A Historical Overview of Christianity

Christianity is not one faith in its practice, but a diverse array of faiths that have evolved over two thousand years. What these faiths share in common is the central figure of Jesus Christ. In his day, Jesus was a polarizing figure.He was born and raised in the Jewish tradition, but was shunned by many when he proclaimed himself to be the long awaited messiah. How could a messiah come from such humble roots? He was not the image of the messiah most people at the time expected.For the Romans, Jesus posed a threat to their rule. Jesus never set out to upend the Roman state, but his growing popularity was seen as a threat none the less. Eventually he was arrested on trumped-up charges and brutally crucified.In the decades following his death his small group of apostles began constructing what we now know as the New Testament. They related the events of his life including the miracles he performed, his crucifixion and his resurrection. These writings were combined with the much older Jewish Torah and Talmud to form the Christian Bible of today.The Apostles also formed the early Christian church as a separate entity from traditional Judaism. In its remarkable history that church would suffer centuries of persecution then would rise to the heights of political and social power. It also would endure many splits. The largest single denomination within the Christian church is Catholicism.The Protestant Reformation of the middle ages would eventually spawn hundreds of new denominations. The history, theoretical perspectives and rites of each of these denominations differs from the others. All are ultimately focused on Jesus Christ as the savior through which man can be given eternal life in heaven.†¢ Subtopic 1: theoretical perspectives and development of the theologyTraditional Christian theology views God as a three-faceted entity. God the Father, God the son (Jesus) and God as the Holy Spirit comprise what is known as the godhead.In 675 A.D., The Council of Tr ent concluded that â€Å"Although we profess three persons we do not profess three substances but one substance and three persons (Stanford University, 2008). Judaism, by contrast, does not recognize Jesus as God. Although many first century Jews viewed Jesus as a heretic or even a false prophet, most now accept that he was a prophet but not that he was the messiah.Christianity is heavily influenced by Judaism. The books of the Torah form Christian conceptions of the beginning of the world, the sinfulness of man and the promise of a coming messiah. Jesus himself preached in the Jewish synagogues and often cited Old Testament prophecy.St. Augustine of Hippo, argued that philosophical reflection complemented theology, but only when these philosophical reflections were firmly grounded in a prior intellectual commitment to the underlying truth of the Christian faith.(Stanford University, 2008)The Jews of the first century doubted that Jesus could be the messiah that had been promised i n the book of Isaiah. He was a carpenter from humble origins. His parents were unmarried at the time Mary began pregnant with Jesus.The family faced ostracization as a result. Joseph, the baby’s earthly father, had considered sending his wife away before the baby was born. Since he and Mary had not yet had sex, Joseph suspected that the pregnancy was the result of an affair. According to the Christian bible, Joseph was convinced not to send her away by a vision from God and consultation with Jewish elders. The baby was to be the messiah born of a virgin.If the Jewish community doubted the humble beginnings of the young messiah, some of his early teachings raised even more concern. While Jesus recognized that the Jewish people were the chosen people of the Old Testament the messiah was not to be reserved to them. Jesus came to atone for the sins of all people. Those of any culture who accepted him in faith could receive this atonement.Judaism had already existed for centuries by that time. During this span of time theologians had created hundreds of specific rules regarding worship and everyday life. For many Jews piety was judged in concordance with obeying of these rules. Jesus challenged this assumption.By working on the Sabbath and performing other acts that broke the rules, Jesus sent a clear message that true faith was about much more than obeying the rules. He told the elders that they could not â€Å"earn their way† in to heaven. In doing so he challenged the well-established social order.As Jesus had faced skepticism and outright hostility, so too would the early Christian Church. Theologians such as St. Paul would face resistance from all sides. The Jews, particularly the elite classes, strongly disagreed with the proposition that Jesus was the messiah.The ruling Romans saw a threat that could erode their empire from within. There was also dissent within the early church as it struggled to find its theological underpinnings.   

