Human Nature

In our final class period, we discussed the idea of human nature. Prior to that we talked about the general goal of overall equality in America. It is true that through the years, equality has been a major goal for America, and is seen through many events, wars, movements and leadership platforms. Why is this still such a large problem that seems to only make slow advancements? I might argue that it is due to human nature. At least in my experience, people in general have a side of them that is competitive. Everyone wants a better test grade or to win a game or even gain that promotion in work. In many cases this works out well and helps to make advancements in society. A side effect though is the mentality to have slightly more than those around you. A person always wants to better themselves, and by giving others less equality that makes that goal much easier. I feel like that can be named as a cause for the slow improvement of equality for all minorities. By allowing fewer freedoms to others, people with rights have an easier time gaining that “better” life situation. They are less likely to give into the equality and therefore may put up a fight, slowing down the rate of improvement in the equality field.    

Response to Osama

                I was reflecting after class about the topic that was brought up the other day on reactions to Osama’s death. It was actually pretty funny because we (a few friends and I) had our reactions recorded. At the time my friend was singing yet another classy “Kesha” song and we figured it was too good not to get the camera out. Anyway, my friend came in during the video and announced plainly “Osama’s dead”. That was it, singing went away and we froze for a moment before all doing some sort of cheer. I re-watched that moment, and have to admit it was pretty ridiculous to see. Now I want to ask the question, why did we all cheer?

                Was it just because we thought that was the correct response or were we really “happy” about his death? I thought about that when we talked about the concept in class and I think the cause of my cheering was due to the concept we “America”, accomplished a long run mission. After 9/11, finding and killing Osama seemed like the necessity in order to show terrorist actions like these will not be tolerated. After it took years to find this leader, it seemed like the America was less “invincible” than what was falsely assumed. This death of Osama showed the American people that we will carry out our missions like finding the Al Qaeda leader. It was a small victory, and a message to the world, and to those who lost due to the 9/11 events. Will it make a large change in the future? What does it mean for terrorism? No one can really know, but the small victory in my mind was enough to have thought about and even a cheer.      

Quotes

(On government) "It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.”

-Thoreau

I found this quote to be really insightful. As a country, I think the emphasis sometimes is placed on government having the power or being the source for action. All that is made today, is due to the people and their ideals, while the government is simply an instrument. It can be hard to remember the importance of the individuals themselves that make up America. Thoreau reminds us to be proactive, as people are the source for the achievements. I found this interesting because the government was built off the people. First came the people, then a government was formed later. This correlates to the way we have been studying this Amcon course this semester. First, we learned about the founding peoples in America, while this semester the emphasis has now been placed on the government democracy.   

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

-Lincoln

Again, Lincoln places emphasis on the people involved with making us the nation we are today. Their actions are the reason America is the country we know today. They are what make the government, democracy, function. It is up to the citizens to maintain this government. It is hard to recognize the individual actions some times, but those are the makers of our democracy. Government is more the tool for change to be made with, but action comes from people. Democracy requires active, attentive citizens.

Week one to now

Now that we have reached the final week of our freshman experience at St. Olaf, I have begun to reflect on the year as a whole. It seems like ages ago that we were here going through the week one activities. I can remember thinking that it was absurd that I was meeting all the people I did during that first week. I didn’t feel as though it would be possible to remember all the names and people I was being introduced to by the minute. Once that week was over, and the other returning students arrived, it felt even crazier to think that I could get to know the St. Olaf community as well as they did. The fact that they were arriving on campus and screaming every time they ran into someone seemed pretty neat. At this point I still hardly recognized many people beyond my roommate.

Now, after this final weekend I realize now what it will feel like next fall. I can look around campus and see people I know everywhere. It feels pretty neat to think that next year I can be one of those crazy upperclassmen returning on campus overwhelmed by all the people around again. This just helps to reinforce the idea that a small school was actually the right choice for me. Although I am excited about the summer I look forward to my return already. Freshman year flew by!  

