Capital Budget. Disney park in River County Research Paper

Capital Budget. Disney park in River County - Research Paper Example The activity center will be the major area of operation for workers and where equipment will be stored. Also, from this place, daily operations involved running and management operations will be conducted. The center is also expected to generate revenue of approximately $500, 000 dollars annually once it has been fully constructed. This center is also expected to offer services like restaurants and hotel resorts, swimming pools, natural scenery viewpoints among other luxurious services (Finkler, 2010). It has been stated earlier on that Disney Park in River County was abandoned a long time ago. What remains are obsolete structures, the bulldozer will therefore be used to demolish those structures as plans for construction of a new activity center. The lifespan of the bulldozer, 8 years, makes financial. This is because it will be used to do heavy duties and as a result it is prone to wear and tear than the other assets. The two garbage trucks are expected to serve for 10 years. It is expected that these trucks, costing $300, 000, will enable the attainment of the project’s purpose. In addition to that, they will also be used in maintaining the cleanness of the County (Bierman, Harold & Seymour, 2005). Furthermore, River County can lease or rent the trucks to private organizations leading to generation of revenue. It is therefore expected that within a period of 10 years the trucks will have served purposes worth of their purchase.

The Development Of Punk Rock

The Development Of Punk Rock Punk rock first appeared during the 70s in the Bowery district of New York, it was basically a bunch of amateur bands who wanted to make music. Studio executives didnt care much for rock at the time, unless it was something hugely popular like Peter Frampton, Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin, instead they focused on the saccharine sounds of disco. Most bands were made up of normal blue collar kids didnt have access to a musical education and as such they chose to make it up as they went along. But just as it seemed rock music was about to disappear in the spandex and hair of glam rock or the pomp and ceremony of prog rock, Punk rock was born. It was more a philosophy of how to get out and do things. Bands like the Ramones and Talking Heads had to play in an almost abandoned music venue called CBGBs because no other place would accept them. The Ramones toured America and the UK in 1977 and in their wake bored kids everywhere wanted to emulate them bought whatever instruments they could find and started to make their own sounds. Most had no real education and no musical values but they had a drive to change musics place in society and created many enduring, sometimes political pieces of musical art as they went. The powerhouse behind punk rock back in the late 70s and early 80s was a basic ethos .it had to be fun, and stimulating, you didnt have to have money to invest or a lot of time to spare to become a punk rocker but this was a situation most found themselves in : pennyless and bored. Because everything was cheap, clubs, tapes, instruments, magazines, records it was easy to promote your new band and you didnt have to follow any conformist rules, or try to please anyone but yourself. Originators of the sound While it would be incredibly difficult to write about all of the punk bands of the era there are a few who stand out above all as originators of this new sound that was about to change the social conscious much more than the hippy movement of the 60s. Taking a lead from Alvin Lucier whose seminal piece I am sitting in a room introduced the world to the subtle harmonics of repetition and the use of room reverb to act upon a sound bringing the idea that sound, looped would eventually transpire to into a pure sound called white noise were Lou Reed and John Cale. They formed The Velvet Underground in 1965. Reed had previously worked as a songwriter for Pickwick records, while Cale studied the viola, classically, giving both a solid basis in the traditional rules of songwriting but what they added to that was a drive to break all those rules which gave birth to the early concept for the band, which was to try to sustain single notes for 2 hours at a time, which while artistically perfect it was a sound that was not going to sell a lot of records. 1966 saw the pop artist Andy Warhol take over as manager and together they recorded The Velvet underground and Nico which was released in 1967 to mediocre reviews but it did however include, among other great tracks, the now cult classic track I am waiting for my man , a song written from the point of view of a heroin addict travelling across Harlem to buy 26 dollars of heroin and highlighted Reeds blossoming knack for writing realist lyrics and served as a precursor to punks social and political commentary. New York New York was to become home to the first punk-rock scene, and was the epicentre from which punk rock spread to later, like London and Southern California. In New York punk didnt have the immediate impact that British punk had, but its influence is immeasurable. The initial kick start for New York punk came from the New York Dolls, whose trashy Stones like guitar riffs and cross-dressing glam image raised eyebrows amongst the establishment. The New York Dolls helped to open doors for a host of bands such as the Ramones, clad in jeans and leather and who took the catchy hooks from early 60s bubblegum-pop and the girl-group sound of Phil Spectors production techniques, but played them as loud and fast as possible. The