wishing “Happy Birthday
The above greetings are examples of ways of expressing and greeting people dealing with sadness. There are potentially many other ways to express sadness and greet people dealing with sadness. The examples above can be an inspiration for more ways to express sadness or appropriately greet someone dealing with sadness daily.
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
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You never know what you can do until you have to do it.
The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.
The sad truth is the truth is sad.
The sad truth is that opportunity doesn't knock twice.
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
The sad truth is that man's real life consists of a complex of inexorable opposites - day and night, birth and death, happiness and misery, good and evil. We are not even sure that one will prevail against the other, that good will overcome evil, or joy defeat pain. Life is a battleground. It always has been and always will be; and if it were not so, existence would come to an end.
The sad truth is that certain types of things can't go backward. Once they start going forward, no matter what you do, they can't go back the way they were. If even one little thing goes awry, then that's how it will stay forever.
The sad truth is that without complex business partnerships between African elites and European traders and commercial agents, the slave trade to the New World would have been impossible, at least on the scale it occurred.
The sad truth is that the civil rights movement cannot be reborn until we identify the causes of black suffering, some of them self-inflicted. Why can't black leaders organize rallies around responsible sexuality, birth within marriage, parents reading to their children and students staying in school and doing homework?
The sad truth is that excellence makes people nervous.
And the sad truth is that nobody wants me to write comedy. The Exorcist not only ended that career, it expunged all memory of its existence.
There's one sad truth in life I've found While journeying east and west - The only folks we really wound Are those we love the best. We flatter those we scarcely know, We please the fleeting guest, And deal full many a thoughtless blow To those who love us best.
You don't know what you can do until you try.
If there is one sound the follows the march of humanity, it is the scream.
The sad truth is that truth is almost irrelevant in a court of law.
I've even had people tell me that I must not be a Christian because I think climate change is real. But you know, there's nothing in the Bible that says that. The sad truth is that our thought leaders - many of them in the conservative media and politics - are the ones telling us this isn't real, and we are believing them.
I grew up in Venezuela, and when I was 14-years-old, my parents decided to sell everything and come to America. Five of us lived in a two bedroom house. It wasn't a sad truth, it was just the way it was [at the time]. That feeling is so universal for every immigrant.
The sad truth is that it is precisely those who disagree most with the hypothesis of efficient market pricing of stocks, those who pooh-pooh beta analysis and all that, who are least able to understand the analysis needed to test that hypothesis.
It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything. I never quarrel with actions. My one quarrel is with words. The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for.
Evil is nothing but a word, an objectification where no objectification is necessary. Cast aside this notion of some external agency as the source of inconceivable inhumanity - the sad truth is our possession of an innate proclivity towards indifference, towards deliberate denial of mercy, towards disengaging all that is moral within us. But if that is too dire , let's call it evil. And paint it with fire and venom.
It's a strange thing, you have said it thousands of times I am sure...you will never know what you can do until you try. However the sad truth is, that most people never try anything until they know they can do it.
The sad truth is, they should never trust me.
It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things.
It's better to live with a sad truth than with all the happy progress talk you get up here in the North.
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I have lived in poverty both as a child and as an adult, and I can say with full confidence that it is a life-crushing force. I hated it. “Poverty” is also one of the most misunderstood labels that gets slapped onto individuals without their approval—cast upon them simultaneously by both unseen and more visible forces of society.
Poverty is a word loaded with preconceived notions, common misperceptions, and seemingly innocuous assumptions. What the word does not do is delve below its surface meaning, into the reality of poverty—a world that no one wants to live in.
Poverty is exhausting. Poverty is despair and desperation-inducing. Poverty is soul, dream and hope crushing. Poverty is like being enclosed in a prison cell with no doors or windows. It feels claustrophobic, as if there is no way out. Only the most resilient do not give up. Still, there is no guarantee that life will get better—and those in poverty know this all too well. They either become hardened or submit to fate. You don’t live life, you don’t thrive—you survive. You wonder if you are predestined, like a caste in another country, to live out a life destitute of fulfillment—whether financial, professional or just having a better life.
These are the very thoughts that consumed me in times of poverty. And yet, I never stopped believing that there must be a way out. The “how” and the “why” of my situation—resounding questions that were never sated—eventually fell by the wayside as I pushed towards hope. The very thing that brought despair and darkness motivated me to dig out of that prison, to fight with everything within me, to find that light that must exist outside of the walls.
In America, there is this prevalent belief that if someone just pulls herself up by her bootstraps, she can succeed. And yet, as I have learned, it is entirely possible to work your ass off and still struggle . Whether I had boots or not, whether I was barefoot, in heels, what I really learned is that resources and access to them —a network of support, and awareness of available choices—are the most influential factors in the “making it or breaking it” of life in the US. So much of this became clear to me only later—when I had the opportunity to see outside of the tiny, claustrophobic room that I had been in for years.
Living in poverty need not be a death sentence. I decided when I was 5 years old that I wanted to secure a bachelor’s degree before I was married (which I did). Throughout my childhood, I had a voracious appetite for knowledge: I was constantly hungry to learn more. In high school, I decided that upon graduation I would leave the state and my family to start a new life for myself, even though it was extremely hard and I worked three jobs at one point. In college, I knew that I wanted to live and work overseas, to expand my perspective and learn more about the world. And when life challenges blindsided me as an adult (now with two degrees under my belt), I continued to learn what my options were, what resources were available to me, and to fight hard to provide the best opportunities that I can for my own children, so that they may never see themselves as “living in poverty” or not having a shot at a better life.
Enduring poverty is not the end of hope or life. The key things needed to break down the walls that imprison those within poverty are: outside influences, support networks such as friends or family, awareness of other opportunities, and access to resources.
With this combination, a new life is possible.
“I’ve always wanted to go to college. I’ve wanted to be an orthodontist since I was seven,” said 16-year-old Kayla, not realizing that because she grew up in West Baltimore the odds of her dreams coming true were very slim.
There’s a long shadow cast over Baltimore’s children. Like young people across America, they know that the ability to get a good-paying job depends on college. As teens, many of them finish high school, fill out college applications, and complete financial aid forms. But then they find out the truth: college is unaffordable.
There is a lot of talk about elite universities offering “no loans” promises and sending letters to low-income families across the country urging their children to apply. But that effort is relevant to a tiny few. Most people who attend college go to institutions that are far from free.
Despite massive public investment in financial aid, students from families like Kayla’s who earn less than $20,000 a year are now required to pay at least $8,000 for a year of community college and more than $12,000 a year at a public university. That “net price” is what researchers like me have found to be the real bill that students and their families face after all grants (including the federal Pell and state and institutional grants) are subtracted from the sticker price of attending college. This price has gone up substantially over time, particularly since the Great Recession. It’s climbed as real family income for most has fallen. Worse, it may well be under-stated .
College education is central to the American Dream. But the ladder people must climb to get there has eroded, and a critical rung fell off. After a semester or two, even the most talented students from the bottom half of the income distribution find that the price of college is more than they can afford. They have enough money to register for classes, but they cannot pay the bills long enough to graduate .
The young people of Baltimore know this. Researchers tracked a set of the city’s children beginning in 1982 , when the kids were in 1 st grade. A decade and a half later, almost two-thirds enrolled in college. But by age 28, just 17 percent had earned an associates or bachelor’s degree, with another 13 percent earning a certificate. Nearly half who grew up poor, ended up poor, especially if they were black.
It wasn’t for lack of trying. Researchers like Stefanie DeLuca, who met Kayla while doing research on young people from Baltimore’s highest poverty neighborhoods, confirm that a strong work ethic is omnipresent there. But enrolling in college exacerbates their poverty: working two or three jobs while also taking on federal and private loans takes a heavy toll. Growing numbers of undergraduates find themselves living without sufficient food or adequate housing even as they try and focus on school.
When college is unaffordable, hope is lost. Without degrees, young people are returning to the streets with debt, disillusioned and fearful for their futures.
