After reading the Communist Manifesto, I can only agree with Marx and Engles on one thing and that is the fact that all revolutions and changes in the governments of the world have been from a struggle between the oppresed and the opressors. Being in this history class, all of us have seen many examples of these revolutions in Europe. We have seen many different types of governments from kings and dictators to communism and all of these governments have seen revolutions trying to make everyone more equal than they were before the revolution. This has rasied the question for me of which type of government is the best for its people.
Being an American, I want to say that democratic form of government is the best form of government for everyone. But, after thinking more about this I realized that eventhough I think that a democracy is the best form of government, there has been a revolution in The United States exactly like the ones we have read about in class. Our revolution of the oppressed trying to overthrow the oprresors was the Civil War.
This got me thinking because in every history class I have always been taught that Democracy was the best form of government where everyone is created equal. I never questioned that it was while I was in school until now. Realizing that Democracy isn't perfect has shown me that there will always be tension between the oppresed and the opressors. I now believe that there will always be revolutions throughout history because of change and differing opinions.
I now think that there is no perfect form of government. People will always want change and a better life for themselves. The two most recent forms of government, Communism and Democracy both were thought to be the solution for the struggles between the oppresors and the opressed and have both seen problems. Communism tried to get rid of class struggles while democracy tries to give everyone their own voice because we are all inherently created equal. Both of these "perfect" forms of government have seen their own type of revolutions, Communism the oppresed won and in Democracy the oppresors succesfully ended the revolution.
In conclusion, people will always want change. The world isn't a perfect place and people will always try to make the world, and their lives a better place for them and the ones that will follow them. Nothing will ever be perfect, but perfection is still being sought after. The search for the perfect form of government will always cause revolutions and at the end of these the world will seem to be a better place until the oppresed want change once again.
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I would have to agree with you on the idea that the civil war was the oppressed fighting the oppressor. I would be willing to say that the average voter is oppressed by the government that we have in place today. The reason i say this is because yes we have the right to vote for who we think should run the government, but once they get to Washington or the state capital for state governments they get to do what ever they want. We also do not know what really goes on behind the closed doors of politics. Very few people have the time to truly do research on a politician and see how he or she voted on things. The government implements many laws that we have no say in and then they oppress us with them. They also choose for us to go to war, but then make us pay for it when we never got to vote on it directly.
ReplyDeleteIt's easy to fall into the trap of believing democracy is the best system for everyone. It's hard to imagine England wanting to replace the Queen and their tradition for anything other than a constitutional monarchy. As far as your reference to the Civil War, the Founding Fathers attempted to avoid revolution by allowing secession in the original ratification of the Constitution. But Mr. Lincoln had other ideas. You're right in there not being a perfect system, and I think a big contribution to the problem is each nation's size, culture, and economic status is different. I do hope that one day leaders will allow for change without revolution, but I don't see that happening any time soon.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that I totally follow your civil war analogy, especially in regards to the comparison to Marx where one class rises up to overthrow another. Perhaps the American Revolution would be a better example? Either way, I guess I'd like to see you incorporate a bit more of the ideas from the class itself into your blog.
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