sound was basic and stripped-down in comparison to the rock giants of the time while their attitude brought a sense of fun back to music, this stood out in contrast to the music of the 70s. The Ramones quickly became regulars at CBGBs playing there 74 times in their first year as a band. Although the Ramones still embody the sound that most people class as punk rock, the New York scene was very diverse, like minded people brought together by the dream of reinventing rock and roll music. Television broadened their songs into intricate guitar duels. Blondies girl group pop and Talking Heads odd art school guitar driven pop were some of the first ventures into what would eventually be called new wave, but their direction placed them in the punk camp at the time. By the early 80s, most of the original scene had died down, the original bands began to become the mainstream or fade away or just simply die due to the excesses that often followed success as drugs, specifically heroin, were prevalent on the scene. Detroit Detroit 1967 was a desolate place due to the decline in the citys once proud motor industry, in which a young Jim Osterberg heard The Velvet Underground and hated them at first but he later said that: once it had sunk in it- gave me hope . Bringing the chaos of the velvet underground to the garage sound of the suburbs with the intent of sounding unlike anything ever heard before the stooges had arrived and Iggy pop was born, arguably the most electric front man in the history of music whose contortions, self-mutilation, stage diving and penchants for encouraging stage invasions by the crowd (of which I was once part of) all served as a theatrical backdrop to the apocalyptic sound of the band. Their first album titled the stooges hit in 1968, produced by the velvet undergrounds John Cale, it introduced the world to Protopunk through the classic I wanna be your dog and the iconic no fun which plays out like an anthem to boredom and disassociated youth. The stooges only released 3 albums during their initial run, the self-titled debut, Fun House and finally raw power in 1973 which was produced by David Bowie and is considered to be one of the cornerstones of early punk. The stooges disbanded In 1974 due to pops ever increasing heroin addiction but a few decades later and following a hugely successful solo career in 2000, a clean and sober, 60 year Iggy pop took the original line up back on tour and released a new album the weirdness . The stooges were introduced into the rock and roll hall of fame in 2010 and continue to tour today, even after the death of founding member Ron Asheton. Los Angeles The Los Angeles punk scene was the last of Americas big punk cities to develop but it wasnt as diverse or as adventurous as New York or Detroit or even London. Of all the cities with a punk scene L.A. has proved to be the longest-lasting. Punk mutated from hardcore to alternative rock, then back to a more pop oriented sound in the 90s and continued to thrive on the east coast. L.A. punks played a hard and fast brand of punk; most L.A. punk was very thrashy, with an overall tougher attitude than the arty New York scene or the amateur sound of London or Detroit. Leaning toward more aggressive punk, the west coast became the base for punks change to hardcore, with Black Flag leading this new scene into the 80s. Another important band to rise up from the Bay area scene in san Francisco was the Dead Kennedys, whose political lyrics and attitude ensured that they became one of the defining bands of the hardcore scene. Inspired by British punk the highly political views of lead singer Jello Biafra the Dead Kennedys became known as the most dangerous band in music as they frequently agitated Christians and right wing politicians. Their most famous song California Uber Alles was an uncompromising attack on the then governor of California, the very right wing, Jerry Brown, who was recently voted back into office following the departure of Arnold Schwarzenegger. London While England wasnt the birthplace of punk it was the place where punk had the greatest influence. It was seen as music of rage and rebellion. British punk was inspired by pub rock and glam rock, but the main influences were the original New York punks like the Ramones and the Velvet Underground. In a country caught in an economic downturn, punk invaded the fabric of society in England and was feared by the media and the establishment. The first and most influential English punk band was the Sex Pistols, who hit in 1976 and made an impact by inspiring every punk band that followed them. Their guitar riffs set the stage for British punk as an entity, and their politics and behaviour got them demonized in the media and attacked on the streets but it turned them into heroes among their fans. The other main British punk band was the Clash, who were the most politically idealistic group of the scene and also the most musically diverse. They incorporated rock and roll and reggae into a new sound and are known to this day as The only band that ever mattered .The Buzzcocks wrote moody punk-pop and went on to write one of the defining songs of the era in Teenage Kicks a triumphant anthem to youthful pleasure. The Sex Pistols and the Clash both signed with major labels as the indie style distribution of records had not been fully conceived yet, however, their DIY way of doing things helped to create an independent scene around the UK. The first wave of British punk ended with the Sex Pistols breakup in January 1978, but the scene remained intact until about 1982. By that time, the original punks had expanded their sounds into a number of subgenres like pop-oriented