People who consistently think negatively are enslaved to their mind.
Thoughts are vital to a well state of mind and well being. People’s thoughts make them think a particular way based on what they have seen and experiences they have had. Although everyone has at varying times in their lives experienced negativity, criticism and mistreatment, excessive negative thoughts and opinions on any particular subject or experiences is bad and harmful. Constant harsh critiquing on anything is bad because people who do this don't see any other options. They don’t accept the opinions of others and they remain convinced in their own minds that only they are right. Eventually, these people dismiss others and hurt others, making those around them feel bad about themselves. Very often these people alienate those around them and they wind up alone and as miserable as they make others feel.
The results of constant harsh criticism are serious and they affect people differently. For example, very critical people are very narrow minded and don't listen to reason. People who are constantly being criticized may react by constantly thinking negatively themselves. They think negatively about themselves and others and it doesn’t stop there. People who feel they are constantly being criticized may also criticize everything and everyone around them. They might choose to go their own way because they rule and it’s their way or the highway. They don’t realize when they have done wrong when they crash and burn, yet they still blame others because they think they have no other options. The longer the harsh criticism continues, the more people lose sight of anything positive in their lives.
People enslaved to their negative thoughts are selfish, very self-cons...
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...his life. He even understood that he could also help free the minds of other slaves by teaching them to read.
Once Douglass broke the trap that held him captive, he became a more powerful person because his knowledge and courage to keep a positive attitude replaced a life of discouragement and sadness. He was able to think and find solutions to all the miseries in his life. He even purchased his freedom and was able to express himself by speaking and writing. The most powerful thing he did was continue to learn so he could defend himself and speak for others who were still suffering the way he did. Frederick Douglass’s ambition to escape the enslavement of negative thinking paid off for him. He became a free man who could clearly express the evils of slavery and improve the future of black slaves who were still suffering as much as he had suffered for many years.
It could also be a parent at home criticizing you about a grade to do better in school. When a coach would say something to me that would sting, it would motivate me to do better. I would notice when the coach would say the same thing to a team mate they would get upset and cry. I never understood why they would not just better themselves, instead of pouting over a simple criticism. This is because of differential sensitivity. Differential sensitivity is “the idea that some people are more vulnerable than others to particular experiences” (Berger, 2010, p.21). I was able to take this criticism from the coach because I was used to having someone at home, criticizing my weaknesses, so that I could better myself. When someone criticizes me, I do not take it to heart because I work harder on that subject to show them that I can do better. The other team mate was more sensitive in the situation and took it to heart. This may have been because the team mate was going through a sensitivity period. Some small comments to children can still affect them later in life, but some may forget about it an hour later. Differential sensitivity is used to, “aid prediction and thus target intervention” (Berger, 2010,
Literacy plays an important part in helping Douglass achieve his freedom. Learning to read and write enlightened his mind to the injustice of slavery; it kindled in his heart longings for liberty. Douglass’s skills proved instrumental in his attempts of escape and afterwards in his mission as a spokesman against slavery.
Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist who altered America's views of slavery through his writings and actions. Frederick's life as a slave had the greatest impact on his writings. Through his experience as a slave, he developed emotion and experience for him to become a successful abolitionist writer. He experienced harsh treatment and his hate for slavery and desire to be free caused him to write Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In his Narrative, he wrote the story of his miserable life as a slave and his fight to be free. His motivation behind the character (himself) was to make it through another day so that maybe one day he might be free. By speaking out, fighting as an abolitionist and finally becoming an author, Douglass's transformation from a slave into a man.
Their education had given them a new perspective of everything around them—a glimpse to a whole new world. Upon learning to read, Douglass began to realize how an education could ruin slaves. With education, comes enlightenment, and for him his enlightenment was the realization to the injustices going on around him. With him finally being able to read, he understood more fully the implications of slavery sometimes served to make him more miserable as he came to comprehend the hopelessness of the situation for himself and the other slaves. He states in his narrative, “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me” (268) because he realized that his knowledge came at a cost—he knew that there was nothing normal and right about slavery, yet he had to live as one—whatever knowledge he had attained, festered in his mind and made him even unhappier with the conditions and treatment than
Throughout his autobiography Frederick Douglass talks of the many ways a slave and master would be corrupted by the labor system that was so deeply entrenched in the south as a result of demand for cotton, and other labor-intensive crops. The master justified his actions through a self-serving religion and a belief that slaves were meant to be in their place. Masters were usually very cruel and self centered. Most had never been in the fields with the slaves. They didn’t understand the conditions that they were putting the slaves under. Being a slaveholder could make you inhuman and change your whole person. Frederick Douglass took a stand against it in his own way, he was self-reliant and believed what was happening. He stuck to himself and was always thinking about things. He never let things just pass him by, he took advantage of all of his opportunities. Being self-reliant especially in his time, is one of the greatest traits that someone can possess.
