Frankenstein Essays (230 words) - Frankenstein,

Frankenstein I remember the book Frankenstein, which was the only version of Frankenstein that I remember. What I remember is that there was a guy named Victor Frankenstein who I think studied in necromancy, which is the study of trying to raise the dead. The study of necromancy was frowned upon by society, but that didnt stop him from continuing in his studies. He actually started to use human parts from the dead in his studies that he stole from the local graves yards. He used those parts from the dead people to attempt to create another living being. On a late night he was finished creating a body and now he needed a powerful surge of electricity to restart the heart. Thankfully there was a storm going on so he hoisted the body up high in his laboratory and it was struck by lightning. He then brought it down to see that he had failed at creating life. He was angry and went home. He came back the next day to find that the body was missing from the table he left it on. Then as if out of nowhere the body walked towards victor Frankenstein from the shadows. Victor was so scared that he ran from the university and then hid in his home for a good while. That is all I remember from the book.

Free Essays on Train Lab

Train Lab Problem- What's the acceleration of the L train? Materials- Measure meter, stop watches, L train Procedure- First, the person in charge examines the platform briefly. Then he takes 11 people and places that at approximate. equal distances from each other over the entire platform. These are not going to be exactly accurate, as they are just a quickly formed hypothesis of the â€Å"equal† distance people people. Once the people are in their positions, they are handed a stopwatch by the safety people and are to remain in these spots until told to do otherwise. The person closest to the â€Å"beginning† of the platform (the first place the train passes coming into the station) is given the measure meter. Next, as the train enters the station, all stoppers get ready. As soon as the train starts to move out of the station, all stoppers start their watches and stop their watches when the back of the train passes them. Then, the person with the measure meter measures the distance between each person to get the displacement. With the time and displacement, one can get velocity. Then, we calculate the changes in velocity to find the accelerations and initial V and final V. Results/Calculations- Please see attached for calculations Total Displacement: 148.11 m Total Time: 17.90 s Total Velocity: 8.27 m/s Total Acceleration: .46 m/s 2 Observations: According to our research, the L train didn’t seem to have a very high acceleration. Discussion: - Why did we omit certain intervals to make our lab as accurate as possible? - Certain intervals were omitted from this experiment in order to ensure that we were providing the most accurate lab we could. Between some intervals, the numbers for time and/or average velocity were so radically strange that to use them in the lab would onl... Free Essays on Train Lab Free Essays on Train Lab Train Lab Problem- What's the acceleration of the L train? Materials- Measure meter, stop watches, L train Procedure- First, the person in charge examines the platform briefly. Then he takes 11 people and places that at approximate. equal distances from each other over the entire platform. These are not going to be exactly accurate, as they are just a quickly formed hypothesis of the â€Å"equal† distance people people. Once the people are in their positions, they are handed a stopwatch by the safety people and are to remain in these spots until told to do otherwise. The person closest to the â€Å"beginning† of the platform (the first place the train passes coming into the station) is given the measure meter. Next, as the train enters the station, all stoppers get ready. As soon as the train starts to move out of the station, all stoppers start their watches and stop their watches when the back of the train passes them. Then, the person with the measure meter measures the distance between each person to get the displacement. With the time and displacement, one can get velocity. Then, we calculate the changes in velocity to find the accelerations and initial V and final V. Results/Calculations- Please see attached for calculations Total Displacement: 148.11 m Total Time: 17.90 s Total Velocity: 8.27 m/s Total Acceleration: .46 m/s 2 Observations: According to our research, the L train didn’t seem to have a very high acceleration. Discussion: - Why did we omit certain intervals to make our lab as accurate as possible? - Certain intervals were omitted from this experiment in order to ensure that we were providing the most accurate lab we could. Between some intervals, the numbers for time and/or average velocity were so radically strange that to use them in the lab would onl...

