This is the OFFICIAL new home of Splintered Joystick!
https://propship.000webhostapp.com/
Monday, June 14, 2021
Monday, June 11, 2018
Splintered Joystick has OFFICIALLY MOVED!!!
Here is the new home of Splintered Joystick henceforth!
http://splinteredjoystick.siterubix.com
This blog will not disappear either, as there will be a link on the new Splintered Joystick website to this blog and the older archived posts. Just know that from this moment on, all future posts will be at http://splinteredjoystick.siterubix.com NOT http://splinteredjoystick.blogspot.com Rest assured, the lack of quality content and updates ends TODAY!!!
Friday, April 20, 2018
GOD OF WAR PS4 Reboot STOMPS MAJOR ASS!!!
You can assault your enemies in a variety of methods. Kratos can launch enemies into the air, throw his axe to pin them against the wall, call upon Atreus to keep your combo alive with his bow, and much more. The really exciting thing is that we’re confident this is fairly early game stuff. One of my favorite maneuvers is when Kratos parries an incoming attack, throws his axe in the direction of an enemy to incapacitate him, skirts around the side of the attacker and kicks them into a crowd of soldiers. Then Kratos hoists his axe high above his head, before dismantling the staggered horde.
I won't ruin the excellent story, but it is the best story since the original God of War. This time Kratos's character is redesigned from the ground up to be more three-dimensional and assumes a protector and mentor role to his son, instead of being the villain murdering the Olympian Gods. It's a brilliant reboot because Santa Monica Studios listened to complaints about God of War III and took them to heart, redesigning Kratos from the ground up to have a more heroic role in the series lore.
Final Verdict:
Graphics: 10/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Story: 10/10
Replay Value: 10/10
Overall: 10/10 (MASTERPIECE!!!)
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Friday, April 6, 2018
Street Fighter V is a downgrade from Street Fighter IV
In comparing Street Fighter IV to Street Fighter V, I have to proclaim that a serious winner exists between the two games. Unfortunately, it is the prequel that I believe will stand the test of time as the better fighting game! Frankly, Street Fighter V is a major downgrade of skill from its predecessor. EX-Combos and expertly foot spacing that was so crucial to victory in Street Fighter V, and the techniques that legendary pro players such as Diego and Poongko perfected have received a serious downgrade.
It's a crying shame, as Street Fighter's pedigree as a legendary fighting game rests on its enormous skill gap, that few other fighters have dared to tread water around. Now casual players can have the same fighting chance as professional gamers who spent hours perfecting their combos and fighting techniques. It ruins the concept of gaming tournaments when a casual player stands as much chance of winning as a seasoned veteran!
It is my personal hope, that Capcom seriously considers the future of this legendary franchise and goes back to the drawing board, listens to fans, and crafts Street Fighter VI to fix these glaring issues so we can get a proper return to form!
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Portfolio Sample #2 Burroughs cut-up Technique and Naked Lunch Controversy
Simon Stravitz
10/7/2015
Dr. Brandi Granett
ENG-340 Final Project Milestone Two: Outline
This paper will assess the impact that William S Burroughs as an author had on current writing trends and modern English literature as a 20th century Postmodernist writer. Burroughs became a leading Postmodernist author and literary figure of the sixties counterculture movement, due to his refinement of the cutup literary technique as invented by Brion Gysin. The cut up technique involves cutting and splicing text to rearrange it into new source material (Robinson 21-22). Burroughs favored controversial subject matter in his novels, including addiction, child murder, pedophilia and anarchism. These topics were heavily discussed in Burroughs most famous novel Naked Lunch, leading to the novel being initially banned in Boston and Los Angeles in 1962 due to charges of obscenity (Murphy 67). The charges against Burroughs novel were later dropped in 1966 by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, because the court deemed Burroughs work to have literary and societal value, as a Postmodernist commentary on the human condition.
The failed attempt to ban Burroughs controversial novel Naked Lunch, marked the last trial attempting to censor a literary work in American history. The popularity of Naked Lunch, and the evolving societal values that embraced new ideologies, perspectives, and philosophies on life, opened the floodgates to further postmodernist innovations in writing because previously deemed unacceptable material could now be used as subject matter (Whiting 145). Due to an increased audience demand for controversy, modern writing trends favored more controversial material and subjective context to reflect changing societal values. This was because content that had previously been deemed unacceptable to print in American society before Burroughs’s trial was now mainstream material.
Burroughs’s first became known as an author affiliated with the artistic Beat movement of the 1950’s. The term “Beatnik”, was coined by writers Jack Kerouac and Herbert Huncke (Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable 1). Kerouac originally defined the phrase “Beat” as referring to someone down and out, borrowing his lingo from criminal street language (Johnston 166). Despite the Beat generation being viewed as antireligious, many Beat writers practiced the Buddhist faith, yet mainstream society struggled to accept Burroughs and other Beat generation writers for years because they saw the Beat generation and their philosophy as an affront to cherished societal values (Johnston 166-167).
