Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Current Factors and Risks Affecting Wallis Drilling
Question: Discuss about the Current Factors and Risks Affecting Wallis Drilling. Answer: Introduction Wallis Drilling Company is among the top companies in the world that have been providing drilling services for mining of minerals. Wallis Drilling has been operating for 52 years. Wallis Drilling is a private company that has the most efficient and advanced machines that can work on any terrain in Australia and other international countries (Wallis Company 2015, par. 1). With a sufficient number of competent employees, the services offered are world class. Even though returns are promising, there are some risks that are associated with Wallis Drilling that is significant for the survival of the company. Wallis Drilling company is affected by some international risks; the risks include; commercial risk, cross-cultural risk, country risk and the currency risk. Application of the theory to Wallis Drilling Commercial risk revolves around operational problems that are the issues that are associated with the day to day activities of the company. The operational problems may be the lack of liquid cash or the inability to settle the creditors. The other issue associated with commercial risk is the aspect of timing. A business may enter into an international trade at a time that the economic conditions are straining and thus little profits are earned at the end. In addition, the competition may be very stiff from the already progressed competitors thus making it extremely hard for the company that has not adopted some specific procedures (Burgess-Limerick 2010, p. 53).Lastly, a company may have adopted a strategy that is imperative for its for survival, but poor implementation of the strategy due to factors such as an incapable management can pose a great threat to companies such as Wallis Drilling. Currency risk is another problem that affects Drilling Company. The fact that most of such companies operate internationally is a major factor. Companies need to import or export machinery and equipment for their operations (Tenfelde 2016, p. 5). The prices of the drilling rigs are affected by the currency exchange rate in the international market. There are times that a company may fetch more or less in the same market. The fluctuation in prices of the commodities leads to losses. Currency risks are uncontrollable for they are influenced by externalities or economic conditions. Losses are the greatest worry for Wallis Drilling because of the instances of inflation and international taxation. Country risk majorly revolves around the current situations in the operating country. Companies that are operating internationally face the problems of unstable countries. When there is war in a country, there is no way that a company can be able to carry out its activities normally. The employees will fear for their lives, and thus the operations must be ceased until peace is restored (Tenfelde 2016, p. 7). Economic conditions in a country are also a factor of concern. A country that the company has got a contract in is influenced by factors such as inflation and the ability of the company to honor the terms of the contract like payment of the fee required. Country risk affects some profits and the efficiency of operations. Lastly, a cross-cultural risk is depicted by the factors that are associated with interacting with new people. Most of the time, they interact with individuals that have different approaches to their way of living and decision making. The cultural differences greatly affect the rate at which employees are operating internationally get to adapt to the environment that they are operating in. Negotiation styles may also be different, and thus it may take some time before a contract is fully settled. Conversely, the disparities in the ethical standards may be a factor of concern. If the ethical standards are different, then disagreements may be experienced, and this could reduce the number of contracts attained. Justification of the risks affecting Wallis Drilling Wallis Drilling is a victim of the risks that are associated with international trade. To begin with, Wallis Company employees have experienced difficulties in mingling with different cultures, sometimes the employees have been received with hostility or failed to blend their culture with that of the host country (Boomhower 2014, p.12). It becomes difficult to work in a condition that you are not conversant with. Most of the employees have left the company because of the unconducive working environment. Losing skilled employees to the rival company creates a very stiff competition that most of the time puts a strain on the limited resources available in the company. Also, Wallis Drilling Company has experienced losses due to the low prices of iron in the market. Since the decline of the iron prices due to economic conditions, the operation costs have not been compensated by the expected profits. When the prices for the minerals reduce, most of the mining sites have to be closed by the managing companies. Wallis Drilling has to wait until the prices of the minerals appreciate. Operating internationally has called for sensitiveness when it comes to the foreign exchange rates. For Wallis drilling, they have the threat of experiencing losses when they export or import their drilling rigs (Burgess-Limerick 2010, p. 51).The prices of the equipment are affected by the international economic factors that are beyond the control of the company. Lastly, the inability to pay its creditors the amount they owe them when time elapses. It is certain that Wallis Company being a large company it has various needs that must be allocated to enough resources. To fund its activities, most of the time, the company has to borrow from lenders. In the case that a mine is closed down because of reasons such as low prices in the international market, it becomes tough to honor the promises that were made to the creditors. Wallis Drilling Company thus has the risk of being bankrupt or liquidated by the creditors in case it is unable to honor its creditors (Boomhower 2014, p.78). References Boomhower, J 2014, Drilling like there's no tomorrow: Bankruptcy, insurance, and Environmental risk. EI@ Haas Working Paper, 254. Burgess-Limerick, R, Krupenia, V, Zupanc, C, Wallis, G Steiner, L 2010. Reducing Control selection errors associated with underground bolting equipment, Applied Ergonomics, vol. 41, no.3 pp.549-555. Tenfelde, AM., Esquivel, AO, Cracchiolo, AM, and Lemos, SE, 2016,Temperature change when drilling near the distal femoral physis in a skeletally immature ovine model, Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics, vol. 36, no.7, pp.762-767. Wallis Drilling. A Deeper Understanding, viewed 16 March 2017, https://www.wallisdrilling.com.au/