Today colleges and state governments set most college prices. They are failing at this job. The opportunity to get a college education is distributed in highly inequitable ways. Rather than promoting mobility, the broken college financing system is ensuring that economic and racial inequality gets passed down – and worsened – from one generation to the next. Americans deserve better.
Last year, Republican Governor Bill Haslam began to restore hope in Tennessee by offering tuition-free community college. The predecessor to the Tennessee Promise, Knox Achieves, is proving effective at helping young people who would have otherwise never experienced even a 13 th year of education earn college credits. Helping those students complete a 14 th year, and attain a credential, may require more investment, along the lines of America’s College Promise proposed by President Barack Obama.
The initiatives of Haslam and Obama were preceded by wisdom and a smart initiative in New York. In 1969, large numbers of African Americans and Puerto Ricans demanded that the City University of New York become a place that they could enter to pursue better lives. University administrators responded by instituting an open admissions policy to complement a very low price. An evaluation conducted over the next 30 years revealed that while the new policy did not wipe out disadvantages due to race or class (or high school academic record), it more than doubled the proportion of black women who would attain degrees. That finding is consistent with more recent studies that raise sharp questions about the contention that “college isn’t for everyone.”
National leaders need to provide hope to young adults in Baltimore and cities like it. Federal policy must change. Simply providing financial aid isn’t getting the job done, as it requires too little from those who establish college costs. Instead, we need a national conversation about what it means to provide a high-quality 13 th and 14 th year of public education to everyone, and then we need to pay for it. New taxes are an option – but we can also simply stop spending where investments aren’t pay off. Ending subsidies to for-profit universities is a good place to start.
There is much to do to provide hope, dignity, and a chance at a better life to America’s poor urban youth. Part of the solution must include making college affordable.
Although it is widely documented that for-profit colleges routinely prey on low-income students , these schools have proven adept at beating back regulations that would curb their abuses. To decrease the attractiveness of for-profit schools, and their power to exploit students with low incomes, progressives should rally around President Obama’s proposal to provide free community college .
Over the last few years, for-profit colleges have come under fire from the Senate HELP committee, several federal agencies, and 37 state attorneys, with good reason . The for-profit education business model provides no incentive for schools to produce successful, educated college graduates. As a result, over half of the students who attend these schools fail to obtain a degree and struggle with mounting student loan debt. Those students fortunate enough to graduate have a hard time securing employment, as employers increasingly turn away candidates with degrees from for-profit schools.
For-profit colleges use a variety of unethical and sometimes illegal practices to persuade students to attend their schools. Some schools get leads on potential students through fake job postings on websites like craigslist or monster.com. Recent reports show a few top for-profit colleges utilize fake online health insurance and food stamp applications to collect information on potential students. Individuals who fall victim to phishing schemes like these are subsequently harassed with calls from for-profit schools until they speak with admissions representatives. Students report being called up to twenty times in a single morning, or as late as 11 p.m. When students finally succumb to the pressure and speak with a representative, they are subjected to recruitment tactics that are far more abusive.
An example of training materials for recruiters at a for-profit college
Admissions representatives at several large for-profit schools say management promotes a variety of exploitative practices to secure enrollment. These tactics include asking callers— many of whom are low-income or people of color— to imagine what they will buy when they make six-figures, or how their family will feel when they no longer rely on a minimum wage job. Many representatives go as far as telling callers how worthless they are with just a high school diploma. Many students who were actively recruited in this manner were unable to afford—or clearly incapable of completing—the program. Some students even struggled with a range of disabilities such as brain damage and learning disorders . In one particularly high profile case , a Corporal for the U.S. Marines was enrolled at a large for-profit college, but was so severely impaired by a traumatic brain injury that he could not remember what classes he was taking.
Students who enroll as a result of this kind of manipulation often sign themselves into financial ruin. However, as long as the students attend classes, the school turns a profit. The entire business model of for-profit schools relies on cheating victims out of their dollars and dreams, which ultimately increases their reliance on safety net programs.
In contrast, community college provides crucial alternatives for those most frequently victimized by for-profit schools—people with low-incomes and people of color. Students with low-incomes are disproportionately affected by social factors (financial instability, health issues, transportation issues) that discourage investing financial resources in brick-and-mortar schools, in deference to online education. For-profit schools take advantage of this instability, promising increased upward mobility coupled with the flexibility of online schooling. As a result, low-income students enroll in for-profit schools at nearly four times the rate of other students.
An example of student “profiles” targeted by recruiters at a for-profit college
By providing low-income students with the opportunity to attend community college at no cost, President Obama’s plan virtually eliminates the consumer base of these profit-seeking colleges, ending their large-scale fraud. Under President Obama’s plan , students receive full tuition funding if they are enrolled at least half-time at community college and are earning above a 2.5 GPA. The proposal is also beneficial because it permits students to receive Pell grants while they are at community college; this policy would help families afford living expenses while the primary caretaker focuses on school.
Obama’s initiative encourages low-income, at-risk students to consider local community colleges before for-profit schools, thereby increasing their potential economic mobility and financial wellbeing. Current estimates suggest that as many as 9 million students would benefit from the initiative.
While Obama’s proposal is not a blank check, it provides much more flexibility for students with low-incomes. More importantly, the plan could prevent millions of our country’s most disadvantaged people from enrolling in schools that prove far better at exploiting students than educating them.
One of the recurring—and troubling—themes of TalkPoverty posts has been the overwhelming number of misguided policies that kick people while they’re down: from asset limits that tell poor people not to save, to employers’ use of criminal records that make it hard for people to find a job even decades after an infraction.
In a rare moment of good news, New York City has decided to remove one of these barriers by limiting the use of credit checks for employment screening . Last month, the City Council voted overwhelmingly to pass the strongest measure in the country on this issue, joining ten states . This measure, which Mayor DeBlasio is expected to sign on Wednesday, is a major step forward to rein in a practice that does little for employers while filtering out good employees who run into financial trouble.
Nearly half of employers check credit histories for at least some positions, according to the Society for Human Resource Management . This means that before receiving a job offer, the employer has the ability to comb through your financial history to see if you’ve paid your bills on time, and can choose not to offer you a job if you haven’t. Of course, if you’re having trouble paying your bills—because of a job loss, an illness, an irregular work schedule, or other risks that working families face—being turned down for a job isn’t going to make it easier to pay your bills or improve your credit. And so the cycle continues.
Meanwhile, credit reporting itself has its limitations. Roughly one in five credit reports contains errors , according to an analysis by the Federal Trade Commission. And the information in credit reports only reflects part of a family’s financial situation—the part that tends to reflect better on upper-income folks. Mortgage payments count toward a positive credit history—very significantly—but on-time rent payments don’t. And when low-income families pay their regular bills on time—such as rent and utilities—this positive information generally doesn’t go on credit reports, even though negative information such as late payments, nonpayments, and collections ultimately does get reported. So even when families are trying hard to pay bills on time, these bills don’t count in the same way credit cards and loan payments do.
That’s slowly starting to change. There are efforts underway to improve credit reporting to more accurately reflect credit risk and help more deserving borrowers get affordable loans, including a recent pilot where thousands of low-income families living in affordable housing were able to have their rental payments applied to their credit reports and scores. But in the meantime, families are needlessly hurt by a system that misuses financial information to make hiring decisions that hurt those who are already struggling.
To be sure, New York City’s law does have some exceptions for jobs in government, law enforcement, certain finance and tech jobs, and jobs where the employee is in charge of major financial decisions. For these jobs, one can argue that the fears of theft cited when credit screening tools are pitched to companies are more legitimate. (When I worked at the Treasury Department, for example, a credit check was required.) But the City’s new law goes well beyond other states where, for example, handling a certain amount of cash could be considered an exception. And it comes close to two bills introduced in the last Congress: one bill by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) limiting credit checks to jobs requiring a security clearance, and a bill by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) with added exemptions for some government and banking jobs.
