Friday, May 23, 2008

2006/2007 Rewrite (political Identity Essay)

Political Identity Essay

There is one question in our society that has been debated for centuries and that is the question of whether or not human behavior is good or bad. In my opinion, I believe that essentially, human behavior is good. I agree with John Locke, who believed that “…humans lived in a state of equality and freedom rather than a state of war.” I strongly disagree with Thomas Hobbes, who believed that human life was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” The reason as to why I say this is because even though it seems as if we are all against each other, we can actually help each other out when we try. An example of good human nature is as follows: one day when I was on the bus on the way to school, this young mother and her three children came on the bus which was crowded and there was nowhere for them to sit. To my surprise, about four people gave up their seats so that this mother and her kids could sit down. As you can see from this example, sometimes a difficult situation can bring out the best in human nature.

There is another question that has also been debated and that is the question of whether or not we should put limits on the way people behave. In my opinion, we should impose limits because if we didn’t have any limitations on our behavior, then there wouldn’t be structure and/or order in our society. If we had no limits or laws then there would be even more crime in our city and people wouldn’t be held accountable for their actions. We need structure and order in our lives and for that we have laws. If we break the law, even by a small infraction, then we need to be held accountable for our actions and face the consequences. Laws and rules ensure everyone’s safety and well being.
The last issue I am going to talk about is whether or not government is necessary and what government’s role is in my life. My response to this is that I do believe that government is necessary. If we had no government, then there would be no political structure in this country and there would be no way to ensure our rights as citizens. There would be chaos and no order because everyone would do what he or she wanted to do with disregard to the laws of the land because there would be no one enforcing those laws. Without a government, democracy in this country will cease to exist and all of our rights and civil liberties under the Constitution would be null and void. Without the existence of the three branches of our government, with its built in system of checks and balances, there would be no protection of our rights as citizens. Additionally, without our government in place, we, as a country would be vulnerable to dictatorship and/or martial law. For the reasons outlined above, I strongly believe that the government plays a very important role in my life by protecting my rights and well being.

Although there are many bad events going on in our society today, that does not over power the good that most people have deep inside of them. We as a nation need to stop being so self involved and selfish and think of others. Even if it is just half as much it will still make our society stronger.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree. Government does play an important role in protecting civil rights and liberties. The government has a role to make society better for all. I express this in my blog that has been going on for over 6 months now: http://hermannview.tumblr.com