Walmart Winning Strategy Essay Example for Free

Walmart Winning Strategy Essay Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates retail stores in various formats around the world, aggregated into three reportable segments: (1) the Wal-Mart U.S. segment; (2) the Wal-Mart International segment; and (3) the Sam’s Club segment. We are committed to saving people money so they can live better. We earn the trust of our customers every day by providing a broad assortment of quality merchandise and services at every -day low prices (â€Å"EDLP†) while fostering a culture that rewards and embraces mutual respect, integrity and diversity. EDLP is our pricing philosophy under which we price items at a low price every day so our customers trust that our prices will not change under frequent promotional activity. Our fiscal year ends on January 31. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the largest retail company in the United States and has been ranked number one on the Fortune 500 Index by Fortune Magazine. Wal-Mart has four parts to their corporate strategy. Wal-Mart is dominant in the Retail Market. Wal-Mart has expansion in the U.S. and International Market. Wal-Mart has a creation of positive brand and company Recognition. Wal-Mart is able to branch out into new sectors of retail. Wal-Mart’s public affairs strategy must work to make implementation of these policy goals happen. Its public affairs strategy enables the company to move into other sectors of the marketplace and expand into foreign countries. The public affairs strategy also involves gaining access to politicians who can help Wal-Mart achieve its goals. Wal-Mart has a very active Political Action Committee that gives almost a quarter million dollars annually. While Wal-Mart’s public affairs strategy works well with its corporate strategy. We feel that there are a few recommendations which could make the company work better. Recently, Wal-Mart has been criticized for their opposition to allowing their employees to be unionized. Wal-Mart needs to clarify their reasons for their opposition to unionization. The public affairs strategy must also address the negative feelings harbored by some groups who feel  that Wal-Mart is encroaching into far too many other sectors retail than it should. These concerns must be addressed if Wal-Mart is to enjoy continued success in creating positive name recognition. The mission of Wal-Mart is to serve their members with strong advocacy, quality information, and responsive member services. Their vision is to continue building on our unique position, â€Å"the only research association serving an international membership.† Effective strategy incorporates a view from the customer and stakeholder perspective, and includes an understanding of customer needs, product and service characteristics, desired relationships and the desired â€Å"corporate image† that the organization wants to portray. Reference: https://:www.walmart.com https://www.balancedscorecard.org