new wave, the arty post-punk scene, hardcore, and early alternative rock much as it had done in America but in England it was done with more intensity and darkness, for proof of this you need to look no further than the back catalogue of Joy Division easily one of the most intense bands to ever grace a recording studio, owing thanks for this to Ian Curtis dark desolate lyrics and instrumentation that seemed to reverberate from the bowels of fears greatest fears. No Wave and Post Punk After the initial punk breakout of 1977, a number of bands were inspired by the DIY. spirit of punk. Instead of just copying the sound of the Sex Pistols, many of these bands adventured into making more experimental music, taking leads from a range of artists and styles, such as Roxy Music or David Bowie, disco, dub and Krautrock. The result was Post-Punk, a more adventurous and arty form of punk, it wasnt any less angry or political but it was more musically complex and diverse. The most popular bands like Joy Division or the Cure created dark, electro oriented sounds with realistic lyrics of a dark broody past and melancholy future while others had a lighter guitar-based musical approach but their lyrics and music often used traditional pop/rock song structures. Post-punk eventually developed into alternative rock in the 80s but this brief period still resounds today in the music of Interpol and A Place to Bury Strangers. No Wave was a short-lived, avant-garde offshoot of 70s punk.it was based almost entirely in New York between78-82. Like the post-punk movement that was primarily in Britain, no wave drew from the arty side of punk. When British post-punk was mostly cold and desolate, no wave was harsh and confrontational. Most no wave bands were fascinated by the noise that could be produced by an electric guitar feeding back into the speakers, making it an important part of their music. Melody was not important as most no wave bands concentrated on producing a noisy racket. The best known no wave album is the compilation No New York which features songs from the Contortions, Teenage Jesus, DNA and Mars. Because of the harshness of the sound none of the no wave performers ever really broke out to wider audiences the exception here was Sonic Youth who fused no waves distorted noise with desolate lyrics and became underground legends after adding more melodic structure to an already chaotic sound. The Ethos of Punk and DIY From the mid70s, punk had emerged as a social and cultural phenomenon. Giving a voice to the hopelessness of its young audience in a time of economic upheaval not unlike what we experience today. Punk music was full of political views, opposition and controversy as a response to the bloated egos and rambling solos of many of the rock bands of the 70s.In England punk music was the means for a social attack on the British monarchy and the starched white shirts of the conformist old guard government. Angered by the system English Punk groups influenced a whole generation to question authority and speak out against what they saw in society to be rotten. Punk groups became the force which influenced the young generations of musicians. Through punk rock music, young people found a way to express themselves. The d.i.y. ethic was mainly reflected in their clothing, hairstyle and artwork.to the early punks the polished production values of the mainstream music was something to be ridiculed and punk rock soon became something that anyone could do. People did not have to be perfectly presented or trendy in order to perform punk music. The important thing was to be able to get up on stage and play from a place within you that spoke only of truth and passion for the music. American punk groups were less controversial than those in England but they satisfied the need in America for abrasive and anti-mainstream music. The underground punk movement of the 70s in America produced groups that either evolved from punk or applied its DIY ethics to different form of music and in doing so secured punks legacy in the alternative rock and Indie scenes. The punk era was a turning point for independent labels and the DIY ethos. Indie music evolved in the garages of America and England, where young people were figuring out what they really could do with their guitars and electronic equipment and that was to inform the people of injustices and inequalities in society that had previously been abandoned to the wolves in the hopes that they would simply be forgotten about and the government could simply continue fooling the people into thinking that everything was perfectly well in the world and the government was in control of everybodys future. Without punks questioning authority there was nobody questioning authority on a global stage and when that happens society as a whole diminishes, governments got away with genocide of their people and hid behind the veil of democracy and freedom, allowing all kinds of atrocities to happen both within their home nations and on foreign ground. In the 21st century with governments bailing out banks and rekindling wars at the cost of human suffering I think the time is right for another wave of the punk movement to begin. After all it has been over 30 years since the original movement and in time people forget and become complacent, we as a society cannot allow this to happen. We have a voice and we should choose to use it to shout from the rooftops pointing out the mistakes of governments, big business and anyone who choose to subvert the progress of the human race by squashing the poor into submission so they can further line their pockets with money acquired through bloodshed and fear .

