Adorno: Semi-Formation as Cultural Reconstruction of Society :: Culture Cultural Papers

Adorno: Semi-Formation as Cultural Reconstruction of Society ABSTRACT: The apprehension of the culture industry in its totality, as it is presented in Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment, makes it necessary to turn to his Theory of Self-Formation, where the cultural domain of the constellation of society has an explicit formative dimension. The cultural formation, the German Bildung, expresses such a prism. It is not a national peculiarity, but it translates in the experience of delay of the German bourgeois society as the formative dimension of culture, generally hidden in the social constitution, facilitating the basis of immanent criticism. In the State interventionist society that follows the liberal order, with the manipulation of the totalitarian State and the society of mass consumption, the productive process does not tolerate the formative experience of autonomy: there is a social reconstruction of culture as culture industry, which turns out to be a political concept. Here there is not absence, but an eclipse of formation. It is semi -formation: only integration, without autonomy. When universality, instead of residing in ideals formed within culture formation, resides on universalization of given cultural goods, the mercantile ideals only integrate the masses. The culture industry is the chore of what appears as the cultural construction of society, in terms of the integrating semi-formation. The disintegration of the working class and its reconstruction en masse are a result of the formation process of which the culture industry is a part. Formation is concealed because the social construction is confounded with the cultural construction; society is itself ideology. The social organization obstructs the experience of the social formative labor in the integration. Society appears to be an extra-productive socialization. In the Dialectic of Enlightenment (1985), written with Horkheimer, Adorno analyzed the social formation of a State interventionist order, that followed the earlier liberal one. To the authors, then emigrated to the USA, the north-American experience of mass culture complemented the experience of cultural manipulation of the totalitarian fascism, conditioning the famous conception of culture industry. The manipulation of the masses by the totalitarian fascist State in its function as the main economic agent would be found again in the consumers' society. Such society, apparently did not need the support of a legitimating ideology. By representing the fulfillment of ideals as consumers goods the society itself becomes ideology. The rise of the living standards of the inferior classes, materially reprehensible and socially regretful, reflects itself on the hypocrite expansion of the spirit.

Reflective Account Essay

On an occasion at work I was aware of a staff member communicating very negatively, for example sighing and tutting and general negativity. Supervision was due so it was brought into meeting that last had concerned had noticed a change in the person’s general attitude, I asked if there was a specific reason and was told there was not. Although they agreed that they were being negative. We discussed the workload and it was decided it was not that. It was mentioned by the staff member that they were feeling a little unsure of how to deal with a service user who had dementia and was unpredictable and seemed to have taken a dislike to the staff member .We discussed at length the way forward and I arranged for some training in challenging behaviour and dementia. The staff member realised she could not avoid the service user and that if she had mentioned her concerns sooner the problem would not have escalated. She tried to hide her feelings but they were shown in a different way. I agreed to mentor and support the staff member with the service user helping her to find an appropriate approach, the service user was feeding on the negative behaviour of the staff .In a few weeks the situation was improved undoubtedly and the staff member is more positive and no longer showing any sign of negativity. I recorded everything we had discussed and we both signed it. At the following supervision the staff had been on a training workshop and was awaiting further news of more. She mentioned previously that she felt it was a weakness in her that is why she had tried to cover it up but since our discussion and my ongoing support she would never hesitate to mention any concerns she had in the future. I felt that we needed to improve activity at the Centre; the service users are a mixed group (physically and mentally frail) so I needed to find something they could all do and enjoy. I signed myself onto three one day courses with another staff member. The courses were all different but aimed at dementia sufferers. The first one ‘Bringing stories to Life ‘, I thought was going to be about putting together a Life Story, I could not have been more wrong! The ice-breaker at the beginning of the workshop was letter bingo, it involved walking around