Culture Combination

In my religion class we have been learning about the time while Alexander the Great reigned. As he created his empire, many changes occurred culturally. One important thing we have learned about was the merge of people, specifically amongst the Jewish people and those other surrounding Hellenistic peoples. The result was a very diverse group of people in this new empire. This created a great amount of change within the idea of the “Jewish Race” and those who could or could not be saved (or who were the chosen people).

Overall, this combined many types of people into the same empire, merging cultures. The change was drastic. When I imagine early America, I imagine a similar situation. With the rush of immigrants from all over the world, the culture must have diversified greatly. I imagine just as the Jewish people felt confused as to what the significance was of their genealogy, people of America must have also felt similar confusions as to who they were.  

I wonder if this type of cultural merge will ever be able to occur again. It seems as though we have reached the peak of this type of combination of cultures. I guess I might classify the internet as the most recent merge of the ideas from the world, but where can we go from there?

Thoughts About Current Events

Death of Bin Laden: Tocqueville

                After many long years of searching for Bin Laden, this test of democracy has come to some form of closure. Although this is not the same as ending all terrorism, defeating the most known character in Al-Qaeda is a step in that direction. In order to maintain a democratic government, actions that endanger democracy like this cannot be left alone. It would not be in the nature of this strong governing style to allow someone to destroy safety in America, and hide without consequence. This is the type of action necessary to democracies. This is the same mentality needed in other democracies like France. Action to threats needs to occur in order to maintain safety in our country. Therefore the steps taken by America to kill Bin Laden were correct, the amount of time required though was alarming. As a new democracy we too need to learn from events such as these to be more prepared in our futures. I believe that removing Bin Laden will help the people of the democracy in America feel safer in their country although I think that the problem is much deeper. This is just one of the steps which have and will be taken in order for a democracy to continue being successful in this time.  

Democracy for five

Overall, the group projects we just worked on taught me a bit about democracy on a small scale. We worked together (5 people) for a common goal, and many elements of what we did had similarities to a democratically run government. Something I found interesting was the change from a vote (when votes were evenly split) to someone stepping up and making the needed decision so that the project continued to move on and be productive.

The group work should me how essential it is to have a person in charge. For the majority of the project, delegating and voting on issues was sufficient. In the time of “crisis” someone had to step up and make slightly more rash decisions. This is really similar to how a democracy works. Voting generally is enough for most of the common issues faced. Sometimes though, there are pressing issues that need someone to stand up and take control. There needs to be a limit to that though in government. It was interesting because after something that was debated was finalized, the person who changed the tie could feel some of the power that comes from making the decisions for a group of people. This didn’t interest anyone in the group, but it is clear to see how one could get addicted to that power and take advantage of situations. That is why checks and balances are so important to a democratic government. There will always be more than one person, or group involved for important decision making processes and the deciding factor never can gain too much of that power.

Titles

Another point about running any group of people was the need for “titles”. One of the most interesting aspects I took away from this project was the need for some sort of job positions. At the start, our group lacked specific job titles making meetings nearly pointless as they took a long time, and a lot less was actually “done”. At the second meeting, our group began to delegate jobs. Some were in charge of interviews, others about the history, and another was in charge of relating themes back to past readings like Tocqueville. At this point our group became much more productive. For the next few weeks we each performed our jobs, reporting back every few weeks to the group in meetings.

This was an extremely productive way to delegate the workload and to get the work we needed done on time. In addition, job titles make people reliable for that information. Since they had the title and it was written down, people “woke up” to do their portions since they were responsible for them. Overall, delegating was the best way for our group to make this project come together.