Toward a Theory of Olympic Internationalism

Journal of Sport History, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring 1995) Toward a Theory of Olympic Internationalism John Hoberman University of Texas at Austin â€Å"Well, all right then, let’s talk about the Chairman of the World. The world gets into a lot of trouble because it has no chairman. I would like to be Chairman of the World myself. † —E. B. White, Stuart Little (1945) â€Å"But when it comes to our age, we must have an automatic theocracy to rule the world. † —Sun Myung Moon (1973) Back in 1967, Dr.Wildor Hollmann, one of Germany’s most prominent sports physicians and longtime president of the International Federation for Sports Medicine (FIMS), was visiting the International Olympic Academy at Olympia on the day of its annual inauguration, with King Constantine himself in attendance. Naively assuming that the Academy was an open forum for thinking about the past, present, and future of the Olympic movement, Dr. Hollmann expressed the view that, i n the not-too-distant future. he â€Å"Olympic idea† itself would inevitably fall victim to the logic of development inherent in the professionalization and commercialization of elite sport. The words were hardly out of his mouth before Dr. Hollmann was engulfed in a storm of indignation, during which an Italian member of the IOC declared that merely expressing such thoughts was in his view nothing less than a desecration of this holy site. 1 Olympic historiography has long been inseparable from the Movement’s status as a redemptive and inspirational internationalism.Like so many readings of its founder, Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937), historical interpretations of the Olympic movement have generally taken the form of â€Å"either hagiographies or hagiolatries,† and not least because the founder himself â€Å"proclaimed Olympism beyond ideology. †2 Historical treatments of the Movement since the launching of that provocative claim have thus had no 1. W[i ldor] Hollmann, â€Å"Risikofaktoren in der Entwicklung des Hochleistungssports. â€Å" in H. Rieckert, ed. Sportmedizin—Kursbestimmung [Deutscher Sportarztekongre?Kiel. l6. -19. Oktober 1986] (Berlin: SpringerVerlag, 1987): 18. 2. John J. MacAloon, This Great Symbol: Pierre de Coubertin and the Origins of the Modern Olympic Games (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981): 2, 6. 1 Journal of Sport History, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring 1995) choice but to embrace or call into question the transcendent status of Olympic sport that is symbolized so powerfully by opening and closing ceremonies that tap into deep and unfulfilled wishes for a Golden Age of harmony and peace.Due at least in part to the impassioned and seemingly endless debate between the defenders and detractors of â€Å"Olympism,† with its pronounced emphasis on ethical values at the expense of historical factors, serious study of the Olympic movement has stagnated. Recent monographs have presented familiar e vents and issues without much in the way of new research or methodological innovation. 3 While the periodical literature of the past decade or so, including voluminous conference proceedings, has offered a wider range of perspectives, the conceptual landscape inhabited by the historian has not really changed in significant ways.This closed circulatory system of topics and problems has rigidified the important debate over values by limiting our understanding of the object of contention—the Olympic movement itself. The arguments between supporters and critics of the Movement that tend to dominate discussion naturally proceed from the assumption that both actually know what the Movement is or, at least, what it is worth to the international community. Yet the sheer complexity of the Olympic phenomenon suggests there is much more to know even without entering the domain of ethnographical research.I would propose that the production of this knowledge depends on reconceptualizing t he Olympic movement in fundamental ways. This essay proposes a theory of Olympic internationalism based on a comparative method. Indeed, the fact that no comparative study of this kind has ever been published suggests that the iconic status of the Movement has had a profoundly limiting effect on Olympic historiography as a whole and thus on the debate regarding values. as well. For by exaggerating the uniqueness of the Movement, Olympic historians have conferred on it a degree of splendid (or, alternatively, discreditable) isolation that is contradicted by the historical evidence. An important consequence of this overly narrow 3. See. for example. Allen Guttmann. The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games (Urbana and Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 1992); and â€Å"The Olympic Games,† in Games & Empires: Modern Sports and Cultural Imperialism (New York: Columbia University Press. 1994): 120-138. The former offers a good survey of Olympic history.The latter discusses t he Olympic movement in the larger context of sport and cultural diffusion. See also Christopher Hill, Olympic Politics (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1992), which pays special attention to Olympic finance and the bidding process. For a highly personal and admiring treatment of the modern Olympic movement, see John Lucas, Future of the Olympic Games (Champaign, IL, Human Kinetics Books, 1992). 4. To this observation I must append an additional (and ironic) one. Even as I argue that the failure of Olympic historiography to embark upon comparative studies has isolated the movement.I must point out simultaneously that historical treatments of other international movements have isolated them in exactly the same way. In a word, nothing resembling a comprehensive theory of these international movements exists, perhaps in part because there are so many of them and they are so heterogeneous. For example, Samuel P. Huntington’s treatment of â€Å"Transnational Organizations in World Politics† (1973) includes none of the organizations discussed in the present essay and lists an â€Å"idealistic† organization like the Catholic church along with profit-oriented corporations and a pair of important Cold War institutions.His list reads as follows: Anaconda, Intelsat, Chase Manhattan, the Agency for International Development, the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, Air France, the Strategic Air Command, Unilever, the Ford Foundation, the Catholic Church, the CIA, and the World Bank. The purpose of his essay is to analyze what he calls â€Å"a transnational organizational revolution in world politics. † See â€Å"Transnational Organizations in World Politics,† World Politics 25 (1973): 333-368. Toward a Theory of Olympic Internationalism interpretation has been to exacerbate and confuse the debate about values by crowning (or afflicting) the Movement with an exaggerated picture of its uniqueness as a vessel of recon ciliation (or harm). The evidence presented below suggests that a comparison of the Olympic movement with contemporary and analogous international movements reveals a core repertory of behaviors and orientations that are common to them all.The comparative procedure presented here divides the history of these â€Å"idealistic internationalisms† into three periods that are roughly separated by the First and Second World Wars, respectively. The establishment of the Olympic movement in 1894 coincided with the sharply accelerated formation of a broad range of international organizations during the last decades of the nineteenth century. Between 1855 and 1914, their overall numbers increased from a mere handful to around 200, and the numbers have grown exponentially since the turn-of-the-century period. The comparative study of international organizations and the â€Å"movements† they launch remains underdeveloped to a striking degree, and this is so even in the case of impo rtant types of international activity. Thus, while Olympic historiography is rather well established, one historian has referred to the world of international science as a â€Å"largely unexplored domain. † On a broader scale, as another historian recently noted, â€Å"the construction of internationalism has merited scarcely a glance. †6 Accounting for such lacunae in the writing of history is in itself an interesting, and often difficult. istoriographical problem. It may be less difficult, however, in the case of movements that have created both core groups of loyal adherents and benevolent self-images that in some cases have exercised a virtually global reach for most of a century. The Olympic (1894), Scouting (1908), and Esperanto (1887) movements, for example, have all benefitted from benign myths of origin rooted in reverential attitudes toward the personal qualities of their respective founding fathers and the salvational doctrines they created.One result of suc h cults of personality is a â€Å"halo effect† that can confer on such movements a degree of immunity to critical examination. As one of the few serious historians of Scouting has pointed out: â€Å"Scouting has for so long been a familiar and well-loved part of the Western world that it appears always to have been with us, less a man-made creation than a natural, indigenous activity of our civilization. † The consequences of according such iconic status to culturally constructed institutions have been profound. In the case of Scouting, â€Å"it is startling that so few have seriously considered what it all meant.Such immunity from critical scrutiny has left Scouting almost entirely in the 5. Elizabeth Crawford, â€Å"The Universe of International Science, 1880-1939,† in Tore Frangsmyr, ed. Solomon's House Revisited: The Organization and Institutionalization of Science (Canton, MA; Science History Publications, U. S. A. , 1990): 259-260. For evidence for the pr oliferation of international organizations during the twentieth century, see the Yearbook of International Organizations (Brussels: Union of International Associations, 1974). 6. Crawford, â€Å"The Universe of International Science,† 265; Leila J.Rupp, â€Å"Constructing Internationalism; The Case of Transnational Women's organizations, 1888-1945,† American Historical Review (December 1994): 1571. 3 Journal of Sport History, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring 1995) hands of its own historians and publicists, a situation that is not helpful in trying to understand the origins and meaning of any movement. †7 These words are precisely descriptive of the Olympic movement, as well, the only difference being that Olympic historiography has developed (over the past 25 years) a degree of autonomy the history of Scouting has not.This autonomous branch of Olympic historiography is necessarily based on scholarly or investigative activity that produces interpretations of the Olympic mo vement that do not always coincide with those of the IOC and its adherents in the press and in academia. And it is here that analyzing the Movement will often be interpreted as â€Å"criticism. † Today, a generation after Wildor Hollmann’s heretical (and prophetic) remark about the future of Olympic sport, criticism of the International Olympic Committee is still capable of offending the dignity of its most powerful members.The landmark event in this regard was the publication in 1992 of The Lords of the Rings, an expose of the IOC’s inner circle by the investigative journalists Vyvian Simson and Andrew Jennings. Translated into 13 languages, the book became a global media event that traumatized the IOC leadership and, in particular, its President, Juan Antonio Samaranch, who stood accused of political opportunism and fascist allegiances both during the Franc period and after the Generalissimo’s death in 1975. The publication of Jaume Boix and Arcadio Esp ada’s book El deporte del poder.Vida y milagro de Juan Antonio Samaranch, containing essentially the same material on Samaranch’s political background, had gone virtually unnoticed by the world press only a year earlier. 8 The reaction from IOC headquarters to the atmosphere of scandal created by The Lords of the Rings deserves a study in itself. On 17 February 1994 the IOC and President Samaranch filed a criminal action in a Lausanne court against the authors but not against their more powerful major publishers (Simon & Schuster, Bertelsman, Flammarion). The indictment (Investigation No. : CH. 32. 92) charged libel under article 174 and defamation under article 173 of the Swiss Penal Code. The tone of the document can be conveyed by quoting from its text: â€Å"The plaintiff, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is an international nongovernmental organization, constituted as a nonlucrative association. It has the status of a person . . . . The work of the accus ed constitutes a lampoon directed against the plaintiffs, against the management of the IOC and its officials and against the behaviour of the former and of some of their co-contracting parties.To a large extent, the formulated criticisms constitute a blow to the honour of the IOC, its president and its 7. Michael Rosenthal. The Character Factory: Baden-Powell’s Boy Scouts and the Imperatives of Empire (New York: Pantheon Books, 1986): 1, 12. 8. Vyv Simson and Andrew Jennings, The Lords of the Rings: Power, Money and Drugs in the Modern Olympics (London: Simon & Schuster, 1992); Jaime Boix and Arcadio Espada, El deporte de poder. Vida y milagro de Juan Antonio Samaranch [The Sport of Power. The Life and Miracle of Juan Antonio Samaranch] (= Hombres de hoy, Vol 30) (Madrid: Ediciones temas de hoy, 1991).For a very useful summary of this (still untranslated) volume see the review by Arnd Kruger in The International Journal of Sports History 10 (August 1993): 291-293. The author of this essay wishes to point out that he has not read El deporte del poder. 4 Toward a Theory of Olympic Internationalism members . . . The IOC is described as a secret and clandestine organization. similar to the mafia . . . The IOC, its president and its members are depicted as depraved and disgusting persons. † In December 1994. fter hearing testimony from President Samaranch himself, the court sentenced the authors in absentia to a five-day suspended jail sentence and the payment of $2,000 in court costs (which remains unpaid). The explicit reference in the indictment to violated â€Å"honour,† and the failure of article 173 to provide for any assessment of the truth or falsity of the alleged â€Å"defamation,† are a poignant reminder of the nineteenth-century origins of the IOC and the role that aristocratic ideas about honor have played in shaping the value system and political behavior of the Olympic movement (see below). The furor created by this undocu mented work of investigative journalism raised interesting questions for Olympic research. and the most important of these topics may well be the relationship between sports journalism and sports scholarship. 10 As Arnd Kruger points out in his review of El deporte del poder: â€Å"Good investigative reporting often beats much of what historians can offer in terms of graphic information and anecdotal material not so readily available in archival research. To this I would add that, in addition to useful anecdotal embellishments, these journalistic treatments of the political career of IOC president Samaranch offer the historian an opportunity to expand the framework for doing Olympic history in the direction of the comparative method described above. Indeed, Kruger himself points to the larger importance of such journalism: â€Å"This book ends many myths about the IOC and its current president† by excavating his political past and raising questions about how a person’ s political formation may affect his conduct as 9.The carelessness (or dishonesty) with which the IOC drew up the indictment is evident in one instance in particular. Its list of alleged inaccuracies committed by the authors falsely accuses them of making an unflattering remark about the IOC that is clearly attributed in The Lords of the Rings (p. 211) to William Simon, former president of the United States Olympic Committee, former Secretary of the Treasury, and on account of his prominence, an unlikely target of IOC retaliation.The author of this essay wishes to point out that in November 1994 he sent a letter to the judge trying this care in Lausanne defending the authors’ right to publish The Lords of the Rings. 10. John J. MacAloon has written disapprovingly of what he regards as the degeneration of sports scholarship into a genre resembling sports journalism. He refers, for example, to â€Å"the uncomfortable interpretive alikeness—at least in the U. K. , where socialist analysis is one sort of cultural common sense—of much sports journalism and popular commentary on the one side, and sports sociology, stripped of its academic apparatus and pretenses, on the other. See â€Å"The Ethnographic Imperative in Comperative Olympic Research. † Sociology of Sport Journal, 9 (1992): 110. Or, â€Å"Treated like Journalists, sport scholars are tempted to act like them. † See â€Å"The Turn of Two Centuries: Sport and the Politics of Intercultural Relations,† in Fernand Landry, Marc Landry, and Magdeleine Yerles, eds. Sport . . . The third millenium [Proceedings of the lnternational Symposium, Quebec City, Canada, May 21-25, 1990] (Sante-Foy: Les Presses de l’Universite Laval. 1991): 36.MacAloon‘s second point, regarding the likely consequences of the IOC’s unwillingness to share more information with Olympic researchers. is particularly insightful. He offers this remark in the context of arguing that sp orts leaders should not â€Å"deny themselves the professional expertise of scholars. † By contrast. the author of this essay regards the secretiveness of the IOC as essential to its operations as an â€Å"offshore† international body sheltering important individuals whose various operations would not stand up to press scrutiny.I would also point out that in neither of his essays does MacAloon criticize the many journalists who function as de facto publicists for the IOC. At a Colloquy on Olympic issues held in Lausanne in April 1994. IOC Director General Francois Carrard expressed the view that there are â€Å"some ten to fifteen† journalists in the world who actually understand Olympic issues. See â€Å"Proceedings of the Colloquy on the Themes of the Olympic Centennial Congress Held in the Olympic Museum, Ouchy, Lausanne on 8th, 9th and 10th April 1994† (unpublished document). Journal of Sport History, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring 1995) the leader of a power ful international organization that is to be counted among those â€Å"transnational forms, none of them transcendent, innocent, or neutral in political history,†11 which include the IOC. My point here is that the more we know about the formative history of an Olympic politician, the better the chances of finding comparable figures and patterns of behavior in other international organizations.In this sense, a book like The Lords of the Rings, while unsuitable as scholarly source material, has already served Olympic historiography by drawing attention to a triad of interrelated and neglected topics: first, the sheer autonomy and freedom from surveillance enjoyed by many high-ranking international functionaries inside and outside the IOC; second, how the upper echelons of international organizations provide political and financial opportunity and sanctuary to significant numbers of people who have compromised themselves in various ways back in their national communities; and th ird, the long history of extreme right-wing personalities and attitudes within the IOC. As Simson and Jennings put it: â€Å"The Samaranch who went to the IOC in 1966 would have found himself at ease among the many other members from authoritarian or undemocratic backgrounds. †12 One purpose of this essay is to account for this continuity between the IOC of the fascist period in Europe and the comparable elites to be found at the top of international sports federations today. This ideological continuity is not simply a result of the procedures by which the IOC or any of the other federations choose their members.On the contrary, the selfperpetuating process which renews the membership of the IOC has been made even more efficient by the way it and comparable organizations have served as â€Å"offshore† enterprise zones for right-wing personalities and various amoral opportunists since the political collapse of fascism in 1945. 