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When is it spanking? When is it abuse?

Many will quote the Bible verse “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” The Bible Says: “He that spareth the rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him correcteth him betimes” (Proverbs 13:24) and “Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell” (Proverbs 23:13-14).But this was written in the Old Testament.

But the New Testament adapts the parenting instruction advising that a Christian leader should be “one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence, (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?). So then in considering these verses located in I Timothy 2:4 and 5 we can draw the conclusion that a good Christian leader leads his family with Christian doctrine not by striking them. The ultimate authority is Christ so the wise parent lives a Godly life leading by example.

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Encourage not discourage your child.

A child is to be disciplined with grace not beaten into submission. It is not about breaking the will of your child, but building up your child. We are given instruction on how to not discourage but encourage our youth. Physical punishment may keep your child in line while you are present to inflict the punishment, but what happens once the child is on his or her own? A child who is grounded in faith has a foundation which is instilled and helps a child to make appropriate decisions on his or her own.

Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. “

Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs provides a promise and a command, not a suggestion.

Grace can undo poor child training and one of God’s gifts, His righteousness is one of the best instructional tools known to man. Train your child with consistency, God’s doctrine and by example tempered with grace and love. We cannot make our children righteous as it is a gift from God. We can teach them God’s word and by living in a Godly way, they will seek the righteousness of God. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” Romans 10:17. Is the child hearing the word of God?

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The author of the best-selling book “Raising a Thinking Child, Myrna B. Shure PhD wrote in her book Thinking Parent, Thinking Child “I don’t say “Never spank” an occasional spanking won’t hurt your child, and it may legitimately relieve your own anger and frustration. However, if you rely on spanking, you’ll encounter many unintended consequences. Perhaps the most serious result is that it teaches your child to disregard his own feelings.” Caring for their own feelings is the first step towards learning empathy.

The following results are born from frequent and harsh spankings:

• Spanking can cause a child to feel overpowered and helpless leaving him or her angry and frustrated. Needing to regain power they may feel the need to exercise power over those who are less threatening to them. This is how a bully can be born.

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• A child may withdraw emotionally from the parent who spanks them frequently losing trust and an emotional bond with that parent. They may also rebel from the very values that parent is striving to instil.

• Spanking causes a child to avoid the behaviour which caused the spanking but not to think about proper behaviour.

• Spanking may teach a child that hitting is an appropriate way to express anger and they may lash out physically when they are angry.

In conclusion, spanking should not be the only form of punishment. A parent needs to learn how to instruct a child as to the consequences of bad behaviour in a positive way to make discipline a teaching tool. Train your child in the ethics of the law, not the letter of the law so they can make wiser choices and they will feel more confidence and a stronger self-esteem when faced with life’s trials.

Why am I so enthralled with this book/movie phenomenon? Partly because it focuses on a dystopian future. As a fan of Animal Farm and 1984, I’m a fan of literature that predicts a bleak future. The Hunger Games may be criticized because it pits child against child in a fight to the death, but it also is a commentary on modern times.

The games themselves are a punishment and a reminder to the residents of Panem, a country born out of the ruins of North America, that the government has absolute power. The twelve districts that remain seemingly serve to keep the Capitol in plenty, while the providers scrape by. Sound familiar? While our current government doesn’t have a “fight to the death” game that residents are forced to watch, there are people still alive who were drafted to fight in a war they did not create. Unlike the tributes, those drafted either went, or escaped to Canada, or were conscientious objectors. The Hunger Games offer no alternative. You fight. You will probably die. Period.

The tributes, the children who are chosen to fight, are taken to the Capitol and prepped to fight in the games. There, they are fed food the likes of which they’ve never seen. Heaps of it. One could consider this fattening the calf to the slaughter, so to speak. It’s sort of a last hurrah before the inevitable death. While in the Capitol, the tributes are cleaned up, dolled up and paraded before the Capitol’s citizens, before they are interviewed on national television. Their prep teams take the time to present the tributes to the viewing audience. Both the teams and the tributes’ mentors work to present a certain angle, or personality to the viewing audience in order to snag sponsors. The sponsors, who are wealthy, provide valuable gifts to the tributes in the arena in order to keep them alive. It may be medicine to soothe a wound, or food. In a way, it’s similar to politics–you choose a candidate and send campaign donations. Having the games televised smacks of reality television.

What’s different is the fact that a young girl is the protagonist. Katniss Everdeen illegally hunts in a forest near her district. Her skill with a bow and arrow supports her family with squirrel, rabbits and the occasional deer. She also gathers plants, and with the help of a friend, Gale, she learns other skills in order to help her and her family survive. Katniss’s father died in a mine explosion when she was eleven. Knowing that she would be eligible for The Hunger Games the next year, she entered her name extra times in order to get a meager ration of oil and grain for her sister, Prim, and their mother. Of course, with the extra name entries comes extra risk. The first time she entered, her name was put in four times. At thirteen, eight times. And so on. This is a hideous form of welfare that doesn’t even begin to keep all three of them sufficiently fed. Because of this, and the barbarism of the games, Katniss’s friend Gale proposes they run away and live in the woods. It is because of their family members that they don’t do this.