The Symbolic Use of Nature in Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter Essay

The Symbolic Use of Nature in The Scarlet Letter      Ã‚     In Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic The Scarlet Letter, nature plays a very important and symbolic role.   Hawthorne uses nature to convey the mood of a scene, to describe characters, and to link the natural elements with human nature.   Many of the passages that have to do with nature accomplish more than one of these ideas.   All throughout the book, nature is incorporated into the story line. The deep symbolism conveyed by certain aspects of nature helps the reader gain a deeper understanding of the plight and inner emotions of the characters in the novel.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hawthorne's moods or prevailing feelings during certain scenes are revealed to the reader through nature.   For example, one of the first scenes in the book demonstrates this unique writing talent that Hawthorne uses to enrich his writing.   He describes Hester Prynne and her child being released from the local prison into the light of day;    She bore in her arms a child, a baby of some three months old, who winked and turned aside its little face from the too vivid light of day; because its experience, heretofore, had brought it acquainted only with the gray twilight of a dungeon, or other darksome apartment of the prison (49).         The sunlight gives the reader a feeling of exposure and scrutiny.   This feeling is later reveled to the reader by Hawthorne,    Her prison-door was thrown open, and she came forth into the sunshine, which, falling on all alike, seemed, to her sick and morbid heart, as if meant for no other purpose than to revel the scarlet letter on her breast (71).       It is also gives the feeling of a release into a harsh environment, which Hest... ...escarletletter/fullsumm.html. February 15, 2002.    Brown, Bryan D. "Reexamining Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. http://www.usinternet.com/users/bdbournellonie.htm. March 1, 2002.    "Chuck III College Resources". http://www.chuckiii.com/reports/book_reports/scarlet_letter.shtml. March 1, 2002.    Clendenning, John. "Nathaniel Hawthorne." The World Book Encyclopedia. 2000 ed.    Griswold, Rufus Wilmot. "The Scarlet Letter." The Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors. Ed. Charles Wells Moulton. Gloucester, Massachusetts: Peter Smith Publishing, 1959. 341-371.    Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1996.    Smiles, Samuel. "The Scarlet Letter." The Critical Temper. Ed. Martin Tucker. New York City: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1962. 266.   

