Fashion Industry Essay Example for Free

Fashion Industry Essay Early Western travelers, whether to Persia, Turkey, India, or China, would frequently remark on the absence of change in fashion there. The Japanese Shoguns secretary bragged (not completely accurately) to a Spanish visitor in 1609 that Japanese clothing had not changed in over a thousand years.[4] However, there is considerable evidence in Ming China of rapidly changing fashions in Chinese clothing.[5] Changes in costume often took place at times of economic or social change, as occurred in ancient Rome and the medieval Caliphate, followed by a long period without major changes. In 8th-century Moorish Spain the musician Ziryab introduced to Cà ³rdoba[6][unreliable source?][7] sophisticated clothing-styles based on seasonal and daily fashions from his native Baghdad, modified by his own inspiration. Similar changes in fashion occurred in the 11th century in the Middle East following the arrival of the Turks, who introduced clothing styles from Central Asia and the Far East.[8] The beginning in Europe of continual and increasingly rapid change in clothing styles can be fairly reliably dated. Historians, including James Laver and Fernand Braudel, date the start of Western fashion in clothing to the middle of the 14th century.[9][10] The most dramatic early change in fashion was a sudden drastic shortening and tightening of the male over-garment from calf-length to barely covering the buttocks,[11] sometimes accompanied with stuffing in the chest to make it look bigger. This created the distinctive Western outline of a tailored top worn over leggings or trousers. The pace of change accelerated considerably in the following century, and women and mens fashion, especially in the dressing and adorning of the hair, became equally complex. Art historians are therefore able to use fashion with confidence and precision to date images, often to within five years, particularly in  the case of images from the 15th century. Initially, changes in fashion led to a fragmentation across the upper classes of Europe of what had previously been a very similar style of dressing and the subsequent development of distinctive national styles. These national styles remained very different until a counter-movement in the 17th to 18th centuries imposed similar styles once again, mostly originating from Ancien Rà ©gime France.[12] Though the rich usually led fashion, the increasing affluence of early modern Europe led to the bourgeoisie and even peasants following trends at a distance, but still uncomfortably close for the elites – a factor that Fernand Braudel regards as one of the main motors of changing fashion.[13] Albrecht Dà ¼rers drawing contrasts a well turned out bourgeoise from Nuremberg (left) with her counterpart from Venice. The Venetian ladys high chopines make her look taller. In the 16th century national differences were at their most pronounced. Ten 16th century portraits of German or Italian gentlemen may show ten entirely different hats. Albrecht Dà ¼rer illustrated the differences in his actual (or composite) contrast of Nuremberg and Venetian fashions at the close of the 15th century (illustration, right). The Spanish style of the late 16th century began the move back to synchronicity among upper-class Europeans, and after a struggle in the mid-17th century, French styles decisively took over leadership, a process completed in the 18th century.[14] Though textile colors and patterns changed from year to year,[15] the cut of a gentlemans coat and the length of his waistcoat, or the pattern to which a ladys dress was cut, changed more slowly. Mens fashions were largely derived from military models, and changes in a European male Silhouette were galvanized in theaters of European war where gentleman officers had opportunities to make notes of foreign styles such as the Steinkirk cravat or necktie. Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, was a leader of fashion. Her choices, such as this 1783 white muslin dress called a chemise a la Reine, were highly influential and widely worn.[16] Though there had been distribution of dressed dolls from France since the 16th century and Abraham Bosse had produced engravings of fashion in the 1620s, the pace of change picked up in the 1780s with increased publication of French engravings illustrating the  latest Paris styles. By 1800, all Western Europeans were dressing alike (or thought they were); local variation became first a sign of provincial culture and later a badge of the conservative peasant.[17] Although tailors and dressmakers were no doubt responsible for many innovations, and the textile industry certainly led many trends, the history of fashion design is normally understood to date from 1858 when the English-born Charles Frederick Worth opened the first true haute couture house in Paris. The Haute house was the name established by government for the fashion houses that met the standards of industry. These fashion houses have to adhere to standards such as keeping at least twenty employees engaged in making the clothes, showing two collections per year at fashion shows, and presenting a certain number of patterns to costumers.[18] Since then, the idea of the fashion designer as a celebrity in his or her own right has become increasingly dominant.[19] The idea of unisex dressing originated in the 1960s when designers such as Pierre Cardin and Rudi Gernreich created garments, such as stretch jersey tunics or leggings, meant to be worn by both males and females. The impact of unisex expands more broadly to encompass various themes in fashion including androgyny, mass-market retail, and conceptual clothing.