Conventional Wisdom Society

Conventional Wisdom Society Introduction The term conventional wisdom is one that has raised a flurry of social indecisions in the past and the present. John Kenneth Galbraith coined it the year 1958. It refers to the belief that is now being propagated amongst the society until it is now believed to be true by the society or around certain domains. This term refers to beliefs, rumors that have for a long time been propagated around the society. This term is referred to as outdated because the issues being raised are not validated by any method be it scientific, mathematical or any other way that may prove that they are true or are of any significance to society as a whole. This is true until now because as we can see it today, reports that are being flouted it the public domain about certain individuals or certain issues that affect the society stay on so long that that people tend to believe more in the rumors than concentrate on the issues that affect the society. Therefore it means that the rumors can change as time goe s by depending on the keepers of the outdated information. However, because of the impact conventional wisdom has had on the society at large, and now that it has found its way in to the academic and professional fields, it is fare that it is pinned in the annals of history as a topic that can be used to accredit things that have taken place in the past (around 1838) and be able to make appropriate studies today. This term might be true or not true, but regardless of the real meaning of the story, one may be mesmerized by the kind of reception that the information is given by the society. The big question that begs is, â€Å"how does conventional wisdom make its way in our society?† The conventional wisdoms are deposed, phased out by new ideas, and the new conventional wisdom is treated in the same breadth in place of the preceding one, there may yet be some remaining connection to the previous system. Impact of conventional theory in the society Conventional theory has instigated high controversies especially in professions and academic circlers. It is a great barrier to formation of new theories and hypotheses. This is because it provides a view that is outdated and yet society seems to have embraced it. However in other circles like the religious and social circles, it acts as a pillar that is leaned on to enhance interactions between persons that share similar beliefs and values. Debate is still high on whether to embrace the concept of conventional wisdom amongst us as a people. Reasons why conventional wisdom still exists People have heard of one issue or another as being told since they were born. Many stories have been told, for example the story on Robinson hood and his excellence as a hero who promotes heroic stunts that are against the law but still manage to survive. The society in which a person lives Because people tend to remain innovative and creative, one may fin an assessment of a certain topic to be almost the same as other issues that are real in the natural world. Because of such kind of an assessment, the individual tends to believe more in this finding and influence other people closer to him to create sense out of the issues that this individual is trying to portray to them. There is also the issue of role models. Nowadays any person that is successful in our society is regard as a role model for the younger generation without regard for the details about the person. This people find easy targets in the people who look up to them because they can easily spread conventional wisdom on the issues that may be of great interest in their opinion Media and public creative arts performances People may also try to stick to some kind of belief because it was presented in the media or some kind of broadcast that has been trusted by society as informative. This is a very strong force to reckon with especially in the 21st century. The modern world relies on the media for almost most information that they need to know. For this reason, the media has been granted the ‘god status, as all information is taken in without criticism. The cinema halls are joining in, because most people now enjoy their leisure time in the cinemas. The cinema has been know as a mode of passing educative information to the public. It means if the cinema has some information that is not true, m some individuals may sanction it as holy and carry it as the truth. Examples of conventional wisdom Conventional Wisdom about Religion and Politics Religion acts as course if inspirational source for the public. People frequent the places of worship to find messages that can uplift their way of life starting from the spiritual life, to politics and other issues in the society. The religious leaders take these opportunities to assert some this that they believe should be the way society has to be shaped towards thus creating the effect that will soon are felt all across the society. The preachers educate the large audiences in the worship centers and mobilize the crowds towards certain premeditated directions. Today in the churches, there are several politically sensitive messages that are delivered in sermons all frequently and in broader terms that could not be thought of by the normal person. It is in view of the majority of religious individuals that these kinds of message are meant to solve social injustices and social values that change humanity. However, this fact has led to the dissemination of certain information to the public domain that is continually affecting the political scene all over the world. The church today is made up of an open loop of people who are bound by very strong beliefs also influenced by the frequent interactions that they have within the church fraternity (Carter, I. J.). These groups of people form a unit of persons with motivation driven by common values and perceptions about different issues that take place in the society today. Churches are