Genre- Black Elk Speaks

After our discussion about this topic in class the other day, when we brought up Black Elk Speaks in terms of its genre, I went online to see what it is generally listed as. I went to several sites, such as Amazon, to see what this book is technically listed as but I couldn’t find a clear genre. I went found an explanation of what types of genre this book encompasses on “Cliff Notes” which I think made the most sense. “Black Elk Speaks, a personal narrative, has the characteristics of several genres: autobiography, testimonial, tribal history, and elegy. However, Neihardt's editing and his daughter's transcription of Black Elk's words, as well as Black Elk's son's original spoken translation, raise questions about the narrative's authenticity”

I agree with this statement, Black Elk Speaks could be considered all of those genres found above. It could be a historical account, or a biography, as most of the book is written in this fashion. Personally, the moments when Neihardt puts his own impute don’t make me think less of what is written. The story is still the same in the broad sense. The biggest difference is that these additions help readers to better understand what they are reading. Since I have a version of the text which highlights what is or is not the original manuscript, I feel like I trust the work even more. Instead of writing these additions without noting them, this book tells the reader, so I believe the other parts are mostly straight from Black Elk. I also understand that this information was passed through several sources, due to translation and documenting and I recognize this too makes other unavoidable minor alterations.

Overall, I agree that this work is a biography, with some small changes. As a whole, these alterations do not undermine the main objective of this work, as a biography of Black Elk.  

Views on Gold

“Up on the Madison Fork the Wasichus had found much of the yellow metal that they worship and that makes them crazy, and they wanted to have a road up through our country to the place where the yellow metal was; but my people did not want the road.”

Black Elk Speaks, pg 8

I enjoyed this passage because it was very different than what can be commonly read about. Instead of having texts that describe the somewhat “unusual” (basically foreign) worshipping that is practiced by Native Americans, white Americans were instead being viewed as the unusual worshippers. Even though technically, one wasn’t worshipping gold itself, it probably seemed like something worth a lot spiritually. The amount of time invested into the gold industry must have seemed almost crazy. Why would a collecting yellow metal drive people into harsh environments, with foreign people and lots of dangers? I think a lot of the time Americans today learn about the practices that were new to the white people, that the Native Americans did. This text highlights the fact that this trend went both ways. The white “Wasichus” also had weird practices, such as collecting yellow metal. In all, this book highlights more of the similarities all humans have. People are unique and different, and we all notice and react to these differences.  

Images of Manifest Destiny

Vaningen Snyder

John Gast

After viewing the manifest destiny pictures in class the other day, I wanted to see what other images there were about this topic. Instead of finding more photos mainly from the “white” view, I found some that portrayed some of the Native American views. The photo below showed that the natives were simply pushing further west, but were really lost in the dark side of the painting. In the other image, the Native Americans are the focus of the picture, and the train is in the back off to the side. Instead of being seen as a glorified thing, the train does not seem to be nearly as important to the scene. The nature as well as the on looking people seems to be the major focus.

I don’t know enough to understand how the train is being portrayed, but it does not seem positive or negative to me. It seems as though the Native Americans are observing the train with concern, but they do not seem overly affected. The situation seems fairly neutral. It would be really interesting to see what paintings would look like drawn by the Native Americans.  

Interviews

The interviews done of Thoreau were really interesting. They connected the studying of the transcendentalist movement that we have been doing, with our future interviewing assignment. It was helpful for both the interviewer and the person being interviewed to take part in that practice in order to experience the good and the bad of both roles. I have a lot more confidence going into the real interviews now, since prior to this practice I had only been interviewed before.

It was hard to answer questions while pretending to be someone else. For instance, there were several topics brought up where one had to go on related beliefs of Thoreau in order to answer the question. A lot of the time it was instinct based responses. Our interviews later on though will not have that same type of issue since we are directly interviewing people.

I did find that it was helpful to see how an interviewer could pull out more information from whomever they were interviewing by asking the right questions. Also important to getting out responses was the wording the questions as well as the order they were presented. This required prior preparation with focus on that idea.

These are all traits I would like to carry out into our own research and interviews of the 4H club coming up.   

