Answer the following 2 questions in two different essay papers in APA Format - 500 -600 words
ESSAY ONE:
1.Keep a journal over the next two days noting all the "exercises of power" you come across, both at the micro and macro level. These can include, for example, a meter maid writing out a ticket, a bouncer throwing someone out of a bar, or a parent punishing a child.
As you record each example, note the following: Who or what is exercising the power on whom? How is the power being exerted? Is the exertion of that power legitimate or illegitimate? If legitimate, on what authority? If illegitimate, circumventing what authority? Can you discern any patterns in the examples that suggest which groups in America typically get to exert power and which groups in America typically have power exerted on them? Based on your observations, how do power relationships vary, if at all, between the two levels?
ESSAY TWO
2. Walk around a shopping center or your work place, looking for and recording as many examples as you can find of conspicuous consumption. These can include clothes, jewelry, cars, cell phones, music players and any other "fancy" items or gadgets that people use to show off their wealth or, often, pretensions of wealth.
Looking over the examples, how many of these products are "truly necessary" and how many are superfluous? How dependent is the American economy on getting American consumers to buy products that they don't really need? Finally, how are American consumers ideologically conditioned into buying things that they don't really need, and who or what conditions them to do so?