Examine the reasons for the success of Microsoft and evaluate the Essay

Examine the reasons for the success of Microsoft and evaluate the impact Microsoft has had on graduate recruitment in the USA - Essay Example Currently, it boasts of a top-tier position among the top companies globally. It comes in third in ranking on the FT Global 500 list. In addition, it rakes in revenue amounting to more than $ 36 billion dollars annually (Stanek, 2006:42). 1. History The Microsoft Corporation is an American business venture dealing in the business of inventing computer software and programs, and in the manufacture of computer-related hardware (Pralahad, 2008:37). Currently, the venture’s shares are on trade at the NASDAQ stock market in New York City, in America. The conglomerate has a global presence, and owns branches and offices in more than seventy nations. Though the main idea behind its start was to produce operating systems to power the Altair 8000 computer system, the business went on to invent significant breakthroughs in the software market. The first evidence of the company’s potential to change the world was its introduction of the MS-DOS in the early 1980s. Soon after, it pr oduced the Windows system in the early 1990s. Through the dominating of the computer market base, and already enjoying a virtual solo monopoly on the global business and home-based personal computer market, it was in an adequate spot to produce software applicatios that would support its systems. The company fully exploited this opportunity, gaining vital ground in the market. This led to the venture releasing the Microsoft Office, which was a huge success at the business sector. In addition, the company also participated in the formulation of MSN, an online-based search engine and news database (Barry, 2011:113). 2. The 1980s The Microsoft Company came into being because of the idea of William Gates in conjunction with Paul Allen. Initially, the venture offered only one product. It employed only three workers, and, in its first year of business, raked in only about $ 25,000 dollars in sales. Gates and his partner had decided to base their company in Alberquque, New Mexico, in order to access the MITS Computer Company easily, which had helped in constructing their Altair microcomputer equipment. Microsoft’s initial product was the Microsoft BASIC, the then programming dialect of the Altair. The Microsoft BASIC was an improvement of BASIC, which was a mainframe computer dialect that the two partners had gotten wind of while in high school in Seattle (Shelly, 2009:97). As time went by, the company made major breakthroughs in the computer field. Not only did the company improve BASIC vastly, but it also modified other present computer languages for their use. In 1977, the company unveiled a modified version of FORTRAN, and quickly followed it with another improved version of COBOL in 1978. By the dawn of 1979, the company had successfully managed to relocate its operations to Washington. At the time, the venture boasted of about $ 3 million dollars in annual income. In addition, it had raised its employee figures to around 30 workers (Todd, 2011:67). The o perating system is a major factor of all computers. In addition to it being the lifeline of the computer, it has also been the major influential factor behind Microsoft’s success. In 1981, the company unveiled the DOS 1.0 operating system for use by the IBM computer. This move proved to be a major landmark in the company’

Organisational Change Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words - 1

Organisational Change Management - Essay Example This majorly applies to the employees who will not be directly affected by the changes and closure of the UK company branch. There need to be a way to maintain their attachment to the company and interest in the success of the company (DiPlacido, 1976). D2 is bound to receive several challenges during the execution of the proposed changes. These challenges will particularly emerge from the employees who will need to shift locations and apply their expertise in another D2 branch. This will be done in that the services of product development team in Didcot will be imported to France. This will help boost the production in France and make the company profitable. Though crucial to the success of the company, likelihood of facing resistance from employees who will have to undergo both personal and geographic change is eminent. This will trigger feelings of victimization and negative attitude towards the company (Wiltshire, 1995). Despite all the challenges, the bard of D2 has decided to p ractice the following strategic changes as immediate actions in their organizational change management: a) Operational Change: According to Truscott, centralizing the available resources to a specific production line gives the company a chance to improve its internal operational competency (2003). This D2 will achieve by stopping part of their production and opting for service outsourcing if need be. This will also enable them to get a specialized service attention. b) Strategic Change: Inefficient strategy normally neutralizes the efforts of the employees (Gutek, 2000). For this reason, D2 aims at adapting a strategy that focuses on reducing both their production and operational costs. Unlike before when they mainly focused on widespread investment, D2 will... D2 is looking forward to making significant operational changes that will also affect its employees. First, D2 is aiming at shutting down their UK site at Didcot in a bid to enable them to centralize their management and resources to the highly profitable branches and maximize on economies of scale. This will greatly affect the employees who were working at the site. D2 is also looking forward to relocating its employees at Didcot and settling them in France so that they can help improve their product design and make the company branch in France more profitable. The changes that the company will undergo while performing all these requires expertise and careful handling as it concerns employees who will have to shift their physical location. Relocating employees from one physical location to the other usually have various effects on the employees. While some might welcome it as a way of exploring new locations, many will always find it inconveniencing considering their attachment to t he location they were in. For this reason, there are several effects to the overall operation and functionality of D2 that will result from the shutdown of the Didcot site and the transfer of the employees from Didcot to France. According to Waterhouse and Brown, there are several factors and constraints that are normally associated with employee relocation (2001) that must be considered to provide for a smooth transformation of the company.  