Nature Walk

I really enjoyed the nature walk we did the past week on Friday. Although I initially thought of it as a way to have class cancelled, I ended up actually taking a walk off the sidewalk. I thought about something other than weekend plans or texting people on my phone. I realize how much of the time I spent wasting the alone walks from building to building here on campus. I find it natural to either reach for a phone, or simply walk briskly from place to place.

This time I actually slowed down to enjoy the scenery. Although there weren't any life changing thoughts on that walk, I now have been attempting to look around more while on campus. I am really glad for that time these past two weeks I made an effort to enjoy the outdoor sunshine while getting lost in thoughts, not texts. (Especially with this drastic change to April snow).

Satire

“When they desired to travel, they walked, if possible, begged the loan of a vehicle, or boldly entered car or coach, and, stating their principles to the officials, took the consequences. Usually their dress, their earnest frankness, and gentle resolution won them a passage; but now and then they met with hard usage, and had the satisfaction of suffering for their principles. “

Transcendental Wild Oats by Louisa May Alcott

Part II

I really enjoyed the play with sarcasm heavily used in Louisa May Alcott’s work. There were several passages that I found to be really entertaining but the imagery of this section really made it stand out to me. While reading this passage I could actually imagine some crazily-dressed transcendentalist running up to a car, needing it for some cause, and simply taking it with the intent of returning it at a later time. The fact that their dress and speech would be able to get them out of most trouble was extremely funny to me. It was as if their lifestyle was an excuse to live without boundaries. I think that this is pretty funny, especially because I sometimes find that I like to use speech to get my way in some cases. This took that idea to the next level though, “barrowing” cars when they felt the need. The way it is presented is humorous and uses satire in a way that, even without really knowing these people, one could imagine the ridiculous nature of the lifestyle. Overall, I really enjoyed this the style and the work by Louisa May Alcott.

Cali Landscapes

Now that I have read other spring break blog posts, I felt slightly inspired to write a little about my own. I actually spent this year’s trip going with a friend to Southern California. In past years I have always been at various ski races, waking up at the crack of dawn to put on layers of jackets to then spend the break not getting a tan. I couldn’t get all the way away from this though, since I still spent the last four days here in MN racing, but I was able to get away for most of it (and ended up with a burn not a tan).

In SoCal I went to visit a few friends that weren’t on spring break. I stayed at Azusa Pacific University and Chapman University for a couple of nights each, which was very fun (and cheap for me!). Overall I really enjoyed each of their schools but they had a much different feel than what we have here at St. Olaf. It took a bit to understand, but it was a part of that same feeling that ultimately caused me to choose St. Olaf. The causation for these vibes ended up being the campuses.

At Azusa Pacific University there are two main campuses in which the students are bused between. The two seemed very isolated from one another, one containing most of the Freshman Dorm life, while the other consisted of the academic buildings. That caused a feeling of separation of school from the rest of life. The two areas just created different vibes. At Chapman the campus was much smaller and condensed due to California land space. There weren’t as many open quads or nature filled areas. People did not tend to “hang out” in localized areas like I find at St. Olaf. Instead a focus of campus was the dorm buildings or academic buildings themselves or apartment complexes for upperclassmen. 

Basically what I gathered from these visits was that landscape plays a much bigger role in overall vibes such as the community aspect than I ever could believe. I know we spent a lot of time covering landscape as a topic last semester but this was the clearest way I have ever seen this concept. Each school’s campus was different. None were necessarily better than the other, as there were both positive points and negative points to each style, but it was clear they all created different atmospheres.

Future Travel Promise

Now that we all have almost made it through the first year of school, (it seems crazy right?), I am trying to plan out as far into the future as possible…. lunch at 1 today.

