Saturday, August 31, 2019

Payroll Accounting

Chapter 1 Quiz 1. Which of the following laws has as one of its major provisions the establishment of the minimum wage? a. Fair Employment Laws b. Federal Unemployment Tax Act c. Federal Insurance Contributions Act d. Social Security Law e. Fair Labor Standards Act 2. Which of the following acts covers employee pension and welfare plans? f. Age Discrimination in Employment Act g. Employee Retirement Income Security Act h. Family and Medical Leave Act i. Federal Insurance Contributions Act j. Federal Unemployment Tax Act 3.Which of the following statements is not a provision of ERISA? k. ERISA requires each employer to establish a pension plan l. All of these choices are provisions of ERISA m. ERISA provides that all employees are eligible to set up their own individual retirement accounts n. ERISA establishes minimum vesting schedules that protect the worker’s benefits o. ERISA applies to pension and welfare plans established by any employer engaged in commerce. 4. Which of th e following is not a provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)? . Restricts the employment of child labor q. Forbids discrimination in hiring r. Mandates equal pay for equal work, regardless of sex s. Sets up minimum wage t. All are provision of the FLSA 5. Which of the following bases for discrimination in employment practices is not covered in Title VII of the civil Rights Act of 1964 as amended? u. Color v. National origin w. Age x. Religion y. Sex 6. Medicare is a two=part health insurance program that was part of an amendment to what act? z. Federal Insurance Contributions Act . Federal Unemployment Tax Act |. Federal Income Tax Withholding Law }. Age Discrimination in Employment Act ~. Fair Labor Standards Act 7. Which of the following act deals with the minimum wage paid to laborers for contractors who supply materials to any agency of the United States? . Walsh-Healey Public Contracts . Davis-Bacon . NcNamara-O’Hara Service Contract . None of these choices are correct . Federal Insurance Contributions 8. Which of the following is used to complete each employee’s Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement? Change in payroll rate form . Employee’s individual retirement account . Payroll register . Employee’s earning record . Employee’s paycheck 9. Which of the following items does not always appear on both the payroll register and the employee’s earnings record in the weekly payroll recording? . Net amount of the paycheck . Cumulative earnings . Gross weekly pay . Federal income tax deducted . All of these choices appear on both records 10. The employee’s earnings record is a listing of a firm’s complete payroll for each pay periods. . True . False

JKL International plc. International Human Resource Essay

INTRODUCTION With the trend of globalisation, the number of multinational companies is constantly increasing as well as expatriates (Business Recorder, 2011). Expatriate management now is an essential issue of human resource department because it takes a large amount of budget from the corporation. It is inevitable for expatriates to face culture barriers in subsidiaries because of unique national cultures in all countries over the world. National culture is †cultural experiences, beliefs, learned behaviour patterns, and values shared by citizens of the same nation† (Neale _et al_, 2006, p.26). A national culture will significantly affect any employee working in firms and furthermore, national culture will influence the management framework in a company as well accompanied with organisational culture so that cross culture management is helpful not only for the supervisors’ decisions but also for employees especially for expatriates (Chen, 2006, p. 2). In the case study of JKL, it showed a range of problems in their expatriates which related national cultures and JKL will implement a British managerial system into its Russian subsidiary. This essay will first examine the problems and issues in managing expatriates in JKL and then evaluate the proposal from Jim Flinn, the CEO of Zagorski who will apply an entire British managerial system into a Russian subsidiary. ORGANISATIONAL CONTEXT (CASE STUDY) JKL is a British pharmaceutical company which was founded in 1925 and it has expanded its business by acquiring other pharmaceutical companies in Malaysia, India, Greece and USA. Recently, JKL has made the largest acquisition of Zagorski, a pharmaceutical company in Russia. At the headquarter of UK, JKL applies a decentralised organisational structure. All managers are required to give their own opinions to avoid some drawbacks of group decision making which is conformity pressure in groups (Robbins and Judge, 2009, p.336). Employees are allowed to propose valuable ideas to manufacture and administrative systems as well. Supervisors will award monetary incentives (one of the physical needs) as motivation to employees and managers (Carrell, Elbert and Hatfield, 2000, p.129) if their initiatives are judged as potential innovations. On the other hand, in subsidiaries, JKL applied localised human resource practices in order to fit local cultural values and legal systems (Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2008, p.217) by keeping local managers with existing  organisational and managerial systems. In past years, those subsidiaries in Malaysia, India and Greece were continually making profits to JKL and JKL also regularly sent managers and specialists to those subsidiaries for expatriation in a period of time. After the acquisition of Zagorski, Dr. Jim Flinn will be the CEO who had spent last three years in the subsidiary of USA. PART ONE: EXPATRIATES MANAGEMENT AND CROSS CULTURE MANAGEMENT IN MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS INTRODUCTION Culture is a popular topic in literature research and it could be described as a †software of the mind† (Hofstede, 1991, p. 2) .With the trend of globalisation, managing cultural differences has become an important issue in human resource management of multinational corporations. Misunderstanding may be occurred if culture differences are not well-managed even these colleagues are working in the same organisation (Hall, 1995, p.6). In the case study, seven expatriates of JKL have their own problems and for JKL, there is a high expatriate leaving rate after repatriation (Appendix F). This essay will identify the problem of seven expatriates working in JKL and its subsidiaries and after that, rational proposals of changes will be given to them on the basis of improvements of JKL’s human resource department. EXPATRIATES AND ORGANISATION PROBLEMS AND PROPOSALS FOR CHANGES EXPATRIATES In the case study it lists seven expatriates with their problems and in the following essay they will be numbered from A to G. A (RETURNED FROM PENNSYLVANIA, USA) According to the case study, expatriate A was the first expatriate to Pennsylvania because of an attractive salary. The reason of returning is that expatiate A was annoyed about following managers received better compensation packages than him although they were almost doing the same works. The main problems of the human resource department of JKL are rewarding system and lack of correct performance appraisal system. †Every employee believes, and most experts believe, that pay and rewards are an important part of an organisation’s human resource management† (Harris, Brewster and Sparrow, 2003, p.91). In fact, the first expatriate to a subsidiary will face loads of difficulties in practical and then try to solve them as a pioneer (Business Wire, 1998). As a result, the first expatriate is deserved to have a better compensation package than followers. As the perspective of organisation, the first expatriate may important to human resource managers because this person can be regarded as a training model of human resource management (Arusha Times, 2009, p.16). On the other hand, because of lacking effective performance appraisal, expatriate A had a lower compensation package compared with following managers and that may be the reason of the compensation package of expatriate A was retain unvarying for a long time as well. Expatriates sometimes will feel unfair if performance evaluate system is not effective enough because insufficient performance appraisal system may make expatriates uncertain of their performance especially for those hard working expats (Gordon, 2010, p.56). The possible solution of dealing this problem is establishing an effective reward system by performance appraisal (Performance -related reward system). Performance-related pay (PRP) can change the payment from a rigid structure to a flexible way depended on performance (Harris, Brewster and Sparrow, 2003, p.94). By applying this system, the productivity of employees will be significantly increased and for expatriates, they will be motivated and more  willing to finish their assignments as well (Gielen, Kerkhofs and Van, 2010, p.299). Furthermore, accurate evaluation is also a factor which company need to take account because there is an essential link between motivation and performance appraisal (Carrell, Elbert and Hatfield, 2000, p.315). B (RETURNED FROM INDIA) The reason of expatriate B returning to UK is that his spouse and child had enough of India living and schooling as seemed to be suffering (Case Study). The main problem of the human resource department of JKL is expatriate selection especially in cross-cultural suitability and family. Cross-cultural suitability and family are two of the most crucial criteria of expatriate selection (Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2008, p.120). In culture aspect, Hofstede’s national culture model demonstrated the main various between UK and India in power distance and individualism (Appendix A). According to appendix A, the power distance column in India is much higher than it in UK as well as individualism so that there maybe the reason of his spouse had enough of India. In addition, unlike Western Europe civilisation, there is a caste system in India which cause the high power distance and many females in India basically are not regarded as equal to males (Robert _et al_., 2000, pp.654-656). Moreover, individualism in India is much less important than UK so that residents in India intend to work, study and live collectively (South Asian Studies, 2011) that is totally different to UK. As a result, the wife and child keened on back to UK because of the cultural adjustment problem while her husband was still working only with British colleagues (Case Study). The solutions will be provided here are selecting an appropriate candidate as an expatriate and putting more emphasis on cross-cultural suitability and family requirement. Cotemporary, the family element is having more important weight in expatriate selection because of non-working factors and potential influence to working expatriates (Andreason and Aaron, 2008, pp. 386-387). C (RETURNED AFTER A-FIVE-YEAR-ASSIGNMENT AND WOULD BE SENT OUT IMMEDIATELY) The problem of JKL here is about repatriate management and in detail; it will be related to re-entry management. In general, after completing an international assignment, an expatriate will go back to the home country as called re-entry or repatriation (Harzing and Ruysseveldt, 2004, p.337). However, most