An Analysis on the Process of Adjudication

An Analysis on the Process of Adjudication Law is a â€Å"strange compound which is brewed daily in the caldron of the Courts† Hon. Benjamin N Cardozo[1]. The work of deciding cases goes on every day in hundreds of courts throughout the land. Any judge, one might suppose, would find it easy to describe the process which he had followed a thousand times and more. Benjamin Cardozo begins his Judicial Process with these words which with lyrical lucidity show what goes on in a court. It is deciding cases. To a layman, adjudication presents a picture of a court where a judge presides, listens to arguments of rival parties through their counsels and in the end, renders a decision which holds a person liable or acquits him of the charges that were labelled against him. To a lawman who is not untutored in the craft, adjudication means something more. When courts decide cases, they perform two distinct, though interrelated, functions. First, they settle the controversy between the parties: they determine what the facts were and apply the appropriate rules to those facts. This is the function commonly known as adjudication[2].While performing their second function, courts decide what the appropriate rules are and how they fit in a particular case. Deciding what rules are applicable often requires the courts to reformulate and modify the scope of existing rules. The second function is sometimes referred to as judicial lawmaking[3]. While adjudicating cases, a judge may be faced with a question of law or a question of fact or a mixed question of law and fact. Besides, he may come across a case which the existing law does not cover, that is the question to be decided by the court was unforeseen by the legislature while enacting the law. Tools available to a judge while deciding a question generally include the statutory provisions, pr ecedent laid down by an earlier court, and the certain overarching principles like that of natural justice and equality. Judicial function performed by the judges requires them at times to use their discretions and rely on certain -principles that lie extraneous to the realm of the enacted law. This is one aspect of adjudication that has stirred much jurisprudential waters over a long period. Questions invariably asked have been: whether judges only declare the law; whether they only interpret the law; whether they only discover the law or whether they make law also. There are two aspects of judicial function that come to fore: The first-which can be traced back to at least Hale and Blackstone-is that judges merely find and declare the law rather than create it. Thus, judges are, allegedly, not a source of law†.[4] The second aspect of judicial juristic techniques that receives much publicised attention is the doctrine of precedent.[5] The function of adjudication subsumes certain intricately intertwined issues. The tool of interpretation plays an important role in adjudicatory process. It may be said that Adjudication is interpretation[6], given the fact that Adjudication is the process by which a judge comes to understand and express the meaning of an authoritative legal text and the values embodied in that text.[7] Interpretation, whether it be in the law or literary domains, is neither a wholly discretionary nor a wholly mechanical activity. It is a dynamic interaction between reader and text, and meaning the product of that interaction.[8]To recover an old and familiar idea, namely, that adjudication is a form of interpretation would build bridges between law and the humanities and suggest a unity among mans many intellectual endeavours. A proper regard for the distinctive social Function of adjudication, and for the conditions that limit the legitimate exercise of the judicial power, will require care in identifying the kinds of texts to be construed and the rules that govern the interpretive process; the judge is to read the legal text, not morality or public opinion, not, if you will, the moral or social texts. But the essential unity between law and the humanities would persist and the judges vision would be enlarged.[9]The words and phrases are symbols that stimulate a mental reference to referents.