Overview of Corn-Pone Opinions by Mark Twain

In an essay not published until several years after his death, humorist Mark Twain examines the effects of social pressures on our thoughts and beliefs. Corn-Pone Opinions is presented as an argument, says Davidson College English professor Ann M. Fox, not a sermon. Rhetorical questions, elevated language, and short clipped declarations . . . are part of this strategy. (The Mark Twain Encyclopedia, 1993) Corn-Pone Opinions by Mark Twain Fifty years ago, when I was a boy of fifteen and helping to inhabit a Missourian village on the banks of the Mississippi, I had a friend whose society was very dear to me because I was forbidden by my mother to partake of it. He was a gay and impudent and satirical and delightful young black man--a slave--who daily preached sermons from the top of his masters woodpile, with me for sole audience. He imitated the pulpit style of the several clergymen of the village and did it well, and with fine passion and energy. To me, he was a wonder. I believed he was the greatest orator in the United States and would some day be heard from. But it did not happen; in the distribution of rewards, he was overlooked. It is the way, in this world. He interrupted his preaching, now and then, to saw a stick of wood; but the sawing was a pretense--he did it with his mouth; exactly imitating the sound the bucksaw makes in shrieking its way through the wood. But it served its purpose; it kept his master from coming out to see how the work was getting along. I listened to the sermons from the open window of a lumber room at the back of the house. One of his texts was this: You tell me whar a man gits his corn pone, en Ill tell you what his pinions is. I can never forget it. It was deeply impressed upon me. By my mother. Not upon my memory, but elsewhere. She had slipped in upon me while I was absorbed and not watching. The black philosophers idea was that a man is not independent, and cannot afford views which might interfere with his bread and butter. If he would prosper, he must train with the majority; in matters of large moment, like politics and religion, he must think and feel with the bulk of his neighbors or suffer damage in his social standing and in his business prosperities. He must restrict himself to corn-pone opinions--at least on the surface. He must get his opinions from other people; he must reason out none for himself; he must have no first-hand views. I think Jerry was right, in the main, but I think he did not go far enough. It was his idea that a man conforms to the majority view of his locality by calculation and intention.This happens, but I think it is not the rule.It was his idea that there is such a thing as a first-hand opinion; an original opinion; an opinion which is coldly reasoned out in a mans head, by a searching analysis of the facts involved, with the heart unconsulted, and the jury room closed against outside influences. It may be that such an opinion has been born somewhere, at some time or other, but I suppose it got away before they could catch it and stuff it and put it in the museum. I am persuaded that a coldly-thought-out and independent verdict upon a fashion in clothes, or manners, or literature, or politics, or religion, or any other matter that is projected into the field of our notice and interest, is a most rare thing--if it has indeed ever existed. A new thing in costume appears--the flaring hoopskirt, for example--and the passers-by are shocked, and the irreverent laugh. Six months later everybody is reconciled; the fashion has established itself; it is admired, now, and no one laughs. Public opinion resented it before, public opinion accepts it now and is happy in it. Why? Was the resentment reasoned out? Was the acceptance reasoned out? No. The instinct that moves to conformity did the work. It is our nature to conform; it is a force which not many can successfully resist. What is its seat? The inborn requirement of self-approval. We all have to bow to that; there are no exceptions. Even the woman who refuses from first to last to wear the hoopskirt comes under that law and is its slave; she could not wear the skirt and have her own approval; and that she must have, she cannot help herself. But as a rule, our self-approval has its source in but one place and not elsewhere--the approval of other people. A person of vast conse quences can introduce any kind of novelty in dress and the general world will presently adopt it--moved to do it, in the first place, by the natural instinct to passively yield to that vague something recognized as authority, and in the second place by the human instinct to train with the multitude and have its approval. An empress introduced the hoopskirt, and we know the result. A nobody introduced the bloomer, and we know the result. If Eve should come again, in her ripe renown, and reintroduce her quaint styles--well, we know what would happen. And we should be cruelly embarrassed, along at first. The hoopskirt runs its course and disappears. Nobody reasons about it. One woman abandons the fashion; her neighbor notices this and follows her lead; this influences the next woman; and so on and so on, and presently the skirt has vanished out of the world, no one knows how nor why, nor cares, for that matter. It will come again, by and by and in due course will go again. Twenty-five years ago, in England, six or eight wine glasses stood grouped by each persons plate at a dinner party, and they were used, not left idle and empty; today there are but three or four in the group, and the average guest sparingly uses about two of them. We have not adopted this new fashion yet, but we shall do it presently. We shall not think it out; we shall merely conform, and let it go at that. We get our notions and