Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Nietzsche and Foucault
Both Nietzsche and Foucault have similar ideas about the genealogy of punishment. On the one hand, Nietzsche argued that the initial public displays of punishment arose out of our basic primal instincts – to see the wrongdoer punished in a public manner so everyone who wanted to see their suffering (and according to Nietzsche this mob was composed of anyone who didn't repress their instincts and urges) could do so. Foucault, on the other hand, presents his account as a genealogy. His genealogy gives us an account of the shift from the old method of sovereign power towards the modern method of disciplinary power. In the older system of punishment, the power to execute and punish was held absolutely by the sovereign, and all public displays of punishment were displays of the sovereign's power over their subjects. In the modern system, this power relation between the state and the individual still exists, but is done so in a much more private way. Punishment now takes place behind closed doors, giving rise to the birth of prisons and correctional facilities, exhibiting a more disciplinary power. In other words, the system of punishment shifted from public displays of the sovereign's power over their subjects to private rehabilitative processes meant to change the criminal back to normal standards of society. In this essay I will explain each of the philosophers' ideas about the shift in the method and purpose of punishment, and I will explore how Nietzsche's genealogy of morals could further account for this shift. Foucault's investigation into punishment and the origin of punishment begins with his exploration into why people in society conform to standardized norms and how certain institutions correct people's deviance away from those norms through exercising their power. He explains that this â€Å"corrections†have been historically carried out in the form of two different types of power: sovereign power and disciplinary power. In Discipline and Punish, Foucault asserts that sovereign power is held by the leader or ruler of the land and the subjects, historically residing in the form of a king or other monarch, and the subjects of such a sovereign are made to abide by their laws and regulations. When a subject breaks a law, their punishment is characterized by extreme violence and made to be very public (DP, 7). The execution or punishment itself is most often carried out by a state-appointed executioner, working as a direct representative of the sovereign's power in order to further dissuade the public witnessing the execution of committing other crimes (DP, 9). Around a hundred years later, there was a shift away from these public displays of power and violence to a more corrective and rehabilitating process. Foucault defines disciplinary power as the power to return a wrongdoer to the normative standards of society (DP, 179). As the years go on, power is taken away from a central body and is exhibited through institutions such as schools, prisons, and hospitals where power and knowledge is maintained through the sciences (e.g. psychology, sociology, and psychiatry) rather than laws. This new form of power is exercised over the individual's soul rather by disciplining their body (DP, 30). In other words, these new houses of power prefer a correctional approach in order to rehabilitate the wrongdoer and cut down on the amount of individuals not adhering to the norms of society (DP, 19). By doing this, disciplinary power and punishment is exercised over subjects through hierarchical observation, correcting individuals based off of an accepted norm (DP, 171, 183), and examination, which is characterized by the merging of observation and normalizing in order to more fully understand the actions and thought-process of the individual, thereby gaining more power over them (191). Foucault further argues that this shift from sovereign to disciplinary power was instantiated by evolution of power the state held (or wanted to implement) over its subjects. The new Enlightenment system of punishment that emerged in the early 19th century, although on its face seems to be a reaction against the old system of linking together punishment with violence and spectacle is in fact just a new system of power for the state and a new way of exercising control over its subjects. This new system is supposed to be a more humane way of dealing with offenders – it is meant to be seen as a cure in fact – however, the opposite is true: no longer is it intended to punish the individual, rather it is set up to supervise and observe the individual. This system of disciplinary power is no longer torturing the body, rather it is characterized by the deprivation of some sort of rights and liberties, most often by housing them in some sort of correctional institution. However, for Foucault, this does not remove the harm and injury of corporal punishment for to deprive an individual their rights and freedoms is to inflict a different form of pain. With this current form of punishment, the State has shifted its power into the shadows so to speak. It has distanced itself from grand, gruesome public displays of its power to a more nuanced and covert system of private punishment that no longer sates the bloodlust of the crowds that used to watch the executions (because as we will see with Nietzsche, people began to suppress their natural instincts around the time of the slave-morality revolt) but rather focuses its energy on the degradation of the offender's soul. In his Geneology of Morals, Nietzsche presents his view of how