Friday, August 10, 2007


"The mother of revolution and crime is poverty"(Aristotle) Do you agree?

"The mother of revolution and crime is poverty"(Aristotle) Do you agree?

Poverty has been a persisting problem which exists as early as 300BC, the era where Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher who made the statement lived in. By that time, revolution, which is a significant and violent change in values that usually occurs in a short period of time, was already prominent, so to say about crime. These are mostly triggered by dissatisfaction of the citizens towards their live, thus feeling the need to change it. However, the origin of these negativities need not be poverty as this issue subjects to different individuals.

YES – poverty caused revolution and crime
1. When one’s in a dire state, blinded by financial problems and the urge to improve his living conditions, he would most probably be tempted to commit crimes such as theft to satisfy his needs and wants. At this stage, sacrificing his pride will no longer be prohibited for a man as he would be more burdened if he doesn’t do so. On the other hand, the upper class will not have such thoughts of breaking the law as they do not have the need to do so.
2. As followed by the previous point, when the urge to lift up one’s living conditions is huge, the helplessness will be greater too. Thus, there will be growing dissatisfaction towards government body. This is because the government is the one who can implement policies to help the financially disabled citizens, which means that that government is not fulfilling their job if there are a significant proportion of citizens living in difficult financial conditions. Like in Singapore, 30% of the lower class citizens are earning lesser and lesser, yet the Singapore government did not take their words to help the lower class citizens into action. In this circumstance, the poor may think that revolution – the fight against poverty in this case, is the best way out.

NO – Not poverty but other reasons caused revolution and crime
1. Poverty is not the only reason that causes one to commit crime and fight against the commonplace. When Aristotle made that sweeping statement on poverty, it is class discrimination that he was practicing. In any case, it is an undesirable practice. Why does it have to be the people of the lower class in the society to commit crimes and lead the revolution? Rich upper class people commit crimes too, especially crimes associated with greed because it’s a psychological effect where people will want more when given more. Take for example, the corruption case of the former CEO of NKF, TT. Durai in the year 2006. Due to greed, he laundered a lump sum of NKF’s fund without authorization. He was the CEO of NKF, one who had full and overflowing pockets but yet, his desire was overwhelming and it landed him in a lawsuit, reducing him to a bankrupt Singapore citizen.

In conclusion, I agree to a small extent that poverty causes crime and revolution. Without the lower class of the society, the economy would not be balanced. Moreover, poverty is and will not be the sole cause of crime and revolution as greed and the thrilling experience gained from committing a crime will also tempt one to break the law. Class discrimination thus, is deemed very unnecessary.


Dreamt by Shurlene min at 4:30 PM 1 comments

Monday, August 6, 2007


Research

Lookism
Definition:
discrimination or prejudice based on a person's physical appearance.
Link: http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/19_2/19_2_2.pdf
http://www.geocities.com/s_cullars/lookism.htm

Ageism
Definition:
1.discrimination against persons of a certain age group.
2.a tendency to regard older persons as debilitated, unworthy of attention, or unsuitable for employment.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ageism
http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/ageism.html

Disablism
Definition:
inherent discrimination against people with disabilities in favour of people who are not disabled.
Link: http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/disablism
http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/departments/closerlook/000947.html

Xenophobia
Definition:
an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophobia
http://www.csvr.org.za/papers/paphar1.htm


Dreamt by Shurlene min at 1:57 PM 0 comments