The Plays We Perform Often Display a Frightening View of Who We Are. How Are Playwrights Able to Do This in Ruby Moon and Stolen Essay Example

The Plays We Perform Often Display a Frightening View of Who We Are. How Are Playwrights Able to Do This in Ruby Moon and Stolen? Essay The plays we perform often display a frightening view of who we are. How are playwrights able to do this in Ruby Moon and Stolen? The frightening view of who we are is explored by Matt Cameron’s Ruby Moon and Jane Harrison’s Stolen, where the contemporary Australian theatrical practice is used to explore dark issues. The play Ruby Moon is a response to the current epidemic within Australian society; the fear of losing a child, and is concerned with life in suburbia, and Stolen by Jane Harrison is concerned with Indigenous experience in Australia and the effects of the implementation of the policy of taking children from their families and how, despite all that has been done to them, they have survived. By using innovative approaches in structure and different dramatic forms and conventions such as characterisation, multi-role playing and symbolism to convey their ideas, has allowed these playwrights to display a frightening view of who we are. We will write a custom essay sample on The Plays We Perform Often Display a Frightening View of Who We Are. How Are Playwrights Able to Do This in Ruby Moon and Stolen? specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Plays We Perform Often Display a Frightening View of Who We Are. How Are Playwrights Able to Do This in Ruby Moon and Stolen? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Plays We Perform Often Display a Frightening View of Who We Are. How Are Playwrights Able to Do This in Ruby Moon and Stolen? specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Ruby Moon by Matt Cameron is about a little girl who sets off to visit her grandmother, just like a fairytale, but never arrives. It is the story of Little Red Riding Hood retold, exposing what people do when they suffer an enormous loss, like the loss of a child. It is both placeless and timeless, a theatrical device used in order for an audience to realize its universality. It travels deep into the fears of our time by illustrating issues like child abduction and pedophilia which arouse such potent emotions in families and communities. The play is able to re-enact the dire â€Å"pervasive fear and mistrust that exists here Australia is at the moment† through the employment of the gothic and absurd through a fairy tale like structure, characterisation, black humour, multi-role playing, props and symbolism, and lighting. Ruby Moon displays a frightening view of who we are through the employment of presentational theatre acting where Cameron is able to then within his theatre, give emotion to the issue that we detachedly interact with every day, and allow us to see the grief, anger and psychotic paranoia behind these stories, which are emphasized in his other styles used. The style which Cameron employs, that is Gothicism and Absurdism, presents the bizarre and macabre culture of Australian society which is fixated upon fairy tales gone wrong, â€Å"it begins with a fairy tale† and the paranoia and obsession that is a repercussion of this. This is then shown through the characterization of Ray and Sylvie, who voice their mistrust through their absurdist cyclical questioning and through their guilt, highlight the unforgiving and anonymous Australian landscape; where both Ray and Sylvie come to question those living closest to them, as well as one another. Thus through these styles, Cameron is able to communicate the nightmarish logic in the situation, where we begin to question with the characters; who and what is real in this world, causing a sense of paranoia amongst us. The play incorporates black humour through actors playing multiple roles, all which seem to be strange, changing the perception of the audience through the way the story is told. The fact that everyone appears to be guilty and most obviously through the unusual things that continue to happen throughout the play, contribute to the fear created engaging the audience as a reflection. Through the theatrical conceit of only two actors playing such a range of characters, one begins to question if all are completely separate. Major characters of Ray and Sylvie are both weakened by the loss of their child, and both are witnesses to the effect of grief in their lives, Ray’s integrity is mistrusted by the audience as we witness the progression of the play, and Sylvie becomes increasingly unstable and psychotic as her grief continues in a cyclical pattern. The minor characters throughout the play, Veronica Vale, Dulcie Doily, Sid Craven etc, all follow the archetype method of Cameron is their creation. For example, Sid Craven comes to represent