The Significance of the First Amendment - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1319 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2019/04/26 Category Law Essay Level High school Tags: First Amendment Essay Did you like this example? The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the freedoms of religion, speech, press, petition, and assembly.1 Most Americans agree that these freedoms are important, but every American should also consider why this amendment is important and whom this amendment protects. For instance, does freedom of religion protect individuals, religious groups, or non-religious people, and why is it important that people can freely worship? For that matter, does this part of the Constitution prohibit the government from ever interacting with religion? The freedoms of religion, press, assembly, petition, and speech established by the First Amendment protect different people, and although these freedoms are vital to the American law system, their extent has been debated and sometimes reinterpreted throughout the years. First, freedom of religion keeps the government from forcing beliefs on religious and secular groups alike, but the supposed wall of separation between church a nd state often associated with this freedom is much more complicated than many people think.2 The First Amendment states that the American government is not allowed to establish an official American church or keep people from following a certain religion. This protects religious groups from governmental oppression and allows people the choice not to associate with any religion. However, this part of the First Amendment is much less straightforward than it seems. In the 1962 Engle v. Vitale case, official school prayers were deemed unconstitutional, but in 1996, the Court ruled in favor of an after-school religious group that wanted to gather in a public school. In Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972), Amish people were permitted to break state laws by skipping high school for religious reasons, but in Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith (1990), Native Americans were not permitted to break the law by using drugs in their ceremonies.3 With so many seeming contra dictions in these cases, how are Americans to know which religious behaviors will be supported by the government and which will not? This question remains unanswered by the Supreme Court. Second, freedom of the press allows the media to publish works opposing injustice without fear of government punishment. Even when the Constitution was written, newspapers were an important source of information, and today, the media are more prevalent in American politics and culture than ever before. The First Amendment ensures that publishers, reporters, news sites, and other media sources cannot be punished for stances that oppose government actions and decisions. This allows news companies and other forms of media to freely inform the public, speaking out against any unconstitutional or wrong behavior. Again, though, this freedom is open to some interpretation. Media sources can be sued for harmful, false statements such as slander and libel. However, in the 1964 case New York Times Company v. Sullivan, the Court stated that when making statements about public figures and institutions, news sources can make false statements or conjectures if unaware of the statements falsity.4 This decision attempts to balance the freedom of the press with the rights of public figures and companies. However, with the increasing amount of subjective, unproved accusations and opinions clouding the modern media, the question should be asked: Does the presss right to freedom outweigh the importance of the truth? Third, freedom of assembly protects oppressed groups and protesters who want to stand against injustice, in addition to any other groups that gather together. Essentially, this freedom means that as long as a group activity, meeting, or other assembly is not breaking the law, the government cannot intervene in the groups activities. Much like freedom of the press, freedom of assembly keeps those who stand against government injustice from punishment. This freedom is also simila r to freedom of religion, because both protect religious people from government interference in their services and meetings. Peaceful congregations with others are critical to spreading religious, political, and cultural ideas and movements, and the First Amendment ensures that the government cannot hinder people from participating in these assemblies. The civil rights movement and the suffrage movement both owe much of their success to the right of assembly; without this freedom, the government could have easily shut down these movements before they gained momentum.5 Though most government rulings on this freedom have been reasonable, there is one ruling that could be used to justify undue government interference in assemblies. In Cox v. New Hampshire (1941), the Supreme Court ruled that the government can institute time, place, and manner restrictions on large assemblies.6 If applied in a certain context, this case could be used to argue that limiting freedom of assembly is permis sible. Fourth, the freedom