Strange Meeting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Strange Meeting - Essay Example And in the words of Owen’s Preface – All a poet can do today is warn. Structurally, the poem is composed of 44 lines of Iambic pentameter, divided into 4 irregular stanzas: the first, 3 lines; the second, 7; the third, 29; and the last, 5. Owen makes use of a lot of Assonance. In the first stanza, we have: down, profound, piteous, recognition, fixed, distressful, bless. Stanza three contains the following: guns, thumped, flues. There are many others scattered throughout the rest of the poem. Then, we have Alliteration. In the first stanza alone, we have: down, dull; granites, groined. Stanza two has: sprang, stared; smile, sullen. The third stanza yields the following: made, moan; hopelessness, hope; wildest, world; boil, bloody; mine, mystery, mastery; miss, march; wash, wells. This stanza and the last yield many more. The reader finds a single example of onomatopoeia and it is found in the third stanza: And no guns thumped or down the flues made moan. There are two evidences of hyperbole and they are both mentioned in the long, middle stanza: With a thousand pains that visions face was grained and Then, when much blood had clogged their chariot wheels.. It seemed that a thousand pains and much blood are exaggerated. Personification may also be found in the poem. In the short first stanza: Through granites which titanic wars had groined. (Wars are to humans who can groin or reproduce). In the second stanza, Lifting distressful hands, as if to bless (Hands may be lifted, but it is the person himself who can feel distress and may bless). Going more deeply into the poem, in lines 1-3, the poet Owen sets the scene. Holes, caverns, tunnels – these form a recurring image in his mind and find their way into the poem. Titanic Wars imply not just World War I in which Owen fought, but conflicts through history on a gigantic scale. In lines 4-10,

Museum 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Museum 2 - Essay Example At a glance, one is not able to make out what the painting represents (â€Å"Clyfford Still Museum†). The PH-61 is a representation of several conservative issues and interpretation challenges (â€Å"Clyfford Still Museum†). The issues include the reflection found on the surface, the painting’s chemical change and its cracking. When the â€Å"conserve a painting† interaction is used, it changes the various treatment choices made. The painting challenges people to look beyond a glance. It catches an individual’s attention and makes one spend quality time looking at the painting. I think that the blue part looks like a creature raising its head and hands up. The red part may be blood. I liked the painting because it catches one’s attention. It makes one spend time there just trying to figure out what it is. The most amazing thing is that different people interpret it differently. To me it looks like an animal but to other people it looks like a mountain or something else and it makes a good topic for debate among peers on a boring

Moral Philosophy Essay Example for Free

Moral Philosophy Essay Hare uses the â€Å"indirect† version of utilitarianism. Hare believes that individuals can deliberate at the intuitive level. In dire situations where there is no time to evaluate decisions on a critical level, intuition maybe used to commit most acts. Direct utilitarianism follows a rigid rules approach to utilitarianism. Hare’s approach implies that certain acts done intuitively will become moral because the decision was made on a gut level instinct instead of simply following a set of rules. Hare attempts to distinguish his theories from â€Å"crude† or direct utilitarianism. However, it would seem that he does not remove the problems of direct utilitarianism, but he manages to create new ones. â€Å"An act (for act utilitarians) or rule (for rule utilitarians) is right if and only if the act or rule maximizes the utility of all persons (or sentient beings). † 1 Following the direct utilitarianism approach, there is no flexibility for human emotion or consequences. In addition, there is no true definition of what is right for all persons. An example would be a decision by a surgeon in an emergency room to save the life of an elderly priest or that of a young man that was in a terrible car accident. By the direct utilitarianism approach, the surgeon would have to ascertain what would be best for all persons. Such a decision would realistically be made deliberation and gut instinct. The direct utilitarianism approach does not answer what is best for everyone in this type of circumstance. The problem with Hare’s approach is one can prove virtually any moral dilemma with custom tailored and non-realistic circumstances where gut instinct would be used as the determining factor for the situation. There are no set guidelines for defining what is moral for these extenuating circumstances. Hare in general often speaks about conflicting desires, and he seems to adhere to Plato’s notion that being good coincides with being informed. What Hare fails to address is that some individuals might desire to do evil. Hare presumes that the individual is going to conform to the standards of society and use deliberation to not commit heinous and horrific acts. With the direct utilitarianism approach, individuals will act for the good of everyone thus more likely to conform to moral restrictions placed upon them by society. Hare’s approach states that individuals will follow gut instinct to do what is moral but at the same time Hare’s approach calls for individuals to follow deliberation when making some decisions. For the individual that is a sociopath, Hare’s response would be that the sociopath would â€Å"condemn those desires at a critical level†. 