Wednesday, December 25, 2019

The Negative Portrayal of Women in Works Such as The Great...

The Negative Portrayal of Women According to today’s society, men are women are equal and have equal rights. Although we all try to believe this, the fact is almost every language and culture is male-dominated. Men have always been favoured and believed to be superior to women, which still exists in some third world countries, such as Afghanistan. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, The Great Gatsby, portrays how women were treated during the 1920s. In the novel, women play the role of an object for men’s pleasure, a strong figure, and materialistic. Myrtle Wilson plays the role of an object for Tom Buchanan pleasure. He uses her for his own fun and never intends to have a substantial relationship due to the fact that he is†¦show more content†¦Just as Biff and Happy in Death of a Salesman, written by Arthur Miller, use their women as objects by seeking them for their own pleasure and disrespect them, so too does Tom towards Myrtle not only as he seeks her based on his schedule for hi s own pleasure, but also as he â€Å"broke her nose with his open hand† (39). Jordan Baker takes on the role of a strong female figure in the novel. She takes action when she meets Nick, as she â€Å"held [his] hand impersonally† (44), compared to the other women like Daisy, who are passive. She also is involved in golf, which is not the ‘typical woman’ during the 1920s. She earns her money through this talent oppose to Daisy, who relies on her husband for money, which shows her strong figure as she is independent. Similar to Lauren Conrad from the reality show, The Hills, who is independent and works for her own money, so it is Jordan, which sets her strong female figure in this novel. Daisy Buchanan plays the role of a materialistic female. She relies on her husband, Tom Buchanan’s wealth, as â€Å"her voice is full of money† (115). According to Tori DeAngelis’ research, when people are insecure they become more â€Å"materialistic as a way to adapt†, which is shown through Daisy’s character as she masks her unhappiness through materialism as a result of her husband’s infidelity. As a result of being with Tom for materialistic interest, she suffers the consequences as she is constantly ordered by him, for example, â€Å"sit down Daisy†Show MoreRelatedThe Defiance Of Gender Stereotypes933 Words   |  4 PagesFitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby Throughout the 1920’s, before Women’s Suffrage, women were viewed as inferior, as well as subordinate to males because of many years of patriarchal dominance. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, women are seen as lesser by the male characters, yet show a great sense of power and domination over the actions and storyline. The major plotline of Gatsby’s love for Daisy and the American Dream circulates around the mere factor of the power women have over men. Fitzgerald’sRead MoreThe Feminist Criticism Of The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald1697 Words   |  7 Pageshowever, ignored the position of women which is strange as its key concepts are the â€Å"struggle between social classes and the blinding effects of ideology†, it might have been employed to analyze the social situation of women. Feminism saw clearly that the widespread of negative stereotyping of women in literature and film constituted a formidable obstacle on the road of true equality causing the men to act exploitative, denigrating and repressive in their relations with women. The Feminist criticism displaysRead MoreHow Women Are Portrayed in F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby1636 Words   |  6 PagesIn the Great Gatsby hedonism, consumerism and materialism plays a huge part in the portrayal of women. Alongside with this comes the American Dream. Before the 1920’s the American dream was based on equality, however a different dream was developed during the 1920’s that contradicted this idea of equality as instead they strived to be rich. Fitzgerald presents women to be victims of this dream and channels this through Myrtle. She is a key character as she shows who suffers from the American dreamRead MoreWomen s Rights : Women And Ladies Merit Uniformity1615 Words   |  7 PagesThe worldwide thought of women s liberation alludes to the conviction that men and ladies merit uniformity in all open doors, treatment, admiration, and social rights. All in all, women s activists are individuals who attempt to recognize social disparity taking into account sexual orientation and prevent it from proceeding. Women s activist; it is a term that has lost its starting significance extra time. The term women s activist has distressingly been given a negative undertone, and numerousRead MoreWomen’s Representation in The Great Gatsby Essay1616 Words   |  7 PagesWomen were not equal to men during the era of the 1920’s. In â€Å"The Great Gatsby,† Fitzgerald represents a negative, misogynistic, stereotypical view of the various types of women during the era of the 1920’s. During the that time, women were not portrayed in a positive light., By writing a book centered around that time period, it causes one to wonder the message Fitzgerald was trying to illustrate about women and what he was saying about society