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
A Modest Proposal Essays - Humour, Pamphlets, Fiction,
A Modest Proposal A Modest Proposal was a satirical essay written by Jonathan Swift depicting the horrific conditions of Ireland and the lives of the Irish people in 1729. The author portrays and attacks the cruel and unjust oppression of Ireland by its oppressor, the mighty English and ridicules the Irish people at the same time. However, Swift's opposition is indirectly presented. Jonathan Swift is able to do so by using the persona, irony, and wit in order to expose the remarkable corruption and degradation of the Irish people, and at the same time present them with practicable solutions to their unscrupulous and pathetic lives. The author uses a satire to accomplish his objective not only because he is able to conceal his true identity but also because it is the most effective way to awake the people of Ireland into seeing their own depravity. Swift creates a fictional persona because by hiding his true identity he is able to convince the readers of the significance of Ireland's problem and allow them to see truth and reality. The persona is a concerned Irishman who is very intelligent, sound, and serious. He appears to be a brute and a monster for proposing something evil and immoral very calmly as if it is normal to consume the flesh of another human being. What makes his proposal to be even more depraved is that he proposes to eat the babies. The persona declares, and at exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them, in a such a manner as, instead of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding and partly to the clothing of many thousands. The persona justifies his proposal with numerous reasons. Besides the prevention of voluntary abortions and infanticide, it will also prevent the loss of m oney for maintenance of children and the abuse of women and children. The number of Papists would be reduced and the children will not become beggars, thieves, or prostitutes. The proposal will aid in the increase in the status of the peasantry, promote love, and care from the mothers towards their children. However the persona alone is inadequate to make the narrator seem too plausible. The persona must utilize irony and wit in order for his essay to be more efficacious. A Modest Proposal is so effective and appealing because of the authors' copious uses of irony throughout his essay. The title itself is definitely ironic. It provides the reader with false expectations of decency and sensibility on the part of the writer. The butchery of innocent babies and the use of their skin for clothing is way beyond being modest. It is brutal and insane. The proposal is intended to shock and throw the reader off balance. The narrator also ridicules the Irish. His proposal would be a great incentive for marriage, not because the Irish will marry for the expected reasons, of love and happiness. Instead they will marry for money. As the persona pronounces, this would be a great inducement to marriage, which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards or enforced by laws and penalties. Moreover, this proposal if put into effect would aid in establishing love and care in families, between spouses and towards the children. The mother would provide her babies w ith better nourishment. Since, plump, fat, and juicy babies are worth more than the lean and abused ones. The husbands will become fond of their wives and refrain from abusing them, to avoid a possible miscarriage. Furthermore, normally the child is introduced to Christianity to celebrate his or her birth and introduction to Christianity. However, ironically Christenings will celebrate a baby's impending death. The baby must be murdered in order for the parents to profit. Thus, the primary motive of the Irish is money. The persona's ingenious display of irony serves a purpose for attacking, scorning, and exposing the vices of the Irish people. The narrator's brilliant and clever use of wit is definitely noteworthy throughout A Modest Proposal. In order to make cannibalism sound like the most practicable solution, the author wisely uses
Saturday, March 7, 2020
A comparison Between Asian Americans and Latinos
A comparison Between Asian Americans and Latinos For a long time, most people were convinced that a child was bestowed with a certain level of intelligence at birth. Past studies have revealed that genetics could not have been the sole determinant of a childââ¬â¢s intelligence. However, as the world changed from using genetics to explain differences in intelligence, there was also a corresponding shift to focus on culture and the environment. Culture is now believed to be the determining factor in explaining differences between races (Liu 5). By examining how learning takes place between Asian Americans, it emerges that we are more intelligent than the rest of the population, in addition, it also emerges that the environment has something to do with the grades achieved by both the Latinos and the Asian Americans. This paper shall endeavor to compare the Asian Americans with the Latino ethnic group. It will mainly focus on how learning takes place within the two groups and the associated outcome. In addition, the paper will also use an article by Fuller and Garcia Coll (2010) to explore the choices made by parents and how they affect learning.