I Was Born a White, Middle Class American :: Culture and Identity Essays

Culture and identity are two very strange ideas. They are received at a very young age, yet they are very hard to give to someone else. They will affect you for the rest or your life, yet for the most part you are born into them. However, they soon become very important to us and we cannot, no matter what we do, live without them. They are a part of us, and a vital aspect of society. However, it took me a very long time to recognize that I had an identity and a little while after that before I knew what it was. My entire life I have been a middle class white male. I was born into this identity and most likely will die in this identity. My entire family fits into the same class of society. I could probably wear a sign that read, â€Å"Average American† and no one would ever tell me that I was not. The neighborhood that I grew up in is middle class, and a majority of the neighbors that I have are also white and of the same class. When I was younger, me and my friends would play video games at my house until my mom would tell us to go outside. It seemed like the summers lasted longer then. This is probably because we spent everyday looking for something to do, whereas these days I spend my summers looking for ways to get out of doing what I am supposed to do. We would go to the local elementary and middle schools where there was a small creek and pond. We would catch crayfish, bugs, and frogs only to let them go after we celebrated our great achievement. We would play tag, football, soccer, hockey and baseball at someone’s house or at the athletic fields of the schools. And all of us were of the same culture and class. It was always three to fifteen young white males doing what young white males usually do. A few of the other kids were Italian, which apparently is not Caucasian, but we did not know that.

Aggression Theory

Physical violence is one of the types of violence that may be clearly explained theory. Physical violence entails: â€Å"choking, grabbing, hitting, hitting with weapons or objects, kicking, obliging a person to do something involuntarily, pulling, punching, pushing, scratching, shoving, slapping, etc.†Ã‚   (Do.., n.d.).Aggression Theory Explaining the Type of Violence ChosenExternally-stimulated Aggression is the school of Aggression Theory which can clearly explain physical violence. Externally-stimulated Aggression begins with the premise that aggression occurs because of â€Å"innate predispositions† as well as â€Å"external stimuli† (Smith, 1999).The external stimuli referred to here is technically known as â€Å"frustration† (Types, n.d.). Explaining further, let’s take the following example:Let’s look into my father’s motivation of fear, anxiety, and violence which all contributed largely to his â€Å"frustrations†. My f ather has always been a violent individual. He flares up over little â€Å"frustrations† like:1) when mother asks how utility bills are going to be paid this time;2) when my big brother complains about how small our house is;3) when my little sister asks him to help get something at the top of the closet;4) when I ask him not to hurt or yell at my mother etc.It all started when he resigned in 1983 as a city engineer and he puts up his own and went into private construction instead. This new business/job of his, however, is not helpful since it is irregular, unlike when he was working for the government where he receives a fixed monthly income.In fact, it is too irregular that he cannot even provide the family’s basic needs like food, school supplies, health insurance etc. Sometimes he has clients who would pay him to build their houses, swimming pools, renovate their homes, etc, however, most of the time he does not have anything to do, thus, most of the time he doesnà ¢â‚¬â„¢t have money.He gets â€Å"frustrated†, and depressed, then drinks, or proceeds to the casino to play poker and does not come home until early morning. He became an alcoholic, and he also became addicted to poker. He still gets contracts to build houses and other infrastructure projects but he only obliges to the most expensive ones.Because he is too picky, there were only a number of offers coming in then until no offers were coming in at all, which of course contributed largely to his â€Å"frustrations†. Even though large infrastructure projects were coming