repatriates will cope with culture shock after they back to the home country. Using an example of India and UK here, although many British work in India as expats for its booming economic and after their finishing assignments, back to UK, they therefore only find they cannot work under a UK context (The International Herald Tribune, 2009). That may be the reason that JKL sent employee C abroad again without hesitation in order to avoid coping with culture shocks (Case Study). It is obviously that JKL need to improve their repatriate management and there are many models here from other multinational companies. JKL could ‘Offer repatriation training, pre-departure training, and re-entry orientation to employees and their families’ (Liu, 2005, p.129) and expats can increase the awareness of repatriation and decrease the uncertainty after back to the home country . Moreover, JKL could prepare a job vacancy in expatriate management division of human resource management because expatriates have various working experiences in other countries (Berman and Ursula, 2009, pp.80-81). D (NOW WORKING IN GREECE AS AN EXPATRIATE) The major issue of expatriate D in Greece now is adapting the local customs and culture in Greece although JKL had a prepared pre-departure training programme (Case Study). In Hofstede’s national culture demonstration of UK and Greece (Appendix B), the uncertainty avoidance is extremely high and no long-term orientation in Greece. In the case of expatriate D, a problem of communication is occurred as well. In theoretical aspect, there four problems in cross-cultural oral communication: †semantics, word connotations, tone differences and differences among perceptions† (Robbins and Judge, 2009, pp.407-408) and English and Greek are classified to two different language system. As a result, it will take a longer training  programme to completely learn and understand a foreign language. Likewise the body language and gestures in England are slightly different to the world, for example, a †V† gesture means victory or peace in many countries but in England, †if the palm and fingers face inward, it means ‘up yours’ especially if executed with an upward jerk of the fingers† (New York Times, 1996, p.E7). Consequently, post-departure training is a rational option for expatriate D to continually make adjustments into Greek culture. The reason is that post-departure training is suit for expatriates living in a country which has an entirely different culture and it can accelerate accustoming another culture (Managing Training and Development, 2005). E AND F (CONFUSED AFTER REPATRIATE) Expatriate E and F have similar problems after finishing their international assignments because JKL currently have no response about their repatriate (Case Study). The problem of JKL must be repatriate management. The possible solution will be provided here is putting emphasis on repatriate management. In fact, in last ten years, there is an increasing number of multinational corporations focus on repatriate management while in 1990s, only few companies would hold a re-entry discussion. According to a survey in 1997, only 27% firms supposed to hold a discussion about re-entry and it had been improved in 2000s. In 2004, there are 86% companies intended to discuss the re-entry issue (Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2008, p.199). JKL could offer repatriate supports to repatriates such as give interaction to human resource management to increase the sense of loyalty so that the company can avoid losing these experienced employees (Harzing and Ruysseveldt, 2004, pp. 343-344). G (THOUGHT GREEK DISCRIMINATE AGAINST FEMALE) From expatriate G’s case, it seems Greek dislike the idea of female even she is well qualified or experienced (Case Study). Thus, for JKL, it shall  investigate the culture and even the working environment in Greece. From Hofstede’s national culture model, UK and Greece possess almost the same figure in masculinity and Greece actually has a lower masculinity figure than UK (Appendix B). However, the power distance in Greece is much higher than it in UK which means whatever a male or female, their ideas are hardly applied to supervisors as an employee. In Greek working condition, it is surprisingly to find much evidence of discrimination against female. According to an official report written by Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) and the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT) (2002, pp.13-21), there are approximately 4500 rapes in working communities every year and only 6% are reported to police. Furthermore, Sexual harassment in communities is common in Greece due to no specific legislation of sexual harassment. Those factors may be the reasons of Greek male employees discriminate against female in the working place. In JKL’s view, it is a challenge to solve this problem as well, one of the effective ways is sending a male expatriate instead of female employee in Greece to prevent any hidden risks in Greece and make further investigation in Greek subsidiaries. ORGANISATION From the case study, JKL have a high expatriate failure rate (Exceed 46%) in subsidiaries except USA (Appendix F). JKL has paid a low attention on cross culture management because it applies a localised managerial system and most managers in the subsidiaries are from the host countries. In fact, many multicultural corporations which apply localised managerial system have the same issue in manage culture difference (National Centre for Vocational Education Research, 2006, p.1). According to Brunstein (1995, pp. 275-280), a localised managerial system will positively fit the local context and it is easier to bring profit like autonomy units in a shorter of time than centralised management system. However, the drawbacks are employees especially the expatriates from the parent company will probably face a huge  culture shock in the subsidiary if their cultures are totally different. As a result, JKL must release many improvements in human resource department especially in expatriate management field. If JKL continually applies a localised managerial system in acquired firms, it may only have problems on expatriates’ management. However, once the supervisors intended to transplant the whole management system into a country with entirely different national culture like flag-planting, it definitely will bring a serious impact to the target subsidiary and the worst consequence may like the failure of Japanisation entering UK in 1990s. CONCLUSION The main problem that JKL has is on its international human resource management as a part of managerial system. In the case study, seven expatriate had a range of typical expatriate problems comprising training, expatriate selection and repatriate management. Moreover, 43 per cent of expatriate left JKL after their repatriation and at least 46 per cent of expatriate cannot complete their tour in subsidiaries except USA. In short, those fundamental factors of expatriates’ problems are totally based on various national cultures that JKL need to take account in its cross culture management. PART TWO: APPRAISE THE DECENTRALISED MANAGERIAL SYSTEMS OF JKL APPLIED IN RUSSIAN AFFILIATE INTRODUCTION Like national cultures, many companies have developed their own organisational culture as well as managerial structure. Organisational structure is important to multinational corporations because it will definitely interact with different national cultures in host countries (Francesco and Gold, 2005, p.236). In the case study, JKL applies a  polycentric control system in Malaysia, India and Greece and decision making authority is awarded to subsidiaries in order to avoid drawbacks on the motivation and political problems in these countries (Stonehouse _et al_, 2004, pp.382-383). As a result, those subsidiaries make profit very shortly (Case Study). This essay will evaluate Jim Flinn’s proposal who intends to transplant a whole managerial system from JKL headquarter to its Russian affiliate. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS OF JKL’S AND ZAGORSKI’S STRUCTURES AND MANAGERIAL SYSTEMS At the headquarter in UK and its affiliate in USA, JKL uses a decentralised management structure and employees will be empowered to make decisions on their own works (Case Study). Currently, many European multinational companies applied decentralised managerial structure and developed an organisational culture called ‘old boys network’ with high autonomy (Bartlett, Ghoshal and Birkinshaw 2003 pp.342-343). Decentralised structure is one of the most successful management systems in transnational corporations which has experienced a long time modification and has generated many derivative systems. Under this system, diverse standards are made to fit specific manufacturing cases and it will enhance developing new and innovative products (Johnson _et al_, 2008, p. 166). For JKL, it is a brilliant choice because innovation is actually a crucial factor to a pharmaceutical company. Yet, the weak point of this system is hard to implement global business strategies because those subsidiaries are working as autonomies while Zagorski used to apply a centralised structure which renowned for the efficiency of implements business strategies. Furthermore, JKL developed a monitoring system with performance appraisal in headquarter and USA which can significantly motivate employees in working place (Decenzo and Robbins, 1999, pp. 292-294). However, there are a few weaknesses of performance appraisal system. For example, a report from General Electric (GE) which applied performance appraisal system and it found that those employees who received a honest but negative feedback from supervisors would actually not motivated them but decrease the motivation in their work  (Oberg, 2000, p. 64). On the contrast, a centralised structure has a formal bureaucracy system with a tall hierarchy and fixed official duties (Francesco and Gold 2005, pp.240-241). This structure is therefore suit for small or middle-sized companies at the beginning stage for effective control power in strategy implementation (Jeong, 2001, p. 446). One the other hand, the Economist (2004, p.33) found that with the increasing size of firms, a centralised structure will constantly lose the efficiency of decision making process through the complicated bureaucracy system and the employees will get used to receive orders from supervisors instead of expressing their own idea. In addition, there is no performance related rewards in Zagorski because a tall hierarchy management system proposed to make a uniform management system by formalised, vertical and fair control so that regulations are designed to fit every employee as a same unit (Czinkota, Ronkainen and Moffett, 1999, p.712). NATIONAL CULTURE DIFFERENCES JKL used to transplant their management system to its subsidiary in USA and it successful worked. This is the main reason that Jim Flinn, the former manager in US affiliate wants to transplant the system to Russia again. Before making the final decision, it is necessary to analyse the reasons of this success in USA. As main economics in Europe and North America, there are many similarities in the national culture of UK and USA. According to Harris, Moran and Moran (2004, pp.297-298, pp. 437-440), free enterprise, culture affinity, English speaking, private, good manners, aggressive and self-realisation are the common key words of American and British. Moreover, in Hofstede’s national culture model (Appendix C), the national culture of USA and UK are almost the same and in uncertainty avoidance column, USA is slightly higher than UK. However, Russia is totally a different country in East Europe. First, employees in Russia are regarded as a kind of cost rather than a resource (Organizational Dynamics, 1999, p.75). Second, beside the language usage, all management decisions are made by supervisors in business context.  