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on A comparison Between Asian Americans and Latinos specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The article by Fuller and Garcia Coll (559) discusses the environment in which children are brought up in Latino households. It especially focuses on immigration and how it affects the manner in which children grow up.Using four theoretical frameworks, the paper explains how learning and development take place within culturally bounded context. In their analysis, the authors show how learning is perceived as taking place and the changes that have occurred over the years. The paper further explains how traditional Latino families are able to keep the family close and support their children socially. It also highlights the pressure on children and teenagers to assimilate into the American cu lture and how this poses a risk to their development. Overall, its aim is to bring an understanding of how learning takes place within groups that are heavily influenced by culture. This paper argues that Latino children use socialization practices to create their identity at home. The social practices acquired at school further influence their school performance (Fuller Garcia Coll 560). There is an obvious different in the family sizes of both the Latinos and the Asian Americans. For example, Latinos living in America typically have larger families than Asian Americans. Such Latinos as the Mexican Americans had 2.4 children on average as of 2003 while white and other minorities had an average of 2.0 children, according to study conducted by Fuller et al 2009 (qtd. in Fuller Garcia Coll 561). This difference has contributed to the disparity observed in terms of development between the two groups. The cognitive development of children raised in large families tends to be slower th an that of children raised in smaller families (Fuller Garcia Coll 561). This is because as the size of the family increases there is a corresponding depletion of the available resources. The order in which the children are born also affects the quality of each childââ¬â¢s education. For example, the first child gets a good education while those born later in families do not get as much education (Black et al.6). The interest and commitment that parents show their first child also declines as the number of children increases as they are now faced with the responsibility of taking care of more children.Advertising Looking for essay on ethnicity studies? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Asian American parents differ from Latino parents in the way they approach their childrenââ¬â¢s schoolwork. From an early age, Latinos create an environment that enables a child to observe and copy the behavior of the society (Ful ler Garcia Coll 560). Asian Americans believe that the child should be solely focused on school and do not encourage distractions that interfere with it. Any activities such as sports, taking part in school plays or socializations are considered distractions. For those Asian American parents who own businesses, their children are not permitted to work in the shops while neglecting their school work (8). For Latino parents, the learning that takes place for their children is more observational than book related. Learning in Latino families takes place through participation in everyday activities. Children will do household chores and take care of the younger ones in the family. Teenagers are also allowed to work for pay to improve the familyââ¬â¢s economic status (Fuller Garcia 563). The Asian American and Latino families both aim to improve their status through their children but their approach differs. Asian Americans students do better academically than Latino students. A stu dy by (Liu, 2) shows that the number of Asian American students who complete college is two thirds greater than that of Latinos (2). Asian Americans do better in school as their parents have advanced education, they are able to attend schools with enough resources, their peers support them and their community is always looking out for them (Liu 5). Latinos do not do as well as Asian Americans as they are not fully focused on academics alone. They are heavily involved in community activities and extracurricular activities. They are also eager to assimilate into the American culture and this affects their academic performance. Second generation Latino teenagers succumb to peer pressure and let go of family duties leading to a deterioration of their performance in school according to a study by Fuligni 2001 (qtd. in Fuller and Garcia Coll 560). First generation Latinos are more engaged in school work as they are able to identify more closely with their ethnic community (Fuller Garcia Coll 560). The instability of being torn between two cultures affects Latinos more than Asian Americans as Asian Americans are more integrated and less likely to be totally assimilated in their childhood.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on A comparison Between Asian Americans and Latinos specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In Conclusion, this paper has shown that there are various forms of learning. Using an article by Fuller and Garcia (2010) it has explored how learning takes place in the Latino community. For example, learning can take place through observation as practiced by Latinos. On the other hand, the Asian Americans have a preference for academic learning. This paper has explained how Latinos differ from Asian Americans when it comes to modes of learning. It has shown that in early childhood, Asian Americans prefer that their children concentrate on schoolwork and avoid any extracurricular or social activities while Latinos see observational learning as beneficial to the child and are encouraged to work to support their families. It has also explained that the large size of Latino families hinders learning due to a scarcity of resources and inadequate attention on each individual child. It has also shown that this may be why Latino students perform poorly in school in comparison with the Asian American students. The paper has pointed out that as the second generation Latinos try to emulate their American counterparts and in the process, they lose track of their school work and perform poorly in comparison with first generation Latinos. Black, Sandra, Devereux, Paul, and Salvanes, Kjell 2004, The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Composition on Childrenââ¬â¢s Education. PDF file. 12 Feb. 2013. econ.ucla.edu/people/papers/Black/Black493.pdf. Fuller, Bruce and Garcia Coll, Cynthia. ââ¬Å"Learning From Latinos: Contexts, Families, and Child Development in Motion. ââ¬Å"Developmenta l Psychology, 46.3 (2010):559-565. Print. Liu, Eric. The Accidental Asian, New York: Vintage Books, 1998. Print.
