Lower Sixth Independent Projects 2015 by Cheltenham College

Lower Sixth Independent Projects 2015

CHELTENHAM COLLEGE

Highly Commended - Poppy Alltimes

Lower Sixth Independent Projects 2015 Introduction from the Headmaster This booklet is a celebration of some of the fantastic work produced by Lower Sixth Formers as part of their Independent Research Project last academic year. What is so encouraging about the pages that follow is the high quality of work which Cheltonians can produce when given the opportunity to work in genuine depth on a topic of their choice. These projects, and the many which havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t made it into this publication, will give students an opportunity to stand out from the crowd when it comes to university application and provide a very important focus for the all-important personal statement. The work contained here clearly indicates that the more students put into the project, the more they will get out of it. I hope it will be an inspiration to the current Lower Sixth.

Dr Alex Peterken, Headmaster

Introduction from the Project Co-ordinator Collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Independent Projects are now a celebrated and well-established vehicle for helping our students to develop vital research skills in a stimulating, creative and ambitious way. The independent projects effectively prepare students for greater academic independence. Although undertaking a large project may be initially be challenging and somewhat daunting, our students continue to delight with the novelty and rigour of the research projects they undertake. Their own evaluations reveal the extent to which the projects help them to develop academic confidence. Students report that they have learnt to think critically and present information logically and persuasively. They recognise that, through the projects, they have managed sustaining their motivation and time. Enhanced self-reflection about the essential skills they are developing demonstrates their awareness that such skills will serve them in good stead in their future education. This publication showcases research essays, multi-media projects and entries to national competitions. The range of topics included demonstrates the individuality of each studentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work. Students can be justifiably proud of their achievements and I trust that you will enjoy reading this publication. Cheltenham College is very grateful to Global Philanthropic for supporting the prizes for the projects in recognition of their Chairman, OC Malcolm Hutton, Cheltondale, 1959.

Dr Mary Plint, Assistant Head (Learning and Wellbeing)

Page

Winner Jessica-Jane Ottley-Woodd

‘The films are all about women; he celebrates the female while demonising and emasculating the male’. To what extent is this observation true of the films of Pedro Almodóvar?

Poppy Alltimes

Multi-media project: To what extent do external factors affect the mortality rate of ewes and lambs?

Katherine Stanton

Who benefitted from the French Revolution?

Maxwell Richard Winfrey

The psychological reasons behind Internet trolling and mobbing

Isabelle Winstanley

Sex and the City: how far is the Catullus persona a literary construct, rather than a portrayal of the author himself?

Charles Brooksbank

‘No man is born without sin’ – Psalm 42:4 Is evil innate?

Kristy Chan

Multi-media project: Masao Mizukami’s influence on floral arrangement in Hong Kong

Harry Ferris

The Bismarckian era was the most significant period in German history that led towards the development of a national sentiment and political unification

Alexander Hewer

Is passive fund management really worth its weight in gold?

Annabella Köhler

Has the meaning of freedom changed?

Frederick Lyle

The Labour leadership race: how will the outcome affect the future of the Party and British politics?

Taya Sellers

Can the practice of world religions have a positive impact on the potential economic growth of the least developed countries (LDCs)?

Douglas Spencer

Can we cure Alzheimer’s disease?

Harry Steel

Prime Minister’s Questions – 'A childish, self-indulgent in-joke' or an arena for 'face-to-face clashes (that) can give useful vitality to democratic politics'?

Heiyi Tam

Is our appreciation of art determined by our Unconscious?

Emily Wilford

Sandro Botticelli: trendsetter or fashion victim? A study of The Mystic Nativity

100

Highly Commended

Commended

‘The films are all about women; he celebrates the female while demonising and emasculating the male’. To what extent is this observation true of the films of Pedro Almodóvar? By Jessica-Jane Ottley-Woodd, U6 Queen’s

Jacques Lacan, a French psychiatrist once said: “Masculine or Feminine is the first difference you make when you meet a human creature, and you are used to making this difference without any doubt” 1 . Pedro Almodóvar is a controversial Spanish film director, who has gone against this stereotypical gender judgement that you make when first meeting someone, and has decided to challenge the existing social norms in Spain. Throughout his films, Almodóvar expresses his views on gender, sexuality, the patriarchal society and motherhood. His views are typically considered as controversial, notably by the Hispanic world. Consequently, in this essay I will explore why and to what extent Almodóvar repeatedly celebrates and focuses his films on the female, while emasculating and demonising the male and the patriarchal society. Born in 1949 under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, Pedro Almodóvar was living in an authoritarian and nationalist regime, where propaganda, censorship and repression were all used to control Spanish society. As a child, Almodóvar’s parents sent him to a religious boarding school with the hope that one day he would become a well-established priest. However, what really caught Almodóvar’s attention was the film industry, and it later ‘became [his] real education, much more than the one [he] received from the priests’2. Therefore, much to his parents’ dismissal, Almodóvar moved to Madrid in 1967 and became a self-taught, internationally acclaimed, film director. After the repression of Franco, Almodóvar stepped into the spotlight and focused his work on the return of womanhood, femininity and freedom, which had recently been suppressed during the forty-year dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Under the ‘Franco Regime’, the Spanish dictator ensured that Catholicism was the only tolerated religion, with the church and Franco himself implementing unjust regulations that only applied to women. In the years 1936 – 1975, women were denied divorce and contraception, and having an abortion was considered as a crime. In addition, women were classified as subordinate to men and thus, were not allowed to have a job once married, open up a bank account or even apply for a passport without being given permission from their husbands. Furthermore, in order to prevent women from being economically active, they were discouraged from attending university and therefore the only aspiration women could have was to be the best possible housewife and mother. Almodóvar acknowledged these unethical regulations and that under Franco’s rule, it was a patriarchal dominated society, where men were acting as tyrants: ‘a cruel and oppressive leader’, and women were prevented from having freedom. For this reason, Almodóvar’s aspiration was to challenge Franco’s regime and to create a society where women had equal rights to men. Consequently, he became the most successful Spanish film director and one of the first film directors to ‘reverse sex and gender roles, break prejudices and traditions of social identities’3.

Jacques Lacan, Des femmes et des semblants, 1997 Marvin D’Lugo, Pedro Almodóvar (2006) 3 Marie Piganiol, Transgenderism and Transsexuality in Almodóvar Movies (2009) 2

In Almodóvar’s films, women can be seen as the main focus, as they are deliberately represented as strong, independent and affectionate mothers. Firstly, in Volver4, we witness an unconditional love between a mother and a daughter, as Raimunda covers up a serious crime that her daughter Paula was forced to commit. This instantly enables us to focus our attention onto the theme of motherhood and how faithful and affectionate mothers are towards their children. It seems to me that Almodóvar is acknowledging and celebrating that mothers would do anything for their children, and his desire is that the rest of society, especially men, would recognise and appreciate this. Furthermore, motherhood can also be recognised as a prominent theme in Todo Sobre mi Madre5, in which Almodóvar does not only celebrate mothers, but also recognises ‘the pain of motherhood, not just Manuela’s but Rosa’s too’6. Manuela’s pain stems from when her beloved son, Esteban, is killed in a car accident on his seventeenth birthday. On the surface, some may see this as a typical, sorrowful plot. However, we soon realise that Almodóvar wants us to focus on how ‘women have strong personalities and are able to face misfortunes or devastating fate’7. For example, Manuela is emotionally strong, not only as a mother, but also a woman, as she manages to rebuild her life after the loss of her son. This strength is something that was not often recognised during the years of Franco, as men were seen as the ones with courage, strength and integrity, and women as passive and powerless. Later on in the film, we see how Manuela not only mothers her son, but also acts as a substitute mother to other characters, such as Agrado, a transsexual prostitute, Rosa a young nun and then Rosa’s son. This act of generosity and love, in which Manuela mothers her friends as if they were her relatives, shows how remarkable women can be, not only as mothers, but also as devoted and caring individuals. Additionally, it is important to notice the powerful tribute at the end of Todo Sobre mi Madre, where we witness the support and respect that Almodóvar has towards mothers and females: ‘To women, to mothers, to women who want to be mothers, to men who want to be women’8. This tribute allows us to recognise that not only as an individual, you can choose to mother anyone, but also more importantly, anyone of any gender or age can act as a mother. To support this, Almodóvar also uses the character of Manuela to imply that even if you do not have any children, you can still mother someone, as ‘part of every woman is a mother’9. In addition, the tribute towards ‘men who want to be women’, allows us to consider how women are aspirational and perhaps there are men in the world whose wish is to embody female traits, yet fear to due to the imminent judgment of the existing patriarchal society. Moreover, Almodóvar allows us to question to what extent the role of the male is essential in parenting. Firstly, one should note that ‘Fathers, central symbols of patriarchy are almost never represented’10. Personally, it seems that Almodóvar chooses to exclude the father figure from the very beginning of his films, with the aim of increasing the appreciation and awareness of the admirable job that mothers do without the help of men. In Todo Sobre mi Madre, Manuela’s son Esteban, spends 17 years of his life without a father, with Manuela operating as a single mother. Despite this, Almodóvar does not create any discernible evidence of Manuela or Esteban struggling with this situation. Both mother and son have a strong bond; with Esteban admiring his mother so profoundly that he writes a novel about her, entitled: ‘Todo sobre mi madre’. In spite of this, others may say that due to the absence of his father and his clear love for camp novels like All About Eve, Esteban is in fact close to discovering his imminent homosexuality. However, this aspect of Esteban is not further investigated, as Almodóvar wishes to focus this specific film directly on motherhood and not the sexual orientation of Esteban. Furthermore, in Volver we witness a situation where Paula’s fatherly figure, Paco, is abruptly removed from her life. However, again, the absence of a male does not affect Paula, as Paco was a 4

English Translation – To Return English Translation - All About my Mother 6 Frederic Strauss, Almodóvar on Almodóvar, 2006 7 Marie Piganiol, Transgenderism and Transsexuality in Almodóvar’s Movies (2009) 8 Pedro Almodóvar, Last scene, Todo sobre mi madre, 1999 9 Pedro Almodóvar, Todo sobre mi madre, 1999 10 Marie Piganiol, Transgenderism and Transsexuality in Almodóvar’s Movies 5

lethargic, vulgar, child-molesting male, who didn’t help Raimunda bring up Paula anyway. It could almost be seen as a benefit and a blessing that Paco is no longer in Paula or Raimunda’s life, as he did not care to contribute at all; in fact he was a burden to the family. Therefore, it is plausible to say that, in Volver, Almodóvar is presenting the option of parenting without men, and thus making women the subject of not only parenthood, but also his films. In Volver, Almodóvar goes against the stereotypical view of males, as Paco is presented as an opposite to the typical macho Spanish man of this time. Therefore, this can be seen as Almodóvar following the path of ‘La Movida’11. ‘La Movida’ was a ‘cultural effervescent euphoria’ that took place mainly in Madrid after the repression of Franco. This movement allowed films, music and literature to express their opinions without the judgement of Franco, and thus enabled Spain to move away from the society that Franco had created. Almodóvar supported this movement and was determined to ‘break prejudices and deconstruct the ‘normativeness’ that used to be promoted by Franco’12. Therefore, we witness Almodóvar creating a world where fathers are non-existent, as during Franco’s regime, the male, fatherly figure was seen as a highly important aspect of the family. Almodóvar’s films can also be seen to celebrate and focus on the powerful relationships between women. In Volver, Raimunda decides to take over her neighbour’s restaurant and run it with her daughter. While starting up the business, Raimunda repeatedly receives lots of attention from young male customers. However, she dismisses the attention and help, and instead, focuses on her business, her daughter and her relationships with her female friends. Consequently, she secures the help of her friend Regina, who is a local prostitute. Raimunda’s business begins to thrive and thus shows that the uplifting relationships between women can be more powerful without men. This scenario, where Raimunda manages to run a successful business with her girlfriends, and with an absence of men, allows us to acknowledge the fact that ‘women have options, experiences, opportunities, which don’t include men’ 13 . In addition, when in trouble, Regina helps out Raimunda without questioning the situation. Therefore, we focus our attention towards the strong bond that females have and how important it is to help and support each other, especially when living within a maledominated society. However, Almodóvar moves beyond the celebration of women, and his films can be seen as a critique of the patriarchal society that existed during Franco’s rule. Almodóvar is fully aware of how the domineering male society can punish women both explicitly and inexplicitly. Therefore, in Hable con Ella14, Almodóvar provides us with a metaphorical representation of how the patriarchal society can dismiss the female. In the first scene of the film, Benigno Martín and Marco Zuluaga, two males that later draw our attention further to the females in the film, are watching a ballet performance, Café Müller. The performance includes two female ballet dancers, who move around the stage with no control, no sight and in silence. It is plausible to say that this scene foreshadows the two main women in the film, Lydia Gonzáles and Alicia Roncero, who later find themselves in a coma, and therefore with no control, just like the dancers. However, it can be argued that the main focus is towards the silenced state of the ballet dancers and how they possibly depict the ‘female gender as a whole, whose role in dominant patriarchal society arguably takes form in the silent, absent and marginal position’15. In addition, it could be said that Almodóvar’s aim is to make his audience aware of how a male-dominated society can bully the female and take away her freedom and voice. Furthermore, it is known that when discussing the patriarchal society, Almodóvar appears to blame the Church for its role in legitimising and focusing on a male-dominated society and by not supporting female empowerment or 11

‘The Move’, 1975 Marie Piganiol, Transgenderism and Transsexuality in Almodóvar’s Movies (2009) 13 Stephen Maddison, All about women, 2000 14 English Translation – Talk to Her 15 E. Ann Kaplun, Women and Film: Both sides of the Camera, 1983 12

freedom. It could be said that for this reason, we see Almodóvar focusing the majority of his films on women, as normally they are overlooked in society, with men making a constant effort to promote themselves, while making the role of the female silent and insignificant. Furthermore, Almodóvar demonises the male by exploiting his inappropriate sexual behaviour towards females. In Hable con Ella we witness how the intense and selfish sexual drive of Benigno leaves Alicia in an atrocious state. When watching the film, we are aware of Benigno’s deep affection for Alicia. However, his sexual tendencies create a situation where he can no longer control himself and consequently rapes her whilst she is still in a coma, resulting in him impregnating her. Here, Almodóvar uses the technique of inserting scenes from ‘The Shrinking Lover’, a 1920s silent film, to help present the horrific act of rape. In this 1920s film, a scientific experiment goes wrong, leading to the scientist being shrunk to the size of a human finger. The man then enters the vagina of a sleeping woman, which represents the grotesque rape of Alicia, the comatose patient whom Benigno is obsessed with. However, it may be of significance to note how Almodóvar does not condemn Benigno after the rape, as he does not want to judge him, as he believes it makes ‘more of an interesting approach’ to the situation. It is also interesting how Almodóvar steers away from stereotyping; he feels that even though ‘some might say that Benigno is a necrophiliac […][he] wanted to get away from all those sorts of categorisations’16. This is typical of Almodóvar’s work, as he intentionally moves away from stereotypes and allows his characters to illustrate the truth of our society. Therefore, we could say that Almodóvar is portraying a situation where the act of rape is committed too often in our society, a truth that individuals wish to discard and forget, yet are unable to. Moreover, in Volver, Paco tries to sexually abuse Paula, a young teenager. Almodóvar heightens the severity of the scenario, as even though Paco is not Paula’s biological father, she is made to believe that he is. Therefore, the attempted rape could also be viewed as incestuous, which would further increase our hatred and disgust towards not only the situation, but towards the sexual desire of men in general. Personally, it seems that Almodóvar begins Volver with the intention of demonising males, as the attempted rape is committed in the first few scenes, with Almodóvar then removing Paco abruptly from the film. This allows us question to what extent Almodóvar wants his films not to focus on the male and his behaviour, but instead the female and her roles as both a mother and a woman. In his films, we witness Almodóvar continuously emasculating the male. In his 2013 film, Los Amantes Pasajeros17, Almodóvar bases the entire film on sexual orientation. It is in this film, in which he truly embraces gay society, as the majority of the characters are gay. The male air stewards continuously embrace their camp characteristics, yet they are never criticised or made to look any different; for Almodóvar, gay society is normal. This film is an excellent example of the way that Almodóvar rebels against the predetermined idealisation of males, not only in Spain but in other European countries too, and indeed begins to emasculate them. Additionally, in Hable con Ella, Almodóvar ‘deconstructs the idea of masculinity, which has always been linked to power in patriarchal societies’, as Benigno can be seen as a coward and selfish, as he doesn’t sacrifice his love towards Alicia, but instead rapes her whilst she is in a coma. Almodóvar also emasculates the male through the use of transsexuals. It is important to note that ‘even if they are not at the core of the plots, transsexuals become the focus of the audience attention in Almodóvar’s movies’. In Todo sobre mi madre, Agrado is a transsexual with her character embodying all that is feminine. As we are aware, feminine traits are extremely important to Almodóvar, as he is receptive of how misjudged and underappreciated females are in our society. Personally, one could say that Almodóvar wishes to portray how our modern day society judges individuals, with certain characteristics and traits being attributed to a certain gender. Therefore, the use of

16 17

Frederic Strauss, Almodóvar on Almodóvar, 2006 English Translation – I’m so Excited

transsexuals is highly significant throughout Almodóvar’s films, as they represent the idea that, no matter what gender, you should be able to embody whatever characteristics you wish, without being classified a certain sex. Furthermore, it must be noted that the main male characters in Almodóvar’s movies ‘voluntarily negate their masculinity’18, thus implying that male characteristics can be seen as undesirable. Moreover, it can be said that Almodóvar’s work on ‘Transsexuality upsets the ideal of masculinity in a patriarchal society’. This observation could be seen as a sign of success to Almodóvar, as the idea of masculinity could be changing, meaning that there is no longer an obvious divide between predetermined male and female characteristics. This highlights the truths of society, with the focus being on equal perceptions and rights for both females and males. In conclusion, it can be said that Almodóvar intentionally demonises and exploits the male, whilst celebrating and focusing his films on the female. Moreover, he seems to celebrate any form of female identity, whether you are gay or a transsexual wanting to embrace your feminine side, or just simply a female. After watching and analysing Almodóvar’s films, it is clear that he is an advocate for the equal rights of women, and wishes to create a society where gays, transsexuals, women and men are all treated equally.

Marie Piganiol, Transgenderism and Transsexuality in Almodóvar’s Movies (2009)

Multi-media project: To what extent do external factors affect the mortality rate of ewes and lambs? By Poppy Alltimes, U6 Chandos

The following pictures show extracts of Poppyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s project, the full project is available to view at www.cheltenhamcollege.org/multi-media-projects.

Who benefitted from the French Revolution? By Katherine Stanton, U6 Ashmead

In a moderately patriotic Dutch newspaper, founded in 1798, the following was written: "What fruits, until now have the people plucked from the liberty tree, planted in the Winter of 1795? To tell the truth, not much." This would be the "liberty tree" of the French Revolutionary epoch, which lasted from 1789 to 1799. Within that time France had lost a king, been at war with Europe, and had seemingly pruned the "liberty tree" beyond recognition along the way. The consular constitution, far from the principles of 1789, led the way for Bonaparte to become emperor. It is debatable whether the French Revolution led to significant and lasting change, as the Bourbon monarchy was restored in 1815, and further to that, whether anyone benefitted from what has been labelled, by some, as "the wreck of nations". However, comparatively superficial change did not mask the ascendency, under various guises, of the bourgeoisie during the 19th century, who capitalised on the surviving legacies of the revolution. Considered by some to be a bourgeois revolution, it would therefore follow that the bourgeoisie were beneficiaries; contrastingly, opponents of the revolution also benefitted from the revolution's mistakes. It was these mistakes, though, coupled with the successes of the French Revolution, which would influence revolutions both in Europe and in the wider world, and make revolutionary thinkers perhaps the greatest beneficiaries of the revolution. In the Marxist school of history, the natural beneficiaries of the revolution would be the bourgeoisie, as the French Revolution is considered their revolution. Although the existence of a struggle between aristocrats and bourgeois has been disputed on the grounds of the conservative, para-noble views of the bourgeoisie and the progressive stances taken by some of the aristocracy, such as the Duc D'Orléans, the bourgeoisie did gain from the revolution, specifically from the land transfer that occurred. According to Schama, "the abolition of feudalism […] merely completed the evolution from lords to landlords", and "the great gainers from redistribution of church and noble property were the bourgeoisie". Having gained 40% more land during the revolution, the middle classes mainly kept the land the revolution had made available to them, solidifying wealth in the stable asset of property. Up to 40% of the Parisian bourgeoisie's investment was in land. Perhaps the most representative of the benefits from the revolution concerning land can be seen in Balzac's novel Eugénie Grandet, which depicts the accumulating wealth of Monsieur Grandet, who had acquired land as a result of the revolution. Land meant the bourgeoisie had money: during the agrarian crisis between 1845 and 1847, "large capitalist farmers made big profits on their surpluses". More than a simply monetary gain, the success of landowners meant that in the 1940s they were 377 of the 512 richest taxpayers, more than merchants, bankers or industrialists. Since the Legislative Assembly's decision to divide the country into active and passive citizens in 1791, the paying of taxes allowed for political involvement. Under the liberal constitutional monarchy of Louis-Philippe, the income required for voting did decrease from 300 Francs to 200, but this meant that the bourgeoisie, who qualified, were politically enfranchised. Indeed, the bourgeoisie dominated the Conseils Généreaux. Though regressive compared with revolutionary enfranchisement, the gain of property, which led to wealth and the ability to vote, meant the bourgeoisie were beneficiaries of the French Revolution.

Along with political gains and the transfer of land, the bourgeoisie had benefitted from one of the revolution's principles left surviving by Napoleon Bonaparte: a career open to talents. Instead of the "stranglehold of tradition" which had existed in the ancien régime, the revolution brought "rationality and logic into the country's affairs", leaving the "jurisdictional jungle" behind for departments. With this development a new bourgeois man developed: the bureaucrat. Although the haphazard organisation of the ancien régime had allowed the bureaucracy to flourish, populated by nobles with venal offices, the French Revolution "invented the 'bureaucrat'", the word first being recorded in 1791 in the Père Duchesne and being derogatory in tone. Bureaucrats, men of the upper bourgeoisie, received education; the baccalauréat led to acceptance into grandes écoles - 61% of pupils at the École Polytechnique from 1840 to 1880 were upper bourgeois - which opened the doors to political office. This trend did not abate during the 19th Century; 36 of the 60 Orleanist ministers were bureaucrats, and after 1846 around 200 deputies were also diplomats, magistrates, officers and state engineers. Not only were bureaucrats successful in gaining political office, they also received the generosities of the state, such as pensions based on longevity of service (an ancienneté). The bureaucrats flourished alongside other institutions. For example, under Louis Napoleon, the "regime combined the personal power of the emperor with a concentration of power in the army and bureaucracy". Kingston goes so far as to call the bureaucrats of the revolution the "20,000 fools", and fools they might have been; nevertheless, they benefitted from the French Revolution in comfort, prominence and power, allowed to do so under the principle of a 'career open to talents'. If any man were to epitomise the exploitation of a 'career open to talents', Napoleon would be a strong contender. The young Corsican, who had risen through the ranks to become the "meteoric success" of the French revolutionary army, escaped being "doomed to spend his military career in a subordinate rank in an unfashionable branch of the army" and instead become "the major beneficiary". After Marengo, "the baptism of Napoleon's personal power", according to Hyde de Neuville, Napoleon capitalised on the impact of the revolutionary wars on France, which had seen growing militarism and an increasingly unstable succession of governments. Seeking a widely liked candidate for the Consulate, Napoleon was chosen by Sièyes for his popularity, his success in bankrolling the revolution by bankrupting 'liberated' countries, and the support he had for the army, which at this point would mean the stability the revolution so desperately needed after the weak Directory. After his appointment to the Consulate, Napoleon consolidated his position, becoming First Consul for life in 1802 and then in 1804 the hereditary ruler for life. Living as the Emperor of French, with all the luxuries that entailed, Napoleon's family reaped the rewards of his successes; three of his brothers, Louis, Jerôme, and Joseph, became kings in various offshoots of the empire, and his stepson became the Viceroy of Italy. Napoleon's position was tenable because of his "legitimacy", which "flowed from the Revolution"; even when his military expansion led to the cold death of his empire, the Napoleonic legend lived on, revived in the July Monarchy and during the rule of Louis-Napoleon. In life, and in death, Napoleon benefitted from the revolution. Napoleon was the ultimate military man, and as such was the highest example of the benefits gained by military men as a result of the French Revolution. He had profited from the principle of a 'career open to talents', and "in no sphere were careers thrown more open to the talents" than the army. Before the revolution, the army, intensely hierarchical and populated by the nobility, had been seen as relatively unimportant compared to the navy, which, though more egalitarian, had bankrupted France by helping the Americans in the American War of Independence. During the revolution, the National Assembly declared that "every citizen has the right to be admitted to every rank", and this proved to be true; "the aristocratic monopoly of the officer corps had gone forever". By 1793 70% of officers in the army had risen from the ranks, and in Year II, 87.3% of generals had done the same. With the army having become an instrument of the government under the Directory, the gains of military men would last well into the next century and beyond. Under Napoleon, "soldiers would stand first in the consular and then in the imperial hierarchy", which was

created in 1808. In 1815 around 60% of new nobles were of military origin. Even when Napoleonic rule ended, soldiers remained in positions of power; in the 1860s admirals rather than political men ran Cambodia. Furthermore, the army was used as an arm of the state at home as well as away, with the wave of strikes from 1900 to 1902 under Waldeck-Rousseau being suppressed by 95,000 troops. The French Revolution led to the militarisation of French society, especially under Napoleon. In Alfred de Musset's Confessions of a Child of the Century he writes that his generation was "conceived between two battles and brought up in colleges to the roll of drums", perfectly encapsulating the presence of the military and of soldiers in France. In this popularity the soldier could advance his career; where beforehand the officer corps had been "confined to those of noble blood", "the Revolution opened it to talent, qualified by survival on the battlefield". In this way the military man benefitted from the French Revolution. Although the Revolution ushered in an era where the army gained importance and prestige, those gains were not shared with the navy; concerning its dominance of naval affairs, Britain was a direct beneficiary of the revolution and its wars at sea. More broadly, the beneficiaries of 1789 also include France's other opponents. In 1783 France had a navy two-thirds the size of Great Britain's, and it continued to build ships during the revolution, despite the state's bankruptcy. By the end of the revolution, Britain's "dominion of the seas would be permanent", and this advancement would prove "irreversible". The Battle of the Nile, or Aboukir, "had marked the end of France as a naval power"; a huge victory for the British, it re-established their hold over the Mediterranean, kept Napoleon contained in Egypt, and crucially made sure India was entirely secure. If Aboukir had been the portend, then it was "with the defeat at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 [that] Napoleon lost all control over the seas". As Jean-Baptiste Say has explained, this sea power did not just give Britain a naval advantage, it led to increasing overseas trade, where it was able to create a "virtual commercial monopoly", and with the money derived from this, use credit to develop both its own army and those of its allies. The increase in trade, which came about as a result of the French Revolution, is perhaps best illustrated in the Caribbean, which accounted for 4/5 of British income from overseas. The average annual trade with Great Britain was augmented from ÂŁ4,100,000 (1781/5) to ÂŁ10,200,000 (1796/1800), an increase of 150%. Furthermore, by the revolution's end, France had 10% of Haiti's trade, whilst Great Britain controlled the rest. Not only Britain had gained by the time the revolutionary-Napoleonic wars were over; Austria and Prussia were also beneficiaries. The former "emerged hugely expanded in territory and would dominate central Europe for half a century", those expansions including the addition of Italian territory; the latter benefitted by the gain of the left bank of the Rhine, but more intangibly, the wars led to a developing self-determinism in Prussia, "the experience of conquest and occupation by French armies greatly heighten[ing] the sentiment of nationality". This was true of other nations, with Russia becoming a country after 1812, rather than a collection of lands ruled by the Tsar; the nobility discovered the peasantry on the battlefields, with an officer saying to the Tsar: "You should be proud of them, for every peasant is a patriot". The phenomenon extended to Morocco and Algeria, in which Muslims, facing "what they saw as a new Crusade by Napoleon and his successors", "came to identify their faith with their homeland"_. Therefore, the opponents of France during and after the French Revolution were its beneficiaries; Great Britain achieved overwhelming naval superiority, Austria territory and European dominance, and other countries a burgeoning sense of nationhood. In a sense another opponent to the revolution, religion, and therefore religious people, did benefit from the French Revolution. The revolutionary principles extended freedom to minority religious groups such as Protestants and Jews. In the Gard, a region in the Languedoc area of southern France, whose estates were in 1789 entirely run by Catholic bishops, eight deputies of the Third estate were Protestant. The gain of political and civil rights as a result of the revolution meant that, as in the rest of France, the bourgeois Protestants flourished, especially in the town of NĂŽmes, where Protestants had engaged in the silk-trade and banking. For Protestants, Napoleon's empire would prove a tolerant one, where they were established on a par with Catholics. The other significant religious minority, the Jews, who numbered 39,000 at the end of the

revolution, also benefitted from it, as it "brought emancipation" to them. Although emancipation did not necessarily result in tolerance, and indeed anti-Semitism grew in France as it did in other nations during the 19th century, anti-Semitism can be interpreted as religious fervour. Indeed, "religious observance was sharpened by religious rivalry", particularly in places where minority groups were strongly represented, such as Strasbourg. The priesthood could no more escape the principle of a 'career open to talents' than the army, and thus it was opened to a wider variety of people. More than just the priesthood, the "papacy was one of the great gainers" from the revolution, as during the 1780s it had seemed to be "in perhaps terminal decline". The growing secularism of France, instead of being detrimental to religion and religious people, in fact allowed for the divorce of religion from political affairs, and thus made it more secure. When religion did come to the forefront of political affairs, such as in the Dreyfus Affair, which begun in 1894, it did not profit. Indeed, secularism meant "Catholicism was able to flourish socially, culturally and intellectually". Therefore, religion and religious people benefitted from increased freedoms, which led to greater observance, and so thrived. However, the material beneficiaries of the French Revolution seem to have benefitted elsewhere, and although the way they gained from the revolution should not be discounted, considering the change, which had occurred since the ancien régime, the beneficiaries who took most from the revolution were those who dealt in ideas and ideals, both in Europe and outside of it. During the French Revolution, a Madrid priest noted that, in the courts of Madrid, where there were fears of pro-French subversion, "In the taverns and in the fashionable salons…all one hears is battles, revolution, convention, national representation, liberty, equality. Even the whores ask you about Robespierre”. This serves to illustrate how the French Revolution led to the spread of revolutionary ideas, even when its ideals had been compromised by the Terror. As a result of the French Revolution, "[r]evolution as a possible kind of political action would henceforth always be present in the European consciousness as a promise and a threat". Tom Paine's The Rights of Man would go on to become the Bible of Belfast, and greatly influence the unsuccessful Irish Rebellion of 1798, led by Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen. Closer to France, however, the French Revolution served as both a model and a warning to revolutionary thinkers, and the revolutionaries of 1848. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, intellectual beneficiaries of the French Revolution, were impressed by its speed and completeness, and used it to formulate their ideas for The Communist Manifesto; Marx himself thought the French Revolution to be the greatest in history. In January 1848, de Tocqueville wrote that the "wind of revolution blows, the storm is on the horizon". It did not prove to be a storm, but a "springtime of peoples" which would, particularly in France, take heed from the French Revolution. The revolutionaries of 1848 had noted that the poor relations between the revolution and the Church had alienated some supporters; Quinet proposes that whereas 1789 "thought it could save the world by its own spiritual energy", 1848 "believed that it could save the world only with the support of the priest". More significant than the acceptance of religion, however, was the emphasis on less violence. Indeed, the founders of the Second Republic "were clear that to succeed it must exorcise the demons of that of 1792, and not descend into another terror"_. They did not send Louis-Philippe's ministers to trial. Victor Hugo wrote that the Second Republic should not "restart those two fatal machines…the assignat printing press and the pivot of the guillotine". The lessons from the French Revolution would also transfer to the Third Republic and its spokesman, Léon Gambetta. The Third Republic endeavoured to "avoid tearing themselves apart in fratricidal struggle" as those in the First Republic had done, and to prevent being overpowered by Bonapartists and royalists, like those in the Second Republic. To this aim deputies were given a 9000 franc salary, which did not cover the cost of electioneering, but did allow some campaigns to take place, leading to stronger support. These lessons did not end with the Third Republic; Todd proposes that the lesson concerning the restriction of violence can be seen in the 'velvet revolutions' of Eastern Europe in 1989, 200 years after the French Revolution began. Therefore, revolutionary thinkers and revolutionaries in Europe benefitted from the French Revolution as it was a “model for political resistance and rebellion that could be copied and used".