1. The Early Internationalist Period Any st udy of the â€Å"idealistic† international movements of the fin de siecle period must acknowledge their diverse characteristics as well as demonstrate the values and behaviors that make them cohere as a distinct category of thematically interrelated organizations that sometimes attracted overlapping clienteles.Their homogeneity and heterogeneity as a class of social phenomena become yet clearer if we expand the scope of our survey beyond the four primary movements to be examined here, namely, the Red Cross (1863), the Esperanto movement (1887), the Olympic movement (1894). and the Scouting movement (1908). It is of fundamental importance, for example, that all of these movements were ideologically distinct from Marxist internationalism. Indeed, this is one way to account for the fact that all of them eventually accommodated the Nazis in various ways. The First International (or International Working Men’s Association) was founded by Marx in 1864, outlawed in France and Germany, and effectively dissolved in 1872. Despite its 11. MacAloon, â€Å"The Ethnographic Imperative in Comperative Olympic Research,† 126. 12. Simson and Jennings, The Lords of the Rings, 111. 6Toward a Theory of Olympic Internationalism political insignificance, as James Joll notes, â€Å"it had awakened all Europe to the possibilities of international working class action . . . . And so, on the eve of its extinction, the International was endowed with a legendary power it had lacked in its lifetime, and acquired a largely spurious tradition of heroic international revolutionary action. † The Second International (1889-l914), which collapsed when the European proletariat deserted international solidarity for national chauvinism and military service at the outbreak of the Great War, actually employed some of the ideas and rhetorical devices characteristic of the â€Å"bourgeois† internationalisms of the epoch.That these superficial resemblances were outweig hed by the ideological barrier is evident in the fact that its ideological descendants would eventually stage an impressive series of Workers Olympiads (1921-1937) that the Socialist Workers Sports International claimed were more genuinely international than the â€Å"bourgeois† Olympic Games. The internationalism of the late nineteenth century could also take the form of an artistic cosmopolitanism. Like the Olympic movement, Wagnerism was an international movement originating in an established cultural medium (music) that developed both a distinctive ideology, composed of a cultural critique and a program for cultural renewal, and an international clientele. The golden age of Wagnerian internationalism commenced in 1872, when the master moved to Bayreuth, and ended with his death in 1883. Olympism and Wagnerism both served up ersatz religious experiences to people disillusioned with European â€Å"progress† and positivist thinking. There was a pervasive need for an e motional piety that was less vulnerable than orthodox religious observance to the dessicating effects of change, scientific progress. and higher biblical criticism. †13 During the last decades of the nineteenth century there appeared a variety of internationalisms that could satisfy such needs. and the Wagner cult that spread west to America and east to Russia was one of them. To be sure, Wagnerism was German in a way the Olympic movement could not be, although the 1936 Berlin Olympiad, judged as an aesthetic production, was a great triumph of the Olympic â€Å"Germanizers† that put its permanent mark on Olympic ritual. 4 Yet even the Germanness of Wagnerism took the form of a universalistic doctrine that anticipated the Olympic movement and its redemptive mission across national boundaries. For in identifying the Germans as the most â€Å"universal† of peoples, Wagner was proclaiming Germany’s mission to the world. This sort of ethnocentric cosmopolitanis m, as we shall see in the next section of this essay, eventually served as a transitional Weltanschauung to expedite the process by which Germany overcame the xenophobic inhibitions deriving from its own cultural insecurities and appropriated Olympic internationalism on German terms. 13. David C. Large and William Weber, â€Å"Introduction†; David C. Large, â€Å"Wagner's Bayreuth Disciples,† in David C.Large and William Weber, eds. Wagnerism in European Culture and Politics (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1984): 18. 14. Thomas Alkemeyer, â€Å"Gewalt und Opfer im Ritual der Olympischen Spiele 1936,† in Gunter Gebauer, ed. Korper und Einbildungskraft: Inszenierungen des Helden im Sport (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1988): 44-79. 7 Journal of Sport History, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring 1995) Wagner’s foreign admirers were thus able to enjoy his musical productions as supranational experiences. In addition, as Gerald D. Turbow has pointed out, th e Wagner devotee was participating in the general internationalist ferment of the epoch whether he knew it or not.Thus one French enthusiast, â€Å"writing shortly after the Geneva Treaty on War [1864], the establishment of the Red Cross [1863], and the organization of the First International [1864], found the principle of world unity and peace in Wagner’s operas. In characteristic utopian terms he maintained that just as Wagner had eliminated the barriers that existed between set numbers in the formal operas and just as the old boundaries between cities were vanishing, so now would they disappear between countries as well. †15 It is even more interesting to learn that Coubertin experienced his own Wagnerian epiphany. In his Olympic Memoirs (193l), Coubertin reports that a visit to Bayreuth, and the â€Å"passionate strains† of Wagner’s music, assisted him in seeing the â€Å"Olympic horizons† before his mind’s eye. 6 The existence of a Wagn erian internationalism demonstrates that certain internationalist projects of this period were not negations of nationalism but rather cultural projections of nationalist impulses employing cosmopolitan vocabularies rooted in ethnocentric ideas of national grandeur. 17 A variety of internationalist initiatives, including the Olympic movement, both included and disguised nationalist and even cultic themes which could be presented as cosmopolitan projects within the European context. Rooted in racialistic European mythologies, such idealistic cosmopolitanisms did not anticipate, to take only one example, the multiracial agenda of the modern Olympic movement.Olympism, Wagnerism, and the Salzburg [music] Festival (1920-) are three such cosmopolitanisms rooted in cultic reappropriations of the European past. Their respective ideological sources are the myth of ancient Hellas, Germanic mythology, and a myth of Austria’s baroque cultural heritage, and there is evidence which suggest s they once constituted a single festival metagenre in the minds of some observers. Thus, in 1918, an Austrian cultural critic wrote that the Salzburg Festival was the first â€Å"total aesthetic realization (Durchbildung) of the festival character† since the revival of the 15. Gerald D. Turbow, â€Å"Art and Politics: Wagnerism in France,† in Wagnerism in European Culture and Politics, 153. 16.Pierre de Coubertin, Memoires olympiques (Lausanne: Bureau international de pedagogie sportive, 1931): 64. It is also interesting to note that Jules Ferry, an early prime minister of the French Third Republic, was both a supporter of Coubertin and an admirer of Wagner. See Turbow, â€Å"AR and Politics: Wagnerism in France,† 143, 146. 17. Cosmopolitanism and internationalism have been (properly) defined as different ideals. Marcel Mauss, writing in 1919-1920, regarded these terms as opposed ideas. â€Å"Internationalism worthy of the name is the opposite of cosmopolitani sm. It does not deny the nation, it situates it. Internation is the opposite of a-nation.Thus it is also the opposite of nationalism, which isolates the nation. † Mauss defines cosmopolitanism as a doctrine which tends toward â€Å"the destruction of nations, to the creation of a moral order (morale) in which they would no longer be the sovereign authorities, creators of the law, nor the supreme ends worthy of future sacrifices to a superior cause, named humanity itself. † Mauss derides this ideal as â€Å"an etheral theory of the monadic human being who is everywhere identical. † See Marcel Mauss, â€Å"Nation, national, internationalisme,† in Oeuvres, 3 (Paris: Editions de minuit, 1969). 8 Toward a Theory of Olympic Internationalism Olympic Games. 8 What is more, historians of both Wagnerism and the Salzburg Festival have shown how these cultural productions—in effect, nationalistic cults—were successfully marketed to international audience s. â€Å"The tact and success of the pan-European Salzburg propaganda came from the fact that this nationalist program could be expressed as a cosmopolitan ideal that in turn would seem like pure internationalism to the English and the French. †19 The Olympic movement, too, has derived much of its international prestige from precisely this sort of transformation, whereby an essentially national ambition has been perceived as Enlightenment cosmopolitanism. In all three case—Olympism, Wagnerism, and Salzburg—the â€Å"European idea† proved to be a politically viable packaging for nationalistic content.As we will see in the next section, both German â€Å"universalism† and the â€Å"European idea† served to reconcile the ideological needs of European rightwingers to the requirements of Olympic internationalism. 20 Certain international movements of this period can be seen as gendered. embodying a kind of male or a female solidarity and an ideol ogy to express this gendered orientation. The Olympic and Scouting movements began as internationalisms that promulgated related conceptions of the ideal male. an orientation that had political consequences during the fascist period (see below). Even though both eventually absorbed female participants, gender integration occurred in a male-dominated context that ascribed limited capacities to female participants.A countervailing example of gender-segregated internationalism was the organizing of women on a transnational basis, which began in 1888 with the founding of the International Council of Women in Washington. D. C. â€Å"Both by assuming fundamental gender differences and by advocating separatist organizing, women in transnational organizations drew boundaries that separated men from women. †21 This autonomous policy of segregation makes female internationalism especially interesting to the comparativist as a â€Å"control group† internationalism vis-a-vis other groups precisely because its leaders claimed to be building upon a distinct and more pacific type of human nature than that possessed by their male counterparts.In retrospect, however, the comparison between â€Å"male† and â€Å"female† international organizations is interesting precisely because it reveals more similarities than differences, confirming my operating thesis that there is a core repertory of behaviors and attitudes that characterize the important groups that appear during this extraordinary period of internationalist ferment. This repertory includes a rhetoric of universal membership, a 18. Michael P. Steinberg, The Meaning of the Salzburg Festival: Austria as Theater and Ideology, 18901938 (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1990): 60. 19. Large, â€Å"Wagner’s Bayreuth Disciples,95: Steinberg, The Meaning of the Salzburg Festival, 69. The festival program revealed on every level a convergence of explicitly cosmopolitan and pan-Europ ean ideals with a Bavarian-Austrian—that is, a baroque-nationalism. † See Steinberg, 23. 20. I have adapted this paragraph from John M. Hoberman, â€Å"Olympic Universalism and the Apartheid Issue. † in Fernand Landry, Marc Landry, and Magdeleine Yerles eds. Sport. . . The third millenium [Proceedings of the International Symposium, Quebec City, Canada, May 21-25, 1990] (Sainte-Foy: Les Presses de l’Universite Laval, 1991): 531. 21. Rupp, â€Å"Constructing Internationalism,† 1582. 9 Journal of Sport History, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring 1995) Eurocentric orientation that limits universal participation, an insistence on political neutrality, the empowering role of wealth, social prominence and aristocratic affiliations. professed interest in peacemaking or pacifism, a complex and problematic relationship between national and international loyalties, the emergence of a (marginalized) â€Å"citizen-of-the-world†-style radical supranationalism, and th e use of visual symbols such as flags and anthems. One might also say that all of these movements offered to their members a philosophy of creative international action amounting to a way of life for those possessing the necessary dedication and financial independence to pursue it. The Feminist International appears to have differed from its male counterparts in not producing a conspicuous hagiographical tradition honoring its â€Å"founding mothers. More importantly, an exclusively female membership and its doctrine of biogendered pacifism (â€Å"All wars are men’s wars†) precluded their adopting (as the Olympic and Scouting movements did) the ideology of chivalry as the basis for establishing an idealized transnational identity. As we will see in the next section, the establishment of a transnational male identity based upon â€Å"chivalric† ideals played an important role in shaping relations between the â€Å"male† internationalisms and Nazi Germany. In addition to sharing a set of core behaviors and attitudes, the idealistic internationalisms were bound together by personal ties between groups and by individuals with ties to more than one group.For example, Dietrich Quanz has demonstrated Coubertin’s close ties to the European peace movement of the fin de siecle and the prewar Nobel Peace Prize Laureates (1901-1913): â€Å"Coubertin must have noticed this model for international private oganizations. He had had contact with almost half of the Nobel Peace Prize winners, some of whom were his friends. He listed five of them as honorary members of the Founding Congress of the IOC in 1894. † 22 Among Coubertin’s Nobel Peace Prize contacts was the Austrian pacifist Alfred Hermann Fried, who published an Esperanto textbook for German-speakers in 1903. 23 Coubertin was also co-founder in 1910 (with the Nobel Prizewinning [1908] physicist Gabriel Lippmann) of the Ligue d’Education National. he forerunner of the French Boy Scouts,24 while Lord BadenPowell, the founder of the Scouting movement, promoted the British ideology of sportsmanship absorbed by Coubertin. 25 The pacifistically inclined German educator Friedrich Wilhelm Forster (1869-1966) called Baden22. Dietrich R. Quanz. â€Å"Formatting Power of the IOC: Founding the Birth of a New Peace Movement. † Citius. Altius. Fortius, 3 (Winter 1995): 12. See also Dietrich R. Quanz, â€Å"Die Grundung des IOC im Horizont von burgerlichem Pazifismus und Internationalismus,† in Gunter Gebauer, ed. Die Aktualitat der Sportphilosophie (St. Augustin: Academia Verlag, 1993), 191-216: â€Å"Civic Pacifism and Sports-Based Internationalism: Framework for the Founding of the International Olympic Committee,† Olympika.The International Journal of Olympic Studies, 2 (1993): 1-23. 23. Ulrich Lins, Die gefahrliche Sprache: Die Verfolgung der Esperantisten unter Hitler und Stalin (Gerlingen: Bleicher Verlag, 1988): 41. 24. Arnd K ruger, â€Å"Neo-Olypismus zwischen Nationalismus und internationalismus,† in Horst Ueberhorst, ed. Gescichte der Leibesubung, 3/1 (Berlin: Bartels und Wernitz, 1980): 524. 25. Rosenthal, The Character Factory, 10, 31. 10 Toward a Theory of Olympic Internationalism Powell’s Scouting for Boys (1908) â€Å"the best pedagogical book to have appeared in decades. †26 Like Coubertin, the German chemist Wilhelm Ostwald (Nobel Prize 1909) had multiple ties to internationalist projects.At first a supporter of Esperanto, Ostwald changed his allegiance to Esperanto’s chief competitor, the artificial language Ido, in 1908. He also worked toward founding an international chemical institute. 27 In a more eccentric vein. Ostwald served as President of the International Committee of Monism, a philosophy based on the universal authority of science that aimed at propagating â€Å"a rational ethics. † In Monism as the Goal of Civilization (1913), Ostwald held out the possibility of â€Å"a completely neutral and likewise easily acquired auxiliary language† as â€Å"an indescribable blessing† for mankind. pointing to â€Å"the rapidly increasing international arrangements and relations† and the â€Å"irresistible flow toward the international organization of human affairs. 28 All three of the early international women’s organizations weighed the possibility of adopting Esperanto as a means of facilitating communication. 29 The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sent a delegation to the Esperanto Congress held in Dresden in 1907. 30 The first chairman of the London Esperanto Club, Felix Moscheles, was President of the International Arbitration and Peace Association and a major figure in the pacifist movement. 31 These and other interrelationships confirm the thesis that such groups belong to a genre of international organizations, both unified and variegated, that deserves to be studied in a comparative m anner. As the great early promoter of international sport, â€Å"the Esperanto of the aces† (Jean Giraudoux), Coubertin occupies a central position within this configuration of internationally minded idealists. All of the idealistic internationalisms of this period appealed to deep feelings among Europeans that were rooted in anxieties about war and peace. As inhabitants of a political universe that has effectively banished the memory of socialist internationalism prior to the Third (Communist) International, we would do well to recall its stature as the preeminent antiwar movement of its period (1889-1914). â€Å"For at least fifty years,† as James Joll has noted, â€Å"international Socialism was one of the great intellectual forces in Europe . . . while no statesman or political thinker could avoid taking it into account. The urgency of the feelings shared by Socialist and non-Socialist internationalists alike was evident at the emergency congress of the Socialist International, held in Basle in November 1913, as fear of war spread throughout 26. Karl Seidelmann, Die Pfadfinder in der deutschen Jugendgeschichte (Hannover: Hermann Schroedel Velag, 1977): 28-29. 27. Lins, Die gefahrliche Sprache, 42; Crawford, â€Å"The Universe of International Science,† 264, it is worth noting that Crawford calls Ostwald â€Å"the most ubiquitous of scientists† (264). 28. Wilhelm Ostwald, Monism as the Goal of Civilization (Hamburg: The International Committee of Monism, 1913): 10, 6, 25. 29. Rupp, â€Å"Constructing Internationalism,† 1578. 30. Peter G. Forster, The Esperanto Movement (The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1982): 170. 31. Lins, Die gefahrliche Sprache, 28. 11Journal of Sport History, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring 1995) Europe. Sobered into a state of somber meditation that permitted the relaxation of ideological discipline, the delegates heard the great French leader Jean Jaures sound a religious note, while the next day the veteran Sw iss Socialist Greulich, â€Å"when finally closing the proceedings, not only referred to Bach’s B Minor Mass but even, though with an apologetic ‘Don’t be alarmed’, quoted from the Roman Catholic liturgy to express the socialist hope: ‘Exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum et vitam venturam saeculis’. †32 The ideological divisions that separated Socialists from non-Socialists (and, ater, Socialists from Communists) have had a profound impact on the entire phenomenon of European internationalism during this century. The sports and Esperanto movements eventually split along ideological lines into socialist and â€Å"bourgeois† factions, while Baden-Powell’s bourgeois-nationalist Boy Scout organization was subjected to harsh criticism just after the Great War by his onetime successor-apparent, John Hargrave, a militant proponent of â€Å"World Friendship† who could not stomach the imperialist component of Baden-Powell†™s doctrine. That Baden-Powell rejected the charge as â€Å"Bolshevism† only confirms the importance of the division between the anti-imperialist, non-establishmentarian internationalisms and their bourgeois-nationalist counterparts. 3 In the case of the Esperantists, however, this ideological divide was mostly illusory, due to the fact that the artificial language movement appealed to the marginal and the underprivileged from its very beginnings in eastern Poland and Russia in the late 1880s and 1890s. This affinity between the fraternal idealism of the Esperantists and the ethical program of the revolutionary Left was recognized by the early psychoanalytical writer J. C. Flugel, who was himself an Esperantist. â€Å"The Esperanto movement,† he wrote in 1925, â€Å"with its quasi-religious enthusiasm and its attempt to break down the barriers between nations and races, inevitably challenges comparison with certain other movements of a universalizing tendency. It ha s, of course, certain features in common with Socialism and Communism.These also are international and pacifist in character, and aim at fostering a spirit of comradeship among fellow-members; but they differ from the Esperanto movement in two important respects: (a) In the essential economic basis of their programme; (b) In that the revolutionary and insurgent tendencies— based ultimately on displacements of father-hatred—are very much more prominent. In the Esperanto movement these latter tendencies are implicit rather than explicit . . . .