Chinese Somatic Science Essay

In 1984 when the Japan-France symposium was held, scholars of religion, medicine and psychology were gathered from both sides, and they engaged in discussion in order to promote the movement of New Age Science. I included a suggestion, made from the Japanese side, presentations on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Parapsychology, Eastern martial arts and their demonstrations. In the martial arts demonstration there was included the performance of a technique in which a master martial artist, by emitting ki-energy (chi-energy), makes opponents, who are spatially distanced from him, fall down. This technique is called â€Å"distant hitting† [to-ate: é   Ã¥ ½â€œÃ£  ¦], and it became a conversation piece, attracting people’s attention. As a result, many q(g(ng (Chi-gong) masters came to visit me. I studied their techniques, and experienced ki-energy as a subject of their q(g(ng techniques. Afterwards, I went to China to learn about its actual situation. While I was staying in Beijing in 1997, the Chinese Society for Somatic Science (CSSS) was established. The leaders of this society came to see me with a request to make efforts to propagate q(g(ng in Japan. In the following year, I invited scholars and q(g(ng masters from China and held a symposium â€Å"Ki (Chi) and Human Science† in Tokyo.[i] At about this time, a q(g(ng boom was being generated. After this conference, I went to China many times to investigate and study q(g(ng. I will introduce its fundamental ideas, while incorporating my own opinion. Chinese Somatic Science focuses on the three fields of traditional Chinese medicine, q(g(ng and special abilities as its main objects of research. â€Å"Special abilities† refer to what parapsychology calls psi-ability (paranormal ability). A central focus in each of these fields is ki-energy as the object of research. Traditional Chinese Medicine understands the fundamentals of the human body’s organization by means of the network of meridians. Meridians are channels of energy which circulates in the interior of the human body. However, they are an invisible system which cannot be discovered by dissecting a corpse. In other words, they are a system unique to the body that is active while it is alive. I am taking this to mean, for now, like a system that organizes the subject-body (i.e. the lived body) of which Merleau-Ponty speaks. An important point, when it is seen from a theoretical point-of-view, is that the meridians are a system which does not agree with the mind-body dichotomization established since Descartes. That is to say, ki-energy is conceived to be a life-energy which has both physical and psychological characteristics. The fundamental principle of needle therapy used in traditional Chinese medicine lies in activating the circulation of ki-energy within the human body by infusing fresh ki-energy into the human body, while eliminating the stagnant and inferior flow of ki-energy. Next is q(g(ng. Q(g(ng teaches us that the activity of ki-energy can be heightened through a repeated training. Consequently, we can understand that q(g(ng, theoretically speaking, has a characteristic commensurate with the training in martial arts. It is a bodily technique with a tradition stretching from ancient times. In the case of medical therapy, a mature q(g(ng doctor guides patients to train themselves and practice q(g(ng on their own. Here we can discern a methodology different from the therapeutic method of modern medical science. While modern medical therapy leaves patients to assume a passive standpoint of simply receiving doctor’s treatment, q(g(ng lets them assume an active standpoint of training themselves. The point of this training lies in activating the natural healing power latent in the interior of one’s own body. Ki-energy is thought to be the energy that controls the foundations of life-activity. The training means to promote and purify the activity of ki-energy inside of one’s own body, and to transform it to the ki-energy of a better and higher quality. Therefore, it is a therapeutic method as well as a method of maintaining and promoting health. That is, it can become a method of maintaining health by continually training oneself daily, while it is not limited to a time of sickness. Q(g(ng is divided into internal and external q(g(ng for the purpose of convenience. The training which a patient performs after receiving guidance belongs to the inner q(g(ng, while the outer q(g(ng refers to cases in which a mature q(g(ng master performs therapy on a patient or subject. In these cases, the q(g(ng master usually touches the patient’s body with his hand, but there are cases in which a q(g(ng master, distancing himself from the patient, performs a therapeutic technique without making contact. It is probably safe to think that it is based on the same principle as the technique of therapeutic touch, which in recent years is beginning to spread in American. The third field that is called â€Å"special† ability in China, overlaps with the research of what is referred to in the West and Japan as parapsychology. On numerous occasions, I met with q(g(ng masters in China who have paranormal ability, and observed their technique, while engaging them in dialogue. I encountered people who can demonstrate a wonderful technique, not to mention clairvoyance and psycho-kinesis, which Rhine’s