Message Of Letter From Birmingham Jail - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1231 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2019/05/23 Category History Essay Level High school Tags: Letter From Birmingham Jail Essay Did you like this example? Even after slavery was abolished in the United States, discrimination against African Americans still took place in society. Laws were even created to separate and differentiate the lives and rights of the African American populace from that of the Caucasian populace. Society is always changing, so campaigns against racial segregation were certain to happen eventually. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Message Of Letter From Birmingham Jail" essay for you Create order There were many powerful leaders during the movements against racial discrimination. They led the way to desegregation and equal rights with their actions, speeches, and writings. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of these major advocates against societal racism, and through his works, the United States made many advances toward equality. One of his many campaigns was in the form of a letter that he wrote after being thrown in jail for protesting in Birmingham, Alabama. In Letter from Birmingham Jail, Dr. King uses different literary devices, such as biblical and historical allusions as well as figures of speech, to portray his message against racial segregation and bias in the United States to local white clergymen. Martin Luther King Jr. uses biblical allusions to compare the actions of the African American people to the actions of certain biblical figures. This helps him convey his message because he is speaking to religious leaders. He states that everyone will be an extremist, but he also states that there are two different types of extremism. He uses the three men crucified on Calvaryrs hill as an example of the different types of extremism. Martin Luther King Jr. says that two of those men were extremists of hate and that Jesus was an extremist of love. He states that extremists are oppressed even if their extr emism is out of love. He explains that the protests of the African American people are a form of loving extremism because their protests are for the betterment of the people and not meant to harm anyone. He conveys the message that Jesus was wrongfully persecuted for being an extremist of love, and that the African American population are also being extremists of love; therefore, being wrongfully persecuted (King 172). Dr. King also states that there are just and unjust laws, and he uses the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to convey his point. Dr. King states that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego rebelled against Nebuchadnezzarrs law on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake (King 168). He uses this as his way of protesting against the racially biased laws in America. Martin Luther King Jr. states that some laws need to be rebelled against in order to show how unjust they are. He says that certain people are willing to protest against unjust laws even if it results in incarceration or even death (King 168), just as Shadrach Meshach and Abednego protested against the worship of king Nebuchadnezzarrs statue (Authorized King James Version Bible, Daniel 3.8-12). Dr. Martin Luther King also uses many historical allusions to prove that change is destined to happen and that it is a natural process in order for society to advance itself. One of the examples he gives is that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ?legal and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ?illegal (King 169). Adolf Hitler had thousands of Jews persecuted and killed during the holocaust (Kurth 11). While this was legal in Germany at the time, it was also inhumane and unjust. The Hungarian freedom fighters also worked to fight against the Soviet Union and its Communist government to gain their own independence (Goode). Dr. King is expressing that while an action may be legal that does not make it right, and while an action may be illegal that does not make it wrong. By using this comparison Dr. King is saying that the laws segregating the people are not necessarily right, and that the protests against segregation are not necessarily wrong (King 169) . Dr. King also compares the Boston Tea Party to the protests of the African Americans (King 168). The tea party was a protest against British rule in which thousands of pounds of tea were dumped into the Boston harbor. This act of protest by a small group of people started a series of events that eventually led to American independence from Great Britainrs rule (Higginbotham and Johansen). The Boston Tea Party was considered an act of civil disobedience. Martin Luther King is saying that the protests against racial discrimination are also acts of civil disobedience. In comparing the protests against racial bias to the tea party Dr. King also shows that this type of protesting is not new to the country. He is saying that if white Americans can gain their independence from the British through civil disobedience then the African Americans can as well (King 168). King also uses many figures of speech in his letter to make his points easier to understand and relate to for the clergymen. In Dr. Kingrs letter he writes: Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion, before it can be cured. (King 169) In this he uses a simile to compare injustice to a boil. He also uses two metaphors to compare human conscience to light and national opinion to air. He uses this as a way of saying that the injustice of persecution towards African Americans is being covered up by the white supremacy, but that the problem will never go away until the truth is unveiled to the public (King 169). He also uses a simile and a metaphor to compare the political movements of Africa, Asia, and the U.S. to vastly different modes of transportation. King states, The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter (King 169). His use of comparison emphasizes the incredulity he has toward the American society. He also uses the large difference between these comparisons to show just how little the white male population is willing to accept the inevitable change, despite the rest of the worldrs societal changes (King 169). Dr. King uses many different literary devices in Letter from Birmingham Jail to deliver his message to local white clergymen about his stance on racial bias and segregation laws. He does this by using biblical allusions, historical allusions, and figures of speech. A couple of the biblical allusions he makes are about the three men crucified on Calvaryrs hill and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He knows his message will be stronger to the religious men if he compares the str uggles that the African Americans are facing to the struggles of biblical figures. He also uses many historical allusions, such as Adolf Hitler, the Hungarian freedom fighters, and the Boston Tea Party, to show that the protests against segregation are a natural occurrence in order for the American society to advance. Dr. King also uses many different figures of speech to make his points relatable for the white clergymen. He does this using a combination of metaphors and similes. Martin Luther King Jr. expresses his message against racial discrimination very well by using literary devices to strengthen his argument.