habits and opinions from outside influences; we do not have to study them out. Our table manners, and company manners, and street manners change from time to time, but the changes are not reasoned out; we merely notice and conform. We are creatures of outside influences; as a  rule, we do not think, we only imitate. We cannot invent standards that will stick; what we mistake for standards are only fashions, and perishable. We may continue to admire them, but we drop the use of them. We notice this in literature. Shakespeare is a standard, and fifty years ago we used to write tragedies which we couldnt tell from--from somebody elses; but we dont do it  any more, now. Our  prose  standard,  three quarters  of a century ago, was ornate and diffuse; some authority or other changed it in the direction of compactness and simplicity, and conformity followed, without argument. The historical novel starts up  suddenly and sweeps the land. Everybody writes one, and the nation is glad. We had historical novels before; but nobody read them, and the rest of us   conformed--without reasoning it out. We are conforming in the other way, now, because it is another case of everybody. The outside influences are always pouring in upon us, and we are always obeying their orders and accepting their verdicts. The Smiths like the new play; the Joneses go to see it, and they copy the Smith verdict. Morals, religions, politics, get their following from surrounding influences and atmospheres, almost entirely; not from study, not from thinking. A man must and will have his own approval first of all, in each and every moment and circumstance of his life--even if he must repent of a self-approved act the moment after its commission, in order to get his self-approval again: but, speaking in general terms, a mans self-approval in the large concerns of life has its source in the approval of the peoples about him, and not in a searching personal examination of the matter. Mohammedans are Mohammedans because they are born and reared among that sect, not because they have thought it out and can furnish sound reasons for being Mohammedans; we know why Catholics are Catholics; why P resbyterians are Presbyterians; why Baptists are Baptists; why Mormons are Mormons; why thieves are thieves; why monarchists are monarchists; why Republicans are Republicans and Democrats, Democrats. We know it is a matter of association and sympathy, not reasoning and examination; that hardly a man in the world has an opinion upon morals, politics, or religion which he got otherwise than through his associations and sympathies. Broadly speaking, there are none but corn-pone opinions. And broadly speaking, corn-pone stands for self-approval. Self-approval is acquired mainly from the approval of other people. The result is conformity. Sometimes conformity has a sordid business interest--the bread-and-butter interest--but not in most cases, I think. I think that in the majority of cases it is unconscious and not calculated; that it is born of the human beings natural yearning to stand well with his fellows and have their inspiring approval and praise--a yearning which is commonly so s trong and so insistent that it cannot be effectually resisted, and must have its way. A political emergency brings out the corn-pone opinion in fine force in its two chief varieties--the pocketbook variety, which has its origin in self-interest, and the bigger variety, the sentimental variety--the one which cant bear to be outside the pale; cant bear to be in disfavor; cant endure the averted face and the cold shoulder; wants to stand well with his friends, wants to be smiled upon, wants to be welcome, wants to hear the precious words, Hes on the right track! Uttered, perhaps by an ass, but still an ass of high degree, an ass whose approval is gold and diamonds to a smaller ass, and confers glory and honor and happiness, and membership in the herd. For these  gauds, many a man will dump his lifelong principles into the street, and his conscience along with them. We have seen it happen. In some millions of instances. Men think they think upon great political questions, and they do; but they think with their party, not independently; they read its literature, but not that of the other side; they arrive at convictions, but they are drawn from a partial view of the matter in hand and are of no particular value. They swarm with their party, they feel with their party, they are happy in their partys approval; and where the party leads they will follow, whether for right and  honor or through blood and dirt and a mush of mutilated morals. In our late canvass half of the nation passionately believed that in silver lay salvation, the other half as passionately believed that that way lay destruction. Do you believe that a tenth part of the people, on either side, had any rational excuse for having an opinion about the matter at all? I studied that mighty question to the bottom--and came out empty. Half of our people passionately believe in high tariff, the other half believe otherwise. Does this mean study and examination, or only feeling? The latter, I think. I have deeply studied that question, too--and didnt arrive. We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking. And out of  it, we  get an aggregation which we consider a Boon. Its name is Public Opinion. It is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it the Voice of God.  Praps. I suppose that in more cases than we should like to admit, we have two sets of opinions: one private, the other public; one secret and sincere, the other corn-pone, and more or less tainted. Written in 1901, Mark Twains Corn-Pone Opinions was first published in 1923 in Europe and Elsewhere, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine (Harper Brothers).

