Introduction
My name is Michelle and this blog is about my role in society as an individual and a citizen. When I first started this class, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew there would be lots of reading and writing, this is a composition class after all. I also thought I am not going to like this—especially after looking through some of the readings. They seemed difficult, long. But I really like history, so ultimately I thought it was all really interesting. Sometimes, I like trying to imagine what life must have been like for people like Wollstonecraft, King, or Jefferson. However, even though the readings were sometimes difficult, I got through them. This blog is sort of my semester in review, what I’ve learned about my society and about myself as I’ve progressed through the semester.
Government
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The perfect government is like a loving father: wise, compassioate, protective, even-tempered, good role model, and acts in the best interest of the child (citizens). |
We talked about government a lot this semester and it made me realize just how deeply our lives are affected by the government; it shapes practically every facet of our lives. In some ways, most of the philosophers we read call for more government, but they wanted government to hold a particular role. Instead of a government that controls and dominates with law, Mohandas Gandhi and Erich Fromm wanted government to act like a benefactor to take care of its people.
Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised that Gandhi and Fromm wanted government as a benefactor since they were socialist democrats. No system of government is perfect, but socialist democracy seems to have some great ideas. For instance, Gandhi and Fromm both want government to distribute wealth equally among the citizens and provide them with the most basic necessities <insert quotes and explanations of quotes and citation>.
I’m not a socialist democrat per se; in fact, I tend to be independent of any real political category, preferring the government to just do away with all the bi-partisan bickering and just do what’s best for the people. I’m also not so naïve as to think that wealth can be completely equally distributed. However, I think we could do a better job than what we do. For instance, we could have fewer tax loopholes for the rich. Also, I like the idea of providing the bare essentials for people to minimally survive. <insert quote and quote explanation from Gandhi and citation>.
Further, we could still have private property and people getting paid based on the merits of their work. <Insert quote and quote explanation from Fromm and citation>. People can still work to better their condition, but at least they wouldn’t have to worry about starving or clothing their children. I mean, look at all the food that spoils on the grocery store shelves each week. Look at all the food that gets thrown out each day at restaurants. America is so incredibly rich, we can afford to feed and clothe every person in our nation and still have plenty to go around.
Wealth and Poverty
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| Mother Teresa is an icon of charity and doing good work for the less fortunate. |
For the most part, I agree with Carnegie’s idea. But there are some instances such as health conditions and education, as Galbraith describes, where the poverty is just insurmountable and people need a helping hand. I don’t agree with a welfare system that enables people to just sit around and be lazy and milk the system. There should be laws in place to prevent that. For instance, someone on welfare must be able to find a full-time job within six months or they are permanently cut off and they can only rely on the welfare system no more than five separate occasions in their whole life. I’m not saying this is a perfect solution, but I think it’s a start.
Further, Carnegie said that the true treasure is in the mind, in books. In other words, education is essential. We need a more equal distribution of wealth between the schools. Let’s face it: a small school in Podunk Kentucky can’t compete with a top private school in New York or Connecticut. Also, just like King says, if the United States could stay out of war-mongering, we could use that money to rebuild our cities and make a better life for the impoverished citizens. In fact, Galbraith says that to fix the poverty problem, or at least severely reduce it, we need to fix the infrastructure of cities: we need better transportation, better schools, better roads, and we need to clean up the inner city slums to attract jobs to those areas; because with the jobs comes more money for the citizens in those neighborhoods.
Some people's answer to the poverty issue is that they are just lazy and need to "get a job." However, the sad truth is that many homeless people actually have full time jobs. Unfortunately, they work unskilled labor in jobs in call centers, retail, fast food, maid work, etc. But those jobs pay around only $6-$7 an hour which equals about $12,000 a year. Try surviving on that kind of income, especially if you have a family to support or high bills due to medical care, etc. It's just not as easy as "get a job" and we must, as a society--citizens along with the government--work together to help lift up those who are struggling.
Justice
Society has two types of laws, unjust and just. Running a nation shouldn’t rely completely on the government. The citizens have a responsibility to be a government watch dog, to hold the government accountable for the things it does. When the government does something wrong, we have not just the right, but the obligation to protest through marches or letters to our representatives.
Ethics and Morality
Individual
Conclusion
I really learned a lot this semester about history, government, law, justice, and the philosophies of some really great minds. Many of them, such as King, Wollstonecraft, Stanton, Gandhi and Fromm, I really connected with and felt I could agree with most of the things they said. There were others such as Machiavelli, Thoreau and Lao Tzu I had more difficulty with. I tended to disagree with them more than agree with them.
As for the class, I though I learned a lot, I thought there was too much work sometimes. I also found the readings difficult sometimes too. I liked the teacher overall, but thought maybe sometimes she was a little scattered like the stereotypical absent-minded professor. I thought the grading system was fair, though I wish she would have used Black Board to post our grades. But, we could always email her if we ever wanted a grade. Which that was another good point: we could contact her at any time and she was quick to respond to my emails. If there was anything I could change about this class it would be the amount of reading we had to do. Still, overall, I liked the class and had a positive experience with it. If I were to rate it on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the best, I would give this class a 4.
Works Cited
You ought to do the works cited correctly. Unlike what I've done below :)
Gandhi
Fromm
King
…and so on…
put picture links (if from another source besides personal photos) must be put on works cited too!
