U.S. intellectual history since 1877 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

U.S. intellectual history since 1877 - Essay Example Reinhold Niebuhr suggests there is a persistent flaw in modern American thought that underestimates the power of evil and predatory self-interest. In this way he finds that American liberalism is limited. Dr. Martin Luther King and Allen Ginsburg show how American liberal and progressive thought was challenged, renewed, and expanded as understood through the insights of Reinhold Niebuhr. Yet Malcolm X was almost defeated by the human flaws of which Niebuhr writes, and the writers of the Port Huron Declaration went too far in accepting methods of the children of the darkness as explained by Niebuhr. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail which he wrote April 16, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King rooted his thoughts to a tradition of philosophers and theologians, including Niebuhr. King expressed how difficult it was to get privileged groups to change. He wrote, â€Å". . . as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.†Niebuhr felt that liberalis m essentially lied to itself. Dr. King could see this. Bourgeoisie society, in the south had advanced because of those lies. Niebuhr identifies the ugly powers of self-interest as pulling the chords of individuals outside any real beliefs in community. The morality that the racist South put forward was a cynical one. It was one that could not stand true from the way it dealt with black people. But the point is that this was not merely a feature of the South. As long as the segregation policies existed it was also a feature of the entire country. Hence, from Niebuhr's view, democracy did not have any adequate cultural base. It had one that was built on a house of hate. This is why Dr. King's letter was important. Building on a principle of progressive liberalism in action, King's letter extended the cultural base of the country with some honest truths. One of these truths reflects the human flaw that Niebuhr saw in man. In this letter Dr. King noted this as the inner conflict of man. He explained that he had been disappointed with his Christian and Jewish brothers. He pointed out how they allowed a "negative peace" to exist in the absence of justice. In a way this is similar to Niebuhr's thought of 'the children of light' who, in this case, were somehow led to believe that the progress of black people, according to Southern standards, was okay. Drawing further from Niebuhr, it is possible to say that Southern racism reflected an order that was cynical on the top, and laid upon Niebuhr's "perils of chaos". Dr. King pointed to this chaos. He pointed to it in the white church and its leadership. He made some exceptions. But what stood out were the members of the white religious establishment that opposed the civil rights movement Dr. King led. Dr. King was actually forging the cultural revolution that exemplified an expression of Niebuhr's ideas. It was a revolution that pursued unity while expressing a freedom and participation of formally denied people into a sy stem of democracy. In the active outplay of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King led black and white forces to demonstrate how it was possible for America to reflect a real culture of community. That was what King sought and what, while he was living, did. Dr. King stood as the leader who influenced thought and action. There is also a way in which an artist, who has freed his or herself from the limiting confines of human prejudice and self-interest, may also illustrate some of the themes of Niebuhr. Allen Ginsberg is one of these artists. Allen Ginsberg was one of the main poets during the beat generation. He was also a public homosexual during the 1950s when homosexuality was illegal. Ginsberg was at the extreme end of the poets in that he criticized a lot about American society that Niebuhr criticized. Niebuhr, being a Christian, would probably not accept Ginsberg extreme view of homosexuality. But maybe he could have. The important thing is that Ginsberg in his poetry, especially 'Howl', attempted to turn America upside down and look into her. In order to do this all the