to petition the government protects anyone who asks the government to fix a problem, right a wrong, or address an injustice. Unlike most other First Amendment freedoms, freedom to petition allows people to take their complaints, perspectives, and issues directly to the government. This freedom makes it very difficult for the government to ignore the peoples pleas; it forces the government to listen to the people it represents and consider the problems they see in society. A case as recent as 2010 dealt with the complexities of this freedom. In Doe #1 v. Reed, the Court decided that releasing the names of petition signers to the public is constitutional, even when the petition signers are uncomfortable with this release. Many, including dissenting Justice Clarence Thomas, believe that releasing such information violates the First Amendment and could lead to harm or harassment for petition signers.7 Finally, freedom of speech is perhaps the most impor tant of these freedoms, because it protects all people in America. The freedoms of press, religion, assembly, and petition all protect certain groups, but freedom of speech protects all Americans, no matter which groups they are or are not part of. This freedom is especially important today. As communication via the internet and technology becomes increasingly common, Americans need the assurance that the government will not prevent people from sending messages, making posts, or otherwise making statements on political or religious opinions. Freedom of speech is vital to the other freedoms granted in the First Amendment: It allows people to speak about religion, to speak or write for the press, to speak out in rallies and gatherings, and to speak to the government via petitions. This freedom also goes beyond the other freedoms, allowing anyone, anywhere in America, to speak. Like all other First Amendment freedoms, this freedom also has led to some debate. Perhaps the most shocking case involving freedom of speech is Brandenburg v. Ohio, a 1969 case in which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Ku Klux Klan members right to free speech.8 This decision, especially when viewed from a modern perspective, leads to some very serious questions about whether everyone should be allowed free speech. In conclusion, the First Amendment freedoms of religion, press, assembly, petition, and speech protect American people and various groups, but are the center of many debates and questionable court rulings. Freedom of religion protects religious and non-religious people alike from government discrimination, but unpredictable exceptions given to certain religious groups by the government are problematic. Freedom of the press allows members of the media to write and speak freely, but this can come at the cost of objectivity in journalism. Freedom of assembly allows groups to peacefully gather without government interference, but the Cox v. New Hampshire ruling could threa ten this freedom. While the freedom to petition allows people to address government officials directly, the release of petition signers names makes many uncomfortable. Finally, freedom of speech allows all Americans to speak their opinions and beliefs, even though this is not always a good thing. All in all, the freedoms granted by the First Amendment are some of the most important freedoms granted to the people of the United States, which is why it is so important that the government address the problems with these rights, clarify the laws regarding them, and take care when interpreting this amendment in the future. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Significance of the First Amendment" essay for you Create order

Essay on The Awakening - 751 Words

The Awakening Analytical Essay THE AWAKENING Throughout Kate Chopin’s, The Awakening, numerous scenes of birth and renewal are depicted. Various symbols placed throughout the book show Edna Pontellier’s awakenings. For instance, many references are made to oceans and water. It is in the water that Edna has her first rebirth, but it is also the place where she chooses to die. Water symbolizes life, which is the reason that Edna’s renewal takes place there, but it also symbolizes darkness and death. Birds, which are featured frequently in the story, symbolize Edna, and in many cases they foreshadow what’s to become of her, or they show her renewal of life. The imagery of birds throughout the book is used to symbolize freedom, which is†¦show more content†¦Birds are also major symbolic images in the story. Flight, which is associated with birds, acts as a stand-in for awakening. The ability to spread your wings and fly is a symbolic theme that occurs often in the novel. Mademoiselle Reisz tells Edna quot;the bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings† (138). She uses birds to forecast Ednas future and evaluate Ednas strength. In order to soar like a bird, Edna must be strong, but Mademoiselle Reisz realizes that Edna is weak. Reisz says, quot;it is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earthquot; (138). Mademoiselle Reisz understands that Edna is not like herself and cannot fight society. Later, when Edna realizes the hopelessness of her situation, birds, once