Out With The Old In With The New

Differences Between The Old and The New:
1-During the time of the renaissance people learned to question the church and their beliefs; the church no longer explained everything therefore people questioned what they had been told and created their own explanations.
2-Culture was flat and rarely changed while when the renaissance came around culture changed greatly and became more eccentric.
3-During the renaissance focus became less on the richer and higher class. A new form of class was created for the average human. The average man or peasant was more popular and common.

I feel that food surplus was the most important change during the renaissance. The surplus of food allowed people to make new inventions because not everyone had to work to keep themselves fed. More people were able to invent things like the printing press. This lead to the words of the bible to be spread to everyone not just the high class. The food surplus lead to more food available for trade. In order to trade they had to create trade routes which lead to the spreading of culture. Water routes were created so that more areas were available to trade to. Essentially food surplus lead to everything else that happened in the renaissance. The availability to new cultures lead to musical, spiritual, artistically and cultural changes.

Culture was flat and rarely changed while when the renaissance came around culture changed greatly and became more eccentric. As a food surplus was created more trade areas were available and cultures were opened. The rapid changes in all areas like art, food, and religion created a rapid change in the culture of the time. The availability of new foods and cultures formed the culture of the renaissance. The period of the new ages was formed because of the constant changes around them. Things like a food surplus allowed people to have more free time to create new inventions. The more open and blending cities allowed cultures to be spread from one area to the next. This molded the changes of the time.

Ptolemy created the idea that the earth was at the center of the universe. he believed that everything evolved around us. This theory started the renaissance. Many other scientists based their theories of this idea. Many scientists still use the Ptolemaic theory as a basis or example of what has happened scientifically. The article below states that the Ptolemaic theory was believed for many years. Over the years scientists have changed this theory and currently we believe that the sun is at the center of the earth.  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/consensus-can-be-sciences-worst-enemy/story-fn558imw-1225967872077

There are many life changing experiences that I have encountered throughout my life. Probably one of the hardest things i have gone through in my life was when I had to put my dog down. His name was smudge and we had had him for a few years. We may have only had him for a short time but i loved him more than anything. A year before we put him down he got paralyzed. We kept and took care of him for a year while he was paralyzed. It was a Friday night when we came home to his smiling face. He was the happiest person when we came home. Something was off that night we came home to him just sitting by his food bowl. He didn't come over to great us he just sat there. We knew that something was wrong. We quickly rushed him to the vet and learned that he was paralyzed. They said that a surgery could fix him. He got the surgery and after a year he still didn't get better. It was getting harder and harder to take care of him and we felt it was better to put him down. He was the first dog that I ever had. I truly loved him and still to this day miss him. I have begged for years for a new dog but the answer is always that we are too busy. This experience taught me to be strong. It taught me how to deal with the loss of someone you really care about. I used what I learned in the following year when my uncle passed. Each tragic event I have experienced has taught me to be stronger and helped me to deal with the following losses. I miss him more than anything but I am glad that he was able to teach me how to be strong and move on. He also showed me all the support I have from my great friends and family. A friend of mine, Dillon Machavern, told me he would buy me a baby polar bear. This was the first thing he told me after I came back from putting my dog down. My entire class and friends were there for me when I lost my best friend, Smudge.

King Duncan

King Duncan plays a large role indirectly in the play Macbeth. He dies very early on in the play and therefore we don’t learn a lot about him. The only way we learn about him is through the thoughts of Macbeth. Before Macbeth kills King Duncan in Act 2 he looks at the good and bad qualities King Duncan has. We know that King Duncan had to of had some good qualities because of the amount of time Macbeth spent considering possibly murdering him. At the end of Act 1 Macbeth assesses the pros and cons of killing King Duncan. He is shortly after brought back to reality by his wife Lady Macbeth. "So clear in his great office, that his virtues will plead like angels" (1.7.18-19). Here Macbeth is saying that King Duncan is a perfect person and hasn't done anything that people assess as bad. Macbeths only reason for killing King Duncan is a selfish reason. He does this horrid dead so that he can become king for a short lived time as he know it will not be passed onto his children. Macbeth also thinks that killing him is a disloyal act. This shows that Macbeth has a reason to be loyal and respect King Duncan. "First, as i am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed; then, as his host" (1.7.13-14). Macbeth doesn't want to kill King Duncan because as his kinsman Macbeth wishes to be loyal. If Macbeth has such significant reason for not killing the king then King Duncan is clearly a good leader. In the end Macbeth is convinced by his wife Lady Macbeth to kill the king. His reason for killing King Duncan is horrifically selfish and does not reflect what he truly thins of the king as a leader. Macbeth believes that King Duncan is a good leader and wants to be loyal to him.

I think that Machiavelli would evaluate Macbeth as a great leader. One of Machiavellis famous quotes states that " the end justifys the means". Macbeth demonstrates this when he decides to kill the king. He know that killing the king is a horrible disloyal act that he shouldn't commit but does it anyways. Lady Macbeth tells him that he wants the end means but isnt willing to work for it. She emphasizes the fact that what he will recieve in the end will be worth all that he does. Machiavelli and him both believe that is the end resault is beneficial to the leader himself then commiting the act or acts that lead up to it are justified by his gain Machiavelli also believes that a leaders appearence is more important than the reality of what he does. When Macbeth considers killing the king he becomes worried about what could happen to his appearence. "Golden opinions from all sorts of people, which would be worn now in their newest gloss, not cast aside so soon" (1.7.13-15). In this quote Macneth directly states that people think highly of him as a leader and that he dioesn't want to ruin that view. If he kills the king and gets caught his whole reputation is ruined. If you read this scene closely you see that he only worries about what will happen to him when he gets caught rather then what will happen if he doesn't. He believes just like Machiavelli that how he appears to the people around him has higher importance then what he actually is. Later in the scence when Lady Macbeth convinces Mabeth that he has no chance of getting caught he is okay will following through witht the murder. Macbeth shows that his appearence to otherrs is more important then reality in this scene.

