INTERNET CENSORSHIP
Internet censorship is subjected to governmental control to keep programmes inoffensive to the public. It controls the ideas and information in a society. The question is if government should be allowed full authority on the internet. Is it completely fine to allow the government to decide the information we access and does this infringe on the rights of freedom and speech? First of all, there are the people who side with internet censorship. There is certain vulgar and offensive material put on the internet which can cause divisions between the society and offend some of the people. For example, videos and articles against a religion or culture can cause problems between citizens within a nation and so such information has to be censored. Censoring material that insults a religion helps protect society from disputes and thus doesn’t qualify to be called stealing someone’s rights. Moreover, censorship is important to keep children from corrupting their minds. Inappropriate videos and images put on the internet can be seen by the youth which is why this material should be removed by censoring.This act by the government ensures children don’t get to see vulgar material which can destroy their innocence. So, in a sense, government helps to protect children and in this case freedom of such information cannot count as it is too mature for children. Furthermore, some people argue that internet censorship is necessary to preserve national security. Without censorship, it is impossible to maintain secrecy of information and protect it from enemies that can use it against the nation. Adding on, other forms of illegal material being communicated are stopped by censorship. Illegal downloading of copyrighted content is a crime and internet censorship helps the government to catch criminals that indulge themselves in this act. As well, e-mail containing dangerous information like bomb plans have no right to be spread around the internet and so discarding them is the right thing to do. This shows that the government does not violate rights of freedom of speech by actually protecting its public from threatening information. However, others think that internet censorship is a violation to rights of freedom of speech. It limits free access to information which causes the society to foster ignorance in its citizens.
Anmol Gautam
NINETEEN EIGHTY FOUR
1984 by George Orwell is a classic work of dystopian fiction that brings forth a terrifying vision of a totalitarian state.He shows a grim world bereft of truth where humans have no control over their lives and people live in constant fear,misery and repression.It is often said that the regime of fascist Nazi Germany and Communist Soviet union led to creation of this classic by Orwell as he had been thinking of the dystopian world of 1984 as early as 1944 when he wrote a letter about Stalin and Hitler,mentioning “the horrors of emotional nationalism and a tendency to disbelieve in the existence of objective truth because all the facts have to fit in with the words and prophecies of some infallible fuhrer.”(Michiko Kakutani, Why ‘1984’ Is a 2017 Must-Read) 1The story is set in a place called Oceania where people live under a cruel dictatorship ruled by “The Party” and its leader, “Big Brother”. People in Oceania are constantly observed by Telescreens that are installed everywhere possible,so that people don’t get any privacy.Oceania is always at war,either with Eastasia or Eurasia.The protagonist of the story,Winston Smith is a citizen in Oceania who is a member of the Outer Party and works in the Records Department in The Ministry Of Truth.The Ministry Of Truth issues and controls all the documents,information ,entertainment,news,education and fine arts.Winston’s job in The Ministry Of Truth is to rewrite,change and destroy history.So,none of the citizens remember the past because the party controls facts and changes history. This quote by Tom Baker,“You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common?They don’t alter their views to fit the facts ,they alter the facts to fit their views” holds so much of relevance in this context.(James F.Macgrath, Quote of the Day The Doctor).2 Winston is unhappy with the whole system of “The Party” and unable to express his disappointment and anger to others because there is nobody to trust and no real friends to lean on.Therefore,he starts writing what he thinks in his diary even though he knows that the penalty of doing this can be death.So,one day during the regular “Two Minutes Of Hate” which focuses on the treachery of Goldstein, a previous “Brotherhood” member, Winston notices an inner party member ,named O’ Brien and assumes that he is an alley working for “The Brotherhood”,an underground organization that’s aimed to bring the party down.At the same time,he also notices a girl with dark hair,Julia and assumes her to be a foe from the “Thought Police” and is assured that she is there to observe him.After a few days,Julia hands him a paper and confesses her love to him.Later,they manage to meet alone and gradually fall in love with each other.Julia like Winston is unorthodox and doesn’t believe in the system. They both believe that their loyalty to one another can never be destroyed.Then, Winston manages to find a room on rent which