morality (and through that, punishment) has developed over the course of history. Retributivists assert that the essential essence of punishment is contained in the fair and equitable deserts it presents the guilty offenders with. To this, Nietzsche claims that this punishment did not come from the thought that the crimes of the guilty must be punishedâ€â€in fact, he claims that this judgement is a rather late form of human observation and condemnation. Punishment, in Nietzsche's mind, came about as the will of the masters over the slaves, to enable them to experience and revel in the feeling of condemning someone and being able to abuse someone beneath them. In other words, punishing a wrongdoer was a right of the masters to engage in cruelty, something that was viewed as a positive trait. However, these values changed after the emergence of Christian ressentiment which flipped the cruelty exhibited by the masters before from something good to something evil; this taught man to be ashamed and to reject his primal instincts (those of the masters) which told him that cruelty and abuse was essential to a happy life. Before this reversal, humans celebrated our cruel instincts: â€Å"[W]ithout cruelty there is no festival: thus the longest and most ancient part of human history teachesâ€â€and in punishment there is so much that is festival!†( Nietzsche, Genealogy , essay 2, section 6). Nietzsche believed that punishment as it was supposed to be practiced in the days of the masters is no longer how it is actually practiced in modern society. This is because if punishment still represented the sovereign power (as Foucault would put it) of those who punished, we would no longer punish. Originally, punishment came about as the direct expression of the will of the powerful (what Foucault called the â€Å"sovereign†). However, in our modern society, a change has taken places and the roles in punishment have been reversed. Being powerful in ancient times was likened to being cruel and happy; being powerful nowadays is the ability to suppress those instincts, to reject cruelty and through that, punishment. Being able to punish is no longer an act of power over those beneath you; those who now punish are too frail to be able not to punish. This Christian ideal of ressentiment irrevocably changed who punished and what punishment actually is. Those who are now the punishers take punishment as not being the imposition of their will over those weaker than them but rather as the defending of their idea of justice by retributive means, by curing the sick, or by preventing further breaches of this justice. Nietzsche asserts that our understanding of punishment in modern times is a contradiction of its beginnings. He believes that the implementation of punishmentâ€â€the remains of the â€Å"will to power†â€â€now prefers the morality of the weak, and tells them of the importance of getting retribution for the crimes committed, or the importance of doing only that which has utility. Therefore the weak aren't creating a new institution of punishment, rather they are transforming the old version under their new masters, into something that directly goes against what punishment was initially supposed to mean. Taking this idea into the perspective of Foucault, Nietzsche would say that the change in the meaning of punishment from that which gloried in public displays of violence to a penitentiary system which targeted the rehabilitation of the prisoner or to gain some sort of retribution for the criminal's offence has less to do with the punished and more to do with the punishers. To Nietzsche, this shift is in accordance with a rejection and suppression of basic human instincts, where the reveling and celebration of cruelty has been transformed into the idea of retribution or justice.
Applied Motivation Essay
Students who do not reach their potential are labeled as underachievers. They are not motivated to do their schoolwork and if their attention is gained, they lose interest easily. This does not mean that the underachiever is slow or retarded. Many underachievers are gifted. Depending on the student and the situation, underachievers who have been labeled as gifted can suffer from unhappiness, disorganization, low self-esteem, confusion, emotional inferiority, and apprehension (Center for Applied Motivation). Gifted underachievers have a high intellect but they do not use their intellect towards intellectual achievements. Instead, they use their intelligence to manipulate those around them for personal gain. â€Å"Gifted underachievers rely inappropriately on their intelligence to manipulate their environment to make themselves feel better†(Center for Applied Motivation). Young gifted underachievers are often not emotionally ready to handle the knowledge they have. As children grow, confusing emotions escalate as growth hormones take effect and puberty hits (Fisher, pg. 16). Emotional ups and downs affect the gifted underachiever socially as well. If they are not careful, gifted underachievers will isolate themselves from peers and helpful teachers/adults (Center for Applied Motivation). This action is motivated by fear of failing. These students worry about failing and that worry can lead to them not trying at all. â€Å"They said they were afraid of failing, afraid of being kept back, afraid of being called stupid, afraid of feeling stupid†¦children are afraid, many of them a great deal of the time, some of them almost all the time†(Holt, pg. 71). Fear of failure is serious and can be detrimental for the gifted underachiever who is intelligent enough to grasp concepts but refuses to do so. It is