†34 This crucial distinction between explicit and implicit â€Å"insurgent tendencies† was the most important difference between the revolutionary and his typological opposite, the linguistic humanitarian whose progressive idealism was channeled into more symbolic forms of re32. James Joll, The Second lnternational 1889-1914 (London and Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974): 1, 158, 159. 33. Rosenthal, The Character Fa ctory, 245-247. 34. J. C.Flugel, â€Å"Some Unconscious Factors in the International Language Movement With Special Reference to Esperanto,† International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 6 (1925): 12 Toward a Theory of Olympic Internationalism sistance to political repression and national chauvinism. Despite its nonrevolutionary status, Flugel saw his analysis of the artificial language movement as a contribution to â€Å"the psychology of progressive social movements† in a wider sense. A study of the â€Å"unconscious mental mechanisms with which psycho-analysis has made us familiar† could thus illuminate â€Å"the wider psychological problems presented by language and by constructive social movements in general. Such comments make it clear that Flugel was canny enough to understand that â€Å"rational† policies might well derive in part from nonrational impulses. Thus he did not hesitate to identify the altruism and dynamism of his fellow Esperantrists wit h sexual wishes and potentially grandiose ideas about undoing the havoc wrought in the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. 35 Still, it is apparent that Flugel saw internationalism as a single genre of activity that was inherently â€Å"progressive† despite its psychoanalytic complications, and it is likely that he associated its â€Å"constructive† potential with the Enlightenment tradition of rational problemsolving and cosmopolitan understanding.The problem with this portrait of the Esperantists is that it is expurgated (or simply uninformed) and thus historically inaccurate in important respects. By 1925. there was plenty of evidence to suggest that the Esperanto movement was not uniformly â€Å"progressive † in a political sense; it would appear, however, that Flugel overlooked these facts on account of his deep respect both for the founding father of the movement and for many of his fellow enthusiasts. The founder of Esperanto, Ludwig Lazar Zamenhof (185 91917), was a Jew born in Bialystok, Poland, who was convinced that only an artificial and universally comprehensible language could heal the ethnic strife that plagued this area. (At the age of 10, Zamenhof wrote a five-act tragedy, set in Bialystok, based on the Tower of Babel story. In the years that followed his publication of the first Esperanto textbook in 1887, adherents of the movement deemphasized Zamenhof's Jewish origins in order to minimize anti-Semitic resistance to their proselytizing efforts. More surprising in retrospect is the fact that the Dreyfus Affair (1895) the great political litmus test of fin-de-siecle French political life, polarized the French Esperantists, demonstrating that linguistic internationalism alone did not guarantee a â€Å"progressive† political orientation. The â€Å"Declaration on the Essence of Esperanto† that was adopted at the first Congress of Esperantists held at Boulogne-surmer in 1905 was a clear declaration of political neutrality that did not even mention world peace.Indeed, the Universal Esperanto Association (UEA) was not established until 1908, by which time the influence of Zamenhof's quasi-religious doctrine of universal brotherhood was already in decline. 36 To some extent this breach between the founders’ ideals and a more practical orientation emphasizing commerce and science reflected a difference in out35. Flugel, â€Å"Some Unconscious Factors,† 171-172, 208, 187, 190. 36. Lins, Die gefahrliche Sprache, 29, 31, 26. 13 Journal of Sport History, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring 1995) look between Western Europe (especially France) and Eastern Europe and Russia. where political repression and a high proportion of Jewish Esperantists had preserved the early idealism.The larger lesson, however, is that even early on linguistic internationalism showed signs of the defensive political neutralism and resulting fissiparous tendencies that compromised its independence and opened windows of op portunity for political activists on the Left and the Right during the 1920s and 1930s. That even as well-informed an observer as Flugel did not understand the ideological instability of the Esperantists points to some of our own acquired habits of thought regarding the effectiveness of internationalist ideals and the transnational groups that attempt to implement them. The traditional (though now eroding) assumption that idealistic internationalisms can transform the modern world has been profoundly shaped by our image of the Enlightenment cosmopolitanism that dates from the late eighteenth century. The League of Nations, the United Nations, the vast empires of modern science and sport, nd countless international arrangements of equal or lesser scope all trace their ancestry (or an important part of it) to a period that has taken on the aura of a Golden Age. It has been more than two hundred years since the American Philosophical Society proclaimed (in 1778) that â€Å"Nations tru ly civilized (however unhappily at variance on other accounts) will never wage war with the Arts and Sciences and the common Interests of Humanity,†37 but the charm (and the pathos) of such a declaration, and its promise of a Sacred Truce between the nations, affect us still. By the end of the nineteenth century, this ideal was most clearly expressed in what Elisabeth Crawford has called the â€Å"universe of international science. † â€Å"Because science was universal and constituted a common language. she notes, â€Å"international scientific organizations, it was felt, could become models for international associations generally and even help usher in world government. †38 This idealized image of cosmopolitan networking in the service of progress has been the standard against which internationalist projects have been judged for the last century. What is more, this fantasy of a transnational scientific enterprise untainted by national self-interests has create d unrealistic expectations in relation to all of the idealistic internationalisms, prominently including the Olympic movement. If we are interested in establishing the potential of the idealistic internationalisms, then the value of the comparative method lies in establishing realistic parameters of action (and even imagination) over the long term.If we ask, for example, whether the Olympic movement has done what it should have been able to do in fulfillment of its professed aims, what we are really asking is whether it has performed on a par with analogous organizations in comparable historical conditions. While no two of these organizations have had identical resources at their disposal, even the (necessarily 37. Thomas J. Schlereth, The Cosmopolitan Ideal in Enlightenment Thought (South Bend: The Notre Dame University Press, 1977): 45. 38. Crawford, â€Å"The Universe of International Science,† 254. 14 Toward a Theory of Olympic Internationalism abbreviated) survey present ed in this essay can, I believe, identify that â€Å"core repertory of attitudes and behaviors† that makes comparison worthwhile.Perhaps the most general of these factors is the contest between nationalist and internationalist motives and loyalties (in differing proportions) within the minds of those who led or followed. If Coubertin came to â€Å"the conviction that patriotism and internationalism were not only not incompatible, but required one another,† then this was one (entirely reasonable) response to a problem that could be solved in various ways. 39 In the case of Baden-Powell’s movement, â€Å"the celebration of national greatness,† as Michael Rosenthal points out, â€Å"becomes a problem for the Scouts . . . when the insistence on British national superiority clashes with the equality of all people that is so much a part of Scouting, and more particularly within the movement’s worldwide ambitions that rapidly developed. 40 This potential for intrapsychic conflict affected the Esperantists, as well, even if Zamenhof had personally resolved the internal conflict between the competing identities of â€Å"human being† and â€Å"patriot† in favor of the former. Disagreements among the Esperantists regarding whether they should organize on a national or supranational basis were another manifestation of this basic conflict between national and internationalist affiliations. How the individual member resolved this conflict was a question of political temperament, although it is also true that the range of choices depended to some extent on the movement to which one belonged.The Esperanto movement, for example, tolerated radical, â€Å"citizen-of-the-world†-style supranationalism in a way that the Scouting and Olympic movements did not. A comparative look at their founders can help us understand why. The movements of Lord Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941) and Pierre de Coubertin are strikingly similar in several respects. Both movements proclaimed early on their universal, apolitical, nonracial and nonmilitary nature: while neither founder was a pacifist—Baden-Powell was an acclaimed professional soldier—both claimed to serve the cause of peace: while they claimed to be classless movements, both were also intended as strategies to deal with domestic social instability and class conflict. Both founders were acclaimed as â€Å"educators† and mobilizers of youth.Both shared the racialistic ideas of their time, although Baden-Powell made openly racist statements in a way that Coubertin did not. 41 Both put a high priority on appearing politically neutral, and both understood the importance of creating a rhetoric and a public image that â€Å"transcended† politics. When recruiting the Comite Jules Simon, as John J. MacAloon points out, â€Å"Coubertin reproduced the now familiar claim that ‘we have recruited adherents of all parties, our work is in effe ct sheltered from all political quarrels. ’ In fact, the ‘shelter,’ such as it was, owed to drawing all of the members from the ‘parties of order’ and 39. MacAloon, This Great Symbol, 112. 40. Rosenthal, The Character Factory, 176. 41. Rosenthal, The Character Factory, 40-43, 181, 254-267.On Coubertin's racial thinking see Hoberman, â€Å"Olympic Universalism and the Apartheid Issue,† 524-525. 15 Journal of Sport History, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring 1995) skewing their ‘neutrality’ toward the right. †42 Baden-Powell pursued the same strategy, and the Esperantists too did their best to establish a nonpartisan profile. 43 (Among the late-nineteenth-century movements, the Red Cross had pioneered the policy of absolute neutrality in the 1860s. ) It is clear, then, that the claim (or pretense) to political neutrality, a policy that would both empower and constrain these movements throughout the twentieth century, was regarded by most non-Socialist internationalists as an absolute requirement for effective action.What distinguished the Scouting and Olympic movements in quite another sense from the Esperantists and the Red Cross was their pursuit of aristocratic affiliations or royal patronage, itself an important ideological signature of movements that were bent on achieving a reconciliation of the social classes. By contrast, Zamenhof saw Esperanto as an instrument of the oppressed, and Flugel later offered an interesting explanation as to why â€Å"the international language movement has enjoyed comparatively little support from the more aristocratic and educated classes. †44 The mononational Red Cross, which until 1923 recruited its membership exclusively from the cream of the Genevan professional bourgeoisie, did not need aristocratic sponsorship. 45 Coubertin, on the other hand, had to create his own establishment.In 1908, European nobility made up 68 percent of the membership of the IOC, a figure whi ch declined to 41 percent by 1924. 46 In Britain, Baden-Powell—a socially prominent hero of the Boer War-had access to a uniquely celebrated caste of royals. â€Å"The Royal family and the English government have shown a great interest in scouting since its inception,† one observer wrote in 1948. â€Å"The King became the Patron of the British Boy Scouts, the Prince of Wales became Chief Scout for Wales and Princess Mary the president of the Girl Guides. † At the first Jamboree held in London in 1920, Prince Gustav Adolph of Sweden was made honorary president of the International Boy 42.MacAloon, This Great Symbol, 105. 43. The official Soviet view of Scouting in the West challenged its claim to political neutrality: â€Å"Scouting seeks to train the younger generation in a spirit of loyalty to the ideals of bourgeois society. Although professing to be unaffiliated with any political party, scout organizations do in fact have clearly expressed political, milita ristic, and religious tendencies they strive to keep the younger generation from participating in the struggle for revolutionary and democratic change and to isolate young people from the influence of materialism and communism. Scouting advocates the idea of class peace in a capitalist state. . .The Komsomol [youth organization] consistently struggled against the scout movement. The second, third, and fourth Komsomol congresses (1918-20) adopted resolutions calling for the dissolution of scout groups and worked out a program for the creation of a new, communist type of children’s organization. † Here, as in other areas of popular culture like sport and the arts, Communists faced the challenge of repackaging attractive â€Å"bourgeois† activities in conformity with Marxist-Leninist ideological requirements. See the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Vol. 23 (New York: Macmillan, 1979): 253. 44. Flugel, â€Å"Some Unconcious Factors,† 200; see also 175, 176, 201. 5. Jean-Claude Favel, Warum schwieg das Rote Kreuz? Eine internationale Organisation und das Dritte Reich (Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1994): 25-26. 46. M. Blodorn and W. Nigmann, â€Å"Zur Ehre underes Vaterlandes und zum Ruhme des Sports,† in M. Blodorn, ed. Sport und Olympische Spiele (Rheinbek bei hamburg: Rowohlt, 1984): 42. See also Kruger, â€Å"Neo-Olympismus zwischen Nationalismus und Internationalismus,† 529, 551. 16 Toward a Theory of Olympic Internationalism Scout Committee. 47 Appearances notwithstanding, the recruitment of these prestigious sponsors did not point to politically reactionary intentions on the part of the recruiters.In fact, Coubertin used his affiliations with the nobility to advance the cause of sportive internationalism against the resistance of stubborn nationalists. 48 Today, however, the IOC’s interest in recruiting royals appears to be less pragmatic than a response to the prestige-seeking needs of its current President . 2. Olympic Internationalism in the Age of Fascism Olympic internationalism during the Nazi period remains poorly understood, in part because the number of English-language commentaries remains limited. 49 My purpose in this section is to depart from the traditional emphasis on the 1936 Berlin Olympiad, which has been widely misunderstood as an isolated lapse on the part of the IOC, in order to place it in the larger politicalhistorical context where it belongs.We now know that Coubertin saw the â€Å"Nazi Olympics† as the culmination of his life’s work, and it is important to understand why he believed this and why in a sense he was right in doing so. For the Olympic movement during this period is best understood as a rightwing internationalism that was effectively coopted by the Nazis and their French and German sympathizers during the 1930s. This cooptation was made possible in part by an ideological compatibility between the IOC elite and the Nazis based on a shar ed ideal of aristocratic manhood and the value system that derived from their glorification of the physically perfect male as the ideal human being. It is important for us to understand this IOC-Nazi collaboration if only because, contrary to what many have doubtless 47.Saul Scheidlinger, â€Å"A Comparative Study of the Boy Scout Movement in Different National and Social Groups,† American Sociological Review , 13 (1948): 740, 741. 48. Kruger, â€Å"Neo-Olympismus zwischen Nationalismus und Internationalismus,† 549. 49. The traditional approach to the Olympic histoy of this period is to focus on the 1936 Berlin Olympiad as an exceptional event in the history of the movement. See, especially, Richard Mandell, The Nazi Olympics (New York: Macmillan, 1971; Arnd Kruger. Die olympischen Spiele 1936 und die Weltmeinung (Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt/M. : Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, 1972): Duff Hart-Davis, Hitler's Games: The 1936 Olympics (New York: Harper and Row, 1986).The in dispensable sources for understanding the relationship between the IOC and the Nazis are Hans-Joachim Teichler, â€Å"Coubertin und das Dritte Retch,† Sportwissenschaft, 12 (1982): 18-53; Allen Guttmann, The Games Must Go On: Avery Brundage and the Olympic Movement (New York, Columbia University Press, 1984): and W. J. Murray, â€Å"France, Coubertin and the Nazi Olympics: The Response,† Olympika: The International Journal of Olympic Studies, 1 (1992): 4669. See also John Hoberman, The Olympic Crisis: Sport, Politics, and the Moral Order (New Rochelle, N. Y: Aristide D. Caratzas, Publisher, 1986). More recent publications on the Olympic movement during the interwar period include Stephen R. Wenn, â€Å"A Suitable Policy of Neutrality?FDR and the Question of American Participation in the 1936 Olympics,† International Journal of the History of Sport , 8 (1991): 319-335; Bill Murray, â€Å"Berlin in 1936: Old and New Work on the Nazi Olympics. † Internationa l Journal of the History of Sport, 9 (1992): 29-49: Martin Polley, â€Å"Olympic Diplomacy: The British Government and the Projected 1940 Olympic Games,† lnternational Journal of the History of Sport 9 (1992): 169-187: William J. Baker, â€Å"Muscular Marxism and the Chicago Counter-Olympics of 1932,† International Journal of the History of Sport 9 (1992): 397-410; Per Olof Holmang, â€Å"International Sports Organizations 1919-25 Sweden and the German Question. † International Journal of the History of Sport 9 (1992): 455-466; and Junko Tahara. â€Å"Count Michimasa Soyeshima and the Cancellation of the XII Olympiad in Tokyo: A Footnote to Olympic History,† lnternational Journal of the History of Sport, 9 (1992) 467-472. On the workers sport movement, see Jonathan F. Wagner, â€Å"Prague’s Socialist Olympics of 1934,† Canadian Journal of the History of Sport, 12 (1992): 1-18. 17 Journal of Sport History, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring 1995) assumed , it was not interrupted by the collapse of the Nazi empire in 1945. The postwar denazification of tainted European organizations, limited as it was, did not extend to the IOC, which continued to accommodate its Nazi members and their sympathizers in the old spirit of collegiality.The third section of this essay will examine how this ideological affinity group managed to preserve its traditional viewpoint (and the careers of some important adherents) well into the postwar era, and how its immunity to liberalhumanitarian influence remains a model for the IOC today. At this point, however, some historical background is required. The following narrative can be introduced by a so-called trivia question, to wit: Who was Jules Rimet, the man for whom the World Cup of soccer is named? I found the answer to this question in the April 1933 issue of the Deutsch-Franzosische Rundschau, one of several journals devoted to FrancoGerman cultural exchange and mutual understanding during the period between the world wars.On 18 March of that fateful year, the French national soccer team arrived in Berlin led by Jules Rimet, president of both the French Soccer Association and the international federation (FIFA). Waiting to greet the French delegation were the chairman of the German Soccer Association (DFB), representatives of numerous other sports federations, and the press. In a word, this occasion was a political and media event. The game between the French and German teams, played before 45,000 German spectators under a sparkling spring sky, somehow ended in a tie. Rimet himself observed that the German team had controlled the ball for three-quarters of the game, and the Parisian sports paper L’Auto said the Germans had, in effect, lost a game they should have won.At the traditional banquet after the ga