Criminal Justice System And The United States - 2397 Words

The population of offenders in correctional institutions in the United States is at an alarming amount, and it doesn’t have to be. Each year 7 million offenders are absorbed and expelled from correctional institutions and jails, placing a heavy burden on the criminal justice system (Morgan, 2011). Many of these offenders will recidivate, and with rates that are estimated at 70%, means 4.9 million will eventually return to the criminal justice system, creating a vicious cycle of arrest, re-arrest, and imprisonment (Morgan, 2011). Among this population are offenders with mental illnesses that need to be addressed, or specialized care that needs to be administered. Without the support of mental health programs such as mental health court,†¦show more content†¦Mental Health Court Mental Health Court plays a key role in the justice systems ability to filter out offenders who require appropriate prison sentences, against the needs of people with severe mental illnesses. Mental Health Courts are the first step in combating this growing population, and provide a link between court supervision and mental health services (Almquist Dodd, 2009). Almquist Dodd also explain that with the growing number of offenders with mental illnesses entering the criminal justice system, court staff is having a hard time keeping up (2009). With an already limited number of resources, there was little recourse but to cycle them through the criminal justice system. Mental health court provides the necessary relief to the courts by instead of dropping charges for low-level offenses or cycling them through corrections, they are enrolled in a program that can last between 6 months and 2 years and provide life changing specialized care (Almquist Dodd, 2009). While the original program was only open to offenders with misdemeanor charges, recently more courts have been open to accepting offenders with felony charges, and sometimes violent offenders (Almquist Dodd, 2009). The Almquist and Dodd also explain that in 18 months into the program mental health court

The Lesson of Romeo and Juliet Free Essays

Stephanie Lloyd Ms. Christenson English 9 May 19, 2010 The Lesson of Romeo and Juliet What happens when you are in love with an enemy of your family? In The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet this is just the case. Romeo and Juliet are two teenagers madly in love with each other, yet their families are at war. We will write a custom essay sample on The Lesson of Romeo and Juliet or any similar topic only for you Order Now The two of them take all the risks to be together and deceive their parents time and time again. Many spectators of this play say that the lesson of Romeo and Juliet is that children should not deceive their parents. This is not the lesson at all. The lesson of Romeo and Juliet is that if love is strong enough, you’ll die for it. In the play, Juliet and her nurse do numerous things to keep Romeo and Juliet together. Romeo has Juliet tell her nurse to get him a ladder so that he can climb over the walls of the Capulet’s to see Juliet at night. The two of them are not afraid to do anything they have to for them to be able to see each other. Romeo and Juliet went as far as to go to Friar Lawrence and get married. Their love was so strong that they were willing to take the chance of losing everything just to be together, even if it meant dieing for on another. For example, in the play the Capulet’s, Juliet’s family and the Montague’s, Romeo’s family are at war. The two families hate each other, yet when Romeo and Juliet fall in love the nurse does everything to help hide it. Juliet tells her nurse that she is in love with Romeo, and the nurse keeps it a secret because she knows what would happen if Lady Capulet or Capulet, Juliet’s family found out. Juliet’s nurse knows that if she is caught hiding this secret that she will be severely punished. She helps the two of them be together even though she fears the risks of doing so. The nurse is more of Juliet’s mother than Lady Capulet is. This is the main reason that she helps Juliet so much. The nurse even gets Romeo a ladder so that he will be able to climb over the walls of the Capulet’s so that he can see Juliet at night. She hides everything from the Capulet’s, tells them lies about where Juliet is when she is seeing Romeo, and at night when Juliet is talking to Romeo and Lady Capulet is coming the nurse warns her so that the two of them wont get caught together. Yes the two of them were deceiving their parents, but they were doing it for love. They did not just do it because they could, it was simply for the love that they had for one another. When you read this play you can feel