Beat generation authors were frequently characterized through their rejection of Western traditions, use of drugs, living in communes and adopting an anarchic attitude towards society in general (Rahn 1-2) . Burroughs first novel Junkie was written as a self-confessional novel in 1953. The novel described Burroughs struggles with opiate addiction and drug experimentation, as urged to do so by Burroughs friend and companion Beat author Allen Ginsberg, himself no stranger to producing controversial work, as his poem Howl was also placed on trial for obscenities due to its frequent references to sexual promiscuity and resisting conformity (San Francisco's Digital Archive 1), (Rahn 2) (Biography.com). The material struggled to find a publisher despite Ginsberg’s urgings; until a fellow publisher in touch with Ginsberg by the name of Carl Solomon, persuaded his uncle to publish Burroughs memoirs to the public by including an anti-narcotics statement in a double bound book by a former drug agent for “balance” (Grauerholz 43).
During the years between 1950 and 1957, in which Burroughs would write his first three novels Junkie, Queer, and eventually Naked Lunch while refining the cut up technique, his life was already surrounded in controversy. This was due to Burroughs having shot his wife Joan Vollmer, during a six week trip to Africa with Adelbert Lewis Marker, a discharged American Navy soldier who had befriended Burroughs during his years living in Mexico City (Grauerholz et al 41). Burroughs marriage was failing to Vollmer, because she felt abandoned by Burroughs homosexual pursuits with Marker, and her drinking accelerated out of control. Vollmer’s physical condition deteriorated, and around the incident of the shooting had been known to openly mock Burroughs in public (Grauerholz 41). The incident was deemed an accident by the courts, but psychologically scared Burroughs and marked his work for the rest of his life. Burroughs would go on to note Vollmer’s death as a large inspiration for his decision to write, believing the incident had awoken an evil spirit inside of his soul, where his only defense was to, in his own words: “I had no choice except to write my way out” (Burroughs 22).Burroughs had started a relationship with Lewis Marker in 1951 that lasted until 1952 (Grauerholz et al 42), when Marker agreed to follow Burroughs into the jungles of Ecuador to find Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic plant, which users believed temporarily gave them telepathic abilities that Burroughs hoped would remove his craving for opiates (Grauerholz et al 41-42). Burroughs and Lewis had failed to find Ayahuasca, returning separately to Mexico City (Grauerholz et al 41).
On September 6th 1951 Burroughs made arrangements to sell a firearm in the apartment of John Healy, an American who co-owned the weapon, where Marker and another ex-Navy serviceman Eddie Woods were drinking heavily (Grauerholz et al 41). Burroughs in an attempt to impress his former partner, told them his family would live off the land, which his wife who struggled with her own substance abuse issues chastised him for. Burroughs then challenged his wife to let Burroughs demonstrate his skill with a firearm by balancing her gin glass on her head, and she complied (Grauerholz 42). Burroughs missed, and his wife slumped over, dying soon after at a nearby Red Cross station. Burroughs went to jail, and was initially convicted of manslaughter. The incident made front page news for three days in Mexico City, but Burroughs lawyer Bernabé Jurado got Burroughs out on bail when the courts deemed the incident an accidental shooting
The cut up technique, which Burroughs would refine in novels such as Queer and Naked Lunch involved cutting out sections of text to repackage the text in new forms of sentences (Robinson 21-22). Its inventor was a close personal friend of Burroughs named Brion Gysin. Gysin’s intention with the cut up, was to apply montage techniques he had already practiced with visual art as applied to text (Robinson 21).Burroughs became fascinated with the technique, and crediting Gysin with the inspiration he began to apply the cut up technique to his own work.
The cut up technique was highly influential to post-modernist writers such as Burroughs who desired to write outside of traditional narratives. The theme of fragmentation is a central philosophy of both postmodernism and the cut up technique Gysin desired throughout his career to create artwork that stimulated multiple senses at once, in a way that could alter thought processes and perception in some fashion (Robinson 22). Burroughs’s defined Gysin’s work as “space art”, believing that the effect Gysin’s work had on audiences was due to Gysin presenting pieces in Burroughs’s words in which: “time is seen spatially, that is, as a series of images or fragments of images past, present, and future” (Robinson 22). Gysin was also well known as a surrealist and a member of the Beat generation, although he preferred to work as an independent or avant-garde artist who created work on his own terms (Robinson 22). Gysin’s primary goal with his work was to produce in his words “a derangement of the senses”, which he achieved through presenting sound bites, mixed with still and moving imagery (Robinson 23).
