A Critical Analysis of Wind By Ted Hughes Essay -- Papers Essays

A Critical Analysis of Wind By Ted Hughes Hughes's opening line is sculpted in such a way that it gives the reader an abundance of sensations. The poet achieves amazing efficiency in the line "far out at sea all night" in that the reader is exposed to distance, time and environment. The metaphor of the house being "out at sea" projects the image of a boat "far out" feeling totally isolated. The house faces wave upon wave of inexhaustible pounding from the wind as a boat would from an enraged sea. The time scale of "all night" could literally mean all night or it may refer to the perception that the wind is so acutely intense that it feels prolonged. The words "crashing", "booming" and "stampeding elevate the wind to one of biblical proportions which sounds like an orchestra thumping out a killer crescendo. The line "stampeding the fields" accentuate the brutality of the wind attacking the natural surroundings. In keeping with the oceanic metaphor the house "floundering" evokes a sense futility. The alliteration in "black" and "blinding" impose emphasis upon the words and a heightened sense of awareness in the reader. The second stanza is a witness to the winds legacy. The magnitude of the winds power is illustrated with "the hills had new places". The ultimate measure of the winds potency is that its changed the environment which we would normally imagine reassuringly permanent. The personification in the "wind wielded blade-light" makes the wind dangerous and randomly spiteful. I think the " black and emerald, flexing like the lens of a mad eye" refers back to the sea metaphor in the first stanza. A stormy sky like a stormy ... ...e last two lines of the poem Hughes writes the "window tremble to come in" and "stones cry out". The personification in "tremble" and "cry" show that even inanimate objects are displaying signs of fear and distress. The theme for the poem is ultimate respect for nature's weapons and total humility for anything caught in the conflict. In some instances respect turns to terror as if hiding from an omnipotent tyrant. The structure of the poem is consistent throughout with six stanzas of equal length. Hughes uses a lot of alliteration to break up the reading fluency to reflect the choppy subject of the poem. Hughes's use of metaphor skilfully illustrate the scale and nature of the wind whilst drawing attention to the way the wind exploits the delicacy of the surroundings we usually consider so dependably solid.

Japanese Society Yakuza

It is said quite often that Japan is one of the safest countries in the world, what I comparing to Germany or other countries can confirm from my own experiences. With only 19. 177 per 1,000 people got Japan #34 in a world crime ranking, while Dominica rates #1, United Kingdom #6, USA # 8 and Germany #11. (United Nations, 2000) Nevertheless japanese families, in our case homestay families, are all the time in my view exageratedly concerned about safety, wherefore you could think, that this is just useless talk. But the Yakuza , the japanese Mafia is famous all over the world with Kobe and Osaka having the highest crime rate in Japan. Especially in movies, the Yakuza are shown as the japanese equivalent to the italian Mafia, but in personal interviews with my former hostmother and other japanese colleagues Yakuza were often played down and even portrayed as nice and helpful. In the city i live – Kobe – is the headquarterof the Yamaguchi – gang (), the largest Yakuza group with over 20000 members. They acutally control a large part of Japan and other countries. (Blathwayt, 2008, p. 41) Sometimes i see them when i go shopping or to the Kobe’s Mosque, because the headquarter of a gumi is around this area and I as well as other japanese people got used to them. It is quite easy to recognize them, because they stick out as buffed, tattooed (sometimes you can see that it is protrude from the shirt), wearing sunglasses (even at night) and having expensive cars. But of course like every other Mafia, they control popular, semi-legal or illegal businesses like prostitution, drugs, protection racket and gambling. However there seems to be a big influence by the Yakuza on Japanese society. In this report, i will examine, what kind of influence the Yakuza have on the Japanese society. In doing so i will take a look at parts of the sex industry, daily and business life, as well as in other areas like random smaller criminals as for example japanese biker gangs called Bosozoku and even normal teenagers next door. First of all i will start with the history of the Yakuza, why and how they developed and try to find here possible parallels of a influences on the modern society. Furthermore in the third part of the report, i will write about my personal experiences and experiences of friends and acquaintances, because such statement often say more than just â€Å"dry facts†. I will close my essay with a conclusion and try to give a forecast about whether the Yakuza will continue