Race and racial inequality have played a crucial role in shaping the history of the United States of America (U.S.) since its establishment in the 1700s. People in the U.S. prefer to imagine that the establishment of the U.S. was motivated by the pursuit of freedom, originally religious liberty, social liberty, political, and economic liberties. Even though slavery was abolished, American civilization was created on cruel patterns of oppression, inequality, and dominance, which comprised of the complete denial of freedom to enslaved people from the very beginning. What has been called “one of the great puzzles of American history” is how the principles of equality and freedom could live side by side with slavery. Even now, Americans are still dealing with the repercussions of that dilemma. Therefore, without a doubt, most institutions in the United States of America, particularly America’s early prison systems, especially in the Midwest and South, were either driven more by the racial, social control measures or economic aims.
For a very long period, criminologists anticipated that the rate of imprisonment in the United States would remain relatively steady in the foreseeable future. Approximately 100 out of every 100,000 persons were imprisoned, and this percentage remained consistent until the early 1970s. When this happened, there was an immediate and significant rise in the number of people imprisoned in the United States, with imprisonment rates increasing by more than 600 percent between the mid-1960s and 2000. However, high incarceration rates in communities are associated with high crime rates and community degradation, which in turn contributes to increased inequalities. According to researchers, Black people are disproportionately affected by this cycle, both individually and collectively. It is undeniable that the current state of incarceration is not the result of chance but rather the result of policies enacted by a dominant white culture committed to the repression of others since the founding of the United States of America.
One would wonder, what factors contribute to the disproportionate imprisonment of black males in the United States? Some researchers, such as Blankenship et al. (2018), hold the war on drugs responsible. However, this was not the beginning of the relationship between race and incarceration. Previous historical research has shown that there was a large increase in the number of formerly enslaved people being imprisoned in the United States (Sykes & Bailey, 2020). The abolition of slavery coincided with an increase in the number of people incarcerated across the British Empire. In 1833, the West Indies had a jail population of roughly 1,000 prisoners, a significant increase from the previous year (Madley, 2019). By 1835, it had increased by an eightfold margin. The abolition of slavery in the United States was followed by a desire to incapacitate “problem” communities in various ways, just as it was in the British West Indies. For example, as the future governor of Mississippi’s prison put it at the time, “Emancipating black people will need a network of penitentiaries” (Soper, 2018).
For most of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, convicted people were compelled to work in the fields rather than remain behind prison walls. When the convict leasing system ended, the numbers began to rise inexorably once again. According to Soper (2018), the number of convicts increased from 42 in 1900 to more than 500 in 1910 and more than 1000 by 1920. Typically, the massive increase in Georgia prisoners throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was caused by the sweeping of young black males through the prison gates. The significant and persistent migration of African-Americans between 18 and 22 was the primary reason for the population growth.
The fact that black people are incarcerated at an alarmingly high rate in America’s criminal justice system is tragic but frequently underestimated, truth. Existing evidence has demonstrated that a significant number of black males in jail account for a significant proportion of all prisoners in the country’s prison system. For that matter, it is apparent that I would say that America’s early prison systems, especially in the American South and Midwest, were not driven more by racial, social control measures but by economic aims. In other words, measures were put in place to see many black people arrested so that they would serve jail terms that required them to work on farms.
References
Blankenship, K. M., del Rio Gonzalez, A. M., Keene, D. E., Groves, A. K., & Rosenberg, A. P. (2018). Mass incarceration, race inequality, and health: expanding concepts and assessing impacts on well-being. Social Science & Medicine, 215, 45-52.
Madley, B. (2019). California’s first mass incarceration system: Franciscan missions, California Indians, and penal servitude, 1769–1836. Pacific Historical Review, 88(1), 14-47.
Soper, S. (2018, May 22). Prison records from 1800s Georgia show mass incarceration’s racially charged beginnings. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/prison-records-from-1800s-georgia-show-mass-incarcerations-racially-charged-beginnings-96612
Sykes, B. L., & Bailey, A. K. (2020). Institutional castling: Military enlistment and mass incarceration in the United States. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 6(1), 30-54.