as a whole. Fitzgerald represents the view of womenRead MoreIn the Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald Shows the Clear Delineations Between Different Strata of Society: New Money, Old Money, Some Money, and No Money. Explain Why Fitzgerald Presents This Spectrum of Circ umstances and1520 Words   |  7 PagesIn The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald creates a divide amongst the characters by separating them into different layers of society in terms of wealth. New Money is the category in which characters have previously been poor but have gradually earned vast amounts of money; old money is the situation of some characters that have always been rich through generations. Some money and no money are clear; certain characters simply have either some money or no money. Jay Gatsby falls under the category of NewRead More F. Scott Fitzgerald’s All the Sad Young Men Essay1271 Words   |  6 PagesF. Scott Fitzgerald’s All the Sad Young Men F. Scott Fitzgerald’s All the Sad Young Men was his sixth book. The work was composed of nine short stories that had been published in magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post over the course of the previous year. The work was Fitzgerald’s third short story collection and followed the Great Gatsby in publication on the 26th of February 1926. To most, this book signaled Fitzgerald’s staying power as many of his seniors had believed that his initialRead MoreThe Great Gatsby, no important woman character?1754 Words   |  8 PagesIn the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daisy Buchanan is an important woman character, but only in relation to Jay Gatsby’s dream. Ever since Gatsby had come back from the army, he had longed to have Daisy back in his life, and so everything he did and built up was in some way for her (e.g. his house and the parties he threw). Nick says: â€Å"He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to rec over something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy†Read MoreEvolutionary Families Essay1535 Words   |  7 PagesWaking up in the morning and scrambling to finish homework, realizing you left your textbook at your dad’s could be a problem. Your mom is late for work and cannot drive you to your dad’s house. As a result, you will receive a zero for the assignment. A few decades ago, scenarios like this were not prevalent. However, with the change in family structure, this situation is now very common. Over decades, television shows have reflected the social changes of the family structure. Starting with theRead More The Portrayal of Women in American Literature Essay2134 Words   |  9 PagesThe Portrayal of Women in American Literature Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an authors personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Destruction of a Species - 1041 Words

The soul cannot be eradicated of all vestiges of evil. Life itself is a paradox in which we all must accept and balance our avarice aspirations in order to maintain a serendipitous existence. When our inner monstrosity is aroused the delicate components that compose our humanity are transformed under the duress of our self- serving desires. We forsake forgiveness for revenge. We exploit the secrets of those surrounding us to bring validity to our lies. Brother against brother, sister against sister we turn to hatred, we turn to fear, we turn to genocide. Genocide, the deliberate and systematic annihilation of an individual group, not only endangers the existence of humanity but also, mutilates its very definition by portraying an environment where morality and justice are forsaken in an aspiration to obtain power. Throughout history mankind’s lust for control has caused unthinkable destruction. In 1933 German tyrants annihilated eleven million people, decades later in 1992 the Bosnian Serb leaders targeted and massacred over one hundred thousand of their own citizens, in the two years that followed the Hutu brutally slaughter over eight hundred thousand people. These heinous crimes were systematically deployed, creating damage of grand proportions. Crimes of hatred, crimes of jealousy but not, crimes of secret. Often neighboring countries would declare a state of neutrality and allow the destruction to continue under the sanctity of a diplomatic treaty. These acts ofShow MoreRelatedSpecies Extinction And Habitat Destruction Have A Negative1039 Words   |  5 PagesSpecies extinction and habitat destruction have a negative impact on sustainable food systems, making this a very unspoken yet important issue. To have sustainable food systems we must change our ways of producing food for our dramatically growing population. This research paper will provide examples of extinct species, and habitats that have been demolished. I will be comparing and contrastin g why they might be of importance, especially when relating to sustainable food systems. The relationshipRead MoreExtinction Of Animal Extinction1024 Words   |  5 Pagesthe elimination of a large number of species in a short period of time. Despite what many think, the elimination of species is almost commonplace at this point. The Earth is currently in the middle of a sixth mass extinction, and it’s been caused by the human race. It’s clear that a great extinction is coming from the evidence of the destruction of other species around us. The choices made by the human race have too often negatively affected the surrounding species. Tracy Wilson, the site director forRead MoreAnimal Extinction Paper1574 Words   |  7 Pagesextinction is an important issue nationwide. Extinction of a species over time is undisputable, and inevitable; however, the burden of mankind on animals and their environment has caused extinction to increase severely. The extinction of certain species is outrageous; it affects all living organisms due to the Food Chain and Circle of Life. According to research, there is an average of 5 million species that exist on earth (Endangered Species/Species Extinction). 