Katniss, in this season of woman-hating, is a stunning example of feminism at its finest hour. She is compassionate, yet strong. She cares deeply about her family. While she is tempted to run away with Gale, instead of leaving her sister and mother to fend for themselves, she stays to support them. While Katniss is in the arena, she befriends a tiny competitor named Rue. They form an alliance until Rue is killed by a competitor, who Katniss kills in retaliation.

To make matters even more unbearable, Katniss has to face her fellow District 12 tribute, Peeta, and presumably kill him as well. He reveals during his on-air interview that he is in love with Katniss. Revealing this fact on national television endears him to the Capitol crowd. It is tragic that he has loved Katniss from afar and that only one of them may emerge a victor. However, partway through the games, a rule change is made. Two tributes from the same district may win. When Katniss hears this, she calls out for Peeta and finds him almost literally under her feet. He is an expert when it comes to camouflage. He picked up this skill because his family runs a bakery, and one of his jobs was to decorate cakes. Katniss feels obligated to him because years ago, right after her father died and she was starving, he threw her some burnt loaves of bread. Katniss speculates that he accidentally dropped the loaves into the fire, ruining them enough so that they were only fit for the family’s pigs to eat. Peeta’s mother yells at him, sending him out on the back porch, presumably to feed the pigs. Peeta instead throws the bread to Katniss. He feels guilty for not handing them to her himself; she feels guilty that she never really thanked him for the food.

There is no way I want to live in this kind of world, yet I have read the book probably three times. I’ve seen the movie twice. I think it’s the theme of struggling against all odds, defying an oppressive government, retaining one’s humanity in an inhuman situation, and emerging victorious and getting what you want after all that make this book and movie so relatable. Who among us has not struggled, been hungry, or had to push through obstacles? Who among us was never a child?

Sure, the violence may turn some people off, but those who are drafted to fight aren’t adults in their thirties. We have sent children to kill for years. It may not have been called The Hunger Games. It was called other names: war, conflict, or hideously enough, “liberation.” Whatever it has been called, the people chosen (or more recently, who volunteered) are young people. They are taken to boot camps, fed, trained, dressed and armed.

The Hunger Games may only be a dystopian fantasy, but the scariest part of it is that it is totally believable. In our modern times of high unemployment, foreclosure, war, oppressive government and reality games, The Hunger Games may be closer than we think. Hopefully, the odds will be ever in the people’s favor.

The social themes during Nat Turner’s rebellion are almost unbelievable. They are hypocritical, extreme and naïve all at the same time. The white people of Virginia were duncical in their miscalculation that certain privileges afforded to the slaves of the county would deter slave insurgency. The slaves were unethical in their killing of women and children. What is even more surprising than the brutality of Nat Turner’s rebellion was the loyalty expressed by some slaves to their masters. Nat Turner’s relationship with his followers was quite mysterious as he projected an aura of superior spiritual development and intelligence.

One of the cruelest aspects of slavery in Southampton is the relationship among the children. Nat was friends with a couple of white children almost as if he were a free child himself until the age of 12. With the white boys going off to school and Nat being driven out to the fields, this creates a permanent rift between them. White people clearly had the attitude that they were superior to black people, and conditioned both black and white children with this ridiculous idea. “So their parents, teachers, ministers, and politicians told them over and over, until they embraced their superiority over Negroes as God’s law, as the truth of truths” (Oates, 21). Racial discrimination was a perpetual cycle of this misinformation from authority figures.

            The white people of the Southampton area made an egregious error in judgment over this entire time period. Assuming that your slaves will not revolt against you just because you believe to be treating them well shows great complacency. “After all what was there to worry about? Southampton’s slaves were well treated, whites said, and apart from a few solitary incidents the county had never had any severe slave troubles” (Oates, 3). Slaves were astutely aware of this, playing ignorant and stupid, while planning their revolt right under their noses. In areas like South Carolina the white people understood that the harshest slave codes possible was the optimum way to control the slaves. In Virginia the codes were so lenient that not only did slaves have much more of an opportunity to organize a successful revolt, they tasted just enough freedom to want it in its totality.

The slaves who knew Nat proclaimed him to be a prophet. He was highly regarded among the slave community. A lot of what Nat Turner claimed is delusional, however. The event that shows Turner to be fraudulent with regard to his unnatural abilities occurs at the baptism he performs. Nat claims a white dove will appear above them during the ceremony, but no such dove ever arrives. “No dove has descended from the heavens as Nat had vowed, but no matter: the slaves had seen him do a spectacular thing in christening a white man and then himself” (Oates, 40). This suggests that Nat might have been either lying about or imagining the visions telling him to go forth with the insurrection. However, the most unusual aspect to this whole situation is that the people really didn’t care much about the dove being absent. They, in particular the blacks, were mesmerized by the fact that Nat had just baptized a free white person.

