Gmreview spring 2014 online

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M I S S I O N S TAT E M E N T The mission of The George Mason Review is to capture Mason’s spirit, where “innovation is tradition,” through the publication of diverse works from across the curriculum. The George Mason Review, a publication for undergraduates by undergraduates, seeks scholarship that demonstrates creativity and critical thought.

In its print and virtual form, this cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary journal features exemplary academic work and welcomes submissions that challenge the boundaries of how scholarship has traditionally been defined.

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SUBMISSIONS Submissions are welcome during our review period from September 01 to March 15. We accept research writing, literary critiques or analyses, creative nonfiction, and all other forms of scholarship. Please submit your work electronically at: http://gmreview.gmu.edu Because The George Mason Review is an undergraduate journal, each submission is reviewed by at least two of your peers. Each submission undergoes a two-tiered review: First it is evaluated by the GMR peer review staff, which consists of peer reviewers from across all disciplines. If accepted by the peer review staff, it will then be reviewed by the GMR editorial board, which consists of our editor-inchief, assistant editor, and graduate advisor. More information can be found on our website.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This volume would not have been possible without the extraordinary efforts of the following people:

B OA R D M E M B E R S Namita Paul Dawar Aziz Zareen Raza Afreen Habib Sarah E. Baker Jennifer Messier

Editor-in-Chief Assistant Editor Marketing Director Graphic/Web Director Faculty Advisor Graduate Advisor

PEER REVIEWERS Aiya Al-Beyati, Arpitha Banaji, Dana Moon, Francis Aguisanda, Husna Aziz, Jenny Nguyen, Kiara Mays, Maria Nasir, Refka Al-Beyati, and Tameem Aziz

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A

TA B L E O F CONTENTS

PREFACE

7

Namita Paul

GUEST ESSAY

10

Peter N. Stearns

A NEW DYNAMIC TO THE MOVIE-MAKING INDUSTRY

18

Brett Melnick – Best Submission

THE DREAM OF THE ROOD AND MEDIEVAL CROSS VENERATION IN CONTEXT

26

Brooke Thomas

CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM

34

Connor Noh

MATHEMATICAL SCALING LAWS APPLIED TO CITY GROWTH Jacob Rupe

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38

48

THE REAL AMERICAN DREAM Lindsay Kroboth

56

SAMSARA Joshua Adams

A SHARED EXPERIENCE: THE LINK BETWEEN LANGUAGE & BEAUTY

60

Holly Tupper

UNSEEN BYSTANDER

66

Jade L. Kirkland

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE MODELS OF JUSTICE IN THE U.S. IN A GANG MURDER CASE

68

Luis Alonso Espino

SOURCES

84

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PREFACE

NOTE FROM THE EDITOR I would like to sincerely thank the Office of Student Media for giving me this opportunity to be the Editor-in-Chief of The George Mason Review (GMR).

I would also like to thank The George Mason Review team, Dawar (Assistant Editor), Zareen (Marketing Director), Afreen (Graphic/Web Designer) and all the Peer Reviewers for their efforts and dedication. I could not have done this without their support. Also, I would like to thank the Faculty Advisor and Graduate Advisor for their support and guidance. What makes GMR unique is the fact that it is a cross-disciplinary undergraduate journal. We not only accept articles from all disciplines but also we have a very diverse team who come from various backgrounds.

Through the publication of exemplary scholarly works, the George Mason Review acts as a medium for discussion among us — The George Mason undergraduate body — about scholarship. It seeks to re-vision scholarship by exploring and challenging the boundaries separating disciplines from each other — the humanities from the sciences, and the academic from the creative. In doing so, the George Mason Review hopes to represent the academic excellence of the Mason undergraduate body. This journey of being the editor gave me the opportunity to get involved with Mason students other than the ones from my classes. I would highly recommend undergraduate students at Mason to be a part of GMR by being a team member or being a contributor. Working with GMR for the past two years as a Peer Reviewer and then as the Editor-in-Chief has been an enriching experience for me and I am looking forward to be a part of this journal again.

Namita Paul

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G U E S T E S S AY

PETER N. STEARNS Provost George Mason University Dr. Stearns has been Provost and Professor of History at George Mason University since January 1, 2000; he was named University Professor in January 2011. He has taught previously at Harvard (where he was educated), the University of Chicago, Rutgers, and Carnegie Mellon. During Dr. Stearns’ tenure as Provost, George Mason has more than tripled its level of funded research and has tripled its number of doctoral programs. Expanding global partnerships include a growing number of dual degree programs and connections with students and universities in countries like Brazil, China, Russia, South Korea and Turkey. In March 2012, George Mason University launched a Global Problem Solving Consortium with several distinguished international partners.

A prolific writer, Dr. Stearns has authored or edited more than 125 books and published hundreds of scholarly articles. Dr. Stearns’ work has dramatically shaped the complex field of social history and he has published widely across a diverse range of topics including modern social history, the history of emotions, gender identity, obesity, childhood, consumerism, and world history. Since 1967 he has served as editor-in-chief of The Journal of Social History.

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WHY DO HISTORY? I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with my discipline. I’ve been a historian for over half a century. I didn’t intend to major in the subject in college — my father was a historian and I wanted a slightly different focus. But I didn’t like my intro political science course and did take to the history survey, and off I went.

In many ways I don’t regret the choice, although I wonder sometimes if I would have enjoyed psychology even more (I had a great course in the subject when I was a senior, but by that point didn’t feel ready to reconsider my history commitment).

What I do consistently enjoy is finding ways to consider the human condition — the various ways that people do what they do — and actually history is a great entry point for this. The discipline has allowed me to explore all sorts of topics, from initially somewhat narrow subjects in French history, my initial specialty, to a growing array of subjects, ranging from changing modern conditions of old age, to dieting and obesity in France and the U.S., to the history of peace. I’ve rarely been bored.

There are, however, aspects of the way my discipline is often practiced that worry me. I have to be a bit careful here: I’m talking about my own reactions, and I may certainly be wrong. A number of really intelligent colleagues would surely disagree with me.

Here, nevertheless, is my list of concerns, mainly revolving around the ways many historians choose their topics and the kind of audiences they aim at. Too many historians, in my view, get overexcited about uncovering some fairly narrow bits of new data — a new set of letters, for example, from a second-level politician, and spend far too much time trying to spin out their significance. Too many historians jump on a faddish bandwagon and add fairly repetitious case studies to an alreadylarge list — this is what an anthropologist friend used to call “fillagap” history. An example: even though feminist activity has been studied in many cities in the early 20th century, there has not been an examination of the subject in Topeka, Kansas, so I’m going to devote several years to adding Topekan feminism to the list. (A couple of decades ago working class history was all the rage, and what had been a truly path breaking topic turned into one repetitious local account after another, particularly in the UK, but to some extent in the US as well.) Or the topic is frankly not really new at all, but a rehash of a subject that had been pretty thoroughly researched in the past; the only real excuse is that the relevant books have gone out of print. So one gets another biography of an American statesman, without really new data, or another review of a Civil War battle.

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These kinds of topic choices lead to the real problem: that historians spend an undue amount of time writing for audiences of other historians, because frankly no one else is likely to be interested. Most disciplines suffer from this problem to some degree, and it is in fact important to subject one’s work to the judgment of specialists, lest one play fast and loose with interpretations. But, in my judgment, historians overdo the impulse to talk mainly to each other. Measurably, the discipline becomes more and more specialized: take a look (if you’re having trouble sleeping) at the programs of many professional history conferences if you don’t believe me.

Even worse (and this problem is not new), a disproportionate number of the really exciting theories about significant patterns in the past come, not from historians, but from outside the discipline, from scientists or sociologists who dare to use historical data to form challenging propositions about historical change. Historians then jump in to criticize and refine (which are important functions), but they tend to be inhibited by their narrow criteria from producing the big statements in the first place. There are a few exceptions to this claim — the recent emergence of the self-proclaimed Big History might be a case in point — but they are very few.

So this is the “hate” side of my relationship to the discipline. I deeply believe that many of my historian colleagues need to be encouraged to take bigger intellectual risks, to cover longer rather than shorter time periods, to be willing to compare different societies rather than sticking to one national or regional specialty; and above all, to seek topics that are newer, that reflect in some cases a more active desire to use historical data to shed light on a current problem or trend.

But remember, it’s a love-hate relationship, and there is still lots to love. Further, we’re currently in a time where history (with the humanities generally) is under some attack, when more and more support for higher education and research goes to those areas that seem clearly relevant to economic development and getting a first job. So while I do think that historians can benefit from some self-examination, and particularly from a greater commitment to addressing larger problems, we must be careful not to throw the history baby out with the overspecialized bath.

There are at least four things to treasure in historical research, and there are many current and active examples of all four.

First, historical research helps keep things honest. Human beings inevitably and properly refer to the past, because we have no comparable data base about the way societies operate. But many people deliberately or unwittingly distort the past, claiming some past pattern to justify a current political stance; or conveniently forgetting about some aspect of the past in order to make a contemporary argument more convenient. Historians are here to correct. We’re trained to be suspicious of facile assertions. We are vital, in fact, as a discipline to critical 12 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

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thinking or coming up with complexities and counterarguments. We can and should be frequently annoying.

Second, some familiar historical issues do need to be rehearsed to make them more relevant to contemporary concerns. I earlier criticized too many rehashes of Founding Father biographies, and I won’t recant on that. But I do freely admit that we often find out new things about the past because of contemporary developments, and reopening the analysis contributes to a better understanding both of past and present. (Example: the significant recasting of our historical approach to China, predicated in part on China’s emergence as a major economic power.)

Third, historians do contribute to discussions of big issues. One of the great discoveries in one of my areas of interest (and I had nothing to do with it, simply have benefited from working it into larger interpretations) is the realization that clearly modern forms of consumerism emerged 150 years before most people used to imagine. Instead of being a product of industrialization, opening up only from the late 19th century onward, it clearly blossomed in several places by the 18th century.

This means that one of the most important phenomena of contemporary life — consumer motivations and passions — needs to be explained on very different bases, and from this we shed new light on of the key issues in our own society. Or historians can introduce big comparisons, as in looking at patterns of Brazilian and American race relations over time. Or they can give us great insights into societies — like sub-Saharan Africa — whose pasts until recently were misleadingly ignored; or into phenomena — like the Arab spring placed against the longer history of modern revolutions — that we need to try to understand today. Again, I freely admit that most historians don’t specifically address these bigger topics themselves, except as they explore them in the classroom, but the number of ambitious treatments are not small. And they result in a better understanding of a whole host of issues that we need to tackle not just for the sake of grasping the past, but to gain better understanding of the world around us today. Historical perspective matters.

Finally, and this is what I personally particularly cherish, history opens new subjects; it is not confined to your father’s topic list. And in the process it contributes actively to the way we grasp current issues, and sometimes even to the ways we might seek to resolve problems. Want to know why the decline of trade unions in the United States may matter? Take a look at the history of work from the early industrial revolution to today. Want to know why some smells disgust us, that people used to take for granted or even enjoy? Then explore the vibrant new field of the history of the senses. Want to know why anorexia nervosa relates to contemporary family relationships, and not just skinny fashion models? Then go back to the origins and original causes of the modern phenomenon, 150 years ago.

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The scope here is vast — and I haven’t even mentioned my own favorite field, the history of emotion, which has blossomed into a huge historical endeavor — and it expands constantly. History is not confined to going over and over the same areas, and chopping them into smaller and smaller bits. At its best, it innovates recurrently, and we know more about the human condition as a result.

So we need history, which means that like it or not we need historians.

Inaccuracies about the past can hurt us. Ignorance of the perspectives of historical analysis can bring to newer topics that can constrain us. Historical research at its best produces data that are not only interesting but useful; critical insights that help keep us honest; big pictures that challenge us to think about our own society and place in the world, even our own lives, in new ways. The best research in the field — to use the currently popular phrase at Mason — is “of consequence”. We need more of it, not less.

And finally, for those readers in other disciplines: let’s make sure we urge all researchers, and not just historians, to evaluate their own research styles, to highlight the strengths but ponder possible limitations as well. What could we all be doing better?

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BEST SUBMISSION

A NEW DYNAMIC TO THE MOVIE-MAKING INDUSTRY

BRETT MELNICK Film and Video Studies Class of 2016

ABOUT THE WORK A New Dynamic to the Movie-Making Industry, talks about the marketing scheme of major Hollywood studios to attract a large audience, and ultimately make a large return on investment. This strategy is known as the “Tentpole Approach,” and is becoming more and more prevalent in filmmaking today.

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Watching movies has been a norm in our western culture since the beginning of the 20th century, when the first movie theaters were created in the United States.

Since those days, it has become normal to drive to the nearest theater with your friends on a Friday night, and escape from reality for ninety-minutes to two-hours, in order to experience the newest action film or Oscar contender on the 30 by 70 foot screen hanging against the red-carpet wall.

While the actual experience of watching movies in theaters has not changed much over the years, the business behind the movies themselves has changed dramatically since film’s early conception. Focused primarily on the return on their investment, Major studios such as: Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers Pictures have been relying less on the success of several lower budget films each year. Instead, these major studios have begun to invest large amounts of money in one or two films a year, in hopes of creating a brand for their film and developing a franchise that will provide a large return on investment. This model is known as the “tentpole” approach, and can be seen in practice through film franchises like Iron Man, Harry Potter, and The Hunger Games. While still relatively new, the prevalence of the tentpole approach may forever change the movie-going experience and prevent many low-budget independent films from being produced.

The logic behind the tentpole approach of movie making is explained best in “Determinants of return on Investment within Hollywood Films”, by Jake Shifman.

Shifman examines the movie making industry, and attempts to find the factors that create films that are successful in both the domestic and international markets.

Shifman’s research reveals that, prior to a film’s release (also known as “ex ante”), the major internal factors that indicate the success of a film are: budget, star power, MPAA rating, previous attendance, season of release, and, critical review (Shifman 9). Shifman writes that, “Movies that are in production must be able to generate predictions of revenue, and the better understanding [production companies] have of ex ante indicators, the more accurate are their accounting” (Shifman 9).