Furthermore, Russian basically have a slow time sense and they intend to work collectively (Harris, Moran and Moran, 2004, pp.497-500). In Hofstede’s national culture demonstration (Appendix D), Russia has a higher power distances, lower individualism, higher uncertainty avoidance and no long term orientation compared to UK and USA. From a report, Russian firms used to apply a reactor business strategy in order to meet immediate need instead of long term benefits but most of those companies are finally failed (Milles and Snow, 1978, p. 353). RELEVANT CASES After culture analysis, it is showed that there is a huge difference in national culture between Russia and UK. Hence, it is not sure that Jim Flinn will still succeed again in his transplanting programme. Look back at history, in 1990s, Japanisation once became a popular word in UK and Toyota established its manufacturing plant in Derby in 1992 because there was an existing skilled engineering workforce there (The Independent, 1992, p.23). During the early 1990’s only about 55000 people were employed by Japanese companies in the UK (The Journal, 1999). Japanisation is a Japanese managerial system with Cost-centred Just in Time System, long term contracts, vertical integration to supplier and low labour turnover rate (Hasegawa, 2001, pp.165-166). However, once Japanese manager attempted to entirely implement this system into British subsidiaries, it was not worked effectively with British employees and many Japanese companies like Nissan finally failed in UK market because Japanese manufacturing method did not fit British economic and culture conditions with collective working method (Procter and Ackroyd, 1998, p. 241, pp.244-245). In Hofstede’s national culture model (Appendix E), Japan is a collective, success oriented and long term oriented country with high uncertainty avoidance which is almost an opposite of UK. It is recommended to apply a centralised managerial structure in Russia because many most Russian companies applied a †traditional production-oriented culture with strong factory patriotism† just like a  typical Soviet traditions (Clarke, 2004, p. 418). In 2003, IKEA opened its first store in Russia and many Swedish worked in IKEA Russia as expatriates. After repatriation, their feedbacks are high power distance in the working place accompanied with rigid centralised management structures (Jonsson, 2008, p.34). Despite the nation culture of Russia possess a high power distance, there are some autonomous states in Russia which has rich unexplored natural resources such as Komi and Sakhalin actually have a more decentralised culture and many Dutch petroleum and pharmaceutical companies had established their affiliates with decentralised management structures in those regions (Condon, and Dauman, 1993, p.31). FORECAST According to the case study, Jim Flinn intends to use a ‘top-down’ change approach to transplant the managerial structure which may be imposed in a coercive manner (Balogun and Hailey, 2004, p.27). Once Jim Flinn has completely applied the management system that used in the headquarter and USA, the employees in Russian subsidiaries have to cope with a huge culture difference from West Europe. Jim Flinn may draw attention on the success of Dutch pharmaceutical companies in Russia as mentioned before. Thus, in a short term, transition will be a main issue in Russian subsidiary and it probably will take a long time in this process. However, in a long term perspective, the management structure of JKL’s headquarter may bring a range of benefits because a decentralised management system is exactly helpful in research and development department although the Russian employees are used to reluctant in changes (Case Study). CONCLUSION The main problem of JKL’s Russian affiliate is culture adjustment if Jim Flinn transplants the whole management structure from JKL to Zagorski. In fact, national culture will strongly influence the organisational culture as well as managerial framework of a company. Changing management system in a  subsidiary is not a flag-planting work because of various national cultures involved. In the first part of essay, some expatriates actually have problems on their international assignments in India and Greece. Hence, it can be estimated that, after the transplantation, many local employees working in Russia subsidiaries may have the same problems. Furthermore, many previous cases above are provided which could be used as a reference to Jim Flinn as well. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS This essay examined the problems in managing expatriates in JKL and evaluated the proposal from Jim Flinn who will transplant a British managerial system to a Russian subsidiary. Through these analyses, it is concluded that national culture will influence both expatriates and organisational cultures. It is essential for multinational corporations to have a good command of human resource management because of the large proportion budget of expatriates and efficiency of implementing business strategies. Managerial structure, on the other hand, it cannot be easily changed and sometime it will bring a series negative consequences in real business context because national cultures are involved as well. JKL have to improve its human resource department especially repatriate division and training programme to offer better supports to expatriates and eventually, there is a suggestion to Jim Flinn which is making further investigations on previous cases and local subsidiaries REFERENCE: Andreason and Aaron, W. (2008), ‘Expatriate Adjustment of Spouses and Expatriate Managers: An Integrative Research Review’, _International Journal of Management_, 25(2), pp.386-387. 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Friday, August 30, 2019

Mermaids

The French Revolution in the Minds of Men Author(s): Maurice Cranston Reviewed work(s): Source: The Wilson Quarterly (1976-), Vol. 13, No. 3 (Summer, 1989), pp. 46-55 Published by: Wilson Quarterly Stable URL: http://www. jstor. org/stable/40257906 . Accessed: 31/05/2012 21:13 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www. jstor. org/page/info/about/policies/terms. jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive.We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email  protected] org. Wilson Quarterly and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Wilson Quarterly (1976-). http://www. jstor. org 1789 THE FRENCH IN THE REVOLUTION OF MEN MINDS by Maurice Cranston July 14, 1989- BastilleDay- political and culturalleaders of every ideological persuasion assembled in Paristo celebratethe bicentennial of the French Revolution.Was there something strange about their unanimous applause? All subsequent major revolutions, such as those that took place in Russia and China, remain controversialtoday. But the French Revolution, which served as the direct or indirect model for these later upheavals, now passes for an innocuous occasion which anyone, Marxistor monarchist,can join in celebrating. Wasthis proof only of the anaesthetizing power of time, that two centuries could turn the French Revolutioninto a museum piece, an exhibitionacceptable to all viewers, even to a descendent of the old Bourbon monarchs?Or is there something about the French Revolution itself that, from its beginning, sets it apart from later revolutions? The tricouleur, the Marseillaise, the monumental paintings of David all celebr ate a series of connected events, alternatelyjoyous and grim, which make up the real, historical French Revolution. But there is another French Revolution, one which emerged only after the tumultuous days were over and the events and deeds became inflated or distorted in the minds of later partisans. This is the French Revolution as myth, and it is in many ways the more importantof the two.It is so, one could argue, because the myth, and not the reality, inspired the scores of revolutions that were to come. The actors of the French Revolution, anWQ SUMMER 1989 nouncing their principles on behalf of all mankind, clearly intended their deeds to have a mythic dimension. They wanted to inspireothers to follow their example. Consider the Declarationof the Rights of Man, passed in Augustof 1789. At no point does it refer to the specific conditions or laws of France. Instead, it speaks in grand universals, as if it were the voice of mankinditself.Replete with terms like citizen, liberty,th e sacred rights of man, the common good, the document provides the lexicon for all future revolutions. By contrast, the earlier revolutionary models which stirredthe French in 1789 to act- the English Revolution of 1688 and the American Revolution of 1776- had been essentiallypolitical events, limited in scope and conservative in objectives. The English revolutionists claimed to restore the liberty that the despotic James II had destroyed; the American revolutionaries made the kindredclaim that they were only defending their rights against tyrannical measures introduced by George III.Neither revolutionsought to change society. The French Revolution, however, sought to do exactly that. Indeed, to many of the more zealous French revolutionaries, the central aim was the creation of a new man- or at least the liberation of pristine man, in all his natural goodness and simplicity, from the cruel and corrupting prison of the traditionalsocial order. It is easy to see how this grandiose vi sion of the Revolution's purpose went hand-in-handwith the emergence of Romanticism.The great Romantic poets and philosophers encouraged people through- 46 1789 out the West to believe that imagination could triumph over custom and tradition, that everything was possible given the will to achieve it. In the early 1790s, the young William Wordsworth expressed the common enthusiasm for the seemingly brave and limitless new world of the Revolution: France standingon the top of golden hours, And human nature seeming born again. Here we encounter one of the many differences between reality and myth.The reality of the French Revolution, as Tocqueville maintained, was prepared by the rationalist philosophers of the 18th-century Enlightenment, by Voltaire, Diderot, Helvetius, d'Alembert, and Holbach no less than by Rousseau. Its myth, however, was perpetuated during the 19th century by Ro- mantic poets such as Byron, Victor Hugo and Holderlin. Byron in his life and in his poetry bore witnes s to that romanticized revolutionary idealism, fighting and then dying as he did to help the Greeks throw off the Turkish yoke and set up a free state of their own.The grandeur of its lofty aims made the French Revolution all the more attractive to succeeding generations of revolutionaries, real