[20] The fashion trends of the 1970s, such as sheepskin jackets, flight jackets, duffel coats, and unstructured clothing influenced men to attend social gatherings with out a tuxedo jacket and to accessorize in new ways. Some mens styles blended the sensuality and expressiveness despite the conservative trend, the growing gay-rights movement and an emphasis on youth allowed for a new freedom to experiment with style, fabrics such as wool crepe, which had previously been associated with womens attire was used by designers when creating male clothing.[21] The four major current fashion capitals are acknowledged to be Paris, Milan, New York City, and London, which are all headquarters to the greatest fashion companies and are renowned for their major influence on global fashion. Fashion weeks are held in these cities, where designers exhibit their new clothing collections to audiences. A succession of major designers such as Coco Chanel and Yves Saint-Laurent have kept Paris as the center most watched by the rest of the world, although haute couture is now subsidized by the sale of ready-to-wear collections and perfume using the same branding. Modern Westerners have a wide number of choices available in  the selection of their clothes. What a person chooses to wear can reflect his or her personality or interests. When people who have high cultural status start to wear new or different clothes, a fashion trend may start. People who like or respect these people become influenced by their personal style and begin wearing similarly styled clothes. Fashions may vary considerably within a society according to age, social class, generation, occupation, and geography and may also vary over time. If an older person dresses according to the fashion young people use, he or she may look ridiculous in the eyes of both young and older people. The terms fashionista and fashion victim refer to someone who slavishly follows current fashions. One can regard the system of sporting various fashions as a fashion language incorporating various fashion statements using a grammar of fashion. (Compare some of the work of Roland Barthes.) In recent years, Asian fashion has become increasingly significant in local and global markets. Countries such as China, Japan, India, and Pakistan have traditionally had large textile industries, which have often been drawn upon by Western designers, but now Asian clothing styles are also gaining influence based on their own ideas.[22] Fashion industry The fashion industry is a product of the modern `age.[23] Prior to the mid-19th century, most clothing was custom-made. It was handmade for individuals, either as home production or on order from dressmakers and tailors. By the beginning of the 20th century—with the rise of new technologies such as the sewing machine, the rise of global capitalism and the development of the factory system of production, and the proliferation of retail outlets such as department stores—clothing had increasingly come to be mass-produced in standard sizes and at fixed prices. Although the fashion industry developed first in Europe and America, as of 2015[update] it is an international and highly globalized industry, with clothing often designed in one country, manufactured in another, and sold world-wide. For example, an American fashion company might source fabric in China and have the clothes manufactured in Vietnam, finished in Italy, and shipped to a warehouse in the United States for distribution to retail outlets internationally. The fashion industry has long been one of the largest employers in the United States,[24] and it remains so in the 21st century.  However, U.S. employment declined considerably as production increasingly moved overseas, especially to China. Because data on the fashion industry typically are reported for national economies and expressed in terms of the industrys many separate sectors, aggregate figures for world production of textiles and clothing are difficult to obtain. However, by any measure, the clothing industry accounts for a significant share of world economic output.[25] The fashion industry consists of four levels: 1. the production of raw materials, principally fibers and textiles but also leather and fur 2. the production of fashion goods by designers, manufacturers, contractors, and others 3. retail sales 4. various forms of advertising and promotion These levels consist of many separate but interdependent sectors. These sectors are Textile Design and Production, Fashion Design and Manufacturing, Fashion Retailing, Marketing and Merchandising, Fashion Shows, and Media and Marketing. Each sector is devoted to the goal of satisfying consumer demand for apparel under conditions that enable participants in the industry to operate at a profit.[26] Media The media plays a significant role when it comes to fashion. For instance, an important part of fashion is fashion journalism. Editorial critique, guidelines, and commentary can be found on television and in magazines, newspapers, fashion websites,[27] Social network, and fashion blogs. In recent years, fashion blogging and YouTube videos have become a major outlet for spreading trends and fashion tips. Through these media outlets readers and viewers all over the world can learn about fashion, making it very accessible.