2 With the assumption of individual conformity to the group’s standard, Hare is contracting his gut instinct part of the decision making progress. Hare argues that direct utilitarianism cannot accommodate political rights because the government is an institutional set of rules and regulations. Direct utilitarianism assumes that the government knows what is best for the majority. Hare’s approach would require the individual to deliberate as to follow the rules set forth by the government. Using Hare’s approach it would be ethical for an individual to refuse to pay taxes or speed on the highway because there would’ve been a deliberation and analysis based on the critical level of thinking. Hare’s approach is more direct utilitarianism on the political issues because the individual will most likely make a choice that is inherently good for everyone to avoid negative consequences such as a speeding ticket or imprisonment. Each decision or choice that the individual makes results in some type of consequence. Hare’s approach to indirect utilitarianism does not address consequences. The direct utilitarianism addresses consequences because the individual is going to follow rules that are set forth for the good of the whole. Direct utilitarianism requires conformity to societal standards to maximize individual happiness. Hare’s approach requires that the individual deliberate and make a decision. Yet, the other part of his approach requires the individual to follow gut instinct while conforming to good of the whole to make an ethical decision. Instead of refuting the direct utilitarianism approach, Hare is supporting the notion that we all have a set of rules that we inherently follow. To strictly follow Hare’s approach to indirect utilitarianism, society would be in total chaos because virtually any circumstance can be manipulated to appear as though the individual was following instinct and thus making a moral decision. There are no overall guidelines for extenuating circumstances with Hare’s approach to indirect utilitarianism. Hare creates more chaos in trying to refute the direct utilitarianism approach instead of providing solid arguments for the nature of human beings and ethical decisions.

An Empty World To A Full World Environmental Sciences Essay

An Empty World To A Full World Environmental Sciences Essay For much of human history, the human population was low; its ability to harvest or extract natural resources and harness energy was within the carrying capacity of the biosphere; and anthropogenic waste, both quantitatively and qualitatively, was within the capacity of ecosystem sinks to absorb. As human population has grown and technology has advanced, consumption of resources and production of waste have vastly exceeded sustainable levels and now threaten to overwhelm ecosystem functions. An economic system designed for a world of unlimited resources and unlimited sinks is no longer functional in a world of finite resources and overflowing sinks. Prize-winning economist and former Senior Environmental Economist at the World Bank Herman Daly (born 1938) has devoted much of his professional life to creating a new conceptual framework for understanding the implications of these changes. Daly coined the term empty world to mean our earlier, if erroneous, view of the human role in relat ion to the biosphere and its resources, and full world to describe the present reality. In an empty world, it was possible to view human activity and the human economy as all encompassing, and the ecosystem as a subset of the economy, valuable primarily for its ability to supply throughput in the form of energy and stock-fund resources. When labor and human artifacts the things people make were in scarce supply, they were the limiting factors in human and economic development. Much of the focus of human endeavor was therefore on developing an infrastructure of technology to efficiently turn natural resources into needed manmade capital and artifacts. Throughput flowed from an apparently limitless abundance of resources to environmental sinks so apparently infinite that their services in absorbing and assimilating waste were not even assigned economic value or ownership. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR A FULL WORLD This picture is no longer realistic. The global economy, driven by surging population and consumption levels, has depleted both renewable and nonrenewable resources and degraded the air, water and land surfaces in the process. The ability of the biosphere to absorb and process the waste generated by economic processes is rapidly becoming overwhelmed. As natural capital is drawn down, we lose the very ecosystem services on which we rely to sequester carbon, regulate atmospheric gases, maintain climate, control flooding and erosion, form new soils, and recycle nutrients. [is this mine?] [full world graphic] This is the critical flaw in economic theory: it fails to take into account how economic processes consume resources and generate wastes, deplete resources and reduce assimilative capacities. Herman DalyNeoclassical economics was based on a preanalytic vision of unlimited growth unconstrained by questions of resource depletion or overwhelmed sinks. The framework for dealing with the new full world paradigm is provided by the emerging transdisciplinary field of ecological economics. If traditional, or neoclassical, economics is the study of the allocation of scarce resources among competing interests using the market as the mechanism of distribution, then ecological economics is the study of how to balance competing needs for resources justly and sustainably among competing human and environmental interests within the constraints and limitations of the biosphere. While neoclassical economics has defined human welfare as the ability to satisfy wants, ecological economics searches for ways to reduce and redistribute consumption. Where neoclassical economics sees growth as a panacea, ecological economics, with its awareness of finite resources, sees growth as the problem. Where neoclassical economics measures progress in terms of per capita income and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), ecological economics utilizes alternative indicators of development such as the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). ECONOMIC CONCEPTS Some of the concepts which have emerged from ecological economics which are useful in understanding the full world paradigm are: Sustainable Scale is the level of consumption at which the economy functions within the bounds of biophysical carrying capacity, without drawing on natural capital. Optimal Scale is a concept from macroeconomics meaning the point at which marginal costs are equal to marginal benefits, ie the cost of producing a unit of product is equal to the benefit received. This concept can be extended to environmental impacts and social consequences as well. Uneconomic Growth All economic activities involve the throughput of materials and energy and a consequent cost to the environment. When the value of the natural capital being taken from the system is greater than the value of the manmade capital which is generated, Daly it uneconomic growth. This is a specific application of optimal scale to ecological economics. ENVIRONMENTAL CONCEPTS Natural Capital to draw an analogy from the monetary system, the ecological system can be visualized as being built upon a store of natural capital which yields interest in the form of natural resources and ecosystem services. If we are careful to live on the interest, the capital will last forever. When we dip into capital, as when we extract nonrenewable resources, overuse renewable resources, or overwhelm sinks, future income is reduced. Ecosystem Services The interactions of the plants, animals and resources within an ecosystem, and the results of those interactions, are called ecosystem functions. When an ecosystem function has a value to human beings, we call it an ecosystem service. In an empty world, ecosystem services were treated as open-access free goods. In a full world, ecosystem services are increasingly valuable. CAUSES OF A FULL WORLD HUMAN POPULATION GROWTH Sometime in July 2011, a baby will be born who brings the living human population of this planet to 7 billion. Using an exponential growth model, at our current 1.17% rate of growth, the population would be projected to double from 7 billion to 14 billion people in another 58 years. Although the historic population growth curve exhibits the classic hockey stick shape of exponential growth, most population scientists believe that a logistic growth equation, which adds calculations for death rates and ?, is a better model for predicting the future growth of the human population. Due to OVERCONSUMPTION LIVING IN A FULL WORLD SOURCE LIMITS Source limits: (see definition of source in Daly glossary, pg 440: That part of the environment that supplies usable raw materials that constitute he throughput by which the economy produces, and which ultimately returns as was to environmental sinks. ) Hubbert curve (graphic?) and resource scarcity (this will be a substantial section). I need to understand Hubbert curves. Check to see whether the graphics in EOE are sourced outside and write for permission to include an outside graphic. Vocab: depletion, Hubbert curve, The other huge change in carrying capacity is related to the new scarcity of natural resources. Economics has great difficulty in acting on the new scarcity and limits to growth. Distribution is also a problem with natural resources. RENEWABLE RESOURCES For every economically significant renewable resource, from forests to fisheries, the rate of extraction is now limited by scarcity, not by a lack of technology or equipment to extract it.-Herman Daly The term renewable resources is deceptive in a full world. If a resource is theoretically renewable but is being depleted faster than it can regenerate, the resource will eventually become exhausted. The worlds forests and fisheries are already critically depleted and are being consumed faster than they can regenerate. This issue has been called the tragedy of the commons.