Burroughs’s would continue to refine the cut up technique in Naked Lunch and future sixties novels, such as Burroughs Nova trilogy, The Soft Machine, The Ticket that Exploded and Nova Express (Walsh 13). Naked Lunch utilized the cut up technique as a form of social commentary. The book recycles characters, routines and plot descriptions to give the entire piece a fragmented feel. Because Burroughs himself was in and out of heroin addiction at the time he penned Naked Lunch, the book reads as a sequence of blocks of prose, rather than a chronological arrangement of text (Indiana 2). Burroughs moved away from the traditional cut up technique by the seventies when he judged his work as interesting from an experimental perspective but not solid as readable material. The open references to drug use in Naked Lunch and explicitly sexual cutaways in the novel set off a moral outrage that would lead to the last formal trial in America to attempt to censor a work of literature. The subsequent failure to ban Burroughs’s work, changed the modern publishing landscape permanently as previously taboo subject material could now be used by authors in mainstream content (Murphy 67) (Whiting 145-146).
By January 12th, 1965, the Boston Superior Court had charged William S Burroughs with obscenity unfit for print in Naked Lunch. The charges brought against the author were based on Burroughs language containing frequent use of slang, and foul language throughout.
In Burroughs defense were authors Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, John Ciardi, Paul Hollander, Gabriele B. Jackson, Norman Holland, Stanley E. Eldred, John B. Sturrock, and Thomas H. Jackson (Ferreira 1-2). The court questioned Mailer immediately on whether his own writing was experienced in dealing with moral concerns. Mailer answered that authors try to deal with such concerns as best as they could, but whether they dealt with them correctly was another matter (Ferreira 2). Mailer believed Naked Lunch to have artistic value, because he believed Burroughs’s had captured in Mailer’s words, “gutter language” like no other author. Norman Mailer asserted his claim on the basis that he believed that sentimentality in religious matters, approaches as a rule as a kind of bitter piety which revolts any thought of religious supposition in such individuals who are touchy, discriminating, or easily get their feelings hurt (Ferreira 3-4). Mailer went even further, stating that Burroughs’s work avoids all such sentimental language and is instead a raw account using stringent vocabulary to describe horrific events, with a gallows humor of a defeated man who still clings to bitterness even as it destroys him (Ferreira 3-4). Mailer described the book as an accurate psychological and existential view of hell, but used this to cite the novels artistic integrity and value to society as an example of a man who had climbed out of the abyss (Ferreira 3-5).
Allen Ginsberg was questioned next by the Boston Superior Court on whether he believed Burroughs work to be obscene in nature, because the author cited the necessity of such extremes on page twelve of the Introduction (Ferreira 4-5). Ginsberg disagreed, believing that the subject matter is very real, basic and frightening at the human level, therefore such an account had to be portrayed as such. Ginsberg said the roughness of the novel works to its advantage, and that its sexual references through its prose, suggest a larger commentary on Divisionism that had grown in 20th century contemporary American society, and was intended to reveal the horrid nature of capital punishment (Ferreira 8) (Judson 2).
Ginsberg believed Burroughs work to have influenced his own to a great extent, saying that he believed the author bore his soul to the world in Naked Lunch holding no truths back. He believed Burroughs’s use of experimental language and courage in displaying heavily controversial subject matter with economic, unflinching and precise language was the source of Naked Lunch and its literary value to society (Ferreira 8-10). The Boston Supreme Court in the end, exonerated Burroughs and Naked Lunch of the obscenity label. Two weeks later, another obscenity trial was held in Los Angeles, but the work was deemed not obscene by Municipal Judge Allen G. Campbell (Ferreira 10).
The results of these two trials liberated the publishing world, because literary censorship was deemed unconstitutional in that artists and authors were now seen in America as accurate portrayers of the real world, not through reporting outward events but by processing the perceptions, emotions and appreciation of reality that humans feel in a multicultural world (Ferreira 10). Despite the Boston Superior Court finding Naked Lunch obscene, they believed they could not ignore the praise the work was receiving by so many authors in the literary community, therefore to say the work had no redeeming social value was false (Judson 3). This ruling in effect, gave the literary industry a newfound freedom to write more uncensored and controversial material. By 1966, Americans could now read whatever subject material they desired, thanks in large part to the life and struggles of one Postmodernist author.
The sixties counterculture and its literary following may not have gained the same foothold in mainstream American culture without the influence of Burroughs or the Beat movement they drew inspiration from. Both movements flourished in San Francisco, where more subjective and controversial literary work could now be published because the value of artistic expression removed from a mainstream perspective was in higher demand by a new generation of younger readers in the sixties (Jameson 17). In conclusion, Burroughs influence as a Post-modernist author, his refinement of Gysin’s cut up technique and the cultural ripple effect of the Naked Lunch obscenity trial cannot be denied. The right of freedom of speech I hold to be a sacred liberty for all writers. Without the ability to challenge convention and tradition in literature, progress becomes stale overtime. Burroughs work by the context of his life as a junkie was bound to be deemed obscene or even unnatural by mainstream society, but truth is often stranger than fiction. What is deemed worthless by one reader is proclaimed as art by another, for the subjectivity of art and literature is the same unpredictable and chaotic nature of life and the human condition. Life cannot be censored; therefore work that informs the world of such realities cannot be without societal merit because literature gives different reactions people, depending on their past experience.