important to present tasks that are challenging but an opportunity for failure must be allowed so students will learn that it is okay to make mistakes (Center for Applied Motivation). Turn failures into learning experiences. Jason is one such gifted underachiever. As a 7th grader, Jason has been a consistent C-/D+ student. For the past few years he has been of the borderline of failure although he continues to test well above average on state tests. Labeled as gifted in elementary school, Jason’s performance in school dropped in the 4th grade during his parent’s divorce. His father moved out the home and Jason denies being upset about this situation. Jason’s father is a construction worker and was often away from home. Jason is used to his father’s absence. Science has always been his favorite subject and although his science teacher is able to keep Jason’s attention longer than his other teachers, his grades and work ethic are still low. He has no interest in his classes and is often sent to the office for disruptive behavior. Jason feels his classes are boring and his teachers don’t understand him. For the past two years, Jason has been seeing a counselor to help him overcome his lack of motivation but nothing has worked. Jason often tells his counselor that school is like a prison for kids. He can’t wait until he gets out. His counselor found his attitude alarming, but in the last two years he has missed only five days of school. That gives him one of the best absentee rates among his classmates. The only thing Jason seems to find pleasure in is tennis. He began playing tennis as a toddler. Taught by his grandfather, he has become a very competent player. The middle school does not have a tennis team but the high school does. Jason often walks to the high school after school to watch the tennis team practice. He often wishes he could participate but he too afraid to ask. He has not shown any interest in the sports offered at the middle school. Last year Jason started a petition to form tennis team at the middle school but was not successful. Jason is tall for his age and lanky. Almost 6 feet tall by the time he reached the 6th grade, Jason’s classmates began to tease him. Taking his counselor’s advice to laugh at himself, he began making jokes about his height. Once his classmates realized their jokes didn’t bother him, the teasing stopped. Since then, Jason’s social status has risen. His classmates often imitate him and since he can be something of a class clown, his supporters have followed him to detention. Jason has always made friend easily yet he does not spend much time with friends after school. He has no close friends but always has a large group around him in the cafeteria and hallways. He has leadership potential even though where he is leading is questionable. Emotionally, Jason is immature in some areas and mature in others. He has the ability to act three years his junior and then abruptly act like someone twice his age. He derives pleasure from pushing his teachers to lose their tempers but can also be sweet and extremely likable. His parents, teachers and his counselor have tried to encourage Jason to focus his energy on his work, telling him his attitude now will affect his future success. At this point, nothing has worked.
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Discrimination In Employment Essay
Two separate statutes specifically pertain to discrimination in employment. The first is the Equal Pay Act, which was passed in 1963 (effective date was June 10, 1964). The second is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While the Equal Pay Act deals solely with wages paid to women and men within the same company, Title VII focuses on discriminatory hiring/firing practices and advancement policies within companies (Crouch, 2001, p.37-38). Neither is specific to the issue of sex discrimination; however, they both encompass discrimination on the basis of race, religion, or national origin. Both of these statutes have been applied to interscholastic and intercollegiate athletics, primarily in suits brought by female coaches claiming sex discrimination.            Title VII was enacted as a comprehensive prohibition on private acts of employment discrimination. It forbids discriminatory employment practices based on the race, color, religion, sex, or national origin of the applicant. These categories may, however, be used to differentiate between applicants when sex, religion, or national origin is a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ). A BFOQ is very narrowly defined as an actual job requirement, not merely a customer or employer preference. For example, race is never considered a BFOQ (Crouch, 2001, 38-40).            Title VII also contains a â€Å"nonretaliation†provision which prohibits all employers defined in the act from discriminating against any employee or job applicant who has invoked his or her rights under Title VII or who has assisted with or participated in any proceeding brought by someone else (Gregory, 2003, p. 28).            In the analysis of the courts, the alleged sex discrimination action need not only be based upon a consideration of an unalterable characteristic (like gender) possessed by the discriminatee but which is not possessed by the discriminator (Minchin, 2001, p. 50). Thus, not only are acts such as terminating female employees when they marry or refusing to accept employment applications from any female actionable, but also acts taken by a member of one sex against a member of the same sex can be actionable. A demand for sexual favors directed by one male to another as a condition of employment can be just as discriminatory as a similar demand directed by a male to a female.            