Hemingway’s fiction is not his suicide note Essay Example for Free

Hemingway’s fiction is not his suicide note Essay Earnest Hemingway, the literary genius of the late 1800s produced volumes upon volumes of both poetry and fiction. After a short and very fruitful life Hemingway committed suicide but failed to succeed in initial attempts. Later, he finally succumbed to the great equalizer – death. Some people have surmised that Hemingway left clues to his unlikely demise in his fiction, however, â€Å"suicide cut the strings before they were painfully drawn out; Hemingway attempted to suck life dry of anything and everything he could fathom† (Gunsberg, 1995) This basically means that Hemingway believed that it was necessary to experience everything, even death, to enrich his art and craft. Although Hemingway committed suicide, and although many of his work focuses on death and suicide, it would be grossly unfair to conclude that he foretold his suicide in his fiction because this would be underestimating the power of the writer and his genius. A brilliant writer like Hemingway used his fiction as a form of exploration of the human condition and not as a reflection of his own condition. It would be very presumptuous to suppose that Hemingway used his fiction to foretell his suicide as many writers and literaturists would agree that although literature is a means of exposing internal emotions, it is also a means of release; hence, Hemingway’s fiction is more of an illustration of his literary genius than they are, as most would suppose, cries of help of a man in pain. Therefore, Hemingway’s fiction could not be considered his suicide notes. For instance, in the story ‘Indian Camp’ (Hemingway), the author does narrate an instance where the Indian Father commits suicide, (Hemingway) but this is simply used as a platform for the issue of emancipation from pain as illustrated by the contrasting incident of the Indian Mother who is professionally attended to by Dr. Adams who stops her pain and successfully delivers her baby. (Hemingway) In this particular story, it is not so much the suicide that is the issue but the prospect of hope and new beginnings that takes center stage. Another story where suicide is tackled is ‘A Clean and Well Lighted Place’ (Hemingway) where Hemingway portrays the pain of old age suffered by a deaf old man (Hemingway). In this particular story, there is an incident where the old man attempts to commit suicide by hanging himself, but the noose is cut by his niece and foils his attempt. (Hemingway) The story, albeit tackling suicide in one of its details does not necessary give much value to this issue, it even illustrates how one cannot escape the pains that accompanies life; that not even death can release us humans from what we have to deal with in life. So, if carefully considered, this particular story does not actually vindicate Hemingway’s own suicide, in fact it even serves to sissify his own attempt by indirectly implying that if the author believed that suicide was not a means of ending the suffering of existence as shown in his fiction, then he would have been a great coward to commit what he was writing against. Hemingway did not use his stories as a platform for the justification of his own suicide; he had his own reason’s for his suicide, and those reasons are not in any way connected to his stories. Finally, in ‘Hills like White Elephants’ (Hemingway) the author tackles the issue of abortion with a couple arguing over whether to have it (the baby) or not; the man insisting of having an abortion and the woman, subtlely indicating that she would like to have the baby. (Hemingway) Although there is no reference to suicide in this particular Hemingway story, what is obvious is the argument between two people regarding the issue of ending a life, which, by the way, is not really an argument that you would normally hear from ordinary chat. In this story, Hemingway, again, although, very discreetly, makes references to why life should be valued and why it should be considered with utmost respect, even going to the extent of contrasting childbirth with happiness. (Hemingway) Easily, from this story it is immediately evident that the author was against any form of taking away life intentionally, and so totally debunks the assumption that his fiction was an indirect indication of his consequent suicide. If such is the case, then it can be easily concluded that Hemingway committed suicide for a higher reason; this being related to the progress of his art and craft. Like many other writers who had grappled with the peculiarities of life, Hemingway was no different; and like many other creative writers then and now, it has to be considered that art, in any form, is already a means of airing out recluse emotions; it is a release that is even perhaps more effective than death itself. Hemingway, like many other artists during his time, had peculiarities of his own, and what most of these writers had in common was the ability to use the human condition as a platform in their work. While many of Hemingway’s stories talked about suicide, it has first to be understood that the author is not necessarily the ‘I’ in any of his/her work, and so it would be terribly unfair to affine subject matters in Hemingway’s stories to his actual existence. The relationship of the author to his story ends with his by-line; all the other things in the written work should be set apart from the author. It is very elementary to assume that the author only writes about his/her own personal life because, then, creativity would not have as big a role in literature as it is supposed to have. What could be more accurate, however, is the fact that the literary genius of Hemingway was enough for people who read his work to assume that he was foretelling his own suicide. While this assumption is blatantly misdirected, it simply shows how a writer is able to twist and distort the minds of his readers to think that there is much more to his fiction than meets the eye (or mind). If such is the case, then every reader might as well apply for a position at the Vatican interpreting the ancient Dead Sea scrolls. Works Cited Gunsberg, Ben. Earnest Hemingway: Would Be King. Earnest Hemingway. 18 Dec. 1995. 16 Apr. 2009 http://www. users. muohio. edu/shermalw/honors_2001_fall/honors_papers_2000/gunsberg. html. Hemingway, Earnest . A Clean, Well-Lighted Place. Earnest Hemingway. 1999. 16 Apr. 2009. Hemingway, Earnest . Hills Like White Elephants. Earnest Hemingway. 1999. 16 Apr. 2009 http://www. moonstar. com/~acpjr/Blackboard/Common/Stories/WhiteElephants. html. Hemingway, Earnest . Indian Camp. Earnest Hemingway. 1999. 16 Apr. 2009 http://amb. cult. bg/american/4/hemingway/camp. htm.