so I have adapted this so that my service users are seated, we use sets of the 26 letters of the alphabet and the service user chooses a letter and then gives me a word beginning with that letter before answering a quiz question, which I write down and while they are playing two alike trying to match up. I take the words and make up a little story or poem. The feedback from that activity has been very positive. Also from the workshop which involved using props to tell a story I have been able to do this activity several times? Using the props seems to help the quietest of the service user to join in and the feedback discussion afterwards have become very enjoyable to all. The second workshop was about using pictures (not personal) to story tell. Again this activity has been very successful, there was one or two people who were unsure but has we progressed they too joined in. The picture is given to the service user and they are asked open ended questions about it and everything is validated. Before we start we decide who is going to scribe and afterwards that person will firstly read back what as been said and ask if the service users would like to add anything? When everybody is satisfied the scriber will type the ‘story ‘ up and each service user gets a copy , we keep a copy in a folder for all to look at and we also pin a copy too our notice board . The third workshop was along the same line but using senses to make a story/poem, again we have done this a couple of times. We used a bottle of water some soil in a bag, cotton wool, leaves and bubbles, we pass the items around the room one at a time and ask the service user to say the first word they thought of when looking / touching or smelling the item .one thing we came up against was that the service users said the same thing as the previous person, so we are trying to adapt this activity further. From all three workshops I and my staff member redeveloped our armchair exercise which we do daily. We had heard the service users discuss how they were bored with doing the same exercise week after week and listening to the same music disc. So we put together some more upbeat music and sat and compiled our version of seated exercise ,using the same safe exercise taking advice from one of our other services ‘Ageing Well’ who had spent several weeks showing us seated exercise . Of course before we started any of the new activities we had a meeting with all the staff who were going to be involved. We discussed what we had learnt from each workshop and asked for feedback from the staff, some of them felt unsure about using the props and pictures, so me and the staff member who came with me agreed to lead the first one, we arranged a date and agreed on a theme for it and it was decided we would use props for the first one .I was to lead and the staff member was going to scribe. Before we started we went to each service user and asked them to sign a consent form to allow us to take photographs. This would allow another staff to get a little involved with out feeling to unsure .the discussion /feedback with the service users was great ,they were still talking about how much they had enjoyed themselves when they were going home. They were excited when I told them that there would be photographs to look at the following week. I discussed with the staff the following day how they felt about the activity and was pleased they were all positive. I continued to share taking the lead with the staff member who attended the training with me for several sessions to enable the other staff to be able to learn from us. Although with all the activities there is no right or wrong way. That is why we validate everything that is said. The change in the majority of service users is a pleasure to see, even the quietest person as become much more vocal and willing to join in with most of the activities we do. One person in particular who is hard of hearing and registered blind joins in, when in the past he as chosen not to. He still talks about certain themes we have done the story telling to, for example at Halloween we took the opportunity to do this theme, we used pumpkins and plastic spiders, I passed these things around the room and we used ‘The Monster Mash’ song to do some light movement to music before using props to make up a story relevant to the theme. I asked the service user to describe the spider, for example what he thought it was felt like and he got really into it and even had a photograph taken. Since then I have heard him telling others about ‘the day we let him hold the Tarantula ‘and how he danced to ‘spooky music’. Changing what we do and the way we do it as had a very positive effect all the way round. We still do the other activities for example Bingo, dominoes etc.During our action plan meeting we discuss which service users are in the centre that day and adapt our activity to suit, of course what we plan for the day may change if we ask the service users they may want to do another thing so if we can we will accommodate the majority. Usually the day is spent doing group work but if needed we do offer one to one.