The impact of French revolutionary thought was not limited to continental Europe, and the beneficiaries of the revolution included revolutionary forces in Russia. If Lenin stated that "the young Soviet Republic stood on the shoulders of the Paris Commune", then it can be added that the Paris Commune stood on the shoulders of the French Revolution. In Russia, the French Revolution dominated political thought; Count Stroganov wrote that "the best day of my life will be that when I see Russia regenerated by such a Revolution". The heads of intellectuals and revolutionary leaders "were full of European literature and history, especially the history of the French Revolutions of 1789 and 1848". The revolutionary rhetoric of France percolated through to Russian revolutionaries, with the Marseillaise, mangled by the Russian tongue, becoming the Marsiliuza, and the greeting of 'citizen' becoming popular. However, benefiting from the French Revolution ran to more than just its lessons on oratory. The socialists "interpreted the events of 1905 and 1917 in terms of the history of 1789, 1848 and 1871, and this led them to believe that a counter-revolution must inevitably follow". Thus, the Bolsheviks, to ensure success, began "a two fold process of state-building and destruction"_. This entailed power being centralised and essentially being held by the party, whilst terror was used to eliminate political resistance. Power was given to local structures to loosen the grip of the old structures of the state. Thus Russian revolutionaries were profoundly influenced by the Terror, which for them demonstrated the necessity of defeating counter-revolution with violence. Mstislavsky said of the Socialist leaders: "Oh, how they feared the masses!" and this was perhaps something they had derived from their knowledge of the French Revolution, which led to the emergence of a state much stronger than that of revolutionary France. Moreover, they specifically benefitted from the trial and death of Louis XVI. Saint-Just had posed the question at his trial that to give him a trial at all hinted at the possibility of Louis XVI's innocence, which would place the revolution's legitimacy under scrutiny. Therefore the Russian revolutionaries realised that to "put Nicholas on trial would be to put the Bolsheviks on trial”, instead choosing to kill him and his family. Thus Russian revolutionaries benefitted from the French Revolution, taking from it different lessons to their continental counterparts of 1848 and 1871. Different lessons, again, were taken by revolutionaries across the globe, outside of Europe, who can equally be considered beneficiaries of the French Revolution. Robespierre, said that "[t]he Declaration of the Rights of Man is not a beam of sunlight that shines on all men, and it is not a lightening bolt which strikes every throne at the same time", but the principles of the French Revolutions enshrined in it were transported to places where "sunlight […] shines on all men", such as Latin America, the Caribbean, and even the colonial states in the 20th century. During the French Revolution, slave revolutions in the Caribbean had taken place. In Haiti, Toussaint L'Ouverture both aided and benefited from the revolution in the 1790s. Known as the "black Jacobin", he, along with other members of the slave revolt, added "a new ideological dimension" to their struggle, but also "preserved the impetus of the revolution in Europe by consuming huge quantities of British money and manpower", the latter estimated to number around 100,000 men. Events in Europe, such as the conquering of Spain by Napoleon, "triggered the revolt of Spain's American colonies". Revolutionaries in Latin America had considered and studied the French Revolution, perhaps the most notable being Simon Bolivar, who liberated much of Latin America; he had been influenced by both the teachings of his tutor, Simon Rodriguez, on liberté, égalité, and fraternité, and by Napoleon's coronation as King of Italy. Under these principles he liberated Argentina in 1810, Peru in 1821, Bolivia in 1825 and Venezuela in 1830. These revolutions were partly the result of the French Revolution, which "gave currency to the principle that individuals and communities have the right to secede from one and adhere to another state", and thus their revolutionary leaders were beneficiaries.

It has been said that the French Revolution "was a political revolution with social consequences". This may be true of its effects on France, where the bourgeoisie in the form of landowners, bureaucrats and soldiers benefitted. However it does not address the significant impact of the French Revolution in shaping future revolutions, revolutionary thought and revolutionaries, both within Europe and beyond. Its importance lies in that "[i]t provided an inspiration: proof that revolution could occur. It provided a model: what techniques to use, what mistakes to avoid. It provided a style and a language". Perhaps, though, it provided something more; just as the revolution's actions and policies "carried the disturbance outwards from France in everwidening ripples", the ripples of liberty, equality and fraternity spread outward from France, in the same way that the revolutionary tricolour spread across the globe in various guises and colours, adopted by those who believed in those principles.

The psychological reasons behind Internet trolling and mobbing By Maxwell Richard Winfrey, U6 Hazelwell

Image by Peter Steiner for The New Yorker Introduction The Internet is beyond question the most important means of modern human communication ever to exist. It has become the new normal; millions of business relationships are transacted over the Internet and, since its inception, increasingly, social relationships are conducted using the tools of social media: 1.49 billion people worldwide are active members of Facebook37 and Twitter has 304 million active monthly users38. However, with the rise of the Internet, there are new problems relating to our behaviour with this new medium of communication. In particular, the twin phenomena of Internet trolling and public shaming, or "mobbing", are on the increase. We can see this through the statistics of trolls being convicted under the Communications Act 2003 and the Malicious Communications Act 1988. In fact, the Daily Telegraph tells us that: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Last year, 1,209 people were found guilty of offences under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 - equivalent to three every day - compared to 143 in 2004."39

Newsroom.fb.com/company-info accessed on 04/09/15 Statista.com/statistics/282087/number-of-monthly-active-twitter-users/ accessed 04/0915 39 The Telegraph, Five internet trolls a day convicted in UK as figures show ten-fold increase, 24 May 2015, Accessed on 2/9/15 38

This essay seeks to define trolling and mobbing and to shed a little light on some of the psychological factors behind these phenomena through references to research and examples. Who Are Trolls? What Is Trolling? The concept of being "careful" on the Internet is a subjective one; a tweet may be acceptable to some, but offensive to others. Naturally, there are few people who openly identify themselves as trolls or admit to the act of trolling. The Collins dictionary defines the verb to troll as: 'To post deliberately inflammatory articles on an internet discussion board'40 Jennifer Golbeck, in an article for Psychology Today, puts forward the following definition: 'An Internet troll is someone who comes into a discussion and posts comments designed to upset or disrupt the conversation. Often, in fact, it seems like there is no real purpose behind their comments except to upset everyone else involved. Trolls will lie, exaggerate, and offend to get a response.'41 One thing these definitions have in common is that the act of trolling must be deliberate, which must surely be the case - a person who misjudges a mood or tone online, or who simply makes a joke in poor taste, would not be a troll; trolling seems to require a malicious intent. It is worryingly easy to make a comment to someone on social media that will come across as cold or upsetting, only to realise it much later. Such people would not be trolls under either of the above definitions. However, the Collins definition seems to be rather broad and lacks the sense that trolling is a highly personal form of attack - many items posted online will be inflammatory but this does not necessarily make them trolling. This can be demonstrated by reference to the case of the TV Historian Mary Beard, who in 2013 was the object of Twitter abuse by a student called Oliver Rawlings. Amongst other things, he called her a "filthy old slut". She then retweeted his comment, which caused outrage on her behalf amongst her Twitter followers. Most of those hearing about the case would surely recognise Rawlings' behaviour as classic trolling because of the highly personal, vicious and derogatory nature of his statements, which go far beyond being "inflammatory". Jennifer Golbeck's definition seems a fuller and more specific one, which would reflect more accurately the public's understanding of what constitutes trolling. In her article quoted above she states that habitual trolls enjoy their activities and that tests on them show that they score highly for exhibiting traits of psychopathy, sadism and narcissism. In the case of Rawlings, his harassment of Dr Beard seems to have been a one-off event and there is no evidence that he engaged in frequent trolling. Similarly, in the other cases quoted later in this essay, there is no evidence that the trolls in question did so on a regular basis. Whilst the theory set out in Golbeck's article may apply to habitual and extreme trolls, it seems doubtful that many of those, like Rawlings, who troll at a lower level are necessarily psychopaths, sadists and narcissists. There must be other psychological explanations for why people, who may not exhibit these traits, still troll others.

Collins Dictionary definition when accessed on 26/08/15 from http://www.collinsdictionary.com/english/troll Jennifer Golbeck Ph.D. Sep 18 2014. Internet Trolls Are Narcissists, Psychopaths, and Sadists. From Psychology Today. Accessed on 19/06/15

Why Do People Troll? Why are such extreme statements often made on social media, and why do those statements sometimes seem to provoke such strong, and apparently disproportionate reactions? The answer, surely, must lie in the fact that people feel in some way protected when making a statement on the internet, and are disinhibited when they do not have to confront directly the object of their negative comments. This sense that they are protected can be explained by reference to several psychological studies. Buffers How can it be so easy for humans to deliberately cause others hurt and anguish? It is the nature of social media which enables us to do this. People feel safer on the internet, we feel in a way detached from the situation at hand, and so we feel detached from the consequences of anything we say at the time, whether we mean to cause harm to someone or not. This is known as a buffer. An example of a buffer in psychological research would be Milgram’s study into obedience, in which “shocks" were administered by one participant to another participant who got questions wrong. The shocks were not real but the participants dealing out the “shocks” did not know this. The “teacher” and “learner” were in separate rooms. Milgram found that 65% of the participants obeyed the experiment’s instructions and went to administer the “lethal” shock. However, when a similar experiment was done in which the teacher had to force the learner’s hand onto a shock plate, (i.e. the buffer was removed) the percentage of people who administered the lethal dosage decreased to 30%. It could be said that these results have relevance to the way people communicate with each other over the Internet. Saying something cruel to someone out loud is more difficult than saying it over the Internet, because in real life the person is there, in front of you, and you will see their reaction. Online, however, the contrary is true, and trolls are therefore a step removed from their victims and the consequences of their actions. Anonymity When humans are handed the opportunity to become anonymous, their nature is often revealed to be cruel and even at times sadistic, whether alone or in a group. When nobody knows your identity, why would there be a reason to regulate yourself? Especially in a situation where the consequences of your actions are unlikely to come back to haunt you? As Michael Stevens, A You-Tuber with degrees in English Language and Literature, as well as Neuropsychology, refers to in his YouTube video "When Will We Run Out Of Names?": 'Usernames can travel more quickly and more widely than flesh and blood people and do things that their puppeteers would not normally do away from the keyboard'42 The Internet provides that shroud of cover which is difficult to come by anywhere else. It is a place where you can just be a username, so there is no need to worry about saying something socially unacceptable. When someone acts differently because they are anonymous online, it is known as the online disinhibition effect. Patricia Wallace, author of The Psychology Of The Internet puts it like this:

Michael Stevens from his channel “ Vsauce" 13/4/15, When Will We Run Out Of Names?, YouTube, Accessed on 26/08/15

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Research suggests that the degree of anonymity affects our behaviour in important ways and leads to disinhibition- a lowering of the normal social constraints of behaviour. It is not an all or nothing variable, especially on the Internet, but we feel more or less anonymous in different Internet locales, and this affects the way we act.'43 This statement, although made in 2001, before the explosion in the use of social media, is still relevant today. It is a good example of the fact that although the Internet has changed, the way that humans have interacted with it on a social level has not. The Proteus effect Another possible explanation for why people troll is more subtle, however, it is unique to the Internet. On many social image and discussion sites, such as 4chan and reddit, as well as MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role playing games) such as World Of Warcraft and Rift, there are accounts with avatars and usernames referencing pop culture, for example people having usernames and profile pictures of characters from films, television shows and animation, as well as avatars in MMORPGs that are heavily over- sexualised. Research done by Fox, Bailenson and Tricase found that women who used avatars with sexualised features can be negatively affected by their influence. They concluded: 'Women may be at risk for experiencing self-objectification and developing greater rape myth acceptance, and these attitudes may influence their behaviors both on- and offline'44 If sexualised avatars can change a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s self image, and with that the way that they may act online or offline, it is no far stretch to suggest that certain avatars can change a person's online behaviour. For example, a user with an account related to that of a villain from pop culture, could possibly be more likely to act in an unfriendly manner towards other users, as now, not only is their anonymity protected, but also their true personality is too. This can, and has, led to these kinds of profiles trolling regular users. It is a disquieting fact that people can be changed by the very profiles that they themselves have created. Again, Michael Stevens puts this point across eloquently, saying: 'So, it becomes quite interesting that we're not going to run out of [usernames] any time soon, in fact they might run out of us first, and, may, in many ways, run us'45 Public Shaming, or Mobbing What is mobbing? A good, general definition of mobbing is provided by Wikipedia: "Mobbing in the context of human beings means bullying of an individual by a group in any context, such as a family, friends, peers, school, workplace, neighborhood, community, or online."46

Patricia Wallace (2001). The Psychology Of The Internet. Cambridge University Press. p9. Jesse Fox, Jeremy N. Bailenson, Liz Tricase, The embodiment of sexualized virtual selves: The Proteus effect and experiences of selfobjectification via avatars, Department of communication, Stanford University, accessed on 27/08/15 , https://vhil.stanford.edu/pubs/2013/fox-chb-sexualized-virtual-selves.pdf 45 Michael Stevens from his channel Vsauce 13/4/15, When Will We Run Out Of Names?, YouTube, Accessed on 26/08/15 46 Wikipedia, Mobbing, Accessed on 03/09/15 44

Mobbing is the act of many people criticising a person or a target group with the sole intent to shame them in a public online setting such as Twitter. Often it is the case that many trolls take part in mobbing, as mobbing, to a certain extent is a form of mass-trolling. Interestingly, many trolls who are “outed” also find themselves the victims of mobbing as a result of their trolling activities! A discussion of the phenomenon of internet mobbing can be introduced by reference to the example already mentioned above that of Dr Mary Beard. This example is particularly pertinent as it connects the twin phenomena of trolling and mobbing. It was Dr Beard’s retweeting of Rawlings’ original remarks about her that led not only to the press becoming aware of the incident, but to a mass shaming and vitriolic criticism and abuse of Rawlings. Many of Dr Beard's followers, as well as others who had not heard of her until this incident, began to abuse Rawlings on Twitter. Rawlings apologised. Interestingly, it was later revealed that Dr Beard had not only befriended Mr Rawlings, but she also ended up writing him a job reference, possibly because she knew that, in light of what had just happened to him, his employment prospects would be seriously affected. This example highlights various aspects of trolling and mobbing. First, people who end up mobbing have the capacity to be just as cruel as any internet troll, their comments just as vile and their motivation shockingly similar. This is often due to the fact that the mobbers believe that they are engaging in battle of what is essentially good versus bad; they have morality on their side. Second, the person being mobbed usually gets more abuse than they deserve, to the extent that the target can often become the victim. It can be argued that this is due to two types of conformity, which will be outlined and discussed. In the case involving Mary Beard, she eventually had to ask those mobbing Rawlings to stop, saying: "Any more would be corrosive”.47 Why do people mob? “A Just Cause”? The most important question here is without a doubt "why?” Why do mobbers feel they are in a position to act in the same way as an Internet troll, especially on Twitter where their anonymity is not as protected as other places on the Internet? It is perhaps because they feel a sense of righteousness about their cause; they feel that they are the "good guys". Although there has been little research from a psychological perspective into public mobbing on the Internet, there are plenty of examples. One such example shows both how people shaming trolls can be trolls themselves, and also how a troll can end up as a victim as well. On the 4th of October 2014, Brenda Leyland was found dead in her hotel room. She had been receiving a lot of hate messages and death threats over Twitter because of her tweets, which deliberately attacked the parents of Madeleine McCann. Brenda was without a doubt a troll. However the messages she received were more vicious than her own tweets and retweets.

Information and quote from article by Elizabeth Grice, Twitter trolls mess with Mary Beard at their peril, The Telegraph,02/08/13, Accessed on 05/09/15, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/10218942/Twitter-trolls-mess-with-Mary-Beard-at-theirperil.html

Ms Leyland, (whose Twitter handle was @sweepyface) was sending tweets out like this: “#mccanns always say, as they did from Germany “public have been so supportive”; trying to convince dwindling numbers? or herself?”48 "#mccann s (sic) must be feeling a bitter chill enveloping them, they cannot be unaware of the huge tidal wave of scepticism rolling inexorably on"49 Whereas she was receiving tweets like this: "@sweepyface @BigPhiIIyStyle jealousy is a very ugly trait, but then everything about you is ugly. Evil to the core NOW GET LOST #McCann"50 “ Sweepyface, we’re coming for you. Do you feel us?? The decent kind folk who pray for this family and their sad loss. You go to hell ***** "51 There is an irony about this second tweet, the person behind it mentions “us” as being “The decent kind folk”, but it is puzzling that the “decent kind folk” send a clear death threat to Brenda, as well as telling her to “go to hell”. By referring to themselves as “decent kind folk” this person is clearly trying to identify with a sense of righteousness, behaving as if they have a just cause, attempting to act as the ‘good guy/girl’ when actually the reverse comes across. What happened to Brenda perfectly puts across the first point about mobbing, the mobbers end up coming across as ruthless, cruel and, in this case, maybe even violent. "They got what they deserved”? Another interesting thing that occurs in mobbing incidents is it could be said that that the victim often receives more abuse than they deserve. This could be due to the role of allies (like minded people) over the Internet. This demonstrates a type of conformity called internalisation, where someone will follow the majority because their views are the same as that of the majority. What this can lead to however, is many people joining in because of the large size of the majority. By vilifying the victim, it makes it difficult for others to come to their defence for fear that any defenders would receive abuse as well. Therefore we conclude that it is hard to deviate from the actions of the majority, and so one might join the majority for acceptance. This is known as a form of compliance known as normative social influence- the majority has made it hard to deviate, so conformity is the easiest option. The fear of rejection from the majority of the group is not without substance, Schachter in 1951 had participants discuss what action should be taken with a juvenile delinquent. In this group of participants there was a confederate of the study who was instructed to deliberately go against the thoughts of the majority,

Greptweet.com, accessed on 2/9/15, http://greptweet.com/u/sweepyface/sweepyface.txt Greptweet.com, accessed on 2/9/15, http://greptweet.com/u/sweepyface/sweepyface.txt 50 -@MilesDKAB, November 11 2015, www.greptweet.com/u/milesdkab/milesdkab.txt, accessed on 2/9/15 51 Express.co.uk, McCann troll Brenda Leyland driven to suicide by Twitter death threats, By James Murray, Accessed on 2/9/15, http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/169572/Mccann-troll-Brenda-Leyland-driven-to-suicide-after-twitter-death-threats 49

essentially deviating from their views. When the discussion was finished the results were that the deviant was the most unpopular of the entire group, being rejected the most by his fellow participants.52 With rejection at stake, Matt Taylor, an astrophysicist, received little defence for wearing a novelty print shirt with half naked women on it during a brief television interview following his successful landing of the Rosetta space probe on a comet. He then received extreme criticism online for his choice of clothing instead of praise for landing the Rosetta probe. The backlash was extreme, for example @SallyStrange wrote: "@mggtTaylor Why'd you have to ruin the damn comet landing for millions of women, and girls, & ppl who don't hate women and girls?"53 Amongst many other like-worded tweets, @smiffy wrote: "We land on a comet, and some twit just HAS to go spoil it. Wake up, ESA HR department; reprimand and apology in order"54 The focus was thereby shifted away from the achievement of Matt Taylor by the mobbers to the scientistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s choice of clothing. It will now be impossible to recall this event without it having been overshadowed by the mobbersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; behaviour; however, once a large enough group of people joined in shaming him, it became easier to attack than defend, and on what should have been a day for @mggtTaylor to be praised for his hard work, Dr Taylor, with a degree from Imperial College London, was shamed. Thankfully he did not lose his job over the ordeal. In fact, interestingly, the pendulum of public opinion, eventually swung back in his favour, with Boris Johnson even writing an article for the Telegraph in his defence. By the end of the week, after his apology the whole ordeal was over, completely forgotten by the Twittersphere. It is true that here, Matt Taylor was lucky, and in a way he got off lightly, which is disquieting given the amount of abuse he received, but it isn't common for people's lives to be completely ruined, or in Brenda Leyland's taken away from them, and with this in mind it is no stretch to say that being the victim of mobbing can cause total alienation. Conclusion The phenomena of internet trolling and mobbing provide an insight into what true human nature can look like when we are given the opportunity to interact with each other with the possibility of few or no consequences or negative repercussions. Given the sheer volume of traffic on social media, it is seems inevitable that the incidences of trolling will increase on a daily basis. The fact of the increase of prosecutions in this area is, it seems, unlikely, at this time to provide a sufficient deterrent whilst the possibility of being caught and punished remains relatively low. There are simply too many people on the internet and it is unfortunately too hard to enforce action on all incidences of trolling because there are too many cases even to count, let alone document.

Normative Social Influence, Consequences,Wikipedia, Accessed on 05/09/15 @SallyStrange, Twitter 12 November 2014, Accessed 3/09/15 54 @smiffy, 12 November 2014, Accessed 03/09/15 53

Despite this however, understanding the causes behind mobbing and trolling is a key part of treating the problem, and as more and more research is compiled, and more results are found, this understanding will grow, which will eventually lead to increased awareness of the issue, which, in turn, may make people think a little bit more before pressing 'send'. We are still in the early days of the internet, and in particular social media, and it may be that trolling is just a glitch which will eventually be debugged. To conclude, I have set out to provide some insight into the minds of those that troll or mob others on the internet, as well as provided pertinent and relevant case studies for mobbing which give us a glimpse of the thought processes that go into hurting others on the internet. "On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog"55

Peter Steiner, The New Yorker, Accessed on 03/09/15

Sex and the City: how far is the Catullus persona a literary construct, rather than a portrayal of the author himself? By Isabelle Winstanley, U6 Queen’s

Introduction Although Gaius Valerius Catullus may not quite be the Carrie Bradshaw of the first century BC, the lives of poet and New York journalist both revolved around sex and the city. There the similarity may appear to end, since we lack concrete knowledge about the life of the man who was the poet Catullus. No ancient biography exists, although more recent scholars have attempted to formulate their own accounts of the man behind the words. However, these are essentially based on scraps of information, gleaned from the work of other poets or Catullus himself. Whilst Garrison argues that scholars’ tendency to form biographies of Catullus based on the behaviour of his protagonist, ‘is probably justified’56, it is vital to remember that the Catullus protagonist is solely the creation of the poet, and therefore wholly under his control. It is overly simplistic to argue that the poet himself has the personality of his protagonist since writing in the first person does not necessarily indicate personal connection. Similarly, and to return to the Sex and the City reference, it would be absurd to assume that the author of the book, Candace Bushnell, is of identical character to her protagonist, Carrie Bradshaw. However, nor would it be sensible to wholly separate the characters of protagonist and author. As Griffin comments, ‘life and literature are... indissolubly linked’57; characters are created based on human experience. We might infer, for example, that a novelist who writes fantasy is dissatisfied with their world in some way. However, when we consider the Catullus protagonist in the twenty-first century, it is impossible to ascertain what form this resemblance takes. It could be that the protagonist is a true portrait of Catullus himself, but it could equally be that he is the man that Catullus wishes to be. Or, he may be a mixture of the two: the serial womaniser masking the true ardent lover. However, possessing so little knowledge about the life of Catullus does have its advantages; we may interpret his poetry far more freely. Just as a child is able to draw a more imaginative picture, knowing and understanding relatively little about the world, so in our examination of Catullus’ poetry we are unconstrained by factual evidence of the man behind the words. That said, some of the characters mentioned in Catullus’ poetry are readily identifiable. His chief muse, ‘Lesbia’, to whom he addresses the majority of his poems, is widely acknowledged to be Clodia Metelli. Despite her liaisons with Catullus, Clodia was, in fact, an aristocratic woman married to Metellus Celer, a Roman proconsul. Of Iuventius, a male lover of the protagonist, we know little. It is thought that ‘Iuventius’ may not even be his real name, but rather a reference to his youth. As two notable objects of the protagonist’s affection, Lesbia and Iuventius will be considered to some extent within the scope of this essay.

56 57

Garrison, D., The Student’s Catullus: Third Edition, Oxford, Crown Publishers Inc., 2005, p.xi. Griffin, J., Latin Poets and Roman Life, London, Bristol Classical Press, 1994, p.xii.

However, before exploring specific personae, it is important to define the concept of ‘persona’. As well as being a character assumed by an author in his writing58, ‘persona’ is an aspect of someone’s personality as displayed to others 59 . Therefore, in an exploration of the different personae adopted by the Catullus protagonist, this essay will consider ‘personae’ as different aspects of a single character, which give an overall impression of the ‘personality’ of the protagonist, defined as the assemblage of qualities or characteristics which makes a person a distinctive individual60. Although numerous personae undoubtedly exist within Catullus’ poetry, this essay will discuss those of the ardent, feminine, masculine and homosexual lovers, as well as that of a prudent Roman citizen. Although he may be a literary construct, the Catullus protagonist is as complex a character as a real human being, and thus his personality contains many contrasting traits. Indeed, it is only by way of an equal consideration of these personae that we may gain an understanding of his overall personality, and perhaps that of Catullus himself. The Ardent Lover The Catullus protagonist is perhaps most famous for his earnest attitude to love. Whilst other love poets enjoyed the thrill of conducting illicit affairs with many different married women, the protagonist seems to remain relatively faithful, in verse if not in behaviour, to Lesbia. Moreover, he appears to require much affection from his mistress; in Poem 2, which he addresses to Lesbia’s pet sparrow, he writes:

‘passer, deliciae meae puellae, quicum ludere, quem in sinu tenere’ ‘Sparrow, my girl’s darling, Whom she plays with, whom she cuddles61’

Link: Sparrow or Parrot? The writing of odes to lovers’ pets is a theme seen in other Latin elegiac poetry. Ovid, for example, writes to Corinna’s parrot, apostrophising: ‘Psittacus, Eois imitatrix ales ab Indis, occidit’ ‘Alas, poor parrot, the Indian talker dies’ However, whilst Ovid merely celebrates the life of the parrot, Catullus resents the sparrow’s place in Lesbia’s affections. Both Catullus and Ovid wrote volumes of poetry about their mistresses, however, of the two, Catullus is the more earnest lover, regarding even a sparrow as a barrier to a closer relationship between himself and Lesbia.

The protagonist’s jealousy is apparent here; he scrutinises the relationship between woman and bird, noting their actions in scrupulous detail. He juxtaposes the words ‘passer’, ‘sparrow’, and ‘deliciae’, ‘darling’, to emphasise the connection between them, perceiving the sparrow as Lesbia’s darling, rather than himself.

‘tecum ludere sicut ipsa possem’ ‘Would I could play with you as she does’ Returning to Poem 2, whilst we may accept that ‘passer’ does indeed refer to a sparrow, many authors undertake ‘erotic metaphorical readings62’ of Poem 2, understanding the ‘passer’ as a phallic symbol. If this were the case, the tone of the poem changes, and the Catullus protagonist takes on a different persona altogether. Whilst a poem in which the protagonist appears to be jealous of a sparrow may indicate his ardency as a lover, a poem about a phallic symbol indicates that he is purely interested in the sexual side of the relationship. Under the mask of writing a poem about jealousy, Catullus may in fact be referring to an 58

Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2007 (6th edition), p.2169. Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2007 (6th edition), p.2169. 60 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 2007 (6th edition), p.2170 61 Lee, G., Catullus: The Complete Poems, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008, p.3. 62 Unknown Author, The Sparrow’s Mistress: Form and Meaning in Catullus 2, https://camws.org/meeting/2010/program/abstracts/02D2.Marquis.pdf 59

altogether less romantic aspect of the relationship. Thus conflict between personae comes into play, even within a single poem. Moreover, Catullus also appears as an ardent and romantic lover in Poem 5, where he implores Lesbia to:

‘vivamus mea Lesbia, atque amemus, rumoresque senum seueriorum omnes unius aestimemus assis’ ‘Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love, And value all the talk of The wise at a single penny’

Interpretation: A Passionate Shepherd to his Love Poem 5 is echoed by Christopher Marlowe’s similarly romantic poem. Marlowe’s protagonist implores his lover to: ‘Come live with me and be my love’ The simple verbs ‘live’, and ‘love’ used by both Marlowe and Catullus refer to basic human desires for companionship and shelter, thus suggesting that they require only their most fundamental needs to be fulfilled. A Passionate Shepherd to his Love is seen as a model of romantic poetry, and its closeness to Catullus’ Poem 5 is evident.

Here, Catullus creates a heavily idealised depiction of the relationship between himself and Lesbia. Although the two were not married, and Lesbia already had a husband, Catullus pictures them settling down together as a couple. Again, Catullus’s assertions in Poem 5 conflict with another of his personae: that of a decorous Roman citizen. In Poem 5, he urges Lesbia to ignore ‘the wise’, ‘senum seueriorum’ who represent dutiful and proper Romans, and continue their relationship. Poem 5 appears to focus on the true affection that Catullus has for Lesbia. However, later on in the poem, Catullus demands that Lesbia:

‘da mi basia mille’ ‘Give [him] a thousand kisses’. Thus whilst initially romantic, the way in which Poem 5 descends into sensuality may reveal Catullus’ true focus, and his underlying motives for living with Lesbia. Again, the personae come into conflict here: the protagonist appears both romantic and lustful. The ardent lover persona is also seen in Poem 51, where the protagonist watches Lesbia engaging in conversation with another man. In a similar way to Poem 2, he scrutinises their behaviour. However, whilst Poem 2 is playful in tone, Poem 51 sees Catullus undergoing serious physical consequences of his emotional distress. He describes how:

‘lingua torpet’ ‘My tongue’s paralysed’ The protagonist is rendered physically helpless by the mere sight of Lesbia talking to another man: from this, we may conclude that he is an ardent, and even desperate lover, focused only on securing Lesbia’s affections. However, Catullus is not consistent in his emotional weakness. For example, in Poem 8, he does not allow his heart to dominate his response to rejection. Instead, he tells himself to leave Lesbia alone, and behave with aloofness in the manner of a proper Roman citizen.

Inspiration: Fragment 31 (Sappho) With its strong emotions and physical distress, Poem 51 may seem to confirm that the persona of an ardent lover is strongest. It is, however, important to consider its basis. Catullus’ work is an interpretation of the Greek poet Sappho’s Fragment 31, in which she details her reactions to unrequited love in the following way: ‘ἀλλά κὰμ μὲν γλῶσσα †ἔαγε†, λέπτον δ' αὔτικα χρῷ πῦρ ὐπαδεδρόμηκεν, ὀππάτεσσι δ' οὐδ' ἒν ὄρημμ', ἐπιρρόμβεισι δ' ἄκουαι’ ‘My tongue freezes. Fire, Delicate fire, in the flesh. Blind, stunned, the sound Of thunder, in my ears.’ The scenario is identical; Sappho’s lover is talking to a man, and she is blinded by jealousy. Therefore, since Catullus has almost directly translated the fragment for his Poem 51, his reaction may instantly become less vivid. For if he is simply imitating the reactions of Sappho, surely we cannot regard the emotions in his poems as truly meaningful? In fact, the only element of Poem 51 which is truly Catullus’ own exhibits an entirely different persona. The four concluding lines illustrate the persona of a dutiful Roman citizen. As Catullus’ own work, rather than his interpretation of Sappho’s, we should perhaps look more to these lines to analyse the persona. He is, therefore, perhaps more a dutiful citizen than an ardent lover.

The Feminine Lover In many ways Catullus can be seen to play the role of the female in his relationship with Lesbia. Although today the stereotypical Roman man is a model of masculinity, the Catullus protagonist is not. In Poem 8, Catullus tells himself, after his rejection by Lesbia:

‘nunc iam illa non uult: tu quoque, impotens, noli’ ‘Now she’s stopped wanting, you must stop, you weakling’ In Roman times, a male citizen would not be condemned for taking lovers, so long as he remained in the dominant position in the relationship. To do otherwise was to compromise his sexual integrity. This code of behaviour was regarded as part of the Roman ‘conquest mentality’, in which it was manly to master and not to be mastered. However, Fitzgerald refers to the ‘engulfing vortex of Lesbia’s sexuality63’, and indeed, it seems that the relationship is dominated by Lesbia, waxing and waning according to her desire, rather than that of the protagonist. Catullus’ discomfort with his role as the female counterpart is clear in his use of apostrophe to his protagonist. It demonstrates the fervency of his command to stop pursuing Lesbia, and release himself from his label as an ‘impotens’, ‘weakling’. Despite his apparent desire to free himself from his attachment to Lesbia, it also seems that the protagonist has no choice, for he ‘must stop’.

Fitzgerald, W., Catullan Provocations: Lyric Poetry and the Drama of Position, London, University of California Press, 1995, p.183.