to exist the way it does today or whether it will change, as every society developes dynamically and continuesly. a. Origin of the Yakuza The word â€Å"Yakuza† means eight (â€Å"ya†), nine (â€Å"ku†) and three (â€Å"za†) and allegorizes a combination of numbers, that is considered to be the worst hand at a Japanese card game called â€Å"Oicho-Kabu† and though is worthless. (Parkanian, 2010,p. 15) The origin of the Yakuza is not clearly to allocate. Some people say that they are descendents of crazy outlandish samurai called kabuki-mono in the 17th-century, who were very conspicuous because of their outlandish clothes and hair styles. They also spoke a luxuriant slang and carried long swords in their belts. Those servants of the shogun, became leaderless ronin (wave men) and eventually rather thieves and gangsters during the Tokugawa era, an long period of peace in Japan. (Hill,2003,P. 37-40) Others claim their origin to be the gambling syndicates called â€Å"Bakuto† in the Edo period. They were people of humble birth, too, like farmers, craftmen or merchants, who lost their jobs and then had no other choice than entering the gambling syndicates. As mentioned before there was an extended time of peace during the Tokugawa Period in which almost all policemen were former samurai. Therefore there was a high tension between both parties, for example the Yakuza were called â€Å"wannabe samurai† without glorifying the way of the warrior (â€Å"Bushido†) and treated very condescending. Thus a kind of â€Å"Robin-Hood-Image† came up and that was the first steps into a solid influence on Japanese Society. During the Meiji Period their importance increased when a national hero called Jichiro, the boss of a gambling organization, got high merits because of his alignment to the emperor during the conflicts of the Meiji Restoration. After the end of the occupation period and the appreciativeness of Japan as sovereign state in 1952, a rebuild of the Japanese economy and national structures began, so the Yakuza reacted with a buildup of their own economic activities tool, focusing especially in gambling and the construction industry. The consequence was gang fights between the different Yakuza gangs. The state answered with a persecution, which led into a higher concentration of power on the three main Yakuza gangs : Inagawa-kai, Sumiyoshi-kai and Yamaguchi-gumi. In the 70’s and 80’s, when Japan got into a recession because of the famous â€Å"bubble economy†, the Yakuza took advantage of the situation to get access into the financial sector. Protection money extortion of stock corporations followed. In addition to that, there was a change of generations in the big syndicates during in the 80’s, thus again bloody gang fights were the consequences, but the situations changed as well. Blathwayt,2008,p. 36-41) For example younger Yakuza tended to break the old rules and standards by using fire arms and being more violent; Being one reason, why Yakuza organizations were banned by the government. In 90’s the Yakuza were still legal and their headquarters could be easily find. It was even possible to recognize the group those headquarters offices belo nged to and their position in the structure of the group. Yakuza bosses were at news conferences and on TV, they had their own newspapers and even visited the police for congratulations at New Year. Gunther, 1999) It was easy to recognize an influence of the Yakuza on Japanese society, especially in the financial or construction sector in earlier times. But how is the situation today, about 10 years after they were banned. How are they structured today, if as mentioned before a kind of development, respectively change, were coming up? And what are Japanese people thinking about them? b. Their role in today's Japanese society First of all Yakuza look different from the average Japanese guy. One sign are the tattoos, which is a taboo in Japanese Society. For me it was not really possible to wear a tank top during the summer without catching everybody’s attention. Referring to Bruno(2007) the â€Å"Yakuza members also favor tattoos, but theirs are elaborate body murals that often cover the entire torso, front and back, as well the arms to below the elbow and the legs to mid-calf. Dragons, flowers, mountainous landscapes, turbulent seascapes, gang insignias and abstract designs are typical images used for yakuza body art. The application of these extensive tattoos is painful and can take hundreds of hours, but the process is considered a test of a man's mettle. Another sign is the famous â€Å"yubizume†, the amputation of the last joint of the little finger, if a yakuza severely disappoints his boss. The next mistake would lead into an amputation of the second joint of the little finger and later moving on to the next finger. Beyond all, a yakuza knows what to do if his boss gives him a knife. (Kaplan and Dubro,2003,p. 1 4) As a Yakuza there is also no space in Japanese Society, but the mafia is quite more accepted as in other countries like for example United