1.7 million have been discovered and identifiedRead MoreEssay on Wildlife Endangerment Due to Human Intervention in Nature1624 Words   |  7 PagesWildlife Endangerment Due to Human Intervention in Nature The driving force behind today’s alarming decline in species is the destruction, degradation and fragmentation of habitat due to our increasing human population and wasteful consumption of resources.1 Everyday wildlife is forced to seek refuge in very remote, small areas. As the human population increases, land that was once inhabited by wildlife is urbanized to suit human needs. In other words, the land available for wildlife to surviveRead MoreHabitat Destruction1612 Words   |  7 PagesHabitat Destruction Overview In this new age of technology and advances in every possible field of study, many people forget about the environment. Some will just throw their trash all over the place with no concern for the possible consequences. Of course, there are many consequences, but only one comes to my mind. That is the demolition of species homes or habitat destruction. Habitat destruction or habitat loss is the altering or elimination of the conditions that plants and animals need toRead MoreThe Destruction Of The Everglades1106 Words   |  5 PagesThe Destruction of the Everglades The Everglades National Park protects the largest wild life area east of the Mississippi River. The Everglades are the largest remaining sub-tropical wild life area in 48 states sitting on 1.5 million acres preserved at Florida’s tip off shore. The Everglades contain various ecosystems such as rivers, lakes ponds, marshes, etc. These wild life areas feature both fresh and saltwater areas, open prairies, pine rock lands, tropical hardwood forests, offshoreRead More Deforestation: Its Devastating Effects on South American Rainforests1500 Words   |  6 Pagesmajority of its species of animals and plants, food resources, and medicines. Because of their extreme importance, rainforests are also being used for economic and social welfare. The rate of habitat destruction has increased to 2.47 acres per second, 214,000 acres each day, and about 78 million acres each year. Rainforests house more than half of the living organisms on Earth, but 50,000 of these species are becom ing extinct in these unique regions per year. That translates into 6 species per hourRead MoreNatural Resources and Energy in the Rainforests1550 Words   |  7 Pagesanimal and plant species, have contributed a wealth of resources for the survival and well-being of humankind. These resources have included basic food supplies, clothing, shelter, fuel, spices, industrial raw materials, and medicine for all those who have lived in the majesty of the forest. However, the inner dynamics of a tropical rainforest is an intricate and fragile system. Everything is so interdependent that upsetting one part can lead to unknown damage or even destruction of the whole. SadlyRead MoreCharles Darwin s Theory Of Evolution1420 Words   |  6 Pagesunderstand where different species came about and how they are able to survive in their environments. When initially developed, his theory did erupt a few controversial debates because he suggested that humans and animals shared a common ancestor. It also created a problem in the Christian community because his theory went against the belief of a greater being. Joseph Schumpeter is well known in the area of economics. He ingeniously coined the term creative destruction which he used in his argumentRead MoreThe Hypothesis By Macarthur And Wilson1704 Words   |  7 Pagestaxon cycle and above all in the Theory of Island Biogeography is the extinction (natural) of species. The extinction created specifically by people colonizing secluded islands of the globe has been emotional. The measured the dissemination of useful differences, a real segment of natural differing qualities, in 45 pre†historic island fowl groups of the Pacific and archived its decrease by means of species eliminations. They gave proof that, notwithstanding territory, it is important to evaluate different

Monday, December 9, 2019

How Language Is Used in the Workplace free essay sample