paedophilia, or at least the paranoia of its existence, and through the dark humour presented in the dialogue between Sylvie, â€Å"we have to dig up the church,† and Ray, â€Å"isn’t it enough that we just dont attend? † juxtaposing with the mood, which causes a break in the darkness allowing the audience to think clearly. Thus through the use of black humour and characterisation, Cameron is able to present a frightening view of who we are. The set within Ruby Moon contains a large amount of props that sustain both the environment of the play but also convey the underlying messages of the play. As the play is focused on the identity of the suburbia and the outside world, the curtains in scene 5 are utilized by Ray and Sylvie to suggest that perhaps the curtains they use to help keep the evils of the outside world at bay are actually keeping their own contained. Analogously, the mannequin and Ruby’s dress are both strong images throughout the play. Ruby’s dress is metamorphic, and occurs to represent many things throughout the play, â€Å"if you walk down the street in a little red dress†¦Ã¢â‚¬  symbolizing childhood innocence and an object of sexual desire when worn by Sylvie. The mannequin or ‘Ruby Doll’ comes to represent the unveiling of the mystery behind Ruby’s disappearance, thus every part of the doll that they receive denotes the further unveiling of the unknown, yet because the head of Ruby continues to be missing – the whereabouts of Ruby still remains unknown. The paranoia and fear of losing a child implicated here contradicts with the Australian’s ideal of the suburbia which is meant to be a happy and safe place where children can be raised. Lighting is used throughout the play to implicate a sense of paranoia amongst the audience and build suspense, allowing the audience to empathise with the characters within the play. In scene three, Sid is in shadows occasionally flicking on the light raising fear and suspicion in Sylvie, and during his re-enactment of the detective he move into Sylvie’s personal space creating a claustrophobic mood and showing the detective suspicions. When Sylvie wanted answers from Sid she would move closer to him, but he would evade her by moving into shadows suggesting he had something to hide, creating suspicion. The audience shares Sylvie’s suspicion and paranoia as she is desperate after losing her child. Stolen by Jane Harrison was written to â€Å"honour the experiences of those who had been stolen and for the play to resonate on an emotional level with its audience. † The play retells stories of five Indigenous individuals of the Stolen Generation, and examines the struggles and concerns of Aboriginal Australians since white settlement in Australia. The bicentennial celebrations had Aboriginal Australians questioning what exactly they were celebrating. Royal commissions into black deaths in custody and the stolen generation also set the tone. There was a move towards reconciliation although the conservative federal governments’ was reluctant to say ‘sorry’. Earlier land rights decisions in the high court also added to indigenous relations being a major issue in the late 20th century. Stolen deals with these issues through theatrical conventions and techniques, i. e. traditional storytelling, collage, multi role acting, and symbolism. Jane Harrison employs a traditional storytelling form due to its indigenously enthused context, and an episodic structure to impose a frightening view of who we are. In Stolen, five actors portray the five principal characters respectively, each representing a story common among Aboriginal people. Anne, Sandy, Shirley, Ruby and Jimmy each present their journey by a different structure – a song, a letter, the line-up for example – which is repeated several times to show the changing circumstances and to develop individual narratives. This reflects the practice of traditional storytelling methods which have a repetitive song/dance structure. Such use of repetition not only helps in the learning of the story but it highlights the subtle changes on understanding that may occur over time. The play is also episodic in that it does not follow any obvious chronological order. The characters move back and forward in time, sometimes being their young child in the children’s home and other times, adults. As the play progresses; an accumulation of affecting experiences towers giving an emotional resonance to a political issue and the frightening view of who we are as an Australian society is further imposed on us. Stolen demonstrates a frightening view of who we are through the utilization of multi-role playing. The play is performed by 5 actors who, in addition to the roles – Anne, Sandy, Shirley, Jimmy and Ruby, take on the following roles (sometimes merely as voices offstage): * Sandy’s mum, cousin, aunt, aunty, uncle * Anne’s adopted