in then and the profits were a bit high, my father still cannot contribute to the family’s needs.This is because when he gets a contract, he tends to make a loan without even making sure if it is worth it. What happened was he earned but his debts were thrice his gains. He borrowed money from his friends but these were not enough to pay off everything.In the end, he was sued for bouncing checks. He was also sued by his friends. We lost some of our properties because of the aforementioned as well.Since then he became so â€Å"frustrated† and fearful, he would not come out of the room when he hears that some people knock over at our gate and then throws whatever he gets hold of, kicks whatever is available, or hit whomever is in the room with him.He feels that every time somebody comes over to visit, these people are either arresting officers who are going to invite him down to the police station for questioning or people whom he promised he’d pay back on that certain day.What he would do is to ask my mother to go outside and tell them he is not home (which makes me so scared since somebody might just hurt my mom for all her alibis or the people’s anger might be transferred to her and she would be the one to get hurt).This situation of ours became worse as days go by. He became so â€Å"frustrated† he would slap my mother when my mother refuses to giv e him money he would spend on poker, throw breakable things at us when he is too irritated with his problems, unleash his exceedingly big guard dogs inside the house to threaten us, and countless other violent acts.There are three basic conditions which bring forth anxiety (Franken, 1994). It could be: 1) Overstimulation, wherein information for a certain individual is overflowing; 2) Cognitive Incongruity, wherein an individual is having difficulty reconciling with some event; and 3) Response Unavailability, wherein a person does not know how to handle an excruciating situation (Franken, 1994).The three basic conditions aforementioned apply to my father. â€Å"Overstimulation† appears in this situation as the countless monetary problems which have too many details for him to handle. Cognitive Incongruity, on the other hand, emerges as the several cases with regards to bouncing checks and the debts he owes to other people.Response Unavailability, however, surfaces as the debt s he incurs every time he gets infrastructure projects or every time he needs it. Instead of working hard and saving, his only recourse is to borrow money which causes his downfall.This only shows as well that he does not know how to handle a difficult situation which is what exactly termed as Response Unavailability. And this increases his anxiety and â€Å"frustrations†.Reduction or Elimination of ViolenceFortunately, there are ways to reduce, if not totally eliminate violence as suggested by the Theory of Aggression utilized:It is important for my father, for example, to â€Å"focus on the other components of the frustrating stimulus than the frustration† (Dugan, 2004).Instead of losing control over the irrepressible and uncontainable occurrences or instead of believing that there is no way to solve the problem, he should be â€Å"self-certain† meaning not only knowing his strengths but both strengths and weaknesses since if that is the case then he would not be able to cope with any stressful incident in his life since a solution to a problem is only devised when he turns his anxiety into fear and then deal with the other components of the frustration that has been produced (Franken, 2004).ReferencesDo You Have A Problem With Violence? (n.d.). Retrieved September 8, 2007 from  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.daniel-sonkin.com/violence.htmlDugan, M.A. (2004). Aggression. Retrieved September 8, 2007 from  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/aggression/Franken, R. E. (1994). Human Motivation, 3rd ed. CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.Smith, A.K. (1999). Theories of Aggression. Retrieved September 8, 2007 from  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro99/web3/Smith.htmlTypes of Aggression. (n.d.). Retrieved September 8, 2007 fromhttp://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:q5ApqUItbrcJ:psych.fullerton.edu/navarick/aggression.ppt +theories+of+aggression&hl=tl&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=ph&client=firefox-a