Title VII is applicable to all employers of more than fifteen persons, and it specifically covers almost all state and local government employees as well as employees of most educational institutions. It is enforced by the EEOC, which has the authority to process and investigate any complaints. The EEOC may also bring suits in federal court if necessary. A charge brought by the EEOC is based on what the EEOC perceives to be a pattern or practice of unlawful discrimination which adversely affects an entire class of individuals. The EEOC may also conduct industrywide compliance reviews. If the discrimination found by the EEOC in state or local government cannot be corrected informally, the EEOC may refer the matter to the U.S. Attorney General. In all other cases, the EEOC may go to federal court to enforce the law (Gregory, 2003, p.28-29). Enforcement of Title VII is not limited to EEOC actions, however, because the legislation also has individual and class causes of action. This type of charge originates from an individual or group of individuals who allege that they were adversely affected by some act of unlawful discrimination (Gregory, 2003, p. 29).            Organizations can bring discrimination claims on behalf of their members if the alleged discriminatory action injured its members, if the claim can proceed without the participation of those injured members, and if the claim is relevant to the organization’s purposes. The requirements for filing a charge include the following: The person filing the charge must be or represent an aggrieved person (must have a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy and must have suffered a personal injury), except in cases in which the charge is filed by the EEOC itself. The charge must be directed against an â€Å"employer†as defined by Title VII. The charge must be filed within the specified time limits. The form of the charge must comply with certain procedural requirements (Saguy, 2003).            Once these requirements are met, the EEOC will proceed with the charge. The remedies of both injunctive and affirmative relief are available to the winning party in an employment discrimination suit. The prevailing party may be awarded back pay and attorney’s fees as well as an injunction prohibiting the employer’s unlawful action. In addition, the court may order the employer to cease its discriminatory practices, to reinstate employees, and to implement an appropriate affirmative action plan to eliminate existing discrimination and prevent its recurrence. These remedies are guided by the two goals of the act: (1) to achieve equality of employment opportunity by removing barriers based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and (2) to make the victim of unlawful discrimination whole–to put the victim in the position he or she would have been in had the discrimination not occurred.Both of these approaches have limitations. Even taken together, they are not sufficient to enforce a prohibition against sex discrimination(Saguy, 2003).            Although the Equal Pay Act applies to all employers, Title VII has been limited to employers of more than fifteen people. Thus, many smaller businesses are not subject to the mandates of Title VII. The Equal Pay Act is limited in other ways. For example, it is directed only to discrepancies in pay levels once on a job. It does not address the problem of discriminatory hiring or advancement policies. The basic weakness of these acts is that neither is all-encompassing. They fail to address the overall problems of sex discrimination that exist outside of the workplace (Saguy, 2003). Thus, very few of the problems of discrimination encountered in athletics are addressed by either act. This legislation provides potential relief only in athletic employment.Another major problem in pursuing litigation under these statutes is the cost.            Neither statute provides any guaranteed basis for the eventual recovery of attorney’s fees and/or double or triple damages. Thus, litigation is not an option for many of those who might wish to file claims. Cases are seldom pursued, and the effectiveness of the legislation diminishes as the chance that an employer will be punished lessens. One last problem is that courts have been reluctant to interpret the statutes broadly. This reluctance stems from the fact that hiring and salary decisions are well within the area of management prerogatives allotted to employers. The court is reluctant to interfere in any discretionary decision unless there has been a clear abuse of that discretion. Thus, it is very difficult to establish a case based on a complaint regarding practices in either of these areas. Usually, the evidence is open to a variety of interpretations. Such circumstances can make it difficult or even impossible for a plaintiff to prevail in a sex discrimination case under application of the aforementioned statutes. References Crouch, Margaret A. (2001). Thinking about Sexual Harassment: A Guide for the         Perplexed. Oxford University Press. Gregory, Raymond F. (2003). Women and Workplace Discrimination: Overcoming       Barriers to Gender Equality. Rutgers University Press. Minchin, Timothy J. (2001). The Color of Work: The Struggle for Civil Rights in the    Southern Paper Industry, 1945-1980. University of North Carolina Press. Saguy, Abigail C. (2003). What Is Sexual Harassment? From Capitol Hill to the Sorbonne.University of California Press Â
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