Likewise, in Poem 11, Catullus creates a definite sense that he plays the role of the female in the relationship between himself and Lesbia. He describes his love as having:

‘cecidit uelut prati ultimi flos, praetereunte postquam tactus aratro est’. ‘Fallen like A flower, after a passing plough-blade Has touched it’. Catullus creates two distinctive motifs here, likening the protagonist to a ‘flower’, ‘flos’, and representing Lesbia with a ‘plough-blade’, ‘aratro’. Typically aligned with delicacy, vulnerability, and crucially femininity, the flower, or the protagonist, is crushed by the plough-blade, which has connotations of strength and power. Fitzgerald concurs, commenting that ‘as an object of aesthetic beauty, the flower is opposed to the plough, an agent of ruthless civilising power64’. Thus the dynamic within the relationship becomes apparent: Lesbia is the plough-blade, with ultimate control over the protagonist’s flower. Moreover, Catullus’ words evoke a sense of the ease with which Lesbia crushes the protagonist: a mere ‘touch’ suffices to ensure his repression. The overtness with which Catullus indicates his own femininity in Poem 11 is seems scarcely credible, considering the aforementioned ideas of sexuality and Roman masculinity. Indeed, there is a glaringly obvious ‘gender inversion’65 in much of Catullus’ poetry. It may therefore be reasonable to argue that Catullus is able to mock his protagonist as feminine because, in reality, his own masculinity is unquestionable. Just as, in the twenty-first century, a sufficiently masculine man may wear a pink shirt without being dismissed as effeminate, it may have been possible for Catullus to assume a feminine persona, and not be censured. However, since we will never know for sure, Poem 11 may justifiably be interpreted in either manner. The Masculine Lover Whilst the Catullus protagonist is previously aligned with a flower, he credibly adopts the persona of a masculine lover. There is nothing more aggressively masculine than the opening to Poem 16:

‘pedicabo ego et irrumabo vos’ ‘I’ll commit acts of sexual violence against you66’ Thus Catullus threatens two men of his acquaintance, Furius and Aurelius. He justifies this threat:

‘qui me ex uersiculis meis putastis, quod sunt molliculi, parum pudicum’ ‘For thinking me, because my verses Are rather sissy, not quite decent.’

Fitzgerald, W., Catullan Provocations: Lyric Poetry and the Drama of Position, London, University of California Press, 1995, p.182. Unknown Author, The Sparrow’s Mistress: Form and Meaning in Catullus 2, https://camws.org/meeting/2010/program/abstracts/02D2.Marquis.pdf 66 a literal translation of the latin has been omitted 65

It becomes clear that Catullus’ earlier threats are his reaction to criticism from the two men. He elaborates:

‘vos, quod milia multa basiorum legistis, male me marem putatis?’ ‘Because you’ve read of my many thousand Kisses you doubt my virility?’ Just as this essay has used Catullus’ references to ‘a thousand kisses’ as evidence of his femininity, so Furius and Aurelius appear to have labelled him as effeminate on a similar basis. Catullus defends himself by dissociation with his protagonist, saying that:

‘nam castum esse decet pium poetam ipsum, versiculos nihil necessest.’ ‘The true poet should be chaste Himself, his verses need not be.’ Catullus concurs with the perspective of this essay here, by separating the author from the literary personae, and saying that his modesty as a poet should not be determined by that of his verses. Although he apostrophises Furius and Aurelius here, Poem 16 could almost be addressing the reader, in Roman times and in the twenty-first century, warning them to refrain from deducing his own personality from his poetry.

Debate: Is art is independent of the artist? Centuries later, Oscar Wilde faced similar issues, as Victorian England reacted to the homosexuality which underpins The Picture of Dorian Gray. Just as Furius and Aurelius appear to have deduced Catullus’ own character from that of his literary protagonists, so Victorian critics took Wilde’s homosexual characters as proof of his homosexuality. Wilde, like Catullus, professed that all art is somehow independent of its creator. However, it is notable that Wilde was indeed homosexual. Therefore, no matter how much one may argue that it is wrong to deduce an author from his work, the fact remains that Wilde’s work did indeed reflect his own life: perhaps Catullus’ poetry fulfilled a similar role?

However, conclusions about the character and morals of Catullus may be drawn even from this response. As Broder comments, ‘Catullus buys into moral standards that he actually rejects’ 67 . He identifies the inner paradox in these assertions, since Catullus is attempting to establish his chastity by threatening sexual violence. So whilst he may separate himself entirely from his literary protagonist, in his hyperaggressive threats, a man struggling with his image is apparent. His desperation to appear masculine, in the face of criticism, is clear. The very fact that Catullus feels a need to defend himself could perhaps suggest that he finds himself wanting. Poem 32 also displays a thoroughly masculine persona, and is one of the few poems in the Carmina collection which is not addressed to Lesbia. Rather Catullus apostrophises Ipsithilla, another of his lovers. He commands her to:

Broder, M., Camping It Up in Ancient Rome: A Queer Take on Catullus 16, Huffpost Gay Voices, 2013

‘domi maneas paresque nobis nouem continuas fututiones’. ‘Stay at home and prepare for us Nine interrupted functions’. The commanding tone of the protagonist, coupled with the substance of his demand, make for a definite display of manliness. The concept of demanding sexual gratification conforms with the expected behaviour of a Roman man; moreover, the protagonist’s digression from his faithfulness to Lesbia also puts him in a stereotypically alpha-male position. Therefore, Poem 32 seems to witness the Catullus protagonist acceding to the Roman masculine standard. However, later in the poem he makes the contrasting assertion:

‘uerum siquid ages, statim iubeto’. ‘in fact, if you’re willing, command me now’. Contrary to his earlier commands, the protagonist seems to suggest that his experience is dependent on Ipsithilla’s consent. He also asks her to ‘command him’, implying that he would rather she adopt the dominant position in their relationship. Therefore, by the end of Poem 32, the persona of the protagonist is not so clearcut. The Homosexual Lover Catullus’ poems which recount homosexual encounters might be seen to undermine his masculine persona. Certainly, in the twenty-first century, many homosexual men may carry the stereotype of being effeminate. However, in ancient Rome, this was not necessarily the case. In fact, it was acceptable, and even normal, for a well-born Roman citizen to have younger male lovers. Catullus’ Poem 48 apostrophises Iuventius, the principle male lover in his poetry:

‘mellitos oculos tuos, Iuventi... usque ad milia basiem trecenta’ ‘Your honeyed eyes, Iuventius, I’d kiss three hundred thousand times’ The earnest affection which appears so clearly in these lines echoes that of Poem 5, in which Catullus makes a similar request to Lesbia. Poem 81 sees the protagonist examine Iuventius’ affection for another man:

‘quem tu praeponere nobis audes, et nescis quod facinus facias?’ ‘Who now is dear to you, whom you presume to prefer to me, And know not what a deed you do?’ The familiar image of the jealous lover appears here. Just as the Catullus protagonist demands kisses from both Lesbia and Iuventius, so he is also jealous of both of their relationships with other people. In Poem 81, we see the protagonist wounded by Iuventius’s preference of someone else, in the same way as Poem 51 details his physical reaction to the sight of Lesbia in conversation with another man.

From such similarities in tone and content, we may infer that the protagonist was attracted equally strongly to both men and women: there is nothing in Poem 48 or Poem 99 which suggests that Catullus’ passion for Iuventius is any less than that which he feels for Lesbia. Cantarella states that ‘Catullus... lives out his heterosexual and homosexual love affairs in an absolutely identical way’68. Be that as it may, such preferences would still have been acceptable in Roman society, and Catullus would not have been ostracised for his impassioned declarations of love for a man and a woman. However, although homosexual relationships were permissible, it was imperative that the older Roman citizen should retain the dominant position in the relationship. This was a definite condition; Williams comments on the existence of a ‘rigid black-and-white rhetoric of Roman masculinity’69. In Poem 99, Catullus writes that he:

‘nec possum fletibus ullis tantillum uestrae demere saeuitiae’ ‘Could not, with all [his] tears, Take away ever so little from [Iuventius’] anger’ This assertion suggests a different dynamic in the relationship: Catullus is almost a suppliant here, begging Iuventius for affection. Considering that the argument arose after Catullus kissed Iuventius, it is clear that the latter has some dominance. Hallet refers to a ‘countercultural persona’70 in Catullus’ poetry, and indeed, Poem 99 seems to suggest that Iuventius dictates their sexual interaction, defying Roman cultural tradition. Therefore, when Catullus adopts a persona of the submissive homosexual lover, the feminine lover of earlier poems to Lesbia is recalled. Whether the Catullus protagonist is addressing his declarations of love to a woman or a man, in both instances he appears to adopt both the traditionally masculine and the typically feminine persona. The Sensible Roman Citizen In contrast to his all of the other poetic personae discussed so far, the Catullus protagonist occasionally takes that of a dutiful and traditional Roman citizen. Poem 51 sees the protagonist tell himself:

‘otium, Catulle, tibi molestum est otio exsultas nimiumque gestis: otium et reges prius et beatas perdidit urbes. ‘Leisure, Catullus, does not agree with you. At leisure you’re restless, too excitable. Leisure in the past has ruined rulers and Prosperous cities.’ The use of third-person address here introduces a far less personal feel: Catullus reprimands himself as if he were an external party. The reference he makes to the renunciation of leisure recalls a common Roman conflict of interests: negotium (business) versus otium (leisure). On an etymological level, the word 68

Cantarella, E., Bisexuality in the Ancient World, United States of America, Yale University Press, 2002, p.128 Williams, C., Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity, New York, Oxford University Press, 1999, p.170. 70 Williams, C., citing Hallet, J., Roman Homosexuality: Ideologies of Masculinity in Classical Antiquity, New York, Oxford University Press, 1999, p.154 69

‘negotium’, with its ‘neg-’ prefix, nullifies leisure, thereby suggesting that the two are mutually exclusive. A Roman man, such as Catullus, was expected to fulfil his duty to Rome, by taking on a career, or military service. As a love poet, Catullus was effectively failing in his duty and refusing to conform to the Roman ideal, not just by the content of his poems, but by the very fact that he wrote them. At the end of Poem 51, which we see here, Catullus tells himself that leisure has a negative effect on him, and, in turn, on great cities such as Rome. This inclusion creates an especial conflict of personae here, since it follows the impassioned jealousy which Catullus experiences as he sees Lesbia in conversation with another man, as examined earlier. Whilst one Catullus protagonist is suffering physical pain as a result of unrequited love, the other coldly instructs the abandonment of leisure. Nowhere in Catullus’ poetry are two personae more closely juxtaposed. The dutiful Roman persona is also evident in Poem 8, which sees the protagonist caught between his unrequited love for Lesbia and his knowledge that he must retain his dignity and stop pursuing her. He tells himself, again in third-person address:

‘sed obstinata mente perfer, obdura. uale puella, iam Catullus obdurat’ ‘with a mind made up, be firm, stand fast. Goodbye girl. Catullus now stands fast’ Again, the protagonist’s colder persona is evident here, as he refers to Lesbia as ‘girl’, ‘puella’, an unspecific noun which in no way alludes to his impassioned love for her. However, the initial line of this couplet is repeated later on in the poem, and the protagonist’s vows of renunciation are interspersed with expressions of despair and self-pity, such as:

‘scelesta, uae te, quae tibi manet uita?’ ‘Alas, what life awaits you now, poor wretch?’ As the protagonist questions the future here, it is evident that he still regards the love of Lesbia as instrumental to his happiness. Indeed, whilst his references to ‘standing fast’ embody the concept of Roman dignity and aloofness, questions such as this are packed with emotion wholly unsuited to the Roman ideal. Conclusion From this brief examination of the protagonist in Catullus’ poetry, it is clear that single persona emerges. As Griffin comments, Catullus and other such poets ‘draw upon material which is itself a complex of individual experience, conventional expectations, literary models, propaganda, and fantasy’71. From this melting pot of sources, it is impossible to definitely identify one overriding persona which may be that of Gaius Valerius Catullus himself. Poetry, even when written in the first-person, and seemingly from the perspective of the poet himself, can never be called factual, and is therefore more interpretable. Whilst Catullus’ Carmina collection is addressed to a man called Cornelius Nepos, it is arguably more attractive to the twenty-first century reader than the poems of Ovid, Propertius and Tibullus. Where Ovid’s Amores, for example, is to some extent defined by the protagonist’s confidence and easy conquest of women, the work of Catullus gives us a very different perspective. In Catullus’ Carmina, we share the elation of his protagonist, certainly, as he spends passionate afternoons with Lesbia, Ipsithilla, and Iuventius, but we also we see him struggling, fighting to 71

Griffin, J., Latin Poets and Roman life, London, Bristol Classical Press, 1994, p.63.

overcome unrequited love, endeavouring to conform to the demands of society, and, perhaps most importantly, wrestling with his identity. The universal appeal of Catullus is seen in the coarse bravado of Poem 16, as we recognise the awkward teenage boy, attempting to assert his masculinity. It is evident in Poem 5, as we witness the naive optimism of the young lover, believing that first love will last. As Henderson and Beard assert, poetry such as this ‘offers an array of precedents for our personal behaviour’72. The key word here is ‘array’; even as Catullus morphs from the masculine to the feminine lover, from the homosexual to the heterosexual, and from the impassioned lover to the dignified Roman citizen, he changes too in the eyes of the reader, becoming ever more human. Catullus’ uncertainties do not alienate his audience, in Roman times or in the twenty-first century. They serve to create a closer relationship between poet and reader, as the latter witnesses a personal crusade: that of Catullus himself, as he struggles to forge his own identity, personality, and persona. In conclusion, it matters little whether the Catullus protagonist is a literary construct or a portrayal of the author himself. The value of the verse is in its diversity and relevance to the human condition, both the Rome of 1st century BC, and New York in the 21st century. Who would have thought that Catullus and Carrie Bradshaw had so much in common?

Henderson, J., and Beard, M., A Very Short Introduction to Classics, New York, Oxford University Press, 1995, p.105.

‘No man is born without sin’ – Psalm 42:4 Is evil innate? By Charles Brooksbank, U6 Leconfield

The Oxford Dictionary defines one who is ‘evil’ as ‘profoundly immoral and wicked.’ For the purposes of this essay, an ‘evil’ individual will be recognized as one of a ‘criminal nature’ or one who wishes to cause distress to others. There are many theories as to what creates an ‘evil’ human being. Abusive and fractured childhoods have been shown to increase the likelihood of criminal intent in children, suggesting criminality is a learnt behaviour, rather than genetic. However, thousands of children who survive brutal childhoods and grow up to be functional members of society suggest there are also biological factors intertwined, counteracting previous assumptions. Indeed, the debate is widely intertwined with modern society and varies greatly crossculturally. The Christian standpoint that ‘man is born a sinner’73 comes to mind. Christian principle suggests that all men are sinners, and remain so, until revoked of this status by devotion to the Christian faith. However, due to the fact that religious ideals and beliefs often lack hard evidence, I will stick to hard fact and take a more empirical approach to my essay, looking at the scientific arguments. So, is it possible that humans can be born evil? As in, is it possible for humans to be genetically predisposed to commit evil acts? Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at University College London, Essi Viding, thinks that whilst nobody is born evil, there are genetic differences that can influence the likelihood of developing ‘evil’, or ‘murderous’ traits74. For example, some children are genetically less sensitive to the distress of others; the scientific name for this is ‘emotional contagion.’ Emotional contagion is the “tendency for two individuals to emotionally converge.” Scientists believe this is how children develop empathy. Hence, it is genetically possible for a child with low levels of emotional contagion to lack empathy. This is a key sign of psychopathy, and greatly increases the probability of an individual committing ‘evil’ acts. This evidence suggests that there is a scientific basis behind the argument that children can be born evil, or at least more likely to commit acts of violence. However, Viding also offers opposing evidence, stating that teachers and parents also have a strong effect on a child’s mental state. Viding argues that a harsh, abusive environment can make a child less empathetic, while a positive environment which rewards positive behaviour can help children react to the suffering of others appropriately. Viding concludes, “I really believe that there’s no such thing as someone born evil. At the same time it would be unrealistic to say there aren’t individual differences in how prone someone is to becoming evil.”75 A leading figure in modern neuropsychology, Paul J Zak, published a novel known as ‘The Moral Molecule’, entailing the findings of his research into the effect of oxytocin on human morality. Research over the past decade by Zak has given evidence as to why some humans are naturally kinder than others, why some share and some steal, why some lie and some are honest. He shows that inside the human body, oxytocin acts somewhat like a ‘chemical elixir’ that emulates the feeling of trust, helping humans to create bonds76. In the last 15 years, Zak has lead a number of ground-breaking studies showing that increased oxytocin levels, tend 73

Biblehub.com,. 'Psalm 51:5 Surely I Was Sinful At Birth, Sinful From The Time My Mother Conceived Me.'. N.p., 2015. Web. 8 Sept. 2015. 74 Goldhill, Olivia. 'Are Some Humans Born Evil?'. Telegraph.co.uk. N.p., 2014. Web. 8 Sept. 2015. 75 Goldhill, Olivia. 'Are Some Humans Born Evil?'. Telegraph.co.uk. N.p., 2014. Web. 8 Sept. 2015. 76 Zak, Paul. 'The Trust Molecule'. WSJ. N.p., 2015. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.

to result in more caring and generous behaviour. Zak found through a study on both males and females, that those with higher oxytocin levels were willing to share a larger amount of money with a random stranger, suggesting that oxytocin correlates with the generosity of human beings. In addition, those with lower oxytocin levels were innately more cold-hearted and selfish, willing to share less money with a random stranger. This is important to take into account when debating if humans can be innately evil, as it suggests that humans can be biologically more empathetic depending on the amount of neurotransmitters, such as oxytocin, they produce. However, whilst this study does show that low levels of oxytocin can make an individual more abrasive, it does not prove that oxytocin has any effect on making a human more likely to commit acts of violence, undermining the validity of this study as useful evidence in our debate. However, it is very useful information in showing that biological factors from birth can affect the personality and traits of human beings. Despite this, Oliver Letwin, the Shadow Home Secretary argues the opposite, that evil human behaviour is a direct result of environmental factors. Letwin argues that ‘society creates criminals’77 rather than biological factors. In an interview with ‘The Telegraph’, Letwin declared that social background is the most important factor in deciding whether a human will commit criminal acts. In addition to oxytocin, there have been large amounts of research into the infamous MAO-A gene, or Monoamine Oxidase A (otherwise known as ‘the warrior gene’). Monoamine Oxidase is an enzyme that causes neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin to decay. Indeed, it has been proven that these neurotransmitters play a vital role in the emotional state of humans, and even impulse control. Over the past decade, research on MAO-A has shown how low activity variants of this gene interact with the environment, and especially how it influences violent and antisocial behaviour. In a 2002 study published by Avshalom Caspi at King’s College, Caspi found that humans with low activity variations of the MAO-A gene who suffered from a poor childhood were more likely to develop antisocial and aggressive tendencies in the future than those with high activity variations of the MAO-A gene, who also suffered from a poor childhood78. This is very important as it shows that biological factors can drastically influence criminal tendencies, reinforcing the notion that it may be possible for humans to be born ‘evil’. However, a downfall of this study is that all research was conducted on Caucasians. This undermines the legitimacy of the study as Caucasian children often experience vastly different childhoods than non-Caucasian children, simply due to the nature of cultural variation in society. The study therefore lacks external validity and is culturally biased. Another large weakness of the case made is that leading Neuropsychologist Jim Fallon, (who forefronted research into the effect of neurotransmitters on criminal behaviour) had a drastic deficiency of MAO-A genes in his genetics, similar to many of the murderers he investigated, yet was an entirely ordinary, non-villainous professor. This suggests that a deficiency of the MAO-A gene does not, for certain, condemn violent acts or evil behaviour in the future, rather, increase the likelihood. However, rather than designating criminals as either products of biology or environment, Simon Baron-Cohen is the Professor of Developmental Psychology at Cambridge University and author of bestselling novel ‘Zero Degrees of Empathy’. He argues that both have a significant role. He states that ‘human behaviour is never more than 50 per cent determined by genetics’. His viewpoint is that evil behaviour derives from a complicated balance of biological and environmental factors, and gives a compelling argument. He argues that, even though one variation of the MAO Gene can increase the likelihood of antisocial behaviour, it will 77

Joe Murphy, Political Editor. 'Letwin Says Society Creates Criminals'. Telegraph.co.uk. N.p., 2002. Web. 8 Sept. 2015. Powledge, Tabitha. 'Does The Human "Warrior Gene" Make Violent Criminals--And What Should Society Do? | Genetic Literacy Project'. Genetic Literacy Project. N.p., 2014. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.

not be a certain cause of psychopathic behaviour, or evil tendencies. Furthermore, Baron-Cohen states, “if you look at the history of people committing anti-social acts, breaking the law and hurting other people, there are strong environmental factors that predict that”. He goes on to say, “growing up in an environment of criminality is one big factor, as is early neglect and abuse – those purely emotional factors”. This piece of evidence shows the importance of understanding both biological and environmental inputs into human behaviour. Indeed, there seems to be some sort of trade-off or equilibrium between both biological and environmental factors into deciding the outcome of a human being. Certainly, Baron-Cohen’s research gives a compelling argument that humans cannot be born evil, but can be born with a likelihood of criminal behaviour. Olivia Goldhill, writer for ‘The Telegraph’, accurately defends this, denoting; “Someone who commits murder doesn’t do so just because his parents treated him badly. A lot of people’s parents behave badly but the children don’t turn into killers. Is it because he lives in a violent society where it doesn’t seem to matter so much? No, because he has a capacity to be different, he can choose to go along with the violent society or fight against it. Is it because of a psychological disorder? No, that’s another excuse. But if all these things are combined – if you’re badly treated as a child, if you grow up in a violent society, if you’ve got a psychological disorder - then you don’t stand a chance. Then the murderer is himself a victim. But that doesn’t mean you feel sorry for him. It means you have attempted to explain very wicked, abhorrent behaviour”79. However, New York Time’s columnist David Brooks harshly denies this, writing about the innate capacities of a human to be evil80. He criticises the pre-existing paradigm in society that humans, at heart are naturally good, and hence when someone who displays predominantly good behaviour acts in an evil manner (such as the Robert Bale’s incident, whereby 15 Afghan civilians were brutally massacred), society is left aghast. Instead, Brooks is a Darwinian sympathiser and uses the theory of evolution to explain evil tendencies in humans. He cites evolutionary psychologist David Buss to enforce his viewpoint. Buss keenly studies evil human behaviour, the likes of jealousy and violent tendencies in the context of evolution and Darwinism. He is one of many, who follow the tradition of psychologists seeking to reveal the truth behind antisocial tendencies in naturalistic terms, dating back to the early 1970s, with the likes of Edward O. Wilson and Henry Goddard. Their work is starkly controversial as it claims that evil behaviour is innate and genetically predetermined. Psychologists such as Buss, Brooks and Goddard support a psychological theory known as ‘genetic determinism’, a theory which is often trodden upon by society for bolstering a punitive, conservative worldview. Genetic determinism suggests that if violent tendencies are inborn, there is little we can do about it due to our inability to alter genes. It then suggests that those who are genetically evil and born with violent traits should be imprisoned so that the kinder, law abiding generation can continue to prosper in society. Genetic determinism inclines to disregard environmental causes of violent behaviour, such as upbringing, socioeconomic status and social oppression, and prefers to criminalise, rather than medicate criminalistic behaviour. However, this psychological viewpoint is becoming less and less valid as neuropsychological breakthroughs are made, allowing the physical alteration of genes inside an organism. In addition, this theory is more philosophical rather than scientific, hence lacks valid application to the debate. Despite this, it is important to take into account all psychological viewpoints before reaching a conclusion. Hence, genetic determinism is an important theory to comprehend.

79 80

Goldhill, Olivia. 'Are Some Humans Born Evil?'. Telegraph.co.uk. N.p., 2014. Web. 8 Sept. 2015. Genotopia,. 'The Biology Of Good And Evil'. N.p., 2012. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.

However, there is other strong, scientific evidence to support the idea that evil can be innate, such can be seen in a 2013 Daily Mail article by Kerry McDermott on psychopaths. Indeed, it is believed that 30% of the US prison population are psychopaths 81 . This shows starkly the impact of psychopathic traits on human behaviour, predominantly how a psychopathic mindset can cause humans to be more likely to commit evil deeds. McDermott reveals new research by scientists on psychopaths using an MRI scan, showing individuals being hurt. The research was conducted on 80 male prisoners of ages between 18 and 50 who took brain scans whilst watching people experiencing pain. They found that psychopaths showed significantly reduced brain activity in areas of the brain such as the amygdala, a vital component of the brain that deals with the process of emotions. This suggests that psychopaths are much less emotionally responsive, and have a much lower level of emotional contagion. This becomes extremely prevalent when taking into account the notion that psychopathy is a genetic trait which humans are born with. This is extremely groundbreaking and noteworthy in our debate as it suggests that some humans can indeed be born with a much higher chance to be born evil, due to the fact that psychopathy often leads to criminal behaviour. However, a weakness of this argument is that some psychopaths do not resort to wicked tendencies, and therefore it still does not prove that some humans can be born evil. However, it does add much more weight to the argument that humans can be born with a strong predisposition for evil behaviour. However, brain scanning has not only been used to support the genetic argument for innate evil, but also for the environmental argument. British Neuroscientist, Professor Adrian Raine, revolutionized functional brain scanning in the hope of finding causes for criminal behaviour82. Over a number of years, Raine scanned the brains of numerous ‘evil’ murderers and criminals and nearly all showed similar brain patterns. Specifically they showed, increased activity in the amygdala, (an area of the brain responsible for generating emotions), yet significantly reduced activity was seen in the pre-frontal cortex (responsible for the control of emotions). This evidence suggests that murderers are much less attentive to their emotions, however, in the event of experiencing extreme anger or frustration, are much less able to control their emotions, leaving them vulnerable to outbursts of rage, often resulting in dangerous and uncontrollable behaviour. This evidence suggests that murderers have brains that are more prone to uncontrollable outbursts of anger. But why is this? Raine suggests that childhood abuse might be responsible for these physical alterations to the brain. ‘Donta Page’ was one of the many murderers that Professor Raine scanned, guilty of brutally assaulting a 24 year old woman who caught him breaking into her household. Safe to say, Page was an ‘evil’ human being. Surprisingly, Raine found that Page had significant physical deficiencies in his brain. In addition, he was able to correlate this with his abusive childhood, as he was frequently battered and beaten daily by his mother83. Raine used this evidence to suggest that a harsh environment can cause physical deteriorations in the brain, and therefore emotional deficiencies in the future, increasing your likelihood of committing evil acts of violence. This is compelling evidence that starkly contrasts the work of Buss and Brooks. When taking into account all of the research, evil is neither innate nor learnt. Evil is neither predetermined nor acquired. However, evil is an intricate combination of the two. Indeed, it seems as if there are many factors that can increase the likelihood of developing murderous intent in the future, however, none of them are definite. Needless to say, low levels of oxytocin, weak MAO-A activity, an unstable pre-frontal cortex, an inactive amygdala, inherent psychopathic traits, an abusive childhood and an impoverished livelihood are a 81

Mail Online,. 'Is This Proof Evil Killers Are Born Not Made? Psychopaths' Brains 'Lack Basic Wiring That Triggers Empathy And Compassion''. N.p., 2013. Web. 8 Sept. 2015. 82 BBC News,. 'Are Murderers Born Or Made? - BBC News'. N.p., 2015. Web. 8 Sept. 2015. 83 BBC News,. 'Are Murderers Born Or Made? - BBC News'. N.p., 2015. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.

deadly concoction, likely to create an evil individual. But the likelihood of these genetic and social factors combining themselves in some sort of murderous equilibrium is extremely unlikely. If it is said that humans can be born evil, this is simply not true as not all psychopaths are murderous, not all low activity MAO-A sufferers are criminals, and not all low-level oxytocin sufferers are villainous. In addition, if it is said that humans can be made evil from their environment, this is simply untrue as not all impoverished people are criminals, not all abused children become murderers and not all oppressed fight the system. It is for this reason I will conclude that evil is not innate. However, it becomes hard to say what exactly makes someone evil, as they are neither born evil nor made to be evil. Indeed the only true answer to this question is that; humans can be evil. And that is what makes â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;evilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; scary, evidence suggests any of us could become evil.

Multi-media project: Masao Mizukamiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s influence on floral arrangement in Hong Kong By Kristy Chan, U6 Westal

The following pages contain screen shots of Kristyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s video project and photographs of finished work. The full video can be viewed at www.cheltenhamcollege.org/multi-media-projects.

The Bismarckian era was the most significant period in German history that led towards the development of a national sentiment and political unification By Harry Ferris, U6 Newick House

“It is characteristic of the Germans” Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “that the question ‘What is German?’ never dies out amongst them.” Indeed, there is perhaps no national history, other than that of Germany, where questions of identity and the development of nationhood have played so pivotal a role. Historically, on referring to the “German Question” the country which invariably serves as a reference point is the unitary nation-state established in 1871. Thus the ideological rise of German nationalism is often viewed parochially through the prism of Prussian militarism that preceded and prevailed within Bismarck’s Second Reich. The idea of Germany throughout the ages however, is one of plurality, changeability and contingency; “before 1871, between 1871 and 1945 and after 1945 there was never a single, indeed often not even a dominant, idea of what Germany was or should be.” The formation of an imperial Germany in 1871 along Prussian lines of feudal absolutism was by no means the only desired configuration; indeed the idea of a constitutional liberal democracy favoured by the 1848 revolutionaries or a Habsburg dominated Großdeutschland had just as much nationalistic magnetism as any Hohenzollern sponsored nation building. Excessive focus on the comparatively short reign of the Iron Chancellor then, as the focal point for Germanism, runs the risk of excluding the other “Germanies” of the modern period and their contributions to the development of a national sentiment - the Germany of the Holy Roman Empire, of the Napoleonic period, of the post-1815 Confederation and of the National Assembly in 1848-9 were all privy to pivotal turning points, crucially significant in forging a collective Germanic identity. It is often thought of Bismarck that “if he had never risen to the top in Prussian politics, the unification of Germany would probably have taken place anyway, but surely not at the same time or in quite the same way as it did.” The Pomeranian Junker would prove to be not only a devoted servant of the old monarchical protestant order in an increasingly liberal Diet but rather also a visionary diplomat who shrewdly identified the Prussian cause with that of German unity and nationalism. His diplomatic and strategic sagacity manifested itself at the Biarritz conference of 1865 where crucially, he secured Napoleon III’s promise of neutrality in the event of war with Austria. This retrospective blunder by the French emperor gave Prussia full headway in 1866 to confront the impediment of Habsburg particularism that had prevented the formation of a Kleindeutschland state united along Hohenzollern lines of Volkisch illiberal statism since 1815. The Victory at Sadowa in 1866 and the subsequent Peace of Prague entrenched a Prussian hegemony over the newly established North German Confederation, a state which subsequently saw a surge in Kleindeutsch support from professional liberal institutions such as the National Society. The peace terms dictated by Bismarck were benevolent and resisted calls for harsh annexations from the Habsburg Empire thus ensuring minimal future resentment and a precedent for cooperation and alliance. They also brought Southern states into line with a series of so-called offensive-defensive treaties in which Prussia was entitled to full control of Southern military institutions and railways in the event of future conflicts. The security founded upon these treaties was reinforced by “the skillful fusing of nationalism and states’ rights in a new federative constitution”, which struck the balance of appealing to Southern patriots whilst simultaneously demonstrating to their governments and ruling dynasties that the terms for joining the federation were tolerable. Bismarck also looked to entice Southern States into closer union economically; his calculation was that a new “Zollparlament, which would include representatives elected in both the northern and southern states by universal and equal manhood

suffrage, would dissolve old prejudices in a community of interest that would be so impressive to the onlooker that no one could rationally object to its transition into political form at the appropriate moment.” The appropriate moment came with the inevitable conflict with France. “Anti-French feeling had remained a permanent feature of Franco-German relations throughout the 1860s, and strengthened the demand for a strong Reich led by Prussia, the guardian of the Rhineland.” Bismarck capitalised on this sentiment and encouraged a crisis over the Spanish succession that subsequently led to France declaring war on Prussia. The Franco-Prussian war that entailed brought the whole of Germany together against a common national enemy and was pivotal in the development of a united national sentiment. The 1871 victory signed with the Treaty of Frankfurt was billed by Bismarck as a national cause at a time when patriotic feeling had reached its zenith. Furthermore, the post war vindictiveness of settlement that included parades, a punishing indemnity, and the use of Versailles as a point from which to proclaim the Second Reich, created a permanent enmity with France and cemented the newly united Germany under a militaristic hubris, a specific kind of nationalism upon which so much that was to come hinged. The bold conquering German nationalism that prevailed during the Second Reich was a doctrine which took centuries in the making. Ideas of German nationality through history were changeable and contingent concepts encompassing a kaleidoscope of political philosophies and beliefs. However, the common denominator held amongst the various nationalistic movements from 1806 to 1989 was an entrenched desire for statehood. This longing for unity is an ideology which has its roots in the Reichsgedanke of the Holy Roman Empire, the closest political entity there was to a German state between the ascension of Otto the Great in 962 and the Empire’s dissolution in 1806. Reichsgedanke or Imperial consciousness was a unitary concept which placed an allegiance to the Empire above that of one’s own local state. It was stimulated through the foundation of an imperial justice system “when the first general peace of the whole empire was proclaimed at the Worms diet” in 1495. Thereafter, support for superior imperial federal jurisdiction exercised via the two courts of the Empire, the Reichskammergericht and the Reichshofrat grew. Interestingly, unlike the predominantly middle class national movements of the nineteenth century “the conviction that an effective imperial justice system was beneficial to Germany was not restricted to academic and political opinion, but was deeply rooted in popular feeling.” Indeed the intrinsic loyalty which Germans in the modern period held for this idea of the Reich and specifically Reich Justizstaat went as far as to manifest itself in the peasant risings of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Here the Heilbronn peasant “parliament” considered a plan raised by the former Mainz official Friedrich Weigandt to reinstate the Emperor with all his lost powers and establish “a centralised state with a hierarchy of imperial courts.” Calls for unitary institutions were incessant right up until the seventeenth century where writers like Pufendorf, Hippolytus a Lapide and Leibniz promoted imperial institutions that would act to unify Germany through a recurring genre of writing that has come to be known as Reichsreform literature. Works of Reichsreform were at their most significant in the period after the Seven Years’ War. The conflict saw the forces of a Habsburg empire defeated by Frederick the Great of Prussia. The result was a turning point in the formation of German national identity which since 962 had matured and developed around the centralism of the Reich: by now an imperial doctrine with an uncertain future. The war had “intensified the debate on government, administration, the law and constitutions” showing up the inadequacies of the existing systems when juxtaposed with the superior efficiency of Prussian bureaucracy. The ideological conflicts that Prussia’s rise precipitated substantiated themselves in a rash of works on what it meant to be German in the 1760s exacerbating Germany’s longstanding identity problems: many Germans admired Frederick II while realising the detrimental effect his actions were having on the stability of the Empire. Towards the end of the Empire’s existence however, a new form of national consciousness was starting to materialise; “the old medievalist view, which had seen the Reich as the leading state of Christendom and the Emperor as its secular head, was passing away and was being replaced by a new universalism more in tune with the enlightened spirit of the age, a combination of patriotism and cosmopolitanism which saw the advancement of Germany itself as beneficial to the whole of

humanity.” Originating in pre-revolutionary France, this new concept of citizenship taught that all patriotic citizens had a duty to involve themselves in state affairs and transcend regional class or group loyalties. This new doctrine was particularly prevalent in Germany’s growing middle class “whose links with their enges Vaterland (narrow Fatherland) weakened as they moved around the Reich.” The beginning of a modern middle class was indeed a turning point in the generation of a German national sentiment. However, before that ideology could entrench itself, the Holy Roman Empire was swept away in 1806 by the rise of another, supposedly bourgeoisie upsurge. “In the beginning there was Napoleon.” This is how leading German historian, Thomas Nipperdey, begins his volume on Germany from 1806 to 1918. The ominous foreboding of this opening sentence goes some way in illustrating the monumental impact that the Napoleonic era had on Germany and on German national consciousness in particular. During the years of French occupation, two key turning points occurred which allowed for the development of a modern, enlightened and unitary nationalism. The first of which was the dismantling of the old Holy Roman Empire and a total structural upheaval of the ancien régime; the geographical shape and political order of “almost every German state changed between 1789 and 1815.” Perhaps the most significant of these reconfigurations were the South German so-called Mittelstaaten. Napoleon’s decision to establish these states was determined by French national interests. The Emperor needed territories that were large enough to stabilise his eastern border but not powerful enough to threaten France. Cooperative dynasties of Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden were all allocated with former free cities, bishoprics, ecclesiastical principalities and various other minor imperial territories creating larger, wealthier and more stable states. However, the core of Mittelstaaten stability lay in the new enlightened ideals of what a state should be: “no longer just conglomerates of varied pieces, states should have unified laws and common institutions, through which they would be uniformly governed and centrally controlled.” To ensure that these newly enlarged states with alien governmental systems were indeed stable, Mittelstaaten had to organise and control their recently acquired possessions. With the exception of Württemberg whose monarch still held considerable political influence over the revolutionised administration, civil servants were required to the take reigns of reform. Instructed along the line of French Consulate reform, the melee of old imperial jurisdictions that had hindered the productiveness of pre-revolutionary bureaucracies was superseded by ministries with clear responsibilities for certain governmental functions. “At the same time, lines between state authority and traditional institutions were sharpened, new administrative districts were created, and the relationship between state authority and traditional institutions was clarified.” Essentially the new governmental system, by excluding the sovereign from the executive, drastically increased the civil servants’ influence over their new societies. This phenomenon was part of the broader social emancipation that the Napoleonic period instituted. Archaic restrictions on citizen’s mobility, property and labour were lifted to unleash the constructive forces in society and thereby encourage economic growth. Jews for instance were relieved of some of the more onerous restrictions on where they could and could not work whilst guilds lost most of their local power to determine those who could practise various trades. The bureaucratisation and social emancipation that the revolutionary period facilitated, had overseen the development of enlightened constitutions from the ruins of the archaic and autocratic Holy Roman Empire. It was a turning point in the essence that the popular sovereignty it exemplified and structural reforms it advanced, brought Germans for the first time into the unity of modern nation states, thus giving them the foundations of the fundamental idea of nationalism. The concept of nationalism or a national consciousness however, is not merely dependent on a rigid and binding constitutional structure, but also on a developed and widespread national culture. Previously, during the late eighteenth century when Germany was beginning to develop a national literature, intellectuals like J.G Herder had started to become aware of the connections between their nationality and culture. Academics like him therefore reasoned that a nation’s literature and art sourced its strength and temperament from the