[link?] As stocks of a resource fall, it is in the common interest for individuals to use less. However, the individual forester, or the individual fisherman, has a family to feed and an investment in equipment which require that he continue to take as much of the resource as possible. Resources already depleted from overconsumption face additional threats from environmental degradation and climate change. Renewable resources depend heavily on ecosystem services such as rain. In turn, depletion of the natural capital through resource exhaustion threatens the ecosystem of which those populations are a part, thereby putting the ecosystem services provided by that ecosystem at risk. [graphic of this cycle] WATER Water occupies a unique position, not only because it is essential to life on the planet and plays a pivotal role in so many environmental processes, but because it has properties of both renewable and nonrenewable resources. Although the amount of water on earth is considered to be finite, the natural hydrologic cycle cleans and redistributes the supply in what have, until recently, been fairly predictable patterns. Human activities have made significant direct changes in the availability and distribution of water resources through pumping of aquifers, and the redirection, cooption, and pollution of natural flows of surface water. Human activity has also begun to make noticeable indirect changes in the distribution of rainfall and surface water through climate change. Water shortages may become the defining crisis for much of the worlds population in less time than it will take to test other facets of planetary carrying capacity. Worldwide, climate-related changes in rainfall are already being felt. A recent study by the Environmental Defense Fund, which added climate change projections to existing models of population growth and human water consumption patterns shows that 70% of the United States will be at risk for water shortages by the year 2050. In 35% of the country, the crisis is expected to be severe. NONRENEWABLE RESOURCES Every resource on the planet is limited to what is already here, with the exception of energy, which falls onto the earth at a fixed rate in the form of sunlight. This wealth is called natural capital. Some resources are nonrenewable, such as minerals [needs work] M. King Hubbart, a petroleum geologist, demonstrated that if you create a graph for the cumulative extraction of a nonrenewable resource over time, plotting the total extraction for a given period on a vertical axis, and time on the horizontal axis, the graph will form a bell curve starting at zero, before extraction began, rising gradually to a peak, and falling off again as the resource is depleted. The area under the curve measures the total available resource reserves. This type of graph is called a Hubbert curve. As the richest and most readily available resources are extracted first, many other mineral and other nonrenewable resources are now at or approaching peak on their respective Hubbart curves. [graph] FOSSIL FUELS AND ENERGY Fossil fuels are currently the predominant energy source in the world and a major component in vast numbers of manufactured products, from fertilizer and pesticides to plastic. Fossil fuels drive both the world economy and, through the release of greenhouse gases during combustion, climate change. A Hubbart curve demonstrates that oil production has peaked worldwide and is on the downward side of the curve. While oil reserves remain in the ground, both as crude and in oil shales, extraction of these reserves will be increasingly difficult and expensive, while the quality of the available reserves will decrease, requiring more technology to refine. SINK LIMITS Every economic activity produces waste. At one time, the earths ability to absorb waste was imagined to be unlimited. However, the sheer quantity of anthropogenic waste, much of which has no natural processes developed to break it down, means that land, air and water-based ecosystems are overwhelmed. Waste, of course, occurs during natural processes. However, the post-industrial waste stream has changed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Quantitative changes are due to human population and excessive consumption of manufactured goods. Anthropogenic waste includes chemicals and compounds not found in nature, naturally occurring substances purified or concentrated beyond what would be found in nature, and chemicals and minerals previously sequestered underground, has created a qualitative change in anthropogenic waste CARBON SINKS All living things are made up of carbons. Plants uptake waste carbon in the form of CO2 from the air and use it as building blocks, storing the carbon until it is released again through decay or combustion after the death of the plant. This process is called carbon sequestration. The cumulative ability of the earths plant life, as well as the phytoplankton in the oceans, to sequester carbon is called the carbon sink. Mathematicians are working to calculate the total capacity of the carbon sink. Excess carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. While