The federal government has been catching on as well. Last fall, the US Department of Labor issued new guidance warning employers that the use of credit reports may be discriminatory. Policies designed to screen for people working in high-level positions shouldn’t apply to most jobs, never mind that even Bernie Madoff probably had a stellar credit history for most of his career.
We should follow New York’s example to keep credit reports where they belong—in the financial marketplace—and not as another barrier to hold people back from jobs and financial security because of past decisions or financial distress.
Marital poverty is a serious, widespread, but mostly unacknowledged problem in the United States. Just over 9.3 million people in married-parent families live below our extremely low official poverty line . Another 6 million people live between the official poverty threshold and 130 percent of the poverty line, which is the income limit for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and only about $26,000 for a married couple with one child.
Despite these staggering numbers, there is widespread denial of the reality of marital poverty. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has gone so far to claim that being “married with kids versus unmarried with kids is the difference between living in poverty and not.” It appears he is unaware there are more married parents living in poverty in his state than never married parents living in poverty.
We know from a vast body of research that poverty and related financial stressors are risk factors for marital conflict, domestic violence, and divorce. And notable recent research by Laura Tach and Kathryn Edin found that economic factors are a more important predictor of dissolution for married parents than for cohabiting ones.
The Temporary Assistance (TANF) program should be playing a central role in helping married families overcome the kinds of economic hardship and other factors that contribute to the high divorce rate among working class families . Under the Temporary Assistance program, states receive funds to provide means-tested, re-employment assistance and other services to struggling unemployed and underemployed parents with low incomes. One of the four purposes of Temporary Assistance is to “encourage the maintenance of two-parent families.”
Despite this mandate, Temporary Assistance is failing struggling, married families. The extent of TANF’s failure is shown in the chart below. Between 2000 and 2012, the number of married parents living in poverty increased 39 percent, but the already extremely low number of married parents being helped by TANF plummeted by 54 percent . In the majority of states today, fewer than 1000 married parents receive Temporary Assistance. In Louisiana, for example, over 50,000 married parents live in poverty, but only about 50 of them receive Temporary Assistance.
Where Temporary Assistance has failed, other better-designed programs have stepped up. In 2014, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helped 5.2 million low-income children who lived with both of their married parents, and another 1.2 million children who lived with both of their unmarried parents. Unlike Temporary Assistance, SNAP actually responded to the increase in married-parent unemployment and hardship during the Great Recession. Similarly, early evidence suggests that the Affordable Care Act—including Medicaid expansion and the Premium Tax Credit—has increased health insurance coverage among working-class married families.
How can we fix Temporary Assistance so that it doesn’t effectively exclude millions of struggling, married parents from getting the temporary financial help – as well as employment and other services – that could make the difference between staying together and splitting up?
The first and arguably most important step is to acknowledge the extent of the problem of marital poverty and hardship in the United States, and the destructive impact it has on family life.
Then we need to look at models for reforming Temporary Assistance. Most notably, the original version of the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) that was evaluated in the mid-1990s reduced divorce among participating disadvantaged, two-parent families. The reductions in divorce were particularly large—70 percent—among black married couples. In addition, both MFIP and Milwaukee’s New Hope Project increased rates of marriage among disadvantaged single mothers.
These progressive demonstration projects ensured that low-income married- and cohabiting-couple families had an adequate income to support themselves while searching for work or addressing issues that limited their work capacity, including through transitional jobs, re-employment, and other services. Unlike the current Temporary Assistance program, these programs did not utilize unreasonably restrictive participation rates or harshly punitive measures that are mostly aimed at reducing the number of people who receive help; instead, these programs emphasized helping parents obtain and maintain stable employment, while meeting their basic needs.
Unfortunately, the current financial structure of Temporary Assistance and the federal law that governs it makes operating rigorously tested programs like the original MFIP or New Hope all but impossible for states. Fixing this should be at the top of the list of reforms that would help struggling, two-parent families. At the very least, the federal government should establish a national Temporary Assistance demonstration project for married and unmarried two-parent families based on the original MFIP program and New Hope. Of course, some policymakers would prefer to just talk about family values, but even in today’s polarized political environment it should be possible to move forward on a concrete initiative like this one that actually values working-class families by helping them stay together.
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hazrakhatoon
08 May 2023
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Change is inevitable: Life is constantly changing, and we have to embrace this truth about life. Everything in life is impermanent, and we must learn to adapt to new situations and circumstances. Whether it's a new job, a breakup, or a move to a new city, change is a natural part of life, and it can be an opportunity for growth and transformation.
Failure is a part of success: We often fear failure but the truth about life is that it's an essential part of success. We wouldn't learn, grow, or improve without failure. Failure is a teacher, and it helps us develop resilience and determination. It's important to remember that failure is not a reflection of our worth or abilities, but rather an opportunity to try again.
Relationships are key to happiness: Human beings are social creatures and our relationships with others are critical to our well-being. Whether it's romantic, familial, or platonic, relationships provide us with a sense of connection, support, and love. Invest time and effort into our relationships and prioritize the people who matter most to us.
Kindness is powerful: Small acts of kindness can have a significant impact on others. Whether it's holding the door open for someone, offering a compliment, or volunteering in our community, kindness can create positive ripples in the world. Remember that kindness is not a weakness, but a strength that can bring joy and positivity into our lives.
Perspective is everything: The way we view the world can shape our experiences and impact our happiness. Cultivate a positive and grateful mindset even in difficult times. Focusing on the good in our lives, practicing gratitude, and reframing negative thoughts can help us cultivate a more positive perspective.
Self-care is essential: Taking care of ourselves is not selfish but rather a necessary part of living a healthy and fulfilling life. Self-care can take many forms such as exercise, meditation, spending time in nature, or simply taking a break from our responsibilities. Prioritize self-care and make it a regular part of our routines.
Perfection is an illusion: Perfectionism is a trap that can lead to anxiety, self-doubt, and burnout. The truth about life is that no one is perfect and striving for perfection is a futile endeavor. Instead of focusing on perfection, focus on progress, growth, and learning.
Success is defined by you: Success means different things to different people, and it's important to define success on our own terms. Whether it's achieving a career goal, finding happiness in our relationships, or simply living a life that aligns with our values, success is a personal and subjective concept.
Gratitude is a game-changer: Practicing gratitude can have a powerful impact on our well-being. Gratitude helps us focus on the good in our lives, appreciate what we have, and cultivate a positive mindset. Make gratitude a regular practice, whether it's through journaling, meditation, or simply taking a moment to reflect on the good in our lives.
Life is precious: The most important truth of all is that life is precious. Time is a finite resource and it's important to make the most of the time we have. Whether it's pursuing our passions, spending time with loved ones, or making a positive impact on the world, we should strive to live a life that is fulfilling and meaningful. Life is a gift and it's up to us to make the most of it. Prioritize the things that truly matter and not take our time on earth for granted.
Cherish each moment, live with intention and purpose, and make a difference in the world in whatever way you can. Life has value and you have the power to create a life that you are proud of.
We all experience pain and suffering: No one is immune to pain and suffering in life. Whether it's physical, emotional, or mental, everyone will experience some form of pain at some point in their lives. Acknowledge and accept these experiences and seek support and resources when needed.
We are all connected: Despite our differences, we are all connected in some way. Our actions and choices have an impact on others, and the well-being of one person can affect the well-being of many. Our interconnectedness and to treat others with kindness and empathy.
Time is a precious resource: Time is one of our most valuable resources and it's important to use it wisely. It's easy to get caught up in distractions and busyness but it's essential to prioritize the things that truly matter in life.
Authenticity is key: Being true to ourselves is essential to living a fulfilling life. It's important to embrace our unique qualities, values, and experiences, and to express ourselves authentically in our relationships and endeavors.
Mindfulness is a powerful tool: Mindfulness practices such as meditation and deep breathing, can help us cultivate awareness, focus, and calmness. Incorporating mindfulness into our daily lives can help reduce stress, improve well-being, and enhance our relationships.