Freuds Theory of Unconscious in Inter Group Relations

Freuds Theory of Unconscious in Inter Group Relations Freud’s contributions to inter group relations Freud’s theories on unconsciousness provided an important perspective that was relevant to the study of inter group relations. Freud believed that groups were composed of the unconscious life of each member. He thought a group couldn’t be understood without exploring the unconscious aspects of the individual member. He also was of the opinion that the individual couldn’t be separated from the group. In order to understand the mind, Freud believed that attention had to be paid to how the mind of an individual interacts with others (Caper 1999). The basis of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory is that all behaviour is both instinctual and biological. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory is composed of the ego which works to find a balance between the id and the superego. The superego would be classified as the demands our society places on the individual for acceptable behaviour, and the id comprises instincts, such as sex and aggression (Schultz Schultz 2005). T his aspect of Freud’s theory plays an important role in inter group relations. It addresses the unconscious nature of each person in a group environment, as well as the unconscious nature of the entire group (Wrogemann 2003). Unconscious influences at work in inter group relations are experienced in different ways. One example is when a group is experiencing a failure and in order to protect their ego they engage in defence mechanisms by blaming other groups for their failure. They look outside of themselves for excuses as to why their effort failed, instead of realizing as Freud did, that the anxiety each member experienced was cause by low self-esteem and insecurities (Bodenhausen, Mussweiler, Gabriel, Moreno 2001; Wrogemann 2003). Freud’s theory of the unconscious and ego protection sheds light on how to improve inter group relations and increase success. If a group stopped deflecting from their own shortcomings by looking outside of their own organization they could more effectively correct their problems. If they would attempt to find the roots of their own behaviour they could get to the source of their failure. They would find it didn’t come from an outside group, but from within the mselves (Wrogemann 2003). Freud’s theories, in part, are the basis for Terror Management Theory (TMT), which deals with managing thoughts of death and is important to inter group relations (Navarette, Kirkpatrick, Kurzban Fessler 2004). Looking inwardly is a concept that originated with Freud. McCormick and White (2000) reported that this self-analyzing method was an important aspect of psychoanalytic theory. Other scientists picked up on it and applied it to the study of groups (as cited in Wrogemann 2003). Cilliers and Koortzen (1998) report that Freud’s theories of psychodynamics contributed to the concept that groups have a life of their own. Not only does a group have a collective consciousness, it also is composed of the collective unconscious nuances of each individual (as cited in Wrogemann 2003). Each member of a group brings to it their own unconscious desires and unmet needs. Their inner conflicts and tensions are played out in the group setting, such as at work. In the work environment, as each person unconsciously attempts to solve their issues, they are met with frustration and disappointment. The work environment cannot meet those needs leading the individual to become aggressive and exhibit ot her negative behaviours. The end result is that of strained relationships with others. As with other groups experiencing failure, workers have a tendency to blame their frustrations on someone else. They blame others for their lack of success or their disappointment while at the same time attempting to find security in those very relationships (Wrogemann 2003). Freud’s theory of regression was important to understanding inter group relations. Freud believed that depersonalization took place in the group causing a shift in inter group relations. The shift occurred when the individual member of a group loses his individuality and those unique qualities that set him apart from others. The process is an unconscious one where the group member takes on the role of child and the leader that of the parent. The result is a type of dependence on the leader that leads to thoughts that the group is not composed of individuals (Freud 1921). The lines become blurred. Bion (1961) had a more positive outlook on the dynamics of inter group relations. He claimed that when individuals came together in a group that they surrender their individuality to the leader and group in order to experience wholeness, oneness, and security. In order for the group to continue to exist it takes on something bigger that is outside of themselves. Freud’s contributions to the study of inter group relations was significant. By focusing on the unconscious he brought attention to the elements of group dynamics that involved unmet needs, unfulfilled desires, and other drives that are hidden, yet influencing factors in group interaction. His theory of the id, ego, and superego help to explain what happens in the mind of the individual and then collectively when part of a group. On his views regarding the importance of the individual in the context of a group, Freud wrote: only rarely and under certain exceptional conditions is individual  psychology in a position to disregard the relations of this individual  to others. In the individuals mental life someone else is invariably  involved, as a model, as an object, as a helper or as an opponent†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (quoted in Caper 1999, pg. 1). Some of Freud’s theories have not been supported by subsequent testing by others, but a number of them have been shown to be valid. Freud’s theories on the unconscious and its relation to a person’s behaviour, thoughts, and emotions were accurate. Research that was conducted long after the Freud era ended demonstrated that his theory on the role of the unconscious was more extensive than anyone thought possible. Freud had no idea just how far-reaching his theory on the unconscious was (Schultz Schultz 2005). Research into inter group relations is based partly on the contributions of Sigmund Freud and the benefits derived are substantial. References Bion, W. 1961, Experience in Groups. New York, Basic Books. Bodenhausen, G., Mussweiler, T., Gabriel, S. Moreno, K. 2001, Affective Influences  On Stereotyping and Intergroup Relations. In Handbook of Affect and Social   Cognition, ed. J.P. Forgas, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, NJ,  pp. 319-338. Caper, R. 1999, ‘Group Psychology and the Psychoanalytic Group’, [Online],  International Psychoanalytic Organization, pg. 1. Available from:  http://eseries.ipa.org.uk/prev/CIRC/Caper-m1.htm> [3 January 2006]. Freud, S. 1921, ‘Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego’, London,  International Psychological Press. Navarette, C. , Kirkpatrick, L., Kurzban, R. Fessler, D. 2004, Group Processes and   Intergroup Relations, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 370-397. Schultz, D. Schultz, S. 2004, A History of Modern Psychology (8th ed.). Belmont,  CA, Thompson/Wadsworth. Wrogemann, G. 2003, ‘Intergroup Relations in Organisations’, 6th Annual Conference of   The Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology, Available from:  http://www.siopsa.org.za, [3 January 2006].

