¶ … Liberty, Mills approaches the issue of governmental and societal tyranny. He approaches three basic areas in which liberty in important, in addition to discussing the problem of tyranny which can abridge those liberties. In this work Mill provides a historical look at the ways in which tyranny has been played out, and details its evolution from a tyranny of the despot to a tyranny of the majority. Tyranny arises, he suggests, whenever there is an abridgment of the rights of individuals to make free expression and action, so long as they do not do harm to others. This tyranny has it source in the desire of the majority to see their own inclinations and believes replicated in the world around them, and subsequently in the power which they invest in social structures and governmental authorities. Mills presents a complicated picture of the future of tyranny -- on the one hand despotic tyranny from above has been decreased as democracy becomes more common, yet on the other hand majority tyranny from below has increased as the people realize their power. Despite the possibly popular face of tyranny today, Mills argues that it remains a particularly harmful social phenomena because it depresses the opportunity for socio-cultural evolution. The basic problem of tyranny has always been with humankind, and may in fact be the foundation of our society. Mills suggests that tyranny may be the only way to cement primitive "barbarian" cultures, and that where civilization is so lacking that it is as if all the people are like children in development it may be necessary to so restrict their freedoms so as to let the society survive. However, this is not the case, he adds, with any society where his book might be read or understood. As mankind left the primitive stage, it remained true that tyranny was necessary for the protection of the people. In this early form of tyranny, there was a single ruler (or ruling force) to...
"To prevent the weaker members of the community from being preyed on by innumerable vultures, it was needful that there should be an animal of prey stronger than the rest, commissioned to keep them down. But as the king of the vultures would be no less bent upon preying upon the flock than any of the minor harpies, it was indispensable to be in a perpetual attitude of defence against his beak and claws." (Mills, I.2) It was in this defense that cultures first began to put limits on absolute rule, implementing political liberties that the ruler was bound to respect, or even using some form of constitutional checks on his control. Eventually, in the name of liberty, most European nations embraced some form of representational government "by the people," labeling these democracies. The idea was to free the world from tyranny, for how could people tyrannize themselves? Yet even democracies, as it turned out, were prone to tyranny. "The 'people' who exercise the power are not always the same people with those over whom it is exercised; and the "self-government" spoken of is not the government of each by himself, but of each by all the rest... 'the tyranny of the majority' is now generally included among the evils against which society requires to be on its guard." (Mills, 1.4) Hence, government by the people might not eliminate tyranny, but rather create a situation in which tyranny was enacted on the minority and enforced by the majority. In fact, such a tyranny could even be worse than despotism, because it gave the strong hand of the law to the private prejudiced of the cultural minority, and also gave a sort of legal sanction to the majority judgments (so that they were both subjectively and legally normative) so that state and majority opinion were constantly reinforcing. Tyranny here arose from the majority seeking to enthrone what they believed to be morally or normatively correct upon the actions and expressions of the remainder of society. The cultural desire to convince others of…
Therefore, the person who chooses to suspend his interests to comply with those artificial externally-imposed social values for the benefit of others will ultimately always suffer disadvantage because others cannot be counted upon to do so consistently and in a meaningful way, at least not beyond the ability of the state to control and ensure. To Freud, modern civilization provides various tangible benefits to the individual but only at a
Multinational Companies and Ethical Theories: Human rights issues in the global supply chain are one of the major challenges that multinational companies face in their operations. While these firms try to support human rights through various initiatives, the also violate these rights through other practices that characterize their operations (Arnold, 2010, p.371). The human rights paradigm has extended to incorporate emerging actors to an extent that the debate on these rights
conservative intellectual movement, but also the role of William Buckley and William Rusher in the blossoming of the youth conservative movement Talk about structure of paper, who not strictly chronologically placed (ie hayek before the rest) - in this order for thematic purposes, to enhance the genuiness of the paper (branches of the movement brought up in order of importance to youth conservative revolt) For instance, Hayek had perhaps the
Liberalism as an ideology has a long and complex history in politics as well as philosophy. In essence the liberal tradition refers to a system of thought or ideology which emphasizes the concept of freedom and personal liberty as the purpose of government. This also implies the ability to desist and the right of opposition to established systems and rules and governance which may be seen to infringe on the
It offers a good theory as it emphasizes on the production and export of those items for which a country possesses a comparative advantage. Furthermore, through its focus on the reduction of taxes and tariffs in international trade and the adherent practices, the theory of comparative costs has set the basis for the contemporaneous processes of market liberalization and globalization. But the theory has not been spared from criticism. Oumar
Even more generally, there are other examples of equally basic contradictions that qualify under the adherence-to- governing-law standard. Despite the official Supreme Court interpretation of the Establishment Clause in the First Constitutional Amendment, U.S. currency still features the words "In God We Trust." Similarly, several states still enforce Sunday blue laws such as prohibiting the sale of alcohol on the Christian "Sabbath." Many legal experts suggest that both violate
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