States. Yakuza have an increasingly influence on politics and politicians by supporting them financially or with â€Å"services† like extort people to vote for them. For the Yakuza corporate extortion is a very profitable business and the shareholders’ meeting men called â€Å"Sokaiya† are highly involved. Bruno(2007) describes it as follows:† Sokaiya will buy a small number of shares in a company so that they can attend shareholders' meetings. In preparation for the meeting, the sokaiya gather damaging information about the company and its officers; secret mistresses, tax evasion, unsafe factory conditions, and pollution are all fodder for the sokaiya. They will then contact the company's management and threaten to disclose whatever embarrassing information they have at the shareholders' meeting unless they are â€Å"compensated. † If management does not give in to their demands, the sokaiya go to the shareholders' meeting and raise hell, shouting down anyone who dares to speak, making a boisterous display of their presence, and shouting out their damaging revelations. In Japan, where people fear embarrassment and shame much more than physical threats, executives usually give the sokaiya whatever they want. But Japan is also a society where directness is considered rude, and even the criminals make their threats known in a circuitous, outwardly polite manner. Threats come in many disguises. Some sokaiya pose as business magazine publishers who encourage their targets to take out ads or buy subscriptions in exchange for favorable reporting about the company. Since these sokaiya will follow through on their threats and print a magazine or newsletter filled with condemning articles, company executives usually pay up rather than face the bad press. Another sokaiya scam is to set up booster clubs that solicit donations for non-existent causes. They also throw gala events to which the invited businessmen are expected to bring cash gifts for their hosts. Such events have been known to net more than $100,000 in a single night. The sokaiya have also organized beauty pageants for the purpose of shaking down corporate â€Å"sponsors,† and sokaiya golf tournaments come with pricey entrance fees for their corporate players. These corporate racketeers have also been known to sell blocks of tickets to theater events at grossly inflated prices. Anything to extort money out of legitimate companies in the most polite and indirect way possible. The intention is therefore to control them after the vote and to avoid a minding in their business by the state. They are often right wing nationalistic and even the cars with big loudspeakers of right parties are often driven by Yakuza members. With prohibition of the Yakuza, the conspicuous behavior alleviated. Former offices are now placements for loans or jobs and although the Yakuza a re officially called â€Å"Boryokudan† (violent groups), violence is usually the last resort regardless of whether legal businesses like loan lending or placement services or illegal businesses like drugs, prostitution or gambling. Takahashi,2009,p. 40-43) Certainly the yakuza’s standards decreased when recruiting new members. While about 60 % of all Yakuza descend by â€Å"Burakumin†, offspring of the â€Å"impure† people of the feudal age of Japan, most new members currently come from the bosozuku (speed tribes), known for their love of motorbikes. (Takashi,2009,P. 43) Yakuza, who treasure their ancestral ties to the old samurai reject the term and consider it an insult. So the Yakuza remain the â€Å"shadow of Japanese society†, while their image are getting worse. When I asked surrounding people only two of them had contact with them and described them as very olite but arrogant as well. Their friends are Yakuza and studied Law in an university, but then started a career at a Yakuza organization after graduation. They said that Yakuza are very friendly especially to foreigners, except you are getting involved into their business. Two Mongolian guys, who I met, told me that one of them kicked a Yakuza mem ber during a quarrel in an izakaya. When the police and other Yakuza member arrived later, they said to the Mongolians that if they wouldn’t pay 50000 yen, they would find and kill them. And that in front of the police men, who didn’t want to get involved in this business. This kind of controversy mixture of gratefulness (when the Yakuza helped Japanese people after the big earthquake in 1995 earlier than the Japanese government) and fear, tolerance but no acceptance is a very interesting situation in Japan. But situations are changing. While in other Mafias, in which a member is a member for life and this short-term career can have severe repercussions, former Yakuza are becoming now salary men. There are even companies who offer jobs and rehabilitation programs for former Yakuza, who want to change their life. (Bruno,2007) Conclusion As we could see, there is an influence as well as transition of the Yakuza to Japanese Society. Complaints of Japanese citizens about Yakuza activities