Analysis Of The Right To Bear Arms, (Warren E. Burger) Essays

Analysis of "The Right to Bear Arms," (Warren E. Burger) The right to bear arms is a constitutional guarantee, and is not open for discussion; however the United States Government has used its power to limit and regulate this guarantee. Our government has been attacking this right for years, and like a covert terrorist organization, it denies its action. Pretending that they just want to limit the right to bear arms is their blanket of protection. They will slowly move from under that protection only when the nation is ready to accept the loss of this right and when it doesn't appear to be huge a movement to give up that right. At some point in the future, the right to bear arms will be so limited that it will just be a natural move to ban firearms altogether. Warren E. Burger defends this movement in his article. Although Burger may appear to be a reputable source on this subject, I question the entire warrant for his article. His entire article is pure speculation, and is it speculation from the common man who would be most affected by t he loss or restriction of his right to bear arms? No, it was speculation from a pillar of the United States Government, the Chief Justice. The warrant, or underlying assumption brought forth in Burger's article is that banning or restricting the right to keep and bear arms will decrease violence. This has been the warrant for the Government movement against gun rights for years. If you really think about it though, this notion is simply absurd. To demonstrate you must first separate Americans into two general categories. First there are the upstanding citizens who work to support themselves and/or a family. These people may experience some trouble with the law only because nobody's perfect. The next category is the criminal. Many categories could be made out of this one, but to keep it simple, we'll just use one. These people generally have little respect for the law, and this is why many of them are in our jails and prisons. These are the people responsible for the murders, rapes, robberies, and other violent crimes in our society today. Now, if you present gun restrictions or a ban on guns to both of these categories, what will be the outcome. The outcome is the entire basis for why gun restriction has a reverse effect. What happens is that you end up with a population of upstanding property owning citizens that are unarmed. This population generally yields to the laws, and therefore they freely give up their right to bear arms. The other side of that picture is the criminal. A man that robs liquor stores and shoots people gets the news that he will no longer be permitted by law to own a certain gun. What are the chances that when this person commits his next crime, he will stop and say,"wait a second, I can't use this gun because it's illegal. I will just have to beat my victim with a baseball bat instead." Obviously this makes no sense at all. Why would a criminal that is willing to shoot someone with his gun, listen to a law that says he can't use that gun anymore. Creating bans or restrictions on gun rights leaves the upstanding citizen unarmed and helpless against the armed criminal. There are many studies that support this idea that more gun control results in more crime, but the idea is so basic, it almost needs no confirmation to know that it's true. The United States Government would like us to stop using our brains and picture the whole world holding hands, singing out in harmony because guns no longer exist. The Government knows that if the mob stops using common sense on this issue, and starts listening to an idea that looks flashy and nice at first glance, they will be able to move from their protective blanket and show their faces without opposition. Warren E Burger was a pillar of this government for seventeen years. I question his credibility on this issue because of his alternate agenda and motive for this article. What are the cold hard facts that he gives

