Public Outrage Research Articles

Franz Xaver Kroetz: The Use and Abuse of the Unborn Child

Franz Xaver Kroetz was arguably the most popular West German playwright of the seventies, and at the same time, one of the most explicitly political authors of that decade. His work sought to confront West German society with the victims of its own economic successes. And yet his aesthetic strategies and thematic emphases always seemed to hamper the realization of his political ambitions. Works of art that are generated on the basis of an explicitly political aesthetic are generally just as self-contradictory as are works of art that have no pretense to an expressed political foundation, and it is at points of inner contradiction that an analysis of an explicitly political aesthetic strategy can often be most productive. Such an analysis of Kroetz's overall political aesthetic project uncovers contradictions between his avowedly radical leftist position throughout the seventies and early eighties and his presentation of pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage, and birth in his plays of that period. This article examines the following questions: How do the discrepancies between Kroetz's political aesthetic objectives and his perception of socio-political realities manifest themselves within one specific thematic area such as pregnancy? How does he construct the (unborn) child to crystallize certain views on contemporary society or to further his own political, aesthetic project? Where does the unborn child fit into his overall portrayal of interpersonal relations generally and relations between the sexes specifically? Kroetz became the dramatic sensation of the West German stage when two of his early one-act plays premiered to a scandalized German audience in 1971. One scene that met with vehement vocal opposition was the onstage attempt by one of the characters in Heimarbeit to perform an abortion on herself. The view of a young woman wielding a knitting needle with the explicit intent of using it for a home-abortion, albeit facing away from the audience, proved too much for staid West German theatre audiences. The attempted abortion incited intense protest within the West German public, and the demonstrations clearly expressed the public's outrage with the author's work. Yet the scandal itself may very well

A needs survey among patients in Leros asylum.

The recent exposure of the plight of inmates living in poor conditions at the state asylum on the Greek island of Leros has caused public and professional outrage. If Greece is to avoid mistakes made by other countries, the plans for rehabilitating the patients and closing the hospital should from the outset include identification of the precise needs of patients for support and care. The survey of the patients' characteristics and needs for care found that most patients had no outside friends or relatives, and most were unable to perform basic daily skills. They shared many basic characteristics, however, with a large sample of the long-stay population in the UK, and 25% were thought to be able to live independently.

Green Point Sewage Disposal Options

In the winter of 1989 severe seas destabilised the 1 700 metre long marine outfall at Green Point which had been commissioned in 1985. Divers had to detach a large section of the outfall to prevent further damage occurring. This resulted in virtually untreated sewage effluent being discharged 280 metres from the rocky shoreline. Public outrage and severe criticism from the media resulted in an emotional and environmentally sensitive issue having to be handled with considerable political and professional skill to enable the determination of the most appropriate solution for Green Point. Independent consultants were appointed by the Cape Town City Council to study basically two options to rectify the situation; reinstating the marine outfall or constructing a conventional sewage treatment plant in close proximity to a densely populated coastal area. This paper discusses the marine option in detail and the advantages and disadvantages of both marine and land options as well as the public involvement and the adopted decision making process. After a comprehensive investigation had identified and explored all aspects and after the public had been fully involved and consulted, the Cape Town City council accepted the City Engineer's recommendation with a vote of 33 to 1, in favour of a new marine outfall.

Criminalization of psychotherapist-patient sex

Legislative enactment of criminal penalties for psychotherapists' sexual contact with their patients is pending in several states. The arguments in favor of criminalization are that it serves as a deterrent, offers retribution, provides redress when other avenues are blocked, deals with unlicensed psychotherapists, makes victims' assistance funds available, and provides due process protection against false accusations. In opposition to criminalization are the arguments that civil and administrative measures already exist to deal with the problem, it may have a chilling effect on the reporting of misconduct, it may void malpractice insurance, it makes guilty psychotherapists place themselves in jeopardy if they acknowledge their wrongdoing in attempting to make amends, it removes control of the legal process from the victim, it fails to offer rehabilitation, and it singles out psychotherapists from other fiduciaries for more stringent treatment. APA district branches inevitably will be called on to take positions with regard to legislation criminalizing sexual exploitation of patients. The current public outrage over patient victimization, however appropriate it may be, appears to make it difficult to publicly justify anything other than support for criminalization.