the emotion through the words Romeo and Juliet speak. As another demonstration on how the lesson of this play is â€Å"if love is strong enough you will die for it†, Romeo and Juliet went against all odds and got married. The two of them went to Friar Lawrence and asked him to marry them. They all knew that this was extremely forbidden because of the war between the families. Friar Lawrence did not want to marry Romeo and Juliet at first, but then he thought that maybe it would end the feud between the two families. Romeo and Juliet, if caught, could have been in more trouble than they had ever imagined. They took this risk because they loved each other and wanted to be together at all costs. These two teenagers did everything they could to be together. The things that they told each other were the most powerful words of love that two people could exchange. Romeo and Juliet’s love was so strong that they were willing to do anything to stay together. Right before the two of them had planned to have sex to claim each other in their marriage, they were caught. Romeo was banished from Verona for having relations with Juliet. Capulet then told Juliet that she was to marry a boy named Paris. Juliet was heartbroken about this and tried everything that she could to get the wedding stalled so that she would have time to go and find Romeo. Juliet went to Friar Lawrence to ask him for some advice on what she should do. He gave her a potion that would make her sleep for 42 hours but everyone would think that she was dead. Juliet and Friar came up with the plan for Juliet to drink it the night before her wedding. The next day when no one could wake her everyone would think that she was dead. They would then have a funeral and Juliet would wake before they buried her and go to find Romeo. Things went wrong with the plan though. Friar had sent Romeo a letter telling him that Juliet would be alive, but it never got to him. Romeo returned to Verona and found Juliet. She had already taken the potion and Romeo thought that she was dead. In his eyes, if she was dead then he could not go on living. Romeo killed himself right before Juliet woke up from the affects of the potion. When Juliet woke up and saw that Romeo had killed himself she was devastated. She had lost the love of her life that she had done so much to be with. Juliet killed herself when she saw Romeo because she knew that she would be with him in heaven. The two of them were finally together in a place where no one could tear them apart. If love is strong enough, you’ll die for it. This is the real lesson of Romeo and Juliet. Juliet and her nurse did everything they could to keep Romeo and Juliet together. The nurse gave Romeo a ladder to be able to see Juliet at night. Romeo and Juliet even got married behind their families backs. This play shows just how strong love can be and how much two people can care for one another. Many think that they have a strong bond with another person, but a lot of the times it turns out to be nothing. Romeo and Juliet is a case of true undying love for another person. This play shows everyone what love truly is. Its not just something you say because you can, its something you say because you mean it. If you really love someone you’ll do anything to be with that person. Is the love you have with someone else strong enough to die for? How to cite The Lesson of Romeo and Juliet, Papers

Financial Report Of Treasury Wine Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Financial Report Of Treasury Wine. Answer: Accounting items from the annual report Accounting receivable looking at the annual report of Treasury wine estates for the year ended 30th June 2016, it is found that the amount of account receivable for that year were amounted to $ 603.4 million and that was decreased from $ 504.9 million for the year 2015. The trade receivables of the company are recognised at the fair value initially and eventually it is calculated at the amortised cost, reduced by the allowance of the doubtful debts. The company generally allow 30-120 days credit based on the transaction nature. Further, the bad debt is allowed for reducing the carrying amount of the trade receivables on the basis of the outstanding amounts analysis at the reporting date where potential risk is found with regard to credit (Mathuva 2015). Plant, property and equipment looking at the annual report of Treasury wine estates for the year ended 30th June 2016, it is found that the amount of account receivable for that year were amounted to $ 603.4 million and that was decreased from $ 504.9 million for the year 2015. The property, plant and equipment of the company are recognised at the fair value initially and eventually it is reduced by the impairment