The Once And Future King - Arthurs Failure Essay -- essays research pa

"He was only a man who had meant well, who had been spurred along the course of thinking by an eccentric necromancer with a weakness for humanity. Justice had been his last attempt-to do nothing which was not just. But it had ended in failure" (White, OAFK 634). The "he" in this passage refers to King Arthur, the main character in T.H. White's The Once and Future King and Book of Merlyn, who failed in his attempt to unite England due to the mistakes made by him and those close to him. Arthur, betrayed by those close to him, not properly educated on the greedy, selfish, and violent heart of man, failed in his attempt to create a stable, progressive, and peaceful society.To begin with, those close to Arthur made mistakes that would lead to his eventual downfall. Merlyn's forgetfulness kept him from informing Arthur of his mother's name. "...but suddenly he remembered it in his sleep-the simplest thing! It was Arthur's mother's name which he had forgotten to mention in the confusion!" (White, OAFK 310). If Arthur had known the identity of his mother he would not have slept with his own sister, "...but it seems, in tragedy, that innocence is not enough" (White, OAFK 312). This account with his sister created Mordred, who, taught by his mother that revenge had to be taken, would be his father's killer. Others close to Arthur betrayed him as well. Gwenever's selfishness and jealousy as well as Lancelot's "evil steak" played an important role in the King's downfall. They chose to sleep with each other behind the King's back, knowing that the discovery of their affair would destroy his life's work. If Gwen and Lance could have just come to the realization that they could not sleep each other and still be loyal to their King, this tragedy would not have taken place. Perhaps Lance put it best when he said "...your friend can hardly be your friend if he is also going to be your betrayer" (White, OAFK 336).Arthur did not receive a proper education on the greedy, selfish, and violent heart of man. As the young Wart growing up in the Forest Sauvage, Arthur "...had been taught by an aged benevolence, wagging a white beard. He had been taught by Merlyn to believe that man was perfectible: that he was on the whole more decent that beastly; that good was worth trying: that there was no such thing as origi... ...as he felt that the nature of men could be perfected. In T.H. White's OAFK and BOM, Arthur, not give the proper education on the violent, selfish, and greedy hearts of men, was not able to create a stable, progressive, and peaceful society because he, as well as those close to him made mistakes that eventually led to his downfall. Arthur grew up in a loving and kind environment, making him incapable of hate, jealousy, and greed. This led him to forgive and love those who betrayed him and treated him badly. His close friends, in return, continued to betray him for they, not being capable of such decency and kindness as he put out, knew he would love them no matter what they did. The task set before this kind and good-hearted king was doomed to fail. Just as the grass-snake told him in the Book of Merlyn, "You will fail because it is in the nature of men to slay, in ignorance if not in wrath. But failure builds success and nature changes. A good man's example always does instruct the ignorant and lesson their rage, little by little through the ages, until the spirit of the waters is content: and so, strong courage to Your Majesty, and a tranquil heart" (White, BOM 128)

