The Role of the Internet in Relation to Democracy - Essay Example

PART A: Short Answers According to McRobbie pre-feminist female selfhood was previously understood in terms of absence of autonomy and dependence on approval from the male gender. According to the author post-feminism is therefore the struggle that a woman has to undergo in order to find the resources within herself to regain self-esteem which is always and inevitably lost. According to William James, pragmatism is the belief that we have only one edition of the universe, unfinished, growing in all sorts of places especially in places where thinking beings are at work. This means that pragmatism regards useful hypothesis originating from the universe as important particularly when such forms of hypothesis are useful to life of the thinking beings. According to Freud, the pleasure principle is the attempt or the efforts undertaken by some people to seek pleasure by avoiding pain or suffering with an objective of satisfying psychological and biological needs. Freud perceived some people as striving to allow immediate gratification even when the circumstances surrounding them do not allow them to allow immediate gratification. Culture can simply be defined as the base or the root from where every human being derives his genuine life. It is therefore the substance that prevents people from grasping everything that comes their way (William, 1967). Culture is therefore the pathway through which people trace their reality and avoid being ruined by other cultures brought to them. According to Nietzsche a true culture is that type of culture that promotes the strength and the truthfulness of a person’s character which helps a person to rebel against a state of things particularly rebelling against imitations. Decorative culture is the type of culture that drives a person to imitate what is already known or what a person has heard. Modernity can be defined as a new world order characterised by the use of human reason in undertaking all activities that surround human beings. This involves the application of human reason to nature and religion to science and finance. Modernity can also be defined as the rise in new forms of regulations, institutionalization, surveillance, administration and industrialisation. According to Foucault, discourse can be defined as one aspect that affects the human view of things around him. The author noted that discourse is the use of language to manifest a formalized and a particular thinking manner. Discourse thus separates what we ought to speak about a certain topic. According to Foucault, the concept of governmentality can be defined or understood as the effort of the government to produce policies and citizens who can implement the policies produced by the government (Foucault, 2006). It is therefore the art or the technique used by governments to govern its subjects through organized practices. According to Bourdieue, social capital can be defined as the type of capital that originates from social networks (Bourdieu, 1990, p.54). In this regard, social capital emphasizes the need for confidence and cooperation to achieve economic objectives (Bourdieue, 1977). This is different from cultural capital that emphasises on the need for cultural knowledge accumulation in order to confer status and power to the people. According to Althusser, ideology can be defined as the rituals, discourses and material institutions that produce the beliefs held in the human mind. The author viewed social practices as the producer of ideas and beliefs and not the vice versa. Hence, the concept of ideology is derived from the social practices that produce ideas and beliefs. PART B Question 8 One of the arguments presented by Freud, is that every step on the long path of sexuality development can become a point of fixation, every juncture in this involved combination can be an occasion for the sexual instinct. According to Freud, sexuality and sexual instincts which determine the way male and female relate are influenced by different factors that should be taken into consideration if the relationship between the male and the female particularly in terms of sex is to be enhanced. The other argument presented by Freud is that it remains for us to enumerate the various factors, internal and external, that interfere with development, and to indicate the place in the mechanism on which the disturbance arising from each of them impinge (Freud, p.101). In other words, the author argues that sexuality and every act that relates to sexuality can only be enhanced and effectively performed once the external and the internal factors that hinder its execution are identified, detailed and eliminated. This is particularly important in married couples whose sexual relations are affected by both internal and external factors that prevent the couple from performing their duties such as engaging in sex. One of the best examples of a couple whose sexual relationship is affected by the internal and the external factors is Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Even though the two characters are married and live as husband and wife, their sexual relationship is strained to an extent of not engaging in sexual intercourse. One of the contributing reasons is that the each one of them lives a secret life from the other. According to Freud, this is an internal factor that results into a strained relationship between the two characters to the point of seeking for a marriage counsellor to advise them on how to solve the problem they encounter in their marriage. Thus, sexuality as well as sexual engagement can be enhanced and improved through alignment of the couple’s interests and not by living secret lives. Freud noted argued that by taking into consideration the factors that hinder the proper development of sexual instincts is a worthwhile approach to solving sexual relationship problems. This is evident through Mr. and Mrs Smith because once the two characters begin to work cooperatively and with coordination to