the highest centers where conventional wisdom are passed most (White 1968). The conventional wisdoms are deposed, phased out by new ideas, and the new conventional wisdom is treated in the same breadth in place of the preceding one, there may yet be some remaining connection to the previous system. Conventional wisdom on education According to Thomas Jefferson, the process of schooling today was based on the principle of use of force. In this case students are forced to go to school, take assignments, and sit for exams and in worse scenarios, the admittance of students to schools through coercion (Koller, N. B. 2005). In defying this conventional wisdom he provides a seven step plan of action which would guide the education system in the state of Massachusetts. According to Jefferson, a school going child has only three years to fully grasp the general concepts of life that would enable him to make judgments, do arithmetic problems and accumulate enough history to enable the to be able to be better judges of their actions and those of the people that are around them. Conventional wisdom on economics Forecasting is always the norm in the economics. Forecasting in economics is an important concept that may be used in realizing new developments than are likely to occur in the market to prevent against unforeseen complications. In depth research has been made on the kind of research that is being conducted by the scientists be it formal or informal. Scientist who carry out the forecasting of economic trends often insist that they can make consistent and true predictions fore the market as long as the trends in the market continue in a similar manner. Conventional wisdom has always been that the forecasters are the only persons who can deduce the trends of the market. However, contrary to this outdated notion is that the trends in the market depend on a number of factors that are natural and cannot be based on numerical values par se. They have difficulty in identifying the changes in the market trends. The idea is to forecast how trends will change and more important is the time, economy scientists have failed at achieving this forecast (Cocker et al. 81). There is the conventional wisdom that the human population is growing highly and they might just overwhelm the resources that are available on earth. Furthermore these claims were complemented by the fact that the human race may be consuming this resource to their death. This notion tries to send the message that the world is locked with a static amount of resources that might just be used up so nothing remains of it There are several errors in this argument, since it has not been proven. However the human population has continued to believe in this notion.  This argument is erroneous because of the assumption that the population in the world continues growing while the resources remain static. Nevertheless the continued growth of the human population results into more knowledge and more provision of labor in the market. We are also thinkers, creators, and producers.   When there are more people, there are new ideas and overall productivity/efficiency increases.   With more people we can do things more efficiently, using fewer resources in the process. In addition, there is the process of substitution.   When there is shortage of certain resources in the market in creates avenues for price rises, creating an inducement to alternate a cheaper resource in the market. Entrepreneurs find substitutes and use them to cover the shortage. The important factor is that the purpose of the product is not lost at any cost by the scarcity of the other.  In the sixties the industries and experts said that the world was running out of copper wires. There was an increase on the prices of the copper. Research was the initiated into alternative ways of transmitting information. It can also be noted that the plastics replaced the use of metal when there was worries that the metal could run out.  Many examples exist and will continue reoccurring in new forms that cannot be predicted for now (Dixoon Research). Advantage of the existence of conventional wisdom It has created legend acting as a subject identified to them. It is use to gauge normative characteristics in individuals within the context of professionals. It provides an opportunity for bonding and interaction within the society and in professional fields. Disadvantages It propagates a culture which induces lack of growth since in acts as a hindrance to development. Their existence only provides an opportunity for more new conventional theories It reduces the opportunity for innovation and creating since the inventions tend to be pegged on these conventional wisdoms. Conclusions and recommendations The world today is different smaller units which are connected by social interactions and collaborations. There are also many issues that affect the world today ranging from politics, religion, environment and health. It is in the best interest of humanity and the world as a whole to focus on these issues and provide solutions to them. By perpetuating conventional theories in certain sectors hinder the progress for provision of solutions. In some sectors there is observation of high interactions and collaborations. Therefore the human population should be able to distinguish when and where to entertain these conventional theories for the betterment of the world as a whole. Works cited Carter, I. J. Applicant study and professional sociology: Transposition and transformation depictions of daily life. Existing Viewpoints in Social Theory 5:71-100. 1984. Cocker et al. Unconventional perspectives of political conduct: Churches, neighborhoods, and individuals. Journal of Politics 25(3): 81. 1993. Dixoon Research. The Effectiveness of conventional wisdom: objective approach 2000. 28 july.2008. http://www. dixoonresearch.co.uk Koller, N. B. 2005. 28 july.2008. http://www.currentsocietalview.gov.uk/legislation/equal_op_act.htm