The Concepts Of Management Essay Example
Introduction
Over many decades, the notion of Management has evolved into a critical and distinguishing factor in today’s competitive and complex corporate environments. As a result, practical and relevant Management is essential for the long-term viability and survival of any company unit. Consequently, the management idea implies the need to engrave all aspects of a firm as its whole. As a manager, it is critical to ensure that existing resources are used effectively by defining specific goals. A manager’s engagement with the organization’s human labor force and the required physical resources while drawing on the many foundations created in the management process will achieve the intended goals and objectives in a timely and efficient manner. This article will consist of demonstrate several management foundations that are involved in managing processes, including “managing heroically, managing with and against scientific determinism, and managing with freedom and responsibility, among other things.” Because of this, comprehending the concepts and theories and having insight into the ever-changing, highly competitive business environment will result in a high degree of Management built on a foundation of applicable creativity, discovery, and innovation in the business environment.
Managing Heroic
According to the definition, a hero is a person who possesses heroic attributes or has committed a heroic deed in the view of others. Archetypal heroes do good or heroic deeds, achieve their objectives or are admired by their peers and fellow citizens. Odysseus, the Homeric epic hero, is an excellent illustration of what is meant by the term “archetypal hero.” Odysseus demonstrates his heroism by rescuing lives and conquering challenges (Williams, 2018). But there are weaknesses in his acts weaknesses may put his actions at the risk of being compromised.
This permits his group to cross through the island unscathed, but it also leads his crew to lose faith and respect in him due to the incident. His arrogance is often regarded as his most significant trait, and it negatively impacts him and his crew on their voyage. Additionally, there are instances in which he may immediately contradict his deeds with arrogance, even though his earlier efforts were noble. His confrontation with Polyphemus, a cyclops and son of Zeus, who was slaughtering his men, was a good illustration of how he handled himself. This demonstrates how his arrogance drove him and his crew to defy his expertise and guidance, eventually resulting in their deaths.
Odysseus, aided by his companions, surges forward and smashes a flaming stake into Polyphemus’ eye, temporarily blinding him and causing him to flee Williams, 2018). Other Cyclopes believe he is making a fool of himself or something wrong with the gods. “And with that threat, he let my ram to go free outdoors.”
Managing Scientifically, Deterministic
There are many different philosophical explanations for how the universe works and why particular occurrences occur in the way they do. People often make choices based on these ideas, resulting in a disagreement about whose opinion is the most accurate. As a philosophical approach to understanding how things in life are determined, determinism is one of the most prominent choices available.
The definition of determinism is a philosophy or ideology founded on the idea that one does not influence what physically occurs. Determinists believe that all acts and occurrences are shaped by a precise amount of predestined conditions, which ultimately determine what happens to the person in question. All acts have a reason, and as a result, they can all be anticipated (Şen, 2017). Determinism is employed in various domains, such as philosophy, psychology, and perhaps even behavioral treatment, to describe the way things happen.
In the sixth or seventh century B.C.E., Greek philosophers, including Heraclitus & Leucippus, developed the notion of determinism for the first time. It was subsequently examined and developed by Aristotle, who lived in the third century BC. Since its inception, deterministic interpretations and ideas have been incorporated into a wide range of other philosophical and theological traditions. These include Buddhism, Taoism, as well as other Eastern as well as Western traditions (Şen, 2017). When the “Irish philosopher William Hamilton” coined the word determinism in 1846, he referred to activities determined by a predetermined chain of causality.
When the notion and idea of determinism are presented in realistic settings, it becomes easier to comprehend them and apply them. The determinism instance that follows will demonstrate how determinists think events will unfold as follows:
A guy is traveling down the road in his automobile when a deer unexpectedly rushes out in front of him. The driver swerves to avoid hitting the deer, causing his vehicle to go off the road and into a ditch. Determinists would argue that the accident was not caused by the man swerving to avoid the deer but rather by the deer running into the road and striking him. The result was that the automobile was forced off the road to avoid hitting the deer; this is yet another instance of causality concerning determinism. On the other hand, other schools of thought would argue that it is produced by elements that are under man’s control.