Success requires effort: Success rarely comes easy and requires effort, dedication, and perseverance. Set goals, create plans, and work hard towards achieving them.
Laughter is the best medicine: Laughter is a powerful tool for reducing stress, boosting mood, and improving overall health and well-being. Find humor and joy in life and not take ourselves too seriously.
Forgiveness is necessary for growth: Forgiveness is essential for personal growth and healing. Holding onto anger and resentment can weigh us down and prevent us from moving forward. Practice forgiveness, both towards ourselves and others in order to experience inner peace and growth.
We are all capable of change: Change is not easy but it is possible. We are capable of growth, transformation, and self-improvement. With effort, dedication, and support, we can make positive changes in our lives.
Love is the most powerful force: Love is a powerful force that can transform lives, heal wounds, and create connections. Cultivate love in our relationships, towards ourselves, and towards the world around us. Love is what makes life worth living.
The truths of life are complex and multifaceted, varying among individuals, cultures, and belief systems. These truths can be difficult to accept at times, such as the inevitability of death, the reality of suffering, and the unfairness of life. If you are dealing with this situation, Now&me can help you overcome this feeling and accept the reality. You can join the community of the strongest people, chat with experts online (for absolutely free) or even book a call for a video therapy session. However, these truths can also serve as a reminder to live life to the fullest, cherish the present moment, and seek purpose and meaning in our lives.
One school of thought is that the greatest truth about life lies in understanding the true nature of reality. This could involve delving into the realms of quantum physics or exploring the concept of consciousness. But it is ultimately up to you to figure out what the greatest truth for you is. Being around a close set of people can help you on this journey of discovery.
Some of the hardest truths of life are the impermanence of all things, the ultimate responsibility for our own lives and the limitations of our own knowledge and understanding.
The saddest truths of life are the inevitability of loss and change. In life, we will experience loss and change, whether it is the loss of loved ones, the end of a relationship, or a change in our circumstances. These experiences can be challenging to accept and can bring feelings of sadness and grief. Another sad truth is the reality of suffering. Suffering is a part of the human experience, and it can take many forms, such as physical, emotional, or mental. Witnessing the suffering of others or experiencing it ourselves can be a sad and difficult reality of life. Finally one truth which has bothered us all is the unfairness of life. Life is not always fair, and some people may experience more challenges or hardships than others. This inequality can be disheartening and lead to feelings of hopelessness or despair.
The ultimate truths of life is the search for the the purpose of existence. Some philosophical systems suggest that the ultimate truth is the interconnectedness of all things and the realization that everything in the universe is connected. While some suggest that the ultimate truth is the realization of impermanence, that everything in life is temporary and constantly changing.
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The bright side of sadness.
Bad moods can have unappreciated mental upsides
Evidence suggests that gloomy moods improve key types of thinking and behavior.
Vertes Edmond Mihai/Shutterstock
By Bruce Bower
October 18, 2013 at 1:45 pm
Thomas Jefferson defended the right to pursue happiness in the Declaration of Independence. But that’s so 237 years ago. Many modern societies champion everyone’s right to be happy pretty much all the time.
Good luck with that, says psychologist Joseph Forgas of the University of New South Wales in Sydney. A lack of close friends, unfulfilled financial dreams and other harsh realities leave many people feeling lonely and forlorn a lot of the time. But there’s a mental and social upside to occasional downers that often goes unappreciated.
“Bad moods are seen in our happiness-focused culture as representing a problem, but we need to be aware that temporary, mild negative feelings have important benefits,” Forgas says.
Growing evidence suggests that gloomy moods improve key types of thinking and behavior, Forgas asserts in a new review paper aptly titled “Don’t worry, be sad!” For good evolutionary reasons, positive and negative moods subtly recruit thinking styles suited to either benign or troubling situations, he says. Each way of dealing with current circumstances generally works well, if imperfectly.
New and recent studies described by Forgas in the June Current Directions in Psychological Science illustrate some of the ways in which periods of sadness spontaneously recruit a detail-oriented, analytical thinking style. Morose moods have evolved as early-warning signs of problematic or dangerous situations that demand close attention, these reports suggest.
One investigation found that people in sad moods have an advantage remembering the details of unusual incidents that they have witnessed. And a little gloominess could help job applicants; lousy moods cut down on the tendency to stereotype others, thus boosting the accuracy of first impressions. People in sad moods also show a greater willingness to work on demanding tasks, communicate more persuasively and are more concerned with being fair to others than are peers in neutral or happy moods.
Alternatively, good moods trigger a loose mode of thought conducive to creativity and seeing the big picture. Happiness signals that a situation is safe, or at least not immediately threatening, Forgas suggests. As a result, people in a cheery state have the luxury of focusing on themselves rather than on their environments.
Whether good or bad, moods are relatively low-intensity, background feelings that can last for anywhere from a few minutes to the whole day. A person may feel somewhat good or bad, happy or sad, without knowing why or even being aware of such moods. Sad moods fall far short of clinical depression’s constant feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. But moods linger much longer than emotions, which typically flare up and burn out fairly quickly. In contrast to a mood, joy, anger and disgust feel intense and are experienced as having definite causes.
Feelings as information
Like Forgas, psychologist Norbert Schwarz of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor sees mental value in sadness. “It’s shallow and untrue to assume that positive feelings can only have positive consequences and negative feelings can only have negative consequences,” he says.
When Schwarz was a graduate student in the late 1970s, an influential line of research held that happy moods make people more likely to remember positive events and sad moods more often revive memories of negative events. That account of how feelings influence thought seemed incomplete to the aspiring psychologist. On “good” days, he reasoned, everything just felt right without any past triumphs coming to mind. On “bad” days, life felt lousy in the moment, without any tragic memories returning for an encore.
Schwarz launched a series of studies indicating that people use low-intensity moods as a source of information when forming judgments. Good and bad moods are usually experienced as being about whatever problem or situation a person currently faces, he and his colleagues found. Treating moods in this way often works out, as when a supervisor recommends someone for a raise based on feeling good about that person’s recent job performance. Feelings can mislead if, say, a boss feels happy because it’s a sunny Friday and thus approves a raise for someone who pleads for a salary hike but doesn’t deserve it.
By 1990, Schwarz and his colleagues had conducted a few studies suggesting that positive and negative moods spontaneously shape how people think. Sad moods fostered attention to details, they discovered, whereas happy moods promoted playfulness and creativity. More work was needed, though, to confirm those results and explore their implications for making decisions in various situations.
Individuals aren’t slaves to their moods, Schwarz cautions. A sad person can think outside the box if necessary, say, to solve problems at work. And a happy person can accurately fill out tax forms or complete other detail-heavy tasks.
Evidence from many labs supports Schwarz’s view that moods inform people’s judgments, often advantageously and outside of awareness, psychologist Rainer Greifeneder of the University of Basel in Switzerland and his colleagues reported in the May 2011 Personality and Social Psychology Review .
Moods provide surprisingly keen insights into one’s environment, the team concluded. Provocative support for that idea appeared in the October 2012 Journal of Consumer Research . A team led by business professor Michel Tuan Pham of Columbia University in New York City found that volunteers who trusted their feelings did better at predicting events such as how the stock market would perform in the next week and how upcoming movies would fare at the box office than volunteers who mistrusted their feelings.
By embracing their moods, superior forecasters gained unconscious access to a vast amount of learned information that informed their predictions, Pham speculated.
“In natural situations, feelings provide mostly valid information about whether there is a problem or not and how to respond to current tasks,” Schwarz says.
Power of sad
Forgas sees no need for a special field of research to study “negative psychology.” He would settle for “more awareness that negative feelings are so common and widespread that they must have adaptive functions.” Reports of specific ways in which sadness benefits thinking are beginning to accumulate.
Consider memory. In the January 2009 Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , Forgas and his colleagues found that shoppers in a suburban store remembered more details about what they saw in the store when they reported being in bad moods on rainy, cold days than when they felt happy on sunny, warm days.