belongs to Mr. Charrington who doesn’t mind to lend it for some money.They spend their romantic time in that room as often as they can.Later,Winston and Julia meet O’Brien assuming that he is a member of “The Brotherhood” and confess to him their hatred towards the Party.O’Brien welcomes them to “The Brotherhood” and promises to deliver “The Book”(written by the enemy of the party i.e. Goldstein) to them to read.As he starts reading “The Book” in their rented room while Julia is napping next to him,they suddenly hear some noise coming from the wall,and find out that there is a telescreen behind the painting on the wall.They get caught and separated.Winston realizes that Mr.Charrington belongs to the “Thought Police”.After this incident,Winston is locked for days in “The Ministry Of Love”,which is responsible for law and order,in a room without windows.Finally,O’Brien comes in and Winston thinks that he also got caught but he realizes that O’Brien is there to torture him,make him confess his crimes and break his spirit.O’Brien has been watching Winston for the last 7 years and the Party is made aware of all his crimes.He continues to torture Winston for months together and tries hard to change his way of thinking and force “Doublethink” into his brain,which is the ability of holding two opposing ideas in one’s mind and believing in both of them.O’Brien finds it hard to change him until he takes Winston to “Room 101”,the room where people are made to face their worst fears.O’Brien threatens Winston to open the cage of rats.Since Winston fears rats,he loses control over himself and screams “do it to Julia” which shows a complete loss of loyalty and principles. And at the end,Winston is a changed man who spends time at the “Chestnut Tree Café”,watching news on daily basis there through the Telescreen.One day,he meets Julia by accident and they talk for a while.She has also changed and is not as charming as before.She confesses to him that she betrayed him during the torture.Winston has changed so much that he finally comes to love “Big Brother”. Orwell tries to draw a parallel between Big Brother who is The Party’s enigmatic leader and Stalin and Hitler because in the very first chapter he is described as “ a man of about forty-five with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features”.His face is described as “simply enormous”.The name “Big Brother” suggests a protective nature but at the same time he is very intimidating and threatening as his gaze cannot be avoided.This dichotomy of protection and intimidation created by The Party is used to instill a sense of fear and obedience in its citizens. One thing that is left unclear by Orwell for the readers is that whether Big Brother exists in reality or not.Winston says,“The story really began in the middle sixties, the period of the great purges in which the original leaders of the Revolution were wiped out once and for all. By 1970 none of them was left, except Big Brother himself. All the rest had by that time been exposed as traitors and counter- revolutionaries”.This sentence from the book supports the idea that Big Brother exists and is infact a literal figure and the dictator of Oceania.At the same time Winston’s monologue which goes as, "Nobody has ever seen Big Brother. He is a face on the hoardings, a voice on the telescreen. We may be reasonably sure that he will never die, and there is already considerable uncertainty as to when he was born" suggests that Big Brother may not exist and is merely a character created for the purpose of propaganda.He elaborates further as to what may be the motive for creating a fictitious figurehead because if the party is represented by an individual or an image of an individual,then it is much easier for the masses to connect with the party.Also,Big Brother is accredited with all of the nation’s successes,no matter how trivial the success is and is never criticised.He is worshipped like a deity.Orwell writes "Every success, every achievement, every victory, every scientific discovery, all knowledge, all wisdom, all happiness, all virtue, are held to issue directly from his leadership and inspiration.During the "Two Minutes Hate" his image is prevalent and leaves such a lasting impression that even after his face has faded away,Winston says that his image “seemed to persist for several seconds on the screen”. Telescreens were the devices used for distributing propaganda to the masses and helped in creating a climate of constant fear through psychological manipulation.Orwell says that they are two-way devices as it not only makes the viewer see what is on the screen but at the same time viewers can also be viewed by the party officials.Therefore, by creating a climate of fear in which the individual is never sure as to whether or not his/her actions are being analysed,the citizens of Oceania learn to “morally”police their own selves. The telescreen is also a device that delivers the majority of the Party's propaganda to an individual. Orwell also presents the reader with a few examples of the type of shows that are being screened. The citizens are constantly made to hear patriotic songs and shown racist images of whoever happens to be the enemy at any given time. In addition to this Big Brother's achievements are constantly