Plato's Apology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Plato's Apology - Essay Example 1.2. Socrates’ method was to approach every known wise man and interview him in order to find one wiser than him. In asking a series of questions, he is able to deduce the speaker’s wisdom (21c) 1.3. Socrates found that when he probed each wise man with questions, he always discovered a fault in his ideas, which showed him not wiser than Socrates (21d-e) 1.4. Socrates surmised what the Delphic oracle meant by him being wiser than the other ‘wise men.’ â€Å"I am wiser than that other fellow, because neither of us knows anything of great value; but he thinks he knows a thing when he doesn’t; whereas I neither know it in fact, nor think that I do,† thereby making him wiser in that single respect (21d). 2. Socrates’ defense: 2.1. Against the old accusations 2.1.1. Socrates was accused of receiving money for teaching. While he denied it, he said that there is nothing dishonourable about this (19e to 20a). 2.1.2. The accusation of being too inquisitive – a â€Å"busybody† (19c) – Socrates simply denied, and countered that his accusers were angry at him because he unmasked their lack of wisdom. 2.2. Against the new accusations (by Meletus) 2.2.1. On the charge that Socrates corrupted the young, Socrates asked Meletus if he believed the laws, the judges, the Councillors, the people in the Assembly, all contributed to the improvement of the young, Meletus answered yes, and that only Socrates corrupted them (24e-25a). Socrates drew a parallel with horse trainers, and showed that normally, majority of influences would tend to be bad and the few good. This showed Meletus charge is not for the welfare of the young, but for his own spite (25c). 2.2.2. On the charge that Socrates was an atheist because he believed in demigods, Socrates pointed out that this was a contradiction in itself, since to believe in demigods was to believe in God, and therefore he could not be an atheist at the same time (26a-27e). 3. When Socrates proposed his own punishment, he first argued that what he had done was to provide a good for others, for which his punishment should actually be some â€Å"benefit† (36d) such as â€Å"free meals in the Pryteneum† (37a). One might say that by such levity, Socrates was treating the entire matter trivially; this is hard to imagine, however, since he was a perceptive and wise man and could appreciate the gravity of the situation and the seriousness of his adversaries. One could only deduce that he was being brutally honest and rational in asserting that he deserved to be rewarded rather than punished, for the good he had done to others, and treating no one unjustly (37b). 4. Socrates’ view of death is a blessing, not an evil (40c) and the afterlife can only be one of two things – a non-existence, or transformation of the soul to a different world. If it were the first, then the dead person will have no awareness at all, like a deep sleep whe re the sleeper did not even dream, which is then â€Å"a marvellous gain† (40d). If death were so, then Socrates would count it to be a most â€Å"agreeable† thing comparable to a single night’s rest. On the other hand, if death were a transformation then he counts it as the greatest blessing, to be rid of the false â€Å"jurors† who ruled against him and instead be in the presence of the demigods and great men who lived righteous lives (41a). By so dissecting the possibilities of the afterlife, Socrates is able to comfort his friends with his vision of death. He goes to meet death as a great adventure, or at the very least a restful sleep. Therefore, Socrates did not fear death, but only saw it as

Korean American-Q1 Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Korean American-Q1 - Article Example (Park, 2010). From within the perspective of the Korean American entrepreneurship, Park outlines how various scholarships on the subject has actually highlighted the influence of culture on the self-employment tendencies of Korean Americans. Park (2012) also highlights as to how Koreans American actually avoid low paid jobs and tend to focus more on having their own small business. This has more to do with the family and cultural influence on the American-Koreans that they become actively involved in the small business ownership. (Nopper, 2009) The success of Korean Americans is also due to the innovative use of different business techniques to deliver more value to the customers. Kang suggests that uptown nails salon services offer quality services duly supported by not only emotional body services but also supplement the same through the high tech IT and other services. Further, the overall involvement of Korean American women especially in uptown nails salon services is relatively superior and thus offers an edge to Korean American entrepreneurs. (King) Despite their entrepreneurial capabilities, Korean-Americans often witnessed biasness from their customers as well as the neighboring stores. The case of liquor stores is in point wherein store owners not only faced difficult customers but they are considered as outsiders by the neighboring stores and other businesses working in the proximity. As such a clear class conflict still exists making Korean Americans victim of bias and even hatred sometimes. What is also critical to understand that despite such hostile environment, liquor stores owned by Korean Americans actually performed better owing to better communication strategies adapted. Civilized communication often proved as an important strategic tool for the store owners to actually negotiate with hostile customers as well as others. This is despite the fact that Korean Americans have not been able to assimilate into the

