Introduction: The issue of global warming has taken center stage in political discourse over the last few years. Along with economic issues such as the growing disparity between the rich and the poor of the world and international military conflicts, the issue of global warming is one of the most important issues at present. This…
Tag: United States
How will electric cars change the way we consume fuel in the future?
There is a strong case to be made for industrial societies to change over to renewable sources of energy. At the centre of the debate is the unsustainable continuing fossil fuel usage and the attendant environmental degradation. The United States is one of the largest consumers of fossil fuels in the world and has been…
Are modes of resistance different in democracies than in monarchies?
Resistance and dissent against established institutions have proven to be difficult throughout the history of organized societies. Even today, many parts of the world languish under the rule of autocrats, plutocrats and oligarchs, where opposition to authority is silenced by coercion or crushed by force. Even in the so-called democratic countries there have been political…
Criminal Justice: Preventing rape as a weapon of war
The association between rape and war goes as far back as recorded history. Among all evil actions that human beings are known to commit, rape is only next to murder in terms of its barbarity and cruelty. It is also a sad fact that irrespective of widespread acknowledgement of the tendency of human beings to…
In defense of Khalid Muhammad
Khalid Muhammad was the former leader of Nation of Islam (NOI), which is a radical black nationalist movement founded in the last century. This organization has close links with the New Black Panther Party, which is distinct from the original party of the Black Power movement. Khalid Muhammad is right about many of the grievances…
Comparison between Aldrich’s Unguarded Gates and Whitman’s A Broadway Pageant
Both Walt Whitman and Thomas Bailey Aldrich are important poets in the American literary canon. While Whitman continues to influence and contextualize contemporary American poetry, the popularity and reference to Aldrich have greatly diminished. One can see why this disparity has come about from the two poems dealt with in this essay. Whitman’s poem titled…
The issue of Illegal Aliens in the United States
The issue of immigration has taken renewed significance in American political discourse over the last ten years. This was largely prompted by the flood of illegal immigrants crossing over from Mexico and other central American countries. Considering that Hispanic Americans already comprise 13 percent of the population and have the highest birth rates among all…
Peggy McIntosh’s criticism of Immigration Laws
Having been involved in the field of Women’s Studies, Peggy McIntosh is quite familiar with privileges held by men that seldom get acknowledged. The issue here is not blatant male chauvinism, but a subtler, unconscious and systemic flaws that undermine the notion of equality between sexes. Extending the same analysis to the domain of race,…
Documentary Film Analysis: Dark Days (2000)
The documentary film Dark Days, conceived and filmed by Marc Singer, is one of the modern classics of the genre. The film presents little known darker realities of the most prosperous city in the world New York. The usage of rudimentary cinematic devices and techniques is consistent with the central theme of the film. The…
Just War Theory: An application to the Iraq War (2003)
Alan Dowd’s article titled ‘Civilization’s Reluctant Warrior: America and the War on Terror’ is an essay supporting America’s war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Given the readiness and enthusiasm with which the United States initiated war against Iraq in 2003, it is difficult to make sense of phrase ‘reluctant warrior’. Nevertheless, the central thesis of…