father and mother * Jimmy’s mother, Nancy Wajurri * Voices of authority, angry voice – vulgarity SCENE RACIST INSULTS between Jimmy and voice * â€Å"Voice: [off] dirty nig-nog depending on govt. ha ndouts†¦bloody nigger, drinking away your dole cheque†¦ Jimmy: Genocidal maniac, killing and raping and stealing our women and children†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Expressing the anguish and pain endured in victims of the policy and injustice imposed upon the Stolen Generation * Retelling of the immeasurable injustice done to the Indigenous Australians and stereotyping them to beings that result to acts as an after effect of the policy * Distances audience from the play so they can picture the message that underpins the play * Gets audience to reflect on the actions of Australia historically and how frightening we are Stolen demonstrates a frightening view of who we are through the utilisation of multi-role playing. The play is performed by five actors who, in addition to the roles, Annie, Sandy, Shirley, Jimmy and Ruby, take on the following roles which are sometimes merely voices offstage: Sandy’s mum, cousin, aunt, uncle, Anne’s adopted father and mother, Jimmy’s mother Nancy Wajurri, and the voices of authority which in the scene ‘Racist Insults’ present to us a frightening view of who we are. The vulgarity in the conversation between Jimmy and the voice, â€Å"Voice: [off] dirty nig-nog depending on government handouts†¦bloody nigger, drinking away your dole cheque†¦Jimmy: Genocidal maniac, killing and raping and stealing our women and children†¦Ã¢â‚¬  expresses the anguish and pain endured in victims of the policy and the injustice imposed upon the Stolen Generation. It is a retelling of the immeasurable injustice done to the Indigenous Australians and stereotyping them to beings that result to acts as an after-effect of the policy. The inclusion of multi-role playing distances the audience from the play so that they can picture the message that underpins the play and coerces the audience to reflect on the actions of Australia historically and how frightening we are. Symbolism was extensively used throughout Stolen to portray a frightening view of who we are. * Filing cabinet – represent bureaucratic letters and documents that controlled and regimented the children’s lives, but could not be accessed by them. Even today some people have not seen w/e controlled their childhoods * Beds – signified the institutions where the children were kept. There was a regimented way to make them, and a strict inventory of linen and bed clothes. The beds were moved about the performance space, to symbolize how the children were not permitted to settle or rest. Our beds should be places of security and relaxation, but in Stolen they were charged with uncertainty, fear and institutionalization. * Ringing of bell – symbolized strict authority in the homes and missions, summoning the children to classes, meals or to line up for inspections. In the original production the bell was rung to call children to be viewed for prospective adoption or a weekend visit with a white family. For some children this led to abuse * Suitcases – symbol with each character carrying a suitcase to represent their journey and the ‘baggage’ of their lives, their history and their stories. At the beginning of the performance each actor entered with a suitcase. At the end, once the set had been dismantled, they exited, again carrying a suitcase to signify that their journey was not yet finished * Allows audience to question the reason behind it and unravel the frightening view of who we are Symbolism was extensively used thought Stolen to portray a frightening view of who we are. This is evident in the props utilised in the production consisting of the filing cabinet, beds and the suitcases. In the Sydney Theatre Workshop, they used a filing cabinet as a quick scene transition, this represents the bureaucratic letter and documents that controlled and regimented the children’s lives, but could not be accessed by them. In the workshop, they only used on bed which was moved around the stage, the beds signified the institutions where the children were kept. There was a regimented way to make them, and a strict inventory of linen and bed clothes. The bed was moved about the performance space to symbolise how the children were not permitted to settle or rest. Our beds should be places of security and relaxation, but in Stolen they were charged with uncertainty, fear and institutionalisation. Although the workshop did not emphasise the suitcases, it acted as a symbol with each character carrying suitcase to represent their journey and the ‘baggage’ of their lives, their history and their story. These props used allow us, as the audience, to question the reason behind it and unravel the frightening view of who we are.