lauded. The reference given to "three year plans" and how they have all been massively over-fulfilled is clearly symbolic of the five year plans of Stalin's Soviet Union. This is one of a number of references to the actual political climate of that era in the novel. LANGUAGE-NEWSPEAK Newspeak is the official language of Oceania and Orwell explains the principles of Newspeak in great detail in the appendix.The aim of Newspeak is to perpetuate the doctrine of Ingsoc . As Orwell writes in his appendix, "It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought-that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc-should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words."So,through this element of Newspeak,Orwell tries to shed light on the power of language and the damage that can be caused when it is misused.One important feature of Newspeak is that there are no negative words. The Newspeak word for bad is "ungood" and if something is really atrocious then it would be said, "double plus ungood". This would instill a sense of optimism in the general populace as they would not have the means to express any negative feeling and at the same time would help in destroying creative art or expression.Therefore,he serves a warning to the world as what could happen if language is allowed to become corrupted and is not sufficiently cherished and protected. The law is a powerful tool in “1984” to limit the freedom of citizens. No parties, no dates, no love, no citizens walk on street after curfew, laws are everywhere in Oceania. But they cannot be called laws theoretically because there are no written laws in 1984.This is exactly how fear is created, as citizens are always living in uncertainty. "Hate Week" and "Two Minutes Hate" are two important tools in the Party's arsenal of psychological weaponry.On the one hand, "Hate Week" is a large scale, annual event where the population is incited into a condition of extreme loathing towards the enemies of Oceania while on the other hand the "Two Minutes Hate" is a daily dose of emotionally charged propaganda and is held on a smaller scale. The "Two Minutes Hate" has a profound impact on the members of the Party as the reader is allowed a glimpse into one of these shows. Winston says, "Before the Hate had proceeded for thirty seconds, uncontrollable exclamations of rage were breaking out from half the people in the room." Here Orwell is emphasising the power that propaganda can hold over people and the potentially damaging consequences of such widespread ignorance.He also says that Goldstein's hateful speech is set to a backdrop of marching soldiers with "expressionless Asiatic faces". Much like Big Brother, Orwell does not explain whether or not Goldstein or “the book” exists. It is highly plausible that he is merely a construct of the Party's propaganda machine and "the book" may have been published by the Party to identify the dissenters in Oceania. Another extremely effective manner by which the Party dominates its citizens is through the psychological manipulation of impressionable children.Orwell presents this point through Winston's neighbour, the Parsons family. The family comprises of Mr. and Mrs. Parsons and their two children, who remain unnamed throughout the novel. When Winston comes to their flat in order to mend a broken sink the boy calls him a "traitor" and a "thought-criminal" and makes violent threats to "shoot" or "vaporise" him. He compares these awful children to "tiger cubs which will soon grow up into man-eaters." Such is their commitment to the Party's cause that one doubts whether their loyalties lie more with their parents or with the Party. Orwell emphasises that these children have been so successfully manipulated that, in reality, they are the children of the Party much more than they are the children of their biological parents.This reiterates how deeply entrenched the brainwashing is and sends a strong warning about the susceptibility of children to brainwashing and propaganda. CONCLUSION As V.S. Pritchett clearly stated while reviewing the novel, "I do not think I have ever read a novel more frightening and depressing; and yet, such are the originality, the suspense, the speed of writing and withering indignation that it is impossible to put the book down”. With 1984,Orwell created a truly classic piece of literature with a strong moral message that is still as relevant today as the time in which he wrote it. The most striking feature of 1984 is certainly the realization that regimes do not stand on violence and coercion but by the thousand tiny actions forced on a person each day and while it was written in a very different age,it is still relevant as one Michigan teacher, Mike Becker says, “A lot of students came up to me in the last few weeks and said stuff along the lines of We’re living in 1984.”(Rebecca Klein, High School Students Reading ‘1984’ See A Mirror, Not Science Fiction)3.His narrative carries stark warnings for the future about the horrors that can ensue if power is allowed to run unchecked. His portrayal of the dangers of propaganda and psychological manipulation is truly expert and his warning is clear about the need for a society to preserve its civil liberties and the harm that falsifying history and fabricated propaganda can cause.