Sad moods also improve eyewitness memory, apparently by lowering the tendency to incorporate false and misleading details into accounts of what was observed. In a 2005 study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , college students witnessed a staged altercation between a lecturer and a woman who angrily interrupted the talk.
One week later, while in happy or sad moods induced by watching emotional film clips, participants read questions about the incident that included misleading information. Those in sad moods remembered what had happened much more accurately than their happy peers, Forgas and his colleagues reported. Fewer pieces of false information twisted the memories of sad students.
Sad moods can also make first impressions of others more reliable, Forgas says. People often judge those that they meet for the first time by assuming that obvious but often irrelevant traits, such as physical attractiveness, reflect intelligence, agreeableness and other as yet unknown traits. Psychologists refer to this much-studied phenomenon as the halo effect.
Negative moods topple the halo effect off its cockeyed perch, Forgas reported in the December 2011 European Journal of Social Psychology . After reminiscing about happy, sad or neutral personal experiences, volunteers read a one-page philosophical essay. Forgas attached a photograph of the writer to each copy of the essay, showing either a casually dressed young woman or a middle-aged man wearing a suit and glasses.
Happy participants rated the essay far more positively when they thought it was written by the academic-looking man. This halo effect largely disappeared among sad participants. Those in a neutral mood preferred the man’s essay, but not to the extent that happy volunteers did.
Sad folks took longer to read and rate the essays than happy and neutral participants did. That’s probably because feeling sad fostered a more careful appraisal of essays and photos, Forgas suggests. As a result, he proposes, sad volunteers largely rejected the stereotype of philosophers as tweedy, professorial men, helping to minimize the halo effect.
Cheerless cooperators
Sadness also confers some surprising social benefits. “While a positive mood may increase self-focus and selfishness, a negative mood can increase concern for others and the quality of communication,” Forgas says.
Norbert Schwarz, a psychologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, is one of the pioneers in studying how happy and sad moods inform people about their current situation and influence their thinking styles. “We experience our moods as being real and we use them as real information,” Schwarz told staff writer Bruce Bower in an interview. “Even someone like me who studies that stuff falls prey to their own moods.”
When asked to divide raffle tickets or other prizes with a partner shown in a photo on a computer screen, sad volunteers handed out nearly even portions while happy volunteers kept the bulk for themselves, Forgas and a colleague reported in the January Computers in Human Behavior .
In another computer game, participants were informed that a partner seen only in a photo could accept or reject offers of how to divvy up prizes. No partner actually existed, but players were told that a vetoed offer would leave them empty-handed.
Again, sad volunteers shared valuables more evenly than their happy cohorts did. Sad players took longer to reach their decisions, consistent with having thought more carefully about how to make fair offers.
A gloomy mood also increased participants’ concern with fairness when the tables were turned and they had to evaluate offers from a player who didn’t really exist. Relative to the happy crowd, a substantially greater proportion of sad volunteers rejected unfair divisions of prizes, such as being offered two out of 10 lottery tickets.
In these experiments, moods were induced either by having participants watch happy or sad film clips or by falsely telling volunteers that they had scored extremely well or poorly on a test of spatial abilities.
Another study by Forgas and his colleagues, published in the August European Journal of Social Psychology , indicates that sad moods also prompt people to share information with others particularly effectively.
In one set of trials, volunteers watched clips of ambiguous, unemotional movie scenes. While in happy, sad or neutral moods, the volunteers then either verbally described the episode while pretending to talk with a friend or wrote a brief description of the scene for a friend.
In both conditions, raters determined that sad volunteers communicated more information relevant to the movie scenes and less unrelated information than the other two groups did, especially the happy folks. Those in a sad mood were especially good at keeping accounts brief, clear and to the point.
Moods were induced after participants watched movie clips but before they described the scenes, ensuring that the clips didn’t sway their manipulated moods.
Sad feelings may influence communication differently in situations where conversation partners don’t expect to share all relevant information, such as diplomatic negotiations or sales encounters. Still, Forgas contends, “everyday moods have a subtle but reliable influence on communication strategies.”
That’s something that mental health workers and medical personnel should keep in mind, he advises. Being somewhat sad may enable better communication with sick or troubled individuals. A jovial mood could promote creative insights into a patient’s condition or needs.
Gloomy payoffs
Fittingly, happiness researchers such as psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California, Riverside take a positive but measured position on evidence that sadness has an upside. “Transient negative moods are absolutely beneficial when orientation to detail is warranted,” Lyubomirsky says.
Problems occur when sad moods become so frequent that they blend into an extended downer, she holds. “Happy people experience a lot more positive than negative moods, and their negative moods are not chronic.”
Chronic happiness creates its own discontents. Yale University psychologist June Gruber has reported that the sustained, one-note joy of people experiencing the manic phase of bipolar disorder leads to all sorts of personal and social misjudgments ( SN Online: 2/2/11 ).
Even brief sad moods such as those studied by Forgas sometimes provoke bad decisions, says Harvard University psychologist Jennifer Lerner. Mild sadness tends to make people more impatient and thus more apt to focus myopically on taking money now rather than waiting for a bigger financial payoff in the not-too-distant future, Lerner and her colleagues reported in the January Psychological Science .
In one experiment that involved real payoffs, sad participants typically required $37 immediately to forgo receiving a mailed check for $85 in three months, whereas neutral-mood volunteers usually held out for $56 in hand. Participants who reported feeling mildly disgusted by the topics of film clips and writing assignments needed about as much money as neutral individuals to pass up a delayed, $85 windfall. So unlike sadness, being briefly disgusted didn’t make people more likely to snap up immediate, low-ball payoffs.
Sadder isn’t wiser when it comes to making prudent financial decisions, Lerner concludes. A sad person may urgently need a shot of self-esteem, stoking a preference for instant over delayed gratification. If that’s the case, then people may make particularly rash and ill-informed financial decisions after job losses, loved ones’ deaths and other distressing events.
From Forgas’ perspective, a take-the-money-and-run approach seems reasonable if sadness accurately alerts a person to a dangerous or unstable environment.
But moods may not engage specific mental strategies as proposed by Forgas, says psychologist Jeffrey Huntsinger of Loyola University Chicago. Several recent investigations, described by Huntsinger in the August Current Directions in Psychological Science , suggest that positive moods prompt individuals to double down on any current thinking style, while negative moods trigger a shift to an alternative thinking style.
Among neutral-mood volunteers focusing broadly on an experimental task, those induced to be happy thought even more expansively about the task, whereas those prodded into sadness switched to concentrating on details. When already in a detail-oriented frame of mind, volunteers who became happy maintained that perspective, while those who became sad moved to a broad focus.
If these findings hold up, happy and sad moods simply signal whether or not to change one’s current thinking style, Huntsinger says, rather than indicating whether to adopt an analytical or playful thinking style. Researchers have yet to test which of these two possibilities best explains mood-related behaviors.
Forgas acknowledges that much remains unknown about precisely how moods influence thought. If moods work as Huntsinger suggests and not as orchestrators of specific thinking styles, Forgas says, it won’t get him down.
Not that there would be anything wrong with that.
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Time is your most valuable asset -- you need to prioritize how you spend it..
It's much easier to talk about the weather, sports, and celebrities than your fear of mortality .
Unfortunately, the more time you spend pretending that ultimate truths don't exist, the more time you waste not being your authentic self and getting the most out of every precious second.
Time, not money, is your most valuable asset. Allow the list below to ignite the spark of motivation you need to make better use of the time you have on this planet.
Sometimes we need to head into the storm to appreciate the light and have a renewed passion for the beauty of life.
Here are 20 brutal truths that every single person needs to hear.
Stop pretending that you're invincible. Acknowledge the fact of your own mortality, and then start structuring your life in a more meaningful way.
This truth may be saddening at first, but it also gives you permission to make amends with past difficulties and re-establish meaningful relationships with important figures in your life.
Even if you're one of the lucky ones who achieves his or her materialistic dreams, money only amplifies that which was already present.