Essay For Applying Scholarship - How to Write an Essay For Scholarships

Essay For Applying Scholarship - How to Write an Essay For ScholarshipsWhen you are applying for scholarships or fellowships, the first thing that you should be concerned about is your essay. It should be carefully crafted and should be able to provide a complete picture of who you are and what you have to offer to the university. But how do you know what kind of essay to write? Here are some tips to help you out.Writing your essay is similar to writing someone else's essay. The biggest difference is that yours will not be from the comfort of your own home. You will be answering an admissions essay question that needs to be read in an admissions office. You are going to be judged on every aspect of your application, not just your accomplishments.One of the most basic things to remember when writing your essay is to write a well-written summary. In this section, you should be providing a quick synopsis of your academic career. If you don't have much time, just be sure to give some inf ormation about your grade point average (GPA), any awards or recognitions that you may have won, and any honors that you may have received. These can help with your entire essay.One of the biggest pitfalls of essay writing is the writing style. As with all writing, there are several different styles of writing, but you need to choose one that fits your intended audience. For example, if you are applying for scholarship money, you should use a standard essay format. The topic of your essay should be very clear and you should make sure to introduce yourself and the details of your personal story.Since you are writing for the admissions officer, it is important to do some research and to become familiar with the rules of grammar and writing skills. If you aren't, ask for help from someone at the college that you are applying to. Also, be sure to answer the questions completely and honestly.It is important to remember that this is a chance to share yourself and that you should use your application as a chance to show a student what you can offer. Instead of saying, 'I am terrible at math' you could instead say, 'I used the opportunity I was given to get into college and get a higher education.' You want to make sure that you answer the admissions questions accurately and that you are presenting yourself in the best light possible.Keep in mind that the writing style of the essay for applying scholarship sample will vary between college and university. If you are still undecided about what type of essay to write, take the time to read over samples of what other applicants have written. You can also browse through websites like College Confidential to get ideas for how to write an essay for scholarships.Remember that the essay for applying scholarship sample will be a large part of your application. However, if you do not have a lot of time to create a truly impressive essay, there are free resources online that can help you. If you need to speak with a professional writer or someone who can help you make the transition to this type of essay, it would be a good idea to contact a company that specializes in writing on a budget.

Childrens fairy tales Essays

Childrens fairy tales Essays Childrens fairy tales Essay Childrens fairy tales Essay The Pardonner and the Summoner are the last two portraits in the prologue and perhaps two of the most interesting. They appear to be not only partners in work but also in a homosexual relationship. The bond is strong and they are open about their affections; on the journey they sing a love song together, and rather loudly too! Ful loude he soong come hider, love to me! / this the Summoner bar to him a stif burdoun. They are both quite similar in their visage, both being relatively ugly, and yet at the same time they have something about them of the fascination of the incongruous in childrens fairy tales. A Summoner was a person appointed to bring the ecclesiastical courts to those who transgressed against the laws of the church. The position offered many chances for corruption and abuse of power, and we see that this Summoner readily indulges in doing