Harriet Beecher Stowe Essay Example for Free

Harriet Beecher Stowe Essay Born â€Å"June 14, 1811†, â€Å"Harriet Beecher Stowe†, was born to â€Å"Roxana and Lyman Beecher† (Lakewood Public Library n. p. ). This seventh sibling has a famous brother, â€Å"Henry Ward Beecher†, who is a leader of the â€Å"abolitionist movement† (Lakewood Public Library n. p. ). She also has a sister, â€Å"Catherine Beecher† who fought for the women to be educated; she played a large role in the women’s progress in terms of education (Lakewood Public Library n. p. ). In addition to that, she was married to an equally brilliant individual and popular named, â€Å"Calvin Stowe† at the age of twenty five (Lakewood Public Library n. p. ). She had seven children with this co-teacher of hers (Lakewood Public Library n. p. ). She attended the â€Å"Hartford Female Academy† to complete her education (Lakewood Public Library n. p. ). This is the same school that her sister, â€Å"Catherine Beecher† instituted when â€Å"Harriet Beecher Stowe† was only twelve years old (Lakewood Public Library n. p. ). In school, she was described as â€Å"absent-minded, moody, and weird†, however, she was also known as extremely intelligent and that she was exceedingly good in writing (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811 1896 n. p. ). When â€Å"Harriet Beecher Stowe† turned twenty one, she went to teach in â€Å"Cincinnati† at the â€Å"Western Female Institute†, another learning institution that her sister established (Lakewood Public Library n. p. ). Together with her sister, Catherine, she wrote and published â€Å"Geography for Children† (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811 1896 n. p. ). This same year, she has also been awarded with for an article she wrote and published in the â€Å"Western Monthly Magazine† entitled, â€Å"New England Sketch† (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811 1896 n. p. ). At the age of thirty nine, she had already accomplished a book, entitled, â€Å"Uncle Tom’s Cabin† (Lakewood Public Library n. p. ). She turned extremely famous in 1851, just a year after she has written the aforementioned book (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811 1896 n. p. ). In addition to the aforementioned, what made her more famous is the fact that she delivered speeches with regards to oppression/slavery that occurs in the United States, as well as, in the United Kingdom (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811 1896 n. p. ). When some of her critics declared that the contents of â€Å"Uncle Tom’s Cabin† was not genuine, she rose up to the challenge and wrote another book entitled, â€Å"Dred† five years after the publication of â€Å"Uncle Tom’s Cabin† (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811 1896 n. p. ). While she was busy delivering speeches about slavery, she also had her writings published in a journal known as â€Å"The National Era† that even the president, â€Å"Abraham Lincoln† acknowledged her brilliance and fame by saying, â€Å"So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war† (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811 1896 n. p. ). Back then, she was not only the â€Å"most famous† writer, she was also known to be the â€Å"highest paid† one (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811 1896 n. p. ). She died in July 1, 1896 in Hartford, CT (Lakewood Public Library n. p. ). However, she left with so many contributions to the world of literature including the following works: â€Å"1) The Mayflower: or, Sketches of Scenes and Characters Among the Descendants of the Pilgrims; 2) Uncle Tom’s Cabin; 3) The Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin; 4) Sunny Memoirs of Foreign Lands; 5) Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp; 6) the Minister’s Wooing; 7) The Pearl of Orr’s Island; 8) Agnes of Sorrento; 9) House and Home Papers; 10) Little Foxes; 11) Religious Poems; 12) the Chimney Corner; 12) Men of our Times; 13) Old Town Folks; 14) The True Story of Lord Byron’s Life; 15) Lady Byron Vindicated; 16) Little Pussy Willow; 17) Pink and White Tyranny: A Society Novel; 18) Old Town Fireside Stories; 19) My Wife and I: or, Harry Henderson’s History; 20) Sam Lawson’s Oldtown Fireside Stories; 21) Woman in Sacred History; 22) Palmetto Leaves; 23) We and Our Neighbors; 24) Betty’s Bright Idea; 25) Captain Kidd’s Money and Other Stories; 26) Footsteps of the Master; 27) Bible Heroines; 28) Poqanuc People; 29) A Dog’s Mission; 30) The Poor Life; 31) the Writings; and 32) Regional Sketches† (Hedrick 3 398). Furthermore, she left with a good name (Fritz 5 – 144). The author in question played a large role as a â€Å"social reformer, philanthropist, and author†; she fought for the â€Å"African Americans† and everyone else who were victims of oppression and slavery (Fritz 5 – 144). Upon meeting slaves who were able to escape, she immediately wrote articles and actually published them; through these many people â€Å"will wake up† in the years to come (Fritz 5 – 144). If she had not started upholding such rights of the slaves and people who were oppressed, it would not have been pushed by others and slavery would still have been in its worse today (Fritz 5 – 144). During her time, the â€Å"Fugitive Slave Act† has been enacted (Fritz 5 – 144). This law made it unlawful for other individuals to help out slaves who escaped (Fritz 5 – 144). What â€Å"Harriet Beecher Stowe† did was to send a letter to a colleague and â€Å"abolitionist leader† named â€Å"Frederick Douglass† (Fritz 5 – 144). Here, she sought for an advice with regards to her articles on oppression/slavery (Fritz 5 – 144). Fortunately during this time she also had the opportunity to make her voice heard and so what she did was to discuss her writings especially with regards to slavery to help other individuals become well informed and to inspire them to help her out with her advocacies/fight (Fritz 5 – 144). On a final note, â€Å"Harriet Beecher Stowe† is a famous author who played a large role in addressing the problem on slavery in the United States and the United Kingdom through her works and delivered speeches (Fritz 5 – 144). Works Cited Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811 – 1896. n. d. n. a. 18 November 2008. http://americancivilwar. com/women/hbs. html Fritz, Jean. Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Beecher Preachers (Unforgettable Americans). NY: Putnam Juvenile, 1998. Hedrick, Joan. Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life. NY: Oxford University Press, 1995. Lakewood Public Library. Harriet Beecher Stowe. n. d. n. a. 18 November 2008. http://www. lkwdpl. org/wihohio/stow-har. htm