Evil influences: crusades against the mass media

Each new development in the mass media has elicited highly charged criticism from alarmed observers. Comics, romance novels, music videos, and even movies, radio, and television have all been denounced as threats to children, teenagers, adults, and even the stability of civilization itself. Organized into community groups, citizens have repeatedly taken militant action against the media, ranging from book burnings to blacklisting and from harassment of individual publishers to attempts to regulate entire industries. Investigative committees and commissions are not uncommon. What is it about the media that generates such attacks? 'Evil Influences' examines the historical, sociological, and psychological background of current controversies regarding the media. Starker finds that even though it is couched in logic or scientific theory, such hostility is almost always a byproduct of fear--fear of imagination and fantasy, fear of change, fear of human aggression and sensuality. Successive media developments have challenged traditional perceptions and habits by introducing powerful visual and emotional elements into mass communication. Because they frighten and threaten a part of the audience, new forms of mass media engender public outrage and become easy scapegoats, accused of everything from stimulation of violence to promotion of conformity. This book is addressed to those who inevitably participate in media debates--social scientists, educators, communications professionals, the clergy, and educated parents. Its intention is to prepare us for the arrival of new media forms and their associated threats.

Representing Value and the Value of Representation: A Different Look at Money

A telling joke circulated in Israel in the fall of 1984. Two men meet somewhere in the country. One has just been abroad. The other says: Those are nice pants. much did they cost you? The friend replies: Twenty pounds Sterling. The first then asks, How much is that in Israeli money? The second replies, Twenty-five dollars-that is, twenty-five U.S. dollars. Officially, the shekel (and not the dollar) was Israel's currency and only legal tender. It was printed by the Israeli government, circulated through designated government channels, regulated, bolstered, and devalued from time to time by branches and instruments of the government. The lira, Israel's official currency until 1980, had already been driven out of the market by governmental action and was no longer an acceptable means of payment or exchange. The Jordanian dinar remained legal tender in the West Bank alongside the Israeli shekel. Officially, the U.S. dollar remained foreign currency. Yet in the nearly six years since I had first gone to Israel, I had participated in dozens of transactions involving the transfer of actual cash dollars and many more calculated in U.S. dollars, though formally paid in official Israeli currency. I had grown accustomed to handling $100 bills and worrying about whether they were counterfeit. Like most Israelis, I had watched illegal changers in Israel proper develop a thriving business alongside their legal counterparts in the West Bank, and I had gotten used to checking the black-market dollar rate printed daily in all the major Hebrew-language newspapers. Israel had developed galloping inflation, changed its currency from the lira to the shekel in an effort to curb the psychological effects of inflation and make accounting calculations easier, contemplated formally dollarizing the economy, and simultaneously shown public outrage at the very suggestion of de jure dollarization. Everyone spoke of dollar balatot (literally floor tile dollars) as real money kept in people's homes or safe deposit boxes. I knew I had never lived in a situation of galloping inflation or day-to-day use of multiple currencies before I encountered the Israel of the 1980s. I also knew that while many Israelis were becoming quite adept at changing currencies, buying commodities for the express purpose of preserving value, and moving

Risk Communication

Risk Communication

The Papers of George Washington. Presidential Series

International issues occupy much of Washington's attention in Volume 18 of the Presidential Series , which covers 1 April through 30 September 1795. Peace agreements were made with Morocco in August and with Algiers in September. Thomas Pinckney traveled to Spain to renew negotiations over use of the Mississippi River. The fall of the Netherlands to France and the creation of the pro-French Batavian Republic there raised concerns about American finances in Europe. Washington also contended with new violations of American neutrality by British naval commanders. Washington's biggest worries concerned ratification of the 1794 Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation with Great Britain (the Jay Treaty). The Senate approved the treaty under condition that Article XII, which addressed trade with the British West Indies, be renegotiated. As Washington considered whether to ratify the document, the revelation of treaty terms in various publications sparked public outrage and a wave of anti-treaty meetings and letters. While acknowledging that the terms were not ideal, Washington felt that the treaty served U.S. interests in the balance and approved the agreement. Domestic concerns also demanded Washington's attention. John Jay stepped down as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court to become governor of New York, and David Rittenhouse resigned as director of the U.S. Mint. Secretary of State Edmund Randolph resigned in August after it was discovered that he and the French minister had engaged in private dealings that appeared to compromise Washington's administration. Just a few days after Randolph left office, Attorney General William Bradford died. Echoes of the 1794 whiskey insurrection in western Pennsylvania continued as petitioners asked Washington to pardon two menuJohn Mitchell and Philip Vigol (Weigle)uconvicted of treason. He eventually did. In Indian affairs, Washington oversaw instructions to Gen. Anthony Wayne that culminated in the Treaty of Greenville with the northwest Indians. He also agreed to the negotiation of a new treaty between Georgia and the Creek Indians, which would come to fruition in 1796. Chickasaw and Choctaw chiefs visited Washington in Philadelphia during July and August. During these six months, Washington kept track of his private economic concerns and supplemented three visits to Mount Vernon with meticulous letters to farm manager William Pearce. Both personal and diplomatic concerns shaped WashingtonAEs response to the arrival in the United States of George Washington Motier Lafayette, son of the Marquis de Lafayette.

