City Upon a Hill Colonial American Literature

John Winthrop used the phrase City upon a Hill to describe the new settlement, with the eies of all people upon them. And with those words, he laid a foundation for a new world. These new settlers certainly represented a new destiny for this land. Religion and Colonial Writing Early Colonial writers spoke of transforming the landscape and its people. In his report from the Mayflower, William Bradford found the land, A hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men. Coming to this paradise of horrors, the settlers wanted to create for themselves a heaven on earth, a community in which they could worship and live as they sought fit - without interference. The Bible was cited as the authority for law and everyday practices. Anyone who disagreed with Biblical doctrine, or presented different ideas, was banned from the Colonies (examples include Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson), or worse. With these high ideals ever in their minds, much of the writings of this period consisted of letters, journals, narratives, and histories - highly influenced as they were by British writers. Of course, many of the colonists spend a great deal of time in the simple pursuit of survival, so its no wonder that no great novels or other great literary works emerged from the hands of early Colonial writers. In addition to the time constraints, all imaginative writing was banned in the colonies until the Revolutionary War. With drama and novels looked upon as evil diversions, most of the works of the period are religious in nature. William Bradford wrote a history of Plymouth and John Winthrop wrote a history of New England, while William Byrd wrote about a border dispute between North Carolina and Virginia. Probably not surprising, sermons, along with philosophical and theological works, remained the most prolific form of writing. Cotton Mather published some 450 books and pamphlets, based on his sermons and religious beliefs; Jonathan Edwards is famous for his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Poetry In the Colonial Period Of the poetry that emerged from the Colonial period,  Anne Bradstreet is one of the most well-known authors. Edward Taylor also wrote religious  poetry, but his work wasnt published until 1937.

Terrorism from Above vs.Terrorism from Below - 1236 Words

Terrorism from above is known as state terrorism, state terrorism is not always a straightforward process in fact it is usually a covert, secret policy that allows states to claim deniability when accused of sponsoring terrorism. There are several ways to spot terrorism from above and can be included many different aspects. Sponsors of terrorism in terrorism from above, this means the state actively promotes terrorism and has been deemed what the U.S. call a rogue state. There are also enablers of state terrorism, enablers are states that operate in a manner to which being part of the problem means not just failing to cooperate fully in countering terrorism, but also doing some things that help enable it to occur. Links between regims and terrorism can range from very clear lines of sponsorship to indefinable associations. When a government is using terrorism as an instrument of statecraft they can often control the degree of their involvement so that any incidents of terrorism c annot be traced back to the government. We can then conclude that state sponsorship of terrorism is not as straightforward as it seems. It is usually a covert policy that allows for the state to claim plausible deniability when accused of sponsoring terrorism. Because of these parameters a distinction must be made between state patronage and assistance. State patronage for terrorism refers to either participation and/or encouragement of terrorism and terrorist behavior. It basically means

Rick Fisher over there, over here Essay Example For Students

Rick Fisher: over there, over here Essay British theatre people dont get much busier than American lighting designer Rick Fisher, who this spring at last gets to make the splash in New York that he has been making in London for some time. His vehicle? Stephen Daldrys acclaimed Royal National Theatre production of An Inspector Calls, the J. B. Priestley revival which has galvanized London for the past 18 months and opens April 24 at the Royale on Broadway. In conjunction with Daldry and set designer lan MacNeil (son of PBS-TV newsman Robert MacNeil), Fisher turns a 1945 theatrical warhorse into a politically charged expressionist nightmare about the (literal) collapse of one social order and the emergence out of the wreckage of another. While some English commentators rolled their eyes when they heard the National was reviving Inspector, Fisher and company suggest that there are no dated plays, only dated approaches to them. In this neo-Gothic staging, the play becomes not just a metaphysical thriller but a pertinent comment on the Thatcher years and beyond. Its a fierce indictment of a selfabsorbed, privileged class dining while England decays; and Fishers spooky, foreboding lighting sets the essential tone from the start. Im very proud of my work on it, Fisher, 39, says now of a project that went through rough patches on the way to becoming a hit. As he recalls, It could have gone either way. There was the legendary first preview where it just didnt work and everyone freaked out. Everything felt out of balance, and the performances didnt take over and assert themselves. It took a long time for the company and the production to feel neither was swamping the other. The aim, he says, is for a huge production where the play completely wins, and it all works together. By the time we opened it here , I knew it was major. Fisher sheds light on his own illumination of the text: The only person who has a shadow in the show is the Inspector; in the opening appearance, he casts a big shadow of himself on the house. The Birling family residence, meanwhile, is very cozy and warm and rather jolly, but as soon as they come to the outside world it changes to a colder world of blues and greens that is much more deathly. His technique relies on the kind of sidelighting used in dance to gain a tight control of the space. One of the nicest compliments someone said about Inspector was it looked as if it were lit from within. That means you never have trouble seeing people, but you still have a sense of the barrenness and the darkness that goes with the overall stage language. Out of breath An Inspector Calls is merely the current calling card of a designer who has seemingly been everywhere of late in British theatre and opera. He, MacNeil and Daldry teamed up again last October for the National Theatre debut of Machinal, achieving what many saw as a second coup even if, to this observer at least, their joint aesthetic on that occasion swamped Sophie Treadwells play. Far more revelatory has been Fishers work with director David Leveaux on Pinter texts old (Betrayan) and new (Moonlight), and his exuberant contribution last summer to young director Matthew Warchuss West End Much Ado About Nothing, starring Mark Rylance and Janet McTeer. Indeed, for a while last season virtually every London opening seemed to be his-from Peter Shaffers Gift of the Gorgon, since mooted for Broadway, to Terry Johnsons Royal Court Hysteda, about Sigmund Freud. Out of breath is what its got at the moment, Fisher says with a laugh of his career, having moved to London from Philadelphia in 1975 and scarcely looked back since. I was doing freelance stage managing, lighting and sound, and the lighting was what seemed to get noticed. I used to lock myself in the theatre and hang the lights and if I didnt like what Id done, Id move it. I never intended to be a lighting designer; it was only about six or seven years ago when I realized that was what seemed to be in the cards. .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65 , .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65 .postImageUrl , .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65 , .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65:hover , .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65:visited , .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65:active { border:0!important; } .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65:active , .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65 .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u028116d1ff0463f37d6df6b586eceb65:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Theatre of the 21st Century EssayIn London, he says, he responded at once to an attitude towards theatre that made it easier for people of his generation to both do, and see, work. I would go to the theatre and there were people like myself in the audience, whereas you go to the theatre in America, and there were people like our aunts and uncles. And as much as we dearly love our aunts and uncles, we dont want to work 80 hours a day to provide entertainment just for them. You want to work for your peers. The pressure, too, on designers in London was of a different-and preferablesort. My suspicion in New York is that youre always as good as your last show, says Fisher, who first worked on Broadway in the ill-fated transfer of Serious Money and then again on Lincoln Centers Some Americans Abroad. If the show isnt a hit, people will shy away from you, as if you were tinged with failure. Its all so much more about money because theres a lot more capital resting on every show. At this point, Fisher can afford to pick and choose, and speaks of trying to get more relaxed about work and not booking myself up too much. Still, following the Manhattan Theatre Club debut of Timberlake Wertenbakers Three Birds Alighting on a Field, he is set to re-team this spring with that plays director, Max Stafford-clark, on a new Sue Townsend play, The Queen and L In May, he and director Phyllida Lloyd, his colleague on both Hysteria and the London production of Six Degrees of Separation, open a new Pericles at the National. In England, hes found the proper environment to sustain a lasting career. In America, the lighting Ive seen is often so wonderfully detailed, so perfect and neat. But the problem is you dont do as much work as you would like so every time you do a project, its got to be the summation of your artistic being; thats a lot of emotional baggage to put on lighting or sets. Here, each show is another piece in the body of my work. It doesnt have to be the be-all and end-all of my life.