While major studios include each of these factors into their tentpole films, the most relevant category to predicting the success of tentpole films is the previous attendance, also known as “original gross revenue” (Shifman 23). Shifman explains that the category of original gross revenue can apply only to sequels of already existing films, and that studies that focus on film revenues have unanimously determined that a film with a pre-existing audience will attain a much more significant overall profit than a film that does not (Shifman 23). This is a major reason as to why studios acquire the rights to well-known and well-respected serialized books such as Harry Potter or The Hunger Games and adapt them into films. This is also VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 19

why studios have produced so many superhero films over the last few years. The episodic comic books from which the superheroes originate already have a wellknown story attached to them, and have a pre-existing audience. Studios also know that if the original adapted film is successful, their audience will hope to see a movie of each novel in its series. Knowing this, studios put large amounts of money into fictional hero films, hoping that the money generated from the film’s success will enable them to create films for the rest of the series. Shifman explains this concept further when he says, “Studios that not only see the success of an original as merit for a sequel, but merit for an entire franchise will invest incredibly heavily on each subsequent follow up” (Shifman 23). Studios create the film knowing that, if the film is successful, the franchise will stay alive. With an already successful prequel, and a pre-existing audience, studios know that the sequel will generate a large profit. Accordingly, studios feel safe, and find very little need to invest into a film that has no pre-existing audience.

In addition to the advantages that successful tentpole films can bring in terms of box office revenue, they find profit in secondary markets. This is explained further in Tony Lisanti’s article in License Magazine, entitled The Tentpole Approach.

Lisanti writes about how tentpole films are expanding outside of theaters, and are becoming universal brands for products found in multiple retail chains. Listanti explains that: “Since the release of Marvel’s Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Thor films, the original five-year game plan…has focused on slowly building the Avengers franchise character by character into a dominant yearround boys’ brand that also has the potential to expand beyond its core audience.”

(Lisanti 2) Disney, which owns the rights to the Marvel superheroes, plans to release several Avengers, and other superhero films over the next couple of years, with the intent to keep the image of its brand alive- and make a lot of money. The studio also has plans to keep interest in the brand alive throughout the year, even when a superhero film is not in theaters, by releasing brand related: animated television shows; digital online shorts; and publications (such as novels, or comic books). These unique branding opportunities, in addition to licensing deals with toy companies like LEGO and Hasbro, have been able to attract young boys and teens to the Avengers franchise in an array of outlets.

In order to reach outside of the target demographic, and attract an older audience to their film and related products, Lisanti writes that Disney has created a partnership with Forever 21 to create apparel featuring retro and old comic style art. The aim of partnerships like these is to create and sell apparel that will appeal to people in the 18 – 34 age range, who either have read those retro-styled comics in the 20 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

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past, or find the retro-artistic style of the clothing fashionable. Other partnerships with companies such as Under Armour, Vans, and Burton Skateboarding, also hope to target the older audience, and make the Avengers come off as more interesting and more contemporary (Lisanti 3).

Lisanti concludes his article by explaining that the first Avengers film generated 1.5 billion dollars worldwide, and that other superhero films within the franchise, such as Iron Man 3, have been just as successful by making 1.1 billion dollars worldwide in only one month of release. In addition, “On the licensing side of the business, the Marvel franchises represent $6 billion in retail sales of licensed merchandise worldwide in 2011” (Lisanti 3). The marketing of merchandise, partnered with television programs, comic books, video games, and live events have: kept awareness and interest in the Avengers alive throughout the year; and, guaranteed a pre-existing audience for the studio’s newest superhero film.

The Avengers (Feige, 2012), a Walter Disney Pictures film that came out in 2012, is a recent example of a tentpole movie in the film industry. The film centers around a group of superheroes, and their cohesion with a law enforcement and espionage agency called S.H.I.E.L.D., to stop evil super-villain Loki from destroying New York City and opening a wormhole that will ultimately allow him to take over the world. The Avengers very strongly support the revenue earning theory that Jake Shifman raises in “Determinants on return to Investment within Hollywood Films”, as it implements several ex ante indicators Shifman cites such as: budget; star power; and original gross revenue (Shifman 9).

The first major factor Shifman cites is budget. With its 220 million dollar budget, The Avengers was able to cast successful crew members such as writer Zak Penn- who wrote previous superhero films such as Fantastic Four (Arad, 2005) and X-Men: The Last Stand (Schuler Donner, 2006)- and director Joss Whedon, who created popular television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Whedon, 1997) and Firefly (Whedon, 2002) (“Marvel’s The Avengers”). With a large budget, the film was also able to afford expensive special effects, such as creating an entire computer animated army of alien villains, and incorporating several large explosions to believably make it appear as if New York City had been completely destroyed (Feige, 2012).

Secondly, The Avengers’ leveraged star power to achieve success. While there are many different ways to measure an actor’s “star power”, Shifman claims that an actor is considered a “star” based on the actor’s rating on the Harris Poll list of favorite movie stars, and whether the actor has been nominated for a People’s Choice Award (PCA) (Shifman 17). The Avengers film followed these criteria by featuring many well-known “stars” in lead roles, such as: Robert Downey Jr. VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 21

(nominated for ten PCAs) as superhero Iron Man; Scarlett Johansson (nominated for four PCAs) as superhero Black Widow; and Samuel L. Jackson (nominated for two PCAs) as agent Nick Fury (“The Avengers: Awards”). By incorporating many well-known “stars” into its film, the studio was able to create a face for its film, and bring in additional publicity in celebrity tabloids.

Finally, The Avenger’s previous attendance, or original gross revenue, predicted its box office success. The Avengers successfully pulled in a large preexisting audience, as the film is centered on Marvel characters from preexisting films. The film features the superheroes: Iron Man, from the film Iron Man (Arad and Feige, 2008); Captain America, from the film Captain America: The First Avenger (Feige, 2011); Thor, from the movie Thor (Feige, 2011); and Hulk, from the film The Incredible Hulk (Arad, Feige, and Hurd, 2008). By adding these hero characters from each successful film into one major sequel, the film may better guarantee drawing an audience from each preexisting film.

The Avengers was also extremely successful at drawing an audience due to its ability to, as previously expressed in Tony Lisanti’s article, The Tentpole Approach, partner up with successful companies in secondary markets, and create a larger brand for itself. A strong example of this in the film is the consistent exposure to superhero suits and logos. Each superhero is identified with a unique costume or logo throughout the film. For instance: Captain America identifies himself with a red white and blue colored star and shield; Thor identifies himself with a large hammer; and Iron Man identifies himself with his red and yellow suit (Feige, 2012).

Each of these unique items appeals to different audience member, and fans of the superheroes will want to copy the internal and external characteristics, and positive qualities of their favorite characters. By partnering with popular brands like Forever 21, studios produce and distribute t-shirts and other apparel with superhero logos to advertise their logo. This allows the public to be more personally invested into their favorite characters, and have more interest in watching the film in which their favorite fictional characters appear.

With the success of Disney’s marketing scheme for the Avengers film, and its ability to fund high-budget tentpole films, the studio has been able to create a multiplatform brand for their highly successful films, which appeals to every major demographic. The major success of this brand explains why major studios have shied away from funding original films, and have moved to the new tentpole movie-making strategy. While there is no clear-cut way to predict the future of the filmmaking industry, it seems apparent that studios will focus on funding bigbudget, tentpole films until they inadvertently either destroy the brand they are promoting, or otherwise cease to make a profit from them.

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S C H O L A R LY W O R K S

THE DREAM OF THE ROOD AND MEDIEVAL CROSS VENERATION IN CONTEXT

BROOKE THOMAS English and Spanish Class of 2015

ABOUT THE WORK This piece was written for an introduction to medieval literature class which focused not only on poetry and prose pieces from the Middle Ages, but also the larger social and cultural structures of England at the time. The discussion of this writing centers on an early medieval Christian poem in which a personified cross tells the story of Jesus’ crucifixion. Significantly, through the dialogue of the cross, the reader better understands the prominent Anglo-Saxon social structure, the comitatus, along with some thoughts on early medieval religion and the warrior-like nature of men. These thoughts are especially notable considering how they have been perpetuated into more contemporaneous eras, like in World War I when soldiers would fashion discharged bullets into crosses.

Through close analysis of the primary text, The Dream of the Rood, coupled with coinciding analyses from prominent medievalists, this essay seeks not only to understand the nature of the social structure of the comitatus but also to demonstrate the relevance of medieval literature and cultural studies. Texts like The Dream of the Rood suggest certain principles about Christianity and also about warrior-style social structures and the methods used to sustain them.

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The Middle Ages in England were infused with real and symbolic reminders of life and death. The warrior culture and the illnesses that characterized the period comprise part of the realistic sense of morality. In terms of imagery, Christian ideals and iconography dotted the English landscape and the lives of the people. Many of these Christian designs sought to inspire piety and perpetuated the established social structures. One sort of idealistic image, for example, was the blood and body of Christ. This blood, combined in “two traditions, that of blood relic and that of the Eucharistic blood, influenced each other profoundly, crossing and recrossing [sic] in the course of the Middle Ages” (Bynum 691). While blood relics and their associated traditions certainly garnered a significant influence on the veneration of the Christian god, the most popular and recognizable form of Christian worship was pronounced through the cross and the crucifix.

While the monotheistic world religions of the Middle Ages denied worshiping images of God, Christianity permitted this adoration because God turned to man through Jesus thereby justifying a human image (Moreland 194). In this sense, it is important to note that many sects of Christianity are categorized in less than one umbrella term, while in more contemporary times; there exist many differing units of this faith, each with a unique sense concerning idolatry. Thus it is assumed, for the purposes of this discussion that the term “Christianity” refers to the religion before the break of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, during which time the creed was significantly more united in its statutes. Still, throughout the Middle Ages the cross became the unwavering image of Christian faith. Soon, “the result was that for many (and not just the ‘illiterate’) images partook the essence of the supernatural…they were ‘an interactive medium between this world and the other’” (Moreland 195). The cross thus indicates the close ties the object had with the afterlife and the deep cultural significance of the item.

Not surprisingly, cross veneration expanded to other disciplines thereby inciting religious fervor. Notably, literature adapted to encompass and understand the increased presence of the cross. One of the earliest texts that celebrate the icon of the cross is The Dream of the Rood, a writing that appears in the Vercelli Book.

Certainly among other topics, one of the main themes of The Dream of the Rood is cross reverence. The worship of the cross that is presented in the text reflects the sentiments and mindsets of medieval society through the personification of the cross as a warrior, a connection to God and the other world, and a defender against evil.

Before beginning the heart of this discussion, it is imperative to understand some of the medieval terminology that will be used throughout this paper. Beginning more broadly, the word comitatus is an Old English word that indicates the primary VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 27

social hierarchy of early medieval warrior culture. According to John Lindow, an Old English linguist, the term has bifurcated significance, both of security and praise which helps explain the necessity and significance of these social bonds (10).

Namely, a leader of advanced fighting prowess would be chosen among a collective group of warrior-men who then agree to defend and sacrifice their lives for their lord in exchange for distribution of war winnings and honorable recognition. More importantly, in this structure, the individual, excluding the leader, does not exist “except as a member of the troop (Bessai 131). This point is significant in that it asserts that the leader of the group was especially honored; the thanes, or followers, would risk and sacrifice their lives in battle in order to have the opportunity to earn honors and protect their lord.

Generally, the cross, or rood, was a dynamic symbol in medieval society. John Moreland, a medievalist, states that, “conceptually and theologically, the cross stood at the heart of medieval and late medieval religion. The cross was the symbol of Christ’s passion and death, the promise of future Judgment and Salvation, and was central to both public liturgy and private devotion” (198). It was believed that simply gazing at a cross for a long enough time could inspire devout piety. This idea agrees to that supplied by Sarah Lipton, a medieval studies scholar, especially when she asserts, “combining an actual visual stimulus, a deliberate process of looking, and an imaginative devotional exercise to ignite love for God” (1190).

Thus, the cross relic examines religious fervor. Yet, more than just substantiating holiness, the cross was used for social and political purposes. For example, one such monument, the Bradbourne cross, which was likely manufactured close to the time The Dream of the Rood was written, late eighth to early ninth century, was used for religious, social, political, and geographical reasons. Crosses like the Bradbourne “were erected for a variety of reasons—as memorials for the dead, votive offerings from the living, places of prayer, to define boundaries, as grave markers, to mark significant places in the life of a saint, and to commemorate the route of a saint’s funeral…the cross was also used against ‘aery demons’, the agents of Satan, [who] were an ever-present reality, and in which the cross was one of the most potent weapons in the perpetual war conducted against them” (Moreland 196). Thus, the cross fulfilled a variety of real life purposes in the Middle Ages; it is not surprising it adopted so many personas as those reflected in The Dream of the Rood.

The prose of The Dream of the Rood, from the Vercelli Book, was likely produced in the late tenth century, but it is possible that the writing dates back further than the age of the compilation. It has been suggested that the text is based on the Ruthwell Cross, likely manufactured in the seventh century. What is certain about The Dream of the Rood is that it focuses on the crucifixion of Christ from 28 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

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the perspective of the cross. The text presents Jesus as a heroic warrior and the cross as an object that must “painfully and paradoxically function in the execution of the Lord” (Black 23). More specifically by means of dream-like visions, the cross describes crucifixion in narrative perspective to emphasize religious devotion, exhibit bravery and demand heroism. More particularly, Jesus, in his warrior-like characterization, leaps onto the cross as the rood watches him approach. The cross notes, “then I saw the lord of mankind hasten eagerly when he wanted to ascend onto me. There I dared not bow down or break against the lord’s word,” (Black 24). Thereby, the wood serves as a glorious representation of the Anglo-Saxon social structure, the comitatus, in which the cross is the thane of Jesus, the lord.

The wood feels an overwhelming and paradoxical sense of responsibility; it must support his lord in his mission to die on the cross as a rightful thane would do, but at the same time, no longer protect his leader and be his exterminator. In this sense, the cross is put at a junction; the issue of what it means to be loyal and of doing what his lord asks of him, though it means killing him, questions the thane to lord relationship in the structure of the comitatus.

