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Machiavelli vs. Economics

A recent article in the NY Times discussed Republican economists trying to brainstorm ways for a budget reduction that were ultimately not sufficient enough to put into effect. “…[T]he policy document that House Republicans released… was criticized for its vagueness; it largely avoided specific proposals that might anger voters.” (NY Times B3). The proposals from the Republicans were said to be for “practical advice” and that “Their situation is not comparable to that of the Republicans who took control of Congress in 1994” said Tony Fratto, strategist. Unfortunately this attempt to fix our economy must be re-sought in much greater detail.

In relation to this article, Machiavelli tried to fix Italy’s economy but similarly failed at his attempt. His effort was done by writing the Prince a letter to convince him to step down and have someone else take over (Machiavelli being that someone else). Machiavelli acted as a nationalist by adding in numerous compliments to trick the Prince into his idea. His plan was to cunningly express a change that was desperately needed for Italy. “…[T]o honor a new prince, and if there is the material that might afford one who is wise and ingenious the occasion to give it a form that would bring honor to him and good to all the people of Italy…” (B 253).

Works Cited

 Chan, Sewell. “Economic Policy? More listen to Conservatives” New York Times. 01 December 2010, New York ed.: The New York Times Business Day B3 Print.

The popularity and success of a public figure often depends on the image he or she projects. Therefore, for many years politicians have been concerned with impressions they produce on the general public. In The Prince, Machiavelli suggests that “[i]t is not necessary … for a prince to have all of the qualities …, but it is certainly necessary that he appear to have them” (C, p. 237). He explains his position by saying that “[e]veryone sees what you appear to be, few touch what you are; and those few do not dare oppose the opinions of the many” (C, p. 237). For that reason, a good politician and leader needs to gain trust and convince the majority of ordinary people of the truth of his words. And then people in their turn will always support him, no matter what insiders think.

According to the recent article “First Round of Voting Ousts Islamists from Egypt’s Parliament” by Robert F. Worth, the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak tries to create an image of a democratic and fair leader. However, in the recent elections in the Egypt’s parliament the president’s National Democratic Party won all seats living Islamist opposition, and the Brotherhood party in particular, without any representation in the government. The outcome of these elections caused protests and demonstrations on the streets of Cairo. Following Machiavelli’s advice, Hosni Mubarak went too far in creating his image; and instead of becoming more popular with his people, the president evoked suspicions of voting fraud. So, people no longer believe in the image created by their leader. On the contrary, according to Hisham Kassem, a newspaper publisher and human rights advocate, they advise Mr. Mubarak to “[a]t least get creative in how you rig the elections”, because “[n]othing can stun [them] now” (Worth, 2010).

“The Book of the Courtier” by Baldesar Castiglione talks about the value of beautiful women. He emphasis that women are for affection and it is very important for women to be pretty. He presents different ways women try to keep themselves attractive by doing make-ups so they can please the mind of men easily. “Do you not see how much more grace a women has who paints (if at all) so sparingly and so little that whoever sees her in uncertain  whether she is painted or not…”(C, 244). This quote shows that women who are pretty has lot of advantage in their life. He also talks about women who are naturally pretty can also be please anybody specially men. “careless purity which is so pleasing to the eyes and minds o men who are ever fearful of being deceived by art” (C,244). It doesn’t matter if beauty is established by doing make-ups or natural, there is advantage to both.

The New York Times Article “Beauty Discrimination During Job Search” is about how women in Israel are being discriminated to acquire a job. Women are to submit their pictures attached with resumes. Pretty women are not always accepted in job as it shows in the article. Pretty women who send pictures with their resume are half like to be accepted for the job as women who didn’t send pictures at all. A study shows that “…call back rates most likely were influenced by the screener‘s jealousy “when confronted with a young, attractive competitor in the workplace.”’

Most women want to be considered as they are the most beautiful than others. So they use different make-ups. Seeing other women more attractive than them can cause them to be jealous. In both readings women shows that there is a competition to be considered as beautiful. They try their best to be the prettiest women. They use different strategies whether it is make-ups, fortunate to be naturally pretty or rejecting other beautiful women in job. However, sometime being pretty can be disadvantaging at it show in the NY TIMES article.