The Survival Of Myth Despite Science Philosophy Essay

The Survival Of Myth Despite Science Philosophy Essay The survival of myth despite the advancement of science and philosophy in the classical Greek world can be explained by its connection with so many facets of Greek culture education, literature, drama, art and its importance in relation to religion, ritual and the after-life. Furthermore, the scale of the work on myth dominated that of the few philosophers and scientists, who were often only able to affect the minority. Fundamental to this question of survival is the relationship between myth (muthos) and reason (logos). In Greek, muthos means story, and relates to the medium traditionally used to describe the feats of the gods and heroes central to Greek mythology. Logos translates as word, and whilst this has numerous meanings principle, argument, explanation and reason, the generally accepted meaning is reason. The two terms then, whilst both presenting an explanation of the world, do so in contrasting ways; myth provides vivid, descriptive narrative often as a form of entertai nment, while reason presents empirical arguments supported by logic. Whilst the Greeks had previously relied on myth as a means of explanation, to reinforce social, political or ethical positions, to uncover or express tensions and dilemmas within society, or to impart a deeper message, during the fifth and fourth centuries, attitudes towards myth began to change. Both Plato and the historian Thucydides for example, associated myth with old wives tales, entertaining perhaps, but with no substance. According to Joanna Overing (1997), Myth or mythos became understood as a form of speech opposed to reasoned discourse or logos. As such myth became defined as opposed to both truth (myth is fiction) and to the rational (myth is absurd). (Overing 2) She cites Vernant as arguing that central to the new emphasis on logos over muthos is the increasing prominence of written text as against the tradition of oral poetry (Overing 2). The most significant groups involved in the change in attitude towards myth, were the Pre-Socratics and the Socratics. Pre-Socratics is the modern term for philosophers from the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, while Socratic indicates Socrates and his contemporaries. Originally, the term sophistÄâ€Å"s referred to anyone who was sophos (wise), and could apply to poets, musicians, philosophers and statesmen. In the fifth century BCE however, it began to refer a group of travelling intellectuals who specialised in tutoring persuasive speech. (While Pre-Socratic and Socratic are both terms that denote the period of the philosopher, the term sophist refers to the method, it is possible therefore, to be both Pre-Socratic and a sophist, like in the case of Protagoras.) Where Classical mythographers depended on the supernatural for their explanations, philosophers pursued the rational order that is visible in natural events. Myths, specifically in this discussion, Greek myth, tended to focus on people, whilst the Pre-Socratics were focused on finding natural explanations. The major difference however, between the Pre-Socratic philosophers and the mythographers of the time, was their approach to explaining the external world; myths, morally ambivalent and self-justifying, allow numerous explanations but the Pre-Socratics aimed to find a single cosmological principle. The first formal histories were composed by Herodotus and Thucydides in the fifth century, and these were followed by attempts by Socrates, Plato and Aristotle to know the external world through logical inquiry. Considered one of the defining moments in the human perception of the external world, these journeys into science and philosophy  [1]  represented a shift from the preceding belief of a world controlled by unpredictable gods, to that of a structured universe understood through scientific observation and rational thought (Study Guide 130). Some of the earliest speculation on this structured universe can be traced to Thales. In his Histories, Herodotus describes Thales foretelling of a solar eclipse; This change from daylight to darkness had been foretold to the Ionians by Thales of Miletus, who fixed the date for it in the year in which it did, in fact, take place. (Herodotus) By modern standards this foretelling may not seem very precise, and we can be confident that it w asnt predicted through any scientific understanding of its cause, nevertheless, Thales forecast demonstrates an understanding of the order of the world, inasmuch as he had correctly interpreted earlier observations of the phenomena by the Babylonians. Diogenes Laertius makes it clear that Protagoras, a Pre-Socratic philosopher and sophist, was fundamental to the debate of muthos versus logos; quoting Protagoras as saying, Man is the measure of all things (Laertius) and later, Where the gods are concerned, I am not in a position to ascertain that they exist, or that they do not exist (Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 9.52). The first quote appears to be unequivocally reducing the importance of the gods in favour of man and his rational ability, however, the second quote suggests that Protagoras was actually noticeably cautious in his declarations. To further examine his thoughts, we should consider his statement that There are many impediments to such knowledge, including the obscurity of the matter and the shortness of human life. (Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 9.52) This seems to declare that science and philosophy do not have all the answers, and in fact, may not ever find them given the shortness of hum an life. This, in contrast to a tradition of mythology that has seemingly always