Managing Freedom and Responsibility
Freedom is accompanied by a set of obligations. When journalists use their freedom of the press, they have responsibility for what they write and how it may influence individuals, organizations, and society as a whole. Freedom of expression comes with the duty to consider what is said, to whom it is addressed, and why it is expressed. And independence at work is no different: it comes with a certain amount of responsibility (Fuller, 2016). Results, performance, and added value are all the responsibility of the individual.
In recent decades, a significant amount of freedom has been gained in the workplace. Many individuals today, particularly those employed in the technology or startup industries, enjoy much greater independence at work than their parents had during the industrial revolution.
High degrees of autonomy are associated with technical, inventive, and specialized tasks, and varied organizational settings, such as startup environments, need employees who are extremely adaptable and willing to take the initiative as the situation demands.
The amount of freedom and flexibility has expanded in many conventional firms; many employees are no longer tethered to their desks or office hours to do their job, and tasks are often delegated to lower levels within the organization. Many organizations have placed self-managing teams in place, teams that operate without a manager who directs their activities (Fuller, 2016). In whatever form, there is greater freedom and flexibility in the workplace, which necessitates a review of other areas of the organization and the workplace itself.
More freedom comes with more responsibility.
Having more freedom is a wonderful thing, but it also implies that there should be more responsible. If you were to put the correlation into a model, it would look somewhat like the following:
Freedom and responsibility are inextricably linked. They are and should be connected in some way. It is impossible to provide a great deal of freedom while simultaneously increasing responsibility. If you do that, you will not get the results you are looking for.
People will be wandering, taking advantage of the situation, and underperforming, and you will be left in a state of confusion. Even if your inventive team succeeds in completing outstanding initiatives, they are unlikely to be linked to your organization’s overall objectives.
Additionally, increasing responsibility while simultaneously restricting people’s freedom doesn’t work: it will result in a great deal of stress since individuals will feel responsible for something they have no control over, leading them to become depressed (Fuller, 2016). It will be a society in which individuals feel detached from one another and negatively affect life.
It is essential to strike the appropriate balance between freedom and responsibility. Autonomy is achieved by the combination of the two.
Moreover, autonomy is required for your inventive or tech-savvy employee to develop into a high-performing team member.
Conclusion
The many concepts have highlighted important management strategies towards the achievement of the company unit by using distinct management foundations employed in the course of an efficient managing process. Managing heroically has provided the manager with a new viewpoint on how to more effectively enter the management process to combat significant environmental changes. Finally, managing with freedom and responsibility helps the manager respect people following the company’s culture, which contributes to more successful business management overall. As a result, managers must use the foundations of Management to examine both contemporary and historical knowledge and experiences to determine if they are successful or ineffective.
References
Fuller, S. (2016). Morphological freedom and the question of responsibility and representation in transhumanism. Confero: Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics, 4(2), 33-45.
Şen, Z. (2017). Innovative trend methodologies in science and engineering (pp. 1-349). New York: Springer International Publishing.
Williams, H. (2018). Polymetic heroism in the Wanderings of Odysseus, Odyssey 9-12 (the Apologue). Akroterion, 63(1), 1-20.
The Constantine Influence On Early Roman Christianity Essay Example
Early before the reign of the great Constantine, Roman Christianity was discriminating in which the Jews were supposed to pay taxes while the Christians did not. The Christians, therefore, started to suffer from sporadic persecutions for a period of 2.5 centuries when they refused to participate in the imperial cult (Schultz and Ward, 585). As a result, they were considered to have committed a treason act, which was punishable by execution. The worst and longest persecution occurred between 303 and 311, where the then Emperor ordered all the Christian homes be burned down and the Christians being tortured and starved to amuse the spectators. The senior Emperor of Tetrarchy later ended the persecution and issued a toleration edict that allowed Christians to practice their religion.
