How does the business of Roman gladiators compare to modern men and women who fight for a living

Part 1

Consider the information attached and video below viewed on ancient Roman Gladiators versus modern American “gladiators.” Think MMA, Boxing, WWE Wrestling, Iron Man Challenge, and popular video games where violence is the main theme. In terms of:

entertainment

theatricality

popularity

grandeur

a form of distraction

1. How does the business of Roman gladiators compare to modern men and women who fight for a living?

2. Although modern gladiators do not fight to the death and are not slaves as the ancient gladiators did and were, how might death and slavery, in a real or metaphorical sense, still be an issue for those who fight for a living today?

Part 2

Directions:

You are a member of the hospital board and must decide which four out of the nine people will, through the use of a kidney dialysis machine, be able to live. The hospital can only obtain four machines—there are none available anywhere else—so five people must die.

When you are finished first, explain using the lecture material on rationalization below, how you made your decision. In other words, what was your overall rationale for saving some of the patients by giving the machines while preventing others from living by denying them the machines? Second, provide an explanation for each person that you decided would receive a kidney dialysis machine and provide an explanation for each person that you decided would not receive a machine.

Rationalization (Decision-Making Processes)

-Reason: a logic that we use to make decisions.

Cost/benefit: rewards and barriers/detriments to getting what we want and how we want it

Value-based logic: humanistic, idealistically based.

-Rationalization is one way to organize society based on this kind of logic.

-Is rationalization still a relevant issue? Use the lecture based activity below to find out.

Case Histories:

Emma Kinsey—a black, single, 35 yr. old woman on welfare. She has five children to support (their ages ranging from 1 to 7) and doesn’t have the money to pay the hospital for treatment.

Morris Plotmar—is an 82 year old man from India who, until coming to this hospital for minor surgery, was extremely healthy. Due to negligence on the part of the hospital he is now very ill. He has a large extended family, but lost his wife two years ago.

Brian Bush—President George H. Bush’s grandson born four months prematurely with various other major, life-threatening health problems. The President will contribute a large sum of money to the hospital if his grandson is chosen.

Louise Finch—28 year old, white business executive with no family and lots of money. She lives alone and doesn’t like to socialize.

Bill Dunbar—14 year old, white juvenile delinquent who has been jailed for robbery and assault yet has been out of trouble for six months now. He is an orphan and belongs to a street gang.

Andrea Lawrence—a known support of gay rights and the rights of homosexuals to adopt children. She is 48 years old, Filipina and divorced with two children in their 20’s.

Peter Chavez—A 30 year old Hispanic man in the lower, middle class with a family of five to support. Since his illness, due to low funds, his family has been living with his elderly mother in another state.

Trisha Barnes—An 8 year old mentally challenged, white girl with a highly supportive family. She lives at home and is taken care of by her mother especially. There are no other children in the family and Trisha has already had life threatening heart operations. There is no guarantee that her heart can withstand another operation.

Andrew James Grayton III—58 year old white male who owns his company, plays a lot of tennis and is known for shady business deals. A lot of people depend on him for jobs since his company employs practically an entire town but his name has been linked to the mob.

Part 3

This week we are covering socioeconomic status (SES). A recent study on social class examined the way SES is measured, the impact of SES on everyday life (e.g. marriage, health, culture), and give explicit examples of Americans who represent different tiers in the social class structure. Take some time to look over their website:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/class/index.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1194123046-FEEvTCZ3L6w+aGAVnJlszQ (Links to an external site.)

In particular link to the interactive graphs (links are at the top of the page), read about the study (links are on the left-hand side), and the essays on encounters with class (towards the bottom of the page). Then answer the following questions:

1. Do you think that social class matters?

2. Why do you think it’s important to measure social class?

3. Do you feel that this study does a good job of studying social class? Why or why not?

4. How does social class play into the idea of achieving the American Dream?

roman_gladiators