            The unscrupulous nature of the attack on whites is quite appalling. There was a complete disregard for women and children, who were slaughtered by some of the rebels seemingly without hesitation. “All around him, all over the Whitehead place, there were scenes of unspeakable violence, as the rebels butchered three of the Whitehead girls and a grandchild” (Oates, 75). Still, the need for violent rebellion is certainly understandable. If you’ve never been a slave, it is difficult to know what you would do in that situation. It is downright inhumane to slay women and children, particularly the children because they had nothing to do with the slaves’ situations. To that same point, slavery is equally inhumane so violent insurgency from the slaves should have been anticipated.

            The situation with the rebellion was absolutely hopeless. Some of Nat Turner’s followers definitely understood that they would be overtaken at some point by the white militia and therefore likely to die for this cause. “He tried to dissuade the blacks from going on, arguing that they did not have a chance against the white man’s powerful forces” (Oates, 81). Nat Turner, however, seemed to have some grandiose notion that he was going to easily be able to take over Jerusalem and continue to amass more insurgents. This could suggest a lack of foresight on Turner’s part. However, it is also possible that Turner had greater foresight than his followers knowing that, though they were certainly condemned to death for this act, that it would help convince the whites to abolish slavery. Still, dissension among Nat and his people persisted as some felt the rebellion was pointless.

An interesting dynamic existed in the relationship between the different slaves and their masters, particularly during Nat’s revolt. What is unexpected is the loyalty shown to masters from some of the slaves during Turner’s rebellion. Some of these slaves risked their lives to save their masters and their families. The motivation behind this loyalty is certainly mysterious; as the general consensus among slaves was that they shared a great deal of disdain for their masters, even if it was hidden behind a fake persona of pleasantness and cordiality. “One of them, a girl named Charlotte, attacked Lavinia with a dirk knife, but loyal slaves pulled Charlotte away” (Oates, 79).

During the time of Nat’s rebellion much naivety, misunderstanding and stupidity are displayed from the whites of the region. The Blacks were chomping at the bit to gain their freedom and they were brutal in their fight for it. Nat’s rebellion certainly jolted the white’s out of their complacent, malaise attitude in regards to their property. Nat was somewhat delusional in his visions and prophecies, indicating a degree of mental illness. Although Nat Turner was condemned to death for this revolt, its success can be judged better on the fact that it influenced the eventual abolition of slavery in the United States. 

Oates, Stephen B. The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion. New York: Harper Perennial Publishers, April 1990.

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M. Oudina

Many reason why kid always bully, but actually there’s one basic reason. When they do not feel good about themselves, then they will bully someone else in order to make themselves feel better. By bully others one, it’s the easiest and fastest way to feel important.

Coping mechanism can be equated with bullying.

When bully someone else, actually they just mean to deal with their problem. When someone can’t improve their self worth because don’t have a positive way and doesn’t feel good about themselves, the result is a destructive behaviors. To deal with their inner pain, they would put others down through violence or word  in attempt to seem powerful.

People always misunderstood bullying as the potential for greatness. There are to some challenging times for them when they don’t know how to deal it. Some would turn to bullying, some to rebellion, and some to conformity. They will reach their true potential if we can help

The cycle of bully

As I told above, in attempt to feel better, they would bully others. And in order to feel important and powerful, they would put down others.  Because of that reason, then the victims would feel bad about themselves. And same like the bully, the bullied would bully others. Now we can see a downward cycle. and we can call it as bully cycle. Those people who bullies or bullied must be feel that it’s unfair for themselves that they were or are mistreated so it can lead more others would be taken out by them.

How to help them

Although they often bully the others, they’re still has belief in their self.  We can help them by make them realize how important and valuable they really are. Actually, people like them have something special to offer and really are unique from the rest. Therefore, by help them to realize and important, we can stop kids to bullying others and not only that, these can elevate themselves without have to put others down.

So, what the conclusion?

Many kid who bullying others happened because they don’t realize how valuable or important their self really are so that in attempt to elevate themselves they will take others out. We can help to stop their bullying by understand the reason why the kids bullying others first, and then we can make them improving their feeling in positive ways.

It was all supposed to have ended there, but ideas never die so summary a death – ever. For one thing, Freemasonry survived even to date, some half a millenia later now accepted as part of the status quo. Members all over the world presenting themselves as “a society with secrets” as opposed to “a secret society.” The do charitable work wherever they are, and moral uprightness, though not necessarily acceding that there is a God; and also they work on developing and maintaining fraternal friendships – all of these commendable pursuits from a human perspective. It certainly stands to reason that the Illuminati also has survived all this time through the course of history.