and would-be; the violence added theatrical glamor. The guillotine – itself an invention of gruesome fascination together with the exalted status of its victims, many of them royal, noble, or political celebrities, made the Terror as thrilling as it was alarming. The wars which broke out in 1793, when France declared war on Great Britain, Holland, and Spain, were fought not by professional soldiers but by conscripts, ordinary men who were ex-Duringthe 1790s, the FrenchArmybecame the â€Å"schoolof the Revolution,†where volunteers learned to â€Å"knowwhat theyfoughtfor and love what they know. † WQ SUMMER 1989 47 1789 pected to †know what they fought for and love w hat they know. † These wars were thought of as wars of liberation. It hardly matteredthat Napoleon turnedout to be an imperialist conqueror no better than Alexander or Caesar;he was still a people's emperor. If historians of the French Revolution are unanimous about any one point, it is this:thatthe Revolutionbroughtthe people into French political life. To say that it inwould be to say too troduced â€Å"democracy† much.Althoughpopularsuffragein varying degrees was institutedas the revolutionunfolded, no fully democratic system was set up. But popular supportcame to be recognized as the only basis for legitimatingthe nationalgovernment. Even the new despotism of Napoleon had to rest on a plebiscitary authority. These plebiscites, which allowed voters only to ratifydecisions already made, denied popular sovereignty in fact while paying tribute to it in theory. (The vote for the Constitutionwhich made Napoleon emperor in 1804-3,500,000 for versus 2,500 against hardlysugg estsa vigorous democracy. But if Napoleon's government was not democratic, it was obviously populistic. The people did not rule themselves, but they approvedof the man who ruled them. The end of Napoleon's empire in 1815, which was also in a sense the end of the historicalFrench Revolution,could only be brought about by the intervention of foreign armies. Those foreign armies could place a king on the throne of France, as they did with Louis XVIIIin 1815, but they could not restore the principle of royal sovereignty in the hearts of the French people. They simply put a lid on forces which would break ut in anotherrevolution 15 years later,this time not only in France but in other parts of the Westernworld. The French Revolution had turned the French into a republican people. Even when they chose a king- Louis-Philippe to lead that revolution of 1830, he was more of a republican prince than a royal sovereign in the traditional mold. LouisPhilippe,the â€Å"CitizenKing,†had to recognize, as part of his office, â€Å"the sovereignty of the nation. â€Å"And what kind of sovereign is it, one may ask, who has to submit to the sovereigntyof the nation?The answer must clearlybe, one who is king neitherby grace of God nor birth nor lawfulinheritancebut only through the will of the people, who are thus his electors and not his subjects. of â€Å"sovereignty the nation†was a new and powerful idea, a revolutionaryidea, in the 19th century. At the philosophical level, it is usually asto cribed,with some justification, the teachof JeanJacques Rousseau, whom Eding mund Burke, Alexis de Tocqueville, and many lesser commentators considered the ideologue of the French Revolution.What Rousseau did was to separate the concept which he said should be kept of sovereignty, the people in their own hands, from the by which he urged the concept of government, people to entrustto carefullychosen elites, their moral and intellectual superiors. Rousseauheld that neither h ereditarykings nor aristocratscould be considered superiors of this kind. Rousseau was uncompromisinglyrepublican. To him a republic could be based only on the collective will of citizens who contracted to live together under laws that they themselves enacted. â€Å"Myargument,†Rousseauwrote in TheSo-Maurice Cranston, a former Wilson Center Guest Scholar, is professor of political science at the London School of Economics. Born in London, he was educated at St. Catherine'sCollege and The His OxfordUniversity. books include John StuartMill (1965),Jean-Jacques: EarlyLife and Work of Jean-JacquesRousseau, 1712-54 (1982), and John Locke: A Biography(1985). WQ SUMMER 1989 48 1789 Three Leaders Three Phases of the Revolution. The liberalMarquisde Lafayetteinitiallyguided the Revolution. GeorgesDanton helped overthrowthe monarchy,but was executedfor being too moderate. Robespierre was both directorand victim of the Terror. ial Contract, â€Å"is that sovereignty, being nothing othe r than the exercise of the general will, can never be alienated; and the sovereign, which is simply a collective being, cannot be represented by anyone but itself- power may be delegated, but the will cannot be. † The sheer size of France, however, with a population in 1789 of some 26 million of people, precluded the transformation the French kingdom into the sort of direct democracy that Rousseau a native Swissthe Americanshad very reenvisaged. Still, cently proved that a nation need not be as small as a city-statefor a republican constitution to work.And as an inspirationto the average Frenchman, the American Revolution was no less importantthan the writings of Rousseau. The American Revolution thus became a model for France,despite its conservative elements. Moreover,the AmericanRevolution later served as a model for others largely because its principles were â€Å"translated† and universalized by the French Revolution. In Latin America, the Spanish and Portuguesecol onies could not directly follow the American example and indict their monarchs for unlawfully violating their rights; Spain and Portugal, unlike England, recognized no such rights.But following the example of the French RevoWQ SUMMER 1989 49 1789 lution, LatinAmericanslike Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martinwere able to appeal to abstract or universal principles. To describe Bolivia's new constitution in 1826, Simon Bolivarused the same universaland idealisticcatchwordswhich the French had patented 37 years before: â€Å"In this constitution/' Bolivar announced, â€Å"you will find united all the guarantees of permanency and liberty, of equality and order. † If the South American republics sometimes seemed to run short on republican liberty nd equality,the concept of royal or imperial sovereignty was nonetheless banished forever from American shores. The short reign of Maximilianof Austriaas Emperor of Mexico ( 1864- 1867) provideda brief and melancholy epilogue to such ide as of sovereignty in the New World. Even in the Old World,royal and aristocratic governments were on the defensive. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna, under Prince Metternichof Austria'sguidance, attempted to erase the memory of the Revolution and restore Europe to what it had been before 1789.Yet only five years after the Congress,Metternichwrote to the Russian tsar,AlexanderI, admitting,†Thegovernments, having lost their balance, are frightened, intimidated, and thrown into confusion. † French Revolution had permanently destroyed the mystique on which traditional regimes were based. No king could indisputablyclaim that he ruled by divine right; nor could lords and bishops assume that their own interests and the nationalinterestscoincided. After the French Revolution, commoners, the hitherto silent majorityof ordinaryunderprivilegedpeople, asserted the right to have opinions of their own- and to make them known.For once the ideas of liberty, democracy,and the rightsof men had been extracted from philosophers'treatises and put on the agenda of political actionwhich is what the French Revolution with its â€Å"universalprinciples†did- there could be no security for any regime which set itself againstthose ideals. In old history textbooks one can still find the interpretation of the French Revolutionfirstadvancedby Jules Micheletand Jean Jaures and other left-wing historians who explained the Revolution as one abolishing feudalismand advancing bourgeois capitalist society.While few historians still view the Revolution this way,the Micheletinterpretation was widespread during the 19th century,and its currency promptedmany an aspiring Robespierreto â€Å"comThe revolutionaryuprisingin Frankfurt 1848. â€Å"Thedull sound plete† the revolution. in Completing the revoluof revolution,†which VictorHugo had detected â€Å"pushingout under every kingdomin Europe,†grew dramaticallyloud thatyear. tion meant overthrowing 50 WQ SUMMER 19 89 1789 the bourgeoisie in favor of the working class, just as the bourgeoisie had supposedly overthrown the feudal aristocracyin 1789.The convulsive year of 1848 was marked in Europe by several revolutions which attempted to complete the work of 1789. Their leaders all looked back to the FrenchRevolutionfor their â€Å"historicjustification. â€Å"Tocquevilleobservedof these revolutionaries that their â€Å"imitation [of 1789] was so manifestthat it concealed the terrible originalityof the facts;I continuallyhad the impression they were engaged in playactingthe FrenchRevolutionfar more than continuing it. If the 19th centurywas, as many historians describe it, the â€Å"century of revolutions,†it was so largelybecause the French Revolution had provided the model. As it turns out, the existence of a proper model has proved to be a more decisive prod to revolution than economic crisis, political unrest, or even the agitations of young revolutionaries. Indeed, the role of pr ofessionalrevolutionaries seems negligible in the preparation of most revolutions. Revolutionaries often watched and analyzed the political and social disintegrationaround them, but they were seldom in a position to direct it.Usually,as HannahArendtobserved,†revolution broke out and liberated,as it were, the professional revolutionistsfrom wherever they happened to be- from jail, or from the coffee house, or from the library. † Tocqueville made a similar observation about the revolutionaries of 1848: The French monarchy fell â€Å"before rather than beneath the blows of the victors, who were as astonishedat their triumph as were the vanquishedat their defeat. † Disturbances which during the 18th century would hardly have proven so incendiary ignited one revolution after another during the 19th century.They did so because now there existed a revolutionary model for respondingto crises. During the 1790s, revolutionaries outside of France such as ToussaintL'Ouverture Haiti and in Wolfe Tone in Ireland tried simply to import the French Revolution,with its ideals of nationalism,equalityand republicanism, and adapt it to local conditions. And well into the 19th century,most revolutionaries continued to focus their eyes not on the future but on the past- on what the French duringthe 1790s had done in roughlysimilar circumstances. e sure, the French Revolution possessed differentand even contradictory meanings, differences which reflect die various stages of the historical Revolution. The ideals and leaders of each stage inspired a particulartype of The revolutionarymen later revolutionary. of 1789-91, including the Marquisde Lafayette, inspired liberal and aristocratic revolutionaries. Their ideal was a quasiBritish constitutional monarchy and suffrage based on propertyqualifications. The revolutionariesof 1830-32 realizedthis liberal