Accounting as a discipline has no theory Essay

Accounting is concerned with the collection, analysis and communication of economic information, which can be used to make decisions and plans about business by various users. The Committee On Terminology of the American Institute of Certified Pubic Accountants defined accounting as follows: â€Å"Accounting is the art of recording, classifying, and summarizing in a significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events which are, in past at least, of a financial character and interpreting the results thereof†. (Ahmeo Riahi-Belkaou, page 32) Accounting is said to be a language used to communicate information to people. Accounting is also an intellectual discipline and a profession. Moreover, accounting is socially constructed and practiced by people for people, which influence workings and relationships in society. See more: The stages of consumer buying decision process essay The history of accounting stretches back to when the first ancient accounting system began, which was originally based on measurement and recording activities, and then the significant emergence of double-entry bookkeeping around the 15th century, as a basis for further accounting development that consequently resulted in modern Ango-American accounting in the 20th century. Whereas accounting was mainly an â€Å"internal matter† where the proprietors were close to the business, the growth of companies led to the requirement of stewardship accounting. As a result of further industrial development, changing social environment and establishment of professional accounting bodies, the accounting theory should systematically develop in accordance with importance of accounting in modern society. In recent years, more and more theorists start to assess the nature of accounting theory as well as argue whether there is an accounting theory or not. In this essay, I am going to exam the definition of accounting theory and provide evidence to ascertain the existence of a complete accounting theory. A theory is defined as â€Å"a set of interrelated constructs (concepts), definitions and propositions that present a systematic view of phenomena by specifying relations among variables with the purpose of explaining and predicting the phenomena.†(Kerlinger, 1964, page 11) According to this definition, the statement â€Å"accounting as a discipline has no theory† implies  that as a subject, accounting has no a coherent set of concepts and definitions to explain and predict the phenomena. Obviously, the subject of accounting broadly covers all the phenomena in the scope of accounting. In this sense, the accounting theory refers to a general complete accounting theory which is a coherent set of principles and concepts to explain and predict all the phenomena. Before examine the nature of accounting theory, I need to know where the theory come from. â€Å"A fundamental requirement of a theory structure is that it must come to terms with the conditions of knowledge†. (Mathews & Perera, 1996,page 52) Simply, the theory is from knowledge, the big question,† how do we know what we know?† such as, the principles of logic. Correspondingly, one of main characteristics of a theory is a body of knowledge. The study of knowledge is the domain of epistemology, which is concerned with the nature and derivation of knowledge, the scope of knowledge and the reliability of claims to knowledge. Accounting is social constructed and practiced by people and people in terms of its roles. Consequently, Knowledge comes from people. In accounting, we want to generate knowledge and theories of accounting help us to understand accounting better. But there was a big problem arose in accounting in relate to the lack of a knowledge base. In order to solve this problem, SSAP 2 as a first step to provide a knowledge base for accounting was introduced in1971, which defines accounting bases, accounting policies and fundamental accounting concepts such as, going concern, prudence. Afterwards, more accounting standards were developed. Particularly, corporate report was introduced in 1975 which identified a number of user groups. But different users normally require different information. The conflicts of interests of information and the inconsistent of accounting standards resulted in the development of a conceptual framework. Some people argue that a comprehensive accounting theory has not existed at the present time. First of all, I will illustrate a conceptual framework to certify this argument according to the following statement: â€Å"In recent years much effort has been directed towards developing a general theory for the guidance of practice. Such a general theory has come to be known as a conceptual framework† (Underdown & Taylor, 1985, page 1) A conceptual framework that attempts to offer the theories and explanations was significantly produced and developed in order to construct a single coherent set of accounting principles and concepts which could explain accounting practice. FASB defined a conceptual framework as â€Å"a coherent system of interrelated objectives and fundamentals that can lead to consistent standards and that prescribes the nature, function and limits of financial accounting and financial statements.† (FASB, 1976, page2)A conceptual framework is tend to provide a more rigorous way of setting standards, eliminate the inconsistence between statutory and professional provisions and provide a frame of reference for accountants to address specific issues in the absence of specific standards, for example. An ASB statement of principles issued the qualitative characteristics of financial information. Specifically, comparability assists the development of a conceptual framework which tries to restrict the alternatives available to reporting bodies. â€Å"But the alternatives may not be absolutely reduced unless a conceptual framework produces the accounting standards on a completely coherent basis†. (Mathews & Perera,, 1996, page 109)However, the limitation of a conceptual framework includes the time and cost of preparation. Clearly, it is time consuming and expensive to operate. Particularly, some countries with limited economies cannot afford it. Furthermore, a conceptual framework provides too much guidance to accounting and encourages rigidity so that new ideas cannot be easily introduced. If the conceptual framework is poorly designed, it may only benefit some of user groups. For example, the Trueblood and SFAC 1 Reports give inadequate recognition to the needs of user groups other than investors and creditors. In addition, the conflict of principles still exists in the conceptual framework. The illustrative principles are relevance and reliability in the Statements of Principles. Relevance was preferred at the beginning as opposed to prevalence of reliability later. Therefore, a uniform conceptual framework may be difficult to achieve on the basis of inconsistent developments so leading to the impossibility of a general coherent accounting theory. On the other hand, Hendriken and Van Breda argue that an general accounting  theory as to a coherent set of principles is possible at present. They define accounting theory as † a coherent set of hypothetical, conceptual, and pragmatic principles forming a general frame of reference for inquiring into the nature of accounting.† (Hendriksen, E.S., 1977, page 1) The main objective of accounting theory is to provide a coherent set of logically derived principles that serve as a frame of reference for evaluating and developing accounting practice. I strongly do not agree with this statement, because there are some evidences could prove that there is no such an accounting theory involving a coherent set of principles and concepts. First of all, the earlier given example, conceptual framework, proved that it is difficult to achieve it on the completely coherent basis at present. For example, economic ratio analysis predicts the future information are made base on past information. SSAP2 introduced the principles of accrual and prudence which conflict with each other. Specifically, the accruals concept may suggest research and development be carried forward but the prudent concept may require the expenditure to written off in the present period. Moreover, true and fair view hasn’t been defined, but accountants are required to produce the accounts with true and fair view which depends on their constructed reality, so it is problematical that it might be fair to you, but not fair to somebody else. Furthermore, Image that shaped accounting theory tries to offer suggestions as to what accounting is all about or should be about. In Davis, Menon &Morgan’s article, four different images were created to influence the accounting theory in the various contexts in response to changing social environment. Specifically, accounting was assumed to be objective, as suggested by the image of historical record. But in recent years, new images have been created for accounting theory, which are current economic reality, the information system and commodity. Accountants now believe that accounting is subjective. Hence, the subject and object conflict with each other. We also have to see in what context each image is presented other than see it on its own. For example, the public commodity image has emerged in the context of a regulated environment. Therefore, no one image can fully  capture the essential aspects due to subjectivity and new images are being created to add new dimensions to future accounting theories. Moreover, other images which Solomon and Tinker debate about were created for domination of theory and practice of accounting. Solomon, a traditionalist, advocates neutrality or objective as opposed to the view of Tony tinker, a radical thinker. In addition, image that influences accounting theory could be partial or one-side results from view of reality can be produced partially and rather one-sidedly. In other words, accounting theorists created the various images by justifying their views of reality based on observation of social phenomena. Accounting as a discipline has no a complete theory due to the lack of a coherent set of principles and concepts in the scope of accounting and the changing social environment. According to American Accounting Association’s Committee on concepts and standards, they concluded that no single governing theory of financial accounting is rich enough to encompass the full range of user-environment specifications effectively, hence, there exists in the financial accounting literature not a theory of financial accounting but a collection of theories which can be arrayed over the differences in user-environment specifications. (American Accounting Association, 1977, page 1-2) It is indicated that no one single accounting theory applies to all the user-environments but a collection of theories could. For example, different users need different information. Investors need profit information and creditors are satisfied with cash flow information. AAA’s conclusion proved again that there is no a complete general accounting theory. In fact, at present no single accounting theory can affect all the user-environments because different users demand different information. We also live in a complex and changing society so that accounting theory only can achieve its compliant objective in one particular time, such as, image. No one accounting theory can also explain and predict all the phenomena. True and fair view is still a myth, how can accountants practice with such a view? A conceptual framework is still developing for trying to achieve a complete general accounting theory. On balance, I agree with this statement â€Å"accounting as a discipline has no theory†. I am of the opinion that in the subject of accounting, there is no a general complete accounting theory which is a coherent set of principles and concepts to explain and predict all the phenomena. I have proved with some examples that some of principles and concepts are inconsistent, such as, relevance and reliability, and also it is noticeable that accounting theory is partial and one-side, such as, image, because images that shaped accounting theory were captured through theorists’ different view which could be partial. Changing social environments also influence images. Clearly, each image only emerges in a particular context and period, as suggested by Davids. In addition, the incomplete of a conceptual framework which tries to construct a coherent set of principles to explain the practice proved the absence of a general accounting theory. The entire poof strongly against the Hendriken and Van Breda’s opinion which a general accounting theory have emerged. However, a conceptual framework is still improving so I personally believe that a complete general accounting theory could be achieved in the future in accordance with the complete of a conceptual framework due to the development of accounting in response with the development of modern society. BIBLIOGRAPHY Ahmed Riahi-Belkaoui(2000) â€Å"Accounting Theory†, 4th Edition, Thomson Learning. Mathews & Perera (1996) â€Å"Accounting theory & development†, 3rd Edition, Nelson. Underdown & Taylor (1985) â€Å"Accounting Theory & Policy Making†, Heinemann.