“language, mores and past experiences of the collectivity that Herder called the ‘Volk.’ ” This cultural immersion however, was soon viewed by the intellectuals who produced it as a phenomenon superior to the Francophile culture of the upper classes and Napoleonic regime. Consequently, German national sentiment became inextricable with a cultural struggle against foreign and specifically French influences. This increasingly anti-French strand of German national culture was aggravated during the Napoleonic occupation where the enemy was no longer a frivolous and greedy court culture, (Prussian aristocracy), “but a shallow and mechanistic rationalism [of the enlightenment] that threatened deeper, more authentic German values.” The antagonism of these two conflicting cultures manifested itself in the willful cooperation of “Volk” journalists, such as Mörres, with Prussian leaders in the spread of nationalistic propaganda during the 1813 Wars of Liberation via papers such as Der Rheinischer Merkur. Historiographically much emphasis has been put on this swelling of pan-German nationalism that prevailed briefly during the final years of Napoleon’s European ascendancy, however, such sentiments quickly receded after 1815 when the restored monarchical order began to perceive nationalism as a threat to their recovered power. Despite this, the Napoleonic era was nonetheless crucial in the forging of a German national sentiment. Aside from the creation of modern constitutional states, which gave people a sense of political unity, the First French Empire left Germany with a legacy and a vivid national history. In memoirs, novels, plays and paintings the wars of liberation were shaped to fit an unfolding narrative of nation-building inspired perhaps by that of the United States, in which the Volk’s historic rising became at once precondition of the nation’s ultimate triumph. It gave all Germans the shared solidarity of a united national past, an identity that was not to be forgotten in the undercurrents of national liberalism that proliferated during the restoration era. The establishment of the German Confederation at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 undoubtedly dashed the national hopes of many a German. The restoration of conservative monarchial power was an almighty setback for the progression of German nationalism and the creation of a nation-state. However, the decades that followed leading up to the pivotal revolutions of 1848 were by no means devoid of nationalist sentiment. The foundation of the nationalist student movement Der Allgemeiner Burschenschaft in 1817 who carried the motto “Honour, Freedom and Fatherland” is surely the mark of a prevailing national conscience alive within the educated intellectual elite. The “nebulous, noisy and colourful nationalism” which the Burschenschaften promoted at 500 strong student gatherings on prestigious dates such as the three-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation was also accompanied more sinisterly by a series of assassinations against illiberal monarchist individuals, such as a Nassau official and a dramatist who had previously been in the service of the Tsar. Metternich took action against these national liberal tremors and in 1819, passed in Carlsbad, degrees at a secret session of the Diet. The legislation put all newspapers and centres of education under rigid censorship in an attempt to stamp out potential revolutionaries. Another indicator of simmering nationalism came to light with the 1830 revolutions. These, like their successors in 1848 were pan-European movements, born out of a mostly middle-class desire for a greater degree of constitutionalism and although Germany remained comparatively quiet, there were significant changes to the constitutions of Saxony, Hanover and Brunswick. Another slightly more belated consequence of the incidents of 1830 was the establishment of a customs union or Zollverein in 1834; this was predominantly a Prussian idea designed to facilitate a greater economic fluidity between states that would also act to satisfy growing middle class demands. Despite the notable desire of the Confederation’s educated classes throughout the 1820s and 1830s for national constitutional reform, the most significant turning point in the development of a national sentiment during the restoration epoch came in March of 1848 with a patriotic liberal revolution that was to be known as “the springtime of peoples.” “It was a dream of Europe in which the brotherhood of peoples would replace the self-seeking diplomacy of the old powers, inaugurating an era of a peaceful Europe made up of nations with equal rights organised into democratic states.” In Frankfurt, the German National assembly of 1848 was reflective of this explosion of national liberalist sentiment and buoyantly pursued nationalist policies such as Navy building and the debates as to the establishment of a Mitteleuropa German state. A series of conflicts with other

stateless peoples within the confederation, be it Italians in the Tyrol or Czechs in Bohemia, helped maintain a steady unity and patriotism amongst the German speaking states. The one national conflict however, which ignited the fire of German nationalism more than any other was the conflict with Denmark over the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. “The German National Assembly declared that Schleswig Holstein had become a matter of national honour”, and was resolute in its demands for both territories to be incorporated into the Confederation. The great powers however, namely Great Britain and Russia, could not accept a territorially expansive German state extending its influence into the strategic area of the “Bosphorus of the North.” Despite the threat of European war the German assembly, still in a hyper nationalistic fervour, requested Prussia to proceed with the pressing of the national claim upon Schleswig. Only the refusal of the Prussian King prevented the policy from being adopted. The so-called “capitulation of Prussia” subsequently made the assembly realise “that without the Prussian army the German government could achieve nothing.” This realisation had a profound effect on the state of German national feeling towards the end of 1848. It was a defining moment that foreshadowed the Prussian hegemony of a future Germany. Although the events of 1848 did not result in the formation of a united Germany, (Frederick Wilhelm IV rejected the “crown from the gutter” offered to him by the assembly and the Confederation was restored) they did not end demands for a nation state. The capitulation of Prussia was a crucial turning point in the formation of a national identity because it overwhelmingly confirmed to all Germans that the most viable option for unification was under Hohenzollern, not Habsburg leadership; thus meaning that the Kleindeutschland state favoured in Berlin would have to be adopted. This was the state of mind among most of the population that Bismarck inherited upon his rise to power in 1864, without this preconditioned national sentiment, his project of unification would have been considerably more difficult. “There must be some special magic in this word ‘German.’ ” One can see that each person uses “German” whenever it suits him and for whatever assists his party standpoint. Thus the use of the word changes according to requirements.” So stated Bismarck in 1864 shortly after rising to the office of Prussian MinisterPresident; he was as guilty of this accusation as anyone. Yet, however hypocritical this epigram may seem, it does go some way to encapsulate the inconsistency of the idea of Germany. Although the Bismarckian era was the definitive turning point in cementing a nationale Zusammengehörigkeitsgefühl with the formation of a unitary state, consideration of the tumultuous shifts and transformations that German nationalism underwent since the days of the Holy Roman Empire would indicate that the formation of the Prussian dominated nation Second Reich in 1871 was by no means a forgone conclusion. Nationalism itself “was a doctrine invented in Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century” and had been prevalent in Germany specifically since the 1500s, albeit in the altered form of Reichgedanke. As such, the triumph of the Bismarckian age in unifying Germany was built upon the feelings of this national sentiment.

Is passive fund management really worth its weight in gold? By Alexander Hewer, U6 Southwood

Passive fund management can be defined as: â&#x20AC;&#x153;an investing strategy that tracks a market-weighted index or portfolio.â&#x20AC;? With active fund management being defined as referring to a portfolio management strategy, where the manager makes specific investments with the goal of outperforming an investment benchmark index.84 The great investing legend Warren Buffett in March 2014 told his shareholders in his company Berkshire Hathaway, that once he has died, 90% of his wealth should be put into a fund that tracks the S&P 500 index.85 Does this show that active fund management is dead, with a top active fund manager moving away from active management? With active funds charges being more expensive, and fewer active fund managers beating the market average, it seems inevitable that active management will die out. Passive funds still only make up 11% of the total management market;86 conveying the need for active managers due to the fact active funds have the possibility to offer better returns, are smaller and have the ability of market timing execution. I am going to discuss the positives and negatives in which active and passive management can offer to investors, seeking returns at the lowest risk possible. Between 2004 and 2014 active fund management firms lost out to passive funds in nearly every asset class:87 passive funds, however take less risk than active funds as they follow markets or benchmarks, and therefore have to extend a long term guaranteed return. In an active managed fund, an investor takes on the risk of a fund manager and his team to correctly pick out stock and assets, which will rise, and ones which will not. Passive fund management cuts out the possibility of human risk.88 In 2015 Warren Buffett had to cut a huge stake in Tesco PLC losing $678m, which shows that active management really carries the risk of human mistake89, whereas in a passive fund Tesco PLC would only be a small overall position in a fund.90 With ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds), and passive funds, only taking overall small positions risk is reduced as there is less exposure to individual sectors and companies. With so few active managers beating index, and the ones who do taking a huge amount of risk, it would seem that active funds no longer have a position in money management as most retail investors, would prefer less risk, and only a very small position of a portfolio to be concentrated in the high risk active funds for the small possibility of higher returns.

Wikipedia. (2015, August 15). Passive Management. Retrieved August 24, 2015, from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_management 85 Green, H. (2014, November 5). Active versus passive funds: The great investment debate. Retrieved August 17, 2015, from CITYA.M.: http://www.cityam.com/1415147284/active-versus-passive-funds-great-investment-debate 86 Barclays Bank. (2015, January 6). Choosing between active and passive funds. Retrieved August 24, 2015, from Barclays: https://wealth.barclays.com/en_gb/smartinvestor/better-investor/active-versus-passive-investing.html 87 Marte, J. (2014, June 29). Active vs. Passive: How fund managers stack up to index funds. Retrieved August 25, 2015, from Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2015/06/29/active-vs-passive-how-fund-managers-stack-upto-index-funds/ 88 Hughes, E. A. (2013, December 3). Pros and cons of active management. Retrieved August 23, 2015, from Ftadviser: http://www.ftadviser.com/2013/12/04/investments/equities/pros-and-cons-of-active-managementsANgao5pDBdoOkNYpVgdfI/article.html 89 Mallaby, S. More Money Than God Hedge Funds And The Making Of A New Elite. Bloomsbury. In Chapter 4 page 101 Mallaby talks about a decision in which actist investor George Sorus lost $840m on a human mistake. 90 Canocchi, C. (2014, November 8). Warren Buffett's profits take a hit as he loses $678m on Tesco investment. Retrieved August 15, 2015, from This is money: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2826467/Billionaire-investor-Warren-Buffett-loses-678mTesco.html

Although in an individual market, a passive fund will have greater diversification, as they will own most or all the stock in that exchange, an active fund may have more of a macroeconomic, global diversification. In a passive fund, a threat of a concentration in one country or market can occur. For example, a Chinese ETF since April 2015 has lost 20.58% (24th August 2015); compared to an active manager Julian Robertson whose global exposure lost only 11% in the same time period.91 Another problem in which ETFs and passive funds have when it comes to risk management is that indexes and ETFs do not have equal weightings of each constituent in the fund. For example in the S&P 500 index, Exxon Mobil Corporation equates to 3.1% of the fund, whereas eBay Inc. only 0.2%92: and so therefore it would be incorrect to say that passive funds and indexes are not vulnerable to individual stock movements. A problem in a large company would have detrimental effects on the stock price and therefore, is also exposed to human mistakes. Passive funds also do not have the ability to control the performance of a fund, as they cannot reduce or increase a position in a fund. For example, since July 2014, oil prices have been falling and with Exxon Mobil having 3.1% of the fund, being an oil company saw devaluation in its stock price, bringing down the average of the index. Sector weighting is also out of a passive manager’s control, whereas in an active fund a manager can reduce or increase stock and sector weighting in case of opportunities or threats. Between June and December 2014 it can be said that to hold oil stocks would have been financial suicide, due to the oil prices falling from highs of $110 Brent WTI to around $55 by December 2014. Energy stocks make up 7.96% of the S&P 500 index stocks and so 7.96% of a portfolio’s exposure was not wanted. There is a possibility for human mistake in these decisions, however active funds can be seen as lower risk due to the fact that active fund managers have the ability to take a global outlook, yet still not be exposed to areas of threat. Due to the fact that we know that active funds have the possibility to significantly outperform passive funds and indexes, this is unfortunately all equated for in fees taken by an active manager. Recently a standard hedge fund charge is known as the “2 and 20 charge:”93 what this means is that initially a manager will take 2% before any transaction or profits take place, for the running of the fund. Then a 20% charge on all profits is taken normally at the end of a hedge fund’s financial year. This means that even if the fund loses money it will still charge 2% on top of investor’s losses. In a passive fund fees can be as low as 0.09% as an example in the DB x-trackers FTSE 100 UCITS ETF94. The reason fees are so low is, due to the large outlook on an economy an ETF genuinely has, the fund is larger as it is the easiest way for an investor to track an index. This means a manager has more clients, and investors will hold for a longer period of time for long-term returns, with fees making this easy to perform.95 From Figure 1, we can see that between 5% and 10% passive funds significantly outperformed active funds. Greater than 10% and below 5% active funds have done slightly better. However, the average return of the FTSE 100 annually is 5.4% since 198096 and the S&P 500 7% since 1928. An active fund manager whether in the UK or USA is likely to use one of these indexes as a benchmark in which they try to outperform; and therefore will be aiming for returns of 5% to 10%. From this chart it would therefore be easy to come to a conclusion that active managers are not achieving their targets, and due to the charges active funds will further underperform. 91

Julian Robertson Performance. (n.d.). Retrieved from iBillionaire: http://www.ibillionaire.me/funds/19/julian-robertson/tigermanagement 92 (n.d.). Retrieved August 2015, 29, from Fusiontables: https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1WPXwv58KPLPFwo7uKjDkMnHzH1Lj_2tl1N47xQ (Roche, 2015) 93 Roche, J. L. (2015, May 6). Are Hedge Fund Fees Too High. Retrieved August 31, 2015, from Business Insider: http://uk.businessinsider.com/are-hedge-fund-fees-too-high-2015-5?r=US&IR=T 94 Hargreaves, R. (2014, October 24). The FTSE 100 Will Always Beat You. Retrieved August 22, 2015, from The Motley Fool: http://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2014/10/24/the-ftse-100-will-always-beat-you 95 Desert, H. T. (2013, June 19). Active vs Passive Management. Retrieved August 31, 2015, from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_FsH3O_yoI 96 Hargreaves, R. (2014, October 24). The FTSE 100 Will Always Beat You. Retrieved August 22, 2015, from The Motley Fool: http://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2014/10/24/the-ftse-100-will-always-beat-you

For the average investor, investment will not be their main form of income. It will most likely be for future use in retirement and therefore it should not be something in which investors are constantly assessing. A regular investor will not have the skills to know where in a cycle the markets are, and so could make a wrong decision and see returns over a short-term fall, making active management not a good investment for 100% of their portfolio. Passive investments are for the long term and ride short term swings in the market. They believe the market will re-correct itself. For example, after 2008 by 2012, investors in FTSE 100 ETFs had fully recovered. Active management may have the possibility to outperform markets, for example some active managed funds after 2008 had recovered by 2010.97 However, it takes more time and research to be able to make the decisions and so, for a normal investor passive funds bring relatively the same returns with less effort and without needing to know the insides on how markets work. Over the decade from 2000 to 2010 Andrew Wilson, head of investment at Towry conducted a research project, which found that 79% of mutual funds, which ended in the top quartile in returns, were in the bottom quartile for returns over the decade for at least 3 out of the 10 years. This shows that it would not have paid off investing into a fund for a small amount of time (below 3 years) as a fund, which in the future may be a best performer, at that current time was not. Therefore, overall passive funds give investors the same returns as active funds and investors can do less research compared to active fund investors, they are also cheaper, which makes the investment grow even more over the long term to due the nature of compound interest.98 Overall, when distinguishing between passive and active management it is easy to say that passive investing is cheaper in fees: however the quote from Kurt Vonnegut: “you get what you pay for” sums up the reason why some active funds have higher fees than others. For example, a low risk hedge fund called Principia, manages around £250 million and has fees of 1% and 10% on performance. The average passive investment

Desert, H. T. (2013, June 19). Active vs Passive Management. Retrieved August 31, 2015, from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_FsH3O_yoI 98 Compound interest can be defined as interest calculated on the initial principal and also on the accumulated interest of previous periods of a deposit or loan (interest on top of interest) – investopedia

annual fee in the USA is 0.5%: not hugely cheaper than the fees of Principia.99 Between 2006 and early 2008 Principia returned 32.13% with the FTSE 100 returning only 12.01%.100 With fees at only 1% and providing double the gains of the benchmark it does seem here that one pays for quality. Some may put this down to luck, and the lack of risk management; however when looking at the 2008 financial year Principia fund lost 6.41% with the FTSE 100 in the same period losing -31.8%; this therefore shows that active management has the ability to outperform and take less risk than the overall market average. When looking at the portfolios of Principia two key areas stood out in which could be the reasons why this active fund has beaten its passive benchmark: global diversification and small cap exposure. From previously we know that in an ETF or passive fund it is difficult to find a fund, which has global exposure, and due to this are exposed to individual market problems. We also know that due to the nature of ETFs, small caps are discriminated against. In 2008, these two areas helped Principia to remove risk from large markets into emerging markets and small caps, which were not affected by the crisis and help them to outperform. Passive fund managers follow macroeconomic trends over the long-term and decide which areas of the world are set to outperform other areas of the world. Their day-to-day job is to work out which areas, and so investors must also do this research in which funds they want to own. Passive investing therefore requires research, a common myth that it does not, if good returns are wanted. Over the decade the amount invested into passive funds has been increasing and therefore this creates opportunities for active managers and investors.101 With more ETFs being offered to investors cheaply, more people are moving away from individual stock picking. A key reason why an investor would pick an active fund is because active managers can find inefficiencies in companies, which passive investors cannot exploit. Therefore, it is rational to devote money to active managers to go out and find those stocks that are selling cheaply, compared to the market. With more investors moving to passive funds this is where opportunities arise: the more active managers there are with investors’ money, it means that less of these opportunities in cheap companies are available as money will already be invested. Therefore, with passive funds being most leveraged in the large cap companies, active investors can exploit the small cap, cheap companies set to outperform peers. Some active funds may be significantly more expensive than passive peers, this is due to the significant outperformance these funds can bring, and with more money being allocated to passive funds, more opportunities for active investors arise. As the population of the world increases and more countries become developed it is inevitable that more money will flow into investment vehicles. This will cause problems with active funds due to the problem of asset blood. As more money comes into these funds, the manager has to allocate the capital according to the funds strategy.102 This could mean that a manager’s strategy may be breached due to the fact that its liquidity becomes a problem in certain stocks: especially small cap stocks. As funds become larger it means that a fund has to buy different and more assets to have capital invested, and therefore starts to resemble a market or index. This means that investors start to get index performances while paying the higher active management fee, which was discussed previously. Another problem that arises when more money gets into an active fund manager’s hands is that more active managers will start new funds to deal with the excess supply of money: this may mean greater diversification, but it will also cause more managers to move towards index-like performance; due to the fact that more managers will begin to specialise and more managers will start to 99

Green, H. (2014, November 5). Active versus passive funds: The great investment debate. Retrieved August 17, 2015, from CITYA.M.: http://www.cityam.com/1415147284/active-versus-passive-funds-great-investment-debate 100 HI Prinipia Fund. (2013). HI Prinipia Fund Investors Presentation. Hedge Invest 101 Authers, J. (2011, February 11). Passive investing’s prolific growth seen creating alpha opportunities. Retrieved September 1, 2015, from Finanical Times: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2575b69a-3b9c-11e0-a96d-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3kU6dpGfY 102 Timo, R. (1995, December 1). The Pros and Cons of Passive Management. Retrieved September 2, 2015, from IFE: http://www.centralinvest.co.uk/clientFiles/client_190/documents/activeVPassiveProsAndCons.pdf

hold the same securities in larger sizes and so behave like an index fund. Passive funds do not have the problem of liquidity and size because they do not react to market movements and will always hold the same stocks as long as they stay in the criteria for the index or fund. For example, when looking at Ray Dalioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s portfolio of $11 billion we can see that his largest four positions make up 86.11% of his fund: these four largest positions are all index funds.103 A key reason why Dalio has made this decision to allocate so much of his money to passive funds, when he is an active manager may be due to the problem of liquidity. It is true that if more money comes into active funds their behaviour will change to return index like returns, however many active funds will have in their strategy a maximum amount of money the fund can take in. This stops the managerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strategy being broken due to too much money being invested in the fund. Many people will also allocate much of their total portfolio to passive investing, and smaller amounts to active managers looking for higher returns; therefore this automatically stops more money just entering the active side of fund management. Active management therefore can stop itself from moving towards index returns due to the fact that managers can control the money entering the fund. Also, if active funds begin to make index returns, investors will see they are paying too much compared to passive funds and move money to passive funds: this will withdraw money from active funds and previous strategies can work again. In conclusion, when looking at passive fund management it is easy to say that passive funds are less risk, cheaper, require little research and do not get affected by asset blood. When looking deeper into how passive funds work we have seen that passive funds, can actually overexpose one to single market activities and individual securities. They can be seen as cheap compared to active funds; however active funds have the ability to diversify risk away in certain markets and the ability to receive higher returns. With more people seeing passive management as a better option, more opportunities in smaller cap stocks arise and so better possibilities become available in active funds. A key argument for active funds and against passive funds is that although at first glance passive funds look less risky, when delving deeper they look less attractive to an investor looking for the least risk. As passive funds and ETFs have become popular, it is now possible to find sector focused ETFs. However, one could argue that the point of ETFs is to have an overall opinion on an overall market; and that active funds are better for sector focused opinions. This is because an ETF would have more exposure to more companies in a sector criteria and sectors are cyclical and not a long term bet, in which an active manager can stop; and so it is not the point of an ETF or passive fund. Overall, I believe that both active and passive funds have a role to play in all portfolios, but also individual stocks should also have a large position in a portfolio as it stops managers taking fees when an individual can pick stocks without taking up too much time, leaving small cap and global exposure to the professional fund managers.

103

Julian Robertson Performance. (n.d.). Retrieved from iBillionaire: http://www.ibillionaire.me/funds/19/julian-robertson/tigermanagement

Has the meaning of freedom changed? By Annabella Köhler, U6 Chandos

‘Almost every moralist in human history has praised freedom. Like happiness and goodness, like nature and reality, it is a term whose meaning is so porous that there is little interpretation that it seems able to resist.’ Isaiah Berlin Freedom is an abstract concept which has always fascinated the human race. The tripartite ‘Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité’ immediately springs to mind, and by association the cry for freedom gains a quick pasted image, with flags of revolution swaying in the wind, whilst the oppressed become the oppressors. Historians can trace the sheer power and force of this complex and almost hypothetical idea far back in history. Yet the term is very flexible and varies from the perspective of the observer. An unknown authoress once made the famous statement that ‘liberty is ancient; and it is despotism that is new’. Indeed many historians see the origins of freedom in ancient Athens, the birthplace of democracy. Today the idea of liberty, especially in the west, has become one of pure fascination. In 2005, George Bush’s second inauguration speech mentioned the terms 104

‘free’, ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ 49 times. In it the President sees freedom as ‘eternally right’ and states that it has a ‘universal attraction’. One could argue that it is almost an ideal that Western culture obsessively strives towards, just as religion was in the Middle Ages. Hopefully, this essay will outline how we have come to recognise individuals and how their freedoms have changed. However, in order to understand the changes that occurred, one first needs to comprehend the way in which freedoms might have been oppressed and the beginnings of the idea of free will and freedom. Some date the birth of freedom back to the Athenian democracy, which survived less than two centuries.105 A founding date does not exist, although the Athenians liked to praise their great statesman Solon (c. 638 c. 558 BC). However, modern research, since the late 19th Century, showed that the reforms of Cleisthenes (508/507 BC) really gave the ancient society its democratic footing. All male citizens had equal political rights, freedom of speech and the opportunity to participate in direct democracy. Aristotle pointed out, ‘Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.’ Even in the actual term ‘democracy’ made up of ‘demos’ (translated ‘people’ or ‘the mob’) and kratos (translated ‘power’) it becomes clear that power resided in all the people. What Isaiah Berlin labeled as a form of positive liberty is the purest representation of direct representation of oneself - a system in which every citizen had a voice and an effect on its state. This state was shaped by great statesmen such as Pericles in the 5th Century BC. Based on George Grote’s ‘History of Greece’ Mill judges Pericles’ era as the most successful form of democracy, since it assembled equality together with freedom.106 At Thucydides’ funeral, Pericles’ speech summed it up as making the connection between individuality and energetic participation at public matters. John Emerich Edward Dalberg- Acton explains Pericles’ stance on democracy as follows: ’The popular sentiment as to what was right might be mistaken, but it was subject to no test. The people were, for practical purposes, the seat of the knowledge of good and evil. The people, therefore, were the seat of power. The political philosophy of Pericles consisted of this conclusion. He resolutely struck away all the 104 105 106

White House, Second Inauguration Speech 2005 NIPPEL, Wilfried; Antike oder moderne Freiheit? Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag 2008 KUENZLE Dominique/ SCHEFCZYK Michael; John Stuart Mill: Zur Einführung; Junius Verlag, GmBh 2009

props that still sustained the artificial preponderance of wealth. For the ancient doctrine that power goes with land, he introduced the idea that power ought to be so equitably diffused as to afford equal security to all. That one part of the community should govern the whole, or that one class should make laws for another, he declared to be tyrannical. The abolition of privilege would have served only to transfer the supremacy from the rich to the poor, if Pericles had not redressed the balance by restricting the right of citizenship to Athenians of pure descent. By this measure the class which formed what we should call the third estate was brought down to 14,000 citizens, and became about equal in numbers with the higher ranks. Pericles held that every Athenian who neglected to take his part in the public business inflicted an injury on the commonwealth. That none might be excluded by poverty, he caused the poor to be paid for their attendance out of the funds of the State; for his administration of the federal tribute had brought together a treasure of more than two million sterling…The idea that the object of constitutions is not to confirm the predominance of any interest, but to prevent it; to preserve with equal care the independence of labour and the security of property; to make the rich safe against envy, and the poor against oppression, marks the highest level attained by the statesmanship of Greece. It hardly survived the great patriot who conceived it; and all history has been occupied with the endeavour to upset the balance of power by giving the advantage to money, land, or numbers.’107 Mill thought it was great how each citizen had the duty to participate at a greater level, yet the freedom to live its own private life. At his time he saw it to be the exact opposite; private life was controlled by the public moral views. As a society we recognise that the liberty in one’s private life is extremely valuable. We see freedom’s true potential and value. Interestingly Charles Fried outlined that ‘the greatest enemy of liberty has always been some vision of the good’108 which links with the above stated: balance of power shifts ‘by giving the advantage to money, land, or numbers'. In Fried’s vision it is power, magnificence and beauty. As an example he names the building of the Great Pyramids in Ancient Egypt; however this is no longer a current example due to new discoveries by archaeologist Mark Lehner, which show that privileged workers made such wonders happen. Yet the Colosseum might be a better case study. Ordered by the emperor Vespasian and completed under his son Titus in AD 81, an estimate of 100,000 slaves was needed. Having been imprisoned, they were brought back to Rome after the Jewish War. Slavery, restricting someone else’s freedom for the sake of creating something great, was very common in Ancient times. Only freedmen or ‘liber’ (word stem of ‘liberté’) had a proper chance to live their freedoms. Great philosophers of the era all agreed that it was proper to oppress the freedom of some individuals. Aristotle argued that men are naturally not all born equal; some are chosen for slavery, some for dominion. Even much later, in the 17th Century, the great British philosopher and father of liberalism John Locke still defended slavery, and according to the historian David Brion Davis he was the last one of the Greats to do so. Yet interestingly, both agree with Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, the great German idealist, that truly humans should not be enslaved. Around a millennium later only their definition of what ‘truly human’ consists differs. Aristotle defines being truly human as following the directive virtue of the citizen in Athenian society, Locke sees it as the capacity to acknowledge the moral law and Hegel characterises humans as following their role of self-consciousness. As a result, most philosophers agree with Rousseau’s statement out of his Social Contract of 1761 that ‘to remove all liberty from his will is to remove all morality from his acts’. Yet they only recognise a certain group of people as being able to act morally.