research problematized. Insofar as my research can confirm, there are cases of people who innately possess these abilities, and cases of people who have acquired them through training. If these abilities are used in the field of medicine, they can fulfill the same role as the external q(g(ng. Moreover, there are cases among master martial artists who can demonstrate this kind of ability, though its number is limited. One impression I have received when encountering these people is that there is a great difference between the East and the West in the foundational idea, when dealing with this kind of issue. While in the East this kind of issue has been dealt with as part of the issue related to self-cultivation, which traditionally has a cultural and religious background, there was no such historical and cultural background in the West. Consequently, parapsychological research in the West is preceded by an interest and concern from a theoretical point-of-view. This brings in the background of contemporary scholarly research where there is no concern for its relationship to daily activity. By contrast, in China’s case the practical purpose, as in the case of q(g(ng, looms in the purview of research. This kind of stance is based on the traditional ethos found in the history of science and technology in China. (Modern technology of the West emerged as an application of theory, where theoretical research does not take into account the relationship it has with the practical, daily activity of human beings.) When we examine it from a broader perspective, this kind of tendency is rooted in the philosophical tradition of the East which highly values the practical standpoint. However, there is a tradition in the East which admonishes people, as they are prone to fall into an ethically wrong tendency regarding paranormal phenomena. The tradition of East Asia such as that of China and Japan maintains that the bodily technique must conform to an ethical standpoint. Although I could hardly see such a spiritualistic stance in the contemporary situation in China and Japan, there were occasions where I met persons with such a stance, especially among the masters of martial arts, who are living among people, but not related to universities or academic institutions. In the tradition of Buddhism, this kind of â€Å"special† ability has been called â€Å"siddhi† [jints(riki; ç ¥Å¾Ã©â‚¬Å¡Ã¥Å â€º] and is considered a kind of a by-product that naturally emerges in the course of self-cultivation. Buddhism has persistently maintained that self-cultivation should not aim at acquiring this as its goal. For example, D(gen, a famous Japanese medieval Zen monk, teaches in the chapter of â€Å"Jints(† [Divine Power, i.e. paranormal power] in Sh(b(genz( that although Buddhism recognizes this kind of siddhi, it is a â€Å"small† siddhi, and the true â€Å"great† siddhi exists in the midst of such everyday activities as drinking tea and eating a meal. This reminds me of Yang Xin, a q(g(ng master, who is now actively promoting q(g(ng in America. When I saw him in Beijing some time ago, he told me that he was now studying â€Å"distant q(g(ng† [Chin. yu(g(q(g(ng; Jap., enkaku kik(, é   Ã©Å¡â€Ã¦ °â€"功]. He was accompanied by a twelve-year girl, who was his experimental subject. I asked him why he was conducting such an experiment. He replied: â€Å"I am not trying to become famous by showing off this kind of technique. As I read a description in a classic on the method of self-cultivation that one can perform this kind of technique, I just wanted to know if it is true or not.† Then he wrote on a piece of paper â€Å"Ã¥ ¤ §Ã© â€œÃ§â€ž ¡Ã¨ ¨â‚¬Ã¢â‚¬  [Chin., d(d(ow(y(n; Jap., daid(mugon] This phrase means that â€Å"The Great Dao remains silent and does not speak.† Herein lies, it would seem, a difference in the traditional ethos between the Eastern martial arts and Western sports. The historical origin of Western sports goes back to the Olympian events in ancient Greece. They emerged, based on the demands of a battlefield such as physical strength, stamina, running, throwing, and the handling technique of a house-drawn cart. We might say that the custom of the modern Olympics in which a record is valued more than anything else inherits this traditional idea. By contrast, in the tradition of the martial arts in the East runs an idea which emphasizes spirituality, even though the martial arts developed, like those of ancient Greece, through techniques used on the battlefield. The history of the Chinese and Japanese martial arts was nurtured through the influence of Buddhism and Shintoism. It came to develop the idea that training in martial arts has the meaning of enhancing one’s ethical personality. Consequently, the stance of respecting the opponent’s personality and capacity was sought in performing techniques. For example, Mr. Ueshiba Morihei, founder of Aikid(, states that â€Å"Martial art is love.