My Father’s Death

My Father’s Death I had always thought that all little girls had the same dream as me. Ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed of the day that I would get married; the most important moment would be walking down the aisle by the arm of my father. My father is one of the most important persons in my life. He is my hero, my motivation, my everything. It never passed through my mind that I would have to struggle with many difficult phases at such a young age. When I started to attend middle school, I lived in Matamoros. My first day of classes in middle school was different.It was different because the person who always dropped me off at school on my first day was not with me, â€Å"my father. † My father could not be with me because he had just started getting sick. He had some problems with his liver. His body threw away the proteins as well his blood. I remember the first time he threw up blood; that moment my mom became very worried, and nervous. I was just 13 years old when this incident happened and it was just a few days before I started my first day of middle school. During this time, we had our first visit to the hospital, and most of the visits to the hospital were for blood transfusions.After three years, when I graduated from middle school and my father was a little bit better, I decided to move to San Benito to start high school. I lived in San Benito with my father’s brother, Jose, for just six weeks because I had some problems with my relatives, so I moved to Brownsville. There I lived with my father’s sister my aunt Laura. It was more difficult to make a drastic change in less than two months. I had to adapt to Brownsville. They were two different towns and it took me more time to adapt to living without my parents and my two brothers; I lived with my uncle and my aunt because my parents are not U.S. citizens and they did not have a visa. School in San Benito was easier for me; in contrast, Brownsville’s schools were more difficult. It was weird that people in San Benito spoke Spanish. While on the other hand Brownsville spoke English, even though it is closer to Mexico than San Benito. In the end, it helped me a lot because I do not know all the English language very well, but what I know it’s thanks to that. I just lived for eight months with my aunt Laura. So the following three years of High School, I stared to cross the bridge every single day.Before I got back to school from summer vacation I started noticing that my dad was feeling sick again, and I heard my mom crying and saying that my dad had cancer. I was not supposed to know this, but I was behind the door. At the beginning of 2007, my father started complaining about a pain in his coccyx. When my dad went to the doctor, he told the doctor that he felt something was hurting him in his back. The doctor did not pay too much attention to that but every time that my dad went to see him, he said the same information.My dad st arted attending some therapies in order to take away the pain; unfortunately they were in vain because we started noticing that the cancer had increased, and he was getting sicker every day. That year my summer was too long and very exhausting because my dad was in the hospital for almost two months. He went into surgery for his pain in his coccyx, but after the operation, he said that he felt pain in one of his legs, which we thought that was produced by the surgery. When he got out of the hospital, he could not walk or sit down anymore. All he could do was just lay in bed.It changed our lives tremendously. My senior year in school began. I just had to pass the science section of the test. At this time I had to divide my time into my personal time, taking care of my dad, doing homework, and helping my mom in the store and cleaning the house. I almost went insane; I did not have a life. When time for TAKS came around, it was peculiar that my dad got in critical conditions but just i n the day that I had to take the Science one. I even thought that my dad had to die in order for me to pass my test; ironically it became true.As days passed by, I got tired from crossing the bridge. When I am talking about crossing the bridge every single day a person whose does not have a life like mine can not imagine what it is like to really wait in a line of at least one hour. I have to wake up early in the morning, and the weather sometimes was cloudy, rainy, windy, or cold. Besides all this, I had to take the city bus to get to school. It was fine for me but sometimes the bus was late or if the bus broke down they took us in a van but the problem was that they gave preference to the elderly instead of the students.It is a chaos to have or to live a situation like this. In September, my father had his first encephalopathy: he was in a comma, but had no ventilator. He was in that critical state just for a week the first time. The day that he woke up, my nephew was born, and he did not remember anything except that. During the Thanksgiving holiday, the situation in my house became more intensive. My dad was in his last phase. One day before Thanksgiving, he entered his second and last encephalopathy and never woke again. The last word that he yelled was â€Å"Manue,† my mom’s name, and he went in again into a critical state.I felt that my world and my life were going down; I felt sadness, fear, and hopelessness, etc. On Saturday, the priest came and put Holy Oils on my father. After that my mom said that my dad could die at any moment; she said I had to be prepared for whatever was going to happen. I started to pray in front of his bed and I said â€Å"Dear God: I’m very thankful to you because you gave me the most wonderful father that a girl can have. If it is your decision to take my father with you, I will accept it. I know it will be difficult but I know you’ll never let me give up.Amen† That night was the longest n ight I ever had; I kissed my father for the last time. The next day was Sunday; my family started arriving to my house because we saw that my father was in his last stage and that at any moment he could die. At 10 A. M. he was had some convulsions my mom, my brothers and I started to pray; at 11:25 A. M. he died in my house. I dropped myself into his body and I stared crying and saying â€Å"Porque te lo llevaste? †(Why did you take him? ). I could not believe that my dad had gone. I felt that everything would not be the same, that my life would stop in all senses.During the funeral I always thought that it was easy to receive the condolence; but the reality was the opposite. The thoughts that passed through my mind in that time was that my dad was on a trip and that he would be back soon. When I got near to the coffin I realize that it was true that he died. In the funeral I never cried. I contained the desire to cry. After the funeral passed I did not want to return to scho ol because I thought that it did not have sense to continue with my future if my dad was not with me supporting me.After a week, I returned to school. I had to go back to my life even though my heart was bleeding and felt empty. I passed my TAKS, exactly like I said it would happen; my father had to die in order for me to pass and graduate from High School. It was difficult to handle but I had to learn to live with this pain in my heart and make myself the idea that he is in a better place, without pain, where there is no suffering, that he is in the God’s hands. I passed all my classes and in June 9th, 2008 I graduated from High School.That day was one of the most important in my life and I know that my dad feels proud of me. In the Fall I stared college and now I am in my second semester. Now I understand that I was wrong when I thought that my life had to stop. Now my dad is my motivation to continue with my studies, my career and my life. Thank you daddy!! This experience helped me mature as a person. My father will always be my motivation, even though I still dream with that important day. I know that if I get married my dad will be with me inside of my heart walking down the aisle as if he were by my side holding my arm.