107 108

ACTON, The history of freedom; http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31278/31278-h/31278-h.htm pgs FRIED Charles; Modern Liberty: And the Limits of Government; W.W. Norton & Company, 2007 pg 17

Today, we recognise everyone as worthy of freedom - despite their actions. Benjamin Constant said that ‘individual liberty is the first need of modern man’109. However, this principle is not upheld in the UK, as prisoners in the United Kingdom are not allowed to participate in the democratic system. This seems at odds with both the ideas of modern philosophers and recent research into the psychology of criminals. For many severe offenders one could argue that they were not in the right state of mind to make their own decisions, or free decisions, and therefore should be seen as victims too. Thus, one could say that it is free will which gives a person’s action moral value. As a result one might even take it further and recognise that it is liberty which makes us individuals, since it is our moral choices which make up our character and experiences. Yet this was often questioned in history. The debate between free will and determinism, may it be religious or scientific, has split philosophers for years. Determinism argues that there is in fact no free will, and that all our choices have a logical explanation - may it be because of a divine providence, past experiences or indeed medical conditions. An example of determinism being exercised in courts in the 21st Century is the Commonwealth (of Pennsylvania) v. Pirela (2007) case, where new neuro-scientific evidence showed an abnormality in the frontal lobes of Pirela’s brain, which managed to overturn the death sentence 110 . On the other hand, we often judge people not on the outcome, but their true intentions. Newton and Kant also looked at this debate from a deterministic angle. Newton (1642-1726) even went as far as arguing that in fact there was no ‘moral’ or ‘immoral’- but only an ‘amoral’. ‘Man himself was an entity subject to the universal remorseless laws of nature, whose actions were absolutely determined by events that had already occurred, and which were thereby always outside his control’111. Whatever a man may feel about a matter, he is never free to choose and therefore carries no responsibility for his actions. Man is as a result amoral. Yet this conclusion seems unpractical in the running of a state. If man is seen as amoral, without responsibilities, a state would not be able to act upon its responsibility of keeping the citizens safe. After all, Aristotle made clear that each citizen needed to follow certain rules: therefore carry responsibility. The idea that a state leaves its citizens to completely self-govern is not one to be put under the umbrella of laissez-faire. In theory, for someone to live in complete and utter freedom, therefore not to be restricted, one needs to live separate from a society. These are anarchist thoughts and dangerous to any political network. Government needs to recognise possible threats and restrict those as much as possible for the protection of the citizen. This is why we send people to prison, or the NSA reads through our online and call history. Yet where is it that the government needs to draw the line? Looking at religious fundamentalism for example, Peter Herriot makes it clear that ‘the value of freedom of religious worship clash(es) with the right of the citizen to safety under the protection of the state’112. With so many different influences and ideas surrounding us today it is no wonder that the state needs to be firm in setting up rules and regulations. A state of anarchy is not realistic, since modern technology and life has become too sophisticated. Therefore, complete freedom in the sense that there are no obstacles, cannot be achieved within a society. This is what Isaiah Berlin called negative liberty. However, negative liberty is not to be seen as a bad thing in the modern philosopher’s eyes. In the chapter ‘From Hope and Fear Set Free,’ Berlin suggests that in fact putting up obstacles in someone’s freedom might make the obstructed feel more free.113 The distinction here is between the actual sensation of being free, and

109 110

FRIED, Charles; Modern Liberty: And the Limits of Government; W.W. Norton & Company, 2007 NICHOLS, Shaun; Great Philosophical Debates: Free Will and Determinism; The Teaching Company

111

SHAND, John; Philosophy and Philosophers, Acumen 2002 p.146

112

HERRIOT, Peter; Religious Fundamentalism; Routledge 2009 (pg 265) BERLIN, Isaiah; The Proper Study of Mankind; Pimlico 1998

113

the concept of freedom itself. The philosopher says that slaves might feel freer enslaved than being free. Once they have accepted their fate they would prefer their role within society against one with hard choices and responsibilities. Berlin names religious ideas, for example those with which slave traders have justified their cruel treatment. ‘Despotic systems should presumably be described as creators of liberty…for by eliminating distracting temptations…they (the slave holders) create more liberty than institutions that expand the area of individual or democratic choice and thereby produce the worrying need to select, to determine oneself.’ It is true that having a smaller horizon and fewer forms of comparison, makes one a more content person. Yet does that mean that one is more free? Purely because of lack of knowledge one cannot be described more free - when in reality that person has not had the chance to ever gain the freedom to discover that knowledge. Berlin really is trying to see negative freedom in a positive light - when today it would be seen as a restriction - and in general people do not like to be restricted. Today, freedom as an idea has been shaped and pulled into many different forms. On the whole it is true to say that people strive towards experiencing that ultimate freedom in the hope to find in it the clue to happiness; may it be a student after years of studying ‘finding himself’ on a gap year, or a forty year old dad buying a himself a new sports car. We associate being free with being happy. The tripartite ‘Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité’ plays a really important part in that. At first groups of people were more focused on phrases such as ‘natural order’. Groups looked for freedom as a collective: ‘Liberté’. As an example, one could look at the abolition of slavery in America. Slavery started in the state of Carolina, which was just freshly founded in 1670. It was based on the example of Barbados, the British boom colony, which had a lot of economical success due to its sugar cane production using black slaves from West Africa, a pattern already established by the Portuguese in Brazil. Carolina imported as many slaves as possible and soon had to be divided into North and South, and was the only state with a larger African than white population. Virginia and Maryland followed this example for their tobacco industry soon, since white labour became more and more rare. In the 17th Century the line between servitude and slavery was very faint, yet became very fundamental in law and society. It was only in 1705 that Virginia put down the real differences in the Virginia Code, which forbade blacks from marrying and owning property. The code also made it clear that the only reason that there ought to be a difference between servitude and slavery was because slaves were not Christians. When Georgia was established in 1732 it was meant to stay slave free - yet in 1751 power went to the Crown and a few years later Georgia’s economy was just as dependent on slaves as South Carolina. Interestingly the pro-slavery lobby in Georgia demonstrated with the slogan ‘Liberty and Property without restrictions’. This shows that Americans thought that having ownership over a slave was part of their personal liberty and freedom. The paradox of America is that the land of the free became what it was due to years of restricting freedoms. ‘Liberty for whites was made possible by the enslavement of millions of blacks.’ The big men we associate with the American Dream and freedom now, such as Jefferson and Washington only got to live such comfortable lives due to slavery. ‘Their consciences were troubled but their lifestyles remained unchanged; they had become slaves to slavery’.114 By 1865, there were around 34 million white and 5 million black Americans living in the USA. Four million of those were enslaved in the South, the ‘Black Belt’ area. After the Civil War, 620,000 casualties later and with the passage of the 13th Amendment, black slaves became ‘freedmen’. Among other things they were now able to

114

REYNOLDS David; America, Empire of Liberty; Penguin 2009 pgs 28-33

‘enjoy freedom of movement, and generally live their daily lives free from close white supervision.’115 Yet soon they understood that ‘freedom would be empty without land, legal rights, education and the vote.’ Just ‘Liberté’ was not enough anymore and seeking the second part of the tripartite, Égalité, ‘a black leadership emerged to press the case for full equality.’ By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes his duty against the influence of authority and majorities, custom and opinion. The state is competent to assign duties and draw the line between good and evil only in its immediate sphere. Beyond the limits of things necessary for its wellbeing, it can only give indirect help to fight the battle of life by promoting the influences which prevail against temptation: religion, education, and the distribution of wealth. This, however, was not justly done in America. Looking at the state in which Afro-Americans had to live in it becomes clear rather quickly that ‘education and the distribution of wealth’ was not spread evenly by the state governments therefore the influences ’against temptation’ were not properly advertised. According to John Emerich Edward DalbergActon this could be one of the reasons for the constant restrictions that were given to black people on exercising their freedom. Interestingly, a study by Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario, found that children with lower IQs were much more likely to become racist later on in life. They were also much less likely to be in contact with people of other races.116 The black leadership which had emerged, pushed civil rights further. Yet, even with the Brown case, the passage of several Civil Rights Bills and several names such as Rosa and Martin Luther King having gone down in history, we still face too many instances where personal freedom is restricted - not just in America and not just in racial cases, but also questions of sexuality. It was only a few months ago that homosexual marriage was legalised in the States. Today it is no longer enough to grant people that ‘Liberté’ and ‘Égalité’, today we also need to show ‘Fraternité’. By that it is meant that the people of today need to be conscientious of each other’s needs. Hegel in 1807 realised that it is not easy to be conscious of other people’s desires and wishes, since individuals first see others as a negation - a threat to oneself. One is afraid of the unknown, and in order to understand a thing, or no longer fear it, one needs to be able to control and subject it to its own will. Therefore, at first other consciousnesses are treated as an object for the observant- who is just like a child learning. That desire to control and subject others to one’s will ultimately leads to conflict, which might also be the source of racism. Lack of education and lack of understanding are, as mentioned earlier, the material which sparks hatred of other races and therefore the use of negative liberty. At this stage of the development of the human race it is not enough to just accept other people living their lives according to their free will, but to help the oppressed to be given the right to do the same. In an age in which political participation is at its lowest, the focus is not on the actual action itself, but on the possibility of acting. All citizens are given the right to participate in politics as they wish, but they are not forced. John Stuart Mill agrees on this matter with Robespierre that, with the growth in mass media, the modern political system has become more democratic than in Ancient Athens, even if it is a less direct form of democracy. Mill saw the people as being better educated, to make a more rounded decision. Overall, people enjoy more freedoms individually. In a country such as England, different religions can all be practised closely, different views can be expressed, and individuality can be praised. Yet to what extent the meaning of the word freedom has changed is still unclear. 115 116

FAIRCLOUGH Adam; Better day Coming; Penguin 2002 pgs 1-3 ACTON, The history of freedom; http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31278/31278-h/31278-h.htm

To conclude, one might say that freedom is no longer just being granted something- it also includes the practicality of it. Looking at the different philosophical studies on freedom it was difficult to find a clear pattern of change. Ranging from ancient views such as Aristotle to the modern 1950s writer Berlin, a lot has transformed, just as times have. Hegel summed it up extremely well by saying that there are two complementary approaches to the truth: firstly philosophy, which finds what there ought to be in the world and secondly history, which demonstrates the emergence of a necessity. Both work hand in hand, but uncovering the true single meaning of freedom is a mystery still waiting to be solved. Perhaps it is exactly that freedom of interpretation which makes it almost an impossible task to pin the term down to one single definition and therefore, one single line of transition. Or perhaps, following on from Hegel, the meaning of freedom has not changed, just its context.

The Labour leadership race: how will the outcome affect the future of the party and British politics? By Frederick Lyle, U6 Southwood

The 12th September is approaching and with that we will find ourselves with a new Labour Party leader. The campaign has been somewhat on the back burner of the British agenda this summer. But, more recently, it is starting to receive a great amount of attention and interest, as the new party leader will be set the task of leading the party out of the wilderness and back into power, against a strong and unified Conservative Party. So far we have seen some candidates drop out. But from those who are left we have four very different politicians, both in agenda and ideology, and surely who ever becomes the new Labour leader will affect the balance in British politics and they will need to address the fact that Labour is a party in need of re-aligning itself with the interests of the British people. In recent years, Labour has been a party in steady decline. This became apparent after the 2015 election, where their representation in parliament took a severe blow after the damage dealt to them through the rise of the Scottish National Party (SNP). With this came the inevitable resignation of Ed Miliband, who was simply unelectable as a possible Prime Minister. The personal attack on Miliband by the media left both him and the party in a weakened position. The Sandwichgate saga and papers’ headlines made Labour look like a party unfit to run the country. For example, the Mail on Sunday’s headline, ‘LABOUR KNIVES OUT FOR “LOSER” RED ED,’117 suggested that there was dissent within the Labour ranks and made Ed look far too left-wing in a political climate which tends to vote more to the centre. (However, remember that this headline is from a Tory newspaper, where ‘Labour bashing’118 is all too common). Consequently, we now find ourselves in the midst of a leadership campaign which has thrown up some interesting questions about the future of Labour. We have four candidates who all propose very different things. We have Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall and Jeremy Corbyn, who represent all aspects of the left-wing political spectrum. It has been a long and ever-changing campaign, but a clear favourite has begun to emerge. Jeremy Corbyn is the bookies’ odds-on favourite at 2/9 to be elected as the new leader.119 That, from 100/1 at the beginning of the summer, shows the growth in the politician’s popularity. But why has this sudden growth occurred? Well this may be the answer. Recently, the four candidates spoke on Leading Britain’s Conversation Radio. They were asked this question: “In your first shadow cabinet, as leader, would Ed Miliband be in that Cabinet?” In response, no one directly answered the question, giving a ‘politician’s answer,’ saying neither ‘yes’ nor ‘no’. All except for Jeremy Corbyn, who said he would very much value Ed Miliband as Environment Secretary. After all four candidates had finished answering, the radio host, Ian Dale, went on to say ‘This is why Jeremy Corbyn is top of the poles, because he can give straight answers to straight questions,’120 Thanks to this, the people have responded positively to the clear outsider and Labour radical. In my opinion, this is because people are fed up with politicians not being straight with them and in recent years there has been mistrust between people and politicians. For example, events such as the expenses scandal in 2009 left any trust between Parliament and 117

Nick Robinson’s election notebook pg 261 Nick Robinson’s election notebook pg 261 119 The Independent,. 'Corbyn Win Is 'Done Deal' Predicts Paddy Power, As It Pays Out On Bets'. N.p., 2015. Web. 19 Aug. 2015. 120 Bcove.me,. 'This Is Why Jeremy Corbyn Is Winning In The Labour Leadership Race'. N.p., 2015. Web. 19 Aug. 2015. 118

the people in tatters. But what Corbyn does is say it how it is and he does not dodge questions, and that is what the people are clearly responding to so positively. He is giving them what they want and it seems to be paying off. However, even though Jeremy Corbyn appears to be the clear favourite at this stage, we cannot underestimate the other three candidates, as they too could become leader or, at least, have a high-ranking position in the Labour Party in the future. So I think it is important to look at what they propose and how that could shape the Labour Party’s future. Firstly, we should look at Andy Burnham, who started as the front-runner in the campaign. He was seen as the candidate of the left until Jeremy Corbyn entered the race. He is a former Shadow Cabinet Minister and in my opinion he seems to be the best option to secure Labour’s future. This is because I believe, as a leader of the opposition, he has the character and personality necessary to be able to hold his own against the likes of David Cameron and Nicola Sturgeon, which perhaps others like Yvette cooper and Liz Kendall do not have; this, whilst maintaining Party credibility, as he is not a radical like Jeremy Corbyn and will not polarise views when it comes to the general election. However, he is finding himself squeezed between ‘Corbyn’s growing radical agenda and the moderate centre-left Yvette Cooper.’121 This is no good place to be, as the Labour Party is very much split in which direction it wishes to take and his recent branding as ‘Flip-Flop Andy’122 does not put him in good stead, come voting time, as no one really knows where he truly stands. However, in my opinion, this middle ground that Andy Burnham currently occupies between radical and centre is what the Labour Party needs to become united. If we see a result in which Yvette Copper or Jeremy Corbyn become leader, they will only polarise views and support within the Party, which will weaken Labour’s ability to form an effective opposition or be elected into government. It means that Labour MUST be united if they wish to recover from their decline, or what we will see is a party decline similar to that of the Liberal Party in the early 20th Century, where differences split the Party and led to the loss of votes and seats, which they have never recovered from. So what would Andy Burnham do? Well, he offers the best of both worlds for Labour. He represents their core values of ‘social justice, strong community, reward for hard work and rights matched by responsibilities,’123 through his left-leaning stance, which would keep the left side of the Party happy. But then, he also represents more centrist Labour views, which are in line with what the majority of the pubic and the Party want; but, at the same time, trying to keep himself away from Blairite ‘New Labour’, which the public now associate with the recession and scandal. On a BBC Newsnight hustings he commented, “Tony was the Prime Minister that won three elections but he didn’t get everything right. So we have to learn from the mistakes of that Labour government.”124 This means that he can start rebuilding trust with the public, which Labour lost after the financial crisis of the Brown/Blair administration. So, in short, Andy Burnham could be the man who helps unite and rediscover the ‘beating heart of Labour,’125 if chosen as their leader. On the other hand, perhaps the right person for Labour is Yvette Cooper. She presents a much safer centrist option for the Party, which would attract the majority public vote come the next general election. She would be the first elected female leader of the Party and this would signal a real change and show the public that 121

The Independent,. 'Corbyn Win Is 'Done Deal' Predicts Paddy Power, As It Pays Out On Bets'. N.p., 2015. Web. 19 Aug. 2015. The Independent,. 'Corbyn Win Is 'Done Deal' Predicts Paddy Power, As It Pays Out On Bets'. N.p., 2015. Web. 19 Aug. 2015. 123 Labour.org.uk,. 'What Is The Labour Party?'. N.p., 2015. Web. 20 Aug. 2015. 124 Watt, Nicholas. 'Labour Leadership Debate: The Candidates' Best And Worst Moments'. the Guardian. N.p., 2015. Web. 18 Aug. 2015. 125 Beattie, Jason. 'Labour Leadership: Andy Burnham Pledges To Unite The Party And The Country'. mirror. N.p., 2015. Web. 20 Aug. 2015. 122

Labour is a party wanting to be taken seriously again. But one of her downfalls, perhaps, is her husband, Ed Balls, who too closely associates her with the Labour of the past. He was not the most loved of politicians and in a recent Channel Four drama, ‘The Coalition,’126 (covering the aftermath of the hung Parliament in 2010) he was presented as an arrogant Cabinet Minister who was one of the main contributors to Labour’s downfall. Nevertheless, if Yvette Copper can shake these ties and associations and brand her own style of politics, she could be on her way to success for herself and for Labour. It seems that her campaign is a well-polished one and her aims are well summed up in her slogan ‘Proud of our Values. The Strength to Win.’ This quite clearly points out that she believes that, for Labour to be successful, they need to reconnect with their core supporters but also unite as a party, if they are to stave off more Tory governments. This means condemning radicals in the party, such as Jeremy Corbyn, who threaten the strength and credibility of Labour. She herself announced that if Jeremy Corbyn were to become leader it would be “Very unlikely”127 she would serve in a shadow cabinet under him because they essentially disagree on fundamental views and issues. Despite this, what would Yvette Cooper do if elected leader and how would it shape the future of the Party? Well, after reading into her campaign, it seems that the main thing Yvette Cooper wants to do is set the record straight for Labour. They have spent the last five years being blamed by the Tories for the financial crisis and the deficit and she has said she wants to put away these “Tory myths,” saying, “It was a financial crisis that caused the deficit not the deficit that caused the financial crisis… It wasn't too many nurses, doctors and teachers that caused Lehman Brothers bank in New York to crash.”128 This desire to put away this Conservative propaganda shows that Yvette Cooper wants to restore the public’s faith in Labour and give Labour some credibility, which they lacked under the Miliband regime. In terms of policy, she has put a real focus on improving life for families in the UK, with an upheaval in the UK childcare system as well as wanting to invest in the UK’s youth, wanting more skilled labour to make the UK competitive in the new global hi-tech markets, to stop us falling behind. This would counteract what the Conservatives are doing with extended cuts, and rebalance Britain’s economy and put money back into the hands of the working classes, who have lost out over the last five years. But what, I think, is a very important factor why Yvette Cooper is what Labour needs, is that she was born in Scotland. Labour suffered a dismal result in Scotland after the 2015 election, losing all but one of their Scottish seats to the SNP. This means that if Labour is realistically going to get back into power, it will need to take these seats back from the SNP. This means appealing to Scottish patriotism and making sure that in Yvette Cooper’s policy she appeals to both England and Scotland, and, having been ‘born in Scotland and raised in England,’129 she, out of the four candidates, seems best suited to fight back against Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP. This means that if Yvette Cooper was leader come the next general election, she could be the person best suited to lead Labour into Downing Street. But what of the other female candidate, Liz Kendall? Well, unfortunately, I think she is the weakest of the four candidates and least likely to win. Why is this? Well, throughout the contest she has been labeled the ‘Blairite candidate,’130 and this has not worked in her favour. Since the 2015 general election, the Party has drifted further away from centrist politics so it has been hard for her to gauge support. If this was not enough, her 126

'The Coalition'. Channel 4, 2015. TV programme. BBC News,. 'Labour Party Could Split Under Jeremy Corbyn, Yvette Cooper Says - BBC News'. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Aug. 2015. 128 Yvette Cooper for Labour Leader,. 'WATCH: "The Future Of The Labour Party Is In Your Hands"'. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Aug. 2015. 129 Yvette Cooper for Labour Leader,. 'WATCH: "The Future Of The Labour Party Is In Your Hands"'. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Aug. 2015. 130 The Independent,. 'Corbyn Win Is 'Done Deal' Predicts Paddy Power, As It Pays Out On Bets'. N.p., 2015. Web. 19 Aug. 2015. 127

lack of experience (only having been a Member of Parliament since 2010 and not having held any ministerial position) means she is an unknown quantity, and the Party, in its current state, cannot be taking risks on unproven politicians. However, even though she lacks these credentials, she has marked herself out to be a candidate who will drive real change in the Party. Her campaign slogan, ‘A Fresh Start,’131 is definitely what the Party needs, but is she the right person to administer this change? Well, unfortunately, she is not the only centrist candidate in the race and, in my opinion, due to Liz Kendall’s lack of experience, voters would simply choose Yvette Copper over Liz Kendall because she has a successful track record. Additionally, Liz Kendall’s policy is also very similar to that of Yvette Cooper’s. Both want to regain the trust of the electorate, build a caring society, end inequality and secure a bright future for young people in Britain, and because Liz Kendall has not proposed any plans on how she would unite all spectrums of the Party, I believe that she will just lose out to Yvette Cooper and is probably destined to finish a disappointing fourth. However, I do not think this will be the last we see of Liz Kendall; she is an MP who is on the right trajectory. In the 2015 general election she doubled her majority in Leicester West,132 was nominated into the leadership race and has a wealth of experience as Director of numerous charities. She could be someone we see rise to have an important role in the Party and will most likely become a key minister if the Party is to win in 2020. In my opinion, this is because she represents the centre. This is what so many Labour supporters want and, if the result in her constituency is anything to go by, it shows that what she represents is still key to the Party. But we still have our fourth candidate, who is at the opposite end of the spectrum. At first glance, Jeremy Corbyn definitely breaks the mould of the type of politician we have grown used to. He is a non tie-wearing ‘man of the people,’ or, as Boris Johnson puts it, a “Muesli-munching, sandal wearing Dave Spart… eat-therich throwback to the 1970’s.”133 He is a man who has not conformed to the new politics based on personality, rather focusing more on policy. He himself has said, “Party leaders are not Presidents. They are primus inter pares - first among equals.”134 This attitude is one reason why he has been so successful in the past months. He has distinctively broken away from Labour’s Blairite past, which ran a more Presidential style of government, which proved to lose the trust of the electorate and put Labour in the position they now find themselves in. Jeremy Corbyn’s entry into the race was refreshing for many Labour supporters (mainly those of the left) who found themselves faced with three very similar candidates who all appeared as successors to a Blairite dynasty. He has offered up some valid ways to win over conservative votes, such as nationalising the railways to lower the ticket prices. But what Jeremy Corbyn offers is the socialist side of Labour and this threatens the electability of the Party, as the electorate has proven in the many recent elections that it tends to vote to the centre. But what Corbyn proposes is that he can unite the party with a style of government similar to that of Harold Wilson, where the ‘cabinets reflected the diversity of politics on the Labour benches,’135 thus ensuring that a “plurality of views”136 are welcomed into his cabinet and that “Labour resolve differences by debating

131

Liz Kendall for Labour Leader,. 'Dear Supporter,'. N.p., 2015. Web. 31 Aug. 2015. Liz Kendall for Labour Leader,. 'Liz's Story'. N.p., 2015. Web. 31 Aug. 2015. 133 Hohler, Emily. 'Jezmania Is A Joke That Will Wear Thin'. MoneyWeek August 7th 2015: Pg 15. Print. 134 'Jeremy Corbyn The Guest Column Here's How, As Labour Leader, I Will Unify MPs, Rebuild The Party And Win Back Power In 2020'. New Statesman August 21st 2015: Pg 23. Print. 135 'Jeremy Corbyn The Guest Column Here's How, As Labour Leader, I Will Unify MPs, Rebuild The Party And Win Back Power In 2020'. New Statesman August 21st 2015: Pg 23. Print. 136 'Jeremy Corbyn The Guest Column Here's How, As Labour Leader, I Will Unify MPs, Rebuild The Party And Win Back Power In 2020'. New Statesman August 21st 2015: Pg 23. Print. 132

and voting on them.” This would appease groups in the Party who are worried that Corbyn would split the Party and, at first glance, it seems that this system could work. However, on closer inspection, I think that if Corbyn were to be elected, the differences in the Party are too great to appease and there would effectively be two separate parties within Labour (the Modernists and the Socialists) and the Tories would be gifted with an opposition ‘eating itself,’137 which would lead to a split similar to that of the Social Democratic Party in 1983. So, if history is anything to go by, Corbyn following the style of Harold’s governments is something doomed to fail. Why? Well, they are not the best model to follow, after they failed to modernise policy during their term in government, whilst managing to cause civil unrest during Labour’s winter of discontent, which helped contribute to unchallenged Conservative rule for 18 years. So would Corbyn’s throwback to 1970’s politics really benefit the Party? Well, as Melanie Phillips of The Times said, ‘There are clearly a lot of young people who identify with the cases Corbyn espouses: anti-capitalism, anti-war, anti-globalisation and so on.’138 Moreover, he would have the ability to shake up British politics with his brutal honesty and ‘passionate and principled commitment to the cause,’139 which other candidates in the race have failed to show. But in terms of the Party it will be inevitable that, if Corbyn is elected, he will drag the party to the left, which will doom Labour, as it will fail to appeal to the majority of the electorate, as Philip Collins reminds us that “Labour was formed to send the representatives of working men to Parliament to form a government… Corbyn will ensure this original purpose is frustrated.”140 Or, as Labour MP, Tristan Hunt, said in The Times, “Corbyn’s siren call must be resisted. The Party was founded as a governing party not a left-wing debating society,”141 and I am afraid that would be the fate of Labour if Corbyn were elected. To conclude, the result of this race in September is a crucial one for the Party, as it will dictate the course and direction the Party is to take and the leader, whoever it may be, will have a whole host of issues they will need to negotiate. For example, keeping the Party united is key if any election is to be won. Also, winning back Scotland is crucial if Labour is to recover in time to have a chance of forming a government in 2020. In my opinion, as is shared by many others, there are two routes the Party can go down come the result. One, that we see the Party turn to the left and socialist wing, where the Unions take control, causing a rift and possible split; or we see a centrist candidate and modernist come in and give the Party a real upheaval, turn around its recent decline and produce a campaign which the Conservatives will have to take seriously and shake up British politics. If we see Jeremy Corbyn rise to leader, I fear that Labour will have another case similar to Ed Miliband, who was a leader of the left and, as 2015 showed and proved, this did not work for the Party. What it needs is an accountable, reliable, modern politician who can make Labour be taken seriously again. Then, who knows what 2020 will hold?

137

Hohler, Emily. 'Jezmania Is A Joke That Will Wear Thin'. MoneyWeek 2015: Pg 15. Print. Hohler, Emily. 'Jezmania Is A Joke That Will Wear Thin'. MoneyWeek August 7th 2015: Pg 15. Print. 139 Hohler, Emily. 'Jezmania Is A Joke That Will Wear Thin'. MoneyWeek 2015: Pg 15. Print. 140 Hohler, Emily. 'Jezmania Is A Joke That Will Wear Thin'. MoneyWeek August 7th 2015: Pg 15. Print. 141 Terrett, Piper. 'The Unlikely Rise Of Corbynmania'. MoneyWeek July 31st 2015: 16. Print. 138

Can the practice of world religions have a positive impact on the potential economic growth of the least developed countries (LDCs)? By Taya Sellers, U6 Westal

Introduction The United Nation’s ‘List of Least Developed Countries’ currently consists of 48 countries, including Afghanistan, Nepal and Zambia,142 which “exhibit the lowest indicators of socio-economic development, with the lowest Human Development Index of all countries in the world”. Consequently numerous factors such as varying education levels, trade, natural resources and political systems are considered in order to assess the potential for economic growth to initiate further development. Economic development refers to a progress in the economy, usually referring to the adoption of new technologies, transition from agriculture-based to industry-based economy, and general improvement in living standards.143 In this essay I will discuss what some would describe as a lesser factor; of whether practising religion can have a positive impact on the potential economic growth of these least developed countries (LDCs). The notion that religion influences economies has a long history, but the specifics have been difficult to pin down. Two of the major world religions, Islam and Christianity, both demonstrate an idea of hard work, which is arguably the key to economic growth.

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it” Genesis 2:12144 “Economic growth stems from the endeavour of society to produce for consumption.” 145 This essay will consider these two religions, the largest two in the world, considering specific Biblical and Quranic teachings related to money as well as teachings that could be interpreted to support certain opinions. I will also examine studies such as Robert Barro and Rachel McCleary’s (2003) paper that provides economic evidence both for and against this concept. Christianity Christianity is the world’s biggest religion, with an estimated 2.1 billion followers worldwide146, equating to around 33% of the global population. In 2011 around 63%, a majority of Christians, were from Europe and the

142

UNITED NATIONS (2015) List of Least Developed Countries. [Online] Available from: www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/cdp/ldc/ldc_list.pdf [Accessed: 25 June 2015] 143 WIKIPEDIA (2015) Economic Development [Online] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_development#cite_note-Development:_Which_Way_Now.3F-1 [Accessed: 25 August 2015] 144 THE BIBLE: AUTHORIZED KING JAMES VERSION, (1987) Thomas Nelson Inc. 145 KHILAFAH.COM (2009 Islam and Economic Growth [Online] http://www.khilafah.com/islam-and-economic-growth/ [Accessed: 23 June 2015] 146 ADHERENTS.COM (2014) Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents. [Online] Available from: http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html [Accessed: 25 June 2015]

Americas,147 areas of relatively high levels of economic development. This correlation is unlikely to indicate a direct causation between Christianity and economic growth but it is interesting to consider what the Bible says about money in order to study the potential impact it could have on the economies of the least developed countries. There are more verses on money in the Bible than there are verses on prayer,148 suggesting that economic issues have a significant part to play in the life of Christians. The Bible encourages hard work in order to please God and to have rewards in our life on Earth. An example of this is in the book of Proverbs, chapter 12 verse 24 “The hand of the diligent shall bear rule,”149 which suggests that those who work hard will eventually reap rewards. This may incentivise Christians to put more effort into their occupation, whatever it may be. This increases productivity and, in turn, profitable output, increasing the chance of economic growth for a region. Some argue that a Christian approach is not that it is wrong to have money but more specifically wrong when it is the main focus of one’s life. For example, in the book of Matthew 6:24, Jesus says, “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (material wealth).”150 This quite literally states that Christians cannot seek both material wealth and a spiritual life. Additionally, also in the New Testament, 1 Timothy 6:10 states, “the love of money is the root of all evil,”151 suggesting that by focusing on money you will be led towards committing ‘sin’, away from the love of God. This creates the impression that many Christians may abstain from focusing on money if they take their faith seriously, which, in turn, results in individuals being less affluent, hindering economic growth. For this reason it appears that the practice of Christianity may have a more negative impact on growth for LDCs. Nevertheless, many people who consider themselves Christian do not take Biblical teachings literally so are unlikely to put them into practice or even adhere to them, thus their effect on the economy of LDCs would be minimal. Robert Barro and his wife, Rachel McCleary, both researchers at Harvard University, saw changes in people’s economic behaviour after they became more religious.152 They started research into the effects of practising religion and economic growth, collecting data from 59 countries from 1981 to 2000. This research was compiled and published in a National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper entitled ‘Religion and Economic Growth’ (2003) and measured things such as levels of belief in God, afterlife beliefs and worship attendance. Firstly, this paper concluded that a mere belief in God has no effect one-way or the other, whereas a rise in church attendance slows growth in the least developed countries. This is because, by people spending a prolonged amount of time in religious services, they have less time to be productive members of society, thus reducing their impact on the economy. Meanwhile, a belief in Heaven showed a slight increase in growth, while growth appears even more pronounced where there is a belief in Hell. This suggests that if people have something to work for, such as Heaven, they are more likely to put greater effort in and if people fear something, such as Hell, their productivity increases even more, creating the impression that people are more driven by fear than by reward. Moreover Ara Norenzayan, psychologist of the University of British Columbia, researched into the motivational power of Hell and the fact that this may be a consequence of our 147

CHRISTIAN POST (2011) Christianity Declines in Europe, Increases in Africa and Asia. [Online] Available from: http://www.christian post.com/news/christianity-declines-in-europe-increases-in-africa-and-asia-says-survey-65619/ [Accessed: 30 June 2015] 148 BOSTON.COM (2009) Satan, the great motivator. The curious economic effects of religion. [Online] http://www.boston.com/ bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/11/15/the_curious_economic_effects_of_religion/ [Accessed : 18 June 2015] 149 THE BIBLE: AUTHORIZED KING JAMES VERSION, (1987) Thomas Nelson Inc. 150 THE BIBLE: AUTHORIZED KING JAMES VERSION, (1987) Thomas Nelson Inc. 151 THE BIBLE: AUTHORIZED KING JAMES VERSION, (1987) Thomas Nelson Inc. 152 BOSTON.COM (2009) Satan, the great motivator. The curious economic effects of religion. [Online] http://www.boston.com/ bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/11/15/the_curious_economic_effects_of_religion/ [Accessed : 18 June 2015]

biology or ‘human psyche’.153 He set up an experiment that would make it easy for people to cheat in a Maths test and concluded that those who believed in a punishing God cheated less for fear of possible eternal suffering. 154 In my opinion, this research is very thorough and definite evidence that religions such as Christianity and Islam, which teach of eternal punishment in an afterlife, will have the greatest impact on the potential economic growth of the least developed countries. Steven N. Durlauf, Andros Kourtellos and Chih Ming Tan challenged Barro and McCleary’s conclusions, developing their arguments in the paper ‘Is God in the Details? A Re-examination of the Role of Religion in Economic Growth’ (2009). They insinuated that there is “little evidence of direct religion/growth nexus”, 155 by re-evaluating Barro and McCleary’s statistical analysis and discovering that it was not statistically robust.156 For example, in this paper the Bayesian model averaging methods account for model uncertainty.157 Furthermore, supporting this point, Barro and McCleary only carried out research in 59 countries, which is not a representative sample of the 193 in the world today.158 However, despite this further paper I do still believe Barro and McCleary’s research to be highly interesting and relevant to the fact that hope for Heaven and a fear of Hell will have a positive impact economically, as examined in the previous paragraph. The impact of contraception In Christianity there are no Biblical references that relate directly to the use of contraception, however, teachings are generally based on interpretations of marriage, sex and family. The Roman Catholic Church considers anything that prevents conception to be morally wrong. For example, Pope Paul VI taught that using contraception was “intrinsically evil,”159 and likewise, Pope John Paul II said “contraception is never morally correct”.160 In a LDC such as Equatorial Guinea, where 87% of the population is Roman Catholic,161 these views on contraception are likely to be conformed to. Therefore, higher birth rates will be seen, leading to increased consumption and reduced gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, which suggests that Catholicism may have a negative affect on the economic growth of LDCs. Furthermore, Figure 1 shows how a country with a low GDP is likely to display the highest fertility rates, creating a vicious cycle of decline, wherein less services are available to educate and provide women with contraception, meaning that fertility rates will remain high and GDP per capita will remain low.