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Religious beliefs and It's effects on medical decisions Essay
Religious beliefs and It's effects on medical decisions - Essay Example The Catholic health care is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, because they take Jesus as their founder. For example, the abortions are highly prohibited according to the Catholic health care. It is like these people are so antichrists and they somehow enforce and convince the women to quit the decision of abortion. They place the Holly Bible in front of these women quoting few verses out of it, and conclude that abortion is the act of sin, and the women going for it are the sinners and will burn in hell. That is what this image is trying to say to the audience. The image is claiming towards the discrimination of religious beliefs and its effect on the medical decisions today. The image is arranged in such a way, a hospital, cross sign, and a warning ââ¬â which automatically reflects the religious restrictions strongly followed by the Catholic believers, when it comes to the matter health care
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Critically evaluate whether Britain constitutes a total surveillance Essay
Critically evaluate whether Britain constitutes a total surveillance society - Essay Example Amongst many countries U.K has invested most money to install high speed surveillance computer and camera to watch out for criminal threats in public. However, surveillance is not so easily accepted by public as they believe it is violating their privacy rights by interfering in their social freedom. It is believed that soon U.K. will be an electronic police state. This paper will focus on covering various aspects of U.K. being a surveillance society in which all details of personal lives are gathered, stored and processed with computer as a data base owned by corporations and government departments (Lyon, 1994). In 2006, Surveillance studies network, a group run by academics compared the surveillance process going on in several western countries and claimed U.K. to be the most surveilled country. The report stated that U.K. does not have any control over its democracy and it cannot give individuals their privacy (Britain is surveillance society , 2006) Since then several issues have risen regarding U.K converting into a surveillance society. In 2009, a report published by House of Lords Constitution Committee,Ã called Surveillance: Citizens and the State stated that such increased surveillance by private companies and government is an invasion to the nations privacy rights. Nothing has brought such a significant change in lives of British since Second World War. Mass surveillance is like a weapon that can eradicate all borders of privacy. Privacy is important to anybody wishing for freedom. Mass surveillance also threatens to break the constitutional foundations forming the base of democracy of U.K. (BBC, 2006). The surveillance studies network report named Malaysia, China and Britain as the countries with most endemic surveillance. The head of the group Mr. Thomas raised several issues regarding such massive surveillance. He highlighted all the risks involved if this private
Monday, January 27, 2020
The Areas Of Ecommerce Information Technology Essay
The Areas Of Ecommerce Information Technology Essay Ecommerce is frequently thought just buying and selling through Internet; people immediately think of consumer retail purchases from online companies such as Amazon. But e-commerce involves much more than electronically mediated financial transactions between organizations and customers. E-commerce must be careful as all electronically mediated transactions between an organization and any third party it deals with. By this description, non-financial transactions such as consumer requests for additional information would also be careful to be part of e-commerce (Chaffey, 2002). E-commerce is the swap of information across electronic networks, at any phase in the supply chain, whether inside an organization, between businesses, between businesses and customers, or between the civic and personal sector, whether paid or unpaid (Cabinet Office, 1999). Ecommerce is any business activity that involves the transformation of information through internet. Electronic commerce is exchanging business information, maintaining business relations and conducting business transactions by means of internet and networks (Zwass, 2012). AREAS OF ECOMMERCE Ecommerce is the broad term. Today, e-commerce isnt just reserved for big companies but appealing much anyone can get involved in this (Affilorama, n.d.). It has covered various sectors including health, education tourism etc. some of the main areas where the ecommerce has penetrated are listed bellows: In Education as e-learning In Health as Telemedicine In Travel and tourism: Online Hotel Reservation, Managing trips and vacations. In entertainment: Online movie database, online games, betting sites etc. In Service related areas: E-brokers, E-ticketing etc In Financial sector as E-banking. Beside the above given main areas it also has its impact on various sectors such as E-publishing, Online Auction, Online advertisement etc. TYPES OF ECOMMERCE Ecommerce can be divided into various categories in terms of their properties and type of transaction they perform. Various types of E-commerce are described below: B2B E-commerce Generally, business to business ecommerce is an ecommerce activity performed between the