COMMUNICATION - AN ESSENCE TO LIFE
Communication is as old as man itself. Without communication we cant live and work together in an organized way. It enables us to understand others and make ourselves understand. Communication is the process by which we exchange meanings, facts, ideas, opinions or emotions with other people. The word communication has been derived from a latin word “ Communis” which means commonness or to share or to participate. At every moment of time we share our views, ideas, opinions with others in the form of speeches or in writing or like other mean by exchange of common set of symbols. Meaning : Man is a communicating animal ; he alone has a power to ex conpress the words. The presence of minimum of two minds is essential for communication. Infact, communication to conver a message by one person to another so that the other person may understand, follow and implement the follow the message of another , it cant be called communication. For instance if Mr. X delivers a lecture in Hindi to a gathering of Americans (to whom Hindi language is greek or latin ) , it will fall flat on them and there is no communication in it. “Basically , communication is a twoway process and the two terminals should be concerned with mutual understanding if communication is to be purposefully effective’. It is important to note that communication does not mean merely written or oral messages. It includes everything that may be used to convey meaning from one to another person. For example movement of lips or the wink of an eye or wave of hands may convey more meaning than even spoken or written words. “ Communication is the sum total of all the things that a person does when he wants to creat an understanding in the mind of the another. It involves a systematic and continuous process of telling, listening and understanding. In the words of Theo Haiman “ Communication is a process is a process of passing information and understanding from one person to another . It is a process of imparting ideas and making oneself understood by others.
FOSTERING CREATIVITY
Creativity is a constructive process which results in the production of essentially a new product. Creativity is seeing or expressing new relationships. Creativity is not limited to the objects of everyday use, but it is an instrument for increasing knowledge. Creativity is possible in all areas of life like thinking, working, playing or social interaction. Creativity involves at least three conditions: (1) Production of a novel idea or a response, (2) this idea must solve a problem or accomplish some goal and (3) the original insights must be sustained and developed to the full. Creativity is extended over a period of time than limited to a brief episode. It is characterised by originality, adaptiveness and realisation. Creativity is not equivalent to intelligence. A highly intelligent individual need not necessarily be creative. Studies show that there is no significant correlation between the two. Creativity is more governed by the mode of thinking, rather than the amount of intelligence. However, creativity needs some amount of intelligence. Fostering creativity: Educationists always emphasise the importance of developing creativity in children. They are of the opinion that, the necessary steps must be taken by the concerned to foster creativity among them. It is found that development of creativity involves genetic as well as environmental factors.
ECOLOGY
Environmental studies is a multidisciplinary academic field which systematically studies human interaction with the environment in the interests of solving complex problems. Environmental studies is an interdisciplinary subject examining the interplay between the social, legal, management, and scientific aspects of environmental issues. Interdisciplinary means that issues are examined from multiple perspectives. Unlike environmental science, which focuses mainly on the scientific component of these environmental issues, environmental studies investigates the scientific and the humanitarian aspects. Students of environmental studies learn the causes, effects, and possible solutions to address important environmental problems. Environment literally means Surrounding in which we are living. Environment includes all those things on which we are directly or indirectly dependent for our survival, whether it is living component like animals, plants or non living component like soil, air water. Ecology and Scope of Ecological Studies: Ecology is that part of environmental studies in which we study about organisms, plants and animals and their relationship or interdependence on other living and non living environment. The term ‘Ecology’ is derived from Greek word ‘Oekologue’ which is composed of two words: (a) ‘Oekos’ means surrounding (b) ‘Logs’ means study on a whole ecology means ‘Study of surrounding’
OVERCOME YOUR EXAM FEAR!