[10]And it becomes relevant given the fact that the problem of interpretation is a problem of words and their effectiveness as a medium of expression to communicate a particular thought. One of the important aspects on interpretation is to find the intention of the members of the legislature whose creation, that is the enactment, outlives them. Salmond says that the true duty of the judicature is to act upon the true intention of the Legislature-the mens or se ntentia legis. However, the way this duty is to be performed becomes tedious in that judges have only the barren words to confront with and to find the intention of the legislature. The question of interpretation also brings forth the question: do judges make law while interpreting the law? Does the finding of intention amount only to discovery of law or does it mean creation of law? Interpretation often is instrumental in the birth of new precedents, and there have been arguments put forth that say precedents are clearest examples of judicial law making. Dworkinian thesis of how judges decide cases avers that judges merely discover law; they do not make law. However, it has been argued that when judges discover legislative intent, they in fact invent it instead of discovering it[11]. The growing complexities of modern day life throw new challenges and problems in myriad manifestation before the judges, who at times may be tempted to cross the restraints of written words of law, besides being confronted with question of morality and needs of justice. There may surface a problem which the law when enacted could not foresee. Or the law relating to a particular issue is shrouded in ambiguity. Many a time, a judge may have to trace that golden thread from the labyrinth of legalese and factual matrix that will help him reach the desired goal of rendering justice. Often, it is very difficult to do so. The process of adjudication requires a judge to be attentive and aware of the several factors which at times may have a telling impact upon the rights of people, besides jeopardising the cherished goal of doing justice. Performance of judicial function is an onerous task given the kind of responsibility a judge has to shoulder within the constitutional and statutory constraints that hedge him or her from all sides, though leeway for creativity does exist given the tools of interpretation a judge is armed with.13 Innovation comes to the rescue of judge when confronted with a novel case that demands that the judge acts in a way that justice is done: The discussion and deliberation that follow in the coming chapters focus on some of the key aspects of adjudication primarily that of Dworkins, and an effort is made to critically analyse the various facets of Dworkins theory of adjudication before reaching a conclusion in the light of criticisms levelled against them. 3.2  ADJUDICATION vis-a-vis SEPARATION OF POWERS Within the realm of law, adjudication enjoys a place of prominence. Primarily the task of the courts is to adjudicate upon the issues that arise in disputes between parties which may be an individual, at times, state, and on occasions both the state and individuals. In the modem era, the role of the judges has become more complex and it is now a far cry when compared with the role a judge had to play eons ago. The evolution of the society and the legal system has entrusted the judges with newer powers and functions. Now their area of operation is not confined to decide questions that arise between individuals as Geoffrey Rivlin reminds that First, where there is any dispute about constitutional law, the judges must decide what the law is. Their most important role, however, is to act as an independent check on the power of the executive. Only the courts have the authority to stop any individual or body of persons from exceeding their powers, or making improper use of their powers. Th is is known as preventing an abuse of power. When we speak of judges, it means the entire hierarchy of judges who operate in different courts. The problems arising before the courts and decisions to be rendered are different in nature depending upon the courts. The factors that influence the outcome of an adjudicatory process vary greatly, and so do the decisions of the court. Be that as it may, there are a score of issues that need to be dealt with when we consider the process of adjudication. 