a achieve a common course of wiping out their enemies their sexual life is also rejuvenated which means that the two characters reach a common point in which they manage to overcome common internal and external factors that hindered the proper development of sexuality in their lives. Question 7 In his work on the “The Structural Study of Myth” Levi-Strauss’s argued that mythology confronts the students with a situation which at first sight appears contradictory. This means that at one hand, at the course of the myth everything appears as though it would happen. With myth, everything appears to be possible (Levi-Strauss’s, p.208). The author argued that there is a very good reason why a myth cannot be simply be treated as a language if its specific problems are to be solved. This is because in order to be known a myth must be told unlike a language which can be known without being told about. This is an important factor to a structuralist in relation to the film V for Vendetta because the film itself is a myth drawn from a comic book and told to the audience. It is also a myth or a parable told to the audience in order to being out the real picture of the meaning of the myth in relation to the theme. The theme of the film is about the struggle between the state and freedom. The structuralist would therefore be interested with the manner in which the myth in the V for Vendetta is told and differentiated from the language because a myth must be told. Additionally, a myth always refers to events alleged to have taken place long ago. However, the operational value of a myth is the specific pattern described in the way events are explained because it touches on the past, present and the future. In this regard, a structuralist would carry out an analysis of V for Vendetta by exploring the time pattern which describes how events have taken place in the past, present and how events will take place in the future. For instance, structuralist would analyse how a totalitarian government as depicted in the V for Vendetta came into force in the United Kingdom. The structuralist would also analyse the current conduct of the totalitarian government that sparks off dissatisfaction among the Londoners and the means bring used to rise against the totalitarian government. The structuralist would also explore the future plans such as meeting on November 5 where V and other follows plan to destroy the parliament in order to eliminate the totalitarian government. Hence, a structuralist would explore the time patter on how events occur. According to Levi-Strauss’s exploring the time value of the myth helps to separate the myth from a speech and therefore it helps to differentiate a myth from politics. Furthermore, V is depicted as the mythical figure in the V for vendetta. According to Levi-Strauss we can understand another property of the mythical figure by exploring how he is endowed with contradictory attributes, he may be good and bad at the same time (Levi-Strauss, p. 217). From this point of view, a structuralist would analyse the mythical figure V’ in the film V for Vendetta by exploring how he is viewed as bad and good at the same time. For instance, the Londoners view ‘V’ as their god in fighting against the totalitarian government while the totalitarian government views ‘V’ as bad in fighting against the government (Goldstein, 2006). Part C Question two Psychoanalytic theories have predominantly stressed on the manner in which the mental lives of the people are affected or influenced by the elements which occur in the unconscious world of an individual. One of the basic tenets of psychoanalytic theory is that cognition, experience and human behaviour are determined largely by irrational drives and innate drives. However, the irrational drives that determine human behaviour are firmly embedded in the unconscious world of individuals. In other worlds, some of the elements of human failure are unfounded and unreasonable because they only exist in the unconscious mind of an individual and not in reality. In his work on “The Independent Woman” de Beauvoir (1989) noted that obedience is no longer included among the duties of a wife and each woman citizen has a right to vote (De Beauvoir, 1989). The author noted that women have for a long time been perceived as the “weaker sex” and as a result, this belief is deeply inculcated in the unconscious mind of the female gender that women are weaker than men and in order to survive women must rely entirely on men particularly to gain economic freedom. The author argued that the curse that is upon women as vassal consists, as we have seen in the fact that she is not permitted to do anything, so she persists in the vain pursuit of her true being through narcissism, love, or religion (De Beauvoir, p. 679). The increased woes faced by women are depicted as originating from her unconscious belief that their help can only come from man and so women have to engage in certain behaviours such as being promiscuous in order to please men if they have to survive. However, this feminist theory of the “Independent women” debt to psychoanalysis in that psychoanalysis help to disentangle the female mind from its unconscious state of helplessness and dependence on male by exploring the unconscious irrational drives that drive women to engage in certain activities such as prostitution and the continued oppression experience from men. In her work on “Illegible Rage: Post-feminists Disorders” McRobbie (2009) noted that feminism has some kind of shadow presence because it can be relinquished and abandoned for a certain quality of life to proceed. According to the author eating disorders experienced by women are contributed largely by the fashion image which women are required to have. Such a fashion image includes extreme thinness, stick- thin arms and legs, completely flat chests without breasts, flat tummy, narrow hips, chiselled cheek bones and large eyes. This fashion image elements are the driving factors to the numerous disorders experienced by women as they