Examinations are important but increase the stress level of students, this is further compounded by parental and teachers expectations. Examinations are a necessary evil, with Examination fever, being a reality. Examinations confine teachers and students to the syllabus defined at the beginning of the year Teachers are under compulsion to complete the same timely and for students the syllabus is the goal for doing well in the examination. They determine whether a student is fit for promotion to the next class or not. Students are thus under a lot of stress to perform well in examinations. Stress increases because of parental expectations, too. Every parent wants his child to be the best and ignores the fact that each child is born with different abilities. Some students with high intelligence are able to comprehend and remember things faster than those whose level of intelligence is less. But parents and teachers fail to accept this and put a lot of pressure on the child to be at the top of the class. The tendency to compare one’s child with the children of relatives, friends, and neighbors also adds to this pressure.Close to examinations, most children are stressed out as they are trying to meet the aspirations of their parents and teachers. The fear of failure and poor performance gives them nightmares. They are afraid of the wrath of their parents and humiliation which they may have to face if performance is not up to the mark. Failure has become a social stigma for students and parents, alike. It would not be wrong to say that examinations are a hurdy in making a child actualize his true potential. They are rightly denounced as a system which encourages only rote memory and are not a true test of ones knowledge, potential and ability.
CIVILIZATION IN TERMS OF GROUPING
Civilization is basically a vital kind of grouping. Without civilizations, the world as we know it would not be. Civilizations have different qualities than regular groups of people such as nomads. For example, a civilization develops surpluses of things which helps the people be a stable community. These surpluses also create the construction and growth of cities and helps develop secure, formal states. Government is also present in civilizations. One very important part of a civilization is an advanced writing method. A civilization can only be complete with all of these factors, or it will just fall apart. Nomads are nowhere close to being a civilization even though sometimes groups of nomads have good technology. Nomads travel around all the time following food. A civilization is a stationary place with agriculture. This means that the community of people occupying this civilization does not have to go running around scrounging for food. Nomads are just a small group of people without cities, sometimes without writing, no organizations, and their technology is lacking. Civilizations have the one-up on nomads without a doubt. If everyone was just a bunch of nomads, the world would not be organized, and cultures would not be as complex and great as they are today. Nomads are just a bunch of underdeveloped, not modern, and sometimes barbaric people. The Greeks and the Romans both thought of themselves as a civilization separate from everyone else. The Greeks believed that anyone who could not speak Greek were barbarians meaning "those who cannot speak Greek." Anyone that could not speak Greek were only speaking "gibberish" to the Greeks so they separated themselves from others making themselves their own civilization.
DEMONETIZATION
Cashless India is a mission launched by the Government of India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reduce dependency of Indian economy on cash and to bring hoards of stashed black money lying unused into the banking system. The country embarked upon this transition to a cashless economy when the government took the revolutionary step of demonetization of old currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 on November 08, 2016. It was on 8 November 2016 that the Government of India took the whole country by storm by announcing that the currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 were no longer legal tender. The government move aimed at curtailing the menace of black or counterfeit money which is largely used to fund criminals and terrorists as part of a parallel economy. The acute shortage of money in the wake of this decision led to long queues of people outside ATMs or banks seeking to exchange their notes or withdrawing cash. But eventually, the move has turned out to be a push towards cashless India that is bound to pave the way for a cashless economy, marked by greater transparency, ease and convenience in monetary transactions. The Union government’s demonetization initiative and the subsequent drive towards developing a cashless India have invited its share of both bricks and bouquets. There have been widespread protests organised by the opposition parties across the country against the cash crunch in the wake of ban on old currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000. However, the initial difficulties have subsided now and the people are beginning to realise the safe and convenient modes of digital payment. Moreover, to encourage the people to further go for cashless modes, the Narendra Modi Government has provided a slew of incentives and measures. The latest World Bank report has mentioned that the demonetization will not have any long-term adverse effect on the health of Indian Economy. Rather it will prove beneficial with growth of the Indian economy rising to 7.6% in fiscal year 2018. Liquidity expansion in the banking system post-demonetization has helped the banks to lower lending rates, which in turn is bound to lift economic activity.