Is Google Making Us Stupid - 961 Words

With the rapid development of technology, more and more people get used to reading through computers rather than printed books. While acknowledging the convenience provided by the Internet, Nicholas Carr concerns that â€Å"as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence† (328) in his article Is Google Making Us Stupid? Published in the 2008 issue of the Atlantic. However, there exist some weaknesses in the argument due to his overstated pathos, inappropriate examples, and faulty logics, which to some extent hurt his persuasiveness. At the beginning of the passage, the writer tries to deliver his worries about the Internet’s harm on human minds, but ultimately fails to resonate with the audience because of the improper use of words. He describes the impact of the computer as â€Å"shaping the process of thought† (315) and â€Å"chipping away a person’s capacity for concentration and contemplation† (315). The words â€Å"shape† and â€Å"chipping away† strongly imply that the computer seems to become a threat, distracting people’s attentions and hindering them from contemplating. He attempts to evoke the same fear from the audience, which in fact works in the opposite way. Based on readers’ previous experience, they could doubt whether computers are indeed as powerful as the author presents or the author just overstates the damage of using the Internet. Even though we like to search and read theShow MoreRelatedIs Google Making Us Stupid?1240 Words   |  5 Pagesone idea to be represented in many different ways. Both Nicholas Carr’s article â€Å"Is Google Making Us Stupid?† and M.T Anderson’s novel Feed, the broad idea of the relationship between humans and technology is portrayed. Carr’s article complains of how technology changes the way we think. Carr instigates the idea that we are losing our passion for learning as a result of the internet and search engines such as Google. These advancements, Carr proposes, lead to a world where our intelligence â€Å"flattensRead MoreIs Google Making Us Stupid1140 Words   |  5 PagesIs Google Making Us Stupid In the Atlantic Magazine, Nicholas Carr wrote an article, â€Å"Is Google Making Us Stupid?† Carr poses a good question about how the internet has affected our brain, by remapping the neural circuitry and reprogramming our memory. Carr states, â€Å"My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell-but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the say way I used to think.† Carr went on farther, saying that he cannot read as long as he used to, his concentration starts to wonder after two or threeRead MoreIs Google Making Us Stupid?920 Words   |  4 Pagesa different perspective than that of Manuel Castells. In â€Å"Is Google Making Us Stupid?† Carr believes the Internet has taken the foundation out of learning, socializing and reading. Coupled with Manuel Castells, Nicholas Carr agrees that the Internet has been of good use in some cases (Wikipedia for the many hours of research conducted for its database that we access) but he also believes the Internet is slowly making him and us stupid. Carr says â€Å"My mind now expects to take in information the wayRead MoreIs Google Making Us Stupid?1548 Words   |  7 Pagesindependent will and creative imagination. These gives us the ultimate human freedom†¦. The power to choose, to respond, to change (Independence Quotes. Brainy Quote. Xplore. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.).† The Declaration of In dependence allows people to do whatever they please as long as it’s within the law, but Google is restraining what people can really do. It may not seem that a search engine can limit people, but one needs to think about the many things Google consists of that doesn’t allow people to chooseRead MoreIs Google Making Us Stupid?1048 Words   |  4 Pagesï » ¿Is Google making us stupid? Three authors weigh in One of the most common clichÃÆ' ©s is that the Internet has robbed us of our attention spans and impeded our ability to communicate effectively. Once we could write properly, now we only text. Google has made us lazy in terms of how we research and access data. However, is this true? In three major news publications, three major essayists have grappled with this question and come to completely different conclusions. Although the neurological evidenceRead MoreIs Google Making Us Stupid?879 Words   |  4 PagesAmerican writer, Nicholas G. Carr, in The Atlantic July/ August 2008 Issue titled â€Å"Is Google Making Us Stupid?† argues that the amount of time we spend online, especially google, has caused us to lose our minds by â€Å"tinkering† with our brains, â€Å"reprograming our memory,† and changing the way in which we process information. Carr’s purpose is to contribute to the idea that â€Å"Google† along with other online tools, is programi ng us to be less attentive and to the inhibition of our critical thinking skills. GuidedRead More`` Is Google Making Us Stupid?1384 Words   |  6 Pagestechnology is changing the way we access information; anything is accessible in mere seconds. This implementation has resulted in the most aware society of all time. Most information is just a quick and simple Google search away. An article, written by Nicholas Carr â€Å"Is Google Making Us Stupid? â€Å" in a 2008 issue for The Atlantic magazine, questioned the negative cognitive effects of the world wide web. Carr recognizes how much we rely on the internet and believes that humanity needs reform. AccordingRead MoreIs Google Making Us Stupid?1040 Words   |  5 Pagesquestion â€Å"Is Google Making Us Stupid?