" In the essay Thoreau said "That government is best with governs least" and then he clarified himself by adding: "That government is best which governs not at all." Thoreau admitted that governments need a standing arm, but that is only "an arm of the standing government," he said. But he disagreed in the American army being involved in the Mexican War. Thoreau was an intellectual and a very talented writer, but he was probably not an "average" citizen based on the way he saw American and how he related to the government. There will "never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power," Thoreau said. What he meant by that is after the United States broke away from England, and won the Revolutionary War, the people did not want to be ruled by a central powerful government anymore. The men who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States stressed that the people has a right to redress their grievances before the government, and that everyone had the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Thoreau said that the power and authority of the government should come from the people and the people should be treated with respect. "I know that most men think differently from myself," he admitted, but he went on to say that politicians ("statesmen and legislators") may have "experience and discrimination" and they "no doubt invented ingenious and even useful systems." But though the American people should thank them, they forget that the world is not "governed by policy and expediency."...
And when someone attacks another (like some attacked Obama) because they think they are more patriotic, that is not true patriotism. It is a big country, and there is room for many views of patriotism. Even Henry David Thoreau, whose views are a bit radical, has a right to believe what he believes in. The wars that have been fought and the men who have died for their country were fighting for the rights to have different opinions in a free country. It is interesting that Obama objected to being criticized about not wearing a flag pin, but today he wears one just so he won't be criticized again.
The vast majority of human beings never ventured beyond the local region of their birth and knew very little, if anything, about human affairs elsewhere, much less in other nations. In fact, many people may never have known what country they lived in. The Enlightenment brought technology that increased communication and travel to distant regions. As nation states developed from many previously isolated communities, monarchs and oligarchies tended to
It is, therefore, the duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill, and die in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others." On the other hand, as we have seen in America, there is also a patriotism which is aimed at a sense of belonging and only aggressive in defense of this feeling of identity, and from invasion or destruction by outside elements. This
patriotism start?...Most likely, as in many cases, it should begin with a definition of this term, as asserted by the Webster online dictionary. According to it, patriotism is "love for or devotion to one's country." As we can notice, this definition includes two similar, but not identical terms: love and devotion. The second term introduces a higher level of love, because devotion implies an ardent feeling, that is, "a
Patriotism, Democracy and Freedom Karl Marx, Woody Guthrie, and Martin Luther King may have had more in common than it may first seem. Karl Marx, the author of the famous Communist Manifesto, that laid the groundwork for the formation of the Soviet Union wanted order and a civil society. Karl Marx felt that freedom lied in the needs of the worker being met. The worker would work for the joy
Yukio Mishima's "Patriotism" Japanese society has always been bound by tradition, and many of the traditions that are utilized influence the feeling of nationalism the Japanese people have. This was especially true in Japanese society before the Second World War and this paper looks specifically at the code of the samurai, seppuku, and arranged marriage. Other issues that will be touched upon included the historical background, cultural context, imagery, symbolism, character
This similarly encourages modest investment in Russia, a market of 150 million, even in the face of continuing economic difficulties and political uncertainty (Saunders, 105). According to Sunders, the strategy developed to "globalize" Russia was known as "shock therapy." And its implementation began with the January 1, 1992 elimination of price controls on most goods. The objective of "shock therapy" was, in essence, to create a market economy in Russia
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