loss, if any and accumulated depreciation (Hoskin, Fizzell and Cherry 2014). The depreciation is provided on the straight line method. The leased assets are written of over the useful life or term of lease whichever is lower. During the year no changes were made with regard to the depreciation. Importance of accounting items on annual report Accounts receivable account receivable is the money that is expected to be received by the company in future. Depend on the amount of receivable it can be assessed that whether the company is able to pay-off its short term obligation comfortably. Further, it reveals whether the company is able to generate sales to earn profit (Bruce-Twum and Mensah 2015). If very large amount is shown in the balance sheet it indicated that the company is not able to collect its dues on time or not as the dues for long time increases the risk of bad-debts. Plant, property and the equipment this is one of the most useful items under the balance sheet and it assists in getting the idea of regarding how intensive the assets is and the particular business model it follows for plant, property and equipment (Zack 2013). When the balance sheet of various companies are analysed under a specific industry or sector, the plant, property and equipment of the company are compared with the after tax profit in terms of dollar (Tweglobal.com/~/media/Files/Global/Annual-Reports/2016-Annual-Report.pdf 2017). If the business is more productive, it may indicate that the companys PPE is lower as con pared to the cash balance. Social impact of accounting items Accounts receivable if the societal impact is considered, receivables will be regarded as important item as it helps the society analyse the liquidity position of the company. If the company is not able to collect its dues on time the chances of bed-debts will go up which may even lead to dissolve of the company. Further, the company from whom the dues is to be received will be regarded as not efficient for investment. Plant, property and equipment it will have a big impact on the society if the company is not providing appropriate depreciation on the asset and the asset is in use even after the useful life of the asset got over, it may adversely affect the environment as well as the society. Further, the type of asset may have adverse impact on the society and the community under which the business operates. Reflection of annual report While analysing the annual report of Treasury Wine Estate for the year ended 30th June 2016, I found that the company prepares its financial statement based on the Corporation Act 2001 and the authoritative pronouncement in compliance with the AASB (Australian Accounting Standards Board). Further, the items are measured on the basis of historical cost except for some of the derivative instruments related to finance. I also found that the annual report of the company includes consolidated profit or loss account and the other comprehensive income, consolidated financial position report, consolidated changes in equity report and consolidated cash flows report. The report also includes the independent auditors report, directors report and directors remuneration report. The audit of the financial statements for the year ended 30th June 2016 was carried out by KPMG. While going through the annual report, I found that the report did not include any sustainability report, without that report the economic, social, governance and environmental performance of the company cannot be assessed. Further, the values were presented only in monetary terms. Moreover, the assets under balance sheet do not specify the factor that which of the asset can be sold and which are not. However, I found that the reports present clear data regarding the financial position of the company through consolidated profit or loss account and the other comprehensive income, consolidated financial position report, consolidated changes in equity report and consolidated cash flows report, it will be useful to the investors, creditors, and the lenders to assess the performance of the company. References Bruce-Twum, E., and Mensah, C. C. 2015. Financial Statement Analysis. Hoskin, R.E., Fizzell, M.R. and Cherry, D.C., 2014.Financial Accounting: a user perspective. Wiley Global Education. Mathuva, D., 2015. The Influence of working capital management components on corporate profitability. Tweglobal.com/~/media/Files/Global/Annual-Reports/2016-Annual-Report.pdf. (2017). Annual report 2016. [online] Available at: https://www.tweglobal.com/~/media/Files/Global/Annual-Reports/2016-Annual-Report.pdf [Accessed 13 Sep. 2017]. Zack, G.M., 2013. Financial Statement Analysis.Financial Statement Fraud: Strategies for Detection and Investigation, pp.209-213.