two Business organizations. Here one business collaborate with business partners in real-time and put management of all their processes online from supply chain and purchasing to manufacturing and product development (Btobb2b. 2010.). B2C E-commerce An acronym for business to customer or Business to consumer, a type where a business sells their products and services to the customer directly (Maybray, n.d.). This type of ecommerce is applicable to that business firm who tends to sell their product on internet. Some forms of this type of ecommerce are e-banking, e-ticketing etc. example: Amazon. M-commerce M-commerce referred as mobile commerce is the use of mobiles to perform the business activities. It eventually is B2C commerce but not performed in your PCs or MAC. SUITABILITY OF DIFFERENT PRODUCTS IN ECOMMERCE Some types of products may be more suitable to ecommerce where as some of them may be suitable for the offline market. If we look the trends of some success full ecommerce website like EBay and Amazon, we can find that the digital products such as movies, music, software, games are more sold in this platform. Beside that the products like computer hardware, spares part of automobiles are also sold. But the products which have less value-to-weight, or the product that have smell, taste, and touch components and products that need trail fitting and where color integrity are more essential are less suitable for the ecommerce platform (Ecommerce.insightin, 2004). SCOPE OF ECOMMERCE IN RETAIL SECTOR In January 2011 alone, customers in the UK spent more than à £5 billion shopping online, a rise of à £1 billion on the previous year. With this sharp increase, retailers are falling over themselves to spruce up their web presence and the e-commerce services they offer (Retailchoice, 2011).This growth of ecommerce means that there is a great scope of ecommerce in the retail industry. Referring to the gain acquired by various online competitors, the business firms following the traditional way are also attracted toward the ecommerce platform. This creates huge competition in the online market. STRATEGIES TO BUILD ECOMMERCE WEBSITE There is no doubt in the growing importance of ecommerce website for the retailers. But only creating the website is not sufficient for the business run your business successfully s. Hence for the successful ecommerce business the merchants have to think about various factors that may effects their business. Some main factors to be considered to run business successfully are discussed below. Choice of suitable products. Products are the main part of the ecommerce website. Before creating the website you should make sure that what types of product you are going to integrate in your website. Digital products such as DVDS, Software are more suitable. Similarly, branded an item that doesnt need to be tasted or checked such as branded chocolates, cosmetic item etc. are also suitable. But the product that should be sold within short period and that have a lot smell are not suitable to the ecommerce website. Example: bread, milk etc. vegetables are also not that much suitable for it. An Easy to use shopping cart. The other main things to be considered is the easy to use user interface. Better is the user interface, more costumer are attracted to your platform. Use of more graphics than text is encouraged. Better and secure payment system. Payment and Security is the main thing that a business firm should consider while establishing the ecommerce. There are various options available such as PayPal, Alert pay, Payoneer etc. But among them PayPal is the best option as it is highly recognized, secured and fast. Its alternative may be Alert pay. Fast delivery Delivery of goods to the costumer at a given period of time is one factor that affect the consumer behavior to online shopping. Faster the delivery is of the business, costumers are attracted towards your business. Regular update of your website. Costumers are attracted towards the new items and products daily. The use of same product for a long period of time may change the interpretation of customer towards your site. So, updating of daily new products is important for the business to be successful. Offers and Scheme Offers and Scheme is the best way to attract your costumer towards your business. Providing various types of scheme and offers during the various festivals and occasions is a plus point for the business organization. Certain percentages of discounts on your products are some examples for it. Disadvantages of Ecommerce. Security Security continues to be a trouble for online businesses. Consumers have to sense confident about the honesty of the payment process before they entrust to the purchase. System and Data truth Data security and the fact of the system that handles the data are serious concerns. Computer viruses are out of control, with new viruses discovered each day (GoArticles, 2012). Viruses can cause unnecessary stoppage, backups of file and data, data storage problems, and other difficulties and danger of hackers trying to access files and corrupting records adds more pressure to a earlier complex operation. System Scalability A business develops an interactive boundary with consumers by the use of a website. Finally, statistical analysis verifies whether visitors to the site are recurring customers or not. If the company expects 2 to 6 million shows up, website performance is bound to incident degradation, delay, and ultimately loss of consumers visits (Scribd, 2009).