 But in all seriousness I have been looking at study abroad programs, in an obsessed sort of way. At this point I have lots of options and I am extremely excited for all of them. After reading Tocqueville’s work I have become even more inspired and know that I will be taking advantage of study abroad options. He took a trip to America and was able to learn so much about our culture. Having a different viewpoint (French) coming into this trip, Tocqueville was able to understand American politics in a light different from any longtime citizen. Some of these points were so simple or common to our lifestyle that we tend to overlook them.

In general, I have decided to reflect on everything I observe in my travel and write a journal. I am really bad because I like to start things and struggle to finish them but I am stating this on my blog therefore it is much more likely to happen. I feel like learning from seeing and doing is so much stronger. I hope I can enhance this future trip even more through my writings.  I want to look back onto my trip much later and remember even more the things I learned from this experience that tend to be lost over the years.

I guess this was mostly a pledge to writing while traveling…. as inspired by people such as Tocqueville.

Identity in Associations?

I know this seems a little late but relooking at organizations like girl scouts got me thinking...

“Joining a group became more a matter of individual fulfillment than an expectation of life in society, and leaving a group no longer presented the same dilemma as when it meant serving ties that defined one’s identity.” 

I found this quote when reading Leslie Lenkowsky’s analysis (“Still Bowling Alone?”) of Putnam’s article “Bowling Alone”. I really liked the way this quote highlighted several concepts. In the past Americans tended to identify themselves with these associations. Lenkowsky says that today we find a lot less of this in America. Instead, people freely join groups but are no longer “tied” down to them since they no longer need that identity, and therefore quite much more frequently. I think I have to agree with that statement, at least the idea that people join and quite these associations a lot today.

 I felt this way in my own life in the past. So many times I would join some sort of group but eventually quite keeping my membership short lived. I also saw it a lot in the groups I did stay in. For example, I was a Girl Scout for all my elementary years. That group actually retained a large amount of girls from year to year, but we also saw many girls make half-hearted attempts to participate and then drop their membership after a short period. I think the difference between those that stayed and those that left, was that those that were more committed also identified more with the group.

Why is that? This trend continues even today in my more college level view. Groups tend to have people that come and go a lot more frequently. Is it because the members don’t identify themselves with the group? I think a big causation at least in college people’s life is the ability to identify oneself in other volumes. Facebook seems to dominate that realm. That makes since for the college audience but it doesn’t really explain this trend in other age groups like the child associations.

I still basically have left off with the same question I had before. Why have we lost identity with the groups? Lenkowsky believes it is because membership has become easier to gain and therefore means less. I sort of agree with that but how had would it have been to ever join associations like bowling leagues?

Tocqueville's Views on France's Revolution

Tocqueville states in his introduction that morals, ideas, laws and habits are all important parts of society that need to change to fit democracy. He says that these are things that citizens of France need to adapt to in order for the revolution to take full effect.

He uses many examples of these concepts that American’s have a different mentality to. For example, the law of inheritance is an example of a more democratic style of inheriting land. Instead of having property remain in the hands of one family, unbroken for generations, in America land is divided, sold and bought more constantly due to this law. Since land is changed frequently, money is held in other ways than in just land. This means equality is more common among American citizens.

The reason Tocqueville gives for this difference between American morals, ideas, laws and habits and France’s is because America started out as a democracy while France had to change from one form of law to another.   

Laws that Promote Democracy

Something I really like about Tocqueville’s style of writing is his usage of examples that do not seem obvious. I would not have expected the idea of land inheritance to come up in a book about democracy, as it did here. The law of inheritance is one that Tocqueville mentions as something that promotes democracy in the United States. It is a change of “law” and also habit from what existed in Tocqueville’s France, which he believes is necessary in order to be democratic. In France land is passed on generation to generation, without being divided, and therefore stays within the family name and wealth does not become altered dramatically.  In the United States, the law of inheritance gives equal shares of property to the next generation. In turn, land is subdivided and holdings become too small to continue to own, therefore there is much more selling and buying, and other forms of having wealth (other than land).