3.3  DISPUTE REVIEW BOARD/DISPUTE ADJUDICATION BOARD This method of international dispute resolution, first tried successfully in the 1980s in Central America, is now regularly used in respect of large international construction and infrastructure contracts. These contracts provide for the appointment of a panel of experts, generally construction practitioners (engineers, lawyers, economists), either at the time of signature or in the course of the execution of the contract. For example, contracts relating to the construction of the Vasco Da Gama bridge, over the River Tagus in Portugal, provided for the appointment of two panels (technical and financial) of three experts each. For the Channel Tunnel, between France and the United Kingdom, the designation of apanel of three experts and two alternates was provided for in contracts. Members of the .dispute review board/dispute adjudication board (DRB/DAB) are appointed by the parties in the same way as an arbitral tribunal is constituted, with one major difference. The panel is generally appointed at the very beginning of the project and for its whole duration, whereas arbitrators are appointed only in the context of a dispute. Each party nominates its experts and the two appointed experts designate the third that is, unless the parties have agreed on a different appointment mechanism. A one-member DRB/DAB may also be appointed DRB/DABs typically follow a project from beginning to end (through site visits, study of monthly reports, exchanges of correspondence, miscellaneous reports, etc.), This-is so that they are able, upon the request of a contracting party; to react promptly and knowledgeably and, if necessary, to issue an opinion, recommendation or decision in written form. DRB/DAB experts are usually paid monthly or, for on-site interventions, by the hour. The DRB/DAB may intervene in either a flexible or a more formal manner. In the former, it acts as an advisory body. A party or several parties may, by a simple and informal request, ask for a preliminary written opinion. This opinion is considered provisional in that it does not bind either the parties or the DRB. In the latter, the DRB/DAB plays a more formal role, insofar as it issues either a decision or a recommendation, on a procedure that enables each of the parties to express its ideas fully. Once the panel of experts has handed down its opinion, decision or recommendation, each of the parties indicates, generally within a fixed time limit, whether or not it accepts the decision or recommendation. If the decision is not accepted, recourse to the jurisdictional procedure (before a State court or an arbitral tribunal) remains possible. 3.4  DWORKIN’S THEORY OF ADJUDICATION The courts are the capitals of laws empire, and judges are its princes, but not its seers and prophets. Dworkin, Laws Empire, 407(1986) Introduction In laws empire, judges enjoy a prominent position. They are entrusted with the task of adjudication, which affects the lives of people in ways both seen and unseen. Rights of people who approach the apostle of justice stand to lose or gain depending upon how the judge presiding over the court views a case. Importance of judges in legal arena is reflected in Dworkins writing when he begins his Laws Empire with these words: It matters how judges decide cases. It matters most to people unlucky or litigious or wicked or saintly enough to find themselves in court.[12] The difference between dignity and ruin may turn on a single argument that might not have struck another judge so forcefully, or even the same judge on another day[13]. A single nod of a judge may rob a person of his liberty or protect his liberty. It may mean life or death for a person.[14] The role played by judges assumes more importance today. Given the fact that they perform one of the tedious tasks in a society, it becomes desirable to see and analyse how they do what they do. In view of the foregone discussion in the previous chapter that touched upon the vexed question of what is law and the myriad facets of adjudication that are crucial to the understanding of how law operates in laws empire, the theory of adjudication as developed by Dworkin assumes due importance, especially given the parallels that are perceptible in the time that preceded Dworkins theory. One such parallel can be seen in Blackstones declaratory theory that dealt with the famous account of judging which holds that judges find (or declare), rather than make, law. In the introduction to the Commentaries, Blackstone states that the judges job is to determine the law not according to his own private judgment, but according to the known laws and customs of the land; the judge is not delegated to pronounce a new law, but to maintain and expound the old one. 3.4.1  ADJUDICATION: DWORKIN’S APPROACH To Dworkin, law is an interpretive concept†. By making this claim, he tries to distinguish his philosophy from what