The word “Illuminati” itself translates as “enlightened,” representing a psychosocial emancipation exemplified by actions not entirely unlike the Separation of Church and State that took place in the United States a few decades back. The idea being that the government should not rule, and neither should “an idea called God.” The human desire to be ruled by its own self and not by another – perhaps unseen – force or entity makes it possible. Time and again, a writer, a reporter, or just a simple observant mind is able to peek behind the blinding curtain that makes it impossible for the whole of humanity to realize that it’s life being run in a direction that is not only less than productive, but also downright self-destructive. Writers Augustin Barruel and John Robison have written works allude to an unseen power behind the names and faces of people that rule the world and those who thrive in business, industry, commerce, or entertainment.

Other writers of repute, albeit largely proliferators of fictional works, have also made their contributions. Authors like David Icke, Morgan Griciar, and Mark Dice; and even renowned researchers the likes of Myron Fagan have all propounded theories as to who the real faces are behind the Illimunati that has evolved today, and what the sphere of their influence is in today’s modern world. Texe Marrs, Ryan Burke, and Jüri Lina have endlessly theorized that the Bavarian Illuminati of old has survived till today, controlling world events, manipulating convention, and even deciding who the Presidents of the United States will turn out to be. Naturally, movie-making and the music industry in Hollywood have been targetted as well, and it is now believed by many that the Illuminati calls the shots on who makes it big and who gets a ticket fare back home in the world of entertainment – hence the Whitney Houston fiasco following her untimely death at the unripe age of 48!

THE ILLUMINATI TODAY: SECRET IDENTITY REVEALED!

But true, the Illuminati does exist – a system of humans that feeds of off the desire of humans to be ruled by human thoughts and desires, as opposed to the edicts and whims of a higher power unseen. Of course, there is a secret society that determines who makes it to the Oval Office to rule the most powerful nation in the world; that decides which wars are to be fought and which ones are to be brought to an end. There is a masked face behind the ultimate decision about who becomes the next movie superstar despite having little or no talent, and who may have all the talent in the world and never make it past a school play; a power that decides what automobiles are going to become the next best thing and which ones are going to fade away.

It is a fact that nobody makes it big in… anything without signing both a contract and a non-disclosure agreement with the Illuminati because the Illuminati has evolved from a scaredly Bavarian entity into an all-powerful behemoth at the helm of global affairs today. And today, the secret identities of the men and women behind the Illuminati is revealed. They are you, me, and the next person beside you!

We decide to buy one product or the other; we decide to laud one artist instead of another; we decide that an artist looks good on the big screen even if their acting sucks, while a great actor may never get good roles because he simply does not look good enough. We are the ones who push our celebrities into living brash and plastic lives, push them to do drugs and OD or die in accidents. We pushed Whitney too far until she died untimely; we killed JFK and voted George W. Bush into second-term in office, impeaching Bill Clinton and attacking well-meaning and efficient President Barack Obama in the media. We chose to put the sign of the Illuminati, the all-seeing eye, on the back of the one-dollar bill… and we chose to keep it there.

We are the media, we are the news; we are the audience and the congregation; the ones who no longer care for God or about the things that pertain to him. We want life our own way and not subjected to any higher power or authority. Today we learn who the Illuminati is, what they do, and how they do it. Now today – not tomorrow – we get to decide if the Illuminati stays or if it goes. No one else makes these choices but us.

The war in Northern Uganda appears to be over and this is good news for the people  of Acholi-land who have been most affected by this 20 year long war. The pre-war situation in the Acholi sub-region was always that of peace and love, supported by the age-long egalitarian tradition of a society where fellow-feeling and friendship was a cherished value. Today, with war over, things are so bad socially that we need divine intervention.

Men are lazy and want handouts

 First and foremost, having lived in the Internally Displaced Camps for close to 15 years, the once hardworking Acholi people now wallop in poverty because they don’t want to work anymore. Before the war, there were no land wrangles in Acholi-land. Even where there were land wrangles at all, they were usually on a scale that would be quickly resolved. Today, people are fighting wars over land and the society is increasingly getting fragmented on the basis of such unprincipled wars.

Women have become witches and killers

For a long time, the Acholi women were gems of our society. They were kind and motherly. The last time I went to my village, every elderly woman I used to know and call “ Maa” meaning  “mother”, had suddenly become a killer and a witch. My close relatives had blacklisted women whom they knew were in possession of lethal dozes of poison which they routinely, employed to kill many innocent villagers living in their amidst.

The poison dozes would normally be extracted from highly poisonous snakes, which they would hypnotize with some spell of magic before extracting the potent poison out of the snakes. This would later be treated and stored in a convenient place as the evil plans to kill innocent people would be mooted. Useful citizen are being killed by these poison-wielding women.

Marauding Bandits rob and kill innocent people

Along side killing via poison are incidents of death by bandits who have become hard-core criminals. They way-lay people returning home from market places, and rob them of their property. Most of them were former rebels who have got hooked to criminality.They live among the people and strike mainly at night. They have made life extremely insecure at a time when the world around believe peace has returned to the North.

We continue to hope that surviving elders take responsibility in bringing social order in Acholi-land by invoking their traditional authority to deal with the emerging deviant behavior in the society. We also pray that the government should do more to enforce law and order by increasing police presence in the area.