Microeconomic and Macroeconomic Factors Influencing Toyota

Microeconomic and Macroeconomic Factors Influencing Toyota The company that has been chosen for the purpose of this assignment is the Toyota Corporation and the product that would be highlighted during this paper is going to be the Toyota Camry 2007 model. It is necessary to differentiate the difference between what are microeconomic factors and what are macroeconomic factors, the micro level economic factors are something that the company can exercise some level of control and can influence this environment to a certain degree but macroeconomic factors are such in nature that the company is unable to influence them by any means what so ever. On the literally terms, micro means small level and macro means on a larger scale. (Wessels, 2000). There are many factors that affect any company both on the micro as well as the macroeconomic level and it is of essence that companies realize these factors and potential factors so that they can survive in the long term, these factors are divided into two parts one is the consumers and the other is the company itself. (Samuelson, 2001). The microeconomic factors that affect a company or a product are Price: price is one of the single most if not the most important factor to be considered by the company in terms of microeconomic factors that affect the company. Price of a good determines the market share, what target market the product is trying to tap in to and how much of the good is going to be demanded and how much of it is going to be supplied by the company. (Samuelson, 2001). The price of a good determines if the consumers think that the product is worth buying or even worth contemplating upon, if prices are irrational for example a pie for $250 then the demand is almost certainly going to be negligible if not non-existent for this kind of product. The price is and can be influenced by the company by managing its supply effectively. Another important consideration that needs to be taken care of is the competitive prices in the economy for example if Honda Accord is priced between $18000-$20000 then the Toyota Camry needs to be priced in the similar range because they are ve ry close competitors in the US market, if Honda Accord prices its product lower than the Toyota Camry then it is almost certainly going to be able to get a larger pie of the target market given that all other things are kept constant or ceteris paribus rule applies. Opportunity Cost: The consideration of opportunity cost is extremely important when one talks about microeconomic factors, if Toyota Camry increases its prices then people would have to give up more money in order to purchase the same good i.e. their opportunity costs goes higher. (Wessels, 2000). This is where the concept of value for ones money steps in, if Camry is charging its customers $18000 then its value or its perceived value should be worth $18000 to the customer or else the customer would spend the $18000 where he or she deems that they would be much better spent. This is where the concept of studying the consumer comes in. (Lipsey, 2002). The concepts of price elasticity comes in here as well, if a small positive change in the price of Camry decreases the units demanded for Camry then Camry is highly price elastic but if the change in price only results in a small change in the units demanded then it is inelastic and it can afford to increase its prices. (Samuelson, 2001) . Cross elasticity is where Honda Accord decreases its prices and it affects the sales of the Toyota Camry, in this case it would be highly cross elastic but if no change or only a very minute change occurs then it is not cross elastic. Consumer Behavior: Consumers are people that eventually make or break a company, this is why they need to be studied and understood because they are a very potent force as far as the business is concerned. (Samuelson, 2001). Camry should understand what the consumers are looking for when they are making a decision to buy a car, is it safety? Is it durability? Is the fuel efficiency? Or is it all of the things mentioned before? When these questions have been answered and Camry has decided what market segment it is going to be in then it needs to position itself accordingly. Once this has been taken care of the company would then need to communicate what it stands for to the consumer (Glass, 2010) so that the consumer understands what the company is offering and matches the benefits that are being offered to the prices that are being demanded and make the decision