The History of Cake Essay examples -- Food and Drink

The history of cake is a very long and complicated history and the origins of it are not known by many people. How did all of the traditions related to cake start? Why is cake round? What were the first cakes made of? Cakes have been discovered and recorded throughout history. To find the true ancestors of the cake as we know it, one would have to look back to before modern civilization to when people were still mostly traveling nomads. Their main source of sustenance had always been meat. However, people could not rely on meat alone to keep them alive since that depended upon always being surrounded by animals. When farming was started man began growing many different types of produce, one of which was wheat and grains. The most primitive people in the world began making cake shortly after learning how to make flour. In fact, the remains of their cakes have been found in the ruins of Neolithic villages. â€Å"The cakes found there were extremely simple and consisted of crushed grains that were moistened, compacted, and probably cooked on a hot stone.† (Stradley, 1) The cakes then were closer to crackers though than the cakes we know of now, but they were definitely the beginning of the id ea. The word cake is said to have been used as early as the 13th century and is derived from the word â€Å"kaka†, an old Norse word for a baked flour confection sweetened with sugar or honey. According to food historians, the first people to show modern baking skills were the Egyptians, who started the concept of filling their breads with nuts and fruits. (the History of Birthday Cake, 1) After the Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans both started their concept of cake, which will be discussed later. After them the English and their neighbors began... ...chy and can never be known for certain due to their long history but they have definitely helped with many celebrations throughout the years. Works Cited "History of Birthday Cake." Birthday Gifts,Anniversary Gifts,Send Flowers to India,Rakhi Gifts, Diwali Gifts,Send Gifts to India. Web. 16 Jan. 2012. . Lynne, Oliver. "Cake History Notes." Food Timeline: Food History & Vintage Recipes. Foodtimeline. Web. 14 Jan. 2012. . Stradley, Linda. "Cakes-History of Cakes." What's Cooking America, Cooking Recipes, Food History, Dinner Party Menus and Recipes, Health and Beauty Articles, Culinary Dictionary, Baking Hints, Cooking Tips. Web. 15 Jan. 2012. . Krondl, Michael. "Let Them Eat Cake!" Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review, 2011. Print.