Burroughs portrayal of a section of society the mainstream wished to ignore and repress the knowledge of, forced underground issues into mainstream relevancy, advancing freedom of speech, political activism and eliminated literary censorship, giving us as writers much of the freedoms we hold dear today. A society that tells individuals what they can or cannot express through writing is not free, nor interested in literary cultural progression, but in maintaining the status quo. No advances in literature by authors have ever been achieved strictly through following tradition, but through breaking tradition to construct a new language more representative of the realities of modern society.
References
Beat Generation. Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable. Eds. Adrian Room and Ebenezer Cobham Brewer. London: Cassell, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. 6 Oct 2015.
Biography. "William S. Burroughs - Author." Biography. 2 Apr. 2014. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
Burroughs, William S, James Grauerholz, and Barry Miles. Naked Lunch. New York: Grove Press, 2001. Print.
Burroughs, William S. Queer. New York: Viking, 1985. Print.
Ferreira, Rodrigo Jun 26 Pm, Policy. The Boston Trial of Naked Lunch. Realitystudio.org. 06 Oct. 2015. Web. 6 Oct. 2015.
Grauerholz, James, and Ira Silverberg. World Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader. New York: Grove/Atlantic, 2007. Print.
Indiana, Gary. 'Naked Lunch: Burroughs'. Criterion. N.p., 2011. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
Jameson, Fredric. The Seeds Of Time. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. Print.
Johnston, P. J. (2013). Dharma Bums: The Beat Generation and the Making of Countercultural Pilgrimage. Buddhist - Christian Studies, 33, 165-179. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1443709947?accountid=3783
Judson, George. "Naked Lunches and Reality Sandwiches: How the Beats Beat the First Amendment." The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 Aug. 1997. Web. 8 Oct. 2015.
Morgan, Ted. Literary Outlaw: The Life and times of William S. Burroughs. New York: H. Holt, 1988. 425. Print.
Murphy, Timothy S. Wising up the Marks the Amodern William Burroughs. Berkeley, Calif.: U of California, 1997. 67. Print.
Phil Cauthon, Photo By Frank Tankard. The Life of William S. Burroughs. Lawrence.com. 30 Jul. 2007. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
Rahn, Josh. 'The Beat Generation'. The Literature Network. N.p., 2011. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
Robinson, Edward S. Shift Linguals : Cut-Up Narratives From William S. Burroughs To The Present. Amsterdam: Brill Academic Publishers, 2011. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 23 Sept. 2015.
Shmoop Editorial Team. Postmodern Literature Characteristics. Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
The Howl Obscenity Trial - San Francisco's Digital Archive, Foundsf.org. 09 Nov. 2014. Web. 8 Oct. 2015.
Walsh, Philip, and Davis Schneiderman. Retaking The Universe : William S. Burroughs In The Age Of Globalization. London: Pluto Press, 2004. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 6 Oct. 2015.
Whiting, Frederick. 'Monstrosity On Trial: The Case Of "Naked Lunch" On JSTOR'. Jstor.org. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
Portfolio Sample #1: Migration, Immigration & Globalization APA
Simon Stravitz
12/10/2017
The Republican party of 2017 America can bicker about immigration policies till they break out in hives. American history has consistently dictated, America is a nation founded by immigrants. a nation endowed and sustained in the modern advent of globalization only through migration and immigration. Diverse cultures congruent to a single continent naturally evolves and boosts the economy. The more diverse and numerous cultures are able to co-exist and trade peacefully, the higher or more flexible prices for consumer goods shift, due to a more diverse market base for a nation to cater towards to sustain a country's economic growth and prosperity.The modern globalization of the American economic political landscape, has exacerbated and continues to envenom substantiated income inequalities within the modern globalization era. Inequalities congruently tied to the bottom line of the capitalist machine, harm socioeconomic diversity and promote socio cultural classism-based hierarchies that divide the American nation apart. The United States government has held a unique position in the global economy as a leading world superpower, a trait which has fostered both international allies and enemies. After America gained its colonial independence from Britain as a colonized settlement, the United States sought to cap its involvement in international affairs to avoid rivalry with foreign powers (Cameron, 2002, p.4). The overwhelming majority of the Founding Fathers of the new republic, insisted that America avoid any governing pretense of global authoritarianism, or involvement in international power struggles (Cameron, 2002, p.4). America has decidedly failed in this promise well before 9/11. Our involvements in The Cold War and The Vietnam War broke the Founding Father’s rule, only to ignore and discard this policy decades later with the War in Afghanistan and the War in Iraq. All international wars and political affairs made more chaotic with American military involvement. Due to our government's insistence on restoring law and order under the guise of seizing and allocating resources from other nations. Other American's argued that because America become an economic superpower in the 20th century, our interference was justified as a "manifest destiny" to promote liberty and democracy around the world, protecting international countries from the creeping threat of imperialism (Cameron, 2002, p.5). Unfortunately, this American moral ideology in realist policy has created international divisiveness during the advent of modern globalization. America has become viewed by many nations as a global authoritarian force attempting to police both the resources and the moral conduct of the world. After the Civil War, the American federal government gained both power and the ability to compromise as an economic necessity to sew together a fragmented culture of racial tensions between the North and the South. National leaders could allocate greater sums of resources to support military efforts to gain more assertive foreign policies (Cameron, 2002, p.5). America retreated into a self-imposed isolationism by the 20th century, after the Senate rejected Woodrow Wilson's efforts to design the League of Nations as an American conduit to untangle global fiscal discord. Whereas the Senate argued America should tend to its personal democracy, not authorize or dispute international politics(Cameron, 2002, p.5).