whether to buy or not. (Lipsey, 2002). Another consideration that is extremely important for Toyota is that the costs of the cars that it is manufacturing should be at the lowest levels possible so that it gets the highest possible profits from each unit that is sold. How can the costs be controlled? There are a variety of factors into consideration when costs are involved, first of all Toyota should build strategic partnerships with all its vendors so that they are on board with the company strategy and are aware of what the company is trying to achieve. (Glass, 2010). Secondly it should increase the plant efficiency and also have a look at its processes and implement cost cutting measures where ever it can but most importantly the workers have to be trained to be efficient so that they are on board with the companyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s policies as well. (Samuelson, 2001). If the costs are too high for Toyota then certainly so would be the prices of Camry and hence this would render the product unsuccessful because competi tive brand would be able to capture a larger market share and may also be able to drive Camry out of business. Competition as highlighted above always has bearings on the company and its decisions and hence in a microeconomic environment the company has to keep a tab on the competition as well and analyze what they are doing and be able to predict what their next move is going to be and try to be one step ahead of the competition at all times (Glass, 2010), although the company cannot influence its competition directly but it can take measures that can affect the competition in a positive as well as a negative fashion. (Donburch, 1988). For example if Honda announces that it would launch a an Accord in 2012 that would be extremely fuel efficient but at the same time it would be able to break the sound barrier, then Toyota has to come up with a product that is equivalent to that Accord if not better. The second part of this paper deals with factors at the macroeconomic level, these factors are beyond the control of any of the firms and these are in a way given or handed down by the state of the economy and are largely dependent on the government policies and the economic structure that is prevalent in the environment that the company is operating in, for example Toyota Corporation in the US would not be able to determine the exchange rate of the dollar because that is more dependent on the US governments policies and the decisions that are taken within the economic environment by that government. (Wessels, 2000). Interest rates: Interest rates in an economy determine whether people are going to save more or spend more, when the interest rates are high people would prefer to save rather than spend but if the interest rates are low in the economy then people would prefer to spend their money rather than save it. (Donburch, 1988). The exact inverse is true when it comes to borrowing from banks or other financial institutions, people tend to take loans when the interest rates are lower and would prefer not to loan out money when interest rates are higher. (Donburch, 1988). How is Toyota affected by the interest rates prevalent within in the economy? If Toyota is to set up a new plant it is definitely going to need a loan to set up the plant, when would Toyota prefer to take the loan? When the interest rates are on the lower side and hence this macroeconomic factor affects the strategy of the company. (Wessels, 2000). Taxes: Toyota would prefer to set up a plant where the corporate taxes are on the lower side so that it enables the company to earn higher profits for its stakeholders, however the taxes or the tax regime is developed by the government and Toyota has no say in it. Employment: Employment or the ability of the workforce to fulfill the requirements of the Toyota Corporation is another important element. Toyota cannot train the whole workforce or it cannot provide for itself employees all by itself, the government has to provide for the people basic education and training (Donburch, 1988) so there is enough work-force available to work for the Toyota Corporation. Business cycles or cyclical trends of the economy also have a bearing on the Toyota Corporation for example economy can experience growth and it can also experience stagnation and this would directly affect the sales of the Toyota Camry but this is something that the company has no control over and is not able to influence it. (Lipsey, 2002). Inflation is another important element when talking about macroeconomic factors, inflation is the general increase in the price levels within an economy (Donburch, 1988) and if prices increase then the costs for Toyota also would increase and some of these costs or in some cases all of it would be transferred on to the customers of the company. Conclusion In conclusion, both macro and micro levels have an important bearing on the company but at the micro level the company should influence the factors in its favor and at the macro level the company should be able to predict the future trends and be adaptive. (Lipsey, 2002).