            The 1920s, (also known as the “Roaring 20s” or the “Jazz Age”) was a revolutionary era in the United States. People lost consciousness of traditional values, and women broke free from the typical house-wife positions to find jobs. The attitudes and behavior of the people were reflected by the reckless and careless society. This was the era of freedom and nontraditional values; these were the 1920s.                                             Living life in the 1920s was entirely based on your social status. Your social status was based on what kind of car, house, clothes, and friends you had. The highest factor of measuring your status was what car you had. One must-have car for the rich was the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost. Its brilliant design and features were like no other cars during that era. The most successful in the country were the only people to have these cars, because their prices were ridiculous (Posthumus 48). “When traveling in the car, it was necessary to take a couple spare tires, plenty of blankets, and you should be wearing your oldest clothes. Tires in the 20’s did not have the ability to handle all the dirt roads, and it wasn’t unusual to get a few flat tires. You need blankets to put on the back seat to try to soften the bumpy ride and use when sleeping because motels were rare back then”(Blocksma 50).                        Even though people wore ragged clothes on the road, that has no relevance as to how people dressed during the 20’s. Women adopted a new style of fashion and more casual beliefs. The style of clothing was drastically changed. Hairstyles were becoming shorter and less “covering.” In 1925, the Archbishop of Naples pointed a blaming finger at short skirts. He believed that they were the cause for an Italian earthquake. Also, women gained more liberty when electric self-starting ignitions were created. After that, there was no need for a man to help hand-crank the car to start it up. Living standards were at an all-time high (ProQuest).  The Roaring ‘20s brought about a growing economic boom to the United States. Our nation was transitioning from rural life and an agricultural based economy into an urban life and an industrial economy. People were producing and consuming more products than ever before. They were not afraid to spend money, until the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, which changed the standards of living forever.                                                                                                It has been eight decades since the “Jazz Age,” and much has changed since then. Daily life in the 1920s is a dramatic difference when compared to the Twenty-first Century. The greatest difference would be the daily life of children. Only in the 1920s were laws finally made to force children to go to school and receive an education. Before these laws, you could decide whether or not you wanted to go to school. Creating this law prevented the further growth of child labor in the country. Another contrast is the time spent on activities. Even without the invention of television and computers yet, children were rarely bored. Many spent their time listening to the newly invented radio or collecting things like; string, stamps, marbles, baseball cards, pressed flowers, paper dolls, postcards, and bottle caps (Blocksma 46). Nowadays, people are spending countless hours watching TV and using computers. School life was also different. Since ballpoint pens hadn’t been invented yet, students had to use quill pens.                                 Not only did children have such a dramatic difference than the Twenty-first century, but the women did also. The 1920’s had created “The New Woman”; strong, independent, and accomplished. The new woman gained more rights with the passage of the suffrage amendment in 1920 (Baughman 269). Females had advanced in the workforce as more companies began to hire women for office jobs. According to Margaret Deland, the new woman “has gone to college, and when she graduates she is going to earn her own living. She declines to be dependent upon a father and mother amply able to support her. She will do settlement work; she won’t go to church; she has views upon marriage and the birth-rate . . .  she occupies herself passionately, with everything, except the things that used to occupy the minds of girls.” These women were called “flappers”                                        In 1919, the 19th amendment prohibited the consumption and production of alcohol. This was a nightmare to the labor force, as the main source of relief after a long day of work was alcohol. Some people learned that the selling of illegal alcohol could be turned into a job. It was good profit, but since many bootleggers never took the time to decontaminate their products since there were no health inspectors. Some bootleggers purposely poisoned their drinks to give a stronger “kick”. This special “kick” led to the thousands of deaths in the United States during prohibition. “In 1928 in New York City, a batch of liquor containing wood alcohol killed twenty five men in three days. In 1930, an estimated fifteen thousand people drank liquor containing the extract of Jamaican ginger, a cheap ingredient that was almost 90 percent alcohol. The result was an epidemic of “jake paralysis,” which one journalist described: “The feet of the paralyzed ones drop forward from the ankle so that the toes point downward… The calves of his legs, after two or three weeks, begin to soften and hang down; the muscles between thumbs and index fingers shrivel away” (Yancey 56-60).                                                                                                           Though the consumption of alcohol was prohibited, some people found new places to slip back into their drunken days. These new places were called speakeasies. They were illegal bars with music and all kinds of entertainment. They were set up behind locked doors in basements, attics, warehouses, and apartment houses.  Many were raided by police, but people usually found other speakeasies to go to during the weekends (Yancey 61-62).                                                                                                      These speakeasies were run by bootleggers (people who made or imported alcohol illegally). The most famous bootlegger was Al Capone. He was involved with gangs almost all his life. When prohibition took effect, Al Capone made money by smuggling and selling alcohol. He was known for bribing government officials. Capone and his gang members killed anyone in their way, especially other rival gangs. Despite his illegal occupation, many people saw him as the modern day “Robin Hood,” because he gave a nice sum of money away to charities.                     Ever since the economic boom started in the early 20s, people were more laid-back and ready to have some fun. Money spent on leisurely activities such as movies, dances, and sports rose by 300 percent. Sales for just about everything at least doubled. People started going to movie theaters. They began going to sporting events. These days were full of jazz music by black musicians. Exuberant new dances from the black tradition were incorporated into the dances. People created new fads that included: flagpole sitting, goldfish swallowing, crossword puzzles, and dance marathons (Baughman 261). Since airplanes were recently invented, whenever anyone heard an airplane close by everyone would run outside to watch it go by until it was out of sight. They were living their lives to the fullest and doing whatever pleased them.                                                                                  From the age of prohibition to the stock market crash, the 1920s were a reckless era. It was the rising and crashing of an economy. It was an entire generation lived within itself. Some people suffered while others partied all night. Crime rates soared through the roof. Traditional values were lost and forgotten. This was the careless lifestyle of the 1920s.