The cross chooses, with much doubt, to be unwaveringly loyal and consequently, slay his master. It debates, but eventually chooses that, “I had to stand fast. I was reared as a cross: I raised up the mighty king, the lord of heaven; I dared not lie down” (Black 24). Thereby, the fashioned wood does fulfill the role of a loyal thane; although it aids in his lords death, the cross acts in the role of its manmade intention. After Jesus dies, the cross is also buried and the resurrection of Jesus coincides with it rising again, too. The wood is then adorned with wealthy gifts and worshiped. Thus, the torturing and murdering device of God is venerated, as it evolves from a tormentor, to a death maker, and finally transforms to an object of honor and symbolic spearhead for Christian devotion. The cross itself is acutely aware of these nobilities when it mentions, “once I was made into the worst of torments, most hateful to all people, before I opened the true way of life for speechbearers” (Black 25). The gift giving signifies that the cross, by participating in his role within the comitatus, chose the correct path in being steadfast and following the wishes of its lord, no matter how difficult they were to complete. Thus, this social commentary suggests that the most important role as a thane in early medieval Anglo-Saxon society is to act upon the commands of the master, no matter how intense, difficult or contradictory they may be. This sacred spirit and fusion with Germanic ideas of culture in The Dream of the Rood celebrate the medieval world and social significance of the cross.

Interestingly, the idea of the cross as a warrior is not only perpetuated through the writings of The Dream of the Rood but also in society. During the Middle Ages, VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 29

great warriors were defined by fearlessness and strength, so it is not shocking that the characters of Jesus and cross also display traits of a noble bravery. More specifically, in The Dream of the Rood, the cross acknowledges this sense of courage and associated brutality that was common to Anglo-Saxon society. Particularly, the rood illuminates this notion when it vividly describes the crucifixion, revealing its super-humaneness when, “they drove dark nails through me, the scars are still visible, open wounds of hate…” (Black 24). The text and the society both focus on “accentuating aesthetic extremes, turning the very ugliness of the Passion into a source of spiritual force” (Lipton 1186). This exemplifies how the harshness of the cross could be and was used as a perpetuator for religious fervor.

Another similar text that sought to inspire devotion to a warrior god with Jesus on the cross was Riwle, written in the thirteenth century. According to Lipton, this prose also adheres to a warrior tradition “most notably in a vivid passage comparing Christ to a knight and the shape of his crucified body to a triangular shield” (1197).

Both Riwle and The Dream of the Rood transform God and the cross into a warriorstyle lord worthy of a Germanic battle infused society. Thus, the cross and God glean zeal from these texts because they relate and sympathize with how pride and social status were understood during these times. Moreover, just like medieval battle in which each man was reliant on others to protect one another, “these texts suggest that the action of looking at the crucifix was not the experience of a single soul encountering God alone” (Lipton 1201). So, like a battle of fearless warriors, a connection to God was also formed through a brotherhood of religious devotion.

Secondly, this type of piety inspired by companionship can also be found through another sort of devotion, looking at the cross. This gazing was believed to enhance a connection to God. Simply by looking at it, one felt a bond and “one did not have to be a heretic or a Jew to be worried by the visual similarities between the crucified God and dead and defeated mortal bodies” (Lipton 1186). This visual contemplation of the dead to inspire a sense of realism of God can be paralleled to the ‘dead’ cross in The Dream of the Rood, both of which, man and wood, are mortally wounded in a warrior struggle and then faithfully resurrected and brought to glory.

One popular medieval historical account of cross gazing is particularly potent in enhancing and adding a sense of realism to this point. It features a monk in the twelfth century who on Good Friday, was worshipping before a cross and then felt drops of Jesus’s blood upon him, pouring out from the cross itself (Bynum 704).

This parable accounts for the sometimes gory themes associated with the cross and the joy that deep visual stimulation and worship of the crucifix can bring. This idea functions even further in The Dream of the Rood through demonstrating the fervor 30 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

THE DREAM OF THE ROOD AND MEDIEVAL CROSS VENERATION IN CONTEXT

of the cross, particularly coupled with the notion that it serves as an intermediary between God and Christians. But what is more is that both of these stories seem to acknowledge, “merely looking at an image is in itself an incomplete act…capable of arousing desire but not of sating it” (Lipton 1178). This is perhaps why in The Dream of the Rood the crucifix is personified; it enhances the connection of the people to God by putting the cross in a circumstance familiar to them. Notably, the cross makes note in the text of the battle-like scenes it endures, particularly when it describes that after Jesus was removed from the cross, “the warriors then left me standing drenched in blood, all shot through with arrows” (Black 24).

This characterization as a dying warrior creates parallels to the lives and visions of soldiers and thanes in Anglo-Saxon society. These men, who must fight ardently to protect their lord, saw horrible mutilations, which the text reflects, through the eyes of the cross. The creation of this graphic stimulus enhances the significance and literary power of The Dream of the Rood through forming deep relationships, bo perhaps convert. Consequently, the perception of active gazing alludes to the idea of a holy sacrifice but also incites the notion that the cross can be used as “windows on the other world” (Moreland 197).

Lastly, the cross was also used as a relic to defend against evil. According to Moreland, “the late medieval ritual and physical landscape were suffused with signs of the cross…as an active force in the construction of community in the struggle with the devil” (199). The cross was thought to ward off demons and other malicious spirits so powerfully that “crosses were focal points of topography of medieval towns,” and some communities were even built in the shape of a cross (Moreland 198). This notion of keeping the devil at bay complements increased devotion and explains why the cross became even more symbolic than just a sign of the passion of Christ. Therefore, the cross was used as a marker and a protector to enforce good powers, much like the role of the cross in The Dream of the Rood sought to fulfill. Moreland notes that as “evil threatened individual and community…the cross was a powerful weapon with which to defeat evil and so ensure social reproduction and the salvation of the soul” (200). Soul saving against evil was one of the mantras of the world of the cross in the Middle Ages and continues to find validity, also alongside a warrior personification and a deeper connection to God, in contemporary examples of cross worship.

The aforementioned concepts that surrounded the aura of the medieval cross continued fervently into the twentieth century, notably during World War I. Nicholas Saunders, an anthropologist and archeologist writes, “in the battlefields, the ‘presence of the missing’ was and still is often represented by medieval images of Christ as the ultimate symbol of sacrifice” (9). During these more contemporary VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 31

times, the crucifix continued to be viewed as both a protector, connector, and was personified as a warrior. World War I soldiers fashioned discharged bullets into cross jewelry and wore the pieces as a saving grace against enemy fire, a reminder of God, and as a symbol of strength and individual fortitude. Some even used bullets removed from their own flesh to design these relics. Additionally, Saunders notes that “in religious terms, these landscapes [World War I battlegrounds] and the men who fought in them were sacrificed for peace in acts represented and perpetuated in an individual and collective memory by the image of a crucified cross,� substantiating again a brotherhood unified in war and collective worship (8).

The fluidity and undying prominence of medieval concepts and ideas in modern times are apparent through these World War I examples.

Cross veneration in medieval society was perpetuated through a variety of means. In literature, city design, and prayer, images of the crucifix marked the society. In comparing The Dream of the Rood and other reasons why the cross was so widespread an image of piety, the characterization of the symbol as a warrior, a connector to God, and a defender against evil are most prominent. Notably, these traits of the cross were not temporally limited to the Middle Ages, but have found sanctuary in modern battle and religion. The flexibility of the symbol of the cross throughout time speaks to its undying themes of life and death, and symbolic image worship. Thus, the cross continues to endure as the most recognizable symbol of the Christian faith as it interacts with both this world and the other.

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CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM

CONNOR NOH Accounting Class of 2015

ABOUT THE WORK The following paper was written for an advanced composition course oriented toward business majors. Though majors in any discipline were welcome, much of class discussion and most assignments were oriented towards business-related topics. The overarching theme of this writing course was about the discovery of knowledge within an academic discipline and how that knowledge changes, and is changed by, the field of study. Students were asked to consider an important concept or discovery that has influenced their major field, and write about that idea and how it has evolved. Throughout the process, I read books and articles (scholarly and non-scholarly) written by professional writers in my particular major field, participated and interacted in small groups with my professor and classmates to get feedback. As an accounting major and a minor in economics, I was highly interested in the subject of business philosophy in regards to traditional vs. contemporary business practices. Initially, I planned on writing about how corporations go about being philanthropic through implementations of “Corporate Social Responsibility” programs. However, during my research process I came across a new and revolutionary idea called “Conscious Capitalism” that reshaped the entire character of my paper.

I believe the following paper supports the premise of The George Mason Review in delivering illustrations of “re-visioned scholarship” as the paper outlines two differing business philosophies through thoughtful academic research while also providing poetic commentary about the “Conscious Capitalism” business model and philosophy.

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CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM

The term “Conscious Capitalism”, coined by Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey, can be more or less defined as the approach of practicing business in a way that elevates humanity. The concept of businesses doing well beyond pursuing revenue and profit is nothing new; various Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs accomplish this. But Mackey’s definition of what it means for a business to be “conscious” differs wholeheartedly from the premise of CSR - the premise being that a business must act in redemption because they are somehow ethically tainted or at best, neutral. The idea of Conscious Capitalism realizes the innate goodness that stems from the capitalistic system; it merely advocates for a change in culture. Specifically, Mackey hopes to encourage other businesses to shift their focus from pursuing profits for the sake pursuing profits towards pursuing profits for a higher purpose.

The idea of Conscious Capitalism fights against traditional maxims that say that a business’ sole purpose is to make money, and once made to make more of it.

Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman was a profound defender of the traditional sense of capitalism. In his book Capitalism and Freedom, Dr. Milton Friedman states, “there is one and only one social responsibility of business-to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits” (p.133). According to Dr. Friedman (2002), he believes that free- market capitalism naturally radiates social good by ways of accomplishing economic good. In turn, it can be implied that those who agree with Milton Friedman believe that businesses taking care of its customers, employees, and acting philanthropically are means to the end of increasing profits.

John Mackey, who in his book Conscious Capitalism refers to Dr. Friedman as “one of his heroes,” agrees with him to an extent but disagrees in terms of what the means and ends actually are. Mackey’s idea of Conscious Capitalism does not dismiss the importance of increasing profits; for being profitable is the market’s way of telling the entrepreneur that his or her business provides something of unique and beneficial value to society. The idea of Conscious Capitalism simply believes that making profits is the means to the end of fulfilling an organization’s mission to serve a higher purpose (Mackey, 2013, p.263). Mackey (2013) phrases it this way: We [Whole Foods, Inc.] want to improve the health and well-being of everyone on the planet through higher-quality foods and better nutrition, and we can’t fulfill this mission unless we are highly profitable. Just as people cannot live without eating, so a business cannot live without profits. But most people don’t live to eat, and neither must businesses live to just make profits.

Mackey (2013) essentially believes in long-term sustainable value, as opposed to traditional beliefs and business practices that narrowly focuses on hitting VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 35

performance metrics to spur short-term growth. In general, some believe that Conscious Capitalism is a viable business model; others think that the approach will inevitably hinder profitability. Some agree with Milton Friedman; others believe that the term itself is an oxymoron. Overall, the idea of Conscious Capitalism is looked at as either noble or novel.

Conscious Capitalism is an idea that is important to the field of business and finance because around this time last year, on April 20, 2013, World Bank Governors officially endorsed World Bank Group’s goal to end global extreme poverty by 2030. The recent goal set by the World Bank Group was both historic and ambitious, and their announcement may have just fundamentally changed the way businesses will be practiced in the future, by ways of exercising Conscious Capitalism. In its simplest definition, poverty can be defined as the lack of household income. World Bank measures extreme income poverty at daily earnings of $1.25 or less, and based on their definition there are currently 1.2 billion people living under such circumstances (Global Profile of Extreme Poverty, 2012).

However, poverty is multidimensional. According to Sustainable Development Solutions Network (2012), categories profiling extreme poverty takes into account the following: the chronically hungry, children out of school, illiterate adults, people living with HIV/AIDS, malaria lead deaths, under-5 mortality, maternal mortality, stunted children, and those practicing open defecation (p. 4). But like poverty, capitalism is multidimensional. It is without doubt that capitalism has proven to be the greatest wealth creating mechanism mankind has ever experienced but a paradigm shift in business culture is slowly but surely becoming.

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CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM

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MATHEMATICAL SCALING LAWS APPLIED TO CITY GROWTH

JACOB RUPE English Class of 2016

ABOUT THE WORK This research paper was written for English 302 concentrated for science majors. The goal of this class is to teach science majors how to research and write a scholarly paper. I enjoyed research so much that that I switched majors at the conclusion of last semester from Science to English.

The topic I chose for my paper came about after watching a TED Lecture given by Geoffrey West titled “The Surprising Math of Cities and Corporations.� Upon hearing the lecture I became convinced that socio-economic quantities, which grow exponentially per person as population increases, are unique to humans and would lead to a collapse of the entire modern system of unnatural urbanization. I set out to research and discover what trait of human beings cause this growth.

Throughout the writing process my paper was guided by the professor and reviewed by peers. I am also privileged to call a retired mathematics professor my friend. Each Saturday night we attend an auction were he continues to challenge my beliefs about the validity of mathematics in specific applications of study.

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MATHEMATICAL SCALING LAWS APPLIED TO CITY GROWTH

In 2010 Luis Bettencourt and Geoffrey West presented research that finds socio-economic traits scale with population size super linearly as opposed to sub linear scaling found across emergent systems in nature. These scaling patterns appear to occur universally in major cities across the globe suggesting that this occurrence is a scientific fact. In an age where urbanization is taking place rapidly, Bettencourt and West want to use these scaling principles to establish a new field called “Urban Theory” (912). He stresses the importance of urban theory stating that city growth is resulting in unsustainable hazardous repercussions to the natural environment (912). I will explore the following subjects important to developing city theory: 1. How cities compare to biological emergent systems 2. Exponential growth and Extropy 3. City Planning Methods These methods are explored with the following question in mind: what is the role of science in the field of ‘urban theory’?