so. In Chaucers era the face told many tales and was reflective of inner character. We see almost immediately that the Summoners face epitomises his inner torment and struggle with morality. The reference to his fyr reed cherrubinnes face reminds us hells fire and therefore symbolises his lecherous nature. The ironic juxtaposition of fyr reed and cherrunbinnes highlights the darker side of his personality. The description of the Pardonner is equally as repelling. His hair is as yelow as wex,,/But smothe it heeng as dooth a strike of flex hanging in greasy rats tails, his eyes narrow and these, coupled with an unbroken voice and boyish complexion, appear inappropriate for a grown man and force the Pardonner to cover his inadequacies by pretending to be a stylish, homosexual, young man. Both men work for the church, and both exploit people to the full. The Summoner is prepared, if adequately bribed, to condone most offences, as he believes money is more important than the excommunication that the courts can give, purs is the ercedekenes helle. For only a quart of wine he will permit the priests to have a mistress, in fact he will allow almost anything; for the right price! We can overlook nearly all of this as most sins no longer punishable in todays society, but perhaps the most chilling and disturbing aspect to his character is that he has the girles1 in his diocese at his mercy. After hearing of his lecherous nature we wonder just what this man does with these young people. The Pardonner, like the Summoner, earns his living through deceiving people. Pardonners were sellers of Papal indulgences, whereby a sinner could buy penance; but this Pardonner earns extra money to that which he gains selling penances; he sells relikes. A pilwe-beer which he claims is the veil of the Virgin Mary, pigges bones masquerading as those of a saint, fragments of the sail and a cheap cross and with these and feyened flaterie and japes,/ He made the person and the people his apes. Perhaps, howver, the ultimate irony is that this loathsome creature is extremely convincing in church But trewely to tellen at laste,/ he was in chirche a noble ecclesiate. In writing the portrait of the Summoner, Chaucer appears to be flattering the man when he is in fact his scathing satire is reaching new intensities. When describing the Pardonner, on the other hand, Chaucer is openly hostile. One source claims that this si so that we can empathise with his spiritual sterility, but in my opinion Chaucer merely created a character to be totally loathed and detested. The Friar is third ecclesiast in the prologue and the last of the trio of deviants who set their desires against the ordained patterns of behaviour. Of all of them, the Friar is by far the worst. This Friar, like others, has moved form being an itinerant teacher and defender of the faith, to being an exploiter of the poor and a parasite on the community. Perhaps Chaucer was trying to warn us when he opened the portrait by describing the Friar as a wantowne and a merie,/ A limatour, a ful solempne man. These adjectives seem to have been randomly thrown together by Chaucer and in fact this sort of moral chaos is perfectly fitting for the Friar. He hadde maad ful many a marriage/ Of yonge wommen at his owene cost. This altruistic gesture seems more in keeping with the duties of a devoted Friar, but I discovering his lecherous nature the gesture begs the question why? The Friar is not selfless and we wonder what was in it for him? It becomes apparent that these marriages are merely a despicable front, a way of offloading his own sexual mistakes and a means of allowing him to negate responsibility for his actions. Unto his ordre he was a noble post, This is heavily ironic as we find it hard to conceive that this man is the pillar of any community. Chaucers use of adverbs such as sweetly and plesaunt only serve to highlight the sarcastic and ironic tone of this portrait. The Friar abuses his power of confession He was an esy man to yeve penaunce, /Ther as he wiste to have a good pitaunce which is a great contrast to the Parson who would snibben sharply for the nonis any man who transgressed, regardless of his social position.