Creative Commons Essay - 3468 Words

Creative Commons Creative Commons encourages artists to share and distribute their work for free. And that could be the key to a new multibillion-dollar industry. People can widely redistribute other people works, as long as they provide the credit to the authors; create new works based on an existing ones, provided they offer those derivations back to the public on the same terms. This paper analyzes the conflicts between the need of technology for creativity and innovation versus the legal aspect of copyright. An alternative emerging approach for licensing music, software, research paper and many other resources on the internet, creative common sharing copyright, is introduced. The paper does not analyze if†¦show more content†¦An impressive push to extend intellectual property by the entertainment industry may result in the development of new technologies and revolution in the way people watch TV, access information at home, experience interactive TV. But at what cost? There must be a balance between the developer of the intellectual property and the interest of the public. Intellectual property is already a big business among companies. Expanding the monopolies has the effect of allowing companies to negotiate and cross-licensing technology. Microsoft, as recently reported on the Wall Street Journal, is looking to expand the licensing of its technologies, after successfully licensing some video decoders to open source groups. The increasing acceptance of the intellectual property laws by the public culture is somehow related to the ideals of property, control and fear that the benefits from resources out of control may not be significant. Historic view of copyright In 1774 free culture was made because copyright was stopped in the case called Donaldson versus Becket in the House of the Lords in England. In 1710 the copyright was limited to 14 years. Donaldson was allowed to reprint Shakespeare despite other publishers were trying to stop him and demanded a common copyright law that would be forever. The same type of free culture wasShow MoreRelated Creative Commons - America Needs Fair Use Licenses Essay1723 Words   |  7 PagesCreative Commons - America Needs Fair Use Licenses It’s likely happened to you before, you turn on your radio, or favorite music video network and begin listening to a song by some hot new pop starlet, hip-hop superstar, or aging rocker. The beat is catchy, inviting, and oddly familiar, almost too familiar in fact. You may think, â€Å"Didn’t David Bowie, or, hmm, wasn’t it that guy from Queen that played this riff in like ten years ago? Who is this Vanilla Ice guy and why is he rappingRead MoreAnalysis Of Lawrence Lessig s Remix : Making Art And Commerce Thrive1448 Words   |  6 PagesThe reworking and regeneration of already existing cultural works through the processes of borrowing, stealing, recycling, appropriating and collaging has become a dominant creative strategy in contemporary art and design, particularly fortified by Postmodernity. Martino Gamper, sister duo Soda_Jerk and Glenn Brown are significant artists in this ‘remix culture’ that redefine the way the world is perc eived through the reproduction and recyclability of their works and the works of others. Remix cultureRead MorePersonal Experience: Searching for a Job 653 Words   |  3 Pagesused by the website. The candidate must possess strength in writing, and a sample is required. The candidate must be capable of manipulating any type of image; as well, the candidate must be acquainted with the webhost service, Flickr and its creative common license. Another component that the candidate must be familiar with is how to keep the website optimized, so the public will able to find your website, when using a search engine, like Google, Bing, Yahoo for example. The prospective candidateRead MoreThe Most Ironic Law Of All Time1193 Words   |  5 Pageschanges. However, change hasn’t occurred yet. The American copyright law only gets more controversial as it butts its way in. There is now a three-way skirmish between creators, large corporations and legislature for a simple reason. It is preventing creative freedom and distribution of content online. The American copyright law i s ironically limiting much of this generation’s creativity by preventing exposure, criminalizing the wrong people and letting others take advantages of its own loopholes. ToRead More`` For The Love Of Culture `` By Lawrence Lessig1740 Words   |  7 Pagesresponsibility to the government. Currently it is said that creative work is automatically under copyright without registering the work. As Strong (2014) states in his book â€Å"Copyright Book†, â€Å"Registration does not affect the existence or validity of a copyright. It is and has been, however, important a method of protecting one’s rights under the copyright.† (p.127). Not only that, from DeVoss (DeVoss, 2009) article †Copyright, Creativity and Commons†, explains the ridiculous increase of copyright protectionRead MoreE Phishing Software And The Privacy Of Consumers Online By Warning And Preventing Them From Phishing Websites1574 Words   |  7 Pages(Pg 186, para 2). Lawrence Lessig s Creative Commons takes such approach for a middle ground solution. With the motto Some Rights Reserved, Creative Commons adopts the same objective of copyright laws, except it leaves consumers with more freedoms while ensuring fair earning for the creators (Lessig, pg. 204). Creators do give up some restrictive rights that may result in less revenue compared to adopting copyrights or possibly DRMs. However, Creative Commons do not antagonize consumers. It offersRead MoreBanning Alcohol From Mainstream Consumption918 Words   |  4 Pagesinspire, entertain, or give back to their community. It isn t restricted to cyberspace, either – neighborhoods in Brazil have thrived thanks to a collaboration by Creative Commons and former Minister of Cultural Affairs Gilberto Gil called the Cultural Points Initiative: essentially, grants are rewarded to communities using technology for creative and/or educational purposes. But there s more than one way to share. The Internet grants the fairest opportunity for exposure; that is, the Internet has givenRead MoreTechnology Is Affecting Us Essay666 Words   |  3 Pagestechnology is about forward momentum and understanding what is at the crest of the wave is only half of the battle. Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/technology-articles/how-technology-is-affecting-our-lives-383883.html#ixzz1LpK74j3u Under Creative Commons License: AttributionRead MoreImproving Student s Creativity And Learning1333 Words   |  6 Pagesteachers are experiencing. In the following scenarios, each teacher experience problems using technology ethically and legally in their classroom. Scenario #1 In this scenario, Rebecca is using images in Smart Notebook to inspire her students to be creative and engage throughout the lesson. Rebecca utilizes International Society for Technology in Education for Teachers (ISTE-T) standard 2.A. The ISTE-T standard constitutes the teacher will design a lesson to incorporate technology to promote student’sRead MoreExamples Of Dog Behavior Blog822 Words   |  4 PagesBlog welcomes images and/or video to accompany your guest post as long as they meet the following requirements: a. The Guest Post writer must be the copyright holder of the image/video OR the image/video must be licensed under an appropriate creative commons license or in the public domain. Proof must be submitted along with any image/video showing that it does not infringe on copyright laws. b. Dog Behavior Blog reserves the right to change/edit the image/video if necessary. c. If people are included