debates occur over the exact amount of carbon which can be sequestered in the earths carbon sinks, the rising levels of atmospheric CO2 responsible for climate change are evidence that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are exceeding the capacity of the biospheric carbon sink. CLIMATE CHANGE CARRYING CAPACITY The total impact of the human population on the environment is dependent on the combination of the number of people and their per capita consumption of resources. Thus estimates of global carrying capacity are highly variable and controversial. The carrying capacity of the earth means the number of people who can be supported at a given rate of consumption with a given level of technology. Currently, 9.5 billion is considered to be the conservative estimate of the carrying capacity of the planet for human population, with some theorizing upper limits as high as 50 billion. However, it should be remembered that with a population approaching 7 billion today, over 1 billion people are chronically hungry or malnourished. One person dies of starvation every 3.6 seconds. Over the next decade, water issues are likely to be the largest threat to ecosystems and human survival in many parts of the globe. Estimates of the planets ability to support vast population increases assume empty-world a ccess to unlimited resources, a continued supply of ecosystem services, and development of new and unspecified technologies, which may or may not be consistent with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. [one planet-6 planets graphic] While waste and distribution problems play a part in the one billion people who are currently starving on Earth, it is highly unlikely that the planet can sustain another 7 billion with any reasonable quality of life. Estimates of the carrying capacity of the earth vary from 9.5 billion to 50 billion, but in point of fact, we have been drawing on reserves of many of the earths nonrenewable resources since 1980, when the earth only supported 3.5 billion people. This is analogous to spending the principle out of a savings account rather than drawing only the interest. It is likely that 3.5 billion is the number of people which the planet can comfortably support. FOOD The future of food production depends on human population, the impact of population growth on arable land, climate and weather, rates of topsoil depletion and degradation, and how decreasing stocks of oil will be allocated between the energy sector and the agricultural sector CHANGING THE PARADIGMS It is clear that we live in a full world and probably have for over a generation. It is imperative that we reduce both human population and levels of consumption, end the use of fossil fuels, and develop technologies to recycle close to 100% of scarce minerals and other resources, and focus on non-consumptive measures of quality of life. This will require a new economic paradigm. The neoclassical model, built on the empty world view of constant increases in system throughput, must be revisioned to conceptualize ways to optimize human welfare at or below current levels of throughput. This will require an emphasis on development rather than growth planet-wide, and reductions in consumption levels in the developed world. THE CRITICAL IMPORTANCE OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES The interactions of the plants, animals and resources within an ecosystem, and the results of those interactions, are called ecosystem functions. When an ecosystem function has a value to human beings, we call it an ecosystem service. These interactions are vast, complex, and incompletely understood, but without the natural ecosystems which surround us, we would have no air to breathe, no rain to water crops, no ability to assimilate any of the CO2 and other greenhouse gasses generated by human activity. Even the insects which pollinate our crops are an ecosystem service. Maintaining the requirements of life for other species is often seen in terms of the threat to competing human interests and becomes the focus of intense controversy. Because of the complexity of ecosystems, the subtle nature of the services they provide, and the fact that small losses to the web of life which makes up the living portion of the ecosystem often seem, at least at a casual glance, to have caused no damage, we have been slow to develop any system of valuation for ecosystem services. Efforts to assign value to natural capital have focused instead on stock-fund resources lumber, fish, maple syrup, pharmaceuticals, and crops. When environmental damage threatens a stock-fund resource, an industry, which represents a section of the economy, is threatened, and that is worthy of response, if only because if it is an industry, it has lobbyists and voters. Ecosystem services to the planet are reduced when their structural components are harvested as resources, and by unsustainable or toxic waste. One benefit of defining ecosystem services as services in the economic sense is that it places these services on a par with other economic services CONCLUSION SOURCES: Development, Heresy, And The Ecological Revolution:An open letter to the industrialized world by David C. Korten, Dancing Toward The Future (IC#32),Summer 1992, Page 30, The Context Institute An Essay on the Principle of Population by T. R. Malthus. 1798. _________