he calls semantic theories of law, which refer to positivist theories, like that of John Austin and Herbert Hart. According to him, these theories suppose that that law has a meaning which is shared by lawyers and others. This shared meaning consists of rules for using the word law. These rules, in turn, tie law in positivist theories to historical facts, such as the enactment of a statute or the decision of a case. Dworkin suggests that disagreement about the law, under positivist theories, would invoke legal argument in adjudication only about the historical fact made relevant by the shared meaning of law. He considered three theories of law-conventionalism, pragmatism and law as integrity in Laws Empire. Only the last of these is interpretive, but each, he argues, is compatible with his interpretive theory of meaning, which he describes as the view that the doc trinal concept of law is an interpretive concept. 3.4.2  ADJUDICATION OF HARD CASES The theory of hard cases provided by positivism, according to Dworkin, envisages that when a particular law suit cannot be brought under a clear rule of law, laid down by some institution in advance, then judge has discretion to decide the case either way. He says the opinion of the judge seems to assume that one or the other party had a pre-existing right to win the suit, but idea only is a fiction. In reality, he has legislated new legal rights, and then applied them retrospectively to the case at hand.[15] Dworkin tries to provide an alternative method of adjudication which he calls naturalism. It is noteworthy how he builds up his theory of adjudication in the following manner:[16] I shall start by giving the picture of adjudication I want to defend a name, and it is a name which accepts the crude characterization. I shall call this picture naturalism. According to naturalism, judges should decide hard cases by interpreting the political structure of their community in the following, perhaps special way: by trying to find the best justification they can find, in principles of political morality, for the structure as a whole, from the most profound constitutional rules and arguments to the details of, for example, the private law of tort or contract. Prior to elaborating further on the methodology adopted by Dworkin, it will serve some purpose to see how he disagrees with the general understanding of how judges go about doing what they actually do. He believes that the common story about the way judges function is misleading, and misses certain notable points. He finds a further level of subordination in such a story which goes unnoticed. It is expected that when make law, they will act not only as a deputy to the legislature but also as a deputy legislature. However, Dworkin reasons:[17] They will make law in response to evidence and arguments of the same character as would move the superior institution if it were acting on its own. This is deeper level of subordination, because it makes any understanding of what judges do in hard cases parasitic on a prior understanding of what legislators do all the time. According to him, this subordination is both conceptual and political. He believes that judges are not deputy legislators, and they should not be as well. It is misleading to assume that they are legislating when judges go beyond the political decisions which have been made already by someone else. He argues that such an assumption misses the fundamental distinction between arguments of principle and arguments of policy. It is noticeable, Dworkin argues that the distinct outline here is an improvement upon the distinction between principle and the policy that he made under chapter two of Taking Rights Seriously, one of the virtues among others being that this formulation â€Å"prevent the collapse of the distinction under the artificial assumption described before[18]. It should be pointed out here that both the arguments justify political decisions; it is only the way they justify such decisions that differs. Arguments of policy justify a political decision by showing that the decision advances or protects some collective goal of the community as a whole[19] whereas the arguments of principle justify a political decision by showing that the decision respects or secures some individual or group right.