"The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula Le Guin explores an alien's attempt to get a separate planet's king to agree to join an alliance of the system's planets called the Ekumen. Although Genly Ai makes logical and well-supported arguments for the alliance of Karhide and the Ekumen, the king of Karhide refuses to accept Genly's proposal of alliance. Had I been place in the king's situation, I would have cautiously agreed to join the Ekumen. However, I would have refused to join without some sort of promise and proof of legitimacy. If a logical argument were all it took for King Argaven to agree to the alliance, Genly would have easily gotten the approval of the king. He gives multiple reasons for the alliance including material profit, trade, and increase of knowledge. Although all of these benefits would affect Karhide, Argaven does not see a need for …show more content…
any of this and would rather continue without the Ekumen. He argues that the people of Karhide have "chosen [their] way of life and have followed it for a long time."(41) He believes that even if the alliance would positively influence Karhide, there is no need for it now, as they have already found a successful way of living on their own. He is also in denial of the existence of the Although Argaven does not seem to believe anything Genly is trying to prove to him, Genly still makes a compelling argument backed up with evidence and proof that the worlds he speaks of are real.
Argaven is worried about how the alliance will affect Karhide’s honor, or “shifgrethor”, and Genly attempts to comfort Argaven by saying that their shifgrethor would be "enhanced, not threatened by the presence of the Ekumen."(37) The king's denial makes it much harder for Genly to prove his points but it doesn't stop him from trying. In an attempt to prove that his mission is legitimate, he opens a file with "films, photos, paintings, activities, and some cubes"(37) that represented the rest of the planets and the beings that lived on them. His last attempt to get Argaven to believe him is to show the communication between Genly and the Ekumen. Argaven reveals that although he is not sure whether or not he should believe Genly, he is sure of his fear towards Genly and the Ekumen. His realization of the scale of his fear causes him to dismiss Genly from Karhide and refuse to become a part of the
Ekumen. Had I been in the position to make this decision for an entire nation such as Karhide, I would have approached the situation with great caution. Genly makes a fair point about wars being "worth no one's trouble, across space."(36) However, I would be worried about the progression of technology and would want to have proof that the agreement was legitimate and that the Ekumen's motive was in both parties' best interest.Unfortunately, I feel that even if I had some concerns, I would still agree to the alliance because of an inability to miss an opportunity to learn about different planets and cultures. Overall, the arguments made by Genly may not have been able to pursue the king to join the Ekumen, but they were well-supported and would have been enough to pursue someone with less fear towards the unknown. If "fear is king," perhaps a queen would be less afraid and agree to an alliance with the Ekumen...
Such alliances are the very things that laid the foundation for the conflict of World War I because every country had multiple reasons for joining their respective alliance, mainly for revenge, distrust, or
...n’t find any alliances. Phillip attacked anyway, starting King Phillip’s War. After the attack, the Nipmucks and the Mohicans joined him by burning several English cities.
The following two paragraphs are a summary of Gloria Jimenez's essay Against the Odds and Against the Common Good. States should neither allow nor encourage state-run lotteries. There are five major arguments that people use to defend lotteries. One is that most lotteries are run honestly, but if gambling is harmful to society it is irrelevant to argue if they are honest or not. The second is that lotteries create jobs, but there are only a small handful of jobs that would be eliminated if lotteries were put out of business. Another argument that would support keeping lotteries is that, other than gambling addicts, people freely choose to buy lottery tickets. This is true, however, there are misleading advertisements that may cause people to buy tickets under false pretenses.
Some of the myths of cosmic conflict that John incorporates into his vision of the universal struggle between good and evil include Gnosticism views. This deals with the “myth about creation and the spirit realm” (Harris, 2014, p. 422). This myth actually became a well-organized group who believed that our physical world on earth was corrupt and created by a lesser god (Harris, 2014). These practices also believed humans were trapped in our bodies and the only way to be freed was to gain knowledge of the higher power (Harris, 2014).
Alliances were a leading cause to WW1 because countries were blaming each other and that created a lot of tension between them, the war
very hard to get into her world from the first chapter, Winter, Hainsh Cycle 93,
We all have heard the quote “Life, Liberty, Land, and the Pursuit to Happiness” and that is the promise of a life here in America. As Americans we pride ourselves on these freedoms that allow us to live everyday. We are one of the only countries that have this promise and it is what draws people from all of over the world to come here. Our founding fathers of the United States of America wrote these words, having no idea the impact that they would have for the rest of this countries history. Those words were the foundation for government, and it wasn’t perfect at first but slowly it matured into what we have today, strong and powerful. To other nations America is seen as the World Power, and a somewhat perfect nation to live in. Unfortunately corruption, scandals and controversies have tainted our once golden glow, and other nations are weary of watching their steps. One of the most controversial elements to our government is the NSA. Hidden in the shadows from American and global knowledge is what the NSA is actually doing and watching out for. Only very recently has the NSA been ripped from the shadows and brought to light what exactly is going on inside those walls. They are “spying” on not only America’s personal data, but foreign leaders as well. The NSA says it’s for the safety for everyone against terrorism and attacks. However, it has gone way to far and violates a constitutional right, privacy. The NSA has overstepped their boundaries, and spying doesn’t seem to make a difference in safety.