Franklin Roosevelt fought against Wilson's policies of limited government interference, designing the United Nations with a restrictive Security Council operating within the major global powers. Roosevelt made this decision to strengthen the bipartisan consensus supporting US participation, turning the United States into the wealthiest nation in the world by 1945, an economic superpower (Cameron, 2002, p.7). America has had to ask tough questions about economic sustainability a decade after 9/11. The federal budget deficit has exceeded $1.5 trillion dollars, 10 % gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services(Poole & Kumar, 2012, p.95). Federal spending has exceeding $14 trillion, with national debt rising from 40% to 70% (Poole & Kumar, 2012, p.95). Dramatic fall offs from individual and corporate income tax revenue has contributed to a federal economic recession (Poole & Kumar, 2012, p.95). Our discretionary spending is out of control, as almost all our tax revenue to the tune of $705 billion federal outlays goes to defense and military funding (Poole & Kumar, 2012, p.96). The American government needs to distribute federal funding towards all socioeconomic improvements, not just our military and defense, or the entire country's economy will suffer. In the modern American age, we have yet to strike a balance between authoritarianism and democracy. Many international enemies view America as a global tyrant bent on world domination, while our allies see America’s economic strength as an asset to their socio-political affairs. The United States may never fully resolve its issue of global power interchange. Without setting limits on the foreign policies America is allowed to mold in suiting American interests of power and control. Due to our current administration's endless fight against diversity and the rise of the white nationalists in the 21st century, authoritarianism threatens to extinguish cultural diverse cultures in America, as our government does its best to forget our national roots steeped in migration and immigration.
According to the Department of Geography and Environment and the London School of Economics, major migration waves from the late nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries left an indelible mark on the American economy (Pose & Berlepsch, 2014, p.628). Through comparing data analysis between 1880 through 1910, geographical migration became tracked by each county in the forty-eight continental states (Pose & Berlepsch, 2014, p.628). Migrants remain the heart of the ambitious, risk-taking and entrepreneurial attitudes that shape the economic dynamism of the United States (Pose & Berlepsch, 2014, p.628). Migration has both positively impacted economic trajectories of the United States, while simultaneously increasing economic disparities between sociocultural classes that remains yet to become fully understood through scientific inquiry (Pose & Berlepsch, 2014, p.629). The hypothesis of London's School of Economics, is that in geographical landscapes where migrants settled in larger areas, sociocultural values of venture capital (pooled migrant monetary investments), emerged as the migrant population increased. A population which expanded in size and geographical influence from 4 million in 1860 to under 14 million in 1920 (Gibson & Jung, 2006) (Pose & Berlepsch, 2014, p.629). These migrants originated from rural and proto-industrial areas with strong agriculturalist backgrounds (Pose & Berlepsch, 2014, pp.629-630). Migrating from lands with meager dependable resources (Pose & Berlepsch, 2014, p.630). Spiraling birth rates, combined with unprofitable and scarce resources, necessitated a continental shift for these immigrants to both survive and improve their socioeconomic status. Migration evolved as an adaptation mechanism, due to a high influx between the 1860's and World War I of single, young, poor and uneducated populations, primarily male (Pose & Berlepsch, 2014, p.630). As most transients were assisted in settling down by past immigrants in the territories, newcomers built community infrastructures in indistinguishable spots from their relatives (Pose & Berlepsch, 2014, p.630). Making way for communal self-reliance and a steady stream of migration flow, diversifying the genome pool as more unique subsets of populations and cultures mixed and bred together (Pose & Berlepsch, 2014, p.630). The first migration wave, divided the American populace. The Southern populations remained outside the boundaries of migrant workers inhabited by native-born residents (Pose & Berepsch, 2014, p.631). Consequently, a commercialized agricultural system designed around intensive black laborers and slow industrialization rates, attracted few foreign immigrants towards the prospect of continental relocation (Ward, 1990, p.301) (Pose & Berlepsch, 2014, p.631). First wave migrants began inhabiting sparsely populated counties of Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and several Californian regions (Pose & Berlepsch, 2014, p.631). Thirty years later at the height of the globalization movement, a second wave of immigration replaced English, Irish, German and Scandinavian natives with Italians, Poles, Russians, and Greeks (Pose & Berlepsch, 2014, p.631).