From before the country’s conception to the war that divided it and the fallout that abolished it, slavery has been heavily engrained in the American society. From poor white yeoman farmers, to Northern abolitionist, to Southern gentry, and apathetic northerners slavery transformed the way people viewed both their life and liberty. To truly understand the impact that slavery has had on American society one has to look no further than those who have experienced them firsthand. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and advocate for the abolitionist, is on such person. Douglass was a living contradiction to American society during his time. He was an African-American man, self-taught, knowledgeable, well-spoken, and a robust writer. Douglass displayed a level of skill that few of his people at the time could acquire. With his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Written by Himself, Douglass captivated the people of his time with his firsthand accounts into the horror and brutality that is the institution of slavery.
Gaining mental emancipation also made him a man. He had the power of knowledge and yet he didn't know the impact of being literate. He wasn't ready to have his world open right in front of him. Being able to read opened Douglass' eyes to what slavery really was. "He got the bold denunciation of slavery, and a powerful vindication of human rights."*(278) He saw things that he would have never seen if he had remained ignorant. He saw all the horrors and sadness of his life as a slave. He wasn't quite ready for the harsh realities that he was then exposed to. He felt that his master, Master Hugh, was right. Douglass learning to read brought him the discontentment, torment and anguish that Master Hugh said would follow if a slave learned how to read.* (279) The visions that Douglass saw was really affecting him. He saw things he never saw before. Dou...
In conclusion, Frederick used these key points in his narrative to attack the institution of slavery. The speeches he made using these points to white abolitionist astonished them because they did not imagine a slave had the mind capacity to speak this well. By doing so, Frederick Douglass became the outspoken leader for slaves in the abolitionist movement.
Stosny states that “criticism fails because it embodies two of the things that human beings hate the most: it calls for submission, and we hate to submit and it devalues, and we hate to feel devalued” (Stosny). Furthermore, he argues that criticism is used as a form of “ego defense” when we feel devaluated by behavior or attitude as opposed to disagreeing with their behavior or attitude (Stosny). Tony Schwartz, author of the article “There’s No Such Thing as Constructive Criticism” for HarvardBusinessReview.com, says that criticism “challenges our sense of value” and “implies judgement and we all recoil feeling judged” (Schwartz). Schwartz reiterates the point that constructive criticism is a useful tool that isn’t working or doesn’t exist simply because people don’t know how to properly give or receive constructive criticism. To prove this, he lists three reasons why we assume constructive criticism doesn’t work while in reality it actually does. “The first mistake we often make is giving feedback when we are feeling that our own value is at risk. That’s a recipe for disaster, and it happens far more commonly than we think, or are aware” (Schwartz). To summarize this reason he listed, Schwartz states that when we feel like we’re being
... and unhappy (Douglass 78).” Learning how to read was as big a step towards freedom for Douglass as it was back. It made him aware of the circumstances but it also made him realize how difficult it would be for him to ever find himself a free man. However, knowledge overpowers ignorance in the sense that his masters could never take his ability to read away from him and because Douglass now knew his condition, he knew that he deserved a better life.
...y afraid at first but finds out that there are many ex-slaves willing to take a stand and risk their lives to help their own. Douglass realizes that with the help from the ex-slaves he could also help his fellow slaves.
Douglass views his education as his most important feature, but he also enables his brain to the realizing of the torture upon his fellow slaves. Douglass was not allowed to learn, because he was a slave, and they didn’t want slaves to become smarter than the whites. In the passage it states, “learning would ...
Teenagers who overly criticized by their parents may suffer from low self esteem; especially when it’s done in a demeaning manner. Constructive criticism is a better technique used to correct mistakes or any disagreement with teen agers. Teenagers with low self esteem tend to engage in negative activities such as bullying, smoking, drinking, or disordered
...understanding of freedom. By exposing the wrongs done to slaves, Douglass greatly contributed to the abolitionist movement. He also took back some of the power and control from the slaveholders, putting it in the hands of the enslaved.
People have their own judgments of thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. An example of a self-schema could be a person who classifies themselves by certain descriptions such as being liberal, Catholic, an artist, a dog person, intelligent; the list continues on. This is what helps us define ourselves from the group; our self-concepts are what help us create our own identity separate from the society that shapes us. Reading into books nine through eleven in the book of Meditations the author declares, “He who acts unjustly acts unjustly to himself, because he makes himself bad” (book, ?). We can take this to mean like social psychology that individuals have self-schemas and that ultimately only the person(s) themselves can be held accountable for their decisions and not blame others for how they were brought up. Each person can decide how their life turns out if they are, “…moderate, sincere, honest, and calm” (book, ?). We must be willing to take the consequences that come with positive or negative outcomes even if that means we do not get immediate gratification and more so if things do not turn out they way we imagined they would. In this case we must rely on our own imagined presence of others to drive us to be the ‘best’ person ultimately we can become as