Greek Influence on Western Literature Essay

Slide One: The plays performed at the Festival of Dionysus represented a completely new performance genre: drama. Plays like Oedipus Rex, Medea, and Antigone laid the groundwork for the great plays to make up the western canon, from Shakespeare’s Hamlet to Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Slide Two: This era also saw the birth and development of a new literary genre: tragedy. In plays like Oedipus Rex, the basic tragic structure in which a character experiences a change from happiness to suffering was codified and refined. In the hands of writers like Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, it became a vehicle for the exploration of some of humanity’s fundamental fears and questions about existence. You can see the same questions being explored in works by Shakespeare, for example, hundreds of years later. Today, more than 2,000 years later, these plays are still studied by modern tragic playwrights. Slide Three: Finally, the Athenian tragedies were important because they put humans at the center of the story. In the Iliad, for example, the gods are closely involved in the action — they take sides, they intervene on behalf of their heroes, and so on. While gods do appear in these plays, it is the very human protagonists such as Oedipus or Medea who take center stage, and whose actions determine the plot. This change signaled a shift in focus from the supernatural to the human in literature, which would have a profound influence on the Western tradition, particularly after the Middle Ages.

Today’s Unions

Over the years unions have been forced to change with the times. Looking at some of these changes and discussing how the unions have evolved over time will be discussed in this paper. Also the philosophy and how the unions accommodate its members have changes so this to will be discussed. After looking at all of this a couple of proposals will be discussed to help unions broaden their appeal. Unions all over the world are considered to be failing because of their low numbers. The influence and power unions had over management in companies when it came to policies has faded due to the huge decline in total number of members. (Troy, 2001). Troy stated in his research that the unionism which is experiencing a huge membership demand and the market share in past is now lagging far behind from the expected objective in this regard (Troy, 2001). According to facts from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), countries that are impacted by unions are facing challenges in terms of the diminishing ratio of the workers associated with the union. Kumar & Murray, 2002). Looking at the evaluations from the past years concerning union history, one can analyze that the real challenge that the companies have is to change the organization so that the threat of losing competent union members will be null. Unions should evaluate their history so that they can use the data to formulate a strategy to keep control over the influence of management. Befo re unions were born the people were born into poor families and had to work in organizations from the age of six, where the average day consisted of 18 hours. During this time such things as a day off, overtime compensation, and minimum daily wages were only a thing of dreams. â€Å"There exist no rules and regulations related to the job security, social security, job insurance, security against layoffs and several other serious issues† (Slupik, 2005, pg 22). Introducing unions into organizations help change the conditions for the employees. These drastic changes made the difference and started a movement in favor of the employees. Individuals could express their individual interest which was previously hampered by the company. Human resource departments and unions help influence power over the management and obtained authority to stand against the policies of company. If it did not seem to be in the best interest of the worker’s the union would flex its authority to make changes. The unions establish policies and rules that are pro employee and push for fair wages, a fair work schedule, overtime compensation, and job security to name a few. This helped give the employees a piece of mind and helped not only the welfare of the employee but the employer. Unions over time changed their focus from individual concerns to the organization and the collective concerns of all industries. Unions are now looking at the bigger picture and instead of focusing on the employees of a particular company they are looking at the welfare of all that work in similar industries. This means that the unions are working for and on the behalf of the employee’s and their rights. The unions focus is safeguarding the security of the employees and these interests seem to align with the human resource department. In the late 20s unions started losing its influence in the industries and due to aggressive attacks from rich and efficient organizations which eventually wiped out unions and created a system of non-union semi-slave labor areas in some other countries. This enabled them to continue to sell their product and services at same or higher prices in the market. By these measure organizations succeeded in reducing the union represented jobs, which was 36% in 1954 to a now lower 16 %. Slupik, 2005) The unions have to implement new philosophies that consider the largest population and broaden its scope of operation to other workplace environments. First union’s must concentrate on diversity and look past their initial focus of manufacturing and broaden its scope to all businesses. With today’s changing economy the manufacturing side of business has diminished so the unions must change in hopes to keep their members. Secondly unions must focus on changing policies within organiz ations and focus their efforts on those that go against the interest of the people. This can prove to be a stressful process since policy is constantly changing these days to keep up with government laws. Unions must form partnerships with the companies to keep up with all of these changes. Constant change seems to be the only norm within companies and this causes difficulties for the unions. Looking at some of these changes unions have made and how their philosophies have changed two proposals were briefly discussed to help in this transition. The bottom line is the only way for the unions to keep up with the every changing company is to become fluid and stay one step ahead of them.