† This has set off a debate on the effects the internet is having on our brains. Obviously the internet is here to stay, but is it making us scatterbrained? Are we losing the ability to think deeply? Criticism of t he Web most often questions whether we are becoming more superficial and scattered in our thinking. In the July-August 2008 Atlantic magazine, Nicholas Carr published Is Google Making Us Stupid? (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google). Like otherRead More`` Is Google Making Us Stupid?1505 Words   |  7 Pagescritically inspect both the positive and negative effects technology can have on development and cognition and all assert that technology is not as daunting as some make it out to be. However, some opinion based pieces such as Nicholas Carr’s â€Å"Is Google Making Us Stupid?† conclude that we should be apprehensive about technology advancing. The differences in outlook towards digital technology s future effect on the mind can best be seen in how authors view technology as a source of distraction, hypertextRead MoreIs Google Making Us Stupid?733 Words   |  3 Pages Nicholas Carrs article, â€Å"Is Google Making Us Stupid?† makes points that I agree with, although I find his sources to be questionable. The article discusses the effects that the Internet may be having on our ability to focus, the difference in knowledge that we now have, and our reliance on the Internet. The points that are made throughout Carrs article are very thought provoking but his sources make them seem invaluable. Carr discusses the effects that the Internet has on our minds and the way

Four Steps to Forecast Total Market Demand free essay sample

Such forecasts are crucial since companies must begin building new generating plants five to ten years before they are to come on line. But during the 1975–1985 period, load actually grew at only a 2% rate. Despite the postponement or cancellation of many projects, the excess generating capacity has hurt the industry financial situation and led to higher customer rates. ? The petroleum industry invested $500 billion worldwide in 1980 and 1981 because it expected oil prices to rise 50% by 1985. The estimate was based on forecasts that the market would grow from 52 million barrels of oil a day in 1979 to 60 million barrels in 1985. Instead, demand had fallen to 46 million barrels by 1985. Prices collapsed, creating huge losses in drilling, production, refining, and shipping investments. Bill Barnett is a principal in the Atlanta office of McKinsey Company. He is a leader of the firm’s Microeconomics Center, and his client work has focused on business unit and corporate strategy. We will write a custom essay sample on Four Steps to Forecast Total Market Demand or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page ? In 1983 and 1984, 67 new types of business personal computers were introduced to the U. S. market, and most companies were expecting explosive growth. One industry forecasting service projected an installed base of 27 million units by 1988; another predicted 28 million units by 1987. In fact, only 15 million units had been shipped by 1986. By then, many manufacturers had abandoned the PC market or gone out of business altogether. The inaccurate suppositions did not stem from a lack of forecasting techniques; regression analysis, historical trend smoothing, and others were available to all the players. Instead, they shared a mistaken fundamental assumption: that relationships driving demand in the past would continue unaltered. The companies didn’t foresee changes in end-user behavior or understand their market’s saturation point. None realized that history can be an unreliable guide as domestic economies become more international, new technologies emerge, and industries evolve. As a result of changes like these, many managers have come to distrust traditional techniques. Some even throw up their hands and assume that business planning must proceed without good demand forecasts. I disagree. It is possible to develop valuable insights into future market conditions and demand levels based on a deep understanding of the forces behind total-market demand. These insights can Copyright 1988 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. sometimes make the difference between a winning strategy and one that flounders. A forecast of total-market demand won’t guarantee a successful strategy. But without it, decisions on investment, marketing support, and other resource allocations will be based on hidden, unconscious assumptions about industrywide requirements, and they’ll often be wrong. By gauging total-market demand explicitly, you have a better chance of controlling your company’s destiny. Merely going through the process has merit for a management team. Instead of just coming out with pat answers, numbers, and targets, the team is forced to rethink the competitive environment. Total-market forecasting is only the first stage in creating a strategy. When you’ve finished your forecast, you’re not done with the planning process by any means. There are four steps in any total-market forecast: 1. Define the market. 2. Divide total industry demand into its main components. 