A quick note these were essay answers to specific questions.
The first question force you to find a established and accepted norm and then
contruct a moral campaign agianst it. The second question required using
arguments of why or why not people would accept the name change to freedom fries over french fries.

Dan Mayer

Silencing Santa

Parents have always had the important role of teaching the children of the future what is expected from them by society. Parents are expected to teach their children morals such as honesty, politeness, character, integrity, and others. Society has created acceptable ways to encourage children and appropriate ways to punish children. Some things such as physical punishments have been reduced over the years. Parents often talk to each other and also confer about acceptable parenting methods. How ever in recent years it has been ignored that while teaching children to value honesty parents have been lying to their children for amusement. This currently acceptable practice, of telling children Santa Claus is a real person devalues honesty and misleads children. The lies of Santa Claus go against all the values parents are expected to teach their kids.

Not only does this lie teach children that lying is normal and tolerated, it teaches children that breaking into others homes may be acceptable in some cases. Children hearing this lie also learn to not trust authority or even their closest family members. Children learn that even for no reason they can and will be lied to. This destroys their expectations of an honest and fair society where they should work and live in fair and honest manner. Psychologists believe the history of lying to children about Santa Claus could be one of the first negative effects that children experience. Some psychologists even believe that how a child reacts to this first lie may set the child for a life full of mistrust of authority and deviant problems.

After a recent study by the WTRG (Wasting Time Research Group) it was determined that 85% of children's first experience to lies come from parents telling them about Santa Claus. The WTRG also determined that 60% of adults feel that simple lies like that of Santa Claus made them feel as if it was alright for them to lie as well. As these statistics show this, “little white lie” may actually be much worse of a problem than currently understood. The AMA has issued statements that state, “the AMA currently does not support parent’s deception of their children with Santa Claus. We have reason to believe further research will show many negative impacts from this common lie.”

One recent case made public by its excessive media coverage illustrates just how badly this may escalate in some children. Carl Johnson reportedly broke in to more than fifty homes before being arrested. In his defense he stated that he did nothing worse than the Christmas icon “Santa”. Mr. Johnson was reported to break into houses and drink the victim's milk and eat any cookies in the home. Mr. Johnson would then leave without stealing an item. Mr. Johnson is believed to be mentally unstable and is currently being held in Kinder Medic facility. This is a sad, but all too real story where simply not lying to a child and leading them down the wrong path from an early age could have made a difference. It seems that most psychologists agree that Mr. Johnson has long held resentment at his parents for lying to him for the sake of their amusement. Problems such as Mr. Johnson's may be extreme but it may just be part of a growing problem.

The WTRG has identified an increasing problem among young adults called, NCFS or Near Christmas Falsifying Syndrome. This syndrome is an increase of lying and falsifying statements during the month of December. It seems that people with NCFS are normal and honest people in the society during the rest of the year. One patient with NCFS is forced to take a leave of absence from his job every December, due to the problems with lying in his work place. Psychologists first started to define patients with this problem back in 1995, during that time they were extremely rare. In the last few years cases of NCFS have become increasingly common. In response some changes to parenting may be required.

The recent visibility by the media has heightened the awareness of the Santa Claus issue. Recently the highly respected rapper Eminem who has himself just become a father, stated that, “This Santa Claus lie is shit and better be dealt with.” Many parenting groups around the country have already began campaigns to end the common kid’s story of Santa Claus. Many of these groups have been forming coalitions to support the removal of Santa from common parenting practices. The scientific community still thinks more research needs to be done, but most initial reports have found negative correlations to the Santa Claus Lie. With no truly usefulness or positive benefits it has been generally agreed that for now this little lie should be laid to rest. America's parents may have to alter their parenting methods and remove the once loved Christmas icon Santa Claus.

Freedom for the French

Thinking with differential association it can be seen that a campaign to rename such common words as French Fries would ultimately fail unless drastic measures were taken to force their use. Calling a certain item by a name is just like other behaviors and learned in the same ways. French Fries are the common and understood name of that particular food. This name is learned as a child grows up and they associate the words French Fries with that food. All the people influencing a child will also be using the name French Fries, so this will become the child's association also. The friends and family of a person have probably always called this food French Fries. According to Sutherland and Cressey “impersonal agencies of communication, such as movies and newspapers, play a relatively unimportant part,” (Sutherland, 1992, Cressey, 1992, p.67) this would also apply to the government's changes. To change the word we would have to change what is learned. We would have to change the meaning to all friends and family of a person, before they taught this behavior to others.

When someone learns the name of an item they learn what it means, how to pronounce it, and perhaps where the word came from. The origin of the name French Fries is actually kind of a mystery. All theories of where the name came from do have to deal with France in one way or another. A child may be told one of the many believed stories when they learn the name French Fries. This story, the name, and the pronunciation will all be learned by the child. After this is all associated in a person's mind it becomes increasingly difficult to change what has been learned. A person becomes familiar to using this definition. After having this become the most common and known name for an item a person will generally use this name, even when in situations when others do use other names.

An example of this occurs with the word pop or soda. Depending on where someone was raised and what their friends and family said they generally come to call a drink either pop or soda. After a person moves later in life they may in an area where the other name is more common. Being around a group that uses a different name doesn't generally change what they call a drink for quite some time. They are already familiar with a name and that familiarity can be hard to change. French Fries has become the common name for most of the public and with only a small portion of restaurants and government agencies switching over the names it won't become more common than the current name.

A small force such working to change the name, the frequency of use of French Fries will still dominate over the use of freedom Fries. Since people use words that are the most familiar with them and most common in their life most people will not begin using the new name. Names of items are learned from close friends and families not from the government's official definition. To truly make this change would require that in schools and government buildings that the new word would be enforced and encouraged. Kids do spend a lot of time in school and learn the meaning of many things in school this might start to increase the usage of the new name.

Language is one of the areas where the priority of a name is more important in groups of friends and family than any official rules. If this was not the case slang would not be so prevalent. To truly be part of a group people generally use the slang that the group is accustom to. Most groups develop slang on their own between friends, groups don't tend to look for the official meaning and work from that. Over time words names and slang do change. It would be possible over a very long time to perhaps make a change to freedom Fries if some of the public started adopting it. The desired result of the change was a form of protest against France, which will probably last until the end of the war and then the idea of freedom Fries will be forgotten by everyone. Time in this case is probably against the name change, if the war was to last years freedom Fries might have a chance.

Learning a name to identify an item is just like learning everything else. Which means how and where you were raised will matter more than a declaration of meaning. Who raises you whether friends or family will be far more instrumental in shaping the language of people than a government that is distant and not a part of day to day life. Freedom Fries might have been someone’s great idea but without any ways to enforce the usage in general population it will only be remembered as a funny story on the front of a newspaper. The day McDonald's, a global company, changes the name of French Fries to Freedom Fries, is a day where stupidity wins over logic and reasoning.

References

Patricia Adler and Peter Adler (2003). Constructions of Deviance. Wadsworth Group.