vision in France and Belgium.The Girondins and moderate Jacobins of 1792-93 became the model for lowermiddle-class and intellectual revolutionaries whose political goal was a democratic republic and usually some form of a â€Å"welfare state. â€Å"The French Revolutionof 1848, with its emphasis on universal manhood suffrage and the state's obligation to provide jobs for all citizens, initiallyembodied their vision of society. A third type of revolutionary,the extremists of 1793-94 such as Robespierre and GracchusBabeuf, inspired later working-classand socialist revolutionaries.A reactionarysuch as Prince Metternich would hardly have distinguished among these three types of revolutionaries. But a later observer,Karl Marx,did. Seeing that the nationalist revolutions of his time igWQ SUMMER 1989 51 1789 Lenin (shown here in a 1919 photograph) exploitedthe precedentof the FrenchRevolution to legitimizethe BolshevikRevolutionin the eyes of the world. nored the socialist-radical strain of the French Revolution, he came to deplore its influence on later revolutionaries.Marx,who by 1848 was alreadyac tive in communist politics, condemned what he considered the confusion of understanding in most of these revolutionarymovements. An emotional yearning to reenact the dramas of 1789-1815 seemed to him to stand in the way of a successful revolutionary strategy. In a letter to a friend in September, 1870, Marxwrote: â€Å"The tragedyof the French, and of the working class as a whole, is that they are trapped in their memories of momentous events. We need to see an end, once and for all, to this reactionary cult of the past. † VladimirIlyich Lenin had no such resWQ SUMMER 1989 ervations.He passed up no rhetorical opportunityto present his Russian Bolsheviks as the heirs of the French revolutionary traditionand the RussianRevolutionof 1917 as a reenactment of France'sRevolution of 1789. Lenin went so far as to call his Bolshevik faction â€Å"the Jacobins of contemporarySocial-Democracy. † is not difficult to understandLenin's motives. Throughoutthe 19th century, most of th e successful revolutions in Europe and Latin America had been nationalist revolutions. (Indeed, when the revolutionaryGerman liberals of 1848 issued their Declaration of Rights, they ascribed those rightsto the GermanVolkas a whole and not to privatepersons. But the 52 1789 into his hands but the ideology and propaexample of the French Revolution suga revolutioncould be more than ganda adopted by the Allied powers in gested that World War I did so as well. When their just a matter of nationalism. Takingthe example of the French Revolution under the earlymilitarycampaignswent badly,the Alfanatical Robespierre,one could argue, as lies attemptedto make the war more popuLenin did, that the true goal of revolution lar, and the enormous casualties more tolwas to alter the way people lived together, erable,by declaringtheir cause to be a war In for â€Å"liberty. the name of liberty,Great socially and economically. as we know, Lenin looked back Britain, France, and the United States enYet , a century when attempts at radical couraged the subject nations of the Gerupon social revolutions had been ultimatelyand man, Austrian and Turkish empires to uniformlyabortive. The French Revolution throw off the imperialyoke. of 1848, which removed the â€Å"liberal†King But in championingnationalliberty,the Allies were guilty of hypocrisy.Neither Louis-Philippe,briefly gave greater power to the working class. Duringits most prom- GreatBritainnor France had any intention of permittingnationalistrevolutionswithin ising days, the anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865) even accepted a their own empires or those of any neutral seat in the legislative chamber. But the power. But Leninwas able to catch them in the trap of their own contradictions. coup d'etat of Napoleon III in 1851 soon brought an end to all this.The communist By declaring to the world that the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917 was a removement, which Marx described as a enactment of the French Revolutio n, he specter haunting Europe, produced no more tangible results than most specters was able to attach to his regime all those do. Before World War I, Marxwas notably less influential as a theoretician than were the champions of â€Å"revolutionary socialism† such as Proudhon and FerdinandLassalle(1825-1864) who persuaded the workers that their interestswould be better served by reform and democratic process than by revolution.It was World War I which put revolutionarysocialism back on the agenda again. The â€Å"war to end all wars†gave Lenin the opportunityto persuade the world that the French Revolution could be repeated as a communist revolution in, of all with a Chinese face†: Mao's Cultural Revolution â€Å"Robespierre places, Russia. Not only did hoped to realizeRobespierre'sdream of pushing beyondpolitical the upheavals of war play reformto remakeman and society. WQ SUMMER 1989 53 1789 strong, if mixed, emotions which the French Revolution had kindled in the outside world from 1789 on.In symbolicways, both large and small- such as naming one of their first naval ships Marat, after the French revolutionaryleader- the early Soviets underscored their connection with the earlier revolution. The attempts of the Allied powers to send in troops to save TsaristRussiafrom the Bolshevikswas immediately seen by a war-wearyworld as a reactionary,counter-revolutionary†White Terror,†and public opinion soon put an end to that intervention. After1917,the Soviet Union'sself-image became less that of a revolutionaryregime socialist and more that of a well-established empire.This transition unexpectedly enabled its adherents at last to obey Marx's injunctionto abolish the cult of the revolutionary past and to fix their eyes on the present. The idea of revolutionthus passed from the left to the ultra-left,to Stalin and Trotskyand, later, to Mao Zedong and his CulturalRevolutionin China. Yet even during the extreme phase of the CulturalRevo lution, Mao still evinced his debt to the French Revolution, a debt which he shares with the later â€Å"Third World†revolutionaries.Whenever a revolutionary leader, from Ho Chi Minh and FrantzFanonto Fidel Castroand Daniel Ortega, speaksof a new man, or of restructuring a whole society, or of creating a new human order,one hears againthe ideas and assumptionsfirst sounded on the political stage during the French Revolution. fact, there can be no doubt that a â€Å"cultural revolution† is what Robespierre set afoot in France, and what, if he had lived, he would have tried to bring to completion. As a disciple of Rousseau, he truly believed that existing culture had corruptedmodern man in all classes of society, and that an entirely new culture was WQ SUMMER 1989 ecessaryif men were to recover their natural goodness. The new religious institutions which Robespierre introduced the cult of the Supreme Being and the worship of Truthat the altar of Reason, as well as the ne w patrioticfestivalsto replace the religious holidays were all intended to be part of what can only be called a cultural revolution. Robespierredid not believe that political, social, and economic changes alone, however radical,would enable men to achieve their full humanity.But while the ideals and the languageof the cultural revolution sound nobler than those of the political revolution,such elevation of thought seems only to authorize greater cruelty in action. Robespierre's domination of the French Revolution lasted for only a short period, from April 1793 until July 1794, when he himself died under the same guillotine which he had used to execute his former friendsand supposed enemies. Moderationwas restoredto the French Revolution after his execution by the least idealistic of its participants a a cynical Talleyrand, pusillanimousSieyes, and a crudely ambitious Napoleon. ikewise, moderation was restored to the Chinese Revolutionby the Chineseadmirersof Richard Nixon. Yet while moderation had been restored to the real historical French of Revolution,the inevitability the returnto was often conveniently ig†normalcy† nored by later revolutionaries. And what of France itself? At first glance, all the majorsubsequent â€Å"dates†of French history seem to be in a revolutionary tradition or at least of revolutionary magnitude- 1830 (Louis-Philippe); 1848 (the Second Republic); 1852 (the Second Empire); 1871 (the Third Republic); 1940 (the Vichy French State); 1945 (the Fourth Republic); 1958 (the Fifth Republic).Yet these headline dates, all suggesting recurrent tumult, may be misleading:Francehas not been wracked by major upheavalsnor 54 1789 that left the structure by social earthquakes of society unrecognizable, as Russia and Chinawere aftertheir revolutions. Continuity may be the most striking feature in Frenchlife. Robertand BarbaraAnderson's Bus Stop to Paris (1965) showed how a village not more than 10 miles from Paris remained unaffec tedyear afteryear by all the great rumblingsin the capital. Are we dealing with a revolutionwhose myth is all out of proportionto the facts?Tocqueville,that most dependableof all politicalanalysts,offersan answer:The major change effected by the Bourbon kings duringthe 17th and 18th centuries was the increasingcentralizationof France and the creation of a strong bureaucracyto administer it. This bureaucracy,in effect, ruled France then and has continued to rule it through every social upheaval and behind every facade of constitutionalchange. This bureaucracyhas providedstabilityand continuitythroughthe ups and downs of political fortune.The French Revolutionand Napoleon, far from making an abrupt break with the past, continued and even accelerated the tendencytowardbureaucraticcentralization. Tocquevillealmost broached sayingthat the French Revolution never happened, that the events not only looked theatrical but were theatrical:The French could afford to have as many revolutions as they pleased, because no matter what laws they enacted, or what persons they placed in their legislative and executive offices, the same civil servants, the functionaries,the members of V would remain Administration, in command. any revolutions can the historian cite as having left the people better off at the end than they were at the beginning? Unfortunatelythe discrepancybetween its mythand its reality may have made the French Revolution a deceptive model for other nations to imitate. The mythtreatedsociety like a neutral, ahistoricalprotoplasmfrom which old corrupt institutions could be extracted and into which new rules for human interaction could be inserted at will. The reality was that France, with its unusually strong state bureaucracy, could withstand the shocks and traumas of radical constitutional upheaval.In modern history, revolution often seems a luxurythat only privilegedpeoples such as the French and the Americansand the English can afford. Less fortunatepeoples, f rom the Russiansin 1918 to the Cambodians in 1975, on whom the burden of the establishedregimes weighed more cruelly, have often enacted their revolutions with catastrophicresults. It is perhaps one of the harsherironies of history that, since the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, the more a country appears to need a revolution, the less likely it will be able to accomplish one successfully. WQ SUMMER 1989 55

