Classical Liberalism In Pearl Harbor
In America’s history there has been an extreme presentation of nationalism, especially in the Pearl Harbor and 9/11 attacks. December 7, 1941, a date that resonates in the hearts of all Americans, was the day the Japanese Navy landed a surprise attack on the U.S naval base at Pearl Harbor. The USS West Virginia was one of the ships that sunk in during the assail, also claiming over 2000 innocent lives. Pearl Harbor was known as the worse attack on American ground by foreign assailants until 9/11. Not very long after the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2001, the nation descended into a period of lament. We felt intense sorrow, but the anguish that we held was partly filled by a nationalistic dedication.
September 11, 2001, changed America. …show more content…
Scholars have different names for these ideological ways of life within democratic consideration. The first is often called individualism, or classical liberalism, the second is dubbed communitarian thought or classical republicanism. For the most part they share the same stance, but deviate on a vital issue: who should delineate the good life? That is the American way of living. Classical liberalism says only individuals can do so, and that the government must stay as impartial as possible when it comes to right and wrong, but classical republicans obtain that several standards and ways of living are better than others, predominantly in a democracy, and hold that community can and must define those …show more content…
It is very important not to confuse these ideas with contemporary definitions of "Liberal" and "Republican." Classical liberals emphasize individual rights above all, and believe government's only valid purpose is to enable individuals to be as free as they can be. They are suspicious of arguments about the good of the group, fearing restrictions on their ability to seek the good life as they define it. "Small-r" republicans, meanwhile, can also be found all over the American political map. Etymology gets us quickly to republicanism's core: "republic" comes from the Latin phrase res publica, "public thing," and indeed republicans tend to imagine the "body politic" to be a real entity. Citizens form that body together, and our actions make it healthy or sick. Where liberals believe the self-interested, rights-bearing individual going her own way is the democratic ideal, republicans argue that self-government can only work if citizens develop specific civic virtues, and learn to act in a public-spirited way. The idea at the heart of republicanism, then, is virtue. On the right, advocates of a greater role for religion in American public life believe spiritual values will make the country strong; on the left, supporters of big increases in education spending believe the public schools can and must build responsible citizens if American democracy is to succeed.
The two philosophies are not mutually exclusive and overlap considerably - part of why both have endured in American thought.
September 11, 2001, changed America. …show more content…
Scholars have different names for these ideological ways of life within democratic consideration. The first is often called individualism, or classical liberalism, the second is dubbed communitarian thought or classical republicanism. For the most part they share the same stance, but deviate on a vital issue: who should delineate the good life? That is the American way of living. Classical liberalism says only individuals can do so, and that the government must stay as impartial as possible when it comes to right and wrong, but classical republicans obtain that several standards and ways of living are better than others, predominantly in a democracy, and hold that community can and must define those …show more content…
It is very important not to confuse these ideas with contemporary definitions of "Liberal" and "Republican." Classical liberals emphasize individual rights above all, and believe government's only valid purpose is to enable individuals to be as free as they can be. They are suspicious of arguments about the good of the group, fearing restrictions on their ability to seek the good life as they define it. "Small-r" republicans, meanwhile, can also be found all over the American political map. Etymology gets us quickly to republicanism's core: "republic" comes from the Latin phrase res publica, "public thing," and indeed republicans tend to imagine the "body politic" to be a real entity. Citizens form that body together, and our actions make it healthy or sick. Where liberals believe the self-interested, rights-bearing individual going her own way is the democratic ideal, republicans argue that self-government can only work if citizens develop specific civic virtues, and learn to act in a public-spirited way. The idea at the heart of republicanism, then, is virtue. On the right, advocates of a greater role for religion in American public life believe spiritual values will make the country strong; on the left, supporters of big increases in education spending believe the public schools can and must build responsible citizens if American democracy is to succeed.
The two philosophies are not mutually exclusive and overlap considerably - part of why both have endured in American thought.