Changing The American Language :: essays research papers

My brother and i are alike in that we both often have very strange dreams. A couple of months back, he dreamed that he was driving in Mexico with his best friend Jacob, when he got pulled over by the Mexican police. When asked if he was drunk, he replied with, "Of course not, sir. I dislike drunk drivers. I disapprove of drunk drivers. I discringe drunk drivers." Hearing this, the police simply let him go. As he was driving away, however, Jacob turned to him and said, "Dude...discringe?" After reciting this story to me the next morning, he asked, "Amber...is discringe a word?" When i told him that it wasn't, he decided that from then on it would be, and ever since has been using it as part of his everyday vocabulary. After hearing him use this made-up word as if it were real for awhile, I realized that he was right. Discringe, although not a real part of the English vocabulary, ought to be a real word, as should many other expressions used in everyday vernacular. There simply aren't enough words to express the many varying and complex emotions we have. Because of the fact that it would add to the creativity of our language, help students differentiate between proper and improper grammar styles, and let us express ourselves in ways that before were very difficult to achieve, the English language ought to be revised to accommodate the changing needs of our society.From "spanglish" to ebonics, the English language is constantly being manipulated into all sorts of different forms to best suit its purpose. This is part of what makes the American culture so unique. Our language comes from three basic sources: what was brought over from the mother country, England, during settlement a mix of different languages and cultures all brought together into what is called the "melting pot" of American society and lastly, experiences and social reforms brought about by the ever-changing needs of a growing country. The third reason, however, has largely been neglected by professors and bureaucrats alike as a viable source of new vocabulary. Although many terms that are commonly used in everyday speech are perfectly functional as well as able to express their intended purpose, they simply are not acknowledged as part of what is considered to be "proper" grammar. For instance, the term "How are you doing?" has evolved into "How are you," then to "What's up," and finally the phrase commonly being used on the streets today, " Å’Sup?

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

To the County High School Class of 2012: As you sit in front of me, I know what most of you are thinking at the moment. There are those who are already pondering about what life without high school will be like; those who are debating whether or not to tell your crush tonight about your whispers of adoration you’ve secretly held for four years; some simply want to get out of that ungodly chair, get that thing that isn’t really a diploma but only tells you when to pick up the thing, and then be the first one on the green bus to the grad party — you know who you are. And the rest, well, the rest aren’t even paying attention, you’re thinking, â€Å"Great, here comes one of the valedictorian speakers. Next up: a boring speech straight out of the pits of scholarly hell.† And it’s OK, I don’t mind — that sort of thing comes with the territory. But tonight, I ask that you give me a chance to break that stereotype so that I may a ddress you in the full splendor that you deserve after 13 grueling years of work. I do not want to be known as your â€Å"valedictorian† as I stand here, c’mon guys, there is no time left to place labels on people anymore, instead I ask that you accept me as one of your peers — and as a man who will enjoy becoming a graduate alongside you. Over the last three days I’ve been through two drafts of this speech, one dealing with the future and the other dealing with the past. I had the usual â€Å"we are entering a new chapter in our lives† spiel, and then, because everyone pressured me to â€Å"make it funny,† I followed this with some witticisms on flatulence and going to jail; and then going to jail for flatulence; and then flatulence inside a jail with a guy named Red. Needless to say, I ditched those speeches. Twenty-four ho... ...e that comes from the reflective mood of the evening. Enjoy the silence while you can for it is anticlimax you weren’t expecting after you finished LHS. Capture the silence as an aspect of taste. Remember it. Finally, take a deep breath, and smile at that wonderful smell: the aroma of relief. After years of following the path of public schooling, I invite you to welcome the liberation that comes from graduation. This sugary aroma only comes once in a lifetime. Capture it with your sense of smell. Remember it in the years to come. As our time together draws to a close, I leave LHS with no further anecdotes of wisdom or quotes dealing with success; only the sincere hope that you immersed yourself in the essence of commencement. Everybody, we’ll all be graduates by the time we leave tonight. Let’s enjoy it. Congratulations to the Lee High School Class of 2006.