Coketown

Coketown Coketown is a novel written by Charles Dickens in 1854. Coketown is a description of a typical town in the Victorian age after the industrial revolution which occurred during the 18th century. Charles Dickens describes the other side of the coin during the Victorian age by using figure of speech in his description of the town: â€Å"Coketown [†¦] was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but, at matters stood it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. (line 1-3) He uses the figure of speech to describe how the smoke and ashes have painted the red bricks black, by comparing the colors with a â€Å"savage†. By doing this, Charles Dickens makes the description more accurate because the reader gets an even better picture of what it is he is trying to describe. Charles Dickens uses figure of speech numerous times. Among other things he compares a mad elephants’ head mov ement with the monotonously movement of a steam-engine and describes the many factories as â€Å"vast piles of building full of windows. The text is in general very melancholic, and it really makes the Victorian age look like rubbish. Charles Dickens is probably trying to show, that with the factories and the new way of life, life has become much more planned and organized but not necessarily better, because the individuality is gone and every day is like the one before: â€Å"inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out at the same hours, with the same sound upon the pavements, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as yesterday and tomorrow, and every year the counterpart of the last and the next. †(line 10-13)

The American Conflict On Crime - 2327 Words

The American conflict on crime has shaped an increase in mass incarceration averaging the largest on earth. This explosive increase in incarceration has echoed way further on the outer surface of prison walls. 1 in every 4 citizens of the U.S. have been slapped with a criminal record, that can inflict enormous restrictions when acquiring for housing, applying for loans and finding a job. Throughout the United States, younger black men who live in disadvantaged areas are improperly imprisoned under correctional jurisdiction. This exaggerated use of imprisonment as well as correctional jurisdiction, particularly amid individuals of colour, is regularly associated with mass incarceration. The U.N. Human Rights Committee, have spoken about†¦show more content†¦Ever since the 1970’s, federal and state members of the legislative bodies have passed legislative documents, creating excessively harsh parole programmes and sentences that are intended to maintain the growing numb er of individuals that incarcerated for many decades. This tough on crime approach is a crusade that refers to an order of policies which indicates punishment as the main, and often the only answer to crime. Strict sentencing guidelines for example, the truth-in-sentencing law refers to legislation and policies which aim to eliminate or limit parole so that offenders complete the duration to which they have been sentenced to. The quality of life policing, is a variety of strategies that developed under the common structure of community policing which mainly focuses on the law enforcement creating connections and working thoroughly with the members of the public. Mandatory minimum sentencing is a decision made by the court setting where judicial discretion is restricted by the law. Typically, an individual that is convicted of a particular crime must be penalized with at least the minimum amount of years in prison. The three strikes law considerably raises the prison sentence of an i ndividual that is convicted of a crime and which has been convicted before of two or more vicious felonies or serious offenses. The zero tolerance approach indicates that law enforcement is enforced