MONA LISA
The Mona Lisa is a famous 16th-century portrait by Leonardo da Vinci. The Mona Lisa’s mysterious smile has beguiled generations of viewers, but the true identity of the woman pictured in the portrait remains unknown, despite intensive research by art historians. The Mona Lisa painting now hangs in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France. What inspires me to write on this epic painting is not just the English assignment but my interest in solving the particular puzzle in my father’s phone when I was mere 9, puzzling not about the puzzle but about the fact that is this lady smiling or is under stress ,also unknowing of the fact that it is actually one of the most talked painting in the world of Art which I discovered later. The Mona Lisa is an oil painting, with a cottonwood panel as the surface. It is unusual in that most paintings are commissioned as oil on canvas, but the cottonwood panel is part of what has attributed to the fame of the painting. Because of the medium used for the image, the Mona Lisa has survived for six centuries without ever having been restored–a trait very unusual when considering the time period of the piece. While most of the artwork of the Renaissance period depicts biblical scenes, it was the style and technique of the paintings of this period which make them distinguished from other eras of artwork. Anatomically correct features are one of the identifiable marks of this period of history in art, and the Mona Lisa stands out amongst the great paintings for the detail in her hands, eyes, and lips. The Mona Lisa (properly Monna Lisa, but Americans shortened it) or La Gioconda, her original Italian name, is of huge importance in art history. The Wikipedia entry will tell you things like it is of "monumental" scale. No. The entire work is only about 30x20, scarcely monumental. It will also say that the use of putting her in the foreground with the dim landscape in the background was something revolutionary. No. Da Vinci often used landscape backgrounds in his works, as did other painters. It was a way to fill in space, give perspective and also gave a sense of storytelling, and anchored the subject with a geographical reference. But Piero della Francesca used this device (and others) much before da Vinci, though his works usually had groups of people rather than single figures. However, the Mona Lisa is immensely important in the art world, which is a very different thing. She has compelled the attention of millions of viewers of art, and that is quite wonderful. She has done this despite the fact that a far better painting by da Vinci (IMHO), about the same size, is hanging a short distance away in the same museum (the Louvre) and has no protective glass disturbing its viewing. This is "La Belle Ferroniere". What accounts for this incredible difference in public taste? It can't possibly all be publicity by the museum. Most people attribute Mona Lisa's attraction to the sense of enigma in her smile. Precisely how should we identify her expression? Is she happy, sad, thoughtful? About what? We are almost compelled to continually be guessing - to project ourselves and our own feelings into her image. But there is more. Vasari, a contemporary of da Vinci, wrote that the artist had created a portrait of a merchant's wife named Lisa Giocondo (Gioconda is wordplay on the name). It is assumed that this is that portrait. But there are possibly 4 or 5 other portraits that da Vinci created during the same period. Therefore, exactly who is this woman who is neither happy nor sad? Also, da Vinci is known to have stated, "I've never really finished a work." So, is this piece finished - or not? Is the background of a particular location - and if it is, where? Does that give a clue to the identity of the subject? And is the work really subpar in its painting, or has it just been overcleaned - "over restored" through the years? These are the multiple questions that swirl around this dun-coloured, 500 plus year old woman. And this is why she is so fascinating and important in the world of art. Aside from that smile's mystery, there is also the astounding technique. And the fact that an unfinished painting could still be the most famous one ever is pretty remarkable. That it has consistently had the world's fascination and respect all this while means something unto itself as well. So it's that combination of artistry and mystery. Also I feel The identity of the woman in the painting is still a mystery. Some believe that it is the female form of Leonardo Da Vinci himself. Most popular belief is that the woman was Lisa Gherardini, who was 24-years-old and a mother of two sons. The painting has an imperfection. In 1956, a man named Ugo Ungaza threw a stone at the painting. This resulted in a small patch of damaged paint next to her left elbow. The painting is considered priceless and so it cannot be insured. Another interesting fact about the painting is that the woman in the painting has no eyebrows. Those who had a glimpse of Mona Lisa’s smile might have seen her smiling. However, if you look at the painting again you might say she’s not. Margaret Livingstone, a Harvard neuroscientist, was pretty sure that she already solved the puzzle. Livingstone stated that the reason why her smile suddenly appears and then fade was the way we look at the painting. She said that when we look at someone’s face, we usually focus on the center of the attraction, the eyes. She said that when we look at Mona Lisa’s eyes, we partially picks up shadows from her cheekbones which made her look like smiling. No one knows until today if Leonardo da Vinci really made the painting look that way.