153

SHARIFF, A. F. & NORENZAYAN, A. (2011) Mean Gods Make Good People: Different Views of God Predict Cheating Behaviour, p.88; Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group 154 SHARIFF, A. F. & NORENZAYAN, A. (2011) Mean Gods Make Good People: Different Views of God Predict Cheating Behaviour, p.92; Routledge: Taylor and Francis Group 155 DURLAUF S. N., KOURTELLOS A. & TAN C. M. (2009) Is God in the Details? A Re-examination of the Role of Religion in Economic Growth, p.2. 156 DURLAUF S. N., KOURTELLOS A. & TAN C. M. (2009) Is God in the Details? A Re-examination of the Role of Religion in Economic Growth, p.20. 157 DURLAUF S. N., KOURTELLOS A. & TAN C. M. (2009) Is God in the Details? A Re-examination of the Role of Religion in Economic Growth, p.7. 158 UNITED NATIONS (2015) United Nations Member States. [Online] Available from: http://www.un.org/en/members/ [Accessed: 20 August 2015] 159 POPE PAUL VI (1968) Humanae Vitae: Encyclical Letter of His Holiness 160 BBC (2011) Religions: Pope John Paul II [Online] www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/pope/johnpaulii_1.shtml [Accessed: 1 July 2015] 161 US DEPARTMENT OF STATE (2007) International Religious Freedom Report [Online] http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2007/90095 [Accessed: 20 August 2015]

Figure 1 Islam Islam is the world’s second largest religion. There are approximately 1.5 billion Muslims, an estimated 21% of the global population,162 with 62% from the Asia-Pacific area.163 Overall only 2.9% of all Muslims are from North America or Europe,164 where the world’s most economically developed countries are situated. Muslims base their laws on their holy book, the Qur’an, coupled with the Sunnah, a verbal record of the teaching of the practices, customs and traditions of the Prophet Muhammed. These teachings can be summed up by the ‘Five Pillars of Islam,’ which consist of Shahadah, declaring your faith; Salah, prayer five times each day; Zakat, giving money to charity; Sawm, fasting; and Hajj, a pilgrimage to the sacred place of worship, Mecca.165 The Qur’an states, “ ‫( ” ﺍاﻟﺰﱠﻛَﺎﺓةَ ﻭوَﺁآﺗُﻮﺍا‬Al-Muzzammil, 73:20), translating to “Pay the Zakat,”.166 This stipulates that Muslims must annually give 2.5% of their total income, provided it is greater than the ‘nisab’ or minimum income, under which a person would be exempt from this tax.167 In my opinion this compulsory giving to charity will aid the circulation of wealth around a country rather than remaining amongst a few affluent individuals.

162

ADHERENTS.COM (2014) Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents. [Online] Available from: http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html [Accessed: 25 June 2015] 163 PEW RESEARCH CENTER (2013) World’s Muslim population more widespread than you might think [Online] www. pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/07/worlds-muslim-population-more-widespread-than-you-might-think/ [Accessed: 4 July 2015] 164 PEW RESEARCH CENTER (2013) World’s Muslim population more widespread than you might think [Online] www. pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/07/worlds-muslim-population-more-widespread-than-you-might-think/ [Accessed: 4 July 2015] 165 MALISE RUTHVEN (2000) Islam: A very short introduction, p.159-161,Oxford Paperbacks: New Ed Edition 166 HALEEM M. A. S. A. (2010) The Qur'an: English translation with parallel Arabic text, OUP Oxford: Big Rev edition 167 MALISE RUTHVEN (2000) Islam: A very short introduction, p.159,Oxford Paperbacks: New Ed Edition

However, in spite of this, for the least developed countries there is already very little money concentrated in a small part of society. Consequently, 2.5% of their income is unlikely to be enough to generate significant economic growth in the LDCs. Some Muslims with particularly strong beliefs argue that prohibiting paying or receiving fixed interest frees up idle wealth, allowing for greater economic growth.168 According to the Khilafah, the ruling system of Muslims all over the world, ‘in Islamic economy the emphasis is upon the real economy,’169 and this is supported by AlBaqarah, 2:275 of the Qur’an, which states, ‫ ”ﺍاﻟ ﱢﺮﺑَﺎ ﻭوَﺣَﺮﱠﻡمَ ﺍاﻟْﺒَﻴﯿْﻊَ ﺍاﻟﻠّﻪُ ﺃأَﺣَﻞﱠ‬translating to “Allah has forbade riba.”170 Riba is best translated as the charging of interest, which ordinarily would cause wealth to remain in banks in order to accrue interest rather than remain circulating in the economy. As a consequence, by banning this interest, money spreads around the economy, increasing the potential economic growth of less developed countries. Nonetheless the Khilafah website source used for this argument notoriously has a very pro-Islamic bias, with little consideration of the opposing side. Therefore, as the validity of this is questionable, the likelihood of an Islamic economy being so significantly beneficial to growth is doubtful. One of the five pillars of Islam, Sawm, compels Muslims to fast for the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which falls during the ninth month of the lunar calendar.171 The fasting requires Muslims to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual activity during daylight hours.172 Filipe Campante and David Yanagizawa-Drott, both of the Harvard Kennedy School of University of Cambridge (Massachusetts), studied the economic effects of religious practices by considering the Ramadan fasting. Firstly, when measuring GDP per worker or per capita in Muslim countries, there was a negative effect on the output of growth despite an increase in selfreported happiness and life satisfaction. This is likely to be due to reduced productivity during the month of Ramadan, when workers are more tired, unwilling to work and have reduced levels of activity and concentration ability. However, when considering people’s ‘subjective well-being,’ it was clear that Ramadan generally made people happier and more grateful for what they had the rest of the time. This could potentially lead to increased productivity. However, with little evidence on this, Campante and YanagizawaDrott concluded that Ramadan has a negative impact on growth.173 In spite of this, in my opinion, the fact that the length of Ramadan can vary from place to place must also be considered. For example, in the Northern Hemisphere winter, the prescribed length of daily fasting will be longer in Bangladesh than Turkey, as Bangladesh is closer to the equator and will have more daylight hours. Therefore, the economic effect on the least developed countries will differ from place to place, reducing the importance of this factor hindering economic growth. Women There have always been inequalities between men and women in most world religions and, in general, women have always accounted for 50% of the world’s population, but tend to only occupy 0.5% of human history.174 For example, in the Bible, 1 Timothy 2:12 states, ‘But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence,’175 suggesting that women ought to be far inferior to men. 168

Institute of Islamic Banking: ‘Prohibition of Interest’, 1990 KHILAFAH.COM (2009 Islam and Economic Growth [Online] http://www.khilafah.com/islam-and-economic-growth/ [Accessed: 23 June 2015] 170 HALEEM M. A. S. A. (2010) The Qur'an: English translation with parallel Arabic text, OUP Oxford: Big Rev edition 171 MALISE RUTHVEN (2000) Islam: A very short introduction, Oxford Paperbacks: New Ed Edition 172 MALISE RUTHVEN (2000) Islam: A very short introduction, Oxford Paperbacks: New Ed Edition 173 CAMPANTE F. & YANAGIZAWA-DROTT D. (2015) Does religion affect economic growth and happiness? Evidence from Ramadan. 174 BBC (2012) Bettany Hughes: Is religion good for women? [Online] Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/0/18395819 [Accessed 21 August 2015] 175 THE BIBLE: AUTHORIZED KING JAMES VERSION, (1987) Thomas Nelson Inc. 169

However, nowadays, the role of women varies massively to that of the first century New Testament church. In Islam, the Qur’an 4:34 (Surat An-Nisa) states, “‫ ﺍاﻝلﻥنﺱسﺍاء ﻡمﻥن ﻡمﺵشﺭرﻑفﻭوﻥن ﻩهﻡم ﺍاﻝلﺭرﺝجﺍاﻝل‬,” which roughly translates to ‘men are the maintainers of women,’176 and suggests that men are superior. For both Christianity and Islam there are many quotes beyond these that suggest that women have less authority than men and that they ought to stay at home and remain uneducated. In general, in more economically developed countries, a rather liberal approach is taken and women are given far more freedom, whereas in less developed countries there are less external influences and more cultural traditions, so a more literal view is taken and women are treated as inferior to men. In my opinion, this has a variety of adverse economic impacts, which are all exacerbated by the fact that these countries are already less developed. Firstly, it prevents half of a population from productive employment, so less money can be generated for the country, reducing its potential for economic growth. Secondly, a vicious cycle is created as women, the uneducated members of society, play a significant role in child development, so the next generation is unable to achieve their full potential, meaning that they too could have provided greater economic output. Conclusion In conclusion, despite some evidence such as Barro and McCleary’s research that suggests that some religions may have a positive impact on economic growth, there are also many points that imply it either has a negative effect or none whatsoever. Furthermore, even people of the same religion will act differently due to the various values they hold and different interpretations of the teachings. There is also an issue with ways of measuring religious belief or level of fear, which makes drawing valid conclusions problematic. In this essay I only considered two of the major world religions, Islam and Christianity, and only the Least Developed Countries in general. However, personally, in light of the evidence discussed, I do not believe religion to have a positive impact on the potential economic growth of least developed countries. Having said this, I do not think it is to blame either. Religion provides millions of people worldwide with a daily focus, perseverance and a true sense that someone is looking out for them. Economic reasons are not the purpose of being religious; even if religion does not cause economic growth, surely the mere fact that it makes people happier is enough? Overall, it appears that the practice of world religions does not have a positive impact on the potential economic growth of the Least Developed Countries.

176

HALEEM M. A. S. A. (2010) The Qur'an: English translation with parallel Arabic text, OUP Oxford: Big Rev edition

Can we cure Alzheimer’s disease? By Douglas Spencer, U6 Southwood

“I have lost myself, so to say” Auguste Deter What do I want to discover in this project? In writing this project I would like to explore Alzheimer’s disease and the biological processes and changes that occur in the brain during the course of the disease and why they occur. I am also going to look at the drugs currently being used to fight it and new possible drugs being tested for the future. I am interested in the factors affecting the disease and ultimately analysing the evidence at hand and concluding whether or not we will be able to conquer Alzheimer’s in the near future. Introduction Alzheimer’s is a torturous disease, not only for the sufferer, slowly but surely losing touch with what they once were and eventually losing all basic day to day life skills, but also for the family. Besides physical caring for the patient, relatives see the slow deterioration of the mental state of the patient in an irreversible process. Throughout the course of the disease the patient deteriorates until the point of death, however many relatives feel as though the patient was lost not at passing, but at some point along the progression of the disease. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prominent type of dementia, affecting 850,000 people (1.3% of the population) in the UK alone.177 It was first recognised by Alois Alzheimer, a German neuropathologist and psychiatrist in the late 19th Century, who diagnosed Auguste Deter with the ‘Disease of Forgetfulness’. As this disease was discovered quite recently (cancer was discovered circa 1600BC), not as much is known about it, because fewer studies have been conducted. It is generally characterised by loss of memory and general deterioration of cognitive function.

Figure 1

177

Figure 2

Lewis et al (2014), The Trajectory of Dementia in the UK – Making a Difference, report produced by OHE for Alzheimer’s Research UK

Underlying Neurology To understand the processes which cause this dementia, we must first understand what is going on in the brain, more specifically in the neurons and the points in which they meet each other, the synapses. Figure 1 shows the structure of the neuron (multipolar) and a close-up of a chemical synapse (as opposed to an electrical synapse). The neuron is similar to other normal somatic cells, however it also has dendrites (finger-like extensions of the cell body, which receive impulses from other neurons and deliver them to the cell body), an axon (that delivers impulses from the cell body to the synaptic knobs) and axon terminals, which meet dendrites of other neurons as synapses.178 The purpose of this neuron is to receive and send electrochemical signals to other neurons. These signals are called action potentials. A neuron only fires when it reaches an action potential threshold. This usually happens when the neuron depolarises (makes the cell less negatively charged) to -55mV. This message then travels down the myelinated axon and reaches the axon terminals. The end of the axon (the synaptic knob) releases neurotransmitters, by exocytosis of vesicles, into the synaptic cleft (the region between the presynaptic neuron and the postsynaptic neuron).179 Once these neurotransmitters have been released into the synaptic cleft they then bind to the receptors on the subsynaptic membrane. The ion channels on the subsynaptic membrane open when a neurotransmitter binds to them and allows ions to flow into and out of the cell.

Figure 3

Synapses: excitatory and inhibitory The binding of a neurotransmitter to a receptor-channel at an excitatory synapse, opens ion channels (ionotropic receptors), which allow Na+ and K+ to flow through them (Na+ in and K+ out of the neuron). At resting potential (-70mV), the concentration of Na+ and the potential gradient both favour Na+ moving (by facilitated diffusion) into the cell, whereas only the concentration of K+ favours its movement out. Therefore more sodium ions move into the neuron than potassium ions move out, the net movement of positive ions moves into the cell, resulting in an overall depolarisation (the charge of the cell becomes less negative) of the postsynaptic neuron. This depolarisation is a graded potential (as opposed to an action potential).180

178

Lauralee Sherwood (2010). Human Physiology: From cells to Systems. 7th ed. Belmont, USA: Yolanda Cossio. pg105 Lauralee Sherwood (2010). Human Physiology: From cells to Systems. 7th ed. Belmont, USA: Yolanda Cossio. pg105 180 Lauralee Sherwood (2010). Human Physiology: From cells to Systems. 7th ed. Belmont, USA: Yolanda Cossio. pg106-107. 179

A depolarisation of this sort is small and does not reach the action potential threshold to cause an action potential propagation, it is only a graded potential; action potentials work on an ‘all-or-nothing’ basis. However it does bring the potential of the cell closer to the threshold and the membrane is now more excitable. The difference in postsynaptic potential at an excitatory synapse is called an excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP). With numerous other EPSP’s occurring simultaneously, located at different excitatory synapses on the same postsynaptic neuron, each small depolarisation adds up together to result in the neuron reaching the action potential threshold. This is called summation.181 At an inhibitory synapse, when the neurotransmitter binds to the receptor-channels on the subsynaptic membrane, they open to K+ and Cl—. Potassium ions leave the cell by the K+ efflux and the Cl—’s move into the cell in response to the low concentration of Cl— in the intracellular fluid (ICF) compared to the extracellular fluid (ECF), even though this is against the electrical gradient across the membrane. The net movement of these ions causes a small hyperpolarisation (the charge of the cell becomes more negative) of the postsynaptic neuron. This hyperpolarisation pushes the membrane potential even further from the action potential threshold, reducing the likelihood of the postsynaptic neuron undergoing an action potential and the membrane is said to be less excitable. This small hyperpolarisation of the cell is called an inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP).182 In cells where the resting potential equals the equilibrium potential for Cl—, the opening of the ion channels (at an inhibitory synapse) has no net effect on the movement of Cl— and there is no hyperpolarisation, the opening of the Cl— channels just holds the membrane potential at resting potential.183 Synaptic plasticity Synaptic neuroplasticity (as opposed to structural plasticity) is the ability of synapses to strengthen or weaken over time and is a process by which learning and memory occurs. The process by which synapses strengthen is called long term potentiation (LTP) and the process by which synapses weaken is called long term depression (LTD), depression in this sense means deterioration of synaptic strength and is not to be confused with clinical depression. LTP & LTD are part of spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP), theorised by Donald Hebb. An example of this is in the hippocampal neurons. The neurotransmitter involved in this process is glutamate. Glutamate (Glu) is an excitatory neurotransmitter and binds to AMPA (α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid) receptors and NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptors, both of which are located at the subsynaptic site. The AMPA receptors allow Na+’s to enter the neuron and K+’s to leave. As is mentioned above, the sodium ions move in response to the electrical gradient of membrane potential and due to the concentration of sodium ions (high in the ECF and low in the ICF), and the potassium ions move out only due to concentrations of potassium being lower in the ECF. Fewer potassium ions move out than sodium ions, as they are moving against the electrical gradient. The NMDAR allows Na+ and Ca2+’s to enter the neuron and K+’s to move out of the cell.184

181

Lauralee Sherwood (2010). Human Physiology: From cells to Systems. 7th ed. Belmont, USA: Yolanda Cossio. pg106-107. Lauralee Sherwood (2010). Human Physiology: From cells to Systems. 7th ed. Belmont, USA: Yolanda Cossio. pg106-107. 183 Lauralee Sherwood (2010). Human Physiology: From cells to Systems. 7th ed. Belmont, USA: Yolanda Cossio. pg106-107. 184 Brains explained. (2014). Synaptic plasticity. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfifTUYuAYU . Last accessed 19/8/15. 182

The NMDA receptors (or NMDARs) are voltage-dependent, and only open when the voltage of the neuron is positive, as the ligand Mg+ blocks the receptor at negative voltages. The NMDAR is called voltage-dependent, as only positive voltages cause the receptor to open. Therefore at negative voltages the NMDAR does not bind to the glutamate released and does not contribute significantly to the EPSP, therefore the permeability of the cell membrane to Na+â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s is lower in negative voltages.185 AMPA receptors are constantly being recycled in the neuron, by means of exocytosis and endocytosis. New AMPA receptors in vesicles in the neuron move to the cell membrane at the perisynaptic sites and migrate towards the postsynaptic site. Old AMPA receptors migrate to the perisynaptic sites from the postsynaptic site and are then engulfed by the cell by endocytosis. Calcium-dependent kinases alter the recycling process of AMPA receptors, specifically by increasing their exocytosis. They also phosphorylate the structure of the AMPA receptors, making them more permeable to sodium and potassium ions. Protein phosphates increase the endocytosis of the AMPA receptors.186

Figure 5 Long Term Potentiation (LTP) When the presynaptic neuron fires an action potential <20ms (milliseconds) before the postsynaptic neuron, the synapse strengthens. When the presynaptic (hippocampal) neuron fires, it releases glutamate. The glutamate then binds to the AMPA receptors on the postsynaptic neuron and so sodium ions move into the cell and potassium ions out. The net movement of ions induces an EPSP, which then causes the NMDA receptors to open and calcium ions move into the cell through the NMDARs. If the influx of calcium ions into the cell is large enough then an action potential is triggered.187 More importantly, if the calcium ion influx reaches a second threshold, then calcium-dependent kinases are activated, increasing the number of AMPA receptors on the postsynaptic membrane and phosphorylating them too. This has overall effect of a greater EPSP produced when the presynaptic neuron fires again. Over a long period of time this process results in a LTP.188 185

Long Term Depression (LTD) If the presynaptic neuron fires <20 ms after the postsynaptic neuron, the synapse weakens. When the postsynaptic neuron fires it depolarises, reaches a peak (of positive voltage), then repolarises more negative than resting membrane potential, then depolarises slightly to resting membrane potential. It is this time in which the cell potential briefly sinks below the resting potential which is crucial. At this time the presynaptic neuron fires and releases glutamate into the synaptic cleft and the glutamate binds to the AMPA receptors. However, as the voltage is even lower than usual, there are even fewer NMDAR’s to bind to and the graded potential created by the binding of glutamate and the AMPA receptors has little effect on the availability of open NMDAR’s. Therefore, fewer calcium ions move into the postsynaptic neuron.189 This small influx of Ca+’s into the cell activates protein phosphatases, which increase the endocytosis of AMPA receptors. This means that there are fewer AMPA receptors on the post synaptic neuron and so when the presynaptic neuron fires again the net ion movement is smaller and a smaller EPSP is produced. Over time this results in a LTD.190 Acetylcholine (ACh) Acetylcholine is an excitatory neurotransmitter like glutamate in the brain.191 Acetylcholine (ACh) binds to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR), another ionotropic receptor like the AMPA & NMDA receptors, through which sodium, potassium and calcium ions flow in and out.192 Nicotine also binds to nAChR’s, hence ‘nicotinic’. ACh also acts as a neuromodulator (a neurotransmitter used by a single neuron to affect diverse populations of neurons) for plasticity, arousal and reward. It is classed as a neuromodulator as it is not reabsorbed by the presynaptic neuron nor broken down into metabolites after being released. Low levels of ACh can also cause depression. Damage to the cholinergic system (system which uses ACh almost exclusively as a neurotransmitter) has been linked with Alzheimer’s disease. 193 Acetylcholine is largely involved in attention, intuition and mood, all noticeably deficient in an Alzheimer’s patient. ACh is also an agonist (binds to) the α4β2 nicotinic receptor, which is involved in learning.194

Figure 6

189

Brains explained. (2014). Synaptic plasticity. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfifTUYuAYU . Last accessed 19/8/15. Brains explained. (2014). Synaptic plasticity. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfifTUYuAYU . Last accessed 19/8/15. 191 Wikipedia. (2015). Acetylcholine. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetylcholine. Last accessed 18/8/15. 192 Wikipedia. (2015). Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotinic_acetylcholine_receptor. Last accessed 24/8/15. 193 The Cholinergic Hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease: a review of progress, Francis PT, Palmer AM, Snape M, Wilcock GK, February 1999 cited in Wikipedia. (2015). Acetylcholine. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetylcholine. Last accessed 18/8/15. 194 Wikipedia. (2015). Acetylcholine. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetylcholine. Last accessed 18/8/15. 190

Three major contributing factors Death of neurons The most noticeable change in the physiology of the brain is the dramatic decrease in size. This decrease in tissue is called atrophy. At the beginning of the disease, atrophy begins in the cerebral cortex (the layer on the outside of the brain) in the temporal lobes, which tend towards atrophy first in a particular region called the hippocampus, well known for forming new memories, hence the first stages of AD include forgetting where keys are and other like situations. Another area which suffers atrophy in the temporal lobes is the basal nucleus. These cholinergic neurons have long axons which terminate in different areas all across the cerebral cortex. More importantly, they release acetylcholine (hence cholinergic neurons). Therefore as the basal nucleus undergoes atrophy, the level of cholinergic neurotransmission (ACh released) in the cerebral cortex changes, which is of course tied in with the progression of AD.195 One factor which could be a contributor to the death of neurons is oxidative stress. This is the imbalance of the production of free radicals and the ability of the body to detoxify them and their effects (other oxidised organic molecules). The way in which the body detoxifies these free radicals is through neutralisation by antioxidants.196

Figure 7

Figure 8

Beta Amyloid Plaques Extracellular neuritic plaques are spread throughout the cerebral cortex, and are particularly abundant in the hippocampus (the first area of the brain to be attacked by the disease). They are comprised of a waxy and fibrous protein core called beta amyloid (AĂ&#x;) and are surrounded by degenerating dendritic and axonal nerve endings.197 195

khanacademymedicine. (2014). Biological basis of alzheimer's disease. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=816WMQIwNoY. Last accessed 16/8/15. 196 khanacademymedicine. (2014). Biological basis of alzheimer's disease. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=816WMQIwNoY. Last accessed 16/8/15. 197 Lauralee Sherwood (2010). Human Physiology: From cells to Systems. 7th ed. Belmont, USA: Yolanda Cossio. pg164-165.

Amyloid precursor protein (APP), an integral membrane protein, which is found in many tissues and in high concentrations in the synapses of neurons due to its role of regulation in synaptic formation, neuroplasticity and iron export, forms these Aß plaques. Normally APP is cleaved by alpha-secretase to form sAPP and then is cleaved a second time by gamma-secretase. The two products formed by this mechanism benefit neurons. However, if instead beta-secretase cleaves APP and then gamma-secretase cleaves the remaining molecule, Aß is produced.198, 199 These Aß oligomers interfere with the function of neurons as well as being toxic to them. They kill the neuron by causing an excessive influx of calcium ions in the neurons, which causes a large depolarisation and leads to cell death. This is called excitotoxicity. After a while they bind together to become insoluble and form plaques. These plaques are not only directly harmful to the surrounding neurons, they also cause an immune response by the microglia cells, which not only destroys the toxic neurons but also the surrounding healthy neurons.200 Tau Tangles The protein tau binds to tubulin molecules, which form microtubules and support them. If the tau proteins become hyperphosphorylated (too many phosphate groups attach to them) they cannot interact with the tubulin molecules and the microtubules then unravel. The loss of the microtubules deprives the cell of a transport system for substances to travel between the cell body and the axon terminal, and so the cell dies. The Aß plaques cause these changes in the neuronal cytoskeleton. Once the tau proteins dissociate from the microtubules they then aggregate together to form neurofibrillary tangles, which also disable the transport system.201 Drugs for the disease and their effects Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved DRUG NAME

BRAND NAME

APPROVED FOR

FDA APPROVED

Donepezil

Aricept

All stages

1996

Galantamine

Razadyne

Mild to Moderate

2001

Rivastigmine

Exelon

All stages

2000

Memantine

Namenda

Moderate to Severe

2003

Donepezil & Memantine

Namzaric

Moderate to Severe

2014

198

Lauralee Sherwood (2010). Human Physiology: From cells to Systems. 7th ed. Belmont, USA: Yolanda Cossio. pg164-165. AlzheimerUniversal. (2010). Inside the Brain: Unraveling the Mystery of Alzheimer's Disease [HQ]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjgBnx1jVIU. Last accessed 16/8/15. 200 Lauralee Sherwood (2010). Human Physiology: From cells to Systems. 7th ed. Belmont, USA: Yolanda Cossio. pg164-165. 201 Lauralee Sherwood (2010). Human Physiology: From cells to Systems. 7th ed. Belmont, USA: Yolanda Cossio. pg164-165. 199

Drug name

Method of administration of Bioavailability drug into the body (% of drug entering the bloodstream)

Biological half-life

Donepezil

Oral tablet

100%

70 hours

Galantamine

Oral tablet

80-100%

7 hours

Rivastigmine

Oral tablet or via transdermal 60-72% patch

1.5 hours

Memantine

Oral tablet

60-100 hours

100%

Skeletal formula

202, 203

All four of these drugs are FDA approved, meaning they have passed all the necessary drug trials. Cholinesterase Inhibitors Cholinesterase antagonists inhibit acetylcholinesterase (AChE) by binding to them reversibly, and so ACh is not hydrolysed by AChE, therefore there is more ACh in the synapses of the neurons. With the basal nucleus undergoing atrophy, less ACh is being released into the cerebral cortex. To counter this, these AChE inhibitors increase the length of time the ACh stays in the synapse.204 Memantine (an NMDAR antagonist) Memantine, unlike the cholinesterase inhibitors, acts on the glutamatergic system as it blocks the NMDA receptors. At normal levels, glutamate aids memory and learning. However, if the levels get too high, glutamate over stimulates the neurons and kills them by excitotoxicity. The excess calcium ion influx activates phospholipases, endonuclease and proteases, which damage cell structures like the cell membrane, DNA and the cytoskeleton respectively, which kills the cell. By blocking the NMDA receptors, memantine reduces this process and so fewer neurons die.205

202

alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s association. (2015). Medications for Memory Loss. Available: http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_standard_prescriptions.asp. Last accessed 16/8/15. 203 alzheimer's association. (2015). What We Know Today About Alzheimer's Disease. Available: http://www.alz.org/research/science/alzheimers_disease_treatments.asp. Last accessed 16/8/15. 204 Wikipedia. (2015). Acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetylcholinesterase_inhibitor. Last accessed 16/8/15. 205 Wikipedia. (2015). Memantine. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memantine. Last accessed 19/8/15.

Side effects Donepezil, Galantamine and Rivastigmine all produce gastrointestinal side affects (nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting) as they also interfere with smooth muscle of the intestines and stomach. Rivastigmine can also produce hallucinations as it also inhibits butylcholinesterase, whereas the others only inhibit acetylcholinesterase. Memantine also can have many side effects, such as dizziness, drowsiness, gastrointestinal side effects, hallucination, anxiety, hypertonia (muscle spasms), cystitis (urinary tract infection) and an increased libido (sex drive).206 207 208 209 As becomes very obvious, none of these drugs is ideal; they are all only palliative treatments. This means that they only deal with the symptoms of the disease and do not alter the course of it, and they can produce severe side effects, so is it even worth taking the drug?

Figure 9

Figure 10

Methane sulfonyl fluoride (MSF) Methane sulfonyl fluoride is another inhibitor of AChE. Like the other AChE antagonists, it inhibits both the AChE in the neuron-to-neuron synapses and the neuromuscular synapses. Unlike the other AChE inhibitors, it binds to the AChE irreversibly. This is very important as it means that it has a very small effect on the intestines and stomach and a large effect on the brain. This is because the AChE on the postsynaptic neurons changes every 12 days; the AChE in the gut change every day. Therefore a dose of MSF affects the brain for 12 days, whereas it only effects the stomach for 1, meaning that there are few, if any, gastrointestinal side effects.210 In a study, MSF was given to a group of aged rats, and then they were compared to a control group of young rats. Tests were carried out prior to the administrated dose of MSF and showed that the aged rats had an inferior cognition to the young rats.