HOW CITIES COMPARE TO BIOLOGICAL EMERGENT SYSTEMS? Bettencourt and West write that certain networks of cities, specifically infrastructure, follow an economy of scale. As the system grows it becomes more efficient in its use of materials and energy, a trait of sub linear scaling. Bettencourt has discovered that as a city doubles in population there is a 15% energy savings and its associated costs, per person, of the infrastructure network (912).

West also writes that economies of scale are prevalent in biology. He writes that biological emergent systems, such as beehives and ant hills, have an energy savings in upwards of 20% per capita (912). This indicates that aspects of cities are appropriately comparable to aspects of biology.

Charles Ellwood, like West, compares cities to biology. Ellwood looks to bees and ants to provide an example distinguishing between what is social interaction and what is culture.

The wonders of a hive of bees, or of a hill of ants, are truly ‘social’, that is, they involve psychic interstimulation and response, but they are not ‘cultural’. The organization achieved by such animal communities is not, so far as we know, on a cultural plane, but has been produced wholly by the action of the biological factors of variation, heredity, and selection with perhaps the addition of a slight amount of habituation. … A rigid biological-geographical determinism will easily cover all of the facts of their social life. (qtd. in Rodgers 8) VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 39

West distinguishes that cities are different from natural systems. He cites that cities are established on the complex building blocks of cultural development including economies, social principles, and scientific advancement, to which he concludes “none of which have analogues in biology” (913).

Ellwood distinguishes culture as the key element between the human social and the natural (Cultural Evolution 4). Ellwood accepts Tylor’s definition of culture to be “behavior patterns socially acquired and socially transmitted” (qtd. Cultural Evolution 4). Ellwood adds that culture must be created by achievement and invention, concretely defined as the inventions of tools and institutions; however, these achievements do not become culture until it is diffused through the group by intercommunication and learning (Cultural Evolution 4).

Charles Ellwood used to be considered a leading sociologist. David LoConto writes that that Ellwood was widely respected through the 1930s. LoConto refers to him as a “larger than life” giant of sociology during that time period (112).

Ellwood established sociology as a separate field of study in American colleges.

LoConto writes Ellwood’s views on the methods of study in sociology was overcome by a push in the field to study the sociology with a more scientific and statistical approach (112).

Culture is more precisely defined by Ellwood as a group’s acceptance of values as basis for the formation of habits. These habits are formed in response to a history of experiences with crisis (Cultural Evolution 73). Ellwood emphasizes that culture must be learned. In accepting Ellwood’s definition of culture I conclude that cities are modern and historical physical crystallizations of culture.

Kevin Kelly’s research is evidence for the claim. His article, Diversity of Technology, highlights cultural choice throughout historical development of technological evolution. Kelly states humans have always preferred certain technologies over others for cultured values, some of which are deemed irrational (48). Kelly agrees with Ellwood when he writes that cities, consisting almost entirely of human creativity, are the personification of an evolution of cultural choices (48).

This aligns with the conclusion that cities are crystallized forms of cultural values.

Most scholars today would argue that we find some degree of culture in high level mammals. However, no other species has a written language (Ellwood, Cultural Evolution 6). Ellwood stresses that culture must be values that are learned and transmitted to the group. Even though culture appears in other high level mammals, no other species has yet to master the amount and speed of cultural growth in significant comparison to humans.

Cultural networks of cities scale “superlinearly” (West 913); which is to say as population increases so do socio-economic values, per person, with a correlation 40 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

MATHEMATICAL SCALING LAWS APPLIED TO CITY GROWTH

slope greater than a value of one. Superlinear scaling always defaults in exponential growth. Cultural components include, but are not limited to, GDP, wages, crime, and creativity. Luis and West research shows that all socio-economic quantities increase by 15% per capita when a population is doubled. This is opposite of economies of scale where per capita quantities decrease with an increase in size.

Simply put, if a city’s population were to double in size, its inhabitants per person would use 15 percent less electricity and materials while they would be 15 percent more likely to submit a patent, commit a crime, and walk 15 percent faster.

It is the exponential growth of cities that concerns West, believing that exponential growth is unsustainable. West claims that these socio-economic quantities are measurable numerically and should be used as building blocks for the development of “Urban Theory” (913). Kevin Kelly points out that these values are often times irrational. History reminds us that social values are fluid and change overtime. In order to understand this complex system of growth and change we must have a fundamental understanding of extropic systems.

EXPONENTIAL GROWTH AND EXTROPY West writes that modern cities, and the economies that fuel them, are based on the core concept of continuous exponential growth (913). West’s concern with the exponential growth is sustaining exponential growth with limited resources.

Limited exponential growth is only possible through innovation; however, to prevent exponential decay this innovation must occur at an ever increasing rate.

West assumes that this approach is unsustainable and will lead to the collapse of the entire modern system of urbanization (913).

Kelly presents an opposing stance. He feels that the exponential growth signifies a healthy system (48). Kelly compares the growth of technological diversity to the growth of diversity in earth’s natural systems. Kelly states that element combinations diversified the minerals of early earth creating the opportunity for bacterial life to form. Beginning with the introduction of bacterial life forms diversity of species has grown exponentially (45). He notes that large disruptions have occurred, citing the end of the dinosaurs, but the number of diverse species continued to grow exponentially after these disruptions (45). This proves that some aspects of nature naturally become more complex at an exponential rate. Kelly notes the similarities growth of nature’s complexity and human complexity. Our culture, technology, traditions, and ideas, diversifies at an exponential rate naturally (45-46). This type of growth is not inherently human.

Our ability to pass these cultural developments to future generations is acquired through the power of communication and learning. In order for a VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 41

learned cultural development to become culture one must have the ability to transmit complex thought processes from one individual to another (Ellwood, Cultural Evolution 6). The process of learning and transmittance allows culture to grow exponentially being built upon the foundations of previously developed culture. As best put by an English poet John Donne, “All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language.� (qtd, in Bobrow 248). Since culture is learned, transmitted, and built upon successively for endless generations, it grows constantly.

Culture does not die. Kelly cites that technological innovations such as the steam engine can be built with easily acquired plans and parts ordered online.

Ancient tools can also be made the same way they were in the Paleolithic Age, and then mailed to your door (46). It is clear that human culture is that of an extropic system, one that is constantly growing, and growing increasingly complex.

Kelly defines extropy as a nonmaterial force, similar to information, which increases with order and complexity. He goes on to say that for physical systems the laws of thermodynamics are sufficient for study. However, for a world with a myriad of elements continuously growing more complex, we lack useful measurements for study (48).

In the first half of Cultural Evolution Ellwood provides an in-depth study of historical outlook on the evolution of culture. Major time periods include the Eolithic stage (use of stone and bone), Paleolithic age (use of chipped stone and bone), Neolithic age (polished stone), Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. It was not until the Iron Age that the invention of writing occurred. The Iron Age ends during the Hellenistic time period of the Roman Empire, about 100 B.C.E. (Iron Age).

These ages are defined by the cultural achievements of human beings.

Though these ages vary for geographical regions, I have included a chart with the time periods generalized and plotted on a graph based on the duration of the time period.

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ERA

DURATION IN YEARS

DURATION DIVIDED BY TOTAL TIME ELAPSED

PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL TIME ELAPSED

EOLITHIC AGE (1)

500000

0.82345191

82.34519104

PALEOLITHIC AGE (2)

100000

0.164690382

16.46903821

NEOLITHIC AGE (3)

6000

0.009881423

0.988142292

BRONZE AGE (4)

800

0.001317523

0.131752306

IRON AGE (5)

400

0.000658762

0.065876153

TOTAL ELAPSED TIME

607200

The graph indicates that as advancements occur the speed at which they occur increases. Thus proving that culture in its entirety, not just one individual element grows exponentially. One should also consider the speed at which the more recent eras have occurred including the industrial revolution, the age of the computer, the microchip, and the upcoming second machine age. It seems as though new ages occur at an increasing speed.

CITY PLANNING METHODS West suggest that we implement quantitative studies of the social in order to gain a better understanding of cities. He writes “Policy initiatives in developed and developing cities should be viewed as experiments that…can help support the creation of an integrated, predictive theory and a new science of performancebased planning” (913). West wants to create measurable indicators of social values and use these to mathematically analyze social experiments to assisting the creation of global solutions (913).

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Ellwood, like West, would like to use the social sciences to plan for a better future. However he specifically disagrees with using a mathematical analysis as a primary resource for the creation of social theories. Ellwood states that quantitative measurement is less important in the social sciences and should play a secondary role to other methods of sociology (Scientific Monthly 353). Ellwood cites a confession of a previous advocate for quantitative sociology, “The sociologist’s ability to control his conditions and set up any experiment worthy of name is probably so limited as to be negligible” (Social Forces 53). Ellwood believes treating the social sciences as a natural science, mechanistic, overlooks important aspects of the human condition treating humans as autonomous robots (LoConto 117).

A staple text in the field of urban theory is that of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, written in 1961 by Jane Jacobs. Jacobs highlights how policy makers have attempted to fix public work projects in cities failing drastically due to the methods that were used to address the issues. West cites these examples in his own call for a new science of urban theory.

Jacobs writes, in the concluding chapter of her book, that cities are systems of “organized complexity” (439). This is a system in which things are understandable; however they are connected by a vast web of variables. In the same paragraph, Jacobs writes that functions of cities are largely entangled with the inner workings of the social, making the methods used in the natural sciences ineffective as tools for city planning (440). Both Elwood and West have reviewed scaling patterns of crime in regards to population. Their differing methods highlight the controversy.

Bettencourt, partner of West, cites the article Why is There More Crime in Cities.

In this article a formula is given that supposedly defines why people commit crimes.

Becker declares that crimes are committed when benefits exceed cost giving the following function: B > θ + PC Where B is equal benefits and (θ + PC) equals cost. P is equal to possibility of getting caught and C is equal to cost of punishment.

Ellwood reviews a similar study. In 1931, Reginald Watts published a study titled The Influence of Population Density on Crime. Watts concludes in his study about crime in Canada that as population density increases the chances of an individual committing a crime increases. One reason given by Beckers study defended with a statistical formula is the amount of people per cop should lower a criminals chance of getting caught. Ellwood sites Watts’ study and rebuttals the claim of rising population causing more crime. During the same time period, the first three decades of the twentieth century, Great Britain had one tenth the amount of crime as Canada with a much greater population density (Statistical Methods 355).

Ellwood accuses sociologist that use the statistical methods of falsely believing that social methods hold universal validity (355).

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The cost versus benefits formula cited by Bettencourt in “The Origins of Scaling in Cities” falsely assumes universal validity. First, it assumes a rational mind. Second, it treats each person as if they had an equal chance at committing a crime. This formula does not account for age, gender, class, or more personal identifications such as a gang affiliation or radical political movements. Third, it pulls its data set outside of historical cultural context. Issues arise in specific time periods and geographical locations that contribute to crime.

Each analysis states population increase has a positive correlation with the chances of a single individual of the populous committing a crime. In modern times we have Detroit, a city whose population has been on the decline since the 1950’s while crime rates have skyrocketed (LeDuff). Furthermore, increase in technological surveillance increase the ability of the law to watch its citizens. The cost versus benefits statistical equation is a false statement. It fails to treat the human thought process correctly.

Cultural dynamics are fluid and do not hold to the same truths as natural sciences. Ellwood writes in The Scientific Monthly, the stability of physical nature allows processes to hold universally under given conditions. However, that phenomenon of the social sciences is subject to change at any time through the processes of learning, invention, and cultural shifts. Since cultural constructs are subject to change, social dynamics are fluid and the methods of the natural sciences do not apply (Scientific Monthly 354).

Cities are manifestations of culture which is an extropic system. According to Kelly, we do not have the mathematical capability to understand extropic systems.

Statistical methods suggested by West treat cities as systems of unorganized complexity as opposed to the organized complex systems that cities are. Jacobs defines an unorganized complex system as a system where every variable interacts but the importance only lies in the reaction of the group as a whole. The problem with West’s proposed method is the inability to accurately determine the statistical importance of each individual. It is impossible to know whose values will dominate in the future regardless of what we deem rational today. Outliers in statistical datasets of the social sciences are still human, entitled to their belief system with the ability to spread their values even if they are oppressed by those in the social norm.

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF SCIENCE? West suggest a numerical study of cultural values in order to establish a science of urban theory. The research concludes that the study of cities is not a study of natural science but rather that of the social sciences. Cities are built VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 45

upon the basis of cultural values that change overtime. Mathematics only holds true in scientific studies of the natural because the values they represent are fundamentally static.

Both Ellwood and Kelly have shown that physical technology and institutions are only crystallized representations of both modern and historical culture. Kelly goes on to determine that these systems are extropic in their behavior. Extropic systems have yet to become measurable with mathematics. To give a cultural value a number is improper because this value is subject to change at any time for an indefinite amount of reasons reflecting an infinite amount of possible change.

Mathematics only holds true in the studies of the natural because the values are less subject to change.

The fact that different cultures exist among the same species indicate that culture is separate from life forms. Culture is at the creation of man but separate from him perhaps even fictional in its own existence. Since the values that shape culture are not made out of respect for mathematics they cannot be studied with mathematics. Values such as religion, personal preference, acquired taste, and acceptance are not values at all. They are individual beliefs that are fluid, apt to change, and often times considered irrational.

This is noticeable when we consider cultural traditions that have declined to near inexistence. Human sacrifice played a major role in historical cultures, although population has risen, amount of human sacrifice to deities has plummeted to a point of near nonexistance. In the not so distant past cities in America we planned and zoned around values of racial segregation. Patterns that occur in social science are simply patterns. Prescribed culture is entirely fictional. There are only individuals who act individually separate of the group, separate of scientific reason, and often without any rationality at all.

Mathematically analyzing social experiments treats people as though their values are of equal importance. West’s approach to city theory makes city projections on the assumption that populations act as a whole group failing to account for the individual’s individuality and their ability to influence. Jacobs calls this approach to be an unorganized system of complexity. In natural science outliers have less of an impact on statistical sets for predictability projections. Outliers are often caused by instrument variability or change in environmental conditions.