[20]The justification of legislative program of any complexity, says Dworkin, will require both sorts of arguments. According to him, a program that is chiefly a matter of policy may require strands of principle to justify it[21]. Sometimes, it may so happen that a program which is generated by policy may be qualified by principle and vice versa. In a hard case where no settled rule dictates a decision either way, then, Dworkin says, it might seem proper that a proper decision could be generated by either policy or principle.[22]He cites the case of Spartan Steel Alloys Ltd. V. Martin Co. f02. In this case, the employees of the defendant company had broken the electric cable which belonged to a company which supplied power to the plaintiffs factory, which was shut down during the period the cable was repaired. Whether to allow recovery for economic loss following negligent damage to someone else’s property was the question to be decided before the court. Here, there are two ways open before the court. Dworkin says â€Å"It might have proceeded to its decision by asking whether a firm in the position of the plaintiff had a right to recovery, which is a matter of principle, or whether it would be economically wise to distribute liability for accidents in the was plaintiff suggested, which is matter of policy. Dworkin lays down his thesis: Judicial decisions in civil cases, even in hard cases like Spartan Steel, characteristically are and should be generated by principle not policy. 1 [1] Benjamin Cardozo, The Nature Of The Judicial Process, 10 (1921) [2] James L. Houghtling, The Dynamics of Law 13(1963) [3] Ibid [4] Rajeev Dhavan et. al. (ed), Judges and the Judicial Power 1 2 (1985) [5] Ibid. [6] Owen M. Fiss, Objectivity and Interpretation, 34 Stan. L. Rev. 739. [7] Ibid [8] Ibid. Fiss says, It is an activity that affords a proper recognition of both the subjective and objective dimensions of human experience; and for that reason, has emerged in recent decades as an attractive method for studying all social activity. The idea of a written text, the standard object of legal or literary interpretation, has been expanded to embrace social action and situations, which are sometimes called text-analogues. [9] Ibid. Indeed, interpretation is defined as the process by which the meaning of a text is understood and expressed, and the acts of understanding and expression necessarily entail strong personal elements. At the same time, the freedom of the interpreter is not absolute. The interpreter is not free to assign any meaning he wishes to the text. He is disciplined by a set of rules that specify the relevance and weight to be assigned to the material (e.g., words, history, intention, consequence), as well as by those that define basic concepts and that established the procedural circumstances under which the interpretation must occur. Id. at 744. [10] G Williams, Language and the Law, 61 LQR 73. [11] For a detailed analysis see, Chapters 4 and 5. Also see, Upendra Baxi, On How Not to Judge the Judges: Notes towards Evaluation of the Judicial Process, 25 JILl 210 (1983). [12] Ronald Dworkin, Laws Empire 1(2002, Indian Reprint) [13] Ibid. [14] Dworkin says, People often stand to gain or lose more by one judges nod than they could by any general act of Congress or Parliament. Ibid [15] Supra note 70 at 81 [16] Ronald Dworkin, Natural Law Revisited, 34 University of Florida Law Review 165 at 165- 166(1982). Suppose the question arises for the first time, for example, whether and in what circumstances careless drivers are liable, not only for physical injuries to those whom they run down, but also for any emotional damage suffered by relatives of the victim who are watching. According to naturalism, judges should then ask the following questions of the history (including the contemporary history) of their political structure. Does the best possible justification of that history suppose a principle according to which people who are injured emotionally in this way have a right to recover damages in court? If so, what, more precisely, is that principle? Does it entail, for example, that only immediate relatives of the person physically injured have that right? Or only relatives on the scene of the accident, who might themselves have suffered physical damage? Ibid. [17] Supra note 70 at 82 [18] Ibid [19] Ib.id. F~r example, The argument in favour of a subsidy for aircraft manufacturers, that the subsidy WIll protect defense, is an argument of policy. Ibid. [20] Ibid. For instance, The argume~t in favour of anti-discrimination statutes, that a minority has a nght to equal respect and concern, IS an argument of principle. Ibid. [21] Ibid. [22] Supra note 70 at 83. Emphasis added.