Forward the Foundation Chapter 21

25 Hari Seldon knocked gently with an old-fashioned code and Yugo Amaryl looked up. â€Å"Hari, how nice of you to drop around.† â€Å"I should do it more often. In the old days we were together all the time. Now there are hundreds of people to worry about-here, there, and everywhere-and they get between us. Have you heard the news?† â€Å"What news?† â€Å"The junta is going to set up a poll tax-a nice substantial one. It will be announced on TrantorVision tomorrow. It will be just Trantor for now and the Outer Worlds will have to wait. That's a little disappointing. I had hoped it would be Empire-wide all at once, but apparently I didn't give the General enough credit for caution.† Amaryl said, â€Å"Trantor will be enough. The Outer Worlds will know that their turn will follow in not too long a time.† â€Å"Now we'll have to see what happens.† â€Å"What will happen is that the shouting will start the instant the announcement is out and the riots will begin, even before the new tax goes into effect.† â€Å"Are you sure of it?† Amaryl put his Prime Radiant into action at once and expanded the appropriate section. â€Å"See for yourself, Hari. I don't see how that can be misinterpreted and that's the prediction under the particular circumstances that now exist. If it doesn't happen, it means that everything we've worked out in psychohistory is wrong and I refuse to believe that.† â€Å"I'll try to have courage,† said Seldon, smiling. Then â€Å"How do you feel lately, Yugo?† â€Å"Well enough. Reasonably well. And how are you, by the way? I've heard rumors that you're thinking of resigning. Even Dors said something about that.† â€Å"Pay no attention to Dors. These days she's saying all sorts of things. She has a bug in her head about some sort of danger permeating the Project.† â€Å"What kind of danger?† â€Å"It's better not to ask. She's just gone off on one of her tangents and, as always, that makes her uncontrollable.† Amaryl said, â€Å"See the advantage I have in being single?† Then, in a lower voice, â€Å"If you do resign, Hari, what are your plans for the future?† Seldon said, â€Å"You'll take over. What other plans can I possibly have?† And Amaryl smiled. 26 In the small conference room in the main building, Tamwile Elar listened to Dors Venabili with a gathering look of confusion and anger on his face. Finally he burst out, â€Å"Impossible!† He rubbed his chin, then went on cautiously, â€Å"I don't mean to offend you, Dr. Venabili, but your suggestions are ridic-cannot be right. There's no way in which anyone can think that there are, in this Psychohistory Project, any feelings so deadly as to justify your suspicions. I would certainly know if there were and I assure you there are not. Don't think it.† â€Å"I do think it,† said Dors stubbornly, â€Å"and I can find evidence for it.† Elar said, â€Å"I don't know how to say this without offense, Dr. Venabili, but if a person is ingenious enough and intent enough on proving something, he or she can find all the evidence he or she wants-or, at least, something he or she believes is evidence.† â€Å"Do you think I'm paranoid?† â€Å"I think that in your concern for the Maestro-something in which I'm with you all the way-you're, shall we say, overheated.† Dors paused and considered Elar's statement. â€Å"At least you're right that a person with sufficient ingenuity can find evidence anywhere. I can build a case against you, for instance.† Elar's eyes widened as he stared at her in total astonishment. â€Å"Against me? I would like to hear what case you can possibly have against me.† â€Å"Very well. You shall. The birthday party was your idea, wasn't it?† Elar said, â€Å"I thought of it, yes, but I'm sure others did, too. With the Maestro moaning about his advancing years, it seemed a natural way of cheering him up.† â€Å"I'm sure others may have thought of it, but it was you who actually pressed the issue and got my daughter-in-law fired up about it. She took over the details and you persuaded her that it was possible to put together a really large celebration. Isn't that so?† â€Å"I don't know if I had any influence on her, but even if I did, what's wrong with that?† â€Å"In itself, nothing, but in setting up so large and widespread and prolonged a celebration, were we not advertising to the rather unstable and suspicious men of the junta that Hari was too popular and might be a danger to them?† â€Å"No one could possibly believe such a thing was in my mind.† Dors said, â€Å"I am merely pointing out the possibility. In planning the birthday celebration, you insisted that the central offices be cleared out-â€Å" â€Å"Temporarily. For obvious reasons.† â€Å"-and insisted that they remain totally unoccupied for a while. No work was done-except by Yugo Amaryl-during that time.† â€Å"I didn't think it would hurt if the Maestro had some rest in advance of the party. Surely you can't complain about that.† â€Å"But it meant that you could consult with other people in the empty offices and do so in total privacy. The offices are, of course, well shielded.† â€Å"I did consult there-with your daughter-in-law, with caterers, suppliers, and other tradesmen. It was absolutely necessary, wouldn't you say?† â€Å"And if one of those you consulted with was a member of the junta?† Elar looked as though Dors had hit him. â€Å"I resent that, Dr. Venabili. What do you take me for?† Dors did not answer directly. She said, â€Å"You went on to talk to Dr. Seldon about his forthcoming meeting with the General and urged him-rather pressingly-to let you take his place and run the risks that might follow. The result was, of course, that Dr. Seldon insisted rather vehemently on seeing the General himself, which one can argue was precisely what you wanted him to do.† Elar emitted a short nervous laugh. â€Å"With all due respect, this does sound like paranoia, Doctor.† Dors pressed on. â€Å"And then, after the party, it was you, wasn't it, who was the first to suggest that a group of us go to the Dome's Edge Hotel?† â€Å"Yes and I remember you saying it was a good idea.† â€Å"Might it not have been suggested in order to make the junta uneasy, as yet another example of Hari's popularity? And might it not have been arranged to tempt me into invading the Palace grounds?† â€Å"Could I have stopped you?† said Elar, his incredulity giving way to anger. â€Å"You had made up your own mind about that.† Dors paid no attention. â€Å"And, of course, you hoped that by entering the Palace grounds I might make sufficient trouble to turn the junta even further against Hari.† â€Å"But why, Dr. Venabili? Why would I be doing this?† â€Å"One might say it was to get rid of Dr. Seldon and to succeed him as director of the Project.† â€Å"How can you possibly think this of me? I can't believe you are serious. You're just doing what you said you would at the start of this exercise just showing me what can be done by an ingenious mind intent on finding so-called evidence.† â€Å"Let's turn to something else. I said that you were in a position to use the empty rooms for private conversations and that you may have been there with a member of the junta.† â€Å"That is not even worth a denial.† â€Å"But you were overheard. A little girl wandered into the room, curled up in a chair out of sight, and overheard your conversation.† Elar frowned. â€Å"What did she hear?† â€Å"She reported that two men were talking about death. She was only a child and could not repeat anything in detail, but two words did impress her and they were ‘lemonade death.' â€Å" â€Å"Now you seem to be changing from fantasy to-if you'll excuse me -madness. What can ‘lemonade death' mean and what would it have to do with me?† â€Å"My first thought was to take it literally. The girl in question is very fond of lemonade and there was a good deal of it at the party, but no one had poisoned it.† â€Å"Thanks for granting sanity that much.† â€Å"Then I realized the girl had heard something else, which her imperfect command of the language and her love of the beverage had perverted into ‘lemonade.'† â€Å"And have you invented a distortion?† Elar snorted. â€Å"It did seem to me for a while that what she might have heard was laymen-aided death.'† â€Å"What does that mean?† â€Å"An assassination carried through by laymen-by nonmathematicians.† Dors stopped and frowned. Her hand clutched her chest. Elar said with sudden concern, â€Å"Is something wrong, Dr. Venabili?† â€Å"No,† said Dors, seeming to shake herself. For a few moments she said nothing further and Elar cleared his throat. There was no sign of amusement on his face any longer, as he said, â€Å"Your comments, Dr. Venabili, are growing steadily more ridiculous and-well, I don't care if I do offend you, but I have grown tired of them. Shall we put an end to this?† â€Å"We are almost at an end, Dr. Elar. Layman-aided may indeed be ridiculous, as you say. I had decided that in my own mind, too. You are, in part, responsible for the development of the Electro-Clarifier, aren't you?† Elar seemed to stand straighter as he said with a touch of pride, â€Å"Entirely responsible.† â€Å"Surely not entirely. I understand it was designed by Cinda Monay.† â€Å"A designer. She followed my instructions.† â€Å"A layman. The Electro-Clarifier is a layman-aided device.† With suppressed violence Elar said, â€Å"I don't think I want to hear that phrase again. Once more, shall we put an end to this?† Dors forged on, as if she hadn't heard his request. â€Å"Though you give her no credit now, you gave Cinda credit to her face-to keep her working eagerly, I suppose. She said you gave her credit and she was very grateful because of it. She said you even called the device by her name and yours, though that's not the official name.† â€Å"Of course not. It's the Electro-Clarifier.† â€Å"And she said she was designing improvements, intensifiers, and so on-and that you had the prototype of an advanced version of the new device for testing.† â€Å"What has all this to do with anything?† â€Å"Since Dr. Seldon and Dr. Amaryl have been working with the Electro-Clarifier, both have in some ways deteriorated. Yugo, who works with it more, has also suffered more.† â€Å"The Electro-Clarifier can, in no way, do that kind of damage.† Dors put her hand to her forehead and momentarily winced. She said, â€Å"And now you have a more intense Electro-Clarifier that might do more damage, that might kill quickly, rather than slowly.† â€Å"Absolute nonsense.† â€Å"Now consider the name of the device, a name which, according to the woman who designed it, you are the only one to use. I presume you called it the Elar-Monay Clarifier.† â€Å"I don't ever recall using that phrase,† said Elar uneasily. â€Å"Surely you did. And the new intensified Elar-Monay Clarifies could he used to kill with no blame to be attached to anyone just a sad accident through a new and untried device. It would be the ‘Elar-Monay death' and a little girl heard it as `lemonade death.' â€Å" Dors's hand groped at her side. Elar said softly, â€Å"You are not well, Dr. Venabili.† â€Å"I am perfectly well. Am I not correct?† â€Å"Look, it doesn't matter what you can twist into lemonade. Who knows what the little girl may have heard? It all boils down to the deadliness of the Electro-Clarifier. Bring me into court or before a scientific investigating board and let experts-as many as you like-check the effect of the Electro-Clarifier, even the new intensified one, on human beings. They will find it has no measurable effect.