Later, during Emperor Constantine, Christianity became the religion of dominance in the Roman empire between 306 and 337 AD. His reasons to support Christianity were unknown, and nobody knew about his early Christianity (Kling, 60). It is, however, not known whether he practiced her mother’s Christianity or requested her to join him in the religion; he had adopted himself. He ruled the Roman Empire, with his main goal being gaining submission and approval from all the classes. He did this by choosing the Christian faith to spread his propaganda by trusting that the religion was the most suitable to fit the imperial cult. Christianity, therefore, expanded throughout the empire when the Great Emperor launched it as a state church of the Emperor. The Emperor influenced Christianity in many ways, some of which are discussed below.
The Milvian Bridge Battle
Constantine is one Emperor who experienced a series of dramatic battles, like the battle of the Milvian Bridge, which occurred during his tenure on the 28th October, 312. However, he won the battle and secured his claim to the Augustus title, which he had unilaterally assumed upon his father’s death (Potter, 18). Constantine had seen an image of a trophy that was cross-shaped made on the sun at noon. The medal bore an attached text that said, “by this conquer,” and was witnessed by his soldiers accompanying him during his campaign tour somewhere. He also developed another dream in the same night in which the God’s Christ came to him with the sign of trophy he had seen over the sun, and he was requested to make a similar copy of the symbol he had earlier seen in the sky, for himself (Schultz and Ward, 590). This was to protect him against attacks from the enemies. After being advised to label the holy symbol of God, Constantine embarked on battles that he never lost because he believed the symbol of cross turned sideways marked Christ on their shields. This sign was marked on Constantine’s army’s shields and resembled the letter, T. The symbol is interpreted differently by different scholars, but they do not connect it to the Milvian Bridge Battle. The war continued until Maxentius was beaten and killed, and the undisputed Emperor in the west carried out an occasional entrance to the city. When he entered the walls of Rome, he ignored and dishonored the alters of the gods, machinated on the Capitoline, and refused to make the customary sacrifices that were supposed to be carried out to celebrate the triumphant entry into Rome. He instead headed directly to the Palace. An arch of Constantine was recurring with his image, not sacrificing to Jupiter but sacrificing to Hercules and Apollo.
The Milan Edict
Constantine and Licinius declared that it was good for the Christians and others to have the freedom to follow the modality of religion they felt was the best. This gave all faiths, including Christianity, tolerance in 313 (Kling, 70). The proclamation also saw that the church property that had earlier, in 311, confiscated was returned to the church. Therefore, the edict made the empire an officially neutral body concerning religious worship, which refused to make traditional religion illegal and Christianity the state religion. The decree raised the stock of Christian life in the kingdom and rechecked the importance of faith to the welfare of the state. Most military officials practiced traditional Roman religion because they had not been converted to Christianity.
The Early Christian Bibles
Constantine commissioned Eusebius to deliver fifty books of scriptures to the four Constantinople’s churches in 331, leathered and portable. Others were established, and the scriptures were then licensed. These scriptures were good news books and contained the canonical gospel of the Four Evangelists but not complete Bibles with the entire Biblical canon (Potter, 14). Constantine commissioned the building of the first Hagia Irene’s church in Constantinople, a site now occupied by the church of Justinian of the same name. It marked Constantine’s peace which he won, and the victory over Licinius and Licinius II at the Chrysopolis Battle of 324, the church of Holy Peace. He dedicated two other churches to Saint Acacius and Mocius. The latter included parts of the former Hercules’ temple that did not have the Constantinian walls. Christian sacraments were also practiced in the Mausoleum of Constantine, which later became the Holy Apostle’s Church, among the numerous churches around and inside the city.