provided explanation, may deter any potential converters. It is difficult unfortunately, to interpret these sources accurately since we have no reliable contemporary context. However, what this example does make clear, is that the division between traditional myth and the emerging philosophies was considerable, especially when taken into account with the trial and execution of Socrates. Socrates is today probably the best-known of the ancient philosophers, not least because of the circumstance leading to his death, and was an essential figure in the intellectual developments of the fifth century BCE. His views on religion are most clearly seen in the accusation laid against him; Socrates is guilty of refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state, and of introducing other new divinities (Laertius). However, it is difficult to be sure of exactly what Socrates beliefs were, particularly with regard to Xenophons Memoirs of Socrates, in which he argues that Socrates believed that the gods were responsible for his abilities in divination, and that therefore, if he trusted in gods, he surely must have believed in gods (Xenophon). The execution of Socrates by the State demonstrates the magnitude of the threat that they felt these new divinities posed. Although myths were not initially intended to communicate moral and/or political beliefs, as Champlin explains, the y were routinely manipulated by emperors in order to enhance their own reputation, by appropriating the gods and heroes of myth and legendary historyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦politicians could present images laden with meanings which were quickly recognizable to a broad public (Champlin 144). The rational order that philosophers were searching for could not be manipulated in the same way that myths could, leaving emperors without one of their leading advertising schemes. Poetry, literature and drama were a substantial part of the Greek culture, and central to them were the Greek myths which provided seemingly endless inspiration. The ancient writers often altered myths to suit their own agenda, be it personal choice, or to reflect the political or social influences of the time. Plato appears to view this influence of myth on society not just as unacceptable, but as almost damaging, explaining that relating myths might encourage people to mirror the actions of the gods and commit the worst crimes, yet think he is doing nothing amazing (Plato 378b2; 4). He states explicitly that the stories told by Homer, Hesiod and other poets are false (Plato 377d4-5), that they contain no moral exemplars, and that even their benefit as allegories is ineffective, since the young cannot distinguish what is allegorical from what is not (Plato 378d6). His proposal to throw out the majority of the stories is tantamount to rejecting the Greek cultural heritage, and would presumably have been viewed by many as the ultimate disrespect. There is an apparent paradox however, in that much of Platos own philosophical work is infused with myth. Murrays explanation of this is that Plato does not intend to free the mind from myth, but rather to appropriate myth from the hands of the poets and construct new myths that will serve the interests of philosophy (Murray). Platos opinions regarding what he views as the immoral behaviour of the gods are reminiscent of those of Sextus Empiricus who describes their behaviour as shameful and reprehensible (Empiricus). Also, like Plato, Sextus Empiricus names Homer and Hesiod as instrumental in circulating such immorality. He equates the gods behaviour with the worst of human behaviour; giving the examples of stealing, adultery, and deceiving one another (Empiricus), all of which appear frequently in the stories of the gods; and in doing so raises the question, If the gods are apparently morally inferior to us, are they worthy of our respect and worship? Sextus Empiricus statements exhibit the beginning of a more critical opinion of the gods that draws on logic and reason. It is possible, that Plato, and Sextus Empiricus, opinions, inadvertently facilitated the survival of myth because the Greeks were opposed to losing not only their primary means of entertainment, but indeed their heritage. In the classical Greek world, philosophers and scientists were still in relatively small numbers, and often confined to the higher classes who had the time and money to explore and experiment. This meant that their ideas only reached the minority. Since the spread of their philosophical and scientific ideas was limited, it could be argued that myth and tradition would have been maintained simply by intellectual apathy. While the developments in philosophy and science were advancing considerably, myth and tradition retained its much of its influence over the Greeks, a conflict that be seen in many of the extant texts from the time. The question of reason versus myth/religion is one that continues today; even in the modern world, where business relies on computers, international travel takes a matter of hours rather than days, weeks or even months, and where man has been to the moon, we still look toward a belief that is thousands of years old. While there are numerous reasons to explain why myth has endured, it may be a simple case of greater numbers there was so much literature about myth that, in comparison to early philosophy, it stood a greater chance of survival. In my opinion however, it has more to do with human nature; people need religion today just as much as the Ancient Greeks needed myth. This, in my opinion, is why myth survived in the face of the scientific and philosophic advances of the classical Greek world people simply need to believe in something greater than themselves.