Americas lineage is not based solely around Anglo Saxon genetics, but a rich widespread cultural heritage that encompasses all racial diversities from pre-Columbian Native Americans, Europeans, and African populations blended in genetic synchronization (Gravel et al., 2013, p.2). Natural diversity facilitated the development of medical genetic research studying diverse populations, and the transfer of medical education between sociocultural landscapes (Gravel et al., 2013, p.2). By examining both European, Native American and African genomes, ancestral patterns from the Department of Human Genetics at McGill University accurately predicted complex post-Columbian genetic migration histories. While European genomes demonstrated relatedness between Anglo Saxon populations, the Native American, African and South American genomes demonstrated strongly corresponding genetic hybridity (Gravel et al.,2013, pp.2-3). A correlation which suggests a split between genomes by several hundred years (Gravel et al., 2013, p.2). A highly negative correlation exists between population-level genetic diversity, and geographic distance. This negative correlation became defined in migrant studies as the north-south serial founder effect process; replicated through splicing Native American mtDNA mixed with Y-chromosome variations (Gravel et al., 2013, p.2) (Hunley, Gwin & Liberman, 2016, p.2). The results match autosomal SNP diversities in native Mexican populations, suggesting cultural heterogony precipitated through international migrations (Hunley et al., 2016, p.2). Another result of gene comparisons was Western South American populations containing higher diversities within their gene pools than eastern portions of the continent ( Hunley et al., 2016, p.2). Native American ancestors' genome differs from European and African immigrants due to trio-phased American populations lacking large amounts of European or African ancestry in their genetic sequence, suggesting that mutation rates evolve as diversity increases in a populace (Gravel et al.,2013, p.9). In other words, immigration breeds sociocultural and economic diversity and strengthens the American nation's economy with a greater diversity of job opportunities to cater towards the immigration breeding staple effect of multiculturalism. New cultures and customs birth new economic goods and services that intermingle with established traditions and commerce.
Unfortunately with the advent of modern globalization in the nation of the alt-right and Donald Trump, this trend is sharply declining. Our current political leaders seek to furiously deny the heritage of anyone outside of Anglo-Saxon origin. Trumps rallying cry of, “Make America Great Again!” pertains to white people and no one else in America. If Trump wanted to portray anything other than a scathing hatred of socioeconomic diversity as the foundation of a healthy economy, he has failed demonstrably. Shamelessly posing in front of a portrait documenting the white man who signed the Indian Removal Act into law during a Native American holiday serves Donald Trump with zero favors. Not to mention calling a native politician "Pocahontas" is ominous and foreboding enough evidence the American nation has both forgotten its heritage and mocks its cultural ancestral roots (Smith, 2017, 1). The modern restructuring of the American economy after World War II doubled of the American populace between the 1950's and the 1990's. The Third World's population also expanded to the degree that sharply increasing wage gaps began a common occurrence between rich and poor nationalities (Heale, 2011, p.43). Much of Third World and Middle Eastern antagonism with the United States, stems from global policies favoring unequal distribution of wealth and resources that favors the West over the East. The Third World's population became unsustainable during the advent of modern globalization, because the agricultural resources began dwindling with demand outstripping supply by the 1980's. Despite America’s raging opiate epidemic, destroying the Afghanistan opium harvests will sow the seeds of war, as poor Afghanistan's rely on the opium trade to feed their families in a geographic location with few other resources that turn the same profits. The Afghan Ministry has reported opium production in Afghanistan generates $68 billion dollars in revenue per year, despite drug eradication policies continuing unabated in America (Abigail, 2016, pp.1-2). In other words, opium production has expanded despite billions of American taxpayer dollars spent on eradication efforts(Abigail, 2016, p.2). The black market simply increases the revenue of banned goods, driving poor communities to reap profits from the trade, and if we antagonize Third World communities with the impossible goals of prohibition, we will not only fail to stem production, but fuel global and widespread international conflicts as anti-drug operations have strengthened the Taliban's ability to recruit new terrorists, undermining the war on terror due to simple economics (Abigail, 2016, pp.2-3).
This chain of events has inevitably led to increased migration from poor countries to countries abundant in exploitable natural resources, exploding population growth and setting the foundation for political instability with increased competition for limited resources (Heale, 2011, pp.43-44). The sheer scale of migration rates following World War II had profound systematic implications for American society. Traditional adoptive citizens migrated to America had been European in origin, now the populace shifted to heavy Third World and Middle Eastern populations immigrated to America, with the largest immigration contingent being poor Hispanics, relocating for safety from Mexico and Central American guerrilla warfare uprisings( Heale, 2011, pp.43-44). The income disparity between the United States and Mexico increased with this change in migration, as Asian immigrants from Vietnam, Korea and China arrived in America in ever increasing numbers (Heale, 2011, p.44). The politically unstable landscape of the Middle East heavily augmented the American Muslim population, with over 100,000 Iranians migrating to the United States in the 1980's decade (Heale, 2011, p.44).