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Nike shoes - Research Paper Example Nike shoes have a great influence in the athletic world. This has been achieved through the Nike Company inclusion of the youths in the cities in their advertisements. The company should also consider the poor people in the society and produce brands which have the comfortability and shows a sense of prestige. This will have the company increase its sale across all people in the society hence increasing its (Odies 389). In addition to flexibility, quality and transportation issues should be addressed by the company to meet the demands of the community in time. This will enhance customer loyalty and discourage customers opting for other brands from other companies. This can be achieved through; establishing companies near their sales strong holds and where raw materials are available to cut the cost of production hence have a chance to produce Nike foot wears which will be appearing to the people and which will go for an affordable price(Odies 400). In conclusion, the company should mostly concentrate on a monopoly that will consider the rich and the poor to increase their sales. Also, ensure that the brands are available to its consumers in good time to meet the customers’

Drought and water supply Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Drought and water supply - Research Paper Example Although drought has several causes and is associated with numerous negative consequences, it can be properly managed using various strategies. Drought has a long history that can be traced as far back as the biblical times of Joseph. It is one of the earliest climatic events that are documented. Presently it is associated with the Epic of Gilgamesh and later the exodus of Israelites from Egypt. It has been there since the times of early man, in Africa and the rest of the world. In the modern society, it is possible for people to mitigate the impacts of drought through crop rotation and irrigation. If people fail to develop and implement mitigation strategies, drought and bad water supply they will incur grave costs. The worst droughts that have been experienced in the world are the droughts of 1980s and 1990s. The most severe and historical drought was experienced in the basin of river Simeto. Climate is what determines water supply. Temperatures of the air determine the level of water demand, while precipitation is the only source of renewing water. If people can clearly understand past climatic conditions, they can predict future conditions and hence adapt and limit the level of hardship faced during drought. It is evident that drought comes in a certain pattern that repeats itself seasonally, annually and inter-annually. Estimates by the United Nations indicate that one third of the world’s population is affected by water shortages (United Nations, 23). The UN states that about 1.1 billion people lack safe water for drinking and those without enough water for sanitation stand at 2.6 billion (United Nations, 23). Consequently, deaths and diseases have increased due to the use of contaminated water. Children from developing countries are the most affected with 3,900 of them dying everyday from diarrhea and insufficient or bad water related