How Language Is Used in the Workplace BY Francine Spoken Language Study -? Social Attitudes to Spoken Language Investigate speech that is particular to a workplace.ESSAY PLAN * spoken language used In working environment, my Job as a SQ, spoken word different in different settings egg, WHQL or construction site, professional language * use of Jargon, three letter acronyms, unique to an office egg, CSVs etc, technical language, used frequently, humorous re new employees, dont have a clue what Is being said * buzz words, mention text speaking, professional buzz words made fun f Bull Bingo, explain game and give egg, can download a bingo card, used In boring meetings * computer language, used by software users not IT professionals egg Trekker etc, passer-by wont understand conversation, mention experience with an accountant * compare office and normal language, body language, eye contact, lies, move when exaggerate a story, clench fists, courses on body language * general spoken langua ge is office is professional too, no slang, swearing and respectful (unless on a construction site), very non-PC (acronym) * certain types of people speak differently, cant chose who you work with, personality clashes, not children * yes men, power shared is knowledge lost, using buzz word here, poor communicators, Life long use of Jargon so cant talk normally to explain things, * no gossip or chatter like in a supermarket which is less relaxed, heads down butts up, can lead to tension, blow off steam in breaks or social events outside of work, get to know work mates personally, can create a better working environment, efficient and effective * summary -? formal, diplomatic, tactful and direct. Save their own skins yep of people, learn from your own mistakes, many people are outspoken and tactless, curbed in office, think before speaking, dont speak your mind, speak how you expect to be spoken to, open, formal, to the point Spoken Language Study Social Attitudes to Spoken Language Investigate speech I am going to talk about how spoken language Is used In a working environment and how it differs from spoken language use in every day life. I once worked as a Quantity Surveyor and have been in several office environments where language Is used that would never be heard outside of the building. Also workplace language can be very deferent depending upon Just the setting. For example, a Head Office building, a construction site and even meetings taking place at service stations on a motorway because attendees come from different parts of the country. More importantly is that this environment is professional and language can be formal, formal slang and key to that particular office or situation. We tend to use a lot of Jargon and I mean a lot! The favorite use of this, is three their own unique acronyms and you have to learn them or you will literally be left UT. For example, CSVs (cost, value and reconciliation), Final Accounts, PEE (Personal Protective Equipment) and numerous others.This is classed as technical language and not an hour will go by without someone using it and expecting the person they are talking to to fully understand what is being discussed. It is quite humorous to see the look on a new employees face when conversation begins. They are trying to understand and be engaging, but you can see the turmoil behind their eyes as they have not got a clue what is going on! I know, I have been there. Another form of technical speaking is classed as buzz words. Buzz words are used in every day life such as text speaking (egg, C U LTR and LOL), but professional buzz words and phrases take on a whole new meaning.We, as professional personnel, have adapted a way to make our buzz words fun. We have a game entitled Bulls**t Bingo! This game is played frequently, openly, with or without a bingo card and made fun of. If Mr. Joe Public were in the room whilst this game was in operation, he would think he had been beamed onto a different planet. Here are a few example of hat would be on a players game card think outside the box, singing from the same hymn sheets, reinventing the wheel and other such ludicrous statements. You can even download one of these game cards from the Internet they are so popular, especially in boring lengthy meetings. Other technical terms of speech used in the workplace is computer language.This is not the type of language that is used by IT Professionals, but more a type of language used by the users of the software. For example, we have used computer programmer such as Trekker and Researches. Staff will have full conversations talking about a particular programmer, what difficulties they are having, a particular section of that programmer etc. Passer-bys will Just hear nonsensical speech with the words and, but and because thrown in, because the passer-by will only be able to understand those words spoken. I have had particular experience of this when visiting another department within a building. I wished to ask one of the Accountants about a client I was currently dealing with.As I approached said Accountant, he was in deep conversation with one of his colleagues. I waited until they had finished and politely enquired what the difficulty was. My Accountants response was Oh you wouldnt understand, and he was right, I didnt understand a word of what they were saying! There are similarities between spoken language within a workplace and general spoken language. For example, we all use body language in conversation and a lot of the time we do this subconsciously. We avoid eye contact when nervous or telling a lie; we move more when exaggerating a story and we clench our fists or move our hands behind our back when angry or annoyed. In a workplace environment people are more acutely aware of