† The ultimate goal of martial arts is not to win by defeating an opponent, but to harmonize with an opponent such that people can love each other under â€Å"that which is great† transcending humans. It would seem that â€Å"research on the prayer,† which has been recently initiated in America, incorporates this kind of spiritual idea. Incidentally, I came to realize in the course of investigating the Chinese Somatic Sciences that the standpoint of psychology was lacking. In modern China, which used Marxist materialism as its guiding principle for establishing the nation, psychology was not studied until the time of the Cultural Revolution, as anti-thetical to materialism. Even q(g(ng was an object of suppression. Today, however, the study of psychology is recognized to be legitimate, and the exchange with Japan is making an advance. I have practiced meditation since my youth, and have continued to research and study it. Meditation methods in the Chinese tradition were called â€Å"quiet q(g(ng† and stands a pairing relationship with the usual â€Å"moving q(g(ng† which mobilizes the body. However, almost no meditation methods are practiced in contemporary China. This is probably due to the fact that meditation methods such as those of Buddhism and Daoism were developed within the tradition of religious culture, and declined as a consequence of persecution after the modern period. When somatic science was established in Japan in 1991, we used for its English designation the Society for Mind-Body Science (SMBS), as I felt the importance of psychology. The fundamentals of meditation lie, after all, in promoting the circulation of ki-energy. When it is seen from the point-of-view of psychology, ki-energy designates libido. It is life-energy equipped in the unconscious and the body. The foundational idea that is placed in The Secret of the Golden Flower, a meditation text of Daoism, is to transform and sublimate ki-energy from the state of libido (Chin., j(ng; Jap., sei, ç ² ¾) to the state of â€Å"divine subtle energy† (Chin., sh(n; Jap., shin, ç ¥Å¾). Ki-energy changes into a spiritual energy, when the instinct and desire in one’s unconscious region are purified. Freud insisted that neurosis develops when conscience suppresses the activity of libido, while Jung claimed that libido is an energy related to religiosity. When one touches the activity from the dimension of primal origin, the love of others is transformed from the eros of flesh to spiritual love. To summarize the foregoing, ki-energy is an energy that controls the whole of psychology, medicine, and bodily technique, including the relationship between the environment and the human body. The philosophical guideline that comprehensively includes all of these fields is sought in the idea of the y(n-y(ng exchange of ki-energy which has its origin in the Yà ¬j(ng. According to its conceptual paradigm, nature as an environment is endowed with life, and is fostered to grow, by means of the activity of ki-energy issuing from the Dao that exists in the ultimate dimension. Human beings, along with other life activities, are receptive of this energy and are made to live. Purifying it to a sublime level brings about an enhancement of ethical personality.

Human Nature †Are Humans Naturally Good or Evil? Essay

What is thought of as immoral to one person can be seen as ethical to another, and vice versa. This is due to the difference in the way humans perceive things, which is part of the intricacy of mankind. â€Å"During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called war; and such a war, as if of every man, against every man. † (Hobbes) Hobbes states that Humans are naturally evil and need a powerful government to control them. Is it true? Rousseau thinks otherwise. â€Å"In reasoning on the principles he (Thomas Hobbes) lays down, he ought to have said that the state of nature, being that in which the care for our own preservation is the least prejudicial to that of others, was consequently the best calculated to promote peace, and the most suitable for mankind? man in the state of nature is both strong and dependent involves two contrary suppositions. Man is weak when he is dependent, and is his own master before he comes to be strong. † (Rousseau) The issue of good and evil is brought up in â€Å"Lord of the Flies† by William Golding, when innocent boys find themselves on a deserted island attempting to create a society similar to ours. What circumstances occur to them? How do past influences affect them? Are their actions good or evil? The actions of the boys were not a matter of being good or evil, but were actions for survival. A person’s environment does not draw him towards good or evil, nor is he or she born with it inside. Humans have instincts that are not affairs of good and evil, but of survival. By natural instinct, humans will do what is best for them especially for their survival. Animals, much like people, kill when in need. For instance, if they feel they are cornered, they would attack. If they need food, they will kill to eat. In â€Å"Lord of the Flies†, Ralph was being hunted by Jack’s tribe, and in a desperate attempt in his defense, thrusts his spear through a crack at the inspecting savages. Ralph attacked someone of his own kind for his own survival. It can be believed that man is the derivative of others animals, and as such, they have certain instincts that were instilled from birth. The boys later began to simulate the behavior of animals. â€Å"At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws. † (Golding 153) William Golding’s description of this scene leads a reader to believe that these boys acquired animal like qualities. Do you know of any human who tears with teeth and claws? The boys mistake Simon for their beast and result in ruthlessly killing him. In their state of mind of savagery and hunting, they saw themselves in