Putnam Paper Essay

Introduction   Putnam’s recent work has mainly focused on bringing philosophy out of its case and back to the world of ordinary people and ordinary social problems. Pragmatic provides us with some ideas for finding the claim that there is no difference between what is real and what we experience as real. A pragmatic realist philosophy of religion is not reductionism and therefore acceptable for religious as well as non-religious philosophers of religion.   Ã‚  Majority of the pragmatists seek to find a middle way between metaphysical realism and relativism and between dogmatism and skepticism by using the pragmatic maxim, in order to establish the meaning of a conception we should consider what practical consequences might conceivably result from the truth of that conception. Belief in what is taken to be true is conceived as a guiding action, that is, it is a habit, a disposition to behave, and its opposite is disbelief and doubt. This doubt is normally caused by surprising phenomenon that is incompatible with one’s earlier accepted beliefs. We begin a process of inquiry whenever the doubt arises where we attempt to obtain a new equilibrium with our environment where our doubt is detached. This new equilibrium refers to new habits and revised beliefs. A glowing inquiry lead to stable view, that is only short-term, and will eventually be followed by new doubt.   Most of the pragmatics conceived an inquiry method as the way we think and have to think in all aspect of life. Cognitive experience is the result of inquiry. An inquiry process begins in a sensible difficulty, going on through the stage of conceptual elaboration of probable resolutions, and results in a concluding reconstruction of the experience into a new cohesive whole. This cohesive whole is not, a closed system.   With this view of a cohesive whole, pragmatists question knowledge as a sort of inactive recording of antecedent facts. They claim that, knowing is vied as a constructive conceptual action, anticipating, and guiding our alteration to future practical interactions with our environment. With that regard, we cannot therefore assign a complete status to the traditional ontological distinction between mind and body, means and end, or between fact and value. However, these differences should functionally and contextually be understood. Moreover, most pragmatists refute truth as correspondence of consideration to things in themselves, but ague that, truth is a subject of successful change of our ideas to challenging circumstances, a view which was supported by William James.   With regard to moral, aesthetic and the religious, there is a pragmatic interrelation between the truth and utility. These truth values are brought by their sensible function in our lives. The religious should have sensible penalty for their people who accept them. According to pragmatism, both religion and science have an explanation concerning who we are as human beings. Nonetheless, science deals with experimental and observational experience, while religion deals with the existential experience.   Putnam ague that objects in the world is always objects conceptualized by people. These objects vary depending on the theory at hand. This implies that what is say concerning the objects as true, presupposes a theory. However, this does not implies that what is say to be true concerning the objects is caused by the theory. Yet, there is no any reason to claim that truth consists with unconseptualized objects, because what people say about objects is based on theory, and so, it is appropriate to see truth as some kind of rational acceptability, perfect consistency with one another and with our experience. According to Putnam the truth can be defined in terms of evidence. This claim was severely question by Alvin Goldman by giving an example of a person who was falsely accused of a crime that was actually committed by somebody else who had already died. Several witnesses gave their evidence and eventually the person was accused without chance to defend his innocent. In such situation, if the definition of truth in terms of evidence is accepted, then automatically the accused person is saying to be guilty which in fact is converse to the truth that the person is not guilty. Goldman therefore, ague that truth can only be said to be exact if it can be defended.   This view does not mean that the truth is a correspondence between judgments and words or that the fact is independent of conceptualized. Putnam’s internalism is supported by the Murat Bac who ague that there is indeed sensible distinction between members of the community who are convince that there is no sense of truth other than what is agreed by them and another community members who believe that suggested truth is what is independent of their best evidence.   According to this argument, the former would accuse Goldman’s innocent man of being guilty while the latter would be more cautious on it. According to the internal realist, they is no description of the world, not even the most advanced scientific one, is the world’s or nature’s own. Ontology, truth and reference are internal to conceptual schemes serving different uses. The outcome of this conceptual view is that we live in a human world; and that there is no ready made world.   Putnam ague that , it is obstinately scientific and culturally dangerous to consider natural science as being more closely clued-up with the true structure of reality than other human language games.   