The Pyschology of Everday Life . 2000 word portfolio consisting of the Essay

The Pyschology of Everday Life . 2000 word portfolio consisting of the following Assesment 1 - Applying psychology to ever - Essay Example In today’s material and media driven society, it has become important to have a fit and shapely body if one is to enjoy a healthy self image. Hence, currently the goal of my life is to reduce weight and to achieve a desired shape with the help of exercise and healthy diet. However, it is not as easy as it seems. After referring to different studies in the field of psychology, ayurveda and spirituality, I realized that being overweight is not just a physical problem. The tendency of overeating and accumulating fats lies in the psychological and emotional make up of a person. This means that if one has to achieve a perfect weight and a shapely body, then one has to change not only the eating habits but also the psychological aspects of the personality. Hence, to become a happier person in life, what is more important than reducing weight is to gain a healthy self image, emotional clarity and peaceful relationship with ‘self’, because one can achieve happiness only w hen one is at peace with the ‘self.’ The Root Of Problem Happiness is the most important aspect of a fulfilling life. People feel worthy and content only when they are happy with themselves. Sadly, instead of attaching happiness with the internal feelings and personality, it is related to appreciation, social success and social acceptance. Hence, people become happy only when they get appreciated and accepted by people around them. However, this leads to a major problem as it makes people depend on others for their happiness. Instead of doing things that make them happy, people start following the goals and ‘living standards’ that are set by others for them. This leads to misery and self destructive behavior pattern (Chopra, 1994, p. 42). Genuine physical beauty and emotional happiness can be achieved only when a person practices self-acceptance (Chopra, 1994, p. 42). However, self-acceptance does not come easily. The idea of ‘perfect life’ and ‘perfect body’ is shaped by the television and print media and not on the basis of self knowledge. However, it is necessary to understand that every human being is unique and hence, has a unique body and mind system (Chopra, 1994, p. 18). If a person tries to copy other people’s weight pattern or food habits, then he becomes vulnerable to losing his individuality and health. Hence, the healthier way to reduce weight is to understand the root cause of the problem and try to treat it rather than trying to reduce the weight only through exercise and diet. However, to analyze and understand the root of the problem, it is necessary to look at the problem through the psychological perspective. The problem of me being overweight is not a recent one. I have observed that this is an intermittent problem since my childhood. I have never been an obese child. However, I do have a tendency to gain weight when I go through stressful situations in life. This might be because I also tend to eat when I am tense or feel emotionally closed. This shows that it is my emotional pattern that makes me to eat unhealthy food and become overweight as I am not able to control binging on fast food. Hence, my problem is emotional based and not body based (Chopra, 2004, p.103). It has been found that for people who are emotionally dissatisfied and unhappy, ‘food’ becomes a source of satisfaction and happiness (Chopra, 2004, p.103). The habit of binging and overeating comes from the feeling of emptiness in the

Paris in 1792 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Paris in 1792 - Essay Example The events of this year thus, also heralded a new form of governance, complete democracy as the major form of governance. Even though democracy was followed in varying degrees in many parts of Europe, it was the French Revolution that gave the impetus for its establishment as the sole form of government acceptable to the people of a nation. As is the case with any historic event, the actual event is preceded by a build up consisting of mounting tensions, resentment and dissatisfaction on the part of certain communities. The involvement of the French government in the American Revolution and the huge expenditure that this interference had cost had created widespread dissatisfaction among the middle classes of France, who felt that this expenditure was needless and could have been avoided, had the government been more astute in the evaluation of the situation. The refusal of the nobility to have helped out the government had meant that an unfair share of the taxes required for the expe nses were extorted out of the bourgeoisie. This bred a lot of resentment amongst them, not only against the monarch, Louis XVI, but also against the nobility of France. France’s unsuccessful attempts to defeat England in war had also placed a heavy burden upon the exchequer that fell largely upon the French bourgeoisie whose standards of living dipped drastically. The constitution of the National assembly, a body of people who were picked out of the middle classes was an important development during the year of 1792. This led to an understanding on the part of both the king and the bourgeoisie of the power of a collective. Michael David Sibalis remarks upon this understanding of the power of the collective as an outcome of the class-consciousness that had seeped into the minds of the middle classes of France, as is seen in the emergence of â€Å"mutual aid societies† in Paris before 1789. These societies enabled the mobilization of the masses during the constitution of middle class citizens during the creation of the National Assembly that was created for the purpose of the creation of a national