Welfare Reform Package: Helping Individuals Help Themselves Essay exam

It is nearly impossible to support one particular stance on the political spectrum for societal issues across the board. I have always placed myself in the libertarian category on the political spectrum, in the sense that I believe the government should refrain from passing laws that impose on individual freedom and support privatization and the free market. When it comes to the welfare state, I don’t think that the key to a successful reform necessarily lies in the cutting back of government spending, but rather a redistribution of the budget. I recognize the need for government assistance but firmly believe that more emphasis needs to be put on providing opportunities for individuals through job training, education, and work subsidies. As the American Political Science Association discussed, in their report on the rising inequalities present in democratic America, â€Å"Americans accept economic inequalities only when they are sure that everyone has an equal chance to get ahead† (APSA, 2004). The welfare state in the US was formulated as part of Roosevelt’s â€Å"New Deal† in response to the Great Depression of the 1930s. During that time, welfare was intended to provide aid to widows with children, while helping to support farm workers and stimulating the agricultural sector by using surplus as food aid. This era paved the way for social security, emergency relief funds, and created the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). The 1960s brought the second large wave of welfare reform with Lyndon Johnson’s â€Å"Great Society† legislation. Johnson waged a â€Å"war† on poverty by increasing social services and drastically increasing the population receiving AFDC. The subsequent decades brought about debate as attempts at welfare reductio... ...cation and creating a climate in which a more educated population is possible would create more opportunity and reduce the passing of welfare dependence from generation to generation. Works Cited Alesina, A., & Glaeser, E. L. (2004). Fighting poverty in the us and europe: A world of difference. Oxford: Oxford University Press. American Political Science Association. (2004). ASPA task force report: American democracy in an age of rising inequality. Perspectives on Politics, 2(4), 651-666. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3688533 Bane, M. J., & Mead, L. M. (2003). Lifting up the poor: A dialogue on religion, poverty & welfare reform. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution Georgetown University Morgen, S., Acker, J., & Weigt, J. (2010). Stretched thin: Poor families, welfare work, and welfare reform. New York: Cornell University.

Candide and Enlightenment

Voltaire’s Candide both supported and challenged traditional enlightenment viewpoints through the use of fictional ‘non-western’ perspectives. Candide mockingly contradicts the typical Enlightenment belief that man is naturally good and can be master over his own destiny (optimism). Candide faces many hardships that are caused by the cruelty of man (such as the war between the Bulgars and Abares, Cunegonde being raped, etc) and events that are beyond his control (the earthquake in Lisbon).Voltaire did not believe that a perfect God (or any God) has to exist; he mocked the idea that the world must be completely good, and he makes fun of this idea throughout Candide. He also makes fun of the philosophers of the time, because the philosophers in the novel talk a lot, do nothing, and solve no problems at all. Candide also makes a mockery of the aristocracy’s notion of superiority by birth. Voltaire also addresses the corruption of the religious figures and the church thus â€Å"destroying and challenging the â€Å"Sacred Circle†. Voltaire’s Candide is the story of one man’s trials and sufferings through life. The main character is Candide. Candide is portrayed as a wanderer. He grew up in the Castle of the Baron of Westphalia, who was his mother’s brother and was taught by, Dr. Pangloss, the greatest philosopher of the whole world. Pangloss taught Candide that everything that happens is for the best. Candide is exiled from the castle because of his love for the Baron’s daughter, Cunegonde. He then sets out to different places in the hope of finding her and achieving total happiness. Candide thought that everything happened for the best because the greatest philosopher taught him that, but everyone around him did not accept that theory. The optimistic Pangloss and Candide, suffer and witness a wide variety of horrors: beating, rapes, robberies, unjust executions, disease,and an earthquake, These things do not serve any apparent greater good, but be a sign of the cruelty and madness of humanity and the lack of sympathy of the natural world. Pangloss manages to find justification for the terrible things in the world, but his arguments are sometimes stupid, for example, when the Anabaptist is about to drown he stops Candide from saving him because he claims that the Bay of Lisbon had been formed specifically for the drowning of the Anabaptist. Other characters, such as the old woman, Martin, and Cacambo, have all reached more pessimistic conclusions about humanity and the world because of past experiences. One problem with Pangloss’ optimism was that it was not based on the real world, but on abstract arguments of philosophy. In the story of Candide, philosophy repeatedly proves to be useless and even destructive. It prevents characters from making realistic judgment of the world around them and from taking positive action to change hostile situations. Candide lies under debris after the Lisbon earthquake and Pangloss ignores his requests for oil and wine and instead struggles to prove the causes of the earthquake. In another scenario, Pangloss is telling Candide of how he contracting venereal disease from Paquette, and how it came from one of Christopher Columbus’ men. He tells Candide that venereal disease was necessary because now Europeans were able to enjoy new world delicacies, like chocolate. The character Candide was the nephew of the Baron of Thunder-ten-tronckh, whose sister, was Candide’s mother. The baron’s sister, refused to marry Candide’s father because he only had seventy-one quarterings (noble lineages) in his coat of arms, while her own coat of arms had seventy-two (Candide, 1). This exaggeration makes the aristocracy’s concern over the subtleties of birth look ridiculous. Candide explores the hypocrisy that was rampant in the Church and the cruelty of the clergy using a variety of satirical and ironic situations such as, the Lisbon earthquake that kills tens of thousands of people and damages three fourth of Lisbon; still the Portuguese Inquisition decides to perform an auto-da-fe’ to appease God and prevent another disaster. This serves no purpose because another earthquake strikes in the middle of the hanging of Pangloss and beating of Candide. Church officials in Candide are portrayed as being among the most sinful of all citizens; having mistresses, engaging in homosexual affairs, and operating as jewel thieves. The most ridiculous example of hypocrisy in the Church is the fact that a Pope has a daughter despite his vows of celibacy. Other examples are the Portuguese Inquisitor, who takes Cunegonde for a mistress, who hangs Pangloss and executes his fellow citizens over philosophical differences, and orders Candide to beaten for, â€Å"listening with an air of approval† (Candide, 13) to the opinions of Pangloss; and a Franciscan friar who is a jewel thief, despite the vow of poverty taken by members of the Franciscan order. Finally, Voltaire introduces a Jesuit colonel with marked homosexual tendenci es. The Enlightenment belief, in which a perfect society should be controlled by reforming existing institutions, is made to appear ridiculous, while erhaps all that Voltaire wanted to do was to present the history of his century with the worst abominations. It was probably Voltaire's ability to challenge all authority that was his greatest contribution to Enlightenment values. He questioned his own parenthood and his morals to express his ideas to the world of Enlightenment through the novel Candide. In particular, the novel makes fun of those who think that human beings can endlessly improve themselves and their environment. Voltaire expresses his beliefs on optimism, philosophical speculation, and religion through the main character. Candide, The main character of the novel, is set adrift in a hostile world and unsuccessfully tries to hold on to his optimistic belief that this â€Å"is the best of all possible worlds† as his tutor, Pangloss, keeps insisting. He travels throughout Europe, South America, and the Middle East, and on the way he encounters many terrible natural disasters. Candide is a good-hearted but hopelessly naive.

