Civil Disobedience vs. Sociology of the South essays

Civil Disobedience vs. Sociology of the South essays Civil Disobedience vs. Sociology of the South Examining two pieces of writing from 1800 US history, we see two writers with strong polar backgrounds agreeing on minor issues of the time. It is hard to find a common ground between Henry Thoreau and George Fitzhugh, but they share similar views toward government and its relationship with the masses. They opposed the government and wanted the people to dictate their wants to the government. Henry David Thoreau, writer, naturalist, and philosopher, was born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1817. Thoreau became involved in the transcendentalist movement, a discipline promoting self-education and the development of the individual. Thoreau's most famous essay, Civil Disobedience (1849), was a result of an overnight visit in 1846 in a jail, when he refused to pay his taxes in protest against the Mexican War and the extension of slavery. Believing that his money should not go towards programs he did not believe in, Thoreau ended up in jail for one night. In Civil Disobedience, Thoreaus advocacy of civil disobedience as a means for the individual to protest those actions of his government that he considers unjust has had a wide-ranging impact. Emphasizing the magnitude and significance of individuality vs. conformity, Thoreau expresses a strong distaste for the interfering role of the government in peoples lives. His reasoning behind this is essentially that the government is always throwing up seemingly impossible obstacles to obstruct the path toward individual success. As a result of mankinds frustration at not being able to get around these obstacles, man instead marches in line at the governments bidding, believing only with the governments control will they be able to successfully plot the path to individual freedom. Thoreau found it ironic, however, that this supposed path to individual freedom was paved by traditional mindsets. Thoreau viewed the government as the ...

Normality and Normalcy

Normality and Normalcy Normality and Normalcy Normality and Normalcy By Maeve Maddox Audrey Bennett asks: Can normalcy and normality be used interchangeably? Both nouns derive from the adjective normal. normal: conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected. The adverb is normally. According to some speakers, normalcy is an abominable neologism to be avoided at all costs. This attitude is illustrated by this comment praising a writer for preferring normality over normalcy: A Nobel in Literature to you for writing â€Å"return to normality† instead of the ugly neologism â€Å"normalcy,† first popularized by Warren G. Harding. Actually, according to the OED, this particular neologism was around as early as 1857, nearly half a century before Harding used it in his campaign in 1920 when he promised a return to normalcy. The following examples are all from U.S. publications: After Opener, Giants Hoping for Normalcy For a man doing time on the yard, sports offer a touch of normality and tangible contact with his life outside. Pasternack hoping to bring normalcy to New Orleans Seventeen years later, my quest for normality had taken me through a career in journalism†¦ AFTER THE STORM; South Florida Staggers to Normality Evacuees Worry and Hope for Return to Normalcy Normalcy is not interchangeable with normality in some contexts. For example, in comparing an untypical condition to a typical condition, one would want to pair abnormality with normality and not normalcy. Although the form abnormalcy is showing up on the web and even in some dictionaries, its not in the OED, and it is not standard in American speech. Bottom line: Normalcy is well established and acceptable in standard American speech, although it is not interchangeable with normality in some contexts. Normality, on the other hand, suits every context in which the sense the state or condition of being normal is intended. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Bare or Bear With Me?How to Pronounce MobileNominalized Verbs