What is Power?

Power is a word that can, and does, mean many different things to many different people. A quick Google search of the definition of power came with the result that power is “the possession of controlling influence.” That definition branches off into many different subtopics, for lack of a better term, as you can have “controlling influence” in different aspects of life. Over all, from what we’ve learned in class, power can exist through political ways; by holding government and enforcing rules to a group of people, power can exist through economic ways; by having the most, or better known as being the “richest”, and power can exist through personal ways; by standing up for your own ideas at home or in the work place.
In my opinion, power is most noticeable in politics. Politics is basically just an easy way for people to gain and hold power. Two different examples of power in systems of government are dictatorships and democracies. In dictatorships, one man holds power. One man decides what happens to a big group of people and how the people of a country’s lives will function. Dictators often suppress peoples’ rights of speech, rights of freedom, and rights to religion, as is strongly evident in North Korea. With dictatorships, that one man, the dictator, holds all the decisions of a country in the palm of his hand, because he holds the strongest “possession of controlling influence”. In democracies, a country has a right to vote on who they want to lead. The citizens of a country usually choose their leader based on the ideas and opportunity that the candidates are willing to give. In democracies, the people have more power at the start as they have the power to decide who “wins”. After the winner or next leader is selected, he/she usually holds the power along with those who stand by the ideas of the leader. In government systems, it’s easy to see who holds power and who doesn’t.
Power also exists in the form of economical power. Through history, it’s always been the rich having more power. During slave times in North America, it was always the whites who had power over the blacks, and mostly because the whites had more money. During the Industrial Revolution, those who had money were the ones who were getting more money as ideas began to form into reality, such as Andrew Carnegie. Now, during our day and age, it’s still obvious that those who have more money are the ones who have more opportunity to move forward and thrive over those who don’t have much money. Mr. Coyle always used to say, “As the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.” This is extremely true in places like India, where the rich are the ones who get the good jobs and better opportunity to get more money, whereas those who live on the streets are usually bound to a life of under paying jobs. Through this, those who have more money simply have better opportunity, causing them to rise above those who don’t have much money. Economic power is also very easy to see, whereas personal power isn’t.
To me, having personal power is the ability to stand up for what you believe in, and being able to get others to listen to your ideas. Personal power is also being able to make the right decisions for you and yourself. Often in families, it’s the parents who hold power, as they are the ones who are making the decisions for the family as a whole, trying to determine what’s the best for everyone. In the workplace, it’s the boss who holds power as they are the ones who are trying to do what’s best for the company as a whole. At an individual level, you are the one who holds power. You decide what best for yourself, and you do what you know is right for yourself. Personal power can exist in many different forms.
It is very apparent that power exists in many different ways, through politics, through economy and through personal ways. Power is everywhere and many people hold it in different ways. Power is often the basis for many people’s lives. I believe power is one of the most fundamental things in the world today.

Net Effect of Globalization

There are many pros and cons to globalization. For pros, the spread of culture has somewhat benefited various countries and brings in new ideas so the whole world can move forward together, instead of countries moving forward part by part. It helps create a lot of new jobs in countries where finding a good job is often hard. ALso, it helps take technology through the world and help improve various aspect of everyday life. Globalization also helps the consumer get good quality products for a cheaper price. Also, companies have sent many jobs to other countries around the world so that people could could kind of rise out of the poverty cycle. Sometimes though, out sourcing jobs is seen as being bad, which brings me to the cons.

Though globalization helps people get out of poverty in certain occasions, it also takes away jobs from many people, such as people in the US getting laid off so that people in India can take the jobs for less pay, as we saw in the thirty days video. This is a big problem in the US. Also, because of globalization, asian countries are becoming more western and are slowly losing their culture.

Overall, I believe that globalization had a good net effect, as the pros outnumber the cons.

Feedback.

I would post the cartoon I was asked to analyze, but my blogger is being very weird.

The overall main visual elements are the family eating dinner and the caption at the bottom that says "Well yes, we could read your blog, or you could just TELL us about your school day." The child in the family is in a high chair, so its kind of saying that everyone, young and old is using technology for everything now. I don't think the cartoonist likes the way technology is taking over, because it says "or you could just TELL us." Kind of like, there are so many other ways of doing things, but we always just resort to technology. This cartoon is ironic because the kid is like three, and thats actually just kind of stupid for a three year old to be using a blog instead of telling his parents about his day. We talk about how common technology is now and how much people use technology in class all the time, and this cartoon shows that. I think this is a pretty persuasive cartoon.

Power and the Giver

The theme of power is very evident in the novel, The Giver. The Chief Elders are believed to hold all the power at the beginning of the novel; from assigning people their jobs, to matching people with their mates and children. They decide what happens in the community, they set all rules and hold all rules. The Chief Elders were, in my opinion, basically like dictators, but referred to in softer terms. As the novel progresses and Jonas receives his assignment as the Receiver, it becomes somewhat apparent that the Giver has a lot of power as well. If the Giver was to run away, or apply for release before giving Jonas all the memories, he would burden the community with the truth. As the story further progresses and Jonas begins to receive the memories, he has as much power as the Giver. If Jonas was to allow the memories to pass to the community, there was nothing that could stop them. The Chief Elders would have no way of holding back the memories, and all the information lies in the hands of Jonas and the Giver. I believe that though the Chief Elders make all the decisions for the community, Jonas and the Giver are the ones who hold the true power, because they are the ones who can make or break the community.

Feedbackk;.

I cannot manage my time at all, and PoP taught me a little bit more how not only important time management is, but also how to do it right. I had everything done with about a day or two to spare to double check except my data analysis, because I had no idea what that was about. It also taught me how to organize essays better, and how to plan essays out better. And lastly, I learned how to be more patient, because at times the printers wouldn't print, and teachers would be talking to someone else so you couldn't talk to them, and sometimes the computers would stall, all when you're under this big deadline. It drove me crazy, having all these things not working when I was trying to get PoP done, but in the end I learned that if you wait and be patient, it goes a lot smoother than worrying and freaking out about things not working.

PoP Feedback

Tuesday, the 14th.

• Do more research
• Start organizing information

Wednesday, the 15th.

• Finish organizing
• Put into outline format

Thursday, the 16th.

• Start first draft

Friday, the 17th.

• Edit draft
• Get someone else to edit
• Start second draft

Weekend, the 18-19th.

• Finish second draft
• Edit

Monday, the 20th.

• Start and finish final.

Feedback

1. What is technology?
2. What are the 5 most and 5 least important technologies used today?
3. How do you feel about the amount of and use of technology at AES?

1. Technology is usually something that is developed and uses electricity.

2. Most Important
Computer
Telephone
Automobiles
Clock
Light bulb

Least Important
Self-powered floor vacuums
Coffee Makers
Electric Toys
Christmas Lights
IPod speakers

3. I think we use a good amount of technology, as its usually incorporated in every class. I think it's important for us to use technology as in the future, its quite possible that our entire world will just be based on technology.