again, symbolically foreshadow her fate. Upon reaching the beach on her final walk, Edna looks around and sees: quot;A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the waterquot; (189). This bird is the final omen that reflects Mademoiselle Reiszs words: quot;it is sad to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earthqu ot; (138). The bird, disabled and weakened because of its broken wing, falls back to earth and suffers defeat. Edna soon does the same when she kills herself because she does not have quot;theShow MoreRelatedThe Awakening on Kate Chopins The Awakening1745 Words   |  7 Pages The time period of the 1880s that Kate Chopin lived in influenced her to write The Awakening, a very controversial book because of many new depictions of women introduced in the book. The Awakening is a book about a woman, Edna Pontellier. In the beginning, she is a happy woman with her husband and 2 kids vacationing at Grand Isle. While there, Edna realizes she is in love with Robert Lebrun and that she was just forced into an unloving/dissatisfying marriage with Mr. Pontellier. Robert howeverRead MoreDemoralization In The Awakening1584 Words   |  7 Pagesthem and cause them to lose hope. Kate Chopin uses words like â€Å"depressed† (56), â€Å"hopeless† (56) and â€Å"despondency† (p115) to describe Edna, the heroine, in The Awakening. Coupling this description with Edna taking her life at the end of the novel and Chopin’s own inferred demoralization, due to the almost universal aversion to The Awakening, the natural conclusion is that it is a work of â€Å"great personal demoralization†, (Companion 5) as Michael Levenson states. Levenson suggests most modernist authorsRead MoreFeminism In The Awakening1562 Words   |  7 Pagesprivileges as each other. Basic human rights would give others the notion that this is how all humans should have been treated from the beginning. However, this is far from the truth. Books like The Awakening, give us an inside look at how women were treated around 100 years ago. When Kate Chopin wrote The Awakening, she created a blueprint for how we see modern feminism. Without being obvious, Chopin showed how one woman started to liberate herself from an oppressive society. During the 1800s when the bookRead MoreEssay on The Awakening1610 Words   |  7 Pages In their analytical papers on The Awakening by Kate Chopin, both Elaine Showalter and Elizabeth Le Blanc speak to the importance of homosocial relationship to Edna’s awakenings. They also share the viewpoint that Edna’s return to the sea in the final scene of the book represents Edna being one with her female lover and finding the fulfillment she has been seeking. We see evidence of this idea of the sea as a feminine from Showalter when she tells us that â€Å"As the female body is prone to wetness,Read MoreSymbolism In The Awakening1420 Words   |  6 PagesAnalyzing Chopin’s use of symbolism in â€Å"The Awakening† What would one expect to be the personality of a woman, who was raised in a family of no man dominance in the year of 1800? Kate Chopin was born in Missouri, in 1850 and was one of the five children. At very young age, Kate lost her both sisters and her brother. At age of five, Kate was sent to a Catholic school. Not long after leaving her home, Chopin loses her father. Kate is being sent home from school to live with her mother, grandmotherRead More Essay on The Awakening712 Words   |  3 PagesCritical Views of The Awakening      Ã‚  Ã‚   The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, is full of ideas and understanding about human nature. In Chopins time, writing a story with such great attention to sensual details in both men and women caused skepticism among readers and critics. However, many critics have different views with deeper thought given to The Awakening. Symbolism, the interpretation of Ednas suicide, and awakenings play important roles in the analysis of all critics.    SymbolismRead More The Awakening Essay1091 Words   |  5 Pagesthe fact that an author is able to convey his/her message clearer and include things in the book that cannot be exhibited in a movie. For this reason, the reader of the book is much more effected than the viewer of the film. In the novella, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, there is much more evidence of symbolism as well as deeper meaning than in the movie version of the book, Grand Isle. Chopin conveys her symbolic messages through the main character’s newly acquired ability to swim, through the birdsRead More The Awakening Essay2046 Words   |  9 Pages The Awakening is a story full of symbolism and imagery that can have many different meanings to the many who have read it. I have read several different theories on Kate Chopin’s meaning and though some are vastly different, they all seem to make sense. It has been said that Kate Chopin might have been ambiguous just for this reason. At some point, almost everyone struggles with knowing or not knowing their purpose in life, and therefore it seems, that on some level, most who read the story aboutRead More Essay on The Awakening733 Words   |  3 PagesCriticism of The Awakening      Ã‚   Reading through all of the different criticism of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening has brought about ideas and revelations that I had never considered during my initial reading of the novel.   