Happiness is always present in your life--it's just a matter of connecting to it and allowing it to flow through you that's challenging.
Giving your time is a way to change your perception and create a memory for yourself and others that will last forever.
Stop trying to please, and start respecting your values, principles, and autonomy.
Many perfectionists have unrelenting inner critics that are full of so much rage and self-hate that it tears them apart inside. Fight back against that negative voice, amplify your intuition, and start challenging your unrealistic standards.
Intellectually thinking through your problems isn't as helpful as expressing the feelings that create your difficulties in the first place.
Be responsible and take actions that increase positivity and love.
When your time has come to transition from this reality, you won't be thinking about that raise; you'll be thinking about the relationships you've made--so start acting accordingly.
Some of the most talented people in the world never move out from their parent's basement.
You can't control the past, and you can't predict the future, and trying to do so only removes you from the one thing you can control--the present.
Stop looking for people to give you sympathy and start creating the life story you want to read.
Words have the power to oppress, hurt, and shame, but they also have the power to liberate and inspire--start using them more wisely.
You have to put on your own gas mask to save the person sitting right next to you.
Train yourself to respond in a way that leads to better outcomes.
Relationships have a greater impact on your wellbeing and happiness than your income or your occupation, so make sure you give your relationship the attention and work it deserves.
Don't settle for an ego boost right now when you can delay gratification and experience deeper fulfillment.
If you want to change the world, then go out there and do it!
You have the power and responsibility to decide what you do with the time you have, so choose wisely.
A refreshed look at leadership from the desk of CEO and chief content officer Stephanie Mehta
Privacy Policy
Despite high-profile attempts at innovation, the industry has failed to reduce its environmental impact so far.
Few industries tout their sustainability credentials more forcefully than the fashion industry. But the sad truth is that despite high-profile attempts at innovation, it’s failed to reduce its planetary impact in the past 25 years. Most items are still produced using non-biodegradable petroleum-based synthetics and end up in a landfill. So what can be done? New ESG strategies such as the use of bio-based materials, recycling, and “rent-the-runway” concepts have failed. Instead, we must stop thinking about sustainability as existing on a spectrum. Less unstainable is not sustainable. And governments need to step in to force companies to pay for their negative impact on the planet. The idea of “win-win” and market-based solutions has failed even in one of the most “progressive” industries.
Few industries tout their sustainability credentials more forcefully than the fashion industry. Products ranging from swimsuits to wedding dresses are marketed as carbon positive, organic, or vegan while yoga mats made from mushrooms and sneakers from sugar cane dot retail shelves. New business models including recycling, resale, rental, reuse, and repair are sold as environmental life savers.
We often assume that our greatest dangers are from strangers on dark streets or from violent men who might break into our houses. The sad truth is that the highest perils of brutal and persistent violence lurk within the intimate spaces of our homes, from those to whom we are closest. Little illustrates this with more poignancy and immediacy than a recent 12-city study by Helpage India. Its stunning finding is that every second elderly person who its researchers spoke to testified to suffering abuse within their families.
India is home to 100 million elderly people today. Their numbers are likely to increase threefold in the next three decades. People are living much longer and couples raising fewer children; moreover three in four elders still report living with their children. The result is that smaller numbers of adults are responsible for many more years of old-age care than ever in the past, and as bodies and minds of ageing parents dwindle, somewhere along the way in crowded urban habitats, relationships within families have come under great strain. Ugly cracks are beginning to show.
The abuse elders report are common across social classes and cities, although there are differences between cities, as Bengaluru and Nagpur report the highest elder abuse and Delhi and Kanpur the least. Four in 10 old people testify to verbal abuse, three to neglect, and a third to disrespect. One in five recount enduring such abuse almost daily, a third around once a week, and a fifth every month. Six in 10 report the daughter-in-law and an almost equal number the son as the major sources of abuse against them. Just 7% daughters are abusive of their parents, and no grandchildren.
Nearly half the old people interviewed in the study identified one common reason for their abuse in the hands of their children: That they depend economically on their children. Motilal, an ageing plumber in East Delhi, still spends much of his day repairing water taps, but still does not earn enough for his basic needs. His son denies him enough food and money for medicines. Mansi, an unlettered widow in the same city, is given only two chapatis a day by her daughter-in-law and her son refuses money even for her cataract operation. A flower-seller in Bengaluru, Ramanna, moved with his wife to live with his son as his health declined and he could no longer bear the daily rigours of street vending. But both old people are forced to work all day, ‘worse than domestic servants’, and even their simple needs are refused.
Keshav in Kolkata in desperation sold his shop to provide for his needs and those of his wife, but the money ran out and they are back to near-destitution. He lives with his four married brothers, and his wife cooks for all of them. But when she fell ill, none were willing to pay for her surgery, the money they said would be wasted on a person so old. He pleaded with the local councillor, who raised some donations. ‘It is because they are so dependent on others that old people are made to count their days until the end in our society,’ he laments.
But ironically, nearly a third of the old people feel that their abuse results not from their dependence economically on their children but from the dependence of their adult children, mostly sons, on their small incomes. Ramiah in Bengaluru has a reasonable income by renting out his house, but the income from this is the bone of contention between him and his son and daughter-in-law.
With his failing health, he spends a major part of his income on his medical care, but they harass him constantly for his money. Uma, a widow in the same metropolis, could have met her needs with her husband’s pension of Rs 10,000, but her son would snatch this away each month, and would refuse even to pay her medical costs. Unable to bear this, she finally moved out and lives alone.
Mohinder in Delhi owns both his shop, which gives him a decent income, and the house in which his two sons live. But the elder son still harasses him for money to spend on alcohol, and is rude and disrespectful as well. A widow in Kolkata, Malti, is beaten with the end of a towel by her daughter-in-law, especially after she willed her husband’s property to her daughter.
A railway pensioner in Chennai, Manilingam, could not handle the constant abuse by his son’s wife and chose to move out and live a lonely separate life. But many old people cannot bring themselves to take this terminal step: They report that even more than their economic dependence, it is their emotional dependence on their children, and most of all love for their grandchildren that binds them to their sons’ homes, even if they suffer abuse and neglect. It is these ties with her grandchildren that weigh down Lata, a widow in Nagpur, incessantly abused by her daughter-in-law whenever she considers leaving her son’s home to live by herself.
In many villages, I have seen desperately poor households migrating for work in the cities, leaving their old parents behind, to beg or invisibly die of hunger. I try not to judge them, and their parents mostly do not as well, because of the desperation of their children’s want.
Our self-image in India is of a people who lay less in store by material pursuits and uphold the institution of the family. The Helpage India report is an unhappy reminder of how distant from this the realities of the changing India are. The melancholy stories the report bring to us of the changing landscape of human relations in urban India are not of desperate want but material greed, of economic dependence and disputes over property and income resulting in growing abuse and neglect of aged people within our homes.
Harsh Mander is director, Centre for Equity Studies
The views expressed by the author are personal
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Life of each and every individual is a rare blend of tears and smiles; sadness and laughter; happy celebration as well as mourning. The pity is that tears far outnumber the moments of laughter. Shakespeare has correctly said, “The moments of happiness are rare in the general drama of pain.”
The bitter truth is that there are some days in the life of an individual that are very difficult to forget. The events of those days remain indelibly etched in his memory forever, as they are not ordinary. Such days are often instrumental in turning the course of his life. These days could be sad or happy.
I find it really too difficult to forget the 30th of November, 2002, which was the saddest day of my life. The memory of that day still sends shivers. It seemed that life had conspired against me. I had taken the M. A. (Final) Exam. We were waiting for the results. I had not done the papers well; still I hoped to get through.
Image Source : 185.26.182.219
The day started on a sad note. The results were declared. To my great surprise and disappointment, my name was not among the successful candidates. My failure was a great shock to my ailing father as well as mother and elder brother.