The Necessity Of Computer Security

When the first electronic computers emerged from university and military laboratories in the late 1940s and early 1950s, visionaries proclaimed them the harbingers of a second industrial revolution that would transform business, government and industry. But few laymen, even if they were aware of the machines, could see the connection. Experts too, were sceptical. Not only were computers huge, expensive, one-of-a-kind devices designed for performing abstruse scientific and military calculations, such as cracking codes and calculations missile trajectories, they were also extremely difficult to handle. Now, it is clear that computers are not only here to stay, but they have a profound effect on society as well. As John McCarthy, Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, speculated in 1966: â€Å"The computer gives signs of becoming the contemporary counterpart of the steam engine that brought on the industrial revolution – one that is still gathering momentum and whose true nature had yet to be seen. † Today’s applications of computers are vast. They are used to run ordinary household appliances such as televisions and microwaves, to being tools in the workplaces through word processing, spreadsheets, and graphics software, to unning monumental tasks such as being the heart and soul of the nations tax processing department, and managing the project timetables of the Space Shuttle. It is obvious that the computer is now and always will be inexorably linked to our lives, and we have no choice but to accept this technology and learn how to harness its total potential. With any progressing technology, an unauthorized application can almost be found for it. A computer could and has been used for theft and fraud – for example, as a database and manager of illegal activities such as drug trafficking and pornography. However, we must not just consider the harmful applications of the computer, but also take into account the good that they have caused. When society embraced the computer technology, we have to treat this as an extension of what we already have at hand. This means that some problems that we had before the computer era may also arise now, in the form where computers are an accessory to a crime. One of the problems that society has faced ever since the dawn of civilization is privacy. The issue of privacy on the Internet has risen many arguments for and against having it. The issue of privacy has gotten to the oint where the government of the United States has placed a bill promoting a single chip to encrypt all private material on the Internet. Why is privacy so important? Hiding confidential material from intruders does not necessarily mean that what we keep secret it illegal. Since ancient times, people have trusted couriers to carry their messages. We seal out messages in a envelope when sending mail through the postal service. Using computer and encrypting programs to transfer electronic messages securely is not different from sending a letter the old-fashioned way. This paper will examine he modern methods of encrypting messages and analyse why Phil Zimmerman created an extremely powerful civilian encipherment program, called the PGP, for â€Å"Pretty Good Privacy. In particular, by focusing on cryptography, which was originally intended for military use, this paper will examine just how easy it is to conclude why giving civilians a military-grade encrypting program such as the PGP may be dangerous to national security. Therefore, with any type of new technology, this paper will argue that the application of cryptography for civilian purposes is not just a right, but is also a necessity. Increasingly in today’s era of computer technology, not only banks but also businesses and government agencies are turning to encryption. Computer security experts consider it best and most practical way to protect computer data from unauthorized disclosure when transmitted and even when stored on a disk, tape, of the magnetic strip of a credit card. Two encryption systems have led the way in the modern era. One is the single-key system, in which data is both encrypted and decrypted with the same key, a sequence of eight numbers, each between 0 and 127. The other is a 2-key ystem; in this approach to cryptography, a pair of mathematically complementary keys, each containing as many as 200 digits, are used for encryptions and decryption. In contrast with ciphers of earlier generations, where security depended in part on concealing the algorithm, confidentiality of a computer encrypted message hinges solely on the secrecy of the keys. Each system is thought to encrypt a message so inscrutably that the step-by-step mathematical algorithms can be made public without compromising security. The single key system, named the Data Encryption Standard – DES for short — as designed in 1977 as the official method for protecting unclassified computer data in agencies of the American Federal government. Its evolution began in 1973 when the US National Bureau of Standards, responding to public concern about the confidentiality of computerized information outside military and diplomatic channels, invited the submission of data-encryption techniques as the first step towards an encryption scheme intended for public use. The method selected by the bureau as the DES was developed by IBM researchers. During encryption, the DES algorithm divides a message into blocks f eight characters, then enciphers them one