Modern American Ideals

There are many ways one could establish and preserve freedom but the two most effective ways are through reading and writing, including speeches that are written. This unit included many stories that gave proof of how freedom should be preserved and the three that best depict the image are America’s Constitution: A Biography, The Pedestrian, and Speech in the Convention. This country has kept and used the Constitution for over 200 years with changes made that were needed to meet the needs of a continuously changing nation. The Constitution would be the answer for “uniting previously independent states into a vast and indivisible nation,” which would contain a kind of freedom unknown to mankind that would stay in place for generations to

We all strive for something. Excellence, confidence, and adventure are just a few of the things people strive for. What about freedom? I’d hope we could all agree that freedom is something we all strive for. Imagine not being able to say what your thinking, or marry who you want to marry, or even make decisions for yourself. Think about how that would affect your life. Freedom is intended in the Preamble of the constitution using the words “justice,” “liberty,”and “posterity, ” as a means to describe what this freedom would look like. The Preamble to the Constitution is most compelling for Americans today because it promises the people rights and freedoms that unite the people and cannot be taken from them.

Someone who embodies American ideals to me means they show, speak and believes the values of what America should be. George Washington embodies the ideals of what it is to be an American. One example the website georgewashingtonsociety.org points out is when George said “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” The quote to me is saying that if we don't have freedom in our land we are prisoners. Washington talks equality in the draft of First Inaugural Address that is written out in the book “We Still Hold These Truths”,when he writes ”I rejoice in a belief that intellectual light will spring up in the dark corners of the earth; that freedom of enquiry will produce liberality of conduct; that mankind will reverse the absurd position that the many were, made for the few; and that they will not continue slaves in one part of the globe, when they can become freemen in

One significant ideal is equality. In the Declaration, Jefferson stated his belief in this ideal when he wrote, “...to be self evident, that all men are created equal…” An example

Liberty is in inalienable right of each and every person, and is the pre-political concept that gives us intrinsic worth.

After reading the transcript of the speech, “The Spirit of Liberty”, given by federal judge for more than 50 years, Learned Hand, who served most of the time on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, my idea of what it means to be an American was slightly shifted. The statement made by Hand which really caught my attention was, “What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes.” I agree with Hand in the sense that the constitution can only serve purpose to our country if we, as Americans, learn to be truly accepting.

A question most fascinating to me is where in history does the first hint of American ideals and identities originate from? If we were to look at where the fiery passions of an American identity first arise we have to look to where the colonists first fought for their right to be a recognized citizen of America. American colonists formed their identity through the ideas of liberty, resistance to unfair British jurisdiction, and cultural diversity. Their identities formed between the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War as these two events deeply brought out what the colonist’s ideals were and what they fought for so passionately. Between these years 1763 and 1775 we see the first American ideals being born in the colonies. An example of such ideals is the want and need for Liberty. A reason for wanting liberty was that British control suppressed the lives of the people living in America and over time grew harder for colonists to live with. Americans are revered to have a passionate patriotic view of their country and this is true as it is seen throughout history but in my research I will try to explain where these ideals first arose.

America has seemed to always have contentious relations with the rest of the world in concerning their reaction to international affairs and an overinflated sense of nationalism. With the terrorist attack of 9/11, not many seem to mention the attacks that happened before that signaled the hate for America. The bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 and the attack of the USS Cole highlighted events in which it brought to light the planned attacks against United States. Some may say that the Americans should have expected this reaction as there were events that happened before that signaled a rise in anti-American idealism.

Ideals of the Declaration ` On July 4th, 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. After years of tyranny from Britain, the founding fathers had had enough. They had been taxed without representation and forced to house British soldiers that they did not want there. Thomas Jefferson included four main ideals to make America a great country, but which is the most important? The most important ideal of the declaration is equality.

The meaning behind being an American is to have privilege, choice, intuition, freedom, dreams, individualism, diversity, expression, and tolerance. Hand’s speech, the “Spirit of Liberty”, was given to 1.5 million people in Central Park on “I Am an American Day” where newly naturalized citizens swore the pledge of allegiance. The significant speech was made to help the citizens feel welcomed and wanted, and to show that they share in the responsibilities and honors of embodying the essence of liberty. I agree with the idea of Hand’s speech in view of the intent and purpose put behind it.

This essay will examine the rise of “modern America”, there were economic, religious, and aspect of life changes took place and it was greatly changed the Americans society’s perceptions, specifically, the north and the south. The rise of “modern America” was greatly motivated immigrants to come to the United States for economic opportunity, industrialization in the North after the civil war created new businesses and job regulations, and the demand for social changes; all of these factors shaped America socially, politically, and economically.

By the late eighteenth century, the Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason as it was called had begun to rapidly spread across Europe. People began believing in the ideals of popular government, the centrality of economics to politics, secularism, and progress. This cultural movement was sparked by intellectuals and commonwealth thinkers such as the influential writer John Locke and the famous scientist Isaac Newton, both who emphasized the fact that man, by the use of reason, would be able to solve all of his problems-whether it be problems with the government, morals or the society. However, these ideals weren’t just limited to the European nations where they had first begun. On the other side of the world, off in the United States,

Over the past 150 years American Individualism has been changed. People have started to feel this sense of fear against one another, and even the government. The government are the individuals that are suppose to protect our values, and make us feel safe. Privacy is no longer a guarantee, and it can be taken away at any time. Throughout the pieces Society and Solitude, What to the Slave is The Fourth of July, and The Snowden Files. Many different examples of loss of privacy and the loss of the basic components of our society have taken place. In these pieces three different individuals Emerson, Douglass, and Snowden show how the effect of society, and the influence of the government has impacted American Individualism.

The quest for the ideal is a phenomenon that many people attempt to achieve. As we all know, the quest for the ideal is difficult and complicated by personal experience. The poems, “The Story” by Karen Connelly and the “The Love Song of J.Aflred Prufrock”, by T.S Elliot, as well as the essay “Kant’s Beauty and the Sublime” by Maureen Rousseau explore the peril inherent in the quest for the ideal, which is that in our search for beauty we risk encountering the sublime. The danger of the sublime is that we cannot comprehend the magnitude of the realms of things that are sublime. We ask ourselves why someone would want to risk encountering the sublime. Well, with great risk comes great reward and that is the beauty we

“We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Thomas Jefferson). When America was granted their freedom no one thought that it would become the country it is today. However without the smart thinking of our forefathers we would never be the nation we are today. As a newly formed nation Thomas Jefferson advertised relocation to America via the declaration which stated America promised three important things, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those three promises have always remained true as America progressed and the