American Culture and the institutionalization of the 'sage' in the American political discourse -- are sages necessary?
According to the philosopher Plato, the ideal form of governance was not a raucous democracy, along the lines of the ancient Athenian state or polis. Nor would the ideal form of government take the guise of a modern republic, where popular sentiment was judiciously filtered through the wisdom of elected officials. Instead, under Plato's system of the rule of the philosopher-sage, the popular will and all disseminated knowledge by the media, would be controlled by oligarchs. Plato advocated not the rule of those not of high birth, but those who knew best, namely a tribe of philosopher kings or sages.
Frank Fischer and Brian Martin, in their recent analysis of the failures of the American political system do not offer as radical a solution as the ancient Greek. However, Frank Fischer's analysis does implicitly propose that there is a fundamental lacking within the texture of American government and American political culture as a whole, in terms of citizen involvement within American political society and decision-making. The solution to this absence of involvement, he suggests, is not a more responsive governmental structure, but the institutionalization of the 'sage' within the American political frame of discourse, that of an individual who is distanced from the issues to some extent, and can offer commentary and intellectual and intelligent perspectives upon issues of the moment and also put the perspective of politics within a forward-thinking view. In contrast, Martin stresses that rather than look to experts for knowledge, one must become one's own sage, and profound challenges to government and conventional wisdom have been proposed by many relatively ordinary individuals all over the world, from the author's native Australia to India.
But according to Frank Fischer, American culture is experiencing a crisis of confidence in itself. In other words, as American culture grows increasingly informationally savvy and informationally expansive in its dissemination of data across the airwaves and the World Wide Web, individuals are still becoming less and less enfranchised in the political process because they feel excluded from its technical discourse. Fischer sees the example of environmentalism as unusually...
American Culture America is the land of contradictions: fast-food restaurants with low-carb menus; prefabricated pizza parlors next to organic juice stands; "Trading Spouses" and "Trading Spaces." With an income disparity as large as most third-world nations, the United States has clearly become a land of contrasts. Nowhere was this contrast as clearly visible as in the last presidential election. Perhaps more than any other in recent history, the 2004 results elucidated
American culture is the result of different social forces mixed together to create something unique: a society which is based on impermanence and change, always looking to the future for something better. There is always something better, something that will help create the perfect society just around the corner, about to hit the market. Because of this view that the future will be better than the present, Americans are rarely
American culture and the consumption (patterns) of American youth in television, film, and other entertainment venues Mommy I want that!" When discussing how American culture 'corrupts' children, the first words to come to mind are usually four letter words, or words pertaining to highly sexualized scenarios. Yet the culture of American capitalist cultural consumption is if anything more omnipresent and equally damaging to American children. It has created a legacy of
American Culture and Values American culture highly regards individuality compared to many other cultures. For this reason, it is more difficult to distinguish the dominant values, beliefs, and traditions of American life, because the lives of Americans differ so much, depending on their race, class and beliefs. Tracy Ore, John Langston Gwaltney and Lillian Rubin each add a unique perspective to the values that dominate our culture. Ore makes an excellent point
Food advertising is even worse, because while a parent might be able to avoid the toy store, in the grocery store he or she is subject to food masquerading as a toy. The only possible resistance is not taking the child shopping, which forces the parent to deprive the child of a parent-bonding experience where he or she could teach the child about budgeting and nutritional food. The AAP study
Any other expression of love is considered to be abnormal and therefore not legally valid. In the past, interracial marriages were illegal because they did not conform to the national standard of legitimate love. Many of the normative behaviors we take for granted were at one time forbidden: such as women being able to vote or own businesses. Although minorities have become more visible in American culture recently, a dominant
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now