Overpopulation Essays - Demography, Population, Human Overpopulation

Overpopulation "The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970's the world will undergo famines-hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate, although many lives could be saved through dramatic programs to "stretch?the carrying capacity of the earth by increasing food production. But these programs will only provide a stay of execution unless they are accompanied by determined and successful efforts at population control.? These words, from Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich's book The Population Bomb, predicted a grim future for the world of 1968 when the book was published. Today, the debate rages on about how much life our planet can hold. With world population estimates currently around 5.5 billion, and a projected population of over 10 billion by 2100, the question of resource scarcity is raised. Will there be enough resources to support the exploding population of our planet? Also, is it true that population growth is necessary for economic prosperity, or is it responsible for problems such as hunger and poverty? One of the first things that need to be considered in the population debate is the issue of "carrying capacity.? Many different people define carrying capacity in many different ways, and in this lies a major problem. Basic ecology textbooks define carrying capacity as the number of individuals in a population that the resources of a particular habitat can support. Others define it as the point at which the birth rate is equal to the death rate, while still others define is as the average size of a population that is neither increasing or decreasing. Each different definition of carrying capacity has different arguments for the earth being above or below its carrying capacity, or of having infinite carrying capacity. Also, many other factors must be considered when estimating the earth's capacity by any of the above definitions. For instance, one must consider the level of prosperity of the people, the technology available, and the distribution of available wealth. Under certain conditions, the world might not easily hold even 1 billion people, while under other conditions a number as high as 20 billion is possible. Another factor in overpopulation that must be considered is that of life expectancy. According to United Nations estimates, the life expectancy in developed nations in the 1950's was approximately 66.0 years, while third world nations enjoyed a life expectancy of 40.7 years. Due to substantial declines in infant mortality, the average life expectancy in developed nations was 74.0 years and 64.7 years in developing countries. However, although the majority of this increase is due to decreases in infant mortality, jumps with this large of an increase cannot be entirely explained by that alone. New developments in medicine and technology have increased life spans across the board. Even more promising, and perhaps alarming, is the fact that predicted "upper limits?of human life expectancy have regularly been surpassed, and increases in life expectancy even appear to be accelerating. These average life expectancy increases, if they continue, will allow the world population to skyrocket at an even faster rate. Finally, and perhaps the most important issue that must be discussed in the debate on overpopulation is the issue of resource scarcity. So called "experts?love to enter the debate and make doomsday predictions that the world will run out of food, or oil, much like Dr. Paul Ehrlich did in his book, The Population Bomb. However, these predictions never seem to come true. Julian Simon, an economist, has an idea about natural resources which has sparked mountains of debate from both camps in the overpopulation discussion. Simon asserts that all natural resources are infinite. While this claim may seem audacious at first, it becomes clearer exactly what he means when studied. His point is definitely not that there are an infinite number of gold or copper atoms in the earth. The mass of the earth is finite, and current scientific studies imply that even the mass of the universe is finite. Simon is saying that resources are indefinite in the sense that we will never run out of them for whatever we decide to use them for. This contradicts the environmentalist wackos who claim the more of a resource is removed from the earth, the scarcer that resource becomes. For example, copper has been used for thousands of years for a variety of uses. The amount of copper taken from mines has increased over the last few thousand