Deconstructing the Biblical Sources in Israeli Theater:Yisurei Iyovby Hanoch Levin

When in 1981 the Israeli Cameri Theater performed The Passion of Job, written and directed by Hanoch Levin, the leading avant-garde playwrightin Israel (viewed by some as “the bad boy of the modern Israeli stage”),1 public outrage reached unprecedented heights.The scandal was partially provoked by Levin′s staging.His taste for the carnal and the cruel was much too unpalatable for many stomachs to digest.“People actually walked out, while others covered their eyes,” reported a review in the Jerusalem Post.2 No less detrimental, however, was the specific angle from which Levin th? playwright elected to retell the biblical story.For although the Hebrew title of the play, Yisurei Iyov, may be literally rendered as “Job′s Afflictions,” our translation was advisedly chosen: In his version, Levin catapults Job from the fictional land of Uz to Palestine of the Roman era, thereby embedding Job′s ordeal in that later agon between man and God–the passion of Christ.Accordingly, this dramatized Job does not live to hear an answer from the whirlwind, nor does he see his life redeemed.With a dramatic sleight of hand he is, paradoxically enough, the only character in the play who refuses to deny the existence of God–thus condemning himself to the stake.

Fates of Assailants of U.S. Presidents

Abstract Public outrage has been mounting in recent years over the increasing number of violent crimes and assassination attempts. Before the 1982 Hinckley verdict, criticisms over merits of the insanity defense were escalating. Immediately afterwards some inaccurate news reports and hyperbole by public figures added to the popular perception that the insanity defense and psychiatric testimony have allowed notorious offenders more favorable dispositions, or perhaps even to go “scot-free.” Systematic review of fates of prior Presidential assailants demonstrates that both legal and extralegal consequences for their violent acts have been severe. Some inferences are discussed.

The Commission Reports: Identifying Their Possible Harm and Moving to Protect Higher Education

-L et us not be taken in by the panaceas proposed for the nation's educational ills. We are misleading ourselves if we believe that the myriad recommendations and commission reports on improving quality in public education are guaranteed to benefit our colleges and universities. It is tempting, of course, to believe that implementing stronger graduation requirements, strengthening college preparation, and placing greater emphasis on basic skills will merely liberate the higher education community from the burdens of coping with poorly prepared students. On the contrary, it is time we identify the possible harm these reports can cause in higher education and take steps to protect our institutions. Whether or not we agree with the recommendations of the commissions, we would have to acknowledge that despite their articulate and persuasive arguments, they suggest very little that is new. They are primarily political statements reflecting the public outrage and distress studies and reports on the public schools. Few new options or approaches may be suggested in the reports, but little doubt exists that change is imminent. And there is amazingly close agreement on the kinds of changes expected. These reports focus on the public schools. Very little reference is made to higher education aside from the concerns about teacher preparation and how colleges of education are recognized and accredited to certify teachers. Nonetheless, this omission provides no assurance that the consensus for change in the public schools will not soon spawn attempts to force similar changes upon the colleges and universities. But who in higher education is listening? Some administrators are. They are apprehensive lest their colleges and universities fail to demonstrate they are making improvements. These administrators fear that higher education could become the next target of public argument about proposed changes. State coordinating agencies, legislative committees, and legislative and governors' budget staffs are listening, and some of them are voicing opinions about how some of the ideas proposed for the elementary and secondary levels might be applied to higher education as well. Accreditation bodies are also listening. over the declining quality of American schooling. They represent the frustration of the public and political leaders over the difficulties of bringing change to the public school system. Institutionalized interests that benefit from maintaining the status quo in the public school system oppose merit pay and increasing excellence (labeled as elitism). They challenge efforts to eliminate free choice and relevance as fads in education, and they distrust efforts to modify vocational education or the tracking system. Those institutionalized interests protecting the status quo are evident to anyone who has attempted to modify the school system. They include teachers, the teachers' unions and organizations, the teacher education colleges, the education deans, the accrediting associations, certifying or licensing boards, and many administrators and some elected and appointed officials. The recent commission reports express strongly the common opinion that changes in emphasis are needed, and the reports will influence policymakers, politicians, and the grass-roots voters, who in turn will press the policy makers to bring about changes. In addition to those reports currently receiving nationwide attention, more than 200 organizations and state agencies also are developing KENNETH H. ASHWORTH is commissioner of higher education of the Texas College and University System in Austin, Texas.