It is the outliers of social datasets, that is humans with different experiences or values that are responsible for social change. If the outlier’s value becomes accepted by a group of people it can be diffused through the entire population by learning changing the growth projection estimates. Outliers in the social sciences cannot be simply tossed out and their importance varies so drastically as to be 46 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

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undeterminable. The social sciences are not a science, there is not static exact worth basing a hypothesis that can be deemed scientific.

The graph I presented suggests that the amount of cultural innovation has increased at an exponential rate. While population has also increased exponentially it can be argued that cultural innovation has allowed this to happen. During the Black plague the world population dipped slightly, however the culture of the many generations before did not go away and culture continued to grow exponentially.

Culture belongs to an extropic system that will naturally scale super linearly in accordance with time and remain unpredictable in distant futures with any form of certainty. One thing is for certain, the speed at which communicate and share values has also dramatically increased and is the defining characteristic that makes us human. This is a possible cause of exponential cultural growth. Further study should take place with high level mammals and cultural scaling in regards to population size.

West’s major concern seems to be with the environmental impact of urbanization.

Perhaps a better method to deal with such concerns is to study how cultural aspects become established from the ideals of a few to the ideals of the many. One could then develop a plan that establishes cultural values supporting urban growth with consideration to environmental issues.

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THE REAL AMERICAN DREAM

LINDSAY KROBOTH Communication Class of 2016

ABOUT THE WORK This paper was written for COMM 305: Intercultural Communication. While the assignment was to participate in an activity to learn about another culture and document the findings, my experience in writing this paper resulted in a better understanding of how one group of people can use perception and stereotyping to assert dominance over another. Issues that began hundreds of years ago are still affecting our lives today. While this essay specifically focuses on the relationship between Native Americans and those who settled in their land, as well as Haudenosaunee traditions, the influence of ethnocentric world-views are very real in our world today. The same ideas can be applied to any other stereotyped, misunderstood, or marginalized group. If we take the time to be ethnorelative, we may realize that other cultures embody the things we’ve been searching for.

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For some reason, my boyfriend’s heritage always comes up in conversation.

Maybe it’s because I find it interesting, maybe it’s because he’s clearly not all white.

However, it’s hard to tell by looking what he really “is,” or maybe it’s just because it’s hard for people to look past what they see. Many times, I’ve had friends ask, “Brian’s an Indian?” which is always followed up with some version of “As in a dot Indian [referring to people from India] or a feather Indian [referring to Native Americans]?” I chose to do this essay on Native American culture because as Americans, we generally don’t care to know more about any particular culture other than what they wear on their heads, be it a feather, a bindi, a hijab, or a sombrero. One of Ting-Toomey and Chung’s (2012) imperatives to intercultural communication is relationship building, and one of the most important relationships is the one between a couple, as well as between their families. First, I explore the history of marginalization of Native Americans in terms of perception, the Stereotype Content Model, and ethnocentrism. Then, using Ting-Toomey and Chung’s cultural value orientations and cultural value dimensions, I explain what we would learn about Native American culture if we were to suspend our judgments and open our minds.

Historically speaking, I completely understand why explorers in the 1400s were unsure of how to treat the people they found when they settled in the Americas.

On November 7, I went to the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Multicultural Education’s 11th Annual Veterans’ Powwow and I felt really out of place. There was music, food, outfits, and dancing that was new to me. The drums and singing were loud and could easily be perceived as threatening and scary. When the announcer explained the context of the song, they were actually ones to honor veterans and show national pride. Just as European explorers weren’t able to communicate with the Natives, if I hadn’t been able to understand that context I probably would’ve thought a lot differently about what I was experiencing.

Growing up in Western New York State, I learned the basic facts about Christopher Columbus and the relationship between settlers and Native Americans in elementary school. Something that was mentioned, but not fully explained, was Indian Boarding Schools. As part of the Native American Heritage Month celebration on campus, I attended a screening of Older than America on November 18. The film offered insight into what life was like for Native Americans in the early 20th century. One line from the movie especially summed up the purpose of the Indian Schools: “There are two ways to get rid of a culture – kill them or take away everything that defines them.” I was surprised to learn that these schools were operating under the expression “Kill the Indian, save the man,” in some places up until the 1970s, teaching Native American children how to speak, act, dress, and VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 49

live as “white” people. A term I had never heard before, apple (meaning red on the outside and white on the inside) was used in the movie. Overall, I was shocked to learn that while this issue has persisted for centuries, there are so many aspects of it that we are oblivious to.

This state of oblivion has lead to people not understanding what the issue with the Washington Redskins football team name is. The issue is a hot topic right now and when people say they don’t get what the big deal is, I think it has to do with a lack of understanding. In a conversation with T. Jane Doctor, the Assistant Director for Tribal Education at Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf, and my boyfriend’s aunt, I asked what her opinion as both a football fan and a Native American is on the name dispute. She said she doesn’t see any issue as long as the image or the term is not used in a demeaning way. She gave the example of putting the logo on a floor mat that you’ll wipe your feet with, which was something I’ve never even considered as an action that could be offensive.

Though Natives are now considered American citizens and the Indian Schools are closed, Native Americans are still struggling to be treated as equals rather than inferior. A root of this problem is explained through perception, as described by Ting-Toomey and Chung (2012). “Our vision of the world and information we absorb occurs through a complex filtering process…Human perception is the process of selecting cues quickly from the environment, organizing them into a coherent pattern and labeling such a pattern, and interpreting that pattern in accordance to our expectations” (p. 159). When explorers first encountered Natives, they had no idea what the meaning or context of their behaviors were so they decided based on their actions, regardless of the true meaning (selective attention), that they were animalistic people (selective organization), so they called them “savages” and treated them as such (selective interpretation).

In addition to perception, Cuddy, Fiske, and Glick’s Stereotype Content Model (Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2012) applies to explain factors contributing to this prejudice that has been passed down to current generations. The theory explains stereotypes as based on two dimensions, perception of warmth (level of competition or cooperation) and perception of competence (low or high status).

Cuddy, Fiske, and Glick state that if a group is viewed as having low warmth and low competence, meaning high competition and low status, they will be more stereotyped than a group with high warmth and high competence, meaning high cooperation and high status. In the case of Native Americans, they were historically viewed as savage people occupying the land that white people wanted - low warmth and low competence. These two factors played a major role in the relationship 50 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

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between settlers and Natives, which still has tangible impacts today in terms of how we view Native American culture.

“Ethnocentrism is a defense mechanism used to view our culture as superior to other cultures and thus we perceive our way of life as the most reasonable and proper. As a result, we expect that all other groups should follow our way of living and behaving” (Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2012, p. 163). This definition of ethnocentrism concisely sums up the mindset, historically, of Americans when viewing Native American culture. The actions of the earliest settlers, the American government during the period when Indian Schools were the norm, and the present actions of Washington Redskins fans exemplify the concept of ethnocentrism. If only we had used a more ethnorelative viewpoint when approaching Native American culture, we would’ve learned that they embody gender equality, harmony with nature, and collectivism.

The Haudenosaunee people occupy present-day New York State. They are commonly referred to as the Iroquois Confederacy and include the original Five Nations, Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, plus Tuscarora, added in the 1700s, to form the current Six Nations. While the Six Nations do share many traditions and customs, I spoke with T. Jane Doctor, a member of the Seneca nation, which occupies the Western-most side of New York State near Buffalo. All Haudenosaunee nations are matrilineal, meaning clans are passed from mother to child. Clans are the families within each nation. Clan mothers are key members of society, are highly respected, and have a huge role in the decision making process.

They are responsible for choosing the individuals that will take on a name of a chief and represent their interests at the Council of Chiefs, a regular meeting of chiefs from each nation and clan.

The story of Jikonsahseh, the first “Mother of the Nations,” explains why women are so powerful in Native American culture. It is said that she was enabling war by feeding and housing warriors as they passed through on their way to battle.

The peacemaker approached her and showed her the way of peace. She knew it was the right way so she stopped helping warriors and worked to promote peace among all nations. All Native women are expected to take after Jikonsahseh and promote peace among their people.

When I attended the Powwow, I was surprised by the significant difference in the way women danced and dressed in comparison to men. The women dressed in much more plain clothing and danced in a more reserved way, whereas the men wore more extravagant, colorful clothing and danced with much more movement.

At first I thought it was a symbol of men being more prominent and the women allowing them to take more of the attention, but it actually has to do with the VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 51

way that women are spiritually interrelated to Mother Earth and the Skywoman from the creation story. Native Americans believe that as women age, they gain more wisdom and grow closer to the natural way of life. Because women have the ability to procreate, they are thought of as creators themselves. By dressing in Earth-tone colors and shuffling their feet along the ground, as it was said that the Skywoman did to spread dirt over the Earth, they are displaying their wisdom and close relationship with Earth. The way the men dress and dance is representative of birds, which are considered protectors of their families and warriors.

Ting-Toomey and Chung (2012), define feminine cultures as “societies in which gender roles are fluid and can overlap” (p. 51). This is true of Native American culture. When I first approached this topic, I thought of women as having more power than the men, but that’s not exactly the case. The men and the women are considered equal, but each has their own unique and important roles.

Native American culture epitomizes the harmony-with-nature value orientation (Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2012). Leon Shenandoah, the former leader of the Iroquois Confederacy, said, “We must live in harmony with the natural world and recognize that excessive exploitation can only lead to our own destruction.” The celebrations and ceremonies for harvest are important to honor because the lack of a bountiful harvest means a winter of suffering with little food.

Ogwehowe:ka: is the wholistic way of life. It is represented as a large circle, the creator, with many smaller circles inside it. In the middle of the cluster of small circles lies Mother Earth. Around Mother Earth are circles representing the core aspects of Native American culture: seasons, self, community, clans, three sisters (corn, squash, and beans), respect, sharing, thinking collectively, etc.

Go:noh:nyo is the Haudenosaunee thanksgiving address that is said before all important gatherings. It goes through many different things to be thankful for including Mother Earth, medicine plants, Jo:heh:goh (plant life), the spirit of the waters, fish life, animals, trees, winged creatures, the four winds, the sun, the moon, the stars, and more. It’s important in this culture to thank all aspects of the world that help sustain you. All items that are made from natural materials are sacred because they are made from things that were once living. The ceremonial cycle is based almost completely around different events having to do with the changing of seasons. For instance, there is a ceremony when the first maple tree starts to come back to life because it is the first indication of the coming planting season. When it is time to plants seeds, a seed blessing ceremony takes place in order to ensure a good crop. With each harvest of plants, a celebration occurs.

Go:noh:nyo not only honors all aspects of natural life, it also reinforces the idea that our minds must all be one in order to live in harmony. Each section 52 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

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of thanks ends with “Now our minds are one.” This sentence penetrates many aspects of the Haudenosaunee culture. The chiefs of each clan wear a strand of beads that indicates their position. When they gather at the Council of Chiefs, they braid the ends of each of their strands together to signify that their minds have come together as one and they are acting collectively. Another aspect of this type of meeting is a talking stick that is passed around to each person so they can have a turn to say what is on their mind without interruption. Conflicts are never left unsolved at these meetings. If a unanimous decision cannot be reached, they may agree to disagree and then meet again until a solution is reached.

The peacemaker, like in the Jikonsahseh story, travelled to each of the original Five Nations to spread peace and unity. He would preach what would become Gayanesshagowa, the Great Law of Peace, the principle that guides all behavior.

The Great Law embodies righteousness, justice, and health as the key to maintaining unity. The journey of the peacemaker is so important to Haudenosaunee culture that a symbol of the story is the emblem of the Iroquois Confederacy. Many aspects of the U.S. constitution are based on The Great Law of Peace.

At the powwow, it was mentioned that many Native Americans now have dual values – one as an American citizen and one as a Native. Historically, the U.S. flag was a symbol of death and disease for the Native people, but they’ve overcome those struggles and accepted it as a sign of unity and honor. The two-row wampum signifies this idea. There are two parallel lines represent boats on a river flowing side by side, each with their own values.

The devotion to cooperation with each other, as well as with a nation that hasn’t always treated them well, that Native Americans possess displays their commitment to collectivism. “Collectivism promotes relational interdependence, in-group harmony, and in-group collaborative spirit…Collectivist cultures value the “we” over “I,” group rights over individual rights and in-group needs over individual needs” (Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2012, p. 45). In addition to collectivism, these Native American practices implement the communal conflict approach, “authentic interdependent connection to others and genuine equality via respectful communication exchanges at all levels” (p. 186), and the integrating conflict style, “commitment to find a mutual-interest solution” (p. 195).

Through the experience of attending a powwow, watching a film I would usually scroll past on Netflix, and having a meaningful conversation with somebody who has deep roots in a very different culture, I learned a lot about a culture that has had great impacts on the society we live in. Viewing the relationship between Native Americans and Americans through perception, the Stereotype VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 53

Content Model, and ethnocentrism helps to understand the development of the relationship. Native American culture is one that Americans could learn a lot from to improve many of our current circumstances if we used a more ethnorelativistic lens. A feministic, collectivistic approach and great respect for the Earth are just a few of the many things that define the Haudenosaunee people, and things that modern day Americans are seeking. Whether equal rights, a government that doesn’t shut down, or a “greener” way to live, these values are the real American dream. Unfortunately, we spent so much of our time being ethnocentric we failed to see what the Haudenosaunee people could’ve taught us when we first settled here. Benjamin Franklin wrote, “It would be strange if [the Haudenosaunee] could execute a union that persisted ages and appears indissoluble; yet a like union is impractical for twelve colonies to whom it is more necessary and advantageous” (Smithsonian Institute, 2009).

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SAMSARA

JOSHUA ADAMS English Class of 2016

ABOUT THE WORK This work is a collection of polished up interior monologues that all followed similar themes and seemed to interconnect. The influence for my writing, as made evident by these words, is the exploration of my own consciousness and personal growth. I enjoy utilizing my abilities to create short, concise and dense paragraphs that leave me feeling satisfied. I started each paragraph with a stream of consciousness, found pieces and parts that flowed together and then expanded on those thoughts. The idea that spontaneous writing could fit together so smoothly never really crossed my mind at the beginning but then I started to realize trends. I continued this for a few weeks, whenever I felt an urge to write, and then arranged the paragraphs in order of, what I deemed as, growth.