Fools In _King Lear_ :: essays research papers

Fools and Kings Shakespeare's dynamic use of irony in King Lear aids the microcosmic illustration of not only 16th century Britain, but of all times and places. The theme that best develops this illustration is the discussion of fools and their foolishness. This discussion allows Shakespeare not only to portray human nature, but also to elicit a sort of Socratic introspection into the nature of society's own ignorance as well. One type of fool that Shakespeare involves in King Lear is the immoral fool. Edmund, for instance, may be seen as a fool in the sense that he is morally weak. His foolishness lies in the fact that he has no sense of right or justice, which rewards him with an untimely, ironic death. He discusses this as his father, Gloucester, leaves to ponder the "plotting" of his son Edgar. Edmund soliloquizes, "This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune... ...we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars, as if we were villains on necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion." (I. ii. 32) for the sole purpose of illustrating his wickedness. Edmund realizes that his evil is self- taught. This soliloquy shows the audience Edgar's foolishness in his belief that malevolence is the force that drives one to greatness or prosperity. It also illustrates the bastard's mistaken belief that by fooling his father, he might be able to eliminate Edgar, the competition for Gloucester's title, and possibly rid himself of his father in the same act. This is a prime example of immoral foolishness in King Lear. Another type of fool in King Lear is the ignorant fool. Whereas characters such as Goneril, Regan, and Edmund are fools because of their tendency to harm others for self- gain, the ignorant foolish are not necessarily driven to evil. However, the evil are almost always driven to foolish actions. Gloucester, arguably Lear's foil, puts forth an interesting perspective in the play. His character is presented as one who is blind to the truth, and ironically, one who becomes physically blind in the end. In actuality, it is his blindness to the truth of Edgar's love and Edmund's greed and apathy that ultimately brings about Gloucester's demise. When he says, "I have no way and therefore want no eyes, / I stumbled when I saw" (IV.i.173), he seems to be illustrating the realization of his own

Music Teacher

Reflective Essay #5 I value everything about music. I believe that it promotes many good things, including creativity and cooperation, and it encourages and helps build friendship. I believe that there is one thing that it does that is most important, however. It helps to build confidence. Confidence is a huge factor in a person’s life, and it usually starts as a child. It helps them to make friends, and to feel good about themselves. Involvement in music helps to start building self-confidence in children gradually and not forcefully.Most of the time, children don’t even know that it’s happening; I didn’t realize it until I started college. Performing in front of an audience gives a person courage that they didn’t even know that they possessed, and they can then go on to use this courage and confidence in other situations in their lives, thus creating a better life for them. Music education is the best teacher of this self-confidence, and I believe that most children wouldn’t have the same confidence if they didn’t have a music class every week.This is a very strong point that I would make as a school board member. I believe that self-confidence is a huge component of life, and that it should be taught or encouraged starting at a young age. Music definitely teaches this, along with other great things such as creativity, cooperation, and friendship, which is why children should have a music class at least once a week, starting in kindergarten. These values would influence my teaching in a couple ways.It would help me to prepare students for concerts, starting to build their confidence before they perform for an audience. I would also prepare them so that they wouldn’t have to add the worry of forgetting their music to the fear of performing. I also get performance anxiety, so I understand how much preparation really helps aid a performance. Self-confidence is a huge part of life, and it is partially taught through music performance.

George Orwell, 1984 Essay

The introduction of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four says it all. It cannot be denied that control is present in the society. A few sentences in the first paragraph: â€Å"On each landing, opposite the lift shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran (Orwell 2). † How do you feel when you keep being reminded that someone is looking after you? Or, to be more politically correct, having you under surveillance? The introduction of the book is about Winston Smith who gets inside his London apartment. The tone of the introductory sentences is depressing and dark. The living conditions are undeniably squalid. In this part, it was clear that Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia are the three superpowers that divide the world into pieces. Oceania is where Winston Smith came from (Orwell 1). These superpowers are never in good terms with each other. Because of the wartime conditions that seem constant in the environment and the nature of the countries, the people of Oceania are always repressed. The conditions brought about by war caused the government of Oceania to let its people suffer through repression. The people are always monitored. Surveillance is as common as eating. The party members, however, are not always given enough supply. There is also a private rebellion taking place because the government was no longer humane. In this private rebellion, Winston Smith is a member of the Outer Party. Winston is writing in his diary every single day. Because this decision is crucial, he accepted that what goes with private rebellion is doing some forbidden steps. He has to do forbidden steps because he is serving a party that he