The Sociology of Social Inequality

The Sociology of Social Inequality Social inequality results from a society organized by hierarchies of class, race, and gender that broker access to resources and rights in ways that make their distribution unequal. It can manifest in a variety of ways, like income and wealth inequality, unequal access to education and cultural resources, and differential treatment by the police and judicial system, among others. Social inequality goes hand in hand with social stratification. Overview Social inequality is characterized by the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society. It contains structured and recurrent patterns of unequal distributions of goods, wealth, opportunities, rewards, and punishments. Racism, for example, is understood to be a phenomenon whereby access to rights and resources is unfairly distributed across racial lines. In the context of the U.S., people of color typically experience racism, which benefits white people by conferring on them white privilege, which allows them greater access to rights and resources than other Americans. There are two main ways to measure social inequality: inequality of conditions, and inequality of opportunities. Inequality of conditions refers to the unequal distribution of income, wealth, and material goods. Housing, for example, is inequality of conditions with the homeless and those living in housing projects sitting at the bottom of the hierarchy while those living in multi-million dollar mansions sit at the top. Another example is at the level of whole communities, where some are poor, unstable, and plagued by violence, while others are invested in by business and government so that they thrive and provide safe, secure, and happy conditions for their inhabitants. Inequality of opportunities refers to the unequal distribution of life chances across individuals. This is reflected in measures such as level of education, health status, and treatment by the criminal justice system. For example, studies have shown that college and university professors are more likely to ignore emails from women and people of color than they are to ignore those from white men, which privileges the educational outcomes of white men by channeling a biased amount of mentoring and educational resources to them. Discrimination of an individual, community, and institutional levels is a major part of the process of reproducing social inequalities of race, class, gender, and sexuality. For example, women are systematically paid less than men for doing the same work, and sociologists have conclusively demonstrated that racism is built into the very foundation of our society, and is present in all of our social institutions. Two Main Theories of Social Inequality There are two main views of social inequality within sociology. One view aligns with the functionalist theory, and the other aligns with conflict theory. Functionalist theorists believe that inequality is inevitable and desirable and plays an important function in society. Important positions in society require more training and thus should receive more rewards. Social inequality and social stratification, according to this view, lead to a meritocracy based on ability.Conflict theorists, on the other hand, view inequality as resulting from groups with power dominating less powerful groups. They believe that social inequality prevents and hinders societal progress as those in power repress the powerless people to maintain the status quo. In todays world, this work of domination is achieved primarily through the power of ideology, our thoughts, values, beliefs, worldviews, norms, and expectations, through a process known as cultural hegemony. How Sociologists Study Social Inequality Sociologically, we can study social inequality as a social problem that encompasses three dimensions: structural conditions, ideological supports, and social reforms. Structural conditions include things that can be objectively measured and that contribute to social inequality. Sociologists study how things like educational attainment, wealth, poverty, occupations, and power lead to social inequality between individuals and groups of people. Ideological supports include ideas and assumptions that support the social inequality present in a society. Sociologists examine how things such as formals laws, public policies, and dominant values  both lead to social inequality, and help sustain it. For example, consider this discussion of the role that words and the ideas attached to them play in this process. Social reforms are things such as organized resistance, protest groups, and social movements. Sociologists study how these social reforms help shape or change social inequality that exists in a society, as well as their origins,  impact, and long-term effects. Today, social media plays a large role in social reform campaigns and was harnessed in 2014 by British actress Emma Watson, on behalf of the UN, to launch a campaign for gender equality called #HeForShe.

The Myth of the Cave. The role of philosophers and educators in Essay

The Myth of the Cave. The role of philosophers and educators in society - Essay Example Throughout the life of humans, they come to know certain things as they found them to be. They proceed to believe that these things are the truth and reality. When they come to be told the truth, they reject it because it is a contradiction of what they know. Ignorance has been said to be bliss. That is what makes people not to see the truth. That is why they vehemently reject the truth. Different people have different perceptions of the truth. That is why there are those who will want to go and look for the truth outside the cave, and those who believe that the truth is in fact inside the cave (Watt, 25). Teachers have to realize the dangers of giving an education that is different from what others receive. Education should not compel us to believe in one single thing. It should in fact encourage us to go and find out the truth for ourselves. All that we merely see is not necessarily the reality. It might just be that we are so used to seeing it that we believe it is the ultimate truth. This is the danger that educationists need to eliminate. They need to encourage and promote the search for the truth. In current times, this can be aided by proper research. Education should not merely be an exercise of imparting already existing knowledge. It should not be an activity of coercing other to believe in one thing. It should be a process of facilitating research and self reliance. It should promote the search for the ultimate truth (Watt, 23).... The reading describes a scenario whereby what is taken to be real by most people may just be a mere illusion. ‘All people living in a cave’ is taken to represent the high levels of ignorance among humans. Human beings are in total darkness. The truth is just near them yet they have refused to embrace it. ‘Being chained on their necks and legs’ represents the unwillingness of humans to accept useful change. It shows that unless they take action, they are bound to ignorance. They have to free themselves from the caves otherwise they will always be prisoners of ignorance. The prisoners watching the shadows on the wall means that this is what they think the world is. The shadows which they see on the walls are what represent reality to them. They do not know any other truth. This is what they have known the world to be since they were born. Their conceptions and understanding of the world are skewed and misinformed. Their unwillingness and reluctance to leave th e cave is all as a result of ignorance. In the cave, all that the humans see is a mere reflection of what reality is. What they see is not reality. It is a mere illusion (Watt, 25). This is what the shadows represent. The shadows are like a mirage that tries to depict reality. Ignorance is very prevalent and humans do not want to let go of it. It is the duty of philosophers and educators to liberate these humans from the darkness. The truth can only be obtained by these philosophers. The senses of human beings skew and misconceive reality. Humans are so ignorant to the extent that they would reject a prisoner who left the cave to go and experience the real world in search of the truth. The prisoners represent the humans who are slaves of ignorance. They shun