Agora History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Agora History - Essay Example Agora is an historical Spanish drama film produced in 2009. The movie was directed by Alejandro Amenabar. Agora represents a movie genre that is increasingly rare. The movie is based in the happenings of the 4th century in the Roman Empire. The whole story focuses on a 4th century Greek astronomer called Hypatia.The movie therefore represents a successful project of making a movie about the past period while at the same time, making a movie about the present (Germain 12). The historical movie was set in roman Egypt, specifically, at the end of the Roman Empire. In the last days of the empire, the Alexandria city in Egypt was torn. There came a split between Christians and the pagans and due to their large numbers, Christians gained political power. They therefore set the standard of morality that was a must-abide for all who wanted to survive. There are several religious aspects that are evident in the film (Pollard and Howard 64). Religious domination and war between religious group s is seen when Christians destroyed pagan gods and waged war against pagans. The Jews were caught in between this leading to divisions among them. Many pagans were converted to Christianity as well as some Jews like Dave, Hypatia’s slave. They shifted to Christianity to save themselves of trouble from this powerful group. Others stuck to the Jewish religion and there emerged open war and hatred between Christians and the Jews. Devout Jews became victims of the war against paganry. Religion was also use to cover up for the rejection of the ideas of some people. For example, Hypatia was not really interested in religion but in making discoveries and selling her ideas to the people. she was victimised on religious grounds because most of the Christians did not support her views. This also depicted the religious hypocrisy of that time. The Christians were not ready to forgive Hypatia as Jesus, their perfect example, forgave those who sinned against him. Religious leaders could on ly stand with the rights of Christians instead of humanity, representing God’s precious creation. Although some people may criticise the movie for emphasising on early Christianity, especially the dominating nature of Roman Catholic, the movie has a high historic accuracy. Rohter (10) observes that the themes of religions verses spirituality and faith verses zealotry are clearly brought out. This religious rottenness was powerful enough even to nullify other binding factors among people. This is seen when Synesius and Dave, at one point, turn against Hypanthia because of sticking to Jewish religions yet they were in love with her. The clash between education and religion, and knowledge and faith leads to destruction of the library. The making of a present time movie out of the past period represents a high level of creativity in the movie. Amenabar developed the movie as a result the interest he developed by exploring the night sky. In 2004, he took a break after producing on e of his movies and he travelled to the island of Malta. Stevens (5) notes that while there, Amenabar discussed astronomy with this friends and they begun speculating about extraterrestrial life found on other planets. They studied famous astrologers like the Ptolemy, Galileo, Copernicus and Johannes but the story of this 4th century astrologer was most interesting. The film is therefore cerebral, ambitious and complex. Unlike most toga movies, Agora does not depend on CHI spectacle but on ideas and real drama. The political situation at this time was poor and discriminative. When Christians waged war against the Jews, the rulers of the city of Alexandria were not powerful enough to stop it and the situation got out of hand. Despite

National Rifle Association Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

National Rifle Association - Essay Example The NRA in modern civil society receives much scrutiny for its stance on guns and people's right to maintain them but the NRA merely advocates correct gun usage as opposed to the implementation of guns in the world as they are perceived by many people to do (Helmut 2004). However, it must be stated that this stance is not one of promoting violence, but one promoting their basic foundation, the implementation of knowledge. Is gun possession for protection a civil liberty Well many people in the current civil society believe that there is enough independence in choice of human conduct. People are increasingly creating awareness that it's the person behind the weapon that commits a crime and not the weapon itself! The founders of national rifle Association believed that people in modern society were responsible enough to control their character even when in possession of a dangerous weapon like a gun (Kant, 2003 p. 33). Although NRA was faced with so much criticisms of controversy, it was one of the most influential lobby groups in the United States. There was growing need to support the second amendment which encouraged responsible gun ownership in the name of self defense. As a result of this, the NRA was formed from the views of two retired army officers who primarily wanted to make the entire human society more knowledgeable about the handling of firearms. Col. William C. Church and Gen. George Wingate started NRA in 1871 to be able to promote a sense of scientific process among all individuals whenever they handle firearms (Anderson p. 186). After the US charter in the State of New York approved the existence of the NRA the First President of the organization, US Senator Gen. Ambrose Burnside, took responsibility of this position (NRA HQ website). Ambrose Burnside as the first president, he tried his best to establish the organization's reputation in the society that they were most involved with. The aim of this body was make the society more responsible in the way of handling guns for self-protection grounds. It is indeed from the primary aims of the founders of the organization that NRA actually started out to affect the modern civil society as a whole. George Washington once said, "Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself." (Wilson 2002) I think that is a simple approach the NRA is taking on the consideration of the Second Amendment and trying to instruct the proper safety of handling a firearm. Hence, through the financial support provided by the Long Island and Creed Farm, the organization was able to establish a practice range that would train numerous individuals, with their own guns, for the purpose of self defense. The Credmor, NRA's first training grounds, was established in 1872. (Anderson p. 20 3) It was the initial venue for the first ever annual shooting matches that happened during those years. Up to this day, the organization aims to educate everyone in the society about the need to be responsible and knowledgeable about the right usage of guns and firearms. In an aim to educate everyon