3. Forecast the drivers of demand in each segment and project how they are likely to change. . Conduct sensitivity analyses to understand the most critical assumptions and to gauge risks to the baseline forecast. Defining the Market At the outset, it’s best to be overly inclusive in defining the total market. Define it broadly enough to include all potential end users so that you can both identify the appropriate drivers of demand and reduce the risk of surprise product substitutions. The factors that drive forecasts of total-market size differ markedly from those that determine a particular product’s market share or product-category share. For example, total-market demand for office telecommunications products nationally depends in part on the number of people in offices and their needs and habits, while total demand for PBX systems depends on how they compare on price and benefits with substitute products like the local telephone company’s central office switching service. Beyond this, demand for a particular PBX is a function of price and benefit comparisons with other PBXs. In defining the market, an understanding of product substitution is critical. Customers might behave differently if the price or performance of potential substitute products changes. One company studying total demand for industrial paper tubes had to consider closely related uses of metal and plastic tubes 4 to prevent customer switching among tubes from biasing the results. Understand, too, that a completely new product could displace one that hitherto had comprised the entire market—like the electronic calculator, which eliminated the slide rule. For a while after ATT’s divestiture, the Bell telephone companies continued to forecast volume of long-distance calls by using historical trend lines of their revenues—as if they were still part of a monopoly. Naturally, these forecasts grew more inaccurate with time as end users were presented with new choices. The companies are now broadening their market definitions to take account of heightened competition from other longdistance carriers. There are several ways you can make sure you include all important substitute products (both current and potential). From interviews with industrial customers you can learn about substitutes they are studying or about product usage patterns that imply future switching opportunities. Moreover, market research can lead to insights about consumer products. Speaking with experts in the relevant technologies or reviewing technological literature can help you identify potential developments that could threaten your industry. Finally, careful quantification of the economic value of alternative products to different customers can yield deep insights into potential switching behavior—for example, how oil price movements would affect plastics prices, which in turn would affect plastic products’ ability to substitute for metal or paper. Analyses like these can lead to the construction of industry demand curves—graphs representing the relationship between price and volume. With an appropriate definition, the total-industry demand curves will often be steeper than demand curves for individual products in the industry. Consumers, for example, are far more likely to switch from Maxwell House to Folgers coffee if Maxwell House’s prices increase than they are to stop buying coffee if all coffee prices rise. In some cases, managers can make quick judgments about market definition. In other cases, they’ll have to give their market considerable thought and analysis. A total-market forecast may not be critical to business strategy if market definition is very difficult or the products under study have small market shares. Instead, your principal challenge may be to understand product substitution and competitiveness. One company analyzed the potential market for new consumer food cans, and it concluded that growth trends in food product markets were not critical to the strategy question. What was critical was knowing the value positions of the new packagesJuly–August 1988 elative to metal cans, glass jars, and composite cans. So the company spent time on that subject. Dividing Demand into Component Parts The second step in forecasting is to divide total demand into its main components for separate analysis. There are two criteria to keep in mind when choosing segments: make each category small and homogeneous enough so that the drivers of demand will apply consistently across its various elements; make each large enough so that the analysis will be worth the effort. Of course, this is a matter of judgment. You may find it useful in aking this judgment to imagine alternative segmentations (based on enduse customer groups, for example, or type of purchase). Then hypothesize their key drivers of demand (discussed later) and decide how much detail is required to capture the true situation. As the assessment continues, managers can return to this stage and reexamine whether the initial decisions still stand up. Managers may wish to use a ‘‘tree’’ diagram like the accompanying one constructed by a management team in 1985 to study demand for paper. In this disguised example, industry data permitted the division of demand into 12 end-use categories. Some categories, like business forms and reprographic paper, were big contributors to total consumption; others, such as labels, were not. One (other converting) was fairly large but too diverse for deep analysis. The team focused on the four segments that accounted for 80% of 1985 demand. It then developed secondary branches of the tree to further dissect these categories and to determine their drivers of demand. It analyzed the remaining segments less completely (that is, via a regression against broad macroeconomic trends). Other companies have used similar methods to segment total demand. One company divided demand for maritime satellite terminals by type of ship (e. g. , seismic ships, bulk/cargo/container ships). Another divided demand for long-distance telephone service into business and residential customers and then subdivided it by usage level. And a third segmented consumer appliances into three purchase types—appliances used in new home construction, replacement appliance sales in existing homes, and appliance penetration in existing homes. In thinking about market divisions, managers need to decide whether to use existing data on segment sizes or to