Works Cited

Baughman, Judith S. “Lifestyles and Social Trends.” American Decades 1920-1929. Farmington Hills, MI, 1995. Print.
Blocksma, Mary. Ticket to the Twenties: A TimeTraveler’s Guide. Boston: Little, Brown, 1993.     Print.
Burg, David F. “Pasttimes and Pleasures.” The Great Depression: An Eyewitness to History. 9-     12. Print.
Posthumus, Cyril. Vintage Cars. New York: Hamlyn, 1973. Print.
            ProQuest LLC. “The Roaring ‘20’s.” Historical Newspapers 21 Dec. 2010: n. pag. ProQuest Historical Newspapers – Graphical. Web. 21 Dec. 2010. .
            “The Roaring Twenties.” ThinkQuest. N.p., 2000. Web. 21 Dec. 2010.        .
Time-Life Books. The Jazz Age the 20s. Virginia: Time-Life Books, 1998. Print.
            Yancey, Diane. Life During the Roaring Twenties. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2002. Print.

There are many historical accounts which suggest that the IRA came into being as a result of a harsh feudal background. It emerged as seeds to become a peasant protection group at first. However, there exists no strict pattern of its evolution, which it might have followed like other similar rebellion groups. But from its early years, the IRA emerged as a secret society group attaining attention from media as well as the government, when it began to be viewed as a serious terrorist organization. Even though there has been written much literature both in the US and the UK which make a consistent reference to ‘international terrorist networks’ and ‘weapons of mass destruction’ (US Dept of Justice, 2002), they carry a certain kind of political weight used for advantage to further governmental agendas.

According to a study, they have become a victim of politicization of terrorism and organized crime as well as to law enforcement agencies who have attributed such designations for their own resourceful purposes. Just like any organized crime group or a terrorist group, the IRA has a method of operating in hierarchical manner with exclusive membership and explicit rules. (Mahan and O’Neil 1998, p.6) Although, IRA does not consider itself to be an organized criminal group in any way, neither as a mafia of any sort, but when analyzed closely, it does appear to have a historical background of being involved in criminal activities and terrorism.

But they have evolved from merely a rural peasant protection group to a secret society which constantly challenged against the status quo. The kind of secret society that the IRA is that it places primary importance upon clandestine method of operation, which is very rigid about its membership and is hierarchical in structure. (Mackenzie 1967) According to Mackenzie, there are different agendas which secret societies have ranging from spiritual, moralistic, patriotic, and political to criminal activities. The IRA has experienced a similar process of evolution over the years and operated in corresponding manner in each of the cases as per circumstances. Furthermore, Mackenzie (1967) believes that the IRA shares organizational characteristics which befit only criminal business groups like Triads and Mafias, with much focus diverted towards their political goals. It has become a paramilitary terrorist group.

For the purposes of analyzing the IRA and its methodology, ethnographical research method is deemed to be most appropriate, as many journalists and researchers have conducted their primary research using it, because it grants those insights which are not easily concluded through historical accounts alone. Therefore, according to a research into the IRA through the critical secondary analysis and available literature review, the connections between events and its activities have become clear. (Toolis, 1995)

According to Hobsbawm’s observation (1969), in any oppressed society there is always to be found a minority group which is willing to devote itself to rebelling against the status quo. In that, some people will choose positive methods and some will be inclined towards illegal means to achieve the same end. One feature that stands out in the IRA is that it was basically formed to raise a solemn voice against oppressing conditions of the peasants in Ireland and the high degree of feudal practices to suppress the masses. (Bloke, 1972) (Barend, 1998) (Kelly, 1988)

In the case of Ireland, the Irish peasant protection groups can be seen since the 12th century when there were Gaelic defenders against the brutalities of Henry II. The reduction and removal of land and civil rights of the Catholic Gael community, which continued for about four hundred years, forced them to form such peasant protection groups. There easy formation came as a result of the isolation which Ireland had due to its geographical location. The 1700 penal laws which followed from the victory of King William of Orange at Boyne completely took away any property rights from the Irish Catholics. There was massive unrest especially after the forceful 1800 Act of Union passed by Westminster to create United Kingdom, which ended up binding Ireland under its rule.

