is perhaps less immoral. This is sheer nonsense. A doctor administers poison to the chemotherapy patienthas he not behaved morally? A bystander or a policeman uses force to stop a rapehave they not acted morally just because they used force, which, as Mr. Hedges says, will always be part of the human condition? One nation intervenes with force to stop genocide or a megalomaniac dictatorin what sense is this not a moral act? He closes the chapter by saying: This is not a call for inaction. It is a call for repentance. So we should not stand by and watch as one people slaughter another, but if we use force to stop it we must repent that use of force? What kind of morality is it that holds you guilty if you act and if you dont? The answer is not a serious one. This is mere self-flagellation and pious posturing. Mr. Hedges provides us with a harrowing glimpse of modern war and a salutary warning about how the enthusiasms of war affect all us, but he goes way too far and lapses into absurdity when he demands that we treat all uses of force as immoral

Tim OBriens Zeugmatic Novel, The Things They Carried :: Things They Carried Essays

Tim O'Brien's Zeugmatic Novel, The Things They Carried An early example of zeugma comes from Quintilian, the ancient Roman rhetorician, who cites the following from Cicero: "Lust conquered shame, boldness fear, madness reason," where the verb "conquered" is understood to also govern the final two phrases in the sentence (Crowley 203). The 18th century, an age of great rhetorical knowledge on the part of writers and preachers (and at least one writer-preacher, Laurence Sterne), is the heyday of zeugma. In "The Rape of the Lock" Alexander Pope speculates what may happen to Bellinda on a particularly ominous day: Whether the Nymph shall break Diana's Law, Or some frail China Jar receive a Flaw, Or stain her Honour, or her new Brocade, Forget her Pray'rs, or miss a Masquerade, Or lose her Heart, or Necklace, at a Ball.... (Butt 225) Pope does a beautiful job of contrasting the serious and the superficial in these five lines-will her chastity or her jar become flawed, will she forget her prayers or the masquerade? My paraphrases here fill out an implied zeugma in these lines, but it is in the third and fifth lines where he actually employs zeugma: will she "stain her Honour, or her new Brocade"? Will she "lose her Heart, or Necklace, at a ball"? In these "stain" and "lose" branch out to include (or to be more etymologically correct) YOKE quite different things: lace and a necklace being a bit more easily replaced than a stained honor and a lost heart, as those of you who have been in love may perhaps attest to. Richard Lanham, in a Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, defines zeugma as follows and again cites an example in Pope: "One verb governs several congruent words or clauses, each in a different way, as in 'The Rape of the Lock': Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey Dost sometimes counsel take-and sometimes tea." (Lanham 104-5)