[28] At the beginning of the 20th century, fashion magazines began to include photographs of various fashion designs and became even more influential than in the past. In cities throughout the world these magazines were greatly sought after and had a profound effect on public taste in clothing. Talented illustrators drew exquisite fashion plates for the publications which covered the most recent developments in fashion and beauty. Perhaps the most famous of these magazines was La Gazette du Bon Ton, which was founded in 1912 by Lucien Vogel and regularly published until 1925 (with the exception of the war years).[citation needed] Vogue, founded  in the United States in 1892, has been the longest-lasting and most successful of the hundreds of fashion magazines that have come and gone. Increasing affluence after World War II and, most importantly, the advent of cheap color printing in the 1960s, led to a huge boost in its sales and heavy coverage of fashion in mainstream womens magazines, followed by mens magazines in the 1990s. One such example of Vogues popularity is the younger version, Teen Vogue, which covers clothing and trends that are targeted more toward the fashionista on a budget. Haute couture designers followed the trend by starting ready-to-wear and perfume lines which are heavily advertised in the magazines and now dwarf their original couture businesses. A recent development within fashion print media is the rise of text-based and critical magazines which aim to prove that fashion is not superficial, by creating a dialogue between fashion academia and the industry. Examples of this trend are: Fashion Theory (1997) and Vestoj (2009). Television coverage began in the 1950s with small fashion features. In the 1960s and 1970s, fashion segments on various entertainment shows became more frequent, and by the 1980s, dedicated fashion shows such as Fashion Television started to appear. FashionTV was the pioneer in this undertaking and has since grown to become the leader in both Fashion Television and new media channels. Despite television and increasing internet coverage, including fashion blogs, press coverage remains the most important form of publicity in the eyes of the fashion industry.[citation needed] However, over the past several years, fashion websites have developed that merge traditional editorial writing with user-generated content. Online magazines like iFashion Network and Runway Magazine, led by Nole Marin from Americas Next Top Model, have begun to dominate the market with digital copies for computers, iPhones, and iPads. Example platforms include Apple and Android for such applications. A few days after the 2010 Fall Fashion Week in New York City came to a close, The New Islanders Fashion Editor, Genevieve Tax, criticized the fashion industry for running on a seasonal schedule of its own, largely at the expense of real-world consumers. Because designers release their fall collections in the spring and their spring collections in the fall, fashion magazines such as Vogue always and only look forward to the upcoming season, promoting parkas come September while issuing reviews on shorts in January, she writes. Savvy  shoppers, consequently, have been conditioned to be extremely, perhaps impractically, farsighted with their buying.[29] The fashion industry has been the subject of numerous films and television shows, including the reality show Project Runway and the drama series Ugly Betty. Specific fashion brands have been featured in film, not only as product placement opportunities, but as bespoke items that have subsequently led to trends in fashion.[30] Public relations and social media Fashion public relations involves being in touch with a company’s audiences and creating strong relationships with them, reaching out to media and initiating messages that project positive images of the company.[31] Social media plays an important role in modern day fashion public relations; enabling practitioners to reach a wide range of consumers through various platforms. Building brand awareness and credibility is a key implication of good public relations. In some cases, great hype is built about new designers collections before they are released into the market, due to the immense exposure generated by practitioners.[32] Social media, such as blogs, micro blogs, podcasts, photo and video sharing sites have all become increasingly important to fashion public relations.[33] The interactive nature of these platforms allows practitioners to engage and communicate with publics in real time, and tailor their clients’ brand or campaign messages to the target audience. With blogging platforms such as Instagram, Tumblr, WordPress and other sharing sites, bloggers have emerged as expert fashion commentators, shaping brands and having a great impact on what is ‘on trend’.[34] Women in the fashion public relations industry such as Sweaty Betty PR founder Roxy Jacenko and Oscar de la Renta’s PR girl Erika Bearman, have acquired copious amounts of followers on their social media sites, by providing a brand identity and a behind the scenes look into the companies they work for. Social media is changing the way practitioners deliver messages,[11] as they are concerned with the media, and also customer relationship building.[35] PR practitioners must provide effective communication among all platforms, in order to engage fashion publics in an industry socially connected via online shopping.