after another. Under control of the key, the letters and numbers of each block are scrambled no fewer than 16 times, resulting in eight characters of ciphertext. As good as the DES is, obsolescence will almost certainly overtake it. The life span of encryption systems tends to be short; the older and more widely used a cipher is, the higher the potential payoff if it is cracked, and the greater the likelihood that someone has succeeded. An entirely different approach to encryption, called the 2-key or public- key system, simplifies the problem of key distribution and management. The approach to cryptography eliminates the need for subscribers to share keys that must be kept confidential. In a public-key system, each subscriber has a pair of keys. One of them is the so-called public key, which is freely available to anyone who wishes to communicate with its owner. The other is a secret key, known only to its owner. Though either key can be used to encipher or to decipher data encrypted with its mate, in most instances, the public key is employed for encoding, and the private key for decoding. Thus, anyone can send a secret message to anyone else by using the addressee’s public key to encrypt ts contents. But only the recipient of the message can make sense of it, since only that person has the private key. A public key cryptosystem is called the PGP, for Pretty Good Privacy. Designed by Phil Zimmerman, this program is freely distributed for the purpose of giving the public the knowledge that whatever communications they pass, they can be sure that it is practically unbreakable. PGP generates a public and private key for the user using the RSA technique. The data is then encrypted and decrypted with the IDEA algorithm – which is similar to the DES, but the work factor to decode the encrypted message by brute orce is much higher than what the DES could provide. The reason why the RSA is used only when generating the keys is that the RSA takes a very long time to encrypt an entire document, where using the RSA on the keys takes a mere fraction of the time. At this time, Zimmerman is bing charged by the US government for his effort in developing the PGP. The government considers encryption as a weapon, and they have established regulations controlling or prohibiting the export of munitions. Since the PGP is a powerful encryption program, it is considered and can be used as a powerful weapon and may be a threat to national security. On the Internet, it is clear that many people all over the world are against the US government’s effort on limiting the PGP’s encryption capabilities, and their reason is that the ban infringes on the people’s right to privacy. The PGP must not be treated only as a weapon, for it contains analogies that are not used in wartime. One of them is authentication. The two-key cryptosystem is designed with authentication in mind: Using someone’s public key to encrypt enables only the owner of the private key to decrypt the same message. In the real world, we use our own signature to prove out identity in signing heques or contracts. There exists retina scanners that check the blood vessels in out eyes, as well as fingerprint analysis devices. These use our physical characteristics to prove our identity. A digital signature generated by a public key cryptosystem is much harder to counterfeit because of the mathematics of factoring – which is an advantage over conventional methods of tests for out identity. Another analogy the PGP has with the real world is the need for security. Banks and corporations employ a trusted courier – in the form of an armoured truck or a guard – to transfer sensitive documents or valuables. However, this is expensive for civilian purposes, and the PGP provides the same or better security when securing civilian information. While many argue that limiting the PGP’s abilities are against the people’s right to privacy, the PGP must also be seen as a necessity as we enter the Information Age. There is currently little or no practical and inexpensive way to secure digital information for civilians, and the PGP is an answer to this problem. Computer privacy must not be treated differently than any other method to make private any documents. Rather, we must consider the computer as a tool and se it as an extension of society’s evolution. Clearly the techniques we employ for computer privacy such as encryption, secure transfers and authentication closely mirrors past efforts at privacy and non-criminal efforts. The government is putting more pressure against the distribution of PGP outside of the United States. One of their main reasons was that since it is freely distributed and thus can be modified in such a way that even the vast computational resources of the US government cannot break the PGP’s secured message. The government could now reason that the PGP can provide criminal rganizations a means of secure communications and storage of their activities, and thus make the law enforcement’s job much harder in tracking criminals down and proving them guilty. Also, we must never forget one of out basic human rights – one that many laid their lives for, is freedom. We have the freedom to do anything we wish that is within the law. The government is now attempting to pass a bill promoting a single algorithm to encrypt and decrypt all data that belongs to its citizens. A multitude of people around the world are opposed to this concept, arguing that it is against their freedom and their privacy.