Tocqueville uses this example to prove that changes in law are necessary for democracy to work in France, so that the revolution was not a “waste”. I like his usage of examples that would not be expected. He really proves his original quote valid, that in order for democracy to succeed, laws, habits, ideas and morals need to be altered.  

Themes of Democracy

“The result is that a democratic revolution has taken place in the fabric of society without making any of the changes in laws, ideas, habits, and morals necessary to make the revolution useful.” (Alexis de Tocqueville)

                This statement makes a lot of sense as it refers to the revolution that was taking place in France. In order to put any new form of government in place, changes must be made. Especially with a democracy, a large change has to be made in all areas mentioned above. Without those changes society will not completely form to fit the democracy, and like Tocqueville mentions, the democracy will not be completely put into place.

                In the United States, this form of government was much easier to establish because it was began at ground zero. With France, a historically long and traditional way of life had to be completely broken. This is true for all governments, back then and today. To get a new and successful government, laws, ideas, habits and morals all go through a change.

                I believe that as we continue learning about the democracy in the United States, we will find out more about this concept. How do our laws, ideas, habits and morals shape to fit a democracy? What are the major differences between the lifestyle we live with in the United States compared to that of other nations?

American Upward Mobility Movies

After reading Cullen’s chapter on “The Dream of the Good Life (II): Upward Mobility” I really thought he brought up several good points. One I focused on even more, maybe because it relates to a lot of our lives, is his quote on the concept of underdog stories in American.   

“For hundreds of years, American readers and writers have had tireless appetites for tales of poor boys (and, later, girls) who, with nothing but pluck and ingenuity, created financial empires that towered over the national imaginations and in some cases towered over the national landscape as well).”

(pg. 60)

It’s true. Everyone wants the underdog to win in many of the stories presented in American literature, and today, in American films. How often do the underdogs come out on “top” in some form (fortune, fame, glory). It has been a theme common to America for a very long time. There are countless films about the sports teams battling back with many underdog type problems, yet they still keep making those movies. Even movies like Star Wars, Babe or Disney films like Ratatouille all have that same kind of theme where minorities can raise themselves up and gain from that work.

This has the “newer” (II) American Dream written in every work. I have to wonder though, is this just an American concept which we like to hear or read, or is this an interesting topic for humankind as a whole? I do feel like we love to embrace this idea as our own in America, and yes it is a very American type of concept, but I think “heroic” (upward mobility) type stories have been written forever, in many cultures, even in ancient times.

Sentence Structure Practice

I really enjoyed this assignment of rewriting sentences in class over the last couple of days. To take apart someone else’s sentence and write in that style was difficult at first to do. It went against the “norm” for me when forming sentences. The structure made me have to work harder to convey ideas but it also caused me to write a more interestingly formulated sentence (even if it was a pretty easy topic!). This helped me to vary sentence structure and I think I will use this task on the next paper, to give my writing a little more variation.

Original:

“Yet the core components of Franklin’s dream as expressed in his writings- trust in the basic decency of human beings, a belief that earthly and heavenly rewards are broadly consonant, and , above all, a serene confidence that both can be attained- reflected the core convictions of a great many Americans of his time” (Cullen, pg 65)

Mine:

The major components to blizzard- stormy clouds, forceful winds, frigid temperatures, and most importantly, massive snowfall- were all present in Northfield, Minnesota’s weather last night.

More on apocalyptic theories...

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Story?id=97756&page=1

I was inspired the other day to look further into apocalyptic theories after our class discussion. It seems like a very common theme among people to be curious and thoughtful on this topic. It is human nature to want to know what happens in the future and this particular theme is one that especially interests humans. I mean, why else are people so interested (even to the point of making movies, or facebook groups, etc.) just about the year 2012? Just because the Mayan calendar recycles that year, people have read into this fact in many different ways. I then wanted to look up other scientific theories on the topic of the end of life/ the Earth, which I found several. But here is a recent article which sparked my interest partially because it was recently written, but also because research was done close to my home at the University of Washington (which always sparks more interest).  