            The paragraph “Woman Exemplify Grace” from The Book of the Courtier by Baldesar Castiglione describes women “inordinate desire to be beautiful.” (C, 244) The author gives many examples of how women want to improve their beauty such as, they use make up.  However, they seem not to realize that men know different tricks used by women. Also, many activities are not liked by males. For example, the author is very sarcastic while talking about make up. “[S]he seems to have put a mask on her face and dares not laugh so as not to cause it to crack, and never changes color except in the morning when she dresses; and, then, for the rest of the entire day remains motionless like a wooden statue and shows herself only by torchlight, like wily merchants who display their cloth in a dark place.” (C, 244)

The New York Times article “Market Watch/Lashfully” by Chelsea Zalopany is about women’ desire to improve their physical appearance. The author describes that many women decide to take a special care about their eye lashes. Ladies  used mascaras to make their eye lashes longer and sexier. However, new technology is discovered. Chelsea explains “[t]he process is surprisingly (and refreshingly) painless — a lash artist assesses one’s existing lash shape and designs a custom style based on multiple lengths, curvatures and widths. Each lash is applied individually (typically 70 to 100 are added per eye) and first-time visitors should expect the process to take one to two hours. The cost runs from $250 to $275.”

 In both readings women use different tricks to improve their beauty, no matter what is the price they have to pay (in first reading the price is being an object of farce, in second reading the price is a huge part of income spend on beauty supplies).

 The New York Times article, For Afghan Wives, a Desperate, Fiery Way Out, it discusses how the woman in Afghan feel as if they have no way out. Their lives are controlled by their husbands, or their husband’s family. They are seen as inferior to the men they are married to. Some of these woman are arranged to be married very young and to cater to their husbands. These woman are constantly subjected to emotional and physical abuse from their husbands, their in-laws, and even their own families. The article proves this, “It is shameful here to admit to troubles at home, and mental illness often goes undiagnosed or untreated. Ms. Zada, the hospital staff said, probably suffered from depression. The choices for Afghan women are extraordinarily restricted: Their family is their fate. There is little chance for education, little choice about whom a woman marries, no choice at all about her role in her own house. Her primary job is to serve her husband’s family. Outside that world, she is an outcast.” They feel the only way out is to set themselves on fire and burn to death. These woman are normally in a deep depression and are not able to receive help. They believe that the only way to be able to end their depression and abuse is to burn themselves.
 The Asian literature we are discussing in class shows how woman live in societies where they are seen as inferior to men. Males are portrayed as the greater gender and females are constantly reminded their place in society. One example of this is in The Book of Songs. The Book states, “So he bears a son, And puts him to sleep upon a bed, Clothes him in robes, Gives me a jade scepter to play with. The child’s howling is very lusty; In red greaves shall he flare, Be lord and king of house and home. Then he bears a daughter, And puts her upon the ground, Clothes her in swaddling-clothes, Gives her a loom-whorl to play with. For her no decorations, no emblems; Her only care, the wine and food, And how to give no trouble to father and mother” (A, 1040). This shows the difference in where the males and females are placed in society. The boys are to grow up and be kings and the girls are to grow up and their only worry is to take care of their husband. Woman are shown in the Asian literature to only do as they are told and to be under complete control of a man. The article from the New York Times shows that the culture has no changed drastically. Today woman are still seen as inferior and are not entitled to the same rights as men. It is very depressing that woman are now going as far as burning themselves to get away from the lives they are born into.

             When tragedies strike a person’s true character is tested. Sometimes a person is able to learn from these unfortunate events and sometimes it can bring the worst in people. In The Thousand and One Nights, King Shahrayar finds out that his wife has betrayed him  by having an affair. Upon hearing this news King Shahrayar was furious. Thereafter, the king began acting irrationally. To save himself from the “wickedness and cunning of women” (B,413), King Shahrayar decided to marry a woman, sleep with her and have her killed the next morning. He believed that “there is not a single chaste women anywhere on the entire face of the earth” (B, 413), and instead of punishing the one women who betrayed him, he decides to punish all women. He overcame his emotional tragedy by punishing the entire female race. From his killings he hoped to achieve satisfaction.