To What Extent Did the Bolsheviks Succeed in the October Revolution and the Civil War Due to Weakness in Opposition?

â€Å"To what extent did the Bolsheviks succeed in the October Revolution and the Civil War due to weakness in opposition? † The Bolsheviks were not a majority party in Russia, and it is therefore quite an achievement that they not only managed to gain power, but that they held on to it. On paper, you would not have thought the Bolsheviks would have been able to seize power or maintain it if faced with any substantial opposition, so does this mean that their success was dependant on the weakness of their opponents? The military support the Bolsheviks had in the October Revolution was not at all substantial. It took a mere 500 Bolshevik troops to storm the Winter Palace and overthrow the Provisional Government. It would seem that, despite the achievement the Bolsheviks has gained by creating any form of military help, the weakness of the Provisional governments own military protection was the reason why the Bolsheviks had such an easy time taking power. The Provisional Government's resistance was almost non-existent in terms of military, only a few Red Guard soldiers were wounded, most of which may have been from accidental friendly fire, and all of the Provisional Government's forces had completely deserted. In that sense, the success of their military assault on the Provisional Government was almost entirely dependant on that the Bolsheviks did not have to face any form of opposition with similar troops numbers. Even the famed ex-Menshevik turned Bolshevik Leon Trotsky admitted that 500 good men could have defeated the Bolshevik's force, but also asked the rhetorical question of where the Provisional Government was to get 500 good men. However, the Civil War was quite different in terms of military conflict. The Bolshevik's were not facing armies who put up virtually no resistance. The casualties for both the Red's and the White's were high, around 1. 2 million for the Reds and 1. 5 million for the Whites. The Bolshevik's also faced 2. 4 million white troops in opposition, an infinitely larger force than that which had been protecting the Provisional Government. The Bolshevik's however, had increased their own military size to an impressive 3 million. This was done through conscription, and the result was an extremely large army, made up mostly of peasants, with the more favourable troops coming from urban backgrounds. The creation of such a ast army was certainly a show of Bolshevik strength, but again, as with the October Revolution, the armies they faced were often of low morale and not entirely devoted to the cause. The 2. 4 million in White opposition came from an eclectic background of tsarists, western anti-communists and other armies with their own agendas, such as the Czech Legion who were only really interested in Czech independence, the Kubans, as we ll as a number of Generals who were seemingly all out to gain for themselves, such as General Kolchak who was elected ruler of Siberia, but also declared himself supreme ruler of Russia as well. These clashing ideals and the fact that the White forces were so scattered Geographically proved a major disadvantage, as although the Bolsheviks faced threats from all sides, these threats were part of seemingly very disorganised and uncoordinated attacks, which meant that the very centralised Red forces were able to deal with these attacks very efficiently as they were never facing large concentrated armies. Though the Bolshevik's advantages were not completely due to the weakness of White coordination. The Bolshevik's had decided very early on that in order to defeat the Whites, they needed to centralise their forces around Moscow, the major industrial city and new capital of Russia. Doing this allowed them quick and easy access to munitions and other military equipment, whereas the Whites were often waiting around for ammunition drops from the Western allies. As well as this, the Red Army had access to and control over the railways, which also helped to speed up the transportation of troops and munitions between the battles. With these advantages, the Red Army ended up being better equipped, more organised and were almost always in the most advantageous positions if it came to a fight. Another factor which can help us to understand the strengths of the Bolsheviks and the weakness of their opposition is the public support that they had. During the October Revolution, the public support that the Provisional Government had was, like it's military power, practically non-existent. The Provisional Government had never actually been elected, they had simply assumed power after the Tsar's abdication, and so had never proved to the public that they were the right people for