commission research to get an independent estimate. Reliable public information on historHARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW July–August 1988 ical demand levels by segment is available for many big U. S. industries (like steel, automobiles, and natural gas) from industry associations, the federal government, off-the-shelf studies by industry experts, or ongoing market data services. For some foreign markets and less well-researched industries in the United States, like the labels industry, you may have to get independent estimates. Even with good data sources, however, the readily available information may not be divided into the best categories to support an insightful analysis. In these cases, managers must decide whether to develop their forecasts based on the available historical data or to undertake their own market research programs, which can be timeconsuming and expensive. Note that while such segmentation is sufficient for forecasting total demand, it may not create categories useful for developing a marketing strategy. A single product may be driven by entirely different factors. One study of industrial components found that consumer industry categories provided a good basis for projecting total-market demand but gave only limited help in formulating a strategy based on customer preferences: distinguishing those who buy on price from those who buy on service, product quality, or other benefits. Such buying-factor categories generally do not correlate with the customer industry categories used for forecasting. A strong sales force, however, can identify customer preferences and develop appropriate account tactics for each one. Forecasting the Drivers of Demand The third step is to understand and forecast the drivers of demand in each category. Here you can make good use of regressions and other statistical techniques to find some causes for changes in historical demand. But this is only a start. The tougher challenge is to look beyond the data on which regressions can easily be based to other factors where data are much harder to find. Then you need to develop a point of view on how those other factors may themselves change in the future. An end-use analysis from the commodity paper example, reprographic paper, is shown in the accompanying chart. The management team, using available data, divided reprographic paper into two categories: plain-paper copier paper and nonimpact page printer paper. Without this important differentiation, the drivers of demand would have been masked, making it hard to forecast effectively. In most cases, managers can safely assume that demand is affected both by macroeconomic vari5 Components of Uncoated White Paper Making Up Total Demand (thousands of tons) End-Use Category Business Forms Commercial Printing Reprographics Envelopes Other Converting Total Demand Stationery and Tablet Books Directories Catalogs Magazines Inserts Labels Reviewed in Depth Percent of Total 1985 Demand 25% 25 20 10 5 5 5 1 or less ables and by industry-specific developments. In looking at plain-paper copier paper, the team used simple and multiple regression analyses to test relationships with macroeconomic factors like white-collar workers, population, and economic performance. Most of the factors had a significant effect on demand. Intuitively, it also made sense to the team that the level of business activity would relate to paper consumption levels. Economists sometimes refer to growth in demand due to factors like these as an ‘‘outward shift’’ in the demand curve—toward a greater quantity demanded at a given price. ) Demand growth for copy paper, however, had exceeded the real rate of economic growth and the challenge was to find what other factors had been causing this. The team hypothesized that declining copy costs had caused this increased usage. The relationship was proved by estimating the substantial cost reductions that had occurred, combining those with numbers of tons produced over time, and then fashioning an indicative demand curve for copy paper. See the chart ‘‘Understanding Copy Paper Demand Drivers. ’’) The clear relationship between cost and volume meant that cost reductions had been an important cause of past demand growth. (Economists sometimes describe this as a downward-shifting supply curve leading to movement down the demand curve. ) Further major declines in cost per copy seemed unlikely because paper costs were expected to remain flat, and the data indicated little increase in 6 price elasticity, even if cost per copy fell further. So the team concluded that usage growth (per level of economic performance) was likely to continue the flattening trend begun in 1983: growth in copy paper consumption would be largely a function of economic growth, not cost declines as in the past. The team then reviewed several econometric services forecasts to develop a base case economic forecast. Similar studies have been performed in other industries. A simple one was the industrial components analysis mentioned before, a case where the total forecast was used as background but was not critical to the company’s strategy decision. Here the team divided demand into its consuming industries and then asked experts in each industry for production forecasts. Total demand for components was projected on the assumption that it would move parallel to a weight-averaged forecast of these customer industries. Actual demand three years later was 2% above the team’s prediction, probably because the industry experts underestimated the impact of the economic recovery of 1984 and 1985. In another example, a team forecasting demand for maritime satellite terminals extrapolated past penetration curves for each of five categories of ships.