constitution for France that would invest the bourgeoisie with more powers that it had till then. This constitution of the National Assembly represents, for Sibalis, an attempt on the part of the Parisian middle classes to â€Å"provide themselves with some minimal economic security through their own efforts† (http://fh.oxfordjournals.org/content/3/1/1.extract). Many of these efforts were frustrated by later events of the Revolution but the events of 1789 displayed a passion and fervor on the part of the Parisian middle classes to rise above their petty divisions and fight for the causes of equality that the French Revolution stands for, even today. The fight was also against what Barry M. Shapiro refers to as an â€Å"irrational and inhumane judicial system† (Barry M. Shapiro, Revolutionary Justice in Paris, 1789-1790, ix) that refused to treat every subject of the state equally. The embodiment of this passion and fervor and one of the turning points of the revolution, according to historians like Eric Hobsbawm, was the storming of the Bastille on the morning of the fourteenth of July in 1789 (Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of

Should the Government Intervent Tax Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Should the Government Intervent Tax - Essay Example Hence the government, in my view, should intervene through tax rates to keep the economy and society controlled. Government intervention through tax rates is of paramount importance when negative externalities are to be dealt with. The market consists of two types of goods, public and private. Private goods are associated to the concept of excludability, referring to the exclusion of people from the benefits of a product or service that do not pay for it. On the other hand, public good is non-excludable and benefits the entire population regardless of their non-payment. Free-riding issue arises in this situation leading to chaos and dissatisfaction toward those counterparts of the society who are not contributing enough to the society compared to the benefits they are receiving (for instance healthcare and security/defense facilities for tax-evaders or undocumented immigrants in some cases). Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) has contributed to the knowledge by revealing that undocumented immigrants can be a major source of tax earnings if they are permitted legally to work in th e US and would end up increasing the tax contribution by about $2 billion per year (ITEP, 2015). Government must intervene by changing tax rates to control consumer demands. By increasing tax rates, the government may reduce the disposable income and hence reduce the consumer demand. Similarly, if it wants to increase consumer demand, generally or specifically for certain goods and services, subsidies can be provided and/or tax on that particular product/service can be reduced. Hence, tax rates on specific products, services or industries as well as taxes on individuals and specific population groups can both help governments to keep harmony in the economy. The government calls funds from the local economy by taxing general public and businesses. These funds are then

Missile Defense System is Useless Against Terrorists Essay -- Septembe

A Missile Defense System is Useless Against Terrorists Donald Rumsfeld, was confirmed as Secretary of Defense with barely a whimper from the media. Rumsfeld's career in public service has been a lengthy one including serving as a former ambassador to NATO, a Congressman, and Secretary of Defense under the Ford administration from 1975 to 1977. But Rumsfeld's claim to fame is that he headed a 1998 Congressional panel that identified a growing threat of ballistic missile attack from rogue nations such as North Korea, Iraq, and Iran. Identifying the possibility of a real threat in the next five years, the report endorsed the development of a ballistic missile defense system to protect the U.S. from such attacks. America should want to protect itself from rogue nations bent on wreaking havoc. Who doesn't want to raise a shield against the mistakes and intentions of a dangerous world? But aside from the fact that most of the intelligence community believes that such a threat does not exist and will not for at least fifteen years, there is also one serious problem with a national missile defense system: It doesn't work. In the last two decades alone, the United States government has invested over $130 billion on Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" dream. With Bush at the helm, the U.S. appears poised to invest billions more. What has $130 billion and the valuable time of the military-industry complex given us? A system that is unable to reliably shoot a single, low-speed missile out of the sky. Nothing suggests that this system will work. The optimism exhibited by its advocates distorts the truth. The military has had to admit that the Patriot missile defense system, which was initially her... ...ses the treaty as "ancient history." At a time when Russia is becoming increasingly angry with the U.S.'s imperialist actions ‚ so much that they have threatened to withdraw from future arms control talks ‚ the last thing the U.S. should do is make an enemy out of a nation with one of the world's largest nuclear stockpiles. There are many serious threats to national security that demand our attention. In the post-Cold War era, the answers are complicated and require careful consideration. Unfortunately, Rumsfeld and the Bush administration have chosen a winning political sound byte which fails miserably in real life. We should focus on worldwide arms reduction. If Rumsfeld has his way, we may live in a far more dangerous world of anxious nuclear powers that engage in offensive-defensive arms races and keep their fingers on the nuclear button.