danger of this â€Å"beast† and their first instinct was to kill anything in sight that had the possibility of being it. Humans, like animals, have a natural instinct to protect themselves in case of danger, like attacking when cornered. Instincts are inherited, but indistinct characteristics such as good or evil are not. The significance of moral values do not apply to actions in situations for survival. Instincts are not about being moral or immoral, because the issue of being good and evil is undefined. Whether an action or situation is good or bad depends on who it is and how it is being perceived. This makes this issue uncertain due to the way it is viewed from person to person. Since the way it is seen will differ, man cannot be exclusively evil or exclusively good. Consider the following example: A dog constantly jumps on the window of a door in an attempt to get the attention of the family inside. He is doing this in hopes to be let back inside the house. Someone inside the house could view this as being evil, which would be different from the view of an animal lover. They would not consider this evil and would claim that the dog had not caused physical harm and just didn’t know any better. The dog doesn’t believe that it is evil because he is only obeying environmental charge. He’s been inside before and knows that it is much nicer than outside, and wants the attention that is inside. The dog has tried to jump on the door before, and had received the attention of someone who thus let him in. This leads the dog to believe that what he is doing is the â€Å"right† thing to do. After all, he just wants in, right? So the dog is evil because someone inside says he is, but then he is not evil because he doesn’t think he is. The opinions on what is evil and what isn’t disagree with each other because of how it was perceived by each side. In â€Å"Lord of the Flies† there is a situation that deals with Piggy’s glasses, which is the key to fire on the island. The glasses were stolen in the middle of the night that leads to a fight in the dark among the boys. The fact that the glasses were stolen, and they were Piggy’s only aid for sight, can be seen as evil, but what about Jack’s side? Jack acts upon his devoir to light a fire in order to cook the pig he killed with his tribe to fully enjoy their prize. Ralph and Samneric engage in a fight with whosoever they can touch first, without an attempt to reason. Which is evil in this situation? Humans are simply complex animals that respond to complex impulse, and their behaviors are influenced or are a product of everything that they learn starting from the day of their birth to the day of their death. Society sets a mold for the â€Å"good† and â€Å"bad† conditions that humans are learning from day to day. The role of society in being good or evil is that it acts as this guideline for that long lived dream of acceptance. It’s where what’s good gets you in, and what’s evil is what will make you repulsive. The ideas of power and the abuse of that power are not learned from the environment. The environment is used as a resource to abuse that power. Jack manipulates the boys into joining his tribe and sets up his territory on the island. He threatens people to join his tribe, and hunts those that refuse to. Jack’s tactics are an example of how he abuses power by using the environment and how he sets the society guidelines of acceptance. A society could not exist where people are brought up to know what they define as right or wrong, and could stick to that without problem. â€Å"We decide things. But they don’t get done. † (Golding 79) On the island, the civilized rules of having drinking water, shelters, and having a spot for a lavatory are not followed. The boys were brought up having rules like these, but they did not stick to them due to the problem that they didn’t have a strong enough authority figure to instill them. Society acts as this necessary component to life, and if it’s not there then it needs to be made. The creation of society begins with people who have the power to set the rules of acceptance, and they are the ones who establish what is good and what is evil. Society may manipulate others into believing what is good and evil, but those that manipulate society create that belief. In conclusion, Hobbes and Rousseau are both, in a sense, right and wrong. Hobbes said that human nature is evil and need to be controlled while Rousseau said human nature is good and need to govern themselves. It’s not that humans are innately good or evil, it’s their natural instinct that drives them to do immoral or ethical deeds based upon what society leads them to believe. People cannot exclusively be good or evil because the state of good and evil is undefined. People are born with an instinct that drives them to do what is necessary in extreme measures. This instinct overtakes any other preceding thought and becomes the need for survival. In Lord of the Flies, it wasn’t whether or not the inhabitants were evil or good, it was their human reaction and instinct in the case of survival. Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York, NY: Putnam Group, 1954. Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Ed. J C A. Gaskin. Oxford, NY: Oxford UP, 1998. Rousseau, Jean Jacques. The Social Contract and the First and Second Discourses. Ed. Susan Dunn. Binghamton, NY: Vail-Ballou P, 2002.