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The Story Behind the US - saját írásom

The story of the country now called United States started when the members of different nations arrived there. The first outposts established in the 1500s were followed by trading posts from the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes, then went there the people who not only did want profit, but religious freedom also. Of course, all the immigrants tried to preserve their traditions, religions or languages. However, as the English colonists outnumbered all the other nations of immigrants, they could become dominant in the wilderness of the new land. The immigrants who did not want to live separately adopted English customs and moulded into the white Anglo-Saxon communities 1.

To form the many people who lived among new circumstances the earliest influence was the strict form of Calvinism, namely Puritanism, and this sealed the first and most influential marks on the new body of a nation from the point of view of the American character. These different influences of characters slowly but surely created the base of building a new nation, and many ideas, or philosophies were used as a scaffolding of this construction. The Puritans thought that men were inherently evil, and human faith is predetermined by the punitive God, and only the chosen few were rewarded.

The second major trend which came into view on the new land was the by-product of Enlightenment, which put the rational thought as the most important power in men’s lives. According to this new belief, men was perfectible and by the application of scientific knowledge could cope with any problems. And though the Puritan ethic dictated that the land of perfection, Eden, was closed for good, Utopia the land of a new kind of perfection could be built 2.

There were different works to give the helping thought to banister people towards a clearer establishment of society, free from restricted social systems. These works served the theory of limited government to the country now called United States. John Locke at the end of the 17th century in “The Second Treatise of Government” advanced the thoughts as follows: all mankind has the natural rights to life, liberty, and property. To preserve these rights people enter into a contract with each other. The legislature must be the supreme element in the government, because this is the body where the consent of the governed can be best expressed.  The main principle of legislative action must be majority rule. According to his principle, if the government ceases to protect the rights of those it governs, it can be overthrown by people, and a new government can be established 3.

Later a French jurist and philosopher Baron de Montesquieu was inspired by Locke’s political writings. He wrote the “Spirit of Laws” in which he examined different forms of government especially that of England, and he concluded that the success of the English system was largely due to some factors. Firstly, the division of power between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches is of crucial importance. Checks and balances must be established to ensure that the different branches of government maintained a balance of power. This way freedom could be preserved 4.

Americans regard nowadays that their society is the freest in the world. They point out that the US is still an asylum for many immigrants, and this kind of popularity is not accidental. This understanding of freedom originates from the Founding Fathers’ belief that all people are equal and the government is to protect people’s inalienable rights. Of course, this immaculate image is spoilt by discrimination towards blacks and other social groups. So freedom actually means the struggle for the freedom the Founding Fathers had promised 5.

The next philosopher who was a base in the forming of a nation with his thoughts was Jean-Jack Rousseau, a French philosopher, a major inspiration of the French Revolution.

He wrote the “Social Contract”, in this he laid down the following essential principles of government: a government should be arising from voluntary agreements by the consent of the governed, and should be directed toward the common good. He also claims that people should obey laws made by themselves. The third thing he writes about is that if the government acts beyond its powers, the obligation of the people to such a government ceases 6.

There was another influence in the shaping of a national character, namely, the regular recurrence of religious revivals. These movements had special emphasis on free will rather than predestination, and it attracted those who were not members of the Puritan churches. They were liberal and individual thinkers distressed by oppressive orthodoxies. For instance, Evangelists taught that sinners were not damned for good, but by the exercise of free will and good work could be saved. Religious revival groups of the Baptists and Methodists were characterized by emotional intensity, which was far from the restricted Puritan beliefs 7.

Individualism was always the main focus in connection with the notion of freedom and has philosophical roots in the US. Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the country, thought that the free identity of individuals should be held sacred. Individualism was on the one hand self-reliance, but it also meant economic self-sufficiency. In the early years of American life people had to confront with the elements on their own, the hardships of climate and the land were the obstacles in their ways.  Success and virtue were measured by resourcefulness. This idealization of the self-reliant rugged individual later emerged among small businessmen during the industrial age.

Another era from which some characteristics of American merits came from was the frontier years during the expansion of the USA’s territory. A robust individualist was needed if survival came into view.  These kinds of experiences tell us a lot why practicality was all important and  why it is now. Building sod houses or cultivate the land of the prairie was not easy without proper training. All those who tried it just trusted themselves that they were able to devise workable solutions. This is where the so-called can-do spirit stemmed out from 8.

The result of this method of thinking based on practicality and can-do spirit ended up in the idea of volunteerism. This means that people help people through privately initiated and not government-sponsored agencies. In this case volunteers solve the problems of certain communities. If there are gaps in the federal social programmes, volunteers can provide the missing services 9.