† â€Å"I don't believe that,† muttered Venabili. Her hands were now at her forehead and her eyes were closed. She swayed slightly. Elar said, â€Å"It is clear that you are not well, Dr. Venabili. Perhaps that means it is my turn to talk. May I?† Dors's eyes opened and she simply stared. â€Å"I'll take your silence for consent, Doctor. Of what use would it be for me to try to to get rid of Dr. Seldon and Dr. Amaryl in order to take my place as director? You would prevent any attempt I made at assassination, as you now think you are doing. In the unlikely case that I succeeded in such a project and was rid of the two great men, you would tear me to pieces afterward. You're a very unusual woman-strong and fast beyond belief-and while you are alive, the Maestro is safe.† â€Å"Yes,† said Dors, glowering. â€Å"I told this to the men of the junta. Why should they not consult me on matters involving the Project? They are very interested in psychohistory, as well they ought to be. It was difficult for them to believe what I told them about you-until you made your foray into the Palace grounds. That convinced them, you can be sure, and they agreed with my plan.† â€Å"Aha. Now we come to it,† Dors said weakly. â€Å"I told you the Electro-Clarifier cannot harm human beings. It cannot. Amaryl and your precious Hari are just getting old, though you refuse to accept it. So what? They are fine-perfectly human. The electromagnetic field has no effect of any importance on organic materials. Of course, it may have adverse effects on sensitive electromagnetic machinery and, if we could imagine a human being built of metal and electronics, it might have an effect on it. Legends tell us of such artificial human beings. The Mycogenians have based their religion on them and they call such beings â€Å"robots.† If there were such a thing as a robot, one would imagine it would be stronger and faster by far than an ordinary human being, that it would have properties, in fact, resembling those you have, Dr. Venabili. And such a robot could, indeed, be stopped, hurt, even destroyed by an intense Electro-Clarifier, such as the one that I have here, one that has been operating at low energy since we began our conversation. That is why you are feeling ill, Dr. Venabili-and for the first time in your existence, I'm sure.† Dors said nothing, merely stared at the man. Slowly she sank into a chair. Elar smiled and went on, â€Å"Of course, with you taken care of, there will be no problem with the Maestro and with Amaryl. The Maestro, in fact, without you, may fade out at once and resign in grief, while Amaryl is merely a child in his mind. In all likelihood, neither will have to be killed. How does it feel, Dr. Venabili, to be unmasked after all these years? I must admit, you were very good at concealing your true nature. It's almost surprising that no one else discovered the truth before now. But then, I am a brilliant mathematician-an observer, a thinker, a deducer. Even I would not have figured it out were it not for your fanatical devotion to the Maestro and the occasional bursts of superhuman power you seemed to summon at will-when he was threatened. â€Å"Say good-bye, Dr. Venabili. All I have to do now is to turn the device to full power and you will be history.† Dors seemed to collect herself and rose slowly from her seat, mumbling, â€Å"I may be better shielded than you think.† Then, with a grunt, she threw herself at Elar. Elar, his eyes widening, shrieked and reeled back. Then Dors was on him, her hand flashing. Its side struck Elar's neck, smashing the vertebrae and shattering the nerve cord. He fell dead on the floor. Dors straightened with an effort and staggered toward the door. She had to find Hari. He had to know what had happened. 27 Hari Seldon rose from his seat in horror. He had never seen Dors look so, her face twisted, her body canted, staggering as though she were drunk. â€Å"Dors! What happened! What's wrong!† He ran to her and grasped her around the waist, even as her body gave way and collapsed in his arms. He lifted her (she weighed more than am ordinary woman her size would have, but Seldon was unaware of that at ** the moment) and placed her on the couch. â€Å"What happened?† he said. She told him, gasping, her voice breaking now and then, while he cradled her head and tried to force himself to believe what was happening. â€Å"Elar is dead,† she said. â€Å"I finally killed a human being. First time. Makes it worse.† â€Å"How badly are you damaged, Dors?† â€Å"Badly. Elar turned on his device-full-when I rushed him.† â€Å"You can be readjusted.† â€Å"How? There's no one-on Trantor-who knows how. I need Daneel.† Daneel. Demerzel. Somehow, deep inside, Hari had always known. His friend-a robot-had provided him with a protector-a robot-to ensure that psychohistory and the seeds of the Foundations were given a chance to take root. The only problem was, Hari had fallen in love with his protector-a robot. It all made sense now. All the nagging doubts and the questions could be answered. And somehow, it didn't matter one bit. All that mattered was Dors. â€Å"We can't let this happen.† â€Å"It must.† Dors's eyes fluttered open and looked at Seldon. â€Å"Must. Tried to save you, but missed-vital point-who will protect you now?† Seldon couldn't see her clearly. There was something wrong with his eyes. â€Å"Don't worry about me, Dors. It's you-It's you-â€Å" â€Å"No. You, Hari. Tell Manella-Manella-I forgive her now. She did better than I. Explain to Wanda. You and Raych-take care of each other.† â€Å"No no no,† said Seldon, rocking back and forth. â€Å"You can't do this. Hang on, Dors. Please. Please, my love.† Dors's head shook feebly and she smiled even more feebly. â€Å"Goodbye, Hari, my love. Remember always-all you did for me.† â€Å"I did nothing for you.† â€Å"You loved me and your love made me-human.† Her eyes remained open, but Dors had ceased functioning. Yugo Amaryl came storming into Seldon's office. â€Å"Hari, the riots are beginning, sooner and harder even than exp-â€Å" And then he stared at Seldon and Dors and whispered, â€Å"What happened?† Seldon looked up at him in agony. â€Å"Riots! What do I care about riots now? What do I care about anything now?†

Thursday, August 29, 2019

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

1. The actions of the character ‘Puck’ in Shakespeare’s ‘A midsummer night’s dream’ affects the comedy of the play directly and completely reflects the Shakespearean world. Shakespeare portrays humor in numerous ways in his plays and this makes most of his plays successful. ‘A midsummer night’s dream’ is a cautious mixture of humor and love. There are two types of humor, one is plain humor that is added with the help of artisans in the play and the other is inferred humor, which is seen because of a funny character, Puck in this play. The artisans are not intelligent but they pretend to be and they mess up ith grammar and spelling, which results in mere confusion. By making silly mistakes of words they change the meaning of the sentence completely and in this way the audience enjoy the simple and plain comedy in the play. Shakespeare has made use of inferred humor with the help of a character Puck, who is a hyperactive child and gets into mischief every now and then. 2. Shakespeare has made use of the fools a lot in his plays and they are not only portrayed as jesters or fools but they are mediators and sometimes seem to be much more intelligent than the so-called masters. These fools add buoyancy to the story, humor at times of erious situations and also help to lighten the shadow of confusion caused by others. They have fewer dialogues but whatever they say has meaning and they say it with wit and sense. There are two fools in Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, namely Mishra 2 Puck and Bottom where Bottom is portrayed for plain humor, Puck is for inferred humor. Also Puck is very mischievous and creates lot of confusion when he mistakenly puts the love juices in the eyes of Lysander instead of Demetrius. A. ‘A midsummer night’s dream’ is one of the most popular plays of Shakespeare and is idely acted upon worldwide. It is actually a romantic comedy and the story is about the adventures of four Athenian lovers with a group of amateur actors. There are some supernatural powers and the effects of their mischief and above all the confusion created by them. Shakespeare has made his female characters enjoy much more freedom than they actually posses. Helena and Hermia escape into the woods where they do not come under the laws of Theseus or Egeus. Hermia elopes with her lover Lysander and Helena also follows her with Demetrius whom she loves a lot. So women are seen using courage nd guts in Shakespeare’s play for their love but the ultimate refuge and happiness for them is marriage. Mainly there are three plots in the play that are interlocked and the main confusion is caused because Puck mistakenly puts the love juice in the eyes of Lysander who falls in love with Helena instead of Hermia. Because of all this, the four lovers quarrel with each other and in order to stop them from killing each other, Oberon orders Puck to keep them off from each other and re-charm Lysander for Hermia. When Oberon gets what he had asked from Titania, he releases her, Lysander is freed from the magic enchantment and Puck relieves Bottom from the ass’s head. But the magic is allowed to remain on the eyes of Demetrius so that Helena gets her lover in the end. As the whole night is spent in mere confusion and refuge in a forest full of supernatural powers, the lovers are made to think Mishra 3 the whole thing as a dream. In the end everyone retires to bed and Bottom awakes and thinks that he also had a dream. B. Puck, in Shakespeare’s ‘A midsummer night’s d ream’ is in the real sense a fool, i. e. , a jestor whose job is to entertain the Fairy King, Oberon. He is practically involved in the ngoing functions of the play and is seen making some intelligent observations regarding life and love. Puck is introduced to audience in ‘Act II Scene I’ with his encounter with one of Titania’s fairies and this interaction gives the audience an idea how mischievous and playful he is. Puck is given an assignment by Oberon in order to punish the Fairy Queen, Titania because he is angry with her. Oberon asks Puck to put the love juices in Titania’s eyes so that when she wakes up she falls in love with the first creature she sees. Also, Oberon wants to put right love problems of the lovers that are seen running about in he forest and so orders Puck to put some love juices in Demetrius’ eyes. Here Puck makes a mistake and puts the love juices in Lysander’s eyes which further causes lot of problems. Both, Lysander and Demetrius become madly in love with Helena and not with Hermia. All these confusions and comic situations in the play are just because of the foolishness of Puck. C. Puck, in fact, does not take life seriously and believes in fun and mischief. He is also not serious in performing his duties and has airy and light attitude towards his responsibilities. While all the other characters are serious and busy dealing with problems nd confusions, Puck is almost relaxed and is enjoying