body language and there are even courses you can attend to improve you body language and make it more appealing, especially when trying to be persuasive in an argument or conflict. Are respectful of others opinions and differences. Unless you are on a construction site that is! Language there is quite the opposite to an office environment, very non- PC (see another acronym). There are also certain types of people you will come across in a working environment who speak differently. Some of these people you would not give the time of day to, UT because you are working with them your use of language is paramount. You must be respectful, listen and cooperate, if you wish to achieve a successful spoken outcome. Personalities will clash, but in order to be effective, spoken (and written) communication must be efficient. Bullying, coercing and whining will not achieve desired results; we are not children, we are professionals. There will be Yes men; those who say they will do something and do not, or leave it for others. There will be power shared is knowledge lost men; those who will not share ideas and thoughts for fear of losing credit for it. You will note that Im using buzz words). There will also be poor communicators who have been life long users of jargon and get angry or frustrated when they are not understood by others because they lose the ability to use normal language to ensure they are coherent. In professional offices there is very little gossip and chatter. Heads are down and butts are up (Bingo! , whereas in a workplace which is more relaxed, say a Supermarket, chatter is more abundant and acceptable. This, at times, can lead to tension in the workplace, so often professionals will chatter at breaks and ensure hat they are away from the office. Also I have found that in this type of workplace environment, social events are arranged regularly so that workers can blow off steam and get to know each other personally. This in turn creates a better working environment and people understand each other more as they have a brief insight into that person egg, how they think, their interests etc. All in all creating a more effective and efficient form of spoken communication.In summary, speech that is used in a professional office environment will always be formal, diplomatic, tactful (most of the time) and direct. There will be many who have the view of saving their own skin and telling others to learn from their mistakes, but there are people like that in any given environment. There are people all over the world that are out-spoken, opinionated and tactlessly direct. In an office, this is curbed and you should always think before you speak; speaking your mind is not generally the ideal way to communicate. A note to remember is that in any workplace such as this, you should speak how you would write; formal, to the point and open for discussion. (1192 words)

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Nazi Germany Totalitarian State free essay sample

Then into this devastated land, truncated by the Oder-Neisse borderline and hardly able to sustain its demoralized and exhausted population, streamed millions of people from the Eastern provinces, from the Balkans and from Eastern Europe, adding to the general picture of catastrophe the peculiarly modem touches of physical homelessness, social rootlessness, and political rightlessness. The wisdom of Allied policy in expelling all German-speaking minorities from non-German countries-as though there was not enough homelessness in the world alreadymay be doubted. But the fact is that European peoples who had experienced the murderous demographic politics of Germany during the war were seized with horror, even more than with wrath, at the very idea of having to live together with Germans in the same territory. The sight of Germanys destroyed cities and the knowledge of German concentration and extermination camps have covered Europe with a cloud of melancholy. Together, they have made the memory of the last war more poignant and more persistent, the fear of future wars more actual. We will write a custom essay sample on Nazi Germany Totalitarian State or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Not the German problem, insofar as it is a national one within the comity of European nations, but HANNAH ARENDT is author of a just completed IN LESS than six years Germany laid the nightmare of Germany in its physical, moral, and political ruin has become almost as decisive an element in the general atmosphere of European life as the Communist movements. But nowhere is this nightmare of destruction and horror less felt and less talked about than in Germany itself. A lack of response is evident everywhere, and it is difficult to say whether this signifies a half-conscious refusal to yield to grief or a genuine inability to feel. Amid the ruins, Germans mail each other picture postcards still showing the cathedrals and market places, the public buildings and bridges that no longer exist. And the indifference with which they walk through the rubble has its exact counterpart in the absence of mourning for the dead, or in the apathy with which they react, or rather fail to react, to the fate of the refugees in their midst. This general lack of emotion, at any rate this apparent heartlessness, sometimes