When I first read the text, I viewed it as a great work of art to be revered.   However, as I read through all of the passages, I began to examine Chopin’s work more critically and to see the weaknesses and strengths of her novel.   Reading through others interpretations of herRead MoreThe movie Awakenings4852 Words   |  20 PagesMeagan McGee Psychology 1300 Awakenings The movie Awakenings starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro portrays the true story of a doctor named Dr. Malcolm Sayer, and the events of the summer of 1969 at a psychiatric hospital in New York. Dr. Malcolm Sayer, who is a research physician, is confronted with a number of patients who had each been afflicted with a devastating disease called Encephalitis Lethargica. The illness killed most of the people who contracted it, but some were left living

Consumption and Production of Culture Free Essays

string(96) " as long as it stays in fashion, which is until the next new thing, which happens all the time\." Introduction The centre for Contemporary cultural studies (CCCS) has been criticised heavily about how it talks about youth subcultures. I will show how youth subcultures have been perceived by theorists and then show why it has been criticised through those theorists. Each subculture joined together form the whole community and brings their individual uniqueness into it. We will write a custom essay sample on Consumption and Production of Culture or any similar topic only for you Order Now A person’s subculture is also known as their parent subculture, which is the culture they belong to through what style they associate with. Cohen suggests that working class youth subcultures, â€Å"live out a kind of symbolic or magical occupation†¦their parents had once called their own†. He also puts the idea across that the subculture a youth is in is a â€Å"compromise†. Each subculture is the making of what youth’s parents subcultures were. They take two other subcultures for example â€Å"mods† and â€Å"rockers† and a new subculture can be formed. As this new subculture would take the same beliefs and interests as the other two so the youth could still be associated from that of the origins of what their parent’s subcultures were. The dominant culture is the general consensus, in which most people within a community accept the subculture and adopt the norms and values within. All these ideas are taken from Gelder, 2005. Subcultures can be taken as a form of resistance as some can be used as an act of rebellion. I believe that some youths want to act and dress differently to what their parents want them to do, so they do the complete opposite. A subculture can eventually be incorporated into mainstream, everyday life once it is known and accepted by the dominant culture and is then taken into everyday life. â€Å" Eventually, the mods, the punks, the glitter rockers can be incorporated, brought back into line, located on the preferred ‘map of problematic social reality’ ( Geertz 1964) at the point where boys in lipstick are ‘just kids dressing up’, where girls in rubber dresses are ‘daughters just like yours’† (Hebdige). This shows that even though when it starts out, it might be seen as not part of the norm, but it can eventually be incorporated into the norm and is eventually accepted by the society. Hebdige (1988) ideas are along the same line as Marxists ideas. They have the ideas that each subculture takes an item or object and can change the meaning of it, by how they make it look. He looks at the meaning of the styles each subculture wears. To find out the meaning of the British youth subcultures before the war he used semiotics to understand them. The meanings of the signs were interpreted using this method. Each word or object within a culture has a specific meaning in it. Hebdige was able to know what each object meant to each individual group of people. Hebdige believes a subculture in two forms can take a process of recuperation. One being that of the signs in which are involved in the subculture and making them into objects which are mass produced and can help make the subculture more popular. Also there is the ideological form which any deviant behaviour is labelled and redefined by the dominant groups. Within a subculture Hebdige believes there must be two questions asked, which must be answered once the meaning of style is known better. One being â€Å"how does a subculture make sense of its members?† and the next being â€Å"how is it made to signify disorder?