The Biggest Policy Flaw - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1316 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2019/03/19 Category Society Essay Level High school Tags: Gun Control Essay Did you like this example? In the world that we live in today, the thought of gun violence has been a major issue for many years and has been a issue proposed by the people to the government. The government needs to have some type of gun control laws to fix the problem in America on gun related violence. Anti-gun activists believe that by taking guns away the crime rate will drop. They believe it is too dangerous for the public to have access to weapons. I believe that if certain new gun laws were to be enacted crime would most likely change. I dont disagree that we have we have problem but the way people want to fix it is what I feel is wrong. If guns were to be completely wiped out people would be left defenseless against criminals and would be losing their second amendment rights. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Biggest Policy Flaw" essay for you Create order Last year nearly 40 thousand people were killed by guns in the United States marking it the highest year of gun deaths in decades. Cable news Network or CNN found that the number of people killed by guns in 2017 shows a 10,000 person increase from 1999. The center for disease control or CDC confirmed with CNN that these death numbers are correct. Every day, 342 people in America are shot in murders, assaults, suicides suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, and police interventions. In 2017, nearly 109 people died every single day from gun violence, Director of Public Health Research Adelyn Allchin said in a statement. Gun violence is a epidemic that requires a solution, which is why we must immediately enact and implement evidence-based interventions such as permit-to-purchase policies and extreme risk laws. Allchin also stated that he thinks its time that our elected leaders at every level of government need to come together to make gun violence rare and abnormal. I believe that the second amendment was put in place for a reason and that right to own a gun should still be available. Many Americans are troubled everyday deciding whether keeping a gun in the home is a good idea. Keeping a gun in the home comes with some risks. There are many accidents occurring daily due to people not understanding how to handle guns. Many of us take that risk because the thought of protection outweighs the negatives. Our right of free choice needs to be preserved, and if the second amendment was taken away, our democratic society would be overruling us. Whenever I turn on the news the only thing that I seem to see are all the deadly crimes that are taking place across the country. I feel like we all want this to stop yet we are trying to take away a form of protection. If we dont have weapons to protect our personal safety then we might as well let people just kill us without a fight. I feel like we all want to have the ideal environment but we cant have that so called environment unless we feel safe and have a sense of protection. It is clear that crime is not going away anytime soon. Our federal government has put into effect many different forms of public policies to try and fix the problems that are widely known throughout the United States. The most important laws that are in effect right now are the federal laws prohibiting certain people from owning firearms. This law stop certain types of people from getting hold of a weapon. These people can range from having certain kinds of criminal records, mental illness, immigrants without legal status, veterans with dishonorable discharge and many more lost their right to own a firearm. Another example that branches of from the previous policy are the people selling the guns. The government takes many steps to make sure everything goes right and no laws are violated, or so they think. Federal law requires all weapons dealers to conduct a background check with the F.B.I to check if any red flags show up with the buyer. This may seem like a lot of safety but their are still problems with the system. People have found major loopholes and are using them to get weapons when they are not allowed too. The biggest policy flaw is that their are small-scale sellers, off branch people like small companies including many who do business at local gun shows,at these gun shows sellers are not required to do background checks on the buyers. This hole lets the sale of guns to be hidden and not seen by the government. Another example of a weapons policy that was put in place was that the federal government placed a ban on the sale of many types of assault rifles, but the law expired and has not been looked at sense. A few states have assault weapon bans of their own that remain in place. In fact, most gun controls exist at the level of the state, Laws on concealed carry weapons vary upon location widely too. Most states allow anyone who legally owns a gun to carry it openly, in public, without requiring a license or permit. Concealed carry in New York requires a permit like most states, these fluctuations show how federal and state rules can vary and show what can can result from different viewpoints. By many different sides of the argument, President Obama can be seen as one of the key players who was against guns and fought extensively for tougher gun control laws. was a key driver of the news and conversation on the topic. Overall, Obamas is widely known for taking many presidential actions such as announcement of a Gun Violence Task Force, this was to be lead by Joe Biden. The biggest pro gun player would be none other than the NRA or National Rifle Association. They fight for people to keep their second amendment right of the availability to keep and bear Arms. You often hear about the NRA today and that they are leading the fight to stop people and the government from taking away weapons. Despite the wide array of variation with gun control across the United States cities, there is no correlation between measurable impacts of violence levels found. The measurable information seems to be that with violence their is a higher frequency with which guns are used. Therefore, I think that the significance of some gun controls are definitely needed and recommended such as background checks, permits and licenses. We need these things because they put up some sort of security to block suspicious gun buyers, similar to having to going to hunter education classes before you can get a license. All in all I believe that certain types of gun control can be part of the solution to fixing violence related weapons problems in the United States. Through what I have shown I think that the United States needs more control on violence rather then weapons. I think that the idea of only guns being the problem is wrong and for many people thinking they are wrong too, but thats my opinion. I feel like if we want to have change we need to have longer prison terms, mandatory sentencing, and more use of stricter penalties. Even though Firearms have good and bad sides to it, you cant tell which side is wrong, this is why Gun Control is a ongoing topic still being discussed in our government today. The use of guns can save lives but can also can destroy ones life in a trigger pull. That fact brings people towards guns or scares people away from guns. In conclusion I think that that guns dont need be taken away. Its true that our laws regulate the sale and possession of other dangerous instrumentalities. The deaths from gun violence are close to the deaths from car accidents so one could say that cars dont kill people, people kill people.