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Whether it is pen to paper or fingers to keys, writing is releasing; letting emotions flow into letters, syllables, words and thoughts. Crafting a paragraph around the inner workings of your mind. The concepts coexist; it coincides with what you feel and what appears on your medium of choice. When you write, those emotions are permanently, wondrously etched. Scarred like the white flesh of a cut a bit too deep. Hearing your voice clearly speak the words days after day, months after months and years after years. Smile because you’ve got it all. Scoff at the ludicrously insignificant events that did so much harm. Admire the progress you’ve made, whether it is in the direction you want or not. These are my markings; the events that will influence, change, shift and morph the clay of my mind and stone of my heart.

Despair so thick that not even the strongest shot of whiskey can cut through it. Just a dark, bleak void rooted in the depths of your chest. It is so beyond nothingness. A numb, droning hymn in the blackest corner of your mind. Watching.

Always watching. It’s never late when you slip up, mess up, downright blow up.

Failure. That is what you are, what it wants you to feel. Manipulating your every move, teasing you with some sense of satisfaction or fulfillment just so it can watch you bleed when all you’ve gained is ripped away. You can fight it. Oh, you can pretend all your pathetic heart can take. Plaster on a big old smile and charade your day away. Convincing yourself every minute of every day that you are okay.

It’s just a phase. Take these, eat this, do that. Talk to me! Why don’t you just talk to me? Familiar faces with worn out phrases. It sucks you in, swallows your whole world and then you wallow in its filth. Your thoughts race but nothing ever crosses your mind. Some kind of sick sorry mass that bubbles up your throat and crawls into your brain. If you are lucky, it will hurt you more than the others around you.

I don’t think that is ever the case. Alone on a busy street. Empty in a lover’s arms.

Tired on a Saturday night. Alone, empty and tired.

I’ve been so happy. I felt free, a reminder of whimsical youth and the bliss of ignorance. I have everything on my fingertips. I get a taste of a clenched fist grasp and then it slips away. Poof! Nothingness, indifference to that beauty I know so well. The trees are cold and brown, they may brandish leaves but their true colors show. The air is stale and thin, I gasp at the gas of life. The birds chirp away songs of fleeting life and blurred horizons. I know too much. I see anything and everything.

I lie to pass the time, for confidence, joy, comfort and sometimes nothing at all. I know nothing. Thoughts torture the realms of my mind. Sometimes it decides to just speed up. A race in a void: to nowhere, for nothing. Slow down. Caution flag flapping. Thank for yesterday, breathe for today and hope for tomorrow. Just keep it up. It will never end.

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We all know. We all know pain, pressure and not wanting to endure another version of the same experience. You learn. You live life and you learn. Adapting to all that occurs in this existence is a constant process. Change: beneficial to some and detrimental to others. Rather directly or indirectly as it may seem, every change leads to new avenues, different roads and broader horizons. Possessions come and go. Friends, family, favorites. What seems like the right move for one may be the end of another. Or so it seems. Life finds funny little ways to make up for its wrongdoings. After all; we are born, things happen to us and then we die. It’s simple. Life is simple, so why don’t more of us live it so?

Comprehending, cataloging and compartmentalizing all of the information floating around. We can’t do it. We would all go mad if we understood everything and anything that encroached on our mind. The struggle, the search keeps us going.

Embrace it. With every approach you take, something is bound to be overlooked.

Be in front of the curve. You can be happy; you can make others happy. Or you can fake it and they can too. Revel in the moment. No need to worry about what will come, focus on what is coming now. We have so many defenses, so many mechanisms, so many ‘what ifs?’ that we forget what we truly want. It blocks the little joys. Birds and colored leaves in the crisp morning air. The scent of a bonfire in the company of friends. Words uttered between exhales of smoke and sips of coffee. Everyone wants to smile and be the cause of another’s. Put your worries aside. Let life enfold you.

It passes. The emotions, spirits, cognitive empathy or unconscious friendship, whatever you want to call it, smooth’s the foundational cracks of the mind. Rough around the edges? Surround yourself with the ones that make you feel at home. Take three good friends you have no intentions of impressing over the three hundred strangers you might need to. Go back to the basics of a smile rather than the roots of problem. Remember those little joys? Consciously connected, whether we like it or not, to anything and everything we have smeared our words and actions upon.

Just take it in. No need to attempt to manipulate destiny. We all get what is coming to us. In control of it all. We decide everything. Ignorance may lead to success as well as knowledge guiding the path to unparalleled failure. We are but pawns in our own perceptive game. Madness is such an abysmal gift.

Karma always comes full circle. Wrongdoings, no matter through what glasses, what perception, always move back to hinder the individual. Inertia-like, conceptual forces will mess up your flow. They can and will divert your path. Stay on track. Good deeds never go unnoticed, no matter how menial they are to you.

A smile here, holding a door there, buying a snack, a pack or just spending time with someone you love. It may not make a difference right then but sometime, 58 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

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somewhere it will matter. The immediate impact may be prevalent in some cases as our minds are, in fact, clay. Kindness, generosity and all around pleasantness can and will leave an impression. A mark, a stroke, a minute and minor detail. We may never notice what we do to another; it may be blatantly obvious. The forces inside of us all can tell what and who is worth it. Differences appear for everyone and everything. What works for one can do nothing to another and vice versa. I have felt that force. I have experienced: the acceptance of all beauty, the calming natural connection, the mind’s fine-tuning, the slip. Free. Not fully, but it will come. Mind and body; brain and soul all running on the same smooth apparatus. The ridges of fluidity are slowly starting to erode. The patterns, quirks and feelings all melding and mending in one moment suspended in time. The world is coming full circle. I am finally ready to recycle this ignorance into bliss.

We are human, nothing more than specks dotting the landscape of our small yet beautiful world. Life gives us the time we need, some more than others but time nonetheless. Every day starts with a fresh breath and a new beginning. We mean little to the universe but it means everything to us. Living is the most difficult experience we will ever endure. It is the only experience we will ever endure. Do what makes your heart sing. Do what makes you feel. Be sad, be happy, be lost.

Be something. Our heart and our heads usually determine our decisions. Through fear, love, thinking and sometimes not. Let your soul decide sometime. After all, without it we are nothing but flesh and bone, blood and hair. Tears. We’re human but that doesn’t mean we have to act like beasts. Reach out; touch someone. Hold on to those dear and grasp tighter to those that are not. More than likely they will be one day. Time brings change: to people, to land, to feelings. One concept is set in stone and it has been since the beginning. We always meet our end but life moves on. Don’t let your time here be wasted. Leave a little piece of you in anything you do; one small reminder of what you once were, what you are now and what you will become. You never know who or what it will impact. That is the majesty of life. We are human after all.

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A SHARED EXPERIENCE: THE LINK BETWEEN LANGUAGE & BEAUTY

HOLLY TUPPER Math Class of 2016

ABOUT THE WORK This paper was written for a German philosophy course designed to teach students critical thinking and analytic skills based on the works of modern German philosophers. Practical application of the texts was stressed in this course. As I was reading through Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgement, I was struck with a question: what is it that makes beauty universal? Usually different people disagree on what is aesthetically pleasing and what is not, but sometimes there exists an object, image, or idea that pervades through cultures and is ubiquitously regarded as beautiful. First, in order to answer this question, I had to investigate the actual definition of beauty. In his Critique of the Power of Judgement, Kant states that beauty is an idea which is universally understood and acknowledged as important and pleasing. Anything that is merely pleasing without being understood is simple “the agreeable.” I then realized that even though people in different cultures have individual experiences, opinions, and norms that influence their psychological makeup, there must be something shared throughout humanity that gives us a common understanding of what is beautiful. After reading Herder’s “Treatise on the Origins of Language,” I realized that the shared experience is language. This paper is an attempt to synthesize the concepts of language and beauty, and show why beauty cannot exist without language, based on the writings of modern Herder, Kant, and Lessing.

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WHAT IS LANGUAGE? Herder states that “language is. . .the form of the sciences, not only in which, but also in accordance with which thoughts take shape. . .thought is glued to expression, and forms itself according to the latter” (Herder 48). Unlike animals, humans do not have a determined, purely functional instinct. Animals act without understanding. They experience a sensation and act without knowing why they are acting on that sensation. Humans, however, have the ability to think (Herder 79). Thinking requires a language, a way of expressing to oneself what one is feeling. Herder states that “if it is true that we cannot think without thoughts, and learn to think through words, then language sets limits and outline for the whole of human cognition” (Herder 49). Like animals, human beings are not confined in a language; we can sense without putting our sensations into words (Herder 131). However, in order to have any understanding of a sensation, one must be able to think about what he is feeling (Herder 229). Thus, language is necessary for understanding sensation. We do not feel in a language, but we understand what we are feeling and put our feelings into context through language.

Because we are not ruled by thoughtless instinct, our thought is free and unconfined. Thought is dynamic and unfolding; new ideas are constantly being realized and put into words (Herder 159). Besides language being progressive, it varies by culture (Herder 67). Herder found that people from different times and cultures had different experiences, concepts, and ideas that gave different nuances to each language (Herder 33). For example, the culture of the ancient Middle Eastern people placed a great importance on farming and livestock. The Hebrew language has over 250 botanical words, many of which have no translation in English (Herder 33). An English-speaking person witnessing these plants is able to get the idea that these are plants in his own language, but his perception of the importance of these plants is different because they are not present or important to his culture.

LANGUAGE AND ART Art and Language are manifestations of thought and sensation for the pleasure of others (Herder 67). Art is dependent on language for several reasons. The reason for dependency of language in literary art is pretty obvious; poetry and other forms of literature are composed directly of words and language; in order for the ideas in literature to be communicated to others, there must be language. In visual art, language is necessary in understanding the significance of the art; visual art is a sort of poetry without words, but the thoughts underlying the art are implied to the viewer. A work of art created without any understanding of the sensation that VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 61

inspired the art –– paint spread across a page based solely on the senses the painter was experiencing –– will hold no value for another viewer (Herder 180). An angry slash of red across a blank page may give the viewer a brief feeling of anger or intensity as well, but the overall reigning sensation will be that of confusion since the viewer has no understanding of why he feels the way he feels and no way of expanding on his instinctive feeling.

Because art is dependent on language it has many of the same properties as language. The significance of different words varies by culture, even though the basic ideas stay the same. Similarly, in art, the significance of a work of art could be different dependent on the upbringing of the viewer even though the work of art being viewed by each person is the same. There is no definite interpretation of what a given work of art or literature’s significance is. In order to gain an accurate interpretation of what the originator of the idea meant to convey, one must take into account the originator’s historical, cultural, and personal context. However, there can be many interpretations besides what the originator meant to have.

BEAUTY VS. INTEREST IN ART According to Kant, art is aesthetic; it is either agreeable or beautiful (Kant 184).

The art is agreeable if the final product only serves as entertainment and doesn’t inspire true understanding of the significance of the subject through experience (Kant 184). The art is beautiful; however, if there is a universal understanding or purpose that can be attained from the art (Kant 185).

The wonder of art is that, even if one has not experienced exactly what the artist meant for the art to represent, the viewer can still find pleasure in the piece based on his own interpretation. That pleasure, however, may not necessarily be beauty. Herder uses the example of an Arab who has lived in the desert who has nothing living with him except his camels. Because the camels are what he grew up around, he has grown to understand them in a way that someone who has never seen a live camel before would not (Herder 67). A painting of a herd of camels would inspire in the Arab feelings of respect and recollections of his past experiences with the camels. However, to a western viewer whose non-nomadic lifestyle has never given him any interaction with camels, this painting would be a simply aesthetic piece that might give him a sense of wonder, admiration, or interest, but would not fuel any direct connection to the topic or recollections of past experiences. Those feelings of admiration or wonder are cold and onedimensional; according to Lessing, feelings without true significance “[exclude] every other warmer passion, as well as every other more significant representation” (Lessing 31). The unexperienced viewer can try to understand the importance 62 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

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of a camel in a nomadic Arab’s lifestyle, but without the experience, he will not have a true appreciation of the meaning of the camel (Herder 33). Thus, the nonuniversal subject is not “the beautiful,” but “the interesting.”

A universal theme in art, such as love, is a common concept that holds importance to every person. Beauty is about recollection and experience; one does not have to experience the topic represented by the art, but the recollection or idea of the topic must be enough to inspire him or give him pleasure (Herder 130). However, without the ability to understand the topic of the art, it is just disconnected sensation and not “the beautiful.”

FURTHER POINTS A question may arise from the argument just presented in the paper: “what if a person is lacking a basic necessity of sensation such as sight or hearing?” Language is not merely verbal, and sensation is not only visual; there are many different forms of language, and other senses exist besides sight. As previously stated, all language is is a way of expressing to oneself and others what one is sensing (Herder 48). Language does not have to be verbal. A mute or deaf person, with no mode of verbal communication, has the ability to form language. In spite of her lack of senses, Helen Keller, who was both deaf and mute, was able to learn sign language. The importance of language is that it gives us a means of understanding what we are experiencing in a way that it can be communicated to others; language allows for a shared experience. The moment she understood what she was sensing in her environment through touch was the moment she was able to cognize. She was then able to experience the qualities that made something beautiful.

For example, a person blind since birth at first has no comprehension of the meaning of the word “blue,” no emotion derived from the word “blue,” and no way of experiencing pleasure from hearing the word “blue.” Therefore, the word “blue” would not be beautiful to the blind person since it holds no value to him. But the feeling that is associated with the color blue can be explained to a blind person.

The coolness of blue water against the skin can be explained to a blind person so that the person can understand the idea of the symbolism of “blue” when he hears the word and can then recollect the feeling of the cool water when he hears the word “blue.”

This paper has attempted to connect language with thought, thought with aesthetics, and aesthetics with beauty. In summary, we think in words and expressions. We can sense without thinking those feelings but, without language, we will have no understanding of those sensations, no means to progress the sensations beyond a mere awareness that we are feeling something. Aesthetic VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 63

pleasure in art relies on that cognitive understanding of sensation. Â In order for that aesthetic pleasure to be beautiful, the understanding of the sensation represented in art must be universal. Thus, language brings mere sensation into the realm of beauty and shared understanding.