[36] Consumers have the ability to share their purchases on their personal social media pages (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), and if practitioners deliver the  brand message effectively and meet the needs of its publics, word-of-mouth publicity will be generated and potentially provide a wide reach for the designer and their products. Anthropological perspective Anthropology, the study of culture and human societies, studies fashion by asking why certain styles are deemed socially appropriate and others are not. A certain way is chosen and that becomes the fashion as defined by a certain people as a whole, so if a particular style has a meaning in an already occurring set of beliefs that style will become fashion.[37] According to Ted Polhemus and Lynn Procter, fashion can be described as adornment, of which there are two types: fashion and anti-fashion. Through the capitalization and commoditisation of clothing, accessories, and shoes, etc., what once constituted anti-fashion becomes part of fashion as the lines between fashion and anti-fashion are blurred.[38] The definition of fashion and anti-fashion is as follows: Anti-fashion is fixed and changes little over time. Anti-fashion is different depending on the cultural or social group one is associated with or where one lives, but within that group or locality the style changes little. Fas hion is the exact opposite of anti-fashion. Fashion changes very quickly and is not affiliated with one group or area of the world but is spread out throughout the world wherever people can communicate easily with each other. For example, Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation gown is an example of anti-fashion because it is traditional and does not change over any period whereas a gown from fashion designer Dior’s collection of 1953 is fashion because the style will change every season as Dior comes up with a new gown to replace the old one. In the Dior gown the length, cut, fabric, and embroidery of the gown change from season to season. Anti-fashion is concerned with maintaining the status quo while fashion is concerned with social mobility. Time is expressed in terms of continuity in anti-fashion and as change in fashion. Fashion has changing modes of adornment while anti-fashion has fixed modes of adornment. Indigenous and peasant modes of adornment are an example of anti-fashion. Change in fashion is part of the larger system and is structured to be a deliberate change in style.[39] Today, people in rich countries are linked to people in poor countries through the commoditization and con sumption of what is called fashion. People work long hours in one area of the globe to  produce things that people in another part of the globe are anxious to consume. An example of this is the chain of production and consumption of Nike shoes, which are produced in Taiwan and then purchased in North America. At the production end there is nation-building a hard working ideology that leads people to produce and entices people to consume with a vast amount of goods for the offering. Commodities are no longer just utilitarian but are fashionable, be they running shoes or sweat suits.[40] The change from anti-fashion to fashion because of the influence of western consumer-driven civilization can be seen in eastern Indonesia. The ikat textiles of the Ngada area of eastern Indonesia are changing because of modernization and development. Traditionally, in the Ngada area there was no idea similar to that of the Western idea of fashion, but anti-fashion in the form of traditional textiles and ways to adorn oneself were widely popular. Textiles in Indonesia have played many roles for the local people. Textiles defined a person’s rank and status; certain textiles indicated being part of the ruling class. People expressed their ethnic identity and social hierarchy through textiles. Because some Indonesians bartered ikat textiles for food, the textiles constituted economic goods, and as some textile design motifs had spiritual religious meanings, textiles were also a way to communicate religious messages.[41] In eastern Indonesia, both the production and use of traditional textiles have been transformed as the production, use and value associated with textiles have changed due to modernization. In the past, women produced the textiles either for home consumption or to trade with others. Today this has changed as most textiles are not being produced at home. Western goods are considered modern and are valued more than traditional goods, including the sarong, which retain a lingering association with colonialism. Now, sarongs are used only for rituals and ceremonial occasions, whereas western clothes are worn to church or government offices. Civil servants working in urban areas are more likely than peasants to make the distinction between western and traditional clothes. Following Indonesia’s independence from the Dutch, people increasingly started buying factory made shirts and sarongs. In textile-producing areas the growing of cotton and production of naturally colored thread became obsolete. Traditional motifs on textiles are no longer considered the property of a certain social class or age group. Wives of  government officials are promoting the use of traditional textiles in the form of western garments such as skirts, vests and blouses. This trend is also being followed by the general populace, and whoever can afford to hire a tailor is doing so to stitch traditional ikat textiles into western clothes. Thus, traditional textiles are now fashion goods and are no longer confined to the black, white and brown colour palette but come in array of colours. Traditional textiles are also being used in interior decorations and to make handbags, wallets and other accessories, which are considered fashionable by civil servants and their families. There is also a booming tourist trade in the eastern Indonesian city of Kupang where international as well as domestic tourists are eager to purchase traditionally printed western goods.