increased considerably, although there are still feared, the acceptance is getting lower and lower. Some people are fighting back by banishing yakuza social clubs from their neighborhoods or forbidding Yakuza to enter local â€Å"Onzens† (public hot springs or spas) or gyms. In addition to that, yakuza organizations are haveing serious problems to recruit new members, because a Japanese boy from a well-protected good family doesn’t tend to start working at an underground organization. The author Bruno (2007) described the situation with much apropos: â€Å" Today they could be more active—and more careful—than ever, broadening their bases, infiltrating new territories and working new scams. Like the fabled ninjas of ancient Japan, they can be everywhere and nowhere, but they're always lethal. †References: Blathwayt, W.,2008, Yakuza bared – The changing face of Japanese organised crime. Bruno, 2007, The Yakuza, [online] Available at: http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/gang/yakuza/1.html [Accessed 21 January 2011] Gà ¼nther, H., 1999, Yakuza â€Å"die Japanische Mafia?†, [online] Available at: http://www.japonet.de/j-impressionen/yakuza.html [Accessed 21 January 2011] Hill, P., 2003, The Japanese Mafia: Yakuza, Law, and the State Kaplan, D. and Dubro, A., 2003, Yakuza Japan's Criminal Underworld Parkanian, J. 2010, Game Boy: Glossary of Japanese Gambling Games Takahashi, K. 2009, Capital punishment – Japan's yakuza vie for control of Tokyo. United Nations, 2000, Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems [online] Available at: http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_tot_cri_percap-crime-total-crimes-per-capita [Accessed 21 January 2011]

Aquinas’ and St. Anselm’s Proofs of the Existence of God

It is generally understood that people that are nonbelievers in God would never believe in the philosophies of the believers with regard to His existence. Nevertheless, there have been a number of important philosophers who have sought to prove the existence of the Almighty by thought alone. According to these philosophers, the presence of God may be understood by reason. Throughout the ages of humanity, believers have claimed to have felt the presence of God. All the same, there is no room for personal proofs in the philosophy of religion. St. Thomas Aquinas was a believer in God, who proposed five ways to know God. The first way of proving God’s existence, according to the philosopher, is by means of observing motion; that is, everything in movement throughout the universe should prove to us that there is a Prime Mover of all things. This way of proving God’s existence is similar to the argument of the creationists who assert that everything that we observe must have a Creator, just as all things that are man-made have originators. On a similar note, the second way of knowing God according to St. Thomas Aquinas is by understanding that all effects have causes; and so, there must be a First Cause of everything. The third way of proving the existence of God is by observing that everything in the universe is â€Å"possible to be and not to be;† so therefore, there must be an Essential Existence without which the existence and nonexistence of other things are meaningless (The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, 1920). This proof is intricately tied to the earlier proofs, including the current argument of the creationists. St. Thomas Aquinas describes it thus: The third way is taken from possibility and necessity, and runs thus. We find in nature things that are possible to be and not to be, since they are found to be generated, and to orrupt, and consequently, they are possible to be and not to be. But it is impossible for these always to exist, for that which is possible not to be at some time is not. Therefore, if everything is possible not to be, then at one time there could have been nothing in existence. Now if this were true, even now there would be nothing in existence, because that which does not exist only begins to exist by something already existing. Therefore, if at one time nothing was in existence, it would have been impossible for anything to have begun to exist; and thus ven now nothing would be in existence — which is absurd. Therefore, not all beings are merely possible, but there must exist something the existence of which is necessary†¦ This all men speak of as God (The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas). St. Thomas Aquinas also writes that everything that is necessary must have been made necessary by something else. However, there must be something that is necessary in and of itself. Furthermore, this entity of necessity must cause other entities to believe in its necessity. This is the meaning of God, according to the philosopher (The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas). The fourth proof proffered by St. Thomas Aquinas is similar to Plato’s concept of Forms. The philosopher believes that there is a ranking in place throughout the universe (â€Å"Thomas Aquinas and