covered over with cheap sentimentality, is only the most conspicuous outward symptom of a deep-rooted, stubborn, and at times vicious refusal to face and come to terms with what really happened. INDIvERENE, and the irritation that comes when indifference is challenged, can be tested on many intellectual levels. The most obvious experiment is to state expressis verbis what the other fellow has noticed from the beginning of the conversation, namely, that you are a Jew. This is usually followed by a little embarrassed pause; and then comesnot a personal question, such as Where did you go after you left Germany? ; no sign of sympathy, such as What happened to your family? -but a deluge of stories about how Germans have suffered (true enough, of course, but beside the point); and if the object of this little experiment happens to be educated and intelligent, he will proceed to draw up a balance between German suffering and the suffering of others, the implication being that one side cancels the other and ork on totalitarianism, The Origins of Totalitarianism, soon to be published by Harcourt, Brace. Her writings on history, philosophy, and political theory in   and other periodicals have won her a wide reputation. This report on Germany was written after a recent stay of several months in that country. Dr. Arendt was born in Germany, studied under Karl Jaspers in Heidelberg, and earned her doctorate at that university. She came to this country in 19 41. 342e may as well proceed to a more promising topic of conversation. Similarly evasive is the standard reaction to the ruins. When there is any overt reaction at all, it consists of a sigh followed by the half-rhetorical, halfwistful question, Why must mankind always wage wars? The average German looks for the causes of the last war not in the acts of the Nazi regime, but in the events that led to the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. 343 BUT, whether faced or evaded, the realities f Nazi crimes, of war and defeat, still visibly dominate the whole fabric of German life, and the Germans have developed various devices for dodging their shocking impact. The reality of the death-factories is transformed into a mere potentiality: Germans did only what others are capable of doing (with many illustrative examples, of course) or what others will do in the near future; therefore, anybody who brings up this topic is ipso facto suspected of self-righteousness. In this context, Allied policy in Germany is frequently explained as a campaign of successful revenge, even though it later turns out that the German who offers this interpretation is quite aware that most of the things he complains of were either the immediate consequence of the lost war or happened outside the will and control of the Western powers. But the insistence that there must be a careful scheme of revenge serves as a consoling argument, demonstrating the equal sinfulness of all men. The reality of the destruction that surrounds every German is dissolved into a reflective but not very deep-rooted self-pity, easily dissipated when ugly little one-story structures that might have been imported from some Main Street in America spring up on some of the great avenues to conceal fragmentarily the grimness of the landscape, and to offer an abundance of provincial elegance in super-modern display windows. In France and Great Britain, people feel a greater sadness about the relatively few landmarks destroyed in the war than the Germans do for all their lost treasures together. The boastful hope is expressed in Germany that the country will become the most modern in Europe; yet it is mere talk, and some person who has just voiced that hope will insist a few minutes later, at another turn in the conversation, that the next war will do to all European cities what this one did to Germanys-which of course is possible, but signifies again only the transformation of reality into potentiality. The undertone of satisfaction that one often detects in the Germans talk about the next war expresses no sinister renewal of German lans of conquest, as sq many observers have maintained, but is only another device for escaping reality: in an eventual equality of destruction, the German situation would lose its acuteness. S course, an escape fromalone; all the peoresponsibility. In this the Germans are not ples of Western Europe have developed the habit of blaming their misfortunes on some force out of their reach: it may be America and the Atlantic Pact today, the legacy of Nazi occupation tomorrow, and history in general every day of the week. But this attitude is more pronounced in Germany, where the temptation to blame everything under the sun on the occupying powers is difficult to resist: in the British zone everything is blamed on British fear of German competition; in the French zone on French nationalism; and in the American zone, where things are better in every respect, on American ignorance of the European mentality. The complaints are only natural, and they all contain a kernel of truth; but behind them is a stubborn unwillingness to make use of the many possibilities left to German initiative. This is perhaps most clearly revealed in the German newspapers, which express all their convictions in a carefully cultivated style of