206

Wikipedia. (2015). Donepezil. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donepezil. Last accessed 18/8/15. Wikipedia. (2015). Galantamine. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galantamine. Last accessed 18/8/15. 208 Wikipedia. (2015). Rivastigmine. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivastigmine. Last accessed 18/8/15. 209 Wikipedia. (2015). Memantine. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memantine. Last accessed 19/8/15. 210 Alzheimerstools. (2013). New Alzheimers Treatment. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ_n5X4MMGw. Last accessed 16/8/15. 207

After the dose of MSF, the aged rats performed as well in the tests as did the young rats. MSF has also been successful in three human clinical trials. In the Phase I clinical trials, it showed very low side effects, and in Phase II, the results demonstrated safety and efficacy in the aged population.211 Beta-secretase 1 inhibitors ß-secretase 1 (BACE1) is the enzyme which cleaves APP with γ-secretase to produce Aß.212 Trials have been conducted for γ-secretase inhibitors, which cleaves APP after BACE 1 to produce Aß. However, as it also cleaves APP with α-secretase to produce sAPP, inhibiting γ-secretase would not be effective. It has also been shown to produce side effects as well. A BACE 1 inhibitor is a promising aspect as it would stop Aß from being produced. This treatment would be ideal for stopping further damage of Aß plaques. However, it would not be a rehabilitating process as the plaques would already have been produced.213 Immunotherapy Using the body’s immune system, the plaques could be broken down and destroyed. For example, if the patient’s immune system could be tricked into seeing the Aß plaques as foreign by the use of a vaccine, then it could recognise the plaques as foreign and wipe out all of them in the brain (although this may cause unnecessary inflammation, which is unhealthy for the brain).214 Another method would be to synthesise monoclonal antibodies and inject them into the patient to work likewise and break down the plaques. Diagnosis Once someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, even in the early stages, not as much change can be achieved as could be if the doctors know that in ten or twenty years’ time the patient will start to show signs. Therefore, in order to prevent AD or postpone the onset, it is vital to diagnose a patient with AD as soon as possible, even when they show no signs of symptoms. One way to do this is by looking at family history. However, this is still not conclusive. A more concrete method is to measure the brain energy metabolism. Glucose usage and mitochondrial activity is abnormally low sometimes decades before symptoms of the disease begin to show. The reduction in brain metabolism can be shown by using fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) and injecting it into the patient, waiting for it to reach the brain, then doing a PET scan. With this method, areas of the brain that are hypometabolic (low metabolism) can be found. This is an extremely useful technology as it predicts AD very early on and is a clear indication of AD, meaning that the patient can be treated earlier and the treatment would be much more effective.215

211

Wikipedia. (2015). Methanesulfonyl fluoride. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanesulfonyl_fluoride. Last accessed 2/9/15. Wikipedia. (2015). Amyloid precursor protein. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amyloid_precursor_protein. Last accessed 31/8/15. 213 Rhiannon Bugno. (2015). Beta Secretase Inhibitors to Treat Alzheimer’s Disease. Available: http://www.elsevier.com/about/pressreleases/research-and-journals/beta-secretase-inhibitors-to-treat-alzheimers-disease. Last accessed 2/9/15. 214 University of California Television (UCTV). (2013). Alzheimer's Prevention Program: Keep Your Brain Healthy for the Rest of Your Life. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5HXPxB837s. Last accessed 2/9/15. 215 Stanford Health Care. (2014). The Latest on Alzheimer's Disease Research. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypcNmaIDOSU. Last accessed 19/8/15. 212

The biomarkers are also very useful. The way in which they work is that they bind onto something, then emit radiation, which is then picked up by a device like the Geiger Counter. In this case the biomarkers bind the Aß and tau. The biomarkers for Aß are Amyvid and Vizamyl (both approved by the FDA). The patient is injected with the biomarker and it moves around in the bloodstream and reaches the brain. After a while, the patient has a PET scan and the doctor can see how much radiation (which correlates to the amount of Aß in the brain) the brain is emitting. New biomarkers, which work in the exactly the same way, have been released for tau proteins as well.216

Figure 11 Amyloid in the CSF (cerebrospinal fluid), the fluid which surrounds the brain and is in the spinal chord, is negatively correlative to amyloid in the brain (for reasons unknown). More amyloid in the CSF means less amyloid in the brain and so it is an indication that the patient does not have AD. By means of a routine lumbar puncture (injection into the spinal chord which withdraws CSF) the level of Aß in the CSF can be obtained. This is another great test as it indicates the amount of amyloid in the brain, identifies the disease in the patient earlier on and it is very reliable. Tau in the CSF is positively correlative to tau tangles in the brain. By using the same sample from the routine lumbar puncture testing the Aß levels, you can measure the levels of tau in the brain, which is also another great indicator of AD.217 Research The studies for Alzheimer’s are no longer being performed on patients, rather they are aimed at prevention trials for presymptomatic patients who have not shown any signs of the disease and will maybe contract the disease in a decade or so. This is because treatment once a patient already has Alzheimer’s has little effect, depending on how far advanced the disease is. There is a kindred in Antioquia, Columbia, of around 5000 people, the world’s largest early-onset Alzheimer’s kindred, all descended from a single Spanish settler in the 1600’s who had a mutation in the Presenilin-1 gene (PSEN1), meaning that he developed AD at the age of 40 years old (extremely young for an Alzheimer’s patient).218 Out of the 5,000, 1,500 have the gene. Although being extremely unfortunate for this group, it is particularly useful and advantageous for the Alzheimer’s community, as it means that presymptomatic trials can be performed with a good chance of the subjects developing AD after the trials. Without this kindred, presymptomatic trials would be a complete stab in the dark, as there is no certainty that any of subjects in the trials would ever develop AD and the results would not be conclusive. 216

Stanford Health Care. (2014). The Latest on Alzheimer's Disease Research. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypcNmaIDOSU. Last accessed 19/8/15. 217 Stanford Health Care. (2014). The Latest on Alzheimer's Disease Research. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypcNmaIDOSU. Last accessed 19/8/15. 218 Menghis Bairu, Michael Weiner. (2014). The Epidemiology and Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease and Projected Burden of Disease. In: Menghis Bairu, Michael Weiner Global Clinical Trials for Alzheimer's Disease: Design, Implementation, and Standardization. Oxford: Elsevier. pg12.

As stress is a great risk factor, trials have been conducted both on animals and humans to understand the effect of stress on the brain. Animals with chronic stress have a smaller hippocampus and therefore have weaker memory. Humans who have chronic stress tend to have depression and a higher risk of dementia. Those prone to stress are twice as likely to develop AD. Cortisol (stress hormone) injections in humans temporarily impaired their memory. Risk factors and Longevity Alzheimer’s is an extremely complicated disease with many different diverse factors affecting chance of development. As the disease was not actually taken seriously until the late 1960’s (it was just called senility219), not a lot of study has been performed on it (with respect to other diseases). There are quite a few possible remedies. However, given at the wrong time, they can produce the opposite effects. For example, oestrogen given at around 40 years of age is supposed to be beneficial for AD (although taking hormones is risky) but at 60 or 70 years of age it has been shown to accelerate the progression of the disease. There are, however, some rather more concrete factors; vascular indispositions, such as hypertension (high blood pressure, which is generally harmful) and diabetes. A study is being conducted on former National Football League players to study the effect of head trauma in relation to AD. Head trauma is thought to increase the risk of AD.220 Age is the most unquestionable factor. The risk of someone developing AD at age 50 is very low, indeed at 60 too, but at 70 the risk increases. At 80 the risk rises almost exponentially from 70.221 A mutation in the APP gene can cause more Aß to be produced, which of course is directly linked to the disease. The Apolipoprotein-4 gene (ApoE-4), which plays a role in fat metabolism (the brain is 70% fat), is also linked to Alzheimer’s. Obesity is said to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s. However, the process of losing weight has indicated to decrease the effect, not just by exercising to remove the fat but, strangely, also by having fatreduction surgery. There are, thankfully, many remedies suggested too.222 Cucumin (which turmeric and some curries contain) acts as an antioxidant (to fight against oxidative stress), as an anti-inflammatory (inflammation of the brain is connected to memory loss and ageing) and it combats Aß in the brain. Many fruits and vegetables also contain antioxidants. Omega-3 fats (in fish and nuts) are beneficial and lower the risk of AD. It has been openly preached by many scientists in numerous medical papers that physical exercise is the cure to Alzheimer’s. If not a cure, then it is extremely beneficial and postpones AD by years. After exercise the body secretes BDNF (Brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which stimulates strengthening of structural neuroplasticity (dendrites and axon terminals sprout and make many more synapses with each other). This structural plasticity (not to be confused with synaptic plasticity) increases the brain size, and with a bigger brain comes better cognition.

219

Menghis Bairu, Michael Weiner. (2014). The Epidemiology and Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease and Projected Burden of Disease. In: Menghis Bairu, Michael Weiner Global Clinical Trials for Alzheimer's Disease: Design, Implementation, and Standardization. Oxford: Elsevier. pg12. 220 Menghis Bairu, Michael Weiner. (2014). The Epidemiology and Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease and Projected Burden of Disease. In: Menghis Bairu, Michael Weiner Global Clinical Trials for Alzheimer's Disease: Design, Implementation, and Standardization. Oxford: Elsevier. pg12. 221 Menghis Bairu, Michael Weiner. (2014). The Epidemiology and Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease and Projected Burden of Disease. In: Menghis Bairu, Michael Weiner Global Clinical Trials for Alzheimer's Disease: Design, Implementation, and Standardization. Oxford: Elsevier. pg12. 222 Menghis Bairu, Michael Weiner. (2014). The Epidemiology and Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease and Projected Burden of Disease. In: Menghis Bairu, Michael Weiner Global Clinical Trials for Alzheimer's Disease: Design, Implementation, and Standardization. Oxford: Elsevier. pg12.

Physical exercise is also part of three essential activities to an anti-inflammatory (brain) lifestyle. These also include a good night’s sleep and again omega-3 fats. Social activity at old age is also key. There are many places, for example Sardinia in Italy and Okinawa in Japan, where the elders repeatedly live past 100 years of age. Many scientists and neuroscientists believe that this is because they continue to manually labour, in the fields for example, and continue to act sociably, playing cards with each other and talking to each other. Conclusion To conclude and answer the question, “Can we cure Alzheimer’s?” I do not believe that there will be a cure as such, certainly not in the near future. There seem to be too many factors, known and unknown, at play. However, after carrying out extensive research of relevant literature, I do think that there definitely is a message and it is that a healthy, physically and socially active lifestyle appears, for now, to be the greatest deterrent against Alzheimer’s.

Prime Minister’s Questions – 'A childish, self-indulgent in-joke'223 or an arena for 'face-to-face clashes (that) can give useful vitality to democratic politics'224? By Harry Steel, U6 Christowe

The British parliament is full of strange quirks; from the slamming of the door of the Commons in Black Rod’s face, through the banning of clapping to the antiquated voting system, there is much for a casual observer to find confusing. Those looking in from afar could quite easily forgive these oddities, perhaps accepting them as simply quaintly British, as with our obsession with the weather or with cricket. Yet Prime Minister's Questions, or PMQs, remains an area of parliamentary activity that creates much debate. PMQs were first introduced in 1881 for the aging Prime Minister of the day, William Gladstone, in order to allow him an opportunity to answer all those questions posed at the end of ministerial question time. Since those Victorian days, PMQs are now a far more fiercely debated topic and, perhaps, the 'quirk' is now beyond a joke? The process for PMQs has evolved over the years. From Winston Churchill having to face ad hoc questions in the Commons every Tuesday and Thursday, the tradition continued until July 1961, when time was allocated specifically for PMQs. The present system, with PMQs on only one day, a Wednesday, was changed in 1997 by the Labour PM, Tony Blair. The format is well established; MPs, chosen randomly by the Speaker, can ask one question (and a supplementary) of the Prime Minister. The Leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition may ask up to six questions. The Prime Minister does not know, in advance, what questions may be posed, but will be extensively briefed by his staff and he will know the types of subjects that may cause him most embarrassment. So what role does this half hour, orchestrated, midweek slot, fulfil? Holding the Executive to account is one of the fundamental purposes of PMQs. Other electorates around the world are denied the same opportunity to see their Premiers held to account in a similar manner. Political commentators in the US are such fans that C-SPAN broadcasts PMQs live. Further, a petition has been set up to create a similar format to the UK's PMQs. The petition states, 'America could use more of this – an unfettered and public airing of political differences by our elected representatives.' Not all are fans though and former President, George Bush Snr, remarked in 1991, 'I count my blessings that I don't have to go into that pit that John Major stands in, nose to nose with the opposition.' Very few other countries have any opportunity to ask their leaders direct questions that they must answer without aides, PR experts or autocue. PMQs have led to changes in legislation. Following a question by Labour MP, Paul Goggins, on the subject of the abolition of the Child Trust Fund, the Chancellor, George Osborne, subsequently announced a junior ISA scheme with £5 million of funding. This may never have come about had David Cameron not been confronted, and because the questions are so clearly in the public’s eye, he was obliged to act sympathetically. Whilst this is a rare occurrence, this case shows how PMQs can bring about change for the better. PMQs also hands parliament sovereignty for a short time, with backbench MPs from any party allowed to hold the government to account. Questions posed from the Prime Minister's own backbenchers are often designed by the Government Whips to bring a particularly effective governmental policy to the fore. The Leader of the Opposition's six questions form the basis for a potentially charged atmosphere, but whilst this 223 224

Dan Hodges, a former Labour Party and GMB trade union official, Daily Telegraph Online 28 Nov 2013 Neil Kinnock, Leader of the Labour Party 1983 - 1992 quoted in The Independent 17 July 2011

confrontation may be entertaining, the questions can often be answered tactically, i.e. without divulging any information, or the Prime Minster can turn the question back on the Leader of the Opposition and simply criticise his opponent's record in any area. With this adversarial system, it often turns to petty point scoring, simply vying for a cheap one-liner to provide a highlight on that night’s news. Political commentators then 'score' PMQs and appoint a 'winner' and a 'loser'. Perhaps the only loser is the electorate, who are non the wiser after 30 minutes of political jousting. PMQs are also a great opportunity to discover more of the personality of our elected representatives. Faced with cameras, jeering and tough questions from the opposition (and sometimes his own party), PMQs offer the potential to show the true colours of our elected leaders, as well as his political acumen, humour and skill. In former PM Tony Blair’s Memoirs, 'The Journey', he describes PMQs as 'the most nerve-racking, discombobulating, nail-biting, bowel moving, terror-inspiring, courage-draining experience in my prime ministerial life, without question.' Andrew Marr, in his 2014 political novel, Head of State, describes the fictional PM, Bill Stevenson, as making ‘Prime Minister’s Questions considerably more entertaining than they had been under Brown or Cameron.’ Marr clearly sees a role of PMQs to be to entertain, as well as to educate. PMQs do act as a barometer of Party morale to political commentators, with one identifying the 'significant impact that the session has on the morale of the MPs.'225 During the run-up to the last election especially, the polls were predicting a Labour led coalition, but the feeling inside the House was of 'Tory buoyancy, with the PMQs the forerunner of this feeling.'226 Every Wednesday, Cameron’s proficiency on the stand buoyed the Conservative MPs and 'began the spiral of Labour misery, obviously finishing with the resignation of Ed Miliband.'227 It has been argued that there may be a lot of public disinterest in PMQs, most notably by the Speaker of the Commons, John Bercow, who said in June 2015, 'I think it would be to the advantage of this House if members were to take account of, and accord weight to, the very widespread public disapproval of the way in which the proceedings are conducted.' One of the benefits of the rowdy format the session takes is undeniably the passion shown, which often creates foreign interest and an entertaining and hopefully informative slice of politics, which is easily accessible to a younger audience. The Conservative MP, Roger Gale, said 'When you compare the intimacy of the Commons - with the two main party leaders literally a sword's length from each other - to the dreary, sterile Strasbourg chamber or the dour House of Representatives, there's no contest.' There seems to be something very British and distinctive about the Wednesday session, which separates us from the, arguably, duller Parliaments of the rest of the world. David Cameron has commented that 'those coming to the UK from abroad think it’s great that our democracy has such a passion.'228 Anne Perkins, a Guardian journalist said; 'It holds viewers enthralled across the world, and also here, though possibly because many are in some kind of rigor provoked by rage.' Interestingly, in the run-up to the election there was an increase in politics on social media, which was predominantly clips from PMQs. Whilst a lot were 'Thug Life'229 videos, edited clips of put downs and comebacks, these are, it can be argued, a positive for politics. Surely it is better that today's youth can see that our democracy can be entertaining, whereas otherwise it seems dull and inaccessible?

225

Ian Targett, Director of Westminster Advisors, interview with the author 10 July 2015. Ian Targett, Director of Westminster Advisors, interview with the author 10 July 2015. 227 Ian Targett, Director of Westminster Advisors, interview with the author 10 July 2015. 228 David Cameron, interviewed by Totalpolitics, 21 March 2011. 229 Youtube David Cameron Thug Life. 226

This initial eye catching clip might lead to searching who a certain politician is if the topic interests them, or maybe even registering to vote. Whilst it may not be effective scrutiny, an interesting conversation starter it might be. Having addressed how PMQs may be a necessary and beneficial feature of our democracy, it is clearly important to discuss its drawbacks. Behaviour is, arguably, the most obvious negative, as well as potential acting, and its timing in the week. The Hansard Society, a non-partisan political research and education charity, carried out a survey on public opinion of PMQs. Entitled, 'Tuned in or Turned off,' the study asked the public their opinions of PMQs. 47% agree it 'is too noisy and aggressive,' and only 15% disagree. Furthermore, merely 16% agree that 'MPs behave professionally.' Further to this survey, an array of politicians from all parties have publicly shunned PMQs. Labour MP, Paul Flynne, said PMQs had become 'an exchange of crude insults and non-answers.' The SNP MP, Mhairi Black, was quoted to say; 'So you’re not allowed to clap like an ordinary person, but you’re allowed to bray like a donkey?'230 Black went on to say, 'It actually sounds like a drunken mob,'231 and this is shocking to hear from someone who is essentially the closest representative of our youth in Parliament. It seems that the shouting or ‘braying’ are the least of PMQ's problems though. Conservative MP, Michael Fabricant, sported a huge fake moustache through a recent session232 and whilst this was done for charity, it does seem to highlight how MPs treat PMQs as a joke. After David Miliband appeared on Desert Island disks, David Cameron resorted to cracking puns. He joked; 'It's fair to say he's no longer a follower of Marx, he's loving Engels instead' (a wordplay on Robbie William's Angels) which was not only a terrible joke, but begs the question why a pillar of Executive accountability in our Nation’s Government is being jeered at with cheap puns. Behaviour is not improved with the huge noise in the Chamber. When measured, noise levels reached between 89 and 97 decibels, equivalent to a large crowd in a football ground. MPs often struggle to hear the debates, and microphones pick up more background noise than actual responses. In 1968, Miss Gillian Lloyd, a schoolteacher, wrote to The Times to voice her anger at PMQs, saying, 'If the culprits were in my class they would have a detention.233 ’; little has changed in those 45 plus years. As recently as last year, after a particularly rude outburst by the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, the Speaker quipped that he should be writing 'lines' on the topic of improving his behaviour. It seems bizarre to have our Parliament's behaviour being compared to a primary school. This tweet seems to sum up the public attitudes to PMQs; 'How about, just once, the PM tries to actually answer #PMQs and the braying masses shut up and listen to questions & answers #flyingpigs.’234235 Whilst there is the traditional conservative (small 'c') view that, 'If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,' it cannot be argued that certain archaic idiosyncrasies of Parliament are simply annoying. The old fashioned voting system of walking into the counting booths rather than simply pressing a button like in Scotland or Europe is an example, and PMQs are no exception. To be chosen to ask a PMQ, one must bob up and down (with no credence given to the importance of the question), clapping is banned and to raise a Private Member's Bill, your name is pulled out of a hat. This means that some MPs are simply unlucky and are never chosen. Furthermore, the quality of questions is irrelevant to the selection; this leads me to planted questions. How can it be beneficial to the democratic process to have Tory MPs essentially asking how wonderful the longterm economic plan is? If we are to have a period of time designated to grilling the PM on his grasp of policy, 230

Sunday Times Magazine, 25 July 2015, pp 44-45 Sunday Times Magazine, 25 July 2015, pp 44-45 232 PMQs, 27 November 2013 233 BBC News Politics 18 February 2014 231

these planted questions simply have to go. History tells us that little is actually changed as a result of PMQs and Labour’s Sir Gerald Kaufman described PMQs as 'an exchange of pointless and useless declamations.' PMQs seem to merely act as an arena for news networks to grab a sound bite to fill the afternoon news. This devalues Parliament as the electorate sees only these 30 minutes of showmanship, rather than the painstaking hours of scrutiny in the Select and Standing Committees where most legislation is formed. Unfortunately, it seems that the behaviour in PMQs is actually just an amplified example of the problems facing Parliament, and because of its spot in the public, it attracts most of the condemnation. As the complaint by the Speaker of 'public school twittishness' shows, it seems the 'high jinks' so prevalent in certain Independent schools is one of the most unattractive aspects of PMQs. Yet this only represents the wider issue. A third of the Commons were privately educated, whereas only 7% of the whole UK population attended Independent schools. Surely, if Parliament were to become more representative of the UK, then the House's decorum would mirror society rather than obscene public school pretentiousness? We may see examples of 'public school twittishness' of PMQs in certain public schools today, if, for example, jeers were to erupt in response to a minor and unintended incident. There would be a direct parallel to the Commons and it seems clear why, considering that most MPs are private school alumni. Moreover, PMQs are particularly unpopular with female MPs. Labour MP for Rotherham, Sarah Champion, said the questions were 'very, very testosterone-fuelled.' John Bercow said in an interview on BBC that PMQs 'put off some MPs, and in particular women, from even turning up.' But, again it’s important to look past PMQs and remember that merely 29% of MPs are female, when over half of the UK are women. It seems an intuitive solution to the rowdy, boisterous question time, that we have more female MPs. Clearly, male MPs are not the only members for whom standards of decorum are so low but, instinctively, with more women in the Commons, it follows it would become a calmer and more useful period of the political week. Having discussed the arguments for maintaining, or not, PMQs in their current form, raises the question: “Is something more interesting happening as a result of PMQs?” Is the changing format simply representing the changing role of the Prime Minister? Undoubtedly, the foremost reason for the questions are to hold the Executive to account, but surely a shift in emphasis is demonstrated by the fact that the session has slowly shifted from the Prime Minister being treated like any other minister, to his questions now moving to the end of the session, with a single 30-minute mid-week sitting, since Blair in 1997? This decrease in time spent at the mercy of the Commons seems to represent the transformation of 'Primus inter parus', a situation of first among equals, to an almost Presidential arrangement. The evolution of the Downing Street machine was clear during Margaret Thatcher’s incumbency, with the beginning of the concept of 'spatial leadership'. From an AS textbook; 'It suggests that political systems are increasingly led by leaders who consider themselves to be distinctly separate from the rest of government.' There seems to be an ongoing detachment of the Prime Minister from parliament. PMQs then seem to enhance this separation, as the PM will often only attend parliament once a week, and otherwise remain in Downing Street. Whereas the PM used to be treated as simply one of the Cabinet, David Cameron and his predecessors now hold celebrity status, and it seems PMQs are a factor of this. One of the main arguments that the PM position is now more Presidential is their media focus, with a huge team of special advisors masquerading as civil servants employed purely to improve the PM's public image and control the flow of information coming out of Number 10. So why would he want this to change when he is standing alone in the Commons, facing off against the Leader of the Opposition? With TV cameras in David Cameron’s face and a guaranteed blow-by-blow account on the evening news, with a football-like 'score' at the end, it seems obvious that he will try to entertain, throw in jokes, rehearse, script and deliver cheap putdowns and witty come-backs. This seems even more pertinent with the hundreds of braying MPs behind him looking more like football fans backing their team than like the elected representatives that they are. If it is

easier to simply avoid tough questions and take the 'free hits' that are planted questions, all PMs will keep doing so if it means they come out on top on the news, and the electorate think that the PM is 'winning'. As mentioned earlier, the Conservative Party may have won the election with their buoyed morale thanks to PMQs, and the awful 'You don't need it to be Christmas to know when you're sitting next to a turkey'236 jokes may have irked some members of the public, yet may others have laughed and reflected that David Miliband was simply politically inferior. E-democracy is another concept one must remain cognisant of when considering PMQs. In this age of shorter attention spans and a constant need for quick updates, PMQs are perfect for todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s electronic world. Whether it is a video on Facebook, a tweet of a quote, or a live feed of the exchange, PMQs allow anyone to keep up to date with politics in a way they understand. In our busy world, it is difficult to observe every piece of legislation passing through Parliament, but 30 minutes on the laptop in a lunch break is very manageable. The session can be easily condensed on the news, and is usually a good gauge of the mood of the Chamber. Any mistakes from either side will spread over social media quickly, furthering the need for witty replies. Perhaps then, some of the more pompous and loud behaviour can be blamed on the knowledge that every word will be watched over and over, and that news teams will sit and 'score' the 'match'. Is it the fault of the raucous behaviour that it is so prominent on the news, or the other way round? So are PMQs 'a childish, self-indulgent in-joke' or an 'arena for 'face-to-face clashes (that) can give useful vitality to democratic politics?' It can be argued that PMQs are the only part of our quirky historic democracy that has survived the leap into the 21st Century and our ever-decreasing attention span. With short sound bites and video clips, it is accessible and sometimes informative for social media and busy schedules. Furthermore, it grabs the attention of young people, which is, arguably, an issue for today's politicians. Yet being televised and being so much in the eye of the public, it is a window into the problems facing Parliament; the much larger issues of an imbalance of education and gender must be fixed, and, by doing so, the decorum in the Chamber may improve. So, what will the future bring for PMQs? It seems that change is necessary, but how radical this change is will be debatable. At the very least, there must be work done in the Chamber to reduce the deafening background noise. Currently the background 'hubbub' of shouting drowns out the principal speakers and only furthers the rude and inhospitable reputation of the House. The time of PMQs should be reviewed to make it more accessible to the young. The Hansard Review notes, '68% of those over 65 have seen or heard PMQs over the last year, compared to 35% of those 18-24.' This is mainly due to the midday, midweek slot on television. To maximise the coverage the session receives, it could move to a Tuesday or Thursday evening in prime time. A possible solution to boorish behaviour might be to introduce some form of 'sin bin' in the Chamber for any unruly acts. As well as the inconvenience of not contributing, the offender would face the embarrassment in both the national press, as well as in their local constituency. Facing losing the next election would hopefully force MPs to tow the line. The ability for the public to be able to ask questions, perhaps on a monthly cycle, may further the interest of the electorate. Additionally, the use of social media such as Twitter or Snapchat could begin to attract attention of young people. The TV debates for the run-up of both the 2010 and 2015 elections proved popular with many, so one-on-one televised debates between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition could work on a more frequent basis. Combined with questions from backbenchers and the public, this could be a great way to hold the Executive to account, in an informative and respectful way.

236

David Cameron at PMQs, Wednesday 18 December 2013.

In essence though, it seems that the biggest problem of PMQs is the behaviour. Should the Commons collaborate to create a more productive and civil environment, then more of the public may watch. If planted questions, gimmicks and non-answers were just removed, then a proper check on the Executive could take place. There needs to be an environment where the PM can be asked tough questions and give informative and thoughtful responses. At the same time, no PM can ever know every aspect of policy in his party, and he should be able to say, 'I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know,' without facing a wall of abuse and ridicule. Whatever happens though, it must remain an occasion that a Prime Minister is inspired to prepare for in respect of the Commons and those of use who put the politicians there. As Margaret Thatcher said, 'No head of government anywhere in the world has to face this sort of regular pressure, and many go to great lengths to avoid it.' Tony Blair was more balanced when he said, 'this is still the arena that sets the heart beating a little faster. And if it is on occasions the place of low skulduggery, it is more often the place for the pursuit of noble causes.' This valuable part of our democracy must remain, but much is needed to restore the publicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s faith in it. So where to start? Cut the loutish behaviour, for we must escape the snobbish hijinks that only serve to alienate the electorate, and embarrass our political representatives.

Is our appreciation of art determined by our Unconscious? By Hei Yi Tam, U6 Westal

“Good art is not what we see, but what it does to us.” Roy Adzak Over the past half-century, psychologists and philosophers have unraveled the impact of our mind. The unconscious in particular, has brought out an understanding of our suppressed desires, which are commonly known to be reflected upon in art. Here I will look at the impact of the mind on three levels, according to Sigmund Freud’s theory; how it affects our thoughts and perception, and whether it is only our unconscious mind that elicits the inexpressible emotion evoked upon interaction with art. In addition, I will also look into other factors that may influence our judgement and delve into the complex construct of the mind. Abstract Our mind governs our thought patterns, decisions and perception. When we interact with a stimulus and become aware of our responses, voluntary or not, something is triggered within us when we appreciate art. An artist creates stimuli for the audience and the stimuli triggers cognitive activity. Many would claim art to be aesthetics, it is however, the underlying creativity suppressed in the unconscious which is then portrayed onto a physical and visual form. Aesthetics, on the other hand, is a term to illustrate pleasing visual representation 237 . It would be appropriate to distinguish between the two to gain greater clarity of understanding of whether we are predestined to favour types of art. Perhaps it is when we are able to connect with the artwork, using sensations, knowledge and emotion to generate an experience strictly specific to the individual that we appreciate art. Though we may not necessarily find some art pleasing to look at, yet we may still be able to connect with it. But what in our mind is triggered when we do so? There are numerous factors that may affect our mind, conscious or not; the way we think, they way we perceive, and the way we feel; all may cause vulnerability to how we interpret incoming information. Before we decipher which areas in our mind are triggered when we appreciate art, we must first understand the mind. According to Freud, our minds are divided into three different levels; the conscious, preconscious and unconscious.238 Essentially, they are our three levels of awareness. Though Freud believed the brain was the organ that controlled human consciousness, it was later realised that the divisions of the mind are not physical divisions of the brain. They merely serve as a descriptive model in attempt to enable clearer understanding of the psyche.239

237

New Oxford American Dictionary: Definition of ‘aesthetics’ Cherry, Kendra (2015) The Conscious and Unconscious Mind: The Structure of the Mind According to Freud. Available at: http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/consciousuncon.htm (Assessed: 19 July 2015) 239 Snowden, Ruth (2010) Freud: The Key Ideas. 2nd Ed. (p. 71) London: Hodder Education. (Print) 238

Three levels of consciousness

Figure 1 The conscious mind includes everything that we are aware of, which consists of our thoughts and perception, Conscious our current thinking processes and everything within our 240 attentional span. The preconscious mind on the other hand, is the part of the mind that includes information Preconscious that we are aware of but not paying attention to. We can, however, retrieve it and pull it into consciousness whenever required. It therefore can represent ordinary Unconscious memory. 241 The diagram above shows the interlinking connection between the three levels in our mind. The preconscious is situated between the conscious and unconscious as it is able to emerge in both levels of consciousness. Freud believed that the preconscious functions as an intermediate or transitional level of the mind.242 Lastly, the unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, urges, and memories that are outside of our conscious awareness and is known to have taken over 90 per cent of our brain, also known as the 10/90 split.243 Professor Ashley Bush from Melbourne’s Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health affirms that our awareness, such as thoughts, perception and decision-making might indeed only represent 10 per cent of the complex operations of the brain at any one time.244 According to this view, our mind is constantly active. Comprehending the impact of the three levels of consciousness will enable us to understand which, and how much of, the three parts of the mind are used when we respond to a stimulus. The conscious

Figure 2: Starry Night (1889) by Van Gogh 240

Figure 3: The Scream (1892) by Edvard Munch

Freud’s Personality Factors (2015). Available at: http://changingminds.org/explanations/personality/freud_personality.htm (Assessed: 24 July 2015) 241 New Oxford American Dictionary: Definition of ‘aesthetics’ 242 Preconscious (2015). Available at: http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/501/Preconscious.html (Assessed: 4 Aug 2015) 243 NLP Practitioner (2015) 90% of Your Functioning is Unconscious. Available at: http://nlppractitioner.uk.com/nlp-practitioner-90-ofour-functioning-in-unconscious/ (Assessed 24 July 2015) 244 ABC News (2014) Fact or fiction: We only use 10 per cent of our brain. Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-11/do-weonly-use-10-per-cent-of-our-brains/5648810 (Assessed 24 July 2015)

Art is a stimulus. Its purpose is to make one realise what one never thought existed. It also attempts to evoke emotions. Essentially, it triggers our preconscious mind through our conscious mind, which has four functions. First, it identifies incoming information through any of our six senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, or feeling.245 Now, aware that our conscious mind does not necessarily recognise only external factors, it would be appropriate to say that when we interact with art, our conscious mind can be stimulated by either the physical appearance of the artwork itself or the emotions evoked from being stimulated by the artwork in the first place. To illustrate, imagine that you see Van Gogh’s Starry Night (1889)246 and instantly become interested. This may be explained by your attraction towards the vibrant hues of blue at first sight, or it may have stimulated you to recall previous experience or memory, which is the second function of the conscious mind; comparison. The information about the painting you have just seen goes immediately to your preconscious and unconscious mind. There, it is compared with all of your previously stored information and experiences with art. For example, the sight of blue and yellow swirls elicits your personal favoritism towards blueberry cheesecakes in a quiet city or that Sunday when you watched the sunset by the seaside, enhancing your interaction with the painting even further. However, it is still possible for you to find the painting interesting without any background knowledge or experiences. This may be explained by analysis, the third function of the conscious mind, which always precedes to the fourth function, deciding. In simple terms, you have seen the painting and have chosen that it appeals to you. The conscious mind functions very much like a binary computer, performing two functions: accepting or rejecting data when making choices and decisions. It can only deal with one thought at any time.247 At a conscious level, we appreciate art purely due to its aesthetics. Art, however, can be ambiguous and there are many other contributing factors that may influence our experience with the artwork. Therefore, our interaction with art can be very subjective to the individual, based on one’s past experiences and personal interests. The preconscious and its impact Our individuality lies in both our preconscious and unconscious mind. The preconscious holds all memories and experiences that can be easily brought to one’s awareness when stimulated. Essentially, such distinct information is what makes us unique, which explains how one’s experience of art is different to others’. Furthermore, if you are able to relate to a painting, it is likely that the level of appreciation will increase. Take Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1893)248 as an example, a painting that symbolises the anguish and pain of modern life249 and has become one of the most well known pictures of our time. Informed by his dark neuroses, the painting makes up an intense depiction of extreme psychological states relatable to most individuals, as it is inevitable to feel deep and dark emotions. Some, perhaps, can relate to such art at an even deeper level, as ‘one in four people in the world is affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives’ (World Health Organisation).250 Recalling such experiences, or perhaps ‘finding’ oneself in the painting (i.e. being able to relate to it), enables the individual to engage with the artwork further, enhancing the experience. Moreover, the artist himself admittedly claimed that he struggled with insanity and anxiety not only on a personal level during his life, but also through his family. The difference between Munch and 245