the Five Ways,† 2000). One person may be better than the others. Given that we compare attributes of people and things to rank them reveals that there must be â€Å"something which is truest, something best, something noblest and, consequently, something which is uttermost being;† in short, something that is Supreme in comparison with the rest (The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas). The fifth way of proving the existence of God is exactly the same as the argument of creationists in our times. St. Thomas Aquinas discussed intelligent design with the philosophy that everything in the universe serves a special, intelligent purpose that has been designed by the Creator. This proof is based on the assumption that everything around us is essentially unintelligent – except God, of course (The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas). In fact, all five proofs of God’s existence proffered by St. Thomas Aquinas may be said to revolve around the intelligent design argument. St. Anselm was another believer like St. Thomas Aquinas who proved the existence of God by reason alone. Yet, the ontological argument proffered by St. Anselm is the simplest. Instead of five proofs of God’s existence, St. Anselm offered only one, that is, God is that beyond which there is no greatness that we can conceive of (â€Å"St. Anselm’s Ontological Argument,† 2008). But, St. Anselm’s argument also rests on five logical points. The following is the argument with its corollaries: (1) God is that than which no greater can be conceived; 2) If God is that than which no greater can be conceived then there is nothing greater than God that can be imagined; Therefore: (3) There is nothing greater than God that can be imagined; (4) If God does not exist then there is something greater than God that can be imagined. ; Therefore: (5) God exists (â€Å"St. Anselm’s Ontological Argument†). The gist of the above argument is the very definition of God’s existence, according to St. Anselm. This definition – â€Å"God is that than which no greater can be conceived† – is different from all proofs of St. Thomas Aquinas (â€Å"St. Anselm’s Ontological Argument†). Moreover, it is a reasonable proof, similar to St. Thomas Aquinas’ statements about God’s existence. After all, it is easy to suppose that God must be that beyond which we can conceive of no greatness. Besides, nobody in the history of humanity has ever claimed to be greater than God. Even if someone were to claim that he or she is greater than God, it would be impossible for the majority of humans to believe in the claim, seeing that God would not compete with the claimer as in a debate. With our limited perceptions, we are unable to see God, and neither could we imagine something or somebody that must be greater than God. If we cannot find anything that is greater than God, the Almighty must be Real, according to St. Anselm. Even so, the essential argument of the philosopher does not answer the beliefs of the atheists that perhaps there is no greatness in the universe, as everything is equal. Similarly, St. Thomas Aquinas’ arguments are refuted by the atheists who proffer proofs of the evolution theory of Charles Darwin to contradict the existence of God. According to the atheists, the proofs of St. Thomas Aquinas and the ontological argument of St. Anselm could be refuted because they are based on basic beliefs of the people rather than universal facts. The truth that St. Thomas Aquinas believes in the First Cause of everything means nothing for the disbelievers in God, who might claim that there is nothing to precede anything except in the evolutionary cycle that everything must go through, that is, things evolve one from another without a Prime Mover or First Cause. As a matter of fact, there is no argument to bridge the gap between the claims of believers and disbelievers in God. For as long as we know the difference between truth and falsehood, there would be arguments. The claims of each group are refuted by those of the other. It may very well be that these arguments and refutations would continue for as long as there is humanity on our planet. Seeing that God cannot be seen, and neither does He support the believing philosophers by speaking out aloud to all the rest that these philosophers are correct in their belief systems – it is possible to refute the godly thoughts of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Anselm until the end of time. Conversely, those who believe in their philosophies and do not doubt could be ones that have felt the presence of God beyond reason. In fact, believers in God may suppose that it is impossible to know God by reason alone. Given that truth cannot be turned into falsehood by argument alone, there must be a singular truth about the existence of God nevertheless. What is the truth? – In the discipline of philosophy, it is the fact that everything in the universe is not known to be confined to the realm of reason. For the believing philosophers, therefore, God is a Reason beyond reason.