Putnam often views truth as an epistemic concept contrasted to non-epistemic conception of truth proposed by associated theorists. He argued that we should, instead of succumbing to metaphysical or internal realism, accept a reasonable natural realism.   We cannot negate unintelligible statement of the metaphysical realist because their negation is likewise unintelligible as the original statement. According to Putnam, the metaphysical realist does not get to something which is a significant target and that our inability to describe the world entirely is no failure by any means, but is due to collapsing of the description into unintelligible if construed as the negation of such an idea. Truth cannot be just something language internal, but it is a representative relation between language users’ utterances and principally non-linguistic reality, although metaphysical effort to describe this relation as correspondence indeed lead to problem. Truth is the main element in a conceptual system that allows us to use terms such as statement, refers, belief, thought, etcetera. According to Putnam, world involving notions ensnare with our practical habit of act in the world where we live.   Putnam ague that the metaphysical or scientific realist’s try to find a privileged scientific position for describing the world   the way it is, independently of practice laden human perspectives, is a complete failure. His attacks on a tough kind of realism have resulted into more broad attacks on the reductionist, scientific dream of representing eventual reality in terms of scientific theories. Putnam has been interpreted as a relativist, but he has reminded his critics that he never consider the facts found in the world as dependent on how we use language in any common sense of the word dependent. Putnam view could be interpreted as an empirical realism in a Kantian sense, where the world would be constituted by our purpose oriented practices nearly in a way in which the empirical world is a human construction, but not being fictitious. There is a sense that the world and the truths relating to it are human constructions; however it is ever from a human perspective that we say whatever we say concerning the world we take to be real. It is only in particular contexts of philosophy confusion that, we are expected to justify our beliefs about objectives world’s facts. Moreover, we should all the same take our words as corresponding to how things are. Putnam critically evaluates the likelihood of philosophy to make the human lives better, where he borrows from Jame’s and Dewey’s meliorism. He argued that there is no ethical dichotomy between the facts and values which can be drawn. According to him all facts that can be found in our humanly structured world are value laden, and value are everywhere, they extend into each and every corner of our experience and thought. Here Putnam was very categorical in criticize skeptical and relativist theories of ethics, that see values as basically subjective and should be banished from the scientific world view. According to Putnam it is extremely wrong to believe that science as a privilege perception for describing the world that it may perhaps reduced values to something entirely factual.   We have to develop moral images of the world where metaphysical and ethical elements are a deep entangle. Putnam has tried to bring religious issues, characteristically marginalized in scientific oriented analytical philosophy, back to the centre of philosophy. He noted that scientific attacks on theism are based on misunderstandings. Later, Putnam arrives relatively close to Wittgensteinian mysticism, where it is not possible to communicate religious perceptive in a meaningful language. His religious idea is troubled by tensions; however this may be an indication of a profound religious thinker. Human being both are at the centre of theoretical and practical philosophy, this is not clearly separable. The metaphilosophical view as put by Putnam is very critical to make us understand our challenging existence in the world, and thus be able to make a difference on the way we live. Philosophy is a deeply human project which aim at a humanly world view rather than any impersonal unlimited conception. It gives us a clear look at our own situation.   Conclusion   In this work , I have critically discussed the Putnam perspective view of the world, and have argue that human being can only adopt internal perspective which attempt to explain clearly about who we are. Reality is always reality conceptualized by us, building on the experiences and existential ones describing the fact that science and religion have different role in our lives. This however, is not reductionism, but rather taking religious seriously as a human phenomenon. Our view on references, truth, the mind, values, religion, and other issues can be seen as fallible, self-critical attempts to discover what our best practice add to in these varied cases and what kind of philosophy pertinent commitments it makes. References Peter A. French et.al; (1997) ‘God and the Philosophers,’ in Religion, Midwest Studies in Philosophy 21, Minneapolis, pp. 175-187. Boolos, et.al; (1990) Meaning and Method: Essay in Honor of Hillary Putnam, Cambridge. Putnam, H., et.al; (1994) A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind, Oxford, Cambridge, Mass, pp. 507-513.