[42] The use of traditional textiles for fashion is becoming big business in eastern Indonesia, but these traditional textiles are losing their ethnic identity markers and are being used as an item of fashion.[43] Intellectual property Student modeling at the Fashion marketing event at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Mexico City. Within the fashion industry, intellectual property is not enforced as it is within the film industry and music industry. Robert Glariston, an intellectual property expert mentioned in a fashion seminar held in LA[which?] that Copyright law regarding clothing is a current hot-button issue in the industry. We often have to draw the line between designers being inspired by a design and those outright stealing it in different places.[citation needed] To take inspiration from others designs contributes to the fashion industrys ability to establish clothing trends. For the past few years, WGSN has been a dominant source of fashion news and forecasts in encouraging fashion brands worldwide to be inspired by one another. Enticing consumers to buy clothing by establishing new trends is, some have argued, a key component of the industrys success. Intellectual property rules that interfere with this process of trend-making would, in this view, be counter-productive. On the other hand, it is often argued that the blatant theft of new ideas, unique designs, and design details by larger companies is what often contributes to the failure of many smaller or independent design companies. Since fakes are distinguishable by their poorer quality, there is still a demand for luxury  goods, and as only a trademark or logo can be copyrighted, many fashion brands make this one of the most visible aspects of the garment or accessory. In handbags, especially, the designers brand may be woven into the fabric (or the lining fabric) from which the bag is made, making the brand an intrinsic element of the bag. In 2005, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) held a conference calling for stricter intellectual property enforcement within the fashion industry to better protect small and medium businesses and promote competitiveness within the textile and clothing industries.[44][45] Political activism Fashion may be used to promote a cause, such as to promote healthy behavior,[46] to raise money for a cancer cure,[47] or to raise money for local charities[48] such as the Juvenile Protective Association[49] or a childrens hospice.[50] One up-and-coming fashion cause is trashion, which is using trash to make clothes, jewelery and other fashion items in order to promote awareness of pollution. There are a number of modern trashion artists such as Marina DeBris, Ann Wizer,[51] and Nancy Judd.[52]

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There are different types of eating disorders including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating. Anorexia nervosa, commonly known as anorexia, is an eating disorder in which a person starves himself or herself and often over exercises therefore depriving their vital organs of essential nutrients needed to survive (Berger, 2010). Bulimia nervosa, commonly known as bulimia, is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by purging (Berger, 2010). Binge eating is a disorder in which a person loses control of their eating habits and does not compensate for the amount of food he/she eats (NEDA, 2001). Although there are some popular beliefs that these eating disorders can be the result of low-self esteem, poor family and peer support, and media influence new research has found that only some of these reasons are completely true. Although it is commonly assumed that social networking may lower a person’s self image due to online bullying and self comparison to other users, a recent Facebook study has found that viewing oneself online can actually improve self-esteem. In 2011, Dr. Amy Gonzales and Professor Jeffery Hancock from Cornell University researched the effects on self-esteem using 63 participants including 16 males and 47 females. Gonzales and Hancock split the large group into three smaller groups in which the conditions were as follows: â€Å"exposure to a mirror, exposure to one’s own Facebook site, and a control condition in which participants used the same room without any treatment† (Gonzales & Hancock, 2011, pg 81). The participants would then get surveyed concerning their own self-esteem and graded using the â€Å"Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale† (Rosenberg, 1965). The study concluded that those who were expo... ...edia does not have effect on eating disorders. Levine and Murnen (2009) concluded that if eating disorders are a psychiatric illness that begin in childhood, and all environmental factors should contribute to the development of an eating disorder, then the possibility for a child to binge eat is greater than a child developing anorexia or bulimia. The idea that mass media is responsible for anorexia and bulimia is irrelevant when considering that children will notice media concerning fatty foods more than they will notice media with visuals of thin women or bulky men. Mass media seems to be more relevant in the event of binge eating or obesity because children are more attracted to donuts then they are skinny models. A child is more likely to grow up eating the foods they see on television rather than starving themselves to look like a model they see on television.

Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau Essay

Henry David Thoreau was little known outside his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts, where he was much admired for his passionate stance on social issues, his deep knowledge of natural history, and the originality of his lectures, essays, and books. He was also maligned as a crank and malingerer who never held a steady job and whose philosophy was but a pale imitation of Ralph Waldo Emerson ‘s. Thoreau was a man of ideas who struggled all his life to create a path that would refuse compromise. â€Å"All his activities–teaching, pencil-making, surveying, and, above all, writing–were grounded in his faith in a higher moral law that could be discovered and practiced through the unremitting discipline of living ever in the present moment† (Walls 1). For Thoreau this belief meant living â€Å"in each season as it passes,† fully attuned to the rhythms and phenomena of nature. His art, as it matured, became a way both to keep his own perceptions alert to all the potential of the present and to incite his readers to discover their own mode of attentiveness to life beyond the â€Å"mud and slush of opinion.† â€Å"In the century after his death, the admiration of his few followers snowballed, and he is now recognized as one of the greatest writers in the United States† (Walls 1). After presentation at the Concord Lyceum on January 26, 1848, Thoreau’s essay â€Å"Resistance to Civil Government† was published the following spring in Aesthetic Papers, edited by Elizabeth Peabody. â€Å"The title â€Å"Civil Disobedience† was first attached to a reprint of essay after Thoreau’s death, and although it is the more widely known title, it does not reflect the author’s intention† (crf-usa.org). That Thoreau’s text is an explicit refutation of William Paley’s essay on â€Å"The Duty of Submission t o Civil Government† is emphasized not only by the original title but by the author’s citation of Paley in the text. â€Å"Resistance to Civil Government† is a highly polemical piece, aiming to move the reader to more than mere aesthetic or moral appreciation: it contains a clear call to action in the service of principle, and indeed argues that mere conviction without action is worthless. The contemporary issues that engaged Thoreau’s moral outrage at the time were American military aggression in Mexico and the legality of slavery in the United States. In seeking a way for the conscientious individual to deal with such issues, Thoreau offers a meditation on timeless and absolute principles  that, he feels, should guide the moral person. The substance of the author’s argument is that each person has a duty to follow conscience rather than law when the two are in conflict, and further has a duty to oppose unjust laws by taking action against them. This book, or rather pamphlet, thus had its decisive place in the greatest revolution of modern times, and in the mind of one of th e half-dozen supreme historical figures of all times. Gandhi extended and deepened Thoreau’s gospel into the potent weapon of soul-force, which achieved Indian independence. He made it not the lone protest against tyranny of the single individual, but the massed revolt of disciplined multitudes of men. But the seed was of Thoreau’s planting (Holmes 1). The argument is developed through a set of assertions describing the individual’s relation to the state in terms of mutually exclusive oppositions. One of the main sets of contrasting terms is principle or conscience opposed to expediency. â€Å"Thoreau repeatedly characterizes government as operating according to expediency, whereas the individual citizen is capable of acting according to a higher principle, that of morality or conscience† (Cain 14). In advising that the individual has not merely the right but the duty to resist unjust laws, Thoreau postulates a higher, spiritual, law that supersedes civil or constitutional law. â€Å"Conscience instructs the individual in this higher law, according to Thoreau, and must be obeyed even at the cost of sacrificing material possessions or liberty† (Jaskoski 1). Underlying and supporting this abstract opposition of conscience versus expediency is a metaphor that repeatedly characterizes the individual as animate and the state as inanimate. Thoreau’s consistent figure for government or the state is a machine, while the citizen is always a living being. The trope supports the contention explicitly stated in Thoreau’s argument that the individual is superior to the state both in moral character and in actual strength. The individual who has the courage to act on principle can overcome the tyranny of the majority. At the heart of the essay is an anecdote Thoreau relates of his own experience in resisting the state. About two-thirds of the way through his discussion he narrates a brief account of his arrest and night spent in Concord jail because of his refusal to pay a poll tax. Thoreau felt that the tax supported armed aggression in Mexico and followed his conscience in refusing to pay it. â€Å"He was arrested but spent only a s ingle  night in jail, as another person (who has never been