Macbeth

Machiavelli believed that the way you appeared to people was more important than how you actually acted. He believes that no matter how horrible and cruel you really are you should appear good to others. Shakespeare addresses this same belief many times in the play Macbeth. Early in the play you read that +the Thane that appeared loyal and honorable to the country was not that. "the Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict. No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive our bosom interest" (1.3.53, 63). When he was later found to be disloyal he was punished by death. Machiavelli and Shakespeare both want you to think that as long as you appear good you will succeed. The Thane of Cawdor appeared good for as long as he lived and succeeded and as soon as this appearance was shattered his rein ended. This same idea of appearance vs. reality is addressed throughout the play. Macbeth is another main character that plays with this idea of appearance. All throughout the play he appears loyal and honorable to the country but is quick to betray others to get what he wants. I believe that Shakespeare enjoys toying with and adding the ideas of Machiavelli in the play. He is reteaching these ideas to the audience.


In Macbeth Shakespeare uses the character of Lady Macbeth to express and change the traditional male and female roles of the times. Lady Macbeth is supposed to be the lady of the house, be sweet and loving to her husband, be innocent and do as she is told. Lady Macbeth is the opposite of this. She is cruel hearted and wants to be. She does not want to feel pain or suffering for others. Lady Macbeth is ambitious and cunning. She is all the things women aren't supposed to be. Shakespeare made her this way so that you looked at her as a rebel. Her different behavior is most highly expressed in the following reading "come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty" (1.5. 38-41). When she asks to be unsexed she is asking to become a man. Directly after she asked to be full of cruelty. This shows that she believes that men are tough and cruel. She wants to become the opposite of what she is. The idea that men are tough, strong and cruel is commonly seen throughout the play.


"With one that saw him die, who did report  that very frankly he confessed his treason" (1.4. 4-5). This is a line from the report that Malcolm gave about what had just happened to the Thane of Cawdor. Malcolm and King Duncan spoke highly of the honorable thing he did.  By admitting to what he had done wrong throughout his life King Duncan was seen as dying honorably. Although he was honorable he put himself in great danger because as soon as he admitted to what he had done he was killed. This importance of honor is weighted throughout the play. Shakespeare highly encourages people to be honorable.There is also great importance weighted on being loyal to people and your country. Throughout the play Macbeth is seen as an honorable and noble person but in the end when he is a know betrayer he is beheaded. As soon is someone is seen as disloyal they are punished. This shows that Shakespeare greatly cares about teaching people to be honorable and loyal.

Machiavelli

Machiavelli was an amazing writer and dedicated his life to both this and politics. He wrote out of Florence, Italy and taught leaders how to be leaders. One of his most famous and first writings he did were The Price. He wrote this in 1513 in hopes of convincing the people around him that when violent acts were committed by leaders it was acceptable. He wrote in his book many morals and rules that leaders should follow but in the end there was no set of morals that a leader should follow.      

Source: http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96may/machiavelli.html

“The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it”. What does this mean to you? This is a metaphor Machiavelli wrote in his book The Price. We all will interpret this is a different way buy no matter how we interpret it it still applies to today’s leaders. In our lives we learn best from our experiences. The more mistakes we make, the older we get the more we learn. You only do something bad once in your life before you learn not to do it. We should all keep this in mind when analyzing the intelligence of our leaders. Just because they did something bad in the past, they only did it once. If the leader had done it multiple times then we see a reoccurring problem. If they do it once and don’t do it again it means that they have learned better. Doing a bad act 2, 3 times shows a lack of adapting and learning skills.  

The advice that Machiavelli gave years ago was aimed solely at those times. Some of this advice can overlap to today; others can’t. In The Price Machiavelli wrote, “before all else, be alarmed”. In today’s times you can not resort to guns and violence first. This is something that we have learned over years. When we first resort to accusations and assumptions we end in war. A famous example of this is Iraq. The US government immediately resorted to guns and violence to solve their problems. The accusations we made and our choice to use guns led us to a horrible war the generations following will still have to deal with.      

If Machiavelli and Pizarro were ever to cross paths I believe these would be the words out of Machiavelli’s mouth, “the wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather then condemned”. This applies to Pizzaro and his men because at the time Pizarro had the need to conquer and gain control. Machiavelli would be reassuring Pizarro that he was normal. The second half of this famous quote, “But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes”, warns Pizarro that the costs for losing is not worth the risk. Machiavelli wants to praise but also warn Pizarro of the cost and risk he is taking.  

Leadership

In my life and I have had many coaches. Some were less effective than others. I consider these coaches leaders in my life and more recently I experienced a coach that wasn't right for me. All through middle school I had an amazing coach that pushed us and still taught us to love the game. She was strict and kept us in line. The great love and enjoyment she got out of the game she spread to us. Recently I had a coach that also loved the game but she wasn't as strict on us. She was inconsistent, soft on us and didn't push us to work harder. I learned a lot about coaches and leaders in my life through this experience. As a player I saw that she was not confident in her skills or even herself. The confidence my previous coaches had spread to us as players. When my coach didn't have this neither did we. My coach was very soft spoken and wanted to make sure we enjoyed being on her team. She never pushed at us to be better or work harder. This caused many girls to not take it seriously. When the coach or leader doesn't care about what they are doing or doesn't push people to do better they don't. An ideal leader or coach for me would push me to do better and have a love for whatever they were doing.