strife to achieve the fashion image. However, this feminist theory debts to psychoanalysis in that psychoanalysis digs deep into the unconscious mind of the female gender to explore the hidden factors that drive women to strive to achieve the fashion image with the above mentioned characteristics while putting their lives at stake due to the eating disorders that arise from fashion image activities. In this regard, psychoanalysis seeks to bring out women from their “unconscious fashion image mind” to the conscious mind where they can be able to take care of their health and bodies. Question three From the Marxist’s point of view, the State Apparatus include elements such as the Govermements, the administration, the Police, the Army, the Prisons and the courts to mention a few. These are some of the apparatus used to carry out the functions of the government in the state. However, the cultural theory advocates for certain ideological apparatus such as the religious apparatus which is made up of the system of different churches, the educational ideological state apparatus which comprise of the system of different public and private schools, the family ideological state, the legal ideological state, the political ideological state which comprises of the political parties and other political systems and finally the trade unions. In his work on “Ideology and ideological state apparatus”, Louis Althusser (1994) noted that the latter consist of realities that present themselves to the immediate observer in the form of distinct and specialized institutions. From this regard, it is obvious that Marxism has influence above the cultural theory because the Ideological State Apparatus advocated for by the cultural theory operate under the State Apparatus advocated for by the Marxism theory. For example, private and public schools which comprise the educational ideological state apparatus operate under the policies and regulations formulated by the government and enforced by the State Apparatus such as administration. Similarly, other ideological apparatus such as religious organizations (churches) families, the legal framework, the political parties and trade unions derive their mandate from the State Apparatus which means that State Apparatus regulate the conduct of the ideological state apparatuses. This means that Marxism has greater influence on cultural theory because the systems advocated for in cultural theory operate under the influence of the systems advocated for in Marxism theory. Additionally, Marxism influences the cultural theory in that while cultural theory comprise of individual parts that prevail in the private domain, Marxism comprises of the aspects that prevail in the public domain. However, the public domain is the sum total of all the individual parts advocated in cultural theory such as schools, churches, families trade unions and other private ventures. This means that the individual parts advocated for in the cultural theory make up the entire system advocated by Marxism. Therefore, Marxism has influence on cultural theory because the individual systems in cultural theory makeup the entire system advocated for in Marxism. Furthermore, Marxism influences cultural theory by virtue of the fact that the proper functioning of the cultural systems lie in the hands of the State Apparatuses. For example, for peace to prevail in the cultural systems such as schools, churches and families regulations must be issued by the State Apparatus. Specifically, any form of disturbance to the proper functioning of the cultural systems is only quelled by the State Apparatus which means that state apparatuses has a higher influence to the ideological state apparatus because the state apparatus can determine the functions of the ideological state apparatus. From this discussion, it is evident that Marxism influence over cultural theory can only be analysed from the point of view of the elements contained in the two theories such as State Apparatuses and Ideological State Apparatus. References Bourdieue, P. 1977. Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1990). Structures, habitus, practices. In P. Bourdieu, The logic of practice (pp. 52-79). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Bourdieu, 1990, p. 54 De Beauvoir, S 1989. Towards liberation: The independent woman. New York: Sage Publishers. De Beauvoir, S. 1989. The Second sex: Woman’s Life Today. New York: Vintage Books. \ Freud, S. 1961. Beyond the pleasure principle. W.W.W Norton and Company Limited. Freud, S. 1961. Three essays on the theory of sexuality. BasicBooks. Freud, S. 1926. Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety, Hogarth Press. Foucault, M. 2006. History of madness. New York: Rutledge. p. V Goldstein, H. (2006). "V for Vendetta: Comic vs. Film". IGN.com. http://comics.ign.com/articles/696/696867p1.html Jacobsen, K. "V for Vendetta – Graphic Enough?". logosjournal.com (Logos Journal). http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_5.3/jacobsen.htm. Nietzsche, F. 1983. Untimely meditations. Cambridge University Press.p.59-123 McRobbie, A. 2009. Illegible rage: Post-Feminist disorders. Sage Publishers. Louis, A. 1994. Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses. New York: Harvester, p. 152-162 Levi-Strauss, C. 1986. The structural study of myth. Harmondswoth: Penguin. P.207-231 William, R. 1967. Culture and society. Chattos + Windus: London. Williams, J. Pragmatism and Humanism. 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In this regard, social capital emphasizes the need for confidence and cooperation to achieve economic objectives (Bourdieue, 1977). This is different from cultural capital that emphasises on the need for cultural knowledge accumulation in order to confer status and power to the people. According to Althusser, ideology can be defined as the rituals, discourses and material institutions that produce the beliefs held in the human mind. The author viewed social practices as the producer of ideas and beliefs and not the vice versa.