Government Punjab Public Library Essay

Government Punjab Public Library Lahore lies in the heart of the city of Lahore at the Library Road near Lahore Museum. Thelibrary is centrally situated in this way and has a pleasant atmosphere for a calm and peaceful study. The library holds an exceptional rare collection of books in English, Urdu, Persian, Arabic and Punjabi. The total collection is about 500,000 books now, comprising of massive numbers of magazines and newspapers, reports, also the old gazettes of Punjab, Pakistan and undivided India and more than 1,500 manuscripts. Government Punjab Public Library was formed by Sir Charles Aitcheson in1886. It started off with an old monument-type building where they had only 70 books. Gradually donations of books and documents were made and the library system managed to build up strongly. It? s main purpose was to build a public library and a reading room. The other Blocks were built in 1924, 1939 and 1992. Introduction: Government Punjab Public Library is facing some major problems from quite some time. These problems include mostly theft and it is discovered after the theft, waiting in long queues before issuing the book, discovering, after waiting for long, that the desired book is unavailable, tast is done manually. There is no system to keep a proper check on the books in stock and also on the visitor. The need to introduce an automated system as a solution to the problems faced by the members of the Government Punjab Public Library bought me to RFID system. By introducing RFID system, which happens to be a combination of a computer chip and a small radio antenna that allows object to self-identify, we intend to solve all the above mentioned problems. This is a unique system of its kind that not only is the fastest, easiest and most effective way to track, locate and manage library material but also pledge security and safety. A number of deficiencies have been experienced in the current system of the library since the work is done manually which happens to be a big problem. Hence it seems to be the need of the hour to provide The Government Punjab Public Library with an automated system which is going to make lives, of all those who really want to bring some change by devoting most of their times in gaining knowledge, a lot easier. RFID system would help in making an effective flow of book circulation. Also, it helps in tracking the book in minutes instead of hours and the unique ID of the RFID tag prevents counterfeiting. Through market research ie; through the interviews that I conducted from the members and librarian on my visit to the library, I have concluded that 87% people are in a desperate need for a better system. According to these people, if an automated system is introduced not only members but non-members would also purchase or issue books which would end up increasing their market share. Apparently the conditions of Government Punjab Public Library demand an automated system that not only keeps a check on the stock but also helps the librarian in looking for one and also deals with security concerns. Therefore I believe that RFID system happens to be the best suited solution for a problem like this because this society is capable of producing really good writers, scholars, poets, students and a platform like an automated Library system can be a gateway to success for such people. I determinedly believe that by pursuing this possibility and by implementing, controlling and maintaining a system like this, we will be able to satisfy a large number of people who are the only hope to bring a change about a change in Pakistan. Discussion Apparently Government Punjab Public Library is undergoing some problems. These problems lead to low members follow–up and is the reason why there is a need for a better system. For starters, currently members complaint of experiencing long queues which frustrates them and they don’t want to return back. The frustration is further caused when after waiting for several minutes it is discovered that the book isn’t available in the library. And in case the book is available, the member has to wait for long since the manual entry of book issuing takes long. Disappointment follows when members receive unfriendly staff. Moreover constant cases of theft have been witnessed by the librarian. Members often hide the books in their bags and leave without issuing. This not only causes stock mismanagement but also results in disappointment. To solve these problems, installing an RFID system, is important. The purpose of installing RFID system in the library system is to change the current manual and hectic structure. This would not only help in eliminating theft but will also reduce time consumption and level of disappointment that is caused when discovered that the desired book/s is/are unavailable. Hence, getting an effective and automated Library Management System is essential. The reason why I chose RFID system is because it is the fastest, easiest and most efficient way to track, locate & manage library materials. Not only that, through RFID system automatic check-in and check-out can be practiced. While interviewing the librarians at the library I, time and again, heard them complaining about the mismanagement of the stock and also that it takes long in locating a book. Through RFID system Library inventory tracking can be done in minutes instead of hours because it is basically a wireless system for automatic identifications and tracking by using radio frequency electromagnetic fields, by transferring the data from a tag attached to a product, which in this case are the books. One of the problems that the librarian highlighted and laid great stress on addressing that problem was the stealing of books. According to the librarian, this is one of the biggest issues the management of library is dealing with but with the help of RFID system, they can easily address to a situation like this. With the help of walk through gates, which is one of the components of RFID system, stealer can be easily located. This is possible because every book will have its own RFID tag like every member will have theirs. And if someone tries to take the book without issuing, that person can easily be traced with the help of walk through gates which will start to beam as soon as some is illegally exiting. This brings me to the point of discussing some of the benefits that can be driven from introducing RFID system. For starters, with the walk through gates and tags, no thefts will be claimed hence, a secure library management system will be exercised. Moreover the schedule of the staff will become flexible. This is because the routine would not be as hectic as before. Also if two persons were dealing with a task earlier, now only one can easily handle it. Furthermore, trained workforce would walk in. There is another business benefit that will be gathered in the form of customer satisfaction. Obviously, when the customers would not have to wait for their turn, standing in a long queue, they would be much happier and content. Conclusion: Keeping in mind the benefits it can easily be concluded that this system will be a big success once installed. It won’t be a wise move to deny the fact that it is going to be a big investment but analyzing the benefits which are significant and undeniable, the cost would be a secondary thing to worry about. Currently the books are mishandled and misplaced by the incessant handling processes of the staff members. There is too much hassle in material handling. Now this issue would be resolved due to the self-digitalized service by the members and the staff as well and as a result the inventory would be properly preserved. With the RFID, the Punjab Public Library management system would be revolutionized and the overall performance would catch pace and tasks would be done quickly and on time. References: 1. Personally visited the Government Punjab Publiv library 2. http://www. rfid-library. com/en/default_e. html 3. http://gppl. org. pk/ 4. http://www. logisticsit. com/articles/2007/03/22/2679-the-benefits-of-rfid 5. http://www. jesic-tech. com/RFID_iLib. html 6. http://www. rfid-library. com/en/system-four-phases. html.