the job. Under the provisional government, the country had become almost a law unto itself, with the peasants revolting in the rural areas, illegally seizing land from landlords. This was because the provisional government had failed to solve the land problems in Russia, and the peasants were getting so desperate that they resorted to the seizing of land, just like back in the days of the broken Tsarist system. In addition to this, there were numerous strikes in urban areas regarding the War. The War was, like the land problem, one of the primary reasons for the uprising against Nicholas II's rule, and that the provisional government had come into power yet seemed reluctant or were unable to solve these problems greatly decreased their popularity with the Russian people. As a result, their favour was leaning more and more towards the Bolshevik dominated Soviets. Though that is not to say the Bolsheviks didn't show the initiative to pounce on the problems the Provisional Government was facing and turn them to their advantage. The Bolsheviks themselves led a number of strikes, in which they promised they would end the war and they coined the phrase â€Å"Land to the peasants†. They also showed great insight in their dominating of the Soviets, which were really the more powerful of the dual authority. The Soviets had control of the army, and with the Bolsheviks trying their upmost and succeeding in gaining the most influence of all the parties in the Soviet, they were greatly strengthening their own position. But even then, their dominance could be put down to the weakness and lack of commitment of the other parties. As mentioned before, the Bolsheviks were not the majority party, the SR's and Mensheviks had substantially greater numbers, but the reason the Bolsheviks continued to influence the Soviets most was that the other parties became lazy, and often did not bother attending soviet meetings, whereas the Bolsheviks turned up as often as possible and had much more time to influence the Soviet. The Civil War was quite different. The Bolsheviks did not really have the majority of public support. The War Communism strategy that they adopted made them very unpopular with the general populace, and there were various uprisings and protests throughout the war, however, these were all quite easily quelled by the use of either the Cheka or the Red Army. As well as this, although not all of the people agreed with the Bolshevik's they managed to conscript a huge number of people into the Red Army, even ex-Tsarists, in fact, many officers were ex-Tsarists and were kept in check by the political commissars. They also took harsh steps, known as the Red Terror, which kept the public, for the most part, cooperative out of sheer fear of being killed by the Cheka or Red Army. The White Army cannot really be said to have had a huge amount of support either. They were a very mixed bunch, and nobody really knew what they were about, and so they had no more support than the Bolsheviks from the Russian population. Perhaps one of the most important things a government needs to survive is a driving sense of purpose. During the October Revolution, The Provisional Government were far from an inspiring government, they had of course, sort of had power thrust upon them, they had not gained power by any amazing feat or show of power. The Bolsheviks on the other hand, were led by Lenin and Trotsky, who were both very driven individuals. They both had a phenomenal sense of purpose, being international revolutionaries, they truly believed that what they were doing could shape the world for the better. Similarly, in the Civil War, the White forces did not have a single direction in which they were all aiming to do, besides the destruction of the Bolsheviks. Some wanted power for themselves, some were fighting for the promise of independence, but they were not a particularly unified force, and didn't really have a leader whom they were led by, there was no white equivalent to Lenin and Trotsky. On the other hand, the Red Army were led by the inspiring Trotsky, who, though he was a harsh leader, instilled a huge sense of belief in the Red Army that they would eventually emerge from the war victorious. In conclusion, I believe that the success of the Bolsheviks in both circumstances was not something which could have been achieved without both the strength and initiative the Bolsheviks displayed, or the weakness and lack of drive that their opposition showed, because, although the opposition in both cases had many problems, the Bolsheviks were able to take the upper hand by making sure that they were, by comparison, the stronger side, they were always just better enough so that they emerged victorious, whether they had 500 troops or 3 million, they always had the upper hand.