did not want to serve (Orwell 2). He buys the diary which was part of the things confiscated during a raid into the proletariats. He meets a young lady outside the shop where he purchased the diary, and he noticed that it is the same girl who keeps on eyeing at him for a few days. Because Winston started feeling that he should be there, and because he felt that the woman was spying on him, he immediately tries to stay away from her (Orwell 2). With this introduction, it clearly shows how totalitarianism has ruled the world. Nineteen Eight-Four is a novel that shows negative utopia. It cannot be denied that totalitarianism was at its most rigid. Totalitarianism was the kind of power used to execute total control of the people (Ellis and Reed, 2008). Orwell had been successful in representing control, in which he introduced through an entity referred to as Big Brother. This has four branches. One is called the Ministry of Love, in which law enforcement is done. The other is called Ministry of Plenty, where economic affairs and issues are handled. The Ministry of Peace is what takes charge of the war taking place in the country and around the world. The Ministry of Truth is the one that manages the dissemination of propaganda. Without the Ministry of Truth, the printed materials and other things needed for administering propaganda won’t be equally distributed. These four ministries make up the government (Ellis and Reed 2). Meanwhile, Winston Smith does not conform to this ideology. This idea is spoon-fed to him, with the concept of Big Brother being used. The government is feeding him with unnecessary things and ideas that he, himself, knows he does not need. Going back to the life of George Orwell, it can be seen that he reflects the character in his novel. George Orwell, like Winston Smith, has the same aesthetic and social characteristics. They both have the same political perceptions. This may be the reason why the novel is undeniably an excellent one, because he could write it as easily as writing his own thoughts, beliefs and feelings. He wrote excellently the representation of control in just simple paragraphs like: â€Å"Behind Winston’s back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard (Orwell 8). † In the novel, there was clearly no way of being aware about how an individual is being watched. If an individual had to make a sound, someone will always hear it. If an individual is in the dark, then he or she can be safe. But if it is bright out there, then there is no chance that the movement of the individual is monitored and fully observed (Orwell 8). The practice of control as a way of administering power was done through television surveillance in the novel. Security cameras are everywhere. Just about any spot, a speed camera will be seen. The citizens were disturbed, and especially Winston Smith, because the people were not free and they were no longer happy with their lives of what the government was doing to them. In a more physical point of view, George Orwell wrote the following to give the audience a better picture of how the government, in the novel, had controlled and repressed the people (Ellis and Reed 2). The political perceptions of George Orwell are shown through Winston Smith. Aside from Orwell’s perception of politics, he also showed his disbelief, or skepticism, rather, of mass media, through the character of Winston Smith. It is no surprise that George Orwell was skeptic of the media because he has spent some of his time working for BBC, also known as the British Broadcasting Company. By working for BBC, he was able to see how information was distorted before it is distributed to the public (Ellis and Reed 2). The information they got were not presented as is on television. He was aware as he witnessed how propaganda was distorted. Because of his experience in working for a mass media outfit, he knew that whatever the public was getting from the television, the radio and the newspapers were not at all completely true (Ellis and Reed 2). Other information and important facts were omitted before news is aired. Now, he came up with the novel to let the public know what is happening behind authorities, and how much control is being executed before the public gets what it gets (Ellis and Reed 2). Control, in this novel, is clearly represented because it does not state that control is destroying the society just because it is there. The novel Nineteen Eighty-Four clearly suggests that the government, or the state as a whole, is there to manipulate everything. Individuals in the society are being controlled by the state, and control is employed on the information being released to the public. In the novel, the â€Å"telescreen† is a constant object. The telescreen, in the novel, is a tool for control. Everyone needs to have a telescreen. It is a dominant item in any household in London, especially in Airstrip One, the capital city, which used to be referred to as England. Aside from the telescreen, other ways are used to employ power and a quote from the book is here to show it, â€Å"There will be no love, except the love of BIG BROTHER. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life† (Orwell 238). Indeed, the state, just like in today’s society, aims to reshape the minds of the people. Whatever is happening in the novel of George Orwell does not end there. It continues and is widely seen in our society today. Out society, through the television, convert our minds into what the government or the media thinks we should think about. The theories of mass media are there to help us understand that for the media to sell, they need to create something interesting for our eyes. We need to see controversies. With all these, we learn to create our sides. Creating our sides is never pure anymore because even before we learn to form our opinion, the media and the state already manipulates the information given to use. The tools we use to shape our minds when it comes to our thoughts on the elections, the issues on war and terror, and economic crisis, are shaped by a higher power by using control.