Strategic Management Unit 4 DB SA Final Week Essay

Strategic Management Unit 4 DB SA Final Week - Essay Example These laws are not different to those in the US because eventually, it is all about environmental conservation and the end goal is to protect our surroundings. Environmentally, the numerous vehicles produced by the firm poses a great danger to the environment because once in the roads, the vehicle produce emissions in gasses form to the surrounding causing air pollution. These deplete the environment through acid rains and ozone layer destruction. The commitment made by General Motors Company to conserve the environment through waste and pollutants reduction, recycling, conservation and educating the public on way to support environmental conservation is a great move (KPMG, 2010). Despite that decision by the US government to increase fuel efficiency and reduce vehicle emissions, GM is still surviving well because this move only led to demand of vehicles that have less environmental effects. The aim of the government to reduce air pollution was achieved by the move. Despite the controversial nature of the bailout in 2008, it promoted the advancement of the auto industry through development of energy-efficient vehicles. Critically, these problems are used as spark agents that ignite a change in the process of offering solutions. KPMG. (2010). The transformation of the automotive industry: the environmental regulation effect. https://www.kpmg.com/US/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/Documents/transformation-automotive-industry.pdf . Internet

MPH502-Introduction to Public Health (Module 3 SLP) Essay

MPH502-Introduction to Public Health (Module 3 SLP) - Essay Example In this step it is assessed as to how much a certain disease is prevalent and what has been done in this regard. In this step the government takes data of different hospitals and analyzes which disease or disorder is increasing and needs to be addressed. It also analyzes if the health care programs are fulfilling the needs of the individuals who are suffering from such problems. Moreover all this is analyzed by the government officials and specific figures are taken. These figures are then compared and a proper research method is carried out to see how much the disease has affected people and how much is being done in this regard. This particular step is mainly developed by the federal government as they are the ones who design policies. And it is the state and local governments who have to follow these policies later. In this step specific policies are developed so as to counter act on the analysis of different diseases that have been found in the region. These policies also include health care programs for workers and other civilians. Programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance program are examples of the policies designed by the government. These programs help to provide insurance to those people who have a low income or are above the age of 65. Similarly environmental policies are also implemented which aim at lowering the incidence of a certain disease such as the swine flu. All these policies were developed in the aim of lowering the prevalence of a certain disease and increasing health coverage to all the individuals living in the society. However more policies are needed regarding the prevention of certain diseases and disorders, for example coverage for all the individuals living in the society for free and without any exceptions. State governments are mainly responsible for the health promotion activities. Health promotion activities such as the prevention of AIDs have been widely

LAW FOR BUSINESS Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

LAW FOR BUSINESS Assignment - Essay Example Thus the law on tort has allowed and provided compensation in respect of economic losses that arise directly out of the physical loss, which has not been problematic, but there have been instances when a causal link with the injury and the economic loss could not be made. (Pritchard v. Cobden)1. The problem that lies is in the compensation for losses which are financial or pecuniary in nature, or in other words the loss cannot be in any attributed to or have no connection whatsoever with the personal or physical harm that has been caused to the claimant, this is what has been termed as pure economic loss. These type of losses can include the financial loss or expenditure which resulted from the negligence of the defendant. Therefore for the majority of cases under this head there is an exclusionary rules which bars recovery in these cases and liability is the exception. (Deakin et al 2003) It has been argued that the courts in the instance of personal injury tend to compute loss of f uture earnings which are as difficult to calculate as would be pure economic loss. Furthermore in Canadian National Railway v. ... ment that has been most often cited by the court is that the if the exclusionary rule is not present than the ‘floodgates’ in respect of such liability would open, whereby there would endless claims against the defendants. This has been argued to be a weak argument because extensive liabilities can be found in respect of claims of physical damage for example large scale pollution. (Elliott et al 2007) A better argument in that respect would be the fact that if such an open ended duty of care is imposed in respect of economic loss then there remains the danger of indeterminate liability that is unpredictability in respect of the number of claimants as well as the size of claim. An important example that has been given in this respect is where due to an accident on the highway the motorist who was negligent is held to owe a duty to all those who were stuck in a traffic jam as a result of the accident in respect of their loss of earnings. (J.Stapleton, ‘Duty of Care a nd Economic Loss- A Wider Agenda’)3. Therefore a line of exclusion has been drawn. There has been an argument from Professor Feldthusen that all cases in respect of pure economic loss should not be covered under one heading and therefore a disctinction in this respect should be made for each area. Question 2Â   In the case of Hedley Byrne v. Heller4 the courts did not find any negligence misstatement because of the fact that there had been a disclaimer in the remarks that is the term without responsibility whereby the possibility of a duty of care was extinguished.The position in respect of accountant’s liability can be seen from the decision of House of Lords in Caparo v. Dickman5 whereby for the establishment of a duty of care a reformed three stage test was laid down. The first requirement was

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and Brick Lane by Monica Ali Essay Example for Free