These immigrants settled within the expansive Sun Belt states of the South and West, in states in close conjunction within the states of California, Texas, and Florida (Heale, 2011, p.44). However, large populations of ethnically diverse cultures nestled their roots within New York and New Jersey, as Texas became repossessed by Mexicans and Vietnamese fishermen who dominated the seafood trade (Heale, 2011, p.44). Foreign-language played over international television broadcasting directly to American cities and states, began catering exclusively to migrant workers, publicly underlining immigrated populations in America, and the arrival of globalism, the merging of diverse cultures into a single homogeneous uniform country within a single state (Heale, 2011, p.45). Globalism and imperialism threats and state wide antagonisms festered higher, as ever levitating wage gaps and fiercer upon vehement diverse ethnic-cultures increased with races internationally pouring into the United States, as competition for jobs between native American citizens and immigrants along with housing competition skyrocketed (Heale, 2011, p.45). The Midwest became populated within Detroit with the largest concentrations of Arabic speakers outside the Middle East, as the Middle Atlantic Jersey City attracted middle-class families migrating from India (Heale, 2011, p.45). Poor white American residents had a bone to pick with affirmative action policies, for large populations of ethnic immigrants were eligible for several affirmative action programs that didn't cater to whites. The civil rights movement ensured that 20th century migrants had less reason to assimilate European American culture, an ethnic-cultural pluralism as noted by the New York State Education commissioner in 1989 (Heale, 2011, p.45). By the end of the 20th century, over 28 million United States citizens were born abroad, with more than half the immigrants from Latin American countries and a quarter populated by Asians (Heale, 2011, p.45).
The process of modern globalization threatened national identity, because both European and Native Americans became increasingly fragmented with decreasing socio-cultural status as the inheritors of a Western European civilization. These nationalities were unprepared to assimilate new cultural values (Heale, 2011, p.45). Many immigrants received remunerative employment opportunities, adapting to jobs American-born workers often refuse to participate in, including agricultural labor and domestic services for example (Heale, 2011, p.45). The mass importation of poor immigrants willing to work jobs that other Americans refused labor conditions, lowered competitive wage rates and disadvantaged American native workers with poor education and few skills, leading to poor white and minority communities fearing for the safety of their jobs (Heale, 2011, p.46). As scientific professional immigrants found work in the ever expanding high-technology driven economy, with heavy populations in Silicon Valley being foreign-born workers (Heale, 2011, p.46). A Business Week study, determined that a marginally higher proportion of immigrants were college educated compared to native-born workers (Heale, 2011, pp.45-46). Some immigrants became college Professors, engineers, IT workers and medical scientists (Heale, 2011, p.46). While larger numbers took work as laborers, gardeners, janitors and restaurant services. The American economy doubled due to immigrant workers remaining willing to work for less than half of American workers, as now America could access cheap labor which reduced the average price of goods and services, and cheaper skilled laborists which advanced both technological evolution and managerial efficiency (Heale, 2011, p.46).
Immigration and globalization thus functioned as an income redistribution event, with wealth transferring from immigrant competition to businesses which employed immigrant services or purchase goods produced through immigrant workers (Heale, 2011, p.46). The American economy gained more than it lost from immigration and the assimilation of globalization. Yet America had been fiscally and psychologically unprepared for the advanced wave of inevitable migration globalism due to inevitable population mass expansion. Unprepared for the wave of refugees seeking security in a land advertising itself as a home for the oppressed, nor was America prepared for the undocumented "illegal" aliens who smuggled themselves into the United States or bypassed security measures through legitimate visas (Heale, 2011, p.46). The aftermath of the Vietnam War opened new streams for Cuban, Vietnamese and Cambodian immigrants due to the assumed bias of refugees being labeled as those escaping a well-founded fear of prosecution, a fear which continues to spread in modern American history (Heale, 2011, p.46). The United States had set a 300,000 immigration limit in 1965, but a critical flaw in the legislature enabled immediate relatives of American citizens' entry without limits which profoundly affected the composition of modern American society, due to a pyramid effect which steadily replaced European immigrants with Third World immigrants (Heale, 2011, p.48).
The advent of such diverse populations has had a meteoric effect on the modern American economy. Studies from Economic Geography predict a positive correlation between insufficient ethnic diversity within a region, and declining economic development (Pose & Berlepsch, 2015, p.394). Most scientific analysis focuses specifically on the link between institutions and economic development. Institutional constructs can transfer from one region to another as a natural consequence of migration, as new ethnic enclaves reshapes societal norms as the population evolves (Pose & Berlepsch, 2015, p.394). Migrants have transformed America into a cultural identity which draws influence from the countries and communities they left behind. The communities which adapted the quickest with native connections saw the fastest economic growth rates, whereas immigrants who struggled to assimilate the English language and customs have struggled in equal measure (Pose & Berlepsch, 2015, p.397). Within the Donald Trump vision of America, the global economy’s strength through diverse cultural is undoubtedly threatened. Despite the myth of working class voters peddling Trump to victory being busted, many Trump voters without college degrees come from middle-income or upper-class (Washington Post, 2017, p.2). Trump’s belief system ties into harming poor communities and immigrants, as this administration is hell bent on exorcising as many immigrants as possible from the United States. Tensions with the Middle East and North Korea are boiling over, as Trump views democracy and cooperation as weaknesses, not strengths. Our country is becoming increasingly divisive with a perpetual “Us VS Them” mentality that will tear the nation apart if left unchecked and unaccounted. 9/11 did not help matters, most Islamic residents and Muslims are considered terrorists even though only a small minority joined forces with Saddam, Bin Laden and ISIS. If America assumes the worst from our international populations we promote war and anarchy, while fracturing our international allegiances beneath the shade of authoritarian governance.