This article mostly focused on the Sun as the reason for the end of the earth. Once that important star burns out, life on earth will end (but that is not expected for billions of years so….) Other theories around this include problems from too much, or later on not enough carbon dioxide. Another theory presented is that the sun will go through phases of evolution, as it is currently very slowly getting hotter over time. Basically there are numerous theories on this topic which humankind is concerned with. It not only is in debate through religious points of view, but science as well.

Spanish Class Democracy Topic

I have found so far this year that several topics in my classes have correlated. For instance: the idea of Democracy in America. This seems to be a topic we will be working with throughout this semester in AmCon, but now I have even had it be the discussion for many days in my Spanish class. It was interesting because we are trying to come up with important information that could be put onto an atlas about the United States. Besides New York, big companies (mostly McDonalds) and diversity, another major piece to the United States, according to our class is Democracy. It may have been due to the fact we were trying to say things using the extremely little spanish dictionary we know or something more. In our Spanish Atlas, in the section on the United States there was a very small portion that even mentioned democracy. Is democracy something we value as Americans and other countries barely notice? Or do we (Americans) just hold democracy on an extremely high pedestal?

My Initial Def. of Democracy

I am really glad this semester has a focus on the idea of democracy. The idea is difficult to comprehend and I feel like there will never be a clear and easy definition fully describing democracy. Just like our class’s concept of “dense fact”, democracy will always be “played with” changing and updating its definition.

In America we find ourselves understanding Democracy in terms of the governing style we have. Since we have a representative Democracy style government that is typically our mindset of how all democratic governments should be. Democracy mostly is known to mean that the government’s power is derived from the people as a whole. A democracy would mean that all people vote for every issue in the country, which is not possible or performed in America. Many times in America it is assumed that this style of government is the greatest and that all others types are inferior. Whether or not that is true, I feel like it is a type of government in which most people feel like they do get some say in how the country is run. Since people feel like they participate, I feel like nationalism is sparked off of this governing style.

One point I found interesting from yesterday’s class conversation was how automatically we assume the best way to make a decision is to take a vote. This is common in the culture I have grown up with. Even on a daily basis I vote on what time we eat dinner, or where a group meets after class. The common person and their say are very prided through democracy. I feel like “say” is the backbone of this governing form.   

Democracy is not clear cut though. There are no particular guidelines or rules as to how a democratic government is ran. That is what changes democracy through time. Whitman stated in his Democratic Vistas that he assumed “Democracy to be at present in its embryo condition, and that the only large and satisfactory justification of it resides in the future…” I believe the future and hope for that future is also a large part to democracy. Without hope for change in the future, I think democracy would be much less successful. Instead of finding flaws in the governing style, democracy would stay consistent but problematic. Since pure democracy is hard to obtain I feel that America as a whole is constantly attempting to reach a more pure form of that governing style. As a country “fair” or “equal” power in the way the government is run is a common goal of this nation. We are a nation that historically has constantly been fighting for equal rights and representation. The ultimate equality and say would be the goal of democracy, but this will constantly be a struggle for years to come. The future of democracy is what makes it even more unique as a form of government.

An example with the struggles of redefining democracy was the Civil War which Whitman lived through. Whitman says that after this war he hoped progressive changes could be made. The American idea of democracy could be altered again, and be redefined. Could America change from this war? Would it become more of the democracy Whitman believed in? Whitman even quotes Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address on the more ideal concept of Democracy, “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”.

I believe this is the ultimate goal of democracy, although it is a struggle for humankind. Democracy is a difficult form of government to run, and will constantly need alterations. As Walt Whitman suggests, the future is the key to democracy. Although I have not created a solid definition for myself of democracy yet, these are the important pieces so far that I believe should be included in that definition.