† Both of these questions are answered to show how a subculture can be communicated between its self and the media. Material goods can be important to certain groups as they are symbolic to their own subcultures. They have specific meanings for different items and they are sentimental for them. Within a subculture it is not just the material goods associated with it that make it, it is also the language that specific group uses. Between some subcultures there can be different languages emerging between them. Also different words can mean different things for each subculture. When subcultures merge together whatever the meanings of their symbols merge together and create new meanings and build on what was there before. Different subcultures can be over emphasised by the media. The media can expose them and bring them into the public eye more. They can bring across the idea on what a subculture is; can speak about them positively or negatively. They can influence everyone else in the community just by what they think. The media though mostly always tend to bring things across negatively, which I think is shocking as I believe everyone has a right to what they think is right. Some subcultures are not always put across as friendly groups. Some are put across negatively and that is the only side that is shown of them. Soccer hooligans are put across as being bad and sometimes associated with being animals. I think these sorts of groups do one thing bad and they always get seen negatively. No one ever looks for the positives within them. Tony Jefferson (1976) also looked into the area of youth subculture. He mainly looks into Teddy boys or Teds, which were associated with attempting to recreate the working class community. They joined together to fight for their own territory and built a sense of loyalty between each other. Jefferson viewed what was happening as a sense of them buying their own status. They started wearing items which were worn by classes higher up, in the hope that with them now wearing them, they get seen as a higher status. From this it looks like they could not accept who they had become due to their area being under threat and felt they had to do whatever they could to buy their status back. This all happened because their own territory had become under threat from urban planners. Each subculture tends to be very short lived and will only be around for as long as it stays in fashion, which is until the next new thing, which happens all the time. You read "Consumption and Production of Culture" in category "Essay examples" So in terms of political potential, it is very low as they do not stick around long enough to make a big enough impact to get power generated. Though a subculture’s profile is easily lifted by the help of the media, this helps get a particular culture started and make a name for them. Particularly in the 50s, the time of punks, rockers, the high profile subcultures, the Government tried to get subcultures thrown away, by strongly saying the trade unions would be taken away. Instead they wanted the nuclear family promoted and did not want anyone having their own uniqueness. The problem with each subculture is that production companies have to cater for each individual style. They produce whatever is in fashion and change it whenever the subculture changes. Each subculture is always changing and building on what it already has. Some subcultures even end up merging to form a new culture, which again has its own uniqueness about it. As said before, the CCCS is criticised, one is that they tend to go towards ‘rigidly vertical models’ (Stahl 2004). They often don’t take into account factors like age, race and gender. Also class universally is used singularly to explain the youth subcultures. Hebdige does use working class to mainly describe the subcultures in his reports. He also uses the influences of race to observe how some British subcultures, such as punks, have emerged over the years. Another area which is criticised is that of the fact in which the male writers work, such as Willis and Hebdige, are invisible of girls. Angela McRobbie has written about the fact they ignore females in their explanation of youth subcultures. The male writer’s always focus mainly on the males within a subculture. The females just get ignored and don’t have any influence on the rising of how they see a subculture. Angela McRobbie and Jenny Garber focus on female youths within a subculture. They focus on females because all the other theorists just focus on the male population. From that though you cannot get a full representation of what a subculture is, as it does not look at the whole population. McRobbie looks at the reasons why they do not look at females. That they might be viewed as separate and not be seen as much. They might have a subculture which is not seen by the community and the media. Although both of them did think that girls did play less of a part in a subculture, but believed this was down to the fact that during this time it was mainly male dominance and the girls did not have a big role at this time. They believe that structurally those young girls are different to young boys. That is why they believe that hidden somewhere is subcultures for those females. I believe that the male subcultures were just highlighted as it was male theorists conducting it and they mainly looke d between the male dominance sides. There were probably female subcultures just as big, but they were not as influential or highlighted by the media as much. The media did not pick them up. This is a big downfall in the area of subcultures, as it does not show the big picture. The theories that are put across from the CCCS and Hebdige are not always on the same levels as Marxists. They tend not to agree with them and disregard them. They believe they don’t take into account