Tracy, Brian. (2000) Understanding Your Conscious Mind Available at: http://www.briantracy.com/blog/general/understandingyour-conscious-mind/ (Assessed: 27 June 2015) 246 ‘Starry Night’ (1889) Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starry_Night#/media/File:Van_Gogh_-_Starry_Night__Google_Art_Project.jpg (Assessed: 27 June 2015) 247 Preconscious (2015). Available at: http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/501/Preconscious.html (Assessed: 4 Aug 2015) 248 ‘The Scream’ (1893) Available at: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/The_Scream.jpg (Assessed: 9 Aug 2015) 249 Shabi, K (2013) Meaning of The Scream (1893) Painting by Edvard Munch: Art Analysis. Available at: http://legomenon.com/meaning-of-the-scream-1893-painting-by-edvard-munch.html (Assessed: 9 August 2015) 250 World Health Organisation (2001) Mental disorders affect one in four people. Available at: http://www.who.int/whr/2001/media_centre/press_release/en/ (Assessed: 9 Aug 2015)

many other artists with similar experiences is that he was able to capture an honest, even ugly, glimpse of his inner troubles and feelings of anxiety through this painting, putting more importance on personal meaning than on technical skill or ‘aesthetic beauty’, a traditional goal of art. This clearly shows how we can appreciate art on different levels, though depending on whether we see meaning within the artwork. As mentioned previously, Munch’s The Scream is an icon of modern art, a Mona Lisa of our time even. As Leonardo da Vinci evoked a Renaissance ideal of serenity and self-control, Munch defined how we see the modern age — consumed with anxiety and uncertainty, which draws my attention to the transgressing ideal of ‘good’ art. We as human beings are constantly influenced by our environment today, therefore, it is appropriate to say that our appreciation of art is conscious to an extent. Environmental triggers such as social influence, the media, and our peers can cause large impact on one’s decisions and perception. Social influence occurs when one’s opinions or behaviour are affected by others. Such effects take many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialisation, persuasion, as well as sales and marketing.251 The media is a framework of the ideal, it presents what society considers ‘good’ and socially acceptable. We may not be fully aware of the powerful impact the media has on us; we may be conscious of the media and its influence but unconscious of how it directs our behaviour. Famous and award-winning artwork gives credibility,252 which unconsciously moulds our mindset of what is ‘good’ art, and acts as an important factor whilst we shape our decision when being presented with a new piece of artwork. Behind our unconscious An artwork illustrates the artist’s unconscious desires; some art triggers our own. However, we may not be aware of it. Our unconscious consists of our personality and repressed desires; materials that are concealed from our awareness. It is the source of our intuition and dreams, the gateway towards the explanations of our behaviour. To make this intelligible, take, for example, the frequent preoccupation (according to Freudian interpretations) in Munch’s work, with sexual subject matter that issues from both the artist’s bohemian valuation of sex as a tool for emotional and physical liberation from social conformity as well as his contemporaries’ fascination with sexual experience, acting as a window into the subliminal.253 This perhaps can explain the substantial audience that is unconsciously drawn towards such hidden sexual desires. However, Freudian interpretations have not been consistently accurate; Freud himself conceded that his theory on psychoanalysis was less well developed for women; he saw, but could not correct his flaw (Freud, 1953a).254 For example, female American artist, Georgia O’Keefe, often received interpretations which she disagreed with: Freudian criticisms of O’Keefe’s flower images are likened as veiled illusions of the female genitalia. For the artist herself, there is no hidden symbolism but only the essence of the flower itself. According to Freud, sexual impulses are known as the libido, which is part of the id,255 the driving force of all behaviour consisting the acknowledgement of one’s basic needs. Such complexes are known as the ‘psychic apparatus’, a structural model of the mind compromising the entities id, ego and superego, which was developed at a later stage by Freud.256

251

‘Social influence’ (2015) Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_influence (Assessed: 1 August 2015) Grant, Daniel. Are Prizes and Awards Important to Fine Artists? (2013) Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-grant/artawards-and-prizes_b_2697293.html (Assessed: 10 Aug 2015) 253 The Art Story. Modern Art Insight (2015). Edvard Munch: Key Ideas. Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-munchedvard.htm#resources_header (Assessed: 18 Aug 2015) 254 Plaut, Ethan R. Psychoanalysis: From Theory to Practice, Past to Present (1998) Available at: http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/plaut.html (Assessed: 18 Aug 2015) 255 Academics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The Freudian Levels of Mental Awareness and Using Mental Energy. Available at: http://homepages.rpi.edu/~verwyc/FREUDOH.html (Assessed: 28 Aug 2015) 256 Mcleod, Saul (2013) Sigmund Freud: The Psyche. Available at: http://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html (Assessed: 20 Aug 2015) 252

The three components work together, creating complex human behaviours, as seen in Figure 5, which was constructed according to Freud’s analogy of an iceberg to describe the three levels of the mind. I wanted to use a more developed model to further explain the impact of these complexes on our own interpretations and perception, which essentially drives our behaviour and choices. The core of our mind, the drive of our behaviour

Figure 4: Red Rust Hills (1930) and White and Blue Flower Shapes (1919) by Georgia O’Keefe

The id is entirely unconscious in one’s personality and includes our instinctive and primitive behaviours, which are developed at birth.257 According to Freud’s model, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary component of our personality. Like the iceberg, the most important part of the mind is the part you are unable to see. The ego, on the other hand, functions in all three levels of awareness; the conscious, preconscious and unconscious. The ego is the component within our personality that is responsible for dealing with reality. It develops from the id during infancy and ensures the demands of the id are met and expressed in a safe and a socially acceptable way. Finally, the last component of personality to develop is the superego; the aspect of our personality that holds all of our internalised moral standards and ideals acquired from our parents, emerging since the age of five. The superego provides guidelines for making judgements, acting to perfect and civilise our behaviour. It works to suppress all unacceptable urges of the id and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic standards rather than upon realistic principles. Our personalities are subjective, and that is what makes each of us unique. Our environment, family, social and cultural development shapes our individualised psyche. Conflicts frequently arise due to the competing forces within the id, ego and the superego; a healthy personality is a balance between the three components.258 The ego is responsible for maintaining a balance between the id and superego, as the basic dilemma of all human existence is that each element of the psychic apparatus makes demands upon us that are incompatible with the other two; inner conflict is inevitable. With the ego placed in the middle, and with all demands met, the outcome is an adjusted personality. However, with an imbalance within the psychic apparatus, a maladaptive personality may form.259 Using O’Keefe’s White and Blue Flower Shapes (1919) for example, one with a dominant id may be impulsive and uncontrollable; causing them to make impetuous but honest judgements towards the artwork. In addition, the individual may unconsciously favour or interpret hidden sexual images within the artwork. This is due to the prominent libido within the id. Furthermore, if one 257

Cherry, Kendra (2015) The Id, Ego and Superego. Available at: http://psychology.about.com/od/theoriesofpersonality/a/personalityelem.htm (Assessed: 22 Aug 2015) 258 Nimon, Harry (2013) Offensive and Defensive Security: Concepts, Planning, Operations, and Management (pg. 401) United States of America: Xbris Corporation. (Print) 259 Carducci, Bernardo (2009) The Psychology of Personality: Viewpoints, Research, and Applications. 2nd Ed. (pg. 85) United Kingdom: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. (Print)

has an overpowering ego, their id, which contains their desires and urges, is being repressed. One would get caught up with reality and establish a weak personal judgement, making one more prone to comply with the social norms. Therefore, with the lack of judgement and the tendency to comply and conform to peers, the individual may deceive themself into liking the artwork, when in reality, they have not appreciated it in the first place. Finally, an overactive superego would, again, repress one’s id and create an individual who is extremely moralistic. For example, an Islamic woman may have a dominating superego due to her heavy cultural influence shaped from childhood, being taught to dress modestly. Therefore, she would less likely publicise her agreement in favouring art containing nudity or even metaphorically, as with O’Keefe’s floral paintings. This, however, can be very subjective and is purely due to one’s beliefs. However, subject matters such as our mind and personal interpretations are so equivocal that, undoubtedly, there is an element of ambiguity within. We are well aware of trending ideas as well as traditional art created centuries ago. It is possible that we are drawn to paintings such as the Mona Lisa (1503-1517)260 due to its ambiguity, which enables us to draw upon different interpretations towards the same painting. Da Vinci was able to capture the sense of lingering suspense through practising sfumato, the use of blurred outline and mellowed colours261 that enabled the merging between two forms, whilst remaining indistinct enough for our imagination to flourish. The lack of restriction elicits a sense of purpose, allowing one to see or find themself within the piece of artwork.

Figure 5: Freud’s model of personality German researchers are convinced that people do not necessarily need to understand a work to appreciate it.262 The way we perceive a piece of artwork may be explained by the visual processes that occur without our conscious thoughts, the creative way one’s eye organises visual material according to specific psychological premises. This can be explained by the concept of aesthetic pleasure, another component that can unconsciously affect our decisions. The reason why we develop a liking for some artworks more than others may be explained by the processing fluency theory, which proposes that the more fluently the perceiver is able to process a visual image or object, the more positive their aesthetic response, 263 enhancing our understanding of our subconscious desire when deciding whether to value a piece of work upon interaction. Nevertheless, ambiguity adds to our knowledge, providing new insights into human nature, and encourages us to appreciate the complex system that is the human brain. Everyone has a different opinion, and that is part of the attraction of a painting, which is one of the explanations to why some paintings attract many audiences; because we are unable to explain the possible repressed emotions rooted deep inside of our unconscious.

260

‘Mona Lisa’ (2015) Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa (Assessed: 25 June 2015) ‘Stumato’ (2015) Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sfumato (Assessed: 26 June 2015) 262 Jacobs, Tom (2015) The Appeal of Ambiguity in Art, Available at: http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/the-appeal-ofambiguity-in-art (Assessed 25 June 2015) 263 Reber, Schwarz, Winkielman (2004) Processing Fluency and Aesthetic Pleasure: Is Beauty in the Perceiver’s Processing Experience?, Available at :ftp://www.infomus.org/pub/AestheticsPapers/ReberSchwarzWinkielman2004-BORA_PSPR04.pdf (Assessed: 26 June 2015) 261

To conclude, oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience and interaction with a piece of artwork is strictly subjective. From how the artwork, aesthetic or not, is perceived, to the emotions and perhaps even memories triggered, to the daunting desires that wander deep within the mind that contribute most to the experience as a whole. Our appreciation of art is dependent on which level of awareness is given upon interaction with the artwork; the more you can relate to an artwork, the more you will appreciate it. To devour the existence of the hidden complexes evoked from a painting essentially suggests that one is able to relate to the artwork at an intense level, triggered largely by hidden complexes and perhaps even a differing personality to othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Our unconscious plays a major role in our judgement and general emotional associated areas, but it surely does not dominate the entire process of the experience. Without the conscious mind to receive the stimulation, past experiences and emotions will not be evoked and will not be influenced by the complexes within the unconscious. Initially, the three levels of consciousness play equally important roles. However, ultimately, our appreciation of art is determined largely by our unconscious, as once one begins to interact with an artwork at a much deeper level, that is where the journey of discovering oneself begins.

Sandro Botticelli: trendsetter or fashion victim? A study of The Mystic Nativity By Emily Wilford, U6 Westal

Introduction Sandro Botticelli, a celebrated artist, lived in Florence during the period of the Renaissance. The Mystic Nativity was one of his later works, painted in 1500, and depicts what appears to be a classical nativity scene. It is housed in The National Gallery in London. The painting is notable for being different in style from works of his contemporaries, as well as representing a distinct change from the works of Botticelli himself. In this essay I have considered what may have been the motivating factors that brought about this change and whether, in his depiction of The Mystic Nativity, Botticelli was breaking new ground or bowing to prevailing social pressures. The Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance was a revolutionary period in art history, when there was a rebirth, as reflected by the ‘Renaissance’s’ literal meaning, of the great achievements of antiquity. As Marsilio Finco recognised in 1492, when writing to Paul of Middleburg, ‘this century, like the golden age, has restored to light the liberal arts which were almost extinct: grammar, poetry, rhetoric, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, the ancient singing of songs to the Orphic lyre, and all of this in Florence’. 264 Before this time, Medieval art, which tended to focus on religious themes, was disproportionate and twodimensional and lacked the realism and celebration of the individual that is characteristically associated with Renaissance pieces. It was the discovery of ancient Roman texts that inspired a revolution in artistic culture, which centred itself in Italy and specifically Florence. The movement can be traced back as far as the 14th or early 15th century, possibly as far as when Giotto di Bondone was practising. Alongside artists and writers, the Renaissance was also fuelled by a group called the Humanists, or humanitas, a word adapted from Cicero and Aulus Gellius to reference those studies which are humane, and so worthy of the dignity of man. Members were experts in grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and Latin, and existed competitively, attempting to prove superior intellect against the other members. Since Latin was the common tongue of all educated men, who made up a tiny proportion of the population in many countries, the revival of good Latin literature would have sparked the unity of these individuals as Humanists, and as a result was warmly welcomed. Lorenzo Valla wrote in the early 15th century ‘the glory of Latinity was allowed to decay in rust and mould. And many, indeed, and varied are the opinions of wise men on how this happened. I neither accept nor reject any of these, daring only to declare soberly that those arts that are most closely related to the liberal arts… had degenerated for so long and so greatly and had almost died with letters themselves, and that in this age they have been aroused and come to life again, so greatly increased is the number of good artists and men of 264

Marsilio Finco’s letter to Paul of Middleburg- Chaper 1 of The Art of the Renaissance 1963 by Peter and Linda Murray

100

letters who now flourish.’265 Valla himself was a Humanist, as well as rhetorician and educator, and so this demonstrates the importance of the Latin language to the Humanists, and indeed the Renaissance, with reference to the ancient Roman letters that acted as an inspiration for the movement. During the second half of the 15th century, Lorenzo de’ Medici, or Lorenzo the Magnificent as he was known as by contemporary Florentines, was the Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic. He was extremely popular and probably best known for his contribution to the art world, having lived though the mature stage of the Renaissance. Alongside this, he managed to maintain a fragile peace between the Italian states. He died in 1492 and was succeeded by his son Piero, who was soon nicknamed Piero the Unfortunate due to his failures and unpopularity. After replacing his father, Piero soon came into conflict with the French, dissolving Florence’s relationship with the French crown and their alliance with France. This hampered the business interests of Florentine merchants, provoking an opposition to the Medici. Revolt grew among the people and on the 9th November 1494, Piero was forced to capitulate to King Charles VIII and the Medici family were banished. Religious movement and the late Renaissance Before Lorenzo’s death, a monk called Girolamo Savonarola arrived in Florence from Ferrara in 1491 and was appointed Friar of San Marco, a Dominican convent favoured by the Medici. Savonarola soon made a name by preaching about the impending apocalypse, and many people flocked to the Cathedral to hear his prophesies. He foretold that Italy would be severely scourged before God brought about a renovation, and that the ‘sword of God’s wrath’266 was poised to fall at any moment. Therefore, when the French army descended on Italy, slaughtering communities and spreading syphilis, Savonarola claimed that his apocalyptic prophesises had been fulfilled. After the failings of Piero de’ Medici, Savonarola soon rose to power and dominated the political scene, which was widely accepted as Lorenzo himself had been a follower of the monk. For four years Savonarola dictated that Florence should go through a programme of political and moral regeneration, which included the ‘bonfire of the vanities’ that took place on the 7th February 1497 on the Piazza della Signoria. Citizens were encouraged to burn their most opulent garments, expensive furniture, books, paintings and other luxury items in order to save themselves from sin. The Mystic Nativity and its influence Artists in particular were affected by the upheaval in Florence in the late Renaissance, which is often reflected in their work. This has led me to look at the work of Sandro Botticelli, and in particular one specific painting. Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filpepi, better know as Sandro Botticelli, was an Italian painter and draughtsman born in 1445. He became an apprentice at fourteen years of age under Fra Filippo Lippi, where Botticelli learnt a detailed and intimate manner of working. Before this however, Botticelli had been trained as a goldsmith by his brother Antonio, contributing to Botticelli’s unique technique.

265 266

Quote from Lorenzo Valla in The Art of the Renaissance (page 8) 1963 by Peter and Linda Murray As found in the Book of Revelation 19:15

101

The painting in question is The Mystic Nativity (1500), which is outstandingly different from his earlier pieces as well as the works produced by other artists at the time. What I wish to question is whether Botticelli, when creating this masterpiece, was listening to the religious beliefs of his time, or whether he was attempting to start his own revolution in painting. Religious context Firstly, I am going to examine whether Botticelli painted the work because of the religious fervour at the time. The painting is known as The Mystic Nativity as it alludes to the universal mysteries that would unravel from the moment of Christ’s birth. At first glance, The Mystic Nativity appears to be a simple representation of the traditional nativity scene, showing Mary and the shepherds. At closer inspection, we see that there is in fact far more to the picture, and that it essentially combines Christ’s historical birth with the vision of his second coming. This unique amalgamation of two significant biblical events may reflect the religious ardour encircling Florence due to apocalyptic speculation about the turn of the century. Indeed, this zeal was developing increasingly into religious fanaticism, fuelled by the preaching’s of Savonarola and events such as the brucciamenti delle vanità, or the bonfire of the vanities. It would be naïve to believe that Botticelli was not even slightly influenced, or at least aware, of Savonarola’s workings, as the monk was notorious throughout Florence. In fact, in The Mystic Nativity, there are several suggestions that Botticelli was conscious of, and even a follower of, some of Savonarola’s principles. The painting, measuring 108.6 x 74.9 cm is oil on canvas, and contains certain aspects that point to the apocalyptic prophecies of the late 15th century. The centre of the picture is occupied by a rock cave, whose rear opening reveals a meadow where early morning light falls. In front of the cave stands Mary, an ox and a donkey, with Joseph seated to the right of baby Jesus, under a thatch roof supported by two bare tree trunks. There are three Magi on the left and three shepherds on the right, adoring the newborn Christ Child. An angel accompanies each group and draws their attention to Mary and the Christ Child in the centre of the painting. Mary is the principle figure in the painting. She is located in the middle and is the largest figure, resulting in distorted perspective. Should the inscription at the top of the painting be removed, Mary’s left eye would be the exact central point of the whole piece. The inscription at the top of the work can be translated as:

‘This picture I, Alessandro, painted at the end of the year 1500, in the troubles of Italy, in the half-time after the time, during the fulfilment of the eleventh of John, in the second woe of the Apocalypse, when the Devil was loosened for three and a half years. Afterwards he shall be chained according to the twelfth and we shall see him [trodden down] as in this picture.’267 The inscription, written in Greek, visualises a time of peace that will follow the woes described by Saint John. Botticelli’s signature on the work links both the painting and his person to the apocalyptic view of his era.

267

Found in ‘Sandro Botticelli’ 2005 by Frank Zöllner. Page 177

102

It has been suggested that Botticelli saw himself to be living in the period of the second woe, where the evangelist tells how the court of the Temple is abandoned for forty-two months, or three and a half years, as in the inscription. There are other vague references in the inscription to biblical and contemporary notions of the period. For example, the ‘half-time after the time’ may allude to the turn of the century marking the mid-millennium, with ‘time’ relating to a thousand years and ‘half-time’ relating to five hundred years. The ‘troubles’ is clearly a reference to the political unrest in Florence. Finally, the citation of the 11th and 12th chapters of Saint John in Revelation allude to the predicted appearance of the apocalyptic woman associated since medieval times with the Virgin Mary. The woman, while fleeing the devil, is prophesised to give birth to a child. The connection that the Virgin Mary is recognised to have with the apocalyptic woman simultaneously identifies her to be also symbolic of the church. We may suggest that this apocalyptic prediction may have been recognised by Botticelli, explaining the emphasis on the Virgin Mary in The Mystic Nativity, other than her other obvious importance in the biblical story. Other aspects of the inscription are also visible in the painting. The victory over the Devil is pictured in the foreground of the painting. Six small devils flee the scene through cracks in the rock and holes in the earth, thus escaping the realm of peace radiating from the Virgin Mary (or apocalyptic woman) and the birth of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, there is evidence that Botticelli included specific details from St John’s Revelation, which said that the ‘man child’ of the apocalyptic woman was to rule ‘all nations’ with a ‘rod of iron.’268 We can see in the foreground that the six small devils are brandishing iron rods as they escape the peace. This suggests that, at least in the painting, the ‘advent of the new realm of peace has been fulfilled.’269

Unlike in traditional Adorations of the time, the Magi are shown to be wearing noticeably humble attire, much like their shepherd contemporaries, and do not come bearing gifts. Both the shepherds and the Magi wear olive wreaths on their heads. It seems that olive leaves and olive branches are recurrent themes throughout the composition, appearing in the upper part of the painting, where twelve angels dance a roundelay clutching olive branches as the heavens open in a golden gloria. Furthermore, three angles wearing crowns of olive branches are seated on the thatched canopy holding a book, and a further three with similar headwear are in the foreground, embracing three young men in a gesture of peace.

268 269

Revelation 12:5 ‘Sandro Botticelli’ 2005 by Frank Zöllner, page 178

103

The olive branch is a recognised symbol of peace, and its prominence in the painting reinstates the atmosphere of peace that has come after the woes of the apocalypse have passed. This idea is furthered with the time setting Botticelli had chosen. The breaking of a new day is just visible through the back of the cave, indicating that with the birth of the Redeemer the church will be led to renewal.

Additionally, the messages on the banderoles, held by angels in the fore, mid and background proclaim ‘on earth peace to men of goodwill,’270 also relaying the idea that the church will be saved by Christ’s second coming. It has been suggested that Botticelli visualised the renovatio (renewal of the church) to happen around the turn of the century, which incidentally is a view he shared with Savonarola. In this case, both prophesises were right and the renovatio occurred in 1503. The two men’s common idea does not necessarily indicate that they were acquainted, or that Botticelli had even been to one of Savonarola’s services, but does highlight how Savonarola had distinguished himself in Florence and how famous his predictions had become. There is other evidence that Savonarola’s relationship with Botticelli was not non-existent, and that they may have been acquainted. It has been reported that Botticelli was deeply affected when Savonarola was executed in 1498, after being excommunicated by Pope Alexander VI. Soon after he was arrested, tortured, hanged and then his body burnt for crimes of heresy. Botticelli’s brother, Simone, was an ardent supporter of Savonarola, known as a piagnone, or a weeper, after encountering his teachings at the Convent of San Marco, following his return to Florence from Rome. After Savonarola’s death, his supporters were in great danger, and so Simone had to flee to Bologna to escape the persecution and punishment of the piagnons. Simone was the author of a chronicle of events that occurred between 1489 and 1503. In these chronicles, not only does Simone tell how shocked Botticelli was at Savonarola’s sentence and death, but also he gives us an indication as to why. The manuscript, kept in the Vatican Secret Archives, includes reference that meetings and discussions between supporters and opponents of Savonarola took place in the workshop of Botticelli. 271 If this is true then there is a distinct possibility that Botticelli was influenced by the prophesises of Savonarola, as displayed in The Mystic Nativity. This would explain the change in Botticelli’s painting style after Savonarola’s death, which became increasingly religious and simplistic as if to honour Savonarola’s teachings. With deeper knowledge of the painting, as well as intimate knowledge of Botticelli’s relationship to Savonarola, we may now consider the possibility that The Mystic Nativity was produced with the teachings of Girolamo Savonarola in mind.

270 271

St Luke’s Gospel 2:14 http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/simone-filipepi_(Dizionario_Biografico)/ Paragraph 12

104

Progress and Change

The execution of Savonarola at Piazza della Signoria by unknown artist Secondly, I am going to explore whether the masterpiece is an attempt to progress in painting. Other artists of the High Renaissance practising around the time of Botticelli’s mature period have a noticeably different style to Botticelli. Even those portraying similar scenes to The Mystic Nativity show distinct variations with Botticelli’s unusual work, making us question why he wished to stand out from the rest of the crowd.

To start with, we may look at Botticelli’s background at the time of painting this artwork. Already we know of the influences of Savonarola in the late 15th century. However, towards the end of his career, Botticelli’s achievements lessened and he died poor and uncelebrated in 1510. This may have happened for a number of reasons. Firstly, inspired by Savonarola’s regeneration scheme, Botticelli may have burnt some of his paintings deemed sinful, much like his companion Lorenzo di Credi did when burning several nude studies, therefore, he would have less work to show potential patrons. Secondly, Botticelli struggled to keep up with the revolutionary changes that were taking place in art at the time, especially when the likes of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo came onto the scene. Botticelli soon found his now outdated works pushed out of the spotlight. Patrons would have moved towards the developing newcomers, in a humanist attempt to stay ahead of the time. Yet were Botticelli’s final paintings in his later years an attempt to challenge these new artists, and influence others of the epoch? By exploring similar subject matter by other artists of the era, we may be given a clue as to what Botticelli was trying to achieve with his new style. Firstly, Piero della Francesca’s The Nativity (1470-75) is an oil painting with a simplistic composition including elements from Tuscany, Francesca’s native land.

The Nativity by Piero della Francesca The focus remains in the foreground of the painting, which includes Mary kneeling in adoration of the newly born Christ, five angels singing and playing lutes, Joseph, two shepherds, and an ox. Similarly to Botticelli, Francesca has played around with perspective, and The Nativity is the only one of his works where we see a building askew from the rest of the composition. The building in question is a simple shed, placed behind the figures, to remind us of Christ’s humble beginnings. The distorted perspective is similar to that used in The Mystic

105

Nativity, where we see inaccurate perspective with the enlarged figure of Mary, for example. Therefore, since Francesca’s work precedes Botticelli’s masterpiece, we can see that Botticelli may have borrowed ideas from his contemporaries. This, however, is where the idea sharing may have stopped. Botticelli’s piece is strangely haunting, whereas Francesca’s has been described as ‘one of the most beautiful nativity scenes ever painted.’272 This contrast is noticeable in a number of ways. There is a feeling of unrest in The Mystic Nativity, created by a sense of movement. Despite ultimately being a portrayal of the peace that comes after the apocalypse, the angel’s harmonious circling, reinforced by the alternating colourful triad of their brown, white and reddish-orange garments, as well as the synchronised embrace of angels and mortals in the foreground, conjures an eye-catching scene of celebration and excitement, quite different from the initial view of simply the nativity. Alternatively, in Francesca’s nativity scene, peace resonates from all directions. The colour blue is used widely, in particular on the robes of the angles and the Virgin Mary. Since blue is commonly associated with humility in art, we can see that Francesca is encouraging an atmosphere of serenity and modesty in the painting. Furthermore, as Michael Glover writes, Mary’s bowed head and the angel’s melodic singing creates a ‘monumentally serene and tranquil work.’273 Finally, and possibly most obvious, is the difference in use of colour in each painting. Botticelli’s oil on canvas is outstandingly brighter and more colourful than Francesca’s oil on poplar. Some believe that this may be a result of an unfinished work by Francesca, yet it is also likely that the pigments in The Nativity faded as a result of over cleaning. In addition, poplar as a wood is naturally a more absorptive material, and so the paint would have been drawn up more than with the oil on canvas work. Umbrian artist Pietro Perugino’s The Nativity comes from a series of five paintings that made up the predella of an altarpiece.

The Nativity by Pietro Perugino Using ‘symmetry, clarity of composition, and linear perspective, Perugino has created an idyllic nativity scene.’ 274 A very simplistic piece, as seen with Francesca’s The Nativity, the colour blue dominates the foreground, with each figure’s garment including a shade of the serene colour. Again, much like Francesca’s, the use of blue creates an atmosphere of peace and modesty, after the birth of Jesus Christ. Continuing with the theme of simplicity, having only a few figures in the composition draws our eye to the baby Jesus in the centre, with use of linear perspective and staffage to reinforce this. Similarly to The Mystic Nativity, and indeed Francesca’s The Nativity, Perugino has chosen to frame the picture with a simplistic wooden structure behind the figures. The same sort of shelter is seen in both Botticelli and Francesca’s nativity, suggesting that this kind of structure was universally recognised to be part of the nativity 272

The Guardian ‘A Note-Perfect Nativity by Piero della Francesca’ by Jonathan Jones From ‘Great Works: The Nativity, 1470-75, by Piero della Francesca’ by Micheal Glover for The Independant 274 http://artplushistory.com/post/71131080605/an-umbrian-nativity-perugino-pietro-di-cristoforo 273

106

at the time, and not just in Florence. This is because Francesca was from Tuscany, and Perugino from Umbria, illustrating how the idea of a simplistic structure to mirror Jesus’s humble beginnings was widespread. Another similar aspect between all three paintings is that fact that Mary’s head is bowed adoringly towards baby Jesus, another universally recognised feature of the nativity, as well has having the Virgin Mary dressed in blue. We can see from this that Botticelli has ticked all the boxes of a recognisable nativity scene, yet I now intend to tackle how Botticelli’s style and content in The Mystic Nativity differs from other similar paintings of the time. Stylistically, The Mystic Nativity looks backwards towards the early Renaissance, and even before that. For example the hierarchy of scale, such as the enlargement of the Virgin Mary, is reminiscent of medieval works. A similar example of where we see the enlargement of the Virgin Mary is in The Wilton Diptych (1400), where Mary is noticeably larger than the eleven angels surrounding her. Alongside the distorted and enlarged perspective, the Magi’s humble dress is quite different from the characteristically decorative attire that other artists of the time dressed them in. This may be due to Savonarola’s influence; he encouraged maximum piety in works of art, as well as being a rediscovery of the more simple early Renaissance. However, Botticelli did not always paint in this manner. In his earlier works, such as La Primavera and the Birth of Venus, Botticelli aimed for decoration, beauty and naturalism. While keeping his characteristically long sweeping high-waist figures, Botticelli’s later work seems to have lost many of the other earlier qualities. In fact, this can be demonstrated by looking at two similar works, painted thirty years apart. The first work is The Return of Judith to Bethulia (c.1469/70), and the second is Judith Leaving the Tent of Holofernes (c.14951500). Despite being of a similar subject matter, there are quite a few differences to the configuration of the works.

The Return of Judith to Bethulia by Sandro Botticelli (right) Judith Leaving the Tent of Holofernes by Sandro Botticelli (left)

Firstly, the earlier work is dominated by movement, lively gracefulness and decorative features, such as Judith’s decorative headdress and collar. In comparison, in Judith Leaving the Tent of Holofernes, Botticelli presents a concentrated pictorial composition deprived of vivaciousness and decoration. Moreover, the earlier work allowed the eye to wander and be distracted by the detailed presentation of the figures and the background. In the later piece however, Botticelli leaves Judith to be the only focus in the painting, and removes any distractions. He keeps anything of a decorative nature to a minimum, replacing it with monotone surfaces and a lack of drapery and corporeality.

107

Finally, the dominant colours in each painting contrast greatly. In The Return of Judith to Bethulia, blue and green dominate, often symbolic of fertility, health and humility. Opposing this, in Judith Leaving the Tent of Holofernes, red and orange hues prevail. Red reminds us of blood and danger, which may reflect the upheaval in Florence at the time, as well as the death of Savonarola. From these observations we can start to pinpoint the time when Botticelli’s style started to change. It may be that the monk Savonarola had some affect on his style and certainly after his death we do see a noticeable difference. Botticelli becomes less concerned with pleasing the observer, concentrating on form of the subject matter, which would edify and instruct. Conclusion In this essay I have explored two possible motivations as to why Botticelli chose to compose The Mystic Nativity as he did. As a result of this exercise, I do not feel that I am able to choose either conclusively, but instead have found a correspondence between the two. I have been able to locate Botticelli’s change in style and indeed subject matter from mythology to religion to be during the time of Savonarola’s reign, trial and death. Furthermore, this theory is evident in The Mystic Nativity. It demonstrates that Savonarola was the cause of this change in style, rather than arguing simply that the monk was the influence of the painting itself, or that Botticelli decided that he wished to flout the other Renaissance artists’ style by changing his own. Moreover, the fact that Botticelli chose to include Savonarola’s image in the work confirms that he was aware of the monk and his teachings. Savonarola appears alongside two of his friars at the bottom of the painting. Friar Savonarola was executed in 1498 for heresy. The Mystic Nativity was painted in 1500. Therefore, any links to Savonarola had to be very subtle. This was achieved by presenting the painting as a simple nativity scene. However, on close inspection you are able to see the possible links to Savonarola. Finally, The Mystic Nativity was the only work Botticelli ever signed. The patron of the work is unknown and so it is likely that Botticelli painted it for himself. This could prove that he supported Savonarola and was a piagnone. The allegory in the work can be linked so closely to Savonarola that it is highly likely that the teachings of the monk were indeed influential to Botticelli’s change in style, and so these two factors can be directly linked.

108

Commended - Kristy Chan

Can we cure Alzheimer’s disease? Is passive fund management really worth its weight in gold?

Prime Minister’s Questions A ‘childish, self-indulgent joke’ or ‘an arena for face to face clashes that can give useful vitality to democratic politics?

The Bismarckian era was the most significant period in German history that led towards the development of a national sentiment and political unification

Tel: +44 (0) 1242 265 600 Fax: +44 (0) 1242 265 630 Email: info@cheltenhamcollege.org www.cheltenhamcollege.org

The psychological reasons behind Internet trolling and mobbing

‘No man is born without sin’ Psalm 42:4 is evil innate?

Sandro Botticelli: trendsetter or fashion victim?

Can the practice of world religions have a positive impact on the potential economic growth of the least developed countries (LDCs)?

Has the meaning of freedom changed?

The Labour leadership race: how will the outcome affect the future of the party and British politics?

Is our appreciation of art determined by our Unconscious?

Cheltenham College Bath Road Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL53 7LD

Registered Charity No. 311720

Who benefitted from the French Revolution?

Masao Mizukami’s influence on floral arrangement in Hong Kong

To what extent do external factors affect the mortality rate of ewes and lambs?

Sex and the City: how far is the Catullus persona a literary construct, rather than a portrayal of the man himself?

‘The films are all about women; he celebrates the female while demonising and emasculating the male’. To what extent is this observation true of the films of Pedro Almodóvar?