A Woeful Trap... Act 1 In Hamlet :: essays research papers

Is he mad or sane? Or just mad in craft, yet punished with sore distractions. Perhaps Hamlet is the victim--as we all at some time feel to be--of the world's sane view of insane perplexities. He is the man at war within himself; a traveler with a passport into strange, twilight regions of the soul. Whether or not Hamlet's suffering, and then insanity, is caused by his relations or by his own melancholy, Hamlet's struggle embodies the essential inwardness of human suffering that all can relate to.The concrete manifestations of Hamlet's misery are closely related. Not only has his father died, also his uncle is the murderer, his mother marries the uncle and is a likely accessory to the crime, and his true love lies to him. It is reasonable to suppose that Hamlet's state of mind becomes more and more unstable as he is consumed with thoughts of all of the sins against him. Eventually Hamlet loses all sense of life's significance. He states to his deceitful mother and uncle, "But I have that within which passes show These but the trappings and the suit of woe" (I, II, 85-86). Hamlet tries to articulate that his grief for his father's death and the prospect of his mother's unfaithfulness is almost inexpressible. He is left alone to bear the burden of suspicion toward the people he once loved. To a man bereft of a sense of purpose there is no possibility of action because it wouldn't have any meaning. No act but suicide seems rational.Yet Hamlet seeks to escape his life of woe when he is commanded by his father's spirit to a great act--revenge. Therein lies the unique chance for a sick soul to heal, to be cleansed and rested. But good cannot come of evil, and so the sickness of his soul only further infects his state of being. His mental disintegration, once proposed to be on purpose, continues uncontrolled. In the desert of his mind, void with the utter emptiness of the knowledge of death (his father's and the death of his faith in his mother) lies the supreme enemy to neurotic despair: romantic love. For romantic love assures power, it can create a sense of purpose, inspire heroism and beauty.

Is Insanity Normal? Essay -- Mental Illness Insane Crazy Norm essays

Is Insanity Normal? Works Cited Missing We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad -The Cheshire Cat from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Have you ever questioned your sanity? Have you ever wished you could change, for even one day, and be the person that others wanted you to be? Have you ever actually made that change, either by choice or by force? Do you think you’re normal? Maybe you’ve lived the most normal life you could imagine. Or maybe not. Maybe you’re life is so abnormal and outrageous that you don’t wish to be normal. Have you ever questioned your sanity? Introduction Insanity appears in various forms and we all know how to mentally picture it. We can create clear images of "insane" individuals in our heads and, very often, feel comfortable with those images. Maybe we picture the serial killer on television, the old woman next door who refuses to leave her house, the people in rubber rooms, or even ourselves. Despite whom we picture, however, we, as members of this society, have a tendency to label those who act differently from us "crazy" or "insane." Society attempts to classify the "sane" and "insane" based on how "normal" or "abnormal" they are. Unfortunately, this forces us into a binary view of individuals that causes many of those individuals to lose their senses of uniqueness and freedom. This also causes others to discriminate based on their differences. What we fail to realize is that the line we establish between "sane" and "insane" is unclear and undeterminable and, therefore, gives us no grounds for bias. For that reason, we must abandon it entirely because the categories it forms inhibit some from living their ideal ways of life. We need to, essentially, stop classifying abn... ...ation. For example, there are Gay and Lesbian Pride groups, Fat Pride groups, the Deaf Community, and so forth, but because the line society draws for insanity is so ambiguous, and clear categories are indeterminable, it is impossible to form an "Insane Pride" group, for instance. The only current option for these people, therefore, is to stay within the binary. We need to find a way to resist this need to conform because, in reality, we all in some way fit into the category of the insane to different degrees. Hence, we need to establish ourselves as individuals with needs. We must begin to look at what we have come to call "insanity" in a new way and, in effect, exclude the word from our vocabulary. If we can, therefore, find some way to eliminate the stigma and reaffirm the spectrum, we will be able to treat others and ourselves affectively and appropriately.