This is a significant curve at the point of which the peasant protection group was compelled to take political action. (Toolis, 1995) As there increased the number of peasants willing to fight for the political cause they all believed in, the need for more organized formation arose and hence, the IRA was formed. (Posner 1988) ‘The Whiteboys’ and ‘the Oakboys’ along with ‘phoenix’ were a precursor in Ireland for forming such hierarchical groups for cohesion and organization with enhanced sophistication. It became a sub-culture within a sub-culture. (Cloward and Ohlin, 1960)

The political dimension in the whole case of the IRA has been the political uncertainty in the country with wars, invasions, and other socio-economic oppressions. Many other secret societies were formed in Ireland as a result of the English incursions resulting in suppressing the Irish Catholic population. The power vacuum which occurred as an outcome gave way to banditry, corruption and lack of trust in a formal authority. Hence, the alternative sense of rights given by these secret societies was well taken by the population, especially when the ‘Catholic Association’ fought to gain back the Catholic civil rights.

Something that gives them authority is their ability to monopolize violence in their respective communities. Traditionally, Ireland is known for its familial unit and camaraderie, hence the rise of the IRA has its roots in such a background. Those who were out of any secure means for livelihood sought shelter in such organizations for mutual protection. (Lim 2000, p.2) Hence, the Irish Catholic secret societies functioned around tribal and territorial kinship.

The modus operandi of the IRA depends on the kinship and friendship networks that it has developed through practicing its hold on its community. If there is kept no check from the government’s side on their activities, they spread their values and ideologies very easily. (Blok 1972, p.212) Even there had been such fortunate historical events in favor of the IRA where their sub-culture has proliferated with changing patterns in migration of people. This made their members to spread themselves and their political views. Due to the potato famine of 1845, thousands died as the English settlers were given favor, but those who survived emigrated to America in hope. This laid the seeds of Irish secret societies in America. In 1919 Michael Collins founded The Irish Republican Army which comprised of members of various secret societies. The trans-Atlantic link that was formed as a result proved to be valuable to legitimize both the Irish and American Catholic communities.

Ever since the creation of the IRA, there has been interest in its structure and organization from both the political and media side. It started with the ‘Army Council’ taking charge of all the IRA operations. (O’Brian, 1995) To operate within a designated area, the method adopted was to form separate ‘volunteers’ and ‘battalions’ for each area, which would be headed by the ‘Brigade Commander’ of that specific area. (Toolis 1995) In the IRA, there were particular departments and units which were responsible for arms smuggling, money laundering, transportation and bomb making. (Council of Foreign Relations 2002)

But this method of operation was proven ineffective when the law enforcement agencies broke them down and penetrated in them through increasing number of informants. For this reason, the IRA had to change its method in 1976. (Toolis 1995) Another major change in its structure was a little role played by the Army Council and more power being given to a mini-Army Council; especially to oversee every single operation in the North. (Toolis 1995, p.318) This new ‘mini-council’ had fragments of tiny individual units called ‘cells’ which had 30 to 60 men each. The Army Council supplied its resources, intelligence and links with Sinn Fein and the US fund raising wing known as ‘NORAID’ (Northern Irish Aid).

The IRA has their consistent political motivation to drive them with their set ideology, which holds no regard for any formal authority and hence does not fear it. If the IRA were to evolve in any other way aside from their political derivations, then it might be inclined to have profit-seeking goal from its various splinter groups. However, the flow of power is always haphazard and does not have any set pattern. It can go back and forth, horizontal and vertical, anywhere but in one specific direction.

The IRA carried out much guerrilla warfare against the British government and its agencies, just like its Gaelic ancestors. The basic method of success in such warfare is that of the classic saying by Mao Tse-tung: “The former must live and operate among the latter and their support, or at least their acquiescence, is essential for the guerrillas’ survival and success.” (Murray 1984, p.35) The IRA has not changed its method of operations since 1919 with bombings, assassinations, beatings, intimidation and arms smuggling. These methods have all been used by the IRA successfully for its advantage over the years. (Toolis 1995) But a major event that marks its method of operation prominently was the Ulster riots of 1969, which are commonly known as the ‘Troubles’. (Kelly 1988) In 1970, the split between the official IRA and the provisional IRA began a long campaign against the British government and its occupation of Northern Ireland.