Essay about Analysis of Song How to Save A Life by The Fray

The Frays hit song, How To Save a Life, tells a story of a mentor, also a friend, who is trying to save a life of a troubled youth. The story starts off with the teenager and this friend sitting down to have a talk about what is wrong in the teen?s life. The second line reads, he walks, you say sit down its just a talk, this showing anger and fear of what might be brought up in conversation, so he tries to run away from the problem. Although neither individual wants to have the talk, they both respect each other enough to be polite, He smiles politely back at you/ You stare politely right on through. Then the narrator mentions a metaphorical window to your right/As he goes left and you stay right, which is telling us,†¦show more content†¦Then it is told that, ?he will do one of two things/he will admit to everything/or hell say hes just not the same,? which is meaning he might come out and say he needs help and stay, or he might leave and never return. The last verse ends with, ?and youll begin to wonder why you came,? once again, any which way telling us that even at the end of the conversation he is doubting his skills to help the youth. The chorus takes place in the mind of the mentor, ?where did I go wrong?/I lost a friend/somewhere along in the bitterness/and I would have stayed up with you all night/had I known how to save a life.? He is, at heart, telling himself he failed to save someone because he didn?t know how. The very first line of the song the lyrics read, ?step one, you say we need to talk,? which is obviously tryi ng to give a step-by-step detail of how someone would go about having a difficult talk with someone who may be ruining their life. The song was written to guide someone to help those in need. In an interview that Christian radio personality, Stan Friedman, had with Isaac Slade, the Fray?s lead vocalist, Friedman mentions, ?The title track to How to Save a Life recounts Slades mentoring relationship with a teenager at a Christian halfway house who seemed hell-bent on destroying himself?but, fortunately, did not? (Christian Music Today). In the same interview Slade says:Show MoreRelatedThe Death and Madness of Ophelia1248 Words   |  5 PagesPolonius, King of Denmark) begins to go mad, as well, after Hamlet kills her father, and the other numerous tragedies that plague her like a black cloud hovering about until her untimely death. In this literary analysis I will ask, and attempt to explain the symbolism behind the riddles, mad songs, rhymes, and death of Ophelia. Also, Queen Gertrude’s announcement of Ophelias death has been seen as one of the most influentially poetic death announcements in literature. 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