The optimistic approach and attitude was on the other hand not just the result of  survival techniques and will-power. The resources of the land, the abundance of raw materials added the limitless boost to the aforementioned. The country where everyone could take the wanted things coaxed many people from abroad. The resources were used in the context of industrial revolution, when many hands were needed in the country. Untapped natural “treasures” attracted miners, trappers, lumberjacks and ranchers.

Richness and the strong want of freedom were the elements which lead to independence. Thomas Paine, a republican immigrant, persuaded people in a pamphlet to break with Briatin. In his work called “Common Sense” he wrote about the right time to part, and to create complete independence. This had a huge effect on American opinion and. The pamphlet was read on frontier farms and on city streets as well 10.

All these ideas were strengthened by a fresh wave of thought called manifest destiny. A journalist responding to the annexation of Texas mentioned this concept first. He stated that the fulfilment of manifest (clear), intention of fate (destiny) is to overspread the continent by Providence for free development of the multiplying millions of people. This concept implied the components of American expansionism, the belief that the success of this nation is divinely ordained, that the acquisition of new territories would facilitate the further extension of freedom and democracy. It was important that the population growth needed the outlet that territorial gains could provide 11.

While populating the different regions of the land, the nation became more or less homogenous as well. As a nation of immigrants, Americans take it for granted that they have to be mobile throughout their lives. This way regional pride is not that important instead of it national pride developed. This is marked by the prevalence of national symbols like flags and the anthem.

The people of the nation melting and becoming one was a further idea to establish a superstatus to the US. Its origin is from Israel Zangwill who wrote a play in 1908 with the title, The Melting Pot. At the end of the play the immigrant hero speaks about the mixture of people in the new homeland with enthusiasm. Later some people believed that the US is rather a salad bowl than a melting pot. There are people living together, and there are segments of peoples within the US. So instead of absorbing all the aspect of uniform American culture there are acculturated and assimilated cores in the States, therefore society is heterogeneous too. There are Little Italys and Chinatowns and so on and forth, and these groups strongly maintain their cultural heritage. This idea of cultural pluralism was first mentioned in 1915 by Horace Kallen, the Jewish-American philosopher 12.

The virtue of thrift, hard work, family loyalty and faith is expressed in another concept too, namely the term, American dream. It was first used by J. T. Adams in 1931 in his work, “The Epic of America”. He referred to the dream of a land in which life should be richer and fuller for people with different opportunities for each person according to his or her abilities and achievement 13.

Many phases of history showed that the US though claims that boundless freedom is present everywhere in the country, segregation and discrimination were always spots on the otherwise respectful image of  democracy. It was also attacked often by questioning of values by many layers of society, yet the philosophical trends behind it make the ideology of the United States go on.

 

Notes
 
 
1 E.  Fiedler. et. al. America in Close-up. (Harlow: Longman, 1990): 13.
 
2 Zs. Virágos. Portraits and Landmarks. (Debrecen: Institute of English and American Studies, 2003): 10.
 
3 G. Kemerling. (2006). John Locke. In  Philosophy Pages. Retrieved February 13 2008, from http://www.philosophypages.com/vy/locke.ico
 
4 H. Bok. (2003). Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved February 13 2008, from http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd
 
 
 
5 Fiedler: 25.
 
6 J. Delaney. (2006). Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved February 13  2008 from http://www.iep.utm.edu
 
7 Virágos: 10.
 
8 Fiedler: 26.
 
9 Fiedler: 27.
 
10 B. O’Callaghan. An Illustrated History of the USA.  (Harlow: Longman, 1990): 30
 
11 O’Callaghan: 42.
 
12 O’Callaghan: 79.
 
13 Fiedler: 29.
 
Works Cited
 
Bok, H. (2003). Baron de Montesquieu, Charles-Louis de Secondat. In Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved February 13 2008, from http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd
 
Delaney, J. (2006). Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved February 13  2008 from http://www.iep.utm.edu
 
Fiedler. E. et. al. America in Close-up. Harlow: Longman, 1990.
 
Kemerling. G. (2006). John Locke. In  Philosophy Pages. Retrieved February 13 2008, from http://www.philosophypages.com/vy/locke.ico
 
O’Callaghan, B. An Illustrated History of the USA.  Harlow: Longman, 1990. 
 
Virágos, Zs. Portraits and Landmarks. Debrecen: Institute of English and American Studies, 2003.
 
 
 

 

 

 

 
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