As if the shock of the news of my failure and worsening the condition of my father weren’t sufficiently painful, another tragedy befell. The same evening an additional mishap took place. My elder brother, who was the only bread winner of the family, was charged with embezzlement and misuse of funds. He was working as a cashier in SBI. He was disrespectfully removed from service.
This came as a great shock. My father could not bear all this. He could not think of the fate of the family without the job of him. He began to sink and died of a sudden heart attack.
We were anyway leading a hand-to-mouth existence. These events plunged my family into utter darkness. Since that day it has been a long story of useless struggle and extreme hard work for my family. We have yet to get rid of hard times and believe: misfortunes never come alone.
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In the article The Sad Truth About Marital Rape, by Jennifer Gerson Uffalussy written in July of 2015, the main issue relates to the hardships that Lindo Jong in “The Joy Luck Club” suffers through when she was living in China. Lindo Jong finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage dominated by her mother-in-law, in which she must endure to avoid bringing disgrace to her family . So instead of bringing shame to herself, she uses her cunning wits to escape the marriage . One of the particular hardships that Lindo Jong finds herself in, is the everyday fear of being raped by the man she has no love for. In the Non- Fiction article, it explains how Ivana Trump, the ex-wife of Donald Trump had this fear of Lindo’s come to life. Ivana Trump’s claim
Todays society and the society in Joy luck club are very similar because they both involve sexism. In the novel Lindo is forced by her mother in law and husband by making her a slave of some sort. But things get a little out of control when An mei gets raped by her husband but ends up marrying the guy because she has to save her so called honor. But that man that raped her, he can do anything he wants, he will not be pushed around or called names because that is the mans nature. Girls in China can not speak freely for themselves, they are supposed to be listening to the man because supposedly they are so much better and can do anything or everything unlike woman that sits around and does nothing.
Many women find that their mothers have the greatest influence on their lives and the way their strengths and weaknesses come together. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, the lives of four Chinese mothers and their Chinese-American daughters are followed through vignettes about their upbringings and interactions. One of the mothers, An-Mei Hsu, grows up away from her mother who has become the 4th wife of a rich man; An-Mei is forced to live with her grandmother once her mother is banned from the house, but eventually reunites and goes to live in the man’s house with her mother. Her daughter, Rose, has married an American man, Ted, but their marriage begins to end as he files for divorce; Rose becomes depressed and unsure what to do, despite
Given that women have led successful businesses, raised families, and created positive changes all over the world, it is shocking how in many countries women are still being oppressed because of their gender. Amy Tan was aware of such male dominating cultures when she wrote her book, The Joy Luck Club. Within her novel, stories of Chinese mothers and their Chinese-American daughters reveal the cruelties towards women in the Chinese culture. One of her characters, An-Mei Hsu, speaks out on her experiences as a woman living in China. Through her rhetorical devices, she reveals her main idea that women living the Chinese way are stuck in a cycle of pain
“Before the rape I felt good. My life was in order. I was getting ready to get married. Afterward everything changed. I kind of lost who I was as a person…
Many individuals might wonder, what is rape culture? “Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety.” Most women limit their behavior because of the existence of rape. (Marshall University)
“Rape is as American as apple pie,” says blogger Jessica Valenti. She and other feminists describe our society as a “rape culture” where violence against women is almost invisible. According to feminists, films, magazines, fashion, books, music, and humor cooperate in conveying the message that women are there to be used, abused and exploited.(Kitchens, 2015)
America has a proud history of being a country that has many different ethnicities and cultures living within its borders. But one of the most prevalent cultures is one that transcends race or country of origin, rape culture. The term used by modern day feminist and gender activist defines a culture which normalizes rape and sexual assaults because of the deeply rooted societal attitudes towards gender and sexuality. In a rape culture the instances of rape are accepted as everyday occurrences and even as the prerogative of men, resulting in the stigmatization and blame placing of rape victims. Although the phrase “rape culture” is relatively modern, the
Rape is not only frowned upon men but women as well. It really shocks me how society wants women to be sexy and dress slutty but when rape has occurred it was her fault for doing what society expects of women. Men are not taught that they have to respect boundaries of a women and advertisement support this idea. Throughout advertisements women are dehumanized and instead of being considered a human they are viewed as a sexual object. To decrease these misconception I think as a society we need to stop sexualizing women. For example, on TV if a women dresses sexy than it is okay to touch. Also on maganizes I see women surrounded around men and she appears happy, this perception is how the society views what women want. The criminal justice could
Women have always struggled in the fight to gain equality with men, despite the many advances, society still has a long way to go in addressing the issue of gender inequality. One major factor that keeps women from achieving gender equality is the many rape myths that are associated with sexual assaults. The rape myths that are deeply embedded within the Canadian legal system and society continues to have a detrimental effect on women. Using the R. v. Ewanchuck case I argue that the rape myths embedded within society prevent women from gaining justice within the legal system.
The term ‘rape culture’ was coined by feminists in the United States in 1970. The term itself was designed to illustrate the ways in which society blamed victims of sexual assault, and how the normalization of male sexual violence was acceptable. Rape culture can stem from the acceptance of rape as a daily occurrence, manifested as a male prerogative. There is a hesitation by the authorities to go against the patriarchal cultural norms, hence linking nonconsensual sex to the cultural disposition of society. The patriarchal perspective of rape culture, embedded with gender inequality and misogyny are passed through generations which ultimately leads to the extensive institutional and social acceptance of rape. Actions which advocate sexist ideals are utilized to justify and validate normative misogynistic perceptions. Rape culture sexualizes violence inflicted upon women, as it serves as a continuum of a society which views a women’s body to be sexually available by default, deriving from the overall domination and objectification of a female. The underlying cause of rape culture is localized as it based upon the social aspects of culture. For example, countries with a prolific ‘war culture’ tend to emphasize violence and masculinity, and therefore rape is viewed as a normal facet of society. I intend to parallel the element of rape culture to the enforcement of social rules and the conditioning of gender roles. I plan on analyzing the notion that within the encompassment of
Rape is an experience which shakes the foundations of the lives of the victims. For many its effect is long term, impairing their capacity for personal relationships, altering their behaviour and values and generating fear, Temkin (1986:17).
Is consent not significant nowadays, or is it just blindly ignored? Sexual assault and rape are becoming a part of an overwhelmingly high number of men and women’s lives due to society’s failure to deal with it properly. National surveys suggest that one in six women have experienced an attempted or completed rape at one time in their life, and that one in four girls. As well as one in six boys, will be sexually abused before they are 18 years old. However, for some reason, rape and sexual assault are not taken as serious as they need to be here in the United States. It’s too significant a crime to be taken as lightly as it is. These issues must be paid more attention to and have harsher punishments
Even though the first amendment states freedom of expression, statistics show rape and sexual assault numbers have risen due to the presence of rape culture in modern society. Rape culture promotes more assaults and violent acts, not only towards women but also towards men. Some evidence rape culture is present in today’s society are rising statistics showing that only three out of a hundred rapists see jail time and that over 17 million American women are victims of sexual assault every year. Rape culture is seen in every aspect of daily American life, even if people do not realize it.
In the fall of 1995, Kristin Cooper was a sophomore at Baker University in Kansas. She was a member of Alpha Chi Omega, an expert skier from the mountains of Colorado, a swimmer, and was active in band, choir and drama.