If I Die in a Combat Zone Review

If I Die in a Combat Zone Review The 1960s was a series of ongoing changes. It was the height of the counter culture revolution, the civil rights movement the drive for higher education, middle class advancement, the â€Å"Great Society†, the industrial community servicing the military, and most notably, the Vietnam war and conscription into service. The time frame of O'Briens If I Die in a Combat Zone is majorly in 1968 and O'Brien was feeling the heat from everything that was going on at this time From the very beginning Tim O'Brien stressed his opposition to the war in Vietnam.He even comes out and states at the beginning that, â€Å"The war, I though, was wrongfully conceived and poorly justified†. At this time there was a massive movement against the war. This the upcoming election and Eugene McCarthy openly opposed to Vietnam it was no surprise to learn that O'Brien supported him. But supporting the antiwar movement was not enough to avoid the draft, especially fo r O'Brien. With protests rising and the Yippies leading major protests against the war and draft, conscription was still a major worry among the public.It was known that if you were of age and not in college then Vietnam was your next stop. Unless of course individuals could gain deferment through specific issues as did some of O'Briens friends at the time. But even with strong opposition, both morally and emotionally to the war, O'Brien still knew he had a duty and obligation to serve. In one instance when O'Brien is speaking to a chaplain regarding the war, the chaplain uses a strong example of American Exceptionalism by saying, â€Å"If you accept, as I do, that America is one helluva great country, well then, you do as she tells you†.He the. Goes on to say that, â€Å"i did not wan to be a soldier, not even an observer to war. But neither did i was to upset a particular balance of the order I knew, the people I knew, and my own private world. † This again reinforce d O'Brien that his duty and obligation was more important than his personal belief. This was a common bond that was found between O'Brien and other soldiers while in Vietnam. This was the bond of the citizen-soldier. The citizen-soldiers were just that. Normal citizens that were turned soldier due to conscription.Because elf the similar circumstances the soldiers could relate together. There wasn't a common bond between the unsympathetic soldiers to the Vietnamese however. Mistreatment of the Vietnamese was very common. Especially with O'Briens tour of duty being after the Tet Offensive, distrust of the Vietnamese was rampant. By the beginning of 1968, 90% of south Vietnam was under communist influence and 1/3 of the population was under communist control. This meant that the soldiers did not know who they could and couldn't trust.The mistreatment of the local population was consistent. Even on one of O'Briens missions of a raid on a village that turned up one communist weapon, no o ne in the village spoke up of who's it was. So the orders were handed down and O'Briens squad interrogated the villagers, burned the village down and took prisoners to basically act as a human shield to ensure they were not attacked for the that night. This was a common occurrence that occurred repeatedly before, during and after O'Briens time of service.The benefits of such actions provided security for the soldiers but costs outweighed the benefits. Because of this treatment, the Vietnamese population was also distrusting of the American troops. Distrust among the locals led to decreased support for actions and the communists offers and proposals became more appealing to the local population than the American goals did, based on their actions. Though not mentioned much in O'Briens If I Die in a Combat Zone book, racial tensions were still high because of the civil rights movements going on back in the United States.During one instance a majority of the black soldiers felt disgrace d and mistreated by a fellow lieutenant. The soldiers kept saying that the lieutenants time was coming and he was â€Å"going to get it†. Then it had finally happened. An explosion that erupted beneath the lieutenant that tore his lower body apart and killed him was not confirmed but rumored as a grenade fired for. One of the black soldiers that did its intended purpose of taking him out. Besides that, and even with the civil rights movement back home, there did not seem to be much more racial tensions between the soldiers themselves.They were in a common situation that bonded them together and they looked past their differences for the most part. These common words; similar situation and bond, are again what pieces together this idea of the conscripted citizen-soldier that O'Brien indeed was. The conscripted citizen-soldier was different in a way as the volunteer was. A volunteer signed up willingly for the military. This was a common thing for some because they wanted some form of control over their experience in the military.The major difference of the conscripted citizen-soldier is that there was no volunteering. O'Brien like many others who opposed involvement, hoped to not be drafted but was. Control of the situation was relinquished and failure to report was punishable. This played the major role in O'Briens thoughts of going AWOL but overall, his pride, family and duty spoke louder than his fear and open opposition to the war. This was what O'Brien saw in the other conscripted citizen-soldiers then lead to such a strong attachment with him and the men in his unit.Others had normal lives like O'Brien and they too were torn away from it and drafted to come to a war that as opposed by so many. There is one quote by Tim O'Brien that I feel sums this all up. He states, â€Å"Courage is nothing to laugh at, not if it is proper courage and exercised by right men who know what they do is proper. Proper courage is wise courage. It's acting wisely, actin g wisely when fear would have a man act otherwise. It is the endurance of the soul is spite of fear. In a time that was going through so many changes and problems as the 1960s, I believe that this is a quote that speaks the truth above all else. Not just about the Vietnam war but also the courage of all those who sought for equal rights, opposed the war and stood up for what they believed was right even though there were fearful consequences for them taking such a stand and actions. In a world where so much wrong was happening, the citizens, soldiers and activists stood for change, exemplified courage and banded together to do what was right.