There have been many devastating events since then, such as the IRA attacks in Northern Ireland and England in 1972 with the July bombings in the centre of Belfast, known as ‘Bloodly Friday’ resulted in the death of 9 people and left 130 injured. (Council of Foreign Relations, 2002) In 1979, the Queen Elizabeth II’s Uncle, Lord Mountbatten was assassinated and in 1984 there was a bombing when Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet was in a meeting in Brighton. This latter incident left 9 people dead and many other wounded. (Toolis 1995) Since the ceasefire followed after the ‘Good Friday’ agreement, there has been some slowness shown in the IRA’s strong commitment to its political cause. But the negative impact of this approach from the IRA has resulted in the formation of many splinter groups which continue to demand a United Ireland.

There are indications that the IRA splinter groups, the ‘Real IRA’ as well as the ‘Irish National Liberation Army’ have both put into use their trans-Atlantic connections with arms smugglers and drug traffickers. There have been many trials in Columbia on their attempt to traffic Cocaine. (Taylor 2003) To evolve, the successful method that was employed by the IRA was to get mixed with the legitimate authorities. (Knox 2002) The advantage that the IRA had was that the communities supported them and accepted their informal control of the administration and its justice. (Knox, 2002, p.173)

The analysis of such a behavior says that there exists a pragmatic need to control criminal behavior and those which are a threat to the de facto authority. (Silke 1998) But there seems to be a balance in this presumed legitimacy that the IRA receives from the people, because they on the other hand feel secure. (Moxon-Brown 1986) But according to another analysis of their method, there has been a shift in the balance with the increase in the Irish paramilitaries taking more criminalizing activities like racketeering and illicit drug markets. (Knox 2000) Even though this has led to some degree of political stability in Ireland with a change for democratic resolutions increasing, but it has put in jeopardy the IRA’s informal legitimacy. (Kiley 1999) Now, there method has become to invest in big businesses and they use paramilitary to hide behind it. (Knox 2002, p.177)

The IRA’s activities have been affected by the governmental legislation as well as policies over the years, which have been afflicted their communities. In fact, the evolution of the IRA has been a direct result of the oppression of legislative rights over hundreds of years. For example, the statutes of Kilkenny (1366), the Penal laws of 1700 and the Act of Union (1800) deprived the Irish Catholic communities from any civil or land rights. This has given fire to the Irish Catholic secret societies and their bitterness and lack of confidence in the formal government increased and its formation in 1919 is a testament for a need of an alternative authority by the people.

In 1971, the Special Powers Act of 1922 was invoked by Stormont to bar down some suspected terrorists without trial (Carlton 1981), as a result of which the IRA performed violent acts with an average death toll from 8 to 114 covering almost four months. (Carlton 1981) These activities forced the government to consider some sort of alternative legal procedures. Hence, in 1972 the Special Powers Act was abolished and the recommended changed were put into the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act of 1973. The ‘Diplock’ courts for the trial of political cases was formed where there were no juries but only a single high or county court judge. Even though this was some kind of an improvement, but still the Irish Catholic communities held the opinion that they are another oppressive legislative move. (Carlton 1981) This whole step by the government was made worse by the decision of treating all paramilitary prisoners as criminals, those who were charged after 1976 in the United Kingdom. Again this led to the dirty protests by the IRA prisoners in Long Kesh which felt like political prisoners, and they murdered 17 people by the end of 1979. (Carlton 1981) This made them strong in their resolve to take direct action.

In their nature itself the IRA has been a severe difficulty for the government and presented many challenges to the law enforcement agencies. Because of their clandestine nature, the gathering of information and proofs become rather impossible task. To make matters worse, the law enforcement agencies face the same issues and pressures as do the legislative issues. But with the passage of time the sophistication has taken place not alone in the criminal means and methods but in the technologies utilized by the law enforcement agencies along with the government. There has risen the need to cooperate more through multi-agency at both national and international levels but the IRA gets an advantage when there is hesitancy from any agency to share information. (Beare and Naylor 1999) The permeable borders are one factor along with globalization that demands the multi-agency cooperation with the increase in the threat of global terrorism. (Reuter and Petrie 1999)

The difficulty face by the law enforcement agencies to overcome the differences in national laws present itself as an impediment and such a thing can well be exploited by the IRA, which is a ‘Criminogenic Asymmetry”. (Passas 1998, p.2) Hence, the requirement for coordination at all the levels is dominant, because the IRA takes its full advantage of criminal activity from the very macro level. (Hobbs 1998, p.408) One of the most effective tools for IRA is to get the action from the political and social demands of the people. If the government controls things at the local level then there is no danger from any alien conspiracy taking place and hence the IRA will not find grounds to grow roots into.

It is due to the mutual relations between the IRA and the corrupt legitimate authority which has led strength for the IRA. It was the link between the government and the Irish leader that made 80,000 Irish people from a secret society to join the British Army in the World War I in 1914. But since this gesture was not taken positively by the government with no expected response given, the people who opposed this whole idea since the beginning formed the IRA. (Kelley 1988) But is solely the corruption in the government that has let the IRA survive successfully for so long even after harsh law enforcement. The basic instigation from the IRA to influence some people in the authority has always won them their cases. (Bequai 1979) The moving of the IRA officials into political positions have made them sought legitimacy and then get strengthened.