Most people would agree that as you grow up you learn by seeing, feeling ,touching , smelling, and hearing . Albert Bandura supports this by a theory he created called the Social Learning Theory (McLeod, 2011). Social Learning Theory is a theory that explains that behavior is learned by your social environment, interactions and observations of others. With this theory I would say it supports opinion in which I would say that rape is not something somebody just decides one day to do. I believe that rape is learned throughout time. There are many social and even media factors that sometimes may come off with the intention that rape is acceptable. In some media factors they may even perceive that being forcibly raped is pleasurable. Movies tend to do it often and sometimes movies don 't realize that what people see on television can sometimes influence people to see these acts as a norm. For instance the fact that a college kid is in a frat and he 's in a party there is a good percentage that he would reenact what television had stereotype frats boys to do. Television would label the frat boys as potential rapist and the human mind would consider that when you take on that role as a frat boy. One of the biggest media factors all the way from television to the internet that for so many years that perceive rape as acceptable is pornography.
the sad truth of society is base on things, ways of living and acting in today society.
we are going to be seeing how money, power, influence and position has changed our today society to what it has become and how the poor don't get what is meant for them and how the rich use their money, and how the men in higher places use their position to get what ever there want from any office or administration, and without going through the normal process which these that are not in their class go through.
the society has become a place where if you don't have money, if you have influence, and if u are not in the high class you can not get what you want and this has made many people to do that is not genie and pleasant to a normal human and this have drive the society into a mess, that generation to come we not only suffer from but but drive them down to a no recognize society which we all use to know
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Republicans have leveled inaccurate or misleading attacks on Mr. Walz’s response to protests in the summer of 2020, his positions on immigration and his role in the redesign of Minnesota’s flag.
By Linda Qiu
Since Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was announced as the Democratic nominee for vice president, the Trump campaign and its allies have gone on the attack.
Mr. Walz, a former teacher and football coach from Nebraska who served in the National Guard, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 and then as Minnesota’s governor in 2018. His branding of former President Donald J. Trump as “weird” this year caught on among Democrats and helped catapult him into the national spotlight and to the top of Vice President Kamala Harris’s list of potential running mates.
The Republican accusations, which include questions over his military service , seem intended at undercutting a re-energized campaign after President Biden stepped aside and Ms. Harris emerged as his replacement at the top of the ticket. Mr. Trump and his allies have criticized, sometimes inaccurately, Mr. Walz’s handling of protests in his state, his immigration policies, his comments about a ladder factory and the redesign of his state’s flag.
Here’s a fact check of some claims.
What Was Said
“Because if we remember the rioting in the summer of 2020, Tim Walz was the guy who let rioters burn down Minneapolis.” — Senator JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican nominee for vice president, during a rally on Wednesday in Philadelphia
This is exaggerated. Mr. Walz has faced criticism for not quickly activating the National Guard to quell civil unrest in Minneapolis in the summer of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd by a police officer. But claims that he did not respond at all, or that the city burned down, are hyperbolic.
Mr. Floyd was murdered on May 25, 2020, and demonstrators took to the streets the next day . The protests intensified, with some vandalizing vehicles and setting fires. More than 700 state troopers and officers with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ mobile response team were deployed on May 26 to help the city’s police officers, according to a 2022 independent assessment by the state’s Department of Public Safety of the response to the unrest.
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COMMENTS
No memories were made. You see, the sad truth about our society is that everyone seems to be caught up in an overly digitized world. People have yet to wake up and realize that the physical world around us is falling apart. We have gotten accustomed to picking out the perfect Emojis instead of telling people how we really feel.
Standing up to evil's banality. A rendt's 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil remains a fascinatingly relevant and disturbing read. While at the time many criticized Arendt for seemingly letting Eichmann off the hook and placing the blame on society at large, Arendt argued this was a misreading of her position.
Hannah Arendt on Good and Evil. "The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.". Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was a German-American political ...
This essay is part of a series exploring bold ideas to revitalize and renew the American experiment. Read more about this project in a note from Ezekiel Kweku, Opinion's politics editor. The ...
So, I'd like to share with you the some of my observations of the harsh realities of life that most of us will encounter…. 1. Bad things happen to good people. Whether it be ourselves, people ...
The sad truth of the matter is that when it comes to appearance, we start off with men as the standard, as the norm. Many of us think that the less feminine a woman appears, the more likely she is to be taken seriously. A man going to a business meeting doesn't wonder about being taken seriously based on what he is wearing but a woman does.
Myth #3: Acceptance is failure. In our culture, acceptance is for the meek, for losers. It's what we do when we've failed at doing everything else. We see acceptance as a choice-less choice, a ...
Featured Essays Essays on the Radio; Special Features; ... and a society. By inviting Americans of diverse backgrounds to participate in the series, we hope to create a picture of the American spirit in all its rich complexity. And writing a This I Believe essay is just the first step. ... The Sad Side of the Truth Paul - Sherman, Texas.
The tendency that goes together with overpromotion of happiness is stigmatisation of the opposite of happiness - emotional suffering, such as depression, anxiety, grief or disappointment. We label emotional suffering a deviation and a problem, a distortion to be eliminated - a pathology in need of treatment. The voice of sadness is censored ...
Society as a whole sucks! That is the only way to describe life. Get this.You are born into a family and society that you werent even asked to joinjust put in itthen you have to be their slaves until you turn 18the whole ride youre being told that youre better if youre normal but everyone a...
Society: The Sad Truth. Alexandria Jenkins. This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Illinois State chapter. I came home for dinner one night to find the most adorable red-headed little girl sitting at the kitchen table. She was all alone, so I went to talk to her. I made a point to tell her how cute she was.
Steve Cutt does a great job of depicting the true meaning of our society through these images or as he calls them the "sad truth". The imagine that has caught my attention was the one that looked like the zombie apocalypse has taken over, except the zombies were actually us humans and our food supply are our phones ( technology ).
Introduction. Happiness is a key ingredient of well-being, and most people desire it more than anything else [].Happy people tend to have more friends, richer social interactions and social support, higher quality of work, increased productivity, and higher income [].There have been different definitions of happiness based on philosophical arguments and human search for wisdom [].
Sadness, Truth Is, Series Of Unfortunate Events. 9 Copy quote. The sad truth is that opportunity doesn't knock twice. Gloria Estefan. Opportunity, Truth Is. 12 Copy quote. All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed.
I have lived in poverty both as a child and as an adult, and I can say with full confidence that it is a life-crushing force. I hated it. "Poverty" is also one of the most misunderstood labels that gets slapped onto individuals without their approval—cast upon them simultaneously by both unseen and more visible forces of society.
Prioritize self-care and make it a regular part of our routines. Perfection is an illusion: Perfectionism is a trap that can lead to anxiety, self-doubt, and burnout. The truth about life is that no one is perfect and striving for perfection is a futile endeavor. Instead of focusing on perfection, focus on progress, growth, and learning.
October 18, 2013 at 1:45 pm. Thomas Jefferson defended the right to pursue happiness in the Declaration of Independence. But that's so 237 years ago. Many modern societies champion everyone's ...
Here are 20 brutal truths that every single person needs to hear. 1. You're going to die and you have no idea when. Stop pretending that you're invincible. Acknowledge the fact of your own ...
But the sad truth is that despite high-profile attempts at innovation, it's failed to reduce its planetary impact in the past 25 years. ... Read more on Business and society or related topics ...
Four in 10 old people testify to verbal abuse, three to neglect, and a third to disrespect. One in five recount enduring such abuse almost daily, a third around once a week, and a fifth every ...
366 Words Essay on The Saddest Day of My Life. Article shared by. Life of each and every individual is a rare blend of tears and smiles; sadness and laughter; happy celebration as well as mourning. The pity is that tears far outnumber the moments of laughter. Shakespeare has correctly said, "The moments of happiness are rare in the general ...
The Sad Truth About Societal Rape Summary. In the article The Sad Truth About Marital Rape, by Jennifer Gerson Uffalussy written in July of 2015, the main issue relates to the hardships that Lindo Jong in "The Joy Luck Club" suffers through when she was living in China. Lindo Jong finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage dominated by ...
Blurb. the sad truth of society is base on things, ways of living and acting in today society. we are going to be seeing how money, power, influence and position has changed our today society to what it has become and how the poor don't get what is meant for them and how the rich use their money, and how the men in higher places use their ...
Ms. Grose is a Times Opinion writer and the author of a Times newsletter on culture, social change and the American family. Aug. 8, 2024 Three times a day my phone pings with a notification ...
Republicans have leveled inaccurate or misleading attacks on Mr. Walz's response to protests in the summer of 2020, his positions on immigration and his role in the redesign of Minnesota's flag.