Essay Lowering the Drinking Age to Eighteen - 1340 Words

In 1984 Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole lobbied for all states to raise the legal drinking age from eighteen to twenty-one. The consequence for a state not raising the age was to lose a portion of their federal highway funding. I personally believe that the drinking age being twenty-one is just like when the voting age was twenty-one, if I can go to war and die for my country, then I should be able to go to the bar and buy a beer. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;One of the biggest problems in our society is under age drinking. They tell us how we aren’t allowed to drink, that we aren’t old enough or mature enough to do it, but the more adults talk about it, the more teenagers want to do it. When a kid goes off to college, it’s†¦show more content†¦What they don’t understand is that it takes a long time to get used to dealing with the after effects of a fifteen beer night. So they go out their first night, grab a cup, and start to drink. Sounds like fun until they try to walk home and they can’t remember where their dorm is. So they stumble around for a while, sometimes alone and other times with a group of friends. This goes on for a while until something finally happens. One outcome, the one that all kids think is going to happen, is that they finally find their limit and learn how to be responsible with their drinking while having fun at the same time. Another option is that they end up in jail for the night and then they have to go explain to mommy and daddy why they need an extra $200 this month. The next possible outcome is the one that no kid ever thinks will happen to them, that is when they end up in the hospital getting their stomach pumped because they drank too much. For most kids that is enough to make them never drink that much again, but some kids see it as a challenge, and the next time they go to the hospital it is because someone found them dead on the floor the next morning. My friends and I started to really drink the summer before my senior year. Personally I tried never to drink too much because I was alwaysShow MoreRelatedAccording To â€Å"College Drinking,† Almost Two Out Of Three1388 Words   |  6 PagesAccording to â€Å"College Drinking,† almost two out of three college students engage in binge drinking. Binge drinking is a pattern of drinking that brings blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels to 0.08 g/dL or higher (â€Å"College Drinking†). Many parents, guardians, and psychologists believe that college students binge drink because they think drinking is an integral part of their higher education. Similar to peer pressure, college students drink because the rest of the student body drinks. FurthermoreRead MoreThe Legal Drinking Age Of The United States Essay1385 Words   |  6 Pagesthe night before when they went out drinking. It is a common fact that most teenagers have had a drink of alcohol before their twenty-fir st birthday. 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David J Hanson a professor in the State University of New York believed that someth ing needs to be done to make the United States a safer place to live. Is it fair that people in the United States can serve in the military, vote in elections, serveRead MorePersuasive Essay On Underage Drinking1291 Words   |  6 PagesUnderage drinking is one of the largest problems that we have in the United States. This is a problem because alcohol is an item that nobody under twenty-one years of age is allowed to purchase or consume. People who are underage are punished by law when they consume or attempt to purchase alcohol illegally. This makes people under twenty-one want alcohol even more. In other countries where the drinking age is lower, there are less problems because it gives parents the push to teach their childrenRead MoreThe Drinking Age Should Be Legal974 Words   |  4 PagesThe Drinking Age For many reasons, the drinking age has been set at twenty-one years old, but has the time come to lower the drinking age? Many argue that the drinking age needs to be lowered back to eighteen for many reasons; however, studies and statistics show that lowering the drinking age is harmful and even deadly. Some people believe that binge drinking can be solved by lowering the drinking age, but lowering the drinking age is not the solution to binge drinking. Many teenagers spend theirRead MoreThe Legal Drinking Age Of The United States1479 Words   |  6 Pages The legal drinking age in the United States has been argued for many decades. The current minimal legal drinking age is twenty-one but some want to lower between eighteen and twenty. The main focus of the research conducted and opinions of people are based on the minimal legal drinking age of eighteen. The research is taken from the 1970s, when the twenty-sixth Amendment was passed in the Constitution (Wagenaar, 206). It was stated that eighteen is the â€Å"age of majority†, so thirty-nine of theRead MoreLowering The Alcohol Drinking Age1602 Words   |  7 Pages Lowering The Alcohol Drinking Age Now a day’s teens that are under the age of twenty-one are out in trouble and drinking. They know that they are not old enough to drink and that is what makes them want to drink even more. Teens drink when they are not suppose to, but they know that when they drink, they must stay out of trouble. Lowering the alcohol drinking age will keep a bunch of teens out of trouble. If teens can stay safe while drinking then they should allow eighteen year olds to drinkRead MoreShould the Legal Drinking Age Be Lowered to Eighteen?1192 Words   |  5 PagesShould the legal alcohol drinking age be lowered to eighteen? At the age of eighteen years old, you are eligible to vote, you can legally purchase cigarettes, you are eligible for the military draft, you are willing to die for this country, you are even able to serve on a jury, and you are titled as an adult at the age of eighteen. Why can’t someone at the age of eighteen not drink alcohol? Who is to say that just because some one is twenty-one years of age means that they are wise enough to drink