Hence, the concept of ideology is derived from the social practices that produce ideas and beliefs. PART B Question 8 One of the arguments presented by Freud, is that every step on the long path of sexuality development can become a point of fixation, every juncture in this involved combination can be an occasion for the sexual instinct. According to Freud, sexuality and sexual instincts which determine the way male and female relate are influenced by different factors that should be taken into consideration if the relationship between the male and the female particularly in terms of sex is to be enhanced.

The other argument presented by Freud is that it remains for us to enumerate the various factors, internal and external, that interfere with development, and to indicate the place in the mechanism on which the disturbance arising from each of them impinge (Freud, p.101). In other words, the author argues that sexuality and every act that relates to sexuality can only be enhanced and effectively performed once the external and the internal factors that hinder its execution are identified, detailed and eliminated.

This is particularly important in married couples whose sexual relations are affected by both internal and external factors that prevent the couple from performing their duties such as engaging in sex. One of the best examples of a couple whose sexual relationship is affected by the internal and the external factors is Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Even though the two characters are married and live as husband and wife, their sexual relationship is strained to an extent of not engaging in sexual intercourse.

One of the contributing reasons is that the each one of them lives a secret life from the other. According to Freud, this is an internal factor that results into a strained relationship between the two characters to the point of seeking for a marriage counsellor to advise them on how to solve the problem they encounter in their marriage. Thus, sexuality as well as sexual engagement can be enhanced and improved through alignment of the couple’s interests and not by living secret lives. Freud noted argued that by taking into consideration the factors that hinder the proper development of sexual instincts is a worthwhile approach to solving sexual relationship problems.

This is evident through Mr. and Mrs Smith because once the two characters begin to work cooperatively and with coordination to a achieve a common course of wiping out their enemies their sexual life is also rejuvenated which means that the two characters reach a common point in which they manage to overcome common internal and external factors that hindered the proper development of sexuality in their lives. Question 7 In his work on the “The Structural Study of Myth” Levi-Strauss’s argued that mythology confronts the students with a situation which at first sight appears contradictory.

This means that at one hand, at the course of the myth everything appears as though it would happen. With myth, everything appears to be possible (Levi-Strauss’s, p.208). The author argued that there is a very good reason why a myth cannot be simply be treated as a language if its specific problems are to be solved. This is because in order to be known a myth must be told unlike a language which can be known without being told about. This is an important factor to a structuralist in relation to the film V for Vendetta because the film itself is a myth drawn from a comic book and told to the audience.

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