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A SHARED EXPERIENCE: THE LINK BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND BEAUTY

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UN S E E N BYSTA N D E R

JADE KIRKLAND Forensic Science Class of 2017

ABOUT THE WORK The poem is in the perspective of the homeless person being bypassed. It lets the reader know how they are feeling while this stranger is just passing by like they are invisible. I really tried to think in a way like I was personally homeless so I could really get the emotion across.

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UNSEEN BYSTANDER

Cold nights, Semi-warm days Sitting here for what seems like light years Watching dozens and dozens just pass by Like I’m invisible or just don’t exist But why? Why do they proceed on?

Is it because I’m not as fortunate as them or is it something more?

I don’t ask for much Just spare change that is all But yet they still pass by What do they think I will use it for Do they think I’ll use it for something bad?

Something good? Something evil?

All I want is to get rid of this hunger Get rid of this chill Have something warm to keep my heart filled Something to keep me satisfied But no, no one can see The pain that is hidden so deep

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EFFECTIVENESS OF THE MODELS OF JUSTICE IN THE UNITED STATES IN A GANG MURDER CASE

LUIS ALONSO ESPINO Criminology, Law and Society Class of 2014

ABOUT THE WORK This paper focused on the three existent models of justice in the United States. It addresses a specific case, Virginia v. Juarez-Ascencio, which was a gang murder case. The premise of the paper is to find if any of the existent justice models would help a violent offender rehabilitate. The paper illustrates details about the case, as well as literature review on the three models of justice, and an in depth analysis.

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ABSTRACT The Justice System of the United States America is built on three models of justice, the retributive, restorative, and parallel justice model. The retributive justice model is based on punishing the offender only because the individual deserves to be punished (Moore, 1993). The restorative justice model identifies the harms and needs caused by crime and repairs the harm through customized obligations (Zehr, 2002). The parallel model focuses its entirety on the victims on crimes and their needs (Bird, 2005; Herman, 2010). An analysis Commonwealth of Virginia v.

Boris Alfredo Juarez-Ascencio suggests there will be offenders who are incorrigible despite efforts made by the criminal justice system.

INTRODUCTION Juvenile delinquency is a contemporary social problem. The 2008 National Youth Gang Survey indicated a 15% increase in gang activity from 2002 with 27,900 active gangs and 774,000 gang members in the United States (Sharkey, Shekhtmeyster, Chavez-Lopez, Norris, & Sass, 2011). Statistics show that gang activity elevated its numbers in the past few years. The murder of Miguel Hernandez can very well be a ramification of the increased gang activity phenomenon among juveniles. News media portray gang related crimes as ruthless and senseless, giving the viewer an impression that the offenders are beyond the scope of rehabilitation; however, there could be potential underlying causes that could explain this type of behavior in offenders. Studies have shown a correlation between pre-natal and post-natal exposure to lead level and delinquent behavior in later childhood and adolescence (Dietrich, Ris, Succop, Berger, & Bornschein, 2001). The environment of a child plays a major part in the shaping of his character for later years. If a juvenile comes from a broken home, gangs serve the role of a family providing members with affection, loyalty, understanding, recognition, and emotion and physical protection (Sharkey et.al, 2011); by taking over the family role, the child now shows devotion to the gang and enters a cycle of violence and crime. It seems like some individuals are predestined to live a life of crime and delinquency due to external factors. The justice system aims to punish offenders according to the severity of their crime and for rehabilitative purposes (Moore, 1993); however, evidence suggests that rehabilitation and prisons are negatively correlated (Camp & Gaes, 2005; Griffin & Hepburn, 2006). Taking these factors into consideration, an interesting question arises; do criminals really achieve rehabilitation through our punitive justice system?

The case of Commonwealth of Virginia v. Boris Alfredo Juarez-Ascencio concerns juveniles and gang affiliation. On November 19th, 2010 at approximately 02:47pm, fifteen year old Miguel Hernandez was walking home from school when VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 69

he was attacked by a group of five MS-13 members. Boris Alfredo Juarez-Ascencio and a second suspect assaulted the victim. Juarez-Ascencio stabbed the victim in the chest. Hernandez suffered a puncture wound to the heart that severed his aorta causing his death (Commonwealth of Virginia v. Juarez-Ascencio, 2012).

PROBLEM STATEMENT Virginia v. Boris Alfredo Juarez-Ascencio concerns the murder of Miguel Hernandez, a fifteen year old juvenile. At the time of the murder, the offender was a seventeen year old juvenile. Hernandez’s murder was a gang related, random act of violence; both parties did not know each other prior to the offense. The issues are that someone was murdered, which creates a negative ripple effect within society and that both victim and offender were juveniles. The age of the offender could potentially raise another issue. The problem is whether the punishment given to Juarez-Ascencio constitutes a violation of the cruel and unusual punishment clause included in the eight amendment of the United States Constitution. The offender’s criminal history and gang affiliation bring an interesting question to the Criminal Justice system. The question is whether if any of the current models of justice can aid in the partial or full rehabilitation of the offender.

LITERATURE REVIEW Retributive, restorative, and parallel justices are three models of justice we have available in the United States. The retributive justice model is the model preferred by the courts, due to the fact that it punishes the offender only when the individual deserves to be punished (Moore, 1993). Retributivism is based on the principle of just deserts, which means that the punishment is according to the offense (Moore, 1993). Punishment may deter future crime, incapacitate dangerous persons, educate citizens in the behavior required for a civilized society, and reinforce social cohesion (Moore, 1993; Braga & Weisburg, 2012). Retributive justice is about proportionality (Moore, 1993; Simmons 2012); however, this model of justice is overly focused satisfying the needs of the criminal justice system. Punishment is an essential part of the retributive justice model as it helps deter future crime, yet studies have shown that prison environments only help the offender become a better criminal (Camp & Gaes, 2005; Griffin & Hepburn, 2006), because of it, one could argue that neither the victim, offender, or community get retribution in the long run.

An alternative to the retributive model is the restorative justice model. The restorative justice model’s goal is to address the needs of the victim, offender, and the community (Zehr, 2002). It is a victim focused model of justice whose 70 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE MODELS OF JUSTICE IN THE U.S. IN A GANG MURDER CASE

central focus is to repair the harm (Zehr, 2002) of the parties and entities affected by a crime. Restorative justice can reach as far as the offender’s family; however, enforcement of this model of justice is limited to property crimes and less serious violent crimes (Eschholz, Reed, Beck, & Blume, 2003), avoiding the focus on violent crime. In cases of violent crimes, like murder for example, it is impossible to restore the victim, or the victim’s family, and in some cases, you cannot restore the offender. Research has shown that some offenders may not be able to be restored because of external factors (Moffit, 1993; Dietrich, Ris, Succop, Berger, & Bornschein, 2001; Piquero & Bouffard, 2007), leaving the restorative model of justice to fail in its goal to restore the victim, offender, and community.

In addition to the restorative justice model, the parallel justice model is another alternative that focuses on victims; however, this model of justice focuses its entirety on the victims of crime (Bird, 2005; Herman, 2010). Parallel justice is the idea that victims of all types of crimes should have all their needs addressed (Herman, 2010) in contrast of restoration that focuses mostly on non violent crimes (Eschholz, Reed, Beck, & Blume, 2003) and retributive that is offender focused (Moore, 1993). The parallel justice model is different from the retributive and restorative model as it does not require the victim to report their crime to the police (Bird, 2003), instead its focus is on addressing the victim’s recovery and reintegration into the community as healthy, productive members (Herman, 2010). This model of justice cannot be applied in every circumstance. In murder cases, there is no way of bringing the victim back to life, the focus would swift to the victim’s family; and a more adequate justice model to address a victim’s family is the restorative justice model.

The case of Boris Alfredo Juarez-Ascencio raises questions, how can we address the people who have been impacted by this crime? Can Juarez-Ascencio be rehabilitated with either of three justice models?

METHODS UNIT OF ANALYSIS

The unit of analysis is the Commonwealth of Virginia v. Boris Alfredo JuarezAscencio case. The trial took place on March 19, 2012. Juarez-Ascencio pleaded guilty on March 21, 2012 to first degree murder and criminal gang participation (Commonwealth of Virginia v. Juarez-Ascencio, 2012).

SAMPLE

The articles gathered address the three models of justice (retributive, restorative, and parallel) and specifically address the Juarez-Ascencio case.

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For retributive justice, the articles chosen were: • Is Strict Criminal Liability in the Grading of Offences Consistent with Retributive Desert? By Kenneth W. Simons.

• Criminogenic Effects of the Prison Environment on Inmate Behavior: Some Experimental Evidence by Scott D. Camp and Gerald G. Gaes.

• Justifying Retributivism by Michael S. Moore.

• Adolescence-Limited and Life Course-Persistent Antisocial Behavior A Developmental Taxonomy by Terrie E. Moffitt.

For restorative justice, the sources chosen were: • Early Exposure to Lead and Juvenile Delinquency by Kim Dietrich, M. Douglas Ris, Paul A. Succop, Omer G. Berger, Robert L. Bornschein.

• The protective influence of gangs: Can schools compensate? By Jill Sharkey, Zhanna Shekhtmeyster, Lizbeth Chavez-Lopez, Elizabeth Norris, and Laura Sass.

• Offenders’ Family Members’ Responses to Capital Crimes by Sarah Eschholz, Mark D. Reed, Elizabeth Beck, and Pamela Blume Leonard.

• The Little Book of Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr.

For parallel justice the sources chosen were: • Parallel Justice Victims for Victims of Crime by Susan Herman • Parallel Justice: Supporting Survivors of Crime by Arwen Bird Court documents regarding the case were acquired from the Prince Williams Circuit Court on October 23, 2012.

An interview was conducted with detective Darwin Guyton on November 6th 2013 in the Prince William George Mason campus. Detective Guyton was the lead detective of the case.

DATA ANALYSIS Data gathering for the purposes of this paper started on October 10th, 2013.

The first two articles gathered regarded retributive and restorative justice as part of an assignment for recitation class. The databases used for my research purposes were Pro-quest Criminal Justice, Jstor, Criminal Justice Abstracts, and Google where links to documents within the databases mentioned above were broken.

All databases were accessed through the George Mason Library website. Peers reviewed all the articles collected. I stopped the collection of articles on November 19, 2013, a week before the paper is due.

On October 23, 2013, I went to the Prince William Circuit Court at approximately 2:30pm for document collection purposes regarding the Juarez-Ascencio case. I 72 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

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was there for approximately an hour and twenty minutes. I accessed the court’s database, which is located in the clerk’s office. I printed out the following documents regarding the case: Past criminal history of the offender, warrants regarding the case, a psychological evaluation from October 6, 2008, a translation and transcript of a phone call between Juarez-Ascencio and a woman named Valeria while JuarezAscencio was awaiting trial, preliminary hearing transcript, sentencing order, and the defendant’s memorandum in aid of sentencing. A limitation I encountered during my visit was that documents important to my research were classified. The documents that I was not able to collect were the victim’s family statement, the reasoning behind the Judge’s sentencing decision, and a transcript of the actual trial. Despite the fact that those documents were classified, I made some efforts to acquire them. I had a conversation with the person working at the Prince William Circuit Court Clerk’s Office regarding a way to access these documents with no fortune.

The interview with Detective Guyton on November 6th 2013 took place at the Bull Run Hall building in the Prince William George Mason campus. The interview started at 2:00pm and lasted approximately one hour and thirty minutes.

The detective provided information about the case that was not accessible through court system or in any database to my knowledge. The collection method was through voice recording and written notes. The following took place during the interview (the highlighted part were Detective Guyton’s responses): • Did the offender know what he was doing? We are not quite sure if he aimed for that specific area of the heart, but he got him pretty good.

• Was there any retaliation coming from Mickey’s family? A guy from MS13 who was present during the attack was stabbed in retaliation. This attack came from Mickey Hernadez brother’s friends. Mickey’s brother is part of a gang named “Southside Locos 13.” His name is Jose Hernandez • How was Borja’s family like? He didn’t really have a family life. MS13 took him in as a young boy. That was his family • In regards of a psychological evaluation performed in 2008, did you get to talk to the person who conducted this evaluation? I talked to his school counselor.

He knew Boris since he was twelve, he said Boris was pro MS13 member from the time he met him. When we arrested him Boris was seventeen years old, he was the coldest guy you could meet. Nothing fazed him • What do you think will happen in prison? He will move up the ladder.

• What were Mickey’s family thoughts on the sentencing? I don’t think they had any problems with the sentencing. Mickey wasn’t the intended victim; MS just had to kill somebody. Borja said “we are going to kill them all” in regards of VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 73

Southside Locos, Mickey’s brother gang.

• Was he tried as an adult? Yes Detective Guyton added: “We thought Mickey’s brother was going to get his gang and retaliate within the following months. We had extra security during the funeral thinking MS member would show up. The attorney general handling the case advised Mickey’s brother to not do anything” At this point he handed me some letters Borja and his girlfriend sent each other while he was incarcerated. The letters showed indications that Borja expected to be out of prison in no more than 5 years.

• Where did Borja live? Borja lived in Fairfax with his grandmother; he had most of his friends living in Manassas. He dropped out of high school.

• Where was his mom? That…I am not sure. We only spoke with the older sister and his grandmother • Who testified against Boris? William Reyes was the confident informant and testified against him. William was there when the incident happened and was also a MS13 member.

• Did he show any remorse during his trial? Not what so ever. The only reason he pleaded guilty is because he knew he had his buddies there and they were going to tell on him. He went through 3 or 4 attorneys. He did it in order to start all over and delay the process. Boris was familiar with that tactic.

• What did the judge say during the sentencing? That I cannot say because I was not there • Do you think he will get parole? He will never see the light of day. He would be a menace if he gets out.

• Why Mickey? He was as far from a gang member as you can be. Everybody was shocked. He dressed like his brother and that is one of the reasons Boris attacked him.