Task rabbit analysis Free Essay Example, 1250 words

Besides there legal framework within the country imposes stringent requirements for compliance with tax code and business license, which would pose a challenge to unstable investors. Taskrabbit as an online organization relies on the various supplies such as software development tools and online platforms such as domain hosting. For instance, the initial RunMyErand was run in the domain RunMyErand. com. The business entity therefore relies on software developers and online business hosts for development. Besides the company relies on social network platforms for advertisement as well as marketing of own products and the brand name. Through the well established network of suppliers as well as software developers, the company is in a position to meet the ever increasing market demand as well as improve on efficiency in the very dynamic market and industry. Reliability of the suppliers increases the company’s ability to overcome stiff competition being leveled against the company by its competitors. The company targets different categories of customers ranging from small tasks and complex tasks which requires advanced skills and which becomes challenging in identifying potential clients who would aid in realizing the target outcome. We will write a custom essay sample on Task rabbit analysis or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Besides targeting students in Boston colleges, ‘stay at home mothers’ that were interested in picking and delivering supplies for people in the neighborhood as well as professionals who would be interested in supplementing own earnings through such errands over free time and weekends. Besides the company has a most active group of customers who are the retirees who like keeping active and has the idea of keeping in constant contact with other people within the company. As part of the great strength, that the company derives from these customers has been passion in engaging in the ‘taskrabbit’ assignments. In an interview in a Taskrabbit blog, Leah affirms that her company derives great strength through enthusiasm of all the clients and customers in keeping active and having an active participation in realizing personal assignments and tasks are met wholly and effectively (Tony, 2011). The company is committed towards realiz ing highest efficiency possible with high standards of quality of services delivered to its customers. This has therefore led to the gradual growth in customer base, which increases the company’s competitiveness within the market. It relies on customer network, which keeps building on potential customers as well as newly recruited customers.