The Tale of Troy :: essays research papers

Book Report The Tale of Troy was written by Padraic Colum, it has 132 pages, and takes place in the ancient islands of Greece. The Tale of Troy is a fiction story. Even though Athena and Poseidon helped the Greeks during the Trojan War, Athena turns against the Greeks and convinces Poseidon to do the same. The Greeks are hit by storms on the way home and many ships are destroyed and the fleet is scattered. The war and his troubles at sea keep Odysseus away from Ithaka, for twenty years. While he was gone, his son, Telemachus, has grown into a man, and his wife, Penelope, is overwhelmed by wooers who think Odysseus is dead. While Poseidon is away from Olympus, Penelope convinces the other gods to help Odysseus return home. In disguise in Ithaka, she convinces Telemachus to look for his father. Telemachus goes to Pylos and finds out that Odysseus is being held prisoner by Calypso. Zeus orders that Odysseus be allowed to go home so he leaves on a raft. When he is almost home, Poseidon sees him and sends a storm that sinks his raft. Ino helps Odysseus by giving him her veil which protects him from any harm in the water. After two days of swimming, Odysseus reaches the Phaeacians and their kind king, Alcinoà ¼s. The king’s daughter, Nausicaà ¤, finds Odysseus and takes him to the king. Odysseus tells how he and his crew first saw the Lotus-Eaters, then they docked in front of a cave to search for food. There is wine, food, and pens full of sheep in the cave, but the cave’s owner, the giant Cyclops Polyphemus, comes back and seals the cave with a giant boulder. Odysseus planned to escape by giving Polyphemus wine until he passed out. The men poke out the monster’s only eye. Polyphemus can’t find the men and finally rolls the boulder that was blocking the cave and puts his arms in front of it to catch the men as they try to run outside. Odysseus thought Polyphemus might do this so they hang onto the undersides of the sheep as they go out to pasture. When the men passed the entrance, Polyphemus felt only the sheep’s backs and the men escaped. Aeolus, the keeper of the Winds, gave Odysseus a le ather sack that holds all the storm winds as a gift. Odysseus can sail home safely as long as he keeps the bag closed, but his crew opened the bag, that started a storm that blew them to the land of the Laestrygons, cannibals who destroy every ship in the fleet except one.

Labelling Processes Essay

The labelling theory is a micro interactionist approach, this is because it focuses on how individuals construct the social world through face-face interactions. It recognises the concept of the ‘procedural self’ where ones identity is continuously constructed and recognised in interaction with significant others, this results in the individual’s behaviour, including that related to crime and deviance. Significant others are those who are in high social power and thus able to dictate influence and actively determine an individual’s life. Such individuals may include police officers, prison officers, politicians, parents and teachers. Feminists would argue however that these are all the males in society, determining and controlling the lives of females, keeping society patriarchal. The influence that significant others place on individuals lives is through the use of labels, the labels aren’t usually based on individual characteristics, more so stereotypes, working assumptions and professional knowledge. For example Cicaurel found that police patrolled working class areas more intensively, resulting in more arrests, this is due to the police’s stereotypical view that delinquent individuals are part of the working class. Lemert distinguishes between primary and secondary deviance in society. Primary deviance involves minor offences such as vandalism or smoking underage and these acts are usually uncaught or insignificant. However an individual may be caught for such acts and inturn be labelled as delinquent or deviant, the social reaction of this label results in the development of secondary deviance: more serious crimes such as assault or drugs. This therefore illustrates that it is not the act itself but the hostile societal reaction by significant others that creates serious deviance, thus crime and deviance being products of the labelling process. Support for this idea is research conducted by Jock Young on hippy marijuana users. Drugs were associated with hippies which demonstrate primary deviance. Police then labelled and persecuted hippies for their behaviour, excluding them from normal society. AS a result a deviant subculture emerged where hippies retreated into closed groups, grew hair out long, wore eccentric clothes and drug use became a central activity. Gove argued that there are two consequences of labelling: creation of sigma, modification of self images. Stigma is the negative branding of an individual and refers to the public condemnation and exclusion of the criminal. The media tend to exaggerate the behaviour of such people, causing increased fear and moral panic in society, resulting in avoidance and constantly being treated with suspicion. Becker refers to a ‘master status’ where once a person is labelled all of their actions are interpreted in light of the label and only negative aspects of that individual’s behaviour are focussed on. Because of the stigma created from the label a modification of self image occurs in the individual. The individual essentially lives up to their deviant label, becoming the person described in the label. The process of deviancy amplification whereby any punishments or treatment therefore reinforce the individual perception of the criminal, thus more crimes fitting to the label are carried out. This theory can however by criticised because it is determinist, where individuals have n control over the process and once they have been labelled they will inevitably turn deviant or criminal. Social action theorists believe in free will and individual’s choice to reject their label. In addition the label may cause the opposite result where an individual seeks to actively prove their label wrong by thriving and succeeding in their work/ life. Furthermore the labelling theory claims that deviant and criminal behaviour only occurs when a label is given, it does not account for crimes committed by those who have no labels placed upon them. Marxists, for example, would argue the theory fails to explain middle class, white collar or corporate crime, since the offenders have high social power and would be significant others rather than the individuals labelled. In conclusion although the labelling theory offers some explanation as to the crime and deviance in today’s society there are many gaps. Other explanation such as subcultural crime and deviance would argue that it is not the interaction of individuals but the illegitimate opportunity structures within society that results in crime and deviance.