• Did the family showed any anger during the trial? Yes, but they held it in check. The mother was more forgiving than the brother. The brother felt that if he was never involved in gangs, it would have never happened. He said he was going to change. We do not know of any activity regarding his brother ever since the incident happened.

• How was the community affected? The community was really affected. All Saints church, which is the church Mickey’s family goes to, was affected the most.

They had us doing extra security because they were concerned of retaliation.

People were saying that things were going to happen; kids were scared to go to school. Extra counselors were sent to school because so many people witnessed the murder, when I got to the scene so many people were crying.

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• Are there any programs Boris may go while in prison? I don’t think any program would have an effect of him, but I am not aware of any programs he could be involved in.

• What do you think the sentencing of Boris does to the victim and the criminal justice system? For the victims, they do not have to be worry about him and they got some relief. For the juvenile system, hopefully it will be a deterrent. From what I’ve seen it is not a good deterrent, they take their chances.

• What was the breaking point for Boris to choose that life? Family issues, he did not really have a family. He had no father figure, nothing. He had no foundation and he had to survive the best way he could. When the gang took him in, it was like a family • Detective Guyton mentioned Boris was planning an escape. “MS members from NY were going to ambush an ambulance and get him out of prison. FBI had a word he was going to do that. They advised us to leave him there if he complained about stomach aches” • Why did he think he was going to be out? Because he thought he was going to be tried as a juvenile, and would be able to get out by the time he is 21.

• It is worth mentioning that an effort was made to find opinions about the specifics of the case on databases such as LexisNexis, and find Law with no luck.

FINDINGS Virginia v. Juarez-Ascencio was adjudicated on March 21, 2012 with Boris Juarez-Ascencio pleading guilty to first degree murder and criminal gang participation during his trial. Judge Craig D. Johnston sentenced Juarez-Ascencio to life in prison plus ten years. Judge Johnston suspended ten years of the total sentence, leaving the offender with the sanction of life in prison (Virginia v. JuarezAscencio). The justice model applied in this case was purely retributive. This justice aims to establish the facts of the crime and who is responsible for the offense (PPT 3, 2013). In order to establish the culpability of Juarez a trial took place on March 19, 2012. The focus of this case was to punish the offender in proportion to the offense committed. The reasoning behind punishment, according to the retributive view, is that it may deter future crime, incapacitate dangerous persons, educate citizens in the behavior required for a civilized society, and to reinforce social cohesion (Moore, 1993).

In regards of the restorative model, the basis of this justice model is to identify harms and needs caused by crime, and repairing the harm through customized obligations (Zehr, 2002). Victims need information, empowerment and restitution, VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 75

offenders need to take accountability, and communities need encouragement to promote the well being of their members (Zehr, 2002). In Virginia v. JuarezAscencio restoration cannot be applied to the victim, as Miguel Hernandez was murdered. Evidence collected from the Prince William County Clerk’s Office support the claim that Juarez-Ascencio has not accepted guilt or accountability for his actions. Telephone recordings between him and woman named Valeria show Juarez-Ascencio trying to minimize his actions and trying to find a way to establish his innocence in trial (Virginia v. Juarez). The community on the other hand was clearly affected by this case. Detective Guyton mentioned how extra security was needed in the area after the attack happened. Schools made an effort to promote the well being of the academic community by having more counselors available after the murder of Hernandez happened.

Virginia v. Juarez-Ascencio presents a challenge for parallel justice. Parallel justice is a victim focused program. It focuses on addressing the victim’s recovery and reintegration into the community as a healthy, productive member (Herman, 2010). Unfortunately in violent crimes, such as murder, there is no immediate victim, and parallel justice cannot be applied. This justice model could benefit the victim’s family, more specifically Miguel’s brother, Jose Hernandez. Detective Guyton mention during the interview that Jose, a gang member himself, was eager to avenge his brother. Parallel justice could work in this scenario by providing Jose additional assistance outside the criminal justice system. The focus should be in reintegrating him into society as a productive member and by providing assistance through community agencies (Herman, 2010) in his psychological healing.

DISCUSSION Our criminal justice system is a punitive aiming at punishing the offender. The eye for eye logic is extracted from the retributive justice model. As mentioned above, the retributive model is offender focused, but it is also inclined towards the community. General deterrence is one of the outcomes desired when applying the retributive model (Moore, 1993); however, in the case of Juarez-Ascencio, evidence shows that outcome is not likely to happen.

During the interview with Detective Guyton he mentioned an attack against a MS13 member in retaliation for the murder of Miguel Hernandez, that single action defeated the purpose of deterrence within the community. Retributivism itself is not enough to impact gang members to stop their activities. Retributivism is about punishing according to the proportion of the crime (Moore, 1993), an interesting fact mention by detective Guyton is that he “did not know if he aimed for that specific area of the heart, but he got him pretty good.” The statement 76 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

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provided by detective Guyton leaves a question to whether Juarez-Ascencio meant to kill Miguel Hernandez or not. Punishment is justified by desert, and desert is composed of wrongdoing and culpability (Moore, 1993). There are three principles of culpability: holistic culpability, attention to the degree of unjustifiability of the risk, and rough comparability in culpability (Simons, 2012). The criminal justice system seeks to maintain its legitimacy among the population, a part of this process is to make sure the amendments in the constitution are not violated. By not identifying the intent of Juarez-Ascencio, an argument could be made that his life sentence violates the eighth amendment clause of cruel and usual punishment.

Detective Guyton did an outstanding job interrogating Juarez-Ascencio, in one of the interviews Juarez-Ascencio said “we are going to kill them all,” depicting his intention, thus, fulfilling the requirement of culpability for punishment.

The family of the victim seemed satisfied with the sentence imposed by Judge Johnston according to detective Guyton. Despite efforts to corroborate, unfortunately victim statements were not available, the only information accessible is the statement given to detective Guyton. While the victim’s family might think they got retribution, a different perspective arises when examining Juarez-Ascencio as an individual. Boris Alfredo Juarez-Ascencio has exhibited lack of self control throughout his life. Lack of self control is significantly and positively related to criminal and analogous activity (Piquero & Bouffard, 2007). Juarez-Ascencio shows lack of self control in his record, which include: Unlawfully destroy, deface, damage, or remove without the intent to steal public property belonging to Fairfax County Public schools on 2006; unlawfully operate a motor vehicle upon the highways in a reckless manner, at a speed or in a manner that endanger life, limb, or property; unlawful assault and battery on 2010 (Virginia v. Juarez-Ascencio). Lack of self control also involves some sort of cognitive disorder (Piquero & Bouffard, 2007). Juarez-Ascencio had a psychological evaluation on October 6, 2008 by the Meridian Group of Chesterfield, the results of this evaluation show severe cognitive disorders in the offender. These findings support the theory that the perception of the victim’s family about getting retribution is erroneous. An individual like JuarezAscencio will not feel it is a high price for his crime while spending the rest of his life in prison.

The environment Juarez-Ascencio will face for the rest of his life is also an interesting factor. One of the desired outcomes of retribution is the incapacitation of dangerous persons (Moore, 1993), Juarez-Ascencio will be in prison the rest of his life. Prison has been linked to be a criminogenic environment (Camp & Gaes, 2005; Griffin & Hepburn, 2006) in which the inmates who have lengthy criminal trajectories show continuity in their behavior (Camp & Gaes, 2005). More VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 77

specifically, the odds of an inmate engaging in criminal activity while incarcerated are higher when the offender is gang affiliated (Griffin & Hepburn, 2006). The punishment provided by the judicial system is supposed to be a solution to the problem, for Juarez-Ascencio is an opportunity to rise up the ranks of MS13. The nature of prison will turn him into a more savage and violent offender. Detective Guyton corroborated this assumption by stating that Juarez-Ascencio will most likely rise up the ladder of MS13 while in prison. Thus, nor the offender, the victim, or the community get retribution with this sentencing.

The alternative to the retributive model is the restorative model. In Virginia v.

Juarez-Ascencio the restoration of the offender is not possible. In the restorative justice model the offender needs to take accountability for his actions and understand how their actions have affected other people (Zehr, 2002), Juarez-Ascencio showed and continues to show no remorse in his actions. Detective Guyton revealed that during the trial the accused did not say a word to the Hernandez family and kept a stone cold look. In addition, phone recordings of Juarez-Ascencio with a female named Valeria prove that the offender was trying to find a way out of this case minimized his acts (Virginia v. Juarez-Ascencio). Apart from the information provided by detective Guyton and court records, there are biological factors that put Juarez-Ascencio beyond the scope of restoration. The psychological evaluation performed on the offender on 2008 showed serious cognitive disorders.

Studies show a relationship between developmental lead exposure during child development and modest deficits in IQ and academic attainment (Dietrich, Ris, Succop, Berger, & Bornschein, 2001). The diagnostic given after the psychological evaluation included borderline intellectual functioning, which coincides with one of the consequences of exposure to lead levels during pregnancy. More interesting, there is a correlation between lead levels in bone and delinquent behavior later in childhood and adolescence (Dietrich et al., 2001). Juarez-Ascencio records show that he has been involved in delinquent activities since the age of fourteen, perhaps one reason for his deviant behavior could be given to external factors. In addition to this, the environment Juarez-Ascencio grew in puts the odds against him. Juarez-Ascencio’s psychological evaluation states he comes from a broken family, making him an ideal candidate to be a gang member. Gangs can function as adaptive mechanisms for satisfying needs of some youths that are not met through traditional and socially acceptable means (Sharkey, Shekhtmeyster, Chavez-Lopez, Norris, & Sass, 2011). This is crucial for this case, as Juarez-Ascencio committed this murder out of loyalty for MS13 and he was taking orders from higher ranked gang members. Early arrests are the best predictors of long-term recidivism offending (Moffit, 1993). Juarez-Ascencio started his criminal career at a very early 78 | THE GEORGE MASON REVIEW

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age, correlating with studies showing early delinquency as a predictor of life-course persistent antisocial behavior. There have been programs designed to aid in the restoration of young gang members. Boxing programs have been implemented in certain penitentiary systems as well as after school programs (Youth Justice Board, 2004); however, these programs must be taken with a grain of salt. Boxing is related to aggressiveness and violence, something gang members praise.

Consequently studies show instrumental aggression (proactive aggression) is purposeful and goal directed. It is premeditated and is used instrumentally to achieve a specific desired goal, which is not always the pain of the victim, but rather the victim’s possession, or the increased status within a group hierarchy (Nell, 2006). For Juarez-Ascencio the implementation of a program such as boxing would be detrimental for his restoration, it would only add another skill he could use to benefit his criminal career.

The community is also unlikely to be restored after a crime involving gangs.

Detective Guyton stated that kids where scared to go to school after the attack happened; he also mentioned a retaliation incident occurred a day after Herndandez’s death. There were efforts done by schools in providing the needs and repairing the harm done by this crime. Detective Guyton addressed the fact that school counselors doubled in numbers right after the murder. Help was there for those students who needed it, but that only covers a small number of the community.

Parallel justice is similar to restorative justice but it has a narrower scope. It focuses exclusively on support for the victims of crime (Bird, 2005), in Virginia v.

Juarez-Ascencio unfortunately the main victim is deceased. According to parallel justice victims must receive services to help them recover (Herman, 2010). The Hernandez family was emotionally devastated when Miguel Hernandez died, detective Guyton mentioned that the family had a very close relation with the All Saints church in Manassas, Virginia. Studies show many families specifically emphasized the importance of the religious community (Eschholz, Reed, Beck, & Blume, 2003) as part of the emotional recovery. The outcome goal is victim reintegration back to the community as healthy, productive members (Herman, 2010), unfortunately in violent crimes such as murder bringing a victim back from death is impossible.

CONCLUSION Virginia v. Juarez-Ascencio presents interesting points for further research. The focus of this case was on the offender, making it purely punitive and retributive in its nature. Under the retributive model, the criminal justice system is the only party VOLUME 23 / 2013-2014 | 79

getting retribution. The focus is on punishing the offender for a crime committed, but the punishment in this case ends up being an aid to the criminal career of Juarez-Ascencio because of the criminogenic nature of prison. Perhaps a proactive approach should be taken in consideration before gang murder cases continue to pile up in our court system. The Operation Ceasefire in Boston, Massachusetts targeted gang member violence by letting the offenders know police is aware of their activities and there will be zero tolerance if they are found committing a violent crime (Braga & Weisburd, 2012) and proved to be effective. As far as restoration, Juarez-Ascencio is an individual who cannot be restored because of environmental and biological factors. The criminal justice system is the only party getting the benefit of restoration as well. By punishing the offender in a way society accepts is proportionate to the crime, the justice system restore its legitimacy, but where do the offender, victims, and community fit?

The problem with our justice system is that it tries to deal with social problems that are beyond its scope. Virginia v. Juarez-Ascencio shows the models in existence are less likely to work effectively when a case involves a gang murder. Looking into the future, cases like Virginia v. Juarez-Ascencio should be analyzed and reviewed to see where a positive outcome could occur not only for the criminal justice system, but also for all the parties involved.

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SOURCES

A NEW DYNAMIC TO THE MOVIE-MAKING INDUSTRY “Marvel’s The Avengers” Marvel’s The Avengers (2012) - Box Office Mojo. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.

Captain America: The First Avenger. Dir. Joe Johnson. Prod. Kevin Feige. By Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Perf. Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, and Stanley Tucci. Paramount, 2011. Film.

Fantastic Four. Dir. Tim Story. Prod. Avi Arad. By Mark Frost and Michael France. Perf. Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, and Chris Evans. Twentieth Century Fox, 2005. Film.

Iron Man. Dir. Jon Favreau. Prod. Avi Arad and Kevin Feige. By Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby, Art Marcum, and Matthew Holloway. Perf. Robert Downey, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Paramount Pictures, 2008. Film.

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The Incredible Hulk. Dir. Louis Leterrier. Prod. Avi Arad, Kevin Feige, and Gale Anne Hurd. By Zak Penn. Perf. Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, and Ty Burrell. Universal, 2008. Film.

Thor. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. Prod. Kevin Feige. By Ashley Miller, Don Payne, and Zack Stentz.

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