à To stop such problems from occurring, a website must be scalable, or upgradable on a regular routine. E-commerce is not free Till now, achievement stories in e-commerce have enforced large business with profound pockets and good financial sustain. According to Manjeetss (n.d.), small retailers that go head-to-head with e-commerce giants are fighting losing combat. Since in the brick-and-mortar situation, they just cannot battle on price or product offering. Brand trustworthiness is related to issues like this, which is thought to be less significant for online firms. Brands are predicted to lower search costs, maintain and create trust, and correspond quality. A search engine can come up with the best music deals, for example, yet customers continue to flock to trusted entities such as HMV (Sites.google, 2011). Customer Search is not efficient or Cost-effective On the surface, the e-marketplace seems to be a best market, where international sellers and buyers share and trade without intermediaries. However, a closer look signifies that new types of intermediaries are necessary to e-commerce. They include electronic malls that assurance authenticity of transactions. All these intermediaries add to transaction fees (Dart, 2001). Consumer Relations Problems Not a lot of businesses realize that even e-business cannot live on over the long term exclusive of faithful consumers. Products populace wont buy online Imagine a website called furniture.com or living.com, where venture capitalists are investing millions in selling home furnishings online. In the case of a sofa set, consumer would want to sit on it, feel the texture of the fabric etc. next to the sofa test; online furniture stores face a costly come again which makes the product difficult to sell through online (Carolinachair, 2001). Corporate susceptibility The ease of use of product details, catalogs, and other information about a business through its website makes it vulnerable to access by the rivalry. The plan of extracting business intellect from the website is called web framing (Ap-institute, n.d.). High danger of Internet Start-up Many stories unfolded in 1999 about victorious executives in established firms leaving for Internet start-ups, only to find out that their get-rich dream with a dot.com was just that a dream (Albany, 2001). Conclusion Understanding the strategy of e-commerce has became essential while implementing or before implementing e-commerce in industry. Collecting articles, evidences, performing research is the best way to raise ones business. Along with advantages there come disvantages also. So it is very important to develop strategy solutions to overcome the risk arise from implementation of e-commerce.
Sunday, January 19, 2020
Emerson Essay -- Philosophy, Unapologetic Individualism
In understanding this quotation, it is absolutely essential to be cognizant of the context in which ââ¬Å"Self-Relianceâ⬠was written. The philosophical and social movement that Emerson and his contemporaries founded, Transcendentalism, espoused the idea that although America had formally gained political independence, Europeans possessed virtually hegemonic control over the culture of America. Emerson and his contemporaries sought not only to pioneer a uniquely American style of literature, but also to forge a distinct culture and ethos independent from those of Europe. Emersonââ¬â¢s opinion that ââ¬Å"imitation is suicideâ⬠(533) extends beyond the realm of the individual in that it is relevant to the Transcendentalistsââ¬â¢ mission of establishing an autonomous American identity. He believes that by continuing to emulate European values and culture, Americans are essentially destroying their own chance of possessing a national identity. Emerson viewed self-relian ce, which can be understood as finding inspiration, judgment and validation of thoughts and ideas within oneself, as one of the central tenets of the fledgling American national identity. It may seem counterintuitive to think that Emerson, a proponent of radical and unapologetic individualism, desired to create a shared American identity and national unity; however, it is necessary to discern that nonconformity is not tantamount to the repudiation of society. By exalting nonconformity, he does not promote the hedonistic active pursuit of personal desires in spite of social norms, like an anarchist, but rather urges the reader to wholly fulfill their human potential. Consequently, the embracing of the self is not a consequence of free agency, but rather the fulfillment of their innate des... ...ay at home, to put itself in communication with the internal ocean, but it goes abroad to beg a cup of water of the urns of menâ⬠(543). This passage serves to inform the reader that the rewards gleaned from imitation pale in comparison to those that originate from oneself, in the same way that a cup of water seems infinitesimal relative to an ocean. This point is furthered by his numerous allusions to famed historical and literary figures who exemplify the fulfillment that can transpire only through illustrating Emersonââ¬â¢s command to ââ¬Å"Insist on yourself; never imitateâ⬠(547). It is essential to ascertain that these references serve as examples of self-reliant individuals garnering great success rather than exalted heroes that one should strive to emulate, as Benjamin Franklin explicitly prescribes in his Autobiography: ââ¬Å"Imitate Jesus and Socratesâ⬠(Franklin 285).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)