Pope Gregory I Accomplishments in Early Christianity
Gregory was of Roman descent, whose Christian faith was firm and was related to Agaspitus I and Felix III, the previous popes. He was well educated and learned grammar, science, rhetoric, law, and literature very well (Potter, 40). Gregory was able to write correctly Latin but neither write nor read Greek. He knew all authors of Latin, history, natural science, music, and mathematics and was very fluent in the imperial law that he had trained. Gregory advanced faster when he assumed government office to become a roman perfect, which was the highest office in Rom. He became the chief administrative officer, responsible for police, public works, finances, and provisioning in the city at 30 years. This experience helped him gather skills which he used together with his wealth to create six monasteries. After his father’s death, Gregory converted his house into the monastery and led a life of prayer, which gave him the happiest life. He started fasting and detailed studying the scriptures with this motivation, thus deteriorating his health. Later in 577, he was appointed by Pope Benedict as one of the seven Roman deacons, and Pope Pelagius II then sent him to Constantinople to be a representative in the imperial court before he called him back to serve as his advisor.
Later in 589, a famine was instigated by floods in Rome, destroying grain reserves. At the same time, Pope Pelagius was killed by a plague that swept Rome, and Gregory was then appointed to succeed him (“Pope Gregory”, 240). Gregory then instituted a city-wide penance to deal with the famine by feeding his people from the church granaries. During his tenure, Gregory removed his high officials because they were proud and replaced them with monks, after which the revenue collection from the states became efficient. The collections were used to run the church and perform duties neglected by the imperial government. Gregory also wrote a book of instruction for bishops because he was concerned about the work of the priests of the time. Through writing, he asked the priests to act so that their humility would not weaken or their authority be severe. He asked them to combine humility with justice so that humility would render justice lovable. Gregory also believed that the primary duties of the clergy were to preach, and therefore he could conduct preaching tours to the area churches.
Gregory believed that the gospel was supposed to be preached to all parts of the globe, although his primary concern was Southern Italy and Rome. In these two areas, Gregory was powerful, and that is why he gave them the priority to have the gospel spread. He then continued as a monk, trusted people who had replaced the clergy of the Palace (“Pope Gregory”, 243). Papal patrimony was excellent in southern Italy, and therefore, the efficiency and sound administration of the pope brought enough revenue. This revenue was used extensively in Rome to run the government programs and support the poor from oppression and distress. Because of the skills that Gregory possessed, he knew that the future would not be better for peasants, and therefore he changed the law to allow land inheritance so that the poor would cultivate their food. He also refused his people from practicing slavery and advised them to be more human and obedient to God.
The pope also made many liturgical changes in which he revised the Mass of the Pre-Tridentine by adding some things while removing others. He withdrew the part of Our Father and replaced it with the Roman canon, a position that was maintained up to today. Gregory also decreased the roles of the deacons in the liturgy of Roman Christianity (“Pope Gregory”, 244). The reforms that pope Gregory made were majorly influenced directly by the sacramentary. The pope is also a writer who found the medieval papacy, thus becoming the pioneer of medieval spirituality. For example, his writings, the histories which are his most extended works of patristic, have survived enough to form an inclusive corpus. In his last years of life, Gregory wrote over eight hundred and fifty letters which is the correct image of his work. Gregory, the pope, also identified Mary Magdalene, anointed Jesus with a holy ointment. This woman, whom Luke called a sinner while John called Mary, was the same person whom seven demons were cast out.
Conclusion
The essay has explored three primary influences that Emperor Constantine had on Christianity. In his hands, the Romans accepted Christianity as part of the state religion, and the gospel was spread all over the state. Also, Pope Gregory, who was also born in Rome, had a solid Christian foundation and was very skilled. Through his skills, he was able to deliver his people from the famine that had struck the state during the death of Pope Pelagius.
Works Cited
“Pope Gregory.” The Rhetoric of Free Speech in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, 2019, pp. 230-242.
Kling, David W. “The Early Church through Constantine (100–337).” A History of Christian Conversion, 2020, pp. 53-77.
Potter, David. “Constantine and the Christian Church.” Disruption, 2021, pp. 13-46.
Schultz, Celia E., and Allen M. Ward. “Constantine the Great and Christianity, 306 to 337 c.e.” A History of the Roman People, 2019, pp. 581-595.