definitively identified) paid the tax for him and secured his release (Walls 1). The anecdote does not dwell on the details of Thoreau’s arrest nor the actual refusal to the tax collector, but rather on the memorable night spent in the jail. The experience was not particularly unpleasant: his cellmate was affable and kind, the quarters were spartan but clean, and the ambience seems to have been that of a family visit almost as much as an incarceration (Jaskoski 1). During the night, Thoreau relates, his mind was given over to a rather extravagant flight of fancy, in which he imagined himself in a medieval lock-up, and the town of Concord a village on the Rhine peopled with knights and burghers. The experience also afforded him a paradoxical, unprecedented intimacy with the town, as he was made an involuntary eavesdropper on all the business in the kitchen of the inn next door to the jail. This new view of his townspeople contrasts with the narrator’s attitude in the first part of the essay, in which Thoreau sets the conscientious person apart from the â€Å"mass of men† who share the inanimacy of the state they compliantly serve: the majority are â€Å"wooden men† who serve the state â€Å"as machines† with their bodies only, as contrasted with the man of character who lives a spiritual life. After his night in jail, Thoreau offers a mellower view of his neighbors, along with a more optimistic vision of the possibilities of government. â€Å"Whereas the opening paragraphs of the essay contain the famous dictums regarding the superiority of no government at all to an improved government, at the end of the essay, after telling the story of his night in jail, the author resumes his argument but allows for a vision of an ideal state, supportive of the highest aspirations of its citizens† (Holmes 1). â€Å"Resistance to Civil Governmentà ¢â‚¬  draws on several sources in Thoreau’s reading and in turn has been influential on following thinkers. The Bible, of course, is an inspiration for this New England heir of the puritans. There is also a suggestion that Thoreau developed the idea of a higher law with superior claims on conscience from his reading of Sophocles’ play Antigone, in which the heroine resists the law of the land and obeys the command of the gods to bury her traitorous brother in opposition to the authority of the state (Jaskoski 1). Thoreau also quotes Confucius in his essay and, like fellow transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, was influenced by the spirituality of Eastern thought. A  series of important writers and activists have been influenced by â€Å"Resistance to Civil Government,† applying its principles to similar situations. Notable among these are Gandhi, who first read the essay while a young man in South Africa and who published an analysis of it early in his career, and Martin Luther King, Jr., who drew on both Thoreau and Gandhi in developing principles of nonviolent resistance to unjust laws. In the century that has passed since the publication of â€Å"Civ il Disobedience,† conditions of life have vastly changed. Especially has government been transformed, or rather the relation of government to its citizens. â€Å"Democracy at the start meant deliverance from the undue intrusion of society upon the individual† (Cain 11). This was freedom! Thoreau dramatized the idea in his retreat to Walden. But today we think of democracy in terms of cooperation–the joining together of many free men in some common enterprise for the common good. â€Å"Society enters into the lives of men in a way and to a degree which would horrify Thoreau were he still alive. We justify this change of relationship between man and the state by emphasizing that government in this new function is accepted not as a rod to subdue the people, but as an instrument to equip them for the work they have to do together (Holmes 1). Government in this sense is an indispensable tool to achieve for society as a whole what could be done by no one man or group of men. But in this very process, government takes on power, and is thus ever tempted to use this power at the expense of the people and in its own corporate inter est. Bureaucracy, red tape, rule from above rather than from below, dictatorship, tyranny–all these are perils in waiting for a socialized democracy. At the end of this dangerous road, in other words, if we take the wrong turn, lies totalitarianism of left or right (Jaskoski 1). In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation, which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty, are slaves, and a whole country [Mexico] is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. Thoreau argued that the government must end its unjust actions to earn the right to collect taxes from its citizens. As long as the government commits unjust actions, he continued, conscientious individuals must choose whether to pay their taxes or to refuse to pay them and defy the government (crf-usa.org). Thoreau declared that if the government required  people to participate in injustice by obeying â€Å"unjust laws,† then people should â€Å"break the laws† even if they ended up in prison. â€Å"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly,† he asserted, â€Å"the true place for a just man is also a prison.