of how important the economic base is and the fact it shapes our culture. Another problem with Hebdige’s work was there was no evidence that suggests that what he puts forward is actually how the people within those subcultures interpret it themselves. He doesn’t have any research which backs up his idea, which means it’s only what he believes. The people within those subcultures could interpret those objects completely differently. He didn’t talk to the members within to get their views; he could have conducted an interview. This though shows that his view lacks validity and other sociologists could respond to it as being subjective. Andy Bennett and Keith Kahn-Harris (2004) see the CCCS as failing to show that subcultures are class based. They show that the CCCS only look at subcultures as being working class only and that there are not different classes in between. Other sociologists to Hebdige believe that the whole idea of consumerism is not built up through class, but rather the taste of different people. They believe that through people having different views on things they can see what is in style and respond accurately. This efficiently took away the boundaries between classes and brought different groups together. Throughout the CCCS there is not much highlighted about the ethics or locality within subcultures. They believed that throughout the UK a subculture was the same where ever it was, but other researchers have discovered that there are some which are just based locally. There is not a lot said about any of the youths which do not follow into a subculture. Even though these youths make up most of them they do not get talked about. The CCCS does not mention anywhere a reason for why one youth follows into a subculture, but another one does not, even though they are from the same working class background. Throughout pieces written on subcultures, there tends to be an over emphasis on resistance. They tend to talk about how each subculture is an act of resistance over something rather than being someone’s way of life and not wanting to get back at others. Some subcultures are seen as if they are resisting against something they do not want to do. They act as if they are opposing against what people believe to be the right way of life and what is seen as the norm. The CCCS intently put the idea across that each subculture is only about being the opposite to mainstream. Also suggest that there is only one type of norm and if you’re not like that then you are part of an oppositional subculture. They do not put across that there could be several mainstream as not everyone likes the same thing. They do not know what a subculture is actually about they have only put out theories. For all they know a subculture could just be about having good fun. The theorists that criticise the CCCS and Hebdige the most is the Postmodernists. They claim that class does not play a big part in subcultures, but they also say that there might not even be subcultures. They think that they do not exist as they cannot be defined very well. They do not think that youth culture can really be described through the subculture concept. Even though there is many negative, there is positives about subcultures. Subcultures are very influential on showing the differences between everyone in society. If you did not have those differences between subcultures, everyone would be the exact same, no one would have their own ideas and uniqueness about them. In society now, it is still visible that subcultures still exist. You can see different subcultures within society and everyone belongs to their own group. Subcultures are probably more visible now than before, but the difference is every subculture is accepted widely as existing, though there is some difference between subcultures. Some do not like each other and tend not to get along. As shown the CCCS has been criticised a lot. There is no firm research evidence to confirm what these theorists say. Even though there are negatives associated with the CCCS, you can see where some of the ideas about subcultures have come from and how they show how subcultures have grown and can influence culture as a whole. Though there are the positives, I agree with that of McRobbie as when all the other theorists were talking about subcultures, they should have incorporated what they were saying towards females as that would show the whole society. References Hebdige, D. 1976. Subculture: The meaning of Style. In: Haralambos and Holburn. Subculture and style. Hammersmith, Collins Education. pp 772. Hebdige, D. 1988. Subculture: The meaning of Style, Routledge, London. Hebdige, D. 1979. Subculture: The meaning of Style. In Gelder, K. Ed. The subcultures reader. 2nd ed., pp 121-131. Jefferson, T. 1976. Youth Subculture. In Haralambos and Holburn. Teddy Boys. Hammersmith, Collins Education. pp 772. McRobbie, A. And Garber, J. 1978. Gender and youth subcultures. In Haralambos and Holburn. The neglect of genderHammersmith, Collins Education. pp 774. McRobbie, A. 1977. Girls and Subcultures. [online] available from: http://www.gold.ac.uk/media-communications/staff/mcrobbie/ [accessed on: 1st May 2011] How to cite Consumption and Production of Culture, Essay examples