The Political Spectrum of Edward Bond: From Rationalism to Rhapsody

The landmarks in contemporary English drama have been more like landmines, shattering conventional expectations, with a whole new configuration of subjects and themes emerging on the stage each time after the dust of public outrage settled. What Look Back in Anger had done for the fifties, Saved did for the sixties, and a play like The Romans in Britain may yet do for the eighties (though Howard Brenton's play seems to lack the qualities that might give its shock effects the same resonance). Like Osborne, Edward Bond achieved immediate prominence through the controversy surrounding his first play to be given a full production, when the Lord Chamberlain tried to throw a baby out with the bath-water. But where Osborne quickly became accepted - partly because his approach was relatively simple and consistent, partly because his plays were recognizably traditional in shape, despite his use of diatribe which shifted dramatic conflict from its conventional locus between characters within the play to a point between his protagonists and the audience - there is still little consensus about Bond.

The Political Spectrum of Edward Bond: From Rationalism to Rhapsody

The landmarks in contemporary English drama have been more like landmines, shattering conventional expectations, with a whole new configuration of subjects and themes emerging on the stage each time after the dust of public outrage settled. What Look Back in Anger had done for the fifties, Saved did for the sixties, and a play like The Romans in Britain may yet do for the eighties (though Howard Brenton's play seems to lack the qualities that might give its shock effects the same resonance). Like Osborne, Edward Bond achieved immediate prominence through the controversy surrounding his first play to be given a full production, when the Lord Chamberlain tried to throw a baby out with the bath-water. But where Osborne quickly became accepted - partly because his approach was relatively simple and consistent, partly because his plays were recognizably traditional in shape, despite his use of diatribe which shifted dramatic conflict from its conventional locus between characters within the play to a point between his protagonists and the audience - there is still little consensus about Bond.

Commentary on “Engineers Who Kill - Professional Ethics and the Paramountcy of Public Safety”

Professor Kipnis' basic proposition is that we rely the work that engineers have done, entrusting our lives to the products of their special skills. Hence, the engineers must be alerted to such responsibilities as may be created by the public's reliance. Put simply: To rely on another is to impose responsibility on another. The law speaks in terms of A changing position or acting in some way in reliance upon representation by B. If A is induced to act to his or her detriment, in whole or part by such representation, B may be liable for any resulting injury to person or property. To continue the analogy, the questions that arise are many. What rights and duties, if any, run between A and B? Has some event intervened to change this relationship? Is B's obligation or duty modified as a result? It is crucial to identify the between A and B. What is the link between professional (special) skills and identifying the engineer with a product, or its user? We have little trouble making the connection between patient, appendix and physician; or, client, trust agreement, and lawyer. The reason is apparent, I think. There are few, if any, intervening events or causes that may modify the intended result. The concept of strict liability as it has evolved in the area of product use?cars, packaged goods and the like?by the public-at-large, can be said to reflect the fact that the consumer-user really does not know who is responsible, for defects, dangers, or who he or she is dealing with. The recent disaster in a Kansas City hotel, any plane crash, malfunctioning word processing equipment, or lemon of a lawnmover span the range of public outrage and displeasure with engineers, manufacturers and the vendor/service link in the chain. Where is the fault?in the design, the manufacture, service, or operation by the user? The IEEE Code of Ethics requires that its members advise their clients or employers of the likely consequences of matters of which they have knowledge. The thrust is anticipatory in nature, not suggesting that their responsibility is to ascribe blame before or after the event prompting public outcries. Engineers, in my judgment, lack a specific identity that links them to the public and its perception of the magic of electronics, the miracles of construction, speed of