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and Brick Lane by Monica Ali Essay Having read both Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and Brick Lane by Monica Ali, I am going to concentrate the city question on Brick Lane. Brick Lane tells the story of Nazneen, an eighteen year old moved to London from her rural upbringing in Bangladesh to Tower Hamlets, a close tight community of Bengali families living in blocks of flats struggling to make their way up in the city to earn sufficient money and a civilised upbringing for their children, yet still yearning to go back to their home land. Nazneen is married to Chanu, twenty years older than her, he is educated yet earns his money working as a taxi driver. This novel has clear descriptions of city life, the diversity of the people within and how Nazneen interprets the city from her point of view. There are many ways in which the material conditions of the city are described in this novel, the different areas of the city of London are described from the block of flats where Nazneen lives to the big office blocks in the city centre. City life in this novel begins with Nazneen describing the Tattoo lady who lives in the block of flats opposite her, from here we become familiar with the lack of space and understand the very little room they have in the urban areas of London Most of the flats that closed three sides of a square had net curtains and the life behind them was all shapes and shadows. But the tattoo lady had no curtains at all. Morning and afternoon she sat with her thighs spilling over the sides of her chair. By reading this, it is already forming an idea of the main settings of the novel which are the block of flats, very cramped and close, very little sense of privacy. We also get an idea of the type of people living around the area as well, the tattoo lady is frequently mentioned in the novel, informing us that at least two thirds of the flesh on show was covered in ink. Another material condition of the city we come across in this novel is when Nazneen actually considers visiting the tattoo lady at the flat opposite hers, however such is city life that Nazneen reconsiders this The tattoo lady might be angry at an unwanted interruption. Although this is not an actual object described in the city, from Nazneens thought we get an idea of the type of people she would come across whilst living in the city, it forms the surroundings of the narrative by mentioning Nazneens neighbours. Monica Ali also describes the smell of the surroundings where Nazneen lives The breeze on Nazneens face was thick with the smell from the overflowing communal bins. This material condition most definitely helps to form the surroundings of the novel shaping the condition of the area where Nazneen lives. Although Monica Ali has focused on forming the surroundings of the city where Nazneen lives with the smell and the neighbours, she has also formed the novel with the material conditions of inside the flat where Nazneen lives, in the novel Nazneen spends most of her time inside the flat to sit day after day inside this large box with the furniture to dust, and the muffled sound of private lives sealed away above, below and around her. By giving brief descriptions like this it shapes the scene of the narrative from the beginning of the novel, we are informed of the furniture inside the flat, Nazneen mentions that she has never seen more furniture inside one room, with all this, we are already shaping the narrative with the material conditions inside of Nazneens flat. Whilst living in the city, Nazneen mentions outdoor surroundings quite often, although she spends most of her time inside her flat or at Razias, whenever Nazneen has gone outside the boundaries of her area, we as the are given more description of the actual city conditions There were more cars than people out here; a roaring metal army tearing up the town. By describing the cars as an army tearing up the town, we can immediately shape the city life of the narrative with the pollution and the noise of the cars. We can imagine the dirt and the hustle of the city. The people who passed walked, looked ahead at nothing or looked down at the pavement to negotiate puddles, litter and excrement. This was the material conditions of the city life which helped form the narrative, which helped give the reader an idea of the city life and scenes to which we can imagine Nazneen and her husband walking across. The social life in this novel also helps to form the material conditions of city life and the novel, Nazneens social life throughout the novel consisted of Mrs Islam and Razia gossiping about fellow women, she would often visit Razia at her flat, whilst going to Razias flat we are given descriptions of the surroundings within Nazneens boundary of her estate, we are informed of the group of young Bengali men who stood in the bottom of the stairwell, combing their hair and smoking or making loud, sudden hoots this was the social life the young men had in the city, they would hang around in gangs not achieving much, Nazneen stayed within her boundaries as well, so it gives the reader an impression that social life within a city should be kept in the boundaries that you live in, like a safety barrier. We are also informed of the material conditions of the corridors and stairwells where Nazneen lives, the front doors are mentioned to be the same across the corridors peeling red paint show ing splinters of pale wood, a rectangular panel of glass with wire meshing suspended inside, gold rimmed keyholes and stern black knockers. On the wall someone had drawn a pair of buttocks in thick black pen this helps the reader to form a picture in their minds of the state of city life where Nazneen lives, The stairs gave off a tang of urine Although Nazneen is told to stay within the boundaries of the estate because if she went out people would talk and gossip about her, Nazneen did go out. This was when she got lost, and we as the readers gained more knowledge of the material conditions of city life which formed the narrative, we are told that to get to the other side of the street without being hit by a car was like walking out in the monsoon and hoping to dodge the raindrops. Immediately we can imagine the fast movement of the city, cars going past like buzzing bees, to cross the road, Nazneen waited next to a woman and stepped out with her, like a calf with its mother short descriptions like this form the material conditions of the city life in this novel so skilfully. Throughout the novel, we are not only informed of the material conditions of the city where Nazneen lives or around the area of Bethnal Green, we are also informed of the streets buildings past Brick Lane. She looked up at a building as she passed. It was constructed almost entirely of glass, with a few thin rivets of steel holding it together. The building was without end, above somewhere it crushed the clouds. The material conditions mentioned here are most entirely opposite to the towers described of Tower Hamlets. Although both scenes have very large buildings, the towers in the city centre are described as palaces, with entrances and colonnades across the front this was the diversity of the material conditions of city life which helped form the narrative, because the reader is informed that the city is not the same throughout, every area has its own distinctive features, some parts of the city are very well looked after whereas others such as where Nazneen lives are forgotten ab out. The material conditions of city life in the novel are mentioned to the reader in many ways, we are told of the people that Nazneen walks past when she goes to the city centre every back she saw, was on a private, urgent mission to execute a precise and demanding plan. They could not see her anymore than she could see God from this, we acknowledge the independency of the people in the city. Soon Nazneen realises that she does not fit in with these working people, they are dressed smart, they have coats and handbags whereas Nazneen has a cardigan and a sari, although Nazneen was dressed differently, only one woman noticed she was there and smiled at her. By giving details such as this, Monica Ali has formed and shaped the narrative according to city life, every person with its own mission. So far, throughout the novel, only roads and streets, people and buildings have been mentioned. However when Nazneen does come across some greenery, she says in this city, a bit of grass was something to be guarded, fenced about, as if there were a sprinkling of emeralds sown in among the blades. This, yet again is another material condition of city life, although it is not unpleasant like the conditions in Nazneens area, green grass has not yet been mentioned up until now, and when it has the grass is guarded with fence, so from this, we can imagine the very few places in the city to relax and enjoy the scenery. We also get the indication that in this novel, for Nazneen there is no place for her to get away from everything, the city would not pause even to shrug. Throughout the novel, the descriptions of the city and the buildings given to us by Nazneen have been described just as Nazneen saw them, however, later on in the novel, when Nazneens son becomes ill, whilst in the ambulance van, and with her fear for her son, she mentions The city shattered. Everything was in pieces. She knew it straight away, glimpsed it from the painful white insides of the ambulance. Just as Nazneens heart shattered in pieces, the city did too with her, so she is relating the material conditions of the city with her emotions and giving the reader an image of doom and gloom within the city. Although the material conditions described to us previously in the novel have been mostly doom and gloom anyway, Nazneen has only just implied the greyness and dullness of it along with her emotions. Frantic neon signs. Headlights chasing the dark. An office block, cracked with light. These shards of the broken city. Up until now the city was not mentioned as broken, it was just described as how Nazneen saw it, but now, we get the real image of the city, the material conditions which helped form the narrative The crystal towers and red bricked tombs. The bare-legged girls shivering at the bus stop. Up until now, Nazneen had simply described the different dress code of non Asian females, now that she saw they were at the bus stop bare legged in the early hours of the morning, Nazneen is ridiculed by them, she talks about them along with the broken city. She is giving the reader material conditions of the city which make it so grim. The well fed dogs and bloated pigeons. This is something Nazneen would never see in her homeland Bangladesh, dogs are of no importance and pigeons always a pest. So now, we get to witness Nazneens interpretations of the material conditions of the city life, how she feels it is all wrong compared to h er land. The cars that had screamed alongside the ambulance, urging it on, parting in waves. The cars that had previously been described as an army now screaming, this clearly shows the rage within Nazneen and the material city conditions which she so hates. Throughout the novel, London is not the only city mentioned, with Nazneens sister living in the city in Bangladesh, Dhaka, she often receives letters from Hasina talking about her home, and the surroundings Street is wide and nice. But plastic bag blowing everywhere. Walk in street for five ten minute and by finish you cover in bag on legs and arm and stomach. From this we realise, that city conditions throughout the world are the same. The little things which give the city its status, the material conditions such as bags on the floor is what makes living in a city so different to other places. A wind blew in over the courtyard and fetched up a crisp packet at her feet. Nazneen although she was in a different country to her sister, they were both in the same situation, both living in a city with material conditions such as rubbish on the pavements and non stopping people. To conclude, the material conditions of city life in Brick Lane are mentioned with such metaphors and descriptions which inform the narrative of the surroundings, the people, the scenery and the atmosphere within. The buildings described in so many ways, the smallest details found on the floors to the stairwells of the block of flats.

High school Essay Example for Free

High school Essay Many people would like to become a cheerleader, however, they are afraid of being stereotyped, and in turn, these stereotypes may affect ones chances of successfully becoming a cheerleader. â€Å"Stereotyping is so common in our society that when you meet someone for the first time you are often stereotyped before you even reach, ‘hello. ’ The way people perceive us can have a profound effect on how we see ourselves† (Mega Essays, 2008). Cheerleading has three common stereotypes as this sport gains in popularity. The first stereotype of cheerleading is a controversy that rages on about whether or not it is a sport. Next, cheerleaders are often times compared to people with unflattering and unintelligent personalities. Finally, there have also been questions about the inclusion of males upon cheerleading teams. Though many examples exist, the three examples listed above seem to be the most challenging stereotypes which keep many afraid of joining the sport of cheerleading. Cheerleading is very popular in middle schools all the way up to the university education level, but unfortunately, several observers often question a cheerleader’s athletic ability. Cheerleaders put in hard work by lifting weights, working up a sweat, and even facing possible injury. These athletes have a strong drive for determination and dedication by practicing at all hours of the day both with their team, and also individually. Some cheerleaders may often say they practice more than the teams they cheer for. So the question arises, why not give them the title and respect they strongly deserve? Independent cheerleaders also compete nationally in addition to high school and college cheer teams; however, many cheerleaders are left pondering whether or not they can gain the attention and recognition they need to officially declare cheerleading as a sport (Ninemire, 2008). Besides the questions of cheerleading as a sport, cheerleaders are often stereotyped from the moment they are met and identified as uneducated ditzy blondes. â€Å"She’s dumb,† â€Å"She’s ditzy,† â€Å"He’s feminine,† and â€Å"They’re snobs† are just some of the stereotypes that are often used. Many people who have been a cheerleader, met one, or have even watched a cheerleading team, have experienced these stereotypes. As stated by Mega Essays, (2008) â€Å"Stereotyping is most often someone’s perception of an individual or a group based on social status, education level, race or even looks. Therefore, why do they constantly defend their sport and themselves? † One of the stronger stereotypes within the cheerleading world is the placement of men on the cheer team. As males enter the world of cheerleading they are immediately labeled as being effeminate. They are faced with society’s overcoming stereotype of a male Barbie figure (Bluestein, 1994). Unfortunately, these qualities often lead to males defending their sexuality. â€Å"Against popular belief, females where [sic] not the founders behind the sport of cheerleading; instead males who were so eager to cheer while watching sporting events created this sport. In the 1890’s the first pep club was organized at Princeton University and it was there where the first organized yell was recorded† (Bluestein, 1994). In many high schools around the world, due to the stereotypes, very few males participate on a cheer squad. â€Å"There are more then [sic] 3,000 high school and college cheerleaders in the United States. 97% of all cheerleaders are female; however, approximately 50% of collegiate cheerleaders are male† (Bluestein, 1994). Over the years, there have been many stereotypes which have agonized and affected the cheerleading world. Some stereotypes of cheerleaders include the comparison of cheerleaders with uneducated ditzy blondes, the assumption that cheerleading is not an actual sport, and should males cheer on a team. Furthermore, one should be cautious when joining this sport because of the amount of rumors, whether true or not. According to About. com (2008), â€Å"Cheerleading has expanded from pom-poms and pep rallies into big business an estimated half-billion dollar industry. In addition to college cheerleaders who joke that they practice more than their football teams, there are also independent cheerleading groups not affiliated with schools, which compete nationally. † Cheerleading has been around since the first pep club in the1890’s and continues to grow and evolve each day. References About. com (2008). Cheerleading: controversy and competition. Retrieved August 22, 2008, from http://cheerleading. about. com/od/cheerinjuries/l/aa103102a. htm Bluestein S, (1994). Male Cheerleading is a sport Serendip. Retrieved August 22, 2008, from http://serendip. brynmawr. edu/exchange/node/1685 Mega Essays. (2008) Cheerleading stereotypes. Retrieved August 22, 2008, from http://www. megaessays. com/viewpaper/78441. html Ninemire V, (2008). Stop the stereotyping of cheerleaders. About. com. Retrieved August 22, 2008, from https://cheerleading. about. com.