Schadenfreude, malicious joy in ruination. It is as though the Germans, denied the power to rule the world, had fallen in love with impotence as such, and now find a positive pleasure in contemplating international tensions and the unavoidable mistakes that occur in the business of governing, regardless of the possible consequences for themselves. Fear of Russian aggression does not necessarily result in an unequivocal pro-American attitude, but often leads to a determined neutrality, as though it were as absurd to take sides in the conflict as it would be to take sides in an earthquake. The awareness that neutrality will not change ones fate makes it in turn impossible to translate this mood into a rational policy, and the mood itself, by its very irrationality, becomes even more bitter. CUCH an escape from reality is also, of 344 BUT COMMENTARY count of what actually happened, and to eliminate the teachers who have become incapable of doing so. The danger to German academic life is not only from those who hold that freedom of speech should be exchanged for a dictatorship in which a single unfounded, irresponsible opinion would acquire a monopoly over all others, but equally from those who ignore facts and reality and establish their private opinions, not necessarily as the only right ones, but as opinions that are as justified as others. The unreality and irrelevance of most of these opinions, as compared with the grim relevance of the experience of those who hold them, is sharply underlined by their having been formed before 1933. There is an almost instinctive urge to take refuge in the thoughts and ideas one held before anything compromising had happened. The result is that while Germany has changed beyond recognition-physically and psychologically-people talk and behave superficially as though absolutely nothing had happened since 1932. The authors of the few really important books written in Germany since 1933 or published since 1945 were already famous twenty and twenty-five years ago. The younger generation seems to be petrified, inarticulate, incapable of consistent thought. A young German art historian, guiding his audience among the masterpieces of the Berlin Museum, which had been sent on tour through several American cities, pointed to the Ancient Egyptian statue of Nefertiti as the sculpture for which the whole world envies us, and then proceeded to say (a) that even the Americans had not dared to carry this symbol of the Berlin collections to the United States, and (b) that because of the intervention of the Americans, the British did not dare to carry the Nefretete to the British Museum. The two contradictory attitudes to the Americans were separated by only a single sentence: the speaker, devoid of convictions, was merely groping automatically among the cliches with which his mind was furnished to find the one that might fit the occasion. The cliches have more often an old-fashioned nationalistic than an outspoken Nazi tone, but in any case one seeks in vain to discover behind them a consistent point of view, be it even a bad one. With the downfall of Nazism, the Germans found themselves again exposed to he B perhapshabit most striking andasfrightening aspect of the German flight from of treating facts though reality is the they were mere opinions. For example, the question of who started the last war, by no means a hotly debated issue, is answered by a surprising variety of opinions. An otherwise quite normally intelligent woman in Southern Germany told me that the Russians had begun the war with an attack on Danzig; this is only the crudest of many examples. Nor is this transformation of facts into opinions restricted to the war question; in all fields there is a kind of gentlemens agreement by which everyone has a right to his ignorance under the pretext that everyone has a right to his opinion-and behind this is the tacit assumption that opinions really do riot matter. This is a very serious thing, not only because it often makes discussion so hopeless (one does not ordinarily carry a reference library along everywhere), but primarily because the average German honestly believes this free-for-all, this nihilistic relativity about facts, to be the essence of democracy. In fact, of course, it is a legacy of the Nazi regime. The lies of totalitarian propaganda are distinguished from the normal lying of nontotalitarian regimes in times of emergency by their consistent denial of the importance of facts in general: all facts can be changed and all lies can be made true. The Nazi impress on the German mind consists primarily in a conditioning whereby reality has ceased to be the sum total of hard inescapable facts and has become a conglomeration of everchanging events and slogans in which a thing can be true today and false tomorrow. This conditioning may be precisely one of the reasons for the surprisingly few traces of any lasting Nazi indoctrination, as well as for an equally surprising lack of interest in the refuting of Nazi doctrines. What one is up against is not indoctrination but the incapacity or unwillingness to distinguish altogether between fact and opinion. A discussion about the events of the Spanish Civil War will be conducted on the same level as a discussion of the theoretical merits and shortcomings of democracy.