       In the NY Times article “An Israeli novelist writes of pain, private and public” by Ethan Bronner, David Grossman deals with his tragedy differently. In 2005, Grossman lost his son in combat in the Lebanon War. Grossman’s whole world was shattered. He was lost and confused as to how to go on with his life. The answers to his confusion came in his writings. In the article, Grossman says ” writing is my home, it was a place where I again recognized myself”. Instead of becoming bitter and punishing the world around him, he coped with his tragedy by writing. He was able to translate his pained emotions into a great novel.

“Throne of Blood”

I agree with some of the points that are made in the review and disagree with some others. The critique comments, “It essentially boils down to a lot of men charging back and forth across a mostly dark and bare stage in fancy samurai get-ups.” There was not much decoration on the stage except for the bricked wall at the back and the ghostly atmosphere.It wasn’t so The play was sort of slow and Of course the play was mostly a dark stage and characters running around like the critique mentioned. But the writer also mentioned that, “Those get ups, as I said, are beautifully designed by Stefani Mar and offer an eyeful of visual poetry to distract from the generally prosaic proceedings.” I disagree to this because the dress of the characters were very decent in the play. The dialogues and characters were very strong in the play. And the emptiness in the stage was mostly covered by a screen that showed the meanings of certain actions in the play. Overall, i disagree with the review in the NY times. The play wasn’t perfect but it is not that bad as critiqued in the review.

The play, Throne of Blood was a very enjoyable play to watch.  I enjoyed the story as well as the costumes, which were very well crafted and reminiscent of ancient Japan.  The dialogue was easy to understand and so was the plot. However, I felt that the story dragged on at some unnecessary points and moved very fast at times where it seemed there should have been more dialogue. Having watched the original Macbeth, they followed the original story very well.  It is difficult to replicate a movie on stage sometimes and in this case, some scenes were just that

The review from NY Times states, “It essentially boils down to a lot of men charging back and forth across a mostly dark and bare stage in fancy samurai getups.”
This quote is true to an extent because all the fight scenes were a bit ridiculous and it was mostly characters just running back and forth and it was hard to tell what the director was trying to convey.  The costumes were by far the best part of the play.

http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/11/12/theater/reviews/12throne.html

New York Times article “Sprawling Cinema, Tamed to Stage,” written by Charles Isherwood is about his criticisms and dislikes about the play, “Throne of Blood.” It was performed in Brooklyn Academy of Music. He states that “…a new production from the Next Wave Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music would be as boring to look at as it is to listen to.” He likes the Kurosawa movie of the same title which followed the storyline from Shakespeare “Macbeth.” He also claims that the adaptor and director, Mr. Chong, is unable to produce the same intensity as Kurosawa’s work. He strongly points out many faults of the director and says that Mr. Chong “cannot replicate onstage the sweep and intensity that Kurosawa’s camerawork brings to the narrative, even as he sticks firmly to the scenic structure.” He complains about actor’s performances. “Most of the actors make little impression.” He also comments on the stage settings. “Above is a strip of white screen on which are seen videos and projections by Maya Ciarrocchi. These draw on imagery from the movie: the barren, spindly spider webs of branches in the forest; the fortress rising through the mist; the climactic march of the trees. But this miniature highlight reel can hardly create the mood and atmosphere of Kurosawa’s cinematography.”

            I agree with authors’ point of view about the play “Throne of Blood.”  I didn’t have any backgrounds about Japanese culture so it was hard to follow the storyline. In addition, this play wasn’t capturing my attention because, I think, it was lacked of the actions and coherences of the scenes. Moreover, I couldn’t hear well form the backseat during the play so the only one thing I could focus on was the stage what was far away from my sight.