The Construction Of The Great Wall

The Construction Of The Great Wall The construction of the great wall arose throughout the Warring States Period (403 to 221 BC). The Great Wall is a fortification alongside the northern and northwestern boundary of China, running from Shanhaiguan on the Gulf of Bohai on the east to the vicinity of Gaodai, Gansu Province, on the west, with an inner wall consecutively southward from the vicinity of Beijing almost to Handan. Shi Huangdi, first emperor of the Chin dynasty founded the biggest portion of the wall as a defense against raids by nomadic peoples. Organized work on the wall was begun about 221 BC, after Shi Huangdi had united China under his rule, and it was completed about 204 BC. Small segments of the wall were probably already in existence, but Shi Huangdi is thought to have had some nearly 1,200 miles of the wall erected during his reign. 300,000 men several of them political prisoners whose bodies are thought to be buried in the wall (not essentially true) were put to work joining the segments into one h uge rampart of stone and earth. In later times, chiefly during the period of the Ming dynasty (AD 1368-1644), the Great Wall was fixed and extended by reinforcing it with cement and stone. The fortification finally reached a length of about 1,500 miles, ensuing the course of rivers instead of bridging them and conforming to the contours of the mountains and valleys in its path. The wall is built of earth and stone, faced with brick in the eastern parts. It is from 15 to 30 feet thick at the base (about 20 feet on the average) and tapers to some 12 feet at the top. The height averages 25 feet exclusive of the crenellated parapets. Watchtowers about 40 feet in height are placed at intervals of approximately 200 yards. Several hundred kilometers of the Great Wall remain intact in the eastern reaches. The amount of brick and stone working to construct the Great Wall might limit the earth with a barrier eight feet high. From the 6th to the 14th centuries, the wall proved to be an effective barrier against strong-minded invaders, who revealed that bribing the lookouts was their most effective weapon. The Chinese Emperors aided in this cause by failing to pay there army troops, usually a bad mistake. If you dont pay your army, someone else will. Scholars guess that the Great Wall with all its divisions once stretched for 6,200 miles, from the Yalu River in the northern east to Xinjiang in the northwest. Today it measures 6,000 miles. The Great Wall has suffered serious damage from wind and water erosion, as well as man-made destruction. In the past it has been a treasure store of stone for many a poor farmer. Between 1870 and 1974, the 8th Route Army stationed at Gubeikou destroyed 9,840 feet of the wall to use the stone to erect some barracks. Later in 1979, the State ordered the same army group to tea r down their barracks and rebuild the wall. In 226 the armies of the Chu Dynasty and the Qin dynasty met in a great final battle. The victor would get the prize of the richest and most technologically advanced nation of the world. The Qin Emperor needed to defend the country from the marauding bands of nomadic horsemen of the north. These bands of horsemen who raided the rich farmland came from the barren land of the north and were forced to become marauding nomads. It was a clash of farmers against warriors. The group would be difficult to defeat. The strength, stability and prosperity of the new empire were threatened by these marauding hordes. To preserve Chinas borders the Qin set about building a huge defensive barrier in 221 BC. Wall building became the chief defensive strategy to repel the enemy from the north. This was in the age before gunpowder and cannons. The first Great Wall was a massive undertaking. It was the equivalent of building 30 of the great pyramids of Egypt. To build this great wall of 3,000 miles the Qin Emperor chose his most able general Ling Qia. He was given an army of over 300,000 men. They had to build roads, and the infrastructure as well as the wall. Much of the wall was built of beaten clay. Rock was not always available, so tamped earth became the first choice. Dirt was designated from at least four inches below the surface so seeds and grasses could not germinate and thus undermine the strength of the wall. Consuming first a form made of wood, earth was piled and was pounded into a layer of four inches thick. Following layers of this would produce a wall twenty feet high that would still be standing some 2,000 years later. The wall stretched from the borders of North Korea across the northern border to the far reaches in western China. In ten years they built a wall across the entire northern border of China in lands that included marshes, quicksand, deserts, and altitudes of 8,000 feet. They built twenty-five miles a month that is almost a mile a day. One section is across 60 miles of a mountain range. This section was built entirely of native stone with the flat face placed on the outside to face the enemy. This dry stonewall was built 20 feet high with 26-foot high beacon towers. The Qin army invented new weapons to exploit thei r advantage of their new wall. The most deadly of these was the crossbow that could hurl an arrow 250 yards with amazing accuracy. Other weapons included iron casting techniques to produce double edged swords which would not be known in the west for some 1,300 years later. The soft bronze swords of the enemy were no match for the double-edged iron swords of the Qin army. All of this was achieved at great economic and human costs. The emperor thought the wall would bring peace to the nation but the nation was weakened by the heavy cost of the construction. Ditches along the wall were filled with the corpses of workers who died building the wall. Deaths of wall workers are estimated to exceed one million. Some have claimed that the dead workers were entombed in the wall itself. Later investigations proved this untrue. Also decaying bodies would have weakened the structure and would not have been allowed. No society could sustain such a terrible burden. Taxation became heavier and heav ier. Some 3,500,000 people were involved in the building of the Great Wall. That was 70% of the total population of China at that time. For each worker working on the wall, six were required to feed and support them. Construction of the Qin wall became the most loathed imperial plan in Chinese history. In 209 BC, Only a year after the death of the Qin Emperor, millions of laborers rose up and ended the tyranny and bloodshed of wall building. The Qin Dynasty had fallen, brought down by the building of the great wall. Within ten years much of the wall was a neglected ruin. Once again the northern border was at the mercy of the northern invaders. After three years of civil war in 206 BC the first Han Dynasty was formed under the Gao Di Emperor, Liu Bang. At first he attempted to appease the northern invaders with gifts and increased trade but peace was sporadic. A massive force of the Han army attacked the invaders and forced them back across the northern borders. To consolidate their victories they began to mark out their new extended borders. In many areas they simply restored the old Qin wall. In order to build walls in the desert of the west, new methods of construction had to be devised. Here the soil consists of a gravel of sand and small stones. They used alternating layers of red willows and the gravel and lots of tamping. This produced a wall that has survived for some 2,000 years. Using these techniques and hundreds of thousands of people, the Han were able to build the wall far into the Gobi desert. And where clay was used as a skin or coating it made the wall difficult to scale and protected it against the erosion of the weather. The Han leadership knew to have a strong frontier they not only needed to build a strong wall but they also needed crack troops to defend it. They developed a force of light cavalry that could foray into the enemy territory to check on the enemy movements in his own grounds. They had many victories against the Xiongnu. They then employed renegade Xiongnu horse masters to set up horse breeding stables and to train their troops in horsemanship. By the time of the sixth Han Emperor Wu Di some 66 years later, they had crushed the Xiongnu and the wall was extended some 300 miles into the Gobi Desert. The wall now extended across the principle trading routes and if you wished to trade with the Chinese you needed to enter through the gates in the wall. Around these gates towns were established and became the trade centers of the area. At most gates foreigners were not allowed to go past the gates so these became the portals of trade into China. One flawless example is the stunningly preserved Jade Gate. Built in 101 BC, it is 28 feet high and 66 feet square. Close by they built a fort for the Han soldiers defending the wall. This piece of the wall is 453 feet long, 115 feet wide and 23 feet high. The wall became more than a trade route and a barrier to keep out the enemy, it turned out to be vital for communications. Along its ramparts messages can be sent at incredible speeds from one end of the empire to the other. All along the northern border beacon towers were built every 15 to 30 miles. They formed a communication network, which ran from outposts deep into enemy territory to the ancient capital in the east. From these towers the Han troops used smoke by day and torches by night to send messages along the length of the wall. They burnt wood, and straw mixed with wolf dung, which produced rich black columns of smoke. Statutes firmly governed the code of these signals. One column of smoke indicated a n impending attack by a force of less than 500. Two columns showed an attack by a force less than 3,000 and four columns indicated an attack by a force of up to 10,000.China would wait another 1,300 years before embarking on its greatest period of wall building. The Ming Dynasty built much of what remains today. They were driven by desperation to build the ultimate defense and lock the northern frontier once and for all. The Ming renovated the old Qin and Han walls and extended them. The Ming wall stretched some 4,500 miles from the Korean border at Dandong to the city of Jayuguan in the western desert. Today that fort is one of the most impressive, ornate, and sophisticated military constructions in the history of China. The Ming Dynasty came into power in 1368 inheriting a nation crushed by 100 years of rule by the Mongols. The mighty Genghis Khan had united these tribes in 1206 and had pushed their way through China. Ultimately they fell from within. A peasant revolt spelled the defeat of the Mongol empire. The leader of this revolt was Zhu Yangzhong who was installed as the first Ming Emperor. He immediately took up the challenge to begin building the great defense again. The enthusiasm in which the Ming emperors embraced this ambition was staggering. They built more wall than any other dynasty. The Ming wall was typically built with a stone facing over tamped inner clay. This wall was almost indestructible. The Ming bricks were a marvel of engineering holding up to a pressure of over 1000 pounds per square inch. The mortar was of super strength. The mortar was stronger than the bricks themselves. The puzzle of this super strength has now been solved. The mystery ingredient was rice flour. With innovations like these, the Ming was able to build spectacular monuments. A feature of the wall was water drainage systems that channeled the water to the Chinese side and withheld the water to the enemy side and thus inhibited plant growth and so denied cover to the attackers. Warning towers were built in enemy territory. These spurs were built out from the main wall and permitted the Chinese to attack the marauders from two sides. The armies were controlled from watchtowers that were built every 200 yards along the Ming walls. Locks and bolts secured the doors and windows from within creating a formidable fortress. From these towers the defenders could unleash arrows and spears from heavily protected slits. Later cannon were used. Having discovered gunpowder, the Ming was also the first to use hand grenades and mines. Stones were also pushed through special openings to create man made avalanches to crush the enemy. If the attackers succeeded in scaling the wall, the defenders could retreat to the guard towers. These guard towers were only accessible by retractable ladders.