The Artist in the Amphitheatre

The persecution of the creative writer is an old and time-honored tradition. Homer's epic poem The Odyssey was too much in favor of freedom for the tastes of the first century Roman Emperor Caligula, who attempted to suppress the work. Shakespeare has been under attack since the seventeenth century for his political and moral standpoints. Shelley and Byron caused public outrage because of their immorality. James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence were banned as obscene before they were hailed as literary giants. From 1933 to 1945 Germany enjoyed an orgy of anti-intellectualism with public burnings of books deemed to be un-German; these included works by Maxim Gorky, Upton Sinclair, Thomas Mann and Ernest Hemingway. It would be comforting to believe that our enlightened age protects the creative writer from such outrages. The body of international human rights law, which originated partly as a response to the excesses of Nazi Germany, is clearly on the side of the writer. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted almost unanimously by the United Nations in 1948, guarantees unequivocally the right to freedom of expression quoted above.

Fractions Make My Head Hurt

THE CURRENT back to the basics hue and cry reminds me of the story in Honey in the Horn where an oldtimer, working at the local sawmill, cut his own pay from $1.50 to $1.00 a day. When asked why he would do such a fool thing, the old man replied, Fractions make my head hurt. The profession's reaction to the public outrage that students can't write reminds me of that old-timer. We, too, seem to be attempting to avoid complication by reverting to a simpler number. To illustrate what I mean: In 1974 the Carnegie Foundation for the Improvement of Teaching gave the Modern Language Association a modest grant to finance a study of the state of the English undergraduate curriculum. Primarily, the officers of the foundation wished to know the answer to this question: How is the English profession responding to the students who are now going to college? One of the activities in the study was a national survey of the teaching of freshman composition. Four hundred thirty-six college and university teachers, directors of writing, and department chairmen from forty-nine states and Puerto Rico responded to MLA's inquiry and answered such questions as, What do you consider the main purpose of the course you teach? What is the average size of your freshman composition classes? How are the texts selected for the course?2 Quotations from this survey illustrate the divergent opinions and philosophies held about the college freshman English course.

Child abuse and neglect: The role of the pediatrician and the Academy

"Child abuse in America is at the point of public outrage at the visible and dramatic end of the spectrum—the beatings, burnings and drownings. A punitive approach is the general rule, and the abusing, yet often loving, parents are fearful and secretive. This pair of attitudes compounds the problems in diagnosis and treatment at both ends of the spectrum. For every severe, recognized case, there are many less severe which pass through treatment agencies unrecognized, and others not even brought to treatment. Yet, where compassionate treatment programs are known in the community, abusing parents are even presenting themselves for help, and finding that an accepting, therapeutic, nonpunitive approach awaits them."

POULTRY MATTERS

At the present time, with ever increasing food prices and the recent public outrage over the cost of beef, it is certainly timely to review the nutritional importance of poultry products and the contribution they make to the housewife's budget.

2. French Retrospect

In its audience of January 26, 1881, the Court of Appeals of Correctional Police annulled the judgment of the lower bench, condemning Emile D—to three months' imprisonment as guilty of public outrage to decency. This man had been arrested the 18th October, 1880, at half-past eight in the evening, by agents of the Service des Móurs, who were on watch near one of the public urinals, Rue Sainte-Cécile. These agents affirmed to have seen many things while noticing that D—had remained over half-an-hour within the urinal. They even pretended that D—had incited one of them with an immoral purpose, without being, however, able to state that other persons had been objects of such solicitation.

Notes of a Journey from Hankow to Ta-li Fu

The journal of Augustus Raymond Margary's groundbreaking journey from Hankow in the Hubei province of central China, to Bhamo in Upper Burma was published in 1875, soon after his death. Margary was part of the Chinese consular service and had lived in China since 1867, working as an interpreter. This journal begins in August 1874 at the start of his journey, the purpose of which was to meet Colonel Horace Browne to act as his interpreter as he attempted to open an overland trade route between China and India. Margary was the first Englishman successfully to complete the 1,800 mile trip through Szechwan to Yunnan, doing so in six months. On the return trip, he and two servants made a diversion, hearing of danger on his proposed route, but were murdered in the town of Manwyne, leading to public outrage and commemorative publication of accounts of his life and travels.