† By not paying his taxes, Thoreau explained, he was refusing his allegiance to the government. â€Å"In fact,† he wrote, â€Å"I quietly declare war with the State†¦.† Unlike some later advocates of civil disobedience like Martin Luther King, Thoreau did not rule out using violence against an unjust government. â€Å"In 1859, Thoreau defended John Brown’s bloody attack on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, during his failed attempt to spark a slave revolt† (Walls 1). It is this fact, now inwrought in a world situation, which makes the revival of Thoreau’s essay so timely. Woe to the soci ety which forgets that the state was made for man, and not man for the state (Jaskoski 1). And double and treble woe to the society which no longer breeds men to rise up, at the cost of their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor, to resent and rebel against any attempt to subordinate them as individuals to the dominance of the state! The individual must at all times and in all places be the very core of social being. â€Å"This is the principle which is in such danger at the present hour. We thought that we had won the battle for liberty. But this ideal was never as firmly established in men’s minds as we had so fondly imagined. The blast of war has shaken it loose, and in some cases swept it away. We must build anew the rights of man. And in this task there can be no more useful aid than Thoreau’s â€Å"Civil Disobedience.†Ã¢â‚¬  (crf-usa.org). I heartily accept the motto, â€Å"That government is best which governs least†; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, â€Å"That government is best which governs not at all†; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act  through it. â€Å"Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure (crf-usa.org). This American government–what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves; and, if ever they should use it in earnest as a real one against each other, it will surely split. â€Å"But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage† (Cain 24). It is excellent, we must all allow; yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. â€Å"For government is an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it (crf-usa.org). Trade and commerce, if they were not made of Indian rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions, and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads. To speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it. After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. â€Å"But a government in which the majority  rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?–in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then?† (Thoreau). I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said, that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice (Thoreau).

Heart Of Darkness By Joseph Conrad - 1251 Words

The novella ‘Heart of Darkness’ by Joseph Conrad, published in 1899 is considered to be one of the most influential texts of its time. Although on the surface it seems as though Conrad is praising the white people, with further analysis it is seen that he is being ironic, and is in fact criticising the way they try to civilise the people who do not want to be civilised. English Professor Mark Dintenfass describes Heart of Darkness as: â€Å"You can see Heart of Darkness as a depiction of, and an attack upon, colonialism in general, and, more specifically, the particular brutal form colonialism took in the Belgian Congo.† Throughout the text Conrad uses both the narration of the main character Marlow, characterisation and irony to criticise the†¦show more content†¦Colonisation is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as: ‘to take control of (an area) and send people to live there.’ Marlow now understands that the white Europeans are doing what they think is right, but do not think of the people they are doing it to. He realises that that the strength and superiority that the white Europeans have is purely based on the way they treat the natives as being weaker than them. Marlow is also showing the reader that what the Europeans call ‘colonisation’ is truly just robbery and murder. They are taking the resources from the native’s country and are not giving them anything worthy back. They are essentially robbing them and using violence and brutal force to do it. They treat the natives as slaves and torture and kill them if they do not to the ‘right’ thing. This is how they get their respect, and this is how they show them that they are superior to them. They use force to try and appear better than the natives. Marlow realises this and during his narration of the novel he criticises the society and the colonisation that was happening. Conrad uses Marlow to show the reader his negative r elationship with the society of that time. It is shown that he thinks the colonisation of the natives is morally wrong and is just murder and robbery with pride attached to it. Using Marlow made it easier for Conrad to show the