Megan Boyle

ENG 101-C

Me, Myself, and I

My name is Megan and I am in Ms. Benningfield’s, English 101 part C, class. My first impression upon entering the class was that it was just going to be another English class with lots of writing, and it was. The class was not especially challenging other than balancing the loads of reading and writing with the rest of my class work.  While some of the readings were interesting most were boring and about politics. I don’t like to read about politics, but here is what I think about the various units that we have been over this semester.

A Citizens Role in Society

            This semester the first unit we covered was government. The main question was what the role of the individual in society should be. Gandhi and Machiavelli had some ideas of their own about citizens. Gandhi says, “every citizen silently but none the less certainly sustains the government of the day in ways of which he has no knowledge. Every citizen therefore renders himself responsible for every act of his government”, therefore the people have control over the government and their decisions (146). The government is controlled by the people. The people vote and pay taxes and that is what makes the government run. However Machiavelli believes, “Men are so simpleminded and so controlled by their present necessities that one who deceives will always find another who will allow himself to be deceived” (Machiavelli 48). Machiavelli knew that the citizens who were not involved in politics, or didn’t pay attention to the government, could be easily deceived and it is their own fault. So the citizens’ role is to stay informed, vote, pay taxes and not allow themselves to be deceived by their own government. 

The Rich and the Poor

            The citizens of a government have the responsibility to pay taxes and stay informed, but the government it ultimately there to help the people. Politicians have different opinions of how far that help should go. The government does not have enough money to put an entire nation on welfare. Andrew Carnegie says, “If thou dost not sow, thou shalt not reap” (394). He means that not every person deserves to be on welfare. People who work every day but cannot make enough to feed their families deserve a little help, but those who are lazy and do not work do not deserve any help at all. However the rich do have the ability to help the poor, but as Emerson said, help the poor because you want to, not because you have to (265).

Justice is Money

            When it comes to justice we have to remember that we live in a capitalistic nation; people are only concerned about the pursuit of money. The people who make the laws make them with the thoughts of how much they can make or save in mind. The thoughts of money are not only in the US, they are all around the world. The biggest worldly concern is who controls the majority of the world’s resources. Thoreau believed the governments, “are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are humanity” (178). Because of this, justice can never be universal to all people. The rich will always get a break when the middle/ lower classes get the book thrown at them. It is unfair, but it is the way society functions.

The Government’s Role in Ethics

             Ethics and morality all depend on you as a person, and every person is different; therefore every person’s definition of what is moral/ethical is different. Many people base their values off of their religion, and what their preacher says is right and wrong. While others live their life without religion and just develop their own sense of what is moral/ethical. In the cases of Government; the people of their own nation have an obligation to themselves. If the nation that people are living in is being inhumane or treating the majority of their own people badly, the people need to revolt and protect themselves against harm. Crimes against humanity are “too often sensationalized in the West to smear the reputation of Islam generally” (Worth 1). The rest of the world has no right to come into another nation and tell them that they have to change their laws, religion, or policies just because the rest of the world does not agree with their viewpoints. The only reason outside countries should come in and help is if they are asked to by the people of that country.

Being an Individual

            Being an individual means being yourself always, and never backing down when it comes to your personal beliefs. Contrary to what others, like Emerson may believe every person in this world is different. He says, “To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men- that is genius” (Emerson 260). He means that all men essentially want the same things in life, but while we may all have fingers and toes, we all see things differently. One person may look at the world full of imagination, others only see a number game; while some people may believe that having a home is a necessity to survive, others may not. Not every person has the same fundamental values. So every person, being a human being, is in fact an individual.

The Class

            In Ms. Benningfield’s class I read many different works, from many different authors, but one thing was always the same. Every work that we read was about politics; what is right or wrong and who gets to enforce punishment if someone steps out of line. It was hard to force myself to read some of these authors because of how dry and boring they were. I wish we could have read something other than essays from politicians. We could have read Shakespeare and still been able to write reading responses about our opinion of the politics surrounding his works. I like English, but I think some works/essays no one should be forced to read. I think others as well as myself would have more fun in that class if the readings were more interesting.

Section Eight/ Works Cited:

1.      Carnegie, Andrew. The Gospel of Wealth. A world of Ideas. Eighth edition. 2000. Lee A.

      Jacobus. USA. Bedford/St.Martains. Pp 387-403. Print.

2.      Cartoon Newspaper. 30 June 2011. Oranges World. http://oranges-world.com/cartoon-

newspaper.html. Web. 13 Dec. 2011.

3.      Child Reading a Book. Nd. Cartoon Clip Art Images & Graphics. http://www.cartoon-clipart.com/cartoon_clipart_images/girl_or_child_reading_a_book_0515-1002-0104-0834.html. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.

4.      Emerson, Ralph W. Self-Reliance. A world of Ideas. Eighth edition. 2000. Lee A.

            Jacobus. USA. Bedford/St.Martains. Pp 255-269. Print.

5.      Gandhi, Mahatma. All Men are Brothers. Democracy and the People. 1918. Columbia

            University Press. Pp 139-150. Print.

6.      Smith, Justine. Weapons Made out of Money. Nd. Web Urbanist.

 http://weburbanist.com/2008/12/14/art-from-money/?ref=search. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.

7.      Talimonov, Alexei. Uncle Sam Picking up the Pieces of the world. Nd.

      http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/n/natural_disasters.asp. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.

8.      Thoreau, Henry D. Civil Disobedience. A world of Ideas. Eighth edition. 2000. Lee A.

      Jacobus. USA. Bedford/St.Martains. Pp. 173-197. Print.

9.      Weisz, Victor. Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, and the welfare state. 08 May. 1965.

      British Cartoon Archive. www.cartoons.ac.uk. Web. 07 Dec. 2011.

10.  Worth, Robert F. "Crime (Sex) and Punishment (Stoning)." NY TIMES, 21 Aug. 2010. Web.

      18 Oct. 2011.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/weekinreview/22worth.html?pagewanted=2>.