Another example of alliances is the Triple Alliance. The Triple Alliance consisted of Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary. This is what historyonthenet.com had to say "Germany and Austria-Hungary made an alliance with Italy to stop them from taking sides with Russia." This tells the reader that some alliances weren't made because they wanted to, they where made for their own protection from other countries. This was a big part of WWI.
The alliances were a huge part of World War One. For one reason, there was quite an excessive amount of them and all because of paranoia. I think that making so many alliances with so many different countries only made suspicion worse and tension high, especially because no one knew exactly why they were making them. For example, the Triple Alliance had no real reason to become an alliance. Even in the negotiation documents they said, “In case a Great Power non-signatory to the present Treaty should threaten the security of the states of one of the High Contradicting Parties…” (Article 4, firstworldwar.com). Notice how they say “in case” not “when”, which states the fact that they’re only making this alliance in case of emergency. Little did they know, the alliances that all of the involved countries were making with each other were actually hurting them instead of helping. Which concludes stupid political decision number one.
Although the alliance system was a main cause of the First World War, it arose because of several other factors, and did not cause the war single handedly. Nationalism, the love and support of one's country, has always existed. In this era, however, it was to take part in the creation of one of the most famous wars in history. Since so much pride was devoted to countries, it made the possibilities of peace between past rivals less probable. It also meant that most nations, especially the great powers, would rather fight a war than back down from a rival's diplomatic provocation.
During the late 19th century many countries sought an alliance with other countries to guarantee their own safety, preserve peace and sometimes to help their economic position. this is highlighted by alliances and treaties such as the "Dual Alliance" of 1879, the "Dreikaiserbund" of 1881 and the "Reinsurance Treaty" This was also the case for both France and Russia, with them agreeing the "Franco-Russian Military Convention" on August 18th 1892 and later agreeing the "Franco-Russian Alliance" in 1893. France and Russia were animated by a common desire to preserve peace. The only reason it was possible for France and Russia to form this alliance is because Germany allowed the Reinsurance treaty to become invalid. Both countries wanted different things from the alliance but there was one common reason between them, and that was to oppose Germany - although both countries had different incentives for this. France, Russia and Germany all contributed to the alliance being formed, either through their aims or what they did.
When countries formed alliances with each other it gave them protection, if a country was threatened or under attack then the alliance would come to that country’s aid. Countries made an alliance when they both needed protection from a stronger country. When Austria-Hungary had heard about the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, they went to war with Serbia.... ... middle of paper ...
The importance of the alliance system that developed in Europe in the decades before World War I as a cause for it is still an important topic of debate and argument between modern historians. Some argue that the alliance system was a direct cause of the outbreak of war between all major countries in Europe while other historians prefer to state that the alliance configuration we observe before the war started was simply a symptom of the conflicts and disagreements, fears and envies that had been accumulating since the Bismarck system of alliances collapsed, and even before then. This last opinion is becoming more accepted as the one that describes the true importance of the actual alliance system as a cause of the war. In order to determine the importance of the alliance system as a cause for the war we must first explore the origins of these alliances. We will take high-point of the Bismarck system in 1878 as our starting point as the Franco-Prussian war is a key factor for the development of this system.
Then again, they did also create tensions between the countries that could only escalate further. For example, in the year 1879 there was a dual alliance created between Germany and Austria-Hungary. This alliance was created to protect them from Russia, which was the biggest European power at the time. Instead of protecting them and adding extra support, however, it only managed to strengthen their tensions with Russia and light the match for something even more unpleasant. Overall, while alliances were a way of buffering countries stats, they also attracted some unwonted attention in the process.
King Alfred was now in charge of stopping the Danes from occupying Wessex. Alfred was already an experienced military leader, as he had participated in several campaigns against the invading Danes (Bruce 3). The West Saxons had now made an alliance with Mercia. Yet in 868, the Danes met both Mercians and West Saxons; the two nations had formed an alliance, which had been strengthened that year by the marriage of Alfred and Ealhswith, daughter of a Mercian ealdorman (Bruce 4). Alfred and his elder brother King Æthelred personally led the Wessex contingent, yet not even the combined forces of the Mercians and the West Saxons could handle the strength of the Danes.