American history of migration and globalization still resonates and affects America today. America will either become the winner or loser of this trend, depending on our ability to assimilate international cultural values and mesh them together with our own. Diversity in both culture and genetics breeds a strong economy, therefore fiscal and political isolationism will weaken our economy without doubt. Our culture is becoming less inclusive and more materialistic and individualistic in modern America. The political sphere supports this cultural antagonism without realizing its grave socio- economic implications. If we ignore the economic growth spurts ascertained through communities which promote and accept cultural diversity it is to the American nation's detriment. Intolerance and bigotry within the political biosphere of jobs, economy, housing and educational opportunities, weakens the cornerstone upon which America was founded. Our nation was built on inclusive principles steeped in multiculturalist traditions, it is the anchor of American civilization. Communities from all over the world, once able to sanctuary and economic opportunity within the United States, are becoming increasingly marginalized within a fragmented country that views diversity as an economic threat instead of an monetary fiscal asset. This political and socio-cultural delusion, will stunt the growth of the economy, for diversity breeds innovation in the business world, and promotes egalitarianism that drives consumer liberties. In summary, if we forget our history and attempt to ethnically cleanse the nation, not only will America become a divided nation against itself which will cease to function, but our economy will suffer a tremendous loss. Globalization is the inevitable future, diversity cannot become silenced away. If the Trump administration refuses to accept history, they will inevitably alter the course of our economy for the worse, benefiting the rich and ethnocentric ideologies of their voter base, at the expense of the rest of the American population, bringing about the destruction of multicultural expansion, and the foundational values our nation was built upon.
References
Abigail Hall-Blanco (n.d.). America Risks Losing the War on Terror in Afghanistan Unless it Legalizes the Opium Trade. Quartz. Retrieved from https://qz.com/859268/americas-failed-war-on-drugs-in-afghanistan-is-threatening-to-doom-its-war-on-terror-as-well/
Cameron, Fraser. (2002). From Colony to Superpower. U.S. Foreign Policy after the Cold War: Global Hegemon or Reluctant Sheriff? (pp. 1-12). GB: Taylor & Francis Ltd / Books.
Feagin, J. R., & Riddell, K. (1990). The State, Capitalism, and World War II: The U.S. Case. Armed Forces & Society (0095327X), 17(1), 53-79.
Gravel, S., Zakharia, F., Moreno-Estrada, A., Byrnes, J. K., Muzzio, M., Rodriguez-Flores, J. L., & ... Bustamante, C. D. (2013). Reconstructing Native American Migrations from Whole-Genome and Whole-Exome Data. Plos Genetics, 9(12), 1-13. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1004023
Heale, M. J. (2011). Contemporary America: Power, Dependency, and Globalization since 1980. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.snhu.edu
Hunley, K., Gwin, K., & Liberman, B. (2016). A Reassessment of the Impact of European Contact on the Structure of Native American Genetic Diversity. Plos ONE, 11(8), 1-17. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0161018
Keiss, S., Tilta, E., & Balode, G. (2014). INSIGHT INTO RELEVANT TO THE EU GLOBALISATION AND MARKET DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR. European Integration Studies, (8), 74-83. doi:10.5755/j01.eis.0.8.6832
Poole, D. L., & Kumar, D. d. (2012). The Limits of Sustainability and Opportunities in the Social Economy. Social Work, 57(1), 95-99.
Pollin, R. (2009). Tools for a New Economy: Proposals for a Financial Regulatory System. Boston Review, 34(1), 10-13.
RodrÃguez-Pose, A., & von Berlepsch, V. (2015). European Migration, National Origin and Long-term Economic Development in the United States. Economic Geography, 91(4), 393-424. doi:10.1111/ecge.12099
RodrÃguez-Pose, A., & von Berlepsch, V. (2014). When Migrants Rule: The Legacy of Mass Migration on Economic Development in the United States. Annals Of The Association Of American Geographers, 104(3), 628-651.doi:10.1080/00045608.2014.892381
Simon Moya-Smith (29 Nov. 2017.). Trump's Disrespect for Native Americans is Nothing New. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/29/opinions/trump-native-americans-moya-smith-opinion/index.html
Washington Post (5 Jun. 2017.). Analysis | It’s Time to Bust the Myth: Most Trump Voters were not Working Class. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/05/its-time-to-bust-the-myth-most-trump-voters-were-not-working-class/
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