everything, pulling pranks and dancing around. One of such example is when Puck puts an ass head on Bottom, which is just fun and nothing else. Puck is having fun and is playful throughout the play except in Mishra 4 the end when he sorts out all the problems and makes all believe that they must have experienced a dream. In the end Puck makes a direct speech to the audience and apologizes for anything that must have hurt somebody's feelings and even suggests the audience to take everything as a dream. His speech is, If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is me nded, That you have but slumber’d here While these visions did appear. And this week and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend: If you pardon, we will mend: And, as I am an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck, Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue, We will make amends ere long; Else the Puck a liar call; So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends. (Act V. Scene I) Mishra 5 Thus it is seen that throughout the play Puck is seen making fun, pulling pranks and dancing around like a fool but in the end he ties the audience with the play by just elivering one speech. He is quite intelligent and is totally aware of other’s feelings and understands love and life more than anyone else in the play. In fact Puck’s job is to entertain the Fairy King, Oberon with his tricks, pranks and jokes. His real name is Robin Goodfellow and his character in this play is a little bit similar to the mythological figure, Puck. Just as all the confusion and problems arise due to Puck’s silly mistakes he sorts them out by creating fog and putting more of the flower in Lysander’s eyes which would reverse the effect. So in the end he succeeds in making all the others believe that they had ust experienced a dream and nothing that happened was in reality. Shakespeare used humor in his plays with the help of these jesters and clowns. In fact the fools in Shakespeare’s plays are a mixture of clown and the courtly fool or jester, that has both the qualities as to entertain the king and others with his foolish activities and to say truth in a witty or satirical manner. Where all the other people hesitated to point out King’s mistakes or misjudgment, Shakespearean fools spoke the truth without any fear. They were characterized as very intelligent and sensitive but they pretended to be as fools ost of the time. This is seen in Shakespeare’s ‘A midsummer night’s dream’ in which Puck is a character whose job is to entertain the Fairy King and obey his orders. He actually has not much power in his hands and just carries on the orders of Oberon. He is typical of Shakespeare’s fools and is foolish and mischievous and at the same time intelligent and sensitive too. He is also made to parody the actions and speeches of other characters of the play towards the end of the play during the great fog just to carry on the Mishra 6 light humor a little more until the confusions are sorted out. A Midsummer Night’s Dream Judging the various thematic expression of the play in the light of these lines, it is illustrated that sometimes imagination leads to wholesome results and sometimes leads to absurd consequences. The quintessence of A Midsummer Night’s Dream reveals that the quick fervor, the inconstancy, the quirky work of caprice, the illusion, the fictitious idealism, the delusions, love-idiocies become personified in the play and creates a world of its own. This imaginative world seems as real and living as those which are visited by the warmth of love in the play by the lovers. This creates the whole atmosphere in a way that every far-fetched thing is uniformly existent and incredible. One may label it as the fictitious idealism i. e. production of mere imagination but seems real to lovers as Theseus does in these lines. These lines further corresponds to another thematic expression that is subsidiary to the main theme is love vs. reason. The final pairing in the play accords with the choice which the two girls (Hermia and Helena) have faithfully adhered to; but the choice and the fidelity have not been dictated by reason. Evidently, love is not based upon any rational judgment and imagination has a role to play in the corridors of love. Imagination is liable to err but it has its creative function too. Theseus not only dwells on the misleading consequences of the exercise of the faculty of imagination but also eulogize its higher and creative aspect. In the amorous affairs, everything is led, guided and controlled entirely by the imaginative faculty. Titania’s infatuation for Bottom the ass is an aberration of love; so is the Lysander’s infatuation for Helena. These infatuations are product of this imagination whereas the four love affairs that create a world of intense ardor are also a production of imagination. So these lines encircle the main theme of the play and a sense of dream-reality persists due to imaginative effect in the life of characters as well as in the play. A Midsummer Night’s Dream Judging the various thematic expression of the play in the light of these lines, it is illustrated that sometimes imagination leads to wholesome results and sometimes leads to absurd consequences. The quintessence of A Midsummer Night’s Dream reveals that the quick fervor, the inconstancy, the quirky work of caprice, the illusion, the fictitious idealism, the delusions, love-idiocies become personified in the play and creates a world of its own. This imaginative world seems as real and living as those which are visited by the warmth of love in the play by the lovers. This creates the whole atmosphere in a way that every far-fetched thing is uniformly existent and incredible. One may label it as the fictitious idealism i. e. production of mere imagination but seems real to lovers as Theseus does in these lines. These lines further corresponds to another thematic expression that is subsidiary to the main theme is love vs. reason. The final pairing in the play accords with the choice which the two girls (Hermia and Helena) have faithfully adhered to; but the choice and the fidelity have not been dictated by reason. Evidently, love is not based upon any rational judgment and imagination has a role to play in the corridors of love. Imagination is liable to err but it has its creative function too. Theseus not only dwells on the misleading consequences of the exercise of the faculty of imagination but also eulogize its higher and creative aspect. In the amorous affairs, everything is led, guided and controlled entirely by the imaginative faculty. Titania’s infatuation for Bottom the ass is an aberration of love; so is the Lysander’s infatuation for Helena. These infatuations are product of this imagination whereas the four love affairs that create a world of intense ardor are also a production of imagination. So these lines encircle the main theme of the play and a sense of dream-reality persists due to imaginative effect in the life of characters as well as in the play. A Midsummer Night’s Dream A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the many works of William Shakespeare. It is romantic comedy that is said to have been written around 1595 or 1596. It tells the story of young Athenian lovers and their encounter with the Duke and Duchess of Athens and as well with fairies and actors of a play for the Duke’s wedding.The story tells of how far someone would go in order to find themselves. It also shows the reality of sexual bias in our society, how male dominates and other sexual conflicts. It also shows the power of the gods, how they are able to dictate human lives like in the story of Oedipus Rex wherein the story shows that no one can change their destiny that the gods are in control but in the case of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, fairies had been able to control/play with the human characters in the story.The story teller in the play was Puck, also a character in the play. He is a fairy and servant of Oberon (the king of fairies).The story took in Athens in the time of Theseus and Hippolyta. The conflicts in the story started in the Duke’s place and continued in the woods where the king of fairies and his wife were and some other fairies as well. Several conflicts follow in this setting.There had been theories which tries to explain the reason behind the creation of the story although there is no concrete evidence that are found to support these theories. It had been said that there had been numerous aristocratic wedding that took place during 1596 and it was said that it is for these occasions that play was written. Also, another theory says that the play was written for the Queen and for the celebration of Saint John’s feast day.What is missing in the story is a tragedy. Although there had been some confusion and conflicts in the play, the ending can be considered a happy ending unlike Romeo and Juliet. Life is also full of twist and turns and as well as tragedies. Also, the ending seems to have been in favor with every character in the story, well, just as Puck said, consider it a dream. Still, tragedy could have been also present but is not easily seen. Well the ending of the story could just really be plain comedy or a hidden tragedy.The last scene also provides the readers view about reality and as well as imagination. It is also through good imagination that we can enjoy a play or a story. It is what makes these things interesting and really worth our time, money and effort in watching or even reading a play. It requires good imagination and our ability to distinguish what is reality and what is not.I believe that what makes A Midsummer Night’s Dream similar with several stories that I know (watch, read, or heard) is that it tells how far someone would go for their love. Many stories had also been written that tells of several conflicts that are about to be faced by the characters in order to be able to rest the arms of their loved ones.The same thing goes for Shakespeare’s othe r plays like Romeo and Juliet. For me, the story tells of the reality that in life, there are so many trials and obstacles that we must faced before achieving happiness. We cannot have everything that we want and definitely there will be times that we must compromise our happiness for something or someone else.The story also showsI believe that everyone will benefit from the play. It teaches some lessons that are applicable to our daily lives. Everyone will really see something in this story that will surely help them or change some of their views and how they perceive some things in their lives. I also enjoyed the story together with the conflicts that arises. It also help me realize that I must respect others decisions, beliefs etc.Just like in the story, every parent must respect their sons and daughters decisions especially when in comes to matters regarding their feelings. Respect is a very important factor in developing your relationship with other people. Also, it should be a very important part of your personality. If we do not respect others, we should not expect that they will respect us back.ReferenceSky-McIlvain, E. (2004). A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. RetrievedNovember 19, 2007 fromhttp://www.leasttern.com/Shakespeare/Midsummer/Dreamhome.htm